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affiliation and shall be placed under immediate arrest.”
    I glanced directly above us and saw numerous Defense Agents on the rooftop of the 20twelve Lounge as well, leveling their weapons at our position. We were completely surrounded. The streets had been gridlocked off in both directions and there was also a helicopter just above us as well, shining a search light that lit up the evening sky as if it was day.
    “Terrorist?” Connor found that moderately humorous. “I’ve been called many things, but never a terrorist.”
    “You are wanted for denoting an incendiary device within a residential district as well as the denotation of an eighteen wheeler on a freeway in Oakland.” Maritol explained.
    “This is about California?” Asked Connor. He paused then turned to me, sighing. “This is about California.”
    “This arrest warrant is issued for Mr. Prometheus only.” Maritol continued. “We have been authorized to release any and all individuals with him during the serving of his arrest. Do you understand what I am telling you?”
    It seemed like I did, but I wasn’t certain.
    “It means that if you vacate the area now, you are free to go.” The Staff Sergeant gestured to me. “It has been explained that any individuals with Mr. Prometheus may have been subjected to extreme distress and are not to be prosecuted if they claim that they are a victim of coercion. Are you a victim of coercion ma’am?”
    And there it was.
    My out. My means to get as far from Connor as conceivably possible if I so choose. Whoever this Steven Hawking is, he recognized that Connor was a Vampire, that he was capable of enthralling humans to do his bidding, which is the only reason why something like this coercion, get out of jail free card, would exist. Yet it was also clear to me that the Colonel had failed to apprise Staff Sargent Maritol and the rest of the Defense Initiative Agents of that fact, because if they knew he was a Vampire, they would have attacked by now.
    “It’s okay.” Connor said to me sympathetically. “Just click your heels three times and you’ll be home. This is my problem. I reap what I sow.”
    “I ask once again ma’am…” Maritol repeated. “Are you a victim of coercion?”
    As much as I detested him for creating me, I still needed him. He was the only thing that was standing in between my family, the Marauders and me.
    “I go high, you go low?” I asked.
    Connor glanced up. “Think you can get that far up?”
    I took another look. “Umm…no, not really, but fuck it.”
    “Did you hold back the first time we fought the Marauders?” Connor asked.
    “Well, yeah, maybe a little.” I said.
    “And you remember what happened right? What they did to you?”
    How could I ever forget? “Yeah, I remember.”
    “Well if you hold back tonight then this will be a million times worse.” He added. “Because what they do to you now will be legal.”
    “No more talk Prometheus.” Maritol took a step forward. “Either we do this the hard way or the harder way. Your choice.”
    “Do you like to dance with the devil in the pale of the moonlight?” Whispered Connor as he held out his arms. “I always ask that from all my prey.”
    From his backbone slithered two serpents composed completely of flame, moving up and around his neck, winding about his shoulders, coiling about his forearms. The fire constructs were intricately designed, each scale visible in all its fiery exquisiteness and when they had curled around his wrists, a scorching serpent head in each of his palms, they shot forward suddenly, dashing through the air, each finding their separate mark, the snakes burrowing into a Defense Initiative Agents ribcage, burning a hole in through their body.
    I looked up and then jumped, rising higher and higher, three stories straight up in the air until I was above the rooftop of the 20twelve Lounge. I could hear gunfire and explosions behind me as Connor tore into the men there, but I couldn’t