ColorBlind (Book #2 of S.H.A.D.E.) ✔

In Spite of Everything

12.

I watch them embrace. I watch as Jade's shoulders shake from her crying, her face buried in Copper's chest, hanging off his neck like he's the only reason she's standing. I watch his face, pale and confused, the twitch going off in the corner of his mouth momentarily that I know means he's trying to keep his emotions in check. He's trying to guard himself, because Jade being here, right here and now, is simply impossible. She should only be a ghost, a terrible memory.

I hear a car driving up the dirt driveway and grab both of their shoulders. "We need to hide!"

They spring apart, Copper taking Jade's hand and leading her with him. "The trees," he says to me calmly, retreating back to Sync mode. I can't even imagine what is going through his head right now, the questions he is putting off in order to function right now.

We dash to the trees, crouching down in the thick of them, and not a second too soon before a dirt-coated, red SUV comes soaring through the trees, pulling to an abrupt stop that leaves dust trailing behind.

Two men-- no, Demons-- jump out, slamming the doors, laughing with cases of beer in their hands.

The back door opens, and out steps Gray, straightening his suit jacket, turning his nose up at the shoddy house. I see his expression pinch up at the opened front door. "Dammit!" he curses, grabbing the attention of the other two Demons. They look towards his concern and immediately become menacing, marching into the house. Gray follows.

"Come on!" I whisper, leaping to my feet.

"Ebony!" Copper hisses after me.

"The car!"

I hear their steps following after me. I move swiftly around the car, to the driver's seat.

The keys are hanging out of the ignition. I thank my lucky stars.

"Jump in," I command them, and Copper and Jade comply, scrambling into the back seat.

"Hey!" Gray is running out of the door. I turn the key, put the car in gear and floor it, kicking up dust all over his nicely pressed suit as I whirl around the house, bumping over the lawn. As I come around to the front again, there is a bullet that shatters the passenger side window and hits my headrest.

The surprise makes me swerve for a second, but I regain my composure and drive down the long, windy driveway and onto the dirt road that awaits us. I have no clue where we are or which way to go, but I speed out of there anyway, looking to get far away.

"They probably have a GPS tracker in this vehicle," Copper says, and I realize he's most likely right. 

"We hit civilization, we ditch the car."

"Right."

I chance a look in the rear-view mirror, watching his expression. It's alarming how together he is right now, even in spite of everything, even in spite of Jade being beside him right now.

She is looking at him too, I notice, like he is not real. I look away from them, focusing on the road.

"You can drive?" Copper says after a moment of silence.

I startle at the realization. "Yeah... yeah, I can, I guess."

"Your memories are getting stronger."

I nod.

Stop avoiding it, Copper.

I don't know what to do.

I jump again, this time swerving the car once more so that we almost crash into the ditch.

"Are you okay?!" he shouts.

I look back at him in the rear-view mirror, my eyes bulging.

Our chips were disabled. There is no reason he should be in my head. None at all. But in spite of everything, he is.

"I-I'm fine. Copper, did you --?"

"Eyes on the road!" he scolds me, and I listen. "Did I what?"

I tap my fingers on the steering wheel, completely annoyed. "Nothing," I snap. I have no idea what I'm angry at.

"...W-Will?"

I hear him stiffen at his name--his real name. He has avoided looking at her. He doesn't know what to do.

I don't move, I look at the road, but I can't help but hear him turn her way, no matter how slight the movement.

They are quiet, just looking at each other, both beaten and dirty, taking in what is the same, what is different.

"Jade..." he finally begins, but his voice is shockingly gentle, a tone I have never heard him use, "... I don't understand. I-- I saw you. I saw it happen."

"It wasn't me, Will. They killed someone else in my place."

"How is that possible? I saw you!" I wince when I hear his voice break, my heart aching for him.

"Did you see my face?"

"What? ... No. Your back was to the camera when they..."

"It wasn't me," her voice trembles. "You can't possibly think that--?"

"I don't know what to think."

"I played no part in it, Will!" her voice pitches higher, "You have to believe me! Rouge wanted to keep me, just in case you needed to be put back in your place again. You were their best. Probably still are? ... You are Copper to them, and they don't want to lose you."

"Then how did you wind up in the hands of the Necro Proxy?"

I finally glance back again, catching sight of Jade's tear stained face, but her teeth are barred together in intense fury. "Gray. Will, he hates you. He was always second to you in S.H.A.D.E., and he's crazy, he wants to have power and influence, so he went to the Necro Proxy, offered to be a spy in exchange for rank and wealth."

"He joined the Demons... just for power?" Copper sounds disgusted.

She nods her head. "I was being kept better with S.H.A.D.E., at least, when he came. He said he was helping me escape, that he couldn't stand by and let a fellow Shade suffer." She lets out a humorless laugh. "Wasn't I stupid for believing words like that? So fake... but I wanted to be free so bad... to- to see you again." She places a hand on his cheek, and I see him melt, all his defenses falling away at her touch, at her nearness.

He covers her hand with his, and a smile so genuine and affectionate takes hold of his face that I am blown away. I never knew he was capable of such feeling.

But that's because his feelings are not for me. They are for her.

I want to be okay with that. What were we really? Nothing. Nothing at all.

Then why is he still in my head? Or did I only imagine that?

It wouldn't be the first time today...
Because, I can swear almost, that as we drove around the back of the house, even at our speed, I saw the window to the basement Jade and I were kept in, newly broken.

... And there were no bars on it