The Last Hero (Villains & Monsters #2)

Chapter 17

Small, small chapter here.

- Late February, 2046 - (Three months ago)

He was crying again. Not from the physical pain of someone violently taking revenge, but the emotional pain that came from memories he so desperately wanted to forget. He was shaking in his bed, and he wanted to scream; wanted someone to help him.

"Hey," a voice called to him, comforting and gentle. He wanted nothing more than to run towards it and let it take his pain away, but he couldn't move. Instead, the owner of that voice walked over to him and laid beside him in bed, gently cradling his face in their delicate hands.

"Jamie," Daija whispered soothingly, and the blankets were pulled back from him to reveal her smooth face and gorgeous eyes that reminded him of earth. "It's okay, I'm here. It's just a nightmare."

She pulled him to her and gently rubbed his back. He felt her run a hand through his hair as she alternated between kissing his forehead and whispering sweet nothings to him. Eventually, he stopped crying. He settled against her, resting against her chest and listening to her heartbeat.

"I'm here," she repeated with a soft smile. "I'm always here. I promise, no one's going to hurt you ever again."

"No one," he said through his teeth, trying to fight the tears that rose again, but failing anyway. "Except for you."

Her smile sharpened, and her hand tightened in his hair, gripping to the point he had no choice but to wince in pain. "Exactly," she whispered dangerously before starting to laugh, sadistic and sinister. "Exactly."

Then he felt it: The rush of her ice that somehow burned in his veins, prickling underneath his skin and spreading through him at a threatening pace. He felt himself bleeding, even tearing, then he screamed as the pain started to consume him.

His screams were drowned out by her laughter.

------

Jamie awoke and sat up quickly, trying hard to gulp down air into his body as he stumbled around his room for the light switch. Once he turned it on, he looked around and felt a bit of relief.

A dream.

It was just a dream.

He splashed some cold water on his face and sat on the ground near his bed, his heavy breathing being the only sound that filled the small space. Then he tried to remember if the dream was something his brain randomly came up with, or if it was a memory.

After going over the details -- especially the kisses -- he knew it was something his brain came up with. Though Daija may have comforted him in the cells as a way to mess with his head, she had never kissed him once. All of her kisses were saved for Simon in real life, and also in the dark spaces of his mind whenever he daydreamed.

Daydreamed about that perfect world.

Jamie's head looked to the side where the two bags of gummy worms were. He hadn't opened them yet. Each time he just so much as looked at them, the memories of that night would flood in. How scared she was when she killed the guy who threatened him, how grateful he was that she saved him, but above anything, revealing just how similar they were.

He couldn't eat them. He was scared that they were laced with poison. With Luca's fucked up test in the lower units earlier that day and Tony's warning of the rest of the team potentially screwing with his head, he had a terrible feeling that Valerie's deal was only a fraction of a deeper, way more messed up game that Daija had in mind.