Greys III - Revelations

Chapter 5 - Niabe On Ire Has

James slept on the couch of the small motel room we rented, Ailech in the twin bed next to mine, a run-down nightstand with an age-stained lamp between us. The dick-measuring of who would take the couch and who 'needed their beauty sleep' on the bed had been astounding and exhausting all at once. It seemed like my boys argued every time they spoke, constantly fighting to get the grand prize of who could care the least, show their disdain the most, while still speaking to the other as little as possible.

Ailech was always chatty, but James tried to speak as little as possible, to me and Ailech. And though we talked in our special way sometimes, whenever it wouldn't be noticed by the healer, our strained communication only added to our feelings of frustration. The tension was higher still as James didn't know what to expect when we found our Clan, how they would react. He was worried and I could tell. But the worst was the fact that we had no luck finding any clues to where they were in the monstrous city.

We searched for four days, day and night, hardly stopping to sleep, but found no sign of Kael or Nevaeh, though we hadn't even covered a third of the sprawling suburbia Abby had directed us to. Finally, we had to rest. I didn't want to, but I knew James wouldn't if I didn't, and though he had been eating more, he was still far too thin and sickly and pale, and now he had dark circles as well, which seemed even more stark with his shaggy, shadowy hair, the blue-black of his eyes nearly matching the skin beneath them. The fire in them was back, even if his body still looked like a corpse of its former self. But that was enough, just knowing he was back, knowing he was still my Pair, knowing I hadn't lost him every time I looked in his eyes.

Ailech snored softly on my right. He hadn't properly slept for days either, though he caught short naps during our travels or whenever we were all together in our dingy motel. He said he was used to not sleeping much, that he only needed a couple of hours to be fine, but I still encouraged him to sleep whenever we stayed in one spot for more than an hour. He was only Human, and we didn't need him unless we had to be healed, which thankfully, hadn't been necessary yet.

I jerked awake, adrenaline spiking through me as something touched my shoulder, my eyes flying open to see the navy blue I thought for months I would never see again. Then I saw the look on his face, the set of his full lips, the line between his eyebrows.

"You had a vision," I whispered.

He nodded.

"Let me see."

He nodded again and I opened my Gift to him, pulling his mind into mine.

Kael and Nevaeh were on the highest rooftop deep in the city, sixty-story buildings dotted the skyline around them, but none quite as tall as the one on which they stood. Their hands were clasped, fingers interlaced, Nevaeh with her Shift so strongly enveloping her it almost made the air hiss, and Kael close to unconsciousness, but with a look of determination etched into the muscles of his bloody face, biting down hard on his teeth. Then, as if by some unseen cue, they sprinted for the opposite side of the open roof...and jumped.

"No!"

I opened my eyes to see Ailech jumping from his bed, clearly startled by my yell and James pushing my outreached arms back down to my sides, as if I had thought I could pull Nevaeh and Kael back from the edge.

"We need to save them." Was all I could sputter, but James was already shaking his head, his hair sweeping across his face with its overgrown mayhem.

"It already happened, it was light out but dry, and it's been pouring all night, supposed to for the next two days. That was the sky from yesterday, but didn't you see Nevaeh's Shift, and Kael, he was injured, they weren't...they weren't just jumping, they were running from someone. They do need saving, but not from themselves, something is coming for them, and we need to find them first."