CASSIUS

by Alexi Ferreira

  “I know that hate.” I confess and see him nod.

  “That’s why I’m telling you this.” He says, “I want more than anything to find my mate, but then when I think of what happened to my sister, I don’t. What if they get hold of her as they have with your woman or Aria? The thought drives me crazy, and then I think what if they already have her.” his voice is hoarse with rage. “What I’m saying is you’ve found your source of peace, keep her safe and keep her close to you. At least you know that she’s safe, and I know you brother, you will give up your life to not have anything happen to someone that matters to you.” He finally looks up and directly at me and I can see the anguish in his eyes, the pain.

  He stands and starts to leave before I stop him, “Burkhart” he stops at my call but doesn’t turn. “Your mate will be fine, you will find her and she will bring you everything you looking for. I will make sure to be by your side if ever you need it, but like me brother you need to get rid of the hate in your heart.” When I’m finished he stands for a few seconds then nods before he exits the room.

  Leaning my head back against the headboard I close my eyes, instantly an image of Scarlett pops into my head. The anger coursing through my body instantly starts to ebb and I smile. My saving grace, deep down I know that I will never hurt her but like Burkhart I will hunt down and kill anyone that ever thinks to harm her.

  SCARLETT 12

  I had such a restless night, my nightmares wouldn’t leave me. I hate not having Cassius close, I miss him terribly. When I couldn’t stand it any longer I decided to phone him. It was around three in the morning but on my second ring he answered. “Baby, what’s wrong?” He asked as soon as he answered. After explaining to him that the memories wouldn’t leave me alone without him close, he started to talk about random things.

  He must have spoken to me for over an hour before I fell asleep, because when I woke up this morning I had a text from him. Wishing me a good morning and hoping that I didn’t have any more nightmares after I feel asleep, which I didn’t.

  Today the other women and I agreed to meet in Gabriela’s room; they think it would be prudent to find out more about Sven using all of our gifts. They told me about how they work together but today will be the first time that I’m actually going to use my gift in this way. For once in my life I feel like I’m part of something bigger, like I belong, like I’m doing something worthwhile.

  When I knock on the door Nova opens, “Yay, you here we can start.” She says excitedly.

  “Maybe you can let her in the door first.” Gabriela teases from inside. Entering I see Gabriela with one of her babies, while Brielle holds the other. They are so tiny that it’s scary to touch them, but Brielle insists that they are growing normally and that they are the normal size.

  “Morning” I greet, Jasmine is standing behind Aria as she massages her lower back, Aria is looking tired, I’m guessing she isn’t sleeping well in her last weeks of pregnancy. Nova has moved towards Orion that is sitting in a play pen. “Sorry I’m late, I didn’t sleep very well last night and then overslept this morning.”

  “Don’t worry about it, it’s not as if we can do much locked up in here.” Nova grumbles

  “It’s usually like that when they go away, and the longer they away the worse it gets. At least talking on the phone helps.” Jasmine says, “except when they are arguing with you.”

  “What was Wulf arguing about this time?” Gabriela asks as she lays the baby down in its cot next to the other one that moments before Brielle laid.

  “What do you think? Giving me a lecture to stay out of this business with Sven. Do you believe he told me to lock myself in the room with Orion until he got home?” She grumbles as she throws up her arms in frustration.

  “What did you tell him?” Nova asks

  “I told him I would stay in the room, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Besides, I don’t want him to worry about us while he’s in danger.” She says with a sigh

  “Are they in danger?” I ask as my stomach tightens in worry.

  “Of course, they’re in danger. When aren’t they in danger?” Gabriela grumbles as she goes to sit next to Aria.

  “Yeah, after Ceric found out about Sven he was phoning me every hour on the hour until I threatened to switch off my phone. He said he was making sure I was keeping out of trouble. Now, you tell me what kind of trouble I could possible get into when they lock our asses down.” She argues as she shakes her head.

  “Honey, you can get into trouble just sitting on a chair.” Gabriela teases, receiving a naughty smile from Nova.

  “Shall we start, this might take some time and I don’t want Orion to start fussing and interrupt us.” Jasmine suggests.

  “Great, let’s do this. Brielle you will be baby sitting right?” Nova asks

  “Yip, you guys don’t need me for this. I definitely don’t want to heal anything on that man if he’s the culprit for everything that has been happening here.” She mumbles.

  “Scarlett this is what’s going to happen, Jasmine will close her eyes and enter into a trance to see what the man is up too. Gabriela will touch Jasmine and see if she can see anything about his past or future. Nova will persuade him to tell her whatever we need to know. Aria will touch nova and read his mind. You can touch Jasmine and see what everyone is doing, because I’m sure the men will want to interrogate him and doing so they might call you in to hear his truths.” Brielle says

  “I’ve never done this before, what if I can’t see what the others are doing?” I ask

  “Don’t worry Scarlett, you’re one of us now. You will see, just close your eyes and let your mind take you.” Aria persuades with a warm smile.

  “Okay, let’s do this.” Nova says as Jasmine sits. Everyone gets into place, I approach all of them and sit on the floor with my hand on Jasmine’s ankle. This seems strange but here goes nothing, all I can do is try if nothing happens so be it.

  I see all of them close their eyes a relaxed look on their face, I do the same and wait. The first thing I notice is my heart start to race and then image after image bombards my mind. I realize that I’m seeing all his lies. Nausea attacks me, but I push it down as I start to concentrate on slowing down the images.

  As the images start to slow things start to make sense, I see his lies as he goes through the motions, but I know his truths. Then the horror of what I see next makes the tears overflow, how can someone be so twisted, so full of hate that they will go to these lengths to hurt people. I don’t know how long I look at this evil man’s soul and see all his twistedness but suddenly the link is severed.

  Opening my eyes, I see different expressions in the women’s faces. Jasmine’s eyes are still closed but I can sense that she’s conscious. “How can we have such a sick man among us and never have realized it.” Aria mumbles.

  “His been liaising with the Keres for a long time, I saw him talking to Merdor and Vercin.” Gabriela says. “His been involved with them even before Jasmine mated with Wulf.”

  “He has a grudge against all the Elemental’s” Aria says with a frown. “Apparently his mother was a mate to an Elemental, but she had already had him with another man before she met her mate. After bonding she had another baby, this one of course Elemental. Sven felt left out because his step brother was Elemental, and he wasn’t. He killed his brother, mom and stepdad.” Aria reveals

  “My goodness, he’s sick.” Brielle gasps

  “Our boy is doing what he is because Vercin promised him that they would change him. Apparently, they have started him with small doses of their blood, so the Elemental’s won’t notice.” Nova says

  “How many of us have been held by the Keres?” I whisper still reeling at what I now know.

  “Only Jasmine and I weren’t, the rest of you have. Why?” Gabriela asks as she walks towards her baby’s cot.

  “He’s the one that collected items from our men for the Keres to be able to tell who the mates were. His the one that was given the pri
vilege to inject us when we were held by them with a ticking bomb.” I say, at my words everyone stills and stares at me.

  “What do you mean?” Nova asks

  “Apparently we were injected with a small device that can kill us. Whenever they want they will press a switch and we will be dead.” I reveal and see the horror on their faces as they look at me. “They want to get the devices on all of us, so they can kill us all at the same time, that will ensure that our men will die too.”

  “Where did they inject us?” Brielle asks with a frown.

  “I don’t know.”

  “We have to tell the men not to let him know that his been caught out, otherwise they will never find out how or what kind of device is in our bodies.” Brielle suggests.

  “This is not good, you say it was that asshole that injected me?” Nova says angrily, “I will persuade him to tell us where he injected us and then I will make him slither on the ground naked like the snake he is.” She promises.

  “Nova, we need to think about this.” Aria says, “If he knows that were onto him he will disappear. We need to carry on being the same as always.”

  “I saw him talking to Vercin, he was handing over a t-shirt that I’ve seen Burkhart wear before, but the t-shirt had blood on it.” Jasmine says,

  “It’s probably to read his DNA and link him to his mate.” Brielle suggests.

  “Burkhart is going to lose it.” Aria says

  “They all going to lose it.” Gabriela grumbles.

  “We need to let them know, not to do anything when they arrive. They need to act normally, or Sven will know.” Jasmine suggests

  “I’ll phone Bjarni, he can talk to the guys.” Gabriela says

  “Are you mad, are you seeing Bjarni acting calm.” Jasmine asks with a raised eyebrow. “Let’s just phone Draco, if anything he will hold the men back.”

  “I’ll dial.” Nova says as she pulls out her phone, she places the call on speaker for us all to be able to hear the call.

  “Nova?” Draco answers questioningly.

  “Hi Draco, we need to tell you something?” she says

  “I’m kind of busy right now.” He grunts

  “Well you have to listen to this.” Gabriela chirps in.

  “Gabriela?” he mutters, “Great, I can see trouble coming. Fine, make it quick.”

  “You can’t do anything when you arrive, you can’t let Sven know that we’re onto him.” Brielle states. There’s a pause before Draco talks again.

  “And why is that?” his voice is deceptively quiet.

  “Are we on speaker phone?” Jasmine asks

  “Yes” he answers

  “Just as a precaution, I suggest you listen to this yourself before you decide when to share.” Nova suggests, we hear grunting and swearing before he disconnects the speaker.

  “Fine, go ahead.” He orders. We relate to him everything that we’ve found out, leaving for last the matter of the devices that were injected into us. “Everything you told me, tells me to grab him and make him talk. I don’t see why we shouldn’t let him know that we have figured out that he’s the mole.” His voice is deceptively quiet which makes the hairs on my arms raise.

  “The problem is that all or us that were captured by the Keres have had some kind of a device injected into our bodies that can kill us by the push of a button.” I reveal

  “Motherfuckers.” He roars, I can hear crashing and guess that he has thrown something.

  “Do you agree now?” Aria asks

  “Yes, and don’t tell your men any of this if they phone you. I will let them know what is happening when its time.” He states, before he disconnects the call.

  “Is there any way for you to find out where these devices are?” I ask Brielle, but she shrugs a concerned look on her face.

  “I don’t know, but Bion might. First, we need to find it, then we need to see what kind of device it is. If its chemical or technical. I don’t even know how to go about it.” She murmurs.

  “The men are going to be so pissed when they find out. I wouldn’t want to be Draco, in trying to control their anger.” Jasmine says. Just when I think everything is going to be fine this takes the ground from under me.

  CASSIUS 13

  We collected the weapons before expected therefor we should be getting home early evening if everything goes well. We’ve stopped at a rundown warehouse where Tor and his men will be meeting us, they will be the ones to transport the weapons to the border where we have another chapter meeting them there to take it the rest of the way.

  “Hey Cassius, have you got any of those health bars left?” Celmund asks as he comes to sit next to me. I’m sitting on the ground against the warehouse wall, our bikes parked before me. The guys are all hanging around, some sitting on their bikes others walking around and others like me sitting while we wait. They always bust my balls about the health bars but when it comes down to it they all eat them.

  Opening my haversack that is laying on the ground next to me I pull out a bar and hand it to him. “Do you know how far out they are?” I want to get back home, now that I know Sven is the rat we need to find out what information he’s been passing on.

  “They should be here in the next fifteen minutes or so.” He answers as he takes a bite of the health bar. Draco’s phone rings, looking over at him I see him frown before he answers.

  “Nova?” Draco answers questioningly, Ceric that is laying on a cement slab across from us lifts his head and looks over at Draco with a frown. I feel myself tensing, this can’t be good, why would Nova be phoning Draco?

  “I’m kind of busy right now.” He grunts

  “Gabriela?” he mutters, “Great, I can see trouble coming. Fine, make it quick.” Bjarni was leaning against his bike next to Draco, as soon as he hears his woman’s name he stands. Now that we know there is something happening we are all on high alert. At least we know that our women are fine, otherwise they wouldn’t be phoning. Draco pulls the phone away from his ear and puts it on speaker phone.

  “You can’t do anything when you arrive, you can’t let Sven know that we’re onto him.” We hear Brielle say, well it looks like whatever is happening all the women are involved.

  “And why is that?” Draco asks.

  “Are we on speak phone?” Jasmine asks, I see Wulf shake his head in irritation.

  “Yes” he answers

  “Just as a precaution, I suggest you listen to this yourself before you decide when to share.” Nova suggests.

  “What the fuck?” Ceric mutters as he jumps off the wall and walks towards Draco. The rest of us are also muttering in anger especially when Draco disconnects the speaker phone and walks away towards the warehouse.

  “This isn’t fucking funny, I swear that woman really needs a spanking.” Ceric grumbles as he glares at Draco’s back.

  “Gabriela isn’t fucking answering her phone.” Bjarni grunts in anger.

  “Neither is Jasmine.” Wulf says.

  “Everything you told me, tells me to grab him and make him talk. I don’t see why we shouldn’t let him know that we have figured out that he’s the mole.” Draco’s voice is deceptively quiet but with our hearing we can make out what he’s saying.

  And then he roars “Motherfuckers.” As he kicks a drum that was standing against the wall before him. The drum lifts up in the air and crashes about a meter away from my bike. I don’t give a shit about the bike, but I do give a shit about what’s happening. Draco is not one to lose his shit easily, whatever they are telling him is not good. What the hell did they get themselves into now?

  “Yes, and don’t tell your men any of this if they phone you. I will let them know what is happening when its time.” No fucking way, how can he think that we’re just going to stand around without knowing what is happening. I can see by the look on the others faces that that isn’t going to happen. I jump up from my sitting position, if this has something to do with Scarlett I want to know what it is.

  “Calm the fuck down,
” he roars as he walks back towards us. “As soon as Tor picks up the weapons I’ll tell you what the women found out.” Draco says in a no-nonsense tone.

  “How did they find out whatever it is they found out?” Bion asks with a scowl.

  “How do you think?” Draco says sarcastically with a raised brow. Just then we hear bikes approach and know that Tor and his men are here. I pull out my phone and dial Scarlett’s number, he might not want to tell us, but I need to know that she’s fine. After her phone call last night, and the terror I heard in her voice when I answered I was ready to get on the road and go hold her, but after talking and getting her mind off her memories I could hear the drowsiness in her voice and the calmness had returned.

  Pulling my phone away from my ear I scowl at it, darn, they must all be in on it. When I get back I’m going to make her understand that I’m her man and no matter what I’m to get access to her whenever I need to.

  “Hey fuckers, why you all looking so tense? I thought you would all be happy to see my ugly face.” Tor calls out as he parks, but I can see the weariness in his stance as he looks around at all of us.

  “Tor” Draco greets as he approaches, “How did the ride go?”

  “Looks like it went better than yours.” He states

  “All good here.” Draco says as he turns and points to the truck, “there’s your load, everything is in the panels.” Tor looks back at his men and inclines his head letting them know to start preparing to move.

  “We’ve been having issues with the cops down by us, we might need some assistance soon.” Tor confides. “In regard to the fishing trawlers you mentioned, we haven’t found any movement up to now, but will carry on steaking out the place.” Alexey had confided to Draco that women were being smuggled out of the country in the fishing trawlers. The only problem is that the fishing trawlers are a different ball game, it looks like the Keres and Salazar have made a pact with a street gang that work those trawlers, and because those trawlers are all in Cape Town Draco has tasked Tor to keep an eye on it.