Her foot pressed down further on the pedal, causing them to fly down the streets of Boston to the apartment building on the paper. She came to a bumpy stop outside the place and sprinted up the steps, Frost hot behind her. She almost wiped out on the stairs from her high heels, but recovered her balance just in time.
She didn't even pause as they came upon the right door, just rammed right into it with her shoulder, jarring the joint but managing to bust through, drawing forth her dagger as the door splintered around her.
Maura was wrapped in Dennis' embrace and they were standing in front of an open elevator shaft. At first glance it may have looked sweet and romantic, but then Jane registered the terror in her eyes and the glint of his teeth near her throat and it seemed like the entire world stopped for Jane.
Dennis smirked and lowered his head and Jane reacted without another thought. The dagger flew from her fingers and buried itself in his shoulder, knocking him back and allowing Maura time to dash away from him.
"Jane, here!" Frost hollered, and when she turned back to spare him a glance, her hand automatically came up to catch the sword he hefted at her. Dennis was rocking on the edge of the open elevator, fighting for balance when Jane caught up to him and slashed him through the throat, both his head and his body falling to the depths below to land with dull thunks.
Maura dove at Jane, hugging her as hard as she could and sobbing into the brunette's shoulder. Jane dropped the seraph blade and wrapped her arms around the terrified blonde while Frost stepped forward cautiously to pick it up and put it away.
It took a few moments to calm Maura down enough to leave, but when they did, Jane handed the keys over to Frost and climbed into the backseat with Maura. The doctor wouldn't let go, but Jane didn't mind.
Frost's phone rang as he drove and he answered it; the doctor was too out of it to reprimand him for talking and driving at the same time.
"Frost." A pause. "Shit." And then, "I'll tell them. We're on our way back now."
"What happened, Frost?" Jane asked quietly, rubbing circles on Maura's back.
"It can wait until we're back." Frost said grimly, all of a sudden intensely focused on the road.
"Now." Jane insisted, hissing the word darkly. Frost sighed.
"He's gone. Hoyt escaped prison in Idris and now he could be anywhere. No one knows how, no one knows where he's gone, all they know it three guards were found dead about an hour ago."
Jane's entire body tensed and froze. "Step on it, Frost. We need to get her out of the open. Fast."
The car noticeably increased speed, and with a glance Jane noticed the needle ticking up toward ninety five miles per hour. "Faster." She said again and watched as it neared one hundred and ten.
"It's a good thing you have such faith in my driving capabilities or we'd have crashed by now."
Jane couldn't find it within herself to laugh at his poor joke, his desperate attempt at adding levity to a situation which was only growing more grave by the second.
"Are they doing anything about it yet? Do they have a plan?"
Frost shook his head. "No. First priority is getting you under lock and key. Then we'll work out a strategy and I swear to fucking God, the bastard isn't going to get the chance to escape again. I'll kill him before we take him into custody again," Frost vowed, knuckles whitening against the steering wheel and voice turning deadly.
"He won't be found unless he wants to be, we know that already. And the only way he's going to want to be found is if I'm the one out there searching around for him. You guys won't be keeping me under lock and key; not if we want to end this. And we will end this," she vowed, gripping Maura more tightly.
"No, Jane, don't go searching for him. You barely managed to escape from him last time," Maura pleaded quietly, sobs colouring her words.
"Shh, Maur. I'll be fine. Don't worry about me." Jane instructed just as Frost pulled into a space at the Institute.
They got out of the car and hurried to the door, throwing it open and storming inside, heading straight for the kitchen.
"Information. Spill. Now." Were the three words that left Jane's lips as soon as they were in through the doorway.
Cavanaugh, Korsak, and Angela spoke over each other trying to explain the situation. Jane gave an exasperated sigh and the three tried again, this time gesturing for Korsak to give them the low down.
Giovanni, Frankie, Tessa, and Jem burst through the door before they could begin, all of them still in all of their outerwear, weapons still weighing down their utility belts.
"Good. I only have to explain this once. Hoyt escaped from the maximum security prison cell we had him held in in Idris. Three guards are dead. He got the first one when they brought him food, breaking his arm through the hole in the door and snatching his keys before escaping and getting rid of the other two.
"No one knows where he is, but given his history we expect him to be here in the city, lurking and waiting to try and get to Jane again. Obviously, we're not going to let that happen, so-"
"Yes you are," Jane interjected, cutting Korsak off effectively. Dead silence followed the statement for a second, and then all hell broke loose as everyone tried to speak at the same time.
After a few moments, Jane's head began to hurt at all the ruckus. "OI! Alright, shut up the lot of you and let me explain, okay?" She rubbed her temples to buy her a moment to sort out her thoughts. "As I explained to Frost in the car, he wants me, he'll be coming after me. He doesn't want anyone else. He won't appear for anyone else. The fucker will lie low until he can get me alone and then he'll strike."
She shook her head. "That's the only way we'll get a shot at taking this guy down. We have to take the chance. We can be sneaky about it; ambush him as he ambushes me if we can, but if you keep me locked up in here to keep me safe, we'll never catch him."
"I am not going through all of that crap again!" Angela declared, throwing her arms in the air. "No way, I'm not having it."
Jane looked her mother in the eye and said, "I wasn't asking for permission. I'm doing it my way. Whether or not you guys choose to assist me will be up to you."
Frost assented first, followed quickly by the rest of the younger generation. Tessa and Jem stood off to the side, but nodded when Jane's inquisitive gaze landed upon them. Korsak silently agreed as well, whereas Cavanaugh admitted defeat with an exasperated sigh.
Mama Rizzoli was still shaking her head in denial.
"You're not going to help me, Ma?" Jane asked in a small voice.
Angela broke. "Oh baby, of course I will," she sniffled.
The door opened again, "You can count me in, too, sis." Tommy declared as he stepped into the room, Lydia sneaking in behind him.
"And us." Members from her old guard swarmed into the place as well, making the room seem smaller than it had in ages.
"Don't forget me, Vanilla!" Rondo boomed as he bounded in. He gave her a hug and winked, "I got your back, you fine slice of-"
Jane's hard glare stopped him short.
"Alright," Jane said, brain whirring in an attempt to come up with a plan while she had the floor.
"You're not going by yourself." Maura said firmly.
"Yes I am, otherwise this entire thing isn't going to-"
Maura silenced her with a harsh look. "He's taken me before, too. I'll go with you." She looked around at the audience. "If we can get a map and set up a route to travel along, we can have people hiding out along the way, watching out for him. Jane and I go along until he shows himself and then we finish him."
"Sounds sketchy at best, Maura," Frankie said hesitantly.
"Do you have a better plan?" Jane asked. He shook his head. "Exactly. I like it. We should start now."
"No, Jane, you need to rest and eat before we go out there." Maura instructed in a no nonsense voice. Jane looked imploringly at her, but the blonde refused to budge on her stance. "Go," she ordered and watched Jane sulk away. The door swung shut behind her.
"You have got to teach me how you do that," Giovanni stated, slack jawed and amazed.
"Me too," Frankie agreed.
Maura rolled her eyes. "Can you guys come up with a suitable route? I don't want to leave her alone. She may do something stupid."
They said they'd take care of it and after letting Angela thrust a plate of food into her hands, she trudged upstairs, heading straight for Jane's room.
The brunette was surprisingly still in the Institute, sitting on the edge of her bed, rubbing her palms together anxiously.
"I half thought to look in my room first, make sure you weren't escaping down the side of the building again." Maura said, setting the food on the bedside table and sitting down beside Jane.
"Can't say I didn't think about it." Jane answered gruffly. She sighed loudly. "God, I just go from one homicidal maniac after my blood to another today, don't I?"
Maura looked at her, alarmed. "Who else has tried to kill you?!"
Shifting guiltily, Jane muttered, "Casey. But don't worry about it. I dealt with him before we found you."
It was Maura's turn to wrap Jane into a hug. "I'm sorry you've gone through so much today, Jane. I don't know what came over me, but I fell apart and it was the scariest thing in my life."
Jane nodded against Maura's neck. "It's okay. It's a dangerous life. You don't have to stay."
Maura stiffened against Jane. "I'm not leaving you."
Jane exhaled a worried breath she hadn't been aware of keeping in. "If we survive this, you can move in permanently if you want. Become another integral part of our quilted team."
Maura smiled. "I'd love to."
"It's settled then. I'll ask you again when we're through this and if you're still sure, you can take the oath."
"There's an oath?" Maura asked.
"Yeah," Jane shrugged. "As Shadowhunters, we're allowed to keep people, colleagues here with us at the Institute so long as they go through with an oath, binding themselves to the work we do; it's not unlike the ceremony we go through before we become full fledged Shadowhunters."
"Is it binding?"
Jane nodded. "Pretty much. You can leave if you leave with a Shadowhunter, or if you vow never to return, never to contact us again, and never to reveal our world to the mundanes. It's serious, though, Maur. The people before you who took the oath, well, most of them live to regret it."
"You've had other people like that?"
Jane shook her head. "Not really. We may have had one when we first arrived here from Idris, but we've never taken one on ourselves… talked to a bunch of ones who took it though. They said that most days, they wished they'd stayed in the mundane world. Can't say I blame them. As you've noticed, you see a lot of fucked up shit in this place."
"Language," Maura corrected absently, mind clearly engaged elsewhere.
They hugged it out for a while longer, before collapsing onto Jane's bed and falling asleep. Maura's arms were still wrapped around Jane.
"Alright, let's get all of the troops in here, then, so we can see how many we're dealing with." Cavanaugh ordered, while the trio of Gio, Frankie, and Frost got out a map and started planning possible routes. Werewolves, faeries, and a couple of vampires stalked inside, the wolves and the bloodsuckers staying on opposite ends of the crowd.
"Teams of two! Preferably one Shadowhunter and one Downworlder to a team." Cavanaugh instructed.
"We going to be using the Alliance rune again?" Joey Grant asked, speaking for the werewolves.
"No, we don't need to share powers, I just want to balance out the teams so that Hoyt has to work harder to bring us down."
The assembly shuffled around, locking into pairs easily. There were a couple of extra Downworlders at the end, even after three stepped off to the side to be paired with the younger Shadowhunters once they'd concocted a plan.
After realising how many pairs they had, they edited their route to accommodate their numbers. Then everyone armed themselves, and Angela handed out food to sate the crowd for the coming vigil.
Frankie went to get Jane and Maura. He'd planned on waking Jane first, knocking softly on the door before entering cautiously. Shit. He thought as he caught sight of the two of them tangled up together on top of the covers, limbs everywhere, completely out of it.
"Hey, Frankie!" Giovanni whispered harshly from the doorway before peering in. 'What – oh shit man, are they together?!"
"Shut up, Giovanni!" Frankie said harshly in a low voice.
Giovanni looked back and forth between the sleeping people and his partner. "But they're so cute!" he whined, gesturing madly at the cuteness in front of them.
Frankie silenced him with a glare. "Get out of here, Gio, what're you even doing here?"
Gio shrugged. "Well, I was gonna ask you what your preference was. Your Ma made eggplant parmesan and penne carbonara and I was going to save you a plate."
"Oh." Frankie turned sheepish. "Right, thanks man. Parmesan, all the way."
"I swear to God if that is the voice of my younger brother and his parabatai lurking by my bed, neither of you will be eating anything for the next year and a half, let alone Ma's eggplant parmesan." Jane threatened, voice thick with sleep, from the bed.
The two men turned to each other, rightly alarmed for their future selves. "Shit." They said in unison and turned tail quickly, sprinting to rejoin the masses downstairs. There was safety in numbers, after all.
Jane sighed and rolled over onto her back as Maura stirred beside her. "Guess that means it's show time," Jane murmured softly, and Maura kind of mewled in response.
"I suppose so," Maura offered sleepily as she wiped the residue from her eyes.
Jane ran her hand through Maura's hair, like she was petting a kitten. "Come on, let's go catch the bad guy," she said, and slipped from the bed.
They changed, and with Jane's help, they were both armed for anything. When they rejoined the throng of people downstairs, they were immediately guided into the kitchen, and then pressed forward until they came face to face with Angela. The woman simply stared at them both for about a minute before sighing and handing them each a plate, fully loaded with food.
"You'll need your energy." Was all she said, and then she stroked her daughter's cheek with one hand, and squeezed Maura's hand in the other before putting on her brave face and letting them walk away.
They ate quickly, in a companionable silence, actively avoiding all the curious stares from their fellow comrades in battle.
"It'll be alright," Jane whispered reassuringly at one point, noting the worry lines emerging on Maura's forehead. The blonde had simply nodded anxiously and continued picking at the food.
Another couple of minutes and they declared they were done by taking their plates to the sink and nodding at Cavanaugh and Korsak. Together, with the help of Frost, Frankie, and Giovanni, they took the ladies through the plan. Patiently, they answered the many questions Maura seemed to have until finally Jane rolled her eyes and said that they were going to leave now.
They gave the rest of their help fifteen minutes to get into position, and then they left side by side through the front door. They followed the route to the letter, every turn every alleyway, without fail. They couldn't see their protective details on the outskirts of their vision, but they had faith that people were watching over them.
The circuit took about forty five minutes at a slightly more brisk pace than the usual Bostonian was capable of.
The ladies went around it five times. Five times without pause, without interruption. Nothing.
They finally called it quits after that last walk around, and when they all regrouped back in the kitchen, Maura got an earful of I told you so's from passing people. She brushed it off easily, but Jane could tell it still stung.
"Hey, guys, knock it off. It was a sound plan and I didn't hear any of you offer up an alternative option. Besides, maybe he just hasn't arrived back in town yet. We don't know how he's traveling; frankly, we don't know a whole hell of a lot about this guy. So let's keep it civil and polite and not make enemies amongst our allies, shall we?"
Jane's little speech had the desired effect, and everyone kept pretty well away from them for the remainder of the evening.
They turned into bed early, having only received a few hours of shut eye previously. Jane had taken a moment away from Maura to explain to Frankie that spying upon the two of them while they were sleeping was beyond creepy and that should it ever happen again, he'd never get to have a kid.
She closed the door in his face.
Frankie took the threat at its face value because, having spent almost the past four hours in close quarters with a lovely, brilliant werewolf named Riley, he'd like to keep that particular future option available.
He returned downstairs, intent to simply bid everyone goodnight and hit the hay himself, except when he got down there, he noticed Frost chatting with Riley. That smooth son of a bitch had Riley laughing like she didn't have a care in the world.
Wary, he approached them, "Hey."
Riley was the first to respond to him, "Oh hey, Frankie, Frost here was just telling me a story about the four of you as young wannabe Shadowhunters." She laughed again. "So cute."
He blushed. "Oh was he? How nice of him." He turned to Frost, glaring heatedly, "Shouldn't you be going to sleep? I know you've had a hell of a past few days."
Frost seemed to consider it for a moment before grinning widely. "You know, I thought about it, but I'd hate to leave poor Riley here all alone," he said.
Riley blushed. "Don't you worry about me. I was going to head to bed soon myself." She scrutinised their faces for a moment. "How about we all just turn in for the night right now? Then no one's left out and we're all well rested for whatever the morning brings?"
It was a grand suggestion, and after each of the men put forth a half-hearted attempt to insist, they separated for the night. Riley going off to sleep somewhere, completely oblivious, while Frost and Frankie each tried to think of ways to out shine the other.
CHAPTER TEN
She was cold when she awoke. Before Maura had come into her life, if she'd slept at all, she'd always woken up freezing cold. But, since the blonde had entered her life and, in time, come to practically call Jane's bed her own, the brunette hadn't had cause to wake up shivering.
She stretched out, waiting to come into contact with Maura's warm skin, except she didn't come across anything. Her eyes flew open, and she sprang up from the bed to confirm it.
She was gone.
She scoured the room, only to find a single piece of paper.
Oh Janie, how lovely to see you again.
I admit, it was rather difficult to simply watch you lying there,
to smell the lavender without the fear, and leave you,
but your 'friend' and I have such plans for you.
You know she's gone.
You know I have her.
42.6361
71.9083
You'll figure out where I am soon enough.
And Janie, I hope when you get here
You're ready to play.
My game. My way.
Remember. You must be alone.
After all, it's no fun to watch your friends and family die for you, is it?
Panic manifested in her heart. She balled the note up in her fist, simmering in her rage. It was time. It was time to finally kill the bastard. Or die getting Maura free in the attempt. She was out of other options, out of other roads to go down.
She got out her laptop and typed the numbers into Google. One of the first results indicated that they were coordinates, and that they led straight to a town in northern Massachusetts called Ashburnham. From what the internet could tell her, it was fairly well known for its abandoned wilderness.
The house would be on high alert and she'd have to steal a car to get there. She'd also need a way into the weapons vault to arm herself, regardless of the fact that Hoyt would no doubt just make her strip them all off when she came face to face with the bastard.
Her blood boiled in her veins.
She threw caution to the wind and simply stormed into the weaponry. How the hell did he get inside the Institute, let alone my room? How didn't I notice? There were so many questions running through Jane's mind as she strapped on her gear. So many questions, and no where near enough answers for them all.
With her destination so far out of town, she knew that if she hurried she could get there not too long after him. That, and the sun wasn't rising as she'd expected, but sinking. It was sunset.
Preparing for the worst, she hid a few weapons underneath her layers of clothing, including a small knife in her bra and a mini explosive which she hooked onto the band of her underwear.
The Institute was eerily quiet as she slipped down the stairs. Not everyone could be asleep; that was impossible. Someone was always awake, someone was always keeping watch.
Curious and concerned, she entered the kitchen only to find a few people asleep at the tables. One man's face was buried half in his mashed potatoes.
All of a sudden, clear understanding dawned on her: they'd been drugged. She seethed with vicious anger at the thought that he'd gotten in here twice. Once to drug them and once to kidnap Maura. They'd failed her, as all Shadowhunters eventually fail the faithful.
The only upside, if there was one, was that everyone still seemed to out of it to hinder her escape. With any luck, no one would know she was missing. No one would be looking for her with any haste. She felt better about stealing one of the Insitute's vehicles for her rescue mission. She slipped both sets of keys to the car in her pocket. She'd leave one in the car in case Maura got the chance to escape without her. She'd have the other on her person so Hoyt could take it and 'ensure' that they had no means of escape should they wiggle free.
She left and jumped straight into the car, no longer worried at all by the sound of the engine starting.
As such, she wasn't checking to make sure no one noticed her departure. If she had, maybe she'd have noticed the light on in a room on the second floor, a lonely silhouette against the glass of the window, curiously watching her leave.
She sped along the Massachusetts 2 highway, through Somerville, Concord, Acton, and past Harvard before she had to stop for gas. It didn't take long to cross the rest of the distance through Leominster and up past Fitchburg before finally getting to Ashburnham.
It took an hour and a half to get there, and then another half an hour, driving around the small town before finding something worth investigating on foot.
The night was damp and lacking in stars. Using only the faint glimmer of the moon coming in through the dense grove of trees, she approached the abandoned cabin with caution. It was rundown and looked like a chaotic mess; so it was just the type of place he'd pick to hide out in for a while.
Using every scrap of training she'd been given, she stalked through the brush to the house.
A few hundred yards from the house, she located a car covered in a camouflage tarp and driven into a thick tangle of branches and leaves. The hood was slightly warm to the touch, even with the plastic covering, and that only cemented her theory: he was here.
She felt a trickle of anticipatory dread slide down her spine. This would be the night of her revenge, and she would stop at nothing to achieve her ends. She drew her twin blades from the scabbards strapped across her back and whispered their names to the lonely wind.
Her breathing regulated as she brought forth every ounce of her discipline, and then she sprang forward lightly, body tensed to face her past, her present, and her future.
The house was quiet as she entered, but almost like another sense, she could feel his slimy presence in the air.
Out of nowhere, two thugs appeared at her back, and grasped her arms, twisting them in such a way as to ensure her swords fell to the rotten floorboards.
"Jane! So nice of you to join our little party," Hoyt called, although she couldn't see him yet. "I was just telling these lovely gentlemen that it's only polite to remove a lady's coat and excessive weaponry before she be brought into the main parlour. Did they listen?"
She could hear the unadulterated glee in his voice and it infuriated her. "Where is she?" she snarled, still fighting against the hard grips on her shoulders and forearms.
"Now, now, Janie. Where would all the fun go if I just told you so that you could half-wittedly attempt to rescue her and in the process force me to kill both of you prematurely?" He shook his head at her lack of understanding. "How am I to get to know the two of you better if you're both dead?"
He came into view then, appearing from behind a supporting wall of the house. He took one look at her and nodded at the men holding her. They released her, but had picked her own blades up off the ground and were pointing the tips at her.
"Strip." Hoyt commanded, voice low and hush. She shuddered.
"No."
"You can put your damn clothes right back on afterward, but I know you, Janie. You have weapons in those folds of fabric. Strip. Now."
She didn't move.
He sighed in agitation. "Fine!" He roared. He motioned for one man to do something and he disappeared. When he came back, he had a struggling bundle in his arms.
Hoyt stared Jane down. "If you don't, I will take your own Goddamned knife to your pretty little girlfriend's neck and we'll see how quickly you comply with me, then!" He snarled, picking the small dagger up off the ground and moving briskly towards Maura.
"STOP!" She shouted desperately. He halted his movements as Jane started shucking her shirt and trousers, tossing away the dagger and small explosive. If Maura had simply been tied up alone in a corner, she could've used that timing to use those two last resort weapons, but she just couldn't risk Maura being so close to ground zero.
"Let her go, Hoyt, you don't need her for anything. You have me," Jane said, hating herself for the breaks in her voice.
He grinned at the pain soaking her words. "No. The quickest way to get your compliance is to threaten the girl here. You don't care about self-preservation, you stupid girl, but you care very much about her." His eyes lit up in malice. "Besides, it's obvious that the best way to torture you, is actually to torture her."
He spoke to his goons, "Restrain her!" And again, Jane's arms were immobilised behind her back. One of them kicked the back of her knee, forcing her down to the ground.
"What shall we do to the good doctor first, Janie?" Hoyt asked rhetorically. It made her sick to think about. "You know I don't like to kill creatures with their own race's weapons, but how about I torture Maura with some good old fashioned human ingenuity?" He cackled at the looks of terror mirrored on both women's faces.
He wandered over to a table covered in a random collection of items. He browsed through it before selecting a block-like thing. "Why don't I paralyse her, first, Janie? Humanity has this wonderful little device, it sends electricity through a person's body, rendering their synapses useless. Great little thing. It'll mean I can untie the doc while I have fun with her."
He pointed it at her and pressed a button, delighting in the tortured way Jane shrieked, "No!" at the top of her lungs. It was dark enough that Jane could practically see the energy exploding down the lines attaching the machine to Maura's chest, and she fought hard against her binders as Maura's body shook with the shock.
"LET HER GO! DAMN YOU HOYT!"
"Ah, Janie," he smiled reverently, leaning down to push an errant lock of hair back behind Maura's ear. "Hit the lights," he instructed and one of the men left Jane's side to flick the switch.