Breed of Envy (The Breed Chronicles, #02) (42 page)

“I—” I almost snapped at her again, I thought, annoyed with myself. “Yeah, I guess I am a little.” I’d wanted to lie, to say I was just fine, but those weren’t the words that tumbled out of my mouth.

She looked down at her feet. “Is it true what everyone is saying?”

I struggled not to sigh when she wouldn’t meet my gaze. She was acting skittish, nervous, like she was afraid I’d slap her away at any second. “Which part?” I asked wryly. I was sure there were more than a few rumors going around about me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure all of them were fake.

“That you’re part demon,” she said, lifting her head for point two seconds, “and that you can talk to them?”

“Yup, that’s me. Jade Hall, the Demon Whisperer.” Shelly’s eyes went wide and I shook my head. “Yes, I’m part demon. As for the other thing… No, not really. I can’t talk to them.” I paused, considered. “Well, technically, I suppose I
can
talk to them, but it doesn’t mean I understand them or that they understand or listen to me.” Really, I had asked one demon
not
to attack me—the baby—and it hadn’t, but that was only because I wasn’t very threatening toward it.

That was my excuse and I was sticking to it.

Considering I’d had four different demon species either attack me or try, and of those four species, only had one actually listen to me, I wasn’t counting that as being able to communicate with them. That’d just been some weird fluke.

“And is it true that you punched that Rachel girl?”

“Yeah. I shouldn’t have, but I did.”

The girl nodded. “Maybe you shouldn’t have,” she started, her eyes narrowing, “but I’m glad you did. She’s a troll.”

My jaw dropped open and I just blinked at her. It took me a full ten seconds before I responded, and even then, all I could do was laugh at first. “Thanks,” I said, wiping tears from my cheeks. “I needed that.”

She grinned at me. “She really is. She’s trying to get all the P1s to avoid you. I had been.” Her tone went shy. “But you don’t seem very demon-like.”

Only on the inside, chick
, I thought. “I’m not. I just have…some of their perks, I guess.”

“A few of the other girls I hang out with were talking about you. Sorry,” she added quickly, “nothing bad, really, we were just talking about whether we’d want the…the treatment things. Most of us said no.”

“Well, you don’t have to get them if you don’t want to. You have a choice.”

She glanced at me, then away again. “If you weren’t already—I mean, if you didn’t have them…oh, never mind.”

I chuckled. “If I didn’t have the treatments already…what?”

“Would you still get them?”

“Yeah. If it meant it’d make me better at hunting, then absolutely.” Now that she’d mentioned it, I wondered if I’d be able to get more. I didn’t necessarily want or need more (how many types of DNA could one person really hold?), but I wondered if it were even possible. Greene had always mentioned treatments, like plural. But I didn’t know if he meant it as in more than one or just in general.
Another thing to worry about next Phase. Or Phase 4.

“Is it painful?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Mine were…handed down, I guess. But I could ask one of the hunters, if you want. Now I’m kind of curious about it myself.” Were they painful? No one had ever said, and I’d never thought about asking that, either. I’d have to track Peter down, or maybe Adam. Adam owed me one for that stupid Demon Whisperer nickname. “I’ll find out and let you know.”

“Thanks, Jade.”

“No problem, Shelly. Anyway, I’m gonna go meet my friend. I’ll see you around, okay?”

She nodded. “Sure thing. Bye!”

I turned to walk away and heard her call my name. Smiling, I twisted back. The smile fell as Shelly’s fist collided with my jaw. I stumbled back, crashing into the wall even as I grabbed my jaw. I knew it was probably just my imagination, but I swear red tinted my vision.

She smiled at me. It wasn’t sweet or shy or nervous anymore, but cold and hard. “Rachel sends her regards.”

I was stunned. Not by the blow itself, but the fact that it’d happened. The fact that this girl, a P1, one who I’d thought was actually almost sweet, had hit me. For Rachel. My fingers curled into fists, clenching so hard I could feel my nails biting into the palms of my hands like angry thorns. I worked my jaw to the side but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t
want
to say anything. Everything in me wanted to hit her back, hard, then find Rachel and hit her again. “That’s her free one. Tell her I hope it was worth it,” I said, taking a step toward Shelly. “As for you…”

Her chin jutted out stubbornly. “What are you going to do? Hit me, too? You don’t scare me.”

“I shouldn’t scare you. But Director Greene should.”

She actually had the gull to look hurt by that. “But—you can’t tell him! She said you wouldn’t!”

“Why not? You. Hit. Me.”

“For Rachel!”

“And Rachel can damn well take care of herself!” Which raised a good question. If Rachel had really wanted to get me back, why would she have sent some P1 to do it for her? She didn’t seem like the type to do that. Not when I was sure she’d love to punch me herself.

It reminded me of Jennifer from The Pond. She’d gotten on Sharon’s bad side (one of the other girls who practically ran the house), and in order to make it up to her, Sharon had told Jennifer to attack me. And then it made sense, too much sense. I shook my head. “The way I see it, one of two things just happened. One, you did it as some kind of initiation thing to join Rachel’s group. Maybe she wanted you to prove yourself or something.” When that didn’t seem to be it, I added, “Or maybe you got on her bad side, and she said she’d make your life a living hell unless you hit me.” Her eyes went wide, telling me I found my answer. “You got played.”

“What? No, I didn’t!”

“No? Why do you think she sent you? Are you that dumb, or are you just that desperate to fit in that you’ll do something you should know will get you suspended, if not kicked out?”

“But she said you wouldn’t tell anyone…”

“Odds are, she either figured I’d hit you back, or she figured I’d tell Greene and get you suspended. Either way, she gets some revenge. On both of us.”

What a sad, sad situation. If I told Greene, she would get suspended, I was sure of it. It was her word against Rachel’s, so I wasn’t sure what would happen to Rachel—if anything. Part of me really wanted to tell Greene. I hadn’t last Phase, or this Phase, actually, and what had that gotten me? A whole hell of a lot of trouble.

“Are you really going to tell him?”

“That you hit me? I should. Why shouldn’t I? And if you say because Rachel said I wouldn’t, I’ll do it just because you annoyed me.”

“Because—because…” She sighed and didn’t say anything else for a full minute. “I guess I don’t really have a good reason.”

She looked miserable. Not just miserable, she looked terrified. But considering she’d fooled me just minutes ago, I wasn’t really buying it, even if I wanted to.
Just tell Greene, you idiot.

“Please, don’t tell him. I’ll do anything you want! I can’t leave!”

“I don’t want anything from you,” I said softly.

“I’ll—I’ll hit Rachel back for you! Please, Jade.”

I just shook my head. “I don’t need you to hit Rachel. And if I don’t tell Greene, she probably will.” Or she’d do a heck of a lot worse and make Shelly hate being here. That, to me, would be worse than leaving. To be at the place you wanted to be, only to realize you hated it, or had something happen to make you hate it.

Her eyes watered and big, fat tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Fine, damnit.” I sighed. “I won’t tell Greene. But that doesn’t mean he won’t find out. He has eyes everywhere. And I mean that literally and figuratively. There are cameras in the classrooms, so they’re probably in the halls, too.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you!”

She started to run up to me, but I jumped out of the way. “You hit me again, and I’ll not only tell Greene, but I’ll deliver your unconscious body to him personally,” I warned. It was an empty threat.

Mostly.

Her eyes widened. “I was just going to… Never mind. I guess I’d be cautious, too.”

“You think?” I felt a little bit of sympathy for her (despite my better judgment), because Rachel had played her like a pro. But that didn’t mean I was going to trust her, and it sure as hell didn’t mean I had to be nice. Casting her one last, wary glance, I turned and walked away.

She didn’t follow, but she called out to me. “Where are you going?”

“To kick my own ass for not at least kicking yours.”

C
HAPTER 22

Instead of going to find Linc like I’d planned, I went to my room to vent. I wished I had my mom to talk to, but I didn’t, so I decided to do the next best thing and write in my journal. It wasn’t even close to talking to her, but sometimes it helped.

I grabbed out my journal and sat at my desk. For five minutes, I just tapped my pen against the pages, unsure of what I really wanted to say. “Just write,” I muttered to myself, and then I did just that.

Dear Journal,

Things…aren’t going so well. It seems like everyone is against me now. I can kinda see why, so that just makes everything worse.

I got punched in the face today for no good reason. It would’ve been an acceptable reason, except the puncher punched me for someone else, which made it totally stupid. I told said puncher that I wouldn’t tell on her but I’m wondering if that wasn’t a stupid idea. Guess time will tell.

And moving right along…

My demon DNA has been causing more problems than it’s helping—and it helps with a bunch of things. At least when it comes to hunting. But for socializing, it’s a real bitch. Everyone thinks I’m part demon, which, in a way, I kinda am, but it’s not like I asked for it. And it’s not like half of them won’t sign up for the genetic treatments themselves. So honestly, I’m kinda baffled.

I do well, and people seem to hate me. I do bad, and people still seem to hate me. It’s a stupid, stupid lose/lose situation.

Part of me really wants to leave, because I’ve been at a place where no one wants me around and it’s not fun—for me or anyone else. No one liked me at The Pond, but I hated being there anyway, so I was okay with the hatred everyone seemingly had for me. But I really like being here. I like what I’m doing and who I’m becoming. I’m stronger and faster than I was a year ago, or even six months ago. And okay, it wasn’t all fun and games. I mean, almost dying isn’t exactly fun, but I lived, didn’t I? It made me stronger. So for the most part, it was okay.

But now? Now…it’s not so okay. And maybe, in a way, it’s worse now than it was at The Pond, because I
do
like it here.

I don’t know. I’m not leaving. I told Greene I wasn’t planning on it, and I’m not. But it’s just hard thinking about the future. If today is bad, how is tomorrow going to be? I want to say better, because it’ll be a new day, but… I’m not quite that naive. Okay, I am, as my still-hurting jaw proves, but still. I don’t think tomorrow is going to be any better. I don’t think everyone is going to wake up and realize I’m not any different than I was when I first joined.

Mom…well, after she joined and got used to the place, she seemed okay here. She didn’t have as many issues with it as I do. Her friends were her friends. She had a few people who she didn’t like and who didn’t like her, but I don’t think she had it as bad as I’m having it.

Don’t know. Maybe she had more problems later on. She told me not to run from my problems, because it only delayed them and it never made them go away. I guess that’s true. Maybe.

It’s not like I can really run away. I mean, if I did, where would I run to? Because right now, the answer is nowhere.

I closed the journal with a sigh and put it back in its hole in the closet. It was time to find Linc and tell him what was going on. Hopefully, Tasha wouldn’t be around, otherwise I’d probably end up with another punch to the jaw. Linc wouldn’t hit me for being stupid, but I wouldn’t put it past Tasha. She’d have a fit when she learned about Shelly and that I hadn’t turned her over to Greene or kicked her butt.

Considering I was still wondering why I hadn’t done either, I couldn’t blame her if she was pissed.

I’ll find out soon enough
, I thought, grabbing my ID and heading out to search for Linc and to, hopefully, avoid Tasha. (I’d been hit once today already, I didn’t want hit again so soon.)

I went and knocked on Linc’s door but no one answered. Briefly, I considered just going back to my room, but I wasn’t a coward, damnit. I wasn’t going to hide in my room unless I wanted to. Or unless I had to, since I kinda really did want to.

Instead of taking the elevators, I took the stairs down to the first level. I took them slowly, pausing before each landing to listen for any sounds of people coming up. And when I reached the bottom, I stuck my head out just far enough to look around. I spotted Eric the first time, walking toward the café court, and moved back quickly.