Breeding in the Academy: Searching for Freedom (All 14)

Chapter 18

Mr. Blackbourne was stunned silent, blinking at Axel as if the words that came out of his mouth was too much to comprehend. His throat moved as he swallowed. Axel's words had attracted the attention of the other Prime. Kota walked over to where we were. His eyes were furrowed in worry. "Owen, what happened?"

Mr. Blackbourne ignored Kota, facing Axel. "Why?"

Axel frowned. "We received information that there is a tracking device hidden within your violin. We need to get rid of it before the Academy catches up to us."

Mr. Blackbourne was silent before nodding. He led Axel to a corner where a black violin case was laying on the ground. I looked at him, interested in why he was reluctant. Kota must have seen my expression because he saw my unspoken question. "It's his memento."

I looked at Kota with a raised eyebrow. "Memento?"

Kota nodded. His hair was messy and strands fell over his green eyes that were filled with a sadness. "Prime are not allowed to meet our family except for one time during the year. All of us have something that was given to us by our families. Owen was given that violin the last time he saw his mother."

My heart broke. From the story to the expression on Kota's sad face made me want to wrap Mr. Blackbourne in a hug to soothe his hurt. It was no wonder why he was nervous about giving his precious item to a person who is practically a stranger to him. "What happened to his mother?"

He shrugged. "Don't know. This all happened before the others and I met him. Sean was around him but wasn't familiar with him until later. All he told us was that she didn't come to see him anymore."

"What about you?"

Kota gave a bitter smile before pulling up the sleeve to his jacket. A piece of thick fabric was wound around his wrist. The color was faded slightly but it could clearly be seen that it once was a bright red. A silver tag hung from a loop. "When I lived with my mother, my father was not a good guy. I had a younger sister Jessica. When I was four, my father left us, and my mother bought us a golden retriever." A faint smile was on his face. "Jess and I named him Max. For the next few months, he followed me everywhere, and he was my closest friend. When I turned five, I had to live in the facility and I wasn't able to see him anymore. My mother said that he was doing fine with Jessica. When I turned fifteen, my mother told me that he died and gave me his collar because she felt that Max would have wanted me to have it."

I bit my lips, seeing that Kota had tears in his eyes. "You must have loved him very much."

He nodded. "I did. He was the best dog a person could ever want."

I was about to say something when I noticed that Axel was walking towards me with a serious look in his eyes. Kota must have seen that Axel wanted to talk to me alone because he walked away. Axel leaned towards me. "I found the tracker. The Academy must already know this location. We don't have much time before they will be here."

"We should check the other's things for any bugs or trackers." I said. Axel nodded and notified Brandon. They walked towards the Prime who nodded. Now what to do with the others.

Biting my lip as I thought, I looked around. My eyes landed on Corey who had Raven and Sean hovering above him. Striding towards them, Raven noticed me and backed away a few steps. Corey was awake but had a slight dazed look in his eyes. Sean looked behind his shoulder and gave me a smile. Kneeling next to Sean, I winced as my knees touched the cool cement and looked at Sean who was frowning at me. "How is Corey?"

Sean jerked his head to get a curl of hair out of his eyes. "The bullet went through. I stitched and bandaged him. Other than that, he's okay."

I nodded. "That's good. We need to move quickly."

As they started to gather their things, Axel reported that there were no other trackers on the Prime. Relieved, I looked at the twenty beings who awaited my orders. "We will be traveling to the South Carolina Headquarters. About two miles from here are a four vehicles. Axel, Brandon, me-" I sucked in a breath before pushing the next words out, "and Raven will drive."

Gabriel noticed my reluctance to letting Raven drive and pointed at the Russian. "Why don't you want Raven to drive?"

Raven smugly smiled and puffed out his chest. "They are jelly of my driving skills."

Brandon rolled his eyes. "What driving skills?"

Axel sighed. "Jelly? Raven, where in the world do you get these words?"

Raven shrugged. "From the birds on the base."

Marc smirked before wrapping an arm around Gabriel's shoulders. "You should drive with Raven. Then you will understand."

Gabriel looked at me as he realized he might have made a mistake. Corey sighed and muttered. "There is a reason why Volto banned him from driving. He'd lead us to our deaths."

All of us knew that Raven's driving would always make us feel as if we narrowly escaped death. If Raven took these Prime on a ride, I'd fear that they'd never want to climb into another vehicle again. Oh, well, Gabriel asked for it. I clapped my hands. "We need to move quickly so let's go."

This trip, we had flashlights lead our way in the forest. The bug that was hidden in Mr. Blackbourne's violin case was thrown in the brush while we walked in the opposite direction. The air was cool, causing goosebumps to appear despite having jackets on.

Nathan was walking behind me, and I could feel his eyes burning at my back. Glancing behind me, I noticed that he didn't hold any hostility but wanted to ask me something. "Do you have something you want to ask me, Nathan?"

He tilted his head. His blue eyes looked at me with curiosity. "Why do they call you Volto?"

Eyes turned toward me. The Prime held interest while the Toma team had a sad look in their eyes. Sighing, I held up two fingers. "The mask is called a volto mask. When I first started to do missions, I wanted to hide my face. The Phoenix started to call me Volto so that became my second nickname. The second reason is to hide my identity from a dangerous person. I have people in my past that I don't want them to find me."

Brown eyes caught mine. Milo looked at me with understanding because we both knew who wants me to die the most.