Jared (2 page)

“You’re going to pay for that….boy.” Jared hissed, but the kid had his focus on the woman and ignored him.

“Hurry up.” The kid urged the woman.

“Stop rushing me.”
She made fast work of his legs, but when she got to his hands she reached back into the bag grabbing two
thin
towels
and wrapped
both wrists
before placing the chains around them. Four more chains were crossed
over
his lap. The woman took the gun
again before backing
up a few steps.

Jared glanced at the towels she placed on his wrists then looked at her. “So you can shoot me full of silver, but you can’t stand to see my skin burn?”

She
shrugged one
shoulder
,
looking away toward the boy. “How much time do we have?”

“Not much.” He replied
,
heading toward Chad.

“I know who you are.” Chad finally spoke up his eyes
riveted
on the boy. “You were dead.”

The boy leaned his head back taking a deep breath a
s if trying to calm himself
.
A
gitation radiated off him in waves. “I am dead you
bastard
.” His head snapped back down as he reached up
whipping
his sunglasses off.

Jared tried to keep his emotions in check, but seeing the eyes of a
half-breed
shocked the
hell
out of him.
To say
half-breed
s were rare was a total understatement.

“Stay calm Ad….” The woman stopped herself before she said his name putting her hand out to grab the boy
’
s arm
in an attempt to stop him
.

“My God it really worked.” Chad’s voice was low until his laughter filled the room. “It really
fucking
worked.”

“What did you do to him?” The woman stepped forward this time. The gun left Jared and aimed point blank at Chad. When Chad laughed louder she pointed the gun slightly to the right and fired a shot. “What did you do?!”
Her scream echoed in the room, the gun whipped back to aim at his head
.

Chad’s laughter died
as his
gaze
left the boys
’
resting
on the woman. “Obviously we succeeded
in starting an army
.
” He
replied, his lips spreading into a
n
evil grin.

“What in the hell are you talking about?” The woman hissed
,
her hand which was steady before shook slightly with tense
rage
. “An army of what?”

“An army….” Chad glanced at Jared then to the window. “of
half-breed
s.
Did the rest
of them
survive?
”

“Fix it!” The woman nodded to the boy
,
ignoring his question
.

Chad snorted. “I can’t fix it
you dumb bitch
.” He laughed again sounding like a child. “It worked. I can’t believe it really worked.”

“An army for what?” The boy ask
ed
,
glaring hatred at Chad.

Chad’s laughter died in an instant. “An army to kill the warriors.”
His whole dem
eanor
took on a different tone.
He looked
over
at Jared. “
I told you I would get you all.
”

“Who’s your partner?” The boy demanded, his fangs growing slightly longer.

When Chad just smiled, his lips sealed, the boy took a few steps back hitting the wall hard hanging his head in defeat. “It’s going to be okay.” The woman backed up toward him, her gun still aiming between Chad and Jared. “We’ll figure this out.”

“We can help him, but you need to put th
e
gun down
and let me out of these chains
.” Jared
didn’t figure it would work, but hell
,
it was worth a try
.

The woman’s head snapped around so fast her baseball cap slipped sideways freeing strands of
fiery co
p
per
hair. “I went to your so called Council and the help they suggested was to lock my brother up.” She spat. “So forgive me if I tell you to shove your help up your ass just like I told your worthless Council.”

Jared couldn’t help it, he grinned. He could just see this woman
,
who smelled like
honeysuckle
,
ripp
ing the Council a new one. “He’
s going to need help.” Jared nodded toward the boy.

“I’m fine.” The boy replied, not looking fine at all.

“I don’t think so.” Jared tried to get a read on him, but a sudden wave of pressure pushed back into his head.

“Stay out of my head warrior.” The boy hissed. “I feel others trying to get
in
, but it won’t work. And don’t try to get into hers either. We are both blocked.
Actually everyone is blocked, but me.
”

Jared cocked his eyebrow impressed. “You can do that?”

“I can do a
lot of things.” He snorted before putting his sunglasses back on.

“How long have you been changed?” Jared
was seriously intrigued. He had only met a
handful of
half-breed
s in his long life
.

“
Less than a
month.
”

“Have you fed yet?”

The boy shook his head
as he walked over and grabbed Chad by the throat lifting him out of the chair, chains and all.
“Let’s go.”
He broke the chains holding Chad to the chair.

“I take
it
silver doesn’t affect you.” Jared grumbled from his chair.

“Nope.” The boy didn’
t even look his way as he le
d Chad to the door. “Come on. We only have a few minutes.”

“You need to feed.” Jared warned. He then turned his gaze on the woman. “He needs to get help. If he doesn’t feed soon he is going to
rage
and when that happens he is going to kill anything with a heartbeat. You included.”

“He’s fine.” The woman replied harshly
,
backing toward the door.
“I
f you walk out that door you’
re signing your brother’s death warrant.”
Jared did his best to get her
to see reason.

“You going to kill him?” The woman challenged with a cock of her head. “Is that a threat
?
”

“If he goes rogue he will be hunted by every warrior in the area.” Jared replied his voice hard and sure. “It’s our job to protect innocents.”

“Then where in the hell were you when he needed you?” The woman
stomped toward
him;
her face flushed an angry red under her large sunglasses.

Not having an answer for that
,
Jared
just shook his head. “I’m sorry for what happened to you…to him, but if you leave he doesn’t stand a chance.”

“I’d rather take that chance th
a
n leave him in the hands of someone who wants to lock him up.”
She spat out, hatred
clearly evident in her tone
.

“You’re making a big mistake.” Jared tried one last time to stop these two before they got
in more trouble
than
they were already in
.

The woman hesitated
before slowly backing out of the room. “Trusting a blood sucking vampire would be the mistake.”

“I’ll be seeing you
…
” Jared
leaned toward her
as
far as he could
.
“
very soon.”
A
nticipation
in the form of a smile
tipped his lips when
she
ran
out the door
,
leaving
the scent of honeysuckle
.

Tessa’s hands shook so bad she was surprised she made it home with
out
running off the road. Adam sat in the back with the vampire they had stolen f
rom
the VC Warriors. Her stomach pitched violently thinking of what they just pulled off.

“Pull around back.” Her brother ordered.

Chad, who hadn’t shut up the whole ride home, chuckled. “You guys are as good as dead.
They’
ll find you.
”

“Shut up.” Adam hissed glancing out the back window.

Pulling around to the back of the house Tessa
pried her death grip off the steering wheel flexing her aching fingers. She swore if she
hadn’t
been driving she would have shot the
bastard
the first minute of being in the car with him. He wouldn’t shut up and it
was driving
her crazy. Her
head
,
already buzzing with what they had just done
,
was now hurting so bad her eyes felt like they were bleeding.

“Unlock the cellar.” Adam ordered as he pulled Chad out
of
the back seat.

“Stop ordering me around.” Tessa snapped grabbing the keys out of the ignition. Heading down the three steps she unlocked the old door pushing it open. Turning
,
she rushed back
to
where
Adam waited.

“This is great.” Chad laughed enjoying every moment. “You guys are turning on each other. You have no idea what you’ve done. The warriors aren’t going to give up trying to find you. Take it from me. No one messes with them and gets away with it.”

“Shut up!” Both Tessa
and Adam yelled. Adam pushed Chad ahead of him down the steps into the cellar
, slamming the door behind him
.

Taking a deep calming breath Tessa glanced around more paranoid than she had ever been in her life
.
They didn’t have any close neighbors, most everywhere y
ou looked was wood
s, but
it felt like someone was watching her.
Rushing around to the front of the house Tessa shivered. She needed to get a grip.
There was one way to their small farm house and that was the gravel drive. With one last glance down the driveway Tessa ran up the steps, key ready to shove in the lock. She couldn’t get inside fast enough. Finally the door gave
after a few shaky tries
and she quickly jumped inside slamming the door closed. Feeling dizzy she realized she had been holding her breath and let it out in one long sigh.
Her legs felt like noodles
barely carrying
her through
the living room
to
the
kitchen. G
r
abbing
a bottle of water out of the
fridge she drank it down in
one
long swig
.
Her mouth was so dry from fear she was about to choke.

The sound of Adam stomping up the steps echoed in the small kitchen. Tessa rushed
over unlocking the
door leading
to
the cellar.
After s
lamming the door shut Adam
went
to the kitchen sink splashing water on his face.

“You okay?” Tessa locked the door back not taking her eyes off her brother.

“Yeah, I’m good.” His
answer muffled with the dish towel he used to wipe
h
is face with.

“Did he say anything?” Tessa pulled a chair out from the table practically falling in it. Her legs
were
so rubbery she was surprised they were still holding
her
up.

Adam snorted. “Oh, he said plenty, but nothing worth a damn.” He also grabbed some water before sitting across from her. “Don’t worry. He’ll talk.”

Tessa nodded noticing Adam’s
one
golden eye was slightly darker with what looked like a tinge of red. She wasn’t scared of her brother, but his short fuse did make her cautious. He was the same, but different. It confused the hell out of her. “Do you think they’ll find us?”