She looked away, her appearance a failed attempt of hiding her grief behind a reserved expression. “Correct,” she replied simply, her voice breaking.
We were both silent then, as she stared at the wall and I stared at her, considering her situation. She was being honest right now. Being honest that she was compromised, as she had already hinted at previously, and she was likewise being upfront about that fact presently, now that we were discussing it.
I could see it in her eyes that she wanted to be someone I could trust, but it just wasn’t possible given her circumstances. If they asked her to betray me, at least in a way where they would know whether or not she had obeyed, she wouldn’t have a choice, because her family mattered too much to her.
But…that didn’t necessarily mean I had to respond the same way. Friendships, or whatever this was between us, weren’t always equal. Sometimes they were one-sided, and while usually those kinds of relationships were unhealthy, I didn’t particularly care.
I took a deep breath. “Seems like you’re failing at accomplishing your goals by telling me that,” I considered.
She nodded once, her voice sounding hoarse as she replied. “I’m counting on the fact that you have your own reasons to obey them,” she admitted. “That you don’t need someone toying with you to do what you’re asked.”
I winced at that. Up until this point, we had just been hinting at the subject, but it was like an arrow to the chest hearing her say it so bluntly. I tried to focus on an appropriate response, attempting to consider the situation from the military’s point of view. They believed I didn’t have a reason to obey them now that Trinity was supposedly deceased. “But they won’t accept that, will they?” I realized.
“Probably not,” she agreed.
“Which means…” My voice trailed off.
We exchanged a glance, and she looked away again.
“How do I know what’s real and what’s not? How much has been fake so far?”
She looked at me with wide eyes. “I’ve been real with you so far,” she responded in surprise. “That’s why I was shocked that you had figured out what they asked me to do.”
“Oh.” Crap, was she saying I just got lucky by guessing it? Was her showing me her cleavage and whispering into my ear actually an innocent gesture after all? And if that was the case, then what did it look like if she actually tried to seduce a guy?
“Umm,” I tried to pick up the conversation again before the silence got too awkward. It felt awkward for me at least. “Is this the first time they’ve asked you to do something like this?”
She winced. “No.”
“Oh,” I replied lamely again. I suppose that was the wrong question to ask.
She quickly continued. “I was the backup plan in the event Trinity wasn’t able to keep Zayden in line,” she admitted. “Thankfully, she was though – he wised up real fast when she used her power on him.”
“Oh.”
We fell silent again.
She cleared her throat after a moment. “That’s the only other time. And if flirting with him didn’t work, then they would have just removed him from the team.”
My eyes widened at that. “You mean, they just wanted you to flirt?”
She gave me a confused look. “Yeah, I mean, basically try to get him to like me, so he’d do what I wanted. Guys are pretty susceptible to that kind of thing, since they’re always so…” Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened. “Wait,” she exclaimed louder. “You thought…” Her voice trailed off again. “Shit Jake, my grandfather isn’t going to make me go that far! Even he has a heart! Maybe a heart of stone, but still a heart!”
I felt embarrassed now, yet I couldn’t help but defend myself. “I called him an ass for ‘pimping out’ his granddaughter and you didn’t deny it,” I hissed.
She gawked at me. “Yeah, but I didn’t think you meant that literally. I thought it was a joke. An exaggeration.”
“How else am I supposed to mean it?” I asked seriously.
“This is the military, Jake. They aren’t going to supply the resources necessary to take that approach, and they can’t afford to have me functioning at anything less than peak performance. I’m more valuable to them than Zayden is, even if he’s more powerful, so they aren’t going to risk me being out of commission just to keep him in line.”
“R-Right,” I agreed lamely, knowing she was dodging the subject of sex and pregnancy.
She sighed, looking away again. “I don’t even want to think about a world where I’d be asked to go that far. Because I don’t think I could do it.”
I cringed. I was definitely ready to change subjects. I didn’t want to listen to her debate out loud just how far she would or wouldn’t go to protect her family, although I was glad to hear she appeared to have a limit. “So what do you want me to do then?” I asked abruptly.
She looked at me with a frown. “Just…pretend like you want to please me?” she suggested, stating it like she was unsure herself.
I took a deep breath and stared at the floor again. “Yeah, okay. I can do that.”
She laughed then, seeming like she was trying to lighten the mood. “And maybe give me those puppy dog eyes occasionally, like you did with Trinity. Especially when the General is around, so he thinks I have you wrapped around my finger.” She laughed again.
I gave her a confused look, not exactly sure what she was talking about. I mean, I theoretically knew what puppy dog eyes were, but I didn’t exactly know how to do that. However, after a moment, her smile faded and she began holding my gaze pretty intently, sending an unexpected wave of warmth over me again. I became lost in her deep eyes for a few seconds before my thoughts reorganized.
She then grinned, opening her mouth like she was about to speak, but in that same moment, I realized I probably couldn’t do it on command like she was asking.
I cut her off before she could get a word out. “I don’t think that’s something I can fake,” I disclosed, staring at the floor again. In the corner of my eye, she looked bewildered, but I quickly continued. “Like you said before, I’m not a great actor.”
“Oh,” she responded simply after a long pause, her voice sounding hoarse.
“I’ll do my best with the other stuff though,” I replied, still staring at the floor.
She was silent for another long moment. After a few seconds, she cleared her throat. “R-Right,” she agreed. “That should be fine.”
We were both quiet again for a solid minute.
“So now what?” I wondered, still staring at the floor.
She cleared her throat. “Well, they told me they would give me up to two hours to talk to you. They don’t plan on bothering us until then.”
I looked at her in surprise. “That’s a long time,” I admitted.
“It is,” she agreed. “But they know I can leave whenever I want, and charming a guy can take some time, you know?” she added with a weak smile.
I sighed. “So, are you ready to go then? Or can we just stay here for a while longer?”
“We can stay,” she whispered. She raised her voice a little then, speaking with a small laugh. “You know, I kind of figured you’d be itching to get out of here.”
I sighed heavily again. “I was. But now I just wish we could pretend all these problems didn’t exist.”
Her expression turned somber. “Me too,” she agreed, falling quiet for a few seconds. When she continued, her voice was shaky. “M-Maybe for the next hour, we can…”
“What?”
She hesitated, before slowly easing up off the bed and sitting down on the floor next to my chair to lean against the wall. I wasn’t exactly sure what she was aiming for, but I decided to join her. I lifted myself up just enough to pull the chair out from underneath me, with it sliding further than I intended due to my strength, before plopping down next to her. I then brought my knees up to my chest again, returning to resting my chin on them.
She mimicked my posture, a quiet laugh sh
arply contrasted against her sad expression. “Forget your own strength?” she wondered, referring to the chair.
“Sometimes,” I admitted. “I’ve only been like this for barely two weeks now.”
She nodded, her expression becoming more somber as she slowly bridged the small gap between us by scooting over until we were hip to hip. “Let’s forget about that for now,” she said quietly. “For the next hour, we’re just normal people. Nothing outside these walls matter.”
“Okay,” I agreed, taking a deep breath.
Much to my surprise, her face unexpectedly scrunched up followed by a whine escaping her throat. She immediately buried her forehead against her knees, a sob erupting out a moment later. I was so surprised by her abrupt crying that I just stared at her for a moment, before reaching out to touch her arm with my fingers. She leaned into my touch, pressing into my side with another sob.
And then it hit me.
She was the one who needed a break, more so than me. She was the one who needed an escape. To pretend like nothing else in the world mattered. To pretend like she wasn’t responsible for keeping her siblings safe from her psychotic father. To pretend like she wasn’t a cursed metahuman who had no hope of living a normal life.
She was the one who needed to pretend like she was normal. Just for an hour.
I reached around her shoulders and gently pulled her head against my chest, her knees shoved up against mine.
“None of it matters,” I whispered. “There is nothing outside of this room. It’s just us.”
She sobbed harder.
Chapter 14: Instincts
Ava only ended up crying for about ten or fifteen minutes before she collected herself. She pulled away from my embrace shortly afterwards, returning her chin to her knees. We then sat in silence for the next thirty minutes, sitting side-by-side with her only sniffling occasionally, before deciding to leave the hospital.
I wanted to see Jordyn again to witness for myself that she was really okay, but Ava told me they weren’t going to allow it. They were very restrictive about who got to see her, limiting interactions to a select few people – Ava not being one of them. Even though she knew Jordyn was alive, she hadn’t actually seen her with her own eyes in years.
When we got outside, I discovered that Ava hadn’t driven herself here like Robert had. Instead, there was an escort of two soldiers – a man and woman. They both gave me wary looks, prompting me to wonder just how much of the incident yesterday had spread. They kept their cool though as they drove us back to base in a military Humvee, which apparently I incorrectly called a Hummer when commenting on it since that was a civilian vehicle.
When we arrived, it was still a couple of hours before dinner, so Ava led me back to the barracks. They still hadn’t received news about when our next mission would be, so for now it was back to the normal routine, which meant it was free time at the moment.
Since our daily five-mile run was going to be the next activity just before dinner, Ava was telling me how Blair might be able to give me a run for my money on speed. While I hadn’t actually seen how strong or fast she was yet, that didn’t surprise me given what I knew of Zane’s speed. Granted, he was only decently fast when fully transformed, and as far as I knew Blair didn’t have that capacity. Then again, I could be wrong about that.
It was just after we entered the barracks that I caught sight of her. She was wearing ridiculously small pink shorts that revealed that she had thick blonde fur on her muscular thighs that ran down her entire legs, but didn’t go up to her rear. I could tell because part of her smooth tan butt was sticking out of her pink booty shorts. The tank-top she was wearing also revealed that she had fur on her shoulders and upper back that appeared to end just after it disappeared under her shirt.
However, that wasn’t why I stopped dead in my tracks.
I stopped, because she was coming out of Trinity’s room.
“What in the hell are you doing?!” I snapped without thinking.
Blair jumped in terror, spinning around at lightning speed with her hand sticking out towards me in the universal stop gesture while simultaneously covering her left demonic eye with her other hand. “N-Nothing!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t do anything!”
“Jake!” Ava said in disbelief. “Why are you so upset?”
I gawked at her. “She’s living in Trinity’s room now?” I hissed.
Ava’s expression instantly became cautious as she lowered her voice. “Jake, Trinity’s never going to be returning to that room…”
I felt like an idiot. “Oh…R-Right.”
I then glanced at Blair, who was trembling, her hand still over her eye as if she was attempting to make it as clear as possible she wasn’t trying to do anything threatening.
I sighed before giving her an apologetic look. “Sorry. I just wasn’t prepared for someone else to move into that room.” I paused. “And I think we got off on the wrong foot. I’m Jake,” I continued, holding out my hand at waist level with my palm upward. I wasn’t sure why I was doing that, but it seemed right. Like my instincts were telling me it was right. “Sorry if I hurt you yesterday,” I added. “My blood sort of has an uncontrollable reflex that happens when I feel threatened.”
She stared at my hand for a moment, her visible orange eye widening briefly, before she glared at me. “I’m not a dog,” she snapped.
My brow furrowed as I pulled my hand back slightly, but kept it how it was. I couldn’t bring myself to drop my hand completely, because my instincts still made me feel like this was right. “Umm, I know you’re not a dog,” I agreed. “You’re a person. One who I want to get along with.”
She slowly dropped her own hand then, revealing her slitted crimson eye set within its midnight background as her expression looked…vulnerable? However, after a moment of staring at my hand again, her brow furrowed.
In a flash, she marched towards me, ignoring any sense of personal space entirely as she stopped just before touching my body with hers, causing Ava to freak out.
“What in the hell Blair?” she snapped.
But Blair ignored her as she stared up at me – no, as she stared from underneath me. That’s what it felt like at least, as I inclined my chin to look down at her. She really wasn’t that much shorter, bringing our faces awkwardly close together. I could sense her hand almost touching mine by my waist, her fingertips lingering close to my upturned palm.
“What are you doing?” I hissed after a moment, feeling like my entire body was on fire.
“What are you doing?” she retorted, a heavy musk coming from her breath that made it feel like the heat had turned up tenfold.
“Shit!” Ava exclaimed unexpectedly. “Jake, back away!” she demanded. When I didn’t respond, she raised her voice even more. “Jacob Knight! Back the hell away!”
Even though it felt wrong, really wrong, I finally glanced at Ava in the corner of my vision…
Only for all hell to break loose.
Instantly, Blair’s body was like a spring as her muscles recoiled, her palms shoving into my chest with so much force that I was certain she would have killed a normal person. I went flying backwards down the hallway, only for her to be right there again, as if she had closed the gap in an instant. Letting my instincts take over, I kicked my feet out and rolled at the same time, rocketing her out of the still open doorway behind us.
She twisted herself in midair, landing on all fours on the pavement outside. I was already out the door, bolting straight for her. She got to her feet, but otherwise stood her ground, her posture aggressive but open.
I barreled straight into her, causing her to grunt from the impact, before we went tumbling on the ground. She really was physically stronger than me, because she ended up on top, her small hands firmly around my wrists as she wrestled me to the ground.
I surprised myself when I growled at her, shooting out my blood to pull her body down to mine as I rolled us over. I then buried my blood into the concrete to pin her wrists and
ankles to the ground. She growled back at me, a deep reverberating snarl coming out of her throat. Her back arched upwards, her stomach and pelvis pressing against mine. I vaguely heard someone telling me to stop, but I couldn’t focus on anything other than the girl underneath me.
Blair struggled against me for a couple of minutes while I debated doing what I so desperately felt like I had to do. However, once I finally lunged downward and sank my teeth into the side of her neck, she whimpered and gave up. I retracted my blood back inside my body.
I then gently licked her neck a couple of times, tasting a little bit of blood, before pulling away to look down at her. Surprisingly, her blood wasn’t overly enticing – not like a normal person’s. It wasn’t disgusting like an animal’s blood, but it also wasn’t desirable. Not that it mattered either way. Those fleeting thoughts left my mind as I focused on her gaze.
The vulnerable expression I had seen earlier had reappeared, her mismatched eyes looking up at me helplessly. Just as I began bending down again, a boot connected with my face.
I blinked a few times, realizing someone was cursing at the top of their lungs, just before I got kicked in the face again.
“Dammit Jake!” Ava exclaimed. “Why in the hell do you have to be so durable!”
“Want me to torch them both?” Zayden scoffed from behind her.
I finally looked up at them, prompting Blair to punch me in the face with much more force than Ava had just done, causing me to land on my side a foot away. She then humphed loudly and scrambled to her feet to take off in the direction of the barracks.
I rolled over onto my back and stared at the scarce clouds in the sky, feeling the inferno in my body begin to die down.
Ava’s reserved expression came into view a moment later. “This is why Blair has been on standby all this time,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Because having two beasts on the same team, like her and Zane, would be very problematic.”
My brow furrowed. “Problematic how?”
“Dammit, Jake,” she groaned in annoyance. “Do you really not realize where that was heading?”
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