Chapter 2
Pursuit

Amber stared as the terrified man drove off. Unluckily for him, he didn't get far before he had to stop at a green light. She could see him glancing nervously at them through his mirror. Poor Muggle didn't deserve this.

The strawberry blonde stood there, clutching the brown sack at her side. It was extremely heavy with all the precious objects it contained. They should probably find a dark, secluded place and apparate away soon, but Amber needed to know that Jaden was going to be able to drive off without further incident.

After all, someone had planted this bag in his taxi…

Suddenly, Amber's arm was being pulled harshly behind her. She spun around with the force and tightened her grip on the bag out of pure reflex. When she turned, she saw a man with both hands on the bag, his face covered by a hood. Mark was quick to react as well, and took hold of the bag himself.

Without saying a word, they both yanked the bag away from the man in wizarding clothes. The man lost his grip and both parties stumbled back. Amber kept her eyes locked on the man, ready to reach for her wand if necessary. With the movement, the man's sleeve had been pushed up. That's when she saw the Dark Mark.

"Run!" Amber hissed. She didn't bother waiting for Mark's reaction. She took off running, knowing he would be right behind her. Amber managed to secure the sack on her back and then started pushing through the crowds on the street. They needed to get away from there. They couldn't face a Death Eater in the middle of Muggle London.

"Right," Mark ordered. She turned on the next street, relieved to see it more empty. Amber took off on a sprint. She could hear Mark's footsteps right behind her and another pair too close for her liking.

A chair went flying past her. Amber had to lean back to avoid getting hit. The Death Eater was obviously not against using magic in front of Muggles. Gasps and screams were heard from the observers but Amber ignored them and kept on running. Mark hadn't stopped so he was right in front of her now.

Amber turned around and saw a bike heading right for them. "Duck!" Amber bent at the waist and almost fell head first into the ground with all her momentum but she managed to keep herself up. She felt the air as the bike flew over her head. Amber straightened, grabbed Mark, who had managed to duck, and pulled him into an alley. They needed to get away!

She hesitated for only a second when she saw the brick wall in front of them. No wands, unless absolutely necessary. That was their rule. She picked up her speed, reading to scale the wall. "Bombarda!"

Mark once again pulled her away, as she had been at mid-jump when she heard the curse. "Flipendo!" Mark had his arm up, wand pointed at the bricks that had just been pushed away from them. There was dust and debris all over the alleyway.

Amber grabbed her wand from the compartment in her boot and pointed towards where the Death Eater should be. "Locomotor Mortis!" Amber and Mark took of running again, right after the spell was cast.

"Incendio!" Without knowing where the flames were directed, Mark and Amber each through themselves to either wall, letting the flames pass right between them. Amber could feel where the fire had grazed her shoulder. This was why they wore fireproof jackets.

Amber looked back to where the man, whose face was still covered by the shadows of his hood was. There was a hazy outline in the dust. "Expelliarmus!" Amber heard footsteps across from her, and stood up. There was no time to wait to see if the spell had hit its mark. They bounded out of the alleyway. When they got onto the next street, they took a right. They'd gotten very good at never losing their sense of direction.

The two wizards raced down the street and straight through traffic, ignoring the honking and took the next left and then a right. Amber glanced behind them but couldn't see anyone pursuing them. Neither of them decreased their pace. The bag filled with valuables weighed heavily on her back, but at least she knew she still had them.

Amber readjusted the straps. Her worn, knee-lengths boots kept pounding on the concrete. She ignored all the glances shot her way. Her black jeans were covered in dirt, possibly even singed a little. Her purple top was probably more black than purple. The only thing she was sure about, was that her magically enhanced, mid-thigh jacket was still intact. A glance over at Mark told her that she wasn't the only one that looked like they were dipped in a bat of dirt, soot, and grounded brick.

The streets were less crowded in the section of the city they were headed in. Muggles would hopefully just knock it down to teenagers been weird, and not call the police. The last thing they needed was the Ministry on them for having to deal with their Muggle counterparts.

Mark and Amber kept running until they hit Charing Cross Road. They made a final left, both feeling as if they were safe and slowing their pace. Amber crossed the road and glanced back. That's when the Death Eater appeared. "Mark," Amber called as she shot across the street. She rammed into the door of the pub, barely bothering with the doorknob. She kept stumbling until she found a beam to lean on, Mark coming up right beside her. They were both out of breath. Amber looked up, ignoring most of the patrons in the Leaky Cauldron. The Death Eater couldn't possibly be stupid enough to follow them in here.

All faces were looking at them, but Amber focused her attention on the one that was walking toward them. Fuck! It's Finnigan!

With that thought in mind, she grabbed Mark's forearm and apparated.

"Fucking hell, Amber!" Mark yelled at her, bent at the waist, half leaning on a random tree. "Warn a person next time." Apparating always took some amount of recovery time.

"Finnigan was there," Amber replied. She was pretty out of breath herself. Once the forest stopped spinning, she took off the sack of gold. Her shoulders were very relieved with that.

"Fucking perfect," Mark said as he finally collapsed to the floor. "Now we'll have the Ministry on our case." He sat with his back on the tree, eyes closed.

"They always are," Amber reminded him. She reached inside one of the compartments on the inside of her jacket and took out a very small purse. Amber opened it up and dumped the sack inside. She slung the battered, old purse over her head and looked down at Mark. "It's hard to ignore the two people who let a troll lose in their main entrance."

"That was an accident!" Mark said, defensively. "How was I supposed to know you could apparate with a troll?"

"Well, we all learned a valuable lesson that day," Amber retorted. "Come on. We need to head over and drop off the package." Mark gave a nod and bounded to his feet. His sweater and jeans were covered in soot. Amber disliked the fact that he took this mission so lightly. He hadn't brought a quarter of his gear with him.

"Why'd you have to apparate so far away from the main building?"

"It was the first place I could think of," Amber defended. "Be happy that I didn't apparate us out of the country." Mark waved his hand dismissively and started walking towards the main building.

"I'm going to have words with him for this," Mark mumbled under his breath. He was always looking for a fight.

Amber followed behind him. The terrain wasn't that bad on this side of the property. If she had apparated on the east side, they'd have to deal with steep hills and a few poisonous plants. They both continued on through the unmarked path. Amber kept taking deep breaths, waiting for the adrenaline to subside.

Amber never tired of observing the ancient and expensive artworks in that office. She knew that even if she was rich she wouldn't be able to afford half the things in that mansion. They'd obtained it with time as well as with wealth. She only admired the artworks because of her interest for art history. One could only be a Hunter, for objects, wizards, and magical creatures alike, for so long before you began to admire some of the more finer objects you were sent to retrieve.

Amber continued to stroll around the room. She'd been there enough times to have the entire place memorized. And since the owner had vowed never to change anything, she could easily name every single object in the room even if months had passed. Mark, though sharing her interest to a lesser extent, was not in the mood to peruse the office space. Mark had slumped down in the chair in front of the large mahogany desk as soon as the house elf had ushered them in. The house elf was too kind to complain about all the dirt and soot they were tracking into the pristine house. If it had been any other client, Mark and her would have cleaned up before delivering their package. It added to the persona of "Yes, we are that good. We didn't even get a scratch." They didn't need that with this particular contractor.

A section of the wall suddenly dissolved into thin air and out came their contractor for this particular mission. Expensive tailored suit and all. Amber walked over and sat on the chair next to Mark and he took his seat opposite of them.

"Well?" he asked, leaning back in his chair as if he owned the world. In another parallel universe, he would have. Amber grabbed her purse and rummaged through for the sack that had caused them so much trouble. She could feel his eyes on her, assessing the damage, as she went about her task. She finally got a hold of it, and yanked it out of the purse. Amber dumped it in the middle of the well organized desk.

"What happened?" he asked, not even glancing at the sack.

"Death Eater," Mark replied, bite in his voice.

"Who?" The contractor seemed thoroughly unimpressed.

"We couldn't get a good look at his face. He had a hood on," Amber replied.

"So you saw his Mark?"

"Part of it, yes."

"You didn't tell us Death Eaters were after the same package," Mark stated. He wasn't too pleased.

"You two know how to handle yourselves. I didn't think it would make a difference. Besides, you should've known that Death Eaters were after the package." Mark seemed ready to bombard him with questions, but the contractor decided to check the content of the bag at that moment.

Galleons spilled out of the bag once the flap was open. He ignored them and stuck his hand inside the bag. He kept shifting it around, looking for something. Soon after he pulled his hand out along with a silver orb.

Amber had seen many magical objects over the years, but nothing compared to this. In reality, there should have been many other objects that had better craftsmanship. The orb had a silver background with intricate black design weaving around it's surface. They appeared to be carved into the object. The lines were not perfect though. Amber could tell that they were unsmooth. Small ridges made them imperfect. Yet there was something about the object. There appeared to be a glow coming from within. It was obviously magical, but this was different than other magical objects. It was powerful. Very, very powerful. Yet imperfect.

Amber hadn't realized that she had leaned forward in her seat, moving towards the orb. She seemed to pull herself out of a trance. Mark was also leaning forward. "What is that?" Mark asked, pulling himself out of his daze.

They never asked what it was they were retrieving. At the very least, they never expected a response. It was different with him.

"Elixir of life," he responded. Amber furrowed her eyebrows. The Philosopher's Stone had been destroyed over two decades ago. "Well," he continued, "it's supposed to be."

"Incomplete?" Amber asked.

"No, this one was a failure. The creator died soon after," he explained.

"Then why get us to get it?" Mark asked.

"Its too dangerous out there. It may be imperfect but it's leagues ahead of where others have gotten. It could do a lot of trouble in the wrong hands."

"And yours are the right hands?" Mark asked sarcastically. His classic smirk spread across his face at Mark's comment.

"We'll just have to wait and find out." He placed the orb down and got out two plain, brown pouches out of a drawer. He began to count Galleons from the sack into the two pouches. Once they were both pretty full, he tossed one to each of them. "That's for retrieving the elixir. Now, where'd you find it?"

"Cab driver had it," Mark said.

"Muggle?"

"Yeah, seems he was obliviated too," Amber put in.

"Find out who did it and who took it out of the creators lab," he ordered. "Bring me a report within the month, or as soon as you find anything worth mentioning. I'll give you the next payment after that."

They both nodded their agreement. He always liked to know every detail when he handed them out a mission. But it seemed that this one went a little deeper than a desire to be one step ahead of everyone.

"Alright, but what did you mean we should have known Death Eaters were after that? You hadn't told us what was inside, so how were we supposed to know it was more than just Galleons?"

Amber looked down at her lap, trying to stop herself from laughing. He wasn't so courteous. He laughed and placed that smirk back on his face.

"I was after the orb," Draco Malfoy stated.