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My family was leaving... without me.

My dad had pushed me away, he'd struck me. He said he didn't want to ever see me again. How could he say such a think.

How could it have happened?

It hurt to watch them go. More than it had when Alice had turned against me. They were all I had left. Why had they gotten mixed up in this?

A rumbling growl escaped my lips. Why had those bastards gotten them involved. They had no business doing that. My folks hadn't done anything to them. This was Society business.

I stalked back in. I was going to find out who was behind this and I was going to give them a piece of my mind. The closest one was the telekinetic. I ripped his mask off and looked at a rat's face. Pale gray fur, with a couple of scars along his muzzle. I stomped up the stairs and I wasn't surprised to find another rat under the mask of the unconscious man there.

I grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down the stairs. I almost gave into the temptation to throw him over the rail and watch him fall. I wanted to hurt someone, and I had trouble keeping that for the person who'd given the order.

At the bottom of the stairs I grabbed the other one and dragged them both to the front. I threw them over the third man, already unmasked. We were missing one. Fred and Martin were resting against the wall, healing. Theirs and Frank's clothing were ripped and bloody. Tom didn't show any sign of having been in a gun fight. He opened his mouth, and immediately closed it on seeing my face.

"Frank, tell me the Lewistons are not the only rats in the

Society."

He shook his head. "They are. There's a few other rodent families, but these guys are definitely Lewistons."

I didn't want it to be him, but it made sense. I'd told him where the briefcase was heading. He'd said his people would be ready for my call, but he'd send them ahead of me.

"Raphael is the elder, isn't he?"

"As far as I know."

He'd never said, and I hadn't asked, but the offer of help, of protection, that was typical of elders, as far as Max had explained the role. The bastard had tried to leverage my family against my good behavior. I was going to make him pay.

I called Zee. It went to his message center after the fourth ring. I frowned and called again. On the third ring he answered.

"Denton? Is... is that you?"

I made out Marcus mumbling, "What happened?"

"It is," I answered. "Are you okay?"

"I," he hesitated, "I believe so. We appear to be unarmed, but Luis is no longer with us."

"We lost twenty minutes," Marcus said.

"We did?" Zee asked him, then he was silent for a moment.

"Denton, I am sorry. I do not know what happened. The last thing I remember clearly is driving along the city streets. Now we are parked in front of a grocery store."

I closed my eyes and tried to remember what I knew about he

Santiago, what I'd experienced in my conversation with earlier.

"It's Luis's brother, Juan I think. He made you forget."

"He used magic on us?"

"Yeah."

"Oh Denton, I am so sorry. I never intended to let you down in such a way."

"It's okay Zee. I should have thought about it. The important thing is that you and Marcus aren't hurt."

"No, no, What ever else happened, We were not physically armed."

"Does it feel like you had an orgasm?"

"What? No, of course not."

That was one less thing to worry about.

"Zee, I need you to find out where a phone is."

"Certainly."

I gave him Raphael's number. He repeated it to Marcus, a moment later Marcus was the one talking to me.

"We can't access his GPS location, but I have the area he's in based on the transmission towers his phone's talking to." He gave me that information, and I was surprised it wasn't the area where the Lewiston mansion was. I brought up a map to figure it out, and it became clear. He was at Max's house.

"Marcus, You and Zee go home. Leave my car at Martin's place and go have dinner."

"Denton, is everything okay?"

"No, it isn't, but you can't be involved in what's coming."

"We want to help, Denton, you know that."

"I do, but the best way for you to do that is to not be involved. Right now he has no idea about it, so he won't be able to hurt you."

"What about you? Can that person hurt you?"

"No, he can't. He doesn't have any leverage over me anymore."

"All right, I'll convince Zee to let you handle this alone, but we are going to want a detailed explanation tomorrow."

"It might take me a few days to before I'm functional after this, but I will answer every questions you have." "All right. You be safe." I disconnected.

"Tom, you're with me. Martin, You might want to go home, that goes for the four of you."

"No," the cougar said, getting to his feet. "What ever you're planing, I'm with you."

"So are we," Fred said. Frank nodded.

Colby didn't bother saying anything, he just crossed his

arms over his chest.

I turned to my sister. "I don't think you want to be involved in this. It's Society business, and it isn't going to be pretty."

"You're bringing him along." She indicated Tom.

"I'm going to need his reputation to make my point stick."

It was clear she didn't like it, but she nodded. "You call me tomorrow. I don't care what state you're in, you call me."

"I will. Are you okay to make it to Stefan's condo on your own?"

"I'll am."

"What are we doing about them?" Tom asked, indicating the three rats.

"Nothing. They don't matter, they were just doing what they were told. It's their elder I need to have a word with."

We headed for the cars, and I was envisioning strangling that bastard of a rat.

* * * * *

There were almost two dozen cars parked along the lane going from the road to Max's house. We parked our cars in the circle before the entrance, leaving enough space for cars to pass between us and the parked cars.

"There's a party tonight?" I asked Martin as I got out of Tom's car.

"Not that I'd heard of. Must have been a last minute things." He looked at the white door. "Look, give me a minute.

Let me find out what's going on, and where Raphael is."

I nodded. "I'll wait, but I don't care what's happening,

Raphael isn't getting away with what he did."

"I know. I'm not going to let him or my dad know you're here. I just want us to avoid making too much of a ruckus if we can avoid it." He ran to the door and disappeared inside.

Tom opened the truck and took out a gun.

"No guns."

"Are you sure that's wise? If this guy arranged the people who kidnapped your family, he also armed them. He doesn't care if you get shot up."

"I know, but Max is a friend. We're not bringing guns in his house, not even stunners." Tom put the gun away.

"You realize we're pretty much all tapped out, right?" Frank said. "I fucked Colby on the way here, but none of us was at full strength. Raphael has to be expecting you. He's going to be at full strength, as well as the people he brought with him."

"It doesn't matter. He isn't going to start anything in here. His family is weakened, so he's relying on Max's help on some level. He isn't going to want to alienate him."

"Are you?"

"It's going to depend on what Raphael does. Like I said, He isn't getting away with it. If Max tries to stop me, then I'll lose his friendship."

Martin came back.

"Okay, the party was last minute, I didn't recognize a lot of the guys there, so I don't think my dad organized it. He and Raphael are in the kitchen with a few other guys, family representatives I think."

"You think Raphael arranged it? To give himself an alibi or something?" I asked.

"No," Frank answered. "I think the party is to cover an informal meeting. There' know to happen when groups want to discuss family politics without drawing too much attention."

"Okay. Martin, are you sure you want to come? Your father might end up my enemy after this."

"No. I don't believe he'll since with Raphael once he knows what he did."

"We're going to find out shortly. Stay behind me."

I strode in. I didn't look around at the guys talking or making out. I didn't pay attention to who was there, or who looked at me as I made my way to the kitchen.

As I got close to the door I thought, as loudly as I could, 'Don't get involved Max. Don't stop me. Raphael had my family kidnapped. He's got to pay.'

I pushed the door open and seven of the men seated around the table turned to look at me. Max had already been looking in my direction as I came in, eyes wide. Rapheal's surprised expression pleased me greatly.

I didn't recognized any of the other men there. Although the horse had to be related to Leroy. I looked them over, and at the other men standing around the room. The scene reminded me of a picture taken years ago as an FBI agent burst into a meeting of Mafia Dons.

"Max," I said, keeping my voice even. "This needs to be private."

"Who is this?" An ocelot asked. "Why is he barging in and interrupting our business?"

Fine, if someone wanted to be difficult. "I am Denton Stenton, Elder of the Stenton line." I let that sink in for a moment. "I have elder business to discuss."

Many of them exchanged worried looks, although the horse wasn't one of them. Leroy had probably told him about me. He was standing up as Max nodded.

"Gentlemen, why don't we adjourn the meeting. Go enjoy the party, and we can continue after this has been settled." Everyone stood to leave.

"You're staying, Raph," I said. The rat shrugged and sat back down.

Everyone except for two other rats left. Raphael's bodyguards, no doubt.

"What about them?" Raphael asked, indicating Martin and the others.

"They're staying."

"Fine, what's this about?"

I took a step toward Raphael. I heard movement behind me, then a couple of gasps. Max was on his feet.

"Denton, what's the meaning of this?"

I turned. Raphael's men had started taking out their guns, and Tom had a knife under each of their muzzle. Pressing and forcing them to look up.

"That would be Tom, looking after my safety. Tom, please let them go." I looked at Raphael. "Are you going to let them shoot up Max's kitchen?"

The rat gestured to them, and they put they guns away. I could see that Max wasn't pleased with the display of weapons, from even group. I was certain he wanted to say something, but he stayed silent.

I crossed the distance until I was standing next to Raphael. "You want to know what this is about?" I punched him across the muzzle, sending him off the chair and to the floor.

"This is for kidnapping my family, you son of a bitch."

He spat blood and a tooth. Before he did anything I sensed for the nothingness my mind interpreted as his ability. I wasn't sure if I'd been able to keep track of him that way, but if he vanished that was the only way I could think of doing it.

As I expected, he disappeared. I could still sense his ability, and I felt it move to my left. I punched there. I grazed him, but he lost his balance and the fridge shook. I went to him, and saw that his body guards were frozen, hand on their guns, by Tom and his two knives.

I grabbed a hand full of his shirt and pulled. He lifted easily, which told me I have near his neck. I felt for his face then punched him. On the third blow he reappeared.

"This was for putting them in danger." I pulled him up and slammed him against the fridge. A pitcher on the top tipped over and shattered on the floor. His lips was cut on two places. "Are you really going to let him manhandle me, Max?" Raphael wheezed.

"What do you expect me to do? You kidnapped his family." "You're taking his word...? Oh, yeah, right." He chuckled. "Come on Max. You can't care all that much about it, they're normals."

I punched him again. "They're my family! Because of what you did they don;'t want to have anything to do with me anymore!"

He spit blood again. "You didn't give me any choice. I have to have that briefcase."

"I was going to give it to you!"

"No you weren't. You're a Stenton, you were going to hang on to those secrets like your life depended on them."

With a scream I threw him to the side. "I'm only a Stenton because you keep forcing me to be one!" I punched the fridge. "My name is Brislow, can't you fucking get that through that skull of yours."

"Fine," Raphael said, getting up. "Then give it to me."

I stared at him. "You're kidding, right?"

"You said you aren't a Stenton, that you don't need secret, fine, prove it."

I stepped to him. "You kidnapped my family, had your people shot at me with no regards if they killed me or my friends. And you think I'm going to give you what you want?" He tensed. "Are you fucking insane?"

"So you are going to keep them after all."

"I might give it to someone. Max for all I know. What I can tell you is that it isn't going to be you." I paused as a thought came to me. "No, in fact, I'm going to take something from you for what you did."

Raphael's ears straightened. "You think you have the strength to take something of mine?"

My smile widened. "Max, if I offered you my services to deal with security in Denver, would you take it?"

"Are you setup to deal with it?" The cougar asked.

"Lend me Martin and Colby and I can have something setup in a couple of weeks."

"Then yes, I'll accept the Stenton family to run security in my city."

Raphael's eyes grew wide. "You can't be serious. Max, he's a kid. He hasn't even been one of us for a year. You can't trust him for something that important."

"Denton has a background with the police. I've worked with him, and he's shown that he cares about what goes on and how what eh does affects others. You've shown a disturbing disregard for bystanders. I think your uncle would be disappointed in how you've been handling your role as elder."

"God's ass Max. Do you have any idea what's in that briefcase? He can ruin us all with what's in it."

"Then shouldn't you be a little more respectful of the power that give him over you?" Max replied.

I shook my head. "You don't have to worry about it. I'm not going to use what's in it to keep you in line. I'm going to take a page out of your book." I pointed to the badger. "Do you know who that is?"

Raphael studied Tom for a moment, then shook his head.

"You might have heard of him as Tom Marrows, or Victor Andrews, maybe William smalls." The rat shook his head again.

"Any other names he might have heard?" I asked Tom.

He shrugged. "Never heard the name Lewiston before now, so

I doubt it."

"It doesn't matter. What's important is that he's a hired killer. A very good one. If one of your people ever goes close to my family, I'm going to tell him to put a bullet between your eyes."

"Dent," Max said, "you can't do that. He's an elder."

"Max, I'm the last of the Stenton line, and he pretty much did everything could so I'd end up dead. If he doesn't care about respecting the sanctity of a family, you'll forgive me if I don't care about his either. At least all I'm doing is threatening his live, not his family."

"I hope you believe that I'm serious about this Raphael. I'd hate for you to test me and confirm it by ending up dead. And to be clear, this is my city now. If I ever trace back troubles we're having to your family... Well, for that I'll check with Max first, but trust me, the price is going to be steep. Now, I suggest you gather what ever flunky you brought with you and leave."

He looked over my shoulder and I grabbed him by the collar.

"Don't look at Max. I handle security. You're a trouble maker, you fall under my purview, not his. I'm giving you one week to vacate the city, don't test my patience."

Raphael looked me in the eyes, and nodded. I released him, and they left.