"I came to ask for advice," Ray repeated, glaring at Danica who was currently lounging on the other side of the bed. "Not insults. And considering you were pretty much the root cause of our last argument" - sort of - "I think you owe me that much."

The laughter filtered through the cushion Danica had been trying to smother herself with just moments before.

"Can you hear yourself right now? Take the fucking hint, cop. It sounds to me like he's telling you to fuck off and you're just not getting the message." She mused for a moment. "I knew my brother had a head on him." Even if it took him a while to use it. This was exactly the reason why she thought that she was actually the brains in their family. Nobody would find her suffering such a dysfunctional relationship. She definitely didn't get enough credit for it.

Ray shook his head and scoffed almost bitterly. "I should have arrested you when I had the chance." Maybe a few weeks in the island jail would have made her a little more respectful.

"Stop, stop," Danica squealed, faking a look of shock horror. Her tone turned deadpan. "You're making my sides split. You can't touch me--"

"I can," Ray interrupted her, the rebuttal immediate and forthright.

"--and even if you could, you wouldn't. Face it. I can do anything and get away with it. And allll because you have a thing for my brother," she finished tauntingly.

Deep inside Ray was infinitely grateful that the truth curse had lifted. "Not true. I wouldn't compromise myself like that."

"You've done it once."

"There wasn't enough evidence."

"Oh, please." Danica tossed the cushion on the bed and twisted to face him. "Is it love?" She managed to make the word sound so sickening. "Is that the reason?"

Ray looked away, gaze fixed on the curtain separating them from the rest of the dorms. "That's none of your business."

The click was unmissable. Ray's ears pricked straight away, his head whipping back around to look at her.

"Is it my business now?" The barrel of the gun leveled at him.

Ray's eyes flicked back to the curtain for the briefest of seconds, mentally calculating how many people were potentially on the other side. They were back on Danica again as if they had never left her. "What are you doing?"

"Consider this a test," Danica replied calmly, nodding her head at his arm. She could see it moving already. "Get it if you want. That'll just make things more interesting."

Ray wasn't stupid enough not to take the opportunity when it came. He had his gun cocked, ready and aimed at a smile that showed maximum fang.

"What to do, what to do..." Danica moved her head as if tossing up the options. She didn't have that many in reality. She may have found where Asher had hidden a gun but the jackass had also emptied it. No bullets, no fun. So she had to find it someplace.

"Put the gun down."

"Answer the question."

Ray growled in frustration. "I'm not kidding. Put it down. Right now you're not Asher's sister, you're just some lunatic with a gun in a room full of sleeping people."

"Correction," she snapped, "I'm a lunatic with a loaded gun in a room full of fucking morons. And you're the only one that can save them. So go on, be a hero."

Ray swallowed and readjusted his grip on his weapon. "Put the gun down and I'll answer."

"Answer and I may give a fuck about the first part."

“You’re loving this, aren’t you.”

It wasn’t a question. It didn’t need to be when the answer was so obvious.

“I am, actually,” Ray agreed anyway, tilting his head with a smile. When Danica bared her fangs in annoyance, he let out a low laugh. “So…so far we’ve established that you don’t like me, that you think Asher does and that you have no idea what he sees in me,” he ticked them off on his fingers. “What else do I want to know…”

Danica pressed her lips together as tight as she could get them.

“Are you planning to kill, maim or attack anybody in the near future?”

“You, as soon as Asher gets over himself, comes to his senses and drops you.” Ray’s brow furrow and Danica cocked an eyebrow. “Maybe he'll do it himself. Huh... This isn’t so bad.”

Ray didn’t want to ask which of the three he was on her list for.

“What about Del and the twins? Are they safe from you?”

A pink lip curled, though whether it was at the insinuation or the thought was unclear. “For now.” Grinding her teeth, jaw tensing, it was easy to see Danica was trying to hold back. She was wrong. It was definitely so bad. “And………yes,” she hissed, dropping a foot down to the ground and pushing herself up from the sofa. “We’re done here now.”

“But I’m enjoying myself,” Ray laughed, watching her leave. “Tell me about Asher’s exes! No, no,” he hurried up after her, “tell me about your attack last year.” Ray wasn’t sure whether it mattered anymore, but it would always sit niggling in the back of his mind if he never knew the full story. As far as his reports were concerned, Danica’s injuries and Rorschach’s bullet wound had been completely separate incidents, but Ray wasn’t dumb.

“Did Asher do it? Did he shoot that guy?”

“Animal attack?” Danica echoed, quirking her eyebrow with a smirk. “Is that what he’s calling it?”

“You know something different?”

She knew the cop hadn’t believed them when she and Asher had claimed animal attack back when her brother had gotten trigger happy, and it was clear he wasn’t fooled this time either.

“Me?” Innocence never washed well with Danica but it was fun pretending. “Why would I know anything?”

“You haven’t had those long, have you.” Ray nodded at her, eyes on her fangs.

Her gaze darkened and she cocked an impatient hip. “Far longer than you can imagine.”

“The new set,” he corrected, lifting his hands to his waist. “How long have you had those?”

As amusing as this was for the first few minutes, Danica was quickly becoming bored. “Not long enough.”

“Y’know, it would really work in your favor if you co-operated,” Ray stressed, emphasising his no-nonsense tone when he saw Danica roll her eyes, “and answered my questions.”

“I didn’t bite him,” she replied on a sigh, wanting to cut to the chase. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m human. Blood doesn’t interest me anymore.”

“Same go for your brother?”

That brought the smirk back to Danica’s face. “Same goes for him.”

“Huh.” Ray folded his arms across his chest. “Has he bitten anyone on the island?”

“Oh, detective.” The word dripped with sarcasm. “You already know the answer to that.” Danica held Ray’s gaze for longer than was strictly necessary before mimicking his stance. “You’re talking to the wrong Talos. I’m busy. Go bug Asher.” He'd been born to clean up her messes. She turned to make her exit, having already decided to pay Fitch a visit to congratulate him on his lame cover-up.

“Why would he bite Cooper?!” Ray called out at her retreating figure, all his jigsaw pieces hanging in the air.

“I spent the night with the doctor,” Danica called back, a laugh caught in amongst her words. “He gets awfully jealous.”

And the pieces dropped to the ground, complete in front of Vecchio’s eyes.