The Uprising (The Julianna Rae Chronicles) by Aral Bereux

and all the other precautions they took, were pointless. Could she tell him? She shook her head and thinned her lips. Stupid bond!
    ‘We should move.’              
    Caden nodded. ‘It seems you have some secrets, Julianna Rae.’
    ‘As opposed to you, watcher boy.’
    She shook it off. Bas rode past, and Caden revved his bike to join him. Their longing stare parted when he needed to look forward, to follow his brother over the uneven ground.
    She screwed her face as the wind blew into it. The nocturno smelt in a funky way and she was eager to rid him of herself, and her bike, but she wouldn’t give the group the satisfaction of knowing.
    Hell no, I’ll ride with this preternatural all the way to the moon if I have to , but the thought weakened. She took another whiff as the air offered it to her, pulling away as her stomach tied itself in knots.
    Daniel stopped beside her. He cringed, covering his mouth and nose with a hand, waiting for some distance from the others.
    ‘Told you, didn’t I?’ he said. ‘Isis, me, even Taris warned you.’
    ‘I know what he is,’ she gave the bike a rev.
    ‘Still, you’re going there,’ he said quietly.
    ‘I’m not going there,’ she argued. The bikes in front were gone. ‘I’m not going anywhere with him. He’s my appointed watcher for fuck’s sake.’
    ‘You’re going there.’ Daniel replied. He looked for the bikes.
    Julianna shook her head. Her mouth was open and her eyes were wide. Was he really having this talk? Was it any of his business? She thought not, but he didn’t seem to notice. Was he jealous?
    ‘You’ve done what you need to do, get away from the man once we’re back in the city, before he gets his claws into you.’
    Yes, yes .
    She looked up at Daniel. His eyes were large and dark, even when he wasn’t showing himself to the world and their unusual green tinge was like hers. She wondered as she had on her visit to the Gatehouse, if there was something more about this man she didn’t understand. Their connection was strong. She felt the compulsion to listen. He reminded her of her father.
    Point taken.
    She stared ahead. The night closed in. Soon they’d need their headlights. They weren’t thick enough into the trees to take such a risk. She revved her bike.             
    ‘You have no idea do you?’
    Julianna gripped her brakes and rolled her eyes back over her shoulder to see he wasn’t smiling. He narrowed his eyes and rolled his bike forward to stay irritatingly close to her side.
    He didn’t elaborate, and she wasn’t surprised.
    Like Caden said, secrets.
    Julianna struggled to follow Daniel closely over the rough ground, with a passenger twice her size between her arms. She regretted her haste in taking a hostage in spite of everyone. She blundered through the bushes and a tree branch snagged at her jacket, pulling her into its reach. She cursed it, along with everything else as it pulled her back until she saw why the others had stopped. She closed her mouth from the profanities that began to roll out.
    Caden’s bike rested beside a set of rickety stairs that led into an abandoned farm house. The wood curled at the edges, damaged from weather and neglect where it rested; other parts led to a steep drop.
    The farm house door swung open at Caden’s approach, greeting him with openness as though it welcomed his return. He stood to one side with the blanket and rifles they had collected, thick in his arms and held it open for Devo. She obediently passed him, with a clumsy pile of equipment teetering on the edge of spilling.
    Julianna parked and slid away from the stench stuck to the ride, balancing him only with a hand as she studied the new camp’s rundown lodging. It was solid, with a closed roof, perched on a dubious veranda that ran the perimeter of the house, giving a clear view of the open property. They were well off the track, hi dden in the trees, and secure.
    Caden returned to the veranda. He