"We do. Jayden is right in that we all don't know him as well as we should. I believe that's entirely our fault and something we all need to work on as a family." Noah could tell Jonas believed what he was saying, but looking around the table at Jayden's other brothers he decided he would wait and see.
Noah sat quietly and waited. It wasn't long before Jacob started talking, first to his father and then to him.
"Dad, I'm sorry for my reaction towards Jayden's
news. Jonas is right, I do love my brother." James nodded before Jacob continued. "Please understand, Noah, most families aren't as large as ours, and there is a large age difference between Jackson and Jayden."
Noah did understand that. He and Jayden had discussed his family over the last month, his brothers in particular.
Jacob continued, "Every one of us has been waiting and hoping for their mate. I don't think any of us, including Jayden, expected he would be the first to find his.
However, that doesn't excuse my reaction to Jayden's news nor does it mean I'm not happy for him and the gift he has found in his relationship with you."
Noah heard murmurs of assent from around the table. "I really think you all need to sit down with your brother and talk about everything."
"We will," Jackson piped up.
Noah really hoped they followed through. He wanted his mate to be happy and knew he would never be completely content until things with his family got sorted.
They lapsed into a comfortable silence until Jessica came out a little while later carrying stacks of plates and cutlery.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Noah asked as
he pushed his chair back, getting ready to rise.
Jessica waved him off. "Don't be silly, you're a guest. Everything's under control."
"If you're sure. Is Jayden still inside?" Noah really wanted to make sure Jayden was okay.
"No. He went for a walk a while ago." Jessica checked her watch. "I thought he would have been back by now though."
Just then Noah's phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and was relieved to see it was Jayden. "Hey, Jay, where are you?" he asked when he answered the call.
"Don't… know…" Noah sat up straight. It sounded like Jayden was running, he was breathing heavily.
"Noah… I… need… help." Noah jumped out of his chair and reached for his keys.
"Jay, tell me where you are and I'll come get you."
A loud shot reverberated down the phone line. "Jayden!"
Noah screamed his name, terrified something had happened to his mate.
Noah looked around, every member of Jayden's family was on their feet looking at him. He could still hear Jayden breathing on the other end of the phone so he knew his mate was still alive. "Jay, talk to me please—"
"Dead bodies… running… shots fired… Gunbar
Street… I think." Jayden was panting hard between every word.
CHAPTER 10
Jayden had left his parents' house and made his way to the end of the cul-de-sac. Turning left he followed the road for quite some time. He needed time to himself. He shouldn't really have been all that surprised by his brothers'
reaction to the news he'd found his mate. He was both hurt and angry by their reactions. Finding your mate was supposed to be cause for celebration. Jayden snorted at the thought his brothers could actually be happy for him.
Only Jonas seemed to be happy for him. Jayden had always gotten along well with Jonas, probably because he was the closest in age to Jayden. He was twenty-three to Jayden's twenty.
He had gone inside because he knew if he had stayed at the table he would have ended up saying something to his brothers that he was guaranteed to regret later. Instead, he had hugged his mother and she suggested he go for a walk. As much as he didn't want to leave his mate behind he really needed some time to collect his thoughts.
So now he found himself walking along Stoddart Drive, and in the final minutes before the sun set for the evening, he turned left down into Bradhurst Court. Jayden
really did enjoy just walking and looking at all the magnificent houses in the suburb. The street lights highlighted some houses and gave others an eerie glow.
Some people had far more money than they knew what to do with in his opinion.
He'd just gotten to the end of another cul-de-sac and started up the other side when he tripped and fell. God, he was a complete klutz sometimes. A tree root had grown underneath the path and subsequently had pushed up a section of the path.
Jayden hissed as his left palm began to sting.
Looking down he noticed two large gashes in his hand from where he had tried to brace himself. He was glad he was wearing jeans otherwise he was sure there would be a hell of a lot more of his skin now attached to the concrete.
Blood welled in his hand and ran down his fingers.
Jayden took his shirt off and quickly applied pressure to the wound. The crimson liquid dripped from the tips of his fingers and hit the earth.
Jayden gasped as the magic within him gathered and unleashed itself into the ground. He could feel the fringes of his magic searching through the earth for that which it knew was there.
"Oh shit, this can't be good," Jayden said as his
magic connected with bodies it sensed in the house before him. The house itself was large with two storeys and looked to be only a couple of years old. Like most houses in Bayview, it had probably been designed by an architect with clean lines and open spaces. At the moment all the windows were covered by thick drapes, but he could see the faint outline of light around the edges.
His feet were rooted to the ground as his magic took hold of six bodies in the back yard and brought their incorporeal forms to the surface of their graves. He felt them make their way slowly through the house towards him.
Jayden tried desperately to cut the flow of magic, but with his blood still steadily dripping on the ground, the ties with the bodies only strengthened.
As the first figure came through the front door Jayden nearly passed out from shock. His body was shaking violently as the repercussions of who and what he had stumbled upon fully registered with him.
He and Noah had been following a story of missing women from Mitchell Street in the news. Seven in total and two of those had disappeared in the last month.
The police had called his father asking if there was anything they could do to aid in their investigation and, as
it turned out, Jayden was the only one with enough magic to be able to help. However, he still needed to know the location of the bodies to be able to raise them because his gift was so unstable. He wasn't willing to let his magic free without a barrier to contain it. Who knew what he could raise? He guessed it was too late to worry about such things now.
Shouts from inside the house caught his attention.
The bodies of six young, beautiful women floated through the walls and out onto the front lawn, less than a metre away, all looking at him with hope. Before Jayden could say anything the door was slammed open with two very irate men standing in the doorway. They stood there for God knows how long, just looking at each other. Jayden was still too shocked to move.
His brain, however, seemed to be in overdrive. The scene was highlighted by a sensor light that had switched on when the door to the house opened. One man stood tall, at least a few inches over six feet. He was bald with a short dark beard and a scar running down the left side of his face.
He wore black jeans, motorcycle boots, and a white muscle tee that was straining to hold in the guy's stomach. The other man was slightly shorter than the first with short, curly blond hair. He wasn't wearing a shirt and tattoos of
barbed wire wrapped around his arm from shoulder to wrist. He was wearing blue jeans, and his belt was open and his feet bare.
"What the fuck?" the tall one said as he produced a gun from behind his back. Jayden took one look at the weapon as his body finally started listening to his brain. It was time to get the fuck out of Dodge.
Jayden took one final look at the pair then at the six women standing on the front lawn, and he took off down the darkened street. He really hated to leave the women standing there but hopefully someone would see them and call the police. Jayden hoped he could come back later and lay them to rest.
"Come back here, you little shit." Jayden could hear the thumping of someone running but couldn't afford to slow down and look. He finally reached the end of the street and turned left back onto Stoddard Drive just as a shot was fired. He ducked instinctively but kept running.
Jayden frantically reached into his pocket for his phone so he could call for help. He probably should have dialled 000 but all he could think of just then was to call Noah. If there was ever a time to need your mate, now was it.
"Hey, Jay, where are you?" Noah's voice sounded
over the connection.
"Don't… know…" Jayden gasped as he ran. He had never tried to run full pelt and talk before and it wasn't easy. "Noah… I… need… help." Jayden didn't pay attention to any of the houses he ran past; he just kept running because he could hear someone chasing him.
"Jay, tell me where you are and I'll come get you."
Noah was starting to sound frantic, and Jayden couldn't really blame the man. A loud shot reverberated behind him and a tree to his left exploded in a shower of bark.
"Jayden!" Noah screamed his name.
Jayden put on a burst of speed trying to put as much distance between himself and the other guy as possible. He wasn't a runner by any stretch of the imagination, but he was young and relatively fit so he was hoping he would be able to outrun the man chasing him. "Jay, talk to me please—"
Jayden was jolted back to the phone as he rounded a slight curve in the road "Dead bodies… Running… Shots fired… Gunbar Street… I think." Jayden was having a lot of trouble trying to catch his breath.
"We're on the way, Jay. Stay safe, we'll be there soon," Noah replied, and Jayden almost sobbed in relief.
"'Kay." He hung up and shoved the phone back in
his pocket before he quickly looked behind him as he darted across the road. The bald fat man in motorcycle boots was only halfway down the street. But he had stopped under a streetlight and took aim once again. Jayden tried to make it to the corner so he could turn down another street to connect him through to Muzzell Street, but he wasn't quite quick enough.
Another shot reverberated down the usually quiet suburban street and Jayden cried out in pain. His arm felt like it has been set on fire.
Jayden could feel the blood running down his arm but he didn't have time to worry about it. He screamed again as he tucked his right arm against his chest and kept on running. Every step he took jarred his arm and sent icy fingers of pain radiating through his body.
Getting to the end of the small side street, Jayden turned right and started heading back up toward Stoddard.
Halfway up the road he quickly looked behind him and noticed the man hadn't yet caught up to him.
Seeing a car parked in a driveway right up against the fence, and away from any street lights, Jayden headed for it. He tried to stem the blood flow as much as he could as he ran behind the car and ducked down. He didn't know if the man chasing him was smart enough to follow his
blood trail or not, but he really didn't want to have to find out.
Jayden felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. God, was he glad he always turned his phone to silent when he visited his parents' place. There was nothing ruder in his opinion than sitting down for a nice family dinner and someone's phone ringing right in the middle.
Jayden fumbled with his t-shirt clad left hand to try and extract his phone from his right hip pocket. After several attempts he was finally successful. Swiping to accept the call Jayden ignored the smear of blood he left across the screen of his phone.
"Hello?" he whispered as he peeked out from behind the car searching for any sign of his pursuer.
Jayden hissed and gritted his teeth when he moved wrong and bumped his arm. "Jay, where are you? What's wrong?"
"Shot," Jayden got out through his still-clenched teeth.
"Oh God," Noah said through the line. "How bad?
And tell me where you are so I can come and get you.
There's police everywhere; we'll bring some with us."
"Arm. I'm okay," he managed to say. "Hiding behind a car on Muzzell," Jayden panted.
"Okay, Jay. Sit tight, we're on our way."
"Hurry." Jayden shut the phone off and shoved it back into his pocket. He took one final look around the car.
Noticing nothing out of the ordinary he settled back to wait.
Jayden closed his eyes as he tried to deal with the pain radiating in his arm. When he finally opened them again, he found himself face-to-face with the forms of three dogs, four cats, a fish, and what he thought was a hamster.
He closed his eyes again, too exhausted at the moment to deal with this shit and just tried to ignore it as best he could. Blue and red flashing lights penetrated his closed lids. Jayden tried to move but his legs had stiffened and his arm felt like it would drop off any minute.
"Jayden?" he knew that voice. Jayden sobbed at the sound of his mate. "Jay." Noah came careening around the side of the car he was hiding behind and knelt down in front of him. His hands hovered over Jayden's body not sure where to touch.
"I've got him," he yelled out to someone before he looked back down at Jayden.
"You look so good," Jayden sobbed.
"Oh, Jay. You look like shit. Just hang in there, an ambulance is on the way."
Jayden nodded his understanding. "My legs won't
work."
"It's okay, sweetheart," Noah said as he gently cupped both of Jayden's cheeks. "Just breathe, Jay. We'll take care of the rest."
Before Jayden could reply they were joined by his father, brothers, three policemen, and two ambulance officers with a stretcher. Noah was asked to move back and let the professionals do their job. Jayden was asked if he was allergic to anything before being given a shot of morphine to numb the pain he was feeling. Once he was loaded onto the stretcher and wheeled down the driveway, Jayden noticed the homeowners standing in their doorway looking on at all the commotion he had caused.