Night of the Hunter

Two

Snow's eyes were soft. She looked exhausted. Between running and using as much power as she had in the mansion, Adam was shocked she wasn't passed out. He could say anything. His head hurt like hell. So speaking wasn't an option. Almost every noise had seemed to hurt.

Ean jabbed at the earpiece lodged in his ear, conversing with someone on the other end of the call. He was getting frustrated with the person on the other end. He was about ready to give up, when he sighed in relief.

"An hour and a half. Best we hang out in the tree line to keep out of sight."

"I never said I was going with you."

"It's leave or die. You know damn well if you don't get out of the city you're done for. They won't be so nice the next time they get their claws in you." Ean snapped.

Snow reluctantly followed the brothers into the trees, Ean let Adam nestle down into a semi-comfortable position before sitting down next to him.

"Are you okay?"

Adam made a soft noise. "T-think so. Head just hurts."

"Gaius had someone in the mansion do that. It wasn't him. Old man's heart can't handle the shock of any gifts."

"Then why is he their leader?" Adam mumbled.

Snow laughed. "That, good sir, is an excellent question. I think maybe because he was one of the head scientists before the Feds broke up the human experimentation program. Their spies, Sirens, had infiltrated and deemed the program illegal."

"You don't know?"

"Nah. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, in the mountains. My parents hated me, because I was born with this." She held her hand out, letting a small flame appear. "They feared I'd kill him. Though they didn't know the actual extent of my power. So when The Church came and got me, I went without a fight. Been here for two years. I was in another facility for a year or so. Probably a little longer."

"That's awful." Adam whispered.

Snow shrugged. "I actually think if they hadn't taken me, my father would have taken a gun to me and killed me. I learned at a young age from a gypsy in my town how to reserve my power in case something like that happened. So that way, I could actually build up enough to break out."

The trio didn't say anything after that. After what seemed like an eternity, Ean heard a car approach. The engine was all too familiar. "Rescue is here." He grinned. "Can you get up?" He asked Adam.

"Yeah. Cay won't be too happy."

"She'll live."

Snow followed, hiding behind the two males. A large black car skid to a stop in front of them. Two people were in the front, the driver jumped out of the car, rounding the front and stopping in front of them.

Snow immediately recognized him. "Valentine?"

"Oh, hey. About time you broke out."

"What the hell are you doing here?"

He grinned, his gray eyes shining. "Daddy dearest doesn't know. He sent me to burn a city of children. He's going to get a report my team tripped an alarm and the place blew up and I went with it."

"But, that doesn't make sense and to why you're here!"

"You'll find out soon enough. I'm a spy. My mother was a Siren. That's all you need to know for now." He turned to look at Ean. "Get in guys. Rian is getting impatient."

The passenger was another male Snow knew as Constantine, or Con, as Valentine lovingly referred to him as. Con was Valentine's partner, the man he trusted the most. The other male's white hair was disheveled and had black in it. Snow realized they'd been the ones to blow up the town. And she guessed they're probably evacuated whomever they could, or probably everyone before torching it.

"You two are kidding me." She glared at the back of Con's head.

"Nope. What Father Gaius doesn't know won't kill him. It's not like he was planning on keeping Val around for much longer anyway."

Valentine just shrugged. "It had to happen sooner or later. My father noticed I was gifted like you Snow. Illusions, and linking. That's what I can do. I can cause people so much pain and link thousands to feel the same pain. It's powerful. But I wasn't pure like him."

"That's without all those...installations I guess you could call them." Con said. He looked up from the tablet he was holding. "I'm pretty useless on the power scale. Just some low-level healing. That's about it. I'm better with combat."

"Cayleigh and Constantine keep our infirmary down to three people at almost any given time. Unless there's been some skirmish or fight. Usually it's people who are sick or stressed."

Constantine didn't respond. Valentine was watching the road. He'd turned around and headed back in the direction he'd come from, passing by the front entrance of the gate. The mansion was now on fire.

"They've been discovered. Can't keep the place with as much equipment as they've got in there."

"Back to one of the bunkers, I'd imagine. Gaius is sort of dumb. He'll get back to downtown Andromeda and a lovely little letter will be waiting for him. One of the rats of his that tagged along delivered the message. The rat will be dead by tonight. Poisoning, it'll be ruled a suicide." Valentine's voice was soft, but there was an edge that hinted and the anger and hate for his father.

Ean and Adam were both asleep. Adam looked to still be in pain, but nowhere near as much as before. He was breathing through his mouth, as it likely hurt to breathe through his broken nose. How it got broken, Snow wasn't sure. She had to guess the metal Icarus had thrown also hit his nose.

Nearly two hours later, they arrived at Grace City. It was one of the first places Gaius ever burnt. But it looked like the residents were slowly rebuilding. The gate house was reinforced with steel, and a gruff man opened the door to look at the vehicle before sighing and waving Valentine through.

He drove through the streets slowly, getting dirty looks from several people. He parked in front of a large, Victorian style mansion before cutting the engine and grinned. "Welcome home, guys! Rian will be happy you're back."

Ean drug himself from the car and was promptly greeted by a small female with flaming red hair. She smacked him and he flinched. She said something to him, but Snow didn't catch it. Two men pulled an unconscious Adam from the van and loaded him onto a stretcher.

Constantine had exited the car and placed himself next to Snow. "That's Cayleigh. She's a lot friendlier than she seems. Ean and Adam are destructive and dangerous."

Snow looked up at the white haired male. "That doesn't really shock me."

Con smirked. "We'd best get you to her before she hits Ean again. Rian won't be happy if he has more injuries than we reported."