Almost a week had passed since Damien kissed Julia in the woods. After the incident he'd disappeared without a trace, but returned on Wednesday. Much to Julia's relief he acted like the whole thing never happened. Even though he was putting up a good front, she could tell he was still hurting and the guilt of her actions weighted heavily on her heart. Julia knew she was being a coward by not talking to him about it. But between the voice inside her head screaming at her to stay away from him and training for Thorsen's impending attack she just didn't have it in her to confront him.

Knowing she had to finish her homework before training, because she'd be too worn out in the morning to even bother with it. Julia sat at her desk, surrounded by textbooks and a stack of papers, wrapped in what looked like concentration. Her alarm beeped letting her know it was 9pm, almost time for training. She didn't even look up as her hand shot out and turned it off.

Her mother had granted her parole from house arrest the day after the incident with Damien. She still had the binding on her wrist but now she could go anywhere within the borders of Havenswood. With this new freedom, Alex and Ren stepped up the training and moved it outside. They had decided they would train in a different spot each night; doing this to keep the adults who patrolled the woods from getting suspicious. They also enlisted Ella, Abby and Kuro to help. Of course Véronique always showed up.

Véronique's animosity toward Julia had grown every day since their duel in the basement. Alex didn't want to take any chances of giving Véronique more reasons to hate Julia and sill hadn't talked to Véronique to set her straight. Because of this Julia thought it was best if she and Alex were extra careful to hide their relationship. Therefore, Julia told Alex he couldn't be the one to walk her to the training sites. Abby and Ella had been taking her to the sites while Damien was away. When he returned he'd insisted on doing it, to make up for what he did and she was grateful that he and Alex had worked things out.

Julia's mind was elsewhere as she stared at her textbook. Lost in sweet thoughts of Alex, she could feel his soft full lips kissing her, and his toned arms holding her against his chest. She was so caught up in her thoughts she didn't even hear Damien crawl through her window. When he placed his hands on her shoulders, she yelped and jumped out of her chair, knocking it over.

Gulping huge a lungful of air she clutched her chest, her heart trying to pound its way through her ribcage. When she turned around she was greeted by Damien's beaming smile.

"Why so jumpy, Jules?" he teased her.

She scowled at him and caught her breath. "Is it your goal to scare me to death?"

Damien snickered. "No. I much prefer the, kill 'em with kindness approach."

Hearing that and the soft look in his eyes, which told her he still very much loved her, tore at her heart. Knowing that she'd hurt him was like an iron vice on her heart. She reached out and laced her fingers in his hand giving it a squeeze.

Looking down because it was easier, "Damien," she said in a tiny voice, "I'm sorry I hurt you. In a lot of ways I wish my feelings were different. My life would be so much easier." She looked up at him letting those words hang in the air between them.

He sighed pulling her into a tight embrace. "I know, Jules. You would think I would've learnt my lesson by now," he said those words with such pain in them it made her wince.

Pulling away, he fished two bottles out of his jacket pocket and handed her the one filled with a fizzy green liquid. "It's cold out tonight and because you don't have your full dark faerie powers yet. I thought you could do with some extra help."

She examined the lime green contents with an air of hesitation. "What's this concoction supposed to do?"

"It'll keep you warm." He held up the other bottle containing a purple liquid. "This one packs a hell of a punch. It will help you focus and give you energy. But it tastes nasty. They both do."

She cringed at the thought, but steadied her nerves and readied her taste buds. He uncorked the other bottle and held it out to her as she knocked the first drink back in two huge gulps. A violent shiver ran through her, the taste was vile and her whole body wanted to heave the horrible liquid up. Before losing her nerve, she grabbed the other one and dumped all of it in her mouth, choking it down in one gulp.

The purple liquid assaulted her senses with a kick, knocking her to her knees. Her stomach roiled and twisted. She had to clap her hands over her mouth to make sure nothing came back up.

Damien picked her up off the floor, walked over to the bed, sat down and stroked her back. "Don't worry, the effects will pass soon."

Julia's vision blurred as heat exploded throughout her body and converged in one spot. White hot searing pain radiated in the mark on her wrist. She tried to open her eyes but her eyelids were too heavy. Julia raised her wrist up and cracked her lids open just enough to look the mark through her eyelashes. The tattoo seemed to pulsate as if it had a heartbeat and glowed bright red before it vanished. The pain was so intense it forced her to squeeze her eyes shut as she let out a scream.

When the pain subsided and her vision came back, the mark was bold and black, right where it had always been. Julia stared at it, something about it looked different but she couldn't put her finger on it. It was as if the intricate knots had slightly changed. However, before she had time to examine it, Damien distracted her as he pulled her off his lap and sat her up on the bed.

"For future reference Damien I would rather freeze to death than drink that stuff again."

He chuckled. "I warned you it had a kick. I promise it'll be worth it when you're warm and toasty outside." He walked over to her dresser and pulled out a thick, fuschia and black striped sweater. Handing it to her he said, "This has always been my favourite colour on you." After she pulled it on, he opened her bedroom door and held out his hand. "Come on, we should go meet the others."

She got up and walked over to the window. Pausing she looked out and was struck by how quiet the woods were tonight. The woods were normally quiet apart from the soft noises the nocturnal animals made. However, tonight it was dead silent and struck her as odd. Shrugging it off, Julia closed the window, turned and followed him, giving him a warm smile, placing her hand in his.

As Julia and Damien walked down the stairs an Earth shattering explosion rocked the house. Damien grabbed hold of her and jumped down the remaining stairs. Explosion after explosion tore through the silence as the two of them bounded through the air. When his feet touched the floor, he shielded her with his body, as the explosions continued. The whole house quaked, dust and plaster rained down on them and all the lights in the house flickered on and off.

The blasts were thunderous, each boom sounded like someone trying to kick down a door. Julia cupped her hands over her ears huddling in Damien's arms waiting for it to stop. Then everything went deathly quiet. He let go of her; they got up slowly and looked around. Taking her hand he led her out the front door.

When they walked out onto the front porch she gasped in horror and tears flooded her eyes. Off in the town's direction centre the whole sky kept lighting up like hundreds of fireworks going off.

Julia knew it was powerful magic. It was as if the entire world was descending into chaos. "What is going on?" her voice shook with fear.

Damien tried yanking her back into the house, but all she could think about was Alex. You must go! You must find him, the voice inside of her screamed, in that moment nothing else mattered. She sidestepped Damien and slipped away from his grip. Bolting down the front steps she shouted over her shoulder, "I have to find Alex."

Damien yelled, "Wait! Julia, it's not safe," and chased after her.

To her complete surprise, Julia was able to outrun him as she ran into the woods at the back of her house without a clue where to go. The only thought in her mind was finding Alex. Her whole body snapped into focus, responding to this need and she felt an invisible pull. On instinct, she turned to her left and shot off into the woods like a Bat Out of Hell. Then the pull led her right and left again.

After a crazy zigzag through the woods she finally saw Alex in the distance, relief and terror coursed through her. Her breath caught in her throat and she stopped dead in her tracks for a second as she watched what was unfolding in front of her eyes. Alex was fighting off a horde of lifeless-zombie-like-humans. Even though she had never seen a dark faerie slave before she just knew what she was looking at.

The shock wore off, and she rushed toward him. As soon as she got close to Alex it was as if he felt her presence. He blasted one of the creatures into dust by lopping off its head; then turned to her. Running over to her he gave her a loving embrace not caring who saw them.

When he set her back down, Julia looked around and saw the twins, Kuro and even Véronique battling. The lethal beauty and grace of Véronique's fighting mesmerised her. Her raven hair was tied back in two long braids, they whirled around her as she spun and jerked hard on her whip forcing it to sever the head off one slave. The thing turned into ash and Véronique didn't miss a beat as she whirled her whip high in the air and struck out again, coiling it around another slave. Julia looked at her three friends; all of them were too caught up in the battle, to take any notice of her or Alex.

"What are you doing here it's not safe?" Alex chided her, concern lacing his voice.

She looked up at him, hurt started to bubble up inside of her. "What do you mean? I wasn't going to leave you and hide. I want to protect you!"

Shaking his head, he gave her another kiss. As he pulled away, he rested his forehead against hers and breathed, "I think that's my line."

Damien ran up to them. Alex turned and glared at him. His whole body tensed, anger radiating off him in waves. "Why did you let her run off? You should've taken her to our house and hidden her."

Damien took a step back and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Hey, I tried to," he said sounding put out. "But you know how she gets when she's determined to do something. I couldn't catch her; otherwise I would have dragged her foolish butt back to ours."

Alex pursed his lips at Damien. Julia could tell he was biting back what he wanted to say. Turning, he whistled at the others then shouted, "Fighting these slaves is futile. We need to regroup back to our house and come up with a better plan."

Everyone turned and ran off into the woods as fast as they could toward Alex's house.

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