Relias: Uprising Page 36

  Her eyes remained on Hendrick as she saw a man that she had never seen before.

  As Hendrick lead her into the store, telling her that she could pick out whatever she wanted, something else emerged, something she had never felt like a possibility with Luke and the feeling was surreal.

  She saw the potential for life after the Commune. More importantly, though, was that she felt it. It was an intense, physical sensation, and that potential for a happy existence had never felt possible with Luke. But now, with Hendrick urging her onward, it became clear. She didn’t want to give her heart to Luke. With every second that passed, it became increasingly clear that she was wanting to give it to somebody else, and his hand rested on her shoulder.

  This new feeling confused her, though. The fact that her emotions were this volatile disturbed her. She knew she cared for Hendrick, but didn’t know if it had ever been anything more than a good friend. But now she saw things she had never seen before. Not once in her past would she have even imagined Hendrick capable of housing these emotions, but the fact that she was seeing these things that only one other woman had ever seen convinced her that he had been harboring these feelings for her for a long time.

  Even before tonight, Sable would have found it difficult to describe her feelings towards Hendrick, but those feelings weren’t romantic. She was attached to him, more than anybody else in the Ditrinity. But not romantically. But she knew this to be the result of two things: The first was that she never considered Hendrick to be a romantic interest and failed to ever have picked up on his feelings for her. She had seen evidence but ultimately ignored it most likely due to the second thing. Her love for Luke. But as she found it hard to pinpoint the reasons for her love for Luke she took it as a sign. This sign, standing alongside a crowd of others, was the statement that she needed to tell her that Luke wasn’t for her. And the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she didn’t want him. Everything she saw in Hendrick now, whether they were his words or his actions, told her she had been wrong all along. And with a situation that was new to the both of them, she saw a dramatic shift in Hendrick’s behavior.

  He was flustered. Nathan Hendrick was flustered. More than that though, he exhibited nearly every one of the characteristics that she looked for in a man, yet the only change in his behavior was that he was nervous. He had always been like this, and Sable could’ve slugged herself for having missed it all this time. Decades of fantasizing, hoping for something that never existed, had blinded her to the man that had been right in front of her her entire life.

  But no more. Sable wouldn’t waste another moment of her life in pursuit of the wrong things. So with a warm smile, Sable grabbed Hendrick’s hand and led him on to the next clothes rack.

  Chapter 25

  “Hell ya, man!” Morlo exclaimed, rubbing his palms together as he strode into one of the hotel’s honeymoon suites. He set a massive, armored case down at the entrance that he had retrieved from the shipyard. “This beats the crap out of sleepin’ in the basement.”

  “How’d we work this out?” Pontious asked Vyvyr who stood next to him at the doorway.

  “I believe it was Shank who made the arrangements.” Vyvyr said quietly. “I must say, I don’t like the man in the least. Walks around rubbing his hands like a pedophile in withdrawal.”

  “Ha!” Morlo laughed, spinning around as though he had witnessed a divine miracle. “A joke! You made a joke!”

  Vyvyr folded his arms and his face, as it always did, remained free of emotion. “I was simply making a basic comparison, putting Shank on the same level as-“

  “You made a joke. Don’t kill the buzz.” Morlo held up a hand and stopped Vyvyr’s explanation, then going on to explore the room.

  There were two beds in the suite, one king size bed on a raised platform on the far side of the room and another in a separate room that branched off to the left just past the office. The suite itself was sumptuous in its décor and furnishings. Glossy mahogany tables served as platforms for exotic multi-colored flower arrangements and antique vases. A multileveled chandelier hung down at the center of the room, putting off a glittering, soft light that gave the room a sensual atmosphere which was even furthered by the large hot tub set into the floor in the center of the room. Morlo stood in front of it and looked over his shoulder at Pontious with a devilish smile.

  “Hey Pontious, check it out.”

  “Huh.” Pontious gave Morlo as little attention as he had to as he was more concerned with the circumstances surrounding their new accommodations. “So where are the others?”

  “There’s eight suites in the hotel and there’s two different layouts. The first is like this while the second has only one bed and no living room tub.”

  “Which you learned how?”

  Vyvyr tapped his foot on the floor and kept his eyes forward. “Lobby brochures.”

  There was a flurry of activity as Morlo explored the room, tossing objects as he looked around to see what interesting facets the room possessed. Pontious nodded, looking around him not at the room, but at the rooms that surrounded them on all sides of them. “And the others?”

  “They’re two to each room, Muldoon and Kristik, Serenity and Tess, originally Seraphine was with Serenity but I wanted Sable to keep watch on her so they’re sharing a room, you’ve got the pleasure of rooming with Pitt.”

  “You put me with him?” Pontious asked as though Vyvyr told him he’d slit his throat in his sleep.

  Vyvyr shrugged. “You weren’t there when I made the rearrangements.”

  “Point taken.” Pontious muttered, cocking a brow as he came to a realization. “Where is Sable?”

  “With Hendrick, I believe.”

  Pontious smiled, a rare occasion. “It’s about time.”

  “Hey, there’s a wine cooler!” Morlo burst enthusiastically.

  Pontious stepped closer to Vyvyr so he didn’t have to speak so loud, folding his arms and looking to the floor. “So the ship’ll take a few more days to repair and then we’re off.”

  “At least a few more days.” Vyvyr corrected.

  “Yeah.” Pontious said, having learned long ago to deal with Vyvyr’s tendency to set one straight. “And our escape plan?”

  Vyvyr shook his head, a vague expression of frustration coming onto his face. “We didn’t come this far to not go to Pyre.”

  “So you know where these new rooms are?”

  “Each and every one.”

  “And?”

  Vyvyr paused and exhaled sharply. He didn’t like the answer. “On opposite corners of the building.”

  “So if anything goes wrong-“

  “We’re on our own.”

  There was a crash in the corner of the room, the kind of crash that’s emitted when something expensive is completely shattered. Morlo stood up straight, staring at the pile of shattered porcelain on the floor with a blank stare on his face. “I’m not paying for that.”

  Vyvyr and Pontious’s gazes lingered for only a moment before they returned to their own conversation. “We’ll switch off.” Pontious said, looking towards the hallway. “Show me where the room is and we’ll keep watch on it.”

  “Already thought of that. Muldoon’s guarding the door.”

  “Good.” Pontious said, stepping back towards the hallway. Vyvyr followed him. “Now show me to my room and get back here quick. Morlo’ll tear this place apart by himself.”

  Tess laid out her gear to the side of her bed. It was a pointless act as there was nothing in her bag that she needed. But since Luke left, her behavior had become thoughtless, erratic. The normal perk in her step was noticeably absent. Absentmindedly she looked down at her things spread across the floor, watching a half-empty can of processed meat roll away and tumble down the steps of the raised area where the bed rested.

  Serenity lounged back on the bed dressed in one of the white plush robes provided by the hotel, one leg emerging from a slit at the base of the robe, crossed over the other
while that foot bounced as if on its own. She flipped through the channels, coming up on her fourth time through all of them with still nothing that was of interest of her. But the polar change in Tess’s behavior caught her attention (and had held it from some time) and it concerned her.

  “You okay, Tess?”

  Tess started slightly at the remark, looking at Serenity with big eyes and a distant expression. “Yeah. Yeah I will be.” There was a pause after her statement. She forced a smile.

  Serenity nodded. She wasn’t much one for conversation. She was a gorgeous girl, but death and war tainting the majority of her childhood, she was a quiet, reserved individual who cared to no end but didn’t quite know how to express it. With Tess’s unapproachable demeanor, Serenity was at a loss for how she’d fix it. “If you need anything…” She said, the words not being hers, but rather being something she thought she’d have to say. “You can, you know, ask me. Kay?”

  Tess nodded, not smiling this time. She sat down on the edge of the raised area and thought.

  She knew she should be angry and she knew she should be upset. Or at least, she thought she should. She even wanted to harbor those feelings of anger and resentment but, in the end, Tess held only feelings of sadness and loss at the departure of Luke. She’d read Luke’s mind countless times. She’d read it while he slept, saw his dreams. She saw recurring nightmares showing a dead woman. She was beautiful and Tess couldn’t help but think that that woman was her mother. But Tess had heard his internal dialogue and she knew that Luke loved her. It was difficult for her to understand. How could Luke care about her as much as he did but find it so easy to abandon her to chase his revenge? He was going to disappear, get away from the war and take Tess with him. At the time he put his revenge out of mind and she was the only thing he cared about. But their argument in Tess’s bedroom the night when Luke was arrested, she couldn’t help but think that she changed him, switched him into revenge mode. If Tess hadn’t rejected him and just gone with him then none of this would be happening. They’d be living in the mountains somewhere or maybe in some tropical paradise, completely free from the world, living happily.

  But Tess had rejected him. She rejected the love and sacrifice of her father and that’s what changed him. Luke didn’t have his priorities out of line; he’d given Tess her chance and she blew it. She blew it because she thought she knew what war was like. She thought she could handle fighting the Legionnaires, and in her arrogance she pushed her father away and transformed him into a killing machine. Frenz had compiled the components for a monster, but it was Tess who triggered the transformation. She was the reason Luke was the way he was now. More bloodthirsty than Frenz, more dangerous than the whole of the Legionnaire, and Tess had unleashed him, the white-clad angel of death.

  Tess’s hands started shaking. She felt alone. She had her friends, but she had destroyed her family. You could have a world full of best friends, but there would always be a void where your family should be.

  “I have to go.” Tess said, standing up hastily and sniffing quickly. “I have to go.”

  Serenity was shocked. She bolted upright and tossed the remote as she did, coming round the bed to Tess’s side. “Go? You mean, like, leave or-“

  “Just somewhere.” Tess held a hand out in a motion for Serenity to stop. “I don’t know but please just stay. If Vyvyr or Pontious or somebody asks where I went just tell them what I told you.”

  “You can’t just go out of here, there’s Legionnaires down there!”

  “I’ll be fine I just need to walk around but I’m not going to stay here.”

  Serenity uttered the beginning of a protest but Tess stopped her.

  “I’m going.”

  Serenity wanted to argue. She wanted to stop her, but she saw the look in Tess’s eyes and she bit her tongue. As though it were being forced upon her, which it was, Serenity put her hands straight against her side and made one last statement. “I’ll cover for you.”

  Tess smiled again, this smile being sincerely appreciative. “Thank you.”

  “You just come back though. If anything happens to you-“

  “Then it’s my fault.” Tess said in a way that made it sound like a life-threatening situation was a casual occurrence. “But it won’t.” Tess arrived at the door and opened it, stepping out and sticking her head back in before closing the door. “Be good.”

  Serenity mouthed a goodbye, standing robe-clad in the center of the room with one hip cocked as the door closed. There was a jostling of the handle as Tess made sure the door had closed and with that, she was gone.

  “They seriously don’t have to dress it up like this.” Hendrick said, holding up a green stem with colorful petals hanging daintily from it. “I know this place is fancy but this… this is just overkill.”

  “Shut up and enjoy it.” Sable smiled with her mouth half full of food, putting her hand over Hendrick’s and pushing it downward. She wore a slender, white halter top that went down and stopped halfway down her athletically toned stomach while several diamond crusted golden chains dangled from around her neck. Her brown mini-skirt, adorned with a Razorback-skin belt, made it halfway down her thighs, leaving the rest of her legs bare until just below her knee caps where high-heeled brown suede boots rose up. Hendrick, meanwhile, wore an off-white button-up shirt, the sleeves rolled up and pulled tight across his biceps while it was unbuttoned down to his mid-chest. The untucked shirt fell over the dark, faded jeans which went down and folded over his brown loafers.

  It had taken considerable effort to get him to put those clothes on. She threatened to not purchase the outfit if he refused to buy something, and since he could barely compose a sentence when she first tried the outfit on, the prospect made it seem as though Sable had just taken his most precious possession and strapped it to a live grenade.

  Sable and Hendrick sat opposite each other on a round, white draped table at a rooftop restaurant on one of the tallest buildings in Leramato. It was peaceful, with the conversations of other couples at adjacent tables being quiet and personal while a pianist played soft, slow music on a large pedestal at one corner of the dining area. The tables were lit with a single candle, flickering in the warming night breeze while and carrying the pleasant aromas of freshly baked bread, hot grilled steaks and a myriad of other entrees which melded into a single, appetizing scent. And the sky, with no trees or pollution to obscure their view, was speckled with the billions of billions of glimmering stars while, on the horizon, the twin planets glowed faintly.

  “I am enjoying it.” Hendrick explained as he dangled the greenery in his hand. “But I’m serious. The steak looks phenomenal but I just don’t-“

  “Nate.” Sable said after swallowing her food. She squeezed his hand and peered at him with her glowing blue eyes. “Relax, okay? Just enjoy it. Find something you don’t like then just push it to the side. I want dinner to be… nice.”

  With that reaction Hendrick realized that he’d been rambling. He really didn’t care how they decorated the food. He was just trying to make conversation and was finding everything he could to comment on. It was yet another first in a night full of firsts. No girl had ever made him speak uncontrollably like that before. Hendrick was sure he’d get over the initial shock of Sable looking the way she did but, dammit, he’d never seen anything so beautiful and perfect in his life. Not in a magazine, a movie, anywhere. The outfit she wore, that white top, the brown skirt, the long chain of diamonds, and her body was ravishing enough. But her face… those lips, her big, beautiful eyes, her delicate chin…

  Hendrick almost had to slap himself. He had to relax, be himself. He took his glass of water, clinked the ice against the sides and took a large swallow. He set the glass back down, licked the water off his lips, lounged sideways in his chair and rested an elbow on the table.

  “That shirt makes your boobs look fricking massive.”

  Leaning across the table with a wine glass held delicately between her fingers, Sable smiled as
though what he said was the most beautiful, charming, and adorable thing he could have possibly said.

  “There’s the Hendrick I know.” She grinned.

  At that response Hendrick relaxed even more, pointing towards her plate where half her meal remained. “So how’s… whatever that is?”

  “The Creme a’ Steyl?” She asked with another forkful being held in her hand.

  “Sure.” Hendrick replied.

  Sable took stuck the fork in her mouth closed her lips around it, pulling it slowly from her mouth and starting to chew. She exaggerated her delight and shook her head with approval. “It’s godly.”

  “Heh, sure as hell better be.” Hendrick sat up straight in his own chair, picked up his utensils and once again went to work on his own meal. “Cost more money than a middle-class car.” He took a piece of his steak and put in his mouth without the delicate flow that Sable had done so with. As he chewed, he furrowed his brows. “I wonder what the poor people are doing.”

  Sable hummed, looking down at the table and setting her fork down. She took a sip from her wine and repeated the gesture. Noticing that she was about to ask something, hopefully nothing remarkably personal, Hendrick set his own fork down and gave her his attention. “You good?”

  “Oh yeah,” Sable replied. She wasn’t sad or anything of the sort, but from the look on her face she was quite curious about something. “I was just wondering… How can you… I mean…” Instead of finishing the question, she moved her hands around, waving them over the table and over her own outfit while her eyes looked at Hendrick with the hope that he’d pick up on what she was trying to say.

  “Afford this?” He asked. Sable winced, hoping it wouldn’t offend him. Hendrick grinned and rested back in his chair. “Stole it. Every single steele.”

  Sable didn’t believe it. It was clear she picked up on his sarcasm and Hendrick gave up the fight. He tapped the table with a finger and gave a half smile. “I thought it was funny. But back when the Union first formed Luke put me in charge of coming up with a new fighting force. The world already had the IA but it was weak bunch, kind of the difference in intimidation that you’d find between a cop and a soldier. So with that in mind I came up with an idea which, obviously, worked. Instead of making all the soldiers well-rounded in every form of combat, I decided that things might be better if they were more specialized. Not like the IA, you know, where you have like just a marine, a sniper, and a medic. There’s more than that but you know what I’m saying, all the different little variations in soldier weren’t enough to justify their own class, or at least, they shouldn’t be. So I made a special forces, soldiers picked and trained determined by what they wanted to be but largely by what they were physically built to do. Long story short, which you know, I’m the man who created the First Legionnaire.”