All I could feel was pain. Whether a constant dull throb that seemed to come from everywhere, or a short, sharp stab located in my ribs, the pain was horrific. The memories came back like a fog. Ashwood Dale. The bodies. The destruction. That guy. That asshole. The feeling of weightlessness. Sheira begging for my life. Sheira...

I moaned, groggily and forced my eyes open. Well I was alive. That's a plus. I was lying flat on my back on someone's kitchen table, the ball of light swinging slightly overhead. I could smell blood, mixed with the heavy scent of spices and herbs. Definitely a kitchen. I probed my head again. The last thing I remember was the sound of footsteps and someone holding my hand. Someone had carried me off to patch me up. Excellent. But where was Sheira?

I pushed myself up on my elbows to get a better look around the room. And instantly regretted it. The feeling of being punched was something I was quite familiar with. Now, imagine this fist had a thousand knives attached to it and that connected with the same speed of your standard F1 car ploughing straight into your ribs. I swore loudly, a short, sharp four-letter word that summed the situation up perfectly but would have had my mouth washed out with bleach.

"Ffffff..." I clutched a hand to my ribs, only to find that I was wrapped up in what seemed to be a few hundred metres of bandages. There was a mirror in the corner. With several short breaths that resembled a locomotive, I angled myself enough to- Jesus Christ. Ancient Egypt called, and they wanted their mummy back. What the hell had that little bastard done to me?! Wincing and swearing slightly I pushed myself up into a sitting position just as the door swung open.

I could only presume that the woman standing in the doorway was the owner of the kitchen I was sat in. She was thin and scrawny, with a dark wrinkled skin that resembled leather when it had been left out in the sun for too long. Her hands were covered in grime and dirt, what was left of her greasy, grey hair was scrapped back into a bun, and her eyes were like tiny pinpricks in her wrinkled face. Her lips were practically invisible, like someone who was sucking on a lemon, but then narrowed into a snarl when she saw me.

"Get down!" she yelled. "Your bones haven't set yet!"

Before I could process that, a familiar blonde darted round the door and flung herself at me.

"RIBS!" I yelled as I pushed Sheira off of me, so I could collapse on the table and wallow in the pain.

"Sorry, I'm just glad you're alright," she said.

A thousand and one questions were spinning through my head, all of which needed answers. I settled on the first one that came to mind. "Where am I?"

She placed a hand on mine. I had to pretend that the goosebumps surfaced because I was cold. "We're still in Ashwood Dale, but you're in Beatrice's house. She agreed to heal you."

I turned to the old woman, who was still scowling at me. "Thank you," I said gratefully.

Her scowl seemed to lessen slightly, although it might have been a trick of the light. "Well, next time you won't go picking fights with elementals above your pay grade. Why the hell did you think that messing around with Shadow was a good idea?"

Shadow? That had to be the beast's name. And for the record he attacked me first.

"It's hardly my fault that stupid rhino came running at me. He should have been expecting that I would defend myself."

Both Sheira and Beatrice look confused. Beatrice's face suddenly twisted into a scowl. "You stupid boy," she spat. "You idiot. You-"

"Steady on."

"Shadow is the human, Nick." Sheira said quickly. "Crash is the rhino. You attacked his beast. You may as well have taken a running swing at Shadow himself."

Ah. "But it had human eyes," I protested.

"Shadow has red eyes," said Sheira. Beatrice stomped out of the room and came back with a blurry polaroid. It was him alright. Tall, dark, terrifying, and with blood red eyes. I had attacked his beast. By the sound of it that meant that the elemental could retaliate however they pleased. Trying to kill me might have been going a bit far, but as Sheira had said, I didn't know the rules.

"What did he end up doing to me?" I asked.

Sheira didn't answer, I braced myself for the worse. Beatrice was all too happy to fill me in on the details.

"Fractured skull, six broken ribs, severed lacerations to the chest, shattered wrists and he took half the skin off your back. You're lucky to be alive." Thanks, I gathered that. Jesus Christ, I'd gone sixteen years of existence without a broken bone and now this? The universe was against me.

"He doesn't seem all that merciful if you ask me," muttered Sheira.

"He isn't. Which is all the more surprising considering your friend here is talking to us. If Shadow chose not to spare him, you'd be burying him." She jerked her head towards me.

Charming I thought. "So, this guy's been causing some of the chaos around here," I said.

Beatrice snorted. "Some of it. Ha! This is all him," she waved her hand to signify the town as a whole. "He's the whole reason we look like a warzone."

"What happened?" asked Sheira.

"It all began a few months ago," Beatrice explained. "Ashwood Dale has always been a home for the unwanted, ex-cons who just want a place to live out their lives without judgement. However, this means that we don't get many travellers, so the Army decided that that one little factor made Ashwood Dale the perfect set up for a base."

"How long ago was this?" asked Sheira.

"Few months ago. Around new year."

"That's when the kids started disappearing," I noted.

Beatrice nodded. "I think some of them might have been brought up here."

"Do you know where they took them afterwards?" I asked hopefully.

Beatrice shook her head, my hope dying just as it had begun. "No. Everyone was too scared to go anywhere near them. You see, since we're pretty much central to the whole UK, we're the perfect base camp." She noted my crestfallen expression, "why'd you ask? Have you lost someone?"

"My mum and my little brother and sister."

Beatrice's shoulders sagged slightly. "I'm sorry kid. No one's been brought up here for about a month or so."

"Because of Shadow?"

"Because of Shadow," she agreed.

"So, what's his story?" I asked.

Beatrice shrugged, "no one knows. He showed up last month out of the blue. The first soldier was dead with in ten minutes."

"Shit," I muttered.

"That's the word. Ever since then he's been ploughing through anyone that has the brand. Even those who tried to run get mowed down. Hell, I saw him take out ten of them with a wave of his arm."

"So, he's powerful," said Sheira. "Has he gained full control yet?"

"Huh?" They always seemed to forget that I had literally no idea what they were talking about ninety percent of the time.

"Oh yeah, no ones taught you about Darks yet."

"Please explain," I said.

"Basically, dark and light are the two most powerful forces known to our kind. Incredible if used correctly and disastrous if you get it wrong. They have all sorts of add-ons that we can only dream of. Their beasts are massive, twice the size of a normal animal."

"That explains a lot," I muttered. Crash the rhino was like a tank, at least ten feet tall and probably weighed as much as a small building. Or as much as me after an all you can eat buffet. Take whichever analogy works best.

"However," continued Sheira, "dark elementals run another risk, the risk of losing control to their dark form."

"That doesn't sound too friendly."

"Dark forms are your evil side. Your hatred, your anger, everything bad in a person rolled into one. Dark elementals tap into that power to provide them with their strength. But it comes at a cost."

I could take a decent guess at what that was. "Going full Mr Hyde."

Sheira nodded. "They constantly run the risk of being taken over, losing to that power, losing themselves."

"Shadow isn't a Taken. He really would have killed you if he was," said Beatrice. "He just has a massive vendetta against the Army for some reason."

I had a lightbulb moment. A vendetta that would drive him to murder an entire town full of Army soldiers. That sounded promising. I was surprised my head wasn't glowing.

Whether or not Sheira noticed my epiphany was up for debate but she quickly steered the subject back to Shadow's clearance of Ashwood Dale. "How many people were stationed here?"

"Two hundred or so. Granted when he started culling them all, Molly sent in reinforcements. They didn't last very long. She gave the order to retreat a few hours ago. He's picking off the last of them." She took a long look at me, "granted you're the first occasion where he went after a civilian."

"He attacked his beast, it wasn't unprovoked." Sheira stated.

"If it was just Crash he wouldn't have hurt you. He's a big softie."

"Really?" I was very surprised by that comment.

"Really, really. He plays with the kids. Gives them rides on his back whenever we have a quite moment. He protects them too. A family almost got blasted if Crash hadn't shielded them." She shook her head, "still we'll be glad to see the back of them. He'll be the last Army member we see for a long time."

"Army!" Me and Sheira exclaimed simultaneously. "He was with them!"

Beatrice scoffed. "He was with them... Ha! He was one of her bloody generals!"

You could have knocked us down with a needle. "What?" Sheira said flatly.

"He was one of her generals, you know, like the four she has now; Jack, Leo, Marx and James. But some say Shadow was more than that. He had been her right-hand man, her personal guard dog for about five years. For a long time, no one questioned his loyalty but then he just vanished. Dropped off the map for years until he showed up outside Ashwood Dale and started to slaughter his old comrades. It's quite easy to see that Shadow hadn't been part of the Army as a willing soldier."

"How could he have been tricked?" I asked. A super powerful elemental like Shadow couldn't have been deceived that easily.

Beatrice waved a dismissive hand. "Any number of things could have worked. Drugs, hypnosis, sigils, the list goes on. But the point is Molly is now scared of him. Why else would she increase her personal entourage from one to four body guards? Some say she sleeps in a boobytrapped room. Why else would she be constantly looking over her shoulder? She's scared of him."

"He's also got to know stuff about Molly."

"Of course, he does," Beatrice said. "He knows everything about her. Her motive, her plans, where she hides... Add to the fact that he heals after every blow and you've got her worst nightmare."

He knew everything...

"He's the only person that walked away..." murmured Sheira.

"Only person we know of."

She sighed. "That explains why he has such a desire to get rid of them all."

Ex-Army, powerful and with a grudge deep enough to kill. If he didn't fit the bill for what me and Sheira were looking for, then I didn't know what would.

"Where is Shadow staying?" I blurted out.

Sheira and Beatrice both turned to look at me with suspicion written all over their faces. "Why?" asked Beatrice. "Do you want a rematch or something? Because I can assure you I'm not patching you up again."

I shook my head quickly, momentarily forgetting the pain in my back and winced before continuing. "No, no. We need information about the Army, we need locations of their bases. He might be able to help us."

Beatrice didn't look convinced, but she jabbed her thumb over her shoulder. "He's staying in the manor house down the way. Keep following the road through the village and follow your nose until you find it. You can't miss it." She turned to Sheira. "If he gets himself killed bring him to someone else."

I wanted to ask more, I needed to know more about Shadow, but I couldn't say anything with sounding suspicious. Sheira had already clocked on to what my plan was but I didn't need anyone else knowing. So, I kept my mouth shut while Beatrice sat me up and removed my bandages, revealing the long, shiny red marks that slashed across my chest and the one that showed where my skull had cracked on the flagstone courtyard.

I waited until Beatrice had finished prodding my ribs and wrists to make sure that the bone had healed, until she and Sheira helped me to my feet and handed me my clothes and backpack. I waited until she gave us another warning about how she wasn't going to help us again and left the room. And then Sheira laid into me.

"No. Absolutely not. No way is that happening."

"I haven't said anything yet," I protested as I slowly pulled my shirt over my head, pain stabbing at me the entire time.

"You don't need to say anything," she snapped. "I saw that look on your face when you asked where we could find Shadow. Are you forgetting that he tried to kill you?"

I hitched up my shirt, revealing the angry red marks. "How could I forget! Look what he did to me!" I yelled, "I feel like I've been hit with a sledgehammer, I'm in constant pain and he's probably scarred me for life," I snapped. "Trust me, in any other situation I would be avoiding him like he was from TOWIE, but at this moment in time he's exactly what we're looking for." I said dropping my shirt and bending down to pull on my boots.

"No means no Nick."

"Come on, he's just what we need. Powerful, bears a grudge and is probably a little bit insane." I said counting off on my fingers.

"Nick..." she was using that tone that Mum used when I was irritating her.

"Even if he doesn't agree to help us, we can ask him a few questions and learn more about the Army. Simple."

"Nick it's not that easy."

"Have you got a better idea?"

I had her there. She stood there, trying to come up with a response, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to form a protest, an argument, anything. But for once, I was right. Shadow was our best hope. He could help us out by being there with us or just pointing us in the right direction. We were clutching at air before. At least now we had a straw.

Sheira narrowed her eyes and curled her lips into a snarl. "If he kills you, I will resurrect you and kick your ass."

***

After saying our goodbyes to Beatrice, Sheira and I made our way out of the smoking town. The destruction was more widespread at this end of the village, entire streets had been levelled and you couldn't look anywhere without seeing a body of some description. Or part of one anyway. Sheira was still fuming that I had talked her into this, so she remained silent for the rest of the journey. I was all too happy to stay quiet as well because the roots I was chewing made it very difficult to talk.

Beatrice had shoved a bag of them into my hand before we left, muttering 'for the pain' before practically pushing the two of us out of her home. They were bitter and rubbery, like two-week-old chewing gum you find under the seats of the Underground, but they did their job. We wordlessly passed what was left of the Army camp, hastily abandoned and partly destroyed, some tents had been trampled under foot in an effort to get away. The owners of those footprints were lying face down in a pool of their own blood. Another reason I didn't want to open my mouth. The smell was bad enough, I didn't need to taste it as well.

The order to retreat had only been given an hour ago, none of them got away. The last soldier we found was slumped on a spear that had pieced his heart. The last one that Shadow had killed. Niggling doubt kept pushing its way into my mind. We were going to the person that had done this, the one who had tried to kill me, and we were willingly walking into his domain, into a place where he made the rules with the vague hope that he wouldn't attack on sight. He had the power to kill, so what was to say he wouldn't try anything on us?

We walked on. The road narrowed back to the beaten path, taking us out of the field, leaving Ashwood Dale to vanish behind us. The track lead us deeper into the valley, into a cluster of trees that made the world of sunset even darker. I summoned a flame to my hand to guide the way and after a while, the trees opened. A huge manor house, sat in the centre of the trees. It showed illusions of former grandeur but that was all in faded days. Gargoyles leered from the roof, the walls were crumbling like sand and the windows were jagged from the shards of broken glass. Diggers and trucks sat on the weed infested drive, ivy gripped the walls like the woods were trying to reclaim what was once theirs, while scaffolding seemed to be the only thing keeping it up. It was such a shame to see something so beautiful fall into such disrepair.

"Ashby Hall Manor."

Sheira's voice in the dark made me jump about a foot. "Mmph?" my mouth was practically wedged together as the roots had glued my teeth together.

"You can spit that out now. Built circa 1800 by Sir David Ashby as a home for his youngest son. The Ashby's moved in in the year 1818 but tragedy stuck within the first four months as a maid hung herself from the rafters of the attic. After that an unknown amount of deaths took place within the walls of the home. A butler was crushed under the weight of several barrels of wine, a cook was murdered by one of her maids who then took her own life, and the children's nurse swallowed disinfectant. All of the Ashby's died during their time living at the manor. William Ashby died after being shot by another man on the premises, Eleanor Ashby died during childbirth, and of the three Ashby children, one died at the age of four from pneumonia, another died at six from asphyxiation, presumably from becoming trapped in a chest of some description and the third at the age of ten from falling from the third story window. The house caught fire soon afterwards and despite being rebuilt and having several short-term owners it was left to rot in the 1920's. It is now undergoing a two-year restoration scheme under the English Heritage Trust. Work has stopped temporarily due to concerns of possibly dangerous moulds or carcinogens in the walls of the building and an unexpected structure damage, but work should resume within the next few months."

"Google is a wonderful thing," I said as I wiped my teeth free of the gloop. "Do you think that Shadow might have scared them off?"

"He might have had something to do with it. Might have just been a coincident." She led me up the driveway, towards the peeling doorway. "We need to plan our way out if this goes wrong."

"All the windows are broken, its just a case of leaping for the nearest option." I placed my hand on the door and paused. "If you don't want to come in, you don't have to," I said. "You don't need to get hurt again."

Sheira hopped up the stairs. "My job is to keep you alive, I'm going in." I clicked the torch that she was holding on. "Flames ready?" I nodded, orange light dancing in my palm. "Into the unknown," she muttered. The door swung open onto a world of blackness.

We cautiously stepped into the entrance hall which seemingly was being used as a storage facility for all the equipment while the builders were away. Tarpaulin was stretched over the floor and covered objects of varying shapes and sizes, our lights cast long, flickering shadows over every surface. Sheira's words of dead children was stuck in my mind no matter how many times I tried to swat it out of there. If Shadow was hiding down here there could be a dozen places where he could be less than a few feet away from us and we'd never know. Fantastic, we may as well be in Resident Evil right now.

Dust swirled around our feet and dark spots clung to the walls. I pulled the hem of my shirt up, so it covered my mouth. Just in case. Two rooms lead off from where we stood while an elegant, sweeping staircase curled upwards towards the upper floors. A beautiful chandelier caught the light from our torches, scattering it around the room like a swarm of fireflies. The grandeur of this place had been left to rot, but now it had been given a new life it wasn't trying to restore itself to its former glory. Maybe some things are best left forgotten.

"Where do you think we should start?" I asked. My voice came out a lot louder than I intended it to. Being slightly jumpy may actually be beneficial in this instance.

Sheira plucked her phone from her pocket and started scrolling down the page. "Well, all things considered there aren't many places to search. There's no staircases past the first floor," she gestured upwards with her torch.

For the briefest second, I thought I saw something move but when Sheira's torch flashed past the spot again, there was nothing there. I shrugged and ignored it. "The basement's also out of bounds because it flooded. That's why the work had to stop."

"Do you think that was Shadow's doing?"

"Possibly. But even with two floors we've still got a lot of ground to cover."

"Should we split up?" She just looked at me. "What? That's what they always suggest in the movies."

"And in the movies, they always get picked off by the villain one by one. No, we're sticking together." She looked at all possible ways we could go. "He could be anywhere. The question is where do we look first?"

"Try up."

Me and Sheira yelled in shock as we flicked our lights up to see Shadow standing above us. He was leaning against the balcony, hands spread wide, an even wider grin playing on his lips. His piercing red eyes, yes, red I made sure to take a good long look, were glowing through the darkness. He was in the exact same spot where I had seen, whatever it was, move. He'd been watching us this entire time. How the hell had we not seen him?

Sheira obviously had the same thought process. "How long have you been watching us?"

He laughed, but it was done in a way that made him seem like a bit of a jerk. No surprises there. "Don't flatter yourself. I saw you coming up the driveway." His eyes flicked down to me and a cocky smirk flashed across his face. "Seems some people don't know how to stay away. You here for a rematch pipsqueak."

I resisted the urge to hurl a fireball at his smug little face. "Believe it or not, no." I said, Sheira had placed her hand on my arm. Just in case. "We just want to talk."

He looked genuinely surprised, a little intrigued but also very suspicious. "Depends on what it is."

Sheira and I exchanged glances. I made a mental note of the nearest exits. "We need to talk about the Army."

His expression soured. It was like a switch had been flipped. "Why the hell would I know anything about them?"

Here came the big risk. If he took this the wrong way, then I was a dead man. "You were one of Molly's generals. Right?"

His stony expression darkened instantly. His eyes blazed with anger and his whole face contorted until it sent shivers down my spine in fear. Beatrice was right. He had been on the side of the enemy and now he wasn't trying to cave my face in I saw that he too was wearing Army leathers, but his expression showed that he had no love for his previous employers. I mean, how badly did it go that he went on a genocide run of every Army base in Yorkshire? Judging by the bloodbath we had just witnessed I think the Army had a good reason to be running scared. Shadow didn't move from his spot on the balcony and even though his eyes were still blazing his lips twisted into a wicked smirk. Here's where it could go dramatically wrong and we may have to leap for the door.

"I wonder," he said coldly, "who told you about that? Let me guess... Was it Mabel or Beatrice?"

"What are you going to do to them?" Sheira asked nervously. Had we just sentenced two people to death?

Shadow laughed. "Is that what you think of me?" he spat. "You think I'm a murderer? You think I just walk around killing innocent people?"

That seemed a bit rich coming from him. "You tried to kill me!" I pointed out.

He shrugged. "You asked for it," he said bluntly.

Correction, asking for it means I went around with a neon arrow above my head saying 'Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough' it does not mean I got spooked by your roided rhino.

"Why you little..." I began.

Sheira's Spidey Senses kicked in, stepping between the two of us to prevent another battle. "That's enough," she said firmly. Once she was certain that I wasn't about to fly at Shadow hands blazing she turned back to Señor asshole. "Look, we're not here for a fight."

"He'd lose anyway."

"Don't even think about it," She snapped. I stopped advancing on the staircase. "We need your help Shadow. We need to know where Molly's bases are and how to get in."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Why would I tell you anything? I don't even know who you two are."

"I'm Nick, that's Sheira. Now we know each other, will you help us."

He shrugged. "I dunno. It's an interesting request you have. Why would two teenagers want to find out where Molly's bases are?" Then he paused "Ahh... I think I have an idea."

"We're... looking for someone," I said finally.

Shadow laughed mockingly again, I could feel my blood beginning to boil. "Don't even bother. If Molly has them they're dead meat. Or at least they'll be wishing they're dead. You're on the hunt for bodies at this point. Who was it? Your girlfriend? Oh, what Molly's goons will do with her..."

"THAT'S MY MOTHER YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" I roared. I bolted round Sheira, red flames blazing between my fingers, just to see what that asshole would look like burning. A look of fear flickered across his eyes but before I got to him, he vanished. Melted into the darkness. I instinctively turned around to see Shadow walking out of the blackness that was being cast by one of the boxes.

"What the?" I said flipping round on the spot.

"Shadowwalking," said Sheira. "Allows dark elemental to jump between spots of darkness. Looks cool but it's all for show."

"Its useful when you have a psychopathic teenager running at you," growled Shadow.

"A psychopathic teenager who's still going to burn you to a crisp. Come here!" Shadow darted into the other room, swiftly followed by me and Sheira who seemed to be acting as a referee. The room that shadow had vanished into seemed to be the only place in the entire building that looked inhabitable. All the furniture in the house had been squeezed into what was once a living room. Dead eyed portraits hung from the walls, the fireplace was cold and unused, and a handful of couches scattered across the floor, from the plush red one that Shadow was lying across to a large, lumpy, leathery one pressed into one corner.

Shadow did not look impressed. "Put those out or you'll burn the whole place down."

"How do you know that's not my intention?" I snapped.

"Well good luck trying to remove me from this mortal coil."

"Nick. Don't." Sheira stood in front of me, hands resting on my arms. "He's a healer. You wouldn't be able to hurt him anyway.

"Oh, I'm so much more than that."

"Shut it you!" Shadow was so taken aback by Sheira's ferocity that he momentarily lost his ability to speak. "We need information from him, and he's already proven that he's a lot stronger than you are. He also can't be hurt so you may as well throw fire at water and hope it burns. It's not going to work."

"Did you not hear what he just said about my mum?"

"How was I supposed to know it was your god damn mother?" Shadow snapped angrily.

"Maybe if you thought before you opened your mouth you would have figured out that Molly has my entire family!" Shadow didn't move. In fact, he didn't seem to be bothered. He just twisted an empty wrapper round in his hands, looking bored with the whole situation. That anger inside me was getting close to snapping again. "You don't care. Do you?"

He sat up on the sofa so he could look me in the eye. "No. As a matter of fact I don't. I don't care who Molly had got. It your problem, not mine, and you're going to figure it out on your own, going on a fools errand that can never be solved. Trust me when I say I don't give a damn about them, or you. I only care about hunting every single member of that Army down and watching them die. So, if you go somehow manage to find your mum and a handful of little brats, so be it. Just when you find a couple of corpses don't come crying to me."

Crying? I was already close to tears at this point. Shadows words had sliced through me like a knife. He'd spelled out the truth that I had been so afraid of hearing. Sheira looked horrified. I just wanted to cave Shadow's face in and watch him bleed. But I couldn't even touch him. Any mark would vanish, and injury would repair itself, a fools errand. I took a deep breath in an attempt to steady my breathing. "She's got my little brother and sister, you know?"

Shadow didn't react. "All the more for murder," he muttered.

"You son of a-"

"Even I admit that was going too far Shadow."

The voice that had just revealed itself was so low and so deep it made the ground vibrate. It was so far down the hertz spectrum that I almost couldn't hear it, but you certainly couldn't miss who was speaking. The giant leather sofa in the corner (Remember that?) was looking over at the spot where the three of us were gathered. The creature that I could only guess was Crash the rhino steadily pushed himself to his feet and strode over to us, every step making the chandelier rattle above us. There were just no words to describe Crash. He was massive, gigantic, huge, gargantuan, every word in the English language that described something big may as well have had a picture of Crash posted next to it. He towered over me and Sheira by a good five feet, possibly more, his deep brown eyes peering down at us. I was just keeping an eye on his spear like horns, the front one clocked in at least two meters long. How was something so huge allowed? And I'd attacked him. But he hadn't turned me into a six-foot-long shish kabab yet, so maybe Beatrice was right about him being a gentle giant.

However, he wasn't giving Shadow the friendliest of looks. "Have many times have we had this conversation?" he grumbled.

Shadow merely rested his feet on the arm of the chair and scoffed. "And how many times have I told you that I don't care about anything that doesn't concern me?"

Crash snarled and them looked at us. We took a step back. "How old are your brother and sister?" He asked.

"Huh?" Confusion on what this had to do with the greater matter was a suitable reaction.

"Your brother and sister. How old are they?" he asked again.

"They're five," I answered.

Crash turned to face Shadow again. "There you go you heartless bastard. Five-year olds. Little kids!" He roared. Shadow didn't flinch. "You know for a fact what Molly will do to them so don't tell me you can just sit back and do nothing?" Shadow shrugged. Crash gave a frustrated sigh, "I don't know what I'm going to do with him..."

"Thanks for trying to help though," said Sheira.

Crash dipped his head low, he was either nodding or bowing, "think nothing of it, any chance to try and knock some sense into that jerk."

I shifted nervously from foot to foot. Crash noticed. "What's wrong? Still sore from when he attacked you?"

Attacked... So Crash thought it was unprovoked as well. "I wanted to say I was sorry for throwing that fireball at you. I was scared, and I've only been in control of my powers for a few days so."

Crash raised a foot to stop me talking. "I don't blame you."

Seriously? "Really?"

"Really. I understand that I'm a bit..." He looked down at his feet, "intimidating. People do get a bit jumpy around me when they first see me. He took it too far."

"I did not," snapped Shadow.

"After that massacre you just performed I think you would have attacked a pigeon if it looked at you funny." He rolled his eyes and shook his massive head, "I don't know. He takes everything personally and always responds by trying to hurt someone..."

"But we're cool. Right?"

Crash smiled. Have you ever seen a rhino smile? Don't think its possible? Well it is sucker and it just further solidified Crash as the kindly grandfather figure that told you stories round a campfire. "Yeah, we're cool." Then I had a complete brain fart about whether there was some sort of taboo against touching other people's beasts.

Crash looked suddenly confused. I laughed nervously. "Sorry. Is there some sort of rule against touching other people's beasts? You know like His Dark Materials sort of thing?"

Crash shook his head and pushed his nose under my hand. "Nope. How else would I get my itches scratched?"

"Fair enough."

Shadow was too busy glaring at us from his position on the couch to intervene. "Don't get too attached to them," he growled, "we're leaving tomorrow."

Crash's expression hardened. "I still don't see why we can't help them. They want to find Molly as much as you do."

"I am not having two bumbling idiots slowing me down."

"Hey!" Shiera and I objected to that description at the exact same moment.

Crash ignored us. "That's no need to insult them."

"Whose side are you on?" Shadow snapped.

Crash raised a foot as a peace gesture. "Yours. Always. But that doesn't mean I have to agree with you."

"Oh, stop acting like a pathetic goody two shoes. You can't please everyone you know."

Crash's eyes narrowed. "Are we really lowering ourselves to insults? Because I can work with that."

"Enlighten me."

"You're acting like a child. A spoiled little brat who insults and attacks anyone he meets because it makes him feel better."

Crash was now standing at the foot of Shadow's couch, Shadow was still lying on his back, studying the ceiling. "Maybe it does make me feel better. Especially when its poor little orphan like that one over there."

The ice pick feeling returned to my heart with a vengeance. I could see that Crash was getting angry as well. "Do you have a heart under there? Or is it just a shrivelled black husk?"

"Take your pick," Shadow snapped. "Let me say this one more time Crash so it'll finally get into your thick head. I don't care. What happens to them is nothing to do with me, I've got one mission and that's to wipe every stinking Army member form the face of this earth. If there's collateral damage along the way, so be it. And if his family are ripped to pieces, bit by bit, until they're begging for mercy and then spend their final few hours choking on their own blood as the freak laughs and gets her own sick little high from it, its nothing to do with me."

Crash had had enough. With one quick motion, that a creature of his size shouldn't have been able to produce, he reared up and slammed his body weight onto the sofa that Shadow was sitting one. The sofa (with Shadow still on it) shot upwards until it was lying vertical, Shadow yelped in shock as he was now clinging to the upholstery as Crash stared him down, raging hit fury dancing in his eyes.

"Now listen to me you pathetic excuse for a human!" he roared. "Whether or not you want to admit this but I'm the only friend you have in this world so when I tell you to listen to me you better listen, asshole!" Shadow stared down into his beast's eyes but said nothing. "They need our help, Shadow. We can help them, all they need is a path to Molly and a little guidance to get there. Then they can help us in our mission in the process."

Sheira took a bold step forward. "We can pay you. Whatever you need. Money? Protection?"

Shadow shook his head. "I don't need protection and I've got more money than I know what to do with."

"Well what do you need?"

Crash considered this offer. Shadow didn't. "I don't need anything. I work alone-"

"Actually," said Crash cutting Shadow off in his 'I'm so macho and so loaded I don't need help form anyone' speech. "We do."

Now Shadow just looked baffled. "Do we?"

Crash nodded. "You're from Camp London. Right?"

We both nodded.

"Is the library really as impressive as they say it is?"

Only Sheira could answer truthfully. I had to admit I had caught a glimpse of the towering shelves of the library, I hadn't actually been inside yet. "Is that what you need?" said Sheira.

Crash nodded. "We need resources. And a base of operations if we want to be realistic."

"No, we don't."

"Yes, we do." Crash moved his foot from the couch. Bang! Shadow moaned in pain as he pushed himself off the floor he had been unceremoniously dumped on. Karma is a bitch you jerk.

"Crash, we don't need help."

"Shut up," he snapped. The two then went completely silent. They didn't say anything else out loud, but they seemed to be having an argument, even though they were completely mute and seemed to be performing a mime show.

"That's amazing," murmured Sheira.

"What is?" I smirked as the image of Shadow wearing a beret and a stripy turtle neck danced through my mind. This day was turning out to be a lot more entertaining than I thought it would.

"They're soul linked."

"Only been here for three days," I reminded her.

She studied the two closer. "Soul linking is where an elemental and his beast are so tightly bonded that they can read each other thoughts and emotions. I've never seen it in person," she said in awe.

"They look like they're trying to throttle each other." Both were glaring with a ferocity that I hadn't seen outside of my wrinkled old headmistress (Ex-headmistress, you don't go to that school anymore) when Harry Carter threw his football through her window. He was never the same after that. We watched as they continued to "talk". Crash seemed to be winning as Shadow shoulders continued to slump in defeat while Crash hadn't budged an inch.

Finally, Shadow sighed. "I hate it when you're right," he growled and stalked over to us. His glare could have cut steel. "We leave at dawn. Be there or I'm leaving without you," then he just turned and stomped off upstairs.

"What just happened?" I asked.

Sheira looked equally baffled. "I don't know... I think he's helping us."

That seemed to be that. Shadow didn't reappear downstairs again and Crash ambled off to the main hall to stand guard. Sheira and I were left in the room to try and work out what Shadow had planned for us and whether we could trust him.

"What made him change his mind?" I asked a little later. The sun had fully set so the world outside was a constant inky shade of black. Icy winds rattled through the windows and if we were curled around the fire I had started then we would have been in for a miserable night.

Sheira shrugged and shuffled closer to the flames. "I don't know. But it's something to do with the Camp's library."

"Are there any books in there that have powers? You know like a book of names or..."

Sheira laughed, "you've been reading too much Skulduggery Pleasant."

"Impossible."

She laughed again. "And no, there isn't anything like that. Every library has a book of sigils, so it can't be that. New York does have a book of the dead, but it can only be used by a handful of elementals and Copenhagen has the Book of Monsters, but that hasn't been used for centuries."

Right... that was concerning. We both lapsed into deep thought, Sheira was probably considering our next move, I was worrying about what the heck a 'Book of the Dead' could do and if a zombie apocalypse broke out, I knew who to blame .

After a while I piped up. "I think he's looking for something."

"How'd you come to that conclusion?"

"Think about it. He wants resources and a base of operations. London is the biggest library, right?"

"Second largest. Rome is bigger, but we have more elemental books."

"So, he's trying to find something that can help him. Then there's the fact that Crash is saying that they need something, but Shadow was denying it."

"Elemental beasts are meant to show part of your personality."

"So, Crash was telling the truth. Shadow said that he didn't need money and from what he said they have something else they're aiming for. He talked about Shadow's murder spree like it was something that Shadow wants, but when he said our mission he seemed to be talking about something else. Shadow has another motive, something else he wants."

"Do you think he'll tell us?"

"Not a chance in hell."

Sheira smirked and yawned. "Come on, lets get some shut eye, we've got to be up for sunrise tomorrow."

"Good idea," I settled myself onto the couch and closed my eyes. We had a long journey ahead of us. God knows where it was going to take us, but I was certain on this, we were one step closer to recusing my family. And that was the best feeling in the world.

"Night Sheira," I called out into the dark, with a smile on my face.

"Goodnight."