Jared (20 page)

“Listen Adam
,
it’s nothing personal….”

“The hell it ain’t.” Adam eyed the sheriff as they made their way closer to the crowd of
half-breed
s. “You hurt her
,
you son of a bitch.”

“I’m trying to make it right.” The sheriff sighed. “I’m going to make it right.”

“You go near my sister and I’ll….” Adam went to go after the sheriff, but Jared stopped him.

“Both of you shut the fuck up.” Jared hissed
,
tossing Adam back a step without stopping. “Deal with this shit after we take care of our current problem.”

Even though Jared wanted to beat the hell out of the sheriff
,
at the moment his training had kicked in and his focus was dead on. His current threat stood waiting in front of him. He’d deal with the asshole sheriff later. Right now he needed to keep the innocent safe. That was their job and he was the best.

“Problem in the ranks warrior?” The
half-breed
stood steady, his eyes shooting from Jared to the Ferris
W
heel behind him. His long
ankle length coat
floated
behind him in the breeze that kicked up
,
swirling
fair trash around their feet.

Forcing himself not to turn to make sure Tessa and Nicole were safe
,
Jared stopped a few feet away from the
small
army of
half-breed
s. His eyes
,
burning black
,
didn’t leave the bastard
’
s eyes. “Let the old man go so we can settle this.”

A sinister smile played on his lips. “
You warriors think you rule the world
.” He shook his head making a tsking s
ound in the back of his throat before he leaned forward slightly. “But the world is about to change.”

Jared rolled his eyes
a bored expression crossing his face
. “Cut the shit breed. You’re boring me with your about to change the world crap.”

“My name isn’t breed.” He hissed, his calm exterior cracking.

“Honestly I don’t care what your name is.” Jared replied glancing at Sid and Damon. “You guys care what his name is?”

Damon just growled low, but Sid tied his long hair back with a smile. “Well
,
he kind of looks like that sparkly fellow,
what in the hell is his name. Y
ou know in that
vampire
movie all the women are going crazy over now, shit
,
what’
s it called?
” Sid looked between Damon and Jared
, but when they didn’t have the answer he looked back at the
half-breed
. “Guess we could call him Sparkles, but yeah
,
I don’t really give a shit about the name of someone I’m about ready to take out.”

Jared laughed
,
hoping to knock some of the cockiness out of the
half-breed
.
“Okay, Sparkles
it is.
I am going to ask you one time to give yourself up for breaking Treaty 34.”

“You can stick Treaty 34 up your ass. I don’t know why you want to protect these weak humans anyway.” He sneered.

“Any of you who turn themselves in will be treated fairly
and just
.” Jared ignored him turning his attention on the others. “Under Treaty 34 set forth by the Vampire Council you have enticed panic and aggressiveness against the human race. If you decide to fight against us you will
likely
….die.”

Sid popped his knuckles
, clearly ready for the challenge. Damon stood ready and waiting for anyone to make a sudden move. The sheriff brought the shotgun to his shoulder as Jill, Steve and Adam waited for the action to start.

“Enough!” Sparkles
’
high pitched voice broke over the silence. “You will never win warrior. We ou
t
number you at least 5 to 1.”

“Listen to me
,
you piece of shit.” Jared took a men
a
cing step forward
his voice loud and strong
. “I’m already tired of your game. You could out number
us
10 to 1 and you’re still going down. So either give yourself over to the
C
ouncil
now or suffer the consequences.”

A few broke rank
walking
toward the warriors. “This isn’t worth it.” One
of them
said as he pushed past the front line
s
. A few more mumbled their agreement
following
.

“Last chance for the rest of you.” Jared looked behind them with a cocky grin. “And now would be the time to make the best choice because you just became outnumbered.”

Duncan le
d a large group of warriors who began surrounding the small army.

“You can’t go with them. We are superior. We can beat them and then all is ours.” He grabbed hold of one of them who
was breaking rank going with the warriors
.

“You’re whacked dude. They’re warriors and we are manmade
half-breed
s. Nah man, think I’ll take my chances with them.”
The kid nodded toward Jared.

“Manmade?” Sid
’s
eyes narrowed.

“Yeah.” The boy who looked to
b
e eighteen stood next to Sid. “One minute I was at the mall, the next I was strapped on a table being shot up with some crazy stuff.”

“How long have you been turned?” Jared ask
ed
the boy,
not taking his eyes off Sparkle
s.

“Probably over a month.” He looked at his friends who nodded. “Yeah about a month.”

“Have any of you gone rogue?” This time Duncan ask
ed
the question, his eyes also on
the crowd of
half-breed
s who had yet crossed to their side.

“No
and we won’t. Whatever they gave us is suppose
d
to make us superior to other
half-breed
s
.” The same boy replied. “From what they taught us during our training….”

“Training?” This time Jared turned to look at the kid.

“Yeah
, they trained us on how to kill warriors.” The kid replied
,
quickly
stepping back when Sid growled low in his throat. “They know a lot about you. But the main reason we’re here other than him having a hard on for that chick is she was taped destroying the stuff they gave us and taking a bottle of it. They want it back.”

“Shut up!” Their leader roared. “Enough! You give her over and the old man lives
.”

Jared took his eyes off
the
half-breed
long enough to turn his head toward the Ferris
W
heel. Pissed was not even close to describ
ing
what he
was
feeling right now. So Red still didn’t trust him enough to turn over something so important. He would take care of that issue as soon as he finished with this one. She thought he was a
n
asshat before. That didn’t even compare to what she was going to get once he got hold of her. Sendi
ng a quick message to Nicole
,
he
turned
his focus back where it needed to be
,
rage evident on his face.

“No can do Sparkles. Either give up or...”

“Die.” He replied a smug grin on his face. “Yeah, I know, but that isn’t going to happen. What
is
going to happen after I smash you to pieces I’m going to have her.”

Jared didn’t even reply, kept calm actually. Duncan and Sid
were
in his head keeping him calm. The last thing he wanted to do was show weakness where Tessa was concerned. Yeah, deadly control was key.

The
half-breed
leaned slightly closer with a low chuckle. “
Wonder if she’s a real red head?” H
is
eyes shot up to the Ferris
W
heel with obvious lust before landing back on Jared and with just a wink he sealed his death. “I’ll be sure to keep you alive long enough to let you know.”

Jared’s deadly control went to hell as he leaped at the
half-breed
with the warriors following his lead. It was about to get ugly.

“Come on!” Nicole climbed out of the basket. “Get on my back.”

“Get on your what?” Tessa stopped cold.

“Tessa get on my back before I knock you out. We need to get out of here. Damon and Jared are in my head screamin
g for me to get us out of here.”

“But my grandfather.” Tessa looked back down trying to find him.

“Is fine. Sid and Adam have him in a safe place.” Nicole turned to look at Tessa her eyes black as night.
“Now come on. We need to get out of here.”

Knowing she was right Tessa didn’t hesitate any longer. Climbing on she wrapped her legs around Nicole’s waist with her arms wrapped around
her
neck without choking her.

“I’ve never done this before
with someone on my back so hold on tight.” Nicole waited until Tessa’s weight was settled on her back.

“Oh. My. God.” Tessa closed her eyes as they jumped
,
her stomach staying back up in the basket.
They hit the ground hard, Nicole hissing out a moan. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just twisted m
y
leg.
I’m fine
.”
Nicole grabbed her hand pulling her between booths toward the woods.

Making their way into the wooded area Nicole stopped holding her finger to her lips as she scanned the field they had just
r
u
n
through. Tessa bent over hands on her knees trying to catch her breath.

“You have anything on under your hoodie?” Nicole ask
ed
, but her eyes narrowed on something Tessa couldn’t see. When Tessa just glanced at her in confusion Nicole grabbed her arm. “Come on Tessa
,
snap out of it. D
o you
have anything under the damn hoodie
?”

“Yeah why
,
what’s going on?” She tried to keep the fear out of her voice, but she was really scared now and couldn’t hide it.

“We
’re
being tracked. Take off your hoodie.” Nicole pulled them deeper into the woods. Tes
sa did as she was told quickly handing Nicole her hoodie. “I want you to run as far as you can and hide.” She slipped Tessa’s hoodie on.

Thinking of all the scary movies she had watched
,
Tessa frowned. Splitting up never bode well for anyone in those damn movies she swore she would never
ever
watch again. Then again maybe they would save her life.
Why in the hell did she keep thinking of scary freakin movies?

“You sure we should split up.” Tessa rubbed her arms as the cool n
ight air seeped into her bones, h
er thin tank top doing nothing to keep the coldness away. Then again it could be fear that was making her shiver.

“No.” Nicole breathed out in a rush. “But Damon is not answering me at the moment and I can’t carry you. My leg isn’t healing as fast as I thought it would and hurts like hell. They’re tracking your scent so if I wear you
r
hoodie I am praying they
’ll
follow me.
Once I lose them I’
ll come back and find you. I’ll give a whistle so you know it’s me.
”

“Please be careful.” Tessa wanted to totally freak out and have a full blown panic attack, but fought those feelings. She had to be strong. They would make it through this.
“How close are they?” Tessa felt like eyes were watching them right now.

Nicole’s stricken expression was answer enough. “Go!” She pushed Tessa as she took off in a different direction.

Tessa didn’t hesitate
,
she took off as fast as her legs would carry her. Jumping fallen logs, rocks and anything else in her path
,
Tessa felt the sting of brush and limps cutting into her flesh. If the ones chasing them smelled her blood it was going to
be
over, at least for her. Being more careful Tessa tried to miss low hanging lim
b
s and thick brush, but it was almost impossible.