Emma and Travis were on the couch looking like the wanted to be anywhere but in a room full of people. They were so cute together. It was gagging.
Lexi was stretched on the lounge admiring her painted pink toenails with Hayden perched on the arm. I wasn’t really sure what was going on between them. She hardly ever talked about him as more than just a friend, yet they went out to dinner, movies and other things that would constitute as dating. I should probably get the lo-down on what my best friend was doing with Hayden.
Craig and Sierra sat across from Chase and I. Sierra glared at me with hateful, piercing daggers. She looked ready to tear me to teeny tiny pieces. Thank God there was a coffee table between us.
A week had come and gone since I’d returned from my abduction. Things slowly returned to normal, a feeling of security just started to make itself a home in my heart again. Emma had yet to face her father’s wrath. She had been camping out at Travis’s. Wink. Wink. Everyday he drove her to and from school. If Travis had it his way, she wouldn’t have gone at all.
Emma was entirely different person. One I actually liked. One I could actually call a friend. Since we both had overbearing, overprotective badass half-demons as boyfriends, it brought us closer.
I was blown away by her transformation though. It was hard for me to imagine what she went through at the hands of her dad. There was softness to her round face. Her body was still disciplined and totally banging (that I was completely jealous of), not from dancing but a brutal workout regimen. That was one thing that had stuck. She had offered to train me, and I had regretfully declined. Then Chase had piped in and how he thought that it was a bad idea, which in turn so made me want to say yes.
Some habits die hard, even for me and I hadn’t been brainwashed for a year.
During this meeting, everyone talked at once; they talked over each other until Chase took charge. Through some unknown method to me, they had gotten wind that the hunters were going to be storming the Winters’ house. Soon. And by hunters, that included Emma’s dad as the leader. I doubted my escape sat well with totally-lost-my-marbles Mr. Deen. That and his daughter was missing.
“Angel, we have to do this,” his words came back to me.
I understood that he had to do something – some form of retaliation or it would just be the same shit different day. Or different hostage. “I know. I just wish it could be different.”
“Look princess,” Sierra sneered. She was back to being my #1 hater. “Why don’t you stop wishing and let us handle the dirty work. Actually, why are you here?” She leaned back and propped her spiked heels on the coffee table straight at me.
I totally took that as a threat. She was ready to stake me with her Louie Vuittons. What I would give to be able to ripe the redheaded locks from her head.
“She is coming with us,” Chase stated before I could slash her with a witty rebuttal. His hand feathered out on my stomach, causing my muscles to jump under his touch.
“You’re joking. Please tell me you are joking. She will just get in the way. I am not getting shot with arrows because of her,” Sierra went again, flapping her yap.
I had the overwhelming urge to sew her black cherry mouth shut. The idea made the corner of my lift.
Chase’s fingers flexed on my belly. “She goes. Or you go without me. I am not leaving her behind, and I am sure as heck not going to let her out of my sight. Not for one second. End. Of. Story.” There was absolutely no room for argument in his statement.
“You’re pathetic,” Sierra hissed outraged. Her eyes deepened, beginning to loose their hazel color.
“But at least he’s consistent,” Craig added, opening his big trap beside Sierra.
That last thing we needed was division. It was no secret how the rest of the group felt about me, but it didn’t sting any less. Their refusal to let me be a part of this was putting a major dent into my becoming a badass…uhh something. Hey, a girl could dream.
“Before her, you actually had balls,” Sierra taunted.
Chase stiffened behind to me. I could feel the muscles in his legs tighten. “Save it for the field big guy,” I whispered for his ears only.
Lexi, always the voice of reason in an otherwise heated group. “You guy knock it off. It makes no sense to argue amongst ourselves. We need a plan to stop them now, before it’s too late.”
Finally. Someone who got the seriousness of our current predicament.
And then things got…interesting.
Tactical maneuvers where tossed around like hotcakes. Papers were strewn around the room with stick figures, chicken scratch, and the worse drawings in history. It looked like a football playbook, and I didn’t understand a word of it. Through most of the bantering I just sat back and absorbed in wonder at the inner workings of this odd group. We were all brought together with a common goal, to survive and get rid of the hunters.