�I love you�� but the light had gone out of her lovely eyes, and her breast no longer rose and fell.  �No, no, no, NO!�  William held her tight, not knowing what else do to.  Perhaps if he held her tight enough, he could entrap her soul and prevent it from leaving.  And so he sat with her there amidst the ruins, rocking her back and forth, talking to her, reciting his poetry, even singing to her.  At one point he noticed that the moon had set and a low fog had rolled in off the Thames, blanketing the old theatre in soft, luminescent veils of gray.  He wondered briefly if his life or this world would ever exhibit any color again.  Meanwhile, she was growing cold in his arms.  He could not deny that Katherine Eden had passed from this world.  He wondered briefly at her words, that she would find him again.  How could that be possible?  Would she return as a phantom? If she did, he would welcome her.

He arose and, with her in his arms, walked from the ruins, back across London Bridge over the Thames, and through the early morning streets of Barbican and Holborn Boroughs to the Eden residence.  Katherine�s sister, Olivia, answered the door.  She broke down immediately, sobbing and ringing her hands.  Her mother arrived shortly thereafter.  They took Katherine from him, although he was remiss to relinquish her body to them.  Their questions hit him like stones; William was incapable of answering, except to say, �It was an accident, she was brave.  And� I love her.� The reason why they had been at the ruins of the Globe escaped him, and he no longer remembered Rupert Giles, because with the banishment of the Louraxon demon, Giles had never existed in this timeline.  William left them to their grief and unanswered questions, and walked back to his mother�s house.  He never knew if they had a memorial or funeral for Katherine.  He wasn�t invited if there was.  Besides, something happened to William shortly after her passing.

His mum convinced him to go to Cecily�s party as a means to begin the process of assuaging his grief, although he no longer sought the company of others, and Cecily was just another foolish, pompous girl to him now. He�d forgotten all about the poem he�d been writing for her � Effulgent � he�d not finished it and what there was of it remained in a desk drawer in the bedroom he�d occupied since he was a very young child.  But he went to the party, perhaps to get away from his mum, or perhaps just to pass the time.  What did it matter? The light was gone from his world.  Still, he avoided contact with others, sitting with a book in his hands, hoping someone wouldn�t interrupt him, but not reading that book, either.  If Cecily sent furtive glances his way, William failed to notice.  His heart was empty, bled out and dead.  And so he left Cecily�s house early, just slipped out the back to wander the streets and alleyways of London, seeking solace in the darkest and loneliest of places.  It was there that he met a woman, darkly beautiful like Katherine, with lustrous raven hair like she once had.  This woman led him into a darkened alcove and comforted him there, held him in her arms. And so it was that William did not resist, nor was surprised, when her face morphed and Drusilla sunk her gleaming fangs deep into his throat.    

**************Dear Reader, Return to Part 2**************

�Please don�t go,� her voice soft and weak. She knew it was too late. There was no way to save her. She had lost too much blood. She felt so very cold. If he were to leave she would fade away alone. She didn�t have the heart to tell him. �Just stay with me,� happy to be in his arms one last time. This would be the last time she could gaze upon him.

Time was short her vision was fading. �I love you William always have,� one final confession. �I have to go now, but I will find you again,� she firmly believed they were two halves of a whole. They were meant to be together and one day their souls would meet again. He began to speak, but she couldn�t hear it. His voice sounded muffled. Her lungs stopped fighting for air. Her heart slowed and stilled. She faded away without hearing his final words. 

Thomas Hadrin had not been at his office.  William arrived early, at 10:00, but the office was dark and the door was locked.  A sign hung in the window read simply, �Closed for the Day�.  William peered through the uneven, swirled glass, but it was too dark to see anything that might be a clue as to where Thomas would be.  In the shadowed interior, William could see dim outlines of two desks about which were scattered papers.  An ink well was situated on the right side of the sloped tops of the desks.  Against the walls were cabinets and book cases.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Perhaps it had been foolishness to expect a man like Thomas Hadrin to be here late into the night.  Thomas was a man of considerable wealth, he must live in a mansion somewhere on the posh side of London.  But precisely where?  William hadn�t a clue. 

Realizing he�d failed in his mission, William could think of nothing to do except to go to the Globe Theatre.  Perhaps he could help banish the Louraxon demon to whatever far flung dimension they were attempting to banish it to.  He might actually accomplish something useful tonight, after all.  He glanced at his pocket watch.  It was already 10:10 and Mr. Giles had said they needed to have everything come together by 10:15.  The Pratts did not own a carriage and it was too late at night to find one for hire, meaning William would have to walk.  So he hurried through the shadowed streets, aware that vampires or worse might be lurking around the next corner.  But he was equipped with a sharpened wooden stake and a bottle of holy water in case he confronted Angelus or another foul creature of the night. As he walked, he thought about Katherine�s note to him, and her declaration of love.  He knew that she would be in some danger tonight, having to lure in the Louraxon demon.  The anxiety that accompanied that thought quickened his step.

It all happened so fast.  The girl, Katherine Eden, had been flung off the stage like a ragdoll by the Louraxon demon.  She had fallen hard amidst the debris, and she had not cried out, hence Giles surmised the girl must be unconscious, or worse.  The demon�s action enraged Hadrin, who at once ran towards the girl, but the Louraxon, who must have thought he was coming after it, flung another burst of energy at him.  Hadrin went flying in the opposite direction, but before he hit the ground, he was back at the demon, electricity from his fingertips flaying the creature while he bombarded it with expletives so creatively biting that Giles� ears were burning.  The Louraxon wound its energy tentacles around Hadrin and pulled him in, perhaps thinking it could electrocute or otherwise overwhelm him with its powers.  But Hadrin fought back with energy bursts of his own, and with the fury of his fists.  With a shriek of rage, Hadrin tore an energy tentacle loose, and then another as he and the Louraxon demon each wrestled for an advantage.

Giles stood up because he knew he was on the cusp of setting things right and undoing the spell of the Vengeance demon.  He stepped out from behind the rubble that was concealing him, aimed the psioplasmic field generator, and pulled the trigger. 

Katherine thrown into a part of the theater untouched by magic.  She lay there for several minutes unconscious oblivious of the battle that broke out on stage. Hadrin was no longer calm. He was in a rage battling the demon.

The place she was laying was full of ruble and debris. As she began to stir every fiber of her body ached. She couldn�t get up. There was a sharp pain in her waist. She ran her hands down her body assessing the damage. There was something hard and jagged sticking through her torso. She had been impaled by a broken board. There was blood on her hands. She stared at the crimson soaked appendages that trembled in shock.

Life�s blood ebbing away. She felt cold and her breath became shall. Eyes roaming the theater. She hoped William had come. She wanted to see him one last time before she faded. 

Mr. X�s tentacle energy fields angrily gyrated faster and faster as they spit pyrotechnics like sparklers.  �You impudent twit!  I know who and what you are.  You are destined to become a powerful witch, but you are less than nothing now.  Parlor tricks are all you�re capable of in this time and place.  Out of my way!�

Acutely aware that the girl was not responsible for the portal, Mr. X knew it was being actively generated by two devices, one in this time and one in another.  If he knew where and when those generators were, he would teleport to them and destroy not only the generators but whoever was operating them.  But he was unable to locate them.  So he would do the next best thing.

Mr. Giles was hiding behind piles of bricks that had once been the rear wall of the old Globe Theatre.  He watched the proceedings from the shadows, his grip firm on the psioplasmic field generator, which was a carbon tube imbued with a magical force field that could be violently released � propelled from the tube.  It would immediately hurtle whatever was in its path away from the field generator with great force.  Giles was just waiting for the right moment, when both Hadrin and the Louraxon demon were between him and the portal, which was beginning to whirl and spin wider and wider on the partially reconstructed stage. 

The Louraxon was obviously agitated.  Hadrin was trying his best to calm the beast, but Kat�s words were obviously meant to provoke it.  Giles just hoped that whatever the result, it moved both of the targets in line with the portal.  Also imperative was keeping Kat far enough away so she was not carried along in the wake of Hadrin and the demon.  Right now she was far too close.  Giles wanted to stand up and wave her out of the way, but obviously that would blow his cover.   

Hadrin was going to try to make a truce with the demon and send him on his way. He always liked to be in control of a situation. The lack of violence was undoubtedly due to her presence.  �It was me,� hands folded before her she approached the pair. She hoped the confession would prevent the demon from leaving. It would put the focus on her angering the beast. Then inspire a fight.  �And it will not be closed,� hand on her hip.

He had a name but you wouldn�t be able to pronounce it.  And referring to himself as �he� was just a human convention the Louraxon had adopted for convenience.  The sexual nature of his kind was quite complicated, with six different genders, at least four of which had to come together to form a copulatory union that would result in offspring.  This Louraxon demon was not of a gender that would either carry or hatch offspring, hence his reference to himself as �he�.

The Louraxon, who shall only be referred to as Mr. X, detected the temporal portal opening at the site of the old Globe Theatre.  Although, Mr. X could not tell from whence the portal originated, he surmised that there must be a generator set up somewhere else in the city.  And he knew from the nature of the portal that it was resonating with at least one other generator in another place and time. Curious.  Was some other creature trying to hone in on his business, which was lucrative and of a trans-temporal and trans-spatial nature?  He had cornered the market on such enterprises here in London and, in fact, all of England.  He�d had to buy off two others of his kind to create a monopoly.  But he�d been secure in that regard for more than ten years, in the very simplistic way that humans measured time.  And now this?