Chapter 108

Hotch startled awake, he hadn't meant to fall asleep, and he panicked for a second until he saw the faun still curled up and still snoring. His sigh of relief was long. Thank God nothing happened.

He rubbed his hands over his eyes and down his face trying to wake himself up completely. As he licked his lips trying to moisten his dried mouth, he looked down the passage in front of him, but his breath hitched in his chest because the passage wasn't there. His head snapped to the side, and that passage wasn't there either. He jumped up. What the hell?

They weren't in the relatively safe corner Hotch had picked out, they were in a medium sized room that only had one opening. Feeling heat on his shoulder, he flinched away, but it was only the burning torch; it was still in a holder on the wall he'd been leaning on, but that holder was lower than the last one.

He took a deep breath to try and calm his heart as he ran a hand through his hair. How the hell did we get in here? He had no idea; he also had no clue how long he'd slept, so he focused on his body. He didn't feel completely recharged, so he didn't think that it could have been that long, or at least, he hoped not.

He swallowed and walked over to the faun. Watching the door, he leaned down and shook the faun's shoulder. "Copper, wake up," he called out in a soft tone.

When the faun groaned and rolled over, Hotch sighed. "Copper!" he half yelled.

That did it as the faun flinched and jumped into a sitting position. "What?!" he asked as his hands flew up into a defensive position and his eyes frantically searched the area around him.

Hotch squatted down in front of him. "It's just me."

Copper took a deep breath and then smiled. "Oh," he took another breath. "You scared me."

"I noticed," Hotch said with a grin. "Sorry, I didn't mean to," he told him as he stood and offered a hand to him, "but we do have a problem."

Copper took the offered help as he frowned. "Problem?"

Hotch gestured to the room around them. "Notice anything different?"

Copper rubbed his eyes and then looked around. After a moment, he looked at Hotch in confusion. "Why would you carry me to this room? It only has one way out, and I thought you didn't want to be trapped."

Hotch huffed. "I didn't carry you anywhere."

The faun frowned even more. "Did you drag me?"

Hotch wilted. "No, I didn't touch you." Embarrassment heated his cheeks. "I fell asleep, too. Sorry."

"Then how did we get here?"

Hotch shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Could the walls have shifted making this room?"

"Don't you think we would have felt that?"

"Well, one would think we would have felt someone or something moving us."

Hotch sighed again. "One would think." He studied the room again and looked back at Copper. "What's more important than how, though, is why. Why are we here?"

The faun shrugged as he ran his hands through the fur on his head and then down his ears. "I don't know, but we're awake now. I guess we better get back to it before we find out."

Hotch turned hooded eyes to their only way out. Yeah, but what's on the other side of that opening? He grabbed the torch and moved to follow the faun.

XXXXX

Kahlan had gotten Chuck his cup of coffee and led him to the table. Chuck explained how he'd let the call go to voicemail because it had come in the middle of the night and he wasn't prepared to speak to the man. Kahlan had already heard the message several times, but she listened to it, again. The man apologized for not getting back sooner; he'd been away on vacation. Kahlan mentally winced when she heard that. While she had no idea what harvesters did with the supernatural beings they were given, she still had visions of them being left all alone to suffer while the man was out enjoying himself. I don't even know him, and I already hate him!

The man ended the message telling Chuck that if he still had a vampire to unload, he'd be more than happy to take it off his hands. Kahlan snorted. "I bet he would!"

Chuck studied his best friend. He knew she was excited about finally getting another lead, but he could tell she was fuming, and that always made him a little nervous. He took a deep breath as he ran his hand through his short hair. "So, what do you want to do?"

She cracked her neck as she inhaled through her nose. "I guess we need to call Sebastian."

He nodded. "I would think I need one of them to keep up the charade of me being a hunter."

She winced. "Yes. I would think that man is going to be very suspicious of you, but. . ."

"But you don't like the idea of using Willie as bait."

She cringed. "And I know it has to be him just in case those hunters called that harvester, but he's so young."

Chuck took her hand to get her attention. "No, he just looks young. He's older than me and you put together, Kay."

She rolled her eyes. "I know, but I still don't like it. Maybe we should figure out something else."

He took out his phone. "I say we let him make that choice."

She took a deep breath. "Do it."

XXXXX

Hotch looked around the room one more time as Copper went to the door. Hearing a slight metallic click, Hotch looked down just in time to see that Copper had walked through a tripwire, so he dropped the torch, grabbed the faun, and fell backwards with him right as a giant axe slammed down where the fawn had been standing.

Breathing heavily, the faun was shocked into silence as he laid on top of Hotch.

"Are you alright?" Hotch asked him.

Copper nodded as he swallowed. "Yeah," he offered with a shaky voice and then glanced back at the vampire. "Thanks," he uttered with a small smile.

"No problem," Hotch told him as he finally released him from the bear hug, but then mentally frowned when Copper's body seemed to snuggle down into his even farther. When the faun's butt muscles clenched, Hotch's brows shot up, and he quickly rolled to get the partially furred man off him.

Copper shot him another smile as he pushed himself off the ground. "My hero."

Hotch swallowed hard and then got himself up. He didn't mean that the way it sounded, Hotchner, he tried to tell himself. He wasn't enjoying being against me, he was just preparing to get up. Right?

"I'll have to find some way to repay you for that," Copper continued as he stood there staring at Hotch.

With the way the faun's eyes were roaming up and down him, Hotch felt his cheeks heat. "Just watch where you're walking for now on."

"Right," Copper agreed, moved to pick up the torch, and then gestured to the door. "Shall we continue?"

Hotch nodded and moved past him. "Yes, I want out of this God forsaken maze." As he squeezed passed the axe, he had to force himself to stop imagining that the faun was staring at his ass.

He mentally shook his head. Stop making up imagined problems, Hotchner. Focus on the real one's around you. He took a deep breath. Did they put us in that room hoping one of us would fall victim to that trap? He wasn't sure, but he didn't like the implications of it.

XXXXX

"Do you know where this harvester is?" Sebastian asked. He, Christian, and Willie had rushed over to Kahlan's as soon as Chuck had called him.

"Not yet. I didn't want to call him until after we talked to you guys," Chuck told him.

Christian studied the humans. "You want to use Willie as an offering to this bloody asshole?"

"Well, not technically, but yes. Having him with us will get us in the door," Kahlan explained.

"But we don't need him to invite us in, you can do that, and then we can destroy him like he deserves, and then free whomever he has under his thumb!" Christian countered.

Rossi sighed and then asked, "And what if where he has Chuck meet him isn't where he keeps his victims?" Kahlan had kept her promise to keep him in the loop by inviting him over, too.

Willie took a deep breath. "So you pretend to have captured me, take me to him, and then hope that he leads you to whomever he is holding?"

Kahlan nodded. "Or we figure out another way." She looked at Sebastian. "You could compel him to tell us where they are, right?"

He leaned back in his seat as he rubbed a hand down his goatee. "Not if he is anything like the harvesters of old. They were steeped in lore and magic, and they had safeguards against the supernatural." He looked at Christian. "It took a massive effort from many different species working together to bring them down. We may be powerless against him."

"But they won't be," Willie offered as he gestured to Kahlan and Chuck. When Christian took a breath to argue, Willie smirked. "You saw what she did to Mike!"

"If he's human, they can definitely handle him," Rossi agreed, "but are we even sure of that?"

They all looked at each other. "No, not sure, we just assumed," Chuck told him.

Rossi's look told Kahlan that he didn't like that, but she also knew he would do anything if there was even a slight chance of it leading to Aaron. She placed a hand on his arm and then looked him in the eyes. "You know I'll do whatever it takes."

He gave her a small smile.

"And so will I," Willie declared. "I'll be bait."

Sebastian cringed. "Maybe I should call Michael."

"No!" Willie shouted as he stood up. "I'm not a child, Bas! You don't need to protect me anymore. Aaron is my brother, now, and I trust them, so I will do this with or without your blessing."

Chuck gave him a quick nod of approval, but Kahlan's grin made him stand up even taller.

Christian snorted in disgust but stood up. "I think you're all crazy, but let's do this."

Rossi nodded as he stood up, too. "And the quicker the better."

XXXXX

Hotch had glanced back at Copper who was a step behind him, but when his eyes roamed back to the passage in front of him, he froze.

Copper abruptly stopped talking and moved beside him.

"Do you see that?" Hotch asked in a whisper without even looking at him.

"Yep," Copper answered just as quietly.

"What is it?"

"A spirit, I think. Why is it just standing there or floating or whatever?"

"I don't know," Hotch told him as a shiver ran down his spine.

"She's staring at you. Is it someone you know?"

She was staring at Hotch, and she was beautiful, but she wasn't familiar. "Not that I know of. What do you think she wants?"

Copper shrugged. "I guess that depends on whether or not she's a good spirit."

"Should we talk to her?"

Copper huffed and back up a fraction. "I'm certainly not! My parents taught me to not mess with dead things."

Hotch rolled his eyes at the faun and then looked at the transparent woman in front of him. "She looks sad, lost."

"You would be, too, if you died in this place making your spirit stuck here, too."

Hotch's heart clenched with that thought, and he looked at the faun. "You mean your spirit is stuck wherever you die?"

Copper shrugged. "I don't know for sure, but the stories say that a lot of those who die tragically are left to roam the place where they died."

"Maybe she needs help. Maybe if we helped her, she'd be able to move on."

Before Copper could say anything else, the woman floated away.

"We should follow her," Hotch said and took a step in her direction.

Copper grabbed his arm to stop him. "Which is more important: finding the exit before we die of thirst or following some woman you don't even know? She could even be trying to lead you deeper into the maze, to a trap, or anything. Not all spirits are nice, Aaron."

Hotch took a deep breath. He hadn't gotten any malevolent feelings from her, but as he studied the faun, he knew getting him out of the maze was his first priority.

Ever since waking up, the faun had been constantly swallowing, licking his lips so much they were raw and starting to crack, and his voice was getting raspy. Those were all signs that Copper's dehydration was getting to a serious level.

Hotch gestured to the passage opposite the one the ghost had taken. "Let's find the exit."

"Thank you," Copper told him and led the way.