*I'm so proud. With the help of my great betas (thanks and hugs to Jo this time) I really have found my tact now. The next chapter is ready and I think at Sunday I'll post another one again. I thank you all so much for your great reviews. That's a support I really need. So feel hugged, too, my dears. And now I wish you much fun with the next chapter! Best wishes, Jenna*

Escape into the unknown

Beth knew that Josef was terribly angry, but his concern for her was even greater than his anger, so he did not fly off the handle but immediately switched into helper mode, which was what she needed now.

She was still not quite sure if she was right in her assumption that the dark BMW which passed her just now was the same one that had caught her attention before. But she asked herself, were there generally so many cars of the same type in this region that were also equipped with tinted windows?

Beth was a very observant person and there wasn't much that escaped her attention because a reporter needed this capability. It was because of this that she had been able to spot Mick when they had met for the first time. She just sensed it when someone was watching her. And she was sure that this time it was the same. There was someone behind her following her on foot, but she didn't dare turn around. Sometimes situations got even worse when the enemy knew they'd been spotted.

"How many are there?" she heard Josef's tense voice through the telephone as she was walking down the street at a brisk but not conspicuously fast pace.

"I don't know exactly," she responded quietly. "I haven't been able to actually see anyone, but I think they're following me with a car and on foot."

A thoughtful silence followed her words.

"If it's the Legion they won't attack you immediately. At least not as long as you're able to fool them that you haven't noticed them," Josef put her own thoughts into words. "If they know who you are they may be hoping that you'll lead them to us. You have to make sure they continue to believe that so try to act calm and unaware of their presence. Is there a mall or anything else like that nearby, if possible, a building with video cameras and security guards?"

Beth let her gaze roam over the larger buildings in her immediate vicinity and tried to place them somewhere. "There could be something like that ahead," she finally said, and her already quickly beating heart gave a joyful leap. "Very good," she heard Josef say enthusiastically. "Then go there! Logan!" She could hear that Josef was moving away and then exchanging a few hasty words with someone even farther away.

Just the feeling that somewhere out there were people who were trying to help with her problem and that she wasn't left alone took away a bit of the fear that had been bottled up inside her for the last few minutes. She walked to the street and waited until there was no traffic and then hurried across it towards the long, brightly lit building that was now close to her. The building was visited by many people who came to quickly do their after work errands or just stroll through the mall. It was odd, but in some way it seemed to promise her protection and assistance and her steps quickened automatically. The shock was all the greater when she noticed from the corner of her eye that only a few feet away from her two people crossed the street and adapted their own pace clearly to hers. How Beth would have loved to be wrong with her persecution theory, but now she was sure that someone was after her.

"Beth," she heard Josef's comforting voice. "I'm going to organize someone to pick you up, but you really have to stay around other people! So, go into the building and get yourself a position with decent surveillance and I'll call you right back."

'No! Don't hang up! I need to hear your voice!' she wanted to call into the phone in panic, but instead she compressed her lips tightly and put the phone into her pocket before the connection was even broken. The role of a frightened little girl was simply not in her nature although this pathetic person existed somewhere inside of her. But she had no chance against the strong, quick thinking and acting Beth, who always took over the lead immediately in these situations.

Beth tried to slow down her pace a bit when she arrived at the large revolving door of the shopping center. The many people who came her way and stepped through the door with her gave her a little more courage and strength and when she walked into the interior of the building she was almost convinced she would be able to escape her pursuers with no problems.

The center was huge and for such a late hour quite crowded. It spanned two floors and had everything that people might need to organize their daily lives: clothing stores, drug stores, a supermarket, a large department store, jewelry stores, small shops where there were all sorts of knick-knacks, and so on and so forth. Video cameras seemed to be everywhere and soon she spotted some security guards who were engrossed in a conversation near the big fountain in the middle of the center. So she strolled towards them trying hard to look relaxed, while she let her gaze roam over the many shops that had found a truly profitable location here. The center was quite crowded and even on her short trip to the fountain she had to wind her way around some extremely stressed out looking visitors in order not to collide with them.

She stopped by the rotating clothing stand of a small boutique and pretended to inspect the special offers available to the public more closely. She turned so that she could keep an eye on the entrance without much effort. The sunglasses she was wearing enabled her to let her gaze wander unseen. She soon discovered the couple that had followed her had, to her discomfort, unfortunately also entered the center and was undoubtedly closer to Beth than she would have preferred. The man who was tall and strong with a neat beard and a dark leather jacket had now stopped with apparent interest at a men's clothing shop. His companion, a tall woman with dark hair that was pulled up and a stony face walked over to a beauty shop. Both looked very athletic and wore clothes that wouldn't hamper them during a chase. Fortunately, Beth had also remembered to slip into flat shoes but she was still aware that it would not be easy to shake off these two people assuming it was only these two she had to worry about. She winced when the phone began to vibrate in her pocket again and pulled it out quickly.

"Hi!" she said aloud with a beaming smile and the sweetest girlie voice she had in her repertoire. The enemy was too close to be able to speak openly. "You finally called me! I'd begun to think you had forgotten me!"

For a moment there was a puzzled silence at the other end of the line and Beth was afraid that Josef would immediately hang up assuming he had a wrong number, but fortunately he had an alert mind much like Mick and immediately got why she was behaving strangely.

"How close are they?" he asked bluntly.

"That's nice," she said with a small, cutesy smile. "I wish I would live right across from you."
"How many?"

"Perhaps about two o'clock?"

"Listen, Logan is just hacking into the video cameras of the shopping center," Josef said. "If you tell me where you are we can find out if there are other people who are watching you."

"Okay," she said smiling, watching with trepidation as the bearded man slowly walked over to the deli which was right next door to her boutique. "I wish you were here," she said dreamily, and walked slowly toward the fountain again backing away from her pursuers. "This fountain is so romantic."

It took a moment until Josef spoke again.

"Okay, have you disguised yourself somehow?" he asked, somewhat confused. "We can't seem to spot you."

"What, you really cannot remember me?" she asked. "The long-haired brunette from last night!" She ran a hand through her hair in a narcissistic gesture being careful not to move her wig, but nevertheless giving Josef a clear sign.

"Wow, not bad," she heard Josef smile appreciatively. "Maybe they don't know whom they're following. With whom did you meet? Maybe that's who they were observing."

This was hard. It was hardly possible to disguise Ben's name in any way, so she just smiled and hissed very quietly through gritted teeth into the phone a short "Talbot".

Silence. Even over the vast distance that lay between them Beth could feel Josef's anger returning abruptly.

"You met with Talbot?" he snapped at her unrestrained and gasped for air indignantly. "Have you lost your mind? You're lucky that he hasn't arrested you! Damn! Beth! You ... you ..." Words seemingly failed him and he panted angrily a few more times, then she could hear him breathe in deeply. "Okay, we ... we'll talk about that later," he said to her relief. "I have sent Max to get you but it will take a little while until he's there. Do you think you can keep your pursuers in check that long?"

"Yes, I think so," she returned quietly. The woman had also moved and was headed purposefully toward the clothing rack of the boutique where Beth had previously stood. She gave no indication of having noticed that the person she was shadowing was organizing her escape. Nevertheless, Beth strolled unobtrusively towards the two guards she had discovered upon entering the center. But they seemed to have finished their exciting conversation, parted with a comradely pat on the shoulder and moved away in different directions. Whom should she follow? Was it even necessary to follow them? She paused, with a bit of uncertainty and looked after them feeling somewhat uneasy.

"Logan says that there are two other people on the upper floor who are inconspicuously watching you," Josef enlightened her and Beth's stomach did another one of those turbulent somersaults. This wasn't exactly good news. Shaking off two people was one thing, but four was something entirely different. She started slowly to feel quite uncomfortable in her skin. Especially now that the guards had gotten lost in the ever-moving shuffle of shoppers and she had no idea where to find them.

She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat and had to cough before she was able to speak again. "When are you coming this evening?" she asked, trying to sound somewhat smitten and hoped fervently that her friend immediately deciphered what she really wanted to know.

He did understand. "You have to give Max at least fifteen minutes," he said. "Maybe he'll be faster, but I cannot promise that. You need to move to the entry at the back of the building as unobtrusively as possible, of course. "

He broke off and Beth knew immediately that something was wrong. Her eyes flew over to her pursuers and she noticed instantly that the posture of the two had changed. The woman pressed her forefinger against her ear which told Beth that she was connected by radio with someone outside. The man had paused his movements and seemed also to listen to some person who was invisible to Beth and who seemed to have given him some new important instructions.

"Run, Beth!" Josef's strained voice took on an extremely urgent tone. But she didn't need him to tell her that because she had already set herself in motion and moved at high speed through the mass of people who went eagerly from shop to shop and made it quite difficult to move rapidly. She did not need to turn around to know that the odd couple immediately followed on her heels. It was more important to make sure the other two tails were not able cut off her path. But luckily she had help.

"Turn right," Josef commanded and she reacted immediately rushing into one of the side wings of the building which was just as busy.

"Where are the others?" she panted. Her heart pounded most painfully against her ribcage while at the same time she had great difficulty fighting the paralyzing fear inside her. Again and again she bumped painfully against bags, shoulders, arms, as she fought to slalom her way through the crowd all the while praying that her pursuers were having as much trouble getting ahead as she was.

"They must first find the escalator on the other side," Josef tried to calm her. "Somewhere on the left side must be a side exit. It leads to the control rooms of the security operation. Go there. It definitely gives you a little bit more time. They will not dare to attack you before the guard's eyes."

"Okay," she uttered, strained, striving to believe him and then threw a quick look behind her. Her heart almost jumped up into her throat as the bearded guy was much closer to her than she had assumed. He simply pushed the people who did not dodge him on their own rudely out of his way despite their vociferous protests. And now barely two meters were separating them. Panic gripped Beth and caused her to speed up even more. Now it no longer mattered to her that she might be hurting other people during her escape and she rammed them with such force that some of them cried out enraged and struggled to maintain their balance.

Suddenly the door was very close to her. Beth didn't think, just pulled it open and stormed inside.

"The other left!" Josef called into her ear with horror but it was too late. She couldn't go back now. She didn't have time to look around but noticed while she was running that she was now in one of the hallways that connected the two floors of the center with each other. The next moment she rushed up the stairs. Cold horror seized her when only a few seconds later she heard her pursuers rip open the door below her and follow her up the stairs. She pushed herself off the banister in order to turn the curve even faster and at the same time she reached with her other hand into her pocket. Although she was panic-stricken, the cool, small can she immediately found felt good to her fingers but it didn't help to push down her fear as much as the sound of Josef's voice did. She could hear him calling loudly for her through the cell phone that she could no longer press against her ear. She couldn't answer him now and he couldn't help her at the moment. All that mattered now was her physical strength, her quickness and her ability to push back her fear enough so that she remained capable of action. This really was not very easy because her pulse was racing and she felt the strong urge to cry out loudly for help. But here certainly no one would hear her.

Beth had always been very fast and because of running regularly in the park was in pretty good shape but the bearded man seemed to be a real powerhouse. Already on the second landing he was so close to her that once he tried to grab her over the banister. Beth dodged him at the last second with a swerving movement and now took two steps at a time to put more distance between them. Her heart was racing in her chest and the faint burning in her lungs told her that her strength was running short faster than she would have liked. The bearded man, however, didn't seem to feel the same way. He, too, was now taking several steps at a time and at the next landing he caught hold of her hair. Beth threw herself forward with a suppressed cry and with her next breath was rid of her wig. Her panic now shot so much adrenaline through her veins that she indeed managed to move faster. But even that did not seem to be enough. The man's thundering steps were soon so close that Beth knew that he had caught up with her even before his fingers dug into her jacket from behind. However, if he thought that she would give up without a fight he was profoundly wrong. She felt a powerful jolt when he pulled her backwards but Beth didn't put up any resistance. Instead, she used the drive of her attacker to turn around like lightening, pulled her hand out of her jacket and brought the pepper spray close to his eyes. She didn't hesitate for a second and pushed the release button with the coolness of a killer. The man backed up but had no time to escape the strong squall of the gas. He screamed, horrified, and screwed up his eyes as the woman who came up the stairs behind him stopped, confused. Beth had the presence of mind to throw herself forward onto the steps, raise her leg in a swift motion and kick with her heel hard against the chest of the yelling man who had pressed his hands against his face. He immediately lost his balance and fell backwards down the stairs knocking his partner over.

Beth was instantly back on her feet rushing up the stairs and finally through the next door that led into the salesroom of a big clothing store. Her legs felt like jelly and now her muscles were in almost as much pain as her lungs were. She still ran a few steps more, and then she rapidly slowed her pace down and soon mixed with the other busy customers of the store, struggling hard for breath. She was now so fearful that she could no longer avoid looking back over her shoulder again and again, reckoning that at any moment one of her pursuers would appear behind her again. But she could not see anyone which didn't mean that she had indeed succeeded in getting rid of them even if their fall had looked pretty bad. She would only be able to find this out for sure from Josef.

Beth stopped dead in her tracks and got hot and cold all at once as she stared into her empty hand. She had lost the phone! It must have slipped from her hand during the scuffle and she hadn't even noticed it in the whirl of excitement! She brought both her hands to her mouth appalled and for an instant was not able to breathe as the tightness grew in her chest. For a moment, the paralyzing horror gained the upper hand over her exhausted body and she felt so alone and helplessly delivered to the mercy of fate. She tumbled weakly into a slightly hidden corner and held onto a clothes rack in order not to give in to the weakness and shaking of her knees and slump down. She glanced back in the direction where she had come from and felt tears of despair slowly filling her eyes. She could not go back under any circumstances. She was totally on her own from now on and had to compete alone against at least four probably very dangerous people.

'Move, Turner,' she snapped at herself, inhaled deeply and shakily and closed her eyes for a few seconds. 'You can do it! You can make it! You have already coped with worse situations,' she said to herself. 'Think of Mick. You cannot leave him in the lurch.'

Indeed she managed with violent effort to push her fears a little bit aside and to begin to move again. Her eyes flew frightened over the faces of the people who moved around her and her fingers tightened around the small spray bottle in her hand, the only weapon she had at the moment. But her mind slowly began to work again.

Josef had said Max would soon pick her up and that she had to go to the back exit of the center. Perhaps she could manage to get there unseen even without his help. She only had to change her look a bit once more. She stopped at a shelf with various hats and caps and hectically picked out a baseball cap with trembling fingers, looking again and again over to the door of the hallway through which she had entered the store. But still neither of her two pursuers showed up. Apparently, her attack had a more lasting effect than she had assumed.

Beth hurried to the nearest check out counter. Fate was kind to her because only one woman was ahead of her. The woman was almost finished and soon the cashier turned to her. She needed only a few minutes and then Beth was able to hurry on with her new acquisition. In a hidden corner behind some clothes racks, she briskly pinned up her hair, put on her cap and stuffed all the remaining strands of hair quickly underneath it. She took off her sunglasses and slipped them into her jacket pocket and then took off the jacket and tied it around her hips. A brief glance into a mirror hanging nearby told her that she looked really different. She was not sure if this was enough but she just didn't have any more time. She peeked cautiously over the racks and moved after she still wasn't able to detect anything suspicious. With a still far too rapidly beating heart and shaky legs she went toward the escalator. The tension weighing on her was almost painful and she constantly had to bolster herself up to keep herself from falling victim to a nervous breakdown. After the stressful time with Mick this was simply too much for her. But she had to get through this, had to make it because this wasn't just about her own life. After all, these people wanted to get to Mick most of all and to cause him more suffering and she wouldn't allow that, would never allow it! She gritted her teeth as she reached the floor below stepped from the escalator and marched now with much firmer steps towards the exit of the store. She could see no one who was still after her.

When she stepped out of the store she took a moment to orient herself. This time she was on the other side of the fountain and if she wasn't wrong she just had to go left which would take her directly to the back exit. She took a deep breath and looked around to be sure that no one had spotted her and then moved taking care not to move too fast but with a speed appropriate to the situation bringing her closer to her goal as quickly as possible. Her stomach did an unpleasant turn when she noticed that two men were heading her way at a run, visibly searching for someone in the crowd. With their dark clothing and their aggressive behavior they made room for themselves which told her that these two had to be the other 'employees' of the Legion who were also after her. She lowered her gaze quickly and just went on, hoping and praying that they would not recognize her in her new disguise. Once again fate seemed to be on her side, because the two darkly dressed, stout men hurried past her without taking notice of her. Perhaps it also helped that they had discovered precisely at this moment another blond woman who looked similar to her and made a beeline for her.

Beth incited herself to a faster pace again. The exit was not far away now and if she was lucky, maybe Max was already there.

It had already gotten quite dark outside when she pushed open the heavy glass door of the center and stepped out onto the large parking lot that lay behind the building. But that was not the reason why she couldn't detect anyone ready to pick her up. There was simply no one there. She took a few steps forward, took a deep breath and then cast a glance at the shopping center again with great unease. Of course, the two men from earlier had somehow gotten her scent and now rushed toward the door. Beth turned around immediately and ran off across the parking lot past parked cars while avoiding the moving ones. The rapid footsteps behind her caused her heart to race and the suppressed panic to blossom again. Quickly her lungs began to rattle and her sides to ache again. But she would not give up, could not give up, no matter how close the men were to her. There had to be another way, a chance to escape - had to be!

Somewhere she could hear the squeal of tires and the roar of an engine and at that moment she knew she had lost. She couldn't cope with a car.

A black BMW suddenly shot through one of the parking spaces and cut her way towards the road. Beth was able to brake and dart sideways; worming her way through two parked cars. Out of the corner of her eyes she noticed the dark van that had appeared out of nowhere and now rounded a corner just a few meters away from her and then rapidly accelerated. Beth stopped abruptly to avoid bumping into it and couldn't believe what she was seeing when the heavy van rammed the BMW which was driving parallel to her. The force now pushed the BMW with a deafening crash into two parked cars. That made it impossible for its occupants to leave the car even if they wanted to.

Beth hadn't recognized anyone in the van but a turbulent feeling in her belly that was fluctuating between fear and hope told her that this was the help she had been waiting for and she should run to the van. But she didn't get far because someone threw himself onto her from behind and carried her off her feet. She gasped as she painfully hit the ground and for a moment a heavy body rested on top of her, but then the man got to his feet again and pulled her up with him. She stumbled backwards against someone and something hard and cool was pressed painfully against her temple while she was roughly pressed against the solid body behind her.

"If you attack me you'll ...," the man began to yell close to her ear but he didn't get out more because Beth rammed her elbow into his stomach with full force, disregarding the weapon which could have easily gotten activated by her rapid movement. Her attacker, however, was so surprised that he neither thought about shooting her nor about keeping a firm grip on her. Instead, he stumbled backwards a step gasping for breath for a moment. But in some situations a moment was much too long a period of time. Beth hadn't really noticed the dark figures which were now moving toward them with superhuman speed and moved out of their way only by reflex. It was equally difficult for her to follow their movements as they leaped at her attacker and his companion. Only the strange, nauseating noises of breaking vertebras which assailed her ears within seconds told her that the two men had just taken her last breath. She winced violently as in the next moment the face of one of her saviors appeared just before her eyes and a hand roughly grabbed her arm.

"Let's go," the vampire growled at her and then moved so quickly with her that she stumbled a few times before she was gripped and pushed through the opened back doors into the interior of the van. Two other vampires jumped agilely into the car and quickly closed the doors behind them. For a moment it got almost too dark around her and again fear welled up in Beth. What if these vampires were not really sent by Josef and instead had their own plans for her? Or what if they belonged to the Legion? There were renegades in every war.

With trepidation she felt the van start to move, first backwards and then it drove forwards with screeching tires. Now it was too late anyway.

Beth swallowed hard and furtively examined the faces of the three men who sat opposite her on the bench. Now that her eyes became accustomed to the darkness she could see them better. As she thought about it the three actually looked quite familiar to her. Weren't they the men who had helped Josef and her to free Mick? Then Max had to be one of them. Yes, the grim looking guy with the square chin and the narrow eyes who now reached into the pocket of his jacket to get the cell phone out that had just begun to hum.

"Yes," he answered briefly, and then listened silently to what the caller had to tell him. "Yes, but it was close... yes, wait ..."

He leaned forward a bit and held out the phone to her, raising his brows encouragingly.

Beth's heart made a little, joyful leap and she grabbed it quickly.

"Josef?" She asked hopefully.

"Are you all right?" It was indeed her friend! She thought for a moment that she had never heard a more beautiful voice. She was saved! She was really safe!

"Beth?" In contrast to her Josef still seemed to be quite worried.

"Yes ... yes, nothing happened to me," she said with a deep sigh and fought against the tears that were filling her eyes against her will. "I ... I ..." She swallowed hard. "I'm so sorry. I'll never do anything like that again! I promise! No, I swear it!"

Now she could hear a sigh at the other end of the line. "You'll never have that chance again," Josef replied. "Even if I myself have to stick by your side for the next few days you won't take another step without having previously discussed it with me! Is that clear?"
"Yes, of course ... I ..." She paused puzzled. "Does that mean I will be back with you?" She could do nothing about it as her heart began beating like mad again, so loudly that she could hear it echoing in her ears.

"I can hardly let you stay in LA any longer now that the Legion has noticed that you're there," Josef grumbled and in Beth's belly spread such strong feelings of joy that she felt as if a swarm of hornets would hum through her insides and cause her whole body to vibrate. As much as she liked Simone, her longing for her friends and especially for Mick had become so strong during the short time she had spent in LA that she couldn't endure it much longer.

"But don't delude yourself that we are through with this topic," Josef, who seemed to feel her joy through the phone, warned her. "When you arrive we'll discuss this again!"

"Of course," Beth said with understanding while a happy smile crept unintentionally onto her lips. It was probably a good thing that Josef could not see her.

"Well... Max will take you to one of our hiding places in LA which should be pretty safe," Josef went on. "But we're not able to fly you out until tomorrow. The Legion will now certainly be very vigilant and I just don't want to take the risk that they might be on our heels. They certainly must have a few helicopters of their own. And Beth... I demand that you obey whatever Max tells you to do! I don't want to call again and find out that you've done something stupid just as Mick has feared."

"Mick? Has... has he been able to really talk to you?" Beth exclaimed excitedly and once again her heart skipped a beat. She could hardly believe this.

"Mick can now do a lot of things we have discovered," Josef said in a less than happy tone. "And not all can be assessed as positive. But I'm not sure he will be delighted when you show up here again tomorrow. At the moment he considers himself as the greatest danger of all and will probably try to avoid any contact with you. You had better prepare yourself for that. Don't be too delighted to return to us."

Josef's words didn't surprise Beth particularly. She knew Mick too well to expect anything else from him but even the prospect of exhausting struggles and discussions could not diminish her excitement. If Mick was already strong enough to tangle with a person like Josef or her, this was actually quite wonderful. It proved that he really seemed to be recovering, thus it was more a cause for rejoicing than for worrying. No matter what happened, at this moment only one thing mattered to her: She was allowed to come back again - back home. Because her home was where her heart was. With Mick.