Elemental

Chapter 30

A few days later, Christine awoke to Damien shaking her softly. She groaned and rolled over, blinking up at him.

"What time is it?" She mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"It's six a.m."

She blinked up at him. "And why the hell are you waking me up?" She grumbled, turning back on her side.

"Raquel called an emergency meeting. All I know is the team just got back but something must have gone wrong."

Christine sat up. "I knew we couldn't trust Oliver."

"We don't know that he was the problem."

She rolled her eyes and got up. "Of course we do."

She grabbed a sweatshirt that was lying on the couch and slipped it over her tank top.

"Maybe they didn't find the tech," Damien suggested as they walked out of her cabin.

"I doubt Raquel would have woken us up just to tell us that. Someone must have been compromised."

"If so, you can't rub it in," he said, stopping her from walking into Raquel's cabin.

Christine turned to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"If Oliver betrayed us than Isaiah is going to be heartbroken. The last thing he needs is you telling everyone you were right."

"But I was right."

Damien scowled at her. "Do you want Isaiah to feel worse?"

"Of course not."

"Then don't say anything." He ran his thumb over her cheekbone. "Okay, sweetheart?"

She gave him a small smile. "I'll try my best. But you know making things worse is one of my strong suits."

He chuckled and gave her hand a light squeeze. "I have faith in you."

They walked into the cabin to find the council members in a heated discussion while Isaiah and Ned sat together on the couch. Isaiah looked exhausted and as if he'd recently been crying. Ned was talking to him, uncomfortably trying to comfort him. Ned looked relieved when they came through the door and was more than willing to let Damien take over as comforter. Ned came over and stood next to Christine.

"What happened?" She asked, softly.

"The security was tighter than we realized. We'd barely made it into the building when an alarm went off. Oliver bolted for the guards, no doubt to tell them our plan. We had no choice but get out of there." Ned glanced over at Isaiah. "He's really torn up about it. He trusted Oliver more than anyone."