by Martha Woods
"I'm here because I owe you. I'm the one who dragged you into this world, who threw this curse down on you, it's my obligation to tell you what you can do to not die, so that some good can come of it. I... I missed every part of your life, and that's on me. And maybe... Maybe something can happen here, something that isn't just a part of senseless killing and fighting, maybe you can give me something to look forward to. But you haven't seen what kind of person I am, the things that I'm capable of, so I don't think you should consider a future with me in it until you see that."
"You're my mother! I don't-"
"I'm a monster. Me being your mother doesn't change that." Skylar was beginning to shake, her mother stepped forward, sweeping her into her arms. "I'm going to train you, and I'm going to help you fight, and if you still want me in your life after all of this then I will happily take that place. But if you don't... If you want me to leave and never come back... Then I'll respect that."
Skylar buried her head into Leila's shoulder, fists bunching up the fabric of her jacket while she sniffled, "I want you to be there after this... I want a mother again..."
The older woman shook her head, emotion clouding her own voice when she replied, "We'll see Skylar... We'll see..."
* * *
Liam sat by the cars, thumbing through each of the photographs that Cayden had provided him, already working out where possible prey could be. It had been too long since he had indulged himself like this, too long since he had let his baser instincts take over, letting the beast inside rather than the man outside lead him. He had suppressed those parts of him as the years had gone on, trying to live life as a civilized man of his own choosing, rather than the Alpha that his father had so vehemently stated he was destined to be. He had met Skylar in that time, so there was even more reason to hide this part of his nature away, the love of his life not needing to see just how much of a wild beast he could be.
But now she was gone, they were both gone, so there was no reason to hide himself any longer.
Cayden's contacts were kind enough to give information on what individual members of the group they could, and while it wasn't all of them there were more than enough to start making plans on what to do. He could see them all in front of them, his hands shuffling photos around and ranking them on how much of a threat they could be versus how useful they could be, he was furious and eager for blood, but he knew that he had been out of practice and they were still very dangerous. If it wasn't for his wife's sacrifice their entire group would be dead, and he was not going to allow something like that to happen ever again.
Michael and Hayley sat off to the side, watching him intently for any sign that he might break down or need their assistance, but so far none had come. "I think this really might be what he needed," Michael said, "Sure it might not be exactly what a psychiatrist would recommend, but they're big on the idea of closure right? I think he can find it this way."
"Well we'll have to watch him even more carefully then won't we?" Hayley tilted her head when he showed particular interest in one photograph over all. "We want to make sure that there is something for him and Abigail on the other side of his revenge, this whole thing is useless if all it does is make him more miserable."
"I'm not exactly keen on the idea of losing my brother either, so I'm with you on that. I'd rather see Christian go free than see my brother lose himself to violence forever." He shook his head, looking over at Hayley. "Does that make me a bad brother? That I'd let Skylar's murderer get away like that?"
Hayley took his hand, squeezing it between hers and pressing a kiss to the knuckles. "I think that's what makes you a good brother, that would be a hard decision to make. I'm not sure Liam would appreciate it but... But I think Skylar would, if she could see you doing it. She always was one to care more about other people than herself."
"She was, wasn't she? Even during the pregnancy, her first concern was to the baby and Liam, she always left herself to last." He waved at Farah when he saw her approaching, smiling widely. "She was a remarkable woman, I can't wait to kill someone for taking her away."
Hayley stood up, pulling Farah in and nuzzling her face into her hair. "Farah! It's been so long since we just spent time together hasn't it?"
Farah laughed, Hayley's nose tickling her cheek. "Calm down Hayley, I'm not going anywhere right now. We're going to be spending time on our field trip anyway."
"Field trip?" Hayley laughed incredulously, "That's a strange thing to call this, don't you think?"
"And why not? Cayden even prepared me a lunch to take along for the ride, that is something that people do on field trips, no?"
"I... I suppose you're right there." She threw an arm over Farah's shoulder, bringing her mouth close to her ear and whispering harshly, "At least you've got someone who'll make you a lunch."
"Trust me Hayley, I'm doing you a favor by not making you food." Michael squeezed her shoulder, kissing the skin underneath delicately. "Unless you feel like helping me cook a rabbit that I'll catch in the forest, because building a fire is about as much as I can bring myself to do before I just swallow it whole."
"Well when you put it that way I suppose I should be thankful for the bags of potato chips and the cans of soda we're bringing along, shouldn't I?"
"They are the marks of an advanced society, aren't they?" Farah smirked, hand slipping into her side bag. "If you want, I can share a little bit of lunch with you, as long as you share some soda with me."
"No need for that Farah!" They turned as Cayden joined them, bags weighing down his hands even as he pressed an easy kiss to Farah's cheek. "I couldn't sleep last night, so that gave me enough time to make a lunch for everyone. I hope you guys like them!" He pulled out a plastic bag, testing the weight before he turned over his shoulder, shouting over at Liam. "Liam! I know you didn't eat last night, here's something to make up for that!"
Liam looked up just in time to catch the bag before it hit his face, his first instinct to yell back killed the second he smelled what was inside the bag. "A porkchop sandwich? I haven't had one of these in years." He took a few cautious bites, the fat doing wonders to soak up the remains of his last drinking session, his head starting to feel better once his stomach had something inside of it for the first time that day.
"And that's what I live for," Cayden said, "That intense feeling of gratitude. So how are all of you doing? Have you buddied up? You need a partner just in case you get lost on the trip."
"God," Hayley rolled her eyes, chuckling, "You two really are perfect for each other."
"Of course we are, put two perfect people together and you get more perfection." Cayden chuckled, looking around the group once more. "If I'm not mistaken, then she should be... Ah, there she is."
The others followed his gaze, seeing Leah marching determinedly into the midst of their gathering group, stepping over strewn around bags and half organized materials to march directly up between Cayden and Liam. "Hello, I see that you're almost ready to leave."
"That we are, just wrapping up a few things before we pack it all up. Why's that?" He smiled, holding out another bag. "It looks like you've got something on your mind."
"I want to come along. I'm not going to just sit out like last time, that was a bad decision and I should have fought it more, but I won't give in this time."
Cayden looked around at everyone else, shrugging to himself and grinning. "I don't have any problems with that at all, does anyone else?" No one else raised any objections, even in the odd event that they had any all of them knew better than to say so. Leah was not a woman they wanted on their bad side. "How about you Liam? Do you have any objections?"
Liam looked up for a second from the files, chewing paused while he shot a look between the two of them. He shook his head, going back to reading. "Of course not, Skylar was her daughter. I'm not going to deny her the chance for a little of her own revenge, I'm not that selfish."
"Well, that settles it doesn't it?" Cayden shook the bag in his hand, Leah on
ly now realizing that it was for her. "Just go grab a seat somewhere while we wait for Cassandra, I'm sure she'll be thrilled that her best friend is coming along with us."
"What would you suggest that I do with Abigail then?" Leah pulled out her phone, going through several her contacts. "I have a few people that would be willing to take care of her in the meantime but..."
Hayley shook her head. "No, the safest thing for us to do would be to take her along with us."
"Into an almost literal war zone?" Farah was the first to speak, but she was far from the only one confused. "Doesn't that sound... Wrong?"
"I know it sounds that way but… Well just think about it, it's the same thing that happens in every movie ever. The heroes split apart for safety, they go and defeat the bad guys, and someone always comes back for the climax who's managed to kidnap their loved ones."
"That... Is usually a thing that happens, isn't it? I guess you might be onto something there." Michael clicked his tongue, "We should take extra care to keep her out of danger then, but at least we'll be able to keep an eye on her in case something does go wrong."
Leah was not quite convinced it was a good idea, turning and walking over to Liam. She tapped his shoulder, her son shaking out of his focus and looking up from the files which had so thoroughly absorbed his attention. "What do you think Liam? She's your daughter after all... I don't want to have to make the decision for you."
"She was taken from us even with two very powerful people protecting her, what hope would some random citizen have if one of Christian's men came knocking?" He nodded. "She'll come with us, at least then there's a hope that she might be able to stay safe. I wouldn't feel comfortable not knowing exactly how she is every minute of the day, I guess I've gotten pretty attached huh?"
"Oh please, don't try and play cool about this of all things, it's obvious how much you dote on her." Cassandra walked in, grabbing a bag of lunch from Cayden and wasting no time taking a bite out of her sandwich. "For the record, I think that the safest place for her to be is with us. Even if it wasn't just for her sake, her very existence puts a target on our backs, and it wouldn't be a good plan to extend that to the Pack or the Coven."
Leah grimaced. "I didn't think of that."
"You shouldn't have to, she's a baby. You should only have to be worried about whether or not she's putting things in her mouth that shouldn't be there, or if she's going from room to room drawing on the walls. You shouldn't have to worry about some genocidal madman coming and attempting to kill her for circumstances she wasn't responsible for nor has any way of fixing." She hummed at the taste of the sandwich, extending it to Leah. "Do you want some? It's pretty good."
"I... No, I have my own, thank you." Leah sniffed the air, finally looking down at the bag. "Oh my, this does smell good."
"So, what are we doing here then?" The witch looked around at the two cars, bags still on their sides next to them. "It doesn't exactly look like we're in a ready state to leave right now, does it?"
"We were waiting for you, wanted to see if you had any last-minute advice for us to give."
She looked at Michael blankly, eyebrow slowly raising as she looked between the group and the cars. "Well I suppose my last-minute advice would be to get those bags into the cars."
"Mm..." Cayden put his finger in the air while he chewed on the last mouthful, stepping forward. "Before all that I wanted to make sure everyone was on board with the plan. Can't have anyone not knowing what they need to do when they need to do it."
"Well get on with it then." Cassandra wrapped her arms around her waist, her thick petticoat barely keeping out the cold. "This weather is freezing, and I don't want to sit out here for much longer."
The rest of them chuckled, moving into a loose circle around Cayden and Liam, the latter still paying attention to every piece of information that he could set his eyes on. He had an idea of how Cayden worked, he would have no problem picking up the rest of the details.
"Right, well as you all know I'm a hunter, and contrary to the fact that Liam and his brother are still here, I'm actually a pretty good one too." He picked up a loose file sitting next to the pile that Liam had already read through, holding it up for everyone else to see. "What you all might not be fully aware of is that I used to work with Christian, I know how he works and what he plans to do, but that does not mean that he is cornered. He still has a considerable following and a good amount of resources, so we're going to have to be more precise about the way we hit him."
"So, we can't finish him off the same way we did with Sarconi?"
"No, you saw what..." Cayden looked over at Liam, who only nodded in somber acknowledgement. "You saw what happened last time. No, what we need to do is take away the very foundation he's standing on, leave him helpless with no one to help him. Then we can take our time with him, make sure that he never gets away ever again." He laid the contents of the file in front of everyone, pointing to what looked like a normal, nondescript building. "He has a safe house here. He's not going to be using it, apparently he already passed through two weeks ago, but that doesn't mean these people wouldn't be of use to him if push came to shove."
Farah nodded, looking at the surroundings for any signs of traps. "So we whittle his men down little by little, and he gets weaker and weaker until we strike the final blow?"
"Precisely."
"Hm..." She tilted her head at him. "This sounds like you've done this sort of thing before."
"I have, many times. If you're planning on taking down a Coven or a Pack then there's very little other ways to do it. Most times they didn't realize what was happening until it was too late, and we'll be counting on that."
He started gathering up the files, grabbing the last one off Liam when it was offered to him. "The first safe house we'll be hitting is only twenty-four hours from here, we'll get into the town, post up for a rest then hit them in the morning. Hunters always expect to be hit at night, they won't be expecting us to kick the doors down at seven in the morning."
"And what do we do with any of them that make it after?" Hayley crossed her legs where she sat. "It doesn't sound like we can let them go afterwards, that's just another seed that can grow."
"That's right, we can't. The rest of the hunters want Christian and his group gone, and I do mean gone. We'll waste them all, salt the ground, question those that make it through the first attack and then bury them with everything else."
"And you don't feel... Strange? Doing this to your fellow hunters?"
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'll admit that it does feel a little... Wrong, I suppose. I fought beside these men and women, we shared a bond, that means something." His face hardened, the files being thrown into the box they came in. "But they tried to kill me without a second thought, tried to butcher the people I care about. So I'll get over it."
The others noticed that Cassandra had been particularly quiet during the entire conversation, turning to her and seeing that she was just staring off into the distance, a particularly misty tint to her eyes. They debated shaking her out of her trance, to ask if she was ok, but figured that if she wasn't paying attention then it must be for a good reason. Though they could just be blinded by the bias they had for her own power.
Regardless, after a few seconds of staring she shook her head to herself, suddenly seeing that everyone was looking at her. "I'm sorry I was just... Thinking about some things. I was listening though don't worry. Shall we get going?"
Leah considered questioning her, clearly there was something more to it than what she was saying, but if she wasn't ready to say so at this point then it wouldn't be right to force her hand. "I'm ready to go if everyone else is, I just need to get Abigail into the car."
Liam stood, brushing his hand against her shoulder, squeezing down and pressing his lips against the top of her head. "You and her can ride in the car with us, I've been... Too distant from you lately, I need to make up for that."
"You don't have to make up for any
thing Liam." Leah smiled, squeezing his hand briefly. "But I'll happily sit up with you, it's a long drive after all." She leaned in conspiratorially. "Maybe I can tell the others some embarrassing stories about you when you were a child."
"Never mind, I'm not so sure this is a good idea."
Chapter 6
"Do you see him over there?" Leila gestured lightly over her shoulder, Skylar looking over and through the crowd to see the man she was referring to. She would recognize that face anywhere, he was the one responsible for taking Christian out of her grasp, the reason why she and her mother were on this mission in the first place.
"I can see him. What do we do now?"
They had been in town since early the previous morning, immediately searching out for any signs they could that a member of Christian's entourage was in town. The first day had been a complete bust, gaining nothing except a few receipts for burgers, and they had retired to their room for the night with irritation burning a hole in their chests. They returned to the search rejuvenated, their search halting midway through the afternoon when Skylar got a pulsing feeling at the base of her skull. It didn't surprise Leila that she was feeling this, it was normal for beings like them to form a link with their prey, something that would allow them to track them down in even the most extreme of situations.
What surprised her was that she was feeling it so soon.
They had followed the feeling, each pulse seemingly telling Skylar where to go, increasing in strength and frequency the closer they got to the bar where George had been sitting since early that morning. Evidently, he wasn't taking his self-imposed isolation that well.
He didn't look like much, but then Leila supposed they usually didn't. Whether that was by design or not, it was likely that he was far more dangerous than he looked, and if Skylar was right about him being strong enough and fast enough to drag Christian away from her rampage, then she was willing to believe it. "We can't do anything here. Even if his group isn't anywhere near by, it's not usually a good idea to put a building full of innocent people in danger, doubly so if you're a paranormal. I don't care how many Hunter friends you have, the rest of the groups would be here in no time to try and kill you."
