“WHERE IS SHE?” He growled, hauling Conor up by the front of his sleep shirt, causing the young man to stare in disbelief as he was suddenly dropped roughly on his bed. “Jane, where is she?!”
“What? I don’t… What?” Conor asked, blinking and then cursing loudly as his cousin grabbed him by the hair and dragged frog marched him out into the hall, to the very obviously empty room that Jane had been in earlier that day.
“Where is she!” He growled again, letting the younger man go with a shove toward the open door. “I swear to god, if you don’t spill it now, I’m the least of your ******** worries.” Mathias growled, arms crossed over his wide chest.
“I don’t ******** KNOW!” Conor shouted back, waving his arms angrily in front of him, “She didn’t tell me she was planning any of this!”
“BULLSHIT!” Mathias bellowed. “Talk or so ******** help him…”
---
“Mathias…” Imara said from the corner of Jane’s room. Clearly she had been going through things trying to piece together any information. Her voice was cloaked in ice yet her eyes blazed with fire as she came forward and stood directly in front of Conor. Glaring into his eyes, she held them for a moment.
“Conor...you have 5 seconds to tell us everything you told you. Otherwise you are going to learn why Mathias is a General even without his powers.” Imara backed up, reaching under Jane’s pillow and pulling out the bag of weed with a small note on it saying ‘Sorry. Can’t owe favors’ with a smily face on it.
“One….Two…” Each word became stronger as she walked forward and punched the bag into Conor’s chest.
---
Conor had to admit to a small level of disappointment when the baggy was slammed into his chest. The note had been a nice touch, but the look that Imara gave him caused his blood to run cold, only to run even colder when the implied threat was dropped at his feet. He swallowed for a moment, his fingers clutching the bag as he looked between the two adults.
Imara made it to four before he finally dropped his gaze and let out a long, low sigh. “I don’t know where she is. I swear, by god and all the saints, I don’t know where she went. I didn’t even know that she was planning to leave tonight.”
“But you know she was planning to leave?” Mathias growled, voice accusing.
“N… Yes… I even offered to help her slip out, but apparently she isn’t much of a team player,” He said with a dry laugh.
“You have nothing to be laughing about, Conor. You should have told us she was planning to run. Now she’s out there, with no idea about her powers and liable to get herself hurt, or worse…”
“Oh, no worries about that! I told her how to power up, so she’ll be able to defend herself if she has to!” Conor chimed in, smug as could be.
“... Conor, you are a ******** idiot. There was a reason why Imara and I haven’t let you all power up. When we’re powered we can detect the enemy… The enemy can also detect us. Oh, and just like I’m stronger than Imara and you, we have enemies who are equal to my strength. What is Jane going to do when she runs into someone twice her strength and out for blood?” Mathias’ voice was flat.
“Run? Power down?” Conor added. “I… Really don’t see the problem here, she didn’t sign up for this and she’s a strong girl she’ll handle herself…” Though his tone was starting to fade.
“That’s not the point Conor. I recruited her to save her life, she has to pay that debt back… Furthermore, I wasn’t kidding about the Negaverse not being kind to rogues… If you think I’m bad, the people who take care of our wayward brethren are even worse…”
Conor swallowed again and looked down at his feet, unable to come up with a rebuttal.
---
“Conor…” Imara didn’t look back at him as she stood, gazing out the open window. “They will kill her on sight. The Negaverse knows almost everything about its members so that if one does go rogue, they will make sure they pay even if they can’t get their hands on her. The same…” Now she spun slightly and looked. “Goes for you. Think your family in Ireland is safe? Think again.”
Now she walked back towards him. “And if a White Moon gets her…” Finally she looked now at Mathias. Her jaw was set but shaking. “There is a reason I haven’t started training her. Jane’s body can’t take it. She’s not strong enough to handle things and if some how something hit one of her wounds…”
“Mathias, he’s your flesh and blood…” She finally said, her hands in fists.
---
Conor’s face drained of color completely. “What… the actual… ********.” He said, looking between the two of them. “You two have gone and lost your damn minds, that’s what I think! The hell, you two, threatening my family and s**t… That’s ******** low.”
“This isn’t a game, Conor,” Mathias said coldly. “Lives are at stake here. Lives have been lost in this war before, on both sides. Blood will be spilled and if you give one lick of care about Jane’s well being you’ll tell us where she is or… well... “ He shrugged. “You’ll just have to live with the fact that your silence cost her her life.”
At Imara’s statement that he was his flesh and blood, Conor took a step back. “I can’t just… disappear, you can’t just ******** kill me!”
“You could have a very unfortunate accident, Conor. Wild dogs and all.” Mathias said in a cold tone. “This is your last chance…”
“Look! Look… I don’t know where she is alright, she didn’t tell me where she was going only that she planned to go. Alright? That’s god’s own truth!”
Mathias paused for a moment and looked to Imara. “Power up, and go find her.” He growled.
“What?! She could be ANYWHERE in the city by now!” Conor blurted, looking at Imara. “I could look for a week and not find her!”
“If she powered up you’ll find her by tracking the signature’s that feel chaotic and dark, you’ll get used to. Avoid the bright ones, those are White Moon and they will try to kill you.” Mathias said flatly. “Best get started.”
Conor swore and turned to look to Imara. “He’s… he’s joking right?”
---
Imara said nothing as she turned her eyes to gaze back at Conor. A look that dripped with death faced him.
The woman was as animalistic as the creatures she hunted. It made her stronger and better at her passion. She could think like a preditor. She could be top of the food chain.
Without a word, she walked out of Jane's room and down the hall, slamming the master bedroom door behind her.
She hopped the message was clear as she punched the cursed wall.
---
Conor sat there dumbfounded, unable to process what was going on. He was going to blame his lack of sleep, he was tired and groggy and how had they even figured out Jane had slipped out. It wasn’t like she’d needed the meds anymore, her wound had been almost healed completely. There wasn’t any reason for them to check up on her unless…
Unless things had been too quiet? Maybe, he didn’t know, it’s not like he’d gone to bug Jane after dinner like he sometimes did, and if he had he might have…
“Conor!” Mathias barked, and the young man jumped back into reality. “Power up and find Jane. Don’t come back until you do, or so help me…”
Conor sighed and he focused on the other form. “********… FINE! I’ll go look, okay!” He hissed, moving to his room to toss the baggy onto his bed before his form shifted and then turning and heading out the front door.
Mathias glowered after his retreating back, his form converting to Leucite’s as he went to the door.
“Imara, I’m heading to Negaspace, If Conor’s not back within the hour I’m going to try to teleport Jane to me there.”
It was the best he could do, given the circumstances. “We’ll find her, I promise.”
---
The door opened and she stood glaring at death at the General. She truly was the only person who could confront him like this and not die.
“And what am I supposed to do? Sit here and knit!” She was angry and upset. Being still when she was clearly was not easy for her even if logic told her someone had to be there.
“How could she do this! How could she think she could get away with this…” Imara mumbled, throwing her hands up. “When we find her….” she walked past him. “I should be going after her. I can track better than any of them. Why did you send him...ANSWER ME!” Imara screamed turning to face him.
---
Leucite weathered her screaming and shouting, her anger and her glare. This was probably the worst rage he’d seen her in, barring scant few moments in the early days of their relationship. Even so, it hurt him to see her so upset. He knew why he did it. Why he sent Conor over her. He just hoped she’d understand his reasoning.
“I sent him because he needs to learn his actions, or inaction, has consequences,” Leucite said calmly. “Not only that, but if you go after her, you’re just the warden coming down to clamp the chains on her again. She’ll try to bolt again. He’s a peer. If he comes to her because we sent him, he has a chance to convince her to come back.”
A part of him knew that he should send her out there as well for back up, but somebody did need to watch the fort in case Conor came back with Jane. Grinding his teeth, he watched her. “Go, follow him. Make sure they don’t get themselves killed, or worse, captured. I’ll watch the fort and if you’re not back in an hour I can pull you and her back to me in Negaspace… Conor can walk home.”
He had no love for his cousin in that moment. He was causing Imara pain, and there was no one on that planet that was allowed to do that. Himself included. He knew he needed to let her go, to tail Conor. She’d not forgive him if he didn’t.
---
For an instant, Imara turned on her heels to head for the back door. A quick change and she would be gone, tracking the foolish child until she brought them both home.
But then she stopped.
Standing there in the hallway, Imara’s red eyes glared holes into the floor and what she said was clearly through gritted teeth. “No. You are right…” Spinning back around, she looked at him with a blank stare. “Head to Negaspace Leucite. Yank their asses back to you if you have to. I...can’t...go after them.” They were to be trained. They were to be weapons of the Negaverse and to do that, they had to learn. If Wardite sensed her tracking him, she worried he would fail even worse.
This once they had to find themselves. “If this is what it means to be a leader, I’m glad you are the General and not me.”
---
Leucite closed the space between them quickly, but not so quickly as to be hard to see. He reached down and lifted Imara’s face up, and leaning down, he planted a soft kiss to her forehead. “You’ll learn, in time.” He said softly. “But the choices never get easier, just a heads up.”
With that, he took a step back, and he sighed. “I’ll have them back within the hour, in one piece. If Wardite beats me home, call me, and I will return.”
And there would be hell to pay for this. Most assuredly. With that, he teleported out, leaving Imara to hold down the fort.
---
Torvil
