A/N: Well this didn't come as quickly as I would have liked, but it's here and I actually like this chapter. So get ready to say hello to Tyler and Matt in this third installment. I've tinkered with them a bit. Tyler is just a werewolf for right now and Matt isn't human. Their personalities might be a little OOC, so sorry about that! Suggestions are welcome as usual. R&R.

Chapter 3

The forest was incredibly dense past the clearing the cousins had found themselves in. Ollie had trouble navigating between fallen trunks, prickly bushes, and overhanging mossy vines. She was too tall to be as quick and nimble as Bonnie who was tumbling under vines and somersaulting over bushes with ridiculous ease. All together it took less than five minutes for Ollie to completely lose sight of her cousin. Grumbling and cursing under her breath Ollie skidded to a stop and glared at the forest surrounding her. It was nearly pitch black without the light of the moon and as Ollie did a slow turn she wondered how the hell her cousin had been able to run so smoothly through the messy terrain in the darkness since she didn't have Ollie's unique eyes. 'Witchy magic,' the answer popped into her brain and Ollie absently noted that it was probably right as she cocked her head to the side. There was something moving on her left.

She stiffened and her hands patted her chest only to come up empty. 'Oh no, where-'

"Ooof!"

"Fuck!"

Ollie blinked and wondered how much further this day could go downhill when she found herself sprawled out on the forest floor with a warm, sticky, hulky mass on top of her. She took a moment to learn how to breathe again only to find that having a heavy man crushing her chest wasn't helping. Grunting she shoved him off and didn't feel bad at all when he let out a string of curses as he landed on something painful. Hell, she hoped it was a very pointy rock.

Wincing she tried to take stock of her injuries. Her back was killing her, but she'd be fine soon enough. Still it was inconvenient. Ollie was barely able to pull herself up to her feet; there was no way she was going to be able to even try to track her cousin down until her body took care of its self. Which meant that Bonnie was going to be out there in the forest alone and unprotected. Frowning Ollie turned to glare at the idiot whose fault that was only to stop and stare stupidly.

The man was hot. Ollie couldn't stop her eyes from roving over the bronze expanse of the man's uncovered chest. Her mouth opened a little at the perfect brown nipples, her eyes ate up the dips and valleys of his well defined abdomen, and she really couldn't stop herself from letting out a little disappointed sigh when she followed the dusky brown happy trail of hair until it disappeared underneath the band of his trousers. Now if only everything wasn't covered in…

"Hey, my eyes are up here."

Ollie blinked and chuckled. "So they are," she agreed calmly before her gold eyes snapped towards tawny brown orbs and glared. "So you want to tell me why you're covered in some poor maiden's blood, dog?"

The dog's name was Tyler. He was a werewolf on the run from someone big, bad, and evil. He told her a tale of how he'd been a young man of some minor noble station in some minor city state. Ollie listened as he described endless days filled with only booze, women, and horseplay. She frowned as he detailed how entitled he used to be, how he thought he was God's gift to the world, how one girl had disagreed, how his temper had taken over and woken the beast inside him, and how that beast had attracted something darker and older than Tyler had ever known. And as fascinating as Tyler's story was Ollie wasn't here to be his listening ear. She wanted to know where her cousin was, if he'd seen her, if the scream that they'd heard earlier had been because of him and that was it. He didn't know. Tyler claimed that the last few days had been nothing but a blur for him. He hadn't been free of the Dark One for that long and his mind was weak.

Unfortunately for him that wasn't good enough and Ollie didn't even blink in warning before she'd launched herself at him. He'd talked for hours. Long enough for her back to heal and long enough for the pitch black sky overhead to brighten into a soft gray. He seemed surprised at the strength in her and alarmed when he realized that it was enough to keep him pinned to the gritty forest floor. He still tried to fight, he snarled and bared his teeth. Ollie simply laughed and bared her own teeth. The look on his face as he took note of each sharp and pointy tooth was hilarious and still laughing Ollie shoved herself into his mind and he cried out because she wasn't gentle.

His mind was a mess. All she saw was flashes of different shades of blond hair, smirking red lips, and some hazy images of bright green trees highlighted in the moon's sliver glow. Luckily it was enough for her piece together that whatever poor soul she and Ollie had heard die Tyler hadn't been involved. He also hadn't run into her cousin. He'd also been mentally abused extensively over the last few years. Entire scenes of his life were missing or drastically altered…But that wasn't Ollie's concern.

So after spending a few minutes swimming inside his consciousness she pulled out and left him reeling on the ground. She began to pace, her thoughts filled with worry about Bonnie, and so she managed to completely miss the werewolf rising up behind her. Needless to say Tyler wasn't happy and after he tackled Ollie to the ground in retaliation they spent the remainder of the early morning trading bites and dealing shock therapy. They reluctantly called a truce when they noticed that wounds were beginning to heal faster than they could dole them out and they crashed exhausted to the ground.

"What the fuck are you?" He'd asked only half conscious.

"Wouldn't you like to know." She'd retorted back crabbily.

And that's where they still were when the patrol found them with swords and flintlock pistols drawn in the early morning light.

"Goddamnit." They muttered in synch before glaring at one another.

Ollie had never been in a dungeon before and she could honestly say that she was not enjoying the experience. She and Tyler had been thrown in one dank cell and left without so much as a word about what their supposed crimes were. Although Ollie had a feeling that it had everything to do with that blood curling scream last night and the moonless sky. Grumbling Ollie kicked a pebble in the wolf's direction. He jerked up from his sitting position and flashed angry gold eyes at her.

"What the hell is your problem?" He snarled.

Ollie snorted. "Clearly you're my problem, you dumbass. I'm not rotting in this cell because of you. I have important shit to do."

Tyler sneered and rolled those broad shoulders of his. "Yeah, well. Looks like you're gonna be stuck with me for awhile."

"The hell I am." Ollie grumbled turning away from the wolf.

She listened to him snort behind her and return to sitting in his corner of the room before she focused her attention on the bars of the cell. They weren't anything special, on their own at least, but the metal rods had enough magic pulsing through them that even Ollie could feel it. She'd already tried to pull the bars apart, but hadn't been strong enough and that worried her.

Bonnie Bennett had never seen a town like Wurst Hill. Of course she hadn't been to all that many towns or cities since growing up in the Grove had meant almost complete seclusion from the outside world. So, she was a little naïve and understood that well, but even so Bonnie was sure that the small town of Wurst Hill was abnormal. And it didn't just have to do with the death knell she and Ollie had heard last night in the forest.

The town was amazingly fortified for such a remote location. Bonnie's green eyes ran the impressive twelve foot length of the spiked wooden planks that made up the town's outer wall. She was careful to give the smaller spikes sticking out of the base of the wall a wide berth as she passed through the heavy gates and into the common market of the town. From the countless stories told by her grandmother of the outside world she'd expected to see droves of people out and bustling through the pathways and hear countless people haggling over trinkets on display in market stalls. Instead what Bonnie found was a deafening sort of silence and the dreary sight of a few elderly people shuffling about in dim colored clothes.

Heads whipped to her direction and Bonnie was sure that while her clothes and coloring must have made her stand out here in a sea of gray clothes and wheat colored blond hair the reaction of the townspeople spoke of more than just interest. There was fear and horror on their faces. It was enough that Bonnie found herself taking a step back only to collide with a solid mass behind her.

"Are you alright, Bonnie?" A calm voice asked before steady arms turned her around to face a young man around her age.

"Yeah, sorry Matt," Bonnie murmured.

"Don't worry about it. I can see why you're a little put off. This is definitely not the cheeriest place I've ever been," Matt observed. "Jeez, the way they stare at you…" he trailed off while rubbing the back of his head.

Bonnie nodded in agreement. She was getting a bad vibe from the town and she wasn't sure if that was more unsettling than being separated from her cousin or the fact that she hadn't been able to find a body to go with that scream from last night. She was grateful for Matt's presence though. She'd literally run into the blond haired man after losing track of Ollie. At first she hadn't been sure that she hadn't just ran into a killer, but Matt's gentle soul had convinced her that he wasn't involved in whatever had happened and his good looks hadn't hurt either. Although that hadn't stopped her from asking what he was doing running in the woods at night. Apparently she wasn't the only one who'd lost their companion.

They'd searched for Ollie and Tyler, Matt's friend, all night to no success before stumbling upon the town in the early morning looking for a place to rest and gather help for a continued search. But with a town like this Bonnie was doubtful that they'd find either.

"Where do you think the inn is?" She asked anyway.

Matt cocked his head to the side and roved his blue eyes around the market before shrugging with a smile on his face. "No idea, but I suggest checking the biggest buildings around here first. Most places have the inn near the gate."

"Okay, let's go." Bonnie agreed.

Finding the inn proved to be more difficult than either one of them thought. None of the large buildings around the market was an inn. The smaller buildings were stores. After spending the entire morning running around they finally thought to chance asking one of the gawking townspeople and were promptly told that Wurst Hill had no inn because Wurst Hill had no visitors. Matt had laughingly asked what he and Bonnie were then and the elderly woman they'd asked had replied rather ominously, "lost."

Neither Matt nor Bonnie had much to say after that. They debated over whether or not they should leave and try to make for another town because clearly even if they had come here Ollie and Tyler wouldn't have gotten any more hospitality than they had. Bonnie couldn't picture her cousin taking much from the townspeople and Matt had described Tyler as a man with a hot temper. Naturally as soon as they decided to move on, because Matt had some hazy recollection of a tiny fishing post not far that the others might have gone to, they were told by the guards at the gate that curfew was in effect.

"What? Really? It's still light outside," Matt argued.

"Curfew is at 3pm." The guard's monotone voice wasn't hinting at any chance of him yielding.

"But there's not even an inn here. Where are we supposed to spend the night?" Bonnie tried as she shifted the sack draped over her shoulder. She'd managed to salvage some of her and Bonnie's things last night when she'd thought to check the riverbank for Ollie. There were a few important things that Bonnie knew Ollie would be happy to see later even if Bonnie wasn't exactly happy to be carrying everything now.

"Curfew is at 3pm."

Matt frowned. "Did you even hear what she just said?"

"Curfew is at 3pm."

Bonnie blinked. Was that all the guard could say? She and Matt shared a confused look before Matt stepped up to the guard. Bonnie watched as he waved his hand in front of the guard's armored helmet and noted that the man didn't even twitched. Frowning Bonnie felt the beginning of something buzzing in the air around the guard. Some sort of magic… She opened her mouth to warn Matt, tell him to forget about trying to convince the guard, but wasn't fast enough.

"What's wrong with you?" Matt muttered before he shoved the guard clearly annoyed.

Bonnie wished he hadn't.

The guard reacted violently and Matt was slammed up against the wall with the blade of the guard's lance pressing into the skin of his neck. Bonnie felt a little ill as she watched blood trickle down from the puncture wound in a curvy line down Matt's throat to stain the edge of his white linen shirt. But that was nothing compared to what she felt when the guard pressed harder and she realized that he meant to kill Matt.

"Wait! We're sorry! We'll go back into town," she pleaded and tried to move forward whether to stop the guard or simply get closer to Matt in a show of support she didn't know, but it didn't matter. Two more guards appeared and their spears crossed in front of her effectively blocking her way.

"Curfew is at 3pm," the guard intoned, but Bonnie let out a relieved sigh as he pulled his weapon from Matt's neck.

"Yes! We know now, we'll -" her words broke off in a scream as the guard suddenly thrust his weapon through Matt's shoulder.

"Punishment for breaking curfew is death."

"What? No!"

Bonnie was panicking and her magic responded before she could stop it. It burst out of her in a shockwave of pure force. The two guards in front of her were hurled forward into the other guard and Matt. A loud clang rang out as the armors of the guards clashed together and Matt grasped in pain at receiving the force of all that weight smacking into him before the guards fell down to the ground.

"Oh, God Matt!" Bonnie cried before running over to where the young man was pinned to the wooden wall surrounding the village by the guard's spear. He was unconscious when she reached him which made her sigh in a bastard mixture of relief and worry. She wouldn't have to endure any questions about her power now, but how was she supposed to get him down?

"Do you require assistance?"

Bonnie whipped around and stared at the woman behind her warily. Somehow Bonnie didn't think that the woman, and her guards behind her, were going to be of much help.