Page 33 of The General’s Captive (The Rift #1)

T hree years was a long time.

My old life was more like a mirage in the distance, back when the sight of a dead body would have meant years of therapy.

And now it was just another part of this cruel life.

But if there was a way to save others from witnessing the horror then I would do it.

So, I helped the few soldiers that had agreed to come back with me to move the bodies and burn them, because there was no chance of a burial, not when time was against us.

The Myths were long gone like I had suspected, thanks to The General’s own creatures.

Which meant all that was left was the evidence of our own defeat.

There wasn’t even a single dead Myth left behind.

Yet I had seen them being taken down, so couldn’t help but wonder what The General had done with them?

We managed to reach the scouts that had been sent to the base at Jerome, telling them what had happened.

The pain in their voices held that same haunted tone that we all had but they agreed that returning back to the base was the best option at this point.

Confessing that the damage was easier to fix than they had initially expected.

All efforts would most likely be focused on the gates because they held the most damage.

This was thanks to The General forcing his way inside and those damn Spiked Uglies.

After the good news, I watched some of the soldiers’ jog back to the train to inform Michaels, and I walked toward the office, the one Riley and I had shared, knowing what still needed to be done.

I didn’t have much time to do it, because we wanted to get everyone back to Jerome before nightfall, just to be sure.

The very last thing we needed was to be attacked on the road.

But lately, the Myths had been attacking during the day, so what the fuck did I know?

Damn, I missed Riley’s guidance.

I missed my journal and the picture I had drawn of him.

That easy smile and those gorgeous hazel eyes of his.

Speaking of which, it was time to learn of Riley’s fate and I knew there was only one way for me to do that.

So, I deflated down on the bed and tossed an arm over my eyes, hoping that sleep would quickly take me.

But if I was expecting to find myself in the office once again, I thought wrong. Because it was as if The General had been waiting for me, quick to control this dream. A dream that took me somewhere else because he no longer needed to discover where I was.

Not when he knew I would be coming to him this time.

Which was why I saw him standing with his back to me, but what was surprising was that he took us back to my uncle’s cabin, making my heart pound at the painful sight.

Of course, it looked just like it had done all that time ago.

Back before the Rift and before the sight had been tainted by that fucking creature.

Before the death that had followed.

The moonlight beamed down on the road, not powerful enough to penetrate through the thick trees either side. I tried not to look as I walked toward him as if he wanted to replay history. Only this time, I wasn’t speeding away from him in a truck, and he wasn’t watching me do so.

So, I continued on until I was close enough to ask, “Why did you bring me back here?” My distaste for his choice was unmistakable.

When he turned toward me, it was as if I had just pulled him from his thoughts while he had been looking at my uncle’s home.

The expression on his face was hard to read but then whatever it was, it was gone in an instant as he walked toward me.

I fought against my natural instincts, digging my heels in so I wouldn’t flee.

Besides, he was the one I needed to see, so running from him was the opposite of why I was here.

“This is becoming a habit Alexandra,” he said, ignoring my question as he approached.

The sight of him, as always, stole my breath and held it prisoner.

“You have something of mine,” I stated, noting that tick of displeasure in his jaw before he schooled his features.

“Ah, back to your bargains I see,” he mocked, making me grit my teeth.

“Is he… alive?” I forced myself to ask.

He took his time in answering as if punishing me for even asking, before finally he gave me what I was desperate for.

“Yes, the boy lives,” he sneered, clearly angered by my sigh of relief, one that nearly came out as a loud shrill. My shoulders nearly shook from how tight I had been holding them and now everything in me felt like it could finally breathe again.

“Then I do want to bargain,” I told him firmly, making him scoff.

“But of course you do.”

“A trade,” I stated, ignoring his distain.

“I expected nothing less,” he remarked as if my words were unoriginal and boring him.

“Well, that’s what you want, isn’t it?” I pushed.

He started to circle around me, his hand running across my shoulders, catching my hair, and making my ponytail sway.

“It’s what I will get, yes,” he corrected confidently.

“But I have conditions.” I turned to face him, not trusting him at my back and putting distance between us so he couldn’t touch me.

I wasn’t sure who I didn’t trust more, him or myself. Because I couldn’t seem to think whenever he touched me, and I wasn’t brave enough to question why.

“Which are?” he questioned, and I hesitated because it would mean admitting our plan and potentially putting people in danger.

Which was why I first asked, “Did you send people to attack the Train Yard?”

He narrowed his dark gaze at me.

“What do you think?” he replied in a sharp tone, making me flinch. Because although it had been my first thought when the Train Yard was attacked, I knew that, by the end, it was unlikely.

“No, I don’t think you did.”

The slightest hint of a grin teased his lips, before he used them to say, “Then you have your answer.” But he must have noted the worry in my face as I chewed on my bottom lip, still unsure whether I was making the right choice.

“If you’re concerned that information shared here will somehow end in more deaths, then your fears are unfounded.

I have no interest in your people Alexandra.

” The way he said ‘your people’ made it seem as though I ruled over them, or as if we were a completely different species.

And perhaps we were, but he looked like a man to me.

A man with great power, yes, but a man, nonetheless.

“We are headed back to the base in Jerome,” I confessed, knowing I would need to if I was to ask him for the second part of my bargain.

“I thought as much.”

I raised my brow, prompting him to explain.

“You’re a smart girl and it is the most logical choice.”

Wow, was that a compliment? I nearly said this aloud, glad when I didn’t.

“I want your word that there will be no more attacks on it when we return.”

“We?” he said, picking that part out after homing in on it.

“Yes, we, because I will be leaving after I have helped everyone return.”

He nodded at this but then shocked me.

“I cannot give you my word.”

My mouth dropped before I hissed, “Why the fuck not!?”

His eyes narrowed dangerously as if he wasn’t used to anyone challenging him this way. Which was when I started taking quick steps backward when he started to take angry strides toward me.

“Because, Little Human, despite what you think, your intelligence in this regard is lacking, for I do not have control over the dark ones like you think I do.”

My eyes widened in shock, not realizing he was backing me toward a tree, making me nearly stumble when he suddenly caught me by the waist. His grip was surprisingly gentle as he righted me and guided me against the tree, after forcing me to take the last step back.

Then one of his hands left my side to rest at the tree above my head, caging me in.

As for his other hand, this remained at my waist, making me swallow hard at the possessive touch.

“You don’t?” I asked, ignoring his scathing tone.

“Not much in your journal about that, now is there?” he mocked, making me grit my teeth at the reminder that he not only had it, but that he was reading it too. I desperately wanted to know what he had thought when seeing his image there, as much as I didn’t.

“I didn’t know,” I admitted, my voice quiet and deep in thought.

“No, and there is much you still don’t know, but assumptions made only makes fools out of the ones who speak them,” he said, giving my waist a squeeze as if to emphasize his point before he pushed away from the tree. Something I was thankful for because I needed the space to think.

“Is that why you helped us fight them?”

“It would seem so, wouldn’t it,” he replied, still in that hard, unyielding tone, as if he was pissed off by something I couldn’t see.

But before I could ask, he continued. “However, as part of our bargain and a gesture of good faith I am willing to have some of my men watch over your little base, incase those fed by the darkness think to attack, only then will they interfere,” he offered, surprising me further.

“And the people at the base, will they know?”

“Not unless you wish to tell them, although I do not see a need considering my people can be quite discrete when they want to be. Unlike some lesser species I know,” he said, looking down his nose at me and making me scowl back at him, his lips curling into a grin when he saw my fists clenched at my sides.

“I welcome you to try, Little Warrior, for I can imagine it will be amusing,” he taunted after leaning down to catch my eyes, as if making a point of our height difference… and I so badly wanted to punch the smug look off his face because of it.

“That’s what I thought,” he said after I remained silent, and I didn’t know what came over me, because I suddenly launched my fist before I could stop myself. Of course, it ended the way that he thought it would.