A Lonely Road

The Things We Didn't Know

Jace lunged forward, catching her by surprise as he pressed his mouth to hers roughly. "Thank god," he said, and he could feel her smirk against his skin. "I thought I was the only one, you're so beautiful, like weirdly pretty and I just- I love the person that you are. I love you."

"Jace, you're word vomiting," she mumbled against his lips.

He felt her relax at his admission, and the press of her body against his was going to kill him, it felt too good, and he groaned low in his throat when she took her mouth from his to press kisses against his jaw. But just as quickly at it began, Kaelie was pulling away and he pouted at her.

"Don't give me that look, Jace. We both know if we kept at it, we wouldn't be stopping, and I am not fucking you while your mom- who has known me since birth and seen me naked- is downstairs. Sorry, not sorry." He choked on his own spit at her crude language, and she had the audacity to laugh out loud before she gave him one more lingering kiss.

"Come on, lover, you need to go talk to your mother." And just like that he felt his anger rolling back through his veins. He understood now why his mom lied the way she did, but he couldn't help but feel betrayed after all they had been through together. Begrudgingly, he followed Kaelie out of his room and down the stairs, where his mom sat with his friends- they had to be now- eating sandwiches and laughing at stories of childhood in the lab, before the dark days.

"I had a footprint on my face for three days," Michael was saying and Sarah was clutching her side as she laughed.

"I tried to tell you that water isn't wet, and you didn't want to listen, so really it's your fault," Lilith said. Weirdos, all of them, Jace thought to himself.

Ben started to speak, but Kaelie cut him off, saying "Water cannot be wet, wet is the adjective they use to describe water, fire burns but it is not of itself, burnt, water wets things, but it is not wet, it's water."

"You're kidding?" Jace said, and she turned on him next. "No, I agree with you, but I'm just saying, Lilith you really kicked Michael in the face for that?"

"He deserved it," she and Kaelie said in unison, laughing before high fiving each other.

"Hey, Ms. Dae, can I grab a soda?" she asked, releasing Jace's hand to head into the kitchen. His mother nodded at her, and then fixed her eyes on Jace.

"She told you?" she asked.

"Everything," he said.

"And?" she said.

Jace blew his breath out between his teeth. "I don't like it, and I'm not happy with it, but- I understand. I get why it had to be that way. But mom, you really work for these people?"

His mom sighed, brown eyes filling with regret. "I'm not proud of it, Jace. Before this, before what they did to these guys, the Illusion weren't bad. They got greedy, and that makes people do some pretty cruel things. By the time I figured out what the Hunters were made to do, it was too late. I had you to think about, and your dad was sick. I couldn't afford to leave, and besides, I would be dead the second they tried. I took us here because I knew Kaelie was here, and I knew that her and Michael, Sarah, Lilith, they would keep you safe from the Illusion's soldiers when I couldn't. And they have. I'm sorry, Jace, for lying to you, but a mother has to make the hard choices sometimes."

Jace leaned into her embrace, realizing how much he'd missed her, her soft smile and hanging out with her. His mom was one of his best friends. "Guys?" Ben said. "Sorry to break into your moment and all, but where is Kaelie? Wasn't she just getting a soda?"

Jace's heart dropped, blood turned to ice in his veins, and they rushed the kitchen. It was empty. The back door was open, the breeze played through the opening. Kaelie was gone. "Damnit," he spat viciously. Michael walked to the door, inspecting in, the floor, the counter.

Suddenly, he let out a terse laugh. "Gotta hand it to her, she doesn't crack under pressure. Look," he said, point to the wooden door jamb. On the wood, freshly carved was a letter I, and a small smudge of blood, still wet. "She's telling us who took her and where she went. Ms. Dae, do you know where the base of operations is? That has to be where they took her, but I don't know what they'd want from her other than to kill her, and they could have done that here."

"Well, it's kind of obvious, isn't it?" Jace said, and they turned to look at him, confused. "Well, I mean, when you guys escaped, they tortured you, didn't they? Kaelie told me about it. I'm sure that beyond punishing you, they were trying to get you to tell them my mother was the one that helped you? They took her to get to her to get us to go after her, so they can kill all of us, and not have to worry about exposure."

"We can't just leave her there!" Lilith exclaimed.

"I never said that," Jace said. "I can't. We need Kaelie, I need Kaelie. But I'm assuming that going there isn't going to be easy, we can't just waltz into the Illusion's base and expect to get out unscathed."

"Oh, we know that," Sarah said. "But we have to. We don't leave our family behind. We knew this was going to come, we just thought there would be more time to prepare. We need to take down that base, as much as we can, or this just keeps going. Get ready."

"I'm going with you," Jace's mom said. "Don't look at me like that, you need my help to get in. I'm going."

"This is all very mysterious and everything, and I appreciate the effort to be authentic but we all know I know who you are, so I don't think the bag on my head is strictly necessary," Kaelie said as she was forced roughly into a chair, her wrists tied tightly behind her back.

"Do you ever shut up?" a man said in her ear and she gagged as the smell of his breath wafted to her nose.

"Rarely," she retorted, and the cover on her eyes was ripped off, and she was in a small room on one side of an old mahogany desk. Her head whipped towards the door as she heard the doorknob jiggle, and then the door was thrown open. Two men in dark suits entered first, and the other had her fighting to contain her shock. She kept her expression neutral as he took his seat on the other side of the desk.

"Kaelie, Kaelie, Kaelie," he singsonged. "You've been giving us quite the run around."

"What the hell are you doing here? Why are you involved with these disgusting piles of human waste? I thought the U.N. disbanded them." Carefully, she worked her hands out of the ropes as she talked, part of her Hunter training, and she was honestly surprised that they hadn't thought of that, knowing what she was.

"They did. But some years back I was approached by Ms. Rose, the president of the organization, as you know, who had some very compelling information. She told me she could create better Hunters, but she needed funding, if I complied, I would be the sole owner of said technology. There would be no war I wouldn't win, and I would be in control of everything. The U.N is failing, and soon there won't be a need for it. If one country was in control, and everyone else complied, there would be no more need for death and war."

"Oh, so basically, you're telling me your plan is world domination? Seriously?" Kaelie sneered. "Well, here's what I have to say to that: Fuck you, Mr. President." And then she lunged.