A/N: Another short-ish chapter, I'm afraid. It'll be my last update for a while; I have a lot of stuff on right now with exams coming up and stuff, so I'm going to be mega-busy. Please R & R though. Like it? Don't like it? Why/why not? I'm open to everything (except flames; please make criticism constructive). And I do return all reviews! So yeah, would love to know what you think. Here's Chapter Twenty-Four of Dark Storms, Volume One: Edge of the Knife.

My feet hit the ground with a soft thud, and I had never felt so relieved to feel it there, solid beneath me. Shaking with exhaustion, I felt my body give way and I fell backwards. Peter caught me, holding me in his arms, his handsome face swimming above me.

"Mel?"

Slowly, he helped me stand and I lowered myself onto the grass, sitting down as I breathed slowly. In through my nose, out through my mouth.

"Never flown so far," I explained, rubbing my face. "Bloody hell, I'm tired."

"Wait here," He muttered, before disappearing. I frowned at the spot he had been previously, knowing he hadn't just turned invisible. He'd rushed off somewhere, and I found myself curious as to where he'd gone.

I lay down on the grass, staring up at the sky. We were in a town, somewhere, not Las Vegas, not yet. Up in the air I'd started to feel faint, and quickly the pair of us had darted back to the ground.

So much for my love of flying.

Still, nothing could beat that first burst when you got in the air. It was worth it, kind of, this ache all over my body.

Peter appeared beside me and fell to the ground, handing me a bottle of water as he did so. I drank it greedily, his eyes watching me as it dripped around my mouth. It tasted like pure heaven to me, and when I finished I placed the bottle carefully beside me.

"How are you feeling?"

"A bit better," I wiped the water from around my mouth with the back of my sleeve, turning to look at Peter. "We got much further to go?"

"No," He shook his head. "Not too far, anyway."

"OK, good. So once we get there..."

"We check into the hotel, start looking, see if we can find her. Then wait for Tracey and Jessica."

"Yep," He pulls me to my feet, and we take off once more.

The Las Vegas strip looks beautiful. To me, at this precise moment in time, it does anyway. I can't help it; after miles and miles of nothing but desert, my heart soars at the sight of the tacky casinos and hotels. Ahead, I can see a Pyramid rising up above neon lights and glaring signs. Every little thing seems to be sending an attack on the senses, and I pause to admire the view as the weird smell of heat fills my nostrils.

"How are we going to do this?" I ask, glancing towards Peter, who stares down at the strip with a look of disgust on his face.

Up here, the air is cold, but I have no doubt that as soon as we get close it'll start to heat up.

"We need to go somewhere...quiet," I continued, eyes scanning the ground and looking for somewhere.

"If we land in the desert and just walk in..." He flew down slightly, so his head hovered just below my knees. "Someone will notice. They're bound to."

I dived down, trying to get a closer look. "What if we land around the back of a hotel, or something? Ruffle up our clothes a bit," I gave him a wink, "people won't ask questions."

He chuckled, giving a nod. "It's worth a shot. Let's go."

Surprisingly, it worked. We got mixed reactions from people when we appeared from behind one of the hotels, Peter's hair a complete mess, his shirt half-tucked into his trousers. His arm was looped easily around my shoulders, and he kissed the top of my forehead as we stepped onto the busy street.

"Right, the hotel," I pulled out the small sheet that had the details of the hotel Jessica had booked us all into. "Let's go."

It didn't take us too long to find the hotel, and we checked in with a few curious glances from other guests and staff members, before making our way to the room. It was amazing, a large double bed taking up the middle of the room with an extravagant decor. A door led through to the en-suite bathroom, and a wardrobe took up almost half the wall, enough space to put all of my clothes in times two.

Not that we'd brought luggage with us.

Peter gazed around, mouth open slightly before he glanced at me. "Mel,"

"Yeah?"

"She's booked us into the Honeymoon suite."

Returning after our search, I fell back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling, eyelids heavy and my body aching with tiredness. Peter sat on the single chair in the room, staring at me as he shook his head.

"I am shattered," I muttered, rolling over onto my side and closing my eyes. "Like proper, never want to move, knackered."

He let out a sigh. "We need to keep looking Mel. We were supposed to get as much ground covered as possible before Tracey and Jessica turned up."

"I don't wanna!" I moaned, pulling a pillow to cover my head. I didn't know if it was the tiredness, or the fact that this was the first time I'd actually stopped for the day, but it seemed like everything hit me at once.

What the bloody hell were we doing?

By going to Barbara, by following some stupid hunch of mine, I'd put her in danger. Now I didn't even know if she was safe or not. But someone had kidnapped her, someone had ruined her home, and I'd taken her sisters plus Peter along for the ride. Why was I so certain they'd be able to help me find Austen? It was stupid of me, and I was risking their lives. I should have done this alone. I should have just tried to find him on my own.

Or left the whole thing alone.

I should have gone back home, to the school, taken my friends with me. They would have been safe there.

Before I even realised what was going on, Peter had climbed into the bed beside me and pulled me out from under the pillow, propping me up beside him. I was sobbing on his shoulder, my body shaking as I silently wished I'd never come to this country, never met Peter or Angela or Mohinder or Matt or Molly.

As their names popped into my head, I began to cry harder. Their lives were ruined. All of ours were. Things would never, could never go back to how they were before, and all because they'd taken me into their lives.

Peter was trying to comfort me, although without knowing the reason for my sudden breakdown, there was clearly very little he could say. Eventually, he remained silent, a still statue holding me while the tears streamed down my face and my eyes grew more and more soar.

It was only when I heard a familiar 'pop' that I stopped. Sniffing, I lifted my head up to see Hiro standing in front of us, frowning with the samurai sword over his back.

"Melinda. You should not have run away!"

"Hiro?" I gasped. "How the hell did you find us?"

"Molly," His frown turned into a grin as Peter's eyebrow shot up, staring at the Japanese man. "She told me you were here. I come to help. We defeat evil man now, yes?"

I couldn't help it; with Hiro's sudden arrival, it was like something had broken through the curtain of tears. I burst out laughing, both of them looking at me, confused. I saw them share a worried glance before I clambered out of the bed and threw my arms around Hiro.

"Yes Hiro," I nodded as I pulled away. "We'll defeat him."