Dear Readers,

Thanks for all your encouraging reviews and I am happy to report that now that I'm back into my old account and I can continue/finish this story (among others). Thanks for being so patient, and without further ado, I give you the next chapter! I hope it was worth the wait and that you enjoy it. Let me know what you think in the reviews! More to come soon!

Reid

The first Putnam colony house was in sight; all of us were packed into Tyler's car. We figured separating would be a bad idea. We had tracked Chase to this location because of his overuse of magic on the grounds.

I was starting to feel like this was a bad idea as we pulled up, a decent distance away from the actual house. I brought the car to a stop and put it in park. That's when we all felt it- the four of us did. It was a surge of intense, raw power so painful it could've knocked all of us on our asses. It surged and then faded a bit to a dull throbbing; like a headache you couldn't get rid of. I could tell we all felt it because of the looks on their faces as they looked back at me; it was shock.

"That surge of power... is it...?" Pogue started, trailing off, not sure if he should finish his thought.

"Alice is in pain." I said through gritted teeth, confirming their fears... and mine. The girls looked alarmed.

"What are you saying?" Kate asked in a small voice.

"Does that mean Alice is... you know?" Tyler asked, just as scared as the rest of us. I felt the color drain from my face at the suggestion of the possibility that Alice was gone. She was not dead. She couldn't be dead.

Caleb shook his head at Tyler's words. "No, she isn't. He wouldn't kill her; he still needs her. Besides, we wouldn't be able to still feel her if she was gone."

"But can't you feel that her energy is weakening? Whatever is wrong, it's bad, and it is happening fast." I said, alarmed.

"Which means there is no time to waste." Caleb said with determination. "We have to end this. Now." He opened the door to the car, and I quickly followed.

Pogue and Tyler got out of the car as well. "Lock the doors. And I don't want either of you to leave this car for anything, do you understand me?" Pogue told Kate quietly, holding her face in his hands. Her eyes were full of tears as she nodded. He kissed her like it was the last time he would ever kiss her. It occurred to me that if things went wrong, it actually could be the last time. "I love you, Kate."

"I love you, too." She said, squeezing his hand, a tear rolling down her cheek. Then she closed the car door behind her. I heard the doors lock and focused my attention on the task at hand.

The first thing I noticed is that the weather was getting ominous; the sky was suddenly dark, and cloudy. The wind had picked up in an unnatural way. These were bad omens for sure.

Suddenly, "Just like always. The brave warriors heroically come to save the damsels in distress. Caleb, you and your little coven are just too predictable. It's almost not even fun anymore, honestly."

"Chase." Caleb growled.

"That's not very polite, Caleb. Come to think, of it, your sister needs to work on her manners too. It must be a Danvers family trait. Oh well, at least she's good at keeping someone company." He said with a smirk.

I was already on edge but his words just struck me in the worst way, made me feel sick inside and a cold fury took over me. "You lousy son of a bitch." I spat, practically shaking with rage. My eyes turned black as I lunged toward him. Tyler grabbed me, holding me back. This was no time for me to be breaking ranks, I knew that. We had to stick as closely to our plan as we possibly could, or all hell would break loose and we would have no chance of ending this in the way we wanted to.

"You are going to pay for all you have done." Caleb said, and I could tell his own rage was beginning to take him as well. "You murdered my mother."

"Well, she was a useless alcoholic. I did you a favor." He said with a shrug, his evil smirk never once leaving his face. "Really, you should be thanking me."

"You bastard! I'm going to kill you! We are going to end this once and for all! Right here, right now!" His eyes turned black.

"Right then." Chase's eyes went black as well. He held out his hand, power slowly congealing in his hand. "Time to finish this. By the end of this you will be begging me to let you will your power to me."

"Like hell!" Caleb said, furious, raw energy forming into a ball of power in his hands as well.

"You can't beat me you know." Chase said, right before flinging the power in his hands at Caleb, who deflected it, and then flung his own power ball at Chase. Who disappeared momentarily, reappearing as he laughed maniacally.

"Come on." Pogue said, pulling me away from them. "Let's go find Alice and Sarah."

"I don't think so." We turned to see... a girl from our school. Brooke, that Evan kids' cousin.

"Brooke? Tyler said, confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about me right now. You probably shouldn't be worried about Sarah and Alice either. You should really be worried about yourself." Brooke said with a smirk. She snapped her fingers, and Tyler was lifted up into the air. I was so shocked it took me a few seconds to put together what had just happened.

"Holy shit... she's not human." Pogue said under his breath.

"Then what the hell is she?" I asked no one in particular as I tried to figure out a plan of attack.

"Demon actually." Another voice came from behind us. We turned to see Evan sauntering up. "And she's not the only one."

"Evan. Of course you are involved in this. Why am I not surprised?" I spat at him. While I was talking, I didn't even notice Pogue gearing up, until he shot a ball of energy at Evan, who, in turn, deflected it easily.

"Reid! Go, save the girls!" Pogue said, nudging me in the right direction. "Go! I got this. We can handle them!"

I nodded, running with determination towards the Putnam house. The world seemed to slow down as I did. As I entered the house, everything else faded- the last three days, everyone else, the stakes- none of it meant a thing. I focused all my energy on that weakening, pulsing beacon that gave me a reason for living and was more important to me than the air I breathe. My other half, the love of my life. It guided me until suddenly a someone with a brown mane of hair bomb-rushed me, locking her arms around me tightly.

"Reid!" She cried. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"Alice!" I clung to her tightly. "Are you okay? Your energy ... it was fading fast. How are you even able to walk?" She didn't respond at first. "Alice?" I asked, and she looked up at me with too-wide eyes.

"I don't know what you are talking about, I'm fine, it's all fine. You're here and it's gonna be okay." Despite her protests, I knew something was wrong. She was twirling a piece of hair almost absentmindedly, looking anywhere but at my face. The way she was standing was all wrong; her manner was all wrong.

"Alice," I said cautiously, putting a hand to her cheek, running it down to her neck. "where's Sarah?"

"I don't know, we got separated once we escaped! This house is like a maze. Oh Reid, we'll find her, but none of that matters right now because you're here to save me."

"You're right, I am here to save my girlfriend." I said, leaning into her slightly. "There's only one problem." I muttered to her.

"What's that?" She asked, completely oblivious to what was going to happen next.

"You aren't my girlfriend." I said, then grabbed her by the throat, slamming her against the wall. Her body hit the wall with a thud and she let out a gasp, her eyes widening in pain. On contact, her body started changing. One minute I was looking at who I thought was Alice, and the next I was looking into the unfamiliar eyes of Evan's other cousin, Darcy. I knew one of them was missing.

"Shapeshifter?" I said, holding her to the wall. "Nice trick."

"What gave me away?" She said with a smirk.

"The hair twirling was what got me. Alice doesn't twirl her hair like that. But to be honest? All of it. You are not a very convincing Alice."

"Too bad, because if all that screaming I heard a few moments ago is right, you might need another Alice here sometime soon." She said, her smirk deepening.

My hand tightened around her throat. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing. I swear... wasn't me..." She rasped, clearly losing air.

"I don't have time for this." I said, my eyes flashed black and I knocked her out with my power, then I turned, running in the direction she had come from, focusing on the weakening of the pulsing power which I knew was Alice. It guided me until I could swear I heard a voice in the back of my head calling to me.

It was faint, but it was there. "Help! Somebody, Help!"

I heard it grow stronger as I followed it down to the basement, realizing it wasn't in my head at all. "Please, please! Somebody, anybody, help me!" I frowned, realizing it wasn't the voice I had been hoping to hear. But I knew who it was- it was Sarah. However, the fact that she was calling for help was alarming. We could only feel Alice in pain, but was Sarah hurt too? And if so how bad?

"Sarah! Sarah, where are you?" I shouted.

"Reid? Is that you? REID!" She shouted as I turned to the door behind me- that's definitely where her voice was coming from. "Reid, you have to help! It's Alice-" I tried opening the door, but it was locked.

"Hold on, Sarah." I said, ramming against the door twice. It didn't budge. I stepped back, and kicked the door open with all the force I could muster. I rushed into the room and froze at the sight.

Sarah was tied up, and I could see from the areas around the rope, she had rubbed her skin raw trying to break out; there was even some blood on the rope. She had fought hard to try and get free, but to no avail I could see why, though. Alice was laying on the ground on her side, facing away from the door. She was in a small pool of something dark red and my heart was pounding in my head at the sight of her.

"Reid! Oh thank God! She's hurt, she tried to bust out! I pushed her to do it... I should've known better than to tell her to use. It's all my fault!" Sarah dissolved into tears as I rushed to Alice's side, kneeling down next to her.

"It's okay Sarah. It's all going to be okay." I said through gritted teeth. My eyes went black again and Sarah's ropes fell off. I turned Alice over and I sharply inhaled. She was pale white and was slowly bleeding out of a deep gash in her side.

Sarah stood, now beside me, looking down at Alice, hand over her mouth as she tried to stop herself from sobbing. But the sight of Alice only made it worse. I looked up at her, and then back down at Alice. I was using a hell of a lot today, and Alice would be furious if I used to save her... but she would be alive to be pissed off at me. While there was a chance it might not heal right, I honestly couldn't even care less at the moment because all I could see was blood. At that moment, I resolved to actually work on my addiction to the Power and stop using so much. But right now, I had to save Alice.

I put my hand over her side, and felt my eyes go black again. I felt the power flowing through me; it was such a good feeling. But I caught myself falling into it's clutches and focused on her, only on Alice. The way I felt about her was more than the pull I felt to the power. The wound started healing and the color was returning her face. But I couldn't relax yet. The wound completely healed.

I placed my hand on her cheek, hoping she would wake up. "You are not dead. You are not dead. You can't be dead, you can't be." I muttered under my breath.

Alice's eyes fluttered open, and I felt a rush of relief. I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding; I heard Sarah do the same. Alice looked up at me in confusion, looking around, uncertain of what was going on. "Reid? How did you... when... what happened?"

"Alice! I thought I'd lost you." I said, and then pressed my lips against hers urgently.

I pulled back, and she looked up at me with a smirk on her face. "Well hello to you too."

Oh shut up." He said pulling her into a sitting position. "Don't ever scare me like that again."

"Why?" She asked. Well she didn't lose her ability to infuriate, that was for damn sure.

"Because Alice... because I love you." I finally said, pulling her up into a standing position.

"You what?" Alice said, so shocked she almost fell back down. I grabbed her by the waist to keep her from falling. Sarah looked pretty surprised herself.

"I love you." I said, kissing her forehead. "Now you are gonna have to get your shit together because we gotta go help the others."

She held me tightly refusing to let me pull away before she whispered into my ear, "I love you too." I didn't have time to process her words, because she released me, saying, "Okay, let's go. Time to end Chase Collins for good." I nodded, and the three of us ran out of the room, navigating our way through the house.