My eyes bounced back and forth between the two. "We want a summoning, I thought I made that clear."

"Of course, of course." DeeDee hummed, leaning back in her chair to balance on the back legs.

"And yet, not at all." Duke laughed, resting his arm on the table to hold his chin.

"We want to summon a healing Other." Honi tapped the table, trying to emphasis the urgency. "It's for our friend, he needs help."

"Yes I noticed his aura was tainted." Duke flipped the glasses on and then off again, nodding to himself in agreement. "Healer, those don't come cheap. Ya got the dough?"

"Are we baking?" Honi whispered to me, I shrugged.

"No we don't have money." Pitri responded, making both of us of feel a bit foolish.

The twins both stand up straight now and began whispering to each other. One would look at us and raise there hand to hide them lips while they talked. Then the other would argue something only to do the same back. It was an endless flow of the two conversing in their own world. I turned to Honi. She was still, her head cocked with the slight twitch of her jaw. I grinned, before dropping it when the twins stopped to stare. We had an inside loop, I didn't want them to know that. Like Pitri said, they are in it for the value and were not our allies.

DeeDee pulled herself forward and folded her arms across the table while Duke shifted back this time. I wondered if they even liked each other as they always seemed to be pushed away from the other, opposites. That was a good way to describe them, even within their striking similarities they pushed against each other like magnets of the same pole.

"Well you know what outta the goodness of our heart, we've decided to help you pro bono." DeeDee clapped her hands with sudden delight.

I flinched a bit, taken a back and looked to Pitri who seemed as shocked as I was. He stuttered. "Pro bono, as in pro bono, pro bono?"

"That's right fella." Duke gestured wildly. "Pro bono, free, costs ya nada. You see we like to do a little charity work every now and then."

"Helps with our karma balance." DeeDee winked.

"Exactly." He continued. "So you lucky kids happened to catch us in a good mood and we've decided to make you our yearly good deed."

"Congrats!" She raised her glass and cheered with her brother. The two then drained their beer mugs in one go.

The three of us stared in silence. My eyes were begging to look at Honi for confirmation, but I didn't want DeeDee and Duke to figure it out.

"When do we start?" I managed to croak out.

An hour of prep later we had set up a time and place to meet the following night for the summoning. DeeDee and Duke had even set them up in a hotel with a friends of theirs for the nights. That was where they were heading now, to some place called "Howl's Nights". It was an odd name, but most things round here had odd names, some even in Other's languages which I could barely pronounce. Finally a good distance from the tavern, I shifted my attention to Honi. She was quiet, still listening.

"Are they following us?"

Honi tilted toward me, before shaking her head. "So do you want to know what they were whispering?"

Pitri let out a breath of relief. "Yes, yes please. I was really hoping you could possibly hear them, but wasn't sure how good your senses were."

She smiled. "More than good enough, they might as well have been yelling. For starters, no pro bono and we do have a place to stay tonight without fear."

I sighed. "Alright I need a bath before all this."

We checked in and settled into our rooms, a set of connecting ones. Like promised, they were covered by the Twendle twins according to the owner, an Other known as a vrykolakas, a type of undead vampire werewolf. It was an incredible rarity and I couldn't help but stare for a moment, wanting to touch it, to see what color it bleed, but Pitri dragged me away before my curiosity could be satisfied. 

Once clean, we all gathered within Honi and I's room to talk. The truth behind our charitable hunters was unsettling. According to Honi, the two hoped to demand a high price once the summoned was present, dangling it in our face as a strong bargaining chip. Plus the last minute meant we couldn't try to go find something worth a similar price as what they really wanted from us. To put it simply they wanted one of three things: Honi's eyes, an extraordinary amount of my blood, or the sack of gate chemical. Honi explained they didn't know exactly what the gate chemical was, but that the glasses had shown them it was something special.

"We could give them the gate chemical. After all the summoned is supposed to heal me of the need for it right?" Pitri shifted, staring the the thing in his arm and the ever smaller amount.

He didn't seem in pain so much anymore about it. It was more like it was just draining him. He was always tired and hungry, never seeming to sustained by either no matter how much he got. The drug didn't react the same to him as it did a regular human, and still it was slowly killing him. His body would shut down at this rate, and yet I was fairly certain it would shut down without it. His condition, he should not be still alive, the only logical conclusion was it was the gate chemical keeping him in this state between life and death.

"I can give up my blood. It's not like it won't be replenished. Plus having the gate chemical in case it doesn't work buys us time to figure something else out."

Honi shook her head in disagreement. "It should be my eyes. I can't see anyway, and the though of using them again...it terrifies me. It would be a weight lifted to have them removed. Plus we can't give them your blood or the gate chemical. We don't know what these two would do with them. They've already proven untrustworthy, they could easily turn around and sell them to bad people."

That was true. Still the thought of not seeing those yellow eyes, even beneath a veil of white, made me sad. I reached over and grasped her hand. She smiled at me sadly. I did the same to Pitri, holding them close to me. I was theirs and they were mine. Their Alice.

We didn't discuss the matter further. Instead deciding to sleep on it. Pitri went to his room and Honi and I soon laid down. I waited patiently in the dark until her breathing evened. Tip-toeing, I crept over to Pitri's door and laid an ear against it. The same soft sounds of sleep drifted through. As quiet as possible, I left the room. I was lucky Honi was a deeper sleeper or her hearing would've caught me as I went to make the bargain. They were mine, mine to protect.

My feet strode through the square, even at night the safe town was bustling with Others. There were definitely fewer humans about, it drew more attention to me. I had asked at the front desk and the vrykolakas had said the twins had not returned yet, likely to still be at the tavern. I was making my way there as quickly as possible. I got turned around though, finding myself in something of a park than back at the tavern. It was a clearing with some tarnished and rusted playground equipment surrounded by forest. I frowned, turning around trying to find the right direction. I tentatively sniffed, looking for the scent of alcohol. I picked it up through the woods. It must be a short cut. I liked so little being lost, that I jugged right in without a second thought.

The woods became a dense dark fast. The overhead branches shadowing out the moon and stars. My eyes adjusted to use of night vision though, so I continued. A large snap, cause me to pause. I reached for my sword to find them missing. Stupid, so stupid. I had forgotten them back home by the bed in my haste to get to the twins without Honi and Pitri knowing. I took a step backward, when I was yanked by the ankle straight into the air. Popping up and down like a yo-yo, I watched my capture step forward. Holding a torch, it was the troll from earlier. It grinned.

"Lookie what I caught. A new servant to work for the honor of the Others."

I realized now having heard the troll speak, it was a she. Trolls were always hard to distinguish between in my opinion. Most didn't even care and went by a genderless pronoun, but she was obviously female by the jeweled spike on her tongue, barely visible glinting in the little light. It was standard by which many chose to distinguish themselves.

"I am no one's servant." I hissed, spinning upside down.

The troll pulled a giant wooden type bird cage off her back. It smelled of rowan, a very powerful magic embedded tree for protection, meaning once inside she was in trouble. I thrashed about trying to break free. I heard the rope snap and as I fell to freedom, it was swiped away. Instead of the ground, I found myself landing on cage bars and it closing over me. The troll shook me, jarring my head.

"That's not your choice, servant." She spat the words, wetting my face with my sentence.

I was carried through the woods on the trolls back. It was an unpleasant bouncy ride which all I had to think about was my failings as Alice to my friends. My cage got hung by a couple others among some large trees. Looking over, I could see maybe five others humans in individual cages. The troll went over to her friend the giant, who was sitting by a large fire, and began eating some food with them. I curled up in my cage, upset. I didn't know what to do.

"Alice."

My head popped up from where it had been hiding trying to block out the world. I couldn't have just heard...

"Alice." The voice said louder, insisting.

I looked around, trying to determine the source. Had Pitri and Honi realized I had gone and come found me? Was I going to be saved?

"Alice!"

My eyes traveled to land on my adjacent cage. A face was pressed up against it, with eyes wide and exhilarated. I knew the look in those eyes. It was the same that stared at me day in and out. The eyes of someone who was both amazed at what they had done and worshiping to who they believed was a savior. It had to be one of the scientists. From this distance, I couldn't pick out which one. I was thoroughly confused. I thought all of them had died, and even it not they must be ancient by now. I mean I supposed this human did look rather old and feeble. His white hair stuck up everywhere and deep set wrinkles covered every part of him.

"Who are you?"

"Alice it's me. Dr. Toukka."

"That's impossible."