I'm back my loves! I'm so sorry I left you hanging for so long! Writers block is a cruel mistress 🙃. Any-who, I'm back! This story is coming to a close, so I hope you're enjoying it!

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Thane

I groan as sunlight hits my face, still half asleep as I register the annoyance. I roll over, fully intending to go back to sleep, until the sudden realization hits that the spot beside me is empty, and I immediately open my eyes.

Astrea?

I sit up, looking around the empty room dazedly.

She was just here...I remember holding her in my sleep, where did she go?

I get up and pull on the boxers I threw off last night, simultaneously looking for my sweatpants while I take in her scent. It's faded enough so that she's had to have been gone at least an hour, but something isn't right...she didn't wake me up and tell me she was taking the next shift.

What's going on?

The sudden sound of the door slamming open makes me jump, and I turn to see a both furious and frantic Nes scanning the room, her eyes narrowing when they lock with mine.

"Alright lover boy, where the hell is Star?" She growls, and it only makes me more confused.

"I don't know, I thought she already went on shift. She's not with you?"

Her expression drops, and anxiety flares in my chest as it sinks in.

"Shit! I'm calling her!"

She immediately whips out her phone and hits speed dial, but the sudden sound of something vibrating grabs my attention. I turn to the nightstand on her side of the bed, and my heart drops.

"Red, you're wasting your time." I murmur, picking up the object. She starts to retort something, only to pause as she sees the object in my hand.

Astrea's phone.

"Damn it! What is she thinking?!" She exclaims, running a hand through her wild hair that's barely contained in its messy bun. As I flip open her phone, a folded up sticky note adhered to the screen catches my eye, and I immediately grab it and open it, finding eight words in her handwriting.

I'm going to end this. Don't follow me.

My heart sinks at the words, knowing she plans on confronting the person who did this. I don't know how in the hell she figured out how to do it, but it doesn't matter. She's going to confront the person alone.

Last time we encountered the enemy, she nearly died. Why is she doing this now? She just barely finished healing from the last encounter.

"Earth to Thane!"

I snap back to reality as something smacks the back of my head, hard. I look up to see an almost wild Nesryn.

"Get your shit together, put your pants on, and lets go! We gotta catch up to her before she ends up doing something stupid!"

I nod, immediately getting dressed and grabbing our things without a word, little Ivory whimpering sadly as I continue searching vigorously through my link with Astrea to figure out where she has gone...and praying she's okay.

Astrea

Part of me knows that this isn't a good idea.

I flit through the forest at a breakneck speed, the fastest my vampire speed can take me. The trees fly by me, but my mind is elsewhere.

With Thane, to be completely honest.

I know that taking on this fight by myself is reckless, that meeting up with this guy may very well be a trap and nothing more. There's always a possibility that 'X' already knows that Tripp has been compromised, and that the person he's talking to is one of the people trying to stop him.

It's logical that the person is in ICE, someone high up on the totem pole. How high up is the unanswered question, but no matter what, they have pull in the system and a bunch of agents that believe their story, willing to fight for them.

And I'm going up there alone, with no back up.

I must be crazy.

But honestly, I'm just sick of the cat and mouse game. Here I am running from shadow to shadow, avoiding confrontation instead of embracing it like the tracker and enforcer I am. It's about time I started being the hunter instead of the prey, it's only prolonging the inevitable.

I want this to be over, and the only way to do that is to grab the loose end I've got, then proceed to pull on it until this entire scheme unravels.

And it's safer for Nes and Thane if I do that alone.

Nes got hurt last time, and Thane most likely would have been killed if not for my intervention, and that intervention nearly killed me. I can't keep risking their lives and not do anything to try and put an end to this.

Slowing down to a jog, I survey the edge of the town in front of me, stopping to drop down into a crouch. I take in the almost ghost-town in silence, watching the practicality nonexistent traffic lazily go in and out, what little people there are walking on the street in a hurry, not lingering outside too long, only enough to cross the street, go into a store, or their vehicle. The harsh winter breeze too hard for them to bear for long.

At least I don't have to worry about it, or having any innocent bystanders get caught up in a potential shoot out.

I check my watch, 10:52. I have some time to scout the area, to survey my surroundings and pick a spot to watch from above. I can't take any more risks than I already have by being here by myself, so I need to familiarize myself with the area before I go in guns blazing.

Giving one last check to my guns and other concealed weapons, I begin making my way towards town, only to have something stop me in my tracks.

Astrea! Snowdrop! Where are you?!

My body turns rigid at the sound of Thanes voice breaking through the wall I put up between our link. My heart drops, and everything in me screams to answer him, to take the wall down and tell him where I am, and wait for him...

But I push it down, I have to, I won't risk his life again.

I'm sorry Thane...

I block out his voice completely, my heart clenching painfully as I go against it.

I'm so sorry...it will be over soon. I promise.

I can hear his voice echo through my head once more before I close him out completely.

Please Snowdrop, wherever you are, please be safe.

I sigh, taking in a deep breath as I put my eyepatch back on for the first time in a while. No distractions, just the hunt.

I continue moving into town, planning on scouting the entire area before the bastard arrives.

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11:55

I take a deep breath as I survey the area from the roof of Marco's diner, my eyes scanning over the small clusters of people moving in and out of the building. I keep low, not wanting to attract attention or have my scent spread around too much. I need to keep a low profile if I want to maintain an element of surprise. That's the only way I will have a chance at getting close to them, and then taking them down.

11:56

My heart pounds in my chest, both from adrenaline and nerves. I haven't felt this nervous in a long time, not since my first mission as an agent. But yet here I am, hands shaking and heart pounding like rookie, like I've never stared death in the face before.

11:57

I take another deep breath as I close my eyes, my mind racing as a million different thoughts whirl around like a cyclone. All the questions and what ifs not helping me settle down in the slightest. I feel like I'm going to puke with how much my stomach is spinning.

11:58

Focus Astrea. I think to myself, I need to get it together, I can't afford to let my nerves get the best of me. People's lives rely on me being successful, this is no time to revert to a terrified child in the face of danger.

11:59

Remember, this is for Thane. For his name to be cleared, for him to be safe, for our lives to go back to normal. If I want any kind of future with him, then I'll have to get it together for his sake.

12:00

I open my eyes, my heart settling down as I quiet my breath. I catch the slight vibration of the burner phone vibrating in my hand, and immediately open it to reveal the text from X.

-I'm here, where are you boy?

I quickly text back, scanning the few people outside the restaurant as I send it.

Behind the building.

My eyes are drawn to one of the people lingering outside as they check their phone, and I narrow my eyes as they immediately pocket it and begin moving towards the back of the dinner. I try to get a good look at them, but I can't. Between the large black trench coat, the black fedora pulled down low over their eyes, and the gray scarf covering everything beneath their eyes, it's impossible.

I quickly make my way to edge of the building that leads down to the back alley, watching the individual turn the corner. They pause as they reach the dumpster at the end, staring at the wall behind it before looking from side to side and huffing in frustration.

It's go time.

I carefully drop down behind them, drawing my beretta and pressing it to their back, right behind their heart.

"Looking for someone?" I murmur, and they immediately lift their glove covered hands up. I really do want to kill them right now, but they can't clear our names if they are in a bodybag. Them confessing to what they've done is the only way this ends, so killing them will have to wait.

"Turn around slowly. I want to see the face of the bastard who's been hiding behind an ICE badge and pretending to stand for justice." I order, venom dripping in my voice. They do as I say, and as I keep the gun level with their heart, my eyebrows furrow, a familiar scent hitting my nose. I immediately grab the scarf covering their face, yanking it off and dropping it the ground. As soon as I focus back on their face, my heart drops in my chest at the sight, and I'm honestly too stunned to speak a word to the smug looking traitor.

"What's the mater Astrea? Am I not who you expected to see?" They chuckle, raising up their face even more.

It-it can't be....it's not possible...

"Oh come now Astrea, you honestly didn't expect me to be the one who orchestrated all of this?"

I swallow hard, my shock slowly being overwhelmed by fury and betrayal.

"You? You're the one who's behind all this? It's been you the entire time?"

He laughs like he finds it funny, like I don't have a gun full of silver bullets aimed at his heart. This...this bastard!

"Oh don't give me that look Astrea, it doesn't suit you."

I press the gun a little harder into his chest, a growl ripping out of my throat. I knew it was someone in ICE, and that it was more than likely someone high up on the food chain. But I never expected him...I never would've of thought it would the one at the top.

That it would be someone that I've known my entire life.

"Come on now kid, don't clam up on me now. You've got the floor, the upper hand, and the gun. Don't squander your moment to deliver the next move in this game of cat and mouse we've been playing for the past couple of weeks." He says with a wicked smile, and I can feel the fury boiling inside me like a raging wildfire.

"This game is over, Director Xavier."