The Uninvited (The Julianna Rae Chronicles Book 1) (25 page)

‘We need to head east,’ Caden said.

Julianna pricked her head up. ‘Into the city?’

He nodded. ‘Taris won’t be expecting it.’

‘But when he finds out, he’ll embrace it. We’ll be walking right into his web. We need to retreat—’

Caden leaned in. ‘Are we having this discussion again?’ he asked. ‘Because I thought we had an understanding. We did have an understanding, right?’

She raised her hands in defeat. ‘Suits me. I get to go home,
Commander
.’ She sat heavily beside him. 

He’s my freakin’ watcher!

Caden reached into the fire to move the log again. The flames licked around his arm but left no trail of a burn, and he showed no sign of recoiling. The log leaned where the air could move and the flames jumped in an anger aimed at her.

Daniel’s sleepy eyes studied them through it. Bas was careful to sit on other side of the fire, beside Devo. All eyes were on the pair. She surveyed the crowd and the prisoner woke from their rising tension, too.

‘If you have something to say, say it now or forever keep your mouth shut.’ Caden was staring.

And your mind
!

She glanced around. Yeah, everyone was staring at them for sure, but she felt like crap. It’d hit her quickly, as quickly as the fever had returned. She didn’t feel like fighting, but she couldn’t let something like a potential initiation slip. Not for everything she’d been through to escape the life from the Family.

‘So, because you were pissed off at the world, you just had to make my life miserable, too?’ She stood. Caden stood with her, and before she knew it, Daniel and Bas were standing, too, with their arms outstretched, keeping them apart.

‘You’re frustrating. You know that?’ Caden said.

‘Take a walk, man, she’s geared for a fight,’ Daniel said.

Caden pushed Daniel aside to step into her space. ‘Let’s clear the air, shall we? I’m Council, I’m your watcher, and you’re defiant. Let’s call it what it is so we can move on.’

‘My defiance saved your sorry ass – and I don’t need a watcher.’ She rocked on her feet. Her head spun and his image blurred.

‘Your defiance almost had you killed last night.’ He stood a good foot higher. His finger pointed. ‘Who was saving whose sorry ass then?’ He turned to the small group of people left. ‘Keep going against my command, you’ll get yourself killed!’ Caden glared back at her.  ‘And you’ll take everyone with you.’

She gritted her teeth and held her ground, even though everything spun around her. ‘Didn’t hear you complain last night when I took down the noc at the barricade.’

His hand clenched into a fist. ‘And, yes, you fucking need a watcher.’ He settled. ‘What’s wrong with you, anyway?’

The world hazed over in a thick grey, Bas steadied her and the last she remembered before she blacked out was Caden catching her as she fell.

*    *    *    *

Her cheek pressed against his back. Her eyes squeezed shut against the speeds he pushed on the bike, rushing along the interstate and constantly checking over his shoulder for the chance of a drone following. The wind whipped at her body, and she soaked the cool feeling in as her fever raged. It pushed the comforting smell of his shirt into her face. The feel of him in her arms gave something to focus on over the long ride, but the overwhelming need to sleep slipped in. She felt his grasp on her hands around his waist while she dozed. The fever had invaded. She couldn’t fight it; she needed to sleep.

The bike slowed. Another bike rode beside them and the visor flipped open on the helmet. She returned his glance through hazy eyes and closed them again.

Her wrists slipped lower. She felt him and didn’t care. Like he’d care, like anyone cared. She felt a peculiar dullness in her mind and her hands let go to swing by her sides. Her mind wandered to the park with her father, holding her hand and pointing out the flowers along the path.

The bike slowed again.

Bas, need your help!

Huh, there’s no one here. Just Daddy and me on a walk. Leave us alone, damn it!

Julianna didn’t feel the bike stop, or hear the kickstand go
twang
! She didn’t feel the first slap to the face either, or Bas holding her in his lap so she wouldn’t face plant into the highway asphalt. She did feel Caden’s whisper, though, pulling her away from the park, away from the flowers and bright sky.

Away from Daddy...

Her eyes opened to the night sky and the hands holding her by the waist, pulling her against the solid chest behind her.

Caden crouched with a bottle in one hand, splashing water into his other and wetting her face with it as he rubbed his hand against her cheeks and forehead. His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed. He wet her face again.

‘You okay?’ he asked.

Julianna lingered a little longer in his gaze before snapping back to his voice.

‘Have something to drink, sweetheart. Please.’

She refused the bottle and pushed it away. It almost dropped. She closed her eyes again, the park calling for her. Why wouldn’t they let her rest just for a moment?

Bas’s hands tightened as she slipped down again. More water splashed on her face and the bottle was angled against her lips, his hand close to catch any stray drops. He made her drink. She pulled away from the poison burning her throat and scratched at the hands holding her.

‘Penicillin?’

‘Everything was lost in the skirmish,’ Bas said.

Julianna opened her eyes again and outstretched her hand to touch Caden’s chest. He took her hand in his and held it. ‘Need to go back,’ she whispered.

Caden’s sympathetic nod irritated her. The need was overbearing, didn’t he understand? Her legs were heavy and the hands were reluctant in letting her escape. She heard him calling again, telling her to be careful.

Her feet weren’t so forgiving, and one step sent her down again. Caden caught her.

‘Okay, sweetheart.’

She used his body to lean against. She looked up at him; he struggled for his own balance. Bas took her back and her eyes returned to the markings on his wrists. She fought him, just as she had when she was a kid, but the memory abandoned her the moment she reached for it. His voice echoed softly into the back of her mind, calming her and telling her gently to hush.

She stopped moving in his bear hug. ‘Swing a leg over,’ she heard him say. She was being lifted onto the bike. ‘You’re riding up front.’

‘Promise?’ What was she doing asking her watcher to promise things. She swayed again, but she was resting on her own bike, with the keys in the ignition, taunting her delusions. She had escaped far worse. She glanced over to Caden. He was watching; so was his brother. They weren’t enemies. She shook the thought loose. Her mind wandered again and the sweat rolled down her neck. She wanted the cool breeze back. Was it raining? She couldn’t tell.

‘We need to go. They’ll be here soon.’ She wasn’t sure if she spoke or thought the words, but both men nodded. Caden raised a leg to sit behind her, just as she had Katherine. She was sick, really sick. People only do this when someone is really sick. His hands took the handles, and she was within his grasp, balancing between his arms and chest.

The memory of Bas lifting her onto the bike never returned. Neither did the memory of Caden balancing her between his arms as they rode quickly to the front of the group, or the whispered truths about her father.

She had no recollection at all.

*    *    *    *

Caden set her down in the blanket, cocooning her in its warmth, and crouched low to put the water to her lips again. She refused, her eyes half open, trying to focus on the hazy shapes of people staring and mumbling over her. She held out her hand and pushed the bottle gently away.

‘You have to drink something, J Rae, your fever’s back.’

She shook her head and rested. The softness under her head held his scent and she turned to nuzzle the material of his jacket. A waterfall crashed in the distance and the trees were thick above, but not enough to hide the blanket of stars.

‘We can’t move like this,’ Bas stated, and took the bottle from Caden’s hand to help coax Julianna. ‘Drink up, darlin’, just a little.’ He tipped the bottle and she choked on the water rolling down her burning throat. He forced her to have more. ‘Good. We’ll let you sleep now. Maybe tomorrow you’ll be feeling your belligerent self again.’

‘We’re a little too open here for my liking,’ Caden said. ‘They’ll find us here in twenty-four hours, tops.’

Daniel shot him a glance. ‘Look at her! She can’t run anymore! We have no army, we have no support from Isis. What exactly is it you want us to do?’

‘Finally find your balls, Danny?’ Caden smirked. ‘But you’re right, she’s sick and it’s our job to keep the Seer alive at any cost.’

‘She’s not just some Seer pawn in a war, Caden.’

‘
She’s
the Seer you’ve told us about?’ Devo’s words surprised everyone. ‘Does she even know who she is?’

Caden’s defeated look at his brother and the group silenced everyone. ‘So, Daniel, take first watch on the highway. Devo, I need you to sleep; be ready to take over Daniel’s watch in a few hours. Bas, you, too, man, get some sleep. I’ll watch Julianna.’

‘And when do you sleep, Cade – never?’ Bas threw an arm around Devo’s tiny shoulders to shelter her from the wind blowing up a storm. They were in the open, but for the scant trees hanging over them, offering no protection from the rain threatening to crash down.

‘My duty as her watcher is to see she survives this. Everyone has their orders. Go!’ He propped beside her, drawing the thin blanket closer to her chin. Bas shook his head as he walked deeper into the trees with Devo. Daniel took a rifle to reload it with what ammunition they had left before heading toward the highway on his bike.

‘Got your back, J Rae,’ he whispered and wet his hand with the water to stroke her hot face. Her heavy eyes closed. ‘You just need to hang in there so we can finish this damn war together. Once it’s done, I promise I’ll take you to meet your father.’

Julianna’s eyes parted. She heard his words bounce inside her mind. Her father, yes, what a lovely thought.

I think I might just take that walk and visit Daddy in the park now...

2
ND
MAY, 2018, 1900 HOURS.

CAMP 2.2.1
.

Taris punched the bag swinging on its chains in the gym hall. It swung back; he hit it again, and again, and again. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Another punch, another swing back. His mania lifted him to a new level of anger. Another punch! The bag swung back one more time, daring his grasp only to be ripped hard from its chains and thrown across the hall. It slid down the wall, leaving a trail of splintered wood and dust, landing vertical before slapping against the floor in its final bow.

He looked at the broken chains swinging above him. The thick, solid links at the end bent open and their contorted bodies mocked him more. He reached his hands out and steadied their motions.

‘And may I ask what it is the punching bag has done to you?’

He hung on the chains, focusing on their patterns as the voice came closer. He grasped down on them until they stopped their final rocking, holding his weight comfortably. On another day, he would have smiled at the sarcasm, but the joke swept past and he curled his nose.

‘No more than J Rae,’ the name knotted his face. ‘Which is why it’s now in pieces over there. I’m practicing.’

‘The Senate discusses alternatives. It seems my daughter has eluded your capture again, even though you managed to rest her on the door of death itself.’

Taris turned to the voice now standing beside him. Her auburn hair curled around her shoulders and her dark green eyes sparkled under her half-smile, half-pout.

‘I hate your daughter, Elizbeth,’ he said quietly, and returned his lean to the chains. ‘She has me at a loss.’ He shook his head. ‘I would have her now if the Senate let me do things my way.’

Her arms curled around his neck. ‘My darling. It’s not like you to pout so much over one little girl.’

‘I pout over the lead they choke me with.’ He let the chains go; they swung with vigor from the force. He paced slowly around them, rubbing his chin and thinking deeply.

‘Well.’ She sighed, turning on her one spot to follow him. ‘You do have something. Doug is gone. Play it smart, you could have the Senate as your own, eating from your palm with what little seeds you throw to them.’

He touched the splintered wall where the bag had fractured the wooden lining. He nodded. He agreed.

‘…With the right thoughts and movements, have it by the year’s end.’

Taris listened to the redhead talking seductively, calmly. She glided to him, wrapping her arms around his neck again, stretching her fingers down to his chest to trace the sweat on his bare skin.

‘What do you suggest, Beth?’ he asked quietly. His hand dropped from the wall to push her outstretched fingers flat. They stopped their playful circling of his skin and he drew her closer.

‘I suggest nothing,’ she whispered. ‘But I am merely your prisoner who knows no better than to advise a man as powerful as yourself.’ Her hands moved from his grasp and he turned into her petite frame to have a closer look.

‘You are not my prisoner, Elizbeth.’ He smiled. ‘I take care of you.’ He cupped her cheek and tucked a loose wave of hair behind her ear tenderly. ‘You take care of me in turn.’ He studied her face as she leaned her cheek into his touch. ‘But you are right as always. I need to be patient. The balance has swayed; now I need to wait.’

‘Vengeance will be yours.’ She smiled.

‘Yes, it will, and with it, the power the Madison name, and the Senate.’

She took his hand in hers and lowered it. ‘And the Seer.’

‘Your daughter.’ His lips parted and he returned her smile. ‘Yes,’ he said quietly and coaxed her body to the broken wall beside them. He rested his weight against her back. ‘Yes, I will own Julianna,’ he said quietly. ‘And once we have her, we own this war.’

He edged his hands around her flat stomach, barely a bump yet, pushing against her more. She groaned under his weight as he worked his hands to undress her waist and to free himself.

‘Tarisos, you are hurting me,’ she said.

He smiled at the use of his real name. He liked it. His name from birth; Taz was such a bastardization of it. Julianna had given him
Taz
. Along with so many other things.

His hand continued to touch her body before he set it around her neck to take a clump of her thick hair. His eyes darkened and his voice cooled.

‘I will have your daughter again Elizbeth, but not before I have you first...and when our little one arrives, we’ll all have our day in the light again. Our new little Seer will see to that one. The next time I have Julianna, I’ll destroy her where she stands.’

END OF BOOK ONE