I kept low, leading Sky down alongside the shallow stream that led to the Eyrie. I could hear Sky stumbling behind me and could only hope she was OK – there was no time to help her now. Unless:

"Hold onto my jacket – almost there." I told her, my eyes focused on our target. The stream got deeper, allowing us to clamber out the gully, emerging in a grassy slope right in front of the house.

"Sense anything?" I asked urgently.

"No. You?" she huffed back.

"I can't see anything. Let's make a run for the house." I squeezed her arm reassuringly "On three. One – two – three!" I shot out, tearing the door open when I reached it and running in. It swung shut after Sky entered and I locked it with my mind. We were safe. For now.

"Your Dad and Xav OK?" she panted. I reached my mind out wordlessly.

"Dad? Xav? We're at the house – are you OK?"

"We're fine – Sky was right, there were two, but we lost them; gone off in a black SUV, identical to any other. They'll be out of town by now, but stay at the house until we get there." Dad replied, and I felt Xav in the background, agreeing.

"They're fine," I relayed to Sky "but they lost the hunters. You were right: there were two of them. They took off out of town in an unmarked SUV. Black, dark windows. Hundreds of cars like it in the mountains. Dad says to stay here till he gets back. Let's look at that eye." I had just noticed the rapidly-purpling bruise under her eye. I led her to the downstairs bathroom – she seemed too shell-shocked to object – and sat her on the edge of the bath. My fingers shook as I reached for the First Aid box – I had come so close to losing her. My Soulfinder. Hell, she wasn't just my Soulfinder anymore – she was Sky. What would I have done if I had been too late, if the bullet had hit her? The answer came to my mind unbidden. I would turn around, hunt her killer down, and kill him. Slowly and painfully. That's what I would do. Rage burned in my eyes and made my body shake as I tried to open the little green box. A hand landed in my arm.

"It's OK." Said Sky gently, looking at me with those eyes of hers. Those eyes that looked straight into my soul.

"It's not OK." I ripped a pack of cotton wool balls open, shooting fluffy balls all over the bathroom "We're supposed to be safe here." I was still shaking.

"Why wouldn't you be safe? What's going on, Zed? You seem not really surprised that someone wanted to shoot you."

I gave a hollow laugh.

"It does make a kind of horrible sense, Sky." I rinsed a flannel out and gently placed it against her eye. I sensed Sky's relief at the cold warding off the pain, even if it was only a little bit "Hold that there." I told her and started to clean her cuts with the cotton wool I had littered everywhere "I realise you want to know why that might be, but it's better for you and us if you don't." I told her the truth – it wasn't my fault my words spiked her annoyance and curiosity.

"And I'm supposed to be OK with that? I go for a walk with you, and get shot at, and I'm not supposed to wonder why? I can live with exploding lemons and the rest of it, but this is different. You almost died." I was tempted to point out that she had almost died as well, but on second thought, considered it best not to. I wouldn't be helping myself all that much, or my family. So instead, I pushed the cloth she had dropped back against her cheek and smiled slightly. Somehow, it didn't quite ring true.

"I know you're mad at me." I said needlessly.

"I'm not mad at you! I'm mad at the people who just tried to kill us! Have you told the police?" she shouted hysterically.

"Yeah, Dad's handling it. They'll be along. They'll probably want to talk to you." I pulled the cloth away to reveal a dark circle around her eye - I whistled when I saw it "How's this for a first date: I've given you a black eye." She jumped in shock.

"This was a date? You asked me here on, like, a date and I missed it?"

"Yeah, well, not many boys take their girls out on a duck shoot with them as the target for a first date. You have to give me points for style." I said lightly.

I haven't even got past first base yet "This was a date?" she repeated, letting it sink in.

"It was a date." I pulled her against my chest, sighing when she wrapped her arms around me "I was trying to get you used to me, kinda in my natural habitat. But I can do better, I promise." I reassured quickly.

"What? Gladiatorial combat next?"

"Now there's an idea." I pushed my face into her hair, digging through the blonde curls with my nose "Thanks for keeping a cool head out there."

"Thanks for bringing us through."

"Zed?" a call interrupted our little moment "Sky? Are you alright?" it was Dad, shouting from the hallway. I could see him imagining all sorts of non-existent injuries for us, for Sky – I guess all Dads are alike.

"In here, Dad. I'm fine. Sky's a bit roughed up, but she's OK." Dad hovered in the doorway, an anguished expression on his face.

"What happened? Didn't you see the danger, Zed?" I knew he wasn't blaming me, but I was still pissed.

"Yeah, obviously I saw." I replied sarcastically "I thought "Let's take my girlfriend out for a walk and try and get her killed". Of course, I didn't see – no more than you sensed it."

"Sorry, stupid question." He admitted "Vick's on his way. I've called your Mom and Yves back. Trace will be here as soon as possible."

"Who was it?"

"I don't know. The two Kelleys were sent down on Tuesday. It could be payback. But they shouldn't know where to find us." Sky peeked through a crack in my arms to see Dad.

"Who are the Kelleys?" she asked. That was when Dad got a good look at Sky for the first time.

"Sky, you're hurt!" he exclaimed "Xav, get in here." I could tell Sky was starting to feel claustrophobic in the small bathroom filled with so many people.

"I'm fine." She brushed off in classic Sky style "I just want some answers." Xav skidded round the corner, and his healer instincts took over.

"She's not fine. Her face feels like it's on fire." I turned sharp eyes on Sky. She opened her mouth to protest, but Xav shut her down.

"Don't bother, Sky, I can feel what you're feeling. An echo of it." Xav reached out and rested his fingertips on the bruise, barely touching it, and concentrated.

"What are you doing?" asked Sky in wonder.

"Trying to stop you looking like a panda tomorrow." He replied evasively - after several long seconds, he removed his finger "It's my gift." Sky touched her face cautiously.

"You'll still have a bit of a bruise. I haven't had time to get rid of it all. Pain's quick, bruises take more time to clear up – at least another fifteen minutes or so." He explained.

"We'd better get Sky home. The further from this mess she is, the better." Dad waved us out the bathroom and we dutifully shuffled out.

"Won't the police want to take her statement?" I asked, handing Sky some dry socks to replace her snow-drowned ones.

"Vick's sorting it out. He doesn't think we should involve the local cops; he'll get his people on to it. If he wants to talk to her, he can go to her and do so."

"And his people are?" pressed Sky, still determinedly on her quest for answers.

"The FBI." replied Dad bluntly.

"That's like the CIA – spies and stuff?" - and all I could think was how English Sky was. Typical.

"No, not really. The Federal Bureau of Investigation deals with crimes that cross state boundaries. The big felonies. They're plain clothes. Agents rather than cops." Sky undid her dishevelled hair and pulled it back into a ponytail – I remembered what she had said about brushing it each night and thought she would be suffering tonight. She looked like she'd been having a roll in the hay - if I wasn't careful, Simon would be after me with a gun.

"Zoe always says Victor is a man of mystery." She commented dryly. Dad flicked his eyes to me uncomfortably. I didn't need to read his mind to know what he meant: she's learning too much.

"But the less that's known about his other life, the better, understood?"

"Another Benedict family secret?"

"They do seem to be piling up, don't they?" Dad threw the keys to the bike at me "Take Sky home on the bike – but don't go direct. We don't want you leading anyone to her."

"You could take me to my parents' studio and they could run me back." She suggested helpfully.

"Good thinking. Zed, give my apologies to Mr and Mrs Bright for not taking proper care of their daughter."

"What do I tell them about it all?" I asked, leading Sky out the house by the elbow. Dad rubbed the back of his neck in a gesture I had come to associate with stress.

"I'll get Victor to explain. He'll know what and how much to say. For now, tell them it was some idiot running wild in the woods. Ask them to keep a lid on it until the authorities have had a chance to deal with it. Is that OK with you, Sky?"

She nodded.

"Good. You did great." Then, unexpectedly, he kissed the top of Sky's head and crushed me in a hug which a gladly returned – it had been a tough day for all of us, and it was only going to get worse – "Thank God we've only got one black eye to show for it. And thank you, Sky, for being so patient with us." I felt Sky mount the motorbike behind me, her arms wrapping around my waist tightly like it was the only thing keeping her alive. She was still scared – so was I.

"I'm going to take us by some back roads that skirt round Wrickenridge to your side of town." I warned her lowly "Just in case." I wasn't prepared to take any risks, not with Sky or my family. I was starting to consider them the same thing, but in different ways. Very different ways.

We started going, and I wove expertly around the dirt tracks, feeling Sky's hands cling to my jacket. It was reassuring – it meant she was here, and safe. The thing that I feared most hung in my mind like a shadow; the loud crack of a gunshot, and Sky's hands relaxing, releasing, the weight and warmth of her falling from behind me. The thought made me tremble – I wasn't sure what with. But it was bad. I heard Sky try and go to her storyboarding in her mind. Trying to see everything through the pages of a comic. But the images faltered and faded after a short while; the situation was too strong, too real for her to distance. She was one of the main characters, and that was too close for comfort. She felt groggy and filthy by the time I pulled up to the Arts Centre, and I was a nervous wreck.

"Can you do what Xavier does?" she said, pulling her helmet off and pinching her nose. Her head was pounding again.

"No, but I can buy you something for it at the drug store." I replied half-hopefully – anything to make her feel better. This wasn't her fault, and there was no reason for her to get involved. I had caused this.

"It's OK." She said quietly. I blew out a breath, steadying myself for the torrent that was going to come.

"Come on; let's face the music from your Dad."

"Can you see how bad it's going to be?" she begged weakly.

"Trying not to." I knew it was going to be just as bad as I saw it was when Sky's parents saw her face – her black eye. When Sky told them that we had been shot at, Mrs Bright looked like she was going to faint and Mr Bright looked like he was going to strangle. . . well, strangle me. Like I was the one who tried to kill their daughter. I tried my very best to spare Sky punishment, admitting all blame unto myself, but her Dad's protectiveness, cleverly masked as anger, defeated me easily. Sky walked away with a two week grounding, and I walked away with a glare and a mental death threat from Mr Bright hammering me as I went.