The small group that gathered in the conference room were all straight-faced and silent. Someone coughed as we entered, and the eerie quiet that greeted us shouldn't have been possible with twenty or so people in such a small space. It wasn't even the nice room that I'd found the week before on level twelve; which may have been a good thing as I think I left the cushions on the floor from where I took a nap after deciding to drink two bottles of the champagne I found in the archives section. There was a chance the cleaner that had woke me up from the other room had tidied up my mess. Then again, maybe they didn't.

Either way, there was a much nicer room upstairs that we should be using, especially if Gonzo was so important. This one had the chairs without the wheels and the itchy fabric covering them. Plus there were no windows, and seeing the vampires that all sat together at the other end of the table, it did make sense to be in here. V wasn't among them, which kind of surprised me. In fact, he wasn't here at all.

"Sit," Ailin muttered as she moved towards the middle of the table, subtly motioning to the empty space between a werewolf and the familiar face of the witch, Carole.

I smiled at her as she looked away from her notebook. "Hey, Carole!"

"Ms Bunting." She greeted with nowhere near as much as enthusiasm, but she still smiled back.

She'd been the one to give me a tip about the case of champagne and catching the werewolves eye, the rather hairy man seemed quite content to try and resemble one of the beasts even as a human. His hair was in knots, needed a wash and a cut, maybe not in that order, and I wondered if perhaps they just dragged him out of the wilderness as a leaf sticking out behind his ear caught my attention.

"Love what you've done with your hair." I mused, making Carole snort beside me.

It then occurred to me, this wasn't the usual group Ailin called together for a meeting. Apart from Carole, and Gonzo, of course, none of the people here looked familiar. Ailin didn't sit. Instead, she stood with her hands at her chest almost as if she was going to clap.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice." She started with.

"Why is she here?" The wolf beside me growled; the she he was referring to was obviously me.

"Ssh. The people are talking." I hushed him, causing a deeper and slightly more menacing rumble to leave him.

"She is here because she needs to hear this," Ailin carried on, giving me a look to shut up as she did so. "The treaty we swore to protect by accepting our place within this organisation is yet again under threat. With the events of the last few years only acting as a trigger to those that have always been against the laws of this realm, an uprising is-"

"Let them try. They will fail as all the others have." One of the vampires spoke up.

"Perhaps. You know as well as I do Tish, this time is different." Ailin sighed.

"Your answer is the god-killer? She is but a girl." Genzo spoke up now, looking at me with more concentration than I was comfortable with.

"I know Gonzo! And we girls are just so-"

"She is, yet what she lacks with age she makes up for in other ways. Elise, there will be another war." Stepping in yet again, Ailin managed to keep control of the table, though the blue idiot turns a darker shade so now he's more blueberry than blue sky. "You came into your power when they opened up the portal to the other world. You survived the Warlocks attack on our way of life, not just for the supernatural, but for the world. You have journeyed into the realm of the first gods. You defeated their supreme king. I do not know what will happen, but I need to know you will stand with us and do it again."

As each truly defining point in my life was raised the memories that were never far from the surface of my mind came back to life. The smell of blood, burning flesh, the dampness of the night; death. The sounds of pain, of swords clangings, guns firing. Explosions. The feeling of being so utterly exhausted. Unable to stand from the ground trembling as magic forces so strong shake the very foundations on which we all exist. Yet I still had that sense of disbelief that it was actually happening - that it happened, that it wasn't a bad dream or a scene in a movie.

"You survived." Ailin's voice rang in my ears.

I didn't.

I couldn't do it again.

He wasn't here this time. He was the reason I am here today. He stopped the Warlocks. He who now rules the realm of the first gods, did it all. Not me.

The room disappears. It's dark and then I'm there.

I stand beside my sobbing parents, watching Cain trying to bring me back. Jordan sits nearby in defeat, bloodied and beaten with his head resting on his knees with his arms covering his head. Did he think that would protect him? Make all of this go away? Alfie was being held back by V and Paytah. Logan looked furious and anxious and I had never noticed the way he looked around the first time or the way he slipped away, shouting.

What was he doing?

Cain was chanting, his hands glowing with golden light and taking a step closer, I could feel the pull to him and to the light that would grant me the peace I craved. All around, shimmering silver figures stood up. The paddock was alive with the dead. Some tried talking to the living, confused or trying to pass on their messages that it was okay. Others found one another, lovers and friends reunited to take the next step in their journey, together, while they tried to bring me back.

I didn't survive.

Cronus laughing had me looking up again, barely in time to block his hit before I put all my effort into holding him and his sword back. I saw his free hand move to the side, and something else fills it. Before I can step away or try to defend myself again, I feel the impact. Someone was screaming - it was me. Cronus backed off and looking down, I fell to my knees, unable to process what I saw. A spike-covered golden ball that looked as prehistoric as the ancient god sticks out of my side. The rush of blood against my skin and my chest, that feeling of being broke, torn, destroyed. Warm liquid fills my mouth, but I can't taste it. I'm cold and shaking, yet the dirt felt surprisingly comfortable. The pain leaves me.

I didn't survive.

"God-killer?" Genzo asks and blinking a few times, I look at all the faces now staring at me.

"Elise, as a member of this Council, I need to know-" Ailin brought my attention back to her instead of Genie's distant, inbred cousin.

"No."

"No?" She repeats, confused.

"I'm not part of this Council." I decide, standing. "I quit."

"Then you will fight with all the rest." The wolfman snaps, before wiping his nose on the back of his hand.

"And you? What about you? Where were you when these other things happened?" I snap back at him. "By the way, get a fucking tissue."

I produce a box and throw it at him.

"Where were any of you?" I shout, clearly annoying them all as the tension that explodes in the room is unmissable. "I fought with the rest before. I fought by myself. Were you on that field when the Warlocks sought to destroy and take over the world? Did you travel with me to fight against those ancient Powers? And that stupid fucking portal that wolf bitch opened. Where were any of you for that? Don't you dare sit here and judge me when you know sweet FA about what I have been through? The only one who can is our President, because she was at my side when shit went down. And her sisters. I saw them die. I saw my own kind die, and yours."

I have to leave because if I stay in that box, I am going to kill them all in such a way the vampires will be thankful I did that little stunt to them instead of whatever was brewing inside. I could taste my rage. My hands shook with it. My vision was literally turning red.

I didn't survive.

Yet here I am.

Every time I think I have made peace with the past, it becomes so apparent that I haven't. I am just faking it until the next thing happens. Moments of peace and joy gave me some relief, but it was still all there, brewing away in my brain. And those people, creatures, sit there like it's nothing. There is a war coming, so make sure your war clothes are clean and ready to do. Maybe cut back on the doughnuts and try to act like you know what you're doing, while we sit in this office with no windows as not offend the vampires and their sun allergy, and using our hands to wipe our noses and writing little notes down in our notebook- I need a drink.

Alfie is suddenly in front of me as I hit the lobby of our building. I don't even care who sees him, but he looks as angry as I feel. His spikes are out on his tail, he seems ready for this war without me even telling him about it. Maybe we should go to start it now. Which species should I remind of their place first?

"Hey, bud. You wanna go and-" I start only to have Portia appear.

Alfie hisses at her, and she holds her hands up as though he's pointing a loaded gun at her. Maybe he was the gun.

"Elise, remember what I said. Whatever is happening right now, this isn't you. Look at Alfie, look at him." She begs the desperate edge to her voice making me obey as I look at him.

He looks fine to me. If anything he needs to do some more swimming or exercise because the brown bubble water seems to have left him looking a little too plump. He is poised, ready to strike, despite his weight issue, a perfect specimen of his species - well I presume he is because my experience is limited. His spikes glisten as though wet, and red eyes glare at Portia as though if he tried hard enough, he could set her on fire.

His eyes are red.

His tail spikes are out.

He is ready to fight.

"No," I whisper, and whatever just inflated me disappears, so I'm leaning against Alfie for support.

I feel his muscle flinch at my touch, his body shifting, so he wraps around me slightly before dropping his head down to my level. Portia is off the menu. I scratch under his chin, and his eyes close. He isn't as hard and tense against me. The spikes retract. His eyes aren't red now.

We both breath.

"I'm so sorry Alfie." I give him a hug as Apollo appears, and Portia vanishes. "It's okay buddy."

"Ah, should we go?" Apollo asks hesitantly, glancing around as a small crowd has now gathered. I hadn't even noticed them before.

I take his hand, and the three of us vanish, ending up at the Last Drop which is thankfully empty at this time of the afternoon. Alfie heads towards the jukebox, and I grab two glasses, plus a bottle of bourbon and go and sit on the edge of the stage as ACDC comes blaring through the sound system.

"Bet you wish you hadn't come back just yet." I finally say.

"Never," Apollo answers dutifully. Hell, if I were him, pretty sure I would run a mile from me and my issues. "What happened?"

I tell him.

We sit in silence when I'm done, half of the bottle disappearing between us.

"I am so fucked up."

I don't cry. I don't even feel angry anymore. It just is what it is.

"Give it time. It's only been a few months." He pulls me close, and while I know he is right, I hate it just as much. "Don't be so hard on yourself."

I had heard it all before, and I've told myself the same thing over and over, yet here we were. All the layers I kept on to keep my crazy hidden gone, and I was back to this - only now I had magical powers to worry about, and that seemed to fuel Alfie like that time he got into a case of Red Bull thinking it was Cola.

"I actually don't want to bring it up right now, but why were we meant to be going vampire hunting?" He says after a good hour, or two had passed.

"Fuck. Keiran had this thing, and I told him we'd take care of it and-" I start, getting up in preparation to go.

"Don't. Send me the details, you hang here with Alfie, and I'll check it out. If it's anything, I'll let you know. Otherwise, we'll just head to your parents for dinner later." He kisses me, and the first layer of tape goes around, rebinding what had come undone today. "What do you think?"

"You don't mind?"

"Even if it's just a few vampires, what can they actually do to me?" Apollo smirks.

"Don't jinx it," I warn.

He vanishes, and I lay on Alfie for a little bit until Paul turns up to open the bar. He keeps out of my way staying in the office, and Alfie heads home to go to the river behind my parent's house to rest a while. I end up sitting at the bar and swap the bourbon for something not alcoholic though water at a bar just feels wrong so when a shot of tequila gets put down in front of me, I look up in surprise expecting Paul only it isn't him beside me.

I stare at the unexpected yet very familiar face for a moment. Then I'm on him, nearly knocking Cain over in the process as he manages not to trip over the barstool behind him. I hold Cain tight in a hug. His arms go around, and I'm squeezed back just as hard.

"Water, in this bar? Are you sick?" He finally says as we part ways.

I end up back on my stool, while he gets to sit this time without being tackled; a second shot of tequila joining the first. We clink our glasses and drink it down.

"Am I dreaming or are you actually here?" I ask in disbelief.

"Maybe or maybe that's just what I want you to think."

There's something different about him in a new way I haven't seen before. Despite it only been a few months since we last saw each other, it felt like it had been a lifetime. His dark hair was shorter, his eyes were almost sad, and yet I'd swear he was taller. He was definitely doing the opposite of Alfie and had been working out judging from the strength, the hardness of his body that I felt as we hugged. There was more though. I could feel him holding back. He'd always been big on the dark and broody, but this was something else. How much and what had happened over there since we parted ways?

"Yes! How are you? Are you okay? Hows being a king? Apollo said you've done lots of good, but you've had some shit to deal with too. How are you?"

"Where is he?" Cain asks flatly.

"Out, he'll be back soon." I look at him expectantly, waiting for some answers on how he has been.

"I came to thank you for your gift." He pours himself another shot, barely wincing as he finishes.

"Gift?"

"The Norse twins."

I feel my cheeks go red. Maybe that was just the alcohol kicking in. "Oh, that gift. You're welcome."

"I'm sorry it happened in the first place."

"I handled it." I can't help but feel a little defensive. "Remember, I'm all powered up these days."

"I know. It doesn't change anything." He sighs. "How are you?"

"Fine." I lie.

"Portia told me what's been going on. She's worried about you, so I came to see for myself." Cain smiled, the first one since he arrived and possibly the first one for some time as it disappeared quickly and the strain showed on his face.

"You didn't have to. It's fine, honest."

"I know she told you about her own, accidents. New powers, especially like what you've been burdened with are tough. I should have helped you more." He frowned, the look appearing more natural as it smoothed some of the lines that hadn't been there when he was living here.

"I have everyone around here to help. You're probably loaded with your own issues," I pause, thinking of what Artemis had told Apollo and me. "Cain, what's really going on in your world?"

He sighed deeply and turned from me to face the bar, skipping the shot glass he merely drank from the bottle now. The dark cloud that covered him seemed to go even more ominous as the silence stretched between us. Hesitantly, I put my hand on his shoulder appearing to bring him back from wherever he had gone.

"To put it simply, I feel that war is coming and it can't be stopped. Again." He finally said.

"What are you going to do?" I ask softly, unsure if I want to hear his answer.

"What are you going to do?" He asked me instead, looking back at me. "I know you've heard the news. War is coming here too isn't it?"

"I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Well, I am King aren't I. I don't have many options. You, well, I guess you have two choices." We have another drink. "You ignore it until you can't anymore, or there is nothing left. Maybe you will run, hide, be okay for a while, but it will affect you in some way eventually."

"My other option?" My sword appears on the bar in front of us. I hadn't touched it for months, choosing to leave it at my parents' house. "I can't do it again."

"Why do you think you actually have a choice, Elise? People like us don't get actually to make those decisions. You will do it again, and again, and again because you can. Because you have to."

"No, you can. Do you not remember how it ended last time or the time before that? You saved me, and you're not here anymore to do that." I reminded him.

"Who says I won't be?"

"Me. You have your own life and responsibilities, Cain. Nothing is how it used to be now, and if this battle is truly mine, you can't fight it for me." I pick up my sword and the energy from the hilt pulses in my hands. It is ready, but am I?

"You wanted your options, there they are. Sounds like you have already made up your mind though." He smirked. "Remember what I said last time Elise, diamonds are made under pressure."

"Yeah. Sparkle, fucking, sparkle."

My phone starts ringing, and with a jump, I look around the quiet bar. I'm alone, the music is off. Paul is still in the office and Cain is gone - if he was even here to start with. My sword is there in front of me though, and while I can taste the tequila on my tongue, there is no sign of it with me except for a half drunk glass of water.

It had been a dream.

My phone goes quiet and looking at it, I check my missed calls. Ivy. Looking into my messages, she tries again to get me to join them tonight. I message back with some lame excuse about my parents wanting me to stay with them, and switch it to silent. I look at the sword in all its golden glory and am scared to touch it; scared of what it means if I do. My conscious was right though, I didn't need Cain here to be able to do this. He had become something for me to hide behind and I wasn't going to make excuses anymore. I was prepared to take on the world before knowing who and what he was because it's what I do.

"Sparkle, sparkle," I whispered, picking up the sword.

It feels right, at home in my hands as I stand and wave it from side to side in a brutal attack to nothing other than the air. I set it down as Apollo reappears, and seeing the weapon his eyebrows raised in a silent question that I shrug off.

"That's not where the vampires had been staying. The files are full of wrong details, and so the group that looked were right, it was old and deserted." I don't miss the dirt on his forehead or the blood on the sleeve on his shirt. "I found them though."

"What happened?" I quickly check him over, happy to find no other marks on him. I'd been having an afternoon nap while he'd been fighting vampires? Nice Elise, nice.

"They were changing humans. A whole warehouse full of freshly turned bloodsuckers, and a stack of corpses that-" He paused. "Ailin sent a team in to sort it out."

"Do we go too?"

"No, the vampires will help the newbies, and we don't need to be involved in the rest."

"And the ones who are responsible?" I demanded.

"I left two of them for the Slayers to interrogate." Apollo closed the space between us, his body relaxing as I held him yet mine was only winding up. "I know what you're thinking. Let the law take care of it. Your kind exist for a reason, let them do what they are made to do. Your kind of justice isn't needed this time."

"My kind of justice?" I let him go.

He pointed at my hands that held a faint light to them, almost as if someone had shined a torch through my palm up to the other side.

"Oh. I wasn't this time. Honest." It was the truth. Kind of. I already had one meltdown today, and that was enough.

Paul came out of the office then, giving a little nod in our direction as he went over the cash register with the float.

"Good to see you've woken up there Sleeping Beauty." He teased. "So, you planning on paying for that bottle or what?"

"Put it on my tab." I shrugged, moving back to the bar to get my phone and yet looking over the edge, two shot glasses were in the sink and in the recycling tub was the bottle of tequila.

"You okay?" Apollo asks, and l smile at him, unsure what to say.

"Yeah. I just, never mind." My phone lights up again, and I groan.

"Who is it? Penny?"

"I wish. It's Ivy. She wants me to go out there tonight for a birthday or something." I shrug.

"I don't trust her." Apollo frowns.

"Me either. She smells, off." Paul wrinkled his nose.

"You two are being rather discriminatory over the dark fae. Just because they aren't all, goodness and light like some other fae, doesn't mean they're necessarily bad." I remind them.

"Maybe but I serve all kinds of demons and vampires and those that are actually, necessarily bad, and none of them gives me the same feeling like her." He argued. "You're a Hunter. You're, Elise the Hunter. You're honestly telling me you don't get any bad vibes from her?"

I glance at Apollo who only shrugs, yet I could feel the smugness coming off him since Paul was literally repeating most of what he had in our last argument. Maybe I did sense something off about her, and that's why I'd taken a rather huge step back from her and the coven. Was I going to admit? No.

"Each to their own." I declare, making Apollo shake his head. "And clearly my judge of character is broken if I'm hanging around you two."

"I'm about to open, get out of my bar before you scare the customers away," Paul smirked, heading towards the front door.

"Pretty sure it's my bar, but I get the hint." Taking Apollo's hand, we end up at my parents' house which is oddly quiet.

No Alfie, no Annipe, no Jordan and no parents.

"Let's cook dinner?" I wonder, moving to the fridge.

"You're kidding?"

"No. It'll give Mum a break for once." I pick up the chicken and frown. "Do you know what to do with this?"

"Not really, but we can make it work." He decides, and the mischievous look on his face worries me for a second before he clicks his fingers and the chicken is now roasted, hot and smelling amazing. "How's that?"

"Perfect. Want to do the potatoes next?"

By the time my parents walk in, we've got dinner set out on the table, and since I insisted on cooking some of the vegetables, they catch us putting away the last dish after doing the washing, so our secret of cheating stays safe. It wasn't just for giving Mum a break that I suggested we do this, but for me too. It made my parents happy and the fact we did it, gave us all something focus on and talk about rather than bringing up school, training, my brothers' new mission. The war that was apparently coming.

"Thank you, this was such a nice surprise!" Mum beamed across the table at Apollo and I. Even Dad agrees with her. "Though next time, maybe don't boil the peas for so long."

The mush I had created wasn't great, but edible and I learnt my lesson. Next time, Apollo would also be in charge of the peas.

Next time.

Dad brings up the time Jordan, and I tried to bake a cake when were kids. I don't really remember the story, but it brings tears to my Mums' eyes as she laughs over the disaster. It wasn't as bad as the time Dad managed to set fire to his toast after turning the dial the whole way up, not realising the release function had broken on it the morning before. 

It was everything I needed this dinner to be, and it wasn't for them, not how they thought anyway. This dinner was really for me, and I selfishly absorb family time, locking this feeling and moment away in case we didn't get a next time.

________________

So, what do you think? Was Cain there, or did she dream it?
Any CainxElise fans still out there?