I could hear the smile in his words. Amazing. You’re amazing. I’m going to turn back. Can you wait here for a moment? It should only take a few minutes.
I nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
He turned and loped off into the trees. A few minutes later, he emerged, and I stared at him with wide eyes. He had indeed shifted back to his human form. However, that wasn’t why I was staring. It was because he was completely naked.
I jerked my gaze away. It wasn’t easy though, Jackson had the body of a gladiator. I had known that he was in good shape, but it was quite different seeing it firsthand. Also, I was mortified; it’s not every day I saw a naked man.
My cheeks flooded with heat as he approached me, and he laughed at the way I kept my gaze up at the stars. “Sorry, Darling, my clothes aren’t far from here, but I didn’t want to stay in Wolf form too long with you around. My Wolf tends to run on instincts, and you invoke some pretty strong instincts.”
I shrugged. “It’s okay… How far are your clothes?”
He laughed again. “Not far, but if you take off your shirt I can use it to cover up.”
I shook my head and couldn’t help a smile. “Nice try.”
He threw his arm over my shoulder, further embarrassing me. “Suit yourself.”
We found his clothes a few minutes later, which actually was just a pair of jeans. After he slipped them on, I gave him a big hug and a quick kiss on the lips. “Thank you,” I said.
He wrapped his arms around me, and I became acutely aware of the feel of his warm skin against mine. Pulling myself closer to him, I allowed my fingers to explore the hard muscles in his back. When he pushed the hair off my neck with his nose, the same feeling I’d had moments ago came rushing back, this time stronger. There was something enticing about standing in the middle of a dark forest with him so close to me. He inhaled deeply again and then pulled back to look at me. His eyes glowed once more, and I was pretty sure mine had lit up gold as well.
“You’re very welcome. But what were you doing out here again? I told you it can be dangerous.”
I smiled, still very much wrapped up in his proximity. “I’ve never been good at taking directions, Jack.”
He raised an eyebrow. “But apparently, you’re good at evading questions.”
I sighed and stepped out of his arms. I hated lying to him, but it’s not like I could tell the truth. “I’ve been stressing a lot lately… and the forest seems to give me some peace. I like to run out here, it helps me think.” That wasn’t a total lie.
He considered this. “Okay, but, for me, will you try to do it during the day? The Wolves usually only run at night, so you should be okay if you stick to daylight hours,” he said in a serious tone.
I nodded, understanding that he was just worried about me.
“Okay, I’ll try.”
He stared at me for a moment as if he wasn’t sure I was telling the truth. I guess he accepted my answer, though, because he took my hand. “Let’s get back in case Victoria decides to show up again. I think she was going for your throat.”
I nodded, and a little anger spiraled in my stomach. “Yeah, I think she was.”
Chapter Fifty-One
We made it back to the city, exiting the woods near the school. The sight of the building seemed to inspire a thought. “What time is it?” I asked.
Jack instinctively glanced down at his bare wrist and winced. “Not sure, but it’s probably around nine. Why?”
I didn’t know what to say so that I could get away from him. It’s not that I didn’t want to be around him, it’s just that I wanted to do this on my own. “I need to go to the library,” I said. It wasn’t a lie, mainly because I couldn’t think of one fast enough.
“Okay, I’ll walk you… I didn’t know you did homework.” I raised an eyebrow at that last part. “I read a lot.” That was true. “But it’s okay, you don’t have to come, because if I’m going to make it there before they close, I’m going to have to run.” That must have sounded cool; now all I needed was a pocket protector. I turned and looked him up and down. “And anyway, Jack, you’re half-naked.”
Jackson’s eyebrows shot up in disbelief. “You are going to ‘run’ to the library so that you can get there before it closes? Did they just get the new copy of Harry Potter or something?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “The last copy of that came out years ago.”
His expression turned a little impressed. “You do read a lot.”
“What? Everyone knows—” I shook my head. “Never mind, I just need to pick up a book I’ll need for class tomorrow.” I was lying to him more and more. I didn’t like it, but I’d promised Soraya that I wouldn’t say anything to anyone. So really, I was just keeping someone else’s secret, right?
“Okay,” he said slowly.
I hopped onto my tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “Thanks again, Jack. I won’t forget what you did for me tonight. I’ll see you at lunch tomorrow.”
I took off running. I’m absolutely positive I looked like a total idiot, but I really did want to reach the library before it closed.
As it was, I arrived at the front of the small stone building just as the librarian was locking up for the night. It was the same older lady who had given me the journal. Upon seeing me, she opened the door and ushered me inside. She locked the door behind me, and her features flooded with concern. “Warrior, is everything alright?” she asked.
I ran the back of my hand across my forehead to wipe away the sweat. I ran every day, but I didn’t run my fastest very often, and I was a little winded. I pulled in a harsh breath. “I’m fine,” I breathed. “I just wanted to catch you before you left for the night.”
She smiled, but still looked confused. “Alright, well what can I help you with, dear?”
I smiled back at her choice of an endearment term. She would remind me of my grandmother, if I’d ever had one. In fact, I think she was the only person I’d met at Two Rivers who could qualify for old, and even so, just barely. “Do you believe in what that journal said?” I asked, deciding to cut to the chase.
She nodded slowly and gave me a knowing, half smile. “Ahh, so that’s what’s got you rushing over here.” She studied me for a moment before continuing. “Yes, I do.”
“Then you know why everyone here seems to think that I am going to save them from something,” I replied.
Again, she hesitated. “I would say that I understand why they would think that, yes.”
“From what?” I asked.
Her brow furrowed. “I beg your pardon?”
“What do they think I will save them from?”
She spoke in a whisper, almost as if she was afraid to say. “From an inevitable future.”
I threw up my arms. “What are you talking about? Why does everything have to be such a mystery around here?”
She glanced around uneasily. “Please, Warrior, I would ask that you lower your voice. This is a library after all.”
I turned to leave, but she stopped me as my hand reached for the door. “Look around you, Warrior, and listen to those instincts you try so hard to ignore. You can feel that something is off,” she whispered, nearly inaudible. “Look at the people and places here, and compare them to the world that you knew outside of these walls.”
I turned my head and pushed open the door. “Yeah, thanks.”
“I understand your anger. You are a Warrior, after all, but I can say no more. I do not wish to speed up what little time I have left.” Grabbing a random book off a nearby shelf, she shoved it into my arms and gave me a slight push out the door. “Good luck with your test tomorrow, Warrior,” she said in a normal voice.
“Thank you,” I repeated, then, I stepped back out into the night.
Looked like I was going to have to get some answers on my own.
I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be all that easy.
Chapter Fifty-Two
The next morning in Patterson’s class, Tommy and I had ju
st finished what Patterson called “boot camp.” It involved an exhausting regimen of push-ups and jumping jacks. Though I was sure my hair was a mess, Tommy’s was still neat and perfect. We spoke while we caught our breath.
“What happened to you yesterday after that Warrior came to get you?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I guess you could call it a one-day-unofficial suspension.”
His face lit up with understanding. “For the thing with Victoria?”
I nodded and searched for a change in subject. “By the way, I decided I do want to go to the fight this weekend.”
That sly smile came over his handsome face. “Really? What made you change your mind?”
“I just thought it might be… educational.”
He laughed at that. “Do you realize that will be our first date?”
I shifted my feet. “Actually, I’m with Jackson.”
He waved this off. “Only until you fall in love with me.”
I raised an eyebrow at that assumption. “Is that so?”
He looked at me like the answer was obvious. “Why, yes, it is.
Now go get changed and I’ll walk you to History class.” “Yes, sir,” I said sarcastically, giving a small salute.
He smiled and headed off to the boys’ locker room. I rolled my eyes and went to go wash up before my next class. I wasn’t annoyed with Tommy. He made me laugh. But I still found it unnerving that guys were interested in me. I’d always been told that I was beautiful, so it wasn’t that my self-esteem was low, it was just that human guys had always stayed away from me. Actually, all humans had always avoided me, but here, people didn’t avoid me at all. They wanted to be around me, they liked me. It was easy to get used to, because out of everything that had been happening, a little friendship was one thing I could welcome with open arms.
In History class, while the teacher was giving her lecture, I scribbled down a list of things I knew. If I was going to keep missing meals, I might as well try to figure out what was really going on around here. Writing things down always seemed to help me work things out in my head, but I used abbreviations for everything that I wrote so that no one would see it and raise eyebrows. Maybe I was just paranoid.
But this is what I knew: Two Rivers was an extravagant city out in the middle of nowhere, flanked on all sides by very high walls. It sat in the middle of two rivers that I assumed kept out the Lamia, who can’t cross running water. Two Rivers’ inhabitants were either Wolf or vampire, and no one I’d met had mixed blood. Everyone here was decent-looking, and very few were old enough to be a grandparent. So, basically, there were no elderly or “unfit” people here.
However, within these same walls, between the same rivers, there was a village of the greatest poverty I had ever personally been witness to. The people at this village ranged in all ages, and many were either very old or very young. As far as I knew, they had mixed races among them—Soraya was an example of that. These people were what seemed like castaways, people who wouldn’t fit in at Two Rivers—with all of its youth and beauty. People who weren’t treated like people at all, but instead, like food. They were made to give blood to an unknown tyrant source or face dire consequences. They were people who needed help. Help I wasn’t sure I could give.
But these two places, within the same walls, had similarities. They both seemed to believe that they were in need of rescue, despite their extreme differences. It was obvious that the villagers needed saving, but was it possible that both peoples were slaves in different ways?
Last, and definitely not least, they both—hoped? believed?—that I was going to deliver this freedom. They all seemed to understand things that I didn’t, and they all were afraid to speak about it. I needed to find out first what was going on at Two Rivers. I needed to find out if the people who were no longer useful were sent to live as blood slaves in poverty-stricken villages, and I needed to know why they would be milked for their blood when human blood supplied the city. But I needed to do this without drawing attention to myself, and that was the hard part.
There were a few other things I needed to figure out too. And most of them involved Kayden. I knew I should just go talk to him, but I hadn’t had time yet. I wanted to do it before the weekend, which meant that I needed to do it tomorrow.
Really, I didn’t want to seek him out at all. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answers to the questions I knew I had to ask. It made me feel cowardly, but I was afraid. Afraid to hear him confirm my greatest fear, that I held something inside of me that was similar to a ticking bomb, something that he alone could tame. It’s not that I didn’t like him; it’s that I liked him too much. I felt so vulnerable around him, so dependent. But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that I also felt ecstatic around him. I felt like I should just wrap myself up in his arms and stay there forever, with him forever. And, now, I knew that whatever I thought he felt toward me was just a result of our genes. He only wanted to be around me to ease the fire inside of him, not because he just liked me. I was baffled at how sad that thought made me.
But at the very least, I needed to talk to him about Soraya. It may have been misplaced, but I wanted an explanation. I wanted an explanation as to why his niece was living in such horrid conditions, while he was here living a plush life. I knew that wasn’t entirely fair. Hell, I had known about the village for a couple of days now and hadn’t come up with any ideas on how to help, so what should I have expected him to do? All I knew is that something had to be done, and—whether I liked it or not—he was my best hope as to figuring out what that something was. I was going to have to talk to him. And I needed to do it before my body completely gave out from lack of food. Classes were already becoming painfully difficult for me.
“Do you know the answer, Miss Montgomery?” the teacher asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I hadn’t even heard the question.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Redman, the answer to what?” I asked.
She smiled at me, teeth gleaming behind red lipstick. “Do you know why Warrior Basil would lead a revolt against the people he had long protected?”
I had read about this Warrior on that day I’d spent in the library doing research on my people. Basil was an infamous Warrior who had led the revolt of my race against the other races when they’d tried to enslave the Warriors. He’d given his life by taking a stand against the king of his time, and he’d died for it. He’d been the first to die, actually.
“Because he felt that no one else could do it,” I said. “And one life is worth sacrifice when it’s given for the lives of countless others. He did it for freedom, so that his people could live out of the reach of slavery.”
Mrs. Redman nodded slowly and her smile grew. “Very good,
Warrior, very good.”
Yeah, that was just great.
Chapter Fifty-Three
By lunchtime, I was unsurprisingly famished. I felt as though my feet were dragging cinder blocks, and my muscles seemed to be reluctant against the command to walk. But, I knew I was so close to figuring things out, because while my body was weak, my mind was clear and strong. If I could just keep fasting for a little longer, maybe I would find my answers. I just hoped I didn’t die of starvation first.
At the lunch table, Nelly shot me worried looks as I pushed my food around on the plate. I had lied and told her that I’d eaten already, but like always, Nelly knew something was up. I was never one to skip meals. My pale skin and drooping eyelids probably didn’t help either.
“You okay, darling?” Jackson whispered to me. “You look a little sick.”
I gave a weak smile. “I’m fine. Just been having trouble sleeping.”
Concern filled his features. “Is there anything I can do?”
I shook my head. “No, but thanks. I really am fine.”
I turned to the others, who were engulfed in conversation. “Do you guys want to go to the fight this weekend?”
Tommy leaned back in his chair and gave a sly smile. “Yeah, Alexa and I
are going.”
Jackson’s eyes narrowed slightly, and I was pretty sure that was Tommy’s intention. I tried not to sigh in frustration. I didn’t have the energy for this right now.
Right on cue, Nelly came to the rescue. “Sure, we’ll go.” She looked at Daniel, who nodded and then at Jackson, who nodded as well.
“Great,” said Nelly. “I was hoping to spend some time with you this weekend.”
I smiled. “Me too.”
After lunch, Jackson walked me through the courtyard as the others split for their next class. I broke the silence first.
“What’s up, Jack?” I asked, though I had a feeling I knew what.
He ran a hand through his hair and his green eyes looked down at his feet. “I don’t want you to think that I’m the jealous boyfriend type or anything, but…”
I raised an eyebrow and gave a half smile. “But, you kinda are?”
When he didn’t respond, I placed my hand on his cheek. “You have nothing to worry about. Tommy and I are just friends.”
He smiled. Pulling me into a tight hug, he said, “Sorry, I should’ve known that. It’s just the Wolf in me. We tend to be a little territorial.”
I laughed. “Well, you don’t have to pee on me or anything.” His smile turned genuine. “I’m not interested in Tommy that way, so you have nothing to worry about,” I repeated. It was only half a lie.
He kissed my forehead and stepped back. “I better go before I’m late. See you later.”
I gave him another quick kiss and headed off to my next class, which was Conditioning. I had a feeling that it might be a little more difficult for me to keep up today. I just hoped that we weren’t running up stairs this time.
We ended up just doing a circuit of weight-lifting exercises, and I struggled through with less-than-impressive efforts. The instructor even asked me if I needed to see the nurse, but I declined, using my lack of sleep excuse. He gave me a suspicious look and told me to take it easy today. I didn’t tell him that I was taking it easy.
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