Volumes of the Vemreaux Complete Collection: A Dystopian Adventure Trilogy, page 58
“Okay.” Blue nodded, and the guys exchanged uncomfortable looks that communicated how much they hated the man’s dictatorial authority over her life.
Baird caught wind of the conspiratorial glances. “Think what you want, guys, but I’m not training her for a beauty contest. She’s supposed to keep you all alive out there. Do you want some anorexic little kid leading the way on the island?” He sighed and rubbed his belly. “Get changed. We’re running tonight.”
Alec was the only one with the courage to stare Baird down.
17
Late Night Run
It took twenty minutes for everyone to meet out back. The moon had just started taking precedence over the sun’s revealing light. The lunar beams barely lit the horse track, which was just the way Baird preferred it. He smacked his hands together to warm them from the crisp fall air as he readied for his next round of instruction.
“Do you want the outdoor house lights on?” Liam asked, narrowing his eyes to better see the dimly lit track.
“Nope.” Baird could not help the grin that came over him when he trained at night. “I want you all to pick a spot on the track and just stand there. Spread out.” They moved slowly, the night relaxing them to ready their bodies for winding down instead of enduring more exercise. Baird pulled a hand towel from the kitchen out of his back pocket and approached his sister. She threw him a withering look. “I know you won’t cheat,” he assured her, “but they won’t get it until they see you do it. Just humor me.” He tied the towel around Blue’s eyes, making sure she was in complete darkness.
“I don’t like this, Baird. She looks like a hostage or something.” Sam’s worry jumped onto Liam’s face, as well.
Baird was immovable. “I really don’t care what you like, Vem. Blue, tell your boy you’re okay.”
“I’m okay,” she answered in monotone.
“You’re a dick, Baird,” Sam challenged.
Baird spun her around to make sure the knot was secure over his sister’s shut eyes, ignoring Sam’s jeering. “Okay, then!” Baird began with enthusiasm. “I don’t expect you to be able to get this perfect tonight. Blue’s been doing this since she learned how to walk. I just want you to know what you should be working toward.” Then, to his sister, he said, “Get going.”
Blue started off at a moderate pace, faster than a jog, but slower than a sprint.
Liam was the first one on the track, but before he could move out of her way, Baird called out, “Stay where you are. She’ll compensate. Don’t worry; she won’t hit any of you.” Each Vemreaux grew nervous at her approach, but soon relaxed when she completed an entire lap without coming close to hitting a single one of them. She stopped right where she’d taken off from next to her brother, looking like a little blindfolded statue.
“When you’re on the island, you’ll probably be working at night if you want to get the drop on the predator. This means you’ll be going in blind.” Brody began to contradict Baird with the mention of a flashlight, but Baird held up his hand as if such things were beneath him. “Blue, what do I always say about getting out of bed?”
“Don’t do it unless you know where you’re going.” She produced his phrase easily, like a well-rehearsed line from a play.
Alec admired how thoroughly he had the girl coached with nothing more than a Wayward education himself. He mused, not for the first time, that Baird would have made an excellent general. Alec just wished it was not Blue he was barking orders at.
“That’s right. Don’t bother going to the island if you can’t do this blind. We don’t know what we’re up against, but from the reports I’ve read, it seems like a lot of the disappearances happen in the night. Flashlights’ll draw attention to you. So, unless you want to add your sorry hides to the list of missing Vemreaux, you’ll learn to run without your eyes.” He pointed to his nose. “Use your other senses to figure out what’s around you. You should be able to hear the wind breaking over objects eventually. Now, my ears can’t do that, but I’m pretty sure that with enough practice, yours can. Smell the air. Can you pick out each other’s scents? If one of you gets lost, you’ll need to follow your nose to find them. For now, just try looking at the ground when you run instead of straight ahead. You can work up to running with your eyes closed.” He turned to his sister. “Blue will run with you for a little bit blindfolded. Don’t compensate for her. She already knows each of your scents and the weight of your footsteps. Just let her run around you, and you’ll be fine. Keep an ear out for each other, though.” His pointer and middle fingers joined together and made a circular motion in the air. “Fifty laps before you can call it a night. It’s on you how long that takes.”
“Fifty?” Brody protested, judging how long the track was. “This is a horse track, Baird. Even the animals don’t go fifty times in a day.”
“Believe me, at this point my sister’d be better protected out there with a horse, seeing how much work you need to do.” Blue was already running, passing Brody by as he lifted his shirt to display his washboard abs to Baird. “Great.” Baird rolled his eyes. “So you did some crunches before being frozen. Big deal. You’re rusty, Brody. Haven’t had to actually use your muscles in a while. Get running, or it’s sixty.” The man sized Baird up to see if he was bluffing, but judging by how quickly the others began running, he decided against waiting to find out.
“Oof!” Sam exclaimed as he ran into Alec. “Are you walking, old man?”
“No, I’m just trying to get the hang of this whole ‘running blind’ thing. I swear, such a simple activity never felt so unnatural.” He ran next to Sam, trying not to knock into him. “I feel like the ground is tilting or something.”
“It is,” Sam replied. Then he blew a gust of air at Alec, who was so confused, that he ran off the track and continued in the wrong direction.
Baird let loose his shrill whistle. “Alec! You’re not ready to do it with your eyes closed. Look at the ground for now and work up to it. Back on the track, guard.”
Alec’s eyelids opened, and he was astonished to find that he was several meters from the marked area. “Seriously? I thought I was getting it. Man!” He trotted back to the others, but did not run looking at the ground.
“Alec, open your eyes.”
“No!” Alec’s frustration peaked when he stumbled over the smooth ground. “If you and Blue can do it, so can I.”
Baird chuckled, the night air loosening his stern demeanor. “She’s the Light! You can’t do everything she can. You’re not supposed to. Kinda the point.”
“You’re not the Light, and you can do it!”
Baird said nothing to this, but ran next to Alec, who still would not open his eyes. Baird decided to be helpful by running on the outer edge of the track and making clicking noises when Alec veered off course.
“This is ridiculous! How are you doing this, Blue?” Alec steamed when he tripped over his own two feet. “You did this as a child?”
Blue slowed her pace, hedging Alec in with her brother. The towel around her eyes was annoying, but did not hamper the use of her other senses. “It’s different for me. Baird taught me how to run this way right after I started walking. You just learned wrong all those years ago. It’ll take time to undo the bad habits and learn a new way.”
“Liam! Get off me!” Brody demanded, untangling his limbs from the prince’s. “I literally can’t see you, so you have to be more careful.”
“Relying too much on your sight is dangerous, guys. I hope you get that now.”
“Shut it, Baird. This is hard enough without you yammering on about it,” Brody complained.
“I can’t do this, Baird!” Liam clambered to his feet. “I don’t need to learn how to run without looking. I’m just getting in shape, not going over to the island.”
“Are you weak?” Baird bellowed, all mercy gone.
“What?”
“Are you a lazy fool who needs other men to fight for you, or are you a man who can defend himself?”
“I’m not a lazy fool!”
“Then prove it! Get up and run, Vemreaux! Move!”
“Sir! Yes, sir!” Sam hoisted Liam and Brody up, giving them both a light shove forward.
Baird spent the first few laps evaluating their form as he took the rear position, calling out instructions (mostly to Liam) about how to run more effectively. Blue weaved in and out, using her short stature to remain out of their way for the most part.
There was one incident that most certainly could have been avoided. Brody heard Blue coming up behind him, and at the last second, he stopped in his tracks and spread his arm out to knock into her. He hoped to prove that the girl was in fact, fallible, but his plan backfired. Blue heard the swish of his arm cutting through the cold night air and the sudden stopping of his footsteps. She ducked, grabbed his arm as she passed him by and flung it back over her shoulder, forcing him to slap himself with his own arm. After that, he did not try to impede her progress.
Poor Liam was rarely made to work for anything. His life of extreme luxury made the panting all the more audible as he rounded the corners at a much slower pace than the rest of them. Though he wanted to whine and reject the training, he knew that eventually he would want to get in shape before he was frozen. As Killian reminded him on several occasions, he was not getting any younger. The longer he waited, the greater his chances were that he would get a hideous scar or wrinkles.
Just the passing thought of Killian made Liam’s stomach knot. His brother was the more responsible one of the three siblings. The media circus attached to his disappearance made everything more real. Drink though he might, Liam found it difficult to escape thoughts of dread that came into his mind unbidden at a mere moment’s notice. It was bad enough losing Julia the way that they did – murdered in her own home, but to lose Killian and perhaps never recover his body was almost too much to bear. He realized that he had been putting all of his hopes on Blue, which he knew was not the fairest thing to do, since Killian was his brother. Reporters and grievers called often and camped out front night and day to get a glimpse of what they were sure would be a mourning royal family. Liam was grateful that night for the unreasonably tall privacy fence and high shrubs that kept them isolated from prying eyes.
His father had not been home since the king announced Killian’s disappearance and possible death to the world. He was buried in public appearances to try to keep the country from losing their minds. This cut short any time he would have liked to reserve for grieving and took him away from his children who, though they were grown, would have liked to have him around during such a difficult time.
Surprise did not belong only to Liam when he reached forty-seven laps. The others were done and sprawled out on the grass, cooling down in the chilled night air that felt hot and unmoving after so much vigorous exercise. Baird made Blue sit on the sidelines after only fifteen laps, arguing that she could not afford to lose any more weight. Liam had thrown up in the grass after his fortieth lap, but Baird demanded that he finish what he set out to do. Liam’s legs felt like rubber sticks that could barely hold him up anymore.
When Liam finally finished his last lap (at more of a slow trot than a jog), Baird applauded and tossed Liam a bottle of water, which he missed completely. Collapsing down on the grass beside Blue and Sam, Liam’s chest heaved at finally being able to collect air without the harsh labor of running to complicate things. “I’m dying!” he gasped dramatically.
Blue was sitting up in between them, stroking Sam’s hair as his breathing slowed. “It’s my last moment, kitten!” Liam reached with heavy hands over to her and scooped her toward him. She allowed him to pull her down next to him, but only because she was afraid he would hurt himself if he put forth any more effort. “This ship’s going down!”
Sam grumbled as Liam cuddled Blue’s small frame. Though she braced herself against the onslaught of goofy affection, she laughed aloud as he rolled her over his body and landed her on the grass away from Sam. “She laughs!” he cried out scornfully. “I’m dying here, and she mocks my pain! Women are so cruel! What a terrible world!” His chest heaved as Sam’s fist bit into his arm. “Guards! Seize him! Attack on the royal bloodline!”
Brody and Alec moaned in response.
Baird could not remember the last time his sister giggled like that apart from Elle and Grettel’s company. Pushing herself off of Liam, she looked so small and girlish, not the fierce warrior he knew her to be. It was then that it occurred to Baird that she had made new friends who, despite their masculine forgetfulness and inattention to details, would care for her once they understood how and why. He found himself unable to stop the bittersweet relief from spreading over his face when his sister ruffled Liam’s windblown hair and crawled back over his sprawled-out carcass to resume her spot next to Sam, making sure to knee the prince playfully in the gut just once.
It was odd to watch her with Sam. Actions Baird never thought her capable of doing flowed naturally from her. She massaged his scalp while he rested on the grass. She would coo encouraging words to him quietly so he knew what a great runner he was. It was not a lie; Sam was pretty decent at keeping pace toward the front of the group. Most unnerving of all was her open body language. Her frame was drawn to him so much so that her foot even tapped against the outer edge of his thigh for the additional closeness. Sam was no better, exhibiting the same level of attachment.
Baird felt the beginning of a bruise on his ribs and thought back to their truce. Sam had promised not to deflower the girl before they left if Baird made an equally difficult promise of backing off. “Okay, guys. After you’re done stretching, shower up and get to bed. We start at seven tomorrow morning. If you’re not in the basement by seven on the nose, tonight’ll seem like a walk in the park.” He offered his hand to Brody, swinging him upright, and then helped Alec to his feet. Liam was much more difficult to coax off the icy grass, insisting that he wanted to sleep outside and make good use of the morning dew as a sort of sponge bath. Baird antagonized the prince by tapping the sole of the man’s foot with his, satisfied when Liam began moving with much groaning.
They trudged into the house, weary from the enormous effort and went up the many stairs with jelly legs that barely supported them. Baird’s room was next to Alec’s at the opposite end of the hall from Liam. He did not miss that Blue’s and Sam’s clasped hands disappeared into the same room, shutting the door behind them.
18
First Kiss
While the bed beckoned to Sam, he could smell the importance of a shower. Dutifully he scrubbed, fighting with each muscle as it threatened to go on strike. When he finished, he wrapped the towel around his waist and opened the door to let the steam out. He was almost finished brushing his teeth when he felt Blue’s eyes on him. Smirking, he rinsed out his mouth and spat more discreetly than he normally would, had he no audience. “Your turn.” He wiped his mouth off on a hand towel and grinned at her.
Blue waited for him to leave the hot room before entering, not wanting to invade his personal space. He brushed her hand with his on the way out. Once the door was shut and the water turned on, Sam donned a comfortable pair of shorts to sleep in and flopped unceremoniously on the bed, groaning as his phone rang.
“Yeah?” Sam answered without checking the caller ID.
“Is it really the great Stone Boniface? I’ve seen him in the papers, read about him online, but didn’t expect he’d be the type to actually answer his phone!”
Sam groaned. “Hey, Ever. What’s got you high as a kite this time?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“What’s up?”
“You called me, Pan.”
“No, I didn’t, E. You called me.”
“Oh, I wanted to tell you that father’s got me chained up here on the island he bought us for our ‘father-son bonding time’.”
“You call that thing an island? It’s barely livable. Only just cleared of radiation. Dodgy, if you ask me.”
“I happen to think that every man who is an island should own one, as well.”
“You’re very poetic on acid,” Sam remarked, staring at the bathroom door to make sure Blue could not hear.
“Guess again, buttercup.”
“Not meth. Old Mable?”
“Guess again, cutterbup.”
“I give. I’m also not taking Liam down there to see you all strung out for nothing. The flights in and outta the island are down, E. I thought you must’ve flown back with the king. Bang-up job your dad did on trying to clean you up, by the way.”
“You act like I’m the boogeyman. Liam loves to see the world all glittery.”
“You just like it when Liam sees you all glittery,” Sam muttered, the late hour absconding with his diplomacy. “No matter how many times you get him gone, he’s not going to go for you. Liam likes girls. Not great odds on him climbing Mount Everest anytime soon.”
There was a pause, and Sam hoped Everest had hung up on him. He rolled his eyes when the king’s son answered, “I’m sticking my tongue out at you, but you can’t see it. We’re on the phone.”
“Well spotted.”
“I swiped the guard’s phone. Father took mine away before he left.” Sam could tell that Everest was taking a break in conversation to smoke. “And Liam doesn’t know what he likes.”
“He likes parties, which you provide. You on an island is not a party. Some new drug you won’t tell me about is not a party. You and your dad? Not a party. Besides, Liam’s on house arrest, and we can’t get a flight out. Couldn’t get him to you if I wanted, which I don’t.”
“I’m beautiful!” Ever gasped, evoking a laugh from Sam.
“Yes, you are. Now put Micah on the phone.”
