Being nice to someone you really just want to ram your sword into is hard. Laughing and acting like everything is fine and you're totally okay with going along with some kind of, probably evil plan that you were set up to be a part of - again, is even harder. The looks my brother is giving me is only pissing me off further and as a platter of chicken, or some kind of bird, is set down on the table before us, I pray my laugh sounds genuine.

"No, no really you should, bee-have! No wait, bee-hive!" I tell Muz, who tilts his head back and lets out a laugh that would rival Santa's.

In different circumstances, I could almost like him. There is something a little odd about him that reminds me of Paytah - minus the whole, take you into my tent thing the werewolf likes to bring up.

"Now we feast!" Muz declares and the few 'warriors' that are seated with us happily dig into the buffet put on in our honour.

I don't know where this has all come from, or how many chambers this temple place actually has, but sometimes its easier not to question it. When you have two snake demons at home, a golden sword that belonged to some Egyptian god, and your occupation includes killing vampires, you learn not question everything odd that happens in your life.

"I'm starving." Logan mumbles beside me, helping himself too. "You eating?"

"Yeah, of course." I take some of the unidentified bird meat as he passes it over and the little drone bees fill our glasses with a sweet smelling red wine.

A happy chatter fills the room as we all eat, drink and generally be merry. I can't make myself relax, despite being positive we're not in any danger for as long as we play along. If I decided not to do what he wanted, or you know - kill him in the process, then I'm sure we'll be getting served up for dinner. Do bees eat people?

"I would love to know what is going through your mind right now." Drew asks from across the table.

"What?" I take a bit - definitely chicken, though how do you really know since everything always seem to taste like it anyway?

"You. You look a million miles away and real serious."

"Oh, just tired." I lie. "All that hiking and stuff, you know I'm lazy when it comes to doing all this stuff."

"I thought Zane beat that out of you." He laughs.

"He wishes." Logan adds, earning a swift quick under the table. He only winks at me in response.

It's not too long until we're shown to our rooms for the night. Again I try not to over think the fact there was actually fairly decent guest accommodation set up for us. Jordan sticks with us and I'm pretty sure he is just trying to avoid being paired up with Amelia, at least until he whispers something in my ear about Ailin. I ditch Logan and shove in front of Drew and Nigel, dragging Jordan with me.

"Family bonding time. Night all." I drop the cloth that we have as a door and we move to the other side of the room. "What did you say?"

"Ailin put a ban on this case, we shouldn't have been able to see it." Jordan tells me.

"But she sent us off?"

"I know, but what if it wasn't her? Amelia said they had been sent here to sort it out, because you know, thats their thing. Seeing us all here, she was really surprised and was about to make a call in to the Council when our entourage came to bring us here. She went to try calling in again before dinner, but none of their sat tech is working here."

"I don't want to freak you out, but I've been wondering if something was going on for a while. I think Cain is fucking with me again." Sighing, I try to think of my next move. I had everyone to think of, because this really could turn out badly for all of them if I didn't play along - which was exactly why they all came too. Why not just send my parents next time and make it a party?

"We're his insurance policy." Logan adds slipping in behind the curtain.

"You heard us?" I ask, paranoid.

"Only that bit, but I figured thats why you ditched me." Drew comes in behind him.

"We're opposite you guys, so unless they also have surveillance in here, no one saw us run over. What's going on?"

I give a very quick version of Cain and what I think is going on and I'm pretty sure once I'm done, Drew wishes he didn't know. What to do now isn't exactly obvious, but I have one idea.

"I'm going to ask Toyo to go back, see if she can find anything out." I decide.

"Could be a good idea." Jordan muses. "But I don't understand why the Van Helsings got sent along too? Zane, your parents, there are plenty of more important people in your life."

"Thanks." Drew frowns. "He does have a point, why Tom and Sam?"

"No idea. Be back in a sec." I leave them to it and after going past two rooms, start to feel uneasy as I can't sense my number two around here. "Toyo?"

The Trifecta Tracker sticks his head out from behind his curtain, and I hate that I can't remember his name. "What's going on Elise?"

"Toyo, you seen her?" I ask as the Hunter appears.

"No. I don't remember seeing her since dinner actually."

She was with us when we were taken here, wasn't she? The more I try and think about it, the less sure I am.There is no point in making them worry just yet, but I know my question has unsettled them because the worried look on their faces matches the feeling in my stomach.

"I'm sure she's just doing cat demon things like some personal grooming or sharpening her claws." I laugh. "Night guys!"

They don't look convinced and I quickly hurry back to the others.

"Well?" Logan asks first.

"She isn't here."

"What?" Drew panics.

"Just, chill for five. I'm going to go for a walk, its completely normal for me to be looking for her."

"We're coming too!" Jordan decides."

"No, if we all go that will look odd."

"Let me come with you, everyone knows where you go I go!" Logan argues.

Reluctantly I agree and leaving the other two, we head back towards the dining area. Its empty now, the stone table completely cleared off with only one lone torch left alight near another passageway. We take it with us as we keep walking, ending up in the throne room. It's so quiet except for the rush of water from the fountains. There are no drones of shifters flying around up top - if anything the whole place looks deserted.

"Toyo?" I call out, "Where are you?"

Turning back to Logan, I see him slip something into his pocket, but don't bother asking about it now and as we start to walk the way I'm pretty sure I first came through when I arrived, I sense Muz before I see him. Sure enough he appears in the doorway - stopping us as he had stopped me from making my great escape hours ago.

"What are you doing? I thought you'd all be exhausted after your journey so far?" He questions a little too hostile for my liking.

"I really wanted to talk to Toyo. She was assigned as my second in command and I cant find her. Have you seen her?"

His shoulds drop slightly, and he shakes his head. "No, there was someone moving around about ten minutes ago. maybe she is just doing a patrol before bed?"

"Probably, thats very Toyo like. If you see her, can you tell her I was looking for her?" I give him a smile as I slip my arm around Logan's waist. "Come on, it can wait until tomorrow. We better go back before Jordan thinks we're off... well, night Muz."

"Goodnight Hunter, Tracker." He bows his head slightly and starts to walk back down the corridor, while we turn back into the main room.

"He's so going to be watching us now." Logan whispers to me. I nod in response.

"Demons can be so unreliable." I huff. "Can't believe she is just doing her own thing without me."

Logan rolls his eyes, knowing what I was doing. Maybe the time to fake it was over, but ignorance can be bliss.

"Good thing you're not paying her right?" He plays along.

"We'll definitely be talking about this in the morning."

"Or even now?" Amelia appears from out of no where, glaring at the pair of.

"Oh god, not you." I groan.

"Elise?" Jordan calls from the other end of the passage and I close my eyes, taking a few deep breaths.

"Seriously, can't anyone just be where they are meant to be?" That makes Logan laugh, which he disguises with a cough. "I'll stay with Logan, you guys can share that room."

Jordan gets the message but Amelia, is not so keen. "Just, get over it Mel, we need to talk about what went wrong eventually so now is good a time as any."

Logan and I both nod, and she catches on. "Fine!"

Getting back to the rooms, Jordan goes with Amelia while Logan and I meet back up with Drew. Ignoring the look he gives me, I go over to the stone ledge that was covered in furs and lay down. It's not overly comfortable, but its better than nothing. Ligan sits beside me and I roll over slightly to give him some room, while Drew sits opposite us.

"What now?" He asks.

"Get some rest, who knows what tomorrow will bring." I say it loud, hoping the others hear and with a sigh, I roll over so I'm facing the wall. Everything soon goes dark as Drew puts out the lantern by the door and Logan lays down beside me.

"We'll get through it Bunny, we always do."

"I know." I turn and kiss his cheek before focusing on getting comfortable. Only thing is, we've had a fairly lucky run so far and one day, that luck is bound to run out.

) O (

Everything is still quiet and dark when I wake up. Logan softly snores beside me and getting up, he doesn't flinch at all. Peering out into the corridor, a torch is lit at the end we came in by which gives enough light to make out each of the rooms around us. Everything is perfectly still and I'm almost tempted to scream just to get some life back into the place. With our curtain open, I can see Drew still asleep too and leaving them alone, I decide to go for a wander. I've barely made it the torch when a shadow appears on the wall and sure enough, the shifting variety of bee creatures appears.

"Got a toilet in here?" I ask hopefully.

He makes some grunting kind of sound and starts to walk the other way. I decide to follow him and end up being taken to the throne room where Muz is sitting reading a paper with a travel mug beside him. I'm pretty sure the smell of coffee is coming from there and wonder what my chances of getting one are.

"Ah, you're awake. Sleep well?"

"It's no Ritz, but it'll do. Don't suppose you guys were the ones who invented internal plumbing?" That makes him laugh and pray I don't have to amuse him with our apparently shared joy of bee jokes again.

"No, but I can help you with what you need." He stands and moves over to one of the walls covered in an assortment of carvings. A few magic words later and a portal appears. "There you go."

"Is it safe?" Stupid question, but I felt like I had to ask.

"Yes, it'll take you to my home in London."

"Handy trick you have there." I compliment before opening the door.

Sure enough, I'm in a bathroom that has all of todays modern facilities - with no way out. I do what I have to do, and attempt brushing my teeth and washing my face as it's as good as it's going to get and opening the bathroom door, I'm back in the temple.

"It's nearly nightfall, you should get the others ready to leave." Muz greets, sipping his coffee as if this is all totally normal.

"Any chance for some coffee? Wait, nightfall?" How long had we been asleep for?

"Yes, to both. I guess you were all, very, tired." He waves his hand and sure enough, a cart of coffee and patiseries appear beside me. "Help yourself."

"Thanks." And I do, unable to resist when I see there are a few jams out and butter. "No honey?"

"Not today." He offers me a short smile before going back to his newspaper.

I've made my coffee and was starting to get the guys one too when Jordan and Amelia appear. There is something, odd in the sleepy, zombie like state they come over in and Muz plays the perfect host as he tells them to help themselves to the coffee and the bathroom. Jordan doesn't look at me and Amelia, well she never wants to speak to me anyway so I just carry on what i'm doing until we're all gathered.

"Oh, Miss Bunting. I almost forgot to tell you. Toyo had to leave, she apologises, but she had urgent matters to see to." Muz tells me as Logan returns from his trip to the bathroom.

"Oh. I guess if she had to go then, she had to go." I look at Logan who finally seems to wake up.

"And we do too. We have a god to sort out."

"Ah, yes about that too." Muz starts and its then I notice movement above our heads as his drones start to join us. "A group this large will be picked up instantly. It will be best if only a few of you go."

"Since when?" I argue.

"Since I've had my warriors on patrol. Your arrival didn't go unnoticed and they're already expecting company." Every word that comes out sounds like a lie, but I'll play.

"How many do you think can go?" Logan asks.

"Four." Muz grins.

"And the others?" Looking over the group, I already know what I'll do; whether they like it or not.

"I will open a portal and send them to where ever you tell me."

"Fine, you three are coming with me and the rest of you will go back to the academy." I decide, and Muz frowns as he realises I'm refering to the Trifecta as my three.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. We have a mission to complete, the rest can go home. I have the only weapon that will kill a god, and they are the best of my kind which was why they were sent here in the first place." Squaring my shoulders, I meet the bee kings gaze throwing down my own challenge in relation to the one he just gave me. They can make their plans, but I'm not one for doing what others want.

"Makes sense." His smile is forced and I know our days of sitting around laughing together are over. "So it shall be."

Instantly the others all seem to realise what just happened and I follow Muz over to his portal with Logan, Jordan and two of the Van Helsings telling me that was not happening. I ignore them, this may have all been a hoax, but I still and probably always will feel responsible for them. The bee shifters appear and hold the returning group back, and one look at Logan tells me I was going to be going home later to one pissed off boyfriend.

The portal is opened and Muz motions at me to check it. The game is over now, he knows I know and as soon as I step onto the oval, Alfie is there.

"Hey pal." I scratch under his chin as he keeps his eyes on the portal behind me. "I need you to be a good boy okay, keep them all safe for me and if Elise is in trouble, Alfie has to stay here and listen to Same Blood."

"Alfie help Elise?"

"Only if, I'm dying." I decide.

The shouts of the others break us up as they are brought out too. Muz stands by the opening, watching me closely while the trio can just be seen in the temple behind him. He nods and I know its time to go. Walking back past Logan I stop and give him a hug. Since his hands have now been tied behind his back, he cant hold me back or shove me away. Same with Jordan.

"You're making a mistake. Let us stay with you!" Jordan argues.

"I can't take a risk with you guys. I need you all to be safe. Please, don't make this harder than it has to be. I'll be back soon enough!"

"Elise!" Logan growls, completely frustrated.

"I'm not going to be alone. I have the Trifecta with me, I'm not completely stupid!"

"Let me come too!" He begs.

I only shake my head and go back through the portal with the warriors coming behind me. Turning around, I see Alfie before everything there vanishes, but that's okay. They're okay and now I have shit to do.

"Thanks for choosing us to fight your battles." Amelia sneers as I stop before them.

"This was actually your mission, I'm just tagging along for fun!"

"She kind of has a point." The Slayer speaks up. "Ailin sent us here to take care of what ever was causing all those deaths. If we are facing, a god? Then having her around seems to be a good thing."

Amelia only snorts as Muz approaches, looking much more dangerous than he had before. "Ready?"

"Let's just get this over with." Amelia huffs and the bee shifters move out of our way as we're finally permitted to leave the temple.

No one says anything as we get outside. Muz was right, it had been nearly nightfall and now, through the trees an orange moon looms on the horizon. The Tracker pauses, keenly listening for something before starting off at a jog towards the west. We all follow, and I fall to the rear letting these guys do their thing.  I appreciated their skills in the past, it wasn't the first time we had fought together, but now it was different. Before they had been there to help and protect me, now I was an intruder on their job. If they didn't need my sword, I had a feeling they could just as easily ditch me right now.

I keep pace and stay quiet as they check with each other about a sound or the direction they were moving. I only nod when I am asked about the no-gun rule still being in play and when the forest goes silent, I follow their lead as we spread out to take cover because we all get that prickly feeling on the back of our neck that something supernatural and bad is near. When nothing appears after about ten minutes of waiting, we move in together and Amelia shows us her phone.

"I finally got signal and while everything to do with the Network is blocked, which is strange, but least of our worries right now, I did get onto Google." She holds up some cartoonish drawing of what I think is a person with a big nose and even bigger headdress. "This is that god, Buluc Chabtan. Apparently, he is the god of war and human sacrifice."

"Yay!" I mumble sarcastically, but that did explain the way the dead Slayers were left.

"Some also think he is linked to the creation of the first vampiric demons since he liked to feast on human flesh." She went on about a few other things - none of them good. "Why he is here, now, and choosing our kind for his sacrifices is beyond me. Elise, you're the freak these things seem to be attracted to. Any ideas?"

"Mel," The Hunter started, yet we all tensed as the warm night air suddenly dropped to near freezing in that burning cold kind of way - like if you were to stick your head in a freezer.

"Maybe it was to get your attention?" A hushed whisper suggested from behind us in a puff of decaying breath. I'd never heard anything sound so, evil, before - not even the Warlock who technically did kill me.

Real, genuine fear took over my body and freezing, I could only look at Amelia who was stuck staring at what ever it was behind me. The Tracker boldly turned his head, his mouth dropping at what he saw while the Hunter was the only one of us thinking clearly in that second. Before I could even take a breath, he spun around and threw a small dagger at our companion - snapping the rest of us out of the trance. In the time it took me to look and draw my sword, there was nothing there.

"I- did, what..." Amelia stuttered as we followed the Hunter and ran back to the cover of the denser foliage in the forest.

We stopped by a small rocky outcrop, taking cover under a ledge and we all had our weapons drawn in preparation.

"What was it?" I ask.

"I only saw a shadow, a big shadow." The Hunter answered.

"I don't know, I just, I can't remember." The Tracker quickly rubbed his eyes and we all turned to Amelia who held her phone in both hands. "Amelia?"

"Death. I saw death. So much!" She burst into tears.

Well that can't be good. "What do we do?"

No one answered me, and the guys went about trying to calm down their friend. Well if things could get worse, now would be the perfect time for that to happen and looking out into the darkness, nothing happened. A few minutes later, Amelia shut up and the Hunter ended up beside me.

"Anything?"

"Nope. What's your name?"

"What?" He asked, completely confused.

"I can't remember your names, except for hers anyway." I admitted. This actually made him smile for a second.

"It's really Hunter. Mum died a few hours after I was born and because she told the doctors that I am a Hunter, they put that as my name."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Luckily it made easy for my Aunt to find me as when she was trying to find out about Mum, she heard them talk about the orphaned baby called Hunter.  I'm just lucky I had the chance to know my family at all. So many of us don't get that." He sighed before glancing over at the other two. "That's TJ. Don't ask him what it stands for. I don't even know."

"Got it. Thanks."

"I'm, sorry. That was unexpected." Amelia spoke up, taking a few deep breaths. "It was horrible. All I could see was people dying and occasionally I saw one of you two, or my parents or someone from my coven. Don't look him in the eyes."

"Good to know." Hunter reached over and patted her knee. "We'll get him, don't worry."

It was the smell that got to us first. Worse than the mob of zombies I faced in the graveyard, or anything I've ever smelt before. Death, decay, mould; all of your not so favourite things rolled into one frightfully disgusting cologne. The guy seriously needed to work on his presentation though, if scary as anything was what he was going for - he was nailing it.

"I can see you." That same nightmare making voice sounded out into the night making as group closer together.

"We need a plan. We just got ourselves boxed in for the taking!" TJ hissed under his breath.

Amelia shut the torch off on her phone - a good first step. The hum of a deep chuckle came from above us, and then to the left. It was like he was zapping himself all over the place and I didn't want to think of an alternative... but I did. What if there was more than one? This might not even be the guy we were after, just one of his minions. I can't think like that right now.

"You can run, but you can't hide!"

The trio whispered something amongst themselves, instantly moving out from under the rocks. They had a reputation amongst our kind, their team had been together for years and I was able to witness how well they all moved and worked together first hand because I wasn't a part of it. It was Amelia who paused, motioning at me to move as more of an afterthought. At least one of them remembered I was there.

"I'm going to create a diversion, go North, and get ready to fight okay? You'll know the signal."

Then she was gone and it took me a second longer to work out where North was. Sure enough, I scrambled carefully over the rocks, keenly focusing on the presence we have on one another. It was easier to focus on that than the evil surrounding us and positive I was in a good spot, I stopped and looked back - seeing myself.

I had to be hallucinating as I saw myself go back down the rocks and towards the empty open space below. The other me found Amelia, her phone light back on as the guys all appeared too. I barely caught the sound of voices - were we all talking?

Then the dark space around moved, gathering into the shape of something big and horrible, while the four of us just stood there looking at Amelia's phone; like we had when she had been telling us about the Bullock thing. It was when the shadow finished and was definitely something rather than nothing, that a sharp whistle sounded out and then all hell broke loose.  The four of us vanished and instead a circle of fire appeared around the creature. The Trifecta charged, firing arrows and knives at it, making me spring into action. How could I forget, Amelia was part fae so of course she had a few tricks up her sleeve!

As soon as I got closer, the figure turned my way. A large hand was pointed right at me as he began to laugh. "You, you will not kill me with that."

"Watch me!" I threatened, reading my sword to attack and then the flames suddenly got higher.

Looking over at Amelia, she held her hands out, trying to bring them down but the look on her face told me something was wrong. Again he laughed, the fire moulding his body as he only got taller.

"Shit!" Amelia cursed and the others started to step back.

"Don't suppose you can make it rain?" I asked her as we neared each other.

"Run!" She screamed and we did.

Not that it mattered, he moved faster than us. In some ways he reminded me of the Shadowess - soul collecting demons that worked with the Kasha, that only existed as shadows. The more darkness there was for them to move in, the stronger they were and he was out of control. Every swipe I made only went through air and after the first fifty meters, I realised we were changing direction, that he was guiding us. So much for choosing these guys to stick around for their fab fighting skills.

Then the ground disappeared and one by one we all started to fall. There was nothing to hold onto, nothing to stop us and all I could do was scream, before we hit the bottom - hard. Everything hurt. It wasn't a soft landing and thankfully i didn't kill myself on my sword or anyone else; that I knew of. Reaching out blindly for it, I struggled to stay awake despite the dizzyness that wanted to take over and as I felt something cold and hard in my grasp, I brought it closer and managed to feel around it. One thing was for sure, it wasn't my sword - it was a bone.

"Hunter? TJ?" I croaked. "Mel?"

All I got was a groan in response before my eyes managed to close and the world vanished.

______
*Did I already name the Trifecta? I was going through a few notes and was re-reading Begin Again but couldn't find anything. Oops if I have and if not... disregard :)