Volumes of the Vemreaux Complete Collection: A Dystopian Adventure Trilogy, page 28
The bathroom door flew open to reveal Blue’s carefully composed face, which fell into surprise when she saw that he was waiting for her again. Her hand rose to her chest to indicate that he’d startled her.
“You okay?” Sam asked, immediately berating himself for not coming up with something smoother.
Blue nodded in response.
“They’re coming up with a pretty good plan out there. One that involves your brother staying here and you going to the O-blood island without a parade of police behind you.” He placed his free hand behind him at the base of his spine and pressed it between his backside and the wall to keep from fidgeting. “Do you want to go back out there? Throw in your brandish before it’s decided?”
“Okay,” she replied lamely, her blue eyes meeting his black ones without the usual curtain of hair between them.
Something about her noncommittal response caused him to stiffen, the subtle muscles in his face tightening. “You don’t have to, you know. I asked you if you want to.” He blew a mouthful of smoke away from her.
Blue’s face scrunched, not understanding the distinction.
Sam shook his head. “Never mind. Come on.”
Without thinking, he pushed himself off of the wall and took a step toward her like he wanted to hold her hand on the short stroll back to the table. Before his fingers could act out their desired insanity, he shoved them into his pocket to keep them from causing further damage. All the while, his hand itched to be free of the expensive black material and touch her, having acquired the addiction in that very hallway from the restraint that turned into a tender hold.
“I’m sorry about earlier.” He caught himself and rolled his eyes. “And for waiting for you outside the bathroom like a stalker twice now.” His full lips tightened with embarrassment.
She walked next to him with less distance than she would normally put between herself and another, though she was careful not to brush against him. When she inhaled his subtle cologne, she tripped over her own two feet, stumbling before righting herself with chagrin.
“You alright?” he asked, his hand touching her back kindly.
“Yeah. Just clumsy tonight.” When they were visible to the others, she tilted her head down to avoid eye contact with her brother, certain that her near fall and her desire to walk closer to the Vemreaux was somehow visible on her face.
Alec was sitting in her chair, so she decided it was fitting to take his instead of making him stand back up. She’d knocked the wind out of him pretty easily, and thought he probably needed the extra comfort of a chair while he reassembled his bearings and whatever could be salvaged of his pride. The vacant seat that had been Alec’s was across the table from Baird, to the left of Liam. When she reached it, it magically pulled out for her. She looked up in confusion, thinking perhaps Sam wanted to claim the chair as his, but he motioned for her to sit in it.
“What?” Sam questioned when his friends’ bewilderment mirrored hers. “I’m being nice.”
Brody stared at his friend in astonishment. “It’s literally like watching a baby giraffe take his first steps.”
Blue consented with wide eyes, and Sam slid the chair smoothly under her. Unable to hide her surprise at being treated so sweetly, the dreaded blush crept into her cheeks and trickled down her neck.
“Tell,” Baird grumbled, allowing his expression to dip into grave unhappiness.
When Blue did not say anything, Brody spoke up. “Tell what?”
Baird shook his head. “Nothing. I just caught one of her tells. That’s a new one, Blue. You’ll want to iron that out quickly.”
She offered no biting retort, but shrunk in her seat, wishing the frame would swallow her whole. She was relieved when Baird said nothing more of the embarrassing pink in her cheeks. Liam, Alec and Brody all stared at her to see what he was talking about, but they noticed nothing except for the small bit of color that lingered.
“Dude.” Brody turned to Sam uneasily. “She’s A-blood. She literally reeks like rotten eggs.”
“And you, Brody,” Sam cut him off before he could make it worse, “don’t exactly smell like a summer breeze.” He did not know what possessed him to pull Blue’s seat out for her. Never in his life had he done something so chivalrous. Even the promise of a satisfying night with an experienced Femreaux could not evoke such manners from him. Though he did not regret his actions, he did wish they had not been witnessed by those who knew his wanton behavior best. He reclaimed his seat and tried to disappear behind the smoke.
“Okay.” Liam interrupted the quarrel he was sure would erupt. The girl next to him squirmed in her chair, invoking his compassion toward her when he saw her discomfort at being in the spotlight. “Your brother and I figured out a way to get you to old world Australia without too many people being involved.”
Her ears perked, but her head remained downward.
“How would you feel about me buying you from your master? You’d have to pretend to be my servant and come with me on holiday or on assignment to the island, but I could get you there, no problem.” He draped his hand lazily on the back of her chair, causing Blue to stiffen.
She looked up at Baird across the table, ignoring everyone’s study of her every movement. Blue’s eyes moved rapidly back and forth as she processed the new information, trying to bring to light any possible problems with the plan.
“If Joe doesn’t put up much of a fight, we can have the paperwork done early next week. I have to stay for the Peace Day parade, and I’ve got to stop by The Way West to see my Uncle Jack again at some point, but we can leave the day after that if everything’s in place.”
Blue looked up at the prince, breaking out of her silence. “Your Uncle Jack? Is he a professor in The Way West?”
Liam cracked his knuckles. “Yeah. You know him?”
“Yes!” For the first time, Blue allowed her smile to seep through her control. “He was my favorite. Great guy.”
Baird nodded grimly as he stared into the two sets of identical blue eyes across the table. So much about himself and Blue looked similar to Liam. The tanned complexion, rare Original Vemreaux eyes, and about half a dozen other small things finally clicked in Baird’s mind. He watched his sister smile up at Liam, showing off their similarities. It was the last piece that he needed to fall into place to complete the puzzle he had been doing without consciously thinking about it. His breath quickened, but he fought to suppress the tell before his sister could notice it.
“Well, he’s my favorite uncle, so we have something in common after all. What do you think about the plan?” Liam asked, put off by her prolonged silence at what he thought was a great idea.
“Okay,” she replied simply and went back to staring at the table in front of her.
Sam exhaled like he would very much like to say something, but shoved a fresh cigarette between his lips to keep himself from talking.
“What?” Baird asked her, noticing that her eyes were still processing the new plan.
Her voice was so quiet that Brody had to lean in to hear her. “Do we have that kind of money? I thought we were saving to buy Griffin when he’s old enough. I don’t want to be the reason he’s still in The Way when he’s sixty.”
“We’ll still keep saving for Griffin, Blue. And we’re not paying for you. Liam is. He wants to buy you like a real servant and take you with him so it’s legal and no one asks any questions. They’re all ex-military and Liam’s royalty. They’ll be able to take you where the Vemreaux’ve been disappearing from. Just tag along and stay out of their way until they get you there.”
“Okay.”
“When we go, you’ll have to do enough work to blend in. I’ll keep you as a personal servant, so you can stay closer to us.” Liam swallowed in distaste. “I’ve actually never had one before, so this’ll be new to me, too. It won’t be long before we can get over to the island and sort this predator out.”
“I still don’t feel comfortable not paying you. It doesn’t seem right.” Baird frowned.
Liam waved his hand to say that it was the least he could do to end the predator’s reign of terror. “I’ll tell you what. You teach your sister here to make these, and we’ll call it even.” Liam eyed the other shots on the table that sat there like twinkling green glasses of happiness, begging to become a part of him. The first shot was already doing its part to impair his judgment. He’d spent many a drunken night trying to build up resistance to the powerful alcohol’s hallucinogenic effects, and could usually down five shots before losing himself to the euphoria.
“When you call Joe tomorrow, wait until after ten o’clock in the morning. He doesn’t like being bothered before then.” Baird patted his jeans pocket before looking over at his sister. “Blue? You got a pen and paper?”
Blue obediently pulled out a pen and an order sheet from her apron and slid them across the table.
Baird scribbled on the back of the paper and handed it to Liam. “This is his number. Blue’s his newest waitress, so he probably won’t be too attached yet. Start the bidding a little over the buying price. You might get lucky.” Recalling his sister, he slid the plate of spaghetti across the table to her. “Finish it.”
“Okay.” She sighed as she picked up the fork and slowly resumed eating her second dinner.
Sam murmured something under his breath sarcastically, pulling Baird’s eyes over to him. “Something you want to say, Vemreaux?” he challenged.
After considering the question for a moment, Sam sat up straighter in his chair. “Actually, yeah.” A dark look from Alec and Liam told him to push the more nasty things he wanted to say out of his mind and focus on the actual issue. “If she says ‘okay’ one more time, this isn’t going to work. How are we supposed to know what she needs if she won’t speak up?”
Baird considered this and dropped the abrasive lilt in his voice. “What do you need to know?”
“Oh, I don’t know. We’ve never spent much time with an A-blood. What does she eat? How often? Apparently she doesn’t sleep. That’s something we should know.” Sam bit back the other much more personal things he wanted to discover, but would never ask her brother. “Stuff like that.”
“Alright.” Baird answered for his sister, as he was accustomed to doing. “The prophecy’s true. As soon as it was written, she stopped sleeping. No naps, nothing. She had to pretend to sleep in The Way to keep the professors from noticing her, but she doesn’t like it.” Baird noticed his sister moving the noodles around on her plate nervously. He knew that she did not like all of her secrets being poured out for the Vemreaux to analyze.
“She eats Grade V rations in the morning, a regular lunch and a normal dinner. Stuff Liam probably eats since he’s not changed yet. If she goes running in the night like she’s been doing since she got out of The Way, she’ll need a second dinner, like the one she’s pretending to eat right now.” He threatened his sister with a glance.
Blue stopped fiddling with the food and ate it. Like a puppet on a string, she danced for him, doing whatever he asked without the resistance she wanted to put up.
Alec was amazed at Baird’s level of control over the occasionally willful girl. He studied the Wayward’s movements so he could repeat them and achieve the same subservient results in the potential killer.
“Guys, she was only bought a few weeks ago. There’s a lot she doesn’t know about the world. She studied everything she could in The Way, but the Vemreaux don’t like Waywards knowing too much.” He directed the next command to Liam. “Don’t send her out alone in public. She can run by herself if it’s a safe area that you live in, but only in the middle of the night when there’s not so many people around.”
Brody scoffed. “You really afraid someone’s gonna jump her?”
Baird folded his arms and crooked his neck to stare at him. “No, I’m afraid she’ll get spooked, attack some Vemreaux and cause a scene like she did tonight. She’s my sister, and I won’t let her go somewhere she’s not going to be watched over. Either you do it, or the deal’s off. She’s not to be alone during the day.”
Blue’s mouth pursed like she wanted to defend herself, but she kept her eyes down.
Liam shrugged. “That’s fine. We won’t be in Europe long. Couple weeks, a month or so. Just enough time to set up a flight and pack for the fight.”
“No,” Blue said with just enough volume to change the flow of conversation. Her eyes were still fixed on the plate in front of her as she spoke. “Pack for the fight? None of you’ll be fighting. I’m the Light, not any of you. This thing abducts Vemreaux and kills them. You can take me there because owned A-bloods can’t fly unaccompanied, but that’s it. You can’t fight with me.”
All of the guys except for Baird put up a protest, their voices clashing and drowning out each other’s words. Baird finally spoke above the din, holding his hand up as he addressed Sam. “You’re the one who wanted her to speak up and tell you what she needs. You can’t have it both ways.”
Her spaghetti forgotten, Blue lifted her chin to meet Alec’s fixed stare. “If any of you try to come with me, you’ll be one more thing I have to watch out for. I won’t be able to kill the predator if I’m responsible for making sure he doesn’t off one of you. Just let me go in and put an end to it.” She knew that even though Liam held the black bill card and the blood line, Alec was the one to appeal to.
Liam still looked uncomfortable with this plan, but tried to find some compromise. He turned to her and immediately regretted it. Blue met his gaze with those signature blue eyes and so looked like the sister he’d lost, that his words nearly stuck in his throat. “But how will we know when to come get you? What if you need help and we’re too far away?”
Baird snorted. “What help do you imagine you can give her?”
It was Brody who answered. “Look, asshole. Alec and I are bodyguards for the royal family. That means we’re the best. Sam used to be one, too. We’re all three ex-military. We’re not exactly dead weight here.”
“Yeah? Well Blue just tossed your dead weight around like it was nothing, and you think she’ll need help from you? This is what she was born to do. If you tag along, she’s right. You’ll make yourself a target for the predator and she’ll sacrifice the kill to rescue your worthless hide. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the predator snacks on military the same as it does civilians.” He tilted his head, considering Brody. “Or she’ll do the smart thing and let the monster take you before she kills it. Give it a last meal. You all have to stop thinking of her like she’s a woman or a person. She’s not. She’s the Light who’s going to end the tyranny for all of you in control of the planet.”
The statement marring her femininity stung Blue, but she suppressed the words she wouldn’t defend herself with. She swallowed the unexpected lump in her throat as she stared down at the hands clasped in her lap. They looked almost feminine, but Blue could imagine them coated in blood, as they had been so many times throughout her life. Baird and Liam traded political theories while Blue tried to become invisible, so her sore spot would not be so exposed.
When it was agreed that they would take her as far as they could and leave her to the fight, Baird ruled that the night was getting late. “I’ve got to do this all over again tomorrow, and unlike some people, I need sleep.” He glanced over at his sister and the six bites of food disregarded on her plate as she stared at her fingers in her lap. “Finish up, Blue.”
Her unwilling hand lifted and grasped the oddly weighted utensil, scooping another bite into her mouth. She knew that she was exhibiting at least two different tells that were not missed by Baird.
“What?” Baird asked her, stretching to make a show of how tired he was.
Blue shook her head in response, not trusting that there were words to describe all that was wrong.
Liam’s heavy arm patted her back, causing her to stiffen. The prince did not notice her discomfort. “There’ll be more to talk about after I make the deal with Joe. Same time tomorrow night?”
Baird nodded and stood, ending his participation in the conversation. Blue swallowed the last bite and picked up her plate, carrying it into the kitchen with her head down. She could feel Sam’s eyes on her, but her pride hurt too much to enjoy the thrill of it as she had before. She imagined him looking at her as a Vemreaux Supervisor would gauge a cow’s usefulness. She wished that she could disappear into the ground.
Blue began to adopt her brother’s point of view by telling herself as she rinsed her plate in the industrial sink that, in fact, she was not a girl, though she possessed the raw mechanics for the gender. Useless breasts, she chided her body angrily. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Just because I wish I was a normal girl, doesn’t make it true. Normal girls don’t do inverted one-handed push-ups. Normal guys don’t, either. Baird’s right. I’m not a person. I’m a weapon. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She glanced down at her body. Ugly. Elle and Grettel were better examples of girls. I’ll never be pretty, like Elle. She’s obviously a woman. And Grettel’s so sweet, everyone knows she’s a girl. I’m not beautiful. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Grettel never would’ve attacked someone like I did out there.
Blue took a deep, steadying breath. I’m a machine, built for one purpose: ending the tyranny. I’m not meant for love and silly girl things. That’s why I’m ugly. That’s why I’m terrible at everything besides fighting. That’s why I only have two friends, and Baird chose them for me. I wonder if he threatened them into the job? I wonder if they really love me? Blue shook her head. No, they love me. I can tell when people are lying. She heaved a sigh of relief, glad that she still had Elle and Grettel, and that Baird had not scared them off.
Why did Baird have to tell them I’m not a girl? Why’d he have to say it in front of those guys? Something in her sunk at Sam not viewing her as female. How could Sam think of me as a woman? I threw him up against the wall and pinned him there. She shuddered at the memory. No point in trying my hand at flirting now.
It doesn’t matter. She chided the swell of emotion in her chest. I’m dying soon anyway. Will it really matter if I’m a girl when I’m dead?
