He wasn’t far from where they slept, standing now and looking out with sharp steel-grey eyes. Mom was around and Dad wasn’t, and that’s how he intended to keep it. When your enemy can’t be seen, you have to get sharper, relentless in searching him out. When your enemy is impossibly manipulative, you can’t trust anyone that approaches you. He could've talked anyone into it.
And Sen was making sure not a damn soul was approaching his baby sister.
Dad wasn’t going to find a way to use her. He’d make sure of it.
His head turned to her when she called for him, gold with sooty cheeks and a mess of black hair. He didn’t answer, only began making his way to her with steady steps on lanky teenage limbs, sheet-white wings catching the sunlight like a beacon as he lifted and stretched them. One day he’d be as thick as Father, and he was getting there, but for now he still had a great deal of his youth showing. There was a great deal of Father in him, but nobody was stupid enough to say it in front of him. He was nothing like Dad.
"Vanna." He reached out with a soft voice, a soft touch to her little forelock, though his body was all hard lines and tense muscles. Maybe he didn't really know how to relax, but it didn't bother him a bit. He'd make sure his Mom and sis were safe, from everything, even the man they love.
His gruff voice was still higher than a man's, coaxing her with a brush against her cheek, "Let's go back into the trees." Where there were fewer eyes on her, fewer people for him to study and watch and analyze. She didn't make it easy to keep her safe, but a girl needs some sunlight, some room to run. Him though, he didn't need much. Just her and Mom. "We can come out again later."
