"You're sure she's here? You're one hundred percent sure?"

The Phantom didn't answer. Instead, he closely examined the ordinary-looking house, looking for a back entrance or an unlocked window.

Kevin shifted uncomfortably behind the tall trees in the backyard garden. "You do realize I can't go in there unless a door or window is actually opened, not just unlocked."

That broke Erik's concentration. "What?"

"It's one of the rules. For vampires, you see."

"And you're mentioning this now?"

Kevin frowned, but didn't respond. From his face, Erik had just insulted him.

"Maybe I should have left you behind," he muttered.

The vampire's expression turned furious. But before he could make a devastating retort, Erik pointed at a window on the second floor.

"That would be our best bet."

"Why, pray tell?" Kevin asked, miffed that he didn't get the chance to say his retort. He filled it away for later use.

"Trust me. I'm a genius."

Once again, Kevin had a retort all formed and ready to use, but Erik had already darted forward, swinging himself onto the vines on the side of the house. Kevin was forced to store that retort away as well, and followed the Phantom up the house.

Slowly, carefully, Erik pushed the already slightly opened window. It creaked loudly and stuck. Erik froze. Looking down, he asked Kevin, "Do have any oil?"

Kevin glared up at him. "Why would I bring oil? I didn't think we'd make it this far!"

"I told you to!" Erik snapped back. "Maybe you should have listened to me!"

"Why would I listen to a human?"

"I got us this far, haven't I?" He turned back to the window. "This thing could wake up the entire house. No point in trying to be secretive with this."

"We could always go in through another window," Kevin hissed.

"There're people in those rooms!" Erik snapped.

"Good! I need to kill a few of them." Kevin's voice had risen slightly.

Fury shone plain and clear on the Phantom's face, but instead of taking it out on the vampire, he put all his strength into his shoulder and thrust it into the window. It came off its hinges, and went flying through the room, shattering on the opposite wall.

"So much for being secretive," Kevin muttered.

All at once there were screams and shouts from down below. Erik managed to hear a few as he sprang into the dark room.

"What was that?"

"Was that her?"

"She's escaping from the second floor!"

Erik turned to face the vampire, who was still hanging out the window. "Do you need an invitation to enter?"

Kevin ignored that. Leaping lightly in, he whispered, "She's not here."

Erik frowned. "What do you mean? She was…" he checked her "mind position" and found it outside the house, running away. "Oh…shit."

Just then, the door burst open.

-

Amme had reached the forest in only two minutes. She dropped to the floor, panting—she had over-exerted herself, not for the first time. Curling in a ball, she examined herself, finding where the deepest gash was. It was on her right forearm, and she started to lick it—some of Starlight's cat characteristics had rubbed off on her.

That same kitten, who was such a bad influence on Amme, leapt out of the forest, and landed on her shoulder.

You're back! She meowed happily. You're all right!

"Yes, Starlight," Amme smiled. "I'm back and I'm all right."

Where are the men? Starlight asked curiously.

Amme frowned. "What men?"

Kevin. And that Phantom man. They went to find you, and… Starlight's eyes bulged. Oh, no.

Amme's mouth dropped open. "You mean…they went…they…Kevin…Phantom…me…"

Yes.

"Oh…shit."

Without another word, Amme turned and sprinted back towards the house.

-

"Drop your weapon!"

Erik, feeling it was best not to argue when a dozen guns were trained on your head, let his sword fall and rose from his crouch. Behind him, he sensed Kevin slip back outside completely unnoticed by any of the armed men in front of them.

A tall man, with short brown hair and mismatched eyes strolled to the front. "Well, well. What do we have here?" He kicked the dropped sword out of Erik's reach. "How in the world did this human get in here?" Glancing out the window, he added, "Alone. Apparently, at least. Who left this window opened?"

No one seemed eager to take credit for the mistake.

"Never mind. I'll find out later." He turned back to Erik. "You. Human. Who are you?"

Erik raised an eyebrow, and a mocking sneer came to his lips. "Why would I tell you that?"

"Because I just have to give the order, and every single man here will shoot you."

"That would succeed in killing me," Erik admitted. "But it wouldn't tell you what you want to know, now would it?"

The man's mouth tightened. Finally, he said, "True enough. But I can torture the information out of you, can't I?"

"I sincerely doubt that."

The man tilted his head, studying the Phantom closely. "You're brave, human. I'll give you that, but that's all you'll get. Clearly, you don't know who you're dealing with."

"Clearly not. Perhaps you should educate me. Whom am I dealing with?"

The man deliberated. Then he spoke again, "My name, if it helps you any, is Jonathan Drabek. And yours is?"

Erik smirked, but didn't answer.

Jonathan started to twitch. "What are you doing here?"

Erik considered his answer, and then realized he wanted to see Jonathan's response when presented with the truth. "I was looking for someone. Perhaps you've seen her."

Jonathan froze momentarily. "Perhaps. Who is she?"

Now Erik was starting to get bored with the conversation. "Amme Eledhwen. And I know you had her, and I know she escaped. I also know you were intending on killing her, so it's lucky for you she did escape. Otherwise it would have been worse for you. That's all. Au revoir, Monsieur."

"Not so fast, human." Jonathan grabbed Erik's wrist. His skin was as burning hot as Erik's was ice cold. "Since I can't kill her, you'll have to do for now."

And that's when everything went black.

-

Amme glared daggers at the house she had hoped never again to set eyes on. "This is just fabulous, isn't it?"

"What is?"

She turned, recognizing the voice. "Kevin?"

The blue-eyed vampire grinned at her. "Selise! I never thought I'd see you again!"

Amme squealed, and ran forward to embrace him. When they broke apart, Kevin looking very uncomfortable, she said, "How many times do I have to ask you to call me Amme?"

"Infinitely."

She laughed. And then, remember what Starlight said, she sobered up quickly. "Where's the Phantom? Is he still with you?"

Kevin looked even more uncomfortable. "Um…no. We, well, sort of got caught. I got out, but…I don't know about him."

"Double shit," Amme muttered. Louder, she said, "Well, I suppose I'll have to go back in there."

"What?" Kevin looked horrified. "No. Don't be ridiculous, Selise. I'll go in; you stay here."

"I got him in the situation, I'll get him out. But don't worry, you can come too, Kev."

"Don't call me that!" Kevin insisted, but not as forcefully as he usually might have.

The elf grinned, before making a dash to the backyard. With a sinking feeling of déjà vu, Kevin followed.

-

Erik awoke in a small, brightly lit room. Too bloody brightly lit, too. And way, way, way too small. His head crashed against the ceiling when he tried to stand.

Rubbing the sore part of his head, he crawled over to the almost completely hidden door. Not to his surprise, it was locked, but Erik had not been called the trap-door lover back in Persia for nothing. Studying it, he realized the lock wasn't anything really unusual; he had dealt with more complicated ones before. It only took a few seconds concentration, and the door opened. And this time, it didn't make any noise while doing so. Smirking very slightly, Erik slipped out.

The door had led to a hallway that was only slightly less bright than the room. Erik blinked several times, trying to adjust his eyes to the light.

After a while, he realized something was wrong. Why was no one here? Logically, there should have been several people making sure he didn't escape. That's what Erik would have done with Christine after he kidnapped her, only there was no one he could use like that. Not to mention, he never needed to do anything like that.

Self-flattery aside, Erik returned to figuring out why the hall was so empty. Maybe that Jonathan thought that because he was human, Erik wouldn't be able to escape. That might have been possible, but Jonathan Drabek didn't strike him as the careless type. There was something more.

He wondered while he walked down the hall toward a door at the end. Carefully, he opened it, making sure it didn't squeak the tiniest bit. And then the answer to his question hit him like a ton of bricks.

A dull roar reached him. At first, it didn't make any sense, but then it turned into several different noises all rolled into one. The loudest was the screams of men, dozens of them. Some were in agony, others in fear. But the most prominent came from one man, and it was one of pure fury.

Underneath the screams, Erik was able to distinguish the sound of metal clanging and scraping against more metal. It made the hair on his neck stand on end.

Under that, Erik was barely able to hear a low hissing noise, strangely similar to a cat. He was able to recognize the hisser.

Not her, he thought to himself. No, she was suppose to be gone!

Absolutely horrified, he threw himself towards the noise, praying, for the first time, that he wasn't too late.

-

Amme had had the choice to make a quiet entrance and an undetected rescue, but she had ruled both out. These people had killed almost all of her family, so she simply wanted to kill a few of them in return. Kevin had been all up for it, but then, Kevin was almost always up for anything that involved him killing humans. Amme frequently wondered how she was able to be friends with him.

Once she reached the back door, she took out Kevin's sword, which he and lent to her and was much better suited to her strength then the stolen ones—Kevin fully intended on using his fangs. Anyways, she took the sword and scraped it down the door's hinges. It made a horrible screeching sound, which would have undoubtedly been heard by a majority of the house. The hinges gave way, and the door started to fall on top of her. Grabbing it before it crushed her, Amme threw it over her head, where it shattered into the tree behind her.

"Nice one," Kevin said appreciatively.

Amme spared him a grin before twirling the sword into position. "Here they come."

Footsteps thundered towards them. Kevin parted his lips in a sneer, exposing his long fangs. Almost instantaneously, they both settled down into a crouch, waiting.

-

When Erik reached the battle, it was already in full swing. About fourteen men were dead, from either Amme's blade or Kevin's teeth. Blood splattered everywhere, inside the room and out in the garden. Erik could tell the police would be on their way soon, but then he was never very impressed with the Paris police. And if he, Amme, and Kevin could kill all the men and get away before they came, no one would ever know they were there; the high fence around the garden blocked it from the outside world. He could hear the screams of the neighbors mixed in with the two-dozen men still alive and fighting.

A pale shape caught his eye. Kevin, without a single drop of blood on him, flitted around the battle, breaking men's bones left and right. But the scariest part was how little control the vampire seemed to still possess. In a few moments, Erik could tell, he would have to start drinking the blood pouring from the dead and living alike.

The man, Jonathan Drabek, was partly hidden behind the tree, below which was a shattered door. He was screaming his head off, though the words were not comprehensible. It seemed to be only a never-ending howl of words and syllables. He was less in control of himself than Kevin was.

And then Erik saw Amme.

She was darting around even faster than Kevin. In her eyes, there was only a fierce determination as she blocked, dodged, and stabbed. There were a number of cuts and gashes scattered along her body, but none of them seemed to affect her in the slightest. And the bloodstains on her black dress seemed to be more from her victims than from her.

Erik didn't register how she was able to have kept herself alive for so long. He didn't think she probably didn't need much help at the moment. All he could think of was the man behind her, raising a long broadsword.

And Erik leapt into the battle.

-

Kevin was not able to make any comments before this chapter for obvious reasons, once I explain them. He was getting rather violent, you see, so I had no choice but to tie him to a chair in my room and duck tape his mouth shut. Amme is currently trying to reason with him, which is not going well because a certain phantom I could mention keeps laughing and mocking the poor vampire.
If you listen really closely, you can just make out muffled screams.