The Secrets of Cain

Cold Bagels and Bitter Cupcakes

Lucas thinks back to last night at the dinner when Lena sprayed her mace and he couldn't stop coughing until they went outside. "Yeah, at the dinner."

Adrian gives Lucas a pointed look, then takes another bite of his bagel, this time eating half of it in that one bite. Adrian may drink blood as his meals, but he's always hungry for human food in the morning.

"Mrs. Sterling told Lena to try out her pepper spray. So Lena sprayed it away from us, but I started coughing. I could barely breathe and my eyes were burning while trying to change color." Lucas tells Adrian, hating just thinking about that moment.

"Your heightened senses must have picked up the pepper spray, even though it wasn't sprayed towards you." Adrian explains away, popping the rest of his bagel in his mouth.

Adrian went over in his head what Lucas said, thinking about anything else that could've caused Lucas' coughing fit. Then something dawned on Adrian. It could've been a test.

"Where did Lena get that pepper spray?" Adrian asks Lucas suddenly, his thoughts spinning wildly with this realization.

"Her mom gave it to her for protection. Why?" Lucas questions in confusion. Why would it matter where Lena got the mace? "Do some kinds of pepper spray have wolfsbane or something in them?"

"No. Unless someone puts wolfsbane in the spray after they buy it. Stores don't sell wolfsbane mace." Adrian replies.

"Then why does it matter where she got it?" Lucas repeats his question.

Adrian sighs and leans back. "No reason. I'm just exploring the different options for why you're losing control." Adrian's suspicion of the Sterling parents is just another thing that he is keeping from everyone.

Now Adrian has to wonder about the probability of a hunter family living in Cain. Could the Sterlings be hunters and their children don't know? Could someone else's family in Cain be hunters?

"I have things to do today, so it'd be best if you left now." Adrian tells Lucas, wanting him out of the house and far away. Why did Lucas have to bring yet another problem to Adrian and dump it in his lap?

"Okay." Lucas says slowly with a blank face, wondering why Adrian is suddenly acting this way.

Lucas leaves Adrian's house without looking back, slightly hurt that Adrian kicked him out like that. At least Lucas got some insight and slightly understands what's happening to him. Kind of.

~*~

A group of six people stand around a table in a dark room, hovering over a map.

"He was last seen here. But we lost him a few months ago. It seems as if he's running from someone, but we weren't hunting him yet." A woman in her late twenties says, pointing at a circled place on the map.

"Either he's paranoid or someone else is hunting him. It doesn't matter though, because we need to know where he is now." A man in his forties says.

He continues on with a smirk. "We've almost got Five and Six. I figured out the location of One and sent a few people out to kill him a few hours ago. Now we've almost found Three."

A woman with short brown hair in her early thirties speaks up. "What about Two? We still haven't heard from the people we sent out to kill him, and that was weeks ago."

"We're too close to killing Three, Five, and Six. We can get Two another day." The man answers coldly.

Suddenly the door to the dark room slams open and a boy in his late teens rushes in. "Sir! I'm sorry for interrupting, but there's news!"