Page 8 of Not With the Eyes

Ugh. She needed to stop thinking positive things about Scones. Algernon Lachapelle. If she forgot that for a moment, it would bite her in the ass. Never get complacent.

She held on firmly, head resting against the space between Scones's shoulder blades. Even through his layers, she could feel that his heart was racing much, much more than seem warranted for the occasion. Surely this wasn't enough to affect him so? This was barely a walk in the park for them. About as thrilling and dangerous as getting out of bed in the morning.

Maybe it was less the situation and more the company. Scones was forever insisting Oberon had nothing to worry about from him, but Oberon had given Scones plenty of reason to worry abouther.

Or maybe she was simply losing her goddamn mind.

Thankfully, the trip down the mountain only lasted about an hour by her watch. From there, it was another twenty-ish minutes to the nearest sign of civilization, which was a tarted up traveler station, complete with a truly alarming number of tacky souvenirs.

"Hang tight, I'll be back with a car," Scones said. "Time to grab snacks or something if you want them."

"I'll be here." She'd have to start eating gas station junk food eventually, but she didn't have to yet. No matter how tempting gummy bears sounded.

Scones slipped away, moving through the bustling center with surprising ease, not standing out the way Oberon had expected, given military goons usually had all the subtlety of a trainwreck.

She sat-leaned on the bike, arms folded across her chest, ever alert to her surroundings. A couple of rough looking guys cast looks her way, but when she stared them down, decided to go find easier prey. Presumably. They certainly didn't seem to be looking for new friends.

Just as Oberon was getting fed up with waiting, the world's most boring white four door sedan pulled up alongside her. The passenger window lowered, and Scones leaned over the center console. "Get it."

"What about your precious baby?"

Scones grinned, mischievous and more delightfully wicked than Oberon would ever fucking admit. "I'll send word to Karl to retrieve it for me, and trust me when I say no one here will be stupid enough to mess with it more than once."

"Oh, booby traps, nice," Oberon replied as she slid into the passenger seat. "So where are we going?"

"Carolina, into the mountains, right up against the border."

"Oh, good, I love running into drunk hillbillies with guns who are overprotective of their stills."

Scones laughed. "They're not that bad."

"Forgive me if I don't trust a lunatic sniper on the run from his bloodthirsty, mass murdering mother."

That just got him more laughter. "For some reason, it never once occurred to me that you'd be the uptight one in the group. You always seemed devil-may-care from a distance."

Oberon shot him a look. "What in the hell is that supposed to mean? Have you been watching me or something?"

To her astonishment, Scones's cheeks turned a ruddy red. "No, I've watched the Anti-Heroes. I always knew our paths would cross someday, and I wanted to be sure my ops never interfered with yours. I was actually rather pleased when Matt called me for help. Nice not to always have to do everything more or less alone…" He looked for a moment like he was gong to cry, face shutting down, his grip on the steering wheel making his knuckles go white.

Then he relaxed and was the same as ever, and goddammit Oberon did not want to feel sorry for the bastard but… "I'm sorry about your friend."

"Risk we take," Scones replied. "We knew that day would come too. At least she went out her way. Melody was her name. What they call a 'real firecracker' over here. She didn't have any powers, but that never slowed her down. Sometimes I think the most dangerous of us are those without powers."

Oberon huffed a laugh. "You're not wrong. Karl doesn't have a scrap of power in him, but the G.O.D. is terrified of him. Byron doesn't have power either, but he's also not normal."

"Then there's you—powerful but not," Scones replied. "You certainly don't have the firepower of the others."

"No, I don't," Oberon said, an edge to her smile. "Sometimes, though, all it takes to be dangerous is to be invisible. Karl does it his way, I do it mine, and the G.O.D. can't pin down either of us. Not yet, anyway. Almost, once, but thanks to Byron's beloved, we made it out." She sighed and shifted in her seat, trying to get comfortable. She hated long car rides, hated being confined. "So we've got what, eight hours of driving?"

"About that, yeah."

"I'm going back to sleep, then. Wake me when it's my turn to drive, if you're not one of those 'must always be in control of the wheel' types." She didn't wait for a reply, just pulled up the hood of her jacket, folded her arms across her chest, and focused on her breathing until sleep took over.

*~*~*

She woke to the patter of rain and the rhythmic sweep of windshield wipers, and stared out at a lazy storm and long stretch of road. "How long was I out?"

"Just over four hours," Scones replied. "I just refilled the tank. Got some snacks in case you were hungry. They're at your feet."

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