 
Red Moon's Reflection

by

Ela Lond

SMASHWORDS EDITION

After Tina crosses paths with Damon Blackdart, she discovers that her soul houses another, dormant soul, Trinity, Damon's Beloved, who died centuries ago.

Damon tries to draw Trinity forward and when he succeeds, Tina befriends her and learns that Damon is part of the Lueeshareteers (Bloodeaters), powerful creatures old as time itself, whose three clans live in seeming peace and rule the world from shadows. After she is swept from Damon's grasp by the Dumes, Trinity's children, she also learns that vampires are not at the top of the food chain.

Copyright © 2011 Ela Lond

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting author's work.

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, to my friend and editor, Diluain; without her hard work this book would have been a dreadful chaos and without her support I would have never dared to venture this far. And to Elizabeth Oak and Fantasy whose helpful input kept me focused and on the right path. Thank you.

This book uses British spelling.

Table of Contents:

Prologue , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Blue Moon's Reflection ~ excerpt

Other books by Ela Lond

Moon's Reflection Glossary

Prologue

_Mesopotamia, 14th century_

The layers of silver fog lingered over the dry, ravaged land, hiding the piles of dead bodies, but it couldn't hide their stench that burned the throat like acid, the stench that could compel a normal person to his knees, choking. But she was not a normal person, not anymore.

She wrapped the black lace more tightly around her face, as if that would keep the smell of decay away.

She was Trinity now, she possessed the life forces of The Damned, The Lost and The Fallen and even though her abilities were not fully developed yet, this was the time to show what she was made of.

She took a step forward. Her boots never touching the ground, her silhouette disappeared in a swirl, appeared a kilometre away and disappeared again. She travelled over the devastation of human flesh and bloody ground until she came to the edge of a clearing in the forest.

There in the distance was a camp, a large, cheery-red tent in the middle of small white ones. It was its home, the home of the monstrosity that ruled the world from the shadows. But it would rule no more. The era of Abbas was about to end. All of its puppets were either dead or had had their strings cut and its pride and joy, its city of corruption, had been torn apart, torn like the bodies behind her.

The world was changing; the darkness that enveloped it was an announcement of a new day. A better day, a time in which the humans would be creators of their own destiny, not just sacrificial lambs on the altar of Abbas's gluttony.

"It's time." A white glowing energy in the shape of a woman with angel's wings appeared beside Trinity.

Her name was Cetrta hci, but she called herself Angelica.

"Why, thank you for informing me."

"Don't be sarcastic, it doesn't become you."

Trinity suppressed the urge to roll her blue eyes. By now she should have been used to Angelica's haughty manner. Her gaze was focused on the movement of the guards around the red tent. She had been training and studying for the last two hundred years under Angelica's guidance, and everything that she had done in those years was for this moment. It was a little overwhelming.

She closed her eyes and reached out with her energy. The translucent blue whips floated outwards; feeling, they touched everything in front of her, then stopped before the red tent, looking for a way in. "He's using acacia wood with silver and gold clasps again."

"He always uses that. That's the reason we can't get close to him," Angelica said. "You know that."

Yes, Trinity knew that. Acacia wood with silver and gold to hold the energy of The Fallen at bay. She also knew that the ground in the tent was covered with red coloured ram skins and that in the centre of the tent was a pile of badger skins, divided from the other area with veils, both coloured red. Actually, everything in that tent was red, cherry-red, maybe so that the blood splashing around whenever Abbas fed wouldn't be seen in his surroundings.

Trinity didn't just know all that, she saw the inside of the tent with her own eyes. And the greed with which the monster dug his teeth into a young child's flesh, devouring him, tearing the flesh away from small bones, burned into her mind. The memory was so strong that she could feel those teeth in her own flesh; digging into her shoulder, drinking from her, killing her, but then Damon and Angelica had brought her back to the land of living.

It was supposed to be that way, Trinity heard a small voice in her mind.

She put her palm on the small swell of her belly. Dume, her child, a four-month 'old' fetus of a boy that had spent the last 200 years in a state of stagnation, because there hadn't been time for pregnancy and a child in her life. Perhaps, she answered in her mind.

Daddy is here.

No.

Yes. He's looking for you. I can feel him, I can feel his rage. He's close.

"What are you waiting for?" Angelica's wings rustled and she transformed from a white angel into a black she-bird.

Trinity removed her hand from her belly. Her son, Dume, was a secret that had to be kept from Angelica, because one never knew what Angelica would do if she found out. Nor should she know that Damon was here. She secured the shawl around her lower face with a copper clamp and pulled a black hood over her head. "Is your Fallen flock ready?

"Yes." As soon Angelica said that, translucent shapes, invisible to the average eye, appeared all around the camp and it seemed the air stilled, like time stopped and even the waning moon, which was a witness up in the sky, wrapped herself in a thicker grey cloud, hushing out her light.

"They know we are here."

Angelica nodded and spread her crow-like wings. "You know what to do?"

"Yes." She had to sneak up into the tent and cut off Abbas's head -- which she hoped wouldn't be too much of a problem, even though the monster possessed the ability to invade one's mind and his voice could rule one's body -- and then bring his head to Angelica. She was ready and using space distortion she disappeared and reappeared at the side of the red tent where her threads had found a little crack.

The part of The Damned in her enabled her to slip into the red darkness.

Abbas was there, a dark shadow lying under the veil, and by the way the shadow lifted itself and the way it tilted its head like it smelled something, she knew that it was aware of her presence.

Come to me, a voice intruded in her mind, come to me, its sound a caress against her brain. It lured her, come to me my child, come to me, it made her want to forget everything and just listen to it, to obey it. But she expected it, they both did.

Reach for the stars in the sky, a small voice stared to sing, the moment is always right, just reach for them now, a song that her mother used to sing to her and which she sang to her little boy whenever they were alone without Angelica's shadow hanging over her.

She joined in, she started to murmur under her breath to drown out that siren call, "Don't be afraid of the unknown, you know that somehow everything is going to be fine." From a sheath that hung at her waist she pulled out a light sword, made of copper, steel and Angelica's spell, the only weapon that could cut through the greenish, crumpled skin that covered the monster's bones.

Everything is in your reach. She slowly stepped forward. Just close your eyes, grab it and hold it tight.

Take the path unknown, don't turn me down, just take my hand now. She pushed the veil away and stepped on the badger skin. The air inside was hot and heavy, it was suffocating her.

Let me show you the joy.

There it was, the monstrosity. It was small like a ten-year-old child, sitting on its shanks, its small hands in its lap and its wide smile full of serrated teeth. Its white glazed eyes couldn't see her, but it could smell her, it could feel her with the waves of its mind. "Down on your knees!"

The pressure of its words thrust her down on her knees before it, the wetness of the skins slowly oozing through her black, leathered pants. It was blood. She grimaced in disgust and lifted her sword parallel to the ground, facing away from her, ready to strike. Let me show you how to play.

Abbas leaned toward her, its clawed hand reached out for her, and she raised her voice, the sound of it floating over them, "Let me show you how to play in the twilight of day." She swung her sword.

Abbas's head fell away and a piercing scream filled the air around them, filled her head, and pain exploded behind her eyes. She screamed too.

Let me show you the joy, let me show you how to play in the twilight of day.

She cradled her head with one hand while she used the other one to pull herself up. Black liquid was leaking out from the still screaming head that rolled down to her, but Dume's voice was drawing the pain out from her mind. She fiddled with the bag at her waist and pulled out the sack Angelica had given her.

Careful that her skin didn't come in the contact with the head, she bagged it. The fabric suffocated its sound. Thank god.

She looked up at the black liquid that was transforming itself into black fog, floating upwards until the tent's roof stopped its progress. It was a poison of Abbas's body and just one breath of it could crumple not just the body, but the soul as well.

She turned away and froze. The Akilueteers.

There were hundreds of red glowing eyes staring at her, waiting for their master's command. And she could hear their master's whispers too, how it ordered them to free it, to put its parts together again, to not let her out, promising them its pats on their shoulders, its affection, promising them the ultimate prize, its love.

She tied the sack around her belt and then with her feet apart, her elbows slightly bent and shoulders relaxed, she raised the tip of the sword at her eye level. Her fangs dropped down.

Mummy?

Shhhh.

She charged, her sword cutting left and right, never missing a mark.

She whirled around, looking for a rift in their ranks, for a chance to get out into the open. If she could just get into the open she could use her flash steps and she would be home free.

The world became a blur of motion, her blade flashing wickedly under the ruby glow of a hundred eyes.

It seemed that for each one that had fallen, two new ones had appeared. They were occupying every inch of space, crushing her between them, their claws slashing her skin open and she wanted to scream in frustration.

Her eyes burned from the sweat that was dripping down from her temple and forehead, she couldn't breathe through the cloth on her face and her sword felt heavier and heavier with each swing. There was so many of them. So many.

She closed her eyes and brandished her sword at random, just slashing with it here and there, until they overwhelmed her, until they pushed her down on her knees.

Mummy?

My little one. With her last ounce of strength she chanted up a spell, she made a barrier around Dume, hoping that that he would somehow survive, that somehow events would turn in his favour.

Suddenly the pressure was off and somebody's hands lifted her up.

She opened her eyes to see the most beautiful emeralds looking back at her. Damon. Too bad he hadn't been a second earlier, but she was grateful for beauteous sight and for the salvation of their little one, and with that thought she gave the world a last breath before she closed her eyes forever.

Chapter 1

Italy, 21st century

Tina Kocmut tore her gaze away from the patch of clear, summer sky above her and looked around the large Plaza, framed by two-story buildings that were decorated with columns and refined ledges and with a Basilica at its end. The patterned ground was flooded by pigeons and group upon group of tourists, their guides pointing out things with metal sticks with brightly coloured kerchiefs tied to the end, the kerchiefs the same colour as the gimme caps on the heads of the people in their group.

Tina sighed, her fingers going into her brown shoulder-length hair and, for the thousandth time today, she asked herself what she was doing in Venice. She had already been here before, once, with her beloved grandmother, who had for six months now lain as ashes in an urn in the local cemetery. They'd had fun then and seeing the floating city had been a memorable experience, and maybe she somehow wanted to relive that day.

She stood up, dusted from her jeans any dirt that might have lingered on the stone step, and walked in the direction of the Rialto Bridge.

She could have become part of the people who like a wide river poured over the well-worn stone blocks toward the Rialto Bridge's shops, which sold colourful glass objects, jewellery, laces, small gondolas, masks and other dust collectors so distinctive to Venice, but instead she pushed her way into narrow streets shadowed by the tall buildings.

She had three hours to kill before the boat which had carried her to Italy would head back home and since she had already seen all the well-known sights, she decided to spend the time exploring the twists and turns of the city.

She could hear people around, caught glimpses of silhouettes, many of them with cameras around their necks, a sight that became rarer and rarer as she moved away from the busiest streets. She came to a dead end, a large wooden door. She turned around, the sun reflecting in one of the second-floor windows on her right, blinding her for a moment. She stepped forward and then froze.

There, two steps away, stood a man staring at her. With his square face, short black hair with three long braids falling over his shoulder and large sunglasses that covered almost half his face, he looked youthful and harmless. Tina bit her lip. But there was something -- maybe because she hadn't heard his approach and because he just stood there, not uttering a word -- that gave him an unearthly feel, like he was a part of the shadows that lingered at the edge of dreams.

Tina's eyelids fluttered closed, she thought that the image before her could only be a product of her imagination, but when she opened them again, the man was still there looking like a still, silent threat, seeming twice as big as before.

She stretched her lips in a forced smile. Don't show any fear! And don't panic. Just because he's quiet, that doesn't necessarily mean that he's a weirdo. "Hello, there. You scared me."

"I'm sorry." His voice, smooth like a fine chocolate, put some of Tina's fears at ease. He stepped forward. "This is a rarely visited part of the city, are you lost?"

Tina knew which way to turn to get out into the open, but she nodded anyway.

The man introduced himself as Damon Blackdart and led her back out onto the Plaza San Marco, then invited her for coffee. Tina, because she still had hours to fill and because she didn't see anything dangerous about having drinks in one of the busiest coffee shops at the brink of Plaza, accepted the invitation. After an hour later, she wondered how she could have seen him as threatening.

She found herself laughing at his stories about tourists, her body relaxing under his charm, and as minutes ticked away she also found herself talking about her grandmother, about the sudden disease that had taken away the person who meant the world to her.

At nineteen years old, she was old enough to take care of herself, and she still had her dad, even though with his wife and his two children there wasn't room for her by his side, but she hadn't told that to the stranger sitting across from her. She lifted her gaze from the light-brown liquid in her cup to the almond shaped eyes that could be seen through the blue glasses. He seemed like he would understand the extent of her loneliness, of the isolation in which she hid herself. He might even understand if she told him the urge that had become stronger and stronger with each day that had passed since she had been left on her own, to have her own family -- not necessarily a lover and kids, just people she could call her own and whom she could love unconditionally, as she had loved her grandmother, knowing that they loved her in the same way.

"It's something the matter?"

"No," She gave him a soft curve of lips before she took a sip of coffee, absently wondering why she felt so relaxed around him. It was almost like she was under a spell.

"You seem sad." He leaned back in the chair, crossed his dark jeans-clad legs, and played with the handle of his untouched cappuccino. "I shouldn't ask you about your personal life, I apologize."

"No, it's okay."

They continued their chitchat; Damon took over the thread of the conversation, talking about Venice's history, about the time when Venice became a main military and trade force in the Mediterranean, and with their fleet helped the Crusaders take over Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. He offered to show Tina some of the sightseeing treasures hidden to the average tourist.

Since Tina agreed, after she finished her coffee, he paid, and they stood up. She followed him, listening to his stories while he pointed out various buildings and led her through history and events that were either made up by him or neglected by the historians.

They ended up at the same dead end where they had met. He pointed at the house perpendicular to the large wooden door. "This is my house. It was built especially for me."

She frowned, scrutinizing the building. It looked old, worn-out, and at least a hundred years old, while he was probably in his mid-twenties. "You mean renovated."

"No, I mean built." He stepped toward the door and opened it. "Do you want a tour?"

She looked inside at the small hall with marble stairs that wound upward in a half-circle. She could see a shiny, carved-out low cabinet that stood under a heavy oval, golden mirror, displaying a glimpse of wealth. She was tempted to go inside, to let him guide her through what seemed to be an authentic bourgeois house.

He stepped inside, pulled his sunglasses on top of his head, then half-turned and extended his arm to her. "Come."

She stared at his eyes, they were emerald green, so intense in his face. She took the hand, even though her mouth said that it was going to be five o'clock soon and she would have to go to do docks.

He pulled her inside. The door slammed closed behind her.

She looked over his shoulder, instinctively hauled her hand out of Damon's and turned around. She pulled on the door knob, but the door didn't want to open.

"It's just a security mechanism, don't worry."

"I want to leave. My tour group meets at the dock at five and it's four-thirty now." She still tugged on the door knob. "Just open the door."

He stepped toward her and put his hand on her shoulder. "You want to stay here."

"No, I don't!" Ire slowly started to boil inside her. "Open --"

"You want to see the interior."

No, she didn't. She didn't! She just said that she didn't. She opened her mouth to tell him that, but nothing came out. She closed it and opened it again. "Okay." What? She hadn't meant to say that. A cold dread prickled her hairline for a second, before the warmth of Damon's hand seeped through her cardigan, enveloping her, soothing her.

"Great." With his arm he hugged Tina's shoulder and turned her around; he led her up the stairs to the second floor.

What was going on? Something really weird, but she couldn't even freak out about it as she wanted -- no, needed -- to do.

Damon led her down the long, narrow and dark hallway. They passed two doors and stopped at the third, which he opened. The large room with barricaded windows housed a cage formed of orange rays of light, with a ruby-red tent in the middle of the cage. From his pocket he pulled out a bracelet with white and black stones. He pressed the largest of the white ones; the light from the stones flashed for a moment. He went forward, passing the rays of light, and holding Tina's hand, he pulled her alongside with him.

They slipped into a tent furnished with two armchairs, a table and a low cabinet with a TV on it.

Tina's attention went to the TV, then slid on to the occupied armchair.

She blinked.

Once.

Twice.

But it didn't help. A half-meter high robot with a round greenish head in a ball-like jar still sat in that armchair looking at them and she couldn't take her eyes off him. She could feel a faint whisper in her head before the silver pupils turned back to the TV screen. She was probably dreaming. Yes, that was it. She was just having a weird, bizarre dream.

Damon's hand cupped the nape of her neck. "Don't be afraid. He can't hurt you."

Who was he? No, the better question would be, what was that thing? She would have asked, but somehow she had been reduced to a spectator, watching her body being used like a puppet on strings. She couldn't even feel the panic; she could only hear the loud beat of her heart in her ears.

Damon stepped toward the thing. He pushed something on the base of the glass ball. A small click sounded before Damon pulled the jar off and put it on the table beside the chair.

He took Tina's hand, pulled her closer to the chair and put her hand on the creature's head, his fingers between hers.

Her hand became warmer and warmer; a tingling sensation travelled up her arm, spreading through her body until she could feel it in her brain. Warm and red, it poked around, tickling her. She giggled. Another tickle before it pressed in. It hurt.

It hurt.

It hurt!

And she couldn't even scream. Her body shook from strain and when the pain exploded in her head the darkness was kind enough to take her in its embrace.

#

Whispers; in one moment sounds so near that she could almost distinguish the words and in the next so far away that she could barely hear them. Whispering, telling her something, but she couldn't understand. What did they want? What was the word that had been whispered so urgently? She listened, strained her ears; it was coming again, the sound louder and louder.

Wake up!

Tina's eyes flew open and she sprang up, her fingers digging into the soft blanket. She stared into the darkness, into the outline of the half-opened door ten feet away from her, the translucent fabric of the bed canopy fluttering in the draft.

Where was she? She kicked the cover away and climbed off the large bed, drawn toward the soft light that flickered somewhere beyond the door. Her bare feet padded over a soft rug toward the door and through it to the hallway, lit with scattered candles.

She had been kidnapped. Her step became faster as she went toward the end of the hallway, where she could see the stairway.

And there was a monster hidden behind one of the doors along the hallway's walls. The sound of her feet against the stone floor became faster and faster until she was running, the hem of long nightgown tangling between her legs.

Down the stairs, then down the hallway, and down the stairs again.

Another hallway.

Another staircase.

The breath rushed in and out of her lungs and the first drops of perspiration slid down her temples and down her spine. She ran along the cold chessboard floor in what it seemed a never-ending circle.

What was with this house?

Another hallway.

Another staircase.

Her pace became slower. And slower.

It didn't end.

Another hallway.

It didn't end.

Another staircase. This time she descended slowly, catching her breath, her hands wrinkling the collar of the nightgown. What should she do? A soft sound drew her gaze to the foot of the stairs. She stopped, frowning at the obstacle that casually leaned his hip on the iron-banister. It's all his fault.

"Have you finished?" Damon pulled his hands from the pockets of his black linen pants.

"Finished what?" she couldn't resist asking.

"Your morning exercise." He looked at his watch. "Even though it's kind of late for that." He ascended the stairs and stopped three stairs beneath her. "You better get back to your room and put on some slippers. You are going to get a cold, running around barefoot."

Was he joking or being serious? Not that she cared. The only thing she cared about was getting out of this house, away from him and from that creature.

"I know what you must be thinking." He stepped up.

She stepped back.

"What is he going to do?" He advanced on her.

She maintained the distance of three stairs between them.

"Is he going to hurt me?" Damon took another step up. "Is he going to rape or even kill me?"

She had run out of stairs. She turned on her heel and was about to run down the hallway, when she bumped into something. She looked up and there he was, standing before her. "How did you --"

He grabbed her arm, holding her in place. "But you see, if I intended to do any of that, I would have done it already."

"Then what do you want with me?" She tried to wiggle her arm out of his grasp.

"You have something that I want." His fingers crawled up her arm. "Something very special."

"What?"

He smiled down on her, a soft, friendly smile that made him look like an innocent young boy. "Stay here, you have nothing to return to." He gently caressed her shoulder. "I have been in your mind, I have seen how you live. Looking for a job, worrying about when the money your grandmother left you runs out and, in the meantime, trying to live as modestly as you can. I even felt your loneliness. Is this life?"

She had just started to live on her own, things would change. She would get a job and might even start to study while working. And who said that she would always be alone? She might find a boyfriend or something soon. She had all of her life before her, didn't she? Even though it sometimes seemed like her will had died along with her grandmother, like there was nothing to live for anymore, and she still hadn't learned how to live for herself, she had her whole life before her, didn't she?

Tina looked at those green eyes that knowingly waited for her reply. A beautiful face, such an innocent smile, but there was cruelty behind it, she could feel it, but she could also feel that that cruelty wasn't directed at her, that if he conveyed any feeling at all toward her, it was... fondness.

"Will you let me go, if I ask you to?"

"I'm sorry, I can't do that."

Why had she even asked? She bit her lip, chewing on it, before she spoke. "But what do you want? What is so special that I have and you want?"

"A fragment of your soul."

Chapter 2

A grey wall with brown bricks showing where the façade had fallen off, a sight that in two weeks had become so familiar that Tina could have told the number of the visible bricks, had anyone asked. She leaned on the windowsill and using the butter knife, which she had stolen at breakfast, between the window and its frame, she tried to wiggle the window open. The knife slipped and the weight she put on the handle pushed the blunt blade into the skin between her thumb and forefinger.

"Ouch." The knife clanked on the wooden floor of her bedroom and she put the injured area into her mouth, licking it.

Somebody coughed and Tina lifted her gaze, her eyes finding the brunet, dressed in a suit with his hair in a low ponytail, holding a tray with a steaming tea pot and two small flower-patterned teacups, a cake tray, and all that one needed to have a tea party.

"By now you should have already learned that there's no escape, but you still continue to try." Tristian stared at her hand with a slight shake of his head. He turned toward the ebony table in the corner of the room, to the left of the door.

With her foot she pushed the knife against the wall. Passing the bed she stepped toward the table on which Tristian, Damon's right-hand man, set the tray.

Was it five o'clock already? She had no sense of time in this house and Damon refused to give her a watch, saying that she didn't need it. But she had a schedule she had to follow every day -- like it or not --: waking up at eight in the morning, with Tristian bringing breakfast; followed by a class of Hapkido, as Damon had introduced it on the first day he took her down into a basement gym; an hour spent with Irene, who Damon called his seeress; and learning languages with Damon, Tristian or Irene until lunch, after which she had three hours to herself to spend as she wished. She chose to use those hours searching for a way out of this house.

She sat down on the chair. "I refuse to give up."

"Was she trying to escape again?" Damon walked through the door and stopped beside Tina.

"So it seems." Tristian placed a cup before Tina and started to pour tea into it. "She tried to open the window with a butter knife."

"Better a butter knife than the chair, like the last time." Damon took her hand and examined it. "I don't mind you trying; at least you have something to occupy your free time, but do be more careful next time. I can't have you bleeding in this house." He put the wounded flesh into his mouth.

Tina could feel his tongue lapping at the cut, a small tingling sensation accompanying the wet caress. A flush covered her cheeks and she pulled her hand out of his hold. She frowned when she found the gash had disappeared and scrutinized Damon; the red shadows in his eyes that cleared as he went around the table and sat down. She opened her mouth, only to close it again. There was no point in asking how he had done that or why his eyes had started to become red, just as there was no point in asking how could he move so quickly or why all the windows in the house were dimmed with UV protection. Why did they even need extra UV blockage anyway? Wasn't the glass naturally opaque to UV? Or so she heard.

It was obvious that Damon wasn't human, and she didn't dare to ask what he was. She would have said a vampire, but vampires didn't exist, and even if they did, according to the books and folk tales, they spent their days sealed up in coffins, coming out at night, not prancing around in the daylight like Damon, Tristian and Irene did.

She lifted up a teacup, taking a small sip, the taste of jasmine and green tea spreading across her tongue.

"Your father has been filling your phone with text messages. He wants to see you, as do some of your friends," Damon said.

A satisfied smile appeared on Tina's face as she set her cup on the table. She had told him that people would find her absence weird, even after Irene, imitating her voice over the phone, informed them about her stay in Italy.

"I will send Irene. Her illusions will put your father's and friends' fears at ease." Damon toyed with a teaspoon. "That means that we are going to spend even more time together."

The smile was erased from Tina's face. What was she going to do? She hated being here. Hated. Hated. Hated! Deep inside she had counted on her father and the few friends that she had to alert the police to find her and now that hope had been taken away from her.

She couldn't go through another of the sessions with that creature that followed the tea parties and which lasted until she couldn't take the pain that burn through her skull, that twisted her soul, turning it inside out, shifting through it. And with each session the whispers in her head were louder and the images of death and destruction haunted her now, even in the daylight. She couldn't take it anymore. Her fingers curled tightly around the teacup; she could almost feel the porcelain giving under the pressure. She loosened her grip. Pretending that she was okay, she tried to delay the ending of tea time, stuffing herself with cakes and putting her cup before Tristian to be filled over and over again.

"You'll make yourself sick." Damon, with amusement in his eyes, leaned over the table; he put his hand over Tina's cup, preventing Tristian from filling it. "And you'll still have to face Abbas."

"I don't want to."

Damon raised his brow.

"I hate it."

"I understand. It's painful for you, but I need you to be a good girl and --"

"I don't want to!" She hadn't intended to raise her voice or lose her temper. She tried to suppress the anger that bubbled inside her. The plan was to be obedient, to quietly and without complaint bear everything Damon threw her way and in the meantime try to find something to help her slip out of his grasp. But she couldn't hold back the terror of again touching that grey, paper-like skin, of feeling the red wisps in her mind, prodding, tearing her apart.

"Calm down." Damon leaned his elbows on the table, his green eyes watchful and alert.

"I don't want to!" She stood up. The anger gripped her, overwhelmed her. She couldn't take it anymore. She cleared the table with one swift move of her arm. "I hate it!"

The teacups, teaspoons, forks, pot and saucers flew through the air, but never fell down. Tristian caught them all, setting them all into their previous places.

"I hate it." She sank down on her shaking knees, her fingers buried in the tablecloth, pulling it down. "I can't take it anymore." She could feel the hand on her shoulder, Damon's touch that soothingly caressed her skin. "I can't take it anymore."

"You can take a lot more than you give yourself credit for." Damon sighed and squatted down beside her. "Okay, I'll give you a day off today, but just for today."

"Stop being nice!" Tina leaned her forehead on the side of the table. "You keep me locked in this house, you take me to that monster every day -- stop pretending that you care!" Why did he pretend? It made it impossible to hate him.

"I do care. Very much. That's why I'm doing this."

"Why? Tell me why? What would digging into my mind accomplish?"

He took hold of her shoulders, pulled her up and set her into the chair. "You loved your grandmother, didn't you? And you had very special bond with her?"

She nodded.

"Now imagine that bond being ten times stronger and that losing that person was like your heart had been ripped out." Damon leaned over her. "If there were a chance to bring that person back, wouldn't you try to do anything you could?"

"Yes." Her voice was hesitant when she said that, but she knew it was true.

"Keeping you in this house, taking you to Abbas. I'm only trying to bring somebody back."

"I don't understand."

"Do you remember when I said that you have something special? A fragment of your soul?" He waited until she nodded. "It's actually another soul, the soul of my Beloved, and I'm trying to awaken it."

#

She was lying in bed, something that she found herself doing more and more. In the morning when Tristian opened the curtains and let the soft rays of the sun into the room, she didn't get out of bed anymore. She didn't even rise when Damon came, just turned away from him, until he enforced his will on her and guided her around like a puppet on strings.

She hadn't lost her will, it was still there, waiting until she found a crack and she could flee through it silently like a mouse. Also she needed her strength for the night, when the noise inside her that buzzed throughout the day redoubled and the nightmares came even before she closed her eyes.

This night it was worse than before; the images filling her head were shouting, tumbling over each other. She pressed a pillow over her head like that would help her hush the hellish party inside it. "Please, please. Just leave me alone."

But they didn't leave her alone, they pushed, poked, and she couldn't chase them away. Images, white and black with crimson red. So red. She could almost feel it, the copper taste in her mouth.

"This was her life. So violent?"

Just the end.

She rolled over and listened, tried to hear beyond the screams of the white, grey, black and red, which to her surprise had become quieter.

She could have sworn she heard a voice. "Is anybody there?" she whispered in the darkness.

You can hear me?

She was right. There was a voice, coming from inside her. She exhaled a shaking breath; her fingers dug into the blanket. She wanted to ignore the voice. She chose to ignore it. She pretended that she didn't hear it.

Can you hear me?

She was going mad.

Can you?

Hello.

"Who are you?" Tina couldn't stay quiet anymore, in the end she couldn't walk away from something that was coming from her soul, could she?

I'm Trinity. I'm the reason you are here. I'm sorry.

"You are his Beloved? The one he loves so much?" Damon's Beloved had awoken. Would her soul now disappear and surrender this body to this Beloved? Tina frowned. Should she be afraid? Yeah, she probably should.

I'm not too sure about that. He might still be angry and only want to get his revenge. A slight pause. You can never be sure with Damon.

"What did you do?"

Something not to his liking. A soft sigh. He must feel betrayed.

Tina opened her mouth to ask more only to change her mind. Who cared what this Beloved and Damon had? It wasn't important, not for her, when there was something else that had weighed on her mind since Damon had told her about his intentions. "Are you going to take over my body and mind now that you are awake?"

No.

Should she believe Trinity? "Why not? He wants you to."

I'm not the kind of person who would take somebody's body, and even if I wanted to, I'm not strong enough.

"Isn't that thing giving you strength?"

No, Abbas is only drawing me forward, Trinity explained. Since my death, my soul has been tied to my brother's descendants -- you're the last in line -- sleeping until it was strong enough to be born again with my memory and my powers intact, but Damon woke me too soon. He always was so impatient.

"What does that mean for me?"

It means that you'll have to bear my company here and there, when I'm strong enough to separate myself from the warmth of your soul and talk to you, but only until I wither away.

"You are talking about dying." Tina rolled onto her back, staring through the darkness at the ceiling, not really seeing it. "How do you know that you will disappear? You can't know that. Maybe you will be my companion forever, and we will spend our Wednesdays on the psychiatrist's black couch, trying to get rid of my schizophrenia."

Because I can feel that I'm not going to last too long, Trinity said. The same way a dying person knows that his time is coming to an end.

Tina didn't have any reply to that, and somehow even though she had not moments ago been afraid of Trinity's existence -- and not just because she thought that that Trinity was going to take over her body -- she now felt sorry that Trinity's time was limited. It was probably just a sympathetic reaction, like learning about a stranger's incurable disease.

Tell me something.

"What?"

About the world -- has it changed?

Tina smiled and started to talk about cars, computers, about movies, anything that she could think of, and wasted the whole night in conversation with Trinity.

She was sleepy the next morning; she let Damon take control of her body again, to reduce her to the role of observer as he did, since she refused to participate in daily activities. She wondered if the quiet in her mind and the absence of fragments of memories that weren't hers were because of Trinity.

The soft woman's voice became silent as the first ray of light announced the morning, saying that she had used almost all of her strength and that she needed to rest, but even so, Tina could, after more than a week, enjoy the quiet of her soul again. It was so refreshing. It put a small smile on her face.

Damon noticed it while they sat at tea, just before Abbas's session, and inquired about it.

Tina, numb, stared at Damon, the curve of her lips frozen on her face. The reason for her smile, the silence, Trinity, the session with Abbas. She hadn't thought about it. She had totally forgotten. What if Damon, using Abbas to probe in her head, found out about Trinity? A cold dread wrapped its claws around her insides, twisting them. Her breath became rushed and shallow.

As the time ticked by her state got worse and as Damon's will guided her up the stairs into Abbas's room, she stiffened and trembled in fear of what would happen. It felt like this was the end. Her body shook like a leaf in the wind. What would Damon do? What would he do when he found out? Would he embrace Trinity or would he claim his revenge?

Damon removed Abbas's jar before he forced Tina's body to come close and put her hands on Abbas's head. He put his hands over her trembling ones.

The red wisps invaded Tina as they had so many times before and the pain burst in her skull. But it was a little different this time. The pain's edges weren't so raw, so sharp, and just before she lost consciousness, she could have sworn that she could feel warm hands spread in welcome embrace. Was this Trinity?

Tina wondered that even as she woke up five hours later, debating between calling out for Trinity or just enjoying the silence that again rested inside her, that lulled her to sleep. It was so different from the night before that she was surprised that Damon hadn't noticed a difference. It was good that he hadn't, but how could he have missed it?

She lay there, waiting for sleep to pull her into its depths, when she heard a faint boyish voice. She frowned, focused in the darkness that ruled behind close eyelids. It was just one word, but even though the voice was quiet, she could clearly understand it.

Mum!

Mum? Are you there?

Chapter 3

Tina could feel the trembling inside her soul, the fear and hope that weren't hers, but it filled her soul with anguish and longing anyway. It had been like that for seven days, since the moment that voice had echoed inside her head. The voice of Dume, as Trinity called him, her child.

It wasn't logical. How could Trinity's child be still alive since, according to Trinity's story, she died in the fourteenth century? And how could she hear it in her head? It didn't make sense, but nothing had made sense since Damon tricked her into stepping into his house. Somehow the weirdness of it all became a familiar thing. The voices in her head, the pain caused by Abbas and Damon, the strange exercise, the language classes, everything became a routine and Tina wondered if she could even be surprised anymore.

"Can you sense him yet?" Tina whispered as she sneaked around the corner and left the hallway with Damon's study behind her. She was on her way into the kitchen for a quick snack; because of Trinity squirming inside her soul, searching and reaching out into darkness, she hadn't eaten a thing at the tea party, the worry that Damon might notice that something was happening inside her growing with each passing day.

No.

"Can you talk while you search?"

There was silence for a long moment, before Trinity's voice vibrated through Tina's head. Yes. Why?

"Tell me more about Luehhateters."

It's Lueeshareteers, Trinity said. If you intend to use the ancient name, at least use it correctly.

"The Bloodeaters then." Tina could already see the kitchen door. She learned from Trinity that Damon and his 'subjects' were Bloodeaters and that they belonged to the Lost clan; and not just that, Damon was actually a leader of the Lost clan. "You didn't tell me anything about other two clans." The Damned and the Fallen. "What are they like? Are they similar to the Lost? "

No, not really.

"Couldn't you elaborate a little? Tell me about the Fallen, do they have the same hierarchy as the Lost? You know, the whole Great Lords, Lords, Masters and Servants thing." Tina shook her head. Somehow it was understandable that the purebreds, Gelbeliya, as Trinity called them, called themselves Great Lords, but why did they called their turned Lords and Masters?

No, there are too few of the Fallen for that and they can't turn humans into Bloodeaters. Only the Lost clan can do that. Actually the Fallen don't drink blood either, they are creatures made of energy -- they mutated, somehow.

"How do they feed then?"

I don't know. I think they steal human's life force or something.

"What about the Damned?" Tina opened the door and after she turned on the lights, she went toward the large, stainless steel refrigerator that stood three cabinets away from the door, just opposite the island with a stove that ruled the large, bronze-coloured room.

What about them? I don't know much about them. Look, couldn't you leave your questions for later? Do you really have to bother me with such meaningless things?

Meaningless! "Well, excuse me for being so inconvenient after I have been kidnapped and found out that I carry another soul inside me." Tina opened the refrigerator door and eyed the food lined on the shelves. "Not to mention that I have therapy with a monster every evening."

You are cranky.

"Look who's talking." Tina straightened.

They both sighed simultaneously.

I understand that you want to know as much as you can, but as I said, I don't exactly know a lot about the Damned. I can't help you with that. You should ask Damon about them, Trinity broke the silence.

Tina wrinkled her forehead and closed the refrigerator. "I just want to know if they are the same as the Lost. Can they walk in the daylight? Do they have powers like the Lost, without any visible weaknesses?" She rubbed her temple before she browsed through the cabinet beside it in which Tristian kept his homemade pastries. She picked out the scones. "It doesn't make sense. And Abbas makes even less sense. You said that you can kill a Bloodeater by severing his head, but he's alive and he's just a head, isn't he?"

Abbas is different. He's a creator, the last one of the kind, I think, Trinity said. I don't know a lot about history. The Lost Clan's leaders had written annals from the time the Bloodeaters broke into three clans, but I never knew how to read them and there was never time to learn. Damon told me some little things, but... I don't remember them that clearly. You should really ask Damon about it.

"Yeah, right." Tina rolled his eyes. Like she would ever dare to ask Damon about it. She stuffed the scones into a paper bag she found in one of the drawers. "And what do you mean you don't know how to read? When I read that magazine yesterday, you read it with me."

Since I'm part of your soul, I can use your knowledge.

"Oh. Can I use yours too?" Tina turned off the light and left the kitchen.

I don't think so.

"That's not really fair, is it?"

Mum!

Trinity's presence surged forward and love and joy rose inside Tina, the intensity of them so strong that it made Tina gasp.

The soft murmurs of unknown language filled Tina's head and put a smile on her face. She should probably be worried by the fact she had two voices in her head, talking, and that one of them was part of her soul, but after she got used to Trinity, her presence somehow filled Tina's lonely existence and make her feel like she wasn't alone anymore. It was reassuring having a company in her soul.

She came close to Damon's study, the danger zone, as she called it. She wasn't really afraid of Damon, just wary of him. That man put her on the edge, and it wasn't because of his power that shimmered around him, his supernatural abilities or that he held her fate in the palm of his hand; it was because, despite all that, he was much too likable, so likeable that she couldn't hate him and that she had to remind herself over and over again that he was not a normal human being.

A soft moan came through the study's door, which had been closed on her way to the kitchen but now stood half-open.

She frowned and was about to sneak past the door, when another moan, this time louder with a hint of a sensual note to it piqued her curiosity. She tiptoed toward the door, peeked into the room and froze; the bag of scones fell on the floor.

Damon stood leaning on the large desk behind him, with Tristian before him, Damon's hand on Tristian's chest, and his teeth deep in the skin of Tristian's neck. Damon looked up, his crimson red eyes zoomed on Tina and a half-smile curved his blood-wetted lips, his canines looking like fangs.

Tina stumbled backwards, captured by that red gaze like a mouse before the snake. She couldn't move and couldn't tear her gaze from Damon.

Without breaking eye contact, Damon leaned over Tristian again and his canines sank into his skin.

Tristian released another guttural moan, his unfocused eyes fluttered shut, and he slumped back into Damon's half-embrace.

Time stopped for a moment.

Damon gave Tina another half-smile, the blood dripping from his lips onto his chin, just before he raised his hand and swung it through the air.

The door slammed shut.

Tina shook herself out of her daze and rushed toward her room two floors up.

Tina, what's going on?

Tina opened the door that should have led into her room, but which instead revealed furniture covered with white sheets that had yellowed at the edges.

She opened the next. The same thing. "Damn it!"

Tina. Calm down.

"I am calm," Tina more hissed out than said. She opened the next door, and the next, and the next.

You are not calm. If you were calm, you wouldn't have fallen into a 'loop'.

The loop, the thing that kept her away from the house's entrance. She could access and use all the places Damon showed her, but if she strayed from that path, she fell into an illusion in which no matter where or how much she ran, she was trapped in this hallway.

Tina squatted down before the open door, her fingers rubbing her forehead. Trinity was right: if she were calm she wouldn't have gotten disoriented and ended up here. "I just saw Damon. He was sucking blood from Tristian."

So?

"So! He was sucking Tristian dry." Tina knew that Damon lived on blood and she never saw him eat any food while he was with her -- neither did Tristian or Irene, but Tina had never really thought about what living on blood meant, until now.

Don't exaggerate.

"But he was." Tina leaned her side on the doorjamb. "I saw it with my own eyes." She couldn't understand why the whole ordeal shocked her like it had. She knew that Damon wasn't a normal human being, she knew that he was dangerous. Very dangerous. So why, then? Was it because he was using one of his own turned as food? "But why is he feasting on one of his own? And who's going to be next after Tristian? Irene? Me? Why isn't he out there sucking on criminals and lowlifes?"

Father is a Gelbeliya, a Halquta purebred, he would never feed on anybody but his Beliyas, Dume said.

"Halquta, Beliyas -- What's that supposed to mean? Can't you use normal names?" Tina said even though she remembered that Beliyas meant Lords.

It means that the lords of the Lost Clan are spoiled and they drink blood only from those turned into Bloodeaters by the Blood Ritual. And only on rare occasion do they drink from Ishaaas, the Masters, \-- Trinity pronounced the translation of the name loudly -- and on even rarer ones from Aradma, the servants, but they never drink human blood.

It's too greasy for them, Dume added. It would give them indigestion.

If Ishaaas were Masters that meant that they were the ones turned by the purebreds, too, but without the Blood Ritual, while Aradmas were the ones turned into Bloodeaters by Beliyas, if Tina remembered correctly. And Trinity had also said that among the turned, only Beliyas could turn humans into Bloodeaters. It was similar to a corporate hierarchy. She found that idea amusing. They used a similar pyramid system, with the Great Lords on the top and with Aradmas on the bottom -- her lips became a narrow line -- or were humans on the bottom?

So, you see, there's nothing to be afraid of.

"Easy for you to say; just because you and Dume say that he won't use me as his snack doesn't mean that... that he's not dangerous."

Nobody said that he's not dangerous, because he is. And it's Muriel.

"What?"

My name is Muriel.

"Oh, but Trinity said she named you Dume." Tina pulled herself up.

She did, but... actually there are three of us, and my name is Muriel.

"Three of you? Umm, what?"

It's not important right now, Trinity said. We better focus on getting you out of the loop. Unless you want to wait for Damon, Tristian or Irene to get you out?

Of course she didn't want to wait for them. But -- Wait! "There's a way out? Why didn't you tell me that before?" If there was a way out of the loop, she might find a way out of the house too.

Just from the loop, not from the house, Trinity said, like she could read Tina's mind. Search for the glitch in the walls, it should lead you to the point where you got in.

Tina, with her hands against the wall, moved along the hallway until just at the beginning of staircase her fingers slipped into what felt like water but looked solid.

That's it, Trinity said. Just walk through it.

Tina did and she found herself at the beginning of a hallway, not the one with her room, but it looked familiar enough. She opened the first door. It was a normal-looking room. Empty. So was the second one and the third, while the fourth one had a tent inside, illuminated by the orange glow of the cage.

Abbas' room.

Don't go in there.

"Why not?" Tina stepped into the room, closing doors behind her. "Who knows when you will have a chance to talk to Du -- Muriel again and Abbas makes our bond stronger; it might make the link between you stronger too."

Tina, no. You can't. Remember the pain.

"But now that you are with me it doesn't hurt that much anymore." Tina stepped forward to the tent. "And this might help me, us, to get out of here." Yeah, she just needed to get out of here. And if there was a possibility to raise the chances in favour of that, a little pain wouldn't stop her.

You won't accomplish anything by entering the tent. Damon is the only one who can control Abbas and even he needs aids for that.

"Abbas...What is he, exactly?" Tina stopped before the tent's entrance. She could hear the sound of television coming from inside and her heart started to hammer in her chest.

Now? Trinity said. Now, he's only a monster.

"He's nothing more than Damon's tool, right? Why not try to use him; it's not that he can hurt me, he's just a head." Tina slipped between the tent's flaps. Abbas could help them, she was sure of it.

It's too dangerous. You don't know what he's capable of. Listen to me, Muriel said that now, when they know where you are being held, they will get us out. We just need to wait.

"You might not be able to contact him again." Tina's gaze found the glass jar visible over the back of the armchair, the sight giving her goosebumps.

Turn around. Get out of here!

Maybe this was a bad idea.

The metal body slipped sideways, it leaned its metal arm on the side of the armchair and the jar turned for half a circle, the silver pupils staring at her.

Please, Tina. Listen to me. Just turn around and leave.

But there was no turning back now. The cold dread dampened her hairline and inside her she could feel her fear mixing with Trinity's panic. She stepped forward.

Mum, what's going on?

Leave! Please, Tina, just leave!

Tina wanted to turn around, she did, she really did, but there was something in those silver eyes that lured her closer and closer. It was as if she were a moth and Abbas the light. She needed to be closer, she needed to touch him. She needed to burn herself in his light. Her fingers touched the glass.

But it wasn't enough. Tina needed to feel his skin under her hand. She pushed the button on the jar's platform, removed the jar and put it on the floor.

Her hands touched the grey skin, its cold and rough texture of crumpled paper so familiar under her fingers, but so different.

The red whisper crashed into her mind, shoved its way deep into her brain, into her soul, in the same moment as sharp teeth thrust into her wrist.

The pain clouded her vision and a sharp scream filled her ears. Her screams. They were piercing through her eardrums, lasting and lasting as she swam in the redness.

Until...

Warm arms circled her; they chased away the redness, replacing it with soothing grey. They held her, carried her somewhere.

A gentle kiss was pressed at her temple before she was laid down on what that felt like the softness of a mattress. She expected the arms to release her, but instead they pulled her closer and as the whispers comforted her, fingers pried her mouth open and somebody forced a warm, copper-tasting liquid down her throat.

Tina coughed and the thick liquid dripped down her jaw. She forced her sticky eyelids open, her eyes meeting green ones. She wanted to speak, to ask what was going on, but only gurgling sounds came out of her throat.

"It's okay." Damon caressed the side of her face before he used his hand to close her eyes and released her into embrace of the pillows. "Everything is going to be okay. I promise."

Chapter 4

It was bright, much too bright, and Tina rolled and buried her face into the pillow, wanting to descend back into the comfortable darkness that with each passing second withdrew farther from her grasp.

You are awake. How do you feel?

"Like crap," Tina groaned into the fabric.

Damon and Irene are in the room, waiting for you to wake up.

"Great."

A scrape of the chair, the bed dipped and narrow hand touched her head, cupped it and forced her to turn around.

Tina swatted at the hand, her left arm unusually heavy. She refused to open her eyes.

"How do you feel?" a woman's voice asked Tina.

"Horrible."

"Quite understandable." Irene pulled her into a sitting position. "Now, open your eyes."

Tina held them tightly shut, refusing to even peek through the lashes, but a thumb touched her eyelid and pushed it up.

It was bright, so bright that it made her eye hurt. She pushed against Irene's hold. "Stop it. Stop it."

"Stop acting like a spoiled child. Irene needs to examine you," Damon said.

Tina didn't care, the light that poured behind her eyelids burned like acid. She struggled against Irene's cold touch until Damon sighed. He lifted his hand and with a flick of his fingers the blinds descended over the windows, immersing the room in semi-darkness.

"It seems her sensitivity is worse than we anticipated," Irene said, she shifted back, her hands sliding over Tina's body, touching, poking, feeling.

Tina rolled on her side, away from Irene, and curled her body. She was so tired, all her muscles hurt as if she had spent the previous night wrestling with a gigantic octopus. From under her half-opened eyelids she gazed at the Irene, who looked more like a librarian with fashion sense than a vampire -- no, not a vampire, a Bloodeater -- who was at the moment examining the calf of Tina's left leg. "What... What happened yesterday?"

You did something stupid. Really, really stupid, Trinity said.

Irene straightened and faced Damon, who sat on the armchair facing the bed. "I don't know why she's so sensitive to light since her transformation stopped at the second level, but beside that nothing else seems to be out of the ordinary." She smoothed her pencil skirt. "She seems to be fine, and if you decide to, you can change her into Beliya or Ishaaas anytime now."

Great, Tina thought, her mind slowly clearing of the fog.

"Thank you, Irene." Damon crossed his legs and leaned his elbow on the arm of the chair.

With small nod, Irene left the room.

"Now, explain to me, what were you doing in Abbas's room?" Damon propped his chin on his hand, his eyes glaring at Tina.

Even though Damon's voice was even and his posture relaxed, Tina could see the anger hovering above him like a storm cloud. But what was he talking about? She would never have willingly gone in there, would she? But then when she searched in her brain for the events of last evening a memory of pain for a second coloured her vision red -- oh... she had gone there, in that room and in that tent. And then \-- she gasped, her hand flew to her left bandaged arm. "I got lost... was running in circles again..."

"That doesn't explain why I found you with Abbas attached to your wrist."

"I don't know." There was no way she was going to tell him about the stupid idea of using Abbas to strengthen the link between Trinity and her son -- not when he hadn't any idea about Trinity and she was determined that it would stay that way. She rubbed her bandaged wrist and frowned at the black veins clearly visible on her forearm and hand, and the wetness that she could feel under the gauze. What had happened to her?

"I don't appreciate you lying to me." Damon stood up and moved toward the bed.

Tina pulled the blanket over her body and shrank back against the pillows. Was she like one of them now?

No, Irene said that her transformation had stopped at the second level... but what transformation? What second level? "What... what happened? Why is my arm black?" She didn't feel any different, except the tiredness that weighed down her limbs and the sensitivity of her eyes, when the weak rays of light coming between the blinds were almost blinding her. "Am I going to die?"

"You could have died. And even worse, after dying you would have become Akilueteer, nothing but a beast." Damon stopped before the bed, his arm crossed; he pressed his brows together until they were almost touching, his eyes scrutinising Tina, burning holes in her.

"I... You could have warned me," Tina said it more to Trinity than to Damon as she pulled blanket up to her chin. Trinity should have told her that before she stepped into the tent, not just yelled at her that Abbas was dangerous.

Damon's hand shot out, he grabbed Tina's collar and pulled her up, their noses almost touching. "Don't mock me."

Tina's heart fluttered in her chest like a scared bird; she tried to push Damon's hand away. "I'm not... I'm not mocking you."

Don't be afraid. He won't hurt you. He just feels helpless and angry because history is repeating itself, Trinity's voice echoed in Tina's head, but did nothing to calm her fears.

Damon released her. He stared at her as she fell on the bed and then sighed, running his fingers through his short, black hair. "You are not allowed to leave this room on your own anymore." One last threatening gaze before he turned away and walked toward the door.

"Damon!" Tina couldn't let him go despite his anger. Her eyes descended to her left wrist, where the black lines looked scary under her skin. "What's happening to me?"

He turned around, slowly. "Nothing. For now." Then he strode through the door, slamming them shut.

"Trinity?"

You are fine. Just a little different now.

"What's that supposed to mean?" If Trinity had been a person standing before her, Tina imagined, she would have grabbed her shoulders and shaken her. "How do you mean different? I'm not one of Bloodeaters, am I?"

No, you are not. But you are not exactly human either.

"What, then?"

Something in-between. Trinity sighed. Abbas's blood and saliva are poisonous. You would have died and then, like Damon said, you would have become Akilueteer, a Deadeater, an animal. You would have been guided by your thirst, attacking people, spreading the infection, making them the same as you.

"What stopped it?"

Damon's blood. It's been pushing Abbas' poison out. For two days now.

"Is that those black lines? And if I have been out for two days, why do I feel tired? I just want to sleep again." Tina nuzzled into the pillow. The fear and the dread that cleared her mind slowly left her body, making her drowsy again, even though she fought against it; she needed to know exactly what was going on.

Until all the blackness gets out of your body, you will be sensitive to the light and tired during the daytime. There are probably some other things you need to watch out for, but I don't remember them all. But you'll be all right, you'll see. You may not be human anymore, but you are not Bloodeater either. In my time they called rare cases like you Aarsa Tiyaat, which means 'remain in waiting', Trinity said. You are lucky. When I was bitten by Abbas, Damon changed me into Beliya to keep me alive, not even giving me a chance to choose whether I wanted to become his underling or not. Not that it worked. The Blood Ritual gave me all Beliya's strength, but it didn't tie me to him like it should have. A moment of silence before Trinity continued. Maybe that's why he hasn't changed you yet. Damon's blood gave you regenerating powers and you are stronger than a normal human being, but your strength is not even close to the Beliya's, you are even weaker than Deadeaters. And if Damon's blood leaves your body, you might become human again. Well, that or die.

"You are telling me all this now! Why couldn't you tell me these things before? About Abbas. About Damon and his blood."

You didn't ask?

"Didn't ask!" Tina pushed herself in a sitting position, regretting the fact that Trinity was part of her soul and she couldn't glare at her and show her displeasure more vividly. "I did! I asked what Abbas is and you only said that he's one of the kind. And then you yelled at me that he's dangerous, not exactly telling me how dangerous. How should I know that one stupid head can do so much damage? I mean... he just bit me and I'm not human anymore. And I could even die." She took a deep breath to continue her rant, but when she opened her mouth again, she didn't exactly know what else she should say.

What had happened wasn't Trinity's fault. Trinity had warned her -- not very persuasively, but warned her nevertheless. And Tina wasn't used to putting herself into the role of victim and blaming other people for her own mistakes. With her fingers she lifted the bandage and the gauze beneath it, stared at the black liquid that oozed out from four punctures, thick and sticky as honey. Even when that mistake had almost cost her life and changed her. "Never blame other people for your actions, because that makes you a victim and takes control of your life away from you, and you don't want that, do you?" She remembered what her grandmother had said and the old woman was right. Blaming Trinity would make Tina a victim and she refused to be one.

Tina?

"What is Beliya, exactly? I understand that there is a Blood Ritual involved and that the word means Lord. And you told me that you were one and I know that Tristian and Irene are Beliya too, but what does it really mean?"

Well, Beliyas are the Gelbeliya's loyal friends, companions, guards and servants rolled into one. You saw how Tristian and Irene are. They are tied to Damon by a mixture of Damon's and their blood, with the Blood Ritual to seal the deal. They are as strong as the purebloods, there have even been cases when they were stronger, and as Gelbeliya they are immortal and, as you may remember, they have the ability to turn other humans into Bloodeaters too. They are very important for the Gelbeliya.

"I can imagine." Tina lay down; her hands smoothed the blanket over her torso. She looked toward the curtained window. She believed that sunlight wasn't an issue for the Lost, but Trinity had told her that their eyes were sensitive to it and that it diminished their powers, while the moonlight increased them. Did that apply to her now, too? "Is that all?"

No, there are some other things. Because Beliya are so powerful, every Lord of the Lost can only have three; except the leader, who can have seven, but when I had a body, Damon had only two: Tristian and me. Irene must be a new addition.

"Can you tell how many he has now?" Tina felt a little calmer now. Her life had just taken another strange twist, but she wasn't alone, Trinity was with her and somehow she trusted this gentle voice inside her -- though not completely, of course. And since Trinity had gone through a similar ordeal, Tina hoped that she would be able to overcome this Asa...'remaining in waiting' thing. She had to hope, right? She had to, because giving up... she hadn't been brought up like that. "What doesn't destroy us makes us stronger."

What?

"How many?"

I think only two: Tristian and Irene. You have something in mind, don't you?

"I wish." Tina sighed. "It's just... I have been passive too long and it's time to start doing something."

#

Tina listened to the voice inside her. Following Trinity's instructions she performed the forms of some ancient martial art that she couldn't even pronounce.

No, not right; left and forward, Trinity corrected her stance.

It had been like that for three days, exercising to get over the anxiety of waiting for Muriel and alleged rescue and to fill the boredom after she had been locked up in the room.

Now, after the fiasco with Abbas, which seemed to have strengthened the link between Muriel and Trinity -- or maybe it was just Damon's blood in Tina's system -- Muriel's boyish voice became a permanent companion, almost as familiar as Trinity's.

Tina pulled her hands toward her chest before she pushed her right arm forward and her left one sideways, then made a circle with her left hand until it was parallel with her right one.

Pull the hands in, bend the elbows and now, palms down, push them down.

Tina obeyed. She knew this form by heart now, but focusing on Trinity's voice helped her calm down, smoothed the edges of adrenaline that had pumped through her from the moment she had gotten up this morning and Muriel announced that he had just arrived in Venice. "What's the time?"

Turn on your toes, just shift the heels.

Tina turned around in a circle, the movement of her legs and arms precise. She knew the rescue plan, just the part that involved her, since both Trinity and Muriel refused to tell her more, no matter how she persisted, saying that the less she knew, the better. "Shouldn't he already be here?"

Don't be so impatient, Trinity said. Make an arc forward.

Tina let her hands fall to her sides and stepped toward the window. The street below was empty, the twilight drawing shadows across the walls and pavement.

Tina!

"I can't do it anymore." Tina's gaze slid to her left arm, where there were only two black veins now, though the blood still oozed under the small patch of gauze that was taped to her wrist with the medical tape. She never asked Trinity or Muriel, or even discussed with them, what she would do after she was freed. She suspected that going home was not an option, not that she had a home to return to, just an empty apartment. But what then? There were a lot of unknown factors influencing her future, and somehow she was too afraid to ask. She leaned on the windowsill. But she needed to ask. "Trinity, what is going to happen to me?"

What do you mean?

"After I get out of this house. Where will I go? I know that I can't go home, because that would be the first place Damon would look. But where, then?"

You will be staying with Muriel.

"I can't intrude on him forever, can I?"

We'll work something out.

"How can you be so sure?" Tina half-turned and leaned her hip against the wall, her gaze on the building opposite the house. She hadn't thought about that before, but if she ignored all the bad things that had happened to her in this house, like abduction, therapies with Abbas and the pain that accompanied those sessions, it wasn't that bad being part of Damon's household. It was probably just Damon and his charm that made her want to spend more time with him, to learn more about him. She was probably a little bit infatuated with the image he represented: beautiful, powerful, ruthless if need be and in a strange, cold way also caring.

I learned not to be sure of anything.

"You are a great consolation. Shouldn't you be putting me at ease, not --"

A loud thud shook the walls, it sounded as though it was coming from the roof, one floor higher, and then Tina could hear shouting and the sound of the feet as they rushed along the stairs and hallway.

It's starting.

"It sounds like there's an army in this house, not just Damon, Tristian and Irene."

There is. You just never saw them, because Damon doesn't allow anybody except his Beliyas in what he considers private parts of the house. He was always like that, Trinity said. Now, you know what to do?

"Yes, get as close to the entrance as I can." Tina rushed toward the door.

The door slammed open, almost hitting Tina's side, as Damon appeared through it. His fingers wrapped around Tina's right wrist, he pulled her behind him along the hallway and down the stair.

"What... What's going on?" Tina tried to pry Damon's fingers off her arm, but he had a steel grip on her hand. She was so close to her freedom, but now that Damon was here, all the plans meant nothing. There was no way she could get away from him. She needed to talk to Trinity, but she didn't dare say anything out loud.

"Somebody is being stupid." Damon rushed across the hallway, dragging her with him. "To attack me." He snorted. "Whoever they are, they probably don't know who they are dealing with."

They arrived on the ground floor, where Irene, with a group of men and women dressed in black and grey suits behind her, waited, probably for Damon's instructions.

Damon pushed Tina toward Irene. "Take care of her. Don't let her out of your sight."

"Yes," Irene nodded. She grabbed Tina by her arm, pulling her to her side. "What about Abbas?"

"Tristian is going to take care of it." Damon turned, but not before he gave orders to the group, taking half of them with him, leaving the other half as a support to Irene.

"Where... are we going?" Tina wanted to fight against Irene, against the hand that held her, but she knew that Irene was almost as strong as Damon, and struggle wouldn't do any good. But what was she supposed to do? Her hands shook and her knees felt as like jelly, and she gritted her teeth to try to steel herself. What was she supposed to do? And why the hell was Trinity so quiet? She couldn't even feel her presence.

"Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you." Irene gave her what was supposed to be an encouraging smile, which, since Irene's face seemed like an expressionless mask most of the time, looked out of place on her lips. She guided Tina into the hall and through the entrance door out on the street.

Tina was glad that the darkness had already descended over the street. Her sensitivity to the sun had improved, but she still couldn't bear to be under direct sunlight.

Irene pulled Tina behind her as she rushed across the pavement toward the stairs that led to the canal, where Tina could see the shadow of small, sleek yacht. Then in the next moment the procession stopped and Tina bumped against Irene's side.

Irene swore.

Tina looked over Irene's shoulder. She could see a man, his long coat and jaw-length hair flapping in the light breeze, standing a stone's throw away from the boat. She couldn't distinguish his features, but she clearly saw the outline of the sword that he held tip down.

The man stepped forward.

From under her dark blue jacket Irene produced two guns. "Emil," she said and waited until a man appeared beside her. "I'm leaving you in charge of getting her on the boat as soon as I clear a path for you." She pushed Tina into his hands. "And don't wait for me, just go to the rendezvous point and I'll meet you there."

"Yes, ma'am," Emil nodded and moved with Tina beside the wall, while Irene and the others cautiously approached the man standing in the middle of the street.

"You better step aside," Irene said, lifting her guns.

"Do I look like somebody who would step aside?" the man asked.

Was that Muriel? Tina frowned. The man's voice sounded coarser, more mature and confident than the boyish voice in her head. She moved forward, to see the man better, but Emil pulled her back, limiting her line of vision to a few wide backs.

Tina more heard than saw Irene charging toward the man, her pistols with hushed bangs lighting the semi-darkness every time she fired, while the others around her pulled out various weapons. Tina could see sparks and hear clangs as steel crashed against steel. "Trinity," she whispered, hoping that even if Emil heard her, he wouldn't recognise the name.

Tina, do you trust me?

"No, not really," Tina's voice was low as she murmured under her breath, her eyes still on the group of men, more and more of whom ended up lying on the ground; Irene's pistols still lit the air above her in quick succession, making Tina wonder how her adversary wasn't dead on the ground already.

Well, you will have to trust me now if you want us to escape.

"What do you want me to do?"

Just relax, close your eyes and let me access your senses.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Tina asked, but did as Trinity asked her. Well, she tried. She could feel tugs against her mind, small pushes until tingling sensation spread over her body, to the toes, and warmth enveloped her; it felt like somebody touched her mind and gently stroked her. Then it stopped.

Tina opened her eyes, but there was something strange, like there was something on her eyes. She lifted her hand to rub them, but her arm didn't obey her. What's going on? The words should have left her mouth, but instead they echoed in her mind. What's going on?

A coldness rushed through her. Trinity! What have you done?

"Relax." Trinity curled her hand -- Tina's hand -- around Emil's neck; the thumb found the dip between the Emil's neck and shoulder and she pressed down until Emil collapsed on the ground.

Relax? Relax! Tina knew she was shouting but she couldn't help herself. You just possessed my body. And you said that you would never do that. Even if you could. And you obviously can. What a liar.

"I wasn't sure if I could. And it's very tiring, so you don't have to worry, it's just a temporary thing." Trinity moved alongside the wall like a shadow, she bypassed the open door of Damon's house, the hushed sounds of the battle spilling on the street.

Where are we going? Tina was still angry; she couldn't believe that Trinity had taken her over without asking her. How could she?

"We are going to meet Muriel. Hopefully." Trinity moved stealthily, hidden by the shadows of the buildings in the next street.

Muriel. It would be nice to finally put a face to the voice, Tina thought as she made herself more comfortable in the greyness of Trinity's soul. She could still rage, but that wouldn't put her in charge -- not that she in this moment really wanted to be in charge. She was still upset, yes, but because Trinity had tricked her, not because she had a back seat to the show.

"There are some people behind us." Trinity pressed herself into the niche between two buildings and let the group rush by her.

Were those Damon's people?

"Probably," Trinity whispered.

Mum, Tina could hear Muriel's voice, which like a feather's touch caressed her mind. Where are you?

"Out on the street." Trinity's eyes scrutinized their surroundings. "From the house... the first street on the left, the third building. You?"

On the roof, I'm a little busy. But... there was a long pause and then when Muriel spoke again, his words seemed slightly rushed. But Haniel is close by, he can get you.

"Okay."

Who's Haniel? Tina asked.

"My other child," Trinity said.

What do you mean 'your other child'? You said you only had one, and that one wasn't even born when you were alive.

"Now is not really the time to explain that to you."

Well, when will it be?

"Shhh, can you hear it?"

Hear what?

"The sound of the motorcycle."

Tina listened, but couldn't hear any sound, except the distant thunder that came from the direction of Damon's house. No.

But as soon as Tina said that, the roar of machine broke the silence and she could see the silhouette of the motorbike and a man in black clothes and a black helmet. Both the man and the machine seemed part of the shadows, the weak light of the moonlight and street light not even reaching them.

The bike jumped and made a half turn, stopping just in front of Trinity. The man reached behind him, at the side of the seat and a black helmet appeared in his hand. He offered it to Trinity. "Hello. Mum."

The sound of rushing footsteps and shouts filled the street.

"Haniel." Trinity smiled. She took the helmet, put it on and straddled the bike, wrapping her arms around Haniel's middle.

Trinity? Tina couldn't say that she felt frightened, she was strangely calm, too calm, but that was probably because now she was part of Trinity, who seemed to have nerves of steel, or maybe it had something to do with Damon's blood. Since she had gotten it in her system, she had noticed that she rarely got worked up or exerted herself enough for her heartbeat to increase; not even while exercising. The adrenaline was probably still there, but now it pumped Trinity, not her, and Tina couldn't feel anything else besides Trinity's feelings. Not even the coldness of the night that seeped through her light shirt when she was pulled out on the street.

"Don't worry. It's Haniel. He'll take us to a safe place." Trinity wrapped her arms tighter around Haniel as the motorcycle made a dangerous turn around the corner, with Haniel putting his gloved hand on the ground to keep the bike from rolling.

Not with the way he's driving. Tina felt a little sick.

Trinity laughed. "If you close your senses -- just imagine that you are closing your eyes, you can block the outside sensation and go to sleep."

Tina wasn't about to do that, but when Haniel sped through the streets, rounded the corners and jumped over the canal, Tina decided on the second thought that maybe participating in this wild drive wasn't really her taste, even without the adrenaline rush. She closed her eyes and descended into the darkness.

Chapter 5

"Trinity. Trinity," Tina softly called, but there was no answer. She sighed. Her gaze slid over the glass with the round holes just under the ceiling that separated her from the space that looked like a lab. Why was it that whenever she needed Trinity the most, the woman was nowhere to be found?

She had woken up an hour ago, and since the last thing she remembered was Trinity being in charge of her body, riding on Haniel's bike, she had no idea how she had gotten in here. And the woman that had gotten her in this situation was probably comfortably resting in the warmth of her soul. Not answering her calls. Tina swore.

Her jaw tensed as she lay down on the bed. She had already tried to free herself by throwing the chair and the table against the glass but the broken furniture that now lay overturned on the white tiles hadn't even made a crack in the transparent barrier.

All she could do now was to wait. Wait for Trinity or her captors to appear and see what this new situation would bring.

She hoped that Trinity was just tired, that taking over her body had exhausted her to the point that she needed to withdraw deep inside Tina's soul and that was why she wasn't answering. Because being without Trinity freaked Tina out more than finding herself imprisoned in what looked like some kind of laboratory.

She should probably have been nervous and afraid to find herself a prisoner again, with her heart throbbing loudly in her ears, dread dampening her scalp and her teeth biting at her nails, but no... She could hardly feel her pulse, it was so slow that for a moment she couldn't even feel it, and she thought about how she hated waiting, and the insecurity of what was coming next, more than fear itself. Yes, she was still afraid, the fear was there lingering at the edge of her mind, but she wasn't even a tenth as afraid as she should have been or as freaked out as she would have been if this had happened before Damon had kidnapped her.

The metal door on the left side of the cage slid open with a hiss and Tina closed her eyes, pretending that she was asleep, peeking under her eyelids even though she could only see a pair of feet in combat boots visible between the items stored on the shelves of the U-shaped counter that occupied the middle of the room.

"I only want one thing! One thing! You know that, you know what it is, and you were so close and you failed. " A woman's voice surprised Tina since she had expected the owner of the boots to be a man.

"It happens," a slightly hoarse, manly voice replied.

What? How could there be two people in the room, when she could only see one pair of legs?

"Don't talk back to me!"

"What do you expect me to say?"

The man's voice sounded faintly familiar to Tina, like she had heard it before. Where?

"That you have Abbas's head."

"Well, we don't. Maybe we could have taken Damon if he had been on his own, but he wasn't. Irene and Tristian were there, too, and you know how strong they are. I explained all that to you before."

"You could have told me that you had found Damon's whereabouts and I would have sent my Seraktalus."

"I already made myself clear. Your Shadows are too unstable, too wild. I refuse to work with them or use them."

"Stubborn child," the woman hissed. "At least you could have waited, requested Numuns, not charged in like a herd of oxen."

"Why can't you let go? You know Prva wouldn't have lent Numuns to us," the man said. "You know she knows Damon's location, she always has and she has never used that information or confided it to you, no matter how much you demanded and raged. And even if Prva were willing to lend us her personal guards, they wouldn't be of any help to us. They are too weak."

Tina frowned. Yes, it sounded like the voice of the man who had fought against Irene.

"They are my creation and my creations are not weak."

"What about Mamaels?"

"They were made for food, they are supposed to be weak."

"If you say so."

Tina carefully lifted her head.

Her eyes widened and her breath hitched.

Opposite the man with jaw-length black hair wearing the combat boots stood a translucent, white... angel. She was beautiful, floating above, the tips of her delicate shoes visible under her long dress. Her silver hair fell like a waterfall over her shoulders and white feathered wings were folded on her back; the only thing needed to complete the image of the real angel was a halo glowing above her head. The angel turned her head, her eyes honing in on Tina.

For a second the angel's gaze burned through Tina, examined her, invaded her. Tina could have sworn she could feel it; it was almost like having Abbas's wisps in her head again. Then in the next moment the angel's eyes softened and she floated closer to the glass.

The man tuned toward the glass too and followed the angel with long strides.

Tina pulled herself into a sitting position. There were many questions running through her head, but that was already something she should be used to.

The angel slid through the glass like it were water, stopped before Tina and, looking down at her, tilted her head. "Who are you?"

"Tina," Tina said. She thought about standing up and touching the creature before her, but in the end she remained seated, feeling like she was gazing at the angel from the inside out. Like her body had pushed her soul deep inside, acting as a shield for her. It was similar to when Trinity took control, only this time Tina kept control of her body's movements and most of her senses. Her heart was slowly beating in her chest, it hadn't started to drum in her ears like it should have, but anxiety and the first hints of fear were there, lingering at the edges, slowly growing. "And who are you? An angel?"

A dry chuckle escaped the man. "An angel? Not likely. Her name is Angelica but there's nothing angelic about her."

What was that supposed to mean? Tina looked past the glowing silhouette at the man who stood before the glass staring at her. As dangerous as he had looked before with his sword drawn, illuminated by the streetlights, and though even now his stance betrayed a well controlled strength, there was something kind about him, something that put Tina at ease. "And who are you? I have seen you... You fought with Irene, didn't you?"

"I'm Uriel."

"Tina," Angelica said like she was tasting the name. "You don't feel like an Aradma. What are you?" She leaned over Tina, her translucent face almost touching Tina's. Her fingers wrapped around Tina's wrist before the thumb slipped into Tina's flesh.

Tina groaned. She could feel the pressure under her skin, the pain of piercing needles accompanying the feeling. She sucked in her breath, staying as still as possible. Her eyes found the man's eyes, they were they same green as Damon's, so intense and so like Damon's they managed to calm the fear that sprang forward and gave her hope that somehow everything was going to be okay.

Angelica tilted her head. "No, not Aradma." She removed her hand and turned toward the cabinets opposite the U-shaped counter. "I need to do some tests." The drawer opened and small objects like medical instruments flew toward the glass, which retracted into a slot in the ground until it was knee-high.

"Can you make it quick? I promised Haniel that I'd bring her home with me tonight," Uriel said as he stepped over the glass.

"Haniel," Tina repeated. "How..." No, she couldn't ask how she had ended up here. But what could she ask? Damn, she hated this uncertainty, hated not knowing who was an ally and who was a foe.

"You didn't bring me anything, except her." Angelica took the needle that was floating on her left before she again leaned over Tina. "And at least she doesn't seem to be as useless as I thought."

"What... What do you mean?" Tina pressed herself closer to the wall away from the needle, which after Angelica wrapped a hand around her arm pierced her skin anyway. But at least it hurt a lot less than having Angelica's finger in her flesh. She tried to push against Angelica, but her hand passed through the woman's translucent shape. Was Angelica the Fallen?

"We didn't bring her for you. Haniel took her for us." Uriel stepped closer; he put his hand on Tina's shoulder.

"You can have her when I finish with her." Angelica pulled the needle out, removed the ampoule from the needle and glided toward the inside of U-shape counter.

Warmth seeped through Uriel's hand into Tina, making her drowsy. She blinked a couple of times, refusing to close her eyes and relax into the fake calmness. "Took me for you?"

"My brother is quite messy, I'm afraid, and since I'm not prepared to tolerate that, he had this idea to find us an Aradma, tie her to us and use her for a servant."

Aradma? Oh, yes, the servants, those were people turned by Beliya. "Tie?"

"Don't you know?" Uriel asked.

Tina shook her head.

"The Gelbeliya's influence isn't as strong in Aradma as in Ishaaas and Beliyas, and if somebody who is on the same level as Gelbeliyas adds his blood into their system, he can become their new master. The Damned, since they can't procreate or turn people into Bloodeaters, do that on regular basis."

"Why are you explaining this to the servant?"

"So you do find her useless?" Uriel turned toward Angelica.

Angelica had the blood spread in an arc before her and was touching the red drops that dangled in the air with a thin metal stick, turning their colour to white. "She's not as special as I first thought. I can feel a hint of Father in her, but it's very faint, the Beliya's influence is too strong, and their Gelbeliya must be quite young and insignificant since I don't recognize his seal."

"Abbas?" Uriel's gaze was on Tina, his eyes narrowed. "I didn't know."

"But she's an Aarsa Tiyaat. That's rare. Prva would be very grateful to receive such a gift."

"What does that mean?" Tina dug her fingers into the fabric of Uriel's coat pulling him closer.

Uriel straightened. "Prva wouldn't have made her hers. The Damned might be ruthless and selfish, but they have their codes, and they would never demand or take something that was already claimed. She's Haniel's. And the only reason she's here in your lab is because you unjustifiably requisitioned her and because Haniel is gracious enough not barge into your lab and demands what's his."

"I made you. You are mine, all three of you. And what's yours is mine too. Don't you forget that!" Angelica glanced at Uriel before her focus returned to the blood before her. "You are my property."

Tina noticed the tension in Uriel's jaw and she wondered if he might fly into a rage, but he didn't, even though she could see frost in his eyes, and defiance in the lift of his chin. She probably shouldn't have, but she tugged on his coat anyway. "Hey, do you..."

The green eyes gave her a hard look; the face that just moments ago had seemed kind and soft, was now all hard angles and harshness. Tina released the fabric and scooted to the other side of the bed. In this moment he seemed more an enemy than somebody who would be willing to help her.

Uriel grabbed Tina's arm and pulled her up. "Since I assume you are done with her, I'll take her. There's no point in leaving her here when she can be of use at the house."

"Yes, yes." Angelica waved her hand, dismissing them. "I'll inform you when I'll need her again."

Uriel pulled Tina toward the glass barrier, helping her over it, and then dragged her toward the doors and through them, not giving Tina a chance to resist.

Tina was led in silence through the maze of the hallways toward a large door, her questions and protest ignored. They met a few people on their way, but even though all of them acknowledged Uriel -- some saluted, some stopped in their tracks and greeted him with admiration in their eyes -- Uriel ignored the majority, giving a tilt of head to just a few of them.

"Where... where are you taking me?" Tina repeated her question for the tenth time.

"Home," Uriel finally answered. "I apologize for being rough with you just now, but it wouldn't be good for that woman to notice that you mean more to us than an ordinary Aradma would. She's dangerous, more than Damon. Damon wouldn't hurt you, but she would do far worse. You have to be careful around her." With his free hand he pulled sunglasses from the inner pocket of his coat and put them on before he opened the large door.

The sun blinded Tina; her eyes started to water and burn. A shaky cry escaped her throat. She closed her eyes; her eyelids blocked the light, but it was still there, hurting her.

She was guided down the stairs and after she took two steps, she was pulled down on a platform and sat down.

"Here." A hand pushed an object in her hand.

They felt like glasses and she put them on. She opened her eyes. The lenses of the glasses were dark and large, covering more than half of her face, and they kept the painful light at bay. She looked at the boy that sat beside her.

He was dressed in a simple shirt and jeans, with long black hair that was tied in a low, messy ponytail, a few bangs falling on his forehead and temples, sunglasses on his face. He smiled at her, a cheeky, wide smile, his hands on the steering wheel of a vehicle that looked similar to a golf-cart, just slightly bigger. "Good to see you again."

Muriel? No, she had never met Muriel, so he should be... what was his name? "Haniel?"

"That's right," Haniel said and as Uriel sat beside Tina on the bench he moved the cart with a soft buzz across the path that twisted among the trees and buildings.

"What happened?" Tina asked. "The last thing I remember is your wild ride yesterday."

"You mean two days ago?" Haniel leaned back on the seat, putting his right arm on the back of the bench. "I thought we were okay with Uriel fighting Irene and Muriel keeping Tristian and Damon busy, but on the Ponte della Liberta, Damon and his men appeared behind us. He noticed that you were gone and he could track you by his blood in you. Luckily Muriel, even while fighting, was able to conceal your presence, but only for a short time. So after we arrived in Scotland, Uriel used Angelica's lab to created erm... what did you create?"

Uriel said something that sounded to Tina like just a bunch of syllables.

"Yeah, that. He created that and added it into your body to hush the call of Damon's blood," Muriel continued. "Then Uriel told us that you passed out. I mean, Mum passed out."

"And because Haniel here got distracted by Anael's new toy, instead of being on the lookout, Angelica caught us as I carried you out," Uriel added.

Haniel gave an apologetic smile to Tina before his eyes went to the path again. "I'm sorry about that, but I can't resist shiny, hi-tech machines."

Uriel smacked the top of Haniel's head. "Your obsession could have cost us her life. And even now whenever Angelica demands, I have to bring Tina to her. What if she discovers Trinity?"

Tina watched how Haniel's shoulders slumped and how he bit his lip, then she looked at Uriel, whose cold mask had melted the moment he sat down on the cart and whose eyes, despite the lecture, shone with fondness for the boy beside her.

"Haniel." Uriel put his hand on Haniel's shoulder, his arm touching Tina's back. "You know what's at stake. You have to be more careful."

"I know. I know," Haniel said. "And I was on the lookout, and I saw her, I informed you, but a little too late. She's so fast."

"No excuses."

"I'm not trying to make excuses." Haniel sighed.

Tina's gaze shifted between them, the whole exchange giving her a feeling of being part of their group, but whether it was false or not, only time would tell. She used the pause to ask questions that bothered her since she woke up. "Where's Trinity? Why doesn't she answer my calls? And why haven't I met Muriel yet? And who the hell are you two? Trinity said that she only had one child, Dume, and now there're three of you calling her Mum." And there was more she needed to know. "And what is Angelica? She's a Fallen, isn't she? And is the Prva the same as Angelica? And what are Numuns and Shadows?"

"Whoa. Whoa. So many questions." Haniel turned the cart around the corner, past a few cottages toward the lonely house that stood at the far end between the trees, just beside a high brick wall.

"Mum drained herself by taking over your body and she collapsed at the end," Uriel said. "I assume she's just resting and there's nothing to worry about, but Muriel would be able to tell us more about that. He's the one that's good at telepathy and sixth sense and I believe he would be able to connect with her, even when she's deep inside your soul."

"Where is he?" Tina asked. She needed to talk to him. She needed his assurance that Trinity was going to be all right. That she was going to be all right. This was her first priority. All the other questions could wait.

"He's in the garden. He's sensitive to energies and can't stand to be close Angelica. He gets sick." Haniel parked the cart before the house, stood up and offered his hand to Tina.

Tina took it and was gently pulled up and off the cart.

"Go around the house; there's a door in the wall, it leads into the garden." Uriel lifted himself up with the grace of a cat.

Tina nodded and rushed behind the house and through the iron door into what looked like a meadow in the middle of the forest, with flowers, bushes and trees growing in a wild pattern forming a fairytale-like picture.

She stopped for a moment, breathing in the beauty, when a movement drew her gaze toward the left side of the garden.

There was a boy sitting there in the grass, his black hair short, exposing his neck, while the long bangs that fell on his temple and cheek hid his face, making him look young, fragile.

A Cabbage White butterfly flew by and landed on the boy's head.

The boy lifted his face up, exposing his profile, a small nose and pouty lips; he didn't look older than fourteen.

That was Muriel? So young? Tina made a step forward. How could he look so young? And how could such a fragile child have fought against Tristian and Damon and survived?

The noise of her steps made the boy turn his head in her direction. The butterfly moved on the tip of his nose as the boy's lips stretched into a small smile. He pulled himself up and ran toward her. "Tina."

"Muriel?"

He awkwardly stopped before her and nodded. Then, on second thought, he wrapped his arms around her middle and buried his face against her chest. "You are finally here," he murmured against the fabric of her T-shirt.

Chapter 6

Tina sat on a coffee-brown couch, leaning on the fluffy pillows, in a comfortable, spacious room with light-yellow walls. The same UV-protection on the window as was at Damon's house allowed the sun to light the room and caress the oak shelves that lined the wall. There was even a plasma TV hanging on the wall to her right.

She watched Muriel, who sat at the edge of a light-yellow couch. He hugged his knees and bowed his head, the black bangs hiding his face like he was too ashamed or embarrassed to show it. She wanted to reach out, to touch him, but she remained seated, deeply inhaling the smell of oranges studded with cloves that were in the glass bowl on a side-table to the left of the couch.

Haniel sat beside Muriel, his hand slid over the curve of Muriel's back, then around Muriel's waist as he leaned his head on Muriel's shoulder. "It's okay."

"No, it's not." Muriel's voice was a low murmur. He hadn't even looked up.

"Yes, it is." Uriel, dressed in tight, washed-out jeans and an olive polo shirt, leaned on the couch's arm. "It doesn't matter if you can't contact Mum, as long as you can feel her, it's okay."

Tina rested her hands in her lap. She could still feel the echo of the tickles from Muriel's gentle exploration of her mind, when he had used small tugs to call Trinity, who hadn't answered. That had upset Muriel, made him curl on couch like it was his fault, which of course it wasn't. If it had been only Muriel and Haniel, she would probably have tried to find consoling words, but every time she opened her mouth, Uriel looked in her direction, his cold green eyes scrutinising her. How could she even think that those eyes were similar to Damon's warm ones or that they had the same calming effect?

She hung her head, rubbed her temples and asked herself what she was doing here. Now, without Trinity's voice to calm her fears, she felt alone and uncertain of her future. Had she been like that before Trinity? So insecure and lonely?

Probably, especially after her grandmother's death. She just hadn't been aware of it.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Tina looked up, not really knowing who had asked her that. Haniel, probably.

"You look troubled," Haniel said.

"Well." Tina shifted on the sofa, tempted to tuck her legs underneath her, but since she was guest -- a guest who would become a servant -- a gesture like that would look rude. "You brought me here because of Trinity, and now that she's not present... I just don't know..."

"Haven't I made myself clear?" Uriel lifted his eyebrows. "You are to be our domestic helper."

Tina furrowed her brows. Yes, she had heard Uriel say something like that to that angel-thing at the lab, but she couldn't wrap her mind around the image of herself dressed in one of those maid outfits and running around with a vacuum cleaner or feather duster. Not that she minded cleaning; in the past whenever she was upset she calmed herself with scrubbing floors or cabinets. "What does that mean?"

"That you will be our servant; we are the only household, beside Numuns, here without an Aradma to take care of our home." Haniel smiled. "But it will only be for show, since there's no way Uriel is going to allow you near the laundry room or the cleaning supplies. He's pretty anal about how things should be cleaned. He's not satisfied until they are just so, and only he is able to do it perfectly."

"So what will I do then?"

"I don't know." Haniel combed though Muriel's black bangs before he straightened himself, his arm withdrawing from Muriel's waist. "What do you want to do?"

"Go home."

"That will be the first place Damon will check." Uriel crossed his arms. "That's out of the question."

"I know that... It's just..." What was she supposed to do among a bunch of guys she didn't know? Even if they did seem nice -- well, at least Haniel and Muriel did -- with threat of Damon and of that Fallen hanging over her... Tina bit into her lip. She just wanted to go home. "I would hate to burden you."

"You will never be a burden to us," Muriel finally spoke up. "With Mum or without her."

"Yeah. Mum brought you here, so you are ours now," Haniel added. "You can stay with us forever."

"If you want to, that is." Muriel gave her a shy smile.

"You two are too nice." Tina gave them a small curve of lips. "But what about the angel-thing; I still have to come to her whenever she demands." She frowned and looked at her wrist where a small puncture wound still marked her skin, though it shouldn't have, not with how quickly her body seemed to regenerate itself lately. "And she took my blood -- wouldn't she be able to see that I'm related to Trinity?"

All eyes glanced toward Uriel.

"Of course not. You are not Trinity's direct descendant, and even if you were, certain markers on the Y-chromosome pass unchanged only from male to male, not male to female or female to female," Uriel explained. "And if there was slight chance that she could see that connection in your blood, I would manipulate it."

"Like you did so that she couldn't see that Damon is the one who made me into that waiting-thing?" Tina leaned forward, her eyes on Uriel.

"It's Aarsa Tiyaat, not a waiting-thing." Uriel readjusted the simple jersey headband that held his black hair away from his face. "Yes, the concoction that I gave you hid Damon's mark, but not for long. I'll have to contrive something that will erase Damon's signature for the long-term and replace it with Haniel's." He tilted his head. "Unless you agree to let Haniel change you into Aradma."

Tina's eyes widened. To become a servant, psychically and physically tied to her Master, addicted to him like a junkie addicted to drugs -- at least that was how Trinity described the Aradma's tie with his Master. "No, thank you."

"Too bad, it would save me a lot of time."

"Uriel, stop teasing her." Muriel stood up. "She doesn't know you like we do, she might think you are serious."

Uriel lifted his brows. "But I am serious."

"Don't mind him." Haniel stood up, too. He crossed the small distance that separated them and offered her his hand. "C'mon. I'll show you your room."

Tina took it and allowed him to pull her up and across the room. A set of doors led to an anteroom and the kitchen with dining area, but he led her past the door to the stairs.

Haniel guided her across a dark hallway, toward the far door at the end. He opened it, revealing a small room with a single bed, a nightstand and a wardrobe, everything in shades of baby blue. "Muriel and I went and bought some clothes for you. I hope they will fit you. And also some accessories that you girls need." He scratched his nose. "But if there's something missing, just tell us and we'll get it for you."

"Thank you." Tina nodded and went to the window, where she adjusted the blinds to hush the light that poured into the room.

"Well, I guess that's that. Ah, there's a small bathroom behind that door." He pointed at the panel door beside the wardrobe. "If you want to take a shower or something."

"Great, thank you." Tina turned toward Haniel; her socked foot rubbed her calf.

"Well." He flashed his teeth. "You should rest now, and maybe in the evening, if you are up to it, we could play some games or spar. How good are you with a sword?"

#

"You don't think, do you? Sometimes I wonder if your brains are just for decoration." Uriel's voice was even and his face blank as he stared down at Haniel. His katana, the blunt side, pushed against Haniel's throat, before he removed the blade with an elegant arch.

"Why are you being such a bitch to me? You are never like that to Muriel." Haniel pouted, the tip of his kodachi digging into the dirt of the training ground hidden behind the house and divided from the small garden by a row of cypresses.

"Because otherwise you don't listen." Uriel hung the katana on the loop attached to his belt. "You are not bad -- how could you be when I'm the one training you? -- you are just too reckless. It's time for you start thinking your actions through and stop relying only on your instinct."

"You are still behaving like I'm a child." Haniel went to the low fence that framed the sandy ground and where his black leather jacket lay over the steel bar. He picked up the jacket and put it on over the red T-shirt. "It's because I'm the youngest one, isn't it?"

Tina, leaning on the fence, wrinkled her forehead, her brows almost touching the plastic of her sunglasses. Haniel was the youngest one? Wasn't he older than Muriel? She looked at the boy, who leaned on his elbows on the fence beside her. "Aren't you the youngest one?"

Muriel tilted his head and gave her a small smile.

Tina closed her eyes and listened, but when she couldn't hear anything beyond the ambient noise outside her eyelids fluttered open. "I can't hear you, I'm sorry."

"Try harder."

Her shoulders slumped and she sighed. Did she really have to? She closed her eyes again and focused on the darkness behind her eyelids, on the small grey and white dots that danced on the blackness. In the two weeks that she had spent in the Dumes' company, Muriel had tried to strengthen her bond with Trinity and to instate the telepathic link between Tina and them. He had succeeded, but only twice.

She could hear a distant whisper, but without Trinity's presence she couldn't make out the words. It was so easy to connect with Muriel when Trinity was awake, which to the Dumes' disappointment had only happened five times. She opened her eyes. "I can't. I mean, I do hear you, but it's too quiet and incomprehensible. Just tell me."

"Yes, I'm the youngest." Haniel with his hands around the steel post jumped over the fence. "He just looks like he is, because he refuses to grow up and become a fully-fledged Bloodeater."

"You can do that?"

"Yeah, we can do that." Haniel pushed his sunglasses higher on his nose. "By not eating. If you don't eat, you don't grow up. Something to do with digestion."

"Only you, or all the Bloodeaters?" Tina never saw them eat, even when Uriel cooked or baked one of his culinary masterpieces, she was the only one who ate, so she assumed that they were the same as Damon. And also... she never really occupied herself with that thought, but Damon was a purebred, that meant that at some point in life he had been a child, hadn't he? She gazed at Haniel. They had been children, too? Well, Muriel still was, and Haniel looked like he was coming out of puberty.

"I don't know. Numuns can do that, too, but for the others...." Haniel shrugged his shoulders.

"The Damned can't, while the Lost's purebreds can." Uriel came closer, he gestured to Tina to get into the ring. "It's your turn now."

Tina's shoulders slumped even lower and she suppressed the urge to whine. Sparring was slightly more entertaining than Damon's daily exercises, but at least there, whenever she wasn't in the mood, Damon just took control of her body. Here she was subjected to Uriel's cold eyes and lectures. She knew that it was important that she learn how to defend herself in this 'society' -- actually until she did and until the foul tasting potion, which Uriel mixed for her every morning, conjured up the false trail of Haniel's blood in her system, they had asked her not to leave the house. Something about her safety. But activities involving sweating had never held any interest for her, and she doubted that would change any time soon. She always regarded herself as a spectator, not as a player. "I don't have the equipment."

"Muriel, could you?" Uriel turned toward the boy, who nodded and rushed toward the house.

Tina climbed between the steel posts into the arena and under Uriel's supervision stretched her body and warmed herself until Muriel brought her bokken. At the first lesson she had also wanted some protective gear, armour or something, but Uriel had refused, saying that she was already slow as it was, and that he was too skilled to accidentally hurt her. She took the bokken from Muriel.

"Hurry up. I don't have all day." Uriel already stood in the middle of the training area, with his legs apart and katana in his hand.

"I'm coming." She strode toward him.

"On your guard."

Tina put her feet together, her elbows slightly bent, the tip of her bokken at eye level, aiming at Uriel.

"Do a Twirl with Half-Cut, continue it into Thrust, and end with Diagonal High Cut. I'll block you."

Tina nodded and with both hands on the hilt twirled the sword over her right shoulder, behind her back, then struck forward. The wood hit the blunt side of Uriel's katana. She pulled back into the start position then brought the hilt against her left hip. With her right leg she lunged forward, aiming the bokken at Uriel's neck.

Uriel's katana again blocked her sword.

She returned to the start position.

The sound of a telephone.

Uriel frowned and put his free hand into the pocket of his black jeans, gesturing for Tina to continue.

Tina took a step forward and lifted the sword over her right shoulder so that it was parallel to the ground, the tip pointing away from her.

Uriel frowned, his focus seemed to be more on what the person on the other end was saying, than on his and Tina's training.

She brandished her sword down and left.

Uriel parried her blow, then after she returned to the start position, he leaned his katana on his hip for a second, so he could raise his hand and with his stretched forefinger make a circle.

She repeated the routine, trying to be faster, make her movement smoother, advancing on Uriel, who still talked on the phone. With her raised bokken over her shoulder she swung the sword down.

"What?" Uriel froze; his hand lost its grip on his katana. The blade fell on the ground.

Tina eyes widened, she was going to hit him. Something that even Haniel couldn't do. Yes!

Uriel caught the wood with his hand with such apparent ease. "Now?" He didn't look pleased. "Yes, will be ready in fifteen." He closed the phone and pocketed it. "Prva wants to see us." His gaze slid over Haniel and Muriel and ended on Tina. "Tina, too."

Prva was the Damned's leader, Tina knew that much. She had also learned that Prva was Abbas's daughter and Angelica's sister, even though how Abbas and Angelica could be related was beyond her. "Why does she need me?"

"I would like to know that, too." Uriel released the bokken and picked up his sword, which he attached to his belt.

They all went back through the house and out to the driveway, where the slick, silver Mercedes Executive already waited. Uriel, Muriel and Tina climbed into the car, while Haniel got on his bike and joined the two motorcyclists behind the car.

"I've heard quite a lot about you." A small woman with short, white hair sitting on the beige leather moved to the window and patted the spot beside her.

Tina sat beside her, noticing woman's greyish, thin skin and the claws. That was Prva. Tina's heart should have started to race in her chest, the uneasiness showing through the pumping adrenaline, but no, she felt as calm as if she sat in the living room, watching TV.

"Angelica told me Haniel has claimed an Aarsa Tiyaat." Prva wrapped her hand around Tina's wrist, her talon slicing the skin.

Tina flinched. Her eyes found Muriel's, who turned back in the passenger seat to give her a smile that told her, 'it's going to be all right'. She shifted away from Prva, her side touching Uriel's.

Prva's hand released Tina. She licked her claw, then tasted drops of crimson red, looking like she was trying to feel the blood with all her taste buds. "She tastes familiar, but I just can't pinpoint whose she is. From whom did Haniel steal her?"

"I'm not exactly sure," Uriel said.

"Liar." Prva clicked her tongue before she focused back on Tina. "Aarsa Tiyaat. So precious." Her thumb caressed Tina's cheek. "I can make you very powerful, would you like that?"

Goosebumps appeared on Tina's skin. She looked sideways at Uriel whose face tensed. "I... Aren't I Haniel's Aradma?"

"Yes. But since he hasn't turned you completely yet, if you tie yourself to me, you can become my Beliya. Father knows that I have too few of them as it is."

"Erm...well..." Tina slid with her finger over the cut that had already started to close.

"She's Haniel's. He already claimed her," Uriel said.

"I'm not going to steal her from Haniel." Prva leaned back on the seat. "Not without the girl's consent."

"I'm sorry, I..."

"You heard her." Uriel leaned his elbows on his knees, his gaze on Prva. "Now, tell me why you are meeting Damon and why you need us with you."

"He's offered me an hour with Father, in exchange for an hour with you, Uriel." Prva flashed her fangs at Uriel. "I was expecting his retribution for your unauthorised attack, thinking how I'll have to punish you, but I didn't expect that. It seems that I'll have to thank you for breaking into his Italian house and making a mess out of it."

Damon, she was going to see Damon. Tina bit her lip, not really knowing how she felt about that.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"For you, perhaps not. I heard that he's missing something, and he's not pleased." Prva turned sideways, her eyes focused on Tina. "I assumed that you are the missing something, but your blood doesn't taste like him. Too bad. I might have been able to exchange you for Father if that were the case." Her gaze slid to Uriel. "So, what did you take from him?"

"Nothing," Uriel said.

"Then why would he offer me an hour with Father to talk to you? He has never expressed any interest in you, let alone offered me as good an exchange as this."

"He probably just wants to have a father-to-son talk."

Chapter 7

The car sped up and as Tina looked out the tinted window at the twilight, she noticed with surprise that somewhere along the way the forests and fields had been replaced with a more urban setting and that the country road had widened into a highway.

But she became even more surprised when the speed forced her against the back of the seat and the panorama became a blur. Even Muriel, who had spent the whole time twisted back from the passenger seat to give her silent encouragement, turned forward. How fast where they even going? 300 miles per hour? Maybe even faster.

"Do we really need to rush like this?" Uriel crossed his arms.

"No, but Anael likes the speed and I like to indulge her." Prva leaned forward, immune to the g-force, and patted the shoulder of the white-haired girl who drove the car.

"Where are we? I mean where are we going?" Tina whispered to Uriel, and though she would have preferred Muriel's or Haniel's warm reassurance, her hand found Uriel's and she wrapped her fingers around it.

"In London." Uriel gave her fingers a comforting squeeze.

"That's right. Damon wants to meet up at some neutral location." Prva leaned back. "And then we are staying in my London house for a few days." She looked past Tina at Uriel. "And since we are already in London, there's a nuisance that needs to be taken care of."

"Akilueteers?"

Prva nodded.

"Again," Uriel said. "Why don't you use Numuns for that?"

"Because they are too busy keeping me company. And why should they? Petsha's mess is Angelica's responsibility and that means you are the one who needs to clean it up."

"Who's Petsha?" Tina asked. And what were Akilueteers? Didn't Trinity call them Deadeaters?

Uriel leaned back in his seat, his brows low over his eyes.

"I want to go, too, ma'am." Anael announced. "You know how I like to play and hunting Akilueteers is always such fun."

"Sure, sure." Prva waved. "Have your fun with those... insects." She shook her head, grimacing. "They are getting cocky lately, and they are demanding their rights. How dare they! They are nothing but a side product of Abbas's feeding." Her upper lip curled showing her pointy teeth. "I heard Petsha even complained about the name Akilueteers, saying that it's degrading to them and that they go now by the Mamael's name for them: vampires. Damn vermin. They are all common animals that can't control their impulses and their thirst. It makes me sick that they can so easily multiply, while the number of my clan decreases with every decade. There are less than two thousand of us."

"But ma'am. You have us now."

"Yes; I have you now." Prva leaned forward again; her hand caressed the long white hair. "My lovely children. If only Angelica would give me more of you."

"Who's Petsha?" Tina repeated in a low voice. Was he a vampire? No, it seemed that all Akilueteers, the Deadeaters, whatever that meant, were vampires. She frowned. So what does that make Prva, Damon and the rest of the erm... not-humans? Lords of the vampires? She puffed her cheeks, then released all the air in a long breath. Their name: Gelbeliya meant Lords, but 'Lords' would imply that they could control Deadeaters, which didn't seem to be the case here.

"A Deadeater, the only one who can control his thirst for blood like we can," Uriel whispered to her. "Angelica likes him. She finds him interesting, since he and most of his turned are not attacking people like hungry animals as other Akilueteers do. And as long as he lets her experiment on him, he's untouchable." He glanced at Prva. "No matter how much that annoys Prva."

The car slowed down, and Tina could see a lighted wide, tall building with towers rising over its walls in the distance. "It's nice."

"The Tower of London." Uriel released her hand.

The car stopped before a glass building trapped between two old houses. The doorman rushed down the stairs, but a woman appeared at the entrance door, her fair hair sleeked into a bun, and dismissed him.

Irene. Tina bit her lip.

Irene descended the stairs, crossed the two steps that separated her from the car and opened the car door.

Uriel climbed out of the car, pulling Tina with him. He smirked at Irene as he pushed Tina behind his back.

One of the motorcyclists that were parking their bikes behind the car stepped down from the bike and removed his helmet. Short white hair framed the square, strong-featured. He set the helmet on the handlebars and went to the car. He bypassed Tina, Uriel and Irene, leaned toward the back seats and offered his hand to Prva.

Prva pulled a hood over her head and accepted the hand to graciously exit the car. "Thank you, Nathanael." She released Nathanael's hand and focused her attention on Irene. "Irene Payens, how lovely to see you."

What was going on? Tina peeked over Uriel's shoulder at Irene and Prva.

"I'm afraid that I can't say the same." Irene gave Prva a tilt of head, her hands laced behind her back.

"I brought something extra with me." Prva sidestepped Irene.

"I noticed." Irene looked in Tina's direction.

"Oh, you sound so disinterested. Don't you know her?"

Tina's fingers dug into Uriel's coat.

"She looks familiar. Now, if you want to see Abbas..." Irene turned toward the entrance of the hotel. "Abbas is in the truck in the garage; I'll lead you there." She looked over her shoulder at Uriel. "Damon is expecting you in room 311."

"What a shame. I was hoping that the girl would be of some trading value." Prva sighed as she followed Irene, with Nathanael and the man who looked like Nathanael's slimmer copy close behind.

"Haniel." With his hand on Tina's back, Uriel led her toward Haniel, who with his helmet in his hand, sat on his bike. "Take her to Prva's house." He took the helmet from Haniel and thrust it into Tina's hands. "You get some sleep and..." He ran his hand through his black bangs. "Maybe practice your stances." He furrowed his brows. "Since I don't dare to leave you alone in Prva's house it seems that you will have to come with us tomorrow. And you are not ready yet."

"She'll do fine." Muriel joined them.

Tina nodded. Yes, she'd do just fine -- well, she hoped. Her strength and skill couldn't compare with theirs, but she'd try not be a burden. She put on the helmet and climbed on the bike behind Haniel. "Hey, what does hunting really mean?" she asked Haniel in a whisper.

"No, she won't. And those things can sense the power of the blood and will target her." Uriel sighed. "We will have just have to be extra careful."

"You'll see," Haniel whispered back.

"And don't forget. We will also have Anael with us." Muriel put his hands into the pockets of his skinny jeans.

"That's all I need. A bloodthirsty psycho. Did you have to remind me?" Uriel rubbed his temple before he shook his head "I better go. It would be bad to leave Daddy waiting."

#

"Are you okay?" Muriel's warm hand caressed Tina's back.

"No." Tina burped out. Even though she already emptied the contents of her stomach, she still lingered over the toilet bowl. "Why did he have to drive like that?"

"I'm sorry. But... I drove like I normally do." Haniel stood by the door of the large sage-green bathroom, which had two sinks on a stone pedestal, with a cabinet below, a built-in shower with a frosted glass door and a toilet hidden behind the shower wall.

"Yeah, like you normally drive. That's the problem when you drive like a man possessed: jumping over cars, using buildings as roads and never driving under Mach two. She's not used to it, and her body might tolerate speed and its force, but her mind still can't," Muriel said.

"She was all right the other time." With his head repentantly hung down Haniel fidgeted with his fingers.

"It was Trinity, not me." Tina wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She really needed to brush her teeth.

"I'm sorry. It didn't occur to me."

"It's okay." Tina stood up. "Just drive more slowly next time, please."

"Yeah, I will. I promise." Haniel scratched the back of his neck. "I really will. Umm. Can I bring you anything?"

"A toothbrush and some toothpaste would be good."

"Everything is already here." Muriel opened the narrow mirrored cabinet above the sink. He pulled out an unused toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste, giving both to Tina.

Tina took them, thanked him and after she reassured them that she was fine, she asked them to leave. They did.

They were nice, showering her with attention all the time, just waiting for when they could do something for her. It made her feel wanted, cherished.

Tina brushed her teeth and then rinsed her mouth; her eyes stopped on the mirror just as she wanted to spit the water out. But they were only being nice and wanted her by their side because of Trinity, their mum. She spit out the water, then leaned closer to the silver surface, and there was her face staring back at her. Blue eyes -- her eyes, not Trinity's. Her brown shoulder-length hair -- not Trinity's. Her nose, her chin -- her face -- not Trinity's.

But it would be good to be Trinity, to be that loved: by Damon, by Uriel, Muriel and Haniel. To be wanted like they wanted her.

Tina grimaced. She was jealous, wasn't she?

Maybe she should call her dad. Just to get that fake sense of belonging.

She pushed herself away from the mirror, put away the toothbrush and toothpaste and went out into the living room of the guest apartment they were using.

Prva's London home seemed quite normal. It was hidden behind the façade of three narrow houses, joined together in one space, in a residential part of the city. It looked average on the outside, just another commoner's house with enough space for a four-member family, with a small garden so that the children could play on warm afternoons. But behind thick blinds that covered tinted windows, glass and steel, black and white dominated the space, and on the black walls of the hallways hung weapons: swords, bows, shields, axes, flintlock pistols, and things Tina couldn't even identify, some of them sending shivers up her spine.

Haniel sprawled on the L-shaped couch, watching the big screen TV, but he straightened as she stepped closer. "Uriel will be here soon."

Tina wanted to ask how he knew that, but then she remembered: They used to be one before Angelica had experimented on them, dividing them into three entities, or at least that's what they said, not really explaining the whole thing in detail. And she refused to ask more or to pry into what seemed to be a touchy subject, but she knew that they were linked together and Muriel's telepathic power strengthened that link. "How did it go?"

"Not well." Muriel put the book he was reading face-down on the glass coffee table in front of the couch.

"You eavesdropped, didn't you?" Haniel turned sideways to Muriel who sat cross-legged in the corner of the couch.

"You can't eavesdrop when at least one participant in the conversation is aware of your presence."

"So what did Damon say? Why did he want to see Uriel?" Haniel moved closer to Muriel.

"He wants Tina back."

"Or else?" Haniel leaned toward Muriel and rested his arm on the back of the white couch.

"Nothing. He didn't utter a single threat."

"But?"

"I don't know." Muriel hugged himself, his brows furrowing together. "He did sound like he had a backup plan if Uriel refuses and Uriel got the feeling it's something that we really wouldn't like."

"Why did Irene pretend like she didn't know me or say anything to Prva? Prva sounded like she would hand me over to Damon with pleasure." Tina walked to the back of the couch and looked down at the boys.

"Because that would give Prva leverage," Muriel explained.

"I think," Haniel said, "that since there was no demand for Abbas in exchange for you, Damon probably assumed that Prva and Angelica are not aware who you are, and that we have our own agenda. And since he didn't know what that was, he wanted to talk with Uriel."

"Yes," Muriel nodded. "Since Damon seems to be a tactician like Uriel, I think that, too."

"Like father, like son." Haniel smirked.

"So, am I returning to Damon?" Tina leaned her elbows on the back of the couch. She should be afraid of that possibility, shouldn't she? But... as afraid as she was of what Damon would do when he got his hands on her, she... she actually slightly missed the jerk. How could that have happened? She nibbled on her fingers. And she missed Trinity, too. The times that she surfaced were too few and with the Dumes crowding inside her head as soon Muriel could feel her, she hadn't had any time to talk things through with Trinity. Yeah, if she could just talk with Trinity...

"Of course not." Haniel grabbed her hand. "Just because of some... I mean, you are with us now, we will protect you, won't we, Muriel?"

Muriel nodded.

"You are so sweet." Tina patted Haniel's hand before her gaze fell on Muriel. "Muriel, do you think you could you awake Trinity later? I would like to talk to her."

"I can try."

"That's all I ask." Tina straightened and touched Haniel's shoulder. "And can I borrow your phone?"

"Why?" Haniel asked, even though he had already grabbed his black jacket. From its inner pocket he pulled out a slim gadget.

"I would like to call home," Tina reached for the phone. "It's okay, right? Uriel said that I can as long as I don't say unnecessary things."

Haniel handed her the phone. "Yes, it's okay."

Tina took the phone, thanked Haniel and crossed the living room. She went toward the door of the room Haniel had pointed out as hers.

She opened the door and froze, not able to tear her gaze from the heavy case, the size of a single bed, that dominated the small room. The small wall lamp above it that lighted as soon as she opened the door made the steel glitter in the artificial light.

She had seen those before. Three of them. But those had been in the eerily clean basement of the Dumes' house, arranged in a neat rows among the smaller wooden boxes like they belonged there, as if they were nothing more than storage units. No wonder the Dumes' bedrooms hadn't had beds in them, only couches or sofas.

"What's wrong?" Haniel's voice woke her up.

"Nothing." She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, then she inched toward the wide box. Her hand slid over the smooth surface before she grabbed the handle at the side of the lid with both hands and opened it. She expected it to be heavier, but it opened as easily as the boot of a car, revealing a white padded exterior, two pillows and a folded cashmere blanket.

A version of a bed. It looked comfortable and wide enough for two people, and it even had a lock inside, but... She pushed the lid down. They didn't expect her to sleep in this, did they? She'd talk with Haniel about that, but now... She sat on the case and in the weak light called a familiar number.

It rang seven times; she had already given up on anyone picking up the phone, when a raspy voice answered.

"Dad?"

"Tina. Nice to hear you. How are you?"

"Fine." She pressed the phone tighter to her ear.

"And the new job?"

"It's... It's interesting. There's a lot of travelling. I'm in London right now." Her fingers scratched against the polished surface of the steel.

"That's good. That's good."

"Yeah."

A soft hum echoed her 'yeah' then a silence stretched over the line. Tina frowned, the phone still tightly against her ear. What should she say? "How...?"

"What...?"

"You go first," her dad said.

"How is everybody?"

"Okay. Simone said to say 'hi' to you," her dad said before he mentioned Tina's two half-siblings. He told her how he went to her stepbrother's basketball game, and how he was proud of his son even when his team lost. Then he rambled about her little stepsister's first recital, how cute she was and that he had taped it all.

Tina tensed her jaw. He had never attended her school activities. She forced herself to unlock her jaw and rubbed her forehead. Oh, yeah, he'd tried to be there when she needed him, but he had missed all the important events in her life, offering her nothing but empty excuses. He probably loved her -- no, not probably, she knew that he loved her, but... he didn't love her like he loved them. Because they were special: they were wanted, while she was just the result of recklessness in his student years.

It had been a mistake to call him.

She should have known better.

She subtly ended the conversation then pulled her legs against her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

She really should have known better.

Well, that didn't go too well!

"Trinity?"

Yeah. Miss me?

Tina snorted. "You really know when to pop up."

Yeah, well, I lurk here and there, just to see what you are all doing and if you might need me.

"You mean, you are spying on us."

I wouldn't say it like that.

Tina tapped the phone against her chin. She wanted to talk to Trinity and now that she could, she didn't know where to start.

Are you okay?

"Yes."

You feel a little down.

She had forgotten. Trinity could feel whatever she felt. "Well, sort of. Will you give me a pat on my head?" Tina's lips curved into a ghost of a smile.

I'm not good with the consolation stuff, I never was. I'm more used to the kick-in-the-ass approach, Trinity said. Damon is better at this, he always knows just what to say to make people feel better... or worse.

"He's planning something."

Yeah, I heard. It would actually be weird if he weren't. You are not afraid, are you? I can't sense that you are.

"I don't know what's wrong with me, but I haven't been really afraid since Abbas bit me. The most that I can feel now is unpleasant."

It's probably Damon's blood. Gelbeliya's blood is very powerful and it gives strength to those that drink it -- that's probably what suppressed your feelings of fear.

"It still doesn't make sense." Tina stretched her legs, her gaze sliding over the beige patterned wallpaper where, despite the semi-darkness, she could distinguish the petals that wove just under the ceiling.

I'm not good at explaining things. Ask Uriel about that, he has some knowledge of science. If you remember I come from a time when only men of nobility knew how to read, Trinity said. Even though...

"What?"

When I became Damon's Beloved, he tried to teach me, but... but I didn't want to learn, I was more interested in learning how to fight and in my revenge...

"Revenge?"

Yeah.

Tina could hear the slight tremor in Trinity's voice. They never talked about Trinity's past -- it was somehow a taboo theme -- and it seemed that it still had an influence on Trinity.

I really don't know what he saw in me.

"Why?"

Because I was a low peasant, and he was Damon, Lord of the Lost. When I first saw him he seemed so sparkling. So larger than life. And he is. Larger than life.

Tina could feel a smile in Trinity's voice.

He can't do anything half-heartedly, and he can be quite scary, sometimes, especially when he calls your bluff and shows you the things you don't want to see. Damn, he could be really irritating sometimes, but... he's special and he made me feel special, too.

Tina leaned her elbow on her knees and put her chin on her hand, basking in the warmth coming from Trinity's soul. So that's what love felt like.

I must sound like a love-sick fool.

"No."

So, what did you want to talk with me about?

"How much strength do you have?"

So-so. Why?

"Uriel talked about taking me hunting tomorrow. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but... I don't think that I will be able to pull it off on my own. So... do you think you are strong enough to keep me company?"

Chapter 8

The narrow, frosted bulb that sat naked on the lamp post flickered in the darkness, exposing the wet pavement and the waxing moon's reflection. The alley slept in a silence broken only here and there by the sound of music, laughter and voices that drifted from the main street.

"Your turn."

Tina tore her gaze from the door, visible in the faltering light of the street lamp, and the twinkling of the net Muriel had set not a half hour ago -- not that she needed light to distinguish things in the darkness anymore. She turned toward Muriel and looked down, where a pile of cards lay on the leather surface of the car seat between Muriel and her. A nine of hearts was on top of it.

From the fan of cards she pulled out a three of hearts and tossed it on the pile. When Uriel had said that they were going to take her hunting with them, she hadn't expected to end up in the car playing cards with Muriel, while the others, their swords drawn, strolled through that door down to where Petsha supposedly had an exclusive nightclub, for Deadeaters and their victims only.

She had fretted and worried for nothing. Her jaw locked, her eyes on the three of clubs that Muriel added to the pile. She didn't mind being left behind in the car, but she did mind that they thought she needed supervision for that. Hadn't Uriel known that she wouldn't run -- there was nowhere to run anyway -- or that she wouldn't foolishly leave the car and follow them?

Like she would even want to after she saw how people shoved the door open and dashed across the street, like a horde of confused chickens, with their mouths gaping like beaks; no sound coming out because of Muriel's barrier, which caused all the humans to lose their voices.

Muriel had assured Tina that the vibration of the electronic net coming from ten small cubes influenced the vocal cords only temporarily, and that when the people woke up in the morning, because of the substance that Deadeaters added to their drinks to make them more cooperative they wouldn't remember what had happened. That assurance dispersed Tina's fear that she might have not seen the Dumes for what they really were, and she breathed a sigh of relief for not being on the bad guys' side; because if hunting Deadeaters without harming humans hadn't made them good guys nothing else would, right? Yeah.

"It's your turn."

Tina pulled out a five of diamonds to go over a five of spades.

Muriel threw a queen of diamonds on the pile. A soft grumble came from his stomach.

"Are you hungry?" Tina laid down her hand and pulled up the bag that rested at her feet. She rummaged among Haniel's extra Lycra shirt, some sheathed short knives and souped-up stun guns that Haniel had brought for her to use from god knows where, until she dragged out a small paper bag with sandwiches, which she had managed, with a lot of nagging and complaining, to get from Uriel on their way here. She offered one to Muriel.

"I'm not hungry. Now, it's a queen, pick up two cards."

"Are you sure?" Tina stuffed the sandwiches back into the bag, which she lowered on the floor.

"I don't eat."

Tina raised her brows. Of course he doesn't eat, he refuses to grow up. She picked up two cards.

"It's the subconscious response." When Tina continued to stare at him he tilted his head. "Whenever we go hunting, we use Deadeaters to replenish our body's stock of hemoglobin. And my stomach always grumbles."

"Replenish? What's that supposed to mean?" Tina kicked the unzipped boots off her feet and tucked her legs underneath her bottom. There seemed to be a story there.

"It's a nicer expression for sucking blood." Muriel threw the last of the cards, the four of diamonds, on the pile. "I win. One more?"

"You suck blood from Deadeaters? You are the same as vampires, then."

"Of course I'm not. And neither are the others." Muriel's eyes transformed into thin lines and a small, quite adorable pout found its way onto his lips. He tucked the black bangs that fell on his face behind his ear. "You better not say something like that to Uriel, or anybody else for that matter."

"Why?"

"It's like saying you are the same as a rat."

"Really? An insult."

Muriel nodded. "The worst kind."

"Why?"

"Look, Haniel is coming."

Tina twisted her body and looked over her shoulder, just as the door slammed open and Haniel crossed the threshold and the net, coming toward them.

The edges of Haniel's unzipped black jacket flapped open and his long, black hair floated behind him as he closed the distance to the car. He untied the cord that held the sheathed sword on his back, then opened the car door and slid onto the seat beside Muriel. He slumped back in the seat and with a smile playing on his lips patted his stomach. "I'm so full."

"You could at least wait until I get out." Muriel grabbed the shorter sword, kodachi and similar dagger, wakizashi, that were in the net on the backside of the driver's seat. He climbed over Haniel, who stuck his tongue out at him.

"You are too childish." Muriel glared at Haniel before he pulled himself up. He closed the car door and strode toward the net and through the door.

"What's that?" Tina scrutinized the small, dark, wet stain on Haniel's lower lips.

Haniel's tongue darted out and he licked his mouth. "Oh, that, it's just a little leftover hemoglobin."

"You mean blood?"

"Yeah."

Tina inched backwards. She didn't fear Haniel or think any differently of him \-- he was Haniel -- but the feeling of wrongness nagged at the back of her mind.

She shouldn't be here.

She should be at home, in the flat her grandmother had left her, looking for a job.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Tina rubbed the side of her neck. "It's just weird to be waiting here while you fill your bellies and kill..." Not people, they were Deadeaters, but they might as well be people. She had never seen them, didn't know what they were like. "Those things. And I don't need a guard. I don't know why I'm not able to wait on my own."

"You heard Uriel. You have Gelbeliya's blood in your veins and just a drop of your blood could give them a burst of strength. Any Deadeaters that come close to you could smell it and try to munch on you, and they would probably succeed. We are here to get rid of them -- and have a little snack while we are at it -- not make them more powerful."

"Oh," Tina leaned closer. She shouldn't be interested. She should just pretend that she didn't care, instead of wanting to learn everything that concerned Trinity, Damon and the Dumes, but this was about her, too. She leaned closer. "So if a Deadeater gets a chance to suck your blood, Beliya's or Gelbeliya's, he would gain power?"

"Yeah."

"Why haven't any of them done that?"

"Because there's no way they could overpower any of us, duh. And besides, when they are thirsty, they aren't known for their tactics or even rationality."

"But Uriel said that Petsha is able to control his thirst. Why -- oh, I see. He might be rational, but his minions aren't and on his own he isn't strong enough, right?"

"Something like that." Haniel stopped smiling, the dimples that accompanied every one of his smiles disappeared, and suddenly the resemblance to Uriel became painfully obvious. Even his voice adopted Uriel's lecturing tone. "His subordinates are quite sane compared to other Deadeaters, but they can't be controlled in that state, not after they've tasted blood -- we would be in trouble if they could. Their numbers would increase so swiftly without us controlling and reducing them, that if they ever united they would become a large problem, especially for Mamaels, the humans."

"So you are doing this for humans." She knew that they were the good guys. She just knew it.

"Of course not." Haniel chuckled and all the likeness to Uriel condensed to the similar straight nose, slightly almond-shaped green eyes and the colour of the hair. "We need to do this because they are not exactly inconspicuous. It's bad that Mamaels are writing books and making movies about them -- don't ever mention that to Prva, she doesn't know -- but if their numbers get out of control, Mamaels might learn that all those folk stories are true and they might even find out about us."

"You mean she doesn't know?"

"She doesn't like entertaining gadgets like TV and computers. She thinks they're a waste of time. And she doesn't go out much."

"But isn't it weird not to --" Since Haniel put his hand over her mouth, the rest came out as a mumble.

He stared out on the street.

She peeled his hand away and whispered, "What's wrong?"

"Put your shoes on."

Her feet dove into the boots and she zipped them. "What's going on?"

"Shhh." He tied the sword over his back, the hilt of the blade bumping against the car's ceiling, and silently opened the door. "Take the bag."

She picked up the bag and pulled it over her shoulder, then Haniel's hand led her out of the car and across the street into the niche between the two buildings. "What's going on?"

"Damon is near."

"Damon? Are you sure?" she whispered back, her fingers tightly holding the edge of Haniel's jacket.

"Yes. With one of his Beliya. Irene, I think." Haniel hid her behind him, then drew the sword from its sheath.

"What are you going to do?" Tina browsed through the bag, pulling up a -- she looked at the thing in her hand -- knuckle blaster stun gun. Okay, this could come in handy. She pushed it into the pocket of the brown coat she had borrowed from Haniel before she put her hand in the bag again. A dagger would be good too. She slid it, together with the leather sheath, into her sleeve. Not that she would use it \-- in a crisis, she would probably freeze up, delay too much or not even be able to use it on Damon -- but it gave her a sense of security.

"I don't know. I can take on Irene, but I'm no match for Damon," Haniel said, his body tense and his gaze searching the street. "I have told Muriel, and they're coming."

Tina, gazing over Haniel's shoulder, noticed movement just by the street light. Her eyes zoomed in on the spot, but she couldn't see anything, until she noticed that the movement she saw belonged to a shadow. She looked up, and there he was just beside the light. A human figure with large bat wings.

Does Damon even have wings? A wrinkle appeared on her forehead. It seemed that he did. "Where was he hiding those wings? In his pocket?"

"A few Gelbeliya and even some Beliya have wings." Haniel withdrew backwards, his hand splayed on Tina's belly pushing her behind him deeper into the darkness. "Now, could you stop talking, please. They might hear us. I wish you would be a little more afraid."

"It's not like Damon's going to hurt me. Well, I don't think he would." And how could she be afraid when she suffered the absence of fear? Tina rested her hand on Haniel's shoulder as she peeked over it. Her eyes found the silhouette that with spread wings descended to the ground. She watched as the boots touched the pavement, the wings folded and... disappeared. How was that possible?

"No, not you. But there's a big possibility that he would hurt me."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Despite the distance Tina could distinguish the tilt of Damon's head, how he turned around as if he were sniffing the air before he whirled around in their direction and stalked toward them.

She could feel the muscles under her palm tense.

"He shouldn't sense you," Haniel hissed under his breath.

The door at the opposite side of the street burst open, Uriel rushing through it. The edges of his long coat lifted and he disappeared for a second, just to reappear at the entrance of the niche.

Tina, who just for a moment had taken her eyes off Damon, shifted her gaze to where Damon was supposed to be. But he wasn't there anymore.

"Looking for me?" a gentle whisper caressed Tina's ear and a strong arm wrapped around Tina's waist.

Tina froze and her heart fluttered in her chest as if trying to get out.

Everything slowed down. She could feel Damon's indrawn breath, the small shift as finger after finger put pressure on her hip, how slowly Damon's hand pulled her backwards and the warmth of Damon's outward sigh as it brushed against her skin.

Her heartbeat slowed down. The bag fell off her arm as she stumbled and fell on Damon's chest.

"Now be a good girl and don't flap around too much. I would hate to cut something by accident." His left arm around Tina's torso, Damon pulled a long sword from the sheath hanging on his belt with his free hand. The sword was similar to a katana, but its blade was not curved like one. He aimed it at Uriel and Haniel who, with blades drawn, glared at him from two steps away.

"I would appreciate it if you boys would step aside, so I can pass."

"You wish," Haniel hissed. "Give her back."

"To you?" Damon's lips curved into a smirk. "She's mine. I found her first."

The silence that followed that statement pressed down on them. Tina could swear she could see them measuring each other. She should be afraid, and her body tensed, but she felt more uncomfortable than afraid, and a little annoyed by the testosterone that seem to sizzle in the air. If they were in the open and without her in the middle, they would probably be circling each other, their blades clashing here and there just to test their opponent's strength and skill.

A soft clang sounded somewhere in the alley. Haniel, lifting the sword whirled around. Something flashed and fell down with a metal clang. Then another swing of the blade and new metal clangs against the ground.

Haniel whispered something to Uriel, who nodded, before he went out to the street; moving so fast that Tina's eyes had trouble following him. He was probably going to find the person who fired those shots.

"One on one." Damon twirled his swords. "You are at disadvantage now."

"Why don't you stop using her as a shield and let me see if your strength matches your ego." Uriel brandished his sword at Damon's head.

Damon's blade blocked the hit, it slid along Uriel's katana before Damon pushed it forward, the tip aiming at Uriel's heart.

Uriel ducked, then slashed his sword at Damon's gut. Damon jumped out of the way, pushing Tina backwards. "This seems so much like fighting over a damsel -- how romantic and old-fashioned. I would be all for it, but unfortunately for you, I don't believe in fighting for something that's already mine."

"You are just a coward, hiding behind a Mamael," Uriel spat, angling his blade forward at Damon's right side.

"You don't really believe that." Damon's lips curved into a smirk. His arm moved Tina from his front to his side as he brandished his sword. He parried Uriel's attack with smooth ease.

So macho, Tina couldn't help but roll her eyes. She should be screaming and panicking -- well, not exactly screaming since she had never been the kind of person to use her voice that way, but her heart should be loud in her ears and there should be something more beyond the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Was she so calm because of Damon's arm that held her so safely and moved her out of the way so swiftly? Or was because of her knowledge of Uriel's skill and the trust she had in his swordsmanship?

Uriel pushed forward, but Damon blocked his every attack, moving Tina to and fro, and from side to side, his left hand never releasing its grip on her.

Tina was turned around and her head almost hit the wall. Her breath caught. She could see her skull smashed against the wall. She raised her arms, her heartbeat raced and again, everything slowed down. She could see the cracks in the wall, hear the swishes of Damon's and Uriel's swords. Then she was pulled back, away from the wall and away from harm's way.

"Those stupid men," she hissed under her breath. Time sped up. The sparks of steel against steel fell on her skin and sounds of clashes echoed so loudly in her ear.

Damon twirled her around; this time she ended up beside him, as he attacked Uriel from the side. She saw his long sword thrusting forward, aiming for Uriel's heart, and it seemed that Uriel wouldn't be able to prevent the steel from making contact with his skin.

Tina's heart hammered against her ribcage, the world slowed down again. She pushed her hand into her coat pocket, her fingers slid over smooth plastic and slipped into its holes. She pulled the stun gun out and shoved it backwards against Damon's chest, her thumb pressing the button.

Damon's hold on her loosened, he stumbled backwards and the blade fell from his hand.

Tina watched as the sword seemed to float in the air, then it sped up and fell to the ground.

"I would have parried that," Uriel grumbled as he surged forward.

Tina's heartbeat sped up and everything slowed down again, she watched Uriel passing her by in slow motion, she could already see Uriel's sword in Damon's gut.

"No!"

No! Trinity voice screamed with her.

She struck out, the stun gun hit Uriel's side and electricity shook his body.

Uriel fell down on his knees.

Then the time sped up again. She stared down at Uriel.

"You are being a handful. Just like Trinity." Damon's even voice woke Tina from a daze.

She turned around, her gaze slid over Damon, who doubled over and pressed his hand against his chest.

"I don't want you to hurt each other. You are father and son."

"He's not my son." Damon took a deep breath then he picked up his sword.

Oh, no you won't. No more fighting, Trinity said. Quickly, think about something frightening.

Tina did and the world slowed down again.

Now use the same thing on him as you did on Uriel, and then run. They can't fight if they are following you.

Tina obeyed her and not even waiting for Damon to fall down, she darted out on the street, not even knowing where she was going, her head empty. She started to run. The world around her moved at normal speed again but as soon as that happened, she thought about things that sped up her heartbeat.

Why didn't you wake me up? Trinity asked. I told you to wake me up.

Tina's lungs started to burn. She wanted to answer Trinity, but she just couldn't spill the words out. She looked back over her shoulder, her breath caught in her throat. A large thing with wings followed her.

And it wasn't Damon.

No, it looked like a mutation, a hybrid between human and bat.

Her foot caught on the edge of the pavement. She fell down. Her heart echoed fast and loudly in her ears and this time she didn't need to think about anything to speed up her heart. She picked herself up and gathering all the strength that she had she ran toward the main street.

Wait, it's okay. You can stop running.

Was she serious? There was a monster on her heels. And god knew to whom it belonged. Tina refused to listen to Trinity.

Something touched her shoulders. Tina looked at it. They were claws, long sharp talons. They grabbed her and lifted her up. Oh, god. She kicked and wiggled, trying to get out of the monster's hold.

It's okay, Muriel's voice as a soft caress filled Tina's mind.

No! It was not okay. Tina couldn't really comprehend why would Muriel want to put her at ease. She continued to struggle even as the monster's wings lifted them high above the buildings.

Stop struggling, Trinity ordered.

But Tina couldn't obey Trinity. She just couldn't. She wasn't ready to give up. She wanted to stay with the Dumes. She wanted to play games with Haniel, she wanted to talk about books with Muriel, she wanted to learn all about swords under Uriel's guidance, and to get to know much more about them.

She wanted to tell all that to Trinity, but then something touched her mind, something grey, cold and slightly familiar, and she descended into warm darkness.

Chapter 9

"Do you know what I have to go thorough every time that she calls me? Do you? And for what?"

Tina's eyelids fluttered open. In the darkness her gaze slid over the back of the car seat and part of the back door before she closed them again.

"Stop whining, please."

Tina could feel the strong arm loosely holding her around her middle, the soft leather under her cheeks and warm breath on the top of her head. And she recognized Uriel's strict, even voice coming from somewhere in front of her. She nuzzled closer to the warmth of the body that held her and gentle fingers brushed down her back in soothing circles.

"She doesn't just stick needles in me! She steps inside my body! She takes things out. And she looks at them, poking, cutting before she puts them back in. Do you know how much that hurts? Do you?"

The sound of impact and of breaking bones echoed in the car.

"You are just like her," the voice mumbled, muffled by something.

"I asked you to shut up nicely. But you refused."

"Listen, you babbling idiot," the voice above Tina said. "My brother spent his early childhood with that thing and went through much worse things than just poking and cutting. Much, much worse. You can't even imagine how much worse. So when he tells you to shut up. You shut up."

Tina yawned, opened her eyes and craned her neck to look at Haniel, her senses still a little disoriented. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Haniel patted her back.

Tina blinked and straightened, her gaze fell on Muriel, who sat curled beside Haniel. She gave him a small smile, but the green eyes peeking at her from under black bangs turned away. What's his problem? She frowned and leaned on the back of the seat beside Haniel. "What..."

She ignored Haniel, who waited with raised eyebrows for her to finish the sentence, and rubbed her forehead. There was something nagging at the back of her mind. Something that...There was something not right with finding herself in the car with Muriel, Haniel, Uriel and the strange blond that sat in the passenger seat. What was it? What gave her that feeling? The silver rope that held the blond in the seat? No. Then what? "What happened?"

"Quite a lot. You zapped Uriel and Damon," Haniel said in a low voice, the corners of his mouth curved in a smirk. "I didn't know you had that in you."

"They were trying to kill each other," Tina whispered to Haniel.

"I'm glad you did that," Haniel whispered back. "You know, that you didn't allow Uriel to strike the fatal blow." A short pause before he continued. "Because he would have done it -- he hates Damon -- And then he would have carried the guilt of what he had done for the rest of his life. You know, wonder what if..." Haniel's voice broke. He coughed and continued. "What if Damon would someday accept us and he ruined the chance for us?"

"Damon is such a jerk. I'm sorry." Tina hadn't exactly known what she should say, but she could relate to problems with parents, even though their relationship or lack of it with Damon seemed to be more complicated than her relationship with her dad. Life was so unfair. She wrapped her arm around Haniel's shoulders, determined not to allow him to dwell on such sad matters. "How angry is Uriel? Is he going to beat me?" she asked, even though she knew that Uriel wouldn't harm her or at least she assumed he wouldn't.

"He's not angry, not really. I think he's actually proud of you for not being passive, but he won't tell you that. When we get home, he'll probably lecture you, not praise you."

"Yeah?" She leaned her head on Haniel's shoulder.

"Would you two stop mumbling?" Uriel said, his green eyes flashed in the rear-view mirror.

"Hey, who's the blond?" Tina in low voice asked.

"Petsha. Prva asked for him," Haniel whispered so quietly that Tina could hardly hear him.

"When did Uriel manage to pick him up? Wasn't he busy with getting Damon away from me? How did --" she froze, the nagging feeling of wrongness flashed before her eyes in the image of claws holding her by her shoulders and the city's lights in the distance.

She thought that Uriel had saved her from Damon, but no... she saved herself, didn't she? And then that monster got her. She straightened, her fingers automatically going to her mouth. She nibbled on them. What was that?

"What's wrong?" Haniel put a hand on her shoulder.

"There was this monster. How did I get away?"

"Oh, that." Haniel waved his hand. "That was --"

Muriel kicked Haniel.

Haniel furrowing his brows glared at him, then his forehead smoothed and he nodded before he turned back to Tina.

"What was that?" Tina raised her brows, and even though she asked Haniel, she gazed at Muriel, who refused to look her in the eyes.

"Muriel saved you."

"You did?" Tina reached past Haniel, her fingers touched Muriel's arm. She frowned at the way Muriel flinched and stiffened, wondering why, and the questions of how he had managed to do that and what had happened stuck in her throat. "Thank you."

#

Tina stood in the big, L-shaped kitchen with black and light-brown cabinets and steel appliances. She leaned on a large island with a sink, a grey marble worktop and five barstools framing it. The island separated the kitchen from the dining area, with an oak table and six black, padded chairs.

"Why is he being like that?" She glared at Haniel, knowing perfectly well that he knew the reason Muriel had been avoiding her since they returned to Prva's house yesterday.

"Just give him time, okay?"

No, it wasn't okay. She wanted to know what she had done and she wanted to fix things now. She opened her mouth to say that, but Uriel, who sat behind the table, facing them, reading a book, raised his head and demanded that she stop pestering Haniel. Tina looked daggers at Uriel. "I'm not pestering him."

"Yes, you are." Uriel inserted a bookmark between the pages and set the book down on the table, aligning it with its edge. He straightened and stood up. "You are fully aware that Haniel has trouble rejecting your requests and you are exploiting that."

"I'm not." Tina crossed her arms. She wouldn't do something like that, she wasn't that kind of a person and besides there was no way Haniel would submit to her like that. "Tell him..." She looked in Haniel's direction; her eyes widened at the how the little pipsqueak had sneaked out of the room.

"You are the closest thing to Trinity; you carry her inside you and he'd do anything to please you. Muriel too -- that's the reason why he's so hurt." Uriel stalked toward Tina. "But I'm the one with the memories, I remember Mum, her voice, her touch, and even if you have her inside you, you are nothing like her."

"I never said that I was," Tina stepped backwards. She had no intention of arguing with Uriel. The man was too moody lately. She could feel her heartbeat speed up and she counted on her newfound ability to get out of Uriel's reach.

Uriel grabbed her hand as if he knew what she intended to do and pulled her closer. Too close. He leaned over her, so slowly.

Tina stared at stormy eyes; she should have wiggled her hand out of Uriel's hold, but she stayed there, rooted to the spot. Normally she wouldn't have noticed it, but now as Uriel's emerald eyes slowly drew near her it was painfully obvious. The sadness, frustration and pain. Somehow she knew that she wasn't the reason for those feelings. And that he wouldn't hurt her. The fear dissolved under the need to know what was causing that.

Time sped up and Uriel's sharp eyes softened. He released her with a sigh. He ran his fingers through his bangs. "I'm sorry, I frightened you. I didn't mean to... just don't push Muriel, he'll tell you when he's ready."

She grabbed his hand. "What happened?"

"He'll tell you when --"

"No, to all of you. What... " She bit her lip and gazed at the wooden floor, but refused to let him go. "What happened to you to make you act this way?"

Hard lines transformed Uriel's face into a cold mask, but he didn't jerk his hand out of Tina's. "What are you talking about?"

Tina's forehead wrinkled. She doubted that Deadeaters had the ability to influence Uriel's emotional state, but... he had fought with Damon and... it had to be... "It's Damon, isn't it? What did he do?"

"You like to stick your nose in matters that don't concern you."

"Is it because he said that you are not his son?"

"No." Uriel's jaw tensed. "It's because he's a selfish prick." He pulled his hand from Tina's, a soft snort escaped him. "But I can't really blame him, since that's a characteristic all the Bloodeater share."

"Do you hate him?" Tina couldn't help but to push for more, even though of the three, Uriel was the one she connected with the least and he was also the scary one, the one to be obeyed without question, because just his dangerous glares inspired imaginings of all kinds of painful and horrid punishments. She could still feel the unpleasantness of Uriel's reprimand for using a stun gun on him.

"Of course I hate him." Uriel turned away from Tina.

"Uriel?" Tina's fingers brushed against Uriel's stiff back.

"He turned us away when I asked for his help."

She didn't say anything, just stood there, with her palm against the warmth of Uriel's back, feeling that she just had to wait and it would be okay. That this was exactly what he needed. She bit her lip. But she could also be wrong. She didn't really know Uriel.

"He said 'no' to a small child and a toddler -- his flesh and blood. How could he?" The words spilled out and Uriel's shoulders tensed, the spine looking as if it were going to curl forward. "If he had at least taken in Haniel and Muriel, it would have been fine. I was old enough to take care of myself, and I was used to Angelica's treatment, but they..."

Tina wrapped her arms around Uriel's middle and pressed her cheek against Uriel's back.

"They were so small and fragile and they didn't have the memories of Mum like I did; the memories that kept me sane." Inhale and exhale. "I didn't know what to do and that..." Uriel's hands curled, the knuckles turned white. "He looked down on us with such contempt in his eyes. He called us Angelica's freaks."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Tina's lips narrowed into a thin line as she pressed herself closer. She couldn't believe that Damon would do that. The insensitive ass.

"I wouldn't have cared if he had said it only to me, but he said that to them, he rejected them." Uriel swallowed. "Haniel was too little to remember that, but Muriel wasn't. He still thinks that he really is a monster."

"Of course, he isn't. He's just a boy. One who drinks blood and has supernatural abilities, but he's still just a young boy."

"He's 437 years old, he's not exactly young." Uriel covered her hands with his.

"Oh." Tina shifted; she rested her forehead against Uriel's spine. They stayed like that for a spell, her breath dampening the cotton of Uriel's blue T-shirt before she spoke again. "How old are you?"

"451."

"Ah. That's a lot."

"Yeah," Uriel said and comfortable silence again settled over them like a thick blanket before a phone ringing sharply cut into it.

"Your phone is ringing."

"Yes, I know."

"Aren't you going to pick it up?"

"Yeah," Uriel answered, but he didn't pull his phone out of his jean's pocket. His hands still lay over Tina's, the warmth of them seeping into Tina's skin. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier."

"What?"

"For saying you are nothing like her. It's true, but I didn't mean it as an insult." He patted her hand. "You may not act and talk like she did, and your voice is different, but you have a kind heart like her and you care for people like she does. You care. And that's what's important."

The ringing stopped, but then a few seconds later the door burst open and Haniel almost fell through it. His eyes slid over Uriel, the hands on his middle, and he froze. "What are you two doing?"

"I told her a story and she felt the need to console me." Uriel allowed Tina to pull her hands from under his.

"You did?" Haniel asked before he frowned. "What kind of story?"

Uriel's phone started to ring again.

Tina pushed herself away from Uriel and moved to his side.

"Oh." Haniel stepped closer, his fingers shifted a long braid forward and he scratched his neck. "I almost forgot: Nathanael called. Prva wants to see Tina again."

"I see." Uriel pulled the phone out of his pocket and pressed it against his ear as he walked toward the door. "Yes." He opened the door, gesturing for them to follow him.

"Come on." Haniel grabbed Tina's hand and pulled her past Uriel through the door, across the anteroom and out into the open.

"What are you doing?" Tina stumbled after Haniel, the coldness of the night seeping through the thin fabric of her violet sweater.

"We are going to see Prva. I don't like it, but we'd better get it over with." Haniel stopped at the golf-cart parked at the side of the house, pushed Tina into it and after he sat in the driver's seat turned the key in ignition and drove off.

"Why? Wouldn't it be better to stall?"

Uriel's silhouette flashed beside the cart before he appeared on the bench beside Tina.

"And taste Prva's displeasure? I don't think so. She's in charge of the Damned and this estate, you know, and as long as we live under her roof, we have to follow her 'requests'." Haniel, lifting his brows, glanced at Tina before he directed his gaze to the road that twisted between trees and buildings.

"Aren't you worried?" Tina knew she was.

"Just stay off to the side and no matter what, keep out of the way," Uriel said.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of her." Haniel turned the cart toward the wide, tall building that dominated the estate, and which also hosted Angelica's lab.

Uriel leaned over Tina and flicked Haniel's forehead. "I meant both of you, not just her. Let me do the talking."

"Yes, sir." Haniel rolled his eyes. He turned a wheel so that they were parallel with the entrance.

They stopped with a screech of the breaks. Uriel jumped off the cart and Haniel followed him. Haniel's hand found Tina's and he dragged her behind him up the stairs and through the doors, which had opened as soon Uriel stepped on the first stair, then closed behind them.

Tina vaguely remembered the big hall from the time when Uriel had taken her to their house though its grey walls, spacious and empty hallways reminded her more of the hospital than the home of the most powerful Damned. Even the Dumes' small house looked more magnificent than this large storehouse.

Three white-haired children that stood by the door, who looked no older than seven years old, were apparently waiting for them.

With a nod of their heads they greeted Uriel as he passed them by, not stopping as he strode toward the staircase, and then down the stairs.

Haniel followed him with Tina, the three children joining them.

"So that's your Aradma?" the child with pigtails asked, the serious expression she wore and her sharp tone a contradiction to her small, thin frame and a childlike voice.

"Yes." Haniel descended down the stairs, his fingers firmly holding Tina's hand. "Now, what's going on? Do you know why Prva wants to see her?"

"Yeah." The boy's big sky-blue eyes measured Tina as he ran alongside her.

"Angelica wants to claim your Aradma," the girl with pigtails said.

"Not that she can since she's already yours," the girl with hair slicked into a high ponytail added. "But Angelica incest."

"You mean insists," the one with pigtails corrected her.

"That's what I said."

"Who are they?" Tina asked Haniel in low voice. "And could Angelica get her way?" She really didn't like that possibility. It sent shivers up her spine.

"She can't and even if she could, Uriel would never allow it. And they are Numuns, the fourth batch, I think." Haniel turned around the corner. "The boy's name is Gabriel. Right?"

The boy nodded.

"And the girls are... What's your name, darlings?"

"I'm Remiell," the girl with pigtails announced.

"And I'm Sariel." The girl with the ponytail took hold of Tina's free hand.

"Nice to meet you." Tina squeezed the small hand, glanced down giving the child what she hoped was an encouraging smile, and bumped against Haniel who stopped at the end of the stairs.

Haniel pulled her toward the heavy steel door that was at the end of the hallway. They stepped through it into a gallery where the smooth grey wall gave way to an arched ceiling of stone bricks. Sariel's hand released hers as she dashed after Uriel.

Tina could see Uriel at the end of the gallery before he started to descend down the stairs. She wanted to rush after him, but Haniel's hand stopped her. He shook his head and pointed down. "He said to stay out of the way, remember? Let's take it slow."

"Okay." Tina looked over the iron fence. A large hall, half of the size of the whole building, opened before her.

Her gaze found Uriel, who had reached the bottom of the stairs and strode forward.

They traced Uriel's path, at much slower pace. They passed simple wooden benches that stood in a half circle on the stone ground and arrived at a massive built-in armchair. Prva sat on it, her small fragile body cradled by pillows scattered on the cold stone.

The three children sat down on the white sheep skins that lay at the foot of the chair.

Tina saw Angelica floating on Prva's right, the light of her body almost blinding. And there on the left arm of Prva's chair sat Anael, her fingers playing with a large pocketknife, opening and closing it with a flick of her wrist.

The sound of Uriel's calm and even voice drew her gaze from Anael to Uriel, who with arms crossed, refused Angelica's demand with the explanation that even though Tina belonged to Haniel, she was still at Angelica's call and he didn't see any reason Angelica should have locked her in her lab.

"But you haven't sent her to me even once when I asked you to," Angelica argued.

"Tina," Prva said. "Step closer." After Tina obeyed, she wrapped her bird-like fingers around Tina's wrist, her thumb over the pulse "Angelica said that she found a hint of Father's blood in you? Have you ever met Abbas? And don't lie, I would know."

"Who's Abbas, ma'am?" Tina frowned, trying to breathe over the anxiety that started to bubble up as soon as she heard that Angelica had tried to get her under her 'wing'. She swallowed over the lump in her throat, determined not to show any weaknesses.

"The greatest mind in the universe." Prva pressed her talon into Tina's skin, but the sharp edge of its claw didn't cut, only bruised.

"But it's only a head now." Anael closed the knife and put it in the pocket of her blue jacket. "I haven't seen it, but it must be gruesome."

"You don't call our Father gruesome. Watch your mouth, Anael," Prva commanded.

"Yes, ma'am."

Prva focused back on Tina. "Have you seen it, child?"

"I don't know." Tina wanted to pull her hand from Prva's hold, to get away from the familiar and hated pressure that she could sense at the edge of her mind. It seemed that Prva and Abbas had similar powers.

"How can you not know?" A first, stronger wisp pushed against Tina's mind.

"She's lying." Angelica drew closer, her energy touched Tina's body.

Fear slammed Tina's heart almost violently against her ribcage, but she focused on breathing and withdrew inside herself, seeing and feeling her surroundings as if she were gazing through a window. What should she do? Should she call Trinity? But if she did, that might destroy everything. Her eyes found Uriel's. They were so beautifully green. So calm and soothing. It was like they were trying to embrace her, saying just trust in us. Just trust in yourself. As long as you do there's nothing to be afraid of.

The mental shield behind which she hid shattered and she again stared into Prva's ice-blue eyes.

Chapter 10

Empty your head, Muriel said at the start of each of their sessions, Tina remembered. Think of black velvet. Let all the memories, the images that haunt you become fine sand and blow it away. She did that, or at least she tried to, as Prva's thoughts invaded her mind, poking and searching, but not as painfully as in Abbas's session.

She didn't know how much time had passed, not when here and there her heart got out of control and it twisted time, but if felt so long and after Prva's presence in her head retracted and those blue eyes stopped scrutinising her, she could feel a thin layer of perspiration on her brow and tiredness that clung to her bones.

"You have some memory problems?" Prva's fingers released her hand.

Tina nodded, but only because it seemed the right thing to do, not because it was true.

"That explains the blank spaces." Prva leaned back on the pillows. "And you are useless to me. And to Angelica."

"That's not true. She could be of use." Angelica surged forward, she glared at Prva. "I'm interested in her blood, not her mind." Her gaze found Tina and she floated toward her. "And the girl might be tricking your senses, sister." She drove her arm into Tina's body.

Tina gasped and doubled down. A feeling of thousands ants nibbling on her flesh from inside spread from every spot that that white, intangible hand touched her. She fought against the nausea and pain that choked her. She held on to blackness and emptiness, trying to suppress the memories of Damon and Abbas, hiding them in a remote corner of her mind. A tear slipped down her cheek.

Somebody's hand wrapped around her waist and she was hauled backwards, away from Angelica's presence. She tried to straighten, to... She didn't know exactly what else she wanted to do. Her mind... She cradled her head, her breath coming in and out in short, shallow puffs.

"She's my property," Haniel said. "I agreed to lend her to you, but I didn't agree that you could render her useless. You can forget about getting her into your lab now."

"Hold your tongue, you insolent child." Angelica leaned forward, her hand reaching out for Tina.

"She's mine." Haniel pushed Tina behind his back.

Tina leaned on Haniel, her knees shook, her body trembled and she had trouble standing up. What had that thing done to her?

"You are mine, and what's yours is mine, too." The first hints of greyness sullied Angelica's white form.

"No, I'm not." Haniel glared at Angelica.

"Are they going to fight?" Gabriel climbed up in Prva's lap, and curled up there.

"No, they are not." Prva patted the boy's head.

"No, he isn't yours." Uriel stepped between Haniel and Angelica. "We made a contract, remember." He threw down the short jacket he wore. "I tied myself to you for my brothers' freedom." He rolled up the right sleeve of his thin white T-shirt, exposing his arm and the red and black tint that wove around his biceps in circles and small letters. "Remember this?" He showed it to her. "Our contract. I am yours and what's mine is yours, but no matter how much you like to forget, they are not yours anymore and what's theirs is not yours either." He covered his arm. "You know perfectly well if you insist on doing that our bond will break."

"Fine!" Grey shimmers framed Angelica's body before she abruptly turned away.

"I assume we are done?" Uriel turned toward Prva.

Prva nodded and with the wave of her hands dismissed them.

"Come on." Haniel put his hand around Tina's body, dragging her with him.

"What's happened to me?" Tina asked; a wrinkle appeared above her nose bridge. "I feel so tired." At least she had stopped shivering and she could walk on her own, but something told her that it would be better if she pretended to be weak.

"Angelica's touch can suck your life energy. I don't know how that could be possible. Damon's blood in you should prevent that," Haniel whispered. They had already passed the first three rows of benches. "Except... Angelica must have adjusted her vibration level to the blood that she took from you.

"Vibration level? What's that supposed to mean? And how could --"

Haniel covered her mouth and in a low voice explained, "Everyone's blood has a different vibration, but only few Bloodeaters can feel it. Muriel can and he can feed on people's life energy if he sets his vibration higher that his target, if he chooses too. He never does, since his empathy is too strong, and the risk of draining someone to death is too high. But Angelica does it all the time. It's the only way for her to feed."

"Uriel," Angelica called. "If I can't get her, then bring me Petsha. I know he's here on the estate somewhere. I have been feeling him since yesterday."

"I meant to talk with you about that, dear sister," Prva said. "I made a contract with Petsha."

Tina wanted to turn back, but Haniel with his long strides didn't allow her.

"Keep walking," Haniel grumbled.

"I won't hunt him or his Akilueteers as long as he keeps their number low, stays discreet enough and doesn't interfere with us," Prva continued. "So I'm afraid, he has no reason to come to your lab anymore."

"How dare you!"

Tina glanced over her shoulder and instead of a white angel she saw black tendrils in the shape of a woman with spread dark-feathered wings that reminded Tina of an animal about to strike. "What's going on?"

"Ladies," Uriel intervened. "Don't get too agitated, please. There are children here."

"It doesn't concern us." Haniel's step became more rushed. "And there's no way I'm going to be in the middle of Prva and Angelica's fight. Those can be quite fierce."

"Don't get your feathers ruffled or I'm going to use Restrain on you," Prva commanded. "You should have known that, since I promised you I wouldn't kill him and with the way he arrogantly multiplied his minions despite my warnings, I had no choice. Just find yourself a new Akilueteer and this time don't let him loose, like you did Petsha."

"I can't. You know perfectly well that I can't when you keep me locked here."

"I don't see any problems," Uriel said. "Next time we hunt, I'll bring you one."

"Not just any Akilueteer will do. You are both aware of that!"

"Order Petsha to bring you some of his 'vampires', then. If the price is right, I'm certain he will oblige," Prva suggested. "I'll give you some resources, but for that you have to make me more Numuns, since I only have twenty-one of them and some of them refuse to grow up, don't you my darling?"

"Yes, ma'am," a small boy's voice said. "But that's just because the world becomes boring when you grow up."

"And you like us anyway, right? Even if we stay small." One of the young girls chipped in.

"You are correct, darling. I love you no matter how tall or grown up you are."

#

Muriel sat with his knees against his chest, his gaze fixed forward. And there, just in front of him, long brown ears were visible over the tall grass that waved in the soft breeze.

"Is that a rabbit?" Tina craned her neck to see better. She and Haniel sat on the bench behind the house, enjoying the smell of the grass in the warmth of the early summer afternoon. "What is a rabbit doing here?"

"It came to chat with Muriel." Haniel leaned on the wall of the house behind him, pulling his fedora down over his face so that only the lower part of his wide sunglasses could be seen and grimaced. "What are we doing here anyway? Let's go in. The sun is too annoying."

"You can go in anytime you like. I don't know why you insist on keeping me company." Tina glimpsed the sun among the clouds, regretting her decision in the next second as her eyes hidden under dark lenses started to tear and burn. From the pocket of her brown and pink hoodie she took a handkerchief and dabbed her eyes with it. Her sensitivity to sun still lingered, and Uriel said that it would probably never completely disappear, but at least now she could spend time outdoors without fear of sunburn, which before she had gotten as soon as the sun's rays directly brushed her skin. She looked at Muriel again. "Does Muriel talk with animals?"

"No, he doesn't really talk to them, he communicates with them with his mind." Haniel pulled his right foot up and leaned it on his knee. "He can do a lot of things, our Muriel. He makes me jealous sometimes."

Tina looked at him.

"I don't really mean it. I love him too much to be jealous of him." Haniel directed his gaze at his boot, playing with the zipper. "But... but I am the weak one. I'm not strong as Muriel is, and my swordsmanship and close combat skills suck compared to Uriel's. I wish I could be half as good as he is. I'm not good for anything."

"How could you say something like that?" Tina's hand sneaked under a fall of hair tied in a low ponytail and she splayed her fingers on Haniel's neck. "I have never met a person who knows as much about computers as you do, and not just computers... about any machine, really. I bet you could build a car or even something small and complicated like... like... a micro-camera from scratch. " She expectantly looked Haniel. "Couldn't you?"

"Well, if I had the right tools and parts I --"

"You see." Tina gave him a wide smile. "And you are always here to support me. A lot of times I feel like you are the heart of your family, and not to mention you are very kind."

"Being kind...that's a fault, not a good quality, not in Bloodeaters." Haniel pushed the brim of his hat up. "And Uriel is the heart of our family. He's the one who takes care of Muriel and me. He's like a parent, sacrificing himself for our sake." He gave Tina a small smile. "He raised us, you know. And not just us. He also raised the first Numun triplets. He volunteered to do that in exchange for us; for a place among the Damned and for Prva's protection." A one-sided grin appeared on his face. "But if he had known that that would get Anael on his back, bugging him, making house calls all the time, he might have thought twice before taking that step."

They both looked sideways through the half-opened window of the living room where, in the sunbeam that forced its way through the narrow opening, she could see the outline of a person with a book in his hand on the couch and somebody sitting cross-legged on the table, the right hand moving up and down -- it seemed that Anael was playing with her knife again.

"She can be so annoying... but in a way they are part of our small family. And now we have you, too."

"Do you?" Tina leaned back.

"Of course... aren't you?" Haniel tilted his head. "If you want to... I know you have a family already. You call them here and there. Your dad, right?"

"Yes, my dad," Tina confirmed, even though she had stopped regarding her dad as family since that day at the graveyard, after her mother's burial, when he had left her standing there with her grandma, his wife on his arm. She tensed her jaw.

"What about your mum?"

"My mum?" Tina's fingers played with the side seam of her dark-blue denim. "She died."

"I'm sorry." Haniel's hand descended over hers.

"It's okay. It was a long time ago, when I was still in high school." She sighed. "And it's not like she was a big part of my life anyway."

"Oh. How come? Or shouldn't I ask?"

"No, it's okay. She just wasn't mother material, I guess. She was more of a hippie. She loved to travel and she couldn't stay in one place for very long." Tina smiled at the memory of a round face under a big straw bonnet, of the hand that tugged Tina behind her and a wide smile. It had been a long time since she had thought about her. Not because she had forgotten, but because it was easier that way, because it hurt to remember her, because there was so much regret. "She was fun and it was great when she came home from her travels, bringing me all kinds of cool presents, but..." The corners of Tina's mouth turned downwards. But it had broken her heart every time she had seen her mother's back as she went off on another one of her journeys. Always showing her back, always leaving her behind with promises that this was the last time. Until it was the last time, because after they brought her back in the coffin, she hadn't left again, had she? And Dad was the same... he left her, too. He left her for them.

But it was all right, it was okay, as long as she had her grandma, she could manage, but now Grandma had left her too.

"Tina, are you all right?" Haniel moved closer.

Why had the people she cared about always left her behind?

"Tina?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Tina somehow managed to curve her lips in a smile. She was fine, she repeated to herself. She was always fine, no matter what, because 'what doesn't break us makes us stronger', or at least that what her grandma liked to say. So, she was fine. She had to be. "It just... sometimes I'm sorry that I didn't go with her on one of her trips. But I was worried about school. I didn't want to miss a year. And my grandma said that there was plenty of time, that I should go with Mum after I finished high school. But then it was too late."

"I'm sorry." Haniel took hold of her hand.

"It's okay. I don't regret anything... well, I try not to." Tina hung her head, staring at the tips of her sneakers. "There's no point regretting something when you can't change the past," she said and she meant it. She always tried not to regret her decisions, no matter how wrong they were. Things happened and after they were done there was nothing she could do, and regrets would only make things worse. "In life you just have to grit your teeth and go on... otherwise... giving up... that's..." Fingers touched her free hand and when she looked up, Muriel's serious eyes shone down on her.

Tina swallowed the lump in her throat. "I'm fine. I really am."

Haniel released Tina's hand and moved aside to make space for Muriel.

Muriel sat down between them and leaned his head on Tina's shoulder, his hand still holding hers. "Uriel thinks the same. No regrets, because all the things, bad and good, are the ones that made us what we are."

"I remember when he said that." Haniel kicked the sand under his feet. "He reassured me with those words when I felt guilty that he had to be Angelica's test subject for my sake."

"Not just for your sake. For mine, too," Muriel said. "But it's okay. You know what Uriel also says."

"Yeah."

"What does he say?" Tina asked.

"He says that without us he wouldn't have a reason to live, that we are the ones who keep him going." Muriel sighed. "I do wish sometimes that we were one person as we were meant to be, that Angelica hadn't experimented on us and divided as she did, to be whole..." He squeezed her fingers. "But then I think about the world without my brothers and I see... Uriel is right, we do make each other stronger, we complete each other and I wouldn't change the way we are. Three parts of one whole."

"Three parts of a whole," Tina repeated, hating how Muriel's voice croaked. She ran fingers of her free hand through Muriel's bangs.

After a moment of depressing silence she spoke what was on her mind, "She divides everything into three? Those three Numuns: Anael, Nat and the other one. They were divided too, weren't they?"

"Yes, because she's afraid that otherwise they would have been stronger than her," Haniel said. "And they would have. All the Numuns, and us, too. "

"Always into three?"

"Always," Muriel nodded. "But if she had known how strong we would become, she would probably have divided us into five or six parts. She's always looking for a way to create powerful beings, but because she can't control them... I think she's afraid her creations will turn on her."

"I don't like her. She didn't create you. You existed already without her meddling, not as three but as one," Tina said. "And the other day, in Prva's hall, she acted like you owe her for what she had done to you. I mean..." How dare she?

"Yeah," Haniel agreed. He leaned his elbows on his knees. "I'm quite depressed right now."

Tina sighed and looked at Haniel over Muriel's hand. "Actually, I'm more pissed than depressed. And I'll take anger over sadness anytime."

"Easier to deal with?" Muriel asked.

"Probably." Tina furrowed her brows. She had never thought about it that way. She brushed hair away from Muriel's face and tucked it behind his ears. "Hey, you coming here... Does that mean that I'm forgiven for what I did to you?"

Muriel nodded.

"Would you at least tell me what I did, so I won't do it again."

Muriel shook his head.

Tina's lips made a pout. "But how would I..."

A dark shadow was cast over them, blocking even the weak rays that managed to penetrate the thicker and thicker clouds.

Tina looked up.

The dark-grey intangible shape looking like an electric ray floated above them. It stopped and its tendrils shot down at them.

Haniel jumped up, pulling Muriel and Tina with him, before shoving them to the ground.

The tendrils slammed against the bench, the wood crashed under the impact and pieces of wood and splinters cut the air.

Tina picked herself up, looking at the thing above them. "What the hell is that?"

"One of Angelica's Shadows." Muriel glared at the thing.

Haniel's hand wrapped around Tina's, he pulled her toward the back entrance that led into the kitchen.

The dark, floating thing reached out for them again.

Tina's heart sped up. She curled her free hand around Muriel's wrist and pulled both the boys behind her and out of the way. From the corner of her eye she could see a silhouette at the living room window. She turned and saw Uriel and Anael standing there, a ball, its carving similar to the cubes Muriel had used at the nightclub's door in their hand. They were pointing it at that thing and like a ribbon silver electricity rose from the boxes.

Tina's heart slowed down and the silver lighting cut through the air and its threads wrapped around the Shadow, squeezing it until it became a black dot in the sky.

"Go get a jar," Uriel ordered.

Haniel wiggled his hand out of Tina's hold and rushed into the house, to reappear with an ordinary glass jar and a lid. He strode to the living room window.

"Don't tell me you are going to use that?" Tina couldn't stop staring at the jar.

"Of course," Uriel somehow lowered the dot, which was actually a fist-sized, jelly-like blob and directed it into the jar, which was sealed as soon as the thing touched the bottom; the electricity that held the blob died away. "How do you think Angelica stores them?"

"In jars?"

"Yes." Uriel put the ball in the pocket of his cargo.

"Angelica should have kept a better lock on these things. They are so annoying. Prva is going to have a fit when she finds out about that," Anael leaned thorough the window and took the jar from Haniel "Especially when next week a Decennial Gathering starts. How will it look to have these things flying around and attacking the Elders?"

Chapter 11

Through the half-closed blinds of the living room window, weak light drew narrow parallel lines on the red Persian rug that covered the polished wooden floor.

Tina, sitting on the edge of the yellow couch closest to the window, stretched out her leg and wiggled her stockinged toes in the light.

"What are you doing?" A small body pounced on Tina.

"Nothing."

"Will you play hide and seek with me?" The girl's thin arms wrapped around Tina's arm.

"Sa --" No, it had to be Remiell, Tina thought, since Sariel was the serious one, with a face more oval and hair just a little shorter that Remiell's. She patted the white-haired head. "Remiell, why don't you play with your brother and sister?"

Remiell pressed her cheek against Tina's shoulder; her blue eyes appealingly gazed up at Tina. "Cause they don't want to. They are so boring."

"You shouldn't be here, you know." Tina smiled down and ruffled Remiell's hair. Since the day Prva had called her into her domain and she had crossed paths for the first time with the -- not young, since they were all older than she, but something like old souls in children's bodies -- Remiell often popped up for a visit. And Remiell being in her lap meant that Michael, the children's guardian, wasn't far behind. "What will Prva say when she notices that you are missing?"

"She won't notice." Remiell pouted. "She's too busy with the Elders."

The doors of the living room opened and a slimmer male version of the first three Numuns strode through them, with Uriel right behind him.

"Remiell. I thought we agreed you wouldn't stray anymore." Michael grabbed the child and then when Remiell held on tightly to Tina, he pried her fingers one by one from Tina's arm. "The Elders miss you."

"I don't like them. I don't like them," Remiell hissed, showing her fangs; her limbs flailing around. "They are always pinching my cheeks and they smell like attics and dust."

Michael picked her up, not minding the kicks and hits and tucked the child under his arm, holding her like one would a rolled up rug. "I apologize for that." He offered a smile to Tina.

"It's okay." Tina stood up and gave Remiell's white hair a quick ruffle. "Come back when the Gathering is over and we'll play hide and seek then, all right?"

As Remiell lifted her head and her lips stretched into a smile, the fangs disappeared. "Promise?"

"I promise."

"You shouldn't get too cosy with them," Uriel said after the door closed behind the two Numuns. He sat down on the couch.

"I'm not getting cosy. I'm just being nice."

"You shouldn't be. You have to understand, only a few of the Damned are capable of human warmth, but Numuns crave it, they drink it like water, getting addicted to it, needing more and more of it." Uriel rested his arm on the back of the couch. "That's why Prva doesn't allow them to have Aradmas; in the past they ended up spending too much time with them and started to neglect their duties and Prva."

"What do you mean, 'they are not capable of human warmth?'" Tina asked. "Remiell is a very warm child. She's playful and... she doesn't lack in warmth."

"I meant only a few Damned can express it, with Numuns being the one of the few," Uriel said. "She likes you, and you could probably do her a lot of good, but I don't want her to get too attached to you. If she does, it will hard for her when we leave."

"We are going to leave?" Tina sat on the coffee table before Uriel. No more worries about Angelica, her experiments and that she might end up as Angelica's subject or that Prva might change her mind and decide to make her Prva's Aradma anyway. A stress-free life -- if that was even possible. She would love that. She leaned forward. "When? Where?"

"I don't know when, yet."

"Oh." Tina's shoulders slumped. She furrowed her brows together. That hadn't sounded encouraging. And what about... "But could you really go? What about your bond with Angelica?" As she understood it, Uriel couldn't get rid of the bond unless Angelica declared it void or broke its conditions, and since, as Haniel explained to her, the only condition on Angelica's side was that she wield no control over Haniel, Muriel and the 'things' they owned and had to leave them alone, Tina doubted that Uriel could get rid of that bond anytime soon.

"I might not go with you."

"What do you mean? Haniel and Muriel would never leave you."

"It's that or..."

"Or?" Tina lifted his eyebrows.

"You won't like it."

"Why?"

"Because the other option is to use you to break the bond."

He was right, that didn't sound like something she would like, but she asked anyway, "How?"

"The potion I have been giving you has already marked you as Haniel's Aradma." Uriel combed through his bangs. "You remember what the conditions are?" When Tina nodded, he continued, "Now, if Angelica tries to bypass Haniel to get to you, and she will if she finds out who you really are, as soon as she touches you or lures you away, I'm free. It's that simple."

Tina frowned. It sounded so easy. Too easy, since there had been plenty of opportunity and... "She already did touch me, and your bond is still here."

"That's because Haniel's mark hadn't settled in your system yet, hadn't marked you yet as Haniel's Aradma, but now it has."

"I see."

"But I don't know if you are strong enough. I could see how painful it was when Angelica just touched your soul and how much energy she managed to draw out of you." Uriel shifted forward. "Angelica could break you, and if you got hurt because of my scheming Haniel and Muriel would never forgive me. I don't even know if they would approve of something that would put you in danger." He put a hand over hers. "They have loved you since the moment they first laid eyes on you."

Tina looked at her hands, at Uriel's hand holding hers. Yes, Haniel and Muriel loved her. She had become more and more aware of that fact with each passing day. And she also knew the reason why. Because of Trinity. They all accepted her only because of the presence she carried inside her soul.

And Trinity would want all her children to be free. She would sacrifice her own life for it, and probably Tina's too.

Tina looked up at those green eyes. "Then, in case we decide to do it, we just won't tell them."

#

The noise of voices and sounds of moving furniture over the stone floor echoed between the stone walls of Prva's main hall, but it couldn't drown the voice of the Aradma that, two steps away from Tina, went on and on about her Master and his importance.

Tina stood on the bench, which somebody had pushed against the wall, decorating the walls were fingernail-sized white stones. The stones, together with rich chandeliers, illuminated the hall, but their main purpose was restricting supernatural powers, except for Prva's and those of her personal guard, the Numuns -- or at least that was what the redhead standing beside Tina had mentioned, somewhere between her drooling over guys that Tina didn't know and expressing amazement that one of the Dumes had an Aradma.

"I thought that the Dumes were the same as the Numuns and that's why they didn't have Aradmas. If I had known I was wrong, I would have tried to become Uriel's Aradma. He's so hot."

Tina turned toward the redhead and wanted to tell her that as Uriel's Aradma she would also belong to Angelica, and she doubted that the girl wanted that, but the redhead had already continued with her monologue.

"But all the Dumes are hot, even that little one -- if you are into that innocent schoolboy look. I think some of the girls would love to baby that cutey, pretending to be his mother while trying to seduce Uriel or the other one -- what's his name? Ah, it doesn't really matter. As I was saying..."

Tina exchanged glances with the petite blonde, who stood on the other side of the redhead. They slowly inched away.

"Helen doesn't get out a lot," the blonde, Gillian said. "Her Master prefers solitude, so they mostly spend their time in their rooms; she doesn't even allow Helen to participate in our weekly Aradma meetings." She looked at Tina. "You don't go to those either. Why? Doesn't Haniel let you?"

"There are Aradma meetings? Haniel didn't mention anything about meetings." From the bag tied on her belt Tina took a few stones and pressed them into a pattern drawn on the wall, some kind of magic holding them against the rough surface.

At first when Haniel told her that she would have to help with preparing the main hall for the party with the rest of the Aradmas, she hadn't been thrilled, but she was getting to know a few new people, and learning some new things about the Damned was proving quite interesting. Like that all the small houses on the estate, which she had thought were living quarters, were actually just entrances into the underground that spread beneath the whole surface of the property. Since she never saw people strolling on the surface, if she hadn't counted the Numuns, she would have thought that the estate were abandoned or that Prva didn't have a lot of subjects. She was wrong. According to how many Aradmas buzzed around the hall, the quarters hidden in the ground had to be crowded.

Gillian nodded. "They probably don't even know. Except for Prva and Numuns, they don't associate with anybody else, do they? And they even live in light, and Numuns, too. The other Damned can't. And after becoming their Servants we can't either." She pressed the last stones she held in her hand on the wall. "That's the only thing that I miss. The light." She looked at Tina over her shoulder. "It's not that I could go sunbathing on the beach as Lost, but... with sunglasses and high-SPF sun lotion I could walk around like a normal human being. I could pretend..."

Pretend to be normal, that everything was okay... Tina sighed. She could understand that all too well. She had a lot of years of pretending behind her. She was probably pretending that she was okay even now \-- lying to herself, because she couldn't change the situation in which she found herself. Or maybe telling herself that she was better off with the Dumes than being on her own, and, as Damon said, trying to find the silver lining in the isolation of her own making. "Yeah."

"I think that most Aradmas miss the light, too," Gillian said.

Tina glanced at the people standing nearby. She could feel their eyes on her back, but when she looked they averted their gazes.

"They are interested in you, you know, the other Aradmas, and they would love for you to join the weekly meetings -- just don't fool yourself that they are your friends. They are just interested in the Dumes, since there's not a lot known about them."

"And you are not interested?"

"I already know a little about them."

"Hey, you two!" A brunette stepped toward them. "If you are finished, go get tablecloths."

"From where?" Tina asked.

"I know where they are." Gillian turned, gestured for Tina to follow her.

They went toward the wall. Gillian pressed something high on the wall and a rip appeared, it widened and revealed a long hallway. Darkness ruled the space, but it wasn't as if they needed light to see. They stepped into the hallway and went through the third door on the left into a room that reminded Tina of a warehouse. In set rows stood cabinets, presumably containing linens and tableware; long, narrow tables, chairs..., everything one needed for a banquet.

And what was that...? Tina looked closer. Tables with steel hooks and chains attached to the hooks. "What's that for?"

"Hmmm. What?" Gillian opened one of the cabinets, which had white, crisp linens loaded on its shelves.

Tina pointed at the tables.

"That's for special occasions. For the Elders' feedings."

"Yeah?" What was that supposed to mean? Tina frowned.

"To welcome the Elders, Prva always organizes a banquet for them." Gillian started to pull the linens out, handing them to Tina.

"Yeah?" Tina repeated. "Why would they need hooks with chains for that?"

"You are either stupid or naive. All Elders are beyond old and most of them like to sink their teeth into flesh, just for old times' sake."

Tina stared at the ends of the chains that had leather loops just the right sizes for... "Don't tell me, they use...?" No, they couldn't...

"Humans and Deadeaters, what else?" Gillian closed the closet. "And why are you making that face? It's just Deadeaters -- dead bodies with circulating blood -- it's not as if they are living things like us." She passed Tina. "And humans... they have always been the Damned's food. The only difference now is that the Elders are feeding only once a year, either using prisoners on death row or people with death wishes, not every human they cross paths with as they did in the past."

"You were human once... how can you be so calm about it?"

"Because there's nothing I could do that would change that. And you'll get used to things, you'll see. And besides, it's just the Elders and it's just once a year. For a regular feeding they use their subordinates like the Lost."

"Yes, but..." Was it really so naive to think that people, be they Deadeaters or human, shouldn't be treated as meals? But what did she know? She had just become part of the Damned clan -- actually she had become part of the Dumes, not the Damned -- maybe with time, as Gillian said, she would get used to such treatment too, even though a shiver ran through her body at the thought.

"We are all monsters now." Gillian took half of the linens from Tina and went into the hallway. "We all need blood to survive and animals don't give the right kind of hemoglobin that our body needs. You know, you are acting like you don't need to suck on blood like the rest of us."

But she didn't need it. Or at least she thought that she didn't. Following Gillian, Tina stayed silent.

They crossed the hallway and came back to the hall, where they started to spread the linens over the tables lining the wall under the gallery.

Tina could feel the gazes on her again, but not just watching her; they were also watching Gillian. She peeked over her shoulder trying to catch the observer. She froze, the edge of fabric drifted out of her fingers.

This couldn't be true.

She looked again. A sigh of relief left her throat. No, she was wrong.

"Is something the matter?"

"No, nothing." Tina took a new tablecloth. But just to be on the safe side, she discreetly moved so that she could glance back without being too obvious and without diverting her eyes. She caught it again. A familiar face, visible just for a second before different features descended over it.

What was he doing here? She furrowed her brows, chewing her lip. She'd have to tell the Dumes about this, and she was willing to bet that Uriel was not going to be pleased to learn that Damon was in the neighbourhood.

Chapter 12

"Are you certain?" Uriel stopped pacing across the Persian rug laid over the living room's wooden floor. With his gaze on Tina he crossed his arms. "Really, really certain?"

"Yes, I am." Tina, who sat on the yellow couch, furrowed her brows. "I couldn't believe it either, so I checked at least four times. It was Damon and he was hiding under some kind of mask, spell or something. I could only see his features here and there, but I was the only one who seemed to notice him." She played with the edge of her shirt. "Now, what are we going to do?"

"I don't know. I would prefer to do nothing, but... if you noticed him, there's a high chance somebody else will notice him, too. And if that happens, with the restriction spells binding this estate, Damon might not be able to use his powers to defend himself or escape." Uriel ran his fingers through the black strands of his hair. "And after his capture -- the first thing Prva would want to know what is so important that Damon would walk into the wasps' nest -- and, of course, we don't want Prva to know about you."

"No, we don't." Haniel, sitting beside Tina, leaned forward. "She's too interested in you already."

"Yeah." Muriel, who sat on the other side of Tina, nodded.

"It's a shame that I can't say Damon's not our problem. He sneaked in here on his own; he's a big boy, he should get out of here on his own, too. "

"Uriel!" Muriel narrowed his eyes at Uriel.

"Yes, I know." Uriel grimaced. He focused on Tina. "He's looking for you, of course, following you. And that probably means that he's near the house as we speak." He sighed. "Since we don't know what kind of plan he has or if he has any backup with him, I say we observe him until we learn whether or not he's alone."

"Let's just grab him," Haniel said. "The longer he's on the loose, the greater the chances that he will be noticed."

"And then what?" Tina jumped in. "Keep him locked in the basement or something?"

"I like that idea." Uriel went to the sofa, sat down, leaned one arm on the back of the sofa and crossed his legs.

"We could put him into Sarniikzi," Haniel suggested. "I bet he hasn't slept in decades; we would probably get rid of him for at least a year or two."

"What are you talking about?" Tina asked. "Do the Lost need sleep? As I remember, Damon didn't sleep when I was with him. And you don't sleep either..." Then she remembered finding Muriel dozing on the couch one morning. "Well, except here and there."

"Our bodies need rest too." Muriel's green eyes looked at her. "We sleep too, sort of, we fall into a sort of hibernation. We don't need as much rest as Mamaels, and we can stay awake for quite a long time: for a month, a year, a decade or even a century; but the longer we are awake, the longer we need to hibernate."

"That means if I'm awake for one year, when I decide to use Sarniikzi, I'll hibernate for around two months," Haniel said.

"Is that what those steel boxes in the basement are for? And the one I had to sleep in at Prva's house?" Tina frowned, her gaze shifting between Haniel and Muriel. She remembered that when she had complained that she wanted a bed instead of that thing, they had explained to her that that thing had regeneration powers, something about its combination of metals and stones, and if she rested in it with a closed lid she would need less sleep and wake up more refreshed. As tempted as she had been to find out if they were telling the truth, the claustrophobia and the fear that she might not be able to get out were too overwhelming to test their statement.

"Yes," Muriel nodded.

"Can I be awake for such a long time, too?"

"We are not sure," Uriel said. "Aradma can, but only for six months. You should try it, even though, with the way you complained about the Sarniikzi in London, I don't believe it's a good idea. For Sarniikzi to work, the lid has to be closed, remember, or otherwise the hibernating time triples. And if the box stays open it makes you too vulnerable, too exposed. That's another reason for lids. Before Sarniikzi, Bloodeaters used sarcophagi in fear that somebody or something might wander along while their 'servants' weren't nearby and, well, do something to them, like severing their heads."

"That had to be a pain to get out of." Haniel grimaced.

"Indeed." Uriel smoothed a wrinkle on his black pants. "Now, can we return to our problem, please?"

"Damon," Muriel said.

"Yes." Uriel leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees and laced his fingers. "First, we should find out his location. Muriel, why don't you use one of your little friends to look around the house for Damon?"

Muriel nodded, stood up and went toward the window.

Tina leaned sideways to see Muriel better. She expected Muriel to use some weird noises to call animals, but when Muriel opened the window, three small birds already waited on the windowsill. They tilted their little heads, their small eyes blinking at Muriel, who just intently stared at them for a few seconds and then the birds flew away.

"Are you even listening to me?" Uriel waved his hand before Tina's face.

"When did you \--" Oh, it didn't really matter. "What is it?"

"He proposed we use you as bait." Haniel crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't agree."

"It's just Damon." Tina put her hand on Haniel's shoulder. "Aren't you being a little too protective? He won't hurt me, you know."

"You never know what can happen, and I hate for you to be in any kind of danger." Haniel pressed his lips in a narrow line. "Or that he might take you away."

Muriel sat down beside Haniel. "I agree."

"Come on guys. You are taking this too far; I do have my speed thing and, besides, like Uriel said before, because of all the precautions because of the Gathering, he probably can't use his powers."

"We don't know that for sure," Muriel objected.

Tina's gaze found Uriel's. Muriel and Haniel were making such a big fuss over such a small thing; what would they do if she told them that she was thinking about being bait for Angelica? She sighed.

#

Tina sat on the bench beside the tall, brick wall that framed the estate, enjoying the small sounds and the fresh scent of Muriel's fairytale-like garden. She was acting as bait, despite Muriel and Haniel's disapproval. Those two treated her as if she were a rare flower that would break under the slightest breeze. They exaggerated, and she had told them that in much a louder voice than she had at first intended. She shook her head, not believing that they'd had their first quarrel.

He's near you now.

She could hear Muriel's sullen voice in her head. She focused on Muriel's image just as he had taught her and let him know that she had heard him. In this last week, with meditation and practice, they had finally managed to establish a strong, permanent link between them that could be opened as soon as she thought of Muriel. But that hadn't meant that the mental tutoring was over, it just meant that now she had a new goal, which Muriel set for her: to establish a link through him with Haniel and Uriel. Which wouldn't happen anytime soon, since according to Muriel her telepathic powers were one of her weakest points. She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the evening sun, half-hidden behind the clouds. All she needed to do was to wait until Damon showed himself and did what he intended to do. And she was not afraid, no she was not, or at least that was what she tried to tell herself.

The minutes ticked away, and Tina already thought that Damon had changed his mind. Her hand touched the book that lay on the wood beside her, she wrapped her fingers around it and lifted it.

I can't see him anymore, Muriel's voice echoed in her mind. The animals still feel him, but I can't see him... I knew that something like that would happen.

Stop being paranoid, Tina focused on Muriel. I'm still here, unharmed and \-- something touched her neck. Something warm. She looked over her shoulder. It was just the wall there. Nothing -- no, from the corner of her eye she caught a glimmer.

Damon. Suddenly the fear that had lingered, hidden, in the pit of her stomach rose, a moment of panic, before it burst like a bubble and she felt surprisingly calm. He wouldn't harm her, no matter how angry he was at her for zapping him.

Tina!

She turned forward and closed her eyes; just for a moment she imagined Muriel before her. It's fine, I'm okay. But be ready, he's here.

"How have you been?" Damon's velvet voice caressed Tina's ear.

"Fine. You?" Tina couldn't help but smile. She was probably insane, because as much as she had been dreading this encounter it was so good to hear Damon's voice again, it gave her the feeling of reuniting with an old friend. "I didn't know you could make yourself intangible."

"Just temporary, Irene's doing."

"I see." Tina stared ahead, her shoulders tense. "Are you angry with me?"

"A little." Damon's fingers cupped Tina's neck. "Are you ready to go home?"

"I can't go with you, my home is by their side now."

"Their?" Damon's form shimmered, looking as if he were becoming solid. He stepped before Tina. "You don't mean those three. They are nothing but the result of Angelica's experiment on my son, on the son she killed." His mouth curled in a snarl. "They don't deserve to live."

He didn't mean that. He couldn't. "It's not their fault." Tina's brows furrowed, the corner of her mouth turned downward and her hands curled. "Do you think they wanted for their soul to be separated?"

Tina!

Tina ignored Muriel. "Do you think that they wanted to be experimented on by Angelica? You could have saved them, but you turned your back on them. How could you?" She could feel the anger bubbling inside her. Now!

She sped up her heartbeat, as Damon's eyes slowly dilated, she pulled from the pocket a small, silver ball Uriel had given her. She pressed on an imprinted sign, the ball opened and revealed two wires forming an upside down V. She aimed the tip at Damon and pressed the imprinted sign again. The ropes of electricity shoot out and wrapped around Damon.

Time sped up, and Damon, with a scowl on his face, pushed his elbows out, fighting the restraint, but new ropes aimed from three other directions circled his body and held his arms against his body.

"How degrading, to be caught by the likes of you three." Damon's eyes became thin lines as Uriel, Haniel and Muriel came closer. His gaze fell on Tina. "I suspected it was a trap, but I underestimated you. Helping them, that's not something I thought you would do. How sneaky you have become."

"Tell Irene and Tristian to come out of hiding." Uriel stepped before Damon.

Damon raised his brows.

"Don't pretend that they are not here." Uriel pulled back the hand that held the ball and the rope around Damon tightened.

"You have been discovered, come out," Damon said.

For a moment Tina believed that Damon had the same powers as Muriel, but then she noticed a small gadget in Damon's ear.

Tristian jumped down from the tree a few steps away and Irene's form shimmered to Muriel's left until her body became solid.

"Now, tell them not to do anything stupid." Uriel gestured for Muriel and Haniel to step closer.

"Or else?" Damon tensed his jaw.

Tina leaned back and because of her clammy fingers had to adjust her grip the ball.

"We are in the middle of Ceremony. If I alert the Damned to your presence, it would start a war and I doubt you would want that," Uriel said.

"We are not afraid of a war." Irene smoothed her blond hair as she came closer. She stopped behind Uriel, but when Haniel ordered her to move into Uriel's line of sight, she stepped beside Damon. Tristian joined her.

"What about Prva finding out about Tina?" Haniel asked.

"I can exchange her for Abbas," Damon said. "Now, release me."

"Do you really believe Angelica would let Prva give Tina to you before she conducted some experiments?" Muriel butted in. "Do you really think that you will get her back, unharmed, once Angelica learns who she is?"

"What do you want?" Damon looked at Uriel.

"Leave."

"I want her back." Damon curled his hands and focused his eyes on Tina.

"You can't have her." Haniel stepped before Tina.

"I need to talk to her." The electric-looking ropes crackled under flexing of Damon's arms.

"No." Muriel stepped beside Haniel.

Damon narrowed his eyes at them. "Do you think I care if you agree or not? You are not the head of your little family." He looked at Uriel. "These restraints won't be able to hold me long, so you better decide what you want to do quickly."

Tina could see small threads of the light rope breaking and the tension in Tristian and Irene, as if they were watching Damon's every move, waiting for a sign of how to proceed. Muriel and Haniel looked the same, their stance stiff and watchful. The only ones who seemed relaxed and at ease were Uriel and Damon, but even their relaxation seemed to be only skin-deep. They were measuring their strengths. They had to be with the way they were glaring at each other, and the way even the air seemed to sizzle between them. She had to do something and she had to do it fast.

She sped up her heartbeat, stood up and bypassed Muriel and Haniel, careful that the electricity coming from the balls wasn't obstructed. It was easy to dodge Haniel's hand that shot up and to step between Uriel and Damon, facing Damon. She relaxed and as time came back to normal, she spoke up. "You can stay, but only if you keep a low profile, behave, and stop being a nuisance to us. Of course, only you. Irene and Tristian have to leave the estate."

Uriel put his hand on her shoulder. "What are you talking about?"

She looked at Uriel over her shoulder and decided, for now, to ignore Muriel's questions echoing in her head. She knew that this wasn't one of her brightest ideas, but she thought that maybe if they spent time together and got to know each other they might have a chance to... reconcile. "He wants" -- not her, but -- "Trinity and he won't leave without her. So let him stay here, but under some rules."

"Are you insane?" Haniel pulled the sword from the sheath tied across his back and surged forward. The ropes tying Damon sizzled as Haniel passed through them.

Damon widened his arms and the rest of the binding stretched before it disappeared with a crack. With a lifted hand he stopped Irene and Tristian, who looked ready to jump on Haniel and Uriel. "Why would I agree to something like that?"

"Please Haniel, put your sword down. You too, Uriel." She looked over her shoulder at Uriel, whose sword tip already touched Damon's neck.

Uriel lowered his sword as did Haniel, and Muriel, who stood out of Tina's line of vision moved closer.

What are you trying to do? Muriel asked.

Give you a chance to get to know your father, Tina answered Muriel first, before she said to Damon: "Because you want to talk to Trinity and I can make that happen."

"She's awake." Damon's eyes widened as he lessened the distance between them on one step. "I should have known." His eyes clouded, he reached out. "For how long? Before they kidnapped you?"

Uriel put his hand on Tina's shoulder and drew her back, her back against his chest. "We didn't kidnap her. We saved her."

Tina's hands trembled slightly and she pushed them into the pockets of her jeans, her fingers played with the ball's engraved surface. She knew that Damon wasn't going to like the truth, but she told him anyway. "She was awake before that."

"Why didn't you --" Damon ran his fingers through his short black hair, for a minute reminding Tina of Uriel, who seemed to use the same gesture quite often. "It doesn't matter now." He crossed his arms and raised his brows. "A truce, then. Why not? What kind of rules did you have in mind?"

Chapter 13

"Tina, towel." Damon's voice resounded from the first floor through the kitchen's opened door.

Tina rolled her eyes and for a second turned off the milk frother, with which she foamed milk for Damon's cappuccino. "I'm just making your cappuccino; wait or make it yourself!"

"Tina, towel," Damon insisted, ignoring her.

"Uriel, could you, please?" Tina looked over her shoulder at Uriel, who sat behind the table, a newspaper in his hand.

"Nope." Uriel without lifting his head turned the page of the newspaper. "It was your deal. And you demanded that Tristian and Irene leave and agreed to replace Tristian as Damon's servant."

"With Tristian and Irene here, there would be too much risk -- you said that yourself. And how could I know that he would be so high-maintenance?" Tina growled, her eyes on Uriel's mouth as it twitched at the corners, as if he was trying not to smile. "You are enjoying watching him send me running around, fulfilling his stupid wishes, way too much. I really can't understand how Tristian manages it without strangling him. He's a saint."

"Tina!"

"It was your idea. You wanted him here." Uriel now openly smiled.

"Tina!"

I was doing that for you and your brothers, you stupid idiot, she wanted to say but didn't. "Yes, I'm coming!" She threw the milk frother into the sink and stomped through the door, up the stairs into the hallway. She stopped at the narrow closet in the hallway and took out two towels before she continued stomping toward the bathroom. "You should have taken them before you went to take a bath; you know where they are, I showed you." She opened the bathroom door. And froze.

"I forgot." Damon stood in the middle of the bathroom, stark naked, his arms akimbo and water drops slipping down his hair and the side of his face and neck and his strong chest...

Tina swallowed and intently stared at Damon's face, refusing to look lower than his neck. She slowly walked closer and offered him one towel. She cleared her throat before she spoke. "I was in the middle of foaming your milk just the way you like it and I had to stop because you refused to get the towels yourself." Actually because he was behaving like a spoiled princess, but she couldn't say that to him, could she? He might strangle her if she did.

Damon took it and wrapped it around his waist before he took the other one from Tina's hands and started to dry his hair. "You'll just have to make new foam, won't you?" He turned toward the high mirror above the sink.

Her brows descended low over her eyes, drilling holes in the back of Damon's head. He was really something, wasn't he? And she didn't mean that in a good way. Her gaze slid over the curve of Damon's neck, his wide shoulders and the black lines imprinted over his back. Bat-wings. She would have thought that with Bloodeaters' healing powers tattooing wouldn't work on them.

In the mirror Damon's green eyes found hers. He gave her a half-smile and flexed his muscles. The black lines of the wings moved. They looked like wisps of black smoke becoming solid, the area between the lines filling with dark-grey, giving them a leather-like texture. The wings stretched, restricted by the white-tiled wall of the bathroom, before folding and becoming black lines on his skin again.

"You might have them too." Damon stood behind her.

She blinked. How did he do -- She rolled her eyes. She had lived with him for more than a month; she should be used to his sudden reappearance somewhere else. "Aren't any of your abilities restricted under the Damned's spells?"

"Not in this house." Damon's hand slid under Tina's shirt. "Those boys carry my DNA, the same restrictions that apply to them, apply to me too."

"Hey, what do you think you are doing?" Tina tried to turn, but Damon wrapped his arm around her middle and held her immobile.

"Checking. Now be still and let me see." He tugged her shirt up.

Tina gritted her teeth. "You could have asked nicely." The brute.

"Can I see your back, please?" Damon leaned his chin on Tina's shoulder while his fingers tiptoed over Tina's skin, an amused twinkle flashing in his eyes.

The warmth of Damon's touch seeped into her skin. It scared her a little, the warmth of the creature that had born before the fourteenth century. Shouldn't he be ice cold? But they weren't really vampires, they weren't dead and brought to life as... what were they called -- Akilueteers, the Deadeaters.

"What's wrong?" Damon straightened. "Is it Trinity?" He put his hands on Tina's shoulders and a hopeful expression for a second crossed his face.

He wanted so much to talk to Trinity, to make any sort of contact with her that he had accepted almost all of Tina's conditions just to stay in her close proximity. Tina thought about putting her hands over Damon's, but Damon seemed too proud to take consolation in a gesture like that. "No, I'm sorry."

Damon nodded, his face expressionless. "Now, let's see your back."

"What?"

"Your back." He pulled up the thin white shirt she wore and exposed her back.

"Hey, hey." Her fingers curled around the front edge of her shirt, tugging it down.

"I did ask you nicely." He smirked before he turned her so that her back faced the mirror. "Look."

Still pulling down her shirt, she looked over her shoulder at her reflection. She could see a pair of thin, angry lines that ended in a V on her lower back.

Damon released her.

She stepped backwards and pulled her shirt higher, so that she could see the skin beneath the closure of her bra. The red lines formed wings similar to those that marred Damon's back, just smaller. "What's that?" No, she knew what that was. It kind of looked cool. "Are they the same as yours? Can I use them?"

"No. The lines have to be black for the wings to materialise." Damon close the distance between them, he stepped before Tina, his fingers tracing the line on her shoulder blade. "They look like scratches. I thought you would have silver ones, like a bird's, as Trinity had. But she couldn't use them either."

"Bird's wings?" Tina pulled the shirt down and looked up into Damon's eyes.

"Yes. She probably got them from Angelica's life force."

"What happened?" Tina stepped away from Damon. She leaned her hip on the counter. "I know that Abbas killed her and you revived her, but how does Angelica's life force fit into all of that?"

"She was on the brink of dying, but she didn't die, if she had she would have become Akilueteer."

Tina leaned forward. "How did she end up with your blood and Angelica's life force in her system?"

Damon combed through his damp hair. He turned his back to Tina. "I'm going to dress and then I would like my cappuccino, please."

"Damon." She reached out, but then he looked back, his face so blank and empty, and her hand curled and she withdrew it. "I'm going downstairs to make some fresh coffee."

He nodded.

Tina went out on the hallway, softly closing the bathroom door behind her before she leaned against it, staring at the beige wall. She could hear the soft sound of music and murmur of conversation drifting from the living room. "What was that all about?"

It's hard for him to admit that he isn't all-powerful. Even if that was in the past.

Trinity? Tina sighed. Finally Her Ladyship had resurfaced. She focused on her like she would have on Muriel when they spoke inside her mind. What are you talking about?

About how back then his blood was not powerful enough to push Abbas's poison out of my body like it did with yours, Trinity said. He had to ask for the help of the strongest Bloodeater that was around, and that was Angelica.

He hates her. Tina pushed herself away from the door and went down the stairs. She still needed to brew a new pot of coffee.

No wonder, with the way things turned out. He was always wary of her, but before the fiasco with me, Angelica was a 'dear' friend of the family, the..., Trinity explained, murmuring something incomprehensible at the end.

Is Angelica good then? Tina had to ask, even though after everything that she had learned about that translucent, floating thing she wouldn't believe an affirmative answer even if, even if... She wouldn't believe it, period.

Angelica, good? That's a good one. Trinity snorted. She doesn't have any moral code that would help her tell good from bad. She probably sees everything from her point of view: everything that opposes her is bad and everything that helps her is good.

From everything that the Dumes told me, she wants power, but she's afraid that in the end it will destroy her. Tina walked into the kitchen, which was empty, but the noise of the computer told her that Haniel was in the living room.

You better watch out for her. She is dangerous.

She's not the only one. Tina rolled her eyes, picked up the coffee pot and emptied its contents into the sink. Even though Prva has seemed to be on their side, that Damned has her own agenda too. And what's with you? Damon has been here for three days and you've refused to come out.

He will leave after I talk to him and he finds out that I won't be anything else but a small spark inside somebody else's soul, and I just want to give the boys time to get to know him, and him to know them.

Tina, cleaning the stainless steel, frowned. But it wasn't just that, she could feel Trinity's distress, she could tell that there was something else. It's not just that, is it?

Yes, it is.

Come on, don't lie to me. You don't need to.

Trinity sighed. You can feel it, can't you?

Yes. Tina poured fresh water into the coffee maker, put it on the stove and turned it on. Now, tell me. I promise I won't tell anybody.

It's just...

Yes? Tina washed the milk frother.

I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint him again. And I don't want to feel as -- It's hard already knowing that he's near, that he's in my reach, but I won't ever be able to be with him, and it's all my fault.

Tina's shoulders slumped. She could feel the sadness embracing her souls -- Trinity's doing and Trinity probably wasn't even aware of it. She would have given Trinity a hug if she could, but instead she leaned her forehead on the cabinet above the sink and stared at the water, which she hadn't turned off, swirling down the drain. It's not your fault.

It is. All of it it's my fault. If I hadn't insisted on my revenge on Abbas I wouldn't have died and Dume would be whole. I would have watched him grow up, I would have been with him. And with Damon.

You didn't know. Tina frowned. She had felt a slight emptiness and melancholy inside her since she had moved into the Dumes' house, but she thought that Trinity's inability to surface as often as she wished to, was the reason for that. It seemed she was wrong.

I didn't care. I was blinded by my hatred, and I thought that everything we had would just wait until later, but later never arrived.

Tina swallowed, searching for words that would hush the soft wisp of despair that started to wind around Trinity's soul.

"Tina," Damon's velvet voice echoed in the kitchen before a hand descended on Tina's shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing." Tina turned off the faucet.

Damon wheeled her around. "Then why are you crying?"

"I'm not." Tina frowned.

Don't tell him about me. I don't want to... I can't face him now.

"Than what is this?" Damon's thumbs wiped Tina's cheeks.

Oh, Trinity. Tina sighed.

"It's Trinity, isn't it?" Damon brushed brown strands away from Tina's face. "Isn't it?"

Tina wrinkled her forehead.

Damon cupped her cheeks. "Trin, why are you avoiding me?" His clouded eyes stared into Tina's. "Do you hate me so much that you can't even speak to me?"

No, never.

Trinity? Tina asked.

I don't hate you, I could never hate you.

"Trin?"

Tell him.

"She could never hate you," Tina said.

"What is it then?"

What should I tell him? Tina wanted to slap Damon's hands away, to turn away from his gaze that told of love and adoration. It wasn't Tina that Damon saw, it was Trinity.

"Trin, what is it?" Damon caressed Tina's cheekbones as he gave her a ghost of smile. "Are you playing shy? It doesn't suit you."

You should talk with him, directly.

I can't.

Yes, you can. Tina tried to remember how Trinity took control from her; she told her to relax and then took over her senses. Tina wondered if she could push Trinity forward on her own. She closed her eyes.

"Tina?"

She opened one eye and put a digit before her mouth before her eyelid fluttered closed.

Tina, what are you doing?

Tina focused on the darkness, she imagined she was withdrawing into it, that she was stepping backwards and pushing Trinity before her. Pushing Trinity forward might drain Trinity's strength, but Tina felt that it would be worth it.

"What are you doing?"

It worked. Tina smiled and opened her eyes. She could see Damon before her, but as if she looked at him through a spyglass or a tunnel. You need to talk with him without a mediator.

"No. I'm not ready yet."

Tina could feel the tugs that tried to pull her forward but she embraced the darkness and refused to let it go.

"Trin?"

"Damon." Trinity's voice broke.

Tina could feel Damon embracing her body -- Trinity -- and pressing her against his chest.

"I missed you," he whispered against her ear. "You put me through a lot."

"I'm sorry." Trinity wrapped her arms around Damon's neck. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to... I didn't want to... I messed up everything."

"It's fine, now. It's okay."

"No, it's not."

"You are here now." Damon's fingers caressed Tina -- no, Trinity's shoulders.

"But just for now, though. I can't use Tina's body."

"You are using it now."

"It's just temporary. I can't..."

"I don't see why you couldn't use it in the future."

Tina frowned. Damon better not be insinuating that her body was up for grabs. As much as she liked the love-birds and felt sorry for them, she might have even offered her body, but would regret the decision as soon as the offer left her mouth. Yes, she would rather keep her body for now.

"I can't use it for long and not just because I don't want to steal somebody else's body. You woke me up too soon and I can't... I'm not strong enough. Even now, talking to you like this, it weakens me so much."

"There has to be something we can do."

"There's nothing." Trinity's voice was low. "I'm sorry. If it hadn't been for my stupidity, nothing would have happened to me, to Dume, and I wouldn't have put you through all this... I have been regretting things for so long now. We had something special and -- I ruined it. I'm so sorry."

Tina sighed. Being in the middle of their intimate conversation made her feel out place, but at least Trinity was able to put to rest any fear of Trinity taking her body that might still linger at the edge of her mind.

"We will figure something out." Damon's hand slid over her back. "I promise."

"I need you to promise me something else." Trinity leaned back so that she could look at Damon. "Will you promise me something?"

"What is it?"

"Will you take care of them?"

"Them?" Damon grimaced. "They are --"

"Mine. And yours. And it doesn't matter if there are three of them instead of one. I love them, they are my children and I need to know they have you to turn to for help. Please, Damon. I know I'm asking so much after everything that I have done. But please, I need to know that they and Tina can count on you. Please."

"You are talking as if you are dying."

"I am, sort of. I don't know how much time I have before --"

"What's going on?"

Damon and Trinity turned, and Tina could see Haniel and Muriel standing at the open door, which led into the living room.

"Nothing." Trinity stepped away from the circle of Damon's arms as she with the back of her hands wiped her cheeks.

"Mum?" Haniel stepped closer, Muriel followed.

"Hey, darlings." Trinity spread her arms and wrapped them around her boys. "Let me give you a hug while I still can."

"Don't talk like that." Muriel wrapped his arms tightly around Trinity's middle, and Haniel hugged them both.

"My darlings." Trinity tussled first Muriel's hair and then messed up Haniel's ponytail before she leaned her head on Haniel's, looking at Damon, who stepped forward and leaned his hips on the table. "Promise me, Damon, please."

"I promise."

"Thank you." Trinity gave him a smile.

"Promise, what?" Haniel asked.

An alarm pierced the air followed by a buzzing sound.

"Somebody is coming." Haniel stepped away from Trinity and Muriel and turned toward Damon. "You better hide."

Since it was still daylight, it could only be one of the Numuns, Tina thought.

Damon crossed his arms. "I haven't had my cappuccino yet."

Tina felt the tugs and this time she didn't fight them. She closed her eyes and when she opened them she was in charge of her body again.

You were right, I needed to talk with him, Trinity said. Thank you.

You are welcome, Tina's lips curved in a small smile before her face became serious. The thought struck her that now that Trinity had resurfaced, it would be good to discuss Uriel's plan with her. She hadn't decided what she was going to do, but she would have to, and soon. But first things first: She focused on Damon. "You will just have to get your cappuccino later, princess."

Chapter 14

Tina sat on the wide bench before the round attic window, which was surprisingly clean and without the stuffy smell of dust. She looked around and inhaled the slight scent of lavender. The small attic full of cardboard boxes reminded her of the small storage room in her home, where as a child she had liked to hide while playing hide-and-seek with her grandmother, and sitting here brought sweet nostalgia and the feel of home. A sad smile played on her lips.

She looked through the window, enjoying the red and orange tones of the setting sun. She knew that as soon as darkness fell and the light illuminated the paths that wove between the trees and small buildings, Aradmas would cover the estate's grounds.

She put her hand on the back of her neck, bent her head and rolled it to loosen the stiffness from staying in the same position for so long. She had hidden herself in here to think in peace about Uriel's suggestion. She sighed. She would have to decide what to do with Uriel, and soon. He was giving her space and time to consider, but she could always feel his questioning gaze on the back of her head.

"Ah, here you are."

She looked up, toward the attic door and there he stood. Damon. She didn't want to talk to him or to even spend time in the same room with him, not when, since his talk with Trinity, he'd had this weird look in his eyes every time he looked at her. It made her feel cherished, loved and adored, but when his eyes focused on her, they saw Trinity, not Tina; she knew that as sure as the sky was blue, and she found it annoying.

"You are avoiding me lately."

She averted her gaze, directed it at the twilight descending outside. "And you are still here, even though I fulfilled my part of the bargain."

He closed the distance between them and sat down beside her, forcing her to shift to the left to give him more space on the wooden surface. "I promised Trinity that I would take care of the Dumes, and I'm trying to get to know them; she would want that."

Yes, Trinity would want that and it made Tina glad because of that, it really did. She liked to watch Damon's clumsy attempts at playing computer games with Haniel, and how Damon's competitive streak suffered when he couldn't beat an expert like Haniel. She admired Damon's patience as he -- with clothes covering every inch of his body, large sunglasses and a big hat -- sat on the grass under the morning sun with Muriel and meditated with him. And she enjoyed the displays of Damon's sword skill when he and Uriel, in the now half-empty basement, measured their strength, almost growling and snarling at each other as their blades clashed.

"You are still angry because of the 'borrowing your body' part, but can you blame me for trying to keep my Beloved by my side?"

"Yes, I can when you are trying to do that at the price of my life. Did you really believe I wouldn't be bothered by that?"

"I can see your point of view, but you have to understand, you will only use your body for another fifty to eighty years, while Trinity could have used it for eternity."

"And that should make it all right?" Tina's nails scratched the wooden surface of the bench.

"There's no point in getting upset. It's not like Trinity can use it."

Tina didn't want to argue with him; for one thing he was Damon, the leader of the Lost clan, he could snap her neck in a second, and also for these last few days his shoulders seemed slumped and his eyes lacked that spark of determination -- it could have been her imagination or it could have been Damon's way of dealing with the fact that he couldn't have Trinity. She stood up.

"Does my presence bother you so much?" He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to the bench. "Sit down, please. I need to talk to you."

"She's not here, she's still resting."

"I need talk to you, not to Trinity."

"I'm just an object to you, why do you even bother?" She tried to wiggle her hand out of his steel grip, and then answered herself. Because she cares. She repeated it out loud, this time as a question. "Because she cares about me?"

"Yes, because she cares and don't say you are just an object; I don't see you like that, not anymore anyway." His fingers slipped downwards and he squeezed her hand before he released her. He combed his fingers through his hair. "I must seem overbearing and cold to you, and I probably am. Born as a Bloodeater, we are like that by default, and having lived for more than seven hundred years -- the battles and ordeals that I have gone through;" -- he gave her a half-smile, where before she would have gotten a smirk -- "anybody would pick up a slight superiority complex."

"I don't need you to explain yourself to me."

"Maybe not, but maybe understanding me will help you accept that you are going back with me."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. I made an agreement with Uriel. I'm leaving tomorrow and I'm taking you, Haniel and Muriel with me. But don't worry, I won't keep you locked in your room like before. I promised that I will give you as much freedom as keeping you safe allows -- doesn't that make you happy?"

"No, you can't \-- What about Uriel?" Did he give up on his freedom? She bit her lip. Uriel was strong and more than capable of taking care of himself, but the thought of leaving him behind... No, not just leaving him behind, but leaving him to Angelica -- that was an option she didn't want to consider.

"Uriel is bound by his contract to Angelica. I thought you knew that?"

Yes, she did know that. She stood up. She should talk to Uriel, she wanted to face Uriel right now, but yesterday Angelica had sent Uriel to hunt for new guinea pigs, and he still hadn't come back. "When is he coming back?"

Damon rose, and he put his hand on her shoulder. "You won't change his mind; you can't, we already pledged."

She stood there, her brows furrowed. It would be so easy to just say, okay, Uriel had made his decision, there's nothing she could do, but \--

Tina!

It was Muriel's voice and it sounded urgent. What is it?

Where are you? In the attic?

Yes. Tina frowned when something shot by the attic window; for a second it immersed the space in complete darkness before it was gone. What was that? A shrilling sound pierced the house. The alarm. Somebody just stepped onto the house's drive. She leaned toward the window.

Come down into the basement, now, please.

Tina could see black shadows against the grey sky, flying through the air like fish. Shadows. They were Shadows, Angelica's Shadows. And so many of them.

One of the black hulks separated from the others. It flew toward the window and its mass slammed against the glass, which cracked, and black tendrils wiggled their way inside, reaching for Tina.

Tina jumped away and in the next moment she had Damon's warm hand wrapped around hers. He dragged her toward the door.

What's going on? Tina looked over her shoulder, seeing the black whips pushing their way inside the room.

Window shattered with a loud crack and the tendrils shot inside toward them; she could feel their cold brush against her arm. Her heartbeat slowed down and she shifted out of the way. She expected half of the tentacle things to turn toward her, but they didn't. They brushed by, their touch ice-cold, bringing sharp darkness and the dread of death. Tina could even have sworn that a smell of rotten and burning flesh and damp fog teased her nose. She looked down and saw thin burn lines through the tears in the fabric of her sleeve, where the whips had touched her as they reached out for Damon, their tips thin as hair wiggling as they stretched forward.

She pushed Damon through the door, followed him and shut it behind her. Her heartbeat returned to normal.

"What's going on?" Damon's hand curled around Tina's wrist again and he hurried down the stairs. "And what are those things?"

"Angelica's Shadows." Tina stumbled down the stairs behind Damon. "Muriel would like for us to come to the basement." Muriel, what's going on?

I don't know, but it seems that Angelica knows about you or Damon. Or even both?

"Did he say anything else?" Damon asked. He rushed around the corner and through the heavy steel door hidden behind the niche of the stairway, pulling Tina along.

"No."

The door slammed shut behind them. As Tina looked down she saw in the beam of the weak ceiling light Muriel and Haniel standing between the -- no, on the empty basement floor. The last time she had visited the basement, the middle of the basement had been clear, but there had been crates and boxes piled up against the wall. What was going on? Where were all the things?

"What's going on?" Damon strode down the stairs.

Tina looked at Muriel, who offered her his hand. Tina wiggled her wrist free of Damon's hold, closed the distance that separated her from Muriel and took his hand. "Where are all the things? And what did you mean about Angelica knowing about Damon or me? Wait a minute. Those things passed me by. They wanted him, not me. But how would she know?"

"We never asked you, but how did you get to the estate? And how did you know where Tina is?" Haniel stepped before Damon and crossed his arms.

Something bumped against the door. The hinges rattled and a fine layer of white dust rained down on them.

"Do you really need to know that right now?" Tina glared at Haniel before she flinched at a new blow against the door; her fingers dug into the fabric of Muriel's sleeve. "What are we going to do now?"

"Only we and Damon's Beliyas know about him being here, and we were careful; there is no way anybody saw him, so how does Angelica know?" Haniel glanced at Tina before he focused on Damon. "How did you know where Tina was?"

"I have an insider. And she doesn't exactly know me or that I stayed on the estate."

"Are you sure?" Muriel asked. "Who is it?"

Damon frowned, looking as if he didn't want to tell, but then he said it anyway. "A small blonde. I don't remember her name -- Tristian deals with her -- but she used to be an Aradma of one of Prva's white-haired boys."

"Gillian?"

"Gillian? Yes, something like that."

Gillian? Was that the same girl that had talked to her while they were preparing the hall for the party? Tina looked at Haniel. Their gazes met; Tina raised her brows. "Gillian?"

Haniel nodded, before he fixed his gaze on Damon again. "She was Nathanael's Aradma before Prva appointed her as Angelica's servant."

"I know about that," Damon said. "Being close to Angelica is what makes her so valuable."

"She could be a double agent, pretending that she works for you, while she's really working for Angelica. And even if she isn't, you can't trust her, not when she would do anything for a minute with Nathanael. "

"I only trust my Beliyas -- and she's not one of them. And as I said, she shouldn't have -- no, she didn't know about me being on the estate, she only knew about Tristian."

"Maybe she recognized you."

The blows against the door become louder and the strength of them increased.

"Could you two stop that? Shouldn't we think about those things?" Tina pointed at the door. She could imagine the large, black blobs slamming against the door, scorching the metal. She scratched the burns that still lingered on her skin, even though Damon's blood in her system should have already healed them.

"They can't come inside." Muriel said.

"But we can't go outside either," Tina said. "What are we going to do? Just wait here until morning? Or until somebody comes? Do you know what will happen if they come? They will find Damon."

Damon raised her brow. "Aren't you getting too worried?"

"And you're not getting worried enough." Tina wrapped her arm around Muriel's. "They are after you, not us. And the Ceremony is still going on -- wait a minute. Why isn't anybody noticing those things? Shouldn't there be already somebody checking out what's going on at the house? Where is everybody?"

"I could feel a reflection spell just before those things gathered at the roof," Muriel said. "Nobody is going to notice anything. It seems Angelica prepared. She even went to the trouble to send Uriel away."

"Does he know what's going on?" Tina asked.

"Yes, Muriel talked with him." Haniel went toward the light grey wall opposite the stairway. He touched something in the middle and part of the wall slid open, revealing a dark hallway.

"He's on his way to Angelica, he has a package to deliver," Muriel said as he pulled Tina with him toward the square hole. They stepped into the darkness, Haniel and Damon following them. The wall behind them closed and submerged them in darkness.

"Shouldn't Uriel be here? Or at least doing something to get us out of this?" Tina held on to Muriel's arm, not because she needed somebody to guide her in the dark -- she could see quite well in the dark -- but because the damp smell of the walls, the narrow hallway and the sound of small claws darting across the stone was making her shudder.

"It's not like we need his help." Damon pushed his way beside Tina. "I'm positive that the boys have an emergency exit and that we are using it right now."

"But he's going to Angelica --"

"Don't worry about Uriel." Muriel patted Tina's hand. "He's going to be careful and he might even find out what's going on."

"I'm not worried about Uriel." She wasn't. She knew that Uriel could take care of himself, but Uriel was the one that knew Angelica the best and he was also a strategist, which meant that in this situation he was the most useful one. "I'm worried about myself. And you should be too."

"But we are worried about you, too," Haniel said.

"I didn't mean that you should be worried about me, but about the situation." Tina looked over her shoulder at Haniel; she couldn't exactly distinguish his expression in the darkness, but she got the feeling that he was smiling at her.

They came to the -- dead end. Tina frowned, holding tightly to Muriel. It wasn't enough that Uriel was absent; now they had nowhere to go. "Are we lost?"

"No." Haniel elbowed his way up to the front. "It's the end of our tunnel, and on the other side of the wall are the Underground's hallways and chambers." He took something from the pocket of his cargos and directed it at the wall." We might run into some people. Damon, you should use that disguise trick." Part of the wall split and showed another dark hallway.

"Won't anybody stop us?" Tina whispered. From the corner of her eye she watched Damon unhook something from his thin leather bracelet. She leaned closer to see. It was a small bean. He crushed it over his head and sparkling dust rained over his upturned face. "What are you murmuring?"

"It's a spell." Damon gave her a small smile as his features distorted into a stranger's.

They stepped through the opening and continued their journey across the hallway, this time with Haniel at the front, guiding them.

At the second crossing a shadow emerged from the wall of the hallway. "You took your time."

It was Uriel. Tina peeked over Haniel's shoulder and noticed there was something big leaned against the wall beside his feet. She strained her eyes. It looked -- it looked human. A tinkle drew her gaze up and she could see Uriel passing a ring of keys to Haniel. "What's going on?" Tina frowned at how familiar that question had become to her.

"It's seems that you are going to leave a little sooner than planned," Uriel said.

Tina released Muriel's arm and stepped closer to Uriel. She put her hand on his arm. "What about you? What about...?"

"It's a little too late for that." Uriel patted her shoulder. "But I'll figure out something else, don't worry." He turned his back to them. "You better hurry, Prva might end her evening meeting any time now and after the after-party starts there will be too many servants running around."

"Yeah, we better hurry," Haniel said before he stepped into the left corridor, gesturing to others to follow him. "Come on, guys."

"You are not even saying goodbye?" Tina resisted Muriel's pull as he followed Haniel.

"But we are not parting, not really." Muriel looked at Tina over his shoulder. "We are always together" -- he pointed at his head -- "in here."

"Can we go already?" Damon passed them, patting Uriel's shoulder on his way. "We will see each other again."

"But until then I'm leaving them in your care. You better not disappoint me." Uriel leaned down, grabbed the man that lay unconscious at his feet and threw him over his shoulder.

"How can you all be like that?" Tina's fingers dug into Muriel's arm.

"Because we don't have a choice. Now, come." Muriel tugged Tina behind him.

Tina didn't want to go, but she rushed with them through the labyrinth of hallways anyway. They hid in niches at every hint of approaching steps, becoming even more cautious when they came out into the open, on the other side of the estate -- or so Haniel said.

Haniel led them across the grass toward the two-story high wall that framed the estate. They stopped before the wall.

"Uriel said that Tristian should be waiting for us on the other side," Muriel said.

Tina touched the smooth surface. "How will we get over it?"

"That's quite simple." Damon jumped up, his hands finding support where Tina could see none; in the next second he stood on the top of the wall, his three braids flapping in the wind. He squatted down and offered his hand. "Jump."

"Like I could," Tina said, then yelped as Haniel grabbed her and tossed her in the air. Hands caught her and pulled her up. The nerve of some people. Tina glared at Damon, who just smirked at her and jumped down from the wall, landing on the floor gracefully.

Haniel climbed up the wall and then with a jump joined Damon on the other side.

Damon spread his arms. "Jump."

"Are you crazy?" Tina carefully first squatted down, then sat on the edge of the wall, her feet dangling down. She looked around. Where did Muriel disappear to?

"Come on, jump, don't be such a sissy," Haniel said.

"If you didn't have your special powers, I bet you would be scared, too," Tina grumbled. She took a deep breath.

"Tina, you have to jump, now." Damon's voice sounded urgent.

"Why?"

"Jump. Jump. Now!" Haniel yelled, looking at something above and behind Tina.

Tina glanced behind her, eyes widening at the black shapes that closed on her like arrows. She pushed herself off the wall.

She fell and her heartbeat accelerated. She floated in the air. The black tentacles reaching for her, almost touching her. How could they be so fast? She managed to evade them, but barely. Moving through the air in slow motion was like swimming through jelly.

She slowed down her heartbeat; her body hit something warm and solid -- another body.

The black threats were upon them, they shot down, aiming for Damon. She sped up her pulse again, and pushed Damon out of the way. Instead of Damon, the wisps touched her, icy cold, so cold that it burned, and her body became numb, unable to move. How had that happened? She was a coward, more of a spectator than a player, so why had she even tried to play the hero?

The threads slowly crawled around her, the burning touch embracing her, until there was only blackness and the red pain. She tried to scream, but nothing came out of her open mouth.

Chapter 15

The smell of disinfectant dominated the air and the narrow tube of fluorescent light gave the small space a feel of hospital. But the glass walls that divided the space from the other 'cages' in the octagon-shaped hall made the large room seem more like a cross between a Zoo and a laboratory -- which was exactly what this was.

Tina averted her eyes from the ceiling, turned over on the mattress, which she had pushed against the wall, and touched the plastic, transparent barrier that separated her from Damon. She gazed at the motionless body lying on the bare mattress in the middle of the cage. She wanted to touch him, she wanted to feel his heartbeat under her fingers and she needed to make sure that he was still alive.

She had come to her senses a while ago, Muriel's persistent voice echoing in her head drew her back from the depths of sleep. Her body hurt, her stiff limbs refused to obey her completely and she could not only see, but also feel light burns all over her body. They stung and itched, but at least it seemed that they had healed. She also noticed a puncture at the crook of her right elbow -- they could have at least rolled down her sleeve, but she guessed that they -- probably Angelica -- didn't feel the need to conceal the fact that they had taken blood from her.

She tried to tell all that to Muriel, but between the pain and dizziness, she couldn't concentrate enough to give Muriel more than a few unconnected words, but at least those helped to hush Muriel's frantic tone and lessened the string of questions.

She shifted her head backward and looked at the cage to the left of the one across from her where a person groaning and crying like an animal slammed his body against the wall, repeatedly, the blood smearing across the glass. That didn't help her concentration either. If only she could do something about that.

At first she sympathized with the creature, and wondered why nobody was trying to calm it and then noticed -- half of the inmates were out of it like Damon, the other half either paced, curled trembling in the corner or -- she bit her lip and pulled the thin, brown blanket up to her neck -- munched on their wrists, arms, legs or shoulders. And as horrible as it was as the time passed by, she could understand it. Her mouth felt dry, something twisted her insides, urging her... urging her to... She wanted that foul tasting concoction that Uriel gave her every morning. No, she needed it, badly; just the thought of it made her mouth water.

She put her finger into her mouth and nibbled on it, her gaze on Damon again. Please, please, just move, shift so I will know you are alive. Please. Her teeth broke the skin and a copper taste filled her mouth. So good. Her tongue lapped at the crimson liquid before she started to suck on the wound.

She moved closer to the glass until she had her nose pressed against it. Wake up! Wake up! She would have yelled, but she doubted that in the noise coming from other cages it would have any result. So she just lay there, cold, alone even with Muriel's voice that here and there said something encouraging -- or at least he tried, talking about how they would get her and Damon out. But if they could, they would already have done it, wouldn't they?

Her eyes started to water and with an angry swipe she rubbed them. She had another soul inside her, and a voice inside her head, but why was it that she was left on her own in the end? Why? She wanted somebody to embrace her, to say, everything was going to be fine. But there was no one.

She closed her eyes. She had thought... She had thought that being with the Dumes would change that, that they cared enough for Trinity that she would be able to wiggle her way into their circle as a part of their family. However, she lay on a bare mattress now, trapped in this cold, sterile cage, alone -- and even though it wasn't the Dumes' fault, she knew it wasn't, but they had said that they would protect her and being here felt like betrayal of that promise.

She almost dozed off, but a knock against the glass made her eyelids flutter open.

Red eyes and a stranger's face stared at her. But she knew who hid under those unfamiliar features and relief washed over her. Damon. She pulled herself up on her knees, the blanket slid down.

Damon, squatting down with his arms dangling between his knees, leaned closer, his forehead touched the barricade with a soft thud. He flashed his fangs in a small, tired smile. "How are you?"

"Thirsty, dizzy and cold. And I really want my morning shake." Tina's voice was coarse as if she hadn't used it in a long time. "And what's with you? You look horrible."

"I feel horrible, too."

She noticed Damon's rolled up, torn sleeve and puncture mark. "They took your blood too." Her gaze found Damon's. "Now they are going to find out who you are," she whispered so quietly that even she could barely hear it.

"The only thing they will find out is that I'm Lord Blackdart's Ishaaas."

What was he talking about? Tina frowned, but she didn't say it out loud, not when she knew there were cameras on the ceiling of the hall, one before each cage. If she remembered correctly, Ishaaas didn't have as much power as Beliya, but were turned by purebreds, too, right? She lay down on the mattresses and curled into a ball. "They are going to find out. You can't hide the taste of your blood."

"Oh, but I can." Damon lay down on the floor, too, his face so close that his breath made a fog on the glass as he spoke in a quiet voice. "I could replace it. It takes some time before my body assimilates a new blood and makes it its own."

"Did you...?" Tina whispered.

"Just before I came here."

How could he? With some sort of transplant or something? And where did he get all that blood? Tina sighed. She should really bother with more important things, like how to get out of here.

"Do you have any news?"

She assumed that he meant news from the Dumes. She shook her head.

"But you did inform them of the situation?"

"I can't... I can't concentrate long enough." With the heel of her hand she rubbed her temple. It turned out that even the telepathy link she had worked so hard to establish with Muriel was useless when she needed it the most. She was so useless.

"I see."

How can he be so calm? With a fingertip she touched the barrier just above where Damon's red eyes were. "Why are your eyes red?"

"I'm thirsty."

Screams pierced the air.

She turned toward the noise.

The person who had previously soiled the transparent wall with blood started to disintegrate: the skin started to fall down on the floor in thin strips and bits of meat, changing into a grey fog. The screaming stopped.

Chills ran up Tina's spine as she watched the fog twirl up in the air and start to thicken, until only the skeleton remained. It collapsed. The bones rattled against the white floor, bouncing once, twice, before they shattered into dust.

The silence pressed down over Tina, suffocating her, and as she gazed around, she could see the rest of the prisoners huddling in the corners of their cages. "What's going on?"

"It seems that we just witnessed the birth of a Shadow."

Tina's eyes widened and she crumpled the blanket into her fist. "Will... that happen to us too?"

"I don't think so, not yet anyway." Damon examined his puncture wound. "I don't feel any foreign substance in my body." He closed his eyes, a short hiss escaping him. "Just lack of my own. They took at least a litre of blood, and right now I don't have any means to replace it."

"Maybe they will bring some, or maybe somebody will come and when you get us out, you can feed on him." Tina didn't really believe that they would be able to force their way out. She nibbled on her finger again, her gaze on the dark fog, which looked more like liquid now. It reminded Tina of Boo goo, a sort of liquid putty that children loved to throw around at Halloween.

The black thing slid over the barrier that separated it from its neighbour, looking as if it were trying to find cracks to pass through.

"I doubt that somebody will come and even if they did, not all blood is good for me, especially not Mamael's or Damned's Aradmas'. Their blood is too greasy, too thick and it doesn't quench my thirst, but makes it even worse." Damon pulled himself into a sitting position, his side leaned against the wall and his elbow on his bent knee.

The black putty touched the ground and in the narrow space between the barrier and floor forced its way into the neighbouring cage.

A small tremble shook Tina as she watched how the thing crawled across the floor toward the man, who, frozen like a mouse before the snake, stood on the other side of the cage. "What is it going to do?"

The man slid down, he lifted his hands as a shield before his head, his whole body shaking.

"Feed on it, what else?"

Tina covered her face and watched what was going on through the spaces between her fingers. She grimaced when first goo's tentacle touched the man and a short cry of agony vibrated through the hall. "This isn't happening. No, this isn't happening. I'm just having a bad dream and I'm going to wake up any moment now." She couldn't watch anymore; she shut her eyes, but opened them wide in the next second. "What if it manages to reach us?"

"It won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Look at those walls."

Tina lifted herself to her knees and followed Damon's pointed finger. She noticed the current sparking inside of the walls one cage to the left and two cages to the right from the one in which the Shadow climbed up the man's body.

"It seems that Angelica made sure that she doesn't lose too many of her test subjects."

Tina glanced at Damon, who leaned his chin on his elbow and stared across the hall at that nauseous and horrible sight. It bothered her that he looked calm and collected as if what was happening at the other side of the hall wasn't something out of the ordinary.

"I got a few reports about her work, but I never expected to cross paths with something like her Shadows. They remind me of the Black Death, the gas that leaked out of Abbas's body when Trinity cut off his head. Did she ever tell you about that? It was quite poisonous and it took more than six centuries to get completely rid of it."

"Black Death? That's black plague, isn't it? And it came from Abbas's head? How could that be possible?" Tina lifted her hand, palm facing Damon and her voice low. "No, on the second thought, I don't want to know. And how could Trinity tell me that? She was dead at that time. And you shouldn't be mentioning her. There are cameras here, remember?"

"Who ever is on the other side is probably more concerned with that thing there than with us and even if Angelica finds out, so what?"

"They could use recorders. And how can you say, so what? We went through so much trouble so that Angelica wouldn't learn about me and you, and you are even using that disguise spell, so why would you want to destroy all our hard work?"

"You don't get it, do you?" Damon's red eyes narrowed at Tina. "As you could see with your own eyes, us being in this places means that you will end up as a Shadow or as their food. The only thing that will get you out of this situation is disclosure of your identity." His features softened. "And I, as personal Ishaaas of Lord Blackdart on a quest to bring back the wayward reincarnation of his Beloved, can turn out to be very valuable in negotiations."

Tina nibbled at her finger and frowned when something broke the skin. She ran her tongue over her teeth. Her canine had a sharp tip. When had those appeared? She sucked on the wound for a few seconds while she dared to peek at that nauseating thing. Could she really become like that thing? -- Hey, wait a minute, Damon only talked...Why was he talking only about her change, about her becoming those things' food? "You are only talking about exposing my identity, what about yours?"

"Well, they will learn of my position as Ishaaas --"

"Only your position as Ishaaas... That's unfair. If you hadn't come, I wouldn't even be in this situation, and I'm the one you are going to use to save yourself." Tina curled, wrapped her arms around her legs and pressed her face against her knees. "I would be still with the Dumes, frolicking around their house. I liked that house. And I wouldn't be aware of how those things are made. Or how they feed. So unfair."

"Tina."

Tina refused to answered Damon's call. She was so sick of him, of the situation that seemed to get worse every time she crossed paths with him. She felt as if her body was in a constant cramp. She was always on the lookout, always drowning, never able to relax or float up above the surface to take a deep breath.

"Stop being immature and trust me a little."

"Why should I? You kidnapped me and changed me into something weird." -- Actually that was her fault, not that she would admit that to Damon -- "And then when I was in the middle of accepting the changes in me -- I was doing pretty okay, you know -- you forced your way in and ruined everything."

"You misunderstood me, and stop feeling sorry for yourself."

"I understood you just fine." Tina tensed her jaw. "And I'm entitled to wail in misery. If I want to roll on the floor and cry, that's my business, not yours." The traitor.

"Listen to me, I don't intend to trade you for myself. I wouldn't do that, not after I had to go through so much trouble to finally get my hands on you."

Tina peeked at Damon. "You wouldn't? Then what? What else is there to trade?"

"Abbas's head." Damon ran his fingers through his hair. "I hate to let it go, but I guess it can't be helped."

"It's just a head. Who would want that monstrosity?"

"I see you haven't being paying attention at all. Not only is Abbas's head a great tool to enhance your own powers or somebody else's" -- he gave her a meaningful gaze -- "as you experienced firsthand, but it also contains a deadly gas with which Angelica would love to 'purify' the whole world population; that's why she would do anything to get it in her hands." He furrowed his brows, his fingers absently combing through his black hair. "But, actually, we can't afford to trade with Angelica, we need for Prva to learn about you and snatch us away from here."

"Purify? What do you mean, purify?" Tina pulled herself up. "That plague... the disease doesn't choose who to kill."

"Abbas's Black Death doesn't have any effect on Bloodeater purebreds, it mainly kills people with weak blood. Well, the purebreds can get infected through blood, but that rarely happens." Damon again ruffled his hair. "Trinity didn't know Angelica's real intentions with Abbas, actually nobody knew, but after Trinity's death, when I hunted the Fallen, I found out that Angelica's main purpose was -- no, still is -- to cleanse the world with the help of Abbas's poison."

Cleanse the world with the help of Abbas's poison, Tina repeated to herself, her eyes scrutinising Damon's face. She nibbled on her chewed finger again. It sounded preposterous, but Damon's serious face told her that he believed that to be truth. What did that mean for her? That if Angelica got the head, she would get sick or something. With her free hand she rubbed her forehead. Bloodeaters, Aradmas, The Damned, Deadeaters, the threat of epidemic -- could somebody give her a break? She so wasn't ready for any of that, but here she was, in the middle of it. No wonder that she had a killer headache.

"Not that Prva believes me, and unfortunately I can't bring her a Fallen to confirm my claims, since I made Angelica the last of their kind."

"But what would Angelica gain with that?"

"I'm not exactly sure. My guess is that this is the best way to exterminate all the Bloodeaters. No Mamaels -- no food. And a war would probably break out for the remaining healthy humans. "

That made sense, sort of. Tina pressed her fingers against her temples as if that would hush the pain that pulsed in her head. "So, how do you plan to inform Prva?"

"Through you, how else?" Damon smirked. "You will have to grit your teeth, no matter how much pain you're in and how weak you are, and contact Muriel. I need to give him some instruction."

Chapter 16

Tina's mouth felt dry when she stared at the transparent plastic bag that lay one step from her, under the glass's invisible opening, through which an Aradma had tossed the bag into the cage. She couldn't tear her gaze from the thick liquid. She could even feel its taste in her mouth and she wanted it, that crimson red, she needed it. She reached out, slowly, cautiously, glancing at Damon from the corner of her eye.

"Leave it."

Tina whimpered, her fingertips touched the glossy material. She would take a sip. A tiny, little sip, that's all. She drew the bag closer, the tube attached to the bag uncoiled.

"Tina, I told you to leave it."

Tina didn't need to glance in Damon's direction to know that he glared at her. "Just a little sip."

"There could be things mixed in there; even one, short sip can turn you into a Shadow."

Just because Damon had smelled something weird in his, which, with its now brown and sticky looking contents, lay half opened in the corner of his cage, didn't mean that the blood in her bag had something added to it, too. She slid her hand over the two stoppers that sealed the bag. She only needed to uncork the bag or tear the bag's tube with her teeth, and the copper taste would flood her mouth. She licked her lips, then after she caught herself doing that, her eyes widened. The blood.

She kicked the bag away.

The bag slid across the room and banged against the glass.

The prisoner on the other side slowly turned toward her.

The pale, slightly green face with shallow cheeks and baggy red eyes would just two months ago have sent her into a panic, or at least made her hide under the covers shaking, but now even the man's fanged hiss had no effect on her. Her gaze slid down to the bag, to the temptation she had fought for more than an hour.

She could walk in the sunlight, she could still feel hunger and eat food, but somewhere along the way she had started to become like them.

She wasn't like them, not yet, or at least that was what the Dumes had told her. As long as she didn't start to drink blood from others, she would remain that 'in-waiting thing', not a Bloodeater, but not human, either. Something in between. That's what she was, but she could become one of them so quickly, the thirst that right now twisted her inside and made her drool just at the sight of this bag was proof of that. And she hated it. Hated it. Her hands curled and she turned her head, glaring at Damon. It was all his fault.

"What?"

She averted her gaze, lay down on the mattress, drew her knees against her belly and pulled the blanket over her head. She focused on the darkness inside her head and called the image of Muriel before her eyes.

She still couldn't concentrate enough to have long talks with Muriel, but after the dizziness subsided she had managed to exchange a few words and tell Muriel about their situation, about Damon's plan, and how to set it in motion. Not that it seemed complicated: all the Dumes had to do was to contact Tristian and tell him to start with Plan C, whatever that was.

"Tina."

Tina ignored him. Muriel, Muriel, she called into the darkness, hoping that Muriel would have some additional news which could put her fears at ease. He had already told her that Haniel had found their location, it was in the upper level of the building, sealed away from the rest of Angelica's lab, so that even Uriel couldn't force his way in. Muriel had also notified her when Tristian went to Prva and since that was quite a while ago, Tina wished for more news. No, she needed it, just to get through this.

"Tina."

No answer. She should try to concentrate harder. She imagined Muriel's face and called him again.

"Tina, stop ignoring me."

She pulled the blanket down and glared at Damon. "I'm trying to concentrate here, could you shut up, please?"

"Why? You don't need to. Just rest and take it easy."

A piercing scream cut through the air.

"I... I can't." Even though Tina didn't want to, her gaze automatically slid toward the source of the noise. Another Shadow, three cages away from her, had just fed on an inmate, and this time the thing didn't need to search for the opening; the cage's wall actually descended through the line in the floor.

"Tina?"

"I'm scared." She wrapped the thin grey fabric tighter around her body. And she wanted Muriel to calm her down.

"Everything is going to turn out all right, don't worry."

She stared at him.

"I promise. I will get you out."

A thud sounded behind Damon and as Tina looked past Damon, she could see a man in the cell next to Damon slamming his body against the glass wall. Another Shadow in the making. And right next to Damon. Her fingers found their way into her mouth and she started to nibble on them. Right beside Damon.

Damon, who also turned at the thud, focused on Tina again. "I'm not going to become its food."

Tina furrowed her brows. If she could only believe him. The nibbling that had stopped resumed again. After Damon -- her face grimaced, she couldn't even imagine it happening to Damon, not even when she had seen first-hand how those things sucked out the life from their 'food' and left nothing but bones and skin.

"Listen to me. Nothing is going to happen to me. That thing can give me superficial wounds, but it can't hurt me. I'm too strong for it to hurt me."

Like she would believe him.

The man in the cage beside Damon started to turn into Shadow. His skin and flesh changed into a dark cloud and then his bones rattled to the floor and shattered into dust.

Tina closed her eyes against the sight, which no matter how often she had witnessed it over the last two days, still troubled her mind, promised nightmares and made her glad that the lights in the hall were always turned on. She opened them again and the acid feeling rose in her throat. Her hand flew toward her mouth and she tried to swallow it, hoping that she wouldn't need to drag herself to the hole in the ground, under the faucet.

She noticed the glass behind Damon sliding down into the floor. Her eyes widened. She swallowed as she pointed past Damon at the black blob, her arm shaking. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

Damon looked over his shoulder and stood up. He put a hand against the glass. "Don't worry." Then he faced the Shadow that flew toward him.

How could she not worry? Tina's hand covered her mouth as, breathless, she watched Damon dodging the thing. Seeing him using his ability to in a flash appear somewhere else, calmed Tina's fear, but what was Damon going to do? Evade the Shadow until one of them got tired?

Damon, when the thing jumped on him this time, sidestepped and reached into the fog. His hands dove deep into the black fog and his face grimaced. Then a grin flashed on his face and he swung his arms back, somehow holding the thing.

How could he hold it? Tina remembered her hands, when the Shadow attacked her, had gone right through it as if she had pushed her way into fog, but the thing burned where ever it touched her skin.

Damon tossed the Shadow across the two cages. With a weird pop, it slammed against the glass and slowly slid down.

"How? How did you do that?" Tina pressed her nose against the barrier that separated her from Damon. She could see the torn edges of Damon's sleeves and burn marks on Damon's hands.

"Their core is tangible." Damon clenched his hands as if testing the injuries that looked like they had already started to heal.

The Shadow lifted itself up. It floated in the air, changing shape into an arrow before it shot toward Damon.

Tina sucked in her breath.

The glass barrier was projected up and the blob crashed against it. It fell down as if somebody were peeling it from the glass.

The hole opened in the middle of the hall and a round platform rose from it; two people, a red-haired woman and a brown-haired man stood on it.

As soon as the platform levelled with the ground they walked toward the cage. As they walked, the woman lifted the display she held in her hand and pressed a few keys.

The barrier that separated Damon's cage from Tina's lifted and Damon rushed to her side. He helped her to get up; his arms offered her support.

Tina's knees wobbled. She hadn't known that she was so weak. She pressed herself closer to Damon. It felt so good to be able to feel a human's warmth, to be able to feel strong arms around her, which gave her a feeling of safety, even in this situation.

The woman pressed her display again. The wall that held the Shadow opened.

"Why are they releasing that thing? You don't think they will use us as its food?" Tina dug her fingers into Damon's arm.

"They already tried that. Let's just see what's going to happen."

The Shadow surged forward. It would have attacked the pair, but the boy lifted a small, light ball the size of a marble that he held in his fist and tossed it at the Shadow.

The ball sailed through the Shadow, the light of it exposed the layers, which became thicker and thicker the deeper the ball went, until it stopped in the core of it, its light hushed.

The Shadow cried out and froze in the air.

The light flashed in a circle outside the Shadow's core and then disappeared.

The Shadow like a leaf dropped down to the height of the man's hips then in a rocking motion neared him.

"What did they just do?" Tina in a whisper asked Damon. "Could we get one of those balls, too?"

"I'm afraid not." Damon's voice was quiet on Tina's ear.

"Why not?"

"Did you notice the slight grey edge on the ball?"

Now that he mentioned it, yes, she had. Tina nodded and looked up at Damon.

"I think that ball is Angelica's essence; in the past she used something like that -- not in the shape of a marble, but in a beam of light -- to get low-ranking Bloodeaters and Mamaels under her command." Damon's forehead wrinkled. "It seems that she is using this now to make Shadows her pets."

Tina nibbled on her fingers without breaking the skin, scrutinising what was happening. She was too tired to feel anything, but at the edge of her numb mind danced a fear of Angelica. Tina hated the woman because of everything she had done to the Dumes, but now she found her dreadful, especially since she now knew the kind of power Angelica possessed. She knew that there were people in this world who would do anything for power, anything to get what they wanted, but... it always surprised her how far some of them would go. Turning people, even if they were Deadeaters, into Shadows, to use them as pets or soldiers... how horrible.

From the bag tied around his waist, the man pulled out a glass box the size of his palm. He said something in a strange language.

The Shadow lifted and started to twirl around its axis as it slowly flew toward the box, becoming smaller and smaller. When it reached the man it had become the size of a child's fist and could easily slip into the box.

The man closed the box and cleared it into the bag. Then he turned toward Tina and Damon. "We are here to collect you. Please, do not give us any trouble or we will be forced to harm you."

The woman pressed a key on the display and the wall started to move.

"Where are you taking us?" Damon asked.

"To Angelica." The woman turned her back to them. "Please, follow me." She went toward the platform.

Damon followed her, his arms still holding Tina.

Tina pulled on Damon's shirt and waited until Damon bent his head low. "Shouldn't you attack them and try to get us free?" she whispered to Damon.

"It won't do us any good, since the man behind us is aiming a box at us."

Tina glanced over her shoulder and she saw the man holding a box similar to Uriel's ball in his hand, the surface with the small hole in it aimed at them. "But couldn't you... aren't you quicker?"

"Probably, but since we are in what seems to be a highly guarded part of Angelica's domain, I don't see how resistance right now would help us." Damon pulled Tina on the platform. "You have to choose the moment for battle, not just randomly start swinging your fist."

"I'm just asking."

"And I'm just telling."

The platform descended and they found themselves in a black tunnel before the platform stopped and the tube that framed it rose up.

The man ordered them forward and they stepped from the platform onto the linoleum floor of a small room without windows. The room's walls were covered with shelves, glass jars and boxes on their surfaces. The woman opened a section of the shelves like a door and they followed her through it into the hallway, then into a large room that looked similar to the lab in which Tina had found herself after the Dumes 'rescued' her from Damon's hold.

Angelica stood behind the U-shaped counter and at the sight of them floated through the counter toward them. Her fingers touched Tina's neck and forced her to lift her head.

Angelica's touch didn't hurt her as it had the last time, it only made her skin tingle as if something crawled where Angelica's fingers lingered. Tina moved her head away and she stepped closer to Damon as if she were looking for his protection, wondering why he was letting Angelica touch her.

"Stay still, girl. Let me see you." Angelica's fingers dug into Tina's skin, preventing her from turning away, and her silver eyes examined her. "You don't feel like Trinity. There's no spark in you, or in the blood that I took from you." She released her. "You might not even be useful turned into a Seraktalu. You are too weak. Weaker even than Akilueteers."

Tina's stiff shoulders slumped down. The tension still held her body like a stretched string, but a part of her relaxed at Angelica's words. She didn't want to be useful to Angelica. She would hate it if that happened, it would mean pain and harm to her body, and probably even her soul.

"But you." Angelica's focus shifted on Damon. She touched the side of Damon's neck, her fingers dipping into the flesh and when she pulled them out, crimson red hushed the light on her fingers. "You have power, your blood is loaded with it. You could be my masterpiece, the Master of Seraktalu."

"To become your Shadow. No, thank you." Damon tilted his head away from Angelica's hand. "I'll stay Lord Blackdart's Ishaaas; if nothing else, he has better employee benefits."

"It's a shame I can't keep you. My sister found out about you two; she demands I deliver you to her and since she's the one in authority, for now, I have no choice but to obey her." Angelica narrowed her eyes at Damon and then ordered the woman, who stood with the man behind Damon and Tina, to bring ampoules, then floated higher and leaned over Damon. "But your Master in his demand for your return never mentioned that you have to come intact, just unharmed."

That didn't sound good. Tina wrapped her hands around Damon's arm. "What does she mean by that?"

"It means that I'm going to collect as much blood from him as I can before I pack you two off to Prva." Angelica took the box the woman opened and put it on the counter beside her. "And you better cooperate or I'll take her blood, and you might know what happens after a while to Aarsa Tiyaat if they lose more than a third of their blood."

"What happens?" Tina furrowed her brows. She could vaguely remember something Trinity had told her.

"They usually die." Damon's jaw tensed.

"And I'm sure you don't want to test that." Angelica took a syringe with an ampoule out of the box.

"No, I don't." Damon stepped away from Tina, toward Angelica. He rolled up his sleeve and offered his arm to Angelica.

Chapter 17

Darkness ruled in the small, cramped box, but that didn't prevent Tina from seeing the delicate movement behind Damon's eyelids. With the edge of her sleeve she dabbed Damon's face, pale with grey hues. Damon still hid his features behind a strange face, despite his blood loss and despite the long wound on his forearm where Angelica had helped herself to a sample of Damon's flesh, but maintaining the façade put additional strain on Damon's body, making heat shimmer from his skin.

What had happened to Damon wasn't her fault, she knew it wasn't, but Angelica had used her to get Damon's obedience and it made her feel guilty. She caressed the feverish skin and brushed away the short hair that stuck to Damon's forehead and temples. "I'm sorry."

Damon's eyelids fluttered open and revealed red irises. His hand found Tina's and squeezed it. "It's not your fault." His voice sounded tired and hoarse, as if his throat hurt.

She was tired too, but she didn't dare close her eyes and risk falling asleep. Somebody had to be on the lookout, and since before in the cage Damon had kept an eye on everything, it was now her turn. She caressed the side of his face before raising her hand and looking at her palm. She fisted it until the dark veins were clearly visible under the pale skin inside her arm. She didn't really want to, but it was the least she could do. She offered her wrist to Damon. "You must be hungry."

Something flashed in the red eyes and he wetted his lips. Then he grimaced and pushed her hand away. "If I start to feed on you, I won't be able to stop." He looked at the ceiling of the box and pressed the heel of his hand against the bridge of his nose. "I need Tristian, Irene... or one of my Ishaaas. Maybe even one of the Dumes would work."

"You look horrible, you know. You need to feed. And don't worry about me, I will just snatch my hand away after a while." Tina shoved her wrist toward his face again.

"You... you have never seen a starving Bloodeater, have you? There's nothing that comes between them and their food once they start feasting, especially not a weak girl like you." He pushed her hand away again. "I'm one of the most powerful of the Lost Lords and your strength is similar to Akilueteers; if you think you will be able to stop me just because I feel a little tired, you are mistaken."

"But I want to help and there doesn't seem anything else that I can do." Her hand dropped into her lap, beside Damon's head.

Damon sighed. "Stop frowning. I won't die. My body can take care of itself even with the loss of blood and without feeding, just a little slower. Don't worry. Everything will be okay."

"Every time you say that something happens and worsens our situation." Tina gazed around the box in which Angelica had locked them after she finished with Damon. The wooden box was large enough that Damon could lay inside it with his knees bent and high enough that she could kneel without bending her neck, the ceiling of the box just an inch above the top of her head, with nail-sized holes at the lower, left side of it.

"We are free of Angelica, aren't we? And there's no threat of Shadows." Damon turned and wrapped his arm around Tina's waist.

"We don't know that." Just because Muriel had told her that Prva agreed to the swap and the box was now in a big, dark hall, with stone walls similar to those in Prva's great hall -- she knew that because she had peeked through the holes -- that didn't mean that they were free of Angelica or the Shadows. Who knew what that awful woman would do next?

"Stop whining already and give me some peace, so I can rest, please." Damon nuzzled closer to Tina and closed his eyes.

He didn't worry enough. She buried her fingers in his tousled hair. It made her wonder how he had survived until now with that careless attitude of his. Or maybe he was just trying to make her worry less. Probably. She sighed and with the back of her hand rubbed her forehead, grimacing at the odour of her T-shirt that floated to her nose. She stank and even her skin itched, which was actually nothing surprising after spending three days -- according to Muriel \-- in the same clothes and not being able to wash properly. She really needed a bath, or at least a shower. And where was Muriel, anyway? His voice should be there, in her head, comforting her.

Something rattled and the box was lifted up. Tina lay down and with one arm around Damon's shoulder and the other against the wall she tried to see what was going on through the holes, but she couldn't see anything. She frowned, were they now being delivered to Prva? She hoped so; she wished for the whole ordeal to be over already. She was so sick of this Bloodeaters' business -- thanks a lot, Damon. She glared at Damon, not that it did her any good, as he seemed to have already fallen asleep. The jerk.

A hushed buzzing sound told her that some kind of machine was moving the box forward. After some moments, weak beams of light found their way into the box and the box lowered. A few hushed words and then the box was opened.

The light for a moment blinded Tina, then a male body shaded it, two arms reaching for her.

Uriel. Tina's mouth curved up on its own. "I'm...I'm so glad to see you." She threw herself into Uriel's embrace and, stuttering, started to explain what had happened to her, even though he already had to have learned the main parts from Muriel.

"You are all right now." Uriel, kneeling, lifted her up and pulled her into his lap, while he caressed her back with comforting circular motions.

Tina's explaining turned to babble. "I do hope you have something. Your shake. I want your shake." Her fist crumpled the folds of Uriel's black shirt. "I'm hungry." She looked over her shoulder at the man, whom she had thought peacefully slept, but was actually glaring at them with his eyelids half-mast. She should probably mention his predicament. "Him, too. Angelica. Blood. So much of it..." She turned forward and leaned back so she could see Uriel's face. "He's hungry." Her fangs dropped down. "Me, too."

#

Tina leaned back on a comfortable white pillow on a brown couch and nursed the tumbler in her hands. Until the exchange, where she and Abbas would change 'owners', she and Damon got to use an apartment with a small living room, which only had a couch, a small coffee table and a closet with a stove, sink and refrigerator hiding behind its doors. A short hallway that opened on the left side of the living room led to a room only large enough to house two steel boxes, and the bathroom.

A satisfied sigh escaped Tina's throat when she stretched her legs and lifted her glass to take another sip of Uriel's concoction -- her second glass. The tepid liquid spilled over her tongue, and despite the foul taste, something inside her hummed in contentment. She had just showered, changed into clean clothes and filled her tummy. She glanced sideways at Damon, who sat leaning on the pillows, with Uriel's wrist between his teeth.

A soft sound shifted her gaze to Uriel, who sat between her and Damon. Had he just moaned? No, she had to have heard wrong since Uriel's wrinkled forehead and the downturned corners of his mouth didn't betray one bit of enjoyment, and the expression he wore didn't even come close to the bliss Tristian had displayed that time she had stumbled on Damon feeding. And here she was thinking that feeding was something... erm, pleasurable, at least when you were Lost's food. But at least they weren't glaring at each other anymore. What was with that? They were on the same side, had they forgotten? With those two one never knew. She shrugged her shoulders. Right now, life was good, she was clean, sated and comfortable, and she intended to thoroughly enjoy this rare moment of respite.

She drained her glass and put it on the floor beside the couch. She sank deeper into the pillows, pulled the olive-coloured fleece throw to her chin and closed her eyes.

"Don't sleep," Uriel said.

She sighed. Yes, she knew, Uriel wanted to talk with them. Not that they would be able to discuss anything they didn't want Prva to hear; Uriel, after dragging Tina and Damon into the bathroom and opening the faucet, had told them that Prva had placed bugs all over the Underground. She thought that maybe Muriel could connect her with the Dumes, but what about Damon? They couldn't exactly convey the whole conversation to him. Well, actually they could, but under the protection of faucet noise.

"I'm not sleeping. I'm just resting." And to prove it, she concentrated on Muriel's image, not surprised when it came easily to her and it didn't take any effort to maintain it. Muriel.

Hey, how are you?

At the moment, great. But you already know that, we just talked not too long ago.

Yeah.

Uriel said that we need to talk.

We are already talking.

Yes, it seems we are. Tina smiled. But I don't think that was what Uriel had in mind.

No, Muriel said, the tone of his voice becoming dark and serious. Uriel's afraid that something might go wrong with the exchange. You see, in Damon's plan, Angelica didn't know what kind of trade we were making, but Uriel 'coincidentally' heard that Prva had to justify to Angelica why she wants you when she demanded that Angelica deliver you to her, and Angelica now knows that Prva is getting Abbas's head.

So? Even if Angelica gets the head there's not much that she could do with it. Tina tried to lighten the mood, even though Damon's words about the Black Plague and Abbas's power burdened her shoulders like a heavy weight.

She could use it to make Shadows. Do you know how strong a Shadow with even one percent of Abbas's power would be? a voice intruded into the conversation.

Uriel? How is that I can hear you? Tina opened her eyes and looked at Uriel.

Muriel. He's also trying to connect you with Haniel.

Oh, I see. That was quick. In the past when Muriel had trained her, they needed more time to connect. Tina smoothed the blanket. And did they need to bring Shadows up? Just the mention of them returned stiffness into her body and, even though just a moment ago she had been pleasantly sleepy, she suddenly felt wide awake. She resented that with just a few words they could take away her peace of mind. Couldn't they give her just a little more time? Just one night? Or at least an hour? Another tired sigh. She shouldn't complain; they were in this together, weren't they?

What? Uriel asked, then sucked in his breath at something that Damon did. "That's enough!" He shook Damon off his wrist.

Nothing, it's just... There's always something, and I'm so tired. And those \-- a dark shiver ran up her spine \-- Shadows scare me.

They are scary, aren't they? And ugly too, a new, more cheerful voice than Uriel's and Muriel's joined in.

Haniel. A small smile stretched Tina's lips. She had missed him, missed his positive attitude. Yeah, they are ugly.

Damon's tongue darted out and licked a drop of blood in the corner of his mouth. He shifted closer to Tina.

"What are you doing?" Uriel pulled himself higher on the couch.

Damon rested his elbow on the couch's back just above Tina and leaned over her, a dangerous glint flashed in his red eyes. "There's something going on here and you are leaving me out of it. I don't like it."

"We can't talk... You know?" Tina shifted sideways, away from Damon. She sat up, pulling the blanket with her and wrapping it around her torso. Something in Damon's posture, the way he dominated the line of her vision and how his weight on the blanket prevented her from moving freely, made her uncomfortable.

"No, I don't know." Damon's eyes flashed something dangerous, but then his expression changed and a smirk stretched his lips. "Explain it to me, please."

Uriel wrapped his arm around Damon's shoulders and pulled him backwards. He whispered something into his ear then he released him.

Muriel, is there any way we could include Damon in our conversation? Tina asked.

We have been trying to do that for some time now; I just don't know how to do it under circumstances like these. I thought it could be done while Damon was feeding on Uriel, but it couldn't, Muriel said. Maybe it could through you. We should try it. You should connect with him.

How am I supposed to do that? And are you even sure you could do that, connect us? Isn't strengthening the links between you, your brothers and me, hard enough? You usually have problems with that.

Well...

Irene is helping him and he is feeding on her and Tristian, Haniel intruded. Their blood is stronger than Deadeaters and more potent. You should see him. Even though he sounds like his usual self, he looks like he's on sugar rush, bouncing off the walls; he can't stand still.

Tina tired to imagine that, but she couldn't. So, what did you have in mind for me to do?

You are not going to like it.

What is it? Tina asked.

Bite him.

What? Tina's eyes widened. Bite him, as in bite him? No, he couldn't mean that.

Bite him, Muriel repeated.

Why would I want to do that? That would change me.

No, it wouldn't, not his blood, not when you already have it in your system, Muriel said. Damon's blood is the base for what you have become. Drinking anyone else's blood would change you into Aradma or in the case of a purebred into Ishaaas or maybe even into Beliya, but his, without the ceremony, is the only one which doesn't change you, but makes you stronger.

I see. Tina nodded. But I couldn't bite him, I'm... I'm already full.

You don't exactly need to feed on him, just dig your fangs into him, keep them there and take a sip.

Tina grimaced at Muriel's instruction and eyed Damon.

Damon raised his brows.

Are you sure that this will work? Tina's gaze slid down to Damon's wrist.

No, Muriel said.

I see. Tina bit her lip. Could you at least tell me what is so urgent that I have to sink my teeth into Damon? Well, besides Uriel's fears about Angelica. She pulled herself up on her knees, inched closer to Damon and with one finger pushed Damon's sleeve up, exposing the pale skin. Was she really thinking about doing that?

So Tristian, Damon and I can work out the details of the drop off and so we can be in contact while the whole thing is in progress. We don't have any equipment that would allow us that -- Prva's Aradmas searched me before they allowed me to join you. And we really need to make sure that all possibilities of Angelica intruding are eliminated and that everything goes down smoothly, Uriel said.

"What?" Damon tilted his head.

Tina flipped Damon's hand around. To connect Tristian, Damon and Uriel? They probably intended for Muriel or Haniel to repeat Tristian's words to Damon.

She released a long breath. She still didn't understand what the fuss was about; even if there were bugs, they could still use the faucet and make their headquarters in the bathroom. She looked up and past Damon's shoulder at Uriel. But if Uriel refused to talk out loud or even in a whisper and if he wanted to have a mental connection with Damon and all of them -- if she had learned one thing while living with them, it was that Uriel was always right -- Uriel reasons had to be valid, and she just wasn't able to understand them. She lifted Damon's hand. "This won't hurt." Probably.

Damon's brows rose even higher.

Okay, Tina took a deep breath and breathed it out in short puffs. The things she was doing for -- she lifted her eyes, looked first at Damon, then Uriel, and curled her lips in a small smile -- her family. Uriel together with Haniel and Muriel were her family and, if a little bite made the head of the family happy, then that was the least she could do. She leaned over Damon's wrist and thought of the crimson red. Her fangs dropped down, she ran her tongue over them -- fangs, huh? -- before she took another deep breath and shoved her teeth into Damon's wrist.

Thick, warm liquid filled her mouth and her body sang at the taste of it, at the power that shimmered on her tongue. Then something slammed into her mind. Something heavy and -- she could smell burning wood, dampness and something corrosive, something like ammonia and the smoke tickled her throat. What was going on? She coughed and the bile rose in her throat.

Chapter 18

...every delectable joy he stirred within her as he worked his magic upon her womanly softness \-- Tina turned the page of the book she held in her lap, her eyes glued to the row of letters -- his hot mouth sliding \-- an annoying hum filled Tina's head, distracting her, and the words danced before her eyes. She looked up at the dark-haired man, who gave her an innocent smile. She hissed at him, "My mind is not your playground. Stop doing that."

"And what am I doing?"

"You are humming in my head, again." She frowned, even though the noise he made was way better than those images of Damon's past that had filled her mind when she bit him. The life he had led -- a shiver ran up her spine. And seeing it had hurt, while the sound Damon made now was only annoying.

"Am I?" He tilted his head, mirth playing in his green eyes. "Maybe I really am."

"Well, stop it. I'm trying to read."

"That trash."

Tina glanced down at the paperback book, the historical romance that Uriel had requested for her from the Aradma that brought them food. In the past she had gulped down books like that, her grandmother too; the row of romance books on her shelves in her apartment's living room was proof of that. In the past she also wouldn't have minded small noises or allowed them to distract her from reading, but now she found it too annoying. Was that because her life had taken such a turn and because most of her days were now an adrenaline rush? Or was it because the noise was coming from the inside of her head? "I'm trying to pass the time the best I can. Or would you rather have me nervously pacing up and down?"

"You could play with me." Over the brown surface of the couch Damon slid closer to her and threw his arm on the back of the couch behind Tina.

With a thud Tina closed the book and put it on the coffee table beside a cardboard box that contained a board game Frustration, which Uriel had brought thinking they could use it to distract themselves. "We tried that, and didn't work. You are a sore loser and you even tried to cheat." Tina tucked her legs underneath her and pushed Damon's arm away before she leaned back on the couch.

"Actually I didn't try to cheat, I did cheat, and quite successfully for some time."

Tina rolled her eyes. Damon didn't seem to tolerate being passive too well. She would have loved to call Trinity forward and have her deal with him, but she knew that after the hour-long talk they'd had last night -- Damon must have been pleased to be able to talk to Trinity directly -- Trinity had snuggled into the warmth of her soul to rest and probably wouldn't come out any time soon. "Yes, yes, and that's why I'm not playing with you anymore."

"Then, what do you propose?"

"You should find something to amuse yourself and leave me in peace to read." Tina eyed the book before her eyes were on Damon again. She could still remember Damon at the beginning of their acquaintance. She had found him scary at the time, charming and on a whole different level than other people, and even though he still had all those traits, he had become more human and had a playful and teasing side to him, which he used right now to annoy her. "I'm nervous too, you know, and you being a pain isn't helping me."

"Shouldn't you be more polite to me?" After all, I'm Lord of the Lost. It will not do you any good to get on my bad side.

"What do you want me to do? Grovel before you and fawn over you?" Tina's forehead wrinkled. She could understand him being antsy; she was experiencing the same feeling first hand, too. But did he really have to point out his superiority and, by the look of things, expect her to entertain him while they waited for Uriel to return from the meeting with Prva? She wasn't his personal jester.

"A little of that wouldn't be bad." Damon leaned his head on her shoulder. "You get along so well with them, while you avoid me or quarrel with me."

Tina sighed. She wasn't Trinity and she didn't intend to become her substitute, not to Damon. She looked at the top of Damon's head, her fingers itching to bury themselves in the short, black hair like she did when Muriel's or Haniel's head rested on her shoulder and they looked in need of some cuddling. But this was Damon, who even though he was pushy and selfish, could be so easily loved, too easily. That's why she avoided him. She laced her fingers. She was already infatuated with him as it was -- probably Trinity's influence -- she couldn't afford to give him more than that already, not when he seemed like a guy who would take an arm when only a hand was offered to him, and demand more and more at each turn. "I'm not Trinity."

"No, you are not. I never said you were."

Tina shifted her shoulder thinking that that would get Damon off it, but he moved even closer. "Then it shouldn't matter if I don't get along with you, does it?"

"I don't appreciate being left out."

"You are not left out. You probably just feel like you are because you are used to being the centre of attention. I mean, you are probably too used to that with way Tristian and Irene stay on their toes around you, just awaiting your pleasure."

"Why would they do that? I'm not their master."

"Not their master? What are you trying -- " Tina caught herself and put her hand over her mouth. I'm sorry. I almost said something that I shouldn't.

Yeah. Damon straightened. Maybe you should quarrel only through the mental link -- only I don't know why you feel the need to quarrel \-- that way your mouth wouldn't be able to babble things that could betray my identity.

What do you mean, you don't know why I feel the need to quarrel? I'm not quarrelling with you. You are the one acting like a child. Tina faced Damon. He sounded as if were jealous of them, but why would he be? They were his sons; they just wanted to get to know him, to have a chance to spend time with him, they didn't want to compete with him. Well, she didn't think they did... Except maybe Uriel while fencing. And maybe Haniel while playing games. Her nails slid over the outer seam of her jeans. And they did try to please him, Muriel and Haniel, so how could he feel left out?

A child? You should know that I'm more than six hundred years old.

Tina leaned her side on the back of the couch and rubbed her temples. Waiting for Uriel to hear the latest news and to learn when and where the exchange was going to be made seemed to make them, especially Damon, more sensitive than she would have ever thought possible -- Damon really had no patience, and hers was wearing thinner by the minute. She should probably change the subject to try to distract him since he couldn't do that on his own, the big baby, and she did wonder... How come you are so good at this mental link thing? Neither Haniel nor Uriel could establish it with me on their own and you can do it after you were connected with me only once.

Because I'm so good.

Yes, yes, but really, how can you do that?

That's because Irene has been strengthening my mental abilities since the 16th century. Damon sat sideways, the side of his head resting on the back of the couch.

Irene? She was a seeress, right? At least that was what Tina had concluded from the bits and pieces Irene had told about herself or maybe Damon told her that before.

Yes, she has a gift. As a Mamael she searched for immortality and power, and since I could give it to her, we made a deal. Neither of us ever regretted that.

Yes, I can imagine. Tina rolled her eyes.

She's a wonderful Beliya and very useful, now even more since my blood increased her powers, strengthened her clairvoyance and gave her an ability to manipulate the spiritual world. And in exchange I got her loyalty, and her blood, and her tutoring unveiled an entrance to the intangible world to me. That's how I was able to tug on your life-thread and call you to Italy.

Life-thread? Tina's eyebrows furrowed. She could remember a fragment of something from the time she had spent in Damon's house in Italy. Irene must have talked about that at those meetings, but at that time Tina had been in her rebellious stage, where she had refused to do anything, and she hadn't paid attention to Irene's lessons.

You should know about life-threads. Irene should have told you about them. What were you doing?

Probably napping. Tina gave a small grimace to Damon. But she did vaguely remember about them, about the colourful threads, which people could see with their third eye.

"Why did I even bother with trying to broaden your horizon?" Damon released a sigh as he shook his head. "You are the same as Trinity. You refuse to learn anything new."

"That's not true." How could he so quickly transform from the whining child into the reproving adult? Tina crossed her arms. She knew that learning new things was something positive and she did try to educate herself, to have an open mind and to pick up things along the way, but sitting in a chair behind a desk, or in her case, in an armchair, listening to Irene's, Damon's or Tristian's voice, droning long monologues about things she couldn't even imagine, wasn't her thing.

A soft click sounded before the door opposite to the couch opened and as soon Uriel walked through it a man dressed all in white closed it, the small click telling that the door was locked again.

Tina jumped up and rushed to Uriel, her hands curling around Uriel's shoulders. Her saviour. She hoped that now Damon would stop whining, and also \-- her eyes slipped down Uriel's left arm to his hand -- there was a treat for her. "How did it go?"

"As expected. Prva didn't allow me any say, since in her eyes I'm still Angelica's servant, but since Tristian demanded my presence, there was nothing she could do about it. Now she's keeping a close eye on me and she's restricted my movement. I'm not allowed to leave this room." Uriel's eyes shone down on Tina; he passed a glass with a lid to her before he looked past Tina at Damon. "Here." He tossed a handheld device to Damon, who caught it. "All the data about where and how the exchange is going to proceed are on it. I assume you know how to use it?"

Damon nodded and bent over the device.

"Are Muriel and Haniel coming too?" Tina, still standing close to Uriel, removed the lid from the glass, the reddish liquid splashing against the edge when she tilted the glass too much.

"Of course," Uriel nodded. "And then we are going to have a happily ever after."

"I don't believe in happily ever after." Tina took a small sip. And how could they have a happily ever after without Uriel? It was too bad they couldn't -- Wait a minute! Her eyes widened. Angelica had kidnapped her. She had taken her away and with that she had violated the contract, right? Right? That meant that Uriel shouldn't be bound to her anymore. "Show me your arm."

Uriel raised his brows, for a second reminding Tina of Damon.

They were so similar, but at the same time so different. Tina moved closer and raised herself onto her toes to whisper into Uriel's ear, when the liquid sloshed over the glass and onto Uriel's blue T-shirt. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Uriel brushed by her and went to the bathroom.

Tina set the glass on the first available surface, the coffee table, and followed Uriel, who had already taken off his shirt and was washing the stain under the faucet. She rushed to Uriel's side, scrutinising Uriel's shoulder and when she noticed a red and black line weaving around Uriel's biceps, a disappointed sigh left her throat. "It didn't work."

Uriel lifted his head and a small grin decorated his lips, his voice a low whisper. "Yes, it did."

"But... it's still there."

Uriel quickly rubbed the skin at his armpit, his thumb smearing the edge of a black line.

"That's great." Tina stepped closer and smiled, her eyes sweeping over the hard muscles of Uriel's torso; she just couldn't help herself. "So, it seems that that girl did us a favour."

"Gillian didn't betray Damon." Uriel rinsed the wet part of the shirt and wrung it out. "Angelica was lucky, that's all. I forgot to mention that, I'm sorry."

"Then how? How did Angelica learn about Trinity?" Damon, leaned on the doorjamb, asked.

"She didn't." Uriel pulled the damp shirt down over his head. "I learned -- actually Prva learned -- that Angelica got a sample of your blood somewhere and apparently she's giving a drop to every Shadow, using them as hound dogs, hoping that one day one of them will get its claws on you or your closest subjects."

"What does that mean?" Tina leaned back on the cold black and white tiles.

"That means that Shadows will bring anybody who has a drop of Damon's blood in their system to Angelica."

"But wouldn't that mean... Why didn't they attack me sooner?"

"I think they did, that time when she said that they escaped, but in fact, she has been letting them loose often, even though Prva forbade Shadows running around free."

"Does that mean those things aimed for me that time?"

"So it seems."

"Those things have attacked you before?" Damon stepped forward, his arms crossed over his chest and a frown marring his face. "Why didn't you tell me? And how did you manage to escape?"

"I didn't know... I mean, that attack looked so random. And I didn't do anything. Uriel and Anael did. They used a box with an electric beam, something like that." Tina's eyes moved to Uriel.

"Haniel made those, with electricity and... something, I don't exactly know. Physics and mechanics are not something I'm good at." Uriel turned off the fall of water.

"Would he be willing to share that technology with my clan?"

"I don't see why not." Uriel passed Damon and went into the living room.

Tina pushed herself off the wall. A small smile curved her lips as she watched Damon following Uriel. She had gotten used to them: to Damon, Uriel, Haniel and Muriel, and it warmed her that they were going to stay together, that Uriel wouldn't stay behind. She scratched the back of her head. They still weren't out of danger, but facing it together wouldn't be so bad, and suddenly the unknown things that loomed behind the horizon and which awoke fear in her, didn't seem so big and scary anymore. She stepped into the living room and slid sideways onto the softness of the couch a distance away from Damon.

"Uriel, there has to be something wrong with the time." Damon pointed on the display. "It says 11:15 p.m. with today's date. That's just a little over an hour from now."

"Yes, I know. They will be picking up soon. We should get ready."

Chapter 19

"Is this really necessary?" Tina glared at the beam of electricity that wove like a creeper plant around her arms, making her movements sluggish and slow. She shifted in an attempt to make herself more comfortable on the beige leather seat of the limousine, frowning at the pain that cut into the sensitive skin of her wrists. The bonds didn't hurt as long as she didn't move, but at every slight shift, electricity scorched her skin for a second. "I promised that I won't give you any trouble and it's not like I could even escape from a car going more than" -- She looked past Damon, who sat beside her, at the lights outside that were nothing more than a blur. How fast they were even going? Too fast. "Well, really fast." But at least the force of acceleration that held her against the seat didn't have as much of a hold on her as it had had the last time she had driven so fast. It seemed that Uriel's shakes had helped in making her body stronger and more resilient. Her gaze shifted to Uriel, who sat beside Damon, unbound. "And why aren't you two tied like me? It's not fair."

"I'm not a threat. Prva knows that." Uriel smoothed the front of his long, black coat over his lap.

"I promised to comply with the rules Prva set, and as a Bloodeater and member of Lost clan I'm bound by my promises." Damon leaned back into the seat, his eyes challenging Anael who sat on Prva's left side and who had scrutinized him since they had gotten into the car.

"I always keep my promises, too. Well, at least I always try to. Couldn't you vouch for me?" Tina pouted, her gaze first on Damon and then on Uriel. "Or you?"

"You are not a Bloodeater," Nathanael said.

Surprised at Nathanael's deep, booming voice, Tina pushed herself deeper into the softness of the seat, her hand searching out and finding Damon's. Nathanael hardly ever spoke and he looked like a brute, scary and big, his face and body carrying the same cold beauty as his siblings, but his eyes as he watched her seemed gentle and kind. Her gaze slid onto Prva and then Anael. She should have been scared of them, but Prva looked disinterested, like her thoughts were elsewhere, and Tina was already used to Anael and the dark frown the delicate-looking girl almost always wore on her face. And by now Tina also knew that she should be afraid of Anael when a smile decorated her lips instead of a frown. "I'm part Bloodeater, too, doesn't that mean something? And hey, if being Bloodeater means a promise is binding, why didn't you demand a promise of Angelica?" It would probably be more efficient than Prva locking up Angelica, which since they had sneaked out of the estate and made all kinds of detours, nobody believed would hold Angelica for long.

"Because my sister is one of the Fallen and the Fallen's words don't have any weight." Prva turned away from the window and faced Tina. "Especially not Angelica's when she wants something." She smoothed her short hair, her black talons obvious against the whiteness of her hair. "She becomes violent and dangerous. She has always been like that. That's why I keep her close by my side."

"She is a threat to our way of living, she always has been, and while you kept her by your side, she was becoming even more powerful and dangerous. Have you seen her Shadows?" Damon leaned forward and rested his elbow on his knee. "As my master sees it, you are only keeping an eye on her for your own ends, because she's producing children for you and for that you are even giving her the means to enlarge the number of her subjects. You should eliminate her. Or if you can't force yourself to do that, ship her to my master; he won't hesitate to make the world a little less dangerous."

"You mean, dangerous to you?" Prva lifted her chin. "Oh, yes, I know who you are, Damon Blackdart. You can remove that silly mask of yours now."

"You noticed? How?" Damon asked.

"The triplets noticed there was something odd about you."

"And I can see a face shimmering under your skin -- it looks quite disturbing," Anael said. "When I described it to Prva she recognized you immediately."

Damon's features shimmered and changed.

"You noticed that?" Uriel's forehead wrinkled. "But you are Prva's clones, you don't have anything to do with Damon, and the only way you could notice something would be if you had Damon's blood in your system."

"Maybe that's because the first triplets fed on you and your brothers as children and traces of the Dumes probably still linger in their flesh, in Anael's the most, since you fed her for the longest. She was such a sickly and weak child." Prva leaned back into the seat.

"Could you see that there was something wrong with Damon, too, that time he ambushed us?" Tina slightly leaned forward and over Damon asked Uriel.

"Yeah." Uriel nodded.

He hadn't mentioned that, neither had Haniel or Muriel. They probably hadn't meant to hide things from her, had they? It was just not important to them. Yes, that was probably it. It wasn't because she was an outsider to them. She drew her brows together.

What is it? Damon's warm hand squeezed her fingers.

I thought that I knew them, but there's so much about their past, about them, that I'm not even aware of. She glanced at Damon, before she honed back in on Uriel.

Who are you talking about? About the Dumes?

Tina nodded. They gave me a feeling of being one of them, but... they have been through so much and I don't know if I will ever be able to stand by their side as an equal.

Damon shook his head; he released Tina's hand long enough to ruffle her hair before his fingers laced with hers again. You are so silly.

Yes, very silly, Uriel's smooth voice joined in. You don't need to be equal to us to stand by our side.

But I'm so weak and because of it, because of me, Damon is going to give Abbas to Prva and then Angelica might snatch it away. And Damon said that Angelica could use Abbas's head to release a Black Death over the world. If that happens... Tina bit her lip. She didn't want to think about that, she refused to, but the thought invaded her mind and taunted her, becoming more persistent as the exchange drew nearer and now it refused to leave her in peace. What if Angelica gets Abbas's head and succeeds in doing what Damon feared? A lot of people could die because of me.

That's a risk I'm willing to take, Damon said.

Don't you worry. Uriel gave Damon an ugly look before he looked at Tina, his eyes softening. Prva made arrangements so that that won't happen.

How do you know they will help? How can you be so sure?

Because she's going to transport Abbas to sacred ground, Uriel said.

Sacred ground? Like church or cemetery? That will hold Angelica away?

Churches and cemeteries are not sacred ground for us. The place I'm talking about became sacred because of what it holds and because of that Angelica can't set foot on it, Damon explained.

Are you sure?

Yes.

And what does that place hold? Tina asked. It must be something special if it can keep Angelica away.

It is. Something very special. It had a great impact on the lives of the Bloodeaters.

What is that supposed to mean?

That it has a great importance for us.

Like that made any more sense. But it was not as if she needed to understand, she just wanted to calm her fears and hush up her guilt, not that she was guilty of anything, not yet anyway. Are you sure it will keep Angelica away from Abbas?

Yes, Uriel nodded.

Why are we even having an exchange? Since you are all bound by contract and your words, wouldn't be better and easier for Tristian to take Abbas there and for Prva to release us? At least that way she wouldn't have to fret about how the whole thing would go or suffer through Damon's impatience or this drive.

That couldn't work, since only Prva knows where it is, Uriel said.

It's a good idea, but it couldn't have worked, and even if it could it's not that much better. Until Abbas is in Prva's care and we're under the Lost's protection, anything can happen. Damon soothingly squeezed Tina's fingers. Not that anything will happen. It's just going to be a simple exchange, we made sure of that, so you don't have to worry.

Well, they were the ones that had made her worry, with their stiff shoulders and gestures, going over the information on display, discussing every small detail. And there were many of those.

"They are talking, ma'am."

"Yes, I can feel that. That shows ill-manners. I thought that Lord Blackdart was raised better than that."

"We were putting Tina's fears to rest, nothing for you to worry about." Damon flashed a half-smile to Prva.

"I wasn't aware that you had such an advantage over us." Prva laced her fingers, resting her hands on her belly. "And you, Uriel, when did you become such a friend to Damon? I always thought you harboured more negative feelings toward him."

"Maybe."

"And look at you now, how cosy you all are. Your doing, probably, or that woman who has caused so many problems already." Prva's gaze slid to Tina. "Severing my beloved father's head, the audacity."

Under Prva's icy glare Tina inched closer to Damon.

Prva shifted her focus to Uriel. "Now I know why Damon's Beliya insisted that you participate, and here I was thinking that you were coming as Angelica's representative, since we only allowed her to be with us in spirit."

"You knew perfectly well that Uriel wasn't coming as Angelica's servant; if you thought he was, you wouldn't have allowed him to join us."

"I'm afraid, ma'am, that your assumptions are correct; I managed to break the tie that bound me to Angelica." Uriel gave a soft smile to Tina. "Thanks to Tina."

"What are you talking about?" Anael leaned forward, her eyes wide. "Does that mean -- You are not going with them, are you? You can't. You can't leave us."

What assumptions? Tina's eyes darted between Prva, Uriel and Anael.

You have to know Prva well enough to read between the lines, Uriel said.

She won't do anything to you, will she? I mean, now that she knows that you are not going to stay with them?

No, she won't. She can be scary and demanding, but she was always good to me, always treated me as if I were one of her children.

"I'm afraid, my child, that that's exactly what Uriel intends to do. Not that I blame you. Living under Angelica's thumb had to be hard on you."

"But, ma'am, you can't let him go."

"I'm afraid that I don't have any hold over the Dumes." Prva's wrinkled hand stroked Anael's white hair. "You will just have to bear it."

"No." Anael reached out, her fingers dug into the leather of Uriel's coat. "You can't leave us."

"Yes, I can."

A slap echoed in the small space.

A soft sigh escaped Uriel and the red imprint of a palm quickly disappeared from his cheek. "Anael, stop behaving like this is the end of the world."

"But --" Anael withdrew her hands.

"No 'but'. You have your brothers, you don't need me." Uriel caught her hand, reassuringly curling his fingers around hers for a moment. "And pull yourself together, you are worrying Nathanael."

Tina peeked at Nathanael, noticing the tense line of his neck and the crease on his forehead. It became deeper and deeper as Anael refused to let go of Uriel's hand. But then the car started to slow down until it stopped and Anael had no choice but to release Uriel as they got out of the car.

The space in which they found themselves had bare walls, large panels held together with steel beams and a high ceiling, with a row of broken windows at the top level. The cold draft coming from the holes in the glass brought the smell of damp clothes, burned oil and a faint stench of sewage.

A storehouse? Tina rubbed her arms, which were still wrapped with beams of electricity, and stepped closer to Uriel, her eyes skidding over the group of people that waited for them in the middle of the space. It looked like some sort of mafia meeting, and the cars parked behind their car and people dressed in white -- Prva sure loved the white -- getting out of the vehicles and coming to stand behind Prva, Anael and Nathanael, just enhanced that image.

Tina wrapped her arm around Uriel's. "There are so many people."

"Yes," Damon closed the distance between them and put his hand on Tina's neck, his fingers at the nape of her neck, playing with the hair that had escaped the blue hair-band that held it in a low ponytail. "Just a precaution."

A small shiver ran up Tina's spine and she wiggled her shoulder. "Don't do that."

"Why not?" Damon's fingers crawled higher, their tips rubbing her scalp. "Doesn't it feel good?"

Yes, it does. And that's the problem. Tina's pulse quickened. She stepped away from Damon and since she was still holding onto Uriel, she pulled him with her. The way Damon touched her made her heart race -- wait a minute. She froze. Her heart was racing, but time hadn't slowed down. Her ability, the only thing that made her special and kept her from being a useless weakling, didn't work anymore. She wrapped her arm tighter around Uriel, her other arm joining, the bonds of electricity cutting into her skin causing pain, but she didn't even notice it; her eyes widened and her lips curved in a distressed arch. "Uriel. My... my power."

Uriel raised his brows.

"It doesn't work anymore."

"Of course not. Because of the ties." Damon leaned over Tina and as his finger touched the beam that wove around her arms, the electricity sizzled.

So that's why she had to wear those. Since Anael was the only one that had seen her ability that time she had pushed Muriel and Haniel away from that Shadow, she had to have been the one to tell Prva. She sighed. It wasn't fair that they had taken away the only thing that she had to defend herself, while Uriel and Damon, who both had so many special abilities, were hopping around free as birds. She glanced toward the group that waited for them. As they stepped closer, Prva and her two Numuns in front, with Prva's other subjects surrounding the three of them, she could distinguish Irene standing at the front of the group. And were that Haniel and Muriel standing behind her?

Tina wanted to rush forward and wrap her hands around both of them, she had missed them so much, but the way the tension danced around them that would probably have been a bad idea. A very bad idea. And she also doubted that she could break the line of Prva's men, but that didn't stop her from flashing smiles at the two as she and the others finally stopped two steps before Irene.

"Where's Abbas?" Prva broke the silence, the hem of her white coat dancing in the light breeze.

The men behind Irene moved aside and Tristian, holding the metal hand of a robot with Abbas's head in the jar on its platform, stepped forward, the hydraulics of the robot's legs making small buzzing sounds.

Prva closed the distance in one step, knelt down and spread her arms. "Father."

Damon pushed Tina forward. Come on. Let's get this over with.

Just a step forward, two steps, until they reached the other side, that was all they needed to do. Tina pulled Uriel with her. One step. Two steps and she was already standing in Irene's line of sight. She looked over her shoulder at Prva, who embraced the cold metal with closed eyes, and she could have sworn that she could see something glistening on her cheeks. Was Prva crying?

Prva stood up, and with her hand against the jar she pushed the robot toward the Numuns and her group of men.

That was it? The thing that had kept them all on the edge? She was so worried because of this? Such a simple exchange? Tina's shoulders relaxed.

"Hey." Two arms embraced her and another pair of hands in leather gloves started to peel off the bonds that still wove around her arms.

"Hey." She smiled at Haniel and Muriel, clumsily patting their backs or shoulders, whichever was closer.

"It's time to go." Damon put his hand on Tina's back and gently turned her around.

"Yes, yes." Tina nodded, her gaze fixed down, watching how Muriel removed the electricity beams from her, Haniel's hands joining in. Something distracted her, moved in the corner of her eye. There was something odd, something weird, she could feel it at the back of her neck.

What was it?

The silence was even harsher than before, it was as if everything and everybody froze, and darkness. Her gaze fell to the floor. Yes, darkness. It had been dark before, but the light of the full moon that forced its way through the rows of windows played with shadows, drawing patterns on the floor. It was disappearing now, inch by inch.

Tina looked up. And she could see them.

Her heart started to flutter like a scared bird and her fingers dug into the flesh of a strong arm. Whose? Haniel's. She opened her mouth and a stuttered, "Shadows."

So many of them. They poured in through the windows, some of them sliding down the walls, while others covered the ceiling.

"Yes, I noticed." Damon pushed her toward Uriel. "Take her to a safe place." He turned away, Muriel and Haniel stepped to his sides.

"No, where are you going?" Tina grabbed Damon's wrist. "We will leave together, right?" Her gaze slid to Haniel and Muriel. "Right?"

"We can't allow Angelica to get Abbas." Uriel pried her fingers off Damon and pulled her backwards. "You know that. And you agreed that if anything happened you would stay by my side, no argument."

Yes, she had promised that. "But..." She looked past the Dumes and Damon at Prva and her men. There was no panic there; their every move seemed practiced, as if it had all been planned beforehand. It seemed that everybody knew what they had to do as they moved, forming a protective circle around Prva, Abbas and Numuns, who both drew out their weapons.

Tina's eyes zoomed onto the Dumes and Damon again. There was nothing she could do for them. Nothing. She bit her lip. Uriel's hand found hers, their fingers laced. "Be careful."

"We will," Haniel smiled and Damon and Muriel nodded before they rushed toward Prva's side, Tristian tossing a sword to Damon in the process.

"What now?" Tina breathed out as she stumbled behind Uriel, resisting him as he dragged her in the opposite direction toward two bikes that stood before the row of cars. She couldn't help but look over her shoulders at where Prva and Abbas were.

The Shadows gathered just above them, a big growing blob with tentacles that spread down, moving in the same direction and at the same speed as Prva. And Tina could have sworn that she could see something sparkling in the middle of it.

We are going to blaze our way out of here right behind Prva. Uriel shoved her before him.

Could you stop pushing me? I'm not a sheep. With her free hand she tugged and pulled the ribbons of electricity off her, tolerating the pain with gritted teeth. She could help. Her ability could help, if she could just remove these annoying beams, and maybe with it working the cold wisps of dread that suffocated her might loosen their grip.

Come on, hurry and stop dilly dallying. Uriel lifted her up and tossed her over his shoulder, his long legs running to the bikes.

Hey, wait a minute. Tina didn't dare move too much, too afraid of falling. Then they went through a strip of darkness and found themselves by the bikes. How had that happened? For a moment she stopped tugging at the ribbons, the ends of which were extinguishing with a zap, then they disappeared whenever she managed to pull them far enough away. Was this the same thing Damon did when he could appear somewhere else in a split second? Probably.

Uriel set her on the back of the bike's seat, shoved a helmet on her head and sat down in front of her. Hold on to me.

Tina wrapped her arms around his waist as Uriel started the machine and slowly rolled them toward Prva, the people in the cars following. She stared over Uriel's shoulders at the light that started to illuminate the space between Shadows, making the Shadows look even darker, more sinister. Is that Angelica and... Tina strained her eyes. And is that a person there?

Yes, I think it is. And I think I know who it is. Uriel stopped at the outer circle that Damon's men formed around Prva's men, Irene, Tristian, Damon, Haniel and Muriel among them, black around the white. It's Gillian. No wonder Angelica found us. She just freed Gillian and followed her.

What?

Aradma are drawn to their Masters like moths to the light. Even though Gillian is no longer Nathanael's Aradma, the bond between Aradmas and Numuns is so strong that Nathanael will always be her Master. Uriel directed the bike around the people. I thought that Prva had hidden Gillian from Angelica better than this.

The light in the shape of a woman descended so that she floated just above Prva and Abbas. She released the girl, who she held by the waist, her unconscious body sagging. Gillian fell down and she would have hit the ground if Nathanael hadn't caught her.

First using her, then feeding on her; Angelica never leaves anything to waste, Uriel hissed.

Why is everybody just waiting? Tina couldn't help but ask. The silence pressed down on her, it was broken only by the sound of feet as the men moved slowly, too slowly for Tina's taste, toward the big exit gate, where Shadows formed a block that climbed higher and higher. This was going nowhere. Why didn't anybody do something?

Patience is a virtue, Damon said.

Tina glanced toward where she knew Damon was, wishing she could see him over the top of the men's heads, but only thing that she could see was the tip of the long sword and a tuft of short black hair, which she assumed belonged to Damon.

"Angelica, stop this nonsense and go home," Prva's voice echoed through the hall.

A short burst of chillingly cold laughter followed; it made Tina shiver as Angelica descended lower. "Do you really think I would do that? Now, when the end of the world is in my grasp?" The Shadows drew closer, looming over them; their tentacles reached toward Prva from every direction.

Beams of electricity shot from various directions and formed a net over Prva, the two circles of men and the vehicles that drove beside them. The sizzling and smell of burning filled the air as black putty dripped down, dispersing before it could hit the ground or dirty the white or black suits.

"Do you think something as pathetic as this will stop me?" Angelica floated above Prva. "I was Father's assistant, the Second Sac'nic; something as weak as this is nothing to me." Her toes touched the electricity, the sparks started to fly around.

Tina leaned against Uriel's back, her arms tightly wrapped around his waist. She noticed that some of the electricity beams disappeared with a zap, but for every one that went out, three new ones appeared.

"You will only hurt yourself," Prva said.

"Hurt myself? You say that as if I couldn't stand a little pain. Do you think I don't know what pain is? I feel it every day. Every day as I watch those dirty Mamaels taking over our New World. They don't deserve to walk around free; I didn't make them so that they could soil this beautiful world; they belong in cages and behind closed doors. They are only made to be our food, nothing more. But you -- the Lost have given them free rein to do whatever they please, while we live in the shadows. We are the Masters, we are their gods. They should only live for our enjoyment. For my enjoyment. I made them. They belong to me. They should bow before me. You should all bow for me. Because of me, our race still exists."

What is she talking about? Tina burrowed her brows.

Mamaels, the humans.

Humans? But she said -- Uriel, what are they doing? Tina's heart threatened to jump out of her chest and her fingers dug into the hardness of Uriel's abdomen as she watched how Shadows thickened around the net, pressing against it; the sizzling increased and the smell of burning filled her lungs. She could barely see anything despite her night vision.

The electricity beams disappeared one by one and the noise of gunshots, clashes of steel and screaming vibrated in the hall.

Hold on tight, Uriel said and motor of the sleek machine, which until now had only hummed, roared its strength.

Chapter 20

Tina held tightly to Uriel's waist as he drove around looking for an exit, her senses disoriented in the chaos of shouts, the thuds of footsteps, and darkness. The smell of burning flesh stung her nose and bile rose in her throat. If she could only have gotten rid of her restrictions, she could have helped, but between holding onto Uriel and her clumsy fingers, the panic that slammed her heart against her ribs prevented her from pulling away the last edges of the electricity ribbons that wove around her upper arms and shoulders.

She looked around. The electric beams flashing through the darkness outlined men's bodies and flying shapes that shot through the air, their every descent ending with a piercing scream.

They needed to get out of the storehouse and it felt to Tina as though they were flies caught in a spider's web, that no matter how much they struggled, the silken net would only tighten its hold on them. Suddenly, the whole place lit up and thousand upon thousands of electric threads shot out from the ground and through the black masses, lighting the whole space with such intensity that it actually hurt Tina's eyes. Shrill cries cut the air and her eardrums as the light exploded and sparks, together with thick, black drops, rained down on the ground.

Here it is, the opening, Uriel said and the bike shot forward.

Suddenly they were out on the open, the hell of the storehouse behind them. Tina looked over her shoulder at the building, at men and vehicles pouring out of it and the electricity that covered the whole building in a thick net, except for the small opening at the entrance door where more than ten men, all in white, stood with boxes in their hands, slashing with beams and swords through the core of Shadows -- the only way to extinguish Shadows -- that dared to follow them. Uriel, shouldn't we leave?

Stop her! Damon's voice cut through Tina's mind at the same time a loud bang startled her. Her eyes followed the sound and she could see the shape of an angel with wide-spread wings whose feathers were marred with dark-grey, emerging from the roof.

She has Abbas.

Tina didn't know who had said that, but two -- no, three winged creatures joined Angelica, circled her, then attacked her. One was Damon, she would have recognised the three braids that floated behind him anywhere; the small one's white coat and white wings betrayed her as Prva; and the third one was the large monster who had dug its claws into her shoulders the time she had gone hunting with the Dumes. Who's that? That large beast? And shouldn't she and Uriel be headed toward safety instead of lingering in the place where Shadows darkened the sky, curtaining off the moon's light?

It's Muriel. Uriel swung the handlebar, twisting his body, and the motorbike turned; the back-tire dug into the pavement. Come on, Haniel, I don't have all day.

Muriel? That was Muriel? Tina removed the helmet because she couldn't see clearly as she stared at the beast slashing his swords at Angelica and Shadows that surrounded Angelica, his large bat-like wings creating a whirl of wind. That was Muriel! Of course, it was Muriel. How could she have missed that, with so many clues? No wonder he had gotten upset when she had called him a monster. She could feel Muriel's presence in her head, it was his power that kept all them mentally connected, so she knew that he could hear her -- she bit her lip -- he wouldn't resent her again, would he? She shook her head. She should really worry about other things right now. Like what they were going to do now that Angelica had Abbas.

Haniel! Uriel called.

I'm here. The motorcycle sailed through the air in an arc, smashing through the window on the left side of the building. Pieces of glass flew on the ground. The bike's front tire bumped against the pavement, the back tire followed. He made a turn and came to a screeching halt beside Uriel. From his pocket he pulled out boxes. Here. He tossed one to Uriel before he aimed his at Angelica and the fog that shielded her.

More beams joined, they lit the sky and wove around Shadows and Angelica.

Something moved in the line of Tina's vision and as she gazed around, she noticed figures crawling out from the sewers and around the corners like cockroaches, their red eyes glowing. Deadeaters. Those were Deadeaters. Uriel, there are Deadeaters everywhere.

Yes, I noticed. They are probably being drawn out by Abbas's strength.

Hold her down! Damon's call snapped Tina's head up and she could see Angelica breaking out from the electric bonds, shooting up and toward the skyscrapers that rose behind the warehouses of the dock.

She got away! Tina's eyes widened, she had trouble swallowing, and cold wisps of dread coiled around her. This can't be the end.

What end? Damon disappeared from Tina's sight, reappearing close on Angelica's heels, both hard to follow with the naked eye.

The motorbike roared, the back tire spun on the pavement, drawing a dark trail, before Uriel released the brake and the bike shot forward between the long and narrow storehouses, which were quickly replaced with taller and taller buildings.

Tina tightened her grip on Uriel's waist and for a moment closed her eyes as the wind rushed past her ears, causing her eyes to water, and the edges of Uriel's leather coat flapped around her, making her wish that she hadn't gotten rid of the helmet. She had only driven with the Dumes once, with Haniel, but she doubted that any amount of experience would see her grow accustomed to the terrifying speed that made her dizzy or the stunts they pulled with their motorcycles, jumping over cars and using the walls of buildings to turn or to jump onto roofs.

Everything around her became a blur of lights and sounds, but if she looked up she could clearly see a dark shadow with wings above them, Muriel and Prva, and behind them Haniel, driving like the devil himself. And if she had looked beyond Haniel she would have seen cars trying to follow them close behind.

Where's your helmet? Uriel turned and guided bike off the road toward the buildings that stood nearby.

I lost it.

How could you have lost it? Uriel lifted the bike's front, and using one of the parked cars, he jumped up. Well, never mind that now, just hold on tight. The speed of the bike decreased as the machine roared toward the tall building beside the road. He turned the handles and leaned them sideways; the wheel bumped against brick before they flew even higher, as if they had wings.

Tina trusted Uriel, but as they used the buildings to climb higher and higher she still held her breath until Uriel landed on the roof where he accelerated, turning the world into a passing blur again.

She didn't dare look down, even when she couldn't see anything beyond the flashes of light, as the motorcycle shot over the roofs as if they were on a road, knowing that Haniel was right behind them.

How long until they catch up to Damon and Angelica? Will they even catch them?

We will; I can already see Angelica, Muriel's voice said in her head.

But only as a small dot, Haniel added.

Tina put her chin on Uriel's shoulder. Can you see it, too?

Yes, Damon caught her; they are fighting.

We better jump in. Haniel drew parallel with Uriel's bike.

Don't you dare! She's mine. Damon's voice sounded rushed and out of breath.

We should secure the area around them, Muriel said. Otherwise they might destroy the whole city.

Uriel and Haniel agreed and as they landed on the roof of the business building above where Damon fought for dominance against a translucent yellow form. Haniel jumped from the bike, and Muriel descended and as soon as his toes touched the ground he transformed into his human form.

With space distortion, Haniel and Muriel set four stones in the corners of the buildings in the blink of an eye, one for each side of the sky. Then Haniel, with a press of the small display, activated the shield. A red matte dome appeared over the building, covering it and the neighbouring buildings, colouring the moon above red.

Tina stood beside Uriel, her fingers curled around his, and so close to him that she could feel the warmth of his body through his long coat. Her heart beat wildly and even though she had managed to scratch off all of the beams, she had left a short end around her shoulder, afraid that if she got rid of it, she might not be able to calm her heart enough for time to restore to normal.

Above her, sparks flew as Damon's sword collided with Angelica's long claws. Damon advanced on her, the sharp tip of his sword getting closer and closer until it made its first cut into Angelica's glittering form.

They were going to win. Tina leaned on Uriel and wiped her damp forehead with the back of her hand. She flinched when Uriel turned; his katana appeared in his hand as he slashed something behind them. Tina's gaze followed the glint of the blade and she drew in her breath.

Watch out!

A short sword swished before Tina's eyes as Muriel cut through the man with glowing red eyes who was attacking her, and obliterated him into dust.

It was a Deadeater and as she gazed around she could see more of them; they were climbing on the building's platform, Prva, Numuns and Prva's and Damon's subordinates -- whose arrival she hadn't even noticed \-- reducing their numbers. Another one jumped toward her, and this time, before Muriel or Uriel could intervene, she tore down the electric tie that she had left around her shoulder and everything slowed down.

She stepped out of the way, and her gaze fell on Haniel, who was in a half-jump, his long sword wrapped by an electricity beam in mid-swing and Trinity's blade --, no, it was hers now -- in his left hand. She pried her sword out of Haniel's fingers and shoved it into the Deadeater.

Nothing happened. She was about to panic, but then she saw the Deadeater's body slowly changing, transforming into dust. Time slowed down and then quickened again. She used this momentum to slash down another two Deadeaters and sidestep the Shadow that brushed past her.

A Shadow had just passed her! Her gaze followed it and then went beyond and up. The sword slid from her loosened hold. Her widened eyes observed the dark floating shapes that even in slowed time rushed among people, zipping through the dome toward Angelica, who absorbed them, her dark glow becoming stronger with each swallowed Shadow. And wait --Tina focused her eyes, she also noticed something more solid being sucked up. Were those Deadeaters?

She tried to increase the speed of her heartbeat and time became even slower. Yes, they had to be -- now she could see them more clearly-- none of them wore suits like Prva's and Damon's men did. How could she do that? Was it because of Abbas, who now looked as if his robot body and the glass jar were merging with Angelica? And was that why Angelica now loomed over Damon, parrying his attacks with such apparent ease? And even Muriel, who in his beast form, joined Damon, didn't seem to be a match for her.

Tina bit her lip. She caught the floating sword before its tip could hit the ground and concentrated to slow her heartbeat. What were they going to do?

Uriel grabbed her around her waist and lifted her up.

"Hey!" Tina automatically kicked out.

Uriel took a step forward; they went through a strip of blackness and appeared on the other side of the rooftop, where Irene and Tristian extinguished Shadows as if they were candle flames. "Take care of her." He released her.

Tristian nodded and stepped behind Tina.

"Where are you going?" Tina gripped Uriel's arm.

Uriel looked up at Angelica.

"You can't! She's swallowing Shadows and Deadeaters. She's getting stronger. You can't beat her."

"So pessimistic." Uriel shook his head before he sprang upward, two bat wings spread behind him.

They couldn't win; it became more obvious when Prva joined the fight and all four of them were no match for Angelica's intangible shape that continued to grow and grow.

Uriel, should we? Muriel asked.

Should you what? Tina slashed through the Deadeater just like Uriel had taught her. She refused to slow time too much, because then she wouldn't be able to hear their conversation, and most of the Deadeaters attacked with their bare hands anyway, their attacks those of wild beasts, uncontrolled and risky, enabling her to cut through them with only the fencing skills she had learned from Uriel. And Tristian was also right beside her, taking care of anything that managed to slip by her sword.

She was afraid, her heart slowing time here and there despite her efforts to keep it calm, but she had faith in them -- she looked up at the blur of motion above her, where sparks flew and the clashes of swords against claws echoed over the whole dome.

We are not ready. Haniel, who was on the platform turned a somersault, gutting three Deadeaters in his way. And we can't stay that way too long.

There's no other way, Uriel said. We have to try it.

Try what? Damon's voice sounded tired.

Two figures separated from the battle raging above and joined Haniel on the surface of the roof.

Tina couldn't tear her eyes away from them. Their bodies seemed to glow.

Uriel and Haniel stepped toward \--no, into \-- Muriel's beast form -- how could that be? -- and the beast started to change, his body became human-like, his features distorted into an angel-like face, his hair grew until it reached his knees, and an additional pair of wings appeared on his shoulders.

Muriel?

It's Dume. The man's voice was warm. This is what we would be if Angelica hadn't separated us. He stretched his four wings that were twice the size they had been before. The downdraft knocked down all in Dume's close proximity as he leaped upward.

Tina had to slow down time to be able to follow Dume's movement with her naked eyes. She watched with bated breath as Dume clawed through Angelica's energy like it was tissue paper. In a few seconds his talons held Angelica by her throat while Damon pulled the jar with Abbas's head out of Angelica.

There was only half of the jar and a black cloud started to spread from it.

Tina's heart stopped. That cloud carried corruption, in the form of the plague, the same plague that had spread all the way to Europe when Trinity severed Abbas's head, the same plague that had carved away a third of the world's population and terrorized the planet throughout the Dark Ages... They had to stop it. Trinity!

Trinity!

Trinity, please, Tina called her again.

What?

Can we stop it?

Stop what?

The plague.

Give me your body.

What? Why? Are you even strong enough to take it? And what do you intend to do?

Just give me your body.

Tina let Trinity tug to draw her backwards, but instead of losing control over it, she felt something pressing out of her skin, her legs wobbled. She fell to her knees. It hurt so much.

A white translucent silhouette drifted off Tina's body and rose up.

"Trinity?"

"Yes." The being looked over her shoulder down at Tina, a small smile graced her lips. "I'm sorry, I drained you, but that's the only way."

"What are you going to do?" Tina wrapped her arms around her middle, the emptiness inside of her threatening to swallow her from inside out.

"You'll see." Trinity looked up at where the cloud slowly spread then down at Tina again. "When time speeds up again, slow it down for me, will you?"

Tina nodded and leaned on her hands. "You will come back, right?"

Trinity stilled for a moment, and suddenly Tina could see before her eyes the image of her mother's retreating back. She reached out. "Promise me you will be back."

"I'm sorry, I don't think I will be able to. I was never meant to be in this form and I... I'm sorry, but this is goodbye."

"No." Tina lifted herself up onto her knees and reached out for Trinity as if she could grab her and pull her down. She wasn't ready to part with Trinity. She wasn't ready to bear the empty place where Trinity had been. Why did everybody always leave her? "Please, Trinity, please don't go."

"It's the only way," Trinity said.

"What am I going to do without you? I can't be on my own again."

"You won't. You have the Dumes now and Damon. You'll be fine. Take care of them, for me."

"I will." There was nothing she could do but watch Trinity float up and wrap her glittering form around the black cloud, swallowing the darkness. Her pulse slowed down.

"I won't allow that!" Angelica's voice pierced the air.

Tina sped up her heart, just as she promised Trinity. Her hands fisted over her chest and something stung her eyes. She was losing her.

Angelica still continued to suck into her form every Shadow and Deadeater under the dome. Then her shape started to shift; the Shadows and Deadeaters screamed and fought to crawl out from Angelica, one even managed to push out of her to his waist. He looked familiar, he looked similar to that that Deadeater, Petsha.

A beam of pure energy from Angelica flew toward Trinity, while another shimmering and slightly smaller part curled into a Deadeater.

A shimmer in the corner of Tina's eye made her turn her head and she saw Dume's image rotating with Muriel's, Haniel's and Uriel's. What's going on? She started to tremble. Not them, too.

Haniel fell down, he landed on the floor like a cat and killed any Shadows and Deadeaters that his sword would reach as he moved in Tina's direction.

Uriel, Muriel and Prva jumped after the energy part, while Damon took hold of the Deadeater's neck. Abbas's empty jar fell down to the floor.

"Are you okay?" Haniel squatted before Tina.

Tina looked at Haniel. She swallowed the lump in her throat before she spoke up, her voice breaking. "We are going to lose her."

"I know."

Tina could feel the wetness on her cheek, she wiped it with a back of her hand, and when her eyes met with Haniel's, she could see his sadness. She took his hand and squeezed it, her eyes looking upwards again, even though she didn't want to.

Angelica's energy reached Trinity, who wrapped her shimmering body around the plague and slowly reduced its size. The energy dove into Trinity. An animal-like scream pierced the air and a violet spark flashed before everything exploded.

Tina closed her eyes and curled up. She could feel the slow motion of Haniel's arms as they shielded her.

She didn't know how much time had passed, it seemed to her like an eternity, but she held her eyes tightly shut, refusing to look, refusing to move even as hands pulled her up in slow motion. Trinity was gone and it had left her hollow and cold. It wasn't fair, she hadn't felt like that before Trinity came into her life, so why...?

A voice started to talk to her, distorted, incomprehensible, sounding as if somebody were talking to her under water.

She didn't want time to speed up, but it did, and screams and the sounds of thuds and cracking filled her ears.

"Catch him! Catch him! Don't let him get away!"

Tina could hear Irene's yelling; she frowned, Irene never raised her voice, not even when giving orders. She peeked out and the sight of men rushing toward a silhouette with a man tossed over its shoulder, glittering as it slowly disappeared, filled her vision.

"What's going on?"

Uriel, who stood beside her and held her upright, sighed. "Petsha just took Damon."

"What? Why? Like Damon would allow that."

"Damon wasn't conscious." Haniel's voice came from Tina's right side. "It's Angelica's fault. She did something to that Deadeater, possessed him or something, and he fed on Damon. He caught him by surprise. We have to get him, I mean the body that Angelica possessed."

They had just lost Trinity and Tina wasn't ready for this, for any of it: for the emptiness in her soul, for Damon being taken away, for the hole that spread before her and reached down into the buildings' last seven floors. She just wanted to close her eyes again and never open them again.

"Angelica didn't possess Petsha. She only gave him enough power for him to overcome Blackdart." Prva spoke up from above the hole where she floated with her white wings wide spread. "My sister is gone. She perished in that explosion. She probably thought that she could scatter Abbas's poison in the atmosphere despite Blackdart's girl, but it looks like her assumption was incorrect." A flap of the wings. "I can't say I'm really sorry, but... My father." Prva's face or contorted into a frightening mask. "By destroying him, you may have destroyed me -- I may not exist long without his presence in this world."

"Ma'am, I'm sure that you are wrong. Your existence can't depend on Father's, not when you have been so long without contact with him," Anael said from the right side of the hole, Nathanael, Michael and a few men in white stood beside her.

"What about our Gelbeliya?" Irene intervened. "Angelica was your responsibility; you should lead the hunt for that Deadeater."

"I can't help you with Petsha; I made a deal with him that I won't interfere with his business as long as he and his Akilueteers stay away from my territories." With a flap of her white membrane wings Prva left them in the dust. Anael, with a short goodbye to Uriel, swung herself over the edge of the roof; the rest of her company followed her.

"But without Abbas's presence the Deadeaters will become even more violent and out of control." Uriel wrapped his arm around Tina.

Tina couldn't avert her eyes from the hole. Was that Angelica's final act or Trinity's doing? Angelica wanted to destroy them all, the humans, to release the plague that could in less than a week spread over the whole world, but instead all that was left was a large hole, almost as big as the one that burdened her soul. And they had lost Damon, too. "Why did Angelica do that? Why did she want to get rid of humans? What did they ever do to her?"

"You heard her: for her, Mamaels were nothing but food and didn't deserve to have life beyond her lab or Mamael farms," Uriel said.

"Beyond human farms? So... It's true. She made us?" Tina turned in Uriel's embrace.

"Yes, according to the annals of the Lost, she and Abbas made Mamaels," Irene answered.

Tina looked sideways at Tristian and Irene, who stood with what was left of their Aradmas and Damon's Ishaaas on the other side of the abyss like they were waiting for something.

What would they do now that Damon was gone? What would she do? Tina couldn't help but ask herself. She wrapped her arms around her middle.

"He's not dead," Irene said it like she could read Tina's mind. "If he were, we would feel it. You would feel it. "

"He's alive?" Tina repeated, knowing that she could trust the truth of Irene's words. The cold hands that held her insides in a merciless knot withdrew under a wave of relief. She had to grip Uriel's arm for support. Why was she so relieved? She had always thought that Damon meant nothing to her; he was just an obstacle that held her back from being a normal person again.

Irene and Tristian exchanged a glance before their eyes went back Tina.

Tristian spoke: "What do you want us to do?"

"What?"

"Even though you are not Trinity and even though I don't feel any traces of Trinity in your soul anymore, Trinity left the mark of a Beloved on your soul, and as such you are the first among Damon's surrogates and your station is higher than ours."

A dry chuckle escaped Tina. They are kidding, right?

No, they are not, she could hear Uriel's voice say in her mind.

Are you serious?

Yes.

But she was free now; without Damon there was nobody who would prevent her from resuming her previous life. She looked sideways, at Uriel, Haniel and Muriel, who stood behind Haniel, in his beast form, as if trying to hide his big, furry body. No, she was wrong. She would never be free because instead of walls there were much stronger bonds that held her back from her previous life.

From the streets the sound of nearing sirens drifted up.

Tina frowned. What was the first thing they should do? Find Petsha, of course. "Try to track down Petsha."

Irene and Tristian nodded and the next second they vanished. Ishaaas and Aradmas one by one vanished behind them.

"We have to go, too." Uriel moved toward his bike that lay on the edge of the roof, pulling Tina with him.

Tina tugged her arm out of Uriel's hold. "I'm going with Muriel."

Uriel scrutinised her face before he nodded and rushed toward his motorcycle, Haniel alongside him.

Tina staggered toward Muriel and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Why?" Muriel wrapped his wings around them.

"Because you might think that I find you disgusting and that I'm afraid of you." Tina looked up at the grey face with red eyes. "And I'm not. You are my family now. I could never be disgusted by you."

"You wouldn't? We are?"

Yes, they were a family now. They might not have been related by blood, but they had a more powerful bond than that. They were emotionally connected through the mind. And they were the ones that would help her fill the emptiness that Trinity had left behind and she would help them with theirs. She gave him a small, sad smile. "Of course." Even though they were without Trinity now and even though there was someone missing. Damon. But they would find him, she was sure of that.

Muriel returned her smile. He embraced her and spread his wings, then beat the air with them. They soared into the sky just as the doors on the roof burst open and rifles' lasers pierced the greyness of the sky.

From a safe distance she could see men scattering through the door in low positions, and red lasers and rays of blinding light as the men probably searched through every nook and cranny, but the only thing that they would come across was a deep hole with debris and papers floating down.

For them this was probably just another unexplained event, that would be announced over the news later as some tragic accident or some kind of weird natural disaster, while for her this was an event in which she had lost a part of her soul and realized that her life as she knew it was irrevocably over. She had also learned that her place now was with her new family, the Dumes, and even though she still wasn't ready to live her life among Bloodeaters and there was this vast emptiness in her soul, she was confident that with the Dumes by her side she would do just fine.

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Blue Moon's Reflection ~ excerpt:

Tina Kocbek looked up between the brick walls of the houses in the old part of the town, where alleys were narrow and the soles of her boots echoed on the cobblestones. She could see a full moon in the narrow strip of the sky visible between the buildings' roofs, its light vaguely shadowed by the clouds. She sighed and hurried across the alley toward the bridge that led toward the bright lights and the noise of the night life.

In the church tower a few streets behind her, the bell tolled three times announcing that it was three o'clock in the morning.

The thud of her boots acquired an echo; the steps matched hers, but sounded heavier.

Tina speeded up; she rushed across the street and turned left, hugging herself as the cold wind from the river brushed past her and her breath further dampened her shawl. She caught a glimpse over her shoulder of the outline of the man who seemed to be following her. There was something strange about him, with his hunched shoulders, thin shirt and washed-out jeans. He trailed her steps, his head raised up as if he were sniffing the air as he moved.

She drew her black, woollen shawl tighter around her neck and the lower part of her face, grimacing when the part made damp by her breathing touched her skin. She disliked cold, and it was cold, too cold to be walking around in the middle of the night in only cargo pants, a long-sleeved shirt and a short jacket. Even though she was already wearing a warm shawl, fur-lined boots, a cap and gloves, she would have preferred the additional weight of woollen stockings, a thick woven sweater and a fur-lined greatcoat.

It was all the Dumes' fault, sending her out without the proper clothes, insisting that a fur-lined greatcoat and a heavy sweater would only hinder her when fighting. She could wield her sword in heavy and thick clothes just fine, and besides, she would have bet that if they had gone shopping she could have found something suitable and light in one of those sports stores in the mall. But no, they had been in a hurry and they didn't have time to stop. If she fell ill from the lack of warm clothes, she would whine and nag and be the worst patient ever to ensure that they would see that she was snug as a bug in a rug from then on. She smiled to herself. Not that she could really become sick, not when she had the blood of the Lost's ex-leader in her veins and when Uriel -- the parent/leader figure in their group of four -- fed her with his special concoction every morning. But she could pretend.

And on top of being cold, walking around alone at three in the morning was also dangerous; she could stumble upon some weirdo or something. Something like the creature slowly closing in on her, whose red eyes she could now distinguish with such clarity. A Deadeater.

Her hand slid under her jacket, at her collarbone where the hilt of her sword peeked from under the Russian collar, hidden under her shawl. Her fingers touched the leather woven around the cold steel.

The steps drew nearer, silently, but she could hear them anyway, as she could feel the body looming over her, the claws reaching out for her.

Her heart raced and time seemed to slow down around her. She pulled out the sword and turned around with a swish. The sharp blade in her hand cut through the neck of the human-looking creature. Its head rolled down and her gaze followed it, knowing that soon it would disappear, leaving only a small heap of fine dust, which would scatter in the cold breeze.

She looked beyond the headless body at the shadows cast by the buildings, where she could see more red eyes glowing as they observed her, waiting for the right moment to pounce. It did not surprise her. Since Angelica's demise and Petsha's rise, Deadeaters had started to live and hunt in groups. She and the Dumes assumed that it was because of their fear of Shadows or maybe even because of their hunting down Deadeaters, but they didn't know for sure.

Time resumed its normal speed.

Tina turned toward the alley and even though her heart wanted to flutter in her chest like a terrified bird, a few deep breaths steadied it.

The red-eyed creatures crawled toward her, their gazes so intent on her, and she could sense their thirst, their desire to dig their canines into her flesh and taste the warmth and thickness of her blood. They were drawn to her blood that brimmed with power -- Damon's power -- which, just a drop of it, would give them power and strength to rule over other Deadeaters. But she wasn't afraid of them -- well, at least not too much, even though even the weakest Deadeater was stronger than she was. She had her time-slowing ability, some fencing skills that Uriel had taught her, and she had them, the Dumes, to protect her. She tapped the blunt side of her sword against her leg. Guys, shouldn't you have joined me already?

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Other Books by Ela Lond:

NOVELS:

The 13th: Destiny Awaits:

Kate, the school outcast, has always been able to see ghosts, and she constantly fears that someday, her so-called 'gift' will drive her mad like it did her mother, who has now been confined to a mental asylum. With the ever-present ghosts, her institutionalised mother, the unwanted attention from a bully and everything else going on in a teenage girl's life, all Kate wants is to graduate quickly and without troubles. But that becomes impossible when Ethan, a gorgeous new transfer student, takes an interest in her, claiming that she is the Soul Reaper, and that he is there to train her. Things get even worse when her nemesis, the school bully Sandra, decides that she wants Ethan for herself.

**Moon's Reflection Series** tells stories about Lueeshareteers (Bloodeaters), powerful creatures old as time itself, who split into three clans live in seeming peace and rule the world from shadows.

Red Moon's Reflection

Blue Moon's Reflection:

Tina lives with the Dumes on the edge of Bloodeater society. They are travelling across Europe searching for clues that will bring them to Damon, Tina's Beloved, before his nightmares swallow him completely. But the only lead they have are Tina's dreams.

Silver Moon's Reflection:

Tina, now accustomed to life as a member of the Bloodeaters' world, sets out with the Dumes on a pilgrimage to the Resting Circle. When Damon joins their mission, she must confront her feelings for him, and her fear that surrendering to him will cost her Uriel and the family she has come to love.

SHORT STORIES:

**Fall Vol.3** is a short (7,000 words long) surreal story:

Eira, a girl without memories and knowledge who she is, on her journey to the Dayyan River with her saviour Blaidd discovers that things are never what they seem to be, and that love has a high price.

**Hegira** is a (11,000 words long) fantasy romance set in Victorian London.

Amanda believed she was alone in the world and afraid of never being able to escape her uncle's greedy clutches, especially after he betrothed her to a complete stranger. But then three men burst into the house, interrupting the wedding, and take her away. The intruders call themselves Elementals, and she begins to rediscover her forgotten connection to them.

**The 13th: Ineluctable Fate** (Pre-Destiny Awaits) is a short (15,000 words long) paranormal romance set in Victorian London.

As the Awakener, Ashton Godwill eased ghosts' passage into the other world and obliterated Soul Eaters -- ghosts who have lost their auras and feed on the spirit energy of others. When the number of Soul Easters suddenly increases, Ashton's guardian employs the help of the Reaper. Unfortunately, the Reaper is the boy who broke Ashton's heart, the boy Ashton would rather never see again.

**Precocious** is a short (13,000 words long) fantasy.

In the world of fairies, seventeen-year-old Rue's days consist of farming, cleaning, selling her crops at the local market or in the human world above, while her stepmother and stepsister attend dances, parties and any society event her stepmother manages to get invited to. Rue never cared for dances and never wished to go to one until Andrew, one of the Prince's friends, invites her to a ball that Rue's stepmother doesn't want her to attend.

**The Whisperers** is a short (8,000 words long) fantasy.

Tyne and Kara, shapeshifters who can turn into crows, stop on their journey to the coast in a town whose residents are terrorized by the governor and his son. Tyne and Kara could use their magic to help the people unite and fight against the injustice, but in the past uprisings in which they were involved always brought violence. Kara wants to try a different approach.

SHORT STORY COLLECTION:

**Heart Strings** is a short (5.000 words long) fantasy:

Faith is a Controller studying at the Academy for Alchemists, Controllers and Mages to secure a successful life after graduation. Until the boy she secretly always thought of as her hero endangers her scholarship and with that her future.

**For your entertainment** (Destiny Awaits Side Story ~ also available as a single story) is a short, 8,000-words long, slow-building contemporary high-school romance:

From the first moment Mandy Hill saw Tyler Webster shooting hoops she wanted to get close to him, but for that she would have to become popular. Not an easy task for a girl with adjustment problems and a brother who liked to play weirdo. And becoming friends with the school outcast didn't help either.

**This Feeling** is a 7,000-words long urban fantasy:

Alex, a high school student, has entered the Year of the Change, as Werefelines call the stage of life in which their transformations into cat form begin. Alex hates it, though, and soothes the pain of metamorphosis with drinking and denial -- until a mysterious black panther crosses her path.

**Lost** is a 5,000-words long fantasy:

Hope, a trained assassin, only had one goal in life, to kill the General, a childhood friend who broke her heart when he sided with the oppressive and despotic ruler of their nation.

**Together Forever** is a 9,000-words long horror story:

Leah and Adam, survivors of the plague that all but wiped out humanity on the Fourth Continent, are on a dangerous journey to Assembly, the only way out of the zombie-infested continent. Can their love survive death, and all that comes after?

* * * * *

Moon's Reflection Glossary

Bloodeaters (Lueeshareteers) used to be called People of Eon. They become Bloodeaters when they were forced to find a replacement for Eeshar, the fruit that supplied their body with haemoglobin. They are divided into three clans: the Lost, the Damned, and the Fallen.

The Fallen (Naqatatu) clan is extinct, with Angelica, Abbas's fourth daughter, the sole survivor. They were energy beings with feathered wings and light-yellow colouring that when angered or attacking changed into black birds.

The Damned (Ezerutu) are beings that appear human, with the exception of their older (principal) members, Abbas, and the Elders, who have greyish skin and have no hair, and Prva (Abbas's first daughter), who has greyish skin and white hair. The clan consists of Elders, Belini (Masters) and Aradmas (Servants). They can't turn humans into Bloodeaters. They can become the masters of Lost's Aradmas by infusing their blood into the Aradma's body.

The Lost (Halqutu) are humanoid beings with a strict hierarchy. There are more than ten Families that form the clan, with purebreds as the head of the families. All the purebreds are called Gelbeliya (Great Lords). Those the Gelbeliya have turned with the Tying ceremony are called Beliya (Lords); they have the same strength as their masters and are the only turned with the ability to turn humans into Bloodeaters. Ishaaases (Masters) are those turned by purebreds without the Tying ceremony and with a weaker infusion of the purebreds' blood in their bodies. Aradmas (Servants) are turned by Beliya and are the weakest Bloodeaters.

Deadeaters (Akilueteer, vampires) were originally by-products of Abbas's feeding, humans infected by a drop of Abbas's blood or saliva while he was feeding on them. They die and then rise up as living dead, animals who can't control their thirst, and become violent at the sight or smell of blood. They have all the flaws of traditional vampires, but not the traditional strength. Before Abbas's head was severed, he was the only one who could control them. They can turn humans into Deadeaters by draining all their blood and then replacing it with a drop of their own. The more of the Deadeater's blood the victim gets the saner they are.

When the Deadeaters multiply too much, the wildest and most insane are hunted and killed by the Numuns and the Dumes, the members of the Damned clan.

The Numuns are Angelica's creations and they are based on Prva's genetic code, which is why they all have white hair.

The Dumes, Uriel, Haniel and Muriel, are the product of Angelica's experiment on the Damon Blackdart's unborn child.

Aarsa Tiyaat ("remain in waiting") are the rare cases when a victim remains in a twilight state between human and Bloodeater.

Mamaels is the name Bloodeaters use for humans.

Sarniikzis ("make restitution") are steel crates most Bloodeaters use as humans use beds. Sarniikzis have healing effects and they lessen the time the body needs for resting.

