I barely made it to my hands and knees before the demon came for me and slashed out. One of its arms came down over my back hard enough to have me eating pavement. Rocks and dirt dug into my cheeks, knees, and elbows, and grated against my skin until I scented my own blood in the air. The demon hit again and again with sledgehammer force, knocking the breath from my lungs. I managed to tuck my arms underneath me to keep them covered. My back was protected from the thorns on its arms, but it did little to lessen the strength of the blows. Each hit felt like a board of nails being slammed into my back. Tears stung my eyes. I tried moving, shifting, and rolling away, but I couldn’t even make it an inch before the Sawthorn was hitting me again.
“Linc!” I tried to scream his name, but my voice was barely a rough whisper and I didn’t know if he heard me.
The demon delivered another blow, further up my back, closer to my head, which had my forehead slamming into the ground. And then the weight on my back was gone.
I heard Linc grunt and the sound of fists against flesh. It was a sickening sound and made my already-queasy stomach feel even queasier. I managed to shift enough to look toward Linc. He was on top of the demon, slamming his fist into its face, over and over, without pause. It seemed like minutes went by before the blows were spaced further apart, until finally, they stopped altogether.
Breathing harshly, Linc dropped his arms to his sides. They hung limply, like he was too tired to even move them. He just sat there for a minute, then two. Then his eyes darkened and his face contorted in pain. Slowly, he reached down for the knife. He clutched the hilt in both hands.
“Linc?”
His arms shook as he raised the knife over his head.
“Don’t do it, Linc,” I said, wincing as I pushed up to my knees.
The knife was still raised, but he didn’t move. He just stared down at the demon.
“It’s out cold, Linc. It can’t hurt anyone now.” At least I didn’t think so. I didn’t mention the damage it’d already done or the fact that I was sure I had a cracked rib. I pushed up more, tried getting to my feet. I just fell back down. Make that two cracked ribs, maybe.
Peter and Adam ran into the alley a second later. Peter lowered his gun while Adam kept his trained on the demon.
“Don’t,” Peter said, stepping forward slowly. “I know you want to, but you gave me your word. You gave Director Greene your word.”
Linc never took his eyes off the demon. “What’s he going to do?” he asked, his tone harsh and bitter. “Kick me out?”
“No, probably not. But he won’t trust you or your word. That means something to you, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe.” Linc’s arms shook more now, like he was fighting opposing forces for control. He probably was, I guessed. Fighting the urge to ignore everyone else and fighting the urge to listen. I’d envied him before, because he’d gotten this opportunity where I was sure many hadn’t or didn’t. But now, watching him and his struggle, I wasn’t sure which of us actually had the easier time. Maybe neither of us.
Pushing through the pain, I got to my feet. “Put the knife down, Linc.”
Linc shot me a quick glance. “Look at you. You can barely stand!”
Peter gave me a quick once over but I ignored him. “Maybe, but I’m on my feet. This isn’t about me, anyway.”
“It is. It’s about you and my sister and everyone this thing has attacked or killed.”
I didn’t know how to argue with that. “Maybe it is then.” I sighed. “I don’t have the answers. I’m not even sure what to tell you,” I replied honestly. “But Peter’s right. You’ve always kept your word before and I think you should now.” I walked over to Linc and stood by his side. “Maybe you need to ask yourself which person you are. Are you the one who keeps his word, or are you the one breaks it?”
“That’s not fair.”
Linc’s tone was so quiet, so misery filled that it had my eyes heating with tears. No matter what he’d said, or what I’d said, this wasn’t about me. “No, no it’s not.” Sighing, I walked over to him and stood by his side. “Whatever you decide then, you know I’ve got your back.”
“Jade.”
I spun around to face Peter, immediately regretting the move and letting out a hiss of pain. “What? Should I tell him I won’t be his friend anymore because he wants to do something he said he wouldn’t? Should I tell him I won’t be his friend if he kills a demon that’s responsible for a lot of deaths, including possibly his sister’s? Can you say that? Honestly? Because I can’t. I won’t. He’s always been there for me, and I’ll be there for him. If he kills it, I won’t like it, but I’m not going to damn him for it, either.”
Peter’s expression softened. He looked as torn about it as Linc, though for different reasons. “You’re right. I can’t either. So do what you need to do, Linc. Just make it snappy. I want to get this over with and think of a way to explain it to the director, because he’s not going to be happy.” Peter turned away. “Neither will I be,” he said over his shoulder.
Linc’s eyes were a blaze of emotion. His whole body trembled now, and not just his arms. He raised his hands a little higher, let out a rough, guttural sound, and plunged the knife down. It hit the concrete and went flying over the ground, coming to a stop when it hit the wall.
Linc started to push up, then sent his fist flying into the demons face one last time before jumping up and moving away from it.
Peter kept his gaze locked on Linc as he tapped the com in his ear. He shifted to the side a little but still kept Linc in his line of sight. “Harry, you and Dale meet us over here when you’re finished so we can load this demon up.” Slowly, he walked over to Linc and gave his shoulder a quick squeeze, “Good decision, Linc.” He pulled a pair of metal shackle-looking things from his pockets. He raised his eyebrows. “Want the honors?”
Linc glanced down at the restraints, nodded. Without a word, he took them from Peter, flipped the demon to its stomach, and yanked its arms back. He wasn’t necessarily that rough, but neither could it’ve been called gentle. When he was done, he walked away without another glance.
It took Harry and Dale less than ten minutes to get the vans and get back to us. Dale backed his van into the alley, blocking anyone on the sidewalks from being able to see what was going on. Peter opened the back. The vans were all the same, or so I’d thought, but this one had a metal cage built inside. Dale gave the Sawthorn a shot—something to keep it knocked out, I assumed—and then he and the others put it in the cage, next to the other (seemingly unconscious) demon.
“Lesson learned, huh?” I asked quietly, remembering the Sharphinx demon that had nearly escaped from the back of one of the vans.
Peter only nodded, his face set in grim lines.
Within twenty minutes, we were on the road again, headed back to the CGE. The trip back was worse than the trip there. Every bump was like getting poked in the ribs and slapped in the back. Peter kept eyeing me like he wanted to say something, but I just gritted my teeth and smiled.
We pulled up to the side of the South Tower two hours later. Linc was the first to jump out. He held out his hand and helped me out before Adam and Peter followed. Dale met them at the back and the three men walked away. Linc and I trailed behind. We went over to the other van, the one that held the demons. Harry got out of the driver’s seat, walked to the back, and opened the doors. Adam and Peter stood a few feet away, their guns out and trained on the demons, while Dale and Harry pulled the Sawthorn out. Once they were clear, Adam relocked the cage.
They were halfway to the side door of the South Tower when the Sawthorn started to come to. Before anyone could do anything, it shouldered both men aside and spun around. One look at me (or one sniff, maybe), and it charged for me again. I had my knife out before Linc even went for his, but I hesitated for a split second. Just long enough for Linc to get out his own and throw it at the demon. It hit dead center in the demon’s chest. With its arms still restrained behind its back, the demon stumble
d back and fell.
Quickly, I slid my knife back into my pocket as Linc and the others rushed forward. I followed behind slowly.
Peter knelt down beside it, put his fingers at its neck to check for a pulse. “Heart shot. It’s gone.”
“I had to,” Linc said quickly. “It went straight for Jade in the alley, and it was going for her again.”
Greene studied the demon on the ground, then his gaze flicked to me. “So I saw,” he said, his tone mild. He turned, motioned to the scientists. “Get it inside before anyone else sees.”
“I’m sorry. I know you wanted it alive.”
“It may still prove useful in death, Mr. Stone. I’d much prefer a dead demon to a dead Prospect or hunter.”
Linc nodded. His eyes were kind of dark and hallow. They narrowed slightly as he watched the demon get carried away. He nodded again, but this time it had to be to himself because everyone else was busy and I was standing behind so he couldn’t see me. One of the scientists had pulled the knife from the demon and set it on the ground. Linc walked over, picked it up.
“You hesitated,” Peter said, speaking close to my ear.
I kept my face expressionless. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You hesitated,” he said again. “I saw it, Jade. You could’ve had it before anyone of us got our weapons out. Don’t lie.”
He was right. I could have done it. But it wasn’t my demon and it hadn’t been my shot to take. It was Linc’s. He’d struggled with not killing it back in the alley. He hadn’t done it then and I knew it had cost him.
After a minute, I pulled my gaze from Linc, met Peter’s stare. “He deserved the shot,” I said simply and walked away.
I couldn’t have taken that away from him.
*~*~*
Somehow, I lost track of Linc. He’d disappeared after the demon attack and I’d ended up wandering around for thirty minutes until I heard Greene say, “Do you not have somewhere to be, Miss Hall?” from behind me.
Closing my eyes briefly, I sighed internally, and then turned around. “The Weapons room, to return my vest?”
His head tilted to the side and he gave me a stern look, one that clearly said I was either dreaming or insane.
“Doc?”
He nodded once, pointed to the North Tower.
I gave a not-so-internal sigh. “For someone who usually talks a lot, your looks are just as chatty.” Before I turned and walked away, I saw his lips twitch, despite the rest of his face carrying the same expression.
As I walked across the lot, I searched for Linc, but he was nowhere in sight. “On my own then,” I muttered to myself.
Pulling the front doors open turned out to be more painful than I’d expected, so I crossed one arm over my chest to hold my ribs. I spotted Rachel and her gang over by the café court. Most of them had their backs to me, except Amber and Leslie. Amber gave me an uncertain look. Leslie grinned and tapped Rachel and Kristina on their shoulders to get their attention, and then she pointed at me.
Just what I needed. Another encounter with them. I could’ve gone the long way up to the second floor, or even taken the stairs, but I didn’t want them to think I was trying to avoid them, even though that’s exactly what I wanted to do. In hindsight, since they all made a beeline for me, I realized I should’ve just sucked it up and done that, regardless of what they would have thought about it.
They reached me before I made it to the elevator. Rachel’s gaze went to my ribs. Her smile was slow, malicious. “Not feeling so great, Teacher’s Pet?”
“Feeling just fine,” I lied, reaching for the elevator button.
Rachel elbowed me in the ribs, which had me hissing out a breath and narrowing my eyes. My fists curled.
“Oops,” she said in a falsely sweet tone. “Guess those ribs aren’t feeling so good after all.” Her and her friends laughed.
“Back off, Rachel. I’m not in the mood for your shit.”
“What?” She faked a hurt look. “I just came to check on you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. You checked. Now you can go away.”
The elevator doors opened, but I didn’t move yet. If I got on, they’d all follow me and I’d be stuck inside with them with nowhere to go. I hadn’t wanted to take the stairs because I knew it’d be more painful than the elevator. Then again, I thought, shaking my head as I turned away, I’d take the extra pain over Rachel any day of the week.
But my escape wasn’t happening. Rachel and her friends circled around me. Each time I tried to move one direction, one of them would bump into my ribs. They tried shoving me into the elevator, but I braced my arms against it and then shoved the nearest girl—Leslie—away. She landed on her butt, looking embarrassed and furious at the same time. Some of the Prospects started to laugh, which only infuriated them all more.
“Next time it’ll be a punch to someone’s nose,” I muttered. I didn’t want to start any fights, really, really didn’t want to. But I hadn’t taken Felecia’s shit last Phase, and I wasn’t about to take her friends’ crap this one. They’d gotten a little more leeway because, despite the fact that it had been her own fault, I still felt slightly guilty about Felecia getting kicked out. If she had been anything like me, then she’d joined the CGE to find her own justice, right? So her friends, I thought, probably shared the same reasoning. We all wanted to hunt demons. To, likely, find the specific one or ones that had touched our lives.
Why would they risk the chance to lose that over a stupid grudge?
I almost asked them, but decided against it because I was sure they wouldn’t answer. I was sure it wouldn’t matter to them. Instead, I sighed. “I’m getting on the elevator. Alone. Anyone who tries to follow me is going to get a nice visit to the infirmary with a broken nose,” I said, and stepped into the elevator. I held the door open for a moment, waiting to see if anyone tried to follow. They didn’t, though all three stared at me like they were hoping to grow some weird, mutation on the spot and kill me with their brains or something.
I let the doors slide shut and punched the button for the second floor.
“What is everyone’s problem with me?” I wondered out loud. I was alone, so of course no one answered, and if I were being honest, I wouldn’t have expected one, anyway. Well, at least not one I would’ve liked.
The doors opened a few seconds later and I made my way to Doc’s office. I knocked and waited for her to answer.
She winced as soon as she saw me. “Ouch. What happened to your face?” Doc didn’t wait for an answer. She dragged me over to a chair, sat me down, and then stormed out. When she came back in a few minutes later, she had a pair of gloves, a bottle of peroxide, gauze, and I didn’t want to know what else. “Does it hurt?” she asked as she put on the gloves.
I shook my head. I’d forgotten all about getting my face slammed into the ground. “Not now. I forgot about it, to be honest.”
She made tsk and wince-y sounds as she cleaned my face. “Well, I’m glad it looks a lot worse than it feels.” She sat in front of me. “Your healing rate really is incredible.”
“Um, thanks?”
Doc laughed. “So, why weren’t you here with Linc earlier?”
I frowned. “Linc was here?”
“Yeah. His back was scraped up and he had a knot on the back of his head.” One of her eyebrows arched. “You aren’t my first victim of the day.”
“He’s okay? I haven’t really seen him since we got back.”
“He’s fine.” She tapped my knee and stood. “But it’s time to get you into the scanner and check those ribs.”
I didn’t bother to groan, mainly because I was sure it’d hurt.
Down the hall, she unlocked and opened the TT room door. Without being asked to, I went and changed into the hideous gown, and then stood in the middle of the tube when I was done. Doc came over, hooked me up quietly. When she was done, she stepped back, gave me a once over. “The director told me what happened. How bad do you really
feel? You’re unusually quiet.”
“I’ve felt better,” I said with a miniscule shrug. “But I’ve felt worse, too.” Getting bitten by a vampire sucked—haha—and had been more painful than anything else I’d ever felt. Possibly cracked or broken ribs were nothing to complain about.
She walked over to the controls, turned on the hologram, then the tube. I watched the laser lights as they crossed over my body. As they reached rib level, I looked up in time to see Doc wince. She let out a low whistle when the scan was done. “You look like you were hit with a baseball bat, repeatedly.”
It wasn’t that far from the truth, so I just shrugged. “You going to unhook me?”
With her head down, she typed as she spoke. “In a few minutes. I want to give it five, then scan you again so I can see how fast you’re healing.” She looked up. “I can unhook you and do it again, but I figure if you just wait it’s one less step for you. But it’s your choice.”
“Okay, I’ll wait.”
“Are you really okay?” she asked, walking back over to me.
“Yeah. The pain isn’t that bad anymore.” If I don’t move or, you know, breathe.
“I don’t mean just physically. You look tired and annoyed. You usually look annoyed when you’re around me, but you haven’t really argued with me at all or made any faces. It’s actually very unnerving and very much not like you. You still having trouble with Felecia’s old friends?”
“How did you know about that?”
“I overheard them talking about you a while back.” She shrugged. “I may not have classes with you, but I live here, too. I hear things.”
“Oh.” It shouldn’t have really surprised me but it kind of did. She was Doc. She liked to torture people. I had no idea she followed current events or anything. “Yeah. They’re still bothering me.” I bit my lip. “But don’t say anything to anyone. I can handle it.”
“Jade, you need to talk to Director Greene.”
“Why? So someone else can get kicked out and I can get the blame for it?” I shook my head. “Besides, it’s Greene. He knows everything anyway.”
Breed of Envy (The Breed Chronicles, #02) Page 21
