She moaned again, still scratching, and went into the kitchen. “What time is it?” she asked, and by the muffling of her voice, I guessed she’d unlocked the fridge and had stuck her head in to look for whatever junk she made my shake with.
“Just after six. Asher said to be ready by six-thirty.” Or rather, he had told Sophia to tell me to be ready by six-thirty. That bugged me, made me wonder if he was avoiding me because he hated me or because he wanted to touch me as much as I wanted to touch him. I hadn’t seen even a hint of him over the last three days. I wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a punishment. Nah. Definitely a blessing.
“Stupid Asher. Of all the hours in the day, he had to pick this one. This is my favorite time to sleep, dammit.” Jars clinked together. Cupboards opened and clapped shut. “I’ll try to make this one more palatable and heavier on the protein. I have a feeling you’re going to need it today.”
“And you really won’t tell me what he’ll have me doing?” I wished I could have stopped the clock over the door into the kitchen from clicking another second off.
“It’s different for all of us. Remy just put me through some basic self-defense stuff, weapons training, and that’s it. By the time we got through that, he figured out I was a dud, and that was the end of my training.” She sighed hard enough that I heard it through the door. “Except for orientation for this job, but I’m kind of a natural at sewing. I think maybe I had an affinity for design before I came here. At least I didn’t get a crappy job, like that poor guy, Kyle. Could you imagine having to clean up after a cleansing?”
Nobody should have to do that, guardian or otherwise. “Wait … you make all of the clothes? The uniforms and everything?”
“Well, duh. Where else would they come from, designed for our custom shoulder holsters and stuff? These things don’t come off the rack, you know.”
“Wow, that’s amazing,” I said, wishing I could see her face. “I mean, I can hardly mend a sock without it looking like a rat’s nest. I’m really impressed.”
“Um … thanks.” Her grin carried through her tone. “Nobody ever cares about what I do. They just think I’m a doe-headed needle-pusher and not much else.” The blender roared, mixing my gut-twisting breakfast.
Idiots, all of them. How could they not see how amazing she was?
I’d rebuilt some of my crumbled emotional walls over the last day or two. My survival demanded it. I’d put Dad out of my mind, just a warm presence lingering in the background. I could go home to him whenever I wanted. Denial, denial, denial. I’d shoved the wraiths into a mental closet, too.
I’d avoided the mirror. That way when my corneas finally changed from brown to blue, I wouldn’t have to see it.
Sophia came out of the kitchen with my giant tumbler sloshing over with green slime and a bowl of cereal for herself. I’d have given anything to have that cereal.
Eyes still puffy from sleep, or lack of it, she sat down across from me and shoved the drink across the table. “Sorry, but you really will appreciate it later. I’ll have more ready for you when you crash.”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever appreciate this crap, but thanks for not letting me starve.” I sipped the drink, gagging at the texture and vile spread of ground spinach and whatever else that slid across my tongue. “God, this is torture. How am I supposed to live on this? I’m starving, and I think hunger pangs are better than drinking this.”
Her eyes crinkled at the corners. “You should see the look on your face. Sorry, but that’s funny right there.” Laughter bubbled out of her, gaining momentum the more she let out.
I laughed with her, because I’d always rather do that than be grouchy if I could manage it. As I sipped the sludge, I glanced at the door, thoughts wiggling up from wherever they’d been stewing.
“This place is all wrong.” My idea began to grow, take shape, and it made me aware of a discomfort in me, like a twisted muscle or a joint that needed to crack before it would be comfortable again. “Narrow hallways, locked doors, tiny gray spaces … it’s like someone is trying to depress everyone who comes here, steal their heart or spirit or whatever. It’s not supposed to be like this. This is supposed to be the heart, the center of the Machine, and it’s supposed to be a place for camaraderie and learning and bonding, and that’s what makes the Machine run.” I squinted at that. “Okay, that was really creepy. It’s like someone else’s thoughts just came out of my mouth.”
Sophia sat up straighter, all traces of sleepiness disappearing to leave her bright-eyed and frizzy-haired. “Whose thoughts? And what does that mean? This place has always been like this.”
“That you know of,” I said, my brows squishing together harder as I tried to grasp at the thoughts bingo-balling around in my head. Cold fear went for a trot down my spine. Was I inhabited by a wraith? Did one slip into me while I was sleeping? Another thought—No, you are as you as you should be—came almost on top of my worry.
I didn’t have time to decipher my newest oddity, because someone came through the door, and not the someone I’d been expecting.
Sophia came to her feet. “What are you doing here, Marcus?”
“Is that any way to greet your superior?” he asked, and even though his tone remained light and joking, his jade-star eyes promised mischief and maybe a little mayhem. He wore black fatigues and a black tank, showing off the swell of his shoulders and the definition in his toned arms. He could probably bench press my Civic and do it without grunting. The same good ol’ country-boy charm shone from his face, and his full lips twisted up in what seemed to be perpetual amusement. “I’m just stopping in to check on the fresh meat before she gets tenderized.”
Oh, that made me feel muuuch better. The clock said it was already quarter after six. I was beginning to believe Sophia, that I’d be thankful for the energy boost later, and I only had fifteen minutes to down my sludge, so I picked it up and gulped it down while Marcus watched.
Gag me with a freakin’ baseball bat. I’d be lucky if I didn’t barf green slime all morning. “Where’s Asher?” I asked.
Marcus shrugged. “Probably off sulking somewhere.”
Sounded like something he’d do. “Sulking about what?” That I’d thought he was a monster? That I’d seen his memories? I had no idea exactly what had earned me the level of wrath I’d received three days ago.
“That’s what I need to know.” He refocused on Sophia, and she came down to a defensive crouch between us. “Leave us,” he said.
“No,” she ground out. “She’s to focus on training, no distractions.”
He outranked her, so why wasn’t she just leaving?
“You can walk away, or be carried out on a stretcher and be brought up on charges of insubordination.” His stare, somehow angry and amused at once, shifted to me. “Your choice.”
Ah, that sly bastard. It was my choice, because he was making it so. Sophia would stay and get hurt trying to protect me unless I told her to go. Were they all manipulative asshats? I was beginning to think so. Except for Remy.
Surprisingly, I was more afraid of Sophia getting hurt than I was of being alone with Marcus. I touched her arm, and she jumped. “Go. I’ll be fine. Just come and get me when Asher gets here. I don’t want to be late and give him a reason to grouch at me.”
Laughing, rich and dark and sensuous, Marcus went to the door and held it open. “Out you go, Outfitter. Three’s a crowd.”
Okay, maybe I’d made a mistake. I suddenly did not want to be alone with him after he’d said that. Sophia seemed to sense it, because she turned to me and asked, “Are you sure?”
Hell no. “Yeah. I’m good.”
Face pinched in a scowl, she nodded and pitter-patted out the door. I once again found myself locked in with the beast. The only difference was that I didn’t want to touch this one or to let him touch me. Somehow I didn’t think the feeling was mutual.
Chapter 20
“What do you want, Marcus?” I put the solid table between us. Like that
would help. Illusions kept my panic at bay, though, so I stayed behind the table. “Shouldn’t you be out hunting wraiths or … whatever else you do?” What else did they do? Did some of the sentinels have homes in the real world? Did they go to theaters and play golf?
“I want to know what’s got Asher so spooked.” Marcus sauntered forward, his arms out in the universal “I’m harmless” pose. He was charming, subtly arrogant, but definitely not harmless. “Your eyes haven’t changed, and your energy is still muted, so I’m guessing something … exciting happened between you and Asher in the chamber?”
I swallowed. It hurt. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. And I thought whatever happened in the chamber stayed in the chamber, like in Vegas. Isn’t that how it works?”
As he rounded the table, I mirrored him, keeping the table between us. Déjà vu. Hadn’t Asher and I just done this? “Come here, little rabbit. I need a brief touch, and I’ll get you to the training room on time. You already know I’m not going to let you leave until I get what I want, so be a good girl and come here without a fuss.” He spoke as if we were having a light conversation, but the coldness in his stare suggested otherwise.
I rushed for the door. He beat me there, slamming his palm against it. Heart crashing against my ribs, I backed into the dim part of the common room with Marcus stalking me, his grin growing ever wider. “You’re not allowed to touch me, remember?” I asked. A girl could try. “I kind of like my blood inside my body, thanks.”
“Brief skin contact won’t harm anything; only too much indulgence will. And as a sentinel, I can pretty much do whatever I want, and having a little feel will help to make sure you’re trained properly.”
“And what will your touching teach me?” I bumped into the wall.
“That I’m bigger and stronger and wiser than you, and you should obey me when I tell you to do something.” He crowded me, shoving his palm beside my head when I tried to slide away. “Be very still, little rabbit, and the wolf might let you walk away after he’s done scaring you.”
A frown creased my forehead. “Careful, sentinel,” I said. “Remy said I’m more like a fox than a rabbit. I might hide in the grass, but back me into a corner, and you’ll find out that I have teeth.”
He went mad-scientist with laughter. The sound slid over me like a lecherous, sensual touch. “I like your spirit. Now, hold still. I won’t hurt you.” I’d heard that before. Right before Asher stuck a blade in me. Twice.
Marcus raised his hand, holding it in front of my face as if giving me time to prepare. His fingers brushed a few springs of my hair that had come out of the messy knot at the top of my head. He closed his eyes, moaning. Could he really feel my storm, or energy, or whatever he called it?
Turning his hand, he brushed the backs of his fingers against my cheek. A surge of heat cannoned out of my depths, like lightning that had found something to take it into the ground, just as it had with Asher, only not nearly as intense by half. I might have screamed if I could have breathed, but my throat locked it out.
Iridescent blue patterns rose faintly under his skin all the way to his elbow before he jerked back and stared at his hand as if surprised to find it attached to him. “What was … how did you do that?”
I sprinted for the exit while he continued to eyeball his fingers. Before I got there, Asher blew in like a hurricane, the door slamming back into the wall as he came through it. “What are you doing here, Marcus?” he asked in a venomous singsong tone that raised all of the hairs on my nape. He stared past me as if I wasn’t there, his fury choking the room like volcanic smoke.
Dark laughter drew my gaze around to Marcus, who leaned against the pinball machine in the far corner, petting his hand over his jaw. “You’ve been holding out on me, Ash old boy. No wonder you’ve been trying so hard to keep her to yourself. If the contest had been weapons or tests of power, you’d have lost. How fortunate for you.” So that was why Marcus outranked Asher? He was a better marksman? What kind of test of power could they have done? I heard an unspoken accusation in the last. Had Asher and the Colonel rigged the fight so Asher would win? If it had only been Asher, I wouldn’t have been surprised, but the Colonel, too?
“Get out, Initiate,” Asher said without sparing me a glance. “Get to the training room. Tardiness won’t be tolerated no matter who stands in your way.”
The tension in the room soared, along with the testosterone. Were they about to come to blows? With the prickle of energy crawling up my skin, I decided I wouldn’t stick around to find out. But what if Marcus hurt him? When I hesitated, he barked, “I said get out!”
I got out. My pulse jumped in my neck as I rushed down the hallway, chastising myself for worrying about that grouchy bear. The door slammed shut. Angry voices collided behind it.
Sophia stood at the very end of the hallway, arguing with someone through an open door. When I came near enough to see her tight expression, I halted.
“This is wrong, Addison. This is so wrong, I can’t stand it.” Shaking her head, she marched away, disappearing through the door that would take her back to the barracks.
What was in there? I’d have thought Asher if he wasn’t still screaming obscenities at Marcus in the common room. I pictured the original torture chamber I imagined he would have in his office in the AL back at Waterloo. I pictured a room full of wraiths. Neither image matched the near-violent look Sophia had flashed before her abrupt departure.
I considered running. Hiding. If Asher wasn’t holding my memories hostage, I’d have done it, I was that scared. I didn’t run. Nope, I made myself move into the open doorway and peer inside. Go, me.
Remy towered over Kat, so close they could have kissed if her spike-heeled boots were five inches taller. She smiled a you-can’t-touch-me smile. They stayed like that while I wandered farther into another stadium-sized room, and I wondered if they were playing a sort of touch chicken. The first one to back off was the chicken, and if one touched the other, well, I wasn’t sure what would happen. Something violent that included a lot of swearing. Maybe blood if what Sophia and Asher were trying to sell me was actually true.
I tore my gaze from King Kong and Ice Princess to survey the room. It had that hollow quality that comes with very large rooms and high ceilings. I had a silly urge to shout “echo” to see how many times my voice came back to me. It was a torture chamber of sorts. A track, one of those rubberized ones some indoor gyms had, ran a ring around the perimeter. In the center oval, there were several stations. One held weight-lifting areas, complete with barbells and benches. Nautilus-style gym equipment took up another quadrant, with torture—er—weight training machines with racks of weights you could change by moving the pin up and down the stack. Beyond that, mats covered the floor, the kind I’d seen through the window of the local dojo where I grew up.
“Get gone, Kat. Won’ tell you again,” Remy said, his voice growly. “Get on, now, or I prove jus’ how much I outrank you. Wit’ heat, jalike.” I wondered if he’d really hit a girl before I remembered what Marcus had said, that she was just a guy who happened to be born without a penis.
Kat smiled wider, her fair skin radiant with whatever had tickled her. The cat who’d eaten not only the canary but the whole damn flock and licked up a few bowls of cream afterward. “And I won’t tell you again, you might outrank me, but you don’t outrank Asher. He wants me here, so I’m here.”
What? I blinked at her. “Why does he want you here?”
They both snapped their heads around as if I’d just pulled a David Copperfield and appeared from thin air. Kat faced me, dressed almost identically to Marcus in black fatigues and a black tank that hugged her tight body and small, perky boobs. Her white-blonde hair was drawn up into a high ponytail at the back of her head. She appeared stunning and lethal all in one, and I once again felt like a ragamuffin beside her.
Whatever she was about to say amused her. Her eyes sparkled with it. “Because he said you weren’t worth his time, so he asked
me to go through basic training with you.”
My stomach drew up tight, and my vile slime-shake breakfast thought about making an encore appearance. Frantic swallowing kept it down. A miracle, that. Was he really so mad that he couldn’t even stomach being in the room with me? And why would he choose her of all of the sentinels?
Remy curled his fingers, his ready-for-violence stance adding a layer of menace that, along with his tattooed half, would have made me run from the room had I not known him just a little bit. “This wrong,” he said, echoing Sophia. “My brah should be get’n you through this. He your sensei, not this lolo wahine. Don’ believe what she say, don’ you dare. He know you worth a thousand of this one.”
Had they been her words or Asher’s? I supposed it didn’t matter. When my initial disappointment faded, fury rose. Either Asher was a coward, or he didn’t give a flying leap about the outcome of my judgment by the Colonel. If he sent Kat, then he wanted nothing more than to break me. I wouldn’t break, though. With the life I’d lived, I’d learned to bend a long time ago or I wouldn’t have survived it sane.
“It’s okay, Remy,” I said, my voice as steady as my resolve. “If my sensei doesn’t have the balls for the dirty work, then Kat will do just fine.” The pit of my gut told me she had no intention of teaching me anything. I grinned. This fox would show her just how much little teeth could hurt.
Kat’s smile faltered for such a brief moment, I might have missed it if I hadn’t been gawking at her. “Get lost, sentinel,” she said, jutting her narrow chin toward the door. “Us girls have some business to discuss.”
If that much drama surrounded everything they did, it was no wonder they were being overrun. Someone needs to take the bible, rip out the remaining pages full of lies, and assemble a new one. I stumbled over yet another foreign thought. A fleeting idea, that I’d like that job, haunted me before it took off again.
Remy shook his head as he strode toward me. “I find out what doin’,” he whispered, stopping beside me. He hesitated a moment before marching to the door and going out without a backward glance. Did he want to touch me? No, he was just pissed.
Darkside Sun (Entangled Embrace) Page 18