A/N: so...hi...after sleeping practically 10 hours straight for the last two days...

i managed an update!

-------------------------------

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Glacial Bear

If someone's presence could chill a room into glacial silence by just sitting in it; Siem would be the Viking to do it. Which was what I was met with when I walked into the kitchen. He said nothing as I walk on over to the breakfast bar, sitting on the stool next to him, as X handed me the usual water, orange juice and porridge.

The silence is killing me but I'm too scared to open my mouth since the last time I saw him I practically ransacked his secretive meeting room. I stare at the gruel, wishing it would suddenly come alive and swallow me whole but that wish wasn't coming along very well as it just stared back at me.

"How is your health?" Siem asks finally after a billion years in silence.

I couldn't really respond. The truth was, deep down, I have no flipping idea. Most people would be dead. In most circumstances I should be dead. But here I am eating food mixed with painkillers served by X, sitting in the basement of a secret organisation run by a cranky Viking and his deranged sister who I think looks at me like an amoeba that belongs on a petri dish. But I digress. Oh and I can talk to glow in the dark tigers. "I don't really know..." I finally muster. I was going to go with 'fine' but the look he gave me told me to say what I really think.

X instead answers after placing a mug of coffee in front of Siem, "Kae is recovering..."

Siem grunts, "That is good." He picks up the coffee, sipping a bit before looking at me again.

I leap away from him when I feel something touch the side of my face. Looking back, I see it was Siem's fingers.

"The markings have changed," he goes back to drinking his coffee without so much as a blink. "Heel, X. I was only checking. I will not hurt him."

I look over to see X let go of something and realise it was a spoon. My spoon I was using to push around my food. Sitting back down, Siem continues, "I have come here directly to speak. Away from the mess upstairs. Away from Hanna's ears."

"You do not want Hanna around?" I ask without thinking.

"...For the most part, no. She can be...what is the expression...'difficult when excited'."

The would be an understatement.

He must have seen the look on my face as a half-grin crosses his lips. But he loses it just as quickly, "Your recovery progress is...slow compared to previous observations but sufficient...and understandable. It may be because of recent exposure to a Hexer Queen but I will also put it down to overtaxing your body before it has been sufficiently healed. That is a fault on my part. I cannot apologise for my actions but I do apologise for the after affects it has caused."

"...I can hear a 'but'." I mutter, unable to look him in the eye.

An amused sigh escapes Siem's throat. "Indeed."

"You are after a training schedule for him," I feel X rounding the counter to stand beside me.

"Yes," Siem simply replies. "Your condition will continue to deteriorate unless we can build you up. Muscle, stamina...nourishment...have not been well seen to. And no matter what you are or where you come from Kae, I cannot sit by and watch you wither away."

I growl at him, "Because you can't afford to lose the new commodity."

"You are not wrong, Kae." But his voice went quiet, "I also owe you that much."

He got my attention with that last remark, "Huh?"

But his claptrap was as tight as X proves to be.

I'm beginning to see where he got it from.

"There is one other thing I came to speak of..." he switches the subject rather quickly doesn't he?

And I'm waiting in suspense.

"Your family."

I feel blood drain from my face, body and seeping into the floor.

"You do realise that without something to go on, we will not be able to begin the hunt for them."

SO he agreed to an empty promise to start with...and I was stupid enough to believe him. "What do you want?" my voice was so small.

He sighs, his voice grim, "Some way to identify them to put it bluntly."

I look into his eyes, "And what would you want from me?" I rephrase the question.

"Really quite simple little man," Oz's voice echoed from the hallway as he appears, jingling closer. "descriptions...or even better, a photo. Anything visual so that we can lock on them from any camera across the globe."

I frown at the damn pirate as he enters the room. "That all sounds...illegal."

"Mate you are dealing with secret police. None of its 'legal'."

Siem puts his hand up as if to silence him before he could talk, "Seth and Oz can hack into any recording database that uses any of the programs they designed."

"Or any programs that are adapted from them." Oz grins, ignoring Siem's signal.

I look up between them, "We haven't got anything recent like that. Being constantly on the road with the threat of being shot, stabbed or eaten does that to you."

"...Kid has a point."

I continue, thinking more outload at this point, "The only thing we have are family albums from way back before the disaster and they're back in Salford in England...or what's left of it. They're all baby photos though."

Siem went into a troubled silence before finally reaching an answer, "It is something to go on."

"Uh Boss, last time I check, most of Salford...or rather Greater Manchester is a breeder ground for Hexer nests."

"...Indeed troubling."

Not to mention the giant ass crater and forest my younger siblings managed to cook up as well.

I saw a smirk reappear on pirate-man's face, "You don't sound British aye?"

"I'm not. My father was a Czech and my mother was Swiss but we moved around a lot. Cody was born in Canada. I was born in Ireland. Markus and Anne were born in America. We mainly spent our time in England or America but occasionally we went to Switz...erlan...d," my brain decided to throw me back into the haunting dreams of Anne digging in the snow...under that tree at that forsaken place. She...something there to keep safe...

We first went to that holiday house right after mum died...and again to visit her about two years ago...

I frown trying to remember. Anne was being secretive about-

My mind casts back to that night. Cody found a camera. He was drunk off the grog he found and decided to take videos of us. Anne disappeared for a few seconds retuning without a word. The pain shot through my skull. I never found out what she did and she refused to tell me. Cody had a hangover and irritated the shit out me with the moaning and groaning about never drinking again, since he downed an entire liquor store and expected to wake the next morning without feeling it. God he's a shithead. And I miss him. The next night he got drunk again and was turning into a weeping drunk because the SD card was missing...and I had to deal with the next hangover before setting the rest of his stash on fire out of spite. Markus and Anne helped me by bashing pot and pan lids near his ears to distract him as his stash went up in literal smoke. And the satisfaction I felt lasted for weeks.

The SD card was missing...

"Oh," a weight on my shoulder brought me back to reality. Looking over to see X attached to the hand made me blush and the spot burn. But I had to put that hyper awareness to the side for a second. "There may be something near Laax in Switzerland. We were there a few years ago."

Oz 's features darken even more, "We have not information about that area for the last decade. For all we know it could be just as bad or even worse than Salford."

"But it is still something to go on." He then looked over at me. "Very well. When I am able to gather the resources, we can start hunting either place down. Perchance both, if fate allows it."

I stare at him.

"What? Did you think my deal hollow?" A proper smile etches into his feature, "I am a man of my word, Kae. And I do agree with my sister. We cannot afford the wrong people taking advantage of your siblings' abilities."

"And you're the 'right' people?' My voice was venom. I knew that but I couldn't stop myself. I was still...angry...there was so much of it. I haven't been given a chance to put the lid back on it properly. I felt a light squeeze on my shoulder from X but when I look up he was facing Siem.

"I do not advocate that we are. Only that we are not the only ones out there."

"Not to mention there are nastier people out there than this bear with a sore head," Oz juts a thumb in Siem's direction.

"Entirely uncalled for," Siem mutters, finishing off his coffee. As he does, he stands, "I will relay further orders later on. Until then..." I see something pass in his eyes as he took in X and I and I felt the cool air as X removes his hand from my shoulder, "rest as much as you can. I cannot promise you it will be any easier."

Oh like I was so expecting it would be!

With that he left with Oz in tow, leaving me along with X once again.

I sigh out loud and look up at him, "So..."

I gain his attention back at me, making my face flare up again.

"I will be here." He states at me, his hand landing on my head once again.

...He's gotten to the petting stage has he? And I swear he's enjoying making me squirm.