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“Be silent, and keep that stuff safe.  Tell no one you have it and never let anyone get to it.  If someone tries to take it, run away.”  He nodded to me and buried his head back in the crook of my neck.  I could feel his distressed breath, but he listened and said nothing to me.  I was proud that my talkative brother was behaving and keeping quiet, later I would congratulate him.  I could see the stables as I panted on and scrambled inside the door when I saw a light in the house come on and someone look out.  I slammed the door behind me and huffed, sliding down to catch my breath.  My dress might have been simple and light now that I’d ripped it apart, but Cael and this cloak was heavy.  I rested for a moment against the wall and looked around, making sure no one from the thugs gang was here.  Suddenly, I heard a rustle of straw in the dark corner.  I gasped as straw moved and fluttered, something was in here.  Cael even gave a sharp intake of breath, I squeezed his body close to mine and backed farther into the wall.  A figure rose out of the straw and yawned, “Ms. Lorelei.”  An older voice stated, groggily.  It was Henry, our stable master.  He refused to sleep anywhere inside, saying the horses were his only true bedmates.  Slightly eccentric, but our horses were the healthiest in Venice.  “Henry!”  I exclaimed and ran for him, placing Cael down.  I hugged the old smelly man and smiled. “You have to help us.  Cael and I need to get away and fast.”  I stated urgently.  Henry gave me a curious look, then looked to Cael who wouldn’t say a word in my defense.
“Where you going?”  he asked, skeptically.  “Anywhere but here right now, we need to leave before anyone comes out of the house.”  Surely he had heard the gunshot and was going to catch on.  His face brightened, and then tensed.  “Certainly Ms. Lorelei.  Let me get you Eragon here.”  He was practically shouting his comment.  “Shh…I don’t want them to hear you, you might get hurt.”  I whispered and followed him, dragging Cael along behind me.  Henry made a ton of noise as he pulled down a saddle and placed it on Misty.  “Don’t you say you’d give me Eragon?”  I asked, maybe he was older than I thought.  “Oops, sorry.”  He practically shouted and ripped it off Misty, making her scream.  I winced and covered Cael’s ears.  “Henry?  What’s wrong with you?”  I asked, getting angry at his stupidity.  “Wait right here, I have to go inside to get something.”  He asked and ran inside.  I waited for a second as I saw him turn right.  I froze, right led to the front hall, which meant he was going straight for my parents.  He didn’t know there was an intruder!  He thought I was running away, but for different reasons than I really was.  He was going to run through the house, screaming about it, and the other guys would find out and find me here.  Quickly, I snatched the fallen saddle and cinched it on as best I could.  I lifted Cael on and threw him in front, telling him to hold the knob.
As I placed my leg in the stirrup Cael screamed and a huge hand grabbed my shoulder, dragging me down.  I reached for Cael, thankfully he knew what I wanted and he flew into my arms.  If I they were taking me back, I wanted Cael in my arms, not theirs.  I could feel the absolute terror creeping up inside of me and working into my throat, but I knew I couldn’t scream.  Cael clung to me and buried himself inside my cloak.  The big arm on my shoulder grabbed both of them and started yanking me out of the stable, and towards the house.  “Let me go!”  I shouted and slapped up at the figure carrying me, making contact with something tough.  My ring caught the man’s cheek, and the sharp emerald slashed a cut right under his eye.  “I said release me dammit!”  I screamed in Italian.  The dull looking, and obviously brained brute, just kept dragging me back inside where I couldn’t get away.  He was dragging me by the arm now, and quite possibly leaving a bruise, he would pay for that.
My other arm tried to keep my brother hidden as best as the cloak would, but he was getting heavier.  I just kept shouting and kicking as the man dragged me back inside toward the Front Hall.  The first thing I saw was Henry, but he was lying on the ground at the Hall entrance.  His eyes were wide open as he stared up at me in shock.  I realized almost immediately that he wasn’t blinking and almost screamed bloody terror when I noticed the blood on his shirt and in a pool below him. A huge hole went through his open chest, someone had run him through.  Thankfully, Cael was too busy looking for mother to see the dead Henry, no one had even closed his eyes.
“Got her.” My captor grunted and slung me forward.  I stumbled up, then turned around and kicked them man’s shin as hard as I could with my boots.  He winced and reached back to slap me hard when a voice boomed across the hall.  It was more like 3 voices.  I recognized mother’s screaming, “No!”.  Father’s “Don’t you dare touch her!”  and then a foreign voice, “Stop!”  Cael looked over my riding cloak, then whimpered.  “No one ever told me the great and terrible Thomas was a father!  I should have guessed though, Rebecca has always been too beautiful to resist.”  The man was obviously Spanish, but he was extremely and smooth in Italian.  “Don’t you dare hurt them.”  My father warned.  I had still yet to turn, but at the comforting sound of my father’s voice I did, desperately scanning for him.
My cloak fluttered out as I did and I brushed some of my raven locks away so I could see.  Dad was on the ground on his knees, a man holing his arms behind his back, a bruise was swelling one eyes, purple starting to shine.
“Dad!”  I cried in pity.  Mom was standing but her arms were also being held behind her, thankfully no show of struggle or physical pain crossed her face.  Her porcelain skin, that was as soft and tender as mine, was untouched and unharmed.  “Momma.”  I whispered.  Rebecca Conner held her head high, but she couldn’t hide the pure horror in her eyes.
“My God Thomas! Those eyes!”  I turned and looked to my parents captor.  The man was Spanish, as I had guessed.  Having been far away when I first saw him didn’t give me the chance to memorize his face as I did now.  He had tiny green eyes and a pointed Spanish nose.  He was boring in face and in body type, nothing special.  The only other thing identifiable about his face was the upside down goatee on his chin.  He was still dumbfounded about my otherworldly eyes, which almost everyone was.  Cael looked up just then, and the Spaniard gasped again, seeing my father’s reflection.  He looked to my father, then after a moment, smiled.
“I am to guess to lady is about 17, since you’ve been missing for 18.  Well, she might just have to be more beautiful than her own stunning mother.”  In five steps the man was in front of me, extending his hand.  “DiMarco, Damion DiMarco.”  He gave me a greasy smile and waited.  Cael backed up in my arms, trying to get away from the man.  Even a seven year old could feel the hate and cold radiating from this man’s body.  I tightened my grip on my little brother and locked my jaw.  Damion’s hand lingered there, out in the space between up as his smile fell.  “Defiant too.”  His hand shot out and I winced, pulling my arm up to protect my face, but he never slapped me.  He yanked my wrist away from my face and twisted it, forcing me to cry out in pain.  I shut up at once, knowing I had to remain silent.  Then I reacted in two ways.  First, I kicked for his stomach, but missed and hit his pelvis bone to the right.  Damian grunted and as he did, I yanked my arm closer, leaned forward and bit his wrist.
It took him a moment to realize what I was doing, but as the blood began to trickle down his forearm and the searing pain jarred him back to his senses, he started screaming.  I tried to hold his arm still as I ground my teeth back and forth, digging deeper into the flesh.  Finally, he was able to rip away, pulling some skin away from the arm as he did.  Mostly, though, it was because my original captor had grabbed me around the waist and was slinging me off, almost to the point where Cael was slipping.  “Pequeno Diablo!  Little Devil!” Damion screamed and backed away to cradle his arm.   I was seething mad now, the thrill of hurting this man had me on an adrenaline rush.  I would do anything right then to put Cael down and kill Damion with my bare hands.  I wiped the blood spots away from my lips and chin and spat in his direction.  “You get what you deserve.”  I hissed and jerked my shoulder so the man’s hand would release me.  “I should kill you!”  Damion shouted.
“No!”  both my parents cried in unison.  “But!” he paused for only a moment, just to look in my direction.  “I’m not.”  As if he was granting me some great pardon for some great sin.  “I’m going to make you pay for this little stunt.”  I gulped, oh crap, what had I done?  Then his eyes flashed as though an idea hit him.  “We’re going to play a game.”  He sneered, but something told me I wasn’t going to like it.  He started to chuckle as the plan formed in his head.  Everyone stood in tense silence as he finalized everything in his mind.  “Yes.  Here’s the game little girl.”  He snickered and took a step closer to me.  “Lorelei.  My name is Lorelei and you will address me as such.”  I seethed through my teeth.  Cael was starting to move with anticipation so I shifted his weight.  “I don’t have to address you as ANYTHING!”  Damion roared, stopping Cael’s movements immediately on my side.  I backed up a step, this man was obviously mad, crazy as a coot.  But how did my father know this man?
I looked to Thomas Conner, hoping I could find an answer there.  But his eyes were distraught, another look that I recognized was hidden by the terrified demeanor.  Calculation, he was decided chances and angles, what would happen if he did one thing as opposed to another.  Mother was thinking the same way, but I knew it included getting Cael and me back out of here.
“No, I shouldn’t yell at my main participant.  I’m going to  let that slide, Lorelei.”  The way he said my name made a chill run through my whole body, starting at my toes and ending on the last hair in my head.  Again Damion chuckled.  “I’m going to take your parents.  I’m going to take them far away as my hostages.”  I gasped, so did my mother, my father was still just listening.  “You have to find them by following me, like a treasure hunt.  How fitting.”  Damion sneered at my father, who just shook his head.  “Don’t you dare.” He whispered dangerously.  Something was defiantly wrong.
“Anyhow.  I won’t leave you alone though, I want to make this slightly interesting.  I’ll leave a small trail, nothing drastic.  But there’s a catch.”  He help up a finger.  “You have exactly 16 weeks to find me, less than 4 months.  If you are not standing in front of me on the last day,”  he paused for dramatic effect.  “Both of your parents will die.”
As he said that last sentence my heart fell to the floor along with what little composure I had left inside of me.  “No!”  I screamed, but my voice left me then.  I took two steps towards mom, she moved to me, but the brute grabbed me again around my waist and pulled me back.  I fought hard though, as hard as I could with Cael in my arms.  I kicked and screamed and cried as loud as I could, scrambling to get to my mother.  If I could get to her, just touch her fingertips, this would all go away and I would wake up, back at school, probably in the garden.  “Yes.”  Damion answered me.  “But for now, I think it’s time you get all the rest you can have.  Can’t let you see where we’ve gone.  That would be cheating.”  Damion snapped his fingers as before and a cloth descended over my nose and mouth.  I screamed and kicked some more, then my world went out.  The worst part of that was that I couldn’t feel Cael in my arms anymore.  I whispered his name in my head and a tiny hand touched my face.

Description
“Be silent, and keep that stuff safe.  Tell no one you have it and never let anyone get to it.  If someone tries to take it, run away.”  He nodded to me and buried his head back in the crook of my neck.  I could feel his distressed breath, but he listened and said nothing to me.  I was proud that my talkative brother was behaving and keeping quiet, later I would congratulate him.  I could see the stables as I panted on and scrambled inside the door when I saw a light in the house come on and someone look out.  I slammed the door behind me and huffed, sliding down to catch my breath.  My dress might have been simple and light now that I’d ripped it apart, but Cael and this cloak was heavy.  I rested for a moment against the wall and looked around, making sure no one from the thugs gang was here.  Suddenly, I heard a rustle of straw in the dark corner.  I gasped as straw moved and fluttered, something was in here.  Cael even gave a sharp intake of breath, I squeezed his body close to mine and backed farther into the wall.  A figure rose out of the straw and yawned, “Ms. Lorelei.”  An older voice stated, groggily.  It was Henry, our stable master.  He refused to sleep anywhere inside, saying the horses were his only true bedmates.  Slightly eccentric, but our horses were the healthiest in Venice.  “Henry!”  I exclaimed and ran for him, placing Cael down.  I hugged the old smelly man and smiled. “You have to help us.  Cael and I need to get away and fast.”  I stated urgently.  Henry gave me a curious look, then looked to Cael who wouldn’t say a word in my defense.
“Where you going?”  he asked, skeptically.  “Anywhere but here right now, we need to leave before anyone comes out of the house.”  Surely he had heard the gunshot and was going to catch on.  His face brightened, and then tensed.  “Certainly Ms. Lorelei.  Let me get you Eragon here.”  He was practically shouting his comment.  “Shh…I don’t want them to hear you, you might get hurt.”  I whispered and followed him, dragging Cael along behind me.  Henry made a ton of noise as he pulled down a saddle and placed it on Misty.  “Don’t you say you’d give me Eragon?”  I asked, maybe he was older than I thought.  “Oops, sorry.”  He practically shouted and ripped it off Misty, making her scream.  I winced and covered Cael’s ears.  “Henry?  What’s wrong with you?”  I asked, getting angry at his stupidity.  “Wait right here, I have to go inside to get something.”  He asked and ran inside.  I waited for a second as I saw him turn right.  I froze, right led to the front hall, which meant he was going straight for my parents.  He didn’t know there was an intruder!  He thought I was running away, but for different reasons than I really was.  He was going to run through the house, screaming about it, and the other guys would find out and find me here.  Quickly, I snatched the fallen saddle and cinched it on as best I could.  I lifted Cael on and threw him in front, telling him to hold the knob.
As I placed my leg in the stirrup Cael screamed and a huge hand grabbed my shoulder, dragging me down.  I reached for Cael, thankfully he knew what I wanted and he flew into my arms.  If I they were taking me back, I wanted Cael in my arms, not theirs.  I could feel the absolute terror creeping up inside of me and working into my throat, but I knew I couldn’t scream.  Cael clung to me and buried himself inside my cloak.  The big arm on my shoulder grabbed both of them and started yanking me out of the stable, and towards the house.  “Let me go!”  I shouted and slapped up at the figure carrying me, making contact with something tough.  My ring caught the man’s cheek, and the sharp emerald slashed a cut right under his eye.  “I said release me dammit!”  I screamed in Italian.  The dull looking, and obviously brained brute, just kept dragging me back inside where I couldn’t get away.  He was dragging me by the arm now, and quite possibly leaving a bruise, he would pay for that.
My other arm tried to keep my brother hidden as best as the cloak would, but he was getting heavier.  I just kept shouting and kicking as the man dragged me back inside toward the Front Hall.  The first thing I saw was Henry, but he was lying on the ground at the Hall entrance.  His eyes were wide open as he stared up at me in shock.  I realized almost immediately that he wasn’t blinking and almost screamed bloody terror when I noticed the blood on his shirt and in a pool below him. A huge hole went through his open chest, someone had run him through.  Thankfully, Cael was too busy looking for mother to see the dead Henry, no one had even closed his eyes.
“Got her.” My captor grunted and slung me forward.  I stumbled up, then turned around and kicked them man’s shin as hard as I could with my boots.  He winced and reached back to slap me hard when a voice boomed across the hall.  It was more like 3 voices.  I recognized mother’s screaming, “No!”.  Father’s “Don’t you dare touch her!”  and then a foreign voice, “Stop!”  Cael looked over my riding cloak, then whimpered.  “No one ever told me the great and terrible Thomas was a father!  I should have guessed though, Rebecca has always been too beautiful to resist.”  The man was obviously Spanish, but he was extremely and smooth in Italian.  “Don’t you dare hurt them.”  My father warned.  I had still yet to turn, but at the comforting sound of my father’s voice I did, desperately scanning for him.
My cloak fluttered out as I did and I brushed some of my raven locks away so I could see.  Dad was on the ground on his knees, a man holing his arms behind his back, a bruise was swelling one eyes, purple starting to shine.
“Dad!”  I cried in pity.  Mom was standing but her arms were also being held behind her, thankfully no show of struggle or physical pain crossed her face.  Her porcelain skin, that was as soft and tender as mine, was untouched and unharmed.  “Momma.”  I whispered.  Rebecca Conner held her head high, but she couldn’t hide the pure horror in her eyes.
“My God Thomas! Those eyes!”  I turned and looked to my parents captor.  The man was Spanish, as I had guessed.  Having been far away when I first saw him didn’t give me the chance to memorize his face as I did now.  He had tiny green eyes and a pointed Spanish nose.  He was boring in face and in body type, nothing special.  The only other thing identifiable about his face was the upside down goatee on his chin.  He was still dumbfounded about my otherworldly eyes, which almost everyone was.  Cael looked up just then, and the Spaniard gasped again, seeing my father’s reflection.  He looked to my father, then after a moment, smiled.
“I am to guess to lady is about 17, since you’ve been missing for 18.  Well, she might just have to be more beautiful than her own stunning mother.”  In five steps the man was in front of me, extending his hand.  “DiMarco, Damion DiMarco.”  He gave me a greasy smile and waited.  Cael backed up in my arms, trying to get away from the man.  Even a seven year old could feel the hate and cold radiating from this man’s body.  I tightened my grip on my little brother and locked my jaw.  Damion’s hand lingered there, out in the space between up as his smile fell.  “Defiant too.”  His hand shot out and I winced, pulling my arm up to protect my face, but he never slapped me.  He yanked my wrist away from my face and twisted it, forcing me to cry out in pain.  I shut up at once, knowing I had to remain silent.  Then I reacted in two ways.  First, I kicked for his stomach, but missed and hit his pelvis bone to the right.  Damian grunted and as he did, I yanked my arm closer, leaned forward and bit his wrist.
It took him a moment to realize what I was doing, but as the blood began to trickle down his forearm and the searing pain jarred him back to his senses, he started screaming.  I tried to hold his arm still as I ground my teeth back and forth, digging deeper into the flesh.  Finally, he was able to rip away, pulling some skin away from the arm as he did.  Mostly, though, it was because my original captor had grabbed me around the waist and was slinging me off, almost to the point where Cael was slipping.  “Pequeno Diablo!  Little Devil!” Damion screamed and backed away to cradle his arm.   I was seething mad now, the thrill of hurting this man had me on an adrenaline rush.  I would do anything right then to put Cael down and kill Damion with my bare hands.  I wiped the blood spots away from my lips and chin and spat in his direction.  “You get what you deserve.”  I hissed and jerked my shoulder so the man’s hand would release me.  “I should kill you!”  Damion shouted.
“No!”  both my parents cried in unison.  “But!” he paused for only a moment, just to look in my direction.  “I’m not.”  As if he was granting me some great pardon for some great sin.  “I’m going to make you pay for this little stunt.”  I gulped, oh crap, what had I done?  Then his eyes flashed as though an idea hit him.  “We’re going to play a game.”  He sneered, but something told me I wasn’t going to like it.  He started to chuckle as the plan formed in his head.  Everyone stood in tense silence as he finalized everything in his mind.  “Yes.  Here’s the game little girl.”  He snickered and took a step closer to me.  “Lorelei.  My name is Lorelei and you will address me as such.”  I seethed through my teeth.  Cael was starting to move with anticipation so I shifted his weight.  “I don’t have to address you as ANYTHING!”  Damion roared, stopping Cael’s movements immediately on my side.  I backed up a step, this man was obviously mad, crazy as a coot.  But how did my father know this man?
I looked to Thomas Conner, hoping I could find an answer there.  But his eyes were distraught, another look that I recognized was hidden by the terrified demeanor.  Calculation, he was decided chances and angles, what would happen if he did one thing as opposed to another.  Mother was thinking the same way, but I knew it included getting Cael and me back out of here.
“No, I shouldn’t yell at my main participant.  I’m going to  let that slide, Lorelei.”  The way he said my name made a chill run through my whole body, starting at my toes and ending on the last hair in my head.  Again Damion chuckled.  “I’m going to take your parents.  I’m going to take them far away as my hostages.”  I gasped, so did my mother, my father was still just listening.  “You have to find them by following me, like a treasure hunt.  How fitting.”  Damion sneered at my father, who just shook his head.  “Don’t you dare.” He whispered dangerously.  Something was defiantly wrong.
“Anyhow.  I won’t leave you alone though, I want to make this slightly interesting.  I’ll leave a small trail, nothing drastic.  But there’s a catch.”  He help up a finger.  “You have exactly 16 weeks to find me, less than 4 months.  If you are not standing in front of me on the last day,”  he paused for dramatic effect.  “Both of your parents will die.”
As he said that last sentence my heart fell to the floor along with what little composure I had left inside of me.  “No!”  I screamed, but my voice left me then.  I took two steps towards mom, she moved to me, but the brute grabbed me again around my waist and pulled me back.  I fought hard though, as hard as I could with Cael in my arms.  I kicked and screamed and cried as loud as I could, scrambling to get to my mother.  If I could get to her, just touch her fingertips, this would all go away and I would wake up, back at school, probably in the garden.  “Yes.”  Damion answered me.  “But for now, I think it’s time you get all the rest you can have.  Can’t let you see where we’ve gone.  That would be cheating.”  Damion snapped his fingers as before and a cloth descended over my nose and mouth.  I screamed and kicked some more, then my world went out.  The worst part of that was that I couldn’t feel Cael in my arms anymore.  I whispered his name in my head and a tiny hand touched my face.