Devil's Snare {A Sequel to The Adventures of a Death Eater}

Chapter 10: The Secret Weapon

So I am super sorry for not uploading anything in this story sooner! But I think I am definitely going to get back in the habit of writing more of it, and more often!

I definitely crossed the series here, so I hope you enjoy! =D

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Audrey

           All night my mind wondered what Artemis had meant by “the best assistance the world could offer.” There was really no hope for us; Voldemort wanted us dead and I knew he would stop at nothing to assure we were. It was only a matter of time before he figured out Sebastian had lied to him and he would be on our trail. And to his surprise all of the people he wanted dead were all conveniently in one place.

           Artemis hadn’t slept much either. He had been pacing up and down the beach anxiously. I had never seen him pace before; it made me nervous to even watch. If Artemis was nervous, I knew by all means we should be too. We were as always, the only two awake. Everyone else had dozed off. Not that I minded; Ron was already starting to drive me batty, and he had only been with us for a few hours.

           Once I decided sleep had escaped me once again, I stood and decided to see if I could figure out what exactly had Artemis so worried. I approached him with single-minded determination. He noticed right away, and cracked a very small smile.

           “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

           “Shouldn’t you?” I retorted.

           “Touché,” he sighed. “I just can’t sleep right now. Too much is going on.”

           “What do you mean?” I asked back. “We’re fine. Seb has Voldie on the wrong trail, and you’ve got help coming. What’s there to worry about?”

           “It’s the help I’m concerned about,” Artemis admitted. “I don’t know if she’s actually going to help us. I like to think she would, but considering the circumstances I don’t know if she will.”

            “She? Who did you get?” I questioned.

           “Remember how I told you when I was twelve I kidnapped that fairy?” he brought up. I nodded, allowing him to continue. “Well, as it turns out she and her employers kind of owe me a favor or two. I was told not to get my hopes up, but perhaps she can be of assistance.”

           “Well, why wouldn’t she?” I tried looking at the positive side of the situation.

           Artemis sighed, taking a seat on a nearby rock. “Well… you see, Holly’s an elf. Being such, she can only do so much. She can heal, carry weaponry, even go unnoticed by human eye if she so chooses. But I’m afraid even with her abilities she won’t be able to withstand Voldemort’s power.”

           I nodded as I tried to comprehend what he was saying. An elf was his secret weapon? Last I knew elves were not threatening, and surely weren’t going to scare Voldemort. Unless Artemis knew something I didn’t.

           “So you mean to tell me, we’re going to use an elf to defeat Voldemort?” I inquired in disbelief. “I don’t know how that will work.”

           Artemis shook his head, chuckling in the process. “She isn’t like the house elves you’re used to. Holly… well, she’s dangerous. Believe me. I learned my lesson long ago about underestimating them.”

           He was being serious. I decided it was best to just take his word for it. Artemis usually knew what he was doing. I took a seat on the ground next to him, watching the ocean’s wave crash against the shore. Had the circumstances been a little different, it might’ve been pretty relaxing.

           I rested my head against Artemis’ arm. Admittedly, I was pretty tired, but I was too anxious to actually sleep. Honestly, I thought that was the same case for him as well. But then again, it was Artemis. It was hard to tell with him sometimes; he definitely wasn’t normal.

           I closed my eyes, hoping that I could relax enough to maybe sleep. The crashing of the waves drowned out my thoughts, preventing me from thinking of anything but sleeping. I felt myself beginning to doze off when I heard a voice from behind me.

           “Well isn’t that just precious?” a female’s voice teased.

           My eyes opened immediately and turned to face the person who said it. Standing before me was a figure about three feet tall. I could barely make out her features in the dim lighting coming from the fire several feet away. She definitely had pointed ears and short cropped hair. She was holding what appeared to be a helmet in one hand, and strapped in a holster on her hip was a strange kind of gun I had never seen before.

           “Nice to see you again Holly,” Artemis greeted from beside me. I hadn’t noticed he had already turned to face his friend. “I was wondering when you were going to get here.”

           “Took a little longer than I suspected,” Holly sighed. “Finding your location wasn’t exactly the easiest. On top of that, the nearest chute was a good flight away.”

           “I apologize for the inconvenience,” Artemis said dryly. “I have bigger problems than my location right now.”

           “Obviously,” Holly rolled her eyes. “So before we get into the reason you called me here, who is your friend?” She nodded her head in my direction.

           Artemis put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me a little closer to him. “This is my girlfriend, Audrey,” he introduced. “Audrey, this is Holly Short, a friend of mine.”

           Holly snorted. “Friend? I was going to say more of acquaintances bound together by undesirable situations, but I guess that works too.” She smiled slightly before looking back at me. “So you’re the girl who’s been keeping him in line for us? Heard a lot about you. All positive things, of course.”

           I felt my cheeks turn pink. I was just glad she couldn’t actually see it. “Yea, I guess I am. Though I hardly think Artemis can stay out of trouble.”

           “Right! Every time I turn around Arty gets himself in another sticky situation,” Holly went on. “He’s a magnet for attention! He’s just lucky we owe him for helping us stop Opal Koboi again.”

           I had no idea who exactly Opal Koboi was, but I nodded in agreement anyways. I could tell Artemis was quite embarrassed by the way we were talking about him; he never had liked being the center of attention, especially for needing help.

           “I’m not an attention magnet,” Artemis protested. “And anyways, I think this situation has a far greater impact on the whole group, not just myself. If we don’t defeat him soon, all of our lives could be at risk.” He paused for a moment before looking directly at Holly’s. “And that’s including yours. Voldemort won’t stop at just our world; he’ll go for yours next.”

           “Then you better start waking everyone else up. We have a lot to talk about,” Holly declared.

           I knew then I was definitely not getting any sleep that night…