Underground

27

I groaned and reached my hand over to turn off my alarm. Instead the alarm clock flew across the room and smashed against the wall. I watched as it slowly slid to the ground and then flopped my head back onto my pillow. Today I have to go on base for a meeting with the Council, apparently it's only the Mason faction who was called in today. Rolling out of bed, I felt the pounding that wouldn't go away. I will never drink with Alex again, I thought to myself, heading to my bathroom.

After twenty minutes I walked out the bathroom and Elizabeth was standing the middle of my room, laying out my uniform. She looked up at me and handed me an Advil and orange juice. I thanked her silently before taking it. She started to help me get dressed and brushed my hair. "Today they are going to talk about missions that need to be completed and have been completed. They may assign some missions but you aren't to say anything, understand?" She said turning me around and zipping up the catsuit and then motioning for me to turn again to put on the corset. As she started lacing it I realized how uncomfortable this uniform was going to be.
"Is the corset necessary?" I asked in a strained voice.
"It's bulletproof and it compliments the look we want the women to have," Elizabeth chuckled when I let out a slow breath. She tapped me when she was finished and then went into the very large walk in closet they blessed me with and took out my boots and a leather coat. I looked at the coat and then outside my window to see that it was cloudy. Grabbing the boots, I quickly put them on as my door opened and I looked up to see Joel, dressed in a vinyl leather shirt, black pants and a vest above the shirt with a leather jacket. He glanced at me then his mother who smiled at him before giving him my coat and slipping out of the room.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

After situating myself, I looked up at him and sighed. Joel smirked and held my coat open for me. "Do I have to go?" I asked softly putting my arms through the sleeves. His fingers brushed my neck softly and then walked towards the door. I quickly followed after him and closed my bedroom door. "Because your injuries are healed and since we were the only faction called in for a meeting we have to be there," he answered as we jogged down the staircase.
Everyone was standing in the foyer clearly waiting for us, maybe me. Devlin and Lexi waved to me when I reached the bottom and Eric nodded to me then waved his arm to the people I didn't recognize. They were the faction members that lived in the house. The ones that stood out to me the most were Jade, Emily and Vincent. Jade more since she was fifteen and the youngest member of the faction as Eric explained.

How long was she in here for? "Justine and Jade will ride with me," Joel said as we walked in the house. Someone grabbed my hand and I looked down at Jade. She was the cutest thing! Her eyes were a forest green with bright red hair and I could tell she was a playful type of person. Joel unlocked the car and Jade slipped into the backseat. I climbed in the front and put on my seatbelt as Joel started the car. "You're very pretty." I turned around and Jade was staring at me. Her eyes were wide open and I swear it was the creepiest thing I've ever seen. She looked like she was looking for something in me. To cringe? To be afraid of her? I mean the whole big eyes thing was creepy but I could deal with it. I smiled, "You aren't so bad yourself."
Jade smiled back at me and I looked up at Joel who had a small smile on his face.

•••

We were fascinatingly early for this meeting and I made sure to stand at the back of the room, sitting on a table. The Mason faction was big. I guess for the being the muscle of the Underground there needs to be a lot of people. Jade followed me around silently and even sat in the back with Devlin, Tommy, Lexi and I. Eric and Elizabeth sat at the table with the Council as they read off weekly reports and other things. Being as bored as I was with the stats and graphs on the screen I started playing with my nails. I hadn't even realized how concentrated I was on that until a tiny flame appeared on my index finger. I flinched in surprised but when I realized it wasn't burning me I continued to stare at it. The flame moved off my hand and I followed it until I saw it sitting in Jade's hand. She smirked at me and made the flame a bit bigger. The irony in the fact that she had a fire affinity with all of that red hair.

"Ryder."

Jade closed her hand around the fire as we looked up and everyone was looking at me. Valentine was looking at me and I crossed my arms over my chest. I do not like this man. "Sir."
"Would you like to accept this mission?"
I just silently stared at him and then my eyes slid to the projection and there was a set of four faces. Two were from Almássy the others from Belrose. They were sent on a stake out mission and haven't reported back in weeks or at least that's what the projection said. My eyes flickered to Elizabeth who gave me a look that said not to say anything and yet if I didn't Valentine would take it disrespectfully and I would end up paying for it. Elizabeth looked over at Valentine and said, "Justine has just recovered from serious injuries and she hasn't chosen a permanent partner."
Carmen frowned and looked over at me, "Choosing a partner is not that hard. She can choose now since she will pick one of the Mason brothers anyway."
Elizabeth's eyes narrowed at her sister-in-law and I rolled my eyes. One of these days bitch...one of these days. They did this on purpose. Trying to prove an unknown point and it was frankly stupid. "Carter and I will go with her," Dorrian volunteered. What? I looked at Dorrian who didn't look away from Valentine. Gary Belrose sat back in his seat and shook his head.

"No I don't see anything wrong with Justine and Joel going on this assignment. All they are doing is going to see if the four we sent out are dead or not," he said.

Eric looked at Joel as they communicated through whatever family link they had, wasn't too hard to tell, and then Joel nodded. "We will leave Friday then," Joel answered for both of us and I wanted to say something but I was tongue tied. Carmen looked irritated with the thought of what was going on. I looked at Tommy who looked just as irritated. "Why didn't you volunteer?" I asked quietly.
"So Joel can rip my arm off? No thanks," Tommy said not making eye contact with me. "You would have picked Joel anyway."
"No—"
Tommy looked at me and I cringed back from his look. It was one of those "get real" looks and I slumped my shoulders in defeat. Maybe I would have picked Joel but there were many other options too.

•••

"Well? What do you think?"
I stared openmouthed at the large campus square that had a few people scattered on it. Right after the meeting, Raoul picked me up and I was bought to this college that Duchess had picked out for me. There was everything here. Dancers, actors and actresses, singers...my basic dream college. I looked at her and she smiled. "Just tell me I did good," she chuckled.
I held up my hands in surrender and laughed when she hugged me and then pulled me towards the entrance. "Now you skipped the wait list and auditions thanks to my friendship with the headmaster which means you need to be on your A game," she told me. "Your schedule is simply two dance classes and two music classes. You have Fridays off. Everything that you do from here on out is you."
Well isn't that motivational...