"He can't have gone too far, we were only a few moments behind him." Fior murmured as she peered up and down the street from just outside the gate. Karr didn't look so sure though.
"The Silverstone house isn't far from here though, he could've run home from here in moments. Especially if he phased." He'd never seen Jesse in lion form, probably just like he hadn't seen Karr in tiger form. It would've been an interesting moment.

Before any more thoughts could be bounced between them, Karr heard the faint ring of the telephone in the hallway. He rushed inside, Fior following not far behind him. Answering the phone with a casual greeting, only to hear the voice of the Silverstone's main servant on the other end of the line, asking that Jesse came home. Karr's brow furrowed as he was told that Mr. Silverstone wanted Jesse home now.
"But, he left our house around twenty minutes ago?" He replied, a rather confused tone to his voice. Jesse only lived fifteen minutes away. He could've just been walking slowly.

"Lord Silverstone will not be pleased. Do you know where he went?"

Karr thought for a moment, Jesse hadn't specified where he was going. He just rushed out after... the explosion.
"Uhh..." He hesitated for a moment, "No, he didn't. There was a disturbance outside the house while he was here though," He tried to explain, "Before I could stop him, he stormed out. When we followed him outside, he wasn't in the garden or along the street. He didn't even say goodbye. I'm sorry, but I don't know where he went."

Roland sighed heavily, knowing that there would be trouble.
"Thank you for your help, master Tamesis." He said solemnly, before hanging up the phone.

As soon as Karr put down the phone, he moved towards the door, pushing Fior out with him and this time closing the door quietly behind him.
"What are you doing Karr?" Fior asked, though her brother quickly hushed him.

"Jesse hasn't got home yet. His father's demanding for him to return home, but he is not here and we don't know where he went. He ran off after the explosion..." He paused for a moment as he waited for the information sunk in deep enough for Fior to figure out the rest on her own. Though judging by the blank expression on her face, she still hadn't put the pieces of the puzzle together. He did curse her slow mentality. She always needed to be told the full picture. "Which means he could've been ambushed while we were not there to help him...?"

Shock plastered itself onto Fior's face as she finally understood, eyes wide with worry.
"What are we going to do?!" She asked, glancing round the front garden to check that everything was still quiet and that there was nothing lurking in the shadows, only looking back to her brother as he spoke again.
"I'm going to go try and find him," He told her, "But I want you to go elsewhere. It might still be dangerous for you to go searching, even with me. I don't want to leave you here with Dad angry too. Go to a friend's house or something? And if Dad calls, don't answer it. Answer me though, 'kay?"

Fior nodded a little, already knowing where she was going to go. She had to go somewhere where nobody would think to look for her, and could only think of one person, though it would be a great risk to their safety if she was found with them.
"Let's go." Karr said, leading the way from their front garden. The pair went in the same direction for a while, till Karr broke off in an attempt to find the possibly wandering White Lion.

Fior wandered across the streets till she found herself in the poorer areas of town. She made her way up to the middle of a terrace block, knocking at a bright red door using the dull silver letterbox. She waited awkwardly on the doorstep for a few moments, before the door was opened a little, another tall figure standing in the doorway, dark eyes looking down at her with surprise.
"Fior!" Gray declared, having not expected the girl to turn up on her doorstep after days without texts.

She looked up at him with an awkward smile, knowing full well that she should've at least text him on the way asking if it was okay to drop by. It looked like he'd just got home from work, black shirt unbuttoned to the point where it hung loose around his chest enough to see the tattoo to the right of it. He looked tired too.
"Hi, Grayson." She still called him by his full name. Something he'd just about gotten used to. "Things are not going well at home tonight, is it okay if I hang around with you for a while?" She asked, her voice not so much of a nervous whisper anymore now that she was with a friend. She tried to stop herself from checking either side of the street to see that she wasn't being watched - the last thing she needed was Gray getting worried.

Gray was still a little surprised by her sudden appearance. He knew that she often had a hard time at home, and so was not surprised that she wanted to get away for a little while. It was good to see that she was well, except for the usual plasters that were dotted on her person due to her constant tripping. He nodded a little as she asked if she could stay for a while, opening the door wider and stepping aside so that she could come in.
"Of course," He said, "Just go straight upstairs, the family are hogging downstairs again. I'll bring us up tea, yeah?"

Fior cringed at the sound of tea, the roars of her father returning to her ears. She gently shook her head
"No tea for me thanks, I spilt the last lot all over Dad's paperwork. It was not a pretty sight." She said, not wanting to have a repeat moment at his house. Gray nodded a little, closing the door as Fior made her way inside, following her up as she clambered up the stairs towards his room.

Ethan stood and waved good bye as she left. she hadn't even gave him the chance to tell her his own name. He remembered his cross bow, sitting in the storm drain he had used. "Crap" He said as he ran to retrieve it. A little while later Ethan arrived at the alley with his parked truck. He tossed in his weapon that he had recovered and took his seat behind the steering wheel. He turned on he radio so it was low and listened to some music. He went into the glove compartment and removed the crumbled paper with the names. He unfurled it and took a pen out from theglove compartment. Wit the pen he ran a line straight throug Adney Locke's name.
"Happy Birthday to me." He smiled sadly balling up the piece of paper. He replaced it in the glove compartment and removed all of theintelligence hed gathered on Locke. He took a small lighter and touched the flame to the stack of papers. He threw the burning papers out the window and started his truck. Without glancing at the papers he drove out of the alley and down the dark streets of the lower class district.
"Wonder how Silverstone will react when he finds his head of security dead." He grinned.

Roland returned to Garrett's study, looking uncertain, "My Lord, Master Silverstone is not at the Tamesis household. Apparently there has been an explosion" Garrett looked up, his eyes slightly wild as a hundred possibilities flooded his mind. Roland had expected him to be angry but it seemed that his master was in fact furious. He slammed his fist on the desk, knocking various items off of it including a mug that cracked against the floor. He was about to fly into a rage when another of their servants, a timid little girl named Alice, appeared in the doorway.

"Lord Silverstone there are some guards here to see you... about..." she swallowed, "About the disturbance earlier."

"Fine." he growled, "Send Locke in."

"No sir, it isn't Locke. It's Bam."

Even Roland gave her a strange look.

"Well send him in then."

Anthony Bam slipped into the room and the servants left them alone. Garrett regarded the second in command with an ice cold gaze. "What do you have for me? Where's Locke?"

"Dead sir." he swallowed, then continued. "We found a dead rebel at the scene, and another was taken away by a guard but hasn't been seen since. We suspect the guard to also be a rebel." he licked his lips. "We think the impersonator killed Locke."

Garrett took a moment to take it all in, "And what of my son Bam?"

"Your son sir?" he looked momentarily confused.

"My son has not been seen since he left the Tamesis household." he slammed his hand down on the table again. "Where is my son?"

"I...I..." Bam stuttered, "I will organise a search party immediately sir, to er... sweep the area Sir" He bowed and hurried from the room.

---

Jesse moaned as he woke. Lifting his head he felt the ache at the back of his head and heard the crackle of the dried blood there. He looked around the dark room, trying his hardest to see through the gloom. He felt the room spin and dropped his head back against the cold wall. He lifted one hand to rest on his knees, the other felt heavy. When he looked he found it shackled to the wall. He felt drowsy and sick, his head heavy. Whenever he tried to focus on a part of the room it would pulse in and out of his view. His shoulders felt heavy under the weight of a thick metal collar. If he phased he'd probably break his neck.

He opened his mouth to shout for someone but his throat was too dry.

Now that Fior was out of the way, and probably somewhere much safer than at home, Karr could now bring himself to take the risk of trying to find the house that he'd been told the rest would be waiting. Not often did he attend group sessions with these people, it was too risky for him. Most of his contact was on a one way basis. Karr slipped down into the dark alleys, wandering through the dark maze of passageways till he found himself in the lower districts of town. He didn't visit this area often either, his father had banished both himself and Fior from this area. Neither of his children seemed to like following his rules though.

He looked blankly at the house that he'd been told about, surprised at how small it was compared to his own, for a big cat's home. Though he was one of the higher ranked tigers. He shook off the thought, it wasn't about ranks in the species anymore. He slipped inside quietly, glancing round the dim kitchen. One of these lower cupboards was supposed to have a ladder, though it took him a while to find the right one. He frowned as he found it, knowing it was going to be awkward for his overly tall skinny frame to work it's way through that tight twist into the cupboard. He managed it nonetheless, cautiously padding down the ladder steps.

He lowered himself to find that he was in the middle of a rather busy room, all eyes falling on him. Most were confused, not having seen him here before, some even looked defensive. Was it that obvious he was a tiger? Either way, he turned his attention to Amy, who was a little busy pouncing on another rebel.
"Ahem," He cleared his throat, "Sorry I took so long. I had to make sure Fior got out of the house too, she thinks I'm searching for Jesse."

He paused for a moment, looking around the room. "I take it the plan did go ahead? But was that explosion really necessary to draw him out?"

~~~

"So what happened this time?" Gray asked Fior as they settled down to watch a film, Fior having made herself well at home by kicking off her shoes and getting under the covers of Gray's bed. She frowned a little as he asked,
"I was helping dad with some work, took it to his boss. I was talking with the boss's son, but when he called he didn't believe me. And then I went home and ended up spilling tea all over dad's paper work by accident. Karr thought it was best I got out the house for a while to let him calm down."

"I see. Sounds like your dad works too much, stresses too much, and doesn't care too much." Gray commented as he pressed some buttons on the remote to play Wall-E. Whenever Fior was round, they always ended up watching Disney films. He didn't mind too much, he was used to it because of his younger sister.

"He does care, he's all we've got left. It's just he spends all of his time working so that he can provide for us..." She explained, "He just doesn't have much time to spend with us."

"Sucks."

"Mhmm."

"Well you always have me, so it's not so bad." Gray grinned, glad to see the smile return to Fior's face as the film started. Sad expressions had never really suited her.

Amy pulled away from Rowan as she heard Karr clear his throat, she turned to him and smiled, the smile causing her cheek to hurt a little. The wound had begun healing but she was sure it would scar. She hadn't known Karr long, at least not long enough for a hug to be appropriate so instead she just nodded. He stood out from her team as the best kept which led them to distrust him almost immediately. Even Rowan stepped up defensively behind her his teeth bared ever so slightly. Rowan had met Karr before and had taken an immediate dislike to the boy.

"It's Okay." she said as much to herself as to her people. "I have it on good authority that we can trust him." the day he'd shown up her mother had sent her a text telling her to trust him. She didn't know how Cassandra knew Karr but she trusted her mother.

"The explosion wasn't us." Rowan had a slight growl in his voice.

"A reptile intervened, he killed one of us and wounded me, it was a complication but nothing we couldn't handle."

"Yeah thanks for your help." Rowan wasn't helping.

"The Silverstone boy is in the back room, we've already decided on a plan of action. He should be good there till the morning." she spoke sourly, still having not entirely agreed with the role she had been given. Kidnapping hadn't been in her job description. "No doubt he'll be awake soon but we took care of sound proofing the room." she looked slightly proud of herself, "Thanks by the way, without you Karr we wouldn't have been able to get passed the security." she shot a glare at Rowan.

"Big deal, you still got shot." he pointed out.

She rolled her eyes and looked back to Karr, "Any problems you can see?"