On a London terrace, Sabine presents Charlotte with an anniversary “gift”: a flattened gold cuff link engraved with a G. Charlotte realizes it belonged to George Preston, her first kill, and hides her revulsion to keep the peace, wearing it as a pendant. They go out to feed, dumping four bodies in the Thames, then head to the Cavalcade club, where Charlotte notices a striking pair whose stillness marks them as the same kind of creatures.

Outside, the pair—Antonia and Jack—invite them for drinks. Sabine, unusually deferential, lets Charlotte choose, and Charlotte eagerly agrees. Antonia drives them to Southwark to her hidden club, the Way Down, a languid cabaret that openly caters to their kind. Jack serves glasses of stored blood; Sabine pointedly refuses, prompting Antonia to arrange a fresh source and send Sabine with Jack to feed privately.

While Sabine is gone, Antonia and Charlotte talk. Antonia dismisses moral sorting of victims as untenable, observes the racial realities that shaped her move from America to London, and uses the phrase “buried in the midnight soil,” revealing it is not Sabine’s private coinage. Charlotte learns Antonia and Jack have been together about seventy years and did not make each other.

Sabine returns with Jack, and tension eases. The four share stories into the late night; Sabine is dazzlingly charming, and Charlotte, drinking multiple glasses of blood, feels giddy and seen. As the club winds down an hour before dawn, Antonia warmly invites them to return anytime, and Charlotte goes home believing they have had a perfect anniversary.

Back at the flat, Sabine turns cold and accusatory, asking if she is no longer enough and berating Charlotte for her excitement about Antonia and Jack. Charlotte tries to soothe her, insisting Sabine is all she wants, but Sabine’s possessiveness hardens into violence. She pins Charlotte, kisses her until she draws blood, then forces her onto the bed and bites deep into her throat.

The chapter closes with a reflection on why Charlotte stays, likening it to remaining in a burning house while trying to save what you love, underscoring Charlotte’s entrapment and hope that she can contain the damage.