by Nova Drake
She smiled. “Shall we step into the back gentlemen?”
They exchanged a look before the guy with the gun to her head stepped closer to the door. The other waited for Jess to follow. One on either side of her - that would work fine. The lead guy pushed the door open. Jess moved forward, but the footsteps behind her paused. She turned to see him stepping toward the opening in the counter. Toward Kat.
What happened next was a knee jerk reaction, and that wasn’t typically how Jess fought. She kept a calm, level head during her fights. Making the best strategic moves almost on instinct. But somehow, she saw him move closer to Kat and reacted emotionally.
Before she realized what she was doing, the guy’s head was slammed into the counter. Glasses went tumbling and shattered as they hit the ground. Jess heard Kat’s gasp and hoped she hadn’t hurt her. Before she could jump over the man to check, she was grabbed from behind and a gun was placed to her temple. Right. That’s why you don’t react based on emotion.
Jess raised her hands to her shoulders in surrender. “Okay, you win. I’ll open the safe.” She just needed the gun moved, then she could take this guy down too.
She was forced to turn slightly as the guy nudged his now unconscious friend with his boot. “Son of a bitch,” he complained. He kicked him harder. “Rowe, get your ass up, man.”
He released his hold on her, moving the gun to her back while he tried to rouse his friend. Jess turned to face him while he was distracted, hands still raised in surrender.
“What are you doing?” he growled.
They both caught movement out of the corner of their eye, and his attention started to turn away. In the split second that his gaze shifted, Jess grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm, forcing the gun away and his body sideways. She brought her other hand down, breaking his elbow and then stomped on the side of his leg, breaking his knee as well. He went down to his knees, yelling obscenities and Jess slammed his head into the counter. He dropped to the ground like a bag of bricks.
She turned to the first concussion patient, expecting that he was the source of his friend’s distraction, but found him out cold. Instead, Kat stared at Jess with wide eyes as if she’d never seen a fight before. From her spot under the counter, she peered through the opening, stunned – horrified.
Jess crouched to her level. “You okay?” she asked gently.
Kat nodded. Her expression was one of shock and fear, but she wouldn’t look away from Jess for a second. It made Jess feel like a freak. Typically, Jess didn’t give a damn what anyone thought of her, but for some reason, it was different with Kat. She didn’t want Kat to think she was some monster that went around killing people. Even if maybe she was.
Jess looked away and nodded too. “Okay, lock up and notify the police right away. They stop in here often enough that they should be willing to take these guys in. I’ve gotta get out of here. I'll drop them outside, and they won’t be waking up any time soon. You should be fine.”
Most of Kat’s profit came from cops stopping in for coffee or to pick up food. They didn’t often linger, not wanting to associate with the street trash. But they were the few that could afford it, and since it was the only place they could get food and coffee in the poor neighborhoods, it was in their own best interests to protect the place.
Kat was still staring, and Jess’s next instruction probably wasn’t going to help.
“One more thing. Don’t tell the police you know who I am. Don’t give them a name. Don’t even tell them you’ve seen me before. Trust me it’s for your own protection. Okay?”
Kat nodded again, but with how traumatized she seemed, Jess couldn’t count on her to not tell the police everything. Which meant Jess could never come back.
Sadness tightened her chest as she stood and stalked out through the back door in search of more assholes to take her new aggression out on. It had been a really shitty couple of days, and Jess left a path of destruction until she’d worn herself out enough to deal with the fact that she was going to have to figure out how to make her own coffee.
Chapter 17
Days passed and Jess’s mood hadn’t improved. In fact, it had gotten much worse. There had been no sign of Creepy since his miraculous fifteen-minute recovery and escape. Which meant she hadn’t had the opportunity to bitch him out or kick his ass. So that was just stirring inside her for days.
She hadn’t been back to the diner either. She’d wandered out to the one general store on the border of the cop town, and had them order some coffee and a small brewing device that attached to a cup. It cost far too much, and she’d managed to use it but had yet to figure out what the hell Kat did to make her coffee taste so damn good. Jess had severely cut back her caffeine consumption, and that was dangerous for the whole city.
Her mood had taken a dive beyond bitchy and was approaching downright intolerable.
What Jess refused to admit to herself, was that lack of coffee wasn’t the only thing bothering her about avoiding the diner. She hadn’t quite realized just how much Kat brightened her day. Seeing someone that could still smile so genuinely was rare. And to find someone that could still make Jess smile? Those were in even shorter supply.
Extremely short supply.
A grand total of one person in existence – Kat.
A scowl had taken up permanent residence on her face, and her mood had yet to let up for a second. Jess meandered through one of the nearby neighborhoods she frequented. It never failed to provide her with an outlet for her anger. A bellowing of agony drew her attention to a specific area, and she followed the screams to a side street where someone was getting their ass handed to them in a one on one fight. Pathetic.
Jess marched up with nothing better to do. Maybe she’d take them both out. One of them was on his hands and knees, half panting, half crying. The other stood, watching, a few steps away in the shadows. Moving in closer, she noticed the one on the ground looked a little familiar.
Aiming to get a better look, she moved closer still, catching the attention of the man in the shadows. His gaze fell on her, though she couldn’t see it. It was more of a feeling. His outline shifted in the dark, angling toward her to confirm what she sensed. Standing next to the guy on the ground, she got a better look. A smile spread across Jess’s face.
“Nick! How ya been? Who’s your friend here?” Jess joked casually.
Nick painfully turned to bring Jess into view and groaned. That was when Jess noticed the dark spots on his skin. Almost like bruising, but not quite. More black and gray marks, instead of black and blue. Like smoke smudges, or shadows. Weird. Jess’s focus turned back to Nick’s opponent.
All she could make out was his outline, tall and thin with broad shoulders. For being so close, he was extremely well hidden in the shadows. But then he stepped closer, and she realized he was the shadows. His skin was the color of ash. Darker lines swirled throughout like smoke was curling just under the surface. It was mesmerizing.
Her eyes lingered over him, his black pants and boots concealed his lower half, but he wore no shirt. His gray hair flowed loosely on his head. Her eyes came to settle on his and the fear that she forgot to feel while caught up in the swirling gray hues of his skin was suddenly pricking in her gut. Red eyes stared back at her as he moved in and the shadows receded further. Merciless red eyes.
Taking him all in now that he was visible, her heartbeat raced. If someone told her he was a demon spawned in hell, she might have believed them. But Jess didn’t believe in heaven and hell. She didn’t need fairy tales to help her sleep at night. And that meant this was another Niyazine monster.
Jess straightened her spine and remembered her composure. She smiled a fake toothy smile. “Hi! How’s it going?” she asked casually.
Smokey didn’t react.
“This guy give you trouble too?” she asked, tipping her head in Nick’s direction. “I can finish him off if you want.”
Still nothing. Without breaking eye contact, he took another step closer,
his movements strangely graceful and flowing. His attention was most definitely locked down on her now. Nick carefully dragged himself away, taking advantage of Smokey’s distraction. But he was clearly in too much pain to make it far. That made Jess just a little more nervous.
Jess frowned. “Why can’t anyone ever just cooperate? Why do you guys insist on making me torture you for information? Trust me, you’d rather do this the easy way. Just ask Nick over there. Why don’t you tell me who keeps releasing the Niyazine drug? Maybe there’s something I can do to help you.”
No reaction. He glided another step closer. Her chatting was only giving him time to close in on her.
With a sigh, Justice shook her head. “Okay, maybe not.” She looked her demonic friend up and down as he took another step, bringing him within arm’s reach. “What’s the play here, Smokey? We have a problem, or should I finish off the little weasel over there, and we both go about our business?”
Smokey slowly lifted a hand and reached for Jess. His movement flowed smoothly and gently, not especially threateningly, but she wasn’t playing along. With her buddy Sunshine still fresh in her memory, Jess held up a hand in warning.
“Don’t touch me, Smokey.”
At least this guy didn’t glow, that had to make him less dangerous than Sunshine, right?
Wrong.
So very, very wrong.
Smokey’s soft fingers brushed her wrist with a light feathery touch. Pain like the fires of hell consumed her, ricocheting off of every nerve in her body. With a blood-curdling scream, she dropped to the ground as his gentle touch wrapped around her wrist. He crouched, following her down as she began writhing in agony. His demonic red eyes watched blankly, as he altered her world with an excruciating level of pain she could never have imagined.
After less than a minute that had felt like hours, he dropped her wrist and watched as she attempted to catch her breath and reel in her tears. Shaking and sobbing, she curled into a ball on the ground. Everything she thought she knew had changed in those few moments, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever recover.
Jess had suffered more injuries than she could count in her time. She’d had broken bones, concussions, black eyes, and broken lips. She’d been stabbed so many times, she’d lost count. She’d been shot in the arm and shoulder. All of those injuries were like being tickled by rainbows, and fairy dust compared to what Smoky did to her.
She couldn’t move. She didn’t want to live. The pain faded considerably once he let go, but the aftereffects still had a hold on her. And the memory wasn’t going anywhere.
An image of Ryker flashed into her head, and she knew she couldn’t give up. Still sobbing uncontrollably, Jess opened her eyes to see Smoky reaching for her again. Whimpering in agony, she rolled away from him, somehow managing to whip two of her knives in his direction. Her shaking limbs threw her aim off horribly. The first knife missed completely. The other stuck in his shoulder, doing nothing but pissing him off.
His demon eyes flashed with anger. His steps were like a prowling beast going in for its kill. She was scared to death, and there was no hiding it. She couldn’t run. The residual pain made it unthinkable. Tears flowed down her face. Her body shook with tremors that only made the pain worse. Her limbs were weakened to a state where just standing would be impossible. She closed her eyes and prayed that he would kill her instantly instead of touching her again.
An echoing snap, followed by a delay in her inevitable death had her opening her eyes again. Smoky was now looking behind him. Jess didn’t bother to hope that someone was there to help. Anyone else that showed up would only end up like her, lying in a heap on the ground, begging for death.
Giving up on whatever was behind him, Smoky turned his attention back on Jess. She trembled with fear. She hadn’t even known she was capable of being so pathetic, but really, what difference did it make at that point?
Another step closer to Jess and Smoky froze again. She had no idea what the hell was going on. Maybe he was toying with her. The sick bastard. Just end it, she silently pleaded, unable to stand the sound of her own whimpering any more. It hurt to hear, how was that possible?
At the moment, all she knew was pain. Everything was pain. Every sensation, every breath, every beat of her heart, it all had her begging for nothingness. With every bit of strength she had left, Jess pulled another knife. This one wasn’t going to get thrown.
Tears fell from her eyes as she rested the blade against her wrist. Once again Ryker’s image came to mind, and she struggled with what she was about to do. She knew as well as anyone else that Ryker was probably long dead. No one else believed that he could still be alive, and Jess wasn’t stupid. But she lived only to find out what happened to him.
For years, her life revolved around getting answers that would allow her to avenge him one way or another. She owed her father that much. And she would look for him until her last breath. But it was starting to look like that breath wasn’t so far away.
She didn’t want to die before her work was done. But enduring another moment while every fiber of her being was in agony was unthinkable. There was no thought of getting better, she couldn’t see past the pain. Simply existing was torture.
The shadowy marks where Smoky touched her were visible and excruciating. Just the touch of the blade against it sent searing hellfire blazing through every nerve in her arm all over again. She didn’t have enough strength to get the knife into her heart. Her softer wrist was the only option. Hating herself for what she was about to do, she pushed down on the blade. Blood pooled around the tip for barely a second before the knife was snatched from her light grip.
Startled, she tensed instinctively, and the motion had her crying out again. A set of black boots stepped over her as the knife was snatched away. She watched with blurry eyes as a new dark figure tossed the knife into Smokey’s chest and then took a swing, knocking him to the ground. Smokey didn’t get back up.
Creepy staggered before dropping to his knees. Connecting his fist with Smokey’s face sent waves of agony through him as well. Every muscle in his body visibly tensed as he grunted and breathed through the pain.
Eventually, Creepy pushed himself up and made his way over, breathing heavily. He scooped up a still trembling Jess. She flinched at the pain of his touch, and he winced as he lifted her and cradled her against his chest. The realization that she may live washed over her. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved.
Jess let her head rest on his shoulder. She didn’t care about anything but stopping the pain, and for some reason, his strong shoulder offered some small amount of comfort. Jess’s breathing had been coming out in short pants for too long, and her vision was blurring quickly from the lack of oxygen.
Unable to handle any more, she welcomed the disorientation. Soon her vision went, followed quickly by all other sensation as she sagged against the warm chest carrying her away from an experience that would haunt her for the rest of her god damned life.
Chapter 18
Soft sobs and aching pain slowly brought Jess back to consciousness. Once the sound started to register, sensation sharpened, and she realized the crying was coming from her. Then everything else faded, and once again, all she could grasp was that she had to be dying.
A new sensation jolted fresh waves of pain through her when she was scooped up and moved. Unable to speak, her whimpering grew louder until she was lowered again. This time she was dropped into the Arctic. Freezing water surrounded her body, her eyes flew open, and instant shivers made every muscle and nerve scream. She wanted to scream along with them, but her head was shoved under the water.
A moment later, the pressure on her head was relieved. She was grabbed by her upper arms and pulled back up. It was damn near impossible to catch her breath between all the sputtering, coughing, and sobbing. Still too weak to jump out of the freezing water, all she could do was look around. She was in a large bathtub, but the freezing water wasn’t clear. It looked and smelled like some kind of tea.
The room was completely unfamiliar. She had no clue where she was.
Next to the tub, the man that tried to drown her knelt with his shadowed hand half-submerged in the water. He watched her face with his cold, creepy eyes, and an even stronger shudder ran down her already trembling body. Jess’s teeth were chattering so badly she was starting to worry about chipping a tooth. On the bright side, numbness was seeping into her heavy limbs, and the pain was lessening. Shivering took over her sobbing completely as she glared at Creepy.
She tried to speak through her quivering lips. “Wwwhat the fffuckkk?” she managed.
“How long did he touch you?”
“Llike a wweek.”
“Based on when I heard your scream, it was around a minute. The longer he touches you, the more the toxin seeps in, the worse the pain is, and the longer it takes to recover.” He pointed to her wrist. “The mark will fade as the toxin wears off.”