"Don’t talk! Listen to me," Baiel told her, his face close to hers, as she blinked at his nearness, "you must go when I tell you to go. There will be a time in the Kalmad ritual- when you hear these words, ‘Anueth Nadeum’ spoken by Czewt in chant. Watch for my signal. Look only at me. Do not look into Czewt’s eyes."

Angie’s eyes widened, confused and tired. The man Baiel was trying to help her and yet, he scared her. His pupils grew larger, encasing his entire brown irises, casting a pool of black orbs that stared back at her. He shuddered slightly and then seeing her reaction to him, suddenly smiled and touched her cheek.

"Michael said you were pretty, but he didn’t tell me how strong you were! Czewt must have sensed that. I imagine he read you at the Expo. Makes sense as to why he then poisoned you, to see how you would do with the toxin. Eckvara knew. Damn it!" Baiel’s pupils had returned to pinpoint as the shed door opened abruptly.

Angie, stunned by his words, looked up and saw the two women from the shed from yesterday had returned for another day’s work. Baiel got up, replacing the gag in her mouth roughly. He yelled something in Romanian at them, and they scurried to their places, pulling up the sieve colanders.

He left then, leaving Angie to wonder who and what he was. He had mentioned Michael and that could only be Mira’s Michael. She realized that Michael must be involved in this somehow, probably some undercover thing and that Baiel and Eckvara were involved as well. What frightened her was the way his eyes had changed in the middle of talking with her and the weird words he had spoken to her- ‘Anueth Nadeum’….and then, there was the worst thing- this Kalmad ritual that Czewt had been threatening her with since yesterday. She didn’t really believe in psychic phenomena, but Czewt had made her feel like putty in his hands at the Expo the first night they had gone.

She wriggled against the post, straightening up. She was going to listen, watch for the man Baiel’s signal and then what? Run? Where? The two women working the colanders turned and looked at her almost in unison. They cackled to each other and one said very lowly, a word that Angie recognized; "Kalmad"…

Rollie was driving the F/X van. He was waiting for instructions from Michael Sanchez over his transmitter. Francis and Mira had taken a squad car and were following him. Sanchez was nowhere to be seen and yet, everywhere. He had told them they would be raiding a farm in upper Hudson Valley. Mira had alerted Vanduran that she and Frank were on a lead and left it at that. Michael could not afford for the police to be out in full force for this raid as he had certain interests at the farm, people that were not to be taken in for arrest.

"Rollie? See that milepost sign coming up- number fifteen?" It was Michael coming across his transmitter.

"Yeah, see it…" Rollie responded.

"You should make a turn to the left exactly…ten seconds after that…into a dirt road. It is not marked and it will be pretty rough terrain."

Immediately, Rollie swung to the left, putting his foot on the breaks. Sometimes Michael irked the hell out of him. He could have told him about the turn some time ago. Francis and Mira nearly ran into the back of his van. He could see Mira cussing a blue streak in the car from his side mirror as they too, began the bumpy ride on the dirt road.

"You up in a helicopter or something?" Rollie asked, into the receiver piece.

"Something like that," Michael responded, as Rollie could hear the whining noise in the background. He figured that was how he was tracking them and could see where they were.

In the distance, Rollie could see a row of shacks, some dilapidated and barely standing, and he shook his head. He didn’t see a sign of life around the place. They drew closer and pulled up as the helicopter landed not far away. Michael jumped out, crouching down as he ran under the whirling blades to meet them.

"I don’t think anyone is home," Rollie yelled as Michael approached the driver’s side of the van.

Two more helicopters landed with at least ten field operatives jumping out, weapons drawn. They immediately surrounded the shacks, throwing tear gas in and waited. There was only silence.

"They’re not here, Michael!" Rollie yelled at him above the whirling sounds of the helicopters as Mira and Francis approached, on foot with weapons drawn as well.

For once, there was a look of sheer panic on Michael’s face. He looked at Mira for only a second, then made an overhead signal for the men surrounding the shacks and they left, returning to the helicopters.

"We’ve been duped by your informant, Michael!" Mira yelled, her anger and frustration to a head.

"I don’t understand. This is where he told me they would be!" Michael replied, his face flushed as Rollie shook his head and returned to the van. He sat in the driver’s seat and hit the steering wheel with his hand, using all his might.

"Angie, hold on!" he said, tersely out loud as he tried to think, to concentrate on something that would help him see a clearer picture. Suddenly, he had a thought; "Francis!"

Francis Gatti was watching the terrible row that had developed between Mira and Michael. They were at each other’s throats, going for the kill, he thought to himself. He almost didn’t hear Rollie calling him.

"Yeah Rol," he answered and came up to the van window.

"Get on the phone and call that lab, the one that had the mud from the footprint in the loft."

"Oh, yeah- why didn’t I think of that, see if they got some geographic information on the soil!" He pulled out his cell phone and dialed. Francis began a long conversation that at times, looked very frustrating to Rollie. In the end, Francis hung up wearily.

"They got no one there right now, the lab director is the one that does the soil samplings and he’s out at lunch. They still haven’t done more than the prelim from the soil, damn it!" Francis said, his stormy expression hitting Rollie with panic.

Michael had walked away from Mira and was busy on his phone as well. Mira walked over to the van and climbed up the stairs to where Rollie sat, his face revealing her worst case scenario, in relation to Rollie and her working together ever again.

He looked at her, shaking his head, his face contorted and dark. He tried to say something but his frustration and anger were colliding. She could also see in his eyes his fear for Angie.

"Nothing!" he managed to get out with a struggle, "there is nothing I can do to save her! No F/X magic, no police help! Nothing!"

"Rollie…" Mira began, touching his shoulder but he jumped slightly, standing up, putting his hands out in front of him, and pushed her away.

"No! I am through with this! You and him!" he nodded at Michael’s form by the helicopter, "with everyone like you as well! Serrano was the one that brought Loubar into our lives, you and Michael give me this situation! Czewt is a maniac, isn’t he?"

Mira didn’t back away from him, instead she approached him again and pushing his hands away, just embraced him, holding on to him as he broke down and held on to her like a drowning man.

"Hey!" They both looked up as Michael entered the van and looked at them, frowning slightly as they held each other.

"If you’re through there, I need to know something…" he told them both as Mira stepped away from Rollie.

"What?" Rollie said, snapping back at him.

"Hey man, you got your arms around my wife. You got no right to be hostile with…" Michael began.

"Shut up!" Mira told her ex-husband, going up to his face, "I am not your wife anymore. Just cool it, okay?"

Michael looked for the slightest moment, hurt by her words as Rollie watched their volatile exchange. Francis was right about them, he thought. They would have ended up killing each other if they had stayed together.

"Okay, okay…" Michael said, slowing down and breathing deeply, "anyone here know a Doctor Hormoz Terzis?"

"What?" Rollie asked, surprised, "Yeah, I know him. He was the Doctor who found out what was in Angie’s blood and mine. Why?"

"He’s on the phone, patched through and says he has to talk to someone about what he found on Angie’s blood smear."

Rollie abruptly came over to him, taking the phone from Michael.

"Yeah, Doctor Terzis? Rollie Tyler here…"

"Oh, good to reach you finally, old boy!" Terzis’s voice quivered over the connection.

"What is it?" Rollie asked, his voice betraying his urgency.

"Oh, yes! Well, I got back a culture report on the blood smear of your wife today. I must say, it was fascinating!"

"Doctor, could you sorta speed it up and get to the point here!" Rollie asked the old man, pleading with him.

"Right, sorry! Well, as I was saying, the interesting thing I found was that the culture revealed a fungus growing after three days, you know. Well- I had me a look at this rather flowering creature and realized with shock that it could not have grown on Artemisia absinthium!"

"What? Doctor, what the bloody hell are you saying?"

"Oh, the wormwood, Mr. Tyler! The Absinthe that we found in your wife’s system. What was I saying- oh yes…now, I was quite frankly shocked by this, Mr. Tyler because this fungus is only found to grow on species of certain fruits but mainly, my dear boy on Malus pumilla."

"Doctor Terzis, you have lost me here, and quite frankly, I am in the middle of something horrendous. My wife has been kidnapped by that son of a bitch, Czewt. He’s the bloke that poisoned her to begin with!"

"Oh, heavens!" The Doctor was verbally shaken as Rollie rolled his eyes and was then abrupt with the old man;

"Look, I know it’s fascinating to you but I have a real problem here!" Rollie told him and then Francis yelled at him, and Rollie put the phone down from his ear.

"The lab guy just got back in and says that the only other stuff they found on final report from the soil, was that it had rotting apple seeds in it as well."

"Great, the guy was Johnny Appleseed, so what?" Rollie replied, shaking his head but his attention was drawn to the screeching sound coming from the phone that he held open in his hand.

"Oh, sorry- I have to go, Dr. Terzis!" Rollie replied, starting to shut the phone.

"NO! Mr. TYLER! The apples, yes – the apples!" The old man shouted at him and Rollie nearly dropped the phone.

"What did you say?" Rollie’s pulse was racing.

"Oh dear God, Malus pamilla IS an apple- in fact, a Granny Smith apple, to be exact. I overheard your man there say that the police lab found traces of rotting appleseed in some soil?" Dr. Terzis was starting to make sense to Rollie finally and it clicked.

"Michael! Francis!" Rollie shouted, gripping the phone and out of breath, "the soil is the answer along with the fact that the poison that was used on Angie had traces of a fungus that grows on apples...Dr. Terzis says they are Granny Smith apples!"

Michael frowned but Francis’s mind was clicking like Rollie’s. He pulled out a map from the squad car. Mira looked over his shoulder.

"That’s it! There is an orchard about an hour from here! A old vineyard, not really used anymore. It was marked here on Sarah’s map of the Hudson Valley vineyards!" Francis remarked, his smile from ear to ear.

"You had a vineyard map in the squad car?" Mira asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Yeah, so?" Francis asked, "it has interstate and secondary roads on it, just like the rest of the maps…"

Rollie grinned too. He could hear Dr. Terzis shouted his name and put the phone up to his ear; "Dr. Terzis- you have saved the day, old chap!"

Angie grimaced as Baiel and another burly gypsy man pulled her up from her sitting position in the shack and started to untie her. She had the feeling of pins and needles in her legs and walked flat footed and stilted as they took her out of the dark shack. Once out, in the late afternoon breeze, she took a deep breath in through her nostrils as she was roughly pushed along to the hill on the other side of the shacks. Below, she saw a gathering of workers, all gypsies and all looking very hostile. As the two men escorted her down the hill, she saw Nicholas Czewt come out from the middle of the crowd.

"Bring her here!" he shouted, his arm trembling, the strange seizure- like activity in it making the crowd gathered, murmur and stand in awe.

She looked up at Baiel who would not meet her eyes. They brought her to Czewt who was growing more tremulous by the moment. Baiel secured her hand bindings and very quickly reminded her in a whisper; "do not look into his eyes and run when you hear the words, remember!"

A fire was started, a large bonfire that began to hiss and crackle in the center of the ring of gypsies gathered. Nicolas Czewt began to walk around the circle at the edge, near the people as Angie was brought closer to the fire. The intense heat to her back was nearly intolerable as her two guardians held her tightly by her arms. She heard them chanting, Czewt as well, as he quickened the pace he walked and the chant at the same time.

They were in a frenzied hysteria, closing in the circle as Nicholas Czewt finally walked up to where she stood and took his hand to her throat, the fingers of his large hand easily able to wrap around it almost overlapping. The pressure of his grasp increased as she started to struggle and panic. His chanting changed and his arm began to violently shake, causing her to shake as well. His grip on her throat was relentless as she saw stars and nearly blacked out.

Baiel stomped on her foot, the pain from another area of her body making her come to alertness for a moment. Suddenly, Czewt stopped. The chanting from the crowd stopped. He spoke in English and turned to face her. Angie averted her eyes, trying not to look at him as Baiel had instructed.

"This infidel has assisted in taking the life of one of us. Eckvara was one who assisted our life’s blood. She was taken by this creature and her hoard to stop our blood from continuing as it has for centuries. What say you all?" Czewt cried out.

The crowd started to mumble, low and guttural and it took a moment for Angie to hear what they were saying. Her mind was exploding with the words for they were chanting the words that Baiel had told her; "Anueth Nadeum, Anueth Nadeum!"

She felt Baiel’s hand grip her tighter but he had told her that Czewt had to say it, only then was she to run but how?"

Czewt, in the twilight’s glow began to tremble all over now, and his grip to her throat suddenly felt more than just a vice, she felt incredible heat coursing through her body from her neck down. He grabbed her face then with his other hand, forcing her's to his own and she twisted her neck trying not to look at him, her eyes tightly shut. With his fingers, he pried at her lids and she bit the gag and her tongue with her teeth as blood spilled down her chin. No! she was screaming in her mind; Rollie! Rollie!

There was her love for Rollie that suddenly flooded into her, her father’s voice as well ringing in her ears and her mother’s voice, singing her the lullaby from her childhood. The heat stopped in her as if a return course of cold water had repelled it. The chill took over her and as she finally had to look into Czewt’s eyes, she saw the pupils fully dilated and the reflection of her own face in his eyes.

His mouth opened, the words rebounding as if they were in an echo chamber; "ANUETH NADEUM".

She felt Baiel’s grasp leave her arm. She thought she heard gunfire. She felt the other man who had been holding her leave. She stood alone with Czewt who now held a surprised look on his face, not the enthralled rapture of a man ready to kill. His eyes had not left hers but he had put his hand to his forehead.

He fell to his knees in front of her, jerking slightly as she backed away. Baiel had undone her hands at some point, they were by her sides, numb but there. She was suppose to run, why couldn’t she do it?

"RUN!" and the trance was suddenly broken as Baiel’s shout to her, and push to her shoulder threw her off balance. She did now what he had told her do; she ran.

She could hardly see as she spun past the bonfire, seeing the crowd of gypsies moving away from her, a strange look in their eyes. Was it fear? She kept going as fast as her legs could go, as she felt the blood returning to her muscles and the incredible ache that was running up her thighs. She headed toward the woods from the clearing, for cover. She could see the moon rising to her left and turned toward the sloping hill, making it down without falling.

After seeing that no one was following her she stopped, out of breath and jerkily removing the gag from her mouth. She rubbed her mouth, tasting the blood and crying at the same time. She rested against the side of a tree, gripping it in a hugging motion as she looked back up the hill, still seeing the bonfire. Her head jerked in surprise as she heard gunshots and she cried out in fear, running again, disappearing into the forest and not turning around again.