Marshall Twins [2 - Twins Series]

10 - A Ghost Along the Mississippi

Book: Marshall Twins
Chapter 10
Word Count: 2684

It is the next morning now, and Avery and Jackson were in the middle of getting the rest of their belongings from the werewolf encampment to load them into Jackson's truck to bring them to their apartment.

"I still say we should take my dartboard..." Jackson spoke first.

"Your calendar girls, too?" Avery scoffed. "Some things are best left behind, Jack. And besides, I let you take your bow and arrow! Not exactly sure how you're going to hunt in the French Quarter, though..."

"Hipsters!" Jackson smirked.

"Uh-huh." Avery chuckled. Just then, Jackson was shot in the neck with a wolfsbane dart and groaned in pain. He fell to his knees, dropping the box in his hands onto the ground, and pulled out the dart as Avery quickly rushed over to him. "Jack!"

In the nearby woods, a man aimed his tranquilizer gun at Avery and shot, but she caught the dart in mid-air before throwing it on the ground and walking toward them.

"You gonna hide in the woods, or are you gonna come out here and fight?"

Aya vamp-sped behind Avery and stabbed her in the shoulder with another wolfsbane dart, which caused her to groan in pain.

"Gladly!" Aya sneered.

Avery's hybrid eyes came out as she span and backhanded Aya hard in the face. Jackson, recovering from his own wolfsbane dart, groaned and pulled himself to his feet so he could help Avery fight the Strix vampires.

As Avery punched Aya again in the face, Jackson growled and partially shifted into a werewolf as he lunged for another vampire, hitting him hard in the nose with the heel of his hand before punching a second, and biting a third on the neck.

The second vampire came up behind Jackson and pulled him off, but Jackson kicked the third vampire in the chest so hard that he was able to back-flip out of the second vampire's grip and return to the fight. He flipped the second vampire onto the ground and bit him on the wrist to weaken him before standing to his feet and looking over at Avery, who was still fighting Aya.

"AVE!"

When the vampires began to overpower Jackson and inject him with more wolfsbane, Avery got distracted and shouted for him.

"JACK!"

That distraction allowed Aya to grab Avery in a choke-hold, which gave the sniper in the woods a chance to shoot her with two more wolfsbane darts as well, and Avery passed out.

---

Avery woke up, covered in blood and bruises, to find that she and Jackson had been chained up in the back of an auto shop. They were sitting in chairs with their wrists shackled, and behind them were IV bags filled with clear fluid. Avery immediately began to break through her restraints to save them, but Jackson, who awakened before her and whose face was beaten and bloodied as well, weakly tried to stop her.

"I tried that... I tried that. The more you struggle, the more wolfsbane gets pumped into your veins."

Avery looked back and realised that their shackles were hooked up to IV lines inserted into their veins, and that the IV bags behind them were full of wolfsbane-laced water.

When Avery looked down at the floor, she saw that Jackson's pant leg was stained red, and that a huge puddle of blood surrounded his foot on the floor.

"Jack, your leg. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, they worked me over pretty good. With all the... the wolfsbane in my system, I ain't healing so well." Jackson coughed.