"I have the key, ready for next step." I read the text quickly then slide the phone in my pocket.

"pick you up at the museum" I text back.

"Lou, we need to get going." I call out toward the bedroom where she is packing. Now that we are sure to be alone, I don't have to pretend that she is def. She knocks once to tell me she got and understood the message.

She has always tended toward over preparedness. She will bring at least a backpack full of… I don't know what she brings when we go out. For every ten things she brings, one tends to be unexpectedly indispensable. I'm loath to rush her, but Remus is definitely coming close to catching us. I'm surprised he hasn't already caught up with Alyssa. We need to keep moving.

She emerges from her bedroom with a rather large hiking pack strapped to her back, her customary ump, and leads me through the door. She locks it, spins her pack around so it is in front of her, and zips her key into a small pocket. Her knee length sundress, while beautiful, does not have pockets.

I move towards the bus stop, when she grabs my arm and stears me toward the parking lot. "A car?" I ask, "What happened to 'there aren't enough riches under the sun for me to ride in one of those death traps'?"

"100 years of innovation and seatbelts," she signs back, leading us to a lime green 2000s era VW Bug. I could never imagine her in a car, but if I had really tried, I probably would have imagined her in this one.

"Yeah, the seatbelts really cinch the deal, don't they." She unlocks the car and slips into the drivers seat. I settle into the passenger seat. She glares at me until I remember to buckle my seatbelt. I send her my best shit-eating-grin while I slowly buckle up. It's not like a car crash would kill me either way. She punches on the music and drives off.

We ride in companionable silence. She won't speak, and her hands are occupied. I've already gone over the plan with her several times, there is no chance it needs repeating. Half way through the drive, my phone dings. It is an encrypted text from Heista, just a link. I click it and am taken to a new post in the supernatural fandom. A blurry couple of frames from a slow motion video taken in the British museum. One of a runner heading to the left of the screen, and another of them heading right a few frames later.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The image is too blurry for anyone to see his face, but I would recognize that sweater and hair anywhere. I made that sweater. If he really didn't want to be recognized, he should have worn something else. I have a hard time believing anyone caught him on camera. There are more sightings every day, for him to add to them is a level of carelessness I don't usually associate with him. "Remus is here."

She nods and steps on the gas. We may need to rescue Alyssa from him. Or maybe he is on our side? He works hard to mask even his microexpressions so I can't read him.

Only moments later, we pull up to the museum. I get out, take Alyssa's bag and toss it in the back, while breathing in deep. Alyssa hugs her sister, and gets in the car. I can smell him. Remus is close.

Doors close, seatbelts click, and we are driving as fast as we can for the coast. I make eye contact with Alyssa in the rearview mirror. "Alyssa, this is Lou. Lou, Alyssa." I say as I gesture between them without breaking eye contact.

"Nice to meet you" Alyssa says.

Lou makes a one handed gesture we have been using as "same" since forever. I translate it for the child in the back "She says it's nice to meet you too."

"She doesn't talk?"

"No."

"Oh…"

I let the silence linger for a moment, until it is almost unbearably uncomfortable for Alyssa, then casually interject with, "So how's Remus?"

If vampires could blush, she would be redder than the reddest tomato. As it stands, she is radiating enough shame and embarrassment, all the surrounding cars can probably feel it.

"You…. You, uh, you noticed, huh?"

"Articulate. Of course I noticed. He didn't exactly keep a low profile." I hand her the phone with the footage.

A beat of silence as she scrolls through the comments and watches the footage again. "Well, fuck," she deadpans, handing the phone back. "I have to rerun my calculations. This will definitely shorten our timeline."

"Language," I correct half heartedly. "How did you convince him to let you stay."

"I think he is chalking this one up to the follies of youth."

"Yep, sounds about right."

"So… where are we going?"

"We are going to the coast, and then we are going to go underwater through the straights of Gibraltar to the Mediterranean to meet Vulcan's son in Athens."

"Why not just fly?"

"Lou doesn't trust planes. She much prefers the water rout. And since the water route won't take significantly more time, I would prefer to keep her comfortable."

"That's fair, I guess."

"We've got some time before we are there. Take a moment to eat and then re-run your calculations. We need to know what our shortened timeline is."

"Yes, dad, " she replies sarcastically, while ripping into a blood packet.

Lou sighs, already annoyed with Alyssa's childishness.

This is going to be a long trip.