What is this? ITS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!

No, more like the military sent my partner across the border so I was home alone in lockdown for 2 weeks. Magically I got inspired and have actually finished this story. All remaining chapters are written and will be uploaded basically together (as I finish editing them).

Chapter 24: A Man Enraged

"Avada…"

Blaise reacted instantly, slamming his shoulder into the boy, knocking him to the ground.

Hermione reacted right after, throwing a petrificus and stunning spell rapidly at Malfoy, knocking him unconscious.

As Blaise rolled free he took the other boy's wand and cast a binding spell to tie his hands and feet.

"Oh Merlin," Hermione whispered. "What just happened?"

Blaise was white with anxiety, shock showing on his face, "He was imperiused."

Turning towards the castle, he cast a Patronus. A massive snake raced off towards the castle and Kai. Thinking again he sent another messenger Patronus to the headmaster.

Finished, he sat back onto the ground next to the bound Malfoy. The other aurors nearby swarmed in to check on them.

"She's gone. Probably to.. Him." he whispered. "Fuck, I failed Kai. His partner was taken right in front of my eyes."

He buried his face in his hands, shoulders slumped.

Hermione fell to the ground next to him. "You sent a patronus to him?"

"Yes," he whispered, bracing himself for Kai's arrival.

The Gryffindor startled as she heard a loud thud next to them and Kai appeared out of nowhere. She didn't know that he'd flown here in his animagus form. His eyes were narrow and hard, an aura of danger around him.

"What happened," he hissed. The shadows from the trees seemed to reach out and curl around him.

"Malfoy was under the imperius. He gave Tonks a letter and it was a port key. The one controlling him then ordered him to kill himself," Blaise reported quickly.

Kai's eyes went wide, "He must have made his decision then." He glanced to the boys still form, noting the rise and fall of his chest.

"He dropped that other sheet of parchment before he tried to cast… the spell. It's apparently for you," Hermione pointed to the parchment on the ground, still shaking in shock.

Kai waved a hand, checking for curse or portkey residue before picking it up. Reading the message his eyes flared in anger.

I have your woman.

Come and get me, pretty boy.

Don't wait too long. She looks good enough to eat.

Better be alone or you won't like the results.

51.316664, -0.005032

The assassin growled in rage, crumpling the paper in his fist and punching the tree next to him. A shockwave of energy passed through the tree, splitting it clean in half. The nearby aurors jumped around in shock, wands drawn.

Kai closed his eyes, trying to slow down his rapid breathing. Deep hatred surged through him at the thought of Leander with his hands on Tonks. Blaise reached for Kai's bloodied fist and extracted the message.

"Shadow, be smart," Blaise said quietly, gently. "Call Callyn. I'll call father. You can't walk into that situation alone."

Green eyes met black and Blaise could see he was fighting a losing battle. Kai carefully extracted a chain from around his neck, holding it briefly in his hands before giving it to his friend. A raven pendant hung on the chain; it was Kai's graduation medallion. Blaise looked up to give him a confused look but Kai had already stepped back into the shadows of the trees and disappeared.

"No! Fuck fuck fuck!"

"Blaise how...where did he go?" Hermione's voice was raised in fear. "What is happening?"

"We need to get Severus, now! I'll explain later," Blaise took off towards the castle, leaving the bound Malfoy with the remaining aurors.

The pair ran at top speed towards the castle, chain clasped tightly in Blaise's hand. Minutes later that hand was pounding on Severus' private quarters. The man opened the door with an angry look on his face.

"What is the meaning of this Mr. Zabini?"

"Sir! Tonks has been taken by Baraccas. Malfoy was imperiused to portkey her away. They're trying to lure Kai to fight Voldemort!"

Hermione and Snape both stared wide-eyed at Blaise. Hermione because she couldn't fathom why the dark lord would want to battle with her professor. Snape stared in horror.

"The idiot ran off by himself didn't he."

"Yes sir. The only thing he left was his Riker chain. I don't know why," he held the chain out for his head of house.

Snape smiled briefly after studying it, "Well there's at least that. He left us a tracker. Call your father, I'll contact Dumbledore. The least we can do is provide the foolish idiot with some backup in this fight."

The serenity of his meditation room provided no solace as Kai stalked into a shadowed corner of the room.

In the tight wards of his apartment he let out an angry growl, cursing violently as he walked to the door and into his supply closet.

Kai knew he'd be walking into something bad. He was under no illusions that Barraccas would be alone. Perhaps it wouldn't even be him waiting, but rather Tom Riddle.

Pulling off his clothes he pulled on dragon skin armour, covering his legs, chest, and most importantly his neck. He dressed in black. The only way this would work would be if he came and went as unnoticed as possible.

… and if it all went south, hopefully the cavalry arrived in time.

Knives and even a pistol went into the belt on his back. Hair braided tightly away from his face, he took one last look at his supplies before apparating away into the evening light.

"That's all the information I have father."

Blaise's father, also known as Riker Anaconda, sighed sadly into the phone. "We knew this was coming. I didn't predict they'd go after the auror but we really should have. I think we had too much confidence that he wouldn't have agents approach the wards."

Blaise heard sounds saying messages were appearing on his father's phone.

"The team and I will be at those coordinates in 20. Let Severus know and then be safe. "

Hermione couldn't stop staring at Blaise as he talked to his father. She felt suddenly that she actually knew very little about the life of Blaise's family...and very little about her professor.

Her eyes met his as he put down his phone.

"Blaise...what the fuck is going on."

He ran his hands through his long hair, "I'm not entirely sure what I'm allowed to tell you, but I have to tell you this much."

"My father teaches at a special academy. Kai was my father's apprentice. They're both capable of incredible feats of gray magic and traditional magic. They're also both… hit wizards…," Blaise grimaced as he said that. Like it wasn't quite the truth.

"Kai managed to hunt down some of the dark lord's inner circle. Riddle didn't appreciate that and set a trap for him, which was successful. After three weeks of torture light wizards liberated him. As repayment he agreed to stay near Hogwarts as a protector and to continue fighting the war. "

"Long story short, Kai pissed off Riddle and made that anger worse by escaping. Now he's trying to get him back."

"Who's Leander?" Hermione asked, feeling surprisingly unsurprised about the facts revealed to her about Kai.

"A rival of Kai's. He is working for Riddle and participated in the worst of Kai's torture."

"And all of this information is only what you think you can tell me. How much more is there to this story, it's already incredible?" she shook her head, wild curls flying around.

He gave her a look of resignation, hands held up to say "what can you do?"

"Can your dad help? What can we do?"

"He can. He's gathered Kai's team. They'll help. So will Dumbledore. They just need to get there in time..."

The location appeared to be the stereotypical abandoned warehouse complex. The facility was large, ten of thousands of square feet. Finding his target could be challenging.

Kai stood well outside the facility and used his ward senses to search for sources of magic and traps within the facility. A technomagic reader scanned the surrounding kilometer. The area was almost completely devoid of magic.

In a way it made sense. They were setting a trap for a warder, they wouldn't use wards to try and capture him. This made Kai worried as it was clear they were playing smarter cards.

The building sat in an open plain. It was still mid afternoon so shadows in the area were extremely limited. Another smart move by Riddle.

Casting an invisibility spell, he carefully made his way around the facility, trying to figure out which wing may house his targets. The magical dead zones were just as suspicious as the magical ones. Leander knew how to use dampener fields. For once, he wished he had a less conspicuous animagus form.

His senses told him that exactly two magical people existed in the central warehouse. After checking the other regions he circled in closer to his targets. Scouting from near the ceiling, Kai looked down on the occupants.

He could see Leander standing on a raised platform in the middle of the room. Hanging from the ceiling was Tonks, her wrists chained together and pulled above her head... at least he hoped it was her.

Not wanting to alert Leander with magic, Kai drew the pistol from his waist, taking aim the the vampire's head.

'Fuck," he thought. 'What are the chances that they did something insane like polyjuicing Tonks as Leander and then casting the imperius on her to stand there? Cannot put anything past these psychos.'

Two rapid shots took out the knees of his target. The assassin was then on the move, swinging down from the rafters to the ground, gun still targeted on Leander.

"I'd ask how you made it through the wards and traps but I suppose I'll just chalk it up to it being you, pretty boy" cheered the vampire, laughing maniacally where he had fallen to the ground, blood pooling around his legs. The blood spread slowly rapidly as the wounds began to close.

"There were no wards on this building Leander," Kai growled.

The vampire looked confused, "But…" Two more shots rang in the air, one through each eye of the vampire. The look of madness and confusion now permanently locked on his face.

The bullets weren't from Kai's gun.

The assassin spun and dove to the right. Quickly he put up a 360 degree shield that would protect him from physical attacks. Sharp green eyes spotted a sniper laying camouflaged in the rafters above him. A non-magical sniper.

'What the actual fuck is going on.'

Then he felt it, a massive build up of magic around him. Kai spun back towards Leander's dead body and growled as he saw the blood flowing from his body activating hidden runes on the floor. A circle of runes lit up around Leander, then another, larger circle.

Seeing it as the trap it was, Kai bolted for the door only to be stopped when a bullet clipped his left shoulder, flinging him to the ground. US-made armour piercing rounds were designed to go through both shields and dragon-scale armour. Kai knew that, but how did the Death Eaters manage to hire a non-magical assassin that could use them?

The youth rolled to his feet as a circle spring to life that included the space around him. It felt like every joint in his body was surrounded by concrete. He was frozen solid. Kai's eyes darted left and right trying to spot any clues to what was to come or how he could escape. Warm blood still flowed freely down his shoulder, unobstructed by the ward.

He shouldn't have been surprised by the sheer insanity of the move, but he hadn't expected Voldemort to use Leander as a ritual blood sacrifice. Leander thought he was there to fight a tired and worn down Kai. Instead he got something that was still much less than he deserved.

As the vampire bled out the magic surrounding Kai got stronger and stronger. The assassin had to use every ounce of strength he had to just keep breathing normally now. Another flash of magic indicated an incoming portkey.

He was here. The real show would start now.

Without even looking Kai could feel the dark, hissing power that bled off of the dark lord. Kai was a big enough man to admit he was really concerned right now.

The dark haired man strode casually over to the trapped assassin, a sick smile on his face.

Voldemort walked around Kai, completely unperturbed by the ritual-based wards. "Hello again mage. I have been wanting to speak to you again."

The teen was starting to feel a bit light-headed from the blood loss. He struggled as he could against the wards, casting his senses out to try and work his magic. The ritual magic was too powerful; the wards had just been cast and the sacrifice was still bleeding into the power reservoir.

"When I first returned to this form I did it by absorbing the magic of a young mudblood boy. His weak new magic was not completely compatible with my dark magical core. Since then I have been using wild magic to stabilize my core and sustain my current power levels."

The dark lord stood behind Kai, his body too close to Kai's. Kai could feel the death magic circling Voldemort, its taint triggering goosebumps on his skin.

"Then I heard that you were a blood mage and so therefore had a skill that I very much wanted."

Kai stopped breathing. There were a handful of dark rituals focused on wild magic he knew and none of them would leave him in pieces bigger than a jar when it was done.

"So, we should clear up this mess," a hand clamped on Kai's left shoulder, pressing into the bullet wound. Kai grimaced on the inside, his body incapable of moving even that much. Healing magic spread through the hand on his shoulder. He could feel the tissues knitting back together.

A voice rasped in his ear, "I'll see you on the other side."

Then darkness came as fast as the floor.