James slept on the couch of the small motel room we rented, Ailech in the twin bed next to mine, a run-down nightstand with an age-stained lamp between us. The dick-measuring of who would take the couch and who 'needed their beauty sleep' on the bed had been astounding and exhausting all at once. It seemed like my boys argued every time they spoke, constantly fighting to get the grand prize of who could care the least, show their disdain the most, while still speaking to the other as little as possible.

Ailech was always chatty, but James tried to speak as little as possible, to me and Ailech. And though we talked in our special way sometimes, whenever it wouldn't be noticed by the healer, our strained communication only added to our feelings of frustration. The tension was higher still as James didn't know what to expect when we found our Clan, how they would react. He was worried and I could tell. But the worst was the fact that we had no luck finding any clues to where they were in the monstrous city.

We searched for four days, day and night, hardly stopping to sleep, but found no sign of Kael or Nevaeh, though we hadn't even covered a third of the sprawling suburbia Abby had directed us to. Finally, we had to rest. I didn't want to, but I knew James wouldn't if I didn't, and though he had been eating more, he was still far too thin and sickly and pale, and now he had dark circles as well, which seemed even more stark with his shaggy, shadowy hair, the blue-black of his eyes nearly matching the skin beneath them. The fire in them was back, even if his body still looked like a corpse of its former self. But that was enough, just knowing he was back, knowing he was still my Pair, knowing I hadn't lost him every time I looked in his eyes.

Ailech snored softly on my right. He hadn't properly slept for days either, though he caught short naps during our travels or whenever we were all together in our dingy motel. He said he was used to not sleeping much, that he only needed a couple of hours to be fine, but I still encouraged him to sleep whenever we stayed in one spot for more than an hour. He was only Human, and we didn't need him unless we had to be healed, which thankfully, hadn't been necessary yet.

I jerked awake, adrenaline spiking through me as something touched my shoulder, my eyes flying open to see the navy blue I thought for months I would never see again. Then I saw the look on his face, the set of his full lips, the line between his eyebrows.

"You had a vision," I whispered.

He nodded.

"Let me see."

He nodded again and I opened my Gift to him, pulling his mind into mine.

Kael and Nevaeh were on the highest rooftop deep in the city, sixty-story buildings dotted the skyline around them, but none quite as tall as the one on which they stood. Their hands were clasped, fingers interlaced, Nevaeh with her Shift so strongly enveloping her it almost made the air hiss, and Kael close to unconsciousness, but with a look of determination etched into the muscles of his bloody face, biting down hard on his teeth. Then, as if by some unseen cue, they sprinted for the opposite side of the open roof...and jumped.

"No!"

I opened my eyes to see Ailech jumping from his bed, clearly startled by my yell and James pushing my outreached arms back down to my sides, as if I had thought I could pull Nevaeh and Kael back from the edge.

"We need to save them." Was all I could sputter, but James was already shaking his head, his hair sweeping across his face with its overgrown mayhem.

"It already happened, it was light out but dry, and it's been pouring all night, supposed to for the next two days. That was the sky from yesterday, but didn't you see Nevaeh's Shift, and Kael, he was injured, they weren't...they weren't just jumping, they were running from someone. They do need saving, but not from themselves, something is coming for them, and we need to find them first."

Before I could answer, James turned to Ailech, his voice had been flat and empty during his explanation, but I saw his eyes change to match as he looked across the room, keeping his mask on perfectly for his performance.

"We're going into the city, financial district. We have a lead. Be ready in five minutes or we're leaving without you."

And then he was gone from the side of my bed, swiftly moving about the room, grabbing his bag and neatly placing his slim black notebook inside, the only thing he had unpacked since our arrival, before disappearing into the bathroom to splash water on his face and push his hair back. He stood by the door, apparently ready and waiting. I was ready next, as I kept my bag packed as well, and slept in my clothes. Ailech only took a few moments more to stuff his clothes in his bag and pull a clean shirt over his head.

We hailed a taxi once at the curb, which seemed to annoy James to no degree, but we had promised Abby to keep ourselves out of sight and as inconspicuous as possible, and James' bike wasn't low-profile enough to meet Abby's criteria. Even the places we stayed were unassuming, the areas we visited, the people we talked to, all of it was as unremarkable as possible, in order to draw the least attention to us as possible.

It seemed unnecessary until I would remember how easily James' father had found me when I was at Chi's, in a city inhabited by millions, in a warehouse no one knew about, with a Clan no one cared about, where even the members didn't know who I was. But he had still found me. It made me feel like every person I passed was reporting back to him, an enemy, or a tool for one.

"What was the voicemail?" Ailech asked casually from my right once we were nestled in the taxi. We never used words that could make others give our conversations a second thought, but I knew what he meant.

"Kip and Neal are staying at a swanky hotel and decided to go for a run and do some skydiving, you know how they are, adrenaline junkies, so we're going to go visit."

Ailech nodded slightly, like he really wasn't interested in the news, as if it was normal for them, before opening a book and staring unseeingly down at it, though he moved his eyes as if following the words.

James looked as ordinary as he could sitting on my left in sunglasses that shielded his eyes and a large spring coat that hid any possibility of identifying him by his body, the rest of him dulled by a thick glamour. He stared out his window, headphones in, though I knew there was nothing playing in them. I opted for a baseball hat, my ponytail sticking up through the back. We looked as normal as we could, and sometimes I had to stifle a giggle at how absurd the entire situation seemed. Two Pairs connected by a bond neither of us truly understood, pretending to hate each other, pretending to be normal, it sounded like an awful supernatural sitcom.

The taxi driver politely chatted with me the whole drive, as I was the only one who didn't have something to occupy myself with, or pretend to at least, but I didn't get any aura of darkness from him, and James seemed at ease next to me as well.

The lies I told came easy, falling from my lips in the most ordinary of ways, whether from my nature, my practice while I had been 'employed' by Jevin, or simply my personality, I didn't know or care. I was just glad to not have to give the conversation any actual thought as my mind was racing with the vision I had seen. Kael and Nevaeh running from something, running in a very drastic way, taking a very drastic escape route, and Kael, he had looked terrible.

All I could do was throw unbelieving prayers up to Heaven that they were safe, that they had gotten away...and that we would be able to find them before whatever was chasing them did. And before Ambriel. The odds were stacking up against us, but I kept my voice light as I answered the questions and menial conversation paths the taxi driver led me down.

When we arrived at the tallest hotel in the city, soaring seventy stories up, James veered around the corner at a lazy pace, pulling a cigarette from behind his ear as if going for a smoke, following the perimeter of the monstrous building. Ailech stayed out front, pretending to finish his chapter. I felt fire creep into my veins and answered by opening my Gift as I followed James to the side alley, the side we had seen our Clan leap from.

No blood on the ground or the neighboring building.

So, they made the jump.

James gave an imperceptible nod as he deftly lit his cig, offering it to me nonchalantly. I waved it off, as was customary. This was how we discussed plans in public, talk about some basic subject out loud as we truly discussed our course of action in our minds.

"What you want for lunch?"

He drawled from around the cigarette.

Should we go up separately? Or I can cloak all three of us if you prefer, if ever we needed a healer with us, this might be the time.

You don't think they'd still be in there, whoever they were, do you?

He looked at me, just briefly, but it still made my heart hit a few beats too hard, one eyebrow cocked in question, those beautiful lips loosely holding the cigarette. I could feel my cheeks heating and I looked down at my feet, suddenly feeling shy.

You still haven't answered what you want to eat.

I cleared my throat before answering.

"I don't care, something quick."

"You don't want to lose you figure."

"You're one to talk."

"Ouch, princess."

We should all go up together, covered, just to scope it out.

We quickly moved through the lobby under the cover of James' Gift. The strain of wrapping three people in his ability was clear on his face, even with his dead mask dulling all his expressions, but soon we were in one of the ornate elevators, whizzing toward the top floor. James stared straight ahead, nothing but his jaw line showing the stress I knew he was feeling, the fears of what we would find running through his mind.

"Of course Nevaeh would be here, I should have looked here first," James muttered under his breath in his lifeless voice, dull to the point of monotony.

"High rolling ex-friends?"

Ailech asked with a funny pull at his lips. James just made a small non-committal movement of his shoulders, like he couldn't be bothered to try for a fuller answer. Ailech rolled his eyes and mouthed an unkind word to me from behind James' back, which I put effort into smirking at.

"So, what's the plan once we get in there exactly? Guns blazing? Balls to the wall? Or, lady-version of balls? Ovaries-to-the-wall? No god, that just sounds pornographic. What's the equivalent, I guess cu-"

"Do you ever shut up? Ever get sick of hearing your own little whiny voice? Please, just close your mouth and keep it that way before I make you."

Ailech's eyes momentarily looked similar to Ember's as James rounded on him, his Shift making the elevator crackle. He recovered as quickly as I had come to expect, and though I was hoping he would stop trying to goad James, at least for one day, at least today, the look in his eyes said I shouldn't hold my breath. He enjoyed this too much.

"Oh, I'm sorry, does talking about Jordan's ladiness upset you? Or is it that you don't have any plan? Is the great, powerful, Master Darke actually nervous, oh, scared? But I thought he didn't have any emotions? How could this be?"

James glared at him for only a beat before suddenly neither man was where he had previously been. James had Ailech pushed up against the elevator's paneled wall, his hand wrapped around my healer's neck the only point of contact as Ailech's feet dangled six inches off the ground.

"I do have emotions, they just so happen to all stem from one. Do you really want to see that? Truly, see it? Think of your next words wisely Human, because the potential vulnerability of losing our healer is well worth the satisfaction of snapping your ne-"

The show, whether completely feigned or only partially, had gone far enough and I gave a swift kick to James' knees from behind, where neither man seemed to be paying attention to me. The result was a rather satisfying pile of skinny and hairy arms and legs and angry grunts and growls as James buckling forward making Ailech fall straight down, landing mostly on top of him. I had to hide my giggle as I turned back to the sliding doors just as the golden dial at the top hit seventy and a melodic ding filled our tiny compartment.

I heard the boys stand behind me, dusting themselves off and readjusting their clothes. I grinned as the doors opened.

"Dick," Ailech muttered, either at James or me, before I strutted out, turning toward the end of the hall where the front desk concierge's mind had directed me.

Room 701

I sent the thought back to James, whose mind was half-annoyed, half-bemused, yet still with a tight tension underlining all the rest. I stopped in front of the correct door, and sent my sight in, feeling nothing, no one, but I still paused, not confident enough with my assessment.

Do you feel anyone?

Did you?

I'm not as good as you at this.

James cocked an eyebrow, a split second of amused arrogance in his sidelong glance before he opened the door and walked in.

The room was a mess, half by how the inhabitants had lived, mainly Nevaeh I guessed, and half from being ransacked. Clothes and pillows and blankets and pieces and parts of furniture littered the floor, but the most notable mess, the greatest pattern in the room were the bottles, varying sizes and colors and kinds, the entire room was scattered with them. The very air smelled of alcohol, mingling with something sharper, sicker. James ignored the disorder and pale scents, and stopped by the closest wall, just a few feet in, examining a burgundy-brown smudge on the mirror before his eyes dropped to the floor, snagging like mine on each tiny droplet of dried blood.

Not enough to have been lethal, small injuries, but numerous.

Window.

I nodded towards the cracked opening a slight breeze was attempting to trickle in through. I recognized Nev's whip immediately. James strode over, pulling the length of the electrum in before leaning out and craning his neck to look up. He looped the weapon around his wrist before gripping the window's frame and stepping out.

"Guess we're going up," Ailech said dryly.

"Race you. Don't slip."

James directed the first words to me, the latter to Ailech who was now standing next to me, looking unimpressed by the plan.

"The blood is thin, it wasn't clotting. I don't think it came from an injury at all, but a poison. I can't tell what kind, I don't know this one. I've never seen anything like it, I can feel that much. This is new, or newly created I'd guess."

Ailech's eyes were on the floor again as he spoke, staring at the blood like it was a book he could read. When we looked back to the window it was empty.

The roof was just like it had been in James' vision, an expanse of nothing, just flat, concrete slabs with intermittent radio or cell antennas poking up at varying heights. Even from my distance I could see that the loose stones on the roof of the neighboring building had been disturbed. Shallow trenches, four of them, a pair for each of our clan members that had made the daring escape. I felt a flutter in my stomach, knowing that they had been here just hours earlier, knowing that this was the closest we had been to them in months.

"Jump?"

James' voice came from my right side, immediately followed by Ailech's signature scoff on my left.

"Some of us would like to live actually, go figure."

"Oh, I'm sorry, can you not make that? Is it too far for you? I can throw you, if you prefer, but my aim's been a little off lately."

James' voice was sugary sweet and I knew he was Shifted before I looked, but instead of mediating, I sprinted across the roof, and leapt from the edge. I didn't need any help from my Sign, the cities' buildings were crowded enough, but I still pulled a little burst of wind, for caution's sake. I made it by a meter and rolled as my feet hit the ground, careful to land farther down than Kael and Nevaeh's marks, in order to not disturb them.

A moment later I heard two more crashes and the pattering of rocks. When I looked I saw James peering at the stones, as if they could somehow tell him where our Clan had gone. For the briefest of moments a boyish grin broke across his face, a real smile showing his brilliant teeth and deep dimples, something that shouldn't be noticeable, or normally wasn't, when he was his natural weight, but was cute regardless.

He looked up at the sky, whispered something and then the instant passed and he walked to me, his face blank again, extending his hand as he approached. A cold, smooth, metal marble was pressed into my palm as he passed, walking for the door that would lead to the stairwell down. A call.

My heart stuttered and I could feel a giddy smile tightening against my lips as well, trying to spread across my face. Kael had dropped a call, on purpose, he must have. He wanted us to find them, he was leaving breadcrumbs, he was hoping we were looking for them, hoping we were searching for them.

"James, wait - open it."

Ailech was by my side now, looking more confused than ever as he stared down at the little marble I held.

"He wouldn't have left a message in it, it's too risky, reckless. Anyone could have found it, he wouldn't do that."

But even as he spoke, James' strides to the exit slowed, until he stood before the door unmoving, making no attempt to reach for the handle, but also not turning.

"Ka li mak va, elis lapris."

James spoke in a quiet voice, a cautious voice, like he hoped it wouldn't answer him, like he hoped his brother had taken better precautions. Like he hoped that maybe if he spoke quietly it wouldn't hear him, wouldn't answer even if it was supposed to.

Ailech elbowed me with an oblique glance, clearly not enjoying being out of the loop, yet again.

"It's a call, a piece of magic from Kael. He might have left it for us, left us a message, so we could find him. You can only open it with our language, it's dehiscent words. He said, 'speak to me, little stone'."

Silence stretched on the roof after my explanation as the little marble in the center of my palm did nothing, said nothing.

"See, he didn't leave a message for us, he wasn't so reckless. Good."

James' voice had more strength now, more behind it, though he sounded sad despite his words and new-found volume.

"Or maybe it just fell out of his pocket when he tumbled across the roof and it has nothing to say because it wasn't left for you to find, but simply left behind by accident as they ran. Maybe this is proof they were here, but nothing more. We should still prepare, still expect, that they won't be thrilled to see us."

James turned now, his eyes slits at Ailech's words.

"Jordan, drop it."

His voice sounded harsh, grating now, and I let Kael's piece of magic slip from between my fingers.

"Ume'ar."

His jaw tightened when the little metal orb did nothing, when it didn't stir at his command.

"Maybe it wasn't left for me at all - maybe it was left for you. Maybe he was more cautious and it will only answer to the one he meant it for. Ask it to wake up, tell it to speak to you."

I crouched down, staring at the little ball, willing it to respond to me.

"Ume'ar. Ume'ar, elis lapris."

My heart soared as the marble immediately rolled to rest against my foot with such speed it seemed eager, earnest, like I was a magnet pulling a part of itself back into place.

"Ka li mak va. Speak to me, now."

Xiliumus. Niabe on ire has.

Kael's voice answered me, whispered and urgent, hoarse, but unmistakably his. His words fell from the call like steam leaving a kettle, splitting open like a ripe seed. I hadn't realized how much I had missed his voice, how much hearing him again would affect me, but I instantly felt tears burn, filling the corners of my eyes.

I dropped my chin to my chest, tucking it into my knees and took a deep breath, a stabilizing breath before I stood. My eyes sought James' first and the look on his face was a mix of determination and fear, both warring to win the battle for ground.

"That's all? Nothing more? No place, no instructions, no hint?"

His voice was quiet again, but this time deadly in its silence. He was upset.

"He said it to me once before, when I was going out to the city to find you, the Serpentine night. Return to Heaven or here. It's a clue, it must be. Apparently he's being more careful than either of us first thought. He left it for me, not you, and he didn't tell us where to find him, not directly at least. He's being a good leader, layering his protections. But most important, he's asking for our help, he wants us to find him, he needs us to."

"So we just need to find Heaven, awesome." Ailech muttered as he toed some of the loose stones around. "Or go back to the manor, maybe they're fleeing back north."

"We know more now than we did this morning, than we did last night. We will find them. I know it."

I put the call in my pocket and walked toward the door, feeling it like a coal, warming me.

Guesses?? Where are they? Can you crack Kael's code?

As always, if you're right, I promise to comment & tell you. Also, have you put together enough of the words to understand parts of the language?

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