Chapter Twenty-Two
“That’s them now.” Rupert says no more than five minutes later and I startle from where I’m leaning on Hunter.
He kicks off a lot of heat now that he’s fully himself and with the chill of the wind surrounding us and the shit we’ve just gone through, its making me super sleepy.
I am awake enough to realise that it hasn’t been nearly long enough for the team of enforcers to make it through the woods.
I guess they could be using supernatural speed maybe?
I look around and spot a large mass of yellow magic, when it disappears it reveals a group of five enforcers, two women and three males, all dressed in combats, black shirts with swords and daggers strapped to various parts of their bodies.
It shocks me to think that actually this is the first time I have seen a supernatural enforcer, that strikes me as odd.
Whilst they all start to take note of the scene spreading out, taking pictures and doing typical things that you normally see the cops on tv doing, they’re also using their supernatural gifts too.
Doing things with their energy streams and one of them transforming into a beautiful jaguar in order to sniff the scene.
Interestingly it seems to take him longer than it takes Hunter to turn into his wolf. He can do it within seconds.
I gaze up at him to see if he saw and tap his chest gently with my hand making him glance down at me.
“I saw.” He says quietly, “We already decided we weren’t the norm remember Titch?” He chuckles and I grin in response.
“They do seem to be a lot more comfortable than everyone here is at using their supernatural sides, maybe not as comfortable as we are though.” Cole comments.
“You’re right.” Levi says watching them closer.
They keep looking in our direction and studying us too but unlike the students at the academy there isn’t any animosity or suspicion, just curiosity which is understandable.
We make an interesting group especially if you consider the way we have unconsciously positioned ourselves.
Both me and Erin are completely surrounded by our men with us positioned in the middle of our men.
Levi is stood behind me and Jax, Hunter, Kai and Maverick are all spread out around me but not in front just like Erin’s men are doing with her.
Our groups stood next to each other as we watch the enforcers.
Rupert says something quietly to a guy who looks to be in charge of the group, both of them glancing over at us before the guy nods and Rupert makes his way over to us.
“They seem a lot more comfortable with their supernatural sides.” Cole says bluntly and Kai gives him a sharp look to which Cole just shrugs.
“That’s because they’re from the demon realm.
I had to call them in from there because we have very few teams trained to deal with this and any we do have, are out on assignment.
” Rupert sighs. “Since the Director implemented the barbaric initiation test that students need to pass in order to get in here, supernaturals are being far less inclined to attend the training academy to become an enforcer.”
“What about the human students?” Nate asks curiously.
“We train them for the simpler missions, things like surveillance, disputes that are less likely to turn violent and security detail but even the best of them are ill equipped to go up against a really pissed off supernatural and cannot help police the other realms either.” Rupert explains.
“So there’s just not enough supernaturals in the earth realm to police it?” Jett asks.
“Simply put, no there’s not.” His eyes flash with anger, “I’m starting to think that the Director was doing that on purpose and I need to make sure that the human students have been properly screened and aren’t being trained up for the Order.” He growls and my eyes widen.
Well shit, that would be a giant cluster fuck. I’m not even sure where they would begin to try and weed them out and stop them from continuing to spread their hate.
Now that I realise that the leader of the Order is actually a supernatural and always has been, most likely the same supernatural that started the Order all those centuries ago.
I can’t help but wonder what exactly his end game is?
He said something about ruling but I still don’t understand quite how he’s planning to get there.
That’s a problem for another day though. Nyx said that I needed to focus on rescuing the Centres and their Bonded from the Order and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
It does make more sense now though that the Order have all of these supernatural weapons, seem to know ahead of time and where Centres are going to be born and have managed to capture them all in the first place.
Their leader is a supernatural and although the Order clearly think that they are entirely human I’d now be willing to bet that there are supernaturals mixed into their ranks.
“Can I ask you guys why you came to get me?” Rupert asks curiously effectively changing the subject, “Surely it would have made more sense to call your fathers?”
“I would have but one you were closer and two I can’t get a hold of any of my fathers, I can’t even get hold of my mom.” I say frowning, unable to keep the worry out of my tone.
To make it worse Rupert eyes fill with worry.
“That is odd and nothing like your fathers. I know them well, after all Nicole is the one that bound your powers and we remained friends and even helped to search for you when you were kidnapped.” He frowns again, “I’ll look into it and let you know what’s going on.”
“Thank you, Rupert. I’d really appreciate that.” I reply gratefully, a small amount of worry lifting.
“Hello guys,” the guy that Rupert was talking to before greets us as he makes his way over to us.
“I know you’ve had a long night but consider this training.
You seem to have handled yourselves fairly well anyway.
You should be proud. I just need you to all to give me a quick run down of events and ask you a couple of questions about Rebecca and her teams disappearance.
We are aware that Theo sat in when you were being questioned by the Director and can vouch for your innocence in the situation but I would like to have a bit more information since the reports that we found written by the Director all said the exact opposite. ” He explains and we all nod.
To be honest I just want to go to bed but it would be nice to talk to someone who actually knows what they are doing. There seems to be a complete lack of it here and I’m starting to understand why.
Annie has been the Director for years here and that’s a long time to do an awful lot of damage.
It strikes me that it would be far too easy to convince humans that have been exposed to the supernatural in the worse kinds of ways to turn against them and join the Order.
Most are probably leaning that way anyway.
The guy who finally introduces himself as Declan, asks us a bunch of questions. None of them are too invasive or accusing and he remains professional but not cold.
He is very good at his job.
“Ok guys thanks for answering everything, that’s all for now.
I know I don’t need to remind you that you need to keep this quiet.
” He warns and we nod. “So are any of you thinking of having the extra training for the Order teams? We sure as hell could use the extra help. We call it Order teams but really we deal with the Order stuff and the more dangerous assignments.” He says becoming friendlier now that the important questions are out of the way.
“I’d like to.” I say, it seems like the logical option if we’re to defeat them one day.
My heart fills with panic.
Not today, find the Centres first.
“Me too.” Erin agrees.
“That’s excellent news. I will warn you its not for the faint of heart. We have the highest mortality rate. But its never boring.” He warns cautiously obviously thinking it will put us off.
I feel the grin tug at my lips and a quick glance out of the corner of my eye shows the others pulling similar expressions.
“I don’t think that will be a problem. None of us shy away from the more dangerous stuff. Hence how we ended up here.” Levi smirks confidently and Declan’s eyes fill with respect.
“He’s not wrong. Get Rupert to tell you how they arrived. It was one that will go down in the history books for sure.” Cole chuckles and Declan turns to Rupert with his eyebrow raised.
“I’ll tell you all about it but let’s, let these kids get to bed they’ve got a long day tomorrow.” He says like he knows something that we don’t.
“Of course, sorry guys.” Declan says. “You can get some sleep.”
“Thanks man.” Kai replies grinning.
“I’ll get you excused from your morning lessons. You need to be in your realms lesson and don’t forget our Horseback lesson as well.” Rupert says firmly.
We nod and thank him. We definitely need as much sleep as we can get these late nights are starting to kill me.