Ruined

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Sam

Jax flew across the room before I could stop him. Hank, who was chatting up a leggy brunette in a red leather miniskirt by the door, must have caught wind of him. The demon froze mid-sentence, looked up, and bolted into the crowd just as Jax hit the dance floor.

“Shit,” I spat. The bottle of gin slipped from my hand and rattled to the bar. I ducked out from behind the counter and sprinted after them. By the time I reached the other side of the room, both men had been swallowed by the crowd.

I started across the dance floor, knocking into people with each step. Angry shouts and colorful words came from every direction as I plowed through the center, but as I reached the edge of the crowd, it all started to blur. Like I’d just stepped off a merry-go-round set on superspeed, colors swirled together, people on the dance floor becoming a single, shapeless blob. I reached out and caught hold of something—someone—as a vicious wave of vertigo washed through the room.

“He’ll never catch me,” the same voice I’d heard at Sadie’s cooed inside my head, followed by a dark laugh.

“No,” I whispered, continuing forward. I hadn’t had anything to drink. I hadn’t been to sleep.

“Come to me,” the demon demanded. “Walk right out the front door.”

Turn around and walk back to the bar. That’s what I needed to do. What I wanted to do. But my limbs had other ideas. The command was like an industrial-size rubber band snapping against my will. One foot in front of the other, I wove through the rest of the crowd and approached the door, every step a war between my mind and body.

The cold night air stung my skin and the sounds of the club faded as I stepped onto the sidewalk. After a few moments, the only thing that was left was the sound my shoes made as they pounded the walkway. Clop. Clop. Clop.

“Sam?”

Thank God. Jax. Jax was here. He could stop me. Footsteps sped up behind, my pace never slowing. No. Not Jax. Way too noisy.

“Sam! It’s me.”

“Chase! Hurry,” I called over my shoulder. “I can’t stop.”

He caught up and jumped into my path. I simply stepped around and kept walking. “What’s wrong? Where are you going? And where’s Jax?”

“He took off after Hank, but I think something’s wrong. He’s in my head. Forcing me to—”

“He’s controlling you?” he asked, surprised. He tried stepping into my path again, but I pushed him away and continued, undeterred. Chase cursed. “Okay. Forget the logistics. We need to stop this.”

“Not sure what you have in mind. Other than throwing me over your shoulder, I don’t see how you can stop this.”

He chuckled. “Excellent idea.”

One minute I was walking, casual but determined, the next my feet were off the ground and the world tilted sideways.

“How’s that?”

I held my breath. The desire to keep walking was still there, but I didn’t feel the need to kick and scream to get down. Score! But it only solved one problem. “We need to find Jax.”

“Agreed, but let’s get you someplace safe first. I don’t think my brother would be thrilled to know you walked off to meet a demon. Dude might get jealous. Any ideas?”

I thought about it for a minute. How long would this last? And would it get worse? Chase couldn’t hold on to me all night. Then I had an idea. “Kelly’s house. There’s a pair of handcuffs we can use.”

Chase whistled, and I felt his shoulders shake with a laugh. “You in handcuffs? Oh, I’m definitely game for that,” he said, and swiveled toward the parking lot.

“Are you okay?” he asked. The expression on his face was apologetic, and I thought about making a bondage joke, but decided against it. Chase had a habit of taking things a little too literally and that was the last thing I needed right now. Him grabby and me in chains. The only thing that would top that would be Jax walking in on another kiss. Kelly had been talking about repainting the walls, but somehow I didn’t think bloodred was really her thing. “Are these too tight?”

I twisted my wrist in the cuff. He’d secured my right hand with one side, and clipped the other end to the radiator. “As long as it keeps me here where I’m safe, then I’m good.”

“Should try Jax again. Maybe we should use your cell?” We’d tried three times to reach him on the way over. There’d been no answer. If Hank was in my head, that meant that either Jax had been hurt, or he hadn’t caught up to the demon. Either way, it equaled trouble.

“Can’t. Mine’s gone.”

“You don’t have it on you?”

“I don’t have it, period. It ended up at the bottom of the river. Don’t ask…”

He shrugged and pulled out his own cell, turning toward the door to make the call. The sound the phone made as he pushed the buttons echoed through the room. After a minute, Chase shook his head and snapped it closed. No luck. He looked as worried as I felt. They bickered and clashed, but underneath it, the Flynn brothers loved each other. “Maybe I should go look for him.”

“Yeah,” I said with a roll of my eyes. That would complete my craptastic week. Jax and Chase ripping each other to shreds while I sat chained in my aunt’s house. “Great plan. Go in search of the guy who wants to rip your heart out. Lemme know how that turns out for ya.”

He frowned again and set down his cell. “Good point. After all this time, you’re still crazy about him, aren’t you? All this crap that’s happened is technically his fault, and you really do still want him to stay.”

I didn’t want to talk about this. Not with him and definitely not now, but avoiding it wasn’t going to change things. Nothing would. “Doesn’t really matter. He doesn’t want me enough to stay.”

He shook his head. “I don’t agree with the thing you two have going. I never agreed with it. Jax is volatile and dangerous and I was always worried about him snapping on you. But he does love you. Don’t think he doesn’t.”

“Sometimes it’s just not enough, I guess.” I’d lived after he left last time and I’d live again. He was a guy, right? There were plenty of those walking around out there.

The front door rattled.

“Jax?” I called, breath held.

Chase jumped from the chair and waved like a lunatic. “Shh,” he whispered, frantic. “If you’re linked to this thing, maybe it can track you down, too.”

Well, crap. I hadn’t even thought about that.

He crept toward the door, staying away from the windows. He’d almost reached the other end of the room when it burst open and a tall figure stepped into the light.

Hank.

“Look out!” I pulled against the restraints, digging into my pocket in a frantic search to find the key. Only I couldn’t. I’d insisted that Chase take it just to be on the safe side.

Hank’s head snapped up and his eyes zeroed in on me. There was a spark of madness there. A feral, violent gleam, and in that moment, I wondered how I’d never seen it before. How could you hide that?

He started forward. Thankfully he didn’t get far. Chase jumped behind him, half-full bottle of Kelly’s favorite wine in hand, and swung hard. The sound it made as it shattered across the back of Hank’s head, along with the muffled thud his body made as it crumpled to the ground, was a symphony of relief to my ears.

Chase shuffled toward me, eyes wide and brushing tiny bits of glass from his sleeve. “You okay?”

“Me?” I laughed. “You’re the one who went Rambo on a demon’s ass. Quick. Unlock these before he wakes up. We have to find Jax.”

He nodded and slipped the key from his front pocket. There was the tiniest blush in his cheeks. “Aw, shucks, ma’am. It was nothing.”

I stepped away from the wall, rubbing my wrist and glad to be free. “Tell you what, I’ve officially decided I’m not into the whole bondage scene.”

He took my hand. “Well, that’s a shame. I hear—”

That’s when it hit me. Or rather, it hadn’t hit me. “Something’s wrong.”

Chase, growing pale, spun back around to check on Hank. When he didn’t move, he turned back to me, confused. “I don’t get it. He’s down for the count. What could be wrong?”

“Exactly. He’s down for the count. If we’re linked, he’d be standing and I’d be down.”

Chase considered it for a moment. “Well, maybe you weren’t linked? Maybe he attacked you, but didn’t do this link thing?”

“Impossible. I heard the thing in my head,” I said, peering around him to look at Hank. He was still and bleeding from a nasty-looking gash on the back of his head. I knotted my fingers through my hair, working them across my scalp. Not a scratch. From what Heckle said, there should definitely be something there. “I didn’t walk out of that club on my own. I was forced.”

“So you’re saying he’s not the one who fed from you?”

“Sammy!” Jax appeared in the doorway. He looked down at Hank and frowned.

At the sight of him, relief washed through me and a weight equal to a Volvo lifted from my chest. “Jax! Thank God.” I dragged Chase across the room and stopped a few feet from where Hank lay. The faint rise and fall of his back indicated he wasn’t dead. “He found us. Chase got him, but I don’t think he’s—”

“Sammy,” Jax repeated, this time softer. There was fear in his eyes. A kind of terror I’d only seen once or twice in all the time I’d known him. His gaze alternated between me and Chase as the fingers of his left hand twitched. “I need you to do something for me. No questions. No arguments.”

“What—”

“Come here. Walk to me.”

Chase stepped in front of me, and with a squeeze of his hand, shook his head. “Wait a sec.” Turning to Jax, he said, “What’s going on?”

Jax ignored him. “Sutton wasn’t the demon. Do you really think my brother would have been able to knock him out so easily if he were?” He came a step closer. “Please, Sammy. Come to me.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you. Hank followed us here, but when Chase hit him, I didn’t feel a thing. I don’t think he’s the one I’m linked to.”

I tried to go to Jax, but Chase’s grip tightened around my arm. He was pale and looked just as worried. “Samantha, wait. Something’s wrong here.”

“I know,” I snapped. Jesus. Were they deaf? “Have either of you been listening to me?”

Jax inched closer. The look on his face was terrifying. Furious. Eyes trained on Chase, he said, “I’m listening, Sammy. But now you need to listen to me. Sutton isn’t the demon. He isn’t even a demon. It’s my brother. He’s the one you’re linked to.”

Chase’s fingers twitched around my arm, then tightened. He was shaking his head. “You’ve finally lost it, Jax. You’re not making any sense.”

Jax’s expression didn’t falter—neither did his pace. Slow and determined. “You’re like me. Tainted. You’ve got a demon as well.”

“I’m human, Jax. You know that.”

But Jax shook his head. “All this time, it was you.” His eyes darkened and his posture changed. Combative, tense, and ready to fight. “You attacked Sammy that night of the party. That’s why I didn’t smell another demon. You’ve never had a scent. What about all those girls that went missing? Did you feed from them? Kill them?”

This was insane. Chase was a letch, but a killer? There wasn’t a chance in hell. I listened to their exchange, slightly detached and wondering if maybe the whole thing was one long, surreal nightmare. Any minute now I’d wake up, safe and sound in my dorm room at Huntington. The attack would never have happened. The car would be parked outside—minus the seaweed. And Jax… Jax had never come back to town. That was it. This entire bad dream was my mind’s twisted way of dealing with lingering feelings for someone who had left me behind three years ago.

I probably would have gone right on believing that—if not for the fact that Chase yanked me backward, laughing like a maniac.

“Oh well. Looks like ya got me. Surprised, brother? And I have a scent. All demons do. It’s just not traceable by you.”

All the breath rushed from my lungs and I had to concentrate in order to remember how to breathe. Simple thing, breathing. Normally an involuntary process. Now, though? My body seemed incapable. “Chase?”

“Shh,” he soothed, patting my shoulder like someone would a scared animal. Despite having several very colorful replies on the tip of my tongue, I complied and swallowed my retort. Turning his attention back to Jax, Chase snickered. “I gotta know, man. How did you figure it out?”

My head was spinning. “But, Hank. What about Hank? Why would he run—show up here and attack me—if he wasn’t—”

Chase rolled his eyes. “I was controlling him. Obviously.” He turned back to Jax. “Now, you were saying?”

“It was something one of Azirak’s demons said. About the one who was after me biding their time. It got me thinking. You’re a selfish fuck, Chase. You always have been. You pushed too hard to keep me here, feeding me shit about it being for Sam’s sake. I don’t know why I didn’t see it. You think too much of yourself to ever admit you couldn’t take care of her on your own. Then I started thinking about the attack at Huntington. How I never smelled the demon—”

“We can’t track each other by scent. Part of the rules, man.”

“I didn’t know for sure. Not till I walked in and saw Sutton down and Sam still standing.”

“I’m sure you have a ton of questions.”

Jax was the very definition of darkness in that moment. I’d seen him bend and twist, failing countless times to control his anger, yet now, there was an eerie peace. The calm before the storm. Like those few minutes right before hell broke loose when the trees were still and the water was like glass. “How long?”

“All my life—same as you.”

“That’s impossible.”

“It’s not. Just ask my link.” Chase laughed again and gave my arm a good shake.

Jax gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. “So why not kill me sooner? If you’ve had the demon all your life, same as me, why wait?”

“I had to be sure I’d win. The demons inside don’t really reach their full potential until they’ve festered in a human for twenty years.” He clapped his hands together. “We’re aged up nice and good now, bro. Time to settle up.”

Jax paled.

“Seriously, if you hadn’t spent the last three years of your life brewing in your own pity party, you would have seen the truth.”

“And what truth might that be?”

“That this isn’t a curse. It’s a gift.” He let go of my arm and commanded, “Stay.” To his brother, he said, “The demon is power, Jax. Unbelievable power.”

Jax was quiet for a minute. Underneath the darkness in his expression I could see the pain. He’d always been at war with Chase in one way or another, but he loved his brother. Loved him so much that to keep him safe, he’d given up everything. When Jax spoke again, there was an air of determination in his tone. “I don’t know how this happened, but we can figure it out. Take back control. We don’t have to go at each other. Not like this.”

Chase laughed. A horrible sound that made me want to cover my ears. Not human. Not demon. “Take control? I never lost it! Unlike you, I embraced my destiny. My demon and I are in perfect sync.” He nodded over his shoulder and said, “While you were running away from your true nature, I embraced my calling with open arms. I guess it just comes down to the fact that I’m simply stronger. Always have been.”

“Stronger?” Jax’s eyes darted from his brother to me, then back again. “You mean weaker. Strength would have been to resist. To fight. You caved like a little bitch.”

“Aren’t you the happy little hypocrite. You’ve got blood on those digits, same as me, bro. Don’t pretend otherwise.”

“I’m no saint,” Jax agreed. The pain in his voice almost destroyed me. “But I don’t—never have and never will—kill.”

“News flash for you, Jax. You will. You’ll have to, because in our particular situation, it’s kill or be killed.”

“What situation might that be?”

Chase grinned. The expression that used to make me smile now made me sick. “We’re at war. We’re bound to these weak, pathetic human bodies until one of us makes the other bleed. You and me, man? We’re the key to it all.”