After moving around the large property, Raven took note of the multiple security cameras. She knew which were motion censored and which were rotating. Staring into the property, she could see a few dim lines on the large yard made from laser lights.
Why would Muscles need this much security? She wondered as she moved under a rotating camera, one of the few blank spots she’d found. She was near the side of the house but the nearest neighboring house was a mile away. That made this next part easy.
Raven climbed up the fence bars until she had to duck under the camera’s rotation. She could feel her sore muscles struggling to hold her up. It was nine something in the morning and she hadn’t stopped moving until she made it here. That meant no sleep and barely time to heal after her encounter with the Blondes.
Despite the time, she’d noticed the house seemed really quiet. There was no one coming in or out of the property and no one patrolling the outside. She briefly wondered if he trusted the cameras so much or if there was something else guarding the house.
When the camera turned away again, Raven continued over the fence and carefully jumped down. She knelt for a moment before pulling on her sunglasses to see the lines on the grass better. She kept low as she dashed to the nearest tree. She pressed her back onto it as another camera rotated toward her. She did her best not to move, knowing both cameras were pointing her way.
Mentally she counted the seconds before both cameras were turned away and moved to the next hiding spot. She neared a well and cursed slightly to see another camera about to turn to her. She’d missed this one.
With only one spot to go, Raven jumped into the wishing well and held onto the edge with her fingertips. She was about to set her foot on the opposite side when it slipped and she nearly let go. She froze, still mentally tracking the seconds until the coast was clear. She then peeked up and surveilled her surroundings first. No one was around and the cameras were finally looking away. So she rolled out of the well and raced to the front door. Of all the doors, this one didn’t have a camera pointing right at it.
She quickly pulled out her tools and made quick work of the lock. She could practically feel the cameras beginning to turn back to her as she quickly ducked inside and quietly shut the door.
Raven glanced around at the lavish décor before quickly moving toward the quiet room to her right. She wasn’t sure if the door had a sensor and preferred being away from the area. The room she entered was filled with wall-to-wall books… A library? She unzipped her windbreaker and left it behind, hiding it behind a thick cushioned chaise near a wall. Now she had access to her weapons.
Of course, Mr. Muscle would live here. He was probably a drug dealer or assassin sent by one of her father’s enemies. And she was walking right into his hands. But she just had to know what was going on with the blondes. Why did they keep turning up around her? Why did he?
Cautious, Raven took out her gun and held it standard-like; with her finger away from the trigger so as to not make a mistake. This room was nice. Carpeted and clean with actual comfortable furniture.
Raven found herself wishing she had a home like this. Big, warm, decorative… inviting.
Suddenly, she felt a sharp sting in the back of her shoulder and the world swam. She barely felt the carpet as she fell onto it heavily, her muscles relaxing involuntarily.
She did an immediate mental sweep of her body.
Not a gun… darts…
She couldn’t fight. She couldn’t move. She just really, really wanted to sleep.
With a sigh and mental curse, Raven closed her eyes and let herself drift.
Raven woke up with a gasp, forcing herself quickly into consciousness. She lifted herself on her elbow to find her windbreaker folded neatly like a pillow for her head. Frowning, she pushed herself up off the floor and glanced around quickly. She was alone in a white walled room. The perfectly square room was completely bare except for a long rectangular window set high on a wall that she was willing to bet was a two-way.
Forcing herself to get a grip on her swimming head and her stiff muscles, Raven forced herself to stand up. Her clothes were untouched but the gun harness and knife belt was gone. Of course.
“Who are you?” a loud deep voice suddenly asked, echoing around the room. Raven felt her hands fist in surprise as she let her eyes glance around but she forced herself to calm down. It wasn’t Mr. Muscle’s voice but it was filled with authority.
“Are you Anise Jensen, college student majoring in computer science and linguistics?”
Raven froze. They found her.
“My name is Raven,” Raven said, loudly and clearly, staring right at the mirror.
“Raven,” a deep voice repeated behind her.
Raven whirled around and raised her stance before truly recognizing the man in front of her. It was Mr. Muscle.
“Relax, I’m not coming any closer,” he said, crossing his large arms.
“Wise choice,” Raven kept her stance up, remembering how fast he was. “I see you remember last time.”
Mr. Muscle frowned. “I do,”
“You weren’t there before,” she nodded to his position.
“Perhaps you aren’t as perceptive as you think you are,” he tilted his head.
Raven eyed him and noticed the duffel bag beside him. Her duffel bag. She refused to acknowledge it or correct his statement. She was very perceptive. He practically appeared out of thin air and she wondered if the exit was in the wall behind him.
“Who do you work for?” Raven asked instead and the man’s frown turned confused. “You and I keep seeing each other nearly at every turn. If you don’t work for anyone then this has got to stop or I’ll expect a dinner.”
Raven felt watched and knew that whoever was behind the mirror was paying rapt attention.
“Your gun harness was standard issue for cops and the knife harness was standard for a hunter,” Mr. Muscle began after a quick chuckle at her dinner joke. “The security video also showed you holding it in a safety standard position. Are you a cop or a hunter of some kind?”
“Nope,” Raven replied quickly. “Are you?”
“How did you get in?” Mr. Muscle asked instead.
“I stood outside for a few minutes and no one answered. So, I decided to come in,”
“How? We have state-of-the-art security,”
“Oh yeah, I saw that. It’s pretty badass. I also saw the blind spots… all of them,”
“Why would you sneak in here?”
“Is it sneaking in? The house seemed pretty vacant for ten a.m. on a Saturday,”
“You used blind spots and didn’t knock,”
“Would anyone have answered the door bell when the security didn’t sense someone coming right up to the door? Or would we end up here still?”
He seemed impressed. “How did you find this place?”
“I was outside my apartment because the blondes were in there. Then you showed up and they attacked. You escaped and I followed you.”
“On foot?” he asked, looking very surprised.
Raven nodded. “Until you got into a huge car and drove off. I wired a car and followed you after that. I saw you come here so I put the car back and came here myself. It took a while.”
“Were you followed?” Isaac asked immediately.
“I know how to cover my trail,”
“Did you… Did you see anything?” Isaac asked, as if cursing himself.
Raven shook her head. “I just heard your fight. Like hell I was going to show my face.”
“Why would you follow me here?”
“What kind of interrogation is this?” Raven glanced around; her stance still strong. “You knock me out, keep me in this empty room and you don’t even bother tying me up? Or show off any torture tools? How do you know I’m telling the truth?”
“You are. You have no reason to lie,” Mr. Muscle said after a quick pause and Raven stared,
“I want to know why those blondes attacked you that night,”
“That’s not really your business,”
“They’re making it my business! They’re after me now and to be honest, I don’t want the added stress of a fan club. I also want to know how I watched you kill like eight of them without a weapon but you couldn’t land a hit on me,”
“I wasn’t making an attack on you,” he said, voice tightening. “Except the one I apologized for.”
“So, you thought it was ok to grab me right after? You freaked me out so I ran. I can’t believe you let me.”
“You sent a disciple on me!”
“You call them disciples?”
Mr. Muscle froze and Raven knew she’d hit home. She waited as Mr. Muscle calmed down.
“Clever,” he muttered as if realizing what she’d done. Raven felt herself smirk. “Tell me of your technique.”
“I get you pissed and you answer before realizing it,”
“Not that. Your fighting technique,”
“Oh, you mean the one you couldn’t fight back?” Raven taunted. “That’s not really your business,” she took on a deeper voice and mimicked him.
Mr. Muscle sighed. “Believe me, Raven. I mean you no harm.”
“How can I believe that from someone whose name I don’t know?”
“It’s… Isaac…”
Raven raised an eyebrow and tightened her stance. “Isaac? Is that some kind of Bible thing?”
“Not really, alright look. I’m not going to hurt you. We would have done that while you were unconscious,” Mr. Muscle said. “Just talk to me.”
“No. You talk to me,” Raven shot back. “I’m the one who doesn’t know what the hell is going on and yet was attacked more than once by a bunch of beefed-up guys.”
“I already apologized for my attack on you. I thought you were one of them,”
“Was it as big of a surprise to you as it was to me when one of them dragged me by the throat?” Raven asked, feeling herself tremble slightly.
“It was. I’ve never known them to attack someone without cause,” he said and then paused, looking at her hands, before continuing. “You said someone was in your apartment. Were you attacked? Was it the blondes?”
“The disciples, yeah,” Raven said.
“So, you patched yourself up and came here?” he glanced down at her duffel bag with a frown before meeting her eyes again. “Why?”
Raven met his golden eyes steadily. “You tried to help me that night. I figure you could give me answers since they showed up at my apartment.”
“Did you know they were there?”
Raven shook her head. “They showed up, we fought and I ran. It didn’t surprise me too much. I lost my wallet that night in the park so someone was bound to show up.”
“I picked up your wallet and we ran the trace. They had to be following a different lead because I didn’t find anything with the name on your I.D.,” his eyes moved and he stared at her hair. Raven vaguely remembered his words that night: ’You have beautiful hair.’
“What lead?” Raven asked, fearing for her sister.
“You cut the rope with a dis— one of their daggers and cut yourself, right?”
“If someone hadn’t yelled,” Raven said pointedly.
“It was a bad move but I was just trying to warn you,” he said.
“So, you’re saying it was poisonous?”
“In a sense,” his eyes flickered to her hair again. “Why did you dye your hair?”
“I didn’t. I woke—” Raven said before stopping herself and saw his yellow eyes grow wide.
“You have to trust me,” he said, arms up in peace. “You’re in grave danger but my Brothers and I can help you.”
“There are more of you?” Raven asked.
“Five others,” Isaac replied stiffly. What kind of a name is that anyway?
“How am I supposed to trust any of you when I still don’t get what’s going on?” Raven asked. “Why do you call them disciples and why did they attack you? Is it some kind of gang war thing? How did they find me?”
“Look, my Brothers and I have been fighting them all our lives. We know how to defend you—”
“I don’t need defense. I can do that myself,” Raven said. “Why would I need you?”
“These aren’t your usual… ah… opponents, Raven. They are much stronger and faster,” Isaac said.
Raven remembered when she fought with them. “I remember. So? I did alright.”
“How do you think you’ll do with a crowd of ten or twenty?” Isaac asked.
“Well I did alright with eight of them,” Raven said, feeling slightly put off by his attacks.
“I bet you barely got away,” Isaac said and Raven narrowed her eyes at him.
“Big talk coming from the guy who couldn’t even fight back against me and ran away from four,” Raven shot out. Suddenly she felt stupid because his expression darkened to the point where he didn’t look human.
“Couldn’t isn’t the term to use,” he growled and suddenly he was directly in front of her. Raven gasped as he continued, “Wouldn’t is more accurate.”
Raven quickly recollected herself and launched a quick punch toward the middle of his chest. Just as the tip of her knuckle hit him, he was gone again. Raven looked around, surprised.
“Your speed for a human is amazing,” his voice said but wherever Raven turned, he wasn’t there.
“I would tell you the same thing,” Raven began softly, stance up as she moved, noting the slight growl in his voice now as he finished her sentence,
“Except I’m not human,”
“Figures,” Raven muttered.
He suddenly appeared at her right side and shoved her hard. Raven, off guard, stumbled to the side and pivoted to launch a kick at him, which he dodged and tripped her. Quickly, Raven jumped to her feet and raised her stance again. His arms shot out and grabbed her wrists. Twisting her hands around his to grab his wrists, Raven fell backwards and pulled him over her. With a grunt, she pushed him away with her feet and let him soar over her before jumping to her feet. Turning, she saw him reaching for her and dodged around his arm to twist and launch a fist into his side.
Isaac grunted and tried to recover by launching a kick but Raven had no intention of falling for it and ducked. She tried to bob up and launch a punch but his open palmed hand was already shoving her backwards by her stomach. Surprised at his speed, Raven felt her feet leave the floor for a second as she flew back from the simple push.
Landing on steady hunter’s feet, she met his eyes for a second as he neared her before turning and running away from him. Kicking off the wall, she rose up and reached for both her tennis shoe soles before tucking her head in to roll to the side. She straightened up and raised her hands just as he grabbed her wrists and pushed her back onto a wall. Her hands were holding two make shift blades scissoring across his throat. He looked surprised, as if he hadn’t seen the blades.
“You’re impressive,” he grinned and began to back off when she shifted her hands slightly so the blades were pressing against his throat; if he moved, the blades would cut him. His smirk shrunk a bit as he eyed her, curiously. “I believe this is a draw.”
“What are you?” Raven felt herself ask as she held fast against his hold on her arms. She couldn’t move the rest of her in an effective manner.
“I am the only one who can help you now,” Isaac growled and Raven could see that his K9 were longer than normal… and sharper. “You are in deep trouble, Raven, and you need to trust me,” he continued softly. “If you can’t, then at least comply for your own benefit.”
Raven didn’t answer, her lungs trying to pant. Her side burned where a blonde had kicked her and her knuckles were straining against the bandages.
“You have until tomorrow to decide,” Isaac continued. “Or we’ll have to make the choice for you.”
“Tomorrow?”
“We’re too busy with our own shit to protect someone who doesn’t want it,”
“So, what’ll happen if I say no?”
“We’ll let you go and you try to handle this on your own. But understand that they will find you wherever you’re hiding. They can go a while without food or sleep. They will not stop until they get you.”
“You’re saying they aren’t human either?” Raven stared into his darkening yellow eyes and forced herself to look at his hair. His eyes were so intense that she knew he was telling the truth… and it was freaking her out. He wasn’t human. Those disciples weren’t humans…
“Understand that if they catch you and we ever cross paths again… I will be forced to kill you,” Isaac continued gravely and Raven froze as she stared at him, her grip on the blades slackening.
A few seconds later, he released her and stepped out of arm’s reach. Raven stayed where she was, trying like hell to figure out what was going on. She watched him move toward the wall to her right where a door opened from the outside.
Without another word, Isaac left the room and the door shut.
Raven, alone now, sank down the wall and let herself pant. She hugged her knees, setting the blades beside her. She sat there tried her best not to lose it. She hugged her middle but tried not to make it look too obvious, knowing the others were still watching.
Why did she have to take that stupid shortcut?
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