Chapter Twelve:
Noah

 

“So I take it you had a change of heart?” Noah asked Livvy. He stopped to look over the room, only to see a handful of werewolves engaged in an intent conversation with a group of humans.

“No,” she snapped at him.

He quirked a brow at her.

Livvy sighed. “I don’t fucking know. Werewolves are starting to break away. Something about them being pretty disposable during the Takeover, and they’re pretty pissed.”

Noah grimaced. As far as his father had been concerned, the whole fucking rebellion had been disposable, too — the means to an end rather than people in need of protection. He’d always known it, but he’d thought that was how it had to be. Now… Now he knew better.

So did they.

They’d seen just what Paul Franklin’s teachings had led to, and they still saw Noah as his son and a fanger instead of someone they could trust. But he was useful to them, and they needed useful people now more than ever. It looked like that meant they were taking in supes among their ranks.

“So you trust ‘em?” Noah asked.

Shrugging, Livvy replied, “We don’t have much of a choice. Axel’s pretty sure they’re sincere, and we’re getting more people flowing in.” She offered him a crooked smile, the closest to something pleasant he’d seen on her face in the entire time he’d known her. Her trust of the Kaminski witch spoke volumes, too.

He’d never expected her to step up and become one of the de facto leaders of the rebellion, but she was bossy as hell and savvy to boot. It made sense, especially considering how fucking paranoid she was. That seemed to be a trait of all of the rebels — himself included, even though he didn’t really consider himself one of them anymore.

Noah had failed them when he hadn’t been able to keep so many of them from doing a suicide run when his father had been taken to Tartarus. His father had died there at the hands of supes who had hunted him down, but he’d given as much as he’d taken… more than he’d taken.

He shuddered, not wanting to think of that night. It was bad enough to think about failing the people he really had wanted to protect. It was worse still to think about being fucked by Elias’s pet, then…

He could still hear Khaz sobbing, sometimes, and feel the heartbreak.

“Noah?” Livvy snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Noah, come on,” she said impatiently.

He muttered an apology, glad for the return to reality instead of having to dwell in his own memories. He’d much rather think about the rebellion and their mostly-useless attempts to fight back at the supes.

Well. They weren’t quite so useless anymore. Their guerilla warfare tactics had failed for years, dismissed by propaganda as gas leaks, unsound buildings… whatever they needed to say to get people to think the rebels had been wiped out.

Everyone knew that wasn’t true now that they’d taken out an Elder, and Noah felt a certain sense of pride in having been involved in that. Of course, he’d have died if Khaz hadn’t followed them and saved his ass, but without that night…

Without that night, he might never have followed his heart.

He didn’t know how much time he had before he started to feel the effects of withdrawal, but he’d made sure to keep his phone charged so he could keep an eye on the time. He’d get back to Khaz before it started to get unbearable, then maybe his sire would start to feel more certain Noah wasn’t going to lose his mind over the addiction.

“There are witches coming in too, and a couple vampires,” Livvy told him. “Those are harder, but some of them…” She shook her head. “Some of them are stupid powerful. We’re still not sure if we should trust them, but it’s hard to turn down help.” Her lips twisted into a sneer. “Would’ve been nice if they’d said something a fucking decade ago, but…”

“But at least they’re acting now,” Noah finished, nodding. He exchanged a look with her, silently agreeing that he still loathed them for not having done anything to stop this mess. But they also agreed — at long fucking last — that they needed all the help they could get.

“Yep,” Livvy confirmed.

Noah paused, frowning. “Hey, question.”

“Yeah?” Livvy asked, turning to face him fully.

“Is there a witch who comes in sometimes who can remove marks?” he asked slowly. “Tall, dark-haired, pretty, powerful enough to radiate— Sorry,” he interrupted himself, realizing Livvy wouldn’t be able to feel the buzz of magic against her skin.

“Middle-aged blonde’s removing some marks,” Livvy said, shaking her head. “Pretty strong witch. She’s got some killer connections, though. No idea who she is, but… We’re glad to have her.”

It couldn’t be the same person, but what were the chances of a powerful witch able to remove marks coming to help them? He hadn’t been able to get anything solid out of Nyla Ivers, but he’d gotten enough to know there was something going on with her. If they could get her help, there was no telling what they could do.

“Not the same person then.” Noah showed her his arm, free of marks. “Had a pretty powerful one take mine off, and she seemed pretty… sympathetic. Wouldn’t come out and say it, obviously, but there were a few things she said that made me think she had some opinions.”

“See if you can get her here,” Livvy said, sighing heavily before beckoning Noah to follow her toward where Jonathan spoke intently with the werewolves. “We’re not gonna turn down the help if you think she’s okay.”

“How big of you,” Noah said dryly, “seeing as how you kept wanting to kill me.”

“Yeah, well,” Livvy said. She shifted uncomfortably, lifting a shoulder in a shrug. “You’re not all bad, Noah. You were a shithead as Paul Franklin’s kid, but getting turned into a fanger did some good to you.”

“Thank you,” Noah said. “I think.”

They paused near the outskirts of the group, and Jonathan looked at him. The portly man still didn’t trust him either, though they were making progress. It looked like now that they were opening their ranks to supes, Noah might actually have a chance of fitting back in…

But then, he didn’t know if he wanted to. He’d always be Paul Franklin’s son to them, and he’d lost most of his faith in the rebels when he’d first landed in Khaz’s hands. It had been one of the first things to go, along with most of his father’s homophobia and insistence that there was no good fanger but a dead one. The rhetoric had taken some time to scrub from his mind, and he still had trouble sometimes.

“This is Noah,” Jonathan said, a little reluctantly. He didn’t add the Franklin that usually followed to let them know exactly who they were talking to.

In the supe crowd, his father was infamous for having slaughtered a bunch of them on his way down, so it might’ve been a good thing.

Either way, if Noah was going to get involved with them again, he wanted it to be on his own merit — and on his own merit as Noah the vampire, not as who he’d been before.

It was a strange thought.

“You made up your mind yet?” Livvy finally asked once she was surrounded by her own allies.

Noah offered her a wry smile at that. “Nice, Livvy. Real nice.”

She shrugged. “Practical.”

The two werewolves exchanged a look. Noah could only imagine what they’d had to go through to get there, then they didn’t even merit any sort of introduction.

“I don’t know,” Noah said slowly. “I mean, I’m not gonna say I won’t help, but things are just… different now.”

“Because now you’re an unmarked supe and you don’t have to worry about the same shit we do?” Livvy countered.

Noah flinched. “Because I don’t want to die for no reason,” he told her. “There’s been enough of that.”

“Well, until you decide, you don’t need to be over here,” Jonathan said.

“I can’t decide if I’m throwing in with you again until I know what you’re planning or if I can even help,” Noah retorted.

One of the werewolves interjected, “Either he can help or he can’t. If you’re willing to tell him at all, then just tell him.” The freckle-faced ‘wolf cast a glance at Jonathan. “Sometimes, we just gotta trust.”

The female werewolf next to him nodded in agreement. “I’m Naomi,” she offered. “This is Thomas. We’re happy to meet you.”

At least someone was. Surrounded as they were by people who probably still wanted them dead, it had to be nice to see someone else go through the same crap.

Noah offered a dip of his head to the ‘wolf in thanks. He could only imagine what they’d had to do to gain the approval of the members of the rebellion.

“That’s not all that changed. I can’t come back and forth often,” he warned. “Our favorite new Elder has decided he wants to try to pin Palmero’s death on me. That’s why I’m just not sure how much I can do.”

It was partially true.

Livvy gaped at him, and the others around him exchanged uncomfortable looks. “Fuck, Noah! You didn’t think that was important to mention before? How do you know you weren’t followed?”

“My own Elder cleared me,” Noah said, more than a little uncomfortable now that everyone’s attention had shifted fully to him. “Odessa.”

“Your what?” Thomas asked, staring outright at him. “You…”

“Yeah,” Noah said uncomfortably. “Ivers has a little bit of a hard-on for me, and he keeps trying to drag me into things. But I don’t know. I’m in the clear, and it’s not like they’re doing shit to go after anyone over this.”

“The fires,” Jonathan pointed out. “We lost some of our own before we could get them out.”

Noah cringed, familiar guilt rising up within him. He hated when they lost people, especially to something senseless. “Fuck.”

Jonathan nodded. “The fires didn’t last long, though. Enforcers started them, then put them out. We still don’t have a fucking clue why. Any idea, Mr. I Met with an Elder?”

Noah rolled his eyes, but he shook his head. “No. It’s not like I’m best friends with her. I just had to go talk to her.”

“I can’t tell if you’re one hell of an asset or one hell of a liability,” Axel pitched in, shaking his head. “On one hand, you’ve got to have a lot of intel. On the other…”

“Yeah. I know,” Noah said, briefly distracted by the feeling of magic coming from the witch.

It had gotten easier to recognize, which meant he was all too aware of it, and it was a little uncomfortable against his skin. Axel might’ve been as good as a human to the supes, but he sure as fuck wasn’t a human.

“But either way, I’m not gonna be what fucks you over. This…” He glanced over them, having a hard time gathering the words. “This is what I grew up doing. Trying to take them down. Trying to protect all of you, even if I was shit at it.”

Even though he’d choose Khaz over any rebels or any cause. Period.

Not that he was going to tell them that.

“So what’s going on?” Noah asked again, hoping for more of a response now that they’d played the is-he-or-isn’t-he game.

“Tartarus,” Naomi said.

All of them stared at the werewolf, but she shrugged.

“The rest of you were just going to fuck around with this all day. Either he’s in or he isn’t. He doesn’t need to know anything else if he’s not involved, and he can’t do much if—”

“I’m in,” Noah said, his voice rougher than he’d intended it, harsh.

“But you don’t even—” Jonathan began.

“If it involves doing any sort of damage to Tartarus and Ivers, I’m in,” Noah said like a proper zealot despite knowing this was going to come back to bite him in the ass somehow. “I know some of the layout. I know a little about Ivers. I can help.”

Livvy cast him a look of utter disgust. “You went there?”

“Not in a front row seat with a cocktail,” Noah snarled. He must’ve gotten something across in his voice, because instead of pressing, she let it go. “What’s your idea?”