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Chapter 17

Chapter 15: I Trust You

Cat Eyes: Sirius [Book 1]

The next city was the capital, finally. I calculated it would be another day of travel. We continued rummaging through the player's music, but he asked me to tell him about myself, although I had already done so a little.

"I think I have more questions about you."

"Yeah, but I want to know about your culture also. For example, you didn't tell me about kisses. I told you about babies appearing, but you didn't explain it. I know you know more about it..."

I laughed and tapped my forehead.

"Yeah, well..."

He looked serious again. If it were not that sometimes he was quiet for moments, I would have suspected something was bothering him. Maybe it had been my kiss, but thinking about that was stupid because he also kissed me.

It was close to noon, so we stopped. Anthony showed me how to make his makeshift kitchen again, and I prepared some pre-cooked meat.

We sat down to eat, I gave him a milk bottle, and he just smiled. His smile was missing something. I got distressed to think that maybe there really was something that worried him. I ate in silence until I couldn't bear it.

"Hey... Don't be worried. If something happens and you have to fight, I'll be fine, okay?"

He looked at me, confused for a few seconds, then looked down.

"I know you don't like me fighting, and I've tried to avoid it, as you see, but I still did hurt you."

I denied in silence, smiling.

"No. Forget it. I was a fool to get offended. You reasoned with them instead of hitting them. That makes me feel... proud."

I didn't understand. Was he so concerned? Maybe I was the one who should understand that those things were new for him since his culture was quite different, as everyone said.

"You are a good person," I assured him.

He barely smiled again, as if he didn't believe it. He didn't believe what I had said. Maybe something else was wrong. Perhaps he was not like that because of me.

"I just hope I don't fail you again for as long as I'm with you," he muttered.

I felt some panic.

"As long as you are with me? Don't say that. I want you to stay with me..." I noticed that I was starting to blush, and he seemed surprised. "You also said you would show me your town."

He smiled.

"Yes."

I felt the relief go through me. He and his pretty smile were back. Maybe what worried him was dying because of fighting or because of my government.

"Everything will be fine," I whispered. "I'm not going to let them touch you."

"But I'm not going to let them touch you either. I'll get in front of them anyway, so if I..."

"No, Anthony..."

"If I die... please don't be distressed."

Jeez. I sighed in frustration.

"Okay. Okaaay," I said, annoyed, which also surprised him. "In your culture, you guys think a lot about death. It seems to me."

He smiled with guilt.

"Yes, maybe, because I see that you don't..."

"We may think about it, but we don't have it as present as a daily possibility... I don't know."

"My tutor always instructed us about death. Death and honor. And he wasn't the only one, so... yeah. I guess it's part of my culture."

"I have seen that since you told me that if you committed a fault, you could choose to die with honor or choose to be exiled..."

"Banished as a coward." Again, he returned to his serious expression. I wanted to give myself another slap on the forehead. "My tutor would make me want to choose death."

I felt annoyed. Abusive!

"Look." I sighed. "You are not a coward; you are courageous and strong. And excuse me, but your tutor exaggerates. In my culture, fear of death is not cowardice, okay? And it's not okay to hit people either." Another doubt came to my mind. "What did you do that they thought was so serious as to kill or exile you?"

He showed a sad smile and slowly denied it. I felt more weight in my stomach than before. I assumed he wouldn't tell me, and that distressed me. How bad was it?

"I'm not going to stop seeing you as I see you now," I added, looking at him tenderly.

He doubted.

"How do you see me now?"

"I..."

He jumped to his feet, and I was startled.

"Damn..." he muttered.

"What's going on?"

"He smelled us. He's close. Let's go!" He picked up the backpack and tugged my hand.

We start to run. He was fast, but I was slow. We stopped.

"Get on my back," he said as he took out the backpack.

"Is it just one?" I asked as I climbed onto his back.

"One, but it could be two..."

I was petrified. Two? One was bad enough already. I wrapped my arms around him, holding on tight as he ran. He was going fast, but it was still a delay with me. He stopped suddenly and let me step on the ground. He looked distressed because there was a large cougar in front of us.

"Stay back," he asked.

Maybe he had sniffed those animals and not an EH. If they were not evolved, that was a relief for me. Wild animals rarely decided to fight and preferred to run away and get to safety.

The animal was crouched but could well escape at any time. Anthony began to let out a very low growl of warning. I heard a noise behind me, and I worried more. He began to growl louder when he saw that the animal didn't retreat, and I could feel how his back vibrated. The animal ran off, and Anthony turned and stood before me again to face what was behind us.

An EH. Another exiled, with tattered clothes.

"Human," he snarled. "Where are you taking her? I will kill her." Anthony started backing up, making me back up too. "Oh, I see. This is new. You are a traitor to our species."

He wanted to get me, but Anthony growled warningly at him. The man stopped and showed a sinister smile.

"He is not a traitor!" I exclaimed. "We try to stop the disputes between the two species. There is no reason to continue fighting!"

"You dumb," the man scoffed.

He growled and lunged for me, but Anthony stopped him by grabbing his neck and knocking him to the ground in a second.

"Sorry for the brusqueness," Anthony said mockingly, "but you're not even going to approach her."

The man stood up like a bullet, growling furiously like a dog, and Anthony looked at me, implying that I should run away. I felt distressed, not again.

I started to run, and this triggered the fight between them. I heard those wild grunts; they were furious. I stopped after a few feet when I heard a knock on the ground and turned to look.

The man had fallen and reattacked, and Anthony used the force he came to pull him and throw him away again. Apparently, he was not as good at fighting. Maybe he had not been trained by someone as wild as Anthony's tutor. The man lunged again, and Anthony lifted his knee and stamped his sneaker sole on his chest, throwing him.

I saw with horror that a cougar was crouching behind bushes. At the same time, another one appeared by my side, ready to attack too.

"Anthony!" I screeched.

"Marien!" I heard him yell in response.

The cougar leaped at me, and I could barely see how something impacted the animal, taking it away. I looked closely, realizing Anthony had thrown the man against it.

"You're so mean!"

"Let's go!" He tugged on my hand, and we started running. The other cougar came behind. "Does everyone want to eat you today?"

I felt embarrassed. He was running so fast that my feet barely touched the ground. This time, he didn't suppress his speed for me to keep up with him. I looked around, and the evolved man and cougar came after us. We stopped again, skidding on the ground because we had reached the edge. Perfect.

Anthony looked at our pursuers, pulled me again, and ran to the edge.

"Wait...!" It was the only thing I could say before Anthony threw himself on his back toward the precipice with me in his arms.

I let out a loud, high-pitched scream against his chest. We slid on the dirt and continued down at high speed. I was distressed and swallowed earth for screaming. The surface ended, and we fell into the void. In a few seconds, we burst into the top of a tree, breaking the branches violently. I felt some cuts and scratches on my arms' unprotected parts, and we ended up on the ground with a loud, sharp thump.

I was breathing heavily. Anthony sat up quickly, helping me up.

"Are you okay?" he wanted to know.

"Are you crazy?!" I screamed. "What if it was a worse fall!" I gave him a slight shake. "What if I got an anxiety attack!"

He smiled.

"Yes, you're fine," he said and hugged me tightly, accelerating my heartbeat even more.

I returned the hug, relieved that he was okay. My heart was pounding from the fall and his embrace. Somehow, I trusted him. He knew what he was doing.

"Let's go."

He took the backpack from my back and put it on to continue our way.

We had strayed a little because of the fight, but Anthony knew where the place was, so I let myself be guided.

Night came soon, so we stopped under some trees.

"We are close. Tomorrow, in a few hours, we will be there," he murmured.

"If you like, we can continue and arrive at dawn," I suggested.

"No. Get some rest. I can handle another night watching."

That was not healthy. Because of warding me, he hardly slept. I felt guilty at times, but I should not worry him. He sat at the foot of a nearby tree, flexed his legs, and rested his forearms on his knees so that he would be up all night, again alert. I settled down to sleep and looked at the starry sky. It was exceptionally beautiful.

"Marien..." he muttered. "Would you... come here?" he asked shyly.

I blushed and felt a tingling in my stomach. Maybe he would have something to tell me. Perhaps he would say he was worried about something, or maybe... Maybe he would confess what he had done. I went over to him, and he reached out, took my hand, and pulled gently. I sat between his legs, and he put his arms around me.

"If I fall asleep, no one can approach you without waking me first."

"Oh..." Disappointment.

"Do you trust me?" he asked, whispering.

"Yes, of course, I do... blindly."

I settled on his chest, and he laid his cheek on my head, making me feel like flying among the clouds. I felt at home for the first time, and it was between his arms. It was the very first time I felt something like that.

He held me tight and sighed, rubbing his cheek against my head for a few seconds. Wow, he was affectionate. Why did everyone say they couldn't feel? Now, it seemed that he could love. I kind of got high with his delicious masculine scent. If he never loved me, I would still be by his side.

***

When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying on the floor, and Anthony still had me in his arms. He had slipped from the tree, and we ended up lying flat. I smiled, buried my nose in his chest, and then looked at him. He was quietly asleep.

I slid slowly to better reach his face and kissed him on the cheek. He opened his beautiful eyes of flashing green and cat pupils, and I walked away smiling.

"Good morning," I said, and he offered me a sweet smile.

While we continued our trip, he was quiet but looked completely calm. I felt like the happiest girl in the world, for the moment, until now. If I could tell him what I felt and he accepted it one day, I would probably feel even happier. I smiled at the idea.

I was still observing the forest. It was stunning.

"We will have arrived in a few hours," he said.

I nodded. If I was going to spend another night in his arms, I was no longer in a hurry to get to the capital, except that the days passed, and we had to prevent a war and that weapon use. Fortunately, without me, they couldn't work well with the toxin, which relieved me.

After a few hours, I spotted something. Yes, it was a city, but it didn't look like the town we had crossed before, nor the capital. This one was a little more rural. I saw some crop plots that were also weird since those didn't used to be on the outskirts of our cities. The strangest thing was that it didn't have the country's flag humans put in the other towns.

When I managed to see a flag, I worried. It was not the country's flag. It was different. It was completely red, with a vertical black oval in the center. The object was pretending to be the eye of an evolved.

"No, this is not, is..." It was an evolved people's town, without a doubt. "Is this your city?"

"Sorry, but no," he replied, shrugging.

I heard some noises and shuddered. Two evolved men appeared from one of the nearby ruined houses. Many questions went through my head. I didn't understand, and at the same time, I tried to reject the only obvious thing: was it a trap?

"Well done, Sirius. It was worth the waiting," said one of them.

Sirius?

If Anthony was already deadly, I couldn't imagine how relentless these two could be. One of them, the one who spoke and, by the way, the most enormous, had the irises of his eyes of an intense honey color. The other one had them almost glowing light blue and appeared to be the same age as Anthony. They both had military-like pants and black shirts.

Anthony approached them, leaving me stunned. They said a few words and turned to look at me.

"It is an honor, Doctor Marien. One of the pioneers in wanting to make a weapon to destroy us," said the honey-eyed evolved man.

Two other scarlet-eyed appeared from behind and grabbed me by the arms. I stifled a scream. I was terrified. I looked at Anthony, seeking an explanation, but only found a hard look without feelings.

The man on my right tugged on my arm, and then the one on my left stopped him with a low growl as he showed his fangs.

"Enough. I said the two of you would take her to her cell, so move on and work as a team," growled the huge evolved, who seemed to be the leader.

They both pulled me, almost dragging me away. Anthony and the other two walked forward. We arrived at a building that was not in particularly good condition. They took me through a couple of corridors to one room with a metal door with no opening.

I felt lost and lonely. I couldn't stop a couple of tears from running down my face.

They opened the door and threw me inside. I crawled up to the wall that had a small high window. There was a bed on my side, more of a bunk bed, and a small room at the back, supposedly the bathroom. They threw my backpack at my feet, which was almost empty.

The three men got in, and I didn't want to be seen as gloomy, but it was too late. Looking back into Anthony's cold and expressionless eyes made me collide entirely with reality. The big, honey-eyed man took a step toward me.

"What?"

"I think she still doesn't understand what's going on," suggested the blue-eyed one.

The leader went one step further.

"Tell me, what did you think?" he said this time in mockery.

"Why?" I asked Anthony.

"Leave my boy alone," complained the leader. "He did his job better than I expected." The man approached me, feigning compassion. "Don't cry. It is not personal. He had a mission, and he fulfilled it, that is all. We are fighters, but you humans are so... sensible."

I heard the other's low laughs. I looked up and immediately regretted it after meeting those deep green eyes. There was no sign of the Anthony I knew. He was dead.

"Orion, she is in shock," said the light blue-eyed.

The leader, who was called Orion, turned away.

"Humans and their ridiculous feelings," he murmured. "Mentalize so you can collaborate. I'll come later. Please, I really want you to collaborate, then... and just then, you will get out of here."

The three left my cell, and I hugged my knees tight; I was lost.

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