Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl: Evil Awakens Chapter Ten

Uallach's boat

Uallach and Conway were arguing again.

"I want you to help me with the plan," said Uallach.

"I'm not going to help you," he said, "unless you do it my way."

Uallach slammed her fist on the small bedside table, causing the lamp to fall off and crack on the floor. "How dare you! I should make you into a meal right now."

Conway noticed her eyes were a little red and decided to try and placate her. "Listen, I'm just saying, what you're doing isn't working so well. You've had plenty of chances to kill Harry, but he's still running around. When you had him here on the boat, chained up, you could have stabbed him right there with a silver stake and ended it, but you had to let him come topside to try and get him to kill his own wife. You have just killed him below decks, and then killed the red head and that would be it. Done."

Uallach smirked. "You don't understand. I wanted Harry to come with me after I changed him, but he remained attached to those dumb humans. I do not like it when somebody refuses to do as I say. And I like to make people suffer. I'm immortal and have all the time in the world. I'll never get old, so why not have some fun?"

Conway shook his head. "Whatever."

Fowl Manor

Holly was still growing, bit by bit.

"Four feet, yay!" she exclaimed one morning, hobbling downstairs, sore. "I can almost reach the bottom shelf in the cabinets."

"Good for you," said Ron, encouragingly. "Maybe one day you'll be able to reach the second shelf."

"Ha,ha," said Holly, sticking her tongue out.

"Holly, your helmet is beeping," yelled Artemis.

Holly hobbled back upstairs, her body complaining, and grabbed her helmet. She slid out the visor so she could look at the screen without putting it on.

"Holly, there's a dwarf in Dublin," said Trouble, after hellos were exchanged. "He's an alcohol smuggler, but he's real low class, not a high threat. We need you to go scoop him up, since he's in your area. Foaly's got his location via satellite. He's an alcoholic, so he's probably drunk and passed out."

Holly took some ibuprofen and suited up. Since her growth spurt, Foaly had sent her a new suit, one that would be able to grow with her as she grew.

"Let me know if your head gets too big and needs a new helmet," he told Holly a couple days ago.

Holly checked her equipment. "See you later," she told Artemis.

"Do you need help?" asked Artemis. "Butler or Harry could go with you."

"No, it's fine," replied Holly. "Just some low class alcohol smuggler. No big deal. I dump him off at Police Plaza and come right back."

She activated her wings and flew out the window, shielded, enjoying the crisp cold air. She flew toward Dublin where Foaly said he was.

"Feels good to be in action, huh?" asked Foaly. "Going in, guns ablaze."

"It's just a low class smuggler," replied Holly.

Foaly told her what apartment building the dwarf was in.

It was run down and old looking. Some shady people were hanging out front, smoking cigarettes and taking swigs from brown bagged bottles.

"It's not even mid morning," said Holly.

"Well, it's five o clock somewhere," chortled Foaly. "Oh, look, those guys are smoking pot I believe." A couple of guys had little blunts that they were surreptitiously smoking and passing back and forth.

There was an open window on the second floor and Holly glided in with ease and crouched on the floor. A door in the hall opened and a rough looking guy came out.

"Come back soon, baby," Holly heard a lady call out.

"Sure, babe," the man answered. Holly could see a lady sitting on a couch, smoking a blunt.

"Go upstairs," said Foaly. Holly waited until the man left the hall and then quietly tiptoed up a rickety staircase. Music thumped through walls from an upstairs room.

"He should be in the room at the end," said Foaly.

Holly unlocked it with her Omni-tool, after doing a thermal scan. There was only one warm body, laying down in what Holly presumed to be the bedroom. She crept into the apartment.

Still shielded she walked into the bed room where a dwarf was laying on the rumpled bed. An empty booze bottle was next to him.

"Knocked out cold," said Foaly. "Cuff him."

"Hang on, why does he look so ill?" asked Holly.

"He's an alcoholic," scoffed Foaly. "What did you expect?"

The dwarf's eyes were closed and he was panting a bit, pale as a sheet. His eyes suddenly snapped open.

"It hurts everywhere," he moaned, seemingly to himself.

The dwarf sat up weakly and lit a cigarette. Holly removed her Neutrino from the holster, planning to just stun him. Her foot tapped a bottle and it fell over and shattered, spilling tequila everywhere.

"Real stealth like," mumbled Foaly.

The dwarf looked behind him.

"LEP, shielded I bet," he rasped.

Holly unshielded. "Just come quietly."

"You can't help me now," said the dwarf.

"You're drunk," said Holly, taking the safety off her gun.

"Not drunk, sick," said the dwarf. "She came from nowhere, bit me, and it hurts."

He was shaking badly.

"She?" asked Holly, wondering if this was some trick.

"I can smell the blood," said the dwarf. "I want it. Need it- must have it-"

"Then feed from her," said a familiar voice. "And I shall dump her body at the feet of her husband."

Holly whirled around. Uallach was standing there, smiling. The dwarf dropped the cigarette into the tequila, which whooshed into flames. He lunged for Holly, four of tombstone teeth having formed into fangs.

"I NEED IT!" he shrieked.

Holly shot him, knocking him back. He fell into the blazing tequila and his beard caught fire.

Holly grabbed his leg and tried to yank him out. He rolled on the floor, screaming.

"USELESS!" shrieked Uallach, busting a vodka bottle over Holly head. It shattered on the helmet and liquor spilled on the floor. Holly jumped back from the fire, not wanting to be turned into an elf kabob.

Uallach lunged for Holly and bit her neck and tried to suck the blood out, but Holly shot the gun in Uallach's side, burning a hole right through her torso. Uallach screamed and jumped back.

The flames had spread to the bed and the curtains. The dwarf was rolling around weakly, screaming, burning.

"Get out of there Holly!" shouted Foaly.

Holly went for the door, hating to leave the dwarf behind, but it was too late for him. Already he wasn't even screaming anymore.

Uallach, despite the hole that was still healing in her, wasn't about to let her quarry go. She reached and grabbed Holly's ankle, tripping her.

"Come here, I'm hungry for some elf blood!" she snarled, scrambling to Holly's side.

Holly shot another blast at Uallach, who dodged just in time, or she would have had a crispy face.

Uallach brought a knife out and stabbed Holly in the side. The suit gave some resistance, but the point dove through and into the flesh. Blood welled up. Holly cried out in pain and kicked Uallach in the leg, which didn't do much.

The smell was delicious, and Uallach hadn't eaten in a bit. Her reddened eyes hungrily eyed the blood and she went for it, but Holly scooted to the side at the last second and aimed a kick at Uallach's nose.

CRACK! Holly's boot connected with the unfortunate vampire's nose and drove the bone in. Uallach screamed and jerked backward. The bone actually pierced her brain a little. A human would have been incapacitated and maybe even dead, but Uallach just got up jerkily, her head searing with pain.

There was an explosion as a shelf of liquor bottles crashed to the floor. The alcoholic dwarf had a shelf stocked with the best, but the fire eating away at the shelf, it collapsed and the bottles spilled their contents everywhere, adding more fuel to the flame.

Holly got up and dove for the door. Uallach took a little poison tipped dagger out and threw it. It spun in the air, stabbing Holly in the back. She shrieked and stumbled, reaching behind to yank it out. She almost dropped it and but some part of her brain said not to. If somebody came to investigate the fire, it would not be good to leave a knife lying about with elf blood on it.

The knife had gone in pretty deep and it was bleeding. Sparks were zipping around the wounds and Holly ran for the window in the hall and tried to open it. The poison was starting to paralyze her. There hadn't been a lot on the tip, but it was enough to make things difficult. The window was stuck so Holly elbowed it and it shattered. She climbed through, trying to activate her wings. Clumsy, she slipped and wasn't able to control the wings. She flew into the alley, pin-wheeled and crashed into the side of a brick building and then fell three stories down into an alley. She hit concrete hard and felt her spine snap.

"Shit." This was all Holly managed to get out before the sky started to fade. The poison, despite being small in amount, had caused her to be unable to fly properly. She was on the ground, and her shield was off, all the magic going to repair the wounds. Her helmet cheerily informed to remain calm and that her body would need to shut down to repair the wounds. Her spine was snapped plus several other bones had been broken or shattered.

"Holly! Holly!" Foaly was shouting. "Hang on, I'll send someone to get you!"

The sky faded to black.

Fowl Manor

Artemis's communicator beeped. Foaly was calling.

"Hey, Foaly," said Artemis.

"Send Harry to get Holly!" gabbled Foaly quickly. "He's the only who can fly quickly!"

"Wait, what about Holly!?"

"Uallach was there, and there was a dwarf, but I think she was trying to turn him into a vampire and the there was booze everywhere and the place caught on fire and Holly jumped out a window and the readings from her suit said her spine snapped along with a bunch of other bones, and she was stabbed and-"

"Where is she?" Artemis felt panic clench his stomach. His wife was hurt, and it only supposed to be a simple mission!

Foaly told Artemis where and Artemis bolted out his study to find Harry.

Harry wrapped himself in cam foil and flew to Dublin. He hated flying in cam foil. He had to especially careful that no part of him accidently poked out, as it would not be good if someone saw a foot or a tip of a wing floating across the sky.

He flew down toward the alley where Foaly send Holly would be.

Artemis was in the Bentley, being driven by Butler with Snape in the back seat.

They neared the apartment building. The third floor was on fire and the fire department was there, spraying the building. A couple of firemen disappeared inside and another exited, leading some people out. There was an ambulance, with a few people next to it. Nobody appeared hurt.

Police were talking to the people, likely trying to obtain info on what happened.

Butler parked the Bentley a block up the road, out of sight from the police.

Artemis was sick with worry. He wanted to go find his wife himself, but he couldn't very well go sneaking off the side of the building with so many people around.

Harry found Holly lying on the ground, hidden by the trash bags. It was a miracle nobody had seen her. She was completely unshielded. Harry took the last bit of cam foil he had and wrapped Holly.

A man, standing by the ambulance was talking to an officer. He looked over and saw a small hand floating through the air. Suddenly it vanished.

Harry had realized Holly's hand was poking out and quickly covered it up.

"A hand!" shouted the man, pointing.

The officer turned and looked.

"There was a hand floating through the air! I saw it! It vanished! It was small, like a kid's hand!"

The cop raised an eyebrow. Obviously, there was no hand floating through air.

"Sir, are you under the influence of any drugs or alcohol?"

The man jumped. "Uh no." Total lie of course, he'd been drinking and smoking pot that morning.

"Dude, maybe the smoke from the fire has gone to your head," said another man.

"Um, yeah, I guess so." The first man blinked. Weird. He'd never hallucinated when smoked. Maybe the pot was laced…

"Seriously, I think your friend sold of some bad shit," said the first man to his friend, when the cop walked away.

His friend shook his head. "Naw, man, Big G never gives us the crappy stuff. I smoked it too, and I ain't seeing floating hands. The smoke from the fire is going to your head or something."

Harry tapped on the door of the Bentley and Snape opened it. Harry climbed and laid Holly on the seat, retracting his wings.

Artemis climbed into the back seat, accidentally kicking Butler in the arm with his foot.

Harry ripped the cam foil off and Artemis took off Holly's helmet and shoved it toward Snape.

"Hold this."

Foaly, watching through the helmets camera yelled. "Turn it around, all I see is your crotch Snape!"

Snape jerked and flipped the helmet, so it pointed toward Holly.

Spark whizzed around Holly's numerous broken bones and then stopped. Her magic had run out.

"The suit readout says her injuries are not fully healed," said Foaly.

Artemis placed his hand on Holly and muttered heal, sending his own magic into her, to finish it.

Holly moaned and opened her eyes.

"We got you," said Artemis placing a hand on her forehead. "You ran out of magic, but I finished healing you."

Holly tried to sit up.

"No, lay down."

"I'm fine now," said Holly. "Just super sore. There was a dwarf-"

"Take it slow." He sat down and Harry climbed into the passenger seat. Artemis had Holly lean against him while she recounted everything that happened.

"So Uallach tried to turn a dwarf into a vampire," said Harry.

"Is that even possible?" asked Butler.

"I imagine so," said Artemis. "As what happened to Harry, the dwarf wasn't fully turned, and was in pain, and starting to feel the hunger for blood. This was supposed to be a simple pick up of a smuggler!"

"I didn't know Uallach had gotten to him!" said Foaly from the helmet.

"What about the body?" asked Artemis. "If the body is there, coroners might realize upon further inspection, that it is not the body of a child or a little person."

Uallach had apparently thought of that, however. When the group arrived home, Holly went to replenish her magic and on the evening news, the fire was the main story. Everybody was in Artemis's study watching it on the computer. Nobody had died in the fire, and a man interviewed, said he saw a red hair girl carrying something over shoulder, jumping over buildings.

His eyes were red and he was obviously high. Obviously the interviewer didn't believe a word of this tale. Due the apartment building being a home to many low life people, including drug users, the fire was chalked up to being an accident, possibly created during a fight, and whoever started it, had fled. No bodies were found and everyone had gotten out in time.

"Whoa," said Mulch, after the newscaster started to talking about something else.

"So, maybe Uallach is planning on creating an army of vampire people," said Harry.

"If she does that, that would be really bad," said Hermione. "Vampires are extremely hard to kill."

"A silver stake, or really anything silver and pointy, through the heart does it," said Harry. "That's how I've almost been killed."

"Yeah, but it's hard to actually do that," said Holly. "Vampires are pretty fast and strong, look at Harry. Now imagine a dwarf as a vampire, and the ability to dig underground."

"Nobody could catch a vampire dwarf," said Mulch. "Harry, you should turn me, imagine the robbery I could commit with those powers! I could just use the vampire mesmer and hypnotize people into giving me all their money."

"I thought you were living the quiet life now," said Holly.

"Ah, well you know, I might get bored."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Anyway, it's very painful, and you go kind of crazy without blood after a while. I had to teach myself discipline, which was torture. And I wouldn't consider it humane to turn someone anyway."

"On, second thought, never mind," said Mulch.

"Daddy vampire," said James, hugging his dad's leg.

"So if she starts changing people, we could have a real problem on our hands," said Holly. "I told Trouble and Foaly, so they'll keep an eye out for odd disappearances, or strange murders, since any new vampires will need to feed, and they likely won't be like Harry and drink animals or just buy blood packets."

Uallach's boat

Uallach came back, annoyed. Conway was healed for the most part now, and sitting on the deck. His one eye was permanently damaged, although you couldn't tell by looking at it.

"I tried to kill that Holly bitch," said Uallach, sitting on the edge. "She got away and ran off somewhere. The fire was getting pretty bad and I burned myself grabbing that dumb dwarf that died in it."

"Well, obviously it healed," said Conway.

"It still hurt," said Uallach. "I was going to go after Holly, but I knew firemen would be coming soon, so I had to run off with the dwarf's body, so they wouldn't find it and do an autopsy on it and find my venom in the body, or that something is odd about the remains. Humans will know of fairies one day, but it'll be too late as I'll be enslaving both races. And look at you now, with a damaged eye. You're practically useless now."

"I can still fight and I still have the other eye!" said Conway. "If you made me a vampire, it would heal it."

"No, no, no!" said Uallach, poking Conway's nose, something that annoyed him very much. "You have to hold up your end of the deal."

"What about your dumb book, shouldn't we go get that?" asked Conway.

"Yes, I suppose so," said Uallach. "I could get started and make some powerful vampires, ones that don't get killed by a silver stake like mine. It would be nice to have it back. It had other interesting spells in it too."

"Your dwarf wasn't fully done transforming, huh?" asked Conway. "We could just kidnap some people, you know, lock them here on the boat and you could turn them."

"But if I turn people, it only takes a silver stake to kill them," replied Uallach. "Weren't you listening to me? If I use the spell, they can only be killed by being ripped to pieces and burned, a bit harder. Although, I will need some regular turned vampires, but just for parts, like a used car."

"Why?"

Uallach clucked her tongue. "You never do listen to me, do you? I need a vampire's heart and teeth for the spell. So I could turn some regular people, rip the bits out that I need, and kill them. Once I've got my parts, I can make some spell vampires, like me."

"Oh, yeah," said Conway.

"Oh yeah," mocked Uallach. "You, sir, are an idiot."

Conway glared at her. "I could kill you."

Uallach lunged from her chair and grabbed Conway by the throat and slammed him against the cabin wall. The doctor came out and seeing the two fighting, quickly ducked back inside.

"I should kill you right now," said Uallach, her fangs out. "Don't ever try to threaten me again!"

Conway had his claws in Uallach's arm, and blood was lazily dribbling out.

"You're choking me!" gasped Conway.

"Get your claws out of my arm!" snarled Uallach.

Conway reluctantly withdrew them. Uallach dropped Conway on the deck.

"Don't ever try to act like you could kill me," said Uallach. "You damage easily and don't heal properly. I am immortal, and heal perfectly, unlike you. Now, let's go get my book, shall we?"

Uallach sailed the boat to France and later, Uallach and Conway were near the Magical Museum.

"The spells surrounding it would be tough to get through," said Conway. "The best secured this place."

Uallach tapped her chin. "Yes, but we could wait until morning. When they unlock the place for visitors, I'll just stroll in and take it."

"There will be wizards in there!" said Conway. "They'll attack you!"

"I'm a wizard too," said Uallach, pulling out her stolen wand.

"Witch," corrected Conway.

Uallach slapped the back of his head. "Wizard."

"You're a girl."

Another smack. "I am not a witch! You know how I feel about that!"

"Witches are different nowadays," retorted Conway. "They don't just live in huts curing boils, like they did in the fifth century!"

"W-I-Z-A-R-D!" Uallach spelled it for him. "An immortal one. If they fight me, I fight back. Besides, they won't be able to kill me or hurt me seriously. They won't know I'm a vampire."

Uallach moved to get closer to the building.

"Witch," muttered Conway under his breath.

"I heard that."

In the morning, Uallach did as she said would, despite Conway thinking it foolhardy and dumb.

"They'll see you, and try to hunt you down."

"So what, everyone will know of me when I enslave everyone, so who cares?"

"We should get a dwarf and have him tunnel in."

"I don't feel like looking for another."

Conway just rolled his eyes.

Uallach had heard that there were no spells inside the building to speak of, since the outside ones were so good. There were guards during the day, to keep people from trying to steal or touch things. The last thing they needed was a thief running off with a priceless treasure, or a five year old with sticky fingers touching a thousand year old vase or whatever else was in there.

Uallach had a robe to wear, so she looked normal. She paid the fee to get into the museum and joined a group and spent some time looking at exhibits. She split from the group near where her book was.

She could see it on its pedestal, under a glass dome, guarded by a wizard. The group left the area and it was deserted, except by her, who wandered over to the book.

"Interesting, huh?" she asked the wizard.

"Yeah, but I see this stuff everyday here, so it gets boring," said the guard. "They haven't had anything new in a while. I heard a new exhibit is coming in a few week: Weirdest Muggle Inventions."

Uallach pretended to gaze at the book-her book- for a moment. Without warning, she lunged for the man and bit his neck, drained about half his blood away, and dropped him. She threw the glass dome off and grabbed her book and hightailed it to the exit.

Another guard passing seen this and set off an alarm. Other guards came running. One tried to block Uallach and raised his wand. Uallach dove head first toward him, and sent him flying into a glass display of ancient wands, breaking the glass and sending the wands skittering across the floor.

She dodged the spells that were being aimed at her and sent a few off with her own wand.

An alarm was going off and the museum was going into lockdown. The doors, made of extremely thick, spell proof glass, locked themselves. Nobody, not even Arnold Swartenegger in his body building days could break this glass. However, these doors had not been vampire tested and Uallach simply crashed through, cutting herself up pretty bad in the process, but she ran off, and nobody was as fast as her. One guard realized something wasn't normal about this woman, when she got up, glass shards the size of steak knives sticking out of her limbs, and simply darted off, swearing loudly.

Uallach met Conway at the spot they'd arranged.

"All right, let's go," said Uallach, wincing in pain as she picked out huge chunks of glass. "This shit hurts."

"Well, you actually got it," said Conway.

"Duh." Uallach rolled her eyes. She was surprised at how lax the security was. She guessed the people who ran the museum did not expect vampires to come in and steal stuff. The special doors and the guards would've been enough to quell ordinary thieves.

Back on the boat later, Uallach read through her book.

"Oh, I missed this," she said, caressing it like a baby.

The doctor wanted to look at it, but he was afraid of Uallach. He was only here anyway because she threatened to kill him, and he didn't want to inadvertently annoy her and end up becoming her meal.

"I think we should go kill some of Harry's friends now," said Uallach. "Get that out of the way."

"We've been trying to do that," muttered Conway.

"Have a little faith," smirked Uallach. "I've thought of something quite nasty to do to Harry."

"Not another-"

"Plan, yes, a plan," said Uallach. "I want that man to suffer."

Fowl Manor

Christmas came and it was a joyous occasion. Everyone was alive and well. Harry read a Christmas story to James and put him to bed and went downstairs. Ginny and Angeline were laying out presents under the tree.

Harry picked one up that had his name on it and shook it experimentally. "What could this be?"

"Put that down!" laughed Ginny. "No peeking!"

They finished and ate some cookies afterwards. Angeline went to bed and Ginny took Harry upstairs so she could give him a special Christmas present in bed.

The morning dawned cold and bright, with a light snow falling. Myles and Beckett, despite not believing in Santa, were still really excited and went to drag everyone out of bed. James squealed when he saw the pile of brightly wrapped gifts under the tree and tried to open one of Snapes.

Everybody got something that they wanted, plus clothes and such. James had to be pried away from his new Lego set, so they could have breakfast.

"I wish Juliet could be here," said Angeline.

"She'll be back in time in for the spring wedding," said Butler, motioning toward Artemis and Holly. "She's doing a short tour with her wrestling group."

"Jade pwincess," cooed James, using Juliet's stage name. "I want Legga!"

"You can play with your Lego's after you finish eating," Ginny told him.

The rest of the day was peaceful. After an early Christmas dinner, they all went outside for a snowball fight, although Harry had to be careful not put all his strength into the throws, otherwise someone would get knocked out.

Butler insisted they go work out, saying workouts were especially important this time of year, especially with Angeline and the boy's constantly making cookies and fudge for everyone to eat.

"I don't get fat," said Harry. "My body can't change, and all I eat is blood."

"Well, some of us would get pudgy if we skipped workouts," said Butler.

Harry wanted to laugh. He doubted one missed workout would make Butler pudgy. The man was bulging with muscles and in better health than most men his age.

They practiced fighting, Harry wearing his hand guards to keep his claws from accidentally popping out. He flipped Butler and then tossed him into a padded wall.

"The only person to ever knock Butler over," said Artemis, who was only there because Butler had insisted some years ago that Artemis get out from behind the computer and actually work out.

"I still do not enjoy this as much as you do," said Artemis, hitting a punching bag. Later, he practiced fighting with Harry, which lasted about five seconds, as he conceded after getting his face smushed into a mat.

"Come on, I'll let you win," said Harry, put his fists up. "Try to hit me; I'm a moving target, better practice than a punching bag."

Artemis boxed with Harry a bit, glad Harry wasn't hitting him back. Artemis's nose would be squashed flat if he did.

The next day, Harry set up a swing in a tree that he and Ginny had bought for James. They took James out, bundled up in snow gear and spent some time pushing him in it. James loved the swing, and squealed "'Igher! 'Igher!"

"You go any higher, you'll flip right over the top bar," said Ginny, when she unstrapped him to go inside. "Harry, I'm going to take James with me to the store a bit and return those shoes we bought him, they're too small. It's like his feet alone had a growth spurt."

"Do you have to do it now?"

"I bought them a month ago, and the shoes only had a thirty day return policy," said Ginny, getting the receipt from the dresser in their room. "I can't believe how quick his feet grew. We're going to have to buy him more clothes soon, too."

"Okay, remember, Butler has to drive you, just in case something happens."

"Got it," said Ginny. "Can you clean up all the junk up here?"

"Sure," said Harry. All the boxes to James toys had been stacked in a corner, so Harry began breaking them down so he could easily put them in the recycling bin. There were also a few toys lying about, where James had abandoned them.

Ginny bundled James up in footy snow suit and Butler drove them to Dublin. Butler followed Ginny around, bored of course, since shopping didn't interest him unless it involved guns and ammo. Ginny found shoes that fit James feet and exchanged them and Butler drove them home.

They were heading up the empty, winding road, a few miles from the Manor, when something suddenly landed on the hood.

Ginny, in the passenger seat, screeched. Whatever it was, it sounded big. Butler slammed the brakes and drew his gun. They heard something sliding and Uallach's head appeared upside down in the window.

Ginny screamed.

James, in the car seat in the back, saw Uallach and began to wail.

Uallach punched the windshield, causing glass to fly at them. Butler fired and the bullet went through Uallach's chest, but of course, the would began to heal. Uallach grimaced in pain.

The passenger door suddenly opened and another gun fired. Butler had been so focused on Uallach, he never saw Conway coming. The bullet skimmed past Butler's forehead, stunning him. Conway reached over Ginny and grabbed the back of Butlers head and then slammed it against the steering wheel, managing to knock him out. He then grabbed Ginny out and flung her on the snow.

Uallach ripped off the door of the back seat on Ginny's side and reached for Conway. She grabbed him and smelled something funny.

James was wearing cologne with the vampire repellant in it. Uallach took a whiff without thinking, as she had been smelling the air to make sure nobody else was near. The odor made her sick.

Ginny also put the repellant into James soap and baby oil, since Snape since it was perfectly safe for humans. As added protection, Ginny had mixed it into some light cologne and spray James and all clothes with it. Uallach didn't have any of the stuff that made Harry immune, the frenroot and rosemary combo. Her hand burned when she touched him and she heaved.

Her stomach was cramping violently. She heaved all over the snow, throwing up the blood she'd had from an unfortunate victim earlier.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Conway, in the process of tying up Ginny with duct tape. She was screaming bloody murder and trying to fight him off. Her wand lay several feet away in the snow, where Conway had flung it when she tried to pull it out to fight him with magic.

"Some kind-arrrrrghh-"Uallach threw up some more "-vampire repellant-or something."

James was screaming and crying in the back seat. Uallach waited for the sickness pass, and then held her breath. She reached for James again, but the stuff was over the toddlers clothes and it burned her hand like fire.

"You grab him," said Uallach.

"I can smell something odd," said Conway, sniffing. "But it doesn't affect me. The girl smells of it too."

"Well, you have to carry them both then," said Uallach. "The stuff burns my skin, whatever it is. Clever brats, coating themselves in it whatever it is."

Ginny tried to scream on the ground, but she was gagged. Conway took James out the car seat and held him while James kicked his feet and tried to pummel the man with his fists.

"Bad man!" James was screaming. "Mummmmmeeeeee!"

"What am I supposed to do with him?" asked Conway, holding James away from his body as if he was a piece of dirty laundry.

Uallach took her wand out did a simple spell. James fell asleep and stopped thrashing.

Conway leaned James up against his mother, who was fighting to get out of her bonds.

"Butler smells of it too," said Conway, dragging the mountain man out. Butler started to stir, the gash in his forehead bleeding.

"If you want to live, you better start crawling home," said Conway, bringing his face real close to Butlers. "Maybe your little fairy friend can you heal you. Otherwise, you can just die out here and they'll find you sooner or later, when they wonder where you've gone."

Conway brought his blades out. Butler heard the message and struggled to get out of the painful fog he was in, but too late, he felt blades stab him in the stomach, and twist. Butler yelled and Conway yanked them out with a nasty slurping noise. Blood spattered the snow and spread out across Butler's suit and coat. Conway took his cell phone and smashed it against the car. Uallach opened the hood of the car and yanked out a few random parts, so the car couldn't be driven.

"Bye bye!" said Uallach, leaning over him. "To bad your vampire repellant doesn't work on Conway. Grab the bitch and the brat and let's go."

Conway flung Ginny over his shoulder and held James like a sack of potatoes under his arm. "Meet you at the boat." His wings came out and he flew away, toward the ocean where the boat was.

Uallach started running, heading that way on foot.

Butler moaned and rolled over. He'd failed to protect Ginny and James. He felt like a failure. He couldn't die out here in the snow. He rolled to his stomach and began to try and crawl through the snow.

It was cold outside, so maybe he had a chance to crawl to the manor before he bled to death. But it was a long way and he couldn't walk. He was too weak. His head pounded and blood dribbled from the wound into his eyes. He blinked it away.

"Focus," he whispered to himself. He dragged himself some more, his torso hurting terribly from the claw wounds. A trail of thick, sticky blood followed him. "Must focus. I have to tell them, before it's too-too-late."

His vision was fading. He could feel the wounds and nothing else. He struggled to make his limb obey, to just keep crawling.

"I have to tell-them," he rasped. He stopped. Try as he might, his limbs just wouldn't obey him. He had lost too much blood and was too weak. He would die out here in, the freezing cold, and by the time anybody found him, Ginny and James would be far away; and likely dead. And he, Butler, wouldn't be able to protect anybody else, especially his principle, Artemis. He hadn't even said goodbye before they left. Artemis had been in his study, and Ginny had gone to tell him that Butler was driving them. Butler thought they'd be back soon. His sister was far away in America, was expecting to see him again this spring.

Except he wouldn't be there.

"Goodbye-Ar-Artemis," whispered Butler. "Goodbye, J-j-juliet…"

His head thumped into the snow and the white began to fade into black…