"You are very late," Tesla inspected his nails. He was seated on a large boulder, perched at its top high above the pair approaching through the undergrowth.

Helen stopped, panting as she lifted her head. Through the light covering of leaves she spied an individual who was soon to die.

"Nikola..." she whispered, narrowing her eyes at his preened form. He did not look like he'd spend hours trudging through muck but then again, Nikola had a talent for cleanliness.

Henry beat his way through the forest behind Helen, swearing at a particularly sticky plant that refused to let go of his arm. It suckered onto his skin, stuck fast.

"Nasty little good for nothing piece of ancient shru-" he ran into the back of Helen, nearly knocking them both to the ground. Helen stumbled forward.

"How many times, Henry," she said, without taking her glare off Nikola. "Eyes up."

Henry pealed the possessive frond off of his skin with a displeased grimace. He hated forests, trees, large wild cats, slippery rocks, humid air, insects – anything that crawled, really. It was only the two of them now; Helen had sent John off after Ashley's tracks while they stuck to the map. Helen had wanted to go after Ashley herself, but Henry wouldn't leave the map and she couldn't trust John on his own with Henry. At least this way, John's motivations were headed in the right direction – find Ashley.

"Oh great," Henry's mood deteriorated further when he saw that 'Tesla person' impossibly balanced on a boulder.

"I'm been here for whole hours," Nikola gloated, pulling his knees up to his chest, enjoying the pleasant breeze and vantage over the jungle. They were at the summit of a small hill that wanted, ever so desperately, to be a mountain.

Helen fought through the remainder of the ferns and strode out into the clearing, planting herself at the base of Nikola's rock. She tilted her head back to speak. "I'm going to need a very good reason not to kill you," she said, unhooking her gun. Helen snapped off the safety and aimed it straight at him.

Harsh, thought Nikola. "Only one?" he challenged. "My dear Helen, I can give you many reasons to keep me alive but I dare say one will suffice."

"I am still waiting for it," Helen ignored Henry, who was trying to remind her that Nikola was useful and possibly better kept alive.

"Impatience? That's a new one for you."

A loud 'crack' startled hundreds of birds who took to the air in a great curve of white, screaming as they flapped away.

"You know, that hurts my feelings..." Nikola dusted flecks of limestone off his suit. Helen had made a sizable hole next to his leg.

"Whoops..." she muttered darkly. "I appear to have missed. Care to go again?"

"Ashley's not here," said Nikola. "Haven't seen her and that's a bad sign because she had a decent head start on us."

"Where is she?" Helen's gun lowered slightly as Nikola edged himself forward and slid off the rock. It was quite a distance to the ground and he landed rather ungracefully in a heap.

"Ow... Well, if we're lucky she's gotten a bit lost – you know what girls are like. Map reading isn't their strongest attribute." Helen's gun re-aligned with him. "Or," Nikola decided that being shot at point blank range wouldn't be fun, "she's already inside."

"Inside what?"

Nikola's arms stretched out, beckoning them forward. "The sanctuary," he grinned. "This way..."

*~*~*

Joe checked his appearance in one of the full length mirrors scattered throughout the Sanctuary's hallways. There was a nasty cut above his eye but the stitching was holding. It was very important that he looked normal. Airlines were picky these days.

Making short work of a flight of stairs, Joe turned the corner into Helen's office, gently opening the door and slipping inside. He felt like a small child, breaking into the headmaster's office as he crept over to Magnus's desk, eying every shadow with suspicion.

The flowers on her desk were dying, dropping petals over her desk. One unopened bud wept, dipping down where it hung over a mournful statue. Joe was looking for something very specific, hidden amongst her records which she kept locked in the desk drawer. A small black granite figurine on her desk caught his attention. He reached for it, holding the object firmly as he smashed the lock on desk with one, quick blow.

There wasn't time to waste now. Someone would have heard that.

Joe pulled the drawer open and shuffled through a pile of papers until he found a thick folder. He pulled it out and opened on the desk. Yes, this was it; information on a campsite in the desert dated three days ago. He took the whole file, folding it under his arm as he made his way to the window.

*~*~*

Nikola pulled his unhappy entourage to a halt.

"Four – hours – of torture," Henry gulped from a water bottle and then continued. "And this is where you take us?"

There was an eerie layer of mist burying them from the waist down. Towering above, sheltering the forest world from the fading afternoon light was an imposing cliff face. Its black surface was smooth and shimmered, as if moving with a life of its own. It looked like black glass excised from the bowels of the earth.

Nikola reached out, touching one of the carvings which framed the entrance to the cave. It was a small white circle embedded like a jewel. There were hundreds more clustered along the vertical edges. Some of the markings were circles like the one he had beneath his fingertip, the others depicted stages of the crescent moon.

"It looks real," remarked Helen, eyeing the cave's entrance. "I'll give you that."

He lay against the rock, pressing his cheek and palms onto the cool surface. This felt like home, thought Nikola. His ancestors had found a measure of sanctuary within this cave, he wondered if it would bring the same peace to him.

Henry's head had developed a worrying slant as he watched Nikola embrace the sinister looking façade. "He's gone all strange and stuff on us..." he said.

"No," Helen corrected him. "This is normal. Let's go Nikola," she plucked him from the wall and deposited him in front of the cave entrance. "Vampires first."

"I could – I could just wait out here..." Henry hadn't moved from his spot in the mist. Everything about this idea smelt bad. There was something sinister swirling around him – and it wasn't the mist.

"There's no point in remaining outside, Mr Foss," Nikola straightened his coat, buttoning it all the way to his neck. "They know that we're here." He darkened his eyes so that he could see better in the half-light of the cave. Helen took a more practical approach, fishing out her torch as she stepped into the shadows.

Henry shivered involuntarily. "Well, that makes me feel much better about the whole, 'let's wander into a dark, scary cave' thing." He lost sight of the other two as they ventured into the cave. Suddenly alone, Henry's feet kicked into action, propelling him in pursuit despite his commonsense telling him no.

*~*~*

Ashley curled her fingers over the mossy edge, gripping the delicate roots of dark-loving plants. The tunnel in front ended where the ground had been torn away. Her torch was far below, a tiny point of light glowing like a distant star.

"Shit..." she whispered, running her hands over every surface that she could reach. There had to be a way down and it wasn't long until she found it – a damp strip of wood tied onto two lengths of rope. Moving her hands down further, she found more pieces of wood forming the basics of a ladder.

Ashley was eternally grateful that she couldn't see this 'ladder'. Given the way it felt in her hands, she never would have allowed herself to clamber over it, grimacing at every tremble and crack it gave in protest.

'This is such a bad idea,' she reminded herself halfway down. The ladder agreed, one of its boards snapping away from her foot. Ashley clung onto the ropes tighter, feeling for the next step as they groaned – squeaking and unravelling.

Eventually, her feet hit the ground and she was reunited with her torch. Ashley shined it back over to the ladder she had traversed. Damn, she wouldn't be going back that way.

The ground beneath her was odd in that it bared no resemblance to the tunnel above. Down here she had to fight to find her footing on the smooth bed of river stones, polished by the small stream at the centre. It was clear that at some point the river had raged down here, filling the entire chasm.

She wanted to whistle her awe of the size of the place, but decided that the last thing she needed was a startled flock of bats freaking out. The water at her feet was running, trickling with distinct purpose over the white rocks. It had found a way out, Ashley was sure, so she followed it.

Ashley's ears pricked up and she paused, turning slowly back toward the ladder. She listened carefully to every drip of water and shuffle of dirt. The more she concentrated on the silence, the louder the tunnel became but she didn't hear it again – her name whispered in the darkness.

She avoided the water, clambering over the rocks and pebbles. Without sunlight, the cavern, cave, mine – or whatever this place preferred to call itself, was freezing. The water carried ice-crystals along in its current. Whenever she panned her torchlight over its surface, the beams scattered into shards of colour. There was something else in the water too – flecks of gold, tumbling over the stones and accumulating in pools around the edge of the river.

Rivers of Gold, that reminded her of something. She took a moment, seating herself on the rocky ground. Ashley pulled out her grandfather's journal from her jacket, flipping through the damaged paper until she came to the map. There was nothing written on it about falling down large holes, which confirmed her suspicions that she was well and truly lost but a few pages on, she found an entry that peaked her curiosity. It was about the Seven Cities of Gold, searched in vain for by expeditions since 1150. Apparently her grandfather suspected its location to be in South America rather than North America but never had any success in finding it himself. Here it was, the part that she remembered, the cities sat by the edge of a golden river which carved out shimmering tracks across the land.

"Rivers of gold," she whispered, eyeing the water. "Another day, perhaps."

*~*~*

"Ash-leeeey!"

John extended his top half over the hole, careful not to let his weight tilt him over the edge. It was a long way down and from what he could see, someone had taken the plunge into its depths recently. Ashley's tracks ended at this hole and he had scouted the area ahead to no avail.

He called her name again, but there was no reply from his daughter.

*~*~*

"Why haven't you been here before?" Helen stayed a few paces behind Nikola as they explored the entrance of the cave. "You clearly knew how to find this place. I'm surprised you could resist visiting the homeland of your ancestors."

Nikola lowered his eyes to the glittering floor but didn't say anything.

"Don't tell me," continued Helen, with a look of satisfaction. "An army of vicious killers born from your blood no problem but one full blood vampire – you wouldn't dare face them alone."

He stopped, and whispered very quietly to her. "If you knew what you were really walking into," he said, "you'd be afraid too. Now please, a little hush."

"What did he say?!" shouted Henry from behind, dashing into the cave after them.

Nikola sighed.

*~*~*

The plane touched down twice. Its first landing was brief, a mere taste of the ground as it bounced from the gravelly airstrip back into the crosswind which nipped the plane's wings. The second time, the pilot grounded the plane with such force that the passengers gripped their seats in alarm.

Bit rough, Joe looked out the window, checking that nothing had caught fire.

Travel was like that around these parts. You arrived and you had to be happy with that.

Joe stepped out into a desert wind, bracing himself against the funnels of sand burning his exposed skin. The rest of the passengers scurried away, ducking into waiting cars parked in the open by the airstrip. The terminal was dark inside its locked doors and broken windows bandaged with helpings of duct tape. It was a god awful place with nothing between it and the full force of the desert lurking just over the rise.

"Doctor Kavanaugh – of Oxford University?"

Joe hadn't noticed the tall man approach from the side. Most of his body was covered with layers of cloth, a sensible idea. Joe waved and nodded.

"I am Professor Lierdly from the expedition. We spoke on the phone. My car is over there," he pointed at the only vehicle still braving the dust. "This way please, there's a storm coming."