I know this is only short but I had to update so I could do this:
AHHHHHHHHH! THE SECOND SAVANT SERIES IS COMING OUT! WE GET TO FIND OUT ABOUT THE OTHER BENEDICT BROTHERS AND MORE! AHHH! THE FIRST ONE IS MISTY FALLS, MISTY AS IN CRYSTAL'S NEICE! AHHH I CAN'T WAIT!
WHO FEELS THE SAME!? PEOPLE FAN-GIRL WITH ME!
And enjoy.
This Chapter is dedicated to every Finding Sky addict and reader who - like me - is estatic about the next series ( I know the girls are called Misty, Angel and Summer)
EJ x
The men roughly threw me and Will into the van. It was moving before the doors had even shut. Will. I crawled over to him. "Will?" I sat on my calves, hands cradling his face. I reached out to his mind. It was blank. Empty. "What have you done to him?!" I demanded. "TELL ME!"
"He unconscious," One man informed. "We're all savants here, except maybe the guy driving, one of us can put people to sleep as an extent to our main power."
I vaguely remember Will telling me about Victor doing something the same. I held my hair to my neck leaning down, my ear hovered above his mouth. He was breathing. That's a good sign, I moved my hand to his chest. I could feel the steady pace of his heartbeat.
I cleared my throat. "Where are we going? What do you want with us? And who are you?" I asked.
"Any more questions you would like to add?" One said sarcastically.
"Yes!"
"Shut up!" Another growled. "You know, everyone said, the Shadows are uncatchable. Dangerous. Our plan to set you guys up didn't work unfortunately so everyone was right about that. But we caught you." The man laughed, filled with pride, taunting me.
"Yea, you caught me." I informed. "But you didn't catch the Shadows." I reminded, the grin dropped a little. Black wisps of hair fell in his face, he roughly pushed them back. His eyes were dark and cold. He was good-looking in a villain kind of way. Well, everyone likes a hot villain. Except me.
"But we found you." He replied.
"Yea, a lot people have found us. But you haven't caught us. Just me. And if it weren't for Will, I would do a lot of stupid things that would end with bloody murder." He cleared his throat.
"That's how we found you. Through him." He pointed to Will. "And the boffin kid."
"Yves." The man started laughing.
"I think your parents got names mixed up. Because Jasper…Jasper is a boy's name, and Yves is a girl's name."
"Yes Jasper is a boy's name but Yves is as well. If you were as smart as you think you are…" A hand collided with my cheek.
"Shut up." The van braked hard on the ice, coming to a rough stop, I fell forward into the man. He grabbed my around my chest and yanked me out of the van, throwing me to the icy floor. I skidded a few metres away. He jumped out, slipping a little. I made it obvious I was laughing. "Get up." He ordered puling a gun from his waistband. I stood up. I ignored the cold slowly freezing my skin, or the burning from the ice on my arm. We were next to a snow covered field. He pointed me onto the deep snow covered field. I walked out, collecting snow with my dress and in my shoes. I pulled the jewel combs from my hair letting it drop around my body in a vain attempt to insulate my bare skin.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"We've come to the conclusion that whatever savant is saying it true, and that you will kill us should we frame you or something."
"Smart boy."
"So we're going to make you an offer." I folded my arms.
"An offer?"
He nodded. "You are to kill the Benedict's, all of them." I used all of my strength to suppress what I wanted to scream at him. That would show him weakness. Shadows aren't weak. "Or we will kill you family. So that's Greta and Martin." Oh no. "The moody one Chase, the little psychopath Eris and your younger brother, Sawyer." Wait…what?
"My brother?" I asked.
The men started laughing. "You have a half-brother. He's at one of our facilities so even if you hide your parents, Chase and little miss psychopath, we still have your brother, the only blood family you have left; innocent, alone, and soon to be dead."
"That's not fair I can't choose!" I yelled.
"It's simple, you're a killer and not so long ago you were planning on killing the Benedict's am I right?" He was. "We know one of the rules to being a Shadow is trust and another is 'don't hold back information'." He walked towards me until he was standing not an inch. "But if you tell anyone." He breathed quietly, curling a strand of my hair around his finger. "We'll kill everyone." He smiled, stroking my cheek. "Okay?" I turned my head, but he grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. "You have until February to choose. Kill the Benedict's or loose everyone. And we'll save Will till last, and kill him in front of you." He kissed my lips and let go of my chin. He turned and walked back to the van. "Come on, I wouldn't be a gentleman if I left you out here," He threw me a smile over his shoulder. "We'll take you back." I would have walked over the mountains and home, not giving the satisfaction, going with them basically told them I was helpless. And I was, I couldn't leave Will with these idiots.
I got back in the van and stayed close to Will. He tried to make conversation with me. I ignored him. The van stopped again. "Remember Jasper, don't tell anyone." The opened the doors and I got out, they left Will on the floor and drove off. We were round the side of the arts centre, still in the shadows like last time. Why didn't anyone see? Why didn't anyone come help me? As soon as they got a few metres away he started to wake up. Great what do I tell him?
He groaned. "Jazz?" He asked.
My attention zeroed in on Will. "Hey, are you alright?" I asked immediately, helping him sit up.
"Umm…yea I think so," He closed one eye, rubbing his head. "What happened?" He asked.
'Some guy just kidnapped us and now we have to kill your family, if we don't or if we tell anyone they'll kill everyone.' Renee repeated in my head. Luckily I don't think he heard.
"You said you could sense danger and then you passed out." I wasn't lying, I just wasn't telling him the whole truth.
"Oh," He looked around. "Weren't we…at the front…?"
"No." I shook my head. "We walked around remember?" Okay, now I feel even worse. I'm lying to my soulfinder, who never hesitates to take my statements as the truth.
I helped him up. "Shall we go back inside?" Someone must be looking for us.
"Yes. Aren't you cold?" He asked.
Freezing. "Not really." He still shrugged off his jacket and hung it around my shoulders. We walked round the front and Zed shot out the main entrance with Uriel on his six. They caught sight of us and skidded to a halt.
"There you are!" Zed yelled.
"We've been looking for you!" Uriel announced.
"We were just taking a walk, is everything alright?" I asked. "Where's my family?"
"At the hospital."
"Great. Who did Eris attack this time?" I asked.
"No it's your mom." Greta?
"What about her?" I asked urgently.
"Someone attacked her. They've taken her to the hospital." Zed informed.
"Oh my god." Will said. I stayed silent.
Was it them? Was she attacked because of me? But I haven't told anyone. Warning? Maybe. Are they telling me they won't hesitate? They will kill everyone I love? Greta. "How bad?"
Zed shrugged. "We don't know, Xav went with her and Martin in the ambulance. Trace and Yves drove your brother and sister to the hospital, Vick and the police are doing police things, were were waiting for you and Will," He informed.
"Was she awake when they took her…?" Zed shrugged again.
"I don't know." He admitted.
"Vick said we could use his car to get to the hospital, if you like?" Uriel offered. His voice calm and level. I wanted to slap him for not being worried but then I thought it best to have someone who's not worrying or panicking or already preparing a plan to hunt down and murder whoever attacked my mother.
"Yes," I nodded. "Yes, um…"
Uriel drove the car, Zed and Will came with. I sat in front, next to Uriel. I was trembling; I could see my hands shaking, they were cold and sweaty; my breathing was lost with my racing thoughts, I'd bitten of most of my nails and started picking at them. I couldn't help it. The sharp pain that I sometimes caused couldn't distract me. I needed distracting. My eyes were either staring at my hands on my lap or the road ahead. When Uriel pulled into the hospital parking lot I was out the door before he'd even stopped. Will followed me. I crashed through the doors, Yves, Xav and Trace sat in the waiting area, they looked up immediately.
"I've got it, go find her." Will said squeezing my hand.
"Area 7." Xav called.
I nodded in thanks, picking up the fabric of my dress so I could run faster. Nurses called after me but Will and Uriel took care of them before joining their brothers. I stopped outside room 7. I yanked back the curtain.
"Jasper." Eris sighed getting up and hugging me. I held her. Chase and Martin sat in chairs on either side. As I've said before, Chase is there when you need him. His face was full of concern and worry, Martin was beyond that. This was his soulfinder. Greta was awake with a bandage wrapped around her head and a few scratches on her face, her wrist was also bandaged. Her other hand was tight in Martin's.
Greta and I looked at each other. "Are you alright?" I asked, moving closer. Chase stood up and replaced my arm around Eris with his.
"I'm fine. The Benedict boy, Xavier, is very gifted." She smiled, holding out her spare hand to me. I took hers and she squeezed mine.
"Do you know…" I swallowed. "W-who?" I cleared my throat. She shook her head. "Vick's looking into it."
She smiled. "We're going to have to be nicer to them." She informed. "After this." Greta that's just made me feel even worse. I sucked in a sharp breath. She squeezed my hand reassuringly. Eris took my hand and we were all connected. The Shadows. The Johansson's. My family. Our family. When it came down to it, these were the ones who came first.
But I can't hurt them. The Benedict's. I wish we never moved here, wished we'd never met them in New York, damn it, if we had been more careful with the car; waited and gone to Reggie instead of the hospital that had Xavier Benedict working in. Walking into that restaurant that had all the Benedict's. Maybe if we hadn't of taunted Karla, Saul, Trace, Uriel and Vick in the parking lot, if I'd helped Eris out, maybe if I'd helped her, she wouldn't have jumped into the water. Will, Xav, Yves and Zed wouldn't have brought her back and we could've just left. Gotten away quickly instead of mocking them. If we hadn't have broken into their house. If... Maybe… Instead…
So many different paths from every point in the past. But we took this one. If we hadn't I wouldn't have met Will. My soulfinder. But I wouldn't be stuck in a time bomb. Every second that passed brought fate one step closer. Death.
Someone was going to die. But who?
"You know, when Uriel said you guys were at the hospital I immediately asked 'Who did Eris attack now' by complete accident." They laughed.
"I'm not bad." She defended.
Chase pulled up his sleeves to show the healing lightening scars. "Yea, this is only minor." He said sarcastically.
"Go suck up to Xav, maybe he'll heal them."
"Uh-uh, I'm not going to owe them anymore favours." He shook his head. He caught glimpse of Greta's frown. "But I'll be nice." He sighed.
"Good," Greta nodded. "Did you say Victor was here?" She asked.
"NO he's back at the Arts Centre." I replied.
"Damn, I was hoping he'd convince a doctor to let me go." She replied.
"We can leave when you want because you've already paid haven't you?" Chase asked.
"Yea, Jack made the transfer a little while back but…" Martin started.
"No buts!" She warned. "I banned you guys from doing jobs because I wanted to spend Christmas at home for once. I refuse to spend it in a hospital." Eris checked her water.
"It's 10:15." She announced.
Martin and Greta continued to argue with each other. "I'm going to tell the Benedict's to go home." I said to Chase and Eris mainly and slipped out the curtain. I got a few glances from patients and doctors looking me up down. The hem of my dress wet and dirty and my hair dishevelled.
I turned into the waiting area. The six Benedict's here were on their feet instantly. "She's fine." I smiled in relief. The relaxed as well. "Its Christmas eve guys, go home."
"She's right, Zed, Yves, Xav, go home."
"That's not what I said." I reminded.
"Are you going home?" Will asked.
I shrugged. "Martin and Greta are currently arguing about that." I smiled.
"Then I'll stay," He replied, sitting back down.
"Yea, someone attacked Greta, they could come back." Trace said, his cop instincts kicking in.
"Cool me too." Zed announced.
"But Zed if you stay you'll miss Santa Claus." Eris added coming to stand beside me. Zed frowned at her. She smiled. "You guys can go home. Because we are."
"Are you sure…" Uriel started.
"We're Shadows, we're not supposed to have records." Eris informed. "Staying in a hospital is dangerous for us. Who knows, someone could be trying to track us." She shrugged oblivious to the fact that they'd already found us. "It'd be stupid to stay any longer."