Several hours later, she opened her eyes on a dark world. Above her head, music pounded, causing the dirt to shift constantly. She shook off a budding headache and scurried into the open.

An owl almost got her, but she was under the house again in the blink of an eye. She decided a better way would be to find a way directly into the house and change then. There was also the problem of clothes, so if she could find a closet, she'd borrow clothes and then find her guy.

She skittered deep into the house, pausing at random small openings to get her bearings. The natural instincts of the mouse were very skittish and Tala had no problem staying away from the cheese traps laid down.

A search of the entire first floor found nothing but empty space, so Tala scurried up a pipe and into the second floor walls. Here the music was louder, pounding inside the small mouse's head. Lights from one room indicated the majority of the people were located in there. Tala continued on down the long hallway.

At the other end of the hall, Tala found what she was looking for. She left the safety of the wall and squeezed under the door. On the other side was a spacious bedroom with a king-sized canopy bed in the center. It was made of wood. Silk sheets and a huge dark red comforter were drawn neatly up to the pillows. Attached to each of the four posts was a black tie.

Tala sighed mentally at the thought of what the bed was most likely used for and quickly changed back to her human form. She walked quickly across the room - her bare feet making no noise at all on the plush dark red carpet - to the closet. Inside it was an assortment of men's clothes, but none for a woman. Figured. She pulled out a white button up shirt and a pair of tan slacks that were two sizes too big for her. She used a black belt to hold them up.

A mirror hung on the inside of the closet door and she surveyed herself. She didn't look very reputable in these clothes, but there wasn't much else she could do. A quick glance back at the bed told her she absolutely did not want to meet this man with no clothes on.

She closed the closet door and turned around. A man walked into the room at that moment. It was hard to say who was more surprised, but it was the man who recovered first.

"That's stealing, you know. And most woman strip in here, not the other way around."

"I'm not most women," Tala said, finally recovering her composure. She knew this was the man she was looking for and she studied him closely. He was six four easy, with a muscular build. He kept his brown hair cut short, and a small goatee covered his mouth and chin.

He grinned wickedly as he saw her look him over and he leered just as openly. "Well, maybe I won't call the cops, since you're so pretty. But you'll owe me a favor."

Tala raised an eyebrow and met his brown eyes squarely. He was taken aback by what he saw there. "Go ahead and try and get such a favor from me, Hunter," Tala said, surprising him even more. "I'd tear you apart."

"I... I'm not a Hunter. Not anymore. Now I make movies." He folded his arms across his chest.

"I doubt that. Even now I can sense the hatred building up towards me. You haven't stopped hating us. You just started liking the money more. And that is why you'll help me. I am prepared to offer you a nice sum for your help."

"Oh really. And I suppose it will compare to the amount I make from movies?"

Tala smiled. "More than compare. But you'll only recieve half now. The other half will be redeemable on completion of the task."

Now the man laughed. "Oh, I'll do it. Whatever it is." He turned his eyes back to Tala's body. "But there's something else I want than money. I'll even wait to take my payment until this is all over."

Tala curled her lip in disgust. It wasn't that she had a problem with humans, or even Hunter's for that matter. But there had only been one man in her life and the thought of doing anything like what this ex-Hunter was thinking of was worse than she could imagine.

Still, she had her duty and if that was what it took... She nodded consent.

The man grinned again and stepped up to the wolf-dragon. "Let's seal it with a kiss, shall we?" He leaned in and kissed her full on the lips. Tala let him do it, let him jam his tongue into her mouth, but she did not return the kiss, did not even feel anything but disgust.

He released her and chuckled at her facial expression. "I'll need to wrap some things up. Shouldn't take me more than an hour or so. Wait for me, my dear."

Tala said nothing, and resisted to the urge to throw up right on the soft carpet.

~~~~~~

Brandon sat in silence for a long time, absorbing the news he had just been hit with. This man was Brandon the older. This man was his father. and his mother...

His mother was Tala, the same woman who had been chasing after him all those years. A woman who was possibly some sort of magical creature had spawned Brandon. He didn't know how he felt about that. He should have felt outrage, but there was simply an emptiness inside him now.

The older man had wisely left the boy alone and returned to the yardwork. He was an ex-Hunter, with all that entailed. Other HUnters looked down on him and magical creatures still feared him. Unlike the other ex-Hunters, he hadn't left for the prospects of money or power. He'd left for love, and that set him apart from the others. As he watched his son struggle with the news, the elder Brandon felt pity in his heart for him.

But the older man had been alone a long time. Knowledge that Tala was still alive out there, somewhere, lifted his spirits a little, but a pang of regret passed through him. Regret for not making her stay. Regret for not leaving with her. They could have taken their son to the far corners of the world. They could have kept moving. They never would have had to be apart.

No, that was ridiculous. It wasn't so bad, and maybe Tala had known what she was doing after all. Father and son had been reunited after all, and Tala had, apparently been wtaching out for her son all along.

But still the older Brandon had to wonder if she ever thought about him at all. Brandon Sr. thought about Tala and their son every day. He hadn't even left the estate in case they had wanted to find their way back. And his son had.

No, this was better than a life spent looking over your shoulder, scared at every shadow. He knew this was better. And if his son had made it back, there was no reason to believe Tala wouldn't.

Brandon Sr. just hoped she would return soon. He had been waiting a long time, holding on to life, clinging to it desperately, hoping for just that one last chance. Maybe, if she was truly magical, she could make it to where they would never be parted again.

Only wishful thinking, but it kept him going.

~~~~~~

The younger Brandon was still working it all out in his head. Except it wasn't working at all. He couldn't get past the fact that the blood of a magical creature ran through his veins. He couldn't think clearly here. If he really was an abomination, the other Hunters would know it.

He couldn't think clearly here, so he left. Quickly and quietly, out the back. He needed to get back to his element. The forest, the trees, the Hunt.

He left quickly and disappeared into the trees, leaving not so much as a note of farewell to his father. He couldn't deal with it and he could always come back.

And he needed to think.

~~~~~~

A summons went out throughout the land. To ordinary people, it would have been nothing more than a simple wind whistling through the leaves. But to Hunter's, that wind was a message. There was a gathering being held. A call to all Hunters in the world. Brandon Jr. heard it. So did Brandon Sr, though it confused him at first. Every Hunter knew what that summons meant, and almost all of them heeded to it. Most ex-Hunters ignored such summons.

But Brandon Sr. decided to answer this call. It was so unusual for starters, and he also knew his son would be going. Now that the boy had learned the truth, he coud be in danger and not even know it. The older man could not allow Tala to take on the complete protection of their son anymore.

So father and son answered the summons, making the long journey to the camp outside Moscow. It took them almost a week to arrive.

~~~~~~

Tala was at the next location. She'd hated having to hold hands with the man - Lucas - standing next to her, but she'd had no choice. Now they were in Canada, not so far away and Tala was drained again. Lucas had taken advantage of her swaying to grope her and she couldn't even feebly shoo him off. But this time, she managed to maintain conscienceness. She hated to think what he would try if she slept around him.

They were in front on a smaller house than Lucas's, but Tala liked it better. It was much quieter for one.

Lucas was still supporting her, one hand misappropriately placed on her chest, the other on her back. She pulled together all the strength she could muster and turned a steely gaze on him.

"Get your grubby paws off me," she growled and something in her eyes made him back off. She stood up, her legs a little wobbly, but now that she knew what to expect, she had prepared for the expenditure of energy by hiding some away.

She released that energy now and was able to stop the shaking of her body, though her mind still felt mostly sluggish. She hoped this HUnter would be different. Ben, a Hunter since the late 1800's, ahd opted to chase power instead.

From the info James had collected before his death, Ben had started working for some kind of crime boss in New York. Things had been going pretty well too, but then the FBI had caught up to them and Ben was the only one who exacped with his life. His instincts as a Hunter had been sharp, so he had wisely left the country and moved north.

Now he worked in a small office supply store, barely making money at all. Down on his luck, he turned to beer. Tala was, quite frankly, surprised he hadn't returned to the life of Hunters.

Then again, Hunter's did not believe in money anyways and their way of life was even more primitive than Ben was living now, and power was only known among themselves. That wasn't enough for this particular ex-Hunter and Tala guessed that he was just biding his time.

Tala knew exactly what to offer him. And attempting to fend of the tiredness of her mind by keeping that information running through her thoughts, she knocked on the door.

No one answered. It was almost noon and the wolf-dragon figured that Ben must be at work then. That didn't stop her from going inside. Neither did the fact that the door was locked. She broke it in anyways.

Lucas raised an eyebrow at the act, but said nothing and followed her in instead. "So what? We're gonna wait here until your new pet comes along? You have to sleep sometime, you know." And his leering grin indicated what would happen if she did. She shook her head.

"I don't need sleep. I need you to shut up for a minute and let me concentrate," Tala shot back. She took a look around inside the door, to place everything. The open door to the left showed off a couch and TV set. To the right, the kitchen emitted forth a scent of hot food. Tala frowned.

There was a staircase in front of her, leading to a second floor. On the side of the stairs, a short hall led to a second door that Tala guessed probably led to a basement. Nothing on this floor was carpeted, but the stairs were and, looking up, Tala could see that the second floor was also.

So the Hunter had been preparing. For what? For an invasion, or just to be safe? The wily wolf-dragon was more apt to believe the latter. It made it impossible to sneak around down here, while your opponent laid in wait for you upstairs. She smiled and moved around into the living room. Before she stepped in, she studied the ceiling.

An average ceiling if you didn't know what to look for, but Tala knew exactly what she wanted and she found it almost right away. She could have laughed. Tired as she was and she still found it! What chance would Ben stand against her if she was at her full capacity?

She wasn't to find out yet. In the next few seconds, everything exploded in front of her eyes.

~~~~~~

She awoke in darkness. She couldn't have imagined that she'd ever die, but in those first few moments of consciousness, she didn't know what else could have happened.

The pain she felt secodns later told a different story and she moaned as she sat up, clutching the side of her head. She tried to discern shapes or something around her, but there was not even a hint of light anywhere in her cage. She had the ability to see at night, but that was only good when there was even a little bit of light reflecting off of surfaces. The absence of light made it impossible to see.

Knowing nothing good would come of straining her eyes, she concentrated on listening. She heard voices, distantly. They sounded so far away, but sounds could be just as decieving as sight. If the wolf-dragon wanted any hope of figuring out what to do, she would have to use all of her senses to their fullest.

She cycled through all of her available choices and opted for bat first. A bat was fairly blind. Instead they used echolocation and she hoped that doing so would allow her to 'see' a door.

It did and, after struggling out of the pile of clothes that had fallen around her, she flew over to it. It was snug to the floor, but that didn't stop her either. Whatever Ben had done to her had given her enough rest to give back full-control of her mental capacities.

Now that she had found the door, she made the painful shift into an ant this time and snuck under the door. Turning into such a small creature was, perhaps, the hardest of all her shifts, because of the size. The contracting of the bones times ten thousand... Tala was just glad she could mostly ignore the pain.

But as much as she hated to shift so small, any microscopic crack or whole in the wall or door would only be found by a small animal. And sure enough, there was just the tiniest crack at the door seam. Not enough to let light in, but the ant had no problem getting out.

Now she was able to sneak along the corner of the upstairs hallway. (She knew it had to be upstairs because of the thin line of carpeting. Nowhere nearly as soft as Lucas' plush in his bedroom, but it served its purpose of softening footfalls.

Tala kept going, knowing that at any minute Ben could come up here to check on her. As she moved down the hall, the voices got louder. Tempted as she was to shift again to something bigger, Tala remained the ant, realizing anything bigger could cause the floor to shift.

She reached the stairs and started down them, her tiny legs gripping the carpet easily on the vertical descents as well as the horizontal strips. At the bottom of the stairs, she heard the voices clearly. The first one she recognized as Lucas' rich baritone. The other, a quieter tenor, had to be Ben's.

The ant that was Tala listened for a while, and quickly became up to date on what had happened.

"What the fuck, man," Lucas said. "Just let her go. She owes me something and I mean to get it."

"No, I don't think so. I may not be a Hunter anywmore, but that doesn't mean I like those evil beasts running freely around my house. She'll pay. You get out of my house. Ot you'll get the same as her."

"Don't put me in the same catergory as that bitch. You think I want her back 'cause I like her? Sheeet, I just want what she promised me."

"I'm sure you do. And what's in it for you? Money? Power? Fame?" Ben paused. "Lust?"

"What of it?"

Tala was shaking in anger. Talking about her like she was some sub-species? She could never stand that sort of talk about her clan from other magical creatures and she wasn't about to let Hunters, ex or not, talk the same trash.

Now was the time and she shifted, quickly this time. Both men heard the floor creak and whirled around just after she finished the transformation. She stood before both of them, completely naked, but it was the wrath showing on her face that tempered their movements.

"You think I couldn't tear you both apart where you stand," she demanded. "I could rip your skin from your bones and never once feel remorse about it." Which was a lie. She felt the blood of every kill on her hands. "I came to you prepared to offer you that which you desire, Ben. You want power and I can give it to you. And this is how you repay me!"

He held up his hands, almost shocked into submission by the rage he saw on her face. "Y-You broke into my house!"

"I knocked first. You were the one who refused to answer your bloody door!"

Tala took a deep breath and let it out slowly, willing herself to calm down. One good thing, both men were sufficiently cowed for the time being. It wouldn't last long so Tala took full advantage of it.

"First, I want my clothes back."

"My clothes," Lucas dared.

"My. Clothes." Tala growled. Ben nodded, not even bothering to poinbt out that he hadn't stripped her in the first place. He simply hurried up the stairs to gather them.

When he had returned and Tala had dressed, the situation had finally become less tense. Lucas returned to his dark leering and Ben steeled his distrusting gaze on Tala, who laid the cards out on the table for him.

"And you offer me power, yes?"

"In exchange for your help, I get you a high position of power. I have many contacts and if you help me, then I will use them all to get you up there."

"But... I'd have to help your kind."

"Don't treat me like I'm stupid. Don't pretend to be all righteous now. You gave up the righteous life. You wanted power. You have become an unscrupulous person. So you'll have no compunctions about helping those you once hated. Mercenaries never do, if it benefits them."

Ben took offense at being compared to a simple mercenary but he kept his opinions to himself. She was right though. He'd help, if it guaranteed him that place of power he'd been looking at. He'd help, whether he liked it or not.

C o p y r i g h t :