8 --- 3

*Boredom.* Anna could not believe she had been left to babysit. Roger kept flipping through channels, Brian was surfing the internet with a computer, courtesy of the hotel, while Cassandra was doing God knows what in the room reserved for girls.

Nate was gone for about six hours now and he could be dead right now for all she knew. Her stomach coiled at the thought, the rest of the team didn't seem bothered by the possibility, probably because they didn't know Nate like she did.

Amusement bubbled in her when she realised she has just referred to them as a team. What were they? Friends? Definitely not with Charlotte, or was it Samantha? Her name had slipped her mind again. She had hated her the moment she met her. She reminded her of those girls who had been bullying her back at school. Pretty girls who everybody adored so much that everyone failed to see their rotten cores, girls who made her life a living hell. She would be glad to be rid of her when all this was over.

When this was over? What would she do if Nate managed to succeed in his crazy plan? She had been living in a bubble these past few months, hiding from Victor and training with Nate without a worry of the future. She could never go back home, that was for certain.

And what if Nate failed? Would she run? Or they could retaliate and attack Victor, would the others listen to her? Could she even trust them in a fight? Maybe Roger, he had the face that looked like he and been in a few fights. Brian's portaling ability could be useful in a few fights but he looked a little bit too wide eyed to fight or kill anybody and Samantha or Cassandra...

"Guys, come check this out." Brian cut in to her thoughts. She and Roger left the couch to join Brian by the computer where a short video where a familiar redhead was talking with an armed and nervous policeman. Her eyes were glowing in panic but the cop was too scared to care. The video was shot with a phone by someone on the scene.

Roger suddenly tensed beside her. "Pause it." He said suddenly and Brian obliged. "Play it back for a few seconds."

It took a while for Anna to see what he noticed. A few feet from the crowd that surrounded the girl was a familiar figure. Bennet.

"At least, we don't have to worry about Victor finding her." Brian commented.

Roger nodded. "I have been going through news channel, I didn't see any of this."

"News?" Brian said, looking both amused and surprised at the same time. "You are never going to find anything about willers on the news except it is so big that they can't ignore it. They are so used to pretending we don't exist." He replayed the video and stood up.

"Samantha should know about this."

*Why bother.* Anna thought. She clearly doesn't want to have anything to do with us but she didn't stop him. She watched the video to a point where the girl raced off the scene and she could hear some comments over the murmuring. "That's so cool... Fucking annoying willers... I thought the cop was going to shoot her." They admired and resented willers at the same time.

Brian suddenly jerked back into room. "Guys, Samantha is gone."

Roger's face twisted in disbelief. "What do you mean she is gone?"

"I mean she is not in the room."

Anna's heart began to thump hard. Had she managed to slip out when they were distracted. "Where could she have gone?"

Brian shrugged." Home I guess? How the hell am I supposed to know?"

"Can you find out her address?"

"I need her last name for that."

"It's Knight." Roger said suddenly. "She told us last night.

"Right." He walked back to the computer and began to type in.

Roger looked back at Anna. "Who is going back to look for her?"

Anna scowled. "Why can't we just let her go? Should we put our lives in danger because of her selfish ass."

Roger made a funny face. If Victor managed to get his hand in her, he could torture her to reveal our location."

"Fuck."

The computer chimed. "I got it." Brian gave her Cassandra's home address that he found on one of her many social media accounts.

"I am going ." She said in a tone that both of them didn't question. "At first sign of trouble, Brian can portal both of you out of here." They both nodded in understanding.

She bolted out the door and took the elevator down to the lobby where she ran out the building, the hotel staff paid her no attention, Nate must be paying a lot of money for anonymity.

She hailed the first first cab she saw and gave her the address. As the car raced to her destination, she thought of her situation. What if she didn't find her at home? She was in no way fit enough to protect her from any danger. Her healing wounds were already protesting against her excessive movement.

After a stretch of time, the cab pulled into a rich suburban neighborhood and stopped in front of a house that was obviously for the rich.

"Keep the meter running." She told the driver.

The house was heavily fenced but for some reason the gate was slightly open. She slowly entered the house, she bit back a whistle. The house was beautiful, it was not very big or tall but it had a futuristic look to it with its arcane mixture of glass and stone. Anna had to force herself from staring and remember what she had come for.

She focused on her will and tried to sense any living form in the house. There were six people in the house and the seventh sent back a spark of familiar power, she knew there was a willer but she had no idea who it was, she wished she could track like Nate, he would be able to identify her will signature.

She fought the urge to barge into the house but Nate had taught her better than to run into a situation she did not understand.

She focused her will into her ears and focused on hearing what was going on the house. She got some basic movement and the hum of a machine that could possibly be a vacuum. She tuned those out and moved to an ongoing conversation.

" --- swear it is me dad, I haven't changed. Please, you have to believe me." A high pitched voice she recognized as Samantha was speaking.

"Sam." A deep voice was replying. "I really would like to believe you haven't changed but --"

"You have obviously changed." Another voice that was obviously feminine interrupted the man Anna guessed was her father. "You hurt Blake."

"Shut up Lindsey." Cassandra spat out venomously.

"Don't talk to your mother like that." Her father scolded in a firm voice.

"She is not my mother."

"But she is right, you hurt your stepbrother."

"It was a mistake." Her voice lost a bit of its former ferocity. "I just got angry and my powers lashed out. I can't control them yet. I am sorry."

Anna thought she didn't sound sorry. The woman named Lindsey spoke again. "He had to miss a big football game at school all because of you."

"It was one match, I am talking about my life here. Do you even know where I was last night?"

"We didn't know, we tried calling you but your phone wasn't going through. We thought you just wanted sometime alone." Her father said in a somber voice."

Samantha sniffed in disbelief. "You mean your wife thought I wasn't worth looking for. I was kidnapped last night, dad and I almost died trying to escape."

"Oh my God." Alarm tinged his voice. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Lindsey sighed. "Don't tell me you are falling for this, Drew. She is obviously making this up, trying to draw attention to herself. Who would want to kidnap her?"

Ouch.

"I am not making this up. Why are you trying to ruin my family?" Samantha asked in a frustrated tone.

"I am protecting this family. You are a willer and everybody knows all willers turn out to be violent psychopaths, all the signs are pointing towards that. You had a lot of anger outbursts these past weeks before you shot a light thingy at Blake's  shoulder. You are a threat to this family and if you really care about it, you would leave."

Samantha had no response to that. "Dad, please don't believe her, I would never hurt you."

Her father sighed in defeat. "I love you, Samantha and I don't want you to leave but maybe that's what is best for everyone right now. I have different places you can live for some time all over the country and abroad, you can pick any of them and I will get a security team to protect you from these kidnappers. I can also ---"

He was cut off by wracking sobs from Samantha. Heavy footfalls informed Anna that she had left the scene of the conversation, she ran out of the front door and past Anna without noticing her.

She ran to the gate but didn't leave, instead she collapsed to the ground and started to weep heavily.

It took a second for Anna walk up to her, she had no idea what to say, offering emotional comfort was something she was ever good at. That was Nate's thing.

Cassandra finally realised someone was standing over her and looked up, she didn't look surprised to see Anna. Her wet faced twisted into a frown. "What are you doing here?"

"Making sure Victor doesn't get his hands on you."

"I didn't realise you cared." Her voice was heavy with contempt.

"I didn't." She answered truthfully. "Just making sure he doesn't use you to get to us."

"How noble."

Anna took in a deep breath before something she hardly ever says. "I am sorry for being mean to you earlier and I am also sorry for what you to endure with your family."

Samantha looked up at her with tears still in her eyes, probably trying to figure it she meant the apology or not. "Do you ever regret having your powers?" She asked suddenly.

The question caught her by suprise, she thought for a while. "At first, I did but that all changed after I met Nate. Looking back now, I am happy I broke out." She inwardly shuddered to think of what her life would be like if she never had powers, miserable was a perfect word for it.

"Wish I felt the same." No you don't. Anna thought but said nothing. "I had a semi perfect life; I was head cheerleader, I dated the hottest guy in school, my grades were perfect and were going to get me into Yale. The only thing imperfect about my life was my family and even that is gone because of this fucking stupid powers I didn't ask for."

Anna could not stand her self moping any longer. "Look, I am sorry about your family but you need to suck it up and move on. The damage has been done, if you don't get up off your ass and do something, you will lose your life all together. Do you think --"

She was interrupted by a disturbance outside the gate just a few feet away from her.

"What?" Samantha asked, noticing the alarm on her face. "Is something wrong?"

Anna held a finger to her lips to signal silence, she cautiously moved outside the open gate. The first thing she noticed was the cab driver slumped on his steering wheel unconscious and next was a man hovering in mid air over the cab looking at her with murderous intent.

Samantha followed her outside the next second. "Shit, isn't that one of Victor's men?" Anna nodded glumly. "I thought they needed us alive, why is he looking at you like he wants to rip you alive?"

Anna swallowed and hung her head. "That's probably because I killed his boyfriend."