Gretchen frowned at the newcomer who was staring at her with terrified eyes. He was a head shorter than Angelus and slim with wild shoulder length coppery hair and almost luminous golden eyes. He looked how she imagined an Egyptian god would, sun kissed and glowing. An Egyptian god who was suddenly petrified of her, she amended to herself.

Angelus murmured something soothing in Jack's ear and then pursed his lips, as if he was trying to find a way to word what he wanted to say without upsetting her.

"You have heard of witch hunts, yes?"

She nodded, scratching Valiant's ears, wondering where he was going with this.

"It seems that sensitives are not quite as rare as I had been led to believe. Jack is...," he paused again finding the right words. "Unsettled by you, because sensitives were used to hunt down magic users."

"So what, I'm the bogeyman now?"

Angelus raised an eyebrow.

"Essentially, it does seem that way."

Gretchen thought about it for a few moments, then lurched to her feet.

"Come on Val, lets give these two some space."

"Do not go too far." Angelus gave her a grave but grateful look.

"Don't worry old man, Val will look after me." She stalked off into the park, hands shoved angrily in her jeans pockets.

She wandered along the gravel paths, mulling over the ideas she could be used for something so disquieting as hunting fellow humans down so they could be burnt at the stake. Her stomach twisted and her head and jaw ached with a horrid metallic taste, angrily she kicked a stone, hissing,

"It's not like I wanted to be like this!"

There were too many things crowding her mind right now, too many things that had happened, and all of it too fast to wrap her mind around. She wasn't sure what to make of Jack; Angelus seemed happy for the first time since she'd met him, but she felt redundant and even more of a burden now.

Valiant barged into her pulling her out of her thoughts as her arms wheeled to keep her upright. Huffing at her he practically begged her to follow him, his eyes shining with mischief and his tail wagging wide swathes of excitement. Giving in she set after him at a run, letting her mind go blank as their feet ate the ground under them.

Valiant finally stopped when they reached a lake. It was surrounded by scrubby bushes and large weeping willows, whose long branches brushed the surface of the lake, leaving soft ripples across the wind kissed surface.

Valiant danced circles around her as she stood on the gravelled margin, watching the slow lapping of the waves tonguing the ground in front of her feet. Stooping she picked up a flat stone and weighed it in her hand before skipping it over the waves. Valiant boofed loudly and charged into the lake after the stone, spraying her with dank lake water as he belly-flopped in.

She grumbled as she shook the water off the ends of her fingers and face, then looked up to see Valiant headed rapidly back to the shore.

"Oh no! No you don't you beast, you already got me wet, don't you DARE come and shake all over me!"

She backed up rapidly, searching the ground for something else to throw to distract the huge hound. Finding a branch she tossed it as far as she could into the lake just moments before Valiant reached her. Giving her a big smug doggy grin he spun around and barged back into the water. At which point she realised that only delayed the inevitable, next time she'd need to throw it somewhere dry.

She was searching the ground for another suitable branch when a calloused hand smothered her face and a rough voice grated in her ear.

"Go on luv, give us a scream."

She tried to duck out of the grip but he'd already clamped another arm around her midriff, trapping her arms and squeezing the air out of her lungs. She couldn't see through the thick fingers covering her eyes, but she could hear Valiant's low vicious grumbles and the sound of rapid movement. Another male voice yelled something in a language she didn't recognise and there was a sickening thump and a pained yelp.

"Val!" she screamed, struggling as hard as she could, using her heels to hammer her attackers shins.

"That's right luv, scream a bit more, we want your boyfriends too."

She clamped her mouth shut and went limp, hoping he'd relax his grip a little and let her escape. Instead he tossed her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing. When she tried to open her eyes they refused to obey her, and the sickening magical buzzing that she was only now becoming aware had been the reason she'd felt so distracted and head-achy earlier, had sucked the strength out of her. What the hell was the point of being able to feel it if she'd just ignored it all day instead of warning Angelus.

"What yeh want me ta do wit the mutt?" This voice was thick with an odd accent.

"Leave it, it's just a dumb dog, boss didn't say nuttin 'bout a dog." Her captors voice rumbled through her oddly and for the first time she wondered if they were even human.

"What 'bout the other two, boss wanted 'em all." A third voice also oddly accented joined the conversation.

"We just make it easy to track us see, an they'll come to us."

She wanted to hit the man holding her, to hit and yell and curse, but her body wouldn't obey her, not even a twitch from her fingers.

"Sallow, yer in charge o leavin breadcrumbs for the loverboys."

She heard an affirmative grunt from one of the others as her captor started walking, the uneven motion of his gait making her face slam into his back with every step. She was carried an indeterminate distance, by which time her face felt battered and bruised. The sound of car doors opening was soon followed by her being unceremoniously dumped on a hard uneven surface and the feeling of being compressed into a small space overwhelming her as the boot lid shut over her head.