The door of the stairwell was closed. It didn't mean that Magda's friends won't be waiting for him, up in the flat, but it was a good sign. Robert wasn't sure if there was enough in him for another fight. His hand was trembling so badly that if he had to open the door by a key, he wouldn't have succeeded. Even with magic he had to try twice.

The stairwell looked normal. He closed the door behind himself and tried to listen but he didn't hear anything. If someone was waiting at any of the landings, they were too quiet. He climbed the stairs slowly, always ready for an ambush,but he made it up to his door on the third floor without any trouble.

Somebody was in the flat.

He could hear steps and there was light escaping under the door. What now? Should he flee or fight? Can he even fight? He was too tired even to be worried, he just opened Jenna's backpack as quietly as he could and took out an instant spell. Then he knocked on the door.

The steps stopped for a second, then came close to the door. For a moment Robert was waiting, ready to drop the instant spell then the door swung open and Benjamin stood there, pointing his wand at Robert's face.

'Geez, bro,' Benjamin said loudly, dropping his hand. 'Why the fuck don't you use your keys?'

'Lost them,' said Robert and hugged his brother. 'What are you doing here?'

'I heard the explosions,' he said, stepping away so Robert could get into the flat. 'Tried to call you or Jenna or Rose or anyone. Nobody answered but Teo. He didn't know if you guys are okay, he is with his uncle. He said ghouls attacked the party and Kovach is The Priest or something like that, the line was pretty shitty. So I figured at some point you gotta come home… Is everyone okay?'

Robert fell onto his couch and closed his eyes.

'Jenna is seriously injured,' he said. 'Luther taking care of her now. I killed the ghouls, but it was too late… I don't know who made it out, I had to get Jenna into safety, I…'

'It's okay,' Benjamin said, putting his hand onto Robert's shoulder. 'I understand. You did what you had to do.'

'I left my friends behind,' said Robert sourly. 'Remy was down and Marcus, too, Vittorio is dead, I don't even know what happened to Claire or the others… I left them. Then I came here, and Magda was in my car and she is… I killed her. It was an accident. I didn't really mean it.'

'Vittorio is dead? Fuck… And Magda...? The crazy stalker vampire chick?' Benjamin asked. Robert nodded. 'Shit.'

'Yeah,' agreed Robert. 'I fucked up, brother. Big time.'

Benjamin seized his shoulder and shook him a little.

'Get your shit together, bro. Night isn't over yet. What do we do now?'

Robert shook his head, took a deep, trembling breath and got up.

'We need information. As far as I understand, Kovach created an army for himself, using ghouls, flesh-golems and vampires. Maybe zombies, too. He controls most of them, which has to take a lot of energy, so he has to hide somewhere close to a big energy source. Something stronger than a thunder orb. A power plant maybe, or something similar, although I don't understand how he is doing it. The fracture of this amount of energy almost cooked my brain.'

'Doesn't matter how he does it,' pointed out Benjamin. 'The question is, how can we stop him?'

'When Munin comes back I will have him search the city, Luther couldn't hide from him, Kovach won't be able either. Then we go and kill him. But first, we need to find out where the others are.'

Benjamin wanted to answer, but his phone went off. He took it out in a hurry, then frowned at the screen.

'Unknown number…Yes? Yes, it's him, how can I… Wait, I can't hear you...' There was a long pause. 'Yeah, now it's good,' Another pause. 'Oh. I see. Yes. Okay. Yes. Who? Oh, okay. Yeah. Thank you.'

Robert knew it was bad news, he could read his brother's face.

'It was a firefighter,' he said, sitting down. 'He found Mom's phone. The house… They think it was another explosion. It burned down. They found bodies…' he swallowed and took a deep, deep breath. 'Robert… Mom and Dad are dead.'

It was weird, because Robert didn't feel anything. He nodded and he knew that he was supposed to be sad now, but he was so extremely exhausted that he couldn't even feel sadness. He imagined his mother for a moment, skinny and fragile but smiling, as she was just a few days ago, at Christmas, and he just shook his head. No, she cannot be dead, that was nonsense. She was well, she was alive.

'I don't think she is… It's probably a mistake, right?' he said. 'Maybe one of the maids…'

Benjamin shook his head.

'No. Maxwell made it out, he identified her and Dad, too.'

'I see,' Robert nodded. He still felt nothing. Just this endless abyss, nothing, perfect, cold emptiness. Wasn't even a real feeling, it was more like the lack of it.

'We should go back to Luther,' he said, throwing random pieces of clothing into a sport bag. His hands were trembling. 'I wanna check on Jenna then we need to find out where the others are. Can you please tell Teodore where Jenna is?

'Shouldn't we… I don't know… See them?' asked Benjamin.

Robert stopped and looked at him.

'What good that would do?' he asked bluntly.

'They are our parents, man. I feel like…'

'They are dead,' cut in Robert harsly. Benjamin looked at him as if he slapped him in the face. 'Dead, gone. We can't do anything for them. I can't… I couldn't…' he fell into his desk-chair and hid his face in his palms. He didn't cry, he was way too numb for that. He just wanted to sit there, hiding, until someone comes, someone who isn't a total failure, someone who can do this whole thing instead of him. He just wanted someone to take over, so he can go and see Jenna and maybe have a nap. Yes, that would be nice. Just sleeping until this whole new catastrophe is over. Let someone else deal with it, just for once.

But of course, real life didn't work like that. No one was coming.

'Bro… Hey… It's okay. It wasn't your fault, you know? You weren't even there.'

Robert lowered his hands and looked at his brother in the eye. He nodded and exiled every troubling thought to the back of his mind and closed a door on them. This was not the time of grief.

'Night isn't over yet,' Robert said and he got up with a long, trembling sigh. 'We need to move. Do you have your car?'

'Yeah,' Benjamin said.

Robert finished packing, then Benjamin cleaned and bounded up the stabbed injury on his arm. None of them knew enough about medicine to heal it with magic and even though Robert had a big collection of potions and other fast-healing substances at hand, Benjamin was sure that he was going to need stitches at some point.

They left the flat silently.

Fortunately, Benjamin parked on the next street so Robert didn't have to pass Magda's body, he didn't even have to look at it. Benjamin drove while Robert borrowed his phone and tried to call the others, but the lines were once again jammed. Someone answered Remy's phone, but they couldn't understand each other and the connection broke after a few seconds. That was the only time he managed to reach anyone. The Internet seemed to be down, so Robert switched on the radio, hoping for news.

'...McLoad is probably dead. Vigilantes, both members of the new SRU and freelancers are fighting with the invading monsters and reportedly, each other, too, city-wide. Every police officer must report for duty at the nearest police station, according to one of our listeners. The Mayor's Office asks everyone to leave the city of London or shelter at home, while the Mayor himself is still missing. Downing Street and the ruins of Buckingham Palace are being evacuated at these moments. People already call tonight the biggest terror attack in modern history since 9/11, and the fights, explosions and attacks continue as we speak. Officials can't even try to estimate the number of deaths as of now, but it could easily be thousands if not more.'

Robert switched the radio off.

'The ruins of Buckingham Palace…' repeated Benjamin quietly, shaking his head. 'Man, that's bad. That's really, really bad.'

Robert didn't answer. Surprisingly, the traffic was light, probably because the first wave of escaping people already left the city. They arrived in Islington without any real trouble, only a lone ghoul jumped at their car at one point. It bounced off and disappeared in the shadows along the road. Benjamin didn't even slow down.

The pub was visible now, so they simply just parked in front of it and went in. The first thing Robert saw was Claire, sleeping on the couch next to the fireplace. Someone laid a suit jacket on her.

Luther was standing behind the bar, his face unreadable as always. He reached for a bottle of whiskey when the two Montgomerys sat down on the tall bar chairs, but Benjamin shook his head.

'Just a coke for me, thanks. Everyone is here?'

'Most of them.' answered the fae, giving him a can of coke from the ancient fridge behind the bar. 'They arrived shortly after you left, Robert, injured, scared, tired. They are resting now.'

Robert nodded. He was sure that this was the first time Luther called him on his first name.

'How is Jenna?' he asked.

'She is sleeping,' said the barkeep. 'For a long time, she won't do anything else. But she reacted well to my efforts and she is healing now.'

'How long it will take?' asked Robert.

'I don't know. Days, maybe weeks.'

'I didn't know you were a healer,' said Benjamin.

'I'm not,' answered Luther. 'I had to use means and spells I barely understand. I saved her life, but there will be... Consequences.'

'What do you mean?' asked Benjamin.

'I had to give her my own blood, for example,' said the bartender. 'Fae blood, not unlike vampire blood, has certain healing abilities.'

'But you… No offence, but how is that possible? You aren't human,' pointed out Benjamin.

'Not being called a human is more of a compliment than an offence,' Luther's mouth moved a little, as if he was almost smiling. 'But our physiology isn't that different. Unfortunately, my blood alone wasn't enough to save her, so I had to put a blood seed into her,' he saw that Benjamin wanted to ask something and he raised his hand. 'Blood seeds were rare magical plants back in the day. They could only live in a living body and they were capable of healing almost any injuries, severed limbs, missing organs, anything. The plant becomes the part of the body forever, it heals and improves it, but it is a very painful process. I used the last seed I had to save Jenna.'

'Improves it?' frowned Benjamin.

'Her magic might become stronger with time,' said the fae. 'She could even live longer than a human, that is a possibility. She will be immune to certain diseases and more vulnerable against others, especially because the blood seed cleanses her body from all the chemicals humans use to fight them off. There is no way to know for sure how her system will change just yet.'

'As long as she lives, that's all that matters' said Robert. He saw that Luther's eyes were bloodshot and he suspected that he did a lot more than just give some blood. What kind of unimaginable magic can tire a fae out?

'This is not that simple,' Luther objected sadly.

'It is,' said Robert. 'I would die for that woman. As long as she is all right, nothing else matters.'

Luther scoffed.

'Die for her? You amuse me, young one. Dying is easy. Try to live for what you love, just once. Now that's something worth mentioning. You all think that dying for something is the ultimate sacrifice but all you leave behind is pain and guilt. You don't fight for what you love, what is important, you just quit the first time you can, saying you tried your best, thinking you are a martyr, a hero. Quitting is never the answer, young one. But of course you cannot understand that, no matter how many times I try to explain it to you. Because if you could, you wouldn't be… You.'

Robert didn't answer. People kept telling him that, over and over again. Old Mr George, Luther, Edyta, Munin, Marcus, even Jenna… There must have been a reason.

He wanted to get up and see Jenna, but he stayed where he was: he didn't feel himself strong enough to deal with the scars and he hated himself because of it.

'Do you know what is going on in the city right now?' he asked instead, putting away his troubling thoughts once again.

'Not better than you,' the bartender answered. 'All forms of the living dead roam the streets, so it must be a necromancer. As far as I know, there is only one of those.'

'But he is in prison somewhere in France,' objected Benjamin.

'I'm afraid he is not,' said a new voice. It was Marcus, coming down the stairs. His shirt had bloodstains on it and he had a bandage on his arm. The brothers got up and hugged their friend's. Marcus continued. 'It was his plan all along, staying free, preparing while we think he is locked up and harmless.'

'I don't understand,' said Benjamin. 'Then who the hell was the guy Jenna had beaten at Tate Modern?'

'A flesh golem,' Marcus said. 'His best work so far. MAGE thinks he was at the gallery, though. He just did a switch at some point, probably when he fell from above. Blake's and Ayana's reports both say that they didn't really have an eye on him, not the whole time. He must have used some illusions, too, to make it look like the spells coming from the golem... After we arrested the golem, he just sneaked out, probably dressed as a police officer because Jenna would have felt if he was doing magic.'

'Doesn't matter,' said Robert harshly. 'We will find him and this time we will kill him for good.'

'Yeah, but first we need to get the gang together,' said Benjamin. 'Luther said not everyone's here yet, who is missing?'

Marcus gave him a weird look, a look Robert didn't like at all.

'Shit… You don't know,' he said.

'What?' asked Benjamin. There was fear in his voice, something Robert never heard before from his brother.

'Well Remy got tore up pretty badly, even with Teo's medical magic and Luther's fae voodoo or whatever, it's not sure he can keep his leg. He is here because we didn't think hospitals were safe if we were actual targets.'

'But the others are mostly okay, right?' asked Benjamin.

'Benjy… I'm sorry,' said Marcus and his eyes were watery all of the sudden. Robert knew what he was going to say before he actually said it and his whole body went terribly, terribly cold. 'Rose… She was down, protecting the guests in the lobby when the big last wave attacked, and… She didn't make it.'

Robert's stomach turned slowly, lazily and he was about to throw up again. Benjamin nodded and slowly sat down in a big armchair, staring at something only he could see.