Wow did I mess up the last chapter or what? Something must have happened because it totally cut out the middle of the chapter. Was anyone confused? Sorry about that here's the full version of the chapter and hopefully a new one coming in a few days.


Inside thick incense filled the air, swirling down my throat till I felt like I couldn't breathe. Amulets hung from the ceiling and painted symbols crowded the walls, giving the overall picture of chaos. As I took a step inside an old woman came walking out of the back room. She was five foot, long white hair coiled down her back and soft blue eyes shown unnaturally against her face. Despite the innocent appearance something inside me recoiled and the taste of wax oranges spilled over my tongue. She wasn't human.

"Hello." She said, her eyes scanning me, picking me apart like a predator looking for prey. "How can I help you? Maybe a love spell? Or a curse for an enemy?"

"I'm looking to find someone." I said ignoring her jab at my youth.

"Well take a seat and tell me. A love who left you perhaps?" She said her smile twisting into a grimace of distain.

"No I'm looking to find someone who was taken from me." I said as I sat down at the old wooden table.

"Hmm…" she said thoughtful. "Well there are many spells that could suit your need. But the one I think you're looking for is a dream finder."

"What's that?" I said nervously.

"I search for you're friend using your connection to his subconscious to try and find him. Depending on how well he is hidden and on how much you know him you could have a dream about his location tomorrow. Or if he is hidden to well you could get clues or bits of thoughts running through his head. Or you could get nothing it might require several spells to find him. But few have ever hidden so well from me." She said darkly. I shivered for the ones who had tried.

"Okay the dream spell sounds the best." I said quickly while pulling out my roll of cash. I wanted to get out of here. As she saw me, she giggled a mocking laugh.

"Oh girly money has little worth here. No you have something of much more value. Don't you?"

"I don't know what you mean." I said my pulse climbing. As I looked at her the disguise had slipped, revealing something ugly and nasty underneath. Her face once soft with winkles now hardened with the look of granite. Her eyes once blue turned black, swallowing all the light that dared enter. Her mouth had turned into an evil smirk. She looked hungry.

"Your blood, little one, so rare and powerful. It has so many uses." She hissed desire making her eyes glow. "You give me your blood I'll help you find your friend."

Give her my blood? Suffer like that again? I couldn't! I wouldn't! Yes I had given blood then and it had been horrible. But it had also been different, an emergency! Life and death. This is life and death too, whispered a voice in my head, Graves' life or his death? Give blood? How? But I already knew the answer I had come here to save him and that's what I was going to do, no matter the cost.

"Okay." I whispered tears of fear leaking from my eyes. "Do it."

She reached for a knife I hadn't seen and moved to pick up a nearby bowl. She grabbed my arm in an iron grip, opposite the one Christophe had taken. I panted for breath now my fear causing adrenaline to race through my body. I unconsciously twisted in her grip, trying to escape the choice I had already made. She didn't let go an inch, I would have bruises. She picked up the knife, it glittered against the light.

"Wait!" I said in panic. "I changed my mind."

I could hear the flutter of Gran's owl but it wouldn't make it in time. It was too late I felt the sting of pain as the woman cut a small line against my arm. She dropped the knife and raised up a finger newly grown into a distorted claw.

"No!" I screamed just as she dug the tip deep into my arm.

It was like before only so much worse. Dark evil fingers coiled through my arm up into my brain pulling and digging against the soft tissue. Memories came and went to the sound of my mother screaming. To the sound of Gran's last coughing breathe. To the sound of the gunshot as I pulled the trigger. The sound of death.

I screamed in my head the agony building without anywhere to escape. My mother's necklace had gone cold, ice against my neck. My whole body was cold, so cold. The two points on my opposite wrist pulsed in time to my silent screams. I felt like I was dying. I wanted death, sought death, needed it. I needed the pain to end. The fingers twisted one last time before disappearing and leaving me nothing but an empty shell.

I sat in the chair unable to move or even to fade into unconsciousness. I knew the witch kept me awake and it wasn't until then that I realized I was completely at her mercy. She hummed a little tune as she picked up the bowl of my blood and disappeared into the back room. She came back with a simple necklace, a rune hanging from it. She slipped the necklace over my neck and bent to look me in the eye. I tried to look away scared that if I looked it'd be the last thing I'd see. But I was unable to resist as she turned my chin to face her. I disappeared into the endless darkness, thinking I'd never see the light again.