I own nothing but my own words.

Chapter 16: Stop Eating In My Bed

She was dancing with him again.

Her family's annual Christmas Ball was well under way, and she was having a blast. She already danced with her father, and then Clarke cut in for a slow number. He was wearing the same tuxedo as before, looking like he belonged there. They didn't speak; he only looked down at her with that lopsided smile of his as they went through the motions.

The music picked up in tempo once more so he pulled back and spun her around. Giggling, she let him twirl her thinking she probably looked ridiculous, but she was having fun.

He pulled her towards him loosely, her back to his front, and bent to wrap his arms around her waist from behind to resume dancing. They swayed to the music until he spun her out to twirl her again.

This time when she twirled, she thought she saw a face in the crowd that didn't belong. She spun back in Clarke's direction and resumed the traditional dance pose but instead of meeting his gaze she looked around trying to see the face again.

Catching sight of it, she mumbled, "I'll be right back" and left Clarke on the dance floor to seek out her prey.

Trying to place where she saw that face before, she followed him through long dark corridors. She saw him go through a door, so she went through it too only to find herself in a darkened alley.

Glancing around, she saw no one. She walked down the steps, looking back and forth up and down the alley, but still, nothing.

Turning to go back up the stairs, she was suddenly grabbed from behind. A large muscular arm wrapped around her tightly and held her in place. She struggled, but for some reason she had no strength. She tried to use her magic to zap this jerk into the next county but even that wasn't working.

Her worry was compounded when she realized her captor held a gun in his other hand and was holding it to her head.

"I know the other bullets don't work on you two, so don't worry," Agent Burr of Triad Industries said. "These will get the job done."

She thought he wasn't allowed to work in the field anymore, that's what MG told her his mom said. So why was he here, holding a gun to her head? And what did he mean by "you two"?

The door to the alley creaked open suddenly and Clarke was there looking for her. He called out her name before he even registered the situation in front of him.

Burr raised the gun quickly, aimed at Clarke, and fired.

Everything went dark.

Was something burning?

She woke abruptly with a gasp.

The bed shifted, and she was relieved to see Clarke was okay.

He was lounging next to her again. She wasn't sure why she never told him to stop, just like she wasn't sure why he always got them rooms with two beds if he was never going to use his.

His normal routine now included propping the pillows from his bed against the headboard on hers, on the side of the bed closest to the door. Far as she knew, he spent all night reclining on those pillows while he forever etched in his sketchpad.

"Checked out the windows," he said, settling in with a bag of popcorn. He tossed a handful into his mouth. "Coast seems clear." He shrugged.

"Did you burn the popcorn?" she mumbled. Her nose wrinkled.

"No," he said. "Want some?" He pushed the bag over to her.

She cringed back and turned away. It certainly smelled like he burnt it.

"No," she mumbled again into her pillow. "Stop eating in my bed."

He clearly ignored her as the continued sounds of him crunching filled her ears.

"Doesn't this place have breakfast included?" she asked. She was pretty sure they were staying at a hotel this time, and most of the better ones served breakfast.

"Yep," he said, tossing another handful into his mouth. "'Til nine."

She cranked open an eye and saw the clock read 8:30am. Great.

Crawling out of bed, she stumbled around and grabbed her clothes for the day. If she didn't get them there before it closed, he would bring it up all day. Food was one of his favorite things and stuffing his face in the morning almost seemed to be the highlight of his day. She had no idea where he put it all. Probably all part of that bottomless pit thing. Well, if he had to inherit anything from his father that was probably the best attribute.

Her clean clothes supply was desperately dwindling. Hopefully this hotel had a laundry too. When he checked in last night, she had to wait outside covered in snot. Laughing at her, he insisted it was slime, but she just knew that monster's last great act was a giant sneeze.

They had been on the road for a week now, and the monsters kept coming. The most they had in one day was three so far, but it would probably only get worse. They weren't always able to identify them, but they found cutting off the head or shooting things at the heart—or where they thought the heart might be located—worked really well.

Today they were on their fourth day in Oklahoma. They stayed at a different place every night; and, to be honest, she was getting tired of it. How was she going to get through another four weeks of things constantly changing? Continuously moving in and out of hotel rooms and, when she wasn't fighting, sitting in a car all day long.

At least the company wasn't bad, she thought. Clarke didn't annoy her—much—and they fought well together. She may have all the power, but he could hold his own. They were a team...partners even.

She had to smile at that, remembering when he tried to charm her into being partners when they were stuck in Malivore. They had come a long way since then.

She trusted him to have her back in fighting and while she slept. They relied on each other and she couldn't imagine going through all of this without him. She never bothered asking him why he was helping her. He really didn't have to; he could've just taken off and left her to deal with this all by herself. The only thing he really had to do in return for getting his body back was provide the merge information. She figured his reason for staying probably had something to do with wanting her as more than a friend, but he hadn't pushed for that. He hadn't mentioned it at all again, which she was grateful for. She didn't think she would be able to deal with that on top of everything else, especially if she had to tell him in no uncertain terms that it wasn't going to happen.

Maybe he had accepted what she said before and was satisfied with being her friend. She didn't think he had many real friends, based on what he said to her once in a dream. She may not know for sure why he stayed but she was glad all the same.

Which was why her dream troubled her. It reminded her of the dream when she saw Landon dying and there was nothing she could do to save him. Part of that dream had turned out to be a premonition, Dark Josie proved it. And while Landon wasn't blatantly dead, she had no idea if he still existed somewhere in his body or not. Was this latest dream another premonition? She knew they weren't sure if Clarke was immortal again. Should she even let him keep fighting with her? She needed him, but she didn't want him to die. Was she being selfish in letting him stay to help? Should she figure out a way to do this on her own? Could she do this alone?

Thinking on it, she realized it probably wouldn't matter if she tried to do it alone. He was too involved now, too invested. He seemed perfectly content in helping her.

Something told her even if she tried to send him away, he wouldn't go.

Alaric pulled up to Mystic Falls High and dropped off the kids, whom he had taken to affectionately calling the "Js"—also known as Josie, Jade, and Jed.

Seeing the sheriff's cruiser pull up to drop off Maya and Ethan, he quickly found a place to pull over so he could hop out and speak to her.

"Good morning, Sheriff," he said, approaching her window.

"Doctor Saltzman," she nodded with a smile. "How are they adjusting?"

Nothing got past her, he noted. She probably thought it was strange that three kids from an elite boarding school had decided to switch to the local public high school in the middle of the semester. Stranger still that one of those kids was his own daughter. If the sheriff had still been Matt Donovan, he would have told the new principal to give the applications for transfer a resounding no. Alas, Matt hadn't hired a replacement with knowledge of the supernatural. So, when his daughter insisted on going to a school for humans now that she didn't have any magical powers, he had no reason to say no.

With Jade, he had every reason though. A vampire attending Mystic Falls High was never good for the locals, but he couldn't deny her when she told him her intentions. She wasn't a student of the Salvatore school anymore, not after ten years in a prison world, but she had every right to finish the education he denied her by sending her there. At least he knew she was suffering from her actions while her switch was turned off. As long as she felt remorse, she was a hundred times less likely to lose control like that again. He denied her at first, pointing out that a ripper around humans wasn't a good idea. She argued that if she was ever going to control herself enough that she could continue her chosen field of study, she needed to be around humans. She insisted she be given Lizzie's ripper test. When she passed it on the second day with resounding success, he begrudgingly agreed but with the stipulation that a werewolf accompany her at the school to make sure she stayed out of trouble.

Fortunately Jed didn't mind. He felt honored to be given his first solo mission.

There was also the added bonus that Jed would be able to keep an eye on Josie. Just in case.

"They're doing well," he said. "It's only been a few days, but I've heard no complaints."

"Glad to hear it," she dispensed with the pleasantries before addressing the thing most weighing on her mind. "Any updates on our peculiar epidemic?"

"Not yet," he returned, shuffling. "And a few people forgetting one person is hardly an epidemic. Unless there've been more cases you haven't told me about?"

"No, seems pretty contained for now," she replied with a side eye. "I'd love to know your thoughts so far on it though."

"I'm not really getting anywhere yet," he hedged before changing the topic to his reason for stopping her. "Have you had any other...interesting cases?"

"None that I can talk about," she answered giving the standard sheriff department's answer for everything.

"But...nothing that..." he coughed delicately, "females should be worried about, right?" That was the best way he could word it. He hadn't heard anything in the news since Hope told Lizzie to get him to investigate Malivore's possible plans to spawn and launch a baby Malivore army.

"Why?" she asked, straightening in her seat. "Have you heard from that guy again?"

Alaric had to think before realizing she meant Clarke. "Oh, uh, no. He's...long gone, and... I may have jumped the gun on him." Clarke had still manipulated his family, but saving Hope like that...well, he didn't feel bad about making the sheriff suspect the former agent of harassment; he just didn't want to continue the farce any further.

"Really," she said in disbelief.

"Don't get me wrong," he continued. "I still wouldn't want him to date any of my daughters, but he's not quite as big an ass as I thought. Still an ass though."

"Any of your daughters?" she noted. "Don't you mean either?"

"Right," he agreed, but he spoke correctly. Hope may be a Mikaelson, but he spent the past few years since her parents passed trying to fill in for them in some miniscule way. She said herself after getting out of Malivore that he was the closest thing she had to a father. He would always think of her as another daughter, and he would always protect her the same way he would protect his own flesh and blood. Knowing that she was on the run being chased by all kinds of monsters was scary enough—though he knew he had trained her well enough she could handle herself—the fact that she was on the run with Agent Clarke as the only person to watch her back gave him misgivings. He didn't trust the guy, but he didn't really have a choice. He had to hope everything would be okay and that his being with her didn't cause more trouble than not.

Speaking of...

"You didn't ever run his name, did you?" he asked, suddenly realizing he may have inadvertently caused more trouble for Hope. Lizzie mentioned the runaways were worried about Triad. If Sheriff Mac had done a search for Ryan Clarke...

"No," she shook her head. "As long as he left town, he didn't give me a reason to."

Relieved, he went back to his original line of questioning. "So, as a father of two teenage girls, I'd be grateful to know of any potential predators in the area..." He was fishing.

"As a mother of a teenage girl," she said pointedly, "I feel the same. I'd let the community know immediately if we had a problem of that sort."

Satisfied that he could rule that out for now, he relaxed.

A scratchy sound came through the sheriff's radio, "We've got a 187. Eastern end of Greenbelt."

Alaric recognized the code for a murder/homicide.

"Have a good day, Ric," the sheriff said immediately, putting her car in drive and speeding off before he could reply.

He was suddenly filled with dread.

Murders happening in Mystic Falls almost always came with a supernatural reason.

Of course she walked her to class, Josie thought, seeing Jade and Maya in the hallway outside of the gymnasium.

Josie was glad, really really glad, to be going to Mystic Falls High. It was something new and different. Best of all? There was no magic. If she couldn't practice magic or be around magic, she wouldn't be tempted to use it and start doing black magic again. When Lizzie reluctantly told her that Malivore had risen because her darker half had brought him back along with Clarke, she knew she made the right choice.

Part of her wanted to keep the magic and try to find a way to get Malivore out of Landon, but the bigger part of her realized it would just be another excuse to continue using magic. She was going to sit this one out, let someone else fix it. Hope was really good at saving the day at the last minute. She had faith everything would be okay in the end.

For now though, she was in gym class and she was excited since it was the only class she shared with Jade, but for the second day in a row Jade walked to class with Maya who waved goodbye and ran off to her free period.

Josie thought she and Jade had a connection. That Jade insisted on coming to the public school because she wanted to spend time with her, get to know her. But Jade had only been friendly, not flirty.

No, Maya was the one who got flirty Jade. Josie didn't like it one bit.

Jade ran up to join Josie on the bleachers.

"You know, it amazes me how much things have changed in the past ten years," she said excitedly. "Homosexuality isn't anything to be ashamed of any more. I can ask someone out without fear of being judged or laughed at. I know it was starting towards this back then, but to experience it for myself on this level? This is great!"

"Yes," Josie said with a small smile. "Be out and proud. Date anyone you want."

Jade grinned at her.

"Um, is it wise for you to date a human though?" Josie asked hesitantly.

Her grin faded and she looked at Josie, eyes slightly hurt but she blinked it away. "Did you say the same thing to him about his new friend?" She looked pointedly over to where Jed and Ethan were wrestling. "He could hurt him, you know."

Jade then looked at Josie with a devilish grin. "But then, maybe you want to be the one to nurse him back to health?"

The brunette looked away. For some reason Jade mistakenly thought Josie was interested in Ethan. She wasn't. She just couldn't stop staring at his arm. She heard the cast might come off any day now, but she also heard the cast would be on for at least another month. She hadn't come right out and asked Ethan, mostly because the guilt overwhelmed her.

She needed to figure out a way to help him. She ruined the rest of his football season and destroyed his future playing ball. Maybe if she could fix it, he could still impress scouts somehow? Football season was just about over, but surely they would be willing to check him out if they knew his previous stats and reputation...right?

Too bad she didn't have a spell to fix what the black magic had done to him... of course, even if she had a spell she couldn't use it.

No, what she needed was a cure—an instantaneous cure that would heal the bone completely.

Fortunately, she knew of one.

Maybe Jade would be willing to help.

It was raining.

At least that meant less people were on the roads at this time of the afternoon.

"I wonder if Lizzie knows anything new yet," Hope said.

Sighing, he rubbed the spot between his eyes knowing where this was going.

"No," he said, signaling to change lanes. "You can't call her right now. Just astral project." She still hadn't quite grasped the concept of burner phones. The point being, they were used sparingly. Yes, they were untraceable, but he was paranoid about Triad locating them by any means necessary. For all he knew, Triad knew who Hope was and that she was with him. All they would have to do is hack into the Saltzman girl's cell phone and they could probably listen in on the conversation.

"I can't astral project while in a moving vehicle," she said.

"Then keep studying the books," he said. "Read me the next story."

To break up the silence when they were driving since she had to learn all the legends anyway, she would read them aloud. That way they could discuss each one, talk about potential weaknesses and plans of attack if they came up against it. The added bonus for him being that he got to listen to her voice

"Mind if I just read silently?" she said, grabbing one of the books at random from behind his seat. "I don't feel like talking."

He shook his head.

Yet, she wanted to talk to Lizzie. He rolled his eyes inwardly. Okay, so maybe he was a little jealous. He knew he couldn't be with Hope the way he wanted to, but she was his friend. They were on this crazy journey together. They. As in Hope and Clarke. Not Hope and Clarke and Lizzie. He was giving her all his attention, couldn't she do the same? He knew they had to check in with Mystic Falls, but Hope wanted to talk for reasons other than their current predicament.

He figured out why though. She was bored.

While he was used to life on the road, traveling from one hotbed for magical creature activity to another, she wasn't. She did once tell him she wanted to travel the world, she probably didn't mean while sitting shotgun in his SUV with monsters chasing them. She wasn't actually experiencing much of the world this way.

Maybe that was the answer?

"Oklahoma City has underground tunnels filled with history and art exhibits," he said. "It spans about twenty blocks with secret entrances everywhere."

"Uh huh," she said, turning to the next page.

"We can go," he suggested. "If you want. It's not that far."

She glanced up. "Did monsters stop chasing us and I wasn't aware?"

He shook his head in exasperation at himself. Bad idea. He shouldn't have even suggested it, why lead monsters into a civilized area? It would have Triad on their asses in an instant. Maybe the monotony was getting to him too. Though the idea of spending time with her where they weren't fighting for their lives was really appealing.

"We could go to church," she said, frowning down at the book.

"I mean, not my first choice..." he said.

"This book on demons," she said. "Some of these are really nasty. I think having a supply of holy water would be super helpful just in case."

"So, a Catholic church," he agreed.

"Probably wouldn't hurt to wash all of our weapons in the stuff either...just in case," she said again.

"Wonder if we can get a priest to bless a couple gallons and call it a day?" he asked.

"Don't see why not?" she shrugged.

It didn't go down quite that way.

They did visit a Catholic church, but the priest thought they were making a joke of his religion. Instead of waiting for another priest to come on duty, Hope used an invisibility spell to go back inside and get some in an empty bottle. She washed a couple knives in it too. He figured they could stop at other churches when the need arose.

Arriving at the car, he stowed the weapons and water in the back while she ran around the car to get inside before she got too wet since the rain started to pick up.

Before he could get back inside, he heard a loud breaking sound. Looking behind him, he saw that some thing had grabbed a tree and broke off part of it. Knowing where this was going, he yelled for Hope.

The monster, who looked like a giant old man, complete with incredibly long hair and beard, threw the tree trunk at them.

"Expello!" Hope said, sending out a burst of energy that made the tree fly back at him.

Knocking the wood aside, the monster next went to pick up a car.

Eyes widening, Hope started running toward the monster to get to it before it could. Seeing her, the monster kicked the stump toward her but still lifted the car and threw it.

Hope deflected the trunk then turned to look at the car.

It was going to land on a group of five school kids in protective rain gear. They must've just gotten let out as it was around that time of day.

Hope pushed out as much power as she could to stop the vehicle mid-air, the rain pouring around it. Thankfully it stopped, but it was still hovering over the kids.

Fortunately, they were smart enough to move out of the path of the car so she could set it down. She didn't see an adult with them. Why wasn't there an adult with them?

"Get the kids!" she shouted at Clarke.

"They're moving," he insisted, seeing them already walking quickly away. "They'll be fine."

"Clarke!"

"I'm not a bloody hero," he said.

"No, but I am," she returned. "Get the kids out of here so I can go kick this thing's ass!"

He made a face at her but went to follow the kids.

Ignoring the sounds behind him, he met up with them.

"Hey, so why don't we go down this way, get away from the street with the crazy people," he directed them around a corner, far away from where Hope and the strong old man were throwing things back and forth again.

"How could that old man do that?" asked a freckle-faced little girl with red hair and startling blue eyes.

"An adrenaline rush," he made up. He was used to fabricating plausible stories for the unexplainable while working for Triad. "It sometimes makes people a lot stronger than they usually are."

"What about the girl?" the same child asked again. Apparently she was the spokesperson for the other kids who looked too scared to speak up to the strange man. All the better.

"She, uh," he searched for something, "Used rope." He looked around while he continued to walk with them. What was he supposed to do with them now?

"Rope?" the child asked, clearly not believing him.

"Yeah, it was really strong but so thin you could barely see it," he said.

"But—"

He interrupted her before she could continue arguing with him. "How old are you anyway? Why isn't there an adult with you?"

"We're nine," she said.

"I'm ten!" a little boy boasted, needing to say it despite his fear.

"And he's ten," she said with a roll of the eyes. "We're old enough to walk home by ourselves. We don't live far from the school. We just stay in the group."

Sure, let them walk by themselves. That was great and all unless something decided to throw a car at them.

"I don't think you're telling the truth," the girl said. "She definitely didn't use rope."

Cursing to himself, he turned toward the kids, making them stop. "Okay, so she's a superhero."

The kids' eyes went wide in awe. Of course they'd believe that.

"But you can't say anything, she needs to keep it a secret so bad people can't find her," he said. "Think you can do that?"

The kids all nodded.

"Look, there's my mom!" one of the kids pointed at a woman who was making her way toward them with an umbrella from far down the street.

Far enough away that he could disappear without her noticing.

"Remember, you saw nothing," he said with a look encouraging them to conspire with him, right before he flicked his ring and disappeared in front of them.

"Wow..." the kids said, looking around, trying to see if he had only moved out of the way and hadn't turned invisible.

He walked away, heading back toward Hope. He hoped the kids kept quiet. Of course, he wasn't sure who was witnessing her display on the street now, which was why he had to hurry back.

Hope finally reached her prey, only to find that the old man was made of thicker material than she realized. She couldn't get a knife through his skin, so stabbing him through the heart wasn't going to work.

The rain wasn't making it any easier. When she jumped on him to find a weak spot, she ended up slipping off after he jerked around too many times. She tried using his beard to stay in place and managed to take a bit of hair with her. That seemed to anger the man even more.

Lightning cracked suddenly close by with a thundering boom in the distance.

The creature flinched away from the lightning, showing the first sign of weakness.

It's a troll, she realized with startling clarity. From her research earlier that year, she knew they didn't like lightning, but she also knew sunlight was the ultimate weakness.

Glancing at the sky, she knew there was only one way she would get any sunlight right now when she needed it most.

Concentrating, she sent out a strong pulse of magic that made the rain around them whip up into the sky before pushing the darkened clouds out of the way, allowing sunlight to stream through.

The sky began to calm and they were bathed in light.

As she watched, the troll stopped in its tracks and turned to stone.

Breathing deeply, she released the spell when his transformation was complete and found that the sky still shone brightly in the spot she opened.

"Hope."

She glanced at Clarke who was grinning at her, clearly impressed.

"That was cool, right?" she asked, grinning back at him.

"Only if you can move the new statue out of the middle of the street before anyone notices," he said, raising an eyebrow at the figure.

Biting her lip, she sighed and went to test her strength to see if she could lift a giant troll made of solid stone.

She could.

Alaric led the boys through the forest.

Using a locator spell on Landon days ago hadn't worked as well as they hoped.

Instead of showing Landon's location since he was now connected to Malivore, it also showed the location of all the monsters Malivore had released. The number was overwhelming, the lights on the map showing a dense population in Mystic Falls, but there were also a great many dotted along the map in the direction Hope and Clarke went. It was only a matter of time before they all reached their destination. According to Lizzie, Hope and Clarke were doing a good job of taking care of the creatures whenever they showed up. So they were picking those off, and back home Alaric had a team of his own on the hunt.

Their ultimate goal was to track Landon, but they would just keep killing the monsters they found until they lucked out and found him.

Kaleb, Jed, and MG were helping out for reasons quite different from Rafael's.

The alpha was in complete and total denial. Even given MG's story, the wolf didn't want to accept the truth. Landon was a phoenix, just like other creatures from the pit. Somehow Landon must've fallen into the pit and Malivore was just controlling him like he was controlling the other monsters. No way had his father taken over his body from the inside.

Alaric sympathized with him. Even though he recently found his father, Rafael still considered Landon to be the most important part of his family. They had no idea if Landon still existed inside of Malivore. Even if he did, there was a large chance they might not be able to get to him. If it came down to protecting the world or killing Landon... well...that was something Rafael wasn't prepared to deal with.

So, he took Rafael along on these missions, the only way to keep him from going out on his own. There was no telling what Malivore could unleash on a single wolf trying to seek him out.

"What's this?" Kaleb asked, noting a path in the grass where it seemed like everything had died. "It goes on for a while." He looked out across the darkened landscape.

"Guess we follow it," Alaric said, knowing Rafael was going to be disappointed again. They were hunting a monster this time.

The dead path stretched on for at least a mile in a straight line, which was why when the path veered suddenly, as if it were avoiding something, they took notice.

"Why'd it move?" MG said, looking around.

Alaric went to the area, still bursting in green abundance, and rifled around.

He jumped back when something small and ferret-like sprang out of what appeared to be a small nest under a rock pile.

"What was that?" Jed asked, shining his flashlight in the direction the creature ran.

"I think," Alaric stood up, brushing dirt off his pants, "that was a weasel."

"As in 'pop goes'?" Kaleb asked.

"As in, I think I know what we're facing," he said. "It's a basilisk."

"Man, like Harry Potter?" MG asked. "Lizzie's gonna be sad she missed this."

"Well, since we don't have Gryffindor's sword, guess we need the next best thing," Kaleb said. "Anyone got a mirror?"

"Jed does," MG and Rafael said at the same time.

Looking between them both, Jed pulled the mirror out of his pocket. "How'd you guys know?"

"That's just a myth," Alaric jumped in before they could get much further, knowing Kaleb wanted the mirror to show the beast itself. "The glare isn't what kills, it's the poisonous breath."

"Poisonous breath?" Rafael asked.

"Yeah, so looks like the wolves and human are sitting this one out," Alaric said. "Vampires only."

"But why?" Jed asked.

"Because vamps don't gotta breathe," Kaleb explained, catching on quickly.

"So if we don't have a sword and the mirror doesn't work, how do we kill it?" asked MG.

"You need to catch the weasel," Alaric said, nodding in the direction the animal ran.

MG and Kaleb both shot out, racing for the creature. They returned just as quickly with MG holding the wiggling body in his hands, careful to keep its little claws and mouth away from any of his body parts.

"Now what?" MG asked.

"You gotta get it to pee on the basilisk," Alaric said, wincing.

"Say what?" MG said. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Running water?" Alaric suggested. He really had no idea.

"Man, this is jacked," Kaleb said. "Let's follow the trail, bro," he gestured to MG.

They started forward but Kaleb suddenly shot back and snatched the mirror out of Jed's hand.

"Just in case," he said.

MG and Kaleb followed the trail, leaving the others behind. The path finally fell off into a cave entrance.

Glancing at each other, they stopped breathing and walked forward.

The cave was dark but a glimmer of moonlight shown down at the entrance. Their enhanced vampire vision made it easier for them to see. In fact, it was easy to make out the form of something slithering toward the back of the cave.

"Kaleb," MG whispered.

"I see it," he said.

"Any ideas?" MG asked, still trying to figure out how to get a weasel to pee.

"I'll catch it, and hold it still," Kaleb whispered back. "Just, you know, set it on her and wait?"

"Better than anything I've got," MG said, shrugging and holding the weasel aloft.

Kaleb shot toward the basilisk and tried to find a good spot to hold it.

The creature turned toward him and snarled. Knowing he was just coated in poisonous gas, he was relieved he didn't have to smell this thing's bad breath.

"Okay," Kaleb said. "This is how it's gonna go. I'm gonna grab you and you're gonna behave. Sound good?"

Catching the scent of the weasel, the giant snake suddenly went wild, trying to slither away further into the cave.

"No, you don't," Kaleb ran and grabbed it by its tail. "MG!"

"You don't have it contained yet!" MG replied, struggling to hold the weasel that also caught the scent of the other creature and was squirming desperately.

"A little help!" Kaleb shouted as the monster turned its head back and shot out toward him, mouth open so wide he couldn't see its eyes, preparing as if to unleash even more deadly things at him.

He pulled on the tail, running at full vamp speed toward the opening of the cave. He dragged the serpent across the cave so it was lying uncoiled. He then jumped on top of it full-bodied, hands near the neck to subdue it against the ground.

"Now, now!"

MG came over and set the weasel down toward the back of the body, holding it in place. "Okay, little guy, just...do your thing."

"Hurry up!"

MG tried to make sounds of a waterfall. "Swish swish goes the water... now, just, pee!"

Fed up, the serpent began jerking uncontrollably, bucking Kaleb off and making MG lose hold of the weasel which ran away again.

"Be right back," MG took off after the weasel.

"MG!" Kaleb scrambled to get out of the way, but the snake was turning toward him again. Slamming back into a wall near the entrance, moonlight shining on him, he struggled for the only thing he had left—the mirror.

Praying to all that was holy that a miracle would happen, he held the mirror up toward the monster, closing his eyes tightly and bracing for impact.

When nothing happened, he tentatively opened one eye.

The basilisk had fallen to the floor, eyes blank and body unmoving.

Jumping up, confidence surging, he snapped the mirror shut with a hmph!

"If I was that ugly, I'd keel over looking in the mirror too."

"I got it!" MG rushed back, holding the weasel out.

"Fool, put that thing down," Kaleb said. "It's taken care of."

"Oh," MG shrugged and let the animal go.

"Take that, Doctor S!" Kaleb fist pumped.

"You didn't use a spell," Clarke observed earlier and wanted to mention it.

Hope looked up from the pages sprawled across the bed with a smile. "I know."

"You controlled it," he said, leaning back in his chair and sitting his pencil down on the table.

"I did," she nodded. "I guess you were right. Now that I'm older and more experienced, I don't need to rely on spells for control so much anymore. Not even the really big ones like I did today. I definitely didn't know a spell to control the weather."

"You're not tired?" he asked, remembering how worn out she was when she sealed the portal.

"Not really," she shrugged. "Not more than usual at this time of day."

She turned a page over, and pushed it away. "I wish I could use a spell to give me some answers here."

"There's nothing new," he said. "Everything I collected on Seylah and Landon is all right there, and you've gone over it hundreds of times."

"Yeah, but Lizzie said there's been no reports of anything bad since Malivore rose, aside from that one missing person. There was a homicide, but word is that was a domestic violence dispute," she said. "So he has to be up to something. I just need to figure out what. I also need to figure out a way to get Malivore out of Landon."

"What makes you think Landon's even still alive in there?" he asked.

"What makes you think he's not?" she returned.

And therein lies the rub. No matter how many times he insisted Landon was dead, he couldn't provide proof. She was going to have to accept it for the truth eventually though, unless he told her what he knew. But he wasn't going to. Malivore had to die, and Landon was going to die when it happened. Malivore was too powerful now for her to ever have a hope of separating them. The sooner she accepted that, the sooner she could use the golden arrow to take him out once and for all.

She picked up the photograph of Seylah holding baby Landon.

"I keep feeling like I'm missing something," she said, staring at the photograph. She flipped it over, seeing the names again. "But what?"

He shrugged and picked up his pencil again.

"Who took the photo?" she asked suddenly, sitting up straight.

"What?"

"Who took the photo?" she asked again, looking up at him.

He didn't have any idea, of course.

"Who even left this photo with Landon on those church steps?" she said, hair rising on the back of her neck. "Think about it...Seylah didn't want him to find her. She insisted she wasn't cut out to be a mother. She wanted to cut all ties with him. She just wanted him to have a better life...

"So why would she leave a photo of herself with him? One with their names on the back, where she's wearing a necklace with Triad's logo?" she continued. "She was an international spy. She wouldn't have been stupid enough to leave clues like that."

He considered, realizing she was right.

She looked at the names on the back of the picture before she flipped through the pages on the bed again. "Look, see?" She held one of the pages out to him. "This is her handwriting in her file. It looks nothing like the handwriting on the back of this!"

"Maybe the person who took the photo was someone who helped her at the hospital when she gave birth?" he suggested.

"If so, why would they bother leaving this photo with the baby?" she asked. "No, this was personal. This was someone who wanted Landon to know who his mother was, to find his way back to his family."

She sat back, considering.

"She had no other family," he pointed out. Triad did thorough background searches on all of their new recruits. If she had family, she must've hid it really well.

"It makes sense though...if she did seek out family or a friend," she said, staring down at the photograph. "When I came out of the pit, I knew no one would remember me. If I had come out pregnant on top of that? It doesn't matter how badass you are, that's too scary to deal with on your own...

"I would've immediately gone to my family, not caring if they remembered me or not," she said. "I would need some kind of comfort. Being all alone is scary enough. Being all alone knowing you were violated like that?"

She looked up at him with sad eyes. "She was all alone in the world. She needed someone."

"What...do we do with this new information?" he asked cautiously, his stomach oddly in knots thinking about her coming out of the pit in the same condition as Seylah. He never once thought about what it must've been like for Hope returning to a world that had forgotten her. He didn't care much himself—just glad he was released—but she lost everything.

"We head to Kansas tomorrow," she said.

"Okay," he nodded.

"And we get Lizzie to do a lineage spell," she said.

"Will that have the same effect as the locator spell?"

"No," she shook her head. "A lineage spell will only search for living blood ties...

"I'm gonna need that burner phone now," she said.

To be continued…