The De'en nest lay slumbering in the peaceful dark, the kind that was typical of suburbia at 3 a.m. Although we weren't in the middle of a town and the Compound was surrounded by an ever-active woodland, busy with life no matter the hour, it was still a gated community. Most of its residents were diurnal, and so there was a natural lull in the activity of the hive come sundown. Montana's nocturnal populous lived on the other side of the Compound's fortress of walls. Only the few nimble enough to scale the walls or fly over the halo of barbed wire could enter here, and their voices and footfalls were far too dim and infrequent to disturb the peace.

I, on the other hand, could have, would have woken every sleeping Fae in the Charm, if Hayashi hadn't taken hold of me at just the right moment. His affinity for stealth was to be admired; he'd memorised which step on the stairs creaked and which section of railing rattled. He'd offered his arm to stabilise myself upon when he saw how reliant I still was on the railing for balance. The placement of a finger before his lips, as well as the signal that the terrain was uneven, communicated why he'd offered help to me, which subdued any quarms about accepting assistance.

The urgency Hayashi had in getting me dressed and out of my room eased the moment we were outside. With the door slid closed behind us, he led our amble toward the West Gate at a pace he allowed me to initiate. I could walk without the aid of my crutch now, though I still had an apparent limp that hindered my speed. Regardless, Hayashi said, "It's good to see you back on your feet."

Under the canopy, still glistening with the residue of evening rainfall, we skirted around the alternative quarter's main building. The scent of Lycan in this part of the wood was impossible for me to ignore; the Lycan village was just on the other side of this building. My children would be sound asleep in their beds, none the wiser that their Dad was creeping about in the night... with... Hayashi...

"Where are we going?"

Over his shoulder, he shot me a smile and said, "Trust me a little longer. You will see."

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Brandishing a set of keys from his jacket pocket Hayashi let us into the delivery depo. A night shift worked there one night a week, but other than that, it was locked up and only functioned during daylight hours. Inside, it was eerily silent, and Hayashi's footsteps barely made any sound off the concrete floor, which made me hyper-vigilant, being equally mute. In complete darkness, we snaked through a maze of stacked goods crates to a fire exit, where he stalled. Looking up and to the left, he knew exactly where the warehouse's huge wall clock was. He was counting down the minutes until quarter to four.

"Any minute now, the shift will change. We'll have about seven minutes to get out."

"Get out where?" I ask, confused and a little alarmed.

I didn't get an answer. The clock struck 3.45 a.m., and the mission was a go. Hayashi grabbed my wrist, pushed down the bar on the fire door and yanked me along. Ducking back behind a well-placed stack of crates, his back met my chest. I was taken aback by the scent of a tea tree that shot up my nose from his hair. Undistracted, he looked out for the last of the evening guard staff leaving. There was an Elemental straggler, but the moment she was gone, we were off again. Bolting over the cobbles to a row of four parked Jeep's. Hayashi had the key. Only now did he let go of my wrist and shoo me to the passenger side with an order that edged on playful, "Get in."

The engine roared to life, and barely a second later, we were in drive and zooming away from the West Gate...

A hard jab on the brakes jolted me toward the dash, but there was no time to complain; my driver had gone, and the door clunked closed behind him. Through the windshield, I watched Hayashi dash past the bonnet of the Jeep and up to the South Gate's enormous sheet metal gates. Stalling a moment, he contended with the manual locking mechanism before he braced himself against the two-tonne of metal.

Astonished by his confidence, I muttered, "There's no way..." My hand rested on the door handle, ready to jump out and help him. My jaw dropped. Before my ever-widening eyes, Hayashi prized the steel gate open. "Holy shit..."

There wasn't a drop of sweat on his brow when he jumped back into the car. Hayashi left the engine labouring just past the South Gate and went back to close the gate. Settled back into the driver's seat, Hayashi put the car back in drive and sped off into the woodland.

"Hayashi-" The car bounced over the terrain, and I held on tight to the door bar. "Where are we going?"

"We're breaking out."