Chapter Four #3
One of the adults surrounding the ring—probably guards making sure that the kids did what they were supposed to do—backhanded the girl with the chain when she stepped back instead of forward.
She went down hard and didn’t get up. The people watching the fight barely reacted.
A few sipped their drinks. One woman laughed.
“We have to do something,” Braith said.
“I know.” Archie’s hands were curling into fists. Rage was building hot and sharp in his chest. “But look at them.”
Braith was looking. Like Archie, he saw the guards by the ring, the spectators that were obviously armed, and the number of people separating them from the kids.
“We can’t take them all,” Braith said. The frustration in his voice matched what Archie felt. “Not just the two of us. They’ll kill us, then the kids.”
“I’m calling Jasper.”
Finn suddenly went down. The boy with the blade kicked him in the ribs, and Archie saw Finn’s body curl in on itself. He didn’t get back up.
A few people applauded, but most didn’t react. They were paying to watch this, maybe betting on which one of the kids would win, yet they barely seemed interested. Those kids were killing each other for nothing.
Archie hated it.
* * * *
JASPER AND KERRY HAD split up when they left the library since Kerry was seeing friends.
She’d invited Jasper to go with her, but his headache was getting worse, no doubt because of the dust and the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about Sanctuary.
He’d taken pictures of the few articles they’d found on what had happened there around the time Jasper had been born, but he didn’t know if it had anything to do with him.
Even if it did, he had no idea how to find out more.
The articles hadn’t mentioned a baby. Nothing he and Kerry had found mentioned a baby, found or abandoned.
It might just be that they had to look harder, but Jasper wasn’t sure what he wanted to do.
Of course, he wanted to find out more about his birth family, but would it be worth it?
He rubbed his forehead as he dug into his pocket for his keys.
Corey was at work, which meant Jasper would have the apartment to himself this evening, unless Cullen decided to spend the evening in.
He should probably call Archie, but even though he wanted to spend time with his boyfriend, he was in no state to leave the apartment.
He was going to take painkillers, drink some water, and go to bed.
He pushed open the front door, stepped in, and closed it behind himself. His senses went on high alert, and his headache was instantly forgotten. The monster sitting on his couch made sure of that.
Jasper wasn’t even surprised that Kester had found his apartment. Hell, he wasn’t surprised to find the monster sitting on the couch. What he was surprised about was that he wasn’t dead yet, but he probably should be. Kester clearly enjoyed toying with him.
Jasper’s heart raced, but he told himself not to freak out. If Kester wanted to kill him, he’d had plenty of opportunities to do so. Instead, he was sitting there, watching Jasper. There had to be a reason for that. There had to be a reason why Kester was here for Jasper.
“What do you want?” Jasper asked.
Kester smiled. The sight made Jasper want to throw up. “Aren’t you happy to see me?” Kester asked.
“Has anyone ever been happy to see you?”
Kester laughed. Jasper was terrified, and the laughter wasn’t helping. It was especially creepy considering what kind of person Kester was.
“You’re not wrong,” Kester drawled as he got to his feet.
Jasper took a step back and reached for the door. He hoped he’d be fast enough to run when Kester attacked.
Kester waved at Jasper’s hand. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Why are you here, then?” Because it was the only reason Jasper could think of for Kester being here talking to him instead of out there looking for Cullen.
Kester grinned again, exposing his fangs. “I just wanted to see how you were doing now that the past is catching up to you.”
Jasper glared. He wanted to demand an explanation, but he already knew that Kester wouldn’t give him one. He was enjoying himself. He might not be torturing Jasper physically, but mentally? He knew exactly what he was doing, which was probably why he was doing it in the first place.
“You know, back then, I was curious about what Leroy would do when he got you. I expected him to kill you, even though you were a baby. Imagine my surprise when years later, I realized he raised you as a hunter.”
Kester clearly knew something about Jasper’s past. Jasper was desperate to ask, even though he knew Kester wouldn’t tell him anything unless it benefited him.
At the same time, he didn’t want to give Kester the satisfaction of begging for information.
He didn’t know if he’d ever find anything about his family and what had happened after he was born, but asking Kester felt like one step too far.
The only thing Jasper should want to do to the monster was kill him, something he knew he wouldn’t be able to do.
“Why are you here?” Jasper asked.
“I just wanted to say hello and to warn you that I was back in town.”
It was good that Cullen didn’t seem to be in the apartment.
He’d been staying with Jasper, Corey, and Kerry, but Jasper wasn’t used to it yet.
He had no idea where Cullen was or if he’d been here when Kester had arrived.
Had Kester hurt him? Jasper wasn’t going to ask because he knew that Kester would either lie or find a way to get information about his son out of him.
If Cullen wasn’t here, and if Kester didn’t know this was where he was staying, Jasper wanted to keep things that way.
He just hoped no one would come home before Kester left.
He didn’t know if Kester was here to kill him, but something told him that the monster wasn’t done with him yet. He was having too much fun. He also seemed interested in what Jasper’s father had done, which made two of them.
“You could just leave again,” Jasper suggested.
“Now, where would be the fun in that?” Kester drawled as he moved toward the door.
Even though every single one of Jasper’s instincts was screaming at him to open the door and run, he didn’t.
Instead, he stepped aside, putting as much space between himself and Kester as he could.
Kester didn’t try to catch him or come after him.
He just smiled as if he thought that Jasper’s reaction was funny and opened the door.
“I’ll see you around, little hunter.”
“I’m not a hunter,” Jasper snapped.
“I suppose you don’t hunt monsters anymore, but does that mean you’re not a hunter? Once a hunter, always a hunter.”
“Unless you were born a monster.”
Kester grinned. “Interesting conundrum, isn’t it?”
Before Jasper could tell Kester to fuck off, Kester was out the door.
Jasper only waited a few seconds before he lunged forward and slammed the door shut.
He locked it, even though he wasn’t sure it would help much when it came to Kester.
He was pretty sure it wouldn’t take much for the monster to beat the door down, but it would still give Jasper precious seconds to escape.
He pressed his back against the door and waited. He could hear footsteps fading in the hallway, but he didn’t move right away. He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there, but eventually, he reached for his phone with trembling fingers.
Archie was going to be pissed.