The Awakening, Chapter 2

The trip seemed to be taking forever. I was starting to get agitated, I really did not like being inside such a small space as a car for any extended period of time. It made me feel trapped. My reactions were not that different than that of a cornered animal, instantly defensive. There was no way I could doze at the moment, but I would let them think that I was asleep. I kept my breath even while still having irregularity in it, most of my breathing coming from my mouth and going into my stomach, the diaphragm acting as a roof. I forced my jaw to stay relaxed along with shoulders, my head still leaning against the window of the vehicle.

“What are we going to do with her?” It was the voice of the young man, the first time I had heard him speak. The two men had been silent since I had decided to take a nap. His voice was a little higher than one would have thought, almost pretty sounding.

“Didn’t I tell you?” The gruffer voice spoke this time, a hushed tone, a bit of a growl of anger tainting the voice. There was a little bit of a pause before I heard the older man exhale in a bit of frustration, I could almost hear the frown in his voice as he spoke again. “I thought I had. Simple, we are going to steal her powers. She doesn’t seem to be...able to use her abilities yet, so we will have to fix that first, but that shouldn’t take too long, by the end of the week we’ll have her powers. Too bad that doing so would result in leaving her an empty husk.”

My heart seemed to skip a bit as my brain buzzed with somewhat scattered thoughts running through them. Powers? She seemed to be perfectly human. Another surprise. I hate surprises. At least she couldn’t use them yet, or at least I think that’s a good thing, I don’t know. What are her abilities? Wait! They’re going to kill her!

I knew then and there what I needed to do, what was going to be the right thing to do, I had to find a way to get her out of this car and to the safe house, and I had to do it when the car stopped. I could go away from rolling out of a moving vehicle with hardly a scratch, though she probably couldn’t, and I couldn’t do it while carrying her. I really did not like working with other people, then I had to put what they could do in the equation, and right now all she was good for was to be dead weight at the moment.

The next hour was agonizing, pretending to be asleep, making the occasional movement where it would be deemed a good time to move while sleeping, I couldn’t just start thrashing around in my sleep, that wouldn’t do, one had to be consistent when pretending to be asleep. The father and son didn’t speak at all for the rest of the ride, though I heard the occasional turn of a page, the groan of a leather seat as weight was shifted, the sound of the tires rumbling against the asphalt underneath it, until it jostled, starting to roll on a smoother surface, maybe cement. I was starting to get agitated; the waiting was getting to me. My survival instincts told me to run, get away, that I too was in danger, whether I tried to take the girl or not.

I was relieved when the car slowed down to a complete stop, feeling the gearshift to park right before the car turned off. I waited, a bit more, I had to be patient until just the right moment otherwise all of this could go extremely wrong. I could feel the slight shift in the vehicle as the younger man leaned across the space to unbuckle her seat belt, both of theirs already done. I heard the older man tell the driver to drop me off somewhere, that he knew I could easily find my way. I parted my eyes slightly as the younger man pulled her out of the vehicle, the older man coming out on the other side.

I let my hand fall to the clip of the seat belt, tensing my leg muscles. I added light pressure to the button, then heard the click and felt the release. Like a runner after the sound of the gunshot, I quickly leaped out of the vehicle, planting a prompt kick to the boy’s stomach, catching the girl as I started to run toward the tree line. Behind me I was expecting to hear screaming, yelling, cursing, but nothing. I listened closely, but all I heard was a quiet noise, something that was almost like a hum and the sound of grass being kicked. I looked back behind me, not sure what could make that kind of noise. At first I didn’t see anything, but then I saw what was a minor disturbance in the light, it was slightly twisted, almost like a bubble, but it was nowhere near as noticeable. I attempted to judge, but it was faster and larger than what I had thought it was.

I didn’t know what to expect, but what it felt like someone had hit the back of my ankles with a baseball bat, except that it felt more like it was going through me than anything. Next thing I knew, my feet were over my head and my back was hitting the ground. I felt the air rush out of me as the girl landed on top of my diaphragm. I pushed her off, rolling onto all fours. I looked up just in time to see the older man stretch out his hand, holding it out in front of him, then another of that energy, rushing at me. This one didn’t feel as solid, but it was followed by multiple blows, each one draining the energy from me. The world was growing darker, my arms gave out from underneath me. I looked up at the darkening blue sky, watching as a silhouette of a young man loomed above me, then felt a sharp kick to the head, and then there was nothing.

- - -

My first sensation was that of cool metal through the fabric of my shirt. I let my hand slide across the stainless steel a little, letting my thoughts come back together. I had a slight ache in my head. I felt heavy, really heavy. My heart started to pump faster, my thoughts coming clearer. Drugs, someone drugged me, that much was obvious. But it was quickly clearing out of my system. I let my eyes slowly open, flinching a bit at the sudden bright light that left me blinded for a few moments. I blinked away the dark spots that obstructed my vision. I was in a hospital room, though it was without the posters and what not. It was as if someone had combined a doctor’s office with a morgue, the thought sending a shiver down my spine.

The room smelled clean, like bleach. I searched the room for whatever could be used as a weapon, but there was something else that the office was missing, anything that could be used as a weapon. No trays, no jars, no needles, nothing. I was slightly disappointed, but there wasn’t much time for that. I heard footsteps coming down the hall, toward my door. The floor was hard outside, I could tell that from the way it echoed. I slid off of the table onto the floor, being careful to walk quietly as I came to the back of the door.

On the other side I could hear the jingling of keys, then the sound of metal on metal as someone inserted it, the click of the lock pulling back. I let the door open a bit, then kicked the door hard. I heard a slight crunching sound, a broken nose. I moved to the other side of the door quickly, quickly striking the surprised man’s throat. He was carrying a clipboard and wearing a lab coat, a doctor probably. The clipboard fell from his now slack grip. I quickly stuck my foot out to catch the clipboard so that the sound of it hitting the hard ground did not echo through the room, then I pulled him toward me, pinching the nerve clusters in the neck. I could feel the slowing beat of his heart and I could hear as his breath quickened before he stilled, slumping against me a bit.

I gently lowered him to a sitting position against a wall before I exited the room, making sure that my footsteps hardly made a sound against the dark, wooden floors. I was crouched low, feeling like a fox in an enemy’s den, trying to get out of the unfamiliar territory. I had to get the girl first, but I knew that they had taken the needle from my pocket, probably just in case something like this happened, and I wasn’t as familiar with her chemical signature to be able to track her without first having an item of hers, something that she had held for an extended period of time.

My brows came closer together as I thought about it. I gripped a bit of my shirt with my hand, holding it to my nose, taking a quick sniff. It smelled of perfume, which meant that it might just have enough of a chemical signature to track her if she was close by, preferably in the building. I kept a grip on the fabric, closing my eyes, concentrating a little bit. The sensation of tracking someone was an odd one, something that I had been completely unprepared for when I first tried it. It was almost like my mind and body were both drawn to origin of the trail, to that person. It didn’t take in account other objects though; it was more like a compass that gave that pointed up and down as well. Something in my mind clicked, there were a few chemical signatures there, but there was one that was feminine, the rest had a more masculine touch to the chemical composition. I focused on that single strand. The pull was weak, pulling up. So either she was extremely high up or she had touched my shirt just long enough to leave a little bit of her.

There was no way I could go straight up though, so it was time to search for a flight of stairs. Forward seemed as good as an option as any. It was made quickly obvious that I was on the first floor of the building and that I was in the same house that we had stopped at, I saw the same tree line and what I could see of the house looked the same. I was facing the front lawn; I could see the driveway and the car parked in the same place.

After a little more searching it was made obvious that, despite the size of the house, there wasn’t that many people here. I couldn’t blame the man though. From the information I had, he was doing something that was best kept secret and a secret was best kept when few people knew the secret.

The tugging sensation was weakening as I approached the stairs, I was getting farther away from her, but it was quickly apparent that I was coming to the right floor as the magnetic feeling became lateral, no longer pulling up. The hallways on this floor seemed to mirror the one I had just come from though, which made it easier to navigate them, until I started getting closer to the room that would have directly above mine.

I could see the door at the end of a hallway. The location was far from what I would call ideal, it sat at the end of the hall, which meant a possibility of becoming trapped. A risk, but it was one that I was going to take.

The door slid open silently as I pushed it inward. It was quickly apparent that her surroundings were meant to be a bit more on the homier side with its dark colored woods and the thick, green comforter on the canopy covered bed. I saw a few locks of blonde hair poking out from underneath the comforter and I could tell from the chemical signature that it was her. I looked around a little to assess my surroundings, which seemed safe at the moment, before I closed the door behind me.

I quickly made my way over to the bed, wondering why they were taking the effort to make her more comfortable before killing her. I had heard of people who did this from other Hunters, but it never really made sense to me, it would be a lot better to just kill them, no special treatment.

The girl’s skin was fair, smooth, almost looking like it would be cool to the touch. I would almost go as far to say that she looked as if she had just died peacefully in her sleep, but there was a very subtle rise and fall of her chest. I was just about to check her pulse when I heard footsteps coming toward the room.

Thinking fast, I quickly and quietly slid a chair underneath the door, jamming it shut. There was only one way to get out of here; the window was partially open, letting in a nice breeze. It was only a second story window, but I would still have to find something to climb down at least halfway to the ground. If it were only me I would jump out of the window and land running for the woods with only a slight jarring sensation, but it wouldn’t be the case with the girl.

I looked around a bit, then it hit me, the canopy. I reached up, ripping it off, cringing at the noise it made. I was able to hear the person outside pause at the noise; I was going to need to work fast. Tying the fabric to the bed was easy, a quick clove hitch would secure it. It was going to be getting down that was going to be the harder part.

The window seemed to be a bit stuck when I started to tug on it, but it slowly lifted up. The person was closer to the door, I had a feeling that they, male judging from his chemical composition, had his ear pressed against the door. The the door handle started to rattle and they were starting to push on the door. It was quiet for a bit, but then the loud bang of the man throwing his weight into the door echoed in the room. I quickly tossed the rest of the fabric out of the window as the man started yelling. Moving over to the side of the bed, I quickly scooped the girl up in one arm, sat on the window sill with one arm around her and my free hand gripping the makeshift rope. Right as I jumped, the girl began to stir.

Village of Wolves (Beginning)

Chapter 1

The rain hit the wood roof with a quiet pitter patter, lulling the tired occupants to a deep rest. All except a young scullery maid named Melody, who hummed an eerie tune while rocking back and forth in the window side rocking chair, watching the rain drops hit the muddy ground. It was a dark stormy night filled with life, but nobody noticed it except this young girl. The flicker of the candle light cast shadows on her pretty face, her dark forest green eyes seemed to glow. A pale hand held a threaded needle, going back and forth through a thin, pale cream colored piece of fabric, a rose slowly forming on it. She pushed a piece of her beautiful, dark brown hair out of her face. She set down her project and looked at the brick wall out the window. The wall formed a boundary that surrounded the city of Landle. You could see above it only from the roof tops, and even then only the taller ones. “I wish that I could be on the other side, free of the unknown instead of in this dull city scrubbing pots and sweeping floors.” She said quietly to herself. She lifted herself out of the chair, drawing herself to her full height, which wasn't that tall. She was seventeen but no taller then five feet five inches. She had a smallish, pixie like frame. She glided across the dark wood floors to the kitchen to finish washing the dinner dishes.

---

“Melody.” A gentle voice spoke through the heavy haze. “Melody.” It said louder, firmer. “MELODY!” It snapped. Melody jolted awake, noticing that she was sitting on the gray gray stone floors. “Finally the dead awakes.” Melody turned to see Anna, the cook, standing above her, her big hands on her waist. Anna was a tall broad woman with short red hair framing her face. Her bright blue eyes showed kindness, but she was one that you didn't fool around. Melody pushed herself off the cold gray floor, falling asleep while scrubbing the floor. “Sorry Anna,” she said in a voice that was groggy with sleep. “I fell asleep scrubbing, up late.” She brushed her skirt off. Anna just looked at her. “Looking at the wall again?” She asked, though Melody knew it was closer to a statement. Melody just smiled shyly and nodded. Anna nodded her head once. “I did that around your age, I got caught.” She looked down, but Melody knew the rest. The only room with a view of the wall was he family room, forbidden to all but a few servants. Got caught in there and your not supposed to be, you usually received a few hits, sometimes even fired. Anna got away with a beating, never going back again. Anna tried her best to keep everyone in line so they didn't get a beating, or fired, but she didn't tell when they did. “You know that there's no way you could get over there, don't you?” Melody just nodded, only one non-soldier got over it, but no one knew what happened to him. Soldiers were allowed over there though, but they never run off. “Time to start breakfast, you know how the masters and mistress don't like to wait for their food.” The mistress was a server woman. The master was kind, but if the mistress thought someone should be punished, then it was done, but the master never told her if someone did something she wouldn't like. Then there was the young master. He was kind, but only if it would get him something. So most maids stayed away from him.

Anna started some porridge in the pot over the fire, while Melody started to cut up some fresh light green and a few dark red apples. The work was quick but a little tiring in the hot room. A few servants entered the kitchen holding silver trays. But it wasn't the silver trays that caught Melody's eye, but their clothing. They wore dark rich colors with silver buttons. They made her feel plain and shabby. She wore a light cream blouse with a plain brown skirt and cheap brown boots. Her hair was arranged in a flyaway bun. The well dressed servants loaded the trays and turned on their heels and disappeared through the doorway without a word, a haughty look on their face and in their posture. Melody blew a stray hair out of her face, then started to scrub the porridge pot.

---

Melody was sitting in the rocking chair, facing out the window, looking at the gray wall again. It was a clear, steamy night, quiet. There was a loud banging sound, Melody jumped a little and turned to see the door wide open. She could see the silhouette of a man, but that silhouette told her who it was, the young master. He stepped closer, the moonlight through the window made his pale skin glow and his gold hair shine. His tall, broad figure loomed over her smaller, slight one. He smiled and an evil, mischievous glint entered his pale blue eyes. Melody stepped back, running into the wall. He grabbed her hand. “I won't tell my mother that you were here if you give my something in return.” He grabbed her waist and pulled her close to him. She frowned, a frightened look appeared on her face. She pulled her left foot back, then kicked him in the shin with all her strength. The young master let her go and grabbed his leg. He looked up, his face full of hate and anger. He raised his fist and it connected with her lip. Then his hand hit her cheek. “LEAVE ER ALONE!” A familiar voice yelled. Melody looked towards the door to see the large figure of Anna. Anna ran towards them, jumping on the young master. “Run Melody! RUN!” Melody ran, turning in time to see the young master hold up a lit candle, striking Anna's head. Anna went limp, forever.

It was only three days till the funeral. They had found Anna's body the next day. Melody had told them what had happened. Well, she told the master, who gave the mistress a different story, still including the young master killing Anna. The young master didn't get punished, people like him didn't get punished for killing their family servants. It was cruel, dark, and evil. Melody now knew that she had to find a way out, and soon.

Melody continued her work, going in rooms where the young master couldn't, avoiding the family room as if death still lingered there. Little did she know that her escape was in there.

Sun and Moon (Beginning)

Chapter 1

“Mom! Mom! Where are you? Dad?” An unsure voice spoke over the small crowd that was beginning to form. Fireworks were being shot up into the sky, but why was the question. It wasn't an important day, just another Thursday evening in June, but that was it. Though the speaker knew there was something odd about them, but she wasn't sure what was. The speaker was a girl, looking to be about fifteen. Dark brown hair waved gently down to her shoulders, bright green eyes trying to see through the crowd. She was average height, around five and a half feet, though she looked somewhat intimidating. A certain fierceness could be seen. Next to her was a boy, the same age. He had short, dark brown hair and the same exact eyes. Tall, standing at six foot two, an athletic build, he looked intimidating, but his face was calm, kind, even though he was just as dangerous as his sister. Twins, Oriana and Jace Roon. They looked completely different, but they had their similarities. Bright, lively green eyes, athletic build, cream colored skin, and never quite fitting in. Oriana was a bit temperamental, her parents called her fiery, she liked things her way, not exactly one for change, enjoyed being in control, liked to be the best. Jace was different, it took a bit to get him to show his anger, though it was much worse then his sisters when he did, more like ice then fire. He was okay with change, almost liked it, liked doing his best.

Oriana was getting worried, and so was Jace. Usually Michael and Daniella Roon were easy to find, they seemed to stand out, and they always made sure their children knew where they were. With a loud bang and shower of golden sparks in the sky, the show was over. The crowd started to thin out and spread, until they were all back in their own houses, enjoying the cool relief from the warm, East Texas evenings. After a quick look, the twins knew that their parents weren't outside, so they headed back to the house.

A dark shape loomed in front of them. It was a house, their house. Normally the one story house with dark blue shutters, cream colored walls, and a dark wooden door was inviting, but now it just seemed foreboding, though why was a mystery to the twins. Oriana grabbed the round, iron doorknob and twisted it, an audible click seemed to echo in the empty darkness. The door soundlessly pulled open, revealing an almost pitch black interior. The twins went through the house without even bothering to turn on a single knob, not worried about tripping on the leather couch or the dark brown coffee table. Their rooms were right across from each other. Silently saying good night, they closed their doors.

The Awakening (Beginning)

Chapter 1

Thomas

The heat of the Dallas summer sun and humidity was starting to irritate me. “Where is she,” I thought to myself, tapping my foot impatiently against the concrete sidewalk, looking at my watch. She was late for work, which made my job so much harder. Patience wasn’t my strong suite, but when you were in my line of work, it was necessary to have. My name is Thomas Grey and I’m a Hunter. My job was to find and capture people for hire and I’m not the only one out there. There are certain qualifications to this job though, such as being able to sense the unique chemical compound that each individual leaves behind, being capable of enduring more than the average human body was capable of handling and healing rapidly when you are injured. Let us just say that I am not your average human. I am gifted, as are all Hunters, with abilities that make me an amazing tracker and a better than average fighter, much better. And now I was stuck waiting for a young woman that I had been hired to kidnap.

I looked around, hardly paying attention to the consistent stream of people that was walking along the sidewalk, probably heading to places like work or home, to be with their families, I didn’t know nor did I really care. Some may call it cold, but I call it focused. My gray eyes followed the occasional head of blond hair, though it only disappointed me when it was not the one I was after. I reached into my backpack at my feet to pull out a folder, her file. I skimmed through the individual papers, looking over the facts that I had almost memorized. Katherine Neelson, 18 years old, homeschooled, 5 feet 6 inches, 125 lbs., blonde hair with blue eyes. She was, well, unremarkable. Kidnappers, murderers, thieves, I’ve caught them, and this was a supposed thief as well. She didn’t seem to fit the regular profile, but there were always a few odd ones out there. I placed the file back where it belonged, scanning the crowd once more.

A smirk grew on my face as I finally caught sight of her, she looked exactly like the photo that had come with the rest of the information. I looked away as she looked in my direction, I could feel her eyes on me and I could see the confusion on her face through my peripheral vision. Perceptive, that was something that one could only find out from observation, not a file. I did my best to appear nonchalant as I lifted my backpack, looping one of the straps over a shoulder as I headed into building she just disappeared into, a bookshop. The smell of paper hung in the air. I took a deep breath, looking around. I had gone into the shop earlier, mapping it out. There was a backdoor, an emergency exit, though I had quickly disarmed the alarm. I had to somehow get her to cookbook section, it was right next to the exit and it was one of the most secluded places in the store.

The plan ran through in my mind as I put it in action. I came up to the girl, asking her where the cook books were. She gave me a slightly surprised look, possibly because I was just so quiet or there was the chance that it was because I didn’t seem to be the cookbook type, and honestly, I wasn’t. I had never been a good cook, never really wanted to learn either.

“Right over here,” she answered, her voice calm and pleasant, leading the way. Her movements were smooth as she moved between the shelves, making me think that she was probably a dancer, something that hadn’t been mentioned in her file, a surprise; I hated surprises.

“Here they are,” she said, turning around on her toe, a slight smile on her face.

“Thank you,” I replied, stepping forward as if I was going to look at the books, but made a quick lunge to the right, wrapping one arm around her waist before my other hand quickly moving over her lips, holding her close, my head over her shoulder so that she could not throw her head back into my nose. I could feel the quick beating of her heartbeat and the quickness of her breath as the damp exhale hit my hand.

I quickly turned, pushing my back against the bar of the door, dragging her back out with me into the humid air of the alleyway, the heat contrasting with the air conditioned shop. I moved my hand away from her waist, quickly moving up to behind her neck. Placing my thumb and middle finger against a specific nerve cluster on each side of the neck, I added slight pressure. I could feel her pulse slow down a bit, though the sudden pain in my diaphragm interrupted my train of thought. I gasped for air, stumbling back a bit when the air whooshed out of my body, trying to get some back in.

Another surprise. Did I mention that I really hated surprises? There she was, standing in front of me, crouched slightly into a fighter’s stance. There was an angry fire in her eyes, a determined set of her brow. She didn’t seem to be the type that would just back down from a fight.

Recovered, I smirked a little bit. She was clueless as to what I was, which would make this all the more interesting. I haven’t had someone that actually fought back in a long time. I crouched lower a bit, straightening my left leg in front of me and bending the right one underneath me, feeling the muscles tighten a bit in preparation. I watched as her blue eyes shot toward the exposed leg, quickly sweeping her leg around in an attempt to sweep it out from underneath of me. I pressed against the ground hard with my bent leg, turning so that we would be back to back, throwing my elbow back. I grazed her, but she twisted to miss the full force of the hit, though it still set her slightly unbalanced. I turned, wrapping my arm tightly around her body, pinning her arms to her side as I once again pinched the nerve clusters in her neck, feeling as she struggling grew weaker until they stopped, feeling the breath still move into her lungs as I let go, her weight slumping against me.

No one screamed, there was no gasp or cry for help. The scuffle had lasted maybe two minutes and had, thankfully, gone unnoticed. I took a deep breath, reaching into my pocket, feeling a narrow, plastic tube and the hard case of a cell-phone. I pulled them both out, moving her elbow up and putting the tube against the inside of her arm, looking like your average sugar tester, though there was a mild tranquilizer within it that would soon be flowing through her veins, keeping her unconscious for the next few hours. Pushing a little button on the top, I held it down for about fifteen seconds before my attention turned to the phone. Replying to my last text message, I sent my current employer a message, “Got the girl.” I had spoken to him of my plan, of kidnapping the girl while she was at work, he knew where she worked. I had yet to meet the man face-to-face, he seemed to like his privacy, though he wanted me to escort them to where he was bringing the girl. I didn’t mind, it wasn’t far from the safe house that I was staying at, then I would be back with a few familiar faces, other Hunters, for that was the purpose of a safe house, there for Hunters to stay between jobs, a place where they could rest, train, eat and sometimes heal. Sometimes it was a good place to learn about what was going on in the world.

My thoughts were straying off to what I would do when I got back to the safe house when I felt the small phone in my hand vibrate in announcement that my message had been replied to. “Here,” that is all it said. I shrugged, I hadn’t expected him to get through the traffic of Dallas so quickly, so he must have been parked a few blocks away in order to have time to receive the message, drive here and then send one in five minutes. I stood up, then bent over to catch the girl around the waist, lifting her almost slight frame over my shoulder as I headed out of the alleyway.

One would be surprised with just what one could do when surrounded by a crowded. I had gotten used to the fact that, while one would get a few strange looks from people when you carried someone over your shoulder down the street, people didn’t really seem interested enough to do anything and, if anyone asked, the excuse that they have occasional fainting spells usually sufficed. It was much easier to do this when in a big city, much easier than a small town when there was usually a fairly high chance of someone recognizing who you were carrying. As I expected, only a few looked our way, others were probably in a hurry to get to lunch or in a hurry to get back to work from lunch. I did get a few odd looks, mostly curiosity mixed with confusion; one was wide-eyed with what I would almost guess to be awe.

I knew what car to get in, it was like most of the ones that I encountered on missions such as these. Black, dark-tinted windows, though unlike most the backside was slightly elongated, which meant that there were probably two sets of seats that faced each other, it wasn’t quite as long as it would be in a mini-van, but longer than most cars. A driver was standing next to the door, ready to open it. I looked at him a bit; he had one of those faces and body types, just average. There was nothing exactly remarkable about him, nothing that most people would be able to identify him by.

The car door opened almost soundlessly as I approached the vehicle, the driver’s hand motioning toward the door. I nodded at him a bit before I gently slid the girl into the vehicle, sliding in after her myself. The door shut right behind my foot, the bright sunlight that was once shining through it becoming muted, making the vehicle dark for a short time as my eyes quickly adjusted. There were two others in the vehicle with me, a man that I would guess to be about forty and a younger man, maybe twenty. They looked like father and son, having similar features to one another. Both had blond hair, though the older man’s hair was darker with a little bit of silver in it. Both had green eyes, the same strong chin and both had a slightly cold, calculating, lustful look, though the kinds of lust were different. There was something more...power hungry in the older man’s, though the young man’s eyes showed his obvious physical attraction to the young woman who was unconscious next to me.

I raised my eyebrow at the younger of the two, suddenly very wary of these two men. I couldn’t think of what this woman did. I had been told that she had stolen something, though now I was interested about what she stole. I had seen earlier that she was surprisingly adept at defending herself, for a mundane that is. The younger man caught my look, his eyes narrowing a bit, a look that I could almost consider disgust on his face. The thought was laughable to me, the boy seemed to think that he was better than me, he was angry and disgusted by the fact that I had made a reaction to his look, or maybe it was because I was the one that was putting on her seat belt.

Hearing the sound of a clearing throat, I turned my head toward the older of the two men in the vehicle. “Thomas? Correct?” He asked, his voice deep and clear, reminding me of a low note on a piano. A simple nod was my reply, my gaze not leaving the man’s face as I felt the car accelerate, quickly strapping on my own seat belt. “Excellent job, about when will she wake up?” he asked me.

“Give her a few hours, maybe three, four maximum, two minimum, depends on how fast the tranquilizer goes through her system,” I replied, my tone neutral, plain.

“Good, don’t want her out too long.”

I just nodded once more. “What’s left to do? Just make sure she gets back to wherever you plan on taking her and leave it at that?” I asked. The man just nodded his head. “What did she steal?”

A slight smile grew on his face. “Something precious, and I should be getting it back quite soon.”

His answer made me frown a little bit, but I shrugged off the troubled feelings that were starting to settle. Now was not the time to have a conscious. I gave a few slow nods before pushing back against my corner, resting my head against the window as I shut my eyes, letting my mind wander a bit to the lull of the road underneath the vehicle.