CHAPTER NINE - RENEWAL OF OLD FRIENDSHIPS

Glass Princess by Adrian Von Ziegler

In the Dark Fortress there is suddenly a large flash of light and standing there is Malise who is holding Kyah up because she is so weak.  Malise calls out for help and Aziel is one of the first who comes to his Queen’s aid.  As he picks her up and begins to carry her Malise tells him that Kyah is so weak because she took possession of another persons body when she was not strong enough.  As they take Kyah to the throne room Aziel commands that the prisoners are brought before her. In the Dark Fortress Tansin, who is in the throne room, and sitting upon the throne, can see and hear all the commotion and wonders what is going on.

Suddenly an immortal bursts into the room, Tansin asks demandingly, “WHAT'S GOING ON OUT THERE?”  The immortal answers, “Sorry my lady, Kyah has just arrived and she is in bad shape and Aziel and Malise are bringing her here, directly to the throne room.”  Tansin removes herself from the throne as quickly as possible, just as Aziel and Malise enter with Kyah. 

As Aziel walks up the steps and places Kyah on the throne Tansin has already begun to kneel before her.  A few moments after being placed on the throne Kyah is presented with the first lot of prisoners, which includes Louisa. 

Louisa, as arrogant as always, steps forward and demands to know where she is, and who the hell the bitch is sitting on the throne.  Whilst she is doing this the other prisoners are cowering and backing away.  Louisa hears a young woman’s voice behind her that goes on to say, “This is Kyah, our queen!”  As she says this she takes a sword from one of the guards and says, “Show some respect.”  As she says this she swipes the sword across the back of Louisa’s knees causing her to fall to the ground.  She walks around the front and lifts Louisa’s head with the tip of the sword and states, “See, it’s not so hard to show Kyah the respect she deserves.” 

Kyah thanks Kristen for making this pathetic, stuck up human learn her place in their world.  Kristen asks Kyah if she would like this one to be the first one she feeds on.  Kyah replies, “No, I want this piece of meat to watch as I feed on several others so she can see what I am going to do to her after I have finished off these few.”

Aziel then commands the guards to bring forth her first meal which happens to be a young Japanese girl.  As Kyah takes hold of the young girl around the neck she tells Aziel she has always loved sushi and the delicate taste that comes with Japanese food. 

Louisa kneeling there watches one of the most terrifying things she has ever seen as she observes these poor people being consumed.  Before long it is her turn but instead of Kyah just draining her life force by the mere touch of her hand she decides to make Louisa suffer so she feeds on her as an ordinary vampire would feed on a victim.  Then, when she is almost dead, she draws the rest of the life-force out of Louisa by using her hand. 

As she is cleaning her face of the blood that still remains she looks once more into the mirror to make sure she hasn’t missed any and there staring back at her is the true face of all the evil she has done under the influence of this most hideous parasite which has slowly, over time, possessed her.  When she sees it she throws the mirror to the floor smashing it, and screams out “NO!!”  Malise asks, “What is wrong my queen?”  Kyah replies harshly, “NOTHING!!” 

Aziel commands all to leave the throne room and as he, Malise, Kristen and Tansin are also leaving Kyah commands that he and the others stay, and they do as they are commanded.  Kyah then goes on to ask them what has been happening over the past few thousand years and why they have gone so soft.  She then decides that it is far easier to merely feed off each of them so she can see all of their memories through their blood. 

Aziel is the first one to offer his blood to his queen, Kyah pierces the inside of his forearm with her fangs and after feeding for a few moments she has all the blood memories of Aziel.  She looks up at him with a puzzled look on her face, she shakes her head and says, “It’s not true!”  Next to give her blood is Malise only this time Kyah feeds by piercing her neck.  Again Kyah cannot believe what she is seeing and she rips her fangs out of Malise’s neck and looks directly at Tansin and says, “How could you do that, how could you betray me?”  Tansin says, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”  Kyah goes on to say, “You tried to kill Drake a few days ago!  From what I gather from Aziel’s blood you are also responsible for the death of Arlia.  She may have been one of my arch-enemies but I would never have stooped so low as to stab her in the back.  Due to this somehow Drake was also affected causing him to again almost lose his life and spend 4 years in a maturation tank.  What do you have to say for yourself Tansin?”

Tansin answers Kyah’s accusations with; “That’s bullshit, it’s just all bullshit!”  Malise and Aziel have it in for me, they’ve never liked me and would do anything to get rid of me, that’s why all the blood memories you see are false, I would never disobey you.”  Whilst saying this Tansin is thinking to herself, ‘I’d kill you given half the chance.’ 

Kyah stands up from her throne and begins to walk down the steps towards Tansin, and says, “If this is all, how did you put it, bullshit and lies, then let me feed on you and I will find out the truth for myself.”  As Kyah begins to pierce the flesh on Tansin’s neck Tansin realises that if Kyah tastes as little as one drop of her blood she will find out everything, including Tansin’s plot to dethrone her. 

She pulls away really hard and begins to back down the steps and tries to make a run for the throne-room doors but standing in front of her is Malise with her sword drawn.  As she turns around she is struck in the face by Kyah as she asks, “Where do you think you’re going?”  Before Tansin can answer Kyah kicks her across to the other side of the room. 

Kyah goes over and tries to pick her up and Tansin places her arms across her face and upper body attempting to defend herself.  Kyah manages to get a grip around Tansin’s throat with one of her hands, she picks her up into the air.  Tansin frantically fights back and for her troubles ends up with Kyah breaking one of her arms.
 

Kyah says to Tansin, “You have betrayed me for the last time after all I have given you.”  Tansin, gasping, begs for her life, “Please, please let me down!” As Kyah holds Tansin up in the air with one hand, the claws appear on her other hand as she brings it forward to strike.  Kyah’s hand is stayed by Aziel who does not particularly like Tansin in any way but would rather not see her die. 

Kyah screams, “HOW DARE YOU INTERFERE!!”  She pulls her hand out of his and strikes him across the face.  Then for the first time in many thousands of years Aziel transforms into his lichen form and turns on Kyah, taking a massive bite out of her arm and he tears into her chest and throat with his claws.  He attacks her again and she kicks him pushing him back and across the floor.  She turns towards the throne with her right hand outstretched and within a matter of seconds her sword flies through the air and into her hand.  Aziel gets up off the floor, shakes his head like ‘Did you get the number of that bus??’  Once on his feet he charges at her again.

Malise, on seeing this, knows that if she does not do something then this shit could go on for hours.  Malise doesn’t notice that Kyah has the sword in her hand and when she realises this she gets in between both Kyah and Aziel.  Malise puts one arm up and fends off the blow from the sword and with her other arm she blocks Aziel’s teeth and claws.  After this happens Malise staggers back and both Aziel and Kyah realise what they have done. 

Kyah walks up to Malise and wrenches the sword out of her smoking arm and throws it to the floor.  She then grabs Malise around the arm near the wound and begins to heal her and at the same time she heals her own wounds which were caused by Aziel, by taking the very life force from Tansin.  Malise goes on to ask Kyah if she would spare Tansin’s life. Kyah agrees but before letting Tansin down she tells her that she has betrayed her for the last time and if she ever puts Drake’s life at risk again she will not hesitate to kill her next time.  She said, “It makes no difference to me that you’re my…….”  As she is interrupted by Malise who asks, “So what are you going to do about Drake?”

Kyah replies to Malise and Aziel, “I think it’s time for Drake and I to renew our old friendship!” 

Meanwhile, Nevel has woken up after several days of sleeping.  She decides to go downstairs and get something to eat.  As she reaches the kitchen she can hear much laughter coming from in there.  As she enters she can see Drake sitting at the island bar surrounded by all the guys plus Seneca and Cinaed and Keira who are still laughing extremely hard as Curtis, William James, Dalroy and JJ tell them some of the funniest stories about Josie. 

After Nevel has been handed a cup of coffee by Seneca she goes on to say, “I’m sure I speak for everyone that we are glad to see you up and about and you look much better.”  Nevel thanks everyone for their concern.  As she takes a mouthful of her coffee Kiera hands Nevel her mail and her eye is drawn to one particular envelope which is from Wicked Records music label.  Kiera excuses herself and begins to leave to go and check on Josie but before she can Drake calls out to her and says, “Here, you’ll need this,” and throws her a bottle of sunscreen.  A few seconds later Kiera is standing outside of Josie’s room.  She knocks on the door and then enters to find that Josie is not in her bed. 

My Black Rose by Adrian Von Ziegler

Instead Josie is wandering around another part of the house dazed and confused thinking to herself “Is this a house or a museum, since there are many museum quality pieces?”  She opens the door and finds herself in Jake Gameliel’s room and the room is done up to resemble the Captain’s cabin on an old sailing ship. 

Back in Josie’s room Kiera decides to go out through the double French doors to see if Josie is outside.  After looking around that section of the property she returns to Josie’s room and she looks and sees that Cassidy’s bedroom door is open. 

Inside Cassidy’s room is Josie and she is looking around and she is seeing all the spell books, all the crystals, crystal balls and all the different herbs and small bottles of potions etc.  She thinks to herself, “Whoa, hope I don’t run into the freaks who own this stuff!!”  Instead of going around where the crystal balls sit she decides to step over the balls and into the circle to reach the other side.  But in doing so she triggers the specialised skylight which causes the sun to come through and begin to burn her.  She scrambles to get out of the way knocking over several of the large crystal balls. 

Keira hears the noise and leaves Josie’s room and enters Cassidy’s room and there she finds Josie cowering in a dark corner of the room away from the sunlight.  Keira is then reminded of what Cassidy and Natalia said about there being consequences for their actions.  Keira quickly claps her hands loudly and this causes the skylight to rapidly close.  Keira then walks over to Josie and gently helps her up onto her feet and seeing that she has a really bad sunburn on her face, chest and arms.    

Keira introduces herself to Josie and then she goes to get a wet towel to help cool down the sunburn.  She has also added one of the potions from Cassidy’s vast collection that will help.  As Josie uses the towel on her sunburn she begins to introduce herself and Keira says, “I know exactly who you are Miss Josie Solomon.” Josie replies, “Oh, really!! How do you know me?”  Keira says, “I knew your mother…” and also enquires “…how’s the pain now from the sunburn?”  Josie, “It feels much better.”  She looks in the mirror and sees that the discolouration from the sunburn has gone and she then goes on to say, “As you can see from how badly the sun burnt me, my skin doesn’t do well in direct sunlight.”  Before Josie can even ask Keira hands her a bottle of sunscreen and says, “It will also work as a moisturiser and if you wear it every day it will help to protect your skin from the sun.” 

As Josie puts the sunscreen on she asks where exactly she is.  “You’re standing in Cassidy Nevel’s room at the moment.”  Josie asks, “How did I get here?”  “You were brought here by Cassidy and Drake who found you unconscious in one of the laneways.”  Josie suddenly remembers that she was knocked unconscious by David and his friends.  Josie looks down and sees that she is still in her PJ’s and asks Keira if she can get her clothes back in order to get dressed.  “Unfortunately those clothes were destroyed but I think we can find something from your mother’s collection for you to wear.”  As they both leave Cassidy’s room and then enter the room Josie woke up in Keira opens a walk-in wardrobe that holds a whole lot of Arlia’s clothes.  After a few moments Josie chooses the clothes she is going to wear which includes a black singlet, a pair of black and blue denim jeans and a flat studded leather collar. 

As Keira leaves to go to where the others are in the kitchen she sees someone from Fed-ex at the front door with a package.  Keira takes the package and signs for it.  Josie says, “The kitchen’s this way isn’t it?” “Yes,” and Keira then asks Josie how she knew where the kitchen was.  Josie answers, “I feel like I’ve done this before.”  After entering the kitchen Keira and Josie see that no-one is there at the moment.  Keira says to Josie, “You can have a cup of coffee or tea while you wait and I’ll go and find out where everyone has gone.” 

While Josie is sitting there drinking her tea she notices that the package is beginning to move and making a weird sound and this gets the best of her curiosity.  Against her better judgement she begins to open the package, at that moment she hears a strong male voice asking her, “What do you think you’re doing opening other people’s mail it’s not like it has you’re name written all over it?”  Josie spins around and to her shocked amazement she believes the person standing before her is the one she knew as Adams all those years ago.

She stands there for a few minutes with her mouth open and says, “I can’t believe it’s you!!”  He angrily repeats, “I’ll ask you again, what were you doing opening my mail?”  “I didn’t mean to, it was moving and making a weird sound!”  They stand there for several minutes arguing with each other and during this time Josie begins to believe that this is not her best friend she knew from years ago and at the same time she can hear the song “Ignorance” running through her head. 

Ignorance by Paramore

Cassidy, Keira and the other guys appear in the room, drawn there by the yelling. 

Josie, after being yelled at for so long, pauses and begins to look around the room.  Drake says to her, “Now what are you doing??”  Josie snaps back, “I’m just waiting for it to begin to snow since you seem to be such a cold hearted bastard.”  Everyone stands there with shocked looks on their faces because no-one has ever dared to talk back to Drake like this before. 

Josie begins to leave the kitchen and Drake says, “Don’t you walk away while I’m talking to you, I will not have someone ignore me in my own home, especially when you're a guest!”  Cassidy interrupts him and says, “Our home, and she is a guest of MINE!!”  Cassidy walks up to Drake and slaps him in the face as hard as she can trying to knock some sense into him since she knows that Josie is really Josephine, the love of Drake’s life.  She also tells Drake that Josie is right, that he is a cold-hearted bastard and was like that even before he had the Gollum’s cold heart of stone. 

By the time Josie reaches the bottom of the stairs Keira has caught up with her.  Keira reaches out and grabs Josie’s arm telling her that it is not entirely Drakes fault for the way he acts because he was once hurt by someone he trusted.  Josie, looking at Keira, tries to find out more about the person who hurt Drake but Keira tells her she would have to ask Drake about that as she can’t really talk about it.  Josie tells Keira that she wants to go home and Keira tells her she’ll arrange for a car to take her home.  Josie pulls her arm away from Keira and continues on up the stairs to her bedroom. 

Back in the kitchen Cassidy is still tearing strips off Drake telling him that if he does not go up and apologise right now for offending Josie she will never talk to him again.  Cassidy turns to leave and disappears in a cloud of smoky mist. 

Drake looks at the others and tells Curtis to get rid of the package that Josie was tampering with.  JJ asks Drake, “Aren’t you going to look in it before you throw it out?”  Drake snaps back at him “NO, I already know what it is.”  Curtis begins to open the package, Drake says, “NO!” and grabs hold of one side of the box.  They each struggle to get control of the package but the package splits in two and left there on the kitchen counter top is a bloody human heart from a young man and it’s still beating.  William James notices that there is some writing carved into the heart which says, “Kyah and Drake Forever!”  This shocks them all. 

This heart was torn from a young mans body by Tansin after she had fed on several others.  She was in such a bad mood because of what the queen had done to her she did this to one of her own servants after she said out loud “I want that bitch dead!!”  The male servant who was just entering the room had said back to her, “It’s treason to speak that way.”  Instead of throwing the heart away like she did with the body she carved the words into it and had it sent to Drake in order to piss him off. The effect Tansin wanted does work because Drake is now in such a foul mood he incinerates the heart and then storms off to see Josie.  As he walks away he is muttering to himself, “Kyah you nasty bitch, you always have to cause me misery and pain just so you can have your fun!” 

He arrives at Josie’s bedroom door and because he’s in such a bad mood he doesn’t even bother to knock, he barges in but finds the bedroom empty.  He notices that the French doors are open and he walks towards them and out on to the balcony.  He sees Josie sitting on the swing he created for her and as he looks down she is looking up at him.  Out of nowhere a massive thunderstorm appears and there is a huge crack of thunder.  This startles Josie and she stands up to go inside but she is blinded by the next massive flash of lightning. 

Within that moment Drake sees her, not in sillouette, but as who she really is, the older Josephine that he once knew. With the second flash of lightning he sees her as she is now which is another version of the older Josephine and he realises that they are one and the same, but before he can do or say anything to her she quickly gets into the chauffer driven car as it begins to pour rain.  As the car pulls away Drake yells out for the car to stop but the driver does not hear him. 

Drake turns around and bumps into Keira which causes his dark glasses to fall off.  As Keira is bending down to pick them up Drake tells her she must stop the chauffer driven car from leaving.  She tries to call them on a hand held radio and on her phone but the storm is interfering with the signal.  She hands Drake back his glasses and for the first time she gets to see his natural eye colour which is blue.  She says, “Drake, your eyes, they’re normal!”  He says, “Forget about my eyes, you have to stop that car from leaving because that was Josephine in the car.”  Keira rushes off to stop the car and on the way out of the room bumps into Natalia who overheard Drake talking about Josephine. 

Moments after Keira leaves Natalia asks Drake if he can have a look at something for her and hands him a crystal that she knows will wipe his memory again and as she does so she says, “I’m so sorry for this!” 

She hears someone ask from behind her, “So sorry for what?”  Natalia spins around and comes face to face with Nevel and stutter, “Nothing, Uh uh, I was just thinking out loud!”  She quickly takes the crystal from Drake’s hand and leaves the room in a hurry and on the way out she bumps into Keira who tells Drake that the chauffeur driven car had returned to the front door.  Drake says, “What did you go and do that for?”Keira responds, “You ordered me to stop the car.” Drake replies, “No I didn’t!”  “Yes you did.” “No, I didn’t.”  Before it gets into a full-blown argument Nevel intervenes and tells Keira to simply let Josie go home.

Nevel asks Drake if he is okay.  Drake replies, “Yes, I’ve just got this splitting headache.”  Nevel catches a glimpse of Drake’s eyes as he puts his glasses back on and she, like Keira, is puzzled to see his natural blue eyes instead of the pitch-black lifeless eyes he usually has.  As they leave Cassidy looks back towards the darkened sky and snaps her fingers and the storm disappears as fast as it arose. 

Caroline is coming out of where Josie’s apartment is just when Josie is going in and she asks, “Where have you been, no-one has seen or heard from you in weeks?”  As Josie opens the door to her apartment she begins to explain to Caroline where she has been. She tells Caroline that she has been staying with Cassidy Nevel for the past few weeks in order to recover from a very bad beating she received at the hands of Caroline’s boyfriend David. 

A very shocked look comes across Caroline’s face as she tells Josie how sorry she is, “I always knew he was a bastard but I didn’t think he was that cruel.”  Josie, being as friendly as always tells her not to worry about it because she is quite all right thanks to the care she received when she was at Cassidy’s home.  The girls spend the rest of the day together talking about many things. Meanwhile, Cassidy and the guys are also swapping stories about Josie. 

Many hours after everyone has retired for the night Cassidy is woken from a deep sleep as she can hear Drake pacing the halls of the house.  Cassidy leaves her room and decides to go and look for him but as she comes out of her bedroom she bumps into Drake on his way back to his own room.  Cassidy asks him what’s on his mind that could keep him up so late.  Drake replies that he had something really important to tell everyone but no matter how hard he tries to remember he cannot recall what it is. 

Cassidy leads him back to his room and Drake takes a seat at his small kitchen table as Nevel makes him a pot of tea that will help him sleep.  As she is pouring the tea Drake also notices that there is something weighing Cassidy’s mind down as well.  He asks her to sit at the table and tell him her problems.  She goes on to talk about how worried she is about Josie, that over the last month or so Josie has been drinking heavily and treating everyone like shit.  Drake replies, “It sounds like she is trying to push you away so she can deal with the problem on her own.  It sounds as though she is a really nice person, do you think it would help if I had a talk to her?” “After the way you treated her today Josie may never want to talk to you again!”

Cassidy stays with Drake until he finally falls asleep then she returns to her own room and her own bed. 

The following week Drake tries to talk to Josie several times but when he comes to the club Josie leaves.  Finally he goes to the College and gets the Dean to call Josie to come to his office but when Josie walks in and sees that it’s Drake, and he tries to talk to her, she simply states, “Great, I’ve got a stalker!  Can’t you go away and leave me alone?”

Later on that night Drake arrives at the Graveyard Nightclub and as he reaches the 3^rd floor he spots Josie and her friends up on the stage performing - they are half way through one of their songs called, “Ignorance Is Your New Best Friend”.  All Josie does is stare directly at Drake as she is singing the song hoping that he will get the point. 

Ignorance by Paramore (Official Video)

After they’ve finished the song Curtis, William James and Dalroy all decide to get some drinks before sitting at the table with Cassidy and the others.  The only ones still standing on the stage are Josie and JJ.  JJ tells Josie how much fun it was to finally play some music in front of a crowd and he also asks, “Is it always like this, when everyone comes closer to the stage to listen?”  Josie just smiles and replies, “I always get a kick out of it when they do that.”  As Josie turns around and jumps off the stage Drake is standing in front of her, she begins to push her way past.  Drake reaches out and grabs her by the arm.  Josie turns around and says loudly, “How many times do I have to make it clear to you - PISS OFF - I don’t want to talk to you!!”

Josie grabs Drake’s hand and twists it making him let go of her arm.  She looks over towards Cassidy and tells her, “As long as he’s here, I’m not!”  she then begins to leave.  Drake once again grabs her by the arm and says, “What’s your problem and why are you being such a bitch?”  Josie turns back to him and says, “If you can’t figure that out then you’re dumber than you look!!”  They argue back and forth for about 5 minutes until Cassidy and JJ intervene. 

Cassidy asks Drake to apologise for the comments he made earlier in the week and JJ does the same with Josie.  They look at each other and both say at the same time, “FINE!”   Drake goes over and sits with Curtis and Jake Gameliel but Josie goes to another table in the club and sits by herself in the dark.  As Cassidy and JJ walk back over to the main table where everyone else is Natalia begins to laugh.  They all look at her and say, “What’s so funny?”  She replies, “It is so obvious that they like each other.”  Drake tries to deny this as much as possible but they all notice that he can’t stop staring at Josie all night long.  At the same time Josie, sensing the stare, looks away.  But then as Drake goes back to talking to his friends Josie turns her attention back towards Drake, staring at him all night as well.

Over the next few weeks Josie does several things to not only annoy Drake but to piss him off.  They get into a much larger argument with each other this time.  Drake goes on to tell Josie she can be so annoying at times but unlike Drake Josie is unable to find the words to say to him until she hears the beginning of a song that is being performed by Plumb at the nightclub, she turns to Drake and says, "That's exactly how you make me feel."  Drake listens to the first part of the song as Josie begins to leave the Graveyard Nightclub.  

Unlovable by Plumb

Before Josie can leave the third floor Drake rushes after her and stops her and tells her not to worry about what she has done that he is just a tool and he should know better.  They stand there and listen to the rest of the song before Josie says that she has to leave.  Drake says, "I hope you're not leaving on my account?"  Josie, "No, it's late and I have to go home and get some sleep because I have to get up early for classes tomorrow."  Drake, to make amends to Josie, offers to drive her home and Josie accepts with a smile.  

After arriving at the College apartments Drake walks Josie to her front door and sees her safely in to her apartment.  He then returns to his own home.  

It is now the middle of the week and Drake is outside in the Japanese garden meditating when he notices that JJ and Cinaed training against each other with their weapons.  He watches as they both do battle and watches as JJ gets his arse kicked by this young girl.  JJ gets to his feet and complains, "That's not fair!" as Cinaed says, "All's fair in love and war." and they all burst out laughing.  Drake, pleasantly distracted, doesn't notice Keira standing next to him.  She apologises for disturbing him and reminds him that Denae and her friends will be arriving soon.  She also says that something new has arrived for the Japanese garden, she believes it has been sent from the Island of Shikaku.  

The couriers place the crate in the centre of the garden before opening it.  Keira gets a strange feeling from the crate she yells out to Drake to watch out as several spears and stakes rip through the wooden crate.  Drake grabs Keira, swings her around so that his back is toward the crate and the spears etc simply strike him in the back and then shatter because he has merged with the Golum.   Unfortunately they hear a dull thud and as they look over to where JJ and Cinaed were training, Cinaed looks down at her chest and realises that she has been struck by one of the stakes.  As she falls to her knees JJ rushes to her side but is distracted by more sound coming from within the crate. 

Ashes by Adrian Von Ziegler 

Pissed at seeing one of his new friends injured JJ places the axe head against the inside of his shield, drawing it across the shield it begins to spin like a buzz saw and he then lets the axe fly at the crate.

Drake and Keira watch as the ax strikes the crate and begins to cut it's way through the wood and the straps that are holding it together.  As the sides of crate fall away it reveals a device built injure not kill. The device pushes the pieces out and begins to spin, firing off more spears and stakes.  As the axe returns to JJ's hand, Keira notices the unprotected gears at the top and the bottom of the device.  She takes out her .45 calibre Desert Eagles and begins to fire.  This only worsens things as the trap has been designed this way and by Keira shooting at the unprotected gears this activates the second half of the trap which releases a form of Creaker they have not seen before.  

As the Creakers come rushing towards her and the others she puts several rounds of bullets in their heads, these rounds merely go through the skull and out the other side and the Creakers continue to rush towards them.  Drake severs several of the Creakers heads from their bodies as JJ uses his axe to saw through some of the Creakers from crutch to skull.  All of them are amazed and suddenly worried as the Creakers who were sawn in half and had their heads severed merely pull themselves back together and put their heads back on their shoulders.  

The Creakers force them back into the training area where Cinaed is still laying with the stake still buried in her chest.  Keira turns and asks Drake how Cinaed is.  He replies, "She's fucking dead, they've killed her."  Keira turns back to re-engage the Creakers but doesn't one is very close to her until it wraps it's rotting, decaying hands around her throat and begins to squeeze.  It then proceeds to open it's mouth and tries to bite her.  JJ, using his shield, prevents this and smashes the Creaker in the face several times.  JJ gets knocked down and pinned to the floor by several Creakers.  Keira is able to raise her pistol and sticks it into the Creakers mouth and pulls the trigger.  This causes the Creaker's head to be pushed back abruptly and as it brings it's head up she can see that the bullet has blown out the back of the skull and most of the brains.  This seems to only enrage the Creaker even more.

The next thing Keira sees is Drake kicking the Creakers through the air who had had JJ pinned to the ground and at the same time he reaches inside the Creakers blown away skull pushing his hand through the bottom of the skull, he wraps his hand around the Creakers spine and pulls so hard the spine snaps off from the base and as he pulls it gets stuck against the skull and he swings it up and begins to smash the Creakers to bits with it.  As Drake is doing this he accidently sets the Creaker on fire, this causes the rest of them to back away. He throws what is left of the Creaker on the ground and the whole place fills with smoke from what is left of the Creaker burning.

This does not stop the other Creakers from closing in.  All of a sudden Drake and the others see other shadows within the smoke.  They immediately think that they have jumped from the frying pan into the fire.  To their amazement these shadows attack the Creakers and Drake and his friends watch as all the Creakers are suddenly incinerated into piles of ashes.  Out from the smoke as it clears appears a dear old friend of Drake's whom he has not seen for ages.  Keira and JJ asks Drake who this person is.  Drake says, "This is Danae and her sisters, the last of the Fire Wolf Clan."  

Drake looks at Danae and says, "You have impeccable timing as always." "Yes, I know but it always seems that when I visit you are up to your eyeballs in trouble."  She goes on to ask how many casualties there have been.  Drake replies, "The humans that delivered the crate have been killed and we also had a new member of our clan, Cinaed, killed unfortunately."  As Drake is saying this Keira and JJ are standing next to Cinaed's body.  Danae asks Drake with a fearful voice does he think Kyah has perfected the new Creaker's abilities from the data that was collected from when they were experimented on several thousand years ago, since they, themselves, are living Creakers.

Drake says, "What gives you that idea, just because after they've had their brains blown out and theire heads severed from their bodies that they are able to keep coming?"  Danae looks Drake straight in the eye and says, "Yes! And now let's help bring your friend back to life."  

JJ hears this comment and asks "How do you bring a vampire back to life when they've been staked through the heart?"  Danae walks over and kneels down next to Cinaed, she asks JJ if he knows if the stake had a silver tip.  He replies, "I don't think so."  Danae wraps her hand around the stake and as she is pulling it out of Cinaed's heart she says, "Here's a little known fact about wooden stakes and vampires."  She goes on to tell them that wooden stakes alone will not kill a vampire it will merely put them into a deep sleep.  With that she pulls the stake completely out and a few seconds later the hole in Cinaed's chest heals and she sits up taking a deep, gasping breath.  She then gets to her feet.  JJ hugs her and exclaims, "You're alive!  Don't you ever do that to me again."  

Drake says to Cinaed, "It's nice to see you on your feet again."  "Thank you."  Drake then turns his attention back to Danae.  She whispers something in his ear and he turns back to the others and asks them to keep this incident quiet. As the others are left there to clean up the remains Drake, Danae and her sisters return to the house.  They go into his office and pass through the mirror to New Atlantis and head directly to the Forbidden Zone.  

After they enter one of the areas in the Forbidden Zone they shut and lock the massive doors behind them.  Drake removes large sample of his own blood, he turns around and faces Danae and her sisters.  He holds the injection gun and asks, "Who wants to go first?"  One of Denae's sisters, who is a hell-hound steps forward.  She does not speak because she cannot, she simply holds out her arm for the injection.  The other hell-hounds do the same.  Danae steps forward and says, "I guess it's my turn." She is also given the injection by Drake.  Drake is using his own blood in order to transform Danae and her sisters bodies back to as close as normal due to the fact that they are missing parts of their flesh from the experiments.  For Danae it is far more painful and worse than her sisters as it causes her to go from her human form to her transformated state and back again for at least an hour - she turns, then regresses back to human, then turns again only to be half human and half lichen.

Meanwhile, back at the College, Josie is busy day-dreaming about Drake.  She doesn't hear Professor Harris tell everyone that there is a large test coming that they will need to study for.  Caroline gently nudges Josie and says, "What are you day-dreaming about?"  Josie replies, "Nothing!" with a large grin on her face.  Caroline tells Josie that they have a test they have to study for and would she like to be her study partner.  Josie says, "Fine, when do you want to start." "Why don't we start tonight and that way we might be able to get it finished before the end of the week?"  That night they go to the Library and begin to study but Josie is still pre-occupied thinking about Drake.  As they study throughout the night they see that this exam is going to be far more difficult than they thought.

Back at NewAtlantis Denae has finally woken up after the injection she was given.  She notices that the hell-hounds, like herself, now have a perfectly well toned and unscarred bodies.  She looks over at Drake and says, "It worked, finally." Drake, "Yes and no!! Your human form has been repaired but the disfigurement still remains when you turn."  Denae looks in the mirror once again and simply states, "This is better than nothing and besides now we can wear whatever clothes we like without being worried about people staring at us." 

Drake and Dena and her sisters return to Melbourne.  He asks if Denae and her sisters are hungry.  She replies, "Starving actually, do you think we can get a bite to eat?"  "Yes, you can have something to eat but I think it would be great if we could all sit down and have dinner together."  They walk into the dining room and find everyone else already seated at the great dining table with a huge feast already prepared.  After having dinner they have some quiet conversation in the lounge room.  They talk late into the night.  Denae is returning to her room after getting something to drink from the kitchen and as she passes Nevel's bedroom door she can hear her tossing and turning as though she is having a restless sleep.  

Denae quietly opens the door and enters Nevels room.  She walks over to the bed and gently nudges her shoulder.  Nevel sits up suddenly, taking a deep gasp of air and says, "What the bloody hell was that?"  Denae asks, "What were you dreaming about?" Cassidy replies, "I just had a dream about Drake and Josie.  Drake had taken Josie out to apologise for being such a shit but then they ended up at the Museum.  Denae asks, "What happened at the Museum in the dream?"  "I don't know, I can't remember I just know it was terrifying."

The next morning Nevel has a conversation with Drake about him going to see Josie.  He ums and ahs and says, "She can be such a royal pain in the butt though."  Cassidy just looks at him and says, "Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black, you're not the easiest person to get along with either."  "Ohh, just shut up!!" and he agrees to go and see Josie with Cassidy.

Erin Shore by The Corrs

After driving for a while both Drake and Cassidy arrive at the College.  They go to Josie's apartment but find that she's not home.  After walking around for about half an hour they still have not seen her.  Cassidy says, "Maybe she's not here, perhaps she's gone into the city or even to the club. Perhaps we should go there and come back here later."  Drake takes a deep breath through his nose and picks up Josie's scent, but it is weaker than he remembers.  Drake looks at Cassidy and says, "I've found her, she's this way."  

They arrive in the College Library and Drake follows the scent trail up into the stacks. When they end up where her scent stops she is not there.  They begin to look out over the library's floor to see if they can spot her.  At that moment Josie and Drake's eyes meet.  Josie suddenly goes back to looking at her books and Caroline notices this funny change in Josie and asks her what is going on. Without lifting her head Josie tells Caroline that it is the young man called Drake that she met at the house and mistook for a few moment to be Adams.  Caroline asks, "Where is he?"  Josie just whispers, "He's up in the stacks behind you."  Caroline turns around to take a look at this person who is making Josie wig out so much.

Josie says, "Don't turn around and look" but it is too late.  Caroline sees Drake standing there next to a beautiful young woman and she begins to raise her hand and wave at them.  Josie grabs her arm and says, "What are you doing?"  Caroline replies with a wicked grin on her face, "Just saying hello!"  Josie asks, "Is he still staring at me?"  "No, he's not even there anymore, he's gone."  Josie looks up towards where Cassidy and Drake were standing and locks eyes with Drake again and begins to smile uncontrollably. Drake simply smiles back at her and when she realises what she's doing, she puts her head down on the table and places a book over her head in an attempt to hide herself.  Caroline looks at Josie, "You like him! You like him a lot!" Josie states, "Now, I don't."  Caroline can tell by the tone of her voice that yes, she does.  

Cassidy bumps Drake and says, "Isn't it about time you went down and apologised to her?" Drake looks at Cassidy with an odd look on his face, as if to say, 'I have to apologise, it was her who was snooping around that day.'  Cassidy tells Drake that it would be the polite thing for him to do even if it was Josie's fault which she doesn't believe it was. Drake storms off in a huff.  Cassidy just thinks to herself, 'I suppose it's up to me once again to fix this problem.'  

Cassidy raise her hands up crossed in front of her face and left standing there is now "Drake" in a puff of black and purple smoke he disappears and reappears next to the table where Josie and Caroline are sitting.  Josie yet again asks Caroline, "Have they gone?"  Caroline looks up at the stacks and says, "Yes they have gone, this time for real."  Josie pulls her head out from under the book and sits up and standing right next to her is "Drake".  She and Caroline get a slight fright.  Cassidy, in the guise of "Drake", apologises for frightening both of them.  Cassidy/"Drake" says, "Can I ask you something?"  "He" asks Josie if she would like to go out to dinner with him and says it is his way of apologising to her for treating her like shit when they first met.  

Josie, ummms and ahhhs, not being able to make up her mind and Caroline answers for her, "Yes, sure she'll go out to dinner with you."  As she is saying this she sees something peculiar, she spots a person near the Library doors, so she leans out to the side to get a better look and the person she spots is Drake. "What the fuck??"  Cassidy/"Drake" raises her finger and wags it backward and forward as if to say, 'Be quiet'.

Cassidy, in the guise of Drake still, tells Josie that a car will be sent for her at about 7.30pm on Friday.  

She leaves Josie and Caroline sitting at the table as she walks away.  Moments after she has left the 'glamour' that she used fades away and once again it's Cassidy walking out of the Library.  Meanwhile, Josie is tearing strips off Caroline saying to her. "How could you do this to me?"  Caroline simply smiles and laughs out loud and she reminds Josie that she once told her that she would like to meet someone like herself and go out on a date with them.  

Cassidy hops in the car with Drake and they both return home.  Drake heads to his workshop where Denae is waiting for him.  They both begin work on some of the masquerade masks.  About an hour later Keira knocks on the door of the workshop and tells Drake that there is a guest waiting for him up at the house.  Drake indicates that both he and Denae are too busy to return to the house and asks Keira if she could bring the guest to them.  Moments later Keira returns but before the guest even enters the workshop Drake catches their scent on the wind.  He quickly stops doing what he was doing and turns around.  As Josie walks through the door Drake is already half way across the room to greet her.  

"Good afternoon Josie, it's nice to see you again so soon, how may I help you?"  Josie, being a little shy, enquires if Drake would like to go out with her on Friday night for dinner.  Drake replies, "Unfortunately I cannot due to an old friend visiting."  Denae sees the disappointed look on Josie's face  and jumps to her feet and like Caroline drops Drake straight into the deep end by saying, "Of course he'll go out with you."  Denae says, "No I wouldn't like to get in the way of you two being best friends."  They both look at each other, turn to Denae and say, "We're not best friends!" Drake says, "Not yet anyway." 

Josie smiles at Drake and tells him she's definitely looking forward to having dinner with him on Friday night.  She turns and leaves.  A few seconds after she is gone Drake turns to Denae and says, "How could you do that to me?"  Denae replies, "Do what?  It's not like I'm sentencing you to death or anything.  Besides, you never told me that Arlia's daughter was so beautiful and it's about time you fell in love again with a real person instead of holding on to the memories of an old love."   

Keira is walking Josie back towards the house when Josie suddenly stops and then reveals herself to be Cassidy instead.  Keira looks at Cassidy and asks, "What's going on here? I thought you were Josie, why were you pretending to be her?" Cassidy goes on to explain that she had to use the glamour spell both on Drake and on Josie in order to get them to talk to each other again seeing they were being such stubborn, pigheaded pains in the butt.  Keira agrees and laughs out loud, telling Cassidy that Drake is going to make her pay for this.  

The remaining hours fly by so fast that it is now Friday afternoon.  Both Josie and Drake are running around like chooks without heads trying to decide what to wear to dinner but Josie is having more difficulty as she is also trying to decide how to do her hair and make-up.  Drake eventually settles on wearing a pair of black denim jeans, a black shirt, purple tie and vest. Josie, meanwhile, has finally decided to have her hair pulled back and plaited into three distinctive plaits and her make-up is dark red lipstick, smoky silver and charcoal eyes with a dark eye-liner.  The dress she chooses to wear is a plain black, off one shoulder, backless cocktail dress.   Josie turns around to Caroline and asks, "How do I look, it's been a long time since I've dressed up for any occasion."  Caroline replies, "You look absolutely stunning and I guarantee this will take his breath away."  Moments later the town car arrives to pick Josie up.

Caroline walks Josie out to the car and watches her get in.  Just before the car leaves Caroline tells Josie  to have a great time.  

The car arrives at the restaurant and the driver helps Josie get out of the car.  Josie enters the restaurant and speaks to the concierge telling him that there is a table booked under the name of Drake.  The concierge says, "Follow me miss and I'll show you to your table."  She takes a seat at the table and the waitress approaches her and asks if she would like a glass of wine.  Josie, turning a little green at the thought of drinking alcohol simply asks for a glass of water.  

Moments later Drake joins Josie at the table.  He goes to say how beautiful she looks but is unable to find the words for a few moments and Josie can see that he is left breathless.  He eventually tells her how magnificent she looks and as they wait for their dinner they both go to say, at the same time, "Thank you for inviting..."  Drake stops and says, "No, you go first."  Josie says, "Thank you for the invitation to dinner."  As she is talking to him about being invited out, he thinks to himself, "I didn't invite you out...you invited me!!"  

As their meals are being placed on the table Drake excuses himself for a few moments and heads towards the toilets.  After entering, he looks around to make sure that there is no-one else in there.  Drake thinks of Nevel and with a snap of his fingers she suddenly appears before him and she is quite startled by this because she is still holding the frypan she was cooking her dinner in.  She starts to say, "When did you learn to to that?"  Drake looks at Nevel and says, "Don't change the subject, it was you in the form of Josie who asked me here to dinner tonight?"  "I don't know what you're talking about, really I don't!"  Drake crosses his arms and gives her a really nasty glare.  Nevel puts her hands up in front of her and says, "Alright, alright it was me but I had a really good reason for doing this.  You two have been so stubborn so I took it upon myself to break the ice."  

Drake's nasty look gives way to a smile and all he says to Nevel is, "You sneaky little witch."  Drake then leaves and returns to Josie.  As Nevel returns to the kitchen she thinks out loud, "Oh man-n-n, there goes my dinner for the night" and throws what she has in the pan into the bin and decides to get take away instead.

Damaged by Danity Kane

Drake sits down at the table and as they eat dinner they begin to talk about many things.  Josie first asks Drake if he's in a relationship.  "No, I haven't been in a relationship for many years.  How about you, are you seeing anyone special?"  Josie replies that she's not in a relationship now due to what happened with her last boyfriend cheating on her with her best friend and when she found out it was like having her heart ripped out.  She says she would love to find someone to fall in love with that she could actually trust.  Drake looks at her and says, "I know how you feel don't we make a great pair?"  

Drake is watching Josie eat but he sees that she is just pushing the food around on the plate and not actually eating it, so he asks her, "Are you enjoying your dinner?" "Yes." Drake can tell from her voice that she's not enjoying it at all so he asks her if she would like something else to eat which is more to her liking.  While still pushing the food around on her plate, because it is a little rich for her palette, Josie asks Drake if she can just have some fish and chips.  Drake raises his hand to get the attention of the waiter and Josie says, "What are you doing?"  He tells her that he's going to get her some fish and chips.  Josie, "No, no I didn't really mean it, not here, I was only joking!!"  

The waiter arrives at the table and Drake asks for the bill so he can take Josie to get some fish and chips.  As she stands up and as she's walking, the high heels that she's wearing, which she is not used to, cause her to trip and fall into Drake's open arms.  As Drake helps steady Josie the waiter asks him, "Is everything alright Mr Adams?"  On hearing this Josie's heart skips a beat and she knows deep down in her soul that this is the person she once knew and loved.

As they wait outside the restaurant for the town car to pick them up Nichole pulls up in her car and says to Drake that she needs to speak to him about the disappearance of Tamagine.  Drake opens the back door  of Nichole's car for Josie to get in and he follows her into the car.  As they leave and head towards the museum Drake calls the driver of the town car and tells him to follow them to the museum.  Hearing this Josie begins to turn a little more white than usual with fear.  Nichole goes on to tell Drake that Tamagine has been missing for months now and no-one has been able to find him.  She tells him that they found a large pile of sand in one of the storerooms.  Josie asks if she can be dropped off at home before they go to the museum.  Drake says, "We won't be long and then I will take you home straight after we've been there".

After arriving at the museum and going to enter the storeroom Josie stops dead at the door and refuses to enter the room.  Drake stretches out his arm with his hand open and saying "Take my hand, there is nothing here that can hurt you".  As she takes his hand he can feel her trembling and asks, "What are you afraid of?"  Before she can answer she passes out from fear.  Nichole tries some smelling salts but this doesn't work.  A few moments later the very ancient transparent diamond and gold fob watch begins to chime.  Nichole removes the watch from its pouch and as she takes it in her hand the bottom part of her hair along with her eyes begin to turn pink and she reveals herself to Drake as a time-winder, one who can re-wind time to correct mistakes which have been made, they also have the ability to let people say goodbye to their loved ones, and they can reveal the truth of someone's life.  

Dark Ritual by Adrian Von Ziegler

Drake looks up at Nichole and says, "It's nice to see that your kind has survived as it was believed that your kind had been driven to extinction."  Nichole, looking down at Drake, tells him the unfortunate news that she is the last of her kind.  Then she offers her abilities to find out why Josie has passed out. 

She draws from a sheath a very thin bladed dagger, pricking Josie's finger with the tip she draws blood, she then places the tip of the dagger on to the face of the fob watch.  As she does so the hands of the transparent watch begin to wind backwards.  She lifts the watch up and looks through the transparent face and in a second it reveals the past as Drake and Nichole become on-lookers and they watch everything that has happened in this room that has to do with Josie.  

They see that Josie has had trouble with several of the students from the college but then the awful truth of what has happened in this room becomes clear as they watch past events unfold of Josie kneeling down next to Tamagine as he dies.  Several minutes later they are drawn back to the present.  Drake looks down at Josie and says, "No wonder you were so terrified about coming in to this room and you had so much fear when Nevel first met you."  Josie begins to regain consciousness and she is still terrified about being in this particular room and Drake wonders how he can help her.  Nichole leans down and whispers in his ear, "Can't you use your ability to compel her to forget?"  Drake then turns and looks deeply into Josie's eyes and instructs her to forget all about the horror she has seen in this room.  He then snaps her fingers and Josie looks at Drake and asks, "What am I doing here on the floor?"

Nichole apologises to Josie and says it was her fault that she had spilt some liquid on the floor earlier and had then forgotten about it.  Josie replies, "That's okay."  She then asks Drake, as he is helping her to her feet, if he can take her home now.  After they have left Nichole's fob watch begins to chime again, only this is a chime she is not pleased to hear.  As she looks down at the watch the face turns black and new hands appear and begin to wind backwards.  Nichole knows, by what is revealed to her, that Josie's life is running out.   

After Drake sees Josie safely home he returns to his own home.  As he walks through the corridor leading to his study he passes the lounge-room and sees that everyone is sitting down watching TV.  It is Denae and Nevel who notice the huge smile on Drake's face as he walks past the door and they say to each other at the same time, "Is he smiling???"  With that they all get up and poke their heads around the doorway to try and see Drake's face.  Keira comes in from the other side of the lounge-room and the others haven't noticed her at all, "What's so interesting around the corner that you're all sticking your heads out to see?"  Dara tells Keira that Drake has just returned from the date he had with Josie and that Cassidy and Denae told them that he had a big grin on his face and they just wanted to see what that looked like.  Keira, "That's great because is has been so long since he has been happy."  JJ says to Dara, "Go and see how the date went."  Dara replies, "Hey, no, not me!"  JJ puts the same question to everyone else and they all say the same thing, "No, nuh, not me!!"

Denae speaks up and says, "I'll go and do it, I'm not afraid."  But as she gets to Drake's door and raises her hand to knock she hesitates for several moments and looks back at the others who are indicating with their hands, 'go on, go on'.  Denae knocks on the door and enters the room and finds Drake sitting in his seat with his feet up on the desk day-dreaming.  "So how was your date with Josie tonight?" Drake replies, "It went really well, she looked absolutely stunning and we both had fun."  Drake goes on to say, to the others, "It's safe to come and ask me yourselves you know!"  After half an hour of talking about the date everyone leaves except for Keira and Nevel since there is some business that must be discussed.  

Keira takes out her iPad and brings up a document which has been sent to her by Parisa Nasreen, the owner and chief executive officer of Wicked Music.  It is a reminder to Nevel that there are several obligations that she has to fulfil in the next few months pertaining to the contract she has already signed with Wicked Music.  Nevel states, "With all the shit that has been going on lately it totally slipped by mind.  It will be a nice change of pace."  Nevel asks Drake if he and the others are going to come with her this time.  Drake looks at her and says, "Yes, I did give you my word that I would come with you next time......(pausing).......Keira looks at Drake and asks, "Is everything okay?"  He answers, "Yes, I was just thinking of some music I heard that was done by Josie and I thought it might be a good idea if we invite her along as well.  As he says this he looks directly at Nevel.  Nevel smiles and replies, "I was just thinking the very same thing."  She goes on to ask, "Would you like me to call her and see if she wants to come with us?"  Drake answers, "No, I'll take care of it as I would like to see her again" and as he says this he has a massive grin on his face.

It is now mid Saturday morning and Josie is arriving at Caroline's apartment in order to hang out with her and have some fun.  As Caroline opens the door and says good morning to Josie she notices that Josie is not all there, as in she's day dreaming. Caroline says, "I guess you had a great time last night?""Yes."  Caroline asks,  "How did Drake like what you were wearing?"  Josie replies, "I suppose he liked it because he couldn't keep his eyes off me."  They go on talking for several more hours then Josie's phone rings.  Josie picks up her phone and gasps, "Oh my God, it's Drake!  What should I do, shall I answer it?"  Caroline replies, "Yes, of course you will answer it you silly cow."  As Josie answers the phone she says "Mooo" and then puts the phone on speaker, on the other end Drake is confused and asks, "What do you mean "Mooo"? Caroline & Josie have a shocked look on their faces because they didn't think he would hear that, then they start laughing.  

Through her laughter Josie says, "Good morning Drake" "Good morning Josie. I'm ringing to ask you if you'd like to accompany Nevel and I doing some promotional work and photo shoots that she has to do for Wicked Records?  That way you'll be able to see what it's really like being in the music industry."  It goes dead quiet for a few moments until Caroline grabs the phone and tells Drake that Josie would love to accompany him.  Josie tries to grab the phone back but is unable to as she chases Caroline around the room.  Drake says, "That's great, I'll see you during the week and give you the full details."

Familiar Taste Of Poison by Halestorm

Meanwhile, at the gym, Detective Jade is training hard, taking out some of her frustrations on the punching bag.  She can't get the thought out of her head that she is responsible for the death of a colleague and this pisses her off to such an extent that when she strikes the bag for the final time she punches a hole right through it, burying her arm, up to the elbow in the bag.  She's just holding her arm inside the bag and after hearing a commotion in the main part of the gym she removes her arm and goes to see what's going on.  As she is leaving she can hear the "shhhhh" sound as the sand from the bag empties on to the floor.  Upon entering the other part of the gym she bumps into a giant of  a man who looks down at her and without saying a word takes a swing at her.  She crosses her arms in front of her to block the blow which pushes her back into the other room.  

Everyone follows and a few of them grab hold of this huge man who turns out to be the new lead detective on the city-wide ripper investigation.  Detective Jade looks up and says; "What the fuck!! What the fuck are you doing?"  Then Detective Jade realises that this man is the husband of the woman she blames herself for getting killed when she was assigned to that task force.  The man both abuses her and accuses her for getting his wife killed, telling Detective Jade it is all her fault and no matter what she has to say it will never change his mind.  With that he throws all the other officers who are holding him on to the floor and he begins to attack Detective Jade once again. 

Detective Jade feels in her heart that it is her fault that the death was because of her negligence so she allows him to pummel the shit out of her.  The husband screams at her and calls her a coward for not standing up against the city wide ripper.  As she takes the punishment she remembers what the female officer said to her just before she died, that it was not her fault that she could not overcome her fear and that one day she would have the chance to save someone else's life.  With that Detective Jade's eyes glaze over white and then turn bright blood red with anger.  As the male detective thrusts his fist down towards Detective Jade's face she puts her right hand up and stops the punch in mid air.  Still holding on to his hand she gets to her feet and looking at the other detective she tells him that is not a coward, it's just that she could not overcome her fear and nor did she get off scot-free.  

As she says this she hammers the detective in the stomach several times which causes him to fall backwards and as he does this he grabs for something to hold himself up with but only manages to grab a fistful of Detective Jade's hoodie sleeve and as he does he tears the sleeve and part of the jacket apart.  This spins her around a bit and she now has her back to him and he sees what he believes to be stab wounds but after she rips off the rest of her hoodie he notices that the wounds look more like claw marks that run from her lower stomach all the way up her back to her left shoulder and over on to her left breast. This, however, does not stop him from getting up and attacking her again.  Detective Jade turns around blocking the blows and tells the detective "It's my turn now!!"   

As he attacks her Detective Jade reaches out, grabbing the punching bag she had already put her fist through, ripping what was left of it off its chain and slamming him in the head with it.  The force of the bag knocks him off his feet.  He gets back up and Detective Jade lands a round-house kick and two blows to his face.  This throws him in to the weights which gives him a very bad idea.  He takes a chain and slides it through the holes of two 100 kg weights and starts to swing them as hard as he can at Detective Jade.  She bobs and weaves trying to avoid being struck by the weights.  Unfortunately, she does not seem to be quick enough and this petite, young detective is struck in the centre of her chest pushing her back into a wall of mirrors.  

Several of the officers draw their weapons and tell the douche-bag to drop the weights.  As they are aiming their firearms at him he pulls on the chain and begins to swing the weights again and says, "I'm not going to stop until that fucking little bitch pays for my wife's death!"  Several people try to assist Jade but she raises her head a bit and states, "Nobody fucking move!"  Everyone stops in their tracks, even the douche-bag drops the chain and weights to the ground but still has hold of the end of the chain.  None of them can believe that she is still alive after being hit so hard.  Detective Jade says, "If you really want to know the truth, it is your wife who is responsible for what I have become, since she used me as bait that night".  He looks over and asks, "What do you mean, what you have become?"  As Detective Jade gets to her feet she screams loudly as she begins to turn, also telling this arsehole that what attacked her was not human.  He can clearly see this as her hands and forearms begin to take on a rotting flesh look with long claws and her head takes on the same rotting flesh look but the arsehole can see her face elongate and take on some of the characteristics of a lichen but not fully changed.

He grabs the chain again, saying, "Oh my God...!" as he begins to swing it over his head.  He lets it fly at her, striking her full on in the face which causes her head to go back and he hears the 'Baaaang' as it strikes her.  Her head is back for several seconds and then she brings it forward again and there wedged in her mouth she has caught the two weights between her huge lichen teeth.   She takes a massive bite out of the weights and everyone watches the remainder of the weights hit the floor.  As she chews on the remainder like it's a soft piece of steak.  Someone in the room comments, "It looks like she needed a little more iron in her diet!" 

As the person finishes this comment Detective Jade takes hold of the chain and pulls very hard on it back towards herself, pulling him off balance and towards her.  She moves forward and with her claws rips open his biceps down to the bone, leaving claw marks through the bone.  He then drops the chain reached out and picks up a barbell and begins to smash into Detective Jade's face and body and this further pisses her off.  She dives through his legs turns around and brings both of her hands up across the back of his thighs ripping the flesh apart and bringing him to his knees.  She grabs his arms, pulls them behind him and with one hard pull dislocates both of his shoulders popping them from their sockets with a loud POPPING sound.  As she opens her jaws and attempts to bite him she is suddenly struck twice in the neck by pistol rounds.  She turns around, lets go of him, and charges towards the person who has just shot her.  The person fires a third round hitting her square in the chest, as she falls she makes a loud, painful, whining sound as she hits the ground.  There, standing over her, is her commanding officer who had kept her secret for so long.  

She walks up and kneels down next to Detective Jade to check her pulse.  As she looks over, the other officers are trying to stem the bleeding from the man Jade has just attacked.  The former American Police Captain, who was in charge of the task force to catch the City-wide Ripper sees how much pain her successor is in, telling him "I told you to stay away from her because she would rip you a new arsehole and I guess she did just that."  She tells the other officers two things, one to take this idiot and get him to a hospital, the second thing she tells them is to keep their mouths shut about what they have seen, because if they don't she'll put them in to a ring with Detective Jade.  

During the week both Caroline and Josie are working on their thesis but unfortunately for Caroline all she can do is cover her ears jokingly because all Josie has talked about is the date that she went on with Drake and how he is going to take her out on a second date.  

It is now the end of the week and like Drake, who is getting ready to go out with Josie, JJ has taken a liking to Cinead so much that he has invited her out to dinner as well.  As JJ walks past Drake he asks, "Isn't there something you've forgotten to do?"  Drake replies, "I don't think so".  Cinead walks up to both JJ and Drake and says to Drake, "Haven't you forgotten to call someone?"  Drake thinks to himself and then exclaims, "Oh, crap!!  It slipped my mind, I was supposed to ring Josie during the week and make a date to take her out tonight".  Whilst Drake is fumbling around with his phone trying to find Josie's phone number, Josie is at home pacing backwards and forwards waiting for her phone to ring.

Brokenhearted by Karmin

Cinaed says to Drake, "You're acting like the typical type of guy, you take a girl out on a date, promise to call her, then you don't!"  JJ looks at Drake, shrugs his shoulders and puts his hands up as if to say 'she is right you know'.   

Josie hears a knock at the door and rushes to answer it.  She opens the door with a large smile on her face only to be disappointed when she sees Caroline standing there.  Caroline, looking confused asks, "Shouldn't you be on your date by now, or like a typical guy did he forget to call you?"  Josie just looks at Caroline and answers, "Well, that's my life no-one seems able to keep their word to me."  At that very moment both Caroline and Josie hear the screeching of car tyres, the smile suddenly reappears on Josie's face as Caroline tells her, "That's probably Drake now".  A few moments later Caroline can see Drake walking up the footpath and she tells Josie.  Josie begins to do a little happy dance at the prospect of seeing Drake again. 

Caroline opens the door and says hello to Drake.  Drake says hello back and then stares at Josie for a few seconds and then says hello to her but Josie ignores him because she's still doing the happy dance.  Caroline turns around and nudges Josie in the ribs.  Josie says, "WHAT!!!" Caroline whispers in her ear "You're still doing the happy dance, right in front of Drake...."  "Huh, what...!" being confused and embarrassed she fights to regain her composure. She then says hello to Drake and invites him in and tells him she will only be a moment as she grabs her jacket.  Drake comments on what Josie is wearing which is a pair of black jeans and a red off one shoulder top.  As they leave the apartment Caroline says goodnight to them both and leaves.  Drake apologises to Josie for being late and says that it will never happen again.  

Whilst they are driving to the restaurant Malise has brought more young females for Kyah to feed upon and by the time she is finished she has already gone through 13 girls. She then commands Aziel and Malise to leave the penthouse but not to leave the floor or the door to the penthouse unguarded.  They and the others they command do as they are ordered.  A few moments later, outside the door to the penthouse, Malise hears Kyah screaming and goes to re-enter the penthouse.  Aziel simply places his arm across the door and shakes his head to indicate that she cannot re-enter.  Inside the penthouse Kyah is staggering around the room in agony as the flesh and muscle on her back begins to split open.  She grabs hold of the bedpost and grips it as hard as she can as more of her back splits open, her arms and legs are also beginning to split open.  

Another body is becoming visible under her flesh as it pulls it's way out of her.  Almost all of this new body has torn it's way out of Kyah like a insect tears it's way out of an old shell, except at the ankles and the new body is leaning against her with it's hands propped against Kyah's shoulder blades as a new clear insect would do against it's old shell in order to dry out.  As this new body begins to dry out it takes on an opaque appearance.  It finally steps it's way out of her and then Kyah begins to heal once again.

Kyah, now sitting on the floor next to the bed, reaches up and fumbles around behind her on the bed and eventually takes hold of and slips into a silk dressing gown, covering her naked body with it.  Whilst she is doing this the other woman is now standing in front of the giant mirror admiring her new body and being naked herself she looks around for a garment to put on but before she can Malise begins to open the door.  This woman, unknown to Malise, suddenly disappears.  Malise helps Kyah to her feet and assists her in getting dressed.  Kyah tells Malise it is time she renewed her old friendship with Drake. 

Moments after they have left housekeeping staff comes into clean up the bedroom.  As one girl picks up all the clothing the other girl says to her, "Don't you think it's freezing cold in here?"  She replies, "Yes, you can put some wood in the open fireplace and start a fire to get the room warmed up for the guest when she returns."  After getting the fire going she stands up and notices something peculiar on the marble surrounding the fireplace.  As she attempts to take a closer look suddenly a pair of eyes appear within the marble, then a face begins to push out of the marble along with a hand and arm outstretched. This terrifies the girl and she turns around to scream.....!!

Dark Ritual by Adrian von Ziegler

Back at the restaurant Drake is just pulling the chair out for Josie to sit down.  Josie looks at the menu and begins to roll her eyes at the thought of eating the same food she had last time.  She looks around the room and she spots JJ & Cinaed on the mezzanine level of the restaurant and they are enjoying their dinners.  JJ asks Cinaed how she became a vampire.  Cinaed answers, "Seneca, my master, found me hanging from the top of the bell tower at my private school.  Some of my friends thought that I had dobbed them in for something they had done so they dragged me to the top of the bell tower, put the rope around my neck and threw me out the window." "Nice friends!" "They found out the next day that it was another student who had dobbed them in but unbeknown to them Seneca had already found me barely alive so to save my life she turned me. After climbing off the slab at the morgue and finding my way to Seneca over the next few days I took my revenge on those who killed me."  Cinaed and JJ spot Josie and Drake and raise their glasses to indicate 'You made it!'  

A few moments after sitting down and Drake seeing Josie rolling her eyes, he calls the manager of the restaurant over to the table and whispers something in his ear.  Twenty minutes later the waiter carries their dinner and places it in front of them.  Josie suddenly goes quiet as she looks at what's on her plate and then kicks Drake hard on the shins under the table causing him immediate paid. "WHAT??!!" Josie looks up at him and says, "You think you're funny don't you?"  Drake replies, "I thought you'd enjoy this more than what you had last time."  Sitting on the plate in front of Josie is fish and chips.

Back at the hotel the girl turns around to scream and in order for Sakura to stop her, she shoots her tongue through the girls neck and immediately starts to feed on her.  But after a few seconds the young girl's blood turns sour and Sakura can now see the girl's memories through her blood, she sees that the girl has been alone and unloved most of her life and that only recently she has fallen in love and has now lost that love and is now back to being cold and alone again.  Due to her friend, who is also in the room, stealing her boyfriend.  This friend thinks that the girl doesn't know what is going on and Sakura, who knows what it's like to be left out in the cold and alone, does know.  Sakura withdraws her tongue and then shoots her tongue across the room into the other girl's eyeballs.

At the restaurant at almost the same time another person is eating a whole fish and they pick up a fork and plunge it into the fish's eyeball so it can't keep "staring" up at them.

After Drake and Josie have had a great dinner they, with JJ & Cinaed, decided to go to the Skydeck and after much encouragement from everyone Josie decides to step out onto the glass floor and she gets a sense of floating which causes her to grab hold of Drake.  Both JJ and Cinaed begin to laugh as Drake does not know what to do with Josie.  Cinaed whispers to Drake telling him to put his arms around Josie.  As he does this Josie slumps to the floor in pain and when the others ask her what's wrong she tells them that she feels extremely sick and the only other time she has felt like this is when she was unknowingly fooling around with the safe stones.  They quickly decide to leave and get back to the ground level.

As they are getting into the limo Drake smells a scent that he has not smelt in eons.  He tells JJ to take Josie home and to stay with her until she feels better.  JJ asks, "Where are you going Drake?"  He replies, "I have something to do" and with that he closes the door of the limo.  Out of the corner of his eye he spots Kyah and gives chase, not only across the ground but also across the rooftops.  He finally gets ahead of Kyah, Aziel, Kristen & Malise and causes them to stop by taking his full werewolf form.  Kyah simply stands there and laughs, "Do you think that scares me?"  Drake still in his lichen form, in his somewhat growling voice, says, "YES!!" as he can see that she is shaking quite violently.  Kristen orders Malise to send several of the Creakers to attack Drake.  As they are ripping into his flesh Kyah turns quickly and strikes Kristen across the face knocking her to the ground and telling her, "HOW DARE YOU?   You have no right to attack my true love, I can't believe I wasted so much time and effort in having such a disappointing child like you."  Drake and Aziel pause, and look over at Kyah and Kristen.  Drake asks Aziel with a shocked look on his face, "Did you know about this?" "Fuck no, I had no idea that she even had a daughter.!" Kristen, looking up from the ground asks, "What have I done to displease you?" but before she can get an answer Kyah takes her Harlequin form, ie: demon.  She slowly and painfully puts her wings out and springs into the air.  She shoots past Drake and tears the Creakers away at the same time and incinerates them.  This confuses Drake.  

Drake politely and firmly asks Kyah what she's up to and she responds, "Nothing, my love." This sends chills down Drakes spine as he replies, "Love! What do you know of love all you have ever cared about is power, you don't have a heart to love with."

Familiar Taste of Poison by Halestorm

Meanwhile Josie has gone to bed as JJ and Cinaed have fallen asleep on the couch.  So none of them see the ominous black figure enter Josie's bedroom.  Josie, sound asleep, dreaming of the date she has been on also begins to dream and recall real memories of past life she has already spent with Drake.  The black figure comes away from the wall as though she is pulling through a sheet attached to the wall.  When she comes out and is standing over Josie, Sakura is now visible in the room.  

Sakura leans down, opens Josie's mouth and breathes a reddish black vapour into her mouth which then turns her sweet dreams into terrifying nightmares.  Sakura suddenly vanishes as the stone sabre-tooth cats have come to life and are roaming Josie's apartment.  In Josie's nightmares she sees those who are her new friends ripping Drake apart and the one she sees to be so responsible for this is her new friend Cassidy Nevel....Josie wakes with a start and screams..."NO!!!" Josie frantically gets dressed and begins to sneak out of the apartment when she notices that there is a handgun and large dagger laying on the coffee table, she realises that they belong to JJ and Cinaed.  She picks them both up, leaves the apartment and heads for Cassidy's home.

Kyah gasps, "That hurt me, I swore I would never, ever hurt you my love!!"  Drake turns around and says, "You swore you'd never hurt me??" He reverts to his human form in order to show Kyah the scar on his chest.  He continues on with, "Do you remember how I got this scar?"  (Suddenly there is a flashback in Kyah's mind......) and she answers, "No, I haven't forgotten, that's where I ripped your heart out.  I told you then if you wouldn't love me fully I'd take you apart a piece at a time."  Aziel, "Can't you see the irony in what you just said?" "But, I was just so angry at you, besides, don't you always hurt the ones you love?" 

Still being extremely pissed off at her mother, Kristen decides to leave but before she does she takes a double barrelled rifle from one of the other warriors who serve her mother.  She chambers out the old rounds and replaces them with two new rounds filled with a poison.  This poison will not kill but will cause great pain and agony.  She takes aim at Drake and fires the first round which strikes him in the back.  At first this doesn't bother him too much but moments later he is laying on the ground screaming in agony.  Kristen then turns the rifle on her mother and pulls the trigger with the anticipation of causing her mother as much pain as she had caused her with her malicious remarks.  Just as the round goes to strike her mother, Malise appears out of nowhere in her harlequin form wrapping her wings entirely around Kyah taking the impact of the round herself.  Luckily for Malise she is neither damaged by the bullet or from the toxin within the round.  Failing to harm her mother, Kristen uses one of the teleportation stones to retreat as quickly as possible before her mother can take retribution on her.

Kyah pushes he way out of Malise's wings and runs to Drake's side.  Drake, still screaming in pain, tells her in no uncertain terms to fuck off.  Kyah leans down and injects Drake with the anti-toxin and then she and the others leave.

By this time Josie has reached Cassidy's home.  After she gets out of the taxi and it leaves she hears strange noises coming from the bushes.  She approaches the bushes and is startled by an extremely large raven that squarks at her, flies over her head and lands on the balcony balustrade.  It sits there watching her as she enters the house quietly.  As Josie makes her way silently through the house to Nevel's bedroom door the large raven flies around to Cassidy's window and lands on a branch of a very large tree outside of Cassidy's window.  It then sits there watching as Josie enters Nevel's room and as she reaches her bed she takes the dagger out and raises it above her head.  As she plunges the dagger towards Cassidy the raven once again lets out a large squawking sound which rouses Cassidy from her sleep giving her just enough time to roll to the other side of the bed as the dagger pierces the pillows.

Nevel reaches out and takes hold of one of her daggers and blocks the strike from the daggers that Josie is holding.  She then pushes Josie back, striking her across the face and in the process cuts her quite deeply.  As this is happening the raven, still squawking, is trying to get in the window.  Josie raises her other hand which contains the revolver and fires two rounds at the window, these are some moments apart from each other and after one smashes the window the raven comes inside and then she takes the second shot.  As the bullet is about to hit the raven it turns into a column of black smoke.  The bullet, of course, goes right through the smoke and causes no harm to the raven.

Josie then turns her attention back to Cassidy Nevel, seeking revenge for the deep would Cassidy inflicted to her face.  She reaches back, grabbing one of the crystal balls and hurls it towards Cassidy like a cannon-ball.  Nevel, who is not ready for this, puts her arms up in front of her face and tries to create a barrier to protect herself.  As the cannon-ball touches the skin on her arms and begins to push her back the crystal ball suddenly explodes, startled, both Josie and Cassidy turn their attention back to the black smoke and they see it has now taken on a human form and it is that human form which had pulled out a double-barrelled pistol and fired a round which had shattered the crystal ball.

By now the smoke had taken it's full form and standing before them was Luna Adel also known as the Raven Queen.  Josie now fires the four remaining rounds at Luna Adel but they merely bounce off the bio armour she is wearing.  The Raven Queen raises her side-arm and fires the second round at Josie, blowing the hand-gun she is holding into a thousand pieces and out of her hand.  Josie's eyes cloud over and the wound suddenly heals on her face.  Nevel screams out to Luna to get out of the way she has seen this look in Josie's eyes once before when Josie had turned and the vampire side of her had emerged.  Before Luna can do anything Josie races towards her, vanishes, re-appears behind her and grabs her by the neck and pulls her out the window.

Josie lands on the ground safely but as for Luna she strikes several of the tree branches on the way down and is a little dazed and unable to get to her feet but her warriors come to her defence, clashing with Josie for several minutes.  By the time Josie has made her way through the warriors of the High Order Of The Knights Raven and reached Luna she has a bigger problem to deal with as the larger robotic armour which is known as The Iron Maiden begins to thrash the shit out of her as it is in retaliation mode.  Nevel calls to the armour to stand down but it does not acknowledge the command that is given and continues to strike out at Josie.  Luna, now being extremely pissed off enters the robotic armour through the back.

The moment Luna has fully merged with the armour Josie gets to find out why it is called The Iron Maiden as large heated iron spikes emerge on the outside of the armour.  Luna then attacks Josie grabbing her from behind squeezing her tightly, you can both hear and see Josie's flesh sizzling.  She passes out from the pain and therefore stops screaming and squirming.  Luna then opens the face plate on The Iron Maiden and her bio armour but suddenly Josie grabs hold of the armour and violently turns herself around so she and Luna are face to face.

Josie puts her feet up on the armour and pushes herself away from it.  As she does so she spits out an acid coated web that lands on the armour and disables it.  Luna ejects herself from the armour, re-closes the helmet on her bio-armour and draws her sword and she and her warriors once again start to attack Josie.  Nevel comes to Josie's aid by placing a barrier between her and the Raven Queen and her warriors, she calls to Josie and as Josie turns to look at her she realises that what she is looking at is no longer Josie as she now has six large eyes and four small ones, she also has long black talons that are dripping with poison.  Nevel yells out to The Raven Queen to stop her attack since Josie is her niece because Arlia is Luna's sister.  The Raven Queen looks at Nevel and says she is full of shit that this monster could not be her niece because her sister could not bear children.  Nevel swears that Josie is her niece.

Josie hears this even though she is possessed by one of Sakura's pets.  The Raven Queen orders her warriors to stand down and she also places her sword back in it's sheath.  She calls out to Josie and as she does this Josie's face returns to normal but after a few seconds Josie begins to grab at her throat and starts to cough and choke as a large ball rises up her throat and in to her mouth.  Josie's mouth is forced open as these black furry fingers appear.  Nevel and Luna stand there terrified as they watch Josie fall to her knees and gagging she spits out Sakura's pet that Sakura had placed inside her earlier.  This pet turns out to be a tarantula-man that starts out as a large spider and then grows into a human-tarantula and it turns and pulls out the remainder of it's web out of Josie's throat making Josie gag and gurgle even more.  The tarantula-man now stands before them in it's full form, it looks human but has four human arms and two spider legs crossed across it's stomach.  At the end of the human arms it has hands with large black talons which are used for ripping through flesh.

As those who serve the Raven Queen begin to attack it the tarantula-man uses it's acid web like a whip striking at the warriors severing arms and legs. One of the warriors gets close enough attempts to drive her sword through the spider but due to the spiders hard outer shell the sword simply shatters.  The tarantula-man then opens its spider legs and stabs her through both sides of her torso and begins to pump her full of venom.  While this is happening Luna and Nevel help Josie to her feet and are distracted whilst doing this so do not notice that the tarantula-man has turned the other warrior into a clone of itself and has unleashed it on them.  After reaching them the clone grabs the Raven Queen and throws her across the yard and she slams into a water fountain and is knocked unconscious which causes the bio-armour to shut down and retract.  The Raven Queen lays there defenceless in the water as the real tarantula-man begins to savagely attack her.

On seeing this, Josie, believing that she is about to lose the only other family she has, screams at the tarantula-man to get the fuck away from her mother's sister, her aunt, she then races to her aid. The tarantula-man turns and strikes at Josie but she puts her hand up and blocks the spider hands with one hand, she gets struck by one of the spider legs and then catches the other spider leg with her other hand. All of a sudden Josie begins to get very sick to her stomach as she is able to somehow sense Sakura's presence, this allows the Tarantula-man to get the upper hand(s) pushing her down onto one knee.

Josie, knowing that if she falters she will lose her aunt the same way she lost her mother and this instills a rage in her that she has never felt before.  Pushing herself back to her feet Josie tells the tarantula-man that she is not going to allow it to kill the Raven Queen and with one swift movement of her hand she rips off three of its arms and then she breaks off the other leg and uses the spider leg as a weapon splitting the spider from neck to crutch. The splitting is so sudden the shell of the spider burst open and it's innards spurt out all over Josie.

Josie takes a step back, looks down at herself and exclaims "GROSS!!!" all the while trying to get the sticky, gooey, slimy spider guts off her.  Suddenly the spider pulls its own innards back inside itself and begins to close it's shell and it's able to do this because Kyah has made them indestructible.  Over the centuries the other immortals have tried to kill the tarantula-men but as yet have not found a weakness in them.

Luna yells out to her young niece to get out of the way and as Josie begins to move she suddenly hears a whispered voice at her ear telling her to rip out the tarantula-man's brain.  Josie calls out to Luna and tells her to stop the tarantula from closing it's neck entirely.  Luna sees that there is a tiny little opening left in the spiders neck and she comes up from behind and sticks her claws into the opening and rips the neck open even further.  There is a struggle between Luna and the tarantula-man as he tries to continue the closure and she tries to keep it open.  Josie then comes over to them, moves in for the kill, she grows her vampire claws and then shoves her hand in through the opening and up into the spider's skull, grabbing hold of it's brain and ripping it out.  As the brain comes into contact with the air it begins to fizzle and bubble and decay right in front of their eyes.

The tarantula-man suddenly stops struggling and falls apart leaving Luna holding two parts of the neck still in her hands.  This is when Luna and the others finally realise that this is the way to kill the tarantula-men and Luna immediately drops the pieces of the neck she was still holding.  On seeing this the other Tarantula-man tries to escape by making a run for it.

Maan, meaning Luna in Dutch, draws her sword and with both of her hands launches the sword towards the tarantula-man.  The sword flies through the air and the face side of the sword strikes the tarantula-man in the legs flipping him up into the air.  Seneca quickly rips a windscreen from a nearby car and with the help of Nevel, who does a polymorphic spell, turns the first layer of glass on the windscreen into a liquid.  Seneca then strikes the tarantula man as hard as she can with the windscreen. He enters through the liquid side of the windscreen and strikes the hardened glass of the windscreen.  It's face suddenly stops and the rest of him catches up and as this is happening the liquid glass takes its solid form again trapping him between the layers.

They are all relieved that this fight is finally over when Cinaed starts laughing.  They all look at her quizzically and ask her what's so funny.  She replies, "What's the last thing that goes through a bugs mind when it hits a windscreen?" They all look at the tarantula-man trapped within the windscreen, and they all answer at the same time, "It's arse!!"...as they can all see shit pouring out of its mouth.  They all burst out laughing.

After a few moments of laughter Seneca notices that the glass is beginning to bulge and she hears a loud cracking noise.  As the glass begins to shatter, instead of being just one large spider, he is now thousands of small spiders scurrying towards people. Maan realises that if any one of these spiders latches on to someone it will then possess them as it did with Josie.  Maan's red and black wings unfurl but because she has the bio-armour on her wings are covered at the top and down the edges with some of the bio-armour.  She brings one wing around and forward and as she does so many ravens made of smoke emerge from her wing and they begin to eat all the spiders.








.......To Be Continued