Breed of Envy (The Breed Chronicles, #02)

by Jordan, Lanie

  But now Rachel knew. Though, I couldn’t say I minded. I didn’t care if everyone knew.

  Linc pulled me from my thoughts, and from the bleachers. When we were clear of Rachel, I started laughing. I had no idea why, but I did. “She’s not going to be happy about that.”

  “She’s not going to be happy about anything, ever,” he bit out. “And I meant what I said. I am tired of hearing her run her mouth. You’ve dealt with enough crap from her and…everything else.”

  I stopped walking, turned, threw my hands around his neck, and gave him a big, noisy kiss on the lips.

  His eyes sorta went foggy, then he smiled slowly. “What was that for?”

  “For being a kinda awesome boyfriend.”

  He grinned, but then it slipped from his face. “Wait, only ‘kinda awesome’?”

  “About this much.” I spread my finger and thumb about an inch apart, then I laughed again as Linc’s jaw dropped. “Okay, maybe a little more than that.”

  Shaking his head, he draped an arm over my shoulder and started walking again. “You’re mean. You’re lucky I like that about you.”

  “You’re lucky I’m not meaner,” I said, trying not to laugh.

  *~*~*

  After we ate, Linc and I sat in the café court and talked for a while, mostly about the upcoming C&C. Despite Rachel’s claims that I was a teacher’s pet, I still wasn’t sure I’d be going. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered why they’d let me go with Linc on his hunt. The last time I’d gone on one hadn’t exactly ended that well. And Linc’s… Honestly, I wasn’t sure about that one. Had it been a good hunt, or a bad hunt? I mean, in a way, it had to be good since everyone walked away (mostly) unscathed. But the demon had died in the end, hadn’t it? And, however direct or indirect it may have been, it was because of me. Because the demon kept coming after me, which was still odd and I had no idea why. It reminded me of Brian in a way, with his non-stop attacks, like he—and the demon—just had to come after me.

  “You’ve got your thinking face on again,” Linc muttered, reaching across the table to take my hand. “Is it Rachel?”

  I shook my head. “No. The C&C. I want to go—I think—but…”

  “But what?”

  “What if they don’t want me to?” I leaned forward, whispering so Linc was the only one who could hear me. “We didn’t exactly follow all the rules on your hunt. We turned off our coms and things didn’t really go as planned.”

  “We turned the coms right back on again. And no, it didn’t really go as planned. But if that’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine, so you shouldn’t be blamed for it. I’m the one who turned off my com first.” His gaze darkened. “And if they want to take me off the list because I killed it, then they can. I had no choice. And in the same situation, I’d do it again. In a heartbeat.”

  “You’re not back to feeling guilty, are you?” I asked, rolling my eyes. If he was, I was going to pinch the skin on his hand clear off.

  “No, not at all. I’m just saying, things happened and I don’t regret them.” He shrugged. “The point is, I don’t think that’ll count against us—or you.”

  I sighed. “I hope not.”

  Linc grabbed my hand. “Don’t worry about it, Jade. They’ll let you go. If they have any problems, then I’ll set them straight.”

  “Maybe I won’t ask to go. I’ve got work I should focus on anyway.”

  “You’re a bad, bad liar.”

  “What? I do. It’s almost the end of the Phase. I have—”

  “I know you finished Demonology already, and that’s the only class you can really finish early. So don’t try it. Zip it.”

  I made a hmpft sound and immediately regretted telling him the truth about finishing Demonology. I’d known better, hadn’t I? Even as I’d told him a few weeks back, I’d known he’d find a way to bring it up and use it against me.

  “Now, are you really not going to ask because you’re just scared they’ll say no? Because that’s the worst they can do.”

  “Are you using your dirty guy logic on me to make me feel stupid?”

  He nodded, smiling happily. “Yup.”

  “It’s working.” I narrowed my eyes at him for two point three seconds, and then I pouted. “Unfair.”

  “You’ll get over it, Hall.”

  CHAPTER 17

  The C&C issue turned out to be a non-issue, because the following week, Peter caught me and Linc and told us that he’d specifically requested us to go with him. And Mr. Sheldon had, according to Peter, pleaded with him to take me, since he was tired of me bugging him for more work. (Since I’d finished Demonology entirely, I needed something to keep me busy during class because he wouldn’t up my DD hours any higher.)

  By the time the beginning of July rolled around, Peter and Greene had already made the lists of teams who were going on the C&C. Much to my surprise, Linc and I were up first with Peter, Adam, and Dale. Much to my annoyance, Brian had also made the team. I hadn’t talked to him at all since that day in Combat unless I’d been forced to, but I silently wondered what kind of sick joke it was to, for the second Phase in a row, team me up with someone who apparently hated me.

  Linc had been more surprised than me, I think, and threatened to knock Brian’s head off his shoulders if he so much as looked at me funny. I tried laughing it off as a joke, but there was a look in his eyes that told me he wasn’t kidding. So now, I had to worry about the C&C and keeping Brian and Linc from killing each other. I just hoped that Brian continued to pretend I didn’t exist in his little world.

  On the second Friday of July (after my appointment with Doc), we were scheduled to have our C&C. It was in a little under an hour, and Brian and I were both waiting in the Weapons room as directed. Linc was mysteriously absent, but Peter had said he’d be around soon. Adam was there, too, and both hunters were dressed in black from head to toe, already wearing their weapons vests. It amazed me how calm they seemed. We weren’t leaving for a while yet, but I was still a nervous wreck. My stomach was jittery and my hands were sweaty.

  Brian, the jerk, even managed to look somewhat calm. And whenever Linc decided to make an appearance, he probably would, too.

  Peter stepped forward, looked at Brian and me. “Do you remember what needs to go in the vest, Jade?” At my nod, he smiled. “Dumb question. Can you tell Brian what he needs and get yourselves loaded up? Everything but the holy water, since we won’t need it.”

  “Stakes?”

  “Might come in handy as a backup.”

  “Got it.”

  “Actually, since this is a Capture and Contain, go ahead and double up on the nets,” Peter added.

  “Sure.”

  He turned and he and Adam walked away, leaving me alone with Brian. He’d been quiet, and I almost commented on it, but then I thought I better not remind him to act normal. The last thing I wanted was a fight before we were supposed to leave.

  The room hadn’t changed a lot since last Phase, but I could see that some aspects of it had been remodeled. Silently, I wondered if this had been done over the summer, or when Greene’d had the construction people here, but I had no way of knowing. P4s were the only Prospects that were allowed inside without a senior agent or teacher, so I’d only been here once before, last Phase.

  I glanced around. A dark beige color coated the walls now and the shelving units had all been upgraded to sleek, black stainless steel. The glass table in the middle of the room seemed the same, and the chest of stakes at the side of it was still there.

  To the right, immediately when you walked in, there were now shelves lined with slide-out trays and drawers below. The top tray held knives; the second and third had tasers. The fourth tray had plastic packages with gloves in them. I almost laughed. Gloves? Really?

  The back wall held guns of all shapes and sizes on hooks in a locked cage-type case. To the left, bows and arrows and staffs. To the left of the door, the blackboard. It took up its original place, though I could tell it was
one of the new ones we had in our classes. Beside that, near the corner, a wide cabinet with vests hanging inside.

  Walking over, I grabbed two vests from the cabinet first. I handed one to Brian before I moved to the stake chest and pulled out what we needed. “Six stakes each,” I said, then moved to dig through the drawers until I found the nets. “Two of these.” I rose and started to reach for the tasers. Brian already had them and handed me one. “Oh.” I blinked in surprised and tried not to make a face at him. “Thanks. They might let us pick a weapon. They did last Phase, but I’m not sure if they will again.” I hoped they would. I liked the nano-sword.

  Brian nodded but still hadn’t said a word. I was okay with that because he was still acting weird by being nice—or at least what I considered nice for him. He probably thought he was saving time or being efficient.

  A few minutes later, as Adam walked back in, I shot him a look and pointed to one of the trays. “Really? You have gloves as weapons?”

  Adam walked over and shook his head as I reached out to touch one of the open packages. “I wouldn’t do that if you want to go on the C&C. Knock-Out Gloves. They’re coated with a compound that, when contact has been made, releases a drug into the system and knocks out certain demons. Or nosy Prospects,” he added with a wink. “We use them mainly if there are any potential hostages involved, so we don’t risk hurting civilians.”

  “Okay, that’s kind of cool.” I grinned and, shoving my hands into my pockets, said, “Where can I get a pair to use on Linc when he’s being annoying?” Or maybe Brian or Rachel, I added silently. Actually, Rachel and Brian both seemed to be annoying ninety-five percent of the time, so I wasn’t sure the CGE had a big enough supply of those to keep me happy.

  Adam laughed. “We’ll see about that next time. You two loaded up?”

  “Yup,” I said with a quick nod.

  “Peter said you two can grab a weapon.” He pulled the nano-sword (currently in its folded-knife form) from one of his pants pockets. “I assume you’ll be wanting this?” At my nod, he handed it to me. “Keep it in knife form and blah, blah. Got it?”

  I chuckled. “Blah, blah. Got it.”

  He grinned, then turned to Brian. “What about you?”

  “I’m good with a staff.”

  Adam pointed to the case carrying them. “Help yourself. Just don’t grab the blue one. It’s a prototype.”

  “Prototype?” I asked as Brian picked one. “What’s it do?”

  “You bang the staff on the ground and the other end is supposed to pop out a knife, turning it into a kind of spear.”

  “That sounds handy.”

  “It would be, except half of the time it shoots the knife out. And sometimes they catch on fire.”

  “Okay, now it’s not sounding so handy.”

  “Not unless you like the idea of possibly catching yourself on fire.”

  “What about someone else?”

  Adam shook his head. “And we’re moving on now,” he said, chuckling quietly and making me grin.

  Peter walked in, eyed the both of us. “Did I miss something?”

  Adam shot him a wry look. “Jade and her sudden want to burn people alive.”

  I gave them both my most innocent look. “Only singe them a little.” Adam and Peter exchanged a look, and then both of them shook their heads. “What?”

  They just kept shaking their heads.

  Linc ran in a few minutes later, out of breath. “Sorry, I’m late.”

  “It’s fine,” Peter said. “The director told us you would be. Suit up.”

  Peter tossed Linc a vest, then gave him the list of things he needed to get, including his weapon of choice (still excluding guns, much to his dismay). Linc picked a bow and arrow.

  “You brought your tablets?” Peter asked. The three of us nodded. “Your plans of action are on them. And please, whatever you do, do not lose or break the tablets. If you do, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “Where’s Harry?” Linc asked.

  “He’s driving the second van, so we’ll meet him there. You guys don’t really want to ride back with a demon, do you?”

  Me, Linc, and Brian all shook our heads.

  “Didn’t think so.” He clapped his hands together. “Got everything? Tablets, weapons? And here are your coms,” he said, handing us each a small black case. “Let’s move out.”

  We were to the door when Adam looked over his shoulder at me. “Mind grabbing six pairs of the Knock-Out Gloves?” I grinned, which made him shake his head. “No. You can’t use a pair on Linc.”

  From the hall, I heard Linc’s outraged, “Hey!”

  “Spoil sport,” I muttered, but I got the gloves anyway, and I didn’t even sneak a pair.

  *~*~*

  The ride out was, like usual, a bumpy mess. I’d wizened up though, and on the last trip into New Orlando, bought a small pillow just in case we went on any more ride-alongs. The trip itself was almost four hours since the demon we were after lived in the everglades. We’d been warned ahead of time to pay extra attention to our surroundings because demons weren’t the only thing we had to watch out for. We had to look out for snakes and alligators, too. I’d never seen a gator outside of a zoo and I really wanted to keep it that way. Linc, not surprisingly, hoped we’d come across some.

  And if we did, I’d make it my life’s mission to make sure one bit him on the ass for jinxing us.

  The demon we were after liked wooded areas surrounded by water. They were short, sneaky, and excellent climbers with three-digit hands. Their eyesight was, according to everything I’d read, very poor. It should’ve made them easier to catch, but they used a form of echolocation, and they were sensitive to heat changes that they could detect with their forked tongues.

  They were originally thought to be a C2 demon because they weren’t normally aggressive, but they were classified as a C3 when scientists discovered they produced venom in their mouths that made getting bitten by one a bad, bad move. A bite from one could be fatal. It was the venom Greene and his scientists wanted to study, because they thought it could be used to help in some cancer treatment.

  When we reached our destination, everyone piled out of the van. Dale, like Peter said, was already there and waiting.

  Peter picked up his duffel bag and tossed it over his shoulder. “Coms on, please.”

  I did as he asked and put my com on as Linc and Brian did the same.

  “Tablets out. First up. Brian? What are we doing?”

  “Looking for the Sercoon demon,” he answered.

  “Where?”

  “It likes elevation and, obviously, water, so we should check tall trees that are in or near a water source. They shouldn’t be more than ten or twenty feet up.”

  Peter looked to me next. “Which weapon do you recommend, Jade?”

  “I was thinking the Knock-Out Gloves.”

  It seemed like the entire group raised their eyebrows at me. “That’s not what you put in your report.”

  “No, it wasn’t, but I didn’t know about them until today. It might be the safest, easiest way to get them. Tasers are out, because of the water. Stakes are pretty useless unless you can get through its chest, which stakes typically can’t because their muscles are thick. My sword is out if we want it alive.”

  Adam looked at me. “Why not the netting?”

  “Because I’m guessing there are two of them, and if we net one, it might spook the other.”

  “Why do you think there are two of them?” Peter asked.

  “Because you had us each grab two nets. If it was just one, then I don’t think you’d want us carrying more than that and risk losing it. And as a backup doesn’t work either, because we each have two, so that’s at least six between the Prospects, plus whatever you guys brought. There’s backup and there’s just over prepared. You’re cautious—not downright paranoid. You don’t let us bring a lot of the expensive stuff, and I know the nets aren’t cheap.” But only because Linc had, apparently, res
earched those, too.

  Peter grinned at me. Adam and Dale both shook their heads sadly and reached into their pockets. “Told ya, boys. Jade is no one’s fool.”

  Dale slapped a twenty into Peter’s hand. “She should be considered a ringer.”

  Adam’s eyes twinkled. He handed Peter a twenty and, still shaking his head, handed me one.

  I looked down at it, then up at him. “What’s this for?”

  He shrugged. “We bet against you. The least I can do is give you a share.”

  His logic was awesome. I approved. I turned to Dale, held out my hand. “Feeling guilty, too?”

  “Ah, hell,” he said, but he grabbed a twenty out for me, too.

  I smiled at them both sweetly and pocketed the money. “Thanks!”

  Beside me, Linc hunched over laughing.

  The last few months had both been good for money and bad. Bad, because I spent a ton of it on Tasha and Linc, but good because I’d had a little extra from the DD work. My stash was looking stash-like again and not like a lump of pocket change. If I’d been saving for anything in particular, I’d have a nice little bit saved up. As it was, I was just saving it for…just in case. Things went wrong all the time. And I just wanted to be prepared, to have options, for the Worst Case Scenario if it ever came up.

  Though I hoped it didn’t.

  “Okay,” Peter said, clearing his throat. “As Jade figured out, we suspect that there are, in fact, two Sercoons we’re looking for tonight. Greene would like both, but we’ll settle for one.” He glanced at Linc. “Where do you think we should start looking?”

  “They like the sunrise, so somewhere on the east side of the ‘glades would be best.”

  “Agree or disagree?”

  “Agree,” Brian and I both answered.

  “Dale, you staying close to the vans for now?”