A Lonely Road

Trust Me, It Was Definitely a Bar Fight

Kaelie could feel Jace's eyes slide over her, and it didn't make her skin crawl, the bile rise in her throat. He caught her staring at him and his eyes flicked away, and Kaelie almost missed the steadiness of his gaze. And while Kaelie was used to it, the staring, the men that looked at her like she was food, like she was supposed to lie down and let them eat, she couldn't deny that it was nice that it wasn't like that, that she didn't get that feeling when she caught Jace staring. She smiled inwardly, clapping his shoulder as she moved past him to get the keys. "Coming, sweetheart, or are you just going to stare at the wall until it moves?"

Jace shook his head and then followed her out. Kaelie hardly noticed her casted wrist or taped ribs as they pulled away from the bland little house. The action and excitement felt good, it made her feel awake, she could feel the danger singing in her veins. But she was on edge, anxious, worried. Kaelie cast her eyes on Jace, tapping on the steering wheel as she did. Jace made her nervous, he almost scared her. He wasn't supposed to be here at all, caught up in all this. He didn't have the hardened nature that she and the rest did. He wasn't as strong, not physically, and death didn't knock on his door every day and ask how he wanted his coffee. He looked at her- like he knew her, or like he wanted too, and Kaelie had never seen anything but fear and disgust in the eyes of the people who'd looked at her any time before. She was supposed to have kept him out of all this.

Before long, Kaelie was pulling into a bar already overflowing with overloud, overly happy people. She shut off the car, waiting for Jace to exit before following him out. She strode confidently to the front door, and making sure Jace was behind her, strong armed her way through the crowd. Kaelie made it downstairs, blinking in the dimmer light before her genetically enhanced eyes adjusted. She nodded to Will, the wiry "security" guard, flashing him a smile and a wink, and he waved her on.

"Hey," she whispered loudly in Jace's ear. He ducked his lean body to listen. "I'm going to play, stay close enough to watch my back, but not too close to make it look like you actually came here with me. The boys don't play unless they think you're single."

"You know I have no idea how to watch your back like some sort of spy, right?" Jace asked her. Kaelie rolled her eyes at him.

"Jace, darling," she said patiently, a smirk on her face. "I know you know I can take care of myself. I just want you to come get me if someone shady comes in." Jace opened his mouth, but she cut him off. "Yes, shadier than these people."

Jace perched on a stool at the bar that afforded him a pretty good view of the dark room and the pool table Kaelie had wandered to. He ordered a coke from the flirty bartender (The man was very persistent, but just not Jace's type, ok?) and he watched her. He watched her grimace as she leaned down to make her shot, and he felt a twinge in his own heart. It was his fault she hurt, she'd only done it to try to keep him alive, to protect him.

What kind of childhood did one have, he wondered, when they were genetically engineered? Kaelie, Lilith, all of them had been trained to kill almost before they could walk. Jace glanced at her again, ignoring the strange feeling he got as he noticed the men leering at her behind her back, the knowing tilt to her mouth as she let them get close enough to think that they had a chance.

Kaelie was devastatingly beautiful. She almost hurt Jace's eyes to look at. Michael, Sarah, Lilith, they were pretty, sure, because when you genetically engineer a person into existence, why would you make them ugly? But god, Jace felt like an asshole, because he just could not stop staring at her, the light bouncing off her hair, the lean muscles in her arms as she leaned across the table, her eyes.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard Kaelie's sharp voice ring across the room. "I said to back off, asshole!" Jace was on his feet before he'd even really thought about it. He may not be engineered, but he'd been in his fair share of fights in school.

He stopped in front of the disgustingly drunk man still groping at Kaelie's chest, and the panic he'd never seen before in her eyes, the flashbulb memory of Sarah warning him that something truly evil had happened to her, it was enough for him to spin the man around roughly and punch him square in the jaw. Kaelie's pupils blew even wider in shock at his actions, and then she grinned the same cruel smile he'd seen at the campus, before she took a life.

Kaelie grabbed the stumbling man and kneed him hard in the stomach. When she lifted her head again, she saw more men advancing on Jace and one very angry blonde she assumed to be the other guy's date heading her way. "Well fuck a cactus and call me pokey," Kaelie muttered irately. Quick as lightning, she snatched the cash bets off the table, and then she bent down and stole the creepy asshole's wallet.

Jace was dodging blows in a wild dance, and the whole bar seemed to have dived into the brawl. She could tell that bruises would blossom on Jace's tawny skin soon, her blood flashed hot as she saw a fist snap into his stomach, doubling him over, and in her distraction she felt a sharp set of nails rake across her cheek.

"Bitch!" Kaelie spat venomously, rounding on the other woman. "You ruined my makeup!" Trying to mind her altered strength, Kaelie clubbed the girl with her casted arm, and winced at the dull throbbing ache that seared its way up through her wrist. The girl was unconscious.

Then Kaelie threw herself into the fray with a renewed intensity. Only barely keeping control of herself, she started dragging men away from Jace, squeezing pressure points in their necks that put them on the floor. She threw punches at those who stood in her way and refused to go down easy. When she finally got close enough to touch him, Kaelie yanked him away sharply. She sighed in exasperation and faint amusement as Jace aimed a last vicious kick at the man who'd had his hands on her and then she forced him out the back door while the brawl raged on inside.

"Fuck!" Jace exclaimed.

Kaelie raised her eyebrows at Jace's exclamation. Jace noted that again, she was barely panting, but that her body was practically vibrating with restless energy. He noticed angry red slashes down her face but that she was otherwise fine. He on the other hand could feel his bruises coming on. His whole body ached and he wanted to lay down for the next 14 hours. Out of nowhere, she clapped him strongly on the back, knocking the wind out of him. Jace attempted to keep his dignity and not sputter, then managed a grin.

"God damn, that was awesome. And check it the fuck out, Momma's got cash!" Kaelie nearly shouted, pulling the man's wallet and the money she'd swiped from the table out of her dress with wild abandon. And then Jace was laughing too, adrenaline still pounding through his veins, Kaelie's excitement filling his blood.

Jace thought Kaelie was practically glowing and she kept chuckling and repeating "we are so awesome." And when she lifted her head and her wide mismatched eyes met his, her body still thrumming, hair a little wild, face scratched, he lost it, whatever control he might've had, could only hope she would accept his excuses later, because he couldn't take it anymore.

His hands were gripping her face, tilting it up, and his mouth was on hers before it even registered that this was a really bad idea, that Kaelie was not the type of person that you surprised, that she could literally kill him in seconds. He felt her tense immediately, and then it was gone, and she was kissing him back. Her mouth opened under his and her thin fingers tangled in his hair, and the sensations of her tugging on it made him shiver, he could almost feel her heart pounding. She tasted like rain, and oranges, and a little like blood and she didn't protest when he backed her to the wall, and his whole body felt tight, and it was like his brain had short circuited and the only thought was Kaelie, Kaelie, Kaelie.

Kaelie broke away from him with a stuttering gasp, and Jace sulked in the loss of her mouth. "We have to go," she said, and she said it with a smile, but to Jace, after all the expression they'd held seconds ago, her eyes were flat. His respite came in her very slowly, like touching a snake, grabbing his hand and hanging on to it as they made their way back to Brad.