During the entire removal of the chip, Cassandra never made a noise, but she did turn a bit white. While Laura healed her up I finally got a good look at her. She looked to be around the age of sixteen or seventeen, had long waist length chocolate brown hair with streaks of blond through it. Her eyes were a bright green color, almost as green as a cats and I wondered if they were natural or if it was a side-effect. Her wings were white and grey, reminding me of an owl's wings. She was fit, athletic and agile, and easy to get along with, but she had a tendency to like blowing things up, or burning things, which made us a little cautious of her.
"You an orphan?" Dean asked, "Or one of the missing?"
"Missing," Cassandra answered, "I was kidnapped when I was five, been living in Haven since. I can't remember my family much, but I know they were told I was killed in an accident. They told my parents I was hit by a crazy driver waiting for them outside school."
"They're good at that," I replied softly, "My father faked his own death and made me believe for three years he was dead when all along he was running Haven. I don't have parents anymore, they both work at Haven and I don't want to know them."
We were still sitting in the trees where we had escaped to. We had decided to have something to eat before we went flying, all the while trying to figure out where to go next. We had filled in Cassandra on what we knew, about Keira and why they wanted her back. She agreed that we all needed to find the others and get them to help. Keira and her flock needed to be protected from those at Haven, at all cost. That's about all I knew. I had no idea where she was or how to find her. I was at a complete loss as to what to do.
"If I'm guessing correctly," I said after a while, "The best chance we have at finding the others that escaped, is to get something that can follow them. They have to be found and have the chips removed, before the Erasers recapture them."
"I think I can find something," Laura said, "But that's means we'll have to take on some Erasers to get it. They carry with them a small device that allows them to pick up on the signals from the chips and follow them."
I smiled at Laura when she said that, we were going to do a little wolf hunting. It was about time that the tables were turned because quite frankly, I'm sick of running from them, they should be running from us. Laura saw me smiling…
"I know that smile, Nathan," she said, "I don't like it. What evil little though is running through your head right now?"
"Who said it had to be an evil thought?" I replied back.
"Because that smile is always followed by either an evil or a nasty thought," Laura replied, "which in my opinion are the same thing."
"And since when have I had an evil or a nasty thought?" I exclaimed.
"Let me see…" She replied, "When you shot that Eraser in the chest, that's one. Two, I heard you were smiling when they escorted you out of the fight with the Erasers, people thought you'd lost it, and three, you were smiling like that when you came out the laundry chute, I know an Eraser got stuck in there, I could hear it. You deliberately held back to entice him, didn't you?"
"Maybe," I replied, my smile still on my face, "I was just thinking how ironic it is, that we are always running away from the Erasers and now we're planning on deliberately seeking them out and attacking them. It's about time someone turned the tables."
"Are you sure it's the only way?" Cass asked, "I mean is there a safer way? I don't have full control of my ability yet and I don't want to cause a major accident."
"I can't see any other way to re-group the others," Laura replied, "The only way I've come across tracking them is the small devices that The Erasers carry, or the main computer back at Haven."
"Then let's find the nearest Eraser patrol," I said, "Time we got to have a little fun."
I watched Cass out the corner of me eye, something wasn't right about her. Most people would love to have a go at Erasers. Sure we didn't really want to go and deliberately seek them out to fight them, but she just seemed a little too nervous around us…
Chapter 34
"You see them?" Laura asked me, "Over there across the road from the park near the black van?"
"Yeah, I see them," I replied, "The male models just sitting around. And it's a bit hard to not notice my brother sitting with them. Where are Dean and Cass? They should be in place already."
I grew silent as I saw figures walking towards the van. Both of them were winged kids, one of them was Dean, the other Cass. We watched them approach not sure what was going on, this was not part of the plan. Then I knew. Cass kicked Dean's knees out from behind him and he dropped to the ground revealing the hands tied behind his back. She was a double agent, one of the winged kids working with the Erasers. I knew something wasn't right about her. I knew it. We had to do something to free Dean, but something caught our attention. Cass was gesturing wildly at the park, getting into a heated discussion. They seemed to be arguing about the fact she only came back with one of us and not all three of us. The Eraser suddenly lashed out and backhanded Cass across the face, slamming her into the van. Cass recovered and lashed back at the Eraser who struck her, leaving an imprint of her hand burnt onto his cheek as flames covered her hand. Things were definitely getting heated.
"We need to get Dean out of there," I said, "By the looks the deal Cass had with the Erasers hadn't gone well. I'll fight the Erasers, create a distraction, you free Dean. If Cass tries to stop you, don't hold back, she betrayed us to them, if she does nothing, leave her."
Laura nodded and we went separate ways. I was heading towards the front of the van; Laura was heading to the back of the van. The Erasers saw me first, but they didn't see the panther that had formed out of the darkness of the trees and stalk them until it pounced on the first one. It seemed I could shape the darkness into pretty much anything, but I had to make sure I didn't lose control. I launched myself at the second Eraser, using my wings to give me speed and hammered a fist into his back and sending him flying into the van's windscreen. Jake came rushing around to see what was going on and recognized me.
My mind was split, half controlling the panther, the other half focusing on Jake; I couldn't use my premonition without releasing control of the shadow panther. He launched himself at me while I was distracted and knocked me to the ground. A fist came flying at my head and I had to roll to avoid the hit. It left a small crater in the ground. I kicked Jake in the ribs and threw him into the bush as Laura freed Dean from the ties. She rushed over to an unconscious Eraser and grabbed a small device from it belt and then was airborne with Dean in tow. I turned around and gave Jake once last kick to the head, hoping to knock some sense into him, if not replace some of his old memory.
We kept flying long after the fight. We needed to get away from the area before reinforcements arrived. It was near sunset when we finally agreed to pack it in and rest. All of us had only eaten once today and we were hungry and very tired. I spotted a motel ahead on a road below us and pointed it out. Dean shook his head and pointed at our wings. I shook my head, showed him the money and shook my head. We weren't going to pay, just borrow a room without permission for the night, until we got something to hide our wings. Dean nodded, to show he understood and we dove for the trees behind the place. We snuck up to a room on the far end, away from everything. One people wouldn't rent often I pried the door open; careful to make sure I didn't damage it.
The room was a small single room with a double bed. There was a bathroom and a TV in there and some other pieces of furniture, but that was it. Other than the furniture it was pretty barren, pale off-white colored walls and ceiling that were cracked in places, one single dresser that the TV sat on and a bedside table on either side of the bed.
"I'm taking a shower," Laura said, "I smell like Eraser breath and I got some blood on me I need to wash off."
"Ok," I replied, I'll get something ready to eat then."
"Who sleeps on the bed?" Dean asked, "One of us will have to sleep on the floor or in the chair in the corner. We need to decide. Laura should be one to sleep on the bed, she needs to be guarded."
"Yeah," I replied, "You can be the other one on the bed, I don't mind."
I don't want to look too eager, I thought, smiling to myself, but guarded my thoughts from Dean. I'd learnt how to do that from being with him, that there were certain things I could do that would prevent him from reading my mind. I unpacked some food and a small camping stove to cook the raw food on. Thankfully the room didn't have a smoke alarm. Laura came out the bathroom her hair darkened by the water, but still golden and lovely, I couldn't help but watch her each time I looked at her my heart beat faster, I just wanted to touch her skin, feel how soft it was. I shook my head and returned my focus on cooking the food while Dean had a shower.
"What's with the necklace?" Laura asked me, "You weren't wearing it before we left your place. Is it special?"
"It was Danielle's," I replied, "A sixteenth birthday gift. Cost me two grand to have custom made, but it was worth it. Now I wear it to remember her by, remember why I'm out here, doing this. Because I made a promise to her, to not let the whitecoats rule over me and to be free."
"It's beautiful," She said, "Danielle was lucky to have you as a brother."
"Thanks," I replied, hiding my face from Laura as a tear fell down my face. Thankfully I didn't have to hide it long as we heard Dean yell in the bathroom.
"Hey!" He shouted, "There's no more hot water!"