"Did you see him? What did he say?" Azrael practically ran across the hall to the red-headed Witch.

"I'm sorry Az, I spoke with my father but he wasn't much help." The vampire's face fell.

"What did he say." Rouge took his arm and they walked into the drawing-room to sit on one of the sofas.

"I explained that your father had opened a portal and your mother tried to stop him from throwing your sister into it. That your mother was killed but your sister's body was not found. He did say it's completely possible she is in another dimension or realm somewhere. That it's quite likely since there was no body. But there are so many realms, micro realms, bubble dimensions and dimensions that no one, not even someone as powerful as Merlin could work out which realm she was thrown into or if she's still alive in it. In some realms, time passes differently, some dimensions are filled with monsters, some don't even have breathable air."

"But her tree is still alive. If she'd died it would have died too." He pointed out of the window to the two silver birch trees that had been planted on the lawn, outside the drawing-room when his sister and baby brother had each been born.

"Merlin said that the tree may not know if she passed if she wasn't in this dimension. But that doesn't mean she isn't still alive and trying to get back to you." She added quickly as desolation spread across his face. She felt so bad for him, he'd spent decades trying to trace his nymph twin sister, she knew her father was unlikely to be helpful but she had so hoped he would offer any kind of hope for the poor vampire. Not only did he carry the guilt of his mother's death like all the brothers did, but he had the pain and guilt of losing a sister he'd shared a womb with.

"He did say if you can find the Warlock your father got the portal spell from then he would be able to reopen a portal there." She handed him back the broken bottle he'd given her to ask her father if he could pick up any trace of the spell.

"He couldn't pick anything up from it?" Azrael's voice was despondent.

"I'm sorry Az, he could feel that it had contained a spell. But that's all he could sense. Once a spell is used it's often impossible to tell what it was unless some of it remains which with something like a portal is unlikely as they are usually held in a gas-like state until released." She handed him another tint bottle that held a swirling grey mist.

"I did manage to get this from him though. It's a blank portal spell, even I have enough power to set the destination of the spell if you can find where she was sent. I know it's not much but it's something at least."

Azrael held the bottle up and watched the smokey swirls inside it.

"Thank you for trying Rouge." Reaching out she held his arm and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get more from him Az. My father isn't a helpful man at the best of times. But with something like this even he didn't have much chance of detecting where the portal sent her. He did say though if you could find out the colour of the portal it would narrow down where to look." At that Azrael perked up.

"Orange. An eerie orange mist filled the house and as me and Gabe ran to the library we saw an orange glow fade."

"That will have been the portal closing." She fished a scroll out of her cloak and handed it to him.

"These are the colours of portals." unrolling it he looked down at her father's scribbled list, she peered over his shoulder at it.

"Orange will be a dimension, not a realm. So she's been sent to another dimension, not a micro realm. That's good, she's more likely to survive in a dimension than a micro realm where she may have starved to death, micro realms have no colour at all."

"Any idea what kind of dimension I can look for?" The witch blanched as she read down the list.

"Orange is likely to be one of the demon dimensions." They sat silently for a moment before Azrael jumped up.

"Thank you Rouge, you've narrowed my search more today than I've managed in decades. I really do appreciate you going to your father for me, I know you weren't keen to." she stood up and gave him a quick hug.

"I only wish I could have done more Az." He patted her back and walked past her heading for his attic room where he spent most of his time holed up with his mountains of books and scrolls.

Rouge May had been living with the vampires for nearly five years while they tried to find where Raphael had gone to. While there was a part of her deep inside that longed for her fated one, she had felt happier and safer with the vampires in the time she'd been with them than she could ever remember feeling before. They felt more like brothers to her than August ever had, and in truth, Winston felt more like a father to her than Merlin did. Though she had the feeling the vampires felt the same about the uptight butler and their father. She had grown to love them all dearly and wished she could have done more to help Azrael. In the brief moments, he wasn't lost to his obsession with finding his sister Azrael was an intelligent and articulate man with a deeply caring nature.

There was one thing she found incredibly odd about Azrael, in his attic rooms there were three paintings, one was of a beautiful green-haired nymph that was obviously their mother and another nymph who looked very like the first only with one blue and one green eye, that was his sister Ariel. The other was of a dark-haired human girl that had for a brief time lived with her parents in the gatehouse when they had mistakenly rented it to the human family one summer believing they had rented it to a family of witches, no one seemed to know how the mistake had happened. By all accounts, it had been a long summer hiding themselves away from the humans so they didn't grow suspicious of the vampires. Cassiel had told her that Azrael had been the one to paint the painting of the beautiful young girl, which they had all found odd as that summer he seemed to have forgotten finding Ariel and been focused completely on the teenager. But when the family left in rather a hurry one night a smear of the girl's blood had been found in the bedroom in which she had slept. For nearly three months the vampire had obsessed over the girl and grown angry if his brothers had commented on it, he'd gone out of his way to spend time in the gardens so he could bump into the girl most days instead of staying out of the way like his brothers. By all accounts, Gabriel would have had an aneurism if vampires could when he started painting the girl.

By all accounts when the girl disappeared Azrael had become even more morose and obsessive over finding Ariel, it was like something inside him had snapped and he'd gone from merely wanting to find his beloved twin to needing to. Apparently, it was after that summer his tendency to talk to himself and to go days without coming out of his rooms started. Cassiel privately wondered if the human had been Az's fated one, it might have explained his odd behaviour. But he didn't think even the fates could be that cruel. It was the most important law handed down by the Gods, creatures did not mate with humans. If they did and were caught it was punishable by death, no questions asked. Zeus himself had been known to leave Olympus and take care of Creatures breaking that law himself.

She watched through the doorway as Azrael walked up the grand staircase as she pondered his problems. She had tried to find out about the mysterious Victoria from his painting but it seemed there was nothing to find other than the girl had been human and that she seemed to disappear after her parents had stayed in the Angelus brother's gatehouse cottage. The girl should have passed by now unless she was incredibly elderly, the answer to the enquiries Winston had posted for her to the only surviving member of the family, a boy born to the brother of the girl, was that he had never met his aunt and believes she died the year after his father was born, at sea he thought, when returning from France. With that line a dead end and being unable to find out who sold the portal to Marcus Angelus, she'd finally approached her father to ask about Ariel but that too had turned out to be a mostly dead-end.

Winston stopped in the doorway to the drawing-room and watched silently for a moment as Rouge May stood near the window wringing her hands and watching Ariel and Cassiel's trees sway in the wind.

"Something is troubling you, Miss Rouge?" She spun on her heels startled out of her thoughts and stared at the butler.

"Winston. I didn't hear you come in. I was just thinking about Azrael." The butler nodded knowingly.

"You told him what your father said?"

"Yes, I feel so bad for him." He watched her for a moment with a knowing look on his face.

"What are you thinking, Winston? I know that look."

"Is it possible Miss that you are more upset about Master Azrael as we have still not been able to find out anything about Master Raphael and you'd hoped by being able to find out anything about the people missing in Azrael's life would have meant it was still possible to find out about the one missing from yours?" She eyed the dwarf quietly for a moment before a tear escaped the corner of her eye.

"You have a way of getting to the heart of a matter don't you Winston? It's been years and we haven't heard a word. What if he knows I'm here so isn't coming back because of it?"

"Knowing Master Raphael I do not believe he would do that, I think he has gone into hiding somewhere and is unaware you are here. He is in the habit of going missing." The witch sat down heavily on the nearby sofa.

"It isn't just that."

"You have enjoyed living here all these years and are scared that if he comes back and rejects you you will have to leave and go back to your life of solitude?" Rouge stared at him with her mouth open for a moment.

"Wow Winston, don't sugarcoat it will you?" The dwarf stood silently watching her.

"You won't go back to solitude Miss Rouge, you will always have someone to come and see whatever happens. I'll always be here for you and I am fairly certain the same can be said for any of my Masters, even Gabriel has grown fond of you, even if he doesn't show it." With that, the butler turned on his heels and left the room like he hadn't just floored the poor witches' emotions.

Walking back to her room Rouge couldn't get her mind off of what Winston had said, she hadn't only tried to help Azrael because of her own feelings. She genuinely did care for the damaged vampire, but it was a factor. She was petrified of going back to living alone with only Azura for companionship, even the magpie had become settled here and raised four clutches of eggs since they took up residence in the Angelus family home. She placed a spell bottle on her mantlepiece and ran her hand over her face. She hadn't only gone to Merlin for Azrael. She had tried to make a micro realm around the house and gardens several times but wasn't powerful enough. She could do a small area like her Paris loft but the mansion and grounds were beyond her limited powers.

Her father had given her a spell that would do most of the work for her, she would find Gabriel in a bit and offer to try again. But right now she needed a few minutes to herself. What if Raphael rejected her again when he does finally come home? She picked up the tiny bird carving she'd borrowed from Raphael's room and walked over to her bed to lay down and think. Holding it in her hands she cured into a ball and felt tears sting her eyes. She'd been dreaming of the vampire more and more of late, she knew that had to mean something. Deep down she knew her five-year-long question would soon be answered, did he run from her so she wouldn't reject him? Or did he run from her because he just didn't want some weak mongrel witch?

***

Rouge picked up her bishop and moved him then looked up at Gabriel to await his move. They played on the chest set Raphael had carved, the witch's pieces were carved from light beech wood, the vampires from rich warm mahogany. Each piece was intricately carved and polished so the wood grain showed through all its glossy beauty. Gabriel lent forward and moved his king.

"Check. Are you OK? You're not playing as well as usual." She stared at the board in shock. How had she missed such an obvious move? A game between her and Gabriel usually lasted hours but they'd barely been playing half an hour.

"I am a little distracted but that was a lousy move on my part. Start over?" He smiled at her and began to reset his pieces.

"Want to talk about what's got you distracted?" She moved her pieces back into place and glanced out of the window.

"Just some stuff Winston said."

"Ah, we've all had one of those talks with Winston. That dwarf sees and hears more than we'll ever know. I sometimes wonder if he's part mind reader," she laughed.

"It would explain a lot."

With the board reset they began to play again with Rouge taking the first move. After a while, they heard the doorbell chime and Winston go to answer it. Gabriel was clearly listening to the exchange with his keen vampire hearing she watched as a frown spread across his face a moment before Winston walked into the drawing-room with a note. The dwarf carried it across to them.

"A note has arrived for you, Sir." He handed the note over, bowed slightly and left the room. The vampire opened the note and read it silently. Rouge was sure time had stopped as his eyes scanned the words on the piece of paper he held. She knew it was going to be about Raphael, she didn't know how she knew it, Gabriel received notes constantly, at all hours of the day and night, he was a colonel in the army, but she did know it was about Raphael. He looked up at Rouge, his face unreadable as he handed it to the apprehensive witch. Her hand shook slightly as she took it and began to read.

"Raphaels in Scotland?" Gabriel nodded, he now looked almost as apprehensive as she felt.

"I'm willing to bet he's on the Hidden Isle, a pack of wolves live there and he made friends with the Alphas' son."

"He was with him the first time I saw him." Her voice was quiet and distant.

"I can go and search for him." Offered the vampire.

"No, I wouldn't ask you to do that. You have important work to do. You've still got that lead on The Oracle to follow up. I'm the one who you've been searching for him for. I will go. Anyway, it was my Father who hid the Isle in the first place, which should make it easier for me to find. She looked down again at the piece of paper.

'Raphael spotted at the Daill River Wolf Pack in Scotland with another Wolf, not of that pack. The pair were trading with the Pack for supplies for the winter.'

She would go and ask her father how to find the Hidden Isle then go and search for Raphael.

"If you find him, will you come back and let us know what happens and that you're safe?" She looked up to Gabriel who was dearer to her than her own big brother and did something that shocked both of them. She stood up and moved around their chessboard and gave him a huge hug. It seemed it had been a day for it. She guessed she had seen it coming, she was almost completely happy, obviously, the Gods would shake up her life.