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hussy of a girl Lucy went."
                  I swallow, hard. Not wanting to hear what I know is coming next.
                  "You need to be Bound to a Vessel."
     

 
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Lucy
     
    A shiver runs down my spine even though I'm warm now with the blankets from Jax. It feels as though Lukas is with me. Is that crazy? Can he be here with me? It seems like he passed his energy to me when we kissed last night on the ledge before I escaped with Timid. As though a part of him is traveling through my veins, as if the light he gave me last night to keep us warm is the same warmth filling me now. I want to close my eyes to see the light within me, connecting me to him in some cosmic way. But I can't do that.
    Not now.
    Right now I need to figure out what Timid’s and my next move should be. We can't sit around in a jail all day, waiting to be questioned, while Lukas is working hard, fighting for his life and our freedom. I can't let him down.
    Timid dips her fingers into the bowl of mush. She raises her hand to her mouth and eats nervously. This food is so different than the rations at the Refuge. She's always been well fed, even if she wasn't well cared for. Fresh cheese and produce at every meal, well-seasoned grains. It was the greatest luxury I've ever experienced. Such a far cry from the vanilla-soy-protein shakes I was raised on at the compound with Mom and Dad. But I would rather eat those flavorless shakes over this mush any day.
    I look through the chain-link fencing at the people restlessly sitting around the campfire. Their eyes are heavy on us and it unnerves me. A group of people, tired and exhausted by the looks on their faces, walk through a gate in the circle of twenty trailers. It appears to be the only opening into the courtyard, besides the entrances to the trailers themselves. The heavy gate slams shut, and the last person latches it with a long metal chain. Everybody is locked in.
    They are a group of five, and they all carry guns swung round their backs. They look like the cowboys that would come to the compound. Tough. Walking up to the group at the fire, one of them begins to talk. H's tall and lanky, but looks like he can get people to listen.
    "We walked around for the last eight hours. There's nothing out there. I don't know what the hell Reagan thinks we're going to find."
    He shakes his head, sitting down on a stump, clenching his hands. These people were the ones sent to patrol last night for other members of The Light.
    "I'm done with his mission. If people are out there, I'll kill them when they get closer. We're running around on orders from the Headquarters, I don't even understand what the threat is."
    "Cool it, Colton. The girls are in the courtyard, over there." Jax points to us. That makes Colton stand back up, and start walking over to the cell we're in.
    "Not now, man. Wait for Reagan before you start asking questions. We're under orders from Headquarters to keep anyone from The Light safe. Don't do something stupid. We never seen anyone from The Light escape, these girls are valuable." Jax tries to stop him, pulling at his arm.
    "I'm sick of other people’s orders, I didn't sign up for that!" He pushes Jax away and heads straight for us. "Tell me how you got here!" he hurls at me.
    Timid grabs my hand, dropping her bowl to the ground. I swallow the bit of mush in my mouth and close my eyes, trying not to shake. I'm sick of forceful men telling me what to do, what to think, what to believe . Concentrate, Lucy. What would Lukas do? I steady myself, for Timid. She needs me. Lukas works hard every single day to protect others. I can do the same here.
    I look at Colton and see his weakness. It's just like when I play a game of chess; I can see his next move. Reading him, I see he's tired of feeling like a puppet.
    I sympathize with that. I've lived a life as a marionette, on a stage I had no part in creating. I stand, letting go of Timid's hand, and put my face