I'm sorry for the slight shortness but it was just a good place to end. This story has had completely irregular chapters xD

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Reprise:

Instinctively, Cadvan knew where he must go. He found the cowbyre he had been in before very quickly and entered it.

Kayla was back where their story together started. Would that help her?

--

"Kayla? Kayla, wake up, sweetheart. We're back."

The words drifted through my mind like a forgotten dream. Was I imagining them? I tried to move, tried to open my eyes to see if it was real.

"We're back at the Cot. No one knows we're here, is that right? I didn't know why you wanted to come here…" The voice trailed off. I couldn't tell if it had stopped or if I just couldn't hear it any more.

At last I managed to open my eyes. I saw Cadvan above me, looking relieved but tense at the same time.

"Are you alright?" he asked anxiously.

"Mmm…" was all I could manage.

"We're back. What now?"

I don't know for certain. "Help me up," I forced out of dry lips, and he put my arm over his shoulder to help me stand up. I looked at him fearfully. "I can't feel anything."

"Shh," he said gently, and kissed my cheek. "Don't worry."

I pointed at the door I had come through and he supported me as I struggled towards it.

"It's locked," Cadvan said as we stopped in front of it.

I didn't have the energy to speak so I held out a hand and gripped the padlock, frowning hard. I couldn't see how just holding a lock would cause it to open, but if it didn't work I didn't know what else to do.

The lock clicked.

"It worked," Cadvan said, sounding very far away. My legs collapsed but I was unconscious before I hit the ground.

--

Cadvan supported Kayla's full weight as she collapsed, before trying the door. It opened with a squelch and swung away.

Cadvan stared. Through the door there was a brightly-lit room, even though he knew that it should open into the open air.

He stepped through slowly, pulling Kayla with him. He started as he saw movement, before realising that it was his own reflection in a mirror. There were glass bottles in neat rows displaying their brightly coloured contents. Was this medicine? He laid Kayla down gently and pulled one off the shelf to examine it, knocking off another with a bang in the process.

'Shower gel', the label said.

What? He unscrewed the lid and sniffed the contents; a sickly sweet smell reached his nostrils and he replaced the lid. As he put it back onto the shelf he realised that the bottle was too light and too pliable to be glass.

He picked up another, smaller, bottle.

'Cleanser'.

Wasn't that what he wanted? Something to cleanse her body of the poison?

As he was contemplating persuading Kayla to swallow it, he heard footsteps and looked up quickly, drawing his sword. He suspected this was a hospital but he was in no way certain so caution was wise.

A blonde-haired man of medium height came into the room, blinked as he saw Cadvan and then jumped back as he spotted his sword. Cadvan watched him look wildly around the room until his eyes came to rest on Kayla.

"If you've hurt her, I will kill you," he spat.

Cadvan considered him for a moment. Anybody so protective of Kayla had to know her and want to help her. He sheathed his sword warily.

"She's been bitten," he explained, but the man seemed not to be listening; the moment Cadvan had sheathed his sword, he had rushed to Kayla's side and placed his hand on her cheek.

"Kimberly?" Cadvan heard him murmur, and a jolt went through him.

"What did you call her?" he asked, thinking that at last he would find out what Kayla had been hiding. The idea excited and repulsed him.

"Kimberly, that's her name," the man replied venomously as he picked her up carefully. "I'm Nathan. I'm her…boyfriend," the word seemed painful for him, and Cadvan wondered why. As he did not even really know what a boyfriend was, he did not get far in his ruminations. "Are you Cadvan?"

"Aye," Cadvan replied, wondering how he knew. He felt completely out of his depth; he did not understand this room, or this man…He followed him out of the room and into a corridor. "Can you help her?" he asked.

"What happened?"

"She was bitten by an aylach," Cadvan explained as Nathan laid Kayla down on a double bed and made her comfortable. He prayed that Nathan would be able to help her.

"What's an aylach?" Nathan asked, frowning, and Cadvan's heart sank.

"It's like a wolf. Its bite has a soporific effect, and causes one to lose feeling."

Nathan just frowned at him for a second then suddenly Cadvan was being shoved back against the wall, Nathan's furious face pushed close to his own. "You had better be telling the truth," he snarled. "Because if you're taking advantage or something, if you've just convinced her she's ill, I will kill you." He slammed Cadvan against the wall again to make his point and Cadvan resisted the strong urge to blast him.

"I am not a liar. Kayla is ill and she needs help."

"HER NAME'S KIMBERLY!" Nathan yelled, shoving him against the wall once more. Cadvan's head connected with the wall and he would have struck Nathan if the anger had not seemed suddenly to drain out of the man. Nathan ran a hand through his hair looking panicked. "I don't know what to do," he admitted in a choked voice. "I don't even know what's wrong with her. There's no point taking her to hospital, they won't know what's going on." He turned and left the room quickly, and Cadvan went to Kayla's - Kimberly's - side.

"Please get well," he said softly, taking hold of her hand. He stroked her fingers gently as Nathan came into the room again. He stopped dead just inside the doorway.

"Did you and she…?" he trailed off.

"What?" Cadvan asked, nonplussed.

Nathan gestured at their hands.

"One kiss, that was all," he replied, understanding.

Nathan nodded once, his face carefully blank, and continued forwards. He managed to make Kimberly swallow two small white things, though she did not seem to register anything.

"Are the two of you together?" Cadvan asked, fishing desperately for information about her.

"Yeah." He looked saddened again, and Cadvan was confused by the mixed messages he was giving out. He was fiercely protective of her, yet always seemed regretful when he spoke of their relationship. Cadvan himself was slowly coming around to the idea that Kimberly already had a lover, and was torn between jealously towards Nathan and anger at Kimberly for her many deceptions.

"I was going to ask her to marry me," Nathan said slowly, gazing at Kimberly's face. "On her birthday." He rubbed at the back of his neck distractedly. "We were supposed to be going out for an expensive meal…I'd booked a table, she bought a new dress…I came home from work and she was brushing her hair. She smiled at me, she seemed happy. She looked beautiful." He paused. "She always does." Nathan looked at Cadvan now as he continued. "I went out to get her some flowers, and when I came back I called her. She didn't answer so I came in here and she was sat on the bed hugging her knees. She was in the dress she'd bought for our meal. She was rocking backwards and forwards saying 'Cadvan' over and over and over."

Cadvan stared back at Nathan, completely bemused.

"She didn't stop for three hours. We didn't go out. Neither of us ate anything. I never got to propose to her." He went over to a drawer and rummaged through his socks. After a moment he pulled out a little black box and opened it to show Cadvan a silver ring with a diamond. "I've still got the ring, but I'm too scared to try and ask her again."

Questions swirled around Cadvan's brain, so plentiful that they seemed to stop up his mouth. "How does she know me?" he managed at last.

Nathan sighed in annoyance and picked up a thick book from a bedside table. "She knows you from this," he explained, handing the book over.

Cadvan took it curiously. It was clean as though brand-new, but the spine was cracked and the front cover was bent. The front cover said 'The Gift'. He opened it and saw that the first page had a name scrawled upon it in black pen; 'Alison Croggon'.

"Why was she saying my name?" Cadvan asked, looking up.

Nathan regarded Cadvan for a second, and seemed to be considering his words. "Read the first few chapters of that. Then I'll explain everything. Go through there into the living room, I'll watch Kimberly."

Cadvan moved towards the door, pausing as he stood in the doorframe. "Why did she tell me her name was Kayla when it is Kimberly?" he asked. "Why did she lie about who she was?"

Nathan, who had moved to sit next to Kimberly on the bed, looked up at him. "Read that first. You need to know what you are, then I'll explain."

Cadvan continued out of the door, pondering Nathan's words.

'You need to know what you are.'

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I've a feeling you're all going to be rather annoyed with me now, since there are more questions than answers, but I doubly promise forever and ever amen that all will be explained in the next chapter. Please review, even if only to tell me I should get on and tell you what's going on!