Abigail had a high fever but they were both safe for the moment. Artemus carried her light sleeping form in his arms as he carefully made his way out of the forest. He had absolutely no idea why the ghouls had dropped like dead flies. If he was making a random guess about it, the anti mage would have assumed that it had something to do with Eva.

"Mommy.." Abigail began to mumble through her fever-stricken dreams. "Daddy.."

Artemus would have fed her some medicines from his bag but everything he had was of adult dosage and concentrated for the consumption of magic resistant constitution. Thus his best bet was to look for medicinal plants if any were available in the forest.

____

Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest, Akida was perched atop a tall tree. The avian lit up the wick on a bomb flare and counted down three seconds. A burst of white and red flashed above the trees like an umbrella. If Artemus was in the forest, he would see it. If the enemies were in the forest, they too would see it. Regardless, the plan was for Akida to hide behind forest cover and wait for whatever prey was attracted to their bait.

Sebastian and Alka would not be around with Akida when this was happening. Using the ring, they were going to try and find the missing Artemus. The plant mage wished Syryn was here to help them look for his brother. He was certain that his sleeping friend had some bits of Artemus stashed away in a little bottle somewhere, safe and waiting for the day that Syryn required a tracking spell on the anti mage.

____

"You alright there, Eva?" Lucien asked the miserable demoness. She'd wanted to torture him to death so he was only happy to return the favour. The ghost of a smile on his face mocked the woman who had been toppled off the tree where she'd previously posed with arrogance.

Eva had the same disdain for Lucien. She wanted nothing more than a cruel death for the half-demon who had ruined all her hard work. She wasn't ejecting blood anymore but was weakened greatly by the attack she'd suffered. If she had been fully human, Lucien's attack would have rendered her dead already. The only hope that Eva had now was a full transformation and a quick escape from the dangerous redhead and his shapeshifter friend.

"Is it too late for apologies?" She said while wiping blood off her chin.

Magnus had shifted back into his panther form and was watching her with the disinterested arrogance that cats so naturally exuded.

"I'll spare you in exchange for information," the redhead replied. "Have you seen or heard of a really handsome guy with pale skin and black hair?"

Eva shook her head. She suspected that this was the rat her ghouls had been chasing in the forest before all hell had broken loose.

"-serious-looking face. He's tall and very hot."

"Your boyfriend?" Eva ventured. The way this man was being described by the redhead made her think that one of them, definitely the redhead, was gay.

"No but that would be nice," Lucien responded. His eyes had been opened to mu-mu's charms and since that day, there was no turning back. He would never try to do anything more than annoy the anti mage by flirting with him but Lucien sure as hell wasn't going to pretend that he was blind to mu-mu's good looks.

Eva was a demoness but she was also a woman with intuition about the matters between lovers. And from the way the panther was unsheathing its claws, she could sense a whole lot of dark irritation brewing from him.

"I haven't seen him," she replied. "But you might find what's left of him in the forest. I felt my children chase a fast-moving prey. Maybe it was the man you're looking for."

Lucien lifted his eyes and looked into the darkness. Something about it bothered him. Magnus too was feeling a strange pressure coming from the darkness.

"My lord," Eva suddenly cried out. "My lord has come to save me."

_____

Coloured flares were used by the Sanguine to signal orders and send out messages when they operated across large distances. White and Red indicated an emergency recall signal. Every member of the Sanguine who saw the signal during an emergency knew to head straight to where the flare originated from. They'd all been taught how to roughly calculate the distance from which the signal flare was fired. Thus, a lost anti mage was visually ascertaining the distance he had to cover as soon as was possible.

The anti mage held Abigail tighter and began to sprint in the flare's direction. If he had seen it then the enemies too would have noticed it. There was no time to waste anymore.

_____

"What's going on?" Alka asked when he realised that Sebastian was gathering power in his palms.

Blades of wind dangerously spun around the mage's hand. Leaves and detritus from the ground were lifting off the forest floor and dancing around Sebastian. Alka stepped away from the mage and held a tree to anchor himself when the man released his gathered sphere of destruction.

The sound of the wind was a piercing howl as it separated from Sebastian and went careening into the trees, leaving a wide path of destruction in its path.

"I'm makin' noise and bringin' the festivities this way," Sebastian answered. "If enemies are looking for Artemus, they'll either come here to investigate us, or they'll be intimated and leave. Either way, it's a win-win scenario."

"Have you not considered that Artemus could already be in their hands?" Alka asked.

"Seems unlikely. Your brother is slippery, so very sly and slippery. I dunno, Alka, I have a feelin' in my gut that Artemus is alright."

The plant mage was reassured by Sebastian's reply.

"Do it again then. Level the forest around us. Make so much noise that even Lucien and Magnus are disturbed by it."