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When I woke Michael was gone, the room having grown colder. I sat up, the darkness around me nothing to fear and yet I couldn’t convince my beating heart of that. I bolted out of the bed and ran to the door, opening it fast and slipping out into the lit hallway. I pressed my back to the door and closed my eyes, taking long, greedy breaths. Someone approached from my left.
Turning, I raised my hands to prepare for a fight I was sure to come.
“What is up with you trying to kick my ass today?” Seth laughed and moved toward me, pushing my fists down before pulling me into a hug. He brushed my hair back as concern filled his handsome face, his eye color lighting up slightly. “You’re hot.”
“Don’t let Michael hear you say that.” I sighed, trying to rein in my fears, which felt completely out of control.
“No... I mean, you are hot, but your skin’s burning to the touch. You getting a fever?”
“Just sweating in my sleep thanks to my horrid dreams.” I reached up and touched my face, pulling from him and shrugging. At least the warmth hid my embarrassment for assuming he was hitting on me. “Feels normal to me.”
“You need something for that fever. Everyone is pulling dinner together. Come down with me?”
“Let me go splash water on my face and I’ll be right there.” I turned and headed back into my room to use the restroom. My legs felt sore, like I had run a couple of miles in the snow – backwards. What’s wrong with me?
The bright light of the restroom stung my eyes as I pulled the door closed. I turned and glanced at myself in the mirror as I turned the cold water tap on the faucet. “Yep... still me.”
I leaned forward and widened my eyes. Hazel mixed with amber stared back at me, nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing unusual. I leaned in further as I noticed the ache in my throat, almost as if something was pushing its way out of me. I gripped the side of the sink and whimpered as a string of words left my lips, my eye color slowly fading to black. Nothing around me held color or substance, but I could still see myself.
It was the world behind me that scared me silent.
A war was coming. It was just me and my friends against Bentos. It was the Hunters and the Grollics. Hot climate, no reprieve from the heat. Florida.
I released the sink and turned toward the battlefield in my mind, the image fading fast. A loud knock at the door caused me to scream, the door opening and Michael plowing in before I could right myself. I shut my eyes tight so he wouldn’t see.
“What the hell’s going on?” He reached for me, pulling me to him and pressing his lips to my hair. “What’s happening? You were screaming like someone was murdering you.”
I took a long breath. I needed to get it together or no one would believe me when the time came and I needed them to.
When would this war happen? I’d had a premonition of some kind. Whatever I saw, it was going to happen.
“Rouge, talk to me.” Michael shook me. “What’s happening?” He pressed the back of his fingers to my head as he moved into the small bathroom. “You’re burning up.”
“Just tired I think.” I turned and opened one eye to peer into the mirror. It was its normal amber-hazel color. I let the other open up as well. Thankfully Michael didn’t notice.
“So tired that you’re screaming up here by yourself?”
“Nightmare.” I pulled from him and turned the still running water off. “Where’s Rob?”
“He and Grace are working in the barn, fixing up a vehicle for us.”
“Did he change the Jeep tire?”
“Still working on it, I believe.”
“I thought he needed twenty minutes.”
Michael smirked. “He did too.” His face turned serious again. “Don’t skirt the subject. Are you seriously okay?”
“I’m fine. Let’s go downstairs. I’ll need a glass of water or something.” I moved out of the bathroom, Michael staying close to my side and reaching for my hand as we descended the stairs. He didn’t say anything, but the worry on his face was apparent.
“Everything all right?” Seth walked from the kitchen as he wiped his hands on a white cloth.
“Yeah, just having nightmares.”
“While you’re awake?” Michael asked, tilting his head to the side. He released my hand and pulled a chair out for me to sit on. “Start telling me what’s going on.” He wanted in and it was overdue time to let him know.
I sighed, exhausted in a strange way. I sat down. “I guess they’re more like visions.” I watched Michael sit down across from me.
“Did something change to cause that?” Seth flipped a chair around and sat on it so he could lean his arms over the backing.
The smell of tomato sauce and garlic filled my senses and my stomach growled loudly.
“Seth, go get the others for dinner,” Michael spoke, leaning back and pulling bread from the oven. His eyes never left my face.
Seth stood and headed out of the kitchen.
“Start talking.” Michael crossed his arms over his chest.
I glanced over at the large pot of spaghetti, my hunger almost overwhelming me all of a sudden. I breathed in deeply and turned to look up into the most handsome face I’d ever seen. He was all I had, and the only one who loved me for who I was. “I don’t know what’s happening. Earlier, when I was outside with Rob, something weird happened when I was looking at the book. Rob said my eyes turned completely black. I don’t know. I’m not sure I even believed him. Then, just upstairs, I had this vision-thing.”
Michael nodded. Thank goodness he didn’t look at me like I was going crazy. “What about the journal? Did it do this to you?”
“Sometimes I think that damn thing is coming to life! I don’t mean literally. It just...” I sighed, not sure how to explain it to Michael. “It’s always felt like it belongs to me. Like it’s a part of me. You know how a kid carries a blanket around forever, even though it’s tattered and torn and gross to others, the kid thinks it’s golden? That’s how I feel about the journal.”
“I don’t know what you mean by coming to life.”
“It’s warm, always warm and comforting to me. But it burned Rob when he touched it. I don’t know if it’s because he’s a Grollic or the sixth son or what. You’ve never hurt yourself on it. Neither has Caleb.”
“Maybe it’s just meant for your eyes only.”
Speaking of eyes... “It made my eyes change color. To black.” I rushed, not letting Michael interrupt me. “And it speaks, which scares the heck out of me.”
“Wait up... it burns other people? And speaks?” He moved back, pressing his fingers to his forehead. “I need details and Rouge, we need to involve Caleb. This stuff is out of my league. He would know how to read the book or how to train you to read it.”
“No! He won’t! He doesn’t know how, you know that. Remember I gave him the book to look at before. He probably brought it to his office, had some experts try to read it and burned a bunch of Grollics to see if they could read it.” I shook my head. “That’s why he’s kept me around. To figure out the book and to kill the Grollics. I’m the tool to fix everything for him.”
“We’ll talk about this later.” Michael jumped up. “Not in front of the others.”
Noise came from the front before he finished speaking. Everyone piled in the kitchen. Rob looked like he had been dipped in mud and grease. The smile on his face quickly told me that he and Grace were getting along, perhaps better than Michael might approve. She took a seat next to me, looking perfect as per usual.
“You get it all done?” I asked, diverting my attention away from Michael and working to change the mood I was sinking deeply into.
“Finally. Turns out Grace is better than me at changing a tire. She didn’t even get dirty,” Rob grumbled, walking to the sink and turning on the water.
“I’m efficient and you really did most of the heavy lifting, Rob. I just screwed on the nuts and bolts for you.”
“Yeah you did, baby.” Rob looked over his shoulder as I bit my tongue. Seth and Michael both shot nasty glares toward my brother.
I laughed and hit my hand on the table. With everything going on it felt good to laugh. “He’s kidding!”
Rob sat down beside Grace, moving his chair closer to her just to annoy the boys. Michael moved to the stove.
Seth began divvying out bowls of pasta. “How about we talk about what our plans are from here? We leaving in the middle of the night because it’s safer to travel, or are we going to head out in the morning?”
Michael poured sauce onto each bowl. “We’ll leave around two. It’ll still give us coverage. Some of us can sleep, the others can get things packed and organized.”
I reached up and took the bowl from Michael as he offered it, lifting it to my nose and breathing in deeply. Rob did the same when he received his.
Everyone stared at us awkwardly.
“What? We’re Grollic. Smells do it for us.” Rob shrugged his shoulders and bent over his bowl, his fork moving fast to shovel the hot pasta into his mouth. He didn’t seem to mind the burn. I on the other hand would be letting it cool.
“Rouge’s not a Grollic.” Michael frowned and sat down.
“I’ll have to remember that, Rob.” Grace flashed a smile at my brother, the grumbles in the room showing disapproval at the continued bantering.
“Let’s just go after dinner. I’ll drive.” I twirled my fork in the bowl and pulled up a heaping portion of pasta, leaning over and nibbling tentatively at it.
“No! There’s no way you are driving.” Michael caught himself from saying why. “If Grollics or Bentos finds us, we need you rested and ready. Not concentrating on keeping four wheels on the road.”
“I’ll drive. I’m good and rested.” Grace reached for the plate of garlic bread.
Rob took four, where the rest of us took one. I smiled at him as he shrugged sheepishly. How long had he been living the pack life with other males and no one else around him? Rebekah had been dead for at least ten years. Somehow I couldn’t picture him without the company of a woman around. I pulled the unused napkin from my lap and offered it to him.
“Thanks.” He took it and wiped at his mouth before digging back into his dinner.
Seth grabbed three beers out of the fridge and set them in front of the boys. “Grace is right. She and I can take turns driving tonight. You’ve been on the run.” He leaned back in his chair, reaching to pick up his beer.
“I’m okay with that.” Michael nodded, looking over at me and then to my brother. “You guys?”
“Are we taking the Jeep, ’cause that’s a tight fit?” Rob looked up, his mouth full of food.
Seth shook his head. “Let’s use the Explorer. It’s got a third row of seats and room in the back should we need to pick anything up.”
“Where are we headed exactly?” I asked, hoping like hell it wasn’t Florida. Anywhere but there.
“Florida.” Grace pushed her bowl away, hardly nothing having been touched.
“It’s our best bet, Rouge.” Michael’s eyebrows rose as he silently questioned me why it was a bad choice.
Rob shook his head. “I don’t know. Florida seems to be a bad place for Grollics. That pack disappeared into thin air down there. It’s not safe.”
“It’s probably the safest. Bentos won’t be there,” Michael argued. “It’s where we have an underground facility. I think it’s the best place for us right now. We can’t keep running.”
“We can’t sit still and hope for the best either, right? I thought running was the plan until Jamie, I mean Rouge and I could read the book and figure out what the hell to do.” Rob glanced at me for support.
“You can read the book too?” Grace leaned in and stared at Rob.
“Wait. What?” Seth perked up at the end of the table and I wanted to reach over and pop my brother in the back of the head.
“I can’t read the journal.” Rob shook his head. “But I sure as hell am going to try my best to help Jamie read it.”
“It’s Rouge!” Michael shouted.
“And you’re okay with him helping her?” Seth asked Michael.
I glanced back and forth at the two of them. What weren’t they saying?
“Yes,” Michael replied. “There are things I’m doing, and things I know, that Caleb isn’t aware of.” Michael’s shoulders visibly stiffened. I reached out and ran my fingers along his thigh, his hand trapping mine and holding me still.
“Ballsy, dude.” Seth grinned. “About time you started taking a risk for yourself.” He turned his attention back to his bowl.
We all sat in silence for a few minutes, my chest aching with the breath I didn’t know I was holding. I let it out slowly as Seth looked back up, his eyes scanning the group before landing on me.
“You don’t have to do this with us. Honestly.” I smiled at him, trying to offer him the out it seemed like he wanted.
“Are you kidding me? I live for this stuff! I’m looking forward to running for my life, getting physically assaulted by you at least twice a day, and beating some Grollic ass.” He glanced at Rob and nodded. “No offense, dude.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rob muttered, way more concerned with his dinner than the conversation around him.
“You in?” Michael asked.
“I’m in. Tell me more about what you’ve learned from the wolf book.” He winked at me.
Always the joker. “It’s changing. Evolving.” I had no idea how to explain it. “It’s like someone’s inside the book. Like taking a life of its own.”
Seth whistled. “Damn! It’s like real magic?”
“Real and seemingly alive.” Michael turned to face me. “Now it’s time to talk.”
