The Devil's Backbone

15. Glory and Gore

There’s a humming in the restless summer air

And we’re slipping off the course that we prepared

But in all chaos, there is calculation

 

Now we’re in the ring

And we’re coming for blood

 

Jason

            I watched Harley drive away in the dark, lingering under the dark sky for a couple seconds more before going back inside. Closing the door and locking it behind me, I turned and watched the kids sleep. They had gotten back several hours ago, long after I’d gotten Harley to stop crying. It broke my heart to watch her, knowing that I couldn’t say the one thing that I knew would make it all better. I couldn’t tell her that I could stay I’d already chosen my family and I knew that she understood that. She had too.

I let go a deep sigh, dragging my hands across my face. I changed quickly then slipped into bed beside Adam. Throwing my hands behind my head, I stared up at the horribly stained motel ceiling. It was going to be a long sleepless night, I could tell.

When the sun finally graced the horizon, I’d only gotten a couple of hours. I watched as beams of lights came through the blinds, lighting up the dust in the air. It was quite beautiful actually, almost picturesque. I had the urge to take a picture so that I could show Harley later. It seemed that I was having those kinds of thoughts a lot. It was like I wanted to show her everything, share everything with her. I was falling in love.

After that lost thought, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get any sleep before work. I climbed out of bed quietly and walked around the room, collecting things. I needed to start getting ready for the end of the week. I needed to replenish our stocks, check everything that we owned and see if I needed to replace anything. I was planning on getting some new sleeping bags for all of us and I knew that I would have to get all of them presents for a making them leave this town. They really loved it here and that made it worse.

            We fit in here. I had a pretty decent job, the kids had plenty of things to do, and they had even started making friends at the town’s rec center. This was the first town that this had ever happened, and I hated that we had to leave, but I wasn’t prepared for a fight. Which is what I was going to get if I stayed here. I needed to move somewhere where I could train Alice and myself so that if anything happened, we could handle it. And we just couldn’t do that here.

Unfortunately I didn’t have work today, I had nothing to distract me from Harley’s sadness. I could practically feel it in my bones and it was slowly killing me. I had hoped that checking all the gear would keep my mind at bay, but it didn’t. The task was too simple, it left my mind free to think about every thing that I was doing wrong. My wolf was just as confused as I was. He wanted to be with his mate, he needed it but he also needed to protect his pups. Although they weren’t technically my kids, they were my family and I had practically raised them. This was the kind of inner turmoil that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.