by Box Set
“Sorry,” I muttered, but didn’t really mean it.
Kade could tell. “Uh-huh.”
“I’m going to keep you in the sick bay overnight.” Heathcliff helped Kade sit up as he spoke. “I’ll need to check the wounds tomorrow, but you should be pretty close to back to normal in a couple of days.”
Kade stood, but kept himself bent over. I had a feeling it had to do with the fifty or so stitches in his abdomen.
Heathcliff took one of Kade’s arms and I took the other. We slowly walked him to one of the small rooms. The doctor pushed a button and the door slid open. There were two twin-sized beds with a small dresser near the footboard of each. Opposite the entrance was a tiny bathroom. “There are clothes in the dressers. Make yourselves comfy.”
“What, we’re going to be roomies?” He glanced down at me.
I literally felt my heart stop. “I guess so.”
“Oh, I get it. You’re my PO.”
“PO,” I asked, confused. I had no idea what it could mean.
“Parole Officer,” he said, carefully sitting on the edge of the bed. “You’re going to keep me out of trouble, make sure I mind my manners, that sort of thing.”
I chuckled lamely. “Something like that.”
“Cool.”
“Can he get cleaned up,” I asked, eyeing his disgusting clothes.
“Yeah, but he’s going to need your help.” Heathcliff opened the door and started laughing. “Good luck with that.”
I nearly died of embarrassment. “Thanks.”
As he was about to leave, I said, “I need a pair of scissors.”
“Sure thing.” He left a moment and then came back. “Do I want to know what you’re going to do with these?”
I took the scissors. “Yeah, I’m going to cut off his shirt.”
“Good plan,” he said and left, letting the door slide closed.
“Ohhhhhh, you’re putting the moves on me now?” Kade smiled, showing off his sensual mouth.
I was mesmerized by his lips. They seemed to call to me. Dork! “No, but that shirt is a mess. It needs to be incinerated.”
He glanced down. “This is my favorite shirt. You can’t destroy it.”
“Whatever,” I snorted, coming at him with the scissors.
He held up his hands and then winced. “Ouch.”
“I’m going to get that shirt off. Don’t try and stop me.”
“Go ahead.”
“Thanks.” I knelt in front of him and grabbed the bottom edge. “Hold still,” I said, quickly glancing at his face. I’d removed my gloves after helping Heathcliff, but now wished I’d kept them on. Carefully, I cut straight up the middle, trying to avoid the demon blood. When I reached the neck, he tilted his chin upward and I cut straight through his collar. Then set the scissors on the floor.
“Try to go easy on me,” he said.
I snorted. “Don’t you wish.” Nervously, I leaned up on my knees and pushed his shirt open. Kade was all muscles and warmth and strength. Amongst all the blood and gore still on him was a light scent of cinnamon.
“Take a picture, it lasts longer.”
“Shut—” I glanced up and stopped. His eyes seemed to glow in the dim light of the room. “Up.”
He leaned down and kissed me lightly on the mouth. The move wasn’t anything big or grand, but his lips against mine sent a rush of emotions through me and I would swear there was a spark. It was as though I’d been in darkness and suddenly the lights within me had flickered on. I gasped and fell back.
There was shock on Kade’s face for a moment before he glanced away. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” He held out his hand. I ignored it and got up off the floor. “Can you assist me into the bathroom? I want to get cleaned up.”
“Uh, sure.” I helped him up. In the bathroom I put the toilet seat down. “Sit.” While he did, I grabbed a washcloth and ran it under hot water. “Let me get your back.”
“Wow, a full service parole officer. Sweet.”
I ignored him and quickly scrubbed off the blood and dirt.
“Don’t forget to get behind my ears,” he joked.
I punched him. Then tossed the washcloth onto his lap. “Finish it yourself.”
Ten
After the Funeral
Pam unlocked our door and pushed it open. She quickly fell onto her bed and crossed her hands over her face.
“Are you okay?” I asked, even though I knew she wasn’t. Neither was I. Images of Eric’s hand dangling from the demon’s mouth kept driving their way in.
Attending Eric’s funeral had been difficult. I’d seen enough television to know that while they were somber they were supposed to celebrate the life of the person who’d died. We had nothing to celebrate.
Once we were found and plucked from whichever foster home we’d been living in at the time, we were brought to the Dark Moth compound and trained from morning until night every single day. There were rarely field trips or any kind of fun. Our sole purpose for living was to bring down our demon parent and hopefully save several hundreds or thousands of regular Moths in the process.
If we lived, it was to serve.
If we died as Eric had, there was no celebration. His life was just over.
“I’m fine.” Pam sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’ll be twenty-one in three days.” She sat up and removed her shoes. “What we saw—what happened to Eric—that’s going to be me soon.” She unzipped her black dress and pulled it over her head. “I’m not ready to die yet. I haven’t done anything.” Tears leaked from her eyes.
I understood exactly what she meant. My birthday was coming up too. “You’re not going to die. I won’t let you.”
Pam smiled, but it was full of cruelty. “I appreciate your courageous words, Alice. But no one believes you slayed that demon because of skill. It was a fluke and that shield or whatever you used.” She pulled on her gray training pants and matching gray shirt. Then put on her black combat boots. “I would like to know how you did that. Will you show me?”
I pulled off my black dress and tossed it on the floor, kicking my heels on top of it. “If I knew how I did it, I totally would.”
“Figures,” she said, slamming the door shut behind her.
I went over to my bed and lay down. I wasn’t trying to be difficult or keep a skill from my fellow trainees. In all truth I’d tried to make myself produce the shield several times since that fateful night, but I hadn’t been able to make it happen.
There was a knock at the door. “Alice? Are you in there? We need to train.”
It was Kade. We’d spent every moment together over the last three days. I’d even slept in the sick bay with him. Coming to my room to dress and undress for the funeral and using the bathroom had been my only alone time.
He was a nice enough guy, but it felt like Wrythe was punishing me for some reason. Had I done something wrong? I’d wanted to ask him the question on more than one occasion, but there hadn’t been an opportunity.
“Give me a minute.” I jumped off my bed and quickly dressed in a black training outfit. Laced and tied my boots and then went to the door, opening it. “Hi, Kade.”
He was dressed from head to toe in black, like me. Yet on him it looked faultless.
“You ready?”
“Sure.” I shut the door and walked beside him down the hall.
“How was the funeral?” He gave me a sidelong glance.
I shook my head. “Depressing.” Kade hadn’t been invited. Wrythe and the others didn’t trust him. He’d said he was a Moth who’d secretly trained on his own, and that even though he didn’t possess any demon power, he’d killed his demon sire. He claimed to have grown up in Wonderland, gone to school, and held a job, just like the humans who dwelt above ground.
He also claimed to be twenty-five though it was hard to tell. For all I knew he could’ve been ninety. Moths stopped aging once we reached maturity, which was twenty-one. For most it was the year of our death as
well.
Part of me was tired. Another part felt restless. If I were going to die in a few weeks, I wanted to really live first, like so many of the humans I’d seen in television shows and movies, like in the books I’d read. I wanted an experience that had nothing to do with demons or Dark Moths. “Tell me something about you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”
I shrugged. “Anything… A story. Tell me what you did for a living. What was your job?”
He laughed. “It wasn’t all that interesting. I was a mechanic.”
I pondered the word. “You fixed cars?”
“Cars. Boats. Motorcycles. If it’s got an engine, I can fix it.”
“Did you go to school to learn your craft?”
“Not any further than high school. My foster dad was cool though. He taught me about engines, how they work, how to make them go again.”
“It sounds like you enjoyed your job.”
He shrugged. “Sure. It isn’t glamorous and I have permanent grease stains on my hands and under my nails.” He held out his hands to let me see. “But doing so pays the bills and keeps me busy.”
We’d reached the training room. The door slid open and we walked through. Pamela was in the corner shooting arrows into several different targets.
“How did you get mixed up in our fight the other night?”
He picked up one of the Dark Moth swords. “I was there.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, even greasy mechanics like to go out once in a while.”
“And you saw the demon?” I’d asked him to tell me about that night more than once already, but something didn’t sit right about his answer.
Kade tossed the blade back and forth between both hands. “As I’ve told you already, it wasn’t until the demon began fighting the bouncers that I realized what was happening.”
“Why didn’t you try to help?” Doing so seemed as natural as breathing. At least to me.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that it is better to stay out of it.” He went to the center of the room so we’d have plenty of space to spar. “Ready?”
I picked up the sword I normally used and took my place a few feet in front of him. “Always.”
Kade leaned in, but at the last second dove into me, knocking me to the ground.
“What the hell? Are you getting fresh with me?”
“Your roommate shot an arrow our way.” He held it up in his hand.
I scrambled to my feet. Pam was an excellent shot, which meant she sent the arrow at us on purpose. “Do you have a problem? Trying to kill us?”
Her eyes were blurry with tears. “Sorry, Alice. It was an accident. The arrow got away from me.”
Kade jumped to his feet. “Accident my arse.”
That was my thinking, but I didn’t want to believe it.
“Be right back.” Kade jogged over to Pam and handed her the arrow. They exchanged words, but I didn’t hear what was said.
When he came back, he seemed aggravated.
“How’s your injury,” I asked. It didn’t seem to bother him at all anymore.
Kade lifted his shirt. The skin where the large cut had been was healed and puckered pink. In a few days that would be gone as well. “Better,” he said, putting his shirt back down.
“Good.” My cheeks warmed and I looked away.
Kade tapped me on the shoulder with the edge of his sword. “So you don’t have to take it easy on me today.”
I faced him again. “About time.”
We sparred for the next thirty minutes, until I finally got the courage to ask him what I’d been meaning to ask since we met. “It’s obvious from the lack of markings on your hands that you aren’t a Dark Moth, so what are you?”
Kade was breathing heavily and so was I. “I wondered when you’d ask.” He slid his sword home with the rest of the training swords and plopped onto the mat.
I did the same, waiting. “Well, what? Are you a regular Moth?” I urged when he didn’t continue.
He crossed his legs, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’m… no, I’m neither.”
“Vague much? Why won’t you tell me?” I spread my legs out into the splits and stretched.
Kade’s eyes went wide and I blushed.
The bell rang indicating dinner.
Eleven
He Stole My Tart
Kade was quiet, witty, and had a serious love of tacos. If we had eggs and toast for breakfast, he stuck the eggs on the toast and wrapped it like a taco before eating it. Whatever meat and veggies we were served for dinner were stuffed between two halves of a roll and eaten like a taco. For snacks he put cucumber into a tortilla or shrimp or tomatoes or corn. It was crazy and strangely endearing.
He was also very regimented. Each morning he woke, stretched, and took a cold shower. Heathcliff had us stay in the sick bay for only one night and then we were moved to a regular dorm room. It was in the trainers’ hall closest to the door.
I figured I would tire of being in such close proximity to a person for so long, but instead I grew to like his silly stories and the way his voice lilted on certain words. He still hadn’t answered any of the important questions, and I was becoming frustrated.
Kade could fight better than anyone, especially as he continued to heal. Peter sparred with him a couple of times and I could tell he let Peter win. It was the same with weapons training and hand-to-hand combat. Kade held back. I wondered why, but each time I tried to bring it up he changed the subject.
I knew the feeling about holding back. Not once had I fully freed my demon power. It surged within, like boiling lava waiting to erupt.
Over dinner on the third night, I finally blurted all of the questions Wrythe wanted answered at once: “Have you killed your demon sire? Which of the royalty demons is yours?” My guess kept changing. At first I believed he was Envy, then Pride, then when he beat Peter the first time I thought Wrath. But I had no idea.
Kade offered me a secret smile. “Which do you think?”
I dropped my fork. “Gluttony?”
He rolled his eyes playfully. “No.”
“He was vague about everything, except the personal stuff, like where he worked.
“Sloth?”
“No.” He chuckled.
I picked up a roll and took a bite. “Don’t you want to return home? Aren’t there people who must be missing you?”
He took a bite of his cherry tart. “There’s no one,” he finally said after he’d swallowed.
I sensed sadness in his voice and realized that even after nearly four days together I knew very little about him. “What about your job? Don’t you need to go to work?”
He shrugged and put the rest of the tart in his mouth.
It was apparent he didn’t want to talk about it, but I couldn’t be put off so easily. “What’s the name of the place where you work?”
Pam and Georgia had been talking, but at my question, they stopped and focused their attention on Kade.
Steve and Gilbert also quieted.
The attention didn’t seem to affect Kade though. He kept chewing, swallowed, took a long drink of his water, and then looked at me. “The Caterpillar’s Place.”
“That’s a silly name.” I dunked my roll in gravy before taking a small bite.
“Well, that’s Wonderland for you.” He reached over and picked up my tart. “You gonna eat this?” Without waiting for a response he shoved half of it in his mouth.
I shook my head. I wasn’t fond of the fruit, but he could’ve waited for me to give him permission. “Not now.”
“Oh, come on. I know you don’t like cherries.”
“Still,” I said, pushing the dessert plate toward him. “Where are your manners?”
Kade stuck the other half in his mouth, picked up his cloth napkin, and dabbed each side of his lips.
I picked at the green beans still on my dinner plate.
When he swallowed, he said, “In this life
you have to take what you want and damn the consequences.”
His words shocked me and I gasped. It felt like something had changed within him. “Really?”
“Very few humans and even fewer demons will wait for you to ask for what you want. They will take without remorse.”
I didn’t like that. “I don’t believe you.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not. That’s the truth and you’d do well to listen.” He stacked his dessert plate as well as mine on top of his dinner plate, tossed his napkin over them, and then stood. “I’m done. You ready?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not finished.” I stabbed a bean and put it in my mouth. It was cold and didn’t taste very good, but I wasn’t going to be bossed. His strange attitude was annoying.
“Fine. I’ll see you later then.”
We weren’t supposed to be apart, but I didn’t care. I watched as Kade put his dinner stuff on the conveyor belt and prepared to leave the dining room.
Wrythe walked in. His eyes sought out Kade’s. “You, come with me.” He then found me and bid me follow.
“Great.”
Witness
by Christine Kersey
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Copyright
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Witness (Witness, Book 1)
Copyright © 2015 by Christine Kersey
Cover by Novak Illustration
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
