A Rose as Black as your Heart

(48) Macaroni and Cheese

Chapter 48

“Your friends are pretty violent, aren’t they?” Jason appeared suddenly in front of me, zapping out of thin air. His face was smeared in blood, but he was still smiling.

“Fuck you,” I shouted, and my spare hand scrabbled at the ground for something to attack him with. I only came up with a couple of small stones, which I hurled at him as hard as I possibly could.

Jason only laughed, deflecting the stones as they flew at him without lifting a hand. One pinged back against my cheek and I flinched, but didn’t move a hand to rub at the stinging graze.

“Calm down, Alexis. Your friend will be fine. And I’m sure Daniel’s coping with his Phase just fine.” He lifted a hand to his nose and shifted it into place with a sharp crack. He hissed at the pain, but a subtle blue light emitted from his fingertips as he healed himself.

“Now, if you don’t mind me, little Nighthunter-” he moved to pat my head like I was some kind of pet dog, and I furiously batted his arm away. “I’m going to make sure no one else is on my tail.” He tilted his head. “D’you think I should start with that annoying brother of yours?”

Fury fired up inside of me. “Don’t you dare hurt Matt!”

Jason only laughed and disappeared from view. I groaned in frustration, and tugged uselessly at my handcuff. It was clamped tightly around my wrist; there was barely enough space for my wrist to move, let alone wiggle out of. Heavy loops of chains were wrapped around the sturdy looking tree trunk. It didn’t look like there was any way to wriggle them free.

Daniel, I wish you were here, I thought desperately to myself.

Toughen up, Alexis. You can get yourself out of this.

It wasn’t the voice I so desperately wanted to here, but hearing my own thoughts helped clear my head a little.

I rummaged around the ground for something to pick the lock with. There were a few thin sticks, but most of them snapped when I inserted them into the lock. Finally, I found a sturdier one that fitted nicely into the lock, but as I began to wiggle it in, I heard a familiar voice.

“Rose, are you okay?”

My head shot up in surprise, before I realised the voice had come from the screen in the diary. I scooted towards it and saw the familiar flash of ginger hair as Travis crouched down next to Rose.

Rose glanced up from where she had been staring down at Harrison’s blank sleeping face and stroking his hair gently. “Travis, what’re you doing here?”

“It’s a beach, isn’t it?” he said wryly. “I’m allowed to walk on a beach.” He sat own next to her. “Also, I heard something had happened to Alexis. I didn’t really catch what it was, but...” he finally seemed to notice Harrison. “Hey, that’s Harrison, right? Is he okay?”

“I don’t know,” Rose said miserably, brushing his hair out of his eyes. “His heart’s beating, but he hasn’t woken up. I’m worried he’s got internal damage or something...” her voice trembled. “Dom’s gone to get help.”

“Internal...? Jesus.” Travis looked alarmed, but too confused to ask for more details. “And Alexis?”

“Jason’s got her.” Rose raised her miserable face to his. “We don’t know where. Or why.”

Travis was the only one to get it. “To make Daniel depressed, right?”

Rose blinked at him. “Huh?”

“You said Daniel would Change if he got depressed or something, yeah?” Travis shrugged awkwardly. “And if Jason wanted him to Change that bad...”