I woke and my head was still banging with the pain of being knocked out.

Fuck it, that hurt like hell...

Sitting up I realised that I was laying on the bottom bunk of a metal bed. My eyes soon focused on Michael's blue ones as he sat on the floor leaning against the wall, Victoria was next to him pacing up and down.

"He's awake," Michael announced, smiling at me.

"Alec! Thank God."

"Please tell me I'm dreaming." I asked as Victoria stopped her frantic pacing "And that Kian didn't just have me knocked out and then locked up like some sort of criminal."

She didn't answer straight away, there was no need to, I knew the truth. I'd fucking seen it for myself and had the lump on the back of my head for my troubles. I had no idea what the hell was going on with Kian, but whatever it was... it wasn't good.

"Alec, that wasn't Kian." she eventually replied "I mean, it was him, but not the Kian you know. He must have had his memory wiped somehow, maybe it was a spell..."

"Stop!" I said "Just stop. Please."

I knew that she meant well, but it didn't help the situation. She did have a point, Kian hadn't acknowledged me at all. Maybe it was a spell, and that was the reason that he'd left? Brainwashing, not a kidnapping. I wasn't sure which idea was worse...

And how the fuck do I save Kian if he doesn't remember me?

Does he even want to be saved?

"The High Lord is your missing friend?" Michael asked.

I nodded.

"Alec, I will do everything in my power to help you."

"Me too." Victoria added, "Whatever the reason is for him not remembering us, we'll fix it together."

"Yeah, whatever the reason is, but first we have to find a way out of this bloody cell."

"I may have a solution to that particular issue." Michael said, getting up from the floor and heading over to the door "We call the guard, overpower them and then make our way to the High Lord's chambers and kidnap your friend."

Well, that was a fucking awful plan. Seriously, was that the best he could come up with? My brother Dylan would be able to come up with a better bloody plan than that!

"Your kidding, right?"

"Actually, I think that Michael has a point." Victoria cut in "We have no idea what's going on with Kian, the best thing we can do is get him away from this place."

"Yeah, your forgetting about the hoard of bloody vampire priests, they're not just going to let us take him without a fight, Vic."

"Maybe not, but you're not just going to give up on him now, are you?"

"No." I admitted "I love him too much for that, but he looked at me and he didn't see me. There was no recognition in his eyes at all, and that's fucking killing me."

It really was. Having Kian look right at me and not know who I was, that was the worst thing I could possibly imagine. Shit. I could feel the emotion begin to well up.

Keep it together, Colby... keep it fucking together...

"So, your plan was to call the guard?" I asked, quickly changing the subject "How do you want to do this?"

"One of us could pretend to be ill." Michael replied, "We call for help, and then tackle the guard when they come in and take them hostage, just in case we hit problems on our way to pick your friend up."

Damn it! We didn't have a better plan, and time was running out for us to escape before the guard were ready to come and get us. Ah! What the hell... we might as well go for it.

"Okay," I said, "I'll pretend to be in pain, you two call for help."

Victoria and Michael took positions on either side of the door, while I laid down on the floor and then held my stomach and moaned loudly in pretend agony.

"Guard!" Victoria shouted "We need help in here! Guard! Please!"

After a moment a gruff voice floated through the door.

"What's going on in there?"

"Please!" Victoria shouted back "It's my friend, he just collapsed!"

"Bloody hell, I don't get paid enough for this..." the voice replied "Okay, stand back from the door, I'm coming in now."

I kept pretending to be in pain as I heard the lock click open and the door scrape along the floor.

Almost... we nearly have him...

The guard's footsteps echoed as he stepped into the cell, then before he could even speak Michael had popped his wings out and hit the guard on the back of the head knocking him out cold. I jumped up from the floor and caught him just before he collapsed.

"We need to discuss the right time for you to get your wings out." I said to him as I laid the guard down on the bottom bunk "We meant to use him as a hostage, not knock him out!"

"Sorry, I got excited."

I blinked and Michael had folded his wings back away again. Victoria walked over to the door and poked her head outside.

"We're clear out here."

"Then let's go," I said following her out into a brightly lit hallway.

"How can we know which way leads to the High Lord's office?" I asked looking around.

"Dirt," Michael replied with a smile.

"Dirt?" Victoria asked him, looking just as confused as I felt "What do you mean?"

"I mean, dirt." Michael put a hand in his jacket pocket and pulled out a small handful of brown, grey dirt "I picked it up before we were met by the guards, I thought that it might come in handy."

"How the fuck is dirt going to help us find Kian?"

"Because I can use some of it for a compass spell." Victoria smiled "Well, done Angel Boy, you're not entirely useless."

Michael grinned as he dropped a pinch of the dirt into Victoria's hand.

For the record, I still thought that it was fucking odd for a guy to pick up dirt from the floor and keep it in his pocket. Really bloody odd.

Victoria held the dirt tight in her palm and began to chant, as she did a weird black smoke-like substance poured out from between her closed fingers.

"Deeno Jai Nanok... Deeno Kiv Ono... Deeno Jai Nanok... Deeno Kiv Ono..."

The smoke formed into a thick ball and went shooting off down the tunnel to our right. We wasted no time in running after the odd substance as it shot around corners and past wooden doors leading the way through the maze.