Page 30 of Defiance
The fight was over in seconds.
Or so it seemed.
Cole had guessed how it was all going to end, but knowing someone was going to die in no way prepared him for seeing them get their throats torn out.
“Jesus Christ.”
He screwed his eyes shut, willing himself not to be sick. Swallowing back bile, he glanced back at the screen, surprised to see the camera now on an angle, pointed at the floor but not moving. “What happened?” Cole tried to ignore the two bodies in the background.
“One of Tim’s team died in that raid.”
“How?” Cole glanced from Logan to Aaron. “Why didn’t he heal?”
“I haven’t read the report, but I’m guessing they managed to get close enough to stab them through either the neck or the heart. If the blade was made from iron or silver, then it interferes with the healing process. They lose too much blood before the wounds heal and...” He gestured at the screen which had now thankfully gone black.
Cole slumped back against the sofa and covered his face with his hands, trying to unsee everything, but the images were burnt into his brain. “What was the purpose of that video then? To show me how things can go wrong?”
“Something like that. And to reinforce the lesson that you always need to be on your guard, even if the situation seems relatively harmless.”
“Why, though?” Cole shook his head. “Why would they attack when they had to know they were outnumbered. Had to realise how it was going to end?” Cole struggled to wrap his mind around the fact that he’d just watched people die. And for what?
Logan frowned, eyes drifting up to the camera in the corner as though once again taking the time to measure his response.
Cole hated this. Hated the fact they had to always watch what they said.
Hated the fact he kept forgetting they were even there.
I’m going to get us all killed.
“I can’t say for sure,” Logan began. “I don’t have access to all the information that the HRU does. But I think the more important point to take from this is to never underestimate what people will do when cornered.” He gave Cole a pointed look, which Cole had no idea how to interpret.
His head hurt, his eyes ached, and he felt jittery all over. Probably not surprising considering the events of the past few days, but irritating nonetheless. Standing, he walked over to the windows, peering out onto the courtyard below. The sun was out now, the sky a beautiful blue, dusted with the odd wispy cloud, and Cole yearned to be outside instead of stuck in this room. Would’ve given almost anything to feel the breeze on his face, smell all the scents he could now pick out with his enhanced senses.
Everything he’d taken for granted before he turned twenty-three.
“I know you want to be out there.” Logan’s voice had an edge to it that didn’t fit Cole’s idea of him. It might be necessary for appearance sake, but it still rubbed Cole the wrong way and he bristled. “But you had to expect this after everything that happened. They aren’t going to let you out on your own any time soon.”
“I know.” Cole sighed, turning away from the window. “What about supervised, though? Surely they don’t plan to keep me inside for the foreseeable future?” Whether it was being a shifter that made him feel this way, Cole couldn’t be sure, but the thought of not being allowed outside for weeks, maybe months made him want to howl and claw at the windows.
“That’s not something we can answer,” Logan said, glancing at the cameras again. “But I’ll find out for you.” He palmed the back of his neck and sighed. “I wouldn’t hold your breath though.”
Cole gave him a short nod in reply.Fucking hell, he was never going to get through this. “Fine.”
Aaron clapped his hands together, breaking the tension a little. “Why don’t we stop for a bit? I’ll make another drink and then we can get started on pack history and all the etiquette and basic rules you’ll need to know.”
Joy.
But at least it wouldn’t be watching anyone die. Cole would take tedious over that any day. “Yeah,” he said, moving back towards the sofa. “Sounds good.”
The rest of the day passed relatively uneventfully.
Apart from the tension between him and Logan.
Cole felt his presence under his skin, like a tingling sensation that had both him and his wolf on edge almost constantly. Even when Logan was on the opposite side of the room. Cole did his utmost to hide it and prayed none of this showed up to anyone observing on the other side of those bloody cameras. The beach at Mothecombe seemed a world away now, and yet if Cole closed his eyes, he could relive those moments in startling clarity.
Which didn’t help him or Logan.
Thank God they had nothing in the room that picked up scent. Judging from the looks Aaron shot their way, neither of them was overly subtle.
