Alone in the open, I willed myself not to react to the shrill alarm, or resulting echo, of the Rem Pods as I moved past them to stand within the center of the square to wait for Sonny and his mother, and whichever of the other entities that might follow.

From where she was, Zaamee softly called out a warning. "Remain diligent. I can sense the boy and his mother approaching, but it's unclear if the others are with them."

Even if I'd wanted to, it was too late to turn back. Intentionally blocking out any crippling thoughts that might hinder our attempt at saving Sonny and Chelsea, I went into ghost hunter mode. Straining to see into the darkness of the seemingly abandoned, but deceptively inhabited, warehouse, I held out my EMF detector and called out, "Sonny, I'm here with friends. Please don't be afraid."

The EMF alarm didn't sound, but its lights briefly flickered and then went out. I glanced at the Rem Pods surrounding me on the floor. They were on, yet none had signaled. Still, it was significant. Something supernatural was close, but not near enough to trigger a response. I watched as the same two EMF lights flashed again, and stayed on a moment longer before they died out. Trying to project a confidence I didn't feel, I asked, "Are you Chelsea, Sonny – or one of the others?"

None of the devices reacted. I played back both of the recorders – no disembodied voice had been captured.

I looked back out into the darkness. It was disarming that I couldn't see Zil, Zaamee, or Rhys. "Sonny, if that's you, let's play a game. I'll ask a question. If the answer is yes, use your energy to light up two lights on this EMF detector." I held it up higher. "But if the answer is no, don't light any. Okay?"

Two lights flashed.

"Are you Sonny?"

No lights.

Trying for the next best possibility, I asked, "Are you Chelsea?"

Again, no response. I wasn't thrilled with the two remaining choices I had left.

I started to call out again when all of the EMF lights came alive – and then, just as abruptly, shut off. As they did, the two Rem Pods before me began to signal, and then immediately quit. Whatever, or whoever, it was had moved closer, and in the hush, it was hard to ignore a disquieting feeling of expectancy had descended, making it difficult for me to concentrate.

From further in, strange noises began. Faint at first, they gradually grew louder, making me wonder if whatever it was, poltergeist or Shadow Person, was approaching. All at once, each of the EMF lights blazed on at full capacity and its signal rang out at an ear-splitting pitch.

I searched the darkness for movement. "Where are you? Show yourself!"

The EMF alarm quit but its echo, along with my own, trailed deeper into the building.

"Oh ... my ... God! What the hell was that?" I heard Rhys sputter.

My forced calm broke. "What?"

I didn't know if Rhys answered me because the same noises from moments before started up again, along with other sounds, possibly voices, although it was hard to tell. Then, from the same location as before, deep within the warehouse, the mysterious light shone. The EMF light panel immediately responded and I watched as it began to copy, and then match, the same impossibly frantic pattern as the other. Then, both shut off and there was only stillness and silence –

Slowly, the air became cold and I could see my breath.

A breeze started. From my left, it swept past me, and with it, following the same direction, the Rem Pods came on ... gradually lessened ... and then shot back on. The frigid current died away, but only momentarily. Then, it started again in the opposite direction, as if the entity was pacing back and forth –and there wasn't enough time to wonder if it was, because each of the four Rem Pod devices simultaneously came on, lights flashing and alarms blaring!

Shivering equally from the cold as I was from fright, I whispered, "I think I have company."

A foul odor, like something had rotted, wafted through the air past me. I covered my nose the best I could to block the smell and tried to keep my breathing shallow. "What is that?"

From where he was, Zil called out, "It is the evil you smell."

"Then why can't we smell you?" Rhys retorted.

"Not now, Rhys!" I snapped as the stench started to fade.

Together, the Rem Pods ceased their noise. Leery of the reason, I started to look all around, straining to find the supernatural being responsible for what was happening. At first, I saw nothing. But then, I caught sight of a wide mist rapidly moving along the fallen wall where I'd first seen Sonny – and as it reached the end, it disappeared!

Rhys called out, "Ashe, Sonny and Chelsea are here!"

I picked up the thermal and panned over to where I knew Rhys and Zaamee were. Rhys, colored in red, and Zaamee, who was next to him and outlined in solid blue, were easily found. Next to her, not as clearly visible, was a single, loosely-shaped blue haze. I barely had time to wonder if Sonny had been successfully sent away, and if his mother would immediately follow, when I heard Zil, still hidden in the darkness, say, "Zaamee, do what you must. We may have time before ..."

"Watch out!" she yelled.

Using the thermal, I quickly scanned the area, looking for Zil. I almost missed seeing him as his solid, bluish-purple form jumped to the left, amazed at how his coldness trailed behind him in a slight haze.

Another blue form, a poorly-shaped, incomplete outline of a person, swiftly moved into view and then shot past him!

Zil growled, "Bastard!"

Hating how my voice trembled, I called out, "Ghost, come here! I have something with me that you can use to speak to us! Who are you?"

On the ground at my feet, the Ovilus began to vibrate against the pavement as its mechanical voice rang out, "FATHER."

Stunned by the answer, I called out, "Are you the boy's father?"

"NO."

As if in answer to the burgeoning question in my mind, Zil's voice was in my head. "It is the ghost of a priest who is cloaked, disguised as a Shadow Person."

Without time to ask how he knew that, I took him at his word. "Are ... are you a priest?"

"YES," the Ovilus again responded.

"Why have you cloaked yourself? Are you here for Sonny and his mother?"

"PROTECT."

Zaamee sounded strained. "Priest, come to where we are!"

Despite him being a holy man, it took everything I had not to call surrender and retreat when his dark figure suddenly darted past me. To complicate things further, being masked as a shadow, it was difficult to find him on the thermal, and made it impossible to differentiate between the priest and the true Shadow Person.

Unsure if the priest was a ghost, or poltergeist, and unable to recall what Zaamee had said about both, I called out, "Do you belong here, or have you taken possession?"

It didn't sound promising when the Ovilus rang out, "EVIL."

Afraid of what we might be up against, I murmured, "Let's get this done and leave."

Within the darkness, where Rhys and Zaamee were, a strange glow started.

Zaamee's features became illuminated as she brought the blunted end of a lit sage bundle close to her face and blew on it. Smoke began to billow oddly, forming what looked like a rapidly-building dark gray storm cloud, churning in a counterclockwise fashion.

Next to her, within the meager light, Rhys' eyes met mine – and I could see his fear. As the shroud continued to rotate, he began to fade from my sight. At the last minute before the thickening veil closed completely, I caught sight of Sonny and Chelsea. They were still there, and safe for the time being.

Unexpectedly, the Ovilus began to shimmy across the floor as one word rang out, "NO!"

Even within the pitch blackness, I could see a shadow flying towards Rhys and Zaamee. Not knowing which it was, the priest, or the Shadow Person, I instinctively looked at the thermal's screen. But without any color being given off, I couldn't accurately track it. Knowing both wanted Sonny, but for different reasons, and that removing Sonny and Chelsea depended on reliable magic, or bad things could happen, I yelled, "Zaamee! Rhys! I don't know which one it is, but someone's angry and headed straight for you!"

Sounding frenzied, Zaamee called out, "It's the Shadow Person. Zil, do what you must to keep him away from us!"

Emerging only briefly from the shadows, Zil's French accent joined the din as he yelled, "Demon, I am the one protecting them! You will have to fight me now!" He disappeared again.

"Demon? Is that what a Shadow Person really is?" I whispered.

Something crashed noisily to my left, shattering what was left of my forced control. I heard Zil yell something, but the sound grew louder, and I couldn't hear him over the continuing chaos. Turning to look for him, I saw something large moving through at the air in my direction. I didn't react right away. As it came rapidly into view, I looked more closely ...

Bricks – lots of them!

Reaching my arms over my head, I threw myself to the dirty floor and flattened my body as much as possible as the bricks smashed into the wall behind me with such violence that each strike reverberated sharply and shards of hardened red clay were sent in all directions, stinging me with each contact made to my skin.

Finally, the assault stopped and I heard Zil yell, "Zaamee – now!"

I rolled to my side. I was in the midst of broken, scattered pieces of brick – everywhere. Swift movement and the sounds of struggling to my left caught my attention. Zil was there ... in a brutal battle against something I couldn't see!

He grunted, "Get ... priest ... in ... Cannot ... hold ... much ... longer!"

A loud, odd sound began, distracting me from watching him. Unable to see what it was, or where it was coming from, I scooped up the thermal from where it lay next to me on the ground and looked at the screen ...

My scream caught in my throat. A very large wooden beam had been thrown by something supernatural and was flying through the air towards Zil! Unable to yell at him to move, my breath left me when he ducked just before it would have struck him – it collided with the wall and landed onto the floor, bouncing wildly.

I looked back to where he'd just been. He wasn't there. Urgently, I scanned with the thermal – and finally found him. Transfixed by the terrible display, I watched, in his struggle with the invisible entity, Zil's features intermittently change between vampirien and mortal – and the reason became horrifyingly clear. The real fight wasn't in what could be physically seen, but his internal battle to not lose the last shred of his control and be overtaken by whatever he was grappling with!

Zaamee's shouting jolted me. "Ashe! Come this way, now! Its energy is strong and it has split itself in two. You are in tremendous danger!"

I instantly sprang up, but as I started to run to her, I tripped over some scattered debris. In a blinding pain, I landed onto the concrete floor, scraping my knees through my jeans and cutting my hands. Hastily, I started to get up again ...

All of the equipment turned on!

I stopped midway.

Warily, I moved back. Suddenly, and over the loud noise and resulting echoes created by Zil's vicious fight with the entity, the recorder laying on the ground nearby, and the one still strapped to my arm, started to play back my voice and Rhys', from our previous time at the warehouse. Fighting not to tear it off and toss it away from me, I took a stumbling half-turn when the EMF detector's signal started to shrill and its lights began to flash on and off in odd, random patterns. Immediately following, the EMF pump started to pulse and click so fast I thought it would die out or explode, while the Rem Pods whistled at ear-splitting levels, and their lights flickered rapidly. I quickly turned to look at the Ovilus behind me as it came on, and listened as sounds that didn't resemble voices with words, only noise, came out.

Though it frightened me to do so, I carefully started to reach to the ground for it with the intention of trying to communicate with the ghost. Before I could, I was struck from behind, and fell to the ground, onto my sore hands and knees. But when I heard a loud scraping noise above me, I looked upward ... a part of the ceiling was falling! With no time to escape it, and being badly hurt, I rolled to my left, and felt something slice into my torso at the same time as the object crashed to the floor.

I looked – a huge board, with a large metal piece nailed to it, had landed where I'd just been!

I felt something warm and wet where my side had been punctured. I put my hand to the spot, and recognized the sticky feeling of my blood as it oozed from my ribcage. "That damn Shadow Person is trying to kill me!"

I tried to stand, but being wounded, it wasn't easy. Again, I tried, and finally was able to get to my feet. Staggering away, I couldn't see where I was going, and tripped over something, lost my balance, and fell back onto the concrete. Uncertain if the Shadow Person would attack again, and unwilling to wait to find out, I struggled through the pain in an attempt to stand, but before I fully could, a powerful yank on my left leg brought me down hard against the paved flooring again.

Breaking the fall with my bloodied hands, I felt something pierce into my palm, but the wind had been knocked out of me, and all I could manage to do was to wheeze in pain. I brought my hand up close to my face to see – I'd been cut again. Grimacing, I labored to stand, but I couldn't move my left leg. Thinking it'd become snagged by something, I started to reach down to free it ...

I was swiftly taken over the rough floor, further into the warehouse, away from the others. "Quit!" I screamed.

The pressure released and I immediately halted. Unsure of where I was, I tried to get my bearings so I could go back to the others, when Rhys yelled, "Ashe – Zil!"

Still on the floor, I stiffly twisted to my right. Rhys was outside of the gray cloud Zaamee had created, moving his flashlight quickly side to side.

"I see you!" I yelled.

"Look!" he yelled back.

My eyes followed the beam of the flashlight as he moved it ... and in the same manner of a nightmarish, old-fashioned circus, where nothing could be seen in the absolute darkness but the showcased main attraction, Zil was captured in the center, suspended in the air, but not steadily! My stomach tightened and I could hardly breathe as Zil was repeatedly, and viciously, smashed against a wall, his growls getting louder each time, as he did his best to fight off an invisible force. Unable to stand it any longer, I pushed painfully against the cement flooring to force myself to stand, and then hurriedly limped to Rhys.

"Look what it's doing to him!" he cried out.

I tore the flashlight from his grasp and shone it directly at Zil. "He's going to get hurt! We have to help him!"

Out of nowhere, Zaamee was there. "The spectre is fighting Zil for control. If Zil loses, it will become very dangerous for us all."

Her worried look emphasized her words.

Rhys pointed. "Ashe, look!"

I moved the light slightly. Sticking out from the wall, very near to Zil, was an enormous, pointed piece of wood!

"No!" I whispered hoarsely. In that moment, everything changed. I needed to get to him before it was too late! No longer concerned with my own safety, I dropped the flashlight and took off running as fast as the pain in my knees would allow.

"Ashe – wait!" In seconds, Rhys was beside me with the beam of the flashlight zigzagging jaggedly across the debris-covered floor, making it almost impossible to see anything we might trip over.

"Children! Come back!" Zaamee called out.

"No!" Zil yelled. "Stay ... back ... from ... me!"

We skidded to a halt. Forced to watch helplessly as Zil was brutally thrown against the wall, removed, and thrown again, my instinct to try and make it stop kicked in. But each time he made contact with the wall, chunks of brick, broken free by the ferocity of the assault he was under, became tiny pieces of shrapnel, dangerous enough to severely harm someone.

The pummeling ceased. Zil slid down the wall to the floor and landed on his feet. I started to run to him but was immediately stopped when I hit something I couldn't see, and floundered backwards into Rhys. Grunting from the impact, he stumbled backward, but caught his footing and stopped. Using him to steady myself, I clumsily pushed away and started back toward Zil. But in a repeat of a sick encore, I collided with the unseen barrier again. Balling my fists, I pounded against it.

Zil yelled, "Ashe – stop!"

I did – and watched as he took a cautious step forward and slowly reached out before him, feeling at the seemingly empty air. At one point, his hands stopped moving and began to splay out as he pressed them against the invisible wall. Our eyes met. His look of concern matched how I felt.

I turned to Rhys. "The damn wall is back! Come and help me!"

With Zil on one side, and me and Rhys on the other, the three of us smacked, hit, and kicked the unseen reinforcement. But no matter how hard we tried, none of us were able to break through it.

"Ashe, this is impossible!" Rhys said.

"No – no, it's not! Don't say that!" Though it hurt to do it, I continued to beat at the impenetrable barrier with my hands, not caring that I looked like a mime in a horror show. "Zil! Get out of there!"

Looking past me, his eyes opened wide – and he disappeared. Suddenly surrounded by something blindingly cold, my scream caught in my throat as I realized Zil had both me and Rhys and was moving us!

When he stopped, he released Rhys, but continued to hold me close. Before I could ask how he'd broken through, he said, "It started to reach for you. It wants possession."

Earth shattering sounds started and I huddled closer to Zil as stones, wood, and glass began to lift from the floor and fly up into the air all around us.

"The Shadow Person is monstrous and its energy seems without limit!" Zil shouted.

"Ow!" Rhys cried out. Holding his arm, he yelled, "I've been hit!"

Zil let go of me, reached over to Rhys, and tore his sleeve. Rhys, seeing Zil's true face so close to his own, stared wide-eyed at him as he examined Rhys' arm.

"You were only scratched. Quickly, go back to Zaamee!"

Rhys scrambled backwards, pivoted, and sprang to his feet. Doing his best to dodge the flying debris, he dashed back to the protective barrier where Zaamee still was.

Zil pulled me back into him, shielding me with his body from the airborne objects. He yelled, "Go back to Zaamee! I will stall the demon as long as I can!" He gave a hasty kiss to my forehead and then was gone.

My agility compromised, I got up and covered my head as I hobbled, hunched down, through the chaos – but not to Zaamee, or to safety. I refused. To run away, to show fear, meant I'd lost and I hadn't gone there to do that.

Within the sounds of destruction, another hellish noise rose up behind me. I stopped and turned. A very large, darker than imaginable, form was there, sounding as if it was making a demand.

"Shadow Person," I murmured. With my heart in my throat, I quickly headed back to where the square of Rem Pods was, blaring loudly to alert me that the entity was there – and it seemed to be everywhere at once. In