Chapter Ninety-Two:

Regrettably, I was right about Jonah. About an hour later, after fighting three more Vampires that led us into the Forbidden Forest, Indina, Lysandra and I stumble upon a body. The body is bloody; its stomach ripped open. Even though I'm not too great at anatomy, I can tell that several major organs are missing. And its face… Its face is so severely scratched and mangled that it is practically torn off. But it's wearing Jonah's clothes. It's holding Jonah's wand.

I feel a hand fly up to cover my mouth as I fight the impulse to gag.

Oh, no. Jonah.

Lysandra gasps and shuts her eyes tight, looking the other way. Indina wails. She falls to her knees beside Jonah's body. She takes his bloody hands in hers. "Jonah!" she screams helplessly, rocking back and forth. "Jonah! Please!"

Lysandra hitches a sob herself and presses her face into my side. Without thinking, I put my arm around her.

"Indina, please, be quiet."

Carse Hole steps out from behind a tree. He's got his wand in one hand and a silver dagger in the other. He's covered in blood, maroon blood that gives off a faint glint. Vampire blood. Wow, he's good at the Vampire slaying. Maybe he should forget about his Auror ambition and take that up. I look beyond Carse Hole and notice several charred Vampire bodies, dumped haphazardly.

I suddenly realize that after Carson killed all of them, he dragged them away from Jonah's body. Surprisingly sensitive of him.

Carson kneels beside Indina, putting a hand on her shoulder. "C'mon, Indy."

"What happened?" Indina chokes out between sobs.

Carson looks like he doesn't want to tell her. He sighs. "You and Jonah were separated and Sage is badly injured so Jonah and I started working together. Six of them attacked us. By the time I got away… They were ripping Jonah apart. I didn't… didn't get there in time." His voice breaks. "But I still… Well, I burned their bodies."

"Oh, Jonah!" Indina leans over his body, getting blood all over her clothes.

"Please, Indina, be quite," Carson whispers through clenched teeth. "They'll hear you. And I need a moment to rest." He helps Indina to her feet. She turns her face into his shoulder and continues crying. But while she shakes back and forth with sobs, she remains silent.

Chapter Ninety-Three:

Carson doesn't take long to rest and so we're not allowed much time to grieve over Jonah. Indina is still hiccupping and wiping her eyes as Carson nudges her forward. "C'mon, Indy. We don't have time for this right now. We've got to keep fighting or else we'll end up like him."

So much for the surprisingly sensitive version of Carson.

Indina takes deep, shuttering breaths but grudgingly starts walking. Carson keeps his arm around her, guiding her forward.

"I say the four of us stay together," Carson says as we trudge through the Forbidden Forest, trying to find the path again. We're hopelessly lost and turned around. "There's so many of them. More than I thought, at least three hundred, from all over Europe. I swear to you, one of them was cursing at me in Polish. We're outnumbered and it takes at least two of us to fight one..."

Great, I'm lost in the Forbidden Forest in the middle of a war and Carson Hale is one of my allies. I officially hate life. While we walk, Carson conjures three more silver daggers. He hands one to each of us.

Ooh. Cool. I swing the dagger around, feeling impressive. Maybe Carson's not so bad after all.

"How about—" Lysandra starts to suggest but Carson holds up a hand, silencing her. "Listen," he mouths and points off to the left.

We stop walking and strain our ears. Someone's screaming in the distance. A girl. "Ughh! When I get out of this, you pasty leeches are in big trouble!"

Someone else cries out in pain, a boy this time.

"STOP IT!" shrieks the girl. "You scratch him again and I'm going to mount your severed head over my fireplace! STOP IT!" She screams again.

"Shut up," shouts back a third voice. "You talk too much, you stupid little girl."

My stomach clenches. I know who the girl is; it's Ricia. No one else would threaten and verbally assault their captors like that. I'm betting that boy is either Tyson or Nick. Maybe both of them. I turn and look at Lysandra. Her face is set.

"We've got to help them!" I start to run forward, but Carson grabs my sleeve and tugs me back. I turn to glare at him.

"Stop it. Wait a moment. We can't go charging in their like idiots, waving our wands. Let's move quietly," Carson instructs. "They might be distracted enough that they won't smell us. We can get a better look at the situation."

We try to move as swiftly and silently as possible, doing our best to follow the sounds of the screaming and yelling. After about three or four minutes, we can make out a clearing. Peering through the trees, I make out seven Vampires, including Pyrite. Ricia, Tyson, and Nick are lying on the ground, their wrists and ankles bound. It's too dark, I can't tell if they're injured or not. If they're breathing…

"All right. Seven of them," whispers Carson, assessing the situation. "All right we need to—"

A twig snaps in the distance. Lysandra clutches my sleeve. We look fearfully over our shoulders, mentally preparing ourselves for new horrors.

And we are instantly relieved.

It's Michael Corner.

Chapter Ninety-Four:

Michael manages a slight smile when he sees us. This is kind of frightening do to the fact that he is holding his wand in one hand and a swinging an iron crowbar in the other. "Aw man," he whispers, turning to me. "I bet Parvati that it was you the Vampires carried off. Guess I'm out five galleons."

"Really? Now?" I say.

"It's a joke? You know, since I saved you from the Death Eaters that one time."

"Ha-ha."

"Back up is coming," says Michael, all serious now. "We saw a few kids being dragged away. When we tried to follow, others attacked us; trying to stop us from going after the kids. One of the hunters told me to slip away and go on ahead to scout out the situation. They'll probably be on their way in a few minutes. Sooo… What is the situation?"

"They have three students," answers Carson. "There's at least seven of them. Probably more."

Ricia suddenly screams again. Just hearing her is agony. When she's done screaming, she shouts, "Ooh, is that the best you got? C'mon on you overgrown tick. Kill me already and get it over with!"

"NO! No! Please. Don't touch her," Tyson groans. "If you really feel the need to beat up a wizard—"

Tyson's voice is cut off by a loud thud. I'm guess he was either kicked or punched. "Then torture you?" replies a deeper voice. Pyrite. "How touching." There's another crunching sound and Tyson bellows.

Michael shakes his head. "To hell with waiting." He turns to the rest of us. "Get as far away from me as you can. Try going to the other side of the clearing. I'm going to try to lure them out. You try to get the kids out of there and find your way out of the forest."

"You're crazy!" interrupts Carson. "You're going to get yourself killed."

"I'd rather die than hear that poor girl scream again."

Michael shoos us away, insisting that three or four Aurors, Hermione Granger, and Parvati Patil were on their way. We do as he says and creep clockwise around the edge of the clearing. We watch Michael run along the opposite side, banging the crowbar on the trees, possibly trying to create the illusion that there are many people on the way, not just one.

To my utter amazement, five of the Vampires exit the clearing, getting ready to face off their attackers. Only two—Pyrite and one of his henchmen- are left behind with Tyson, Ricia, and Nick.

Carson holds up his dagger. "This is so not smart," he notes. "Follow me."

We leave behind the cover of the trees and charge into the clearing. Pyrite looks faintly amused by our rescue attempt… until Carson flies forward and sinks his danger into the other Vampire's heart. The Vampire screams and starts jerking and twitching as if he had been poisoned.

Pyrite screams in range pulls something from his cloak.

A wand.

And suddenly our wands and our daggers fly out of our hands and fly off into the night. Pyrite turns and glaring, points the wand directly at Carson. Carson who is standing there, his eyes wide, unable to move. Without thinking, I push Carson out of the way, yelling "Duck, you moron."

Just as there's a flash of faint green light.

Chapter Ninety-Five:

"Ross!" Lysandra screams.

I fall to the ground, clutching my sides. Even though I feel like I got hit in the stomach by a charging rhinoceros, I'm rejoicing. That was Avada Kedavra, it had to be. But I'm not dead. I'm not dead! I roll on to my side clutching my stomach. This is the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. Even worse than the Cruciatus Curse. But I'm not dead.

My stomach heaves and I cough violently. I taste blood in my mouth, I feel it bubbling over my lips and dripping down my face. No, I'm not dead.

Not yet.

Lysandra starts to take a step towards me, but Pyrite turns his wand on her. "Don't any of you move!"

Lysandra, Carson, and Indina freeze and then all three of them topple over, completely paralyzed. Ricia, Tyson, and Nick struggle feebly against their bonds but it's no use.

Pyrite turns back to me, crouching at my side. There's a strange expression on his face.

He sniffs me. Disgusting. "You've seen Laurel?" he barks, his voice sharp and stern. "She's… here?!"

I shake my head.

"Don't lie to me! I can smell her! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!"

He wipes some of the blood off my face and brings his fingers close to his face, inhaling deeply. He suddenly laughs. "Well, well, well. That's interesting. Seems your fighting on the wrong side, little brother."

"What?" I manage to wheeze between bloody coughing fits.

"You don't know?" Pyrite seems surprised. "It was hard to distill from all that putrid human stink, but you have Vampire blood running through your veins!" His voice is filled with wonder, like he just discovered some long-lost artifact. "Judging by your height, I'm guessing it was one of your great-grandparents."

"You're… crazy. Great-grandparents… all Muggles." I try to explain about the blood at Ara's shop but Pyrite just laughs and shakes his head. "Not a chance. I can tell the difference between Laurel's sent and your own. Let me guess, you have a strong hatred of garlic and overcooked food? You sunburn easily? Maybe your eyes reflect light… like a cat's?"

Yes to the first two. I don't like overcooked food and I really hate garlic. But plenty of people hate garlic. And who in their right minds likes overcooked food? I do fine in the sun. I'm human. I'mhumanI'mhumanI'MHUMAN!

"Where—" cough "—did you get—"cough"—wand?"

Pyrite smirks. "Humans raided on my camp last summer. Normally, when they realize they can't escape us, they snap their wands in half. Sometimes they don't get the chance. We usually burn the wands with their bodies. But this particular one…. Well, he thought it would be funny to blind my daughter. And that was the last straw. So I decided I was going to keep his wand and insure that we're finally heard. It's been easy. All I have to do is concentrate on what I want and point. Oh, it's not perfect, since I don't know any of the incantations, but it gets the job done most of the time. Sometimes it takes two or three tries."

He leers at me. "You know, more than half of those clans out there didn't want to join me. My own father-in-law wasn't even behind me. But one little meeting with their leaders, and they would do whatever I told them to. I'm going to have a little talk with your Minister and he's going to finally see things my way. We're getting wands. Our children will be allowed to study here at your school. We're finally going to get equal rights. Now if you'll excuse me," he tucks his wand back into his coat. "I have an appointment."

He steps over me and leaves the clearing, leaving me to slowly bleed to death internally while half my friends are paralyzed and the other half are tied up. And even if we were physically able to move, we don't have any wands or weapons. The others might be found eventually, but there's no hope for me.

I'm going to die.