Black Dagger Brotherhood-Lover What?

Hailey checked her phone again for any new texts, but didn't see any. She could feel Amy was okay, but that was it, and she hadn't seen Quinn after he left the king's office.

She sighed and walked down the hall with the statues. "Getting a little bored?" someone spoke up. Hailey jumped with a curse and turned around. Xhex came out from behind one of the statues and leaned against it. "You look like you're getting cabin fever."

Hailey shrugged. "Kinda."

Xhex smirked. "I was just gonna go up to my cabin. Wanna come with me?"

She shrugged again. "Sure. Why not?" She followed Xhex down to the hallway leading to the garage. "What are we riding in?"

Xhex looked back over her shoulder with a smirk. "You mean on." She opened the door to the garage and walked over to her Ducati, taking a helmet out and holding it out to Hailey. Hailey grinned and took the helmet, plopping it on and climbing on behind Xhex.

"This is one sick ride, female." she admired.

"Ready?" Xhex asked, revving the engine.

"Oh, yeah."

----

Hailey was exhilarated as she clung to Xhex's torso. The Ducati weaved through traffic like a ghost, turning and dodging cars like a breeze. The cool, night wind on her face felt amazing; absolutely refreshing. She could see the horizon turning a light pink and hoped it didn't deter Xhex. "You okay back there?" Xhex yelled over her shoulder, never taking her eyes off of in front of her.

"Yeah, I'm okay." she called back. "What about you and the sun?"

She felt her shrug a little. "No problem to me."

A few minutes later, Xhex was on a dirt road and a cabin on the edge of a river appeared. The engine was turned off and Hailey swung her leg off. "Whew!" she huffed, taking off her helmet. "That was great."

"Glad you had fun." Xhex smirked, taking her helmet off as well. "Come on in." Xhex led her into the rustic looking cabin. The outside may have looked cozy, but the inside was more practical and spartan. It still looked a little cozy but more like Xhex.

"So...." Hailey started," did you really bring me here to just get me out, or did you have an ulterior motive?"

Xhex gave a little smirk as she plopped into one of the chairs. "You're smart. Yeah, I do have an ulterior motive, partly for the King, but mostly for myself." She gestured to the other chair.

"So what's this about then?" she asked, placing herself in the chair across from the female.

"I just....want to talk to you about you...and Amy. What's the story with you two?" She seemed like she was trying to phrase it so that way it was presented in a gentler way, going against wanting to be her usual straight-forward self.

"We're best friends." she answered with a shrug. "What else is there to know?"

She felt something that she could only describe as a nudge on her brain. "You're hiding something. Something important."

She glanced up to the female. "Why do you think that?"

"You're emotional grid is dark, so you're remembering something bad or tragic right now. That little nudge in your head was me poking in your memories. Unfortunately, I only got a glimpse before your mental wall shut me out."

She stared at the female across from her, just a quick streak of fear hitting her. This woman could read her emotions and see into her mind. What could she do with those memories? Was it a passive ability? Or could she use it against her, as in a physical sense? Make her go insane?

"Relax. I have no need to use anything against you. I just wanted something to go off of, to get to the root of things per say. If the King hadn't asked me to look into you two, I would have anyway just so I knew who I was around both in the compound and on the field." Xhex explained. "Could I use things against you? Absolutely. I've pulled memories from lessers and flashed them behind their eyes until they started slamming their heads on the ground or against walls, trying to get it to stop." She looked right at Hailey, "But you're not my enemy. You are an ally and I have no reason to do something like that to you."

Hailey looked into her eyes for a few more minutes before relaxing back in the chair. "So what do you want to know?"

"I saw that something bad has happened, but why don't we start with how you two met?"

"Well, we knew each other in middle school but we really became friends in high school and we've been tight ever since." Hailey answered, looking at her hands in her lap. "We look out for each other. We've never really spoken about it but we don't need to; we just find it natural to protect and care for each other when needed."

"M'kay." Xhex hummed, nodding her head. "Now what happened two years ago?"

"You got that just from that quick glimpse?" Hailey scoffed. Xhex nodded. Hailey inhaled deeply and slowly let it out. "We were coming back from a club. I was drunk and Amy was just making sure I didn't fall in the street. She only had one drink 'cuz she's not usually a big drinker. But this group of guys saw us and started following us, yelling things and making cat-calls. We just ignored them, hoping they'd go away before we got to our apartment."

"Did they?"

Hailey shook her head. "They surrounded us. I tried fighting, was trying to protect Amy, but I was clumsy as hell from the alcohol. Amy got a couple hits in but it didn't really affect them and before we knew it we were cuffed and thrown into a truck." She took another deep breath. "After I sobered up, I tried every chance I got to try and get them but they learned quick and made sure I was always restrained......They kept us for two weeks. They mostly beat me but they did do ....other stuff." Her breathing was picking up as flashback entered behind her eyes. "But they always kept Amy at the bed. And I couldn't do anything to help her. I was restrained in the same room and I couldn't do anything. At first, I tried to get free so I could kill the bastard that was making her scream and cry and beg. Then she started just having the crying and I couldn't hear anything from her......Sometimes, afterward, she would lie so still.....I didn't know if she was dead or not. She would just stare at the wall, or at me, and not blink, and barely breath."

Xhex waited as Hailey paused. "How'd you get out?"

A twisted smirk fell on Hailey's lips. "There was one day that they made a mistake. We had been weak from barely any food and water but one of them had been untying me 'cuz he was going to move me to a bed. He had untied one hand and then was distracted from another guy. I took the chance."

"What'd you do?" Xhex prompted.

"Well...first I freed my other hand and then I grabbed the guy in front of me and snapped his neck. When the second guy came at me, I jumped on him, he fell back and cracked his skull when he hit the floor. After that, I untied Amy. It took a minute to get her going and she wasn't real steady on her feet, but we got going. We didn't know the way around the place, but it wasn't that big of a house. I found that we were in the basement and we made it up the stairs. But there were a couple of the other guys and they saw us. I could see the front room and the front door right past them and Amy did too, but those guys were standing in our way."

Hailey looked at Xhex, who nodded for her to keep going. She took a deep breath. "I jumped on one of the guys and started beating the shit out of him. I shouldn't have been able to hit him that hard, but with freedom just feet away from us, it gave me the strength I needed. When I was done with him, and he wasn't moving anymore, I looked to see if Amy was okay......She had grabbed a pen and had stabbed one guy in the neck with it and he was on the floor. There was just one more guy and they were in a kinda stand-off with him standing and her crouched down like a cat. When he barely moved his hand, she pounced on him and before he knew it she was ripping his throat out with her teeth." She gave a little shudder at the memory of her friend being so animalistic. "After we got out, we got to our apartment and called the cops, giving them the address and telling them what happened. When we explained what they did to us and when they found the room where they kept some of their....'tools', they didn't charge us. Apparently those guys had done something like that before but either the girl wouldn't testify or they couldn't get enough evidence." She shrugged. "My subconscious kinda closed it off but....for quite a while after, I would wake to Amy screaming in fear. There would be entire weeks when she wouldn't allow herself to sleep." She shook her head. "Only within the last six months has she been able to stand a male's touch. I'm surprised at how close she lets Quinn get, but if they try anything, I know she'll freak." She shrugged again as a kinda finish.

"So that's why you two are so close, because of the things you went through together." Xhex nodded. Hailey nodded as well.

"We protect each other and we don't let anything happen to each other."

"Well......thank you for telling me all of that. I'm sure Wrath will appreciate knowing a little background on you guys. And we should probably schedule a check-up for you with Doc Jane too, so that we can start a medical file on you."

"Great." Hailey gave a little smile. "So....got any food in here?"

Xhex gave a little laugh.