by Elodie Colt
That night I’d experienced the best non-sex in my life. But do you know what the worst thing was? It had given me a taste of how it would be to sleep with her, and I daydreamed about it every minute. The carnal need to claim her—to make her chant my name like a prayer while I was the one driving her to ecstasy from the inside out—had festered in my mind ever since.
I mean, how much could this woman torture me? Having the ride of her life on top of me, making us both come hard without us being naked or using our hands to help out, and now what? Now she wanted me to pretend nothing happened? That this was as far as we would go, and we were back to normal again?
This was crucial beyond imagination. Besides, she’d spoiled my entire sex life. Never again would I be able to screw another average woman out there after having sampled this angel-like creature.
I pushed my set of knives roughly through the loops of my belt, followed by the Glock 17 and two additional magazines. You could never be prepared enough.
Two soft knocks on the door interrupted my thoughts of screwing the woman who’d somehow taken center stage in my life.
“Come in,” I said without looking up.
“Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?”
Speaking of the devil or more like thinking of it, I looked up at hearing her voice and was immediately shocked by her appearance. “What the fuck?”
“I’m totally fine!” Haylie held up her hands to choke off my upcoming rant.
“What happened to you?”
“Uh,” she started, frowning at her dirty clothes which were ripped in various places, her split lip crusted with blood, and a few leaves sticking in her hair. She looked as if she’d fought off a wild bear in the woods. I couldn’t say who’d lost. “Training with Lisa happened. No serious injuries, I swear.”
I sighed in relief. I’d already thought we were under attack. “That bad, huh?” I commented with a smirk while zipping up my combat jacket.
“Don’t know. I managed to uproot a tree, and it landed where I wanted it to, but I also knocked over everything within a few feet radius,” she confessed with a sour look on her face. “I don’t understand this. Everyone told me I’d get more control once I was through the Awakening,” she mumbled in disappointment.
“It will, just give it a few days’ time. There’s a reason it’s called Awakening—it activates the parts of your power that were asleep until now. It’s overwhelming at first. And don’t forget that your powers are stronger than those the rest of us have. The greater the power, the harder to wield. You’re doing great, Haylie.”
She nodded, only half convinced by my attempt to cheer her up. “Are you going somewhere?” she asked, watching me packing my stuff.
“Yeah. Jimmy has a job for us. We’re leaving in a few.”
I eyed her from under my lashes in case she was disappointed to be left behind, but it didn’t seem like it. She wasn’t ready for battle, at least not that soon after the Awakening. To be honest, I hoped to keep her out of any further missions altogether. Jimmy was probably on my side on this. I doubted Haylie was, though.
“Oh, okay. Is it risky?”
“Just a check-out routine, nothing serious.” Hopefully not. Some action would be what I needed right now to let off some steam.
“Is everybody going?”
“No. Cole and his team will stay as guards. Sarah, Scott, and Phil are on surveillance duty, and Cassie will stay here, too. She’s not feeling well.”
Jimmy wanted me to keep it a secret for a little longer, so I didn’t tell Haylie that Cassie had complained about feeling sick due to her pregnancy. Using that word still didn’t sit right with me. On the one hand, I was glad Cassie had finally left me and our time together behind, but on the other hand, I’d also grown so used to her being close on my tail at all times, a quiet promise in the background that she was still available, I secretly missed her.
“Cassie is feeling sick?” Haylie asked in disbelief. I knew what she was thinking. Why would a Roe ever feel sick?
“Long story. You came to talk to me about something?” I reminded her.
“Yeah, uhm, actually, it is about Cassie,” she started, crossing her arms.
“What about her?” I stuck another short knife into my boot, then started to lace it.
“Well, Cassie was outside today when I was training with Lisa, observing us from a distance, when Lisa suddenly asked who was standing over there as she wasn’t familiar with the vibes. It confused me because I thought Lisa knew Cassie by her vibes, but she said she’d never seen or felt those vibes before.”
Interesting. The pregnancy must have caused a change not only in Cassie’s scent, as Scott had already confirmed, but in her vibes as well. Funny what hormones could do to a body.
“Lisa got curious and called out to Cassie, but she just seemed…” Haylie paused with a frown, “… shocked, turned on her heels, and went back inside, without greeting Lisa at all.”
This was unusual, though. Cassie had changed one-eighty degrees ever since she came back and still held a grudge against me, but she’d never take her mood out on Lisa. If anything, Lisa was the only person next to Jimmy who she loved dearly. She respected Lisa and had never turned on her bitch-switch in front of her. I was surprised she hadn’t confessed to Lisa about her pregnancy yet. Wouldn’t she want to have some woman-to-woman talk or something like that?
“What are you implying?” I asked, putting my other boot on the bed frame to lace it.
Haylie bit her lip, seemingly dreading what she was about to say. “Something’s wrong with her, Dylan.”
I let out a huff of air as I put my foot on the ground again. Of course, Haylie was right in her assumption, only was she suspecting something else entirely. It was only a matter of time until people started questioning Cassie’s behavior. “Everything’s fine with her, trust me.”
“Are you sure? Did Lisa’s ability ever fail?”
“No, but this is different.”
“How is this different, Dylan?” Haylie questioned, taking a few steps forward until stopping opposite me on the other side of the bed, eyes pleading. “Lisa told me she was sure that the person she’d felt was not Cassie. She’s known Cassie for years, right? Why would her ability fail her now?”
I sighed in frustration, dragging a hand over my face. I couldn’t blame Haylie for mistrusting Cassie as Cassie had declared war on Haylie from the beginning, but she wasn’t in any position to judge her. She didn’t know Cassie in the slightest.
“I’m the last one to be an expert on Watcher abilities, least of all the vibes Lisa can see or feel, but I know it’s quite unusual for vibes to change. Have you ever thought that maybe Cassie is the traitor in our circle, after all?” Haylie asked tentatively, clearly uncomfortable for bringing up the subject.
“No,” I answered resolutely, making it clear what I thought of her suggestion. If she knew what I knew, she’d understand my point of view.
“But Dylan…”
“I said no!” I shouted louder than I’d intended to, but damn, this woman was testing me every second.
I respected Haylie, I really did, even more than I ever thought possible, but I wouldn’t allow her to put a wedge between Cassie and me. I felt I was responsible for standing up for Cassie on this. If the two of them had a problem with each other, they needed to sort it out themselves. I wasn’t keen on playing the third wheel and getting shredded to pieces because of two women extending their claws.
My forceful voice made Haylie gasp in surprise, causing her to recoil as if I’d slapped her. A little déjà-vu overcame me when I thought back to the night I’d first encountered her, her eyes laced with the same kind of fear. I almost felt guilty for shouting at her, but maybe it was better for us both if she was reminded who was in charge.
Sure, she was a Natural and therefore not just a regular student of this compound, but that didn’t mean she was involved in every aspect of the business down here. We’d been family here for years, we’d g
one through so much together, had built up our home from nothing. She was not part of this—not yet, anyway. Jimmy hadn’t drawn the line sharp enough. Me neither, to be honest.
The shock crossed her face only a second before she steeled herself again, giving me a short nod of acceptance.
“Okay, sorry. I suppose it’s none of my business,” she apologized in a quiet voice, taking the wind out of my sails in an instant.
“Haylie,” I pleaded before she could disappear through the door. She stopped, hand hovering over the handle before slowly turning back to look at me. I wanted to apologize, but somehow nothing came out, so instead, I said, “Let Sarah tend to you.”
She gave me a sad smile and left without saying another word. There was no doubt she wouldn’t seek Sarah’s help.
“Damn all women on this planet,” I muttered. I hoped I’d get the opportunity to kick some ass tonight. Nothing better than a good, bloody fight to let it all out.
~~~
“Are you sure this is the right truck?” Chris asked for the second time, adjusting the zoom of his binoculars. The rocks we hid behind provided decent cover, but also a good vantage point of everything going on, which wasn’t very much at the moment.
“Positive,” Josh replied with another glance at the printout in his hands. It was a picture taken a few hours ago of two Hunters loading a truck. As our cameras were out of reach here in the back of beyond, we’d tracked down the truck as far as the main traffic system would go. After two hours of searching, we’d found it parked next to the building we currently had under observation.
The place had certainly seen better days. Most of the windows were broken, junk scattered everywhere. It was a huge, run-down industrial building with no human soul in sight. Regular business seemed to have been shut down long ago. So, what kind of business were we dealing with here?
“Any sign of the drivers?” Jared asked, referring to the two men in the picture.
I was glad Jared had joined our team. Jimmy had decided to upgrade him to a Professional after his last mission. Actually, it had taken a lot of convincing on my part, but my argument about how much we depended on a skillful Racer in our compound leader’s absence made him crumble.
“Nope,” Chris answered, swerving his binoculars left and right.
“The picture was taken three hours ago. Whatever business they’ve dealt with is probably long finished,” I remarked dryly, not bothering to hide my disappointment.
“What now?” Chris asked, popping a piece of chewing gum into his mouth.
“We wait,” Jimmy answered.
“What do you think we’ll find in the truck? Drugs?” Josh wanted to know.
“More likely weapons,” Jimmy replied and took out his phone to make a call. After a few seconds of silence, he cursed, punching in another number.
“That kid has his phone stuck up his ass all the time,” Jimmy grumbled. I reckoned this ‘kid’ was Phil.
“Hey, Scott, it’s Jimmy,” he said when Scott took his call. “Just wanted to tell you that we’ve found it… Yeah, about thirty miles from the western interstate somewhere in Neverland. Thought we’d never find that truck. Are Cole and the others still in position?” Silence and a few nods from Jimmy as he listened. “Good. Haylie?”
A vein in my forehead started to pucker. Ever since Haylie came to the compound, I hadn’t left her side. This was the first time I had to leave her alone. I knew I couldn’t protect her all the time, and she was nowhere as safe as in the compound, but it was hard for me to count on others to protect her and put her safety in their hands.
Our encounter from before had left a sour taste in my mouth. During our two-hour drive here, I’d mentally gone over everything we’d said and hadn’t said. We were like a wound healing slowly, and I was the one ripping off the bandage every time, opening the wound anew. It wouldn’t take long to leave a permanent scar.
“All right. I’ll update you later.”
“Everything okay?” I asked after Jimmy ended the call, just to make sure. I’d tried to convince Jimmy to stay at the compound, but he’d been adamant about joining us since the last routine mission had turned into a massacre resulting in my brother’s death.
“Yeah. A student broke his ankle. Sarah went to tend to him, so it’s just Scott in front of the monitors for now.”
Jimmy had wanted to take Kim from Cole’s team with us to have at least one Regenerator close by, but thankfully he agreed with me that first, five of us were enough for a simple routine mission, and second, the compound needed every Regenerator available should anything happen. And with ‘compound,’ I meant Haylie, in particular.
“Phil?”
“Probably busy in the server rooms, as usual. I need to have a serious talk with the kid. I swear, he’s the reason I’m already growing gray hair,” Jimmy muttered.
“Aw, come on Jimmy, I’m sure Haylie gave you more gray streaks in the last few months than Phil in all his years here,” Chris joked, zooming in on his binoculars again.
“True, but at least these are worth it,” Jimmy replied, loading his gun before stuffing it back into his holster.
“How was the Awakening for her, anyway?” Jared asked, taking a sip of water from the bottle in his hands. “I heard her whole room went down.”
“Ask Dylan, he can tell you everything about it,” Chris stabbed me in the back with a knowing grin on his face.
Damn him and his inability to keep his mouth shut. I should have known Chris wouldn’t buy my story that I’d left Haylie alone after phase two. In fact, I’d just made it up to keep the truth from Cassie in case she’d throw a tantrum. Come to think of it, she hadn’t given me one sour look the entire day.
“I recommend you don’t go there,” I warned all of them.
Talk about Haylie’s Awakening had been inevitable as we’d had to evacuate half of the building, but I didn’t like them bringing up the topic in my presence. She was off limits.
Haylie was mine...
The realization hit me full-force. I hadn’t claimed her in any way, but I felt she belonged to no one else but me. My teeth ground together at the thought. The fact that, technically, she didn’t belong to me at all, made me bristle with fury.
“Yeah, just keep all the juicy details to yourself. Not that any of us are interested in the Revival of a Natural, anyway…” Josh muttered in disappointment.
I could only guess how much money each of them would pay for a live show. I was just lucky the opportunity had fallen into my lap for free. Literally.
“You stayed with her during the Revival?” Jared yelled in astonishment, choking on the water he was drinking. I threw him a deadly look, hoping he’d heed my warning. He didn’t. “She let you watch?”
God, if they only knew it had been so much more than watching… I supposed Chris suspected it already, but for once, he didn’t push it.
“Guys, could you keep your testosterone in check for now? We have more important issues to deal with here,” Jimmy interjected to prevent the subject from escalating and to stop me from starting a brawl he’d probably already felt coming.
“Yeah, how long are we going to take root here, anyway? Doesn’t seem like anything exciting is going to happen soon,” Jared threw in, shifting his weight from one elbow to the other.
“Josh, do you hear anything?” I asked our Catcher.
Josh scrunched his face. “You mean besides the dozens of rats crawling in there, and the two foxes mating in the high grass over there? Nope.”
Chris snorted. “You can hear the foxes going at it? How does that sound exactly?”
“Like—”
“Guys…” Jimmy exhaled in desperation. “Please don’t make me gag you.”
“Let’s check this out,” I suggested and heaved myself up, letting the others know to follow me quietly. “Mute your phones.” Nothing worse than a ringing phone to attract attention.
The high grass provided good cover, but I beckoned to the others to keep low. We
made our way down the hill, weapons drawn and ready. My eyes scanned the area for scouts hiding in the shadows. Not that I would have seen them anyway. We had to rely on Josh’s sensitive ears.
On the bottom of the hill, the high grass melded into a gravelly path, exposing us on all sides. I held up a hand to stop my crew from moving, indicating Josh to perk up his ears once more. He gave me the green light.
Extending my hand forward, I pointed to the back of the truck providing the only cover in this open space. Jimmy nodded and raced with Jared over the pathway, crouching behind the vehicle. After checking the surroundings, they motioned for us to join them, so we jogged in their direction. When we reached them, I peeked around the truck, the industrial area looming high in front of us.
“I’ll give it a quick overview,” Jimmy whispered, then raced forward to stop with his back against the wall next to a broken window, gun ready at chest level, finger hovering over the safety. He slowly turned to peek inside. A few seconds passed before he let us know everything was clear.
I grimaced. I shouldn’t wish for a battle, but I did. The Fighter in me was getting restless and eager for some action. A little bloodbath would balance me out again.
The others quickly moved forward, Josh staying hidden to guard the outside. I followed them, slipping through the broken window to get inside the building.
A long, square hall took up most of the space. The left side was stuffed with gigantic machines, oval tanks, and hundreds of pipes with red wheels to regulate the pressure. Gathering from the worn-down look and the metal corroded by rust over the years, most of them seemed to have survived both world wars. Now they were a home for rats as their squeaks and claws scraping on metal could be heard from inside.
While Jimmy and Chris jogged alongside the machines, Jared and I strode further down the hall, my ears straining to catch anything out of place. Wooden planks with crooked nails lay scattered everywhere, mixed with rusted, old sticks that looked like they’d been part of a scaffolding once. Flakes of plaster hung from the walls revealing the bricks underneath. The remains of old graffiti could be seen where the walls were still undamaged. No doubt the place had been used as a party location for teenagers at various times.