Hawk walked toward them and dragged his hood back. Looking at them one by one it became very apparent that he was younger than them. Looked like he could have been maybe 21 or 22. He looked at the seven of them slowly but they a lit upon Sarah and he pointed.
“Didn’t I kill you?” Hawk asked walking toward them. For a second fear gripped her heart as her imprisonment flashed in her mind but the fear was chased away immediately by anger as she stepped forward.
“You got lucky once. I’m not going to let that happen again.”
Hawk laughed, “Guess killing the fire in you is going to take at least two tries.”
This was the first time that they’d seen his face before and everything about him screamed creepy. “This is seriously him?” Seth asked.
“What were you expecting?” Cal asked.
He glanced back at him and then shook his head, “Someone old and bald who hated young people.”
“Ha. Maybe we could make him have a heart attack then,” Cal replied. “Hey Owen is this him for sure and not some new guy?”
“Owen?” Hawk laughed hard. “That’s your fucking name. Christ you’re so milktoast.”
Owen shook his head frowning hard, “I don’t know. I’ve never met him before. Or Vixen. But I can feel it. I think that’s him.”
The snow had started to worsen and the wind picking up along with it. Hawk finally turned and really looked at Owen. He stared at the kid and realized that they had to be the same age if not a little bit older. But the longer he looked at him the more and more frustrated he became.
The amount of hate in his gaze froze Owen to his core. He’d seen that only once before and it had been from his step mom’s former boyfriend when she finally left him. Back then if she hadn’t been around he would have fought him. But now under Hawk’s glare there was something other wordly about it. He took a step back and Hawk’s glare turned into a sneer as he pointed at him. “There’s the little traitor. After I kill them, you’re next.”
“That’s a bold thing to say,” Kathryn said moving forward. “You really think you can fight through the six of us?”
“Even I wouldn’t try to get that cocky,” Jack said glancing back at Sarah and Marco. “Try to fight us Hawk and I swear it won’t be like the last time.”
But Hawk didn’t look at Jack or even acknowledge him. Instead he continued to stare at Owen. “You know traitor, you’re not the only one who betrayed me. Vixen, or I guess Genevie, also tried that shit. Who would have thought we had a famous person on our team.”
“Genevie?” Kathryn repeated.
Cal looked back at her, “Like the movie star?”
“What did you do to her?” Owen almost shouted.
Hawk raised both hands and shrugged, “I just gave her a little nudge in the right direction. And she donated her aid in the best way she could.”
Spreading his arm, a black stone appeared in his palm for a second and then it disappeared again, reabsorbing back into his body. Marco’s eyes went wide stepping forward, “You stole her power.”
“Ding ding!” he pointed at Marco. “I take it you’re the leader here? Only one with a brain.”
“You’re the reason she’s in the hospital!” Owen shouted and started to run forward but stumbled and nearly fell down the stairs. Holding the banister for dear life Kathryn almost went back to his side. “You son of a bitch.”
“Oh, you’re looking pretty green there, kid. Wonder what you did,” Hawk said but his eyes were tracing forward over to Sarah. “I don’t remember your hair being that color. And something about you seems a little orange. Wow, you really did go the full way with the betrayal.”
“How the hell does he know about that?” Jack whispered and Sarah shook her head.
“I have no idea,” Sarah stared at him and something about that man made her skin crawl and not from the creepy way in which he looked at him. There was something else beyond it, deep inside him. He was dangerous to them specifically.
He spread his arms taking a slow breath as he looked at them, “You know looking at the six of you I don’t know why Key was so worried. I could handle you all before the power boost. With it it’s just going to be way too easy.”
“You know what,” Sarah shook her head clutching her bracelet, “Enough of this.”
“Let’s kick his ass and be done with it,” Jack stood beside her meeting her eyes for a moment and raised his ring.
“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Kathryn touched her bracelet.
Seth shoved his hand into his pocket touching the clip, “Finally a good suggestion.”
Cal chuckled covering his watch, “Agreed. Do the honors Marco?”
“Gladly,” Marco stood on the other side of Sarah touching his necklace. “Team! Let’s go to work!”
Spreading his arms Hawk grinned as black light engulfed his body, “That’s what I hoped you’d say.”
The Harlequin Library 