Sofia sat on the stairs out at the backdoor of her restaurant, a frown set on her forehead, her knees bouncing in agitation.

With a stone face Genevieve Mevil sat right beside her, half of her face covered in overly large sunglasses. Sofia didn't have to ask her, it was quite easy to guess that Genevieve was hiding another bruise and it was probably on an eye this time which concealer was not enough to hide.

"Are you sure your brother's in that house?" Sofia asked.

Genevieve nodded, a strand of hair slid down on her face because of the movement, she tucked the hair back slowly and sighed. "I went through his study and all the confidential files in it. Some of them are my brother's current medical files, as you already know he has Down syndrome and must be with medical facilities constantly. It was not hard to discover from those papers—the address of where he is kept in along with a nurse, visited regularly by a doctor who makes sure my husband's lifeline stays alive."

"Didn't you say that Mevil keeps his study always locked?" Sofia inquired further.

Genevieve smirked, finally letting some emotions out. "I've set an escort girl after my husband. She's keeping him very busy in hotels and his outhouses these days. The bastard didn't even realize when I took the keys."

Mevil's evil addiction at last had become his downfall.

Sofia smirked as well. "I hope he stays this busy for some time more. And before he realizes we'll bring him down to his knees."

Sofia got up on her feet and stood before Genevieve. "My husband can be of great help if we tell him, you know."

"He's a lawyer, Sofia," Genevieve looked up at her through the sunglasses. "What if he wants to involve the police, or try to approach legally or something?"

Sofia cringed.

Now that was a possibility, Sofia knew. Max was quite straight forward in these matters, and somehow she knew that if her name was included in anything... her tall monster would refuse to take any outrageous risk.

Genevieve continued in a desperate tone now, "My husband has connections even in the police and the court, he had bought many of them to do his dirty works. He'll know, he'll know for sure, and everything will be ruined in mere seconds. I'll forever lose my brother and also probably my only chance at freedom."

Sofia rubbed her temple feeling overly stressed all of the sudden. "You don't understand, I don't want to hide things from Max. It doesn't feel right."

Genevieve shook her head vigorously. "Then, Sofia, I guess you need to back off. I know you're afraid and you should be. I've already told you a hundred times how my scoundrel of a husband is. He's dangerous, Sofia, as much as the devil down in hell. You've already done more than enough for me, you've delivered me the strength and hope I so much needed. And it's probably my turn alone to cross the rest of the road."

"Are you insane? I'll be damned if I let you fight that scoundrel alone!" Sofia had her fists planted on her hips as she towered over Genevieve. "Know this, Sofia Hayden has never ever backed out from a fight. We're in this together."

Genevieve shook her head again and opened her mouth to protest, "But..."

"And that is the end of this discussion," Sofia concluded with finality. "We're going to tell my husband right away after we rescue your brother. We'll have your brother, evidence against the royal pervert and also all his money and power snatched out of his hands. Max would be happy when I'll deliver a packed up Mevil in the middle of his palm, you'll see how he then shoves Mevil inside a jail cell for an eternity."

Genevieve snapped her mouth shut seeing the devilish glint in Sofia's eyes.

The inner badass has awakened.

--

"You're not going to tell me where we're going, are you?" Sofia asked for the tenth time.

"I'm more inclined to show you, darling," was Max's reply.

Max had returned home earlier than usual, after texting her from the office to get ready in casual wear for he was taking her out. She had been investigating relentlessly since then about his plans for the night, but the guy was completely unyielding with his secrecy.

Dramatically Sofia sighed in defeat.

Glancing at her briefly Max smiled while changing the gear. "I'm positive, Sof, that you'll like it," he said. "Don't worry."

Sofia raised a brow. "Aren't you quite the over-confident?"

"Perhaps, I am," Max nodded, his eyes on the road as the car sped through the busy street. "Or perhaps I'm not, it may be that I'm just really good at putting up a steady face, we lawyers are well trained at that you know. However, I hope my overconfidence is working in my favor? They say that women always adore men who are absolutely confident in their skin."

"More adoring is when we women peel off that skin of confidence and reveal the real man with fears and flaws underneath," She looked out the window.

"And you've already succeeded in doing so."

She moved her face to look at Max. Their eyes met briefly, and his sparkled with silent words while hers took it all in.

Soon, he had stopped the car before a huge building, a sky-scraper to be precise. Sofia recognized it to be the highest one of the city and remembered there was a multi-starred restaurant in it along with other different business institutions.

"Come," Getting out the car, like a perfect gentleman he went to hold the car door open for her and put a large hand on her lower back to guide her to the building's entrance.

Sofia smiled up at him as they walked, the side of her body leaning into his warmth instinctively. She held all her questions in, showing a tolerant forefront while feeling the actual opposite on the inside. She guessed he was going to take her into that restaurant she had heard of but was surprised when the elevator they got in kept going up and up.

"Don't tell me you're taking me to the roof?" She asked at last, feeling highly suspicious.

In reply, Max placed a chaste kiss on her temple.

Finally the elevator door dinged open, and surely, they were on the freaking roof!

Max chuckled as her brows almost touched her hairline. "No need to fret so much, I'm not going to push you off the roof."

"But I was thinking you'll yourself jump off," she clucked her tongue.

All the way up to the roof his hand was firmly placed on her lower back, now it slid around her waist as though he was half embracing her. "I might just do it, that is if you don't get charmed by my efforts."

Sofia was going to provide a retort to that but her mind was thrown off track when he steered her further away from the elevator and towards where it was only open sky above them with twilight coloring the sky as the sun had set a while ago. And many other people in small groups were there too!

There was quiet chattering among the people, most of them busy setting their high tech cameras and other instruments, all facing the huge lake before the building and acres and acres of barren, stony land across the water.

The view was great from here.

But what the hell is going on!

She noticed that most of the people were young and then some were teenagers. Some young couples were also on the quieter sides of the roof, talking in hushed voices.

Sofia was frowning deep now while Max scurried her towards one of those quiet spots, a little away from the crowd. And before she could ask, he revealed, "It's blood moon, Sof, the biggest one of this century. And we're going to watch it from the highest place of the city. I should have taken you to a more exquisite somewhere, in a forest or on the mountains, where those Gothic people gather to party while having the best view of the moon, but sadly I got the idea too late."

Sofia was gaping at Max by then. "You remember?"

"That you always wanted to watch a blood moon all those years ago...,"

Sofia cut in, "...When you told me in huge, scientific details about the beauty and rarity of a complete lunar eclipse."

Enveloping her body to his side intimately he caressed her chin with his thumb. "I cannot forget a thing about you, Sof, I've tried and failed and figured it will be easier forgetting myself instead."

She sighed as his thumb swiped lightly across her bottom lip. "You'll be the death of me, Max."

His lips lifted at the corner into a heartbreaking smile. "Now... now, let's not talk about death at this moment."

A hushed silence suddenly fell over the people around them and it snapped Max and her out of their little bubble.

Max was the first to look away. "There."

It was difficult to look away from his devilishly handsome face but Sofia forced herself to follow his gaze.

"Oh..." she gasped.

The moon had already crept up above the trees at the distance. It turned a warm pink in color soon which slowly intensified as minutes passed by.

"It's finally happening, you nerd," she whispered staring at the moon, slightly in daze, unknowing she called him with the same name she did all those years ago when he told her all about the eclipses, and galaxies, and planet retrogrades, and... blue and blood moons.

"Your nerd," he whispered back in her ear.

A boy came from somewhere a while later and handed Max a blanket before leaving wordlessly. Sofia watched as he spread the blanket on the cold floor, right beside the railing. It seemed like he had it all planned out quite nicely.

"So, I guess, you've seen many of such eclipses before," she said when he dragged her slowly by the hand onto the blanket.

"Yes, but never a blood moon," he said shifting her closer so that she settled between his legs and rested her back against his chest. And then he wrapped his hands around her. "Unfortunately, the sun, moon and earth never aligned to the required perfection for that to happen before my eyes ever, until now."

Sofia chuckled. "I think even the universe wanted you to be with me to show you this crimson beauty, no?"

She could feel Max's cheek swelling with a smile against her neck as his chin rested on her shoulder. "Fate waited for the right time."

And the entire world around them slowly turned increasingly redder matching the moon at the lowest above the lake water and trees at the distance. Sofia sucked in a breath at the hauntingness of it all. The lake water was as if transforming to blood, the moon glared like a bleeding eye on the face of a one eyed demon.

Sofia wondered what would happen if supernatural beings came out now. She had heard gossips about witches and necromancers performing bone chilling rituals during such events, she couldn't help shiver slightly as thoughts like that crossed her mind.

"Fantasizing covens and monsters, scared one?" Max drawled, biting her ear playfully.

Sofia shivered again, this time for a different reason though. "I would have whacked hard up your head if my hands were free," she threatened.

Max reacted by gripping her hands tighter, in result drawing her even firmer into his body.

"Max!" she hissed in embarrassment. "There're people around."

"Some of whom are already busy making out and others are just gobbling up that moon above."

Sofia gasped, she was too busy gaping at the moon to notice all that. She was about to take a look at what Max had informed her, but he didn't give her the chance. Cupping her face with a hand he tipped her face up and took her lips in his.

She was a little shy at the idea of getting caught by others around, but hell, then she thought it was not like those said people are being any decent too. And so, pushing her embarrassment about PDA out the roof, she returned the kiss with as much fervor and smiled feeling Max growl low.

As they broke apart slowly, she squirmed and shifted in her arms so that now her face rested sideways on his chest. From there, she looked up at the sky and went back to staring at the crimson moon, her cheeks now nicely matching the color.

And in silence they watched as the redness slowly disappeared, the haunting shadow of earth from the moon moved off, revealed was the ever familiar silvery moon.

"Isn't it amusing?" Sofia said absentmindedly. "It is the same moon up there, but in different circumstances, every passing night shows many images of its own self—each dissimilar from the other, but beautiful nonetheless, no matter what."

"And then there are also those nights when the moon disappears altogether," he said.

Sofia frowned. "I absolutely hate the darkness during those no moons. You know I don't like the dark, Max."

For a full minute after that, silence reigned between them, and then unexpectedly he broke it with his words.

"But a shared darkness with someone does not remain that dreadful at all." His voice was soft, almost cooing.

Sofia sighed, realizing what he was insinuating.

The darkness of her past was a topic that always hung around her like a monster waiting to pounce, the fear of its presence so terrible that forget talking about it... she refused to even think about it.

The grieving period of her family, the constant smell of alcohol and melancholy in her ever loving home was the darkest period of her life. It was a darkness she always made sure to keep tethered and out of even her own reach.

"We must always share the light, not the darkness."

The people around them one by one began leaving the roof, a few stayed only but even they too looked like now were preparing to call it a night and go home.

Till then, she was avoiding looking at him but Max held her face up and stared directly into her eyes. "But I want your darkness as well. Sof, I want all of you," he indignantly spoke. "I want all the good and the bad and the worst of you."

The roof was completely empty now; people had run off to avoid the cold winter air as the night grew. Sofia's heart not just beat like a maniac, it writhed and burnt with the love inside it. An urge possessed her to entirely consume this man holding her in his sinewy arms.

Shifting around to face him she raised to her knees and brought up her trembling hands to cup his face, the light stubble grazed seductively against the soft skin of her palms. His legs were still bent at the knees on her both sides, the length of them were as if caging her to him.

"All yours," she lovingly placed a kiss on his forehead. "If you promise the same in return."

The moon hung in the sky right behind her head and the shadow of her form loomed over his face, creating the next eclipse. His expression of breathtaking passion darkened even further with hers combined. She tilted her head to the side allowing the moonlight to fall on him.

He nodded breathlessly. "Always."

But even the strongest of promises may not work their magic if the weight of secrets becomes heavier. More or less, there will always be secrets that even the closest people keep from one another, that is unavoidable, the challenge however is not to make them overwhelming.

~

The very next day, Sofia paced from one side of a dimly lit dark storage room to the other. Dark, tinted sunglasses were covering her eyes even though there was not much light.

Seven men of different shapes—from bulky to thin, short to tall—stood before her.

She stopped before the shortest of them, the leader of the gang, and sharply turned to face him directly. "Listen, you Meaty...,"

The short man suddenly looked very displeased. He cut in, "The name is Vagga!"

Sofia huffed. "But you still supply meat to my diner, so Meaty is going to be a reasonable code-name and we do need code-names for the mission. You don't want Mevil coming after you after he knows who's stolen his lifeline."

Vagga, the meat supplier, snorted in reply, which could be in agreement or not.

"Whatever," he sighed in resignation at last and moved to the next topic. "We don't do kidnapping without getting some advance. In cash. People are becoming so fucking deceitful these days that we've been forced to make cash-in-advance a compulsory now."

Cash.

Sofia grunted in her mind, but made sure to keep her face stoic.

Bargaining is an art and Sofia was a master in it.

"I won't be giving you any cash," she informed them. "And by the way, it's not kidnapping, it's a bloody rescue-mission."

Vagga scowled and his entire gang had similar expressions on their faces. Grunts of irritation sounded across the room. "Listen, Sofia, we don't become goons after sunset for fun's sake! We don't do charity either. We risk our lives because we need money. So, if you think we're going to be working for free for you just because we supply meat to your diner in a discounted rate in daytime, then you've hugely mistaken." He took a breath before adding, "And it might be a rescue-mission to you, but to us... is plain-away kidnapping."

Sofia chose to ignore the last bit about whether it was kidnapping or not, because clearly it was no use arguing with these men on that topic. She was going to save Genevieve's brother and that was all that mattered.

"I didn't say you're not going to be paid, you dumb wit!" she snapped. "You're going to get free food for an entire month in my diner, that's your payment. What say?"

Slowly, Vagga's scowl fell off. He still looked quite unsure though. "Give us a moment to discuss."

"Fine." Sofia shrugged.

Vagga and his men marched off to the far side of the room. While the men talked and then argued in a circle, their heads drawn together so that she could not hear, Sofia here tapped her foot on the floor, rubbing nose as dust particles swimming lazily through a long streak of sunlight sipping in from a high window tickled her nostrils.

She gulped down the urge to sneeze when Vagga came back with his gang.

"So, do we have a deal?" Sofia asked, knowing already what their answer was going to be. All of these men were suckers for the food she made, even all of her staff were aware of it.

Vagga nodded curtly. "Deal."

Sofia smiled, satisfied.

Genevieve had already informed that Mevil was going out the city next weekend. The monster would be far away from the dungeon he kept his prisoner in and it would be the perfect time to strike.

Mevil wouldn't even know what was coming his way.

And then she could tell Max, hand over all the evidence and witnesses he might need with the cases he was trying to file upon Mevil.

She just hoped Max would understand. She hoped he would be more proud than mad, she just hoped.

Talking about Max...

That guy!

That doting husband of hers was going relentless with his promise of charming her.

She was becoming a mess, a good mess, by his incessant endeavors to win her heart, which was already won by him, by the way, long before he even began the whole courtship or dating thing.