Disclaimer: I own nothing of Tolkien's works, however all original characters and story concepts solely belong to me.

Author Note: Thanks most sincerely to all for their reviews.

Crystal: I am so glad you found the story again and are enjoying it. My apologies for not posting the rest on Henneth Annun. Real life got in the way and I could not find the time. I will hopefully post the rest of the story on there at some stage in the near future. In the meantime, read and enjoy and many, many thanks for the very flattering comments.

Battling Bard: Hi again, I was beginning to think you had dropped off the edge of the planet! Nice to hear from you. Insane or a genius? Well, I never professed to be a genius, so I guess insanity is the answer here. It is a strange sentence for LOTR fanfiction, but the idea that Thranduil would do everything extremely well in a modern world and would adapt to modern life much better than his Elven contemporaries has always been in my mind. He's a practical Elf who I reckon would not have faded. That to him would be tantamount to being beaten. This is a strong character who kept his realm safe without the help of a Ring of Power. Because of this I feel that in a modern world Elrond and the others would defer to him as far as ability and knowledge is concerned.

Ellfine/General Chaos: Both parties are in some kind of peril, be it near at hand or a little further away in time. The part about the photographs just occurred to me as I was penning that bit in the chapter. It suddenly occurred that this was at least one way for the bad guys to find out that the Elves were back without actually physically going to look, and bear in mind that Herumor is very busy trying to sort out his allies from his enemies among those originally sworn to Morgoth. It might not immediately occur to him that there may be other enemies gathering. However you can rest assured that his setup is not bleak, dark and ancient and that he will have a few extremely computer literate people in his organisation!

Rest assured, Kim and Eonwe will not be ignored. I will address their continuing relationship as the story moves on, although it isn't the main focus of the sequel.

"Impulsive? Do you remember my ex-boyfriend, the vampire? I slept with him, he lost his soul, now my boyfriend's gone forever, and the demon that wears his face is killing my friends. The next impulsive decision I make will involve my choice of dentures. "

-- Buffy (BTVS TV show)

Dark Power Arising

Chapter 11 – A Friend in Need

Somewhere in Italy...

Maksim sat in the back of the vehicle and tried not to show his disgust at having to travel with those he normally considered to be his sworn enemies. It seemed to please Herumor greatly to throw the vampire in with the werewolves and watch how he coped. It was the latest in a string of tests he had given the vampire since he had reported to the London head office of Angband Enterprises three weeks ago.

Herumor was trying to test his mettle, Maksim fully realised that. He wanted to see how far the vampire could be pushed, so with a view to that, he was now in the middle of Europe on a mission with four werewolves.

Oh they didn't look much like werewolves it had to be said. They actually looked like four ordinary guys, but they were not ordinary, far from it. Each of them had mastered their condition to the point where changing into the wolf that was always inside them had become a matter of will and not what phase of the moon they were in.

Maksim on the other hand laboured under a handicap, one of having to wait until nightfall to be able to function correctly. This limited his use to Herumor and it was becoming crystal clear that in the race of who was more useful to this powerful, ancient creature, the vampires were trailing in a sorry second.

Point of fact was Maksim was running out of time, and he knew it. He had given all the intelligence he could to Kiril. He had no idea what the coven leader would do with it, it didn't look good, that fact stood out like a sore thumb. However Maksim himself knew that he was about to outlive his usefulness to Herumor.

He glanced at his companions. They were a grim, ill humoured bunch at best. Not a word of conversation had been spoken since they arrived in Italy. The travelling was done in a special vehicle with glass windows that let in the light, but not the harmful elements that would destroy Maksim were he exposed to them. The leader of the group, who had in his old life been a blue collar worker called Ned Fallon, had sneered at the vampire when giving the briefing for their task, a task that so obviously did not hold a part for him that Maksim knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that Fallon had been given orders to get rid of him at the same time as carrying out his task.

They were to waylay some very special travellers and take them prisoner. None of the travellers were to be brought back harmed. Maksim didn't know who they were and at this stage in the game he didn't really care all that much. Fallon and his three henchmen talked among themselves and obviously knew more details, but Maksim had been kept in the dark. He knew, because of that fact, that somewhere among the attack on these travellers he would become collateral damage.

However, in doing that, Herumor had unwittingly made a vital mistake with the vampire. True, he might not be able to function in daylight and this limited his apparent usefulness, but he was as much a warrior, if not more, than any of the werewolves with him.

And unlike the werewolves, who were more like dumb grunts that carried out orders than major tacticians, Maksim was a superb tactician and an an intelligent leader in his own right. He had been that for centuries, whereas Fallon, their leader, was a fairly recent recruit to Lycan ranks only in the last fifty years or so. Maksim had a wealth of experience and years on him.

One thing was for sure, Maksim was not going under without a fight. If it was to be his last fight, then he would make it a good one and he would take some of them down with him.

But the best laid plans of mice and men aft gang 'aglay, in the words of Rabbie Burns.

ooOoo

The residence of Brigadier and Mrs Matthews, Hampshire, England

"How's it going?"

Kim nearly jumped out of her skin. "Dear god Jim, don't creep up on a person like that! You almost gave me heart failure. I hate being crept up on, people should say they are there. Or they should shout, sing or yodel or something."

Jim fell about laughing. "Yodel?"

Kim blushed. "I'm afraid I stole that from the Buffy The Vampire Slayer script." She confessed. "There's nothing original about me I'm afraid."

He sat down on one of the breakfast bar stools. "Really? And here was me thinking just how original you actually are. One of a kind even."

She grimaced. "Oh hell yes, one of a kind, that's me. Anyway, how's what going?"

Jim swiveled the salt cellar around and around. "Oh the whole marriage with a Maia thing, you know. Motherhood, etcetera etcetera."

"Marriage with the Maia is absolutely heavenly, as you might think it would be with a sort of angel. Marriage with the Brigadier is quite something else. " Kim arched an eyebrow at him and grinned. "Motherhood...well...she's so amazing isn't she? I sometimes stare at her when she's asleep for ages marveling at the fact that this perfect little girl came out of me. Gary...Eonwe says I'll give her a complex if I keep doing it, but he does it as well. When he thinks I'm not looking of course."

She made a grab for the salt cellar and put it away before he could spin it any more.

Jim grinned unashamed and blushed. "Sorry, a bit of nervous energy. I would have thought being married to army life would have been easy for you; you being a former squaddie."

Kim shoved the dishwasher door shut with a firm click and switched it on. They both stood in silence for a moment listening to the whirl and swish of the water inside before she answered him.

"Seriously? It's really not that easy being an officer's wife and even harder being a senior officer's wife." Kim sat on one of the other stools. "I am not their kind of people, never was and the worst is that every time Eonwe and I have to attend some function of event at the Mess I feel as though they are all waiting for me to screw up."

Jim raised an eyebrow. "You mean like eating with the wrong knife and fork or something?"

"Sort of." Kim wrinkled her nose. "I can't put my finger on it, but it's like the other night, we had to attend a Ladies Dinner at the Mess and this bloody woman nearly trod on me in her efforts to introduce Eonwe to her snooty daughter. She behaved as though I wasn't there and even tried to get him to take this girl out to dinner."

Jim snorted with laughter. "And what, pray, did our grand Herald do?"

Kim sighed and shook her head with exasperation. "He didn't even turn a hair, he turned around and smoothly introduced me as his wife, even though he knows fine well that she knows who I am. He complimented her on having such a lovely daughter and pointed her in the direction of one of the young unattached officers. Most of the time though it goes straight over his head."

"Well at least he dealt with it without a fuss Kim. And I shouldn't worry about it. Any idiot can see that he's head over heels in love with his wife. The way he looks at you says it all." Jim reassured her.

Kim waved a hand at him. "Oh I know that, it's not him, it's the fact that they dismiss me to the point where they do stuff like that, as though he should just turn around, divorce me and marry them or their daughter just because I am some insignificant nobody in their eyes. It annoys me that they even think that in the first place."

"Think what?" Eonwe's voice intruded quietly on the conversation. He came over, put his arm around his wife and lifted her face to his.

Kim gazed adoringly up at him and allowed herself to be mollified by a kiss. "Nothing, it's nothing. Jim was just asking me how I manage to put up with being married to you, that's all." She dimpled at him mischievously.

Eonwe swatted her backside gently with his free hand. "Oh really?"

"Yeah really." She slapped him on his arm and this started a rather intimate scuffle which ended up in with them indulging in a rather passionate embrace.

Jim flushed with embarrassment and beat a hasty retreat into the living room where the others were assembled awaiting Eonwe.

ooOoo

The Council Chambers at Castle Batiz in the Carpathian Mountains

Kiril, head of the northern coven of vampires turned away from the Council Chambers. Part of him was amazed that he still existed and had not been turned into dust. The other part was in a conundrum, what was he to do now?

He had spoken out long and vociferously against the removal of the Lady's remains being removed elsewhere by these base creatures and taken into Herumor's care, but the words spoken by the fearsome wraith-like Herumor had been smooth and filled with many seductive promises. However, his deep socketed eyes had been filled with a fell light as he gazed upon the only council member who had opposed him and inside Kiril's courage had quailed.

Herumor had stepped into the centre and a wave of something had passed from him to the Council Members. Kiril had watched in horror as those around him fell into thrall, such was the power of this awful creature. Many of them were ancient themselves. They had done unspeakable things in the name of the Lady, but they had yet to equal the horrors that roiled wave upon wave from this Lord of the Dead.

Yet Kiril was not in thrall. He feared greatly to the point of being paralysed with it and he saw his end in those eyes, but for whatever reason, he was not in thrall.

Aragorn son of Arathorn and his contemporaries could have given it a name had they not all passed beyond the bounds of both mortal and immortal memory on what had been Middle-earth. In those times the waves of evil that emanated from Herumor had been given a name... the Black Breath... but that knowledge and the ability to conquer it had long been sundered and forgotten as ages upon ages passed and the old kingdoms and realms had fallen under thick glaciers and risen anew, but without the old knowledge and wisdom.

The black flame flared in Herumor's eyes as he stepped into the middle of the circle around which the Council Members habitually sat while making decisions that affected all of the covens. His tone was smooth and plausible, but his eyes, glittering with malevolence, were fixed upon Kiril as he spoke.

"I do not ask thee to do this on my own behest. I come at the will of another, one long imprisoned who even now seeks entry back into the lands that were his own. I pave the way for him and him alone. He knew your Lady before you were even spawned. She would wish this, she would want what he wants, she who served him ages unnumbered past. Great power awaits thee all when my Master returns, and return he will. His business here is not finished yet."

Kiril saw the dark light of this creature...this wraith...reflected in the other Council Members' eyes and he knew he was beaten. Herumor would not suffer him to remain alive, not as long as he remained defiant. At the same time he saw clearly now what Maksim had obviously seen, the end of all things as they knew it. What awaited them was not power at the right hand of a powerful dark master, but servitude, never ending.

He quailed inside. What was he to do? Did he continue his defiance and meet his ending with such courage as he could muster or did he kneel at the feet of this powerful emissary of an even more powerful being as the others did? A mortal saying popped unbidden into his mind.

He who stops and runs away lives to fight another day.

Kiril dropped his gaze and if he had breath would have taken a deep one. He forced himself into an attitude of respectful confirmation. Herumor was not the only one who could be smooth and plausible. Kiril had centuries of such behaviour behind him and he had survived long in the upper echelons of his kind.

"Then who am I to stand in the way of this?" He bowed his head and stared at the floor in an attitude of complete compliance and respect.

There was an echoing silence of relief all around him. Nobody spoke, nobody moved. Finally Herumor broke the silence.

"All is well then. My servants will remove the Lady's remains into my care. Lord Kiril..." His voice was dry and brittle and even a touch amused as though he had never doubted the outcome.

Kiril could feel himself quivering with fear but he forced himself to look up into Herumor's eyes. "Yes my Lord." He whispered through dry lips.

"I would speak to thee of thy servant Maksim." Herumor dismissed the council from their own chambers with a wave of one pale skeletal hand. "The rest of you may depart to await my commands."

Kiril could feel their doom crashing down upon them. Who on this earth was strong enough to go against Herumor and his master whoever that was? The might of the mortal armies was great indeed, but mortal man was weak and pleasure loving, they craved wealth and power beyond all things. They put their faith in their technology and weaponry in the belief that the bigger the gun or the bomb, the less likely they were to be challenged.

They had not yet been faced with an enemy like this in all the ages of their existence. This enemy had weapons that far outweighed any technology, he could bend people to his will and power attracts power. He used technology himself and had mastered it.

No...mortal man would not be strong enough. This enemy was far beyond them.

The battle lines were being drawn.

ooOoo

The residence of Brigadier and Mrs Matthews, Hampshire, England

Once everyone was settled with cups of tea and coffee, or whatever else they had opted to drink, Eonwe stood in front of the mantelpiece in the middle of his living room. His gaze roamed over them.

For once Erestor had left the kitchen and the office and was also seated on the sofa beside Kim. Maglor and Alun Davies had travelled from the Forest of Dean to be present. Maedhros lounged elegantly against the low window seat and Finrod sat beside him. Jim fidgeted with the books in the long bookshelf.

They all merely waited for Kim who had gone to answer the front door. After a few minutes of silence she came back into the living room followed by Chief Knowles, still in uniform, who greeted everyone with his usual calm cheeriness and hugged both Jim and Eonwe.

"Sorry I'm a bit late. My boss is a bit of a slave-driver." He gave Eonwe a smug smile.

Eonwe grinned at him. "I hope those conference papers are in order Chief."

Chief settled into a deep armchair and accepted a cup of tea from Kim. "Thanks love." He winked at her and then turned to the Herald. "My conference papers collation is always in order I'll have you know, Sir. I'm not the one who got them out of sequence. They're all bound and ready for you on your desk."

Eonwe's rich laughter flowed over them. "Then let us get to the matters in hand. It's a shame that Master Elrond and the others are not here, but events have moved on and it is left to us to decide how we address this developing situation."

"Are they in danger?" Maglor asked quietly.

Eonwe looked grave. "I don't know. At the moment I have no idea how far this has all gone. The rise of the Lycan population and the fact that they have chosen to show themselves so publicly tells me that some power is growing and is behind this. So far we only know of the attack on this young man, Jeff Harris and his subsequent attack on his sister and also the fact that they attacked Lord Finderato and my wife on the road where they could have been seen by other members of the public."

"It was a side road in the country." Kim said softly.

"Still, it was not so remote that other vehicles didn't use it."

Kim nodded. "True. I didn't see any houses around but we were so busy trying to run for our lives and not get eaten there could have been. We may just not have noticed at the time."

"At any rate I have sent a warning to Thranduil and the others." Eonwe said gravely. "I feel that they are in the most danger at this moment in time. Haldir and Elladan are in the middle of a large bustling city, a major centre in the region. I think it unlikely that they will come under attack. Thranduil, Elrond, Glorfindel and Lady Celebrian are travelling through regions which can be remote. If there is danger of attack, that is where it will come." Eonwe paused for a moment and took a sip of his tea. "Thranduil is well armed and they are all able warriors. We can do nothing about them at the moment and must trust in hope that they will reach Carcassone without undue trouble."

"The way I see it, the only way we're going to find out more information is if we find Jeff Harris." Jim said firmly.

Eonwe nodded. "I agree. We need to find this young man quickly. I take it you have had no results from the APB you put out on him?"

Jim shook his head. "Not yet, but we only just put it out a few hours ago, this stuff takes time. We don't know how far he got or even whether he holed up somewhere until the transformation wore off. I mean, does it wear off? Like in the movies?"

"I doubt it." Finrod interposed. "I think it is more a case of how long it will take him to control the transformation. The business of the full moon affecting them is based more or myth than fact. It sounded to me as though he is an unwilling subject for conversion. According to his sister he seemed more horrified by his situation than relishing it. He left her and her child alive. That speaks to me of some inner strength in him. He will, as Jim says, have gone to ground somewhere and we must find him. Before they do."

"I agree." Eonwe said softly. "But where would he go?"There must be somewhere, somewhere he feels safe. Perhaps Jim and Finderato could go back and question his sister further. Now she has calmed down a little and feels more safe, maybe she will remember more or places she knows he feels secure in."

"We can go over there tomorrow and ask her a few more questions." Jim assented. "In the meanwhile, I did get the SOCO people to go in and do some forensics on Lily's flat. Hopefully I will get the result of whatever they find in the next couple of days. There was definitely blood, his blood. Perhaps testing will show something up."

Alun Davies spoke for the first time since his arrival that evening. "I would like to help out there." He said firmly. "I may be part of the sick, lame and lazy brigade at the moment, but I am still a senior police officer. I might have access to areas and information Jim doesn't. I have contacts I can use. Anyway I am sick of kicking my heels at home. I need to get involved in something and Maglor will be here to keep an eye on me if I start to fall apart. It'll get me out from underneath the wife's feet as well."

They all laughed at that. Maglor smiled at him and gently pressed his shoulder in support. "I too would wish to be involved."

Eonwe smiled at him. "I agree Alun. You and Maglor may be of great assistance here. Perhaps you should accompany Finrod and Jim when they go to see Lily Harris. In the meantime I would like Maedhros and Erestor to remain here to ensure Kim and Allie's continuing protection."

Both elves bowed in acceptance of their roles.

"What about this Angband Enterprises gig you went to other night?" Chief had been quiet up to now. He had showed no sign of disbelief in the extraordinary notion that werewolves might be on the loose.

Eonwe sighed and sat down. "I am truly not sure whether this was just a coincidence or not. The CEO of Angband Enterprises seems to be an innocuous little man. Just your average businessman really, which of course is what makes me a little suspicious. There was nothing at all remarkable about him. No semblance of power, no matter how vague. At least not what you would expect from a Chief Executive Officer of a fairly prestigious company. At first I dismissed him and my fears, but Kim has since suggested to me that perhaps he was a figurehead and I think that she may be right."

"The public face of something more horrific perhaps." Mused the Chief.

Eonwe nodded. "I sensed something about him but nothing was clear. His responses seemed programmed somehow, but there was no evidence of evil about him. He seemed a little nervous when I inquired about his business ventures, but overcame it fairly quickly. He was at least knowledgeable enough about arms and armaments which is the primary business of Angband Enterprises."

Maedhros stood up. "Let us stop beating about the bush here." He paced restlessly around the room. "We are not saying what is in everyone's minds here. Something or someone is behind all this. We all know that a dark power is growing in strength, yet the two words that are on all of our lips are the very two words we seem unable to say. Could it be that the Dagor Dagorath is approaching? Is it possible that Morgoth's prison is weakening and that he has sent emissaries to gather up what power he can? We spoke of a final battle in the way of our kind long ago, but Middle-earth has moved on, battles are no longer the way they were, mortal technology has ensured that, as has mortal government and their way of doing things. How powerful is this Angband Enterprises in reality and who is behind it? Are we anticipating the same kind of battle that is laid down in the lore of the Eldar and Ainur and which we waged in times past or will this battle be waged on a different kind of battlefield." His voice faltered and he sat down with a thump as though all the passion had been leeched from him. "I make no apology for my comments."

Eonwe stared at him with a steady gaze. "And I ask for none." He said gently. "I think you may have the right of it and with that in mind I have asked Kim and Chief if they will start doing some searches on the company. For them to have received an invitation to an event that was attended by so many powerful people, dignitaries and royalty means that their influence is fairly long reaching. They are seeking power in the highest echelons of this country and once there, would have great influence in the upper levels of the other world powers. We need more information about them. In the meantime we must do what we can to protect ourselves."

"And Elrond and the others must return sooner rather than later." Erestor firmly interposed.

Eonwe nodded. "I agree and have sent a message to Thranduil to that end, however do not underestimate the importance of their search for descendants. I have a feeling we will have need of such people before the end."

ooOoo