by Weil, J. L.
Chase’s rage bellowed through the forest.
Snares and curses erupted in the air as bodies began to take shape through the twilight. This was it, the final moment.
Their numbers were more than ours, but I’d expected that. It wouldn’t have been much of a fight otherwise. By the looks of it, this was going to be an epic standoff.
In horror I watched as hunters, like Jedi knights, swarmed toward us, weapons raised and armed. I felt like I was about to be eaten alive. The hunters surged forward and Chase took a step back, shielding me with his body.
Anarchy was about to explode.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Emma and Travis circle in from our right. I sighed in relief, knowing that they were still alive, unhurt.
Then the unthinkable happened. Emma threw the dagger she had clutched in her hand through the air, directly into Chase’s shoulder. One quick fluid motion. I stood shocked. He hadn’t even moved, or attempted to evade. I knew him. He was too fast, too smart to just let Emma hit him. He had just stood there and took the impact of a knife into the shoulder.
I was flabbergasted.
And why the hell had Emma stabbed him for crying out loud?
“You stabbed him,” I said astonished.
“It won’t kill him, trust me. This has to look real Angel,” Emma said low with clenched teeth, her lips barely moving. “They have to believe that I am with them.”
Her words barely penetrated through the thick haze of red now swarming in front of my eyes. “You stabbed him!” I growled right before I launched myself at Emma. It seemed to be my thing with her.
“Dammit!” a deep voice exploded, grabbing me in midflight. “When we get out of here, I swear to God I am going to ring your neck,” he graveled in my ear, and then set me on my feet. “We have bigger problems, and I don’t have time to babysit you right now.”
A part of me knew I should have been afraid of his temper, but I just could muster up the emotions, not when I was in the midst of my own rage. He had already removed the knife from his shoulder, but I could see the sticky substance of his blood staining the dark shirt he wore. I felt my head began to spin. There was so many things going on around me, and I felt myself losing touch on reality.
Suddenly he was there, steady hands on my arms. “Don’t even think about it Angel Eyes. I fine. It is just a scratch. Stay with me.”
I heard Emma snort behind me. “Wuss.” She was deliberately trying to get under my skin.
The dizziness passed just in time, thanks to Emma boiling my blood. He flashed her a quick look of annoyance before something else claimed his full attention. The hunters were moving in, surrounding us. Chase’s eyes did the freaking-glowy-thing, fiercely, and his demon took possession fast. I watched him transform in front of my eyes to something lethal and deadly. There was no mercy in his taunt stance.
Then the sounds of chaos erupted through the thick trees.
Hayden and Lexi joined the crowd followed closely by Sierra and Craig. Now that the whole gang was here, the fun stuff was about to begin. I wanted to close my eyes and hide under a pillow. This was not my kind of fun. Fun was playing Skyrim. Fun was hanging out with friends. Fun was eating a chocolate fudge sundae.
I had a feeling that Eric found this fun.
He was a sick bastard.
A body dropped beside me, and I couldn’t stifle the yelp that squeaked from me. I was too afraid to see if they were still breathing, knowing that if I took my eyes off the battle for even a fraction of a second, I could be killed.
They weren’t messy around.
This wasn’t a video game. There was no re-spawning.
This was life or death. Survival of the fittest.
There was a shuffle of feet behind me. Whipping around… I shuddered.
Chase’s voice echoed through the woodsy clearing. “Touch her and I promise to make your death a slow painful experience,” he threatened violently.
My knees began to buckle. Everything that I had gone through during my capture came flooding back. I wasn’t in the woods anymore, but back in that four wall prison with Emma’s dad pressing a knife to my throat. I shook in fear, frozen in place. How had I actually thought I was going to be able to face him? Compel him? I could hardly look at him without cowering in terror.
“Touchy, touchy,” Eric said, giving a dark, humorless chuckle.
At the sound of his voice I felt myself drowning in panic, losing my grip on the plan. He stepped closer to me and Chase growled deep in his chest. In my head I knew what I was supposed to do, but my brain wasn’t cooperating. It was rendered useless at the sight of Eric.
He pulled out a long jagged wicked looking knife, if you could call it that. Damn thing looked more like a sword and he had a bow with a sheath of arrows strapped to his back. “I see you’ve brought my daughter home.”
Chase’s response was a guttural sneer.
I instinctual backed up. “Chase?” My voice was shaky as I pleaded for what I didn’t know.
Strength.
Courage.
Help.
Regardless, the sound of my frightened voice unleashed an animal. Golden eyes filled with wildness. With one smooth motion Chase engaged Eric like he was born to fight. In the background I could hear Sierra sparring with one of the hunters, taunting him with her natural annoyance, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the fight right in front of me.
Chase moved at ungodly speeds, so fast that all I see was the occasional glimmer of gold. He avoided the down swoop of Eric’s blade many times, keeping Eric busy. Chase flickered in and out around him, making Eric’s focus on only him. I screamed as Eric’s blade sliced across Chase’s stomach.
Of course Eric couldn’t resist the chance to taunt me. Hearing the panic in my scream, Eric laughed. “Don’t worry I’ll take good care of him. Piece by piece.”
Enough with the games, Chase blinked behind Eric. Lickety-split. I watched wide-eyed as Chase took Emma’s dad by surprise in a moment of distraction, wrapping his demon-strength hands around his neck.
Our eyes clashed over Eric’s shoulder and I knew in those suspended seconds of time what he was going to do. What he was begging me to understand. His feelings merged with mine. I closed my eyes, trying to block out the screaming, the fighting, and the mixture of every emotion possible. When I opened them again I took a deep breath and held Eric’s gaze in mine. He wasn’t smirking anymore. I gave Chase a short nod, letting him know that I understood.
I got his reasoning, but I was worried at what price.
At what price would either of us pay for what he was about to do. All along, whether I wanted to admit it or not, I knew it was going to end this way, with blood on our hands.
Eric’s dark green eyes went large and detached. In a twist of fate, Eric became my prisoner. Unblinking I kept my vision locked with Eric’s, compelling him not to move. One miscalculation and either of us could end up a bloody smear on the ground. The others were dealt with behind us, the least of our concern.
Chase didn’t hesitate after that. Sianara. So fast I hardly saw the movement, Chase twisted Eric’s neck like it was nothing. There was an unmistaken snapping of bone marrow that made my stomach churn in waves. I thought for sure I was going to vomit on my converse shoes. Then the life in Emma’s dads green eyes flickered out, dead to this world.
Emma let a bloody curdling screamed, crying for her dad. She crumbled to the ground, mudding her jeans beside his lifeless body. I didn’t move, unsure what I could possible do or say to ease her pain. Truthfully, I doubted she would even want my shoulder to cry on.
We had deviated from the plan – big time. We had killed her father. If I thought Emma and I were making any progress toward being friends, this just severed our chance. I seriously doubted that she was going to okay with what just went down.
Hunter or not, Eric had still been her dad.
This what Chase had been keeping from me. All along he wasn’t planning on letting Eric walk out of these w
oods alive. I rubbed my arms trying to chase the chill that had settled over me.
Travis knelt down beside a weeping and distraught Emma, whispering her name. Reaching out, he tried to pull her into his arms.
“Don’t touch me!” Emma yelled, shoving Travis away with a stream of tears running down her cheeks. “Don’t. Ever. Touch me again.” Her shining emerald eyes burned with betrayal and acute pain.
Travis staggered back, sitting on the cold ground looking like Emma had just slapped him smartly across the cheek with the force of a grizzly.
My heart lurched in my chest.
This decision we’d made was not only going to affect Emma, but Travis as well. Emma was going to hold Travis just as responsible for her dad’s death as she was going to pin the blame on Chase and I. Just when Travis had finally gotten back the girl he loved, he lost her again in a bat of an eye.
Glaring with emerald eyes swimming with fresh pain and hatred, Emma got to her feet. In her hands she had grabbed her dad’s bow and now aimed it at the center of Travis’s heart. Her hands shook violently and I gasped.
Travis didn’t try to defend himself. He kneeled, staring up at the only girl he ever loved. That loved shimmered in his turquoise eyes.
Time stood suspended before she lowered the weapon, her body still shaking with gut-retching sobs and ran.
“Emma!” Travis called out after her. “Emma wait!”
Chase put a hand on Travis shoulder before he could take off after her. “Don’t,” Chase said softly. “Let her be Travis.”
Travis spun on his heels, eyes searing his cousin with gold daggers. He shook his hand off him and pushed Chase in the chest. “How could you? How could you Chase?” His voice was filled with hurt, anger, and treachery.
“It was the only way Travis. You might be pissed at me now, but you know that it was the right thing.” Regret tinged his words.
“The right thing? How the hell can you say that? You killed a man.”
Chase’s eyes never wavered, hard granites of steel. “And I would do it again in a heartbeat. I’m not apologizing. Not when it saved the people I love.”
“You mean as long as it protected Angel,” Travis said sharply.
Ouch that stung. I winced.
Travis didn’t stop there. “But what about Emma? Were you protecting her?”
Chase’s voice was low and taunt with frustration. “Does it matter?”
I stared at him in disbelief.
Travis shook his head. “That is low. Even for you.” He turned on his heels and zoomed off after Emma.
Cautiously, I approached Chase, wanting to offer him comfort, solace, something to take away the sting his cousin’s words had left behind. My body was still numb and in shock as I touched a hand to his shoulder. The eyes that I loved so much were brimming with morn, solemn. I almost preferred the glowing gold to the sadden silver. Seeing the weight he carried on his shoulders felt heavy in my heart.
“You did what you had to,” I assured with the best sureness I could muster.
“Did I?”
Chase questioning himself wasn’t a good thing. It worried me. Really worried me. He oozed cockiness. His surety was like armor – strong and unbreakable. I didn’t know what route to take. Did I try compassion or did I sock with something smart in hopes of knocking him out of this stupor?
Instead I said nothing. I just walked into his arms and wrapped mine around him.
Chapter 28
Chase had killed someone to protect me. Protect his family.
There was a different ambiance that lingered in the Winters home now. Travis shut himself off from those who cared. He was unrecognizable to me. Every time I saw him, I prayed for just a glimpse of that boyish charm I loved. Just a hint at one of those dimples that made his smile so addicting. I missed my video game partner.
Mostly, I missed my friend.
But I didn’t know how to bridge the giant gap that separated us.
Without Chase and Lexi, I don’t think I would have been able to move forward. I knew that I was the lucky one. I still had the person I loved more than anyone. It was a bittersweet revelation. Yet still I couldn’t help but feel sorrow even after what Eric put me through, or what his plans for me and the rest of us might have been. It still didn’t make what happened any easier to digest.
The days following the death of Eric were hard on everyone in their own way. Emma was MIA, which was expected to Travis’s dismal. It didn’t matter how much he blew her phone up, she had once again fallen off the map. Travis mopped around. He went through the motions of day-to-day life, but he wasn’t really living. He didn’t eat. He didn’t sleep. And more than not, his eyes sparked yellow. The demon inside was breaking to the surface more and more.
That scared me.
Chase might not have said it out loud, but he was worried about Travis. Seriously worried. They all were. Devin, especially.
Me…well I was doing my best to pretend it never happened. Yeah, I was totally going through a denial faze. That and I was biting my nails in nervousness, waiting for the police to rap on my door and accuse me of murder. Chase assured me that everything had been taken care of, but it was hard to believe that we would get away with killing a man.
My mom picked up on my odd behavior – on everyone’s. Devin knew what had really gone down, but my mom thought it was a tragic hunting accident. Ironic. Hunting had definitely been involved except the target hadn’t been Bambi, and I wouldn’t have called it an accident either.
Oh well. It was better this way for her. Better that she not know the real horrors that roamed the earth, better off left in the dark. The less she knew the safer she was.
As much as I tried to resume my life as normal, forget what we’d been a part of or the hand I played in a man’s death, my mom could see right through me. She knew something was weighing on my mind, that my smiles were fake. Regardless, it didn’t stop me from trying to keep on pretending.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay home tonight?” Mom asked for like the gazillionth time. She was concerned about me, probably with good reason. Today was one of my off days. I just couldn’t shake this ominous feeling.
I gave her one of those false smiles that didn’t reach my eyes. “Chase is coming over. Go. Have fun with Devin. You deserve it.” I knew she would feel better knowing I wasn’t going to be alone.
She slipped on a pair of heels and smoothed a hand over her caramel hair. “Behave yourselves.” Her blue eyes twinkled behind the concern.
From the couch, I snorted. “I think maybe I should be saying that to you. Trust me. There won’t me be much going on around here.”
Her heels clicked on the floor as she strolled across the room. “I’m just saying…I know how hard it is to resist a magnificent butt.”
“Mom,” I groaned. Some things never change. Like mom always saying inappropriate stuff. Little did she know that it actually made me feel a little better. It was the small things that could make a world of difference.
She opened the front door just as Chase was about to knock. He gave my mom a dazzling grin. “Hey Ms. Morgan.”
“Chloe, call me Chloe. Anything else makes me feel old.” Turning in the doorway, she winked at me. “Behave.”
I rolled my eyes and watched her shut the door.
My mom was impossible, and the absolute best. I couldn’t imagine life without her in it. Thinking about Emma, I knew that she and her dad didn’t have the normal father-daughter relationship, yet he still had been important to her. She still loved him even though she realized how messed in the head he was.
Chase raised a brow. “What was that all about?” There was still a shadow of guilt lurking behind his silver eyes. It saddened my heart to see it lingering.
“My mom has it in her head that I need to get laid or something,” I explained, scooting my legs up to make space for him on the couch.
“Your mom is seriously amazing,” he replied, the corner of his turned up.
> Chase’s deep voice wove itself into my chest and my stomached squirmed. I smacked him on the chest as he sat down beside me on the zebra print couch. “I didn’t have the heart to tell her that my boyfriend is a tease.”
Stretching out my legs across his lap, he gave me a cheshire grin. “Can I help it if I am irresistible and you just can’t keep your hands off me?”
I tried to suppress my grin. “How the hell did I get saddled with such a prude?”
He propped his hands behind his and relaxed into the cushions. “Prude…hardly. If your mom knew the things I wanted to do with her daughter, she would bar the front door. Hell she would have to move you across the country, and even then you wouldn’t be safe from me.” The corner of his lips tipped up and he shrugged. “Besides, who said we can’t be inventive.”
I never saw it coming. Like most things with Chase, he moved at speeds that my eyes just weren’t able to follow, but the stupid grin on his face should have tipped me off. When was I ever going to learn? Hopefully never…this was the kind of game that I actually liked to play.
I felt his hands slid up and fasten around my leg. All I could think was how warm and intense his touch felt, even through my jeans. And then he yanked. My breath hitched as he pulled me into his lap in one smooth motion. His arms slipped around me and he drew me close, kissing the side of my neck. I shivered.
He smelled so good, a mix of fresh fallen rain and earthy. Lifting my head, I placed a kiss right below his jawline, he drew in a quiet breath and his hands curled into fists at the small of my back. I felt his heartbeat quicken and my whole body tingled, senses buzzing. So many emotions, mine and his mixing together so that I couldn’t distinguish which ones were mine and which ones were his.
I shifted to place another kiss on his ever tempting jaw, he ducked his head and our lips met. Just like that, and he was kissing me like I was going to meld into him. My hands slipped under his shirt, tracing the hard lines of his chest and stomach. Muscles jump under my nails. I captured him in my mouth and he nipped my bottom lip.
