The Nephelim - Chapter 6

They're walking by the night,
the moon is frozen blue.
Long black coats a shelter from the rain,
their load must get through.

Now bats are leaving their trees,
joining the call.
Seven Satanic Hell Preachers,
heading for the hall.

Bringing the blood of a newborn child, yeah!

Got to succeed, if not it's Satan's fall.

Mercyful Fate
Metallica

His metamorphic body carried more strength and allowed for far more speed than his physical one, but he knew instinctively that he couldn't outrun his pursuer. In all his years, he'd never met with an adversary who could best him. Tonight, he'd met his match. Speeding through the night, he cursed himself for his stupidity. The coven had warned him of the danger earlier that day, that a lone hunter was going among them, killing lupines. He had shrugged it off, confident of his own ability to protect himself. Who, after all, had ever lived after he'd set his sulphur-yellow eyes upon them?

His favourite place was the stretch of state forest bordering the beach off Turnam South, one of the few areas where he could give his animal self free reign and run freely under the moon. More than an hour ago he'd realised that he was being pursued, and at that moment an unknown, irrational terror had gripped his heart. He'd run immediately, but had known with unerring instinct that his would-be assailant was hot on his heels the whole way. Instinct had also let him know that this was no human being who was chasing him. Nothing so simple as a vampire, either - of which he'd killed his fair share - or anything else he'd ever encountered. No, it was completely different.

Completely scentless, it had the ability to disappear and reappear in different locations. The fucker was toying with him, that much was clear. It was something James had done to his own prey quite often. Chase them until they�re near exhaustion, then leave off and let them rest, then pick up the hunt again when they thought they were safe. His hunter appeared to have decided that it was time to leave him alone, and he took the opportunity to collapse against a pine tree and catch his breath. He had to admit, he was exhausted.

James spun and faced his opponent for the first time, his eyes widening in shock. A woman? No, more than a woman. Nostrils flaring, he inhaled the night air for her scent, and again found that she had none. Her hair was pure silver, shining brightly in the moonlight, and her eyes gleamed, or more truly, glowed, a startling violet.

�Who the fuck are you, bitch?� James demanded in a low growl, flashing inch-long fangs as he spoke.

�Shut your filthy mouth, animal,� she snarled in turn, her voice cold as steel and hard as stone. Clenched in one fist was a heavy and filthy machete with a gleaming, well-honed edge. The oversized weapon seemed at odds with her delicate frame, but the strange woman didn�t seem to be bothered by its weight and carried it as easily as she might have carried a tennis racquet.

�So that�s your game? You want to kill me?� James growled, his entire body tensing, ready to spring into action. �Bring it on, you little whore. I�ll fuck you til your cunt bleeds before I kill you.� Though his voice was all menace, he was quaking with terror.

Nischa was in no mood for banter. Smooth as butter, she surged forward, her weapon a silver streak in the pallid moonlight as it swept up and cut through etheric shell, flesh, muscle and bone in an explosion of grey. His scream was more animal than human, a howl of pure agony as he fell back onto the ground. From the shoulder down, the lupine shell was missing, his naked arm showing down to the spurting stump of his wrist where she�d taken his hand.

Frantic denial and a plea for mercy died on his lips as Nischa moved again, too fast for him to see�

�Traffic?� Jenni supplied with a glance of irritation as Eliza approached her table. �You know, seeing as I�m the one putting my butt on the line here, the least you can do is make the effort to show up on time.�

Eliza rolled her eyes as she took the seat across the table. �Yeah, yeah. Did it ever occur to you I might have just chosen to be fashionably late, or that I had a rather important beheading to perform?�

�Oh well,� Eliza said in a flippant tone. �Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, on to business. Namely, boot camp. We�re gonna' need to get you in shape for-�

�That�s not what I meant. You�ve got a bitch of a temper, and a mean sucker punch, but honestly, in a straight up scrap, we both know a twelve-year-old could probably smoke your arse.� Eliza teased.

�Got any twelve-year-olds desperate for the afterlife?� Jenni countered in characteristic deadpan.

Eliza made a show of checking her pockets before a look of disappointment appeared on her face. �Bugger, fresh out.�

�Fuck it then, onto more important things: where the hell is boot camp, how do I get there, and, most importantly: how - for the love of God - do you suggest I convince my pinhead mother to take me out of school and send me off with a total stranger for something you insist on calling boot-camp? Assuming, of course, I don�t just call the whole thing off right now?�

�From the top, you�re going to Newcastle. Well, not quite Newcastle, but close enough. There�s miles of frigging nothing out there, so it�ll suit our needs perfectly. Transport will be arranged the second I fix up the timetable with Logan, and as for excuses,� Eliza produced a folded sheet of paper that she slid across the table, �you used to play hockey, right? Well there�s an Invitational Under-16 tournament of some description on and since your school�s centre had that nasty fall the other day, you�re the last minute sub.�

Jenni unfolded the sheet of paper and found it was a standard St. Francis High permission slip complete with details for the hockey tournament she would be allegedly taking part in. Whoever had put this together had done a surprisingly good job. Her school crest, motto and the general layout of the form were all perfectly duplicated.

�Any chance of getting whoever put this together to fix me up with a Driver�s Licence? Oh, and what if mum actually bothers to call this contact number?�

Eliza slid a Nokia mobile across the table. �No sweat. The number on the bottom of the page is just a relay. She calls it and the call is forwarded to that.�

�Sure, but try to keep the calls in country if you don�t mind. The last thing I need on my plate is a three thousand dollar tab leftover from you calling Japan for hentai phone sex or something.�

�Okay, that takes care of mum, but how do I explain being missing from school? They�ll eventually come to the conclusion I�ve just been wagging and give mum a call.�

�That bit was a little harder.� Eliza admitted. She produced another sheet of paper, this one filled with a spidery handwritten scrawl.

Jenni�s eyes widened. This was even more impressive. If she didn�t know better, she�d have sworn her mother had written it. She quickly scanned the page and found it was addressed to the principal, informing him of a death in the family and notifying him that Jenni would be out of school for the next week or two. Good, she thought leaning back into her seat. Neither her mother or her school would bother chasing the other up, the letters would be all they needed to excuse her until she was done doing whatever it was she was going to do.

Jenni looked up, a no nonsense expression on her face. �You know, until about two minutes ago, I was sure this was going to be a whole �yeah, gotcha� thing and the hidden cameras come out. Now,� she shrugged, �now I�m not so sure.�

�Oh, this is the real deal.� Eliza told her. �And you might as well head off. Today�s Monday and I want you on the road by Friday evening at the least. You should take the next couple of nights to get your affairs and stuff in order because you�ll be gone for a while.�

�It is, but there�s little I can do about it. If your mum kicks up a fuss, just tell her the short notice is because you weren�t initially pegged to play but the coach started shitting bricks at the loss of his centre and you�re the only one left.�

�Actually I never played centre but what the hell, its not like I�m actually playing. Will I need to bring anything specific?�

�Nah, not really, track pants, T-shirts, toiletries. The normal stuff. Oh, and my number�s already on that phone if you need to get hold of me. Expect a call from either myself or Logan Thursday night or early Friday morning.�

�Um, one more thing, you said I�ll be gone for awhile. Just how long is awhile?�

�I dunno.� Eliza shrugged. �That�ll just depend on how good you are, won�t it?�

�Arrgh! Couldn�t you just for once gimme' a straight answer?� Jenni grumbled. When no answer was forthcoming, she stood up and did a quick pocket pat down to ensure she still had everything she was supposed to have, where she was supposed to have it. Shoving the phone into her left hip pocket she said, �So we done here? I�m dying for a smoke.�

�Yeah, we�re done.� Eliza stood up and pushed her chair in. Then, in a low solemn tone, she said, �Oh, and Jenni, thanks.�

Alec had seen neither hide nor hair of his father since the incident three nights ago. He had questions aplenty, but was reluctant to call for reasons of his own. After all, he had a lot to answer for. Having had two days to stew over it, Alec was still jumpy when his father came to call in his usual manner.

Sensing the intrusion into his bedroom immediately, Alec leapt out of bed, knife in hand, before he was truly awake and was immediately disarmed and knocked back onto his bed.

�That�s an improvement,� said Menthayel humourlessly as he looked down on his son. �But not nearly fast enough. Had I been a lupine, your throat would be smiling.�

Switching on his bedside lamp, Alec rubbed his shoulder as he stood to face his father. His alarm clock reported that it was two AM. True to form.

�No, I had business to attend to before I could come,� his father explained, sighing as he sat down on the bed and handed Alec his knife.

�Warn me? About what? Vampires, lupines, and all the rest of the weird shit that�s out there? Thanks, but I�m up to speed there.�

�Are you?� Menthayel demanded. He shook his head and took a moment to calm himself before speaking again. �I don�t think you fully appreciate the danger you�re in every day. By simply existing you pose an attractive target to certain creatures. To that end, I got you this.� He passed Alec a small but thick, leather-bound book. There was no title on the front cover or spine.

�What�s this?� asked Alec, flipping for the flyleaf and seeing that there was none. The opening page simply bore the word, Maleficia.

�You�ve done well enough with your defences so far, but only up to a point. You�re completely untrained when it comes to magical warfare, and that�s something we�ll have to remedy immediately. Knowing how to shield yourself from mental probes is one thing. The ability to combat a specific threat with the correct measures is another entirely.�

�Where did you get this? I though the old �dusty tomes of magick� were bullshit?�

�Most of them are, and even more of the supposedly real ones on the market are useless. This one was published only a decade ago, despite the old-fashioned binding. The majority of the older occult authors focussed more on theory than practice. This one dispenses with the theory almost entirely.�

�Lesenthe?� Alec asked, noting the author�s name. �What kind of name is that?�

�Most practitioners take on a magical name. It�s not necessary, but it is a tradition of sorts amongst occultists. The author isn�t important. The rituals and practices are effective, some of them based upon older lore, some of them entirely new. I want you to have read this book cover to cover by the end of the week, and to start practising as soon as you're done.�

�It is work. You�re a target, Aleck. Get it into your head right now.� Menthayel�s tone was angry again. �From this point on you have to realise that you�ll never be entirely safe. You know only a small part of what�s out there. The book will help, but you need to do more. You need to make yourself utterly unassailable.�

�Research. I can�t be around all the time, but I can point you in the right direction. The first and most pressing thing to do is learn every dirty trick that an adversary could possibly throw at you. Physical combat training, by contrast, is much easier to acquire and can probably wait until you�re up to speed on this.�

�You mean there�s more I don�t know about myself?� Alec asked incredulously. �Mind-reading, radar, senses� what next?�

�No, you misunderstand,� Menthayel told his son. �Those powers are yours, yes, but you need to understand your adversaries. This book has the basics: the three types of vampire, the lupines, wraiths and the like. More importantly, there are rituals you can perform to awaken the more mundane human version of your angelic senses. Second sight, clairaudience and the like. Never underestimate something because it is purely human.�

�Is it really so much of a stretch, Aleck? For as long as there have been humans there have been those that ran under the various monikers; magicians, sorcerers, witches and mages to name but a few. But no matter how many delusional white-lighters there are, the majority will always be aligned with violence and self-service. It�s human nature. You must learn to defend yourself. Learning occult practices is essential. Even if you never use them for the purposes designed, you still need to know how to counter or avoid them entirely.�

�I�ll do it,� said Alec, nodding. �It�s�� he broke off and looked away, his expression clearly pained. �Dad, it scares the shit out of me. I thought I knew what �scared� was when I was the school punching bag, but this is just so far beyond that��

�In this case, your fear is justified,� Menthayel said, placing a hand on his son�s shoulder. �I�ll always be here for you, but I can�t be there one hundred percent of the time.�

�I know.� Alec looked at his father, grim determination in his eyes. �I�ll do my best.�

�That�s all I can ask of you.� Menthayel stood and crossed to the centre of the room, a sure sign that he was about to leave. �I love you, son.�

In an underground room beneath the old Hoth Manufacturing Plant in Turnam�s industrial area, eleven individuals pondered their fate as they sat or paced around a crude wooden table. The Nocturnal Brotherhood, as they called themselves, were afraid to a man, and with good reason. Somebody had been killing lupines for the last two days, slaughtering their brethren one by one. Turnam was almost unique for its lupine population. Few places in the world held more than a handful of the creatures at any one time, for they are territorial by nature and do not like the company of more than a select few companions at the most. The Brotherhood itself was only ninety years old, and had boasted twenty-three members until a few nights ago, when that number had begun to lessen at a terrifying rate. The room contained all members still breathing.

�I say we fight!� snarled a muscular man of about twenty. His voice, like those of his companions, was rough and low, trained to imitate the terrifying growl of his totem creature. Though they imitated their grey brothers in form and voice, they differed in their reason for the hunt. Wolves hunted for food and killed for territory and mating rights. Lupines killed for the hell of it, the thrill of the hunt and the joy of the kill. They were predatory beyond need and fiercely aggressive. This specimen was no exception.

�No,� growled an older member of the group. �We must be cautious. Whoever did this is capable of killing one of us in single combat. Don�t you realise the danger?�

�Nobody could kill all of us!� raged another. �We should hunt as one, attack as one, kill as one!�

�Not yet,� the elder said as calmly as could be expected from a being that killed for the sheer love of killing. �We need to learn more about our enemy before we attack, lest we make some mistake that kills us all.� It was hardly the case that he, or any of them for that matter, actually mourned the deaths of their brethren, but rather the simple, primal, need to survive drove them together. Whatever was targeting them had already proved it�s abilities to dismember their kind and they needed to kill it before they, too, fell under the blade. The elder, probably the only one in the room capable of displaying both the ferocity, and the cunning, of his totem, understood this. Only a fool would rush out to attack the unknown and there was no doubt in his mind that they were facing a very capable unknown.

�Are you saying you�re afraid?� demanded the first speaker, slamming his fists down on the coarse wood tabletop.

�You dare!� roared the elder, surging to his feet and assuming his wolf shape in an instant. Prudence be damned, there could only be one leader in this pack! Instinct would not allow him, as the pack�s alpha, to let an upstart challenge his dominance. The youth's flesh swirled and expanded into a nightmare creature of grey fur and rippling muscle and the two faced each other, lips drawn back from cruelly curved fangs, both issuing low, terrifying growls. After a motionless battle of wills, the younger one backed down and looked away. �We cannot tip our hands!� grated the elder hoarsely, his yellow eyes scanning the rest of his brethren, obviously daring any of them to dispute him. �Until we know what we are up against we shall wait, conserving our strength until...�

A deafening crash interrupted his speech as something smashed against the room�s steel-reinforced door. None of them had heard the approach of an intruder or scented an unfamiliar presence. It caught them by surprise, but as one they quickly recovered, assuming their animal shapes instinctively when threatened. The small room was filled with the horrific din of snarls, growls, even roars of challenge as a second blow shook the door, and a third. The steel buckled with each shuddering blow, and the fourth tore the bolt free of its concrete housing, ripping it from of the wall and sending the door crashing into the opposite side. A moment of stillness ensued, in which neither side moved, and then the darkness beyond the door yielded movement; a large, round object heaved onto the table.

With a bone-chilling howl, the furious young one blurred into motion, flowing forward with inhuman speed. It was at that moment that they received their first sighting of their deadly enemy. A woman. Clothed in grey and glaring furiously through fiery purple eyes, she dodged the attack with eerie fluidity, sliding sideways and spinning to hamstring her attacker with a shimmering arc of silver. Before his knees could touch the ground, the lupine was dead, his head struck from his body with the same cold, surgical precision in an explosion of grey.

�Back!� roared the elder, motioning furiously. �Attack as one! Await your moment!�

�There will be no attack!� hissed the woman as she stepped out from the fading cloud of nothingness. �I come to speak to you, not to fight.� She spared the briefest of glances at the body before her. �Had this foolish pup waited to hear me out, he might not have lost his head.� Her expression softened into a smile that might have been quite beautiful if it ever reached her eyes. �Consider this� an object lesson.�

�If you came to speak, then speak, woman,� snarled the elder, barely able to control his rage, �before we tear you limb from limb.�

Without turning from them, the strange woman raised a hand, and the door slammed shut behind her. While not really spell-casters in the true sense, lupine abilities were of a magical nature and the ten instinctively knew that until her magic was dispelled, no one was going anywhere. Defiant or simply unafraid, she stepped over the body and sat down at the table�s head, dumping her machete onto it. Ten pairs of feral eyes were instantly drawn to the weapon, its blade crusted over with dried blood as though she�d not bothered to wipe it after each kill. But the edge was gleaming silver; a crude, but poignant reminder that if anything, she was more than capable of hacking them apart.

�I suggest you animals sit down,� she said coldly, �and parley, for if you do not, I will happily cut down each and every one of you where you stand.� A particularly sadistic glint appeared in her violet eyes. �And NEVER, threaten me again. I hold no love for your kind, so for your own sakes, do not tempt me.�

It was another early morning for Alec, despite his interrupted sleep. Apparently this was a trend that he couldn�t escape, so he resigned himself to getting up. One the bright side, he thought as he showered, he wouldn�t have to worry about getting to school late. Or oversleeping his alarm, for that matter, seeing as he beat it to the punch every morning. Crossing from his bathroom to the bedroom naked, as he always did, Alec caught sight of himself in the mirrored front of his wardrobe and stopped. Was that� muscle?

He flexed a bicep and stared at it in shock, wondering how he could have missed such a thing. Sure, he didn�t often stare at himself in the mirror, but his arm was� hard! How the hell did he miss that? Always a little on the skinny side, Alec�s body had previously been soft and rather un-toned. As he�d hit the Change, through growth spurt or angelic growth, he�d gained height and turned out somewhat lanky, but now there was definition. True, he still wasn�t body-builder material, but there was a certain masculine allure to his body that he couldn�t deny.

�Ha!� he laughed to himself. �Next thing you know I�ll be having a wank in front of the mirror!� Shaking his head, he donned his uniform and brushed out his long hair, tying it back with the usual elastic and scrutinising himself � fully clothed this time � in the full-length glass. For the first time in recent memory, he decided to make the effort, and after tucking in his shirt, straightening his collar and cuffs and generally neatening himself up, was rather pleased with the effect. He even went so far as to take his seldom-worn school tie out of the drawer and put it on. �Ego?� he asked aloud as he straightened the knot. �Hell, why not!�

A pleasant breakfast with his family and an uneventful trip to school, and Alec was still in a good mood. The overwhelming sense of it all coming down on him that he'd felt right after the lupine attack was gone. Even his father's predictions of gloom and doom couldn't dampen his spirits for some reason.

�Geez,� he thought aloud as he crossed the oval. �Anyone would think I'm becoming one of those 'happy' people.�

�Good morning,� Alec said cheerily as he sat down on the bench in �their� area.

�There you go on again with that �good morning� bullshit of yours,� Marc said sourly, raising an eyebrow as he looked his friend up and down critically.

�Problem is, you're too happy for your own damned good,� added Allen, setting down a styrofoam cup of noodles. �Or, more to the point, too happy for our damned good. Why can't you be depressed and morbid like you used to be?�

�Probably because I no longer bleed between classes,� Alec answered, putting a Griff between his lips and reaching for his blonde friend�s Zippo.

Marc cracked his knuckles loudly, �Keep prancing around with that stupid grin on your mug and I�ll personally see to it you go back to bleeding between classes.�

�And what's this?� Allen demanded, gesturing at Alec's clothing. �You're�� he stopped, lost for words. �Marc, help me out here.�

�Neat,� came the disgruntled answer. �Anyone would think the stuffy bastard made an effort to look respectable for school.�

�Hey, don't get cut at me just because I happen to polish up well,� Alec retorted. �It's not my fault you look like a pair of bums.�

�Do I hear a challenge there?� Marc queried, once more raising a blonde eyebrow.

Alec laughed a cloud of grey smoke and considered a moment before saying, �Alright, then. There's a school dance this Friday. Not only must the pair of you attend, but you must be dressed to the nines. In suits - nay, tuxedos!�

�Turning up to a school function would be a serious breach of tradition,� said Allen thoughtfully, stroking his chin. �And a much more serious breech of tradition would be missing Dave�s party in favour of a school do.�

Allen�s eyes narrowed challengingly. �But I think that in this case we can make an exception just to wipe the smirk off happy-boy�s face.�

�You two? In tuxedos?� Alec laughed. �This I have to see. Remember, you have to actually bathe first, and wear the tie. And comb your hair.�

�Now he mocks us!� Marc said indignantly. �If we have to wear the monkey suits, so do you!�

Jenni trudged out of the school gates, her hands buried in her pockets and her head down. Whoever this Alec guy is, he�s really got you messed up, girl, she told herself irritably. You�ve only ever seen the guy once in a dream and you�ve been pining over him for damn near a week now! Since when has pining over a guy been something YOU engaged in? Its not like he�s the father of your baby for crying out loud!

�You ready to rock and roll and kick some arse?� an all-too familiar female voice called out pleasantly.

Jenni looked up to find Eliza; beautiful, completely self-assured and casually dressed as ever, perched on the edge of the waist-high steel fence that bordered the school property. The blonde girl pushed herself off the fence and after dusting imaginary specks of dirt off her stone-washed jeans, meandered over. �So, you ready?�

�I guess�� Jenni replied without much enthusiasm. �Mum shouldn�t be a problem, she�s hooked up with yet another loser, which probably explains why she didn�t even bother with a token objection and signed the form with practically a flourish.�

Eliza sensed the resentment in Jenni�s tone but didn�t comment, waving instead for the other girl to continue.

�Yeah, anyway, the school knows I�ll be gone for a bit and my stuff's packed. I�ve got enough clothes for a couple of days, but by the end of the first week there�s gonna be some dirty laundry that�ll need taking care of. This place wouldn�t by any chance have a washing machine or, at the very least, running water and a bar of soap, would it? I don�t really mind wearing the same track pants for a couple of days, but there�s no way in hell I�m recycling sweaty undies!�

�Buggered if I know.� Eliza answered. �But I�ll talk to Logan about it. He should have come up with a solution for his own stuff by now��

�So whaddaya' we do from here?� Jenni asked morosely. This whole trip had been bugging her all week. She needed to go for no other reason than the fact it could bring her closer to this Alec person, but at the same time, just being around Alec promised its own share of problems. Just what did protecting him entail? She doubted she�d be able to actually kill someone, because that was completely insane on so many levels it was hard to comprehend, but she�d probably have to fight and fighting could very easily result in pain. Pain was bad and was something to be studiously avoided. And yet she was signing up for it. But aside from the pain element, could she actually kill someone if she had to? That was taking a rather large frigging step into psycho territory! But what was the worse scenario? She didn�t go, Alec died or something, and the nightmares returned? Was the loss of sleep really worth all that she might be called to go through? It wasn�t mandatory, there was no band playing in the background, no tangible reward on offer, hell, not even a fixed minimum wage, but she was still willing to go through with it based entirely on a dream and the word of someone she barely knew. This is, she reasoned darkly, a completely fucked up state of affairs�

Apparently unaware of Jenni�s thoughts, Eliza answered in the same cheery tone she�d been using. �Now I�ll walk you home to get your gear, and then we�ll get a cab to Central. I�ve booked you a seat on the Countries Line all the way to Newcastle so you won�t have to worry about changing trains.�

Jenni frowned. �Wouldn�t it make more sense just to get the train to Central? I mean its gotta be, like, forty bucks to get a cab from here to there as opposed to $3.60 by train...�

�Hey, I�m in a rare happy mood,� Eliza answered with a glorious smile. �Just taken care of an irritatingly hairy problem so don�t whinge about trivia okay?�

�Or the fucking Men in Black,� Mark finished with scowl. �If this wasn�t a bet I had no intention of losing, I wouldn�t be caught dead in this monkey suit.�

�They�ll probably bury you in a pair of old jeans and a black Metallica T-shirt,� commented Allen�s dad, adjusting the rear vision mirror so he could see the trio in the back seat.

Friday night had arrived with unnerving speed for the three teenagers. Though the bet had been made in the spirit of good-natured jest, they were dreading the moment they'd actually have to enter the school hall and be seen. The dance was being held to raise funds for the school's hockey team, who supposedly needed money to travel to some competition interstate. Most saw it as an excuse to mingle with the opposite sex in clothing that was slightly more revealing than a school uniform, and the majority of those in attendance would be going straight to Dave's party as soon as the event was over at eleven PM. Still more had chosen not to turn up at all, and if it weren't for the bet Alec, Allen and Marc would have been among them.

�Eleven o�clock,� Allen reminded his father. �And don�t forget the grog. We�re going to need it to wash this torrid event from our minds.�

�Yeah, yeah, don�t worry. We�ll only be sitting in a corner pretending we�re not there,� Allen smirked, jumping out of the car. �Catch ya�.�

Turnam High, so familiar to them by day, was a different place entirely by night. External lighting illuminated the buildings and walkways in a way totally different to the sun, casting unfamiliar patterns of light and shadow. The occasional group of casually-dressed students stopped talking long enough to stare at the trio as they made their way toward the hall. To say they were overdressed would be an understatement. As a group collectively known for making as little effort as possible, they were barely recognisable.

Allen and Marc had both combed their hair neatly, even going so far as to get haircuts in the afternoon before picking up their suits. Alec�s jet-black locks, usually tied back with an elastic, were brushed out and gleaming. Only his build and the masculine set of his jaw saved him from looking feminine. As it was, he looked immaculate and even elegant, as though his current attire suited him far better than his usual sloppy dress.

Opting for straight ties rather than what Marc aptly described as �faggot butterfly bows�, their black suits, alabaster-white dress shirts and gleaming leather shoes leant them an air of confidence that was entirely different from their usual casual indifference. They couldn�t help but stand straighter, walk taller. Though none of them would even consider saying so out loud, they all enjoyed the attention they were attracting. By unspoken agreement, they formed a line, three across, and entered the hall�s wide double-doors as a group.

�Ho-ly shit!� exclaimed the year eleven kid at the door, immediately turning to see if the teacher holding the �donation� box had heard.

�Language, Frank,� Chalmes scowled. �Well, boys,� he said, lightening up slightly as he looked over the newcomers. �Made an appearance for once, I see.�

�I think I can scrounge up some loose change,� Marc said, digging out his wallet.

Muttering under their breath, the three emptied a pound of change into the already heavy box and broke through a crowd of kids into what was fondly called the �food court�. Rather than a simple entranceway into the main auditorium, the small �lobby� opened into a sizeable chunk of the large rectangular building, the inward corner dominated by a food stand, with wide spaces on either side providing entry to the dance floor. Roughly a quarter of the two hundred some-odd students in attendance were lined up for food and drink or standing in groups chatting. The trio formed up again with Alec, the tallest, in the centre and made their entrance.

None of them expected the entire assemblage to turn as one and gasp, but they received attention enough from everyone they passed. �Smart casual� means different things to different people; most of the girls were prettied up enough for a night on the town, but still mobile enough to dance. The majority of guys simply threw on a semi-presentable shirt and a pair of shorts or jeans and went as-is. By comparison, the three stood out like immaculately bandaged sore thumbs.

�Well, don�t we look pretty tonight?� crowed an irritating voice from behind. The three turned to see Joel, one of the �pretty� boys of their year push off from his space against the canteen�s back wall and take a step in their direction. He looked at Allen pointedly as he clasped fingers with his girlfriend, Allison, a softly beautiful girl of brown ringlets and chocolate eyes. Marc opened his mouth on pure instinct, and shut it again when Allen elbowed him discreetly in the ribs.

Looking Joel pointedly up and down, Allen turned to Allison and smiled. �And we�re not the only ones. How are you?�

�Hey!� Joel protested, shooting his girl an open-mouthed look of protest as she silenced him with a glare.

�Oh, I�m great, thank you,� Allen said, still smiling as he offered his arm. �Care to dance?�

Grabbing him by both lapels, Joel turned and slammed Allen up against the wall. Instead of the anger or fear he�d expected, he was rewarded only with a wide grin.

�Go on, hit me!� Allen hissed in a voice that matched his smile. �I�m sure she�d love that, wouldn�t she?�

�Joel!� Allison exclaimed, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him back. �What the hell is wrong with you?� Allen�s expression went from smug to wide-eyed shock as he moved off the wall and brushed himself off with mock-fear.

�Geez, man. No need to bite my head off, I was just talking,� Allen said. Allison laid a hand on his chest and their eyes met for a moment. Just a moment, but it was enough for Allen to lock on to her. He smiled his softest and put his hand on hers, letting go slowly before the moment ended so as not to go too far.

�Christ!� Joel huffed angrily, setting his jaw and walking off. Allison spared one more look for Allen and headed off after her boyfriend. The moment her back was turned, Allen�s smile turned into a self-satisfied smirk.

�Hey, I�m just being friendly.� Allen grinned as he continued to dust imaginary specks off his jacket. �And anyway, if that nancy-boy really wanted to throw down, we could always just go outside and have you and Alec here rearrange his face. I mean, why else would I hang around you two anti-social sodomites?�

�And what was that you whispered in his ear when he had you up against the wall?� Alec inquired.

�Wouldn�t you like to know?� Allen laughed. �Now, where�s that dark corner?� A whistle drew everyone�s attention to the doorway they�d only just left. Eyes widening, they saw Amber appear, sans the boyfriend, with her hair braided into pigtails with pink, fluffy, Britney-esque tassels hanging from the ends. She wore a familiar school blouse, dyed pink and shrunk in the wash to hug her chest suggestively, the bottom three buttons left undone and the tails tied together above her flat, tanned tummy. Her soft, dusky skin sent blood hurtling from the brains of all males present and drove them by the dozen to get a closer look. The usual blue-and-gold striped tie was properly affixed, though pulled down to show the top buttons were also undone. A small but glorious amount of cleavage peeked out the top.

�Now that is not a regulation Turnam High skirt,� Allen redundantly pointed out.

�Maybe it was before she chopped six inches off it and tied a pink scarf around the waist,� Marc answered. �It looks like somebody just broke up with her boyfriend and needs a rebound cock� uh, I mean man.�

�Y�know, it�s been awhile since we had a chat with Amber,� Allen noted, his tone grave, as if he were discussing the plight of the world�s homeless.

�Why, we�d be downright rude not to go over there right now and say �hello�,� Marc agreed, his expression just as solemn as his mate�s.

�Suit yourself. Don�t get all cut when we�re elbow-deep in Amber pie and you�re sitting over here alone.�

�I�ll try,� Alec laughed. He watched them straighten their ties and head very pointedly in her direction, the very picture of teen lust in action. With a soft chuckle, Alec skirted the admirers and left via the opposite exit into the food court. Apparently Amber�s entrance had made impact enough to clear the line, as he only had to wait a few moments before he had his hands on a bottle of Coke and was headed for the door.

�Where do you think you�re going, Roth?� Chalmes demanded as Alec made for the egress.

Without a word, Alec reached into his inner coat pocket and handed over a folded sheet of paper. Chalmes read it silently and handed it back, nodding in the direction of the door with an expression that clearly told him to get lost.

�Because he has his disclaimer note which the relevant authorities will doubtlessly find on his mangled corpse.� Chalmes answered with an evil grin that put Marc�s trademark expression to shame. �See, now if he gets run over by a car or mauled by a pack of marauding koalas, it�s his problem. You, on the other hand, we have to babysit for the next three hours. Now stop back-chatting and get back inside!�

Alec grinned at Sean�s adolescent whine and stuffed his hands into his pockets until he was out of sight of the building before lighting a Griff and walking in an unhurried fashion to their normal spot alongside the oval. Easing himself onto the metal table, he pulled the Coke from his jacket pocket and took a sip, leaning back on his hands so he could look at the stars. He was beginning to get used to the whole �happy� thing, and allowed the smile that lurked just beneath the surface to spread across his face as he let his head roll back and exhaled a thin trail of smoke. Feeling comfortable in the embracing darkness with the moon and the stars shining down from above, he lay full-length on the table with his hands behind his head, still smiling.

This time, when he felt the presence of another flash into existence behind him, he merely grinned wider. He didn�t need his pulses to illuminate the features of this one � they changed constantly anyway. After so long, he recognised her by the way she �felt� to his senses. No matter which body she wore, she still bore the same familiarity.

�You�re getting good at this,� Chantelle observed, sliding into the seat with her back to the table and resting her chin on his stomach.

Alec extracted one from the packet and lit it for her, putting it to her lips rather than handing it to her. Idly, he wondered why she smoked at all. If the chemicals couldn�t harm her, he really didn�t see how they could affect her, and if they didn�t affect her, then why bother? Was it merely because he smoked and it was just something they could do together? He briefly debated on whether or not he should just ask her but dismissed the thought as of no consequence. She apparently fucked around a lot too, and there didn�t seem to be any real point for that either. But at the end of the day, it didn�t matter. She was here, with him, and that was enough.

They spent a few minutes in comfortable silence before Alec spoke again. �Chantelle?�

Chantelle lifted her head and turned to face him, but Alec didn�t get up. �This isn�t more of your anti-ego, is it?�

�No, not that. Well, sort of.� Alec rested his head on his hands and stared upward for a moment. �Before, I was everybody�s bitch. It sucked, and I wanted it to stop, of course, but I knew who I was. Dad always said that one day I�d be the big, bad angel boy, but I don�t feel like I�m that, either.�

�That�s just it. I�m not sure I want to be anybody. But I think it�s expected of me. At school I have guys who won�t even look me in the eye. I remember what it was like being on the bottom of the food chain, but I don�t want to be the guy who scares the crap out of everybody either.�

�Do you intend to start beating shit out of people just for the hell of it?�

Now Alec did sit up. �Who am I, Chantelle? Who am I to do things to people?�

�Ah,� Chantelle said, shifting in her seat to put an arm around Alec. �You�re feeling guilty about Nadine?�

�I don�t feel guilty about sleeping with her. Hell, that could have been any guy in there with her and the result probably would have been the same. I took a look into her head, though, and I saw the potential. I knew it could happen and, knowing that it could be done, went in there. I used an edge no one else had. In short, I cheated.�

�So what you�re saying is, you feel guilty for not feeling guilty about taking advantage of Nadine.�

�Like you said, Aleck, it could�ve been any guy in there. It was probably better for her that it was you, anyway. It sounds like she needed to get laid as much as you did, but she needed some tenderness, too. Some understanding. You gave her that.�

Chantelle thought it over a bit, then returned with, �When you�re at school, who are you accountable to?�

Alec thought for a moment. �I don�t know,� he said honestly. �He never talks about it. God, I guess.�

�What if I told you that he isn�t? What if I said that God never held anybody accountable for anything?�

�No, it doesn�t. Not in the Judeo-Christian sense of right and wrong, anyway. Society�s conceptions of law are based upon religious ones. �Thou shalt not kill� and the like. In reality, nobody will ever stop you from doing something, no matter how horrible.�

�There is no right and wrong, Aleck. You need to understand that now before it starts to gnaw at you. Take it from me, there is only one authority in this world that you�ll ever have to answer to. Only a single authority will ever truly pass judgement over you.�

�Think about it,� Chantelle explained patiently. �If God isn�t going to stop you, who will? The police?� She snorted smoke from her nostrils. �Not likely. The only laws you�ll ever have to obey are those you make for yourself. If you know you�ll feel guilty about doing something, don�t do it. If you don�t feel guilty or sorry for what you�ve done��

�That�s one of the big cosmic truths. Let me throw another analogy at you.�

�The law isn�t an authority. It�s upheld by a lot of pretentious arseholes, and most of them are corrupt. Who else?�

�That�s it!� Chantelle beamed. �Now of course there�ll be consequences for everything you do, but what someone else thinks of you only matters if you want it to matter. Someone else�s law, or morality, or whatever, might see your actions as criminal, or evil, but that�s neither here nor there. They can�t punish you half as badly as you punish yourself for what you deem is sin.� She took his hand and stared at it for a long moment, �This is your life. You live it.�

�I�m saying that if you don�t want to do something, legal or not, there�s nothing saying you have to. By the same token, if you want to do something, and you feel it�s the right thing to do, no matter the reason or the means, do it.�

�Bit of both, really. You�re about to have one of those irritating moral dilemmas.�

�You�ll see,� she said, smiling that wicked smile. �Ciao!� She vanished as quickly as she�d appeared, leaving only her cigarette butt on the ground to show that she�d been there at all.

Just as Alec stood up, shaking his head and wondering what she�d been talking about, he sensed a presence outside the trees. Focusing on the presence, he touched tentatively at the edges of the mind until he�d picked up the identity, and smiled. A moment later he received confirmation when a voice spoke from the darkness.

�Yep,� he said, passing through the trees into sight. �Hello, miss. I didn�t realise you were following me.�

Elaine Jensen was glad of the darkness suddenly, as it covered the blush she felt when she realised that she�d done just that. What on Earth was she thinking, following a student around like that? Peering into the dark, she could have sworn that Alec was grinning.

"Ah, I see. Thanks for your concern, but I'm cool. I was just out for a breath of air. Care to join me?"

"It's alright, I've got a note. C'mon, sit down," he said, beckoning for her to follow as he stepped back through the thin shrubbery.

"I didn't even know this was here," Ms. Jensen admitted as she watched the student sit down.

"Most people don't," Alec said with a grin, fishing out a cigarette and offering her the packet.

"No, thank you," Jensen said, waving it away and putting on an authoritative tone. "You'd better put that thing out right now and give me the packet."

"This isn't school," Alec said, locking eyes with her in the moonlight and exhaling slowly. "You're not even responsible for me right now. Why don't you just sit down and enjoy the night?"

Ms. Jensen was unsure of what to say to this. Here was a student she genuinely liked, though she didn't know him very well, and he was being rude. Or was he? There was no scorn in his voice, but maybe... teasing?

"Not exactly. Mister Chalmes thought it would be a good idea if I came so I could get to know the students a little better. I'll be teaching here full-time next year."

"You can't really bag on me without even trying it," Alec said with a grin. "Tell you what. Take one drag, and if you don't like it I'll put out the smoke and you won't see me with one again. Deal?"

"What? Here's your chance to stamp out one of the evils of teenage life in one of your students. Give it a go."

Ms. Jensen pulled back a little and looked at Alec critically. "You'll quit if I don't like it?"

"Well, I never said I'd quit, but I won't smoke around you in future. That's got to count for something."

"No deal. If I take a drag on one of your cigarettes, you've got to try to quit altogether."

"What, you don't think you could do it? Give it a go," she repeated him with a smile.

"Okay, you're on. Give me your hand." Jensen held out her hand, and Alec took it, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles as he'd seen Allen do and, looking into her eyes, smiled. The moment only lasted a second, but he could sense the tumult in her thoughts without even forming a probe. He slipped the cigarette between her index and middle fingers at the first knuckle and released her hand. "Put it up to your lips," he said softly," and suck just a little bit into your mouth. Only a little, though, and breathe in slowly.

She dragged as instructed, but inhaled too quickly, and ended up coughing the drag straight out of her lungs. Alec suppressed a grin and patted her back, handing her his Coke when she was done.

�That wasn�t a drag,� Alec said drily. �The smoke barely touched the back of your throat.� He held out the cigarette, butt first. �Try again.�

Ms. Jensen looked at the cigarette, then back at Alec. He was teasing her and she knew it. That was why she leaned forward, taking the cigarette with her lips rather than her fingers, and took another drag. Instead of sucking it straight into the her lungs the way Alec appeared to, she drew just a little smoke into her mouth and held it there a moment. To he surprise, it didn�t taste horrible. In fact, it didn�t taste like much of anything at all. When she did inhale, she took it slow, breathing in just a bit at a time until she�d taken a full breath. She held it for a moment, then let go. She expected all the smoke to come straight back out, but only a fine trail of grey stained her breath. She realised that Alec�s eyes had been riveted to hers the whole time.

Alec surprised her by not gloating. Instead he smiled a soft little smile and continued smoking. He was one of those people who could look away and suddenly be all by himself no matter how many other people were near. She�d noticed that about him the few times she�d seen Alec before and after his encounter with Matt Wyndam earlier in the year. He had changed quite a bit since then.

Where previously he�d been a boy, he now had a man�s height and voice. She realised now that the person looking through those pretty green eyes was far better suited to this body. Like he�d finally grown into his soul. The Alec Roth who had been pushed around all his life was a fidgety, restrained person. A boy with an air of nervous expectation about him. What he�d been waiting for had finally come, and his entire manner reflected that. Calm, comfortable. Mature. The ability of puberty to turn awkward children into men never failed to amaze her. It had done a fine job with Alec, no doubt about that.

The quiet between them felt appropriate. Unlike most teenagers, her companion didn�t see silence as a gaping hole that must immediately be filled with pointless chit-chat. He understood the meaning of silence. It suited him. He owned it.

Again she found those eyes locked to hers, and when he broke the silence he did it with a soft, almost respectful voice, as though he knew that noise would spoil everything.

�We should get back inside,� he said with a trace of a smile. �The guys are probably waiting for me, and the other teachers are likely to be wondering where you went.�

Alec�s mind was reeling. Allen�s little trick actually worked! If he�d known that all it took was a gentle smile and a soft voice he wouldn�t have felt so damned nervous around girls all his life. And this was no girl. This was a woman, pure and simple. Still in her early twenties, Ms. Jensen had a woman�s confidence and poise, but there was still that of the carefree youth in her. Maybe that was what attracted him to her. He could talk to her, though. Hell, he was doing better with her than he did with most girls his own age. Well, with the exception of Nadine, but that was different. Or was it?

�Elaine. Don�t say let anybody hear you call me that, though. Not at school, anyway.�

Somebody had finally decided to take some requests and get the sound system moving, and �Paradise City� thudded at freakish volume from the bank of speakers at the far end of the hall. A few girls wriggled in groups at the centre of the dance floor, but most stayed at the periphery, content to chat with mates or perve on the members of the opposite sex that had bothered attempting to dance. The night was still early, and the �feeling over� phrase had yet to end. In an hour or so, the dance floor would be packed to capacity, but that hour was still an hour away.

�Where the fuck is Alec?� Marc demanded, tugging uncomfortably at the collar of his shirt. The jacket had long since been discarded, but Marc was still fidgeting in his new clothing. Allen allowed himself a slight smile. There was nothing wrong with the fit of the clothes, the three of them had been fitted for their suits the afternoon before. His friend�s discomfort was purely mental.

�Buggered if I know, maybe he went off for a smoke,� answered Allen. �Now that I mention it, I could do with a smoke myself��

Marc shook his head. �You can smoke later, behold, the glory that is Amber�� he breathed in his �reverent� tone.

Allen grinned. He hardly needed his arm twisted to partake in a bout of �Amber-watch�, and privately entertain himself with smut laden Amber-featured dreams. Every other guy present was doing it, why not he? So intent was he with his Amber-watching, Allen didn�t realise that the other object of his attentions had walked right up to him and was just now tugging on his jacket.

�Hey, Allen. Look, I�m really sorry about Joel. He can be a jealous arsehole sometimes.�

�Well, tell you what. How about you come dance with me, and we�ll call it even,� Allen said, gesturing to the floor.

�Well,� Allison said, biting her lip and looking back to Joel, who was currently laughing with a group of friends at the edge of the food court. �Sure.�

Marc caught Allen�s eye and gave him a wink, motioning that he�d continue the Amber vigil in his mate�s absence. Allen nodded over his shoulder and steered Allison to a position where Joel would be sure to see them if he spared a glance toward the floor. There was no guarantee that the moron would even think to look for his girlfriend, but he could hope. He heaved a sigh of relief when the fast-paced Guns �n Roses track ended and a slower Zoe Poledouris number began. While he could dance well enough not to attract attention, Allen tended to fall into the same pattern of steps and motions after awhile and ended up looking weird. Slow dancing he could do.

Allison�s hair was nicely done in a set of thin braids that ran from the sides and held the rest back behind her ears. The curl didn�t kick in until about eight inches from the bottom, making a clean line down to her neck and then a spill of ringlets that looked simply gorgeous resting against the pale, flawless skin of her back. Her shoulders and neck were of a shape that brought to mind sculpted marble above her dark lilac dress. A slightly scooped neckline displayed a demure peek of cleavage, and the thigh-length slit gave her the mobility she needed to dance. She looked classy and beautiful, and far too good for somebody like Joel.

Allen clasped his fingers through hers and placed a hand delicately on her hip, drawing her as close as propriety would allow. She smiled beautifully at the old-fashioned waltz position and took up step with him. They hadn�t danced together in the past, but both had been through the hell of being taught old dances in primary school, so they were able to keep up with one another without looking foolish. A few more couples joined them on the floor, not minding a slow dance in favour of the bump and grind of modern dance. Marc could be seen at the other side of the floor with his hands all over Amber � apparently he�d won the battle to get the luscious piece of (emotionally) damaged goods onto the floor in the hopes of providing a rebound fuck. Allison�s eyes were on Allen�s as they moved effortlessly between the other couples, threading their way around the floor. He gave her the soft smile again, and was rewarded with another pretty flash of teeth. Her hand felt warm and snug against his, her hip the perfect meld of soft and hard, and the gentle brush of her breasts against his chest every once in awhile was giving him goosebumps.

The song ended long before he wanted it to, giving way to a god-awful Boyz II Men anthem that he�d hated from the moment of its release years ago. But it was slow, and it was sad, and it was the kind of music he could ignore while he moved in time to the beat. Allison seemed content to keep dancing, and Allen wasn�t inclined to argue. Glancing in the direction of the food court, Allen saw somebody who was so inclined, and maybe even ready for something stronger. Joel had the look of a man ready to do some damage, and Allen turned Allison so her back was directly to her boyfriend, staring at him the whole time with a smug grin. At the last moment he looked down into her eyes and gave her another smile, turning them both around and releasing her hand and waist.

�Joel!� Allison cried in surprise as Allen was ripped back by the shoulder. He knew the blow was coming, and managed to turn his head around, but not enough to avoid it entirely. Joel�s fist smacked into his face harder than Allen had expected and knocked him back. Allen�s own blow was far weaker, taking Joel under the ribcage with just enough force to knock the wind out of him. Eyes filling with tears from his squished nose, Allen staggered back and sat down slowly, grabbing a handkerchief from his top pocket to staunch the blood that was already coming.

�Joel, what the hell is wrong with you?� demanded Allison, looking at Allen the whole time. He spared a glance for his attacker, who already had an arm pinned behind his back by the formally AWOL Alec. Alec�s eyes were evil little slits as he muttered something in Joel�s ear, the taller boy�s expression one of cool, calculating ill-will. Allen was almost willing to take another punch in the nose to hear what Alec was saying. Despite his current 'happy' nature, Alec had been bulled enough to have no qualms about beating Joel to a bloody pulp. And he was more than capable of doing it now...

�What the hell is going on here?� demanded Chalmes, coming up to the scene at a run.

�Joel ran up and punched Allen in the face,� said Marc, who was standing a few feet away with an arm around Amber. Something she didn�t seem to mind in the least.

�Is that true?� Chalmes asked angrily, ignoring Alec�s manhandling of the accused.

�I�m calling your parents,� Chalmes said to Joel. �You�re out of here. Roth, let him go.�

�Of course,� said Alec amicably, pushing Joel forward with a final twist of his arm.

�I�ll live,� Allen replied, standing up with Marc�s aid and checking his blood-soaked handkerchief. �He hits like a girl anyway.� Alec had to restrain Joel once more as he leapt at Allen, who covered his face with the hanky to hide his grin.

�One more outburst from you, Hannant, and I�ll have you expelled instead of suspended,� Chalmes said to Joel coldly.

Allison watched her boyfriend being led away then looked at Allen, then back to her boyfriend again.

�It�s okay, I�m fine,� said Allen. �You should probably go make sure Joel doesn�t hit anybody else.�

�No, it�s just that Joel is so jealous,� Allison said, looking back. �Look, I�d better go. Are you sure you�re okay?�

Marc watched her leave, then turned back to Allen. �You wanna� hang around here for awhile longer, or are we leaving?�

�I�m for getting the fuck out of here, getting the fuck out of these clothes, and getting my hands around a fucking beer,� Allen said. �Alec?�

Marc took a look and shook his head. �No, but it might be a bit off centre when it heals.�

�Stupid cunt,� muttered Allen. �Thanks for the backup, by the way,� he said to Alec.

�You didn�t need much help,� said Alec with a laugh. �I saw you give him a quick one in the guts when he was swinging at you. You knew it was coming, didn�t you?�

Allen tried to look innocent, and failed. �Hmmph, the guy�s a jerk and jerk�s are predictable. I�m just pissed he still managed to land a telegraphed punch almost dead on target. Fucking retard��

�And you�re so much better,� laughed Marc, �letting a guy beat you up for a sympathy fuck!�

�Hey!� Allen retorted. �I had no intentions on making a single move on her. I was just making it look that way to eliminate the competition. Nothing wrong with keeping one�s options open.�

�Seems to be working,� noted Alec, pointing out the arguing couple exiting the building, followed by Ms. Jensen.

�Let�s hope so,� Allen grinned. �Has this thing stopped bleeding yet?�

�Yep,� said Marc, squinting into his nostril. �Let�s get the fuck out of here�

Jenni stepped off the train and glanced around. Newcastle apparently had the same shitty weather that plagued Sydney. In other words, it was a hole. She moodily rolled her sleeves down, slung her duffel over her shoulder and headed off to find some shelter from the rain and the bitingly cold ocean breeze. Finally under an aluminium shelter that at least took the rain out of the equation, she dumped her bag on a bench and reached for her cigarettes. She�d just got a Griffin lit when a sandy-haired, well-built individual in a navy blue sweater and jeans walked up to her and held out his hand.

Looking into a pair of beautiful hazel eyes set on an immaculately chiselled face, Jenni figured that if she had a heart, she would have declared it sold on the spot. Logan Van Ryan (for who else knew her in Newcastle?) had to be the best looking guy she�d ever laid eyes on. In his late twenties or early thirties, standing about six foot even and obviously athletic without looking like a steroid pumper, he was the sort of guy most would have labelled as a heartbreaker. Unfortunately for him, the first word out of his mouth had been �Jennifer� and that immediately put a bad taste in her mouth.

�Jen.� she corrected with the sort of smile that came out much like a polite glare.

�Ouch!� Logan winced dramatically, �Should have known better, she warned me not to call you Jennifer, but I had to see for myself what the response would be� oh well, I can live with �Jen�.�

�I�ve got a farm-thingy I�m leasing from a yokel, err, local, a little more than an hour�s drive away.� Logan told her in a voice that made it clear he didn�t see this �going back to nature� adventure as something he was particularly glorying in. �You�re from Sydney right?� when Jenni nodded, he said, �Well I�m a Turnam boy myself, so normally if I had business in Sydney, I�d just fly down, grab a hotel room in the city and just make an appointment at a convenient gym for our sessions, but our mutual friend, for some odd reason, didn�t think that was such a good idea. Thus,� he waved around vaguely, �we�re stuck here in the colon of the arse end.�

�Speaking of the devil, that�s another thing I�ve been meaning to ask, who the hell is Eliza, and how do you know her?�

Logan shrugged indifferently. �I dunno, and personally, I don�t care. All I know is she�s some chick with money to burn and she�s paying me more than enough to make ignorance worth my while, and anyway, why does it matter?�

Jenni stared at him. �Aren�t you even the least bit curious to know why the fuck some chick who looks like she�s still in high school is paying you�� she frowned, �incidentally, how and what is she paying you?�

�Electronic account transfer and cash.� was Logan�s smug answer. �Lots of it. Let�s just say I don�t come cheap and she�s already paid more than most would, in advance. Now I don�t give a crap where she gets her moolah from, or what she had to do to get it, but she pays and pays well. Works for me.�

�Okaaaaay,� Jenni rolled her eyes, �back to my original question, don�t you wanna know why some chick is paying you to teach me how to kick ass?�

�Curiosity, aside from being overrated, does not pay child support.� Logan told her indifferently. �Besides, do you really think knowing why would change anything?�

�Of course it would! What if I took what you�re gonna teach me and went on some mad killing spree? Wouldn�t you feel guilty knowing you were the one who taught me all of that? Christ! How the hell would you go to sleep at night?�

Logan was silent for a moment. �I suppose�� he said at last, �but then again, if I was making cars, and some shit-for-brains drove one of my cars into a school bus and killed, say, twenty twelve-year-olds, should I feel guilty for that? I mean, I just made the car, I didn�t make the numb-nuts drive into a school bus.�

�Yeah but that�s a shit parallel, cars aren�t made for driving into school buses. You�re supposed to teach me how to hurt people, and the only foreseeable reason anyone would want to learn how to hurt people is to hurt people.�

�True, but again, I�m only the teacher. What you do with what I teach you is on your head, not mine. For all I know, our friend just wants to ensure you know how to take care of yourself when the shit hits the fan. And anyway I -"

Jenni cut him off, �Hang on a sec, you're not supposed teaching me judo or any of that self-defence nonsense, you're supposed to be teaching me how to get up close and nasty and hurt people. In a word, OFFENSIVE.�

�Again, true, but I didn�t force you to come here and I�m not going to force you to learn anything if you don�t want to. As some old slave might have said, �I�se gonna be pickin� yer cotton massa, but I�se ain�t embroiderin� yer shit� Like I said, your head.�

Jenni grunted irritably but didn�t bother with a more coherent reply. They stopped at a newish Toyota SUV and after dumping her duffel in the boot, pulled out of the station parking lot.

From there, it was just over an hour�s drive to �camp�, which turned out to be a remote farmstead-ish thing outside Weber�s Creek, located dead-centre of sweet-bloody-nowhere. Dusk had already fallen, so all Jenni got to see were a couple of hundred rolling hills, the odd dairy cow, a few rather stunted trees and the bitumen of the long winding driveway before she was ushered into the main building, a single-storeyed, whitewashed affair with a red tiled roof.

A city girl born and bred, she�d expected the place to be rustic, or at least feel rustic, but found this was hardly the case. It wasn�t a glamorous mansion, but the only rough hewn logs in sight were by the old-fashioned (though recently constructed) fireplace. And the electric heater currently being used to keep the lounge habitable made it obvious that the fireplace was really just a show-piece. All things told, the main house was almost indistinguishable from one she would have found in the suburbs of Sydney. But there was one detail that stuck her the moment she walked through the door: there was no personality to this place. It just didn�t feel �lived in�, kinda like the way most hotel rooms feel. Effortlessly tossing her duffel over his shoulder, Logan led her down the hall to her room, a larger, sparsely furnished version of the one she�d spent last night in.

�Kay, well this is you,� Logan said looking the room over as he set her stuff down by the bed. �Bathroom and dunny are at the end of the hall, and the kitchen�s next to the lounge. I�m gonna go start dinner so if you wanna wash up or whatnot, now�s the time to do it.�

�What�s for dinner?� Jenni asked glancing at her watch. It was a little after eight and she was feeling fairly Ethiopian. She might not have been pleasantly disposed towards Logan yet, but if he had food, she was willing to play nice for the moment.

�Lamb cutlets and mash,� Logan called over his shoulder as he walked out of her room. �And you might want to be quick about it, the sooner you get through dinner, the sooner you can crash. We�re starting early tomorrow morning.�

In a cheerfully sadistic tone that she would soon grow to hate with a passion, Logan replied, �Early.�

�Hey Alec, phone.� Steve�s deep basso voice called up from the landing. In a more mischievous teasing tone, he added, �and it�s a girl��

�Christ�� Alec muttered under his breath. Chantelle wouldn�t call, she�d just meet him somewhere, Elaine� was a story that hadn�t been written yet, so that just left� �I�ll take it up here,� he shouted from his doorway, ignoring his guardian�s �evil bad dude� chuckles from downstairs as he closed his door. Crossing his room to his bed, Alec realised that this marked another first. A chick had actually called him.

He cleared his throat and picked up the handset on his bedside table. �Hello?�

�Alec?� the voice, vaguely familiar, was hesitant. And it wasn�t Chantelle or any of the other aliases his enigmatic friend used.

�It�s Nadine,� the voice confirmed a moment later, �look, I don�t really wanna do this over the phone, can we meet somewhere?�

�Yeah, sure.� said Alec before he found himself frowning irritably. He�d agreed too quickly and doubtlessly portrayed himself as the biggest social loser of all time. Normally, he wouldn�t really care, but when girls were concerned, the rule book went out the window. �I�ve got nothing particularly important to do anytime soon, so your call. When and where?� he asked with a little more restraint.

�Well he did, and added a little more to it again last night. And damn effective he was too.� Alec added without humour. Nadine hadn�t been at the party the night before, but that hadn�t stopped Dave from dropping by for a bit. Her brother had been much more affable, having heard nothing from the grapevine about his sister from the week before, but he was sure to drop a blunt hint that Alec was still breathing on his charitable goodwill. �Look, I don�t mind really cuz he�s your brother and all, but maybe some place a little more open, preferably with a decent supply of witnesses��

Nadine laughed again. �Okay, um, why don�t you just head over and I�ll meet you at the station.�

�Well the next train in your direction from here is�� Alec glanced at his watch, �Well I�ve just missed the 11:07, so it�ll have to be the 11:37. I�ll see you in about half an hour?�

Eight hours later Jenni was clearly regretting she hadn�t taken Logan�s advice the night before and crashed straight after dinner. Her first day in boot had turned out to be a physical frigging nightmare that started with a brisk jog up those stupid arseholic hills (that she�d initially thought were quite beautiful in that rustic �McLeod�s Daughters� kinda way) that abounded in �nowhere� before the sun had even bothered to make an appearance. And when she�d politely inquired as to why the fuck he insisted on making her run up a godforsaken hill when perfectly usable public transport was more than enough for her needs, he�d made her repeat the exercise. A feat made all the more difficult because she had to constantly avoid spraining her ankles in the ditch-like ruts made by dumb bovines tracking single file all over the place.

After that particular brand of torture, she�d gotten a ten minute break but she was barely breathing at the end of it when he moved her into one of the outbuildings that had been converted into a weights room. What followed was a blur of pain her mind pointedly refused to allow her to re-examine for fear of further trauma. By the time lunch had finally rolled up, she had dreamt up 38 completely unique ways to murder Logan and dismissed them all as �not nearly fitting for someone of his motherfucken fascist calibre�. The count was 79, eight hours later at dinner by which time she was only replying to his questions in monosyllables and promising him a slow, exceptionally painful death with her eyes whenever she found the strength to move her eyeballs. Only her promise to Eliza that she would see this through, her fear of the nightmares returning if something happened to Alec, and the simple fact she had no idea where they were and thus no idea how to get out of there, kept her from simply trying to murder Logan in his sleep and heading (at a much more leisurely pace) for the hills.

�Sergeant fucking Slaughter indeed,� she muttered to herself when she was finally alone in the safety of her room. �Remind me to inflict some grievous bodily harm on that blonde bitch the next time I see her stupid face.� She gingerly tried to massage the stiffness, and no small amount of agony out of her calves to bugger all avail. Simply put, she hurt in more places than she thought she had muscles and trying to ease the pain with hands that she could barely clench into fists wasn�t helping her mood. It simply wasn�t fair! Why couldn�t they just find someone else to play danger-girl? Someone with a masochistic bent perhaps�

Roundly cursing her aching muscles, and Eliza, and Alec, and saving a particularly nasty double-dose of unflattering remarks for that P.R.I.C.K., Logan, she pulled her sheet over her shoulders and tried to get as comfortable as her agonised body would allow. They were starting again at the same time the next morning and this time, she was going to get all the fucking sleep she could!

He turned to see Nadine sitting on one of those irritating steel benches and headed over. She was dressed in a pair of old faded jeans, artfully torn at the knees, and a tiny white �Clash� T-shirt that still bore creases and looked like she�d slept in it. Alec allowed a slight smile to appear at the corner of his mouth. With her hair stylishly messy, the blue streaks actually bringing out the colour of her eyes, a pair of purple oval-lensed sunnies on her nose and a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth, she had perhaps the sexiest of Saturday morning don�t-give-a-damn looks.

�Hey�� Alec offered by way of a greeting. The average Australian did not say �hello� unless answering the phone, if at all.

�Hey yourself.� Nadine answered neutrally and offered up a bottle of coke. �Wanna take a seat, or move some place else?�

Alec took a small sip and handed the bottle back. �Either works for me, you?�

�Lemme guess,� Alec interrupted with vague smile, �this is where you get really mad at me for taking advantage of you the other night and call me all sorts of unflattering things, or you�ll come straight out and tell me that what happened was really just a colossal fuck up, pun not intended, and its best if we just pushed the whole thing under the carpet and forgot about it before anyone got hurt.�

There was a long pause before, �Christ! Where�d that come from?� Alec turned to see Nadine staring at him with a bemused expression that finally blossomed out into a rather beautiful smile. �You know,� she began conversationally, �it sounds a lot like you�ve been through the �next day speech� quite a few times��

�Actually, this is about the first one. And really, we hooked up a week ago to the day so technically it�s a �week later� speech.�

�True.� Nadine admitted after taking a deep drag on her cigarette. An awkward, uncomfortable silence settled over them.

Watching her exhale a long plume of smoke, Alec decided it was about time for him to have one too. If anything, a cigarette would at least give him something to do and chemical fix would be appreciated. While this meeting hadn�t quite followed one of the horror segments he�d envisioned on the way over, it was still pretty awkward. He really had no idea what to expect, and even less of an idea what a good outcome was. Sure he liked Nadine from what little he could remember about her, but she was a couple of years older than he was, she was away for most of the year, and aside from a simular mindset, Alec had no clue what else they might have in common. And chances were he�d never really get much of a chance to find out either. So what was preferable? It didn�t sound very feasible to hook up with her, not because he harboured any personal aversion to the idea, but based on the aforementioned negative aspects that separated them. So what did that leave? Trying to forget anything had ever happened? Fat chance, he�d lost his virginity to her so short of a baseball bat induced case of amnesia, was hardly about to forget her even if he wanted to. Friendship? What the fuck was that supposed to mean? How was he going to be mates with his first lay when he�d hardly ever see her?

Lighting his Griff, he exhaled and then turned to her. �I guess this brings us back to my initial �so�?

She flashed him a guilty smile. �Yeah it does, and I�m buggered if I know what we�re supposed to do now. I mean, we both know an �us� wouldn�t work because I�d be in Sydney most of the time,� Alec nodded, �and while it would be real easy to just end things by saying we�ll just be friends��

�It is, yeah.� Nadine agreed. �Like giving someone the last Tim Tam so they get stuck with the empty packaging. I mean what? We barely know each other and its not like we were friends or anything beforehand.�

Alec shrugged. �Yeah. Well I guess we could anyways try�� he said without looking at her. He didn�t need to when his pulses were perfectly capable of reading her expression.

There might have been a faint nervousness in her voice but Alec couldn�t be sure. Still, if it was nervousness, he could get it. Being friends meant they�d have to share stuff, share a part of what made them, them and share it with someone who was only a fluid transfer away from being a complete stranger. And because he knew she was a lot like him, that was a big ask: to trust someone you really had no reason to trust. He quickly revised his earlier thought, they did have something to lose. But backing out now would be easily just as disastrous.

Nadine laughed. �So indeed!� she bit her bottom lip and stared back at him thoughtfully. �Right, if we�re going to do this �mates� thing, we might as well get to know each other. Wanna do a movie or something?�

Jenni had died and taken the express elevator into some perverse masochistic fitness hell.

She couldn�t even spare the energy to further her plans for Herr Arschloch�s (her pet name for Logan) most timely demise. She�d lost count around 258 or so (that was either a Vietnamese Punji trap dug into the dunny floor, or staking him out over an anthill and smearing his balls with honey�) and now almost everything she did was mechanical. Protests about her inability to move didn�t work, feigning menstrual cramps failed (he�d demanded to see the bloody evidence) and non-compliance only resulted in him berating her so much that just to shut him up she complied. If there was one thing she couldn�t stand, it was being told a guy could have done the job better, not because she entertained any hardcore feminist complexes, but because she was stubborn enough to have it fixed in her head that she was the one to do this, and to hell with everything else. For crying out loud, she was Dashaelle - whatever the hell that entailed� and anyway, she wasn�t going to give Logan the satisfaction of seeing her quit. He�d have to go fuck himself sideways before that happened!

So life was reduced to one agonising, dumbbell curling, blistering step after the other. When a ten minute break came around, she�d simply collapse where she�d been standing last and stay there until he ordered, then berated, and finally dragged her off on another endurance run or to work on another modern torture device - like the infernal SS (of the Nazi variety) designed rowing machine. She was so beat by then it didn�t even occur for her to wonder why the fuck anyone would want to duplicate an activity rendered obsolete by a Yamaha outboard motor.

Meals, showers and toilet trips were all done on autopilot. Because she had to move muscles for those activities, she simply viewed them as another chore and let the subconscious part of her brain guide her though them with little or no conscious thought. She had no idea, for instance, what last night�s dinner had been, and honestly didn�t care. Logan could have been feeding her raw road kill for all she knew. Eight-thirty was lights out and the thought of protesting such an early hour to hit the sack never entered her mind. She�d simply crash into bed without bothering to undress. Eight hours and a cold shower later, she felt no better than she�d felt the night before.

On the morning of her fourth day Logan led her out to the paddock where the morning�s stretching exercises were conducted and without a word, Jenni went through the motions with him. Her muscles didn�t want to stretch, as stretching only resulted in more pain, but her mind was so dulled that she was largely able to ignore her body�s pathetically feeble cries for mercy.

Logan was saying something, but it never really occurred to her to pay attention. She was busy imagining herself cramming sticks of dynamite into his irritating pie hole and then rolling on the ground laughing when his big stupid pretty-boy head blew up in true Wile E. Coyote fashion. Then without warning, she found herself flat on her back, her left cheek stinging! It took a couple of seconds for her to understand that the sonovabitch had just slapped her! She stared at him in shock for a long moment, and then she just snapped. Duty, pain, tolerance, indifference, it all went out the window to be replaced with a burning feral rage that would have done a lupine proud. Ignoring her arching muscles, she surged to her feet and leapt at him, the only thing on her mind to make him PAY. Bugger the intricate �accidental death� strategies, her brain screamed, just frigging MURDER the motherfucker!

Her attacks came in from about every angle she could conceive, and she employed every dirty trick she�d ever read, seen or heard about, to no avail. Logan moved faster than she�d believed possible and she hit nothing more substantial than empty air. He didn�t even bother to check her blows, content to simply melt out of the way each time a fist, elbow or kick came his way. The bastard�s playing with me! her mind raged furiously. Burning ATP as fast as her already burnt out muscles could produce it, she refused to back down. Finally, as if he sensed she was about at the end of her rope, Logan grabbed her wrist and before she knew what was happening, she was on her knees, her cheek against the dewy grass. He had her arm painfully locked up behind her, and his free hand on the back of her neck holding her down.

He pulled her arm up higher and drew an anguished scream. �I�m not letting you up until you yield.�

He lifted her hand until it was almost touching her neck. Any more and he�d dislocate her shoulder. �Yield?�

�Say Logan is the King, and is always right and I will always listen to Logan��

Swallowing her pride, Jenni repeated what he�d told her to say, mentally adding: and Logan will soooo wake up a fucking eunuch tomorrow�

�Actually I am.� Logan said pulling her to her feet. Without bothered to check if it was alright with her, he immediately took hold of her shoulder and efficiently pressed out most of the pain with his thumbs faster than she believed was possible. �I�ve been waiting for you to snap since you got here. Whaddaya think all that backbreaking labour was in aid of?�

�Not really.� He grinned. �But now that that�s out of the way, we can finally get down to your actual training. There�ll still a little endurance and strength work to do, but not nearly half as much as you�ve done over the last couple of days.�

�You mean you put me through hell just so I�d go psycho?� she stared at him incredulously.

�Pretty much,� Logan admitted in a frank tone. �Sorry about the slap, but you were just switching your brain off and I needed to break you of that before we got to the important stuff. What comes next is too important for us to start again if you decide to throw a temper tantrum midway through it. We both know time isn�t something we had a decent supply of.�

�Logan, you do realise what the first thing I�m going to do when we�re done is, don�t you?� Jenni asked in an oddly calm voice.

It had taken Alec all of three days to complete the book his father had given him. Despite its small size, the book was a lot longer than he�d thought. The pages were the same thin, rice-paper leaves popular in expensive bibles, making him wonder just who had printed this thing. To his surprise, he found the content interesting, though some of the points made by the author struck him as pure bullshit. As his father had noted, the writer dispensed with theory completely, and laid down fantastic and downright scary facts to be taken at face value. In fact, if he hadn�t seen a lupine face-to-face, Alec would have dismissed the description as pure fancy. Did that mean that everything in here was true? It was enough to make him shudder.

The rituals, too, gave him pause. There were exercises in there to develop his �psychic senses� and other similar abilities, and those he could accept, but the rituals just struck him as� well, weird. More often than not the formulae relied on the power of one or another deity rather than the practitioner�s own strength. One ritual called upon the �One True God�, the next an ancient Sumerian goddess called Inanna, and the next used five different names for Satan. That was definitely something he could do with some theory on, but the author was less than forthcoming. All that being said, he couldn�t blame the author for wanting to believe in a protective being higher than himself. Every monstrous entity listed � and there were dozens � was covered by at least a handful of rituals to ward off, destroy, or even summon. Along with magickal measures, there were physical methods of attack and defense. Many of the creatures had common weaknesses, including the steel-and-silver effect Jana had explained.

Something that interested him far more was extensive discussion and further uses of the shields he�d already employed. Seeing as this was something he'd had experience with, he decided to start there. Raising a minimal shield to keep out any extraneous noise, he lay back on his bed with the book and began to experiment.

With the fascist breaking of her temper out of the way, the real training started. And in its own way, it was easily just as, if not more, excruciatingly painful as the endless jogs and weights had been. Because time was limited, Logan hadn�t bothered trying to instruct her on any single discipline, opting instead on teaching and honing to perfection, a small but efficient arsenal of moves that he felt were best suited to her small size. They were currently sparing full contact with practice weapons, Jenni with a wooden roundel dagger, and Logan with a hardwood Escrima stick encased in a thick layer of foam. She�d laughed when he�d selected the two foot baton, but thirty seconds into the spar, her opinion of that �oversized wooden dildo� had changed dramatically. In the hands of someone who knew how to use it, the stick was a remarkable defensive, and counteroffensive, weapon.

Shaking her right arm roughly in an attempt to get the circulation back into it, Jenni thanked the Gods the club was covered in foam. It was still capable of leaving a nasty bruise, but at least it wouldn�t break bones. And the first time she�d lunged at him with her dagger, his counter-strike, little more than a casual flick, had come close to numbing her arm below the elbow. Without the padding, there was no doubt in her mind that he�d have broken her arm.

Yeah well fuck you too jackass! Jenni thought as she circled warily to the left, her eyes never leaving the slowly twirling stick. Then, without warning, she turned slightly to the left, leaned forward, and lashed out in a vicious diagonal backhand slash, her favourite of the offensive knife strikes Logan had been drilling into her. To her insane irritation, he merely leaned back so that the round point of her dagger flashed under his nose before the Escrima stick went into action. The first blow struck her across the knuckles of her knife hand just hard enough to knock it down and out of the way, and then with a flick of the wrist to reverse direction, Logan cracked the stick against her left temple well before she had any time to recover.

�Arsehole�� she grumbled, gingerly rubbing her head as he backed off. Satisfied she had at least partial use of her knife hand, she advanced and threw a high feint meaning to drop her aim and rake him across the chest with the point of her dagger when he moved to parry, but Logan bought none of it. He backed off to nullify both her feint and intended attack, and used his longer reach to get her with a light vertical swat on the forehead.

�You�re not paying attention.� he told her patiently. �Look, before you launch an attack, try to figure out what I might do to counter it and have a Plan B in place should something go wrong. You�re still rushing in and working on the expectation that you�ll only need one hit to do the job. Its that assumption that�s costing you.�

�Yeah but you know more moves than I do.� Jenni huffed. �How the hell am I supposed to know what you�re gonna do next?�

�Seek� oneness� with your� opponent� and only then� can you� be� victorious.� Logan said imitating a badly dubbed kung fu movie voiceover. �And on a more serious note, just because you have a knife doesn�t mean it�s the only thing you can use. Get creative, you've still got another arm and two legs doing nothing more than gathering dust.�

�Twit,� Jenni hissed and then lunged forward again. This time she mixed and matched as instructed, leading as she preferred to, with her backhand slash but merging it into a vertical stab (when it inevitably failed to connect) aimed at his shoulder while her elbow was still pointed at him. When the baton came up for a horizontal block, she launched a cruel nutcracker snap kick that Logan just managed to avoid by turning to the side. He twisted to avoid the left cross she threw a fraction of a second later and quickly backed off in the face of a flurry of sidekicks aimed at his torso with a rueful grin. Jenni was still wearing her favourite steel caps and had those kicks connected, she probably would have cost him a couple of ribs. She hadn't bothered to pull those kicks.

�Sneaky, and much better.� he grinned approvingly, and then waded directly into her defense and proceeded to belt seven shades of crap out of her with his oversized wooden dildo.

In the flat grey expanse of the void, she drifted in quiet contemplation. Her mind examining, and then re-examining the events of the last couple of weeks, and meticulously assigning the results their places in the scenarios she'd been putting together. Although there had been hiccups, all things told, she had done well.

A slow smile slid over Nischa�s perfect face as she amended that last thought. They... had done well. Jenni was in the process of having her rough edges beaten out of her under Logan�s brutal tutorship and soon the girl would be thoroughly deserving of the title Dashaelle. A title she would eventually come to wear with pride once she finally understood what it meant. And Aleck� Aleck had truly grown into the son of his blood. He still didn�t know, of course, and it hurt her to shut him out like that, but for now, there could be no other way. And he looked so much like his father it was painful. The same eyes, the same strong features� No, she wouldn�t go there yet. Some memories were best kept buried deep inside. Menthayel would never deign to show another weakness, and just this once, she would honour his wishes. Her pain was nothing she couldn't deal with.

Sighing to herself, an empty gesture if there ever was one, she went back to her plotting. The lupines had been dealt with, at least for now. In time, she had no doubts they would grow bolder as base animals always had such short term memories. No matter, by then, Jenni would be ready to deal with them across the only medium they understood. There were other threats, of course. Vampires for one, but she knew Aleck was already doing his homework on the nasties he was likely to meet and she had faith in him. The lupine that nearly killed him had caught him by surprise, so that would be allowed to slide, but he would not be caught out again. And if Menthayel couldn�t step in, then she would. An offensive move of that magnitude would probably threaten the Balance, but without the author of that Balance to counter her, who would dare intervene? The Seraph were divided and would not act, and the rest were of no importance. If they so much as looked at Aleck with a predatory gleam in their eyes, the consequences be damned, she�d revoke their 'alive' status so fast Death would see nothing but stars.

Carter had been allowed to return virtually unharmed, but not before she�d taken all she could use out of his mind and rearranged his memories accordingly. It wasn�t as much as she would have liked, as the Watcher was not in Liam�s confidence, but it was still more than enough to point her in the right direction. Almost immediately, a new scenario took form in her mind. Now all she needed to do was provide Jenni with the right tools�

The Nephelim
Chapter 6
animus and Staine

Act VI

The Nephelim Chapter 6 animus and Staine

Act VI

The Nephelim
Chapter 6
animus and Staine