Zinc 01 - Altors, page 8
part #1 of Zinc Series
All thoughts of him looking familiar, vanished. I would have remembered this guy.
My eyes traveled their way over his tall and lean figure, taking in the dark green overalls and combat boots he was wearing. His tattoos were on display, but there were so many details about him I was continuously distracted from one thing to another. The long, swaying braid is what caught my attention next, the tip of it touching right below his hip. His features were so delicate, you could almost categorize him as feminine. While he didn’t have a strong jaw, his broad square shoulders made up for it. He seemed like a very complicated person. Body and mind.
Looking right back at me, he took a step forwards and I took one back at the same time, bumping into the wall.
He grinned. "Well, what are you?" He probably already knew I was a guest rather than an intruder, and if he thought I was an intruder, he didn't seem overly worried. Which I found insulting. I managed The Ring really rather well and had my share of muscles and moves. Then I remembered something I'd seen in the group picture and decided to seek out the weapon he'd surely be carrying on him. My eyes landed on the belt around his hips and yes, there it was, a knife. Or a dagger? Not that it mattered; it was sharp, pointy and deadly in either case.
"Guest." I offered.
He smiled. "Good, because I haven't had coffee yet. Would you like some, Calycanthus Esquivel?" Startled that he knew my name, I let him take my elbow without much protest. We walked at a fast pace, through the hallway, down the stairs and into an open space that served as a kitchen, dinning room and living room at the same time. It wasn't cozy, but neither was it cold. The kitchen was in the far back, opposite of the staircase with the living room in between.
"How-" I started, but he cut me off.
"How did I know your name? You've been asleep for nearly three days now. Jatrop gave you some of his sleeping powder since it's a known fact that sleep can heal the mind of a stressed person. His wife told me your name." I'd be angry, but I'd never slept this well. No nightmares whatsoever. My sleep had been uninterrupted and although my current situation was beyond confusing, that particular detail I wasn't mad about.
"Which one is-"
"Dandelion? I will tell you only because you seem lost and I don't think you can handle Dandi's theatrics yet. But I won't save you next time." I nodded uncertainly.
He smiled as he patted a bar stool behind the bar. "Dandelion Jansen is the girl with the messy hair, blue eyes and toothy grin." Before I could figure out my next question, he added more. "Jatrop Jansen is the one with the bandana in his hair. You’ll tend to find him reading a book." I was blindsided by the quick way he was moving and talking. He disappeared from my view for a moment, ducking down behind the other side of the bar, rummaging around the kitchen looking for something.
"You will meet more people as they fly in and out of this place. But those I just mentioned are the ones you will be living with." He muttered from inside a cupboard, before popping back into my line of vision, the long braid swaying behind his back. He offered me a mug with a brilliant smile and I accepted it with a slow and dumbfounded blink.
"Coffee?" I opened my mouth to speak, but didn't say anything. This was worse than Delph's shower method. I wasn't sure whether his skills in talking peoples ears off was better than that of Solenum's, but she knew not to do it in the morning while I was waking up.
"Who are-" He held up a finger, effectively shutting me up. I scowled at his lack of manners.
"Who am I?" He asked and I nodded. "And I had hoped-" Now this had me frowning, but before I could question it, he shook himself out of his surprise and gave me a brilliant smile, offering me his hand. Once I'd placed mine in his, he tugged so I'd move closer while he leaned across the bar, forcing me to stare deep into his ruby gaze.
"Datura Lovelace." He finally introduced himself. I moved away from him awkwardly, placing my hands around my mug so I could lift and sip from it. Of course drinking the coffee wasn’t something anyone was willing to grant me.
I heard a shriek and then two arms came around my waist. As I yelped in surprise, holding the coffee away from me, Datura luckily sprang into action by taking the mug as I was pulled off the bar stool.
"He's awake!" It was Dandelion Jansen. I coughed at the tight hold and Datura grimaced at my most likely freaked out looking face and hurried his way around the bar.
"He's overwhelmed, give him a minute." He pried Dandelion's hands off and then tucked me behind him. I was definitely overwhelmed. Peeking out from behind Datura, I saw Dandelion staring at me with concern, a faint blush of embarrassment covering her cheeks.
While all the men I had seen so far had found original ways to wear the overalls the wrong way, Dandelion wore them the right way. They were big on her, almost overwhelming her tiny size. They were made out of jeans fabric and she wore a poncho sweater underneath them.
"I'm sorry, I've just been so worried about you. When I entered your room and saw it was empty, the worry tripled and so when I ran down the stairs and saw you were here," She moved to hug me again, but decided against, pulling back midway. "I just had to hug you." I was easily the youngest in the group of people I had met so far and I couldn't help but laugh at the woman's childlike looking expression. I stopped myself when that the look reminded me of Sol.
I winced. "It's fine." And while I was fine, the situation just wasn't.
"Are you alright?" Datura asked. His voice was still as melodic as before, caring, unlike any other I had heard.
"I just woke up." I could feel the air in the room tense as Dandelion and Datura understood what I meant; I was very aware I wasn't home.
"Ilex was simply following orders given by both your caretakers." I recognized the voice of Caltha. I turned to offer him a nod. I’d been right, Caltha had to be the tallest and strongest looking man I’d ever seen. I felt like an ant standing beside him. Or maybe he was the weird one and fit the description of a giant.
"This is Caltha Osgood." Datura introduced formally. "Ilex's husband. They are in charge of us." I couldn't help but feel a hint of curiosity trying to worm its way in. I'd never met a man married to another man before, and while I had no interest in figuring out the possible difference in my sexual orientation that had recently come to light right now, knowing that they were here and could show me what it was like, was strangely comforting.
"Lupinus warned Ilex you wouldn't come willingly." Caltha offered.
Dandelion smiled gently. "I know it wasn't very nice of Ilex, or Lupinus for that matter, and I'm sure what you are going through right now isn't easy, but it isn't so bad here."
I nursed my coffee. "I can tell. I'm not an idiot. Ilex didn't hurt me and I get why he did what he did. Lupinus knows me well, so the orders don't surprise me. It is the ‘why’ of it all that I am curious about. Especially ‘why’ I had to get separated from Solenum." I swallowed painfully as I spoke her name out loud. I assumed they knew who Solenum was as Ilex had obviously known. "Sol and I don't make sense when we aren't close to each other." I whispered, shrugging. Dandelion gently squeezed my shoulder while Caltha nodded, taking a sip of his coffee before he clearing his throat.
"You'll see Solenum again. Things need to settle before you can." Caltha started. He was telling me nice things, that I'd see her again, maybe not soon but definitely one day. Stuff I could reassure myself with if I wanted to. I tuned Caltha out and eventually he noticed and stopped talking, continuing his breakfast peacefully, clearly not bothered with my rudeness.
Jumping off the bar stool, I made my way over to Datura, nudging him aside and helping him get the toaster started.
He wrinkled his nose as I stared at him intently and pressed the button down. "Oh."
"Datura, you don't even eat toast." Dandelion pointed out.
He shrugged. "I don't. Calycanthus does." I eyed him, nodding that I did and wondering how he knew. But then, they seemed to know a lot about me. My taste in food included. Sighing, I repeated in my head that apparently I was here for my own good and that torture and mistreatment weren't included in Lupinus' orders. From what I gathered, they needed to make sure I was to stay here.
"Thanks, Datura."
"Always." He whispered so quietly, I’m not quite sure he meant for me to hear it. But since I had, I pointed questioning eyes his way. All I got in return was a smirk and deep ruby eyes carrying secrets fixed onto my own. When was it safe to assume someone stared at you a second longer than they should?
* * * *
My nightmares became worse the following few days while being in this new place. They were strange flashes of scenes I couldn't really describe. The colors were always very bright, but nothing had shapes that I could identify. It was a blur of lights, warm but sometimes cold. I was always running away from something, never being aware of what and why they were trying to get a hold of me. I couldn't tell if the nightmares were made up, or something I was reliving.
I kept everything to myself, never telling the residents of the house I had nightmares and that those were the reason I slept so little. Having been here a few days, I'd gotten a lay of the land, knowing where each person's bedroom could be found. I shared the upstairs with Datura, Dandelion and Jatrop, whereas Ilex and Caltha had their own personal 'wing' on the first floor which I wasn't to enter.
Someone was always to stay by my side to make sure I didn't try to run away. They had formed a routine since they had other things to do rather than babysit me. While it had never been stated out loud, Datura was probably the one that kept an eye on me during the night since he would get up shortly after I did, and due to the nightmares, I got up ridiculously early. After eating breakfast with him, Jatrop would come around, take me off Datura's hands and give me a book to read while he read his. I knew he'd chosen them carefully because they all spoke about Zinc's history.
Ilex was next, taking me out for runs in the afternoon. At first we'd done so in the training room inside the house, but recently we'd gone out and jogged in the meadows that Serenium offered. When we returned, my favorite person watched over me; Dandelion. She actually tried to get to know me and have fun, helping me to make forget she was guarding me, whereas the others didn't. Ilex only nodded or shook his head, never really participating in the conversation I tried to offer. I didn't even try with Jatrop since he was always gone in his books. And Datura only really functioned after a certain hour in the morning and that hour usually arrived when Jatrop took over guard duties.
I only saw Caltha at dinner. He was gone from the house most part of the day and only returned once Dandelion and I had served food. He often tried to make me talk about Acacia, Lupinus, Solenum and Lithium Village, which then led me to shut down and the rest of dinner was usually spent in awkward silence.
I'd wanted to ask them about why Lupinus had felt it necessary to sign over his guardian role to Ilex, but I felt as though that was the type of topic that shouldn't be approached. I didn't know what my limits where around these people. While my running away was a clear no, that was all I knew I wasn't allowed to do.
Having been able to observe them and the house did make it obvious that this wasn't a boarding house. I believed them to be politically involved with Zinc. Each region, city and town had councils, and within these there were categories that branched out. I'd learned that through one of the books Jatrop had had me read. There was the medical branch, people who had the ability to heal and operate. I'd been interested in that due to my long stay in the hospital and unexplained accident that led to an induced coma, which then resulted in severe memory loss. Having seen my interest, Jatrop had given me another book that covered the subject of medical cases that had gone cold. While he hadn't plain out announced my memory loss wasn't something that should have happened, neither did he deny me the chance to find out why.
But because I had the tendency to get easily distracted, I'd dug further into the cold case category, leading me in the outer branch that was in charge of keeping criminal activity to a certain level. I'd learned that while the war was declared to be over, there were still Blue Blood descendants in Zinc that tried to claw their way back to the top, but never managed as there were people trained to keep these small attempts under the radar. I believed Ilex, Caltha, Datura, Dandelion and Jatrop worked for this outer branch focusing on criminal activity that connected back to the war. It was the only reasonable explanation for the weaponry they carried and the access they had to devices that were highly technical and not open to the public. Such as port phones.
I would have been surprised Lupinus and Acacia were in contact with people such as those I was sharing a house with now, but because of the dark pasts many lost kids had, the connection made sense. I hoped I was right and that they were investigating the murder of Solenum's parents.
It had taken me a couple of days to grab onto some courage and use the five small unsupervised minutes given to me in the morning. I'd barely slept, too scared I may miss that window of opportunity that would allow me to contact Solenum. I hoped Marguerite would pass on the message to her.
Sending a letter to the boarding house wasn't possible as Lupinus was the one to get the mail in the morning. He'd intercept and destroy the message before Sol could even lay eyes on it. I'd though about using one of the port phones these people had, but the devices never left their sides. Even if luck were to grace me, Ilex had explained that these phones could only call a certain amount of registered numbers; and it couldn't call land lines, only other port phones.
Holding onto the letter, I snuck my way out of the house, waving frantically at the post man that was about to leave. Datura had probably already noticed I'd gotten up and it wouldn't be long before he was following better than my own shadow could.
The mailman looked surprised, probably due to never having seen me before, but he smiled, walking my way.
"Are you a new recruit?" Dandelion had said those words when I'd first gotten here.
Even though I didn't know exactly what it meant, I nodded. "Would you mind sending this letter to the location written on the envelope?" I didn't have stamps, so I worried.
"Important information." He stated rather than questioned. "I may be able to get it there without them noticing, but it'd be wiser if one of the Altor Soldiers delivered it themselves." Before I could respond, he sighed. "But you most likely thought of this already." Nodding at himself, he tucked the letter in his bag. "I'll cover it with an advertisement envelope; it may throw them off." To say I was confused, was an understatement. Altors? Them? The insane necessity to hide the letter?
Despite all of that, I was grateful he'd try to get it to Lithium Village. "Thank you..." I trailed off, not knowing what to call him. Secret agent mailman?
He laughed. "I'm but a lowly Altor courier. I didn't even need the trigger. Had it not been for my soldier parents, I would have been as clueless as the next civilian." That was it. Now I needed to ask him questions. Opening my mouth to do so, I was cut off by the melodic voice belonging to none other than Datura Lovelace.
"Calycanthus, back inside. Now." Although he looked half asleep, the sternness in his voice was unwavering. Sending the mailman a pained look, I reluctantly obeyed Datura's order and shuffled my way back into the house. He didn't scold me instantly, instead he grabbed my wrist and dragged me across the living room. I only started to feel worried about my safety when he brought us into the training room. Was he going to beat me? Punish me physically? What was going on?!
"Did you know that there is no such thing as a fail in schedules and the plans me and my team concoct?" He asked, circling me slowly once we stood in the center of the boxing ring. I felt like prey. "Have you been listening to what Caltha and Ilex have been saying?" I had listened, but I hadn't truly cared. "If they tell you you are here for a good reason, they mean it. Have they treated you badly?" He was standing awfully close by, and because of it I was having a hard time concentrating on his words. I managed to shake my head though.
"Do you fear they will?" This question was asked curiously, reminding me that Datura would never hurt me.
"No. You are good people." They had secret agendas and made sure to keep me out of the loop for the most part, but good people they still were.
"Then why are you disobeying direct orders?" He propped his hands onto his hips, glaring at me in annoyance.
I winced. "They won't hurt me physically. Have any of you noticed I'm a wreck emotionally?"
"We're all an emotional wreck in this place, Cali." His head tilted as he gazed at my glare.
"You don't understand!" I felt the need to shout. "I don't function without Solenum." I tapped my heart for emphasis. Datura narrowed his eyes, taking a step closer while his hand shot up to grab a hold of my chin roughly. His deep ruby eyes were all I saw at this point.
"I know what you mean. Do you know what it feels like when that person who makes you whole, doesn't want you anymore?" He whispered, and I couldn't help but notice that his face was only inches from mine.
His words sunk in then and my body went cold. I couldn't imagine what I'd feel like if Sol didn't want or need me anymore. He nodded, letting my chin go before he straightened.
"I had no idea."
Datura huffed, relaxing his posture. "Of course you didn't." He smiled. "Now listen to me. The world isn't pink or filled with flowers and fluff. I'm sorry to inform you that unicorns and magical golden pots at the end of a rainbow do not exist. Your happy place died when Acacia did." My breathing hitched at his words, leading him to soften his expression. "I am sorry for your loss, but I also need you to understand that with her death, your life has changed not only because she won't physically be present anymore, but her nightmares now have merged with your reality and that of Solenum's. Acacia asked for your relocation. Lupinus just doesn't have the tact to make it happen without inflicting pain upon you and Solenum." A look of mischief appeared in his deep red eyes.
"What?" I asked, concerned for my well being as that look didn't reassure me.
