Page 14 of Caelum

THIRTEEN

EVE

The force of Reed’s punches had me flinching as I watched him beating on one of the other boys in their year.

I hated this room. The gym. I was slowly coming to accept that each machine in here was actually a torture device, and it made me long for the days when I’d had to sweep the church or wash a hundred dishes. Anything was better than the elliptical, which had to have been made by Satan.

Rubbing the towel over my face as I tried not to die on the machine that Stefan insisted would help me build some stamina, I watched the fight over by the corner.

The gym was the size of the New Order compound. There were all kinds of workout machines, ones that Stefan had explained were for cardio and others were for gaining strength. While those machines took up a grand portion of the room, there were several squares which Eren called boxing rings. How a square could be a ring, I didn’t know, but I didn’t argue either.

A lot didn’t make sense in this world, and I was gradually coming to realize that as backward as I was, I was a heck of a lot more advanced than they.

Instead of using a hundred adjectives, they’d use one word: ‘fuck.’ That seemed to fit every situation. Slotting into a sentence as an adjective, a verb, or even an adverb. I’d never known a word to have such broad usage, but even though I told them it was limiting, they ignored me. In fact, I was sure they used it all the more.

There were eight rings in all. Each of them filled with boys. The girls fought in there too, but I noticed there were fewer fights. Not only because there weren’t as many girls here than boys, but because the girls didn’t seem to want to fight. I wasn’t about to complain about that. The notion that I could cause such damage to someone with my fists made me feel physically ill.

Just watching Reed’s knuckles pound into the other boy’s flesh, seeing the spray of blood, and the splatter of snot and saliva and sweat as he ground the man into dust on the boxing ring’s floor broke me out into a cold sweat.

“Don’t like violence?”

I jerked in surprise at the question and turned my head to see that someone had moved onto the machine beside me.

It was one of Reed’s friends, and one of the boys that was usually snarling with Nestor or Stefan.

“I’m not used to it,” I countered, flicking through my memory banks and reminding myself that this one was called Samuel. Frazer was in another ring, and he was the one Stefan truly loathed.

“Everyone’s used to it.”

“Not me. I’m new to TV. New to all the violence on there.” Not a day passed when the boys weren’t watching something that involved someone being punched or stabbed somewhere. Even though it no longer made me sick to my stomach, I still felt distinctly odd watching someone pass away or pass out on the big screen.

“We’re all desensitized to it. From an early age,” he said, matter-of-factly, and I almost hated him for how fast he was moving on the machine and how ‘in’ breath he was. Whereas me, who was going half the speed, was barely managing to gulp down air.

“I think that’s very sad.” If I sounded prim, then so be it. I wasn’t about to complain that seeing such a sight as the one before me was sickening.

I thought it was even more disturbing that everyone could carry on as though this were normal.

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.” Samuel shrugged as he began to move faster on the machine. I half-stared at him, wondering how he made it move so fast, and then when I did, there was a flash of his thighs from underneath his shorts.

I knew I shouldn’t have been looking, but it had been accidental. They were strong. Thickly muscled. Just like Stefan’s.

Swallowing back the flurry of butterflies that soared loose at the sight, I stared straight ahead and flinched when the first thing I saw was Reed, staring right back at me. His tee was covered in another boy’s blood, and the sight of it totally unnerved me.

“You hang around with Stefan and his crew a lot, don’t you?”

The question at least put my thoughts back into some semblance of order, which was something. I felt like I was about to die on this machine so it was easier to focus on Samuel than the blinking red digits that told me one thing and one thing only—how long I’d been on here, and I still had another twenty-five minutes of this misery to endure.

“They befriended me on the first day, and they’re nice to me.”

Samuel snorted. “Those guys aren’t nice.”

I cocked a brow at him. “Aren’t they?”

“Nice is relative. They’re only out for what they can get.”

That had me frowning. “And what might they get from me? I have nothing to give.”

“You’re a lay they’re marking up.”

A lay they’re marking up… Wishing that Google Translate could translate that for me, I hesitantly asked, “Why would they want that?”

For a second, he scowled at me. “You don’t know what that means, do you?”

I reached for my water bottle and took a small sip. I’d learned that the more I drank, the harder it was to work out. Sometimes, I even had this sharp pain attack my side. Eren called it a stitch, which, as usual, made no sense to me. What did a needle and thread have to do with exercise?

“Well?” he prompted.

It irritated me that I couldn’t deny I had no clue what he was talking about.

“They want to fuck you.”

My eyes widened— that I understood. “Oh.”

His scowl deepened. “Oh? That’s all you have to say to that?”

“What do you want me to say?” I inquired, aware that my tone was cautious.

“Doesn’t that piss you off?”

Did it?

I wasn’t angry if that had been his intention. I couldn’t say I felt anything.

Women were a temptation, after all. Adam and Eve had been cast out because Eve had fallen into temptation…

Father Bryan had often lamented about the wiles of the women and how it made men act out, do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do.

If Stefan, Nestor, and Eren—I didn’t include Dre in the list because I’d barely seen him since he’d been released from the medbay and when I had, he always looked at me like he wanted me to disappear—wanted me, then that wasn’t anything new.

Father Bryan had wanted me, and in a few months’ time, I would have been his wife. Brothers Joseph and Jacob had always smiled at me, their eyes traveling over my form in a way that made me feel dirty every time…

There was a certain look that appeared in a man’s eye that made me feel like no amount of hot water and soap would scrub me clean. But if Nestor, Stefan, and Eren looked at me that way, I hadn’t noticed it. I’d never felt unclean around them.

“Or are they sharing you already?” Samuel sneered. “I should have known that was all bullshit about the cult. The gossip that churns around this place is beyond a fucking joke.”

His anger surprised me. “Why are you so mad?” I argued. From what Nestor had told me about the boys they considered their enemies, Samuel was showing signs of being a Vampire. From my lessons, I’d learned they were pretty cold-natured beings. But now? He was white-hot, and I didn’t understand why.

“I’m mad because I hate liars.”

“I haven’t lied about anything,” I retorted, and the reason I was on this damn machine in the first place—the Were—stirred to life at the sudden surge in my emotions.

I was used to my skin feeling like it wanted to burst open. Used to the desperate sensation of wanting to run. Back at the compound, I’d had to contain myself. I couldn’t go running, and if I’d had stood around scratching at my skin like I had chickenpox, it would have been the opposite of blending in.

Ever since I’d come to Caelum, ever since I’d allowed myself some freedoms, the souls had been rebelling. Keeping them contained was harder than ever. It was like they were enjoying the small burst of liberty I’d granted them and they were intent on making me suffer for daring to imprison them in the first place.

The Were always brought out the need to stretch my legs, to be at one with nature. I’d never felt the desire to attack.

But now?

I felt the rage inside me where it had never been before, save for on days where the Hell Hound held sway.

“Leave her alone, Samuel,” Eren ground out.

I blinked, something in me calming at the sight of him.

“Free country, Eren,” Samuel spat. “I’m just working out. ”

“No, you’re not. You’re upsetting Eve.”

“If she can’t handle some banter, then she’s?—”

“Then I’m what?” I snarled, the Were surging to the surface, coming so close that I felt my pores quivering from the need to shift.

I’d seen the pictures, read most of the books. I knew what that looked like now. I knew what would happen when I was of age and if my dominant soul was a Were.

Samuel narrowed his eyes at me. “Sensitive.”

The word he settled on wasn’t offensive, but that didn’t stop me from feeling insulted.

I dug my hands into the poles that moved back and forth with each push of my legs. There were silver plates of metal where I needed to put my hands so that my pulse could be measured. Nestor told me that the faster my heart beat, the worse shape I was in.

It hadn’t surprised me to learn that I was in terrible shape.

Except now, with the Were bubbling to the surface, I didn’t feel like I was in bad shape. I felt like…

I stopped abruptly.

The elliptical whirred at my sudden move.

Was this why Reed was pounding into the boy in the ring?

Was this why all the rings were full?

These feelings…it wasn’t like I could control them. They were there and they were at the forefront of my mind.

I turned my head and saw that Samuel had jumped off the machine and was walking off as though he hadn’t just stirred the beast inside me.

Before Eren could grab me, I leaped off the elliptical and ran after Samuel. He was only a few feet away, but I grabbed his shoulder and forcibly dragged him around.

He’d come after me intentionally. Wanting to hurt me, to make me think badly of the boys who’d befriended me, who’d made my first weeks here bearable.

I wasn’t about to let him get away with that.

“What the—” he started, but he didn’t finish.

With every ounce of the Were simmering away inside me, I pulled my arm back as I’d seen Reed do, balled my hand into a fist, and let loose.

My target was off. That was the first thing I noticed. But when I glanced off Samuel’s sweaty cheek, I connected straight with his eye socket. He staggered back just as agony filtered from my hand to my brain. I shook my wrist as the pain came, but I ignored it, balled my other hand into a fist, and as he fell back with the force of my punch, I hit him with the other hand.

Before that fist could connect, I was dragged back and hauled into someone’s chest. I didn’t want to be stopped though, I wanted to lash out. Wanted to kick and scream at this boy who thought he could spoil my day, thought he could spoil my friendship with the only three people in my age group who’d extended a kind hand to me.

“You can keep your insinuations,” I growled at him, “and you can stay the hell away from me!”

Behind me, I heard Stefan say, “Did she just curse?”

I frowned, aware that I had, and though I winced inwardly, I allowed Nestor to haul me away from Samuel who was being dragged back too. Reed was scowling at me, as was the boy he’d just been beating in the ring.

Ignoring them both, I twisted in Nestor’s embrace and hissed at him when he wouldn’t let go. “He shouldn’t have talked to me like that,” I spat when Stefan approached me from the front.

“What did he say?”

His hair was all over the place. It looked like someone had been using it as a handhold in one of his fights, but I wasn’t sure what he’d been doing since he hadn’t been in the ring. I’d have watched him and not Reed if that were the case.

His skin gleamed with sweat, and his bright eyes were sparkling with curiosity and… was that humor?

Inside, the soul raged even harder, wanting to give Stefan the same treatment as she’d given Samuel.

Maybe Nestor was right not to let go of me because I would have hit Stefan too if I’d been free.

Like he read my thoughts, Nestor tightened his grip on me and dragged me farther back. My heels scraped against the gym floor as he hauled me away from the machines and to the area where there was a metal podium as well as a faucet for fresh water.

Eren had my bottle in his hand, and he was filling it up. I watched him warily, eying him as he moved toward me and pressed the opening of the bottle to my mouth. I nodded and parted my lips, letting myself drink the small amount he poured in there.

The cold water chilled the banks of rage inside me, not dousing them exactly, but cooling me down somewhat.

After a few sips, I rasped, “You can let me go, Nestor.”

“You sure? You still going to attack Stefan?”

“Not so long as he doesn’t say anything else stupid. ”

Stefan scowled as he lifted his shirt up by the neckline and wiped his face on the fabric. Nestor’s chest, by contrast, was naked. I could feel him through my own shirt.

Was it wrong that I didn’t mind the idea of his sweat and mine intermingling?

I pondered the thought, knew it would be considered a sin back home, but ‘back home’ wasn’t exactly my haven anymore, was it?

This place was.

“I didn’t say anything stupid,” Stefan retorted.

“You were laughing at me,” I told him, my tone flat, but deep inside there was hurt brewing.

“Because you just punched Samuel, Eve. He’s someone most of the guys avoid fighting, and you went back to smack him again. It’s funny.” He shrugged, but the move wasn’t exactly apologetic.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “He insinuated I was some sort of…” How did I phrase it? Prostitute seemed a little strong. I wasn’t Mary Magdalene, after all. “Jezebel.”

Stefan cut Nestor a look. “She a slut?”

“I think so. It’s been a long time since I read any Bible,” Nestor replied.

“If a slut is someone who…” I licked my lips. “…interacts with a lot of men, then yes.”

Stefan blinked at me then looked over his shoulder to cast a glance at Samuel. What he saw, I wasn’t sure, but he seemed to tense up. I knew him well enough to know that if he was angry then he’d gladly stir up another fight. That was all the boys did. Fight and eat.

“Why would he say that?” Eren asked, but he wasn’t posing the question to me.

That didn’t stop me from answering though.

“How would I know?”

Stefan shook his head. “Sluts are a human concept, Eve.”

I blinked at him. “Excuse me?”

“It’s an insult to a human female, but not to us.”

“You mean you call girls here sluts?” Outrage filled me, making me struggle against Nestor’s hold again when he grabbed me and stopped me from punching Stefan once more.

“No!” Nestor barked. “We don’t fucking call them that. We don’t call them anything.”

“Oh.” That took the fight from me. “Well, what’s your point then?”

“My point is that if a woman chooses to share herself with a man, that isn’t considered a bad thing, but Samuel wanted you to think that it was.” Stefan rubbed his chin. “Why would he do that?”

“Why do those braindead fuckwits do anything?” Eren grumbled.

“There’s a method to their madness. You know that as well as I do. They wanted us to head to Aboh without Dre. That’s why they beat the shit out of him. If Reed purposely channeled his Hell Hound into the fight, it explains why Dre’s concussion was so bad.”

I could sense that had all made sense to the others, but I was confused. “Where’s Aboh?”

“Nigeria,” Eren muttered, his tone absentminded like he was thinking of something else while he answered me.

I thought about the maps I’d been glancing over, trying to see the world for what it was and not what the New Order had told me.

Nigeria was in Africa, and its capital was…I thought back to the atlas, skimmed over to the page on Africa, and studied the map of the country in my mind’s eye.

Abuja.

Yes. That was the capital.

“Why would you go to Nigeria?” I drawled. “It’s not like it’s next door.”

None of them replied, but I knew they were communicating silently. I felt Nestor’s tension at my back, saw it in Stefan’s frame, and didn’t need to see it in Eren’s to sense that there was something they were hiding from me.

Hurt welled inside me, and I gritted out, “Nestor, let me go. I won’t attack anyone.”

“You sure?” There was some of that amusement again. This time in Nestor’s voice.

Since when had I become their go-to joke machine?

Growling under my breath, I tried to channel the voice I’d used when dealing with Father Bryan. “I’m certain.” It must have worked because he let me go, but all three boys looked at me warily.

“What happens in Nigeria?” I insisted the second I was free and able to look at them all.

“It’s the nearest nation to this island. It’s where we get some time away from Caelum.”

“Like a vacation,” Eren supplied, but I didn’t trust his explanation.

“Why would the others try to stop Dre from going? Isn’t that mean?”

“Haven’t you figured out that they’re mean anyway?” Stefan retorted, his muscles bunching as he folded his arms across his chest.

“I suppose.” What Samuel had told me hadn’t been nice, but Reed had been kind enough when he’d explained why my favorite suit of armor in the whole Academy had horns.

“No ‘suppose’ about it.” That came complete with air quotes. “We’re not just jackasses, Eve. We get along with most people in school, but those three are pretentious, self-righteous assholes.”

“Why?” I wouldn’t take his word for it. Not when his words were merely an opinion and not fact.

“Because they are. They treat everyone like they’re lesser.”

“Why?” I repeated, ignoring their disgruntled huffs.

“Most of us are poor. I’m not sure why that is. But we are. You speak to anyone here, and they’ll have a nasty backstory. It’s just how we roll. Eren was beaten every day by his brother-in-law until he was recruited, and Nestor was thrown out of his house when he was eleven, and he only survived because a priest took him in. I was orphaned when I was young and lived in an orphanage where I was beaten and used like a workhorse.” Stefan’s tone held no hints of sadness. It was like they’d long since come to terms with their pasts, and they could no longer affect them.

From what he was saying, I was glad about that. It meant that, at some point, I’d forget about my time in the New Order.

“Those three aren’t like that?”

“No. Their families were either middle class or well-to-do,” Nestor reasoned, hunching his shoulders so he could shove his hands in his pockets. I tried not to notice what that did to the muscles on his chest.

I’d never been around men before when they were semi-naked, and these past few weeks I’d seen more male bodies than I’d eaten hot dinners.

Where my chest was soft, my breasts full and round, theirs were taut and hard. Some days, usually when the Succubus was in control, I wanted to squeeze their muscles. Prod my finger into one of the thick ridges to see how firm they were?—

“Eve?” Nestor tapped my chin, making me blink when I realized he was aware of where I’d been staring.

I cleared my throat. “Sorry. I’m listening.” Spying the amusement on their faces, again , grr, I ducked my head to avoid their gazes.

“Because their families weren’t scum like ours were, they’ve got an attitude. They like to lord it over us,” Stefan explained.

“They want us to feel bad for not having as much as they had, even though they’re here too, where we’re all equal, and where our past bears no reflection on our future?”

The three of them snickered. “Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.”

Confused, I turned back and saw Reed and Samuel hustled together, arguing over something next to one of the now-empty boxing rings. Reed must have sensed my gaze because his eyes darted over to mine, seeming to pin me in place for endless, heart-numbing seconds that made me wonder if my lungs had stopped working.

When his mouth curved into a smile, I finally pulled back, staring at the floor rather than at him.

More perplexed than ever, I rubbed a hand over my face. Feeling the sweat drying on my skin from the heat inside me that came from the soul that had launched me at Samuel, I mumbled, “I need to shower.”

I didn’t wait for the guys to say anything. What was there to say?

I’d just started a fight, had learned that the men here weren’t interested in faithfulness and that Reed’s smile was just as beautiful as Stefan’s.

Unsurprisingly, it was the last point that scared me enough to have me scurrying away to my room.