"I didn't want you to find out this way." That's what Jett had said to me when I came to… after I eventually remembered what had happened. It had a lot to do with the fact that nobody had said anything to me until I remembered, and so I had to stifle a cry of outrage when realisation charged at me, head on, at 250mph.
Even after the reality of it all had dawned on me, I was fuming; and the fact that I was now stuck with a group of - for all I knew - feral monsters should have struck fear in my heart; and it did, but they had kept something so vital from me. Okay, I'd acknowledge that 'feral' was a stretch too far, but I could still be angry that they had happily chosen not to warn me that I had been sleeping - in the same bed - with a hybrid species renowned for it's bloodlust.
Granted, I hardly knew them. But I could still be angry. "We were going to tell you, if the time came that we needed to. You're a stranger, Jade. We didn't know if we could trust you not to tell someone about us once you were gone. People are afraid of us, and because of that, they want to hurt us." I at least told myself that I was going to be angry, but maybe more like marginally irritated - my will wasn't made of steel, after all.
"Did it ever occur to you that I might need to know something like that?" My word choice was terrible, and it showed on their faces. They said nothing, because I was hysterical and suffering from severe traumatisation. "No offence, but I don't want to end up as anyone's midnight snack - accident or not."
"It did occur to us, Jade." Carter interrupted. From closer inspection, even though the obvious traits were different - hair colour, eye colour, skin colour - I could tell that both he and Parker were somehow related. The names did it too. The 'er' brothers. "That's why Jett didn't tell you, brainiac. He didn't want you to leave."
At that precise moment, I couldn't tell whether I was pissed off or immensely flattered. I decided on going for a poker face, mainly because my emotions were so confused that the only feeling left was closer to an empty void.
"For the safety of our pack, we need the assurance that she won't tell anyone about us." Fair enough, I thought. However, my thoughts weren't exactly in sync with the rest of me, because the rest of me felt like I had been done an injustice. I knew why they felt I might be a potential threat, but it didn't stop me taking offence at the fact that they clearly didn't trust me.
They were all strangers, though, weren't they?
It was Jett's next utterance that acted as the equivalent of a punch in the gut. "That's why you're staying here, Jade, so we can keep an eye on you."
"What?" Perplexed. That was the only way to describe what I was feeling. And, clearly, I wasn't the only one. Carter looked pretty miffed, too - and it made me wonder what on earth I could have done to make him dislike me so much. "What if I don't want to? You can't make me! I'm a human being with rights, and neglecting those counts as a criminal offence!"
Everyone else, apart from a scarce few (including Jett), probably would have been relieved at the idea of kissing my sorry ass goodbye. Hayden was just watching, because he thought my temper was amusing, but damn it! They thought they could push me around for the greater good of their pack-thingy? What greater good? If I stayed here, I only brought more danger along with me.
"I guess it's final, then." Parker said, breathing a sigh of relief. This was all his fault. The fucker.
"It's not final until he says so!" I jabbed a finger at Hayden, looking frantic as hell. He was my last chance of escape... of keeping my shit my shit. Because I knew that, sooner or later, they were going to find out about my past and I'll be damned if they didn't make a big deal about it. The least they could do was not care, but that was getting my hopes up.
Unless they were all a bunch of passive motherfuckers - not that I'd ever encourage apathy.
My presence would put them in danger, and I needed Hayden to see that. "Sorry, cariña, but Jett is right. For the safety of the pack, we need to remain... how you say... incogneto. It's the only protection we have left."
It should have been obvious that he wouldn't.
My eyes skimmed through the faces, some I had seen before... and others I hadn't. Ashley, the matriarch, wasn't here. Heaven knows why not. Neither was Millie, which took a little bit off the edge. I don't think I could have coped with either one of them in the room.
Exhaling heavily, after seeing so many looks of contempt, I decided to relieve the intimidating silence with my lovely voice. "I'm not discriminating against you. You," directed at Parker, "spooked me. Shitloads. That's all. It's just that... I don't think it makes a difference to your safety whether I'm here or not. It's why I was trying to leave-"
"-Does this have anything to do with that psycopath?" Carter interrupted, shoving yesterdays paper in my face. "Because, if it does, we're werewolves, damn it! We're bigger, scarier and there's a lot of us. I think we can handle one psychotic murderer." A consensus of 'yeah!'s followed from the pack underlings that had assembled in Jett's apartment. I was at the centre of their fucking mess, and they were going to do anything in their power to keep it a secret.
They hadn't tried to kill me, though - but I couldn't help thinking that they would be way more humane than a psychotic vampire.
However, they'd made the first biggest mistake and underestimated their oponents.
And if I told them, I could prevent a bloody massacre.
Fuck. "Fine." I grumbled, folding my arms across my chest and scowling. "I'll stay, and I'll keep my mouth shut, just like you want me to. Just promise me you won't try to ruin my life, or kill me in the process."
"Deal." Chorused back at me, and Hayden and I shook on it.
Bye, bye freedom. Our reunion was short-lived.
Parker had taken me out for a drink as an apology, and now we were at a night club, leaning discretely over the bar while I stared at the obscenely coloured liquor in my hand. He had managed to convince me to drink, and that it would help calm me down - but, being a first timer, I was pretty sure that the abomination in front of me would do none of the above.
"You're clearly having fun." He interrupted my thought track, probably trying to lighten my mood.
I wasn't really up for cooperating with him today. He was a jackass for telling me their secret, and now I had to suffer because of him. "Of course I'm having fun." I lifted my glass in a mock toast, still scowling. The ugly frown hadn't left since the talk. It also worked as a nice deterrent to any hovering bastards that I didn't have the time for. "I'm having the best time of my life."
But I did feel a little safer, didn't I? Was it wrong to indulge in the comfort of knowing that no one here was going to make a sport out of killing me? Or, at least, I hoped they wouldn't.
I'd save my moral conflictions for another time, when I wasn't trying to wind down in some sleazy night club on the edge of town. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but are you trying to get me drunk?"
"Is it working?"
I looked from him to the drink in my hand. They called it 'Fluorescent Dream' but it tasted like fluorescent puke. It only took one sip to put me off it for good. "No."
"Then it looks like I'm going to have to try harder." He took the drink from my hand, downed it, then turned to the barman and ordered a round of tequila shots. With lemon and salt. "This is for your benefit, Jade. I'm only trying to help."
"And you honestly believe I'm going to let you talk me into this?" I sighed as the glasses were placed in front of us. It was nice that he was trying this hard for me, but I wasn't in the mood to be pleased. It ruined everything! I was still angry, and I was going to keep on being angry until the wolves watching in the corner gave us some damned privacy!
Hello~! I'm a human being. A weak, pathetic, human being. I think one werewolf babysitter is enough, thanks.
But no. They had even got some of the pack's women hanging around, whom I suspected would follow me into the bathroom at some point or other, because I 'couldn't be trusted'. So much for not ruining my life.
"Trust me. You'll feel better, and you'll stop noticing them." That was the other problem. Parker. He seemed too nice to be real. Maybe he was just a genuinely good-natured person - but after making the mistake of trusting someone on the basis that they were 'good-natured', and watching it backfire... well, that does certain things to a person.
He downed a shot.
And I followed suit, because I was running out of excuses not to... and - right then - forgetting about the eyes glued to my back sounded like a pretty fantastic idea.
What I hadn't prepared myself for was the buzz afterwards, as my throat tingled with a strange, intoxicated heat. It made my mouth feel dry, like I had sucked on something really sour... but I wanted another.
"What do you hope to gain from this, Parker?" I slurred, on my fourth or second vodka shot. Being an extreme lightweight, I was already overwhelmed by the alcohol - left grinning like an idiot in my inebriated stupor. The anger hadn't really gone, but I couldn't help the smile. It didn't really make sense, but I didn't have enough sense in me to care.
"What do I hope to gain?" He repeated the question, adding emphasis in random places. He was slightly drunk, too... but he had gotten through at least three times as much poison as I had, and he was still going. If this was a drinking game, I would have definitely lost.
"For use of a better word... how does my drunkenness benefit you?"
I think he thought about it for a while. Either that, or he hadn't registered the question. "It doesn't."
"Then why bother?"
"Because I'm sorry." He said, as if that solved anything. I couldn't say that I hadn't been expecting it. I had... but when he said it out loud, it sounded stupider than it did in my head. You're sorry so you get me piss-head drunk. I'm sure that's fine once a certain level of acquaintancy has been established... let's say - I dunno - two close friends going for a drink. But this is really what he does when he apologises to strangers?
What the hell do you do for small children and grave dodgers, then?
"It's just that... from anyone else's perspective, taking a stranger of the opposite sex out to get her drunk (from what I've heard) ends with sloppy, inebriated sex that you regret the morning after." I groaned, head throbbing. Parker was laughing. "Not that you're not cute, and wouldn't be amazing in bed - but it's just not how I roll."
"Fair enough." He tipped another drink back. Another one. Just watching it made me want to be sick for him.
I stared at him for a while, mesmerized by the strobe lighting that danced across his face, when I wasn't trying to hold back my vomit. "I need to get back."
"To Jett's apartment?" He asked, quirking a brow.
I nodded. "I'll camp out on the couch. Don't want to bug him."
"He's a busy man." Parker nodded, too. It was more out of acknowledgement and respect than anything else. "You could always come back to my place."
"Thanks, but no thanks, Parker." I patted him on the shoulder, making for the exit as he tipped the bartender. "You're lovely, but you're so not my type."
He still escorted me back to the house, but I had to let myself in with the keys that were under the doormat. Jett had left them out for me, and asked me to bring them inside. That was another reason for rejecting Parker's offer - but I wasn't trying to please him, so I didn't bother mentioning it.
What I wasn't expecting was to find him up, at whatever time it was, watching me gravely from the living area. "You're back?"
"You're up?" I giggled, stumbling through the door, and slamming it behind me.
"It's only 12.30. You barely lasted an hour..." Jett gave me a once over, appreciating the dress that Hayden had bought me. The close fitting, very short, very red cocktail dress. Parker told me to wear it. I bet Parker had also hoped he might get lucky later. Fuck Parker - in the non-literal sense. "You really can't hold your alcohol, can you?"
"I've never drunk before."
"That doesn't surprise me." The sound of the kettle boiling aggravated the headache, but I still sat at the island, burying hy head under my hands. I liked being around Jett, even if he wasn't around often. "You're supposed to take your time, if not drink in moderation. I'm not going to spoil your fun - but when drinking becomes the 'fun activity' it just says that you haven't been enjoying yourself." When Jett returned, he placed a mug in front of me. It was hot, and it scalded my fingertips, but I didn't care. "I'm guessing you didn't meet anyone there, either."
"Did you want me to meet anyone?" I looked up at him then, searching his expression, and our eyes met - but Jett was as unreadable as ever. "Tell me honestly."
"No." He said, the deepening intensity in his gaze making me shiver deliciously. "I didn't want you to."
Still not thinking straight, with the haze of intoxication hanging over my head, eyes lidded, I asked him: "So... then... do you like me?"
Jett was closer now; his presence, his smell, the sheer beauty of him was messing with my head, making my skin burn, my heart beat erratically. Ever since we met, I had developed this fascination with him... the smoothness of his skin, the way he moved, the way his muscles rolled beneath his skin when he moved.
It made me want to touch him. To taste him.
"Yeah. I guess I do."
My brow furrowed. I wanted him to touch me, but I was struggling to remember why I couldn't... if I couldn't. I put the drink down and got to my feet, forgetting what I wanted to do... what I wanted to say.
Before I could trip over the coffee table, Jett caught me, and steered me in the right direction. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up so you can sleep off some of that hangover, eh?"
He walked me to the door of the bathroom, making sure I was okay before turning to leave. "Wait!" I called out after him. Surprisingly, he stopped.
"What is it?"
"Why have you done so much for me when I hardly even know you...?" I sat myself down on the rim of the bathtub, because it was easier than trying to stay upright. "What's so special about me?"
"Maybe it's because I like you." He teased, closing the door on me as I tried to mull it over.
I smiled to myself, starting to feel a little lightheaded - until I realised that the lightheadedness had more of a connection with my stomach than anything else.
Oh, God! I thought, as I chundered into the toilet bowl.
Perfect fucking timing.
A/N: Sorry it took me a while to update - I've been editing an old story for a while, and... well... I had sudden inspiration today! What do you think?
I apologise for the swearing. Jade was in a bad mood, and suffering from shock - it seemed appropriate.
thoughts and opinions welcome! If there's anything that you feel compelled to say, then click the vulgar, blue button at the bottom of this page. LOL. jk. It's a very nice blue button. Better?
THANK YOU FOR READING!