Well, I'm updating. This may be the last update for quite a while; I don't know. Things are getting a little out of hand, so I'm sorry if I don't update frequently. But I'm trying as best I can, rest assured.

Once again, thanks to all of my wonderful reviewers. You know who you are. And who you aren't. :glances at people who haven't reviewed:

Disclaimer: I've run out of clever things to say, so let's just say I don't own the Bartimaeus trilogy.

Chapter Five
A Pool of Blood

"And I ran, I ran so far away,
I just ran, I ran all night and day;
I couldn't get away."

-A Flock of Seagull's "I Ran"


Kitty put her head in her hands. Everything was going wrong. This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

"Kitty?" She looked up.

"Yes, Jack?"

He sighed sadly, his shoulders sagging. "What are we supposed to do now?"

Kitty snorted.

"I don't know," she snapped bitterly, her anger caused by pure exasperation. Jack flinched and she shook her head. "I'm sorry for jumping down your throat, but I'm just a little stressed. Honestly, I don't know where we're supposed to go from here."

"I've got an idea," stated Glen from his position against the wall. He stood up and walked over to the table Kitty was sitting at. "Jack can see demons and Joel and Elliot can feel magic output, so they'll be in a group. With them, obviously, will be Katherine, since she can sense which individuals have resilience. You and I, since we're resilient, will go with them as protection. We'll space ourselves, of course, but we'll stick together relatively."

Kitty cocked an eyebrow.

"What about Thomas, Yasmin, and Clarice? All of them see demons, so it's not like they have a large chance of finding Dylan." It was Jack's turn to speak.

"They can cover our back to see if any magicians are tailing us," he suggested.

Glen grinned. "Exactly," he huffed proudly, crossing his arms and sticking out his chest. Kitty shook her head.

"Well, I suppose it's the best we've got, so why not give it a try?" she wondered aloud, shrugging. Jack clapped her on the back.

"Thattagirl!" he exclaimed happily. Just then, Yasmin popped her head into the room.

"So, do we have a plan?"

Kitty shrugged. "Yeah. It's an iffy one, but it's a plan all the same, which is more than we've got."

-

To the untrained eye, they were vacationers, or merely people with far too much time to spare. They stopped occasionally at a shop or booth, but quickly, mind you, for they were in a rush. But even when hurried, they were calm, cool, and collected, at least on the exterior, that is. This was just how they operated.

The young woman lowered her sunglasses a bit, looking ahead impatiently. They were moving along at the rate of a slug. They would need a tremendous amount of luck to do this in any sane amount of time.

"Hello, Miss, you look like you're in need of a poncho!" She turned to see an old man outside a shot grinning toothlessly, and he chuckled when a large glob of rain hit her shoulder. She hadn't even noticed the change in weather. Maybe she was losing her touch. "See what I mean? Now, we've got the standard, traditional Spanish poncho-" he pointed to a brown one "-or we've got some exotic ones, like these German pieces over here."

She frowned irritably and coolly replied, "I am not looking to buy, thank you."

However, he still kept that crooked grin. "Nonsense. Everybody loves ponchos!"

She shook her head and began to walk away when a strong arm yanked her by the elbow back to the store.

"Now, now, Miss," he said cheerfully, "you weren't thinking of leaving, were you? I mean, look at all that rain, and you don't have something to wrap around that pretty little body of yours!"

Her patience was beginning to run thin by this point, her face becoming a faint shade of red.

"I told you," she spoke through clenched teeth angrily, "I am not looking to buy, thank you very much!" And she turned to walk away again, but the man pulled her back to the shop.

"I see what this is about!" He looked very pleased with himself. "Now, don't you worry, I'm a persistent bugger!"

She ignored him and pulled herself from his grasp, but he hooked his arms around his waist, putting his head on her shoulder. "Don't worry, I understand! You're worried the Mister won't approve, aren't you?"

She tried to control herself, to contain her anger, but something inside her snapped. She wasn't sure what it was, but something triggered her temper, and that was never a good thing, for it made her lose her cool. So she did the only thing she could think of at the time.

Spinning around, she punched him upside the jaw.

He fell to the ground wordlessly, knocked out. Several ladies gasped from the doorway.

"He was a senior citizen!" they reprimanded, wagging a finger. "How could you?"

Her temper was still running high, so she didn't even think about what she would say next, just saying it instinctively. "Sexual assault."

They put a hand to their mouths in shock and nodded supportively.

"Don't worry, we won't tell a soul!"

She tilted her head towards them gratefully and walked the other way, relief filling her body. Well, that had gone rather smoothly. She'd only lost two minutes, come to think of it.

She turned to her left after spotting Glen across the street motioning to her slyly, and nearly ran into another, not seeing him from the turn.

Jack grinned. "Nice one, Kitty," he whispered. She shrugged.

"It was alright," she remarked, lowering her sunglasses a bit to see him better. "I blew my top, but at least I covered for it."

"Yep, you sure did," Jack agreed, jutting his head backwards to motion for her to follow him. Swiveling on his foot, he began to stroll down the long sidewalk, Kitty following. "You're a natural."

She didn't reply, instead electing to have her eyes dart around for any sign of their missing comrade. "Has Katherine picked anything up yet?"

Jack shook his head sadly.

"Nope. It's like he vanished into thin air without a trace."

"Well, maybe the magicians are having the same luck," she said hopefully, not really believing it, though.

They walked in silence from that point on. That is, until someone nearly knocked Kitty over from the side.

"Oh, there you are," breathed Elliot, bending over and panting. Running wasn't exactly his strong point; that title belonged to reading. He pointed a thumb over his back, still struggling to catch his breath. "Katherine… Katherine… whoa, I'm winded-"

Kitty's eyes narrowed. "Katherine what, Elliot?"

He sighed. "Katherine thinks she found something."

"Where?" Kitty demanded instantly. He took one more breath and stood up.

"Down this ally. Come on, I'll show you."

He turned and began to limp down a decrepit side street, moaning dramatically. However, this all ended when Kitty gave him a sharp kick in the-

"Ass!" he groaned, rubbing his backside. "Did it have to be in the ass?"

Kitty shrugged. "If you don't hurry up, it'll be somewhere else, equally as painful."

Elliot's face contorted, and he nodded.

"Yes, Master." And he began to jog, Kitty and Jack following behind him. Kitty nearly did the same to Jack when he couldn't keep from laughing.

"I'm sorry," he whispered with a chuckle, "it's just that Elliot running is hysterical!" He quietly began to choke from the strain of laughing and talking at the same time until Kitty gave him a nice slap on the back, quite a bit harder than was necessary.

They were interrupted by Elliot's voice. "Here she is!"

Katherine was knelt over a stained patch of cement, her face grim. Joel stood at her side, and Glen was approaching from behind Kitty.

"What is it?" Kitty asked. Katherine looked at her darkly.

"Blood," she replied quietly. Her eyes fell back to the stain. "It's got resilience all over it. He was here, and he bled."

Joel's face became pale. "How far could he have gone from here? I mean, if he was bleeding…"

Glen shook his head.

"Not far, judging by the size of that. I think someone- or something- attacked him. From there, I don't have a clue." He stroked his ruggedly unshaven cheek thoughtfully.

"Guys?" Joel called, his fingers tracing over the wood of a fence. His face was grim. "I think I found something."

Kitty's eyes widened and she rushed over to him, peering at the spot on the fence his finger was pointing to.

She bit her lip. "More blood. He went over this; that's the only explanation."

Without waiting for the others to respond, she placed one foot on a trash can, planting the palms of her hands on the top of the fence, and pushed, propelling her over the structure and onto the ground as gracefully as a cat. She crouched, looking out at the area beyond her and grimaced as the others hopped the fence behind her.

"Please, don't tell me he went into that," she said to Katherine. Katherine shook her head.

"Sorry, but there's no doubt about it. He definitely went into that."

"That" was the calm flow of the Thames, and Kitty wiped at her eyes.

"Why would he go in there if he's not…" She sniffed suddenly and gritted her teeth. Now was not a time to be emotional.

Jack put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "Maybe he wanted a swim?"

This earned him a slap from Glen.

"Stupid boy," he muttered, shaking his head. "Yes, that's it, he wanted a swim! Honestly, there are only two possibilities. The only one I think you'll like is that he was trying to get on a boat to escape. The other is a bit more morbid and much more unpleasant."

"Whatever it is that he did," Katherine stated, standing up, "there are extremely strong traces of him in there."

Kitty sighed and straightened upward, stretching her back. "Well, we all know what this means. Who's up for a little swim?"

And she stepped to the edge of the concrete and without hesitation jumped, curling into an elegant dive. She relaxed as the cold water surrounded her, the calamity of it all sinking away for a moment.

Opening her eyes, she began to push forward ferociously as the others dove in behind her. Her clothes stuck to her body, weighing her down, but it didn't matter at all. She had to find that idiotic boy. That was the only thing that did matter.

Brushing away a small fish, she went above water for a quick breath, glancing at Joel. "Any luck?"

He shook his head, and she submerged her body once again.

After repeating this several more times, she could feel the muscles in her legs and arms begin to grow weary. Her lips pursed angrily. She would not be tired. She couldn't be. Dylan's life could depend on it.

With an inward sigh, she pushed up to the air once again.

"I'm have zero luck," she called to Glen and Jack.

"I know," Jack commented wryly, glancing at the water doubtfully. "I'm starting to doubt Katherine's accuracy."

Kitty was about to reply when she raised her arm to brush the hair from her eye, stopping suddenly. Her white blouse had a very large red stain on it. It hadn't had that stain before.

Slowly, she looked down. It was surrounding her like a predatory creature, wrapping around her, trying to suffocate her. The deep red tainted the water, and she could feel the metallic substance on her lips.

Blood.

In horror, her eyes followed the pool of blood all the way to a body, floating face down in the water. Well, there Dylan was.

"I think- I- I think I found him!" she choked, suddenly feeling very dirty and unclean. The others didn't say a thing, just watching fearfully.

"Guys, we need to go!" came Clarice's voice from the edge of the water. "The police are coming!"

Kitty didn't really hear her, but she backed away, sluggishly reaching the land. Suddenly, her senses came about her, and she yanked herself onto the cement, scrambling to her feet and running away from the others, from the body, from the blood, never looking back.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes: This is somewhat of a transition chapter, actually, where the plot actually starts to kick in. I managed to get some humor in there, but I think it was a little freaky-er. Which I, being my morbid self, kinda liked.

Next Chapter:In Training Day, Nathaniel gets an unwelcome awakening as the British Museum is robbed of a little-known artifact that even Bartimaeus is skeptic about. And Morris- well, I don't even think I need to elaborate.