Chapter 60 – Ride (Ansel Conrad POV) Pt. 3

Left hand placed over my mouth, my fingers – unusually – chilled against my warmed skin. The coldness wasn't only in my extremities. It felt as though the blood in my veins, no longer rushed, seeping slowly cold like molasses.

Seconds had gone by though they felt longer.

Well into midnight now, I sit at my desk with Angela, waiting after being in here for hours.

Rubbing my face roughly, I scrap my nails down groaning.

"There is much we are not aware of," Angela breaks the tension, her fingers tapping away at the keys in front of her. She was always working, searching, gathering data now. It was a change I noted in her recently. I thought us to be on top of the data or gossip concerning our kind, but with Naomi and Faith, that new information received – we never saw coming.

The Elders' army? The Robert Delaney? The lies from Cynthia? Snowhawk flowers and the natural defense mechanisms against the Elders? None of that information was just lying around and since I wanted to keep our growing Den off the Elders radar, we were blind fools.

"I'm not understanding why they cannot see the same individual when they're looking at the images you sent," I replied or maybe branched off speaking what was beating down many other worries.

"What makes Imogen, Samson and Faith see what we do not? That is the question."

Nodding despite my silence, I scrub my hands over my face feeling bits of muck hardened on my face rubbing against clean skin. Glancing down, dried dirt pieces are scattered on the desk and the floor besides me. The same dried mud Samson commented on.

I doubted anyone here thought this was how we would be ringing in the New Year, racing to build homes for those cramped in this mansion, and situating our animals and crops. Angela try as she might had configured as much as she could with programming, however, there were just some things that we could not leave to technology – they required getting our hands dirty.

Thankfully, though we were cramped at the moment, the number of people in the Den was surely working in our favor when it came down to splitting who was doing what. It was tiring, my back ached at the end of the day, recovering during moments of rest but the support between us was also a great aide.

"Humph," Angela grunts, resting back looking at her screen, eyes shifting from left to right.

Redirecting my gaze I give her a leveled stare. Inquiring as my patience was thinned out.

"I'm following the guys-" Angela stops mid-sentence as a mechanical ring tone sounds, once twice and without her doing a single thing the call is answered.

"They pull over!" one voice sounds, I recognize Xan's voice. His frustration clear. "Slow down and hang back-"

The other speaker, Mack, snorts. "Xan..." he says the name slowly, as though Xan should pick up on just what he was going to say, his tone unsure.

When Xan apparently doesn't pick up on the reluctance in his voice that even I do, Mack finishes.

"Slow down? On the highway?"

"Then – then-" Xan stammers, a pounding coming out with his growl of indecision and anger at the situation at hand. A slow smile forms on Angela and my face. Both of us equally pleased. "Do you think they spotted us? Is that why?" Xan asks and from the noise carried over to us, I hear a few horns sound echoing.

Shaking my head, I know immediately that he tried to possibly slow down or lost control of his car – slipping out of his lane maybe without signaling.

"No," Xan answers though he was the one that asked the question. "The guy with her, that had his filthy hands all over her just rushed towards the back..." he says nearly distracted.

"I'm – uh – I'll pull over at the next merge point, you go ahead – double back – I'll wait." I frowned. Tenacious as hell. The loud sign from Mack comes through clearly.

"Xan, doing that," he stresses, "that will give us away-"

"What are they doing now?"

Mack sighs again. "The guy she was with is digging around in the back, he uhm – he's pulled out some type of bag from the back," he answers a tad distracted.

"What kind of bag?"

"Just a backpack," Mack responds.

"Okay I see you coming, merge off and double back!" Xan says with authority I realize when Mack says he'll do just that. I couldn't understand it, this Xan guy had to be up in his thirties. What the hell did he want with Faith? I mean... shuddering; the answer is obvious from his words and what we've been told by Samson and the others – Rafael specifically.

My gaze connects with Angela's, resting there, our eyes shifting to the computer and back. "Are they going to hang up?" I mouth.

Angela bites her lip, shrugging her shoulders.

A minute goes by and while Mack is silent, the computer showing minor frequency changes coming from his line while every ten seconds Xan would huff, until three minutes had gone by.

"Where are you at?" Xan demands.

"I'm at the red light just off the first exit."

The spike flickers at Xan's huff.

"They haven't passed me by," he whines... or maybe it just came across that way to me.

For a minute I think Mack might not respond.

Then he does. "Maybe they're lost. Or – or I don't know."

Xan exhales loudly. "We cannot lose her – I cannot lose her," he says softly. Angela's eyes widen, while a disgusted frown plays on her lips. "I've waited..." he doesn't finish. Two minutes later, Xan shows his displeasure.

Swallowing, I hang my head, ready to bang it up against the desk stopping when for just a moment somehow I forget Taylor and the signs we missed, and now, from this creep.

"Maybe..." he groans, "maybe I can walk back, stay at a distance though," I narrow my eyes at the computer screen, my lips forming a tight line. Walk back? He wanted to walk to see... granted it had been a while since I was in Chicago, I could not forget the area in which my son had stopped, in efforts to escape Mack and Xan's watchful gaze.

Clearly, they were in the dark when it came to some things. Just a month ago, we were these people, I think shaking my head.

Worse, Xan was under the impression that he was one hundred percent Faith's mate. Was he? I did not believe so.

Rubbing my temples, I run through what little Samson, Faith, and Imogen had told us. Realizing that there had to be so much they were holding back.

"She doesn't even know," Xan says, my brows scrunch together. "What the hell has Dmitri been telling her for all these years?" he barks now.

"You have to admit he's kept her... safe?" Mack replies. "I mean..." I almost think he's going to backtrack when his opinion is met with stone cold silence. "She appeared to be pretty happy-"

"Her hand was in a cast!" Xan says dryly.

"And when we get Dmitri on the phone, he'll let us know what happened." Angela and I get a taste of what Faith said earlier. They had no idea that Dmitri was deceased. Again like she did back in Bend, Faith went with her instincts – fleeing. Months ago, I'd be shaking my head, thinking how difficult it was for her to trust others because of her captivity. Hell, I'd pity her.

"No, she shouldn't be wearing one, needing it! How can – can – how is that possible? I mean she's the Divineness, from what we all know – hell you know Mack, she's the – the only one of her kind, she does not even have a kind! She is the beginning and end Mack!" Xan rambles as I push my brows together. My hand goes back to my mouth, covering it, as behind it my lips mumble what Xan has said over and over again, and my eyes glaze over no longer aware of my location.

I should not be this surprised, I think as I try to tame my wild thoughts. My father, Antone, Kalenah and I, we had this conversation before.

"Can you believe Xan?" A girl said, and the words between siblings play over in my head as I wait for more information.

Sunny – Samson and the others called her; Angela found her and the others that had come up to my children – in a thick and rough voice, mockingly. "I felt drawn to her... but Fatima." They knew more than we did about Faith, however, what worried me was a double-edged sword.

"Seriously, have you ever – I mean in all the years – ever heard Mrs. Erma saying that Xan specifically would be with Fatima?"

"She – she mentioned something about a twin from the prophecy." My son, Samson was a twin. He is a twin. Silas was gone.

"He acts like he's the only twin in the world!" Sunny snickered sarcastically.

Mack, the man now searching for my son replied. "Or the only one to lose a twin."

The Prophecy?

"If Dmitri trusted them why would he send me to Bend? He left a voice mail, contacted Walsh and not them?" Faith rationalized and now I had to wonder if maybe Dmitri purposely sent Faith where he knew she belonged? What type of life would she have if this grown man were looking at her now well aware of her age, but claiming her as his? This blatant fixation on Faith? What Samson, Imogen, and Faith tried to play down, Rafael was only too transparent – thankfully.

I was not the only one whom believed that there was a miraculous and rare aspect surrounding Faith, but hearing these pieces of details from a group... the reverence and close to obvious mania was unsettling.

However things were falling into place for me. More and more, as I followed the crumb, thinking not like my self but as someone who would keep Faith on a mountain isolated, I could make sense of Dmitri's actions. Did not agree with them, but I could understand. Cynthia and then this pack or den, coven maybe since Samson and Luca confirmed they had Fae's as well as shifters there.

Xan and Cynthia. Two people that were actually on the same pole but different spectrums, one obsessed the other filled with hate, both out to harm Faith. They had no idea where to find Faith either, Cynthia believing the Elders had her and Xan and those others knowing she was hidden away, but not where.

In seconds my brain is on fire.

Faith had confided that Dmitri left her for months at a time. I had to now wonder while waiting for my own son to call me when he truly believed he had eluded Xan and Mack how much of those months was spent doing what Samson and the others were doing now? Surely, with this much determination and persistence, they hadn't let Dmitri just walk off without trying to find out where he had hidden Fatima.

Those houses around the world, this very one we were living in... had he built them as a means to evade those that thought Fatima to be the Divineness? More over what did Xan mean by Faith being the beginning and the end?

The hairs on my arms stick right up and little goose bumps rise all at once. The total unease I was feeling showing physically now. These people... Dmitri thought them a danger to Faith that despite probably knowing that we were close to Cynthia, he chose Bend. My mouth falls open and the air inside my lungs comes whooshing out as my lungs deflate with where I've ended up in my thoughts.

Cynthia abandoned Faith; yet even with knowing that she could run into Faith, Dmitri wanted her in Bend. Christ!

The background noise from Xan's OnStar device we were listening through starts to gain momentum, a whooshing sound every few seconds that wasn't completely there before.

"He rolled his window down?" Angela mouths, quirking up her brow in question. Nodding, I move closer to the computer between us just as a new sound joins in. titling my head to the right, I close my eyes listening, using that sense. I could place it. The random static was familiar. Is he... he's sniffing the damn air? My face scrunches up as it hits me.

"Okay I'm merging back on right now," Mack announces and I lean forward further, my hands going impossibly cooler than before. Samson and the others wouldn't be where they left them – or were expecting them to still be pulled over.

"They haven't gone pass me yet," Xan relays, sniffing three times in rapid succession.

"I'm tasting the air... they should still be-"

Anxiously, I smile knowing that Samson and the others wouldn't be there, fisting my hands together, resting my chin a top them. As easy as the smile comes it's chased by a frown. True colors would be shown now.

Obviously, Xan was obsessed but what he did next, his reaction...

"They are definitely gone," Mack says cutting Xan off. The blood rushing behind my ears makes it slightly difficult to hear the low hiss but I pick it up nonetheless.

"No!" a loud thud sounds, "No! Exit! No! Don't do that!" I tilt my head, my cheeks resting on my joined fists now.

"We headin' back home now?" Mack asks a bit hopeful, if I understand the tenor of his query correctly.

Waiting I held my breathe. Hell, not because I thought this was over, I was not born yesterday.

"No!" Xan growls. "Pull over where they did! I'm going to walk back towards you, and switch cars!"

Angela slaps her hand against her mouth eyes full of mirth. Was anything remotely funny about a stalker? No. But she had said that it wasn't the finest escape plan, the only thing on our side was they did not believe Samson and the others had spotted them.

"You're going to walk back to where they stopped – where I am now?" Mack's disbelief is actually laughable. Of course Xan was going to do that – the two of them had followed Samson and the others from Wisconsin, trailing them slowly, communicating back and forth, and seeking answers.

"I feel it in my heart, something is not right here," Angela giggles behind her hand. My eyes fly to her, and then back to the computer alarmed.

Did they hear my sister?

When anger flashes in my eyes, she chokes back, holding it in, reading my face and examining every inch of my expression.

"They cannot hear us," she says.

I narrow my eyes at her. "Why would you mouth your words earlier?"

She looks at me shaking her head, "I didn't want to talk over them," her words lathered in what I'd classify as my kids 'duh dad' tone.

I'm about to answer when my office door is tapped softly. Knowing it was locked; I stand, walking purposefully to open it, revealing a wary looking Lenah, her parents and mine as well. Standing at the front, my wife held a white rectangular covered tray, though the first thing I see are her eyes.

Moving aside, the five standing outside my door shoulders drop in relief.

"You two have been in here since before dinner!" Lenah exclaims, walking to set the tray down on the table unsure where to as her eyes scan the scattered documents Angela and I had printed out. Standing to aid my wife, my sister pushes the papers out of the way without a second thought, pointing to the cleared area.

"What's going on? Angela came to get you and you just raced out of the dinning hall?" Lenah questions – unsure – while our parents pull chairs up to where Angela and I are clearly working.

I lick my lips ready to answer, tell my Lenah just one more thing we had against us, except this one Samson, Luca, Imogen, Faith and Rafael would be fighting on their own.

"They must have reversed and exited here," I hear Xan say and just like that my mouth snaps close and I focus on the computer. "Maybe – why would they be merging on i55?" Xan begins speaking to himself, simultaneously sniffing loudly. I instantly conjure up an image of Xan, his head leaning out of the driver side window, nose in the air. As the image fills, the cars passing by, bridges spiraling away, curves blocking the city skyline.

Feeling as though a hole is being burned into the side of my face, I shift my gaze to Lenah and our parents.

"Oh – I've gone too far," he says to himself again. His growls grow in volume, echoing in his car, caught by the OnStar equipment.

Still in the dark Lenah and our parents lean forward, as though by getting closer they could hear clearer. The sniffing continues for minutes, and as each one ticks by and I hear that Xan hasn't found Samson, my racing heart slows and I exhale. Though my apprehension when it comes to these people increases.

"How the hell? How-" Xan stops abruptly, a beeping sounds before a door is slammed and the silence in the car remains momentarily.

Faded, in the distance, we hear Xan again. "How did their scent just disappear?" he growls, voice going up an octave at the end.

Frustrated, Xan immediately makes a call once he's back in the car. My sister besides me laughs heartily.

"Dad!" he calls icily. "I lost her," I blink at his words; Lenah whips her head to meet my eyes so quickly she sends a bit of breeze my way. Lost her? She questions with her eyes while I replay the words in my mind.

It's not even about Samson, Luca, Imogen or Rafael. It was all about Faith... as far as Xan was concerned; my son and those traveling with Faith were expendable.

"Xan relax son-"

"How am I supposed to relax?" he claps back.

Huffing sounds with a thump again, what did he hit this time I wonder, before quickly deciding that based on sound, it's probably the dashboard and not the steering wheel this time.

"She knows nothing about me, we need her and she's – I cannot-"

"We have her scent, the license plate to the car, your uncle is searching records, trying to infiltrate CCTV-"

"All things we've done with Dmitri and still we never found out where he kept her!"

"Yes but those with her... we're running a search on them, it's only a matter of time before we find something on them to help us discover just what Dmitri has been up to," my head snaps to Angela, but she shrinks back as though I've insulted her when my eyes narrow.

"I can feel it," Xan says softer now. "Like all my instincts are screaming to protect her," the sentiment turns my stomach and even the building aroma of the meal my wife has brought me is no longer making my mouth water. No instead I swallow the bile creeping up my throat, throwing a quick glance at the image Angela had printed out.

"And what is Dmitri doing, he knows better than anyone that there is never going to be another like her, what if there is not enough time?" they must be rhetorical questions because Xan never lets the other speaker have a chance to respond. "All those years of telling us this was the right way, that it was better that none of us had access to her, and that he only had minimum access himself... all lies dad!" he rumbles. "Did you see – how can any of what he said be the truth when she was at ease with those people? Leaning into him," Xan says 'him' with angered contempt.

"There was so much familiarity there, that is true," Davis – Xan's father – agrees. "Son," he says after there is a bit of shuffling done on his end, "hang around the area you're in, as soon as we find the truck, or more information, I'll rope you in."

The call ends, and Angela leans forward, lowering the volume on Xan and Mack's end before resting back exhaling loudly. "What the hell?" she says lifting both hands to her neck, massaging the area, digging her fingers into flesh.

"Yeah, that's what I'd like to know Ansel," Lenah doubles down.

Sighing, I shake my head trying to clear it. Where the hell did I even begin with this new threat – or possibly old one since they apparently knew more of Faith than Faith knew herself?

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