Without warning, the interval between consciousness of fear and acknowledgement of something greater, shattered. Buckling under the force, and powerless to resist, I was made to yield as the Shadow Person pushed aside my soul and took control over my body. With my peripheral view fogged so that I was able to see only what was directly before me, I waited as the swirling funnel slowed, and the airborne debris outside of it gradually settled back onto the floor. With my movements not my own, I stepped forth and stared at the being before me. Then, recognition hit.

Rhys.

It had sensed his weakness and knew him to be something easily destroyed.

Like a helpless bystander, made to witness everything as it happened and forced to participate, my eyes locked with his. Smiling wickedly, the Shadow Person took me to where Rhys stood and, faster than humanly possible, snatched the Ovilus from his grasp, and threw it to the ground so that it smashed into tiny pieces.

Unmoving, Rhys gaped at me.

Zaamee was suddenly at his side. Seeming to look through me to the evil entity, she took Rhys by his shoulder and moved him back a few feet with her, saying brusquely, "Do not feed it by your fear, or pose a challenge. Go back to the protection of the sage smoke."

She let go, but he stayed.

To their right, Zil cautiously moved from the shadows into view. His body tense and his stare vicious, he stopped a few steps behind Rhys and Zaamee.

The Shadow Person's rage overcame me – it wanted to harm Rhys, make him bleed, and see what the vampire would do. My head lowered involuntarily and the evil entity within exalted as energy waves pulsated through my body – and the agony of surprise registered in Rhys' eyes.

He glanced down at his arm. Seeing his own blood, he quickly looked to Zil.

A shadowy mist near Rhys and Zaamee moved.

The priest!

The monster, incensed by the holy man's attempt to protect the boy and his mother, started to make me move toward him – and stopped.

With a determined look of fearlessness, Zaamee slowly left Rhys and began to approach us; me and the beast in control of me, and then halted. She extended her left arm out, and holding a smoldering sage bundle, she began to slowly move it in a circle. The smoke followed, and just like before, a large, misty spiral gradually started to form. Kept intact by her magic, it began to move out from her, shifted in an odd way, and then went to enclose the shadow of the holy man where he remained, behind her.

The Shadow Person was angered – escape would not be allowed! It started to rush us in their direction – destruction its only motive.

Sounding panicked, Rhys said, "Zaamee, you'd better hurry. He, she ... it, what used to be Ashe and isn't any more, is on its way over here!"

"Stall her!"

"Stall her? I'm not going near her!"

Zil moved between me and them. "She is not speaking to you."

I felt my body stop.

Zil took a wary step toward me. "I will not be distracted by the mortal's blood. Tell me who you are and why you are holding the ghosts of the boy and his mother captive."

Baring my teeth and growling, I started past Zil to reach Zaamee and the priest before he faded and was gone. Taking my wrist into his cold grasp, Zil stood before me. "You are in human form. I can touch you now."

My arm wrenched free of his hold, and I was made to start forward once more, with only one desire ... to bring about their end, beginning with the priest!

Zil stepped before me again. "Ashe? Why did you remove my hand?"

When I spoke, it was guttural. "I am not your Ashe." I started to move past him, but Zil once again strategically put himself between me and what the entity wanted.

"Of course you are. I am looking at you. You are Ashe."

"Move out of my way!" the Shadow Person in control of me demanded.

"If you are not Ashe, then who?"

"Ancient." As I started past him, Zil barred me. Enraged, I took his arm, and with the strength of the entity, I flung Zil from me. Its voice boomed, "Do not attempt to stop me again!"

The Shadow Person forced me to rush forward. When we were nearly to where Rhys, Zaamee, and the priest were, Zil suddenly appeared – muscles tensed and his silvery eyes viciously locked to mine. Exposing his fangs, a low growl escaped him. Suddenly, he had my arm in a vice-like grip. With his face to mine, he hissed, "You will allow the boy and his mother to escape this hellhole, Demon! Let them go. You do not need them." To Zaamee, he shouted, "Hurry! Get them out!"

The monster inside of me began to thrash about in its attempt to throw Zil off, but Zil was too strong. With neither willing to surrender, each braced against the other in their indomitable determination to conquer, and the pressure of it was almost enough to bring me to my breaking point.

Looking strained with the effort, Zil grunted, "Do not make me do something I will regret!"

Suddenly, my body straightened and my arms pulled back, moving him tightly against me – and then powerfully thrust outward, shoving Zil from us. My body vibrated with the monster's cruel laughter. "You will not stop me, Vampire. In the body of the girl, you will do me no harm."

From out of nowhere, the semi-solid form of the holy man appeared next to me, his unfriendly eyes boring into mine. With slow deliberation, the priest reached out and took forceful hold of my wrist ...

The instant he touched me, the entity and I both suffered a terrible scorching heat ... its scream tore at my throat. My body twisted and whipped side to side, pulling against the priest's grip, but I was unable to break away.

"Espiritu Santi ..."

A sharp, swift pain shot through my body. The entity roared and I was made to bend backwards severely so that I thought my spine would snap, and stayed in that impossible position until the Shadow Person forced movement. As it tore my blistered and burned arm away, it bellowed, "Let go, you damned priest! Your touch burns!"

Inside my body something severed. Feeling uneven on my feet, I took a few disjointed steps forward, but miraculously was somehow able to stop myself from falling. Gasping for air and afraid to move, I remained standing still, even as my mind screamed for me to get away, to escape, that fighting such a beast who seemingly couldn't be overcome was a stupid thing to do, and if I continued to try, I might end up dead, as well as the others.

But I refused to give in, to stop. I knew that Sonny and Chelsea, maybe even the priest, needed us, and I'd do what I went there to do – to save them. But, before I'd be able to help them, I knew that I needed to get to Zaamee and beg her to take the Shadow Person out of me!

Staggering in her direction, an unfamiliar stirring began in the pit of my stomach. Fearing what it might be, I tried to steel myself as another devastating pain ripped through me to my core. Paralyzed by it, and unable to make a sound, I teetered before collapsing to the floor. The monster had left me. I was free. But at what cost?

I felt nauseated and beaten. Through still blurred vision, I looked up to see a huge gray cloud swirling menacingly before me, and prayed it wasn't about to take control again.

To my left, something moved within the pitch black. It was the priest. He gazed down at me, and then evaporated into a rapidly moving, whitish cloud, trailing a mist in his wake.

Not expecting Zil to be there, I reacted when I heard his strained voice in my ear. "Chere, I need to get you to safety." My eyes shifted to my left. He was there and his expression was pained. I reached for him and he took my hands, but as he started to pull me to stand with him, I didn't move. His brow furrowed and he tried again with more force, but I winced and grunted loudly as an invisible, crushing weight kept me from going with him.

He stopped, and our eyes locked.

"Pull!" I rasped.

Zil did – and I gave a strangled yelp as my right shoulder popped.

The recorder strapped to my arm gave three hard clicks and then, in its paranormal tantrum, I heard the voice of the entity. "NO!"

The roar, mixed with the ear-splitting sound of scraping along the concrete floor, filled the empty warehouse as scrap pilings of metal, bricks, and wood gathered ... and rose up like a tidal wave behind the entity. It bowed, and then came crashing down so hard that I could feel the vibration in my body. Shooting back up into the air, shards of debris flew in all directions, smashing into walls, and even into the ceiling, before landing to the floor for a final time with a pounding force.

Zil squatted down. Holding me tighter, he pulled. The pressure released and I flew up into him. Together, we fell to the ground ... Zil on his back and me on top of him. Immediately, he rolled so that his back was to the flying objects and I'd be protected from being struck.

Abruptly, the bombardment ended. Zil cautiously raised his head and looked around. Over his shoulder, I saw the entity dart away, trailing a dark fog behind it.

"Chere, we must leave. It has become too dangerous."

"I'm staying. I'm not running away like a scared rabbit. We need to help them. Not later. Tonight." He started to reply, but I cut him off. "I won't go!"

Zil stood and, keeping me close, he brought me up with him. "I meant it when I said I would take you out if ... AH!"

Caught unexpectantly by his primal scream, I stumbled back away from him.

Looking like he was under immense, physical strain, Zil's body stiffened. His face contorted, and his silvery eyes opened wide. His head snapped back ... and he cried out again. Thinking he'd been possessed, I turned to run, but something caught my arm. Trying to yank it free, I looked to see what it was. Zil had me. He pulled me back, even as I fought against him.

"Chere, you are safe," he grunted.

Suddenly it was smoky and Rhys and Zaamee were moving aside ... and we were inside Zaamee's protective barrier.

With my mind still reeling, I glanced at Zil. Though still vampirien, and strained, the look in his eyes was familiar and kind as he gazed back at me and he lowered me gently to the ground.

I started to reach up to his cheek, to the red gash that colored his unnaturally white skin, but stopped, unsure if I should. "You're cut. I'm sorry it made me do that to you."

"Ashe ..." he murmured.

"She'll be fine," Zaamee interjected softly.

He looked out into the warehouse. "And the priest?"

"He knows the perils of fighting the Shadow Person, but he refuses to be set free," Zaamee said quietly.

"I didn't think anything bad could happen to a ghost," Rhys said.

"The evil one is powerful. It can overtake the priest and absorb his energy, thereby killing him. That death will be much worse than his first," Zaamee replied.

"We have to do something to save him," Rhys said. He looked at Sonny and Chelsea. "They'll need him."

Zaamee answered solemnly, "I can only send the priest if he is victorious."

As they talked, something distracted me. I turned my attention back to the warehouse. Then, I realized what it was ... the raging had stilled, but something unseen seemed to hang heavily in the air.

An odd, low humming sound began.

One by one, the others fell silent and looked out into the abyss.

"Was that thunder?" Rhys whispered.

"No. It is the entity," Zil answered quietly.

Wishing I had the ability to see in the dark so I'd know what was about to happen, I searched for a sign of the Shadow Person. And then I saw it – movement!

A funnel, transparent except for the debris caught up in its rotating mass, a barrier against any interference, had slowly started in our direction – and jumped! Ghoulishly reminiscent of an old-time movie, the images of the priest and the Shadow Person as they faced one another flickered in and out of focus as the swirling continued to quicken.

The priest held out his crucifix.

Trying to sit up, I whispered, "What are they doing?"

Gently helping me to rest against him, Zil answered softly, "The priest will attempt to banish the evil."

"Will it work?"

"I pray that it does."

As the funnel began to thicken from dark gray to black, a noticeable increase in air pressure started, causing my head to hurt.

The pressure released as the siphon suddenly exploded outwardly and all hell broke loose. Echoes rang out throughout the old building, created from the sounds of heavy objects flying through the air, crashing into different parts of the old structure, and finally, raining down onto the floor, damaging everything in their path ... and in the center of it stood the priest, a crucifix in one hand and a Bible in the other. He seemed unaffected by the malevolency surrounding him as his lips began to move in silent prayer.

"He looks unafraid," Rhys said.

"Almost serene," added Zil.

"What are you two talking about? He's in danger!" I exclaimed.

Rhys asked, "Wouldn't now be a good time to send Sonny and Chelsea while the Shadow Person is busy with the priest?"

Zaamee said, "There are too many in this shell. It will prevent me from doing the ritual."

I saw grave acceptance in Zil's expression as he looked at me. Braced for what we'd have to do, I nodded. He pulled me closer. Then, before he could protest, Zil had Rhys, as well – and I felt the force of the barrier break as it instantly shut behind us we were outside of the protective wall.

"Hey –!" Rhys yelled, shoving away from Zil.

We hunkered down as dangerous projectiles flew past us and the sounds of creaking metal and splitting wood echoed madly from all around. Praying the warehouse would withstand the burden of the spectre's wrath and not collapse on top of us, I looked over my shoulder to where Zaamee was. But she, and the ghosts of Sonny and Chelsea, were blocked from view by the thick, counterclockwise-rotating, grayish-white circle of smoke.

"I liked it better with Zaamee!" Rhys yelled over the sound of crashing objects.

Something brushed my side. I looked but saw nothing. Assuming it'd been Rhys, I went back to watching the destruction happening inside the warehouse. Suddenly, my waist was encircled tightly. As I started to tell Rhys to let go, I was torn away from them, and catapulted upward, my arms and legs flailing wildly, trying to grab something, anything, to stop myself from being thrown. All at once, I was stopped in mid-air, and then jerked sideways with unimaginable force, until I came to an abrupt and stinging halt against a wall ... where I stayed, held in place by the sheer power of the Shadow Person. A virtual prisoner of the evil entity, I couldn't tell if any of my bones had been broken. My head swam and I struggled to catch my breath, but couldn't get enough air to fill my lungs. Doing my best to not lose consciousness, I made myself glance down to look for Zil and Rhys. But with so many moving parts, it was difficult to see them in the darkness. Shifting my eyes only slightly, I found myself looking down inside the funnel, and became alarmed by what I saw – the Shadow Person and the ghost of the priest were engaged in a deadly grapple, with the holy man appearing more mortal than spectre!

My limbs were beginning to deaden and the swimming in my head strengthened, and it felt too heavy to hold up.

In my mind, I heard Zil's voice. "Chere, stay awake."

It was a burden to continue to hold my eyes open, but I did. I searched for him – he wasn't there. Thinking I'd imagined it, I gave in against the struggle of fighting to keep conscious – it was a relief to allow my head to lower and my eyes to shut.

Then, like a string starting to unravel from bottom to top, the invisible cocoon I was trapped in loosened until it was no longer there. With nothing to grasp onto, and nothing to stop me, I began to plummet. I started to cry out, but my scream died in my throat the second I hit the filthy floor, full frontal, near the funnel. With the Shadow Person's impossible hold on me gone, the sensation of landing was intensified by the numbness being quickly replaced by the prickliness of my nerves once again coming alive.

Bodily wracked, I lay very still. My eyes welled with tears, and with the last breath of air in my lungs, I whimpered. "Oh – oh!"

A loud noise, like metal being torn apart, jarred me. Without time to recover from the brutal landing, I cast my eyes upward into the darkness.

From above me, I watched as a very large piece of metal flew across the room and crash landed too close to where Zaamee and Rhys were. "No," I murmured. "No – you can't do this. Stop."

Desperate to know that they were safe, I forced myself up onto my damaged hands and knees and slowly began to crawl to them. Finally, the swirling mist came into view –Zaamee and Rhys were outside of it and I could see Rhys' fear.

Zil wasn't there.

Rhys shouted my name and ran to me. He bent and draped my uninjured arm around his shoulder. I moaned as he lifted me so I could stand. Finding it hard to focus clearly, I clung to him, hobbling the best I could on my hurt leg as he dragged me into the protective barrier. Once inside of it, he lowered me gently to the floor and knelt next to me. "Sonny and Chelsea were released."

From where I sat uncomfortably against the wall, I gazed up at Zaamee and said, "The priest is inside the funnel with the Shadow Person." I grunted as I shifted into an even more awkward position. "Now that Sonny and Chelsea are gone, we can get him out of this hellish pit, exorcise the Shadow Person, and leave. Right?"

"No, child. We need him here. Without him, we will all perish," Zaamee replied.

"That's not fair! He should be freed. He could die again if we don't ..."

Stopped from saying more by a loud crash, we all looked.

Zil was off his feet and flying!

For a nanosecond, time for me had stopped. With a sudden and renewed energy, I screamed, "NO!"

Gawkily, I pushed away from the wall, but when I tried to leave and go to Zil, Rhys held me back. Unable to fight him off, I was made to stay and watch as Zil was repeatedly picked up and thrown, both of us powerless to make it quit.

When he landed the final time, he looked ready for a fight. He started to spring ... but the priest appeared before him.

Zil's look immediately changed from ferocious to fearful respect. He started to move back, but the priest took him by his shoulders – and gazing warily at the priest, Zil paused.

I held my breath and watched them closely as I anticipated what might happen next. Almost too incredible to believe, as the ghostly priest and the vampire stood facing each other, Zil's obvious distress gradually shifted to a look of serenity, despite everything that was threatening them.

Zil closed his eyes, lowered his head, and slowly opened his arms wide ... and the priest stepped forward!

The possession over Zil was instantaneous. Everything vampirien was gone, as if it never existed – viciousness, replaced by tranquility. Showing no fear, Zil calmly retrieved the Bible from where it lay on the gritty floor, opened it, and turned to face the evil before him. His lips began to move as he started to read. It was both incredible and wrenching. Had Zil never been made into a vampire it was almost exactly how he would've looked doing what he loved most when he was still alive and mortal, serving God. But it was a mockery. His