A/N I am so tempted to change this to a T rating but only to be cautious. I spent the whole day playing AC3 so literally only finished this in the last half hour or so. Sorry it's not what I had planned but it is only a silly fic to mark Halloween so I don't really care :D

Maria's foot slipped on the rain slick wood of the ladder and she fell back the ground, hitting her forehead against one of the rungs as she dropped back down. Ignoring the pain she rose and began her ascent again trying to be sure footed and swift. She gained the second level and could hear her sons weak sobs from above, "I'm coming Sef don't worry."

The internal ladders were at least dry and she practically flew up them when she reached the end she hoisted her body onto the solid ground and stood to face what she now knew to be a threat to her entire family. Sef was on the ground at the entrance to one of the wooden platforms and he was standing over him regarding her with venomous hatred.

It was the boy from all those years ago or at least she thought it was. His face was so contorted by age that the only thing she could recognise was his eyes.

"Let my son go."

"Tonight you are bold and brave; the lioness protecting her cub. Quite a change from the trembling woman I met before."

"I don't know who you are but I know who you are not. My husband would never harm a child, an innocent. Move away from my son." She had no weapon but she was still prepared to fight this creature. As she moved closer he backed away moving behind Sef now with the drop at his back.

"I wanted you to leave him you know. I don't care about you or your happiness the only thing that matters to me is his pain. Had you paid any heed to my words you would have left and we would not be standing here now." He looked down at Sef and snarled, "Hear that boy what you now suffer you suffer because of her."

Sef cringed rolling even tighter into his protective shape. The sight of her sons fear sparked a fury in her gut unlike anything she had ever experienced. Her lip drew back as she bared her teeth at the creature now hovering over her son. "Harm him and no force on heaven or earth will stop me from tearing you apart." Walking towards them as she spoke she saw something unexpected in his face, fear...

He moved back into the room as he and Maria began to circle each other, her hands at her side seemingly relaxed but he saw the tension in her shoulders; she was ready.

"I met him when he was a boy. My previous uhh... host had died and I needed to find another fast. He was here alone having lost his father and then the only real friend he had, perfect for my needs. I feasted well on him for many years you can't imagine my joy at finding a man who was not only bereft of love but who inflicted pain and death on others. The supply of suffering was endless and I gorged myself on it."

He made the slightest move in her direction but stopped when she matched him. "Things changed so quickly I had no time to halt the disastrous road he was on. He began to see things from a more human perspective, no longer a man who would feed my need for agony without question. He still took the lives of others but the wonderfully sweet flavour of their death was tinged by the remorse he felt for his actions and then you appeared and he became almost dull."

"But why this form why appear to me as a boy and not as he is now?"

He shrugged and his face seemed to shimmer in the dim light Maria fancied she saw what looked like faces within his own all clambering to reach the surface. "You were with child what better way to communicate with a mother-to-be than to appear as a helpless child."

Sef shuffled behind her and Maria stepped forward placing herself directly between her son and the... "What exactly are you?"

Sef whined like a wounded dog when the thing emitted an ear piercing laugh, Maria glanced back at her son wishing he didn't have to suffer this but her distraction was the very thing the creature sought. The instant her head was turned he flew across the floor and attached himself to her torso slamming her to the ground with such violent force he teeth knocked together and her head spun.

He hovered above her face his mouth no more than an inch from hers the smell of putrid rotting meat assaulted her nostrils but thankfully it brought her back to her senses. He began to sniff the air like an animal that has caught the scent of its prey on the breeze. His fingers tightened around her throat and his eyes danced with malignant joy as he watched her fruitless battle to survive. He loosened his grip ever so slightly there was no need to rush this the boy was omitting the most divine smells of fear. He decided to answer her question in an effort to prolong both their agony and his ecstasy.

"I have no name or if I ever did I can't recall what it was. I was there when the pyramids were being constructed feeding on the agony of the slaves being whipped and worked to death and even then I was ancient. You cannot hope to beat me all you can do is delay the inevitable only death will separate me from your husband."

"Yours or mine?" The deep baritone voice which came from behind the creature took them both by surprise, Maria had never been so happy to see her husband but she doubted the demon found his appearance so comforting. He sprang to his feet with inhuman speed and faced his host.

"We were never meant to meet but knowing about me makes no difference human. I would have thrown your son from this ledge and waited to soak up the agony which would have seeped from your every pore then I would have taken the other."

"My knowing means you cannot achieve your goals and so you have lost already." Altair moved his feet to the side and began stalking the little man but he knew exactly what to expect.

"I know what you would do before you have even thought of it you idiot you can't harm me! I was there beside you when you spilled every drop of blood in this life. You move right and I shall go left." As if to prove his point he swivelled his body and danced perilously close to the assassin's blade hand but always twisted his sickeningly unnatural form away before any injury could be inflicted. With his back to the ladder he grinned triumphantly and he began to move toward it never taking his eyes from the man and woman now facing him.

"I will leave now but I do so will the complete certainty that I will return to finish this night's work."

Maria saw the black cloaked figure rise up from behind him and then she saw his sword pierce the middle of the demons chest. "You can predict what he will do but the rest of us are a mystery to you, you foul creature."

The demon dropped to the floor his head landing at Malik's feet; he raised his sword one last time and swung it at his neck but before the killing blow could be struck the most incredible thing happened which left Malik gazing down at him in horrified wonder, his sword frozen in the air.

His face changed from one to another so fast it was impossible to track the alteration to their naked eye it looked like there was something alive under the flesh writhing and contorting in an effort to free themselves from this villainous fiend. Maria felt Sef's fingers wrap around her ankle and she bent to scoop him up but Altair took him from her and pressed his son's face to his chest.

"He has seen enough."

The boy made no argument Maria watched as his little fingers clung to the fabric of his father's black robes. Malik's appalled gasp brought her attention back to the ugly scene being played out on the floor. His face had finished shifting but the skin had suffered such abuse it was smoking and bubbling as though everything inside the creature was boiling.

"I think we have all seen enough." He completed the swing of the sword and severed the head from the rest of the body. It twitched and kicked for a few seconds before it finally came to rest. "You both take the boy out of here and send me a couple of novices I don't know about you but I won't sleep until I have seen this things funeral pyre burn to ashes."

It was hours later before Altair could finally convince Maria the danger had passed, she wanted to stay with them but he felt that would only weaken the boys. "I'll post guards outside their door and tell them to look inside every few minutes but it is over Maria the thing is dead."

She relented and grudgingly returned to the study downstairs where Malik was waiting to bring them news of its destruction. He decided not to tell Maria of the hellish howls and cries which had been heard for the first few minutes of the fire; he would save that little gem for Altair alone.

Maria told them of her encounter with the demon in her first year at the castle and together they spent the remainder of the night trying to fathom what unholy creature had managed to crawl free from the bowels of hell.

"It seems he was dependant on misery and spent his existence moving from one victim to the next, seeking out those who would feed his need for negativity and sorrow the more devoid of joy the better." Altair saw the amused look his wife and his second in command shared and he stood back from the desk and walked towards the stairs determined not to allow them the chance to target him.

But he never moved fast enough; his foot had barely reached the first stair when he heard Malik's mocking tone call out after him, "He may have been evil but we cannot deny he was a good judge of character."