Author's Note:

VERY IMPORTANT: I'm thinking about giving up on this story. Ya know, piecing together a happy ending and cutting off some of the drama that I have planned. I'm losing inspiration without the show being on. BUT if you all are stil showing interest, I WILL continue. So review and let me know if you all want more.

Disclaimer: I own The Nine Lives of Chloe King as much as I own a totally cute room like Chloe's. In other words; I wish.

Chapter 8

"Who's there?" Chloe called out. She reached out for anything heavy and hard and prepared to scream for Cameron.

"Hello, Chloe King," the man said as he stepped into the house.

He called her by her name. Not Uniter but Chloe. That was the first of many strange things that happened that evening.

The man stepped further into her house, the lights illuminating him. He was wearing a neat, crisply pressed black suit and white shirt with a red tie. His black loafers shined, matching the flawless briefcase in his hand. The man's hair hung loose, salt'n'pepper curls, framing a frightening face. Deep black scars covered his cheeks in perfect parallel sets of 4 and 5. One of his eyes was a bright, shocking blue that seemed to never blink and the other was a dark, swollen lump with a bit of bloodshot eyeball showing and stretched his left hand.

Chloe saw that his pinkie finger was missing and his middle finger was chopped off roughly at the knuckle.

"Who are you?" Chloe, asked, trying to buy herself some time. She backed up the slightest bit, discreetly searching for something heavy that would make a decent weapon.

The man smiled. It was a dangerous smile, the kind you'd see on a shark before it attacked, showing some chipped, blackened and missing teeth. "I have many names, none of which you know, none of which you need to know." He spoke very softly, making sure no one but Chloe could hear him.

"What does the Order call you?" Chloe's back hit the table where they put their keys in the foyer. She hadn't even realized she'd backed up that far. Her hands were shaking but her face remained calm. It was a trick Jasmine had taught her; never show fear.

He let out a bitter, humorless laugh. "The Order only has one name for me now and that's deceased."

Chloe froze, she couldn't help it. That had caught her completely and utterly off guard. If this man, this ghost, didn't work for the Order, then who? Or was he rogue? Either way, it was obvious that this was the most dangerous person she'd ever seen, more dangerous than Valentina, Scarface or Whitley Rezza.

She had been very careful to keep her heartbeat steady but suddenly it was racing. Cameron, noticing the change and hearing something from the exchange for the first time, called down to her. And all hell broke loose.

The man suddenly rushed Chloe. She grabbed a candle stick from the table and swung it wildly. He grabbed the end of it, twisting it and Chloe's arm. Chloe screamed in pain, drowning out the sound of Cameron's footsteps racing downstairs. He reached the bottom of the steps, calling out to Chloe.
Cameron saw Chloe cradling her arm and sprinted forward. Before he could get two steps, every one of the living room windows shattered ending glass flying. Men in dark clothes rushed into the room. Two of them grabbed Cameron and pinned him to the wall. Another ran to the door, slamming it shut and standing guard in front of it. The final three approached Chloe.

Chloe tried to lash out at the nameless man in front of her. She decided she'd call him Scarface II because of the unusual markings all over his face. Come to think of it, all of the attackers had deformities of some sort on their faces.

Chloe tried to kick at Scarface II again, holding on to the table and swinging both legs up. Her feet struck the man in the chest as she'd planned but before they could reach the floor, one of the others grabbed her around the knees and yanked. Chloe's head hit the table as her hands left the surface and she went tumbling down.

The last thing she remembered was hearing her phone ring then feeling it being pressed between her body and the ground before she passed out with four hideous faces looming over her.

Meanwhile, the final few colors of the sunset disappeared behind the San Francisco skyline. It was no where near as impressive as New York's or Chicago's but there were a few tall, sky blocking buildings, Alek's condo building being one of them. Alek shifted uncomfortably on the rocks he had been lying on for hours.

It was almost completely dark outside. Alek figured it was most likely about 7:30 or so. Way past time to face his fears and head back to the city. Although very tempted, he knew he couldn't hang out at Mount Hamilton forever. Chloe wasn't there.

It was thinking of Chloe that made Alek force himself to stand up. He didn't bother brushing the rock dust off of his clothes as he grabbed his long ago discarded jacket and iPod from a tree and started walking back towards the car.

He was about halfway to the bottom when his foot got caught in a tree root. Mai agility, my ass, Alek thought as he stumbled into a tree. His jacket fell out of his hands and clattered to the ground. His iPod slipped out and an iPhone came out after it.

Jasmine's phone.

Alek had completely forgotten that his cousin had given it to him. There were two notices on the screen, one for a text and the other for a voicemail, both from Valentina's cell phone.

To: Jasmine

From: Mom

Message: Hey, it's Jas. How r u? Call me home and PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO CALL CHLOE!

"Shit!" Alek muttered and quickly deleted the message and used Jasmine's speed dial to call Chloe.

The phone rang a couple times in his ear and he tapped his foot impatiently. The ringing stopped and the line clicked but no sound came.

"Chloe?" Alek said. He heard a faint rustling but no reply.

Somebody moaned and it sounded like Chloe. Normally several images and perfectly lewd, yet funny comments would pop into his mind but the sound was filled with pure pain.

"Chloe!" a voice screamed in panic. For a moment Alek thought it was him until he realized the voice came through the telephone. The person screamed her name again. It was muffled but Alek could just barely make out that it was Cameron. He listened for Jasmine's voice. Maybe they were training. Alek could only hope even though he knew that was very unlikely and started running down the mountain. He held the phone to his ear, hoping to hear any sound that could give any kind of indication of the situation.

"Get the boy and take him to the car. Don't let him out of your sight!" someone that Alek didn't recognize shouted. By then he was full-on sprinting.

"Help me lift the girl!" the same voice ordered. "We need to get her out of here before any of the neighbors notice."

There was a bit of rustling and the sound of Chloe groaning softly.

"Quickly, while she's still unconscious."

That was the last thing that Alek heard before the line clicked. It was like his brain shut down and he was running on instinct and a hell of a lot of fear. His sole focus was getting to the car so that he could get to Chloe as quickly as possible.

Alek sprinted down the mountain, trees blurring in his peripheral vision.

Finally, he reached the BMW where it sat exactly where he had left it, jumped in and took off.

It was a miracle, a gift from Basset that he didn't crash into something or someone. Alek gripped the wheel with one hand, flying up and down the steep San Francisco streets, the other hand holding Jasmine's hand and calling Chloe, Cameron, Valentina and Jasmine at home. No one picked up.

Making a quick decision, Alek made a sharp right onto Chloe's street.

He was hoping that there would be some kind of clue as to where Chloe and Cameron were taken. He ran into and around the house, only pausing long enough to get in and think that if any of this had to do with Brian, he was going to kill the human slowly and damn well enjoy it.

The house was empty and extremely messy. Broken glass from the windows and things around the room cluttered the floors. Some of Chloe's things we're lying around from where she must have left them before the attack. Nothing useful.

Alek swore to himself and turned to leave the house, dialing Valentina again. Just as he was about to put the call through, the phone rang.

Cameron.

"Jasmine?" Cameron whispered over the phone.

"No, it's Alek," he said, "I have-"

"No time," Cameron interrupted in a frantic whisper. "Look, I don't have much time. These guys used to be Order but they got kicked out or something. They took us to a beat-up building. It says Lawson's on it."

"Do you know anything else? How far was it from th-"

"No," Cameron interrupted sharply. He gasped loudly. There was some rustling and a few shouting. It sounded like people were tousling over the phone. Cameron let out a blood curdling scream followed by more movement. Cameron begging "Hurry..please," in a pained voice was the last thing that Alek heard before the line clicked off.

The sound of Cameron screaming startled Chloe back into consciousness. She jumped up and realized that she was tied to something hard for the second time that month. Even for her that was a record.

Cameron screamed again, even louder this time. Or maybe it was all one scream. Chloe's head was pounding so hard she could hardly tell. Cameron moaned out something she couldn't understand and a second later something flew past Chloe's head and smashed into the wall in front of her. It looked like a…cell phone. A crushed, completely useful hunk of metal and wires, but a phone nonetheless. A hope that someone would come to their rescue.

Chloe took in her surroundings. It was unlike any room she'd ever been held captive in before. It was more like an abandoned principal's office.

A large oak desk sat in the very middle of the room. It had seen better days but it was still beautiful. As much couldn't be said for the carpet. It was stained and torn in several places. There were even a few pictures beat up frames hanging on the walls and sitting on the desk. The most out of place thing in the room was the large metal chair chained to the desk with Chloe chained to it. Through the open door behind her, Chloe could see over her shoulder another open door leading into an even larger office. A pair of sneaker clad feet was all that she could see in the room. An overwhelming sense of dread filled her as she figured the feet probably belonged to Cameron, a possibly dead Cameron.

Two men exited the room, both glaring at Chloe as they passed but not coming into her room. Afraid of what she was going to see, Chloe turned around in her chair and faced the wall in front of her.

"Chloe King," a man said from behind her. Chloe turned and promptly screamed bloody murder. Scarface II stood in the door, his treacherous smile plastered across his face. And a long, pointy dagger in his hand, covered in fresh blood. "Why do you look so scared, Miss King?" he asked mockingly. He moved closer to the tied up girl, her face showing her fear as clear as day. Her gaze flew to his gruesome face and slowly traveled back to the weapon.

Scarface II noticed where her eyes landed. "Oh this little ol' thing," he said and put the dagger on the desk. "I just had a little issue to take care of. I'm sure you understand how terribly annoying it is when people invite their friends to a private party, don't you?"

Chloe didn't say anything, she just stared with wide eyes at the mystery man that was trying to have a conversation when death was staring her in the face. Literally.

"Oh, well, I see you don't wish to talk to me. We shall continue with business as planned." He moved closer to her. He brandished a key from his pants pocket and unlocked the chains that bound Chloe to the chair. The next key fit into the lock that attached her chair to the desk. It sprang free and Scarface II pulled her chair back for her to stand up. Chloe waited for him to unlock her handcuffs but instead, he looped his arm through Chloe's as if he was her escort to a dance and not her kidnapper.

He led her out of the room and down a long hallway that reeked of mold and urine. Finally, they reached a room that looked as if it might have been a ballroom or an upscale store with its ornate French doors. It was situated just a few feet across from what used to be the front doors, now just several pieces of thick wood nailed to the surrounding walls.

Scarface II opened the door and held it open for her to go through with a small bow. If he wasn't so evil and freaky looking, he'd be a pretty good guy, Chloe thought to herself as she stepped into the cavernous room.

Large crystal chandeliers dotted the beautiful painted ceiling. Some were missing pieces of crystal or metal and some looked completely brand new. They filled the room with a soft glow that made it hard to see all the way to the other side of the huge room. Not that there was anything to see. The room was completely empty except for a few broken chairs and picture frames along the walls. The only other thing in the room was a gleaming banquet table that sat in the very center.

Scarface II led Chloe towards the table and to where a woman was sitting at the very end with her head bowed. Scarface II cleared his throat.

The woman looked up at him, and then at his captive.

Chloe's mouth dropped in shock as she stared into the woman's eyes. She felt as if her rapidly beating heart was taking over her entire body and keeping her from feeling anything except for the overwhelming shook, dread and fear that filled.

"Hello, Chloe," the woman said with a smile, "it's very nice to see you again."

Sorry that it's short. It's late and my mom's yelling at me to go to sleep. I can't reply to reviews right now. Sorry! I sent PMs and give the most important ones shout-outs in the next chapter. I haven't really done any review for the same reasons.

I hoped you all enjoyed. I don't think their's anything from this chapter that needs a photo on my website. Did any of you look at that. Was it helpful or should I not bother?

Should I continue with this story or just give you all an ending now?

Don't forget to review and check back for a new chapter soon.

Happy New Year! :)