"Is there anything we can do for them?"
"Yeah. Stop Coyote."
That was much easier said than done.
Jess took them to the carwash and pulled inside. She started to ask him what he was doing when all of a sudden, the doors closed, sealing them in. The mountain lion slammed into the door, but couldn't reach them through the tough plastic.
Waving his hand, Jess appeared to make the water come on.
The wasps around their car went crazy as they were sprayed.
Her heart lightened. It was a brilliant idea. They were going to drown the wasps.
Laughing, she turned to Jess and kissed him on the cheek. "You're a genius!"
"Ah now, don't be going on like that. I might actually think you like me, and where would we be then?"
He was right. That was even more terrifying than being assaulted by killer wasps and angry mountain lions. And as that thought went through her head, she was struck with another realization.
"You have telekinesis."
He nodded. "A little, but it's not always reliable."
"How so?"
"I've had a few mishaps with it. I used to try and control it more, but after an embarrassing incident, I learned to leave it be."
This she wanted to hear. "What embarrassing incident?"
He actually blushed. "Really don't want to share or relive it. Suffice it to say, it learned me a thing or two that I've never forgotten."
All righty, then. She leaned back in the seat while the water and suds took care of their menace for them. It slid the wasps around and made a nice thick ick on the ground. And as she sat there watching them go down the drains and fall away, the horror of her actions hit her fully.
She'd killed a friend tonight.
And she'd lost her family.
I'm alone. But it was so much worse than that ...
Jess felt her sadness as if it were inside him. He watched her in the dim light while emotions flitted across her face and darkened her eyes. "It'll be all right." He tried to reassure her.
She shook her head in denial. "No. Everything I've ever known. Everything I've been told by the people I loved was a lie." She held her hand up, grateful it was human and not demon, and yet she knew the truth..... "I let them mix me with a demon and my adoptive brother did the same, too. I don't know what I am now. I don't know what he is. It was all so clear before. Kill you. Avenge my parents, and then protect my family and the Apollites and humans from the Dark-Hunters." A single tear went down her cheek as she met his gaze. "I'm a monster, Jess. I've destroyed myself."
Those words tugged at his heart and reminded him of the day he'd come to that same realization. It was so hard to see the truth in yourself.
Harder still to face it.
"You're not a monster, Abby. Confused, I'll give you. But not a monster. Believe me. I've seen those enough to know."
"Yeah, right."
He cupped her cheek and turned her head to face him so that she could see his sincerity. "Look at me, Abby. I know what it's like to wake up every single day, angry at the world. Angry at God and humanity for what they've done to you and to want to make them pay for it. To feel like the entire world sees you as nothing but its whipping boy. Like you, my mother died when I was a little kid. She was the only thing good I had. The only one who'd ever made me feel like I was human. My father hated me, and he never hid that fact from anyone. He took his own anger at the world out on me, and it left a lot of scars, inside and out. To this day, I can still hear him and that hatred in my head, trying to poison my thoughts. Trying to poison me. I ran away from home after he almost killed me. Thirteen, I was. I tried to find decent work or someplace to stay and call home. What I found out was that people like to kick others when they're down, even when they're just kids. They get a sick thrill out of it. Makes them feel big and powerful while it destroys the heart and soul of their unfortunate victim."
He swallowed as some of his harshest lessons resurfaced and he saw the faces of those who'd wronged him. But this wasn't about him-it was about her.
"I learned human decency is probably the rarest creature out there. And I couldn't find anyone who didn't want to take advantage of me or hurt me even worse than my pa had. And it hardened me even more. By the time I was sixteen, that poison had rotted me from the inside out. It colored everything about me. I justified what I did to other people by reminding myself of how they'd treated me. They deserved whatever I did to them. Do unto others before they do unto you."
"You became a killer."
He nodded. "Until the day I killed a boy, thinking he was a man. He'd wanted to avenge his pa, and for the first time in my life, I saw someone else capable of love and sacrifice. Believe it or not, it was something I hadn't seen except from my mother. And as stupid as it sounds, I'd convinced myself that it was unique to her and that no one else had it in them. But after that, I saw the difference between love and loyalty. Most of all, I saw what I'd become. What my hatred had turned me into."
His dark gaze was filled with torment. "Don't talk to me about monsters. I was one of the worst."
A few days ago, she'd have agreed completely. Hell, a few hours ago, she'd have agreed. Now ...
"You told me you never killed a woman or child."
"Just that one time, and I never got over it. One stupid mistake that has lived with me every day since. Bart told me I was an idiot to let it bother me. Better he give up the ghost than I be the one lying in a grave. But that boy didn't give up the ghost. Not really. It followed me from town to town, and no matter what I did, I couldn't escape it. Until the day a beautiful woman smiled at me. She didn't see the ugliness I kept inside. For the first time in my life, she saw the man I wanted to be, and she helped me to find him. Because of her, I learned that, yeah, people are selfish assholes for the most part, but not everyone is. That there are some rare beings out there who will help others and not abuse them. People who really don't want anything from you."