FicWad

I stood in front of a punching bag in our ‘training room.’ I had my hands held in front of my face and was about to make a quick jab when I heard footsteps approaching. I rapidly pulled my knife out of my holster and whirled to face the intruder, knife arm extended.

Spencer stood there with shock on his face. “I just wanted to tell you we found a new kid.” His blue eyes were wide with fright. I shook my head and snapped out of it.

“Sorry, I’ll be right down.” I returned the knife to its holster and grabbed my towel, drying my sweaty face.

When I reached the meeting room I saw that everyone was huddled around the kid’s pale form. He sat in a chair in the middle of the room, his chocolate brown eyes wide. I could sense his terror.

“Alright, chill everyone. Jesus, you act like you’ve never seen a person before.” I walked up to the kid, holding out my hand. “I’m Jack.” His mass of black hair flopped around on his head as he glanced around the room at each of us. His gaze finally settled back on me.

“Brendon.” He grabbed my hand and shook.

“So where’d you guys find him?” I turned to Pete, knowing it was probably him who had found the kid.

“He was wandering around the lot, lost.” I turned back to Brendon.

“So how have you killed the vamps so far?” My blue eyes searched his.

“I’ve got pretty good aim,” he stated simply. I pulled the knife out of the holster and handed it to him.

“Prove it.”

He stood up from his seat and took aim at a map across the room. “I’ll hit Connecticut.” Everyone moved away from the area and he threw. The knife stuck in the wall with a thud and I made my way to the map. I could see the knife protruding from one of the tiny states on the east coast. I lifted an eyebrow at him and removed the knife. Sure enough, he’d hit Connecticut.

I handed the knife to him again. “Try for Rhode Island.” He threw the knife once more, and again hit his mark with dead accuracy. I smiled at him. “I like you kid. Can you throw a punch?” He shook his head.

“Not really, no.” I glanced back at Pete.

“Pete and I’ll teach ya.” I said. “Wanna go ahead and get started?” I asked Pete.

“Hell yeah!” Always the enthusiastic one, Pete was. He took Brendon and began leading him to the training room.

I smiled as our group had grown one more in size. Now we had Spencer and Trick who were good with the science-y stuff, Pete and I as the fighters, Gee as the peacekeeper, and Brendon who had the potential to become a good fighter. This was great, this was what we needed! Enough with the defense, we could move to the offense!

Jo walked over to me. “Jack, what’s got you so happy? I can see the smile on your face!” I hugged her and smiled wider. “Someone’s got a crush on the new kid huh?” I laughed out loud.

“Sorry Jo, but no. I’ve got bigger stuff on my mind than relationships.”

“Right,” she said sarcastically. “You’re just saving yourself for Trick aren’t ya?” I laughed once more.

“Why does everyone say that?”

“Because we all want to see it happen.” I rolled my eyes.

Patrick pulled me off to the side before I could respond to Jo. “I need to talk to you.”

“What is it?” I asked, concerned. His eyes held a worried look.

“I need to do some tests with Ryan but I may need some help.”

“Then take Spencer with you, you two are the nerds here,” I joked.

“Jack, this is serious. I talked with Ryan and he wants you. He doesn’t want to meet anyone else, just you.” I furrowed my brows. This was weird, but I had insisted that we do this; if anything I would have to cooperate.

I nodded my head. “Yeah, ok. But right now I gotta get to the training room and help Pete. Maybe tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sure thing.”

I ran up the stairs to the training room to find Pete in front of the punching bag. He was demonstrating how to kick when I silently crept up behind him and tackled him. I grabbed one of his arms and twisted it behind his back. My other arm was pressed against the back of his neck, pinning him to the ground.

I looked up at Brendon. “And that is how you successfully tackle someone.” Brendon was in fits of laughter. I let go of Pete and helped him up. He punched me lightly on the arm.

“I’ll get you some day,” he laughed.

“Yeah, like you’d tackle a girl,” I countered.

“But you’re not a girl. You’re Jack.” I smiled at what could only be described as a Pete compliment. His compliments were different from the others, he knew what I liked to hear. He knew I couldn’t care less about looks – just tell me about my moves, then I’ll be happy.

The rest of training went well for Brendon – he picked up the moves fairly easily and he could almost get Pete pinned to the ground. After about half an hour Gee walked in with Mikey and I tensed. I quickly wished Mikey luck and ran out of the room, Gee following behind. He grabbed my shoulder and whirled me around to face him. His hand moved down and grasped mine. He silently led me down the maze of hallways to his room. I sat down on his bed and put my head in my hands.

“Why do you want to protect her so much?” he asked quietly.

I flopped onto my back and closed my eyes. There were so many reasons why I wanted to protect her. “Because she needs it,” I admitted after a few minutes.

“Jack, she’s your twin.”

“I know and I love her.” I could feel the tears well in my eyes and mentally slapped myself. I would not cry, I wouldn’t allow myself to do it.

“She loves you too. She just wants to help you.”

I sat up and ran my hand through my dark lion’s mane of hair. “I don’t want her to end up like me.” I met Gee’s eyes. He moved to sit down next to me and wrapped his long arms around my shoulders. I laid my head down on his shoulder and allowed the embrace. It was the most intimate I had allowed myself to be with anyone, save for Jo, since my parents had died.

“I don’t want her to live in this world. I want things to be safe for her.” I said.

“I understand. I understand completely. You want to shelter her from the world out there but what you need to realize is that she’s not a little kid.” He turned my head to his, to make sure I was listening. “She needs to know these things because you won’t always be there to protect her.”

I knew he was right. Gee was always right. But he didn’t understand. When I saw my parents murdered I felt that I had to protect Jo from ever seeing things like that. She was like my little sister, even though she was technically three minutes older. I wanted to make sure that I never lost anyone else and she mattered more to me than anyone. I didn’t want to think about me possibly not being able to protect her some day. I had made it my mission to keep her safe while simultaneously ridding the world of the bloodsuckers. I would not let my sister get hurt; I wouldn’t let anyone else get hurt if I could stop it.

So I got bored and decided I'd update now because I'll be at a friends house Friday and Saturday and then Thursday I'm celebrating my brother's birthday (even though it's today) and I don't think I'll be on tomorrow sooo yeah...I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Also, I've been working on a sequel to this! :D WOOT! Just thought I'd announce that.