Goddess Reborn

Friend or foe

I woke up before the others and found myself unsure of what to do with myself. Settled in the living room I was contemplating the riddle the Jinn had given us and what we needed to figure out. Decidedly, each piece we needed to solve meant we then needed to figure out who we could trust or not. We knew there was another of our - group? I realized I had no idea how the guys saw our companionship. I know how Deacon saw me, and I saw him. I also knew that Roman is like a brother to me as well, and an actual brother to Deacon. I found myself lost in these thoughts when I felt like I am being watched.

Looking around I see no one, the guys still asleep and the sun just rising outside, yet I cannot shake the feeling of someone tracking my movements. The whole idea makes me shiver, so I do the only thing I can, and move to wake Deacon. As I rise from the couch I am met with a wall, stopping me from moving to the bedrooms to find my allies. Now I am more aware that something has happened and I am not alone. I try to call out but no sound comes from my mouth, in terror I panic and feel the telltale shocks across my skin. My only hope is that the charge in the air will alert the guys to my distress.

Much to my dismay however, I am instead pushed back on the couch. Shaking it off I look up to see Nikki, from the club, standing at the far end of the room. She is watching me with a mix of humor and contempt flashing through her eyes. Lifting a finger to her lips, motioning me to stay quiet, she approaches me. Sitting next to me she lifts her hands to show me she has nothing, still not having spoken at all, then puts her hands to my head and brings her forehead to mine.

I find myself thrown into a dream like state, in an open field with Nikki. She's standing in front of me watching my reaction, waiting for me to acclimate to what she has done. Before I can try and speak to her she raises a hand. "I don't have long, but I can not be sure where is safe and who is listening." She explains. Continuing on to tell me this is a safe space since she has created it for us. "Be careful who you trust, after your little outburst the other day the human that set you off was talking to someone. They were like you, or higher, but shielded. I could see the glamour but I could not see who they really were."

"No one else saw? Did you hear any of the conversation? And the girl her was with, was this her?" I ask showing her a photo of Casey and I. She shakes her head no, that he was with a vampire, but whether he knew that was unknown.

"All I heard was him complaining that he was tired of waiting for the next steps, and he wanted his payment. They brushed him off and said he would get it during the funeral." This made me think back to the funeral, everyone I saw there was from my old life. I knew them all, now I wanted to know if someone knew we would be there. Or worse, was someone hiding there that we could not see.

"He was killed during my funeral, so was the girl I showed you. They were cheating behind my back before I was killed, but she seemed more invested than him. Thank you for this, now I want to know if them dying was always going to happen. Why are you helping me? You seemed genuinely disgusted with me the other night." I questioned.

"You don't remember right now, but I owed you from long ago. When you remember your past just remember I have paid my debt. Take the info or don't." She said as she shrugged. Suddenly the field was gone, we were back in the apartment and she was moving away from me.

By the time I could move from the couch she was gone. I started to move back to the bedroom when I heard the front door open and Mags walked in. I rolled my eyes to myself, thinking that this was a lot of unannounced visits for sunrise. I would be asking about a way to make this less possible in the future.

I turned to Mags with a smile, "Good Morning, to what do we owe this wake up call?" I ask. She looks around the apartment before looking me up and down, scrutinizing my appearance, temperament, phrasing, and perhaps more. I am suddenly very aware that I am wearing nothing more than one of Deacon's shirts and my underwear.

"Yes, good morning, I never did understand why you all choose to be on their plain and live by the humans time rules." She says, dismissing my appearance and moving to the couch. Great, back to the couch, I thought. "Be a dear and get the boys, we need to have a chat." She says, looking at the left over pizza from the night before.

As I walk to the rooms, knocking on Roman's door then moving on to wake Deacon I cannot help but feel like children being scolded by their mom. I am also careful to keep my thoughts void of what Nikki had told me, as Mags could read minds and I was unsure who to trust. The sudden arrival of Mags after everything that has happened is not lost on me.

Walking into the room I am greeted by Deacon coming from the bathroom. I tell him Mags is here, which earns a concerned look from him as well. This screams concern to me, like a slap with a red flag. I nod to him and head back out of the room, thinking about my new powers, anything that she could expect.

"Isla dear, how are you feeling? I sense some trepidation from you." She quips as I reenter the room, Deacon hot on my heels and Roman taking up the rear.

"I'm good, thank you. I'm just finding all the change taxing." I try to brush it off. She scrutinizes my posture before moving on, though distracted by the closeness of Deacon and I. He has sat down to my left, but unlike before where his posture was indifferent to me, almost cold, now he has his arm thrown across the back of the couch, protecting me. I take a calculated risk in addressing it. "Both Deacon and Roman have been so understanding, it's been great."

"I will take that to mean you two have coupled again?" She asks with a surprising amount of disdain in her voice. "Have you remembered your past, or has he just forced himself on you?"

"Oh Mags, you had to know the lovebirds would get back at it. They are perfect for each other." Roman adds, trying to keep things light. Deacon is having none of it, being accused of forcing me into anything.

"I avoided her, she was the one that broached the start again, all I did was be a loyal part of this team. Why are you here old lady? We have work to get done." Deacon snaps, venom dripping from his words. Mags is clearly ruffled by being called an 'old lady'. She states she just came to check in, having heard we had been seen in a few places and that I had almost lost control in a club.

"Yes, I found the club to be an over stimulation and I was worried I was losing control. Thankfully, the guys were able to get me out of these." I respond, I can tell she is fishing for something.

"Tell me Isla, have you remembered any of your life from before? Perhaps the crime that got you in such trouble?" She asks, eying not just me, but the guys as well. I shake my head, realizing beyond the initial time we discussed it I have never gotten more information on how we could be wrongly accused. "That is a shame, but perhaps for the best, moving forward in your lives is the best thing that can happen now. With that in mind, I have an assignment for you."

"Where do you need us?" Deacon asks, leaning forward. "We haven't had an assignment in a long time."

"Not all of you, just her." Mags states, something passes through her eyes, briefly making me shiver. As quick as it showed up, the emotion left her gaze as well.

"Absolutely not, she isn't ready to be on a job by herself." He snaps, Mags small smirk lets me know this was her intention all along, to get us riled up. I have noticed that Roman is oddly quiet through all of this. Mags raises her hand to silence the fuming man, and he stills momentarily.

"You both said her power had returned, memory or not, we have things to keep in order. If the only issue in the club was an over stimulation, something small should be easy enough." She offers, searching our eyes for a moment before continuing. "Unless, there is something more you want to share from your outing."

Finally, Roman makes himself known again, first with a scoff. Once all eyes are on him he shakes his head before raising his eyes to catch her scalding gaze. "You clearly already know something so why play these games? Mags, you know I haven't trusted you in a long time, but I respected you at least. That does not mean I will sit by and let you toy with us. Tell us what you know, or tell us where you want us to go, but do not pretend that you get to separate us." This was the first time I found Roman's tone terrifying. It was calm, low, and cold; a complete departure from his usual mirth. Mags looked him over briefly before her face changed from impassive and her fake cordial attitude to something darker.

"Fine, there is word that someone is trying to destroy the supernatural beings on this planet. I want you to track some of the known hunters and see what they do." She said turning from us, not addressing Roman's accusations at. "Find out who has found the power to make this happen, don't worry about checking in. As you can tell, I will already know."

"Fine. Roman and I will handle it, Isla isn't ready. We we be with her and show her, but she isn't working alone." Deacon states, standing and starting to walk from the room. "I'm sure you can see yourself out, let's get dressed and get some breakfast." He finishes, turning enough to let her know he was done with this conversation, reaching for my hand.

I rise and join him on the way to the bedrooms. Mags is behind us jaw agape at the disrespect shown toward her, but none of us look back to see. With a burst of light she is gone, I go to say something but Deacon shakes his head. Calling over his shoulder again to tell Roman to get up and get ready, before we head to our room.

Dressing in silence, every time I go to speak, Deacon shaking his head at me. Once we are dressed we exit the apartment and load into an elevator, one that I did not realize was there. Once it hard started moving Deacon reached out to hold me as Roman his the emergency stop. Quickly he pulled a knife from his back pocket, sliced his palm and used the blood to draw a symbol on the door. After waiting a minute he nodded, all of us just standing in a thick silence until then.

"What the hell man? Mags? Did we have her pegged for this at all?" Roman snapped.

"You did, you never trusted her, without even knowing why. I surely didn't though, but she is definitely hiding something." Deacon agreed, his tone less angry. "For now, we do what she says, let's track these hunters, see what we find."

"Wait, Nikki visited before Mags. She had info about Marcus from the night at the bar. He met with someone, but she couldn't see who, they had the ability to shield themselves from her even. He did say he was with a vampire, and that whatever he had done this for he would get during the funeral." I tell him. Both look surprised but accept that this was my first chance to tell them. "With the idea of their being more of us out there, and even our friends being foes, how do we know where to start?"

"Cautiously. We visit the closest Coven, see if they know anything about the Vampire your ex was with. Keep our heads down, but gather what we can. At the same time, Roman, we need eyes on your girl, but not you. I think Isla should be there while you help me." The idea drew a couple confused looks from both those not talking. "Isla can watch a lone batista, while we look for answers. It cannot be a coincidence that you are being pulled to her, so we will observe, from a distance.

With that we nodded and started the elevator again. Looks like it was time to get my spy game on.