Chapter 9
VIOLET ROSE
Of course it was Kade. With her luck, it couldn’t have been anyone else. It just had to be him.
“Um, hey,” he said, giving her a little wave. It looked like he was just as surprised as she was.
Violet sighed.
“Hi,” she said awkwardly, still not knowing exactly how to act. She decided to choose a topic before he did. “Are those glasses? They look familiar.”
“Nest’s. He’s probably running around looking for me like crazy right now.”
It was an unusual sight. Kade, who she had only seen all serious with a stern face, was now wearing an almost childlike grin.
“By the way,” Kade started again. “I don’t know if it’s just me, but have you been avoiding me today? Even earlier, it felt like you were trying not to make eye contact with me.”
Of course he would bring this up, even after Violet chose a topic first. Ugh, why wouldn’t he?
After cleaning her throat to make sure she could speak properly, she said, “I think you were imagining it. There’s no reason for me to be doing that, after all.”
“Really? I guess it was just me, then. I almost thought you were avoiding me because of what happened yesterday! Haha… um, are you okay? Your face is a little…”
“I’m fine!” replied Violet, quickly covering her face with her hands.
“Did I… get it right by any chance?”
“You didn’t!”
“Uh… I didn’t think anything you said was embarrassing, you know. It made me really happy to hear all that, actually.”
“…”
“And also-”
“Ah, there you are!”
It was Nest’s voice that cut in.
“I finally found you, you little- wait, Violet? What are you doing here?”
“You ran your mouth again, didn’t you…” she grumbled, not even bothering to act surprised by his sudden entrance.
“Huh? Oh, no! I didn’t! I swear I didn’t!”
“He did.”
“Dude!”
Before Violet could do anything, however, like throwing her knife at Nest, another voice interrupted them yet again. This time, it was Elena.
“I came back because I was worried something had happened, but you were just talking, huh? Hi, Nest! Hi, Kade!”
Elena wore her usual bright smile as she greeted the two. Violet watched as they both returned her smile.
“Hey.”
“Sup!”
“You should go back to camp quick,” said Elena, turning toward Violet. “I think Ajax was looking for you.”
“You went to camp and back already?” Violet asked.
“Yeah, it’s not that far from here, after all. Anyway, Ajax asked me where you were as soon as I got back! I think it might be urgent!”
“Did he say anything about what it was about?”
“Nope, not at all. But he did say ‘as soon as possible’, though. Oh, and he wants you too, Kade.”
Kade only nodded silently, which gave Violet the feeling that he already knew what was going on.
“Nothing about me?” Nest asked, pointing to himself. “Am I not important enough?”
“We should get going then,” said Kade, ignoring Nest.
“Right.”
As soon as the four of them walked past the warehouse doors, Ajax called out to them from the large kitchen area.
“Kade, Violet! Over here!”
He was in a large brown jacket, making him resemble something of a lumbering bear waving in their direction.
“Hmph. Hey, Elena, while they’re doing whatever it is they’re doing, you wanna go sneak in the kitchen and look for snacks?” asked Nest.
“Yeah!”
And with that, those two were off, leaving only Kade and Violet to walk toward Ajax.
“What do you need, Ajax?”
“I’ll get straight to the point. Would you be willing to go on a mission?”
“A mission?”
“You’re aware of the camp getting ambushed by exorcists every now and then, right? Even when we move around?”
“Yes.”
“I want you and Kade to figure out how they keep tracking us and report back. I would go myself, but I need to stay behind in case the government finds us again.”
“But why all of a sudden?”
“It was Kade’s idea. He came up to me this morning and asked me to let him take care of it. We have intel that the exorcists are having a big meeting soon, so it could be big if you guys snuck in and brought back some information. Normally, I would only send one person, but he still refuses to tell us anything about his curse, so I needed someone else to go with him, just in case. So, could you accompany him a bit?”
And of course he picked me to do it.
But Violet wasn’t really in a position to refuse. She owed this camp a lot, after all. She wasn’t even close to repaying the massive debt of taking her and her sister in.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” she said in a half-whine.
“Great. I appreciate it.”
“When do we leave?”
This time, it was Kade who answered.
“How ‘bout right after we eat lunch? The earlier, the better, I think.”
“I’ll give you more details about the mission before you go. For now, just start getting ready and get some food. I’ll be counting on you two.”
***
As Violet sat down to eat her lunch, a few things came to mind. The first was, I really need to get it together. It’ll definitely slow us down if I keep getting flustered about what happened yesterday.
This was a mission from Ajax, which meant it was a mission for the camp and for the phantoms, and she couldn’t let her personal feelings mess things up. Plus, it seemed Kade didn’t mind what she had said either.
Actually, he even said it made him happy to hear that. I’m glad if that’s the case.
And the second thought also regarded Kade. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t find a reasonable answer to the question.
How does he know who we need to go after, and how did he even know that the camp was being chased in the first place?
What got her attention was Ajax saying that the plan was Kade’s idea. He hadn’t even been at camp for a week, and Violet was sure they hadn’t gotten attacked at all during that time. Maybe Nest had told him about it? But then again, how would he have figured out where to start, and where did all his confidence come from?
By the time Violet had gone in a cull circle in her own train of thoughts, her lunch plate was already empty.
“Tsk, I would’ve asked for more if I knew I was going to finish it so fast.”
“Want mine?” came a voice, making her jump. She turned around to Kade and tried to make her voice sound as frustrated as possible.
“Could you not sneak up like that? At least make some noise when you approach so you don’t startle me.”
“Sorry.”
“Seriously, you’re like an assassin sometimes.”
Kade blinked and said in an amused tone, “But I am an assassin. Something like that, anyway.”
The smile Kade had told her he wasn’t lying. Come to think of it, she did recall Nest saying something about that during last night’s celebration.
“You don’t want to eat?” she asked, gesturing to the plate he had offered her. “It’s important to leave on a full stomach, you know. Who knows when the next time we have a proper meal will be?”
“I’m not really hungry. But if you don’t want it, I could always give it to Nest or something. I’m sure he’d be more than happy to take it.”
“I’ll take it,” she said a little too quickly.
Crap, maybe I should’ve hesitated a bit…
But Kade didn’t seem to notice. He only handed her his food with another smile.
“I’ll get the car ready. Meet me outside once you finish. Oh, and I’ll fill you in on the details on the drive there.”
“... Alright.”
As Violet watched Kade walk away, she let out another sigh before digging into her new plate of food. When she finished up, she saw Nest approaching her, wearing a face of very obvious boredom.
“Hey, Violet, do you know where Elena went? She kinda just disappeared after we got kicked out of the kitchen.”
“You didn’t see where she went?” she replied nonchalantly.
“No, I was busy getting yelled at by lunch staff. I don’t get why they only yell at me and not Elena.”
“…she’s eleven. And you’re, what, sixteen?”
“Eighteen,” he grumbled.
Violet blinked.
“You’re older than me?”
“Huh? How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
“Oh, then yeah, I guess I am.”
“And you’re still sneaking in, trying to steal food? You should keep in mind that nobody really trusted you all that much until just yesterday.”
“Hey, I mean, it’s something I’ve always done, even before all that. It’s just that today was the only day I got caught ‘cause I went with Elena.”
“That’s not my point…”
“But anyway, what was the thing with Ajax about?”
“We’re going on a mission, me and Kade,” she sighed. Actually, speaking of Kade, wasn’t Violet supposed to be mad at Nest for running his mouth earlier?
Wait, but Kade said he was happy I told him that. All’s well that ends well, I guess? Yeah, he was happy because of what I said.
“You’re smiling,” Nest pointed out in a matter-of-fact tone, making her quickly catch himself.
“Shut it.”
Nest shrugged.
“Anyway,” Violet continued, getting up from her seat. “He’s probably waiting for me right now. I’ll see you later.”
“Okay. When will you be back?” asked Nest, giving her a small wave.
“No idea, honestly,” she said, waving back while walking away.
“Don’t die!”
“I won’t. I’m going with the assassin-guy that almost single-handedly infiltrated a government base, remember?”
After saying her goodbyes to everyone else, she walked outside to see Kade waiting in the driver’s seat of a small, old looking SUV car with a tired frown. At first, Violet thought maybe it had been because she made him wait for too long, but was convinced otherwise as soon as she took a look at who else was in the car.
Sitting in the backseat, smiling and waving vigorously in her direction, was Elena Snowe.
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