Chronicles of Araxx - Forever Broken

Disobeying Simons’ orders and leaving the hotel was the most dangerous thing Jay and Adz had done so far in their short lives.

They both knew the consequences of their actions. They could be kicked out of the Araxx, sent away, have all memories of the supernatural world wiped from their memories and be made to live normal lives.

While this doesn’t sound too bad to you or me, the supernatural was all Jay and Adz had.

Neither of them had any family, but both of them knew finding the girl was more important than them.

All they had to do was find the girl before the Institute found them.

Adz took it upon himself to take the trackers out of all of their electronic devices. Jay hadn’t realised they were being tracked, but the Institute were never going to send two inexperienced young people into the middle of London without knowing where they were at all times.

The tracking devices were tiny, about the size of a five pence piece, and one was hidden in both their phones, the glasses and the drones. They were the hardest thing to put back together, but Adz was a bit of a whiz with technology.

Jay opened the window wide enough for the two of them to climb through.

“A good way down, Looks like we’re rock climbing,” Adz said looking down to the ground below.

They had experience climbing buildings, and one’s like this were easy. The bricks were wide set, and there were plenty of windows and ledges to use as footholds. It would be slow going to get down, but not too difficult.

“No need,” Jay said. “There’s a fire escape two floors down. We can jump it.” With that, Jay took a tight hold on his bags and jumped down.

A metallic clang was the first sound Adz heard. Adz smiled. He knew Jay was reckless. He, himself, would have thought about it for a minute or two, trying to gauge if the jump was safe before he just leapt through the window but Jay was a risk taker.

Adz followed his lead and jumped from the window to the fire escape below.

Once they were on the ground, they looked back at the hotel before turning towards the tube station.

“So what are you taking me to see?” Jay asked.

“Not what.” Adz smiled. “Who.”

Jay looked confused.

“I shouldn’t talk about it here. It’ll be easier when you meet him.” Adz took out his phone, now bug-free, and dialled a number. “Gray, yeah, it’s me. Where are you?” Then there was a pause. “Be there in less than an hour.” Adz put the phone down.

Jay was beyond confused but decided he would trust Adz.

The tube was fairly quiet that early in the morning, and Jay and Adz were able to travel on them in peace. The carriage they were in only had a couple of other people on it at just after 1 am, and they looked to be homeless, sleeping on the train to stay warm.

“It must be hard,” Jay said sadly.

“What must be?” Adz was oblivious to the sleeping homeless people.

“Being homeless in a place like this.” He looked to his friend. “Have you ever lived on the streets?”

This was a tough topic and it wasn’t one Adz liked to talk about, but this morning everything felt different. “I was lucky enough not to ever live on the streets, but the friend we are going to see now did for a few years,” Adz said.

“Who is he?”

“That’s where it gets complicated, he...” Adz was about to continue when the train stopped at a station and the doors opened.

A familiar face appeared, joined by two other people.

It was Jacob, and he had a mean look on his face. He took a seat a couple of rows from Jay and Adz.

His two companions were clearly werewolves too.

“That Faye bastard was lying, I know he was,” Jacob said.

Neither Jay nor Adz could believe their ears. This werewolf was talking so boldly about the supernatural in public, and although the tube was quiet, there were still people around.

“I know he knows.”

“About the girl or the Araxx?” One of the other beta’s asked.

“Both,” Jacob sneered. “I know there will be more than one Araxx in London now they know the girl is here somewhere, and I wouldn’t put it past the Faye to know where Annaleah is too.”

“So what are we going to do?” The same man asked.

“What do you think we’re going to do, Aaron?” Jacob asked sarcastically, but before either of his betas could answer, he said it himself. “We’re going to kill the Araxx if we see them, and bring Annaleah back alive.”

“And what if she doesn’t come easy?” The other man asked.

“Then we use force, Tom,” Jacob said. “You two really are thick, aren’t you?” He said rhetorically.

Adz couldn’t help thinking how Jacob was the stupid one, talking so openly when he had no idea who was on the train with him.

“So what do you think the Araxx looks like then? Who are they?” Aaron asked.

“Like the rest of them. They’d be experienced, skilled and we’d recognise them a mile off,” Jacob sneered. He turned to look at Aaron then started laughing. “You can’t tell me you’re afraid of a couple of humans!”

Aaron seemed hurt by this.

Adz looked over to Jay who was clenching his fists in anger. “Cool it,” Adz whispered to him.

“Come on, Jacob, you have to admit it’s worrying. You saw what they did to the pack back at the castle, they killed everyone,” Aaron said.

“They were weak!” Jacob raised his voice. “Kane left humans and weak werewolves guarding her. It was the only reason why she escaped so easily. If I was there, the Araxx scum would all be dead, and Annaleah would not have gotten away.”

The tube stopped again and a group of women entered the carriage, slightly drunk and dressed for a hen party.

Jacob stood up immediately and walked over to one of them. The flirting commenced.

“Funny how his attitude to ‘humans’ change when a pretty one walks in,” Jay said under his breath.

Adz didn’t speak.

The other werewolves were watching them. They’d clearly seen Jay’s odd behaviour.

“Come on,” Adz said. “We get off here.” Before the door of the carriage could close, they left the train.

“I feel wrong leaving those women there with the werewolves,” Jay said. “They might get killed.”

“There are cameras on those trains, and Jacob will know it. They won’t do anything to draw the attention of the police to themselves unnecessarily,” Adz reassured him. “Come on, Gray should be waiting for us.”

Jay and Adz exited the tube station at Camden Town and walked out into the street.

“What does this friend of yours look like then?” Jay asked, but his question was answered as he turned around.

A young man, possibly only a year or two older than Jay, was standing with his arms folded on the other side of the road. He unfolded them and crossed the road towards them without looking. There was little traffic on the roads at this time of the morning, but it gave him the impression of being bad-ass.

The first thing Jay noticed was the man’s hair. It would have been the first thing anyone noticed when they looked at Gray. His hair was bright orange, with flecks of yellow, golden and red mixed in. It almost looked as though his head was on fire. He had fairly long hair, long on top and down the back, all stuck up at strange angles, like fire, with shorter sides.

Jay also noticed Gray’s eyebrows were the same colour as his hair. The next thing Jay noticed was that, even though there was a slight nip in the air, Gray was only wearing shorts and a vest. His skin was also heavily tattooed, with both arms and one of his legs adorned with inky patterns.

“Been a long time, Adz,” Gray said in a deep, warm voice.

He and Adz embraced in a manly hug with slaps on the back.

“Nice to see you again, brother,” Adz said.