Dawn of a New Age: A Sons of Satrina Novel (10 page)

Even though he was nearly as exhausted as he would have been after a day of hard training, it was a different kind of tired and he was having a hard time falling asleep. Rifling through his bag, Jackson grabbed his iPod and hit shuffle. You Me At Six blared to life with ‘Bite My Tongue’ and he closed his eyes and shifted to get comfortable on the lumpy pillow.

He didn’t hear the door open but cracked his eyes when he felt that he was no longer alone in the room. Yanking out the earphones, Linkin Park bla
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r
ed out into the room. Trey had tried to tip toe into the room, thinking that Jackson was asleep, and he jumped out of his skin at the sudden noise.

“Hey, roomie.” Trey grinned.

Jackson laughed, “Yeah, you’d better not snore.”

“Don’t ask me. How would I know? I’m asleep!”

“Where are you going?” Jackson glanced over as he saw Trey getting out a change of clothes.

“I’m going to see Ash.” He glanced over his shoulder. “You should come with.”

“How is she?”

“You could ask her yourself if you came with me.”

“How is she, Trey?” Jackson notched the glare up a little.

Trey sighed. “A million times better already. But, you’d know that if you weren’t avoiding her.”

“I’m not avoiding her.”

“Of course you are. When was the last time you actually spoke to her?”

Jackson shook his head. “It’s difficult, man.”

“Well, why don’t you come down with me now? Make it less difficult between you.”

“I can’t.”

“Sure you can.”

“Don’t push it, okay? I can’t do this yet.”

“I thought you were her friend?”

Jackson rubbed his eyes. “I am. I just… I can’t right now.”

Trey didn’t say anything else but he threw Jackson a look that spoke volumes. Even if he thought he was hiding his feelings well, Trey knew that Jax wasn’t doing a very good job of it. If anyone could see through the bullshit, it was Trey. He knew the both of them too well.

It had been a good couple of weeks since Jackson had spent any kind of real time with Aisline. Since that night in the medical wing when she’d first been brought back to them, he had avoided being alone with her. He may try and say otherwise, but it was clear to Trey what was going on. They had gotten themselves into an awkward situation and he just hoped that they’d be able to work themselves out of it, for everyone’s sake.

It was pretty damn obvious to anyone that spent any time with the two of them that they were made for each other and their feelings for one another were crystal clear. For some reason, they both wanted to deny those feelings, hence the difficult situation. But, for their sakes and for the sake of those that were working with them, Trey hoped that they’d be able to sort it out and soon. He didn’t want this turning into a big thing when he’d have to end up taking sides. That wasn’t how he was. He wouldn’t chose. They were both his close friends and he hated this awkward silence.

Maybe sharing a room with Jackson would be a good thing and he’d be able to talk some sense into him. Who knew? It was worth a try.

Chapter Nine

Breakfast was even more rowdy than usual. All the guys seemed to be in high spirits, looking forward to getting stuck back into training again. Jackson couldn’t help getting caught up in the mood and laughing mindlessly with the rest of them. The only dark cloud on his horizon was the fact that there had been no sign of Aisline in the dining room.

Jackson had thought a lot about what Trey had said and he knew that he was going to have to man up and make the situation right again. They couldn’t carry on this way. How were they ever going to repair their friendship if they couldn’t even be in the same room as each other? They’d both have to work hard to get past this, but it was clearly going to have to be up to Jackson to make the first move.

Just as he was about to abandon what remained on his place, Jackson felt a hand clamp down heavily on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw Master Warrior Kelton looking down at him, his face serious, with eyes bleak and unsmiling.

“You need to come with me.”

Shit, Jackson thought. That sounded serious. With a few sympathetic glances from the other guys around the table, he quickly followed on the heels of the warrior. It got even more ominous when Kelton stopped to add Denver to their ranks. Great.

“Follow me.” Was all that Kelton said as he led the two boys through the large house and outside into the cold night air. Jackson was surprised that Denver also followed obediently and without question or complaint.

Then it dawned on him. This must be the punishment that he’d been waiting for. A chill ran through him.

He still regretted what he had done. His actions had got Aisline out of that god-awful situation. However, he did regret assaulting Kelton. That was a bad move on his part. But, in his defence, it had been his only course of action. Unfortunately, he still had to answer for his actions.

It wasn’t an intentional action. It wasn’t like he purposely set out to assault the head of the Sons of Satrina and the most badass warrior in Lamia history. It was a heat of the moment thing that he’d acted on. Jackson would have barrelled through any obstacle that stood in his way to get Aisline out of that place and, unfortunately, that obstacle had been Kelton. He still had to pay for it, though. His actions had been out of order and there was no way he was going to get away with it unpunished. He’d just have to suck it up.

“Here we are.”

Kelton had brought Denver and Jackson around to the back of the mansion, to the wastelands that most of the student body had not yet had time to explore. The rest of the place was coming together nicely with thanks to all the hard work that they’d put in, but the exterior still left a lot to be desired. There was mountains of rubbish and weeds littering the area and to put it bluntly, it looked a complete mess.

“Where are we?” Denver frowned, looking around in the darkness.

Jackson didn’t say anything. What was the point? Kelton would tell them what was going on when he was good and ready. Plus, if this was the punishment, then he wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to know what it was all about. Kelton’s punishments were legendary. The more imaginative, the better. Jackson had been waiting for this day to come with baited breath so he could get it over and one with.

“These are your tools.” Kelton indicated a pile on the floor next to him.

“Tools? What are they for?”

Jackson threw him a look. Denver had clearly found his voice again and Jackson wished he’d shut the hell up.

“This entire area needs to be cleared.” Kelton spread his arms wide dramatically to show that he meant the whole are behind the mansion.

Denver jumped back and glared about him incredulously. What the hell did Kelton think they were? They weren’t bloody superheroes! There was no way that they’d be able to clear this place with their bare hands. This was impossible? Was he mental? “No way.” Denver shook his head.

“Yes way.” Kelton replied sternly. He took a single step closer to Denver. “Maybe next time you will think twice about acting like a dumbass out in the field and putting your entire crew in danger.”

Denver shrank away from him. He had been trying to regain his cock-sure confidence after the knock it had received, but any time he saw Aisline or the incident was mentioned, he coiled up in himself again.

That had been the worst night of his entire life. He knew that he had acted like an idiot the moment he’d gone back to check out the Mortuorum activity, but it wasn’t like he had intentionally put Aisline’s life, or anyone else’s, in danger. He wouldn’t have ever wanted to get anyone hurt. He’d just wanted action. He’d tried to hunt down the enemy, which was the whole point of the bloody field exercise to start with, wasn’t it? Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out quite the way he thought it would. And, any reminder of what a jerk he’d been cut him like a knife.

“You need to clear this entire area and pile the rubbish, weeds and bricks over there,” he pointed to an area near the far corner of the house. “And someone will come by to remove it.” Kelton glared at them both. “Right. You both know why you’re out here. You both know what you need to do. It’s not rocket science. It’s hard work. It’s not going to be easy going and you are going to have to work together on this. This is a manual task, but manual work also gives you time to think about what you did and why you won’t be acting in that way again in the future.”

Jackson nodded in understanding and Denver sulked with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at the dirt and rubble like they were the deadly enemy.

Kelton carried on, “You need to think about what happened to you and because of you. You need to think about what would have happened if you hadn’t been there. You both need to think hard about how you would act in the future should a similar circumstance occur. You are both warriors in training. You need to think about what you will be facing out there in the real world and decide how a warrior should act.” Kelton turned to walk away. “I’ll be back to check on your progress when I’ve decided that you’ve done enough to warrant a break.”

Denver watched as Master Warrior Kelton walked off, his mouth hanging wide open and unable to believe that he really meant to leave them out there to sort out all of that crap by themselves. It was an impossible task and Kelton was mental if he thought they’d be able to do it without any help.

“Well, don’t just stand there, dumbass. We’ve got work to do.” Jackson snapped as he began to move a wheel barrow over to the nearest mound of rubble.

He could entirely understand why Denver looked quite so gobsmacked, but what was the point in arguing about it? This was the last thing that Jackson had expected as punishment, but in a way it made sense. Physical work left you tired and your mind registered why you were tired and why you were doing it in the first place. Honestly, this place looked like it would take a whole construction crew several weeks to sort out and with just the two of them at it, they’d still be moving mounds of rubble and dirt for the next six months.

“Seriously? How the hell does he expect us to do all of this by ourselves? It’s stupid.”

“It’s a punishment, Denver. It’s not supposed to be easy.”

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“It doesn’t have to.”

Denver glared at him, refusing to acknowledge that he was right. “What are you being punished for, anyway? Weren’t you one of the heroes of the hour?”

“That’s none of your business.” Jackson snapped back. Only the warriors that had been out in his group during the rescue mission knew anything about what had happened between him and Kelton. He wanted to keep it that way. He had acted purely in Aisline’s best interests, but he didn’t want his disrespectful actions towards Kelton becoming common knowledge. “Just get on with it and keep your mouth shut.”

It wasn’t going to be easy, Kelton was right about that. But, it wasn’t just the hard work that was going to be the problem. Jackson and Denver had not got on since the first moment they set eyes on each other on the day of induction. Denver was an arrogant jerk who never knew when to quit. Like when Bartholomew, the leader of the Lamia Matris, died and he poked fun out of Jackson for the physical pain he was feeling because of that loss. It had been a pretty dumb move on Denver’s part, seeing as every member in Bartholomew’s bloodline had been feeling that same sickness and loss feeling. Trying to make fun of Jackson had simply earned Denver a problem with several more of the trainees who had jumped to Jackson’s defence.

Denver mumbled something under his breath and kicked around a few stones at his feet. He hated this kind of thing. Manual labour. He’d had more than enough of it these last few weeks. He’d done his due and cleaned this pile of bricks without complaint, and now they were expecting more? This kind of stuff would ruin his skin and he’d had more than enough of it already, thank you very much. Denver had the kind of hands that had never seen a hard day’s work before all of this. Knowing that he was going to leave home to become a warrior and protector of their race, Denver had been treated like a prince when he’d been growing up. He hadn’t yet realised that he was out in the world and actually had to look after himself and pitch in when others needed help.

Jackson hefted huge stones for what felt like hours. Sweat was dripping off his body and he was thinking about what everyone else would be doing while he was out there. They were inside, in the clean and warm house, probably starting up their training in the gym or the sparring rooms. He was out there, in the dirt and the cold and getting blisters that were going to hurt like a bitch tomorrow. In a warped way, he would actually prefer to be out there doing what he was doing in the cold. At least he would have something to show for his hard work once he’d finished.

Aisline hated it. She still wasn’t allowed to go back into training and sitting on the side-lines was really starting to grate on her nerves. She had never been one for inactivity and seeing as she was now feeling fine, there was no good reason for her not to be allowed to train with the rest of them. Her ribs had all but healed and most of her bruises had faded enough so that they were no longer quite so noticeable. At least she wasn’t getting those awfully sympathetic looks from everyone she encountered now.

Kayleigh had popped in to see how everyone was doing and grinned at the face-like-thunder expression on Aisline’s face. Ash didn’t see the funny side of it.

“I just mean that it’s great the way that you’ve embraced this life to such an extent.” Kayleigh explained with a sheepish grin. The poor girl really did look heart-broken not to be fighting with the rest of them.

Ash rolled her eyes. “It’s not funny.”

“I know it’s not. You just need to wait for the all clear from the doctor and then you’ll be back there with the rest of them. Take this time to concentrate on the instructions. Brush up on the theory and then when the practice time comes, maybe you’ll see some benefit to sitting out.”

“I doubt that.”

“Just give it a try.”

“But, for how long? How long am I going to be sat here like this?” Aisline hated to sound like she was whining, but sitting there and watching as the other got stuck into it was beyond frustrating.

“When she thinks you’re ready.”

“I’m ready now. My ribs are fine. I’m fine. I don’t see what the problem is.”

Kayleigh lowered her voice. “It’s not just the physical side that Doctor Phillippe is taking into consideration.”

Ash didn’t say anything. She knew what Kayleigh meant and there was no way to prove to any of them that she was mentally capable of returning to training. Thank god the doctor didn’t know the full extent of what had happened to her or she’d probably never let her train again. Only Kayleigh knew and that was more than enough.

“Just give it a little more time, okay?”

“I don’t suppose I have much of a choice, do I?”

“Nope.” Kayleigh smiled cheerfully. “Enjoy the rest while you can. You know that when you get back to training that Kelton’s going to give you a rough time. He wants everyone at their physical peak and he’s not going to be holding any punches.”

“I’m looking forward to it.” Aisline finally cracked a smile. It wasn’t Kayleigh’s fault that they weren’t letting her train yet. But, she’d been put on light duties during the clean-up and she was feeling restless at the lack of activity. She missed the physical burn of pushing her body to the limits.

They both winced as Dylan got a hell of a punch to the side of his face that he failed to block, sending him sprawling on the mat in front of them with blood trickling out of the side of his mouth. Now, that kind of pain she didn’t miss. And, the sight of the blood immediately brought back other memories, just as she feared it would.

Aisline breathed in deeply and forced herself to look at Dylan. It would have been too easy to look away and pretend that it didn’t affect her, but that was the coward’s way out. Ash could never be called a coward. She had to meet this head on.

Finally, she had to admit to herself that maybe they were right to hold her back from training for the time being. Just for now, at least. The sight of a spot of blood had triggered the memory of what she’d had to endure during her abduction. Plus, that was someone else’s blood. How would she handle that when she was back in training? Would she toughen up and move past the trauma? Or would she crumble and fall? Only time would tell.