SCARLETT 10

 

Cassius left early this morning, promising to contact me often. When I walked with him to the garage I noticed all the others were already there. A sombre feel to the departure, which makes me anxious thinking that they might be in danger. The prospect which I still haven’t met, Caelius and Gunner stayed behind, when entering the garage, the first thing I noticed was Gunners swollen lip and bruised face. Everyone could guess how he got them just by looking at the glares Brielle was sending Bion. 

Every time I think about what Cassius has been going through my heart tightens and I want to cry, the pain that I could hear in his voice when he revealed the horrors of his captivity will haunt me for a long time. Those Keres need to be stopped, not only did they destroy his life but they did the same to mine.

He asked me what my nightmares were but I can’t tell him, I try not to think about everything. Maybe one day when the memories don’t trigger such fear in me that I panic I will tell him, for now I will fight the memories.

“Are you ready?” Jasmine asks as she walks towards me.

“Yip, just been waiting on you. Where the others?” after saying goodbye to the guys the women agreed to help Aria with her herbs as she won’t be able to visit her garden for a while after the baby is born.

“They already outside, I just went to drop Orion off with Gabriela as she offered to look after him while we outside. She’s so excited about the naming ceremony of the babies, when the men get back you will be attending your first naming ceremony. It’s so beautiful.” I’m curious about the ceremony, Aria had explained to me about what they do and how they go about finding the right stone for the baby.

We make our way outside to find them already in the garden, “Will you excuse me for a minute?” I ask as I notice Kade in the Garage bending over a bike with Gunner. I’ve hardly seen Kade since I woke up, I need to talk to him and see how he’s adapting to this new life. I know that he’s in heaven when working with cars and bikes, but it’s always only been the two of us and I want to make sure that he’s fine with all the changes.

“Kade” I call as I approach, he looks over his shoulder and then smiles when he sees me.

“Sis, how you feeling?” he asks as he lowers a part that he’s holding. I walk up to him and hug him close.

“I’ve missed you.” I confess, “why haven’t I seen you, are you keeping away from me?” I see his worried look before he looks down.

“I’ve just been busy, and I know you fine because Cassius keeps me updated.” He grumbles, his lying and when I realise why he’s been keeping away from me I want to scream, but then I realise that for a twenty year old having sex is a big thing, but I wish it had been with someone he felt something for and not just because of sex. I open my mouth to berate him, but then I shut it again. I will just embarrass him, and the Jezebels are gone now so no use worrying about it.

“Do you like Cassius?” I ask instead, it’s important to me that my brother and my boyfriend like each other. From what Cassius says this relationship of ours is forever, there is no going back anymore.

“Cassius is cool; actually they all cool in their own way.” Kade replies, “I know that look, don’t worry everything is perfect. These guys are teaching me so many things and they let me test the bikes.”

“You’re okay with this thing with me and Cassius?” I ask

“Sis, you’ve pinned for this guy for years and Cassius seems like a decent guy. Why wouldn’t I be fine?” he asks with one of his goofy smiles.

“I just wanted to make sure that you’re fine with all these changes.” I confess, “And I don’t want you to keep away from me just because I’m with Cassius.”

“I won’t, I promise.” He says

“Okay then, I’m going to go help with the gardening and will see you later for lunch.” I say as I hug him close again before I leave to go join the other women. When I approach I hear Aria’s exasperated voice.

“That’s not a weed Nova, you pulling out all the celery. The weeds are the ones with those tiny pink flowers.” She grumbles

“Well that’s silly,” Nova mutters, “Why would I want to pull out the pretty ones.”

“Oh my word, Nova” Aria mumbles as she throws up her hands in frustration. I see Jasmine and Brielle hiding a grin as they continue to pull out weeds. I go and kneel next to Nova and nearly burst out laughing when I hear her mumbled grumblings. I see the bunch of celery that she pulled out lying next to her.

I’m nearly finished with my patch when I look up and see the guy that I saw the other day in the infirmary. “Who’s that guy?”

“That’s Sven, a prospect.” Brielle explains, “I’ll introduce you later.”

“I’ve met him before, or kind of.” Nova looks at me curiously, “I was still in the infirmary, when I woke up and he was there. When he saw I was awake he hurried out of there.”

“Why would Sven be in the infirmary, is he even allowed at the back?” Brielle asks

“He shouldn’t be anywhere near the back, that’s why he has a room in the front with the Jezebels.” Jasmine says with a frown. “Did he say anything to you?”

“He looked flustered; when he saw that I was awake he quickly left.” I answer

“Aria have you been able to pick anything from his thoughts?” Nova asks

“No, the man only thinks about cars. Every time he’s around all I hear is him going through these steps of how to build a motor. I swear he’s obsessed with it.” She reveals

“Either that or he’s keeping his mind busy for you not to pick on anything else.” Brielle suggests

“Maybe, I should go persuade our friend to tell us what he’s up too.” Nova quips as she gets up.

“Wait, that could be dangerous if he’s up to something. What about we use Scarlett’s gift and see if he lies.” Jasmine suggests, “Like that he won’t know that we’re suspicious about anything and we would know what he’s hiding.”

“I could do that, if he lies I will know what the truth is.” I say as I stand and start to dust off my jeans.

“We need a plan; we can’t just go up to him and start to ask questions.” Aria states as she walks towards us. After going through different scenarios, we finally all agree on how I should approach Sven. We all make our way inside, the women dispersing each going their own way as we see Sven sitting at one of the tables eating.

I approach and see him tense, “Hi, we didn’t get properly introduced before.” I say as I sit before him. “My names Scarlett”

“Sven” he grunts as he takes another bite of his sandwich.

“So Sven, what do you do around here?” I ask with a smile on my face.

“Prospect”

“Oh, what is that?” hopefully he will start to give me more than one word answers.

“Anything the guys want me to do.”

“That must suck, you must hate being at their beck and call.” I gasp exaggeratedly as if feeling for him.

“It’s not too bad.” There we go, first lie. He hates it.

“I bet sometimes you would like to tell them to get stuffed, I know I would if someone made me do all their dirty work.” I quip

“As I said, it’s not that bad. If you’ll excuse me I have stuff to do.” And again another lie and this time the truth is perturbing. ‘They will all pay’ that isn’t something from someone that doesn’t mind. I’m still sitting at the table thinking about what just happened when my phone rings.

“Hello”

“Baby, how you’re doing?”

“Cassius,” at his voice I feel my body relax, I hadn’t even noticed how tense I was. “have you arrived wherever you were going?” I ask

“Yeah about ten minutes ago, what have you been up to?”

“Well, we’ve all been helping Aria with her gardening. Then I saw the guy that was in the infirmary one day I woke up, was just chatting to him a few minutes ago.” I reply still thinking about my short conversation with Sven.

“Oh, Caelius?”

“No, Sven. I was just introducing myself and trying to find out more about him.” I confess

“Why the hell was Sven in the infirmary when you were there?” Cassius says in surprise.

“Well that’s what I was trying to find out as the other women say he’s not supposed to be at the back, and he did lie to me at the time when I caught him.”

“I don’t like this, I don’t want you to . . .” I interrupt him before he can lay down some law that I will have a problem with.

“We didn’t talk long, just introduced ourselves and I asked what he did. He said he was a prospect, and that he did basically whatever you guys asked him to.” I reveal, “I quipped that it must be irritating being ordered around all the time, and he answered that it wasn’t too bad.”

“All good then, stay away from him I will ask him what he was doing in the infirmary when I get back.”

“No, you don’t understand. The answers were fine, nothing wrong with them but he was lying. In the last question his truth was that they will pay.” There was quiet on the other side of the line until I thought that maybe the call had dropped. “Cassius?” I call

“Stay away from him, I will find out what is going on when I get back.” Cassius grunts, “I should be back tomorrow night sometime or the next day in the morning. Be good until then.”

“Okay, are you going to be safe?” I ask what has been worrying me ever since he left.

“Yeah baby, I’m safe.” He mumbles, “I have to go, will phone you again later.” Before I can answer the call is disconnected. Shrugging I get up and make my way inside, finding Nova and Brielle in the courtyard waiting for me.

“So, what happened?” after relaying what I had learned to them they stand before me with frowns on their faces.

“Hmm, maybe I should persuade him to tell us what he’s up to.” Nova suggests

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the man always has earphones on as he listens to music, I don’t think you could persuade him if you tried.” Brielle says, just as Nova’s phone starts to ring.

“Now he decides to phone me.” She grumbles as she answers the phone.

“I am being good, no, I won’t do anything stupid. Don’t worry, everything is fine.” She says sweetly to Ceric.

“I didn’t do anything to get shot, not my fault they attacked us.” She mumbles, “I know, I love you too, be careful.” She disconnects the call a big smile on her face as she looks down at it.

“Earth to Nova, anybody there?” Brielle teases

“Very funny, Ceric’s just worried that I’m going to get myself into trouble. Did you tell Cassius what was going on?” Nova asks, and I nod in confirmation. “Yeah, I thought so as my man was going into protective mode.”

“Hey ladies, are you all in here or is anyone still outside?” Gunner asks as he comes through the corridor from outside.

“We all in, why?” Brielle asks

“Lock down, Wulf just phoned with the order.” He mutters as he hurries towards the computer room.

“Of course, Wulf would overreact.” Nova says as she goes to sit under a beautiful tree in the middle of the courtyard.

“What does he mean lockdown?” I ask curiously

“Exactly as it sounds,” Brielle explains just as I hear a grinding sound, “They are locking us in, and the bad guys out.”

“What? Are we going to be locked in here until they get back?” I gasp

“Pretty much, next time think before you tell your man all the information.” Nova says with a pout, “they tend to exaggerate.” Wow, I never thought men would go to this degree to keep their families safe, and even though I find it overmuch, a warm feeling fills me when I think of how protective they are being.