Chapter 29

**Day one**

Bringing someone back to life was no easy feat. On top of that, it was effectively delving into a level of magic that could be dangerous in the wrong hands. Luckily for Dagmar, she was used to things being tough and she knew how to bring Kade back without it having any sinister consequences for anyone involved. The problem was that it would take time which was something they didn't necessarily have. Right now, there was a vulnerable she-wolf somewhere out in the big wide world with a target on her back and a belly full of hybrid babies. If those children fell into the wrong hands then things would get very ugly indeed.

So Dagmar needed to bring Kade back. The gods had given their verdict and Dagmar had been surprised when they agreed with what the fallen angel had said. It wasn't Kade's time to pass over. He still had work to do.

Dagmar wasn't going to disagree nor disobey the gods so she had set to work. It wasn't that she brought people back to life on a daily basis but Kade wasn't her first rodeo. She had dealt with much worse in terms of corpses but none of them had been so closely connected to her. She never admitted it out loud but she loved the stubborn boy like he was her own son. In a way he had been.

When Kade's mother abandoned the boy and his sister into the care of Dagmar, she had initially thought they would be gone from her life in a matter of weeks. But weeks turned into months and then years. Kade wasn't actually a difficult boy, he was quiet and obedient but damaged. That damage only seemed to get worse when he returned from Afghanistan. He had spent the last three months in a military hospital in Cyprus recovering from being crushed under a building but it wasn't physical scars that Kade brought home with him. He had changed as a person and so had his wolf.

That's when they had started butting heads. Dagmar didn't like that Kade was mixing with bad characters. He seemed to be bursting with anger and yet his ways of venting it were far from healthy. Dagmar eventually learnt of what had happened in Afghanistan through her own means but Kade never forgave her for snooping into his life.

It really came as no surprise when Kade left one day and didn't come back. A couple of years passed without so much as a Christmas card before Kade appeared again, this time bringing his new family with him. Dagmar had taken one look at the Hellhound pack and deemed them trouble. At the time, Slade Wolfe was Alpha but he only had a few years left on the throne. It was obvious to Dagmar that Slade Wolfe saw Kade as a weapon and used him as such. His boy, Daniel, wasn't as bad but Dagmar was angry and hurt to see her ward being used so horribly so she took it out on all of them. In truth, the Hellhounds were probably not that bad but Dagmar couldn't or wouldn't see past her bitterness.

When Kade had told her that he had found his mate, Dagmar thought she had seen the light. It was a chance for Kade to have something good in his life and to perhaps feel more than anger and self-loathing. The moment Dagmar saw Thalia she had known that the little wolf was exactly what Kade needed but there was a complication.

Thalia was pregnant and the baby daddy was a demon.

It sounded like something off of a supernatural version of Emmerdale and yet it was very real and just to put a cherry on top of the whole sundae of drama, the baby daddy was trying to start a war that would destroy them all.

Dagmar sighed, brushing back some of the strands of chestnut hair from Kade's cold forehead, careful to avoid the bullet hole. If she could speed the process then she would do that. Thalia needed her mate and right now she was probably somewhere alone and scared. Dagmar didn't even know if Thalia was aware of what had happened to Kade but there wasn't time to worry about it.

Dagmar had sent the fallen angel away as soon as she could. While he had been honest with her, Dagmar had yet to figure out what angle Lucien was working and how he fit into the bigger picture. He had outright admitted he was related to the demon known as Dante Connaught but he had confessed it without hesitation despite the fact it could have caused him problems. Lucien was clearly not an ally as such but he also wasn't the enemy. Regardless, his presence would have only served as a distraction so Dagmar had sent Lucien packing.

Now it was just her, the body of her ward and the whispers of the spirits who would aid Dagmar in retrieving Kade's soul from the ether and returning it to it's corporeal vessel. But first she needed to mend the vessel which had broken like a doll stomped on by an angry child. It actually was a pretty accurate description of what had happened as well but Dagmar wasn't going to dwell on the snake who had done this to her boy.

A howling gale rattled the window panes as Dagmar began to realign broken bones. It wasn't a delicate job and the sound of cracking, ripping and tearing filled the small living room as Dagmar fought against rigor mortis to put bones back together. Aside from the incision she had to make in order to put Kade's ribs back together, Dagmar knew she didn't have to worry about patching up the multitude of scrapes and gashes. She didn't even have to do anything with the gaping hole that now made up the back of Kade's skull. Well not quite nothing but at least she didn't have to sew it shut.

It took several hours of cursing, sweat and strength to finally put the pieces back together. By the time Dagmar was done with phase one of her mission, a storm had rolled in. Brontide had joined the whistle and howl of the wind in its wild and untamed song as the skies blackened and the umbrage of the clouds sucked away any light.

As much of the dried blood and goddess knows what else was cleaned away carefully. Dagmar welcomed the change from brute strength to softer motions as she cleaned Kade's now pale skin. The old witch had been humming to herself as she bathed the skin of her ward. It was a soothing sound but like everything Dagmar did, there was meaning behind her little song.

By the time the storm had passed and night had fallen, Kade's body was cleaner but still very much so lifeless. The hard physical work was done though and hard work it had been. Dagmar could feel the soreness settling into her joints already but she didn't have time to complain about it. She needed sleep because the next day would be far more taxing.

**Day two**

The new dawn brought powdery blue skies and wispy white clouds. The sweetness of summer perfumed the air delicately but the warmer months were still another six weeks away. The chill of the spring morning added to the soreness in the old witch's bones as she slowly pulled herself from her bed and began her day. The spirits had been chattering like starlings since the first golden threads of sunlight had danced across the sky. Their excitement was evident in their hollow whispers that echoed about the house, steadily growing louder.

"Enough." Dagmar snarled. "You'll wake the dead with all that racket. It's giving me a bloody headache!"

The old heating system creaked and ticked as the boiler came on and heat began to trickle into the cold pipes. Downstairs, Kade was still lying on the couch like a statue out down to rest. The old witch's eyes watched the corpse for a few seconds as Dagmar let her thoughts simmer in her mind. The messages she was receiving were clear; Kade must live but she couldn't help but wonder if it was cruel to bring the boy back. He hadn't had it easy and it seemed like a punishment to make him continue living this life.

*His work is not yet complete…*

Dagmar had learnt both the easy and the hard way that when it came to the will of things much older and wiser than herself, it was best to toe the line. So despite the questions and doubts that filled her mind for just a few moments, she had carried on with the task she was given but not before a cup of tea and cigarette. Like hell was she doing anything before a cup of tea and a cigarette.

The sun managed to dominate the sky all the way up until lunch time before the clouds rolled in once more bringing a mist like rain that left everything slippery like it had been covered in grease. But even as the weather became more miserable, Dagmar continued her work tirelessly. She placed small silver coloured runes over Kade’s eyes making sure the colour had matched his eye colour perfectly. Then came the back part of a skull that was older than Dagmar. She stuffed it with a tuft of Legion fur that he had left all over her armchair a few years back as well as old photos of the boy, one of his rings and his dog tags before resting it under Kade’s head. It looked ridiculous but it was effective and the task Dagmar had been given would go much more quickly and easily.

That wasn't to say this was a walk in the park. Dagmar couldn't just paint any old gibberish in any old material. Contrary to popular culture, there was no blood of virgins and pentagrams. It was laughable really but it sold movies and kept wannabes away from the real shit. The realms did not need moody teenagers playing around with the real shit.

No, instead it would take hours of painting thousands of symbols that when translated make up words and sentences. The sentences came together to form the incantations from the tomes now scattered around the small living room. By the end there wasn't a speck of alabaster skin visible under the coal and oil mixture that Dagmar had used to paint with painstaking detail. Just as she finished the last Hieroglyph, the old grandfather clock in the hallway began to ring, signifying midnight had arrived.

"Time to finish this." Dagmar muttered before taking a dagger that sat on the coffee table. "There is still work for you to do."

**Day Three**

Droplets of dark red blood fell like tears from the gash in Dagmar's hand to land with a soft dripping sound on the skin over Kade's dormant heart. Each droplet fell in time with the chimes of the clock as Dagmar muttered the words of the scripture she had just spent all day painting on Kade's corpse. With each sentence her gravelly voice grew in volume, the words filling the small cottage.

The spirits vibrated in excitement, their whispers tumbling over each other and cutting each other off as they raced to join in with the chanting. The walls shuddered with the noise, windows rattling and the lights flickering from the intensity of the chorus. It grew and grew and grew until it was deafening, until it was so loud, Dagmar's ears began to ring. Books fell from a shelf and one of the smoke detectors went off but still Dagmar kept going, calling to the realm of death to release her boy's soul.

"Wake now, William! Open your eyes and live again." Dagmar commanded, throwing her hands up to the sky. "Come back to your body! It's time for you to live!"