18. ReadyNot
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ready or Not
“Careful with her legs.”
“I know.”
“And don’t hold her feet too tight.”
“I know!”
“And don’t wipe too roughly-“
“Fucking hell, Jax! Calm your tits!” Keith snapped. “I’m wiping the shit from a baby’s ass, not hacking into the Pentagon!”
“Cleaning my daughter is infinitely more important than- Pay the fuck attention to what you’re doing, Keith- Forget it. Move.” Jax impatiently shoved Keith aside.
Keith snorted, amused. "I swear he's more overprotective of Chloe than he is of Deja."
"Nonsense. I'd slit your throat for either of my girls," Jax said casually while cleaning Chloe.
" His girls," Keith muttered. "Can we finally address the elephant in the room?"
"Not if you want to keep your organs inside your body," Jax said.
"Let me remind you that your zombie ass has been jackshit out of commission for 7 fucking months," Keith continued.
Jax snorted. "And?"
"That's 7 months Deja spent without you," Ian added, leaning back against the wall. "7 months under our care while you wavered between life and death."
"Technically, 5 of those months were spent with me, but who's counting..." Caleb muttered sarcastically.
"I don't wanna hear shit out of you, farmer boy. You couldn't even keep your goddamn dick in your pants," Keith snapped.
"I mean, neither could you, Keith," Ian shrugged.
Keith looked at Ian crazily. "Whose fucking side are you on?"
"I don't know what any of you are arguing about, nor do I care," Jax said, picking up Chloe. "Deja is mine . Has always been mine. Will always be mine. Regardless of the fantasies you've conjured in your heads."
Keith rolled his eyes as Ian scoffed. "And what about what she wants?" Caleb asked. "Or does that not matter to you? "
Jax sighed. "Caleb, if I never hear your voice again, it will be too soon."
"As much as I dislike him, our cousin has a point, Jax. It isn't as if we haven't developed feelings of our own," Ian noted.
"That wasn't something I gave any of you permission to do," Jax said flippantly.
"My fucking bad. I forgot about the microchip you put in our heads that controls whether we fall in love or not," Keith snorted.
"There's that fucking word again," Jax muttered, protectively covering Chloe's ears. "Stop confusing your lust for love."
"Are you really that fucking selfish?" Caleb snapped irritably.
Clutching Chloe to his chest, Jax reflexively snapped his switchblade between his fingers and pushed it against Caleb's neck.
Jax's nostrils flared. "Understand something, cousin .
That woman was all I thought about for the past 7 months.
While I was on my deathbed, you were fucking her in yours .
You have greatly overestimated my ability to repress my unbridling rage and the fucking audacity to test me-"
Jax pressed the blade into Caleb's skin. " Do not confuse my calmness with pacifism . Yes! I am that fucking selfish ."
Tensing, Caleb looked from Jax to Chloe. "You haven't answered my question. What about… what she wants?"
Brows narrowed, Jax lowered his blade. "I'd carve out my own heart and hand it to her on a platter, if she asked. Does that answer your fucking question?"
Caleb's jaw unclenched with understanding. "Ever the romantic..." Ian smirked sarcastically. "Speaking of which, she's rather quiet?"
Tucking his blade away, Jax cradled Chloe. "She went to get some fresh air. She's just outside."
"Uh, no, she's not," Keith said, looking out the window.
Jax's face fell. "...what?"
Deja's fingers dug into the soil as she crawled across the ground, her bleeding temple dripping into her eye. She heard leaves crunching behind her as her assailant stalked her. As if she were prey. The bat swinging from his fingertips dripped with her blood.
She shivered with fatigue before she felt his boot on her back, shoving her to the ground. She cried out in pain and terror as he mounted her, nearly crushing her as his hands wrapped around her throat.
Deja's eyes bulged. Her vision blurred as she tried clawing his hands off, but he didn't budge. She writhed desperately beneath him as his weight crushed her sore pelvis. She fought for air as his grip tightened.
Her hand slapped the ground until she grabbed a rock and smashed it against his face.
Gasping for air, she violently kneed him in the crotch.
As he doubled over in pain, Deja struggled to her feet, her fingers grasping for his bat.
She wildly swung the bat until it made impact with his head, causing him to collapse.
Wiping the blood out of her eyes, she stumbled around, shouting angrily and smashing him with the bat again. Exhausted and in pain, she swore she had torn something, but it didn't stop her from swinging until she heard the crack in his back.
Screaming hysterically, she hit him repeatedly until he stopped moving on the ground. It was so dark that it wasn't until she noticed the blood-soaked bat that she realized he was probably dead.
She stumbled back against a tree, trying to catch her breath. When she heard leaves crunching… yet again.
Clutching his machete, the Reaper glanced across the woods at his partner, who signaled with his fingers before holding up his crossbow.
He crouched down and stalked towards his target, whom he last spotted falling the moment she was knocked out with the bat. But as he got closer and saw she was nowhere to be found, he wondered if he had headed in the wrong direction.
Glancing back at his partner, he realized his partner was missing. He whistled, waiting for a response until his partner finally whistled back. But it sounded unusual. It didn't sound like him.
He returned to his partner when he stumbled on something. Crouching down, he picked up what he stepped on, and his eyes widened as he held a severed arm. Standing to his feet, he grabbed his weapon when an arrow went straight into his shoulder.
"See? Told you I knew how to shoot a fucking arrow," Keith said smugly.
"That was hardly impressive," Ian rolled his eyes. The Reaper's eyes widened when he spotted Ian holding a bloody machete while Keith loaded up another arrow.
"Bet I could get his left eye from here," Keith aimed. But the Reaper dodged, ducking behind a tree.
"Stop fucking around, Keith. We need to make sure Deja is okay." Ian snatched the crossbow and handed Keith the machete.
"Making me do all the dirty work," Keith muttered, stalking towards the Reaper. Hiding behind a tree, the Reaper cringed as he slowly pulled the arrow out of his shoulder.
"Little pig, little pig, let me in," Keith sang. "Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin. Honestly, do pigs even have chin hair? Who the fuck is staring at them long enough to find out?"
The Reaper gripped his machete, anticipating Keith's arrival. The Donovans were among the most ruthless Reapers in the Society. But Keith, The Juggernaut , was a nightmare for the world's worst monsters.
"I'm just wondering. Why the fuck would you come all the way out here just to get chopped into tiny, bite-sized pieces?" Keith asked. "They gotta fucking hate you." The Reaper waited before moving further away from Keith.
"No, seriously," Keith continued. "I haven't been able to touch my baby girl in fucking months . And you motherfuckers thought it was a good idea to try to take her away from me permanently ? Have you lost your goddamn mind? Do you have any idea what I'm gonna do to you?"
Keith stopped, flipping his machete. "It's grotesque. Even for me ..."
The woman wobbling in front of him looked weak. But as he looked from her to his partner's brutally smashed head, he couldn't believe she managed to kill him.
"You think I'm scared of you!" Deja growled, angrily swinging the bat. "Come on! Come the fuck on !" she screamed.
She was dirty. Her face was caked with blood. But most of all, she looked angry . Emotional. This would be easy.
Deja stepped gingerly, holding the bat in front of her.
"Come on!" she sneered. She swung, but he caught it.
Deja tried to rip the bat from his grip.
She panicked as he raised the blade above her head.
But then his body abruptly jerked, and his eyes widened.
She jumped back as he fell to his knees.
It wasn't until he fell on his stomach that she saw the ax deeply embedded in his back.
Caleb stalked towards the body as Jax impatiently approached her.
Grabbing her waist, Jax pulled her towards him until they were inches apart.
"Outside! All you had to do was stand out-fucking-side, Deja!
Why the fuck would you- Are you alright?
Did they hurt you?" Jax spoke faster than Deja could respond, his angry eyes anxiously roaming her body.
"I'm okay, Jax," she said, holding onto his bicep for balance. As his fingers found the wound on her head, she saw all humanity drain from his eyes. They constricted so drastically that his pupils nearly completely disappeared. He almost didn't look human. "Jax-" she started when he released her.
Caleb stepped on the Reaper's shoulder to rip the ax out of his spine. "That's guaranteed paralysis. Now we can get this motherfucker to tell us-"
But before Caleb could finish his sentence, Jax shoved him out of the way.
Grabbing the Reaper by the back of his head, Jax violently smashed his face into the ground.
Deja's eyes widened in horror as she watched Jax repetitively smash the Reaper's face into the dirt as his enraged growl echoed around them.
She cringed when Jax raised the Reaper's head. His face was a bloody mess, his skull completely caved in. She had never seen him like this before. His rage rippled through his body, manifesting in the sheer force of smashing the Reaper's face into the ground until all he held was his bloody scalp.
“I dunno, Jax. You sure he's dead?" Caleb said sarcastically.
"Shut up," Jax muttered.
Caleb sighed. "We need at least one alive to find out how they found us, Jax."