Chapter 43
Erda is the place for them. Though the district is small and everybody knows everybody there, it’s still perfect for a beast. Edward can disguise and adapt easily too, aside from his calm features there’s nothing else Venturian about him. The district people are nice, very warm and trusty too. They have a chance in surviving in Erda than in Unda. William chose perfectly.
Someone must have inform Sapius about the Genesis. The market is dead and everyone is nowhere to be seen around. “Don’t come inside. Than you. I can handle it from here.” I try to smile at William, but even the muscles on my face are too tired to function.
“I’ll visit you in Portchester one of these days. I still have something to tell you, but that can wait.” He says and disappears quickly.
The thought of getting my dad and George out of the district occurred to me too. We can just all vanish with William’s help, but I push it away. That’s not even an option now that I see how hard it is for all of us. The last thing I want George to do is to run for his life and live his days hiding like a Mixed Blood rebel. I’d rather be in jail than to see my family catch their breaths as we run away from the world.
I walk casually to our house and I see Sages peak at their windows, stare at me and shake their heads disapprovingly. I reach our backyard and slowly open our back door and see my sober father unconsciously lying on the floor, already handcuffed. He has a bruise on his eye and jaw and a fresh burn on his calf. George is tied down on our chair with a cloth on his mouth to suppress his loud cries.
“I know you’d come” Van walks out of my room with a devil’s smile all around his face. He searches for James and Edward but when he realized that they’re not with me, his smile fades.
I ignore him and go to George. I take the cloth out of his mouth and untie the tight rope around his body. He hugs me immediately and cries in fright. “I want you to go to Aunt Hillary and no matter what you hear or see, don’t go out.” I firmly orders, brushing his face with my shaking rough hands.
He shakes his head and hugs me tighter.
“Go!” I shout and push him.
Van laughs and kicks my father’s stomach. “Do you think I’ll let that little rascal go?” he asks and ignites a flame on our front door with just a stare.
I pull George closer to me and let him stay at my back. “The order is to capture me. Why hurt my family?” My heart bursts into anger.
“Did your informant tell you that I will arrive earlier than planned?” he stares at me and I look away. I can’t drag William into this too. “Forget it. Let’s just wait for your sweet ride, Topaz will be here shortly. You know him, I suppose, considering you killed her sister.” His words strike my heart.
I look down. It’s heavy to know I killed someone, but the weight in my heart doubled when I heard it from someone else’s mouth. What more can this do to me when I hear it from her brother?
“You’re easy to catch. We didn’t even know who among you killed her. But now we do, don’t we? You should ready your body for a nice wrenching with Topaz later. I’m going to enjoy this.” He laughs and kicks my unconscious father again.
I can’t look at George who tightens his arm around my waist when he heard the word ‘killed’ from Van.
A moment later, a tall guy with a body of two hunky soldier kicks the door and enter our house like a rumbling barrel. He has the same eyes and hair like Jade – Amber’s older sister and as beautiful and eye-catchy as Amber.
“Is this her?” he looks at me with his insulting eyes from head to toe and continues, “Never thought such little girl will cause us a headache.” I see his eyes gleam. Though he speaks tough and cover his loss with insults I know he is grieving for his sister. I remember Amber informing me how her brother loves her so much. I can see that now.
“Yeah. You know what they say Sparks; never judge a book by its cover.” He snorts and gives me a wink. He pulls a handcuff from his belt and put it on my wrists.
They both escort me out of the house. Thankfully, Van knocked my dad out or else the commotion will never stop. He’ll never let me go with them. George is too afraid to come outside and it’s better for him to just stay and watch for dad.
We are on the district circle when I see a familiar face looking so guilty. He stands still in the middle with a few guards behind him who are watching as they take me away.
Then something inside me crashes. My head suddenly aches as I recall everything. How can I be so stupid? How can I be this blind for him?
I stiffen a little and shakes Van’s hold and run towards him. Surprisingly Van doesn’t stop me nor does Topaz Sparks. I thump my handcuffed hands on his face causing him to back down a bit. The guards are alarm but don’t do anything. They stand still, looking away from me. “You son of a bitch!” I yell and thump my hands at his face harder causing my hands to hurt as well and land my thumps at his chest
“I’m so sorry Keesha.” Terence whispers, wiping the blood from his lips.
I told Terence everything – about the underground laboratory, Professor Wood’s experiments, Edward’s and my involvement on James’s hybrid mutation.
He was the one who tipped the Council.
He brilliantly strategized my captivity by involving my father. He’s the only one who knows my weakness – my family.
Of course it’s him.
“Why?” I cry at Terence as I continue to thump his chest.
“I’m really sorry Keesha.”
Just as I can hurt Terence more, Van comes with a gun pointed at my head. “That’s enough Sage.” He drags me out of Sapius and pushes me towards a big screened bus.
It’s a detention bus, I’ve seen one of this when I was still in Kentron. I look at Terence again and memorize the face of the person who didn’t just turned his back on me but also stab it mercilessly.
Terence is not even on the list of the people I expect to betray me… and I was wrong. I was so wrong.
The boy whom I love so much betrayed me and handed me over just like that.
A man sitting in the driver’s seat looks at the rear view mirror, at my reflection exactly and plainly says, “The person you’d take the bullet for is behind the trigger.” It’s Lance Montero – the first and only first class soldier from Sapius.
