Black Equation - The Forgotten Ones

Black Equation - Chapter 20*

Chapter 20

 

Jared moved without restriction, unthinking.

He clutched her arm almost instantaneously, and yanked her out from the room before she had the chance to get a sniff of the thick, white smoke. After making sure she was unaffected by the gas, he started to run, but was then stopped by a sickeningly familiar presence.

He retreated and sprinted towards the opposite direction, pulling the stiff Faye with him. They were heading towards the emergency stairs.

Why was Jared pulling her? She gaped in alarm. Did he saw all that? Did he know what was happening? Did he know there was danger? Did he know what they were running away from? If it was safety he was looking for, they needed to stay with Hanade! For goodness’s sake!

“Why are we running?! Let’s go back!” she shouted when she found her voice. It was thick with shock and fear.

“Are you crazy? We’re obviously leaving,” he said grimly, his emotions kept in check.

“The others –“

“Your safety comes first.”

“B-but –“

“He could handle them.”

He?

Suddenly, Jared pushed her away from him, making her back hit the hard wall on the farther side of the hall. She gasped as her body throbbed in pain. She slumped on the tiled floor like a flimsy doll. She probably broke her wrist. And twisted an ankle.

Her vision had dark spots dancing on it as she tried to focus on her surroundings. Why had he tossed her away like that, like she was a thing? Jared had never been that brash before.

“Run Faye,” she heard him say in a low hiss. An order for her. A plea from him. “Now.”

There was blood on his cheeks.

“Jared... you have a wound.”

Where did that come from?

She saw his whole body tensed; his arm muscles hardened as he stood imposingly a good four feet away from her. His body’s stance... it was as if he was protecting her from something. From something terrifying and dangerous.

Like a ghastly, ferocious beast.

She could think of only one.

Falcon.

Then things suddenly clicked in place. Why hadn’t she thought of that possibility? Hanade. Alexey. Their reluctance. Their words. Their precaution. Her worry. Everything.

She is the target.

As if on cue, a tall silhouette of a man emerged from the dim alley. A man with shaggy sandy hair and penetrating dark green eyes. A long deep scar ran from his right eye down to his chin, pulling the right side of his mouth into a perpetual grimace.

He watched them with a vicious glint in his eyes.

“Run!” Jared yelled as he charged towards the man with a speed Faye never knew he had. He was buying her time, she knew that. But she couldn’t obey him. Her legs were numb, her arms shaking as she pushed herself into a sitting position, her back protesting in dull pain. She also didn’t want to leave him alone. She knew he had no chance against the vermin. If he would die, she better die too.

Things came on excessively fast. She didn’t even have time to blink. In an instant, Jared was on his knees on the other side of the hall, blood dripping from a gash on his right arm, his shirt torn on the sides.