Vigilante (Under Construction! Please Excuse the Dust!)

Chapter 20: birdsong.

Taliesin:

"What are you telling me, Tali?"

Isaac's back was to me as he leaned over his desk, palms flat on the wooden surface. The room was small and brightly lit to the point of hurting my eyes. The corners of the walls pressed in on me, making me feel a little claustrophobic, but I focused on Isaac's broad shoulders to push the phobia down.

"I saw her," I repeated. "In the Outer City. She was there and she took the commander to a deactivation center south of the Provinces."

Isaac sighed, his shoulders visibly slumping. He murmured something under his breath.

"What was that?" I tentatively questioned. Isaac looked up and over his shoulder at me, a small smile growing on his face.

"Nothing," he replied, straightening and closing the small distance between us. I stiffened, but didn't move away. "Thank you for telling me this, Taliesin. I assume this means the fox is still alive?"

I nodded quickly.

"That Hero team took her somewhere in those big police trucks they use," I said. "Do you want me to find her?"

"Please do," he replied, taking my hand in his. "I must say, I'm glad you're here, Tali."

His left hand cupped my cheek, warm and comforting. I slipped my arms around him carefully and Isaac returned the embrace, completely enveloping me with a gentle sigh.

"Me too," I muttered against the soft fabric of his shirt. "There's nowhere I would rather be."

We stood there for a long while, absorbing each others warmth.

The intimacy made my stomach flip and heart flutter.

I could smell the soap Isaac used and I breathed him in like oxygen, pulling handfuls of his shirt into my hands and holding him tighter.

---

Dawnwalker:

At some point, I stopped being pathetic and started being angry.

I shoved myself to my feet with tightly coiled muscles, fingernails biting into the soft flesh of my palms. I took a heavy breath, swallowing the lump that had choked me.

I had to find Isaac and confront him.

He did something to Lyra and her baby and I had been too blinded by grief to realize it, but that Leap back had shaken my thoughts up, leaving an acute awareness that Isaac was still alive and most likely still experimenting with his powers.

Without me to be his test subject, Isaac would have found someone else and who would have been the first person to volunteer?

I was flying down the hall, my shoes slamming on the tile and only slowed when I arrived at the security room.

I threw the door wide open and it crashed against the wall behind it.

"I swear to Talon, if you did what I think you did, I will end you, Isaac," I snarled under my breath, the computer monitors lighting up as I placed my hands on the controls.

"Computer! Search: Isaac Ward, use every available database," I ordered and the computer attempted to comply, showing the visual sifting through the files we had available.

I pushed away from the controls, pacing back and forth and mumbling.

"Why did I leave her with him? Talon, I am such a fool," I chastised myself, pushing the heels of my hands into my eyes.

Lyra was kind to a fault and even if she felt like something was wrong with what Isaac was doing, she would agree to help him because he is a friend.