The Law and the Codas

Chapter Fourteen

He chuckles. "It sure sounds like you are."

There's more rustling of fabric, and then, before I know it, David's warmth engulfs my body. Two strong arms embrace me, hands tracing the small of my back. I can't see his face but I can hear the sucking in of air, the bag fluttering under each inhale, exhale.

"I bet you're blushing."

"I bet your freckles are blushing."

He chuckles again, and it's that sound, that lighter-than-air tone, that drives away all that heaviness I had started to collect inside. "So if that wasn't a confession, which," he says, and I can hear the annoying smile in his words, "I steadfastly cling to as the truth, what was it?"

Between David's hug and the confined trunk, I've got no room to wretch myself free, although if I were honest with myself, I'd know I didn't want to be free.

I shake my head and ignore the pressure I feel constrict around my back and sides. I'll just forget about our situation, and how, if the bags were removed, our breaths would be intermingling as much as our bodies. "Sheesh," I say. "You're being Marava-levels of difficult."

"And you're having Marava-levels of googly eyes for me."

I slap his chest, playfully, yet with enough force to elicit a groan from his lips. "One: we've both been saddled with bags over our heads so neither of us can see anything, And two: Marava makes googly eyes at Jonathan, and you're definitely not him."

He slides closer to me, a feat I didn't think possible. "And if I was Jonathan, would your heartbeat as fast?"

When I push him away this time, there's no playfulness in the palm I plant against his chest. Mustering my remaining strength, I break free of his grasp. "I just meant, I would like to know you," I say.

David sighs and before I can squirm in protest slinks his arm around my waist and brings me into him again. My head rests on his chest, my ear pressed into him, so I can hear the war being waged between his heart and his rib cage. It just might be beating faster than my own. I can't stop the thudding in my chest, or the way I've seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.

"I'd like to get to know you better, too." His fingers fall away from me, but the warmth they'd coaxed to the surface burns.

For a moment, the silence is filled by movement outside - shuffling and exasperated snorts, something locking in place. David says, "I never feel like I'm hurting more than anyone else, I just always tried to do a better job of concealing it. Guess I suck as much as everybody else."

David rolls over, his fingers scraping the back of my arm. He gives me a playful little pinch. My heart responds, pounding furiously against my insides. Who needed grenades when David's touch was enough to make me explode, consuming all rational thought in an unending blaze of fire?

...

"Up and adam!"

Keran's chipper voice cuts in. Hot, sweaty flesh grabs onto my arm and hefts me to sit. The bag's ripped away and through a curtain of curls, I spy it - concrete and brick buildings, rotating h-comms, neon signs hovering, some low enough to reach up and run my fingers through, while others soar overhead, half-disappearing into the massive metallic umbrella that separates this level from the others.

Sirens blare in the distance. Horns honk furiously when one of the neon signs blinks green. There's a whoosh from my right, and a silver blur rushes through a clear tunnel, hefted on massive steel legs, like a monstrous centipede. Keran's face splits into a grin over me, her entire body bathed in the myriad of color coming from the Brights.

"Welcome to Sect Seven. The base of operations for the Collective and your new home."

She outstretches her hand and I blink back my surprise. I don't make it to take it. Keran huffs and stomps her foot. "Try to do something nice and you act like it's the weirdest thing ever." She slides a hand through her hair.

"It is the weirdest thing ever," I say, but I reach for her, put my hand in hers and allow myself to be pulled up. She commands another Codas near her to help David.

Looking around, there's a liveliness to the city that I'd never experienced before in the Facility. Maybe, just maybe, this place didn't have to be another prison.

I gulp and notice that Rima wobbles on her feet before crumpling to the ground like a dirty rag. Marava steadies herself on Jonathan, who's steadying himself on the bumper of the car. Sin stands as if he'd just had the best sleep of his life in the backseat of a limo and not a smelly ride in a cramped trunk while Sam stands in awe, mouth gaping as his gaze flits from one sign to the next, from one whirling h-comm to the next, to the people on the ground wearing visors over their eyes, and chatting seemingly to themselves. He looks as if he might drown in the newfound chaos.

"If there's one thing I learned, it's that people will go to great lengths to survive and even greater lengths to protect those they care about."

Keran's eyebrows raise.

"There are six people I care about standing over there." I chuckle to myself at having included Marava

Smiling, I slam the trunk closed. "I'll do whatever it takes to make sure they survive." I step forward, despite the way my muscles scream in protest. "Kill whoever threatens their safety."

Keran snarls. "It's easier to say you'll kill someone than to actually pull the trigger."

I shrug. "Guess we won't know if I mean it or if I'm all smoke and mirrors until the time comes."

Keran snarls. "Guess not." She clamps down on my shoulder. "I bet you'll shit your pants."

I smile. "You wouldn't have much time to find out, what with you leaking blood out a half-dozen bullet holes."

"Ruthless," she says, releasing me. "Like a true Councilman."

She wasn't wrong and somehow her words provided me comfort. The Law was infallible, untouchable, gods of the most powerful nation in the world, and I'd been training for more than half my life to take a place among them.