Chapter 24: Find out 2 (Jasmine, Juila, and Jason)

(Pov Jasmine)

May 19th 2026. 08:21 Pm

Jasmine flicked the blood off her finger. Her latest victim lay on the ground, gurgling as his blood poured out of his arteries into his airway and over the floor. She had managed to kill him before he could get out too much information. It's not like her being here was a secret, not anymore. The gunfire had made sure of that.

The floorboards above her cracked under the weight of someone… multiple someones, judging by the sound. That meant one fire team here. Plus the one on the perimeter and what looked like at least one, probably two near the barn, or one guarding vehicles, that's sixteen. Sixteen an entire platoon of operators. And they were operators, or at least they were former operators. Their equipment and conduct were too good to be anything else. 

She leaned down, dipping her fingers in the pooling blood. She flooded the blood with magic, willing a small portion into the form of a crossbow bolt roughly 16 inches long. It took her only seconds to create three of the things. All were hovering lazily in the air right next to her. She would have to maintain focus to keep them there and keep them solid.

She walked into the hallway towards the stairs, her eyes darting around quickly looking for any sign of movement. Gunfire erupted from the top of the stairs, mixing with the sound of something clattering on the ground faster than she could tell which came first. She whipped around nearly instantly, watching the bullets stop midair less than an inch from her face and chest before falling to the ground. The commotion stopped just a few brief seconds after it started.

She started running for the bottom of the stairs as the pair above her scrambled to move further in. One of them was fumbling with something, the stress clearly getting to him. It was round somewhat sma… Grenade. That was a problem. 

With a thought and a surge of power, she loosed the three arrows towards the man with the grenade. One hit him in the chest, losing its solid form as it hit the ceramic plate protecting him. The second missed, embedding itself in the wall. The third, however, had better luck, piercing deeply into his thigh. To his credit, he only winced at the pain.

She would have had better aim had she been closer and not running. More force would also help; unfortunately, she couldn't get them much faster than the bolt of a hunting crossbow.

She sprinted up the stairs, using her magic to drastically increase the power of her legs. 

She reached the top just in time to see a door to her left shut. As she walked over, she dipped her hands into one of the deeper shadows. When they emerged, darkness had pulled around the tips of her fingers, which quickly formed into elongated claws. It didn't take her long to reach the door. She wasn't dumb enough to look through the keyhole; the end result of that would be someone shoving a knife into her skull. 

It only took a single kick to shatter the door frame and send the door flying open. Immediately, she was facing down the injured operator, ready just inside the door, bayonet fixed. His comrade was just in the process of throwing himself out the window. 

Before she could move, the injured operator thrust the blade towards her. Clearly trying to keep as much distance as possible and, more importantly, keeping her out long enough for his comrade to escape. 

She had to parry a few thrusts before she managed to get a proper opening. Grabbing hold of the gun's barrel, she dragged it toward her, its wielder with it. She thrust her hand towards his throat. But the man managed to block his neck with the stock of the rifle, forcing her hand downwards. She managed to redirect her hand to hit him in the shoulder.

Her hand slid into his shoulder with ease, cutting sinew and muscle alike, severing arteries and nerves. Blood geysered across the floor and onto the furniture. The arm fell limply, as limply as the soon-to-be corpse it was attached to. She withdrew from the strike almost immediately. All that was left was to wait. 

The operator valiantly attempted another one-armed thrust, but it was half hatred, or he was simply so weak that there wasn't more to give. He fell over, breathing shallowly. 

Stepping over the soon-to-be corpse, she walked over to the window and peeked outside as sneakily and quickly as she could. What she saw outside made her wince.

She had hoped the unit's commander would be a fool. Under no circumstance could she have stormed the barn while leaving anyone inside the house, not with the positioning it gave them. Gunfire wasn't a concern; grenades were. 

She had hoped their commander would send more troops into the building to aid the ones being attacked. Which would place them in close combat. That would have favored her. It would also make it so they couldn't bumrush her all at once. 

Their commander was no fool. She, and she had seen the person she presumed to be in charge's face, probably had some experience or at least had thought about how to fight noctians. 

She had laid a semi-circle of light between her forces and the house so it shielded them. That was smart; the light would weaken her shadows even if it wasn't much extra in the evening sun. Her troops seemed to stand by with what she was guessing were concussion grenades. There was probably at least one person with a grenade launcher of some kind somewhere.

Worst of all, the woman now had a gun against Jason's head. Jasmine's eye twitched. Something like this was inevitable if she was dealing with an experienced foe. She had even planned for it. She might hate it; NO ONE threatened her thrall. But she knew the threat was largely empty. After all, if Jason died, there was no chance in hell of anyone down there making it out alive. 

No, most likely they were gonna force her to act in some way, or delay for time. 

She needed a plan. Something to throw her opponent off balance. 

Her eyes landed on the corpse by the door. An idea started to form in her head. She might have to reassure Jason later on that she wasn't a sociopath, but that would mean he was alive.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Pov Lieutenant Julia)

May 19th 2026. 08:25 Pm

The knot in her stomach had been tightening for the last few minutes. They were being watched, assessed. That much she knew; she had seen the faint hint of movement in the windows. 

Their opponent was planning something and taking her sweet time doing it.

The front door groaned as it slowly opened. Revealing a hallway that was unnaturally dark, the light seemingly meeting a veil of shadow mere inches from the door frame. A laugh that sent a shiver down her spine erupted from behind the veil just as the door stopped moving.

A woman walked through the veil, dispersing it. Her hands stained crimson, blood flowing in trickles from a detached hand into her mouth, levitating through the air. She knew that hand. Julia's jaw tensed.

The woman stopped at the bottom of the stairs,l leaning heavily on one leg, her free hand resting on her hip, covering her slacks in even more blood. 

“You know, for someone who decided to kidnap my favorite pet, you would make a fantastic host. Providing so much food for little old me. They even put up a little fight; it was adorable. And adrenaline seasons them just right.” The woman was smiling at them, her fangs on full display. “Have you ever considered becoming a hostess? It would work fantastically for you.” 

What the fuck! Noctians weren't, as a group, psychopaths. This one might just be. She wished she could see the brat's face; it might have given some indication if that really was the case, but alas.

“Place your hand on your head, and get on your knees, or the boy dies.” She forced as much authority into her voice as she could manage. 

“Jas… Witch,” The boy shouted.

The woman's eyes flickered between Julia and the boy before landing briefly on her sword. The smile fell briefly before returning to the same maniacal look. 

“Thank you, pet, but please let me handle this.” Her gaze locked with Julia's. “Here's my counteroffer. You put down your weapons and surrender. And he and I leave this place; I drop you all off alive and unharmed somewhere in Arizona. Sound good?” She cocked her head slightly, the smile still not reaching her eyes.

Something about why the smile had fallen seemed strange. It's an act! The noctian was making it all up; she was faking it. Not the offer, perhaps, but her behavior.

Julia moved her finger from where it had been resting along the side of the barrel of her pistol and onto the trigger.

“You can drop the act.”

The smile disappeared almost instantly. “I had really hoped I was a better actor than that. Oh well, hand over my fiancé and surrender, or I will kill all of you.” 

“You can try. But it seems to me we have the advantage here. Try it, and we kill you and your boyfriend.”

The woman's left eyebrow lifted; her crimson red eyes felt like they were staring into Julia's soul. “fiancé–” her voice was hard as steel. “– And if you really believed you could kill me, if you found that likely, you would already have done it. If you kill him, you lose the only thing that might be keeping you alive. I wonder how much having your liver ripped out while you're still conscious hurts? Kill him, and you also lose the only reason I haven't gone after the rest of your men. But I won't start the fight with him at this much risk. I won't let you leave with him either. I am giving you an out that keeps you alive. Take it.”

The bloodsucker in front of her was right about the first half, at least. Killing the boy now wouldn't end well for her or any of them, for that matter. Still, she insisted on fiancé.

“Eagle two, withdraw immediately, inform Hawk four and five to be ready to withdraw on my command. Eagle three and Hawk two withdraw just after Eagle two has contacted the others”

“Ma'am, we can't leave you here. We need to kill the bitch.” Rodriguez said with barely contained rage.

“That wasn't a fucking request. Move NOW.”

Luckily, he offered no further protests as he started moving towards their vehicles. 

“My my, splitting your forces seems like a bad idea. Not that I am complaining.” The noctian's voice was calm, confident in a way that would have been deeply uncomfortable had her eyes not been searching the surrounding area.

She waited to say anything until the rest of her troops had drawn back beyond the barn. 

“So here's the deal: I give you back your fiancé, and then we leave. We both go our separate ways. Easy and clean.” She needed her to take the deal. It was their best chance at getting out of here alive, for those of them who were still alive, that was. She might face reprimand, but she would just have to take it. Their orders were to abort if something like this happened anyway.

The woman's jaw tightened slightly, the gears visibly turning in her head; her eyes finally dropped to her fiancé, softening somewhat. “Jason, honey, what did you tell them before I got here?”

“Nothing.” The boy's voice sounded deeply shaken. He hadn't lied, though. He had lied at almost every turn and dodged every question he could. She did have to admire the loyalty. It didnt make what was to come any easier.

“Did they hurt you?”

“Not really, I mean I got arrested and kinda resisted a bit. It was forceful, but I wasn't harmed.”

Well, shit. Mister Smallers might have just saved our lives. She felt the regret for what was probably about to happen worm around her stomach.

The woman's crimson eyes locked back onto Julia's, her face completely passive. “Fine, you have a deal; send him over.”

Julia loosened the grip on her gun slightly. Almost there. “Come on, Mister Smallers, time to get up.”

“Yeah, yeah.” His movements were clumsy as he stood up, like a newborn foal. Not that it was surprising; he was still wearing handcuffs after all. Though she would leave it up to the noctian to get those off. “Well, I won't say it's been fun, but nice knowing you, I guess.” he waved over his shoulder as he started walking towards the house.

She would have liked to leave it at that. She would have liked to trust that the noctian wouldn't come rip out all their throats the second she was convinced her fiancé was safe. She couldn't trust that. Killing the boy wasn't an option for obvious reasons, but she did need the woman distracted. To give her a problem she couldn't solve quickly. The extremities wouldn't be an immediate enough problem, and going near the head or heart was off the table entirely. That left her with one option, a risky one.

As Jason was a little over halfway between them, she raised her pistol and pulled the trigger.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Pov Jason)

Jason felt like he got hit in the lower back three times in rapid succession with a sledgehammer. There wasn't any pain, just pressure as he started falling forward. The world was moving in slow motion as he saw Jasmine sprinting towards him, shouting… Something? Behind him, the sound of someone sprinting disappeared into the distance.

She reached him before his head hit the ground. He was off his feet and around the corner of the house faster than he could really notice what was happening. Jasmine laid him down against the wall.

Her attention was mostly on his stomach for some reason. He looked down.

Jesus Christ, that's a lot of blood. It was surprising, not the blood, or rather not only the blood. But how calm his thoughts were. He'd been shot, but he always thought that would hurt. 

His clothes mostly obscured it, but he could still somewhat see the jagged edges of flesh and torn skin. It made him want to throw up, and it made him want to poke at it.

“Jasmine, am I hallucinating?” His voice sounded distant in his own ears. 

She looked up at him briefly, her face etched with focus. “No, you aren't, honey.” Her hand moved diligently as she ripped open his T-shirt and tore off sections of it. Forming them into small bundles. 

He could move his fingers, but for some reason his arms felt like lead covered in molasses. 

The numbness was starting to fade, replaced by a burning sensation that spread through his entire lower torso. He could hear his heart throbbing in his ears, his breath becoming uneven and jagged.

Jasmine's eyes locked back onto his. A feeling of pressure mounted in his mind, forcing his thoughts into a kind of rigidity they shouldn't have. He recognized that feeling.

“Calm down, don't panic.” Her voice was hard as steel and filled with the kind of authority you simply couldn't argue with.

His breath normalized instantly, the sound of his heart fading almost as quickly.

Her gaze returned to her work, but the effect remained.

“Jasmine, am I gonna die?”

She leaned him forward, resting his body against hers, as he felt her fingers start pushing the bundles of fabric into the wounds in his back. Whatever pain that might have caused paled compared to that already spreading through his abdomin. 

“I don't know.” She leaned him back against the wall. “It doesn't look good. I think I can save you. But…” She hesitated, her right hand resting against his cheek, softly rubbing and covering it in blood. “Jason, this is going to hurt. This will be the worst pain you have ever experienced or ever will. And I can't make it not hurt, because if I do, then I can't stop you from panicking, and then you bleed out before I can stop it. I have about another minute before the effect on your mind wears off, and I need to use it.”

He felt cold; everything felt cold and excruciatingly painful. Jason nodded. 

“I am sorry.” Jasmine said before she shoved her fingers into the wounds in his stomach. The pain multiplied a thousandfold as heat rushed through his stomach. Jason screamed; he didnt know for how long until the world turned black.

–END of book one–

Sorry for this part of the chapter being delayed too. I kinda overestimated how well I was gonna be over the last few days. 

So I will be moving on to the next chapter and thus book immdieatly. But next weeks chapter will be shorter tahn normal, or it might be delayed to the week after to give me some time to plan. But this is of course not the end of out story.

Also for those intrested check out chapter 23 1 to see art of jason.