AN: Sorry, this has taken so long to post.

Chapter Seven

“Mother?”

The small boy looked up at the other band of travelers. After all his searching, after all the bloodshed and fearful nights spent in closets, after all the pain and tears, after the lies and rumors, there stood his mother. His lips trembled violently as young kids tend to do and plump tears flowed down his dirty cheeks.

“ I’m sorry! I don’t hate you, Mother,” the small boy managed to choke out between tears.

With his voice, Ash seemed to come to her sense. Picking up her sword and sheathing it, she stepped towards the boy and bent down so she was eye-level to him. Carefully brushing away his tears with the pad of her thumb, she tried to soothe the small boy.

“Hey, now. It’s alright. Look,” she cooed as she brushed back his bangs, “It’s alright. Mommy’s right here. Smile, Cain. Everything’s going to be alright,” she soothed embracing the boy named Cain.

Sage stood by Lana watching the scene unfold before him. So many questions ran through his head and he turned to Lana silently asking for an explanation. She spared a glance at him and just shook her head. He would get no answers today.

!&!

He ran a hand through his disheveled hair and rubbed the dark bags that had started to form under his eyes before putting his glasses back on. These people just won’t give up…And where is Carlos with my coffee?

Jack Triscoli was in a state of distress. The police had shown up, knocking on his door at the butt-crack of dawn, flashing badges, and badgering his servers. Forensic science was with them examining and tearing apart his back yard, especially where Sage and Ash had created that crater. Newscasters arrived shortly after and ran all over any details they could get. Not to mention Sage’s parents were on their way here right now.

Oh yeah, and this is…what?…my fifth hour without coffee. “Carlos!”

Two seconds later, Carlos appeared balancing a coffee cup in one hand and some papers in the other. “Por favor perdonilo for mia assenza,” he pleaded, slightly out of breath.

Jack heaved a sigh as he took the coffee. “Take a breather, Carlos. You’re skipping through your languages again.”

“Aye, gomen.” And he bent over with his hands on his knees taking deep breaths while Jack sipped away at his coffee and watched the commotion in his house. Even though most of his servers knew nothing about Ash or Sage, the police had found enough evidence that the two had been there. When confronted with this, Jack didn’t deny it, but wouldn’t change his statement that he did no know where they were now.

Forensics, that were currently studying his backyard, were hell-bent on proving that he murdered them. When Jack first heard this, he laughed and had to take several minutes to compose himself. He then asked them back what his motivation would be for killing them and if he did where was the evidence.

The head of the forensics team had scowled at him wordlessly before turning on heel and strutting away. Jack hadn’t talked to him since which he was deeply grateful for. The police pestered him for a time after that, but finally gave up when they had nothing left to go on.

It was late evening by that time and, thinking his trouble was over, Jack went to prepare for dinner when the news people showed up. News people were by far more aggravating than the police. They were not polite in anyway and had publicly exposed that he worked as a janitor at the hospital. There goes that job, he had thought.

He managed to escape from the news whores…ahem…people when who else had decided to call, but Sage’s parents. Turned out that the crack-headed news team not only blew his cover, but aired it on all the prime channels. Lovely.

That basically leads up to now where Jack was hiding in a corner of his library that no one -with the exception of himself and Carlos- knew about. Ah, the life of moi.

A doorbell rang somewhere off in the distance and Carlos looked up wearily. Looking down at the poor fellow, Jack put a hand on his shoulder halting his friend from returning to the mess that was his mansion.

“It’s okay, Carlos. Let the police get the door.”

Nodding silently, the head servant relaxed against the bookshelf before remembering the papers he held in his hand. “Oh, yes. I almost forgot. Sir, these papers were given to be my the various visitors we have.”

Jack, pushing his glasses up a bit and massaging the bridge of his nose in one hand, reluctantly took the papers in the other. He really did not want to deal with this now. Gazing down, he scanned them with a grimace on his face. Warrant to search his house, warrant for his car, request for a press conference, another warrant for the house, warrant for his servers presence…blah.

Disgruntled, Jack handed the papers back to Carlos and sighed wearily, “Send those to my lawyer and-”

A loud female screech cut off the rest of his sentence, not that it was of much importance anyway, and Mrs. Thompson could be heard quite clearly calling Jack’s name.

Jack turned to Carlos with a sly smile. “Guess who.”

Carlos blinked quite perplexed. “Why, isn’t that Alex Thompson’s wife?”

Still grinning, Jack nodded and moved to leave his hidden chamber before the intuitive wife could find him and blow his cover. Carlos followed closely behind. It was going to be a long night.

!&!

Mr. Shoeman paced in the employee lounge with a cup of coffee in his hand. How could he not have known that Triscoli was there the whole time and able to monitor him. Flipping idly through the news channels, he soon became frustrated. Where is she?! My chance was right there! I almost had it. Damn police can’t do anything right.

With an enraged cry, he flung the remote against the wall and broke it into four pieces before sinking into the old spring couch with a sigh. She would show up. He just had to wait.

He closed his eyes wearily like a lot of people were doing that night and relaxed for a few brief moments. A patient of his was preparing for surgery and he needed to be relaxed and ready to operate successfully.

!&!

Dawn rose silently over the ruins of Hazuru. Her majesty and son had cried themselves asleep that night leaving Lana and Sage to make camp. Though he tried, Sage had gotten nothing except a sharp flashing pain from Lana and he too had fallen into a restless sleep.

And as the morning sun rose, so did Sage. His first instinct was to look for Ash and he found her embracing Cain with her wings as they slept. A small pain lit itself in his chest and trickled it’s way through him. The site of Cain disturbed a peace that he had found in his heart with Ash. The fact that she had a child meant she must’ve had a suitor of some sort. And he didn’t like that. Not at all.

Lana shifted restlessly in her sleep across from him and mumbled something incomprehensible. The mumbling disrupted Ash’s sleep as an ear flicked toward Sage and Lana’s direction and moved her to get up. They had much to do today and, with the discovery of Cain, the earlier they started the better.

She sat up carefully moving her wings away from Cain and folded them against her back when she felt Sage watching her. Turning, she found his chestnut eyes staring back her with an unreadable yet almost cold look.

“We need to talk,” he spoke softly, but gruffly and tossed a quick look in Cain’s direction. Sensing his tension, Ash released a soft, almost inaudible sigh. He had stuck by her so far and she supposed he did deserve some sort of explanation.

Leaving Lana a mental message, Ash grabbed Sage’s hand and shifted both of them to what used to be the royal gardens.

AN: This chapter was rushed and not edited well, but I hope you like it anyway. I am trying at least to finish this story.