Page 44 of Jackal's Pride

Jackal’s eyes darted away from mine momentarily. When he looked back, a harsh, judgmental glint was there. “What am I supposed to think? I haven’t seen a person in thousands of years, and then you storm in, and place a collar around my neck. Next thing I know you’re fighting and killing other demons in a cage made of bones for the fun of it. Do you honestly expect me to not question why you’re trying to save humans, especially when I know you’re fated to die?”

Disappointment rocked me. Instead of letting Jackal see the effect his words had on me, I averted my gaze and gave a fake laugh. “The ring is not the only place I’ve taken a life. Many demons have died by my blades. Lives that are better off not existing. Think what you want but know one thing. Even if our lives weren’t on the line, we would still be rushing to help the human world. Not because we need them. It’s what we do. It’s who we are.” I turned to leave but couldn’t stop myself from pausing. “You know what? Fuck you, Jack. You’re the fucking Jackal and you dare judge me for who I am when you’ve only ever taken lives with your plagues? Yeah, I do shitty things but I do a lot of good while I’m at it.” I jabbed his chest with my finger. “Sure you didn’t have a heart. You couldn’tfeel,” I muttered in mockery as I poked toward his head. “But you had a brain, and you didn’t use it.”

“Maureen.” I didn’t want to see his face. Somehow, he’d managed to get underneath my skin. Those emotions he spoke of that he couldn’t understand? Well, he’d somehow hurt mine.

I faded, thankful I didn’t get to hear whatever he had to say next. When I arrived in the human world, it was worse than what I’d imagined. Ten tornadoes were poised to sweep simultaneously across the same area. It was unheard of, and the event would go down in human history. The end approaching would be a vicious cycle of occurrences like this happening all over the world until the Devil finally broke free from his hellish prison.

I was the first of my siblings to appear. Correction—I only thought I was. I saw Barron peering up into the sky, observing the eerie quiet before the storm. There was no smiling when I saw him. There was never any sense of peace when trying to protect lives. We came here to defend lives, but that didn’t mean we would save them all.

“Bar—”

Something cold pressed around my neck. It wasn’t the weight that was heavy, but something else. Like it tugged against my insides, maybe even my soul. Then after that came his scent as his head dipped down to my collarbone and grabbed my waist from behind. “I’ve been waiting on a distraction. Looks like I’ve finally found one.”

His words put equal dread and malice in my bones. “I’ll kill you,Gavin,like I should have done long ago.”

He laughed as he rubbed my stomach. “You have no say in my death. Actually, you have no say at all.”

The collar pressed down on me. He was right. Gripping the portal chip, he ported us away from where I needed to be. And as Barron continued his observation of the sky, a chill ran through me. My brother hadn’t sensed me. If that was the case, I was at the mercy of Gavin’s will until they were finished in the human world.

Chapter 16

Barron

Something didn’t feel right.

And it wasn’t that there were ten massive tornadoes about to sweep across the area. That was bad, but that wasn’t the reason for the pinch in my gut. The inkling that someone needed me. I always felt that way though. Never settled. Never at peace. I didn’t trust the shadows, not even mine. But I lived in them. I watched and waited.

I stood on flat land that went on for miles, but I clearly saw all those houses in the distance. Beyond that, stood a small hick town. My skin crawled as I heard the laughter ringing in my ears. Miles away kids played. And this was what I hated—my inability to be the calm before the storm. I wasn’t the mute darkness before every bad storm. I was what lived in the chaos that followed.

Like my mind, my heart and my body were chaotic and filled with wrath. Even when I was quiet and apparently calm, I wasn’t. I was always on the edge of the cliff, dangling on a rope hundreds of feet in the sky.

And those children laughing brought on my rage. They didn’t get warnings like we did. The news couldn’t tell them of what was to come when they did not know it was coming. This wasn’t a normal weather pattern. It likely wouldn’t show for them until it was already upon the town.

I stood in the grassy field staring up at the sky, trying to figure out how one could fight off the weather. How did we save people that weren’t meant to die today? I was comfortable with death. After all, I was a Reaper. I guided people to their afterlife. Sometimes I was the one that killed and sent them down below.

But not in this way. Natural disasters were a part of life, but there was nothing natural about this catastrophe. It was brought on by the shit storm Harvest created.

Everyone had a death date. But all these lives were about to be cut short. And I couldn’t tolerate that. But the more irritated I was, the greater the risk of my curse coming out. I had to be careful, but more often than not, I wasn’t.

I stiffened and caught a whiff of a certain smell that wasn’t human. I sniffed the air, turning my head in the direction it came from, but there was nothing. I couldn’t tell whose scent it was, but it smelled familiar and left a foul taste in my mouth. The only thing I could be certain of was it came from someone I didn’t like.

“Are you the only one that’s shown up yet?” Sebastian faded next to me, staring up in the sky the same way I had been doing. Next to him was his tiny girlfriend who happened to be a very powerful witch. She was the reason all this happened. She was also the very reason we had more time before the end of the world happened. “I brought back-up.” Sebastian smiled sheepishly down at Isabella while lacing their fingers together.

I grunted. “Maureen’s not here yet.”

“That’s strange,” Sebastian said.

Joy and Kitty faded in together, followed by our parents with Payne. August and Prudence were the last to show, and I was still waiting on Maureen when Joy said, “Where’s Maureen?”

Something wasn’t right. “She should be here,” I grumbled.

“It’s not normal for her not to show up before most of us,” Payne added.

“We shouldn’t have left her with Jackal.” My lungs burned as I spoke.

“Barron,” it was my father that spoke. He stepped over and gripped my shoulder. “Focus. We can’t have you raging out. It’s going to take all of us, especially if Maureen isn’t here.”

That didn’t make me feel better. Thinking of Jackal doing something to her turned my insides to thorns. “I’m going to go get her.”

---