Chapter 16

Lord Thierry paced back and force, unsure of what to do or even how to even process everything that had happened in less then a 24 hour span. It felt like the cards that he'd been given to help him win the games was suddenly switched on him and instead of having a royal flush he only had a mess of suits and numbers that were barely enough to keep him at the table.

That and it took all the manpower he had to keep Ash from running out the doors of the mansion. Again he looked down at the picture, the small piece of Glossy Square that had driven Ash Redfern insane with anger and worry. He hadn't realized the effect it would have had on the other residents. A thankful accident had alerted the rest of the mansion when Ash had come barging into the house and Hannah had run into him. Within moments of her calm demeanor and Thierry's help they had been able to get him to open up. They had found out the truth and now everything was falling in on them.

After Ash had come to them Thierry needed to tell the rest of the house, the others that lived and breathed easy thinking of safety. Instead all that awaited them was worry and fear about the future for all of them. That even included him.

Once again he picked it up, keeping it from Ash to encourage anything rash. However, looking at this now, red sharpie scrawled across it, it made him want hide Hannah away from the world and make sure that nothing would ever happen to her.

Thierry tossed the picture into the drawer and closed it with a resound click. He didn't want to look at that picture any longer. There was something about that picture that made him think about the past. Thierry had lived through his own hell, living in a nightmare that was now slowing disappearing because of his soulmate. At least at some point Ash and him had been able to understand each other to a certain level. But now—now Ash was in a world all his own and his own hell that Thierry hoped that they wouldn't share.

The image was burned in his head. The flashes and worry were burning themselves into his heart. What was he going to do? The only thing that he was sure about was the bitter fact that she was still out there.

The palms of his hands bit down into his eyes wanting to push the image away. It was there, though, vibrant and burning clear in his mind. No matter what he wanted or should have felt there was nothing that he could do to shake his mind of the horror and dreams that had started to build themselves together. Nightmare on top of nightmare.

It didn't matter that Lord Thierry and Lady Hannah had taken the picture away there was no escaping the image. Ash closed his eyes and it flashed bright in his mind. Mary-Lynnette laid there, curled back against the back seat of a car, there was really nothing really menacing about that, it looked as if Mare had fallen asleep, if it weren't for the face that stared back leering back at him in the picture. His fingers curling in her hair, an evil smile splitting across his face. The red sharpie scrawled across the front of the picture: Your Move.

The others thought that it had to be a threat, a warning for the future of the others. But there was something about that face, those words scratched into the surface of pictures. He was challenging Ash to something, now what was driving him insane was what was the game? How could he win?

In this game Mare was the prize.

A jerk a bump on the road was the only think that woke up the girl that had slipped away. Mary-Lynnette could barely get a grip before a bottle of water was thrust into her face.

"Here, it will take out the taste of old pennies from your mouth. After that try and composed your self a little more, you're a mess." The creature that offered her that water was beyond gorgeous. A pale gold waterfall tumbled down past her shoulders into her pointer and thumb, twirling it between her delicate fingers. The girl gave Mary-Lynnette gave a cruel smile, "Then again is there any to change a filthy pigeon into a dove?"

Mare slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, something wasn't right. She couldn't remember anything… rushing upstairs to get ready for her date tonight. She noticed that she was still in short and a tank, not even shoes or flip flop covered her feet, they were bare against the rough carpet of the limousine floor.

Everything about this was wrong; the feelings that were pushing on her were over whelming. No matter how much she pulled or tugged at the cord inside her there was no response, there was no connection to Ash at all. Everything about this was just plain wrong.

Remember, try and remember something from last night. Anything! She scrabbled the remains of her brain, hoping to remember something….

… All she really could remember was starting the shower, the fan blasting in her room, twirling the dress that she had spent hours looking for, her mind had been indulging on his plans for their night together. She walked into the bathroom and stared back at herself in the mirror… a noise in her bedroom.

Then the rest was blank.

"What do you want?"

"You've been quite the trouble for my father. I don't even think you realize the damage your doing." The girl's voice was calm, but there was still a certain bite to it that made her voice the very feeling of ice.

"Your father?"

The girl smirked, "Isn't that obvious?"

With Mary-Lynnette expression the girl laughed, all of this had to be a bad dream that was the only reason. It had to be. The girl in front of her and the events that were playing out in front of her made everything seem all too real. The look from the girls face…Her father was Hunter Redfern….

The girl before her was Ash's elder sister (I'm pretty sure that this is fact. If it isn't I am sorry and will change this detail).

"Jade, we're about 10 minutes from entering the main gate." The driver in the front informed her.

Jade waved her hand in his general direction and pulled out a cell phone pushing away at the keypad. Her mind was somewhere else for the moment. Mare acted as best as she could and lunged forward. Her hand curling around the handle and pulled pushed the door open and without a second thought jumped out of the car.

Mary-Lynnette was thankful for the safety classes that she took all those years ago, though none of the lessons involved jumping out of a moving car. She tucked her limbs together and rolled across the pavement. Her knee hitting down on the road painfully; she rolled until she stopped and jumped up ignoring the pain that was biting into her leg and working upward and the small rocks that were cutting in the soles of her feet.

She ran.

Her body pushed into the woods, knocking away the branches and the fallen sticks and that blocked her path. She didn't know where she was or where she was going. All she knew was that she needed to get away as far and as fast as possible. The only problem was… would she be able to?

Her answer came in only a few moments when an arm threw itself in my path and slammed into her chest. She fell back in dirt and could only glare up into the vampire's face that held such a smug look.

"At least you'll be an interesting toy. Now enough of this crap, keeping my father waiting any longer will not wait help you live any longer. It's a potential health hazard."

Mary-Lynnette was led into a large room, reminding her of an audience room, there was only one reason for a room like this. A meaning of intimidation and a show of power and control, this room that was carpeted with fine rugs and marble floor with an enormous chandelier that hung overhead. This place was doing its job of scaring her. She felt alone and absolutely powerless.

Ash where are you? She thought that she could handle things on her own, be the big girl, but this was beyond her. This wasn't back home, this was in a world that she had no knowledge of; she didn't even know if she was still in Nevada. The only thing that Mary-Lynnette was sure of was the fact that she was all alone and that she was beyond terrified.

But she still had to be strong. They wanted something from her, that much she was certain of, but she wasn't going to give them anything. No matter what she could not be the one to betray them.

At that moment a door opened up in the back opened and a curtain was drawn back. Whatever small conversations that were in the room had died away and all eyes were on the figure that walked forward into the dim light.

But there seemed to be a light all his own, a powerful one that terrified those into following him. All he needed to do was stand there, with pools of molten gold that sent chills down spines. This was the one that brought so many nightmares into the world and have taken away the lives of so many.

Hunter Redfern walked forward, dead center into the room. His eyes fixed solely on the only human standing before him, a smile playing at his lips, "Well done Jade. Yet again you always seem to manage the task of pleasing me. You've done a fine job this time."

His daughter walked forward toward him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Father I present to you Mary-Lynnette; Ash's –if you will—soulmate."

The cruel tone of her words brought snickers and laugh from the rest of the court. All Mary-Lynnette could do was just stand there and wait trying to keep the rest of her body from shaking and show the sign of fear in her eyes. Her shoulders stayed square and she stared straight ahead trying to keep her eyes from meeting his.

He stepped even closer, his fingers spiderlike in her hair. "Well I can see why my son took such an infatuation with you. You seem to fit into the world of being placed in a small room to be observed and studied. What an interesting human my son has picked out for himself."

It took all her courage to stand completely still, to hold back the emotions of terror and hatred that were radiating inside her. But he seemed to know, chuckling and clucked at her chin as if a toddler.

"I find your hate very refreshing. Especially since you are one of the only humans and even some nightworlders that can have such a calm demeanor in my presence. But you cannot win, the ones the you and your kind have infected are weak and pitiful by the disease that you have spilled upon one another."

"Your wrong." The words were sure and steady, something that she didn't think was possible for her. Mare wasn't even sure that those words had come out of her own mouth. But it didn't matter.

Within moment Jade had walked forward and back handed her, a ring, on her index finger, torn into her skin shedding the smell and scent of blood wafting through the room. Mare clutched her check tumbling sideways, trying to keep herself from landing hard on the floor.

There was no anger in Jade's face, there was no hint of rage or any kind of emotion for that latter, just a blank canvas free of emotion. She didn't even say a word.

Redfern laughed, mockingly scolding his daughter, "Jade is that anyway we treat our guest of honor?" But the girl only inclined her head in his direction, only acknowledging she had heard him not that she had taken anything he said to heart.

But then his attention was back on Mary-Lynnette, " Well a human with a voice, my, my, I haven't seen one of those in a while. Not since that one era of priests that tried to eradicate the world the superior beings."

Those two words at the end, superior beings, it was a well-versed sentence to one sad little boy. "Timmy" she whispered.

"Ah I see that you've met my youngest adopted son; a real gem and bright young child for his generation. Very few among even those that reside under this house know that he had once been human. Timmy was a shinning crown that took to the nightworld even better then some pure bloods."

"Like Ash." She said.

There was a slight twitch from the leader, "Unfortunately yes. You see, humans, like yourself, don't realize the that you all carry with you a disease—a virus if you will—that can effect us in a such a way that it is a threat to the very existence that we have created. This world that we have built up for so many years, the safety and security that we have built for generations are crumbling and falling apart because of this epidemic that you are causing. Even you humans understand that something that has become an epidemic must be destroyed and confined so that it does not continue to spread and infect those around them. It is the natural balance and course of any species."

So he is afraid of us. Mary-Lynnette realized, this wasn't just about power and control this was about fear—

"Oh no my dear. You're completely wrong about that. Something so weak against something that is so strong. Well there is nothing to be afraid of. All that you are is just a hindrance to us; a thorn in my side that I am having a very difficult time getting rid of and your race is growing rapidly like weeds."

How did he know—

You know nothing about what I can do. A voice crawled forward, tentacles wrapping around her brain and thoughts. Hunter took a long pointer and tapped at his temple. His strength and power was beyond anything that she had seen or heard from Ash or any of the others from Circle Daybreak.

"Child if I truly wanted to I could make you do anything that I wanted. You need to understand the position that you're in. Be compliant." Hunter Redfern stood in front of Mare, his hands on either side of her face, his fingers crawling up towards her own temples. Clean cold skin against dirty warmth.

There was this blinding burst of power, pressure that built up in the back of her mind. She sucked in a sharp breath and pushed back. Her promise walking into this building still stood before her and she pushed with everything she had. A pain flashed through her, Hunter's nails beginning to scratch into her skin, the wound on her cheek sending a trickle down her jawbone.

Ash…

Redfern suddenly lurched away, as if his hands were on fire. For a brief moment Mary-Lynnette saw something other then the molten gold in his eyes, a flash of something that looked almost like fear.

The faint silver that swirled in his eyes disappeared just as fast as it had come and the Hunter Redfern that rarely surfaced had sunk back into the black abyss of this creature. A hand came up smoothing over hair that hadn't seemed to lose its place and stepped back toward what could only be described as a thrown. "Didn't I child say that you needed to be compliant?"

A snap of his fingers and steel hands wrapped around her arms pushing her forward toward the chair; pushed down to her knees and a fear blazing through her, Mary-Lynnette's mind played up its own image of the consequences that were about to be given to her.

Out of the corner of her eyes a dagger, long, sharp and deadly, was unsheathed. Her hair yanked up and back causing her head to look up into the face she knew would haunt her nightmares for years to come.

That old haunting smile came back, "As the saying goes there is more then one way to skin a cat."

The dagger sailed down.