Wolves among men (34 page)

“
Make it stop,” Cordillia
moaned as she rolled onto her stomach and shoved her head
underneath the pillow.

“
Ethan, open the door,”
Logan called impatiently. A small part of me had hoped that if I
ignored him long enough he would just go away but as his knocking
grew louder I began to realize that this was far from the truth.
“Ethan, come on.”

“
No.” I
groaned.

“
Open the damn
door.”

“
Why should I?”

“
Because it’s morning,” I
could hear the sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“
I am perfectly aware of
that but thank you.”

“
Just get up so he’ll stop
screaming.” Cordillia groaned into her pillow as I sat up and
rubbed my eyes.

“
Easy for you to say.” I
smiled as I stood and stretched. “You get to go back to bed.” I
rummaged through my bag and pulled out a change of clothes as Logan
began pounding harder on my door. “Just hold it will ya I’m
changing.”

“
Well change faster I got
news.” I pulled a clean shirt over my head and brushed myself off
as I pulled open the door, glaring slightly as Logan took a step
back and let me out of the room.

“
So why is it that I’m so
damn popular first thing in the morning?” I smirked as I ran my
fingers through my hair.

“
Beats the hell out of
me.” He shrugged. “But your buddy’s here.”

“
My who?”

“
Bryant.”

“
Oh, he’s not my buddy,” I
corrected him. Logan shrugged.

“
Doesn’t really matter to
me but I figured you might want to come say hi.” I rubbed the back
of my neck and sighed. It was too early in the morning to really
want to be bombarded with pleasantries but as I looked up at
Logan’s eager and smiling face I quickly realized I didn’t have
much of a choice in the matter.

“
What are you so giddy
about?” I smirked.

“
Nothing,” He smiled. “But
you’ll like him, trust me.”

“
Okay now I’m really
worried.” I chuckled as I began following him down the hallway and
toward the large double door. I stopped and turned to him as he
reached for the handle, grabbing his attention before we stepped
out into the thick of it. “Wait, so fill me in.”

“
He’s interesting,” Logan
spoke quickly, the smile on his face never fading as I looked him
over with concern.

“
That was
fast.”

“
What? It’s true.” He
shrugged and I chuckled.

“
Alright, putting aside
the fact that you answered that question way too fast that still
doesn’t help me.”

“
Okay,” Logan smirked.
“He’s old, fought in the war, lost his leg and has to use a
wheelchair to get around…” He thought for a moment before an ear to
ear grin crossed his face. “Oh yeah and he likes to
yell.”

“
What?” I
groaned.

“
Oh no,” he smiled as I
shook my head. “Not in the way you would think.”

“
So he’s not gonna drill
sergeant me as soon as I meet him?”

“
Oh no he will.” Logan
grinned. “But it’ll be funny.”

“
Funny for who?” I smirked
as I reached for the door. I looked to Logan as I pulled open the
door, a grin spanned his face as the doorway flooded with soft
sunlight and a shrill scream rang loudly from across the
courtyard.

“
That’s not right. Do it
again!” an old raspy voice pierced my ears. I jumped as my gaze
quickly changed from Logan to the mass of kids practicing hand to
hand combat in the courtyard.

“
Why is he leading?” I
asked as I stepped out onto the grass. Logan stopped at my side and
grinned.

“
He insisted on getting to
work as soon as possible.”

“
And Mat just let him?”
Logan shook his head.

“
God no but Bryant didn’t
give him much of a choice.” I sighed with a smile and turned my
gaze toward the group of kids that followed his instruction with
exhausted apathy. The old man scowled from his wheelchair as he
shouted orders over the grumbling crowd. His face was aged and his
body frail, it was hard to imagine that he had ever had the
strength to fight in a war let alone hold his own against creatures
like us.

“
No, no, no! Always move,
never stop and
you
!” He pointed toward an exhausted dark haired boy as he
phased back into his human form and began to walk away from the
sparring crowd.

“
I just want to get a
drink.” He panted as the old man grabbed his arm and turned the boy
to face him.

“
Oh sure just getting a
drink,” he mocked as he held tight to the boys arm. “Answer a
question for me first.” The boy sighed and nodded reluctantly as
Bryant released his arm and leaned back in his chair, crossing his
arms on his lap and looking up with a mocking smile.

“
What makes you think that
a battle will stop just so you can get a drink?” He
sneered.

“
But this
isn’t-”

“
Isn’t what? Isn’t a
fight? Isn’t real?”

“
No it’s-” Bryant lifted
his hand to silence the kid.

“
You’re safe now and
you’re right,” He smiled. I crossed my arms at my chest and leaned
against the tree next to me, waiting to see what he had to say
next. “This isn’t the real deal this is just training but,” He
grabbed the boys arm and pulled him down just inches from his face.
“I am not training you to satisfy your own needs while your troops
remain fighting in your place do you understand me?”

“
But I’m thirsty,” The kid
argued. Bryant released his arm and leaned back in his chair once
again.

“
Okay,” He nodded. “And
when I say it’s time for a break it is time for a break but I, just
like your enemy do not give a damn about your personal needs. I
unlike the enemy give a damn that
you and
your troops survive. Is that clear?”
The
boy flinched away and rubbed his ear as he nodded and moved back
into place with the rest of his group.

“
He’s a character isn’t
he?” Logan grinned as Bryant went back to shouting his orders from
across the courtyard. “Do you want to go meet him?” he asked
quietly. I really didn’t, it was too early in the morning to feel
any kind of want or desire to be screamed at but basic courtesy
told me that the polite thing to do would be to greet our guest
despite my apprehension at the volume of his voice.

I nodded and followed him quietly as
we made our way past the tired troops and toward the shouting
general. He continued giving his orders despite the groans and
protests that filled the air and as we stepped closer to him I
could see the look in his eyes soften slightly, if only for a
moment. His face held the evidence of time, every line and every
deep wrinkle sat proudly in his features as if each had its own
story to tell. His eyes were tired, worn and battle weary but
behind all that sat a glimmer of excitement at being back in the
middle of it all.

“
Can I help you, son?” he
asked gruffly as I approached him, a slight smirk on his lips as I
looked to Logan.

“
This is Ethan, the guy I
was telling you about.”

“
Oh, the little shit that
pissed off Malik,” He looked back to me and thrust his hand at my
chest with a smile. “It’s nice to meet you.” I took his hand in
mine and shook it firmly. The last thing I wanted to do was to hurt
him but somehow it didn’t seem like that would be an easy thing to
do.

“
You!” He screamed,
turning his attention back to the crowd as he ripped his hand from
mine violently. “Don’t turn your back on the enemy! How many times
do I have to tell you!?” The kids turned their faces toward him in
unison and shook their heads before going back to the task at hand.
It wasn’t hard to see that they were exhausted and tired of his
demands but despite the harshness in his approach even I could
sense his desire to make a decent army out of them.

“
Bryant, how about we give
them a break and you can tell Ethan what you told me this morning.”
He looked up at us quickly and nodded.

“
I suppose these kids do
need a break.” He chuckled as he turned his eyes back to
them.

“
That’s probably not a bad
idea.” Bryant nodded as he reached down and moved his chair closer
to the crowd.

“
Alright girls, take five
and we’ll get back to this later and for God’s sake you all better
not come back as dense as you are now!” he shouted before quickly
turning his wheelchair around and moving past us into the factory
and out of sight. I watched for a moment as the group before me
changed back into their human forms, each one tired and struggling
to catch their breath as they scattered to quieter
places.

I followed Logan into the building and
took my seat next to him at the large round table that sat in the
center of the room. I could hear gunshots ringing in the field
outside and my attention quickly turned toward them, a hint of fear
rising up in me.

“
Relax, it’s just that
sister of yours getting some practice,” Bryant muttered as he
snatched a red plastic cup from Mack’s hands. He looked to me and
smiled before taking a quick and what I imagined was a much needed
drink. “Unlike that bunch of idiots,” he nodded toward the
courtyard as he placed the glass on the table. “she actually knows
what she’s doing.” He smiled.

“
So you think she can hold
her own in a fight?” I asked curiously. He scoffed lightly and
shook his head.

“
God no, she’ll get
herself killed faster than anyone here but she’s a good shot and
she’s got a lot of heart.” I groaned that was not what I wanted to
hear. I supported Cordillia in her attempts to make herself useful,
hell I was proud of her for wanting to fight for something but the
last thing I wanted was to be reminded of her mortality and her
insistence on ignoring it. “Relax.” Bryant sighed as he turned his
wheelchair to face me. “The last thing you need to be doing is
worrying about her at a time like this.”

“
I can’t really help
that.”

“
Sure you can,” he spoke
quickly. “As far as I can tell, worrying about her is what got you
in this mess in the first place.”

“
I didn’t
mean-”

“
Doesn’t matter.” He shook
his head as he raised his hand to silence me. “It was bound to
happen eventually, if it wasn’t you it would have been some other
poor bastard to break the treaty.”

I nodded as Mack took a seat at the
table, his eyes flickering back and forth between the three of
us.

“
Change of subject.” I
smirked. Bryant nodded and folded his hands on his lap. “Tell me
something about yourself?” I asked quietly. Bryant shook his head
and moved himself closer to me.

“
Not yet, son, I want to
get a look at you.” He took my face in his hands and began moving
it to either side, sighing and nodding as he took me in. What he
was looking for and what purpose this served I didn’t know but as
he looked me over I could see a kind of hopelessness growing in his
eyes. As quickly as he started he let go of my face with a look of
disdain and leaned back in his chair.

“
What’s wrong?” I asked
against my better judgment. He shook his head and shrugged heavily
before crossing his fingers on his lap.

“
You look like an
idiot.”

“
What?” I asked
quickly.

“
Are you deaf too, son? I
said you look like a damn fool and if it’s true what these young
men have said.” He pointed toward Mack and Logan and smiled. “Then
you act the part just as much as you look it.” I didn’t know what
to make of what he had just said to me, he was right in a way but
even then it was still hard to stomach the insult he had just
thrown at me.

“
I didn’t-”

“
Didn’t mean to I know,”
he cut me off with a grin. “But you still messed up big and now I’m
here to help clean up the mess you created.”

“
I’m sorry,” was all I
could say as he shook his head and groaned.

“
That’s your first
problem, boy. Don’t be sorry only losers are sorry. You did what
you had to do like an idiot but I’d be lying if I said I would have
done things any different.”