Wendy felt as if she were floating above her body,feather light and quite vertiginous with a gradually churning darkness just below her.The faint sound of voices drifted in and out occasionally but she couldn't focus her mind enough to make them out coherently.Minutes dragged on and she slowly began to regain her consciousness,as she did the voices seemed to become more clearer,the churning darkness started to amalgamate around her and then she felt someone had suddenly dropped a lead weight into her body and her eyes began to flutter open.She could now make out two people talking,one was her brother and the other a man.

"So you managed to withstand the urge to slay her,did you Reign?"

There was a pause and then her brother spoke,rather mildly."You could say that,I suppose.But what counts is she'll be just the kind of temptation to get to the other dragons.Then...I'll receive that much more experience."

"Hmm,"The man seemed to consider something with interest."The girl will have to be in her dragon form when slain in order to be able to trade her white hide.Otherwise,it would be nothing short of a waste of our time."

"Cash in all you want,Master."Cole replied breezily,taking a step up as Wendy started to raise her lids fully and tightening a shackle around her left wrist which she now noticed as she glanced up athim."But in the end it's all that I'm going to gain with the knowledge I've taken down two whole American Dragon's and a possible future third one that matters."

Huntsman observed them both closely for a moment,as he if he were not all entirely convinced he could trust what he saw."You're reasons are you're own,as are mine,"he told Cole impartly,seeming to settle onto an indifference towards Wendy most likely for her only playing a small part in their overall wicked game,saying as he left the small room."Oh...and make sure she's taken care of until the arrival of our other guests.If were to slay three dragons today,they all should be at fair health at least."

"Yes,sir."he replied with a sharp nod,watching him shut the door.

Wendy didn't skip a beat,as she was now wide awake and gritty with not letting herself be overwhelmed as she took in the situtation quickly."I'm guessing you didn't take what I told you to heart,"she said,her eyes set very squarely on him."If you had,I wouldn't be bounded to some wall."

But he didn't awnser right away,as he went over to a nearby window in the concrete-block and bare room.The glass was smudged in places with grim,so he used his elbow to rub away some that left a medium hole almost in the center,causing the gentle yellow rays of morning to fall in and bring a little life to the bleak-feeling that had just now met her.After that,he looked out for a few minutes and then eventually turned to her and stared very icily,not in the way he had when they'd first met five days ago but cold as in henow held something againist her...like she'd commited something so foul that looking at her was taking him some great effort.

He opened his mouth to speak,closed it for a few moments and then told her with his eye's drilling hard into hers."You know,beast,the reason why I fight...was never for revenge.I believe...believed...fighting and slaying especially was only to be done in the name of honor and even respect."he seemed to now be overcome with rage,as he had to avert his eyes from her in order not to act upon her violently,his voice now streaked with resentment."But those days are over.It's one thing to steal but to lie about something so...so personal.The one thing that you shouldn't have done but did and now I want to not only end you,I want to keep you around to prolong you're suffering.It's...crap...it's too much too resist!"

"Then why do you?"Wendy retorted heatedly,her own desire at helping him starting to feel akwardly unstable."Why are you keeping me around?"

"Orders."He said huffily but his body was starting to relax as he found his bearings to look at her once more."Strictly...orders.I may not like the way he views you horrid things as profitable but I do have an oath to obey him...anyways,"his voice turned informative,as he proceeded to exit as Huntsman had."You'll get nothing to eat until around noontime,you'll get a chance to shower and change after that and then you'll be returned to you're chamber.So that's a total amount of forty-five minutes you'll get in order to maintain yourself.Also,it will go on like that until further notice and then you'll be released to fight for whatever you're worth in our next big Hunts event coming up...which you'll hear when the time comes."

A pang of empathy somehow entered her heart as she could just briefly feel his inner misery,a tiny sense of loss in his soul and then she was back to her own thoughts and feelings."I'm...I'm not giving up on you,Cole."she found herself telling him wholeheartedly,staring straight into his black but blank eyes."I know you don't believe me now but I know you will."

There was an instant where he seemed to succumb to the kindness of her nature but instead he only shook his head stiffly as he left."I'm giving you until the end of today to give me back my initial chain.If not...you're not going to like what I'll do then.Trust me,I don't need to hear you're tricks or be overtaken by you're stealings to provoke me to annihilate you."

His threats were not what she dwelled on now but of the plan he had told her he and the Huntsmaster were planning.Just the very idea of other magical creatures being harmed made her angered,perhaps that had been why she had lost her temper with him.She had accepted that it would be difficult to try and get through to him but his cruelness towards others was something he needed to see for what it was and not what he thought he saw it as.These people's inability to have narrow-minded views on life greatly contrasted her beliefs and made her shudder.Once more,she felt the fear of what her father would do if he ever found her and that's when she started to wonder about her own fate now.They could destroy her and yet,as it was just the kind of person she was,the devotion to making her brother see the error of his ways was greater.So she settled herself in coming up with different ways to make him agreeand yet,she somehow hesitated at the thought of showing him the picture she had,deciding she would use it as a last resort if nothing else but nothing would stop her.

Back at the Spudiniski's residence...

Morning sun light pooled into Josh's room and onto his bed,which he laid sprawled upon.Visions of him and Wendy together clustered his drowsed state of mind.And he would have been perfectly content to have stayed that way,if there hadn't been a thunderous pounding coming from his front door downstairs.Finally,one giant thud and he was jolted awake,glancing around his slightly disarray room he made for the door to go alert see if he had awoken his parents.Out in the hall,his mother and father were out and stumbling about,seeming to scan around for the source of noise.

"Josh!"Arthur turned to his son accusingly."Were you the one making all that racket at seven-thirty in the morning?"his disheveled dark brown hair andhole-consumed sleeping cloths making it hard not to laugh at."Son...anwser me.It sounded like someone drove agarbage truck through the front door and has the motor stillon down there."

"Spud,calm yourself.I'm sure it was next door or something."Trixie muttered sleepily,stifling a yawn and looking calmly over at Josh."Did you make sure Wendy made it back on time,honey?Before you came in."

"I...I..."He began to stammer but the sound of something be brought up againist the wall downstairs made him pause and tell his parents with his nervous a jitter."Guys,I think we really ought to see what's down there."

The two exchanged nods of agreement at their son's opinion and Arthur made for the sutton crystal vase in the center of the hall on a small table but at Trixie's glare,he shrugged and instead accepted the slightly rusted titanium baseball bat that Josh offered him.So putting a hand out to keep his wife and son back as far as possible,the three haltingly started to descend the steps.Their creaks and then someone's heavy breathing were the only things that met their ears.But Arthur finally noticed that the door had been ripped offit's hinges and was propped next up againist the wall right next to it,he made a gesture for them to lower themselves down and with that accomplished he charged out into the living room.Swinging the bat around wildly,he nearly struck his arm chair which was blocked from view by the couch but instead he only dropped it with a clunk to the floor,as he then appeared to be shaking someone's shoulder hastily.

"Trix,hurry,come here..."he called to his wife urgently.

"Jake?"She gasped in shock when she and her son arrived to him.

Indeed,he was hunched somewhat with his arms on knees supporting his upper body,appearing very exhausted and incredibley tattered.But when he realized they were near,he raised his bloodshot eyes up enough to try and take inhis best friend's strickened faces,however,his distored panting and heart thwacking againist his chest made him start to fall forward and he would have collasped at their feet but forunately they had caught him by the shoulders to move him in a more upright postion.

"Jakey,what happened to you?"Trixie inquired him,fear filling in her umber eyes as she took a glass of tap water Josh had gotten and offered him but he waved it away,indicating he was too unsteady to grip it."You..."she sat it down on the coffee table and turned back to say with some displeasure at his appearance."You look awful.Isn't Wendy with you?It's Sunday."

"She..."His mind was reeling with memory but he managed to get out as his breathing was becoming more normal."She...isn't here?"he then sighed and spoke hoarsely,his voice thick with a night's worth of prolonged fury tinged with nearly faded panic."I...I was out looking for her all night.She never came home,never called...my-my first thought was to call you but I figured you'd have called if she was staying longer or something like that.I should have...I should have known this would happen.She wanted to put herself out there so much but I...I never should have let her come here last night.It was too soon,way too soon for her to be...be out like that."

Josh,who felt like he had just been delivered a blow that sucked all the air out of him,backed out of the room and out into the blurry morning with his whole body pulsating with guilt and terror."WENDY!"he shrieked at the very top of his lungs,flinging himself into the garage and with no sight of her there,sprinted out into street with nothing more then an old white T-shirt and striped boxers on."Wendy!WHERE ARE YOU?WEN-"

But he then felt himself being dragged back onto the sidewalk and spun around,he anticipated being screamed at or hit for his seemingly,lack-of-thought relinquishment of her.Him having made up his mind to let her go alone,now seemed like a living hell to him,as well as everyone else.And yet to his utter astonishment,his mother had wrapped her arms around him and was sobbing deeply into his shoulder,transferring some of her weight onto him as she did.With nothing else to do,he supported her and it became clear to him...she had been abducted by the Huntsclan...who else had been involved in her past?They had killed Wendy's mother and younger brother,surely they wouldn't rest until the job was picked up and finished for good,that had to be it...they had to have done it!

I'll get you allfor this!He thought with bitter seething.

A red convertible pulled up to the sidewalk and a fairly better kept but still wearied-looking Haley got out,she sported casual clothing as always and her shiny black hair was up in a twisted bun."I figured this would be his last stop."she surveyed them knowingly,her eyes with puffy but then wipping wind from her unconcealed top at left them tearless."I recieved a notice about where they're keeping Wendy...it's in Chicago but they're not planning on harming her...that is...until Jake and I get there probably."

To Be Continued...

A/N:An update may not be for a bit but it will come in due time.

LP