Jared (11 page)

“How you feeling?” Tessa noticed there wasn’t any eggs out yet and headed
to
the fridge.

“Awesome.”
Adam beat her to it and handed her the carton of eggs
. “Haven’t felt th
is good in a while.” His grin
widened when Jared chuckled as he worked over the bacon.
“Gonna grab a shower. Make a lot of scrambled eggs, I’m starved.” He gave her a big goofy grin before heading upstairs.

Figuring she really didn’t want to know what was
so
funny
,
Tessa reached up into the cabinet above the stove to grab a bowl, but as usual she was too short. Stretching up on tip toes she reached further.

A hand landed beside hers
on the counter
as a body pressed against her back pinning her against the counter. A muscular arm reached beside her face up to where her hand reached taking control of the bowl she was going for. “Let me get that for you.”
Jared’s breath tickled her arm
raising
goose bumps where goose bumps hadn’t been for a long time.

“Thanks.” Tessa’s voice
betrayed her with
its
huskiness
as she took the bowl from him without turning around.

He leaned down close. “You’re welcome.” This time his breath
moved her hair
,
tickling her ear.

Before turning
she glanced
down at her shirt hoping to God her nipples were behaving, and sure enough they weren’t. Damn him and her nips. Grabbing the eggs
,
she broke them in
to
the bowl, added salt, pepper and a little milk. Reaching over
Tessa grabbed the handle on the skillet Jared had used for the bacon
so she
could
get some
grease
for the eggs
,
dropping it instantly grabbing her burnt fingers. “Ouch.”

Jared caught the skillet before it hit the floor. “Careful.” He grabbed her hand, seeing
angry
red
welts on her
fingers he quickly put one in his mouth cooling the burn instantly with his tongue.

Tessa couldn’t take her eyes off her finger in Jared’s mouth. Never had she had her finger sucked on by a man let alone a man who looked like this and damn if she didn’t like it…a lot.

Tessa pulled her finger out of Jared’s mouth with a loud pop, a hot flush burning her cheeks. “What are you doing?” She grabbed her hand to her chest.

“It should help.” Jared chuckled, but his eyes burned her to the spot
. “Our salvia
speeds up healing
.”

Eyeing him she lifted her hand and looked at her finger, which wasn’t burning anymore and by the looks of it the redness was gone.

“Let me see you
r
other fingers.” Jared reached for her hand, but she pulled away.

“Ah….no, I’m good.” She lied, she wasn’t good. She wanted her other fingers in his mouth to feel the soothing touch o
f his tongue. What the hell was
he doing to
her?

“Hey.”
Matt walked into the kitchen his hair a
n
indication he just woke up.

“What!” Tessa jumped away from Jared her voice so loud
Matt jumped his eyes widening
. More embarrassment colored her cheeks when Jared cocked his eyebrow at her.

“What’
s wrong with you?”
Adam ask
ed
as he came back into the kitchen fresh from his quick shower.

“Nothing!
Why?” Tessa flipped her burned hand around then slung it behind her back. “Nothing’s wrong.” God she sounded like a freakin idiot. Peeking up at Jared she frowned when he tried to cover his grin.

“Ah…okay.”
Adam eyed
her
,
popping
a piece of bacon in h
is
mouth.
“Them eggs done yet?”

Flustered
,
Tessa turned away from every
one happy to hide her red
face as she finished the eggs before placing them on the table.

Everyone made their way to the table, the aroma of bacon to
o
hard to resist
. Jared stopped Adam a
s he started digging in the food
.
“Wait fo
r your sister.

“Come on Tess.” Adam eyed the foo
d
on the table. “I’m starved.”

Grabbing her steaming cup of coffee Tessa sat down. “Go for it.” She nodded at the food.

Everyone was quiet
, the only sound was the cling of utensils against plates. Tessa did her best to keep her eyes off the warrior sitting at her kitchen table like he owned it. His presence was overwhelming to say the least.

“Can I ask you
a
question?” Matt broke the silence
,
directing the question to Jared.

Jared looked up from his
plate
, his steady gaze landing directly on the boy. “Yes?”

“Will I ever get as big as you?”
Matt
, who was
a small
sixteen
year
old when he’d been turned
, ask
ed
with hope.

“No.”

Tessa was slightly disappointed at his one word response. Looking at
Matt
nearly broke her hear
t
. His face filled with disappointment
, he
looked so sad and lost. She opened her mouth to say something to hopefully make him feel better
, but Jared
spoke
.

Jared pushed his plate away leaning back in his chair
. He
rubbed his hand down his face before looking at the boy again. “Has anyone talked to you about it?”

“No.”
Matt
replied picking up his
fork
lightly tapping on
the table
. “Not really.”

“Jesus.” Jared hissed under his breath looking around the
table
of curious eyes, eyes of
five
kids who had a life where life stood still. “
Has
anyone talk
ed
to you guys about
anything at all
?”

Most shook their heads no,
except the
one
who wanted to appear like a badass shrugged
his shoulder
like
he
didn’t care, but
his
eyes said different. “Most of our parents put us out because they couldn’t handle having their kid being a vamp
ire
.
We’ve been staying here with Adam and Tessa. No one really gives a shit about us.
” Dillon spoke up.

“Dillon.” Tessa scolded.

“Well they don’t.” He frowned.

“
Matt
.” Jared began
,
glancing at
the boy trying to
show no
pity, something the boy definitely did not need
. “You will always be the same as you are now.”

“But that’s not fair
!
”
Matt
slammed his
fork
down
rattling the whole table
. “I don’t want to live like this forever.”

“Are you getting picked on?” Jared glared back at Dillon and
another boy named
Jeff.

“Sometimes.”
Matt
frowned. “Never mind. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“If it’s bothering you then yeah, you should have brought it up.” Jared pushed back his chair as he stood. “All of you should be helping each other.”

Tessa nodded looking at Jill,
the only female
,
who she knew of
,
that had been turned
. She never said a word,
keeping to herself
. She was a smart beautiful girl, but never opened
up to anyone
. Tessa had tried, but nothing she did ever worked.

Jared looked around at all five of the
half-breed
s.
“
One of the most prominent leaders in the Council is fourteen years old. He is one of the smartest
most
fearless people I have ever met.
Another warrior
told me once that he would never want to go up against him in a fight because he would surely lose.”

“Fourteen?” Jeff piped up. “No way could a fourteen year old beat a warrior.”

“
Matt
, come here.” Jared waited until
Matt got up from the table to stop in front of him
. “
Adam d
o you think
Matt
could beat you at arm wrestling?”

The room became
charged
with excitement.
Adam
looked at
Matt
sizing him up then shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe.”

“Why maybe?” Jared ask
ed
waving for
Adam
to come over
.

“Depends on if he’s come into his full power.”
Adam
replied staring down at
Matt
. “I haven’t yet.”

“Do you think you can beat
Adam
?” Jared ask
ed
Matt
who stood at l
east three
maybe four
inches shorter than
Adam
. Where
Adam
had muscles,
Matt
was stick thin.

“No.” Matt
frowned
,
shifting from one foot to the other not liking the attention he was getting.

Jared
pushed plates to the middle of the table out of the way.
“Well
,
let’s find out.” The excitement built around the room. Once they were seated Jared had them clasp hands in the classic arm wrestling grasp. “When I let go that’s your signal to start
.
” His large hand sat on top of theirs.

As soon as he raised his hand
Matt and Adam
fought against each other, the room erupted in cheers, shouts of encouragement and advice on how to best one another. Tessa smiled enjoying the moment. Most days these kids were quiet and didn’t seem to enjoy much out of life.
Adam
ended up winning, but
Matt
actually gave him a run for his money.
Adam
patted
Matt
on the back as did Jeff and Dillon to everyone’s surprise.

“I want to take Adam on.” Jeff called Adam out.

Adam
’s
grin was full of arrogance
. “Bring it.” He rolled up his shirt sleeve
this time
and sat
back
down
across from Jeff.

After many rounds of arm wrestling everyone had a turn, some twice after being called out by
someone else
, except for Jill.
“Jill, who do you want to go
up
against?”

Glancing up surprised that Jared had spoken to her
,
she shook her head and went back to doodling on
the
notebook
she always carried with her
.

“Ahhh, she’s just a girl anyway. Girls can’t arm wrestle.” Jeff snorted blowing off the fact that Jill didn’t have a turn.

To Tessa’s surprise
,
Jill stood her eyes
narrowed
with anger. “I’ll take him on.” Her words were spoken lightly, but had a confident edge to them.

Jeff snorted again taking a seat across from her landing his elbow hard on the table in an attempt to intimidate. Once they clasp
ed
hands Jeff’s eyes widened slightly. As soon as Jared’s hand lifted from the top of theirs Jill moved so fast and hard that the table cracked and the match was over before anyone could cheer. Everyone was frozen in shock with their mouths wide open.

“She cheated!” Jeff recovered first rubbing his elbow. “I wasn’t ready.”

“No, she didn’t.” Jared replied a grin replacing his shocked expression. “You both had the chance to start at the same time. I didn’t feel any movement while my hand was on top of yours.”