Everlost (The Night Watchmen Series Book 3) (28 page)

BOOK: Everlost (The Night Watchmen Series Book 3)
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“Mourdyn?” Jaxen asks.

Weldon nods. “A machine of this magnitude will not be easily destroyed.”

“Those in the Rebellion, including myself, have spent the past few years trying to find out more about the machine,” Mack says. “How exactly it works. What it runs off. How we could destroy it. But getting answers from Darkyns is nearly impossible. If they don’t kill themselves first, then they let us torture them during interrogation. Their minds are twisted.” He turns to Seamus. “Do you have any information?”

“No,” Seamus says. “Just what you know. Clara is the only one.”

“We need her information,” I say. “We need to know what she knows.”

“And how do we do that?” Mack asks. “We have little resources, and we’re all banned.”

I’m reaching for straws.

“Seamus. He can do it,” I say, turning to face him. “You have the access that we don’t. You know your way around. You can get in and out, and find what we need.”

Seamus looks uncomfortable. “And if I’m caught, I’ll be crucified.”

“It’s better than sitting idle like a coward and not contributing to bettering our people,” Jaxen says, arms folded.

“That is something we will discuss,” Mack interrupts. “It isn’t a decision to be made lightly, and it doesn’t have to be made today. Our first order of business is bringing Clara down, which is what we need to get back to. We need her if we want to infiltrate the Darkyns to get to the machine. I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I believe we can get to her by using this.”

He points to the microchip.

“We expose her plan, and then those loyal to the Divine will turn against her. If that happens, she’ll run, and we’ll find her. She’ll be wanted by all. Her reputation will be tarnished, and justice will be asked for by our own. To save herself, I believe she’ll give up the information on the Darkyns headquarters and the workings of the Exanimator, and from there, we’ll use Weldon’s knowledge of the Underground to find and destroy it.”

“Do you think everyone here is ready for this?” Seamus asks, shock on his features. “Do you think they’re ready for this kind of a revolution?”

Sterling stands, planting his hands flat against the table. “They’ve been training for this moment their entire lives,” he says with certainty. “They’re ready; they just don’t know it yet. As for those outside waiting on me, that’s what training will show them. It will give them confidence. Keep them busy with something to work toward while we get our shit together, because restlessness leads to awful things.”

“Then it’s settled,” Mack says. “I’ll have Jonathon send carriers to all the Rebellion members on the outside to prepare them for what’s to come. Seamus, we need you to think of a way to get more information on the Exanimator in the meantime, just in case Clara doesn’t pull through. As for me, after we’re done going through this microchip, I’m going to send it to a Rebellion member who’s planted on the Night Watchmen News team, asking him to broadcast it on every station.”

We all take deep breaths as we realize that this moment is so much bigger than anything we’ve ever known. This is change in the making.

This is justice finally taking the reins.

 

 

GENERAL STERLING DOESN’T WASTE TIME throwing us into extensive training.

When we disperse from the meeting, he already has wooden training fluxes laid out on the grass in two neat rows—one facing the other. He’s dressed in his full Elite uniform, the same one he wore the day he returned to us though, this time, the bloodstains have been removed and any tears have been patched up. He paces the length of the grass in front of us, looking like he hasn’t slept in ages. But I’m sure no amount of sleep could erase the dark circles under his eyes and the trademark pupil black that has taken over the color of his eyes.

“Are you sure he’s going to be able to handle training?” Cassie leans in and asks Gavin as the general starts calling out the lineup he wants us in.

Gavin looks back over his shoulder at Jaxen. “What do you think, bro? Do you think he’s even eaten?”

“Not from anything substantial,” Weldon answers from beside me, eying the general’s every simulated, strained move. We’re all looking at Weldon now, waiting for some form of clarification. “The bottle I gave him this morning was leftover blood from a bear I hunted the other night.”

“Ugh, gross!” Cassie says with a shudder.

“What?”
Weldon says defensively, “I have to have backup blood in case I can’t find a human willing to donate.”

“TMI,” Gavin says, lips pinched in disgust.

“Whatever,” Weldon says with a passive hand wave.

“Anyway,” Jezi says, changing the subject for everyone, “I thought Sterling hunted last night with the wolves?”

Weldon looks flatly at her. Lifts a brow. “Look at the veins on his neck,” he says pointedly, “they’re darkening… a sure sign he’s drying up. And if I had one guess, I’d say it’s intentional.”

“Well, duh,” Cassie says as she flips her head over to put her hair up in a messy bun. “That’s what happens to wolves when they don’t feed.” She pauses with her hair and squeezes her eyes shut, her face screwed up. “Damn it. I keep doing that! Vamps. I meant to say vamps. Vamps need fresh, human blood in order to survive. Not refrigerated leftovers.”

Disgust and sorrow tastes a lot like bile.

I swallow thickly, pushing the regret clogging my throat down as far as I can and say, “We can’t let that happen to him.” I impulsively look past the general for his wife, curious to know just who she is and how she’s taking this. With everything that has happened lately… all the cracks in the foundation of our lives spreading further and further out, it’s been hard to keep up with the unfortunate shift in everyone’s future.

Because we’ve all been slapped with a hard dose of reality.

“What can we do about it, Faye?” Jezi asks. “He’s turned. Based on everything we’ve ever been taught, he should be long gone by now, feeding and killing like the rest of the vamps out there. It’s a miracle he’s even here.”

Weldon snorts. “I’m here,” he says curtly. “So, according to your logic, I should be stealing souls and killing for my mere entertainment, but you don’t see me doing that, do you?”

Jezi’s so stiff and still, I think the wind could blow her over.

“Still,” I say, trying to diffuse the miscommunication before it turns into another uncomfortable argument, “he has to feed. It’s obvious that what we thought we knew about our kind is far from the truth. Apparently, we can function after being turned. We have to keep him from making a fatal mistake because of his pride.”

“Not just pride, Faye,” Jaxen says from the other side of me. “His morals too. You have to think of his morals.”

“I am. This was done to him. He didn’t choose it,” I say.

“All I’m saying is… are you going to offer yourself then? ‘Cause I sure as hell ain’t,” Jezi says with arms crossed, looking directly at me. “He’s a grown man, and one of these days, you’re going to have to realize that you can’t fix every wounded bird you stumble on.”

I have to repeat what she said just to understand her. Heat builds under my skin.

“He’s not a wounded bird, Jezi! This is serious. Can’t you take one thing seriously in your life?” I shoot back.

She jerks her head back. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” I say, stepping up to her, ready for whatever comes next.

“Stop it. Both of you!” Jaxen says hotly, pushing us apart from each other.

I look up at him, surprised into silence. A million emotions churn within the endless depth of his green eyes. “This isn’t something you can turn into a bickerfest. This is real. This is Sterling… the man who taught us how to be more than just factory-assembled army pawns.”

“That’s what I was trying to say,” I say quietly, avoiding his eyes.

He drops his shoulders a little and apologizes with his gaze before turning back to face the general, who’s now heading our way.

But I’m still watching Jaxen. Watching the way he pieces himself back together, slowly, hardening his stance and his eyes so he doesn’t give anything away. So others don’t see the pain ripping him apart on the inside. Can’t hear the screams that are surely tearing at his brain. Jaxen was the one who wanted to leave Sterling there with Clara and, in the end, he’s the one who went back for him, only he was too late.

It’s a pill I’m not sure he’ll ever be able to swallow.

My hand is halfway to his when the general stops in front of us and clears his throat. I retract my hand, shoving it deep inside my pocket.

“I want you four to train with the others in the Rebellion,” the general says, skipping introductions and heading straight to business.

“What about the wolves?” Gavin asks, sounding somewhat off-put. “I thought we were training with them too.”

“You will be. Later today. Now, only a couple of the rebels are freshly graduated from the Academy. The rest are up to par with Elite training, so just keep it light and easy. The point of this is really just to get to know one another. Got it?”

I can’t help but think that he’s avoiding conversation. He isn’t inviting it for the very same reason Jaxen told us to shut up. Because he wants to be alone in his decision.

He wants to be free.

He’s looking between Jaxen, Gavin, Jezi, and Cassie, his gaze just as piercing as it’s always been. He’s a fighter. A leader.

“We got it,” Gavin says with notes of sadness in his tone.

The general doesn’t pay any mind to them.

“And what about us?” Weldon asks, waving his thumb between the two of us.

“You’re coming with me.”

He leaves no room for questioning. No room for rebuttal. He just turns on his heel and starts to walk away, leaving that as the final verdict.

Jaxen takes one look over my shoulder to where the general is heading, over to where his mother and newfound sister are training, and curses under his breath. “He’s going to leave us out? Just like that?” He quickly spins around. “Gav.”

One word, delivered calmly and expertly controlled, and Gavin already knows what Jaxen’s asking.

“Go. I’ve got this.” Gavin takes Cassie by the hand, ignoring her questioning look, and heads over to the members of the Rebellion.

“Come with us,” Jaxen says to Jezi, who looks caught between following Cassie and staying with Jaxen.

Weldon puts his hand up to his lips and snickers. “Looks like Sterling found his meal after all, because he’s surely going to kill you for going against him.”

“I don’t care,” Jaxen says, taking my hand in his. “This is my home. My family sacrificing everything.” He pulls me forward, not leaving any room for Weldon to say anything else.

The moment we’re in step with Sterling, he starts speaking again, never once looking in our direction. “How did I know you’d be joining us, Gramm junior?”

“I’m not backing down. Not about this. I want to know what you have in store for Faye. Especially when it comes to my mother.”

Sterling makes a sound deep in his throat. Nods once. “Okay.”

Jaxen’s mouth opens like he’s ready to protest, but then he shuts it. Absorbs what Sterling has said. “Okay?” he repeats questioningly.

“Did I stutter?” Sterling says sternly.

A flash of anger that quickly fades with a blink. “No, sir,” he says steadily, calmly, “I just—”

“You just what? Thought I’d protest? Enforce what I said?” He stops. Turns so quickly and unexpectedly that Jaxen almost bumps into him. “We don’t have time to waste with arguing. If you want to be stubborn and do things your own way, so be it. I will not waste effort trying to sway thick heads. Now,” he says, turning his attention to Weldon and me, “the reason I’ve asked you to train with the wolves is simple. Because of your curious ailments.”

“My half-demon side and her half-everything side?” Weldon interjects with a glowing smirk.

“Yes,” the general says plainly. “Because of this, the leaders and I thought that you and Faye would be the best candidates to train with the wolves first. Test the waters out before we throw everyone else in. You know what it’s like to work with someone you aren’t technically tied to by the affinity bond. You also know how to use your special qualities using Primeval techniques. We feel that they will relate best with you. They’ll connect most to you. You’re the fuse between them,” he says, looking over his shoulder at the members of the Rebellion, “and… and us.”

He’s looking ahead. Looking at the Primevals who were robbed of choice. Robbed of their futures. Changed into something we were brought up resenting. And now he’s one of them.

I didn’t think it was possible to feel this much remorse and still be able to function. Jaxen squeezes my hand as Weldon slaps Sterling on the back and, for a second, I’m sure Sterling is going to rip his head off. But he doesn’t. He just looks at Weldon, and they exchange something in their glances. An understanding. A sense of brotherhood.

Sterling takes in a deep breath, and it almost sounds like he’s breathing for the first time. Like he’s accepting all that has come with what has happened, and he’s existing in this world rather than just being in it.

“Go,” he says, looking at Weldon, and then back over his shoulder at Jaxen, Jezi, and me. “Go train with them. I’ll be watching over all of it.”

He turns at that and walks away from us, meeting up with his wife, who was waiting next to the small shed. She puts her arm around his waist the moment he approaches and leans into him, whispering something in his ear that has him nodding in response. Watching them fills me with so much hope and so much pain. It’s nice to see that love can exist outside of tragedy, but seeing tragedy happen to such good people hurts.

“Hello, Faye. Weldon,” Evangeline says, nodding at us both.

“Good morning,” I reply, forcing myself to look away from the general.

She turns to Jaxen. “Son.”

He nods hello.

She’s looking at Jezi now. “It’s Jezibelle, isn’t it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jezi says, almost awkwardly. I didn’t think about it before, but she must be just as nervous as I am. Just as unsure about where she stands in all this, and how she should feel about it.

The line between loyalty and justice is always blurred when emotions are involved.

“I don’t know if General Sterling told you or not, but Ava and I have decided that we should train with those more like us first, before we mix in with the others. This way, we can establish some form of connection, while showing the others that we are harmless.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” I say.

Jaxen’s staring at her with forced strength. Pretending like he isn’t absorbing every word she says. Like it doesn’t affect him. But I see the fragility in his gaze. See how he hangs from her words, searching for something inside them that he’s not even sure about.

She smiles lightly at me and continues. “But before we start, I wanted to tell you a few things about how we function. Things you may or may not already know. I know the training you’ve received at the Academy, and in Ethryeal City, has been selective to what the Priesthood has wanted you to know.”

“That’s an understatement,” Weldon mutters.

Evangeline smiles patiently at him. “In wolf form,” she continues, “whether you’re natural born or bitten, words are non-existent. We communicate by an emotional link we all share within our pack, similar to what you experience in an affinity bond. We send what we sense and feel based on what we see and smell between one another. The only difference is that we don’t need each other to function—only the alpha.”

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