Lines in the Sand: Chapter 7
An X-Men Evolution Fanfic
Kitty trailed after Evan as they walked back inside the mansion. He recounted the game, punctuating the most exciting moments with jumps and mimed throws, despite the fact that they had all watched it themselves just half an hour before. As nervous as she was, it was kind of funny to watch Mystique forced to listen in patient silence to the whole story to keep from giving herself away.
They reached the door, and she paused to take a deep breath. She was sure that Mr. Logan had sent them all to Evan’s game to get Mystique out of the house, but she had no idea why. Had he found the professor? Had he been able to rescue him?
“You okay?” Rogue nudged her with her elbow.
“Of course! I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” She couldn’t meet Rogue’s eyes as she kept walking upstairs to the foyer.
Mr. Logan was there, waiting for them. Kitty couldn’t help but notice that he stood so that he was blocking the stairs. He glanced up, saw her and Rogue, and his shoulders fell slightly–the only sign that he had been worried.
“You should have seen it, Logan!” Evan crowed. “Justin passed it to Nick, and he just–”
Mr. Logan held up his hand. “Just a minute, Porcupine. I need to talk to Charles.” Evan stopped talking, but bounced from one foot to the other. Kurt took a step closer and looked from Logan to Mystique expectantly.
“Can it wait until morning, Logan?” Mystique asked. “I’m afraid I’m very tired.”
Logan crossed his arms. “Well, see, that’s the thing. I had to let someone else take your room tonight.”
Anger flashed across Mystique’s face, then smoothed into polite confusion. “Do we have another student? And is there a reason you didn’t put them in one of the guest rooms?”
“Well, I coulda put him in one of the guest rooms, but that felt rude since he’s the real Charles Xavier.”
Rogue gasped, then clapped her hand over her mouth. Kurt staggered a step away from Mystique, and Evan inched closer to Logan. Kitty held her breath. Mystique sat silent in the wheelchair, staring at Logan.
She lunged.
Logan’s claws were out in an instant. She crashed into him, knocking him to the floor. He pinned her to the floor and aimed his claws at her throat. “Who are you?” he growled.
Mystique laughed, and slowly the professor’s body changed into her own. Logan drew back in surprise, and she took the advantage, rolling out from under him and leaping to her feet. He tried to follow, but she kicked him down.
“Enough!”
Thunder crashed outside, and a strong wind filled the room, surrounding Mystique and Logan. Ororo stood at the top of the stairs, arms raised. “You will leave.”
Mystique tried to move closer to the staircase, but the wind held her back. She yelled and tried again.
“Now!” A flash of lightning punctuated Ororo’s words. The wind grew stronger, pushing Mystique to the door.
Mystique stopped fighting, and the wind died down. “This isn’t over.”
“Yes, it is.” Ororo said.
Mystique stalked away, pausing in front of Kitty. Anger burned on her face so strong Kitty staggered back. Her heart sank as she realized without a doubt that Mystique knew.
A hand touched her shoulder, and Kitty looked over. Kurt watched her, concerned. She shook her head. She was fine. It wasn’t her he needed to worry about.
Lance’s phone rang. He stared down at his textbook. He probably shouldn’t answer it. He hadn’t gotten nearly enough homework done earlier, and he didn’t need to waste any more time.
He answered it anyway. “Hello?”
“Lock the door right now.” He didn’t know what that was about, but Kitty sounded panicked, so he stood up and dragged one of the kitchen chairs into the hall.
“Um, why?”
“Logan found the professor and brought him home, so Mystique left, but she knows you were the one who told me it was her!”
“Hey, calm down.” He slammed his shoulder into the front door to make it close all the way, then propped the chair under the doorknob. The actual lock didn’t work anymore, but that should hold it. Probably. “Are you sure she knew? I mean, maybe you imagined it since you were worried.”
“I wasn’t imagining it! She’s, like, really really mad.”
He went upstairs. When they moved in, the windows were all painted shut, but he wouldn’t put it past the others to break something to get them open. “Hey, we can take care of ourselves.” He checked Pietro’s room first. Pristine, white paint still covered the window frames.
“Lance . . .”
“Besides,” He knocked on Tabby’s door. “She wouldn’t dare come after all of us together.”
Tabby opened her door. “What do you want?” He pushed past her and walked over to the window. “Lance! What the heck?”
“But–” Kitty paused. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine.” He waved Tabby away while he checked her window. The paint had been chipped away in places, but he didn’t think anyone could get it open, thankfully.
“But Lance, she was so mad, and if one of you gets hurt because of me . . . . Maybe you should all come to the mansion? Just for a little while.”
He wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, no thanks. We’re good here.”
“But–”
“Hey, Kitty, chill! You worry too much.”
“Hypocrite,” Tabby mouthed. He stuck his tongue out at her, and she stuck hers out right back at him.
Kitty sighed. “You’ll be careful, though, right?”
“We will. I promise.”
“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“See you then.” He hung up and walked to Todd and Fred’s room. Tabby followed him. “Open up!”
The door cracked open. He walked in before anyone could ask any more questions and inspected the windows. Good, they were still closed and in no danger of being opened from the outside.
“What’s going on?” Fred asked from his bed.
Tabby crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe. “That’s what I’d like to know.”
Lance sighed. “Kitty thinks Mystique knows I was the one who betrayed her, and now she’s going to come after us.”
Todd fell off his bed. “Are–are you sure?”
“She’s pretty sure, yeah.”
Fred frowned. “So what do we do now?”
“We stick together.” Lance pointed at each of them. “No one goes anywhere alone, got it?”
“But we don’t have all the same classes,” Tabby pointed out.
“So stick close to your classmates. Preferably at least two people.” He waited for someone to argue, say this was too much.
No one spoke.
“Hey, Todd,” he asked, “Do you have anything that’s not fragile but would be really loud if it fell?”
Todd’s face lit up, and he squirmed under his bed. He came out a minute later with a large metal bucket. “Like this?”
Lance peered down at it. A bucket didn’t seem that loud–
Oh. Oh, it was filled with metal washers, nuts, and bolts.
“Why do you have this?”
Todd shrugged. “In case I need it.”
“Why would you need it?”
“Hey, you asked for it, didn’t you?”
Okay, he had him there. Lance took the bucket and carried it downstairs. He put it on the chair against the front door so it would spill if the chair moved. When he came back upstairs, Todd was sitting outside the door to Mystique’s old room, putting together some sort of contraption involving lots of string and tin cans.
“Is that supposed to keep her from coming in that way?”
Todd didn’t look up from his contraption. “Yep.”
Lance squinted at it. “Are you sure?”
“You gotta trust the process.”
Lance shrugged and went to bed.
The musicians were still outside the hotel when Pietro and Wanda got up. Did they sleep?
Wanda loved it, of course. For once, she ate slowly, trying and failing to watch them out the window. When they finished eating, she stood slowly and carried each item to the trash can one at a time.
“We don’t have to leave,” Pietro reminded her. He might not like the music, but he liked the hotel and the idea of not spending the day trudging around the city again.
She stiffed and walked to the door. “No, let’s go.”
He sighed and followed her out–then ran into her as she stopped. The band was outside the door.
There were four of them, all in black t-shirts and dark, ripped jeans. A couple played guitars, one beat on a couple drums, and then last one did something that was probably supposed to be singing.
And Wanda watched, entranced.
Someone pushed past them. “Stop standing in the middle of the door!” Pietro glared at the guy’s back, then ushered Wanda away from the door and a little closer to the musicians.
“You seriously like this stuff?” he asked.
“It’s pretty,” she breathed without taking her eyes off them.
That . . . was definitely one word for it.
Still, listening to it was definitely better than looking for their dad. And she was clearly enjoying it.
That was strange to him. He liked to listen to music (not this kind, but other stuff), but he didn’t think someone could really enjoy music while standing that still.
He grabbed her hand and lifted it over her head to spin her. She turned her head and stared at him, otherwise unmoving. “What are you doing?”
“Spinning you.”
He tried again, but she didn’t move. “What?”
He sighed. “I’m spinning you. To dance. Since you like the music.” She frowned, but when he tried again, she let him.
He remembered spending the night at Evan’s house a few years ago, and they had argued over what music to listen to. Mrs. Daniels had come in and told them she would pick the music since they couldn’t agree. They had both hated the slow, jazzy CD she picked, but Mr. Daniels joined them in the living room as soon as it started playing, and he and Mrs. Daniels danced while Pietro and Evan gagged on the couch.
The dance had involved some sort of shuffling steps back and forth. Pietro tried to mimic it now, though this music was much faster than Mrs. Daniels' CD.
“What are you doing?” Wanda asked.
“Dancing.”
She frowned at his feet. “I think you’re doing it wrong.”
He shrugged. “Probably. But it’s fun.” She considered his words for a moment, then nodded and tried to mirror him. They stumbled over each other, lost count several times, and whenever he tried to spin her, they either dropped hands, or she didn’t notice what he was doing.
The singer cut off abruptly and laughed. “Have you ever danced before?”
Pietro stiffened. They weren’t that bad. “Yeah, at school dances.”
“That’s not exactly what I meant.” The man walked over and held out his hand to Wanda. “Let me show you how to really dance.” Wanda’s eyes widened and she took a step back.
One of the guitar players laughed. “Leave her alone, Dave. You’re scaring the poor girl.”
“Oh, sorry.” Dave pulled his hand back. “Didn’t mean to scare you. I just thought I’d teach you a dance other people might actually recognize. No offense to your brother there–” he winked at Pietro “–But I’ve never seen anything quite like . . . whatever that was you were doing.” Pietro rolled his eyes, but he let go of Wanda’s hand.
To his surprise, she took another step towards him and snatched his hand back up. She looked really tense, and he put his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, relax. You don’t have to dance with him if you don’t want to, but I’m not going anywhere.”
The words came out before he could think. Why would that matter to her? She hadn’t wanted him there from the start. She’d probably be glad if he left.
She looked up at him, and her eyes narrowed. She glanced over at Dave, then back at Pietro. Slowly, her fingers slipped out of his. “Okay.”
“Huh?” Pietro said.
“What?” Dave asked.
“I want to dance.”
Dave’s eyebrows shot up, but he grinned. “Okay.” He held out his hand, and she took it. He nodded at the other band members, and the drummer started tapping out a beat while shaking his head at his friend. The other two joined in.
Pietro couldn’t hear anything Dave said over the music, but he quickly realized this dance took a lot more room, so he stepped back. The steps were more complicated than anything he would have tried, and Wanda slipped up multiple times. She got frustrated and stopped every time, but Dave was a patient teacher. He’d say something, and she’d take a deep breath and start over.
He didn’t seem to mind as his friends moved on to another song without him. And another. And another.
And Wanda kept dancing. Those same steps, over and over, until she stopped slipping and could keep the rhythm without counting out loud.
Then, without warning, Dave lifted her hand and spun her, making her gasp. As soon as she found the steps again, he spun her again, and this time, as she turned, Pietro saw her smile, just for a second.
“What’s taking so long?” Tabby complained.
“Sorry I’m not fast enough for you,” Lance grumbled. Another book fell out of his locker. Everything fit just fine yesterday, so why was this so hard today?
Something clattered against the floor, and Tabby leaned down to pick it up. When she stood back up, she grinned and waved it in his face. His keys.
“I’ll go pull the car up!” She spun around and sped off.
“Tabby! Wait, you can’t go alone!”
She grabbed another girl’s arm–that purple-haired friend of Rogue’s. “I’ll be fine! Risty can come with me!”
The other girl–Risty–laughed. “A little over-protective, isn’t he?”
Lance couldn’t hear Tabby’s reply, but he doubted it was very nice. He grimaced and shoved everything back in his locker as far as it would go, then tried to slam the door before it could all fall out again. The door jammed on something and swung right back open, spilling all his stuff onto the floor. He cursed.
“Yo, Lance, you need some help with that?”
He sighed in relief as Todd and Fred came around the corner. “No, no, I’m fine. Just go find Tabby. She went outside to get the car.”
Fred frowned. “But you said nobody goes by themselves.”
“I know what I said, but she’s out there alone right now, so go!”. Alright, technically she wasn’t alone since she was with that other girl, but still, she’d be much safer with Fred and Todd. “I’ll come out as soon as I get this stuff cleaned up.”
He heard them leave as he picked up his stuff and tried to shove everything back into his locker. Again the door wouldn’t shut, but he managed to grab a few of the books before they all spilled. He shifted everything around to see if that would make it fit better, but again the door wouldn’t shut. He moved it again and wondered if all that junk was really necessary. Or his. Honestly he wouldn’t put it past Pietro or Tabby to shove some of their crap into his locker.
He tried to shut the door again. Bang. Again. Bang. Again. Bang, bang, bang.
A hand shot out and caught the door before he could slam it again.
“Need some help?” Kitty asked.
A very tiny bit of his frustration faded at the sight of her amused smile. “Maybe just a little?”
She shook her head, but her smile didn’t fade as she opened the locker, adjusted a couple books, then gently shut the door. It stayed shut, and she locked it. She turned back to him, looking like she was trying to hold back a laugh. “There, simple.”
He didn’t realize how anxious he had been until he could actually relax his shoulders. “Thank you so much.” He took a couple backwards steps toward the door and waved. “I’ll see you tomorrow!” He turned around and raced out to find his friends.
“Wait, Lance!” Kitty called. She followed him out, then crashed into him as he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. “Lance?”
“Where’s the car?” He wasn’t panicking. Definitely not. There was probably a perfectly logical explanation for the fact that his car, Tabby, Fred, and Todd were nowhere in sight. He just . . . couldn’t think of one. “Where’s my car? Tabby said she was pulling it up. They should be here. Where are they?"
“Maybe she, like, pulled it around to the back?” Kitty suggested. Oh. Yeah, that made sense. It would be just like Tabby to give him a heart attack just to get an extra minute of driving in. He turned around and headed to the back. Kitty fell into step beside him.
“Would you give me a ride home today?” she asked.
“Isn’t Summers driving you?” He had seen that red sports car in the school parking lot that morning and assumed Mystique’s stunt must have sent Summers into an over-protective panic as well.
“He’s supposed to,” Kitty admitted, “but I’d rather go with you.”
Well, he wasn’t going to say no to that. “Okay. It might be a little crowded though.” They rounded the corner, and he spotted his jeep parked in the street with Tabby, Todd, and Fred all sitting in the backseat.
Huh. Weird that Tabby had already moved. Usually he had to argue with her fro at least five minutes before she relinquished the driver’s seat. And why had no one called shotgun?
Something felt very wrong. He started running.
“Fred? Tabby? Todd?” None of them moved, and as he got closer, he noticed they were all slumped against each other, as if they were unconscious. He heard footsteps behind him, too slow, too wrong.
That wasn’t Kitty behind him.
He started to turn around, but something hard hit his head and everything went black.
Kitty searched the parking lot, but she couldn’t find any sign of Lance. She had been hoping to talk to him for a few minutes before Scott rushed them all back to the mansion, but it didn’t look like that would happen now. She didn’t see his car either. He hadn’t left already, had he?”
“Hey, is that Principal Darkhölme?” someone asked behind her.
Kitty whirled around. Just before it passed the school, she spotted Lance’s jeep–with Mystique driving and the members of the Brotherhood shoved unceremoniously into the back.
She ran to the far end of the parking lot, where Scott waited by his car. “Scott!”
He jumped. “What? What’s wrong?”
She threw her hands out and caught herself on the car to make sure she didn’t phase through it. “The Brotherhood–” she panted. “The Brotherhood’s been kidnapped by Mystique!”
Scott held up his hands. “Woah, hold on. They’ve always worked with her before. Are you sure she kidnapped them?”
“I’m sure. She was driving away, and they were all knocked out in the backseat! And do you really think Tabby would go along with whatever Mystique wanted?”
Scott grimaced and glanced over at the school. “You get Rogue, and I’ll find the boys.”
Kitty nodded and ran back inside. She checked Rogue’s locker, then several of the classrooms. She found Rogue still in one of them, talking to a boy from whatever class she had just gotten out of.
“I know, Mr. Johnson’s reaction was great! I didn’t think he’d–hey!” Rogue whirled around and grabbed her bag, which Kitty had snatched up and slung over her shoulder. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
“The Brotherhood’s been kidnapped,” Kitty blurted out. She didn’t care much what the boy next to the thought she was talking about.
Rogue dropped the bag, grabbed her books, and headed for the door. “Sorry, Michael. I have to go.” Kitty ran out after her.
“What happened?” Rogue asked.
“Mystique kidnapped them. I saw her driving away.”
Rogue frowned. “Why would she kidnap them?” Kitty made a vague noise, and gestured to Scott’s car in the parking lot. Thankfully, he, Kurt, and Evan were already there.
Kitty and Rogue hopped in the car, and Scott started driving before they had buckled their seat belts. “Which way did they go?” he asked.
Kitty pointed. “They went straight that way for a while. I didn’t see where they turned, though.”
“Okay, well everyone keep an eye out.”
Kitty couldn’t sit still. With every minute that passed, it seemed the Brotherhood was just getting further and further away. She was sure they would never find them, and it was all her fault. She had done something that let Mystique know she and Lance had been working together. She was sure of it!
“Wait, is that–that’s Lance’s car!” Kurt leaned over the car door and pointed.
Scott spun the steering wheel, and the car pivoted suddenly. Kitty gasped and clutched onto the door. Once she could breathe again, she looked up and saw that, sure enough, Lance’s jeep was sitting empty in front of a tall office building.
A condemned office building.
“That can’t be good,” Evan muttered.
Scott parked and turned around to face them. “You three–” He pointed to Rogue, Kurt, and Kitty, “Find the Brotherhood and get them out of there.”
“What about you and me?” Evan asked.
Scott’s expression darkened. “We’ll find Mystique.”
Lance woke on the hard ground. He opened his eyes, but couldn’t see anything. For a second, he was afraid his eyes weren’t working, but slowly, a dim line of light appeared beside him. He crawled over to it and found a wall. The line of light was a crack. A door?
He kept his fingers on the crack and slid them up as he slowly stood. Then he moved one hand against the wood until he touched cold metal. The knob. He tried to turn it, but it wouldn’t move.
Of course it was locked. Mystique wouldn’t make anything easy for him.
He took a couple steps back so he wasn’t touching the wall anymore, then closed his eyes and made the ground shake just enough to feel everything around him.
He was underground. He could tell that much pretty quickly. Only one floor under, but that could still make things difficult. He could feel other people too, moving around. His friends, probably, and Mystique if she hadn’t already left.
But why would she leave them locked up here? She had to know they’d find their way out easily. Did she just want to scare them?
The trembling reached the top of the buildng, and with a horrible sinking feeling, Lance realized exactly why Mystique had left them there. The building was completely unstable. Any attempt by him, Fred, or Tabby to escape would bring the whole thing down on top of them.
Lance cut off the shaking before he could do any more damage to the building. He might be able to get out without using his powers, and if they could wait long enough, he was sure Todd would be able to find some way to get them out, but there was no way to tell Fred or Tabby just how dangerous breaking anything could be unless they were close enough to hear him shout.
“Tabby? Fred? Todd?” He pounded on the door. “Guys? Can you hear me?”
He pressed his ear to the door, but couldn’t hear anything. “Guys! Guys, can you hear me?” Still nothing. He shouted again and again, straining to hear any sound. Sometimes he thought he heard footsteps, or someone whispering, but more shouting proved it was only his imagination.
“Can you hear me?”
“Lance?”
He froze. He must be imagining that, right? There was no way Kitty could be there.
“Lance, is that you?”
Mystique had pretended to be Kitty to trick him once already, but she already knew where he was, so why would she need to trick him again?
“Kitty?”
“Lance!” Her voice sounded so close now.
Something touched his arm, and then he felt her hands wrap around his wrists. She tugged, and he stumbled through the door into a much brighter hallway. He slapped his hand over his eyes at the sudden pain of the sunlight streaming through the windows.
Kitty threw her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I was worried.” She stepped back, and he moved his hand a bit so he could look at her. “Are the others in there too?”
He shook his head. “I think she split us all up. We have to find them before Tabby or Fred tries to get out and brings the whole place down.”
She nodded and grabbed his hand, dragging him down the hallway. “I haven’t checked this way yet.”
Slowly his eyes adjusted to the light, and he was able to keep up without her dragging him around. They mostly passed empty, open rooms and large offices for a while, but once more doors appeared, their progress slowed as they checked each one and he kept calling for his friends.
“Lance? Is that you?” a groggy voice asked from a supply closet.
Without hesitation, Kitty phased into the closet, then phased back out, dragging Fred after her. He looked from her to Lance, and then back again, and his eyebrows drew together. “What happened?”
“Mystique wanted revenge,” Lance said.
“I told you."
“I know, I know.”
“Lance!” A voice behind him shouted. “Freddie!”
They spun around as Tabby came running with Todd, Kurt, and Rogue following.
“Oh, good,” Kurt said. “We have everyone then.”
“We better go find Scott,” Rogue pointed out. “If Mystique’s still here, he and Evan could be in trouble.”
Lance turned to Kitty. “Everyone came?” She smiled and shrugged.
“Let’s go!” Kurt turned around and ran back the way they came. “They should still be upstairs.” Rogue followed him, and Todd watched them go. He looked back and Lance, Fred, and Tabby, the followed Kurt and Rogue.
Kitty started to follow, then stopped. “You don’t have to come, but I’m going with them.”
“Are you kidding?” Tabby asked. “I’m going to give Mystique a taste of her own medicine.”
“You cannot blow up this building,” Lance said quickly. “You’ll kill us all.”
Tabby sighed. “Fine. I’m still coming, though.”
Lance and Fred exchanged a look. “I guess we should go too,” Fred said. “To make sure they don’t get hurt.”
Tabby put her hands on her hips. “Excuse me. I can take care of myself.”
“Let’s go then,” Lance said before they could start arguing. Kitty nodded and ran after the others. Tabby skipped along behind her.
When they made it upstairs, they heard shouting from down the hall. They followed the sound and came into the large lobby. It was empty except for the circle of people standing around a single figure.
Mystique.
Fred, Tabby, Lance, and Kitty joined the others in their circle around her. Scott looked up at Lance when they joined. His expression was unreadable, but he gave a slight nod, then he turned back to Mystique. “You can’t fight us all.”
She prowled the circle like a caged animal. Then she yelled and lunged for Lance. He leapt backwards as Kitty grabbed his arm. Mystique fell right through him and rolled on the floor. Lasers, spikes, and several of Tabby’s bombs crashed into her and pushed her further away.
“Leave. Now.” Summers’s voice was hard.
Mystique growled and stood up, but she hesitated at the crowd of them.
“Please,” Kurt said quietly. “Just leave.”
Mystique huffed. “You’re not worth the effort anyway. Just stay out of my way.” With one last glare, she morphed into an owl and flew out the broken door.
The group stayed silent until her silhouette faded into the distance. Then Summers asked, is everyone alright?”
Lance looked around as his friends all nodded. “We’re fine.” He glared at Tabby. “But I told you not to blow anything up.”
“You said not to blow up the building, and I didn’t. It’s fine.”
Lance sighed, then turned back to Summers. He gritted his teeth. He might not like the guy, but he knew they would have been in real trouble if the X-Men hadn’t shown up. “Thanks. All of you.”
Summers gave a sharp nod. “No problem.” He glanced back at his team. “We should head back before Logan decides to come looking.” Kurt and Evan exchanged grimaces at the idea.
Summers started to leave, and the rest of the X-Men trailed after him. Then he stopped at the door and turned back. “Why did Mystique go after you? I thought you were working together.”
Lance crossed his arms. “Yeah, well, we got tired of that, but she didn’t exactly appreciate us handing in our notice.”
Summers’s eyebrows shot up, but he said nothing. Rogue tilted her head and studied them. “Good for you,” she said finally.
The group filed out the door, but Kitty hesitated in front of Lance. She squeezed his hand. “I’m glad you’re alright,” she whispered, then followed her team out the door.
It was nice not to change hotels that day. Wanda stayed and danced until the musicians left, but then she was too worn out to go anywhere, so Pietro convinced her to stay at the hotel. They spent the day watching cartoons and raiding the vending machines (Wanda’s powers were surprisingly helpful in knocking snacks loose).
When they came down for breakfast the next morning, Wanda took a long time deciding what she wanted, so Pietro was almost finished with his own food before she joined him at the table. She carried two cups and a plate piled so high with food it looked like it would spill with any movement, but a red haze surrounded it, keeping the food in its place.
“Think you have enough?” he asked dryly. She ignored him and put the plate and cups on the table. One cup had her usual steaming tea, but the other . . . “You don’t drink orange juice.”
She looked at him like he were an idiot. “No, I don’t.” She picked up her pastry and took a large bite.
He blinked at the cup, which sat slightly closer to him than to her. “Is this for me?”
She gave him a dull look as she swallowed, then she poked his cup, which slid it across the table. “It’s empty.”
That was probably as close to a “yes” as he was going to get. “Uh, thanks, I guess.” He picked it up and sniffed it. She hadn’t put anything in it, had she? He tasted it, but it seemed fine.
Wanda ate slowly and seemed much more comfortable with the hotel than any of the others they had been in. Maybe he could convince her to stay another night.
“So, Wanda–”
“Hello, little kittens,” a deep voice rumbled behind them. They both jumped and turned to the large man who had just come into the room.
Pietro gulped and tried to shrink back in his chair. He recognized that man. Sabertooth had worked for his father for a while, but he had freaked him out back on Asteroid M. And that gleeful expression on his face made Pietro nervous.
Sabertooth was blocking their exit. With Wanda’s help, Pietro might be able to get them both out, but the glint in the man’s eye made it seem like he wanted them to try. Pietro reached for his sister’s arm, hoping to convey that they needed to leave. Preferably right now.
Sabertooth smiled at him, baring his fangs. “Scared, little kitten?”
Pietro glared. “I’m not scared of you.”
He found Wanda’s hand under the table, and she squeezed his back. She leaned toward him, but she didn’t seem to sense his urgency. “Who are you?”
“I work for your daddy.”
Wanda dropped Pietro’s hand and sat up straighter. “You know where he is?” Her voice grew darker, heavier. Pietro hadn’t noticed just how much she’d relaxed in the past few days, but he could hear it now.
“I do. He sent me to find you and bring you kitties back home.”
Wanda gave a sharp nod and stood up. “Take me to him. Now.”
Pietro shot to his feet. “Wait, Wanda, you can’t!”
She turned and glared at him. “I’m going. You don’t have to, but I’m going.”
He didn’t want to go. He really, really didn’t, but he couldn’t leave her, could he? “I . . .”
Sabertooth laughed. “I’m afraid that wasn’t an offer. It’s time for a family reunion”