3 --- 3

The sweet aroma of the thick soup wafted into Anna's nose and she was back as an eight year old with her mom in the kitchen, wearing her ridiculous apron.

She would jump around the house, asking "is it ready yet?" for the hundredth time as her mum kept answering with "in a minute."

A tiny smile played at the corner of her mouth before she was hit with a familiar emotion of loss. She really missed her mum.

"Something smells nice,"

She gave a small shriek and turned around to see Nate casually leaning on the tiny kitchen door.

"Stop doing that." She half yelled and laughed.

"Doing what?" he asked innocently.

"Slipping into my apartment and scaring the shit out of me."

"I am not trying to scare you Anna, just trying to train you."

"I keep telling you I can't sense you come in."

"Yes, you can. You just choose to ignore it. Your will does more than let you fight. It also warns you when you are in danger. You must have felt something when I entered the apartment."

"Oh that!" she exclaimed in realization. "I thought it was an insect crawling on my neck or something."

Nate groaned in frustration and left the kitchen.

Anna reduced the heat and followed him out of the kitchen, smiling at his back.

Two months ago, since they met on that rooftop. They had developed into friends in a short period of time. The money Nate gave to her had paid for her apartment and everything in it.

In an effort to stay away from Victor's radar, she hardly ventured outside; the only person that knows she stays here was her old landlady.

During the moment, she was fascinated by her new power and she asked Nate to teach her how to master her power. He was a really good teacher. In a very short time, she had unlocked new depths to her power.

She watched him dump himself on her couch, relaxed his muscles and stretched his biceps. It still amazed her how much they have bonded. When she first met him that night, He had both scared and amazed her. A fearless warrior with the face of an angel. In a crazy quirk of fate, he was about the only family she had left.

"What are you looking at?"

She blushed as he caught her staring. "You should stop teaching me this inner strength nonsense. I want to learn how to fly."

He crooked his jagged eyebrow. "But you already know how to fly."

"No, I know how to hover in the air for a few seconds before crashing to the ground."

"And you crash gracefully."

"I landed on my head the last time."

"Anna, you are pushing yourself too hard. It has been barely two months since you broke out." His eyes lit up with excitement. "Let's talk about something else. Victor just gave me my paycheck. What do you say about leaving this crappy apartment?"

Anna frowned at that. She might have not lived here long  but it was a kind of haven for her. "No thanks. I like my crappy apartment and I find it weird to be spending the money of a man who wants to kill me."

Nate sighed heavily. "You realize this is all temporary right?"

"Yeah." Deep down, she knew she didn't. Part of her wanted to disconnect herself totally from the outside world. The other part of her knew that was plain stupid."

"I am planning on leaving."

It took a second to process what he said. She silently joined him on the couch. "Do you think Victor will let you?"

"No." He answered. "But I don't plan on asking for his permission."

"What about me?" She asked, afraid of his response.

"You could come with me. I have been doing some research. There are a lot of beautiful places in the world we can hide from Victor."

"So, we are going to spend the rest of our lives hiding?" She asked skeptically.

"You are such a buzz kill."

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize, you are right. I don't fancy of looking over my shoulder for the rest for my life either."

"So what are you going to do? I know how much you hate working with him."

"He reached out and stroked her hand. "Don't worry, I will figure it out. In the main time, we could work on your perception skills." She gave him a confused look. "You feel it, don't you? Something is wrong." He said with a knowing smile on his face.

He was right. It was like an alarm was going off in her head.

"Oh my God!" She said with realization. "My soup is burning." She darted to the kitchen leaving Nate shaking with laughter.