by Elodie Colt
There was one thing I had to give her credit for—she hadn’t turned crazy or hysterical when they attacked but stayed focused and determined. She’d even prepared for another attack, nearly fooling me in the process.
At first, I’d thought I caught the wrong one, and if I hadn’t been standing that close to her, I would have never noticed the contacts hiding her true eye color. She was smart, that was for sure, and she certainly knew she’d never stand a chance against her enemy alone—well, not yet, anyway.
She’d faced the danger regardless and killed a Hunter with a precise shot from a crossbow, even if it was just a lucky shot if the shock on her face was anything to go by.
If it weren’t for my resentment against her, I would have laughed when I thought back to the moment she smacked the vase over the guy’s head. She’d looked like one of these secret agents pretending to be simple housewives who could turn pans and dinnerware into lethal weapons.
Jimmy was right—she was agile, athletic, and in good shape. Her lithe body was proof to that. When she’d jumped down the staircase, I was sure she’d break at least a bone, but she’d landed with such ease I couldn’t have done it better myself.
Nevertheless, looking at Haylie Bryceland had caused a bad déjà-vu to resurface.
At that moment, Jenna had stared back at me shortly before her death. Even if I hadn’t glimpsed the girl’s true eye color, the colorful shades hiding behind the contacts had glinted under the dim porch light, the sudden lump forming in my throat nearly choking me.
And this girl who reminded me of the two—now three—worst moments in my life would join us and live under the same roof as me. She’d represent my personal hell every minute of my existence.
After I had left her, I’d carried the three dead bodies into the forest where I burned them to destroy any evidence. We couldn’t afford to involve the police, or for Bryceland to get into trouble before she was under our protection.
A pounding on the door startled me out of my thoughts. I didn’t answer at first, but whoever stood on the other side of the wall continued to knock.
“What?” I barked.
“Get out of there. Jimmy wants to see you.”
Chris. I sighed. Time to face my punishment. “Give me a sec,” I mumbled and got out of the shower to get dressed.
When I left the bathroom, Chris was propped against the wall. He spun on his heels without a word, not waiting for me to follow him. The look on his face said it all—he was truly pissed. I knew what was about to come. Three… two… one…
“What were you thinking, man?” Chris shot at me on our way to the main quarters. I kept quiet staring straight ahead. Chris was my best friend, but he wouldn’t understand my true motives. He didn’t let go, though. “What did you do to her?” Chris stopped in front of me and put a warning hand on my shoulder. “Did you hurt her?” he demanded.
“No,” I growled back through gritted teeth and stepped around him.
“Why am I not buying that?” Chris snapped back and got in line with me again.
“If I hadn’t been there, she would have gotten her tiny ass kicked because you all trusted Phil to do his job!” I countered, knowing full well I was sidestepping the main issue.
“Phil’s failure doesn’t excuse yours. Jimmy won’t go easy on you, damn…”
We entered the main quarters where Jimmy was waiting for us. I took a deep breath, bracing myself for a rant that was sure to make my ears ring for the next few hours.
“Sit,” Jimmy ordered in a low voice, not taking his eyes off the papers in front of him. Chris trotted over to a chair in the corner. I propped myself against a table.
“I said sit down!” Jimmy boomed in a sudden outburst, shocking me. “Don’t test my patience, Dylan, or I swear you’ll end up cleaning the toilets,” he exhorted.
I gritted my teeth and slowly walked over to the chair across from Jimmy. He was our leader, and despite my usual struggle with authorities, I respected him and his work. He was the reason I was here and not out there on the streets, after all.
Jimmy glared at me while rocking in his leather chair, turning a pencil idly through his fingers. Not backing down from his intense glower, I patiently waited for the verdict.
“I won’t ask you why you did what you did because we all know why. And I certainly don’t want to hear your poor excuses. And before you say anything, yes, you protected her in the end, but as far as I can judge your mental stability right now, you could have also killed her,” Jimmy finally concluded through gritted teeth.
“That’s bullshit,” I muttered followed by a head shake, barely refraining from rolling my eyes.
“Is that so?” Jimmy scoffed, leaning forward. “Who put the bruises on her neck, then?”
I averted my gaze to the floor rocking the chair on its hind legs. There was no use in denying what Jimmy blamed me for. He waited a moment to give me the opportunity to answer but leaned back again with a sigh when I kept my mouth shut.
“I played with the thought of demoting you and offering Chris to be my second-in-command instead…” Jimmy continued in a deflated tone, making my head snap in his direction.
No, he wouldn’t dare. Not that Chris wasn’t fit for the job, but the job was mine and mine alone. Jimmy knew I was his best man down here. He wouldn’t find a better one. I gripped the seat’s backrest hard, the material protesting under my strength. How the fuck did I get into so much trouble so quickly?
“But I won’t do that, although you certainly deserve the punishment for refusing my orders. And do you know why?” I didn’t answer as I assumed the question was a rhetorical one and waited impatiently for the dramatic pause to end. “Not because Chris isn’t good enough, but because she begged me to have mercy on you.”
The cool demeanor fell from my face, replaced by shock. She didn’t know I’d never intended to kill her, yet she was defending me? After I’d hurt her? Instead of feeling grateful, though, I felt even more irritated.
“She said she understood your rage, and I shouldn’t burden you further. As she’s the victim here and thankfully nothing serious happened, I think it’s only fair to let her decide. So, you’ll stay my second-in-command but under two conditions. If you don’t agree to them or only make one wrong move, you’re out. Understood?” Jimmy directed at me, and I nodded begrudgingly, already dreading the options I would be offered.
“Condition number one, you’ll take over some of the shifts in the control room every night for the next few weeks. I want you to turn your attention mostly to Haylie, within the privacy sphere, of course. You’ll be one of her guards from now on, regardless of your issues with her,” Jimmy emphasized.
Oh, Jesus Christ… Please, no surveillance duty. Chances were high I’d kill myself out of boredom. You’d think it was enough I had to live with her in the compound day in and day out. No, I’d have to watch her every step from now on.
Jimmy didn’t wait for me to agree. “Condition number two, Scott and you will take turns training Scott’s class of Freshmen which Haylie will join. I expect you to train her as best as you can.”
This time, I couldn’t stop the groan escaping me. No. Fucking. Way. Being a trainer again? Jimmy knew damn well about my lack of patience and my aversion against undisciplined teenagers. It was no good to unleash me on newcomers, especially her. This was bound to go all kinds of wrong…
“I don’t expect you to go easy on her, but if I catch you treating her badly only once, you will clean the toilets,” Jimmy concluded, pointing his finger at me in warning.
I put two fingers against the bridge of my nose and inhaled deeply. Fuck this shit. So, it had been a bad idea to visit her after all. Definitely not worth the outcome.
“What about her ability? Did something unusual happen when they attacked her?” Chris directed the question at me.
“No, I have no clue. Jimmy was right, she’s in good shape, but that’s not her ability.”
“Keep an eye on that, both of you.
There must be a trigger… we just have to find it. The sooner, the better. She needs to get control over it before it takes control over her.”
“Well, how do you plan on getting her into the compound without the Hunters following you? I’m sure they’ll have Tracers, Watchers, Catchers, or whoever out there to trace every step and breath she takes,” Chris threw in, clicking his tongue.
“This is what we’re going to plan now. Chris, get Phil, Cassie, and Scott here.” Chris nodded and left the room.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, I broke the tension with clearing my throat. “Does she know we were brothers?” I asked in a low voice.
Jimmy eyed me for a moment and folded his hands in front of him. “No. I’ll leave it to you if you want to give her this bit of information or not. I just told her the basics, and what I thought was necessary for her to know.”
I nodded, glad he kept it a secret for now. It was better she didn’t know. Not yet, anyway. I didn’t need her pity. I didn’t need anyone’s pity for that matter.
The door opened, and Chris entered with the others in tow.
“Smooth move, man, really smooth,” Scott muttered as he passed me, slapping me on the shoulder. No surprise the rumors of my break-out had quickly circulated.
“Shut up and go get stoned,” I hissed back, hoping it would wipe that permanent grin off his surfer boy face.
“Already am, bro.” Scott grinned back at me, ignoring Jimmy’s sour look. I rolled my eyes. Where the hell did Scott get the stuff from all the time? I swore he grew his weed out there in the cemetery somewhere.
Jimmy waited for everyone to take a seat before directing us all.
“All right. We’ll get Haylie Bryceland to the compound tomorrow morning. Until then, Dylan will not remove his eyes from the footage of the area surrounding her apartment,” he emphasized with a dark look in my direction. Message received.
“Dorian and his minions will have their eyes and ears everywhere. The attack was already proof to that. They won’t let her out of sight. They’ll know if we take her with us and track us down to the compound.” Jimmy stopped, rounding his desk and perching on it with crossed ankles.
“And here comes the tricky part. I need them to know that she’s with me to avoid a comeback from their side, which would certainly end up in them breaking into her apartment and probably killing a few alarmed neighbors in the process. We have to get here incognito, or else they’ll follow us directly to the compound which must not happen on all accounts.”
“And how the hell are we going to do that?” Cassie grumbled, as pessimistic as usual. I grinned under my hand. This must be torture for her.
“That’s why I have your clever brains,” Jimmy replied, pointing a finger at each of us.
“We have to find a place where they will lose sight of us,” Scott suggested, his voice muffled by a pencil he was already chewing to shreds.
“Where?”
“Somewhere where there are too many people to keep track of us for long.”
“They won’t lose track of Jimmy or her, no matter how many people there are,” Cassie countered with a flick of her hair.
“Yes, they will,” I interjected. “Their Catchers and Watchers will struggle following them. You just need to find a spot with enough people to blend in. Give Bryceland a wig and sunglasses or whatever. She already has experience with that.”
Why was I even suggesting this? I’d be better off if she were caught.
Hell no, what was I thinking? When had everything turned upside down? I should want to protect her and not wish for ending her life, but I seemed to have been battling with that ever since the Natural appeared on our radar.
“They’ll still recognize Jimmy. If Jimmy exits with ‘a different girl,’ they won’t be fooled into her being someone else,” Phil interjected, forming quote marks in the air.
“Then let him exit alone,” Chris suggested and continued when confused eyes met him. “Find a spot where she can hide while one of us is waiting for her there.”
Chris’ eyes shot to Cassie. We all stared at her for a few seconds pondering this. Cassie’s shifting ability always turned out to be handy in situations like these. Her eyes drifted to the ceiling as if praying to God she wasn’t forced to play that role.
“This could work. So, which place is crowded at this time of day?” Jimmy wanted to know.
“The shopping center in the middle of town. Cassie has experience with crawling the vents as far as I know,” Chris commented with a mischievous smile, egging her on as usual. Cassie snapped furious eyes in his direction daring him to utter another word.
A few years ago, Cassie stole jewelry from one of the shops and escaped through the vents. Jimmy made her take it back after he found out. She couldn’t look at us for nearly two weeks.
“Get her in the ladies’ room while Cassie waits in the vents… in another outfit, of course. They won’t be able to trace her,” Scott said matter-of-factly. He may be stoned all the time, but thankfully hadn’t lost too many brain cells to drugs. “You just need to outdistance the ones watching you,” Scott directed at Jimmy.
“Don’t worry about me,” Jimmy muttered absently.
“What about Tracers? They should know Cassie’s individual scent pretty well by now,” Chris interjected.
“They have trained Tracers, but none of them are good enough to track down scents in a shopping center that’s busy day and night. Besides, Cassie’s perfume is so heavy, no Tracer can make out her natural scent,” Scott added with a grin, causing Cassie to flip him the bird.
“That could work,” Jimmy muttered.
I imagined Bryceland under Cassie’s thumb and snorted at the mental image. All eyes moved to me. “You’re afraid that I’m a danger to her, but you’re consigning her to Cassie’s care?”
I may have personal issues regarding the girl, but at least I’d made it my purpose to protect people like her. Cassie didn’t give a shit about them. Rather the opposite—she hated Naturals because they were stronger, smarter, and prettier.
“Yes, because Cassie won’t be stupid enough to make the same mistake you did, right?” Jimmy looked at me with a threatening undertone before glancing at Cassie.
“Of course not,” she mumbled begrudgingly, sounding like she’d rather do exactly the opposite.
“Good. Then we’ll proceed like this. Chris, you’ll recruit two Catchers and two Watchers to guard the area, one of them being Josh. I want them to check if our plan is working when we’re out there. Phil, I want a detailed map of the building with possible entrances and exits as well as the vents and every underground tunnel. And rent two cars, we’ll need them.” Phil nodded and walked over to a computer to get to work.
“Scott, you’re our driver. Get me near Haylie’s apartment and wait for us to return, then you’ll take us to the shopping center. Cassie, you’ll take the second car to get there and park it near the emergency exit. Wait for Haylie in the vents, in another outfit. Choose something that goes completely against your dressing style. You’ll also be responsible for getting everything we’ll need to mask Haylie’s appearance. As soon as she’s with you, I’ll get out of there somehow without them noticing. Scott will bring back the car. Our eyes and ears out there will let him know when it’s safe for him to return without being tracked down.” Jimmy waited for Scott to nod in agreement before addressing Cassie.
“Haylie will wait for you in one of the stalls in the ladies’ room. Lead her through the vents until you reach the emergency exit where you’ll make sure that Haylie won’t be recognizable anymore and take the car to drive back. Then, you’ll enter the compound via the southern entrance.”
Cassie gave a short nod, accepting the instructions unwillingly if the sour look on her face was anything to go by.
“And what about Haylie? Do you want her to know where our hiding place is yet? I know she’s one of us, but we don’t know anything about her,” Chris asked tentatively.
“No, of
course not. Cassie will blindfold her. But no games, okay? I want her back in the same condition as before, do you understand?” Cassie just nodded, but gathering from the way she rolled her tongue in her mouth, Bryceland was certainly going to have a hard time with Cassie, even if it was just for an hour.
“It’s all settled, then. I expect everything to be ready by tomorrow morning. Go back to your duties now, thank you,” Jimmy dismissed us.
The next day I got up early to get ready for going only God knew where. I put on plain black clothes to avoid being the center of attention—black jeans, black boots, black t-shirt, and black leather jacket. I also added a thin scarf to hide the ugly bruise on my neck that was slowly fading to a dirty yellow.
Circling the zip around my bag, I left my room with one last glance around my old home, closed the door, and descended the stairs. Once there, I noticed the crossbow was still hidden under the table in the entrance hall.
I bit my lip. Should I leave it here? With everything going on the last few days, I reckoned I might find use for it soon enough. Reopening the bag, I stuffed the crossbow in between some tops.
The doorbell rang causing me to laugh. Chances were high that Jimmy was able to break into my home from five different angles. Still, he was sticking to normal manners.
When I opened the door, I was met by a huge black man with flashing eyes. The Flare still gave me the creeps, but I was slowly getting used to it.
Jimmy smiled. “You wouldn’t have needed to put in your contacts this morning,” he remarked.
“I’m not doing it for them, but for the people I will meet there. It’s getting on my nerves that everyone feels the need to comment on my eye color,” I grunted, and Jimmy laughed.
“I doubt this will help you avoid questions. You’re ready?”
I took a deep breath and eyed my home one last time before closing the door behind me. “Yes. Let’s go. How are we going to travel anyway? By foot? By plane? By submarine?” I only half-joked. Nothing would surprise me anymore.
Jimmy chuckled at my suggestions while we strolled down the streets of the city. “The compound is underground, not under water.”
