Precisely four minutes later Tanith was sat down with a piping hot mug of coffee in her hand and the attention of the old man who seemed to be in charge, not to mention everyone else in the room. 'A room full of remnants and they're all listening to me. How strange.'

"I'm sure you've all heard of Darquesse, right?" Tanith began, reassured by all the nods that surrounded her. "Well, until now I believed that Darquesse was the most powerful being… mortal anyway. But it seems I was wrong, we all were."

"So, you're trying to tell us that there's something more powerful than Darquesse around?" The little girl asked with a surprisingly deep voice like a fully-grown woman's and a strong Somerset accent.

"At her current strength, yes. It seems that making her Darquesse against her will makes her lose much of her power. But if we can somehow convince her to unleash it on her own terms then she should be powerful enough to take it on."

"Why should we use our weapons against it?" One of the four suited remnants asked. "Chances are it won't affect us in the slightest."

"Because that's less to possess for our trapped brethren, numbskull." Said the dentist, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"There aren't seven billion of us, even if it kills fifty percent of the population it won't affect is." Another suited remnant added. "We shouldn't do anything."

The dentist, seemingly enraged by their apparent stupidity plucked a sharp looking dentistry tool from her pocket and hurled it at one of the suits, embedding it in their arm. Interestingly enough, Tanith noticed, all four flinched in pain.

"So what is this new power then, Tanith?" The old man asked. "It's not an elemental is it?"

"Pfft, in their dreams! Their powers are spread out over four different paths of magic making them much weaker." Tanith snorted, and then all merriment was wiped off her face as she frowned, "No, I'm not completely sure what it is… but as we thought with Darquesse, to release this beings power it must be possessed by a remnant."

"So we spread the word to all the remnants not to possess this bloke then! Simple!" The construction worker said, pulling his helmet down over his eyes and seemingly falling asleep.

"It's not as simple as that. We have no idea who it is yet. Remember how long it took to find Darquesse? Someone could possess them by accident and let it loose on the world without realising it." Tanith reminded the group, hoping that she wasn't loosing them already.

"If it was one of us possessing them surely they'd be on our side?" The little girl questioned.

"Clearly you weren't there when Darquesse was released." Tanith snapped. "It was a complete disaster. She killed many of us purely for her own amusement. Sure, she's our deity, but even so I'm in no rush to release that again."

"I thought that's what you wanted. To release Darquesse against this… thing." The old man asked, confused.

"Yes, but not by possessing her. Her personality would depend too much on the remnant joining with her. If, and only if, she becomes it on her own behalf will she have some semblance of control. And control is imperative to power. Guiding your power to one strike is far better than just throwing it all over the place until you're worn out."

Another suit posed a question, "But joining a remnant to this other thing would give it more power?"

"Yes. But as I was saying this would be to our advantage. It would be just as powerful but it wouldn't be as smart as her. A battle of brawns over brain if you will." Tanith was close to joining the dentist and hurling sharp objects at the suit quad.

The construction worker tipped his hat up and looked at Tanith with amusement, "And how many of us are actually on the outside anyway? There's us thirteen and that's it. And we can't even leave these bodies. We'll be fine."

"And… I guess I've heard that who it'll formerly be will be a dead being. But not a vampire." Tanith realised that it sounded ridiculous. Even if there were any on the outside, a remnant couldn't possess something that was dead. It was impossible.

"Okay, so if we ignore the fact that it's impossible to possess a dead being, magically animated or not, what could it be other than a vampire? They're certainly the most numerous dead being. Oh god… it's not that zombie duo is it?" One of the middle aged women groaned.

"Impossible. I've… taken care of them. They were bothering one of my friends." Tanith grinned in a manner reminiscent of a cat that had just brought you a half dead bird. "Anyway, from what I've heard the remnant is already inside them, but dormant. Not that I know how that happened."

She then receives multiple looks from the remnants that surrounded her which included blank gazes and a few glares. Eventually the old man said, "Well, you could have said that in the first place!"

"So you'll help?" Tanith mentally kicked herself for sounding so weak, but it was necessary.

"Of course, love. There's so few of us we're pretty much family, if you'll excuse how cliché that sounded." One of the middle-aged quad grinned.

"Thank you very much. And sorry for having to come and ask for help like some weakling, but I couldn't really think of anything else to do." She sighed, cupping her face in her palms.

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with asking for help if you can't do something on your own. Something many seem to be forgetting." The little girl smiled. "I'd probably be dead by now several times over if I hadn't asked for help."

Then, as they should have done at the beginning they all introduced themselves and told her their stories. Unlike Tanith most seemed to have accidentally been released and forgot to get out of their hosts before they were permanently merged. Although the most interesting remnants there were the four suits: two boys, two girls and each had a different card suit sown onto the pocket of their suits. All four were possessed by just one remnant, although how no one knew, not even the remnant themselves. Either way they were a fierce fighting quad, near unmatchable in strength due the way they fought as a unit, knowing each other's moves and seamlessly backing each other up.

They then all caught up with each other like an old group of friends, chatting as if they hadn't seen each other in years, which was probably true given immortals grasp of time. The little girl seemed to be the oldest remnant there ironically enough, the dentist the youngest other than Tanith. The girl had been around since the end of the fourteenth century and the dentist the nineteen-forties.

And it was then when Tanith looked at the clock on the wall and announced, "Damn. Is that the time? I've got to go now. Where will you be tomorrow?"

"We can arrange here again. Same time?" The little girl asked, and was replied with a nod.

"Well then, I'll see you tomorrow!" Tanith waved and left the building feeling cheerier than she'd felt in a while, although at the same time she felt slightly guilty and couldn't begin to understand why. "It's nothing." She told herself before climbing into Sanguine's convertible and speeding down the dusty Texan roads.

While Tanith was getting tanned out in the warmth of the sun, Valkyrie could only dream of such light as she and Caelan descended into the city of Isla de la Infección, which was more than a bit of a mouthful to think, let alone say. The closer they got the tenser Caelan got, and as a result Valkyrie as well. It seemed that his human instincts had kicked in as he began to inhale and exhale deeply, as if his body was preparing him for a fight. They were still quite a way up from the city and walking down a narrow path that was practically at a thirty-degree slope with plenty of loose pebbles.

All this once sent Valkyrie slipping into Caelan and made him fall on top of her, but rather than being romantic and sexually tense the back of his head cracked against her nose, and damn it his head was hard! For the next few minutes she had a slight nosebleed that Caelan of course blew out of proportion. Although perhaps he was panicking because he might suddenly decide that Valkyrie was on the menu for that day and eat her. At this she decided that dying in the middle of a cave would suck.

"Hey, Caelan?" Valkyrie decided at another point of their decent. He grunted as a reply, evidently he was still irritated at either his inability to smell blood without practically drooling or Valkyrie's 'bleeding issue' as they jokingly called it when Caelan was in one of his better moods. "You're really old and wise and stuff."

At this he snorted, "Not really."

"You know reflections?"

"You're not going to ask me if I have one, are you? Because I do."

"What? No, you're just being self-conscious again. I meant the charm. If you place this symbol on a mirror a clone of you comes out. I just wanted to know… if you die do they vanish?"

At this Caelan turned to face her and frowned. "Why do you want to know? You're not going to die down here, there's no chance of it."

"Well, I should hope not. I was just curious." She shrugged, trying to get him to focus on the path ahead once more. "Hey, about vampires having no reflection…"

"What about it?"

"Can you make the reflection-clones?"

"No. That's where the 'vampires have no reflections' thing came from in the first place. Planning to make a clone of me?"

"An army of vampires would be pretty useful."

They hadn't been speaking loudly or often, but at that moment all conversation halted as a pair of footsteps rang around the cave. There were only a few times Valkyrie could think of that Caelan had looked so hopelessly scared, one such when Skulduggery and her had forced him to take them to Moloch and the elder vampire had ended up attacking him. After that event she was surprised that he'd agreed to meet up again at later dates, although a while later at St Anne's park, a couple of minutes into the conversation and it was painfully obvious why he'd agreed to it.

After a few seconds of thought he motioned to move backwards, and so they retreated silently until they reached a small indent in the rock, enough for just one person to hide in if they crouched. Without even running anything past her Valkyrie was pushed into it and Caelan stood before her. The footsteps got closer and then, just visible between his legs, she could see a regal looking man move up the path before stopping completely.

"What on earth do you think you're doing here?" The mans voice was laced with anger and he seemed to hiss.

Caelan's body language seemed to change, shifting from scared and near submissive to arrogant. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because filth like you shouldn't be here."

"I'm a vampire, I have as much right as you do to be here."

"You say that as if you're worth something. What an amusing notion. Try that again and you'll be dealt with as you should have been."

"You're old, you couldn't stand a chance against me." The younger vampire boasted and Valkyrie wished he'd shut up. She knew as well as anyone that the older the vampire the stronger, and Caelan was practically a toddler compared to most other vampires. "I killed another vampire before I was a year old, you couldn't have done that in your-" But his sentence was interrupted by a fist slamming into his abdomen. In a split second decision Caelan leapt away from the gap towards the exit in what looked like running away but was in fact was a tactic to draw attention away from Valkyrie. Yet the elder vampire was quicker than him and soon caught up, shoved him to the ground and placed a foot on the young vampires chest.

"I said: what on earth are you doing here you insolent little pup." Each rise in volume was accompanied with a kick smashing down onto his ribs, although Valkyrie didn't know this, all she could hear was Caelan's wincing and the sound of shoe meeting flesh and bone. She longed to leap to his rescue but also knew that it would only make matters worse and forced herself to stay crouched, listening to her vampire, her vampire getting beaten until he bled. A wet sounding cough was the last noise she heard from Caelan before a voice rang, "As for you human, don't think I didn't notice your heart beat. The only reason you're alive is because you associated with thatfreak. You'll be tainted."

Waiting until the footsteps were out of earshot Valkyrie sat, getting tenser with every second that passed. Other than the elder vampire there was no noise, meaning best-case scenario Caelan was in too much pain to speak. Worst-case was that he was dead, but she'd seen him thrown down from the top story flat of a tall apartment block and make a full recovery, so a beating wouldn't kill him… she hoped. Finally silence fell upon her like a thick blanket, seeming to smother her and make all actions clumsy… or was that from worry for her companion?

Dashing over to his side, she refused to look at him as she hoisted him in a fireman's lift and began the long walk back outside. Valkyrie was in fact stronger that she looked and her vampire was particularly weedy for a male and thus easier than she'd expected to carry, yet despite this she needed to stop every so often for breaks. Her suspicions about the city being filled with vampires were confirmed though, making it equally dangerous for both of them. If all vampires acted around Caelan like the previous had then he was in for a lot of pain. Fair enough, he had killed another member of his race but by the sound of it that particular deed had been committed near a hundred years ago! She sure as hell hoped he'd changed, but it seems the other vampires didn't feel the same. And as for Valkyrie, well, they all wanted to eat her. Simple as.

By the time she'd reached the mouth of the cave it was six 'o' clock and the first traces of sunrise began to show. Not being stupid she soon understood that all the vampires in the cave would be able to smell the blood that was draining from her companion with each jerking step and come looking for a meal once transformed. Cursing under her breath, she set out for a safe place for her vampire. There were a number of small caverns dotted across the ground that would certainly be large enough to stay in but would make them as susceptible to attack as a worm speared on a fishing hook. No, something higher up would be needed.

Narrowing her eyes against the harsh light reflecting off the cliff-face, she studied it for a large fissure. It would be near impossible for such luck, but damn would it be safe! The wall had few enough proper handholds that a vampire wouldn't bother going for such a difficult meal and if high enough it wouldn't be able to jump up and reach the opening… okay the luck would have to be ridiculous, but she had just saved someone's butt and avampire none the less. Surely that was worth some good karma points, right? Right?

And as luck would have it she spotted one. Muttering a 'thanks' to dumb luck she then spent a few minutes figuring out how to get up. Using her air elemental powers on their own wouldn't be enough due to their combined weight… but maybe necromancy? Valkyrie couldn't effectively lie to herself; even she was creeped out and a little disturbed at how good she was getting at her necromancy. It almost felt like she was betraying her elemental magic, which was silly since obviously magic didn't have feelings thus couldn't be insulted by choosing not to use it as much as you used to, but the feeling wouldn't budge. The rush of power she got when using necromancy, however, was not to be ignored. In the end, as with many other things, she chose to stuff the thoughts to the back of her head to mull over later.

Necromancy infused with elemental magic gave them the exact lift needed and she raised them fifteen metres into the air breaking only a little sweat (which she'd deny later). Okay, so the cave was fairly small and after Caelan had been spread out there was about a metre gap to the wall either side of him, and if she stood completely straight Valkyrie hit her head (in the tallest part of the cave) but other than that it was dry, cool and safe. And then, taking a deep breath, Valkyrie knelt beside the vampire and began to assess his wounds.

Most of the damage was bruises; it seemed that vampires attacking other vampires resulted in injuries much the same as those a human would get after a good beating. His chest was laced with a mural of bruises, all purpling beautifully. A few of the kicks had broken the skin and blood wept out of these, although it seemed this was due to an unusually sharp edge to the mans shoes, but the most blood was dribbling down his skin from where he'd coughed it up, although what the man had done to achieve this she wasn't sure. And to top it all off the burn on his face still hadn't faded (he'd taken the bandage off after insisting it looked stupid… well it did).

Having picked up his rucksack from where it had fallen, she rummaged through it for an insight on how to help him. Vampires needed blood. There was blood in this bag. But she couldn't find the blood. Not good. She was aware of an enchantment in his bag that allowed it to hold more than it would usually, but there was so much junk in it she couldn't find what she needed… although perhaps needed was an overstatement… no. That thought did not just pass her mind. There was no way in hell she was doing that, so she continued to rummage, and to her immense relief eventually found where he kept his blood in a small inside pocket. Snipping a triangle off the end with her penknife she held the cool bag of liquid and wondered how best to give it to him. Simply pouring it into his mouth wouldn't do, he could choke… she'd need to wake him if possible.

"Hey, wake up." She lightly slapped his cheek and upon receiving no response slapped him again but harder. "Hey! Caelan! Watch-boy! Vampire!"

He eventually stirred, massaging his throat as he sat up. Then on noticing the bag she held in her hand asked, "Is that for me?"

Raising an eyebrow, she replied, "Well it's not going to be for me is it?"

"I hoped not."

Valkyrie didn't waste time asking the obvious 'are you okay' since he obviously wasn't, she just handed him the bag and watched as he downed it in one go. He grimaced slightly when he was done, something Valkyrie was curious about. "Do you not like it?"

"Hmm?"

"The blood."

"It's cold." He replied as if it explained all. It didn't.

"Well sorry for not warming it up." She said sarcastically.

"I… no, I didn't mean it like that. It has to be kept cool so it doesn't go off, but it's better warm… much better." He explained somewhat hastily. Repulsed by his answer she chose to stare out the cave to avoid looking at him. "Uh… where are we?"

"You passed out after that? I've had worse and remained conscious." She snorted, not answering the question.

"He did kick me in the head."

"Oh… I guess that would do it. We're in a cave, a little way off from the entrance to the city." At this he sat up suddenly then winced as the bruises protested. "Don't worry, we're quite far off the ground. They'd have to be able to fly to get up here, and as far as I know the only humanoids that can fly are elementals."

He sighed, lying back down in relief.

"Do we have enough time to go back in?" She asked after a lengthy silence that oddly enough didn't feel uncomfortable in the least.

"No. They'll be beginning to leave the cave. We were unlucky with that… other vampire." He muttered.

"Unlucky is certainly one word for it." Valkyrie crossed her legs beneath her, shifting about from side to side on the uncomfortable rocky floor. "Do you feel a bit better now?"

"It's only been five minutes…"

"That's why I said 'a bit'." The light coming in from outside lit her face in a strange fashion, making her look almost alien like in appearance with dark shadows under her eyes and brow. "So." She slid into the next line of conversation carefully, understanding that an irritated vampire would be a bad idea in such a confined space. "You killed another vampire-"

He turned to shoot her a look containing such fury that his eyes turned a whole new league of dark, but she wasn't going to stop prying. She was Valkyrie Cain; like hell was she going to be scared into submission! "Don't."

"Don't I deserve to know why you did it? I want to know why every other vampire seems to want to beat you up." She carried on, unperturbed by how his gaze was darkening by the second. "You said ages ago that other vampires paid you for doing it… that you weren't the only one who wanted him dead."

"Vampires kill each other a lot more often than you'd believe, but not directly. Magician assassins are often used. But if one does kill another directly then they'll usually be killed in turn. Indirectly of course." He then stopped and licked his lips. "They're too unstable, volatile. We only have one rule, and that's not to kill each other. If one of us can't even follow that, imagine how they'll be with… well anything else."

Valkyrie frowned, "Then why are you still…"

"Alive?" He smirked, but it didn't reach his eyes that were still as dark as ever, making him appear more predator-like than human. "I killed someone when I was less than six weeks infected. They decided I wasn't wholly responsible for my actions and let me off. And although most people didn't agree with the decision they can't do anything about it. If I die it'll appear suspicious, so no one's so far tried to directly kill me… other than Moloch and Dusk, but even then I don't think they were trying too hard."

"Ah." She said, giving him a pause for breath. Caelan didn't like to speak too much, she knew this, but she wasn't going to let him stop completely, she wanted to know what the vampire had done to get the punishment he got. "So, who was it you killed?"

He turned, shot her a deeply sarcastic look and ended the conversation with, "The tooth fairy." Until he was in a better mood she wasn't going to get any answers. Well, fine. She could wait. "Are you using any magic?"

"No. Why?"

Easing himself into a sitting position, Caelan turned towards a dark part of the cave and shut his eyes. "Could you light that area of the cave up?"

"What's the magic word?" She replied in a sugary sweet tone.

"I can't use magic… besides, shouldn't you know that already?" Caelan said, baffled at her question. He was under the correct impression that elementals didn't need to say words to control their magic.

The girl sighed, "No, it's something people say when they're waiting for the other person to say 'please' in their question."

"Oh. Please?"

"Better." And with a smirk a small orb of fire appeared in her palm, immediately lighting up the cave. "Wait. Won't this attract the other vampires?"

"Uh…" He paused for a second, and then added, "We should be safe enough."

Then, walking over to the wall he inspected it closely before lightly tapping one of the smaller rocks it was made up of and it just fell apart. He turned with a smug smile to look at her.

Valkyrie gaped for a second, "Wow. Uh, how long did you suspect that was there?"

"I think… this may have been the path I used to escape from here last time…"

"And you didn't remember?"

"Well, last time I used it was a hundred years ago…" He shrugged.

"You do realise that every time you mention that I get this shudder of revulsion when I remember how old you are, right?"

"And what is it you want me to do about it? If you could recommend an effective anti-aging cream I'd be more than happy to try it." He replied, busy peering down the corridor. "Ah, seems you're rubbing off on me."

Valkyrie chuckled, "You wish. I'd never make such a rubbish joke." Caelan raised an eyebrow, prompting her to say, "What?"

"Not even when you were six?"

"I was the essence of humour and irony ever since I was able to speak. And before then I just looked at people and it was enough for them to bust into uncontrollable laughter at my magnificent wit."

"Of course." He said with no suggestion that he believed her in the slightest.

The passage, as all were, was narrow, very long and made so that they had to crouch the entire way. It probably would have been easier to crawl on all fours, but Valkyrie wasn't about to sink that low; very undignified (Caelan was quick to point out how she looked equally stupid shuffling along crouched). But of course by the time the light from the entrance to the cave had left she was forced to guess the way ahead and since no one could see her, sunk to crawling. To be frank with herself, she was fairly certain that the only reason she hadn't wanted to look stupid in front of him was the oestrogen running through her veins. 'Note to female hormones: shut up.'

Light suddenly approached from the corner, stinging their eyes accustomed to the dark as they neared the exit. The path they'd taken had let them out at the edge of a residential zone, and as soon as they stepped out of it she turned to look at the tunnel once more but it was no longer visible.

"It would be a pretty rubbish escape route if everyone could see it." Caelan said in response to her questioning looks.

"Yes. But if someone needs to get out they won't be able to see it. I think that makes it more rubbish." At this he remained silent. "So, any ideas?"

"It won't be in a house or anywhere near where vampires live. The magic coming off it would drive them mad."

"Okay, that's a start. How are you bruises?" She asked, but after receiving no response added, "By the look of things it was your ego that was bruised worst… I can't believe I just said that…"

"Getting a bit rusty?" He grinned then took his hat off and fiddled with his hair. "The safest place for us to start looking would be at nine in the morning I'd say. I'm guessing you figured out this place is filled with vampires?"

"Well I don't want to boast or anything… also won't it be better if you stay covered up? They'll recognise you."

"Ah… yes. You get kinda used to not having to worry about people trying to beat you within an inch of your life, you know?"

"I can imagine. Hey, what?" Caelan's coat was suddenly dumped unceremoniously on her shoulders. She shot him a questioning look, one he didn't reply to until he'd finished pulling his other hood up over his face. "What's with the gangster look anyway?"

He gave her a mock-hurt expression, "Don't you like it?"

"No." She replied bluntly.

"Tough. Anyway, put my coat on, it should mask your scent… a bit. You smell very human like."

"I should hope so really. And where is it we're going then?"

"My house."

As it turned out Caelan wasn't joking so Valkyrie was rather shocked after they appeared out in front of a smallish house set apart from the others by a wide margin. Oddly enough the network of back alleys they'd taken to get there had grass rather than concrete as a pavement and even weirder they didn't meet a single vampire. "Most vampires are scared of me." He offered as explanation, "Only a few actually try to injure me."

"How few is few?"

"About two hundred or so."

Everything inside the house was covered in a hugely thick layer of dust that was explained by 'not living here for a few decades'. Just opening the door sent great gusts of it up making her cough and create a barrier of air around herself. "Ugh."

"It'll settle."

The next morning they set off at the aforementioned time towards the city centre where the ridiculously large tree stood, its boughs heavy with pomegranates that looked like dew-dropped orbs of blood. What she hadn't previously noticed was the fountain that lay beneath the tree, and at the top seemingly balanced on top of the upward most jet a glass orb and in the centre a nearly indistinguishable green gem.

Valkyrie declared, "Well. That was surprisingly anti-climatic."

"Try getting it then." Caelan suggested, and so she walked towards the fountain, not seeing the smirk.

A faint nagging feeling sat on the edge of her mind, and the closer she got the stronger. By the time she was stood on the rim her mind whispered, 'Why couldn't he get it? It'll look far less suspicious than if a human did.'

She was in the water now, 'Is he suggesting that women should do all the work? He is from the Victorian times… who's he to order me about anyway!' Almost up to the first dish collecting the water, 'Well maybe I shouldn't get it then! That would show him not to order me about, bloody vampire.' And in the end she waded right back out again towards the vampire and as if a spell was released she turned back and tried for a second time. The result was the same.

At Caelan's increasingly wide grin she snarled, "Damn it. I hate it when people let me make an idiot of my self."

This was more Tanith's chapter, which is why, like, nothing happens to Valkyrie and Caelan…

And on that note, 'Death Bringer'! Not wanting to spoil it for people, but I'm half way through so far, and bloody hell, what on earth happened to Caelan? I understand Derek Landy was trying to make fun of 'Twilight', but really? I don't know if other people saw it this way, but I felt that from reading the other books I don't think Caelan would act that way at all and Valkyrie's pretty odd too, but I'm loving the rest of the plot… so I'm going to be incredibly mature and say for this fiction, 'death bringer' does not exist. None of those events will correspond with this one and Caelan will be more kickass, although that will be easy compared to him in death bringer… tl;dr i iz not a happy bunneh

In other news I was feeling really demotivated with this and fanfiction in general after reading so many rubbish fanfics on here, but reading some of the older books bought me back up again… and then 'death bringer' got me thinking 'why am I writing this? I should be writing original fiction! Hardly anyone reads this anyway!' But, I am resolved to finish this as nothing irritates me more than a story abandoned half way through…

Thanks to all who review, and as always, reviews really keep me going. They're like petrol to a fire. It'll burn fine without it but it really gives it an extra powzang! Wow, for a writer I'm terrible at metaphors!

Thanks for reading! ^^