Uprising

Chapter 9

"Umm, before I do invite you in, you don't mind me asking just what the hell you are doing here and how the hell do you know my address?" Jake leaned in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest and watched me closely.

"If you mean did I stalk you and followed you and decided now to have my wicked ways with you, dream on." I muttered coldly. Even to my own ears, the comment had sounded cold and I mentally told myself that none of tonight had been Jake's fault; at least the anger that had tipped me over the edge hadn't been his fault. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time for my full anger and frustration. It was at this moment that I really looked him over to see him wearing his clothes from earlier, his jeans and t-shirt and he looked tired. "Don't tell me you sleep in your clothes."

"Actually, I've not been to bed yet, as I've been busy." He looked at me. "And you still haven't answered my questions."

"Call Eric." I told him simply. At the words, he moved aside as if letting me in. I took the opportunity and walked into the living room of his house. He shut the door and wondered over to a desk that had a lamp on that was lit and papers seemed to be thrown all over it in a disorganised way. I watched him pick up his phone.

"Make yourself at home while I find out what the hell is going on." I noticed his head was down, looking at his phone as if he were really busy concentrating on something.

"I'm good." I muttered as I walked to the window to look out and see if that person from earlier had followed me or not. I couldn't see much in the darkness, but it also didn't appear that anyone had followed me.

"What the f**k is going on?" At the words, I turned my attention to where Jake was to see him with his phone to his ear and he was finally looking at me, but his face seemed dark, as if whatever Eric was telling him, I was behind it happening.

"Right, so what do you want me to do? I mean, she's made her it obviously, is alive, and seems to be in a bad mood."

"Screw you." I muttered. If this was how the night was going to end today, I certainly had very little hope that tomorrow was going to be better.

I heard Jake laugh and I turned to see him turning away from me. "Yeah, I'll keep her here tonight. Just don't make a habit of your personal jobs being sent to me to help you." I heard Jake laugh again, and I could only imagine what Eric had said to him. "See you later."

I turned away quickly so I wasn't looking at Jake. "It looks like your stuck here for the night, princess, so you better settle in."

"What's going on?" I turned to look at Jake, as he seemed to go to the desk and sit back down and look at the papers.

"You know some interesting people and are pretty well connected, is all I can say." Jake never lifted his eyes as he moved papers around. "Apparently the vampire lord came to check in on you and when he got to your house, the door was wide open. No one was inside and nothing was taken." Jake looked up at me this time. "Which makes you even more curious and interesting and leaves me wondering, how do you know the vampire lord?"

"Xander... came to visit?" I was confused, as I had to sit down on the sofa. "Why?" I was confused why he'd come two nights in a row unless he'd come to check on what I'd done in regards to our last conversation.

"Well?" Jake asked as I lifted my head to look at him. "How do you know him?"

"Through a mutual friend." I answered, which was the truth."And I don't mean Eric, as I know Eric isn't keen on him, but Eric respects him."

"You just become more and more interesting." Jake muttered again to himself.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means every time I turn around, I find you right there." Jake leaned back in his chair, watching me closely. "I'm just trying to work out if it's a mistake that your wrapped up in all of this or if your putting yourself in the middle of all this."

"You know what? I'm done with this crap. First, you jump the gun about Eric and me, so I set you straight on that and now your right back on my case again because I know someone. To me, it sounds like your jealous of the people I know and if I'm honest, I have no more patience for tonight, so please excuse me while I go and get washed up because it seems like Eric wants me to stay the night, so I guess I've got to trust him that much."

"You think I'm jealous of you?" Jake laughed as I got up.

"Then why be on my case? You seemed adamant that you were going to figure out the truth about Eric and me. It sounded like either you have a thing for him or a thing for me." I folded my arms over my chest, looking at him seriously. "So which is it because if you have a thing for me, I'm pretty sure your girlfriend is going to be pissed because I'm sure her making me tip the drinks over was a warning to me that your hers."

"Now, who sounds jealous?" He laughed as he got up. "Her and I are not boyfriend and girlfriend. I don't have those relationships. I prefer to do what I want."

"So you are a playboy, like Eric warned me. Speaks volumes about you." I nodded to myself simply. "You bury yourself in your work." I point over to his desk. "To hide the fact that you are insecure about yourself."

"I'm far from insecure about myself." He shook his head. "It seems like the best thing you and I can do is try and be civil to each other while your here and tomorrow when you leave, I'll keep away from you if you give me the same respect."

"Fine by me." I muttered as I went towards what I hoped was the hallway to go and find the bathroom upstairs.

"I'm just curious, though, why you seem in such a foul mood compared to earlier, when you left after our coffee. You seem more defensive as well."

His comment caught me off guard and I stopped as I clenched my fist up a little. "Why would you actually care?"

"I'm just trying to be civil with you." I turned to see Jake holding his hands up to me. "You can tell me what's happened or you can tell me to keep my nose out." He shrugged.

"You said the best thing we can do is keep away from each other, so my answer will be to keep your nose out." I'd felt bad about my comment as I walked down the hallway but then I felt bad and stopped. I knew none of this was his fault and I knew what it was like to be cautious of people. Hell, I wanted nothing more than to keep Jake on a long leash away from me, but I couldn't do that if it made me feel this bad, so I walked back in to him.

"I've had a bad night and this has just been the cherry on top, shall we say?" I folded my arms over my chest as Jake had gone back behind his desk. He seemed to stop at my words and look up at me.

"Wanna talk about it?" He asked. "I'll go and make coffee and we can try and turn around from a bad night to an okay night."

"I'll take the coffee, but I'm not sure on the talking thing just yet." I answered as I went and sat down on the sofa again. In my head, I knew I was still getting used to what had happened and processing what had happened. I wasn't sure if I was really ready to talk about it out loud, which was the same as admitting it.

I sat looking down at my hands as I told myself repeatedly that everything would work out ok in the end. Everything always did and if it didn't, I'd make things work out on the new path.

A cup came into my vision and I looked up to see Jake passing it to me. "I had coffee made in my coffee machine." He laughed quietly as I took the cup and smiled lightly. "So, you seemed in a rush earlier to get somewhere after that small fight? I guess you'd call it?"

"That wasn't a fight in my head." I laughed quietly. "That was me walking away before I lost my cool and it turned into a fight." I took a sip of the coffee, thankful for the warmth. "And yeah, I had somewhere to be and put it this way, I regret being there." I told him simply.

"Well, I don't know what happened, but I know Eric would argue that wherever it was that you were, he's thankful you were there rather than at home because who knows who was in your house and what they wanted?" Jake shrugged. "So maybe someone is watching over you and protecting you." At his comment, my free hand went to my necklace under my top and I dropped my hand.

"Maybe," I muttered. "I just wish they'd sent me somewhere else but where I was." I shrugged. "But like anything, it takes time for people to adjust to new things."

"Adjust to new things?" I glanced over at Jake to see him frowning a little. "Sounds like s**t got real for you."

I let out a small laugh and shook my head. What am I doing? My brain screamed at me. Trusting someone for a change, another part of me answered simply.

"Yeah, my boyfriend didn't like what I had to say and he kicked me out after ending things, but as luck had it, Eric rang me before I drove home, which was why I ended up here as he doesn't live far from him."

"s**t. Sorry to hear that. I mean, I don't know you the way Eric does, but... you seem nice enough and don't deserve to get crapped on like that."

I just shrugged and took a long drink of the coffee, then looked down into the coffee. "I guess I didn't mean as much to him as I thought." I muttered and then looked at Jake. "So, I'm sorry for my short temper tonight; you really didn't deserve it. Well, except for accusing me of having friends, I'm not sorry for snapping your head off about that."

Jake laughed and leaned back a little, looking up at the ceiling. "Nah, it's cool. I did deserve it for being an insensitive prick and just blurting things out rather than thinking things over. That's why, normally, when it comes to talking, Eric does all of that; I just do the rest." He looked over at me. "So what's made you apologise?"

"I didn't want to go to bed feeling like crap over taking my anger out on you when you didn't deserve it and not only that. I told Eric I'd give you a chance and leaving things hanging on an argument isn't exactly giving you a chance." I shrugged a little at him.

"I'm not sure if I should feel honoured or pissed that the only reason you've apologised is for Eric." He laughed as he sat up and looked over at me. "Either way, I'm not going to take it personally."

"Thanks." I muttered and drank a little more of my coffee, as my chest felt a little lighter after telling Jake what had happened.

"So do you plan on telling Eric?"

"That's not a good idea." I laughed quietly. "Eric never liked him and told me repeatedly that one day he was going to break my heart and hurt me on a massive level and here we are. Like normal Eric's right."

"Yeah, it sucks when he's right. Which is my case seems to be a lot of the time." Jake laughed. "If I were you... I'd tell him but spin the story in your favour to make it look like you saw something in him and it pissed you off and you'd had enough rather than him being the one who ended it, which will mean you have to rehash it all for him."

"I'm hoping Eric's wrong." I sighed. "I'm hoping a bit of time will make him see what I told him, but I'm not holding my breath." I let out a sigh and glanced sideways at Jake with a smile. "Just don't tell him." I asked.

"Lips are sealed." He winked with a grin and then got up, walked back over to his desk and sat down. "Rather than taking the bed in the spare room, take my bed. It's more comfortable. I don't think I'm going to be sleeping tonight, as I haven't made heads or tails of all of this. Don't worry, the bedding is clean, as I've barely slept in there anyway." He shrugged.

I finished up my coffee and put it on the table, then walked over to his desk and stood next to him. "Anything I can help with?" I asked him quietly. "After all, you helped me, so it's only fair I return the favour."

"I doubt there's anything you can do to help me with this, Isabelle. I feel like I'm chasing a ghost. I'm assuming you know what I do." He looked up at me as he leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head.

"Yeah. I know you and Eric work together sometimes on things and you hunt together, as Eric puts it." Jake smiled a little at the idea that I knew that much about him.

"It's weird that you know about me, but I don't know about you." He laughed. "Anyway, it's a case." He shrugged.

"What brought you here to begin with?" I asked as I glossed over a few pieces of paper but my eyes were drawn to a page that had a picture on it with a symbol that had been scribbled on a wall. I couldn't help myself as I picked it up and studied the symbol. It was strange-looking to me, yet a part of me seemed to know what it was and a part of me seemed to be excited by the fact that I'd found it.

"Yeah, there's been some killings that happened and they aren't just normal human killings, if you will." He offered as I put the paper back down. "That's the mark that has always been left with the bodies."

"Do you know what it means?" I asked, hoping he'd tell me that much with an answer about why I'd been drawn to it and why it felt both familiar and strange at the same time.

"Mmm, but it's not something you need to get yourself dragged into, if I'm honest, Isabelle. Eric's already made it clear to me that you should stay as far away from all of this as possible because he doesn't want you to get hurt and mixed up in it all and if I'm honest, I don't want anyone else mixed up and messed up in all of this either. I'm hoping to catch the killer before all hell breaks loose."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked as my eyes scanned across the table looking for anything that might mean something to me, but it seemed like nothing else spoke to me like the symbol had.

"It means I'm not telling you s**t as I fear for my life." Jake laughed quietly. "Thanks for the offer of help, but this is something that you can't help me with. I promise." I looked up, away from the papers and looked at Jake with a smile as I nodded.

"Ok, well, umm... I should leave you to do whatever it is you are doing, and I hope you find something to help you with all of this."

"I will eventually, Isabelle." He laughed. "Go and get some sleep. I'm sure Eric will want to check in on you first thing in the morning, so it's better that you look like you've had a little sleep rather than like I've kept you up all night and not in the wrong way."

I couldn't help but laugh a little at the comment and shake my head. "You know, Eric's right. Your not as bad as you make yourself out to be." I told him quietly. "Good night, Jake."

"Your not half bad either and I get why Eric kept you to himself. Good night, princess." He muttered and then lowered his head back down to look at the papers again. I went back into the hallway feeling a little better and then headed up to Jake's room. After opening a couple of doors, I found his room, went in, shut the door behind me and sat on the bed as I took out my phone from my pocket and texted Cordelia.

I need to see you tomorrow. It's important.

I knew I wouldn't get an answer back from her, and I wasn't expecting one, as I knew that I was always welcome in her house as it was my home too, and if anyone was going to help me figure out the symbol, what it meant, and also why I'd felt like I'd known it, it was going to be her. She was going to be the person, as she seemed to know everything and if she didn't know something, she'd find someone who did.

I put my phone on Jake's bedside table and curled up on top of the covers, fully dressed, as the exhaustion of the day seemed to crash over me like a wave. I just wanted today to be finished so I could try and start fresh tomorrow. I just had to pray that tomorrow would be better than the show that had been today.