O.K. Here's the next bit...it's rough so help out.

Windlily

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	Adria sat curled up in the hotel chair and watched Pat sleep in the
dim light that came from the bathroom. It was just past five in the morning
and she had come up out of sleep hard and fast. The few fragments of the
dream that she managed to drag with her up into consciousness were
nonsensical, as always. Chaotic and intertwined images of dragons and
demons and a crystal palace straight out a fairy tale. And as always, it
left her sweaty and trembling. She had been expecting nightmares about
Dwain. But then, why did she need nightmares? The scene was imprinted in
her memory and kept replayed itself over and over. She swallowed hard as
tears welled up again as it flashed through her head for the sixth time
this morning. She missed him so much already.

	She needed to talk to Father, to let him know she was all right and
that she wanted to go home. She uncoiled and crawled across the bed to pull
the phone over as far as the cord would go, then dialed Father's number.
She played with the cord as the system hunted his cel phone, then two rings
and her Father's irritated voice snapped into her ear.

	"Yes."

	"Father?" she said it softly, not wanting to disturb Pat.

	"Adria?"

	"Father, Dwain's dead." It was the first time she had said it out
loud and she had to bite her lip to keep the sob from escaping.

	"Where are you?!" Father thundered.

	"At the Del Mission Ramada in San Francisco," she managed to get out.

	"Are you alone?"

	"No. Patricia Landsdale is with me. Father, I want to go home."

	"Does she know you're talking to me?"

	"No. She's asleep right now."

	"Good. Adria, I want you to get out of there right now. That woman
is very dangerous. Go to the front desk and call the police. They are
looking for you anyway."

	Adria looked at the sleeping woman and frowned. "But Father..."

	"No 'buts', Adria! Just do it! Now! I'm going to call the police
from my end too, now get yourself out of there."

	"Father! You don't..."

	"Hang up the phone and get out of there!" her father all but hissed
it and hung up.

	Adria stared stupidly at the receiver, hurt and angry. He hadn't
even asked if she was all right, just gone all ballistic like he always
did.

	"Who was that?" Pat asked evenly.

	Adria looked up and over into the woman's open eyes, startled. "My
Father."

	"Your father." There was ice in her tone.

	It scared her. And made her mad.

	"Yeah. So?" she lifted her chin and put every bit of defiance she
could muster into those words.

	Pat rolled off the bed, hit the light switch and began to dress, fast.

	"Get your clothes on. We're leaving."

	"No. Father said you were dangerous. So did Dwain."

	A strange smile came to Pat's face.

	"I am dangerous, Adria. So is your father. I'm going to tell you
some facts you are not going to like. I work...worked for a group called
The Four Sisters. It is headed by four men. Your father is one of them.
They are not nice people, Adria. You can stay if you want, but those
assassins yesterday were aiming for both of us."

	Adria caught the jeans and shirt Pat tossed at her.

	"Get real. Why would my Father try to kill me?"

	"I have no idea. Do you?"

	Pat studied Adria as she tied the laces of her new sneakers.

	There was a second pause before the answer, a flicker of something
angry and haunted in the girls grey eyes. Something that was quickly
repressed.

	"No. My father loves me."

	Pat shrugged, began to stuff the few night things into the big gym
bag they had picked up at the Wal-mart yesterday.

	"It's your call, sweetie. I'm not staying. I could be wrong and
Daddy is going to do nothing more than take his baby home. But I'm rarely
wrong."

	She made a guess as she zipped the bag and hoped it was right. "I
think you are a tool that has become unnecessary and Daddy is cleaning
house."

	"No. That's not true!" Adria paled.

	Yes, there was something more between Adria and her father than the
normal adolescent rebellion.

	Pat shrugged again.

	"You know your father better than I do," she looked at her watch.
"You've got three minutes if you're coming."

	Adria chewed on her lower lip and studied the carpet. Pat wondered
just how well Adria did know her father as she played her trump card.

	"It would be a shame if Dwain died for nothing."

	Adria glared at her but started getting dressed. Pat let out a
mental sigh of relief. She had had that dream again. Her stomach was still
knotted from the panic of it. She was just waking from it when she had
heard Adria. She had to find that woman and that girl. And she had to take
Adria with her. She had been ready to take drastic measures if Adria had
refused. In three and a half minutes they were out the door.

	Adria stalked next to her in the pre-dawn darkness, a petulant and
silent shadow with hands jammed into her back pockets as she led them out
the back entrance of the parking lot. She aimed for the IHOP they had
passed yesterday, about six blocks east.


					***


	Adria sipped her orange juice and wondered again why she had come
with Pat. It was stupid. Dwain hadn't trusted her. But every instinct said
to stay with her and Dwain had always told her to trust her instincts. And
what she said about Father could be very true. Father had always told her
she would be special, that she would have special 'gifts' like her mother
and she wasn't to be afraid of them but come and tell him about them when
they started to show up. They had and he had been delighted. He had told
her she was going to be a great asset to the Company when she grew up.

	For most of her childhood she had strove for that time. She had
explored those gifts, learned to control and contain them under Dwain's
instruction and watchful eye. Her Father only loved useful things. To be
useful to her Father had been her goal. When she became useful, he would
love her. Then she started to grow up and began to realize things about her
father. Terrible things.

	"You want to tell me about it?" Pat asked as she circled another
entry on the used car section of the classified's.

	"Tell you about what?" Adria countered as she tried to read the
fine print upside down.

	"What's between you and your father."

	"There's nothing between me and my father," Adria answered
nonchalantly.

	One of Pat's eyebrows went up but she didn't look up from the paper.

	"So, what's the plan?" Adria changed the subject.

	"To get a car, then find some acquaintances who might be able to
answer some questions."