Disclaimer: Don't own torchwood. And unfortunately never will.

"Anna, wake up!" a gentle voice coxed me out of unconsciousness... Tosh's voice?

I groaned and opened my eyes, but it didn't really do much good. Wherever I was, it was practically pitch black. The only light was coming from two torch beams, but they were so bright to my unadjusted eyes that I couldn't see who was holding them.

"Where am I?" I croaked through dry lips.

"We don't know," said a voice I recognised.

"Ianto?" I asked tentatively.

"Yeah, Anna, it's me."

My eyes had adjusted well enough so I could make out the forms of Ianto and Tosh in the dark. I struggled to my feet and immediately noticed something. My hand flew to my back... No quiver and no bow. They had taken my belt as well, and the tiny dagger I kept in my boot. The only piece of equipment I was left with was my torch.

"What happened?" I asked them.

"We don't know. We've been down here for a while and they threw you in about 30 minutes ago," Tosh replied.

"What is this place?" I asked, running my torch over the floor and walls. There were dozens of pairs of shoes and some bedraggled clothing. "Is it a prison?"

"More like a storage room," Ianto said. "You see that refrigerator over there?" He gestured to the far wall. I moved towards it but Tosh warned, "I really wouldn't, if I were you, Anna."

"Why? What's in it?" I asked. She seemed reluctant to tell me. Well either she was going to, or I was going to find out for myself. I yanked open the door... and immediately wished I hadn't. The fridge was bloodied on the inside and filled with body parts – some wrapped in plastic, some not. I slammed the door shut again, trying hard not to throw up. It was becoming all too clear as to why we were down here.

"What are these creatures?" I murmured.

"Did you get a look at them?" Ianto asked, and I shook my head.

"No, they were too fast. But I did get one in the stomach with my knife." I wished I had said knife with me. It always made me feel safer. I shook my head to get rid of my melancholy train of thought. "Can we get the door open?"

We spent the next few minutes examining it.

"Got to be three steel bolts -- top, middle and bottom," Tosh concluded.

"How good are you at calculating target stress points? Find the weakest point, bit of brute force ..." Ianto suggested.

"Can't do it. It's reinforced," I said, leaning against the wall. Now that I was moving, I was beginning to feel sore all over. My head felt like it was dancing the conga.

Ianto grabbed the pipe above him and braced himself as he kicked the door. The thumps echoed around the room ominously but the door didn't give.

"Told you," I said.

Just then light filtered in from a little window in the door. We all jumped into defensive positions as the door opened and someone carrying a rifle entered. Ianto jumped into action as Tosh and I looked for weapons of any kind. We came up with an ice hook each. They weren't ideal but beggars can't be choosers.

"Get off! Look at me, you idiot! I'm not gonna hurt you!" a woman's voice snapped as Ianto was knocked to the floor but immediately jumped up again into a defensive stance.

"You've got a gun," Tosh pointed out.

"I promise, I promise," the woman pleaded.

"Okay, guys ... give her some space," I ordered softly as we backed up a little.

"Thank you," the woman said in a shaky breath before turning to Ianto, who was nearest to her. "Were you injured...? When they took you? Can I see? I'm a nurse." She reached out to touch Ianto, but he flinched away from her and turned his warning glare up to boiling point. Thankfully she got the message and backed away.

"Okay, okay, okay." She threw her hands up in surrender, then looked at me and asked, "Does anyone else know you're here? Have you managed to call for help?"

"We don't need any help," I answered sharply. I wasn't about to tell her about Jack and the others in the village. For all I knew she could be trying to get information for the creatures who were holding us here. The less information I told her the safer we would be.

"I can't help you. I'm sorry," she whispered in shaky panting breaths as she backed away from us.

"What do you mean?" Ianto asked.

"I've been sent to collect you. I've got to take you to them," she explained. I really wasn't happy with her holding that gun, considering how much she was shaking.

"Tell us what's going on. We can help," Tosh pleaded.

"No one is safe," she laughed incredulously before becoming serious again. "Every ten years ... it takes us again."

"What takes you?" I asked in what I hoped was a calming voice. "What is it?"

"The Harvest," she whispered as if she spoke of a sacred secret. Ianto had obviously had enough, because he stepped forward to try and get the gun of her again. She had seen it coming, though, and immediately had the weapon trained on him.

"No, please. You have to come with me," she pleaded. This woman was obviously scared and unstable. It made me anxious, since unstable people tended to be much freer with the trigger-finger.

"Ianto, back off. Tosh, drop the hook," I ordered, and reluctantly dropped my own.

As the woman herded us out of the room I found myself hoping against hope that Jack and the others were having better luck than us.

Jack slammed the bleeding man roughly down on a reclining wooden bench and began (non-too-gently) checking his wounds. There was one gunshot wound in his right leg which Jack wrapped with a cloth. The man seemed to be clutching his stomach and gasping in pain. Jack looked closer and saw what appeared to be a familiar-looking black handle protruding from the man's abdomen. He grabbed hold of it and pulled it out, ignoring the cry of pain his actions caused. The opal set in the handle confirmed what he already knew.

It was Anna's knife. The one he gave her for being promoted to second-in-command. The one he gave her to make sure she was always prepared and safe.

He also knew she wouldn't have parted with it willingly. He knew she always had that knife on her. Out on assignments, in the hub, in school, even when she was out with her friends.

Placing the knife down beside him, Jack took another strip of cloth and pressed it to the wound Anna's knife had made, stemming the blood for the moment.

"This'll help you for a short amount of time. Now, start talking," Jack told the man, grabbing the lapels of his coat roughly.

"You've got to get help. I know where you can get some," the man pleaded, shaking his head in agony. Jack slapped him to stop his ramblings and gain his attention.

"Hey! We had a deal? I help you, you tell me where they've taken the boy, and what the hell is going on around here," Jack growled, biting back the urge to ask about Anna.

"You don't know?" the man began laughing mirthlessly at Jack.

By this point Jack patience had pretty much run out. He didn't know what was going on, he had confirmation that Anna was in danger, and because Anna had been heading towards Tosh and Ianto, it was a pretty safe bet that they were in danger too. To top all that up, Gwen had been shot. Needless to say, Jack was pretty pissed off by now. He began ripping the makeshift bandages off.

"What are you doing?! Put it back!" the man screamed in panic.

"You need to know something," Jack growled, grabbing the man's face. "A long time ago, I was pretty good at torture. You see, I had quite a reputation as the go-to guy. My job demanded it at the time, you see. So, I know where to apply the tiniest amount of pressure to a wound like yours." Jack pressed at the gash Anna's knife had made.

"You've gotta stop, you're gonna kill me!" the man screamed before turning to pleading again. "Help me! Please stop!!"

But Jack's mercy had been pushed to the limit.

"It's in your power to get me to stop," he hissed. "Just tell me what I need to know, because in ten seconds, I'm gonna stop asking politely." He picked up Anna's knife and showed it to the man, proving that he was serious.

"Right. All right. I'll tell you everything. Just stop," the man whimpered, eyeing the knife warily.

Jack regarded him for a second, before placing the knife back down and taking a firmer grip on the man's coat.

"Now, talk."

Sheep... that's what we were... bloody sheep.

Or at least that's what I felt like as the woman (whose name, we found out, was Helen Sherman) herded us into a big stone house. She had a manic look in her eyes that I really didn't like, and she still had a shaky hold on that bloody rifle.

"In there, please," she ordered.

"If you help us, we can stop all this," Tosh said with confidence, which was then negated as she let out a slightly desperate, "Please."

"I'm sorry. Get back," Helen ordered again, pushing at Tosh's back with the tip of her rifle. She moved us all into the room, in front of a large plastic sheet hanging from the ceiling, and then backed away from us. I suddenly found myself resisting the urge to gag but I couldn't figure out what had caused it. I heard Tosh's shocked whisper behind me.

"Oh, God, that stench ..."

Then I realised what had caused me to gag. It was a smell I had become familiar with ever since I had joined Torchwood – blood. Only this time it was so much more potent than ever before. I ripped back the plastic sheet and the smell became much stronger. We stood staring, sickened at the scene before us.

There were organs in glass jars on a chopping board in the centre of the room. Bodies were wrapped completely in plastic and hung from the ceiling along the walls like pieces of cattle. Blood was everywhere.

I turned to Helen as she stepped through the plastic sheet.

"Tell us what these creatures are," I demanded, then asked more forcefully, "Do they look like us?" when she just smiled.

"How else are we gonna look?" asked a voice from the corner.

We spun around to see a big burly-looking man. He stepped into the room and I heard Helen laugh manically at our expressions, then to our disgust the man pulled Helen towards him and they kissed passionately. It would seem my initial suspicions about the woman had been justified.

I heard Ianto breathe out heavily in shock at what he was seeing and hearing. The slight hitch to his breath alerted me of his plan just a fraction too late. He charged at the kissing couple, but the man broke away too quickly and got Ianto with a fierce punch to the gut that sent him sprawling to the floor. Tosh and I moved to help him but once again found that bloody rifle in our faces. The only difference was that Helen was no longer shaking, but she still had the manic grin spread across her face.

At that point the door burst open and a guy not much older than me ran into the room.

"Evan, there are three more out there," he panted, trying to catch his breath.

"They won't be a problem," Evan murmured as he handcuffed Ianto, but Helen seemed to have a different idea, as she suddenly grabbed my shoulder and kicked my knees out from behind. I crashed painfully onto the concrete floor, and then I saw the guy grab Tosh and do the same to stop her from interfering as Helen pulled my head back by my hair.

"You said there wasn't anyone else," she growled, getting so close to my face that I had to stifle the urge to gag as her putrid breath ran over my face.

"I just said we didn't need anyone else. I didn't say anything about being on our own," I pointed out and got a slap for my cheek.

"How are they?" Evan asked, leering over me and Tosh.

"They're in a good state," Helen answered, lowering the rifle as both Tosh and I had our hands tied behind our backs now. "I think they're the best we've ever had."

"Yeah? Oh, I forgot to tell you, we caught the boy. Finally," Evan said, as he grabbed a figure that had been lying behind the table. The boy was bound and a bag was tied over his head.

"Come on. Come on, Kieran, speak up lad," Evan cooed in a gloating tone as he removed the bag to reveal a whimpering, terrified young man.

"I won't tell anyone!" He pleaded for his life.

"Who is he?" Tosh demanded. Evan looked at her as if she was stupid.

"He's meat," he replied as if it was obvious, pushing Kieran back down to the floor. "I'm afraid we're all just meat." He headed through the sheeting into the next room.

"Get ready to run," I heard Ianto whisper.

"Don't do anything stupid," I warned quietly, as I heard Evan come back through. Only this time he was clutching a baseball bat.

"What're you going to do, put us on meat hooks?" Tosh asked.

"No, not yet," Evan answered, grabbing me and pushing me into the arms of the other guy before turning back to Tosh. "You see ... meat ... has to be tenderized first," he told her quietly, in what was probably his idea of a seductive voice, and ran the tip of his grubby finger from Tosh's collarbone down to the edge of her top. Tosh was shaking in fright and I wasn't doing much better, as the guy holding me pressed himself against my back and ran his lips over my hair and down to my neck.

Tosh glanced at Ianto, who nodded at her and then towards me. He was about to make his move. Unfortunately Evan caught this little exchange and moved towards Ianto threateningly. He stopped in front of him and ran his eyes over Ianto's frame hungrily, with a sick smile on his repulsive features. To my surprise, Ianto smiled back, but it all made sense when he moved forward and head-butted Evan right between the eyes.

"Run!!!" he yelled.

"Tosh, go get the others!" I screamed as I struggled against my captor. Tosh moved quickly and managed to get out of the building while Helen and Evan were preoccupied with Ianto.

Eventually Ianto was sent sprawling to the floor by a punch delivered by Evan. Once Ianto was down, the man kicked him for good measure, before grabbing a big knife and walking out without another word. I now felt sick to my stomach with worry for Tosh. She was out there alone, with her hands tied behind her back, trying to run through a dark wood with that maniac after her.

I caught Ianto's eye and saw my panic reflected in his face. I felt so sorry for him. This was one of the worst missions we'd had to date, and it was his first time out of the office, despite the fact that he had joined Torchwood a few months before me. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end. We didn't hear Helen until it was too late. When she brought the butt of the rifle down on Ianto, knocking him out, I could help but feel a sense of relief. At least now he wouldn't be aware of what was happening to him.

"What do you want to do with that one, David?" Helen asked. The guy called David pushed me to the floor.

"She's not going anywhere. Just leave her, she can't do much harm," he said.

"I don't know, David," Helen hesitated. "The others seemed to listen to her a lot."

"She's just a girl – what can she do?" David asked arrogantly. I decided to show him. Spinning around on my back, I kicked his legs out from underneath him. When he hit the floor I snapped my feet forward and they connected with his nose. I saw Helen move towards me with her ever faithful rifle raised to bring down onto my head but David shouted, "NO!!!" As he struggled to his feet, he pulled me towards him and straddled my waist. I winced as his weight forced my hands agonizingly against the concrete floor.

"I'm going to have a lot of fun with you, I see." It didn't take a rocket scientist to know what kind of 'fun' he was talking about.

"Not now, David," Helen scolded him. "We have to go and round everyone else up. Leave the girl here and you can have your 'fun' with her later."

I breathed a sigh of relief as David rolled off me and he and Helen went out, leaving Ianto, Kieran and myself helplessly tied on the floor.

We were all silent for a while before I heard Kieran muttering to himself, "I told them they would come back. Idiots."

"Who?" I demanded. It was possible that this guy had run into Jack and the others.

"Those people who were with you when you arrived," he answered.

"You talked to them?" I asked and he nodded. "What happened?"

I listened as Kieran told me the whole story. Great, so Tosh was on the run, Ianto and I were trapped and Gwen was shot, which would mean that Owen would have to stay with her. In other words, Jack was the only one capable of doing something to get us out of this mess.

Gradually the house filled up with the villagers. From their conversations it was obvious they were all involved in the slaughterhouse. I shivered when David entered and sent a lustful look my way as he moved towards me. He held me against him as he listened to the others' conversations. He was running his hands all over me as if I was a fascinating new toy. I suppose to him I was exactly that.

Suddenly the door opened and Gwen was shoved into the room, followed by Tosh and Owen, who were closely guarded by Evan and someone else who was wearing a police uniform.

"Who are these people?" Tosh asked, looking around at all the others in the room.

"This is our village," Helen answered with a stupid giggle that could have passed for that of a mentally deranged schoolgirl.

"But the villagers are dead," Gwen snapped, clutching at her stomach, which was covered in blood from the shotgun wound. A deadly silence filled the room as they figured out what had been happening. I decided to voice their thoughts.

"They are all involved, Gwen," I said, and David pulled me forcefully closer to his body as a warning. Gwen, Tosh and Owen all looked over at me, realising for the first time I was in the room.

"Get your hands off her, you bastard!" Owen growled to David, but everyone ignored him. I saw Tosh and Gwen looking at me with worry.

"This is our Harvest," Evan said, as if that explained it all.

"Only in the bloody countryside! You sick fuckers!" Owen exclaimed. Trust him to still hurl insults at the people holding a gun to his face. Evan and the other guy grabbed the three of them and flung them to the floor. Gwen saw Kieran and crouched over him protectively, making sure he was all right.

"Where's Ianto? What have you done with him?" I heard Tosh demand in a panic.

Evan grabbed Ianto, lifted him up from the floor behind the butcher's table, where Helen had tossed him, and pulled the burlap bag off his head, slapping him a couple of times to make sure he was alert.

"Wake up, man! Time to be bled," he said, grabbing a meat cleaver off the table before turning to the rest of us. "Like veal, it takes a long time. But it definitely makes the meat taste better."

'Great, it's 'Ready, Steady, Cook' uncut.' But my humour was short-lived when Ianto whimpered as the meat cleaver was brought closer and closer to his neck.

Then I became aware of a rumbling noise, and the glasses on the tables started vibrating. The sound of a rumbling motor got louder and louder, and I couldn't help it as my heart sped up with hope.

"What now?" Evan growled, shoving Ianto away from him and heading out to check. Gwen grabbed Ianto and held him to her in relief.

"What the fuck...?" I heard someone mumble, as they stood watching the double doors anxiously.

There was a resounding CRASH as a large gray tractor burst through the double doors, coming to a stop in the middle of the kitchen. Jack appeared from the tractor with a rifle and shot Evan in the leg. He then proceeded to shoot at anyone standing up. Owen and the others ducked to avoid getting hit.

David yanked me out of sight into a small alcove and covered my mouth to keep me from screaming. I wouldn't have bothered anyway. The others knew I was in the room and I trusted Jack to be a good enough shot so he wouldn't hit me.

I heard shot after shot echo of the walls, I heard the sounds of bodies hitting the floor, I heard Helen's distinctive scream as she was hit. There was a change of pitch in the gun fire as Jack exchanged the rifle for his Webley. But what I was listening to most of all was Jack's screams of rage as each shot was fired. He wasn't just mad with rage... He was beyond boiling point.

"Oh, really?" I heard Jack say after a moment of silence. I could only guess that someone had tried to retaliate from his attack. Sure enough, a round went off from the Webley and I heard a scream as it hit its target.

"Where's Anna?" I heard Tosh ask.

David took that as his cue and pushed me out in front of him, making sure my body was between him and Jack. They all turned at the noise. I heard the girls gasp in horror and saw the fury and rage flash through Jack and Owen's eyes.

"Let me through and I'll let her go," I heard David say. I was really getting sick of the sleaze bag and decided to show him that I wasn't some helpless damsel in distress. I snapped my head back and felt the satisfying crunch of bone beneath my skull.

It worked, as David let me go and I dropped to the floor. I heard the Webley go off and felt David fall beside me. He wasn't dead – I knew that by the stream of curses pouring from his mouth as he clutched his wounded nose and the fresh bullet wound in his shoulder. Owen rushed over to me and cut my ties before pulling me into a hug. In that moment I had never been happier to have my surrogate brother by my side.

"No, Jack! Don't do it," I heard Gwen shout. I looked over to see Jack holding Evan by lapels of his coat and pointing his Webley under his chin. I gently pushed Owen away and moved over to Jack with Gwen.

"These people don't deserve warnings," Jack shouted back and I could see his entire frame trembling with anger. I reached out and gripped his shoulder, hoping a bit of human contact would calm him down.

"Let me question him," Gwen pleaded, trying to reach out to him, but she seemed afraid to touch him. "I have to understand. I want to know why. Otherwise this, this is too much."

"They're injured," Tosh stated. "They need to get to the hospital."

"Owen, help them and then phone the police," I ordered, before turning my attention back to Jack. "Jack, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to find out why?" I whispered to him.

"Don't tell me you don't want to know, too," Gwen interjected softly, and I tightened my grip on his shoulder to try a coax him away from Evan. I didn't particularly want to see any more bodies today.

Jack released the man and straightened, but I still kept my hand on his shoulder as if I could stop him if he changed his mind and decided to kill Evan, David and the rest of them. Gwen moved away to help Owen, Tosh and Ianto.

"Oh, so this is Jack," David said, feigning surprise before asking Evan, "Isn't that the guy she was muttering about when she was knocked out?" They both laughed manically, then began imitating me, "Jack, help me... please, help me... Jack, I'm sorry..." I felt my chest constrict and my breathing speed up, then they said the one phrase that made my breathing stop altogether – "Jack, I love you."

I yanked my hand off Jack's suddenly rigid shoulder as if I was electrocuted, then turned away, trying to ignore their frenzied laughing and the tears threatening to run down my cheeks. I walked up to Ianto and held out my hand.

"Give me the tracker and the keys to the SUV. I'll go and get it."

"I'll come with you," Ianto offered.

"No!" I snapped, then softened my tone at Ianto's shocked and slightly hurt expression. "I mean, you're more needed here."

After I got the keys and the tracker, I walked out and followed the signal to the SUV. I didn't bother hurrying; I wasn't keen on getting back. Eventually I reached the SUV after an hour's walk and slid into the driver's seat. I should have known better, because as I settled into it I could faintly smell Jack's scent. I leant my forehead against the steering wheel and let a few silent tears trickle down my cheeks.

Why the hell did they have to do that? Why did we pick up this assignment? Why did I find it in the first place? I wasn't ready for this. I wasn't ready to let Jack know how I felt. Granted, if it had been left up to me, I probably would never have told him. How was he going to react? Oh, I didn't even want to think about that!

Eventually I pulled myself together enough to begin the drive back to the others. It was light by the time I got there, and as I pulled up I saw the place was swamped with police cars and ambulances. I saw Gwen and Owen in the back of an ambulance whilst Jack and Ianto had their heads bent together in an intent discussion. By the way they stopped and looked at me as I got out the SUV, I had a feeling it was about me. Ianto was probably wondering what had got me so wound up that I had snapped at him. Thankfully I knew Jack wouldn't tell him anything.

A hand on my shoulder made me turn around, and I came face to face with Tosh.

"Owen's going with Gwen in the ambulance, and you, me, Jack and Ianto are going back in the SUV. We found your weapons, they're over there by that bench," she pointed and I nodded mutely. Tosh frowned. "Are you all right, Anna?"

I nodded again, but she seemed to know I was lying, and squeezed my shoulder. I tried to smile but couldn't. I just moved towards the bench and gathered up my things. My opal dagger wasn't among them. I couldn't believe I had lost it. I loved that dagger... I loved the man who gave me that dagger.

I put my weapons in the back of the SUV and handed the keys to Ianto, who went to give them to Jack as I slid into the passenger's seat. The rest joined me ten minutes later and we began the long journey home.

The drive felt much longer than on the way there, but then I realised why – Jack was circling around the roads, making sure no one had escaped the building. Throughout that time the tension in the SUV was so obvious, that not even Tosh or Ianto spoke. I didn't even look at Jack. I couldn't muster up the courage to look at him or even ask him why it was taking so long for us to finally begin the journey home. What would I see in his eyes? Anger? Guilt? Pity?

Would he send me away? Retcon me? I had never taken Retcon in my life. Torchwood had tried to give it to me once but I hadn't taken it. That had been the first time I had seen Torchwood, and Jack had taken an interest in me and then recruited me the next day.

I couldn't go back to my old life. Not after this.

Finally we turned onto the road that would take us home, but that was still a good few hours of driving since we were going to make a stop for dinner. I pulled out my iPod and switched it on, cutting myself off from the rest of them. I didn't know what they were saying to each other, or even if they were speaking at all. I kept my gaze firmly glued to the passenger's side window, gazing unseeingly at the world outside. I hadn't realised I was crying until I felt a tear fall from my face and splash onto my hand. The effects of the entire mission were beginning to get to me, but I couldn't afford to start crying in front of the others. Instead I burrowed down in the seat and pretended to go to sleep, so they wouldn't bother me.

About an hour later I felt Tosh shake my shoulder to 'wake me up,' as the SUV came to a standstill outside a small roadside restaurant. We walked inside in silence and sat down, Tosh and me on one side and Jack and Ianto on the other. Unfortunately Jack was sitting directly across from me, so my gaze kept flitting from the table to the window next to me, avoiding Jack's eye. The waiter came over to take our orders. Tosh and I ordered the lasagne while the guys went for some kind of steak dinner. While we waited for the food to arrive, Tosh and Ianto fell into an easy, quiet conversation. The sound of it made my heart ache. It was the kind of conversation that Jack and I often had instead of this awkward silence we seemed to be stuck in now. I knew Jack wanted to say something to me. He always knew the right things to say. He wasn't like other men. He wasn't like the arrogant men who didn't understand emotions or how to express them. Jack seemed to understand everything that went on around him. He was so in tune to everyone's emotions. In my eyes that was the mark of a good leader – to know how your team are feeling and how they react to things. It was part of what made Torchwood more than a job... it made us a family.

It was getting dark again by the time we got back. We dropped Ianto off at his flat first, and then Tosh. Then it was just me and Jack left in the SUV. We didn't say anything. What could we say? We pulled outside my house and I went to open the door, but then paused.

"I think I'll take that couple of weeks off," I said quietly. I heard Jack sigh and closed my eyes in shame. I was running away and he knew it. He didn't like it when we ran away from our problems. He was disappointed and I couldn't stand him being disappointed in me.

"You might want to take this then," he said finally, sliding something into my line of sight. My breath caught in my throat when I saw what it was... my opal dagger!

I took it from him.

"I thought I'd lost it," I whispered. A movement out the corner of my eye caught my attention and I turned to see my mum standing in the doorway. I don't know what came over me but I shoved my dagger into my bag, jumped out the SUV and ran up the path. My first instinct was to run into my mother's arms, but instead I ran past her and up the stairs, ignoring her concerned calls. I ran into my room and locked the door behind me. I heard the rumble of the SUV's engine outside, as Jack drove away.

"Anna, darling, what's wrong?" I heard my mum call.

"Just a rough day," I said, trying to hide the fact that the tears were now making their way freely down my cheeks.

"I'll make you some hot chocolate," I heard my dad say.

An hour later I was curled up on the sofa with my head in my mum's lap like I used to do when I was a child. My nerves were shot to hell and I was grateful to my parents when they didn't ask what had happened. I couldn't tell them anyway.

I knew I would eventually have to face Jack, but at least now I had a few weeks to prepare what I could say. Eventually I fell asleep, but my dreams were plagued with dark shadows, ice-blue eyes and the addicting sent of spices and sandalwood.