Daniel Shaw - August 2120
"Come on, I haven't got all day" I say, tapping the horn with more force than necessary. I'm not trying to be a dick, Ethan just has this habit of stretching my patience thin.
"Just give me a moment, okay!" he shouts back, still rooted to the spot.
He's staring into the forest like Kai's about to materialise out of thin air. He's been doing that for hours, circling the school grounds, checking his phone, chewing on his lip. Each minute that passes only makes him look more unsettled.
And yeah, I care. I don't like seeing him like this. But standing out here all night isn't helping anyone.
I try the horn again.
"Ethan!" The irritation slips through before I can stop it.
He sighs, gives the treeline one last hopeful look, then trudges back to the car. He's dressed far too nicely for someone spending the evening worrying, tailored black trousers, a flowy white shirt, hair styled to perfection. But even that can't hide the fact he looks like some heartbroken stray.
He slides into the passenger seat and shuts the door quietly, like the loud noise might shatter him.
I breathe out. Fine. At least he's in the car now.
"I'm sure he wouldn't have got far," I say, gentler than before. I'm trying, really. But deep down… honestly? I don't think Kai's good for him. Since the guy arrived, Ethan's been anxious, distracted, and way too invested in someone who brings nothing but trouble vibes.
Ethan doesn't respond. He just stares out the window as I pull away from the school grounds.
Kai went off for a run after that tense meeting this morning. But he never came back. And the longer he's missing, the more Ethan unravels.
"I think he heard me on the phone with Christopher" Ethan finally murmurs.
Of course he did. He is Ethans shadow after all.
I hesitate, keeping my voice carefully neutral. "Oh. Right."
"What if he doesn't come back?" Ethan turns to me, eyes wide, worry all over his face.
And that is why I dislike Kai. He's been here five minutes and already has Ethan tied in knots.
"Well, if he doesn't, that's his loss" I say. I mean it to sound reassuring, but it lands sharper than intended.
"Daniel!" Ethan snaps, hurt and frustrated at once. "I can't just let him go!"
I grip the wheel a little tighter. I don't want to hurt him. I just want to shake some sense into him.
"If he overheard you and got upset, he probably just needed space. He'll come back" I say, forcing calm into my voice.
Silence stretches between us. Ethan turns back to the window, shoulders slumped.
After a long moment, he speaks again. "Why do you have such an issue with Kai anyway?"
"I don't" I lie immediately.
Ethan gives a quiet, disappointed sigh. "You've treated him harshly ever since you met him."
I look at the road but the words stick in my throat. It's not jealousy. Not hatred. It's fear, fear that Kai will break Ethan in ways that can't be fixed.
But I don't say that. I just keep driving.
Ethan doesn't let it drop. Of course he doesn't.
"You do have a problem with him" he mutters. "You've been cold to him since day one."
I clench my jaw. "I'm not cold. I'm realistic."
"Realistic?" Ethan scoffs. "You didn't even give him a chance."
"I didn't need to" I snap before I can stop myself. "I saw the way he looks at things. Like everything's a threat. Like he's waiting for something to go wrong. And now you're tangled in whatever mess he's brought with him."
"That's not fair" Ethan fires back. "You don't even know him."
"I know enough."
"No, you don't. You've never even spoken to him properly!"
"And yet you're acting like he's your whole damn world" I say, the words slipping out hotter than they should. "You've known each other for barley 2 months in total and you're losing your mind over him disappearing for a few hours?"
Ethan whips around in his seat. "It's not about that! You didn't see his face, Daniel. He was hurting."
"Everyone's hurting" I mutter. "Doesn't mean running off into a bloody forest is the answer."
"You're impossible!" Ethan throws his hands in the air. "Why can't you just care about what I care about?"
"I do care" I snap. "That's the whole problem, Ethan. I care and I don't trust him."
Ethan goes quiet. Not calm. Quiet in the way a storm settles before tearing the roof off.
"For someone who hates getting involved" he says, voice low, "you're awfully invested in what I do."
I rub a hand over my face. "I'm not invested in him. I'm invested in making sure you don't get your heart stepped on by someone who doesn't know what he wants."
Ethan doesn't answer. He just folds his arms tightly, staring out the window like the streetlights whizzing past have personally offended him.
We sit in thick, heavy silence for the next few minutes, the city slowly rising around us, neon and noise swallowing the quiet country roads behind.
Finally, the club comes into view, loud bass thumping through the pavement, lights flashing, a queue curling around the building. People laughing, shouting, stumbling about in groups.
The complete opposite of the mood inside this car.
I pull up to the side of the road and park the car.
"We're here" I say, trying to keep my tone neutral.
Ethan doesn't move at first. Then he unbuckles his seatbelt with a sharp click. "Great" he says flatly.
He opens the door, steps out, and slams it harder than necessary.
I flinch, not because it scares me, but because I hate that we ended up here.
With a sigh, I switch off the engine and get out, watching Ethan already weaving through the crowd toward the entrance.
Even from behind, he looks small.
And all I can think, even through my irritation, is that Kai's absence shouldn't have the power to do that to him.
I lock the car and follow after him.
As we step into the club, the music hits first, deep bass vibrating through the floor, lights strobing across the room in dizzy flashes. I move to close the gap between Ethan and me, but I'm too slow.
Christopher's security guard is already waiting at the reception desk, a brick wall in a tailored suit. The moment he spots Ethan, he gestures sharply for him to follow.
Ethan doesn't even look back at me.
My chest tightens.
I swallow the guilt creeping up my throat and step aside as the guard leads him towards the private suites upstairs. Somewhere quieter. Somewhere Christopher will be waiting with that irritatingly calm concern he reserves exclusively for Ethan.
With a sigh, I turn and make my way to the main bar. The crowd swells around me, laughing, dancing, spilling drinks, while I slip through it like a ghost and claim my usual spot at the end.
Waiting.
Like I always do.
The bartender gives me a nod of recognition, already reaching for the bottle he knows I prefer. I shake my head. "Water" I mutter.
He raises a brow but doesn't fight me.
I lean on the bar, elbows resting against the polished wood, and stare at the glowing shelves of alcohol without really seeing them.
Maybe I was too harsh in the car.
I didn't mean to snap at him. I didn't want to make things worse. But watching Ethan twist himself in knots over someone like Kai, someone who barely speaks, barely tries, and already manages to hurt him without meaning to, it gets under my skin.
He's vulnerable right now. Blind to his own emotions half the time. And Kai… Kai is a storm with a heartbeat. Hard to read. Hard to trust.
I exhale slowly.
I'm just worried.
That's all.
Worried Ethan's putting his heart into the hands of someone who doesn't know what to do with it.
Worried he'll get hurt.
Worried I'm already too late to stop it.
The bartender sets the water down in front of me. I nod a quiet thanks and stare into the glass as if it might offer an answer.
The hours tick by, and I stay exactly where I always end up: waiting.
Waiting for Ethan to come back.Waiting for Christopher to let him go.
I hate when he disappears upstairs with Christopher. I don't know what goes on behind those closed doors, and I don't trust any of it. Not the guards, not the secrecy… and definitely not Christopher's interest in Ethan.
The club gets busier as the night builds, music pounding hard enough to shake the tables, bodies pressing together on the dancefloor, voices rising into drunken laughter. I pass the time people watching because it's better than letting my mind spiral.
Most of it is the usual nonsense, strangers flirting badly, someone spilling their drink, someone else pretending not to cry.
But then something shifts.A flicker of movement in the crowd that doesn't match the rest.
A man, moving too stiffly, too deliberately. His eyes are darting around, nervous, scanning the exits as he pushes through the chaos towards the staircase leading to the private suites.
My attention sharpens instantly.
The security guards intercept him, blocking his path. The man fumbles in his pocket, and when he pulls something out, my stomach turns to ice.
A glass vial containing orange liquid. But there is no metal casing.
A Lunex vial without the standard protective shell.GeneX signature design.
Is this one of those counterfeits? The one we've been searching for?
I'm on my feet before I register moving. I shove through the crowd, slipping between dancers and stumbling drunks, but there are too many people, too many bodies in the way. By the time I reach the stairs, the man is already halfway up, escorted, but not stopped, by the guards.
And then he disappears into the corridor above.
"Shit."
Where is he taking it? Why here?And more importantly, who upstairs is meant to receive it?
The realisation slams into me like a physical blow.
Ethan.
Ethan is up there.
If that vial reaches the wrong hands, if he's anywhere near it-
No. I can't let that happen.
My pulse spikes. I scan the club, searching for a way around the staircase. The main route is blocked by guards the size of trucks. Even with my powers, taking them down in a crowd would cause a panic I cannot risk.
I need another route.
My eyes land on a metal door half-hidden behind a cluster of speakers and light rigs... Emergency Stairs.
Perfect.
I push past a pair of drunk students arguing about whose round it is and wrench the door open. The cold air of the stairwell hits me like a slap. It's quieter here, just the hum of electricity, the faint pulse of music through concrete.
But I don't get far.
Two guards at the first landing look up, startled. Clearly not expecting anyone to use this door.
"Sir, you can't-"
I lift my hand.
Vines erupt from my hands, thick and fast. One snaps around the first guard's ankles, yanking him off his feet with a thud. Before he can shout, another vine curls up and across his chest, pinning him to the railing.
The second reaches for his radio, but he's too slow.
A vine whips forward, wrapping his wrist and wrenching the device from his hand. Then another slams across his torso, sending him crashing into the wall hard enough to knock the breath out of him.
He slides to the floor, dazed.
Both men struggle, but the vines tighten, firm, controlled, enough to immobilise without killing. I'm irritated, not reckless.
"Stay down," I growl.
They do.
I step over them and start climbing, fast, heart pounding, senses sharpened to a blade's edge.
Ethan is somewhere above me.
And so is a counterfeit Lunex vial.
Whoever brought it here… whatever they're planning…
I'm going to stop it.
Before it reaches him.
I send a thin line of vines crawling beneath the emergency exit door, feeling along blindly until they brush the metal pull bar on the other side. The moment I sense it, I curl the vines around it and yank down. The lock clicks. I push the door open slowly.
The corridor is dim, silent compared to the chaos downstairs. I slip in quietly, checking both directions before moving. Only one end has light seeping through the bottom of the doors, warm, bright, too calm for how my chest feels. That's where Ethan will be.
I start towards it, but the moment I round the corner, I freeze.
Christopher's bodyguard stands outside one of the doors.
Big. Solid. Focused.
Getting past him won't be easy… unless I don't try to get past him at all.
An idea forms.
I press my palm against the floor, out of his line of sight. Vines creep along the wall, silent in the dim light. The bass from the club below masks the faint rustling as they inch closer.
When they reach him, they strike.
They shoot up and coil around the man's throat in an instant, tightening with brutal speed.
He gasps, chokes, claws at the vines as his knees buckle. By the time he hits the ground, I'm already sprinting past him. I grab the door handle, yank it open and stop dead.
The room is a disaster. The table flipped over. Bottles smashed across the floor. A bright smear of orange liquid staining the carpet, what remains of a vial shattered under someone's shoe.
My eyes snap to the sofa.
Christopher is kneeling over someone, hands locked around their throat.
Ethan.
He's struggling, clawing at Christopher's arms, legs kicking weakly, eyes wide with panic as he fights for air.
"Ethan!" I lift my hand, vines already rising to strike, when suddently a blast hits me before I even register the movement.
A violent jolt tears through my body as I'm flung sidewards down the corridor. I slam into the floor hard, every nerve screaming, muscles spasming uncontrollably.
Electricity.
I force myself onto my elbows, but another surge rips through me, short-circuiting my powers. The vines flicker uselessly and retreat. My vision blurs as a heavy shape approaches.
The security guard.
Crackling arcs dance between his hands as he raises them again, ready to hit me full force. I can barely breathe, let alone defend myself.
A spark erupts and I close my eyes, waiting for the impact.
But the never comes.
The electricity crackles, but something stops it. Something dark and shimmering. My body still shakes from the earlier blast, but when I force my eyes open a tall figure stands in front of me, wrapped in shifting shadow.
Kai.
He stands like an immovable wall, shadows swirling from his hands and forming a barrier that absorbs the guard's attacks, each strike dimming into the darkness with a hiss.
He glances back at me, eyes black and burning with purpose.
"Where's Ethan?" he asks, voice low and steady.
It takes me a moment to find my own voice through the tremors.
"He's down there" I manage, pointing weakly toward the room. "You need to help him. He's in danger."
Kai doesn't hesitate.
He steps forward, shadows coiling around him like a living storm and I can see the rage within him.