Breed of Envy (The Breed Chronicles, #02) (33 page)

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, researched 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?”

Dale nodded. “Yeah. I’ll make sure it’s ready for both.”

“Let’s move out, then, Prospects.”

We walked east for about twenty minutes. Despite our best efforts to be completely quiet, the water under our feet splashed and made squishy sounds. Branches snapped under the mud at our feet. Mosquitoes were out by the hundreds. I wasn’t sure (mainly because I was scared to look) but I was pretty sure I’d heard a snake hiss. I froze for an instant, trying not to groan or make a sound. Linc stopped beside me, gave me a questioning look. I whispered ‘snake’ and he shook his head. Brian and the others had stopped—apparently, they’d heard me—and they all grinned. I glared.

Stop being a wimp
, I ordered myself, and started moving again. I’d fought off a couple of demons, hadn’t I? And okay, so those had mostly been accidents and luck, but still, I’d done it. If I could handle stupid demons that were out to kill me, then I could handle a darn slithering snake. On the bright side, at least I hadn’t made any girly sounds that Linc would hold over me for all of eternity.

I’d never been out in a swamp-like area before, so I’d had no idea what to expect. Unfortunately, now I did, and most of it wasn’t good. The smell was horrible, like old, standing water and dead things. And trash. I shouldn’t have been surprised. We were surrounded by standing water, things probably
had
died here, and there was a lot of trash scattered on the ground. Bottles, bags, shoes, a bike tire. Weird things. I was pretty sure I’d even spotted a sink faucet sticking up out of the ground.

I tried being careful to watch where I stepped, mostly because I didn’t want to A) make any noise, B) trip over any trash (like a sink), and C) because I really just didn’t want to touch anything—especially on accident.

Forty minutes into our trek, Peter and Adam stopped. Peter took out his tablet and started typing something. After a second, everyone looked down at their own tablet, including me, since it’d vibrated in my hand.

The screen showed a message bubble with Peter’s name beside it.
Ideas on how to contain it, Jade?

I nodded, and then typed,
But it’s not an idea I had for my plan.

What is it?
—Adam

I grinned.
We just need a little distraction.

Peter and Adam both glanced at me with eyebrows raised.

Quickly, I typed out my plan.
We just need one or two people to distract each demon, then one of us can sneak around, try to catch the demons off guard and use the Knock-Out Gloves on them. It’s low…ish risk and should be pretty straight forward.

Another message popped up, this one from Adam.
If everything goes according to plan.

Yeah. But any plan we use could have something go wrong.

Adam and Peter looked at each other, then Adam shrugged.
Good point
appeared on the screen under his name.

Peter finally nodded.
Okay. Set us up and pass out the gloves.

I laid out my plan, which was, I hoped, simple. Peter, Adam, and Brian would act as the distractors, and Linc and I would use the gloves. Linc would circle around one direction, I’d circle around in the opposite, and the other three would go on as they were and do whatever they had planned to distract the demons. Someone (read: Brian) mentioned fire.

After we agreed on the details, Peter reminded us that we needed to contain it and told us not to do anything stupid that we’d need saved over. I had no intention of doing anything stupid, period.

Silently, I hoped the demons cooperated with the plan, especially since it’d been mine.

We started moving again and after a while, Brian, who was acting as our lookout, stopped and signaled that he’d found signs of the demons. I moved ahead, scanned the water and the trees. I spotted them in a tall tree up ahead, cuddled together, like they were sleeping. It was almost…sweet.

My tablet vibrated, so I looked down. I almost laughed. It was from Peter and it read:
Get the dreamy look out of your eyes.

I rolled my eyes and typed out a short message:
Spotted them.

Peter raised an eyebrow.
Are you sure? I don’t see them.

I nodded as I typed.
Trust me.

Then let’s get this done
, was Peter’s reply after I gave him the location.