CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR

Jet and Alec appeared right in the middle of the commotion. One moment it was all black and the next, Jet saw a flying table coming right at him. In shock, he quickly waved his hand in front of him and a strong air blew the table away to another direction.

They both looked up and saw gore in front of them. Three bodies lay dead on the carpeted floor of the hotel lobby as the monster wreaked havoc. Screams of people trying to get away filled the place. Alec quickly teleported right next to the monster and delivered a straight kick to its face.

The monster flew back towards the decorated wall as Alec landed softly on the carpeted floor. While Jet on the other hand ordered the panicked people to get out of the hotel. As Jet protected the fleeing people from the flying furniture, Alec made sure the monster's attention was only to him.

Once the lobby was empty of people, Jet quickly jumped towards the monster and controlled the air around it to bind it in its position. Then, Alec took a few metal marbles out of his left pocket and spun them around inside his palm. Before Alec could conjure something, Jet come flying back towards him and the two of them rolled to the floor. The metal marbles rolled away from Alec's hand.

Jet quickly jumped up to his feet and rushed towards the monster once more. While Alec opened his palm and his weapons appeared in the middle of his palm. The metal marbles slowly morphed into a dagger.

"Get out of the way, Jet!" he shouted as he teleported atop of the monster, and Jet jumped out of the way just in time for Alec to ram his dagger into the monster's head. The monster dropped to the ground and Alec pulled his dagger off its head then he washed the blood off of it using the table cloth he found on the floor before the dagger turned back into metal marble once more.

Alec put his weapon back inside his pockets. "I'll call the clean-up team. I suggest you start looking at those people before the pills wore off,"

Jet nodded and ran out of the hotel. He saw a large crowd of people waiting outside and he wanted to roll his eyes at them. If he was normal and a monster appeared, you wouldn't find him in a 20-mile radius of it yet these rich people refused to run.

"Anyone who is injured line up in front of me!" he ordered and a few people started lining up in front of him.

Thankfully, all those wounds were not life-threatening. Most were just large scratches or a small cut. He healed all of them before the effects of the pill vanished. He put his earphones back on as he entered the hotel once more.

"Citrus gum?" Alec offered.

"Hell yeah," Jet quickly ran towards his partner and snatched the gum away from his hand. "That damn metallic taste is in my mouth,"

Jet sat up on the counter, blowing on his gum as they waited for the clean-up team. There was silence around him as Alec prayed for the poor souls who died before they arrived. He watched as Alec knelt in front of the three bodies; giving them their own prayers.

"You know, they were probably sacrificed," Jet said as Alec stood up after the last corpse. "Pushed towards the monster to save their own skin,"

But before Alec could tell him differently, a hysterical woman rushed inside the hotel lobby, shouting a name. "Where's my Anika?" she asked Jet who she saw sitting by the reception counter. "My Anika! Please!"

Jet couldn't find his voice to answer. There was so much agony in the woman's eyes that his voice failed him. But there was only one girl among the corpses. So he raised his hand to point the woman in the right direction. The crying woman quickly ran towards the lying girl and pulled her limp body towards her chest as a strangled cry left her lungs.

Even Jet with his cynical view of the world could hear the agony and grief in the woman's cry. And as he watched the woman hugged her daughter's body tightly towards her as she pleaded her to open her eyes, he could see his own self in her. A lump formed in his throat as he jumped down the counter and excused himself from his partner as he walked out of the hotel.

He crossed the street and fell on the sidewalk. He stared at the crowd growing larger and larger but he wasn't really seeing them. He was seeing Mina and Liam. It was so fresh in his mind like he was reliving it all over again. He was holding her head towards his chest as he cried her name repeatedly, telling her to open her eyes. While Liam's lifeless eyes stared at him. With one hand, he tried wiping the blood off of her face but she still wasn't moving. Both their screams and pleas for him to save them rang repeatedly in his ears.

Jet felt cold and bereft. He raised his arms and wrapped himself; trying to make himself smaller as he crouch over his knees—pleading his own mind to stop replaying that scarring event but it continued. And he found himself staring straight at the eyes of what used to be his best friend. His brother and sister's blood dripping off its dislocated jaws.

As Jet felt something cold and strange started flowing inside of him, a warmth that wasn't there before started from his left shoulder until the coldness went away and he started to see what was in front of him once more. He slowly sat up from the crouch he found himself in and looked up in front of him.

Alec was standing strong in front of him, his hand holding on to Jet's shoulder in a comforting manner. He knelt so that the two of them would be on the same height. He wasn't smiling but there was something in him that seemed to call onto Jet. There was a sense of safety in his presence.

"I'm not going to tell you to forget. They are your family and it's your past. It's what makes the you of today. But I'm telling you that you're not alone anymore. You don't have to bear that weight on your own. I'm your partner, after all,"

Jet looked up at the older man's eyes. And for the first time, he didn't felt alone. He nodded and stood up from the sidewalk and stared at the commotion in front of him. The clean-up team had arrived and was wheeling the dead bodies out of the hotel.

Alec patted him on the back before he led the younger man away from the hotel.

~oOo~

"We can't all be prodigies, Jet mate," Ronnie said as he slammed a few bills down Jet's table after losing their bet.

"I told you I can do it," Jet answered conceitedly.

Jet took the bills and counted them before he hid it inside his back pocket. He raised both of his feet on his desk and leaned over his chair. "Well, Ronnie, I suggest you start training. I'm not going to need a job if you keep losing our bets like this. You'll be able to support me!"

"Ha Ha," Ronnie laughed sarcastically.

"If only you know how to be thrifty," A shadow of doom darkened Jet's shiny light and he looked up to see his partner, Alec, standing behind him. There was a calm expression on the older man's face and Jet relaxed.

"How are you, Ronnie?" he asked.

Ronnie greeted him back. "I'm fine, aside from the fact that I lost another bet with Jet,"

Suddenly, arms were wrapped around Ronnie from behind as Eliza jumped towards him. He looked up in shock and his girlfriend gave him a peck in the lips. "I told you many times stop betting against Jet,"

Ronnie gave a laugh as he pulled his girlfriend down to sit on his lap. "Are you done with your field training?"

Eliza happily reported that she was done for the day and Alec turned to Jet. "Did you hear that, Jet? Eliza went out for a field training and yet you're here lazing around,"

"Shit!" Jet cursed as he saw Alec's expression changed.

But before he could jump out of the chair Alec's right hand landed on the top of his head and started gripping it like he was picking up a ball from the floor. Jet clawed Alec's hand but he couldn't remove it. Ronnie and Eliza stared at the interaction in front of them with no idea how they should react.

"I heard you've been skipping daily training, Jet," Alec said; his voice despite the calmness was like the call of death for Jet. "If you'll excuse us, Ronnie, Eliza,"

The two of them nodded; unsure if they really should let them go but before he could stop it, Alec started dragging a thrashing Jet towards the training room.

"Noooooo!" Jet's voice echoed through the hallway they vanished in.

Ronnie shook his head as he turned towards the other way. "Such a scary man, that Alec," he muttered under his breathe.

Eliza turned to him in confusion. "Uh, why do Jet always don't have money? I mean, with the salary we receive in this kind of job?"

Ronnie gave her a pained smile. "Jet donates all of it to the orphanage he grew up in. That's why even though he keeps scolding him; Alec just gives in to his wimps,"

"Well, what you say we cook for him sometimes?" Eliza suggested with a smile before giving her boyfriend a deeper kiss.