HOME | DD

Description
But first we had to climb some stairs.  Remember when I said that having no windows down below didn't really bother anyone?  Well it definitely bothered Arlin.  He was the only one to have an apartment on the surface.  We opened another door leading to his living room and found him pacing.  He had been twenty-four when he had been changed, so he still looked 'good' so to speak.  He had flaming red hair with a bright blue bang that hung right into his icy blue left eye.  He was tan and well built, but looked totally uncomfortable at the moment.  He was so immersed in his pacing that he didn't notice we were there.

Kayne took care of that.  She broke through our ranks and stood firm in front of Arlin, glaring at him with her piercing gaze.  In one quick moment, she brought back her hand and slapped him.  He must not have been expecting it because his neck snapped back, his mouth dropping open in shock.

Kayne had obviously done what she intended to do and, still glaring, she marched to her room – not Arlin’s where she normally slept – and slammed the door.

Arlin stared after her, mouth still agape before turning to us, the obvious question written all over his face: where the hell had that come from?

I offered him only a shrug.  I could definitely see traces of bruises on Arlin’s arms, but we healed fast, so to be able to notice something like that almost twenty-four hours after the event, it must have been really brutal.

Arlin just blinked a little bit and shook his head, trying to clear his head.  “Wow, that was unexpected,” he mumbled, touching his cheek.  He shook his head once again and turned his focus entirely on us.  “Anyway,” he began.  “I have a mission for you four.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” I blurted, flipping my long bangs out of my eyes.  “What exactly do you want us to do?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.  I was so not wild about going on a mission.  Unless it involved Taco Bell.

Arlin scowled and flicked me off.  Despite being permanently twenty-four, he could still act like such a kid.  "I'm sure you've all heard about Cedric Sidiya?" he said with a sigh, returning to his pacing, Kayne now added to his bowl of problemo soup.

Nope.  Not a single one of us followed mortals, and the only reason we knew he was a mortal was because Arlin told us to read up on him, and Arlin only ever told us to read up on mortals.  We all shuffled a little bit on our feet, knowing that Arlin was going to get pissed, fast, especially since he already had so much on his plate.

Suddenly we were all on our knees, clutching our heads and groaning in pain.  Arlin stood over us, looking sternly down on us, the fatherly side of him coming out.  “I told you boys to do something.  I’m getting sick of you ignoring what I ask of you,” he said firmly.  Okay, now I was worried.  Whatever Arlin had been thinking about, it had stressed him out.  Like whoa.  I mean, seriously, if he had to do his mind-headache-thingy, there was something seriously wrong.

“A-alright.  We’re sorry Arlin,” Dirk said, blinking as the pain lessened enough so he could stand.  He was such an ass-kisser.  I mean such an ass-kisser.  But since it got Arlin to back off on the migraine thing, I suppose it was alright.

Arlin just sighed and massaged his temples.  “You four really aren’t helping with things right now, and I don’t appreciate it,” he said, a sharp edge we weren’t used to creeping into his voice.  “Anyway.  He’s a well-known composer for classical music.  Several world-renowned orchestras have had entire concerts performing his pieces.  He’s also written several opera.  And the biggest thing is that along with Tomohara Publishing, he’s one of the biggest sponsors Rafe has.”

"Lemme guess, our mission is to capture him and force him to be on our side?” I blurted.  “Shit Arlin, where’s the fun in that?” I complained.

Arlin glared at me.  "Close, Reid, but not quite,” he said through clenched teeth.  Yep, he was annoyed as hell.  “You see if you had done your reading, you would've known that he has a daughter.  A daughter that he'd give anything for.”  We all knew where this was going now.  We were kidnapping his daughter (in case you didn’t pick up on that).  Arlin went to an end table, shuffled through some manila folders, finally picking up a thin one with only a few sheaves of paper poking out the edges.  He glanced through it a moment before tossing it to Jona for him to distribute among us before returning to his pacing.

Since I was second son, I'd get it after Dirk, considering that Jona got it first.  Jona looked more at the papers regarding her than the picture; he immediately passed the big full-sheet print of her over to Dirk.

Upon seeing it, Dirk’s eyes immediately widened and he let out a low whistle through his teeth.

I rolled my eyes and snatched the picture from him.  “What was that reaction for?” I snapped before looking at the picture.  I have to admit, my reaction was worse; my mouth dropped open.

The picture had been taken by someone else, during some kind of event outside, a picnic perhaps.  She looked really happy, but was still raising her hand to prevent a picture from being taken.  Her hand ended up covering very little of her face, at any rate, some attempt.  Her hair was platinum beach bunny blonde, dyed most likely; it was almost white.  Her hair was incredibly wavy on top of that, falling a little above her chin.  A single braid framed her face, going to her chin.  Her eyes were closed, so I couldn’t see her eyes.  And on top of that she was deathly pale, just like us.  I cleared my throat and passed the picture to Sarrow, my tongue held, for once.

Sarrow looked at it carefully, probably thinking the same as me, but who could really tell with Sarrow?  He was no open book.  He voiced his opinion though, thankfully; a mind reader couldn’t have told us what he was thinking (trust me, we had tried).  "Are you sure she hasn't been changed?” he asked, in his quiet voice that’s rarely been used.

Arlin nodded.  "Absolutely positive.  Intelligence says that Cedric has been paying Rafe to keep her mortal."

Jona nodded.  "Yea, I can see where she'd fall under Rafe's category of women he wants,” he agreed.

I couldn't bite back my snide comment any longer.  "Hey, do you guys buy your hair dye at the same place or what?"

Arlin rolled his eyes.  "Have you ever seen any semblance of hair dye in my home?  Considering that you've been here for what?  How long?  117 years?” he laughed.  "It's all natural.”  He pulled on his blue bang, "Even this.”  He looked at my doubtful expression.  "It came with the change, just like your eyes.”  He pulled down his eyelid and stuck his tongue out.  See what I meant when I said he could be childish?  I rolled my eyes.

"Then what about her?  Is hers natural too?” I asked, meaning it as a joke.

To my complete and utter shock, Arlin nodded, and he was serious.  "Yep, completely natural.  She wouldn't look good with any other hair color, don't you think?” he laughed.  He really didn't expect us to answer.  We didn’t.  He blew out a long breath out pursed lips and ran a hand through his hair.  “Now what am I going to do about Kayne?”

"So you want us to capture this guy's daughter?” I asked, mainly for clarification, the other part to change the subject off of Kayne, who I knew would be listening through the door.

Arlin nodded.  "Before the week's end."

Dirk piped in.  "But that's like in two days!” he blurted.  That was pretty surprising, considering Dirk thought that Arlin was a god, and would do practically anything for him, no matter how insane, like this mission.

Arlin nodded and grinned maniacally, his eyes flashing red, a telltale sign of his aggravation.  "Exactly.  A day to plan and a day to execute.  You'll have to take her from her house.  The layouts are all down in the Records Room, help yourself.”  He turned his back on us and began preparing himself a cup of blood.  Suddenly he threw two full, unopened bottles at us.  Sarrow caught one and I caught the other; we all knew that Arlin knew Sarrow and I needed blood.  Sarrow took no notice of our absolute awe at this new ability of Arlin's.  He just uncorked the wine bottle and drained it without taking a breath.  I quickly followed suit.

Jona was the one who finally got us all moving.  "Come on guys.  We have a lot to do and not enough time to do it all in," he grumbled.

I groaned and followed everyone out, casting a look at Kayne’s door and smiling at the face that peeked out at me.  I relished the scowl she threw me.