Chapter VI
Let the Games Begin
Reid was still at Nicky's, challenging all who had the urge to pick up a pool stick and murdering any of their chances to walk out the door with their heads held high. It was when he was in the middle of a game when his phone began to vibrate.
"Dude, could you like, hit the ball?" the guy Reid was playing against but had forgotten the name of asked.
"Why, in a hurry to lose?" Reid said.
The guy rolled his eyes as Reid flipped open his cell phone to see a message addressed from Caleb on the rectangular screen.
meeting u no where n 5 mins
Reid clapped the phone shut and made his shot, getting the last two balls in their corresponding holes. "Score. You owe me twenty dollars, bro."
The guy threw a wad of twenty ones at him. Oooooh, Reid thought. This guy was big and bad with a wad of ones in his pants.
"See you next time, big boy," Reid said and walked out the door. Of course he had not driven to Nicky's, he had used to get there. He had been using a lot lately. That may be what the meeting was about. Thinking on this, Reid grinned and turned on his heel, eyes going black, and disappeared. He landed in front of 'you know where' a moment later.
"What's up, homies?" Reid said as he walked into the dark, dreary space lit by pale candles where the meetings between the Garwins, Simms, Parrys, and Danvers had taken place for a long amount of years.
His eyes took a moment to adjust in the dark and he looked around the room at his friends and took a double take. "J-Jamie?" he said. "What the hell?"
"Hello to you also, Reid Garwin," Jamie said. "How is your evening?"
Reid heard her voice, saw her lips move, and was unable to speak. Her voice was beautiful and he loved the way she talked because she had a slight touch of a southern accent having lived in California for a long time then moving to New York and then on to Massachusetts. He knew everything about her, knew her every flaw and blemish. She was formal in speech and manner when she wanted to be or wasn't trying to be a total bitch, but he also knew that when she lay in his arms after a long hour or two of Reid Garwin's special technique in sexual pleasure that she often talked lovey-dovey to him with her formal words, which was cute and made him smile.
"What is she doing here?" Reid asked. "Isn't this breaking a rule? There is a Covenant, remember?"
"Reid, sit down," Caleb said. "There's something you should know."
He shook his head and sat as far away from Tyler and Jamie, who were sitting together with their hands clasped, as he could get which wasn't very far because the room wasn't all too big.
"Reid, Jamie's one of us."
"What?" Reid shouted and fell from his chair. "What!"
"Jamie, would you want to explain?"
She shook her head, still wearing the same clothes from earlier at Nicky's. "No."
"I will," Tyler said.
Reid looked at Tyler with narrowed eyes. "I bet you would."
"We had a meeting earlier," Caleb said, "and we explained the whole history and statistics with Jamie. She knows all about us. We know what happened last night and you are the only one who doesn't."
"You told her about us?"
"Yes," Pogue said. "It's legit, man. She really is a Son of Ipswich, a Daughter, that is."
"And probably not the only one," Caleb said.
"Last night, Jamie beat the hell out of Lacey Hamilton and we all know that. What you don't know is that she didn't use when fighting Lacey, therefore she is a fighter," here Jamie hit her fist into her palm. "Afterward I noticed her eyes were black and I got her out of the room as soon as possible to protect her." To get into her pants while she was vulnerable. "I drove her to safety and she was baking from The Power so I called Caleb and explained the whole…situation with him." And then hade sex with her like it was the Fourth of July!
"Are you saying that Jamie can use?"
"Can and does," Tyler said.
"She didn't really know it was addictive," Caleb said.
"Oh, I knew," Jamie said. "Something told me that it was bad to use, and it was fun to use, almost too fun, you know?"
Caleb nodded. "Some of us are still having problems learning to control themselves," he said, looking at Reid.
"You had The Power and you didn't tell me?" Reid asked Jamie in a low voice.
"Oh, I told you I had changed a lot but you didn't really pick up the bait. There's a bit you don't know about me," Jamie said in a cool voice.
"Like how you have a taste for the Sons of Ipswich?"
She looked at him and rolled her eyes.
"Of course, you would after you had a taste of the best. How is he, Jamie?" Reid asked.
Jamie's jaw clenched. "You say something?"
"Yeah, I did!" Reid said. He'd say anything to be talking to her.
"Well shut your mouth, no one wants to hear it."
"Oh, is that right?"
"Yes it is."
Reid laughed. "See you already got a new boyfriend."
"Yeah, where's your girl?" Tyler asked.
"Looks like we swapped, buddy."
"Is that regret? Jealousy?" Tyler asked and he slipped his arm around Jamie as if to say she was his and to back off.
"I don't know, is it? After all, you must feel pretty bad taking my woman away from me. It's one thing to borrow your dirty little girl but it's a whole other thing to take my perfect one."
"Maybe you shouldn't have treated Jamie like shit," Pogue said.
"Agreed," Jamie said. "And I'm no longer your girl, moron."
"Since when is it any of your business, Pogue?" Reid mouthed.
"You didn't exactly keep your personal life secret or quiet. Everyone kind of knows all about your love life, or should I say sex life."
"Okay, okay, enough," Caleb said.
Reid was fuming. His so-called "friends" were all ganging up on him and Jamie was sitting with Tyler making puppy-dog eyes. She didn't seem to give a flying fuck that he was so strung up on her. He would get her back, torture her with chains and whips, and show her what she had been missing out all while she was with Tyler. Damn old Tyler.
"Tyler, get your hands off my girl."
"Excuse me?" Jamie said.
"Your girl?" Tyler laughed.
"Hey!" Caleb and Pogue chimed.
"You heard me," Reid smirked. "I didn't stutter, bro."
"I don't think she's yours any more," Tyler said seriously. "I know what's good for her." Translation: I know what's good for me.
"Have you banged her yet?" Reid asked, his blonde hair ruffled and nostrils flared. Did Tyler risk an honest answer? He knew Tyler had already had her because Jamie had a triumphant smile on her pretty face and her eyes were sparkling impishly. Did Tyler know she was playing him? He would get what he deserved and Reid wouldn't be the one to tell his ex-best friend that his ex-girlfriend was playing him like a fiddle. She wanted to make Reid jealous. Or so he hoped she did.
"That's none of your concern," Jamie said.
"That's right," Reid said with a forced smile. "Don't deny it."
"Then I won't," Jamie said,
"You wouldn't." Reid said this like he was implying something.
"He was fantastic."
Tyler smiled wickedly and wiggled his eyebrows at Jamie who giggled.
"Yeah and your girl wasn't bad herself," Reid lied smoothly. After all, lying was one of his specialties among many. "She showed me so many of her little tricks, and she was wounded. I played doctor, touched her in all her hurt places, places I made hurt more. She was calling for the doctor every fifteen minutes. Too bad you didn't get the opportunity to taste a real man," Reid said giving her a suggestive leer. "I mean, this semester, sexy."
"Shut your mouth," Tyler said calmly. "Don't disrespect Jamie."
"I'm not, it was a compliment."
"Thanks," Jamie said sarcastically. "Miss you already."
"Everyone, quiet!" Caleb said and got to his feet, slamming the Book of Damnation on the table. "NOW!"
Pogue calmly got to his feet. "A bunch of children," he muttered.
"We're here for a reason, kids," Caleb said. "Class has begun so sit down."
Tyler, Reid, and Jamie stared at Caleb blankly.
"He said sit down," Pogue said firmly.
Reid watched Jamie brush her bangs behind her ears and kiss Tyler on the cheek.
"New rule," Caleb said. "No PDA or talking about relationships."
Jamie gritted her teeth and Tyler crossed his arms as if keeping his hands of Jamie for the short time they were 'in meeting' was going to be too difficult for him. Reid didn't blame him.
"The reason we are here is to try and see what the Book of Damnation says about women having The Power. Until, well now, we were under the impression that only the first male born into a family that descends from the five fathering families would inherit the special gift passed down from their own father. Now Jamie has opened a door to many new prospects and opportunities. There could be women with female children that have The Power for all we know," Caleb said, pacing back and forth absolutely blazing with excitement.
Reid had to admit that Caleb had him wondering but his thoughts ran more along the lines of…There could be more hot women like Jamie with The Power? Enough to have a threesome? Where could he find girls like that? Would they have black hair? Jamie had him craving for another raven-black haired woman with a nice body and a fling for tight, flashy clothes with a touch of sporty. Maybe even one as feisty as her.
"We should try Googling this and see if we can come up with any answers," Reid said. "There could be dozens of other women with The Power."
Caleb shook his head.
"Wait, did you say five fathering families, earlier?" Jamie asked. "There's only four. Am I supposed to be the fifth, because that wouldn't really make any sense?"
"No," Caleb said slowly. "We met a descendant from the fifth a few weeks back. You missed him by a week or so when you transferred here. Have you heard any stories about a certain man named Chase Collins?"
"Yeah, supposedly belted you in swimming?"
"He used," Caleb said defensively. "I would have won."
"I heard Pogue didn't get along with him either."
"Douchebag made a move on my girl and even cursed her with this insane spell. She was in the hospital for days. Put me in there too, ruined my bike. That's why my new one is overhauled," he explained. "I figured if I had to buy a new one it might as well be an awesome one with a bit more power under the rims."
"But he actually acted like he liked me," Caleb said. "I thought we were going to turn out to be friends. But eventually the whole factor that he was constantly threatening me and tried to kill me because he wanted my power would have been annoying. So in the end one of us had to go."
"Bummer," Reid said. "I didn't much like the guy."
"You don't like much of anyone," Tyler said.
"It's the other way around," Jamie amended and Tyler shared a laugh with her.
Caleb rolled his eyes.
Jamie was annoying with Tyler, Reid thought. "What about Googling?"
"Would that kind of information be on the internet?" Pogue asked doubtfully giving him a pitiable look.
Reid flipped him off. "You never know asshole."
"You would know plenty about asshole," Pogue said. "Mr. I-take-it-up-the-butt."
"Whatever, Pogue," Reid laughed. "You would be the one dropping the soap."
Pogue laughed and high-fived Reid. "Bro," he said.
Caleb shook his head for possibly the tenth time that night and cleared his throat. "I guess it's pointless to ask if you knew any one else with The Power," he said to Jamie.
"Yes, I thought I was alone," she replied. "I never knew there would be more of what I was."
"You don't know who you inherited it from?"
"No idea whatsoever."
Caleb sighed heavily. "Could you get a copy of your bloodline? Possibly dating back to the Seventeenth-Century?"
"Sure, I could try," Jamie shrugged. "Do you think you could find some sort of a link?"
"Could try," Caleb said. "Put a little effort into things. If you want something bad enough you can get it. It just depends on how much you need it. If you want something then you don't get it. If you need something, that's when you want it bad enough."
Reid found himself wondering if Caleb was still talking about the information he sought or giving him some advice. He didn't ever want to be so vulnerable that he actually had to depend on someone, to need someone. Maybe he could make Jamie want him, need him.
"When do we start?" Reid asked.
"Whenever you're ready," Caleb replied.
"I was born ready," Reid said. "Let the games begin."
