Amid The Shadows Ch. 13

George interrupted, 'Jealous of your sister?? Paul you have had every moment of my time since your mother passed away. How could you have ever been jealous of Alexis? All I feel when I look at you now is shame and guilt. I don't know where my son went and I'll never be able to make up the loss of a father to my daughter. If she comes home at all...alive.'

The last admission was a whisper in the woodland and Paul was shocked as the realisation of the situation hit him hard. His father had never been so blunt or honest about how he felt or how he'd failed.

Before he could comment Karl stepped forward, 'Of course she'll come home alive and probably be pissed off at what's occurred while she is away. No body keeps the guards in check like Alex and I swear those boys have been taking liberties.' Karl chuckled.

George saw the comment for what it was, a diversion. A diversion against the sickening feeling in his stomach that this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought. He smiled tight lipped at his friend and turned back to his son.

'How do you purpose to help?' George asked sceptical.

'Diana is familiar with the lay out of the place and has a man on the inside. Also she says Dominic is chomping at the bit to make an escape, we could us him as a diversion.'

George looked to the demon, 'Is this true?' At Diana's nod George continued, 'If you betray us and my daughter is not returned to me, I will kill you.'

Diana's eyes widened at the comment, it was clear that he meant it and the demon in her wanted to retaliate, the human in her respected the honesty of the comment and by the look of the wolf, it was by no means an idle one.

As Karl lifted the woman from the floor onto his back, Diana let out a gasp. 'Why was the master's favourite here?' Her mind wandered as Karl looked back,

'Don't worry sweet heart, looks like she is now the back up plan.' Karl nodded towards the house, 'Lead the way.'

**

Jensen was dreaming, stood in the large ballroom he sipped from the champagne glass and watched the faces dance around the room. Some so familiar, some strange. That feeling should have made him on edge, instead a sense of peace washed over him as he spotted Alex across the room speaking to man, dressed in an elegant dress in creamy white, her back to him, her hair falling in curls down her back. He took a step forward as she turned and laughed, brushing hair from her face. A hand touched his forearm.

'He's not a threat.' Claude chuckled by his side. 'Karl Oakland is not the enemy.'

Jensen viewed the man with a renewed interest. His build was muscular and wide, even though he was dressed formally Jensen could see aspects of the wolf. His hair almost unnatural shades of gold and light browns, his eyes glistening. Another side just waiting to get out.

'So I'm just suppose to stand by while he openly flirts with her?' He gulped the last of the liquid in the flute.

'No, you simply remember he looked after her when you did not' Claude moved away to a group of ladies hovering at the bar, initiating conversation easily, commenting on the decorations and choice of music.

Jensen turned, observing the room that was seemingly filled with things suggesting celebration but nothing was clearly outlined, he felt a pair of arms close around his back. Soft hands linking around his waist as a head leant against his back and his senses were a washed in the familiar fragrance.

'Why are you frowning?' Alex asked against his suit jacket. The uncertainty in her voice had him moving to embrace her. He tilted her chin and slowly descended to kiss her gently. Feathering kissing on her lips and chin. As he pulled back he was confronted with the face of his ex-wife,

he took a long shaky breathe, his senses assaulted with her strong perfume and tightening arms. Jensen felt his chest tightening...No!

Jensen shot bolt upright in the bed. He was sweaty and uncomfortable. His skin felt too tight and he felt irritable. He looked over to the opposite side of the bed to find it empty. Through the doors into family room part of the suite he could see the lamp on and Alex resting a book against her legs, reading intently.

He moved as quietly as a predator from the bed, his feet light on the carpeted floor. As he entered he spotted Claude at another table, nursing a mug and engaged in the same activity. As he got closer he noticed one of Alex's arms had been bandaged. He bent over the book and stole a kiss. She smiled up at him, dark rings under her eyes.

'What time is it?' Alex bent over to the table with the lamp and lifted the clock.

'A little after four thirty...too early' Jensen answered as Claude handed Alex a coffee. Her bandaged arm brushed against his side as he positioned himself next to her. She jerked and hissed. Jensen gently took hold of her arm and examined the dressing.

'What happen here beautiful?' Jensen looked at her worried.

'I had a bad dream.'

'She was attacked.' Claude answered for her looking out of the window at the fast approaching dawn.

'Claude' Alex groaned and leant back to stretch as Jensen lifted her legs to lay them across his lap.

Jensen took a deep breath before he spoke, 'Tell me.'

'Its just part and parcel.' Alex said with a tired smile.

'That is not an acceptable answer Alex.' Jensen could feel the frustration rising as his power bloomed in his gut. How dare something try to hurt what was his?

Alex was deadly quiet, suddenly so engrossed in the book she was holding. She'd paled significantly. She thumbed the pages. 'I need to use the bathroom.' She all but jumped from the sofa and raced to the bathroom adjoining Claude's bedroom.

Claude turned from the window, 'She didn't want to wake you.'

Jensen stood with determination, 'Well tough shit, you should have. What the fuck is going on here?'

'Its not my story to tell.' Claude answered meekly.

'Well then lets go to the source.' Jensen strode to bathroom door banging on it with clear intension of getting inside. The wood and handle rattled under the force. It was only when he stopped for a momentarily reprieve her heard the sound of Alexis vomiting on the other side. His anger seemingly evaporated, placing his forehead against the door he spoke into the wood.

'Come on beautiful, open the door'

A few seconds later her heard the lock flip. He eased open he door as Alex slid across the tiled floor back to the toilet base. She wrenched suddenly and continued emptying her stomach into the porcelain bowl.

She blindly slapped against the towel rail and pulled the towel to her mouth. She looked at Jensen and sniggered. 'Sorry, not very attractive is it?'

'Actually I think worrying is the first thing that pops to mind.' He filled a tumbler from the sink and handed her the water, 'What is happening here Alex?'

Alex placed the glass against her forehead, delighting in the temperature change. She sat back and took a sip. 'I don't know exactly. I feel asleep, had a bad dream. When I woke my arm was bleeding onto my t-shirt. I have no idea about the sickness, maybe shock.' She sounded doubtful, unsure.

'Tell me about the dream, is it about the key?'

Alex took another sip as she nodded. 'We were in a cave and I was looking from some kind of symbols on the wall, it smelt wrong....it was a strange shape like a tear drop, the further we went the deeper we went inside. I could feel the key vibrating against my chest, blowing hot and cold. We found the symbols and were discussing them when a whoosh of something...engulfed me. It just seemed to suck the life out of me. When I felt myself weaken that's when the attack started.'

'What did it look it?' Jensen wet a hand towel and placed it gently on her forehead.

'I honestly have no clue, I could not see a thing, not that I was blind but there was nothing to..see. It just felt like darkness, coldness. I just felt it scratch at me and then I woke up. How the hell do we, do I defend myself against something I cant even see?'

Her eyes were wide as saucers as she questioned what she had seen and Jensen hit a wall at giving her a reply to offer some comfort.

'The best think can think of it to analyse what you saw and try to take precautions, Magically and anything else that springs to mind.'

'That's what Claude said.' Alex set down the glass and rubbed at her bandage. 'That's what we were doing when you came in, Claude made notes on the details I gave him.'

Jensen felt a wave of jealously overtake him, his uncle always seemed to be one step ahead. Funny how he hadn't seen anything coming. Jensen stood up suddenly to confront the old man. He stormed into the living area with a new sense of purpose. He slammed his hands down on the table shaking the papers and books Claude was looking at. 'What happened to your foresight?'

Claude slowly put down his pen and let out a breathe, 'Get to to the point Lewis.'

'You didn't see Alex falling in the cathedral, you've been off in your own world and at any opportunity, talking to everyone and anyone but us and now, Alex is attacked in her sleep and you STILL don't see anything. You haven't seen anything in the last few days and I know you, you where always seeing things and scribbling them down. so I'll ask again, What happened to your foresight?'

Alec grabbed Jensen's arm, 'Why are you shouting at him? This isn't his fault, he can't control his gift and you can't very well blame him for not seeing anything, back off.'

Jensen looked between them in thought, 'Is there something going on here?'

'What are you talking about Lewis?' Claude moved to Alex and took her arm retying the bandage on her arm.

'You, you and Alex? Is there something going on here?' His voice rose with each passing word.

Jensen couldn't think straight feeling like his brain was mashed together with every sight, smell and sensation he'd experienced since he'd been given this form of freedom, an overload of everything. He'd seen a closeness with Claudia and Alistair, was history repeating itself? A tiny part of his mind knew this was an idiotic idea but he could stop the words leaving his mouth.

Jensen looked at Alex and still the stirring of jealously and suspicion clouded him, he spat out his next words in a hurry 'After all we all know you like older men, surely your wolf was closer to Claude's age than mine.'

As soon as the sounds entered the room he stopped. His voice had been loud and full, still echoing off the walls.

Alex felt her chest tighten as she heard the accusation in Jensen's tone. She stood in a state of shock at what he'd said, more so in his tone, how he'd said the words. Venomously, full of anger.

Could she have given her heart away to someone wrong again, surely history wouldn't be so cruel to let her keep making the same mistake. She turned and walked from the room, she collected the previous days clothes from the chase lounge at the end of the bed and closed the bathroom door to dress.

She could hear the muffled argument of the two men who were suppose to be helping her in this task. All she wanted to do was go home and curl into a ball. She looked at herself in the mirror as she buttoned up the check shirt. 'Stupid girl!' she ridiculed herself as she scooped her items from the tilled counter and exited. Claude and Jensen continued to argue as Alex quietly collected her items and shoved them into her back pack. She rummaged in the bag belonging to Jensen and pulled a knife and the fairy light, shoving them into her own pack and heading for the door. She closed it behind her and opted to take the stairs down.

**

'I can't believe you would be so childish as to think like that.' Claude seemed to be repeating himself but Jensen wasn't listening, his reasoning was lost as he threw accusation after accusation at him. They'd been engrossed in this situation for a good ten minutes.

'I mean, is this all part of some plan? Are you and Alistair working together? How do I even know that that Alexis is even the real Alexis?'

'You are acting completely unreasonable, I would never do anything-' Claude held up in hands in a surrendering gesture.

'Really?' Jensen interrupted, knocking over the lamp table and lamp. The early morning light didn't help to illuminate the room. He took a step closer to Claude, 'That didn't stop you with my mother did it? Did you ever stop to think your actions are the root of why we are where we are now? '

Claude dropped back down into his chair, the look of sheer shock on his face. He was speechless, Lewis was flushed, breathing heavy and Claude didn't think he'd ever seen him look so feral.

Claude stared blindly at the papers in front of him, not taking anything in, his hand shook as he started to gather everything together.

Jensen felt something in him snap and release, the frustration, jealous and need for aggression passed over him and the horror of his words dawned on him in a sickening rush. He observed the man who had been a father to him in so many ways, shaking with....what, was it fear, uncertainty.

'Claude' Jensen stepped forward and reached to help collect the pages of notes.

'NO!' Claude continued to collect items, 'You have said enough, maybe your return to the outer world has been rushed, maybe you incarceration has had some delayed effects on you, something you feel you have no control over. However' Claude glanced up and met Jensen's stare, 'What you said to that girl was unacceptable, she fears for her life and her family. Furthermore, she gave you your current freedom. My past maybe clouded and well know in the magical community but you cannot be jealous of a person's past Lewis and it isn't fair to use it against them or judge them upon it.'

Jensen turned made his way to the bathroom Alex had closed herself in. He tapped gently with one knuckle.

'Alex?' He waited, no response. He wasn't surprised. He slid down the wall and propped his elbows on his knees. 'Alex, baby? I'm sorry.' He sat waiting for a reply, his words returning to haunt him and then images of only a handful of hours earlier when he'd declared his love for her. He stood up and turned the handle, it opened easily. He stood staring into an empty bathroom, Alex's blood speckled t-shirt dropped carelessly on the floor next to a hotel robe. The sink and tiled counter litter with hotel supplied toiletries.

He was awash with a sense of panic, He turned and exited, staring around the room, cataloguing what was missing. Her bag was gone, her clothing from the chaise lounge. He spun. 'Claude!'

'I can't talk to you right now Lewis.' Claude sat on the chair trying to repair the broken lamp.

'Alex is gone.'

Claude dropped the lamp and moved passed Jensen, shoving past him into the room, checking the bathroom and looking round the room, mimicking Jensen's previous actions. He moved straight to the phone by the bed and rang the front desk.

'Sorry to disturb you my dear, have you seen a young woman passed by recently, well, brown hair, pretty, early twenties' he paused,

'Yes, yes she could have been wearing jeans and a checked shirt.' He listened, nodding. 'Thank you, my dear.' He returned the item back to its holder and pinched the bridge of his nose.

'She went past the front desk about a quarter of an hour ago. She could be anywhere.'

Jensen starting pulling on a pair of jeans and gathering items to push back into the back pack. 'I don't even know where she's going, I didn't have chance to ask.'

'I did, I'll collect my things and we can start to track her.'

Before he could utter a thanks, Claude was moving. He moved to the bathroom, lifting Alex's t-shirt he pressed it against his nose. He caught his reflection in the mirror and cursed.

'Now that is no way to speak in front of company brother.' Jensen jerked sharply, Alistair's face filled the mirror before him. His smudge, arrogant appearance had Jensen edgy.

'What the fuck do you want?'

Alistair laughed, 'Again with the vulgarity brother. It is really not the behaviour of a gentleman.'

'And you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?'

'Touché.' Alistair lifted a craved walking stick to his temple in salute. He licked his lips as his eyes looked around Jensen's frame. 'Where is Miss Martinez?'

'Indisposed.' Jensen saw the flicker of something cross Alistair's face.

'I see, well my little visit is just a reminder, tick tock, tick tock.' He waved the stick to mimic a pendulum. 'I want that stone and time is flying by.'

'Anything else?' Jensen enquired.

'No, for now. Say hello to Claude for me.' As quickly as he'd appeared he was gone. Jensen folded the t-shirt carefully and carried back to his pack, slipping it inside.

'Ready?' Claude asked from the door buttoning up his jacket, at Jensen's nod they left.

**

Alex was in a little bit of a trance, she followed her feet but her mind was somewhere else. She couldn't stop replaying things in her head, memories of her absentee father, his dismissals, brief flickers of her relationship with Karl, images of a scheming Dominic, too interested in the family and history to really see her and lastly, Jensen.

How could he think that of her? after everything they'd had discussed, how open they had been with each other, the promise he had made her. To be so changeable, how could she have been so stupid. Their relationship had been formed on the basis of her being kidnapped and a deal made with a sadistic bastard. How could she had thought anything was real?

From her visions of his marriage and his wife, was she so innocent to believe he could love her? Claudia, with her flaming red hair and porcelain skin and her, Alexis, plain and almost boyish in comparison.

She stopped at a payphone and dialled home. It rang and rang until her father's voice filled the void. She waited for the bleep before she left her message.

'Dad, Its Alexis. I'm ok...well I'm not ok but I am.' she laughed nervously as she felt tears streaming down her face.

'I think, I think I'm in over my head and I'm sinking.' She paused, trying to steady her breathing, 'I miss home, I miss Karl's mood swings, having to clean the kitchen surfaces twenty times a day....Maybe I shouldn't have called, Alistair probably knows. I mean I can handle this...I'm babbling, It feels like a lifetime has passed and I..-' The beeping of the machine cut off her voice. She put the phone down staring at the handset for a few moments.

That was it, she'd heard her father's voice and in some way it had been a comfort, she could do this. She pulled the pack further up her shoulder and continued on her journey. The morning sky was still debating its arrival, hues of red and orange lightening to a golden shade of morning against the darking upper sky. With a single minded determination she started walking, setting a rhythm. She had no money and no means. Her destination was going to be quite a walk.

**

Claude sat beside Jensen in the Taxi, his eyes scanning the streets as they passed into an already busy stream of traffic.

'Is this definitely the way?' Jensen questioned. The look Claude gave him didn't require a response.

Jensen cleared his throat. 'I want to apologise for what I said last night, if there is something going on with your abilities and you want to discuss it. I'm listening.'

Claude searched his face for a moment. 'My ability was never predictable and the older I get the more I found myself having to make notes. Nowadays they can come thick and fast or they dribble into my conscious like honey. I saw a lot of you and of Alex and of you and Alex together. But you should know more than anyone, a different response, a turn in direction, a changed agreement can cause a difference in the things I see. I haven't seen anything regarding your future since you arrived at my door. Saying that, I'm unsure now if what I saw will even come to pass. I never been so unsure and uncertain. In comparison, I am equally certain that regardless of your out come with Alex, Alistair has to be stopped.'