The Bounty Hunter's Trilogy: Chosen By Fate

Chapter 8. Some Things are Better Left Unsaid

Audrey shut me in the stair well with her, pinning me against the wall. "This is terrible. You can't do that anymore, do you understand?"

"What? You mean to tell me you helped me see my abilities and you're refusing to let me use them?"

"You can't because it's so powerful. Even now that you know... I can already feel it." Her eyes were distant, like she was watching a ghost.

"Feel what?"

Audrey's eyes focused on my face again as if she had forgotten I was in the room with her. "You're not allowed to leave tonight."

"What? Why?"

"Because it's too dangerous. The... threats. They can tell when one of us as powerful as you is nearby. You just sent up a flare to our base."

"That's not my fault," I said in defense. She let me go, which made me think she was done as she took a step back. I relaxed a bit and barely had time to blink before she got a good whack in my jaw with the heel of her hand. Just then the door opened at the bottom of the stairs, and Travis' son, Lucas, came in. He had shaggy blond hair and bright blue eyes that held plenty of mischief in them to let you know he's a trouble maker.

"Audrey, Dad wants to know what's wrong." He sounded unsure of whether or not he should interrupt the situation seeing as I had some blood dripping from my lip.

"Tell him that Daniel is spending the night." He left, nodding, and she turned back to me. "You will keep your mouth shut about your abilities until I say you can speak of them. The fewer people know of your abilities, the better."

"What about Stan? He knows about them."

"He knows what to do. We have a minimum twenty-four hour waiting period before announcing any abilities. Even as minor as some are, we know it's dangerous, no matter who you are or what you can do. Beverly was one of the trickiest to hide. She figured hers out by mistake. She accidentally turned into a panther."

"Henry told me how her powers don't change her. They're more of a camouflage. I saw it in the mirror."

Audrey nodded her head. "Well her camouflage can only cover up so much. She still shows signs of herself, even without a reflection."

"So these threats, now that they're a real problem? Can I know about them?"

Audrey sighed, nodding again. "I'm actually not sure why I wanted to keep you from this so long. Well, we call them Bounties. Basically we took that word and changed the meaning of it. The bounty is really safety for all of us. They die, but they're created much faster sometimes, and never always as vulnerable. They can hide in anything. The ancient stories of dryads in Greece? The people who drowned in rivers after seeing them were us, they just never knew. They can appear as one thing and then become another. I was once attacked by a snow man, believe it or not, in the middle of October. This is an odd state with how early it tends to snow.

"Anyways, they kill if they get their hands on you and you're defenseless. If you're not trained enough, it's nearly impossible to fight. They're fast, faster than most things you will ever encounter, and they're impossibly durable. You can cut off all their limbs and they'll live for months. We tested several of them at once, they all lasted an average of five months."

"Meaning some lasted longer?"

"But some lasted less," Stan said coming into the stairwell. "Babe, he needs to train harder than ever now. What do we do?"

"We keep him to basic training levels, but at maximum for those. No ability training for at least a few weeks. We can't have him sending more signals."