25. Skittles

Jett didn't show up.
"Jett?" I called, voice echoing across the deathly silent room.
I could hear the dread in that dying echo, maybe because the thought came to me even before I'd spoken. Jett told me he'd be watching, and if he was, then why wasn't he here already? He would've, should've been here- unless something kept him from coming?
Or perhaps not something, but someone.
My palm clenched around the knife's smooth handle as I studied the only suspect present. Alpha Caldwell wasn't smiling anymore. He turned his head, the expression of vacant shock on his face slowly changing to a disturbingly keen curiosity. A curiosity that was suddenly directed at me. Like a lion sizing up its prey, getting ready to pounce.
And then he was on his back, gasping as Jett choked him.
Jett's large hands were steady as they squeezed the life out of the werewolf, too steady, considering the state he was in. He looked like he'd gone through a shredder, literally. His handsome face was marred with cuts, his shirt and jeans were in tatters, the brown skin beneath covered in wounds.
Deep wounds, I observed, with the way blood gushed from them even as he glared down at a paling Alpha. Some of his blood dripped on Alpha's cheek.
"Still...alive...I see," Alpha gasped out, eyes bulging.
Jett didn't seem to hear, or maybe he just didn't care. The choking continued.
Alpha was going to die- if Jett didn't go down first. A pool of his blood was already forming beneath them, staining Alpha's cloths like paint. There was something wrong with him, very wrong. Hybrids should be able to heal faster than werewolves and even if the wounds weren't closing immediately, the bleeding shouldn't be that bad. He didn't seem to be healing at all. Whatever had injured him must've had silver in it. His wounds could be fatal, and he probably knew it too. But Jett's eyes remained focused on Alpha, brows furrowed as his hands tightened further.
I moved towards them- and was swung backwards.
Kane gripped my elbow, his expression thunderous. "Going to save your friend? Or perhaps form another contract with him?" he snarled.
The mistrust, disgust and betrayal was apparent in his tone, and so unexpected it felt like a slap.
Wide eyed, I pulled my arm away cautiously. "I thought you didn't believe him?"
He scoffed. "You think I was going to give him the satisfaction of a reaction? Don't even think about moving-"
"Or what?" I glared.
He glared back.
"Guys."
We both turned. A sober Darius had Helen- who was still unconscious- in his arms, his face grim. "I don't think Jett is doing so well," he said.
My attention snapped back to the two of them, and what I saw was enough to get my feet moving on their own. The dark smoke that had only hung around the others was curling around Alpha and straightening, sharpening, turning into spikes.
"Ember!"
That was what hurt Jett, I thought, ignoring Kane, running now.
I lifted my knife to throw it, knew I couldn't get there in time when the spikes shot upwards. The hands around Alpha's neck slipped away, dangled in the air for a second as Jett was thrust up- then cast aside by the smoke. He catapulted across the room and crashed into what sounded like a buffet table from the shattering plates. Then... Nothing.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
"That was a close one."
Alpha was getting up. He moved out of the pool of blood, pushing his hair out of his eyes, gulping in air.
Not for long.
Whatever reason he was here for, however nice he used to be, I didn't give two shits anymore. He was a monster and he hurt (I refused to assume it was anything worse) Jett. He was going down, painfully.
A hand on my shoulder. I didn't turn to look up at Kane. I was the lion now, taking inventory of my prey.
"I'll say this only once and you will listen," Kane said.
I bristled. "What?"
But then he brushed his lips against the nape of my neck, the touch brief and soft but it's effect an eruption of yearning. Unconsciously, I leaned into him, into his strangely comforting scent but he was already pulling away.
His words were a ghost of a whisper. "Run."
He shoved me backwards, stepping towards his cousin. "I see you've learned a new trick, who taught you, pup?"
I sent an alarmed look to Darius, but he wasn't there, both he and Helen. There was only the line of people, immobile and distressed in their vulnerability. Vulnerable, unlike me who could still move. Alpha was dangerous, not only because he just tossed a hybrid aside like a rag doll, but because I was certain he wasn't entirely in his right mind. Crazy people were unpredictable.
Oh, I was going to run alright.
I dashed past Kane, knife drawn, teeth bared as I swiped at a still disoriented Alpha. The blade cut across air, snipped off some of his hair as it went- but froze an inch from his blotchy neck.
I froze.
Alpha opened his eyes, shaking his head like a disappointed father whose child brought home a terrible report card. "I offered you a new home away from this monster, was going to make sure you were happy and even got your revenge. And what do you do? You side with him!"
I could see his face, see the crazed anger in it but it looked far away. Far, far away. My mind was more focused on my own body's inability to function the way it was being told to. Move. I could practically feel it- my brain was sending signals to the neurons, they received it, but some outside force kept rejecting it. No, no, stay right where you are, don't move an inch. I could only stare at Alpha.
He nodded as if I'd told him how foolish I was. "Right. Fine. I'll just have to change the game."
"Alpha," I heard Kane snarl.
Alpha gave him an indulgent smile. "I could cut her up in front of you," he said, lifting a finger and tracing it along the length of my raised arm. Goosebumps broke out on my skin. "Or should I make you do it? Tell me, how long would it take you to break down if I had you chop her up like onions?"
Whether Alpha was silencing him or not, Kane didn't speak.
Alpha smiled. "I figured having you pretend to hate her for so long, only to steal her from right under your nose would drive you mad." He stepped closer, his finger moving to my face. It was sticky, I noticed, with Jett's blood. "But that plan was based on the fact that I didn't want to hurt Ember...now that she's chosen you over me though..."
There was rumbling from behind me. "If you do anything to her-"
Alpha laughed, a shrill dead sound that rasped out of his skinny chest. "You can't do anything to me and you know that. Your faerie wasn't immune to my control and even though the hybrid was, he wasn't immune to my magic." He tapped my forehead. "You're at my complete and utter mercy, I'm afraid."
Did he get Aster too?
I pulled at my muscles, screaming in my head at them to work, to listen to me, but they didn't belong to me anymore. They were Alpha's.
"Every man has something that will break him, and I just couldn't break you, dear cousin. Not before at least."
I felt my eyes begin to water. Not in fear, but frustration.
Alpha looked surprised at the tears, and for an instant that scary light in his eyes dimmed- but it came right back. He cupped my cheek, his hand as cold as a corpse. "Want to know what I think, Emy?"
I tried to shake my head. My head didn't comply. The tears streaked down my cheeks.
He leaned in, his breath warm against my ear. "If I break you, it'll break him too."