A/N~ So am still in crisis to the point my stress level is through the roof. That being said my writing has been affected. It has always been my way to blow off steam and now is becoming darker because of the stress. It will become more sporadic and I will try to curb the darkness but I am angry and that may be reflected, I will do my best to self monitor but you have been warned. Please forgive any errors or the fact that the characters may be OOC. Read, review and I hope enjoy. ~A

Chapter 9

Kenzi merely gave him one of her all-knowing Kenzi smiles and said, "After all this time, you still think you guys are the only fae I know. I'm the Kenzi, I pretty much know someone or I know someone who knows someone, at this point."

They start to head over to his apartment only to have Dyson turn to the west before they got within one block of the werewolves loft. When they came to a roadside park, the fae pulled the bike over and kicked the kickstand into place. He waited for the smaller human to climb off before he climbed off and proceeded to kick a rock, into orbit Kenzi was certain.

She waited for his tantrum to wind down before asking, "What's up?"

"Fae were watching my place, couldn't tell if they were light or dark but they were definitely fae." he said touching his nose significantly before she could ask how he knew.

Kenzi knew the werewolves nose was so sensitive he could sniff out other shifters and other fae that he had encountered before but there was no way of knowing just by scent whether a fae was light or dark in orientation. That was usually a matter of individual choice, not related to species. Although usually species did have a preference, individuals could follow their own path.

That being said, it still didn't explain who were staking out Dyson's apartment, "Ok so let's start with the facts." Kenzi said pragmatically, "What type of fae were they?"

Dyson calmed enough to actually think, which was what Kenzi had intended. "There were several of them but mainly Shifters."

"Could you tell how many there were?" she asked as she took off her jacket to spread on the top of one of the concrete picnic tables and sat down on it.

"No more than half a dozen," the detective said thoughtfully.

"Could you tell if they were inside or outside of the loft?"

"Outside." he responded firmly.

"Then they weren't dark fae and/or they didn't mean harm." Kenzi said absolute in her thought processes. Dyson however wasn't convinced.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Dark fae or fae who meant us harm would have opted for the ambush method. Hidden in the loft and waited for us to come in before confronting us, hoping to catch us or you by surprise for whatever reason they're waiting for us." she said in a perfectly reasonable tone.

"Well that's annoying and disappointing" Dyson said with a huff.

Her brow wrinkled in confusion for a second, before clearing as she said, "You wanted to beat something up."

"Yes." then seeing her trying to hide her amusement he added, "After the stress of that…" he said indicating the previous few minutes, "I think I'm owed a little violence."

"Don't worry D-man you may still get your chance." she said as she walked back to the bike and climbed back on.

The bearded man came toward her and there was agitation in his eyes as he admitted reluctantly, "I'd rather you stayed here."

"Alone in the park at night? You sure about that wolf-man?" Kenzi asked a little sassily.

"No, but I'd definitely prefer you not be there," admitted the werewolf.

"Could they smell you as well as you smell them?" vaguely remembering something about Dyson being more than just a werewolf.

"They don't have my ancestry so they're not as good as me. Unless they're in tracking mode, I'd have to be in the same building with them." he said thoughtfully, "What do you have in mind?"

"Uhm, we stake out the stake out?" Kenzi suggested a little gleefully, her eyes sparkling, as she put on her helmet.

How an individual could look worried and excited all at the same time the human wasn't sure but her wolf pulled it off masterfully. As they headed back the way they had come.

~O~

Kenzi had insisted on stopping for breakfast food and coffee. When he looked at her strangely she gave the werewolf a glare. "Human," she said pointing to herself, "who hasn't eaten in like six hours. Plus coffee and breakfast burritos are like classic cop stake out food. Especially since even the donut shops aren't open this early."

Dyson went through an all night diner, drive thru. The bag of food was warm between them. The fact that Kenzi insisted on holding a large Styrofoam cup of coffee in each hand wouldn't normally give him pause, except that her hands were currently wrapped around his waist and the fact she was sitting behind him on his bike brought up a few issues. He was fairly certain though that the young human would do her very best not to hurt him in any way. Including temporary maiming of a certain part of his anatomy that had recently brought her a great deal of pleasure, "Mind altering," her words, not his.

They actually parked a block away, making sure to conceal the bike. Although moving around this early in the morning provided its own challenges, like maneuvering in darkened areas that a humans weak eyes couldn't see. Still carrying the hot coffee up a fire escape ladder, over four rooftops and across a makeshift catwalk, they finally managed to find a small shed on a roof across from his apartment.

Kenzi still couldn't see as well as Dyson the streetlights augmented the starlight here, and while the other werewolves weren't exactly hiding they weren't being very careful about their hiding either. Frequently coming out of hiding to talk with each other, speculating about where the Thornwood was and whether he had retrieved the human yet. There were other bits and pieces that didn't make any sense yet, Dyson kept half an ear on them as he ate his breakfast and sipped at the very hot surprisingly good decaf coffee, Kenzi's coffee like her burrito was fully loaded.

Seeing Kenzi with her address book reminded Dyson of the Blood Kings Journal that he still has and he proceeded to read the small leather bound journal. So he began to read the journal, while they're on their stakeout. He becomes so engrossed in the small tome. He discovers dawn is coming and he's still reading the handwritten volume. He's very glad that the older fae had good handwriting or this could have been sheer torture.

He imagined he was several years into the small but thick book when he found something that struck a cord. He went back and read it again, and then once more. When he heard a car drive up outside on the street, even Kenzi had recognized the oddity of the sound, she didn't whisper but tugged his sleeve as she crawled to the edge of the roof to peer down at the vehicle. In this neighborhood, people may have begun stirring in their homes, but no one was out on the street yet at this time of the morning.

When it pulled up outside of his building and glided to a stop at the curb, their suspicions were confirmed as two of the werewolves came to the drivers side window of the rather fancy vehicle as it rolled down. It revealed a woman with brilliant red hair piled on top of her head and pale creamy skin. Her crisp, "Well?" wasn't well received by the Shifters, even Kenzi could tell.

"They haven't returned yet," one of the Shifters said in a deep toned voice. The man was tall, slender and athletic. His hair was receding in the front but kept slicked back in a ponytail, his beard neatly trimmed. The style suited the angular bone structure of his face. His arms were crossed and it was clear to anyone who had eyes he didn't like the woman in the car.

She slammed the palm of her hand against the steering wheel as she said, "They should have been here by now, the ritual should have been performed on All Souls. What could be keeping them?"

"Did you ever meet the little human? I did." the Shifter said with a shark-like grin. "She was quite something, if I weren't a gentleman I could think of a great many things to do with her, other than come home to this place."

"Disgusting," the woman said with a sneer. "Plans have changed, if they do show up bring them both to Cayden's. Thornwood can be damaged but the human is to be unharmed, human's break so easily." With that the woman pulled away from the curb, nearly running one of the Shifter's down.

"Bitch," the tall slender Shifter said succinctly.

The wolf who had nearly been run down merely agreed as he said, "And not in any kind of good way." With that the Shifters moved to go inside the building where they had mostly stayed outside before.

Dyson ducked back into the shed and grabbed the resurrected girl's bag and Trick's journal. Since the sun was coming u they were able to make their way back to Dyson's motorcycle a lot more safely and swiftly. Kenzi though stopped him once they got there and asked, "Okay and why is the creepy woman so interested in us. How would she even know I was back?"

"I had a cousin Cayden," the werewolf mused, "I'll be honest though, Cayden is a rather common name among the fae, especially among the Shifter fae."

"So it could be someone else entirely, especially since she doesn't seem to care if you get hurt. Okay I could get it though if they were looking for you for a family reunion." Kenzi said nodding, "But why now and what do I have to do with it?"

"I realize you can't…detect scent as well as we can, but you saw how the other Shifters reacted to her?"

"Yeah, like she was something to be scraped off their shoes, course she was the same about them…but still…"

"She smells of death Kenzi," Dyson said and the brunette was startled when the werewolf visibly shifted his weight with obvious distress, "Which means she's either a Nosferatu… a vampire fae. Unlikely but possible it being so close to dawn and all. Or more likely she's a Necromancer, one who can manipulate the dead and the undead. You've recently been resurrected, her interest in you would be obvious and disturbing."

Kenzi looked a little green as she asked, "But why would she be with your cousin, if it is your cousin?"

"Because Cayden was only ever interested in one thing, power. Getting as much of it as possible for himself and he didn't care who got hurt in the process. Not even his own family." Dyson replied in a sickened tone.

~O~

Trick is studying his books and scrolls. He knows he saw the prophecy somewhere, he just can't for the life of him, remember where. He aches for his granddaughters loss. She was supposed to be their queen, take after her grandfather in the ruling of the fae.

However Bo was still young even by non-fae standards, by the councils standards she was an infant, a newborn even. She knew very little about the fae themselves, was still learning about their culture and secrets. Keeping the secrets she learned about the fae. That she was improving at, but many members of both courts still classified her as an outsider and her continued refusal to pick a side wasn't helping much.

While some considered her brave and cautious, for choosing not to choose, others saw it as insulting. The fact that she had accomplished so much in the past few years was something these same fae were watching seriously a few with concern, others with anticipation and a few with downright suspicion.

It was as he was mulling over these thoughts that the Blood King finally found what he was looking for. Strangely enough it was one of his own prophecies. Admittedly one of the very oldest which was why he didn't remember it.

The human queen, on All Souls Day at the Witching Hour.

Will be returned to Life in her full fledged power.

The Alpha, her King, will call her back from the dead,

after releasing his blood in a flow of red.

At the wedding of the pair,

The fae will part ways, Shifter and others.

Fae Queen shall lose her heart,

Phoenix Queen shall do her part.

There had been more he remembered that but apparently this particular retelling of the prophecy had been damaged and the remainder of the page was missing. Trick still couldn't remember when or where he had written the original or what it had said. It was almost as if he had been be-spelled not to remember.

A vague prophecy about a Phoenix, who weds a King Alpha. Trick studied it to discover several footnotes, which he wrote down to look up later. Apparently several other fae prophets using several different portents over the years had figured out a prophecy that said, a Phoenix not born to be one would wed a King Alpha. Their wedding would cause a schism between the Shifter faes and the rest of the fae.

The Fae Queen would change her heart and only the Phoenix Queen would be able to resolve their differences. Something like that anyway, he wouldn't have thought of it in the first place, but since Kenzi had come back to life she was a Phoenix. Even if she was also still human and not a fae Phoenix. Then there was the King Alpha that would be Dyson.

When Ciara had come back into Dyson's life after so many centuries the pub owner had become more curious about the werewolves background and had done extensive research into his lineage. He discovered that their detective was the direct descendant of the Alpha of Alpha's of the Thornwood Pack. Something the younger man was apparently unaware of.

While the main family only had the one descendant left, Dyson, there were many branches of the Pack and most of them were flourishing. Even expanding out into other were-types and fae types. Trick didn't have exact numbers on how many there were in the Thornwood Pack at the present, he knew they were extensive. He tapped his finger on the entrance in the book he was currently studying. He hoped the reference information he had collected, could give him a better idea of what exactly it was the prophecy was actually predicting.

He also wanted to go back to his research on the Thornwood bloodlines to see how many shifters and other fae were entangled in the branches of the family tree and how it involved this prophecy. Then he tried to call Dyson to see if he and Kenzi would like to come to the pub for a drink. Only to discover Dyson's phone appeared to be out of service.

He then tried to call the station to get in touch with the detective. Only to discover the man had not only extended his holiday, he hadn't given his lieutenant any prior notice before hand. Which had left the man irritable and not exactly friendly to Trick's questioning.

The Blood King was irritated, Dyson was supposed to be pledged to him even above the Ashe, apparently that no longer held true. The younger fae had felt used in many ways over the past several years because of the pub owners machinations and the fickleness of a certain succubus. He had never left him with no way to get hold of him though. He tried calling Kenzi even, only to remember the human he had held an almost daughterly affection for had been dead for several months. He could almost hear her voice in his head admonishing him, "No cell reception in the afterlife Trickster."

"Now what?" he mumbled to himself.