Shadowchasers: Something Borrowed

By Mei1105

Chapter 4: Venue

"Ah, Sleeping Beauty awakens!"

Stumbling into the kitchen in a pair of sleep shorts, and a thin t-shirt, Bastien glared across the table at his colleague. "It's only ten Thando, so you can shut it."

"No way. I wasn't the one who slipped out of the house late last night, and apparently stayed up until the small hours," Thando tossed the morning paper on the table, narrowly avoiding upsetting the honey. "So was it business or pleasure? Please tell me you met a lovely girl last night, and that's the reason for your dishevelled state?"

Remembering the full sum of his late night jaunt, Bastien offered a half grimace. "I bloody wish."

He sat down with a wince, and Thando's eyes narrowed in on his side. Noticing the arm folding, and stern face, Bastien sighed and lifted his shirt. The foot-shaped bruises had faded thanks to a few healing potions, but the impact zone was still tender and green as it continued to knit itself back together.

Thando offered a few choice words in Xhosa. "What the hell did you do to yourself?" he demanded, as soon as he had finished swearing.

"I didn't!" Bastien exclaimed, dropping his shirt and reaching for the coffee. "Marko and his little gang of idiots did it."

Frowning, Thando rose from the table and went to the bread bin. "Talk." He ordered, pushing four slices down into the toaster. By the time they were crisp and covered in marmite, Bastien had recalled his clandestine meeting with Rana, and his run in with Marko and his heavies. Thando had listened quietly, only breaking the explanation to go to the bathroom and come back with a tube of cream to help take the last of the bruising down.

"You're an idiot," he declared eventually, as Bastien started dabbing the smelly medicine around his nose.

"You what?"

"You went out at midnight, in the middle of the city, right outside where you know there to be heavy Shadow nightlife, by yourself to hunt down a witch?" Thando deadpanned. Bastien winced. When he put it like that, it did sound stupid. And hadn't he been doing his best before Rana showed up to convince himself that this was a lead worth following?

"You're right," he sighed, suddenly too tired to deny his own idiocy in the harsh light of day. "It was stupid. I just couldn't stop thinking about it, and I thought maybe if I did something I could get some sleep."

He sounded so pathetic to his own ears, and he quickly distracted himself by rubbing cream onto his side.

"There are pills you can take for that," Thando said, sitting down again and resting his arms on top of his newspaper, so that his elbow was obscuring the face of a certain politician. "In the future, call me when you decide to go out on a little jaunt? Especially before you let a load of thugs fuck up your face."

"You were asleep," Bastien mumbled. "I didn't want to bother you just because I was restless."

"When you get your internal organs rearranged by Marko, I'd rather you woke me," came the pointed response. His friend picked up an untouched piece of toast and took a bite, only to pull a face as he realised that he had picked up a marmite slice.

"It might have been worth it," Bastien said quietly, dropping his t-shirt back into place and recapping the medicine. "If Rana can at least confirm whether or not Sarrelle and his friends were kidnapped or killed we can at least narrow it down…"

Finding the correct piece of toast, Thando chewed it slowly. "Marko isn't going to be happy if he finds out you've got Rana running errands for you."

Bastien frowned thoughtfully. "Hmm...I guess he might be a bit pissed if he hears a fellow demon is helping out a Shadowchaser, but it's none of his business, so as long as she's discreet-"

"...you do know he's her pimp, right?" Thando interrupted, his voice filled with disbelief. The tube of cream slipped from Bastien's hand, and came close to plopping into his second cup of coffee.

"You're kidding?" he asked.

"Is this my kidding face?" Thando asked, dropping his toast back onto his plate and leaning forwards. "I thought I told you? Last time I was in Blue Downs - when you went away for your sister's wedding - Mesha was having problems with Veno, and me and Astra went to check on her. She told us everything she knew about how Marko operated. How Mundanes find him. Who some of his top clients were…"

Straining his memory, Bastien groaned, as vague echoes of that very conversation fluttered back to him like skittish butterflies. "I was so hungover after that weekend." He shook his head. "I probably wasn't listening. Sorry."

He got an eyeroll, and Thando went back to his toast. "Well either way, he is going to go ballistic when he finds out that one of his favourite succubi is helping you. Especially since I'm guessing you're not in his good books after last night."

"Great," Bastien groaned, sitting down at the table, and tearing the nearest piece of toast in two. "Wonderful. When I get my hands on that fucker, I'm going to kill him. I don't care if it gets me in trouble - it'll be bloody satisfying."

"Well you might want to send him a thank you card first," Thando remarked. "I think he straightened your nose out for you."

"Shut your face!" Bastien was laughing in spite of himself. As Thando chuckled at his friend's expense, the doorbell rang, and the tall black man slid out of his seat to answer it. Picking up a piece of toast, and his coffee, Bastien made his way into the living room, trying not to aggravate any of his injuries.

Hoping that Jalal would not choose this moment to pop in and find his Shadowchaser bruised and in a state of undress, Bastien found the second phone in the house flashing with an unread message. A quick button press revealed a short terse voice, requesting either one of the Shadowchasers presence urgently in Newlands Forest. Wondering what on earth they had done to earn the irritation of the elves now, Bastien erased the message, and wandered over to the pinboard, tracing his fingers over Table Mountain.

The pins stuck out like little flags, random and confusing. Gently, he ran one hand down the mountain, past the pins, and down towards the Stone Cutters. Even if you added the break in to the map of crime scenes, it did not add any revelations, or create any sort of pattern. As his fingers trailed up over the mountain, Bastien frowned at the little pin hole in the paper, and began to count the red markers. Two of them were missing.

Something tingled at the edge of his senses, before a cloud of feathers burst into existence over the coffee table, fluttering down and disappearing before they touched the floor, leaving a single brown one, about the length of Bastien's forearm, floating in the middle of the room. Heart sinking, Bastien left his plate by the map, and went to take it. It was light and soft in his hand, but he knew its owner was anything but.

"New cards are here!" Thando appeared, carrying a signed package under one arm. "About time! I thought the DHL boys had seen them and kept them for themselves."

"Hey Thando," Bastien readjusted the feather and coffee mug in his hand, and pointed to the map. "Where did these two pins go? Stalatee Duru and Teybrin Kenath?"

"Oh yeah!" Thando snapped his box cutter open in lieu of fingers. "Astra called at about seven from Pretoria - you know she's covering some of Dani's haunts this week? They're not missing - at least, not in the same way the rest of these guys are. Apparently these two heard about the missing Shadowkind and thought that it would be a great cover."

"Cover for what?" Bastien frowned, taking a sip from his mug.

"Eloping."

Coffee came spurting out of Bastien's nose, and Thando gave an amused smile.

"Yeah, that was my reaction too," he agreed, pulling out the carefully wrapped trading cards. "Astra found Mr and Mrs Kenath moving in their new house on Chopin Street in the small hours of this morning. Apparently they knew that their families would not approve, so they decided to run away and hope that everyone would think that they had vanished."

Scoffing, Bastien chose to sit down to consume the rest of his coffee. It felt safer. "An elf and drow? No, I can't imagine their families would approve! Did you let them know?"

"Yes, while you were flopped in bed with a face like a peach that's been dropped on the floor," Thando teased. "I was out breaking the news to both sets of parents. The drow didn't give a toss - their men run off all the time apparently - but Stalatee's mother went nuts. I thought she was going to tear me a new one for daring to bring her such news about her precious daughter. As of about two hours ago, I'm persona non grata to the entire Newlands elf community - particularly now that I've told them it's not a kidnapping if she consented to it, and no, I can't go and force her to come back."

"Ahh…" Bastien nodded, as the two pieces of information connected. "That's why Gelehrin sounded so irritated just now." Seeing Thando's alarmed expression, he explained. "She left a message. They want one of us to head to Newlands as fast as possible. Something big must have happened in the last hour. Perfect chance for you to get back in their good books."

"You want me to go and speak to the community, who just threatened to pull my intestines out through my ears?" Thando asked dryly. "Not a chance in hell."

"Well either you go and see the elves, or you go and see Xicerine," Bastien said, holding out the huge feather and twirling it in a circle through the air. "He's summoned us too."

Thando swallowed hard, and his left hand rubbed at the right sleeve of his t-shirt, where thin ribbons of scar tissue were just visible beneath the cotton. "Elves please!" he said quickly, and Bastien grinned.

"Thought you might say that." He gulped the rest of his coffee, and shoved half of the toast in his mouth. "Leave my cards on the side there. I'd better go find my boots."

"You sure you're okay to go on a hike?" Thando checked, though he did not sound enthusiastic to trade anymore.

"My legs feel fine now," Bastien replied, leaning into the kitchen far enough to place his mug on the counter by the sink, before heading for the stairs. "But I'll take the cable car up anyway. I need to call someone first."

"You're taking company?" Thando asked, before realisation dawned, and he grinned. "Ah our pretty British visitor? Maybe there's hope for you yet."

He let out a shriek, as the rest of Bastien's half-eaten toast was tossed at him, the Marmite leaving a sticky stain on his t-shirt.

OOO

"Hey pretty lady. Fancy a match?"

With the most scornful look imaginable on her face, Becky gave the would-be flirt a glare. "Not with you."

Turning a cold shoulder on the young man, the Shadowchaser went back to projecting a steady gaze at the duelling field. The indoor arena was busy, mostly with university students, and the atmosphere was loud and rowdy. On field three, Andi and Vi were tossing banter and attacks back and forth across the field, monsters coming and going as they threw everything they had at each other. Both girls were about equal in skill, and Becky had a feeling that this would be one of those matches where the deck ran out before life points did.

Wincing as Andi was struck by the full force of Majestic Mech - Goryu, Becky spun her straw around in her coke, wishing that she could get more excited about watching duels. Nobody was playing badly, but the novelty of watching other people had worn off an hour ago. Three of Vi's friends had joined them around the table, but two were now duelling, and the third seemed more interested in having conversations on Twitter than with real people. Not to mention that every man in the area seemed to have a homing switch in their brain flicked firmly into the 'on' position, which required them to gravitate towards the large group of women for a flirt.

Part of her really wanted to take her bike and take off for a look around the city - maybe even up the mountain. But that was not going to happen. Vi had bookmarked today for duelling, and she and Andi had already hiked up Table Mountain on Sunday, and were not that eager to do it again.

Apparently unperturbed, the young man leaned casually against the table, almost upsetting her drink, looming over her like some kind of messiah. "No need to be scared. I'll go easy on you."

The urge to throw something was overwhelming, and Becky reluctantly returned her attention to her admirer. He might have been reasonably attractive had he not made the mistake of opening his mouth.

"What a shame to see chauvinism hasn't quite been bred out of this country since my last visit," she replied, leaning back in her seat and folding her arms, hoping that the refusal to play was quite clear. Across the table, Vi's friend Kayla seemed to surface from Twitter for a brief breath of fresh air, her eyes darting over to the man and frowning as they tried to recall when he had appeared.

"C'mon babe, don't be like that," fingers casually drifted over to Becky's arm, and she tensed, waiting for the first tickle of contact that would be all the permission she needed to break his fingers. A voice interrupted barely a hairsbreath from that sweet moment.

"Fuck off Morgan. The junior fields are on the other side of the building," helpfully, Kayla jerked a finger over the young man's shoulder. "That's in that direction, in case you were wondering."

Scowling, Morgan muttered something in Afrikaans at the pair of them before turning and slouching away. Kayla shouted an equally rude reply at his back before going back to Twitter with a glower, apparently having fulfilled her quota of verbal communication for the next hour.

Wondering if a few rounds of Angry Birds would help kill time until Andi and Vi finally wiped each other out, Becky jumped a foot in the air as her phone made the decision for her, vibrating sharply against her butt. Her curiosity immediately began to jump up and down in excitement as she saw the caller. She had told him to get in touch if anything exciting happened, but she hadn't expected it to be this quick. Someone up there was clearly listening to her.

"Good morning, Bastien," she greeted, a smile coming to her face naturally as the anticipation grew.

"Good morning to you too. Are you busy today, or do you fancy a trip to meet a crotchety old roc?"

A rush of adrenaline instantly pounded through her body. "Are you serious?" she asked, hoping that she did not sound too childlike.

"I am," Bastien seemed to find her reaction endearing rather than weird. "Thando and I got summons about ten minutes ago, so it must be important."

"Ooh now I'm definitely intrigued," Becky said playfully. "Alright. Where do you want to meet? Vi dragged us into Rosebank, but I've got my bike."

"Of course," Bastien teased. "I can't imagine you being parted from your baby for a moment. Alright. I'm almost presentable after last night. Can you meet me at the lower cable station in half an hour?"

Becky wondered what on earth had happened last night to make him un-presentable, and she made a mental note to ask. "Tafelberg Road, right? I'll see you there!"

She hung up, and resisted the urge to punch the air in glee. Instead she swept her bag out from under the table, pausing to untangle it from her sister's strap. The sight of it killed some of her excitement, and her eyes were drawn back to the field, for an entirely different reason.

Argh, stupid guilt, she cursed herself. I'm not the kind of girl who ditches her sister and cousin for a cute guy and a magical bird…

Out of the corner of her eye, a figure was swaggering towards the table, and Becky's gaze snapped to it, her heart sinking as she registered another man with a can-do gleam sweeping the table.

...unless there's another flirt approaching the table. She amended. All yours, Kayla!

Sliding swiftly out of her seat, she hurried toward the exit. Predictably, Kayla did not even seem to notice that she had gone, her eyes still glued to her phone. Letting her guilt resurface for just a moment, Becky began typing on her own screen, and fired off a text to Andi and Vi, explaining that she had gone for a drive. They would get it when they finished their match - which at the rate they were going, would be a long time yet.

The sun was high overhead, and the warmth crept up her neck as she crossed the parking lot. Her bike was sharing a space with Vi's truck and she tried not to feel guilty any more about leaving. If they ran out of matches, the plan was to head over to the university campus to hang around for a while, something which Becky had no interest in doing. She could not shake the feeling that their cousin was under secret instructions from their mother to show both girls what fun higher education was - not that Andi needed any more persuading, having already filed her UCAS applications a month ago.

Instead, she let excitement bubble away as she pulled out of the lot and back onto the motorway. Being back on the road was a thrill in and of itself, and the fact she was meeting up with Bastien to see a real live roc was only adding to it.

Tafelberg Road was on the opposite side of the mountain to the duelling arenas, and required Becky to drive back through the city centre. Awake and appropriately excited this time, she slowed down long enough to enjoy some of the estates and the beautiful homes that she came across. This deep in the city, the number of vehicles thinned out compared to the suburbs, as Cape Town's transit service took the lion's share of transport.

The mountain snuck up on her as she turned off the main road and up the smaller, winding one that snaked its way up. Below her, the city began to grow outwards like a carpet the higher she got, and by the time she reached the lower cable station, the view was positively distracting, and it took her a moment to tear her eyes away and locate her colleague. To her relief, Bastien had saved a parking space, his bike looking slightly lost in the gap that lined the road, as it was meant for a larger vehicle. She slid in next to it gratefully.

"Excellent choice for a rendezvous," she greeted, tugging her helmet off and frowning as she properly took in her companion's face. "What happened to your nose?" she asked, before blushing, as she realised how rude that must sound.

"Long story," Bastien said, with a slightly pained grimace. "I guess it's still noticeable then?"

Sliding off her bike, Becky eyed his face critically. "Well only to someone who saw you yesterday. Your nose suddenly got straighter, and you're looking a little yellow around it." She gestured.

"Huh, guess Thando was right, I do owe Marko a thank you," Bastien muttered, turning and gesturing to the cable car. "How about I explain it on the way up?"

Under normal circumstances, Becky would have been all too easily distracted by the pretty scenery as their car slid out of the station, and began its slow climb up the side of the green rock face. Table Mountain loomed over the bowl to the north, and as they rose, more and more of the city came into view, lovingly cradled in the ocean's grasp. Both Shadowchasers were elbowed away from the cable car windows by enthusiastic Chinese tourists, who snapped photographs and talked loudly to each other in spite of only being a foot apart. Part of Becky bemoaned the loss of pictures, but at least it meant that nobody was listening as Bastien began to explain the tale of his fight with a demon named Marko.

"He ripped out Borris's heart?" she pulled a face. "I knew demons had issues, but jeeze. That can't have been fun for you to watch."

"Wasn't how I planned on spending my evening, no," came the dry smile. A Chinese tourist elbowed Becky in the ribs, and she jumped with a hiss, before sliding closer Bastien and lowering her voice.

"Did they get you anywhere else?"

"Yeah, they got my wallet before they sodded off," he rolled his eyes. "I had to reset all my accounts this morning, so don't be surprised if I suddenly break off talking to Xicerine to answer the phone. It's probably the bank."

Becky frowned. That had not been what she had meant, but she was starting to get the impression that Bastien did not like bothering anyone with his problems (unlike Tsubasa, who whined when he got a bruise). If she was going to guess, a lot more had been injured than just his face, but she couldn't force him to tell her, and she was far too polite to ask him to disrobe just so she could see where else he had been kicked or punched.

Not that the thought of asking Bastien to take his shirt off didn't have some other merits too. She was only human.

"On the plus side," he continued. "I managed to contact someone who might be able to give me some information. If I'm lucky."

"Hope it's worth it," Becky commented, taking another glance at his face. "What were you doing hanging around the city centre at two in the morning anyway?"

He sighed. "Chasing a lead. That break in that I ditched you for?" Becky nodded, remembering the phone call. "Well nothing was taken. They just tore the place up. I asked the guys if they'd seen anything odd recently and the only thing was this."

He pulled out his phone and with a few button presses, was presenting a photograph to her. Squinting, Becky could only divine the silhouette of a woman, standing on what seemed to be a coast road. "I'm guessing this wasn't a premature Halloween costume?"

"Nope," came the solemn shake of Bastien's head. "At first I thought it was probably just another bored Shadowkind trying to cause trouble, but then I went outside and found a great big puddle of seawater."

"...so a bored sea-dwelling Shadowkind?" Becky suggested. She got another head shake.

"This has been going on for almost a month now. Shadowkind are just vanishing into thin air, and the only strange thing we've been able to find at the crime scenes is a large puddle of what seems to be ordinary seawater."

The words drifted into a dark corner of Becky's mind and stirred a recent memory. "My family were talking about that last night - that's where Thando was at the Crossroads yesterday, right? Three men trying to drive off with a teenage girl, and vanished behind the wheel."

"Try three demons," Bastien stated. "But yeah, that was another one. I dropped samples of the water off with our local biologist, but all she's been able to tell me is that it's regular seawater from the bay."

Folding her arms, Becky leaned as best she could against one of the poles. "So how many have vanished?"

Pursing his lips, Bastien sighed as he mentally crunched the numbers. "With the three yesterday, minus two runaways who showed up this morning...nineteen that we know of. The police only know about twelve of them though. Shadowkind communities are pretty secretive down here."

A shiver of apprehension went down Becky's spine. "And you think this figure in the photo is causing it?"

Bastien shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe she just has some beef with the Stone Cutters and isn't related to this at all. But it's the only lead we've had in the last few weeks, so I headed into the city to see if anyone had seen her."

"Why would someone want to make Shadowkind disappear?" Becky asked. "They're all different species -" she waited for Bastien to give a nod of confirmation before continuing. "-so it doesn't sound like a revenge plot."

"No, and no demands have been issued," Bastien added. "I'm hoping our local Incantifer can provide us with some more information, otherwise, I haven't got a clue."

The cable car came to a stop with a loud clank, causing Becky to clang her head against the pole. The Chinese tourists elbowed their way out eagerly, leaving both Shadowchasers to press themselves into the wall, and Becky to growl as some inconsiderate person trod on her foot.

"Never stops being tourist season in South Africa," Bastien said dryly, taking another step back and allowing the last of the passengers to vacate. "Come on. Better do this while they're distracted by the view."

The restaurant and shop seemed to have had a fresh coat of paint, but other than that the mountain summit had not changed much from Becky's last visit. The plateau stretched out around them, inviting tourists to explore along its crevices and scrubby bushes, and to take selfies with the wonderful view below.

"Think he's down there…" her companion speculated, nodding towards the south end of the mountain.

"How can you tell?" Becky asked. Grinning, Bastien rummaged through his rucksack, and withdrew a beautiful long brown feather. Twirling it between his fingers, he scanned the area with an appraising eye.

"Magic," he said simply. "Can't you feel it?"

Branching out her senses, Becky shivered. The entire mountain seemed to be radiating power to her - the subtle, strong caress of a slumbering creature rolling over in its doze. But after a moment, her focus sharpened, and she could feel what he was talking about. Something powerful, and wholly unpleasant was waiting for them at the end of the plateau.

"Yeah, think I've got him," she muttered dryly. Bastien chuckled, and squeezed her shoulder.

"Yeah, he's not friendly," he agreed, replacing the feather in his bag. "Don't worry though. He summoned us here, so that usually means we're safe."

Becky was tempted to question his use of the word 'usually', but the cluster of Chinese tourists were fanning out behind them, and both Shadowchasers began to move towards the end of the trail.

The walk was slow, as both of them picked their way over the uneven surface, until the tourists began to thin out. Becky was relieved that she had worn sensible shoes.

The things we do for this job, she thought dryly, stifling a chortle as Bastien stumbled over on one ankle.

"I am graceful," the South African Shadowchaser declared, regaining his footing.

"Sure you are," Becky smirked. "Way to impress the giant magical bird with your superior poise."

"Hey I had my ass kicked last night," Bastien reminded her, finding the shoelace that was responsible for his fall. "Cut me a break."

Shrugging, Becky left him to re-tie his shoelace into something more secure, taking a few steps closer to the edge of the mountain. The great city sprawled out beneath them, and the Atlantic Ocean stretched as far as the eye could see. A curious smile materialised on her face - not the childlike wonder of someone who was experiencing something new, but a fond reminder that had just snatched her breath away for the second time in her life.

"Wow…" she whispered, as Bastien approached. Her eyes were sparkling as they took in the miles of clear sky. She had missed her home country.

"You've been up here before, right?" Bastien asked, folding his arms and trying to see what she was seeing. Glancing out of the corner of her vision, Becky saw his eyes drifting automatically to the ocean, licking languidly at the coast. His mood became instantly sombre.

"Yeah," she nodded. "When I was thirteen. Felt like I was on top of the world."

The wind played warmly around her face before suddenly warping into a sharp icy stab. Beneath her thin jacket, Becky shivered.

"That'll be Xicerine getting restless," Bastien remarked, rubbing at gooseflesh on his arms.

"Well he can wait," Becky said, a streak of imperiousness appearing in her voice. "I'm sure he's old enough to have grasped the value of patience."

The moroseness that had been sitting on Bastien's face suddenly vanished into laughter. Lips twitching, Becky folded her arms and went back to surveying the city.

"How many Shadowkind are down there?" She asked, scanning the streets down the east side of the mountain that vanished into the vast green of the forest.

"I doubt anyone knows for sure," Bastien admitted. "I'd guess close to a thousand."

They could all have vanished too in a few months, Becky realised with another shiver that had nothing to do with the sudden cold. The city was so large and vastly populated that she wondered how many mundanes would even notice if that many people disappeared one day.

They'd never know what they were missing.

The thought saddened her terribly.

"Wanna be a real tourist and take a selfie?" Bastien was grinning playfully, as he jerked his head toward a group of American tourists who were loudly trying to attach cameras to selfie sticks. A laugh bubbled up from beneath Becky's sudden melancholy, and she wondered if Bastien had done that on purpose.

"Hey don't judge my sudden appreciation for beautiful surroundings," she wagged a finger. "I just spent thirteen months in a state where a speed bump is considered a bit steep. I'm allowed to get a bit awestruck."

Still, she pulled herself away from the edge, and they both continued their walk. Now was not the time to get maudlin, and that general feeling of irritation at the other end of the plateau was not going away. They paused as two children raced by, chasing each other with loud shrieks of delight. The closer they got, Becky's excitement began to ebb, and she started to wonder if this had been a good idea.

"Is that really going to be far away enough?" she asked. The veil could hide some things, but she was still finding it difficult to fathom the other tourists missing something as big as a roc landing on one end of the mountain.

"It'll be fine," Bastien assured her. "Xicerine hates people - he won't show himself if they're too close to us."

Apparently all of the humans were a suitable distance away, for no sooner had Bastien finished his statement, when the wind suddenly picked up again behind Becky, and she wrapped her arms around her body, trying to fend of shivers as they closed the last few meters to their destination. Sitting comfortably on a flat spread of rock, surrounded by bits of vegetation, the camouflage was remarkable, and it was only when a large head twisted in their direction that it suddenly became obvious just where and what they were looking at.

Becky gulped. Her previous estimates of a Boeing 747 had been grievously conservative. With his wings spread, Xicerine was bigger than the largest dragon imaginable, and she could see why they often warred against each other for territory. His feathers were a beautiful mosaic of colour, a dusty brown on his belly, branching out to chocolate and gold along his wings. Golden ridges crested over his eyes, running back down his head and neck, and that beady glare itself was a deep pool of black ebony. As soon as it latched onto the two humans, it seemed to roll in a resigned fashion, and the massive bird lumbered to his feet with a shake of his wings.

Bugger the view, Becky thought to herself. This was far more impressive.

"Hello Xicerine," Bastien said, his tone completely unflustered by the presence of the massive bird before him. The roc did not bother to return the greeting, instead eyeing him with pure disdain, before lifting up a claw.

"Did you lose this?" he demanded, dryly. Getting over her awe, Becky blinked a few times, uncertain what she was supposed to be looking at. It appeared to be a small brown creature, with mottled skin and matted hair. As Xicerine held it up for inspection however, it came to life, thrashing violently at the air with sharp claws and dangerous little teeth, jabbering furiously through a vindictive smile.

"Holy shit!" Becky took a startled step back, and nearly went for an ungraceful trip of her own. It was not just the viciousness of the creature that was alarming, or the fact that it smelt like a damp house. The hairy monster had a penis that was about two thirds the length of its body, swinging pendulously as it struggled against its confines. The name jumped into Becky's mind instantly, though she had never seen one in her life, or even known that they really existed behind the veil. "Is that a tokoloshe?!"

"I guess," Bastien sounded just as astonished as she was. Crouching down so that his eyes were level with the little menace, he squinted at it, his mouth working faintly. "I had no idea that they were real." He eventually managed to say. "I've never seen one before."

Xicerine rolled his eyes as though he could not believe that anyone could be this stupid. "Well of course you haven't. They turn invisible by drinking water, and it might have escaped your notice-" he gestured a wing out behind him, where the Atlantic Ocean sparkled serenely in the backdrop, "-but we are not exactly short of that around here."

Becky could not help but shiver. In South Africa, tokoloshe were the monster under the bed, not just for children, but a good deal of superstitious adults. In Zulu and Xhosa legends, they were water spirits, said to cause anything from mischief to serious illness to those who had wronged their master. In addition to turning invisible when ingesting water, they were said to use their substantial endowments to pleasure the witches that summoned them.

"He's been getting haircuts," she noted, nodding at the straight fringe that fell above the creature's eyes. Bastien gave her a raised eyebrow. Another rumour that followed the creatures around, was that cutting their hair to keep it out of their eyes was the only way to keep them obedient. Her fellow Shadowchaser was clearly thinking the same thing - someone has been using them.

"His state of personal grooming does not concern me," Xicerine said imperiously. "I do not care where these little menaces are coming from or why they are here. I only ask that you keep them out of my garden, and off my roof!"

He nodded pointedly at the nature reserve around them, and Becky could see Bastein's lips quirking at the notion that the vast mountain and the forest around it were nothing more than Xicerine's house. With an unpleasant thump, her mind latched onto the peculiarities of the roc's statement.

"They?" she asked sharply. "You mean you've seen more of them?"

"Dozens," the great bird stated. "Their little concealment tricks do not fool me. I was guarding these skies while their enchanter was barely a foetus."

His pomposity would have been amusing had the situation not quite been so serious. The idea of dozens of tokoloshe running around Cape Town awakened a very deep childish fear in Becky.

"We're sorry Xicerine," Bastien managed to sound terribly contrite, and he even bowed his head slightly. "We'll do our best to keep them away."

Xicerine huffed and tossed the jabbering little creature high into the air. Quick as a flash, Bastien had pulled out a hemp sack seemingly from nowhere, and caught the menace in it. He quickly twisted the end shut, before knotting it tightly. Little bulges appeared in the fabric as the creature tried to punch its way out.

"Will that hold it?" Becky asked nervously, remembering those sharp nails.

"It's enchanted, so it should do," Bastien nodded. "I'll find something a bit more sturdy when I get home."

He gave the impatient roc one last nod of acknowledgement, before heading back towards the pathway. Feeling that foreboding stare on her, Becky nervously tried to find her voice.

"Nice to meet you."

That penetrating look remained, and so she turned and scurried after her colleague.

"Is he always so…" she struggled to find a polite way of saying it as they moved out of earshot. Bastien gave a low chuckle.

"Actually that was remarkably civil for him," he admitted. "Usually he'd complain that we were late."

The tokoloshe jabbed him in the spine, causing him to wince. Smiling, Becky cast one last look over the top of the mountain, before dipping her eyes down to the city below.

"Y'know what?" Bastien halted, ignoring the squirming creature slung over his back. She wondered if he had seen her pause. "I think he needs to stay in here a bit longer to learn some manners. Let's go grab a coffee before we head back."

Surprised, Becky blinked between the view, her colleague, and the wriggling sack on his back. "You sure?" A smile teased at her lips. "I don't need a selfie, y'know."

"I know. But I think you do need the view, and I don't like disappointing," Bastien pointed out. Seeing her give him a piercing look with raised eyebrow, he grinned. "What? I can't do something nice for a colleague?"

She laughed in response. "Alright. Coffee it is. But you'd better buy."

"Oh come on!" Bastien groaned. "Is this how you treated the guys in Backwater?"

"No, but I blew all my cash on a coke and a bag of sweets at the duelling stadium. Seriously, they're worse than the bloody cinema! When I pay that much for a coke, I expect the cup to be solid gold!"

Her colleague laughed, and just like that, the heavy, prickly feeling seemed to evaporate from the mountain.

OOO

"...you really are, one ugly fucker aren't you?" Becky asked conversationally, poking mushrooms in through the wire. The small cage was meant to take a medium sized dog, and thus it gave the tokoloshe plenty of room to scuttle to the far side and hiss at her. Neither she nor Bastien knew what the small sprites preferred to eat, but since the Stone Cutter's break in was now firmly being charged against them, Bastien suspected that they would eat anything they were given, and had given Becky some leftover veg from the fridge for her to slice up.

He had to agree with her though. It was one of the most unattractive creatures he had ever seen in his life, and that included Veno. Now that the little menace was not being held in the grasping talons of a grumpy roc, he had a better chance to look at it. Tokoloshe had been described throughout various stories as a combination of zombies, poltergeists or gremlins in South African magic. In his opinion though, it resembled none of those things.

"It reminds me a bit of an Aye-Aye…" he muttered thoughtfully, getting up from the sofa and pacing the living room to stand next to his guest. "The shaggy hair and the look like they've been dragged through a hedge backwards…"

"...yeah, but Aye-Aye's have an endearing sort of quality to them. This thing does not," Becky concluded. She got off the floor, and flopped back into one of the sofas. Now that the long trek back down the mountain and the excitement at seeing Xicerine were over, she had tired fast. Jet lag was still taking its toll.

"You need fuel," Bastien surmised. "Sandwiches okay?"

"Please!" on cue, Becky's stomach growled at the lure of lunch, and Bastien laughed at her blush before beating a hasty retreat to the kitchen. It was a nice change to have someone with him today. With so much to do, he and Thando usually ended up working different jobs separately, and having the company had been pleasant.

"If there are more out there!" Becky called through the door. "Like Xicerine said, then how do we find them?"

Finding leftover chicken and ham in the fridge, Bastien straightened up with a sigh. At least that question was relatively simple. "Vuyo will be here on Thursday. As well as being an Incantifer, she's also a sangoma."

"Oooh!" though he couldn't see her, he could imagine that Becky's eyes had just got wide and excited, just as she had been on top of the mountain.

She's new to this, he thought. Everything is still an adventure to her.

Just like it had been for him way back at the start. He had joined the Shadowchasers at twenty, and everything had been new back then. He had loved his job, and the challenges that came with it. He hadn't even noticed when it had stopped being an adventure and started being work. When exactly had he started living his job, instead of enjoying it?

"So has she seen them before?" he heard a thump, and knew that she must have thrown herself back onto the floor to watch the cage, and his mind scrambled to remember what they were talking about, as he retrieved bread.

"Has she seen a tokoloshe?" he asked, frowning in thought. "I don't think so. If she has, she's never told us. I'd certainly never thought they were real before today. I mean, people still call sangoma out when they want magical guidance and stuff, but most of the times they tend to be...well…"

"False alarms caused by overly superstitious people?" Becky surmised, helpfully.

"Yeah, basically. You hear it a lot - tokoloshe cursed my daughter. No, she's just sick. Tokoloshe let my livestock out. No, a drunk teenager came along and thought it would be funny." Bastien said, poking his head around the door. "Chicken, ham, lettuce and tomato?"

"Yum!" came the reply from the floor. A hand stuck itself up over the side and waved at him. "If you add mayo to that feast I'll love you forever!"

"Think I can manage that," the corners of Bastien's mouth twitched. "So I'm not too worried about how many there are. Vuyo can fix that when she comes down. My concern is why are they here? I don't like coincidences."

Becky's head popped up from the other side of the cage. "Your mysterious sea witch. You think she's summoned them and using them to kidnap people?"

"Tell me you didn't think the same?" Bastien challenged. "You said it yourself - someone's been giving him haircuts. They're water spirits, which is consistent with the puddles we've been finding. And they're so small they'd be perfect for scouting, or even sneaking up on people and casting spells."

"True, but…" Becky paused, clearly thinking hard. "Witches probably have far more reliable methods of doing both those things. "Tokoloshe...are mischievous, yes, but they're not very...sophisticated. I mean, Vuyo will probably know better what kind of magic they can do, but something capable of kidnapping Shadowkind-"

She was interrupted by the slamming of the garage door.

"We have a problem!"

Bastien's heart sank, along with the knife in the mayonnaise jar. "Oh I never like conversations that start like this…"

He poked his head around the corner to see Thando removing his shoes, and he had to stare. An effort had been made to brush it off his face, but his clothes and arms were covered in a layer of dust, as if someone had dumped him face first into a sandbox. There were also several cuts and scrapes along his arms that Bastien did not remember being there that morning.

"Please," his friend begged. "Please, empty your voicemail! Every time I called you were out of service or not answering."

"Up a mountain," Bastien answered in order. "Driving my bike. What happened to you?"

Drawing a deep breath, as though fortifying himself, Thando marched into the living room, leaving a trail of dust on the carpet in his wake. Grabbing the sandwiches, the older Shadowchaser followed, almost running into his friend's back. Thando had halted dead in the doorway, his gaze frozen in confusion at the cage taking up the middle of the floor, and the girl sprawled on her stomach in front of it.

"Hi Thando, how are you?" Becky gave a cheery wave, as with a clang, the tokoloshe abandoned its mushrooms and pressed itself into the bars of the cage, baring its little teeth at the two men. Thando gave a startled shriek, and leaped backwards into Bastien, almost upsetting the sandwiches. A stream of creative curses escaped his mouth, before he regained enough of his wits to approach the cage.

"Is...is that…?" he slowly crouched down, his round eyes stuck on the small creature.

"Small, covered in hair, can turn invisible, leaves mayhem in its wake, and carrying its excessive genitals over its shoulder?" Becky surmised. "Can't think of anything else, unfortunately." She rolled onto her side, and held out her hand with a smile. "Good to meet you properly, Thando."

For a Zulu or Xhosa, seeing a tokoloshe in the flesh, was rather like confirming the existence of the bogeyman. But rather than look alarmed to discover that one of his childhood monsters was in fact real, Thando just gave a boyish grin, and returned the handshake.

"Pleased to meet you too, Becky - welcome home. Oh...sorry about that." He added sheepishly, seeing her wipe the dust from the handshake on the carpet.

Dutifully, Bastien handed out the sandwiches to his colleagues, wondering how long it would take Thando to spot the tomato. Becky took a bite, and immediately abandoned it to wipe mayonnaise off her chin.

"I can't believe it..." Thando repeated, before laughing. "Vuyo's going to freak when she hears we've got a live tokoloshe for her! You think she's still with Dani?"

"Probably," Bastien said, taking a bite out of his sandwich, and trying not to dribble mayonnaise down his own front. "They should be at the border by now."

Nearly cackling with glee, Thando yanked out his phone, and snapped a photo of the water spirit, who seemed to have taken offence to Becky's comment about its excessive genitals, and was now doing an obscene little dance around its cage. Becky was pulling a face, as though she could not decide whether to cringe or to be amused.

"If this doesn't make her want to come to the city, I don't know what will!" Thando said, happily pressing the send button.

Deciding that Thando needed to be brought back down to earth, Bastien cleared his throat. His friend pivoted in a circle on the floor to face him.

"Thando? You were going to explain what the elves wanted, and what happened to you this morning?"

It worked like magic. The excitement drained from Thando's face like someone pulling a plug. With a heavy sigh, he got to his feet and headed for the pinboard.

"You know the Newlands unicorns?"

"...yeeees…" Bastien did not like where this was going. The unicorns that inhabited Newlands forest were a small herd but they were fiercely protective of their patch. Along with the elves, they served as the principal guardians for the stretch of reservation that wrapped around the southeast corner of Table Mountain.

With slumped shoulders, Thando screwed another red pin into the nature reserve, and Bastien groaned.

"How many?" he asked, wondering how the loss of two or three of their members would affect the herd. If they were young ones, the only effect was likely to be emotional, but losing any of the breeding females or the males, could have a devastating impact on the genetic diversity of the herd.

"All of them."

Thando dropped the blow with the appropriate amount of weight in his voice, and Bastien felt himself stagger backwards into the sofa, his sandwich slipping from his hands, back to the plate.

"What?"

"I talked to Gelehrin," Thando rubbed one of the grazes on his elbows in a petulant manner. "Some of the younger elves were out walking near the herd, and said that they just vanished. They've been combing the forest all morning and found no trace of them."

Disbelief and concern were all warring inside Bastien, and his mind made the leap from just three victims to so many in such a short space of time. "Bloody hell. That's twenty unicorns at once-"

"Twenty one," Thando corrected. "Elita foaled two days ago."

"That's a huge jump in numbers." He tried to latch onto some semblance of logic. "Same as all the others?"

Thando nodded. "One minute they were there. Then when the young ones turned their heads back - nothing. They didn't hear the herd leaving, and they certainly didn't see it. The only traces of them left were hoof prints, and a few strands of tail hair that had got snagged on branches."

"You said the last few vanishings left puddles of water behind," Becky pointed out, ignoring her plate on the floor and linking her fingers together thoughtfully. "Any of that here?"

Thando shrugged. "If there was, the forest floor had soaked it up before anyone noticed."

Bastien hissed between his teeth. "This is getting out of hand. I'm calling Jalal."

He got up, already texting London, asking their boss to talk as soon as possible.

"So you got up there, checked the area for magic and puddles and then...what? A sandstorm appeared?" Becky asked, gesturing to Thando's clothing.

Thando's expression became deliberately casual all of a sudden. "Well I finished my investigation and then...Gelehrin threw me out." He winced. "Literally. Her bodyguards tossed me back out onto the road."

It did not fool Bastien for an instant. "What did you do?"

"Why do you assume I did something?" Thando asked, his voice becoming defensive. "Gelehrin was just in a bad mood because of Stalatee - seriously, she spent every free breath trying to get her location out of me. It's like dealing with a child."

The missing piece of the puzzle snapped into Bastien's head and he regarded his friend with disappointment. "You told her Vuyo was coming, didn't you?"

He knew he was spot on before Thando even answered - it was impossible to miss the way his friend's back went instantly up. "Not my fault that woman is irrational!"

Bastien could not help the groan of exasperation that burst free. "Thando!"

"Don't you dare!" Thando's warning was suddenly fierce. "I am not going to pretend Vuyo doesn't exist just to satisfy Gelehrin's delicate sensibilities!"

"I'm not saying you should!" Bastien argued, clearly a little hurt by the suggestion that he could be so insensitive. "You know I'm on your side! But you must have known she'd react like that. You're usually good at picking your battles, so why provoke her?"

"Because she's a child in an eight hundred year old woman's body!" Thando was fuming now. "Vuyo's not going to stop existing just because Gelehrin wants it, and pandering to her insane belief only encourages her!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Bastien could see Becky's gaze flicking curiously between the two like a table tennis match. He tipped his head back against the sofa, and ran a hand over his face, suddenly exhausted.

"It doesn't matter anyway," Thando continued. "Gelehrin can't stop us from going into the forest - it's public land."

"She can make it difficult for us, though," Bastien sighed. He knew Thando was right. Table Mountain and its forests could never be made a protected reserve, in spite of the elves constant petitions. As a World Heritage Site, it would be impossible to seal off from the rest of the world without raising any questions. But that did not stop the elves from placing all the enchantments they could legally get away with to remove visitors from their area. More than once the Shadowchasers had had to deter them from taking more drastic measures to stake their claim, and their relationship with them was fraught at the best of times.

"She wouldn't dare," Thando declared. "She might behave like a child, but knows better than to obstruct us from doing our jobs."

"Does she?" Bastien asked pointedly. "Spite is a powerful motivator. Do you think she loves her liberty more than she hates Vuyo?"

For the first time in the argument, Thando seemed to falter as he pondered this. It was perhaps fortunate at this moment that the fireplace flickered into life, and Jalal materialised.

"That was fast," Thando commented. Their boss arched both eyebrows at their dishevelled appearance.

"Uh...you said it was urgent, Bastien," he reminded him. Turning his head towards his friend, Bastien nodded. It was Thando's report - he should be the one to give it.

"All of the unicorns have vanished from Newlands forest," the Xhosa man said gravely. "Exactly the same as the others."

In nearly eight years, Bastien had never known Jalal to once lost his temper or composure, and that did not change today. He did however, register the intensity that crept into his boss's face at the news. "All of them?"

"Every last one," Thando continued. "The elves are double checking the reserve, but they're pretty sure. They've been over every blade of grass in the place."

"Has anyone else gone missing?" Jalal continued to question.

"Not since the three demons yesterday morning," Bastien said. "You should have a copy of the initial report somewhere in the system."

"That's a huge increase." Jalal said. "Both in number, and in time between vanishing."

Bastien cursed, as he realised that he was right. There had been a gap of at least a few days between all of the previous vanishings, whereas there was a scant twenty four hours between the three demons and the unicorns.

"Do you need me to send an Incantifer?"

Even before Bastien could say anything, Thando jumped in, his phone in hand and a grin on his face.

"Vuyo should be here tomorrow evening," he reported, smirking at the text message. "She's employing elbows to get over the border fast. We told her that we have a present for her."

"She has very odd tastes in gifts, if you ask me," Becky put in, from her position by the map. Jalal seemed to jump at the addition of the new voice.

"Becky?"

"Yo," she lifted a hand casually. "Don't sound too taken aback, Jalal. You'll hurt my feelings."

"Just surprised," the half dragon admitted. "You're supposed to be on leave."

"Got bored, and decided to help," she surmised. Yanking her eyes away from the hologram, she jabbed an accusing finger at the tokoloshe, whose hands had been reaching out from between the bars to snag her abandoned sandwich. "Leave it!" she commanded, in a deadly voice. The creature froze, before scuttling to the opposite corner of the cage, pausing only to blow her a loud raspberry.

"...that's not a dog you've decided to adopt, is it?" their boss asked, with the dry reluctance of a man who knew the answer, and suspected that he was about to learn something that he did not like.

"Nope," Bastien allowed himself to smile for the first time. "This was the other thing we wanted to ask you, boss. Have you heard of tokoloshe?"

As if on cue, the creature in question blew another raspberry. For a moment, Jalal looked puzzled, and then downright astonished.

"Only as myth," he admitted. "Don't tell me you found a real one."

"Xicerine found him on Table Mountain," Bastien corrected. "But he says there are loads of them all over the city."

Obligingly, Becky picked up the cage by the base, and lifted it up so that Jalal could get a proper look. The little spirit's routine of obscene gestures began anew.

"I feel like we should be putting some underpants on him," Thando commented, pulling a face at the impromptu dance.

"And people say I have delicate sensibilities," Becky teased.

"Did you know they existed, Jalal?" Bastien asked, deciding to break the awkward display in the cage. Leaning forward, Jalal looked the small creature up and down, his face moving from astonishment to awe, to puzzlement.

"I had no idea," the half dragon admitted. "We're certain that's what it is?"

"Well, my two experts say yes," Bastien grinned at both of his colleagues. Becky stuck out her tongue playfully at him.

"Well well. The world is very strange." The half dragon commented, squinting in his hologram as his eyes catalogued every detail that he could.

"And pervy," Becky frowned at the occupant of the cage. "Stop pointing that thing at me, or I'll come in there with my box of drawing pins!"

She rattled the red pins threateningly in their plastic jar, and the creature shut up once more.

"Well at least one of us can make him obey," Bastien offered with a smile, but Thando's face had turned thoughtful.

"Tokoloshe are said to be summoned by witches, or women who have been slighted...maybe it listens to Becky because she's female?"

"Could be," Jalal conceded. "But I don't fancy letting it out to put that theory to the test."

"Hmm…" Bastien nodded in agreement. In fact he had every intention of locking the cage in one of the back training rooms, and adding to it with all due haste. "I'd rather dedicate time to finding the witch who summoned them."

"Is that really our priority considering that we just misplaced twenty one unicorns?" Jalal asked, with an arched eyebrow.

"There might be a connection between the two," Thando admitted. "We did mention it in yesterday's report."

Quickly, they outlined the robbery at the Stone Cutters and emailed the photograph once more. Jalal absorbed all of the information patiently, and Bastien really hoped that he was coming up with some kind of revelation. In the background, the tokoloshe continued to jabber, and he wondered if the little creature was mocking them.

"It could be a coincidence," Thando admitted.

"Could," Becky was nodding darkly. "But it doesn't feel like it."

"Still, it's worth remembering that it could be," Jalal cautioned. "No sense devoting your energies to one, only to find out that the other is not only unrelated but has got worse in your absence." He folded his arms. "However, if this witch is behind these disappearances, then what we have on our hands is either murder or a kidnapping."

"I should know for certain if we can rule out murder in the next few days," Bastien said. "I have a contact heading back to the Abyss. If the three demons yesterday were kidnapped, there'll be no sign of them. If they were killed, she'll find them there."

Jalal gave him a half smile. "I don't want to know how you have a contact in the Abyss, do I?"

"Probably not," Bastien admitted, wondering for the hundredth time since the previous night just what price Rana would expect for her help.

"Still doesn't help much," Thando leaned back against the sofa, staring up at the ceiling as though all the energy were draining from him. "If it is kidnapping, we still don't know why someone would do that."

"It's not that complicated," Becky put in, chewing at the crust of her sandwich. "Kidnapping is pretty simple at its core. You either do it for revenge or gain - right Jalal?"

The half dragon nodded. "Since these Shadowkind are all different species, and nothing personal connects them together, I think we can rule out revenge in this case."

"That leaves gain," Becky surmised. "The kidnapper wants something, either from the victims themselves, or from someone else in exchange for their safe release."

She paused, sensing the looks that both Bastien and Thando were giving her. "...my best friend gets kidnapped a lot." She explained.

"Again though, they're all different species, different walks of life," Thando pointed out. "What could they all have that someone could want?"

Bastien could see their answer materialise in all their heads at the same time.

"Magic."

"Can you do that?" Becky asked. "Suck magic out of a person? Use them as some kind of battery for your own powers?"

"Of course," Jalal said. "It's in the nature of all people when they see something special in possession of someone else to covet it. Magic is no different. There are several cases in our files of individuals or superpowers throughout history using humans, spirits or even Duel Monsters as power cells. The rise of the Orichalcos and Atlantis over thirty years ago is a good example. Should be in the archives if you're curious."

"That doesn't make sense though," Thando began to pace in his role of devil's advocate. "They're clearly kidnapping by magical means - the disappearances are too clean to be anything else. If they have it already, why do they need to take it from others?"

"Maybe they don't have enough," Bastien suggested. "Maybe they want it for something big, and need more magic to make it happen. That could explain why they started small, and are now building up."

"Well that's cheery," Becky muttered. "So much for a relaxing break."

"You sure you want to get involved?" Bastien asked, quietly feeling that they could use all the help they could get. Becky scoffed.

"You want me to sit around while a population of Shadowkind could be in danger? Sod off. I'm in. What do we need to do?"

Their leader sighed heavily from his hologram by the TV. "Since there's no magic we can trace ourselves, all we can do now is gather more clues. I wish I had some definitive insight to offer, but whatever these vanishings are - kidnapping by a witch or something more sinister - frankly, it's like nothing I've ever seen before."

The words did nothing to improve Bastien's mood, and from the grave look in Thando's eyes, he guessed that his friend was having similar thoughts. If Jalal was lost, where the hell did that leave them?

"We can keep poking around for tokoloshe?" Becky suggested. "Even if they're not being summoned by this witch that the Stone Cutters saw, they probably shouldn't be left around unchecked. They could do a lot of damage."

Across the room, Thando shuddered. "I'll pop some bricks under the bedposts tonight." He muttered. Bastien felt his lips twitch, but he did not say anything. There was a fine line between superstition and reality in their lives, and he respected that. If elevating their beds helped his friend sleep at night, he would happily go with it.

"We'll stay on top of everything, boss," he promised. "And we'll let you know if there are any developments before Vuyo gets here."

Jalal gave a slow, thoughtful nod, and Bastien wondered if maybe they could just once catch a break, and something useful would just come to them that would solve everything.

"We'd better move this guy away from polite company," he jerked his head at the cage, where the tokoloshe had started a new break dancing routine.

"One last question, Bastien." Jalal put in.

"Sure boss."

"What in Gods name happened to your nose?"

OOO

Two hours later saw Becky back at her aunt's house, stewing over her laptop.

"It's official," she muttered, as the seventh page of google results yielded no help. "I miss Kenshin."

Sifting through the internet was like finding a four leaf clover. You knew that they were out there, but as you could not narrow it down, your only option was to go through every blade of grass in the field. Most of the results were blogs about magical creatures and amusing comic strips, along with the occasional newspaper archive, dating superstition that had gone around villages in the wake of sudden illnesses. The only useful page she had come across was Wikipedia, which had only really served to confirm what she already knew about the tokoloshe from her own childhood stories.

Sighing she directed her gaze back to her lap. Spread across it was a heavy book of magical tales from South Africa. The spine was frayed to strands, and the pages were bent from years of abuse by her and Andi. It had been a holiday ritual of theirs each time they had visited, to ask their Nana to read them a story from her book – never in her wildest dreams had she suspected that one day she would be using it to cross reference her research, and after two hours the page on tokoloshe was starting to blur into fragments.

Water spirit. She mentally ticked off. Various accounts compare them to gremlins, zombies and poltergeists. Turns invisible by drinking water. Summoned by a witch or a woman who has been slighted, in order to get revenge. Said to frighten small children, cause mischief, spread sickness, rape women, bite off toes while you sleep, and cause death. Can only be got rid of by a sangoma…

Her mind was starting to feel like scrambled egg. Sighing, and rubbing her eyes, to ward off the approaching pain, she glanced over the arm of the sofa at her only companions.

"Hey Tequila, you know anything about tokoloshe?"

The tarantula, who had wedged herself into a handstand in the corner of her tank, gave no response.

"Yeah, I thought so," Becky replied with a heavy sigh. Idly, she turned the page in the book. Loose leafs of paper were tucked inside and she recognised her grandmother's hand immediately. Another childhood tradition – when Lihle had read to them, she would sketch the scene for her granddaughters as she went. Terrifying storms, winged snakes, rituals with fire and smoke, and huge beasts with teeth. A part of her was touched to see that her grandmother had kept them all.

From around the corner, the front door opened, and feet shuffled into the entrance as shoes were removed.

"Hello?"

"In here, Nana!" feeling suddenly as though she had been caught doing something naughty, Becky pushed the book under her knees and pulled her laptop back onto her stomach as her grandmother appeared on the hallway step in sweatpants, a tshirt and a hoodie.

"Oh that's good," Lihle said, turning on her heel and shouting through the open door. "See girls? She's fine! Now we can all stop panicking!"

She sounded so fed up, that Becky straightened to attention without even realising, as her sister and cousin came storming through the door. Andi did not pause to take her shoes off, or even break her stride, as she crossed the hall and the living room, and seized her sister in a hug. Confused, Becky opened her mouth to ask, but a yelp emerged instead as Andi immediately released her and thumped her hard in the shoulder.

"Ow!"

"Where the creeping Jesus did you go?!" Andi's voice was high, shrill, and not unlike their mother's when she was on the verge of hysterics. "I called a million times and you were out of service! And then when I did get through you weren't answering! I thought something awful had happened!"

Even more puzzled now, Becky gave up rubbing her shoulder (she'd forgotten how hard her sister could swing) and seized her phone from her bag. Sure enough, there were eleven missed calls from Andi, four from her mother, two from Vi, and one from Lihle, along with six unopened text messages. She had been so focused on Xicerine, the tokoloshe and the missing Shadowkind that she had not even noticed.

"Oh...oops," she muttered.

"That's it?" Andi had her hands on her hips. "Oops? Where the hell did you go?"

"For a drive," Becky sighed, already knowing that no answer was going to be good enough.

"You left us!" Andi ranted. "We were supposed to have a fun day together, and you just ditched without a word! Why the hell couldn't I contact you?"

"I was up the mountain," Becky could feel her back going up. "And I did leave you a word – I text you before I left. No reason to freak out."

"I was not freaking out!" Andi's voice was in danger of being lost to the ether. Like magic, Vi materialised by her side and placed a hand gently on her shoulder.

"There was plenty of reason to freak out," she said. "We promised Mum that we'd all stick together. We all know people have been going missing."

It was painful, but Becky swallowed her retort. She knew they were in no danger since all the missing people were Shadowkind or Shadowtouched, but she could not explain that to her sister and cousin.

"I was fine. I can look after myself," she said. Andi scoffed, and her eyes narrowed at her sister. "What? I can!"

"Why couldn't we get hold of you?" Vi asked, before Andi could say anything about her sister's self preservation skills. "You were out of service for a good hour after our match."

"I went up the mountain." She growled again. "Since you'd already done it without me, I assumed you didn't want to do it again."

"Okay, why didn't you wait until we were done, and ask if we could all go up together?" Vi was patient, assuming the role of reasonable adult. It rubbed Becky badly. She already had an overbearing anxious mother. She did not need two.

"Because you'd been duelling since the dawn of time. And I fully expected you to go on until doomsday. I've seen glaciers move faster than your match!"

Andi's face went dark with rage again.

"So you ditched us because we were boring?" her voice was gearing up for another attack.

"That's not what I said!" Becky protested.

"Sounds like it to me!" her sister began to pace, building the storm up with each step. "Unbelievable! You think it's acceptable to just tear off and do your own thing without telling anyone because you're bored of us!"

"Oh don't give me that shit!" slamming the laptop lid closed, Becky got to her own feet, feeling she needed every advantage over her relatives. "You used to sneak off from us every Saturday in town when you were fourteen to go smoke with the goth kids outside Boots because you were bored of us!"

Her sister gaped at her and Vi took the chance to intervene.

"You went out of service, and then when you were back you still didn't answer," she said. "Can you at least understand why we reacted the way we did? Why we thought something bad might have happened?"

"Nothing happened!" A sudden wave of exhaustion claimed her. She was sick of fighting, and she hadn't even been back with her family twenty four hours. There was no explanation that she could give that they would accept, and the realisation filled her with a sudden sense of helplessness. "I told you, I can look after myself. There was no need to overreact like you guys did."

"What part of people are going missing do you not get?!" Andi ranted. "There was every reason to react like we did! You think getting kidnapped is a joke? It happens in this country! So don't stand there and act like we're the ones being unreasonable!"

The urge to bolt was overwhelming, so that was what Becky did. Folding her arms around the laptop, she barged past her sister towards the kitchen.

"Where the hell are you going now?" Andi demanded. "We are not done here, Becky!"

"Oh yes we are!" Becky threw over her shoulder as she marched through the archway. "We can talk again when you start listening to me and when you stop sounding like our mother!"

Andi's indignant squeak was the last thing she saw before rounding the corner and heading for the screen doors. The garden was mercifully empty, and she threw herself onto the swing, and tried to breathe her frustration out, like Fayte had taught her. This time, it did not seem to help.

"What is wrong with them?" she seethed in her own head. "When did Andi start behaving like my bloody keeper? I'm not five years old, and I don't need hand holding, even if it is a strange city!"

Tucking her feet onto the seat, she slammed the laptop into her lap, not wanting to be seen cuddling it like a teddy bear. She could open it and look for a distraction, but that would not help. She was too tense to focus on work now. She needed some kind of relief. She had a horrible feeling that she was going to hit someone if they came too close…

Apparently the universe did not want her to unwind today, as her phone began to buzz against her thigh. It figured that now she would finally notice it after all the drama that today had offered. For a moment she thought her sister was determined to continue the fight on a new medium. But the caller ID soothed her ruffled feathers somewhat, and she slid her thumb over the green icon.

"I'm sorry, I don't have your Pringles," she greeted her best friend. A light RP accent, with just a hint of northern drawl snorted before replying.

"You keep telling yourself that. My memory is clearing up though and I remember just what you were doing with them on my floor!"

"I was drunk," Becky reminded her. "I am not responsible for my sillies when I am that wasted."

"Juuuudy!" the voice mocked in a whine. "Look! I'm a duck! I'm a duck, Juuuuuuudy!"

The memory in question floated hazily across her mind, and a giggle escaped. It was funnier now than it had been the morning after.

"At least I wasn't the only one making a spectacle of myself, Miss Half-Dragons-Don't-Get-Drunk-That-Easily."

"I was in perfect control of myself!"

"Riiight, because you always pounce on famous cricket players and snog them silly in a dark corner of the nightclub." Sliding the laptop under the swing, Becky gave herself a little push before settling down again. "And a Hampshire lad, Judy! Have you no loyalty to your own county?"

"There was no one from Yorkshire there! And besides, he was fit!"

"This is true…" Becky nodded sagely. "And speaking of fit, how's your French muffin? Did you practice your oral skills over dinner last night?"

A heavy sigh was all the answer she needed. "It was a nice meal. We talked. But there was just...no spark. Not for me at least. He looked so disappointed when I told him I was going home. Took me five minutes to hail a taxi, and it was pissing down with rain. We are now avoiding eye contact in lectures."

"Aww…" Becky pouted, remembering how much Judy had been looking forward to the evening all weekend. "Sorry hun."

Her friend drew a fortifying breath.

"It's okay. Means I can pounce on more cricketers." She said, with a forced attempt at some humour. Becky snorted.

"Just steer clear of Hampshire, or Emily might start accusing you of sabotage."

"Making out and a cheeky feel is not sabotage," came the curt reply, not a hint of amusement in her voice. Emily was a lifelong supporter of Hampshire County Cricket Club, and got very protective over 'her boys'. "But enough about cricketers. What's this I hear from Jalal about you and Bastien discovering a new species of Shadowkind? What sort of holiday is this?"

Becky groaned. News apparently travelled fast in their workplace. "It was an accident. And it's not a new species exactly." She quickly outlined her day, all the way from Xicerine and the tokoloshe, all the way to the conversation with their boss after lunch.

"Can't believe you got to see Xicerine!" Judy whined. "Jalal always complains that he can't go to South Africa because of him!" She trailed off grumbling, and a smile made its way back onto Becky's face. Talking through everything with her friend was cathartic.

Out of the corner of her eye the screen doors slid back, and every muscle in Becky tensed as she readied herself for another fight. But it was only her grandmother, dressed in a pink and orange dress with a towel wrapped around her head.

"Everything alright?" she whispered, seeing that her granddaughter was on the phone. Becky pulled a face.

"You heard?" she felt bad. This was her grandmother's house, they were her guests, and she and her sister had gone at it like children in the middle of the living room. Lihle rolled her eyes.

"Of course," she said. "My shower is refreshing, not sound proof. Your sister is cooling off in Vi's room. I suggest you do the same out here, my girl."

She bent over and plucked the laptop off the ground before Becky could stop her, replacing it with a sketchpad and pencil case, which last Becky had checked, was still buried in the bottom of her suitcase.

This is what guilt feels like, she thought, though she understood that she definitely deserved it.

"Sorry you had to listen to that, Nana."

"Accepted," Lihle said swiftly. "I'm here to listen, but you relax before coming back in. If you need anything, give me a shout."

She gave her another look – kind but firm - before trotting off back indoors. Something about seeing her grandmother's face made Becky feel like a child again, and as she leaned forwards to pick up the sketchbook, an idea leaped into her mind.

"You still there?" Judy asked, confused by the long muffled conversation in a language she didn't understand.

"Hang on a second," she scrambled to the end of the bench, and peered around the door. "Nana!"

Turning by the sink, Lihle eyed her curiously.

"There is something you can do actually…" Now that she was saying it she felt a little silly, but the threat was real, and she could at least ensure that they had some form of defence. "Don't freak out, but...could you put bricks under everyone's bedposts tonight?"

It was very difficult to astonish her grandmother, and Becky would remember the slack expression on her face for the rest of her life. She blinked a few times, as the meaning of the ancient precaution processed through her startled mind, and her eyes went wide in understanding.

"Oh dear…" she muttered, before trotting nervously out into the garden again to carry out the instructions.

"...since my Xhosa is non existent," Judy said, slowly. "I'm guessing what you just said to your grandmother was on a par with asking her to streak at a Twenty20 match."

"Don't give her ideas," leaning against the back of the swing, Becky watched her grandmother as she began to select bricks from the stack surrounding the barbecue pit. At least now she could feel she had gone some way to protecting her family, whether they realised it or not. "Just asked for her help. It's a superstition – if you raise your bed off the floor, the tokoloshe can't climb up to it."

"Huh...well I guess it doesn't hurt to try," Judy conceded. "What will your family say?"

Irritation flared, and a grumpy huff escaped her. "Well Andi and Vi aren't speaking to me right now, so I don't suppose they'll say much."

"You've been there twenty four hours!" Judy was incredulous. "What could possibly have got them in a twist that quickly?"

It was like approaching a marsh that you had just spent hours trying to wade out of. Taking a deep breath, Becky plunged back in. "It was me. I went off this morning to meet Bastien without telling them where I was going. Andi was convinced I'd been kidnapped or something. She came home just now and started yelling at me for taking off. She has issues Judy, I swear. I'm not a child. I can look after myself."

"Well yes," Judy agreed, kindly. "But they don't know that."

"Yes they do!" Becky objected. "I told Andi I could take care of myself, but it was like she suddenly had selective deafness or something. I had no idea she thought so little of me that the thought of me being capable was suddenly impossible to entertain."

"Becky, she doesn't know any better."

"I just said, I told her!" she was starting to wonder if everyone had selective deafness today.

"But what reason does she have to believe you?" Judy asked. "Just...stop getting angry for a second, and think about it."

She wasn't quite sure if it was the tone in Judy's voice or the sudden noise of Lihle washing her bricks with the garden hose that shut her up, but her tongue obediently fell silent.

"You might know that you are capable, but your family don't have any reason to know that beyond your word. They don't know you're a Shadowchaser. They don't know what you were doing in training. They don't know you've spent the last year learning how to fight. Of course they don't think that you can take care of yourself." Her voice went sharp. "At least, I'm assuming you haven't told them what you were up to?"

"Christ no," Becky muttered, feeling a little bit chagrined. Now that Judy said it, she could see where Andi's single-minded crisis mode had come from. "Still...even if she didn't believe me, flipping out like that was a bit extreme. I'm not even really in danger." She dropped her voice as her grandmother shuffled back inside with an arm load of clean bricks. "We already know that this thing – whatever it is – only takes Shadowkind and Shadow touched. I wasn't at risk anyway."

"Hindsight isn't a benefit in this case, sweetie," Judy said patiently. "You know that this thing isn't dangerous to you or them, but Andi and Vi don't know that. They probably thought that they'd be safe in a group of three. But I'll bet when you left, and thinned them down to a group of two, Andi probably started feeling pretty vulnerable." She paused, and it was almost possible to see her shrug. "So in Andi's eyes, you didn't just put yourself in potential danger, but them too."

Guilt was creeping up into Becky's stomach, and she did not like it. She hadn't even stopped to consider what might have happened to Vi and Andi on their own. Even in a public place like the duelling arena, people could still become targets. Heck, before she had left, every man in the place had been doing their best to hit on them. One at a time, they were easily manageable, but if four or five of them had come up at once, it could have easily turned into something sinister.

"I didn't mean to abandon them," she said, all too aware of how childish she sounded. Judy made a sympathetic noise, and Becky felt even worse for thinking that she had been on her sister's side of the argument.

"I know it can't be easy," her friend tried to soothe. "Having to retrain your brain to think like that. You've spent most of the last year in Backwater. You've got used to operating either with Fayte or on your own."

"It's not just that," Becky admitted, giving herself another push. The swing seemed to cradle her, but rather than soothe her, it only made her feel worse. "How do I explain...any of this? I can't tell them anything, so how do I make them understand that they don't need to worry? That I'm fine on my own."

Her friend let out a sigh. "That I don't have an answer to, sweetie. I don't know what everyone else tells their families in situations like ours."

Pressing herself deeper into the seat, Becky resisted the urge to curl up. "Secrecy sucks, Judy. I can't believe I never realised it before."

"Hmm," the half dragon agreed. "In some ways, I can't help but wonder if sending you to Backwater was a good idea after all. Sure you needed it-"

"I was going to say!" Becky agreed. Aside from desperately needing the crash course in Shadowkind that Backwater provided, she knew now that she had needed to get over her crippling fear of vampires even more.

"But it's such a unique place," Judy said. "You don't have to worry about keeping secrets there because everyone knows the big secret. Out here it's...like you've got to watch your step all the time, just in case you say something-"

"Yes! That's exactly it!" Becky threw a hand into the air. "And nothing I say will make sense to them...well, except Nana. She figured it out straight away."

"Smart lady." Judy commented. "I guess you've just got to deal with it for the next week or so until you're back here. At least London's so big you can take refuge in audacity and the odds are nobody will know you well enough to call you out."

Closing her eyes, Becky rubbed her face. "I'm back a week Thursday...I can manage until then."

She had to manage until then.

"And don't run off again," her friend added helpfully.

"Too bloody right," Becky muttered. "It's not worth the grief I'm getting."

"Well there is that," Judy agreed. "But more to the point, it's not worth alienating your family just to do some work. There are tokoloshe and rocs any day of the week in our job, but your family are one of a kind."

Sighing, Becky mentally ran over her itinerary. "We're meeting Marina tomorrow afternoon to pick up her dress. I think Andi and Vi want to go shopping too. I guess I've got a few things I could buy."

"Of course you do – you know the drill. I'm expecting something outrageous and tacky!"

The tradition of silly holiday gifts had been going for a few years now, ever since Emily's holiday to Disneyland, when she had returned with Disney Princess tiaras for all of her friends. The thought brought a smile to Becky's face - her tiara still hung over the mirror in her bedroom.

"Then we've got the hen party tomorrow evening as well," she said, before rolling her eyes. "Mum keeps insisting it's not a party - it's just a group of women going out for a nice celebratory dinner. I don't think she realises that Vi's got a shortlist of clubs."

"Juuudy! I've got your Pringles Juuuudy!" her friend burst into giggles. "You didn't bring Pringles with you by any chance?"

Huffing indignantly, Becky folded her arms. "No, but there's three giant bars of Galaxy in my suitcase." She let Judy chortle some more, before continuing. "Anyway, one hangover this week was enough. I don't plan on getting a second."

"Aww okay," Judy sounded thoroughly disappointed. "You be good, kay? No running off to help the boys, unless it's the end of the world!"

Remembering everything she had learned that day, Becky pulled a face, as a sliver of dread slipped into her gut. "Please don't say that." She begged, glancing up as the sounds of Vi being brushed off by her grandmother echoed through the open kitchen door. "I'll facebook you tomorrow – let you know how everything goes."

"Sure thing," Judy nodded. "But if you need to talk, call me. I don't care what time of day it is, kay?"

"Will do. Bye."

She hung up with a sigh. She wasn't sure she had fixed any of her problems, but she did feel better for having aired them.

Remembering that her grandmother had stolen her laptop, she flipped the replacement to a completely fresh page, and found a pencil. She had dragged this sketchbook all the way to America when it had been brand new, and she had barely filled a third of it. She wasn't sure she had ever owned a sketchbook that had lasted that long without being finished.

Stretching her fingers, she drew a few elaborate swirls to warm up her hands. After months of barely any drawing she felt stiff and clumsy, her moves full of sharp edges and awkward corners. But eventually they smoothed out, and her images became more refined. She was nowhere near her grandmother's level, she reflected, thinking of the sketches in the book, but she was decent enough. Once an entire pattern filled the page, she turned to the next, and began to sketch properly.

She wasn't entirely sure what she was drawing at first. Lines began in light strokes across the page, before they filled out to something more defined. It was only when an eye, as black as ebony began to take shape on the page, that she realised what, or rather who, she was drawing.

The sounds of her grandmother washing even more bricks, and trotting in and out of the house faded around her, until only the gentle shading of feathers, and the scowl that lingered deep in that gaze remained in her vision. She was just filling in some of the details around the beak, when an unfamiliar figure edged out of the sliding doors.

"It's chillier in there than down south," Ruan announced, shuffling out onto the deck with his laptop in one hand, and a bottle of water in the other.

Becky chuckled. "You think that's chilly, you haven't seen Mum and Andi when they fight. The shrieking, the insults, the hurling of grievances...and then the polar vortex settles for about a week."

"Hmm...thanks for the warning," Ruan grinned, taking one of the creaky folding chairs on the other side. "So did you have fun up the mountain?"

It was the first time anyone had asked her that all day, and it made Becky feel much better. "That view never gets old." She declared.

"I know what you mean - though last time I was up there I didn't get much of a chance to appreciate it." Seeing her curious look, he added. "Crime scene. Spent most of it trekking up and down one of the hiking trails, and when we finally did get to the top the cloud was awful."

"All the effort for nothing," Becky gave him a sympathetic look, all the while secretly wondering if ruining the view was how Xicerine got his kicks. "That must have sucked."

"Uh huh," Ruan nodded, his gaze going back to his laptop.

"You're not going to lecture me on the dangers of going off by myself?" she asked, surprised. A half smile materialised over the top of the screen.

"I met you less than twenty four hours ago - I have no right to lecture you," he pointed out. "And in any case, you act like you can take care of yourself. You're probably more aware than most that this city is dangerous."

"What makes you say that?" sliding her legs off the bench, Becky swung herself upright, sketchbook still on her knees. She did not know Ruan well, and now that she had spoken to Judy she was curious about the kind of conclusions a stranger could draw about her.

"There's a look," Ruan admitted. "A way you walk, and tackle problems. When you know how to spot it, it's obvious. At first I guessed you were military from all the secrecy, but you don't have the discipline for that. So I'm going to guess private security or some kind of government enforcement."

He paused expectantly, but Becky kept her expression neutral.

"You've spent the last year abroad, and not shared any details with your family, so I'm going to guess you were on some kind of basic training programme. You've been walking on air since you got here, so I can only assume you graduated from it recently, and are still celebrating." He lifted his water bottle. "Congratulations, by the way."

This was not like her mother's probing, or her sister's endless questions. This was more like a game, Becky realised, an understanding between two people who shared similar professions. So she grinned.

"You're good," she admitted, pulling her feet back onto the swing and giving herself a little push. "Not saying you're right. But you're good."

She turned her head back towards his smile. "Now it's my turn. You've been at this right from the beginning, that's why you're so passionate about a system that has such a poor reputation for corruption and blackmail. You're not naive - you're just an idealist. You uphold the rules scrupulously, but if push comes to shove, you'll happily put the rules to one side if it helps someone you care about - hence your readiness to ignore confidentiality about your current case, and warn your fiancée and her family of the dangers."

She picked up her pencil and settled back into the chair. "Oh, and you prepare for anything. That's why your vektor is taped to the lid of Whiskey's tank."

She glanced up from the sketchbook to see him blinking at her in astonishment. It was one of many things she had concluded in the last twenty four hours, including the fact that her grandmother kept a bottle of salt on each windowsill in the house (possibly decorative, but Becky was willing to bet they were to keep demons out). She continued to smile pleasantly at Ruan, until his own grin crept back across his face, and he laughed.

"Not bad. But did you spot where the ammo was?"

A frown materialised on Becky's forehead. She had only seen the handgun while feeding the tarantulas (with mealworms and a live pygmy mouse that they had caught in one of the traps in the garden), and hadn't bothered to untape it to check if it was loaded or not.

"Hmm...suppose I'll find that out tomorrow," she said, conceding the game in the face of the pleasant conversation, and going back to shading in Xicerine's wings. Apparently satisfied, Ruan powered up his laptop.

"Any more kidnappings today?" Becky found herself asking. It was risky, and she did not want to let slip just how involved she was getting in this case, but it felt so nice to have someone in the house speak to her as a peer – an equal – that she did not want to let it end. And besides, Ruan had seemed so invested the night before that she could not help but respect him for it.

Her future uncle sighed. "No – not that we were expecting one. There seems to be a gap of a few days between them."

Not any more, Becky thought, but she held her tongue. "Well that's something. Any links between them?"

Ruan pursed his lips – this was clearly a point of irritation to him. "No…not that that means anything. Most of the victims seem to have incomplete records."

"Incomplete how?" He looked at her, and she held up her hands. "If you can't tell me, I get it. I have a non-disclosure agreement in my job too. Just…professionally curious, I guess."

The older man had a long, penetrating gaze, and Becky reminded herself never to play poker with him – she suspected that he was a master at spotting tells. But eventually he shrugged and took a breath from his meditation.

"No fixed address. No school records. No employment records. Dates of birth that don't match up…some of them didn't even have ID."

He shook his head at the absurdity of his own case. Becky was not surprised – legally every South African citizen had to carry their ID card once they reached the age of majority. While Shadowkind could get by with legal documentation, those who were not permanent residents of this plain, or who's longevity would raise questions, often had to resort to forgery or fabrication. She suspected that if the victims were ever recovered, several may find themselves facing uncomfortable questions from the police.

"Any relatives who can shed any light?" she asked. Ruan huffed.

"None that want to tell us anything helpful," he said. "Don't know why I'm surprised. Most people – well, our reputation is…"

"Crap?" Becky suggested helpfully. She was not trying to be rude, but she was perfectly aware of just how much corruption went on in the South African Police Service. Along with stories from Vi over the years, their uncle Jeremiah was also a former police officer with plenty of tales of his own to share.

"…it doesn't help us," Ruan finished, a grim expression on his face, as though the state of his profession caused him physical pain. It took Becky by surprised. Most police officers in South Africa just grew accepting of what went on further up the chain and stopped asking questions. Ruan however, was clearly not okay with it. And if he'd gone this long and still felt that way, there was a good chance he always would.

I was right, she thought to herself. Loyal, idealistic and passionate to a fault. All admirable qualities. She hoped that it did not wind up getting him into trouble.

"Well, you're the best option they've got," she said, rolling the pencil between her fingers and going back to her sketchbook. "People will come round eventually."

She was pleased to see him smile at her optimism, even as guilt squirmed away in her belly. She was all too aware that she possessed information that Ruan would probably be desperate to get his hands on. Once more, the secrets hung on the edge of her lips, desperate to be released into the world, and it was with the greatest effort that she wrestled them back.

Your job is not about secrets. It's about keeping others safe.

Ruan's job was about keeping people safe too. If she kept secrets, what price might they eventually have? More people would go missing and even get hurt or killed if she didn't tell him. But if he knew she was a Shadowchaser, then he might have the foot in the door needed to interfere with them. Or even arrest them for withholding evidence. And then all of the Shadowkind and magical beings she was supposed to protect wouldn't have their protector.

The guilt squirmed hard, torn in two directions between her desire to help everyone and the knowledge she was serving a greater good by maintaining the Veil.

If Ruan had any of his own guilt or worries or if he suspected her of hiding anything, it didn't show. Becky tried to put her mind back on her art as both of them returned to their respective tasks. It was a great relief when Vi stuck her head out of the door.

"Why is Nana putting bricks under everyone's beds?" she demanded, sounding utterly perplexed.

"Tokoloshe," Becky replied, with a serene smile, and Ruan began laughing in earnest, as Vi rolled her eyes.

"Oh for the love of…"

OOO

A/N: That's 17,000 words, and I hope you all appreciate them! My standard is 10k for each chapter, but it just didn't feel right breaking this one up.

Still not too late to leave reviews as wedding presents! Before that, please enjoy a Shadowchaser File.

Shadowchaser Files

Xicerine

Every Shadowkind who lives in Cape Town is well aware of the unmistakable presence that flies high over their city. Occasionally the beat of wings and breath of air can be felt on the back of your neck. The magical signature is old, and delivers a firm message to outsiders.

This is my territory. Bugger off.

Xicerine has been around since Shadowkind first settled in South Africa, flitting between his roosts on Ysterkroon in Limpopo, Thabana Ntlenyana in Lesotho, and his current roost on Table Mountain. As a roc, the closest terrestrial bird to which he resembles is the eagle. His plumage is varying shades of brown, to better allow him to blend in with the scrubland and mountains in which he usually makes his home. With an eighty one foot wingspan, he has virtually no natural predators, however that is by no means a guarantee of his safety. On more than one occasion throughout history, enterprising Shadowkind or Aware humans have sought to capture or kill the mythical roc. Most notably in 1989, a group of giants mounted an expedition to trap and enslave him. Nobody is quite certain what happened, but by the time the earthquakes had subsided, the giants were fleeing to Angola, and Xicerine was back in Thabana Ntlenyana preening his feathers, and complaining loudly about time wasters.

As a roc, Xicerine is highly territorial, and dislikes anyone coming too close to his nests. He loathes dragons, as they are one of the few creatures that can match him in terms of size and strength, and they will often fight with rocs for space. Xicerine's exact top speed is unknown, though he has been recorded at over Mach 3. He seems to have some slight control over the weather, tweaking the air pressure or summoning up cloud to blanket Table Mountain from view. Like dragons, he also possesses the ability to assume a human form, however this is rare due to his well known disgust towards humans, stemming from their selfishness, stupidity, and hatred of their own species. The rest of Xicerine's powers are unknown, though with a sharp beak and razor claws, some would argue that he doesn't need magic to make people go away.

Origins: South Africa is already home to a diverse range of wildlife. I assumed when planning this fic, that the range of Shadowkind would be equally diverse. I'd read about rocs when I was a teenager, and the idea of a large bird surveying the land from Table Mountain was one that stuck with me. Age makes you cynical and grumpy, and I assumed that being very old, Xicerine was probably the embodiment of cynical and grumpy (I was amazed however, at how much I grew to love him for it).

Deck: No one has ever seen Xicerine duel, and they probably never will. Dangling idiots off the edge of a cliff is far more effective than a children's card game ever will be.