Angel of Death (con't):

* * * * *
PART 27:

"Good heavens," Destiny breathed as she took in the sight before her. She and the other Daybreakers had parked their cars a block back and were running to Delos’ aid. They would have driven closer, but both Amaya and Quinn had advised that they keep the element of surprise. From what they could sense, there were at least 50 vampires and werewolves in the area and, being so outnumbered, surprise was their only advantage.

Of course, Destiny was no longer so sure that anything could help them win. Just as they had rounded the corner onto the assaulted block, she had seen Delos go down. Now Maggie and Jamal were defending him as best they could while Donato tried to protect all three of them, but it was like Tiny Tim trying to fight Andre the Giant.

Then again, that was before she remembered that Nick could take out a half-dozen Night People at once, which is exactly what he did to announce their arrival. The six vampires and werewolves closest to Delos and the others suddenly collapsed, screaming and tearing at their hair.

"Come on, guys," Nick urged. "The show’s just begun."

Destiny made sure to stick with her cousin, Oriel Arlin, as they set out into the melee. Against the vampires and wolves, they were the weakest and it was best to stay together.

"Duck!" Oriel cried suddenly, throwing his witch fire straight at her.

Instinctively, she fell into a crouch and the fireball whizzed by above her, striking a vampire in the chest. The vampire burst into flames like a walking torch and the two witches quickly ran out of her way.

Nick was the first of the agents to reach Delos and Maggie almost slugged him. "Whoa, Mags! I am NOT the enemy!" he announced, swatting at a werewolf both mentally and physically as he said it.

"Oh, sorry," she apologized right before whacking a vampire in the face. Her arm was tiring, but there seemed to be no end to the vampires and werewolves attacking. She had almost given up before mistaking Nick for an enemy shapeshifter. Now, she felt her energy returning with her hope.

*Nick!*

The shout came in his head, but for a moment, that did not register and Nick stood beside Maggie in bewilderment.

*Nick!* the mental yell came again. *Pick up Delos and get out of here! Now!*

Finally, Nick identified the speaker as Quinn and spotted the dark-haired vampire cornered in the crowd. Frantically, he looked for a way to communicate with Quinn; shouting would do no good. "Jamal!" he exclaimed when he laid eyes on Delos’ injured guard. "Tell Quinn I need back-up if I’m to carry Delos."

The request was not a normal one, but the ebony-skinned vampire asked no questions. Moments later, Quinn was replying to the message.

*Rashel, Destiny, Oriel and Amaya are coming to you,* he assured.

"What about Maggie and the others?" Nick asked of Jamal, who relayed his words.

*I’ll guard them. They can mostly take care of themselves and most of the Night People will follow you anyway. Now go!*

Without another word, Nick scooped up the unconscious Delos, told Maggie to stay where she was, and struck out into the mob. Immediately, as he had anticipated, a multitude of Night People were upon him, all hoping to get their claws into the Wild Power. Thus far, Nick had no trouble keeping them away with the psychic powers that came with his Dark Angel statis, but he was tiring and could not shield Delos from anything that came flying towards them.Where were the promised guards? Had they gotten caught in the throng? Had they lost sight of him?

Suddenly, a stake came hurtling at him and Nick was so packed into the crowd that he could not move to get away. He was beginning to feel faint and thought for a moment that he was hallucinating, but if the stake was insubstantial, then Amaya could not have caught it. Wait, what? Amaya?

"Come on, Nicky!" she screamed into his ear to be heard. "We don’t have all day!" She took his arm and slashed at the Night People with her newly aquired stake.

Almost like magic, Rashel materialized behind Nick and kept the Night People harried while they moved slowly forward. An explosion of wood and fire from the tree above their heads marked the arrival of Destiny and Oriel. Their witch fire was more effective than Amaya’s stake and Rashel’s bokken at keeping the enemy a safe distance away, but this meant more weapons were being thrown at them.

A silver dagger lodged itself in Nick’s shoulder and he cried out in surprise and pain. He staggered a bit from the impact and Amaya had to turn to steady him. This short loss of concentration encouraged the vampires and werewolves to close in on them again.

At such a close range, Rashel’s bokkeen could not be used. Quickly, she resheathed it and brought out two small, silver knives instead. They had been a gift from Quinn; funny, his sense of what was appropriate for a brithday present.

However, Rashel had little time to reflect on her soulmate’s taste. As as werewolf’s claws came swiped down at her, she hit it away with the flat side of a knife, hearing the crack of bone breaking. In the next second, she found herself cut into a vampire’s chest, then stabbing at a werwolf and dodging another vampire. Everything was happening so quickly, she could not think, only act. Her trained body went through the movements while her mind sat back and accpeted the action.

For Amaya, Destiny and Oriel, it was much the same. The witch fire could not be thrown when they were so hemmed in. Destiny remembered reading a book about ancient Britain, when they fought using shield walls. The soldiers of opposing armies formed lines and rushed each other so you were killing the man right before you. You were close enough to smell him, to see the hate and fear shining through their eyes. That was how it felt right then, with the Night People swarming them and Destiny was getting seriously claustrophobic.

After what seemed like eternity, the mob began to thin, the Night People either running or being killed off. Nick spotted their cars up ahead and it was then that he remembered Maggie and the others, still behind them. Had they gotten away or were they still stuck in that horde? Were they all still alive?

Nick forced himself to cast those thoughts away as he sprinted for the cars. There were only a handfull of Night People left chasing them and though they were torn and bloody, the Daybreakers managed to pile into one of the cars before they caught up.

Leaning his head against the cool glass of the window, Nick counted their pursuers. One, two, three, four. He thought he could take care of that many. Gathering what was left of his energy, he focused it and let it fly towards the vampire and three werewolves. Almost instantly, they tumbled to the ground, but Nick saw this through blurred eyes moments before he passed out.

@~~>~~>~~~

As he turned the corner, Quinn saw four Night People topple where they stood. Nick’s work, it had to be. Quinn was surprised that the Dark Angel still had that much power inside, but there could not be much left, no matter what. Looked like he, Maggie, Donato and Jamal would have to lose of their entourage by themselves.

Unlike the group ahead of them, Quinn and the others had all the assembled Night People following them, which translated to roughly over a dozen. They knew they could not fight all those vampires and werewolves, so their only hope was to make a mad dash towards the car.

While they ran, Quinn dug frantically in his pocket for the key to Destiny’s silver Mercedes. The first group had called the van, since they had more people and Delos was unconscious. "Ah-hah!" Quinn cried as he pulled out the extra set of keys Destiny had given him while driving here and pushed the button on open the car doors. You had love these modern gadgets; this one had saved him the long seconds it took to unlock the door manually.

Pushing and shoving each other into the car, they closed the last door right before the first of the Night People were upon them. Gunning the engine, Quinn floored the gas pedal and shot after the van the other agents were in.

"God, did we just DO that?" Maggie gasped as a little ecstatic giggle escaped her lips. Then, the giggle turned into a full-hearted laugh that was contagious. Soon, everyone in the car was laughing, exhilarated that they had just eluded death by seconds.

They were still laughing when they pulled up in Thierry’s driveway and made their way towards the front door.

"Maggie! Quinn! Jamal! Donato! Thank goodness you’re all safe!" exclaimed Hannah, hugging them all as they entered the mansion.

"Quinn!" Rashel added, sneaking up on his left. "You’re not hurt, are you?" she fussed, looking him up and down.

"I’m fine," he assured.

"Good," she said, explaining, "I was a bit worried when you all came barreling in, laughing like lunatics!"

That got a laugh out of Quinn, but he soon remembered Delos. When he asked Rashel about the Wild Power, she shrugged. "We don’t know yet. Thierry, Oriel, Destiny and Braeden are in the infirmary with him right now."

"And Iliana?"

"Oh, she didn’t need much help. When they got there, she had already taken care of all the Night People with her Blue Fire. I’m told they were dragging her through the back window of the car when it happened. Quite a feat, if you ask me."

"Yeah, why didn’t Delos do the same? After all, I’m pretty sure he’s better at controlling the Fire than Iliana."

"But she was attacked in a secluded area, where no civilians would be hurt. Delos was in the middle of a suburb."

"True," admitted Quinn with a nod.

Before he could say more, Nilsson was on the stairs, calling for everyone’s attention. "Lord Thierry wishes to speak to you all in the conference room," he announced solemnly before going off to do his own little butler thing again.

A curious frown creased Rashel’s brow as she walked with Quinn towards the meeting room. "I wonder what he wants."

* * * * *
PART 28:

"I realize it is not the ideal situation, but we can’t delay," Thierry was saying in defense of his plan. According to him, the Wild Powers had to be moved to their designated positions immediately, while Hunter still believed they were too weak to do anything.

"Hunter will never expect us to move them now," Thierry explained.

Braeden rolled his eyes and said, "No offense, Thierry, but he wouldn’t expect it because it’s ludicrious! Even before this, Leila was weak, Monaco can barely walk down the stairs without being short of breath, and Dion’s arm cast won’t be off for another 5 days. Now, Delos’ is out cold and probably has a concussion. I never even knew we vampires could get concussions! Jamal has been stabbed. Nick is lying in an exhausted heap in the infirmary and Iliana is shaken up, to say the least, while Keller’s team looks like it’s been through two snowstorms ad a hurricane. Of course Hunter doesn’t-"

"I get your point, Braeden," Thierry raised his hand, cutting him short with his hostile tone. "But don’t you see that this is the only way to get them away? If we wait until tomorrow, or even tonight, Hunter might be upon us and then how will we get the Wild Powers out? According to the prophecy Colin found, they have to be in the locations the prophecy designates, or we’re screwed 6 ways to Sunday."

"We don’t even have until Sunday," Amaya mused quietly.

Hearing Amaya, Mr. Lordy pounced on that point. "Exactly!" he exclaimed. "Today’s Christmas day, meaning we have exactly one week before New Year’s Day. We were going to have the Wild Powers leave tomorrow anyway. We’ll just up the day."

"Still, Thierry, I’m not so sure it’s a good idea," Destiny confessed, echoing Braeden. "Delos, Iliana, Nick and Keller’s team are all in bad shape-"

"What is wrong with you guys?" Jezebel exclaimed suddenly. She, Morgead and Kavan were sitting at the far end of the long conference table and none had said a word until now. "Look, both of you are making sense, but we don’t have time to argue about who’s MORE right. Why don’t you just compromise?"

Morgead glanced quickly in Jez’s direction, his jaw plunking to the floor. Compromise could not be a word he heard often from her.

Jez spared her soulmate no more than a side-ways glance before going on. "Why don’t you send me and pretty boy here"--she pointed to Kavan--"and leave Iliana and Delos until last? I mean, there’s no way you’ll get us on flights to Canada, Washington, Australia and China at the same time, right? Take care of us, then go on to Delos and Iliana. That’ll give them a bit more time to collect themselves."

Seconds passed as Thierry stood, blinking neutrally at the red-haired girl. "Good point," he finally admitted, an undertone of bashfulness not completely hidden in his voice. "What about you guys? What do you think?" he asked the other Daybreakers.

The agreement was unanimous, if lacking in enthusiasm.

As the agents filed out of the meeting room, Colin put his arm around Chris’ shoulders and muttered, "What a great Christmas this is turning out to be, huh? At least the Solstice wasn’t ruined. I hope Hunter’s happy."

@~~>~~>~~~

As a matter of fact, Hunter was NOT happy. Actually, he was far from pleased, to say the least.

"WHAT?!?!" he raged when a werewolf reported what had happened with Iliana and Delos. Of the two groups of Night People who went out, only about 15 had come back and although Hunter had more people to make up for the casualties, that did not mean he had to like it.

"How hard is it to take out 5 Daybreakers when you outnumber them 5 to 1?! What kind of incompetent fool are you, wolf? It certainly isn’t MY fault, I provided all of you with the best training there was and THIS is how you repay me? Get out of here! Did you hear me? Get out!! GET OUT!"

"Hunter, you really should learn control that temper," Keiara reprimanded gently, her knee-high leather boots propped up on the table between her and Hunter. She radiated confidence, danger and nonchalance in her outfit of severe red and black.

"Shut up," he snarled, turning his scarred face towards her in fury. Keiara silently reflected that he resembled the Phantom of the Opera without his mask, but that was irrelevant and she stayed as cool as ice.

With a roll of her violet eyes, Keiara lifted her legs from the table and leaned forward, towards Hunter. She knew she was showing major cleavage, but that was the point. As of late, with Marcellus gone, Hunter had begun to show some interest in her. Why now was a mystery, she had known the guy for a few hundred years and he had always been coldly distant. What, did he think she did things with Marcellus or something? Sheesh, what a fool.

*But that foolishness and lust just might come in handy,* she thought, keeping Hunter’s amber gaze with her own pale purple one. Oh yeah, he wanted her and strangely, the sudden, complete realization scared her. Hunter Redfern was a sick man, maybe even the equivelant of a vampiric Hitler or Napolean. She certainly did not want to get into any kind of more than business relationship with this guy. Teasing him was one thing; doing him was another.

"We’re not beaten yet, Redfern," she pointed out quietly, voice a soft purr as she pushed her fear aside. "Far from it. We hurt them. We hurt them and their professional fighting force is far below ours in number. Sure, we have an almost equal number of people, but theirs are more pacifists than fighters. If we can take those damned Dark Angels out of the game, we can handle the other normal agents and surprise the Wild Powers."

Hunter’s grotesque face broke into a smile. "And what do you propose?" he breathed, leaning forward himself, golden eyes eager for more than just what she had to say.

Keiara held back the urge to gulp and widen her eyes. As long as he did not touch her when he was like this, she would be okay, she would not scream. "We have the prophecy. We know where the Wild Powers are going to be. Forget about attacking Thierry’s mansion. We’ll send people out right away. When the Wild Powers arrive, they’ll be in for a surprise."

"I like it," Hunter admitted. "But how do we know exactly where they’ll be staying?"

It was Keiara’s turn to smile. "I do my homework, I’ve got my sources."

"I see," Hunter murmured, speaking more to her breasts than her.

Oookay, this was going a bit too far. He looked like he was going to grab her and eat her at any moment. Hoping she did not look too eager to get away, Keiara leaned back into her chair. "Let’s see, how does the prophecy go?

"The King to his land must now return,
The hearth must journey to the greatest of walls.
Below all the others the eyes stand watch,
In the waters of Huron will darkness fall.

"Well, the first line is talking about how Delos is returning to the Dark Kingdom. There’s a few guys who know where it is, so that won’t be hard. The second line is about Iliana going to the Great Wall of China. I’ll give you the exact co-ordinates in a moment. Jezebel Redfern is going to Australia and Kavan, that little rat, is journeying to the Bruce Penninsula in Ontario."

"Wait, wouldn’t it be more appropriate if Kavan went to Manitoulin Island? It’s a ferry ride away from the Mainland penninsula and and the island is obviously more surrounded by Lake Huron than the penninsula," reasoned Hunter.

"Don’t ask me to explain Circle Daybreak’s actions, Hunter. But actually, they are going to an island. One of the small ones on the lake where people have cottages. They are renting one while the owner is in Trinidad & Tobago for the holidays."

"Alright then," Hunter said. "It’s all set. I’ll go get our people organized and on their way."

When he was almost out the door, he turned back towards Keiara and she saw the lust in his eyes had not faded. "By the way, you’re coming with me to the Dark Kingdom, aren’t you, D’Alimonte? I’ve got a score to settle with Delos and his little Dark Angel, but I wouldn’t want to be missing you while I was taking care of that problem. After all, you really are quite...inspiring, Ms. D’Alimonte."

* * * * *
PART 29:

Iliana Harman shifted uncomfortably in her airplane seat. Sure, the chair was First Class, but there was no way anyone could make an airplane seat good for sleeping.

"Illie, what are you doing?" Dion Vitani muttered from beside her, but in his half-asleep, the words were slurred, sounding more like, "Ily, wa da ou duing?"

Hearing him like that, Iliana just had to giggle. "Dion, if you’re going to talk to me, wake up first!"

But he was already asleep again.

With a sigh, Iliana tossed her blankets around a bit more. Why couldn’t she be like him? Of course, she was not the one who was badly hurt. There were a few bandages on her arms and down her back from the glass she had been dragged through, but luckily, no stitches.

"Can’t sleep?"

Iliana turned to her left, towards the aisle. "Nope," she sighed, with a small, pitiful smile at Galen. "What about you?"

"Not at all," he replied just as woefully, nodding at the deeply snoozing Keller lying on his shoulder. "Her snoring’s keeping me up," he joked.

Iliana managed a tiny smile before her mind wandered to more serious things. Part of the reason she could not sleep was because her mind kept drifting to thoughts of their destination, China. She had never thought she would see that country, but here she was, uprooted and flying there without a moments forewarning. Oh, after Colin had found the prophecy, she knew she would be going there sometime, but she had expected at least one more day to at least SEE her friends before she left. Who knew if she ever saw them again?

"What are you thinking?" asked Galen quietly, sensing her brooding mood.

Iliana looked up at him with worried violet eyes. "What if we don’t come back?"

Galen opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. Finally, he replied, "I really don’t know how to answer that, Illie. I can’t guarantee anything. But I promise, if there’s anything we can do to keep you safe, we’ll do it."

"No," she shook her head, "I don’t want that. If we go back, we go back as a team, as always. Don’t give your life for mine."

Uncomfortably, Galen shifted in his seat. "Iliana, it doesn’t matter what you say. We’re your bodyguards first, not your friends, and it’s our job to take your bullet, metaphorically speaking or not. Besides, if you die, we die anyway."

"Oh Galen, don’t be so pessimistic," Iliana chided, though she knew the truth in his words.

Helplessly, the Prince of Shapeshifters shrugged, then changed the subject. "You think the others are there yet?"

That won a grin from Iliana. "I don’t know, but I can imagine that Jez is either dying of boredom on the plane or on the ride to the outback."

@~~>~~>~~~

Jezebel Redfern bit back a yawn as she stepped off of the concord at long last around 6:00 PM, Australian time. Back home, it was just midnight, so jet lag was seriously kicking in. They had made a stop at Hawaii about 5 hours ago, but that was it. If Iliana, that damned optimist, had been here, she would have said that at least the weather was nice. Hah! What bull! The weather was sweltering, even close to sunset, and Jez was sure she could get a sunburn in mere seconds. After all, she was half-human and there was a freakin’ HOLE in the ozone layer down here!!

"Actually, technically, the hole is closer to the South Pole," Morgead pointed out, reading her thoughts again. She thought she had warned him not to just minutes ago, but was too tired to reprimand him again.

Shooting a dirty look his way, Jez stuck her finger up at him, but his comment had gotten her thinking, *I wonder if penguins get cancer because of that hole...No! Goddess, I must be tired!*

Having heard Jez’s thought, Morgead burst into laughter.

"Uh, yeah, okay," Braeden muttered, taking a sideways step away from Morgead. Turning to LeAnne, he suggested, "Let’s go get the rental cars."

After a moment, Jez and Morgead shrugged at each other and followed LeAnne and Braeden. When they reached the rental desk, frowns could be seen on Braeden and LeAnne’s faces.

"What do you mean?" Braeden was asking, voice laced with an underlying worry. The car keys were forgotten on the counter.

The unsuspecting clerk was speaking quite nonchalantly in his Australian accent, "Yeah, are you sure you didn’t have relatives arrive earlier? They didn’t look like you, not really, but--oh, this is going to sound rich--but they FELT like you."

Jez, who until then had been studying a "Smoking Causes Impotence" ad, snapped to attention. "Thank you," she bud in before Braeden could say more. "Actually, we do have cousins that were going to meet us here tomorrow. They must have gotten here early." With a hasty smile, Jez pulled Braeden and LeAnne aside while grabbing for the car keys.

"Is something wrong?" Donato Romano asked as he and Jamal Clark arrived with everyone’s luggage. The two Daybreakers had been transferred from guarding Delos to Jez and were still trying to figure the Wild Power out.

"Yeah, get over here," Morgead ordered, not unkindly, but with an air of urgency.

As soon as Donato and Jamal joined the huddle, Jez explained, "The rental guy over there said he saw some people who FELT like us earlier today. Not looked like us, but FELT like us. Now, to me, that can only mean one thing: the Night Worlders are here."

@~~>~~>~~~

"One hundred eighty-three, one hundred eighty-five, I mean six, no, wait, where are we again?"

"Uh...I dunno," Ash Redfern replied helpfully from the driver’s seat of the van.

Kavan sighed heavily, then turned back to the window. He had been counting trees until then, since those were the only things around. Well, other than those long, boring stretches of frozen farmland that could hardly be called scenery. Oh, and the occasional cow, but who cared about cows?

"Okay, I admit that I don’t know much about Canada, but I thought it would be a bit more interesting than this!" Colin exclaimed. "Did you see the size of that ‘town’ back there? I mean, it was just two houses and a store. It can’t even be called a hamlet!"

Beside her soulmate, Chris looked up from her Anne Rice book. "Colin, why don’t you read or something? That’ll give you something to do other than complain all the time!"

"I get car-sick," he complained, bottom lip jutting out in a pout.

For a few long seconds, Chris simply stared at him, blinking blankly. Then she burst into laughter. "You’re kidding, right? A vampire, getting car-sick? It’s unthinkable!"

"Don’t laugh," Colin muttered, looking hurt and embarrassed.

Suddenly, Ash’s cell phone began to play "Jingle Bells" and he tossed it at Colin to answer.

"We’re almost there," was the first thing Quinn said from the car in front of the van. It was filled with everyone’s luggage and Rashel was there as well.

*This dumb drive is finally going to end!* Colin thought hopefully, then, to be sure, "How soon is almost?"

"Like maybe now," Quinn replied sarcastically as they passed a "Welcome to Tobermory" sign.

Soon, they were in the middle of the largest city to be found in a two hour vicinity. It was a summer tourist city and had many ferries and boat tours to the surrounding islands. However, at 3 o’clock in the morning, six days before new Years, not much was going on. A cold wind blew off Georgian bay and a thin layer of snow sprinkled the ground. Despite the wind, snow and northern location of the city though, it was hardly colder than Toronto.

"Think anyone’ll notice if we take a boat from the dock?" Ash suggested with a conspiritive grin as he stepped out of the van.

"And what are we going to do with the cars?" Kavan asked innocently.

Ash shrugged nonchalantly. "It’s a tourist town. They must have some car rental place. We’ll return it tomorrow morning, with the boat."

Without more discussion, for everyone was tired, the Daybreakers unloaded the cars and went to find a boat.

"Hey, there’s a boat missing already," Rashel pointed out an empty space in the harbour.

"Maybe it was never filled," Colin concluded, his arm around Chris.

"Maybe," conceded Rashel, unconvinced.

By then, Ash and Quinn had already found two useable boats. Soon, they were on their way to the island.

@~~>~~>~~~

"What do you do with drunken sailor? What do you do with a drunken sailor? What do you do with drunken sailor, early in the morning?

"Drunken sailor, drunken sailor, drunken sailor--"

"Oh, will you just shut up?!?!" Delos hollered, voice echoing through the mountains.

Everyone jumped and Nick and Delano, who had been supporting the Wild Power (he actually DID have a concussion, much to everyone’s surprise), nearly dropped him.

"Oh, seriously hon," Maggie exclaimed. "We’re just having some fun! It’s not like there’s anyone here to hear us!"

Delos’ amber glare glowed back at her. "Well, I might be a bit happier if you guys weren’t screaming in my ear," he grumbled. Then, quietly, as they turned back towards Black Dawn Castle only a short ways away, he murmured, "I never thought I’d see this place again."

The playful mood of the group quickly sobered as they approached a giant crater in front of the castle. Everyone knew what had happened there.

"Wait," Marcellus said suddenly, coming to an abrupt stop.

Destiny and Amaya, who were behind him, bumped into his back.

"What are you doing?" Destiny complained.

"I-I sense something," answered Marcellus. He turned to Amaya, "Don’t you?"

She was about to reply, "No," when she stopped and frowned. "You’re right," she said slowly, suspiciously. "What is it?" "Good question," a low, gravelly voice replied from the darkness of the castle. "Allow me to answer that."

* * * * *

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