CHAPTER 27 JARED
Present day
I slowly open my eyes, but the next second my entire body jerks violently, and I sit bolt upright as if someone had pressed a live electrical wire against my back.
Fuck! He was here!
I frantically look around.
Silvio is kneeling beside me, with Renato standing right next to him. They're both staring at me with intense concern.
"Where is he? Where the fuck is he?" Panic swells in my voice.
"Who? Mauro?" Silvio asks to make sure.
"No!" I scream. "That monster. That fucking bastard, Rocco Ferro!"
"He's not here. You're safe, nothing is going to happen to you, we promise—"
But I don't give a damn about what he's saying. Rocco has found me, and he's not the kind of man who lets go once he sets his sights on someone,
Mauro can't protect me now.
So I don't answer Silvio. I don't want to be rude to these kind people because they don't understand the scale of what happened in my past. I'm not going to dump my frustration on them. Besides, I don't have time to talk anyway.
Jaw clenched, I spring to my feet. Since Rocco came from the direction of the front door, I instinctively head toward the patio doors, intending to run around the house to the driveway.
"Jared!" Silvio calls after me, following me out onto the patio. "Jared, please, wait—"
But I'm not going to listen to him. Nothing he could say would make me stay. This isn't a safe place for me, and for sure it isn't safe for Tommy.
I’m done with this town.
I turn onto the lawn and start cutting across the side of the garden toward my car, but Silvio follows me. Renato is also not far behind.
That's when two black Cadillacs pull onto the driveway, which is already visible from where I am.
The sight freezes me in place.
I whirl toward Silvio.
He comes up beside me and stands shoulder to shoulder with me.
"So Rocco is still here after all!" I blurt out, feeling sick to my stomach.
I see a flicker of surprise on Silvio's face, as though something has stunned him. He rubs his temples lightly, staring at the cars.
I almost burst out laughing because his expression is genuinely funny. Does he not know Rocco? Does he really think someone like him can be gotten rid of that easily, that he can simply drive away?
So everything is over for me.
The elderly Silvio can't protect me.
No one can protect me.
Even Mauro would be alone against a group of mafia soldiers…
I hear more footsteps behind me. Renato joins us, but I doubt he can stop the bullet.
Rocco jumps out of the first car, looking around.
One thing is interesting. He was here already before I lost consciousness. Why didn't he take me earlier?
Did Silvio and Renato intervene?
Why did he come back?
What shocks me even more is that his clothes are splattered with blood, and there's a scar again across his face. And when I saw him before I blacked out, he had a smooth face.
What the hell is going on?
"No, no, please, no," I whisper, clutching Silvio's arm. He's more than a head shorter than me, but his strength—the strength I felt earlier, his calm energy—are exactly what I need right now.
"Easy, child," he begins.
Rocco strides toward us with purpose. Even from this distance, I can see the weapon in his hand. He raises his other hand, points a finger straight at me, and shouts,
"Give him to me and nothing will happen to you!"
"No," Silvio says, straightening up. His wrinkled face now looks almost carved from wood, proud and statuesque. "Enough, Rocco. You were never supposed to come back here! You're my grandson, but I can't let you hurt Mauro or—"
Rocco's face burns with rage. His lips press into a hateful line, his eyes fixed on Silvio.
"I don't give a fuck about your rules! Either I take him, or I kill him. Your choice. And if I kill him, then Mauro is fucked too. I don't care!"
Several soldati who got out of the cars are approaching us as well, stopping some distance behind Rocco.
Renato speaks in a calm voice.
"Three months ago, we warned you never to come back here, or you'd face the consequences. I think you understand that we can't give Jared to you. He already belongs to the forest."
"Stop with this fucking bullshit, Uncle. I'm counting to ten." Rocco raises his weapon and points it at me.
I tremble like a leaf in the wind. My entire life is falling apart in this one brief moment. Everything I've feared is materializing right now, and I can't do shit about it.
"Rocco, I'm telling you again, we can't give him to you… Jared carries the next heir within him, the new guardian of the forest."
I turn toward Renato, staring at him in shock, but I quickly push the thought aside. It's hard to think about something like that when there's a gun pointed straight at you.
"I don't give a fuck about any of your foolish mumbles about the forest."
"You will die if you do this. Two days at max."
"Pfff! I'm finishing my countdown. Five… four, three, two, one."
A gunshot cracks through the air.
I squeeze my eyes shut, certain that in the next instant an unbearable pain will explode through my chest, but it never comes.
Instead, when I open my eyes, I see Silvio standing in front of me.
He's looking straight into my face.
Then, slowly, he bends forward. His head comes to rest against my chest, and a second later his entire body slips from my arms and collapses onto the ground.
"No!!!"
It's Renato's voice.
Loud. Powerful.
Rolling across the clearing like the roar of the forest itself.
I watch him change in the blink of an eye, the energy vibrating around.
The ordinary human beta vanishes beneath a burst of fierce green light that erupts from him, expanding outward in rippling circles.
There’s no longer Renato, but a tall figure in a dark green coat with a crown of antlers!
The ground begins to tremble beneath my feet.
The earth under Rocco and the soldati softens, quivering like jelly, and violent green vines burst through the soil.
The soldati start to scream, but the thick, writhing tendrils wrap around the men's legs, yanking them off their feet as they thrash like furious snakes.
But Rocco is the fastest of them. The moment the gunshot rings out and he sees who was hit by the bullet, he immediately leaps back and sprints toward the vehicles, leaving his people behind, but one thick vine coils around his ankles and jerks him into the air.
He starts firing wildly, shredding the living vine with bullet after bullet.
He crashes back to the ground and immediately lunges toward the waiting cars again, the vines chasing him only a heartbeat behind.
His soldiers aren't nearly as quick. The vines wrap around them completely, pinning them to the ground, but Rocco has gotten farther ahead than the rest. He manages to reach the paving stones, where no new vines can break through the surface, yet the older ones keep lashing through the air toward him, reaching again and again, hitting him, trying to drag him back.
Gunfire erupts once more, but then Rocco pulls a knife from somewhere near his ankle and hacks at the vines, cutting through them one after another.
At last, he reaches his vehicle and throws himself inside. The vines slam against the side of the car, rocking the entire frame from side to side as though they're trying to flip it over.
Rocco starts the engine and tries to pull away, but they refuse to let go.
He leans out the window and fires again.
Finally, with a violent lurch, the car tears free of the vines' grip.
The tires scream as Rocco races down the driveway and disappears.
His soldiers are still lying on the ground, tangled in the vines, but I don't even look at them.
My eyes drop to Silvio.
He's lying motionless on the grass, and beneath his back a pool of blood keeps spreading.
Only then does the truth crash into me.
Because of me… this elderly man has been shot.
Silvio threw himself in front of the bullet.
"No…" I whisper, my voice weak, as I drop to my knees, my hands shaking uncontrollably.
"Why did you shield me? This wasn't your fight!" I choke out. "It was my stupid choices that put me on the path that led me to Rocco. Nobody else should have to pay for that! Nobody!"
Grief crushes my throat, sobbing escapes me. I barely know Silvio, yet from the moment I arrived he'd shown me nothing but kindness. He welcomed me into this home. He wanted to welcome Tommy too.
And now…
Now he'd given his life for mine.
"No, please don't die! We'll get you to a hospital," I whisper.
Then I feel Renato's hand settle on my shoulder.
"Guardians don't die in hospital beds, Jared."
I look up at him.
The shimmering green aura still surrounds him. His face no longer looks human. It seems carved from ancient roots and weathered bark, and above his head rise massive antlers like those of a stag.
He looks less like a man… and more like some forgotten god of the forest.
His blazing eyes meet mine.
"Save him," I whisper. "I know you can. I know you have the power."
"I'm not a healer," Renato says quietly. "That’s not my power."
I blink.
Something suddenly dawns on me.
Something I've rarely admitted out loud.
"But… I am."
The words simply slip out. I've never told anyone what exactly I can do.
Maybe this is finally the moment?
"I can heal plants, Renato. Maybe… maybe I could help him. If you're all… connected to the forest like this, it can work on you."
Renato gives me a sad smile. His face made of wood folds slightly.
"Silvio isn't a plant," he says softly.
My eyes rest on Silvio’s calm face, and I notice he’s staring at something I have on my chest. The pendant.
What is unusual, however, is that the pendant is… whole now! The two parts are joined together.
How’s that possible? Did Mauro put them together when I lost consciousness?
"But that doesn't mean I can't become one," Silvio’s voice is barely more than a whisper. "The pendant… it’s ancient and powerful, the legend says it can—"
Renato takes one step closer and looks Silvio in the eyes.
"Are you sure? It’s only a legend."
"What’s even better… I can make one move and solve two problems!" Silvio lets out a small, weak breath.