Chapter 54 54
Kaelen's POV:
I started the patrol at eight PM, after making sure Marlen and Lucian were home with the doors locked and the alarm set. The alarm was just a regular home security system I had installed on my own, nothing fancy, wouldn't stop the Order for more than thirty seconds. But it would give them time to grab their bags and get out the back door or a window, whatever, which was all it needed to do.
The night was cold, mid-November cold that would've bothered me if I were human. I could feel it on my skin but it didn't sink in, my internal temperature running about fifteen degrees higher than normal thanks to the dragon blood. I wore a jacket anyway because a guy walking around town in a t-shirt in November would attract attention, and the whole point of this was not attracting attention.
I drove first, doing a loop of the town perimeter and checking the roads in and out. Marcus was right about the setup. I spotted two cars that didn't belong: a black SUV parked on the shoulder of Route 9, about half a mile from the highway on-ramp, and a dark sedan with tinted windows in the parking lot of the closed gas station on Mill Road. Both had that specific look: too clean, too new, too deliberately unremarkable. Like someone had Googled "inconspicuous car" and bought the first result.
I drove past without slowing down, memorizing the plate numbers to give Marcus later. Then I parked my car at the strip mall on Cedar Street, which stayed open late because of the pizza place and the laundromat, so my car wouldn't look out of place.
From there I went on foot.
The campus was quiet. A Tuesday night in November, most students either studying or drinking, nobody paying attention to another guy in a jacket walking with purpose. I circled the main buildings, checked the parking lots, noted two cars I didn't recognize near the science building. Could've been students, could've been Order. No way to tell without getting closer and I wasn't supposed to engage.
Then I headed toward Annabeth's neighborhood.
Her house was on a quiet street, the kind where people had jack-o'-lanterns still rotting on their porches from Halloween even though it was mid-November. Her aunt's car was in the driveway, the porch light on, windows dark except for one on the second floor.
Her room.
I stayed on the opposite side of the street, behind a neighbor's fence where the shadows from a big oak tree, or maple maybe, I don't know trees, gave me enough cover. From there I could see her window, could feel her through the bond like a heartbeat that wasn't mine.
She was awake. I could tell from the bond, from the restless energy and the undertow of sadness that had become her default state over the past three weeks. And then, like she'd sensed me somehow, she appeared at the window.
Just stood there, backlit by whatever lamp was on behind her, looking out at the street. She was wearing an oversized Nirvana t-shirt although she didn’t like that band. Her hair was down and she had her arms crossed over her chest, hugging herself.
And I just... I stood there behind that fence and watched her like the world's most pathetic stalker and felt my heart do this thing where it tried to crawl out of my chest and go to her.
She couldn't see me. I was sure of that, the shadows were too deep and I was too far away for human eyes. But she stayed at the window for a long time, maybe five minutes, just staring out into the dark. I wondered if she could feel me through the bond the way I could feel her, if some part of her knew I was close.
Probably not. She'd gotten better at blocking me out, at building walls between us through the connection. Most of the time all I got from her were echoes, muted versions of whatever she was feeling. But sometimes, like now, the walls came down a little and I could feel her in full. The sadness, the anger, the loneliness. The missing-me that she'd never admit to and that I clung to like a drowning man clinging to, I don't know, whatever drowning men cling to. Driftwood or something.
I'm so sorry, I thought, as if she could hear me. I'm so fucking sorry for all of it.
She turned away from the window and the light went off. Going to sleep, or trying to. I could feel her settling, the restless energy dimming into something quieter.
I should've left then. Should've continued the patrol, checked the other locations, been professional about this. But I stayed for another twenty minutes, standing behind that fence in the cold, watching her dark window and making sure nobody else was watching it too.
When I finally made myself move, I did a perimeter check of her block. Walked the surrounding streets, checked parked cars, looked for anyone sitting in vehicles or loitering in shadows. Nothing. The Order's people seemed to be positioned further out, watching the roads and the campus rather than her house specifically.
That didn't make me feel better. It just meant they were smarter than I'd hoped, establishing a wider net instead of obvious surveillance.
I checked the Hotel Meridian on my way back to my car. The building sat on Main Street downtown, four stories of beige brick that tried to look classy but mostly looked tired. Room 412, fourth floor, the window facing the street. The light was on. Somebody was home.
I wanted to go in there. Wanted to walk into that hotel and up to that room and burn every single one of them to ash for threatening the person I loved. My hands were shaking with the effort of not doing exactly that, my dragon nature screaming at me to protect my mate, to eliminate the threat, to stop being passive and start being the predator I was born to be.
But Marcus said don't engage. Marcus said watch and report. And as much as I hated it, he was right. Going in there alone against six or seven trained Order operatives would be suicide, and my siblings needed me alive.
So I turned away from the Hotel Meridian and walked back to my car, texting Marcus the plate numbers and positions I'd noted.
His response came thirty seconds later: "Good work. Same route tomorrow. Report anything new."
That was it. No thank you, no acknowledgment that I'd just spent three hours in the cold watching over a girl who didn't want me anymore while fantasizing about murdering her enemies.
I drove home and checked on Marlen and Lucian, both asleep. Lucian had fallen asleep with his phone in his hand, some YouTube video still playing quietly. I took the phone and plugged it in for him, pulled his blanket up. Marlen was curled up on her bed with a book open on her pillow, her reading lamp still on. I closed the book, marking her page with the receipt she'd been using as a bookmark, and turned off the lamp.
These two. Everything I did, every decision, every risk, every sleepless night, was for these two.
And for her. For Annabeth, who was sleeping alone in her room right now, three miles away, behind a door she'd closed in my face. Who I'd patrol for every night until this was over, whether she wanted me to or not, whether she ever found out or not.
I lay down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. The bond was quiet, Annabeth asleep, her emotions muted into something that almost resembled peace. It was the only time she seemed calm anymore, when she was asleep and the walls between us softened enough that I could feel her properly.
My phone buzzed. Marlen, texting from the next room because that's what we did now apparently: "I heard you come in. You okay?"
"Yeah. Go to sleep."
"How's it look out there?"
"Manageable. Nothing imminent. Go to sleep, Mar."
"Okay. Night. Be careful."
"Night."
I set my alarm for five AM. Early enough to get up and check on things before class, before Marlen and Lucian needed to get ready for school, before the world started demanding things from me again.
Three hours of sleep if I was lucky. Four if the bond stayed quiet and Annabeth didn't have one of those dreams that woke us both up.
It would have to be enough.