Jared (5 page)

Tessa had about enough. She was scared as hell and had to pee like a race horse. Her red headed temper was legendary and as hard as she tried to keep it to a slow simmer it was getting ready to steam ahead. Fear usually sent her over the edge in a stupid kind of way.

“We already know all about you and your brother
,
honey.”
Jared
continued. “We just need to know where he is before things get out of control.”

“I’m not your honey
,
vamp.” Tessa hissed. “And you don’t know a damn thing about me.”

“Afraid we do
…honey
.” He laughed and pulled a packet out of his back pocket throwing it on the table next to the baseball hat and sunglasses.
Tessa eyed the packet of paper
.

“Don’t think she believes you
Jared
.”
Sid
shook his head as he leaned casually against the wall
.

“Tessa Pride. Twenty-three
years old. Graduated at the top of
your
class.
Barten
ds at the Sand Trap
nights. Had to drop out of
teaching academy
to pay bills.
Adam Pride. Eighteen years old. Graduated
a football star
with a full ride to
Penn State. Mother, Rose Pride,
was killed in a head on car
accident. Father,
Frank
Pride, is still alive,
but left
over a year
ago. The only other living relative is Ollie Pride aka
Gramps
,
who now resides at Villa Springs N
u
rsing Home.”
Jared
never took his eyes off her. “You want me to keep going or do you get the point….Tessa.”

When she didn’t say anything, just looked at the packet
,
the
half-breed
took a step forward.
“This is your last chance.”

Tessa’
s eyes slowly rose to his mismatched
gaze
, her head tilted slightly
,
eyes narrowed daring him to lay a finger on her. He didn’t have to. A pressure started to build behind her eyes spreading throughout her entire head. Closing her eyes
,
she tried to keep it together, but the pressure turned to pain in a s
p
lit second dropping her to her knees.
Not wanting to give the bastards the satisfaction of screaming she bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. Doubled over on her knees all she could do was pray she died quickly to end the pain.

Jared had to give it to the
gutsy
red head
;
she was tough. A room full
of
vampires and she hadn’t cracked
…yet.
He’d seen grown men crack
under the pressure
and pour their guts out. She was also
more curvy than he remembered. Damon might have the right of it. Give him five minutes alone with her and he could have her singing
like
a little bird, at least it would be fun trying. Her hair
was
the color of burnished copper in a shaggy cut reaching past her shoulders. Just enough to hold on to when he was licking his way up her back to her neck.
Her eyes were the color of lake moss and shaped like tear drops, drooping down on each side.
Oh yeah, he would have loved to have met her under different circumstances.

Shocked
,
Jared watched as she sank to the ground holding her head. Pushing away from the counter he
rushed to her side
,
cursing himself for paying more attention to getting
her in bed
than what the hell was going on.

“Hey.” He tried to lift her face to his, but she was so stiff he was afraid
of hurting
her. Glancing up for help
,
he looked right at Levi
who was glaring at Tessa
, his golden eye
now
black,
rimmed in red. Standing up quicker than the human eye could trac
k
he had the
half-breed
against the wall by the th
roa
t. “What the hell are you doing?” Jared roared.

With the contact broke
n
Levi looked at Jared. “I’m getting the informat
ion
we need.”

Jared slammed Levi against the wall hard
once
before letting go. “We do not hurt women.”
Jared’s hiss should have been warning enough.

Levi got right back in Jared’s face. “You don'
t want to fuck with me warrior. I can have you removed from your duties with a snap of my finger.”

“
The day the
Council
allows us to hurt women is the day I walk. So you go on and snap that finger
,
breed.
” Then in a split second he
grabbed
Levi’s shirt pulling him close. “
And y
ou definitely don’t want to fuck with me. No
w
get
the hell
out of here and let us do our job.”

“The
C
ouncil wants me here.” Levi pulled away.
“I’m the only half-breed in the Council so they think I can get this situation under control.”

Duncan, who had been quiet up until now stepped forward. “I think under the circumstances they will understand since I am giving them a full report.” Duncan,
who usually
showed no em
o
tion at
all,
gave Levi a
nasty grin
. “You are on thin ice as it is Levi. I suggest you
step back from this one.”

Out of the corner of his eye
Jared
saw something flying through the air. Dodging to the left he watched a glass shatter against Levi’s chest. Turning he saw Tessa standing, chest heaving in anger
,
grabbing for another glass. “Get out!” Tessa screamed
,
her hand drawing back to let go of the glass.

Jared barely had time to bat the glass away before it made contact. This time it was headed toward him. All hell broke loose. She grabbed another glass aiming toward Damon this time. Levi headed toward her
,
his golden eye blacker than midnight. Jared grabbed him by the front of the shirt again lifting him off his feet
slamming
him to the ground
,
planting his knee on the
half-breed
’
s chest. He felt a glass bounce off his back.

“Are you waiting for her to run out of fucking glasses?” Jared yelled at Sid who stood ready to dodge if he had to. Levi struggled under him cursing. Jared picked him up and tossed him toward Duncan. “Get him the fuck out of here now.”

T
essa continued to throw glasses, she couldn’t stop
, she was out of control
. Seeing Jared heading her way she started throwing them at him, but he dodged and batted them away
with an ease that made her throw faster
. He caught her wrist in a firm, but gentle grip reaching for the glass.

“Let me go you….you piece of bat shit.” Tessa tried to pull
a
way still holding the glass in a death grip.

Jared’s eyebrow rose, a smile tugging the corner of his mouth. Bat shit….that was a new one. He’d been called a lot of things, but never a piece of bat shit.
“Let
the glass go
.”
His voice was calm and even.

Glancing around at the other two vampires she shook her head. “No.”

“No one is going to hurt you.”
He kept hold of her
wrist, his eyes never leaving her
s
.

“Little late for that.” Tessa
snorted, but loosened her grip enough that he took the glass.

Jared frowned putting the glass far enough away from her. “It won’t happen again.” He let go of her wrist. “Can I trust you not to throw anymore glasses
?
”

“Are you going to get out of my house
?
” Tessa shot back rubbing the aching pain in her temples.

“No.”
Jared replied
, lifting his hand to her face
he frowned when she flinched. “Hold still.”

Tessa leaned back as far as she could go as his large hand reached for he
r face
again
. “What are you doing?” She slapped at his hand.

Sighing Jared quickly grasped her face with his hands and gently massaged her temples. When she started to struggle he tilted her face to his. “I am trying to help you.
Hold still.
”

Once she settled down
,
Tessa noticed the difference in her head. The heaviness and aching pain was slowly easing. Closing her eyes she moaned her ple
asure. God that felt wonderful after the
blinding
pain she had
just
suffered. Slitting her eyes open she peaked at the vampire massaging her head. His features were strong and hard with lean lines. His golden eyes
,
framed with the longest lashes she
had
ever seen on a man
,
focused on her lips. What was it when a man looked at a woman’s lips her tongue automatically had a brain of its own snaking out to moisten
.
Y
eah
,
her tongue had a mind of its own.
His eyes darkened as they shot to hers. His hands pulled away so quickly
she stumbled back a step.

“Thank you.” Her hand shot self
-
consciously to the side of her head. Looking around the tall vampire she saw the other two staring at them.

“Where’s your brother?”
He
growled looking downright pissed off
. What in the hell happened to the nice guy?

Tessa swallowed hard. “I have to pee.”
Shot out of her mouth.
Embarrassed Tessa turned
running
up the steps.
“
I have to pee.
”
She whispered to herself rolling her eyes not believing she couldn’t come up with a better avoidance of his question than that.
At least i
t
got her out of the room.

At the top of the steps she turned to make sure no one was following. Slamming her brother
’s
door loudly she
tiptoed
into the bathroom
bec
ause she really needed to pee. Leaving the door open she quickly went to the
toilet
praying no one came up
the steps
.
If they did they would have a
perfect view of her sitting on the toilet.
While doing her business she toed off her shoes pushing them to the side.

Tessa
finished her business quickly then
stood
still listening to the quiet of the house. She could hear them talking in hush
ed
tones below her. She almost felt like a teenager again sneaking out
in the middle of the night
.
Tiptoeing
down the hall to her room she made
it to her bed. Climbing up she
crawled across
slowly
then placed her big toe on the floor putting pressure down to see if it squeaked. She used to know every squeaky board in her room. For years she didn’t really have a need to worry about it, until now. When it didn’t squeak she started to tiptoe across the floor toward the window. Her last step before she made it to the ledge squeaked loudly sounding like the whole house was coming down around her. Cringing she stood completely still waiting for
the three huge warriors
to come busting into the room. After a few
seconds
she felt safe enough to slip out the window.

Looking at the tree she had used as an escape from her room many times as a teenager she sighed. What in the hell is she getting herself into. Crawling out the window she grasp
ed
the tree branch and let her legs swing away from the window. This day definitely rated up there on her suck list.

Tessa felt her grip loosen on the branch she was gripping with
every ounce of strength she had
. Small pieces of bark rained down on her face. Crap, she remembered this being easier. “Maybe that’s because yo
u were much younger and skinnier
….dumbass.
” she mumbled with a grunt. Glancing down
she gasped. She didn’t remember it being this
damn
high
.