There were a few things about her personality she realized caused her more trouble than they were worth. Some quirks were expected when your IQ was past a certain level, it was what made shows like the Big Bang Theory so entertaining. Thing was that those quirks didn?t always end with a studio audience laughing at the merry misadventures that seemed to follow such antics in real life, especially not in a town like Rhy?din.
Not only had she basically refused aid from her family, she set up her bodyguards to fail. There was nothing to do to prevent Jacks from being there but he could only watch during the night, being a vampire that was photosensitive, unlike many of the vampire-like creatures that roamed the city. The men that were supposed to be there during the day had received messages that their schedules had been shifted and that they would be off duty during the storm, best to go home and hole up until the whole thing was just a melted memory.
It was about pride, kind of, and stubbornness, mostly. She wasn?t a child that needed a nanny all the time. Colt meant well, so did Ford but their non-too-subtle hints that she couldn?t handle being alone because of a tiny bit of snow had triggered that dumbass part of her brain that said that she could handle ANYTHING AND A PILE OF SNOW. It should have worked just fine, it wasn?t like her home was getting buried in snow. She had food, water, booze and a generator, what else could a girl want?
Company? Why? So she could say a bunch of things that were wrong and feel like a social failure a bit more? No, she?d done just fine on that front the past week or two. When she woke up Saturday morning she felt tired, she?d gone to the spaceport and played video games with Toby and Mayu far too late into the night. That had been fun, but it had also been the type of entertainment that didn?t really scream adult. ?Whatever.? She started the morning off right by talking to herself, it was a habit she really needed to break. ?It isn?t like you were doing a bang up job of impressing anyone doing anything else. Totally kicked ass, took names and then put them on the obituary list.?
Combing her fingers through the tangle of blonde hair as she headed for the master bathroom. She was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, her usual bedtime attire. She wasn?t cold, the heat was doing a wonderful job of keeping the place warm, every room except for the basement which was a good twenty degrees colder than the rest of the house. ?Need to look into put a space heater in there or something.? Said as she turned on the shower and turned toward the sink to brush her teeth.
If she had to devise a plan to send a couple of goons to gather her up successfully it definitely would have included a daytime attack. It?s not that her daytime guards were bad... necessarily, but they were more muscle than mind and since most were human or shifters tended to be less immune to conventional weaponry than the cadre of persons that took the night time shifts. The odds that a burglar or would-be attacker would run into Jacks was high after sundown, even if it wasn?t him immediately he?d set out on the trail the moment something amiss was noted. No, to be safe you?d want to do whatever dastardly deed you had planned for the Daniels girl as soon after sunrise as was possible.
Thing was she never actually thought about those things. She?d be loathe to admit it but Jacks, being the head of her personal security, made her feel safe. He couldn?t help her in the Void, and she took the appropriate precautions there but in the real world she just assumed that Jacks had things covered and the fact that she sabotaged the system still hadn?t made her think about the fact that she...well, sabotaged the security system.
She still had a home security system, top of the line in fact, but that was mostly to protect her computer room. As the snow blanketed the city she hadn?t thought about the fact that lines would go down, and that the city would paralyze itself as the unaccustomed accumulation of snow meant that there would be a lot of people pouring into centralized buildings and emergency crews would be too busy trying to keep order and not paying mind to the fact that some security systems were alerting -- after all, with some lines down that was to be expected, and filed under ?false alarms?.
It was a bit of good luck for her that she hadn?t started strippng off her clothes to get into the shower when she felt a thick arm snake around her waist and a thick, rough hand close over her mouth or she might not have had the presence of mind to start flailing. Sadly without her steel plated boots on her deer kick to the groin area of her attacker did little more than win her a grunt of surprise and a tightened grip around her waist; a waist that still had a row of stitches in it because of her adventure earlier in the week. Her body wanted to puke at the shock of pain the grip had produced but she kept trying to wiggle and flail herself to freedom.
?Stop already, you b*tch.? The voice was unfamiliar and cold. ?Boss just wants to have a little talksy with you. You come, you talk, maybe you walk out.? Because that was a very reassuring plan for her, the woman that always said just the right thing to endear herself to others. There was more kicking, her left hand fell on a small marble figurine on her sink and she picked it up and slammed it over her head and into the mans face.
There was a grunt and his grip loosened enough for her to twist and lunge for the bathroom door. She ran headlong into a second man, he had a mask on and was dressed in black. ?Really? It?s snowing outside and daytime, how is black a good choice?? There wasn?t much else for her to do because she was many things but bulletproof was not one of them and the man had a gun aimed at her midsection.
?Should have paid someone else to take this job, knew I was going to hate it.? The first man said through clenched teeth. ?I?m not loving it either.? Summer said, setting the 'weapon figurine' down and then both hands slowly rising to show the gun-toting man that there was no need to get twitchy and shoot.
?Let?s go, quicker we go quicker we get to hand her off and be done with it. Tie her up, come on. We want to be gone already.? The man with the gun spoke like he was in charge and the first man moved to comply, pulling some flexible black strips from a pocket and deftly grabbing one of her wrists, pulling it down to the small of her back before going for her other wrist. She squawked in protest. ?Hey now, no need for that, what am I going to do? Bound across the snow like some gazelle of the city?? They were unimpressed by her protests and her wrists were bound behind her back, the next strip went to use as a gag, much to her distaste. She wasn?t the type that enjoyed not being in control, and take away her ability to vocalize her sarcasm and she?d have nothing to do but mull over how badly she?d messed things up.
?Grab her phone, might come in handy.? The first man said and the second complied, it was just sitting on the table by her bed so the task was pretty easily accomplish. He took the phone and handed it to the gun-toting man who turned it off and then stuffed it in a pocket.
She did some quick calculation and figured that there would be no hope of anyone thinking to come look for her until Jacks woke up that evening. He was going to be unhappy with her for sending away the day guys. That thought was buried beneath other concerns as the men began to push her toward her back door, a pair of snowmobiles waited there to take them to another destination.
They put a helmet on her that had the visor blacked out, it would work to keep her from seeing where they were heading and a few more bands were employed to make sure she didn?t try to jump like a gazelle off the mobile while they rode. She supposed she should be thankful that one of them thought to wrap her in a blanket or she?d have been the frostbite queen about sixty minutes later when they pulled into a building. That was a whole lot of snow to expect Jacks to track her through...with the snow still falling for the next ten hours she felt the odds of his success were nowhere close to a percentage she?d feel safe about. Live and learn, she thought, or at least she hoped that would be what this little adventure would be categorized as when all was said and done.
Not only had she basically refused aid from her family, she set up her bodyguards to fail. There was nothing to do to prevent Jacks from being there but he could only watch during the night, being a vampire that was photosensitive, unlike many of the vampire-like creatures that roamed the city. The men that were supposed to be there during the day had received messages that their schedules had been shifted and that they would be off duty during the storm, best to go home and hole up until the whole thing was just a melted memory.
It was about pride, kind of, and stubbornness, mostly. She wasn?t a child that needed a nanny all the time. Colt meant well, so did Ford but their non-too-subtle hints that she couldn?t handle being alone because of a tiny bit of snow had triggered that dumbass part of her brain that said that she could handle ANYTHING AND A PILE OF SNOW. It should have worked just fine, it wasn?t like her home was getting buried in snow. She had food, water, booze and a generator, what else could a girl want?
Company? Why? So she could say a bunch of things that were wrong and feel like a social failure a bit more? No, she?d done just fine on that front the past week or two. When she woke up Saturday morning she felt tired, she?d gone to the spaceport and played video games with Toby and Mayu far too late into the night. That had been fun, but it had also been the type of entertainment that didn?t really scream adult. ?Whatever.? She started the morning off right by talking to herself, it was a habit she really needed to break. ?It isn?t like you were doing a bang up job of impressing anyone doing anything else. Totally kicked ass, took names and then put them on the obituary list.?
Combing her fingers through the tangle of blonde hair as she headed for the master bathroom. She was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, her usual bedtime attire. She wasn?t cold, the heat was doing a wonderful job of keeping the place warm, every room except for the basement which was a good twenty degrees colder than the rest of the house. ?Need to look into put a space heater in there or something.? Said as she turned on the shower and turned toward the sink to brush her teeth.
If she had to devise a plan to send a couple of goons to gather her up successfully it definitely would have included a daytime attack. It?s not that her daytime guards were bad... necessarily, but they were more muscle than mind and since most were human or shifters tended to be less immune to conventional weaponry than the cadre of persons that took the night time shifts. The odds that a burglar or would-be attacker would run into Jacks was high after sundown, even if it wasn?t him immediately he?d set out on the trail the moment something amiss was noted. No, to be safe you?d want to do whatever dastardly deed you had planned for the Daniels girl as soon after sunrise as was possible.
Thing was she never actually thought about those things. She?d be loathe to admit it but Jacks, being the head of her personal security, made her feel safe. He couldn?t help her in the Void, and she took the appropriate precautions there but in the real world she just assumed that Jacks had things covered and the fact that she sabotaged the system still hadn?t made her think about the fact that she...well, sabotaged the security system.
She still had a home security system, top of the line in fact, but that was mostly to protect her computer room. As the snow blanketed the city she hadn?t thought about the fact that lines would go down, and that the city would paralyze itself as the unaccustomed accumulation of snow meant that there would be a lot of people pouring into centralized buildings and emergency crews would be too busy trying to keep order and not paying mind to the fact that some security systems were alerting -- after all, with some lines down that was to be expected, and filed under ?false alarms?.
It was a bit of good luck for her that she hadn?t started strippng off her clothes to get into the shower when she felt a thick arm snake around her waist and a thick, rough hand close over her mouth or she might not have had the presence of mind to start flailing. Sadly without her steel plated boots on her deer kick to the groin area of her attacker did little more than win her a grunt of surprise and a tightened grip around her waist; a waist that still had a row of stitches in it because of her adventure earlier in the week. Her body wanted to puke at the shock of pain the grip had produced but she kept trying to wiggle and flail herself to freedom.
?Stop already, you b*tch.? The voice was unfamiliar and cold. ?Boss just wants to have a little talksy with you. You come, you talk, maybe you walk out.? Because that was a very reassuring plan for her, the woman that always said just the right thing to endear herself to others. There was more kicking, her left hand fell on a small marble figurine on her sink and she picked it up and slammed it over her head and into the mans face.
There was a grunt and his grip loosened enough for her to twist and lunge for the bathroom door. She ran headlong into a second man, he had a mask on and was dressed in black. ?Really? It?s snowing outside and daytime, how is black a good choice?? There wasn?t much else for her to do because she was many things but bulletproof was not one of them and the man had a gun aimed at her midsection.
?Should have paid someone else to take this job, knew I was going to hate it.? The first man said through clenched teeth. ?I?m not loving it either.? Summer said, setting the 'weapon figurine' down and then both hands slowly rising to show the gun-toting man that there was no need to get twitchy and shoot.
?Let?s go, quicker we go quicker we get to hand her off and be done with it. Tie her up, come on. We want to be gone already.? The man with the gun spoke like he was in charge and the first man moved to comply, pulling some flexible black strips from a pocket and deftly grabbing one of her wrists, pulling it down to the small of her back before going for her other wrist. She squawked in protest. ?Hey now, no need for that, what am I going to do? Bound across the snow like some gazelle of the city?? They were unimpressed by her protests and her wrists were bound behind her back, the next strip went to use as a gag, much to her distaste. She wasn?t the type that enjoyed not being in control, and take away her ability to vocalize her sarcasm and she?d have nothing to do but mull over how badly she?d messed things up.
?Grab her phone, might come in handy.? The first man said and the second complied, it was just sitting on the table by her bed so the task was pretty easily accomplish. He took the phone and handed it to the gun-toting man who turned it off and then stuffed it in a pocket.
She did some quick calculation and figured that there would be no hope of anyone thinking to come look for her until Jacks woke up that evening. He was going to be unhappy with her for sending away the day guys. That thought was buried beneath other concerns as the men began to push her toward her back door, a pair of snowmobiles waited there to take them to another destination.
They put a helmet on her that had the visor blacked out, it would work to keep her from seeing where they were heading and a few more bands were employed to make sure she didn?t try to jump like a gazelle off the mobile while they rode. She supposed she should be thankful that one of them thought to wrap her in a blanket or she?d have been the frostbite queen about sixty minutes later when they pulled into a building. That was a whole lot of snow to expect Jacks to track her through...with the snow still falling for the next ten hours she felt the odds of his success were nowhere close to a percentage she?d feel safe about. Live and learn, she thought, or at least she hoped that would be what this little adventure would be categorized as when all was said and done.