Chapter fourteen #2
“One of my brothers, Ty actually the one I told you about breaking the no sex rule on the first day?”
“Yeah I remember.” I chuckle.
“He gets visions but he can’t always tell us what of, he just gives us hints when he can or tells us afterwards. He always says something about the Fates not letting him. When we asked what he meant by Fates he couldn’t say.” Kysen explains.
“That makes so much sense. I’m really glad its not new for you. It would be a lot to ask someone who has absolutely no experience with it. For me though it’s Nyx not the Fates although she’s mentioned the Fates before.” I say unable to hide my relief.
“Guys whilst this is great and I’m glad that everything is as out in the open as it can be, we need to be listening to these people to see if they have any more information.” Maverick reminds us.
“Shit good point.” I reply and refocus on my surroundings.
Its quiet for a minute everyone just moving slowly forward in the line.
“They’re not the only ones you know?” The second woman mutters.
“What do you mean?”
“They aren’t the only group of people that Bart and his men have escorted there. All of them touch like they are.” She answers.
“Hopefully the Enforcers will do something about it.”
“That’s if they know. Everyone wants to stay out of that places business and no one wants to risk that information coming back on them.” She replies.
It falls quiet again as we finally get to the front of the cue.
Kai orders enough pastry’s for everyone and we move away.
I doubt the two women knew much more than that anyway.
Unless of course they were willing to point us in the direction of this Bart guy.
Which from the sounds of it I doubt they were.
At least we do know that the other Centre’s and Bonded were taken by the same guy and his men.
So hopefully they’ll all be in the same place.
I want to rescue them as well as my parents.
We can’t just abandon them and Nyx said that we were to rescue them all.
I do wish my parents didn’t have to be taken in order for that to happen but everything happens for reason I guess.
“Did you hear anything else?” Levi says once we’re far enough away.
Maverick explains quickly what we heard.
“None of these alleys look familiar.” I say starting to get a bit frustrated with it now.
“Ok. Lets pick one and see where it takes us. The village is bigger than I thought and bigger than it shows on the map too. Its obvious that no one official has been around to update the maps for a long time.” Kysen says.
“There’s bound to be more alleys around here and we haven’t been searching for that long. If worse comes to worse we will just find somewhere to stay and start again in the morning.” Maverick reasons.
“You mean a real bed and maybe even a shower?” I say my mood improving immediately.
We’ve been washing in rivers when we stay near them and we’ve tried to stay near them as much possible so Jax can keep his strength up. Rivers are by no means the same as hot running water though and at this point I’d kill for a moderately warm shower, hell anything that’s not ice cold.
“That settles it, regardless of whether we’ve found the guy or not we’ll find somewhere to stay for the night.” Jax says firmly. “You should’ve said something Little star.”
“It’s not a big deal honestly, I just want to wash properly and sleep on something that’s not quite as hard. I’ve never been camping before this.”
“That’s fair. We’ll have to get a room all together but obviously with more than one bed.” Levi says thoughtfully as we walk through an archway. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to split up and I highly doubt that anywhere would have enough rooms for us anyway.” Levi finishes.
“I don’t care so long as there’s a bed, maybe a hot meal and somewhere to bathe.” I say, I wasn’t really struggling with it but now that there’s the option for the alternative I realise that I crave it desperately. My eyes widen as a thought occurs to me and I clutch Kysen’s arm and open my mouth.
“Yes, we have proper showers. Some parts of this realm may look dated to you but its not completely backwards everywhere and apart from the very poorest of places everywhere else has indoor plumbing. Not what your used to though since its all run by magic.” He chuckles.
“Thank fuck.” I say dramatically.
“That’s really interesting.” Mav comments, “How does it work?”
“I actually don’t know. We’ve had it for so long that I don’t even really question how it works. Sorry Mate.” He apologises.
“Don’t worry about it I’m sure there’s a book I can find to help me.” He chuckles.
“Guys, that’s it!” I interrupt pointing to the alley where I saw Nyx give the envelope to Monty.
“Are you sure?” Levi asks.
I study the area more intently.
“Positive.” I confirm.
“Alright lets go and check it out.” Hunt says sniffing the air.
It seems like such a natural thing for him to do that it doesn’t seem weird to me when he does do it.
“I can’t smell anything that’s not right or suspicious.” He confirms and the rest of us follow him forward.
The alley is a slightly wider than usual space between two shops. Its cobbled like the street and looks just like your average alley. The only thing that stands out as different is that it’s surprisingly clean and empty for an alley. There’s no trash or even dumpsters its just empty.
“Cleanest alley I have ever seen.” Kai comments echoing my thoughts.
“Come on lets check it out anyway just in case there’s something we missed.” Hunt suggests.
“Do you smell something?” Jax asks.
“I’m not sure. I think there’s something just a bit off but I can’t put my finger on it.” He replies tilting his head and taking a long inhale.
“Maybe try it in your wolf form?” I suggest, “Does being in your human form dull your senses?” I ask.
“I have no idea, they didn’t cover that at the Earth realm academy at least not yet.” He frowns, rubbing his beard.
“Yeah it does. You’ll find you can smell a lot more as a wolf.” Kysen replies.
“Its dangerous how little they taught us there. How were the teachers ok with, withholding so much information from us?” Mav growls and a small thrill goes through me.
“I’m guessing the Director had something on them all. I suppose we might find out once this is all done.” Levi says.
“I’ll see what I can smell in my wolf form. There’s definitely something strange.” Hunter says. Transforming almost immediately.
“Just be careful that no one see’s you. You’ll definitely attract attention and if we plan to stay here tonight we don’t want that.” Kysen warns.
Hunt nods his giant head and I can’t help but marvel at the beautiful creature he becomes.
Levi directs us all so that we are stood at the mouth of the alley and effectively blocking anyone from seeing in. Well the guys are I’m too short to be of much use but I’m going to pretend that I’m contributing.
I get a sudden image of those cartoons I used to watch as a little kid you know the ones where they’re all carrying a log or something and then there’s just one little one whose holding on to the log but its feet are miles off the ground. I’m the little one.
I snort at the imagery and the guys all turn to me raising their eyebrows in question.
“Nothing.” I grin.
They shake their heads in amusement but leave me to it as we all watch Hunt sniff the alley. He gets about halfway down before he starts to sniff harder. What ever he smells makes him sneeze and its so freaking adorable that I almost ‘awww’ out loud.
His sneeze must trigger something because suddenly where there was just alley a shop front appears, stunningly beautiful with carved wood frames around the panelled windows and a heavy wooden door with stained glass panels.
The door opens and we all step forward.