Chapter 3

Never threaten the biggest backer of your uncle's company and expect not to get punished for it, that's exactly why she was stuck doing this for the next month. This was literally the least her uncle could do to her and even though she knew she could be doing better things, she'd rather do this than battle a Kraken for five straight hours. Folding her arms over her chest, she leisurely strolled down the hallway and observed each of the doors in this section of the dormitory. She was effectively the night hall monitor for the next thirty days. Well, Rose reasoned, life could be some much worse than it was at that point.

The heels of her shoes clicked against polished floor of the halls as she took her time. Only two more hours of this before someone else took over and she could get some sleep for tomorrow and for the arduous tests that her uncle would inflict upon her for costing his front company $7,000,000. She knew that this was perhaps the one place within the entire academy where her sense didn't need to be completely tuned, but she had this strange feeling that she was being watched and that's why she was on her toes. Placing her arms behind her back, she sighed. Her uncle would get over it soon enough and once he was finished enacting his revenge for her little stunt, he'd allow her time to go back to New York and to the life that she wanted to live, with Jake.

Her ears perked back at slight noise in a shadowed area behind her, and with her reflexes like lightening, her hand shot to the holster at her side and grasped the pistol, pulled it out and held it up.

"Alright," Rose said, cocking the gun, "I know you're there, you can go ahead and come out now."

There was a slightly grumble of announce from the dark and three seconds later, the figure of Jackie Hutchinson emerged from the darkness. Her face was framed with her luscious, long black hair and she wore the signs of heavy sadness on her face. Casting a puzzled glance the woman, Rose lowered the gun, "Huntress Hutchinson? What are you doing in this section? Is there something wrong with Erin?"

"No," Jackie sighed and tightened the grip that she had on her duffle bag, "I was just here to say goodbye to her."

Rose again looked puzzled at the older woman, "Goodbye?"

"I refused to do something that the Huntsman ordered me to do," Jackie was oddly quiet and Rose made a mental note to check her uncle's logs later, "He gave me twenty four hours to disappear before he puts the traitor mark on my head. So that's what I'm doing, I just wanted to come by and see my daughter and grandchild before I go, and if you'll excuse me Huntsgirl, I think I should get going now."

Nodding, Rose stepped out of her way and before she could stop herself, she turned back to the slowly moving older woman, "What's your way out?"

"I've got some in some accounts from my husband," Jackie answered, stopping and regarding the Huntsgirl, "I've got a bus ticket, I can make it. I only wish I had my daughter with me to do it."

"If you'd like, I can keep an eye on her," Rose answered awkwardly, she had never really had a cordial conversation with Huntress Hutchinson in the past.

Jackie smiled, it looked as if it was a reluctant smile, but a smile nonetheless, "I'd like that, you two seem to get along and Erin isn't exactly in the best place right now. I've long suspected that it has something to do with that Sindacco Punk. Keep an eye on his stupid ass and if you suspect that he's getting violent with my kid, I want you to get violent with him in my place. Is that understood Huntsgirl?"

"Yes," Rose nodded with a bit of a smile, "I'll keep my eyes on all three of them."

"Good," Jackie nodded before turning around and walking towards the exit, she only made a little progress before turning around and regarding Rose again, "You're a good kid Huntsgirl, I know that you seem to have loyalties to the other side if you know what I mean. Just remember, when the day comes when your uncle asks you to do something that you don't believe is right or attempts to do something to you to exert his influence over you, you don't have to stand for it. There is a life outside of the Huntsclan and the Huntsman is only a man, he isn't a god. Follow that little piece of advice and you'll have a happy life."

Rose nodded, she was unsure of what to make of that, but little did she know that in only one years time, she would build the next thirty years of her life on top of that information, "T-thanks, I'll do that."

"I know you will," Jackie nodded and headed for the elevator that would take her to the bottom floor of the dormitories, "Have a good life Huntsgirl."

"I never knew why the Huntsman banished my mother," Erin said in a light voice, taking another sip of her coffee.

Rose nodded and regarded her son for a moment, "I managed to hack into my uncle's files the next night and look at what had gone down between him and your mother. Apparently a Dragon Councilor and her kid were going to be in New York that weekend and my uncle wanted your mother to kill the both of them. This kid was six years old, she said her reason behind refusing the mission was that she couldn't kill a kid, Dragon or not. I can honestly say that I was so warped in my head at that time that if my uncle would have asked me to do that, I would have gone out and done it until about a year later."

"Why is that?" Erin asked, her head propping up with curiosity.

DJ regarded his mother with the same look, "Yeah, why?"

"I was two months pregnant with your sister of course," Rose answered with a bit of a smirk, "I had developed a whole new outlook on life when I became pregnant with Alyssa. The Huntsman blew a gasket."