by Dan Wingreen
He holds himself the same way Lee does.
So. This was a hunter, then.
The lines in the man's face deepened as he smiled. "Aidan Collins and the mysterious Man in Black. Although, maybe not so 'in black' right now…" He glanced up and down at them, taking in their colored hair and ridiculous shirts with unconcealed amusement. "It's so nice to finally meet you both in person. I believe you already know Officers Barnes and Bryce, and since you do, I don't think I need to explain Barnes' rudeness. But in the spirit of what I hope will be the same politeness we'll be showing each other from now on, I will apologize for it." He paused. Then, when it became obvious nobody was going to say anything, he added, "Do you accept?"
They stayed silent. Without trying to be too obvious, Aidan looked around, trying to figure out some way they could get away. They couldn't fight their way through. Even if the hunter wasn't there, there were too many agents. The shield would probably last long enough for them to cut through the floor, but they were already in the basement and unless there was another, even more secret basement under that one, there was nothing below them but rock and dirt. Despair rose inside Aidan. Fighting and running were their only two options and they couldn't do either one.
"Hmm." The hunter studied them. "Do you know what the most frustrating thing about my job is?"
He didn't seem surprised when neither one of them answered.
"People only ever talk when I don't want them to." He smiled again, which didn't exactly make him seem like he was frustrated. Actually, he looked kind of pleased about it. Aidan could feel Lee's slow, steady breathing on the back of his head pick up slightly.
"It's lucky that my daddy always taught me to turn a negative into a positive, or else this job might have driven me crazy years ago." He hooked his thumbs through the loops on his dusty, beat-up jeans. "Would you like to know how I turned that negative into a positive?"
This time he didn't wait for an answer.
"I learned to enjoy making people want to talk."
A chill ran through Aidan. It was Anwir all over again.
"Now, of course, the easiest way to make someone want to talk is…" He trailed off as his eyes slid from Lee to Aidan. They didn't stay on Aidan for very long, though. Instead they focused on what Aidan was lying on top of.
"Oh," the hunter said quietly. "Is that what I think it is?"
Fear shot through Aidan. He saw Excalibur! That couldn't be good. Even though he had no idea how they could possibly get out of this, he knew that he had to hide the sword from the hunter.
"No," Aidan said quickly.
"Yep," Lee said at the exact same time.
Aidan snapped his head around as best as he could with Lee still lying on top of him and shot him a panicked, disbelieving look.
"Don't move," Lee whispered to him. Then, louder, he said, "Unless you're thinkin’ that it ain't Excalibur and it's just some normal, everyday old sword, of course."
A ripple of unease seemed to flow through the crowd of agents. For the first time, they took their eyes off Lee and Aidan to exchange nervous looks.
Only the two officers and the hunter seemed unsurprised.
They already knew!
"Don't let that distract you though," Lee said. "I think you were goin' on about the best way of gettin’ people to talk, or some such? You can finish, if you want."
The hunter blinked, then tore his eyes away from the sword. He opened his mouth to speak, but Lee cut him off.
"Unless what you were getting’ at was torture, of course. Because, really; big ol' bad guy speech leading up to 'I'm just gonna be completely unoriginal and torture you'? Kind of a letdown after all them big words and intimidatin' casualness and such."
For some reason, Bryce looked incredibly amused.
"Actually," the hunter said evenly. "What I was going to say was that the best way to get someone to talk is to show them their loved ones suffering."
He looked purposefully at Aidan.
"Aye," Lee said softly. "That's what I thought you were gettin' at."
"Now," the hunter went on, "I could tell you that I don't enjoy inflicting pain, that I'd like to remain civilized and keep our conversation, as one-sided as it might be, going for as long as possible. That would be a lie. I don't want to lie to you, Mr Man-in-Black; it sets a precedent, and I'd rather we be truthful with each other right from the start. I enjoy pain, because it gets results. And that's really all I care about in the end. The results. I will do whatever it takes to get them, including waiting right here until your shield runs out. Because it will, and when it does, this conversation will move into its next stage. You will be hit with a dozen stun spells and then you'll watch as I skin your precious wizard alive right in front of you."
The hunter smiled. "Of course, I'm making this out to be unavoidable, but really it’s not. Sometimes, it doesn't need to go that far. Sometimes people are smart enough to realize that I'm not lying or bluffing, and sometimes those very same people decide to spare their loved ones unnecessary pain by telling me everything I want to know."
Lee was right about one thing, the hunter had intimidating casualness down to an art, even if his threats were spoken anything but casually. There was a gravity to the hunter’s words that was completely at odds with his body language, a seriousness that underlined what he was saying and left no doubt he meant every word. Maybe casual was the wrong word, but he was unconcerned. Like what Aidan and Lee decided didn't matter to him at all because, either way, he'd get the outcome he wanted. He was the very picture of confident control.
Except, Aidan noted, for his eyes.
They couldn't stay still. The hunter tried to fix Lee with an implacable stare, but every few seconds those steely eyes darted back to Aidan. Back to Excalibur. Seeing the sword bothered him, Aidan realized suddenly.
"So, what do you say? Will you lower your shield so we can talk?" The hunter’s smile faded. "Or are you going to make me wait?"
Aidan wished he could read Lee's mind, or at least look at him to try and get some idea of what he was thinking. He was frozen, though, completely and utterly. All the time he spent practicing his spells and telling himself he was going to be useful was, in the end, totally worthless. When it really mattered, Aidan failed.
"So that's it then? There ain't no third choice?" Lee asked.
The hunter's eyes narrowed slightly. "No. And I assure you, any other choice you think might exist is really just an extension of choice number one."
Lee chuckled. Aidan wouldn't have been able to tell if he hadn't heard so much normal laughter from him, but it sounded forced, strained. "See, that's the problem with government thinking right there. It's two-dimensional.”
Aidan’s breath caught in his throat.
"There's always a third choice.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Aidan saw Lee make a sharp gesture with two of his fingers. The shield turned opaque.
"Wha—" Aidan started.
"Quiet, we ain't got time." As if on cue, Aidan heard the hunter order the agents to bring down the shield and then the dull, rapid thuds as spells began to hit. Lee pushed himself off Aidan and then pulled him up so that they were on their knees facing each other. Aidan somehow managed to keep Excalibur gripped tightly in his hand. "When you get back, don't wait around. Get everything you need packed and get in the carriage."
"What are you—"
"Listen!" Lee grabbed Aidan's shoulders. "You need to get to Arthur. If you can't remember exactly where he is, the scroll's in the case under the back seat. It shouldn't be too hard to find it. When you get there, all you're needin’ to do is touch him with the sword. That's it. Just a bit of metal on his body, you don't even need bare skin, and he'll wake up. It ain't hard, so don't worry about it."
"Lee—"
"But you can't stop till you get there, okay? They knew about the bloody sword so they might know about where Arthur is too. Don't take more'n a couple hours of sleep and stay off the Highways. You gotta—"
"Lee!" Aidan yelled. "What are you talking about? Why are you telling me this? We're stuck behind a shield—"
"My power, remember?" Lee said.
Aidan's eyes widened. He'd completely forgotten about that. He let out a shaky, relieved laugh. "You can get us out of here!" He grinned. "I can't believe I—" He shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Forget what I said before. Just do it."
Lee gave him a pained look. "Aidan… I—"
"We don't have time," Aidan cut him off. Already parts of the white shield were starting to turn an unhealthy purplish color. "Just get us out of here."
"I can't bloody get us anywhere!" Lee shouted.
Aidan frowned. "But you said—"
"I can't get us anywhere," he said again, looking Aidan in the eye. "I can only teleport one person."
"But…" Aidan worked his mouth, but he couldn't force himself to say anything.
Lee's grip tightened on his shoulders. "I'm sorry."
He could see tears glistening in Lee's eyes and that more than anything made what he was saying real.
Aidan felt the world drop out from under him.
"You said we could… You said our escape route! You said it would take both of us!"
But even as he said it, he knew that wasn't entirely true. The entire conversation flashed through his head, and he couldn't remember a single time when Lee specifically said they'd both be able to use it.
Lee smiled sadly. "Guess I ain't so bad at lyin' after all, am I?"
Aidan shook his head. "No. No! This…" He jumped as a particularly loud spell struck the shield. More than half of it was dark purple now. "You can't do this."
"You'll do fine," Lee said. "It ain't ever been me what didn't have faith in you. I knew from the second I met you that you were something special, and everything I seen since then just proved it true. You can wake Arthur. You can help him save this country. I ain't got any doubts about that."
"That's not what I mean!" Aidan screamed. "What about you? What about—" He choked on a sob. "What's going to happen to you?"
"It doesn't matter," Lee said. "All that matters is you bein' safe."
No. Nonononono!
Aidan knew exactly what that meant. Lee could give all the bullshit non-answers he wanted, but Aidan knew he was expecting to die.
"No!" Aidan shouted. He shoved Lee's hands off his shoulders with his free hand. "It does matter! It matters to me!"
Please don't do this!
"I'm sorry we didn't have more time together." Lee's voice caught on the last word and the tears in his eyes started to fall silently down his cheeks. "I'd have loved to have shown you off to him." A faint smile pulled at his lips.
At that moment, Aidan could see his entire life laid out before him. It wasn't a vision of prophecy, but that didn't matter, he could see it just as clearly. No matter what Lee said, Aidan couldn't do this without him. Not just Arthur and the government, but everything. Walking, breathing: life. He never realized it until that moment, but every thought he'd had about the future, every hope and dream and impossible wish, had one thing in common.
Lee.
He couldn't even think of a future that didn't have Lee in it. It didn't matter if he was terrified to give it a name or to say it out loud; he felt it all the same. He was so hung up on the word, on the definition of love, on being sure, that he'd never realized he already felt it. It was in the way he laughed at Lee's stupid teasing or blushed at his compliments. It was the way just smelling his singed, beat-up jacket could make Aidan happy. It was in the way he kissed him, and the way they'd made love. It was in the way he was scared to feel it, because deep down he knew it was already too late; a life without Lee would tear out his heart. All the justifications, true or not, couldn't change the simple, blindingly obvious fact that Aidan was completely and utterly in love.
He loved Lee.
And now he was about to lose him.
Aidan needed to tell him, but before he could, Lee was kissing him. It was hard and bruising.
A last kiss goodbye.
"I ain't sorry," Lee whispered. "I wouldn't trade a second I had with you for another thousand years of being alive."
The shield was completely purple now and it was starting to shake with the strain of holding back so many spells. They were out of time. Lee's eyes lit up with an unearthly green glow. It was the exact same way they'd lit up in the Shaman's yurt when he'd almost lost control, and Aidan suddenly realized what that meant.
He was about to use his power.
No!
"Lee!" Aidan shouted. There were so many things he wanted to say, but if this was going to be the last thing he ever said to him then there was only one thing that mattered. "I l—"
Lee's eyes flashed, and Aidan felt a tug from inside his chest like a hand closing around his magic and giving a sharp yank. Lee's face, the collapsing shield, Aidan's own anguished voice, everything blinked away into total blackness, and then he was back in the hotel.
"—ove you," he finished, staring at the crystal ball on the nightstand, still covered with Lee's shirt.
Aidan’s hand clenched tightly around Excalibur, but he barely noticed the sword of legend.
Lee was gone. And he never knew how Aidan felt about him.
Aidan collapsed onto the symbol Lee had drawn on the floor, the sword falling from his hand with a dull clang, and began to cry.
Chapter 4
Noah scowled as he stalked through the halls of the White House. If there had been anyone around to see him besides a few random teams of DMS agents searching the building for terrorists hiding in closets, he might have been upset with himself for letting the mask slip. As it was, he barely noticed the way the agents would only look at him out of the corner of their eyes, or how they quickly looked away and hurried on when they saw the expression on his face. Word had traveled fast that there was a hunter in the capitol, and while most DMS agents only knew of hunters as rumors and whispers, the chosen few who served at the White House itself knew all too well how real they were and, more importantly, exactly how much leeway they had with a law that already applied a little less equally to government officials than most others.
They knew to be scared when a hunter looked furious.
Of course, the key sentiment in that observation was that he looked furious. The set of his lips, pressed together so hard they turned white; the way his eyes flared with emotion, even narrowed as they were; his quick, purposeful walk; all of it combined to make an astonishingly convincing display of fury. Especially for a man so used to only showing what he wanted others to see. The only problem was, he wasn't actually furious.
Instead, Noah was…vexed. Discomfited, even.
The Prime Minister had refused to see him, and he couldn't understand why.
It made no sense, no matter how he turned it over in his head. Every single mysterious note had come from the Prime Minister's desk. The last one, the one that had told him Aidan Collins and the man in black would be coming to the White House's nonexistent basement—to steal Excalibur of all things—had come to him on a specially spelled carrier pigeon, for Merlin's sake! Spelling animals was notoriously difficult and tended more towards making a mess than actual success, which only made him more certain his mysterious messenger wasn't just someone working in the Prime Minister's office, but the Prime Minister himself, since the man was known for his affinity with animal casting.
So why would he refuse to even speak with Noah?
It wasn't that Noah was expecting a medal, or even a handshake. He'd failed in his mission, quite spectacularly actually, since not only did one of the terrorists get away with Excalibur, but he didn't even have the first idea where to start looking for him.
Noah still didn't understand what had happened. It couldn't have taken them more than two minutes to destroy the shield and yet in that time Aidan Collins had literally disappeared into thin air, sword and all. If nothing else, he needed to at least give a report on his failure so they could
take that into account when they organized a search or called in another hunter. He didn't expect to live, he didn't deserve to live, but his information and experiences during the hunt needed to be passed on.
And yet…nothing. No reprimand, no execution, no further orders. He couldn't even get past the secretary.
"Are we allowed to leave yet?"
Noah stopped mid-stride, pulled out of his thoughts by the incredibly unwelcome drawl of Officer Bryce. He clenched his jaw, then slowly forced his face into a neutral expression before turning around. Bryce was leaning against the wall next to the row of chairs Noah had just walked past, outside the White House's private DMS office. Barnes was next to him, sitting in one of those chairs and looking very uncomfortable.
"Why are you asking me?" Noah asked. It came out mildly, even though all Noah wanted to do right then was rip out Bryce's throat so he could get to his destination without any more delays. The two officers were supposed to be getting debriefed by the Department and they should have been sent on their way hours ago.
"Because we're apparently still assigned to you," Bryce answered, a trace of frustration slipping into his voice. "They won't let us go anywhere until you dismiss us."
Noah blinked slowly, the only outward sign of the confusion raging inside him. He'd been on his way to the cells in a last, desperate attempt to gain some scrap of useful information he could pass on before he was arrested or executed for his failure. Something he could use to atone. If the officers were still under his command, though…
"You've both been debriefed, then?" he asked.
"No," Bryce said, curling his lip. "They said that debriefings only occur after a mission is over and refused to talk to us. Or let us go anywhere past the bathroom. We've been here for three hours waiting for you to tell us we can go home."
