A Broken Jewel (Jade Book 1)

by Lucy Rains

  She cocked her head, raising her gun to aim at Kyson, “You sure about that?”

  With that one movement, multiple things happened at once. Kyson had his gun out and aimed at my mother before she could lift hers all the way. My hands flew up and pushed her backwards into the wall again, making her lose her balance. And then the sound of another gunshot.

  Blood blossomed on my mother’s chest and I gasped. My eyes went to Kyson’s gun and back to my mother. It was the opposite side of where Kyson had been aiming. He looked to me, I looked behind me to Alex or Gavin. But that was not who had shot my mother.

  Charles lowered his gun as he walked up, passing by Alex and Gavin and coming to stand by me. I blinked at him for a second, looking up from the ground. It was like a mirage, like he wasn’t real. He didn’t belong in this picture.

  He stood standing over me, watching my mother with a contemptuous glare, the gun hanging steady at his side.

  A low wheeze pulled my focus away from Charles and to Pierce. My heart tripped in my chest and I crawled frantically over to him.

  “Pierce!” I sobbed. My hands patted his arm, his chest. His eyes remained closed, his breathing shallow. I looked up to Kyson, “What happened?”

  He shook his head, biting his lip. “We felt her coming, tried to get back to you. She came around a corner, a separate entrance.” He closed his eyes at the memory. “She was ready when we came out of the bathroom, caught us off guard. We had been distracted, trying to get back to you. We thought the danger would be by you, not by us. When we came out of the bathroom she was waiting.”

  Alex sat down by me, his emotions thick with pain and fear. Gavin stayed standing, pacing.

  “She hit him in the base of his neck and again by the heart.” Kyson’s voice was heavy, his eyes watering. “Close enough to the heart and spinal cord to do damage.”

  “Isn’t he healing?” I asked desperately. Pierce had to be, we always healed. “Why isn’t he healing?”

  Kyson shook his head, “She severed the spinal column. His body can’t fix it fast enough.”

  I choked as my stomach rolled. “No,” I croaked, the pain of his words too much to bear. I look over Pierce’s face, the slack jaw and closed eyes. My thoughts reached out to him, searching. How I ached to hear his voice in my head. But there was nothing. A huge void of empty space, and I was feeling around, finding nothing.

  Looking at Kyson, I searched his eyes. “Try Kyson,” I whisper, pleading. “You can see him, all of him. You see things we don’t. Your ability must let you do something.”

  Kyson looked at me, thinking about my words. His eyes turned to Pierce’s body and searched. After looking at Pierce for several seconds, Kyson placed a hand on Pierce’s throat, closing his eyes. His fingertips pressed into Pierce’s skin, then moved to his chest, resting on his sternum. Seeing Kyson’s hand on Pierce’s chest, my hand moved up to lay beside his.

  Expecting to feel the familiar vibrations, the emptiness was like a bullet piercing my own chest. I doubled over as a sob ripped through me. My body went cold in crushing agony.

  It couldn’t be too late. The idea of losing Pierce was unfathomable. But there he laid. Unmoving, with no warmth from his chest. I thought back to the night at Mia’s party, when his was the first I had felt. The thought of never feeling his hand on my own chest again, feeling my own warmth was like a knife in my heart. It was unbearable.

  A gasp sounded. My eyes blinked rapidly, and I wiped at the moisture. Then there was a flicker. A small hum. A warmth. A shift.

  My eyes opened and I looked at Kyson, back to Pierce and then back to Kyson. Hope bloomed in my heart, my chest swelling.

  “Kyson?” Alex asked.

  Kyson’s jaw tensed and his hand on Pierce’s chest shook. My eyes widened, my body straightened. Pierce’s body jerked, his back bowing away from the floor. I jerked away in surprise. Pierce’s eyelids fluttered, his body falling back to the floor and then he stilled. Kyson’s eyes opened and he leaned back, letting out a shaky breath.

  Silence.

  No body moved, no one dared speak. We waited, watching Pierce. The soft steady sound of his breath was like a beautiful symphony to my ears. I moved forward slowly and placed a hand on his chest, and let out harsh breath of relief when the hum pulsed through my arm. I picked up his heavy hand and pushed it into my own chest.

  His finger tips curled into my shirt, pushing against my body. A strangled burst of happiness came out of me and I choked on a sobbing laugh. Pierce’s eyes opened at the noise and blinked slowly.

  “You did it,” Alex said in awe.

  I looked at Kyson, and then back to Pierce. “You did it.” My hands came out, touching his shirt, his hair, his cheek. “How?”

  Kyson blinked slowly, “When I touched him, I could feel every part of him. His muscles, his organs, his bones, and everything that was damaged.” Kyson sounded dazed, like coming out of a trance. “It was like energy flowed from my hand into his body, and all I could do was channel that energy to where he was broken.” His eyes ran over Pierce and he swallowed. “I just...I don’t know, my body just knew what to do. Or this energy inside me knew what to do.”

  My fingertips grazed over the red stain on Pierce’s chest. I glanced under him, at the pool of blood around his body. “Can we get some towels for the blood?” I asked, looking behind me to Gavin.

  “Just leave it,” Charles said. “You don’t have time.”

  Pierce moaned as he moved his limbs and head around slowly, pulling himself into a sitting position. I pulled my hand away from his chest and wiped at my face, knowing I needed to stop crying. The sight of him moving, awake, alert was the most wonderful sight and I felt I could cry all night from the fear and elation of the last five minutes.

  I let go of Pierce and stood up to face Charles. “Why are you here?” I asked.

  His wrinkled skin hung on his face, his blue eyes peered at me from under heavy lids. “I’m here in case you failed.” He jerked his head towards my mother. “It needed to be done.”

  His words were a reprimand I didn’t need. The shame I had felt from the guys was enough to put me in my place.

  I tilted my head. “But why now?”

  “She had crossed the line. I was not to step in unless she had done so.”

  I glared at Charles. “You lied to me.”

  He shook his head with a smile small, “I never lied to you, Jade.”

  Though he was right, I wanted to argue. I felt deceived. “Who are you?”

  “Who do you work for?” Kyson asked.

  “These are not the right questions you should be asking,” Charles answered quickly, “And you are running out of time.”

  I looked at the guys and then back to Charles. He stood there, waiting. He had answers, but we had to ask the right questions. What was the most important thing I wanted to know?

  “What are we?” I asked quietly.

  A wide smile crossed his face. He looked at the guys for a second and then back to me. “Not what, but who.”

  My head cocked at his answer, not understanding. “What do you mean?”

  “You think you were all part of some science experiments? Created in a lab?” He scoffed at the notion, “Don’t be ridiculous. You are far greater than that.”

  “But where did we come from?” Pierce asked.

  Charles looked down at me and raised an eyebrow. “Surely something had to have happened to make you question your true nature?”

  My hand went up to my teeth and my eyes lost focus, remembering my outburst of jealous rage and what it did to my canines.

  Not human.

  “It’s why Vera would have done anything to shelter and protect you. It's why she hid you away from the world. It's why you are so fast, and so strong. Why water is a source of life and power to you. It’s why you have abilities you can not explain. Why those created after you have been nothing like you. You,” he looked at all of us to make his point, “can not be recreated in a lab.” />
  I took a step back, stepping into someone behind me. Their warmth like a protection from Charles words.

  “You saw the pictures in her office,” Charles tilted his head once over his shoulder, gesturing behind him. “Did it look like you were in a lab?”

  I thought back to the black and white photos. The children in a forest. Next to a destroyed metal contraption.

  Not human.

  Pierce pulled himself to his feet, Kyson’s arm around his shoulder to help him. “Who are we then?” Pierce asked, his voice weak. “Our parents? Mutants? Vampires? Genetically enhanced?”

  Charles shook his head, “More. Think outside of,” his eyes glanced at the ceiling as he searched for the right word, “this world.”

  No one moved. No one breathed. I shook my head, my ability to speak gone.

  “Impossible,” Gavin whispered, voicing my thoughts.

  I looked to Alex, asking with my eyes if it was true. He glanced at me quickly and then to Pierce, Crossing an arm over his chest, he held a fist to his closed mouth and shook his head. Charles wasn’t lying.

  Charles appraised Pierce, looking him over, thinking about his next words. “We don’t have enough time, Jason is coming.” Charles looked over his watch. “And he is not happy.”

  Jason seemed so trivial, so unimportant in that moment. We were talking about us, our true pasts, knowledge I desperately wanted. Talking with Charles and getting answers was like air to my suffocating lungs.

  Charles sighed, “Fly to Paris. If you can make it to the airport and then to Paris, I will give you all the answers.”

  “What's in Paris?” I asked.

  “Matteo,” Pierce whispered.

  “The company I work for. The company that hired me 10 years ago to watch over you. To follow you, track you.” He stretched out a hand and ran his thumb over my cheek. “Protect you.”

  “Chuck?” I whispered, remembering Matteo referring to someone named Chuck that had been keeping tabs on us.

  He rolled his eyes at the name. “You don’t need me now. But be careful. Stay alive.” He put his hand to my shoulder and squeezed.

  Taking a step away from me, a cell phone appeared in his other hand and he handed it to Pierce. “Keep this. I’ll contact you.”

  And with that he turned and was gone.

  My hands went to my head, my mind literally swimming with thoughts. Everything Charles had said swirling around on repeat.

  You are far greater than that.

  Not a lab.

  Outside this world.

  Our true nature.

  I peered over at my mother, her lifeless body and wide eyes. My stomach clenched at the sight, wishing I didn’t feel a pang of regret and sadness. That chapter was closed. The lab finished.

  I didn’t have time to mourn her loss and ponder what her death meant. The sudden oncoming presence of multiple hostile emotions was like a kick in my bowels and I heaved at the pressure.

  “Jade?” Kyson asked, alarm in his voice.

  “It’s Jason,” Pierce coughed, “we need to go.”

  I looked around, “Which way?”

  “There’s another door around the opposite side we came in from,” Kyson answered, turning the opposite direction we had came, into the other side of the building.

  We jogged in the dark hallway, all of us nervous about pushing Pierce who moved slower than normal. We turned corners, pivoting quickly, coming closer to our exit. But I could feel that it wasn’t enough. The others behind us were faster. No. Not faster. Not behind us. Coming towards us. Our exit was their entry.

  “Stop!” I shouted, coming to a stand still. The guys looked at me, demanding answers. I shook my head, “We need to go the other way!”

  “No Jade!” Pierce stopped me, pulling my wrist, “They’re coming from both ways.”

  I turned, wanting to demand to back track, but was interrupted by shattering glass. I cringed, my head turning in all directions to search for the threat.

  The guys ducked back towards me, raising their guns and dropping to the sides. I raised my hands, palms up in both directions. My hair whipped my face as I looked back and then forth and then back again. Waiting.

  There was a beat of silence. No one moved. And then the thunder of footsteps, fabric shuffling, weapons clicking. And then the familiar whizzing sound of flying darts. Bodies began appearing on both sides of us. Helmets, weapons raised, heavy boots.

  The guys began firing. I released my energy, trying to keep our attackers back as long as possible. More and more came around the corners, and I aimed my energy the best I could. But only seconds later did I feel the sharp stab of a needle in my left thigh.

  A frustrated groan escaped my mouth as I lowered to the floor, my hands lowering.

  Alex leaned over by me, and then Gavin. The firing stopped. Kyson and Pierce must have been hit too.

  Pierce!

  We’ll be okay, he assured me. They don’t know how long the serum will stay in our system. We just need 20 minutes.

  There were shouts of alarm as the enemy assessed their injured and called for medical attention.

  And then the familiar voice I was dreading. “What the hell were you thinking?! You shitheads made my life a living nightmare!”

  Jason’s voice was enraged, furious. The sound of a human flesh being thumped nearby and my blood pulsed in my ears. He was kicking, hitting someone.

  Pierce! I felt the pain through our connection, Kyson...then Gavin...then Pierce again. No!

  Rage from the others washed over me at their being defenseless during their beatings. Rage turning to fear, turning to weak desperation.

  There was a pause, Jason panting. “I should kill you. All of you. Insubordination, treason,” he paused to kick someone. I swear I heard a grunt. My heart twisted to see Alex’s body jerk at the same time. “You ruined everything, damn it!”

  The sound of flesh hitting bodies and bones resumed. Finally the emotions lightened, and then disappeared completely.

  Emptiness. They were unconscious. There had to be more than just Jason attacking the guys to make them pass out at the same time.

  My heart raced, my chest heaving. I was frantically searching for something I could do, but there was nothing. Not even a twitch to my finger.

  Suddenly a hand was in my hair, fingers gripping the roots close to my scalp and my head was on fire. Ariana’s face came close to mine, a sick smirk on her face. “You stupid bitch.” She dropped my head and heaved a hard kick into my belly. My muscles tensed as I tried to absorb the blow, but could only lie still as the dull pain radiated through my core. Another kick to my ribs and moisture pricked in the corner of my eyes.

  “Go to the car,” Jason barked. “Get Emmett and head back to Lab. We need to gather whatever data is left.”

  I felt the sour energy of Ariana dissipate, and was left with the anger still burning from Jason.

  “I don’t want to talk about this right now. You will all go home.” Jason said calmly, his voice relaxed, like nothing in the world was bother him.

  Home? He was just going to leave us? There was a catch coming and I waited for it.

  “Well, most of you.” There was a snapping noise and Jason whistled. “Rico! Tie up Gavin and put him in the car with me.”

  No! My eyes widened and I internally fought, desperately trying to move. They couldn’t! They couldn’t take him. My heart rate spiked and a tear slipped from my eye.

  Jason moved around, circling our prone bodies. “To ensure your cooperation, I know you wouldn’t leave one of your own behind, so Gavin will come stay with us for a while.”

  The sound of duct tape cracked behind me as they bound Gavin’s limbs.

  Pierce! Pierce! I screamed his name over and over, trying to wake him. There was tiny tremor of emotion from Pierce but it didn’t amount to anything.

  I heard the heavy breathing of Jason’s men, lifting Gavin and leaving the area we laid in. My body was facing away from Gavin, so I only caught a
brief glimpse through my slitted eyelids of the two men waddling away with him.

  Agony. Pure raw agony coursed through my chest as I heard their footsteps disappear. Similar to what I had felt when seeing Pierce bleeding on the floor. But this was almost worse. This time more urgent, and desperate. Like Gavin was sliding out of my fingers into the unknown.

  Suddenly Jason stepped in front of me and kneeled down so that he could look into my eyes. “Now, when y'all wake up, be good little soldiers and head back on home. If there are any more attempts to leave, act out,” he paused thinking, “false pretenses, that sort of thing, we will come, and we will take someone else. We have an endless supply of tranquilizing serum, a weakness you can’t seem to overcome.”

  Jade? Pierce reached out to me.

  I’m okay.

  My relief was overshadowed by Jason’s nearness. He reached out and traced his fingers over my exposed clavicle, down my chest, and under my right breast. My stomach clenched and nausea rolled through me. “You sneaky thing, what interesting talents you seem to have. I look forward to having you around more, Jade.” His tone was smug, and I wanted to vomit at the lustful feelings coming off of him. Hating that he had seen my energy ability.

  He pulled his hand away and stood, telling his people to move out. A few minutes later everything was silent. I could feel the guys returning to consciousness and knew Pierce was communicating with everyone.

  Where is Gavin?! Pierce roared.

  My heart broke, another tear sliding from my eye. They took him.

  The hum of the air vent rustling softly above our heads was the only sound for a few minutes. My right shoulder was beginning to burn from the weight of my angled body, and my neck twitched in pain. I tested my fingers every few minutes. Waiting. Desperately waiting for movement.

  The sounds of violence, Jason’s words, the duct tape, play over and over in my mind. I wanted to break something, rip someone apart with my hands, tear off a limb with my energy. My muscles pulsed in defiance of being unable to move. The wait was torture.

  When I thought I would go insane from being still a second longer my hands flinched and my toes wiggled. I pushed my lips together, working my jaw. My eyes pinched closed, my fingers digging into the commercial carpet, and I opened my mouth to release the roar of furious rage I had been forced to hold in the past 20 minutes. The scream was long and from the deepest part of my gut. The next time I saw Jason he would die.