Well, I'm working a little bit faster now. I just hope I'm not sacrificing any quality. But this thing has to get done sooner or later

Oh yeah. Sorry, Bystander, but at this point there is no way in hell I'm turning away from my last chance to get on the FDNY. My only worry is that I might not get a company in Brooklyn. Do you know what it would be like to work with the south shore companies on Staten Island? I'd go insane from the boredom

_________________________________________

After everything she had been through, she had expected Nigel to be a monster in the truest sense of the word. With near universal reaction of fear with the mere mention of his name, Brooke had expected the man to be a brutish, hulking terror from the fiery pits of hell itself. She certainly did not expect the person that slid easily past Callow and seemed to float into the room.

"Ah, Miss Farron," Nigel said, gliding across the rough, littered floor of the old warehouse with an almost feminine grace. The man was a far cry from large; he stood easily under six feet tall, his gaunt, slight build appeared almost frail beneath the black slacks and dress shirt that he wore. Nigel had to be an albino; the man's skin was a sickly pale, and his long, shining hair was a silvery white. Large, dark glasses shrouded his eyes, but Xavier's apparent leader removed them as he covered the last few feet to the makeshift altar. For a long moment the albino's pale blue eyes wandered across the girl's body, but Brooke could not be sure if he was aroused or repulsed by what he saw. Finally, Nigel took a step back, and smiled. "You look absolutely enchanting with all that silver jewelry. Has your stay been comfortable?"

"No," Brooke answered, glaring back at the man. Nigel's smile broadened slightly, but Brooke began to focus solely on the albino's dead blue eyes. A creeping sensation of dread started to filter into the girl's mind, even though the effeminate man had done or said nothing to evoke any fear.

"We kept her as comfortable as possible," Xavier said quietly, almost seeking to defend himself in light of his prisoner's accusation. Nigel turned his quiet, thoughtful smile on the Black Spiral Dancer as the pack leader spoke. "But she was a prisoner, and we couldn't let her escape."

"A wise decision," Nigel observed. Although his quiet, almost feminine voice did not rise in pitch or even volume, a sinister note had somehow crept into the albino's statement. Xavier unconsciously backed up half a step from the slight man before him, but Nigel was already turning his unsettling, dead blue eyes back to the girl shackled to the altar. "Now then, Miss Farron, I apologize for my associate's treatment of you, but, you see, we couldn't have you running off. You're a very, very special girl, Miss Farron."

"They they told me," Brooke informed the albino, trying and failing miserably to sound defiant. Nigel smiled, and turned back to the Black Spiral pack as a whole.

"We should get started," he said simply. "Mister Callow, if you would please retrieve the pair of gloves that are on the rear seat of my car?"

"Be right back," Callow said, foregoing his usual complaints about going anywhere when food was not directly involved. The ahroun actually hurried out into the darkening alley outside the warehouse. Nigel clasped his hands behind his back and whistled idly for a moment as he waited for the Black Spiral Dancer to return, seemingly unconcerned with preparing for the upcoming ritual. The hollow, windy sound of the albino's whistle seemed to cut through Brooke, sending chills up and down her spine.

"Don't don't we need to prepare anything else?" Bickle asked, finally finding his voice. "I mean don't we need some kind of summoning circle, or candles, or"

Bickle trailed off as Nigel stopped whistling and turned to the theurge. For a long moment the albino simply gazed with curious amusement at the Black Spiral Dancer.

"Would it make you feel better if I chalked out a pentagram on the floor?" Nigel finally inquired, stifling a faint giggle.

"Uh no, I not if we don't need it, I guess," Bickle stuttered, putting his eyes on the floor. Nigel laughed lightly, and put his arm around the theurge.

"Ah, Bickle, your pathetic Garou hedge magic is nothing compared to the pure power that I wield," Nigel explained, still speaking amiably. "The only focus I will need are my gloves, and here comes your companion with them now."

Callow reappeared in the darkening warehouse on cue, carrying a pair of leather gloves in his hand. Quickly the large ahroun handed the gloves to Nigel, then backed off next to Spook and watched as the mage slowly pulled the garments over his hands. Finally, the albino walked back to Brooke, and looked down at her with an almost sickeningly living expression.

"Don't be frightened, child," Nigel said, gently caressing the girl's cheek. "I promise that I won't hurt you."

"What are you going to do?" Brooke asked, holding her terror in check with the last reserves of her willpower. Nigel smiled sweetly, as if that was all the answer he needed to give.

Then he jammed his hand down her throat.

_______________________________________________

"Max, we gotta do something!"

"Where the hell is everyone?" Max demanded, keeping his voice to a whisper as he glanced over to Matt. The two Garou had managed to sneak into the warehouse undetected, and from their vantage point on a catwalk fifteen feet above the main floor, they could only watch in horrified fascination as the albino shoved his left arm to the elbow into Brooke's mouth. Brilliant, blue-white light spilled out of the girl's mouth and grotesquely lit the rest of her face from within as the mage seemed to be trying to grab hold of something in the pit of her stomach. Max was still sighting down his Dragunov sniper rifle, but he could not bring himself to do anything more than watch as Nigel continued to feel for something inside the girl.

"We can't wait any more, Max! Shoot him!" Matt practically shouted, shoving the ragabash in the arm. Snapped out of his stunned paralysis, Max sighted down the scope of his rifle again, taking steady aim between the mage's eyes. Slowly Max pulled the trigger, feeling the rush of holding the mage's life in his hands. With a slow exhalation of breath, Max sent his first round unerringly for Nigel's head.

The albino barely seemed to break concentration, but raised his right hand just as the round left the chamber. The bullet stopped a foot in front of Nigel's head, barely touching the palm of the mage's glove.

"It would appear we have guests," Nigel said quietly, finally looking up from the girl writing in silent agony on the altar in front of him. The Black Spirals flanking him had already turned to the two Garou on the catwalk, their faces twisting into masks of rage as they split up and rushed for each end of the catwalk.

"Okay, what now?" Max asked, turning to Matt as he lowered his rifle. The Black Spiral Dancers were already changing into their crinos forms as they reached the stairwells on either end of the catwalk, but none of the four made a move to climb up to the intruders. Nigel still held his right hand out in front of him, but now the 7.62mm bullet was spinning to face the two young men on the catwalk.

"I think ducking might be a good idea," Matt suggested simply.

The two Garou dropped to the metal floor of the catwalk a heartbeat before Nigel sent the bullet back to its original shooter. The round whined off of the metal railing as it ricocheted straight up, then rattled through the steel supports as it began to shatter the bolts and clips that held the platform in place. Max quickly sighted again as he felt the catwalk begin to sway.

"Let's try two, asshole," the ragabash said evenly, squeezing the trigger. Nigel smiled as the Shadow Lord opened fire, easily deflecting the first bullet to the side and then drawing his hand back and slapping the second round straight back at the sniper. Max and Matt both dropped back to the ground, nearly jarring the catwalk loose in their hurry to avoid the incoming round.

"Stop doing that!" Matt shouted angrily. The new bullet screamed off of something to their left, and the catwalk let out a final, tortured shriek as it broke loose of its moorings.

"Oops," Max said, shrugging as he turned to Matt. The catwalk pitched forward and crashed to the ground floor, carrying the two Garou down to the waiting Black Spiral Dancers. Max and Matt both switched to their crinos forms a split second before they landed, but one ragabash and one theurge would be no match for four Black Spirals. Xavier's pack rushed the pair before they could completely recover from the fall, intent on eliminating the threat to the ritual as quickly as possible. Behind the Black Spirals, Nigel ripped his arm out of Brooke's mouth, releasing crackling plumes of vermilion energy into the warehouse.

__________________________________________________

"You sure you want to do this?"

"Sure I'm sure," Jeremy said with a smile, leaning out of the driver side window of the Chevy Suburban he and the Shadow Lords had liberated from northern Harlem. Standing just outside the vehicle, Tanya actually appeared to be somewhere on the verge of concerned for the kinfolk's safety. Jeremy pointed to the ancient, decaying warehouse, barely lit in the gathering darkness by a few old, battered sodium lamps at the edges of the broken parking lot. "The walls are sheet metal with wooden supports. I'll tear through it like it wasn't even there."

"And it would be nice if you were to do that today," Alexei stated, walking up next to the galliard. Starkly contrasted against the dark sky, the few windows of the warehouse were brilliantly illuminated by blue and crimson lights, and the sounds of something huge and metal smashing to the ground. Jeremy glanced to the rear of the vehicle, where Gerald and Jack were waiting to leap off of the truck as soon as it cleared the front wall.

"Alright boss," the kinfolk said, ducking back inside the Suburban. Jeremy clasped his seatbelt quickly, then gunned the engine. "Hang on, boys! We goin' for a ride!"

Jeremy let up on the brake and slammed the truck into gear, catapulting the Suburban across the parking lot and rapidly gaining speed as he approached the wall. The speedometer read fifty as the kinfolk smashed through the wall, barely losing speed as he smashed his way into the warehouse. Sheet metal rode up and over the front of the vehicle, obscuring Jeremy's vision for only a heartbeat before he could make out the Black Spiral Dancers clustered on his left in their assault on Max and Matt. The kinfolk turned sharply to the right for only a moment, launching his two passengers out at the corrupted werewolves. Behind him, Alex and Tanya raced into the warehouse in their crinos forms, but Jeremy barely even slowed as he straightened out the Suburban and took aim at a new target. Only a few yards ahead of him, Nigel was pulling torrents of energy out of Brooke's mouth, not paying attention to anything other than the swirling clouds of light around him.

The mage turned at the last moment, irritably waving one hand at the onrushing truck. In an instant a solid wall of concrete had erupted from the floor, but Jeremy was far too close to even brake. The Suburban hit the wall at sixty-one, collapsing the sudden barrier on the hood of the vehicle even as it crumpled under the impact. The SUV crashed to a halt only six feet away from Nigel, buried under a mound of concrete.

The Suburban had barely come to a halt when Tanya vaulted over the destroyed vehicle, bearing down on Nigel before he could ready another spell. Alexei was closing in just as rapidly from the side, skirting the remains of the concrete wall, but Nigel seemed only to notice the black furred galliard as she leapt toward him. Only a heartbeat before her claws ripped into the mage's chest, Nigel simply disappeared, teleporting three feet to his left. Surprised by the sudden move, Tanya flew past the mage and crashed unceremoniously into the floor even as jagged shards of silver poked up out of the concrete, slicing through the werewolf's fur and skin like razors even as the metal burned her half wolf form. The galliard through the trap with a howl of pain, but Alex had already cleared Brooke and the makeshift altar, his glass klaive leading the way as he bore down on the mage. Nigel pointed to the ceiling fore the briefest instant, then quickly hopped back as an old, heavy steel light slammed down on the charging Shadow Lord. While the light did little to seriously injure the monstrous Garou, the concrete floor suddenly reached up and grabbed the philodox' arms and legs, trying to drag him back down into the ground. As the Shadow Lord struggled to pull free of the concrete restraints, Nigel stalked forward with a cold smile on his face. A blade of condensed air shimmered in the mage's right hand as he stopped over the helpless Garou.

"So sad," Nigel said simply, drawing his arm back. Alex tried one last time to pull free of his concrete restraints, but the mage's blade was already descending toward his neck.

Six bullets tore into the mage's chest.

Nigel stopped and looked down at the blood pouring out of his wounds in confusion, trying for a long moment to figure out exactly what had happened. Finally the mage collapsed to the ground, and the concrete crumbled to dust around Alex's arms and legs. As the philodox regained his feet, he finally found the shooter. Jeremy gave one last, pain wracked smile through a mask of blood before he slid down the side of the Suburban to the ground. Still badly torn by her landing in a field of glass blades, Tanya dragged herself to the unconscious kinfolk's side, checking quickly for a pulse. Alex turned back to Brooke, confident that whatever magick Nigel had used on her would die along with the wizard.

Instead, the light and energy the girl was expelling was only growing more out of control.

______________________________________________

Max had thought that he and Matt would die at the hands of the four Black Spiral Dancers and their mage master, but in the space of a second everything had changed. Jack and Gerald joined the fight with an explosive entrance as they rolled out of the truck and into Spook and Bickle, while Tanya and Alex made a mad dash for Nigel and his prisoner. Bickle's menacing snarl became a high pitched shriek of terror as Jack descended on the Black Spiral Dancer theurge, while Gerald barreled into Callow with all the force he could muster. Max had little time to cheer on his comrades, however, as Xavier pushed forward with all the speed and strength his rage could muster, swinging his pitted steel klaive in vicious arcs and forcing the ragabash back with every step. Clearly outclassed by the ahroun, Max could not even hazard a counter on his enemy as Xavier forced him farther and farther back, intent on pinning him in a corner and systematically ripping him to pieces. Just beyond the twisted remains of the catwalk, Jack was having great success against Bickle as the Black Spiral Dancer desperately searched for a chance to flee the huge Shadow Lord, but Gerald was already on the losing side of his fight with Callow as the far larger Black Spiral Dancer slammed the smaller Glass Walker ahroun to the ground. Even farther back, behind the remains of the metal walkway, Matt had called upon a spirit ally to aid in his battle against Spook, and a crackling spirit of pure electricity that constantly changed its shape fought by his side against the Black Spiral Dancer ragabash.

The rapid gunshots surprised all eight combatants as they heard it, and both Xavier and Max turned quickly to the altar and the mage beyond it. Nigel staggered backwards as he feebly tried to hold the wounds in his chest closed, while Jeremy slid into unconsciousness along the side of the Suburban. The mage's death seemed to hold all of the Garou transfixed for a moment; Gerald scrambled back to his feet as Callow turned in shock on the new development, but the Glass Walker did not take advantage of a clear shot at the Black Spiral Dancer's back as he too watched the mage die. Bickle, so deathly terrified of Jack that he was practically climbing up the side of the building to escape the huge Shadow Lord's wrath, stopped and stared, open mouthed, as quickly as Jack ceased his pursuit. Even the electricity spirit that Matt had summoned seemed to realize that something momentous had occurred, or at least waited for its stunned master to order it to continue its assault.

Nigel finally fell to the ground, but the swirls of light only became more intense and wild with his death. Bickle took a single step forward, drawing even with Jack, as he watched the energy sweep through the open warehouse floor and slowly start to coalesce above Brooke.

"It worked!" Bickle suddenly howled out, breaking the spell that seemed to hold all the Garou transfixed. The Black Spiral Dancer raced forward as the clouds of light took a more solid form, and a purely draconian head began to emerge from the swirling energy. "It's finally here!"

"What the hell is that" Max breathed out, forgetting that Xavier was the only Garou that could hear him. The corrupted pack leader turned back to the ragabash, his lips pulled back in a cold, sinister grin.

"That," Xavier growled out, "is a Zmei."