Power Play

Chapter 13: Garen

Chapter 13: Garen

    Garen sat in a chair in his living room, his head tilted slightly to keep an ear on the front door down the hall. Jayna was supposed to arrive soon, they were going to go out to eat. He'd already finished getting ready, so now he was just waiting for her, but his mind was elsewhere. He was worried, and he had every right to be. He'd been worried ever since the meeting between Vanning and Harken. He'd lost what leverage he'd had over Vanning, and he didn't know how to get it back. And while Vanning still couldn't act against him directly so long as he was Harken's representative, he knew it only had to be a matter of time before Vanning did something. Something to get revenge.

    His thoughts seemed almost prophetic and his worry crystallized when he felt a shadowy aura approaching down his block, felt it drop off the roof of the house across the street and walk over to stop at the end of his driveway. Had someone come for him? Did Vanning think his position was now so assured that he could strike at Garen after all? Garen was frozen in his seat, his eyes transfixed on the wall between him and the distant spot where the freak stood. The slow approach had confused him. If they were after him and worried about being spotted by humans, wouldn't it have been best to jump to his roof rather than the opposing one, and then just smash down into the house through the roof?

    Garen waited for the freak to make some kind of move, even if it was just to walk up to his front door and knock. But the freak did nothing, it just stood there, which confused Garen even further. It had to sense Garen inside his house, so why didn't it do something? Was this some kind of intimidation tactic? An attempt to spook him? And then suddenly warning bells went off in Garen's head. He'd been so focused on worrying that she'd somehow slipped his thoughts, but the instant he remembered her the explanation for why the freak wasn't moving fell into place. Jayna!

    With his full speed kicking into gear, he was at his front door in a split second, and he barely stopped himself from ripping the thing off its hinges getting it open. Looking outside, his fears were confirmed. There was Jayna, standing just past her car at the end of the driveway, talking to Payne. It was all Garen could do to stop himself from rushing out between them at the top speed he was capable of, and a neighborhood full of humans be damned. But at the same time he knew he couldn't risk so blatantly violating the law, and giving Vanning one more excuse to act against him.

    Taking a deep breath, Garen carefully closed the door behind him and strode down his driveway at a perfectly human speed, so that no neighbor who happened to glance out their window would be able to see anything wrong. As he approached, Jayna and Payne both noticed him him at the same time and turned their heads to face him. Both were smiling, but the smiles couldn't have been more different. Jayna's smile was innocent, happy to see him. Payne's smile was contemptuous, mocking even.

    "Jayna, go inside and give the two of us a moment alone out here, please?" Garen asked as he came to a halt beside them, ready at any second to impose his body between them if Payne made even the slightest move to stop her.

    "Wh-" Jayna started to say, but the word froze in her throat as Garen's head snapped around to focus his gaze on her.

    "Please," Garen said, and he could hear the urgency in his own voice, feel the intensity in his eyes as he looked at her. Mutely, she nodded, and after one last glance at Payne she turned and walked towards Garen's front door.