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By the time the others returned David was getting used to the feel of the Mists and had learned to stop himself crossing over which was a relief, but he still hadn’t learned to fully glamour his eyes though Tyler thought he’d pass unless someone took a close look.

Leisa and Michael arrived back first but didn’t have time to tell them what they’d found before Tanya and Meredith returned. Meredith didn’t look any better than when she and Tanya had left and Tanya looked pale and drawn. As soon as they came in Meredith rushed straight over to David and grabbed his hands.

“I’m sorry to ask this. You’ve been through a lot and it will be horrible, but please help me find out who killed Paul.” She gave a little sob. “Someone tore him all up. I’ve seen some horrible things but this is the worst.”

“A werewolf then?” Daniel asked.

Meredith shook her head. “I don’t think so. It didn’t feel like a werewolf.” She looked over at Tanya who nodded.

“It wasn’t a werewolf, Dan,” she said. “Whoever did it knows enough about werewolves to fake it but there was no scent of our kind around in.” She scowled. “It smelled like a vampire and yet not. Vaguely fairy as well.”

“I think it was the same person who is behind the paralysis,” Meredith said. “But that’s just a hunch.”

“Which is why you want me to help,” David said. “Of course I’ll help, but we’d better do it before dinner. I have a feeling I might regret it if we did it after.”

“Sure,” Tanya said. “But we do need to wait for Liam to get here first. We managed to convince them we needed his help to sort this out without telling them about you, Dave. One piece of good news Rhianne totally lost it in front of the council in a way they couldn’t ignore.” She rubbed at her arm. “They voted to remove her and put her on hunting moratorium until she’s more stable.”

Daniel hissed and grabbed her arm, rolling up her sleeve. There was a bandage on her arm. He unwrapped it to reveal an angry red slash.

“She attacked you?” he asked.

“Yeah, Liam and Floyd thought they’d got all her weapons but apparently they missed some. Thank goodness I always take my tea before going in.”

“I’ll wash this out to remove any traces of silver and then heal it for you,” Daniel said.

“Best not heal it,” Tanya said. “The others know she managed to cut me before Merry knocked her out. They might notice if it’s suddenly gone.”

“Fair enough,” he said before looking slyly at Meredith. “You seem to make habit of knocking Rhianne out when she’s attacking people.”

Meredith had been sitting on the couch staring into space and hugging herself but her head shot up at that.

“H-how…” She stared at him then turned to look at Sarah. “You know as well?”

“What actually happened to Martin? Yeah, I know. I never quite knew how to tell you.”

“What did happen?” David asked.

“He saved me from some renegades,” Sarah said. “And Merry and Rhianne as well but he got bitten and Rhianne apparently decided to save him from what she believed was the danger of becoming a werewolf. Merry tried to save him but it was too late.”

“I’m so sorry,” Meredith said. “It was my fault.”

“No, it really wasn’t,” Tanya said. “You behaved completely rationally throughout. But how did you know about the adrenalin?”

“It was a guess,” Meredith said. “I won’t call it a lucky one. Jasmine always carries adrenalin in case she meets some iron so I figured werewolves would do similar.” She hesitated. “Rhianne doesn’t remember what happened in those last few minutes before I knocked her out, you know.”

“Being knocked out will do that,” Daniel said. “But I’ve always wondered how you explained him being dead? None of his injuries should have been fatal.”

“I didn’t te-“ Meredith looked up at a knock on the door. “That must be Liam.”

Liam nodded to them as he came in but his attention remained focused on the phone he had pinned to his ear. Whatever the caller was saying had creased his forehead into a puzzled frown.

“I don’t understand why he…” he paused and listened. “That’s true, I guess. He does, doesn’t he?” Another pause. “Yes, I’ll tell them, but I already know they won’t like it. I don’t like it.” He listened again for a moment before laughing. “Kate! You shouldn’t say that about Gwen even if it is true.” Another laugh. “Yes the shoe does fit, doesn’t it? I’ll see what they say then call you?” He hung up and then looked calmly at Sarah, Daniel and Tanya who were all staring at him. “Werewolves have good hearing, don’t they? How much of what Kate said did you hear?”

“That was the Day Queen?” Tanya’s eyes were narrowed. “Does she often call you to talk about court policy?”

Liam gave her an amused smile. “It was. She does. You and Merry aren’t the only ones with secrets, Tan.”

Tanya scowled at him and folded her arms. “And we trusted you so you’d better reciprocate. Spill!”

Several things clicked in David’s head simultaneously. Liam not sleeping. The way Tyler and Penny both deferred to Liam. Tyler telling Penny they’d ask Liam about her idea.

“Wait a minute!” he exclaimed. “You’re the Night King, aren’t you? I should have realised last night.”

“I don’t advertise it,” he said. “Only the highest members of the Court know who I am. The rest never see my human form. So I’d appreciate your discretion.” He looked back at Tanya who was staring at him open-mouthed. “How much did you hear?”

“Enough to suspect who is requesting an audience with you but not enough to be sure,” Daniel said because Tanya was still speechless.

“I’m pretty sure it is who you think,” Liam said. “I’m inclined to say no given what I know of him.”

“But your counterpart wants to say yes,” Daniel said.

“Kate’s being pragmatic,” Liam said. “He hates Gwen with a passion and the Court of Seasons is a fierce foe. Also she fears a two fronted war if we offend him.”

“Excuse me, but who are we taking about?” David asked.

“Maelin!” Sarah exploded. She gasped in a few breaths before managing to speak somewhat coherently. “His servants killed Anna’s mother and were responsible for Martin’s death for all Rhianne’s hand held the knife. No good can come from his help.”

“That’s true.” Michael was eyeing Liam thoughtfully. “But in this case I think the Day Queen is also right that refusing to speak to him may endanger them even more. They need to navigate this cautiously so they can avoid being forced into an alliance without ending up under attack.”

“Michael’s right I’m afraid.” Daniel looked at Liam seriously. “You will have to meet him I guess. We’d better tell your father, Tan.”

“Uncle Phil?” David asked. He’d always been closer to Uncle Philip than his father.

“Dad is our pack leader,” Tanya said. “We’ve been keeping him up to speed on the situation but he’s been focussed on Aunt Sue so he couldn’t come to help.”

“Mum! Damn I haven’t been to see her since the day after dad died!” David said. “How is she?”

“She’s… well not okay obviously,” Sarah said. “But she’s getting there. I took Emma to see her which helped, I think.” She glared at Tanya. “You should have told us.”

“It was Dad’s idea not to,” Tanya said. “I think he felt guilty that neither of us realised why Emma was so sick until too late. I certainly did. But yeah I’ll call Dad because he does need to know about this. I’ll ask him to bring Aunt Sue over as well. We can’t risk leaving her unguarded.” She pulled out her phone and stepped out of the room. Through the open door David could see her talking to someone on the phone. It was only a short call before she hung up and came back in.

“Okay, he’s on his way,” she said. “Let’s do the scrying before he gets here.” She handed David a clear pastic bag containing what he thought might once have been a green T-shirt but was now a shredded pile of rags splattered with dried blood and, his stomach heaved with realisation, excrement.

“I warned you it would be unpleasant,” Meredith said. “If you want to back out I’ll understand.”

David swallowed and forced himself to look at the bag. Using his horror as fuel to steel himself. “This just makes me more determined to help.” He looked up and met her eyes. “But you’ll have to guide me again, I’m afraid.”

Meredith nodded. “I know. I’ll be okay.”

“I’ll help as well,” Liam said. “Since my secret is out here I’ve no reason not to. My clairvoyance lies more towards farsight than psychometry but I might be able to get sight of this enemy once David’s psychometry reveals them.”

“It’s certainly worth a try,” Meredith said. “But it’s a long shot.”

“A long shot is better than no shot, Merry,” Liam said. “But I hope people won’t freak because I’ll have to drop my glamour.” He obviously saw the puzzled looks people were giving him. “I’m a shadow person. My true form seems to freak people out.”

“Wait? You have a glamour?” David said. “But I can see it? I thought I couldn’t see glamour.”

“Mostly that’s true,” Liam said. “My kind’s glamours are a bit more solid than most since they protect me from light as well.” He closed his eyes. “Speaking of which could someone get the curtains? It’s still a bit light out.”

“Sure!” Anna leapt to her feet and closed the thick drapes plunging the unlit room into gloom.

“That’s better.” Liam’s skin seemed to melt away as the room darkened even further as if the little light getting past the curtains was being eaten. After only a few moments David could nothing except inky darkness but then a pair of glowing red lights appeared and David realised they were Liam’s eyes. He’d transformed into a being of living shadow. “Okay, everyone?” he asked.

“Uh,” Tanya said. “That’s creepy. I hate to say it, Liam, but that form makes my skin crawl.”

“It does?” Liam sounded puzzled. “Let me try something.” A moment later something dark and oppressive was lifted from the air. “Better?”

“Better,” Tanya agreed. “What the hell was that?”

“Hnn, inconvenient is what it was.” He said after moment. “I must be hungry. I’ll deal with that tomorrow. At least I think there’s an investigation team in one of my houses then.”

“There is,” Penny said drily. “I scheduled them and was going to kick your butt into there if you didn’t realise because unlike you I actually pay attention to when you last ate. Repeat visitors too so they’ll be disappointed if nothing happens.”

“Oh, well I’d definitely better go then,” Liam said. “Don’t want to disappoint the customers.”

“Do I even want to know?” Tanya asked. “I mean I’m sure you wouldn’t harm anyone but it does sound ominous.”

“I’ll explain later,” Liam said. “I don’t think you’ll be too offended by my eating habits. For now let’s get on with this.”

“Yes, let’s.” David took a deep breath, opened the bag and tipped the bloody rags into his hands. The stench hit him like a gut punch and it was a few moments before he could focus enough to let his mind sink down into them. Once he did he barely had time to register the intensity of the energy before it grabbed hold of him and pulled him into Paul’s last moments.

***

Paul ducked into an empty booth in the darkened nightclub and sank into a seat massaging his temples to try and ease the burning pain in his head. Something was wrong, he could feel it. He’d been convinced his target was a werewolf but now all the evidence was yelling at him that he was making a mistake. Normally he would have followed the evidence and pulled back until he could work out why his feelings and the evidence were in such conflict but when he’d tried that he’d walked into a psychic wall and his head had started throbbing and the urge to attack his target had grown even stronger. Someone was trying to use him as a murder weapon and he didn’t know how long he could fight it.

“Not for long, I think.” The sympathetic female voice made him look up sharply to find his target standing in the entrance of the booth looking at him sadly. “You don’t have any special reserves to resist her. Though how she expects a werewolf hunter armed with nothing more than a few pins to kill me I don’t know.”

Paul just starred at her. How had she known? He had no time to puzzle over the conundrum because he found a knife that wasn’t his and which he had no idea where it came from in his hand and he launched himself at the short, dark haired woman. She blocked him easily and took the knife from his hand.

“Ah, she intended to arm you herself and this might well have inconvenienced me. Such a pity you seem like a better child than most of your compatriots but there’s nothing to be done. Come with me.” She took his hand and led him from the nightclub and into a darkened alley. Paul tried to break free and run but somehow all he could do was follow her obediently.

The alley ended in a dead end and she turned back to him. “I wish I could free you, child, really I do, but you have no defences so even if I evicted her she’d be back as soon as my back was turned. I can’t be constantly dodging you and while your superior might be able to help she’d never let you talk to her.” She reached out and stroked his face. “I’m sorry about this, child. Truly I am.” It was the last thing he saw before everything went black.

***

David snapped back to the present and his own mind with a gasp and sat there shaking as he tried to process what he’d just experienced.

“Shit!” Liam said “That poor boy.”

“At least he was unconscious when she was eviscerating him. That’s a mercy at least.” Meredith gave a sob. “But damn it I’m sure she could have thrown the other out of his head long enough for him to come to me for help. She didn’t have to kill him and even if she did she didn’t have to gut him that way.”

“Other?” Tanya asked.

“Someone was controlling the kid, Tan,” Liam said. “Threw him at the…” he hesitated. “She was a vampire right?”

“I think so,” David said even as Meredith nodded empatically.

“Okay,” he said. “Someone threw the kid at the Vampire. Even armed him suitably.”

“It was the same person Dave and I sensed trying to push us,” Meredith said. “And normally I’d say even a silver knife would only irritate a vampire but that knife was strange. I wish I could get a look at it.”

“Well that’s interesting,” Tanya said. “But more importantly did you get a good look at the killer?”

“Ye- No.” David frowned in puzzlement. “Paul saw her clearly but somehow I can’t remember anything but that she was short and dark haired.”

“Same here,” Liam said. He looked over Meredith who scowled and nodded. “Well that’s an interesting gift she has. She must have realised someone might try to scry for her and somehow she can block them from recognising her.” He shifted back to his human form. “That’s a not usually a vampire gift but it’s not uncommon among fairies and daemons”

“Is it now!” Tanya narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “I did say that whoever did it smelled like a vampire but also like a fairy. Could she have been a Mistwalker before she was turned?”

“Almost certainly,” Liam said. “Not as uncommon as people think and it would explain the paralysis as well if she’s found a way to make elf-shot effect other supernaturals rather than just humans.”

“Yes, that’s a workable theory,” Michael said. “It does seem a lot like elf-shot. And the description that you give of the killer matches the vague impressions I got from Ian. So I think Meredith is right the same person is behind that.” He pulled out a phone and looked over at Leisa. “Let’s check up on everyone. I don’t think anyone else would be a target but she’s dangerous enough to be sure.”

Leisa nodded and also pulled out a phone.

“Good idea,” Tanya said. “While you do that I’ll make Dinner before dad arrives.”

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