A War Against Volto - Sequel to While You Sleep (Complete)

Reinstating the Captain

Knowing that someone was standing at the bedroom door, watching, I ran my fingers through Victor's hair once more before moving away with a sigh. It had been a long and heartbreaking afternoon for him and I hadn't been surprised when we'd finally made it back to Sean's condo and found Victor curled up on my bed, staring at the wall blankly. There had been no tears and I think that that had just made the rest of us feel infinitely more helpless.

The only thing that I had been able to do was crawl in next to him and cuddle until the tension had leaked away and he had slipped into a fitful sleep.

"We need to talk, Sweetie," Sean announced as I finally forced myself away towards the door.

"I'm coming," I murmured, accepting the hand that he held out. I may not be the one who had lost his family, but after everything that I'd seen, I certainly needed a little bit of comfort.

We walked down the hallway in silence and I realised that the boys must have called for delivery because the smell of Chinese lingered all the way to the living room.

Each of them sat quietly throughout the room, staring resolutely at their own plate, eyes avoiding one another as though they couldn't find any words.

It honestly hurt my heart.

"Well," I interrupted gently. "This looks like a fun place to be right now."

"Baby," North groused, his voice hoarse. "We made you a plate. Do you feel ok to eat?"

Looking at him, I could see the devastation in his eyes. Not thinking about it, I glided forward until I was standing over him.

"Baby?" He croaked, watching as I simply looked down at him.

"I'm so sorry, North," I whispered, moving slowly in case he wanted to stop me. I took the plate and cutlery from his hands and set them on the floor by his feet, lowering myself next until I was kneeling with my hands resting over his lower thighs. "How did it get like this? How did we go from building a family to questioning everything. I've been so caught up in my anger over you guys continually showing that you don't trust me, that I forgot about how much I've been telling you that I don't trust anyone anymore. Is that what the Academy has done?"

"No," He muttered, pushing fingers through my hair. "That's what Volto has done. We're not coping very well and it seems like every little change is just one blow too many."

"We're very sorry about this morning, Miss Sorenson," I heard Mr Blackbourne speak from somewhere behind me.

"So am I," I admitted, smiling ruefully. "It was probably a really big shock and I just went and blew up at you all."

"We got jealous," Gabe moved to my left, wrapping an arm around my waist and pushing his cheek to my shoulder. "There you were all beautiful, a goddess, and then there's a group of attractive guys draped all over you. You've told us again and again that you've been waiting for us but we're stupidly insecure."

Caught between a giggle and a sigh, I moved a hand to cup his cheek, "I can't imagine my own reaction if I saw you all like that after being asleep for a year. But we can't do that anymore. We need to find Volto now, more than ever, and that means being a team. Trusting one another. My time with the Academy is as secret to me as yours was to you and I'm hoping that we can just leave it in the past. I want our family back." My breath caught on the last word and then came the sound of people moving.

They must have all pushed aside their dinners because in the next moment, I was surrounded by them. All of them. Arms wrapped around me and one another, it felt as though I could finally breathe.

"We need to be strong for Victor now," Kota shifted, green eyes meeting mine. "We need to end this so that he can have some justice."

"No matter what they had done, they were his parents," Mr Blackbourne added, fitted in between Sean and Silas.

"I may have an idea about what else Volto was talking about in his latest note," I mused, wriggling around until we all separated, the boys all going back to their seats while Sean handed me my own plate. "None of you are going to like it, and I've been trying to keep it from Victor but I think that Volto views what he or she did as a favour."

"She?" Nathan asked with a raised eyebrow.

I shrugged, "I don't know but something about Volto's actions lately just doesn't feel right and with Wil's apparent involvement, I have the feeling that our enemy isn't as black and white as what we'd thought."

They nodded.

"The rest of the note?" Sean prompted, keeping an eye on the hallway in case Victor appeared. Just like we all were.

"There was something in there about their greed and how they wanted to use Volto to destroy Victor. I have an inkling that somehow the Morgans found out exactly who Volto was and tried to convince them to do what the courts failed to allow them to do."

They all looked back at me with blank expressions.

I groaned, "God! Ok, I'm about to tell you something and each of you has to promise not to start yelling. I'm not quite ready to explain everything to Victor and I definitely don't want to have to face him tonight because all the noise woke him up. Yes?"

I waited for their grudging agreement before taking in a deep breath and explaining that the Morgans had tried to quietly have their son euthanized. Their arguments in court had been that with the doctor's' inability to revive any of the boys, they hadn't wanted to watch their 'precious' child waste away while there was no hope, but in truth it had all come back to money. Mr Morgan wasn't able to access Victor's accounts and with him in a coma, there hadn't been any money coming in from his performances. It was sickening, and it made me so angry that I wanted to resurrect them just to kill them again but I managed to get it all out without swearing or tears.

The room remained deathly quiet until I had finished and then it seemed to vibrate with the way each of them was trying rein in their reactions.

"I don't understand," Kota stared back at me with a dazed look in his eyes. "They wanted to kill him?"

"Yes. The Academy and I had no warning and they went through a judge who we had no connections to which meant that we were able to get the motion postponed but not completely thrown out. The judge put a twelve month review on it - once that time period was up, the motion would back before the courts and with the Morgan's influence, we were all gearing up for a huge fight. We were even considering having Victor 'kidnapped' to a secure facility where he couldn't be touched."

"I can't even...I don't know what to..." Gabe stuttered, the fact that even he couldn't find a way to describe their actions showing me just how much of a shock this was.

"I never wanted to have to tell any of you but I really think that this is what Volto was talking about. He or she did us a 'favour' by killing them."

"What about Mrs Becker? Was she a favour too?" Luke spat out, clenched fist the only clue that he was extremely angry.

"I don't know, Luke," I shook my head sadly. "But Wil is a lead now and I think following his life will lead us to whoever is playing Volto now."

"You want to go back to Ashley Waters?" North grumbled.

"Yeah. I'll message Axel as well and ask him to find out as much as possible from Kayli. She might have met some of Wil's school friends."

"So, we go to Ashley Waters tomorrow." Mr Blackbourne nodded, pushing his glasses up. "What would you suggest we do now, Miss Sorenson?"

Smiling, I slipped into the seat between North and Silas, "I think that that is your job, Mr Blackbourne. You and Kota make all the plans for the team. What's our next move, Captain?"