All Souls Night by Loreena Mckennitt

Hey guys! I'm back from camp. If you want to know, I had fun (except for the part were I decided to be stupid and stepped into a swarm of bees), but now that its over, I'm back on track with my story. Once again, I'm sorry it took so long to update, but you guys were forewarned about that.

Reviewer Responses:

Nikki: Sry this one took so long. I honestly couldn't help it! But thank you for not giving up on me!

ElvenWitch13: Thank you for your support and faith in me. It really helped! Seriously To answer your question, yes, I did read the Silmarillion. It was so sad! [sniff]

Mellon123: Hey Whitney. I'll email you when I get the chance.

Crecy: Dakota is about to play a major role in this story! Keep your eye out for him!

Lysia1982: Thank you! Camp was lots of fun!

Tolkienesque: heehee [grins sheepishly] Well, I finally gotten around to updating.

Salem: Hmm. . .so you want the Angel of Death to make another appearance, huh? Lemme see if I can work that out for you. . . [evil grin]

Insanity-is-my-friend: I'm starting to like cliffhangers. . . . BTW, I love your penname.

Kalika55: don't worry, the Fellowship will definitely find out about Angel's 'secret' eventually. I'm looking forward to writing about it.

Aria-chan: Thank you, my muse. BTW, thank you for the 'presents' via email. I really liked them, esp. the picture of Sesshie! He's soooo cute! [huggles]

Soccer-Bitch: Kick ass, huh? Read on!

Chapter 16: "Where are there wolves everywhere?"

"Your report?" asked Belthazor brusquely.

"I have had a chance to watch the eldest Charmed One, the one called Adrian. As for the other, I have not seen her yet."

Belthazor looked down on Finnely's rat-like features and curled his lip in contempt. "Change out of your human disguise. It revolts me."

Finnely nodded obediently and his features began shifting. When he was done, the beady black eyes had turned red and his skin was pale and sallow. He straightened up.

Belthazor allowed himself an inward smirk. As lowly as they were, shapeshifter demons had their uses. "And does he suspect anything?"

"The death of the human Richard Asta seemed to come as a bit of a shock, but no, the witch does not suspect."

Richard Asta's death had been set up to make it look as though it had been an accident. Belthazor had to admit, the Prowler demon sent to kill him had done a decent job. "Well? What have you learned?"

"The eldest Charmed One seems to be especially close to one named Dakota Wolfe, although more watching is needed to confirm this. I shall keep a close eye on the other witch as well."

"Good. Keep track of those who seem closest to the witches, and give me their names." Belthazor stopped as another thought came to him. "I don't suppose a demon like you would understand, but there are certain relationships other than friendship tat can be used to our advantage."

"What would that be, my Lord?"

"Love." Belthazor said the word aloud, remembering the bliss when he had felt that towards another. He shook his head angrily. But Phoebe Halliwell had rejected him. No matter what he did, she could never see him as anything but a demon. Love had caused him more pain than joy. "Love makes people behave strangely. The Charmed Ones are no different. Find out who the witches felt that towards. They would be called 'girlfriend' or 'boyfriend.' Taking them may be even more effective than taking those who share a mere friendship."

Finnely raised an eyebrow at this strange concept of 'love.' He was not sure what it was, but Belthazor was a high-ranking demon and very knowledgeable. He knew what he was talking about. "Yes, my Lord." Finnely bowed one last time before reverting back to his human form and Belthazor dismissed him.

Once he was out of sight, Belthazor spoke a single word. "Gerym."

The air behind him shifted as another demon shimmered in. Belthazor did not deign to turn and face him as the assassin demon said, "My Lordship calls?"

"I have an assignment for you." Always in control, Belthazor erased all traces of emotion from his voice. "I would assume that you are aware of the fact tat there are only two Charmed Ones in this realm?"

"Yes, I do. It has been the talk of the Underworld, my Lord."

"The third witch is alone and vulnerable, without the protection of her Whitelighter and the other Charmed Ones. I have neither he time nor interest to deal with her. You will go to the realm she resides in and eliminate the witch." Belthazor's demeanor was one of cold authority, one that did not tolerate failure. "Do not fail me. Take my word, you would much rather die at the witch's hands than face my wrath." Never mind, thought Belthazor. He will die one way or another.

"Understood, my Lord." Gerym bowed respectfully and shimmered.

Belthazor waited only a moment before doing the same to follow the assassin demon on his suicide mission.

Legolas watched the girl tentatively. Sweat beaded on her brow, and her breathing was labored. The words she murmured in her sleep were barely audible, even to his elven ears.

He looked about him. Gimli and Aragorn slept fitfully. Tree days had passed since the breaking of the Fellowship, and they had covered a lot of ground. Shortly before noon that day, they had reached the downs.

A short gasp brought Legolas's attention back to Angel.

"NECRON!"

Legolas winced as the word rang loud and clear through the frosty silence. He wondered if he should wake her, but decided against it. It was about time they got some answers about this girl.

Angel watched in despair as Necron's incinerating attack engulfed her parents. Her parents. . . who didn't even have a chance to fight back. Disbelief melted away to make room for a hot surge of anger. She clenched her fist s in unbridled fury. How could this vile creature do this? He mother was a Charmed One, one of the most powerful witches in history. How could this monster take away her mother and father, just like that?

"NECRON!" she screamed, raising her hand to unleash her wrath upon him.

Then the scene changed.

She was running, running down a narrow stone walkway over a fathomless abyss. She could hear the ragged panting of others around her, driven by desperation.

The place was dark, impenetrable blackness lightened only by the fire of some nameless pursuer behind them, a creature of shadow and flame. . .

"You cannot pass!"

Angel paused to look over her shoulder. A figure coaked in grey and holding a staff and briht sword stood at the far ed of the bridge, defying a monster of darkness and crackling fire.

The staff smashed down, and a flare of blinding light lit up the cavern.

The bridge fell away where the staff had struck, carrying the monster with it.

The old man began to walk away, then suddenly was dragged to the bridge's edge.

He was going to fall, she knew. He would fall, just like her parents had, and she could do nothing about it.

No.

This time, she could. She held her arm up to freeze him, but just then her surroundings shifted again.

This time she was in a forest, running toward the calls of a great horn. She would not fail this time, she told herself. Not this time.

Then she found herself in a glade. Dead orcs littered the area; at its center was a tall warrior already with two shafts in him.

She quickly located the archer. He already had a third arrow notched to the string, lips curled in a grim sneer.

She prepared to explode him, but too late. . .the arrow, guided by the hand of the Devil, struck the warrior. He stumbled.

Failed. Another failure.

Then the Angel of Death was there, in his impossibly black robes, here to carry his soul to the afterlife.

"No!" She looked at Boromir tearfully. Her vision blurred, and then she froze. Boromir's hair. . . it was dark. Shorter too, and his eyes were. . .brown? He looked very much like one of Adrian's friends from college. . .Dakota. . .what was Dakota doing here?

Wait.was it Dakota? No. . .it was Boromir. . .then, why did he look so much like Dakota?

She wiped away the tears. No. . .most definitely Boromir. She had only seen wrong.

Angel opened her eyes tentatively. Legolas was pacing back and forth, and the other two were asleep. The dream slipped away into her subconscious, elusive as always.

Why had she awoken? Angle felt something warm against her breastbone. Slowly, she drew out the teardrop stone on the chain. It was warm to the touch, and looked as though it was giving off a faint glow.

She sat up in alarm, earning a curious look from Legolas. What did this mean? Galadriel had never told her what it meant if the amulet turned warm, but Angel had a good idea.

She looked around the downs. The eerie shadows cast by the hillocks seemed a very appropriate setting for a demon to lurk.

On no. what if it was Belthazor again? Would he attack her right in front of Aragorn and the others? That would expose her for sure, something she could not risk.

"I'll be right back," she told Legolas as she to her feet.

Legolas stopped, a slight frown crossing his features. "It is dangerous to wander out here alone at night."

"I won't go far," Angel said, picking up her katanas and athame and leaving before Legolas could protest further.

Belthazor was noiseless as he followed Gerym the assassin demon. The shadows of the night concealed him, and with practiced stealth, the demon Lord trailed germ like a ghost.

After the disastrous episode that had taken place in the strange forest of golden-leaved trees, the first thing he had determined was that he needed to know the full extent of the witch's powers. Only then could he plot another serious attack.

That was why this fool of a demon Gerym had been assigned this task. Belthazor needed someone to attack the witch, fore her to fight back and reveal what new abilities she had gained after vanquishing the Rowe warlocks. If Gerym somehow survived, Belthazor would dispose of him. The assassin demon would have outlived his use by then.

Angelyn looked over her shoulder and saw Legolas watching her questioningly. She could see that he was debating whether or not he should follow. She scowled. It wasn't that she was ungrateful for his concern, but she simply didn't have time for this! She needed to be as far away as possible from them when the demon showed up. She broke into a full run, not stopping until a good few minutes later. There was no sign of Legolas, and she doubted that he had followed.

She was on the leeward side of one of the larger hills and stopped for a moment to catch her breath. Reaching to her neck, Angel drew out the amulet. The triquetra symbol was still glowing dully, but then it suddenly flared to life.

Startled, Angel dropped it. The sound of pebbles shifting prompted her to turn around, where she found herself staring at an energy ball flying towards her.

But then, it sizzled out before reaching her. Angel blinked in surprise, and then looked down at the amulet. It had warded her against the attack.

A loud curse brought her attention back to the demon who had attacked her.

The first thing she noticed was that it wasn't Belthazor. She wasn't sure what typed of demon it was, but that didn't matter at the moment.

With her right hand, she held the athame, just in case her powers got out of control. In her left, Angel formed a fireball, bigger than her usual ones so as to intimidate this demon.

"Don't try me, demon," she said.

"The demon cocked his head to one side and growled mockingly, "Is little witch afraid of me?"

No, Angel was almost glad for someone to vent her energy and frustration on. She needed to prove, if to no one else then to herself, that she was capable of the job assigned to her. Out of the corner of her eye, she nothing something. . . different about her fireball. However, she did not avert her gaze from the demon, lest he took the distraction as a chance to attack her.

She took the athame and used it to direct the fireball at him. Gerym shimmered out of the way and reappeared some twenty or so feet away to her right. Angel turned, but a violent energy blast from his hand knocked her flat. Gerym took the opportunity to shimmer again. Still dazed, Angel looked around frantically for the demon. The next thing she knew, he had materialized about five feet in front of her. He charged forward, and energy ball forming in one hand, and suddenly stopped as if he had crashed into an invisible barrier.

The amulet had saved her again.

Angel scrambled to her feet, clutching the athame and holding it out in front of her. She swiped the dull blade diagonally in front of her to explode him, but once again the demon shimmered out of danger. Instead, the small hill he had been standing in front of blew up in a shower of sand and rock. Angel shielded herself by throwing up her arms over her face.

When the demon reappeared, he was standing again.

Angel gritted her teeth. "Stay still so that I can vanquish you!"

Gerym laughed, which only made her angrier. He cast an energy ball at her, but she froze him before she could shimmer again and reflected the sizzling blue-white ball. On impact, the demon erupted into flames and disappeared in a wisp of smoke.

For a moment, Angel was silent, almost waiting for the demon to reappear again somewhere. Then she wiped her sweaty forehead with the sleeve of her shirt. For the first time in a long while she felt somewhat better. Belthazor had sent a demon to threaten the fellowship, and she had successfully taken care of him. She put her athame away and began to return to Aragorn and the others.

A figure cloaked in shadows stood up unnoticed as she left. Belthazor had gained useful information, thanks to Gerym. The witch had an amulet. He would have to somehow separate that from her if he wanted to vanquish her. He had also noticed the same knife she used to control her powers – a ceremonial blade called an athame. And lastly, one of her newfound abilities was the reflection of attacks. Belthazor shimmered away, satisfied with what he had learned.

Angel had to admit that she was proud of herself. Vanquishing the demon felt good, but it was more the knowledge that she wasn't as useless as she had feared. She relived the fight in her mind, then remembered her fireball. It had felt different. It wasn't the fact that it was larger than usual, but it had felt. . .hotter.

She conjured the flame again, (holding the athame for safety, of course) and almost immediately saw the difference. The color of the flame wasn't the same. It was mostly silvery white, fringed with blue, a color far unlike her usual red-orange. She did not ever recall ever being able to invoke a blue flame before, but as she understood it, it was a sign that her power was progressing quite nicely. She smiled. Come on Belthazor. Send me your best and let me try this on them, she challenged silently before retreating the fireball.

On a foggy Friday morning, Kendall was trudging to class with Jasmine, more commonly known as Jazz. They were taking a path seldom used by the students, a nature walk in the forest and away from traffic.

The light mist shrouded the college campus with wisps of haze. Although not thick enough to severely obscure vision, it did give the university grounds an eerie feel to it.

"So, Kendall."

Kendall looked up from the ground to Jazz. "Huh?"

"You know what Dakota thinks about you."

"You know what Dakota thinks about you."

"Yeah. . ." Kendall felt the heat rise on her face. She knew very well what Dakota felt about her, even without her Empathy. And she knew that her own feelings were, to say the least, mutual.

Jazz studied her friend's face carefully for traces of giveaway clues. "What are you going to do about it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Kendall, although it was quite clear what Jazz meant.

Jazz rolled her eyes expressively. "You know what I'm talking about. Since he's not about to make a move anytime soon, you should. Ask him to see a movie together or something."

"But I don't – "

"And don't tell me you don't like him."

Kendall stared at Jazz. It was a bit ironic, being an Empath and having someone else tell her how she felt. "But Jazz, he's my brother's best friend!"

"And what's nice about that is that you can get Adrian to help you out."

"Hmm. . ." Kendall did not have an answer to that. She averted her gaze to study some of the surrounding scenery. Tendrils of mist wreathed the trees like cobwebs, garlanded the grass like ribbons of cloud. Kendall did not notice as she drifted off into a trance staring at the shrouded forest. Two golden orbs watched her unblinkingly from the depths of the trees.

Kendall gave a start and peered back curiously. She could make out a vague outline. . .like a dog, but bigger.

Then she noticed another one not ten feet to her left, and two others standing side by side further away, all of them staring at her with almost luminous amber eyes. Kendall moved closer to Jazz, one hand unconsciously reaching into the pocket of her jeans where the charm was.

"Why are there wolves everywhere?" whispered Jazz.

Kendall felt her friend's uneasiness through her Empathy.

"I don't know." Slowly, she withdrew the hand from her pocket. The charm was useful only against demons, but was this normal wolf behavior?

Suddenly, Jazz broke into a sprint. Kendall felt a sharp tug on her hand and her instant reaction was to follow. The trees merged into a green blur as the pair bounded across the trail. Just as her legs began to ache, they came out of the forest and were standing before the glass doors of the Biotechnology building.

Kendall felt the cold blast of air-conditioning as they pushed through the doors. While they sopped to catch their breath, Kendall turned to Jazz.

"Why – did you – do – that?" she asked between gasps.

Her best friend looked at her apologetically. "Sorry, Kendall. I guess I just kinda freaked. I mean, the way those wolves were staring at us. . .it was. . .unnatural, you know what I mean?"

Kendall nodded. "It was kinda creepy. Next time, we don't take that shortcut again." She looked down at her watch. Class was due to start in less than two minutes. "C'mon. We'd better get to class now."

I'm finally done with that one! Oh, btw you guys, listen to this:

"The fairy tale gave the writer free rein to exploit his 'universe-creating imagination."

-"Sophie's World"

The philosophers in this book said that writers are essentially God in the stories that they create. Makes sense, doesn't it? We all-powerful writers can make the story go whichever way we want. We make the characters say, act, and believe what we want them to, and we can turn the tides with a single stroke of the pen.

Oh sorry, I slipped into a 'philosophical' mood there.

But anyway. . .[turns toward all the characters in her fanfiction]

Me (Gilluin): All of you pathetic mortals, bow down before me!! [Mwaaaaah-haaaaaa-haaa-ha!]

Elrond, Arwen, Haldir, Legoals, Galadriel, and every other elf: Mortals?

Gilluin: Okay, fine. What I meant was: All of you pathic mortals and immortals, bow down before me!! [Mwaaaaah-haaaaaa-haaa-ha!]

Elrond: Better do as she says. She is a Vala afer all.

Aragorn: A King bows to no one! [waves Anduril around threateningly]

Gilluin: Oh yeah? [brandishes keyboard] The pen is mightier than the sword!

Aragorn: [gulps, sheathes the sword, and backs away]

Gilluin: [grins] That's better. [Thinks, remembers something] Oh wait! [drags Aria-chan aka Roos onstage]

Kendall: [gasps] Roos! It's our muse again! Can you sign my shirt? [squeals happily]

Roos:. . .

Galadriel: Is Lady Roos one of the Valar as well?

Roos: [indignantly] Of course! Where would you all be if I wasn't here to defend the authoress from writer's block?

Ryou Bakura (from Yu-Gi-Oh!): You would all be sent to the Shadow Realm!

Kendall: First Harry Potter, now Yu-Gi-Oh? Stay in your own fandoms! [blasts Bakura back into Yu-Gi-Oh fandom]

Gilluin: Now bow down and grovel before us! [evil, slightly deranged cackle]

Everyone else: [grumbles about how they should plot a rebellion against the evil authoress and then bows]

Gilluin: I just love it when I get to "exploit my 'universe-creating imagination!'"