The Hunter Chronicles : The Beginning

Chapter 17

“A witch?” I mumble.

“They don’t exist anymore.” Jared says more to himself.

“There are a few left. They’re not as strong as they once were so they keep themselves hidden and when Jessica joins them they will be restored to their former glory.” Dean says. All I really heard was witch. I’m a witch! Images from my childhood pops in my head with an ugly woman on a pointy hat.

“Come with me now!” Dean yells.

“What do you get out of this?” Jared asks.

“Everything I’ve ever wanted.” Dean smiles. What the hell is that supposed to mean?

“I would rather die than go anywhere with you.” I say and I mean it.

“That’s a little dramatic.” Dean says flatly.

“You should leave.” Jared says calmly turning to Michael he adds, “Both of you.”

“You only want her for the power she has. You don’t really care about her just like you never cared about Rachel.” Michael hisses.

“You don’t know what you are talking about.” Jared replies. 

“He didn’t hurt her.” I say in Jared’s defense.

“You can’t know that!” Michael shouts.

“I don’t know how but I do.” I reply feeling a wave come over me. I see a beautiful redhead woman with amazing bright green eyes that sparkles when she smiles. She is saying something to me that I can’t hear clearly. Then I feel it. “Why don’t you ask Dean what really happened to Rachel?”

“What is she talking about?” Michael asks Dean confused.

I can see a clear image of what Dean did but I can’t bring myself to say it out loud. All the men look at me surprised but I am only focused on Dean.

“She’s just confused.” Dean shrugs.

“What did you do, Dean?” Jared asks. I’m grateful and thankful that he has my back.

“Nothing.” Dean insists.

“Stop lying! I know what you did and you better tell them or I will.” I say hoping I won’t have to. I hold onto Jared’s hand. I don’t want him to get into a fight when he could be outnumbered. I’m not sure yet if Michael will stay out of it. Something is up between them that I can’t figure out.

Dean stands motionless for a moment then confesses, “Fine. I killed her but it was your fault for telling her what you are, Jared!”

“She wasn’t going to tell anyone.” Jared says softly and I feel like crying. I can;t imagine the pain he must be feeling.

“Aren’t you going to say anything, Michael?” I ask. I know that he must be shocked by Dean’s confession.

“Dean did what he had to, to protect us.” Michael replies sadly.

“Both of you are seriously disturbed!” I cry. Disgusted. How could Dean do that?

“We need to keep our true selves hidden from the human. They cannot  know about us yet and when he told Rachel he put us all in danger.” Dean says looking like he could kill.

“You didn’t have to kill her!” Jared yells angrily.

“It’s your damn fault I had to!” Dean says trying to justify something that can never be justified.

“Shut the hell up, Dean!” I yell. I’m disgusted by what he did and the way he makes it out like Rachel’s life didn’t matter. My head fills with another set of disturbing images and I feel that I’m losing all strength. Jared catches me before I fall, “Stay back!” He warns when Michael moves, Michael stops and I am able to stand, tears are running down my cheeks as I ask, “Dean, why did you kill my parents?”

“They were going to tell you before you were ready to hear.” Dean replies matter of fact. He doesn’t even deny murdering my parents for a second.

Jared is down the stairs faster than I could see him go. He punches Dean in the face again and again and throws him out the door. “Don’t even think about it.” He tells Michael. I’m frozen holding my breath to see what Michael is going to do. Michael makes his choice and leaps at Jared, he manages to land a few punches before Jared slams him into the wall, knocking a few portraits in the process. Dean comes back into the house and pulls Jared off of Michael and throws him. Jared lands on the stairs a few steps away from me where I’m shaking terribly. I pull myself together and scream, “Get out!”

Both Michael and Dean fly out the door like some invisible force is dragging them, when they try and come back inside they can’t. They are blocked by an invisible barrier. Jared gets up and walks to the door, he puts his hand through the opening before Dean can grab his hand he pulls back and Dean lands on his back as soon as he touches the barrier. I gape at the two men trying to ram their way through the invisible barrier. It holds strong.

“Good night, gentlemen.” Jared smiles and slams the door in their faces. I sink down on the steps and Jared rushes to me. He puts his arm around me and I burst out in tears leaning on him. All this time I thought my parents didn’t care about me. I was so angry at them all this time only to find out they’ve been dead all along. We sit on the stairs for a long while, listening to Michael and Dean try to find a way inside.

“How did you do that?” Jared asks breaking the silence.

“I don’t know. I just wanted them away from us.” I reply frowning. How did I do that? Maybe it’s a witch thing.

“I’m so sorry.” I tell him.

“It’s not your fault.” Jared replies looking away. I turn him back to face me, his eyes are greener and I know he’s been crying.

“I think they are gone.” Jared says standing up. I’m a little disappointed when he pulls away from me but I do understand why.

“Would they really give up that easily?” 

“Who knows with those two, I swear the more I know about Dean the less I like him.” He replies lost in thought.

I hear a soft knock on the door, “Jess, can I please come in?” Melissa whispers.

“Mel!” I exclaim and run down the stairs. I throw the door open and pull my friend into my arms and hug her tightly.

“I’m so sorry for all of this.” She says close to tears.

“What happened to you?” I ask noticing that my glamorous friend looks like she’s been living in a ditch.

“I swear I didn’t know any of this would happen.” Melissa cries as I walk her over to the couch.

Melissa flinches when Jared comes near her and bless him he ignores it and picks up a blanket from the chair and hands it to me so I can wrap it around her, I thank him and he smiles at me. “Be right back.” He says.

“The night before the party at the club, I overheard Dean and my brother talking in his office. They said that you were special and needed to be protected at all costs. Dean said something about people coming after you to hurt you so when I saw Jared I thought it was him. Michael made me promise not to tell you but when you decided to stay with Jared, I knew I had to tell you what I know but I never got the chance to.” 

Jared comes back into the living room carrying two mugs of coffee, it smells heavenly, I take a cup from him and he hands the other to Melissa who smiles, “Thank you.”

Melissa’s phone starts ringing and she looks at the caller ID and says, “It’s Michael.”

I can see my friend’s hands are shaking when she looks at her phone. What happened to her?

“Are you going to get that?” Jared asks sitting on the couch opposite us.

“I don’t want to.” Melissa replies shaking her head.

“Why?” I panic.

“They didn’t know that I was following them. After you left they refused to tell me anything and when I started asking too many questions, Dean locked me up in some crappy basement.”

I only now notice the cuts and bruises she has on her face and arms and I feel guilty for not realizing that there was something wrong.

“How did you get away?” Jared asks. I’m grateful that the irritating ring of the damn cellphone has stopped.

“I started flirting with the vampire watching me. One night I got him to take my chains off. He thought he was going to get lucky.” Melissa snorts. “I managed to kick him in the crown jewels and ran for my life. I had no idea where I was but kept running until I couldn't anymore. Thankfully it was close to sunrise so I was safe for a while. It took some time to track my brother down and that led me here.” She finishes and then bursts out crying. I hugged her. I’m angry that she had to go through hell.

Melissa’s phone starts ringing again and Jared gets up to take it from her, he puts it on speaker, “What the hell do you want?”

“Is my sister safe?” Michael asks worried.

“Yes.” 

“Thank you. Take care of her. I’m going after Dean.”

“No wait!” Where are you?” I ask. I don’t know how but I know that he isn’t strong enough to take Dean on.

“Not far.”

“Come here.” Jared instructs and hangs up.

“What are you going to do to him?” I ask imagining the worst.

“Nothing.” Jared shrugs. “It’s clear that he only did what Dean wanted him to do to keep his sister alive so he is in as much trouble as we are.” He continues much to my relief.

A few minutes later there is a knock on the door and Jared walks over to open it. Micheal tries to enter the house but can’t. 

“You need to let him in, beautiful.” Jared tells me.

“How?” I ask and he just shrugs. I have no idea what to do. I don’t even know how I was able to put the barrier up in the first place. I take a couple of deep breaths and let each out slowly. Michael tries to enter and fails to enter. “Damn it!” I yell, throwing my hand up in the air and walking to the door. I grab Michael’s arm and pull him inside the house. He brushes past me and Jared and pulls his sister into his arms.

“I’m so sorry for everything, Jess.” He says looking up at me. Then his eyes focus on Jared and he says, “I should have known that you would never hurt Rachel.”

Jared gives Michael a small nod.

“Why did Dean want me?” I ask even though I really don’t want to know.

“He is supposed to take you to a group of witches that want to use you and before you ask I don’t know where they are, he just wanted me to find you and tell him where you are. I was going to tell you everything when I found you but when I saw him I just couldn’t believe it. How is it that he can walk in the sun anyway?”

“What?” Melissa asks confused.

“We don’t yet know how it happened and would really appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone.” I reply.

“Does Dean know?” Jared asks.

“No. I didn’t tell him.”

“You should take your sister and anyone else you care about and get far away until we can deal with him.” Jared says,

“I can help you.” Michael argues.

“You need to keep your family safe.” I tell him.

“What about you?” He asks.

I look at Jared and he says, “We’ll be fine.”

I take Melissa upstairs to my bedroom. I look at the bed we didn’t even bother straightening the sheets. I flash back to earlier and feel a tingle run through my entire body. Melissa takes a shower and I fill her in on everything that has happened so far. When she gets out of the shower I give her some of my clothes. She looks exhausted. I take her into one of the spare rooms and she falls asleep almost instantly.

Michael only goes upstairs to sleep when Jared promises to wake him up the minute that the sun rises. Jared and I head back downstairs and into the kitchen to keep watch.

“It’s time.” I hear Jared says waking me up. I can’t even remember falling asleep. “Why did you let me sleep?” 

“You needed the rest, beautiful.” Jared replies kissing my forehead. 

I go upstairs to wake up the siblings while Jared starts on breakfast. He really is an amazing cook. After we have breakfast the siblings get ready to leave. 

“I’m going to leave my phone here and send you my new number each week; we will make sure that he doesn’t use us to get to you. Do what you have to so we can all be together again.” Melissa says and I hug her. She looks so much better than she did last night, she looks like her old self.

“You are quite brave for such a small woman.” Jared tells her when I let her go.

Melissa smiles at the compliment, “I was wrong about you.” 

Michael stiffly shakes Jared’s hand and quickly hugs me. They leave and I feel like I can breathe again. 

“What do you know about witches?” I ask sitting crossed legged on the couch.

“Honestly not much. They are powerful and rumor has it that they are the most dangerous of all the supernatural creatures.” Jared replies sitting down next to me.

“Great.” I sign. “Now some freaky group of witches are after me too and I still don’t know exactly what it is that I can do.”

“You don’t need to figure out everything at this very moment.”

“I hope Melissa and Michael are still safe.” I say.

“Michael will keep them safe.” He says lying his head down on my lap.

“I always thought Dean was a good guy.” I say running my fingers through his hair.

“We don’t know why he’s doing any of this anyway.”

“Ever wonder what you’ll be doing a few years from now?” I ask after a few minutes.

“Time doesn’t affect me like it would you. Are you worried about that?” 

“Well yeah, what if you get bored with me or what happens when I get older?” 

“I could never be bored with you.”

“How old were you when you became a vampire?”

“Twenty two I think”

“Still got four years to go.” I smile.

“You would want to be a vampire?” Jared asks looking up at me. 

“If it meant that I get to be with you then yes.” I say bending down to kiss him. I would. I can’t imagine my life without him. I love him. 

“You look tired. Let’s go upstairs so you can get some sleep.” I say and pulls Jared behind me to my room. No. Our room.

Things quiet down, no Dean and no more unexpected surprises. Melissa checks in once a week just like she promised and as per my request she never tells me where they are. I would be too tempted to go to her. I refuse to sleep and when I do fall asleep I wake up minutes later. I don’t want to have anymore dreams about anything that involves another person dying.I would rather subject myself to feeling tired, every time I close my eyes the images of my dead parents come flooding.

“Hey, so it’s your birthday in a couple of weeks.” Jared says while making breakfast.

“Yeah?” I reply. Time sure goes past fast when you are cut off from the world. 

“Want to go somewhere?” He asks leaning against the counter. I don’t want to leave the ranch. I'm used to it. I feel that the moment we leave everything will change and I don’t think that I’m ready for that. After a few days of inner debate and some arguments with Jared I agree and he starts to make the arrangements. He decided that we needed to leave as soon as possible. I tried to protest but he just said that I need to get my mind off of everything. When the day comes for us to leave I start packing, I’m tired and really not in the mood but he has gone through so much trouble planning everything that I know I can’t back out.