Page 81 of Kill Me Sweetly

“Don’t fucking drop him.” As carefully as I could, so as to not cause more damage, I hoisted JJ up. He was deadweight. It was a good thing Gabe was strong enough to lift JJ out, because this wouldn’t have worked otherwise.

I climbed up as soon as JJ was through. A bullet flew by me, but I was able to cover the manhole in time.

Four was standing outside the vehicle, staring at JJ as Mason and Gabe tried to get him into the back seat. I was so worried about JJ, I didn’t hear anyone behind us…but Four did, and he pulled the gun from my waist. I spun and watched as he took down five people in a row in quick succession. When there were no bullets left, he threw the gun at the head of another, jumped on him, and tore his throat out with his bare teeth.Holy fucking shit.

“He’s in…what the…” Gabe came next to me. “Four, let’s go. JJ needs help.”

That was all he needed to hear. All of them dead, Four raced to the car and slid in, lifting JJ’s legs and resting them on his lap.

I did the same but with JJ’s head. “Go,” I yelled as soon at the doors shut, and Mason peeled out of there.

Ideally, I would have wanted Angel to take care of JJ but one, we were too far, and two, he needed more care than Angel could provide.

“There are clothes in the trunk,” Mason said. “I’ll get JJ into the hospital. You two change and meet me when you’re cleaned up. Four, if you want to stay here, you can.”

“I go with JJ. Must protect him.” His speech was stilted again. It was as though he were in a trancelike state.

“Okay, but you’ll need to change too. You have blood dripping from your mouth, and I don’t think they allow vampires in there.”

Four nodded. “I’ll go in with Gabe and Shep. Get JJ in for help.”

“Will do.” Mason nodded.

We were at the hospital in under four minutes. Mason ran inside and got help. I gave JJ a quick kiss on the forehead and slipped out of the car, grabbed the go bag from the trunk, and we ran to a discreet place to clean up and change.

When we were done, we met Mason in the waiting room.

“How is he?”

Mason’s smile was full of sadness. “I don’t know. They took him through the doors, but they won’t know anything right away.”

“Harper Reese was nowhere to be found in there. He’s the head of the snake, and he has to die.” I clenched my fist. “If I have to storm his ivory tower and beat him to death with a paperweight, I will.”

“Oh, my God.” Mason pointed, and I followed the direction. On the screen was someone wearing a plain black mask and a hoodie. Their voice was altered, but I knew it was Noel.

“May I have your attention, please? I’m interrupting your program for the real news. What I’m about to share will jar you. This is information no one ever wanted you to know. An organization known as the Alabastrine Consortium has been adopting children from the Portland Orphanage and the Striker Orphanage and raising them to become deadly weapons. Boys have a life of murder, and girls are trained to be the perfect wives to the rich and famous. All of this is led by a well-known man you all have heard of. Harper Reese.” He cocked his head. “Don’t believe me? Check out this footage.”

The video from JJ’s camera of Harper strangling him began to play. Confessions poured out of the man whose face was red, filled with anger as he tried to snuff the life out of the one person I loved most in the world.

When the video ended, Noel appeared again.

“Law enforcement is in their pocket—likely higher-ups. They don’t want you to know what is happening to the forgotten children of the world, but I do. Something needs to be done to save our children from this kind of life. Rise up with me and rage! Harper Reese, your days are numbered.”

The video ended, and the news program came back on. The reporters were, of course, scrambling, and no doubt every researcher was running around.

It was out there in the world. I had to hope with the release of Noel’s video, Harper and his merry posse of psychopaths would focus on that instead of us for a while.

Hours passed. Light turned to dark. By this point in time, every station was repeating Noel’s video. Everyone in the hospital was talking about it, but I couldn’t care. Until I knew how JJ was, nothing else mattered to me.

I didn’t know how long we’d sat there, but finally a doctor came in. I rushed over.

“Are you JJ’s doctor?”

“Jaxon?” he asked.

“Yes, and we’re family. I’m his partner.”

The doctor, whose jacket read Dr. Jeremy Kaiser, didn’t smile. He looked downright somber.

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