Luckily, Ronnie had thick pieces of rope in the top drawer of his desk. What the fuck he had it in there for, I had no idea.

I probably didn't want to find out...

Luckily he chose not to stick around, but he did warn us that we would have to pay for any damage we caused.

Kian sat down on the heavy wooden chair that Victoria had managed to conjure up out of thin air and Michael made sure that the ropes were tight enough to stop any chance of Kaicius being able to escape.

"You okay?" I asked him as Michael finally finished with the ropes.

"Never better," Kian replied "Although I probably should have got a cushion or something, my ass is going numb already."

I couldn't help but smile. Even in our current situation, he was still able to crack a joke.

"Okay, I hope your ready for this," Victoria said as she studied her spellbook "It's going to be painful."

"More painful than having a freaking demon inside my head?" Kian asked, "Let's just get it done."

Victoria nodded and began to read from the spellbook.

"Seral Alana... Seran Viran... Jalan."

Kian began to shake in the chair, his feet stamping on the floor as he struggled against the restraints. His head fell back and his eyes rolled into the top of his head.

Shit... I had to keep calm. I clenched my fists and tried to keep my breathing steady.

"Seral Alana... Seran Viran... Kaicius."

Suddenly Kian stopped shaking. He brought his head back up but his usually blood-red eyes were jet black.
Kian was gone... Kaicius was back.

"Kaicius," Victoria said, "Hear us!"

"I hear you, bitch... sorry, witch." He smiled widely as his eyes locked onto mine "Alec, long time no see. Had enough of that idiot Kian then? I don't blame you..."

Oh no you fucking don't!

"Don't you fucking dare talk about Kian," I said cutting him off "You piece of shit."

Kaicius laughed then, and it was deep and full of malice.

"You do amuse me, little wolf," he said "I may decide not to skin you alive after all."

How bloody nice of him...

"You're going back to hell either way, Kaicius," Michael said softly "All we need from you is information."

"Michael?" Kaicius said looking over at him "Oh, I will enjoy ripping your feathers out one by one..."

"What do you know about The House Of The Apocalypse?" Michael asked.

"Well, those bastards didn't hold up their end of the bargain that's for sure," Kaicius snarled "When they released me they promised that I would be honoured as a god! But, all I got was the adoration of a bunch of stuffy, dry vampire priests. Running that Church was so fucking boring! I am so much better than that! I led the armies of hell into battle against the Heavenly Host for Christ's sake!"

"And now you're our prisoner." I said stopping his rant "So just tell us who released you. We know that Dorian Gray was involved, and there was a vampire too, right?"

"Perhaps," Kaicius replied.

"Cut the crap, Kaicius!" Michael said harshly "We know that a member of the Church is behind The House Of The Apocalypse, all we need from you is a name."

"Oh, piss off you frilly feathered ass!" Kaicius retorted "I don't need to tell you a fucking thing."

"True," Victoria agreed "But, you're going to go back to hell either way, back to Lucifer. Do you really want to take the chance that The House will manage to release him?"

"They don't stand a chance," Kaicius replied "I remember the original House, now they almost managed to release him... the kid won't be able to get anywhere close."

Kid? Well, that just didn't make sense...

"Kid?" I asked, "So they're young?"

"Or they just look young," Victoria said "Remember, whoever it is they're a vampire. Looks can be deceiving."

"Shit!" Kaicius cursed "I didn't mean to say that!"

Bit late, you already did... maybe Kaicius wasn't as smart as he made out to be.

"Just tell us their name, Kaicius, and then we can get all this over with," Michael said.

"Read my lips, Fly Boy, I am not telling you shit!" Kaicius retorted.

Michael let his wings out, almost knocking me and Victoria to the floor and in the blink of an eye the tip of his wing had Kaicius under the throat.

"Call me that again, Kaicius, I dare you," Michael replied, his voice laced with hatred and anger.

Oh, crap... don't do anything stupid Michael!

"You're not going to hurt me." Kaicius smiled "We all know that, so why don't you just keep that halo sized ego of yours in check, eh?"

"All we want is the name of the vampire behind The House Of The Apocalypse," I replied before Michael got into a full-on argument with him "Either way, we're going to send you back to hell."

"Are you sure about that?" Kaicius asked "Kian let me in willingly so you can't get me out unless I agree to let him go... and I'm never going to do that. Checkmate, I think, Alec."

Shit, he knew we were playing him...

"The House want to free Lucifer... where does that leave you?" I asked, "Once he's free of hell, do you really think that he'll need demons?"

Kaicius seemed to consider my point for a moment "Hell will reign on Earth if he is freed," Kaicius replied "And therefore demons will reign on Earth. Personally, I'd take Australia. It's just full of things that want to kill you! I could torture my human slaves in a million different ways!"

His black eyes glinted in joy at the thought of all the horror he could inflict on humanity.

Seems you could take the demon out of hell, but you couldn't take hell out of the demon...

"Except that we heard that no demons would be allowed on Earth." Victoria said "And that The House Of The Apocalypse was going to be rewarded for their loyalty and devotion to freeing Lucifer."

Where are you going with this, Vic?

"Lies!" Kaicius shouted, "Whoever told you that should be burned at the stake for their insolence!"

"Well, our source sounded very sure," Victoria continued "I mean, you could take a chance... when they free Lucifer you can see for yourself, or you could help us stop them. Tell us who is running The House and then you can be sure that you'll never go back to hell."

Kaicius frowned, thinking over Victoria's proposal. Hopefully, it was enough to convince him to tell us. We didn't really have many other options.

"You'll let me stay in this body?" Kaicius asked, "How do I know you won't just put a stake in his heart and kill him?"

Well, we had no way of getting him out... and there was no bloody way that I was going to put a stake anywhere near Kian. That was not an option I would ever consider.

"Because I love him," I replied "And I would never let anyone harm him. I would rather die, you can take my word on that. All I ask is that you let him have control. You let Kian go and stay in the back of his mind."

"Uggh, love," Kaicius grimaced "Fine, you can have him back. I'll tell you who is behind The House. But, God help you bastards if the Dark One does rise up and I lose the chance of having Australia to play with!"

He was a demon after all... It was better than I had expected to be honest, though that's not saying much. Blood and torture were what drove him. I didn't trust his words, but, I had to at least give it a shot.

"So, who is the Master then?" I asked, "Who is running The House Of The Apocalypse?"

Kaicius smiled, his eyes were full of utter glee and I had no idea why.

"Oh, you already know him," Kaicius replied "You have for a long time now. He calls himself Will Jackson."

My mind was reeling. No. Kaicius had to be lying, Will couldn't be the one behind it all... could he?

"Your wrong," I said "It can't be him."

"Believe whatever the fuck you want," Kaicius replied "I've kept up my end of the bargain."

Then before any of us could react Kaicius' black eyes went rolling into the top of his head and he began to shake violently in the chair. As I reached him his body stopped shaking and he opened his eyes, only this time they were a bright red colour. Kian.

"Kian?" I asked cautiously, still concerned that Kaicius might return any minute.

"Yeah, it's me."

"Well, thank fuck for that," Victoria replied with a sigh of relief.

As much as I was happy that Kian was back and still in one piece, what Kaicius had said begged for more information. Could it really be that Will Jackson was behind me being chosen to be turned into a werewolf by Jonathan? Was he at the head of a secret organisation with a plan to release Lucifer from hell?

Was Kaicius lying? He was a demon, after all, hardly a role model of truth, but something about his words just seemed to catch in my mind. I didn't want to believe it, but there was nothing to make me doubt what Kaicius had said.

How well did I really know Will? He had kept the fact that he was a vampire from me for years... but he was still my friend. I couldn't see him being the one to put me through all the pain that I had endured.

"What did I miss?" Kian asked as Michael untied the ropes keeping him on the chair.

"Kaicius knew that we couldn't get him out unless he agrees to go," I replied "So we made a deal with him."

"You did what?" Kian asked.

"We didn't have a lot of other options, Kian" Victoria replied "We had to find out who is behind The House Of The Apocalypse."

"So you just make deals with a fucking demon to get what you need?"

"You did." I replied "You felt like you had no choice, right? So you let him in because you needed a way out."

"That's different, and you know it." He replied with an angry sigh "Did you guys at least get a name from him?"

"Will Jackson," Victoria replied.

"He could have been lying," I added as I saw Kian's eyes flash dangerously.

"If he's right then I swear that I will rip that bastard into a million tiny little pieces." Kian replied "The Jackson Clan have had their moments, but, releasing Lucifer from hell? That's end of the world stuff."

"It would begin The Apocalypse, yes," Michael agreed "But, Lucifer's freedom puts a lot more at stake than just Earth. He has the better claim to the Throne Of Heaven than me or any of our lesser siblings."

The Throne Of Heaven?

"So, he would rule heaven?" I asked.

"Yes, he would be in control of every soul that passes." Michael confirmed, "And those that go to hell."

"But, Lucifer was an angel, right?" Victoria cut in "He was sent to hell as a punishment for rebellion."

"That's true, but, he has spent millennia locked down in the pit." Michael replied, "I doubt he'll be feeling generous towards us angels."

"Sounds like a massive 'you' problem," Victoria cut in "All the angels in heaven against just one, I'm sure you could cope."

To be fair, she made a good point...

"Lucifer won't come alone," Michael added "If the wards of hell are broken then there's no barrier to stop every demon and every dammed soul from following in his wake."

Literally hell on Earth...

Oh, shit that would be bad. Yeah, there was no way that I could live with letting that happen. Will. I would have to talk to him... find out the truth, whatever that was... I pulled out my phone and checked my messages. I had told Will where we were heading and he had read the message ten minutes ago.

I'm on my way.

Good. He should be here already then, maybe he was waiting for us out on the dance floor?

"Will is coming here anyway," I announced "I'll go and check to see if he's arrived yet."

"I'll come with you." Kian said as he got up from the chair "I need to stretch my legs after that."

I was glad, we needed time alone to get things straight. There was still a lot that I needed to tell him. We headed to the office door, which swung open by itself leaving the way open onto the dance floor.