The Uprising (The Julianna Rae Chronicles) (5 page)

Caden raised his head to her clarity. The answers were in front of her, and only just out of reach. He marveled at her sudden stillness and eagerness to learn and how she clawed for the truth. He watched, and listened in stealth. To interrupt this one true moment was not his intention.

He waited.

Julianna was grateful for the darkness encompassing her, hiding her from the others. C
aden knew she was unaware of his ability to see clearly in his own cast darkness. She didn’t want them to see the expression on her face and he permitted her the satisfaction for a moment longer. He listened to her breathing, and felt her uncontrollable shake, but not from the fever. Caden’s mind intrusion still lingered, she could still feel his reach swirling inside her head, searching to grasp onto any answer her soul was willing to betray, but it gave her that single moment of clarity too, and she wondered if this was how the man saw the world every day.

She closed her eyes against the thickness, even though in her mind, it seemed darker, but closing them for a moment helped
align her thoughts.

Caden smiled a smile he knew she still didn’t see.

When she opened them again, the cave was basked in an orange glow that danced everyone’s shadows against the walls. The fire jumped from inside its ring of stone they had made earlier, to cast comforting warmth.

The clarity was enlightening for them both.

Julianna glanced around.

Bastiaan
stood beside the fire watching her. Caden knew his brother had sensed the change within her, too. Everyone else had their objective to complete.

‘Here,’ Daniel said.

Caden caught the vials tossed to him. It brought him back to their quiet world and away from her mind. He scrutinized the labels before mixing the stagnant formula with a quick shake.

‘Syringes? Tell me you got them too?’ Caden stated coolly.

‘In the bag.’ Daniel rested quietly beside the fire. ‘He has the road blocked to the west. Heading to the sectors isn’t going to be easy.’

Caden took a syringe from Devo, free from its wrapping.

‘And I don’t like being cornered, Danny. You know that. Providing this stuff is still active, Julianna should be feeling a damn sight better in the morning. If she does, then we’re moving west.’ Caden used the light of the fire to draw the thick liquid into the syringe, checking and rechecking it until he was satisfied. ‘By all means if you feel you can’t join us, please don’t.’

‘You need me old boy,’ Daniel teased. ‘I’ll be seeing this one through.’

‘That’ll be a first for you,’ Caden said. ‘My, my, Daddy will be impressed when I tell him, won’t he?’

Daniel got to his feet and Caden
stood tall as he stepped into Daniel’s space.

‘Not this bullshit again.’ Julianna staggered between them. She addressed Caden. ‘You’ve done nothing but fight. We have enough problems without this crap.’

‘Quite right,’ Caden said and sharply turned her around to the fire. He edged her pants down. ‘Small prick.’

‘Yes you are,’ Daniel said.

‘Guys!’ she snapped. The needle tip slipped into her skin. Caden pressed the mixture into her rear. ‘Ow, fuck!’

‘That’s what all the girls say.’ Caden teased
. He looked past her shoulder towards Daniel, receiving a glaring stare. He removed the injection and capped it for another use. ‘We should sleep while we can.’

‘Shall I take first watch?’ Daniel quizzed. He stood with his ri
fle pointing subtly in Caden’s direction.

‘Thanks Danny. You can handle something this simple, yourself?’

‘Cade, stop scratching for a fight,’ Bas scowled.

‘I can handle you can’t I?’ Daniel stood and Caden moved past Julianna to meet him toe-to-toe. ‘Done it before, will do it again.’

Bas separated them. ‘You’re tired man, they got us what we needed, Danny took out the mutts, let him be, yeah?’

Caden threw his hands in defeat. His eyes snapped in Devo’s direction, double-taking the ripped uniform over her arm. He glared past Bastiaan and then to Devo again.

‘Is that blood?’ he grilled.

‘Daniel saved my ass from a noc. My fault.’

‘Seems you have a fan base tonight, Danny boy. You at least heal the girl properly? We don’t have to worry about another infection?’

Tugging gently at Julianna to join him, he felt her warm skin and saw a listlessness reach her eyes. With his
touch, she followed obediently to the bed she had slept in earlier.

You need me to keep warm.

She accepted his whisper and nodded. His promise of sleep and warmth was enough, he thought. The shivering attacked her body again. With his hand still on her arm, he held her firmly, leading her to the bed tucked away in a corner, away from everyone.             

He slipped his boots off first, following with his belt. He lifted it for her to see there was no cold buckle pressing against her back tonight.

‘Shall I wake you in four hours, asshole?’

‘Try six.’ Bas said. He blocked Daniel’s line of sight. ‘Wake me first. We’ve had sleep. Those two haven’t, and Julianna needs it most before we move out again.’

Caden folded his jacket into a pillow for Julianna. She accepted. Her eyes were barely open to him as she laid her head down in its warm material full of his scent. Caden rested his arm gently over her waist as he lay beside her. She didn’t see the smirk Caden threw in Daniel’s direction, or Daniel’s raised fist behind Bas, as Caden pulled the blanket to cover them.

‘Yell if you need me.’ Caden said and bid everyone a goodnight, though retrospect suggested otherwise.

*  
*    *

Julianna’s head spun with the speed of the dreams. She runs down an endless road in the city sectors, away from the attack wielded from Taris. The knife in his grasp lunges in and out of her side. He snarls as she drops into the dirt – Caden helpless in front of her. She tries to listen to all the whispers hurled at her at once, but they’re overwhelming. Her mother talks incessantly, trying to coax information for the Militia. Her father tucks her into the safety of her bed, as a child, with his warnings against her future – never to return. The boss man at Club Star lurks beside her every step.

She dances
in revealing clothes on stage for money and the hope of gaining valued Rebellion contacts for Isis, her ever watchful mentor. Whispers overlap each other, pushing their way into her mind, permanently imbedding their coded messages, demanding her every attention to what they’re saying, and demanding a response.

On the cusp, she th
inks she can understand, and as quick as she reaches out for more whispers, they tangle into a web of white noise, hissing inside her ears.

She ru
ns from Taris and his knife. Her uncle joins in the hunt. Ducking from a dark corner of an alleyway, he closes in. His thin lips and graying hair were the epitome of a once handsome man, now unable to mask the fear he instills – his snarling, gnashing teeth chomping in her direction, his nocturno blood prevailing over his walker traits – chilling her.

She screams.

She runs along the alleyway, past the symbols of the Militia lining the rotting brick walls of the sectors. Taris closes in behind her, nodding with his sinister smile as he extends his wrist with the Militia symbol branded into his skin – the New World Order is imprinted on every brick and building. The puddles she skims over, reflect the images.

There is no escape;
with each glance over her shoulder as she runs, the knife welds in the hands of the Militia commander, so beautiful in his blonde hair and black uniform. She needs to run, needs to keep moving, but the voices hold her in their grasp, slowing her down to a reluctant jog, with a weight she can’t shake, until her feet stumble over each other, and she collapses in exhaustion. 

Julianna waits
for her predators to arrive.

Just like Katherine.

Katie fell the same way, and now she’s dead.

Caden pulls her
to her feet. His hands curl firmly around hers and they run together again. He takes her away from their threats, returning her to the club where she can dance back on stage with all eyes on her: watchers and walkers, succubae, nocturnes, Militia and Rebellion—

Isis!

She glances at the large screen precariously hanging above the smoky room of gamblers and womanizers while she dances with heavy feet, feeling glued to the stage. Isis looks at her from between the borders of the monitor. His features remain a mystery but for his dark and angry eyes; and he whispers in a dull pitch, trying so hard to communicate.

Julianna frowns in concentration and shrugs her shoulders in helpless defeat.

She can’t hear him.

He yells, but nothing reaches
over the other whispers.

She
stays ignorant, frustrated.

Caden's grasp
takes her again. Slowly, she’s pulled away from the stage to travel deep into the countryside, where all the pain began. They’re in the eve of their escape.

They
’re running again.

She heeds
the warnings, she listened to Isis – but is Isis a part of this? Did he know Caden’s her watcher?

More whispers, more threat, more panic.

The sweat rolls over her skin, and she cries in her sleep.

Taris stands
behind her again with the knife blade raised and bloodied. Bastiaan’s hands grab her, pushing her away. She stares at the black markings under his skin, on the sides of his palms and in clear view. His High Priest status represents the Family that she ran from.

Caden watches
with amusement, but he doesn’t move from the shadows as a member of the Old Council. The medallion around his neck glimmers under the street lamp, its three parallel lines in the circle rank him as head of the Council, and not just another member. He was one of them, she needn’t forget. Had she forgotten as he wrapped her up in his sympathy? She can’t stand it anymore, the whispers are loud and getting louder, and louder and louder…run fast, don’t stop! No escaping the New World Order, even the Old Council is new.

Caden watched Julianna roll onto her side, and when the movement woke her, he greeted her quietly. His hand touched her cheek, stroking it gently, and he studied her face beneath his furrowed brow. He felt his lips pout with the terror in her eyes greeting his, and thought he tried to silence the thoughts racing in her mind with his own gentle words out loud, nothing would  offer her solace. There was no relief for the Seer, she was too broken and too vulnerable; everything was returning to haunt her in her sleep, attacking her at her weakest.

Shhh now.

Caden whispered inside her mind, trying to silence everyone else yelling in her mind.

You need to rest, shhh. Tell the voices to be quiet. Shut them out, listen only to me.

She nodded.

He cupped her cheek in his strong hand and it seemed to help. They met each other’s eyes again; the dull glow of the fire warmed her skin into a stunning ambe
r. He pushed his thoughts away – the ones which wanted to take her – and he nodded in return.

He coaxed her into his embrace in spite of himself
to rest her against his body. He could hear her thoughts scrambling for the edge of sanity, trying to make sense of anything and everything. He could hear them screaming at her, demeaning her, warning her, demanding her attention.  Her body trembled against his as it threatened her with its first seizure.

Follow me.

She responded to his whisper. Her mind returned to the camp cells, where they first met, before everything became deadly and sinister, even though they were Militia captives. It was all he could do to lead her away from everyone else. It was the only place where they would leave her alone.

He took her through the camp’s gates. With her hand firmly in his, he made her run again. They ran through the woods together, away from the drones, dogs and Jeeps. He traced their path to the river where he had given her the knife
. She followed him in his thoughts and dozed again in the safety of their first memory together of them escaping from the Militia and becoming allies, and the first taste of freedom at her feet. Finally, she relaxed into his arms.

Her sweet sigh reached the skin on his chest.

‘I will always keep you safe, little one.’ Caden whispered so quietly into her ear, as she huddled against him. His hand stroked the back of her thick, dark hair and their foreheads touched.

Caden sensed
Daniel watching. He raised his head over his shoulder enough that Daniel’s cold stare left them for the fire’s enchantment.

‘You keep that in your thoughts, no matter what voices you hear.’ He tapped her temples gently. ‘I’ll keep you safe, inside your mind, and out. Don’t listen to them for a second more.’

‘They won’t stop.’

‘Just the fever talking,’ Caden whispered.

But it isn’t the whole truth.