I crack the door open and look both ways down the street. I can see one of the Arc SUVs a block down. The other SUV, the one we need, is parked across the street from us.

"Ready?" I ask Eko.

He nods and grips my hand so tightI think he might accidentally snap my fingers off.

Armed with disguises of sweaters and hats lent to us by the pack, we walk as casually as we can down the steps and across the street. We're halfway there when the Arc SUV starts moving towards us.

"Now!" I cry and we break out into a run, dragging Eko along behind me.

I yank open the door to the vehicle and leap inside, flinging myself down on the seat. Eko stumbles in after me.

"Drive! Drive!" I yell at Vimmy who's sitting calmly in the driver's seat reading a magazine.

He looks back at me and grins. He's back in his Ogre form and his tusks look even bigger than I remember.

"Have a nice visit?" He asks as he turns the car on and pulls out of his parking spot.

"What are you doing!?" I shout. "Hurry!"

The other SUV is picking up speed behind us and it'll be on us in less than a minute.

"Relax. I've got everything well in hand."

We turn down a side road.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Four explosions in quick succession shake the car and I scream. I peer out the back window, trying to see what caused it but all I can see are four black pillars of smoke. The SUV that was following us doesn't round the corner.

"What the hell just happened!?" I demand. "Did you blow them up!?"

Vimmy gives me a crooked grin and a thumbs up then turns on the radio. The station is playing smooth jazz and he bobs his head along to the music as we cruise down the streets. Eyes wide with shock, I turn to Eko. He seems unbothered by the situation behind us and is focused on the music.

"Can you play anything better?" He asks grouchily, leaning forward to try to touch the buttons on the dash. "This nonsense is wearing on my nerves."

Vimmy slaps his hand away. "Hands off! Hasn't anyone ever told you the driver picks the music? No, I suppose they haven't."

A string of cops cars with blaring sirens fly past us heading towards the pack house.

"Are we all just going to ignore the fact that Vimmy just murdered at least four people!?"

I turn pleading eyes to Eko but his face is cold and staring straight ahead. "They were there to capture me and likely kill you. Would you have preferred that?"

If his face is cold then his tone is like ice.

I sputter. "Of course not but that doesn't justify-"

"Justify?" Eko's head snaps around and his eyes burn with anger. "Was what they did to me justified? Is this not simply retribution?"

"I...I don't-" I stammer.

"Would it placate your fragile sense of right and wrong if we called Kravimik a hero and the Arc a villain? Would it justify their deaths if we said those who died were evil?"

I shake my head, not in disagreement but in confusion as the venom in his words assault me.

"Wait, go back. What did they do to you?" Vimmy asks with one raised eyebrow.

"They stole my magic to power their cities, built the foundation of their society on my back, and now without my presence it appears that the peace amongst their people will crumble, leaving me to decide whether an entire civilization is worth my life."

Vimmy chuckles. "Yeah, they did that to all of us."

"Then they deserve to suffer as they have made us suffer."

"Amen, brother."

Vimmy turns onto the highway.

"Um, Vimmy?" I ask, nerves shot, hands shaking. "Where are you going? My apartment is that way."

"Oh yeah," he throws an apologetic look over his shoulder. "About that. We're not going back there. The whole place is surrounded by Guards."

Panic shoots through me. "But what about-"

"Cat carriers in the trunk. I couldn't get anything else but I knew the two of you would storm the place if I left the little one."

Eko, quick as lightning, turns around in his seat and fishes the carrier out from the trunk. He extracts a slightly frazzled Snot from it who lets out a pitiful yowl. I snatch her from his arms and turn her over carefully in my hands, checking for any injuries. Satisfied that she's unharmed, I hand her back to Eko who takes her from me gently and buries his face in her fur.

Vimmy watches us in the rearview mirror. "Wow, man. You're really into that cat."

"She soothes me." Eko snaps.

Even though I agree with Vimmy, I keep my mouth shut just to stay out of Eko's line of fire.

We take the highway out of the city and continue on until Vimmy takes an offramp with a sign for Tealton, a town I've never heard of that boasts a population of nine hundred. The town is so small that one blink and I would have missed it. Buildings give way to trees and soon the branches are so thick they start to block out the sunlight. We take a turn down a dirt road that winds through the forest until we reach a wrought iron gate. Vimmy pulls a button from the centre console that reminds me of a garage door opener and presses it. The gate swings inward.

It takes us another ten minutes of driving before we reach the end and the whole time I can't help but think what a pain it would be to have this long of a driveway when it snows. When the house comes into view, though, every other thought slips away.

It's a sprawling estate made of glass, concrete, and steel with manicured lawns giving way to dense forest on all sides. To the right, a six doored garage sits, the closest already rising to allow us entry.

As we pull in I suck in a breath. The garage is already packed. I'm no car expert but even I can spot a Ferrari logo.

"What is this place?"

Vimmy cuts the engine. "It's my house."

We enter through the garage by way of a door that's so large it almost reaches the ceiling. Vimmy steps through it with ease despite his massive frame. He leads us through a kitchen that looks like it was designed to feed an army and into a living room decorated with leather and dark tones. A roaring fireplace greets us.

I turn in a slow circle, taking it all in.

Eko lets out a huff. "So I was staked to a wall in a dark basement and somehow you ended up with a castle, is that correct?"

"It's not really a castle," Vimmy chuckles. "More like a mansion."

"Did the Arc give this to you?" Eko demands. "Did they give you this while I was deprived of sunlight? While they rubbed salt into my bleeding wounds?"

The light smile that always graces Vimmy's lips drops a bit. "No, of course not."

"And yet you have it."

"Hey, man," Vimmy puts a hand on Eko's arm but Eko jerks away.

He turns his back to us, shoulder heaving, Snot held tightly in his arms.

"I think today has gotten to your head a little bit," Vimmy says gently. "And maybe your magic is building up a bit too much now that you're healing. Why don't you let Lexi feed from you? It'll make you feel better."

"I mean, if you think it'll help," I say, taking a nervous step towards Eko.

"So she can steal my magic like the Arc has?" Eko snapped. "No. I will not be touched by another leech."

I draw back, stung by his words. He turns on his heels and storms off leaving me confused and hurt.

"He doesn't know where he's going," Vimmy sighs, jogging after him. "I'll be right back. Make yourself at home!"

"He took my cat," I call weakly after them but they're already out of sight.

Left alone I wander around the living room. One wall is made entirely of windows which overlook a rose garden and, further away, the forest. The opposite wall is dedicated to books. Rows and rows of volume fill the shelves and I brush my fingertips along their spines. Picking one at random I take it over to the couch. Just as I'm about to sit down, the flash of light on glass catches my eye. A bar. God bless Vimmy.

I pick the most expensive looking bottle I can find and carry it and a glass over to the couch. I'm about to pour when I think better of it and take a swig straight from the bottle. It burns all the way down and I cough. Cradling the bottle in the crook of my elbow I open the book and begin to read. It's Sun Tzu's The Art of War  of all things.

I'm so engrossed in reading that I don't even hear when Vimmy enters the room. He's back in his human form and has changed into a pair of grey sweatpants. I lick my lips.

"No shirt?"

I frown at him as he slides onto the couch beside me, picking up my legs he deposits them onto his lap.

He chuckles and begins to rub my feet. It feels so amazing that my protest dies on my lips. He works the arch of my foot with firm hands and I melt under his touch.

"I wish I could say it's for your benefit," he says. "But really it's just easier to access my weapons this way."

"You know what," I sigh as he unravels a particularly nasty knot. "You can do whatever you want."

"I'm glad I have your approval."

I take a swig from the bottle and offer it to him. He accepts and swallows almost half of it.

"Is Eko still upset?" I ask as he passes it back to me.

"He'll live. I think it was just a shock for him."

"I don't understand why it matters," I frown, staring up at the ceiling. "Why was it better when he thought they were experimenting on him? Why does it upset him so much that they were using him for something else? It all results in the same thing, doesn't it?"

"Hmmm," Vimmy rumbles and the sound is so deep that I can feel the vibration against my legs. "I think it's easier for him to accept that they were scared of him and his power. It's always been like that for us. Back before we were in the seal the humans would hunt us. We knew that they were scared of the things they didn't understand and would try to kill us because of it and we accepted that. To then find out that they did understand and stole his life from him anyway... Well, that's how you treat livestock."

We sit in silence for a long time and my heart aches for Eko. Eko who gave up his life twice. Once because he was asked and another time because he was forced.

"Tell me about your tattoos," I say because the way I felt when Eko snapped at me and the way I feel when I think about his suffering is confusing and I don't want to deal with that right now.

"What do you want to know?"

"How do they work? Do they need special ink? Or a shaman or something to do the tattooing?"

Vimmy laughs. "You think Ogres have shamans?"

I shrug and take another sip of alcohol. "I know less about Ogres than I do about Succubi which is to say not a lot."

His fingers work their way up to my calves and the tight muscles there. I melt under his touch.

"No, they don't need anything special. Just a skilled hand. Obviously the finer the detail the better the result but the magic that makes them come to life comes from the Ogre. I suppose the only real requirements are that the tattoo is done in one sitting and the Ogre focuses on the intention of the tattoo for the duration."

I extract my legs from his hands and learn in close so I can get a good look at the ink that covers his body.

"Why one sitting?" I ask as I trace the lines on his shoulder.

I must be a little tipsy. Or maybe it's the werewolf magic that's still coursing through me. Either way I'm enjoying the feeling of his skin under my fingertips.

"I don't know exactly how the magic works," Vimmy says, "But the piece won't come out whole otherwise. There was a story in my clan about an Ogre who had a sword tattooed on his body that was done in two sessions. He tried to use it for the first time in battle and the blade separated from the hilt as soon as he pulled it from his skin. He died holding that hilt."

"So how long did this one take?" I ask, touching a tattoo of a woman.

She's old and hunched over. Her boney hands are clutching a lantern which illuminates her weeping face. The linework is so fine it looks like she's a real woman trapped inside his skin.

"Two days."

I let out a low whistle. "The artist must have been exhausted. What does she do? Another disguise?"

He catches my hand and my eyes slide up to meet his. "I can't tell you all my secrets or there will be nothing left to surprise you with later."

I roll my eyes and smile. "Then why don't you show me a different tattoo? Which one is your favourite?"

He grins at me and stands. He turns his back so I can't see what he's doing and when he turns around there's a hawk clutching his arm. She's a gorgeous creature with brown feathers, a white underbelly, and a band of dark feathers across her chest.

"This is Vishjisk."

The hawk screeches and takes flight. I gasp. The ceilings of the room are high but not high enough for a real flight. I expect the hawk to reach the top, realise she's trapped, and return but instead she lands on a perch I didn't even notice. Now that I'm looking I can see the whole room is designed with landing spots for her. Even the skylight has a latch so that it can open.

Vimmy whistles and Vishjisk lets out another screech, diving towards the floor. I cry out in alarm as she aims right for Vimmy. I think she's going to knock him off his feet but he catches her in his arms and absorbs her back into his skin.

He turns and gives me a dazzling smile. "What do you think?"

I clap and let out a whoop. "Amazing!"

"She's my best friend," he says, plopping himself back down onto the couch. "She's the only thing that kept me sane in the seal."

"She's beautiful," I say. "And you built this house with her in mind."

He nods and stares up at the ceiling. "She deserves the best."

"How did you build this place? Weren't you locked away like Eko?"

He chuckles. "No. A few of us didn't stick around to see what those scientists wanted. As soon as those doors opened I was halfway home before they could so much as blink. It's a good thing, too, because it doesn't seem like any good came out of their warm welcome."

"So what's your story, then? How did you end up locked up after all?"

His fingers dance a trail up my legs. "It's not much of a story. When I got back to my clan's territory I couldn't find a trace of them. I don't know if it's because they were wiped out or because they were so interbred with humans that they were indistinguishable from them but either way there was nothing for me there.

"When the world started falling apart after the flood it was easy enough to find work as muscle for hire. I started working as a low level grunt for a private security firm using the name Carl Vimik. I took on bigger and more dangerous jobs, made some good money, and eventually started my own firm. We specialised in the jobs that no one else was willing to take on. Hostage extraction, assassination, that sort of thing.

"I did that for over a hundred years. There's a lot of turnover in an industry like that so no one ever questioned why I didn't age. I would just swap out identities every once in a while and never let anyone get too close.

"About eight years back I was working a job for a drug lord, taking out a rival cartel that had set up base inside some Mayan ruins when things went south. There was an explosion and I was knocked unconscious. A piece of shrapnel must have hit my human tattoo and forced me back into my Ogre body and, when I came to, I was trapped inside a triple reinforced iron cage in an Arc facility.

"The scientists thought I'd been hiding in those ruins since the seal was broken. They just assumed I was about as smart as a rock and treated me like it. They gave me blocks and showed me flashcards to try to test my intelligence and I played them like I was stupid. It's always best to be underestimated by your enemy. They would talk about me like I wasn't there, talk about the experiments they would run on me, talk about the magic they were stealing from me, talk about the other members of the seal they'd managed to get their hands on.

"From them I learned that Amaelia and Eko were in that facility with me so when the power went out that night and there was no more electricity running through the bars of my cage I broke it apart with my bare hands and went to find them. I got to Amaelia first. They had her bound and gagged in a salt circle. I broke it and released her. When I found Eko's room he was already gone, just a bloody pair of wings left. I thought he'd managed to hack them off himself. I'm honestly surprised he didn't."

"His hands and feet were shackled with iron,"

"Still," Vimmy smiles. "I bet if you hadn't come along he'd have figured out how to get out anyway."

"Maybe. But I still don't understand how this place was just waiting around for you. Weren't you presumed dead if you've been missing for eight years?"

"In my line of business the chance of capture is always pretty high. My estate is set up so that I have to be missing for at least fifteen before they execute my will. And before you ask how that's legal, it isn't. I just have a team of very good, very discreet lawyers."

"So you're rich rich," I tease. "And you owe me a life debt?"

"Absolutely," he grins. "Everything I have is yours to use. Anything you want, you can take."

The way his eyes flick to my lips makes me think we aren't talking about his big house or expensive cars.

He leans in, takes the empty bottle from my hands, and deposits it on the ground. "Tell me, Lexi, what is it that you want?"

He's so close and the power rolling off of him is intoxicating. I lick my lips. All I would have to do is lean forward just a little bit. Just. A. Bit.

Eko's face flashes through my mind and it sends a shock of ice down my spine. I jerk away from him.

"I'm sorry I- I think I want to go have a nap. It's just been such a long day."

Vimmy pulls back and turns away so I can't see his face. "Of course, you must be exhausted. There's a guest wing down the hall and to the left. You can pick whichever room you want."

But I don't plan on finding a room. I plan on finding Eko.