The vampire didn’t move, only watched Dorian return to the bed from his relaxed pose there.  The little story that followed was interesting.  The lawyer’s first case, first victory, was a serial killer?  A guilty one, from what he was hearing, so there was really no wonder that the man had become such a grand success.  If he had been able to get someone that dangerous and twisted off the hook, then surely many others would’ve caught wind of it and came sniffing around for their perfect defense.  From the flawless record Dorian sported, it was also easy to figure out that it hadn’t been a fluke.  The man was just that good.  He had a natural talent for what he did, whether some saw it as good or evil.<br/><br/>As the rest of the explanation fell past pretty lips, Kade became more and more fascinated.  The snake he’d stalked for months now had transformed in those few, vulnerable moments, and now he was more like a beautiful butterfly.  Sadness was pretty in its own way, after all.  That which he saw in Dorian’s eyes had the vampire shivering internally, and a new thirst was growing.  He’d seen his prey’s face in indifference, fear, anger, pleasure… and now this, which he was beginning to realize went much deeper than mere sadness.  It was lonely and haunting…  And then it was gone.  Dorian was a much more complex creature than he’d given him credit for.<br/><br/>In the end, Dorian never answered his question directly, though perhaps it was there in a more roundabout way.  It was the same for Kade, if someone were to ask him why it was he’d taken the sacrifices his garden so graciously brought home for him.  Because they were there.  Because that was simply what he did.  Dorian had made a life of defending humans, whether they were guilty or not, and Haggard had just been the next in line.  There hadn’t been much to make him special when compared to the other criminals out there, not that the<i>normal</i>population could’ve noticed.<br/><br/>“Very well, Dorian Michaelson,” he whispered, though the human was already gone into the bathroom.  Kade moved from the bed and gathered his things as he made his way back through the house to leave.  Perhaps it was more a fitting punishment to let him<i>live</i>, rather than kill him.  If he was truly in that much anguish over his livelihood, his very existence, then it seemed fitting that he continue it.  Denied the peace of death.<br/><br/>Or perhaps viewing it that way was merely Kade’s excuse to not follow through with delicious revenge.<br/><br/>He returned to the club, to his underground lair.  Isaac was still there, as expected, though he seemed to hesitate.  Kade didn’t realize why at first, but it was because he looked so well-fed and yet still unsatisfied.  It wasn’t necessarily a lust for blood, though.  It was something else.  Had he not been so intent on drawing out the hunt and playing cat and mouse with Dorian, it would’ve all been over.  He could’ve been moving past the tragedy and doing more to help Isaac do the same.  Taking out the last remnant of it, he could’ve boasted that victory and felt confident that their deaths had been avenged.  Kade had sworn himself as a protector and guide, and then in the end an avenging angel.  He’d become little more than a failure for a second time, because now he wasn’t sure if killing Dorian was the<i>right</i>thing to do, at all.