Praetorian Rising, стр. 68
"I will, Vee. I won't leave her side," Theo assured him.
Camille's gaze lingered on Vesyon's haunted expression, making a silent promise that it wouldn't be the last time she saw him.
Her knuckles were crushed in Theo's tight grip as they moved down the hall. She didn't mind the sharp pinch of his steel grasp as he rushed past the others in the compound; it allowed her to focus on something other than the chaos around them. Asperians pressed against them on all sides as the piercing alarm to evacuate wailed above them like a dying bird.
"Shouldn't we be helping them?" Camille asked.
"No, we don't have time."
"Well," Camille said in a flustered state. "We don't seem to be going the right way."
Theo didn't glance back as he ducked between two oncoming Rogues and headed down another long hallway. "We are. They're leaving, and we are going to the vault as Vesyon instructed," Theo replied, his voice dry and unemotional. She frowned at his profile, uncertain of his brusque attitude and if it was directed at her.
"Theo, wait." He didn't even turn to glance at her, his boots pounding out a cadence of rushed fervor against the tiled floor.
"Damn it, Theo, stop!" she finally said, yanking her hand out of his grasp. "I need to know what is going on! Please," she pleaded. "Vesyon might not trust me enough to tell me what's about to happen, but I need to know what I'm walking into. The King Regent showed up with more soldiers than we were prepared for, so I understand the confusion, but why in the name of Ma'Nada," she said in a rush, but Theo pulled her to the side of the flow of bodies before she could finish her sentence.
"Don't you get it, Camille? You and the villagers being here wasn't part of the plan. Vesyon screwed up, and Phillip ordered an emergency evacuation to get them out of here before...well, to get them to safety."
Camille scrutinized his expression, not wanting to believe what she was hearing. "Are you going to tell me what's actually going on then, or are you just going to jerk me around like a child? Like Vesyon does?"
"I'm not Vesyon," he growled.
"Oh? Could have fooled me."
"We don't have time for this," Theo snapped, his arms cinched against his chest in a wall of impenetrable frustration.
"I don't really care," Camille shot back at him standing her ground. "What isn't Vesyon telling me?"
Theo's lips pressed together, firm and unyielding as he glared at a spot just over her head.
"Not you too," Camille went on, her voice so incredibly soft that his eyes immediately snapped to hers in automatic apology. "Please don't keep me in the dark. You're right. You aren't Vesyon; you know you can trust me."
He didn't look away, but his mouth remained closed. It was Camille's undoing. Her chin dropped, a heavy sigh of exhaustion spilling out from between her lips. Looking down at her blood-slicked arms, covered in dirt and Chimera guts, Camille impulsively moved with the crowd of Asperians away from Theo. She didn't care if the evacuation was in order, didn't care how much or how little time they had to find Acher. She needed to get to her own room, needed silence, needed a moment to herself, needed a place to figure out what she was going to do.
Her feet carried her at a quick pace with the bustling flow of bodies toward the hall leading to her bedroom. Moving of its own accord, without her mind demanding the movement, her body felt unable to stop.
"Camille!" Theo barked, trying to keep up with her, pressing through the mash of bodies moving in behind her. "Come back!"
She shook her head, uncaring if he saw it or not, and continued to move. Her skin felt on fire with the desire to be clean. The weight of the past few days pressed into her flesh unyielding, crushing, and unstoppable; it was too much. And she was sick of it.
She ripped off her coat, vest, and shirt as she moved, uncaring that everyone in the hall could see her exposed upper body stark and naked through the thin undergarments she wore.
She careened into her door, slamming the metal with her bare fist, forcing the weight to swing on its hinges before it smashed against the inner wall with a dull thunk. She clawed at the blood-soaked undershirt, wrestling it away from her skin before tossing it onto the floor in a heap of blood and sweat with the rest of her discarded clothing. Her fingers shook with a burst of adrenaline as she yanked off her blood soaked pants, socks, and underwear. She felt tears stream down her cheeks unchecked and fiercely aggressive, though she couldn't be sure why she didn't try to stop them.
A sharp pang of desolation gripped her, stealing her breath and choking all warmth from her body. Homesickness, and the crash of adrenaline from seeing Metus blasted through her, causing her to double over, panting with the effort to breathe. Her blood felt thick, slugging through her system at a snail's pace.
How had this happened? One minute she was playing hide and seek in Sierra Village with the only friend she had ever known, and now she was preparing for battle as a Praetorian warrior? It was too much: the visions, the memories attacking her in all moments of weakness, the lies and deception, and to top it all off, the emotional tornado of both Theo and Vesyon.
She headed straight for the shower, her limbs slick with blood and dirt, her entire body weighed down with uncertainty. Vesyon's stern expression filtered in front of her eyes. It aggravated her to no end. He wasn't just keeping secrets from her, he'd been lying to her. If Metus had given her anything it was a seed of doubt. How was she supposed to