Page 30 of Caelum
TWENTY-NINE
NESTOR
The slide of someone’s palm into mine stirred me from sleep, but the second I was awake, I felt the immediate discomfort in my body.
Well, I said body and meant the ‘head region.’
Sweet fuck, the pain was something that I’d never anticipated. Whoever it was that had bitten me had obviously had a Vampire’s fangs because she hadn’t just gnawed on me but had torn out the flesh. I knew because the agony was there, a throbbing presence in my body.
“You said he was going to be okay.”
Eve.
Her voice was loaded with urgency and fear. I hadn’t imagined she’d be able to feel either for me, yet here she was, worrying about my condition.
She didn’t know it because she had no clue about her connection with Stefan, but she was Pack. Even though she disliked Dre as much as he seemed to hate her, if he’d been here in the sickbay, she’d have been just as upset to see him.
That was Pack.
It was how it worked.
Even when you had no idea what a Pack was outside of a nature documentary, and I’d made sure that she and David Attenborough were good friends.
Unlike my Pack brothers, there was only so much gore I could watch. From Dre’s horror movies, Stefan’s love of action, and Eren’s new fascination with Spartacus reruns, the only relief Eve and I had was in the documentaries I was intent on getting her hooked on.
“How did he survive?” she whispered, her hand red-hot on my arm where she’d laid her fingers the second she’d taken a seat.
“Frazer saw him. Gave him blood.” I heard the grim reluctance in Stefan’s voice as he made the admission.
She released a shocked gasp. “Frazer? I thought you guys didn’t get along.”
“We don’t,” Eren replied shortly. “But the Ghouls are our race’s enemy. That takes precedence over squabbles.”
“That was so kind of him. I must thank him. In fact, we all should.” Her fingers stroked my hand. “H-He looks so weak, guys. Are you sure he’s going to be okay?”
Because her concern touched me, I made a concerted effort to rasp, “I’ll be fine in a few days.”
She gasped. “You’re awake. Thank God.” Her hand grabbed mine tighter, and it was a testament to how shitty I was feeling that even that slight squeeze hurt.
“I’m on the mend,” was all I could say before the pain washed over me with the ceaselessness of the tide hitting the shoreline.
“He isn’t lying,” Eren told her, his tone gentle. “It will take a little while for him to be back to normal, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“Of course it wasn’t,” she snapped. “Rome took centuries to form.”
He sighed. “It’s a saying, Eve.”
“Oh.”
If I could have smiled, I would have. She was so literal, and with zero cultural reference points, it was deliciously easy to confuse her. And I didn’t even feel guilty about that. Eve was smart. Ridiculously smart. I figured her knowing shit about the world was her leveler, and if she didn’t have that, then only God knew what she’d be like to live with.
As it was, she was humble and bumbling around trying to figure shit out. She fit into the world like a round peg in a square hole, but I could deal with that.
Mostly because I had a round peg I wanted to stick into her round hole.
Same as Eren and Stefan. Dre, too, if he’d pull his head out of his ass and see her for what she was—our glue.
Every Pack had one, and we’d found ours way ahead of schedule.
Of course, sex wasn’t the only reason I wanted Eve around. In a fight, she might not be able to kick ass, but that memory of hers was going to come in more than handy someday .
I felt some cold fabric being draped over my forehead, and although it felt like shit against my skin, the chill did add to my comfort. Enough for me to mutter, “Guys, you should get her into reading the N-Files.”
They fell silent at my words, at the mention of the registry Caelum had on every single Nest Leader in the world. I wasn’t sure whether they wanted to ignore me or just were bewildered by the suggestion.
Before I had to gather my energy to explain, Eve asked, “What are the N-Files?”
“You remember what we were talking about outside? The nests?” She hummed her understanding, and Stefan continued, “Each nest has a leader. We have files on that leader, as well as the Ghouls they consider their council.”
Eren clucked his tongue. “Council’s a strong word. It’s more like the people they trust not to stab them in the back.”
“Oh.” She fell silent, and I wished I could pry my eyes open to figure out what her response was.
From what they’d said so far, she knew about Ghouls and nests. I wondered how long I’d been out for the count if they’d already handled that particular conversation.
“What would you need me to read?”
“Each Nest Leader has certain ways of working, of leading the nest. The files contain as much intel as we have on the individuals. Anything from the souls that command them, to the way they like to fuck.”
“Intel?” she asked.
“Intelligence. It’s an abbreviation for the information we’ve gathered over the years on these people.”
“They’re that old?”
“Some are ancient,” Eren stated softly. “We’re outnumbered, Eve. There are more Ghouls than there are creatures.”
A sharp breath escaped her. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Without help, most people like us turn Ghoul. We need the training, the education, and the freedom to let the souls out, which is what we find at Caelum,” he explained.
Stefan added, “More than that, we need our Packs.”
“Packs?” She released a huff. “Like with wolves?”
“Almost,” Stefan began. “We call them Packs, but there’s no real hierarchy.”
Eren snorted. “If you’re going to explain at least tell her the full truth.”
Stefan grunted. “A Pack can only be formed so long as there’s a Sin Eater or an Incubus or Succubus on board. ”
“Why?”
“Because they’re the two creatures that can kill a Ghoul. The rest work to help capture our enemies, but those two breeds are the only ones who can eradicate the scum from the face of the Earth.
“We have to wait until we’re twenty before we can officially form a Pack, but most people collect friends with that in mind way before then. They start out as friendships, and then by the time we’re twenty, and we have a handle on what we’re going to be, we can start to think about making things official as without the Buses or a Sin Eater, a Pack can’t form so that changes things.”
When he fell silent, she didn’t reply for the longest time until she whispered, “How is it you all managed to keep these things from me?”
“It wasn’t about keeping things from you,” Stefan answered gently. “It was about figuring out what you needed to know and when. You have so much to learn, Eve. So much. It’s a case of figuring out where to start and when.”
“You start with the monsters who can and will attack us, Stefan!” she ground out. “I mean, isn’t that obvious? Here I was, a sitting duck, just thinking everything was going to be okay now that I was away from the compound and we’re in as much danger here as we were on the outside world!”
“No. No Ghouls have ever tried to take on Caelum,” Eren attempted to reassure her, but she grunted as though that were beside the point.
Which made no sense considering that was her point.
Women.
I was sure they made no sense on purpose sometimes.
“So, why would Nestor suggest I read these stupid N-Files?”
“Because, as a Pack, it’s our duty to go out and eradicate Ghouls. There’s a lot of information to sort through, not just information on the Nest Leader themselves but also on the area we’re scouting… things that, with your memory, would be beneficial to our team.”
“That sounds like you’ve decided I’m a part of your Pack.”
There was a dangerous edge to her voice that had me shifting on the bed with unease.
“We thought it was a given,” Stefan replied, sounding surprised, and who could blame him? She didn’t know it, but her souls did—they’d laid claim to him.
“Nothing is a given,” she said with a sniff, then I felt the air around her shift as she got to her feet .
Belying her words, she leaned over me. I knew because her tits pressed into my arm, and I stiffened when her lips touched my forehead.
“I’ll be back to check on you later, Nestor,” she whispered, then she shuffled off and left me alone with my brothers.
“What the fuck was that about?” Eren demanded.
I wanted to join in the debate, but I couldn’t. It was taking everything I had to stay conscious.
“I have no idea,” Stefan replied. “Unless… Is she running scared? She’s had a lot thrown at her these past few days. Nestor being hurt was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“You might be right. That shit with Dre didn’t help.”
What the hell had Dre done now?
Goddammit. The Were needed to be on a leash.
Although I wanted to grumble, wanted to shoot the shit with my brothers, I didn’t. Now that Eve was gone, I knew they’d go soon too, knowing that I needed my rest more than I needed their company.
When they shuffled out a few minutes later, I was left thinking about Eve’s words, as well as the ones she’d issued silently as she’d kissed me on the forehead.
Whether she knew it or not, she was ours. But she had a few weeks’ grace to come to terms with it, just as Dre did. Because the second he hit twenty, and he declared us as his Pack, I’d beat the crap out of him if Eve wasn’t on the official registration.