1100 hours (11:00 AM)

The Prophet, The Mover, and The Hunter

"Eve? Eve, wake up. We gotta go." Eve slowly opened her cerulean eyes to look into her brother's cobalt blue ones. He was sitting beside the couch where Eve had slept that night, and she blinked slowly.

"Dallas...you came all the way out here for me?" Dallas nodded, reaching out and brushing a few strands of light blonde hair from her face. She'd stayed in the house, nestled in the countryside in New Jersey, long after Nice and Jacuzzi had gone off. The only ones left in the house were Benjamin and Samantha; Eve thought they would be safe from the demons.

"Dictator's waitin' outside. She says that we'd better get goin'. Do ya' have yer stuff?" Eve nodded. She'd heard a lot about Dictator over the phone. Dallas had called her once every night during the time he'd been away to tell her about the goings-on in the household at which he stayed.

Once they'd brought down everything Eve intended on bringing, the girl paused for a moment, her brow furrowing with worry.

"I've got a bad feeling, Dallas," she murmured, and he rubbed her shoulder.

"So do I." His vision last night had been fuzzy, but he knew that someone was going to be attacked today. He just hoped that it wouldn't be his sister getting hurt. "But we'd better get goin'. Dictator doesn't like to wait."

When they joined her outside, the girl in question looked over at the siblings and huffed. "Took you long enough. Let's move, I want to get back before dinnertime." The trio, along with Oliver, started off towards the car they'd taken to get there. Suddenly, Oliver stopped, sniffing at the air. Dictator stopped too, gripping his leash tightly. "Wait a minute, you guys." Eve tiled her head slightly, and Dallas stiffened visibly. Oliver growled lowly, and he approached a clump of bushes, fur along his spine rising. Dictator took a single step forward, before a noise, like a jaguar's yowl sounded, and a blur of black and white slammed into Dictator.

It all happened so quickly, no one except Oliver had time to react. The tiger grabbed the attacker by the leg, pulling it off of his partner and throwing it into a tree. The attacker let out a deadly hiss in response, standing to face them.

Now, they could see that the attacker was a black-haired female, wearing a white dress shirt and black dress pants. Her bright blue eyes seemed to glow as she watched Dictator stand, pulling out a small handgun from her coat. The female made a soft noise of displeasure, but as she moved to disarm her, there was a third voice.

"Stop, Helena." A red-haired man, wearing priest's clothing stepped out from the shadows. "They are not yours to take." The female, who they could assume was Helena, snarled loudly in response, before disappearing into the darkness with the red-head. Dictator fired a few shots after them in warning, and Oliver hissed after them.

"Who was that?" Dallas finally asked after a few moments of intense silence.

"Helena Riseman, and the man...well, the demon was Ailbhe Lynch. Helena is a 500 year old demonness who was born in Hell. Ailbhe is a 1500 year old former priest turned demon by his mate, Ling." Dictator finally turned from the darkness to face the two siblings. Eve had fallen into a fit of shivers in Dallas's arms, and her brother held onto her tightly.

"So you know a lot about these demons?" He murmured as Eve finally stopped shaking, looking over at Dictator with fright in her wide cerulean eyes.

"How do you know so much?" She asked, and Dictator sighed heavily.

"I've studied them. I've been to Hell multiple times to study demons." Holding up a hand to keep them from asking questions, she whistled for Oliver, who jumped over to her with gusto. "All demon-hunters are required to do so. Demons can't attack humans or hunters who enter Hell." She was walking back down the path towards the car now, and the siblings followed her, not wanting to see any more demons today. "Helena is practically Ailbhe's daughter. He keeps her in check. If he hadn't shown up, I'dve killed her. She's inexperienced, going after a demon-hunter on her first try."

As the trio finally reached the car, two pairs of eyes gleamed from the gloom.

The fight had only just begun.

1600 Hours (4:00 PM)

The Hunter & Co.

"He's getting worse," Claire murmured when Dictator returned. Oliver trotted over to Luck's side where his brothers sat, pressing his nose to Luck's forehead. Keith was lying next to him with his head on Luck's chest, his burnt yellow eyes closed as he slept fitfully. The youngest Gandor's breathing was heavily labored, and Dictator walked over to Luck, taking a thermometer from the table beside the couch and carefully putting it in his mouth so not to wake him. Luck groaned unconsciously and tried to turn his head, but she held him there long enough for the mercury to rise.

"103.5 and rising," she muttered, and Claire stiffened. "Definitely much worse than when we left this morning..." She sat back in the chair that she'd pulled up, shuffling her feet on the carpet. "It's not good, but at least it means that the sickness is running its course faster than I thought it would. He'll get really bad, and then he'll get better."

"How do you know that he won't die?"

"The demon won't want to kill him with the sickness alone. Obviously if he's been possessed, then the demon wants to use him for something. He wouldn't kill him like this." Dictator stood and walked over to the corner, where she'd placed a large bag that she'd brought with her the first day she came to the Gandor's house. Shuffling through it, she pulled out a small box. When she opened it, Claire could see that it held needles of different sizes, and one small vial of clear liquid. She took one of the largest ones and filled it up completely with the liquid, then returned to Luck's side. "This won't cure him completely, but it should numb some of the effects. I couldn't have given it to him earlier, but I can give it to him now." Dictator lifted the incapacitated man's arm and pulled back the sleeve of his shirt, inserting the needle carefully into his skin and emptying the barrel of its liquid. Luck winced in his sleep, but as soon as she took the needle out and let his arm fall, he relaxed back into his deep sleep.

"So you'll think he'll be okay?" Claire asked again, and Dictator nodded.

"Yes. He should wake up in a few hours as soon as the medicine starts to take effect. It won't last long though, and I'll have to give him more tomorrow. Until then, he'll be alright." As Dictator walked out, she noticed a small smile appear on Claire's face as he watched Luck sleep.

When she came out from the back room, Dictator noticed Eve talking to Isaac and Miria, who were quite ecstatic to see her, and she also noticed that Dallas was missing. She didn't think he'd be very comfortable in the Gandor household, so she assumed that he'd be hiding like he'd done the first day he'd arrived. Looking over to the couch, she saw the journal that Dallas had been carrying lying there. Dictator's curiosity got the better of her, and she picked it up and sat on the couch, flipping aimlessly through the papers. She noticed a drawing on one of the later pages, one that caught her eye and frightened her only slightly. It was a picture of a wolf lying bleeding on its side. The wolf wasn't colored, but...

Deciding to ignore it for the moment, Dictator flipped to the next page. The words were dark and hard, as though he'd pressed down hard with whatever he'd been writing with.

From the dark, a race will rise

one will submit while the other thrives

many a man will meet his end

while one girl refuses to bend

the valiant wolf will fall

only one will save us all

only one will save us all

"What the hell are you doing?"

Dictator looked up to see Dallas standing there, looking at her with anger in his eyes. She shut the journal and he held out his hand. "Let go of it." She contemplated not giving it to him and trying to get something out of him about the journal itself, but she decided against it and handed it to him. Dallas snatched it from her and held it close, flipping through the pages as though it were a diary and he were its owner, looking for any sign of tampering. "How much did you see?"

"Nothing," she murmured, standing up and brushing past Dallas. "Nothing at all." Dallas watched her as she walked up the stairs, then disappeared into her room. He kept the journal close to him, rubbing the outside cover, wondering if she'd been lying.

1900 hours (7:00 PM)

The Healer and The Ruler

"Claire?"

The red-haired man opened his hazel eyes and looked over at Luck, who'd finally awakened.

"Oh, Luck," he sighed in a relieved tone, leaning over and hugging his brother tightly. Luck, body still heavy with sleep and exhaustion from not having eaten or drank anything, gently hugged him back, and when Claire released him, he fell back against the pillows of the couch. "You're awake, that's good. Maybe that means you'll heal faster..."

"Heal?" Luck asked, rubbing at his eyes. "What do you mean heal? I'm...I'm not hurt..." He looked over himself, as though looking for a wound, and Claire stiffened visibly. His gaze turned over to Keith, who was asleep at Berga's feet, who was also asleep. Claire gave a deep, heavy sigh, before he looked back over at Luck, a pitying half-smile making its way across his face.

"Luck...you've got a demon inside of you. The Head demon, in fact, the strongest one. That's why you're so sick. He's been usin' your body..." Luck looked at Claire in disbelief, before he looked back down at himself, his hands balling into fists. "Don't be mad, Luck, there isn't anything anyone could have done to stop it—"

"Does this mean I'm dangerous now?" His voice was low and quiet, and Claire gave a heavy sigh before he leaned over and ruffled his brother's hair.

"Nah. Not to me at least. I'm sure Dictator will figure out some way to...keep anything from happening." Claire smiled over at Luck, who managed to smile back, before the girl he'd just mentioned strolled in through the door, a wide grin on her face.

"Good news boys. It looks like Luck should be clear by tomorrow, and the second demon hunter should be arriving tomorrow as well. As soon as she does, we'll be ready to start training for demon hunting." As she said this, Dallas shifted in the spot that he had hidden behind the door to the back room, his fingers tightening around his journal.

He knew that bad things were about to happen on a large scale, very bad things, and they'd all be caught in the middle of it. And there was nothing they could do to get out of it.