Between Gates (The Gate Chronicles Book 1)

Chapter 9: Tracking

Chenn rolled out of his sleeping bag, groaning at the stiffness of his muscles. He hadn’t slept on the ground much before. In fact, the only time he’d ever done so was when his family occasionally went camping. But that had stopped when he was eight because his dad had died, and his mom hadn’t wanted to go. She’d taken him to museums instead. Even that had stopped three years later when his mom died in a car accident. So mundane and unoriginal. So normal. He wished every day that she hadn’t died. Now no one but he remembered her.

He’d gone into an orphanage after that. Five years after that, the accident had happened and he’d gone to jail. He still had nightmares about the girl’s pale face and the scream of heartbreak that had torn from the very core of the other girl. He remembered the wide eyes of the living girl brimming with tears. He remembered nothing but those eyes. Those tears because someone she loved was gone. He’d only found out months later at his trial that the girl he had supposedly killed was the weeping girl’s sister.

Shaking his head to clear those memories, Chenn stood. He rolled his sleeping bag up, still trying to work the kinks out of his muscles.

“You look really stiff this morning.” A soft voice drifted into his ear from a few feet away.

He whirled around, surprised. His heart thudded for a few moments, adrenaline pumping through his veins hot and wild. Then he saw who it was, and he calmed down. Kallie stood there in a sleek, formfitting nightgown and tight leggings.

He rubbed his neck. “Yeah. I guess I am.”

She looked at the ground, scuffing at the dirt with her bare foot. Shyly she looked up into his face and said, “I could help you. I used to work in a massage shop before I joined the MBC.”

Chenn shook his head, smiling gently. “Thanks, but I’ll live.”

She gave a slight smile in return. “Okay. Let me know if you change your mind.”

“I will.”

She turned and walked off. Chenn wasn’t planning on changing his mind. He didn’t like being touched, and he certainly didn’t want Kallie’s hands on his body. He’d had worse problems with his muscles, and a quick run would loosen him up. No need to deal with Kallie.

***

Nari tossed in her sleep. Somewhere an alarm was ringing. Sirens wailed. Her sister’s body lay before her. Blood everywhere. Her sister’s sightless stare.

Then her scream. The raw pure agony that couldn’t be suppressed came out. The boy stood still. He stared at her with his brilliant sapphire green-blue eyes. He held the gun loosely in his hand. Smoke lingered in the alley.

Nari gasped as the cold air hit her bare arms. She had kicked off her sleeping bag and was thrashing around on the ground. That needed to stop. She had to get good sleep at night. Besides that, she needed to be quiet while sleeping if she was going to sleep when her quarry did.

Worse yet, she was wet. It had rained during the night. She checked her equipment. Soaking wet. It was entirely useless. Just great.

She had set out to catch up with Amory’s party just two days ago. They only had a half hour start on her when she was briefed, but she’d had to spend another day to get equipped. If they had traveled through the night, they probably had a good two-day start on her.

Sighing irritably, she flicked her bedraggled hair out of her face.

She got up off the ground. All she wanted to do was banish the boy from her mind. The way his sapphire green eyes had stared at her in shock scared her. Her sister’s own sightless brown ones nearly caused her to double over in pain. She just wanted to forget the boy who had killed Hanna, and she wanted to forget the way Hanna looked when she was dead. She wanted to remember Hanna as she was before she died. Happy and beautiful. Hanna had been one of the most precious, beautiful parts of Nari’s life.