The Death Series: A Dark Dystopian Fantasy Box Set: (Books 1-3) (51 page)

We nodded, they knew. I swallowed and heard a dry click. After my close call, I didn't like to talk about John and others who might get hurt. I just felt like we were all sitting ducks.

“That's all for now. You have a two-week respite to
not
worry about that group.” he paused, looking at me significantly.

“Wait a minute. They have pulse-monitors for two weeks then they're scot-free?” Mom ranted.

“It's the maximum we're allowed by law. They're minors, Mrs. Hart,” Garcia said.

“Kyle...” Mom implored.

Dad gave a hard look at Garcia. “I'm not happy with this as a resolution. What if,” he looked at me lying pale and recovering in the hospital bed, “those young men try to gang up on Caleb again? When there isn't an Organic on shift, at
just
the opportune moment, with a high enough level? This one happened to have surgical expertise.”

Dad ran a hand through his hair, pacing. “There's no way for this to end well. If they enter my home with intent to harm my son, I
will not
treat them like minors, Sergeant Garcia. They will cease to be children; they will be criminals. Period.”

Garcia's eyes narrowed into slits. “You're not circling vigilantism, Mr. Hart?”

Dad thought about it, eventually nodding. “I will not willingly let my family come to harm, Sergeant. It's not going to happen. I will defend them to the best of my ability. I'd be more than happy to reiterate this stance to whomever cares to hear it. I am American. This is my child. He will not be defenseless against this threat.”

“Fine, duly noted. You understand my hands are tied. This is the fullest I can maneuver or prosecute. I will also be speaking with the families, making them aware of the transgressions against Caleb and what the ramifications will be,” Garcia said.

They looked at each other and something shifted inside me for my dad then, a physical reaction. I always knew on some level that he loved me I just never realized how much.

CHAPTER 16

The Boy smelled strangely...the Dog sniffed him and sensed injury...an injury which was healing. The Dog sniffed more deeply; several injuries. He wagged his tail, he sensed something had cleansed the injuries; making them smell “old.” The Dog did not know what that may be but was deeply relieved when the Boy returned, that horrible feeling of doom slipping away at his arrival.

“Yes, yes, I'm glad to see you too.” As I was petting Onyx, I noticed he was acting weird, taking big lungfuls of my smell. Probably smelling that gross hospital.
Eau de Sick
.

“I have supper ready too,” Mom said.

Great,
I was starving
. I'd missed school, had to spend the night at Camp Sick and was finally home. Friday loomed large with a hang session at Gramp's place tomorrow. The Organic said she'd worked me over but I still felt stiff and sore. Just think how I would've felt if she hadn't? Better not to dwell on that too long.

“Okay, Mom. How much longer?”

She looked at me critically. “Do you need to do something?

Yeah, I was desperate for some time with my girl.

Out loud I said, “Need to pulse the Js.”

“And Jade?”

I smiled. “Yeah, maybe I could find some time for her too.”

Duh.

“We can hold off for another half-hour or so.”

Good.

“Thanks, I'll be back down,” I said.

I walked up the stairs instead of taking them two at a time, with Onyx tripping into the back of me because the pacing was off. Taking out my pulse as I palmed the door open I sat on my bed. I wasn't about to lay down, I was completely tired of that.

Activating: top-five contact: Jade LeClerc

Hi...how are you? -
JLeC

I'm okay. But we never did get to talk.-
CH

I can come over tonight. With everything that happened, Sophie's mom feels sorry for you so she told me I could.-
JLeC

Seriously?
-CH

Yeah! -
JLeC

Good...I doubt the Parental Unit will let me do anything tonight anyway.-
CH

They shouldn't, Caleb. You need to give your body a chance. -JLeC

But the Organic.-
CH

pulse interruption

Whatever! I know they're supposed to be able to 'manipulate all living tissue/organs/blood' but that doesn't mean that it erases the trauma. For once, would you not be a guy about it? -
JLeC

I wasn't sure how
not
to be a guy, but...

I guess I'll take a night off fun.-
CH

We can still have fun just hanging out. We don't always have to go somewhere.-
JLeC

K, give me an hour. I need to de-scuz and eat, then we can watch a movie or something.-
CH

Or something.-
JLeC

Yeah
smiles
-
CH

That,'or something'...that's what I like.-
JLeC

Me too. -
CH

Cya
.- JLeC

:D
- CH

              *

Hey!
-JLeC

Yeah?
-CH

What movie? -
JLeC

Zombie Apocalypse 20
-CH

Are you kidding?
-JLeC

Yeah...some Empath you are.
- CH

Nice! Ttys
- JLeC

:b
-CH

I swiped my thumb on the pad:
hibernating
.

I couldn't wait to see her. For once, everything should remain calm. I hadn't had a day that went smoothly since summer ended.

As it turned out, the night wasn't going to be calm and neither was Saturday at Gramps.

But a guy can dream.

****

Jade was playing nurse in my bedroom after some über-awkward wrangling with the Parents. The whole, “keep the doors open,” and all that other shit that parents raged about because we may kiss... or something.

We were doing a lot of the “or something.”

She lay like a warm line against my body, tight against me and I was amazed how perfect a fit she was. My hand was buried in her hair, clenching my fist in the silk of it and I used my hand to turn her head into my mouth. My other hand rode up and down her side, finally landing on her jaw, where I ran a finger up the softness of it.

Sitting up, I loomed over her and started brushing little kisses along her neck and she gazed up at me with a flushed face, heated by proximity and what we were doing. My hands were on either side of her head, holding my weight up and when I got down to that great place between her breasts with my mouth, she put her hands on my chest, where I held myself, suspended in a push-up position.

“What about your parents?” she asked breathlessly.

“What about them?” I murmured, kissing her mouth again.

She put her hands on me again and I lifted my eyebrows.

“I don't want your mom to walk in,
I'd die.
”

I looked down at her, so beautiful lying on my bed underneath me, her hair fanning around her like black water. Jade was the only person I felt tender about. I took some of the hair that had worked its way over her face and tucked it behind her ear, kissing her temple as I did...

“Ahh...” I groaned, “you make me crazy.”

She smiled. “You do it to me too.”

We made out some more, thoughts of my parents dim for us in that moment of passion.

I rolled Jade over on top of me and her curtain of hair fanned around my head like a cocoon, at once suffocating and intoxicating in its heat and perfume. She was a soft weight on the front of me and we kissed while my hands made their way to the small of her back and I pressed her against me and she gasped.

I broke away. “What?” I asked, a little more than half-gone.

“We better stop,” she said.

“I don't want to.” I said, knowing she was right, my parents were here, we were almost fifteen. Hell, I sure didn't feel fifteen. I felt like an adult.

She rolled off me and lay on her side and I flinched; ribs still weren't one hundred percent yet.

She saw my face. “What?” her hand floating above my torso.

“Ribs.”

“Oh, you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah! Damn, if I can't have my girl on me, I'm in trouble!”

That got the smile I was going for.

We lay like that for a long time, side-by-side, her head crammed underneath my chin, my arm around her, our breathing becoming synchronized.

Mom shattered it all, calling upstairs, “Caleb and Jade, get down here please.”

We gazed into each other's eyes. Our feelings a tangible thing in the room, having this time with her had been amazing. Back to reality. We untangled our limbs and trudged downstairs.

I knew the shit had hit the fan when I could hear Onyx softly growling. I instinctively put Jade behind me on the staircase, halting her progress.

“Just a sec. Let me see what's going on.”

I crept down the dimly lit stairs and saw Onyx with his hair standing on end. Then I heard Mom's voice. “Ah, yes, but my husband is not at home and I think it would be best for you to return when he is.”

“Listen lady, I'm not leaving here until I have my girl. I know she's here, 'cuz Andrea is out-of-town at some stupid thing for women.”

Jade's dad.

Wasn't this just dandy?

I couldn't have him doing something to Mom. I chewed on my lip, I felt kinda weak from the whole nightmare yesterday and my girlfriend had her hand bunched up in my shirt, her body pressed against mine.

She was on the step behind me and our heads were at equal height when she whispered into my ear, “My dad, Caleb. She can't let him in. He might
do something
.”

Yeah. Kinda what I'd been thinking.

I looked at my shattered watch crystal and just managed to make out the time. Five o'clock, Dad would be home soon...but soon enough? I didn't know.

I turned around and looked straight in Jade's wide, frightened eyes. “Don't come down, no matter what.”

She grabbed me before I could move forward. “Don't Caleb. You're still hurt, and he's
mean
.” Her eyes stayed on mine, never leaving.

“My mom's down there, Jade. I have to.”

She lowered herself onto the step and I moved forward, toward danger.

****

I popped out of the narrow staircase into the foyer and LeClerc stood there, a meaty palm planted on the door and my mom's thin hand holding the edge of it.

Her knuckles showed white under the subtle strain of keeping the door from opening.

Onyx didn't look my way but he knew I was there.

I didn't tell him it was okay.

The Dog smelled the male outside and recognized that he was pack to the small female that the Boy so often smelled of now. The Dog knew the danger from this male, he smelled his fragrant anger, wild and intense. He was like the one that had taken the Dog before he found his new Boy; this was a Bad Male. The Dog was certain that he meant to harm the Alpha Female. The Dog growled to warn the Alpha. The Dog wanted the Alpha Male to come home from the metal box that smelled foul and had holes that were sometimes there. The Dog sensed that the time was near for the Alpha to return. There was a new smell that was around the pack's cave and it was a dead smell...but the Dog felt a comfort because the Boy smelled so often of this. The Dog waited, preparing to defend with the pack.

I stood behind Mom and met LeClerc's eyes over her head.

“Well, if it isn't your smartass kid... the zombie-lover,” he said, slapping the door open with the palm that had been there.

Mom's hand flew off and she stepped back into me. “Oops...sorry honey.”

Geez...
“Mom, get over here.” I said, putting Mom behind me.

Six months ago, I remember thinking she was so big and now she seemed so fragile before the six foot, two hundred pound raging psycho that had just worked his way into our foyer.

Where the hell was Dad?

Onyx got a whiff of the deal and growled more, LeClerc's eyes flicked to Onyx.

The Dog kept his dominant eye-contact with the Bad Male. This male needed to know that the Dog would not back down when a feral entered the pack's cave.

“Caleb!” Mom screamed as LeClerc grabbed her and all sense of restraint I had flew out the window when I saw that guy's hands on my mom, as she struggled underneath them.

Everything unraveled then, Jade came down the steps, LeClerc caught sight of her and Onyx lunged at him, clamping onto his leg and worrying at it like it was his favorite bone.

In a fit of bellowing rage, LeClerc shoved Mom into the wall, she bashed her head and started to slide down the wall, obviously fazed.

“Jade!” I hollered.
Cripes!
“Get back upstairs!”

But too late, LeClerc had grabbed her hair as she turned and jerked her back, at the same time, kicking out with his leg to try and get rid of Onyx.

Ignoring Jade's cries was the hardest thing I'd ever done.

I plowed into the fray and LeClerc, apparently ramped up to beat all, slapped her across the face to subdue her.

A red haze clouded my vision, I took the base of my foot and plowed it, side-long, into the back of his knee, effectively dumping him to the ground, my ribs squawking like crazy.

He took Jade down to the floor in his abusive embrace.

I didn't hesitate. Treating his head like a soccer ball, I kicked him with everything I had and he released Jade, sitting up on all fours like and enraged bull, shaking his head in a fit, his handprint a mar against the cafe au lait of Jade's skin.

I wanted to kill him
;
it stood like a stale taste in my mouth, filling it. The word sung in my head:
kill, kill, kill.

Then, filling the doorway was Clyde.

Fuck me.

Our eyes met in perfect understanding and I couldn't take back what I'd been thinking.

And Clyde didn't want me to.

Going straight for LeClerc, he plunged right into him like sliding into third base and they barreled into the wall. Two picture frames came crashing down on top of them and glass shattered everywhere.

Clyde, apparently not the wasteful type, flat-palmed his hand into the glass, all of it sticking to the oozing rot of his palm and began to smear it into LeClerc's eyes.