**I know I promised some answers in this chapter but I got a little carried away so there are not as many as I had hoped. I hope that you enjoy this new installment and I would really appreciate reviews!**

“Ayara.” I called to her from the other room. “What did Ziya say about us visiting her in Honduras?” She hesitated and then said,

“What happened to the couch?”

“Umm, Demitri must have taken it with him when he left.” I said slowly. She just nodded her head without looking at me. Her pale green skin shown in the dim light, in contrast her brilliant red hair shimmering off the walls, as usual. She walked around the cracks in the hardwood and said nothing more.

“What’s the matter child?” I asked; without her normal smile, my heart seemed to wither.

“Are you alright Nathan?” she asked, concern covering her features. I was by her side in an instant and held her head to my chest in an embrace.

“Yes, I will be fine; It is Demitri we must worry about.” I said running my fingers through her silky hair. How I love my firstborn, what would I ever do without her.

My pocket started to vibrate and I took out my cell and looked to see who it was.

“Zad! Where are you? Did you make it ho…”

“Nathaniel there are reports of several hundred ash spawn flooding into the warehouse district.” And then he hung up. I know what this means of course.

“Ayara get the family to Warehouse 13 now.” I said. I grabbed my coat and sword and I was out the door and running within seconds. Running fast mind you, very fast.

It must have been a trap, I have no doubt he can handle it but I don’t know why the spawn would swarm like that if Demitri has already killed Damone. Something is surly wrong. There is no way he would let them overtake him. Hands under my arms and now I’m vapor flying through the air; Zad’’s beautiful gift of flight without wings. He drops me in through a roof window and I begin to sail down through the air, my coat flapping above my head.

I hit the ground and bend my knees; all glamour falls from me and I draw my two-handed emerald blade. Surrounded by spawn I just begin to sling the sword around me in a circle and cut them down. I cannot see through the throng of black dusty bodies. I move closer to the door, hacking as I go.

“Nathaniel, look!” Zad yells. I look to the front and find the body of a poor soul possessed. And there next to him was the bleeding body of my brother.

Fury.

I yelled and the building shook. I pulled from all around trunks and roots from trees into the ground and toward me. I felt them pulse and rejoice as they responded to my call. The cement of the warehouse cracked as they exploded from the earth and wrecked mine enemies. Ash demons fell all around me as they were entwined with branches and roots. The man looked terrified, he had fallen to the ground and was searching with his eyes frantically.

“ZAD get the rune!” I screamed. He was rummaging through Demitri’s cloak. The ceiling began to fall and a large piece was coming down right in front of me. I jumped and bounded off the top of it just before it crashed to the ground. The momentum carrying me closer to the door. Zad found what he was looking for and threw it towards me in the air, I grabbed it with my right hand and then landed in front of the man. Zad materialized behind the man and put both of his Sai daggers at his throat.

“Please help me, I don’t know what’s going on I can’t see anything and I have no clue how I got here, please you have to help me.” Said the man. I glanced at Zad and he nodded his head. All around us my branches were still thrashing.

“In the name of Jesus, LEAVE THIS MAN!” me and Zad said in unison, and the man fell limply onto Zad and he began to shake. A fine purple mist flowed out of his eyes, mouth, nose and ears. I took the bronze disk in my hand and traced the rune on it with my fingers. It illuminated and I threw it to the ground. The mist congealed above the disk. Another mist came from the body and then dissipated in the air.

Zad went over and began to tend to Demitri. I addressed the purple mist.

“How did you keep the soul from leaving Damone!” The mist clotted together to form a face; it spoke,

“You cannot keep me here, more are on the way.” It hissed.

“Look around you fool!” I shouted in response. “Your pathetic vermin are exterminated by words from my mouth! Tell me how you were able to stay in the hosts body and keep his soul there days after death?!?” The face only smirked.

He must have infested the host so that Demitri couldn’t capture him. Damone must have known Demitri would not use the only name that could cast him out. But for what purpose did he come, and why with so many?

“Why did you come?” I asked.

“To tell you a message of course!” it hissed, “We have found an Orb, and we will find the rest!”

“Impossible!” I screamed. There is no way Damone could have gotten an Orb.

“No, that can’t be.” Zad said almost at the same time. Just then the face turned towards the door. Four hooded figures stood in formation around a very tall, thin, man. His skin like that of parchment, white and flaky, as if it would fall off at any moment. His cloak hung off him as if it were draped over a peg in a wall. Long dirty grey hair sat on his head and fell down to his waist. His eyes completely grey, as if he had cataracts in both. His voice like a high pitched whine over a raspy dogs bark,

“What kind of a greeting is this brothers?” Ashiel said.

“You are no brother of ours.” Zadkiel and I said in unison. Two of the hooded figures began bounding through the mass of branches and tendrils of vines towards us. Zad spun and picked up Demitri. A great gust of wind, and they were gone.

“Father!” Ayara screamed. My children were coming in through the back of the warehouse. They began beheading the ash spawn caught in the branches; finishing them off.

“Ayara my dear! It’s been so long, give your uncle a hug!” Ashiel called to her, holding out his arms for an embrace. My beautiful daughter spit on the ground and called a throng of locusts. They swarmed around Ashiel and his two remaining guards as she continued to hack at the spawn on the ground with renewed vigor.

Ashiel screamed and his cry echoed through the building. More ash blew in from the street and curdled into huminoid forms. More spawn. Ashiel laughed. They continued to come in from the street.

The new wave of combatants hit my children and they became locked in combat. The two guards reached me in that instant and slashed at me with shortswords. I parried with my blade, but they kept coming. I caught ones foot in a vine and he fell to the ground. The other I beheaded whilst he was distracted. I turned to finish the other off but the former still came at me with his sword. Before it tore through my flesh, his blade was caught in my daughter’s one handed sickle. She batted at the headless corpse until it was nothing but dust; I did the same with the one who had fallen. I turned and embraced her.

As we parted I noticed the numbers of spawn did not seem to diminish, yet we killed them by the hundreds. I glanced through the warehouse to find no remains, no cinder where there should be piles upon piles of it strewn about from the fallen enemies. I turned yet again to see the two guards we had just destroyed putting themselves back together, grain of ash by grain of ash. Slowly re-congealing to the fierce warriors they were.

“Fall back!” I yelled to my children distraught. I stabbed the ground and it opened up to reveal a network of green tendrils. I jumped down and was swallowed by the earth.

I could still hear Ashiel’s pasty laugh.