Kelly

She flashed him a smile. There was no particular reason behind it. Emerging from the bedroom, she caught his eye as he waited by the door for her to catch up. His face beamed back at her, and she couldn’t help but giggle at the happiness on it. Things were going so well now that she’d talked it over with him, and put them back on track. She couldn’t wait to just spend every waking moment with her mate, learning everything about him, and telling him about herself as well. They knew the basics of course, but there were decades of each other’s life for them to learn. That was going to take time, and she just knew it would continue to get better.

It didn’t.

There were several heavy thudding noises from outside.

“What the—” Gray started to say, turning for the door.

He didn’t reach it. The rectangular piece of wood exploded inward, taking Gray out and sending huge slivers of wood flying across the room.

Kelly yelped and ducked into the bathroom, barely avoiding the flying shrapnel.

“WHERE IS SHE?” a wild voice roared.

A voice she knew well.

“Jacen?” she shouted, stepping back into the short little hallway between the main part of the unit and her bedroom. “Jacen, what the fuck?”

He was standing in the middle of her ruined door. His hair was strung out around him, his beard ratted and tangled with leaves. His eyes were huge and unsettling as he looked around the unit before settling them onto her.

Beside him Gray stirred and started to get up. Jacen turned and saw the body for the first time.

“What is he doing here?” he snapped. “Is he hurting you? I’ll stop it.” He slammed a clubbed fist into the top of Gray’s head.

Something snapped and Gray slumped back down limply.

“GRAY!” she shouted and ran toward him.

Kelly came skidding to a halt as Jacen produced a wicked knife that curved in upon itself.

“No. Leave him,” he snarled and advanced on her.

Kelly backpedaled toward the bedroom.

“What are you doing, Jacen?”

“I’m here to rescue you of course. To keep you safe from him and the rest of his kind. Don’t you know that?”

Kelly stammered, unsure of a reply at first. Save her from him? But she didn’t need saving. Then she took in his appearance, and the wild, feral look in his eyes, and it all made sense. Jacen wasn’t right in the head. He was delusional, under the impression that Gray had coerced her into letting him stay, instead of it being a mutual thing.

“Jacen, you’ve got it all wrong,” she said gently. “Gray isn’t hurting me, he’s not forcing himself here. He’s a friend.”

“A friend? He tried to kill me!” The pupils in his eyes had shrunk down to nothingness as he stared at her. “Friends don’t do that, Kelly. They don’t do that. You should know.”

She had no idea what he meant, and wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to find out either, so Kelly just kept her mouth shut and kept backing away.

“Come with me,” he said. It wasn’t a request. “We’ll get out of here. I’ll keep you and the baby safe.” His eyes dropped to her stomach.

Kelly flinched and held a hand over the modest swell of her belly. “I don’t know,” she said slowly.

It was the wrong move.

Jacen hissed in surprise. “You would deny me my child?”

The knife waved menacingly in front of her. She was almost to the bedroom now, but that wouldn’t matter anymore. He would just break the door down and take her anyway. But Kelly had to try. She backed into the bedroom, slammed the door shut and shuffled sideways and put her back to the wall.

Outside Jacen roared and he burst through the doorway, moving into the middle of her room in one move. It was what she’d been hoping he would do. There was now a solid five feet between him and the door. While he was still roaring with anger she slipped back through it and ran for the front of the house.

Jacen realized swiftly what she’d done and came after her, but with no front door to hold her back, she was home free if she could just get outside. She was almost to Gray when he caught her, a hand grabbing her arm and yanking her to a stop. The curved knife came to rest against her belly and she went still immediately.

“Now, that wasn’t very nice of you,” he said, his voice taking on a detached tone, as if he wasn’t all truly present. “Trying to run away from me like that? What did I ever do to you?”

“What, you mean besides burst into my home, assault someone, chase me around, and threaten me?”

The knife was gone as suddenly as it had appeared. Jacen whirled her around. His eyes were wide, the whites showing, his pupils practically invisible. “Threaten you?” he asked, sounding horrified. “Oh no no. That’s not what I’m doing, Kelly. That’s not what I’m doing at all.”

She felt her eyebrows rise of their own accord, despite her desperate attempts to keep them down. “Oh really?” her mouth said, unable to stay silent. “Because, to most people, that’s exactly what it looks like. I mean, you just put the knife against my stomach. Our child is in there, Jacen, and you put a knife to it!”

He shook his head, hair flying around, bouncing like crazy. “You’ve got it all wrong, Kelly. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to save you. You and the baby. You’re in danger, and you don’t know it.”

“Trust me, I know I’m in danger,” she said dryly, astonished at the words that kept coming from her while her life was in mortal peril.

Jacen didn’t get it. “You know?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Good. Then this will be all the easier.”

Fear slithered into her belly, coiling like a snake as he spoke.

“What is going to be easier, Jacen?” she asked, unsure.

“Come on,” he said, tugging her arm and leading her through the door. “There’s no time to waste.”

“Jacen?” she asked, her voice wavering. “Jacen, what are we going to do? What is going to be easier?” Her feet stumbled over the remains of her door as they passed through it, leaving the unconscious Gray in their wake.

She looked back, hoping to see him rise up to come to her rescue. Something was clearly very, very wrong with Jacen. Perhaps it was a result of a blow to the head from Gray when they had fought, or maybe it was something he’d been working toward since before he came to her. The damage might have been at the hands of those Intelligence people Gray had mentioned. Kelly had no idea, it didn’t really matter just then. All that mattered was that he had something planned, and it gave her the shivers to even hear about it.

“Jacen, what are we going to do?” she asked, tugging him to a halt at the top of the stairs that led up to her unit.

He turned and gave her a crazed grin. “We’re going to save the child, Kelly. We need to get it out of you, and take it far, far away from here, where it will be safe.”