The headlights of Corbin's car came on to cut through the thickening darkness growing around the highway as late Sunday evening changed into Sunday night. The highway out in front still kept the manor at about an hour within reach, which Corbin noted to Lydia as they passed a familiar landmark that gave him his bearing. She nodded to respond to his update, then suddenly dropped her head with a sharp groan as if she were in some kind of intense pain.

    "What's wrong?" Corbin inquired, darting his eyes over to her.

    Lydia didn't answer. She kept her head low with a strained grimace that her long hair almost covered as it fell from her shoulders in strands.

    "Lydia, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Corbin asked, this time with an elevated level of concern in his voice.

    Lydia still didn't respond. She just sat frozen in the troubling grip of something unseen so Corbin whipped the car off the road and used it's hefty brakes to bring it to a quick stop on the highway's shoulder. He leaned across to his sister.

    "Lydia..."

    She snapped her head up at him with a frantic glare. "Corbin, it's Shade...she's in danger, terrible danger!"

    Corbin was momentarily stunned by Lydia's frightened burst, then said,"What? What are you talking about?"

    "I saw her, like I saw you when you were taken by Jarell! She's in danger!" Lydia assured desperately.

    Corbin's mind raced for a course of action. He didn't doubt Lydia's affirmation of Shade's predicament for a second. As her gift matured she had been able to not only project thoughts and images into the minds of her siblings from greater distances during their practices, but she had also become acutely aware of their proximate simply by feeling them.

    "I'll...I'll call Gale. Maybe she knows where Shade is and..."

    "No! There isn't time, it's up to us!" she urged.

    "But...we don't even know where she is?" Corbin reasoned, growing anxious himself for Shade's wellbeing.

    "I can lead us to her. I know I can because I feel her presence stronger than ever. Please Corbin," Lydia said, her eyes pleading for her brother's faith.

    Corbin considered Lydia for a moment with an unsure brow knowing Shade's life could be hanging on his decision, then he checked the road beside him for any oncoming traffic. Throwing the shifter in first gear he dumped the clutch and nailed the gas, sending the car back onto the highway with a tire-shredding forward thrust as it roared to life. Banging the shifter into second, he kept the accelerator planted until the car's engine howled for third and by the time he snatched the car into fourth the speedometer was easily registering triple digit speeds. Securing both hands on the wheel while he waited through the bellowing climb to fifth, he glanced over at Lydia.

    "Okay, so tell me where to go," he instructed, placing all his confidence on Lydia, whose certainty of her gift's abilities was unwavering as she began to hone in on Shade's location with a focused moment of meditation.

    Elsewhere, a cold splash of water brought Shade back to consciousness with a sharp gasp. She instinctively tried to wipe away the streaming trickles from her face but discovered her hands were tied behind the sturdy wooden chair she found herself in. A tug of her legs revealed they too were tied to the chair. Her drenched eyes searched the empty room around her until they settled on a large figure holding a dripping bucket in the shadow of a nearby lantern. Squinting a bit because of the water in her eyes, she quickly recognized the robust outline of someone she'd hoped to never see again.

    "Hello Shade," a gravelly voice greeted, followed by an immoral chuckle.

    Shade watched with disgust as the large man stepped into the light of the lantern and dropped the bucket to the rotting floor. He stepped heavily over to her and glared down at her from under a ragged mop of hair with a stubbly face and cruel eyes. "It's been a long time," he chuckled again.

    "Shouldn't you still be in prison, Derek?," Shade responded, following him with her head as he walked around her and glad that he appeared on her other side where she could keep him in sight.

    "Yeah, well, they let me out on account of my good behavior," he smirked. 

    Shade huffed at his remark. Derek stepped around to where he could stand directly in front of her.

    "Where's Viktor Shade? Where's my brother?" he interrogated.

    Shade knew exactly where Viktor was. She had served him up to Gideon as an evening treat two and half months ago when Corbin returned home, but she also knew very well what Derek was capable of, having heard more than a few nasty tales about him from Viktor.

    "How should I know where your runt of a brother is? I don't keep tabs on him," she answered, staring defiantly up at Derek.

    Derek grinned, then in a flash his features turned to stone and he struck Shade with a stinging backhand that rocked her head to the side. She slowly pulled her head back up, looked at him scornfully as a trickle of blood ran down her chin from her busted lip, then she shook her head to swing her heavy, wet hair away from her face.

    "Why don't you untie me and make this fun for both of us," she taunted, as the burning redness that covered half her face got her heart pumping with an anger she struggled to contain.

    Derek chuckled again as he walked away from Shade, denying her request by wagging his finger at her. "I don't think so Shade. You see, I think there's more to you than meets the eye."

    Shade discreetly pulled against the ropes holding her in place, but they had been tied by someone who was no stranger to their services. She wasn't getting loose.

    "I mean, how else could a pretty little thing like you drop Viktor and a couple of his boys at the bus station before they even knew what hit 'em, like his boys told me?" he pondered openly.

      "Maybe because between the three sets of legs between them there wasn't a pair to be found," she spewed.

    Derek chuckled a little longer at her inflammatory remark as he walked back up to her. She stared up at him as defiantly as ever and he struck her again, hard. She rolled her head back around and spat blood at his feet, determined to prove that she could take whatever he dished out.

    "Oh Shade, baby, I got plenty of ways to make you talk. And I can see you're gonna make this real fun for me," he said, drawing a depraved smile across his face that matched the intent in his eyes.