Chapter 8

When Sophia Donner finally worked up the nerve to climb the stairs to Deirdre's room, she wasn't surprised to see Nick Boyle sitting beside the Dee's bed. The tableau was one of sickness. Deirdre was white as a sheet and sweating. Sedated in a deep medically induced coma, the Slayer looked nearly dead.

The only way that Sophia could tell that Dee was still alive was the barely audible beat of her heart, and the pit in Sophia's own stomach. Nick was mumbling something under his breath that even Sophia's wolven hearing couldn't make out.

Then his voice raised to a whisper.

"She has dreams about it, you know."

Sophia started when she realized he was talking to her. "London?"

How could he know about that?

Nick turned to face Sophia, his face was destroyed. "The car accident. The one that killed your mother? She has nightmares about it. Every couple of months for as long as I've known her. Probably even before. She wakes up screaming about the lights and the sounds and the Red Wolf."

Sophia crossed her arms across her chest.

Nick continued. "My point is that she may not remember it actively, but some part of her retains the memory of what happened that night. It haunts her. Always has."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sophia ground through clenched teeth.

"So you'll know that she's not a monster. No matter what you're feeling now. I know what it's like to carry your past with you. To have it gnaw at your heart. It won't do you any good to hate her."

Realization dawned in Sophia's eyes. "You're in love with her."

Nick let out a low chuckle. Tipping his head back, tears rolled down his temples. "And here I thought I was hiding it. It wasn't always that way between us. Sort of a recent development."

"I'm not your confessor." Sophia bit out.

"Agreed." Nick nodded. "And she's not your enemy. Keep that in mind when you go in there."

Nick's eyes flitted over Sophia's shoulder, as a hand wrapped itself around her waist. Luke's scent washed over Sophia's nerves like a balm. Nick rose from his seat, setting Deirdre's hand against her stomach.

"Please," Nick croaked, "please if you can find anything to help me find our baby…"

Luke clutched Sophia tighter. The couple exchanged a look then nodded as one.

Nick placed a kiss on Deirdre's forehead, then excused himself from the room, closing the door behind him.

Luke pulled Sophia into a hug. She breathed him in deeply.

"You want some company?"

Sophia looked into his eyes. "In her head?"

Luke shrugged. "You did it with Ruby. And I've been in there before, when me and Prue helped break the spell on her so she could Flip."

"You never told me that."

He nodded. "So, how about it?"

Sophia kissed him. "Thank you."

Together they arranged themselves on either side of Deirdre's bed. Sophia took Luke's hand, clasped in her own and placed it over Dee's hand. Sophia closed her eyes and opened her mind up. Nothing happened for a moment and worry set in.

Find the Rabbit Hole, Luke whispered into her mind.

Sophia stretched her senses over the room, both her human senses and wolven senses. She felt something she didn't remember feeling ever before. A pull. Like a tingling spreading from the crown of her head down to the tips of her fingers and toes, then back up again. The tingling was most intense in the space behind her eyes.

She stretched this new sense out and found two swirling vortexes, one over Luke's forehead, the other over Dee's. Both vortexes beckoned her, begging her to join them. Tempting as it was to peek into her boyfriend's mind, Sophia turned away from Luke toward the vortex of Deirdre's mind. She gave a push and tumbled into the void, pulling Luke in behind her.

Sophia opened her eyes and found herself in the forest again. This time she noticed that the trees and underbrush were dry and browning.

"It's dying. She's dying." Sophia was shocked to find satisfaction mixed in with her sorrow at the thought.

"We can't let that happen." Luke was behind her wrapping Sophia in a hug again.

Sophia allowed herself to melt into him a moment before looking around. "We need to find the house. It was here before. I think it's where Deirdre keeps her secrets."

"Among other things," came a sardonic voice behind them.

Luke's arms tensed around Sophia protectively. The couple spun toward the voice. A figure dressed in leather leaned up against a nearby tree. Her right foot was propped against another trunk while she lit a cigarette. A bloody axe lay against her left leg.

"Slayer." Luke breathed. He took a step forward, putting himself between Sophia and the woman.

"Meat puppet." The Slayer nodded in acknowledgement to Luke.

"Deirdre?" Sophia asked.

It didn't look like the Deirdre that Sophia knew. The short brown curls were spiked severely, the clothes were almost tactical, and there was a thick layer of kohl around her eyes. Her shining black obsidian eyes. But it was definitely Dee.

The Slayer raised an eyebrow, speaking an a rich cockney accent. "For being a future queen of your people, y'ain't too bright. In't ya, princess?"

Sophia opened her mouth to reply but Luke held up a hand. "Ignore her. She's just a shadow of Dee's Slayer side. Her Wolf should be around here too somewhere."

"Before, me and Ruby dealt with a projection of Dee as a little girl," Sophia replied, "and another-"

"Fraid you're stuck with me as your guide this time, sweets." The Slayer cut her off.

Luke bristled, "And why is that?"

"Oh, lots o' reasons." The Slayer mused. "Maybe it's because you failed in your promise to integrate dear Deirdre into the Pack. You went all stabby stabby instead."

The Slayer mimed being stabbed in the gut. Sophia surged forward to attack, but Luke held her back. The Slayer chuckled.

"Or maybe it's because your girlfriend there may or may not harbor murderous intentions toward us-"

"Get to the point." Sophia barked.

The Slayer turned toward Sophia. "Or maybe it's like I told your boyo before. I'm the one who protects us from the monsters. And where you want to go? There be off the edge of the map, matey."

A shiver screeched down Sophia's spine at the haunted look in the Slayer's eyes.

"Show us."

"Are you very very sure?" The Slayer asked. "It won' be pretty, luv."

Sophia exchanged a look with Luke and he nodded.

"Let's go."

The Slayer shrugged, then stubbed out her cigarette on the tree trunk behind her and let her leg drop. Behind her was a freestanding wooden door with a gargoyle door knocker on the front. Sophia recognized that door. It was the door to Deirdre's house of memory, and Sophia was getting sick of it.

The Slayer hefted her axe onto her shoulder, bringing the knocker down hard. The door threw itself open. A swirling black hole greeted them in the doorway.

"Ready kiddies?"

Without waiting for an answer, the Slayer hefted her axe and leaped through the doorway. Sophia and Luke followed her into the maelstrom.

They were dumped into a bathroom, stark white and imposing. Deirdre, the real Deirdre, stood in her underwear at the sink. The three interlopers were crowded in the bathtub.

"What the hell?" Luke growled.

"What's going on?" Sophia agreed.

"You kids never read Dickens?" The Slayer commented. "Consider me the Ghost of Christmas Past. And you two.."

"We're Scrooge." Sophia nodded.

The Slayer tapped a finger to her nose then pointed at the figure by the sink.

Deirdre shuffled her feet, waving a small wand like object in her right hand. When she tilted it just the right way, it revealed itself to be a pregnancy test. With a big pink plus sign in the results column. Dee grimaced as she stared it down. Then, she started to laugh at it. Giggling at first, she soon burst into crazed hysterical laughter.

Dee threw her head back and screamed at the ceiling. "Fuuuuuuuuuuck!"

There was a soft knocking at the door. Adam Pierson's voice was muffled on the other side. "Dee? Would you like to make that phone call we discussed?"

"A moment, Doc!"

Deirdre ground tears out of her eyes with the palms of her hand. Then she threw on a fluffy bathrobe. She grabbed the pregnancy test and nudged the door to the bathroom open.

The Slayer motioned to Luke and Sophia to follow. The trio stepped through the door into chaos.

Sophia could not tell if the new scene before her was hours or days later.

The lights to the living room of the apartment were shattered, but the scene played out in the moonlight streaming through a pair of huge picture windows. Sophia looked around at the carnage of broken furniture and shattered glass from a toppled big screen television. The noises in the room were too loud and varied to separate.

In front of Sophia, Adam Pierson wielded a bejeweled broadsword against a masked attacker holding a scimitar. The bloodthirsty look on Adam's face, as he ran the attacker through, churned Sophia's stomach.

She didn't have time to process how Adam could kill someone, before a howl over Sophia's shoulder drew her attention. Luke and the Slayer were watching Deirdre brandish a katana against the largest, most malformed werewolf that Sophia had ever seen. The wolf looked as if he was trying to climb onto Dee's back.

Trying to mate with her? The odd thought flitted through Sophia's brain making her want to vomit.

Dee was having none of it. She screamed as she tore herself away from the slice of the werewolf's claws. This disoriented the beast just enough to allow Deirdre space to decapitate it with her blade. The giant hairy body gave a sick thump when it hit the marble floor.

Back across the room, another werewolf jumped through the window, raining glass over Deirdre and Adam. To Sophia's shock, Deirdre grabbed hold of the sofa, the only intact piece of furniture in the room, hefted it into the air, and broke it over the werewolf's head. The wolf collapsed.

"Here!" Adam shouted to Dee. He tossed her a small black object. A cell phone. "Go. Stick to our plan. I'll find you later."

"What about the Immortals? I can smell them coming up the stairs. At least two more. Their not following the rules-" Deirdre wheezed.

Adam's face screwed up into a snarl. "Vive! Cresce fortius. Pugnare postea denuo!"

Deirdre grimaced but nodded her ascent. The unconscious werewolf on the floor began to stir.

"I'll take care of him too." Adam insisted. "Go. Protect your child!"

That got Deirdre moving. She dodged through a back door. Sophia followed with Luke and the Slayer at her back. Dee moved fast, running through an open door to one of the bedrooms. Following her in, they saw her slam and barricade the door.

Deirdre pulled a backpack out from under an iron framed bed as well as a handgun and clip. She loaded the clip, muttering to herself.

"Looks like you were right, Nick. What girl doesn't need a little firepower?"

Dee threw the second story shutter windows open, and tied a rope around the nearby radiator. Double checking that the street below was clear, she threw the other end of the rope out the window.

A great crashing sounded from the other side of the bedroom door, followed seconds later by a scream. Then a moment of silence.

Deirdre's face was ashen. She whispered. "Doc?"

An intense buzzing noise, followed by licks of blue lightning seeped under the door. Dee's eyes went wide.

"Shit!"

Dee ran for the rope and managed to grab hold of it before jumping out the window: backpack, sword, pistol and all.

Then the door cracked down the middle with a full lightning strike, splintering in towards Sophia. She screamed in shock and pain as something bit into her arm. She was supposed to be a shade, with no physical interaction in Deirdre's dream memories. But somehow Sophia was bleeding.

The Slayer spirit waved to her and Luke, urging them into a closet. Sophia took one more look back. The most monstrous wolf form she'd ever seen stood in the doorway, covered in blood.

"Go!" The Slayer screamed at them, raising her axe.

Lucas complied. Shoving Sophia into the closet, he wrenched the closet door closed behind them.

The next thing Sophia knew, she and Luke were standing in a tiny wood box that was being pelted with rain. They huddled around Deirdre inside of a wooden phone booth covered in foreign language announcements. Dee was dressed completely different, in a flowing peasant style cap with a kerchief cap covering her hair. Dee's hands trembled while she punched numbers into the touch pad of the pay phone.

A woman's voice sounded over the receiver. It sounded like barely audible gibberish.

"Oui. Un appel téléphonique international. Si. Les États Unis. San Francisco, California." Dee said. Then mumbled under her breath. "Bloody international dialing codes."

After a moment, Dee muttered thanks and punched in a code off of a calling card in her opposite hand. The phone rang forever. When someone finally picked up, Sophia let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"Alex! Alex it's me, Deirdre." A look of mixed relief and anxiety washed over Deirdre's face. "Yeah Paris was beautiful as always….yeah, look Alex I'm in a bit of trouble. I need to talk to Nick, would you put him on? Yeah I'll wait."

The line went silent. Dee rubbed her belly absently with one hand. "Here goes nothin."

While they waited, Luke examined Sophia's arm. It was scratched up. Sophia hissed while he pulled out a rather large wood splinter. He raised an eyebrow, to which Sophia shrugged. Luke tore a strip of cloth off the bottom of his tank top and tied it around her arm.

They were jarred back to attention by a sharp slap against the wood slat wall.

"Hi Nick." Tears streamed down Deirdre's face as she spoke.

"Yeah I think some of the local werewolves in Paris didn't like a Slayer horning in on their territory. They attacked the flat and I think...I think Doc is dead. I had to get out of there before I could make sure..but...Yeah I'm pretty sure."

A beat while Nick spoke on the other end.

"Because I just know!" Dee yelled through gritted teeth. She took a deep breath then continued, "Look that's not the biggest problem. I've made it to Geneva, but I'm pretty sure I'm being followed. I don't know if it's Travers' Watchers or the wolves. I'm sure either way they're not looking to make nice, and it's possible they are working together."

Another beat.

"No I can't go back to San Francisco. There's a price on my head there. And besides there's another complication. That's why I need to talk to you, Nick….I'm….I'm pregnant."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Sophia could feel her whole body tense up with Dee's. Luke wrapped his arms around Sophia's middle.

Then Nick's voice could be heard clearly over the phone for the first time. "I'm coming to get you."

It was a tone that brooked no argument. Deirdre started sobbing, and Sophia couldn't hear what else Nick said, but the relief in the small room was palpable.

"Okay. Okay. I'll shoot for Milan. Rome is too populated and I might run into other wolves. I'm pretty sure all I'd have to deal with in Milan is vamps. I can deal with them if I can't avoid them. Two days? Maybe three? I'll take the train and meet you at the station?... Nick?...Thank you!"

Dee hung up the phone headset and change clinked into the payphone's bank. She wiped the tears out of her eyes, rolled her shoulders, and took a deep breath. Then Deirdre opened the door to the phone booth and stepped out.

As always, Sophia and Luke followed.