4 Caught Already?

When Ley went to their 'sort of' meeting room, everything was in chaos. There are burn marks everywhere; on the carpet, the floor, the walls and the table, courtesy of the kiddo being restrained by Gale, one of the guys who intercepted our chaser earlier. The new kid who kept screaming her head off now has a cherubic face framed by short curls. She'll probably look like an angel if she actually doesn't breathe fire on your face.

"Let me go back! I want to see my mom! WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!" she yelled again, her voice hoarse from all the shouting.

Ley grabbed one of the fallen chairs and smashed it on the floor. Everyone immediately looked at her. "Good. Now I have your attention," she went to the kiddo while ignoring a 'that was newly bought' shouts of frustration from someone.

She grabbed the chin of the kid, stared at those panicked eyes and whispered, "You're wondering about who we are? We are the ones who shouldn't have existed, the 0.01%. We are the taboos and you are one of us."

A very much welcomed silence descended but it was short-lived.

"I don't care! Let me go! I want to go back to my mom!" kiddo shouted with as much as belligerence a kid could have once she got over her shock.

"What's your name?" Ley asked the kid while flashing her special I-don't-give-a-damn glare.

"Anita," she replied grudgingly.

"We're not going to hold you forever here and I won't stop you from going back to your mom as long as you stop being a danger to everyone, including yourself. Didn't you ever wonder what you are? Why you aren't like your mom completely?" She switched strategies and tried for rationality.

"I don't care! My mom was going to get me back once she got a safe place. I was just hiding there."

"Why do you keep switching houses then? Isn't it because of you? I bet your magic keeps malfunctioning and the two of you keep on relocating so that people won't suspect you." If rationality doesn't work then petty it is.

That got the kid's attention so she grabbed on to it immediately. "Who is the shifter, your mom or your dad?"

"My mom is a shifter. I don't know who my dad is." Anita replied biting her nails.

"Let me explain why you and your mom keep moving houses. Taboos are the offspring of a shifter and a magick. They are two very different species and their union usually results to stillborn 99.99% of the time. If you're found out to be a taboo, you will be killed along with your parents. That's the reason why your mom is hiding you every time your magic got uncontrollable. You'll be able to pass yourself as a shifter with no problems as long as you don't use your magic but you're a kid and kids without training usually have a hard time controlling their magic."

"Now let's make this quick and easy. You going back to your mom depend on your efforts. The sooner you can control your magic, the sooner you can get out of here. We'll even help you find her," she said shrugging.

"You'll let me go just like that?" Anita blurted, eyes flashing with distrust.

Ley signaled Gale with her eyes and he sat Anita in front of the table. She took a seat near her to get better access.

"We have certain measures to make sure you don't blurt out our secrets. I'm warning you now. You can't tell anyone any information related to us even to your mom or else you'll die within seconds," she said glaring at the kid to make sure she got the point.

"Give me your arm. Do you like flowers?" She didn't wait for the answer and reached for Anita's arm and envisioned how she'll draw the tattoo. She grabbed an antique looking pen with a thick upper part full of engraved symbols from her pocket. One of her hands turned into claws which she used to slice off her skin until blood welled up. She brought the pen near the blood and it suddenly glowed while absorbing all the blood until it's gone.

Anita gasped, "Wh-where did the blood go?"

Ley waved the pen in front of her and said, "I need ink to draw."

Anita hugged her arm back, "What are you doing to me?"

"We need to bind your magic until you learn to control them or else you might set the building on fire," she explained.

She grabbed the kid's arm back and started drawing the tattoos, "This will sting a little so bear with it. You need to work hard. You're a balanced taboo so you need to put more effort."

"I'm a what?" Anita asked biting her lips.

Ley glanced up to Merda, "Can you explain to her?" She turned her attention to the tattoo and concentrated on it.

Her pen glide on Anita's arm as she inscribed how the magic would function if it's activated. She had to be careful or any stray lines would cause it to go awry. It won't take a long time though as she just need to draw the tattoo as a medium so that the magic would take hold.

"There are three types of taboo: Shifter Dominant, Magick Dominant and Balanced. Shifter dominant basically means that shifter blood is expressed more in your body and that's vice versa for the Magick Dominant. The repressed side still would show depending on what you inherited but it usually is a lot weaker than normal. The Balanced taboo like you inherited both the best traits of the two species: able to shift and wield magic," Merda droned on and on while Anita listened avidly which gave her time to work on the tattoo undisturbed.

"It's done," Ley called Anita to get her attention.

Anita looked at her arm, shocked on what she's seeing. Blood red vine creeped along her arm with blooming flowers on it. It was beautiful yet eerie at the same time.

Ley was checking her already healed arm thanks to her shifter blood when the kid suddenly gasped.

"Why is there a skull on my arm?" she pointed a shaking finger to the laughing skull.

"Oh. That. It is our countermeasure so that you won't talk. Ever heard of curses? Some Magicks can do curses and that skull is an example of one. The moment you start to reveal anything related to taboos in whichever way, it will activate and you'll die horribly depending on the severity of what you did."

"Bu-but it's creepy," Anita stuttered looking like she's almost about to cry.

"Oh, don't worry about that. That's probably the last time that you'll be seeing it unless you betray us. The tattoos I gave to you will only surface when it's triggered. This vine flower will show up whenever it needs to restrict your power," she explained while patting Anita's head.

Anita stared at her arm, looking like a lost little child. Ley felt the need to console her but she stopped herself. Taboos live a hard life. It's better that Anita learn to protect herself at a young age.

"Let's stop for today. Merda, please take care of Anita temporarily. Gale, brief me on what happened to the chaser earlier," she signaled Gale to take a seat while Merda and Anita left the room.

"About that chaser. . ." Gale scratched his head.

"What happened?" she got a sinking feeling.

"We did catch him but he was cursed so we didn't discover anything about his identity at all, not even his face. The body is terribly damaged and all the features that we could use to dig are all destroyed," he reported, his voice grim.

"I've got a really bad feeling about that magick. He was definitely there for Anita. You know that I accepted a new job right? Please keep an eye on the kid and let me know immediately if there's anything unusual or emergencies."

"Don't worry we've got enough people here to secure her," he said assuringly.

***

The next day, Ley went to work in Roma's place smoothly. She spent most of the night reviewing Roma's profile especially her habits. She had to cram Landon's information too with the ones Roma passed yesterday.

She arrived early at the company and went straight for Roma's spot just before the door to the CEO's office. She started familiarizing herself to the tasks that Roma usually do. Good thing that she had a brief stint as a secretary before on one of her previous jobs so she won't get lost this time.

She was absorbed with reading about the company when she suddenly sensed a presence nearing her. She immediately stood up to greet her temporary boss. She looked up and saw two males walking in her direction. If it wasn't obvious from their scent, then the absence of their footfalls would give away their identity as a shifter. Landon Ferreira in the flesh and his assistant or maybe his right-hand man, Sebastian.

She gave him a surreptitious glance which made her even more confused. He doesn't look Beast King material to me. Where's the menace or the intimidation?

He's got an easy-going smile on his face dressed in typical corporate haute couture, looking very much at home in his business man identity.

Ley greeted him the way Roma usually did it, formal and expressionless, "Good morning, Sir"

He gave a nod when he passed by her and she breathed an internal sigh of relief.

She was going to sit back down but he returned in front of her and asked, "How long have you been working for me?"

She looked up at his face and felt herself stiffen involuntarily. There it is. The menace that she's looking for surfaced. He still had that small smile on his face but his eyes looked at her like she's cornered prey.

Oh shit, was she discovered already?