Ringing, distant ringing, shrill and steady. Ruby groaned, pulled awake from a natural sleep, not her forced day sleep. The sun was down but she hadn't awakened. Reaching out a hand, she felt nothing but air. Her eyes opened but the room was too dark for shadows. No light source gave her broken vision zero to latch onto.

"David?" she asked aloud into the empty room, her hand landing on the empty pillow. The ringing had stopped but it was another moment before she realized it was a telephone. It had been a very long time since she'd heard a telephone ring.

Leaning up on an elbow, Ruby let herself slide into her second nature. Instantly the room became soft grey, everything that belonged in its place but no David. It made her nauseous, her body consuming the last of the energy she had left to give her sight. Fighting the sick feeling welling in her stomach, Ruby focused. She could hear his voice beyond the door.

Climbing out of bed, tugging the sheet around herself, she touched the unlocked deadbolt before she opened the door. David's voice grew louder in her ears, although he spoke in low tones.

Walking with wary assurance, she made her way down the hall towards the kitchenette.

"Don't touch it." David spoke to whoever was on the other end of the line. "I'll be down to look at it soon." Ruby heard him drop the receiver heavily back onto its cradle.

"Who was that? When did we get a telephone?" Ruby stopped at the end of the hallway, half hidden by the corner. A wave of nausea washed over her and forced her to drop her vampire side. She needed to make a kill.

"We've always had one but I don't give out the number." His words were clipped. David hadn't moved. "That was Miller. I have to go down to his bar."

Ruby frowned. "The bartender?" It had been years since her only encounter with the crusty but seemingly trustworthy Miller, in whose storeroom she had spent her first night in Santa Cruz.

"I'll be back in a few minutes. Just stay in the bedroom, bolt the door."

"David, I am going with you."

"The hell you are!" He roared the command so loud the windows rattled in their casings.

Ruby didn't flinch. She knew David's anger wasn't directed at her but at himself. He was trying to bare the weight of everything on his shoulders and was terrified something would happen to her. It wouldn't work to argue with him.

"What did Miller find?" she asked after a long silence. David's lips pursed, reluctant to tell Ruby anything Miller had said. "Tell me, David!"

He was silent for a long moment before speaking. "Someone left something on the bar. Miller's not sure when, because it wasn't there when he closed. But it was there, front and center, in the middle of the counter when he went in this afternoon."

Ruby's chest tightened and she lost control, slipping out of fang. She stared blankly in the direction of the dark shadow she knew was David. "What did Miller find, David?"

David blew out a long breath before he answered her. "A message."

Ruby waited for him to continue but nothing more came. She tipped her head, shaking it slightly. "What kind of message? A ransom note?"

David's hand closed around her upper arm. She started at his touch, not realizing he had left the kitchenette and joined her in the hall. Ruby resisted at first, confused. David pulled her into his arms, his voice muffled by her hair.

"It's a carved crow, Ruby. A crow with a knife buried in its chest."