Puppet {ManxMan}

CHAPTER 13

Ian Ellis was seventeen when I was kidnapped. Considering that fact and adding in the ten years I'd been missing, then right now he was twenty-seven. That was young. Older than me, fine, but he was still young. He was Arthur's older brother, and from what I remember of him he was a cocky son of a bitch. Easily amused, loved to tease his younger siblings, but if worse came to worse he could be absolutely terrifying.

When we were just starting middle school, Arthur was bullied quite a bit, bordering on severe physical abuse. Cass, Kailas and I did our best to look after him, but we were wimps. Ian, though, was a bad ass. He was tough and tall and older than us, we all looked up to him, and when we had to carry Arthur home after a serious bout of bullying that landed him in crutches for three weeks, Ian earned even more respect from us by casually strutting to the school and beating the snot out of every punk ass kid who even dared to touch his baby brother.

He got in a lot of trouble for that, but he just smiled proudly when he got suspended from school. He didn't care, because his brother was safe.

The entire Ellis family was composed of short genes and blond hair. Ian was no exception. I don't know exactly what he looked like now, or how tall he was, but I remember his hair was gold, similar to Arthur's, but darker, not as curly, and his eyes were a brighter baby blue. He was the only one out of the three siblings that didn't need glasses, so that added on to the fact he was awesome.

He was intimidating and strong, he worked as much as his father when he had to, but when their mother was put in the hospital with cancer he quit those jobs and stayed home to raise Arthur and Bethany. Arthur absolutely adored him back then, and it seemed not much had changed.

I always liked him, so I understood why Arthur fell down to his knees when the sudden intruder sputtered that the Con Rồng had captured him. Everything I had said about what happened to the prisoners came back to me, and I leaned heavily against the table as I watched Arthur drop his face into his hands and start to cry.

Malachi hurried around the table and knelt beside him, trying to sooth him, but it wasn't working, Arthur just cried more and lifted his face so his teary eyes could be seen, magnified by the glasses he was wearing. He grabbed onto Malachi's hand and took a few shuddering breaths as he looked at the injured man.

"Please... tell me he's alive... please."

The man nodded furiously, "He was when they grabbed him," he said, wincing as he shifted on his feet, leaning against the man beside him heavily for support, "I-I don't know where they took him, I'm so sorry. It's because he lead us, they somehow realized he was in charge and snagged him! The rest of us," his voice shook, "God, they're monsters!"

I winced and gnawed on my bottom lip, looking down at the map on the table as Arthur continued to whimper from behind me, "We have to help him, we have to!"

When I unrolled the blue print I'd been keeping from Kailas, the people still at the table looked at me, "We will," I decided, looking at Kailas, "You'll need me."

"Excuse me?" he snarled, "What happened to what you said about going back? You already failed your mission, if they catch you-."

"They won't catch me," I reassured, looking down at the blue print, "Besides, this is important."

"I'm going too," Cass said, stepping closer to me to see the blue prints, "Can't have my sparring partner stuck in a jail cell, can I? Who am I supposed to beat up on a daily basis if I lose him?"

I vaguely remembered Ian saying the exact same thing, but decided against mentioning it. Instead I just leaned over the table and started searching the blue print for the two exits Carter mentioned. If there were exits, they could also be used as entrances, and I'd prefer stealth over straight up walking through the front door.