Chapter 52 – Sam

I turned into Lucy's chest as Luman raised his gun at Michael, with Michael's hands dug into the pockets of his jeans as he refused to accept the offer. Lucy hugged me tight and I heard the gun click as the safety was taken off – but the silence dragged on.

'I'm a businessman, Michael, not a murderer, we have been over this,' He said and I looked. Michael wasn't shot and I saw him look over at me with a smile playing on his face. My dream was wrong, then, he never got shot. I pulled back from Lucy with the biggest grin on my face. 'You lot are my first port of call, I will just make statements until I get what I want.'

I ran over to Michael, and he caught me in one arm, hugging me to his chest and kissing my forehead.

'I told you it would be fine,' He whispered to me, holding me tight. I checked to make sure Nic was still okay and sure enough she was, using her gift to make sure no one entered the perimeter and building a fence-like structure with the trees to make sure everyone who Luman had brought with him remained.

'Bitch,' I heard someone call and I tried to find the voice, only to see Tobias standing next to one of the trees. Luman turned around and nodded and he came out of the tree line. 'After everything I had done for you, this is how you repay me? Bitch!'

'Oi,' Michael said his arm around my waist.

'Let him speak whilst we await the others,' Luman told me and Michael gently, 'I'm sure the Benedict's will be here any second...' He said looking around the woods before turning his attention to me. I pulled down my shirt self consciously as Michael hugged me tighter to his chest. He had also noticed the glances that I was getting from my father. But calling him my father made me feel sick. He had given me up when I was kid to raise a son instead – my twin brother – and then does all of this to my family? He was nothing to me. I looked over at Lucy who was gently murmuring something to Jason, who continued to bounce around Tyler slightly.

'After everything I had done for you, Sam, the only reason I came back to Blakeley was for you, to look after you on His request,' Tobias said, coming closer. I noticed he was in the Kingdom soldier gear and had a gun tucked down his waistband but I knew he wouldn't shoot – he wasn't like that. However, I did think he was the last person who would stab me in the back to this magnitude. I'm learning all kinds of things about my childhood crush today. 'He offered me a job, and that job was to make sure that you were okay no matter what would happen to Savant's – he knew you were affiliated with Maui, and he didn't want you hurt,'

'Who's he?' Luman asked him and Tobias sighed.

'So Sir got in contact with me, telling me that if I didn't project you, you would die, all I had to do was keep an eye on you and every two weeks meet up with Sir in an undisclosed location to tell him how you are –'

'The rugby club meetings on every other Saturday?' I asked.

'You are so dumb Sam, how do you have a PhD?' Tobias laughed at me. 'Of course I wasn't going to a rugby club, my only job was to keep an eye on you, and should you ever learn about the stuff your own father was doing to Savant's to keep you safe,' He mocked.

'Why?' I asked him.

'The greater good, Sam,'

'Right,' I scoffed and he frowned.

'All these people you call the "do gooders", what use have they been to you? They allowed your own daughter to get kidnapped? They've taken you from your home twice, three times if you include last night against your own will, who does that if they're good, hey?' Tobias said.

'Drop that tone,' Michael protested but I felt a wave of influential power gently caress my mind.

'Come home,' Tobias said softly. I want to go home. 'Come back to Kingdom where you'll be safe,' He said. I want to be safe. I could hear faint voices in the background and there was a shock as I went back to harsh reality. I was in Michael's arms – he was freezing, how long had he been outside? – And he was gently muttering words to me. I shook my head and frowned at him.

'You back?' He whispered to me and I nodded – where did I go? Michael gently brushed his lips against mine before pulling me tight towards him and continued to stare out Luman. He must find it slightly amusing that he was genetically linked to the person he's spent so long shutting down and taking out of business' daughter – no? I looked up at him and he frowned but shook his head. No – he didn't find it amusing. He raised his eyebrow and I could basically hear the "oh, you're nothing like him," line but I was awashed with guilt.

Perhaps I was? I was a psychologist – I knew there was all kinds of biological factors within aggression; an aggressive "gene" that can lead to criminalisation – look at the positivist school of criminology who suggested that criminals were genetically disposition to become criminals. They have factors within their genetic makeup. Lombroso himself states there was differences within the criminal make up that was put down to genetics. And biological approaches to not only crime but also aggression suggests the acts are built into someone's DNA – neurotransmitters, hormones, genes, personality types – all of it was passed on. And being a twin meant I had the same genes as someone else. I looked into the tree line and saw someone else who looked like Luman but younger and – well – he looked a bit like me and Lucy too. Although being a dizygotic twin meant we were brother and sister who just happened to be born at the same time and didn't have the exact same genetic makeup.

I then had to take a moment to reassure myself that the environment placed a massive part on being a trigger for anything genetic; take me and my twin brother for example – one grew up in a school with limited friends and eating disorders whilst the other grew up being centre of attention, trigger happy moron. He was aggressive and deviant to start with – I wasn't. I don't think I was at least and If I ever started to become aggressive and follow in the footsteps of my father and brother, I would want to be locked up forever and make them throw away the key.

'None of that funny business, Princess,' I heard Ella snarl behind me.

'I'm glad you knew my gift – Sam never did. I told her it was something to do with maths and I never use it but oh, was she wrong, ' He shook his head at me. 'Naive, this idiot,'

'Watch it,' Michael snarled and he was very close to losing it and I knew in a second that if Nic wasn't hanging onto his jean leg, he would have flipped. He was maintaining extremely calm but he was pushing every button.

'You... you were behind the kidnapped children,' I gasped as the realisation hit me. In the meeting, the day after I met Michael, they asked who took all the kidnapped children to the airport the day they were kidnapped. It was myself and Tobias, and that was why I always felt guilty – because it felt like it was my fault. But it was Tobias himself.

'Of course, I was supplying the information. You were the perfect cover,' Tobias said and Michael looked down at me, hugging me a tiny bit tighter.

'You were too naive to realise what we had, and you always said you couldn't work and have Nic and a relationship so I was trying to rule one of them out – if I got you to quit, you'd have to move in with me, and then I would take you back to Kingdom where you belong,'

'You're a monster,'

'No, you are the real monster, you and this bastard,'

'Don't,' Michael growled.

Tobias walked slowly in front of me, standing there before I forced myself to make eye contact. Inside his eyes still had a small glimmer of the old Tobias; happiness and fun, guidance and a brotherly figure but the rest was like looking into the eyes a sharks carcass.

'You weren't the only one that was naive. We share the same link to Nic,'

I laughed – I actually laughed in his face. He frowned.

'Your link to her is through Michael, the Soulfinder bond, and you call her your daughter,' He shook his head, walking past Michael and crouching down to see Nic. I looked behind Michael as Nic flinched away from him. 'Hey, Nic, it's me, you know I won't hurt you,'

Nic burst out into tears and he shook his head and walked away. Ella walked forward, gently saying something to Nic and she released Michael's jean leg as Ella picked up a sobbing Nic, but I felt something in my jean pocket appear. I tried not to make it obvious as I "itched my back" and felt that Ella had placed a gun in my back pocket and my eyes had widened. I had never held nor seen a real gun before, never fired one and I am certain that she made a mistake giving it to me – perhaps she just doesn't like holding firearms whilst she is looking after children? Or perhaps she left it there knowing Michael could get to it easily.

'Brainwashed your kid too,' Luman shook his head in shock, 'carry on agent,'

Tobias nodded courteously before continuing. 'So, as Brooklyn was my Soulfinder, the same logic would make Nic my daughter too, right?'

I saw something drop in Michael; the suggestion was too much for him. The ball had started to roll and he was not having any of it.

'You are going nowhere near her; you do not touch her or even look at her,'

'What are you going to do, Princess?' He snarled. 'Sam, my issue was never with you and you know I would take you and Nic back under my care if you give up this family dress up game you have going on here, my issue has always been with this one. Knocking up my Soulfinder and calling the kid your own? Hey? The months you spent with her – she lied to you about everything – you don't even know her proper name – she didn't even tell you how old she was, you think she was younger than you but oh so wrong, you are a bastard, a murdering bastard –' Tobias snapped.

He went to go and punch Michael, but straight away Michael caught the fist, twisted it back around and got Tobias in a headlock grip, moving his hand from around my waist to hold the struggling Tobias in place. Luman looked up in interest now.

'He was getting a bit whiny wasn't he?' Luman mocked. 'Ah well, first anger speech. Got to run the new boys in, I thought he would be a good waste of time until the Benedict's get here,' I could hear Tobias struggling for breath and trying to get his way out of the headlock. I also knew Michael could snap his neck if he wanted too. He looked over at me, mouthing "sorry" before looking back at Luman – what was he sorry for?

'Lukas,' Luman sighed and the brother came forwards. 'Where are the Benedict's – Vick and Trace are the ones we want, where are they?'

'They left the house about five minutes ago, heading down to the car park. They should be heading back up here soon,'

My eyes widened slightly – that was the plan. I looked over my shoulder at Nic who now had her head buried in Ella's shoulder as she continued to do the plan. If my girl was able to do what we had hoped she would, we could not need to worry about anyone else apart from the three directly in front of us. We had taught Nic how to use her gift to make cages for people – not cages at first. Cameron, Ella, Chris and myself had sat down a few days ago and started weaving wood to make boxes – and then Cameron and Ella started to make her weave slightly bigger posts, and even more until she had successfully built a box, around seven foot high, four foot by four foot at the bottom. We had explained to her what we wanted her to do – we wanted her to sense nature distraction based on when people were walking by trees and on roots, and then make these boxes (which she was able to make in less than a minute and I knew in that moment if she can do that when she was four, she was going to be a bloody strong Savant but I only had to look at her Dad in order to explain why her gifts were so strong) and lower them onto them, using nature to root them down. It would make all of Luman's associates into prison cells that were inescapable and everyone knew there was no chance fighting them. They were sound proof to a certain extend and Nic had mastered how to make the trees take naughty stuff like guns away. Cameron was in charge of explaining all of this in child terms but Nic understood what she had to do.

Vick had set cameras up in the woods at the points north of where I had the dream – which was here. He said he would leave the house when all apart from the three I vaguely saw in the dream who must be the three in front, were locked in their boxes. I then looked up into the foliage of the trees and saw a box being weaved expertly by Nic – she had become somewhat of an expert overnight – and look back down again.

'How long a walk is that?

'A few minutes, most,' Lukas said before eyeing me up and down and I cringed.

'And the two missing soldiers? Any signs?'

'Nope, they were probably taken to Denver with Will earlier, keep them away from us,'

They had fallen for this plan completely – Cameron and Chris would soon be in the woods making sure the wooden boxes were secure and removing weapons. We had outsmarted one of the men.

'Let him go, Michael, he's a foot soldier. This isn't about him, this is about us big boys,' Luman teased and I saw the muscles ripple in his arms – he didn't want to let him go. But he did, pushing him away as he did. Tobias rubbed his neck.

'Foot soldier?' Tobias asked, 'I have done nothing but be your slave for years and all I am is a foot soldier,'

'I asked you to keep my daughter safe and away from the people at Maui – oh looks like you did a really good job there,' Luman mocked.

'I did keep her away,'

Luman looked up comically at everyone before back at Tobias, a tight smug grin on his face. 'Oh, and look where she is standing right now. You let your personal feelings for Melissa get in the way – sorry, Sam, I don't know if you was here for that part, your name is actually Melissa – you let your feelings for Melissa play with you and when she found someone else she liked you sulked like a four year old boy.'

Tobias was seething – his jaw clenched, eyes burning. He was extremely volatile.

'Brooklyn was a slut anyway, I don't care if you did know her since she was six, and she deserved what she got much like you will too –' Luman sneered, holding him by the scruff of his neck. I wasn't too sure what I was expecting after – it was like a film – but Tobias collapsed. 'Leave, I don't want to see your petty face again,' Luman threw him back telekinetically against a tree, snow falling from its branches perilously as Tobias landed on the floor.

'Back to business then,' Luman said. 'I'm sure you will understand this situation will only escalate if we take it further than this point, you can ring your Government officials if needed but I have two out the three managers here and that's enough authorisation –'

A bang went through the otherwise still air as a gun went off and I looked around trying to find out who shot who. Everything was in slow motion; Tobias standing in the tree line again but with his firearm out, angular to his body as he aimed for Luman's back and with a single bullet shot him. I barely had time to realise he had moved his gun from Luman and aimed it towards myself and Michael.

Rash of the moment, to protect the only thing that matters to me the most, the only thing worth living for, I pulled the gun out of my pocket given to me by Ella. I had never fired a gun and I had no idea what I was doing but I knew I had to protect him. Ella had given it to me for a reason, and the reason was I had to protect my boyfriend, my Soulfinder and the father to my daughter. He was worth saving even if it meant I was a criminal or even worse a murderer. Even if I had to go through prison time, if it meant Michael still was alive at the end of this ordeal I would do it in a heartbeat. I thought my dream wouldn't come true after Luman said he was a businessman, but now it will but I had a chance to save him. I had to save Michael. It was an incredibly split moment decision, but I knew what I had to do. Michael was still frowning at Luman and I'm sure no one else had time to process what had happened and without even thinking about the consequences, I aimed for Tobias' chest.

I watched him pull the trigger and I did the exact same thing, my wrist jarring back painfully as the bullet went flying out of the gun and straight into Tobias' body – I couldn't work out where but it looked like either the shoulder, upper chest or neck and I knew the latter would be a kill shot. I also saw two flashes of a gun from the other side, where Lukas had taken out his firearm but rather than directing it at Tobias, he aimed it at Michael. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw all three bullets hit Michael – one in the chest, two in the upper thigh.

Everything happened so slowly from that point and I witnessed it like I was a bird flying around; the bullets I fired from the gun that was in my hand – now falling to the floor – hit Tobias as he staggered backwards, clutching his chest. Nic, who must have senses something was up, dropped the woven baskets of Luman and Lukas – catching them both and I saw the speed of the vines on the floor anchoring them down and I took a few nanosecond to admire the skill and precision of her gift – I was so glad Michael had the time to take her to the woods to practise with nature. He used to disappear with her for three or four hours in a row and she would come back saying how she managed to make saplings grow, or flowers, and Michael had taught her how to weave wood around itself, and the vines too – and now she was using it for the own good. And it was incredible – it had caught two criminals that were never able to be caught before.

I looked over at Michael and he just looked confused. He looked over at me for a second, still not quite with what was happening. His hand went to his chest, where there was a growing red, damp patch just below his heart, and he pressed down before slowly removing his hand, looking at the blood on his hand. And then he fell backwards, losing consciousness before the pain hit him thankfully. Joe darted forward quickly, pulling Nic out of the way.

'Michael!' I shouted as everything seemed to fly into life again. People ran in from the tree lines, Jason darted forward and Xav appeared a few seconds later, both of them talking to each other in medical code about stats or something, and they put pressure on the bullet wounds. Lucy handed over Tyler to Karla, and Nic and Lily both ran over to her as she guided the children back down the hill before they could see too much. Joe knocked out Tobias with his gift, before running over and removing the gun and checking how secure the baskets were. 'Michael, please,'

'Sam, come on,' Cameron was beside me, gently trying to pull me away, 'the paramedics are nearly here, we have an air ambulance waiting in the car park that has the clearance to land,' He told me softly.

'Is he alive?'

'Faint pulse, but he's still breathing,' Jason told me but it wasn't reassuring. Faint pulse?

'Sam, listen to me, listen to me sweetheart,' Cameron said as he held my arms. I noticed I was shaking and the tears were streaming down my face which provided me warmth but it wasn't much. 'You're going into shock,'

'But...'

I held my breath slightly, before turning around and throwing up on the grass.

'Shock,' Cameron muttered, kneeling beside me as I fell to my knees and held my hair back, 'Breathe through it sweetheart, this is all because of the shock, there is nothing wrong with you. Michael will be just fine,'

'He was shot, Cameron,' I squealed with tears choking me, 'Where was he shot?'

'It looks like the bullet they're most concerned about his left lung, just under his heart. It's punctured his lung and he's having trouble breathing which is why they've got his bagged and why his pulse is slowly down,' Cameron explained to me, 'They'll put a tube down his throat the second they're in the air but there's nothing they can do until they're in surgery apart from stem the bleeding,'

Oh God, oh God, oh God.

'They're taking him to Denver international; it's the best place for him to go. I'll drive you down,' Cameron said and I looked over at Michael who looked dead, the snow around him turning into a red slush and I started to cry again.

'Drive?'

'There's no room in the chopper –the boys have to go with him to keep the blood loss to a minimum. All three wounds are bleeding internally and if they don't have it stemmed –'

'Don't say anymore, Cam,' Chris said, pulling me into a hug. 'It'll be okay, Sam,'

'He's going to die,' I whispered.

'He won't die; he's a hell of a fighter.' Chris whispered back to me, 'And I've only known him for a few days, the cold is helping him as it's reducing the damage on a cellular level, once Ella is calm enough she will chill him further,'

I looked over at Ella who was crying too into Joe's chest, and Joe was calming her down quickly. She looked up at the moment I did and saw the palpable fear on my face and she took a juddery breath. She must have known how urgent the situation was as she looked back at Joe, who just nodded to her, and closed her eyes. Second later, the air ambulance and paramedic crew lifted Michael onto a stretcher, anda few seconds after that they made their way down the hill with Jason and Xav working on Michael like they did. Ella must have chilled him then.

'Sam, I'm going to put you out for two hours, so you can drive to Denver. We will bring you around if there are any updates about Michael which aren't good, if you wake up in the hospital everything will be okay. This is for your own sake,' Joe said to me urgently, pulling me into a hug.

'No –'

'I'm sorry, Sam, you already agreed to it,' He told me urgently and the darkness hit me like a black wall as he forced me to sleep.

Hello!

Sorry I have been so busy, I've had around 16 assignments to do all of which were due in within a month. I still have about three more to go. However the main reason I kind of stopped for a while was quite simply I believed everyone had gone off it - I had next to no reviews, and then I had a total of 7 negative, horrible comments about me. So i assumed. If you want me to comment, please do let me know.