Coming Home (BoyxBoy)

I'm being trusted?

Noah's POV

"Your new trick could be extremely useful. Disorient the enemy by making them relive the personal hells hiding in their memories. I just wish you didn't learn how to do that with Jason though,"gramps sighed.

I sat, toying with the covers on one of his books. Ever since I had seen Jason's memory, I hadn't seen much of him. We still trained but that was about it and I got the sneaking suspicion that he avoided touching me as much as he could.

"I think I should try to save Nate," gramps cocked an eyebrow as if he could tell that I was trying to distract myself from Jason.

"Okay," my head shot up from the book in response to gramps answer.

"What?"

"You have a ways to go still....but you've learned a lot about your powers. You've trained for hours and to be honest you need some practical application of the skills you've learned. There's an intelligence group going out tonight. Meet with them at 7pm in the library, figure out how you'll assist them and then you can go."

Gramps smiled and dismissed me from the study. He was actually trusting me and I didn't see that coming.
~

"The main goal for tonight is just to gather intel. We have it on good authority that tonight the dark king will be summoned so we lay low and try not to draw any attention to ourselves," Cameron addressed the group of four besides myself.

"Why would we bring the source with us? Isn't he the most valuable defense we have in the upcoming war?" A pretty redhead pointed out.

"Gramps gave the go ahead and Noah knows what he's there to do. We have to trust that Noah can hold his own," Cameron smiled reassuringly but all I felt was dread.

Could I actually do this? Was I going to be able to face my crippling anxiety and for once just go for it? My heart thundered in my chest as I thought about being in close vicinity to the dark king. What if he could... sniff me out?

"Did you get that?" my attention snapped back to Cameron.

"Yes I did," shit no I didn't.

"Good, we leave in two hours," Cameron confirmed with a nod.

Great, I had two hours to agonize. I decided to spend my time looking into the pasts of the objects in the library and that was pretty boring. I saw the conversations, essentially the normal lives of the nosti that had occupied the house before.

While boring, the task took up the two hours I had to kill. The alarm I had set on my watch beeped and I ran to my room to get ready.

What do you wear to sneak into an enemy compound? I decided to go for something practical I wouldn't mind dying in...

"When I say two hours I mean it. Noah, you're late," I was huffing by the time I got to the library, two minutes after the meeting time.

I wanted to protest at how absurd that was, but I remembered what Jason said in training, even one minute can be the difference of you getting home or being left on the field.

Cameron shook his head and told the others to load the truck while he pulled me aside.

"No one would blame you if you stayed and to be honest I have no idea why gramps is sending you out!" Cameron all but hissed.

"I need to know what I'm up against," he searched my eyes for something. Maybe it was a flicker of fear or weakness in my resolve.

"Fine but like I said in the meeting, stay close." I was hoping that was the only thing he said that I missed. He handed me a pack that I checked. It had all the tools that I'd read about in my studies. A gun with silver bullets, a silver mesh, a watch and a suicide pill.

I equipped each thing onto the harness in the pack and strapped in around my body. Everything was accessible, I reached for each item multiple times to make sure I could get at them quickly. I knew the others would have specialized weapons on their harness. It was clear however, that I was my specialized weapon.

The drive back to Addington felt just as weird as my initial drive into the old town. I was nervous and nausea threatened to make the sandwich I'd eaten, reappear.

The redhead had been assigned as my buddy through all this so we sat next to each other in the car. "I know your initial instincts will make you want to react but you have to stay in control. All of our lives are riding on staying undetected. If we are detected then our lives are depending on all of our abilities to stay together and fight as a unit until we find an escape route," the red head said.

She stuck her hand out for me to shake, "I'm Rodney but you can call me Red."

She had chaos in her eyes and that told me she lived for this type of adrenaline. I shook her hand, trying not to get crushed in her firm grip. In the silence that followed I let my mind wander back to Nate.
~

We left the truck in the woods covered by a camouflaged tarp. The werewolf settlement was several feet down a gentle slope. Unfortunately there was barely any cover going down. Cameron motioned for us to move slowly from bush to bush making sure to utilize them as best as we could.

The process was slow and hearing every snap of every twig didn't help my nerves. I assumed that there wasn't a lot happening outside of the wolve's main house because their meeting had already started and the dark king could have already made an appearance. The whole compound was deserted. 

Eventually Cameron led us from building to building, making sure that we stayed hidden until the time was right to move to the next one. When we reached the building closest to the main house I saw the others swallow something that was being passed around.

Cameron placed a small bead in my hand and I swallowed it like the others had. It tasted like straight up shit. Cameron held up a three and made the shape of a zero with his other hand. Realization dawned on me as I realized what I had just swallowed.

For thirty minutes the bead would secrete the smell of a werewolf through our skin, at least that's what I had remembered from my studies. Cameron passed out a second capsule and pointed to his watch. The team put away their extra capsules and set their watches to go vibrate after thirty minutes had passed.

Cameron peered from behind the building we were at. He pulled out a small gun from his back holster and aimed it at one of the guards. The dart was silent as it sailed through the air and landed in the neck of one of the guards. Cameron motioned for us to follow him and then we were out in the open.

For a brief second I panicked at the sight of the other guard rounding the corner of the main house, until he beckoned for us to follow him. The guard led us to the side of the main house to a window that had been left open. It was low to the ground, just big enough for the average sized male to get through and obviously led to a basement.

On by one we shimmied through the window and landed into a damp, dimly lit basement. It took a second for all of us to get through but once we did no time was wasted. Cameron snuck up a set of stairs staying close to the sides. Shadows played around us as the one light in the room flickered.

With great care we entered a room with no doors and just one opening leading directly out into the meeting room. A great ruckus could be heard as the weres settled down for the meeting. Before everything was even quiet, a voice cut through all the din making my breath catch in my throat.