Mason - Archaic #4 (Sample of Published Book)

Chapter 2 - Part 2

Her attacker looked like he was about our age. He was dressed in dark jeans and a black leather jacket. His hair was a dark greased-up brown color that was shoulder length and it hung free, covering parts of his face. The sight of the tattoos I could see inked into the skin of his hands and neck placed him into the 'bad boy' wannabe category.

What on earth was prim and proper Neve doing with a human guy who looked like that?

"I said let me go," she ordered through clenched teeth as she continued to struggle against the stranger, but his hands held her firmly in place. I stood back and folded my arms and watched. This was going to be good.

"No," the stranger said with mocking arrogance as he pulled her against him, his face an inch away from hers. He was stupid. I couldn't help the smile that tugged at my lips.

"This is the last time I'm going to tell you to let me go," she warned, but the stupid idiot didn't listen.

I watched as the firecracker went off. Her eyes narrowed as her foot slammed into his foot. He yelped but his hands still held her arms. A swift lift of her knee to his package was enough for him to release her and fall to the ground in agony, holding on dearly to his aching family jewels. I had to suppress a laugh. I didn't want to draw attention to myself.

"I told you we were over," she said fiercely, glaring down at the idiot who was still groaning in pain. "Don't call me, and leave me alone."

She'd been dating this moron! What on earth had she seen in him? I took another look at him. Nope, I didn't see the pull. I expected her to date a well-mannered nerdy guy, not a guy who looked like he needed a shower and tried to use his physical strength to get what he wanted.

"But—" Mr. Moron tried to argue back.

Who did that? If a girl told you she wasn't interested, you let her go and moved on. You didn't argue her back into dating you. This guy was beyond stupid.

"Don't, I don't want to hear it," she hissed. "Don't ever come near me again or I promise you'll regret it." Her tiny hands balled into fists at her side.

She was struggling to contain her temper. She closed her eyes for a few moments. No matter how much she wanted to zap his ass she couldn't risk exposure. When she opened her eyes again she threw him a disgusted look and walked away from him toward the dimly lit street.

I hung back, smiling at her retreating figure.

The one skill I'd learned when I'd been a psychopathic killer with no emotions was how to read body language. I could read people and I could tell the words Neve had just spoken had fallen on deaf ears.

I glanced back at the stupid moron who was still clutching his balls. It was just a matter of time before he tried to corner her again.

The thought of him physically touching Neve again sent an emotion I didn't recognize coursing through me, tightening my chest. He had no idea what he was dealing with. He didn't know what Neve was capable of.

But, in the same breath, we weren't indestructible either; and if he cornered her with a weapon or took her by surprise, the next time she might not walk away unscathed. Once again, an unwelcome emotion unfolded in my stomach.

I watched him for a few more minutes as he lay on the ground, trying to recover from his injury. I couldn't help but smile at the memory of what I'd just witnessed. A firecracker.

Convinced I'd given her enough of a head start, I started to walk back to my car. With my phone in my hand as I walked back to my car, I watched the pink circle walk back toward her house.

I got into the Jeep and began to drive slowly, following her. For some reason I didn't want her to know I'd seen anything tonight but I still wanted to make sure she got home okay so I tracked her progress on my phone.

As I pulled up outside her house, I watched her open what I assumed was her bedroom window, on the ground floor, and climb back into the house. Even after she closed her window I continued to sit in my car, staring at her window.

I was fascinated. She seemed to be so different from the person I'd thought she was.

Then I thought about Jennifer and Tyler. I wondered if they would approve of her choices in boyfriends. Somehow I doubted it. There was a saying that 'still waters run deep' and I thought that described Neve perfectly.

I couldn't help but think back to Mr. Moron. Was she trying to be rebellious—a good girl looking for a bad boy? Tonight, I'd seen the cracks that allowed me to see beyond the person she portrayed to everyone. Was she even a good girl to start off with?

I glanced at my phone and saw it was getting late. It was time to go home. It was a school night so I'd have to be up early in the morning. One last look at Neve's house and I started up my car and began the drive home. It wasn't long before I arrived outside my house.

The light in the living room was still on. I wondered if Jared had stayed up to make sure I came home. I sighed as I opened the front door and Jared was waiting for me in the hallway.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, everything's good." His eyes studied me for what I wasn't saying. He didn't need to know about Neve's little outing tonight. There had been no Hue involved and she was home safe.

"Where's Ava?" I asked, taking in the fact that he was alone.

Since the two of them had gotten engaged, Ava's grandmother, Anne, had relaxed the rules on sleeping arrangements. Some nights Ava would sleep here in Jared's room and some nights they would spend the night at her house.

"She's upstairs, sleeping," he said before he yawned. There were dark circles under his eyes.

"Is she still having nightmares?" I asked quietly as I shrugged out of my leather jacket.

"Yeah."

I don't know why I bothered asking the question I already knew the answer to, because I heard her screams at night.

"It'll get better with time," I told him, firmly believing it.

"Yeah, I hope so," he said with a shrug. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Night," I said as he walked upstairs to his room.

I knew he felt helpless. There was nothing he could do to stop them. We were able to heal physical injuries but we couldn't fix the emotional scars.

Ava was one of the bravest people I knew. There were few people who had the courage to sacrifice their own life to save the lives of others. Unbelievably, she'd done it more than once.

At times I felt responsible because it was my ruthless actions that had led to all of this. She'd forgiven me completely and didn't blame me at all. The telltale pressure on my chest made me push away my current thoughts of Ava. How did people deal with all these emotions all the time? It was draining.

Back in my bedroom I did one more check of the trackers. I couldn't help the smile that tugged at my lips when I saw Neve's pink tracker on the screen.

There was definitely something more to the quiet Archaic than first met the eye.

All the trackers were where they were supposed to be so I switched off my laptop. Thoughts of Neve and Mr. Moron still occupied my mind as I settled into my bed.