Anita struggles with Aubrey, who attacked her after sensing her fear. The fight ends with a knife slid into Aubrey's chest and Anita's promise to kill him if he doesn't leave her alone. Jean-Claude intervenes, but only because the entire altercation has taken place in full view of the audience, and he has to run damage control or risk losing his business. Anita ire is raised again when Jean-Claude assures her that if her friend goes to the police and reports that Aubrey has taken control of her that she will be killed. So, against her better judgment, Anita allows Aubrey to force her friend to forget what has happened. Jean-Claude assures her safety if Anita will agree to help the vampires find the murderer and meet with the Master of the City, a vampire named Nikolaos. At Nikolaos's lair, Anita is introduced to a vampire, Theresa, who claims to be Aubrey's master, but when Anita calls her on the lie, and explains how she knows it's a lie, Aubrey attacks her and knocks her out. Anita awakens in a stone-walled, subterranean room, where the vampires leave her as they go to inform Nikolaos of Anita's arrival. Anita is soon set upon by a group of wererats< who have supposedly been sent by Nikolaos to 'entertain' her. When Anita doesn't want to play along, the largest wererat attacks, only to suffer a strategic kick to a very sensitive part of his body.