AN: Hi guys. I try to update weekly but seeing as Christmas is coming up I'm not sure if I'll have new chapters ready. My family is large and live far from each other so I travel a lot over the holidays. I try to keep at least one on here and just in need of editing so that I can update no matter where I am but I make so guarantees. I hop you'll read, review and enjoy.

As Aria and Branwen got in their cab, Aria looked over at Branwen expectantly. "Well?" She said after Branwen gave the driver their address.

"Well what?" Branwen said, purposely avoiding her friend's question.

"Well, what possessed you to make out with a guy you barely know, not that I'm surprised."

Branwen rolled her eyes. So she was a little free with her admiration… she didn't go around sleeping with every guy she made out with. She was a tease, not a whore. She smiled inwardly before turning to her friend. "Thanks for your obvious contempt of my character. It was just a kiss. You have no idea what it was like spending a year in Ipswich with them. Everyone treated them like gods. And not because they knew about the powers, the five families thing was just an amusing tale that everyone whispered about. No, the 'Sons' were idolized because of their wealth, their looks and their athletic abilities."

"So," Aria said, "That happens at every school. Is it because it was a challenge for you? I mean they are idolized yet they are outcasts in the witch world; barely better than criminals."

"God, you sound like my mother." Branwen groaned as they arrived home, paid the driver and climbed out of the cab. She didn't miss the confused look on the drivers face. She didn't imagine most people sat in the cab talking about witches.

Aria sighed, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. After it's been drilled into your head for so long it's hard to get it out."

"Yeah, well, just because their ancestors almost got us all killed doesn't mean that the Sons should have to be punished for it."

Aria looked at Branwen sadly as Branwen unlocked their door. "Branwen, I understand your position on the topic, but there's nothing we can do about it. We can't change it ourselves and we were only allowed to leave on the condition that we don't try and mess with their laws."

"Yeah well why were we so stupid as to agree to that?" Branwen asked, holding the door open for her best friend. She understood that they had only been allowed to walk away from their coven with the promise that they wouldn't work against the coven, but it didn't sit right, letting them go around, handing out justice as they saw fit. Branwen would fully admit that she was bitter about actions the coven had taken, but that didn't mean she didn't have a point. He had been her father, after all.

Flipping on the light in the front hall, Branwen hung her coat on the hook by the front door and made her way up the stairs to the main level. She looked around at the mess she and Aria had made when they were rushing to work earlier and made the decision that it could wait until after class tomorrow.

"I'm not trying to rain on your fun," Aria said, "I just worry about you sometimes. You can be a little reckless."

Branwen looked over her shoulder and smiled. "I thought that's why you loved me so much."

Aria laughed. "It does make life interesting." She agreed. "I just don't want you hurting more than you already are and from what you told me about these boys, they have a habit of causing drama wherever they go."

Aria's concern made Branwen's throat dry with emotion she wasn't comfortable with. She was hurting, but she would never admit it. She would not show weakness they would exploit. Because she knew no matter their agreement and how far she and Aria got away from them, the coven would always be watching.

"It's not really a big deal." Branwen said, shoving her emotions back into their little box and locking them up tight. "It's not like I'll ever see him again."

Aria nodded and smiled. "Unless he keeps coming in looking for you." They both laughed and headed to their rooms.

A week later Branwen was cursing Aria and her words. Branwen was on day shifts for most of the week because she had early morning and late evening classes. That would switch later in the semester when she finished her honours classes. But for now it had her on the opening shift where she didn't make as much money but got some time to work on schoolwork in the back while it was slow.

At the end of her shift each day, when the night shift came in, Gina informed Branwen that the man was back every night looking for her.

"God, he's like a dog with a bone." Branwen said, shaking her head as she changed into her street clothes.

"It's not like you can blame him." Gina replied. "I don't know how you do it but something about your dancing is hypnotic. If I was into girls I would totally follow you around."

They both laughed. "Yeah, but you don't see any other guys following me. I don't understand why he can't just let it be."

Gina shrugged. "Who knows. Maybe it was love at first sight."

"More like lust."

"Well he's not unattractive. Maybe you should give him a shot."

Branwen looked up at Gina. "It's against the rules to date customers."

"Only the VIPs."

"Still, who wants to hook up with someone who's basically stalking them?" Branwen played it off, not able to explain her history with Pogue. "It's just not going to happen."

"Your call." Gina said. "But if he comes back again and I can convince him to take me home, you're not allowed to be jealous."

Branwen smiled. "As long as you don't tell him how to find me he is all yours."

Caleb looked up from the couch as Pogue walked through the sitting area, heading for the door. "Where are you going?" Caleb asked, already having a pretty good idea.

"Out."

Caleb couldn't help but smile. "Going to the club again?"

Pogue paused at the door and looked over his shoulder.

Caleb took one look at the dark look on Pogue's face and held up his hands. "I'm not complaining. It's better than you sitting around here brooding. I'm just wondering why you're so determined. I mean, I had to drag you there last week and now you're there every night looking for some girl you kissed once. I'm glad you're getting over the Kate thing but don't you think you're coming on a little strong?"

A slammed door was Pogue's only response. Caleb should have known better. Caleb and Pogue were closer than the other brothers, which is how Caleb knew that Pogue wasn't big on expressing himself. He also didn't do well with frustration and feeling unbalanced. After leaving Pogue that night at the club Caleb had headed to the back of the room where he had observed the VIP section.

Caleb had become somewhat of a stalker himself. He had heard that Jared Keller liked to hang out in the VIP section. Jared was kind of a tool. He was pretentious, ignorant and lacked intelligence. How he had managed to make the Dean's preferred student list, Caleb didn't know. And he didn't really care. What he did care about was that Sarah wasn't taking his calls anymore.

When she had broken up with him over the summer, he had been upset but figured that once they were back at school he could try and get her back. After she had time to cool down. But he had been getting her voicemail for two weeks. He'd tried to figure out where she was staying but Harvard wasn't as easy to break into as Spencer had been. When that idea had fallen through, Caleb had moved on to her circle of friends. However most of them wouldn't talk to him either.

His last chance was finding Jared. Sarah and he had hung out together sometimes and Caleb knew Jared had been interested in her. With any luck Caleb could find a way to use that in his favour. So far, though, Caleb hadn't been able to find the tool.

Of course he could use to find her, but that would be irresponsible and despite what she had said this summer, he was not becoming addicted to his powers. Hell, he was the one who had always used his powers the least. He doubted a little here and there was going to affect him. No, he had built up a resistance.

Waving off the absurdity of the accusation, Caleb looked back down at his textbook. He had a paper due tomorrow and he had been putting it off. It wasn't like it would take that long. Though, Caleb thought, he could be at Sinsations looking for Jared right now.

Without another thought, Caleb used, the paper completing itself and grabbed his keys before heading out the door.

Pogue had been in the club for an hour already and he still hadn't spotted her. The night before he had gone straight to the bar and asked about her but he could tell the bartenders were getting annoyed with him. He was getting annoyed with him. He didn't understand why he couldn't let this girl go. It wasn't like he hadn't made out with random girls before. Like Caleb had said, he'd always been good with the ladies.

It's just that the girl who had kissed him had been so mysterious. There had been something about her that had held him captive. When she had kissed him and ran her fingers through his hair it had felt like a tingling everywhere her body had touched his. Pogue had kissed a lot of girls and not any had done that before.

He was also curious. He had been so stunned when she had kissed him that he hadn't been paying much attention to what she said. Once he had gotten home and sorted out what her words had been he had been even more intrigued. It was almost as if she knew him. At least that's what her words implied. At first he had thought maybe she had been talking about dancing on the platform, but it couldn't have been the first time she had done that. She was too good at it. And if she had been talking about kissing a stranger then why him. Either way, his interaction with her left far too much to the imagination, something her uniform had not.

Fed up with his lack of results, Pogue walked over to the bar. The girl behind it smiled at him, knowing exactly who he was. The girls here didn't look the same but they were purposely dressed to look similar. However, Pogue had been at the club enough lately to tell some of them apart. This one's name, at least for the bar, he assumed, was Sass. Her smile was sympathetic but firm as she got him a beer.

"I know what you're going to ask." She said. "And I'm going to give you the same answer."

He had figured as much. He was becoming more convinced there was a bartenders code.

"I am, however, going to ask you a question." She leaned forward on the bar, looking him straight in the eyes. "What is it about this girl that has you stalking her?"

Stalking? He wasn't stalking. Stalking would imply he had found her and was following her. "I need to talk to her."

Sass nodded. "Did she knock you up and now you're looking for child support?"

For a second Pogue thought she was insane but then the corner of her mouth started curving and he realized she was messing with him. "Actually we eloped and I'm looking to serve her divorce papers."

Sass scoffed and shook her head. "You kids these days just don't take commitment seriously. None of you are willing to put the work in."

That joke hit a little too close to his issues with Kate. He took a long pull of his beer and glanced out into the crowd. There was another girl on the platform dancing but Pogue knew even from where he sat that it wasn't the same girl. Sighing he turned back to Sass. "So is it like the first rule of bartenders code to dodge men for each other?"

Surprisingly Sass looked at him seriously. "In case you hadn't noticed, most of the employees here are women. We work in a club where we make good money, but we do it by showing off a great deal of skin and strutting around to get attention. If it were your sister working here, would you want us giving out all her information to every guy who came to the bar asking for her?"

No. But then he wasn't sure he would ever let a sister of his work in a place like this. After a couple minutes Sass went back to serving customers and Pogue left his half full beer on the bar. Once outside he took a deep breath before turning and walking towards the parking lot he'd left his bike in. He was rounding the corner when a girl rushing in the opposite direction ran into him.

He grabbed her to stop her from falling over and got a Taser to the stomach for his efforts. "Get your hands off me you creep!"

Using had been an instant reaction to the pain and her Taser sputtered to a quick death. She stepped back and smacked it against her hand a couple times but that thing wasn't making a recovery. When she realized this she slowly looked up and began backing away.

Before she could bolt, Pogue bent down and picked up her bag, holding it out to her. She looked at him and her expression said something along the lines of, "Like I'm falling for that bait".

"Look, I'm sorry I grabbed you, I was just trying to make sure you didn't fall over. I wasn't paying attention when I was coming around the corner." He looked over at the parking lot across the street where his bike was sitting. He motioned over to it. "I'm just heading home. Am I allowed to walk around you or are you going to pull pepper spray out at me if I move?" She could be hiding it anywhere on her person. She was wearing tight jeans but she had knee-high boots with an open top and a big roomy sweater so there were enough hiding places.

She slowly looked over her shoulder before quickly glancing back like she was afraid he was going to lunge at her. "The bike is yours?" she asked, grabbing her purse out of his hand before he could even flinch.

"Yeah. It's a Ducati."

She rolled her eyes and put her Taser back in her purse, but as she pulled her hand back out, her sleeve got stuck and something fell out to the ground. Pogue's eyes followed it to the ground before he realized what it was. A mask.

"You work at Sinsations?" He asked, suddenly hopeful. He knew she wasn't the one he was looking for because she was taller, but not wearing heals. Still, she might be able to help him.

She narrowed her eyes at him as she picked up the mask. "What's it to you?" When she put the mask back in her purse, her hand remained and he had no doubt now that she was holding another deterrent.

"I'm looking for someone I met there, a dancer. I really need to talk to her. She's a bit shorter than you, has black hair, and dark eyes."

The girl in front of him immediately started squirming. "Listen, I don't know who you're talking about, and even if I did, I wouldn't be handing out someone's information."

Yeah, he got that. She went to walk around him but he reached out and grabbed her arm. She spun around, can of pepper spray held up at the ready. Pogue jumped back, hands up. "I'm sorry. I just really need to find her." He was starting to become worried about his own sanity in the quest to find this girl.

She looked at him before sighing and putting the pepper spray away. "Look, I don't know why you want to find her so badly, but you really need to let it go. She doesn't want to see you."

Pogue couldn't help but feel a little slapped. "And how would you know?"

She frowned. "I just know, okay." She turned to walk away but then stopped and turned back around. When she looked at him there was and expression on her face that he didn't understand. It was somewhere between sympathy and disdain. "I'm not saying you're not a good guy, because I don't know you, but you're not what she needs in her life. She has enough to deal with."

Pogue watched her walk down the street and into the alley beside the club, clearly going to the staff entrance. As he continued over to his Ducati, he couldn't help going over her words. Despite saying she didn't know him, there was a tone to her voice that gave the impression she felt she knew enough about him to judge him. And the tone in her voice when she spoke about his mystery girl was something to take note of. It was warm and concerned.

They were friends. Pogue would even go so far as to say that they were close friends. Close enough that this girl knew that his mystery girl had a lot on her plate. He threw his leg over his bike and paused. Maybe the two girls were good enough friends that one could lead him to the other.

A few hours later, Pogue sat outside a condo complex and watched the second floor window as two girls sat and talked. And he knew, even from a distance that he had found her.

The moon was full that night and lit up the scene almost as well as a spotlight would have. There was only one shaded spot, under the cover of a large old elm tree. Neither the girls in the house or the boy on the bike saw the shadow that stood there, watching… and reporting.