Chapter 1

Kenneth and Colleen were running as hard as they could as they ran from building to building in a night where the moon was playing hide and go seek with clouds.

The city of Eqamour seemed strangely quiet as they fled.

The two figures looked frantic as they ran looking for safety. One was an attractive and athletically built woman with brown eyes and silky brown hair in a black cloak with its hood pulled up. The other person was a rugged looking athletically built man with blue eyes and straight blonde hair, also in a matching black cloak and hood.

They both raced through the dark backstreets of the large city as they tried to make their way to the cities edge, hopefully to safety.

Finally they reached an alley between buildings, and they frantically looked behind them to see if they were being pursued. They didn't necessarily feel safe, just less exposed hidden deep in the shadows.

"What's ... going on? What... (huff) is ... happening?" asked Colleen as she gasped for desperately to gather her breath.

"I'm not ... sure. Something... (huff huff) ... is behind ... us ... but ... what I'm ... not sure (huff) where it is... ," gasped Kenneth himself.

Kenneth was impressed with Colleen. She managed to not only keep up with him, but she was leading him as she headed to a more secure location so they could stop and catch their breath. If it wasn't for the situation they were in Kenneth would have found himself greatly admiring her.

"We... (huff) ... need to ... report this," said Colleen as she tried to look past Kenneth and watch for any issues as he first made a connection. She knew that he would watch over her as she made hers.

Kenneth closed his eyes and opened his connection. Once he opened it he re-opened his eyes signaling that he had made the connection. Colleen closed hers and then re-opened her pretty brown eyes as her own connection was completed.

"What's the situation? Why do you seem agitated," said the voice in their minds.

"Master Wolfgang, we have a problem. First Tamera disappeared earlier tonight. We split up into two teams and Tamera was to be used to insuring that anything we had was shared and wasn't hinged on a single team. But she never made it to the meeting point to meet Toby and Chase," thought Kenneth

"Hold on," said Wolfgang

After a moment he came back to talk again with the other two.

"I can't get a hold of anyone but you two, what else happened. Where is Toby," demanded Wolfgang,

"Toby has been killed and Chase has also gone missing without a trace. Whatever happened to Tamera must have also happened to him. From what we can see he just disappeared, " said Colleen.

"We lost both of them while we were looking for Tamera," said Kenneth

"You'd better fill me in," said Wolfgang sternly.

Wolfgang was already sure Toby had been killed since his node disappeared from the network, but he desperately hoped against hope for the first time in centuries he was wrong in what he felt. It was apparent that he wasn't.

But right now he needed to do what he had to too keep the other two calm as he assessed the situation.

Both Kenneth and Colleen took turns filling him in with what they found.

"So you believe the bodies we've been investigating in the other cities are definitely tied to this city?" asked Wolfgang

"Yes. It seems that something is going and this city is at the center of it. Someone was testing out something in the various towns and villages around this city. And that's what struck us as odd. By using all the other teams reports it seems that this city is in the middle of all of the deaths, but yet no one here has been is affected," said Colleen.

"That is what is so strange as well. No one will talk to anyone. Even though Tamera got a job as a serving wench she couldn't even "flirt" any information out of anyone. Everyone is so tight lipped I get the impression they are scared to talk. I've never seen her fail at getting men to talk about anything she wanted to know," said Kenneth.

"Ken, was this really the best use of your team? Why have you waited so long to relay all of this?" asked Wolfgang sounding irritated.

"We only had hunches and nothing solid to report. Chase and Toby were investigating some of the rumors we received from the other spies around some of the nobles being part of this. We only just now found the body of Toby and Chase was no where to be found," said Kenneth.

"And Master Wolfgang we tried to be careful and to blend in, but something isn't quite right here. We were made as outsiders almost immediately when we got here and no one really wanted to talk. We knew that the other six spies all either disappeared or turned up dead so he did this to try and give us a better chance at getting the information to you.

Colleen interrupted saying "If Kenneth hadn't split us up into groups, staggered when we entered the city, and made the two of us look like a married couple we might have all gone missing without reporting in. When we watched Chase and Toby asking casually about the rumors you could see people stop talking and staring at them. Thankfully they didn't realize we were all together."

"Did you find out any information about the missing children from the other towns and cities?" Wolfgang asked

"In our investigations we found it was not only teens but any attractive young men and women went missing as well. Colleen and I were trying to find out more about the King they have here. No one talks about him directly as if they are scared of him. The reports of his castle being several miles outside the city were correct. It's like he's hiding something.

"And it also seems that the reports about him having no sexual preference when it comes to men or women and his perversions are very well known. That is one of the few facts would could confirm with the people in town. I personally believe he's behind all of this somehow. It just feels like he's keeping the people here terrorized," said Kenneth as he suddenly looked out into the street from deep with in the shadows.

Something caught his eye.

Something wasn't right. What made him look out into the street was a feeling of an absence of something rather than because he saw something.

While Kenneth was looking into the street trying to figure out what he missed he positioned himself to better protect Colleen in case anyone tried to enter the dead end ally.

"Colleen, what is your opinion on that? Did you find that to also be the case?" asked Wolfgang.

"... *"

"Colleen?" asked Wolfgang again.

Quickly turning to look behind him to see why she hadn't answered, Kenneth realized that she was gone! All he could now see was the blank wall where Colleen had been standing behind him.

"Ken, what is going on!?" asked Wolfgang mentally.

Wolfgang had just lost his link to Colleen. It was as if she shut off her mind to him suddenly.

Before Kenneth could answer he jumped to the side to avoid the blow that he sensed more than saw coming.

But still he wasn't fast enough.

Kenneth felt the most awful burning sensation in his chest just above his stomach. Then it felt as if his chest was on fire and was getting hotter. He knew he had been stabbed and slashed, but no stabbing wound had ever felt like this before.

"Thheee Maaassteerrr doesn't wantttt yyyooouuu. Yoooouuu aren't ppprreeeettty enough ooorrr ssssstrong eeeeenough to be usssedd," said a hissing voice from behind a dark hood.

Kenneth put his hand over the wound and could feel the slickness of the blood seeping between his fingers.

"Ken, Kenneth! What is going on!" demanded Wolfgang.

Wolfgang felt something was wrong. He had felt enough people die with an open link to know that Kenneth was in trouble. Kenneth's thoughts became random and unfocused. He was in shock and he was dying.

He realized that there was no way Kenneth would be able to heal himself in this state. He didn't have the concentration needed to use White spells.

"Master ... Wolfgang ... please ... help me... *" trailed off Kenneth, as he dropped to his knees.

As Kenneth fell he grabbed the cloak of the man in front of him and the dead weight of his falling body caused him to pull it free of the man. Kenneth's eyes grew wide as he took in the face of the man, the thing, before him.

"Kenneth! Listen to me. You must do this! Quickly, repeat after me!" said Wolfgang insistently.

Wolfgang had trained his spies well enough that they followed his commands without thought. Kenneth, even though he was dying, repeated the spell quickly and easily.

Suddenly there was a brief flash in front of Kenneth's face and then he completely collapsed backwards on the ground. The man before him saw his hands go lax, was curious about the brief flash, and he then kicked Kenneth's body to check its condition.

Satisfied he looked halfway up the wall at two others who were clinging to the wall just above them.

"Leeeet uuuussssssss leeeeaaaave," said the man as he held his torn cloak closed.

The two others were dressed similarly as he was and they all leaped for the roof of the nearest building in the darkness without missing a beat.

The three of them disappeared into the night Colleen's unconscious body was slung over one of the men's shoulders.

Wolfgang was pacing in his study seething.

He had lost another team. So far this investigation cost him two separate spies who went in on their own in two different cities. Then it was a team of four trying to investigate the town two days east of this city Eqamour. He had hoped this team would fare better, but they hadn't.

On top of those losses they killed Toby.

Wolfgang felt as if someone had kicked him in the stomach, and he sat down heavily in the chair as he let himself finally feel the implications of what that meant.

He recalled Toby's youthful face so full of freckles and his uncombed sandy blonde hair. Toby was always coming around as a young child saying that he would one day work for Wolfgang. Toby always said working for Wolfgang was his dream.

Toby worked and trained hard to win Wolfgang's approval. When it was discovered that he was a mage Toby was so overjoyed that he couldn't wait to tell Wolfgang. Wolfgang remembered the day he joined Toby to his mental network as well as working with the boy teaching him everything he needed to know. Toby was almost like a son to him. The son he never had.

The boy was barely eighteen seasons old.

And now he was gone.

Wolfgang's eyes burned but he wouldn't give in to the feelings and cry. He never should have let Toby go, but they desperately needed information in that area and Toby was one of his best.

This evil needed to stop and it needed to stop now. Eight good people under his direction gave their lives to find the heart of this disease and now that they had pinpointed the central location Wolfgang realized that he would be the one to cut it out.

Thankfully he had already put into motion a new plan to rid that kingdom of its disease if Kenneth was correct. He knew that with his new plan to end this nightmare it would only end one way.

As Wolfgang sat he waited for the moment that he would sense that Kenneth had died.

This wouldn't be the first time that someone had died while their link was open with him, and Wolfgang would honor the brave man as he sat with him to witness his final moments.

He could feel Kenneth's hold on life slowly slipping away as he died from some unknown wound. Wolfgang couldn't let Kenneth go through his death alone. It was all he had left to offer Kenneth as he passed on.

But as he waited with Kenneth he replayed the image sent to him from the last spell Kenneth used. It was a "picture spell" allowing him to mentally send Wolfgang what he saw. It was a brief image of what Kenneth was looking at in Eqamour when he was attacked.

Wolfgang hated to use that spell, because there was an extremely high chance the user would go immediately blind if they used it just once, but Kenneth was already dying, so his forcing Kenneth to use the spell would help him put a face with his killer.

Wolfgang had to make the hard call whether to have Kenneth use the spell or not to and have it aid him. But he didn't regret now having the information that he so desperately needed.

As he sat alternating between seething and sorrow he replayed the last thing that Kenneth's saw.

The man before Kenneth had short cropped spiky hair, but that wasn't what was weird. The man's nose looked like someone had cut it off and it was just two holes in his face. He had long ears like an elf, but had a pinched face and eyes like a goblin. But the man was too tall to be one either.

With his mnemonic memory Wolfgang would remember that horrific face until he died, if ever.

Wolfgang was at a loss for what the man was as he sat with Kenneth for his final moments. He was waiting until Ken's node disappeared from his network signaling his death.

Soon he would to go into the city and explain to both Toby and Kenneth's families that their son's wouldn't be coming home. Then he would need to tell yet another family that their children were missing and he had no idea when they were coming home. He had done something similar with the confirmed deaths of the other teams. Those whose nodes were still active, but he couldn't contact, he waited for confirmation.

Doing this duty was one thing that Wolfgang hated more than anything he ever had to do, but it wasn't something he would ever pass on to someone else. These men and women were under his direct orders and he would be the one to carry out this last act to honor them.

Wolfgang also realized that he would need to dispatch a few more spies to recover the bodies of the known dead so that they could be buried back here at the place that was their home.

Kat was walking through the back streets of Eqamour in the bad part of town and she was in a bad mood.

It took all her power not to walk over and hurt the latest man for his obscene comments made at her expense as he called out to her from his side of the street.

Just what kind of man thought the crude things he suggested were flattering to a woman? How could anyone believe that women would be impressed by something so crude or would take that comment any other way but as an insult?

She was mad, but it was also a combination of sexual frustration caused by her voluntary vow of chastity combined with newest irritation of the comment that got under her skin. Things hadn't been looking up for her with men lately and she just wanted to be left alone by every one of them.

But her Succubus nature was fighting her chastity decision tooth and nail.

Ever since her run in with the Vampire a few months back she hadn't needed to be with a man for any reason. Not that she had found any prospects that might interest her in any of the town's she visited. So far all they wanted to do was grope her or press her up against something so they could touch her body.

Thankfully she was stronger than she looked so she didn't need to use a touch of her magic to make them see the error of their ways. A well placed knee was always her best weapon. It was something all those pigs should have seen coming. Kat couldn't believe the number of men who tried to pin her against something and always spaced their legs apart when they did.

But right now she was walking back to her small room. Kat had a job as a serving girl, or serving wench as they called her in the tavern. It was the only one that didn't require she audition on her back for the job. So she took the job there.

Kat was low on money because she had used the money she was carrying to travel to buy food and other necessities. A few different times she ran into families that were so down on their luck they were starving. It broke her heart to see how thread bare and ragged their clothing was. She could see how thin and frail the children and parents looked.

There was no way Kat could ignore any of them.

She made it a point to help them out when she could. She did everything from buying them food and bringing it to them, to those she met on the road giving them some of her quickly diminishing funds. Kat couldn't stand by and let them starve if she could help it.