by Rian Harper
Chapter 13
Things Undone
With Everett in the driver's seat, we sped away from the hospital, and the spectacle we had just created. I looked back at the crowd, and could see the odd looks of mayhem across the faces of the people as they picked themselves off the ground. I could tell they weren't precisely sure what just transpired when Jasmine took them all to the ground with her shockwave. I couldn't help but find it somewhat amusing.
I snapped back to the dire situation at hand, when I looked down at Emma lying across Jasmine's lap in the back seat of the car. Her breathing was deep and slow as she lie unconscious. Her face had cuts on it from shards of glass that nicked it as she was defenestrated by Jasmine's shockwave. The little amusement I found in the situation quickly vanished as I instead dwelt on my anger and frustration toward Jasmine, as she was the one responsible for Emma's injuries. I looked up from Emma's unfortunately cut face to glare at Jasmine, only to find her with her head hung in what I could only surmise was remorse. I couldn't see her eyes, but I had a feeling from her body language that she regretted what she had done.
Emma looked completely helpless. I wanted to hold her. In just the few days I'd known her, I somehow accepted the role of her protector. I didn't want any harm to come to her, ever. It was ironic, however that even though I wanted to keep her safe, it seemed that she was the one always keeping me from getting killed. It was that notion that made me have a revelation. I was the reason these three people were fighting for their lives, and mine, around every corner. I was the reason Everett almost died, and the reason Emma now lay unconscious before my eyes. As long as they stayed with me, they were in danger.
I started to think of ways that I could separate myself from them. Yes, I needed their protection so that I may live, but I couldn't fathom putting my life ahead of the three of theirs. They had done so much for me already, it was time for me to return the sentiment. I hated the idea of leaving them behind, the only true friends I ever had. I especially hated the idea of having to leave Emma, the only person I ever truly loved, and who, I assumed loved me too. But, I had to do what was necessary in order to keep those closest to me out of harm's way.
There wasn't any way I was getting away from them at the moment, as we were speeding down the highway in a car, and I had no idea of where we were going. I looked over at Everett in the driver's seat. He looked as if nothing at all had ever happened to him.
"You still wondering why I look so dashing so soon after the day's grisly events?" Everett said with a cocky smile. I could only guess that he saw me examining his face out of the corner of his eye.
"That's one of many things on my mind right now. First things, first. Where are you taking us?" I inquired.
"Actually, I really don't know." He admitted.
"Go back to my house. Clark should be gone to work by now." Jasmine ordered from the backseat.
“I’m guessing that’s your new husband. Thanks for the wedding invite.” Everett glanced at the rear-view mirror as he spoke. Jasmine didn’t respond to his jab. Everett scoffed and shook his head. As usual, I was in the dark as to what was happening. The three of them had some sort of history that I was still not privy to.
“Okay, so how did you heal so fast?” Apart from being genuinely curious about how Everett all of a sudden looked like a runway model again, I was also trying to ease the tension that suddenly filled the car.
“It’s a perk of having powers.” Everett sighed as he drove with one wrist on the top of the steering wheel. “All three different clans have various healing abilities. The ones who throw shockwaves like Jasmine don’t heal as fast. It’s widely speculated that’s because they are the most powerful. In the middle of the pack are ones like Emma and I. We can heal pretty quickly due to the electrical impulses that naturally run through our body, stimulating our cells constantly. The shifters like Cade have the healing ability to the greatest extent. Because they can morph their cells and change their physiology, they heal almost instantly when they shift back to human form. We can render them unconscious or force them to shift down to heal from their injuries, but it’s very hard to mortally wound them.”
I let what Everett just told me sink in. Something, though, didn’t add up to me. “If you have that ability why did you need to go to the hospital and have surgery?”
“Cuts, bruises, even a small fracture, sure. But we can’t heal major injuries like the one I had in enough time for it to be life-saving.”
Suddenly, Everett pulled the car to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes. It was all I could do to not hit my head on the dashboard in front of me.
“Everett!” I yelled. “Have you lost your mind?”
“I don’t feel so great.” Everett quickly opened the driver’s side door and vomited.
“I knew you shouldn’t have been driving.” I unbuckled my seat belt to switch seats with him.
I looked up through the back window of the car and saw a police car parked twenty feet behind ours. Panic flooded through me when I saw the officer walking up to the driver's side of the car. I tried to get Everett's attention by calling his name, but he didn't acknowledge me, so I swatted his arm.
"What?!" He turned and looked at me as sweat started forming on his forehead. He looked much paler than I had ever seen him. It was disconcerting. Before I could let him know what was happening the officer knocked on the window with his knuckles. Everett jumped when he heard the startling sound, then spun his head around to meet the officer's eyes. I slouched down in my seat and turned my face away as Everett composed himself.
"Can you step out of the car, please, son?" The policeman spoke with a thick southern accent.
"Why do you want me to step out of the car?" Everett asked in obstinacy.
"Son, that request was out of courtesy. Please get out of the car, now."
"Tell me why I need to get out of the car. I haven't done anything illegal, and I have rights." He wasn't backing down.
"I'm going to ask one more time, son, and then I'm going to have to use force." The officer wasn't going to oblige Everett with the answer he wanted.
"Stop calling me son." Everett hissed through closed teeth.
"Stop it, Everett, just get out of the car." I said low enough that the officer couldn't hear me.
"All right, since you won't comply, I now have cause to treat you as hostile."
The officer reached over and called for a back-up unit on the radio perched on his shoulder. I cut my eyes over and saw the officer reach toward Everett and place his hand on Everett’s shoulder. His mistake. Everett grabbed the officer's wrist and sent a jolt through the poor man's body. He convulsed violently as Everett held on. After a few seconds, Everett finally let go and the officer collapsed to the ground. Everett shook his head quickly, as if he were dizzy.
"Are you okay?" As I asked, I noticed his lower lip bleeding. "What happened? Why are you bleeding?" I was confused since I didn't notice anything happening that would have made his lip bleed. He was still in such a daze, that he didn't answer.
"You moron. You hadn't finished healing and shouldn't have used so much energy on that stupid cop. Now it's going to take even longer for you to be any kind of useful again." Jasmine berated Everett from the backseat.
As usual, I had no idea as to what was happening. It was as if the three of them had a special connection, and knew exactly what the other was going through. Things had been said here and there the last few days that didn't make sense to me, but so much about the events I'd been through didn't make sense, that it didn't seem to register. Now that I was learning more and more about my companions, things like what Jasmine said tickled my curiosity. She knew what happened to Everett, while I continued to lack understanding.
“Nate, you’re going to have to move that cop so I don’t run over him.” Everett said as he laid his head against the steering wheel.
“Yeah, you’re not driving anymore. Switch with me.” Just before I could exit the vehicle, I felt
a hand on my shoulder.
“Wait!” Jasmine exclaimed suddenly. “Don’t all cop cars come with dash cams? We can’t just drive off. We are being recorded.”
“Well, what do you suggest we do?” Everett managed to slur the words out.
I had a brilliant idea. “We just need you or Emma to fry that cop car so they lose the recording. That way they won’t know what happened.”
“Uno problemo, Nate. Everett is passed out on the steering wheel and Emma is still unconscious.” Jasmine pointed out.
“Well, is there anything you can do with your shockwaves to destroy the camera?”
“I can destroy the whole car, but who knows if whatever device they use to store the recordings will survive. You’re right, we need to overload it with electricity to completely wipe the drive.” Jasmine turned her head quickly to look behind the car as the faint sound of sirens started approaching.
“Crap. He called for back-up, remember?”
My eyes widened as I recollected the officer speaking into his radio earlier. Our situation had gone from urgent to emergent. There were more squad cars headed our way and it was not going to be easy to explain our way out of the situation we created. We had to wake Emma up. Jasmine and I started calling her name loudly, and Jasmine jostled her on her shoulder until she groggily opened her eyes after a few seconds.
“What’s happening?” She said as she sat up and put her hand to her head.
I looked at her with urgency in my eyes. “No time to explain. We need you to overload the police car behind us with electricity.”
“What?” She turned to look behind us through the back windshield.
“Just do it. Now. We don’t have time.” Jasmine exhorted.
“Okay. Nate, let me out.”
I got out of the passenger seat and flipped the chair up so Emma could maneuver her way out of the back. She slowly walked up to the police car and placed her hands of the hood. I watched in awe as within moments bands of electricity were skating along the exterior of the car. After the lights on top of the car stopped flashing and Emma knew what she was intending to do had worked, she collapsed on the ground. I panicked and ran up to her, Jasmine was right behind me. The sound of the sirens were louder now. They were getting close.
I brushed aside Emma’s hair and placed two fingers on her neck to check for a pulse. I let out a sigh of relief when I felt her heart beat.
“We have to go now.” Jasmine tugged me in the direction of her car.
I picked Emma up under each of her arms while Jasmine grabbed her legs and we placed her in the back seat of the car. Jasmine climbed in with her and closed the door. I ran to the driver’s side of the car, rolled the officer enough out of the way to get the door closed and drive off without running him over. When the cop ended face-up, I realized that he had fallen into Everett’s pile of puke. Gross.
My next task was to figure out how to get Everett out of the way and into the passenger’s seat so that I could drive. He was still passed out with his head on the steering wheel. I put all of my body weight into pushing Everett across the console to the passenger’s side. My effort was not very fruitful, as all Everett did was slouch over the console. I kept pushing and pushing trying to budge him, but Everett was such a large guy. The sirens grew even louder and I started to panic.
I gave up trying to relocate Everett entirely and just crammed myself into whatever position I could in the driver’s seat along with him and hastily closed the door.
“Go! Go! Go!” Jasmine yelled from the backseat.
I threw the car into drive and sped away toward Jasmine’s house.
After expending an immense amount of effort to get Emma and Everett, who were both still unconscious, into the house and on the couch, Jasmine and I collapsed on the floor.
“God, I’m exhausted.” I gazed up at the white ceiling fan that was positioned in the center of the living room as the blades spun around on a low setting. The motion of the blades sparked an epiphany. As long as Cade was alive, Emma, Everett, and now Jasmine, and myself were all going to constantly be in danger. There was only one logical solution. Cade must die.
This was something I wouldn’t be able to accomplish on my own. Earlier I was thinking of ways to distance myself from the people who were now protecting me so that I could spare them from any more pain. However, I needed them and their unique talents in order to bring down the beast. The trick would be convincing them that Cade must meet his end.
I turned my head to the side toward Jasmine, who was also lying on the living room floor just on the other side of the wooden coffee table.
“We have to kill him you know.”
Jasmine didn’t move. “I know.” She whispered. “I’ve been saying the same thing for years now.”
“What do you mean?” I sat up and crossed my legs under each other.
Jasmine followed my motions. “Has Everett told you about Jennifer yet?”
“I’ve only known them for a couple of weeks.” I admitted.
“Ah.” Jasmine looked down as she fiddled with her fingers. “Jennifer was my sister. She and Everett were engaged. It’s been three years last month since Cade murdered her.”
“I’m so sorry Jasmine.” I wanted to not believe what I was hearing, but it wasn’t surprising me in the least.
Jasmine sniffed and looked up at the ceiling. I could tell she was fighting back tears. She looked at me through glistening, bloodshot eyes. “Let’s figure out how to kill that beast.”
Chapter 14
Admissions
Now that Jasmine was firmly on my side of the situation, all I had to do was convince Emma and Everett of what needed to be done. I was not up for spending the rest of my life, however short it ended up being, running from death. It wasn’t immanent, and I was going to make sure of that. But, I needed the help of ALL of my new friends in order to accomplish such a feat. After all, I wasn’t anything like them. I needed their extraordinary powers in order to fight and eradicate an equally extraordinary being.
Cade was not going to be easy to subdue and dispatch, especially with his duo of minions that were now by his side. The additions of Keenan and Declan certainly complicated the situation. It was definitely going to be much more difficult dealing with the three nearly unstoppable shifters, rather than just Cade alone.
“So how do you propose we go about this?” Jasmine asked as she sat opposite me.
“I’m still working on that. But first things first. We need Everett and Emma to join the fight.”
“That’s not going to be so easy, you know. They’re all about self-defense against the beasts, but would never go so far as to kill them.”
“Even if they are intent on killing someone else?” I asked.
Jasmine hung her head, “Nate, they’re always intent on killing someone else. That’s what they do. It’s in their nature.” I could hear the tears forming again from the way her voice cracked and dropped in volume.
“Jasmine, I’m sorry about your sister. Do you want to talk about it?” I offered.
“No!” She quickly wiped a glistening tear from her cheek with the back of her arm. “Sorry Nate, but I’d rather not rehash.”
“That’s okay. We don’t have to talk about it.” I didn’t want to upset her any more than she already was.
We sat in silence for a few minutes, which gave my ever-wandering mind to form more and more questions. It felt like my head was going to explode soon from the overwhelming amount of inquiries I had about everything around me. There were so many things I was still unsure of, and so many new things that I had questions about. An overload seemed inevitable at this point; not just mentally, but emotionally and physically as well.
Growing up in foster care, I learned to not get attached to people. Unfortunately, I was very attached to Everett, Emma, and Jasmine now. My relationships with other kids growing up were fleeting as I bounced from family to family and school to school. I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude toward my t
hree new friends, as well as a sense of endless debt as they had saved my life a couple of times already.
If that weren’t enough to deal with, I was now infatuated, or quite possibly in head-over-heels love with a girl that I had met only a couple of weeks prior. I didn’t quite know where I stood with her either, which was maddening. One minute I thought we were going to be together at last, and the next a cold shoulder rebuffed my every advanced.
The more I sat marinating in my grievances, the more morose I felt. I was tired. I needed rest. My brain was on overload, and my body was noticing the strain of the past 48 hours on it as well. I yawned a long, lion-like yawn as I stretched my arms in the air.
“You look like crap.” Jasmine said as she picked at her fingernails.
“I feel like crap. Haven’t slept in nearly two days.”
“Y’all can crash here tonight. We can start fresh in the morning.”
Using the coffee table for support, Jasmine pushed herself up to a standing position. She looked down at Everett sprawled across her couch and let out a sigh. “He’s bleeding.”
I stood up and walked over to see what she was talking about as she lifted up his shirt to show a blood-soaked bandage just to the left of his belly button. My stomach turned at the sight. As I struggled to control my upchuck reflex, something dawned on me from what Everett told me earlier.
“I thought you guys are super healers? Why is he still bleeding?” I inquired as I held my hand over my mouth, trying to suppress my urge to vomit.
“Expending energy can open wounds that haven’t healed completely. Everett shouldn’t have used so much energy on the cop.” Jasmine walked away and after a few minutes returned with a small towel, a fresh shirt and a first aid kit. She knelt back down next to the couch where Everett lie as I averted my eyes from the scene.