Disclaimer: I do not own… the usual stuff. And I especially do not own Zames and I hope he never lays eyes on this fanfic.

A/N: To those of you who know me, bear with me and this chapter. Some parts here may seem blasphemous and offensive but know that I write these for good humor and entertainment purposes only.

Chapter 10: The Wolf Shrine

Val fell into a swoon as the forces of dimension compressed around her. Yet she felt no pain, no agony that would normally accompany traveling via Conduit as an amateur. Oblivion was a sensation she sometimes welcomed. To end it all, all the suffering, the chase, the endless game she played with the Vampires would be the greatest consolation of all. To surrender to the receiving arms of nothingness and leave her past life behind as though it were all a nightmare and she could finally wake up to a world where all was right again.

Did she want death? No, she sought to be consumed by the great void where nothing exists or ever existed. She sought not a place but a state of being where the Vampires meant nothing, where the world meant nothing and most importantly, where she meant nothing either.

But before she could enter that eternal vacuum, she heard a voice. She heard the voice of that Spirit again, Eidolon, calling out to her.

"Child, you must not be troubled. Do not be consumed by your despair. I will help you and soon so will Gamin"

"But Eidolon," she answered in her mind. "Gamin did not listen. Gamin will not listen! He misunderstood me. If I gave up my soul, my physical body would die."

"No, it is you who misunderstood him. He asked for your soul to test you. You failed the first time but we will call upon him again. This time, I will be with you. He is my lover and I am his. He cannot deny me."

"Call him again? I don't mean to question your intentions but are you entirely sure you want to do that again?"

"Have faith, little one, soon you will learn to trust Gamin. But for now, awaken, we have arrived."

Val stirred as her surroundings returned to familiar sights of Sanguine. The dark clouds gave her back her bearings as they swirled in the lightless sky. She had reverted back into human form while she was unconscious. She felt the wet, soft, moss-covered ground she was lying on. But most importantly were the pairs of eyes she perceived that were staring down at her. She shakily stood up even as her left leg constantly twitched in some sort of seizure. In her right hand, she clutched the Reaver with a death-grip.

Once she was finally back on her own two feet, she looked straight into the eyes of her "friends". Kim cheerfully extended her right hand to Val, which Val nonchalantly accepted. Kim helped Val stand up and hugged her tightly.

"Sister, you're back." Kim was practically jumping with joy.

"Nice to see you too," Val replied blankly.

"Val, are you okay? You seem a little off," Yrouna asked worriedly.

Val's face was unmoving as stone. She shrugged Kim off her, breaking the embrace. Her eyes held no emotion. There was something both fierce and tranquil inside her that she couldn't explain. Something in her finally snapped. All those years of lies and illusions ultimately allowed her to see through the guise they had thrown upon her. Her eyes grew dark again Eidolon she summoned her powers upon those she once called her friends.

Swifter than darkness, Valwique had her head in her hands, trying to block out that incessant bombardment in her head. She dropped the Reaver Blade in anguish. Eidolon still possessed her body and was now somehow unleashing her powers of Dark Matter upon her friends.

Against her will, translucent rays of energy shot into their hearts, which quickly spread to the rest of their bodies. Kim clutched at her breast and immediately crumpled on the ground. Yrouna brought her hands up to her neck and began to make a choking noise before falling down on her knees. Blue pulsating beams of energy shot from her fingers, so crooked and twisted they looked like claws. Surprisingly, Jack was left singularly unaffected.

Eidolon was practically milking Val dry of all her power, pouring it ceaselessly into their vulnerable half-vampiric forms. Unable to contain herself any longer, Val broke out like a wild animal. "Traitors!" she shouted at them. "You tricked me. You lied to me. After all these years I've trusted you. I've shown you all my secrets while yours have never even seen the light of day. What's worse is that you have the nerve to drag Ella into this. All she's ever done is play little mind games with me, which I always simply fall for. I knew that dream I had was trying to tell me something and she had to go disillusion me with that "twisted perception" junk. Why? Just tell me why and save yourselves."

Val intensified her mental grip on them as she pressed them for answers. But Kim simply had to look into her eyes and see that it was just an act. Since she tired of Val's pointless antics, she spoke in a soft calm voice, "Val, we know you never had the heart to kill anyone, especially us." She looked deeply into Val's hardened yet pretentious gaze. She could not read minds but she knew Val well enough to know Val could never hurt them, even if they truly were Vampires.

Jack remained peculiarly silent.

Getting the drift, Yrouna implored Val to cease her deluded assault. She was the one closest to Val and thus knew that the bond they shared was stronger than any racial barrier that could ever come between them. "Sister," she pleaded, "Stop being so damn prejudiced! You're such a racist! It doesn't matter if we were all Vampires. We're still your friends."

Val released them all from her suffocating grip. When Yrouna called Val her "Sister", then it was undeniable that Yrouna meant every word of it. In any case, they were right. She couldn't kill them, even if she really wanted to. In a sense, they were all "Sisters" of the same Coven. Nothing could ever undo that.

Val was overcome with guilt. She could only look at the cold, hard ground in silence. "I'm sorry", she said in barely a whisper. "I don't know what came over me. Let there be no more secrets between us." 'Why did you do that?' she mentally asked Eidolon.

'A little force of will is required to find that which is hidden. They may be your friends now, Child, but sooner or later, you will have to forsake them.'

"Well, in that case," Yrouna responded, breaking Val away from her mental conversation. "Remember when I told you I wasn't a Vampire? That was only half-true. I'm part vampire. I mean… I was a were-cat. I died and was saved. It was Malthus who resurrected me. So I'm a hybrid." Yrouna attempted to impart everything to Val at such a fast pace that the only words Val caught were "part Vampire" and "hybrid".

"You lucky cat, I did suspect that, actually," came Val's reply. "And you never told me this because?"

"I swear. I was going to tell you when you'd Come of Age." Yrouna pleaded.

"We can talk about it later. Now is not the time. Anyone else have anything to say?" Val simply shrugged off that last comment.

"Hey, don't look at me. I'm not even undead." Jack exclaimed, hands up with her palms open in defense.

Kim was silent all this time. She seemed to pay no attention to them, only to a pair of gleaming white eyes that stared back at her, the eyes that were connected to that blue shell of spectral substance. Both of them were locked in some sort of silent mental conversation.

'Release me at once you fool. Kain must be stopped!'

'No, you are the fool. Stop struggling, wraith. My spectral binds have held forces bigger than you'

'Then what must I do so that you may release me?'

'That is still to be decided but I require your cooperation'

"Kim?" came Val's intruding voice.

Kim turned around with an anxious look on her face. As reckless and immature as she sometimes was, she commanded a certain amount of respect from the other Coven members. She could be serious when need be and being "The Great Leader Maddie", Kim felt that it would be mainly her responsibility if something happened for she knew the consequences of unleashing ghastly demons amongst the ignorant masses. She alone knew that something had to be done with this "Raziel" or else. And that also included this "Kain" as well. He may have been a Vampire but he was unlike any Vampire she had ever encountered. There was something more than unearthly his appearance and especially his aura. In fact, he seemed even more demonic than Gamin himself, who was a true demon.

Kim took a deep breath and spoke as clearly as possible so that they would all understand the urgency of the situation. "We have to do something about those two creatures that were just unleashed tonight. One is with us, one is not. For now, we must decide on what to do with this one," she pointed at Raziel. "He seems intent on finding the green demonic Vampire unleashed earlier. However, for the good of all Sanguine, we cannot let him to just roam the streets looking for him. People will die. I'm sure of it."

A moment of silence passed between the Coven members. All eyes looked from one to another and then finally at Raziel. He, too, had been silent. He was carefully considering his situation and trying to figure out a way to find Kain and kill him. After that, he knew not. Only that he would leave all the rest to fate. He didn't care what happened after Kain had been annihilated from all existence.

At last Jack finally decided to interrupt the unnerving silence. "Can't we just send him back to his own dimension? Then we could just hunt down the other guy and send him back as well."

To the others, it seemed like a sensible idea. If you couldn't deal with the problem, send it back to where it came from. However, Raziel violently protested. "No! I am the only one capable of smiting down Kain. If you send me back to Nosgoth and leave him here, you wouldn't stand a chance. I would wager even now, at this very moment, he would have already spilled some blood."

Out of sheer curiosity, Yrouna blurted out what she thought was the connection. "Kain… Cain? Hmmm… This is too much of a coincidence. Two vampires with the same name?"

Kim's reply was swift, "Oh come now, Yrouna, Cain can be a common enough name. It's more of a title than a name. It means 'The First Killer' or 'The First Murderer'. Besides, isn't 'Cain' just Tiberius' surname or title? But that's not the point. We made this mess; we have to clean it up. How about a compromise?" At this point, Kim faced Raziel representing the voice of the entire Coven, "What would you say if we let you go provided that you don't hurt us or anyone else, except the other Vampires, and we keep an eye on you while we're at it?"

Raziel intensified his already luminous gaze at The Great Leader. Ever the rhetorican, he sharply replied, "And what makes you think that I would accept such an offhand proposal, and one made by children at that? And I would allow you to follow me like dogs? And what if I attempted to elude you, what would you do, detain me? Do you take me for a simpleton?"

One unified thought resounded in the Coven member's heads. 'This guy talks too much.'

"Perhaps I could bribe you into accepting the offer," the Shadow Wolf said. "I know how you looked like before. What would you say if I returned you to your former self?"

Raziel's attention immediately jumped to the Shadow Wolf. An interesting bargain it would be. How could one pass up a chance such as this? But of course Raziel still had his doubts. He cocked his head sideways in disbelief. "Am I to believe you can work such complex magic to restore me as I was before the abyss? Hah! I believe you only pretend to possess such powers!"

"Well then, I'll give you reason not to doubt me." The tone was not inherent of Val, though they were her words. As she said this, she took up the Reaver and presented it to the astonished Wraith.

"The Soul Reaver! How is it possible? You should be dead by now! Kain has not let anyone else as much as touch the Reaver for the entire duration of his empire. How could a mere child such as yourself come to possess it?"

"Do you still doubt me then? Do you remain skeptical of my powers?" Val locked eyes with Raziel though he did not reply.

She tore her gaze away from the Wraith and faced the Great Leader Maddie. "Release him!" She commanded.

"What?" Kim asked in disbelief. Did she just give an order to her superior?

"I said release him!" Val nearly shouted as she pointed the serpentine blade at the Great Leader Maddie, simultaneously willing her to taste the clash of metal upon her spine. Val was sorely abusing her newfound knowledge of their half-vampiric heritage. Not only was it getting on Kim's nerves, it was downright disrespectful.

Kim grudgingly waved her hand on Raziel, saying the words "Malaya Kana." Raziel was immediately released from the invisible fetters.

The Shadow Wolf walked up to Raziel, feeling not the least bit intimidated. Ever so slowly, she knelt before him and offered the Reaver hilt first as a token of confidence. At this she spoke, "Raziel, I know perfectly well that I am not nearly worthy enough to handle the Reaver. That is why you must take it. You alone can wield it. You alone can destroy Kain. Do not let it return to his treacherous claws."

"Then you needn't worry, Wolf," Raziel swiftly replied, taking the Reaver in hand. "The next time Kain will ever catch a glimpse of this weapon again is when I skewer it through his accursed heart."

"So do we have a deal then? I know you'd want to have your wings back and all we ask in return is your cooperation."

The Shadow Wolf's reasoning was satisfactory enough, at least for now. Raziel considered his decision carefully. What had he to lose if he went along with their little scheme? He would regain his long-lost evolutionary gift and at the price of what? A group of children tagging along as he went in search of Kain? As long as they did not interfere the moment he would be sighted. That was all that mattered.

"Very well, I accept your proposal. But we shall discuss my terms in this agreement."

"What else do you want?" Kim asked, the question teeming with suspicion.

"Firstly, I will not be obliged to follow your orders. Secondly, when I find Kain, you are not to step in my way. Thirdly, you will not question my actions if it is necessary to make a few sacrifices. Lastly, if you do not wish me to kill any humans, keep in mind that I will constantly require sustenance. I feed on souls and if you are kind enough to allow me a sip of yours, then all will be well. I have no intentions of consuming your souls whole, so you need not worry. I only require an occasional part of it, which will restore itself as time passes."

"We agree to your terms, Raziel," Kim began. "But now, please, you must come with us. It is nearly sunrise. We do not command you but we implore you. You must trust us in this. I am sorry for my behavior earlier on and I sincerely apologize for it. But if you cannot trust me, then at least trust the others."

"Ugh! If I am unable to trust you, you who shackled me upon mere account of my appearance, I am expected to trust one who soiled the last remaining reminder I possessed of a family I once had and not to mention a sadistic psychopath? And what could inspire more suspicion than that radical fanatic?" He pointed at Jack. "She appears to be a little too convenient, considering the situation."

Val retorted, "You do want your wings don't you? And I am no psychopath, I'm a healer." Denial, it was, in its bluntest form. "By the way, what happened to that scarf around your neck?" Val inquired as she gazed down, enthralled, at Raziel's empty gullet with her typical perverse fascination.

"That insolent creature stripped off and defiled my cowl with her own disgorged chyme," Raziel admonished, pointing his index claw finger at Yrouna.

Yrouna could not hide her embarrassment. She gave Raziel a sheepish smile and slowly made her way to a rock where she had left Raziel's soiled cowl. She quickly snatched it by a somewhat uncontaminated corner, trying to make as little contact as possible. With evident disdain, she handed it to Raziel with a squeamish look on her face. Yrouna kept the befouled piece of cloth away from her as much as she possibly could and dangled it in front of Raziel's impatient face. At least, it looked impatient, but with Raziel, who could tell?

In any case, to Yrouna, it seemed that Raziel cocked one eyebrow, if he even had one, and gave a puzzled look. If Yrouna could read Raziel's mind, she would have know that Raziel enjoyed receiving back his sullied cowl just as much as seeing it taken away and sullied in the first place. Thankfully, though she could not read his mind, she could at least read the expression in his eyes. "Oh, alright! Alright! Sorrrrrrrrry! I'll clean it up first." She didn't even sound the least bit apologetic and instead, regretful that she was now obligated to wash a complete stranger's only piece of clothing.

Despite all commotion, Jack took it up to herself to become a voice of reason. This situation was getting far too absurd. "My Lord, please. I mean you no ill intent. I beseech you to trust me, trust us. It is for the best."

"Very well," Raziel replied, though his patience was evidently growing thin.

But as the sun began to creep over the horizon, The Great Leader Maddie inevitably found that they were in a new dilemma. If they all went home to their respective houses, who would keep watch on Raziel? Surely, they couldn't let him stay outside. No doubt, in less than three seconds flat, he would have already broken their agreement. Kim looked around as though searching for an answer, probably one that would drop down from the sky. She asked out mentally, "So what happens to Raziel now? It's not like I can keep him in my house. My parents would disown me if I took him in. I am sorry. A devourer of souls has no place in my home." Her friends heard her query. Raziel, however, did not.

In response to this, Jack answered, "As much as I wish to play host to him, my decrepit neighborhood is not worthy enough to be graced by his presence. Know this: if I were to take him in, blood will be spilt and that would not be a desirable option."

Val looked at Kim in the eye and replied as if stating a fact of life, "I'm the resident orphan here. I have no home. I stay with Yrouna."

Yrouna folded her arms in defense and also let her mind speak out for her, "We do, however, have a sanctuary. We could take him back to the Wolf Shrine."

If only Val wasn't speaking telepathically, she would have slapped herself on the forehead. "Of course, it's perfect! It's far away from humans and this world's technology. Not to mention, if he tried to escape, the Wolf Guardians would detain him."

A normal conversation, at that length, would have taken around a couple minutes. But since nothing else was faster than the speed of the mind, a mental conversation would only last for a few seconds. This kept Raziel from suspecting anything more that the unusual.

"Come. Let us depart while the sun is low." Val motioned to the others. Truth be told, the members of the Coven did not take their Sister's newfound authority and arrogance too well. They feared her short detour to Nosoth may have marred her spirit in one way or another. Nonetheless, they would play along for now. Hopefully, her madness would dissipate in time.

In silence, the five beings of unique sorts trudged from the outskirts of the derelict city of Sanguine to the boundaries of the last protected natural habitat, Mt. Ilumine. They took a hiking path travelers often used, marked by the dried grass, general lack of vegetation and bits of garbage and leftovers strewn about here and there. It was not long before they reached a vandalized sign that said: "Thank you for visiting Sanguine! Come again soon!" Behind it, it read: "Welcome to Sanguine City. Population: 5 million." Underneath it, in black spray painted letters it said: "Hell's Next Door Neighbor. Vampire population: 749… and counting"

Raziel only glanced at it, wondering what problematic situation he had just inevitably gotten himself into. However, while Raziel pondered such questions, he noticed that the others had stopped and that the Shadow Wolf was nowhere to be seen. With his supernatural senses, he scanned the surrounding area. There were a few tall trees, no more than around seven to ten feet in height, atop a hillock ahead of them. From one of the trees, they heard an agonized shout and cry for help; the usual, no more and no less. Yrouna unsheathed her metal Arnis sticks, just in case trouble would somehow arise. It normally did.

All eyes turned to the source of the cacophony and sure enough a Vampire lay prostrate on the cold, filthy ground, while way up on the hillock, Val gazed down, like a predator observing its prey. In the blink of an eye, she was right next to the Vampire, ready to pounce.

The Vampire was just a fledgling, very weak and only around a few months old, perhaps a year at the most. He seemed like a man in his mid-thirties. He had short hair and had sort of a stocky build. He wore black pants and a white shirt and a blue jacket. Val had clearly remembered this person from sometime before and by the look of the Vampire's eyes, he seemed to recall an encounter with the Shadow Wolf as well. The Vampire shakily got up and looked up in fear at Val.

"Well, well, if it isn't Zames. Good morning, Father. How nice of you to drop by." Val greeted the Vampire in the yuppiest and most cheerfully sarcastic tone she could ever do.

Zames pathetically tried to escape by attempting to crawl off into a dark corner only to be dragged back by his feet.

"Now, where are you going to in such a hurry, Father? Why don't you stay and have a chat? The sun is up and rising. I'm sure a good man like you would love to see the sunrise and know what a beautiful and perfect day it is. Perfect, that is, for me." With that, Val focused her energy into a pronged whip with seven tails. Though Zames could not see the whip, he could very well feel it. He could feel that each of the tails had three-inch long spike tips that dug deep into his skin each time they hit. Whenever Val pulled the whip back after hitting him, chunks of his flesh came flying out. And as with all Shadow Wolf inflicted wounds, the lacerations did not heal.

Val then turned her pronged whip into two single whips on each hand. She positioned herself in front of the Vampire and began to execute the Rodonda upon him. She slashed at him in a sideways eight figure or more appropriately, the infinity symbol, the Mobius Strip. When she was satisfied that he had had enough, she wound one of the whips on Zames' neck and chest and pressed him on a nearby tree.

She whispered into his ear her parting words, making sure to put emphasis on every syllable, "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned."

Then she did something that shocked her friends, something that they had never seen her do. She bit down hard into his neck and ripped it open. She chewed on the bit of flesh and swallowed it. Then she took another bite and swallowed it whole, then another, and another, and another… She seemed to be devouring the whole carcass, well some of it anyway. As she consumed the trembling half-dead corpse, yes, it was not yet fully dead, she remembered all those endless hours in Mass when she heard, not listened, to Zames up in the Altar preaching about the goodness of all men.

'Heretic', she thought.

All those holy verses, the professions of faith, the blessings, the confessions and worst of all, the gospels and homilies that only said one thing: God loves us no matter who or what we are. All of them shattered, made useless and profaned. He, Zames, the most humble servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ submit to the will of Satan himself; why it was simply preposterous. It should be the next big scandal of the Church; what else could be said for it already had many. What more if there were a conspiracy done to hide it? The biggest canker of the modern Catholic Church it would be if a whole Order were infected. From now on, Val would make sure to keep an eye out during Mass.

When Val was done, Zames was missing both ears, both arms and one of his feet and his neck was torn wide open. But somehow, he was alive. His Vampiric blood probably did the trick. Val was soaked in that very blood. Her hands, her face, her clothes were all stained with it.

Slowly, she backed away from near-dead cadaver. Her gloved hands, with her twisted little fingers, rose up to her head. She was hysterical after the feeding, as with all undead who satisfy the craving. As the Vampires had "The Thirst", the Were-creatures had "The Hunger," so it was said.

"Oh My God! What have I done? What have I done?" at first Val whispered it to herself over and over again. Before long, however, she was screaming like a lunatic. Oh, the ecstasy! The blood of the impure contaminating a pure being. Was she still pure? Ah, who cares? She would still be purified somehow. She would find a way; the day she would Come of Age, that could be it. But no that was also what she feared.

She could have gone on with her deranged dancing in the forest, spreading her infectious madness as she passed by, if it were not for her friends. Kim threw a bolt of energy at her, the way Kain did. Fortunately, it did the trick. She was jolted out of her insanity and whimpered at her pitiful self when she realized the futility of it all. She regained her composure as they continued on their way, but kept herself hidden in the shadows. As they walked on, she kept glancing back at the poor mutilated creature. If it got blood in time, it could still recover. But it would still be a cripple. Perhaps, in a few centuries or a millennium or so, it would restore its missing limbs, if it would live that long.

Val ambled along at the back of the procession, with that blank stare in her face, one that said "pretty please" no matter how you looked at it. She tried to keep up with the others but she found her movements sluggish and uncoordinated.

Jack slowed down her pace to keep in line with her. "Who was that guy?" she asked.

"If you ever went to mass," she absentmindedly replied, "you would know that he was Zames, the local parish priest."

Several minutes passed before they finally reached a fork in the pathway. One path led all the way up Mt. Ilumine, eventually reaching the Wolf Shrine. The other path led to Kim's Clan Ghetto, as they called it.

"Well, this is my stop. I wish you the best of luck!" Kim waved as she started in the direction of the path.

"You're not coming with us?" Yrouna hollered.

"Sorry, I've got a curfew!"

"A curfew? But it's 5 AM!"

"I know but rules are rules. Bye!" And with that, Kim disappeared as she moved behind the bend.

As soon as Kim was gone, the four creatures wasted no time in journeying up the mountain. Jack even shifted into a raven to reach their destination faster. Yrouna also turned into a cat and climbed atop Val's lupine form. Raziel sprinted alongside. Within a few minutes, the lush, green, sylvan forest gave way to a vast field of red and white petals. They were all completely surrounded by roses and their protective thorn bushes. At one point it almost looked like a maze, with all its tall hedges and twists and turns. But eventually, they reached the main path, a road wide enough for a vehicle to pass through. It led them straight to the Shrine.

Next to the field of roses, Raziel first noticed a mural by the entrance. It was old and cracked but the image was still visible. It was a picture of a man and a woman. The man had a crown of thorns upon his head and more thorns surrounded his flaming heart. The woman was lovely beyond compare and had roses strung around her fiery heart. For now, Raziel did not know the meaning of this illustration. He moved closer to the crystal wall where the mural was emblazoned upon but as he looked behind, it seemed that Jack could not progress a step further.

Jack was utterly petrified. The sight of the mural had left her in a catatonic state. There was great fear imminent in her eyes. "Evil!" she whispered. "This place is evil! I'm sorry. I… I can't go in there." She shouted to her friends.

Val was having none of this. She wanted to enter the sanctuary as soon as possible, even if it meant without Jack. She took a deep breath and blurted out, "Quit it, Jack! This place isn't evil. It's deadly to full Vampires who come anywhere within a full kilometer of it but that doesn't make it evil. And you don't have to go if you don't want to. If you knew we were going to the Wolf Shrine, why did you come with us?"

"Because I dared myself to get as close as I could within the Shrine's boundaries and live."

The ever impatient Yrouna, still holding Raziel's filthy "rag", was aching to get in and wash the vomit off, just to get it over with. The fact was, the stench of her own undigested upchuck was making her even more nauseous with each moment that passed. She was afraid she might have to once again heave upon the poor, pitiful piece of cloth she had already once used as a barfbag. Her face was visibly turning a sickly shade of green when she shouted to Jack, "You can go teleport home if you want to. I just want to go in and use the bathroom. I think I'm going to be sick again."

"Fine then, I will. Bye!" As soon as she spoke this, Jack locked her arms together, chanted her destination and disappeared in a twinkling.

With that done, Val turned to face a seemingly impenetrable wall of glass and crystal. There was no visible opening but she was sure that this was the entrance.

"Avierta!" she commanded the translucent barrier. At the utterance of this single word, the crystalline partition began to crack. Shards of diamond and glass flew out and hovered in every direction. Soon, enough of the wall had been dislocated enough to form a small aperture just the right size to let the three beings pass through one at a time. They quickly entered in single file. As soon as they were inside, the pieces of glass returned to their original location in the wall, closing the gap seamlessly.

Though Raziel knew that he could easily get past that wall again if need be for the walls were not that high, he felt as though he was inevitably caught in this current situation and that as the moment he had stepped into the place, there was no turning back. Perhaps now, now that Raziel had sided, albeit momentarily, with the Shadow Wolves, the Prophecy would finally be fulfilled.

A/N: Egads! 12 pages! That's my greatest record so far.