Disclaimer: Of course I do not own anything off the Host, it's all owned by Stephenie Meyer. I'm just using her characters for my imagination :)
Thanks so much for reviewing and following my story!
Chapter 12.
"Ugh." My face pulls into a grimace as I throw myself on the bed. Ian sees it and his face does the same. I just finished working out with Mel in the recreation cave. She and Jared have been exercising with me for four weeks now. Sometimes one of them, other times both of them together. Every evening after a training I just come back to my room and want to sleep. I'm so tired. Ian just stands there, looking at me.
"I really wish you'd stop this 'training'."
"You said you'd be okay with this. Please hold to that promise."
"I just hate seeing you in pain."
"I'm not in pain, really. I'm just sore. It's like all of my muscles are under tension, all the time."
Ian lies down next to me. "I think I can help with that, I should be able to help you relax." He nibbles at my ear and I giggle.
"That was not the reaction I was going for Wanderer." Ian pulls me closer to him and kisses me. My hands go to his hair. I try to get as close to him as possible. He is right, I'm already feeling more relaxed than I was. One of his hands is trailing its way up and down my leg, while the other hand is on my back, massaging it. And that feels good; I can feel the muscles loosening up under his touch.
Ian pulls up my leg, so it's on his side. I take advantage of the situation and roll him over so that I am on top of him. While we keep kissing his hands go from my shoulders to my back, lowering until they find my buttocks.
"Aren't you tired?"
I smirk at him. "Be quiet, just kiss me."
I wake up to Ian looking at me.
"Hungry?" I don't have to answer; my stomach begins to rumbles just as he finishes his question. We both laugh.
"Okay, let's go then." We get up and put some clothes on.
"What time is it? I feel like I've been asleep for a very long time."
"You have been. It's about time for lunch, we skipped breakfast."
"We what? You skipped breakfast? You should have gone and get something to eat."
"I didn't want to risk waking you up." Really, he can sometimes be too sweet.
"Well, you shouldn't be hungry on my behalf."
"I'm not that hungry, it was way more satisfying to watch you sleep. Whenever I move, you wake up."
I have to admit, my body feels a little less sore because of the rest it got from sleeping this long. Ian takes my hand as we walk to the kitchen. Everybody's there already. It seems more crowded than usually. It also sounds like everybody's talking louder.
We stand in the doorway of the kitchen and look at the commotion. The center of it seems to be at the counter. Melanie and Jared are standing there, with three other persons. One I vaguely recognize. Ian recognizes him as well and stiffens beside me.
"What's going on here!?" Mel, Jared and the three others with them, turn around. Ian was holding my hand, but now I'm taking two hands to hold on to his arm. My knees are feeling weak. Next to Mel is Burns, and with him two other Souls. What are they doing here? Why are they here? And how could Mel and Jared bring them in here?
"Okay, show's over everyone. There's still plenty of work to do. Let's go. Move!" Jeb walks through the pack of people, stops at Jared's side and turns around. "Everybody out!"
No one protests. They know Jeb well enough to realize when he's serious. Ian doesn't turn around though. He walks forward, straight for Jeb, who just looks at him.
"O'shea…"
"We need to eat. You're standing in front of the counter. Apparently everybody ate, but we slept in. Just let me get some food for us."
Ian fills up two plates and stalks out of the room again. He has both of the plates balanced on one hand and I realize I'm still holding on to his arm. Too tight. So I let go, but Ian just takes my hand into his again.
"Let me carry my own plate."
"I'm fine with it."
"Ian, let me carry my own plate please." He budges and hands me my plate. It takes me a while to realize we're not heading to our room or any other cave. We're heading outside.
"Where are we going?"
"Out."
"Why?"
"I don't want you anywhere near them." He must mean the Souls.
"The fact that Mel and Jared took them here, has to mean that those Souls are on our side Ian, they must have a plan." Ian looks mad and growls.
"I'm sure they have a plan. Just as I'm sure that that plan will have to do with you. And I don't. Like. That. At all."
When we get outside, Ian places me out of sight. If anyone walks out of the caves now, they won't spot us immediately. We eat in silence. I can sense that Ian's mad.
"You're jumping to conclusions. We don't know what this is about yet."
"Oh, come on Wanda! They bring in three Souls. No humans. Just Souls. What else am I supposed to think? Off course they want something from you. You are going to say no."
"If I can help with something…"
"No! Not even if you can help, you can't endanger yourself. I can't stand to even think of it. Going on raids is enough."
I stand up and stretch my hand out to Ian.
"We don't know anything yet. Let's go find out first."
Burns and the other Souls are still in the kitchen. Mel, Jared and Jeb are with them. Ian stalks forward, he just stops at their table, doesn't even sit down.
"Why are you here? What do you want?"
Melanie answers: "Russels cell got caught."
Ian looks surprised, I can see the anger rolling of his shoulders.
"Come again?"
Jared takes over: "Russels cell of humans got caught. Burns and Nick here were out with some of them for a raid, when they got caught. Burns and Nick tried to talk the Souls out of taken the humans, but it didn't work. One Soul did listen and she got Burns and Nick out of there. She didn't succeed in saving the humans present. Russels cell was just 7 people. Three of them got caught during the raid. The other four had stayed behind. Nick is the only one who knows the location of Russels cell. He got the other four humans out and then Burns took all of them to our safe place. We were supposed to meet up there last night. When we found them there, we had no other choice than to take them with us."
"Then where are they?"
"We took them to one of the outer caves to get some rest. Burns and Nick stayed with me and Mel to figure out what to do next."
"But, then who is this?" Ian points to the third Soul.
Nick answers: "This is the Soul that saved Burns and me last night, her name is Sky."
Ian looks perplex after hearing at all this information. And I can understand that, I feel overloaded at all of this myself. I'm trying to make sense of it in my head…
"That is what the both of you have been doing all those time you went out on your own! You were having meetings."
"Yes."
Jeb speaks up. "Well, we haven't got any spare rooms here either, but the rains are coming soon. So for the time being, we'll just take the new group to the recreation cave to sleep." He looks at the Souls. "The three of you should get some rest as well."
"But Jeb," Ian says "What do we do after the rains? Seven more bodies in these caves? We're crammed already."
Jebs eyes flash to Mel and Jared. He looks back at Ian.
"We'll figure that out when it comes to it. The rains will last for at least three months. Plenty of time. Let's go you three, I'll show you where you can get some rest this afternoon." I feel dismissed. Ian clearly feels the same, he has an indignant look on his face, but he doesn't say anything. Jeb and the Souls get up and leave the room. For a while we just sit there in silence with Mel and Jared. Until Jared talks.
"We couldn't tell you. The less people knew about the meetings, the better. It was just Nate, Russel and Burns. Gail and Max got their information from them again. All of us decided that yes, we trust each other, but it's better to know as less details about each other as possible. When we took these seven people, we blindfolded all of them way ahead. They have no idea where they are, apart from the obvious fact that they are staying in a cave."
Ian nods at him. I don't know what to say either. In a way I'm hurt that they didn't trust me – and Ian – enough to tell, but I do understand why they didn't. It is the safest way.
