Chapter 4

Jayden POV

The girl sat up with her body arched off the floor, and her arm in propping up her weight, ready to move as a precaution, in case I made a sudden lunge at her; although I would most likely have been able to catch her. She was quite smart; I had to give her that. Her eyes never left me, even when my attention could have been momentarily on Steph, she wasn't taking any chances. I slid my blade out, she simply blinked. I made every effort not to let my confusion show on my face, as I hesitated to think, about the kind of nerves this girl had. Isn't she scared? I thought a bit annoyed, the most reaction I got from her was a blink! There was growing temptation to do something that would really scare someone, even this weird girl, I hated being underestimated, and that's all I could truly put this ignorance down to. She wasn't even a fighter, I could clearly see from her poor stance earlier, yet she was staring me down like an equal, it infuriated a small part of me, infuriated...yet flustered, and I didn't know why.

Relax, Jay, it doesn't matter, I repeated over and over to myself, until I could release my breath without being annoyed. I inhaled and exhaled again, as I continued to watch that piercing gaze, both mesmerized and yet trying my hardest to maintain my anger. My eyes flashed red and I slashed through the air with added determination, I needed to get this over with now before something else happened. From the corner of my eye, I could see my sister turn her head quickly away and closing her eyes in fear of seeing what I would do. I aimed for her long, slender throat, but literally heard my claw scratch steel in the same second I attacked. My sister shivered beside the girl, and then her eyes flew open fear and anxiety in her eyes as she ventured to look back at the girl.

 The unknown girl was putting up a shield. Instinctively she had flung her arms, up in front of her face to protect herself. What was more interesting is that a shield had form in front of her frail arms, a shining white shield, almost like light itself. I stood staring at her, as she stayed motionless for a few more seconds, eyes shut and frozen in place, until my sister released a fearful breath, filled with relief.

The girl slowly opened her eyes, and brought down her arms shaking slightly, but the shield remained. I looked at her studiously, and she seemed more terrified of herself than me, but from her I could sense something. The flickering powers of an elite. She released a breath she was holding in to calm herself, and breathed again in relief. The shield still remained encasing her completely, even I couldn't get through. Yet she didn't seem to know what she was doing, and she continued to steadily try to regain herself, her body shaking less as the time passed. My sister bounced beside her, awe, wonder and joy filling her face directed at her. I grit my teeth. As I watched them, silently exchanging hopeful smiles, then laugh together nervously. It was more than just a bit annoying, since the girl wasn't even looking at me now. I lunged forward, jumping into her face.

"RELEASE!!" I commanded. Her arched frame faltered, and she stumbled back onto the ground, disengaging her shield.

"Ah! It's gone!" Steph cried, wide eyed an amazed even further, the girl bit her lip awkwardly and glanced from her to me. Steph turned astonished to me, amazement in her voice, "How'd you do that?!" I held my glare towards the girl.

"She's an amateur..." I said, practically to myself, as I contemplated the meaning of my own words, I turned my head towards Steph then and continued, "Steph, she's an elite...but a sucky one at that—all I needed to do was distract her." The girl blinked again, and confusion filled her beautiful face, Steph looked surprise as well, but it changed quickly to joy.

"So can we keep her!?" I nearly laughed at my sister's choice of words, as I looked back down to them, the girl looked genuinely surprise as well, which was quite adorable, even I couldn't help but admit. Steph held a wide hopeful grin on her face. The only problem with this elite, was that she had let a human escape. I cringed; would Ester even want her alive? I was already certain that human child wouldn't keep quiet about what she witnessed...that may complicate things since Ester didn't want the general public to know just yet, and this girl would be to blame if it got out.

"Leave her alone, Jayden, please, she's one of us now...there's no reason," Steph pleaded, as if reading my thoughts. I'd swear my sister was a humanist, one less person wouldn't make a difference, yet she made it a point to fight for each one of them. How we were even related, I didn't know. I looked from her to the girl whose eyes were now looking like understanding was dawning on her. I made a mental note; she made looking knowledgeable look sexy. I knelt down, only inches away from the girl's face, to study it again, her determined eyes returned once again as I watched her, and wordlessly she stared back.

" Okay, here's the--" I actually lost my train of thought, being this close to her face, I couldn't stare into her eyes while continuing a steady line of thought. This girl- was so alluring, I could feel a part of me growl with desire. She bit her lip, and my gaze dropped to them as I momentarily imagined what it'd be like to nibble her sweet, plump lips for even a second. Her eyes wavered slightly, probably because my pauses were freaking her out, yet she still seemed calm and collective. I swallowed, to keep my throat from getting dry, as my eyes fell back to her luscious lips. Her mouth was arched to one side and I was pretty sure she wasn't breathing; no-one was actually, not even me.I released a deep breath as did Steph and the girl, and I watched Steph's expression break into a  smile, oh the joys of being young and oblivious.

 I rolled my eyes, but the girl looked across at her slightly and returned it. I sighed; I could tell from the corner of my eye, she had returned her attention to me, all traces of uneasiness gone from her perfect face but I was not ready to look at her sanely yet. My mind was still all over the place, I grit my teeth softly, trying as I might to reign in my options. I could kill her. Probably? I'm stronger experience wise...raw power doesn't say much to me, now my only problem was getting myself to do it, after gazing into her sweet, light brown eyes. I had a feeling motivating myself to once again try to kill her was going to be harder than it had been the first time.

However the option still stood for using her, and keeping her alive, but I really couldn't make that choice, based on the inability on my part to kill herafter seeing her good once, I exhaled another breath, as it stood if I was this bad after only seeing her for a few minutes, how much less would I want to kill her given the chance to know her better. Why can't she just try to run away and make my job easy!? I ranted inwardly,  If she ran then I could easily kill her, cause I can tell myself, she wouldn't have joined willingly, and end up hurting my sister and I in the long run....but as is, she looked determined to deal with whatever I threw her way...crap, my thoughts became more and more erratic as I went through everything in my mind, and for the life of me I could not convince myself to turn back and face her.

"So..." she said, breaking the silence, I blinked away from my thoughts, surprised-- she speaks? And what a beautiful voice she had... "Are we going to stare at each other all night, or are you going to kill me?" I grinned at the audacious, confidence in her sweet honey like voice.

"Are you scared?" I questioned her, threateningly, easing myself a bit closer,completely ignoring her previous question. Her eyes stayed firmly on me, looking deep into my bright red eyes, as she conceptualized her answer, and I almost felt my smile falter, to be replaced by raw lust and need.