Chapter 13 – Movement

Clayton hated recon duty, but someone had to do it and he would be incredibly foolish to disobey a direct order from the Council. The Council that he was reporting to was none other then the Huntsmistress's Council of Advisors. In the function of the entire organization, they had very little real power, but they exerted a lot of influence. They had to do this in secret of course. If any of them were caught disobeying the unquestioned control of the Huntsmistress then it was punishable by death. But they had expressed some concern about her recent affairs to him and they had charged him with investigating them. That's what led him here, across the street from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, trailing the path of a Billionaire that he had a very large connection to the Huntsmistress. He didn't know the exact details, but he was fairly sure that there was more to this situation then met the eye. This man… this Jacob Long was a Billionaire and let's faces facts; the Huntsmistress was an incredibly attractive woman. Perhaps that was it.

Narrowing his eyes in the lens of his camera, he snapped a few more pictures of the man departing from the Limousine. Clayton would do a little bit more digging, and he would find that connection.

Perhaps he'd finally gain his full promotion into Huntership

When she had returned to her quarters in the Huntslair, she had abandoned the personality of Rose and assumed the role of the Huntsmistress once again. This entire building had belonged to her Uncle, it was now hers and the upper half of the building was exclusively the headquarters of the upper echelons of the Huntsclan. Her quarters, or rather her office had again, once belonged to her Uncle. It had a massive view of Central Park and Rose felt extremely powerful when she looked out over it. She was waiting from a report from her spies, in a sense.

On top of all that had happened as of late, there was another thing weighing on her mind that she only allowed herself to think about some of the time, the seeds of betrayal in her Council of Advisors. She had gotten wind of it months ago, and had silently ordered them all to be watched. They were fools to think that she would notice it. Rose reasoned that she knew how to play their game, and she was the best at it. She play along with them, "Mistress, you should know that you were tailed. I don't know what you were doing down on Wall Street, but you were followed. We intercepted messages from Advisor Graham."

Rose, with her hands around her back, nodded without turning around, "Who did they con into following me?"

"Apprentice Hunter Clayton Dereks," Her 'Spy' responded stoically, she was astounding loyal to her Mistress and this action by the Council angered her.

Her brow quirked upwards, she knew that name from somewhere. She couldn't quite place it, but she knew that once she laid her eyes on the boy, it would hit her. Turning to meet the eyes of her spy, Rose grinned, "I want Apprentice Dereks brought to me when he returns from his recon mission. I want to have a word with him, and make sure when you grab him, to make it discreet and none suspicious."

The Spy bowed slightly before turning on the balls of her feet, but she stopped suddenly when a question came to mind, "Mistress, may I ask you a question?"

"Yes," Rose nodded.

"What were you doing on Wall Street?" The woman asked Rose, she was curious. She was not at all suspicious, but the question had irked her for hours now.

Taking a seat in the large backed chair, Rose laid her hands across the hard wood desk and looked back at the woman with a sincere smile, "I was visiting an Old Boyfriend from High School."

Inwardly Rose snorted, 'An Old Boyfriend?' hell, Jake was her only boyfriend from High School, but her servant didn't need to know that. She might have considered this a tactical mistake, her silent bid for control with the Advisor's Council depended on secrecy, but they would never get close to the truth. Rose had taken steps, years ago, to make sure that they couldn't. Having apparently bought it, her Servant nodded and turned to the exit. When the door to the office was shut, Rose sighed and leaned her forehead into her hands. There was another reason that she had been keeping Trevor away from the Huntslair for the past few months. Her reasoning tied directly to the issue of the Advisory Council. She didn't want her only child to be used as bait, or leverage.

At the academy, she had him under 24 Hours a day surveillance from Hunters that she expressly trusted, researched and picked. She had ordered them to keep their distance, but keep their eyes on him on all times. If he was aware of this or not, Rose wasn't sure, but he hadn't said a thing to her about it and perhaps it was best if it stayed that way. With the Longs, he was kept under the protection of his Aunt and his Great-Grandfather. When he was at the Huntslair, her eyes were on him all of the times, and not even the agents of the Council would be foolish enough to try anything when she was within fifteen feet of him at all times. Rose began to think that it was a mistake for not even mentioning this to Jake, but the more she thought about it, the more she was firmly routed in her position.

No one would know about this until she could expose the Council, then she would begin to lift the security from her child. Perhaps even tell the father of her child about the security risk.

Only time would tell.

When he arrived in the building, he was immediately flanked by two large men and one woman came to stand in front of him. He had seen photos of these three, specific people in the secure files the Council had provided to him. They were, what you could almost say was the Huntsclan equivalent of the Secret Police. All three of these people were expressly loyal to the Huntsmistress and only here. He knew that there were dozens more perhaps even hundreds, but these three were the chief among them. This could mean a number of things, but he was sure by the way one of the men ripped the camera out of his hand it was about his recently completed secret mission. The woman came up to him and spoke with unhidden malice in her voice, "Apprentice Dereks, the Huntsmistress would love to have a chat with you."

Clayton audibly gulped, he was sure that he was now dead as a doornail.

Rose had found Clayton's files and she was now flipping through them casually. She had discovered why she knew that name. When she had first become Huntsmistress, the Council had advised her to promote Clayton Dereks to the position of Huntsboy and train him as her apprentice. Naturally, she had chosen Trevor for that position, but he was quite literally still a baby at the time and because of her refusal to take the Council's advice, she went an entire eight years without an apprentice. Perhaps this was a silent slap in the face? Who knew, but she knew that this Dereks boy wasn't anyone to be trifled with, so she wouldn't show mercy to him. There was a knock on the door and without looking up from the file, Rose smiled, "Come in."

Her Spy's voice was the first one she heard, "We have the boy that you wanted to see, and we also have this."

Looking up, Rose saw that she had a camera in her hands. Good, they had gotten the photographs before the Council could see them. Beckoning the woman to her, the spy walked forward and placed the digital camera in her hand. Rose sighed and flipped the camera one before turning to the recently taken pictures. They were what she expected. He captured her getting off of the subway, into a taxi, walking into the NASDAQ Building, walking out of the building. But the last few photos were something that she didn't expect, and they were photo's that made her blood boil. The little fool had followed Jake! Now she was equally glad that she had caught him before he could deliver the picture. Sure, she could afford to let Jake's name even be thrown around in the Council's Rebellion and she was confident that they would never discover him for what he really was, but it was an easy connection to make, through none other then her son. Oh, she was going to crush this little boy, Rose looked up at her spy, "Send him in."

When he was shoved into the office, his chill of fear turned into outright shaking as he spied the Huntsmistress. She was looking down at the camera and she wore the most frightening scowl on her face. He walked forward and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk, unsure of what to do. Rose finally looked up and bore down on him with her ice-blue eyes. There was something in her expression that made him want kill himself, before she killed him, "Apprentice Dereks, can you explain to me what you doing when you checked out of the base at 7:00 AM this morning?"

"Taking pictures?" He offered meekly, what else could he say? He was usually confident, but in the face of the Huntsmistress, his confidence was eroded away.

Rose snorted, "Well, I do take a good picture don't you think?"

"I would say so, ma'am," Again he offered her, it was a meek retort.

She smiled evilly, "You have ten seconds to tell me why and who you were taking these pictures for or …,"

Rose reached into the first drawer of the desk and gripped a large Desert Eagle, she brought it out of the drawer and pointed it across the desk at the young man's head, "…I'll blow your head off."