Jason woke the next morning to loud shuffling coming from the kitchen. He got up and hoped the noise meant breakfast.
Halfway down the hall, Jason froze. He stared at the red drops and smears from his front door toward the kitchen. What the fuck?
Jason held his breath. He slowly stepped forward to peek around the corner. The living room was empty—no sign of Sam, Aaron, or Rachel. Whose blood is it?
Jason froze again when a loud bang sounded from the kitchen. He pressed his back against the wall and strained his ears to listen.
He could hear water running. Jason stepped around the corner to get a better view of the kitchen.
Jason gasped at the stranger in his kitchen. She had vivid red hair and held her arm under the running tap.
"Who the hell are you?"
The woman glanced around with a pale face. "Oh hey, handsome. Hand me a towel, will you?"
"You..." Jason felt his stomach sink. This was the second woman at the dock.
"Sorry for crashing," —she looked around— "and for dripping blood all over."
Jason grimaced at the blood smears covering his floor and kitchen cabinets.
She turned the tap off. The moment the water stopped the blood began dripping down her arm again. She pressed the palm of her hand over the nasty gash in her arm with a grimace.
Jason rushed to grab a towel from the pantry and threw it to her.
She caught it mid-air. "Thanks." She pressed it against her arm.
"Why are you here?"
She shrugged. "I needed a safe place to go. Besides this is the second time we met...in my book that makes us well acquainted."
Jason sighed and dragged a hand through his hair. "Let me guess, Nova, right?"
She nodded "See Nightshade spilled the beans."
Jason frowned. "Who?"
"Skylar."
Jason huffed. "Clearly not enough, and you are wrong if you think you are welcome here."
Nova inhaled deeply. "Hate to break it to you but Skylar is in major trouble."
Jason felt a heavy drop in his stomach.
Nova sighed. "Listen, I'll tell you everything but please, do you have a first aid kit?"
Jason stared at her. She looked deathly pale. "Yeah, stay here."
Jason walked to fetch the kit from his en suite. He grabbed his phone on the nightstand and dialed Skylar.
"Jason, you're up early," she croaked through the phone.
"Nova is in my apartment."
Jason heard her curse under her breath,
"Jason, don't trust her, please be on guard."
Jason frowned. "You said she was a friend."
"I lied. She's dangerous."
"She's hurt."
Skylar gasp. "I'm on my way." She ended the call.
Jason dropped the phone on the bed with a frown. Something's not right.
He returned with the first aid kit but paused to stare at the empty living room again. "Was the house empty when you came in?"
Nova looked worse. She swayed on her feet with her eyes closed but nodded slightly. "Yes."
Relief washed over Jason. "Hold out your arm."
She removed her hand to reveal the wound. It was deep, almost to the bone, and gaping. Jason's stomach churned but he cleaned it and had it almost dressed when Nova fell limp against him. She lost a lot of blood, but she would be fine. He scooped her up and carried her to an empty bedroom to rest.
Jason closed the door and went back to his kitchen to try and clean up the blood before his sister and friends decided to show up.
"Jason?" Skylar burst through the door.
Jason turned to her. "You forgot to tell me your friend was the second woman at the docks."
Skylar exhaled and pulled a hand down her face. "You're okay, thank God."
Jason shook his head. "What's going on Skylar, why are you in trouble?"
Skylar gasp. "She said that?"
Jason nodded. "What does it mean?"
Skylar looked terrified. "Where is she?" She looked around and rushed past Jason.
Jason caught her by the wrist and jerked her to a stop. "What trouble?"
Skylar's eyes burned with desperation. She roughly yanked free from his grip and pushed past him.
"Skylar—"
Skylar spun around and glared at him. "What, Jason?"
Jason sighed and motioned to the bloodied kitchen sink. "She lost a lot of blood, right now she's asleep."
Skylar stared at the sink for a few seconds before she released a long and trembling breath. She walked to the kitchen counter and sat down with her head in her hands. "I'm sorry you got dragged into this."
Jason walked closer and rested his elbows on the counter. "Sky, what's going on?"
She kept her head down. "Well, I will know more once I talk to Nova, but I can only assume that the Flor...ah, my handler is recalling me immediately."
Jason shook his head. "If you are just being recalled, why is Nova breaking in, bleeding over everything, and saying you're in big trouble?"
Skylar shook her head. "I need to talk to her before I can give you answers."
"She called you Nightshade." Jason crossed his arm over his chest.
Skylar closed her eyes and clenched her fists. "She shouldn't have said that." She slowly opened her eyes and all the emotion in her face disappeared. "I have to get something from the car." She stood up and walked out the door.
Jason clenched his fits. She's not being honest. His phone rang from the bedroom. He groaned and walked to answer it.
"Yes, Sam?"
"Hey, we're getting breakfast, what do you want?"
"I'm good, Skylar showed up with bagels and we're spending the day together...alone."
"Okay, guess we will crash at Aaron's, let me know if you change your mind and wanna join us."
"Will do, bye." Jason ended the call. He felt bad for lying but he wanted them out of the way to figure out what the hell was going on.
He walked back to the front of the house with his phone in hand. He was just in time to catch Skylar coming back in.
"Where is she?" Her face was expressionless.
Jason pointed down the hall. "First bedroom on the right."
Jason noticed she had something in her hand as he followed her into the bedroom.
Nova lay asleep but Skylar woke her without hesitation.
"Sky?" Nova rubbed her eyes.
"Drink this." Skylar roughly squeezed Nova's jaw and shoved a small purple pill into her mouth.
Nova swallowed with little protest.
Skylar stepped away from the bed. "You have ten minutes to pull yourself together, we'll be in the living room."
Nova nodded and slowly sat up in the bed.
"You better have a good reason for being here, Belladonna." Skylar turned abruptly and pulled Jason out of the room.
In the living room, Skylar fell onto the sofa with a heavy sigh.
Jason sat down opposite her.
Skylar peeked up at him through her lashes. "As soon as she's on her feet we'll have to leave. The longer you're around me the more in danger you are."
Jason chuckled. "I'm a fucking gang lord, how am I in danger?"
Skylar smirked and shook her head. "The less you know the safer you are."
"Don't patronize me."
Skylar narrowed her eyes at him. "I wish things were different. I have no choice but to go back—"
"That's no longer an option." Nova slowly walked in and perched herself on an ottoman.
Jason frowned at her. She looked a million times better. "How have you recovered so quickly?"
Skylar sighed and crossed her arms.
Nova smirked at Skylar's impatience. "The pill Skylar gave me is an accelerant—"
"It speeds up recovery. No, we don't know what's in it." Skylar dismissed Jason's unspoken question. "Nova, what's going on?"
Nova inhaled deeply and rolled her eyes before looking at Skylar with raised eyebrows. "You failed to follow protocol. She's weeding you out."
Skylar swallowed. "This is my mess. I'll go back tonight."
Nova shook her head. "You don't understand, she wants both our heads."
"Why is she at war with you?"
Nova looked down. "At the docks, I lied, I was supposed to bring you in not just warn you. We both failed to follow protocol, although I'm not sure what your protocol entailed—"
Skylar glanced at Jason and swallowed. The cat's already out of the bag. "She wanted me to gather intel on the gangs of Lunarlake—"
"What?" Jason frowned. "I'm just an assignment to you?"
"No!" Skylar shook her head. "No, I had no idea who you were, until it was too late. I was never allowed to insert myself, only observe...the moment I found out, I knew that I had already broken protocol—"
Nova frowned and shook her head. "Skylar, have you willingly continued your flirtation with Jason knowing full well it will cost you your life?"
Skylar leaned forward and placed her head in her hands. "Yes." She mumbled.
Jason moved to sit beside her. He gently touched her shoulder. "Why would you do that?"
Skylar turned to him. "Because the truth kept twisting and I thought you could help me find who killed my mother, but somewhere along the way you fucked with my emotions and...I want to be with you, but we were doomed from the start—"
Jason sighed. "I should have left you alone, this is my fault too."
Skylar touched Jason's hand. "I can't stay. I won't have you or anyone be collateral to get to me."
Nova huffed. "It's all very touching but staying is kinda the only choice we have at the moment."
Skylar glared at her. "No."
"Think about it Nightshade, we both know we cannot outrun them so it's certain death, and don't think for one second, they will hesitate to approach Jason, Jess, or your sister to get to you. If we stay, we can protect them, and combining forces right now is the only way to at least try and survive."
Skylar bit her lip and shook her head.
Jason placed his hand on her thigh. "It's not up for debate. You're staying under my protection. I will keep you and Nova safe."
Nova and Skylar both glanced at each other.
Nova chuckled. "That's admirable handsome, but it will be us"—Nova motioned between herself and Skylar—"keeping you safe."
Jason glared at Nova.
"Nova, what happened at base? Who hurt you?" Skylar ignored them both.
Nova shifted her weight. "Lily attacked me, if Nic didn't see her and warned me I might have been dead, so my guess is he's in trouble as well."
Skylar's heart jolted. "Did he make it out?"
Nova shrugged. "I doubt it." Nova looked down with a sigh.
"Whose Nic?" Jason asked.
"He's a Reaper—"
"Nova!" Skylar sprang up.
"What? We don't have the luxury of keeping secrets anymore." Nova glared at her.
Skylar groaned in frustration and abruptly walked away.
Jason watched her storm out onto the balcony. He didn't understand her reaction.
"Beautiful but deadly, never fall for a Flower," Nova smirked.
"You find this amusing?" Jason frowned.
"No, our blithe behavior is the result of mind control. We were taught not to feel fear and to suppress emotion so naturally we come across as insensitive. Skylar was stronger than me, she managed to hold on to her humanity. She carries around a conscious which must be exhausting."
Jason stared at Nova with several reservations. "So, she's not the complete psychopath that you are?"
Nova gave him a sly smile.
Jason ignored the chill running down his spine. "Who is this we you are referring to? What's a Flower?"
Nova removed the bandage from her arm and ran her finger gently over the healing cut.
Jason frowned. Impossible. How is her arm already healing so rapidly?
Nova grinned. "The world is a little more interesting than most choose to believe. Flowers are an elite group of highly skilled and deadly assassins. I'm Belladonna, and you have been playing house with Nightshade."
Jason nodded. "And Reapers?"
"The male version. They're a nasty lot." Nova stood up and stared at the bloodied kitchen. "She's not wrong you know."
"What do you mean?"
"She is right to be worried. You have no idea what you're up against and honestly, it would be in your best interest to not get involved and send us on our merry way." Nova had a blank expression.
"Don't underestimate me, Nova. I will protect her no matter the cost."
"Careful, you might regret that."
Jason swallowed but he held her gaze.
Nova looked him upand down then smiled. "Go to her. I'll clean the kitchen."