Chapter 23

-Lisa-

I grabbed Taylor by the shoulder as she tried to slip out for her nightly hunt. It probably didn't say good things about Brockton Bay that I'd only seen her return hungry a couple of times, considering that as far as I could tell she hunted by trying to get herself attacked.

"You know you can't keep hiding from your dad forever, right?" I asked when she stopped. Not that I believed for a second I could hold her unless she allowed it. I took my hand off her, still unnerved a little by how cold she felt to the touch.

"Prying eyes do not see me," the vampire answered softly. "You know that better than most, Clever Fox. Why do you persist in this pursuit?"

"Why do you 'persist' in dodging it?" I asked, irritated. Well, I had figured out that she was afraid of her father's reaction, but it couldn't be that bad. "Why not just use your power - which is still ridiculous, by the way - and find out?"

"That which is Seen can never be unseen," Taylor answered, leaning in towards me so our noses almost touched. Her smile turned slightly manic as she continued. "That which I See can never again be unknown!" Okay, right, I can sympathize with that. Finding out my parents were just… no. Not going down that road. I tried to take a step away from Taylor, but my back bumped into the wall. When did we move across the room? Taylor blinked, glancing around, then back at me as she straightened up a bit. She pulled back a half-step with a mournful sigh. "The knowledge would be as real as" — her voice hitched —"as real as doing it in truth."

"You can handle it, Taylor," I said soothingly. "You're stronger than that."

"Can I?" She asked, one eyebrow raised as her head tilted to the side a bit. Her voice dropped to a whisper, taking on an almost wistful tone as irritation was replaced by sadness and worry. "...Can he?"

I started to answer, but found a finger pressed to my lips.

"Can you make that oath? Truly? Can you swear to this one that the rift will not widen? That the father will not simply break once more?" she pleaded. The moment's hesitation before I could answer was enough of an answer for her.

"I thought not." With inhuman speed, she spun on her heel and rushed towards the stairs.

Upset; rapid blinking as though suppressing tears. No tears. Physically incapable of crying.

"...Thanks, power." I muttered as Cassandra vanished into the night. 'Cause I totally didn't feel bad enough already.

"...Hey, Aisha," I greeted the little daredevil when she returned to the loft, still feeling a distracted from earlier.

"Yo," she answered. "Have another one on the map for you."

"Ah." I nodded, gesturing at the table. "Good. Set it down somewhere around here. Got a side job for you," I told her, tapping a bag on said table. She picked it up and peeked inside.

"Remember that warehouse on Westside? They should be getting a shipment sometime today, if my guess is right."

"Oooh!" Aisha lit up with a grin, reaching for the bag to pull one of the devices out. "Let me guess: these are tracking devices and I'm supposed to tag whatever car they're delivering with?"

"...That's about right," I confirmed, a little deflated. No fun at all.

"Wait…" Aisha's grin slowly morphed into a, well, impish look as she stared into the bag, silently counting the trackers. "Sounds pretty boring, if I have to sit around for however many hours it might take. And Brian's going to get on my case if I don't do my homework…" she drawled, obviously fishing with all the subtlety of dynamite.

"I'll make you a cheat sheet," I said, rolling my eyes. I'd try to work on that with her if I wasn't certain it'd wind up biting me in the ass. "And you can prank them after you've tagged the ride."

"I don't know…" she yawned.

"Oh," I grin at her. "And don't tell Brian about this," I added, and her eyes lit up.

Hook, line and— What was I doing again?

The bag with the trackers was gone, which I took to mean Aisha accepted the job. After a slow five count, I headed into the bathroom, where I was at least reasonably certain she was unlikely to follow, to text Brian and let him know even though I'd gotten the all-clear from him first. I wasn't sure whether I'd had to pretend that it had to be kept from Brian to motivate her, but it wouldn't do to give the game away because she was reading over my shoulder. I sincerely doubted that he and I would ever find a better way to keep her interested in the safer missions.

Well… relatively safer, anyway, given how her power works. I shrugged and tried not to worry about it too much; surely Taylor would have said something if Aisha was going to get run over by a car.

Cricket fell over, hitting the floor with a thud as that goddamn nausea faded. Imp stood over—

Wait, what happened to her? Tased by Aisha. Likely to stay down for at least several minutes. Scar on throat caused by—

I tuned my power out. That tangent wasn't important right now. What did matter was that she would have almost certainly called… texted..? it in when she showed up, so we had to get moving. After a few moments to make sure that the fight moved far enough away that I wouldn't get shot for it, I headed upstairs to look for any keys that might open the door to the back room with the dog cages. And the safe, of course.

The rest of the operation went smoothly, even if we had to rush it. We were loading the dog cages in our van - not driven by Taylor this time, I checked, and then checked again every time I looked at one of the 'Grue should be driving' signs I'd made earlier - when our crazy roommate strolled past, waved at us, then continued on her way while talking to herself.

"—and where does the Quidditch game end if they never set boundaries around the field? The Silver Artificer watches through the flying eye, but he does not know—"

I tuned her out and helped with the last cage. Then we drove off, without setting the building on fire, much to Alec's chagrin. We just didn't have the time to drag all the goons out first.

"No capes, huh?" Brian asked me once we were on the road.

"Yeah, funny thing about random inspections," I snapped back. "They're random. Shame she didn't show up fifteen minutes later, though."

"So," Aisha asked when we plopped down in our seats back at the loft, "ya think she was trying to walk in on us back there, or did she just wander by at random?"

"I don't even want to begin to guess," I answered. "Besides, you hang out with her the most. Don't you have any ideas?"

"Not exactly what she shows me when we go out in town," Aisha shrugged. "Mostly it's her pointing out how to tell a thug's the type to follow girls into dark alleys, or other stuff like that. People-watching, mostly. 'Course, I still have to decrypt her ramblings to make any use of that."

"Fair enough," I leaned back in my seat, and wondered whether it was worth burning a bit of my power on that. Hmm, Quidditch game ends… Golden Snitch? Ah.

"Brian, pass me my laptop?" I asked. You can get out of the seat, I'm comfy right here.

It didn't take long to confirm my guess.

"Well, people, we're on the Internet," I said and set the laptop down on the table. "Über and L33t were flying their Snitch around town…"

"...and caught our little blob on camera," Alec finished for me.

"It follows her to us, doesn't it?" Brian said, sounding like he already knew the answer. I didn't even need to fast-forward to know it did, but pressed the button anyway. Sure enough, the Snitch caught a decent view of us loading the dogs into the van.

At least we got a laugh out of it when it lost sight of Taylor a block later. Über and Leet got as far as "where did she—" before the feed suddenly went black because Taylor had apparently decided to re-enact the scene where Harry accidentally ate the Snitch. Über and Leet's confused chatter at the lost video and strange noises turned into groans as Taylor spat it back out and everyone realized what happened.

I skipped forward to the "live" feed, and found Taylor still wandering around with the thing firmly in her hand, apparently giving it a tour of the city. I could hear her chattering happily with "Tweety Bird" about a ferry as I went off to look for a charger.

Alec had taken my seat by the time I got back and, terrifyingly enough, seemed to be providing his own commentary that Taylor would occasionally even respond to from halfway across the city.

I got my next chance to press the issue of Taylor's father when she returned early from a hunt and dashed straight for the bathroom. I could hear her complaining about her latest mark's vegan diet between bouts of gargling.

"Haven't changed your mind yet, have you?" I asked Taylor when she finally came out of the bathroom. She stopped and looked at me, the faint glow of her eyes not quite hidden by my laptop's screen glowing in my face.

"I am, as ever, still none other but myself." she answered, not trying particularly hard to hide her irritation. "Much as I was the last time you inquired."

"And that's the problem," I said firmly. "You're simply going in circles, thinking up worse and worse scenarios. It's going to tear you apart."

"None can choose what they See! I but merely—" the vampire started, but I raised a hand and cut her off.

"Not just you. Him too. All he knows about you is that you're still alive, that you have powers, and that you haven't tried to contact him in weeks. I guarantee he's going through the same thing you are."

I slowly turned my laptop around to show her the screen, and pointed down at it.

"This is what he knows already, Taylor. You need to go talk to him. If you don't…" I paused for a moment, gathering courage, "then I will."