Page 58 of Lost and Bound

The way Cane talks respectfully to the students, like a leader should, makes my head spin. As to date, I have seen the opposite of what I am witnessing now. I honestly thought there would be shade thrown toward those who indicated they weren’t ready, but there’s no derision anywhere.

All the students join Emrys, and when Cane doesn’t challenge anyone’s decision, my admiration for him grows. That is until he opens his mouth and my view of him plummets. “I swear to god, if you let me down, or put any of your fellow students at risk because you think you are better than you actually are, I will fail you and your entire unit. Now, everyone can head out, except you, Miss. Ellis—you’re with Arlan.”

Then every being, the ones I was just considering I may have judged wrong, turn and make me regret thinking anything remotely positive about them. It’s not only scorn rolling off them, there’s dismissal and ridicule too.

Except the thing is, it’s nothing new. I’m seriously getting used to the see-saw responses of others, so their treatment glides over me. Well, all of them but Professor Cane’s. The knowing smirk on his face is like being winded.

“And I thought he was a good guy there for a minute,” I muse.

When Arlan scoffs and mutters something under his breath, I realize I spoke loud enough for him to hear, not that I care.

Cane takes off, shifting as he runs. It’s a beautiful sight and makes me dislike him even more. Some of the student cohort shift too, but they lack his finesse. Once they’ve taken to their beasts, the difference between Cane and them becomes even clearer. It’s hard to look away from him as the group races away.

Just as they’re about to disappear from view, Cane’s wolf leaps up to stand on the building’s broken roof. He scans the area, perhaps searching which way to go, but then he swings around and looks back at where we are gathered.

The intensity of his stare has the hairs on the back of my neck standing, and I check behind me in case I’m misreading his attention as a sign we’re about to be attacked. There’s no one behind me, and the look of disbelief and disappointment on his face steals the wind from my sails.

He turns to take off again, and even over the distance I can see the way his muscles bunch. I can’t look away, but before I blink, there’s a familiar hum, and I fumble my balance as my hands fly up.

Much like the other times, this one simply appears from nowhere. Instantly, I’m transported back to the same place where the three guys attacked me in the forest. I’m standing with my back pressed against the same tree, only this time I’m watching hooded beings spill from a split seam. I recognize the portal only from the movies I watched back home, but I know that’s exactly what it is. Each group member wears the same clothes, like a uniform, and they move with drilled precision. One of them looks directly at me, and the pale, opaque film clouding his eyes has me screaming and hurtling back to reality.

My hands are pushing down, and I fight against the figure in front of me.

“New girl! Maya!”

I know that voice, and it brings me back to full awareness. Arlan is on his knees, his hands holding my shoulders off the grass, his voice anchoring me to reality.

“They’re coming from where we were that day with the boys, Arlan. A group of hooded beings. Their eyes are smoke-filled pewter, and they’re armed with shards of glass.”

The shock on his face alerts me to the fact that what I saw is as real as the grass I’m now sprawled across. He guides me back down, then surges to his feet. “Cane! East quadrant! It’s the Legion.”

My head is fuzzy, almost as if I’m going to faint, and my energy levels are so drained that if I had to run, I know I wouldn’t be able to move an inch. Yet I manage to lean up enough to see a massive black wolf lead a mismatched group of beings down the path I ran a few days before.

Arlan splits his attention between me and them. It’s easy to see he wants to join them, and I don’t want to take the blame for making him stay. I struggle to my feet, while the world spins out of control around me, but I manage it after a few attempts.

“Go. I’ll hide in the rubble over there.”

I try to lift my arm to point to where Cane and the others were, but my legs give out. I don’t land on the ground because vampires have extraordinary reflexes.

“What’s happening?” I ask. My words slur, and I feel like I’ve drunk a bottle of champagne. “Arlan?”

“What’s happening is, you’ve had a vision. Or you outed yourself as a spy. If that’s the case, I have to say, sweetness, you should probably join the drama club because you’re a hell of an actress. Fair warning, if you’re tricking me, I will drain you dry,” he whispers, but when I open my eyes, I see it’s not that at all; it’s that we’re moving so fast that the world is whirling past us. If I were well, it would be an exhilarating ride. Yet, with the way I’m now feeling, the motion is like taking the plug out of a bath; all my energy, plus the apprehension I should feel, drains away. It leaves me curled in his arms, thinking how weird it is that I feel like I’m home.

When we get back to the house, nothing sticks. I know Arlan’s talking, and I’m answering, but I couldn’t tell you the words. Things don’t start making sense until a while later, when time is again relevant and I can keep track of things happening around me. I come back to the taste of something sweet on my lips and a raven squawking in my face.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

RAMBLINGS AND REVELATIONS

ARLAN

Every time I ask Maya what she saw, she focuses on details that few others in our world are aware of. She’s basically delirious, but her recount of the Legion always includes their eyes and the weapons they carry.

Sometimes when I ask her, her lips barely move, and other times, fear chokes her, making the words tumble out haphazardly. But the specifics never change.

I check the computer screen I set up in her room as often as I check on her, watching as she moves restlessly in sleep. I know it’s not unusual for Noms to have visions, but it concerns me how fast this one struck. And how much it wiped her out.

I shouldn’t worry, but it’s hard not to. Without the information she gave us, the exact location of the portal might have remained hidden until the next time the Legion attacked.