Breed of Havoc (The Breed Chronicles #3) (33 page)

“I don’t. But if you can handle it, then I can. But we need to be vigilant, like the director said, about people and not just demons.”

“I suppose this is where you add ‘And you shouldn’t run after strange men who are following you’?”

“Basically. With a small reminder that if you do, I’ll kick your ass, Hall.”

“Deal.” I bit my lip. “Are we done fighting?”

“For now.”

I thought with the big fight being over I’d feel better, but I didn’t, at least not entirely. “Do me a favor?”

“Yeah?”

“The next time you have problems with something, don’t hold them in, okay? If you’re mad, can we just get the fighting part over with and not wait on it?” I could handle the fighting and being yelled at. I didn’t like it, but it was better than barely being talked to and having the last two years worth of issues—things I didn’t even know were issues—brought up again.

It was better than what I was feeling now, which was even more confused about everything and not sure where Linc actually stood. He’d been saying from the beginning he was okay with me, with my DNA and everything else, but was he really? I hadn’t doubted him before, not for a second, but now…now I did. He’d held all of this stuff in, and despite saying he wasn’t mad about any of it…why else would he have mentioned it?

He shot me a small smile. “I won’t, I promise.”

“Okay.”

“Come on.” His arm went around my waist and he pulled me close. “We should go study.”

I forced the weird feelings aside and smiled. “Careful, Linc, you’re starting to sound like me.”

His eyes narrowed slightly, but then he grinned. “Or we could go watch a movie. I rented a new one—”

I laughed. “That’s the Linc I know, love, and often want to strangle.”

*~*~*

Over the next week, Linc and I resumed our talks about John and Mystery Man from New Orlando (behind Tasha’s back to continue avoiding her wrath). We’d asked Chris if he remembered seeing a tattoo on John, but he’d said it was too dark and the guy had been wearing a long sleeved shirt. He chimed in when he could, though Tasha seemed to have Mystery-Man-Talk radar and pulled him away if he spent too much time alone with us. (‘Too much time’ being anything over two minutes.)

Tonight, the first Sunday in April, was my last meeting for the mentor program. The P4s would be getting their treatments in a few weeks. By the time me and the other P3s started our fourth Phase, the P4s’ six-month quarantine would be over. That was, according to Peter, Greene’s plan all along.

A few minutes into the meeting, I silently wondered why I was still there. No one was openly rude to me (excluding Rachel), but the meetings had basically turned into an open forum for chatting about the treatments and no one really asked questions anymore. It wasn’t that I minded, but I really hated just sitting there, probably looking as stupid as I felt, while everyone else chatted.

“They really don’t hurt?” one of the guys asked—again.

“You’ll be unconscious for the whole thing,” Peter answered for the second time that night. That question got asked more often than anything else, almost each meeting.

“And afterward will only feel like growing pains. Aches and tired muscles.” Adam grinned suddenly. “You’ll feel old, like Peter.” There was a small bang and Adam yelped. I saw him reach under the table, all the while glaring at Peter. He cleared his throat, still glaring. “Like I said, you’ll feel old,
not
like Peter.”

“Obviously the treatments don’t come with courage,” I said, laughing.

Adam’s gaze fell on me. “Brave talk, Jade. You don’t have to work with him every day and put your life in his hands.”

“I’m still not scared of him. Or you.” That wasn’t exactly the truth, but neither was it a complete lie. Peter was badass, there was no denying that. And when he tried, he could be intimidating. But overall, unless he was hunting or angry, he wasn’t very scary. Mostly. And Adam was…well, Adam. I couldn’t be scared of him.

Peter leaned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

Matt grinned ear-to-ear. “You could take him, Jade.”

Crap. “I didn’t mean that—”

“I bet she could,” David said.

“No, really, I just meant—”

Matt jumped out of his seat. “Do it, chica.”

I sighed as most of the people in the room started talking at once, some saying I could do it, others saying I’d get my butt served to me. Rachel was, not surprisingly, among those who thought I’d get my butt kicked. In fact, she wanted me and Peter to fight so it
would
happen. The ones who weren’t saying anything were either shaking their heads or looking at me like I was crazy and couldn’t decide if it was the good kind or bad kind.

I stared back at them, silently wondering how many of them, like Rachel, just wanted to see me get my butt kicked. Everyone else—even the ones who were looking at me like I was the not-all-there kind of crazy—had this smug, you’re-gonna-get-yours look on their faces, but it wasn’t when they looked at me. It was when they looked at Adam or Peter.

“Come on, Jade.” Adam grinned at me. “Unless you are scared.”

“Of you? Get real.” I laughed before I could stop it. And then I fought another laugh when Adam’s grin turned into a scowl.

Adam was a good hunter, but he was probably one of the least scary hunters I’d met. Dale and Harry, even if they hadn’t been good hunters (and they were), they at least
looked
intimidating. Adam…didn’t. At all. He was too young, maybe, and he had good-guy written all over him, like the demon hunter version of The Guy Next Door.

“I think,” Peter said, grinning ear to ear, “a challenge has been raised.”

Adam looked so bewildered and baffled that I started laughing again, this time unable to stop. “Look,” I said, between bouts of giggles, “you’re a good hunter, I know you are, but…”

Taking slow steps toward me, he crossed his arms over his chest and tried (failing miserably) for a stern look. “But what?”

“But… You’re you! I’m sorry, but you’re just not very scary. You screamed like a girl when you broke your leg during the demon ride along.” Okay, that was probably mostly an exaggeration, but now I had to give him a hard time, didn’t I?

His cheeks went slightly pink, but his smile never faltered. “I did not scream like a girl.”

I made my expression go blank, which was a lot harder than I thought it’d be when I wanted to keep laughing. “You might’ve.”

“I did not. You did.”

“Yeah, but
I
got bit by a vampire.” I frowned. “And I am a girl. I’m allowed to sound like one.”

Peter’s shoulders shook. “Come on, Jade. Show the P4s what they have to look forward to in a few a months, once their treatments settle.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rachel make an ugly face and roll her eyes. To Leslie, her friend, I heard her snort and whisper, “Like I want to be anything like her.”

For a second, I wondered if she’d forgotten how good my hearing was, but then she spotted me looking at her and shrugged. Part of me almost refused Peter’s request. But wasn’t that what I’d been doing the last two years? Trying to hide who and what I was, trying (and still managing to fail) to stay off everyone’s radar? It hadn’t worked so far, had it?

“You know what? Sure.” I let out a sigh under my breath, pushed Rachel from my mind, and grinned at Adam. “But I’m not holding my punches and you better not either.”

Adam’s eyebrows shot up. “You sure?”

“Yeah.”

Peter went to the table and chairs and started moving them toward the back wall. He paused after a minute. “This is your not-so-subtle hint to help.”

After that, everyone scrambled to help. In no time, everything was out of our way, Adam and I were standing in the middle of the room, and the P4s formed a circle around us.

“No face shots,” Peter said. “And no trying to actually make each other yell like girls. Agreed?”

Adam and I both mumbled our agreements.

Peter shook his head again. “Oh, and Adam?”

“Yeah?”

“If she kicks your butt, I’ll make sure everyone finds out.”

“You mean you’ll make sure
no one
finds out.”

Peter smiled. “No, I mean I’ll personally tell everyone and you’ll never live it down.” He held up his phone, screen facing out, letting us know he was recording the fight.

Adam’s jaw dropped. “That’s cold, man. Cold.”

The P4s snickered.

Peter shrugged. “You’re three years older, have at least sixty pounds on her, and you’re almost a foot taller. If you lose, you’ll deserve the mocking.”

Frowning, Adam turned to me. “Sorry, Jade. You’ve gotta go down.”

I grinned at him. Thanks to all of Linc’s crazy movie marathons, I’d gotten a few ideas for some moves I’d been wanting to try. Now I had a guinea pig. “This is going to be fun.”

“Oh, will you just get on with it already,” Rachel muttered. “We don’t have all night.”

“She’s got a point,” Peter agreed, giving her a hard look, “albeit rudely said.”

Adam and I ignored them both and circled each other. It reminded me of my first day with Linc, when we’d fought in front of the other students, but when Adam punched me in the arm, I quickly realized it was different: Adam wasn’t holding his punches.

I narrowed my eyes, turned to the side, and tried for a side-kick. He caught my foot in his hand and grinned. I smiled in return, and when his eyes went suspicious, jumped, kicking him in the side of the neck with my other foot. I landed on my hands and knees as Adam hit the ground.

He rubbed his neck as he got to his feet and gave me a small nod. To Peter, he said, “They didn’t teach us that one.”

I shrugged. “I like watching movies.”
Like
was a mild word. Linc practically forced me to watch them, and the more action they had, the better they were—to him.

With another nod, Adam started circling again. His eyes reminded me of a hungry shark. I stopped pacing, and when he did too, I kicked him in the shin. Not hard, just a tap really.

He looked down, his brows creased. “What the hell was that supposed to accomplish?”

“Exactly what it did,” I said, then I hit him in the stomach.

The others laughed. I caught a glimpse of Peter, standing behind the others, trying to keep a straight face.

Adam, who was now glaring at me, charged. My eyes went wide and I ran toward the P4s closest to us. They scrambled out of the way and I ran up the wall. Adam did the same thing and we ended up colliding into each other mid-air. When we hit the ground, it was with Adam taking the brunt of the fall. He groaned. “You’ve got bony elbows.”

The elbow in question was currently jabbed into his ribs. I rolled away and got back to my feet. I shrugged as he looked up at me. “Sorry.”

“Liar.”

I grinned.

Rachel yawned. “Boring.”

Slowly, Peter turned toward her. “Think you could liven it up?”

“For one, they’re not doing anything we can’t do now. Two, how do we know either of them are even
trying
to do anything?”

“Because I said we are,” Adam said, back on his feet now. “And I’m not a liar.”

“Maybe not.” Rachel lifted a shoulder. “But you’ve been giving her googly eyes since she got here, and pretty much every other meeting.”

I laughed. Adam blushed. I waited for him to argue. A weird knot formed in my stomach when he didn’t, one I couldn’t explain. What Rachel said was crazy. Adam was…Adam, for crying out loud. He was older. A hunter.

I glanced at Rachel again. She had a smug, I’m-so-clever expression. When I tried looking at Adam, I found him turned away so I couldn’t see his face. I shook my head. Adam was cool. He was younger than the others, closer to our age, but he didn’t look at me with googly eyes—whatever that even meant.
She’s insane and doesn’t have a clue what she’s talking about.

Peter broke the now awkward silence. “Well, if anyone else has a suggestion, I’m open to hearing it.”

So Rachel wanted something better? I could do that. “Blindfolded.”

“What?” Peter’s head whipped in my direction. “You want to fight Adam while he’s blindfolded?”

“No. I want him to fight me while
I’m
blindfolded.”

There was a new kind of silence in the room now. Everyone, including Rachel—who always had something to say—stared at me, speechless.

“You’ll get your butt kicked,” was the first thing I heard.

“There’s no way.” Rachel shook her head. “Even you can’t see blindfolded. Get real.”

Peter walked over, grabbed my arm, and pulled me away from the group. “Are you insane?” he whispered.

“What? She wants something better, fine, I’ll give it to her.”

“I heard about that from Agent Burke. I’m not saying I don’t believe you or that it was exaggerated, but…”

“But what? Either you believe me or you don’t.”

“Can you do it?”

“Yes.” Probably. “I’ve done it before.”

He stared down at me with narrowed eyes. “And you’ve tried to do it again since then?”

I didn’t comment, because I hadn’t really tried doing it much. It was kind of freaky, even to me. But I could do it…couldn’t I?

“Are you sure about this?”

No!
“Of course.”

Adam came over, eyebrows creased and shaking his head. “No. Absolutely not.”

“Fine. I’ll be blindfolded and you can stand there and get your butt kicked. I’m sure Harry and Dale will love that.” I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at Peter. “You’re already recording this, aren’t you? I mean, visual proof is better than just a verbal retelling, right?”

Now Adam was glaring, and Peter, who seemed to like the idea of harassing Adam more than he disliked the idea of me being blindfolded, grinned. “She’s got a point. And a good idea.”

“Of course I do.” And why did he sound so surprised? Why did everyone sound surprised when I had ideas?

“Shut up, old man,” Adam said.

Peter lifted a shoulder. “You two discuss things. I’ll be over there, thinking of excuses to give the director when one of you—if not both of you—end up with black eyes.”

“What’s the deal, Jade?”