Within These Walls: Series Box Set

by Tracey Ward

  “You too.”

  We watch the cannibals go one by one down into the drain. The cleaning crew doesn’t even stop their work. A thin river of blood and water pours through the hole on top of the cannibals as they leave. They’ll be covered in blood when they get home, but they should count themselves lucky it isn’t theirs.

  “What’s the plan now?” Ryan asks me when they’re gone.

  “You and Trent go look around. Mingle. Whatever,” I say with a shrug, not really concerned what trouble they get themselves into. They can go set the display tree on fire for all I care. Things can’t get much worse than they already are.

  “What are you going to do?”

  I angrily chew on the inside of my lip until I taste blood. “I’ve got a date with a pimp.”

  ***

  “Where is he?”

  The guard—another Hive member, judging by the hornet tattoo on his neck—looks me up and down.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why do you want to know where he is?”

  “Why do you think?” I ask hotly.

  The guy smirks. “For the same reason all the women look for him.”

  “Unless all the women here are looking to kick his ass, then no.”

  “That doesn’t make me want to help you find him.”

  I turn away in frustration to head up the hall. “I’ll find him myself, dick!”

  “Roof.”

  I stop, looking over my shoulder at him. “Why?”

  His smirk becomes a grin. “Why what?”

  “Why are you telling me?”

  “Because you’re not a Colony girl. You’re a wild girl. He likes wild girls.”

  “You’re still a dick.”

  He laughs. “So are you, wild thing.”

  When I reach the roof, there he is—just as the hornet downstairs told me he would be. He’s sitting on the edge of the roof, his legs dangling, his back to me. It’s a dangerous position he’s in, and no eyes on the entrance? It worries me more than impresses me.

  “What’s on your mind, Joss?” Vin asks without turning.

  I sigh before going to sit next to him. The anger I had building inside of me is dying out. Maybe it’s because I’m tired, but it’s probably because it doesn’t matter. I’m still alive. The cannibals got out alive. One Colonist died—I genuinely feel bad about that, but it could have been worse. So, so much worse. All in all, if I survive to see the sunrise, I’ll count it as a good night.

  When I sit, I let my legs dangle off the edge of the building as well. Like a little kid. A little kid sitting three stories above the ground, tempting fate, begging it to take its best shot.

  “Nothing much,” I lie.

  “Did they send you up to tell me to hand over the Colony?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  “Not for the company, that’s for sure.”

  “Spill it,” he insists.

  I glare at him before looking away out over the black water. “Why’d you do it?”

  “You mean why did I leave you hanging?”

  “Almost literally, yes. I don’t feel safe being here anymore.”

  “You shouldn’t. You shouldn’t feel safe anywhere. That’s when your guard goes down and you die.”

  “Did you want them to kill me?”

  “No.”

  “Then why didn’t you help me?”

  “Your boy helped. You don’t need me, Kitten.”

  “Is that what this is about? Ryan?”

  “Get over yourself,” he scoffs. “No.”

  I throw my hands up in frustration. “Then what is it about?”

  “It’s about this place,” he hisses fiercely. “It’s about this building and the people in it.”

  I stare at him, shocked. Then something slowly begins to occur to me: he’s not actually angry. He’s feral, like an animal. An animal protecting his territory.

  “It’s your house. You want to keep this Colony and I’m a threat to that.”

  “I took it. I did that. And I did it half dead.”

  I pause, feeling scared, but it’s weird because I think I was already feeling it. It’s not a new feeling; it’s an uncovering. It’s shining light on something that’s been hidden in the shadows of my mind since I got here. I think I’ve known something was wrong since the moment I walked in the building.

  Something is off, something is missing.

  Someone is missing.

  “When Breanne died,” I begin, my voice whisper quiet, “you weren’t alone, were you?”

  Vin curses harshly under his breath. It’s all the answer I need.

  “Nats is dead.”

  He nods.

  Tears sting my eyes, hot and angry. I will them back, I pull them inside, and I swallow the rough, salty tang down into my stomach where it burns like lava.

  “How?” I whisper shakily.

  The worst thing is that Vin doesn’t give me a hard time. I’m emotional, I’m obviously nearly weeping beside him, and he doesn’t say a word about it—that’s how bad it is, how hard it’s hitting him, and it makes it so much worse because it somehow makes it more real.

  “She was standing watch over me after you left. I was in and out of it, sweating and aching, feeling like I was dying because I was. Sometime the next day I woke up to fighting. It was Nats and Breanne. On instinct I reached under my pillow for a knife. I always kept one there in The Hive, just in case. I was surprised to actually find one. Nats knew. She must have put it there. She fought Breanne hard, but the entire time she was asking her to stop. To remember we were family. I pulled myself out of the bed to help her, but I fell on the floor. I couldn’t stand up straight. I was useless. When I looked up, Breanne had sunk a kitchen knife into Nats’ chest. To the hilt.” Vin coughs roughly, rubbing his hand over his mouth. “She pounced on me, but she was too excited. She didn’t see my knife. I put it in her stomach three times, then I tossed her aside. I lay there on the ground with her and I watched her die. It took hours.”

  “Where’s Nats now?”

  “She’s buried by the water. Breanne and Caroline are buried by the wall. I wanted to toss them to the zombies, but…”

  “But what?”

  He runs his hand over his face briskly. “I thought better of it.”

  “It would have been an aggressive move for this crowd.”

  “That’s what I thought, but they were pretty eager to throw out that option tonight.”

  “You were already thinking of ruling this place the second I killed Caroline, weren’t you? Or was it when they asked you to go home and bring back help?”

  He chuckles darkly. “I’ve been thinking about ruling this place since we walked in the door.”

  “You’ll never be able to keep it. Not once word gets out that you have it.”

  “I know that.”

  “Marlow will want it and you’ll have to give it. You owe him a lot.”

  “I don’t owe anybody anything,” he replies, his tone harsh.

  I glance over at him to find his jaw clenched tightly, the muscles working under his skin.

  “You care about this place, don’t you?”

  “I always watch after what’s mine.”

  “This isn’t like the stables, though. Those were Marlow’s. This is real to you, isn’t it? This place really means something.”

  He sighs heavily, the air sliding past his lips for what feels like eternity. When he finally speaks his voice is shockingly soft, all of the anger seeming to have slipped out of him.

  “In The Hive people feared me. There were a few that knew me better than the others, ones who weren’t afraid of me, but they were of Marlow. That entire place is run on fear. I never knew there was any other way.”

  “They respect you here, I can see it. I saw it in the rec room when you talked to them. They listened and it was because they love you, not fear you.”

  He nods. “It’s different.”

/>   “And you don’t want to go back to the old way?”

  “I don’t know what I want.”

  “I think you do.”

  “I’m surprised about your boy,” Vin says suddenly.

  “Oh yeah?” I ask, thrown by the change of subject. “Why’s that?”

  “Because he’s Ryan Hyperion,” Vin replies like it’s obvious. “Kevin was a big deal in the Arena, and everyone—me included—was sure Ryan would follow him. He’s a hell of a fighter.”

  I eye him shrewdly. “Is that respect I hear in your voice?”

  Vin grins. “It might have crept in there.”

  “So you approve?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Can’t tell you what that means to me,” I mutter sarcastically, but part of me means it. There’s a weird feeling of satisfaction knowing Vin is impressed by Ryan. Ever since I met him, part of me has worried about Ryan a little. He’s not exactly soft, but… I don’t know. I think I worry he’s too nice. I see it as a weakness.

  “You’re not gonna fight me about calling him ‘your boy’?” Vin teases.

  I roll my eyes. “What would be the point?”

  “Are you admitting it’s true?”

  I feel my cheeks flush instantly hot and pink. I know he can see it. I know I have weaknesses of my own.

  “Yeah,” I grumble.

  “What’s with you?”

  “I’m embarrassed!” I snap, feeling more annoyed than embarrassed at the moment.

  Vin nods slowly, looking out over the water. “Yeah, I get that.”

  “Really? Then maybe you can explain it to me ‘cause I don’t understand it at all.”

  He doesn’t answer at first. I think he’s going to ignore my outburst, but then he’s talking soft and low.

  “It’s because you’re worried it makes you weak. You’re afraid and that’s embarrassing enough as it is, but what you’re afraid of is even worse. You’re afraid that you care. That you have something to lose. There’s a lot of angry and a lot more ugly out there and most of it wants to destroy, steal, kill, or just plain ruin anything and everything we have the gall to give a shit about. So in a way, yeah, how you feel about him does make you weak and that’s embarrassing for fighters like you and I.”

  He glances over at me, his face striking in the glowing yellow light of the fading sun. His eyes are strange to me. Maybe it’s a trick of the light or maybe it’s a trick of this life, but they’re warmer than I’ve ever seen them. More genuine.

  “It’s dangerous for us to love anyone,” he says, his voice deep. Husky.

  Horrifying.

  My stomach drops out. I’ll go look for it later somewhere in the basement of the building beneath me, but for now I feel the hollow space where it’s supposed to be. My pure fear and anxiety must register on my face because Vin laughs, shaking his head and turning away. When he glances at me sideways with that sly grin of his, the one that’s pure hotness and sex appeal, I relax a little. He looks like himself again.

  “Calm down, Kitten. I’m not in love with you.”

  “I—I didn’t think—” I stutter, flustered and confused.

  “Yes, you did. You definitely thought it.”

  I smack him hard on the arm. “Well, the way you said it was pretty leading!”

  “I meant it the way it sounded. I love you.”

  I am so lost.

  “What the hell is happening?” I ask weakly.

  “I’m not in love with you, all right? Take it easy. I’m shockingly advanced. I can have a soft spot for a woman without have a hard one for her too, you get me?”

  “Gross.”

  “So, yeah, I love you, Kitten,” he says plainly. “And that’s embarrassing for me but I’m dealing with it.”

  “You’re dealing with it better than I’m dealing with Ryan.”

  “It’s because it’s different. The way you feel about him, it’s soft and it’s hard.”

  “Quit saying it like that.”

  “Quit being a prude. Sex isn’t dirty.” He winks at me. “Not unless you want it to be.”

  “I will leave,” I warn him. “I will stand up right now and leave this place forever.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “How do you know I won’t?”

  “You won’t because you missed me. You’re happy being here.”

  He’s right—I feel the most at ease I have in a long time. I feel centered. Safe. I feel like he doesn’t want anything from me that I can’t give or anything that I want to give but I’m not sure how. Being with Vin is… I don’t know. It’s good. Like being alone without being lonely.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  “I hate you,” I tell him, looking away.

  He nudges my shoulder with his. “You love me too, Kitten.”

  “Shut up.”

  He slings his arm around my shoulders, pulling me in close to him. “Are you going to ask what you’re dying to ask?”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you’ll probably lie to me.”

  He chuckles, the sound vibrating through his chest and into my shoulder tucked against him. “You’re tougher than that. Ask anyway.”

  “If it comes down to it, who will you side with? Me or Marlow?”

  He sighs with his whole body. I feel his chest expand against my shoulder. His hand squeezes me to him once, hard and brief, before going lax again.

  “I don’t know.”

  I nod, not surprised and not mad. I’m not even a little bit hurt because I get it. I understand being torn between two choices, none of which seem like good ones. I get trying to find loyalty inside yourself when you’ve never needed to know it before.

  Vin and I, we’re a lot alike. We’re loners at heart. He may surround himself with people but he doesn’t align himself with them. For as much as he connects to them, he may as well be alone. But now the world is changing and it’s asking more from both of us. It’s forcing people into our space, into our lives. Neither of us is good at being cornered or pressured. Odds are we’ll lash out eventually.

  Or run.

  Chapter Ten

  I leave Vin to sit on his perch on his castle, pondering its fate and his. From the roof I spotted Ryan down in the gardens so I make my way down to him. He’s wandering around, checking out what’s growing, even pulling a stray weed here and there like he knows what he’s doing. The movement gives me a weird feeling of déjà vu.

  “How do you know you’re not uprooting a carrot when you do that?” I ask him.

  He smiles when he turns to face me. “Carrots don’t flower.”

  “Could be a tomato.”

  “They grow above ground. All these years on your own and you don’t know much about gardening, do you?”

  I shrug. “I was lucky. I had Crenshaw. Where did you learn?”

  “Crenshaw.”

  “Seriously?”

  “He’s been teaching me for years. I’ve been learning about medicine too. I had to with Kevin and what he did at the Arena. The stuff I brought you for your arm, he and I brewed that together.”

  “So that’s what all the ‘master’ and bowing stuff was about at his house?”

  Ryan nods. “I’m his apprentice.”

  “Huh.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing. It’s weird. He never offered to teach me.”

  “He didn’t offer to teach me either. I asked. But he’d never show you anyway. He said you don’t have the patience.”

  “When did you two talk about me?”

  Ryan tosses the weed out across the open grass. “The day you were a jerk to him.”

  I tense at the memory but I don’t argue with him. I was there, I know what I did. “I left you guys alone for like two minutes. Did you spend the whole time talking ugly about me while I stood right there?”

  “‘She doesn’t have your patience, Helios,’” he says in a nearly perfect Crenshaw drawl that makes me grin. “�
�It is why I never bothered to instruct her.’ That’s how much we talked about you.”

  “That’s it? Really? You didn’t say anything about me at all?”

  He grins. “I said you had other redeeming qualities that made up for your lack of patience.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like strength. Intelligence. Bravery. Humor.”

  “Pft,” I scoff. “I am not funny.”

  “I think you are.”

  “I think you’re laughing at me more often than with me.”

  He shrugs. “You’re still funny. And sweet, too.”

  “This is getting really far-fetched.”

  “What are you doing out here?” he asks, coming to stand in front of me.

  I look at the edge of the field where it meets the water. Where the wet green grass turns to brown mud in a perfect rectangle that’s just long enough.

  The laughter he built inside of me slips away.

  “I came to say goodbye to someone,” I say hoarsely.

  “Who is it?”

  “Nats.”

  “I’m so sorry, Joss. Do you want company?”

  “I’m not going over there.”

  “Okay. What are you going to do?”

  “I never got to bury my parents,” I blurt out, my eyes still on the mound. I can feel Ryan’s surprise in the air around us, but he stays silent. Waiting. “I was too young to do it alone and I didn’t go back into the house after it happened. I was hiding in my dad’s car for a long time. Days. I probably would have died in there, but eventually a family found me. It was a mom and a dad and two kids. Both boys. They took me with them. It was stupid because I was worthless. I could barely walk I was so weak and I didn’t speak a word. Not for weeks. The first time I spoke was to tell them zombies were in the building.” I swallow hard, remembering how my throat hurt as I screamed, using my voice for the first time in too long. Using it too hard. Too late. “They all died. Even the boys. I didn’t see it because I ran. I left them. I tried to warn them, but I left them. Two more groups took me in after that. Two more times I saw everyone around me die. Torn apart the way Bryan tore apart that girl in the showers. I stopped talking again. I got quieter. Faster. I started moving alone because packs will get you heard and get you killed. People are dead weight. Even me. I knew I was worthless to whoever picked me up, so I stopped letting them. I started running from people and zombies and animals. Everything. Nothing was safe. I knew I had to be smart. I had to be fast and silent. A ghost.”