Chapter two
Fowl Manor, a few miles north of Dublin, Ireland
Slowly the fiery pain began to draw together, seeping out of his limbs and into his chest cavity to focus its attention on the one remaining unaffected organ – Butler's heart. The fire grew more intense and threatened to overwhelm Butler's self control. So far he had managed to maintain his silence, amid the inferno of pain for what had seemed like an eternity, by holding to one belief. Nothing lasts forever. The pain had to end, soon. And suddenly it did.
Slowly Butler opened his eyes to see the ceiling of his room back at Fowl Manor. Somehow it looked different. Butler could pick out every swirl and brushstroke in the paint, every single dust mote in the air. He could hear the TV downstairs playing cartoons for Myles and Beckett, the wind blowing through the trees in the garden and the buzzing of the security system. But it was what he could smell that most interested him. Right next to him in this very room was something far more worthy of his attention. The aroma of his intended prey, a human.
Butler looked up and saw Artemis sitting on a chair next to his bed. Heard the blood thrumming in his veins. No! It is my duty to protect him! I can't – I won't. The fury of those last words surprised Butler but even that might not be enough to stop the monster inside of him. Butler closed his eyes and searched for that place of inner peace – his quiet place – inside of him.
Butler began to panic as he couldn't find it. The physical sensation – the burning, bone dry fire in his throat – distracted him from his mental searching. Butler was suddenly aware that Artemis was talking but so far he hadn't heard a word.
With a spring he leaped up and raced at lightning pace from the room. Across the hallway he descended the stairs to the cellar reaching another corridor he entered the second door on the left. Butler found himself in a concrete room with a few chairs and a table. There was a large double glazed window in the middle of one of the walls with a microphone and a pair of speakers below. The thick concrete walls would keep any human scent away and help block out any sounds. Slowly, Butler sat and tried to set his mind into some sort of order.