The Blackwater Chronicles: Lex & Lawe

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Lex took a deep breath and opened her eyes to find they had stopped. She could recognize the area she’d grown up right around the corner where the garage was located.

“Why didn’t you wake me up when we got here?” she asked Blythe.

“You needed to rest; besides we got here faster than I thought we would and it wasn’t dark enough.”

“Okay so let’s go…”

“I saw at least two cars watching the garage. I drove around the block. Can you give me the layout of the garage?” Lex wouldn’t admit it but she was relieved for the extra time to rest.

“It’s nothing special. The front is the office the back is the garage. Those are the entrances.”

“Then we’re screwed because they are both being watched. Is there any other way in?”

“There’s a fire escape on the side. It’s right under my bedroom window. Jamie kept the window locked afraid that I might try to sneak out.”

“Something tells me that was a wasted effort,” Blythe said with a smile.

“Why do you say that?” Lex asked knowingly.

“Because from what I’ve learned about you so far if you really wanted to sneak out you would have found a way to do it.”

“Yeah I kind of knew I could scale the wall from his window until I could reach the fire escape. That stopped when Duane moved in though. That boy has hearing like a hound dog.”

“Well he is a wolf,” Blythe said distractedly. “Do you know if your brother kept his window locked?”

“No, he slept with his window open.” Lex said with a smile. She remembered being jealous that he could have his window open, but she had to have hers locked.

“Then that’s our way in. I’ll scale the wall to get to your brother’s room and you wait until I open your window.”

“We can both get…”

“You’re in no condition to scale a wall trust me. I didn’t bring you this far not to get what you came for.” Blythe didn’t wait for an answer instead she got out of the car and pulled her long black hair into a high ponytail. Lex got out of the car and started walking toward her home. She’d missed the smell of the city and she’d only been gone a day and a half. The grittiness and dirt meant more to her than anything else in the world. Her parents had raised her in the suburbs and when they died she hated nothing more than the quiet and it had taken her night terrors and regular therapy sessions before Jamie thought about moving into the city. He gave up working at a garage and bought his own. Social Services had already granted him full custody and everything was final. They couldn’t have taken her away from him even if they’d wanted to. She wouldn’t have let them.

“You used to sneak out using this fire escape?” Blythe asked as she looked up at the fire escape. It was at least twenty feet high and there was no way that Lex would have been able to sneak back in.

“Yeah, it’s not hard getting out and most times I’d have something weigh the ladder down so I could get back up.”

“Okay so we’ll have to improvise.” Blythe moved back and took a running start until she got to the wall. Stepping one foot on the wall she hopped off grabbing the bottom rung of the ladder and pulling it down.

“How the hell…”

“Come on. We don’t know how long before they realize we’re here.” She followed the other woman up to her bedroom window and then watched as she scaled the wall to Jamison’s window. Lex was surprised at how quickly she ran across the narrow ledge that led to the other window. It used to take her at least twenty minutes when she snuck out and that was after she’d mastered it. Two minutes after she disappeared into Jamison’s room, Lex’s window slid open. Lex climbed through quickly and took a quick look around. Everything looked exactly how she’d left it the other day when Duane and she had gone to Blackwater.

There were clothes strewn across the floor and the bed wasn’t made. The dishes were on her desk from when she hadn’t felt like taking the dishes into the kitchen. Jamison hated how unorganized she always was, but if you asked her to find something she always knew exactly where it was. So he could only complain so much.

“So, where to now,” Blythe asked, Lex moved toward the steps down the hall only to have Blythe stop her before she went down. “You wait for my signal before you come down, got it?” She stood on the first landing that led down to the garage. It was pitch black to Lex and she was almost positive that Blythe couldn’t see anything but when Blythe motioned that it was safe. She quietly made her way down the steps and froze at the bottom waiting for her eyes to adjust, but before they could Blythe was already pulling her toward the front office.

“Wait…I can’t see…” Lex said struggling to keep up with the other woman.

“Don’t worry, I can see just fine,” Blythe said. She like other ferals had the night vision of the animal she was spliced with. She knew she couldn’t look back at Lex because she would see the reflecting eyes of a cat and that would just freak her out. She stopped at the office door and listened. The only sound she could hear was Lex’s heart beating and breathing, so she cracked the door open. The moment she did she smelled them. There were at least four and one was feral.

“Go back,” she said pushing Lex. They headed toward the steps as they both heard the garage doors start to open. The office door flung open and the lights came on. Lex let the adrenaline flowing through her body take over and ran toward the steps. She glanced behind herself and saw that Blythe had turned and started fighting the four that came from in the office. The other six that came in from the garage doors started advancing on her. She rolled her eyes knowing that she was going to have to fight and that inevitably her stitches were going to tear and it was going to hurt like hell.

“Come on let’s get this over with,” she said taking her fighting stance. She stood with her right foot forward and her body turned sideways, making herself a smaller target. She held her left arm close to her side hoping to protect it from any blows they may aim there. Jamison had made sure that she had studied as many different fighting styles as he could find. His philosophy was that while he had no intentions of leaving his baby sister helpless, if she ever needed to fight he’d make damn sure she could do a lot of damage.