Chapter Two

We were deep in the forests of Abysus, chilling up a tree like we were hiding from a curious bear. If only. It was so tempting to build something, like my sword, and just go after the Pack until they were knocked senseless or I was. That was my usual way, the status quo, but I couldn't do that this time around, because they hadn't just kidnapped me (again) they had snagged Noah, too (again.)

And I was totally not okay with that.

I still planned on beating the livin' snot outta the Pack, but only after I was sure Noah was far, far away from here.

I wasn't afraid of what was out there. I'd faced worse enemies and come out on top. No, what scared me was the guy sitting next to me. If anything happened to Noah…

The possibility was so unimaginable that I couldn't even picture what things would look like without Noah around. Well, I could, but I wasn't going to because nothing was going to happen to him.

Not unless something unpleasant happened to me first.

No. Stop that. Veto all bad thoughts. I imagined a big bright red X flashing over my darker thoughts and nearly made me laugh. I shook my head. Focus. This isn't about me. It's about Noah.

Noah.

He was curled up asleep next to me. Silent, shivering from the cold, or maybe that was fear, it was difficult to tell in the dark. I was just glad he wasn't snoring. The sun had set an hour ago, taking all its warmth with it. The lack of heat didn't get to me nearly as much as Noah. Being as careful not to jostle him, I tugged off my jacket and slung it around him, trying to place it in a way that would cover as much of him as it could. I resisted the urge to wrap an arm around him and share some of my body heat because that'd cross some bro-code line. And I knew I wouldn't live it down if he caught me holding him like that.

My stomach gurgled uncomfortably. I rubbed small circles over it in a sad attempt to settle it. I knew nothing would quiet it until I ate something, but that wasn't going to happen soon. Neither of us had eaten since breakfast. With nothing but a candy bar and half a pack of gum for food, our supplies were nonexistent. We dare not drink or eat anything here. We couldn't trust anything to not make us sick or alert Van Kleiss to our presence. Maybe that was a little bit too far on the paranoid side, but I'd rather be a little hungry than a guest of Van Kleiss's mansion du horror. The longer we stayed out here with any hint of the Pack the clearer it became that we hadn't been forced here for some plot of Van Kleiss's. He wouldn't have allowed us to roam free for so long without being intercepted, and except for the indigenous wildlife, we hadn't encountered anyone.

Which narrowed the reason for our abduction to the whims of my least liked Pack member, Breach. There was no telling why she had summoned us here. I could spend all night thinking up reasons and I still couldn't begin to understand her and I had no desire to find out.

I should probably try to get some rest myself, but funnily enough, I was too wired to sleep.

Plus, I had to keep watch in case there was any sign of Van Kleiss or his Pack. With care, I inched myself to sit up straighter. It wouldn't go well for us if we were captured because hadn't been able to keep my eyes open and my guard up. And if I wasn't going to sleep anytime soon, I may as well keep the first watch.

I checked the area. I didn't see any EVOs nearby, but that didn't mean there weren't around. It would be foolish to think that Van Kleiss didn't have his spies out. Even if they weren't actively searching for us, we had to assume they were out there. They could be standing right beside us and we would never know it. We were on their home turf and there's nothing like having the home field advantage. It didn't mean I was going to make it easy for them to win. Especially since a win for them meant the losers got eaten, or worse had to sit through a Van Kleiss monolog.

I shivered at the thought and then shook my head to clear it. It was going to be a long night, I didn't have to make it longer by thinking things could be worse. The universe had a strange way of making those kinds of thoughts come true. So instead, I thought about how many slices of pizza I was going to shove into my face once I was home.

I was aware of Noah's return to consciousness before he was fully awake. I quickly dropped my arm when I felt him stir next to me.

"What time is it?"

"I don't know. You've been asleep for a few hours, I think," I answered, my voice rough from lack of use. I didn't bother to clear it in case it attracted the wrong kind of attention.

I didn't need to look at him to know he was becoming angry with me, I could feel the heat of his anger on my neck.

"I didn't mean to sleep so long. Why didn't you wake me?"

"You needed it," I knew that I'd made a huge mistake when I said that.

"And you don't? Did you get any sleep at all?"

"I'm not tired," I said looking out over the tree lines, wondering if anything was being drawn to our location. Noah wasn't exactly keeping his voice down. With all the noise we were making I wouldn't be surprised if we were jumped by Van Kleiss's goons right about now.

"Do you expect me to believe that bull? You should have let me take a watch so you could have built up your strength so maybe you could have the energy to use your nanites and get us out of here!"

Even though he had a point about me not being able to build anything my other EVO abilities were working just fine. I was just about to argue my heightened senses were better suited for keeping watch when I heard a distant crack sound out behind me.

"What no comeback?"

"Sssh," I hissed and turned my head until my ear was in the direction of the sound. I was hoping to pinpoint where the sound originated before whatever made it snuck up on us.

Noah must have seen the seriousness of my expression since my command for silence was obeyed. He even went so far as to cover his mouth the both his hands. Even though I was facing him my attention was squarely focused on the outcropping of trees. There was the crinkling rustle of dry leaves shaking on their branches and whatever was distributing the relative peace of the forest was headed straight for us.