The young woman woke up to find herself laying on a fluffy bed in a bright sunny room. She quickly realized that she wasn't in her own clothes and that there was someone else in the room. She sat up and turned to see a little girl sitting in a chair next to the bed staring at her. "Hi," the little girl said smiling innocently, "I'm Zoe. What's your name?"
"Rayne, Rayne Verdalos. Where am I?"
"You're in my room. Abby and Hannibal brought you home with them last night. I helped Abby take care of your owwies."
"Uh, thanks. Now if you don't mind I need to be going. I've got to get to work." Rayne forced a smile and asked, "Um Zoe is it, do you know where my things are?"
"Yeah, I'll go get Abby and tell her you're awake." Zoe grinned at the laying woman in her bed and skipped lightly out of the room. She found Abby in the basement laboratory/training area practicing her fighting techniques and said excitedly, "Abby, Abby, she's awake. I got to talk to her for a little bit. She told me her name is Rayne. She said her last name, but it's kinda funny soundin. She's real pretty Abby."
Abby, the American woman from the night before, smiled the little girl that was now her responsibility and said picking her up, "Let's go talk to our guest." She carried Zoe up the stairs just as the man that was with her the night before came running down the stairs followed by a African American man and woman, an caucasian man and woman, and an Asian man. Abby stopped the American man and said, "King, she's up. I'm gonna go check on her."
"Sure, let us know what you find out. By the way, it wasn't Blade who helped her out last night. He was on the other side of town taking care of a few stragglers, and it wasn't Jang either. They were together."
"I wonder who it was then. Oh well, we'll figure it out later." Abby shut the hidden door leading to the basement and grabbed Rayne's things from off the chair next to it. She set Zoe down and they headed into the child's room where Rayne was sitting patiently. "Hi," Abby said smiling at the young woman who appeared to be a few years younger than her, "my name is Abigail Whistler, what's yours?"
"Rayne Verdalos. Umm, could I please have my things? I have really got to get to work." As she spoke her Italian accent became more pronounced and she frowned at a point past Abby's shoulder. "No, non potete essere reali. Mi ha detto che foste morto," Rayne said pointing at the African American man who was dressed all in black.
"Chi รจ questo lei che vi ha detto questa e come lo conoscete?" The man frowned at Rayne expecting her to cower in fear at his growling tone of voice.
She only sighed in exasperation and said, "La mia madre Sienna Verdalos mi ha detto circa voi. Li vernicia tutto il tempo" Rayne smiled politely, if unconvincingly, at Zoe and accepted her clothes from Abby, "Thank you for taking care of my wounds, but I really must be going. Please don't try to check up on me. I will be fine I promise you that." She watched as they all left the room leaving her to get dressed in private. Once dressed she opened the door and ran into a strong muscular chest. She tilted her head up to find herself looking into the most beautiful light brown eyes she had ever seen. "Umm, excuse me," she said heat coursing through her body as the man in front of her grabbed her arms to steady her, "I really must be going."
The big black man named Blade watched from the shadows as Rayne ran from the house. She's hiding something, he thought as he watched her constantly check behind her to make sure she wasn't being followed, she is definetly Sienna's daughter though. Maybe she knows about the key. Sienna wanted me to find it, so why is her daughter avoiding me like the plague? Unless she's not really Sienna's daughter...What if she is a familiar trying to help find the key before we do? I'm going to keep an eye on her. I don't know what she's hiding, but I know it's important.
