I awoke from a troubled sleep plagued by monsters all bearing my face.

I'd fled the scene of my crime, haunted by the sound of Caelan's sobs and feeling the heavy weight of shame pressing down upon me and dogging my every step. I couldn't erase my words and I couldn't run from what I had done. There was no escaping my cruelty and I was horrified at my actions, horrified that I was capable of being so heartless and so brutal. What the Hell had happened to me? Was I so desperate to escape this place that I was willing to sacrifice Caelan's life in order to be free? She was crazy and dangerous, of that I was certain, but that didn't mean she deserved what I'd done.

When I reached the bedroom, I had been relieved that Lucius wasn't there. I couldn't have faced those blue eyes that saw too much. Instead, I had crawled onto the bed and lay there alone, with ravens beating their wings against my body until finally, exhausted, I had succumbed to a torturous slumber.

I wasn't sure how long I had been asleep but I did know I was just as alone on awakening as I had been before I had passed out, only now I didn't want to be alone. I wanted Harper. I wanted Lucius. And yet all I had was the sound of soulful music drifting along the corridor, muffled as if it was being played behind a closed door. My muscles protested as I struggled to sit up, feeling the burn of tense limbs and aching bones. I felt disorientated and nauseous, desperate to shake off those stubborn remnants of my dreams and yet unwilling to wake up and face reality once again.

Frowning, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and tried to gather my senses. Everything felt dream-like and hazy and yet something was incessantly tap-tapping on the inside of my skull, urging me to wake up, to be alert. But alert for what?

A scream in the darkness beyond the Gates pulled me to my feet, the voices of the dead crying out to me in warning and I knew I had to listen. I had grown accustomed to their lament, easily differentiating between shrieks of agony and cries of alarm –as if they were calling out to me and saying watch out, beware! Something was wrong. An unease crept across my skin, raising goose bumps on the surface and sending an involuntary shiver down my spine.

Following the trail of music out into the candle-lit corridor, I stopped and cocked my head to one side, straining to seek out the source of the music. It wasn't coming from Josiah's room. The door there stood wide open. It was coming from the chapel itself. I headed towards the double doors but found myself stopping just short of the chapel when I heard the sound of laughter coming from within. A woman's laughter.

With a shudder of dread and foreboding, I pushed open the doors and almost buckled at the sight in front of me.

She was free. Caelan was free and she was here, laughing as she danced with Lucius, whirling him around and around the chapel in time to the music playing from an old stereo in the corner. The boy wasn't laughing. His eyes were full of fear and yet he didn't resist the mad seer or try to break free from her grasp as she swung him around as if he were a doll.

The world seemed to fall away beneath my feet and I was flailing, frantically trying to grab hold of the edge before I tumbled into the abyss. She looked up and our eyes met. I felt her triumph rolling across the room in great waves that almost knocked me to the floor. Making a big show of it, she spun Lucius by the hand and pulled him close, his back against her chest so he was staring right at me. Crouching down slightly so she could wrap both her arms around him, she rested her cheek against his white-blonde hair and swayed back and forth.

"C-Caelan...." The words lodged in my throat. She had Lucius. She had Lucius. "What are you doing down here? Where's Josiah?"

She laughed and planted a kiss on top of Lucius' head. "Oh, I'm afraid Josiah is unavailable right now. Would you like me to give him a message?"

"What did you do?" I stared at her in horror. "What the Hell did you do?"

Caelan rolled her eyes. "Quite the little drama queen, aren't we?"

I took a shaky step forward, reaching out a hand. "Give me the boy, Caelan."

She tightened her grip around his chest and stuck out her bottom lip in a childish pout. "I will certainly not." A wicked smile tugged on the corners of her mouth. "Finders keepers."

"I'm warning you...." I growled.

"Warning me? Sweetie, I don't think you're in any position to warn me." She began stroking Lucius' hair. "It looks like I'm holding all the cards. Or at least one in particular. And what a beautiful one he is."

"Caelan...."I begged, feeling my chest tightening in panic. "Please."

"Oh so it's please now is it?" She tilted her head to one side, her hand moving to caress Lucius' face, her fingers trailing down to his throat. "I'm no longer chained up and suddenly you find your manners. Isn't it a shame you couldn't have been a little bit nicer earlier? How the tables turn so quickly. How do those shackles feel, darling Megan? Do they burn?"

I inched closer, swallowing hard. "Caelan....I'm sorry. What I said up there, I know it was wrong. I knew it as soon as I said it. It's just I was....God, I don't know. I was jealous I guess. I have no idea why I said all those things and you have every right to be pissed at me. But please...let Lucius go. It's not him you want, it's me."

She tightened her grip and Lucius' eyes bulged in terror. "On the contrary, I do want him. I want him very much." Pulling his head to one side, she ran her nose down the side of his face, inhaling deeply. "It's funny, he doesn't smell like humans do, but I bet he tastes soooo delicious.  I'm not surprised you've been so keen to keep this one all to yourself. I wouldn't share him either." Her mouth found his neck and she hovered there, incisors bared.

"No!" I cried, stumbling forward and stopping abruptly when she threw her head back and laughed cruelly. A tear slid down my face as I locked eyes with Lucius. He looked so frightened, so small and breakable in her arms and I couldn't bear it. All this time spent trying to keep him safe from Drachmann and the Varúlfur and now he was at the mercy of a mad, vengeful vampire, all because of me.

Her white eyes widened briefly. "Oh my goodness," she said with a gasp. "|Aren't you just the most precious, strange little thing? You don't want the boy's blood. You want to be his mother!" She cackled loudly. "You want him to be the baby that your husband could never give you! Poor princess Megs."

Her face twisted with a malicious grin as I recoiled instinctively on hearing that name. Nobody ever called me that but him. Brandon. And she knew. I could see the sheer delight she took in witnessing my surprise.

"Tell me something," she said, grabbing a handful of Lucius' hair and making him wince. "When I take the child's life, where will it hurt you the most? Your heart? Or that barren useless womb of yours?"

With a howl of rage, I charged towards her, seeing her mouth open wide, about to bear down upon the pale skin of his exposed throat, seeing her eyes blaze with hunger and vengeance. I hit her at full speed and we tumbled to the floor, taking Lucius with us in a knot of bodies. Caelan screeched like a banshee, all gnashing teeth and slashing fingernails, as we rolled on the dusty aisle until we hit one of the smashed pews stacked nearby.

Untangling myself from the seer, I jumped to my feet, snatching Lucius and pushing him behind me.

"Go, Lucius, run," I urged as Caelan climbed to her feet, her body tense and poised to strike. Slowly, stealthily, she stepped away from the side of the aisle and I backed up, knowing I couldn't afford to let her cut off Lucius' escape.

The boy tugged on my hand and I waved him away frantically. "Lucius, you have to go. Go on, get out of here!"

"Megan," he pleaded. "Megan, don't. You can't..."

Caelan wrinkled her nose into a sneer. "Don't Megan," she mocked in a high-pitched voice. "Listen to your baby, Megs. Give it up now and I'll make sure he dies quickly. Or maybe I'll just break each of his little bones before I drain him?"

"Now, Lucius" I hissed, shoving him backwards towards the door. I heard his footsteps clattering behind me but knew he hadn't gone far. Damn it, Lucius, I inwardly cursed.

Shrieking, Caelan charged at me, her hands outstretched like raven' claws, hair flying around her head like blackened feathers. Her fingers curled into my hair wrenching my head forwards and I grabbed at her thin, bony arms, digging my nails into her skin and drawing blood. She howled in pain but held on tight, shaking my head frantically and sending waves of dizziness surging through my skull. I kicked out, making contact with her shin and she buckled, stumbling to one side, which was not enough to knock her off balance completely, but enough to force her to loosen her grip.

Before I could move out of range, however, she lashed out, catching me across the cheek and scoring my skin with her nails. Blood rushed to the surface, searing my face with a stinging heat and I staggered back, clutching at the wound and feeling the dampness on my palm. Eyes widening with glee at the sight of my ravaged face, Caelan launched herself at me again, laughing as she did so, but this time I wasn't about to let her get that close. I swung my arm violently at her, hearing the crunch of bone as my fist impacted with her nose and blood gushed immediately from one of her nostrils.

Instead of recoiling like I thought she would, she stood up straight, locking eyes with me and with a wide maniacal grin, she swiped a palm under her broken nose and smeared the blood up one cheekbone and then the other, like the war paint of some hellish warrior.

When she flew at me again, I could do little but raise my arms in front of my face, desperate to protect my eyes from her gouging fingers. When she hit me, I went down hard, with her on top of me, her flailing arms beating at me again and again. I felt powerless under her onslaught, weakened by her relentless rage and madness and all the while, so horribly aware that Lucius was still there, watching, when he should be running; running as fast and as far away as he could.

When her incisors pierced my wrist, I screamed, feeling her bite down hard, practically chewing on the wound as I struggled beneath her. The more I struggled, the more frantic she became, until finally, I managed to wrench my arm from her mouth, feeling the skin tear as I did so. My blood poured over her lips and she sat up on her haunches, using both her hands to wipe it from her chin and sucking on her fingers with a ravenous hunger. Her eyes rolled in ecstasy as she lapped at the blood on her hands, her tongue darting out and seemingly intent on not missing one single drop.

As she seemed momentarily enthralled by her hunger, I shuffled away from her, grasping my torn wrist. Her head jerked to one side, her eyes bulging as she seemed to be listening to something far off in the distance, some sound that only she could hear. A giggle bubbled from her mouth, which quickly turned into a frown, my blood around her lips making her look like Pennywise the clown. Her head snapped back in my direction, her white eyes coming back into focus as she studied her prey.

"Mmmmm," she moaned. "That's like a damn drug. So intox-eeeeee-cating." She slicked a tongue over her lips. "Is the boy like you? Does he taste as good as that?" Her eyes darted over my shoulder, no doubt to where Lucius now stood. "Do you know, I don't think I can bear to drain him all at once. First I'll drink you dry and then I think I'll keep him alive. I can chain him up. He can be my regular fix. Yes, that's it. That's perfect. He can be all mine."

I gritted my teeth as the rage surged through my bones. My head swam with memories of my transformation, the anger that I had felt back then, so feral, so untamed and uncontrollable. I needed that now. That desire to kill, to feed, to hate, to destroy. I needed it all.

I took a step forwards. "I'm not telling you again, bitch. Lucius is mine."

I flew at her with everything I had, every ounce of fury, every nasty bit of hatred I had for this woman who threatened what was mine. She wasn't taking him. She wasn't taking either of them.

She tried to catch hold of me as I careened into her, but instead she went toppling over right on the edge of the baptismal pool and I fell onto her, grabbing her by the hair and slamming her head back against the floor. She kicked. She thrashed and bucked underneath me. But it didn't do her any good. All the madness in the world wasn't going to beat me. Not this time.

I was lost to the bloodied rage that beat inside my head, like the pounding of fists on some great door. I could hear it banging, banging, banging. Forcing her head back, I pushed my face into her neck and tore at her throat, revelling in that first hot rush of blood that sprayed from the open wound. I bit down again and again, draining her of every last drop and all the while I could hear screaming, Lucius was screaming and there were shouts of another, a voice I knew, a voice that had come to mean everything to me.

Strong hands grabbed at me, tugging me backwards, away from Caelan.

"Stop, Megan," Harper said in my ear, as I continued to struggle against him. He wrapped his arms tightly around me, pulling me against his body. "Stop. She's dead, damn it. She's dead."

And he was right. Caelan lay limp, with her head bent back over the cracked edge of the pool, blood pouring from the wide gash in her throat, her blank white eyes staring upwards at nothing. The raven was dead and I had killed her. Me. The one who was meant to save her.

"What have I done?" I croaked. "Oh God, Harper, what the Hell have I done?"

I glanced over at Lucius who stood with his back pressed against the chapel wall, his face pale and petrified and his eyes full of tears. He wasn't screaming now but I could still hear his cries echoing in my head.

Breaking free from Harper's arms, I scrabbled across to where Caelan was, scared to touch her and staring in panic at her still, lifeless body. I clutched my head in my hands, rocking back and forth and feeling utterly sick at what I had done.

"Megan, stay calm," Harper broached gently but firmly. He was trying to be the voice of reason, trying to convince me that this was okay, that everything was going to be okay when we both knew it wasn't. "She would have killed Lucius," he continued. "She would have killed you. You had to do it. You had to..."

"No," I whispered, feeling my throat tighten. "No....I shouldn't have....not this. I killed her. Josiah...."

Josiah!

With a cry, I staggered to my feet, deftly avoiding Harper's attempts to grab me as I ran from the chapel, stumbling along the corridor until I reached the bottom of the tower. I could hear Harper calling me, his footsteps pursuing me as I charged up the stairs, desperate to find the seer. Maybe there was still time. Maybe he wasn't dead. If he wasn't, maybe there was still a chance. I could save him. I could make everything alright. I had to do something. I had to tell him I didn't want to kill her, that I had no choice – that I was sorry.

Bursting through the half-open door to Caelan's room, I reeled in shock when I saw him there.

"No," I moaned. "No."

Josiah looked up from where he sat on the end of the bed, holding the chains and shackles he had used to keep his sister captive for so long. Tears streamed from those white eyes, usually so cold and now so full of pain and anguish.

"It was you," I gasped. "You did it. You set her free."