threat4

Part 4

She didn�t know what she wanted to do. She wanted to look up at him, smile; but she also wanted to break down and cry both from the feelings of helplessness but also from the strength of the emotions that Nathalie was getting from Blaise.

His arms tightened in response to her thoughts. �I know that this is a bloody lot to take in.�

Nathalie chuckled. �Bloody?� She commented. �You�re American, remember.�

Blaise laughed as well. �If you hang around an Auzzie, a Scot, and a South African all the time, you start to pick up stuff like that.�

�I see.� Nathalie said smiling.

Another moment of uncomfortable silence descended, broken by Nathalie. �So�um,� she said. �What happens next?�

�Who knows?� Blaise said. �Try to act as normal as possible until something does happen. Avoid confrontation with your brother. The Darks are planning something, we don�t know what, but its big.�

�Alright,� Nathalie agreed reluctantly. She wanted to teleport home, get up in Jake�s face and tell him that she was not an innocent little sap anymore, and in whatever they were planning, they were going to be stopped.

�That�s exactly what you don�t want to do.� Blaise said, shaking his head. �Don�t provoke him.�

�Fine,� she said shortly, still of a mind to do it anyway.

�Nathalie,� he cautioned, still in tune with her mind.

�What?� She said sharper than she had intended. She lowered her head, ashamed and blushing. �Sorry, what?� She said in a softer voice.

�Please listen, it is for your own good, as well as ours.� Blaise cautioned for what, to Nathalie, seemed like the millionth time. He scooted a bit away from her, so that he was facing her more than sitting next to her. �Sit up for a minute.�

Nathalie complied, watching him quizzically. He dug in the pocket of his jeans, finally coming up with a length of cord, no more than a foot long. It looked thin and fragile, easily breakable, better used on packaging than on anything else.

�What�s that?� Nathalie asked.

Blaise looked at her, no hint of malice in his eyes. �Hold out your hands,� Blaise said. She noticed suddenly that as he held it, he was careful not to wrap the cord around any part of his body. Seeing this, she hesitated, unsure.

He sighed, but smiled. �Just do it.�

Looking at him with a confused wrinkle in her brow, Nathalie held out her arms as though she as about to be handcuffed. Blaise took the cord and wrapped it around her wrists and tied it into a simple knot, one that anyone could easily escape from.

�Now,� he said, a small smile blooming on his face. �Try to get away.�

Nathalie looked at him. �Please. Piece of cake.� She said, smiling at how ridiculous that this was. She pulled at the cord expecting it to snap, but it didn�t. The cord bound her wrists as securely as any handcuffs made of the strongest steel. Reaching for the knot, she found that all of the strength seemed to have gone out of her arms and she couldn�t get her fingers to even grasp the knot, let alone untie it. They felt so heavy that it was hard to lift her hands from her lap.

�What is this? What did you do?� She asked, eyes wide, starting to struggle. She tried to touch his mind, to sense what he was trying to do, but couldn�t. Her thoughts stopped at the edge of her own mind, like she had become saps again.

Blaise didn�t move, �try to teleport.�

Now both scared and more than a little angry, Nathalie closed her eyes and concentrated, waiting for the feel of static moving along her skin and the feeling of hyperawareness as she disappeared from one spot and reappeared in another. Nothing happened. Her eyes shot open and she glared at Blaise, eyes shooting blue lasers. She raised her red eyebrows at him.

�Let me go.� She said coldly, feeling like a caged animal.

Blaise chuckled and reached over to untie the cord fingers deftly pulling apart that stubborn knot, and let it fall to the ground.. His head drifted dangerously close to hers, and she sensed his urge to kiss her taking advantage of her helpless state. Nathalie felt tempted as well, but he undid the knot that sat back, without kissing her. He met her gaze as he backed away however, emotion making his tawny eyes sparkle.

�Um, what the hell is that?� She broke that stare and pointed to the length of cord now sitting among the chips of shale and limestone like a small, limp snake. She repeated, �what did it do to me?�

�Nothing permanent.�

Nathalie rose to her knees. �Uh-uh Blaise, you better tell me before I push you off this rock.�

Blaise said, �can�t kill, remember,� so sweetly that Nathalie really wanted to follow through on her threat.

�Won�t kill you, just hurt a lot.� She said, matching the sugar content in his voice perfectly, and smiled nastily.
�Okay,� he said backing up with a chuckle. He held up his hands as she started advancing on him. �The cord that I wound around your wrists is made with fibers from in the ship. Fibers like this work on both kinds of TP, which is why I�m so careful with it.�

He picked up the cord again and frayed one end, revealing a single filament, no thicker than a piece of thread, that glowed a faint blue. �It binds your strength, and your powers. Its like a mini �mit.�

�Handy.� Nathalie said and shuddered. �Just keep that away from me!�

�Yeah,� he said, winding it up and stuffing it back into his pocket. �I always have it with me, in case I need to tie someone up, so that I can get away.� He caught the look in her eyes, �which I have had to do on occasion.� He smiled at her surprise. �Just kidding.�

�Ha ha.� She said with narrowed eyes. �Hilarious Blaise.�

Blaise held up his hands. �Hey, sorry, not funny.�

�Yeah,� Nathalie said. �Well, I�m feeling better.� She stood and dusted off her jeans. �I�m gonna go home.�
Blaise looked at her, sensing her thoughts, and raised his eyebrows.

�After a pit stop at the Pyramids, the Sydney Opera House, and Big Ben.�

�That�s what I thought.� He smirked, rising too. �Just be careful, and I�ll see you in the morning.�

   �Ok,� Nathalie said. She moved closer to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling quite the temptress, and kissed him, to reassure him that she was not going to get herself killed, or worse.

She pulled back and flashed him a wide smile as she teleported away, leaving him standing on the ledge smiling back as the static after-image faded.

                                                                                * * *

The night was so peaceful from up high. From the roof of Big Ben, a place usually only visited by birds, Nathalie got the best view of London at night. Regretting the fact that she didn�t have a camera, she tried to lock the images of the Millennium Ferris wheel, the Thames river, and Buckingham Palace in her memory, not sure when she would next see it. Memory full, she teleported to a deserted alleyway, and strolled through the brightly lit streets, past Harrods, already closed, and continued on, wandering with no destination. It was four in the afternoon back home, and she didn�t feel the least bit tired, but was eager to explore. She strolled with her hands in the pockets of her long jacket, casually drinking in the sights.

Her mind began to tingle with premonition. Someone was following her, but when she turned around to try to catch a glimpse of who it was, there was no one there. After standing around for a moment, listening, looking and waiting, she started walking again. As she moved, the feeling receded, and her hackles came down.

Suddenly, the sensation of being followed spiked again. She stopped, whipped around, to find nothing this time either. �Hello?� She called, �any one there?� She repeated this call with her mind, thinking that somehow that might help.

Of course, no one answered.

Calm down, Keery, she thought to herself. You�re as jumpy as a cat.

Still, caution was the better part of valor, and she resumed her walk, only to duck into an alley a quarter of a mile away, and teleport home, where the feeling abruptly stopped, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she walked into the kitchen.

                                                                             * * *

Heart pounding, Jake barely managed to duck into the alleyway to avoid getting caught. Once again, he had underestimated his sister. She knew that someone was following her, but couldn�t find them. He was very good as shielding himself especially from his sister. Someone had to watch her, and who was better for the job than her own brother? Especially with her gallivanting around the world.

She passed shops and flats dark and closed, most commercial areas having ended business by seven. He had no idea what she was doing in London, except for playing tourist, or trying to clear her mind, and he guessed that it was the latter. She had much to think about after the events of the past few hours, a walk in one of London�s rare clear nights, could clear anyone�s head.

She was moving again. She was acting like she had given up on the feeling that she was being followed, but he knew her too well. His twin liked to twitch her fingers when she was nervous, and she was clenching and unclenching her fists and tapping the fingers of her left hand on her thigh as she walked.

Transparent, he thought, definitely nervous.

He allowed her to get about a hundred feet in front of him, for he could follow her sense if she got lost in a crowd, though this time of night, the streets seemed deserted. He knew that it would be harder for her to find him among so many other voices in her mind. She seemed to sense him again and he ducked into the nearest alley, running a hand through his thick, black hair, as he leaned against the wall of the brick building at his back, feeling the rasp of ancient stone through his sweatshirt. He heard her call out with both her words and her mind, probably sub consciously thinking that it would help, that or she sensed that whoever was following her was a TP.

Nice try Nat, he thought to himself from behind thick shields, taunting her na�vet�, but at the same time, fighting down the urge to step out into the street, and confront her right there, to tell her that things were different, and that soon, there may be only one Ciarana twin left if the prophesy was fulfilled.

He didn�t dare confront her. Yet. If he waited for her to make the first move, she might slip, he knew her well enough to know that she was stubborn and tight-lipped when people confronted her about things, and he was usually the same way. Something else was pulling at his mind, something that he vaguely recognized as a conscience, something that no Dark had. It was trying to make him feel guilty about wanting to kill his sister. He pushed back the part of his mind that had not existed for two years, with some difficulty, unsure why it was coming back now, and waited for Nathalie to head off again.

Once she started moving again, he peeked out around the corner to see her duck into another hallway and teleport, the faint flash visible even at this distance, if one knew what to look for, that is.

Jake crossed his arms over his chest and teleported to his ship to sort things out in his own mind. It took longer than normal to get his concentration than normal, and the tingle and sense of hyperawareness lasted longer before he felt himself disappear. Something was happening, he just needed to figure out what it was.