Ahoy there! A new chapter has arrived.

Disclaimer: No matter how much I write, these things will never be mine. We already established this.

Sixteen: Our Bitter Blessings

Jace observed the restrained, sedated pureblood half-heartedly. This wasn't his job. Some idiot had gone missing (Jace suspected she'd been eaten by Subject #90, which had long since been declared a disaster and sealed away, which was part of the reason they were seeking successful hybrids) and by sheer bad luck, he'd been called in to replace her.

Unfortunately, no one had actually bothered to tell him what he was supposed to be doing, so he settled for writing (atrocious) poetry.

She walks upon the earth

Flowers die in her wake

But weeds grow strong

She's a lady in truth

So engrossed in his writing was he that he completely failed to notice the twitch of the pureblood's fingers that indicated that maybe, just maybe, he was supposed to be keeping Subject #206 appropriately sedated, and that he had utterly failed in doing so.

Hot to the touch

Eyes like glass, reflective

Of your very soul

Serves something greater yet

Is no l...

His pen had run out. Jace tried haphazardly to finish scratching out the word "less", but the pen stubbornly refused to suddenly refill itself. He shook it around, hoping for results. When none were forthcoming, he winced and licked the nib. It did not taste as bad as he had feared (it had not tasted like anything at all) but neither had it worked as well as he'd hoped. In a wave of frustration, he hurled the pen across the room and watched, suddenly calm, as it clattered to the ground.

With a sigh, he abandoned his poem, slipped the notebook back into his pocket and went to retrieve the pen. It had rolled to a stop against the walk-in freezer door.

As he bent to retrieve it, he felt... something. A odd sensation that made him faintly uncomfortable. It burned up his spine and into his head. He turned.

Nothing.

He slipped the pen into his pocket, making a note to trash it later. As he stood, something flickered across his vision. He whirled around rapidly, trying to find what it was.

When he couldn't find the source of the flicker, he grabbed his phone and hit the number to call security. Something wasn't right here, and he didn't plan on facing it alone. Better to look stupid if it was nothing than to be dead. (Besides which, he was pretty sure he would look stupid anyway for not calling security if there was a need for it.)

Jace didn't bother to let the person at the other end of the line talk, instead launching straight into giving orders. 'Jace Corvene. I'm currently in Room 304, with Subject #206. I need backup. Something's not right. Check the cameras and whatever else you've got on this room for the last half hour.'

'Yessir, copy that.' the voice on the other end replied. 'We'll have someone to you within the next two minutes.'

'Yes, thank you.' Jace said. He had backed up against a wall, determined not to let anything sneak up on him. His sharp gaze kept a constant watch on everything, and that was when he finally saw the pureblood stir and awaken.

With another nervous glance around the room, Jace slowly edged forward to approach Subject #206. Green eyes snapped open and stared straight up at him, and Jace suppressed the urge to take another glance around.

Jace wasn't entirely certain what happened next. Everything fell into a blur, black dots danced across his vision, he stumbled forward and found himself in the grasp of a suddenly unrestrained, rather agitated Subject #206. One of the subject's hands was around his throat, grasping just tightly enough to be uncomfortable, and the other hand was sparking with fire and held unnervingly close to Jace's face.

That was when the security guards showed up, and everything promptly went to hell.

-o-o-o-o-

'This... is... RIDICULOUS!' I yelled at the top of my lungs. It probably wasn't the best move, stealth-wise, but I was just absolutely sick of all these doors and corridors all leading to nothing at all. I beat my fists against the wall with inhuman strength, and to my surprise, the low thud sound my fists made echoed deeply. There was something behind that wall...

I launched a roundhouse kick at it, which led to a very loud THOOM, but not much else except... I leaned in close and pressed my ear against the wall. I could hear, very faintly, a high pitched, grating, shrieking unholy noise, accompanied by a series of muted thunks as if something (or someone) were striking back from far away.

It was then I realised – the wall wasn't built with the rest of the building. That was why it looked different. The wall was built here recently, to keep people from reaching something.

But what?

The wall cracked. Another hit, and it crumbled backwards, leaving a sizable hole to crawl through. My bet was that whoever built the wall, built it in a hurry, which was why it wasn't as structurally sound as it probably should have been.

I was in a part of the building I hadn't seen before. It looked like it may have once appeared the same as the rest of the building – stark white, clinical and impersonal – but age and disuse had worn it down into something worthy of a horror show.

All around me I could hear that ungodly wail. It itched at my brain, seeping into my mind and I had to bit my inner cheek to keep from whimpering.

The floor tiles had numerous cracks in them, as if something of significant weight had been hurled against them. The walls featured deep gouges. There was no lighting. Evidently, when this part of the building had been walled off, they had cut the electricity as well.

I crept forward slowly, waiting for my eyes to adjust. As I went deeper in, the wailing grew louder, and again I could hear that repeated thunking, but now I had no questions regarding its source. There was no doubt that something else was in here with me, something that the people who inhabited this building found so horrible they built a wall to keep it away.

The darkness lent an eerie feel to my surroundings, worse than it already was. Here and there I would see things, but I could never quite tell what they were. The gouges in the walls here looked deeper, but I couldn't tell if it was just the lighting or not.

I hissed in pain. I'd stepped on something and it had cut into my foot. Fortunately enough, the cut was shallow, but as for what had cut me…

A claw. It had been broken off and lodged into the cracked tiles. I shuddered and prayed the cut would not be infected (though to be honest, if I had known what I was walking towards, I would have been praying for something entirely different).

-o-o-o-o-

Narcissa was sitting on the floor, eyes closed, unmoving. She'd long ago run out of tears to cry.

The room was simple and featured all basic necessities bar a door, which was deeply disturbing to her. Whoever had put her in here wasn't planning to let her out. Thinking about it made her head spin.

What if they never let me out? she thought suddenly. What if no one ever finds me? What if everyone else is dead and it's just me and I'm trapped and I'll run out of food and then just starve to death and no one will ever find me and -

She shook her head to clear out her thoughts.

I can't think like that. I have to remain calm, just breathe in and out. I'm a Black, I've been trained for worse. Conserve the food and there should be enough to last weeks. Yes, everything is going to be just fine. I just have to survive. Someone will find me, surely.

-o-o-o-o-

The creature roared and Peter yelled out in fright. The thing he faced was at least three times his height and looked as though it could crush him easily.

Okay, okay, Peter thought to himself, calm down. Let's see, I have... a grand total of nothing to fight this thing with and I don't think I can opt out.

He glanced upwards. He was in an arena of some sort, clearly designed for combat. There were three spectators, two of them jotting down notes and one who simply stared at him impassively.

The creature roared again. Peter had never seen the like. It was montrously huge, covered in thick, reddish-brown fur. It had a total of three pairs of appendages, two of which it used to stand. The other two had large, grasping hands, almost human-like. It did not seem to have a head, which was perhaps the reason it had yet to locate and kill Peter.

The creature's limbs flailed wildly, and it hurled itself forward. Peter ducked as its flailing limbs passed over him. Haphazardly, he threw a punch which somehow, somehow, caught the creature in the gut. The creature skittered back. One of its hands caressed its gut where Peter had managed to hit it, and another lashed out and backhanded Peter across the face.

Peter was thrown back violently into the dust, head spinning. His vision faded in and out as he tried desperately to right himself. On sheer instinct, he rolled to his left just to hear a violent smack as the creature planted a foot where he had been lying just before. He shot out a hand, and felt it grasp something just in time for his vision to finally clear. The creature was larger than he'd initially thought, but now was no time to back down.

He yanked hard, hoping to send the thing off balance. It kind of worked - the creature stumbled, and Peter took the opportunity.

With a hoarse, impromptu battlecry of "Whhyyyyyy meeee...?!", he dive tackled the monster as best he could.

They both crashed to the ground.

Peter let out a small victory cry, but he couldn't stop here. While it was still trying to regain its balance and stand back up, Peter leapt at it. He intended to do what he had seen in movies - leap and punch in midair. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out as he had planned.

Fortunately though, something else happened.

The monster simply collapsed.

Peter landed roughly, disappointed in his lack of midair karate skills, but decided that a victory was a victory, no matter how it was won.

He gave it a final boot in the gut, walked to the opposite side of the arena, and sat down.

-o-o-o-o-

The Hallowbrook Hotel looked as though it had seen better days. It was a large building on the edge of town, the type that looked like a mansion converted into a hotel, which was exactly what it was. Recently though, it had come under a bit of wear and tear. Vines crawled up the stucco and bent the gutters, which were full of dead leaves and debris.

The interior was much the same - old splendor worn by age and neglect. Once, Fang mused, the Hallowbrook Hotel must have been a marvel to behold, but now it was little more than steeply priced accommodation just a bit too far from everything else.

He approached the marble reception desk. The receptionist was little more than a girl, perhaps only eighteen or nineteen. Dark hair cascaded past her shoulders, and she looked at him with green eyes that told him she wanted nothing more than for her shift to end so she could go home. Her name tag identified her as the girl he was looking for - Daniella Chambers.

'Welcome to the Hallowbrook Hotel, how may I help you?' she inquired with s friendly smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

Fang plucked the envelope from his pocket and gave it to her wordlessly. She looked at it, then back at him, with an expression of mild surprise.

'You know what to do, right?' Fang asked. He didn't bother to add the rest of what he was thinking: because I sure as hell don't.

'Of course. Have a wonderful evening sir.'

'You too.' he responded and left.

As soon as he was out of sight, he opened his wings and leapt into the cool night air.

He was going to find Max. He was going home.

Enjoy? Leave a note! By "note", I mean "review"!