In an elegant home in Córdoba, Hector restlessly tosses aside books in search of something unread while Sabine lounges and Renata glides in, sated from feeding. Around them lie the bodies of a family of six; only one young man still clung to life, barely conscious and condemned by his earlier insults. Hector’s agitation rises, and Renata remarks that indulgence begets more cravings, setting a feverish tone.

Renata forces Calvados into the surviving man, then invites Sabine to drink. Sabine feeds and, guided by Renata, notices flavor in the blood—apples—learning that what mortals consume tinges their blood and affects them. Buoyed by alcohol and blood, Hector switches to a cheerful tune and Sabine and Renata dance, a rare moment of lightness amid carnage.

The mood shatters when Sabine trips over a stool that breaks, a wooden shard piercing her back. She pulls it out, already healing, and dismisses it, but Hector and Renata react with alarm. Hector declares Sabine ignorant of a critical truth. As the wounded man makes a feeble escape attempt, Hector casually flips him, plunges his fingers into his chest, and tears out his heart, then places it in Sabine’s lap as a lesson.

Hector explains that their kind has one mortal weakness: the heart. Renata elaborates that while bones and skin mend, destruction of the heart—by wood, steel, fire, or removal—means true death; fire is worst because the heart burns last. Hector demonstrates the threat by flicking a jagged stake toward Sabine’s chest, which she catches close to her heart, stoking a flash of murderous impulse.

Renata intervenes, soothing Hector in Catalan while gently disarming Sabine and casting the shard into the fire. The immediate danger dissipates as Hector’s mood swings back toward brightness and he resumes playing. Sabine throws the dead man’s heart into the hearth and watches it burn, registering the broken stool, ruined corpse, and charred heart as signs of a deeper shift.

Reflecting on the scene, Sabine marks it as the beginning of the end: a night that combined intoxication, intimacy, and a stark revelation about their mortality, and that sharpened the fissures among the trio despite the return of music and surface calm.