Hey people! Long time no update (don't yell at me)! Here's the next tid-bit of the story, I hope you like it! It's basically setting up what is coming in the next two or so chapters. To the most patient (I use that term loosely for a few of you =P), awesome reviewers out there: bookwormgrl101, Blood And Fangs27, GirlGoneMad.x (double =P), xxkissesandcuddlesxx, BlazingWolfFire, OhPatchCipriano. (like the new name!), Sparrow's Lassie, Jelly Babes 101, XxJinxieUnluckyxX, love-30stm, deator11, Winged Angel Girl, SeekerMutt I-950, xXcrazyemoXx, vampireloverxx, lonelygirl101, PurpleSmiley22: THANK YOU! Hope you like this…Please review!

CHAPTER 18

"So I'll take Dabria, you take Patch."

"Are you sure?"

"It can't be any other way."

I looked to Rixon, hoping some of his strength would filter through the charged air into me. His face was a mask of controlled calm, composure rolled off him in waves. He was everything I wasn't. As it turns out, Nora Grey and epic showdowns don't go hand in hand.

"How long?" I said tugging at the sleeve of my sweatshirt.

"The clock says its…" Rixon squinted towards the clock on the far side of the room. The flickers of the candles' flames finally caught the clock and it momentarily lit up. "…10.45pm, so they should be here by now."

I pulled at my sleeve with greater force. Anxiety was taking over. "Do you think something happened?" Panic filled my words.

"Nora, a car accident is the least of our worries. Knowing them, they probably just want to make an entrance," Rixon replied, rolling his eyes as if "making an entrance" before a life and death fight was the most immature thing on the planet.

"Do you think that they know what we're trying to do? That they're trying to stuff up the timing?"

"Nora, we hardly know what we're doing. I know that Dabria's an evil mastermind and all but I doubt she'll be able to predict exactly what we're doing. That's what happens when you put every single idea you've got into the master plan."

I noise came from outside the window and I jumped. But upon peering out a crack in the blinds as stealthily as I could manage I realised that I was going slightly crazy. The night was black and my angel wasn't there.

"Damn, it's not them," I said, letting my breathing return to somewhere in the region of normal.

Rixon continued checking over the room. I don't think he'd expected the noise, if there had even been a noise at all, to be them. The way he was moving though, the look that covered his face, nagged at me. Something told me Rixon was holding out on details, crucial details. Something in the pit of my stomach gave me the sinking feeling that he knew a lot more about this then I did, and not just in the sense that he actually understood angel magic unlike me who'd just nodded when he'd attempted an explanation. I wanted to ask him what he was thinking, if he truly was keeping anything from me but I knew that if there was one thing Rixon deserved, it was my trust.

My faith in that statement didn't have time to waver as a second later his shoulders stiffened and his fingers curled around the steel pipe he'd found lying outside earlier in the day. He could sense them, even if I couldn't yet. They were here.

"Hide," Rixon mouthed towards me. I could barely make out the shape his lips had formed in the darkness but I already knew what I had to do. My feet moved slowly, silently, taking me down the hallway. The slightest creak could be catastrophic. I went to slip into the last bedroom, pausing at the doorframe to give last look towards Rixon. The candles that surrounded him issued a subtle glow, a glow that seemed to seep into Rixon. He wasn't looking at me. He was focused on the door and I don't think there was a thing in this world that could've pulled that focus. I feet crossed fully into the room, leaving the sight of Rixon behind as I concealed myself in the shadows.

The next few minutes were all hinging on Dabria and Patch. If they did exactly as we expected them to do and wanted them to do then Rixon & I might have a fighting chance of regaining our normal lives, as well as Patch's. But predictability wasn't a word Patch knew to well so I hoped it was Dabria heading the operation. At least there was method to her madness, most of the time.

A crunch sounded as a small branch broke outside under the pressure of someone's foot. Yes, they were near. My breathing sped, knots formed in my throat. It was as if rigor mortis had set it, there was not a muscle I had the power to move in my entire body.

Slaps of sneakers on the doorsteps reached my ears and a second later a sharp creak sounded as the door was swung open.

"Sorry we're late...traffic." Dabria's words were cold, completely unexpected and were weighed down with malice. Silence ensued and I imagined that there was a lot of staring down going on in the front room. My eyes yearned to see what was going on in the front room but I couldn't risk being spotted too early, this all had to play out a certain way.

"You should be thankful, that traffic was prolonging what little time you have left," Rixon replied in the same cruel tone.

"Where's Nora?" Obviously Dabria was tired of the fooling around.

"Around…" Rixon replied carefully. Dabria's reaction to this statement would either realise or destroy our plans.

"Go find her." I let out an inaudible gasp, those three words were all we needed. For her to send Patch to find me. I don't think I have ever felt more unanimously relieved and scared at a single three syllables in my entire life.

The floorboards trembled beneath my feet as Patch's footsteps came down the hallway. I felt him pause at the first doorway, checking if I had stowed myself away in there. Dabria and Rixon's words rung out from the first room, it was getting pretty heated in there. I hoped that Patch wouldn't turn back to help Dabria, the whole point of having him come to get me was to draw him away from Dabria or rather to avoid Rixon feeling the full brunt of an angel double team.

I forced myself to push focus back to Patch's footsteps. He was still in the first bedroom as far as I could tell. All I needed to hear was him emerge into the hallway. Sure enough, a split second later his light steps were crossing from the door of the first room to the second. It was now or never. I flung myself from the doorframe of the room I'd been concealing myself in and leapt towards the backdoor in the kitchen, which the hallway opened into.

I knew I'd gotten everyone's attention. My steps hadn't been soft and I was almost positive they could actually hear the adrenaline pumping through my veins. But that didn't stop me. My job wasn't to stop. My job was to run… and to take Patch with me.