Always.

Diego didn't think so, striding forward and getting right up in John's space. Personal like.

Even then I think we could have toned it down. Except that I had kinda put the knowledge of Brett digging Jade on the back burner. And here I was, frantic to get to her and he was almost as much. And like the dim bulb he was he tried to ruin our stealth by barging through the gate.

I intercepted him, his face healing from the last beating I gave him. "Don't just step in the shit, Mason. I don't know what's going on."

His brown eyes glared into mine. "Well I do. Her dad's been here twice this week already and if I know him, he's doin' something right now."

Doing something.

I went to move toward the gate and Brett stopped me at the same time that Tiff clocked Diego. I had just enough time to see that John was shocked out of his sneakers she'd just smacked Diego when all hell broke loose.

Diego grabbed Tiff around the neck and I swear to all things holy that John bared his teeth like a pit bull and head butted Diego, his lips pulled away from his teeth. Diego staggered back, his hold on Tiff loosening.

Bry screamed like an enraged bull and went after Diego, leaving the rest of us vulnerable.

Alex looked at me in a complete panic when I gave him the glance like, come on.

"I took a nap," he shouted.

Hell. That meant his REM sleep had kicked in the depressant and he'd be worthless for awhile. A strong body without a clue.

"Earn your pay, Sims!" Jonesy screamed as he pile drived into Carson.

"I don't know how to fight!" Alex screamed as he stood there looking like the brick shit house he was without a map.

"Fake it!" I yelled, moving toward Buddy. Because to me, he was the real threat.

While Jade languished in her house with her crazy ass dad I went to town on Buddy.

As I saw it, he was in the way of rescuing my girl.

Jade was in danger.

We squared off.

*

Jade

Jade looked over at Andrea, a beaten and bloody pulp on the floor and tried to make herself smaller. She couldn't rescue anyone. Her crushed pulse, along with Mia's, littered the ground around her.

She couldn't pulse Caleb. Tell him goodbye.

She watched her dad pace the living room, holes in the wall standing witness to his fists. When Andrea had fallen like a slender tree to his abuse, he had begun on the walls.

Jade knew from experience she would be next.

Mia locked eyes with Jade from across the room where LeClerc had separated the girls. She was somewhere beyond fear.

Raw terror bulged in their depths. It struck Jade that Mia might have never experienced anything like this before. She shivered, trying to keep her teeth from chattering. That would attract notice.

From Him.

He had booze in one hand, clenched in his meaty fist, chugging it down as he muttered something about her behavior, swinging the bottle around in manic glee.

Her sluttiness.

Jade knew it was untruthful, meant to hurt. She guessed it was better than his fists. But not by much. She scrunched into the corner more, trying to align herself into a ball. She knew the best way to defend her organs. He could still get to her kidneys though. She turned her back into the corner.

He whirled on the girls and Mia whimpered, her eyes widening. Jade bit her tongue until she tasted copper. Mia couldn't be heard. He'd gagged her with Andrea's pantyhose. He'd stuffed the biggest part in her mouth and wound the legs around her head and tied them.

Mia screamed and it came out as a muffled wail as he approached. He grabbed her honey-colored hair and tore her upright. Tears streamed out of her eyes from the shock of it, her scalp literally on fire. Mia put her hands in front of her in supplication and he back handed her. Her head snapping around painfully.

His eyes sought Jade, bloodshot and frantic, the booze forgotten and empty beside Andrea's still form. "This your whore friend here?" he asked in a quiet tone that was so much scarier for its softness. He shook Mia by her neck and a series of muffled yelps sounded beneath the nylon. An imprint of his hand stood at livid attention on her cheek. Her creamy complexion made it stand out like a stop sign on a cloudy day.

Jade shook her head. "No. I don't know her. She's just some girl, Daddy," Jade said, hoping if he thought Jade didn't know her, she'd become unimportant. He'd focus on her instead, leaving Mia alone. She was innocent after all.

It had worked before when Mom was alive, Jade thought, clenching her hands so tightly the nails bit into the flesh of her palms. The pain chased the sadness as he came toward her, dumping Mia at his feet.

Jade didn't watch his approach, instead she watched Mia's eyes fill with emotion.

Desperation.

And underneath that, horror.

Jade closed her eyes in defeat.

*

Skopamish

A dull bell sounded and the Chief of the Skopamish heard it as if through a vast lake. Water rippling in all directions. The sound of it washing over him in deepest slumber. He stirred, remembering his duty, something important lay outside this time, this consciousness.

His eyes snapped open and he was greeted by a darkness so complete it was black velvet that caressed his mind, his soul. He breathed and dirt filled his mouth and with it the smell of rich earth reached him.

"Master," his mind breathed, remembering that which called him.

He rose, his body seeping through the dirt as through a sieve, solid yet porous, he flowed through the soil which held him as he rested. He departed his grave, the fresh air moving against his skin like a warsong.

He spit the earth that lay upon his tongue onto the sodden ground at his feet.

He rested no longer. He was needed.

The one who owned death. Transcended death, needed him.

He would come, as would his warrior brethren.

He had burst out of the earth amongst strange dwellings that had fires that did not burn brightly.

He turned his gaze to his brothers, they nodded in recognition, readying their weapons for battle.

Their master had given the battle call.

The warriors of the Skopamish were ready.

With a shrill cry they ran with sure feet to where the master fought to recover a woman of the tribe. His intent was as clear to them as if he spoke it.

The Chief of the Skopamish clutched his tomahawk tighter as he ran.

The blade was soon to be wet with the blood of the enemy.

CHAPTER 20

"Hart!" Buddy yelled at me as I came closer. I didn't even pause. Jade's name beat like a pulse in my skull. I couldn't think for its rhythm.

"Listen to me," he said, his crouch defensive. "I don't want to fight you," his voice sincere.

I straightened, never taking my eyes off him. Sensei would have been proud.

He did too, the fighting of the other boys around us the backdrop to our words.

"Jade's in trouble and you dickheads showed up. She could be in there now! Her dad... " I began but he interrupted me, "I know man. Brett told me."

My eyes leveled on his. "True?"

His shoulders relaxed. "Yeah, let's go get her."

Effing finally, a break.

Then the Skopamish showed up. Their chests heaving, rotting eyes like dull raisins in their skulls. Their eyes found mine like a witching wand seeking water.

"We have answered," The chief said, his tomahawk a dull silver in the late afternoon, the last of the sun winking off the metal like a fallen star.

"Caleb!" I heard someone scream for me and didn't immediately recognize the voice.

I ran past Diego and Bry in an embrace that would have been funny if I could have seen past the blood. Jonesy and Carson were heaving their guts out, having whaled on each other so bad they were puking. It was Archer and Alex that had stayed by Sophie and Tiff... like unlikely guards.

I tore past them, the Skopamish flanking me like soldiers.

In a way, they were.

They were mine, the rightness of their presence a balm to my shredded nerves. I came through the gate and Brett was at the door, jerking on the knob.

"It's fucking locked, Hart!"

And beyond that locked door, I could hear Jade screaming.

One wailing shriek on top of another.

A burning began in my feet and rose to my head in a rush of heat that engulfed my body. As if from a distance, I heard the shrill cry of the warriors at my back, the sound of the daggers escaping their sheathing a crisp metallic song behind me.

Seized by inspiration I shrilled Archer's name, "Lewis!" I bellowed.

He sprinted, graceful and fluid. He could have been the star on the track team I thought wildly, with a touch of shock.

"Yeah!" he screamed at me as he ran.

"The door!" I hollered.

Thank God he was smart.

His hand went right to the knob and it gave under his command like a key turned in a lock, cut to fit.

He swung the door open and we flowed through en masse.

*

Jade

Jade lifted her head, feeling like it weighed a thousand pounds and looked at the group when they burst through the door out of her one good eye. Her dad had kicked her with his boots until her side was numb. She knew she had broken ribs.

She could tell. If she could protect her body for just a little longer he'd get tired.

Beating someone was hard work, she thought dreamily, shock taking up residence for the duration.

Three someones, if you count Mia, Jade thought as her lucidity began to desert her.

She took in Caleb as he came through the threshold and his eyes pierced hers, his protectiveness and concern for her something her Empath skills felt as if he'd touched her. Jade guessed that their connection was deep enough for that now. She was grateful beyond words. But she was tired.

Jade decided it was time to sleep, her defensive strength leaving her finally. Caleb was here.

It would be okay, she thought as her vision turned from fuzzy to dim... then finally, it became blissfully black.

Jade sunk into the uneasy unconsciousness of abuse. Her body struggled to neutralize the injuries inflicted on it.

No small feat.

*

Caleb

I saw Jade slip away before my eyes, the Skopamish getting the play by play on a direct circuit to my emotions. There was no holding back when your girl was a broken doll at the feet of her own father.

Pure rage surged through me and I thought I reacted quickly, but Brett was already at her side, having been two steps ahead of me.

I should have seen that flash of metal sooner but my eyes were trained on Jade and I didn't notice until it was too late.

LeClerc held a knife up high above his head, a deadly arc, making its way toward Brett. Brett evacuated its twin from somewhere in the folds of his hoodie. His fist held the hilt and he came up as LeClerc came down. The blades intersected each other.

Intent formed in my mind before I was aware and the chief surged forward, his feather bouncing as he leaped at the pair.

LeClerc's blade sunk to the hilt in the side of my zombie who didn't even flinch. His hand was already moving fluidly, the tomahawk an extension of it. His arm was a thing of fluid grace that had been many times practiced.

Brett sunk the blade into LeClerc's belly, LeClerc wore an almost comical expression of dull surprise. As my zombie shifted his weight away from the side compromised by the blade he sunk the cutting edge of his tomahawk into LeClerc's thick skull.

It joined the blade that Brett had used to gut him, the mother of pearl hilt gleamed dully in the bluish white light of the LED's that lit the room. The knife made a grotesque ornament protruding out of his fleshy belly. LeClerc fell like a bowling pin. His body lay beside Jade's. The chief of the Skopamish put his moccasined heel against LeClerc's hitching chest and with a practiced jerk, the meat of the metal slid out of his skull.

My zombie looked at me, his death gaze steady.

What could I do? He'd done well. I nodded in appreciation.

He'd killed for me. He'd murdered LeClerc.

The war cry sounded, his tomahawk raised high in the air in triumph, blood and thicker bits clinging to it.

Brain matter.

Death sung around me and my head snapped to attention. A new thread had begun to weave with the Indians.

Jade was dying.

I ran to where she lay, sliding like I was hitting home base, her head in Brett's lap.

I could feel her death like a stale metallic taste on my tongue.

Not Jade! My mind screamed.

"Do something Caleb!" Sophie yelled.

Bry ran over. "Hang on dude, the medics are coming."

I looked at him, my hand on Jade's chest, her pulse thready. "Did ya think to get an Organic?"

He nodded once.

Maybe there was time. I didn't want to tie her to me... like Onyx was.

I looked around, catching Mia's battered face looking back at Brett. His face told me something.

"What do ya need, Hart?" No guile, all business.

I couldn't ask, I didn't have the right.