Storm Born (14 page)

A firm hand clasped my arm. I jumped and found its owner– a very angry looking Hadrian.
 

“That is enough, Ava.”
 

I scowled, the remnants of my temper exploding to ashes. I grabbed his wrist, feeling the heat of his bare skin…
 

The heat rolling through his pulse, warm and pleasurable, an energy like the light of the sun that slipped through my flesh and made itself at home.
 

I’d never experienced anything like this before. Whatever I felt under his skin was euphoric, strong, consuming, and beautiful. I felt like I could take on the world with his power. It filled in all the empty pieces of my life, made me whole. I hadn’t known how empty I had been until I saw the power laying beneath him. Under nothing more than a fragile layer of flesh. Tantalizingly close, and agonizingly far away.
 

Letting that hot, wonderful energy drug me, I started clawing at his wrist. He jerked his arm, trying to push me free, but I didn’t let go. I heard him shouting– at me or the others, I had no idea–but I couldn’t make out the words. I had no care for them.
 

He fought me, but didn’t make a move to strike me. I didn’t know why. I still didn’t care. Everything around me was getting cold, so cold, I just needed the warmth he had under his skin.
 

He kept twisting, shouting, and I needed him to stop. I clamped one hand over the back of his neck and pinched my nails hard into his wrist.
 

I broke the skin, but didn’t feel the sweet euphoria I was expecting. I pinched harder, feeling hot blood but not that mysterious, bright heat I wanted.
 

He shouted my name again, and this time I looked up into his face.
 

That was when I saw it. There, behind his eyes, a shimmer of light and
life.
The heat I wanted, that I could feel through his skin and in his blood, but couldn’t attain. I watched his lips mouth my name and other words I couldn’t decipher, and found the secret to his energy.
 

I couldn’t rip it from him. But I could drink it.
 

His breath misted in front of me, hot air mixing with cold. I dug my nails into the back of his neck and pushed his face toward mine–
 

Sharp pain exploded across the back of my skull. I yelped and lost my grip on the warrior I’d been holding. I staggered, energy suddenly crashing into me like a strike of lightning. My vision spun a mile a minute, and my heart jerked erratically. I felt my ankle twist and my body fall. I was unconscious before I hit the ground.
 

***
 

Hangover round two was everything round one had been, except this time I was
freezing.
 

I shivered and reached to draw the fleece blanket to my chin–
 

My arm jerked to a stop and rattled. I opened my eyes and looked at my arm. Which was attached to a thick stone wall by a heavy iron chain locked around my wrist. I sat up, mindless of the pain sweeping down my body, and reached for the cuff.
 

My other hand snapped taught. It was restrained, too.
 

Fear hitched in my throat. I twisted and flailed my arms out of panic, because I didn’t know how to get them free. My legs weren’t bound, but even if I had a lock pick, I wasn’t an Olympic gymnast or full time yoga master. I couldn’t use my feet to pick the locks–
 

Clunk.
 

I swiveled my head awkwardly, then turned my whole body. I lost the blanket from my shoulders, but was able to sit the way my captors wanted me to: with my hands helplessly on either side of me, and my back to the wall.
 

The wall of one of the solitary confinement cells.
 

Hadrian walked in, gracefully carrying a blanket, a pillow, a tote bag, and a folding chair. His eyes met mine briefly, no discernible emotion crossing through them. Then he set the chair against the wall and placed the other items on the bed beside me. I dragged my knees into my chest, not wanting to be anywhere near him.
 

“I am not going to hurt you,” he said without looking at me. His voice was heavy. Sad, even.
 

“I don’t know that,” I whispered back. “You have me chained up.”
 

Hadrian’s chin dropped. “To protect us from you.”
 

My first instinct was to ask what that meant, but I stopped short. I was getting used to these mysterious people not telling me a damn thing.
 

Hadrian reached into the tote bag and pulled out a couple fruit cups, two small cans of tuna, snack packs of cheese and crackers, a bag of one bite brownies, and two bottles of water.
 

“This was all I could find,” he said. “I’m not sure if there’s anything you dislike here. If there is, I apologize.”
 

I was speechless because of his attitude. I hadn’t really known how hungry I was until I’d woken up. It hadn’t crossed my mind earlier since I’d been too busy having a meltdown, but now my stomach was starting to eat itself.
 

Hadrian pushed the food and water in front of me. The chains on my wrists wouldn’t allow me to reach further than the cot, but I could move them enough to eat. The cans and plastic didn’t look tampered with, so I didn’t think the food was drugged.
 

Besides, these people probably weren’t the poisoning type. Not when they could happily bludgeon or stab me.
 

My appetite wavered, but I resigned myself to eat and gather my strength no matter what turmoil my emotions were in. For all I knew, this could be my last meal.
 

At least there were brownies.
 

As I dug into the food with no care for order, Hadrian moved around the cell. I tried not to watch the weight of his movements as he folded up the tote bag, pushed the pillow and blanket closer to me, unfolded the chair, and sat across from me.
 

My eyes betrayed me and stole glances at him. He sat hunched over with his elbows on his knees. The swords on his back were gone, and his armor was replaced with a simple black t-shirt, black jeans, and boots. I would have enjoyed the way the shirt stretched along his exquisitely muscled back and shoulders, if I weren’t so angry with him.
 

Or if I couldn’t see the guilt on his face beyond the dark curtain of his hair.
 

Seeing him look almost defeated should have made me pity him. But it didn’t. I was his prisoner. No matter what gifts he brought me or how upset he looked, I couldn’t forget that.
 

And I sure wasn’t going to be the first person to say anything. If he wasn’t going to tell me what was going on, he could stew. I had brownies to distract me for at least fifteen minutes before I started screaming or clawing at the walls.
 

“Are you feeling well?” he asked, not looking up.
 

“I’m chained to a wall,” I spat. “Do you really care about how I feel?”
 

He didn’t answer for a moment. “As I said, it is to protect us from you.” He sighed. “I fear I have approached this entirely wrong. I ignored the questions you asked, because I never thought for a second that…”
 

Hadrian trailed off and shook his head and scrubbed his face with his hands. I thought he was going to close up again, but then he looked up and met my eyes. If I’d ever wondered what Atlas felt like when he was tricked into holding up the world, I imagined his expression would have been like Hadrian’s.
 

“I was ordered not to answer any questions of yours until Vitae arrived, but I will answer some.”
 

I scrutinized him. “How many questions?”
 

“Three.”
 

“Small number.”
 

He smiled weakly. “But better than one or two.”
 

I snorted and rolled my eyes. I gave myself a mental slap for letting that slow smile curl into my heart again.
 

“Fine. I’ll ask three questions, but first you have to tell me who Vitae is. It sounds like a woman’s name, but I want to make sure if I have to deal with Bitchy McBitcherson before she shows up.”
 

Hadrian smirked. “Is this your first question?”
 

“No. Nice try.”
 

He shrugged halfheartedly. “All right. Yes, Vitae is the woman you saw. I’m going to advise you not to call her Bitchy or any other variation of the word. She won’t take it kindly. And since you may as well know, the man you saw is named Zephys. He is my closest friend, and as the expression goes, the biggest pain in my ass.”
 

“He seems okay to me.”
 

“You have not known him as long as I have.”
 

I wanted to laugh, but then I went still, remembering something that his friend– Zephys– said. “Are you really a hundred years old?”
 

Hadrian shook his head. “I am older.”
 

A cold tingle crept up my spine. When I first met him, I knew that Hadrian was older than me, but I would have pegged him for twenty-five, at most. I was going to ask the most basic question, but I stopped. If I was going to peel information out of him, I had to do it carefully. I didn’t think Hadrian was stupid enough not to know what I was doing, but he was being generous for now. I had to take advantage of it.
 

“You look good for… however old you are.”
 

He smiled. “That is polite for you to say, considering I do not remember how old I am.”
 

“Wow. Guess it’s a good thing you’re not senile.”
 

A little warmth crept into his face. “Not even remotely.”
 

That last word drew up another question to my mind. “Where am I?”
 

The smile tilted into a frown. “
Loxahatchee Road Prison. It is emptied of prisoners, and survived most of the Centennial Storm.”
 

That made a little more sense. The government and the Storm Protection Union both agreed that prisons would be effective safe houses and shelters capable of withstanding the worst of the Centennial. However, that had meant transferring prisoners into other, already overpopulated jails. The last I heard, Loxahatchee had been emptied, but there had been no time to refurbish it for the Centennial. I wondered how Hadrian and his people were keeping it to themselves, but I didn’t want to use up my last question. Maybe it wasn’t the most useful one I could have asked in my situation, but I needed to know.
 

“Are you going to let me go home?”
 

Hadrian hesitated. That told me every crushing detail I needed to know. I’d eaten almost all of my food and drank one of the bottles of water, but suddenly I wasn’t hungry. I sighed and pushed it to the side, figuring maybe I could eat it later. I took the pillow and hugged it to my chest. It made me look like a child, but I was cold and defeated. The pillow was the only thing I could take comfort in.
 

“Ava, I…” Hadrian began. He drifted off, then suddenly stood up and closed the chair. I figured he was going to leave me to wallow in confusion alone, but instead he stood off to the side. Less than twenty seconds later, Vitae walked in.
 

She’d changed into plain black clothes like Hadrian, but she was wearing a tight tank top that showed off her toned arms and flat stomach. Her stern eyes riveted to me, then snapped to Hadrian.
 

“How much have you told her?” she demanded.
 

“Very little,” he replied, his back ramrod straight against the wall of my cell. “You did not specify what you wanted her to know. I can begin patrols with Zephys.”
 

“No. Stay here. This concerns you as much as it does her.”
 

Hadrian looked like he wanted to bolt. Instead, he nodded and stood in place.
 

Vitae walked closer to me. This time I clutched the pillow like it was a shield. The fluffiest, most pathetic shield in the world, but it was better than sitting exposed in front of her.
 

“Tell me true, Wild One. Do you know what you are?”
 

“No,” I emphasized. “I don’t know what you think I am. I don’t know who you people are. I don’t know why I did those things, or why someone else I knew could do them. I don’t know what a Guardian is. I’ve never heard of tethering. I don’t even know why your psycho friend stabbed me.”
 

Vitae and Hadrian’s expressions froze. “What psycho friend?” she asked.
 

Ah. Finally. I might have the upper hand. “Let me go and I’ll tell you.”
 

Something like sympathy filled Vitae’s eyes. It didn’t last very long. “I am beginning to understand that this is different for you. But you attacked one of my soldiers. Nearly consumed him. I cannot release you until I know you will not do so again.”
 

My face went slack with horror. I shot a glance to Hadrian. “Are you okay?” I rushed out.
 

He nodded. “You didn’t hurt me, Ava.”
 

“I… But, your wrist…”
 

He held it up. There were some pink, half moon marks from my claws, and I had to squint to see them. He wasn’t even bandaged.
 

“That was nothing. I have been hurt much worse. Believe me.”
 

My mind snapped to the memory of our fight with Declan and his new freaky friends. The shrapnel in Hadrian’s back that I’d been forced to pull out.
 

“Your back–”
 

“– is completely healed. Our gifts make us capable of accelerated healing. I am fine, Ava.”
 

He smiled, but I was still shocked. My eyes went to his wrist again. I couldn’t believe how casual he was about the wound I gave him. That he could even be in the same closed space as me after I ripped open his wrist and almost did that “consuming” thing Vitae mentioned. And for what?