3 Hit the Road Jack (25 page)

“Oh.” With my nose, the only person I smelled was Kai, but even then I could only pick him out in a crowd, not necessarily track him.

“God this is like watching some horrible episode of The Brady Bunch as adults and on a dangerous mission,” John commented.

“The Brady Bunch? Really?” Gabi scoffed. “We’re a million times better than that perfect dysfunctional family.”

“Either they’re perfect or dysfunctional, which one is it?” John smirked.

“Don’t play the annoying little brother role. I’ll eat you alive baby,” she smiled so pleasantly it was wicked. Gabi never turned down a challenge.

“Bring it
baby,
” John gave Gabi a come
-
hither wave with both hands, cockiness written all over him.

“Dally wags. What the fizzle are we doing listening to this crapple of rubbish?” Craig sat unentertained on the edge of the bed, his lips quirked up. His demeanor was easy going, his fit surfer’s body relaxed in his soft blue polo and jeans as he watched the goings on of the room unfold before him.

“Well, now that we’re all one happy little family once again, what do you say we hit the town and have a little overdue fun?” Aunt Claire suggested.

I couldn’t help but notice that everyone had relaxed into the easy conversation and banter except Kai. He was still standing stiffly across the roo
m
, arms folded and barriers erect. He locked eyes with me, but revealed no emotion in his gaze.

“Only if we inject a little business in there,” Kalel said. “We need to be listening in for any updates on Jack’s location. Will told us we were supposed to be in Cardiff, but so far we haven’t gotten any proof backing that. We don’t want to miss anything.”

“Agreed,” Aunt Claire stated. “Let’s keep our listening ears open while we shake our booties with a bunch of natives.”
She winked at me and Gabi.

“Let’s take the next ten minutes to get ready and we’ll head out. Let’s go freshen up ladies,” Gabi smiled, linking arms with me and Aunt Claire and leaving the guys to do whatever it was they would do for the next ten minutes.

The second we walked out the hotel room door, we stopped dead in our tracks. “The timeline is off,” Aunt Claire gulped out.

“Oh shit,” Gabi stated, eyes wide at the sight before us.

Chapter 24

The black ninja walked right up to me and bowed to me. Gabi, Aunt Claire and I exchanged a confused look. I knew I should be in attack mode, but when he wasn’t posing a threat, why would I initiate something?

He turned back around to face the other three lined up across the hall. I was just coming to the conclusion that Jack was into mind games, attacking us one minute and then playing nice the next, when the ninja spun around and stabbed both women with a dart at once in the center of their chests.

“No!” I screamed as they collapsed in my arms. I felt the ring of red that circled my eyes. I launched myself at the ninja, who blocked me as if I was merely a fly he was swatting away.

I saw the others racing
,
stumbling upon the scene when I sprung from behind the ninja again. With a quick twist I snapped his neck, effectively killing him with one swift move. I looked at the others, still standing along the wall. They hadn’t moved a muscle. The guys gathered behind me, all of us in a standoff when one of them pulled an envelope from inside their robe and handed it to me. I stared at it for a while, the adrenaline still coursing through me. ‘
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me’
resounded in my mind.

With a shaking hand I snatched the envelope from them. The moment it was between my fingers, they turned in unison and marched away from us as if nothing had happened, as if this was merely a military drill.

I turned back to Aunt Claire and Gabi
. Kai had pulled Gabi into his arms; Al had Aunt Claire. I closed my eyes, trying not to lose the uneasy grip I had on myself and the situation. After all that happened today; after all we’d recovered, to then just lose it all. Words couldn’t describe how angry I was.

“Open it,” Kellan bit out.

I stared down at the plain white envelope. Flipping it over, it had Jack’s custom seal fastening it closed. I ran my finger beneath the flap, opening it warily.

One, two, three
Play along with me;
Soon you’ll know
Who will stay and who will go.
One may die,
Both may not,
Either way a lesson will be taught.
See your weakness,
Face your fear,
For our confrontation is growing near.
          Love Always,
            -Jack

I wanted to scream; I wanted to rip the structure of the building apart piece by piece. I never knew anger could be felt in every centimeter of my body. I never knew I could feel such rage that world destruction was actually being considered. This was all a game to him; I was a mouse and he was a cat playing with his food.

“Is there an empty warehouse nearby?”

“I can
G
oogle one,” Kai offered.

“Combat. Are one of you up for some heavy one on one?”

“Babe, I don’t think that’s-“ I silenced him with a raised h
and
.

“I need this Kellan. He’s fucking with me. He’s freaking mind-fucking me and I’m done. Read this and then tell me I shouldn’t go spar with one of you.” I passed him the note. He quickly skimmed the words, sighing as he neared the end. We both looked at the two women on the floor. Craig and Al were moving them to Kalel’s room.

“Fine. Someone needs to stay behind with them though in case one or both of them actually come out of this alive.” He ground out the words, flicking his hand haphazardly in the general direction of the door.

“What did he say Leka?” Kai pressed. Kellan passed him the paper. Kai’s nostrils flared, hands quickly forming fists around the page. Kalel snatched it from him, doing the same shortly thereafter.

“I’m going to put you through the ringer. Everything is going to be about your reflexes. By the end of tonight, we all need to be prepared to block anything and everything we see, hear or feel coming in an instant. No delayed reactions. We can’t afford to lose anyone else.”

“We should change hotels before we go,” Al suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea, but clearly this asshole has no problem finding us wherever we go,” Kalel countered.

“We should sti
ll take precautions,” Al presse
d.
I took in the set of his jaw
, the flare of his nostrils as he exhaled. He was feeling it too.

“Agreed,” Kalel nodded.

“How are we going to get them out without anyone knowing?” I asked the obvious.

“We’ll let the vamp army take care of it,” Al stated.

“I think they’re the ones leaking our locations. John had easy access to us and he’s with the embassy where Auggy was pretty darn chummy with the vamps, including blasting our mission.”
Al seemed torn. He was supposed to report out of obligation
for his current position
, but it could be what was compromising the life of his son and future daughter-in-law.

“If they let you
go
, I’ll hire y
ou,” Kalel offered, deciphering Al’s hesitation
.

“If they are the ones leaking the information out, then we have a much bigger problem.” His eyes passed between Kellan and me.

“We can only face one thing at a time, and right now, I’m more concerned with being prepared for the next attack rather than contemplating who may have caused the last.”

“We’ll pack Gabi, Claire and ourselves,” Kellan said.

“I’ll call Art, have him send over a few guys from
our
British unit,” Kai added.

“Get off of me!” I raced into the room at the sound of a vivacious, and irritated, Gabi.

“You’re ok!” My arms went around her squeezing her with utt
er and complete joy and relief.

“Of course I’m ok. Ninjas can’t get rid of me that easily,” she scoffed sarcastically.

She yanked the dart that was s
t
ill
situated in the center of her chest
out
. “Where’s-“ Her voice dropped off at the sight of Aunt Claire. “Oh God. I’m so sorry Lex.”

I’d been trying to ignore it, trying not to think about Aunt Claire possibly being gone too. I didn’t know if I was prepared to deal with another loss. Anger and sadness flooded my surface again, my serum quickly rising in tide.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

‘
Bad feeling. Is everything ok???
’
It was from Mel. She had impeccable timing. Maybe we were connected somewhere along the line.

I didn’t want to worry her, so I text back
‘
We’ll talk later.
’

I was just returning my phone to my pocket when it buzzed again. ‘
That bad huh?’

I smiled. She knew me so well. ‘
Yea.’

‘Anything I can do from lonely hell?’

‘No, thanks. Take care of yourself.
Love you.
’

‘Same to you. Love you
J
’

Looking at Aunt Claire down for the count, Gabi just re
gain
ing consciousness, and knowing my best friend was half a world away, well, so an ocean away, counting on me, suddenly everything connected for me once again. I was doing this so Aunt Claire didn’t have to look over her shoulders forever, so Gabi could vindicate Rafi’s death, so my best friend could go through her transformation and enter my world, our world, without an immediate threat to her life. I was doing this for all those who had supported me along the way, for my parents and all they sacrificed to get me to this point in my journey. I was doing this for myself too. I deserved a good life with Kellan; I was molding the world my children would enter and I’d be damned if they came into a life that was limited because of old wars and outdated hypocrisies.

I looked directly at Kellan, my heart on my sleeve, my emotions hung between us. His eyes focused entirely on me; it was as if we were the only two people in the room. I was lucky he was still by my side; I was so grateful for him. He was my silent strength. His lips lifted in the corners, his dimple slightly visible as he nodded at me. He understood. He knew where my mind was, and he always knew my heart because he held it.

He closed the distance between us and captured my lips in a bruising kiss.
“I’ve always got your back.”
He pulled away, staring down into my eyes, his emerald piercing my brown.

“I love you.”

“I love you forever.”

“So are we going to kick some ass or what?” Gabi broke in.

“Let’s do this,” I said, still looking at Kellan. He nodded.

“Such a tender moment. Do you always have to be so rude Gabriella?” Will clucked.

“They have forever to suck face and exchange love songs,” she shrugged. She stood a little too quickly and swayed. Craig caught her in time. “Woah! Mira pendejos! What the heck did they give me? My legs feel like jelly.”

“Sit down now,” I ordered. “Kalel,” I called; he immediately can into the room. “Can you run a trace on the contents of this dart? Maybe draw a bit of blood from Gab and find out what they gave her. She can’t stand up right now.”

“It’s probably a mixture of knock out meds with a temporary paralysis injection,” he mused, pulling out a few instruments from his luggage. He ran a q-tip along the inside of the syringe and collected a few drops of Gabi’s blood onto a clear, square piece of plastic as well as a few strips of paper that instantly turned different colors. “Looks like
he did a combo of
a
maryllis and
black locust bark. If you were human, you’d be dead.”

“Fudge rucker,” Craig said, all of us looking to Aunt Claire at the same time.

“She’s vampeen, fifty-fifty. What are her chances?”

Al walked up to her and touched her pulse point. “He
r
pulse is very weak.”

“What if one of you guys gave her some of your blood? She’s vampeen; your blood is more potent than ours.” Kai surprised me by biting his wrist and opening Aunt Claire’s mouth to allow the blood to run in. “She won’t… change, will she?” Bad afterthought moment.

“No. It’s just as if she exchanged blood and claimed a mate. She’ll be a little unbalanced for a while since she’ll have more vampire
DNA
in her system, but she’ll level out,” Al explained. I nodded, my anticipation growing with each passing second that she didn’t respond. Kellan pulled me into him, his arms cocooning my back to his chest. He gently kissed my head, a soft reassurance of sorts.
“You’ve given her enough Kai.”

Kai withdrew his wrist, the wound healing almost immediately. “Sorry Leka,” he said, genuine sorrow in his expression. I broke away from Kellan and pulled Kai into a hug.
At first he stiffened before relaxing into me. He felt different; I fit into the pla
in
s of his chest perfectly, as with Kellan. Physically they were nearly identical in build though Kai was a bit larger in bulk than Kellan, but in feel, Kellan just felt like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter day in front of the fire. It was tiny, subtle differences like this that solidified my decision.