"Oh my God, this is so weird," I said.

Standing before me in the training room of Elijah's mansion was Trey.

Or at least, the fake Trey.

I had successfully gotten a hair from Trey's head and brought it to Elijah untainted. Using the hair, Gianna was able to perform a transformation spell to change Gerrard's appearance to look like Trey's. It was fascinating, to say the least. First, Gianna let the hair hover in mid-air. Then, she muttered the spell multis cellulis. The hair turned blue in color and began glowing and shuddering. Gianna then moved the spelled hair and placed it on Gerrard's head. The blue glow washed over Gerrard and I stood watching--fascinated--as Gerrard's features transformed to look like Trey's. And after a few moments, in front of me stood the replica of my boyfriend.

"I can see why you like him," Gerrard said, examining himself in the mirror Gianna conjured.

"This is so incredibly awkward and feels so wrong," I said, staring in horror. It was like seeing Trey in Elijah's mansion. Hell, it was seeing Trey in Elijah's mansion. And I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all.

Trey--Gerrard--turned around to face me, a smirk on his face.

"I think it's great," Isobel said. She was downstairs with us since she had to be transformed, too. But mostly she was watching because she knew how strange it would be for me to see and Isobel found pleasure in anything that caused me discomfort.

"Personally, I think he's a bit small, but I guess he's good enough for you," he said.

"Hey, you know what will make this even better?" Isobel said.

"If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, then you better not," I warned, glaring at her.

"And what's going to stop me? You're angry little face?" Isobel replied with a smirk.

Without another thought, she sauntered up to Trey--err, Gerrard--and stood on her tiptoes. Then, doing the expected, she kissed him.

"Holy HELL," I shouted, lunging towards her as she exaggeratedly made out with Trey. Or Gerrard. Gianna simply stood by chuckling to herself. I pried Isobel off of Gerrard and glared at her. She merely laughed in my face, wiping away the lipstick that had smudged on her lips.

"You're a little bitch, you know that?" I said to her.

"Ah, but that was a once in a lifetime opportunity. You can't expect me to just pass it up," she replied.

"Still a bitch," I spat. She rolled her eyes.

"All right, girls, that's enough," Trey--Gerrard--said.

"He's right. We need to get on with this. We have to finish all of the transformations and then be in Rome by 11 at night, Rome-time. We have to be on time for our "night-shifts". So enough fooling around," Gianna said. We grumbled in agreement and Gianna set to work transforming the rest of us.

I was changed into a petite, middle-aged blonde woman that had a button nose and dull grey eyes. Isobel was transformed to look like an aging woman with a hunched back and large eye-glasses. I laughed in her face when she finished her transformation.

"Look, now your appearance matches what you are on the inside--an old hag," I said. Isobel muttered a curse that caused an electric shock to run through my veins. I let out a yelp and glared at her. She rolled her magnified eyes at me.

"Will you two be able to cooperate? Because if you keep bickering like this, you'll expose us as soon as we enter the Government building," Gianna snapped as she transformed Dom into a rather handsome man that looked to be in his late forties.

"Elijah would be pissed if you two screw this up," Gerrard said. I still couldn't look at him. Although I knew it wasn't actually Trey, I felt a gnawing guilt creep up the back of my neck. Just seeing him in Elijah's mansion felt so wrong.

After we finished our transformations, we gathered around in the meeting room so that Elijah could go over the plan of action one more time. We would have to be extremely careful.

Isaac had told us that to get into the building and into any departments within the building, we had to scan our handprints on a detection device. However, this detection device was not the kind that Magia Non used. It used a complex detection spell that, although probably not as strong as the truth spell that Long found, was strong enough to detect a transformation spell. So, of course, we had to get around that. Isaac had already solved this problem for us by taking the handprints of the workers we were disguised as and created a mold out of them using a complex potion.

For Gerrard, since Trey wasn't an actual member of the Government and his ID wouldn't be recognized by the scanner anyway, Isaac volunteered to fetch him at the entrance and give him a visitor's pass.

When we got to the building, we couldn't all enter at the same time. We decided on the order as such: Dom would be first (since his character was always prompt and on-time), then Gianna and I would walk in (since our characters were friends and usually came in together anyway), and Isobel would come in last (since her character tended to be late). Elijah had decided that we didn't need Klaus to come along, as it would be too many people. Gerrard would walk in a bit later. We had purposefully picked a night that Christopher worked a late shift so that it wouldn't seem suspicious.

Getting into the Department of Ancient Spells would be simple. But staying there unsuspected would be difficult. We had prepared a dialogue that we would follow about how the drinks served at the last board meeting must have been poisoned or tampered with and how we had all somehow gotten the stomach flu and couldn't come in earlier that day.

The last part of the plan was the most difficult and this was because we had no information about it. Isaac wasn't allowed in the Department of Ancient Spells, so we had little information on what exactly went on in there. While the others went around to do their 'jobs', I was given the task of looking for the actual tablet that the spell was written on. If I encountered any trouble, the others would be there to make sure it didn't get out of hand.

About an hour later, I found myself standing in the street across from where the Trinity Government building was located in Rome, Italy. The building was actually disguised as an old church. No one went into it because it was off-limits. Magia Non thought that the church was haunted and even when a soul was brave enough to go inside, they would be scared out by magical mechanisms and illusions of ghosts or phantoms. It was a little cruel, but effective.

The way to get into the Government Building itself was to step onto the alter where the old statue of Jesus was standing. There was a hidden button located on the side, which we pressed. The alter then turned so that whoever wished to go inside was facing the back brick foundation of the church. Saying an incantation while drawing the three parts of the Trinity crest opened up the wall and behind the wall lay the entrance to the enormous Trinity Government building.

We stepped into the church in our respective planned orders. Dom went first so that he would arrive at about 10:56 pm, four minutes before 11. After waiting a few minutes, Gianna and I went in, chatting happily about our "families". Isobel brought in the rear, hobbling and mumbling to herself. We were all successful in getting past the detection spell without being caught. Phase one of the plan was complete.

When I stepped inside the Government Building, I was struck by how incredibly beautiful it was. The peach marble floors shone to perfection and the walls were painted a rich golden color. At the entrance, there was a large design in the marble floors. As I gazed at it, I realized that it was the Trinity crest. Underneath it was written: Magia, Potentia, et Pax. The ceiling went up so high that I had to strain my neck to see the very top. The different levels could be seen going around the perimeter at every hundred feet or so up the building. Connected at the point in the ceiling was a large chandelier. When I looked closely at this, I saw that the lights in it were moving.

"Fairies," Gianna whispered to me.

I looked at her, wide-eyed and surprised, before changing my expression back to mild amusement and continuing to look around.

There was an information desk that stretched along one wall of the lobby level where we had entered from. There were only two secretaries sitting there, sleepily answering phone calls and scribbling notes down. Located in the very center of the lobby, underneath the large chandelier, was a beautiful fountain. It was in full color, made out of different colored metals. It formed, to no surprise, the Trinity crest. The sword and staff leaned in and in the center was the fig tree branch, creating a triangle of sorts. It was beautiful.

The Department of Ancient Spells was located below the lobby on one of the lower levels. Gianna and I made our way to the golden elevators and pushed the button to go down. As we waited, someone else came up next to us.

"Hello, Dobbs, Hanes," the man said. I inspected the man quickly until I found his badge.

"Jameson," I replied.

"Heard the whole department was out sick this morning. What was that about?" he asked, a little bounce in his step.

"Apparently they served some bad drinks at a board meeting the other day. The effects took their toll this morning," Gianna replied.

"And you're better now?" he asked, his eyes flitted from us to the entrance.

"Well, better than we did this morning. At least we're not vomiting green bile anymore," I answered, looking at the man curiously. The man named Jameson made a disgusted face.

"Must be dedicated, coming in to work at this hour," he said, pulling at his collar. Why was he so jittery?

"Well, you know how Long has us working on that big project," I said, testing to see his reaction. I saw Gianna send a glare at me, but I ignored her.

"Yeah, I heard about that, too. Things are about to get a lot different around here. Been working here for twenty years and I've never seen them make so many new security changes," the man replied. "I mean, your department alone has had the most changes. That Long is a really paranoid chap," he added quickly.

Gianna and I glanced at each other.

Dom hadn't contacted us about if he ran into any trouble with anything. If there were extra security measures, they had to be ones that were easy to by-pass. Either that, or Dom had been caught and wasn't able to contact us to abhort the mission.

The elevator finally arrived and we stepped inside.

"I'm going up, so I'll see you around," Jameson said to us in quick tones as he stepped into a different elevator. We nodded and waved. Once the doors closed, we panicked.

"Dom didn't send us a warning or anything," Gianna said.

"What if they caught him and he couldn't?" I asked.

"I guess we'll find out," she replied, but I could tell that she was worried.

"That man was weird," I said.

"He was," Gianna said, clearly distracted.

When we got down to the level the DoAS was on, we found what looked like a disaster.

In front of us were two guards, who were knocked out. The walls had burn marks on them and it was obvious there had been a fight.

"Wha-" Gianna began. I grabbed her wrist and pointed to the ground. There lay, in shattered pieces, the silver branch that we were going to use as communication.

"Where is he?" I hissed.

"Get on the ready. Clear your mind," she instructed. I did as she told. She pulled out her own silver branch and said a spell, giving the warning sign to Gerrard and Isobel.

We walked forward cautiously and then suddenly, we were momentarily paralyzed. I felt a cold sensation run over me, as if water were being poured over my head. And as soon as it had hit us, we were free. I looked over at Gianna and then gasped. She looked at me at the same time and her eyes widened in horror.

"Our disguises!" I said.

And then we were surrounded by sounds.

"STOP! You are completely surrounded. If you want your friend alive, you won't move a muscle," we heard a voice say.

Gianna turned to me.

"Turpo!" she yelled. I screamed in agony as I felt my face contorting and become disfigured. Our disguises had disappeared and Gianna needed to change my face in case there were security cameras. We couldn't let people recognize who I was. In the reflection of a mirror that was mounted in the corner of the ceiling, I saw that I looked like a completely different person. Gianna had even changed the color of my eyes to be amber.

Out of the shadows several men in security outfits came out. They looked burly and strong, but together, Gianna and I were stronger.

"Where is he?" Gianna asked.

"Come without a fight and we'll take you to him," one of the men, the one that had spoken before, said. It seemed he was the leader. I looked around and counted. There were ten of them. We were greatly out-numbered.

"Well, you see, we can't do that," Gianna said in a calm voice.

With a snap of her fingers, the dim fluorescent lights fused, sending sparks flying down on top of the four men that were standing behind us. Springing into action, I turned the sparks into flames, which fused together into a long rope, which I whipped around the four men. They screamed in agony and I was glad that the only way to put out fire was to use water. And being the only person in the room that was a water master, I was the only one with that ability.

While I was doing this, Gianna was battling three men at once, deflecting their curses. Deflection was really the only thing we could do.

"We have to hurry before they call the rest of the security!" she cried to me.

I nodded and pulled my own silver branch out just as the remaining three men came after me. I started running, throwing deflection spells behind me. I sent another message through the branch to Isobel and Gerrard, telling them that we needed help. Then I turned to fight the guards with my full attention.

"Little girl, you think you can beat us?" one of the men asked.

I felt my eyebrow arch at him. Little girl?

"Lapis ad harena!" I cried. The stone floor beneathe the men's feet began trembling and started to give way. The stone transformed into sand and the men began sinking. Two of them jumped to stable ground, while one sank. One of the guys tried to help the sinking man while the other turned to me. He started to shout a spell at me.

"Confuto!" I yelled and the man's voice disappeared. In the few seconds that his voice vanished and he realized it, I turned the sand back into stone so that the man that was sinking was now trapped. One down. Two more to go.

The silenced man removed my silencing charm and glared viciously at me.

"Clever. But not enough," he hissed. "Angustus!" he shouted.

Before the spell took it's effect, I thought Inverto and the spell turned around and hit him instead. Think the spells from now on, Caley. Think!

The man became wrapped in his own invisible ropes and struggled with them for a few moments. I heard a shout and was distracted momentarily. And those few seconds of distraction were costly to me. The man that was previously helping the now stone-entrapped man took my momentary distraction as a way to direct a flaming fireball at me. The flaming orb grazed my cheek, searing it.

I shouted in pain and my hand immediately went to the now raw skin on my cheek. The man who had thrown the orb smirked at me. Trying to ignore the numbing pain, I decided I needed to get rid of these two men once and for all and try to find the tablet. We were running out of time and I was almost certain that the shout I had heard was reinforcement coming. We needed to get out of there and we needed to get out fast.

"First of all," I began, taking note of the torch that was lit on the wall next to me. That was probably where he took the orb from. "I am clever," I said.

Amplifico!

The flame on the torch doubled in size. The man looked at it.

"Second of all, this hurt," I said, pointing to my cheek.

Pervenio!

The torch flew into my hand.

"And third of all," I started.

I threw the torch in the air towards the remaining two men in front of me. Ignis serpentium! The fire turned into a hissing snake, whipping out it's tongue of flames. It slithered towards the two men, who stared at it in horror. The spell I was using was beyond their realm of magic. It was a special spell that Elijah had taught me.

"Amplifico," I muttered, making the snake grow even larger in size. I could feel the toll that the spell was taking on my energy reserves. I tapped into the energy of the surrounding stones, absorbing the minerals they provided. They blackened in response, dying as I took their resources.

"Inpugnatio," I said and the snake lurched forward, opening it's jaw wide to consume the two men in flames. I heard them scream in agony as they were engulfed in the vicious burning fire. I reached out with my mind to sense theirs and immediately my thoughts were filled with the fear that encompassed their minds. As soon as they lost consciousness--but did not die--I pulled the

"Ignis ad aqua," I whispered.

The fire serpent became water and then disappeared.

I went up to the two men that were now lying on the ground, trembling in pain.

"Third of all, I am not a little girl," I said. And then I was off. I ran back to see what was going on and to see if Gianna was all right.

I skidded to a halt when I reached what used to be the entrance of the DoAS. There was a full on battle going on here now. The original men that had come to stop us were knocked unconscious all over the ground. It looked as if Gianna had successfully taken them out. But now, there were about fifty others in their place.

Isobel and Gerrard had made it in time and I saw Dom as well. There were only five of us and fifty of them. We really needed to get out.

"Watch out!" Gerrard shouted as a stone came hurling towards my face. I ducked just in time and the stone hit the wall behind my head.

"FIND THE TABLET!" Gianna yelled at me.

"What about you all?!" I shouted back, deflecting a curse that came my way.

"JUST GO!" she yelled.

I glanced at her uncertainly and then nodded, running off to the back. As I ran, the sounds of the battle at the entrance became muffled. I heard the dull sounds of an alarm going off and I knew they were evacuating the building upstairs. I needed to hurry. We needed to get out of there.

The further I went in the Department of Ancient Spells, the longer it seemed to get. There were shelves upon shelves of spells. I wondered if all of them were ancient spells or if some were spells that we used today. I forced myself to focus on the task at hand.

I noticed, as I ran, that the shelves were labelled by country. I knew that the spell Long was talking about was from Egypt. I ran into one of the sections that was labelled 'Egypt'. There were hundreds of spells here, all wrapped individually in plastic bags. I rifled through a few and then let out an aggravated sigh.

The spell wouldn't be here. It was high priority, so it wouldn't be amongst these ordinary spells. Leaving the section, I continued my search, the feeling of incredible pressure increasing. Soon enough, I neared the end of the department. A dead end. Now what was I going to do?

I heard a scuffle and looked around. Running out from between the last set of shelves was Long. He stopped when he saw me.

His glasses were lopsided and his hair was sticking up in all directions. But he had a wild look in his eyes that could only mean one thing: he deciphered the spell.

"Give it here, Long," I said.

"Oh, I-I don't think so," he replied, hugging the tablet close to his chest.

"Give it here or I'll destroy it in your hands," I said stepping closer to him. He stepped back.

"Doesn't matter. It won't change the fact that it's stored up here," he said, tapping at his temple. I glared at him.

"Then I'll just kill you," I said.

"You won't do that," he said, continuing to back up as I stepped closer to him.

"Oh? And how do you know that?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Because, that's not who you are," he replied. "Caley Lucia," he added.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

He knew.

"How did you--" I began.

"The spell is very effective," he said, nodding at the tablet in his hands.

The bastard. He had performed the spell on me without my knowledge. At least he hadn't known before. That would have compromised my position.

"I don't understand, though," he said. "Why did you join Cain?" he asked.

"Because he gave me the thing that everyone else refused to give me," I said.

"And that is?" he asked. He was unnaturally calm about all of this. Clearly he had no idea of the amount of power I had.

"Answers," I replied. "Answers about what happened to my mother. Answers about who she really was," I said.

Long laughed, a sound that echoed around the room. We were so far away from the onslaught at the entrance. No one could hear us.

"What makes you think he was being honest with you?" he asked.

"Clearly he was. You all have confirmed it. She was a traitor to the Order. A spy for the dark side. That's exactly what Cain told me," I said.

"Did he tell you how she died?" he asked. I felt anger bubble up inside of me.

"How dare you ask about her death?" I hissed. My fingers twitched and I wanted nothing more than to strangle him at that moment.

"Did he tell you?" he repeated, unfazed by my evident anger.

"He told me my father killed her. She tried to break the curse on our family and he didn't let her," I answered.

"And you believe that?" he asked.

"You know, you're pretty confident for a man who's family is in danger," I said, rage filling my mind. His face paled.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Oh, you don't know?" I asked, tilting my head to the side. It was obvious he didn't. He was probably holed up in the department the whole week, trying to figure out the spell. "Your daughters are currently occupying a cell in Cain's dungeons," I informed him. "So if you don't cooperate..." I laughed, hearing it echo around the room. "Well, then, we can't gurantee their safety," I finished.

"I swear to God if you hurt them--" he began.

"What?" I interrupted. "What will you do? Make us tell the truth?" I taunted. "Well, I'm sorry to inform you, but a truth spell isn't going to save your daughters now," I said. "Unless of course you hand it over," I said.

"Fine. Take it," he said, tossing the tablet at me. I reached to grab it before it fell and in that time, I felt an electric shock course through my veins. I shouted in pain, doubling over and holding my stomach. The tablet fell on the ground and shattered.

"SHIT!" I shouted, heaving up air. The electric shock that he had administered through my body had been extremely powerful.

Long used my moment of weakness to run. I glared after him.

Angustus!

He tripped and fell as the invisible ropes wrapped around him. I got up and began walking towards him. He had taken the spell off and had also gotten up.

"Such a coward. Why don't you stay back and fight like a man?" I said, feeling my strength come back with every step I took towards him. He slashed his arm through the air and a blazing light sliced through the air towards me. I moved out of the way and it hit the shelf behind me, slicing it clean in half. I stared horrified. What the hell was that?

"That's more like it," I said facing him again. We began circling around, staring each other down.

"So sad that you're using your power for evil. You're mother would be ashamed of you," Long said.

"You have no idea what my mother would have thought," I spat.

"I didn't take you for the naiive girl that you are acting like now. I really thought you'd be smarter than to trust that man," Long said.

He was really annoying me with all this talk about my decisions.

"I'm a lot smarter than you think," I said.

"Oh, I know you are. But you aren't acting like it," he answered.

"Did you know I was a spy all along?" I asked.

"The thought crossed my mind," he replied.

"And you thought you'd sit back and wait?" I asked.

"I wanted it to play out for itself. I must say, though, that your treason has showed its colors earlier than I expected," he answered. I glared at him.

"I'm just trying to finish what my mother started," I said.

"And what might that be?" he mused, a cocky smirk on his lips. "Become a traitor to everyone you love?" he asked.

That was it. He had provoked me enough. I wasn't going to stand there any longer and let him talk about my mother like that. He had no idea, no idea what she had gone through.

"She only loved one person and that was my father. And he let her down. I'm not going to let her death have been for nothing," I said.

"You-" he started to say, but I entrapped him in a full body-binding curse. He was under my control now. I levitated him up in the air so that he hovered a few feet from the ground. I curled my fingers inward and his body curved unnaturally. He screamed in pain. Keeping him in that position, I extracted a heavy stone from the wall behind me. I gave it a strong force and brought it down on his abdomen, striking him down so he hit the hard stone floor with a crash. The force of the impact was enough to knock the breath out of him. But he was still under my control.

I raised him up again.

"My mother was an incredible woman," I said, approaching him. His spine was definitely damaged, if not broken.

"You like to play with electricity?" I asked him. I took the electricity from one of the lights above and sent a wave through him. I watched as he convulsed, screaming in agony. I smirked.

"I watched my mother die, did you know? She died right here in my arms," I said, changing the electricity that was running through his veins into fire. He shouted in pain. "I heard her scream like that for nearly thirteen years of my life. Do you know what it's like to see a loved one suffer?" I continued. "No, of course not. Because you have the perfect life with the perfect family. You have no idea what it was like," I said, my voice trembling with rage and emotion as I started to lose control. I wanted nothing more than to kill the man right there and then. I wanted him to die. I wanted him to suffer like my mother did. Someone had to suffer. Someone had to suffer besides me.

I clenched my hand again, bending his back again. He shouted, the sound echoing around the room.

"What the hell are you doing?!" I heard a voice yell, but I ignored it. Taking the electricity from another light, I made a whip out of it. Just before I brought the whip down on him, I was thrown back. My hold on Long disappeared and I crashed back first into a shelf of spells.

"What are you doing?! Where's the spell?" Gianna cried. I glared at her, angry because she stopped me. Gerrard, Isobel and Dom came running up after her.

"It's clear, but we don't have long--" Isobel started but stopped when she saw the crumpled Long on the ground. "What happened?" she asked.

"Where is the spell?" Gianna hissed at me.

"He destroyed it," I said, pointing at Long. Gianna's eyes looked at the very broken Long on the ground. He was unmoving, but still alive.

"Get him," Gianna ordered Dom. "And you get her," she snapped at Gerrard. Gerrard came up to me and helped me up. I shook him off.

"Come on. We need to get out of here now," Gerrard said. Dom picked Long up and we all made our way outside. At the entrance of the DoAS there were bodies strewn on the ground. It had been a vicious fight, but it was only just the beginning.

Once we stepped into the church, we all turned on the spot and transported back to Elijah's manor. The mission had been successful.

We got the spell.

______________________________________________________________________

A/N: This was a really difficult chapter to write. I don't think I've ever written an action chapter before, which is why this was so hard. It's easy when you're watching it, but writing it is difficult. So let me know how I did. Success?

Caley's a bad ass. Do you think she really would have killed Long if Gianna hadn't shown up?

Leave me a comment! And don't forget to VOTE!!

Next chapter is the long-awaited letter chapter (and also the last chapter of Book 2).

XOXO