None of the mages felt good about this job. They found the Kahling Inn and approached the desk, realizing they had no clue what the reservation would be under.

"We're wizards from Fairy Tail," Erza said to the clerk, "Reservations have been made for -"

"Erza Scarlet, Gray Fullbuster, Natsu Dragneel, and Lucy Heartfelia, yes?" the clerk finished. She laid out 4 room keys.

"Ok...that's super creepy," Natsu mumbled on their way to their rooms, "The dude never introduced himself, but he knew who we were."

"Not just that," Gray opened his hotel room door, "He wouldn't tell us what he's sending us after...or why he couldn't do it himself."

Erza nodded, "I don't like it, but we've committed ourselves now. Everyone's guard needs to be up...even now. I don't like anything about this. Let's put our bags in the rooms and go find some dinner."

Nodding to her, they each disappeared into their room. The rooms were 2 on each side of the hall. Erza and Lucy were on one side, Natsu and Gray on the other.

Lucy entered her room, noting the dinginess of it. There was a queen sized bed that looked clean enough, but the walls were kind of yellow and peeling. She felt very on edge. Grabbing her purse, she went for the door to catch up to the others when Loke appeared in a ball of light.

"Loke!" she exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"Lucy," he said hurriedly, "I can't talk long, so listen carefully."

His voice was low, as if he thought someone was listening. Now that she thought about it, she could feel a heavy, ominous presence.

"DO go get the artifact tomorrow," Loke told her, holding her both shoulders, "but whatever you do, don't give it to Antoine. You need to summon me as soon as you've got it and let me take it."

"Why?"

There was a blinding flash of light. Lucy felt herself falling over and screamed at the top of her lungs. As fast as the light came, it was gone. So was Loke.

"LUCY!?" Lucy heard banging at the door, "LUCY! WHAT'S GOING ON IN THERE!?"

She got up from the floor and went to the door, still feeling a bit watched, "I'm okay, Natsu. Let's just go, okay?"

"No way, Luce! You yelled! What's going -?"

He paused, catching the look of fear in her eyes, "Okay Luce. I'm hungry. Let's go eat."

He made eye contact with her as he brought his arm around her waist protectively, leading her out of the room. They met up with Gray and Erza. One look from him rendered the other two silent as they left the building. Lucy felt the tension ease almost as soon as they left.

"What the hell is going on?" Gray asked.

Natsu's arm was still around Lucy's waist, "I don't know, but something happened to Lucy just now. And whatever it was, was watching her."

She nodded, "Let's eat on the other side of town. I still feel watched."

20 minutes later, they were seated at an outside table on the deck of a restaurant, away from ears from what they could tell. Lucy recanted what happened in the hotel room moments ago. Each wizard was lost in their own thoughts. This mission was getting stranger and stranger.

"And you're sure it was an actual presence you felt?" Erza asked Lucy, tapping her fingers on the table rhythmically. It was a nervous habit.

"Yes," Lucy confirmed, "And I didn't fall over. Whatever that light was, it knocked me over and when it was gone, so was Loke."

"You should call Loke out now," Gray suggested, "Maybe if we're away from that place, he'll be able to tell you more."

Lucy reached for her keys, then paused. Her face twisted in disgust as she pulled her keys out. An ugly black tar was dripping off the keys. The hardened tar made it impossible for her to separate the keys, let alone call Loke out.

"Call for him!" Natsu suggested, "Loke doesn't need to be summoned by you. He can come on his own."

Lucy nodded, standing up from the table, "Loke, I need you! Please come out!"

Nothing happened.

Lucy looked at her friends with a panicked look on her face, "Where in the hell is he? This isn't funny! Maybe we SHOULD get on the next train and get the hell outta here!"

"We can't leave for at least a day," Erza said, "The train only comes once a day. The earliest we could leave is 6:00 tomorrow night."

"What if I tried to melt the tar off?" Natsu asked, examining her tarred keys, "Maybe then you can call them out."

"I don't want you to hurt my spirits," Lucy rejected the idea.

"I won't," Natsu looked hurt, "I'll just melt the tar off. I won't even touch the keys."

"It's worth a try," Gray said.

Lucy moved over to the corner of the deck, Natsu crouching beside her. He lit his hands up and gently heated the keys, being careful not to hurt Lucy. Nothing happened.

"Freeze the tar off?" Erza suggested.

"I don't think it'll work," Lucy said quietly, "I think whatever that light was, it effectively rendered my keys useless."

The others nodded in agreement.

"You've got your whip, right?" Natsu asked Lucy, "I don't want you sleeping alone tonight. Whatever it was came after you once already. You should sleep in my room."

That earned him a slap on the head from Erza, "She will sleep in my room! I don't know what's going on here, but I think the sooner we can get out of here, the better. Maybe we should go get the artifact tomorrow. Something is wrong here. Very wrong. And whatever that artifact represents, we need to get to the bottom of it."

Natsu scowled at Erza behind her back. As if Lucy would rather sleep with her than him. Everyone knew Natsu and Lucy shared a bed almost every night. He never crossed any lines (not that hadn't thought about it), but they would often cuddle.

"But what do we do with it once we have it?" Lucy asked, "Loke said not to give it to Antoine."

Oh right...the artifact. Natsu thought, returning to the present conversation.

"Erza's right," Gray said, "Whatever it is, we need to get it before someone else does. At least in our hands, we can figure it out and deal with it instead of letting it fall into the wrong hands."

"Okay," Lucy agreed, "He said sunrise. Guess that means we'd better get to bed."

Lucy moved into Erza's room, sharing the queen sized bed with her. Erza was not good at sleeping with others. Lucy had heard the boys teasing Jellal about it multiple times. It was true. The Titannia took up most of the bed, tossing regularly and Lucy found herself unable to sleep on the 4" of bed allotted to her. She wasn't a large person, but it also wasn't comfortable.

It bothered her. The ball of light. Loke's disappearance. The mysteriousness of the old men at the old house. She was uneasy as hell, even though she didn't sense the presence she had earlier in the night.

In the other two rooms, Natsu and Gray laid awake too.