By the time five o'clock rolled around, I trudged to the elevator and welcomed Jared's arm when he offered it. The sluggish, heavy feeling over my body was familiar. I was reverting back to my former zombie days.
"No, you're getting sleep tonight. Bex will be there at seven."
I wondered if I'd said anything aloud, but didn't have enough energy to ask. Just sitting in the passenger seat, watching trees and pedestrians move past my window was exhausting. If I was coherent, I would feel ridiculous for the permanent shocked expression on my face as I tried to keep both upper lids away from the lowers by pushing my eyebrows as high as they would go--but I wasn't.
Jared wrapped his arm around my waist, leading me into the house. When the old, heavy door closed behind us, Jared stopped.
"Nina," Cynthia called, appearing from the hallway. "You have a guest waiting for you in the Great Room."
I puffed.
"Let me take your things, Love," Agatha said, pulling my make-shift brief case from my hand.
"Thank you," I mumbled. I walked down the main hall, into the Great Room, blinking to focus once I recognized that it was Kim sitting alone on our large, green sofa. She sat on the edge of her seat; her hands balled tightly together atop her knees. I sat across from her in my mother's favorite Italian occasional chair.
It was then that I noticed Jared hadn't joined us, but had gone upstairs to prepare for a night away, instead.
"Kim," I said, blinking slowly.
"Looks like you need a nap," she said.
"Nightmares."
Kim looked to the floor, nodding. "Nigh, you don't get to hate me. I would understand if the demonic voodoo stuff gave you the heebie-jeebies, but you're just mad because you think I lied to you."
The rankling produced a second wind. "You did lie to me. I don't even know you."
Her head popped up. "And I know you? Jared's half-angel, and you're not exactly your run-of-the-mill Brown co-ed yourself, Miss Merovingian. Have they told you what that means?"
"They told me," I grumbled.
"So, I just came to tell you that we're still friends. And you can like it, and let me piss you off like I used to without worrying if you're really pissed. Got it?"
"Whatever, I'm pooped," I said, pushing myself from the chair.
"Really? We're good?" she asked.
I turned, and seeing her expectant eyes, I smiled. "Yeah, Kim. We're good."
Kim stood, and then held out both of her arms, jutting her lip out. "Hugs?"
"Quit it."
She let her hands fall to her thighs with a slap. "Well, thought I'd try."
I walked her to the door, and she leaned close to my ear. "I'm going with Jared tonight. I'll try not to make out with him while we're hunting down your book."
"You're a good friend," I said.
"Kiss noise," Kim said, jogging down the drive to her Sentra. How had I missed that horrid thing? I was more tired than I thought.
Jared met me at the bottom of the staircase. He held my arm for a few steps, and then gave up, lifting me in his arms, and carrying me up the stairs.
"Shower," I said.
Jared lowered me to the overstuffed mattress in my room. "In the morning. Bex is here. Sleep."
I'm not sure when I fell asleep, or how long Jared stayed, because I was unconscious the moment my head hit the pillow. The nightmares stayed away, even after my previous nightmare of Shax being in that very room. I was so tired, and slept so hard, that I didn't dream at all.
I peeled my eyes open to see Bex standing at the end of the bed. "Just so you know, that's creepy," I said, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
"Not as scary as your hair," he frowned.
"Wow, you're grumpy this morning."
"Cynthia doesn't trust me in the kitchen."
Three knocks at the door, and Cynthia backed in to my room, a tray in her hands. "Good morning. I thought I would bring you breakfast."
"Does Agatha have the day off?" I asked.
"No, she's downstairs. Why?" Cynthia asked.
I watched my mother for a moment in disbelief, and then shook my head. "Nothing. Thank you."
Cynthia left as quickly as she came in. "Mind the coffee, Dear, it's hot," she called back as her heels clicked down the hall.
Bex's eyebrows were nearly touching as his frown deepened. He had never been to my parents' home, to my knowledge, and he wasn't enjoying it at all.
"She warms up," I said.
"That's not what I've heard," he grumbled.
"I'm going to hop in the shower. Has Jared called?"
"No," he said, picking up the remote control, switching on the television. "But he's on his way."
I thought about that for a moment, and decided I already knew the answer. They could sense each other, and Bex was the most in-tune out of the three Hybrid siblings.
My morning routine finished without event, including Jared's return home. "I thought you said he was coming," I said, tightening my robe.
"He is," Bex said, his eyes stationary on the screen.
"Nina, Love?" Agatha called from the hall.
"Yes?" I said, opening the door. Agatha was holding several bags, and Beth stood behind her, her arms full of bags as well.
"You said you lost everything," Beth said, brushing past me to the closet. She disappeared into my walk in, hanging the plastic-covered clothing on the nearly-empty iron rods.
I opened the door, watching her pull shoes boxes from one of the large sacks. Once she was finished, she looked at her watch. "Crap! I gotta go."
"Beth."
"Yes?" she said, whipping around.
"Thank you."
She smiled. "Don't thank me. That was so fun. I think I went a little overboard."
She waved, and then rushed back the way she came, her legs moving a thousand miles per hour. I shut the closet door behind me, and pulled the first outfit I touched off its hanger. When I walked out into the bedroom, I froze in my tracks.
Jared stood in the center of my room, covered in dirt, blood, and his was face scraped and blotchy.
"Oh my...oh my God!" I yelled, rushing over to him. "What happened?"
Kim walked in behind Jared, untouched. "I told him not to go without me, but he's faster than I am."
I touched Jared's face. "What did you do?"
He grimaced. "The book was in my hand. I had it."
"Where were you?" I said, helping him pull off his jacket. He was stiff, and cringed with pain.
Kim's usually stoic expression twisted as she watched me pull his t-shirt up and over his head. "Warwick," she said. "We got the book, but Donovan was there."
Six raw, bloody and swollen bullet holes dotted different areas of Jared's torso, accompanied by a large gash along his shoulder blade.
"Jared!" I screamed.
Bex left without a word.
"Where are you going?" I called after him.
"He's going to find something to pull the fragments out."
I helped him to the bed, and then took a deep breath. It didn't help. Tears welled up in my eyes. "You're going to be okay, right?"
Jared managed a smile. "Yes. I'll be good as new this time tomorrow."
Bex returned with a towel full of different items. "Isaac too much for you, huh?"
"Isaac." Jared scoffed, rolling his eyes. Donovan and his Glock. And I plowed through approximately eighty demons before I got to them."
"If you would have waited for me to catch up with you, you wouldn't have had to waste your time with them," Kim snapped. She looked to me, "The second he learned the location of the book, he took off. I was twenty minutes behind him."
I glared at Jared. "That's not like you to be so impulsive and reckless. What were you thinking?"
Jared sighed. "That I wanted this to end."
Jared cringed, and then I heard a plink from behind him as Bex dropped bullet remnants into a bowl.
"I can't watch," I said, covering my eyes.
"You can't go anywhere
until we're finished here. Then I'll take you to work," Bex said, pulling out another bullet.
"Watch the blood. Don't get any on her sheets," Jared said, cringing again.
"I'll get new sheets," I moaned. I took Jared's hand in both of mine.
"It's okay," he said. "We'll try again."
"And hopefully not be so stupid about it this time," Kim said from the door way.
"Do you think I care about that? I don't want you near that book ever again!" I said, my voice higher with each word.
"Okay...okay," Jared said. "Don't get upset."
"Why would I be upset? My boyfriend comes home looking like he just escaped from a horror movie." I took one of the wet cloths Bex had brought upstairs and used it to wipe a deep cut above his eye. "Tell me everything."
"The details aren't important," Kim said.
"The bottom line is, I failed," Jared said, his teeth clinched.
Kim shrugged. "We know who's guarding it, what they're capable of, and every angle of their defense, Jared. I wouldn't call that failure."
"So what's Isaac like?" Bex said, dropping more fragments into the plate.
"He's highly trained," Jared answered.
"And psychotic," Kim said. "You should have seen them. It was like a scene from Rambo. Neither of them would quit, and they're both Hybrids, so it was like a never-ending fight scene. One punch here, knife wound there, elbow, face punch, and then one of them goes flying across the room. Lather. Rinse. Repeat."
"That's enough," Jared said.
My stomach wrenched at her words. "Please don't go back. Not until Bex or Claire can go with you."
Jared looked away. "It's not that I couldn't handle it on my own, Nina."
"That's not what I meant," I whispered.
He frowned, apology in his eyes. "I know. I'm sorry," he said with a sigh. "Kim's right. We did learn a lot last night. The problem is, Claire's not here, and Bex has to stay with you."
"What about someone else? Another Hybrid?" I asked.
Bex laughed once. "If it comes down to it, we'll have to take Donovan down. No one is going to help us down another Hybrid without good reason."
I looked down at Jared's bloodied hands, and then back to his stormy blue-grey eyes. "And saving me isn't good enough for them."
Jared nodded. "We have to persuade them that something big is coming, and to do that we need the book."
Kim knocked on the door jamb. "Now that's irony. C'mon, Nigh. I'll take you to work."
"Is that okay?" I asked Jared.
"I'd rather you wait," he said.
"Don't be ridiculous," Kim said. She pulled up her shirt, revealing a handgun stuffed half-way into her jeans. "I'm packin', demons run when they see me coming, and as Donovan learned last night...my right hook is wicked accurate."
The glance Jared and I traded turned into involuntary smiles.
"Bex will be right behind you," Jared said.
I kissed his cheek. "Maybe I should stay home today."
"This is nothing. You should see the other guys," Jared said with a wink. "Go on."
Kim lifted my briefcase off the floor, and held it out. I rushed to the bathroom, washed the blood from my hands, and then followed her down the stairs.
"Let's take my car," I said.
Kim shrugged. "Whatever."
As promised, the ride to work was safe and uneventful, and Bex pulled into the parking lot on his new, barely-street legal Ducati Streetfighter just as I stepped out of the car. Kim stayed behind as I rushed into Titan, thankful that being the CEO sort-of-in-training granted me a spot on the elevator.
"Good morning," I said to my co-workers as the doors slid closed.
Riding in close proximity to so many proved not so lucky after all. The thought of everyone breathing in such a confined space made me a bit claustrophobic.
When the elevator doors opened, I pushed my way out, taking a deep breath when my heels hit the carpet. "Oh, thank God."
Grant's door was open, and his ankles were crossed on top of his desk, and he was lazily leaned back in his chair. My momentary relief from the elevator was short-lived, and my face screwed in disgust.
I made a bee-line for my office, hoping Grant would be too comfortable to get out of his chair.
"Hey Peanut," Grant said just as I sat down.
"Nina," Beth said, walking in with her head down. She was biting on the end of her pencil, concentrating on her notebook planner. "The meeting with Yawa...Yaw...the Japanese is on Thursday, but the Wellington's will be in town, and hoped to squeeze in some time."
"Make time. I'd love to steal them away from Donaldson," I said tapping a pen against my desk.
"Sounds like it's a better day," Grant said, nodding. He bowed out without another word.
"Now it is," I said, noting Beth's smile as she stifled a giggle.
"So," she said, forcing her smile to fade. "Chad's been asking. Have you heard from Ryan lately? Or at all?"
I no longer had to fight a smile, my face immediately fell. "No. Nothing."
Beth nodded. "I hope he's okay."
"If he wasn't, we would find out, right?" I said to reassure her.
She took a deep breath, and nodded. "Right. I've gotta make some copies. You want coffee?"
"No, thanks."
Once Beth was off doing other things, Grant returned.
"I actually had a point to coming in here. I needed to talk to you about Beth."
"Oh?"
Grant flashed his million-dollar smile, and I had to physically restrain myself from recoiling.
"Peanut, I realize she's your friend, but it's not exactly cost-efficient to keep her on-board during the school year."
"Are you suggesting I fire her?" I said, raising an eyebrow.
Grant sighed. "You're not looking at this objectively. You're in the office, yes, but technically you're still an intern until you graduate. Why would I pay someone to assist an intern?"
"Because I told you to."
After a short pause, Grant smiled, wider than before. "You're going to do just fine here."
"Thank you, Grant. That will be all."
He shook his head, chuckling to himself as he left the way he came.
Buried under a few stacks of documents, Beth brought me back to reality with her chirpy voice. "Time to go home, Nigh."
"Oh." I looked at my watch, and then smiled. "Home."
I haphazardly stuffed a few files into my brief case before rushing down the hall, and then pressed the button. As soon as the doors opened, I hopped inside, fidgeting the entire trip to the first floor. The doors slid open, revealing the brilliant late-afternoon sun gleaming through the lobby glass. Jared was waiting by the Escalade, a contrived smile on his face.
"What is it?" I asked, after greeting him with a quick kiss. My excitement to see him was infiltrated by a sense of dread. The two didn't settle well, and I instantly fell nauseous.
He raised a pair of my sneakers. "I thought we could check out what's left of the loft. See if anything's left."
I could only nod, dreading the sight of our home reduce to a heap of ash.
"Put these on," he said. "It'll be hard enough sifting through everything, let alone in heels."
I took the shoes in my hand, and then sat on the curb. Jared handed me a pair of socks, and I tugged those on, followed by the sneakers. He watched me in silence, a residual forced grin on his face. He wasn't looking forward to the aftermath anymore than I.
The drive seemed to take an eternity, yet it still wasn't long enough for me to prepare. When Jared pulled to the curb, I stumbled from the Escalade, each side of my hair bunched in my fists. "Oh my God," I whispered.
Jared milled about the charred remnants, bending down once in a while to inspect something not-quite destroyed.
"There's a few boxes in the back," Jared said. "Would you grab one?"
I took wide steps and hopped until I was clear of the debris, and then went to the Escalade, opening the back door. I brought b
ack a large, cardboard box. There were two more, but it was overly optimistic to bother with them, we couldn't fill up the first one. Silverware, a few brittle-edged pictures, and the monitor of my laptop were among partially intact documents, and a set of throwing knives. Yellow tape surrounded most of the carnage.
My hands turned black as I dug slowly, but surely through the black mess under our feet.
"What are you looking so ambitiously for?" Jared asked.
"I was hoping we'd find at least pieces of your journal, but I haven't even seen the binding. Have you come across it?"
He smiled. "I keep it in the Escalade. It's safe and sound."
"Good," I said, overwhelmed at the mountain of rubble.
"We should go. The Fire Marshall has already interviewed me twice. If anyone sees us poking around, it's going to attract attention."
"I guess." I stood up from my squatted position, throwing down a charred piece of the frame that the last picture of my father was in."
"I'm sorry about that," Jared said. "I should have tried to get that out, too."
"It's not your fault. They did this to get a reaction, to see if we'd retaliate, or if it would cause dissension between us. The last thing I'm going to do is give them what they want. It's just stuff."
Jared walked over to me, tenderly wiping my face. "You're covered in soot. Let's go home."
"That's not home, Jared. This was home, and it's gone." I was surprised at the tears that welled up in my eyes. Crying hadn't crossed my mind until that very moment.
"Maybe we should start looking for a place?" he smiled.
"So they can torch it again? No, thank you."
Jared's expression was pained. "It won't happen again."
"You don't know that," I said, tugging on his hand, leading him to the Escalade. "We have no idea what they'll do next."
Chapter Ten
New
Summer wound down, and Beth and I undertook the process of delegation. Our schedule at Brown would make it impossible to maintain the hours we'd been keeping at Titan.
Jared made frequent calls to Claire to check on Ryan's progress, which steadily improved. At times faster than Claire would have liked. To all of our surprise, Ryan wasn't fighting the decision to decommission him. He was focused on getting well and getting back to the States--something none of us had anticipated.
As promised, Jared didn't try another ambush on Shax, or Donovan and Isaac. Instead, he became obsessed with constructing a fail-safe plan, one that included a Plan B, and help. He refused to let the book get away from him a second time.