Page 52 of Defiance
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It hurt.
More than Cole thought it would. For some stupid reason, he’d thought his advanced healing would sort it out. But he felt every press of the needle as it marked ink into his skin.
“You okay?” West asked, pausing to wipe away a bit of blood.
“Yeah.” Cole glanced down at his forearm, the outline West had drawn earlier slowly coming to life. “Hurts more than I expected.”
West laughed. “That’s the ink.” He nodded at his gun. “It’s not what I’d use if you were human. This one packs a little more sting with it.”
“Lovely.” Cole rolled his eyes. Because of course it did.
“It wouldn’t take otherwise.”
The buzz of the tattoo gun eventually lulled him into a daze where the pain become tolerable. He closed his eyes, listening to West chatting with Aaron and Logan but not paying them much attention.
His mind wandered tobefore.
Before he’d been bitten.
Before he’d ever met Logan.
Not that his life had been without complications, he’d always had this looming over him, but it had certainly been easier. Had that only been a few weeks ago? It seemed hard to imagine now.
Was that how Nick felt? How all the other candidates felt? Or were they happily adapting to pack life?
Granted, they weren’t hoping to start a revolution.
Because that’s why they were doing all this, right? Why Cole had come back to put himself through all this pain. Changing the way their country was run had to be the end goal, or what was the fucking point?
He knew it wouldn’t happen overnight, he wasn’t stupid, but hopefully one day, what had happened to him, to his parents, would be a thing of the past.
Either he’d somehow managed to doze off or just been lost in his thoughts, but the next thing he knew, West was gently shaking his shoulder.
Cole opened his eyes, squinting at the light as he registered the lack of pain on his arm. “Huh?”
“There you are.” West smiled down at him. “It can get people like that, don’t worry. Here.” Cole sat up and West handed him a bottle of water and a sandwich. “Thought we’d take a break.”
“Thanks.” Cole set the sandwich down and took a long pull of water, surprised at how thirsty he was. It was only then he noticed they were alone. “Where’d they go?”
“Just outside.” West pointed at the closed door to his space. “Talking to Paul.”
I wonder what that’s about?
Instead of dwelling on it, he asked, “How long has it been?” He nodded at his arm.
“About two and a half hours.”
“Shit.” Cole stopped and stared at him, sandwich in hand. “Didn’t think it’d been that long.”
West grinned. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”
Cole barked out a laugh. “I wouldn’t exactly call it fun.” It did make a nice change to do something other than stand and watch Paul’s—no,hisunit train, though. And much to his surprise, he found he liked West.
“You managed to fall asleep for the last forty minutes or so,” West teased. “Can’t have been that painful.”
“I wasn’t asleep.”Was I?
