Breed of Envy (The Breed Chronicles, #02) (26 page)

He relaxed. Kind of. His hands loosened, at least, even if his back was as rigid as before.

I put my hand in his. We were supposed to look couple-y, weren’t we? He didn’t jump this time, but he flinched. “
Can
you handle this?”

“I’ll do my part.” His voice was clipped, strained.

“Snapping at me is helpful,” I muttered.

“Shit. Sorry.” His pace slowed.

“Don’t apologize. Just…try to calm down a little. You have murder in your eyes. We’re supposed to be ready, not willing and eager. We’re here. We’re going to do this. I’ve got your back, okay? Now can you hold my hand so it’s not all dangly? We’re supposed to look couple-y.” I pointed at a couple across the street, using them as an example. “See? They’re holding hands and actually look like they’re enjoying their walk together. You look like you’re trying to escape my evil ways or something.”

Like I’d hoped, it made Linc laugh. His posture really relaxed this time. “Thanks,” he said, then gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

“That’s better, Flyboy.”

As we walked, we kept our eyes open for any extra tall people. Linc wasn’t quite six-foot, so I just looked for anyone taller than him. He kept his gaze darting ahead of us and across the street, while I checked down alleys and looked over our shoulders.

It was twenty minutes before Linc murmured, “Did we miss it? Did it go somewhere else? Or did that pheromone stuff not work?”

“Don’t know.” I tapped my earpiece once, which was the signal to let Peter and Dale know we hadn’t spotted it yet.

“Go up three blocks and make a left, then another left at the next block,” I heard Peter say in my ear. “Police chatter about a disgruntled man knocking things over and chasing people on the next block over. That should put you ahead of it, and if it’s out looking for food, it should, hopefully, spot you two. We’ll come up from behind it, just in case it changes direction again.”

“Got it,” I said.

Linc was already taking off running before I’d even gotten my message out. He was almost half a block ahead of me, so I picked up the pace and caught up with him at the next block. “Couple, remember?” I muttered angrily at him, clutching his arm, trying to slow his pace. “We’re out for a stroll.”

“Slow it down, boy,” Dale said. “I can see you running on my screen, so don’t think of lying. You’re going to scare the damn thing away, and then what? Ask it to nicely come back out and be captured like a good demon?”

Peter chimed in with, “For crying out loud, Linc. If you want to stay in on this, slow your ass down.”

Linc let out a frustrated growl but slowed down as we rounded the corner. “Fine, fine. I’m a damn tortoise.”

“We’re on the next block,” I said, glaring at Linc, “so we should be ahead of it now.”

“Alright, we’re still a few blocks away, so keep your eyes open and be on guard. Don’t do anything stupid. And I mean it, Linc. If you do, you won’t be going back out again. This is your one chance, so don’t screw it up.”

Linc’s breath was coming fast now. He was quiet about it, but his chest rose and fell quickly. The hand holding mine was, like on the way here, almost painfully tight. I tapped it with my other, gave him a quick grin. “Kinda need my hand not broken, Flyboy.”

He loosened his grip. Barely. But at least I could feel my fingers again.

Another five minutes passed before Peter spoke again. “It’s about two blocks behind you two. Slow down a bit more, window shop. I want it a little closer to you guys before you make a break for an alley. It’s getting worse, so it’s definitely hungry. We can’t wait much longer before a bystander gets in the way. You won’t make it to any of the planned alleys, so we’ll have to improvise.”

“Just tell us what to do and when,” I replied.

“It’s got your scents, so go down the first alley on your left,” Dale said a few minutes later, after we crossed the next intersection. “Drop the holo-strip down, and go in as far as you can and hide behind something.”

“Will do. Right, Linc? Right?” I insisted when he didn’t respond.

“Yeah.”

Behind us, people started muttering and yelling for someone to ‘watch out’. I quickened my pace, pulling Linc with me, and ducked into the first alley. I pulled out the holo-strip, pressed what I hoped was the on button, and dropped it near the entrance. I could still see people walking by and talking, but they didn’t pay any attention to us.

Seconds later, Peter’s voice broke the silence with a vicious curse. “Shit,” he said. “There’s another damn demon three blocks over. Keep low, you two. This one is going after people now. It’s already attacked two pedestrians, so we can’t wait.”

“No can do,” I whispered under my breath. “Empty alley.”

“Damnit! Get out of there then.”

I glanced at Linc. “Linc?”

He was standing in the middle of the alley, halfway between me and the entrance. I couldn’t see his face, but he took off his com and held it in his hands.

Crap, crap, crap!
This wasn’t good.
I know I’m going to regret this, but…
I turned off my own com and walked up to Linc. “Don’t do this. We need to get out of here—you heard them.”

“I’m staying here.”

I ran in front of him and shoved him. “The hell you are. We’re getting out of here. Now. This isn’t a damn suicide mission.”

“I know what it is and what it isn’t.”

He tried shoving past me, but I just blocked his path. “We’re going, Linc. This isn’t worth it.”

The anguish in his eyes made them a murky shade of blue. His jaw was taut, fists white. “The hell it isn’t! It killed my sister!”

“I get that, believe me, I do. But what would you tell me, Linc? You don’t think I know what you’re planning? I do. You want to kill it and part of me wants to let you. Part of me wants to help, because I know how much how it hurts and I know how much I’d want to do the same thing. But I also believe—no, I
know
—that you wouldn’t let me do it, or even try, if there was the
slightest
chance I would get hurt in the process.”

He didn’t budge an inch. If anything, his eyes just darkened and his teeth clamped down harder, making his jaw line so prominent, I was sure one tap would shatter it.

“Let’s do this the right way. Let’s capture it, take it back to the CGE, and let Greene and his scientists study it, or whatever they do, and find a way to help others. You can be a part of that, Linc. We can stay and capture it, because I know you need that. But please, can we do it right?”

His gaze flicked to me, then away. “I’m getting the demon, Jade. Now.”

“Even if it kills you?”

“As long as it goes, too.”

My stomach dropped. “Come on, Linc. Let’s just wait for Peter and the others. That’s all we have to do. Wait.” He still didn’t move. Didn’t blink. I knew he had to be breathing, but I couldn’t even see that much now. “Please don’t do this.” I grabbed his hand, clutched it tightly in mine. “I can’t lose someone else. You’re it. You’re all I have now.”

The moment the words left my mouth, I realized how true they were. Linc was my foundation. He was the one person that truly kept me going. I had goals at the CGE, things I wanted to stay for, and things to accomplish, but I wasn’t sure I could do them without him around.

More, I was sure I didn’t want to.

“Goddamnit, Jade!”

I grabbed his face and pressed my lips to his. “Please. I’m not asking you to do it for me, but to do it for yourself. I know you won’t forgive yourself if something goes wrong. If the demon gets away. And if we don’t get it now, we might not get a second chance to.”

His face contorted and he shook his head. “Fine. Damnit, fine.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Let’s get out of here,” I said, turning my com unit back on.

Peter and Dale were both mid-yell, so I only caught the end of what they were saying. “…the hell are you two?”

“Sorry. We’re here.”

Peter’s voice sounded angry and made me wince. “Can you two stay put or distract the demon until we get there?”

Linc said, “Yeah.”

Dale scoffed. “How?”

“Jade runs, I distract it.”

It was my turn to scoff. “Like that’ll happen. I’m not leaving you alone with it.”

Linc glared at me. “Then what?”

“I don’t know, but I’m not running without you.”

“Forget it,” Peter said, his tone full of frustration now. “The two of you need to get out of there and just wait. We’ll go after it again when we’re all together.”

I grabbed Linc and turned around to leave. “We’re heading out.” I stopped short. “Scratch that.”

“What? What is it?”

We weren’t going anywhere.

Standing between us and the exit was the demon.

C
HAPTER 14

The demon stopped at the front of the alley and just watched and waited.

“Our path is blocked,” I said quietly, trying to keep my lips from moving too much.

Peter yelled something over the coms that even I wouldn’t repeat. “Then do what you need to do to keep yourselves alive. Kill it if you have to. We’ll be there soon.”

“Maybe it’ll just stay there until—” I broke off and shook my head.
Should’ve known better than to say that, stupid Jade.

Linc glanced at me. “Split up, take it from both sides if it tries to attack?”

I nodded and moved away from Linc as he moved from me. The demon stayed where it was, though its head moved side to side and there was a sniffing sound.

“It’s getting our scents.” I paused. “Maybe if we don’t go after it, it won’t come after us. Or maybe it’ll come after me instead!” I said with a shriek. The demon ignored Linc and charged toward me, so I ran to the end of the alley. We were blocked in with buildings surrounding us in every direction except the exit.

Behind me, Linc yelled and then I heard his footsteps. “It’s going after Jade!”

“Evade, damnit, evade!”

I wanted to yell back something smart, like point out the obvious fact that I had
nowhere
to evade to. We were cornered in, as planned. We were distracting the demon, as planned. What wasn’t planned was that Peter, Adam, and Dale were held up, our alley had no escape route, and the demon was charging at me like I had a bullseye planted on my chest.

At the end of the alley, with my back against the wall, I waited as the demon ran at me. Linc tried rushing it, only to get shoved aside. He hit the ground hard, then flipped over like a human car crash.

“Linc!”

The demon was only a few feet away now. I pulled the smoke cap from my pocket and tossed it on the ground at the demon’s feet. I prepared for the smoke, for being blind, but the smoke came out and I could still see.
Works for me
, I thought, then I had to jump to the side as the demon nearly crashed into me. It hit the wall hard, face first, and stumbled back a step, but it didn’t fall. Damn thing ran into a
wall
and it couldn’t even be nice and knock itself out? Figured.

Shaking my head, I quietly ran to Linc. The smoke was thick, and it seemed to be giving the demon problems at least. “Get up, Linc,” I whispered in his ear. “Get your butt moving—”

The demon turned around, sniffed the air like it was tracking my scent. Linc was still on the ground, so I moved away from him. The demon sniffed again, then changed direction.

I ran, and if anyone could’ve seen me, it probably would’ve looked like I was running like a chicken with my head cut off, going back and forth from one side of the alley to the other. But Linc was still down, so I had to keep it away from him, and running crazily seemed to keep the demon off track, because it was trying to follow my scent and didn’t know where to go. I pressed myself against the building to my right and waited for the demon to catch my scent. It did, almost instantly, and came at me again, arms raised.

Pulling the nano-sword from my pocket, I twisted the guard until the sword unfolded fully. The demon struck out at me and I managed to block it with the blade. It lashed out twice more and each time I blocked the hit, but it did absolutely no damage to the demons. It only did damage to me by sending small shockwaves of pain down my arms.

I tossed the nano-sword aside and pulled out the knife Peter had given me. I dodged to the side, seconds before the demon would’ve hit me again, and slashed out, cutting into one of the demon’s arms. I heard a faint sizzle, followed by the demon’s angry roar. I really wasn’t trying to piss it off, just slow it down, or give it a reason to back off a little until Peter and the others could get here. Sawthorns were aggressive, but not usually like this.

Linc had attacked it, or at least acted like the bigger threat, yet it still wanted me and couldn’t be bothered with him. From everything I’d read about it, Sawthorns—and demons in general—didn’t do that. They went after the biggest obstacle first.

The Sawthorn circled back around for another attack. I hit it again with the knife, heard the sizzle of the acid. I tried for another cut, but the demon turned its arm and the blade got caught in its thorns. It twisted out of my hands, falling at the demon’s feet.

“Ah, hell,” I muttered.