Councillor Lipman had led the way through the neverending corridors, the identical black metal doors set into the stark white walls every couple of metres making it impossible to keep track of which direction we were walking in.

I just hoped that we weren't fucking lost...

Eventually, we stopped outside a black metal door that looked to me like all of the others, but it was obviously the one we had been looking for as Councillor Lipman knocked once on the door before stepping back as it clunked open.

"Don't get too close." she warned "He keeps trying to bite the attendants."

Great! Being stuck in a room with an angry werewolf was exactly what I bloody needed. I was starting to doubt that the prophecy Daryll had given me was real. But, I needed to find Kian, that wasn't even a question.

Fuck it. I had to do this, no turning back now...

Taking a deep breath I crossed the threshold into the bright white light coming from the room.

Jonathan was tied in a white straight jacket, he sat on the food leaning up against the hard looking metal bed that was the only object in the cell. As I entered the room his eyes looked up at me, their usual brightness seemed dampened, but his smile still sent a shiver down my spine, as did the sound of the door shutting behind me.

Oh, shit. Keep it calm Alec... keep calm...

His sandy blonde hair had grown long in the weeks since he has been arrested and his beard had grown to become scraggly and unkempt. Prison did him no favours.

"Alec Colby." Jonathan croaked "I had a feeling that I would be seeing you."

Don't let him get to you...

"Nice place you have here." I said taking a step towards him "Going for the Spartan look I see."

Jonathan laughed "Still cracking out the jokes, eh? We could have had a good thing if you had joined me."

"You tried to frame me for murder, and then you tried to kill me and my friends." I retorted "So, that was never going to happen."

"Bullshit."

"Sorry, what?" I asked confused.

"What you just said, it's bullshit." Jonathan repeated "You wanted to join me, I could feel it. We have a deep bond you and me."

Like fuck we do...

"You attacked me, made me into what I am, that's about as far as our bond goes. Sorry to burst your bubble."

Jonathan laughed then, it sounded like he had swallowed a load of sandpaper. I guess he hadn't had much reason to talk.

"You're still so naive," Jonathan cooed "So innocent. I opened up the world for you, Alec and yet you're still blind to everything that it holds."

Fuck me, he really is mad...

I would hardly call myself innocent to all the evil and dark shit out there. I drank regularly, put every kind of drug you could imagine in my body and had even seen several people die. Jonathan was himself responsible for the bodies.

Yeah, he might have opened up the door to the supernatural world for me, but it had been Kian who had truly showed me everything it held and for me, that mattered more.

"I don't think so." I replied "Because you don't know me. You know fuck all about who I am, and you never will."

"I know that you're here about the missing leech."

How the fuck did he know that?

I had no idea how the hell he had found out that Kian was missing, but I did know that the restrained wolf in front of me held the answers to who had kidnapped him.

I needed to know.

"Do you know who took him?" I asked.

Jonathan laughed then, his husky voice sounding more like a bark until he ended up coughing. He brought up a load of phlegm and spat it out in the corner of the room.

"Of course I do." Jonathan replied, "Doesn't mean I'm going to tell you."

Huh. I might have seen this one coming. Of course, he wasn't going to make this easy for me. Damn him!

"I should have known better than to come here." I said "You don't know who took Kian, or where he is. I think I'm just going to leave."

I turned and headed back to the door, but barely got a chance to put my hand on the cold metal handle before Jonathan spoke.

"I'll tell you where you can find the leech." Jonathan said slowly "But, I'm not going to tell you who took him."

"Okay then, I'm listening."

"No. Not like that." Jonathan replied "I have some terms, things I want first. Then you'll get your information."

I frowned at him. What the fuck did he think I could do for him? It's not like I had any say over The Council.

"What do you want?" I asked, my mind still trying to come up with any clues about what Jonathan was about to ask of me.

"Don't look so worried, pup." He smiled "I know that I'm never going to get my freedom back. I'm aware of that. What I want is something that only you can give me."

"And what's that?"

"Your forgiveness."

What the fuck?

After everything he had done, everything I had been put through because of him... and he wanted my forgiveness? I could forgive a lot of things, but Jonathan had put me through so much that there was no bloody way I could ever forgive him.

"My soul is destined for hell, Alec." he said "I don't have any regrets about what I've done, but I do regret what I did to you. My neutralisation is set for a weeks time and I will die then, and that's okay. That's good. I just want to know before I go that you do not blame me for what happened to you."

I was stunned for a moment by his causal admission that his execution date had been set. Fuck. What the hell do you say to something like that?

"How can I not blame you?" I asked him "You attacked me, you bloody well started all of this!"

"Only because I was hired for that very purpose." Jonathan replied sadly "I'm a victim of their master plan as much as you are."

"A victim of who?" I asked him, anger boiling up inside my guts, my fists clenched to try and stop the shaking "Who really hired you to attack me that night?"

"The House Of The Apocalypse."

"The House Of The Apocalypse?" I asked, "What the fuck is that?"

"It's a secret society, made up of members of the Council, the Church Of Dracul and graduates from the Brown House. Their end goal is to trigger the Apocalypse and release Lucifer from hell."

I looked at Jonathan in shock, I was pretty sure my mouth was hanging open as well. Damn it. Could it really be true? Had my attack and transformation into a werewolf all just been part of some plan to end the world and release the Devil?

How the fuck had I suddenly become the 'Chosen One'?

"And this society hired you?"

"They sent a representative to acquire my services, yes." Jonathan confirmed, "And I was happy to oblige them."

"Dorian Gray." I realised "He was their representative.

"One of them, yes."

"Who was the other representative?"

Jonathan awkwardly got to his feet and walked towards me, as he got closer I could smell the stench of decay on him. He had really not been looking after himself.

"A vampire." He whispered "A member of the Church."

"Who?"

"I will not tell you that." Jonathan snapped "Some things you will have to learn for yourself, but I can say that you will find your missing leech with the rest of his kind."

I let his words sink in. Oh, crap. I knew then exactly where Kian was.

"He's with the Church, isn't he?" I asked all hope that I'd had sinking away "Did they take him?"

"He went to them willingly."

I couldn't believe that. The first and only visit I'd had to The Church Of Dracul had ended up with their High Lord being killed in front of me and Kian and us being blamed for his death by the rest of the Church, even though the rogue vampire Jay had been the one to wield the stake. It didn't seem like there was any love lost between Kian and the Church.

"Do I have your forgiveness, Alec?"

Like fuck you do...

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." I replied, "I need to go now."

I turned and headed back to the door. As I pulled it open Jonathan's voice called out once more.

"We all have our sins, at least I can admit to mine!"