threat8

Part 8

Jake felt consciousness beginning to slip away as Chris continued to rain blows down on him. He tried to roll up in a ball to escape as much as he could, but it made no difference. He lost count of how many times he had been hit and tried to hold on as long as he could hoping that Chris would tire and stop, or change tactics. Jake could handle torture, but not constant pummeling.

Begging and pleading he knew was exactly what Christopher wanted, and he refused to give him the satisfaction of it. That meant that Chris had broken him, and he was not yet that desperate, or that stupid. Tightlipped, he took each blow as it came.

Finally, when he felt darkness approaching, Christopher stopped. Jake coughed, tasting the copper of blood in his mouth.

�What are you going to do with me?� He asked, voice hoarse with pain. He tried to glare up at Christopher but could only see out of the slit of one eye, the other swollen shut from a well placed punch.

�Leave you where no one else will be able to find you.� Christopher chuckled. �I have been waiting for two really long years, Ciarana. You were just too stupid and weak to notice.�

Jake shook with laughter. �You think me that na�ve Chris?� He asked, struggling up into a sitting position against the wall, head swimming. Blackness loomed near.

Probably have a concussion. He thought to himself. He had been a football player in High School, and had played a little Rugby as well, and had had his fair share of concussions. But the one good thing about being a sap, though he didn�t know how it had happened, was that his thoughts and feelings were now solely his own. �I knew that you wanted to be leader, but I was stronger and the prophesy was important enough. �Upon these two, world�s fate is set.� That�s us.� He coughed again, wracked with pain. �No matter what you do to me Chris, Nat will stop you.�

Chris, bristling with anger did not say a word, but walked smoothly up to him and wound up, backhanding him across the face. Jake fell back to the ground and let blackness take him.

                                                                            * * *
The Gall! Chris thought as he backhanded Jake across the face, snapping his head around and knocking him unconscious. He kicked him one more time for good measure, resisting the urge to spit in his face.

Jake had never gotten him this worked up before and Chris was pretty sure that it was deliberate. �Damn you.� He yelled at Jake. He reached down and grabbed Jake�s arm tightly and roughly and teleported them both out of the ship.
                                                                            * * *

Blaise and Nathalie were strolling hand in hand down the Rue Champs-Elys�es when suddenly she collapsed.
Blaise caught her, screaming her name, and cradled her head in his lap on the sidewalk. A crowd was gathering, but he ignored the questions and murmurs.

He placed one hand on either side of her head and called into her mind. "Wake up, Keery. People are staring.�

Slowly, he felt her claw back to consciousness, then moaned and opened her eyes.

�That�s my girl.� He said, helping her to sit up, careful of her still broken arm, tied in a sling.

She rubbed her head. �Ow.�

Blaise pulled her to her feet as he reassured the crows that the fainting blood sugar had been nothing more than low blood sugar.

�Are you okay?� He asked anxiously, helping her to a bench. The crowd had broken up and few people continued to glance in their direction.

�It�s Jake.� She said. Looking into her face, Blaise saw that tears had already begun to flow.

Blaise couldn�t believe what he heard. He reached out with his mind and could find no trace of Jake Ciarana, not even the faintest glimmer of a presence that meant that he just had his shields up. It was a �mit or�

Nathalie, also reaching out with her mind searching for her brother, sensed the direction of his thoughts. �No,� she said stubbornly, but her voice was unsteady.

He tried to put an arm around her shoulders to comfort her but only succeeded in putting pressure on her arm, her sharp hissing intake of breath telling him to move it. �Sorry,� he said, settling his arm around her waist, an embrace that she leaned into gratefully. �But how can you be certain?�

�I can�t be sure.� Nathalie said. �But the thought of Jake being d-dead doesn�t sit right. I would *know* if he was dead.� She stuttered on the word �dead�. Despite the fact that he was Nathalie�s twin, Blaise didn�t feel too much remorse at the loss. Jake had caused far too much damage to the Lights, and to him, but he forced himself to keep his thoughts secret before they went in their usual direction when he thought about Jake.

�But for now�� She was speaking, and he brought his attention back to Nathalie. She climbed laboriously to her feet, Blaise rose with her, placing a steadying hand under her good elbow.

He waited, trying to push down the feelings of elation at the prospect of Jake being gone, no matter how damaging it was to Nathalie, until she was ready to talk. He felt her mind working overtime, trying to find her brother and wanted to keep his mind as quiet as possible.

Finally, she brought her thoughts back into her own mind and looked at Blaise. The pain in her eyes made him feel a pang of guilt about thinking that Jake�s disappearance was a good thing. �For now, I�m going home, to wait for any news. If he is�gone, for good I mean, word will probably come there first.� She started heading for the nearest side street, and Blaise followed worriedly in her wake. She hadn�t been home yet. She had called, but spent the night at the ship. It had provided the facilities for cleaning all of the blood off, and Julie had appeared with a spare change of clothes. A night there had allowed her to heal even faster, taking strength from the ship.

�Want me to go with you?� Blaise asked.

Nathalie stopped and turned. �No, I wanna be alone with my parents for a while.� She said, then pointed to her arm. �I�ve gotta explain this as well. Be easier for both of us if I did it by myself.�

Blaise sighed. Into the lion�s den. He thought wryly to himself.

Nathalie gave him the smallest of smiles, having read his thought. �Thanks anyway.� She reached up with her good hand and caressed his cheek. He took it in one of his own. �Go back to the ship and try to find something.�

Blaise wanted to scoff at her, but Nathalie always the perceptive one, picked up on his reluctance. �Please, Blaise, for me.�

He sighed. �Okay,� he said. �I�ll go.�

�Good,� Nathalie ducked into an alleyway and he followed. �Thanks Blaise.� She said, standing on tip toes to kiss him. She smiled then disappeared in a burst of red and white static, without breaking contact with him. The sudden absence left his lips tingling. An interesting feeling.

He sighed again, and teleported to the ship. Though he had no intention of expending any energy to find someone who had caused them all so much pain and misery even though it was Nathalie who was doing the asking. He didn�t know how he would respond when, not if, she asked him for help, though he hoped that she would understand once she found out why Blaise hated Jake so much.

                                                                            * * *

Christopher rematerialized and dumped Jake unceremoniously to the ground. He looked around in satisfaction at the complete desolation of it all. He had used this place before; a remote area of the Outback in the Northern Territory, a place where you could walk for miles in any direction and never see another person, where a body was never found until the scavengers had picked it clean. Here, anthills reached six or seven feet in height, koalas lived in the trees and dingos roamed wild, looking for prey.

Chris looked down on Jake and smiled. The ex-leader of the Darks lay unconscious, black hair fallen over his bruised and bloodied face. Just how I like 'em, beaten and broken!

�Much as I�d love to stay here and watch, Jake, but I have to find a certain little traitor, that needs to pay for what she�s done.� He gloated. �Have fun!�

He reached out with his mind to locate Morgan, but couldn�t sense her. The silence was familiar, the kind that told him that she was in a place where she didn�t want to be located and had her shields up. He sighed and instead teleported to the spaceship, to wait until she slipped up and he found out where she was hiding.

She may be the one with the ability to kill, he thought as he reappeared. But, to follow through on a promise that Jake made, she will end up like her mother. Dead, in a trap, for no one will betray us and get away with it.

Patience was one virtue that he did not possess, but in this case, he was willing to make an exception.

                                                                            * * *

Into the lion�s den was definitely a good explanation for it. Nathalie thought as she opened the door to the kitchen. The table was set with its usual flourish, she noted wryly, for four, her parents occupying two of them. Upon seeing her state, arm in a sling, the gash across her face, a ghastly red slash across her forehead and upper cheek.

Andrea Ciarana screamed and clutched at her husband�s sleeve. Adrian swallowed hard and cried, �what happened?� He pushed his wife away gently and got to his feet. He walked over to Nathalie and looked down at her.

�It�s kinda hard to explain dad.� She said. Really hard.

�Is-is it broken?� Her mother asked from her seat, unable to summon the strength to rise to her feet.

Nathalie nodded. �I�ll be fine.� She assured them, as her mother�s hand flew up to cover her mouth, muffling the exclamation that she had made.

�How did you break your arm?� She asked. Not waiting for an answer, she was going on. �And where�s Jake? He�s been gone for almost two days, he�s never away this long without letting us know where he was.�

And how many times did he tell you the truth? She thought wryly to herself. �Can we sit down to talk about this?� She asked.

Her father took her good elbow and led her to the table. �Are you hungry?� He asked. He spooned chicken and noodles onto the plate in front of her before she had a chance to refuse. Nathalie couldn�t deny the fact that she was starving, and picked up the fork awkwardly in her left hand.

�Adrian.� Her mother scolded. �Don�t change the subject.�

He glanced between the two women, guilt directed at his wife, concern at his daughter, gaze finally resting on Nathalie. �Hmm?� He raised red eyebrows at her.

Nathalie sighed. �Well�� She said, lies sticking in her throat. I got thrown into a spike pit by a psycho teleporter who wants me dead. She thought cynically. �Blaise Kensington and I were hiking all day. I was bouldering on a cliff and went a little too high and fell off and landed on some rocks.

Her father didn�t seem convinced, but did not press her. Her mother on the other hand seemed to believe her as the two of them often did go hiking and she rarely came home without some kind of bump or bruise. Just never something like this!

�Have you been to the hospital?� She asked placing a hand over Nathalie�s right hand.

�Yeah mom,� she lied again. �Its just a fracture. I gotta keep it immobilized for about six weeks.� She saw the skepticism in her mother�s face and set down her fork and placed her hand on top of her mother�s. �Really, mom. I�m fine. They said to pop a few Motrin for the pain and all�s good.�

�Well, at least let me take you into the bathroom and put some butterflies on your face or something. That�s a pretty big gash to not have stitches or bandages or something.�

Nathalie didn�t argue. She had to let her mother do something to help her, for her mom�s peace of mind and to fight off the growing suspicion. They rose from the table and headed down the hall. Nathalie sat on the edge of the tub while her mother cleaned her cut, and applied ointment and butterfly bandages. Briana�s healing powers had shrunk the size substantially, but the red gash still stretched from her right cheekbone to just over her eyebrow, a few millimeters wide, narrowly missing her eye but slicing her eyebrow in half.

That�s gonna leave a mark. She thought remorsefully to herself as she watched in the mirror, a sad twist to her lips.

Her father led the way into the living room where the two women sat while he went back into the kitchen, returning with a glass of water and a bottle of Motrin. She accepted the water and waited for him to shake a couple of pills into her hand.

�Nat,� her mother began. �Do you know where your brother is?�

She pushed down the fear that she felt.   She still felt no trace of her brother. �I haven�t heard from him today mom..� She said, which, technically, was the truth.   She hadn�t heard from him. �I�d bet that he�s out with friends. Nothing more.�

Adrian put a hand on her shoulder and looked down into her eyes. She resisted the urge to look away, sigh and tell them everything. It hurt her deeply to lie to her parents, but her senses were telling her that it was better for all if they remained in the dark for now.

�Come on Nathalie, out with it.� He said. �You have always been a horrible liar.�

�Who�s lying?� She asked, hiding the emotions that she felt from their eyes. "I saw him yesterday. He�s fine.�
Yes she had seen him yesterday, but something had happened to him, something that she couldn�t explain or understand. One minute he had been standing gloating down at her from the top of the pit, thoroughly enjoying her pain, the next his face had softened and he looked like he wanted to jump down into the pit and save her. He looked so regretful that it had broken her heart to see it. Nathalie really didn�t know if it was just a ploy to confuse her or if he really was in trouble. Maybe the Darks really have turned against him. She surmised. I wouldn�t put it past that Christopher guy.

Her parents were still waiting for an answer. Both were leaning forward in their seats, making Nathalie want to shrink back into the cushion with the intensity of their looks.

�Look,� she said, moving forward to the edge of her seat. �I saw Jake yesterday, he�s fine. I don�t know where he is right now, but I bet that wherever he is, he�s safe.� She put as much certainty into her voice as possible and her parents sat back, pacified, for now. Though she didn�t know how long it would last.

She rose to her feet. �I�m gonna go take a nap.� She faked a big yawn and sighed. �It�s been a long couple of days, I�m tired."

�Okay honey.� Andrea said placing a warning hand on her husband�s shoulder as he rose to follow.

Nathalie took this as a cue to leave and headed for her room. She shut her door and laid down on her bed. She closed her eyes hard fighting to keep back the tears that she felt coming, and fighting to drown out the arguing that she heard coming from the living room.

Oh Jake! She moaned to herself. Why did you have to do this to me?

                                                                            * * *

With a moan, Jake Ciarana clawed back to consciousness. He sat up slowly and regretted it when the contents of his stomach rose up. He retched, then collapsed back to the ground. Just moving his eyes, he looked around, shivering in the cold air. It was early morning in what looked like some kind of desert.

Where am I? He thought, fighting the nausea that flooded up as he sat up again, knowing that he had to get moving, the day would get warm once the sun came up and blew all the mist and the frost� he looked down at his clothes and realized that there was a thin film of frost all over, and he shivered violently again. He forced himself to his feet and began stumbling off. It didn�t matter where he was going, he just had to get moving. Christopher had probably dumped him in the middle of no where on purpose knowing that now, without his powers he was helpless, and would walk for days without ever meeting another soul.

Damn you Christopher Murray! He thought with so much vehemence that his head began to spin, and he had to fight to keep his feet. He stumbled to a knee and fought back to his feet as he slowly looked around through the small slits that his swollen face allowed. He saw a golden form run by and disappear behind one of the huge mounds of sand, giant anthills. Memory returned and told him that what had looked like a gold dog was just that, a dingo, a wild dog that inhabited the rural and outlying areas of Australia.

The Outback. He moaned, finally realizing where he was and deflating as he knew that he was truly in the middle of nowhere, where calling was a useless expenditure of energy. He had never been to this place before because he was a bigger fan of letting prisoners freeze to death than dehydrate in the desert.

He passed a creek bed, dry at this point in the year and licked parched lips. He had to find water soon or he was in far more trouble than he was already in by being stuck in the middle of the Outback with a concussion. He had suffered enough of them throughout his years of football and rugby to know what it felt like.

His thoughts wandered for a few moments until they settled on his sister. Nathalie! He cried, knowing that she couldn�t hear him but in his muddled state, the cry came out of habit.

The effort of thinking and walking at the same time was making his head swim more. He made if a few stumbling steps further before collapsing to the ground into darkness.

                                                                            * * *

Jake where are you? Nathalie thought, dreaming of her brother. She saw him injured, bruised, bloodied, possibly dying. She couldn�t see where he was, the dream was too hazy, even Jake himself was fuzzy, surrounded by a mottled space of light and dark, fading in and out. She didn�t know where he was, but she knew that Jake was in trouble, she had no idea whatsoever where to begin looking.

�Nathalie!�

The scream in her mind jolted her awake. �Jake?� She said softly to herself, sitting up so quickly that she grabbed her left arm in pain. �Where are you?�

But the feeling was gone. Jake was gone.

�Was it just a dream?� She asked herself, reaching deep into her own mind to try and recover that dream. As she concentrated, she felt the faintest glimmer of a presence.

Jake! She realized that what she felt was the old Jake-feeling that she had had before she broke out. She started, it was a human presence, that of a sap. How did that happen? She focused on the presence and it seemed to grow in her mind until she felt herself teleporting to the spot where Jake�s presence had come from.

She rematerialized and climbed to her feet. Dusting herself off, Nathalie looked around. Trees were sparse and even more common were the giant misshapen anthills.

Whew! Made it!

The chill of morning still hung in the air, but the sun was coming out and would bring the temperature up soon, still Nathalie shivered slightly as she searched for her brother. Clad only in jeans and a t-shirt, she was cold.

�Jake!�

She looked down and found one lone set of footprints making their way unsteadily off to the north. She followed them, dismayed at how haphazard they were and grimaced to think of the state that Jake would be in when she found him.

Suddenly she saw him, a hundred feet away collapsed to the ground unconscious or worse.

No, I can still sense him. She thought as she ran to his side, ignoring the pain in her arm. �Jake.� She dropped to her knees, shaking his shoulder. He looked worse than she did. His face was a purple and yellow mess, hardly recognizable as her brother.

Fear boiled up in her when he didn�t respond, then he moaned. She felt relied chase the fear away as he opened his eyes. The fear returned when she saw his eyes, bloodshot, pupils uneven, definite sign of a concussion.

�Nathalie?� He asked hoarsely.

She smiled and felt a tear slip down her cheek. �What the hell happened to you?�

He coughed, though she suspected that it had begun as a laugh. �Christopher.�

She reached down with one arm and helped him to his feet with some difficulty. �I�ve gotta get you out of here.� She said and paused.

What place is safe for him? Chris has already gotten him once. He can try again. He�s not a TP anymore, he can�t defend himself anymore. She was coming up empty until she thought of the one place where Darks could not go.

The Spaceship!

Nathalie looked around unnecessarily, of course there was no one around, but she hoped that she would never see this desolation ever again. With the usual rush of hyperawareness, Nathalie and Jake disappeared from the desert and reappeared in the Light�s ship just outside the main chamber. Jake staggered and leaned heavily on her.   �I think I have a concussion.� He said.

�Probably.�

His head was swimming from dehydration and the concussion. Nathalie saw him squint, even the dim light of the chamber was hurting his eyes. They headed unsteadily down the corridor with Nathalie supporting his weight as best as she could.

Jake looked around as they entered the main chamber. All of his research and his visions of what this would be like, had not prepared him for the shock of recognition that he got from this room. �This looks a lot like ours.� He sounded awed none the less.

Nathalie looked at him as she helped him to sit at one of the window seats, and ran to get him some water. �Really?�

Jake drank deeply, murmuring his thanks. The water seemed to strengthen him a bit and his voice seemed not quite as raspy. �Well, ours is red, for one thing.� He said, closing his eyes. �We have the chairs, the mind trawl, it�s a mind linkup with the ship, but a mind merge works just as well, so they�re kinda useless.�

�I guess so.�

He continued looking around. �This was the one place that I was trying to find, for two years.�

�I know,� Nathalie said putting a hand on his arm. �And if you weren�t a sap right now, and I�m not even gonna ask how that happened, you would probably run right back to the Darks ad blow us in, right?�

He let out a breath and didn�t look at her. �Had it been about a week ago, and I still had my powers, and could get out of here�I probably would.�

�And now?�

�Now�� he said, leaning back and shutting his eyes. �I don�t know.� She could barely hear his words, and didn�t know what to think. The old Jake was gone, forever, it would take time to get to know him again. Time well worth the effort.

Suddenly, a flash signaled the arrival of another Light. Nathalie knew before the sparkle cleared that it was Blaise; a very angry, irate, and astonished Blaise Kensington. But she saw Jake jump, being unable to sense it.

�Nathalie!� He exclaimed, seeing Jake sitting on the window ledge. She had never seen him so shocked. If she had to compare his stance to one thing, it would be a lion, tawny eyes wide, coiled and ready to pounce. �What the hell are you thinking of, bringing *him* here?�

Nathalie jumped to her feet and laid a hand on his arm, which, of course, he shrugged off, never taking his eyes from her twin. �Blaise�I-I can explain.�

�I�m listening,� he hissed, eyes still glued to Jake. �I�m interested in knowing what was so bloody important that you brought the leader of the Darks into our ship.�

Nathalie didn�t know what to say first, but the most obvious seemed the best. �He�s not a Dark anymore.� She said softly.

�What?� Blaise said, tearing his eyes from Jake and looking to her, astonishment now directed at her. After a moment, he recovered a bit, after blinking a few times. �What do you mean by that?�

�He�s a sap, Blaise.� Nathalie said to him. �He�s not a TP anymore.�

Blaise looked at her like she had suddenly grown a second head. �It�s a trick.� He said, looking back at Jake. �That hurt little puppy dog act doesn�t work.� But Nathalie knew that Blaise could see that Jake�s state was not fake. No one could easily fake that much bruising and swelling.

�Reach out, Blaise.� She said to him telepathically. "You know the difference between a sap and a TP with heavy shields.�

She sensed him reluctantly extend a tendril of thought to try to touch Jake�s mind, hitting the same wall that any TP hit when they tried to touch the mind of a normal human.

His eyes flew open, Nathalie�s declaration ringing true. �How?�

Jake, meanwhile, was looking back and forth between them, a knowing look in his dark eyes. �Hey guys,� he said, looking very dizzy. �I may be a sap, but I know that you�re �pathing, please don�t be rude.�

�Rude is it?� Nathalie sensed Blaise�s thought and his urge to punch Jake so hard that he went through the window. She took hold of the balling fist before he got the chance and tried to send soothing thoughts to him.

�Let me go, Nathalie.� Blaise said quietly, menace thick in his voice. It was a command, not a request.

�No,� Nathalie said sternly, shaking her head so that red curls fell into her face. �Not until you sit down, be quiet, and listen to us.�

She knew that Jake had something to say, and that Blaise wouldn�t like it. There wasn�t really anything that she could say that he would like. He backed up without turning and sat beside the center column. �Go ahead,� he said, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his legs, eyes intent on Jake, who had leaned back again.

Ready for anything. Nathalie thought with a sigh.

She looked to her brother, noting his pale and drawn face. She raised her auburn eyebrows at him. �Jake?�

He looked back for a moment before sitting up slowly, laboriously, his head swimming so badly that he felt like he was going to be sick. �Look, Kensington, why can�t you accept the fact that I�m not a TP anymore? I am not a Dark anymore, I am on your side now, even though I am a sap.� He put up a hand, cutting off whatever Blaise had been getting ready to say. �No, I don�t know how it happened, but it did. I�m not a TP. I�m just a normal human again.�

Blaise still looked angry, an eagle ready to swoop down, mostly because Jake�s attitude was not helping, but also because he knew that the longer that Jake was in the ship, the better the chances were that one of the Darks, most likely Christopher Murray, would figure out that he had been there an try to capture him to discover the location of the ship.

Blaise told him as much, his voice clipped and angry.

�We know that,� Nathalie said. �It was a risk that we had to take. Christopher dumped him in the middle of no where . I got him out but he barely escaped with his life. If I didn�t know that they Darks were after him, I would take him to the hospital.�

Blaise sighed. �You could still do it, just keep an eye on him. Brianna could heal him, but I doubt that she would. He�s not dying after all, and she�d probably refuse because of all the pain that he�s caused. But please Nathalie, for all out sakes, he can�t be here. His presence is endangering everything.� He pleaded with her.

Nathalie gawked at him. �How can you be so callous?�

Blaise growled, low in his throat, wide mouthed and incredulous. He jumped to his feet, crossed the room in a few quick paces and grabbed both of them by the arm. He teleported them to a different part of the ship that Nathalie had never been to. Both Ciarana twin looked around. The room felt cold, like death, the air sinister, still and oppressive. If felt like a tomb, and Nathalie shivered.

Along one wall was a kind of memorial, etched onto it, listing names from hundreds of nations.

�What is this?� Nathalie whispered, stepping closer. �Wa Yien Cho, died December 22, 1984, Kenya.� She read, and continued a little further back. �John Scott, June 1, 1989, Venezuela.� She reached out and touched the engraved letters in the strange alien stone. Suddenly, an image sprung into his mind, a young man, no more than seventeen, curly black hair and violet eyes. He was smiling at something out of her field of view. Shocked, she lost contact and staggered back, to be caught by two pairs of strong arms.

�Whoa,� she said. �What was that?�

Jake answered first for Blaise looked about as confused as she was. �Contact precognition.� He said. �It�s a rare power, where you can see what had or will happen to an object or person by touching them. In this case, you saw something by touching that name.�

�I saw his face,� Nathalie said, the image still fresh in her mind�s eye. �John Scott, I saw him.�

�It�s the same ability that I had.� Jake said softly, sounding remorseful and a little lost.

Nathalie nodded and released herself from the supporting arms. She returned to her studying of the wall. �So many,� She breathed, wrapping her arms around herself, shivering. He eyes drifted along the wall until they settled onto one name that seemed to stand out at her. �Amanda Gage-DiPietro, October 24, 1985, Egypt.� Her breath caught in her throat. �My God.� She knew that name. She reached out to touch the name to be certain of who it was. Blaise and Jake made a move to stop her, but she ignored them. Touching the letters, she saw flashes of an Asian woman in her middle thirties, an old woman by TP standards with straight, jet black hair, and almond shaped eyes. She was surrounded by children, seven of them, one youngest only months old in her arms, but the one child that drew her attention was a small girl that looked startlingly too much like her mother, about four years old, but with eyes that were too old for her age�

�Morgan,� she whispered, realization dawning as she stepped back. �Her mother was a TP!�

�Yes,� Blaise said coming over to her. �She was. She died in a trap in Egypt while a troop of Darks looked on, laughed, and tortured.� He looked to Jake. �That�s why I am so callous. Every one of these names is someone who has been killed in the wars, name, date and location. This is a reminder of the evil that the Darks have done.�

Jade sighed. �Blaise, I�� He trailed off, realizing that the explanation that he had been about to make probably would make Blaise even angrier.

�Don�t.� Blaise cried, golden eyes blazing. He went unerringly a newer section of the eight-foot wall. He pointed to a name halfway down.

Nathalie and Jake stepped closer. �Jordan Mahree Kensington-James.� Blaise said, not reading, but looking at them, reciting from memory. �Died April 16, 1998, California.�

Both Ciarana twins paled. �Who w--� Jake asked, but Blaise cut him off.

�Who was she?!� Blaise bellowed. �She was my sister!! Married for less than a year with a young baby before she was killed by a Grey allied with the Darks.�

�Blaise, I didn�t know.� Jake said.

He stood trembling with fury. �You were the leader of the Darks then, it was at your orders that that Grey went after her!� Blaise said, arm rising to point a finger at him. �She was in Golden Gate Park with her husband and with Tyler, her son. He was less than a year old when Jordie was killed, the Dark just �ported in and killed her. He doesn�t remember her at all.� Blaise looked ready to throttle him, Jake looked stricken. �I can�t look at Tyler without thinking of Jordie, he looks just like her.� He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, and flipped to the right photos. He turned them so that they could see.   Jake turned his head away.
�Look at them, Jake.�

Slowly, Jake forced himself to look. The young woman looked a lot like Blaise as well, as did the young boy in her arms. All had blond hair and pale eyes, a sign that Tyler may be a TP some day.

�You took her away from him, and from me!�

�Blaise,� Jake said softly, but Blaise was going on.

�You left my nephew without a mother!� He exclaimed. �That is the worst thing that a person could possible have happen to them. Our own mother died of cancer when I was five. For God�s sake, he�s just a little kid!�

�Blaise.� He said again, slightly louder. When he didn�t stop, he looked pleadingly at Nathalie as he continued to rant. She placed one hand on his forearm and spoke into his mind.

�Stop.�

Blaise stopped mid-sentence, but his eyes were still shooting daggers at Jake. �This better be good.�

�Listen.�

Blaise looked back to Jake. �Go ahead, I�m listening.� He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows.

�Blaise,� Jake said, stricken. Nathalie had never seen him look so guilty, so close to tears, so ready to do anything to make it right though he knew that nothing would. �I know that this won�t make you feel any better, or bring your sister back, and that it might actually make you even angrier. But�� He took a deep, steadying breath. �I really didn�t know who she was.�

�Oh, that is the most lame-ass excuse that I have ever heard.� Blaise said rolling his eyes.

�Just hear me out.�

Blaise leaned against the opposite wall, all ears. Nathalie didn�t know what to do, caught between the two men that she loved the most.

�I did not know that she was your sister.� Jake said. �Dark�s do not care, any Light is a target, one: to interrogate and torture to find out the location of this place.� He gestured to the room. �And two: to capture them in a trap so that there is one less Light in the way.� Jake said. She knew her brother well enough to know that he was truly repentant. �It is a time of war. Achieving goals is more important than knowing the identity of every person who has gotten in the way. Do you know the name of ever person that has died at the hands of the Lights?�

Blaise frown deepened, more from confusion than anger. �Well, no.� He said, and Nathalie actually saw a pale flush rise up from his collar.

Suddenly, Jake�s knees buckled and he fell to the ground, eyes closed. Nathalie could tell that it had taken all of his energy to say what he had and not faint, but now that energy was all gone.

She rushed to his side, putting a hand on his shoulder. He raised his head slowly, his eyes cloudy with guilt and pain and fatigue. �Make him understand.� He whispered.

She smoothed his hair out of his face gently and shook her head. �I can�t,� she said back. �Imagine how you would feel if I had been the one who had been killed. That�s what Blaise is feeling, has felt for the last two years. It will just take time.�

Jake just sighed and closed his eyes. He looked like he was trying to go to sleep to escape the pain.

People with concussions shouldn�t be allowed to sleep. The voice of her health teacher from high school said from her memories. Nathalie gently shook Jake until he opened his eyes again. �No you don�t, stay with me, Jake.�

�I�m so tired,� he moaned.

�No,� Nathalie said. She turned a worried gaze to Blaise. �I�m gonna take him to the hospital. I suggest that you go somewhere and cool off.� Blaise made a move to protest but Nathalie cut him off with a sharp look. �Go.�

Blaise blinked, she could tell that he as surprised that she was giving the orders. He closed his eyes, and �ported out.

�This isn�t over.� He �pathed.

Nathalie sent the mental equivalent of a sigh knowing that this was far from over. She bent over her brother again and �ported him to the hospital near their home.