“We need water and a place to stay for the night. That is all,” Alex says again, his words low but still with an edge.
The guard seems to examine us both very closely. Particularly me. “You're Neutral.”
The three of us stop off to the side of a very busy street. I shift my weight, both of my feet hurt and I just want to sit down. “Yeah.” I don't know what my territory has to do with anything, particularly getting us food and water.
The male guard is tall, as tall as Alex, maybe even a tiny bit taller. It doesn't look comfortable on him like it does on someone like Alex or Jimmy or even Aaron. His eyes are nearly brown, with green on the edges, a strange color that stands out against his tanned skin, and his hair is almost red. Blending in must be difficult for him; maybe that's why he seems so awkward.
“All right, come on, I know a place.” He leads us off towards a building at the end of a street with a lot of people hanging around out front. Their eyes fall on us, but they see the guard and seem to accept it. Still, Alex puts a hand on my shoulder and stays close to me.
Inside it's dark. It reminds me a lot of Pat's place with the delicious scents warming the air. The guard has us take a seat and then he goes to speak to a man in the next room over. Just as he takes his leave, a large woman, soft curves wrapped in an apron, comes over to us and stops at our table with a smile.
Unfortunately for her, smiles are starting to make me suspicious, and Alex hardly looks any better. She keeps her smile though, a gentle smile that rounds her already plumped cheeks. “I'm one of the owners. You two look like you've been dragged through the forest by your hair.”
Alex and I glance at each other, and I speak to him. “We look better than I expected.”
She giggles. “Now I'm sure wild man here has something he caught along the way. If you two are sharing, I can make you a nice meal and repay you with a place to rest and wash up.”
Alex is the judge. He's the one who knows how these things work. He takes a look around and another look at her before he takes the bag from me and pulls out the large leaves that hold what's left of the cooked meat. He apologizes to her with his face down at the table. “It's not much.”
She pats his shoulder. “It's more than enough.” Then she walks off towards the room where the guard stands talking to the man glancing our way every few minutes. The woman pats the man and smiles at the guard so that he follows her into the room. A minute later, he comes out with two glasses of water, giving a shrug as he passes the other man in the doorway who stands with his arms folded while shaking his head.
The guy puts the glasses down on our table and takes a seat while Alex takes a large gulp from his cup. When Alex looks up over his half-filled glass, the guy is just sitting there watching the two of us. It doesn't seem to please Alex in the slightest.
Alex's displeasure has no effect on the man at our table. “So you're a Lost Lander. And you're a Neutral. And you two just happen to be wandering the Wildlands together?”
He doesn't seem to be much older than Alex. In fact, at first glance, I'd assume that he was younger from the messy hair and his oversized jacket. His hands rest on the table, and I notice they're stained with black grease that's seeped into the corners of his nails and cracks in his knuckles. It might be part of why he hides his hands inside his sleeves, with the long fingers poking out as they rest on the wooden table.
Alex doesn't say anything, but I feel comfortable with this stranger. Something about him doesn't scream danger though he does seem to be doing his best to appear stern. So I answer his question, trying to be as vague as possible. “We have something we need to do.”
He turns his brown-green eyes on me and narrows them suspiciously. “You don't need to do anything you know. I can help you if you need it.”
Alex tenses, and I almost reach a hand out to him to assure him that I will be continuing on with him no matter what. I don't know what this scrawny guy with his dirty hands thinks he can do for me, but I did agree to help Alex. I won't go back on that.
“I agreed to help.”
The food comes out with a smile from the plump woman who runs the inn. “Stephan,” she says when she sees the guy at our table, “Don't be bothering these two.” She turns to me. “Don't mind him; he's got a protective streak that's downright adorable.” Then, because her words aren't embarrassing enough, she grabs his cheek and pulls him away from our table.
That finally makes Alex smile. The two of us eat our soup in silence.
Our room is small and there's only one bed. It's large enough for the two of us though Alex offers to sleep on the floor. He must realize that I won't agree to that because he doesn't even bother fighting me about it. He just slips into the bed next to me, pulling the blankets over the two of us. I'm already half asleep by the time my head hits the pillow, but I feel Alex pull me to him. My head rests on his chest, his very warm chest that even through his shirt warms my cheek.
There are some luxuries in the inn that we don't have out in the wild. The first being water that we can use to wash up some, and the second is not having to use a bush. But the last and most important is a full breakfast, with fresh eggs and fresh bread perfectly toasted. It surprises me that the woman would freely give us food when we have nothing left to give her. When she puts the plates down on the table, she gives a wink to Alex that makes me wonder if that has something to do with it. Maybe she has some sort of crush on Alex or something; he is very cute. It's still strange since she gave us one small room with one bed so she must have an inkling that the two of us slept together, literally if not figuratively.
I glance up from my plate and catch those eyes from yesterday, the man she'd called Stephan. He sits at a table away from us, but he sees me and heads over to us with a careful smile and his eyes still narrowed. Alex notices the movement towards our table right away, and I catch his glare at the man. For a moment he looks as if he's going to stand up and face him, but he doesn't. He does move his chair closer to me though. It makes Stephan hesitate, but he takes the empty chair anyway.
“You have some friends looking for you,” Stephan says.
My breakfast is almost done. I silently wish to be able to finish my breakfast before I have to deal with whatever is coming up today. “What friends?”
“From down south.” He pauses to take a breath, “You may want to leave now.”
“You won't tell them you've seen us?”
“Not if you don't want me to.”
I take a swallow. Alex doesn't look up from his plate. He's already cleared it. He glances up at me with his brows knotted, but he doesn't say anything about it. From the bag, he takes the canteens out and mumbles something about asking for water before he leaves me and Stephan alone at the table.
I watch him go, stepping casually between tables, clearly belonging here in one of these villages as much as he belongs in the forest. I'd probably have bumped into chairs or had to ask people to move so I could fit through.
Stephan calls my attention back softly. “Do you want me to?”
It's another chance. A real chance, not just one being offered by Alex that he might choose to not follow through on. Maybe that's why Alex stepped away and left the two of us alone. To give me that chance again.
“Alex says he needs my help to get his daughter back.”
Stephan looks over towards Alex, his hands in his lap as he leans back against the chair. “It wouldn't work between you two.”
I look up, surprised at his bluntness, and for once I'm the one to catch someone else with a red face. “What would that have to do with anything?”
“I've seen the way you look at him.” Stephan sighs. “Lost Landers from his area claim their women. They don't exactly ask them if they want to be claimed. It's a completely different way of life.”
He sounds so sure of it that it hurts. I hadn't even been thinking any further than the day and the trek ahead of us. Alex has always been unattainable, since the moment I first saw him. I didn't real
ly need Stephan to remind me.
“How would you even know this anyway? I thought no one knows anything about the Lost Territory.”
He clears his throat and looks down at the table, his messy hair falling over his forehead. “Because I was born there.”
Suddenly there are two Lost Landers in my life when before I couldn't even conceive of there being one. It's impossible to imagine Stephan claiming anyone the way he's suggesting Alex would. He's so tall and awkward. He's not menacing in the least. Alex is his opposite in every way.
Stephan scratches at his hair. “I haven't been there since I was little though. I was raised here in the Wildlands. Their ideas are more along the lines of Neutrals from what I'm told. You know, a steady partner per person. Supposedly, because most of the Experiments were Neutrals, their ideas just fall more naturally in line.”
The tie between those experimented on and Neutrals is not news to me, and yet it still shocks me to hear him say it. It's possible that it isn't true, or that it's a misunderstanding being passed down from the older ones to the younger ones. I don't bother arguing with him.
Alex appears suddenly with the canteens filled. “Let's go.” His voice is gruff. He cuts the words off with a snap.
Stephan turns to me quickly before I stand up, a hand reaching out across the table, “Hey, you don't have to listen to him.”
I stand and Stephan does too. “We're going.”
He lowers his head and leans back in his chair as if he had failed at some mission to keep me. Nothing more is said between us. Alex takes my hand and leads me out of the village back into the wilderness.
Twenty-five
We walk for days more without incident, though Alex never loses that desperate look to his eyes. He keeps watch, hunting small game and only very lightly sleeping at night. When we sleep, we sleep nestled close to one another and I don't bother to fight it. It's comforting to have his arms around me, and it seems to help him as much as it helps me.
“We'll be there by sunset,” Alex finally says. He looks at me and I can only nod, glad that we'll finally be somewhere. As gorgeous as the forest is, I'm already sick of it. Then I realize that whatever our destination might be, it means the end of our journey.
Alex watches me closely. He doesn't push so hard this last day, but his eyes are constantly on me. After a while I'm even sick of that.
The sun is changing colors by the time we near our destination. Alex slows slightly, possibly because of me or possibly because he doesn't want to take me further. I recognize that last thought as nothing more than wishful thinking. It's his daughter he cares about. She's the one he should care about.
Alex stops suddenly, throwing out his arm to force me to stop alongside him. I look up at him quickly, just noticing now that I've been walking with my head mostly down. He doesn't look at me. His eyes are faced forward and his entire body is rigid. With the hand in front of me, he gives me a push behind him as I catch a glimpse of a young boy and girl.
They don't look like anything special at first, though something about the boy gives me the creeps. He stands slightly in front with dark blond hair and dark eyes. The sun is at his back, so a shadow falls over his face. The boy can't be older than thirteen, but something in his expression makes him look much older. It's in the air, a challenge of some sort. Like the bristling of a dog's fur when it meets another dog it doesn't like.
“We mean no harm,” Alex says.
The boy isn't alone. There's a girl with him. She's a few inches taller than him, but her eyes are large. She doesn't look away from the boy, not even to us. Her small mouth turns down a bit as she pleads quietly with the boy. “Please. Let's just go, Michael.”
I'm not sure what's supposed to happen. The blond boy, the one the girl calls Michael, looks at me with a gaze much too steady for one so young. I take a step further behind Alex. The boy isn't a normal, average boy. It's clear that he's another entity all together. Another one with powers, but he makes even Alex nervous.
“Michael,” the girl's voice, soft and high pitched, suddenly becomes very stern. “Please. Let's go.”
The boy softens then. His eyes fall away from us, landing on her, and then in a flash, they're gone.
Alex turns around and pulls me to him. “Are you okay?” It seems a silly question to ask since he saw that the boy never touched me. He never even came near either of us.
“Yeah, I'm fine. Who was that?”
“A powerful one. Very powerful for being so young. He's dangerous.”
Alex holds me against him for a while longer without explaining more. I think of Alex's desperate looks and the way he's been pushing us this whole time and I can't help wondering if that boy was what he'd been expecting.
I ask. Alex shakes his head though. “There are others. Smaller tribes. I have never seen him before.”
Both of us are shaken then with our unexpected introduction of sorts. I hope we don't see him again or anyone like him.
Alex runs his hand through my hair, staring into my face in a way that makes me uncomfortable. I glance away and shove my hair behind my ear hoping to encourage him to snap out of it and move on. He's much too close, and my cheeks heat up.
"They could still be nearby. We should go."
Alex's brows raise ever so slightly as if he were disappointed. He still stands close, as if ready to pull me against him again, but he doesn't. He gives a small nod. “Let's go.” Then he takes my hand and leads me away.
Our destination is a hole in the ground. We step down stairs that are hidden by bushes and trees into a small stone room with piles of dirt in the corners. Different kinds of weeds grow in the piled dirt and against the wall. The room is only lit by the fading orange glow of the sun. Alex leads me into the dark corner where the light doesn't reach. There's a metal door that he knocks on with his bare knuckles and I wince, imagining the discomfort though Alex doesn't react.
It takes a moment before the door is opened for us and a man stands there. He smiles at Alex and gives him a nod, recognizing him right away. “Alex. You're back.” He pauses and raises one eyebrow. “You don't remember me, do you? I knew you wouldn't. I even told you so. Do you remember that?”
Alex nods at that though he still looks unsure about it.
The man in front of Alex rubs at his chin, covered in dark stubble. It draws attention to his attempt at a smile as he looks Alex over. It fails when he notices me though, nearly tethered to Alex's side and probably looking exhausted and dirty. “Who's this?”
Alex looks at the floor. “Brandon's weakness.”
I stiffen. Alex glances at me. In the dim light, there is a soft sadness to his eyes, and the smallest threat. His eyes are his weapons. I swallow, remembering that I agreed to this, inadvertently, managing to betray Brandon in the process of deciding to trust Alex. My hand falls to my stomach, trying to hold it in place.
The man nods, his mouth tightly pressed together. “C'mon. He's expecting you.”
Between the two of them, I feel as if there is more going on than what I can see. Both become very somber very suddenly. The man steps back to let me and Alex in then he shuts the door behind us and leads us to more stairs, a small oil lamp in his hand. We head down a few flights before we reach the tunnels that he starts leading us through.
The two don't say much, and I don't add to conversation. I stare at the walls. They look different from the tunnels that Uncle Wiley lived in, but the basic idea is there. More tunnels. This seems like it was once something important. It feels more like a structure that was here previously before the current residents moved in. Wiley always said that the tunnels had always been there. He didn't know why, and there was no record of them. I bet he'd be interested to know that there was a tunnel like his elsewhere in the Wildlands.
We take a turn and step through a door into a wide open room filled with tents and children running around playing with each other as the adults talk, standing around watching them and watching us when they notice the two
strangers. I stick close to Alex, and he holds my hand tightly as the one in front leads us solemnly.
Another turn leads us down more tunnels, but these had holes in the walls with coverings over them. The couple of people who peek out from these watch us with sharp eyes as if they're just waiting for trouble from us. But they don't move forward.
“So what's your name?” I ask him, just to have some sort of conversation going because the lack of speaking is making me nervous.
He slows down some and looks back at me, his face a tiny bit more neutral than it was earlier when Alex introduced us. “It's okay. You won't remember.”
“I won't remember?”
“Nope. You might remember that you met someone, but you won't remember any details about me personally.” He smiles and dips his head in an almost humble manner as if he's just used to being basically non-existent.
I don't bother asking any further. The man looks at Alex, slowing us down some more. “She's safe, Alex. I've kept an eye on her.”
Alex gives a nod and a quiet and quick, “Thank you.”
The man stops at the mouth of another tunnel. “He's through there. I'll get your daughter.” His eyes harden, and it's hard to read him. I don't get a feeling from him that he's a bad man, just that he's in a difficult position. It's an added on feeling that there's more going on here than I know. The only thing I can do is try to trust Alex, to believe him when he says that this is what he needs me to do.
Alex squeezes my hand, but he looks up at the man and shakes his head. In a low voice he tells the man, “Get someone else to do it. You'll be needed up front.”
There's a shift in the man's expression, but it's hard for me to pin down before he locks it tight again with a nod and then heads off back the way we came.
Alex looks down at me, his eyes, large and green and dewy. For half a second, I worry that he's going to grab me and hug me again, but he doesn't. He takes my hand and pulls me into the extra tunnel.
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