CRAVE (Exiled Book 2)

by Victoria Danann

  So she left a note. Told them not to worry and that she’d be in touch.

  She put on her leathers, threw her bag over her shoulder, and headed to the Commons. She dropped her bag at the foot of the outside stairs that led to Scar’s apartment, climbed up, and pounded on his door.

  She heard him yelling something unintelligible just before the door swung open revealing a shirtless Scar. He raised both eyebrows. “This had better be good.”

  “It’s not,” she said. “I’m leaving.”

  “Leaving?!?” He grabbed her by the bicep, pulled her inside, and shut the door. “What do you mean leaving?”

  “I mean I can’t stay.”

  “No. What you mean is that you can’t go. The Commons can’t be run without you.”

  “Of course it can.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Have you been crying?”

  She ignored him. “That new kid? She’s going to be great. You should put her in charge and get down to the city. You’ve got a lot of work to do to get Free Spirits open when we move.”

  He shook his head. “No idea what you’re talking about.”

  “I guess I haven’t had a chance to tell you. There’s a place in the town center. Right on the park. It used to be a bar and it’s perfect. Got a kitchen and everything. You’re going to fall in love when you see it. Charming says it’s yours if you want it. The humans owe us or something like that. Go down to Farsuitwail and take a look. Then get busy.”

  He blinked slowly, arms crossed in front of his chest. “All the more reason why I need you. Where are you going? Did something happen?”

  She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that I can’t stay.”

  His features softened. “Crave.”

  “I’m going to the Rautt camp. They need people to help with the young. The, um, orphans. At least I think they do.”

  The monster, Scar, lifted her into a big bear hug. “It’s a shame things turned out this way for you, Dandelion. You deserve better.”

  “Put me down. If you make me cry, I’ll never forgive you.”

  He put her down. “Do you need anything?”

  “Just a ride across the wasteland.”

  “There’s always a job for you.”

  “Yeah? Well, if I ever work for you again, you’re going to have to pay me.”

  He grinned. “We’ll see.”

  She picked up her bag at the foot of the stairs and headed for the Bike Barn with long purposeful strides. The big doors were standing open so she walked right in.

  Yellow was standing over a bike watchfully as it was being worked on.

  “Hey,” he said with a grin when he looked up and saw her. His eyes paused on her puffy face and shifted to the bag over her shoulder. “Goin’ somewhere?”

  “Yeah. I need somebody to take me across the barrens.”

  He cocked his head and lost his smile. “Why?”

  “I’m going to help with the orphans.”

  Yellow scowled. “You’re leaving. Let me guess. Crave. If Carnal was here, he’d kick his brother’s ass.”

  She gave him a small smile. “Yeah. Probably.”

  “Want me to do it?”

  “I’ll get back to you on that. My first reaction is to say yes, but I’m pretty sure that would be the wrong choice. I’d regret it and hate you for doing it. Then I’d have to get somebody else to kick your ass.”

  “Standing offer. I’ll take my chances that you won’t regret it.”

  “Thanks, Yellow.”

  He looked down at his bike. “He’s just finishing up. If you’re sure you want to go, I’ll take you, but you’re going to need to cover your head and face. Between the dust and the heat, it can get downright uncomfortable. At least it’s still early.”

  “Appreciate this.”

  “Nah. I’m up for a ride with a beautiful female hanging on to me.”

  Dandy smiled and blushed a little. Since she’d been promised so early, she’d never had the experience of males casually flirting with her.

  Fortunately for her own psychological equilibrium, before Crave woke up and emerged from the room at the back of the Bike Barn, she was holding onto Yellow, riding so fast across the wasteland it felt like flying.

  When she reached the Rautt camp, Serene was waiting to see who was coming. Because of the telltale dust, there was no sneaking up on occupants of the western side of the barrens. Well, unless there was a once-in-a-lifetime rain.

  Serene came forward, nodded at Yellow, and said, “Dandelion. This is a surprise.”

  “A good one I hope? I want to work here.”

  Serene glanced behind her impulsively. “Well,” she smiled, “we certainly can’t turn away help. There’s a lot to do. Yellow, would you like to stay the day? Ride back tonight when it’s cooler?”

  “I can’t refuse an offer to get out of work.” He grinned. “So yeah.”

  Serene chuckled. “I’m going to show Dandelion around. You’re welcome to come with us.”

  “Lead the way,” he said.

  While Yellow rolled his bike to the shed where the builders had parked theirs out of the wind, Serene leaned into Dandy and whispered, “What happened?”

  Dandy deflected. The last thing she wanted was to tell Crave’s mother what happened. “I can’t stay at Newland. I remembered what you said about the work here and thought I might be useful.”

  Serene patted her arm. “You certainly will be.”

  “It looks a lot different from the last time I was here.”

  Serene glanced around. “It’s been hard work, but we’re getting there.”

  Indeed, where there had been nothing but tents and crude lean-tos before. Those were all gone. Several new buildings had been erected on the site and others were in progress.

  “How many children are there?”

  “A hundred and twelve. Some are just a few months old.” Serene began walking. “Trace!” she called out to a female Dandy’s age. They’d been in the same class in school. “Will you take Dandelion’s bag and leave it in my office?”

  Trace jogged over just as Yellow was catching up and gave him a so-glad-to-see-you sort of smile. “Sure thing.” She smiled at Dandy and walked away with the bag.

  They passed by an open area where children were playing on sand. Dandy and Yellow both silently compared the stark environment to the lush green grasses of Newland.

  Serene showed them the new dorm and classroom building. With the exception of a few sullen faces, the children seemed to be happy and making an adjustment. The dorm was divided into rooms with about ten beds each. Serene explained that a group of children was assigned to an adult worker who slept with them and made sure they were clean and ready for school in the mornings. The idea of taking care of people who needed her appealed to Dandelion’s maternal instinct, which was related to the satisfaction she got from making sure people were made happy with food and drink at the Commons.

  Last they came to the dining hall with its long rows of tables and bench seating.

  “Let’s have a cup of tea,” Serene said.

  She left Dandy and Yellow sitting and disappeared into the back.

  “Well, what do you think?” Yellow asked.

  “It’s nicer than I imagined.”

  He shook his head. “Yeah, but I’m not sure I get the goal.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They’re Rautt young.”

  “They were. They’re Exiled young now.”

  Yellow smiled. “I take that to mean you’re staying.”

  “I’m staying.” She nodded.

  “If you change your mind…”

  “I won’t.”

  “If you do, any of the builders will give you a ride back.”

  She looked down at her lap. “I’m not coming back, Yellow.”

  He sighed. “You going to be a teacher?”

  She chuckled. “Probably not. Maybe I’ll just serve food. Like I always have at the Commons.”

>   “People are going to miss you.”

  She looked into his eyes. “That was a nice thing you just said.”

  He grinned. “Yeah. It was, wasn’t it?” He looked around at the new building. “I’m still not sure we should have left these kids alive. I have a horrible feeling that’s going to come back around and bite us in a few years.”

  “I understand why you’d think that. But we’re not baby killers.”

  Serene carried three steaming cups on a tray. “Drink up. Lunch is in an hour and the place gets rowdy.”

  Yellow gave her a lopsided grin. “What are we having?”

  Serene smiled. After raising three boys, she was used to male appetites. “You can’t tell by the smell? Pig and cabbage wraps.”

  “Okay. I’m in.”

  Serene turned to Dandy. “What do you think?”

  “I’m looking forward to being busy. Put me to work.”

  That answer clearly pleased Serene. “What do you want to do?”

  “Serve food?”

  “We don’t really serve food. We have the kids pick up a tray from that big window over there.” She pointed at a large counter with an opening to the kitchen. “But we really need somebody to manage the whole dining operation. Plan menus. Order supplies. Keep discipline.”

  “Keep discipline?”

  “Yeah. Sometimes the kids get out of hand. The older ones, well, their lives were violent. They’re not accustomed to civilized behavior.”

  “They’re Rautt. What do you expect?” Yellow added.

  Both women looked at him, but neither replied to his outburst.

  “I think you’d be good at that, Dandy. You have a lot of experience in managing a food and beverage establishment.”

  “I’ll try it if you think that’s where I fit best.”

  “Only you can say where you fit best. Why don’t we start there and see if you like it? After a while we’ll assign you a group of kids. For now you can sleep in one of the rooms we have for overnight guests. After lunch I’ll get you settled. We need to work fast because I’m going home tomorrow and won’t be back for a few days.”

  Yellow spent the afternoon helping the builders even though he’d joked about wanting to get out of work. When it was time for him to go, he sought Dandy out to say goodbye. As she walked him to his bike, she said, “Thank you again for bringing me, Yellow.”

  “Anytime. If you want some male company,” and he made it clear by his smile that he meant intimate relations, “send word that you want to see me and I’ll be here right away.”

  Dandy was a little scandalized by the offer. “I’m promised, Yellow. You know that.”

  His smile fell. He reached up and put a stray strand of hair behind her ear and sighed. “I know. Standing offer though. Just in case.”

  He started his bike and gave a cavalier wave as he sped out into the wasteland. Dandelion stood on the hill and watched until she no longer saw the dust plume he churned up in passing.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Dandelion found that her move to the Rautt Camp, renamed Fosterland, was the best thing she could have done principally because the work and the children kept her too busy to dwell on how things had turned out. Of course her thoughts turned to Crave at times, particularly at night, when everyone was asleep. Even then she was sometimes busy tending to a child’s sick tummy or someone experiencing a night terror.

  She’d been assigned a group of eleven-year-olds and it hadn’t taken long for her to begin feeling more than just responsible for them. The biggest difference she could discern between Exiled children and Fosterland children was in education and culture. And Exiled personnel were hard at work trying to superimpose a different perspective of the world and hoping to the gods it wasn’t too late to ‘take’.

  The Rautt children hadn’t been taught reading or even the basics of good hygiene, but they were smart enough to catch up and young enough to be pliable. They seemed to be making an emotional adjustment to their new situation and an intellectual adaptation to a new culture.

  Serene was planning a field trip to Farsuitwail for the older kids, including Dandy’s group, in another couple of months so that they could see the city. And humans. Dandy thought it would be interesting for her and educational for them. Serene’s hope was that if they visited the city from time to time and focused on things that would be of interest to children, like the playground equipment at the park, there would be less apprehension and perhaps even some excitement when the time came to make a permanent move. Serene had already claimed an entire building for the orphanage near a cluster of centrally located schools. Not all of the Fosterland children would be ready to integrate with human young, but some of them would.

  Dandy began to make friends with Trace and some of the other staff. It seemed that it was easier for her to relate to other people after Rosie Storm had opened that door.

  Minute by minute, day by day, she found that she was beginning to carve out a new life for herself. She kept her expectations reasonable. She didn’t believe she would reap the happiness or fulfillment that had come from belonging to Crave, but she liked seeing the potential residing in the bright and hopeful gaze of each and every child she cared for. Satisfaction settled around her like a cloak at the end of every day she rocked a baby with an ear infection, or broke up a fight between young and overly aggressive males, or caught a horned frog for the children to pet and admire. The evidence of her contribution was all around her and she was glad for the choice she’d made to cross the desert and seek distraction in a vocation of nurture and caregiving.

  There was less stress, knowing that she was not going to see Crave by chance. She still wondered about him, worried about him and loved him. But she found that it was easier to do that on the other side of the desert. She was sure she’d never be able to scrub away the vision of Crave and Midnight. It was a bell that couldn’t be unrung.

  She was startled by Trace.

  “Come on and have lunch with me, Dandy.” Seeing Dandelion jump, she laughed. “Oh, sorry. Lost in thought again? Where do you go when your mind wanders off?”

  Dandy smiled. “Nowhere you’ve been. What’s for lunch?”

  “Root vegetable soup from the garden. The kids harvested enough potatoes, carrots, and onions for lunch and they’re excited about getting to eat what they grew. There’s a little chicken in there, too. The ten-year-olds have been taking care of the chicken coop and some of them are unhappy about eating their chickens for lunch. One little female won’t stop crying about it. She must have gotten an extra big helping of human in her makeup.”

  “I guess it doesn’t hurt for them to learn early that life is hard and full of disappointments. And death.”

  Trace lost her smile. “I don’t know. They lost all their parents, the people they knew and life as they knew it. I think adding chickens to that is, well, it’s overkill.”

  Dandy chuckled. “Overkill? You’ve got a dark sense of humor, Trace.”

  “I didn’t mean that to be funny and you know it. Change of subject. I’m hungry. Let’s go have some authentic Fosterland soup.”

  Crave had been feeling more and more restless. They’d finally let him take on some of the mechanic work at the Bike Barn, but it wasn’t nearly enough to fill his time or use up his energy.

  He’d gained back the weight he’d lost. He knew that because he was filling out the clothes he’d been given and told were his. Dr. Reising had reduced her visits to once a week and then once every two weeks. He still had no interest in socializing apart from the sexual release he found with Midnight and a few of the other unpromised females.

  One day, when every bike that needed attention or cleaning had been repaired and shined, he double-checked to make sure nothing was left undone and then stepped out into the sun.

  The warmth felt good. After the unseasonable cool spell they’d had, summer finally gave up visitor status and settled in to stay until September. He stood with his face turned up to the sun, soaki
ng it in, and decided that a good stiff run and a good hard sweat was just what he needed to burn off some energy.

  Newland was quiet in the middle of the day. Everybody was either working in the city, at the Commons kitchen, or in the school. He could head out through the gate and no one would be the wiser. Besides, the reason why he’d been restricted to Newland was because they were afraid he was unpredictable. And the past weeks had shown that he was the definition of predictability.

  In fact, no one could be more boring. He stayed up late. Slept late. Worked on bikes. Went to the Commons. Then did the same thing again the next day.

  That was what every day had looked like for a long time. But this day was going to be different. He trotted toward the gate, slowing down halfway there because he was distracted by an unusual sound. He stopped and looked up. It was a wind chime hanging from an old hook outside a second story window on the side of a house and looked like the same one that had been in the jail. He liked the tinkling noise, found it strangely comforting and familiar, like he was connected to it in some way he couldn’t quite figure out.

  A noise behind him broke the spell and he resumed his jog toward the gate.

  He was about to go through when he saw a human boy walking up the road. Since humans never approached Newland, it was nothing less than remarkable. Crave realized that his wish was coming true. The day had already qualified as not boring.

  To make the odd occurrence even more interesting, the boy smiled and waved. Crave decided to stand still and wait. When the boy neared the gate, Crave said, “What do you want, human?”

  “Oh, when I waved back there, I thought you were Carnal. You look like him. I’m Max. Carnal said that, if I ever needed anything, I should come to Newland and tell someone to find him.”

  Crave’s brain and body froze. When he tried to repeat the name the boy had dropped, it got stuck in his throat. His mind was flooded with a rush of images like a dam had burst. Crave’s knees wobbled under him as the memory replayed, the shock of a mortal wound on his brother’s face. He’d glanced down to Carnal’s chest and seen the tip of the blade that had been shoved through Carnal’s back from behind protruding from his heart, with blood soaking his shirt in an ever-widening stain.