Van

Two people guarded her father's room. Tall, armored, and imposing, these women were nothing like the guards Van usually saw in movies. The ones who fell asleep or were easily distracted. No, both guards had the look of people who took their job very seriously, and there was underlying predatory grace beneath their movements that warned her they were most likely members of the Supernatural community.

Which also meant it was pointless for her to continue hiding around the corner. If they were shifters, they would have already smelled her. Probably heard her too. If they were witches, the corridor was likely warded to alert them to anyone approaching.

Squaring her shoulders back, she reminded herself she'd faced off against her mother. These two followed Xandra's orders. They should be easy enough to handle.

"Excuse me," she said, stepping directly into their line of sight. Neither flinched nor otherwise appeared surprised, reinforcing her earlier theories. "I'm here to see my father."

The woman on the right cocked her head to the side, revealing a thick scar that ran from her temple to the bottom of her chin. Its dark, angry color suggested it was fairly new, but Van couldn't imagine what kind of injury would leave someone with access to healing magic that scarred.

"We were wondering how long you were going to stand back there." She elbowed her companion. "I win."

"By thirty seconds. Hardly a victory, Janna."

Janna shrugged. "Winning is winning."

Not in the mood to be amused by their antics, Van crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm kind of in a hurry."

Janna rolled her eyes while the other frowned, a flash of gold light flickering through her brown irises. A shifter then.

"Your urgency is not my emergency," she replied.

"Oh, I hate when she says that. We already talked to leadership." Janna tapped her temple and winked. "You've got approval, but if he starts having one of his fits, you'll have to leave."

Van dropped her arms, letting them hang like dead weights at her side. She'd been prepared for a bigger battle than that. "I can work with that."

"Oh, I'm so glad that's acceptable."

"Oh, come off it, Stephanie," Janna said, her grin creasing her scar. She twisted the doorknob and looked at Van. "She just doesn't like you because you have a personality. It's why she hates getting assigned with me."

Van didn't have a response. Any other time, she and Janna might have become friends, or at least friendly. She liked the woman's snark, but today, she had no time for it. She wanted to look into her father's face–for reasons she still didn't quite understand–and then she was leaving to find Luca and rip that collar off his neck.

Abe laid on a cot, his back to Van. He didn't turn around at the sound of the door opening or closing, and she took the opportunity to study him. The weeks since being captured had been nearly as unkind to him as they had been to her. Gray sweats hid his figure, but she could tell by the way they sagged on him he'd lost weight. Gray streaked his once nearly black hair, and it was far longer than before, curling around the nape of his neck.

She opened her mouth but snapped it shut when she heard the faint sound of muttering. Abe wasn't asleep. He was talking to himself. Repeating the same phrase over and over again.

"It's gone. Gone. Gone. It's gone. It's gone."

"Abe?"

He startled and shot up. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he faced Van. Red rimmed his eyes and streaked through the whites. A scraggly beard hung from his pointed chin. All factors that made him look wild and a million miles away from the polished Supreme who'd brought her to his home months ago.

"Vanessa. Vanessa. You're alive?"

"No, thanks to you."

"It was the only way." His lashes fluttered, and his fingers danced over his thin upper thigh, like he was playing a song only he could hear. "I didn't want it. Didn't want it."

"Do you understand it was all for nothing?"

Instead of answering, he asked another question. "Do you feel it? Is it gone? It's gone. It's gone."

"The Blessing."

It was gone. She'd felt its absence since waking, but with her Protean powers amplified, she hadn't missed it as much as Abe clearly had. Or maybe it was because he'd lived his entire life with it, built his self worth and legacy around it.

"You should be dead," Abe said. "You're still going to die. I'm sorry. So sorry."

"What do you mean? Why am I going to die?" She risked a step forward. "That potion. Whatever it was made me stronger than I was before."

The haze in his expression cleared, and in the lucid moment, Vang glimpsed the Supreme of old. "Makes you a target. They'll come for you."

"Who?" She risked a step closer to him.

But he had already slipped back into madness. "Your mother. Will she come see me? I want to see Xandra. Xandra! Xandra!"

His screams increased in volume, bouncing around his almost empty room until Van's ears felt as though they might bleed. The door opened, and Janna yanked her out, slamming it just in time to stop Abe from running out. His fists pounded against the door, making it shake.

Janna flipped the clock and released a shaky breath. "That's a record for him. Usually, he goes bat shit crazy in less than a minute."

Stephanie pursed her lips together. "What did he say to you? Anything important? Anything we should share with the Commanders?"

'Makes you a target. They'll come for you.'

"No." She shook her head and turned to walk away. "He's mad. Just like you said."