A/N:
Released on September 27, 2018

I meant to put this chapter up yesterday, but it completely slipped my mind, since I was really busy taking the day to clean the house and organize my bedroom, which took much longer than I expected.

Anyway, here's another chapter! The book is winding down, in a way, since it's almost the end of the book! I'm shooting for around 40 chapters, like the first book in the series.

I have a lot of plans for this and the third book. I'm hoping that the series will go beyond three books, but we'll have to see later on :)

And you know me, I'm always secretely planning things for the spinoff books for each of my series.

Such as multple spinoffs I have planned for The City of Cain Trilogy :)

But as you wait for updates and new books, don't forget to check out my other books, such as my two Teen Wolf fanfictions, Beyond The Lens and Affectivity.

Alright, on to this chapter! Enjoy XD

Word Count: 2652

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Chapter 29: Proven Loyalty

With no urgent matter pushing us to frantically create another plan, Zane and I must have fallen asleep.

I was surprised upon waking, wondering how we had found a moment of peace for ourselves in the crazy times we were stuck in, scrambling to keep afloat.

Curled against my boyfriend's side with his arm wrapped around me, I felt safer than I had in a long time.

I could almost imagine us living in the house together for an extended time, the space our very own with no one hunting us down.

But I knew that it might be the only chance I had to speak with Ash alone, without a chance for Zane to eavesdrop.

So I carefully disentangled myself from the precarious situation. Zane grunted in his sleep, repositioning himself on the couch.

I didn't dare to even breathe as I snuck away, turning to the hallway to the room that Ash was staying in.

I paused when I noticed the lack of light in the room. I could still see because vampires had a sort of night vision from having better eyesight, but I found it strange anyway.

I glanced at the window, already guessing what the problem was. We had pulled the curtains shut as soon as we got to the foreclosed home so as not to be seen, but that wasn't what I felt was off.

Lightly taking hold of one of the heavy curtains, I moved it aside enough to see out but not be seen by onlookers.

Just as I had suspected, it was night out. I was losing track of days and nights, but I knew it couldn't have been more than a few days since I left home again, despite everything that had happened.

I gingerly set the curtain back in place, staring off at nothing in particular.

If I had to guess, it was day four of being on the road with Zane, assuming that it was past midnight.

And although the time was short, I missed Lucy as much as I did when I was kidnapped and taken to Storm.

I was upset with her because of the fight, but after talking to Zane about when I woke up earlier with thoughts of my sister on my mind, I realized that I needed to take it upon myself to fix things.

Lucile was only losing faith in me because of how many times I withhold the truth from her. It was my fault that we were in our current mess, because I was shielding her from anything that had to do with Storm.

But Lucy's old enough to handle things on her own. And if I were to tell her everything, with Zane by my side as he'd promised before, it wouldn't be like she'd be alone. She would have me.

And my boyfriend said he also wanted to live a normal life in my hometown with me and my family. Everything would work out the way it should, the way it would be planned.

It all had to start with me apologizing to Lucy in the morning, when I'm sure she'll be awake.

In the meantime, it was time to speak to Ash.

I made my way down the hallway, turning the doorknob as gently as possible, slipping into the room unnoticed.

My friend was still asleep on the worn out mattress, but his jacket had been cast aside, lying on the ground.

I picked it up and set it at his feet, wondering how the best way to wake him up would be. I wouldn't want to alarm him, so I decided to get in his head instead of shaking him.

"Ash?" I called out quietly, hoping that he'd hear me enough to wake up.

If I was too loud, he'd scramble awake and possibly make noise, alerting Zane and disturbing his sleep as well.

"Ash? It's Alicia. I need you to wake up. We need to talk... alone. Wake up, so we can talk before Zane gets up. It's important!" I thought out to him, trying my best to make my telepathic tone sound urgent.

It seemed to work as he stood back, watching Ash shift in his sleep. If I was more persistent, I was sure he would wake up. "Ash, hey! I need you to wake up! And be quiet or you'll wake up Zane."

Ash's eyes finally opened, he reeled back a bit, seeing me standing a few feet away, even though he had heard my voice in his head.

He closed his eyes to calm himself, running a hand over his face to fully wake up.

He sat up and turned to me, opening his mouth to speak, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Shhh! I don't want to wake up Zane." I repeated in his mind, causing him to shut his mouth.

"It's about the whole hybrid thing. We don't know what's going on with him and he refuses to discuss it." I explain quickly.

We could've had a whispered conversation, but Zane could wake up and listen through the house to find us, then begin listening to us talking about him.

"So why do you need to talk to me about it?" Ash thought to me, sounding sincere and curious.

I gave him a pointed look, to which he half smiled, holding back a laugh.

"You know why. You're the only person I can talk to about this. Now help me!" I spouted back.

My friend pressed his lips together to keep from laughing. "You want advice? Leave it alone."

He finally got serious with the matter. "He obviously doesn't want help. Being there for him should be enough, even if you two aren't talking about what's going on with him. Unless things get worse and he starts acting differently, you're doing what you should be."

"Acting differently? Do orange eyes, being faster, and being stronger not fall into that category?" I counter, feeling the need to do something, for Ash to give advice that would really help me get through to Zane.

"In a way, yes it does. But that's not what I meant." Ash sighed. "I wish we could talk out loud. This is too weird."

"This isn't the first time we've spoken in our minds." I pointed out, hoping to ease his nerves and get back on track.

"No, but that was always in emergencies. This is an actual conversation and I'm definitely not used to it." Ash frowned at me.

I shook my head and kept sending thoughts to him. "I already explained why this can't be out loud."

"Because you don't want your boyfriend to know you're going behind his back?" Ash fired back, shocking me into silence as he went on. "You really think I want to get in between you two like this? Sure, I don't like him because he's been double sided since we met him, but I don't want to cause any more trouble."

"Wait a second..." I thought, finding the words to say at last. "You've been fighting with Zane because you don't trust him? I'm pretty sure he's established many times that he's on our side."

Ash turned away from me, running a hand over his face in exasperation, realizing that he'd said the wrong thing at the wrong time. "Yeah, but has he ever had the chance to prove to us otherwise?"

I balled my hands at my sides, anger coursing through me at the new revelation that Ash thought Zane would turn on us, when Ash was the one who planned on leaving.

I opened my mouth to protest, possibly to shout at him as well, but remembered that we couldn't do this aloud. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"We've fought plenty of vampire hunters, and I've had to fight a few of Storm's men, but we haven't seen Zane fight any of them. We have no proof that he isn't double crossing us. Didn't that ever cross your mind?" Ash demanded, confusing me further because that was not how I'd expected things to go.

"No because he's proven himself, okay? Just drop it, Ash! I wanted- No, I needed- you to tell me something that would let me help our friend." I could barely look at Ash at that point, so I stared at the covered window.

"Alicia..." He thought out to me regretfully, but I stopped him before he could continue.

When I faced him again, he looked sincerely apologetic, but we didn't have the time for it. "If you're going to say anything that has to do with Zane besides this hybrid problem, then I suggest you rethink it."

Ash stood up from his spot on the old mattress, standing a few feet away from me nonchalantly, pretending that the past few minutes hadn't happened, the same as I was doing. "Alright. If you're looking for advice, I'd say that you have to wait and see what happens."

Before I could tell him how horrible that advice was, he went on to elaborate. "Zane has been acting like his normal self, unless it's in a fight to protect you. The things you said about his eyes changing color and his abilities seeming stronger, those definitely mean that he at least has some side effects."

I rolled my eyes to assure him that I already knew that and I was getting impatient.

He gave me a look as if to say that he was getting to the point. "What I'm trying to say is, if he's a hybrid we'll definitely know. He'd be going out of control, not just in a fight, but in any stressful situation. His eyes would glow orange if he's angry, he'd lose his temper more easily, and he would be drinking less blood than usual, since hybrids are half werewolf and don't need blood to survive like vampires do."

"Okay, finally something helpful." I teased, attempting to clear the air of residual tension.

I knew that I should, and had the right to, be upset with Ash for not trusting Zane. But there wasn't much I could do about it. And even though Ash might be right about us not having any way to be 100% certain that Zane was on our side, I trusted my boyfriend.

I guessed that was what I was obligated to do, seeing how close we were, but I hadn't had even a shred of doubt of his loyalty and hatred of Storm since we escaped.

Besides, I couldn't forget about my telepathic ability to sense dangerous vampires nearby. It would go off the moment there was a vampire nearby that was out to get me, and it hadn't gone off since the day that I met the other Storm hating vampire, Anthony.

"So that's it? Just look out for signs of him being a hybrid?" I asked Ash, getting my thoughts back on track enough to send to him.

"Yep. I think it's unlikely that he's truly a hybrid. If not, the symptoms should go away. But if he is a hybrid, I'll tell you the same thing that I've been saying about myself." Ash raised an eyebrow, wanting my full attention.

"Stay away from people who are dangerous. He could go out of control. Then what would you do?"

I shrugged, hoping to convince him with my stance that the possibility of his words being true didn't chill me in the slightest.

"I'd fight him and win." I stated with a smirk, even though my false statement put a bad feeling in my stomach, one that told me there was no way I would fight Zane.

I certainly wouldn't win if it came to a fight.

"I'm sure you would beat the crap out of him." Ash reassured me with a knowing smile that made me laugh.

I inhaled quickly and whirled to face the door, listening through the house to make sure the noise hadn't woken up Zane.

I didn't hear anything but his even breathing, so I assumed he was still asleep.

And fortunately, I didn't feel bad in the slightest for talking about him with Ash. The only reason I did it was to make sure that I could help him more in some way. I wasn't sure how much I could do, but I could try.

After a quick goodbye, I left Ash alone to go find something else to do. I was itching to get out of the house, but I knew that wasn't something that I could risk.

I went back into the living room and sat in front of the window, pulling back the curtain just a tad to see through to the night sky.

I wasn't sure how long I sat there, letting go of my thoughts and worries.

But the relaxation brought on the desire to sleep, so I stood from my spot, stretched to get rid of the numbness throughout my limbs, then moved to join Zane on the couch once again.

He put his arm back around me without a word, still breathing evenly in his sleep, settling comfortably with me as if I hadn't left at all.

~*~

"Zane! Look at this." I shoved a piece of paper at him, handing over what I'd just found in the room Ash had been staying in.

It was hours after I had gone to sleep, light straining to shine through the closed curtains.

My boyfriend quickly scanned the note, looking up in shock as he finished with it, setting it down on the coffee table as he wiped the expression from his face.

"Ash left. He didn't bother to say goodbye." I muttered, saying it out of spite and not meaning to be loud enough to be heard.

Zane's eyebrows spiked upward, sending a knowing look my way. "Well, why didn't you say goodbye when you left Ash's cabin to go see your family?"

I sighed, the direction of the discussion being painfully clear to me. "I couldn't allow you guys to try talking me out of it, or even from forcing me to stay."

He nodded his head, hinting that I was proving his point. "You never would've let him leave. He thinks this is for the best. Besides, he was right the other day. This is our mission and we can handle it alone."

I couldn't disagree with the fact that this had started out as Zane and I's mission, to find my brother Jake and regain Zane's telepathy. But we had brought Ash into it.

"Are you sure? All of it sounds pretty risky to me. Another person would've been nice to have." I protested lightly, keeping any anger I felt down because my boyfriend was doing the same.

We weren't about to fight over this. He wasn't angry with me, and the same thing was true in reverse.

Zane grinned at his comment, glad with the conclusion of the argument. "We can do it. You're the one who first had faith in that."

"Well obviously, I make stupid decisions." I quip, only half joking on the matter.

Zane walked over to me, throwing an arm around my shoulders to pull me into a side hug. I happily gave in, wrapping my arms around his waist.

Even though Ash made his choice, taking off on his own and leaving us to deal with the vampire hunters alone, I knew that we'd be okay.

And the note did mention him possibly drawing the hunters away from us on his way out of town.

All I had to concern myself with was the plans that Zane and I had made when we decided to leave my house.

The next step was to prepare for a telepathic battle.

Assuming that Zane was right about Storm holding his evil telepathic vampire in his secret science facility, I had to go through that guy to return Zane's telepathy to him.