Waters of Lethe, Book 2

18. Vagabond

Alex and I stood outside of the briefing room that Scott, Enzo, Deebo, Addie, and Ben occupied. We were asked to stand outside of the soundproof room and wait. That was an hour ago.

Now we just stood here, alone in the long hallway. Alex was somewhat upset at the fact that I shot at he and Deebo, but Deebo thought it was funny and thrilling. He told me that he was the kind of person who would do the same thing, that he craved the rush of life or death situations. When he told me this, it was all I could do to not run to Scott and beg that he let Enzo come with Alex and I. Or, better yet, he could stay here and help Marie out with the babies. After all, he was a pro now.

Maybe Ben or Addie had a level head. After all, it only takes one.

I was thinking that now when I found myself getting mad at Alex for getting upset with me. It only took one to grind my gears. It only took one to make me so uncomfortable that I'd want to jump out of a twenty-story building. It only took Alex.

"I can't believe this," Alex said to himself as he leaned against the hallway wall.

He offered no explanation of what it was he couldn't believe. I tried hard not to buy into it, but, of course, I'm impulsive.

"What is it that you can't believe?"

He looked down at me. Even though he leaned against a wall, he was still taller. His blue eyes were dark. "I can't believe that the place we're going is supposedly one of the most dangerous, most remote places in the world. I can't believe I have only one person to go with. I can't believe that one person is you."

I put my hands on my hips. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

He came off the wall and into my face. I resisted the urge to slap him. The option wasn't off the table yet, I wanted to see what it was he thought was so wrong with me.

"You just got here, first of all. You have no clue how things run, you have no clue how to go about missions. Second, you know nothing about us. You know nothing about yourself. We had to go through entire lectures to learn half of what we are, and you and your British boy toy waltz up in here like you know all there is to know-"

I lost it. I moved my face closer to his, and my voice came out low and dangerous. "Look, pal. Scott gave us a pretty good run down of what we are. Enough to know that we're dangerous and can be monsters. I have a pretty good idea of what I am, even if Enzo doesn't know what he is. The call is Scott's, so take it up with him."

Alex leaned back and rolled his eyes. "You know nothing. Which brings me to my third point: I don't care how good you think you are in the range, but hitting a piece of cardboard is nothing compared to hitting an actual human."

"You expect me to get an actual feel of shooting a living person before I can go into the field and take someone out? Is that how you like to do things? Oh, wait! You must live by that saying, practice makes perfect. Practicing killing innocent people must have broken you so that you wouldn't have a problem killing the bad guys?"

"That's not what I meant!"

We were yelling now. I hoped that the soundproof room that everyone else was in had the same effect for outside noise.

Alex continued. "You're just going to get in my way."

I lowered my tone. "If that's how you see it, then just request that you go alone." Something in me gave out. The fire that blew up when Alex first got in my face had sputtered out. I blew out a long, tense breath. "Look. I don't know why Scott has put us together on this. But I know that I want to help get others out of danger. I want to help them out of whatever mess I was in. I will do whatever I can to watch your back during this, because I know you want the same thing for these kids like us."