Alex saw the harpy fly off into the woods, because it was carrying Julia the harpy could not fly very high. Alex quickly slit his hand open. As the blood poured out, it crystallised into a crimson cinquedea. He ran into the woods after them; knowing he only had one chance to save her.

He saw an opening in the trees, stopping; he aimed the blood blade waiting for the precise moment when the harpy flew into view. Alex threw his arm forward and released the cinquedea like a super-powered javelin thrower. The blade sliced clean through the air at hyper-speed straight toward its target and punched an enormous hole straight through the harpy's wing. The creature let out a high-pitched screech and went down, plummeting through the trees before landing on the ground.

He shot off at breakneck speed after them. When he reached the harpy, its wing was lying limp the ground covered in thick black oozing blood. The creature was clearly in pain yet it continued dragging Julia through the woods. Her dress kept catching on the debris from the forest floor and was in tatters. She started to stir from her drug induced sleep.

Alex formed another blood blade. It was a thing of beauty; the sword was an elegant version of a full Tang sword. The blade was curved and there were clean transitions from one curved section to the others forming a dance down to the deadly tip. The sleek curves of the blade made it look like master Elven artisans had forged it. He ran up to the harpy and stabbed it through the heart. Black blood spurting out from its body, it hissed out a death rattle at him as it went down.

Alex scooped Julia up in his arms and ran through the woods until he reached the wrought-iron fence that encircled the vast property. Pausing, he held her tighter against his strong chest and jumped over the fence in one fluid motion as graceful as a dancer. When he landed, he looked up at the road and saw four black cars pulling into the driveway. Thinking it best to stay away from the road he continued to run through the woods until he was deep in the forest.

Spotting a huge fallen redwood he stopped and sat down on it to check Julia over. Blood stains covered the delicate fabric, where her skin had been cut open when she and the harpy fell out of the sky. Luckily her skin had healed.

Her eyes fluttered opened as she came back to consciousness. Alex sucked in a sharp breath shocked to see the change in her eye colour. They were the same icy silver as his. Their piercing beauty shot straight through his frozen heart and warmed it.

He fought against the hold she had over him, as he looked away from her beauty. Needing to distract himself Alex ran his thumb across her soft lips. Pulling the top half back, he ran the pad of his thumb across her upper gums. He was checking for the little nodules right above the canine teeth that held the dark fae fangs when they were retracted. When he didn't feel any he relaxed.

Julia's eyes focused on Alex, she smiled at him and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I was just making sure you're okay. What on Earth happened back at the party?" He carefully changed the subject; it wasn't the time to tell her what she was. When he and the others came to Havenswood Rosalie had demanded one thing of them. She had made it very clear that it was her right to tell Julia the truth and not theirs.

Julia looked around; Alex could see the wave of panic hit her as she sat up. "Wait. How come we're in the middle of the woods? What is going on?"

He helped her up and gave her a kind smile. "First why don't you tell me what you remember; and then I'll fill in the rest."

Back at Party

Véronique slinked back toward the house; not bothering to help Kuro and the twins who were running around trying to find Julia. She had kicked back by the sidelines and watched Ren and the warlock battling it out outside, before she checked out the hallway where the fight originated. Véronique strolled through the huge hole in the wall and smirked. She couldn't believe how quickly the evening's events had turned to chaos. It sure made coming worth it, she thought.

Véronique walked to the end of the hallway, saw the open door and heard frustrated grunting. Entering the room, her lips turned up in a grin. She leaned on the doorframe, folded her arms over her chest and said with complete amusement, "Now what do we have here?"

Two swards pinned Damien to the wall. He stopped struggling, looked up at Véronique and shot her a warning look. "Don't start, Véronique. Just help me get down so I can find Julia."

Her face contorted; all the amusement vanished, replaced by loathing and disdain. "Julia, Julia, Julia," she said with an immense frown. "I'm sick and tired of everyone always concerned over that freak. I don't get why you, Alex and even that Tink are so obsessed with that magic-less reject, anyway. I can't even fathom why Thorsen wants her." She grinned at Damien's volatile reaction knowing she'd hit a nerve.

Rage burned in his eyes and he thrashed against the swords causing the metal to singe his exposed skin as he shouted, "Véronique, you've already been told to mind your own business. No one asked you to come along. In fact, I distinctly remember Alex telling you not to follow us. But like the attention seeking puppy you are you followed us, anyway."

"It's my job to protect him; I am his bodyguard," she snapped back.

Damien laughed. "Who appointed you that? Last time I checked, you did that job all by yourself."

She glared at Damien, storming over to him and getting in his face. "Lady Regent Griffemort asked me to stay by his side."

He shook his head looking at her like she was a lovesick teenage girl. "Only in a vain attempt to distract him with a pretty face it wasn't to protect him. Véronique, you should know by now he will never love you."

Her face flared with fury, her hand shot out and grabbed his face squeezing it hard. "Shut up, Damien! You have no idea what you're talking about. So get your nose out of my business before I rip it off."

He sighed. "Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you when you get your heart broken. Now just get me down."

She smiled in triumph and was about to yank the swords off the wall when Ren said, "Hold it leech. Don't you dare help him out of those binds. Not unless you want me to give you a new hairstyle."

Ren was certain that Damien had played a role in Julia's attempted kidnapping and would get the truth out of him even if it meant he had to torture it out of the useless bloodsucker. In fact, he hoped Damien would resist his questioning so he could torture him and have a little fun in the process. A malevolent grin cut across Ren's face as he played with a hot pink orb of power in his hands; bouncing it from one hand to the other like it was a ball.

Véronique bared her fangs at him then smiled coldly. "Stupid light faerie. One of these days I will take great pleasure in clawing that cocky look right off your face." As she backed away she said, "By the way, what happened sprite; did the big bad warlock get the better of you?"

Kuro, Ella and Abby walked into the room, as Ren glared at her and said, "No, you She Demon, the spineless coward ran away."

Ren was in no mood to joke around; he was already pissed that coward Mormo had turn tail and ran before he could rip the wizard's head off. Véronique was just adding fuel to his fiery temper with her snide comments. Ren's wicked side, which he went to great lengths to hide, came blazing to the surface like a raging bull. There was a reason none of the other faeries messed with him, why he was infamous in the magical world outside of Havenswood, and why the Faerie Queen had assigned him to protect Julia and it was frightening.

His green eyes sparkled with malcontent and excitement; it had been way too long since he'd had this much fun and he was revelling in it. He walked right up to Damien and held the crackling pink orb to his face, so close that the sparks licked at Damien's cheek, sizzling his skin.

"If you don't want me to rearrange that pretty face of yours I suggest you start talking right now," Ren voice dripped with venom.

Damien yanked his head back as far as he could and shouted, "Get that out of my face! Véronique, damn it, do something."

Véronique raised her eyebrows and said with a smirk, "Actually I want to know as well. Therefore, I'd recommend you spill it, we all know Tinkerbelle is just as crazy as that mad Queen of his if not more."

Damien stared at the crackling orb and said in a harsh tone, "Fine, just get that out of my face!" When Ren lowered his hand Damien said, "Julia, and I were sitting in here because Mormo said we could rest here. Then he comes in and goes nuts. He knocked Julia out and pinned me to the wall."

Ren could tell Damien was holding back. His face lit up with glee as Ren lifted the pink ball back to Damien's face and ground it into his skin. Damien let out a scream as the sphere burned his skin, his limbs twitched from the electrical current.

Ren took the orb away and glowered at him. "A convenient story but I'm not buying it, there's more going on. Now spill it because I'm just getting started and trust me when I say I can do this all night"

Damien looked at the others for help then back to Ren when nobody moved. "Mormo is working for Thorsen. Now you can stand here all night and interrogate me. Or we can look for Julia and pray to the gods we find her before Thorsen's slaves do. That crazy wizard called for reinforcements before he left." Damien leaned closer to Ren and quietly said, "Besides I really don't think you want the others knowing the rest."

Ren huffed, knowing Damien had a point. He extinguished the orb in his hand by crushing it out of existence. Then reached up and yanked hard on the swords but they wouldn't budge. "Kuro, you want to give me a hand." Kuro walked up and the two of them wrenched the swords out of the wall.

As they were helping Damien down, Véronique turned and hissed at the door. Taking a defensive position she cut her palm on her fang. Letting the blood flow out, then harden, it stretched into a long whip. Everyone turned around as six dark fae slaves filled the room.

The dark fae slaves were not slow and cumbersome brainless creatures. Instead, they were fast and agile, yet they had a vacant expression on their faces and in their eyes, like one would expect a soulless body, that was still living and functioning, to look like. Their white-knuckled hands gripped the knives and other weapons with them.

Ren ground his teeth. "Great, the zombie squad has arrived just what we need. What a royal pain in my ̶"

Véronique cut Ren off, "Tink, do you ever shut up?" annoyance laced her voice. "I'm sure you could talk them to death, but do we really have the time?" She flicked her blood whip at one of them and slashed a huge gouge in the side of its body. Normally a wound like that would have taken someone out, but it did nothing but slow the zombie down before it continued to run at Véronique.

Kuro started to transform, the muscles in his legs and arms grew causing his clothes to tighten around them. His face elongated as it took on the form of a dog's snout, his teeth grew razor sharp and fingernails lengthened into sharp claws. Kuro intercepted the creature and sliced through its neck, with his claws, severing its head clean off. Instead of blood squirting everywhere, it turned to ash and disintegrated. "Whoa! I had no idea they did that when you killed them. I thought they would bleed just like you guys."

Damien shouted as he danced around two of the creatures. "No, that only happens with natural born dark fae, these are just soulless bags of ash." Then Damien bit his hands and created a Flamberge blood blade in each hand. He jumped on one of zombie slaves and scissored off its head. "They are physically strong as us so you must cut off their heads or rip out their hearts."

He jumped high in the air, did a back flip and came down in front of another slave. Stabbing both is blades into its stomach and sliced its body in half. The thing was still squirming on the floor and Damien raised his boot up and stomped a hole in its chest forcing the slave's heart out the other side. Its body turned to dust instantly. "The one advantage is they're not bright so you can outsmart them if you think fast, act swift, and move erratically."

Ella transformed into a beautiful wingless sphinx, with strong golden lion like legs and arms that had huge lethal claws. Her long tail swished behind her. Abby transformed into a succubus. Horns sprouted from her head and she had huge, sleek, dark red dragon like wings and angry claw like talons for fingers; her beauty was hauntingly cold.

The two of them worked together in perfect harmony. Abby swooped down and grabbed one slave by the legs, she took him up in the air and Ella came round and punched a hole in its chest with her strong paws, turning it into dust.

As the group fought their way down to two of the zombie creatures another ten piled through the door.

Kuro said in frustration, "Is there no end to these things? As much fun as it is turning them into dust we have to get out of here."

Damien shouted as he killed another of the slaves, "Kuro is right, we don't have time for this. We need another way out."

As soon as he said this, Ren started to laugh like a madman. "I don't know why I didn't think of that." He summoned a colossal bright golden orb, which sucked the light out of the room, in both his hands.

Véronique saw him do this and that he was aiming it at the back wall and screamed. "You're completely insane, don't do it. You'll blow us all to hell and back!"

Ren chortled and looked at her devilishly. He was in his element and savoured every second. "That's what makes it so exciting!" He then yelled, "I suggest you guys get out of the way and take cover. This is gonna be fun."

Everyone scattered away from the back wall where Damien had been pinned only minutes ago, and Ren let loose the gigantic golden mass of magic. It caught two of the creatures in its path and vaporized them, before bursting through the wall like it was nothing more than rice paper. Everyone ran through the hole, and Véronique and Damien looked like they wanted to kill Ren.

Once they got outside, Kuro, Ella and Abby were all laughing like crazy.

Ella was laughing so hard she was nearly rolling on the grass. "That was freaking awesome, Ren! You are so going to have to do that again."

Véronique scowled at the rest of them in disgust. "All of you are completely nuts. None of you have a brain cell to rub between you guys."

Abby gave Ren a huge hug and shot over her shoulder, "Oh come on lighten up, hemo-gobbler. Even you can't deny what Ren did was bad ass."

Damien shouted at everyone, "Heads up, we still have to take out the rest of these ash bags," as the rest of the dark fae slaves started to flood out of the hole in the wall.

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Hi all I hope you really enjoyed this action-packed chapter it was tons of fun writing it.

thanks for reading and don't forget to vote.

xoxo J