Chapter 1

Drake awoke painfully. The sound of blood rushing in his ears buzzed in his head, his limbs unnaturally numb, and blinking open his eyes was harder than it ever had been. He spent a good amount of time—how long exactly he'd never know—groaning and trying to fight the darkness coming again. He hurt everywhere.

When he managed to open his eyes enough to get a glimpse of his surroundings was when he first began to question them. Where was he? He searched his memory, and found that he could not recall what hd happened, or where he was. He panicked briefly, but as soon as he was able to discern the flamboyant carpet pattern in the darkness he was assured that this was indeed his room; his master closet, to be exact. He was lying crumpled, in pain, on the floor of his closet.

Well, that opened things up for questions, didn't it?

Painstakingly, he managed to get himself to his feet. Holding his aching head in his hands, he made his way to the door back into his bedroom.

"Bloody dark…" he muttered to himself, squinting to see the sliver of light from the cracked door through his pain, "Whoever had the bollocks to leave me in—-woaaAH!"

And just like that, he was on the floor again.

"What the bloody hell?" was murmured into the carpet. Drake sat up, and turned to see what he had tripped on, but in the darkness he could see nothing. He scooted himself over to the wall by the door and reached up for the light switch.

When the light turned on, and he looked back to see the offending object, he was eternally grateful that he had not been standing. He was numbly aware that his extremities had started madly shaking, as well as his breath, but his attention was engaged not on himself, but on the body of a young girl, twistedly peaceful, with wide open eyes that stared at him unerringly.

Drake could not help but to hold her lifeless gaze for a drawn out moment, willing it all to be in his head, a booze-induced mirage that would shimmer into nonexistence. But it never did. This was real. There was a dead girl in his closet.

With a strangled noise, Drake scrambled his way onto his feet and out of the closet. He desperately sucked in breath after breath, trying hard to keep himself from hyperventilating. Stubbornly refusing to turn back around, he forced himself to calm, staring hard at his dark purple wall above his bed, not allowing himself to think.

After a time, when he thought that he was reasonably calm (the shuddering breaths and trembling hands would not be going away, he could tell), he tried to rationalize his way from what he remembered of yesterday to the…to his…current situation.

Horvath. He had seen Horvath yesterday. He had had Drake position the satellite things into a pentagram, for the ritual to free Morgana…

Did that mean she was free? If it was supposed to happen yesterday… He decided to add that to his ever-growing pile of questions, and got back to the more pressing issue.

He remembered getting back to his penthouse, being pissed about his chipped manicure (couldn't find it within himself to be pissed about that now) and chatting with Horvath. Talking…talking about what?

Drake put a palm to his forehead and furrowed his brow. Horvath had been talking about his education, right? Asking about what he had been taught. About a certain spell…

Drake exhaled in a gust. His head was hurting so much, and he couldn't remember what he knew must be important. But he refused to give up this line of thought now, if for no other reason than to put off turning around for a moment longer…

Okay, so Horvath had asked him if he know a certain spell. Parasite spell. That was it. The Parasite spell. The one that allowed one sorcerer to take the magic from another…

Drake's hand shot away from his head, and his eyes jolted to his finger. It was gone. His Ring was gone.

"No, no, no no no no…" He looked frantically down at his feet, praying that he had just dropped it. Forgetting himself, he turned and traced his earlier path back to the closet. Stopping in the threshold, his breath was stolen from him as his eyes once again found the young girls corpse.

Though his hands still shook, and his breathing was ragged, he was in a much clearer state than he had been when he awoke. Seeing the girl, dressed in a gown that covered her modestly, apron white and pressed, cape crumpled underneath her…

This was Abigail Williams. He recognized her from the depiction on the Grimhold. This girl was meant to be his ally.

Drake haltingly made his way closer to her, then down onto his knees. Trembling, he reached to her neck—-just to be sure—-and found pulseless, icy skin. Just as he knew he would.

What he did not expect to fine was the burn, the brand, on the side of her neck. Inspecting further, decidedly not looking at her face, he found it to be a pentagram, with rune-like markings at each of its points. Leaning back, he could see that she wore no jewelry.

Dread settled deep in his gut, and he brought a shaking hand to his own neck. He felt the burn, the raised skin at the base of his neck, and swallowed hard.

Horvath had betrayed him. Had taken his magic and—if Abigail Williams was any indication—had meant to take much more. He had wanted to kill him. Had probably planed to from the beginning.

Drake closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He probably should have seen that one coming, but he never was one to plan that far ahead. He didn't think of it. Not that he put it passed the old man, he had seen and heard far too much of Horvath to think him anything less than ruthless. But, still… Drake had done what was asked of him. They were on the same side. He had thought that would have meant something, anything, but evidently not.

Then a more worrisome thought entered into his mind. If Horvath had wanted him dead, and he was not, was he in danger now? He had no allies. Not the dead girl on the floor, not his traitorous business partner, certainly not Morgana herself or the Merlinians…

Drake was in big trouble. And he had a horrible feeling that he alone wasn't going to be able to ward off whatever was coming for him.

A/n: Drake Stone needs more love. And to show my love, I'm gonna put him through a world of hurt. 'Cuz that's what I do. I'll do my best to update as often as I can. :)