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"Anything?" I asked over the comm. The address Stefan gave me was a dilapidated apartment building with boarded-up windows doors, except for the one in the back.

"You tell me where the holes are in the walls," Tom replied, "and I'll look through them."

A new voice spoke. "Don't you Americans satellites that see through buildings?" Male with hints of Scottish. I thought His name was Barclay, but I wasn't sure.

"Oh sure," Tom replied, "Let me get right on that and pull out my little black book of NSA conquests."

"Well?" I asked after the silence stretched for a few seconds.

"Well what?"

"Who do you have?"

"No one, Brislow. I'm not someone who fall within the purview of agencies like the NSA or CIA or whatever other alphabet agencies are out there. The closest to them I get is the FBI."

"So no satellite?" I asked.

"Why do we need a satellite when we have you? Haven't you walked through the building already?"

I pulled myself out of my body and looked again. Nothing had changed. On person radiating magic in the basement. It might be Stephan, he did have the golden glow of Society men, but it was shining through a red haze. He'd been marked, that was sure, and a lot of it.

Compared to the man sitting next to me, Stefan's magic looked sickly.

"There's someone there, magical, but I can't see features, so there's no way to know who it is." I answered. Niclas, in the passenger seat glared at me, but stayed silent. "I don't see anyone else, but there's bound to be ways to hide from even me, not to say that normal people could be hiding elsewhere in the building. Their glow is faint enough that a few barely existent walls between me and them would hide it."

"Then it's a good thing you have me," another man said with a neat British accent. "I can see the heat signature of only one person. And while it is possible to hide from me, I don't see why anyone would have bothered."

"Don't get cocky, Gibson," Tom replied. "In this business, you have to assume the opposing side thought of everything."

"Maybe when you're up against organized crime, or law enforcement," I said, getting out of the car, "But we could sit here all year thinking way someone can hide. I'm about to go in."

"I will say again that I don't like this," Tom said. "I have no line of sight once you go in."

"It can't be helped." I checked my gun. A military Beretta Handgun Tom had gotten me. Completely illegal, but with a twenty caseless bullets in the clip, it might be the only thing between me and any surprise in the building. "Here's how we're going to proceed. Stephan is in the northwest corner of the basement, so I want all of you with an ability against that wall so I can tap it if I have to."

I waited for complaints. The pool to pick from wasn't that large anymore, and half of those Tom had picked, some with really useful powers like that Sunburst guy, had balked once they realized I could copy their abilities. There had been muttering of Rasia thief.

No one here expressed their opinion on that front. I got a series of acknowledgment.

"You stay here," I told the collie.

"You do not tell me what to do. He is my son. I will--"

"This is a trap. I'm not going to endanger you needlessly. You can talk with Stefan when I bring him out."

"I can shoot one of his knees out," Tom commented.

Niclas looked up and around, glowering. Giving him access to our comm frequency might not have been a good idea, but it had been the only way to quiet him on the drive here.

"He's an elder, Tom. It's bad form to shoot them. It's the kind of thing I expect starts long-lasting feuds." I put the gun back in the holster. "I'm heading for the door. Tom, keep an eye out for anyone else entering."

"Can I shoot those?"

"Only if they look threatening." The alley was filled with garbage and smelled like it.

"Look or has the potential to be threatening?"

"You made it clear a toddler has the potential to be a threat, so looks threatening. No one else." I looked at the door for any indication there was a trap on it; Tom had gone through maybe of the ways a door could be booby-trapped, but I hadn't paid a lot of attention. No obvious strings.

It was unlocked.

I pulled it and looked in. Gloomy. The daylight only made it a dozen feet before becoming too diffuse to make out anything. I propped the door open as I entered.

"The bossman is in," Tom said, "everyone get in position. Mikael do you see anyone approaching from your side?"

"Niet."

I located the stairs going down and had to take my flashlight out to navigate the debris in it. At the bottom I peeked out of my body to find Stefan and headed in his direction.

The room he was in had no door and light came from it. He, I hoped it was him, was away from the camping light, jeans and a hoodie casting his face in darkness. He was hunched in on himself in a way I'd never seen before. He'd always been at ease when we hung out. Full of life.

"Stefan?"

The man didn't move. "Hi Dent." It was his voice, even if he sounded withdrawn.

"Just to be clear. I know this is a trap. How much control do they have over you?"

Stefan let out a bitter laugh. "If you asking me if I'm being magically compelled, the answer is no. This is all me. I'm that screwed up, Dent. I knew better than to agree to anything they offered. The Orrs are probably the one family those who know about them consider worse than yours. But it was so fucking tempting. And it worked. Of course it worked. The devil always gives you what you want, they just conveniently forget to mention all the strings that come attached to it."

"Stefan, it isn't too late. You can come home."

Stefan spat. "Home? You think I still have that, after what I did?"

"You were coerced."

"No! I wasn't! Don't you fucking get it Dent? Didn't you listen? I willingly made a deal with devils. I wanted to be more than an average office worker, and they gave me that. The price was simple, just my soul. Betray you and Him. Balls, Denton. If you knew half the things I've done over the last six months, you'd put a bullet in my head." He glanced up, and I got a sense of a shaved muzzle in the little I saw. "Maybe you should anyway. If you knew why I had you come here, you'd execute me without thinking about it."

I couldn't think of one thing he could be part of that would make me do that.

Tom cursed. "Brislow, Brukammer is heading for the building. I don't have anyone close to stop him. If you don't want him to join you, you need to give me permission to incapacitate him."

I said my own string of mental curses. "I thought it was to kill me." I'd have to deal with him when he got here. Even if I wanted to say something, I had no idea how to do it without alerting Stefan.

The collie looked surprised by my comment.

"Brislow, click your tongue if you want me to stop him. I swear, you haven't listened to anything I've tried to teach you. How do you expect to survive doing this if you don't made the hard decision? Well, it's too late, he's inside. I no longer have the shot. Heads up everyone. When the shit hits the fan, we not have a bystander to be careful of. We're going to talk about this once it's over, Brislow."

"I couldn't kill you, Dent," Stefan said.

"I'm glad to hear you say that."

"I mean, I can. I can kill. I'd just rather not do it."

"Stefan, whatever they did to you. You aren't a killer. You're a good guy who'd rather look after his plants than hurt anyone."

He glared at me, his eyes actually flashing red for a moment before he looked away. That... that was new. What could cause that? Laser eyes?

"Things change, Dent."

"People don't change that much, Stefan. Maybe you've had to do bad things, but at your core, you're a good man."

Stefan snorted. "Like you know anything. Good men don't make deals with devils. They work for what they want. I was weak, scared."

"No, you weren't. You're a gentle and loving guy. All you need to do and come back and I'll help you fix whatever they did to you."

"Fix? You can't fix what I am. You don't fix filth! You get rid of it!"

"No, anything can be fixed."

He took a step in the light as he pulled the hoodie off. "How the fuck are you doing to fix this?"

I stared at his chest, his arms, his face. All of it had been marked, cuts making symbols, the lines bloody as if it had just happened, instead of however many months before. It was marks similar to those on the men who attacked my company, but wilder, angrier, or less practiced. It certainly was nothing like the precise way Damian had marked himself.

I swallowed my revulsion. He needed reassurance, not fear and anger.

"What have you done to yourself!" Niclas said behind me, his accented voice furious.

The accusation took Stefan by surprise as it did me, but instead of replying angrily, Stefan backed away from the light, hurrying to put the hoodie back on.

Niclas spoke German and Stefan wince at each words.

"Shut up," I said.

Niclas glared at me and yelled his German in my face.

Stefan's laugh silenced his father. It wasn't bitter, or angry. It was genuine laughter. I stared at him alongside Niclas.

"Just what kind of hypocrite are you, Father?" Stefan asked. "Blaming me, for this, blaming Denton. You did this to me." His voice turned angry. "You fucking did this to me."

Niclas replied in German.

"Speak English!" Stefan yelled back.

Niclas replied in German.

Stefan stomped is foot down. "English!" the gesture would have looked childish, if the ground hadn't shaken.

Questions erupted over the comm that I did my best to ignore.

"How?" Niclas asked in surprise.

"Oh, are you finally impressed, Father? Am I finally good enough for you to appreciate me? If you think that was impressive, just wait. There's a lot more where that came from."

"What are you talking about, Stefan?" Niclas asked.

"Don't fucking play that game. You know what I'm talking about. Nothing I've ever done was good enough for you! When have you ever had sex with me because you wanted to, and not because it was part of a ceremony? In the years I've been in the US, you never once asked me to come home to spend time with you!"

"You chose to study here," Niclas said, sounding confused. "I agreed because Stanford is the best school there is. I wanted you to be the best you could be."

"Oh, and is that why you never appreciated any of what I did? Because I wasn't the best I could be?"

"I-- Stefan, I do not understand? I congratulated you. I--"

"Right, because 'you can do better' is such a congratulation."

"Stefan, son, we are Brukammer. We always work harder, do better. We have to."

"No, we don't! I didn't want any of this! Don't you get it? I'm not you. I'm not Grandfather! I would have been happy being allowed to be ordinary!"

"Brukammer are not ordinary," Niclas replied with such vehemence I was going to have to look into that at some point.

"Well, Father, congratulation. I am now anything but ordinary." Stefan's eyes glowed red, and I tackled Niclas out of the way as fucking lasers shot out of them.

I felt around for someone's ability, but the only ones close enough was Niclas' which I still didn't know what it did, and Stefan's precognition, but even if I could make use of it, the sense I got wasn't right. Whatever had been done to him had done something to his ability.

The glow in Stefan's eyes sputtered away, and I ran at him. I slammed his foot down, but nothing happened. He cursed in German as I tackled him and pushed him against the wall.

"Stefan, please don't do this." I felt Colby's strength and tapped that holding the collie in place.

The look he gave me was evil. "Why? So you can laugh at me too? Look, it's poor Stefan, who can only see the future. You think I never noticed the sneers; didn't hear that laughter? You're all just like him." He shoved against me, but my feet were planted squarely and with the strength I had he couldn't do much.

"Stefan. You know none of us ever did that. We are your friends."

"I guess it's easy for you to say that, when you're so much better than the rest of us. You should have been his son, not me, he'd have been happy with you as a son."

Niclas replied in German, but I heard Rasia, so I expected it wasn't flattering to me.

"Nope. Seems there is no pleasing him." He pushed against me again and I didn't move. "I take it Colby's around, or do you have someone else with a strength ability working for you? Is he still after your ass? Fuck I miss that ass of yours too."

I smiled at him. "Just come back with me and you can fuck me as much as you want."

He smiled back, but it didn't last. "I wish I could fuck you. I mean I can. I can get it up, but you're not going to let me do it. No one would let filth like me touch them." He put a hand on my stomach, caressing it.

"Stephan, you are--" I yelled in surprise as he pushed and my feet left the ground.

His smile was evil again. "You're not the only one who can be strong anymore."

He shoved me across the room and I lost sense of Colby's ability. I crashed and roll. I'd be bruised after this, be he hadn't been so strong to break bones.

"How is this possible?" Niclas asked.

Stefan's eyes glowed again, but it sputtered away before he could shoot the lasers. He cursed. "Couldn't they have done a better job of it?"

"I'm guessing they weren't all that good it making the marks when they started on you," I said. "The books they took didn't help?"

"Do you have any idea how few of those were written in English, or German for that matter? Latin! Who writes in Latin anymore?" He made fists, and I felt a force try to grab me. "It was a lot of trial and error. I'm not the worst of them, I was their prized pet, so they didn't want to ruin me too much. They only marked me once they were confident it was correct. Overconfident turned out to be more accurate."

I stepped forward, and the force pushed back against me, but not enough to do anything. "Stefan, you don't have to do this."

"You haven't been listening, Dent. I do. I made my deal and I have to live with it." The force intensified, but it seemed to require a lot of focus from Stefan.

"Son, stop this immediately."

"No, Father," Stefan sneered back. "I am done doing what you want me to do."

I made it close enough to feel someone's ability. Speed. Right, he hadn't been happy about what I could do, but his sense of duty meant he'd come. As Stefan turned his head toward his father, eyes glowing, I tapped it.

The impact hurt. My shoulder dislocated, at the very least, but Stefan was sent flying against the concrete wall, which cracked on impact. I pushed through the pain and walked to him. He readied himself to fight me.

My phone ran and his expression changed. He sagged, sadness crossing his face. "You're going to want to answer that."

I hesitated, then clumsily grabbed it with my off-hand. It was Martin.

"Martin?"

"Dent, I'm sorry."

My blood froze. "What happened?" I looked at Stefan and he looked away after a second.

"They stormed the house. I tried to stop them, but they had a dozen men with them."

"Who?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"The twins. Denton, they took your son."

I looked at Stefan, hearing my phone hit the floor. "What did you do?"

"I'm sorry, Dent. When you didn't die in the attack, this was the only thing we could come up with."

"We? You actually fucking helped them plan this?"

"I told you. You'd want to kill me when you found out."

I punched him in the face and swore as pain shot up my arm. It was like hitting a rock. "You son of a bitch, how could you do that to me?" I tapped Colby.

"I'm filth, Dent. There's only one thing to do with filth."

The pain was excruciating as my fist connected, but this time he staggered. "I'm not ready to give up on you yet, Stefan." I punched him again, and he dropped hard.

I looked at him and he groaned. "Once you're better, we can talk about this."