Chapter 4 - Luna
For the first time in days, I can breathe without wondering if everyone I love is dead.
Gage and Torrin are standing in my kitchen, alive and close enough that I can touch them.
Gage saw Reid at the warehouse, and if Reid is there, Jules is probably with him because separating those two for longer than twenty-four hours would require an act of God.
Gigi might be there too. I don't know that for sure yet, and until I see all three of them with my own eyes, I'm not going to feel completely okay, but we're closer than we were an hour ago.
Learning that Gage, Torrin and Mars all have some version of whatever is happening to me should probably make the situation more terrifying.
Instead, I feel less alone. The silver light coming out of my hands has made me question whether something went seriously wrong inside me when the moon cracked, and now Gage is building stairs out of dirt, Mars has shadows crawling around him, and Torrin can tell someone to stop moving and make their body obey.
So, it looks like weird is a group activity for us now.
There are about a thousand questions I need answers to.
We need to sit down and talk about what is happening to us, try to figure out how to deal with it.
For right now though, Reid, Jules, and possibly Gigi are behind barbed wire, so my questions are going to have to wait until we are all together and have time for a group hug.
"So, what are we waiting for? We know where they are. Let's go get them. I want the rest of my family back!"
Mars steps toward me and lifts one hand. "You should stay here. This could be dangerous, Luna."
I turn so fast my hair swings into my face. "You know where you can stay? In your own damn lane."
His expression fills with hurt, but he doesn't argue.
Good choice. I turn away before that hurt gets a chance to make me feel bad and find Gage standing directly in front of me.
His brows pull together, and his mouth opens with that careful expression he gets when he's about to explain why he's being reasonable and I'm not.
"No."
His mouth closes. "I didn't say anything."
"You were about to."
"You don't know that."
"I absolutely know that." I point between him and Torrin.
"I have spent the last week sitting in this house with no way to contact any of you and no idea if you were alive.
I waited while every terrible possibility ran through my head because there wasn't a single damn thing I could do about it. I'm done waiting."
Gage rubs one hand over his beard.
"I am not staying here like a good little girl while all of you go rescue our family. I'm going, and if you're considering arguing with me, save your energy."
His eyes stay on mine for several seconds before he sighs. "I wasn't going to say good little girl."
"Not the important part, Gage."
"I know."
Torrin reaches for my hand and pulls me against his side. "We all go. I'm not particularly interested in having you out of my sight either."
His thumb moves over my knuckles in a soft sweep and gratitude fills me for his support.
Torrin looks toward the two soldiers. "Will you take us to the warehouse?"
"Yeah, mate," the taller one says. "If you can free the others the way you freed us, we'll help however we can."
The shorter soldier nods. "Most of the lads will too." His gaze moves around the room. "We need to collect Davey before our driver starts wondering where we've gone."
My stomach drops. I don't need to look toward the basement to see him again. One side of his skull is caved in, and his eyes are burned away. The image arrives immediately, in complete and horrible detail.
Torrin feels me tense against him. His arm tightens around my shoulders before he looks at the soldiers. "I'm sorry. Davey's dead."
Both men stare at him. The shorter soldier's face goes blank for a second before his mouth opens. "What?"
"He came downstairs with his rifle on Luna," Torrin says. "Things went bad fast."
The taller soldier looks at me, and anger takes over his face so quickly that I step away from Torrin without thinking.
"It was self-defence," I try and explain. "He had his gun pointed at us. He was going to shoot," my voice catches with guilt. "We didn't want him dead."
The shorter soldier looks past me toward the basement stairs. His eyes close for a second, and when they open again, he looks tired rather than angry. The taller one isn't there yet. His hand jerks toward the rifle hanging from its sling, then stops.
His fingers flex inches away from it, but no matter how hard he strains, his arm won't move any farther. Confusion cuts through his anger, and I understand before he does. Torrin told them they couldn't touch their weapons. The order is still there.
The soldier tries again and gets nowhere.
"Please don't," Torrin says quietly.
The man's head snaps toward him. "He was my mate."
"I know."
"You don't know shit."
"You're right that I didn’t know him," Torrin's voice stays calm. "But you’re wrong if you think I don’t know what it’s like to lose someone I care about."
The soldier's breathing gets harder, but his hand remains stuck where the command stopped it. Torrin looks sick about it. He doesn't want this kind of control over people.
"Torrin," I say softly.
His eyes meet mine for half a second before he turns back to the soldiers.
"You will listen to what happened without attacking anyone here.
Davey threatened Luna with a loaded rifle.
He was going to shoot her. His death happened while we were defending ourselves.
You will not retaliate against anyone in this house because of it. "
The look on his face is full of pain and anger.
His fingers are twitching, like he is fighting for control and wants to put his hands on his rifle.
I can see when he gives up and his muscles relax.
He can move, he can make his own choices, he just can’t do anything to hurt us.
I don’t know if it should, but Torrin only controlling the soldiers’ ability to hurt us instead forbidding them to do anything makes me feel a little bit better about having to exert control over them at all.
The shorter soldier scrubs both hands over his face. "Davey was being a fucking idiot all day."
The taller man turns on him. "Shut the fuck up, Charlie."
"He was and you bloody well know it." Charlie looks toward us. "He kept talking about what he'd take from the houses before we pulled out, and he tried to shoot that dog a few houses down. He was getting into all of this a little too much."
Gage's expression hardens. The taller soldier swears and looks away. He doesn't forgive us, but the fight has gone out of him. That's enough for now.
Gage steps forward. "How many soldiers are outside?"
"Just the driver," Charlie says. "He's parked up the block. The rest of the patrol moved on to finish the next street."
"And at the warehouse?"
"It depends on the rotation. Usually, a couple dozen between the gate, yard and inside. More at night."
Gage starts asking questions, and the soldiers answer.
Guard positions, shifts, entrances, vehicles, where the prisoners are kept.
His expression gets more focused with every answer.
This is the version of Gage I know best, the one who can take a pile of problems and start sorting them into things we can actually deal with.
Mars moves closer and listens without interrupting.
I turn toward Torrin. He's looking at the soldiers, but I can tell he's not really seeing them, so I slide my arms around his waist. His attention drops to me immediately.
"I'm sorry you had to do that."
His arms come around me. "I just forced a grieving man not to react the way he wanted to."
"You stopped him from grabbing a gun."
"I also told him how he's allowed to respond to his friend's death."
I can't argue with that. The power is frightening. Not Torrin. The power. There's a difference, and I need him to know I understand it.
I tip my head back until he looks at me. "You didn't make him happy about it. You didn't make him forgive us. You stopped him from shooting somebody while he was angry."
He shakes his head, but I push on.
"And none of this started with you," I add. "Your father is the one who used this on them first."
His eyes move away, so I put my hand against his cheek and turn his face back toward mine. "Listen to me. Whatever Colonel Ashford has done belongs to him. Being his son doesn't make any part of it yours."
He looks at me for a long time, then nods once. His mouth presses against my forehead and stays there for several seconds.
"I missed you so much, love."
Torrin draws me closer. "Every hour I couldn't reach anyone, every kilometer getting back here, I kept thinking I'd arrive and..." He doesn't finish; he doesn't need to. My throat tightens as I look up at him.
There's something different in the way he's watching me. Torrin has always been easy for me. Familiar. Safe. The guy who can make me laugh when I'm pissed off and drag me out of my own head when I start thinking too much. This doesn't feel like that.
His eyes drop briefly to my mouth before coming back to mine, and heat spreads through me so fast that I forget what I was about to say.
Well…that's new.
Except maybe it isn't. Maybe I've just been extremely committed to not noticing it.
My palm is still against his jaw, and instead of moving away, he leans into my hand. "I missed you too."
His arms tighten around me.
"We're here now," I tell him. "Whatever happens next, we're dealing with it together."
His expression softens. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
I rest my cheek against his chest again, partly because I want to and partly because I need a second to deal with the fact that Torrin looking at my mouth just made my entire body react.
I guess surviving armed soldiers isn't enough for one day.
Now I have to figure out what the hell is happening between me and one of my best friends too.