Kayden smiled brightly over her shoulder at Caleb. "Thank you!" She headed for the house in slow measured steps, the way a lady of fine breeding was taught to walk. However she quickly forgot that she was practicing and her pace turned to the usual swift footsteps of a child. Caleb darted ahead of her so he could open the door. The two children entered the house together just in time to catch the last of a conversation they were not meant to hear.

"-could think of no where better to go." Marrathew's hurried explanation was given in a rapid, hushed tone.

"Let me see it," Sara replied, "I'll keep it in my room if I can not cast it myself. This is something we must not let Junior know about. We don't know who he's involved with, or what he might decide best benefits his own agenda."

For a moment the older boy thought that Kaden was going to cry, but the look flickered away before he could confirm it had been real. She turned and kicked the door so it bounced open and banged shut behind them. "Aunt Mary!" Her overly bright and loud voice shouted down the hall, as if they had just entered. The adults in the adjacent room were instantly silent. "We brought the dishes in! Do you need help washing them?"

Mary appeared from around the corner, still suspiciously teary eyed. "Thank you, loves. That would be quite helpful. I'll get you a cookie afterwards for your help."

Kayden gave Caleb a triumphant smile. Seemingly having forgotten about the prior overheard conversation, the young girl followed her aunt into the kitchen. Caleb tagged along wearily. The emotional and physical strain of the day was starting to take it's toll on his body. He plunked himself down at the table with a long sigh. He was half asleep by the time the dishes were done, but somehow Mary saw it fit to reward him with a cookie as well. Kayden sat down beside him.

Out front, someone knocked on the door. At the sound, Caleb hurried out to the livingroom. Sara exchanged a glance with Marrathew, who ducked out of sight. Caleb moved over to stand with him. Cautiously the older woman crossed the house and pulled the door open. "Can I help you?"

A woman approaching her thirties gave Sara a smile from the front stoop. Her pretty black hair was cut short, on side shaved nearly completely off. There was evidence of a nearly healed burn along her ear and cheek on the same side. Her eyes were overly bright, as if she'd recently spent some time crying. "Good morning." When Sara didn't answer, she continued. "I'm Emerenciana Witkhazelt. Hazel is fine. John sent me. He asked that I stay near his daughter for a little while, and he said I would be safe here, in case Dustin's murderers were after something specific." She glanced into the house, as if expecting to see Kayden there. "The codeword is sunse-no, wait. He changed it this morning. Daffodil. Code word Daffodil."

Sara seemed to swell with her irritation. "So now Junior thinks I can not protect my granddaughter?"

Hazel shrugged her shoulders. "If he thought you could not protect her, she would not be here. My understanding is that there may be opponents against who blades are not the most effective method of dealing with."

Roger didn't take his eyes off the woman at the door, though he directed his question to Marrathew. "Who's that?"

The young man pinched his lips as he frowned at the woman. Unaware of the youth standing near to him, he replied more candidly than he might otherwise have. "That's Dustin's girl and one of John's 'friends'." he answered with a scoff. "John introduced me to the two of them last Drestal Day. Kayden calls her Witch Hazel. Hazel the witch is about right. She supplies John with all sorts of little concoctions that are only legal because no one's seen them before to make a law against them." He and his brother had quarreled over that point before. 

"I suspect there may have been an agreement of sorts between her and Dustin. Never did understand why he was with her. I always thought his affection for her was more of a brotherly sort. After all, it's my understanding his tastes were of a..." he frowned slightly. "Different sort." He shrugged and turned away. "But such rumors can get a man killed if it crosses the wrong ear in the wrong parts of town. From my understanding, Dustin grew up in the parts where it could. Though lord knows John isn't that way."

"What did happen to Kay's mom?" Caleb couldn't help but ask. Having always wondered about his own parents, he couldn't help but seek the same answers for those of his friends.

Roger shrugged, though the two men were clearly trying to figure out when Caleb had joined them, and how much he'd heard. "She up and left when Kayden was about a year and a half. Never gave John a reason why. Just disappeared one day, left the baby in the cradle, took all the money she could find. Oh, she'd told him she was leaving, he just didn't believe it. Thought they were just empty words looking for a fight. And this was before he started finding himself trouble. He has made it clear he has no intentions to become involved with anyone again. Won't risk having Kayden's heart broken twice."

Kayden popped into the room, curious about why her grandmother had been at the door for so long. Her face lit up as she recognized the woman in the threshold. "Witch Hazel!" She started forward, then stopped short. Clutching the skirts of her dress, she gave her a wary look. "What's the code word?"

"Daffodil. Your father would be proud of your diligence."

Satisfied that it was safe, Kayden surged forward to throw her arms around Hazel in a tight embrace.

~~~~

Hunter licked blood off his claws as he surveyed his stolen paper with satisfaction. He was pleased they had rightly assigned the destruction to him. Of course, he had made certain they would know who had done it, but sometimes the credit was given to a more beneficial political rival.

He finished the last of this morning's breakfast and folded up the pages he no longer cared to read. He could easily take care of himself, but without his family, what really did he have to keep fighting for? For every one of his men's deaths, he had avenged them twofold. Though it may be fun to continue his slaughter, he understood the waste of life was pointless without reason behind it. Perhaps it would be better not to destroy the ones taking orders, and to simply focus on the ones who had given those orders. Though there was always the possibility that he had extracted enough flesh to equal that which had been taken from him.

The large alligator man stretched out his arms as he mulled over his options. So what mattered most to him? Seeing the entirety of those who had wronged him and his men brought to bloody justice, or finding a new cause worthy of fighting for?