Chapter Fifty Three

Eye For An Eye

"Hey Raine!" Preacher yelled from where he stood with Jace, Alyss, and Auron, "Hurry the fuck up! That Beringel ain't gonna wait for shit!"

Auron chuckled a bit. "She's sayin' bye to her girlfriend that she ain't seen in a few months. Give her a break."

Preacher shook his head. "She can see her in a few weeks. Ain't like this is the end o' the world or somethin'."

"No, but Raine just wants to make sure the others will take care of Vivi." Alyss said.

"The hell could possibly happen? They're cuttin' down trees."

Jace snorted a bit. "Anything. A tree could fall down on her. Or Aulin could keep staring at her." Along with Legacy on his back, he carried a weapon case in his left hand.

Preacher laughed. "Is that such a bad thing?"

"Raine likes to be the one to stare."

"Fair enough, I guess." Preacher grinned.

Raine arrived at them a few moments later, grabbing her rifle from Auron. "Alright, are we ready to go?"

"We've been ready," Preacher said, "Just been waitin' on you to quit mackin' on your girl."

"I only kissed her a few times," Raine rolled her eyes, "I had to-"

"Make sure Aulin wouldn't stare?" Preacher asked.

"How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess. Let's get the fuck on the road."

"We're takin' a bullhead," Auron said, "It don't need a road."

"Don't start with that shit, Auron," Preacher grumbled, "Let's just go."

They made their way to their assigned bullhead and quickly boarded it. Jace closed the door and the pilot started it up, then she lifted it into the air a few moments later and took off to the northwest. There, Auron reached into his travel bag and handed out jerky to everyone.

Preacher stuck a piece between his teeth and chewed on it for a few moments. "One o' the best things Kat taught you, you know that?" He asked Auron.

Auron nodded and grinned. "Everyone would agree with ya on that."

"Just cooking is pretty great too." Alyss said.

"It don't compare to Kathy's." Preacher replied.

"Ain't no doubt about that." Auron agreed.

Preacher turned to Jace, seeing him staring through the window as the bullhead flew over the land. "I'm understandin' that you got a personal situation with that Beringel. What's that about?"

"It killed my uncle," Jace replied, "He took its arm off before he died. That's how I know this is the same one. I'm going after it because it's not surviving another damned day after what it did," He set the weapon case in front of him and opened it up, revealing the weapon that Axel had given him. He picked Siege Breaker up and inspected the blades of the axe, "Axel gave me this. I had dad bring it over before today and I trained with it in my free time. When it dies, I want to be the one to kill it. And I want this to be what I use."

"You ain't fightin' it alone," Preacher told him, "This ain't all about a personal thing. You all work together-"

"I know that," Jace interrupted him, "I'm not letting this get to my head. We're fighting it as a team. I'm gonna be careful because I am not losing what I have with anyone, especially Alyss. I just want the last strike to finish it. That's all I ask."

Preacher nodded slowly. "Just wanted to make sure you had a clear head about it. Hey pilot!" He called to the woman, "How long 'till we get to Miras!?"

"An hour at most," She replied, "Should be smooth flying the whole way."

"I heard a storm's been moving off from Menagerie," Raine said, "The others are probably gonna have to deal with that."

Jace hummed. "I hope Gen's gonna be alright, then."

"I wouldn't worry. He has Nika with him," Alyss said and laid her head on his shoulder, "He'll be okay."

Jace nodded. "Right. When should my arm be oiled?" He asked her.

"We can do it later to be safe," Alyss replied, "After we get settled in at the inn and get some food."

"Sounds good. Then we can talk about how we're gonna track the Beringel down."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Preacher said, "If it was just me, I'd go track it as soon as I get there. Actually, if they'd have actually put it up for Huntsmen, then I'd have already had it dead six ways to Sunday."

Auron snorted. "Whatever, old man. You'd take a break for a day just to rest your old bones."

"Shut up, Auron. I might be old, but I got a lot o' years left in me," Preacher grinned, "I'm feelin' as spry as ever. I could still run circles around you if I wanted to."

"That's 'cause you're a hell of a lot smaller than me. And you're faster, even with your age," Auron retorted, "Let's see you keep up with me if you were my size."

"I'd still whip your ass. I got all the skills of a Ranger to use. What do you have?"

"I can keep up with Pyrrha."

"I bet I could too."

"You're just talkin' out your ass now."


They arrived in Miras after an hour's flight. The bullhead landed in the clearing next to it and everyone stepped out of it and went straight for the inn. They had garnered a few looks from passing villagers, but mostly from curiosity rather than anything else.

They sat in the main room of the cozy little inn and ate the food that was prepared for them, then Alyss began to perform maintenance on Jace's prosthetic. Then, they began to go over their plan of action.

"This shouldn't take more than a couple days," Preacher said to everyone, his attitude changing to a more serious one than on the flight over, "We'll start tomorrow after you kids get rested up good. I suggest you get to bed early an' have your alarms set to ten. We can have breakfast, then we talk to the hunter that seen the Beringel an' find out where it was. We'll go from there."

"Sounds like a good plan for now," Raine said, idly sipping on a glass of water, "Since it looked like the trees don't have leaves right now, I could probably climb up in one and use my semblance to see through the branches a good ways. If not, then we have three sets of ears to listen for it."

"All we need to do is find a good set o' prints," Auron spoke up and leaned forward a bit, "If we find some, then we should have it but it could take a bit to actually find it."

"Or we could lure it out," Jace suggested as Alyss oiled the insides of his joints, "My dad used himself as bait for the Stalkers over in Vale, which was kind of a really bad idea because it was freaking Stalkers. I'm thinking I could make a lot of noise to bring the Beringel to us. I have two loud weapons for the job."

"And this is less stupid than what dad did?" Alyss asked him and shook her head, "I don't want you to do that. It's too dangerous."

"It really isn't in this situation though," Jace replied, "It's gonna make a lot of noise when it comes to me. With you and Raine not being occupied, you'll be able to hear it better than me. Then you can all ambush it and we can surprise it and hopefully deal with it in less than a minute. And this thing only had one arm, so it's gonna be pretty vulnerable."

"Still gonna hit like a train, probably." Auron said.

"Oh I have no doubts about that. We have to really guard ourselves because it might act really desperate."

Alyss sighed. "I guess it's a smart and dumb idea. And I guess it's all we have. Is there any other way we can do it, Preacher?" She asked the Ranger.

Preacher nodded. "There's a couple ways we could do it. But-"

"What is it?" Alyss interrupted, "I really don't want Jace to be bait for it."

"But," Preacher continued, "I ain't your strategist. I'm only here to help if y'all get in over your heads. You four gotta come up with a plan for yourselves an' carry it out."

Alyss sighed. "I should've guessed... Same as last year, right?"

"It's gonna be alright, Kitten," Jace assured her, "Like I said, we'll hear it coming. I doubt it'll be quiet like Raine is when she sneaks up on us."

Raine chuckled. "It's very doubtful."

"Yeah, Beringels can't appear from outta nowhere like Raine can." Auron said.

"What, does she jump down from bookshelves or somethin'?" Preacher laughed, "If so, then she can scare the shit outta anyone like Emowyn can. Girl can make a good livin' workin' at a haunted house with her semblance."

"Don't give her any ideas, please." Raine replied with a grin.

"So..." Jace hummed as Alyss flipped his arm back on and began massaging it with an oiled-up rag, "Are all of you okay with the plan?" He asked his team, "It's the only way I see we can do it quicker than following its tracks for gods-know-how long."

"How are you gonna make the noise to get its attention?" Auron asked, "I know you got two loud as fuck weapons, but what about ammo?"

"You can always make us more when we get it finished," Jace said, "I'm probably gonna only shoot one time and then we can move on after a minute or two. It shouldn't be too much of a waste on ammo. Now that I think about it, I'll probably use Siege Breaker for the last hit. I might just use that for shooting. I'm not using it for anything else, especially for heavy fighting."

Alyss sighed in relief. "Good. You shouldn't focus on trying to use it for one thing and I don't want you using it against a Beringel unless you really have to. You're really good with Legacy and if you started using Siege Breaker more, then you might not be used to Legacy for awhile. And you might get hurt."

"Yeah, that would be bad with the tournament coming up," Jace replied, "And besides, I don't wanna make you worry more than I already am with this."

"It may still take a day or so too," Preacher told them, "We're takin' campin' gear an' we're takin' some food to eat whenever an' some food to fix on a fire. Auron's jerky should keep us good too."

"Good that I'm useful for somethin'." Auron snorted.

"We should probably expect other Grimm too," Raine warned, "They may not be with the Beringel, but they might be around the forest."

"Then there might be some actual wildlife to deal with too," Auron added, "But that's unlikely. What's around these parts usually steer clear o' people. They won't bother us if we don't get on their bad side."

"You kids got your plan set out?" Preacher asked them all.

"Even though I hate that my mate is using himself as bait..." Alyss mumbled.

"That was a lot o' rhymin'." Auron remarked.

"It's not that funny, Auron," Alyss grimaced, "I just don't want anyone hurt by taking unnecessary risks. And being bait... That's a huge risk. I had a hard enough time keeping myself from slapping dad when Jace told me what he did for those Stalkers."

"You're too nice to slap anyone, Aly," Jace said softly, "You know I'm gonna be careful. You trust me, right?"

Alyss nodded multiple times. "Of course I trust you. With my soul..." She moved her hand to place over the Mark she left on Jace's shoulder, "I just want this to go as safely as possible, but I'm okay with the plan."

"Don't worry, Alyss," Raine laid a hand on her shoulder, "If something goes wrong, Preacher can handle it."

"I got a pretty good feelin' that nothin's gonna go south besides us when we go back to Haven," Auron said encouragingly, "We got this."


They stayed in the main room of the inn until eight that night, then they retired to their rooms, one for Preacher and one for JKDW. After that, Jace and Alyss asked for a bit of privacy so they could re-apply their Marks on each other, then everyone had gone to bed. The next morning, they woke up at the designated time and spent two hours preparing. They all gathered their camping gear, being one sleeping bag each, a small cooking pot, a small grill for a firepit, some preserved meat, and some extra water. They had all gathered at the eastern edge of the village, snow lightly falling to the ground around them.

"This is Cal..." Preacher introduced Jace and the team to a man. He was five feet and ten inches tall with medium-long chestnut hair in a tight ponytail. He carried a medium-caliber bolt-action rifle over his shoulder.

"He's the hunter that seen the Beringel," Preacher continued, "He'll show us to where he seen it an' leave us to it."

"I hope you all can do something about it," Cal said nervously, sounding like he was in his late teens, "That thing's been worrying a lot of us that know about it."

"Well, that can't be good for keeping it away." Jace remarked.

"It's doubtful." Cal mumbled.

"Let's set out an' get this done," Preacher suggested, "Sooner we get out there, sooner you can get back here an' relax."

Cal nodded slowly. "Right... Follow me."

The nervous young man led them all out of the village and into the snowy forest. It was dead silent. That was a clear sign that something had been around the area recently, causing the wildlife to migrate away to a safer place. Cal had led the group just over half a mile away from Miras when they saw the first set of large prints and fist-print in the snow.

"Shit, this close?" Preacher shook his head.

Raine knelt down next to them and inspected them closely. "The snow's been falling all morning and these are barely filled in at all... It's been here recently. Very recently."

"Fuck," Jace cursed under his breath, taking Legacy off his back from next to Siege Breaker and resting it on his shoulder, "If that's right, and coming from you I don't doubt it is, then Cal is staying with us until we kill it."

"Wait, what?" Cal shook his head, "I'm not staying out here while some big fucking gorilla monster is around!"

"Do you want to walk back half a mile alone while it's around?" Jace asked him levelly, "Because this thing is somewhere near us. Raine says this was recent, and I believe her."

"So you're giving me a choice to either go with you and maybe get killed, or go back and maybe get killed?"

"If ya wanna look at it that way, then yeah," Auron answered for his leader, "Just know that if you start walkin' back to Miras, I'm knockin' your ass out an' you're comin' with us anyway. It's the safer way."

"Kn-knocking me out is the safer way!?" Cal yelled incredulously.

"Calm down, Cal. Yelling isn't gonna help," Alyss told him, "He's not going to knock you out, but it is safer for you to come with us now. If you get hurt, then I'll help with my semblance. Just stay close to Preacher and you'll be fine."

"Oum, I can't believe I'm in this shit now," Cal groaned, "Damn it... Fine, I'll go with you."

"Just stay outta their way," Preacher ordered him, "You got a rifle, use it when I tell you. You do anything else they tell you 'cause this is their operation here."

"You're... letting a bunch of kids lead this!?" Cal yelled.

"Oh don't start that shit when you're just a damn kid yourself," Preacher scolded him, "I've been walkin' this goddamn world durin' times it was green an' times it was scorched. I know better than what any o' you do. Jace, show 'im your damn arm."

Jace nodded and rolled the sleeve up on his jacket that he wore to disguise why he was never cold. Cal looked at him in shock. "What the hell? I didn't know you lost your arm."

"He knows how to be careful," Preacher continued, "Every one of 'em does. From what I heard, Jace came up with a good plan on their first mission, an' he's got a good plan for this one, if not reckless."

Cal stared at him in confusion. "If it's reckless, then why-"

"They're trainin' to be Huntsmen!" Preacher cut him off irritably, "That's probably the most reckless thing anyone can do. An' besides, what would they learn by me holdin' their hands through this? Nothin' except the thought that they can rely on someone more experienced to give 'em the right orders. So I'm lettin' 'em do their own thing an' if it gets to where they actually need it, then I'll do somethin'."

Cal just stood there for a few moments, clenching and unclenching the sling of his rifle. "Damn... I'm putting my life in the hands of kids..."

"Can you stop it with that?" Raine sighed and stood up from the footprints, "How old even are you?"

"Twenty one, why?"

"You're not much older than us, so shut your goddamn mouth," Auron demanded, "Why in the fuck do you all want us to do this if you ain't comfortable with puttin' your lives in our hands?"

"Some of us never agreed to it," Cal mumbled, "Can we just get this over with?"

"We would've already started if it wasn't for having to convince you to take a safer choice." Jace remarked.

"So that's what you call holding my life in your hands?" Cal scoffed.

Jace rolled his eyes and ignored him. "We'll go maybe half a mile following the tracks, then I'll shoot a bit with Siege Breaker. You guys can hide in the trees. Raine, can you decide when it would be time to move on?"

Raine nodded. "Maybe five minutes each time you stop. Then I'd say move half of what we start now. If we don't see it by sunset, then we set up camp for the night."

"Watch schedule?" Jace asked.

"We got six people now," Auron started, "I can take first watch tonight. Maybe hour-long shifts for each person. Or, since someone's bein' pissy about us holdin' his life in our hands," He shot a short glare at Cal, "us an' Preach can take shifts that are an hour an' a half. I learned about that good when we went after that Geist. Motherfuckin' thing takin' over rocks an' shit..." He mumbled the last part out.

"Sounds good to me," Jace said to Auron and Raine, "Let's go."


They spent the rest of that day trying to draw the Beringel to them. They had performed the strategy that Jace had come up with, mostly with silence from Cal. Everyone climbed up into separate trees that surrounded Jace and waited while he fired off a shot every ten seconds for a minute from his AGR. He hadn't shot it much at all since he first got it, but it was nothing like his artillery claymore. That slightly disappointed him, but he didn't care because he finally owned his dream weapon.

Everyone gathered around a hundred feet away from the tracks, which were sufficiently filled in by the day's snowfall. Firewood was gathered up and stones were placed in a circle to make a small fire pit. Jace was about to light the fire, but Alyss put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

"You hear that?" She asked him quietly.

Jace focused himself and listened intently to everything around him. It had been quiet most of the day, and this seemed a bit worse than that. Jace began to hear light grunting and snow crunching to their south. He looked that way and his face took on a look of complete concentration.

"Everyone up in the trees, now!" He whisper-yelled to everyone, taking Legacy off his back.

Cal looked concerned at hearing the order. "What's going on?"

"Shut the fuck up and do it!" Jace ordered him in almost a hiss, flattening his ears back.

Cal jumped and quickly scrambled up into a tree, helped up by Alyss. He sat behind her and brought his rifle out, holding it ready. He gulped nervously and closed his eyes

"Cal!" Jace got his attention.

"Wh-what?" Cal replied.

Jace glared at him as his eyes ruby eyes slitted. "Keep your hands to yourself."

Cal gulped again, scooting back against the base of the tree as Auron laughed. "First time seein' you so defensive of your mate, Jace."

"Good thing he trusts us all with Aly." Raine remarked and looked down Shagahod's sights, eying the south where she heard the crunching of snow get louder.

"Damn right."

Everyone stayed silent after that. Jace heard the footfalls stop and began to hear a deep and heavy breathing, nowhere near what a human would sound like. He pointed the tip of Legacy toward the sound's direction and waited, standing as still as a statue.

The Beringel came into view from behind the trees around forty feet away, looking thinner than what a normal one was and looking almost malnourished, if that could even happen to a Grimm. It slowly walked toward the campsite, swaying back and forth as it kept its balance on its two legs and right arm. Its right eye glowed almost as if in anger and the left eye was gone, scarred over from the damage it took on the day Jace's uncle died. Across its body were numerous scars and its bone armor had multiple gashes in it, making Jace truly believe that Axel put up a fight against it.

"Beringels have thick skin and even thicker bone armor..." Jace remembered what his father told him when he called to have Siege Breaker sent over, "Your weapon's gunfire might do a lot of damage over time if you keep moving but it'll shrug it all off for awhile, even with your weapon. It's not gonna let you keep doing that, though."

Jace clenched the hilt and extended grip of his weapon harder as he was face to face with what killed his uncle. He made the first move. He jumped forward and pulled the trigger, sending a powerful ice dust bullet at the Beringel's chest. It struck its armor while Jace used the recoil to spin in a wide vertical arc, bringing the blade down toward its shoulder.

The Grimm took the shot to its chest and swung its fist at Jace, striking Legacy and knocking it to the side. It reared its fist back again and Auron jumped from the tree above it and sent the tip of Last Call into its hand, piercing through the thinner skin and knocking it off balance. It roared as Auron pulled his blade out of its hand and shot it in the back of its head with two shots from his revolver, then it spun its body around and backhanded him back into the trunk of the tree he jumped down from. It jumped at him, throwing its huge fist toward his head , but he dove out of the way and the Beringel struck the tree, cracking not even a quarter of the way through it.

"Unless it's holding back, then that punch should've just broke the tree down," Raine observed from her perch in another tree, invisible to the Beringel thanks to her cloak, "That's highly unlikely though. I'm pretty sure it's weakened. Try to stay on its blind side."

"Got it!" Jace called out and slashed down hard across the Beringel's left side, drawing a long gash in its skin and armor.

The attack knocked the Beringel more off balance and it nearly fell to the ground, catching itself at the last moment. Auron used his semblance and raised a metal pillar straight into its neck, sending it tumbling backwards and onto its back after Jace sliced out at the back of its leg.

Alyss watched Jace intently as she kept an eye on the Beringel's movements. The Beringel stood back up and charged wildly at Jace, and he rolled out of the way. She looked at where Jace had cut its leg and noticed it was right behind its knee.

"Raine!" She got the apprentice's attention, "The back of its left knee. We could do some damage to it."

Raine nodded and aimed her Shagahod at the wound, then she shook her head. "Think you can hit it?"

Alyss thought about it for a moment and nodded. "Should be able to, yeah."

"You go for the cut. I'll go for the other knee." Raine ordered.

"Right. Watch your fire, please."

Raine chuckled. "Don't worry your pretty little head. I won't come close to hitting Jace." She assured her and pulled the trigger.

The Beringel roared as the force of the shot made its knee buckle and sent it to the ground. Auron jumped in from behind and stabbed Last Call into its shoulder, then he pulled it out quickly and put the barrels of his revolver to it and pulled the triggers, blasting both barrels into the wound.

Auron jumped back before the Grimm could retaliate and sent the last two shots from his revolver into its back. He broke open the revolver and all the empty shells popped out and fell to the ground, then he quickly reloaded with a speed loader that Shyla had made for him.

"Gotta love havin' a weapon designer as a girlfriend, right Auron?" Preacher said with a laugh, looking over the revolver and the magazine in the young gunslinger's rifle.

Auron laughed at that. "It's just a small bonus."

Alyss blasted a few bursts of gravity rounds into the Beringel's cut knee, eventually tearing through and hitting the bone, breaking it and causing the Beringel to fall to the ground on its back.

Jace activated his semblance and grew his wings out, then he flew upwards to fifty feet. He let his wings evaporate off his back and he fell back down, sending gravity dust through the entirety of his blade. He sent Legacy down with extreme force, aiming for the Beringel's right leg. Legacy tore through and crushed its leg and went deep into the ground, sending particles of black blood, snow, and dirt into the air around them.

The Beringel roared and tried to lift itself up to swat Jace away, but Auron blasted its fist away with a shot from Last Call. He stood over it and transformed it back to its claymore form. He stabbed it down into its shoulder, sperating the bone from the shoulder, and pinned it to the ground. It roared and writhed on the ground, trying to break free, and Auron kicked it in the head and kept his boot up under its chin.

"I think you can take it out now, Jace," Auron said to his leader, "It's done for."

"Fucking kill it!" Cal yelled, "What are you-"

"Don't yell so close to her ears!" Jace snapped at him and put Legacy on his back.

"You okay, Jace?" Alyss asked her mate, her ears flattened back from the loud yell behind her as she kept her weapon aimed at the Beringel.

"I'm good. Are you?" Jace asked in return and grabbed Siege Breaker from the ground.

"Fine, don't worry. You okay, Auron?" Alyss asked her partner.

"A bit winded from it knockin' me into the tree, but I'm alright." Auron answered her.

Raine jumped down from the tree she was in and looked the struggling Grimm over. "I don't think it was doing all that good for the last year. I expected more of a... well, I just expected more."

"Oh boo-fuckin'-hoo," Preacher scoffed and jumped down from the tree next to it, "Goddamn Grimm goin' a year with one arm, the fuck did ya think would happen? Don't expect any other one to be weak as fuck like this one."

"Definitely," Raine agreed, "This is the only easy way a Beringel can be killed. You ready to finish it, Jace?"

Jace nodded and held Siege Breaker over his shoulder. He walked over to the Beringel and it stared up at him, still trying to break free from Auron. He pressed his boot harder to the Grimm's jaw and looked at Jace.

"Tell me when to move my foot," He requested, "Don't want ya to lob it off."

"That would be pretty bad," Jace said, "Go ahead and move it. Let's get this over with."

Auron nodded and moved his foot, pressing it against the Beringel's chest. Jace took Siege Breaker and held it to his side as he glared down at the weakened Grimm. He took the heavy-bladed axe and held the haft in both hands, sending gravity dust through the whole thing. He raised it high above his head, holding it there for a few moments as he looked up and regarded Alyss.

"Aly, this might be kinda... brutal. Even for killing a Grimm," He told her, "Are you sure you wanna see it?"

Alyss nodded. "It won't be the worst thing I'll ever see. It won't even come close to the worst I've seen already."

"What would that be?" Preacher asked her.

"Jace losing his arm." Alyss answered.

"Probably the worst any of us will see in a long time." Raine said dryly.

Jace took a deep breath and tightened his grip on his axe. He gave a loud yell and sent Siege Breaker down, making the weight of it nearly like a huge boulder. The blade went down into the Beringel's neck, the weight making the blade cleave straight through the skin and bone. The Grimm's remaining eye widened considerably as it gave off more of a scream than a roar, lasting for nearly five seconds before it died out, then the Beringel's corpse began to evaporate into black smoke.

Jace lifted Siege Breaker out of the small crevice it created and he stepped over to sit down on one of the logs they had cut before. He took his sword off his back and stuck it in the ground next to him, then he leaned Siege Breaker against it. He looked up into the stars that were growing visible and sighed.

"I miss you, Axel." He said quietly into the darkening sky.

He heard something hit the ground near him and soon after, he felt arms lightly wrapping around his shoulders from behind. "You alright?" Alyss asked softly in his ear.

Jace nodded and placed his hand over hers. "Better than I was when you first asked."

"Think you might be able to rest easier now?" Auron asked and sat down across from him.

"I think so, yeah," Jace answered him, "This thing isn't gonna be hurting anyone any more. Just knowing that this Beringel was still out here just made me not sleep too well since we chose this mission. Now that it's dead, I'm honestly pretty freaking tired."

"So, now that we completed our mission, what do we do now?" Raine asked him.

Jace thought about it. "Well, it'll still be a little bit before I get a full night's rest. We're staying out here because I don't want us going anywhere out here at night. Everyone okay with that?"

"Sounds good to me." Auron agreed to it.

"Same here." Raine said next.

Alyss only sent a feeling of trust and loyalty to him through their Mark, kissing him on the side of one of his cat ears and hugging a bit tighter. Jace smiled and purred a bit at the feelings and felt relaxed as Alyss took a seat next to him.

"Same watch schedule?" Preacher asked, "You can take my spot if ya want. Get some more sleep that way."

Jace shook his head. "I'll be fine. I can wait on sleeping more until we get back to Haven."

Preacher shrugged. "Don't say I didn't offer."