He kept his voice intimately low again. “She is. But if I start telling her, she’ll only panic. She can’t do anything to help so there is no point in scaring her. Not everyone is as strong as you are.”
“You think I’m strong?”
I could hear the faint sound of his breathy laugh. “Yeah, I do. You’re a lot stronger than I thought you were when we first met.”
“When you kidnapped me,” I reminded him.
“I had no hand in that. It was my boys who did it and brought you back to the lair. If you remember, I didn’t lay a hand on you.”
No, but he was intimidating as hell.
I didn’t want to get into another argument, not when I was still bristling from our last one so I let it go. After all, he did just call me strong.
And that was definitely a compliment coming from Jet.
“Whatever,” I started, hoping he heard the eye roll in my tone. “I need to get up aboveground so I can get home before it gets dark. Can we please pick up the pace a bit?”
“It’s already dark. You’ll have to stay here tonight.”
A night in the tunnels? I would have to sleep with one eye open just to make sure nobody stabbed me while I slept. That was not something I wanted to do.
Jet must have sensed my reluctance as he quickly added, “It’s okay, you’ll be safe.”
“Promise?”
“Absolutely, princ-… Everly.”
I zipped my mouth, not liking the plan one little bit. We reached the corridor leading to Jet’s room and stopped outside his door. He unlocked it, holding it open for me to enter.
“This is your plan to keep me safe? Stay in your room?” Somehow, that didn’t seem as safe as he would like me to believe it was.
“You have a better idea?” he silently challenged me, arching just one eyebrow.
He won.
I stepped inside his room.
It was going to be a long night.
Chapter Thirteen
Jet rustled up some food to quiet our rumbling stomachs. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but the canned baby corn spears made a nice change to dry noodles.
After he tidied up, Jet made a space on the ground and threw down a blanket. He folded up a pair of jeans into a makeshift pillow before stretching out on the floor.
I sat awkwardly on the bed, unsure what to do. I didn’t want him to give up his bed for me – not two nights in a row. The floor was dirty and it was probably cold, too. He’d spent all day reading through old books for me, then buried someone he knew.
I couldn’t allow it.
“You don’t have to sleep on the floor,” I said, breaking the silence. My words seemed to linger in the air, floating between us like a string of clouds.
He opened his eyes but didn’t move anything else. “There is only one bed in here. So, yeah, I do.”
I shuffled over to sit on the edge of the bed closest to the wall. The stone was cold against my back. “If you promise not to bite, I’m sure we can share. You’ll be much more comfortable up here.”
Jet sat up, his brows furrowed together as he thought long and hard about the suggestion. Like it was something that actually needed some thought. I almost revoked the invitation right then and there.
“How can you be sure I don’t bite?” he asked seriously, but the glint of mischief in his eyes told me he was only joking.
“Because I’m sure there are better things worth biting than me.”
He started to push himself up off the ground. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that, girl.” He stood and eyed me again. “Are you sure you want to share with me?”
I rolled my eyes and lay back on the bed. “Just get in and go to sleep already. It’s been a long day.”
Jet chuckled before carefully sliding in next to me. He reached over and pulled the blanket off the floor, settling it over us both.
The single cot bed was tiny. I couldn’t move without somehow touching Jet and vice versa. He was larger than me, taller by at least a foot. His weight in the bed made the mattress dip, making it even more difficult to keep any semblance of distance between us.
I lay in the darkness long after Jet turned off the light. He was warm beside me, heating me much more effectively than the blanket. His breathing was all I could hear, in and out in its own rhythm. It was the steady beat of someone lost to sleep.
It was impossible to keep away from him, I could not defy gravity no matter how much I tried. Jet had to be asleep, he probably wouldn’t notice what I was doing.
I gave up.
Allowing myself to slide to him, I curled up at Jet’s side, using his shoulder as a cushion. It was far more comfortable than struggling to stay away. I would move again before he awoke so he would never know.
Finally, I could drift off to sleep.
My nightmares were filled with images of Hell and the demons that dwelled there. All night, they drifted in and out of my dreams, allowing me only a slight respite from the reality of being awake.
I awoke with a start, my eyes flying open as I realized I couldn’t actually move.
Jet’s arm was around me, draped over my waist and nestling me against his side. To make it worse, my arm was draped across his chest. I could feel every one of his hard muscles underneath me. I quickly recoiled it back against me and pushed away.
“I was wondering when you’d wake up,” Jet said quietly, as if he didn’t want to startle me.
I sat up, embarrassed to be caught so close to him. A thousand thoughts raced through my head. Should I explain why I was cuddled up to him? Should I just pretend it was an accident done in my sleep?
There was no right answer. So I went with the easiest option – ignorance. “Is it late?” I asked.
“About seven. So, no, not late. Did you sleep well?”
My face started to burn with the traces of a blush. I really hoped he didn’t notice. “Okay, I guess.”
“I slept very well,” he replied happily. Way too chipper for so early in the morning. “In fact, I don’t think I have slept that soundly for a very long time.”
He was teasing me, making my embarrassment all that much worse.
“Yeah, I know, lucky you. You snore,” I joked back, deflecting the awkwardness.
“I don’t snore.”
No, he didn’t, but I had to say something. I couldn’t take the way he was looking at me. It was too… intimate.
Friendly.
Knowing.
Familiar.
Right.
I climbed over him to stand in the tiny room, needing to put some physical distance between us. “I should get back to my apartment. I need to work out what my next step should be.”
“You don’t need to,” Jet replied.
There was no way I was going to have the same argument with him about the need to release the spirits. I was tired of talking, actually. I needed some action, to do something to help. Too much time had passed already.
“Yes, I do,” I said simply. I would find my way out of the tunnels myself if he didn’t want to help me. I’d done it once, I could do it again.
He sat up, looking oh-so-casual on the bed. “I mean, you don’t need to go anywhere. I know what we should do.”
A part of me wondered if he was being serious or whether he was implying something more suggestive. I started to blush all over again just having the thought.
“I have a friend we can talk to,” he added.
Okay, so that wasn’t what I was thinking.
I nodded and waited outside while Jet changed. He offered to lend me some of his clothes but I refused. Spending time in his bed was one thing, wearing his clothes was an entirely different ballgame. It was bad enough that I had been wearing his spare coat since Kostucha burned mine.
I just hoped nobody would think the wrong thing about us.
That was how rumors started.
As we left the tunnels, Jet explained about where we were going. It was a place across town. Unfortunately – or fortunatel
y – the Crain didn’t extend that far so we had to walk.
Dustings of snow were falling but it wasn’t trying too hard to coat the city in its white splendor. Jet had changed into black jeans, a white buttoned down shirt, and heavy black coat. He looked a lot warmer than I felt in my thin jeans and coat that always somehow managed to let in the wind.
“So how do you know this guy?” I asked, curious more than anything. Everyone seemed to know who Jet was, and he did a pretty good job of remembering all their names, but for him to really know someone was new.
“We had a mutual acquaintance,” Jet replied. He never just answered me simply. It drove me insane.
“Which was…?”
“He dated my sister.”
That wasn’t what I expected.
“I didn’t know you have a sister.”
“Had. She was older than me,” he replied. He didn’t need to explain any further. She would have been eighteen years old or over at the time of the Event.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled in response.
He dug his hands into his jacket pockets. “Don’t be. Everyone’s lost people, I’m no different.”
I wanted to ask him more about his family, the urge to know everything about him suddenly overwhelmed me. I wanted it all, the entire miserable tale of his life.
But before I could, Jet stopped in front of a large wooden door and I lost my opportunity. “This is it,” he announced.
The door was unlike any other in the street. The wood was so old that it could have been taken right from the middle ages. We were in an urban area, the roads dotted with large houses that were probably exclusive and expensive back in the day. Now, they all shared the same rundown look that all houses had.
Jet held the heavy iron knocker in his hand and went to tap it against the door. Before he could, it swung open. He let it go and it tapped back into place.
Nobody was at the door.
I think that freaked me out more than the darkness behind it.
Who the hell had opened the door?
Jet didn’t seem concerned in the slightest. Either he knew something I didn’t, or he had been there before. It could have been either option, really.
“Stay quiet and close,” he whispered back to me.
I didn’t need to be told twice. I followed him into the darkness, really wishing for the days when everyone had electricity and adequate lighting. Perhaps the summer months would bring back some of the light to the world.
God, I hoped so.
The starkly quiet corridor ended at another door. In the tiny chards of light, I could make out Jet pressing a finger to his lips, reminding me to be quiet. All I could hear was my own heartbeat echoing in my ears, there was no way I would make out any other noise.
He pushed on the door, leeching a creak into the air that sounded way too loud.
So much for silence.
My eyes adjusted to the new room and I noticed the candles for the first time. There were hundreds of them, dotted along every surface possible. It was the only source of light in the room.
And we weren’t alone.
Dozens of kids were lined along the floor. They were sitting as still as statues, the only sign that they were actually alive being the steady rising and falling of their chests.
They were humming. The gentle noise tickled at my ears, finally drowning out the constant thump-thump of my heart. I looked to Jet for some clue about what we were doing there.
What they were doing there.
He nodded toward the front of the room – which was most likely a family’s living room back before the Event – where a boy sat. Like the others, he too was cross-legged with his eyes closed. He was humming along, louder than the others.
I opened my mouth to whisper but Jet was gone. It took me a few panicked seconds to realize he had seated himself on the floor. Mirroring the pose of the others, he started humming.
I was surrounded by madness.
A quiet, unmoving madness.
He shot me a glare, like I should be doing the same thing. Reluctantly, I sat on the cold tiled floor. Every one of my movements were too loud in the room. How had Jet managed to achieve his position without making any sound?
I refused to hum.
It was my protest against the whole thing.
As I sat there and looked at the faces, I noted they were all so serene, so peaceful. With so much despair, pain, and death in the city, these kids had managed to find respite.
They were meditating.
When the thought occurred to me, I couldn’t believe it had taken me so long to catch on. Of course they were calm and peaceful, they were making themselves that way.
And the boy at the front, with his caramel colored hair and tanned skin, was their leader. Or was that yogi?
Jet gave me a warning look and purposefully closed his eyes, settling his body into relaxation mode. He almost looked as serene as he did last night while he was asleep.
I closed my eyes and tried to do the same. Because, really, there was nothing else to do in the room. I had exhausted everything to look at.
If I couldn’t beat them, I must join them.
My mind closed down, trying to think of nothing but blackness. The humming filtered through my ears, setting a rhythm for my breathing. One by one, I relaxed all the muscles in my body. I started with my feet, then my legs, then each arm in turn, then my stomach, shoulders, and neck.
It would have been easier if Jet’s knee wasn’t touching mine. Even through the material of our respective jeans I could feel the warmth of his skin.
Time seemed to slow down, not caring at all about my impatience.
My mind refused to quiet. It thought of ridiculous things in between worrying. Things that didn’t matter like what kind of family would have lived in the house? Did they have kids of their own that still roamed the city? Did they have a fancy car? Were they happy?
The only good thing about it all was the fact there were no spirits in the room. Only the living surrounded me so I didn’t need to pretend I couldn’t see anyone. It was rare to find a place so alive these days.
Unless we were underground, then there were no spirits whatsoever.
The humming suddenly ceased, leaving my ears struggling to hear anything in the silence. My eyes sprung open to see the boy at the front stretching.
Movement started everywhere as kids came back to life. They all stood, a little bleary eyed as if emerging from a long and satisfying sleep. I wondered how long they had actually been meditating before we arrived.
Minutes? Hours?
Little would surprise me now.
Jet gave me a gentle tap on the arm, indicating he was moving and I should follow. I stood, needing to shake some feeling back into my butt.
When we reached the boy at the front of the room, his face lit up as he embraced Jet in a macho hug. They slapped each other’s back before releasing one another.
“Friend, it’s been too long,” the boy said before noticing me. He flashed me a bright smile, showing all his white teeth. “And you’ve brought someone with you. Who is this lovely girl?”
“This is Everly. Everly meet Hunter.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said politely. Hunter picked up my hand in his and kissed the back of it. His lips lingered just that one second too long against my skin.
“The pleasure is all mine, I’m sure,” he said as he released me. The smile never wavered from his lips. “What brings you both to my sanctuary today?”
Jet’s brows furrowed, something hadn’t pleased him. “Can we talk somewhere in private? It’s a bit… sensitive.”
Hunter nodded his assent and led us into a small room off the larger one. Once upon a time it was probably a bedroom, now it was a messy office. Hunter’s Zen-like mantra obviously didn’t extend to his personal space.
He waved to a set of wooden chairs against the wall while he settled behind a desk. “Take a seat, rest your legs. I can’t wait to hear what this sensitive
issue is. Judging by the looks on your faces, it’s not good news.”
“You could say that,” Jet started. “We have reason to believe the tunnels might be harboring something evil.”
Hunter’s eyebrows shot straight up. “Something evil? I thought that was the general description of everywhere these days.”
“This is real evil. The adults say it’s like darkness.”
So the guy knew about the tunnels and the few remaining adults that lived down there. The way Jet didn’t need to fill him in on anything that was going on didn’t go unnoticed. He confided a lot in Hunter, he must trust him more than most.
“We think whatever it is actually protected the adults during the Event,” I interjected.
“Our current thoughts are that hell is down there,” Jet finished for me.
“Hell, like actual Hell?” Hunter asked. He leaned forward to rest his elbows on the desk, his hands forming a triangle with his fingers.
“Like real Hell, the opposite of Heaven,” I said. It took a few moments for that to sink in, complete silence in the room while it did.
“Okay, so what if it is Hell? What difference does it make? We’ll all end up there eventually.”
Jet let out a harsh breath. “Well, I for one would like to know that my home isn’t situated on top of Hell, for a start. I might need to move everyone if our suspicions are correct.”
He hadn’t mentioned anything about the spirits. So he trusted Hunter, but not with everything. It made me a little bit happier knowing that.
Hunter’s gaze travelled to me, looking me up and down in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. “You’ve been there for over a year, do you really think it would matter now?”
“I need to know what’s down there, Hunt. Will you help me or not?” Jet said bluntly. Somewhere in the last few minutes he had lost his usual patience. “I need to know whether I’m wasting my time here.”
“Fine,” Hunter sighed. I still wasn’t sure exactly how he was going to be helping us. “But not today. I’ll come to the tunnels tomorrow.”
“Thank you. I’ll let them know we’re expecting you.”
I Am Never Alone Page 15
