“Oh for fuck’s sake!”

The noise startled Nathaniel. He and Charmian had chatted for a while until her exhaustion finally triumphed over the irritating background noise, and he’d grown used to the relative quiet again. He couldn’t be sure how long she’d been asleep but it had felt like several hours. Clearly at some stage she had awoken but she hadn’t said a word, so the expletives came as a bit of a shock.

“Charmian?”

“No shit, it’s not going to be Greta Garbo is it?”

Nate pointedly ignored her tone. She was clearly frustrated, it was best to let it slide. “What is it?”

“Ahh.” It was strange talking to somebody she couldn’t see, but she was going to have to adjust. “I’ve been trying to call my sword and it’s not happening.”

“I imagine it was some kind of implied condition of your surrender,” he replied after a moment’s consideration. “You agreed to give yourself up and come without resistance, so the pact is likely preventing you from calling the weapon to use against them. It’s also possible that by even making a demonic pact you nullified your guardian status, but since the agreement was precisely to protect your charge my best guess would be the former.”

“Well that’s just great.” Charmian really wished she could see what was around her. She had a strong desire to kick something, or throw something, or otherwise channel her irritation into the destruction of property. “How is it that demons always manage to have some loophole around shit because it wasn’t spelled out in fifty story high letters and yet somehow on our side every base is impliedly covered? How is that fair? And no I do not expect you to answer that.”

“You’d only bite my head off if I did.”

“Are you really going to get on my case for being cranky right now? Really?”

“No. I’m simply pondering our situation and wishing they’d considered the idea that maybe guides might need to be armed once in a while.”

“Reading about weapons isn’t the same as pointing them, my friend.” She went to brush a hair out of her face and grimaced when she realised that it had dried into one of her healing cuts. Tugging it free from the scab stung. “Leave it to the experts.”

“Why do you assume I’ve never pointed a weapon?”

Charmian was about to make a slightly inappropriate pun, but before she could open her mouth to speak the door had swung open on its creaking hinges. Light flooded into the room and her eyes instinctively squeezed shut, dazzled by it.

As they acclimatised she was able to open them a sliver and finally set eyes on Nate. There wasn’t much of him in view since he was blocked by a number of pipes and machines, but she could look at him now. Immediately she wished she hadn’t since even in his partially recovered state he was a mess of scratches and blood. If he looked like that with his healing powers then she didn’t dare examine herself. Besides, she didn’t really need to. Her body was telling her well enough what it looked like via all the aches and pains.

“Having fun, love?”

“Oh Lord.” Her eyes weren’t open enough yet to roll. “If you’ve come to gloat then please just take me back to the damn torture room.”

“You know, I have always admired that bravado of yours.” Anton crouched down in front of her and tweaked her chin in mock affection. “But never more so than now. Some people would call you stupid or suicidal, trying to talk that kind of smack in your situation, but I just think you got some balls. I respect that.”

“Respect doesn’t extend to a mattress and a working toilet?”

Nathaniel and his immortal eyes weren’t as blinded by the light, so he was able to watch this exchange properly. He wasn’t sure if Anton had paid any notice to him – or heck, even realised he was there. Instinct told him to keep quiet, avoid drawing attention to himself. Charmian was still blinking furiously and clearly not able to focus yet. He could only be grateful for the lack of reflective surfaces nearby because he doubted that in all her long years she had ever seen herself looking as she did; the last thing she needed was to be thrown off by that. If she turned up at a hospital they’d probably think she had been flung through a window or in an extreme fight club.

Anton was looking relaxed, and he wasn’t sure whether that was to be expected or if it was cause for alarm. Though he was generally a pretty cool customer with a good poker face you might have expected him to be a little more stressed, given his enforced removal from Justin’s capture. Did his demeanour mean that things were progressing well on that front?

“Sweetheart I’m hurt. Really, I am. All these years and you doubt my regard for you?” He stood up and dusted his hands off on his jeans. “Never mind, I’ll prove it to you. As a sign of my esteem I’m going to take you to see your little pookie bear.”

It probably wasn’t possible any more for her skin to pale through the bruising and inflammation. If it had been then it surely would have in that second. There was no way he had a magnanimous motive for that – if that was indeed what he was going to do. Putting her in a room with Justin was not something he’d do out of the goodness of his non-existent heart; whatever he was doing it was to hurt one or both of them.

“And suddenly she’s got nothin’ to say. This is the thanks I get…”

Anton grabbed her arm and roughly hauled her to her feet. It was agony on her shoulder, which was still sore from the fight with Lillith. She refused to give him the satisfaction of crying out, but the effort cost her; the inside of her cheek was added to the list of places which were bleeding. Resistance was futile but at least meant he had to expend more effort dragging her out of the door.

Instinct had served Nate well, because what he didn’t do was bolt it behind him.

**

Justin longed for the days when ‘I’m going crazy’ was only a turn of phrase and not a literal possibility.

He was never going to abuse those words again. The previous occasions seemed like the work of such a drama queen, one who didn’t know how good he had it. The label was being difficult? It didn’t matter. Some girl was being a pain in his ass? Big deal. Going crazy was something different. It was the paranoia setting in. It was the jumping at every noise, the twitching of your muscles and the inability to even trust your own senses any more. It was the dread of watching it happen, being aware of your sanity’s demise and not knowing how to halt it.

Lillith had tied him to a chair and left him alone in the room without as much as a word. He had no idea why he was there. The lack of windows meant he still had no concept of how much time had passed, and that in itself was adding to the warping of reality. He was desperate for a shower – his clothes felt disgusting and he was a little bit worried that he must be stinking by that point.

When finally the door opened it wasn’t Lillith who walked through it.

“Good morning starshine!”

“Thought you weren’t allowed near me any more.”

“I’m not allowed to hurt you, kidnap you or otherwise attempt to corrupt you. Nobody ever said that I couldn’t hang.” Anton shrugged. “And how are we hanging, sunshine?”

“Stop calling me things that end in shine.”

“Sure thing, sport.”

Seemingly the plan was to irritate him to death. “What do you want?”

“Hey, being crabby won’t get you out of those cuffs.”

“You were planning to un-cuff me?” Justin was sceptical.

“Nope.” Anton looked back at him impassively. “Just an observation.”

“I say again, what do you want?”

“Man, I really don’t know what I did to deserve all these ungrateful little shits today.” Anton scratched at the back of his head before shaking it in faux dismay. “Here I am bringing your girlfriend to visit and you’re almost as bitchy as she is about it. See if I do anything for you two any more.”

“My girlfriend?” Justin could only hope he meant Charmian and not any other woman he’d ever been entangled with. It wasn’t that he particularly wanted Anton anywhere near her, but if it was anybody else that meant yet another poor soul had been kidnapped.

“Oh, my bad, were you two not there yet? Awwwwwwwkwaaaaaard.”

Anton turned on his heel and left the room, certain that if Justin’s hands weren’t in restraints there would have been a middle finger pointing at his back. Waiting for him in the corridor was Lillith, fingers clamped tightly around Charmian’s arm. The two were glaring daggers at each other – Lillith had always had a bit of a grudge against Charmian, mainly because she knew how far beneath her the ex-avenger had always considered her to be. Anton had little sympathy there. Warriors respected warriors, or at least bravery, and Lillith had always been too much of a wimp on that score. He tended to side with the white hat on that one.

“All yours, sis. And don’t worry, darlin’…” He leered towards Charmian, whose vengeful gaze redirected to him. “I just delivered you for this meeting, one little favour to my girl here. Only popped in to say hi to him so I’m not breaking our little deal. My word to you is my bond.”

If she hadn’t been gagged she would have been muttering yet more dark comments about loopholes and double standards. As it was she could only narrow her eyes and glower at his departing back. She did have a most excellent murderous glare.

“So…”

Lillith shoved Charmian forcefully through the door and it was as much as she could do to keep upright. If she’d had use of her hands she might have been tempted to try and take her on, use the element of surprise and hope that was enough to bust free, but she was both bound and gagged. As much as she appreciated a well placed kick she needed more than her feet. What her immortal self could do with her hands literally tied behind her back required the use of more limbs in human form.

“Isn’t this nice? Love’s young dream reunited.” Lillith smiled. “Or… well, not so young. You got some crow’s feet, honey, but when there are mummies in museums younger than you that’s probably to be expected. You lil’ cougar you.”

The insult went straight over Charmian’s head (which was probably a good thing since bindings be damned she would probably have head-butted her anyway). She was too busy trying not to visibly cringe. Justin looked unscathed, thankfully, but the expression on his face was enough to tell her that she couldn’t be looking too hot. There was dismay in his eyes and the purse of his lips. The best thing for him right now was if she tried to look as unperturbed as possible. If she could refrain from expressing any physical pain that would probably help too. They couldn’t afford to have him panic.

“So, toy boy…” Lillith forced Charmian into a chair and shut the door behind them. “I thought you might like to know what your girl here’s been up to while we’ve been having fun.”

The shake in Charmian’s head was tiny, almost imperceptible. Justin was staring so intently at her he caught it, and took it as a sign that he shouldn’t respond. Her face was otherwise an unreadable mask and he wished she’d let it slip, because he was desperate to know what she was thinking. She was meeting his stare but the brown eyes were giving nothing away. Her soldier persona had come back on and she was unreachable again.

In some ways he supposed that was good, even admirable. For all the emotional upheaval she’d gone through and her struggle to acclimatise to humanity, now when the serious doo-doo had descended she had risen to the occasion and was keeping it together.  Just like he had predicted, when it counted she was still able to reach into herself for the strength to handle things. Hopefully that was making it easier on her. Objectively it was pretty impressive, but on a more selfish level it was frustrating because he really wanted to know how what was going on. He didn’t trust the demon to give him an accurate picture.

His lack of response didn’t perturb Lillith.

“Well, she’s been a busy girl. She’s got lots of old friends down here and they’ve been having a gay old time catching up. We still have this whole bunch of people just waiting to say hi.”

Justin took that to mean that they’d all been taking turns whaling on her because she no longer had the physicality to fight back. He imagined she was trying to make him angry but the overwhelming feeling was disdain. These guys were all powerful hell spawn and yet they waited until she was weak? They couldn’t take her on as an equal so they went to town now she was an easy target? It was pathetic. For all their magic and strength and diabolical plans, they didn’t seem much better than a set of third grade bullies.

Then again, what else did he expect from them – a sense of honour or fair play?

“But hey, you’re not interested in that. You want to know why you’re here so let’s skip the chit chat and the niceties, get to the point.” She rested her hand on the back of his chair and leaned in, one ankle crossing the other. “You’re here because you can make it stop.”

Well now he was getting a reaction. It was only a widening of the eyes, but Charmian looked a little bit alarmed.

“You know what I worked out, from all this fun we’ve been having? You are impressively if somewhat annoyingly righteous, but you’re not too happy when people suffer on your account. I can’t exactly blame you for that, what with all the pesky feelings of guilt and being indebted. Thank fuck I don’t have to worry about those.”

The particularly irksome thing about her words was that she wasn’t wrong. It would have been easier if she’d been lying but every bit was true.

“So I figure it must really be burning you up that she sacrificed herself for you. Especially since you’ve totally got the hots for her and no matter how you men insist you’re twenty first century guys you still don’t like it when the little woman saves your hide. Well, now you can see what that little deal has cost her. This is nothing, bub. They’ve barely got started on her. She’s been the bane of their lives for several centuries and they will be taking payment for that.”

Justin was trying to breathe deeply, not react. His cheek muscles twitched, wanting to rearrange his expression into something more suitable to his anger and fear, but he fought against it.

“And all this, every last cut and bruise, every drop of blood she’s shed in the last couple of days, it was all so that you could stay sitting here and looking pretty. She is taking this to save you, and the really cruel part is that it’s pointless because we’re not letting you go until you’ve seen things our way. She can’t save you.”

Breathe in, breathe out – that was the mantra going through his head.

“Still, that’s no reason that both of you should have to keep suffering and I’m a reasonable woman, so here’s the deal. I know you’d like to repay the favour so my offer to you is that if you co-operate, I will make sure she stays off the torture table. You’ve seen Anton make an oath, so you know it’s binding and I’ll have to deliver. You submit yourself to me and her physical safety is guaranteed.”

Justin chewed that over in his head for a moment. If there was one thing he’d learned in this dank dark hole it was that physical safety didn’t stop them driving you insane, so her specificity seemed cause for concern. Then again, the battered visage before him was definitely making physical safety seem extremely crucial.

“Doesn’t seem like there’s much in it for me,” he said slowly. It was stalling for time more than anything, trying to give him extra seconds to think. “I still wind up selling my soul to you.”

“Like I said, boo…” She ran a hand through his hair and he jerked his head violently away from her touch. “That is going to happen. We’ve got forever and while I don’t doubt you’ll give it the old college try, nobody can hold out that long. The only question is how long we drag it out, and it’ll be easier on you as much as her if you make the deal and agree now. Well, maybe not quite as much as her - they really do have some creative shit planned.”

Charmian was still steadily gazing at him, brown eyes set and barely blinking. Justin couldn’t quite meet them though because Lillith had finally managed to come up with an offer that was actually enticing (and she hadn’t even needed the elaborate hallucinations to do it). The temptation to give in and get it over with was strong enough anyway, but she had just hit every button he had. All the guilt he felt about what Charmian had done for him and all his wishes that he could go back and do something differently to save her, the frustration over his helplessness and desire to take back control, it was all bubbling up under his skin.

Her dark hair was lank, greasy and matted. She was filthy. As hard as she tried to sit tall there was a slump to her body which told him what pain she was in. If that hadn’t then the mass of angry red cuts and blue-black bruises would have delivered the same message. It wasn’t possible for her appearance to be any further removed from the ethereal goddess who had electrified him at first touch, so regal and radiating elegant strength. He couldn’t stand the idea that she was suffering because of him and did it really make a difference if he capitulated now or later, except that now he could force them not to hurt her?

Not that he trusted them after seeing Anton’s little stunt. He’d have to be very careful about what terms he made them agree to.

“You’d have to let her go.”

Charmian wasn’t being so subtle now. She was shaking her head with much more force.

“Sorry sugar but that’s not on the table. The bosses would never condone us letting her go, but keeping the prisoner healthy and her bones unbroken I can swing.”

Justin closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. He forced the cacophony of voices in his head down to a dull roar and concentrated on his gut. You could call it praying or you could call it merely contemplation, but he was looking for the tug in his stomach that told him the right thing to do.

“She took all that for me.” Slowly he opened his eyes and twisted his head to look up at his captor. “Every bad thing that’s happened to her lately has happened because she was trying to protect me. She gave herself up to Anton for me even knowing what those bastards would do to her.”

“Exactly.” She feigned sympathy, looking softly at him and trying to appear capable of emotionally understanding such a notion. “Don’t you want to help her?”

“Of course I want to help her,” he said with a heavy voice. He really didn’t want to do this and it ran counter to every behavioural instinct he had screaming in his head - yet there was that tug.

Lillith smiled beatifically. “Of course.”

“But allying myself with your skank ass after she took all that heat to stop you seems like a real fuckin’ shitty way to repay her. I’ll pass.”

The speed at which her face twisted into an enraged snarl was frightening, as was the speed with which she flew to Charmian’s side. She viciously grabbed her by the hair and dragged her up out of her seat before swiftly leaving the room.

It didn’t matter. Despite Lillith’s manhandling the grin had been visible in Charmian’s eyes (even if her lips were too full of the gag to form it). Justin was going to hold onto that. He had done what she wanted. And if what Charmian wanted was for him to resist regardless of her own safety, if that would make her happy, then he was going to honour her by resisting until it killed him.

Which it very possibly might after that little stunt.

**

Alexander sank back into the plush leather armchair and rubbed his hand wearily over his eyes.

“How’d it go?” Lucas didn’t even look up from the sword he was polishing. It didn’t need it, but he found that cleaning his weapons helped him think.

“I think I’ve stomped Nikolai back down for now. He’s still not happy but he should stop agitating for a little while, at least. Any word from Carmel?”

“She said your team has been a dream, she was expecting some resistance but they’ve just got to it without asking questions. Bad news is that they’ve found squat. No trace of Charmian or Nate.”

“The longer this goes on the more I worry.” Alex stared off into space, at some unfixed spot on the floor. “It would be bad enough if it was one of them, but both? This cannot be good.”

“It definitely can’t be.”

Lucas took a deep breath and prepared to deliver the news. They had been withholding it for a while, still wary of Alex’s motives, but he’d earned some trust at this stage. He’d come to the decision earlier and after a quick mental conference with Carmel and Zac they’d agreed.  The guy had been like a machine, organising the entire swathe of avengers and backing Lucas against any challengers. His influence was significant enough to stop a lot of them in their tracks on principle alone, but it had also come to a few fights. They had quashed them down easily enough. They weren’t out of the woods yet but people were starting to accept the fact that Lucas was going to be the new Charmian whether they liked it or not. That really wouldn’t be the case if not for Alex’s astute grasp of the internal politics and the way his skills helped fill the hole she’d left in their team’s collective qualities and strengths. She couldn’t be replaced but he’d made their lives easier and that was worthy of some respect.

“There’s something we haven’t told you about Charmian.”

“Really?” Alex looked back up and leaned forward. Once or twice he had wondered if he was being told everything but given how fragile their alliance had still been he didn’t push. “What?”

“The fact that we can’t find her is enough cause for concern in itself, but it becomes a little more alarming when you consider who she’s with.”

“Michael? What about him?”

“Michael in this lifetime has a new alter ego; it was part of the attempt to shield him from us after his last death. It’s a pretty famous alter ego and before they disappeared it was easy enough to track him by keeping an eye on the paparazzi sites. The fact that he’s also gone off the grid this long without so much as a word makes me strongly suspect that something has gone wrong and they’ve either got stuck somewhere or been captured.”

“Really?” Alex’s eyebrows shot up. He supposed it made sense – they all knew Michael had brushes with fame in his previous lives and that Anton worked the Hollywood scene these days. Now he considered it, there was an obvious logic in how Anton would have come to target him even without knowing who he was. He should have worked that out himself. “Who?”

Lucas breathed in sharply and then wearily exhaled the name. “Justin Timberlake.”

“Holy fucking shit. I was thinking you were going to give me C, maybe B list, but Timberlake? You’re right, that is bad. He doesn’t stay out of the gossip rags long.”

“I know. I’m wondering if they’re being blocked somehow bec…”

Lucas never got to finish his sentence. The conversation was abruptly interrupted by a body suddenly materialising in front of them and collapsing onto the coffee table. The legs couldn’t cope with the weight and immediately buckled, slamming the new arrival to the floor. He and Alex bolted up out of their chairs simultaneously.

“Nate? Holy shit…”

They both rushed to help him up and even as they did Lucas was sending a mental call to Zac. Nathaniel was coughing, obviously winded by the fall. A number of partially healed wounds were visible on his arms.

“What the fucking hell happened to you?” Alex asked.

“Demons. They’re in a warehouse over in the industrial district downtown. The place is warded so I couldn’t teleport out, I only escaped because they left my cell door unlocked and I managed to get outside undetected. They have Charmian and they’ve beaten her to hell.”

Lucas guided him into his vacated chair as Zac came running through the door, glass of water in one hand and a first aid kit in the other. “Tell us everything from the beginning.”

Alex nodded. “Don’t skimp on the details.”