Chapter 37
The moment I left the hospital, I met Wale and Miriam waiting for me, with gloomy looks on their faces. Oh God, I wasn't ready for any form of bad news right now. "What's wrong?"
Miriam sang. "The council asked to see us."
"Understandable. What's with the look?"
Wale gritted his teeth. "The security enforcer I shot an arrow through his head died. Protocol demands I have to tell the council."
Miriam chimed in. "If he does, he could be suspended for months or kicked out of the fighters taskforce. He would be blacklisted. The council doesn't joke with something like that."
My eyes linked with theirs. It hardened. "Then we don't tell them what really happened. We'll debrief them and leave that out."
Wale raised his eyebrow. "Do you think that's okay?"
"Do you want to get kicked out?" He shook his head. "Then we'll do what we have to do to protect each other. If you didn't do it, God knows that I would have. We can't afford to lose a skilled fighter. It's sad that it happened, but we can't sit down and be licking our wounds."
The two of them looked at me surprisingly, but I wasn't just on the best moods. Levi almost died and I didn't give a shit about protocol right now. "We have a debriefing to get to, or are we just going to stare at each other? because that isn't fun either."
....
The debriefing was as tense as I expected it to be. They threw questions at us and we answered them as honestly as we could. Well, almost. We deliberately left the agent's death out. That was between us. It was bad enough that Wale's guilt was eating him alive. Him being suspended or kicked out would just worsen it.
I met up with Kóre, when the meeting ended, and he inquired. "How's Levi doing? I'll go check him out, after I'm done with my damn work."
"He's physically okay, but he's an emotional wreck."
"Damn. How the hell does a guy with fast reflexes get shot?".
I hesitated for a second. I trusted Kóre not to tell anyone, but I didn't think it was my place to reveal our leader's weakness. "I wish I knew."
"It's a damn strange world we live in."
"Hey. There you are" I whirled around, when I heard Zuri's voice. She walked daintily through the room and her nose crinkled at the sight of this place. Yes, the mechanics domain wasn't as neat and well put, like the design domain, but it was still one of my favorite places in this Clandestine.
"Anything wrong?"
"Not exactly. I just need your help. It's Levi."
My body stiffened at the mention of his name and I knew she said it on purpose to get my attention. "Is he okay?"
"He's acting grumpy and I can't keep an eye on him. All the hospital workers are super busy and I have a lot of designs on my table. Can you help watch him for a while? Just an hour."
Kóre nudged me. "Go on. It's not like you're busy right now."
I glared at my one armed friend. I didn't want anyone to insinuate anything between Levi and I. It didn't even help that Zuri was making it uncomfortable. "Sure. No problem. Babysitting our district leader's my dream job."
Kóre snickered. "Then get to it".
I rolled my eyes and made my way back to Levi's hospital room.
He was wide awake and was leaning his back against the wall. His curly hair fell over his eyes and was dressed in white overall. I smirked at him. " Hey, Caden."
He grimaced. "Let me guess. Zuri sent you."
"Don't sound so excited about it, boss."
"I'm not a baby. I can handle myself."
"No one's disputing that."
Levi sighed, when he noticed I wasn't leaving. I walked closer and sat next to him. "I know you don't want anyone to see you like this. I just want to let you know, that you acting grumpy won't get rid of me."
"That's what I was afraid of."
"I still prefer your grumpy self to your doped-up self. The pain meds made you talk."
He rubbed his temple. "I know. I was out of control and said a lot of things I didn't want to" He paused to look at me. Amber orange eyes held mine. He tucked a lock of my stray hair behind my ear. "But a part of me is glad I did."
I searched his face, hoping to understand him. His words. What he wanted. "I wouldn't want to feel like I'm standing in the way of your job. I know how much it means to you. You said so yourself, you didn't want to be like him. You meant your father, right?" He frowned, confirming what I thought. "I guess I'm right. I don't know how it feels to live like you do. To feel guilt for being happy, but I do know what it's like to have a plan and be all about it. My only plan was getting into Caden University. I didn't think of any other life, but that. I pushed away all distractions. No relationships. No friends. All I did was study. But now, I feel stupid for holding on to that. That version of myself never got to live a little. All the efforts I put in it became meaningless. Right now, I'm learning to live life with no regrets. You owe yourself that much."
He smiled briefly. I loved seeing him smile. It was almost like his worries, were rolling off his back. His phone rang, from his side pocket. It seemed like he was going to ignore it, but the ringing seemed distracting, so he pulled it out of his pocket. His eyes widened slightly, when he was the caller ID.
He muttered "I've got to take this. It's my dad."