Page 86 of Caelum

There was a weird scent in the air when we disembarked, and after a few seconds, I recognized it as the rivers. They had a unique smell that always made me want to gag. I didn’t know how the locals could live near the waters the way they did and could only assume they didn’t smell it anymore.

How that was possible was one of nature’s jokes.

It was like how Jason, the Omega Unit’s Sin Eater, didn’t know his feet were fucking rank. His socks would kill more Ghouls than his soul would, that was for damn sure.

The plane had come down on a flat chunk of land that, until last year, had been used for farming yams. They’d wrecked the soil, though, and while that was a shame for the locals, it meant we didn’t have to get on a boat to cross the river to reach Aboh.

The river was wide and housed small islets, but there were no bridges that connected one side to the other. It isolated the city in a way that made it look like it was a bow-tied gift to Ghouls.

As I peered up overhead, I could feel the ticking of time as it began to count down toward sunset. I was sensitive toward the rising of both the sun and the moon. Not simply because of my body clock, but because as agouille, I was born for these night missions.

I wouldn’t shift, my skin wouldn’t be impenetrable until graduation, but everything else about me wasgouille.Even when it was a Vampire day, liketoday, mygouillewas there, ever present. Watching over things and disliking my need to feed.

Our Alpha Unit scouted over the jetty, which was closing for the day. We figured this was where the initial boatload of Ghouls would touch down because it was easiest.

Ghouls weren’t the cleverest of God’s creatures. Especially the grunts Juliet McAllister surrounded herself with. They were numbskulls, pretty much like lemmings just waiting to be guided to a cliff they could walk off.

Only once they’d made it up the ladder did they start to show any signs of intelligence, and that could take a while. For a Ghoul to feed wasn’t an easy thing, and it took specific sustenance to keep several souls in line. I didn’t even want to imagine what Juliet had to eat to be high-functioning. It creeped me out just thinking about it.

While Dre and Stefan argued about positioning, I ignored them both. Mygouilleworked in ways their souls didn’t, and it automatically helped me ascertain the best locale for monitoring the area.

My body also shut down in a way theirs never would.Gouillesthat were in ‘active’ mode didn’t use the bathroom, had no need for food for up to four days, and were capable of staying in one position for a hundred hours or more.

I wasn’t at that level yet, but when I graduated, I would be.

The point mygouilleselected was on a faint rise behind the main jetty in the docks. I could see upriver as well as down if they surprised us by going against the flow of the water.

When they saw that I was in position, their argument stopped and I sensed them preparing for the battle ahead, leaving this duty to me.

Ten seconds before the sun was due to set, I could feel the approaching night, and I watched the sun tumble down and waited for the moon to rise.

It was a crescent moon tonight, which wasn’t great for visibility for the others. The Shifter souls would be okay, but the rest, not so much.

It was what it was though. We couldn’t always have the environment on our side, and the last three training missions we’d been lucky. Full moons, small armies of Ghouls, and two of the three had been in low populated areas with little risk to residents.

This mission was definitely a step up.

We’d gone from riding bikes with training wheels on to this one. A hardcore fight that would make or break us.

I didn’t intend on being broken, not when Eve was back at Caelum, wondering where we were and why we hadn’t taken her along.

I regretted not sharing our intentions with her, but we’d decided—evenDre had agreed and he had a hard-on where hurting her was concerned—that we would keep her out of the loop. The faculty had asked us to as well, and because Nicholas, Damon, and Merinda were handling her lessons, she was still in Year One mode, thinking we were just at school for the sake of being at school. Because that’s what kids did. Learned from books.

Caelum wasn’t a regular Academy though. It bred warriors and Eve, although she didn’t know it, had befriended some of the best in the school.

Most missions of this intensity were spearheaded by the warriors who’d hit twenty or twenty-one. Like Jason and his crew were. They were all over twenty now. But Frazer’s unit and ours? We were young to be in this position, but we were the best, and the faculty knew that and were training us to be better.

Even as pride filled me, I didn’t allow it to show as the sun finally set and darkness reigned. The whispers behind me had disappeared, and I knew we were all starting to feel the buzz of what was to come.

This was our first real trial and none of us intended to fail.

The city had slowed down, and although there was a road close by, I hadn’t even seen a car moving down it for two hours.

A hush had taken over Aboh, and the calm before the storm was the only warning I had.

Ninety minutes after sunset, my head tilted to the side when I heard a faint noise in the distance.

An engine.

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