Jeremiah - W.I.P -

Chapter 5 - unedited

CHAPTER FIVE

Breakfast was large and very much needed after all of the energy he’d used the night before. They sat in a diner, eating in silence and ignoring the stares from the human population. They cleared plate after plate of food and had no intentions to stop anytime soon. As he waved the waitress to bring more bacon he stood from the table. She went into action, the cook already prepared with another platter.

“I’ll be right back, I need to check with my contacts.” He started to walk away then stopped. “Don’t eat my bacon.” He grinned and she flipped him off.

“What is his status?” Jeremiah spoke into his cell as he walked down the street and smiled at an older woman who winked in his direction.

“Not, good. It’s progressing a lot faster than we first thought. I haven’t seen anything like this before. It seems to be actually  mutating.” The voice of his informant seemed hesitant.

“Will the antidote still work?” Jeremiah was already agitated. He didn’t need anything else to worry about.

“Yes, it should, but you need to get there fast man.”

“Alright, I am about a day away from him.” Jeremiah looked over his shoulder, there was nothing there but he was quickly becoming uncomfortable with the idea of staying in the town.

“Faster, J,” the nervous voice urged.

“Got it.” He hung up the phone and stared off in the distance. Something was there, hiding just beyond his range of view, whatever it was wouldn’t be able to catch him. He’d make damn sure of that.

Jeremiah reentered the diner just in time to see Tatiana stuffing three pieces of his bacon into her mouth. He returned to his seat and stared at her in disbelief.

“Really?” He laughed and shook his head.

“Oops.” She grinned at him and laughed but stuffed another two pieces into her mouth.

“Yeah, right. Well finish filling yourself. We have to move and fast.” He signaled for the waitress to bring the check. Which she did nervously. He could tell that she had assumed he would be pissed at the outrageous amount of the bill. $150 on breakfast, he shrugged, he thought it would be more. He sat two $100 bills on the table with the check.

“No good news I assume.” Tatiana finished off her orange juice.

“Yeah, my brother, he is getting worse and faster than expected.”

“Really?” She cleared her last plate of food. “I’m sorry to hear that. How far away are we?”

“Too far. We still have at least another day of traveling thanks to me taking the detour. I wanted to get them off our tail but now we need to shoot directly into Texas.” He cleared the rest of his food as well, he would let no morsel go to waste and they needed all the fuel they could get.

“Texas?”

“Yeah, that is where my pack is.” He racked his mind for a moment. He was sure after all the time they had spent together he’d told her of his origins. All he could remember was dancing around the subject until she’d eventually given up her questioning,

“Oh?” she wiped her mouth. “Who is the Alpha there?”

“It was a moron named Vincent, but I heard he got chopped down. If my intel is correct, Sirus took over.” Jeremiah stood from the table.

“Oh,” Tatiana could feel her heart slam to a halt. He couldn’t say it, he wouldn’t speak this into reality. His brother couldn’t be who she thought it was. But Malcom had been away from that pack. He wouldn’t be there and he wouldn’t be hurt, so there was nothing to worry about.

“Malcom is there, he is real sick.” He frowned.

“Oh,” there it was, that name. She stood up and stepped away from him. 

“Are you okay?” He reached out to touch her arm but she started heading for the door.

“Yeah, I’m fine, sorry. We should get going.” She hurried out of the diner and back to the Inn. As she gathered her things she couldn’t help but think about Malcom. She thought about the last time she saw him when he told her to go into hiding. She thought about him helping her get into the vampire’s house to kill the bitch who ended her sister’s life. She thought about the night they spent together, and the table that was still marked by her claws, a result of their heated encounter and her taking advantage of him sexually. Fuck! She slept with them both, brothers?! How was she supposed to know when neither of them ever mentioned a brother to her? It was nowhere in Malcom’s history and she had done her research on him thoroughly before allowing him near her pack’s territory.

They left quickly and Jeremiah handed the owner a wad of cash before apologizing for the damage done. The woman looked nervous, and he imagined what her expression would be once she actually saw the condition of the room. . They returned to the edge of the woods where they stripped, strapped on their packs and let their wolves free.

Straight line to Texas, they ran. Jeremiah tried to slow himself down. He was more than capable of outrunning Tatiana but he couldn’t leave her behind. They would still be able to shave off some serious time at her pace. He would get there in time. He had to.

They ran through the day and into the night. About an hour after the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, the scent of death slammed into his nose just moments before they knocked Tatiana to the ground. Fucking vampires always wanted to attack when a wolf was mid stride. He should have sensed them sooner but his mind was trained on his task. Never get emotional, that was rule number one but with the condition of his brother deteriorating he had all but lost that battle.

Unfortunately for the blood suckers, he wasn’t in the mood to play around. Five vampires came, five vampires died. He took out four on his own. His wolf had no problem snatching the assholes from the air as they jumped him. His beast reveled in leaving limbs lying across the field, yards away from their torso. He missed it, battle and he let himself enjoy every moment of it. Quickly he cut them down but Tatiana was injured during the fight. During the initial impact, she went down with a hard thud. She’d managed to take care of the one who hit her but she wasn’t able to recover and aid him. She whimpered and limped a bit before falling back to the ground.

“Go ahead without me, I need to heal.” Tatiana held her side and breathed slowly.

“I won’t leave you here.”

“I can handle myself. It’s not the first time I have been injured. I will meet you there tomorrow.” She smiled. “I promise. Your brother needs you and I need time to rest up. Its nothing major but I will definitely slow you down so you have to go.” She paused and waited for him to respond, when he didn’t she repeated herself. “Go.”

Jeremiah helped Tatiana find shelter where she could rest before he took off south towards Texas. He made sure to spread his scent to be sure to throw off anyone who would be looking for her. He would be able to get there in no time. Without having to pace himself he let the mixture of science and magic that pumped through his veins push him forward. In an instant he was gone. Tatiana would heal. Her wounds were not that severe. He told himself this to try to ease the guilt that settled in his stomach as he ran. She was strong, she would be okay.