Chapter 106: Trading one confinement for another

Brent had thought that as soon as Kellen’s Aunt got involved in his life, things would start looking up. He wouldn’t be held captive in a hellhole, he might be able to talk to Kellen or the others, and his stress would die down.

Boy, was he wrong.

His stress? Never higher.

His safety? Questionable, even with the security detail.

Kellen? Hadn’t even spoken to him. Was still watching the damn t.v. for any information on him and the others. Brent felt like a paranoid freak because he felt like he couldn’t relax, and it didn’t help that the Espers around him were taking his words seriously.

His brother hadn’t made a move. Not a single one. That made this all the worse because his brother was going out. He was being seen. He was on t.v. He was showing off himself and being the crazy psycho that he was.

Colby was in every shot. A warning. A message. A reminder.

And the attack? Unspoken. Not a single word of it was mentioned in the news. Even though a civilian died, and Brent killed several people, not a peep about it. That only made Brent’s stomach churn.

He’d forgotten, for a while, how powerful his family was. After experiencing how Kellen’s family and the others in the city allowed the public to hold them accountable, he had forgotten that there were places in the world, his own hometown, that didn’t allow that to happen.

Unlike with Kellen’s city, with Sergei’s city, his hometown was corrupt to its core. The police wouldn’t let the people know that something terrible had happened in the city. Several lives were altered forever, and yet no one knew about it outside of those who had been there. The people had given up at a certain point, and that had happened long before Brent had come onto the scene.

Long before even his brother had come onto the scene, but he had certainly made it worse.

That didn’t mean that Brent wasn’t going to try and shift it. When Kellen got out of the gate-and he would, Brent wouldn’t doubt that for a second-he needed to be able to face him properly. If Brent, who was now out of the palm of his brother, let him continue to do what he wanted without fighting back?

Brent was more worried about how Kellen would respond to him then he was worried about what his brother had planned for him.

So, Brent was working with Aunt Dina and her team to set things into motion. From the moment that Brent woke up in the Phoenix Guild the next morning alive, things had been put into motion in a way that Brent should have anticipated. They were related to Kellen, of course they were going to be nosy.

He just forgot that Kellen was rather tame compared to most others. He was forceful, yes, but he wasn’t Esper forceful. Now he was in the depths of it, surrounded by a bunch of overprotective Espers.

No wonder Kellen ran away to the front lines. If he had decided on any other kind of lifestyle, he would have been smothered.

Needless to say. Aunt Dina was the worst for it. She was super overprotective. More than even how Rhys treated Kellen in public spaces. It was a little alarming to realise, belatedly, that Rhys was doing his damn best to let Kellen be his own person. He had a lot of strength as an S Class Esper to hold back as much as he did.

Aunt Dina wasn’t even sexually attracted to Brent, had made it clear that she only saw him like an injured baby bird, a nephew of sorts, and she was driving Brent up the fucking wall.

He had guards. Several of them, at all times. They were the same four people and they kept an eye on him day and night. He wasn’t even allowed to shower alone because, as Brent had pointed out, Colby could show up whenever he wanted. He could be in the bathroom taking a shit and Colby could show up and swipe him.

Sure, that could happen, but it wasn’t like they weren’t also taking every single precaution possible to protect him. His room was always shifted so that a photo wasn’t accurate for the space. It wouldn’t be a lock for a teleporter like Colby of Colby could only teleport using a photo instead of using a person’s face.

Brent was pretty sure he was the kind of teleporter who needed a photo of a place because he had never teleported to Brent and stolen him that way. He had always approached from a distance and then teleported closer after.

So, Aunt Dina was doing crazy work but deploying the four top best Espers outside of the Lieutenants of her own Guild to Brent. Sure, it could have been flattering, but Brent also knew that she probably wouldn’t have treated Kellen like this.

Granted, these were two different situations. Brent was planning to attack the biggest Guild in the city. Not only that, he was planning to claim what was owed to him and ’stealing’ it from his older brother.

He was planning to do something dangerous, but it wasn’t any more dangerous then going into a fucking poison gate with very minimal planning.

“You don’t need to be exactly like Kellen.” Aunt Dina had growled at one point, her eyes glowing the deep, almost calm red of Fire Espers who had grown into their powers. She was an Esper who had lived decades in this city. Had been fighting for this city, and hadn’t stopped fighting for the city even after she had to bury her lover. Her words cut deep, but that didn’t mean that Brent didn’t keep pushing about his treatment.

Even Esper Parker thought that she was taking this too seriously, and he was, as Brent was realising, her right hand man. She didn’t listen to him, of course, and kept her routines up. She even limited his contact with the outside world, and this included him trying to reach out to Kellen’s parents or even the Saturn Guild.

“We don’t want them to target them.” Aunt Dina had warned. Brent had wanted to argue. While his family was big here, they were a whole ass continent away. Several hundred of thousands of miles away. While his brother wanted to rule the world, he had no reach over there. There was a reason that Kellen’s parents liked living where they did.

Sure, there were ways for his brother to find out who he got close to. He knew that, but also knew that the people that he trusted and had grown close to were insane. In a strangely medicated way. They would not tolerate someone like his brother or his lackeys poking their noses around in their business without cutting it off and showing off the bodies.

Which was, Brent was sadly becoming aware of, something that Aunt Dina did not approve of. Yes, she was Kellen’s chosen family. Yes, she knew the Woods very well. That only meant that she knew most of the moves that Brent was going to pull to try to escape and she was very good at blocking them all.

It was annoying, only made more annoying when she wouldn’t even show her face, but instead one of the Lieutenants would be in the spot where he’d escaped to, ready to grab him up and take him to a protected, safe place.

Brent wanted to scream. He wanted to shout.

He just wanted to be able to do something, anything, and even then, he wasn’t allowed.

He was being caged with love, and it was going to drive him insane. Aunt Dina wasn’t mean, she wasn’t even harsh. Half of her arguments were logical so it made it even harder for Brent to argue against what she was doing.

Yes, he shouldn’t be wandering around outside after killing E.A.G. members. Yes, if he did go outside, it would make him a target for both his family and the E.A.G. However, if Brent didn’t go outside, he couldn’t go to the office to get the will and start the process of stripping everything away from his brother, because Brent had no doubt that his brother had a feeling Brent was going to do something.

He was his brother, after all. They had to share more than just physical appearances.

So, Brent was stuck in a gilded cage, getting to eat whatever he wanted, his room always shifting slightly, with buff, gorgeous Espers around him at all times.

Brent was fucking miserable.

He wanted to be doing something, fucking anything, but he couldn’t.

At least, not until Aunt Dina burst into his apartment, her eyes glowing and her powers all over the place, a phone in her hand. Her expression was stark, and Brent thought that something terrible had happened.

She looked like she had seen a ghost and even the Espers that were watching him stepped in to interfere in case she was about to lose control. Brent had been on the couch, lounging, staring up at the ceiling as the t.v. droned on in the background when she had burst in.

“What? What’s going on?” Brent asked, sitting up immediately. She didn’t hesitate to move towards him, shoving the phone screen into his face. It was too close so it took a moment for Brent to register what was going on.

When he did, he felt his throat close up and his body begin to shake.

A loud rumble had been heard throughout the front lines back home. Video footage, shaky and blurry, caught the sight of people coming out of the gate. The poison gate. Brent didn’t need to be a genius to figure out the shapes of the people coming out, even if blurry.

He knew what his friend looked like, and he knew what Rhys looked like from behind.

Brent didn’t even realise he was crying until Aunt Dina swept him up, wrapping him in her arms and squeezing him tightly.

“He’s okay. He’s okay.” She repeated and Brent wrapped his arm around her, squeezing her tightly. He didn’t know how old that video was. Had it been days ago that he’d gotten out? Had it only been a few hours? It didn’t matter.

Kellen was out of the gate. One of Brent’s deeper worries was gone. He could now focus on his mission here. Kellen had done the impossible, so now it was Brent’s turn to do the same.

“We have to start moving.” Brent told Aunt Dina lowly. “We can’t keep running away in fear.” Brent’s words seemed to strike a cord with her. “I won’t let us.” Brent’s voice was firm. Aunt Dina froze in Brent’s arms.

“Brent-” She started, but Brent squeezed her.

“Enough running away.” Brent’s voice was firm. “We’ve been running away this whole time. You’ve been waiting for them to do something. Why do we have to wait for them to do something? Why can’t we do something first?” Brent asked. He felt her shift in his arm, sighing.

“Ah fuck.” Aunt Dina muttered and Brent knew that something he said had gotten to her. Something was going to change now. Thank goodness. Brent wasn’t sure how much longer he could have taken this treatment from someone that Kellen loved.

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