Cerberi

Heath immediately released me, using his grasp on my waist to tug me behind his hulking frame just as the bedroom door flew open with such force that it slammed against the adjacent wall and bounced forward.

Two men stood in the doorway and the sounds of a scuffle reached us from the hallway. I moved forward to stand beside Heath. While I was flattered that he wanted to protect me, I was entirely capable of defending myself -- at least most of the time.

It was a rather absurd, silent standoff, with all parties glaring at each other. I finally made the first move, stepping toward the men. As soon as I lifted my foot, the man on the right tensed. I smirked and he glared. That only served to piss him off and he ran at me. I braced myself as he tackled me and fell to the ground as I did. Just as Heath started to move over toward us, the other man engaged him and they brawled in the corner.

The man on top of me struggled to get the upper hand, continuously making attempts to either smash my skull into the floor or to grab my throat. As I fought off his arms, a sudden realization sprouted in my mind. I recognized this man. He was one of my attackers the other night, the man who helped pin me and who was now a source of my nightmares.

Red hot anger surged through me, and I shifted around enough to send my knee into his crotch. He twisted away from me in pain, giving me a window to shove him off of me. I climbed to my feet, kicking him roughly in the ribs.

I kicked him again. And then again. And again. And again. And when he curled into a heap, I began aiming for his head. I got in two solid blows before muscular arms wrapped around me and jerked me away.

"Cas. Cassie. Stop. Calm down, he's unconscious," he murmured, still restraining me.

I wasn't through, though. I didn't care if I had knocked him out. The splatter of blood on my boot was not enough to satisfy me. I wanted him dead. I wanted him dead because I still felt that raw burning inside, the one that said I was weak and afraid and terrorized. That raw fire traveled to my throat every time I woke up in a fit from a nightmare. The fear choked me.

When I got my breathing down to a more acceptable rate, Heath loosened his grip. I turned toward him, peering around him to see that the man he had been fighting with was gone. I lifted my eyes to his face, noticing that he had a busted lip and bruised nose, each injury gushing blood. Before I could offer to make sure his nose wasn't broken, a pained groan drifted in from the hallway.

I quickly headed out of the room to find James crumpled against the wall, clutching his side. I was at his feet in a moment, crouching beside him and swatting his hands away so that I could see the damage done. There was blood, and as I lightly ran my fingers over his side, I could feel distended ribs. James batted my hands away when I touched a particularly painful spot.

"Fuck, dammit Cas, that hurts," he hissed between clenched teeth.

"Stop being such a pansy, James," Heath interjected as he wiped blood from beneath his nose, wincing slightly.

I huffed a sigh, straightening up. "Alright, so everyone wants to kill us because we went outside the wall? They should be pissed at The Council, not us."

There was a quick burst of gunfire outside. The three of us exchanged alarmed looks before I moved past Heath and back into the bedroom to peek out the window. Our Commanding Officers held guns and were rounding people up, shouting orders and demanding that everyone file into rank.

I turned and headed back out into the hallway, where Heath was helping James to his feet.

"What's going on?" James grunted.

"The COs are rounding everyone up. It looks like they're trying to get everything back in order."



A Day Later

A fragile peace ensued, one dangling precariously over a particularly steep slope. We got word that five Cerberi had been killed by the new police force for attempting to visit friends in the city. That really ticked the rest of us off. Everyone was on edge.

That night, I sat with Heath. He was stretched out across the length of his bed while I sat cross-legged at his hip. James was asleep in his room. He had a broken rib, two that were bruised, and a stab wound. He was in pain, refused to take painkillers for "such a minor injury", and hadn't left his bedroom in a few hours.

"Now that I've had two attempts made on my life, I think I deserve to know why all this is happening. And I know that you know more than you're letting on," I murmured, plucking at the blanket on Heath's bed.

Heath let out a long, slow sigh. I lifted my eyes to his face to gauge his reaction. His nose wasn't broken, but it was bruised and the purple patches stretched up toward his eyes. His lip was swollen as well, but his blue irises were as vibrant as ever.

"The Council has been wanting to put us under their thumb since our group was established," he said as he reached out to touch my hand. "They fear us. We have the respect of the population. And weapons. We pose a threat to their power." He kind of shrugged, which looked awkward since he was lying down. "The Council has sent in some of their children in order to have loyal members in here."

"Cerberi are orphans, though. How'd they get their kids in here?"

Heath lifted his deep blue eyes to my face before they fell back to our hands, "I don't know," he drawled. "They've recruited others though. Typically through bribes."

"How do you know all this?" I asked casually, glancing up at him quickly before I dropped my eyes to his chest, watching it rise and fall steadily with every slow breath he took.

"I've heard things around camp," he replied just as casually.

I was quiet for a moment, turning over the information in my mind. "Why don't they just disband the Cerberi if they feel so threatened?" I asked quietly, the vocalized pondering only half directed at Heath.

The blonde man looked up at me again, "Because the people love us and view us as heroes. The Council has to save face by making us look bad so it would seem like our dissolution was necessary. If they didn't make us look irrational and reckless first, the people would be pretty pissed off."

I nodded slowly, glad that he had finally answered my questions.

His fingers laced with mine, and he gave my hand a gentle squeeze, "Now can we please act normal for a minute and talk about something else?" he asked with a small, crooked smile. It was a smile I had already grown to adore.

"Sure," I laughed. "Heath, tell me all about yourself," I asked grandly.

"He's an asshole who thinks he's more than profoundly attractive and he has a habit of doing a shitty job with sutures."

James' voice startled me, and I turned toward the sound, offering the injured man a smile. He gave me a pained grin back, clutching his side. His eyes drifted over my head toward Heath and then fell to our joined hands.

"To be fair, I couldn't get you to sit still," Heath countered.

"You know I don't like needles," James said defensively.

I chuckled at the two before climbing to my feet, "C'mon, James." I walked past him into the bathroom and pulled out the small kit that included a needle and thread, and then grabbed a few other necessities. James made a face, but followed me into the small room.

There was only one question I had left: Why did Heath know so much?



That question proved to be a nuisance. It was a niggling in the back of my mind. It ate away at me when I tried to sleep and haunted my waking hours. How could he know all this? Surely The Council wanted to keep such things under wraps. Yet an everyday, common Cerberus knew all about it. Was he lying? Or had he really just picked up information around camp?

I woke up early the next morning and decided to see if there was anything I could do to preserve the camp's rocky stability. I tugged on a pair of jeans and tucked the bottoms into my boots. I topped my outfit off with a warm, thick sweatshirt and tied my hair back.

I sneaked out of our apartment and out of the building, cool air filling my lungs. As I turned toward the mess hall, I nearly ran right into Elizabeth. The bubbly brunette gave me a broad grin and tossed her arms around me in a tight hug that I awkwardly returned.

"Cassie! I'm glad to see that you're safe. Things have been kinda crazy."

I nodded and she joined me on my walk toward the largest building. "Yeah, they really have."

Something sparked in my mind and dawned on me after a moment.

"How well do you know Heath?" I asked suddenly.

Elizabeth glanced at me curiously, before laughing, "Pretty well. He's my brother after all."

That came as a surprise. "Really? I didn't know." I paused, thinking over my question before I decided to ask it anyway. "Um, do you know why he knows so much about all this stuff with The Council and why they're doing this?"

Elizabeth came to a sudden stop, her blue eyes boring into mine. I shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, adjusting my weight to my other foot as I stopped in front of her. There was cramped silence between us as she scrutinized me. I decided to retract my question.

"Uh, never--" I started.

"You can't say anything."

"What?"

"You can't say anything to anyone. Promise."

"Uh, I promise?"

"I'm serious, Cassie." And I believed her. I'd never seen the happy woman so somber before. All signs of giddiness had melted into a stoic mask.

"I promise I won't say anything," I said quickly.

Elizabeth sighed, examining my face scrupulously for a moment before she gave a quick, hesitant glance around. "Heath's my half-brother. We have the same mother. She died giving birth to me. My dad died a few years later and I was enrolled in the Cerberi program shortly after."

I furrowed my brows slightly, trying to figure out how any of that information pertained to my question. It was a pretty typical story. My parents had died when I was young, too.

But there was more.

Elizabeth continued, "Heath's dad is on The Council. He's not an orphan."