Page 13 of Liberty

Chapter 6

STERLING

There ispower in not knowing. It gives you the ability to turn away, play dumb, escape unfavorable circumstances. Not knowing truths means you don’t have to carry the weight of their reality upon you. You can get away when you’re naïve. You have a choice, even if you don’t realize it.

But now? I was trapped.

So fucking trapped.

I knew it from the moment I opened my eyes; my head was pounding, my eyes blurring. Something bigger than us was at work; something more powerful than we ever could imagine had trapped us. We knew it existed, and now there was no escape. We couldn’t ignore it.

Beside me, Ellis opened his eyes, his body swaying slightly as he tried to gain his consciousness fully. Oak had a hand leaning against the brick wall, trying to hold his body up as he shook his head. We all felt it; we were all affected by it. The it in the equation was still unknown, but it had already gained control over us.

“What the fuck was that?” Ellis mumbled as he struggled to stand.

“Something fucking powerful, that’s for sure.” My head was still spinning from it.

He finally made it to his feet, but he was unsteady as he braced his hands on his thighs and leaned forward. “This is your fault.”

Ellis directed the accusation toward me, and through the haze that was clouding my mind, I had to blink a few times to process it. “Excuse me?”

“As soon as you got close, BAM! Knocked us all the fuck out. If you had stayed over there, nothing would have happened.” He had a point. Still, I wasn’t to blame.

“I had nothing to do with it, and you know it. I’m too fucking lazy to plan tricks like this. Besides, I’m next to everyone now, and everyone but the girl is awake.”

I looked toward the girl, and I got a sudden urge to touch her, to feel her skin burn under my fingers, to draw from my body, and force it into her bruised and broken skin. Whoa! I sucked in a few deep breaths. What the hell was that about?

Still, I couldn’t help but reach for her, my fingers outstretched. “If you lay a single finger on the girl, I’ll break every bone in your arm, and even you won’t be able to heal them properly.”

Oak’s voice broke the silence around us and made me freeze. “I wasn’t going to hurt her.”

“You’re not touching her,” he repeated his earlier sentiment.

“You know me; you know I wouldn’t hurt the girl,” I tried again, trying to fight the urge to just brush against her skin.

“I know you, and that’s why you aren’t touching her,” he growled.

Fucking hell. You spend two hundred years liking the ladies, and the one time it isn’t about sex, it gets used against you. Although the more I looked at her, the more I wouldn’t mind a tumble in the hay. God, how long had it been since I had an actual tumbling in hay? Way too fucking long. The luxury of real and lavish mattresses had definitely put a stop to that.

“I would never take advantage of an injured girl,” I spat at him.

Oak used his body to block her as he brought his hands under her knee and back and lifted her into his arms. “No, maybe not now. But she will wake some time.”

He adjusted her limp body in his arms, and if I wasn’t mistaken, she seemed to have snuggled closer. To him. To Oak. Why did the thought of that send a spark of jealousy jolting through me? I was the ladies’ man; it’s my reputation. Never Oak. Yet, out of the three of us, he was the only one that didn’t seem to frighten the girl. Even after his crazy display of brute strength, he still earned her favor.

Oak turned away from me, his back efficiently blocking both Ellis and me from view. “I’m taking her to the estate.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I asked though everything in my body was urging me to follow, telling me that James' estate was the right and only place for her to be.

“No. It’s probably a terrible idea, but I’m doing it anyway,” he mumbled as he took in the surroundings, checking for civilians before he set himself in motion.

Oak. The rule follower. The all-around righteous guy and peacemaker. The one who never got the lashings as I had, or scolding like Ellis. Never had I seen him go against what he knew was an awful idea for his desires. The girl must be something special, and if she had Oak under a spell, I wanted in.

Ellis wasn’t so sold. “You can’t take her. Leave her in the alley; she will be fine.”

“I’m taking her.”

Oak’s voice left no room to argue, a fact made clear when his body blurred, girl in tow, and he disappeared from our sight. Ellis and I stood there for a few long moments after he left, staring at the spot where his body once was. With a sigh, Ellis blurred away, and with no other real choice, I followed.