I chuckled at his dramatic tone. Part of it was serious, but we both knew it was impossible.
“We can’t banish Sike to the couch in the rec room,” I reminded him and took a step back. The two camp beds per room were close together. It was all the Scottish military could manage for us at the moment.
He squeezed my hand one last time, admitting defeat. “Goodnight, Lyra.”
I could tell he didn’t want to let go. Neither did I.
I reluctantly backed out of the room, forcing myself to return to my quarters. I wanted a few minutes alone before Louise came to bed.
One thing hadn’t changed from being on the run. None of us had much privacy.
Chapter Three
I checked my watch as I made my way out of the mess hall. Seven thirty a.m. exactly. We were supposed to leave for the press conference in half an hour. Since I’d already done my morning run, hit the showers, and had a full stomach, I figured I could gather everyone. We couldn’t be late for our press conference.
Hopefully my teammates would miss the dark circles under my eyes. I’d slept fitfully last night. Waterfalls of red blood with flitting shadows filled my dreams. I’d abandoned sleep at just after five and headed out to run several laps around the camp, letting the sweat wash away my restlessness. Louise had said nothing when I passed her in the showers an hour later, so I was pretty sure I hadn’t called out in my sleep, at least.
Small blessings.
The barracks extended farther than one might think when looking at them from the outside. I headed to the rec room, knowing I was likely to find people there. The camp operated on an “early to rise, early to bed” type of schedule, so it wasn’t uncommon for everyone to be up and already busy at this time. As the humans and vampires grew closer, more and more time was spent hanging out in shared spaces. We can’t help but be around each other now. Which was convenient when you needed to gather everyone for a mission.
“The picture on the screen looks different today,” I heard Sike remark as I entered the rec room. He and Louise hovered in what I called our technology junkyard—a U-shaped formation of three tables with various deconstructed computers and gadgets. Louise spent her downtime piecing enough parts together to create her own, one-of-a-kind personal computer thanks to donations from the Scottish military, which was happy to unload its scrap on someone. Louise, with Sike helping to pass her tools and parts, had done everything herself from memory. Her technological prowess both impressed and frightened me.
“I changed the monitor’s display size,” Louise explained. She clicked something, and Sike leaned toward the screen, watching with great interest. “Now, let’s pick up where we left off yesterday. We’re going to open up a new internet window and search for some information.”
“And the internet is a computer program?” he asked, narrowing his eyes and tapping a finger to his chin.
“The internet isn’t, but the browser is,” Louise explained gently. “The browser is a software application that lets us look at the internet. Literally, browse. The internet itself is a complex network. The US originally commissioned research on it, but it was a global endeavor.”
Combat was my specialty. Computers? Not so much. Sike would no doubt have a better grasp of these things than I did before long. A teenage vampire with long, intricately braided red hair, whose name I was pretty sure was Fynn, hovered behind Louise and Sike in their swivel chairs. I was glad to know Louise was a good teacher for our ongoing pursuit of vampire-human relations.
“Louise. Sike. Don’t forget we have to move out in twenty minutes,” I called to them from the door.
Sike barely reacted.
“Sure thing,” Louise replied easily, her eyes glued to the screen. Let’s make sure we don’t give the vampires a bad case of internet addiction.
My next stop was the gym at the other end of the same building. The mess hall separated the two. Between my former Bureau comrades, the soldiers at the camp, and all the vampires, it was a popular haunt. In a time when everything was unfamiliar and it was sometimes a daily struggle to connect with the experiences of those around us, there was a simplicity in the controlled violence of training. As I pushed through the swinging doors out of the mess hall, I could already hear the sounds of exertion and fists hitting pads before I arrived at the gym. Most of the space was covered in mats to create a large area for sparring, with the rest of the room taken up by a fairly extensive weights section.
Right now, only one person—a grizzled older woman from the Scottish military group—was using the weights, bench-pressing an impressive amount with only the occasional grunt. Her spotter hovered nearby, waiting to switch roles. Everyone else was paired up for sparring. Bravi, stripped down to a tank top, military shorts, and bare feet, swiped at Zach with a quick punch, her movements sharp and precise as she bounced back and forth on the balls of her feet. He dodged and then came back up to hold his padded hands in front of him. Bravi punched the pads fiercely, finishing with a yell and a solid kick before letting Bryce, who hovered nearby, cycle in for striking practice. Bryce gave me a friendly wave before landing a vicious uppercut on Zach’s left pad that made my brother wince. Our ex-captain burned with new energy on Scottish soil, and his accent had definitely thickened.
It must be nice to be home.
Beside them, a much livelier and less structured exercise was taking place. I raised an interested brow as I watched Roxy lunge for Kane.
“Come here, fang face,” she barked, a taunting smile on her face. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to rearrange your bones.”
“In your dreams,” Kane snapped, but there was something odd about his tone. He dodged another blow from Roxy and went to kick her, but she successfully spun away. “Must be hard to be so weak, when you’re among a superior species constantly reminding you of your inferiority.”
Roxy let out a peal of laughter. “Superior? You’ve hit me twice, toothless.” They lunged for each other at the same time in a flurry of movement. Roxy grabbed Kane in a headlock, trying to use his height against him by levering him down and off balance, but he grit his teeth, straightened his unfathomably long legs, and lifted her off the ground with a grunt. Using a powerful motion, he threw her over his head. She landed flat on her back with an explosive grunt on the mat as the air was slammed from her lungs, but she scrambled back up.
“That all you’ve got, blood breath?”
“Come and say that to my face, weakling.”
I crossed my arms and studied them. Kane usually took offense easily, but he seemed to respond far more positively to Roxy’s direct insults than the genuine politeness of most people he interacted with. He brushed off the ribbing and slung it back without anger. Likewise, Roxy fired insults and retorts right back at him. In another life, I might’ve mistaken them for siblings. I could never have predicted this outcome.
“Hate to interrupt the fun,” I yelled, and I genuinely did. This was fascinating. “But everyone going to the press conference needs to shower and get ready, ASAP. Remember to throw some deodorant on, too.” It stank to high heaven inside the gym, relieved only slightly by the mountain air filtering in through the open windows to cool down the room. Personal hygiene wasn’t much of a priority for most missions, but today it would be vital.