Julia and the others came out of the woods at the back of her house and had just crossed the road when they saw Rosalie, Thorsen and a huge group of slaves coming down the road.

The minute Julia saw her mother being dragged she yelped, "No!" the word ripped through her lungs and out of her mouth before she could stop it.

Alex quickly held Julia, caging her in his arms, as Ren clapped his hands down on her mouth. Everyone darted into the bushes in the next yard over.

"I believe we have a lost little bird crying out for its mommy," Thorsen called out as he marched up the stairs of Julia's house. "Come out, come out petitoiseau, I won't hurt you."

Rosalie fought against Thorsen and shouted. "Julia Freya Malphas, I swear to the gods if you come out you won't have to worry about Thorsen because I will kill you myself."

Thorsen yanked her head back by her hair so hard she cried out in pain. "What a cold and callous thing for a mother who supposedly loves her child to say." He looked out at the street as if he was addressing an audience. "Petit oiseau doux, don't be scared. Your dear uncle Thorsen won't let anything happen to you. I promise, if you come out I will not harm you, nor will I let your mother."

Julia thrashed against Alex's iron grip.

Véronique jabbed her in the side and hissed. "Would you stop it, you're going to get us discovered."

She couldn't believe how callous Véronique was being. Thorsen had her mother and Véronique expected her to do nothing. She started talking against Ren's hands.

Ren turned to her and whispered, "Julia, calm down. Véronique is right; even thought I hate to admit it."

Julia once again shot a barrage of muffled words at him.

It was as if Ren understood what she said and replied, "Of course we're not going to let Thorsen hurt Rosalie. But we're also not going to hand you over."

She stopped listening and started kicking and thrashing again.

Ren grabbed her face with one hand and made her look at him. "Bloody hell Julia," his tone was hard, and she stopped struggling. "Enough. We need a plan and the longer you keep this up the less time we have. Now, you promise you won't make a sound if I let go of your mouth."

She nodded and Ren took his hand away. Alex still held her caged in his arms; he gently rocked her until she calmed down. Being wrapped in his arms was soothing and soon she was thinking straight.

Thorsen seemed to lose his patience. He pulled Rosalie into a tight one armed embrace with her facing outwards. Then pulled out a dagger and held it to her throat. "How I have longed for this day, Rosa. All of this trouble and heartbreak is all because of you." He raised his voice, "Do you hear that, Julia. It's your mother's fault that your father is dead."

Rosalie struggled against him and shouted, "You're a murderer and you're beyond delusional. You killed Ásgeirr not me, and I will kill you for that."

Thorsen held the knife tighter to her neck causing a little blood to trickle out. "If it wasn't for your poison and lies, my sweet baby brother would never have betrayed me. You did that. You turned him against me. And you killed him."

Watching Thorsen holding a knife to her mother's throat made Julia lose it. Tears poured out of her eyes and she pleaded with the group. "Please, let me go. I have to save her. Please, he won't kill me he needs me; but he will kill her."

"That will not happen because I will kill him first," Alex said then turned to Damien, "Hold on to her," and shoved her into Damien's arms.

Damien grabbed hold of Julia. "This is crazy, Alex. He's too strong for you to take him out right now."

Hearing what Alex intended to do cause the tears to cascade out of Julia's eyes. She knew if he went she would never see him again. It was familiar and twisted her heart in knots. She reached out and take his hand. Pleading with her eyes she said, "Alex, don't do this; don't go. Please. There has to be another way. Let me go. Thorsen is here because of me, if I go everyone will be safe."

Alex looked at her; his eyes seemed to be centuries away. The sadness in them tore at Julia's very soul. He reached out and stroked her cheek. "I won't let you do that. Not this time."

His words were odd, and they didn't make any sense to her. She could see he would go and she had to do something. Turning to the one person she knew loved Alex almost as much as she did, Julia whispered to Véronique, "If you love him stop him."

Véronique looked at her and gave her a nod, then crawled in front of him. "Alex, I refuse to let you do this. It's a suicide mission and you know it."

Thorsen raised the dagger and called out, "Petit oiseau, this knife has been dipped in wolfsbane. You of all people should know how deadly wolfsbane is to witches." Then he stabbed the dagger into Rosalie's gut, gave it a twist, and let her drop to the ground. "If you want to save your mother, I suggest you stop hiding and come out now. I know that filthy Tink is with you so he can easily save your mother. We both get what we want. Win, win. Now come OUT!"

Julia stopped breathing when she saw this and crumpled into Damien's arms. He held her tight and rubbed her hair. "We have to do something," he said.

Before they had any time to argue Abby transformed into Julia and stood up. She looked at Ren and held out her hand. "Come on. It's the only way."

Ella whimpered, "No, he will kill you," and tried to grab her sister, but Kuro caught Ella.

Ren stood up. "Not if I have anything to do with it."

Right then, Alex came back to life, and he quickly said, "Ella, you need to turn into Julia as well. Then you, Kuro, Véronique and I will sneak around to the other side. When Ren has Rosalie; Ella, I want you to come out. This should create a lot of confusion allowing you, Abby and Ren to run off with Rosalie. Then Kuro, Véronique, and I will hold everyone off while you three get Rosalie somewhere safe." Alex looked back to Damien. "Take Julia deep into the woods, far away. Don't come back until morning."

Damien nodded. He pulled Julia away; she reached out and caught Alex's hand. As their hands wrenched apart, it felt like a memory was being dislodged. She heard herself shouting Alex's name and then it faded away.

Julia felt as if she just lost half of herself and was momentarily stunned into silence. She watched as they whipped past young pine and birch trees. The forest soon grew dense with huge redwoods and fir trees. Damien took a sharp turn brushing past an enormous Douglas-fir, its green branches hit Julia's arm and jolted her back to life.

She kicked and fought Damien, determined to make him let her go, desperate to help her friends. It was because of her that Thorsen was in Havenswood and she was damned if she was going to let anyone else get hurt.

She shouted at Damien, "Stop, we have to go back and help them. Please, Damien, we can't just run away."

He stopped running and looked around to make sure the coast was clear. Then, grabbing Julia hard by the shoulder he looked into her eyes. "Get a hold of yourself. All of our friends are out there risking their lives to save you and your mother. Do you understand that? If we go back, just having you there could get them killed."

She sucked in a sharp breath, hearing this hurt. "Then what was all the training for? I know I can fight. I wouldn't be in the way," her voice was weak, all her fighting spirit drained right out of her.

Damien softened his grip on her. "That's not what I meant, Jules." He sighed as if he needed to gather his thoughts. "Look, if you go back everyone will be focused on keeping you safe. We wouldn't be fully focused on the battle and that could get someone killed. Do you want Alex or Ren losing focus because they are concerned about keeping you safe and getting themselves killed in the process?"

She calmed down and shook her head. "No, of course not."

Damien gave her a little smile. "Good, now come on. I have a car that's hidden by the road; it's just a little further. We can drive to Klamath Falls and hide out there until morning."

He held out his hand and when Julia took it; they ran in the car's direction.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Shaking like a leaf Abby walked out onto the street. Ren took her hand lacing their fingers together. Giving it a little squeeze he said with a smile, "You can do this. Make sure you stand your ground and don't let him grab hold of you."

Abby gave him a nod and he could tell she was scared. Putting on his carefree mask he walked forward with a grin. This seemed to calm Abby down. And by the time they made it up onto the porch Ren thought she may pull it off.

"Thorsen, did you finally decide taking down the senate was more than you could handle? And figured overthrowing a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere was more to your capabilities? You know, I'm sure I can find some babies you can steal candy from," Ren said in an acid tone as he and Abby walked over to Rosalie.

Rosalie's wound was worse than he thought and Abby let out a cry. The dagger had been driven in to the hilt. Rosalie's deathly pale skin made him curse; blood pooled around her and soaked her clothes. Evil bastard.

Abby sobbed, "You monster! How could you do that to her?"

Thorsen stepped closer to Abby, and she stepped away from him. He smiled at her and raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. "My dear, please forgive me. I know we've gotten off to a bad start but I swear I won't harm you. So please come here," his voice was smooth like velvet.

Abby glared at him. "Not until you let Ren and my mother go."

Thorsen looked down at Rosalie and scoffed. "Do you really think you should move her?"

He made a valid point. Ren could tell if he moved her it would make things worse. But he had no way of conferring how they should change their plans without blowing everyone's cover.

Looking into Ren's eyes, Abby seemed to understand this, and she said, "After you, uncle."

Thorsen glowered at Rosalie. "Don't think this is over, Rosa," his voice was dripping with animosity. "As long as you and I are both alive it won't be; not by a long shot." He strolled down the steps.

Abby gave Ren one last look and followed Thorsen off the porch. The second her feet touched the road an explosion of events happened in quick succession. Alex, Véronique, Kuro and Ella came barrelling out into the road. An almighty boom rang out and a translucent dome, Ren had put up, enclosed Julia's entire house preventing anyone from being able to cross it.

Thorsen looked from Abby to Ella and couldn't tell which one was the real Julia. Clapping his hands together he said, "Well played children. I suppose you think you have the upper hand, hummmm?" He let out a laugh then looked at Alex. "You never learn boy. I always get what I want." He pulled another blade out and pointed it at Abby first then Ella, watching Alex's reaction. When Alex didn't react Thorsen shrugged his shoulders, "pity," and threw the blade at Abby.

The dagger flew straight for Abby's heart; it was too fast for anyone to act. Ella let out a helpless scream and Abby had squeezed her eyes shut. Ren was helpless to react as he watched. The shield over the house and the healing spell he was casting over Rosalie were taking all his power.

At the last second the dagger froze in midair a hair's breadth from Abby's chest and Ren let out an audible lungful of air. Two enormous fireballs shot toward them, aiming at Thorsen. He snapped his fingers, causing slaves to emerge and shield him; all of them were wiped out by the blast.

Ren looked in the direction the orbs had come from and saw Edrys and Felicia running toward them. He allowed his body to relax a little when the two witches joined the group.

Thorsen said, "Great. The old hags had to come and crash a perfectly good party." Then he bowed and gave Alex a vindictive grin. "Boy, until we meet again."

Thorsen twisted on the balls of his feet, giving them all a victorious smile, before using his dark faerie speed to run off into the woods. No one followed him. Instead, they called out to Ren telling him to put down the barrier. Ren glanced around, double checking everything was okay before dropping the barrier.

Edrys and Felicia raced up the steps and looked ashen with horror when they saw Rosalie's lifeless body lying in a pool of her blood. Ren had pulled out the knife and was trying to heal the wound.

He looked up. "The knife was dipped in wolfsbane." He then looked over at Alex and Véronique. "I need one of you to give her some blood."

Véronique walked over, slit her wrist and put it to Rosalie's mouth. "You know this won't be enough," she said with concern.

*********************