I feel his hand caressing my arm and his lips kissing my cheek, ear, neck, any where they can reach. His body is pressed against my back, as I'm lying on my side. His hand travels down to my thigh and it starts exploring. I inhale sharply. It's just another dream, I think.

"Not this time, my love," Abe whispers in my ear.

I quickly open my eyes and crane my neck around to look behind me. There he is in bed with me, smiling. I squirm around to face him. In a matter of moments we're a jumble of exploring hands and tangled limbs. He's kissing me so deeply I almost can't breath. I'm not sure how he gets my shirt off so easily, but he does. The feeling of his bare skin against my own has my heart doing the four minute mile. I've got the zipper undone on his shorts, and I'm starting to do some exploring of my own.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Hey, Cavendish!" yells Hellboy through the door. I contemplate tying a knot in his tail. "You seen Abe?"

"No!" Abe yells back and goes back to kissing me, which is hard to do since I'm now quietly laughing.

"Well, if you do, let him know that Manning is looking for him," Hellboy calls through the door, barely containing his laughter. Then I hear him walk away. Ok, I won't tie a knot in his tail.

Abe sighs and pulls away. I feel like I'm going to explode. I desperately cling to him. I want him to stay so bad it hurts.

"I'm sorry, love," he says quietly. "Manning will be here soon, and it would better if I'm not here."

He gets up and I watch him put on his gear that he had taken off when he came in. He almost gets to the door before he realizes his shorts are unzipped. He looks down and then he looks at me.

"I didn't even feel you do that, you little sneak," he says smiling.

I smile back, hoping he'll come back to bed. He just shakes his head and then heads out the door after zipping up his shorts. I roll on my back and stare at the ceiling. I think how unfair it is and I want to cry. Twice now he's touched me and twice we've been interrupted. And then I remember what Guillermo told me on the plane: No premarital sex. Now I want to scream.

Instead, I drag my carcass out of bed and get dressed, putting my hair into a French braid. I open the door to find John with his hand raised like he's about to knock.

"Hey, good morning," he says.

"Good morning, John," I respond.

"Listen, I was headed for the cafeteria," he says. "Do you want to come with me and get something to eat?"

"Sure," I tell him. Before we can go, Manning walks up.

"Is Abe in there?" he demands, pointing toward the room I just left.

"I didn't see him as I was coming out," I respond. "But I didn't check under the bed, so you might want to look there."

I turn and follow John. We head down several more halls and end up in the cafeteria where I get coffee and a bagel. As I'm sitting and eating, I start thinking about Liz's disappearance.

"John, do you know if Liz just ran off or was taken by force?" I ask.

"She went out for a walk after Abe told them about the prophesy," he answers. "She was a bit upset. HB followed her from a distance. He was attacked and when he was done fighting off the demons, Liz was gone."

"Was there a sign of a struggle?"

"No, it was like she just disappeared."

"What demons attacked Hellboy?

"They were like the ones that chased you, when you first came here."

"John, can you show me Liz's room?"

"Uh, sure. Why?" he asks

"Because I'm going to try and find Liz, but I need something of hers," I answer, standing up.

John leads me to a room that looks like it could almost withstand a fire bomb. Shortly after we get there, he gets called off. What furniture that isn't fire proof, is at least fire resistant. The only thing that is out of place is the board covered in Polaroid pictures. There are a lot of Hellboy, a few of John, some more of Abe and several of an older gentleman with fly away white hair and a kind face. He reminds me of my grandfather. I look at them for a minute. I like the one of Hellboy lying flat on his back with a wet black kitten in his hand. I look in her closet and find a black pea coat. I "touch" it and it radiates with Liz's energy. I take it and head for the library.

Guillermo is pouring over a book, mumbling in Spanish and chewing on a pencil. He doesn't look up when I walk through, but that doesn't surprise me. I know he tunes everything out when he gets to working. Abe is in his tank. There are four music stands in front of the glass. On each stand is an open book. They all look extremely old. He looks at me and cocks his head.

"Good luck," he says.

"Thank you," I reply.

I go out the door to the platform, where I take it up to the lobby and then I head outside. Once outside, I look for an out of the way place to do my work. I finally find a spot at the base of a maple tree. I sit down in the dirt with the coat in my lap. I close my eyes and send "myself" out "looking" for Liz.

When I do this, I tend to lose all sense of time, so I'm not sure how long I'm gone. But the sun is much higher in the sky then it was when I first came out when I finally return. I'm hungry, tired and very disappointed.

I go back inside and head back to Liz's room. I put the coat away and when I turn around, Hellboy is standing there.

"What are you doing in here?" he growls.

"Putting away Liz's coat," I tell him.

"What were you doing with her coat?" he snarls.

"I was trying to use it to find her," I answer.

"And?" he prompts, hope starting to fill his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Hellboy," I say. "I wasn't able to find her."

He closes his eyes and sighs. His shoulders droop and his tail drags on the ground. I put my hand on his arm. It's amazing how warm he is.

"I really am sorry," I tell him quietly.

"Hey, at least you tried," he says in a defeated tone of voice. I feel sorry for him, but there really isn't anything more I can do. I leave him sitting on Liz's bed.

I head back to the room I slept in last night and gather up my stuff. I munch on one of the energy bars I got in Mexico and go looking for Manning. I finally find him in a storage room getting facial tissue and staples.

"Dr. Manning, I'm afraid that I'm not going to be much help here, so I'm going home," I say. "Please call me if Abe and Guillermo get anywhere on the book."

"Of course," he says.

I head back to the library and say my goodbyes to Guillermo and Abe. While saying goodbye to Guillermo is a lot drier than saying goodbye to Abe, it's not nearly as nice.

Within the hour, I'm walking through my front door. The next several days are spent getting back into my routine. I try to keep busy, but in the back of my mind I know that time is running out.

Sunday morning finds me taking care of all the animals by myself. Sunday is Helen's day off, so she and her family are enjoying sleeping in. I make sure all of the animals have food and water and that their various living areas are clean. I finally make my way to Magick's barn. I clean out his stall while he eats breakfast and then I give him a good cleaning as well. When I'm done, I put away the tools and saddle Magick up. We head out up to the lake near the house and spend the next few hours exploring the property. Afterwards, I turn him out into his paddock and head back up the hill.

I stand in my living room and look around. I realize that this isn't my home, it's just my house. Every piece of furniture has a function. There are no little knick knacks on the shelves, or artwork on the walls and the only photographs I have are ones of my parents and me just before they left for their cruise and their wedding pictures. I think of Liz's room and all of the pictures on her wall. I start feeling a little panicked. I haven't heard anything yet and it's already Sunday afternoon. I start trying to do chores, but I just can't seem to keep my mind on what I'm doing. I realize that I'm washing the same plate for about the third time when the phone finally rings. With a shaking hand, I answer it.

"Hello?"

"Miss Cavendish, it's Dr. Manning. Abe and Mr. Chavez are done."

"Thank you, Dr. Manning. I'll be there shortly."

I head out to the car and drive up to the BPRD. The sun has almost set. I get there in about half the time it would normally take. It seems that the trick I used with Magick on our wild ride a couple of weeks ago works even better with cars. I'm such a bundle of nerves at this point that I'm tripping over my own feet, but somehow I get down to the library without falling flat on my face.

I open the door and everyone seems to be here. Hellboy and Guillermo both look like they haven't had much sleep in the past several days. Abe is a paler blue than normal and I suspect that he probably hasn't slept much either. Manning, John and several other agents are here as well. They looked worried, but rested. Abe comes over to me, gently kisses me and then leads me over to where he and Guillermo have been working. I sit down in the chair Abe offers me.

"Well, now that everyone is here, perhaps you two can explain what this is all about," says Manning, staring at Abe and Guillermo.

"Certainly," says Abe. "It seems that tonight someone is going to try and open a portal to another dimension. He or she will use the power of a Mage with no Family to open this portal. The ritual will take place on an altar bathed in the blood of demons. It will happen at the height of the nearly new moon."

"So now we know the how and the when," says Guillermo. "But we don't know where. Our only clue is the altar. According to the book, it's made of bedrock pulled from the earth and bathed in the blood of demons."

Some people look at Hellboy.

"Hey, don't look at me," he says. "I haven't been bleeding on any altars."

I sit there and wonder. Will all of the work be for nothing? Is the world about to end because we can't figure out where the ritual will take place? Then a memory starts forming in the back of my mind.

"Does the book say how to stop the ritual?" asks Manning.

The nearly full moon is just past its zenith and creatures of various sizes are coming out of the fissure and forest.

"Well, it can be prevented if we can find the place and get Liz back," says Abe. "However, once the ritual starts the only way to stop it is for the altar to be destroyed by the one who created it."

A creature that looks like a cross between a baboon and a cat spots me. Letting out an unearthly shriek, it charges me. I stand there stunned, and then, at the very last second, I swing the flashlight. By some miracle I actually make contact with the things skull, crushing it.

"Well, that's just great," growls Hellboy. "How are we supposed to stop this thing? We have no idea where this slab of rock is. And how are we supposed to find the guy who created it?"

Several more creatures notice me. Breaking off their attack on the others, they head for me.

"I don't know," says Abe.

In a state of near panic, I "pull" a large slab of bedrock toward me. It bursts out of the ground between me and them. Then I give it a "push" and it falls over onto the creatures, crushing them to death.

"I do," I say quietly.