Disclaimer: I own nothing. Wish I did though.

Summary: Forced into a dream reality, Ryan must find his way out and alive. With his past catching up with him and Eric along for the ride, getting home seems harder by the minute. But what other mysteries must Ryan uncover while in this alternate reality? What exactly is Kendrel's secret and how does it affect Ryan?

A/N: I know, I'm horribly slow, but school is almost over so I'll be updating more when I get it. But today you get three chapters!

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Chapter 4

Kendrel sighed as she flipped through a magazine in her fixed spot in the bedroom. It had been two days since they had found Ryan unconscious, and now she was starting to get bored. If they stayed like this much longer, she was going to have to make the decision of having to do a favor for Eric and call in to his job for him, tell them he was visiting a dying family member and wasn't going to make it into the work for a couple days.

She paused in reading an article and shuddered. 'Doing a favor for Delko. Well, he would owe me for that.' She smirked at the thought of what she could possibly make Eric do to pay her back. After a few minutes she was brought back to the problem at hand. If Eric and Ryan stayed unconscious for a while, she wouldn't be able to keep up the excuses to anyone who wanted to see them. Eric could have only so many dying relatives before people stopped believing it.

She had no idea where to look, and she couldn't leave the boys alone. Not when a threat had already made itself known. Kendrel rolled her eyes and almost smacked her forehead.

"Duh, Horatio." She snorted at herself then got up in search of one of Eric's phones. As she walked down the hallway from the bedroom, she was suddenly tackled and slammed down to the floor. She snarled and pushed herself up from the ground and came face to face with the shadow from before. "You just don't stop!" She growled and launched herself at the shadow.

The shadow melted into the wall before she could reach him, then appeared from the other side, pushing Kendrel into the drywall. He slid across the floor and ran into the bedroom. Before he could get too far Kendrel flipped over his head and stopped in front of him. She grabbed the shadow's wrist and threw him back out into the hallway, his head hitting the door frame and he dropped to the ground. He made a hissing noise in his throat and twisted before Kendrel could grab him again. He seemed to bend away from her hands and kicked her back, sending her sprawling to the ground and out into the hallway. He kicked the door shut and watched as it locked.

Kendrel let out a frustrated yell and slammed on the door. Every time she got up, this freak tried to make an attack on the boys. The shadow quickly walked over to the boys then locked eyes on Ryan. He picked Ryan up by the front of his shirt and threw him across the floor. He looked back at Eric but was distracted when the bedroom door was splintered by blue fire. Kendrel's eyes were glowing once again and she was growling in anger.

"Now, you've pissed me off," she said through gritted teeth. She was suddenly in front of him, her fingers wrapped around the shadow's neck. She picked him up and threw him out the bedroom window, watching him plummet five floors to the ground. She wasn't able to see if he hit the ground though; she was distracted by the sudden pain-filled screams of Ryan on the floor. Quickly turning around, she ran over to his tossing body and grabbed onto his arms.

His hands were grabbing up by his face and she tried to pull them away. Her eyes widened when she finally managed to pin his hands to the ground. "Oh, shit. This is not good."

Ryan tried to scramble away but Eric grabbed his hands as they both stood up and started to back away.

"Did you two really think that you would get away from me?" Praxon stood several feet away from the boys. "That I would just let you wander away, thinking that you were safe? I made this world that you're in, and I will always know where you try to hide."

Ryan was tugging on Eric's hands, desperately trying to pull him away, trying to get him to run. "Why the hell are you following us?" Eric challenged. Ryan resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Eric's stupid courage.

"Would you shut the hell up and run?" Ryan hissed through his teeth.

"I admire his stupidity. But I think I can spare a moment of two to tell you why you will both die." Praxon seemed to don a thoughtful expression. "You, Ryan Wolfe, were to be my thirteenth victim, you were the last target."

"The last? Last target for what?" Ryan seemed to frown.

"Well, if I kill thirteen of the targets, than I am to become invincible, I receive immortality Nothing would be able to hurt me, to kill me. Now I know what you're thinking, or probably not thinking, surely it couldn't take that long to kill thirteen targets." The powerful demon seemed to shrug. "But then again, I don't make up the rules."

"What rules?" Ryan thought that the next time Eric talked he might just have to hit him. They could be taking this time to run away while Praxon talked.

"The rules that all demons were give. Kill thirteen targets and you receive immortality. Any demon who killed thirteen could receive it, no competition of being the first. Most of the targets hadn't been born. I was given my list in France in 1357. Your parents were not Targets, they just got in my way of killing you. I'm thousands of years old, and I've killed tens of thousands of people in my life time."

Ryan wanted to hit himself, but he couldn't help but ask his own question, at least while Praxon was in a somewhat good mood. "Why me? Why wait to kill me then?"

"That's the sporting fun in the list. To find the target, not knowing what year or where they were going to be born. Each demon at one point was given a list of thirteen targets, and it took hundreds of years to take out that list. The lists were created by a Seer, and those on the list were seen to be the ones that would be a threat to us Demons. And you, Ryan Michael Wolfe, are the last on my list." He growled the last part, his mood for talking obviously diminished. "I will receive my Immortality and be freed from this world

Ryan's eyes widened and he pulled on Eric's arm, not wanting to stick around to ask anymore questions, and this time Eric turned and ran with Ryan through the trees. They created a zig-zag pattern, hoping to lose the demon chasing them.

"This is going to be a definite problem in the future," Eric said as he darted around a tree. "I'm starting to think that too many people, or demons, or things want you dead."

"Well, you're right up there on that list, too," Ryan huffed out. "You keep hanging out with me, so they think you need to die, too."
Eric grabbed Ryan's hand and made a sharp left turn, skidding on some leaves and almost losing his balance. Ryan followed easily and pulled on Eric's arm, righting him up on his feet again. "You're really good at this running thing."

"I used to go on morning runs for several years in the morning. You just don't do enough running," Ryan commented.

"I will if I stick around you. Running for my life." Ryan snorted and rolled his eyes. Several minutes later Eric stopped and bent over trying to catch his breath.

"I can't run without a break," Eric huffed out between breaths. Ryan nodded a little and looked around for any sign of Praxon.

"I think we may have lost him anyway. I've never known him to run anyway, he didn't follow me when I was thirteen." Ryan looked at Eric and smiled slightly. Ryan suddenly felt a shiver down his back and his senses went on alert. Then just as quickly he started to relax. "Eric," Ryan said quietly.

"Yeah?" Eric took one more breath and stood up. "Ryan? You okay?" Before Ryan could say anything a hand wrapped around Eric's shoulder and threw him backwards into a tree, knocking the wind out of the Cuban-Russian.

Ryan's eyes widened but didn't move, his body was too relaxed and didn't want to move. Praxon walked up to Ryan slowly, a smirk on his face exposing sharpened canines. "You're going to stand there while I kill you, and would you like to know why?" He grinned wider as he stopped right in front of Ryan. "Well, I think you might already know why. Those vampire hormones running through your veins are just my good luck."
Praxon drew his hand back behind him and a small glowing ball appeared in his palm. Eric coughed as he was able to catch his breath and he looked up to see the ball growing in size. His eyes widened and he looked at Ryan.

"Ryan!" As Eric yelled Praxon thrust his arm forward, launching the projectile at Ryan. But before anything could happen Ryan was suddenly thrown to the ground by an unseen force. The glowing orb of power hit the tree behind Ryan turning it into slivers and chunks of wood. Praxon yelled in frustration and disappeared.

Eric seemed to sigh in relief as he pushed himself up. "That was too close Ryan." He looked over and saw Ryan's chest moving up and down rapidly and could hear Ryan's breath had quickened. "Ryan?" He hurried over and knelt down next to him. He looked at Ryan's right eye and he felt his own breath catch in his throat. A long sliver of the tree's bark had embedded itself between Ryan's eye and eyelid.

Eric let out a long stream of Russian as he ran his hands through his hair. He grabbed Ryan's hand quickly and that's when he started to scream in pain. Eric quickly grabbed his other hand before it could find its way up to his eyes. "Ryan! Stop, you can't pull it out!"
Ryan started to shake his head frantically. "Get it out, you need to get it out!"

Eric held onto Ryan's hands and squeezed them tightly. "You can't pull it out. Listen to me, if you try to pull it out you might bleed out, or you might go blind. Trust me, can you do that? Can you trust me?" Ryan's screams had stopped as he listened to Eric's voice. He nodded slightly in understanding. "Okay, good. Now come on," he wrapped one of Ryan's arms around his neck and slowly helped Ryan stand up. "Maybe there's a river or something nearby. If we can get it cleaned up a little we may be able to somehow take care of it."

Ryan nodded weakly as he leaned on Eric. "We really need to get out of here." Ryan muttered as they walked.

Eric sighed and nodded. "Don't worry, we'll find some way out of here."

Kendrel dabbed a wet wash cloth at Ryan's eye gently. It had taken her some time but she had eventually gotten Ryan back to his position on the bed next to Eric. Then she immediately called Horatio. She knew that the shadow hadn't done anything to Ryan's eye and she needed answers. She had almost all the blood washed off when Horatio walked into the bedroom.

"Kendrel?' he raised an eyebrow and came to stand next to her at the bed by the boys.

"I have no idea what's going on Horatio," Kendrel sighed as she dropped the rag on the bedside table. "They won't wake up, and suddenly something just happens to Ryan's eyes. It was bleeding, was still is, but I don't know why." Indeed more blood had started to seep from the mysterious injury.

"Was anyone else here?" He took of his glasses as he observed the coma-like state that the boys were in.

"There was someone, but he didn't get anywhere close to Ryan's eye. He threw him off the bed and then I threw him out the window." Kendrel couldn't help the small smirk of satisfaction that started to creep onto her face. "That's when Ryan just started screaming in pain. I figured you might be able to help me figure out why they won't wake up. I don't wanna have to do any favors for anyone if they stay like this too long."

Horatio didn't say anything for a couple minutes as he just looked at the two men on the bed. "I'll need you to tell me everything you know so far, I might have something. I'll have to call Calleigh, too. Did you use your powers at all?"

Kendrel looked at him and raised an eyebrow, then smirked slightly. "Just this last time I did. This is the third time that someone has tried to attack them. You knew didn't you?"

Horatio just let a ghost of a smiled cross his lips. "I didn't know it was supposed to be a secret."

"You tricky dog, you," she chuckled then started to tell him about the day they found Ryan.

"Oh, no. We can't have you being happy now can we?" Ryan and Eric broke away with wide eyes to stare at the intruder.