Arthur sighed in relief, bowing his head in acknowledgement of the presence of the old necromancer. "I was beginning to wonder where you two went off to."

"The Temple is not the most organized place to keep an archive of old artifacts" Master Christoph said with a grimace. "Lucky for you, one of Kahn's young monks has grown tired of never being able to find anything and took it upon himself to organize that dragon's hoard of items your brother keeps in his cupboards." He held out the crystal box, carefully opening the lid. "Just pop that horror into the box."

"What happens when we do?" Flynn asked, eyeing the casket with glittering eyes. It shimmered with power, the little light from the torches reflecting eerily off the glass surface. The Librarian immediately began to run through his list of never found artifacts – something he and Jenkins had started after their run-in with DOSA – to try to place exactly what this item might have originally be made for and where.

The necromancer took notice of the gleam in the Librarian's eyes with amusement. "It should muffle the items magic, keeping it from effecting anyone else. Essentially it's a dampening field." Christoph watched as Arthur carefully lowered the box into the box and gently shut the lid. "At least, that's the theory. It's so old that I can not be sure what is fact and what is fairy tale when it comes to this item. But it was the best we could do considering the circumstances."

"What about Candice's soul? It's still trapped inside the book." Baird eyed the insane Englishwoman and her companion with a frown. "Will putting the box inside that container cut the Countess off from her book? Or will it trap Candice inside along with what remains of the other victims forever?"

Christoph made a motion with his hand and the podium the book had been sitting on skidded along the floor towards him. He laid the crystal box gently on its surface and frowned. "That is one of the things we're not quite sure of. Much depends on the power the Book of Shadows has been imbued with. And the power that is set against it."

"Which will probably be me" Rowan said with a sigh. "Power of a witch against the power of a Fae noble. Should be an interesting fight."

"No – it won't be" Arthur rumbled. "Because you're not going near that nightmare. I'll be the one that rips it apart for its secrets. I'm the one that saw what it was used for – I need to be the one that ends its reign of horror."

"Have I MENTIONED lately that being the Master of the Temple I've had nothing but time on my hands to learn how to deal with evil nick-knacks like this?" Khan called out sarcastically.

"Not happening, baby brother" Arthur snarled. "That hag isn't getting a chance to get her claws in either of you."

"Indeed not" Vlad's cultured voice floated over the group. "Because as the eldest of our line – and the one that was originally sent to deal with this creature – the task falls to me."

"Father - no!" both Arthur and Rowan called out, aghast.

Khan leaned against the stone wall, hands out in surrender. "Kind of figured this was where this headed. No point in arguing with him, bro. He's as hard-headed as you are."

Vlad smiled thinly, his pointed canine's barely just visible over his lip. "I'll take that as compliment, young dragon."

"It was meant as one" Khan responded with a smile.

"Wait – when you say this task falls to you, what exactly do you have in mind?" Flynn looked from the still armored elder Fae and his now agitated children. Flynn and Baird had, when they first met Arthur, probed Jenkins for information on just how strong a magic user the Fae King was – to no avail. Jenkins either didn't know or wasn't telling. All he would say was that he had never seen his old friend defeated in battle. And if Vlad, despite his "condition", was the eldest of their line and probably Arthur's teacher – things could get messy.

"While I am not immune to the agony of an innocent soul trapped inside that cage through no fault of her own, Master Librarian, the fact is that we have to be aware of the big picture." Vlad moved slightly to stand beside his son and daughter, his now red eyes fixed squarely on the crystal box. "The Countess must be sent to her proper reward – i.e. her cage in Hell, lest she try this again and again. We are fortunate to have found her possible victims still alive but if she is not stopped now others might not be so lucky. Under normal circumstances I would send a message to Lucifer and let him deal with the situation just he did with that singer Johnny Favorite in New Orleans. I suspect that her original abilities may have resulted from an encounter similar to that of the human Old Scratch finally pulled back down to Hell."

"Was that the time uncle drowned someone in a vat of gumbo?" Khan asked. "Maze was telling me about it a while back. She thought the whole hunt was hilariously funny. Guy made a deal with the Devil but didn't want to pay up so he cooked up some black magic hoodoo where he traded skins with some poor schmuck he lured in off the street. Sacrificed the guy, became him then walked away without any memory of his previous life. Uncle actually hired him to find his original identity and arranged for all the ones who helped him try to skip out on his deal to die in unique and pretty gruesome ways. Didn't see the humor in it myself but figured I'd just go with the flow. Wasn't in the mood to duck hell-forged blades flying at my face."

"He… drowned someone in a vat of gumbo?" Baird asked, one eyebrow rising in disbelief. "Do I want to know more about that?"

"Probably not. Uncle has… evolved over the years" Khan said with a shrug. "But some things still set him off – like someone making a deal and then not planning on paying up. Which is why I think Uncle Vlad may be right about this being one of those "trying to skip out on payment" issues and it might have been a good idea to call Lucifer about this. Don't know who is sitting his throne these days but…"

"Seraphiel says no one is but that Hell is still open for business." Rowan rolled her shoulders back, wishing her Seraphim godfather / guard were at her side. She looked at her father expectantly. "So – what do you want us to do?"

"Stay out of the way" he said with a laugh. "Though I know THAT's not going to happen."

Notes: Reference in previous chapter to a gate keeper having met Bathory is actually taken from an episode of the original "Fantasy Island" where the Countess tried to take over her genetic duplicate to live again.
The "drowning someone in a vat of gumbo" comes from Angel Heart - seems like something Maze would find amusing.