So, here's the next instalment. Just to warn you, there will be a little torture in this chapter and the next.

Enjoy. XX


I find myself worrying in the darkness. I worry about my last dream, and how easily the first part of it could become the truth. I have an awful feeling that I have forgotten something important, or that I have been told something and have either not listened or have misinterpreted what I have heard. It's not surprising then, when my unconsciousness becomes real sleep that my mind turns back to my last conversation with Ray.

The blackness around me swirls into sepia toned images, and I blink at the sudden change. Before me stands Ray, his back slightly turned to me, and he is pouring himself some wine. "What have you got him into now," he asks, but I ignore him, already scanning the room for Cassie.

I see her sitting casually in the corner. There is something strange and insubstantial about her. "What happened to you? Where have you been?" I ask her. She holds a finger to her lips, silently shushing me, and then points to Ray. I turn back to find him looking at me, waiting for my reply. He shows no sign of having seen me talking to someone else. "It's not I that you should concern yourself with, but Jim," I say after a moment, when I remember where this conversation had started. I wait for him to smile, as before. "He works for Mertice."

"How do you know of him?" he asks me again in a harsh whisper, his face once more turning pale at the mention of that name.

"I've uncovered a conspiracy," I say, moving a chair and taking a seat where I can see both Ray and Cassie. Her presence here is bothering me, but I know I need to continue and analyse this conversation if I am to learn anything from it. "Mertice intends to drag Charlie back to that hell that you were both buried in, and you along with him. I can't stop that from happening, but there is something that we can do once it has happened."

"You're mad. There's nothing that you can do against him." Listening to this sentence again I hear the slight tremble of hysteria in his voice.

I lean forward. "I have a plan Ray. Will you at least listen?"

He considers for a moment before nodding. "What do you need of me?"

"You're one of my most important pieces," I say, honestly. "Am I right in thinking that you are...?" I pause, searching for the words. "I don't know, pack leader I suppose?"

He narrows his eyes. "How did you know?"

"It doesn't matter," I say. I rise from the chair and start to pace, thinking hard. "There are many of your kind at this stronghold?"

"There'll be hundreds."

"Good," I say, and I allow myself to smile a little. "Come the full moon, we're going to seal the castle, and then we're going to let them all out."

He stares at me, uncomprehending. "It'll be chaos," he says after some thought.

"Yes, but at least with you there to guide them, we can turn it into organized chaos," I reply, but he is already shaking his head.

"No, Loki. I may be the leader of our small band here, but it'll be very different there. There'll be others, far stronger that I am."

"You'll know them in their human forms?"

"Yes, I will." I nod but say no more. When he sees that I don't mean to continue, he says, "You're talking about letting them out. How are you going to get us in there with them?"

"I said that the vampires intend to drag you back there. I want you to let them." I hold up a hand, stopping him from interrupting me. "It's important, Ray. Fight them by all means, make it look real, but go with them you must. Charlie and I will not be far behind. We all have our parts to play, and we must play them well, for we are walking into incredible danger."

"I know it," he says quietly. "But there'll be far more danger for you than for us."

I shrug the comment away. "As long as I achieve my aim it matters not. I need to keep their minds on me, and away from you and others that I will bring into play. Through Percy I have sent word to the inspector at Kaelyn, requesting the help of his deputy, Roxbury."

"You've got Roxbury into this?" he interrupts, incredulous. "The man doesn't have the sense that the gods gave a goose. Half of Kaelyn must know of your plan by now!"

"I don't believe that Roxbury is quite as witless as you think," I answer. "Just in case though, I have had Percy make it very clear in his letter to Inspector Aldridge how important it is for Roxbury to give nothing away. I'm well aware of the risk. Now, I have a map which Charlie has drawn for me, showing an interesting network of paths cut into the castle walls."

"I remember them well," he says, dryly. "We did use them to escape after all."

"Do you think that they're still in use?"

"I doubt it. Knowing them they would have had them blocked up, to make sure that no one tried to escape again. You want to use them?"

"No, I was only thinking to minimise their escape routes. So much of this relies on the element of surprise and on you taking them down quickly before they find ways to elude you."

"Trust me, once we're transformed, there won't be many places that they'll be able to hide from us. If those tunnels are still open and they do decide to use them, then they'll be surprisingly easy for us to get to, and if they can't get out the other end…" he leaves the sentence hanging. They would be perfect, I think. "You said that you have a way of sealing the castle?" he asks.

"This is where Percy comes into it. He assures me that magic will do it, and if he joins his magical strength with that of his student, Freya, there'll be nothing that the vampires can do to break it. Something to do with them being dead, apparently." He smiles a little at that and then we sit in silence for a time. "Why is it, do you think, so important to them to have you back now?" I ask him. "After all these years, what's changed? They could have come for you any time, but instead they chose only to put a spy amongst you, and otherwise leave you be."

"I don't know. We expected it for years after we ruined their plans." The comment is made offhand, he barely thinks about it, but it captures me.

"Their plans? They kept you for more than what they used you for?"

"Well, not me, but Charlie, certainly. It's one of the reasons we were so desperate to get out. We could feel that they were building up to something."

"You didn't find out what they wanted though?"

He shakes his head, as I had expected. "Of course not. Not even Charlie knew."

"I can only assume that they are ready to show us what they intended to do back then," I say quietly. Watching this conversation again, I find myself no less troubled than I had been the first time at the turn it had suddenly taken. I hope that we can get this over with quickly, for whatever they plan can't bode well for any of us, I think to myself.

"Do you have a way of making sure that Charlie can't get to us? I mean, you have seen him in his werewolf form, right?" he asks, breaking my train of thought.

"Yes, I have," I sigh. "He's a monster even by werewolf standards. He told me that he is a danger to others of his kind. He'll be isolated, I promise you." I find that I have been standing with my back to him, gazing out of the window without seeing anything, and I turn back to him now. "Get to the pack leaders. Tell them what we need of them. You must try and contain the violence as much as possible."

"You can't control the beast—" he begins.

"But you can influence it," I say, cutting him off. "Charlie told me as much. I need you to do what you can, Ray."

"I will," he says quietly.

"It's probably best for you to leave now; I don't know how long Percy can stall our shadow. I mustn't let him see you talking to me." He nods and turns away but I stop him from leaving with a quietly asked question. "Why have you agreed to this? Apart from your loyalty to Charlie, of course."

"I hardly have a choice do I? I'd rather go in there with some kind of plan, even if it is crazy."

"You don't think that we can win?"

He shrugs. "Only one way to find out." With that he drinks down the last of his wine and leaves me on my own with Cassie.

"You're Charlie's sister," I say without looking at her.

"Yes," she says from beside me. "Although that seems a lot less important to you now that you know that he's not going back there for me." She places her cold hand over mine. "I died, Loki, but he doesn't know that I didn't move on."

"Are you hoping that I can free you?"

"I'm hoping that you can free him. I'll be gone when it's my time and there's nothing that you can do to hurry it up."

I turn to face her then, suddenly chilled. "What have I missed? What have I forgotten? Watching this again hasn't helped me. I'm still not seeing it."

"You missed yourself. You missed out planning you own escape." Her eyes widen, and her grip on my hand tightens, although I can barely feel it. "Unless you don't mean too. Oh, Loki, you better be ready to do something completely crazy if you mean to stay there after the wolves have transformed!"

"Such as…?" I ask her, but before she can reply I'm….

…Suddenly awake.

"Oh, no. It's too soon," I say aloud, and then groan as a sharp pain lances across my shoulders.

"Hey," a muffled voice whispers, and I open my eyes.

I find myself in a small cell lit dimly by sunlight coming through an arrow slit high up on one wall. I try to shift position but my movement is hindered by a short chain attached to the wall. The other end is looped through large manacles around my wrists. A slumped figure sits in shadow across from me.

"Hey," it says again. "My god, I thought you would never wake."

The figure moves into the light and I recognize him instantly. "Roxbury," I say. I have to wonder a little at my weakness for feeling guilt at his presence here, and I laugh the feeling away before it can set in too deeply.

He jumps a little at the harsh, echoing sound. "You find this amusing?" he asks.

"No, I really don't," I answer, still chuckling, and he frowns at me in confusion. I try to sit up a bit again and my laughter is cut off abruptly as more pain knifes its way into my shoulders. I'm guessing that they had been less that careful when putting me in here, and I move my limbs experimentally. There is a lot of pain but thankfully nothing seems to be broken.

"They kind of threw you down the stairs," Roxbury says, as if reading my thoughts. I follow his gaze to a short flight of stairs leading to the cell door.

Just then shadows appear beyond the bars, and a key is rattled in the lock. Roxbury cowers back against the wall, a small sound of fear escaping him. I watch as Jim, followed by four guards, descends to the floor of the cell.

"Take that away," he orders, looking disdainfully at Roxbury. When two of the guards bend to do his bidding he turns his attention to me.

"We have something to show you, before Mertice offers you his hospitality," he says. "We need to know where you stand."

"Of course." I hold up my bound wrists so that he can free me and try to ignore Roxbury's terrified screams as they drag him into the corridor.

He is nowhere to be seen by the time they take me from the cell, although I can still hear him, and I am thankful for the slow pace that Jim sets as my captors lead me through what seems like a never ending network of corridors. Cells line the way, and as we pass by, the occupants come forward to watch. I keep a close eye on the route that we are taking, trying to memorize it, and hoping to find out where they are keeping Ray. I catch a glimpse of him in a cell roughly a hundred yards from where I had been held. He is bound in the same way that I had been, and he glowers at Jim as we pass.

Eventually we come to a spiral staircase, and they follow me down for a long while, into yet another corridor lined with cells. The atmosphere is very different down here, the cell doors are solid rather than barred, and the sounds coming from within them send shivers down my spine. I try to convince myself that it's not fear that I am feeling, but I know that something truly awful is looming ahead of me, and there won't be a thing that I can do to prevent it from happening.

The corridor soon opens out into a vaulted room. On the wall opposite us are two guarded doors, one of which is opened as we approach. Beyond it lies another, very small, room, into which I am pushed roughly. I turn just in time to see Jim's mocking smile before heavy door is closed behind me. When he is gone, I turn my attention to my surroundings. Two of the room's walls are made of stone, two of thick iron bars. Through the bars to my right I see Roxbury, cowering in the corner of his own room. He crawls forward when he sees me.

"You need to help me, Loki, please," he begs. I ignore him; turning my attention instead to the large arena that lies beyond the bars before me. The stone floor is pitted and scarred, and the thick stone walls rise up into darkness. High above us are the first of four galleries, and I can see that they are all packed with watching faces.

"What's going on here, Roxbury?" I ask, but he just shakes his head, too frightened now even to speak.

Within the arena and off to one side I hear a gate being opened. A moment later, Charlie is dragged into my line of vision and made to kneel in the centre of the arena. He cooperates without a fight, and my heart lurches to see him give in so easily. One of the vampires surrounding him holds something in his hand. From here it looks like a needle and syringe. What is this? I think.

I have my answer soon enough when the door to Roxbury's cell is opened and he is set upon by two more guards, one of whom is brandishing his own needle. He tries to fend them off, unsuccessfully, and the needle is plunged into his neck. The guards leave rather quickly after that. For a few seconds Roxbury lies still, perhaps in shock, perhaps because he knows what is about to happen to him. And then, in front of my shocked eyes, the change starts to take him over. Somehow, it's the last thing that I had expected, and judging by the look on Charlie's face, it's not what he had expected either.

Charlie had explained to me the rules of their kind: the change only happened at the full moon. That was still two nights away. What possible reason could Mertice have for wishing these creatures to turn at his will? I think. Is it simply for torture purposes, or is there a more sinister reason?

These thoughts are quickly interrupted as Roxbury begins to scream. I don't realize that I had been retreating from him until my back touches cold stone, but I am caught, fascinated by the scene in front of me, and I can't seem to drag my eyes away. He screams again as his clothes tear, and I see that the skin underneath is also tearing. Hair bursts forth from the rifts, and his limbs begin to stretch and bend into unnatural angles. The noises coming from his throat soon turn guttural and harsh.

From the corner of my eye I see Charlie begin to fight his captors. I'm finally able to turn my eyes from the horror of Roxbury's transformation and instead watch Charlie's sudden and vicious attack. I see now why he had been playing at being submissive. The vampires are taken aback slightly, giving him the chance to gain some ground on them, then he turns suddenly to press the attack, throwing them off guard again. He knows that he has no way to beat them, that there is no way to escape them now, and no way to avoid the fate that is snapping at his heels, but he fights them anyway. One of the vampires grows tired of the game and stops the next attack with a brutal blow to Charlie's face that makes me flinch, and I hear his nose break from here. They quickly overpower him, stick him with the needle and retreat. After a pause, he also begins to transform.

Hearing a low growl next to me, and I look over to find the other now fully turned. It's a hideous beast that now occupies the cell; almost twice the size of a man, all long legs, coarse brown fur, and stubby muzzle. His lips are pulled back, bearing rows of sharp teeth, and the four inch talons that tip his paws click on the stone impatiently. He stares at me hungrily, until the whole wall of bars in front of him lift up like a portcullis. It would be the perfect opportunity for him to attack, seeing as Charlie is still only half way through the change, but, sensing the mounting threat that hasn't escaped even me, he hesitates on the threshold. It doesn't take him long to realize that he has missed an important chance, and he tries to make up for it by rushing into action. To my surprise, I find that Charlie is ready for him now. He had made barely any noise throughout his transformation, and it has happened far quicker than Roxbury's had, almost as if he has greater control of it. Also he is bigger than Roxbury. Much, much bigger.

In the end the fight takes less than a minute. They circle one another for a while. Roxbury is constantly the one to move forward, but quickly he retreats, too frightened to actually go for the throat that Charlie has left open for him. Eventually though, Charlie's menacing calm makes him begin to panic, and he makes a desperate, clumsy swipe at him. Charlie opens himself to the attack, luring him in, even letting him draw blood. With him so close Charlie chooses this moment to move. Almost too quickly for me to see, he sets his teeth and claws into him, and practically tears him in half.

Moments after I witness this, they come to drag me in front of Mertice. I hardly notice the route that we take. I find that all of my planning is being washed away in a sudden and violent wave of anger. I no longer care about being careful, or playing the game, and it doesn't even occur to me that Mertice might decide to kill me outright for my insolence if I refuse him anything. All I can think of is Charlie, and what the death of Roxbury will do to him. How dare he do this, I think, how dare he!

I am pulled into a large, windowless, candle lit room and made to kneel before a cluttered desk. The first thing I notice, before I even see Mertice sitting on a throne atop a dais, is a large empty vial just in front of me on the desk. The only chink in my plan was figuring out how to smuggle the werewolf blood that I will need into the castle. I couldn't bring it with me, seeing as I knew they would search me, so I hoped to find a way of gaining it while I was here. This vial would be perfect, and I need to find an opportunity to take it, but for now I raise my eyes to meet those of Mertice. I see that they are pale, like everything else about him. We stay staring at each other for so long that I begin to grow incredibly uncomfortable, but I refuse to drop my eyes. After what feels like an age, he stirs. "I confess myself very disappointed in you," he says slowly. His voice is gravelly, and far deeper than I had expected. "After all I have heard of you, I honestly expected more." He rises from the throne, descends the dais, and walks behind me. From the corner of my eye I see that his back is turned to me, and he is pouring himself something. Quickly, I snatch up the vial, and I have it hidden within my clothing before he turns back.

"You knew of my current state," I say quietly.

"Yes, and I am not referring to that. You do still have your wits after all. I am talking about you, fraternizing with that beast. I expected that you, of all people, would be able to resist him, yet you let yourself be so easily corrupted." I give a contemptuous snort at the very idea of Charlie corrupting me, but before I can reply he says, "We need your assistance with something, Loki."

This causes me to actually laugh aloud. "And what?" I ask. "You thought that showing me your new trick would make me wish to leap to your aid? After what you just did to Charlie, nothing could be further from the truth."

"I showed you that so that you know what is waiting for you should you refuse me. We haven't yet found out what the potion does to mortals. Maybe you can help us find out. I shall give you some time to think on it."

At some hidden signal, Jim comes with the guards to drag me to yet another cell. Worryingly, it's one of the ones with a solid door. This knowledge puts me on my guard immediately, and certainly saves my life, for when they push me into the room, a sinewy, furry arm reaches for me, the talons extended, intending to open my throat. With a startled cry, I throw myself against the opposite wall and put my arm up. The claws rake the sleeve of my jacket and shirt, turning them to ribbons, but they don't reach my skin. I sit down heavily, and I hear Jim laugh as the door slams behind me. I look up, wondering why I haven't yet been removed of my head, and find that I now appear to be in some kind of corridor, with doors at either end. Before me is yet another cage, occupied by Charlie's massive bulk. He stalks around in a circle, his tail swishing, and then he throws himself towards me once more. I flinch back as he reaches for me. The claws stop a mere foot away from me, and he quickly removes his arm in order to circle again and have another try.

"Oh, well, this is just wonderful," I say aloud. I crawl into the corner, pull my knees up to my chest, and generally try to make myself smaller. He growls at the sound of my voice. We stay that way for what feels like a very long time, although it's probably no more than two hours. My legs have gone numb, and I'm just beginning to work out how to move them without getting them ripped off, when his mood changes. This I have seen before and I know that it's safe to move now; he won't try and attack me during the re-transformation. Soon he is back to himself, and he lies on his back for a while, breathing hard. I can see that the bruise that I had given him is gone, and his nose is once again whole and unbroken, but the wound that Roxbury has given him is open, and bleeding. Suddenly, I see how he acquired his scars. I crawl over to the bars.

He catches the movement and turns his head. "Loki?" he asks in a cracked voice.

"Come here," I order him. He scuttles over to me with a groan of pain, and a fresh run of blood issues from his wound. I reach out to him, but stop with my hand inches from his skin, suddenly afraid that, after all that had passed between us, he will spurn my touch.

He looks up at me almost shyly. "I won't bite, you know," he says, mistaking my hesitancy. I smile wryly at that and lay my hand on him. He begins to shake violently then, and his skin beneath my hand is clammy. I take off my torn jacket and wrestle him into it, taking care not to lay it over the wound.

"I'm not cold," he complains, his teeth chattering. "Whatever they've done to me…..it burns."

"You need to wear it, Charlie," I say gently. I pull out the vial and remove the stopper. "There's something that I need to do. I'm sorry for this." He draws in a pained breath through his teeth as I hold the vial against his wound. I keep it there for more time than he is comfortable with, making sure to fill it. After I have replaced it carefully within my clothing, I tear off a swatch of cloth from my sleeve and press it to the scratches.

He has a faraway look in his eyes now, and I'm just begging to hope that, perhaps, he doesn't recall the events that had just occurred, when his eyes clear and he says, "Oh, gods. I did for Roxbury."

"You had no choice, my sweet. It wasn't your fault." The endearment brings a tiny smile to his lips, but it is quickly wiped away by fresh tremors.

"It was Jim," he says when the fit has passed.

"What was Jim?"

"He killed those women, back at Arber." He gives a breathy, slightly hysterical laugh, and then quiets when he sees my face. "You knew."

"I guessed, after he approached me. It doesn't matter now. He's about to be punished for his crime. They all are."

He rolls his eyes at me. "I'm glad you're so confident," he says, and then he turns his head, hearing something. "They're coming back for you." I take hold of his hand and press it to the cloth, making sure that he holds it tightly. As I pull my hand away he grabs hold of my wrist, and snarls, "Just remember, you have to give in to it."

I am startled by his sudden ferocity, but it's too late for me to ask him what he means by that, for I can hear them myself now, just outside the door. I squeeze his hand briefly before letting him go. The moment I step back he bends double with a groan of pain. It appears that the change is taking him over again, but I know that there is nothing I can do, so I turn instead to the door and wait patiently for my own fate.