Ok so hopefully since your reading this you enjoyed the first chapter. I do appreciate reviews but they're not expected. Thank you. -CameelTea

When I was a child I used to imagine living in America. It's all I wanted when I was so young my age didn't even have double digits. I would dream about running on a beach in California or driving through Nevada or walking along on a busy street in New York City.

I guess I just got my wish.

In Milan I had one best friend; everyone else was just an acquaintance. He had one prized possession, his car. I could understand why, he drove everywhere. Sometimes he would drive to different countries and be gone for days, sometimes weeks, and come back with a souvenir from somewhere far like Budapest or Amsterdam. More often then not I would go along with him, like now for example.

I'm supposed to be in school right now and judging by the time I'd be sitting in my history class learning about the French Revolution. But instead I'm driving with Gustav, my best friend, to Spain. His car, a black Lexus ES he bought in 2004, was always either freezing cold or burning hot. Currently it was freezing cold and the speakers were blaring some crazy metal music. I sat there and took it, normally I liked the music but at the moment I wished it would just be quiet. Or maybe Gustav talking.

"Man, can we turn this off?" I asked.

He made a face and put it down so that it didn't feel like the car was vibrating.

"You seem down" he commented.

"I'm leaving next weekend." I sighed.

"So this might be the last time we drive to a different country for no reason?" he smirked and made it into a joke, typical Gustav.

"Maybe, if I'm lucky it will be" I teased.

"Is there nothing that could keep you in Italy?" he asked.

I loved his voice, it had a hint of a German accent and the way he pronounced words starting with C drove me insane, in a good way of course. Instead of 'can't' it would be 'kaa-nt'.

"Hmm you could drive off a cliff into the Atlantic Ocean and we could cease to exist" I joked.

"Sounds pretty morbid for such a lovely day" he frowned.

"I wish you could come with me, going to America with you would be fun." I smiled.

"Going anywhere with me is fun" he boasted.

"Will you find someone new to drive around with?" I asked with a small frown.

"Possibly" he said and suddenly pressed on the brakes.

If I wasn't wearing my seat belt I would have easily flown through the dashboard window, we were going 100 mph since it was an open country road with no one around.

"What the hell!" I screamed.

"Sorry" he mumbled before lighting a cigarette, rolling down the window and turning off the air conditioner. We resumed a slow speed of 70 mph.

I sighed; it was going to be a long 4 months. My mom has already spoken with Mr. Teri and arranged everything; it's been two weeks since that dreaded meeting. I'm going to leave the country around 1 in the morning because it's a 10 hour flight and it would be convenient for the Mercer Family to pick me up in the morning so they'd come get me around 9.

"So do you know where you're going?" Gustav tried to make conversation.

"Wyckoff, New Jersey" I grimaced, "With the Mercer Family."

"Do you know what they're like?"

"They have a history of taking in foreign exchange students, the dad works for the police and the mom is a stay at home mom who before having their only daughter worked as a social worker." I smirked, "It's like checking myself into rehab or jail."

"Maybe it will be good for you" Gustav suggested.

"I've been considering suicide a lot" I sunk into my seat a little more and closed my eyes. The air outside was warm and felt amazing as it rushed past us through the open windows.

"Please don't make decisions for both of us without consulting me." Gustav stated.

I smiled, "I'm worried you'll find someone new."

"Don't worry, I'll wait for you." he smiled and put his cigarette into his other hand, the one that was on the steering wheel, and held out his empty hand. After a few seconds I gently slid my hand into his.

-Kevin POV-

My phone began to vibrate in my pocket.

"Who is it?" Joe asked.

"I don't care, this really isn't the time." I snapped back.

We were currently crawling around in a vent in Toronto. You see, my brothers and I are secret agents for an organization called LUCAS. It's just a coincidence that our last name is the same as our organization. At the moment we were trying to save our little brother, Nick, who was captured by a group of foreigners.

We aren't even sure what they want. But we've been able to locate a group of them in a warehouse. All we know about them so far is that they're working on something called 'The Elixir of Life' and that they're definitely European, most likely all of them are Italian. The third thing and last thing we know about them are that they've killed 12 people which is one of the main reasons I'm a little freaked out right now considering they have my little brother.

-Flashback-

Our dad was sitting at his computer and pointed out where the warehouse would be in the city. It was near a loading dock and was mainly used for storage of ship parts. But since the docks weren't getting too much attention in that area anymore, most of the parts are unneeded leaving most of the warehouses unneeded also.

"Be careful" our dad warned, "We don't know their intentions, and we don't know who they are or what they're capable of. All I want you to do is go and get a sample of this".

He pointed to a photograph of a blurred image of a man running in a large black trench coat. In his hands was a small vile, it was filled with a very dark red liquid.

"What is it?" Joe asked.

"They call it 'The Elixir of Life'" he said, "It's already spread through parts of Europe. We've gotten reports of killings and people going missing throughout Italy mainly but they've struck other parts of Southern Europe."

"It's probably just some new drug." I shrugged.

"Maybe, but then why are they killing people?" Nick asked.

"Regardless of what it is, we need some" my dad restated.

-Back to the Vent-

"Answer it Kevin maybe it's Dad" Joe pestered.

We were right above the room they were keeping Nick, a small office, and luckily there was no security in the building. Another reason why I was nervous, why wouldn't there be security? Someone standing outside the room at least.

"Kevin" Joe said again.

I was trying to ignore him. How do I even get reception in here? While my brother was tied up below me and my other brother bothering me while sitting behind me I was trying to undo screws so we could get into Nick's room.

"Kevin answer the-"

"You know what Joe? Why don't you answer the phone?" I asked and shoved my phone into his hand.

Joe flipped it open, "Hello?"

There was a pause.

"Hey! How's it going?"

Pause.

"Good, Good. I'm ok, a little busy but fine."

Pause.

"Kevin? Yeah he's right here."

He poked me with the phone.

"Not now Joe" I mumbled.

"But someone wants to talk to you." he smiled.

"Who is it?" I asked him.

"Joshlynn" he said.

Joshlynn, of course. I should have known. Don't get me wrong I love her like a sister but she just has such an amazing talent to always call at the wrong time.

"Hey Joshlynn" I said as I snatched the phone from Joe.

"Kevin! Oh my god I just found out who is going to be my foreign exchange student!" she exclaimed.

"That's great, can I call you back in a few hours? I'm really busy, homework. Lots of homework." I lied.

"But its Friday Kevin" she sounded disappointed.

"Well I'm trying to finish a project, for science." I said.

At least that wasn't a lie; I did have a huge science projecting waiting for me when I got home.

But there was a pause and it indicated that Joshlynn was disappointed that her best friend in the whole wide universe, according to her, didn't have time at the moment to gossip about the new foreign exchange student.

"Fine, go ahead." I mumbled.

It would take me a few more minutes to undo these bolts anyway and by then she should be done.

"Well all I know so far is that she's from Italy. And that she has had a rough past but my mom says its good cause we are helping her and-" she said and I listened until I realized she had said Italy.

"She's from Italy?" I asked suddenly.

"Yeah, why?" she asked.

"Where in Italy? How old is she? What do you mean by rough past?" I asked.

"Jeez Kev, calm down." She said in a giggly voice, "She's from Milan, she just turned 16 and by rough past I mean she's gotten into fights and her Dad passed away two years ago."

"From what?" I asked.

"Not sure, I can ask for you if you want when she gets here." She offered, "Well, if she wants to talk about it I mean. I don't even know if she can speak English."

"What's her name?" I asked.

"Christina, Christina Frusciante I think".

"Lovely, ok. Joshlynn I really need to call you back later. Here how about once I finish you can come over and sleepover if you want." I said hoping she would just accept my offer and leave me in peace for a few hours.

"Alright Kev." She said but I could tell that there was something she wasn't telling me. I would ask her about it later, "I'll see you later tonight then."

"See you" I said in a very friendly voice before hanging up.

"Aw why did you hang up?" Joe asked.

"She's sleeping over tonight so don't worry, you'll get to talk to her." I said and the last bolt came out.

Gently I lifted the air vent and after looking down through it I could see no cameras, lasers, nothing. Quickly I jumped through the hole and landed on my feet next to Nick. He was tied to a chair, was gagged, blindfolded, had his hands tied behind his back, and his feet tied together. It would be difficult to get him out; obviously they had intentions of not doing so.

"Joe" I said and Joe leapt down also, "I want you to search the area, I'm going to stay here and untie Nick."

Nick turned and tried to make words but couldn't.

"It's ok Nick, Kevin and I are here." Joe tried to assure Nick it would be ok.

Joe quickly left and went to go explore the rest of the warehouse while I untied Nick.

"Nicholas stop squirming!" I demanded as I tried to cut the rope binding his hands with a pocket knife but the blade wasn't sharp enough and it wasn't going too well.

"Nick!" I yelled again as he yanked his hands away from me.

I grabbed them again and worked on the rope once more. I tried a different, sharper pocket knife and it worked better. The ropes fell from his hands and I went over to his feet. He quickly grabbed the blindfold and yanked it off forcefully, possibly pulling out a few strands of hair also, and then the gag.

"Bomb!" he yelled at me.

"What?" I asked.

"There's a bomb, it's going to go off at 6:52. I'm not sure where it is but we have to get out of here" Nick told me

I dropped the knife into his lap and ran out of the room.

"Joseph!" I yelled.

"Yeah?!" I heard him yell back but it was very faint, I could barely hear him.

"Bomb!" I screamed, "Come back we have to get out of here!"

"I think I found some!" he yelled back and I groaned in frustration.

"I don't care! We have to leave!" I yelled.

"3 minutes" Nick warned as he walked out of the room, "They left through a back entrance, this way."

Nick started leading me towards a door that was hidden behind a large ship propeller.

"JOE!" Nick hollered, "Come on!!"

"One minute!" he yelled back.

"We've barely got 1 minute" Nick mumbled.

"Nick, go." I said and shoved him out the door before running towards Joe before Nick had time to argue.

"Kevin!" he whined.

"Joseph!" I yelled as I grabbed his arm, he was on the completely opposite side of the building, "We gotta go!"

"But I found some!" Joe argue with me and opened a large crate that was full of tiny vials that each held the red liquid.

I glanced down at my watch, 6:51.

"Ah we gotta go" I said quickly before grabbing a few vials along with my brother's hand.

We both ran towards the door, Nick was still standing in the doorway.

With 21 seconds left we managed to get out of the building and hide behind the next warehouse over. The explosion was louder than I expected and the ground shook beneath us like an earthquake. Smoke filled the sky and the bitter smell of fire polluted our senses.

Within minutes we could hear fire trucks and police cars heading our way so we decided it would be better if we were to get on our way. A helicopter came and we were quickly taken back to Headquarters.