January 19th, 2020
Foghills, Arkansas

Jack pulled up to the Westing property right as the crappy clock in the car struck three, which meant it was actually two. Ash had passed out somewhere outside of Blackwell, so Jack spent the majority of the last four hours, just listening to music, trying to drown out the horrible thoughts in his head.

As soon as the engine shut off and he'd pushed his door open, Marley shot out of nowhere and tackled him with an awkward hug. She knocked his elbow into the horn on the steering wheel, and the loud, jolting noise startled Ash from his sleep.

"We're here already?" He looked around sleepily, a yawn tearing through his lips. Keala barked excitedly, and Marley abandoned Jack to let his dog out.

"Keala! I missed you!" Marley cried, and Keala jumped up to lick her face before darting off among the piles of old scrap that had been collecting on the Westing property for decades. "I missed you guys too." She grinned when Jack jumped out of the truck and stretched his sore muscles, wincing when his shirt caught one of his scabs and ripped it open.

Ash yawned again, following Jack's lead and stumbling out of Cheech. The cool air felt good after being trapped in the car for nearly eight and a half hours. Ari's family had forced them to eat dinner at their house and stay the night. Sleeping in a real bed felt so good, they both almost didn't want to leave when Jack's alarm went off at five that morning.

"I missed you too, kiddo." Ash was still trying to wake up as he moved around the truck and crushed Marley with a quick hug.

Marley's dark brown eyes sparkled gleefully, and she whipped her head around to look at Jack, her two long braids smacking Ash in the chest as she moved. "Charley said you guys escaped prison. How'd you manage that?" She bounced around them, as they gathered their luggage and whatever trash they could carry. The house that was being rebuilt was almost completed under Piper's watchful supervision, but still, they made a beeline for the bomb shelter.

Ash shook his head and nudged Marley lightly. "It wasn't prison. It was the county jail, not really that impressive. But I'll tell you about it later. Did Will make it back yet?"

At the question, Marley's grin grew even wider. "Yeah. Just this morning. I think he's still sleeping, but I'll gladly wake him up." A mischievous smirk pulled at her lips, while Ash smiled. He dropped the stuff in his hands and leaned down to open the hatch. Slinging his bags back over his shoulders, he dumped whatever wasn't breakable down into the dark hole.

"Incoming!" he called, before climbing down the ladder, with Jack and Marley quickly following.

"Yes! I thought you'd never be home," Charley said loudly, the second Jack's feet were on the ground. She practically jumped into Ash's arms almost knocking him over, and kissed his cheek enthusiastically. "I thought you were gonna end up behind bars. Don't scare me like that again! Oh, and call your mom."

Jack laughed. "I'll do it." He collapsed onto the couch beside Will who'd just sat up, barely awake. "So, how'd it go?"

Will shrugged, yawning and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "I killed the sonofabitch." A triumphant grin broke across his lips. "Man, you guys should've seen it. He never even knew what hit him. I tracked him for an entire day before he caught my scent." The excitement shining in his eyes made Jack's smile grow wider.

"You look like you were mauled by a dog," Charley pointed out blandly, digging through the pantry, and finding a box of cereal, which she ate plain.

Will grimaced sheepishly. "Okay, so it was harder to kill than I thought it would be."

"How'd you do it?" Roger's face was pressed up against the bars of his cage, an anxious look on his expressive features.

"I shot him a bunch of times in the head and neck. When I checked out his body, I figured the back of the neck is where the kill shot ended up. I sent pictures to Mom to double check my analysis." Roger's eyes dimmed and he sat forlornly on the cot at the back of his cage.

"What's wrong with you?" Charley jabbed, something that looked like concern flashing across her face.

"I was kinda hoping Jamie would get away. We grew up together."

Charley rolled her eyes unsympathetically. "You sold him out."

He teared up for a second, before he blinked them away. "But I didn't think you guys would figure out how to kill him. It's not that easy, ya know?"

Marley nudged Jack with her elbow. "I didn't know monsters had tears."

"Yeah, well they do," Roger snarled. He turned around and faced the wall, sniffing every once in a while.

Ash snorted and shook his head, falling softly onto one of the heaps of blankets and pillows scattered across the floor. "Hey, Will." He nodded his head over to the cooler next to the pantry. "Have a beer, take a hit off one of Jack's Altoids joints. Happy fucking birthday. Way to make it to twenty-three." He yawned and his eyes started to drift closed as Will grinned brightly.

"Thanks, man. I almost forgot." He followed Ash's instructions and grabbed a beer from the cooler, while the rest of them all sang a piss poor version of the happy birthday song to him.

"Is there anything you want in particular?" Jack pulled out a joint and lit it, taking a couple of hits before passing it to Will, while Marley wrinkled her nose.

Will shook his head. The bright look never leaving his face. "Nah, killing that monster on my own was enough of a present for me." He settled back down next to Jack, who fell asleep almost as soon as he heard Ash's snoring from the other side of the room.

*

For the next three and a half weeks, Jack and his siblings hung around the Westing property for the most part, except Ash. After all the excitement they'd had, it was nice to just worry about stupid things like refurnishing the new house that had been built in record time, under Piper's watchful supervision. They helped the girls paint and turn the empty shell into a place they were actually happy to call home. They tried to keep what they could the same as what it was before, but other things, like the amount of rooms and bathrooms, they were eager to change around. They also added the basement and the sub-basement, which they immediately began filling with the secrets they were meant to protect.

"Wow, you guys did a really good job." Ash looked around in awe, when he finally received his first tour of the house. He'd left almost right after Will's birthday to spend time with Lee in Ouray, at the Lockwood compound. "I can't wait to cook in this kitchen."

Charley grinned, shooting Piper a triumphant smirk. "See? I told you it was worth spending extra on the appliances." Piper rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, whatever. I was right about turning the basement into a rec room, so there." Both girls stuck their tongues out at each other childishly, making Jack snort and shake his head a little.

"You two never really mentally aged past ten, did you?" He earned himself dirty looks from the cousins.

"Try to never end up on both their bad sides," Ash advised with a teasing smirk.

Jack was about to respond, when Keala's hackles rose and she bolted from her position at his feet to the front door. She burst through the swinging screen, which hadn't quite latched and out onto the porch. Alarmed, Jack jogged to catch up with his dog, and nearly tripped over himself when he spotted who Keala was barking at.

His eyes lit up and he grinned as he pulled the door open and stepped outside. "Sophia!" He crossed the porch and wrapped his arms around her before she could even say a word. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey, what am I? Chopped liver?" Stix grumbled, and Jack almost jumped out of his skin. He hadn't noticed Sophia's partner in crime standing right beside her.

"Oh, hey, Stix! How are you, man?" Jack shot him a welcoming smile, before he turned his attention back to Sophia.

Stix yawned loudly. "Good, thanks. We were in the area and needed a place to crash. We just finished taking out a nasty zombie thing on the Osage reservation in Oklahoma."

Jack moved aside so they could step into the house. "Come on. You got here just in time. The builders left yesterday."

Sophia's eyebrows shot up. "I thought it looked different."

"Jacky, what was that...? Oh, hey, Stix. Sophia," Ash greeted, leaning in the doorway between the kitchen and front room. "You guys planning on staying awhile? I'm about to get dinner started."

"Hell yeah!" Stix followed Ash into the kitchen, where Piper and Charley were still bickering, while Sophia set her bags at Jack's feet.

"How've you been?" She dropped onto the sofa in the front room, closing her eyes for a few moments as her long blonde hair splayed around her face messily.

Jack shrugged. "I'm okay." He grinned brightly. "My wounds are all healed up." Pulling up the sleeve of his shirt, he showed off the scar where Ash had shot him over a month earlier.

Sophia glanced up at him briefly, a thin smile pulling at her lips. "I'd be worried if they hadn't. Hey, that scar's new." She swung her legs over the side of the couch so she was sitting up and grabbed Jack's arm to pull him down next to her. She yanked down the collar of his shirt and frowned, while Jack's heart beat a million miles a minute inside his chest. He wanted to keep his secrets for just a little bit longer.

"It's... uhm... nothing." He tried to slide away from her, but Sophia's reflexes were legendary. She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and moved it up slightly so she could get a good look at the nasty scars crisscrossing his back. Most of the scabs were just about gone, leaving only a few of the deepest cuts still healing.

"That's not nothing," she hissed, her dark eyes burning with rage as she jumped to her feet, whipping a dagger out of the holster on her belt. "I'm going to kill your moronic brother."

"No, wait. It wasn't his fault!" Jack wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her back down next to him, despite her silent struggling.

Laughter erupted from the doorway to the front room, which led down a long corridor that connected the rest of the house. Marley sauntered in, a mischievous grin splashed across her face. She shook her head sardonically as she fell onto the armchair across from Jack.

"He's lying to you. It was totally Ash's fault." She giggled, ignoring the deadly glare Jack sent her way.

Sophia sat stiff as a board next to him, the fiery anger never leaving her gaze. "Let me go, Jack. I need to have a few words with Ashton."

Jack shook his head. Carefully reaching over, he extracted the blade from her fingers. "No. It's okay, Sophie. He was just doing what he thought was right. I'll explain everything later."

The teasing glint was back in Marley's woody eyes. "Oh, you mean you haven't told her?" She raised her eyebrows, shooting Jack an expression he knew all too well.

"Mars, please don't-"

"Haven't told me what?" Sophia snarled, keeping her voice low as her sharp eyes cut to Jack and he felt the magnitude of her icy gaze. For the first time, he finally understood why Ash called her the Ice Princess.

"That he died." Marley shrugged casually as if she were just pointing out that the sky was blue. She jumped back to her feet, and shot them an innocent smile before she skipped away, her long black braids flopping against her back as she went.

Sophia turned her entire body in Jack's direction, her eyes wide as several different emotions crossed her face all at once. "You what? How...?"

Jack cringed back into the corner of the couch, trying to make himself a smaller target, as he waited for an explosive reaction. "I... uhm..."

Sophia lunged forward and wrapped her wiry, awkward, arms around him. "I'm just glad you're okay!" She planted a soft kiss on his cheek, before letting go, and sitting back as if nothing had happened.

Jack's face turned the color of a ripe beet. "Oh, uhmm... thank you?"

She giggled, and her icy exterior melted away after that. At least towards him.

Later, once they'd finished dinner, and Piper showed the new arrivals where they'd be spending the night, Sophia and Jack sat around the fire burning in the fireplace on the porch that wrapped around the entire house.

Everyone else had already gone inside to bed, except for the two of them, who'd stayed up until almost two talking about their travels over the past month or so since they'd last seen each other. Slowly their conversation moved away from exterminating and towards their other hobbies.

"You draw?" Sophia's eyes glowed with interest, even as her mouth tilted upward in a teasing smile. "Are you any good?"

Jack shrugged, reaching into his back pocket for the little sketchbook he always kept on hand, in case he needed to doodle. It helped him stay calm a lot of the time. He'd almost lost it when they were trying to escape the

county jail, except that one of the ghosts had picked it up for him, he wasn't even sure which one. Jack gingerly handed her the beat up little book that was beginning to fall apart at the seams.

"Those are just my doodles." His shoulders sagged when she started flipping pages and he looked away, not wanting to see her reaction. Not many people knew about his artistic ability, he usually tried to keep it to himself because his brothers teased him about it endlessly. He figured if they did, everyone probably would.

"Are you serious? These are just your doodles?" Jack glanced up and caught Sophia staring at him, genuine surprise in her deep brown eyes.

"Yeah, most of my sketchbooks are back at my mom's place in Ashgrove. I have one in my backpack, though." He gestured toward the room he shared with his brothers.

"Wow... that's incredible." Sophia gently flipped through the last of the pages in his book before handing it back to him. "You have any other hidden talents I don't know about?" Her eyes shined as she spoke, and Jack wasn't sure if it was a trick of the fire or if she was actually flirting with him.

His face flamed red, but he caught her gaze as he shrugged. "Maybe..."

She flashed him her crooked half-smile. "I have an idea..." Her eyes flickered with mischief that made Jack a little uneasy. "I just got word about a creature picking people off just outside of Ratcliff, Texas. We could go..."

He immediately started shaking his head. "Ash would never..." let me go, he thought, trailing off when he saw the dour expression on Sophia's face.

"Who cares? Come on, it'll be fun. Ratcliff's only a six-hour drive from here. If we leave now, we can make it by morning."

"I guess..." Jack finally answered, getting sucked into the excitement exuding from the girl at his side. "Okay, let's go."

The smile that lit up her face was worth whatever shit he'd get from his family later. "Yes! Alright, meet me at my car in five minutes." She jumped up and took off inside before he could say anything else. Jack slowly put out the fire, before he followed, gathering his bags, which were still packed and sauntering quietly out to Sophia's car.

He half expected someone to catch him leaving, but nobody did. Just like nobody ever did when he and Ash slipped away on their many adventures throughout the years. Adrenaline pumped through his veins and his heart pounded wildly against his chest as he ducked into Sophia's old VW bug, with the fading yellow paint.

"Ah, Jack... Do you have to bring your dog?" Sophia complained, just like Ash always used to.

Jack smiled, reaching into the cramped back seat to pet Keala's ears the way she liked. "Yeah. She's great to have around. You'll see. And anyway, are you sure this car can handle a six-hour drive?" Jack asked once Sophia had started the engine and they quickly drove away from the Westing property.

Sophia rolled her eyes. "This girl can make it through practically anything." Pride bled through her voice at the declaration, and she softly patted the dashboard.

"As long as you're sure..."

"I am. Stix and I are on the road ten months out of the year, and this car has made it all over the country without a problem that either of us couldn't fix," Sophia responded, driving consistently five miles over the set speed limit.

"Where do you go the other two months?" Jack turned toward the girl, even though he could only see her silhouette as they drove through the dark streets and onto Interstate 49.

Sophia shrugged. "Mostly we spend the summer with Stix's older sister, Annie, and her four boys. She doesn't "approve" of the way I was raised. But she forces us to spend family time together. We go backpacking, and we stay at her cabin in Lake Sakakawea State Park."

"Huh... I don't picture you camping and fishing without a care. Especially with little kids."

"It's not my favorite," Sophia responded honestly, her voice losing the stiffness it always held. "I mean, Vince, the youngest, he's a sweet kid. But his older brothers are menaces. The oldest, Tom, was three when I first met him and he's always been a pain in my butt."

"How old were you?" Jack laughed, thinking about Sophia running around chasing a bunch of little boys. She didn't really seem the type. He always imagined that all kids were just scared of her.

"Six. It was right after Stix rescued me. Annie told her kids that I'm their little sister, so they all call me Aunt Sophia. I used to think it was weird, but now it's just normal. When I think of family, they're who I think of." She met Jack's eyes for just a second, before her gaze flicked back to the road.

"So for two months a year, you hang out with your nephews, your brother and sister, and the other ten months you run around the country hunting down monsters. That doesn't sound like a bad childhood. It sounds fun." He grinned as he thought about it. "Mine was only exciting like that when Ash blew into town. He left when I was eight, three years after my dad did, and only came through when he wanted to take me on some adventure."

Sophia chuckled, but the tension was right back in her body as soon as he spoke his brother's name. "That sounds like him. As callous as always."

Jack shrugged. "Eh... he's not so bad. He would tell my mom we were only gonna be gone a weekend and then I'd end up missing three weeks of school. Sometimes it was fun, but I also remember being really scared."

"He took you on jobs?" A frown etched its way into her forehead.

Jack was silent for a couple minutes as he thought about all the times Ash argued with their mom about how much school he was missing, and how bad his nightmares had started to get. "Yeah. But I didn't know it at the time. He used to always ask me about what the ghosts were saying."

Sophia's dark eyes narrowed and she grit her teeth as she spoke. "That asshole."

Jack threw his head back and laughed harder than he had for a while. "Stix did the same thing with you."

She shook her head slowly. "Yeah, but I pushed him into it. Not the other way around."

The entire drive they never ran out of conversation topics. Every once in a while, they would fall into a comfortable silence, but it didn't usually last long. Sophia told Jack about a time a few years earlier when she broke down in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains and was attacked by a rogue vampire, while Stix was having a weekend getaway with an off and on girlfriend. And Jack recanted the tale of how he ended up killing his best friend.

The sun had almost risen over the trees, and Jack stared out the window as he spoke about that night. His eyes welled with tears, but he blinked them back. "I didn't know then what I know now. If I did, Justin would still be alive, and maybe Laney never would've become a stripper."

Sophia shook her head. "Fucked up shit comes with the gig. All you can do is learn how not to make the same mistake." When he finally had the balls to look at her, she shot him a soft smile that caused butterflies to erupt in his stomach.

They both fell quiet, lost in their own thoughts, until the silence was shattered by Jack's phone ringing in his backpack. Digging through, he pulled it out at the last second and slid his finger across the screen to answer. "Hello?"

"Jacky, I swear you two better be fucking your brains out at the park down the street, or I'm going to strangle you," Ash hissed into his ear, just loud enough for him to hear.

"Nah, we're taking a job from someone Sophia knows." Jack turned his head toward the window and kept his voice as neutral as he could, even though his heart felt like it might rip right through his chest at any moment.

A loud sigh came from the other end of the line. Lowering his voice even more, Ash said, "Look, man, I'm not trying to be a dick, but are you sure you're not going to... you know...? What if you hurt her...?" His question hung unanswered between them for a long time.

"It's okay. I brought Keala with us. She'll make sure nothing bad happens."

"If you're not back in two days, I'll find you. Tell Sophia, Stix says to be careful and not do anything he wouldn't do."

Jack chuckled a little. "Okay. Later, Ash." He hung up his phone and glanced over to Sophia, giving her Stix's message.

She laughed. "That just means he doesn't want me getting pregnant while we're gone."

A rosy blush splashed across his face. "That's the only thing he wouldn't do?"

"Pretty much." Sophia shrugged as they finally pulled into the little town of Ratcliff, right in the middle of Davy Crockett National Forest. "Alright, we're supposed to meet up with Lucas at the Ratcliff Gardens Restaurant. Look, there it is." She pulled into a dirt lot surrounded by sprawling gardens for nearly half a mile.

"Are you sure it's even open?" Jack raised his eyes, skepticism bleeding through his voice as Sophia parked.

"Looks like it is." She didn't say anything else before she turned off the car and stepped out.

While Sophia headed for the front doors, Jack let Keala out into the fresh forest air. "We won't be long, girl, don't get into trouble." Keala shot him a soft look over her shoulder, as if she understood, before darting off into the trees.

Entering the restaurant, Jack expected it to be nothing more than a hole in the wall diner. But it was like he'd stepped into some weird casual/fine-dining hybrid. It seemed kinda odd considering most small town diners had the same small town, laid back, feel to them. As strange and different as it seemed though, he liked it.

"Jack, over here!" Sophia barely even had to raise her voice to get his attention, since there were less than five patrons in the restaurant with them.

Sitting across from her at the table, was a guy who looked to be around Ash's age. He had dark skin, and his hair was buzzed practically to his skull. His almost black eyes, though, were what gave Jack the creeps. The sheer intensity startled him as he slid into the booth beside Sophia.

"Jack, this is Lucas Redding. Lucas, meet Jack Slayer." Her voice was icy and business-like, almost as if the warmth had been sucked right out of her the moment she set foot outside her VW Beetle.

Lucas nodded, analyzing Jack with his sharp gaze. "I've heard a lot about you. I'm sorry about your old man. I worked a few jobs with him. He was a legend."

Jack squirmed in his seat under the other man's scrutiny. "Uhm, thanks. So, about the job here...?"

Lucas sat up straight and squared his broad shoulders, turning his attention to Sophia Knight. "Thanks for coming out so quick. I'd been hearing rumors about the disappearances here and throughout the park, but it was all so disjointed, I didn't see the pattern. At least, not until our conversation the other night." A smug smirk settled on his face as he glanced over at Jack. "She suggested I pay attention to the exact time that each victim was taken, and see what kind of pattern I come up with after that. Genius."

"What happened to the exterminator outfit you were joined with the last time I saw you? I think it was on that job in Montana." Sophia's question went unanswered as a waitress came to take their orders and the conversation changed back to what they'd come for.

"I think I might've found out where the monster's hiding. In the caves in the middle of the woods, there are dozens where something could hide during the day and pick off their victims at the most opportune times." Lucas dug through his backpack and pulled out a folder spilling with papers, setting it on the table in front of them. "This is everything I've gathered about the killings and what I think we might be hunting. I've never seen anything like it before."

Sophia took the folder and opened it so that she and Jack could both look at it all. She'd only rifled through a few pictures when something caught Jack's eyes. He grabbed the paper, scrutinizing a blurry picture of a creature he thought he recognized. Digging through his pockets, he pulled his sketchbook out and flipped through the pages.

"I've seen this before," he said, interrupting whatever Lucas was saying.

"Nah, man. I dunno what we're hunting and I've heard all the stories." Lucas immediately shut him down and tried to continue talking, but Sophia stopped him.

"Listen to him, Redding. He knows what he's talking about." Her voice was sharper than Jack heard since the day he first met her. Sometimes he really believed she could cut people with her words alone.

"Alright, let's hear it. What'd ya got in that little book?" Lucas leaned back in his seat like Jack was wasting his precious time, but he barely took note of it, they had more important things to worry about.

"It's not just in the book. I've seen one of these in action before. I've been tracking a group of monsters that are working together. I was in one of the restaurants they attacked. I don't know what this thing is called. But it can change from a human into a beast in seconds flat."

Lucas stared at Jack wide-eyed before he moved his gaze to Sophia. "You're buying this shit?"

The woman at his side shrugged. "I've learned to just trust him."

"I know they feast on human organs. They like the heart and brain the best, but they'll eat any of them really."

"And they mostly hunt at night," Lucas added, pointing to a print-out of three different police reports he'd gotten ahold of.

Sophia grinned at Jack like Lucas wasn't even there. "Let's go get a hotel room and we can all meet up here later. Say around eight?" She stood up and pushed Jack out of the booth. He just barely managed to stay on his feet as he slapped a few crumpled bills on the table.

Lucas shot Jack a look he couldn't decipher as Sophia waved goodbye and started dragging him back to her beat-up old bug where Keala waited patiently for them.

"I saw a little hotel a couple miles outside of town that looked nice. Oh, and when we get there you can show me more of your art." She smiled at him in a way that took his breath away.

"S-sure. Sounds good." Jack tried to act as cool as he could, but his brain had a tendency to slow down whenever his eyes met hers.

After they reached the hotel Sophia'd seen while driving to meet Lucas, she went in and paid for their room, while Jack walked around with Keala. The whole place felt vacant. Almost no one was around in early February.

"You can have the bed. I'll take the couch." Yawning loudly, he dropped his bags on the floor and fell onto the overstuffed sofa beside Keala.

"Don't be silly. This is a queen bed. It's big enough for both of us." Sophia motioned for him to sit next to her. "Come on. I won't bite..."

Slowly, Jack left Keala alone on the couch and sat on the opposite side of the bed. He felt the overwhelming urge to be more confident, like Ash, but it went against his sweet nature.

"D-do you still want to look at my sketches?" He held his sketchbook close after digging it out of his backpack, but when Sophia reached for it, he let go easily. Anxiety clawed at his insides while he watched her carefully flip through every single page.

"Holy shit..." She trailed off and Jack squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see which drawing she was reacting to. He felt the bed shift beneath him, but he still refused to look at her. Not until he felt her lips press against his.

Their kiss wasn't gentle, it was passionate. It lasted for a few minutes before they both broke away to catch their breath. When Jack's brain started functioning normally again, he spotted his sketchbook on the bed, open to the drawing he'd done of her.

Sophia's face softened in a way he'd never seen before. "Is this... how you see me?"

"Isn't that how everyone sees you?" He knew it wasn't from his brothers' reactions to that same drawing, but he still didn't understand why.

Sophia shook her head as she stared at the image done entirely in pencil. "You made me look..."

"Beautiful?" he supplied when her silence stretched on. Her head snapped up and surprise painted her features, while a light blush dusted her cheeks.

"I was going to say human. I know people call me an icy bitch." She dropped her gaze to her fidgeting fingers as she spoke.

Jack gently took her face between his hands and forced her to meet his eyes. "Those people are assholes who don't know what they're missing. You're perfect to me." Without warning she kissed him again.

Even though they were supposed to be resting before their meeting with Lucas, neither of them rested much. Which was why when eight o'clock came around they were both in such a deep sleep, they didn't hear the phone ringing, and didn't wake until the pounding started on their door.

"Shit." Jack sat up abruptly and practically fell out of bed, while Sophia jumped up, looking ready to kill.

"Sophia Knight! I'll break this goddamn door down, girl!" Lucas shouted from outside, his voice muffled by the thin walls.

"Damn. Alright, hurry up and get dressed, I think we can still salvage tonight's job." Her voice went right back to being robotic and cold, the way she was when he'd first met her. As Jack finished tightening his belt, he watched all the walls he'd broken build around her once more. All the progress he'd made was gone in just seconds.

He pushed the thought to the furthest part of his mind, though, as Keala whined at him from where she sat beside the door. Throwing a blanket and pillow on the couch, he walked over and yanked the door open just as Lucas was getting ready to start pounding on it all over again.

"What the hell, man? I've been calling you for an hour." Lucas pushed passed Jack inside, while Keala slipped out into the cold winter night. "Damn, dude. Did I just let your dog out?"

Jack shrugged. "She'll come back."

"He's right, we don't need to worry about her right now. We need to focus on the job at hand." Sophia had twisted her soft blonde hair up into a tight bun on top of her head and looked like she'd been up and dressed for hours.

"You're tellin' me. I waited at that restaurant for an hour for y'all." Lucas shot them both a dirty look, while Jack stuffed the rest of his things back into his bags and slung them over his shoulder.

"Sorry, man. I'm ready. You ready?" He looked back and glanced at Sophia as she sat down on the bed she'd just finished making.

"Since we're all here, let's get our game plan together and we can head straight for the caves."

"I'm way ahead of you." Lucas smirked at them as he went outside and came back less than a minute later with his arms packed full of the papers and files he'd had earlier.

They'd spent forty-five minutes planning their next moves, but a few hours later, Jack wished they'd taken more time. With all the pictures and maps they had, all three of them had been sure finding the spot where all the caves were would've been the easiest part. They hadn't factored in the dense, damp, woodsy terrain and the darkness. At some point during their hike, they'd made a wrong move of some kind.

Jack, Lucas, and Sophia were lost.

"I'm tellin' you, you're reading that damn thing wrong." Lucas snatched the map away from Jack like he could read it any better, even though it was his fault they were lost in the first place.

Thunder shook the ground beneath them and lightening lit up the sky, as a bitter cold wind blew through Jack's layers of hoodies and the only winter coat he owned. It was blood and dirt stained, despite how many times he'd tried to wash it. He wrapped his arms around himself as they hiked through the brush, up toward the rocky cliffs, where Lucas had been certain the caves were located.

"Let's just climb to the top of this incline. Maybe we'll get lucky and find out where we are." Sophia moved passed them and trudged on ahead just as the clouds opened up and it started to not rain, but pour.

Every time Jack lifted his feet, more water filled his shoes and splashed underneath his soaking jeans. With each step he took the sharp bits of mud rubbed painfully against his wet skin. If he'd been more prepared, he would've grabbed a couple of pairs of the rain coats and pants that Ash always kept in the back of the Blazer. In his head, he heard every member of his family scolding him for being so stupid. At his side, Keala whimpered, fighting against the strong, torrential, rain the same way the rest of them were.

"You having fun yet, Jack?" Sophia teased, glancing back over her shoulder to shoot him a thin smile.

He grinned back at her easily, remembering the day they'd had together. "Are you kidding? I'm having a blast."

Lucas snorted loudly. "Yeah, right. This is shit. My feet are fucking numb."

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Jack ducked his head down a little while the wind blew rain into his eyes. "Could be worse." His thoughts turned to the night he'd spent hunkered down in a haunted cabin with four of his friends in middle school. That had been a hell of a lot scarier. At the moment, all they had to worry about was freezing to death.

"You're one of those optimistic people, aren't you? Jesus. How do you deal with that shit, Knight?"

Jack let the insults slide off him, as he worked on calming down the emotional atmosphere. He was about to say something back, but Sophia beat him to it. "It's refreshing not working with someone who complains every time the job goes south."

"That's ridiculous. We've known each other for like ten years. You can't really-"

A sharp high-pitched noise startled all of them. At first it sounded like it was coming from their left, in the trees, but then it grew louder until they heard it in every direction. Immediately, Jack dropped to the ground and covered his ears with his hands, trying to shield himself from whatever made the deafening sound. He felt Sophia sink down into the mud next to him.

"We can't stay here!" she called above the noise. "We're practically sitting ducks!"

"What do you suggest, Knight?"

"We could run...?" The question in Sophia's voice had all three of them shooting each other worried looks. They wouldn't get anywhere if they had to run back through the deep sinking mud.

The sound in their heads got so loud, it was hard to concentrate on anything else. Without thinking too much about it, Jack stood up and started running as fast as he could to the most open part of the path they were on.

"Run into the trees!" he shouted, feeling Keala at side.

"Are you crazy?" He almost didn't hear Sophia yelling at his back.

"Run!" Looking up into the dark sky, Jack saw what could only be described as a giant "real-life" batman. It shrieked even louder as it circled above him, a second and third one coming into view not long after.

"Jack! Come on!" Sophia's voice came from somewhere hidden in the dense trees. The sound of desperation in her words made him want to kiss her all over again. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and calm her radiating fear, which he felt even ten yards away.

He didn't move, though. He kept his feet rooted firmly to the ground and his gaze lifted to the creatures flying just over his head. Sliding his gun off his shoulder, he carefully loaded the six silver bullets he'd stuffed into his pockets and pointed it upward.

The first creature swooped down and tried to claw at him with gnarly, jagged, talons. Jack ducked at the last second and pulling the trigger, he shot it clean through its left eye. Just a lucky shot. But it was satisfying as hell to watch the beast fall out of the sky and hit trees and foliage with a heavy THUD.

While he stood up to take aim at the second one diving down to attack him, a fourth creature he hadn't seen before flew in front of him and tackled the beast about to claw his eyes out. He watched the two struggle for a moment before he aimed at the third flying monster and missed three times in a row before its massive talons wrapped around his shoulders and lifted him high into the air.

Jack held back the scream that bubbled in his throat and reached up to grab hold of the creature's limbs, just in case it tried to drop him. In the process, his gun slipped from his grasp and disappeared beneath the treetops.

"Jack!" Sophia shrieked his name from somewhere on the cliffs. For a single second he marveled at how quickly she'd made it to the ridge, but when he saw the trouble she was in, his blood ran cold.

Sophia stood on the ridge just beneath where he and his monster captor were circling, surrounded by three more of the winged beasts. Lucas laid unconscious at her feet with blood and water dripping down his face, and as far as Jack could tell, Keala was nowhere in sight.

Before he could even try to whistle for his dog, the monster released his arms. Apparently, it hadn't felt Jack's clutching fingers, because as soon as he dropped, he pulled the surprised creature down with him for a few feet. Until it shook him off like he was nothing more than a piece of wet toilet paper.

"Goddammit!" Sophia's bitter curse was followed by a long string of horrible threats directed at the beasts getting closer and closer to her.

Jack had only been about fifteen feet off the ground when he was dropped, but the fall felt like it lasted much longer than it should have. Even though the laws of gravity never changed, it was almost like the closer he was to the rocky cliff, the slower he fell. But it was clearly all in his head when he hit the slippery ridge.

He landed on the soles of his feet, and despite the shock of pain that bolted through every bone in his body, he was mostly fine. Putting two fingers in his mouth, he let out a long sharp whistle. The monsters didn't even flinch. But in just seconds, Keala flew out of the trees where she'd been hiding and attacked two of the monsters surrounding Sophia. With the distraction, she whirled around and pulled Lucas' gun from his holster, firing at all three of the monsters around her. She killed every one of them.

"Holy shit." She stared at Jack as she cocked the weapon, ready to aim at one of the creatures perched up in the trees, looking slightly injured in the way it held its crooked wing close to its body.

"Wait." Jack's command was so sharp and serious, he almost hadn't believed it came from his own mouth. Sophia surprised him even more by lowering her weapon, despite the incredulous look in her eyes.

"What, you wanna let one of these fuckers live?" Her snarled words didn't hold any weight with him.

"Pretty sure that's the one that helped me back in the trees. He didn't have to do that."

Sophia snorted. "Sometimes your naivety surprises me, Jack." She lifted the gun, getting ready to aim it again, until he moved slowly in front of her, blocking her view of the beast and forcing her to point the weapon at his chest.

"We'll get him the next time, I promise. For now, it's late. It's fucking cold. And Lucas could use a first-aid kit." Keala barked in what almost seemed like approval as she settled at his feet to lick her wounds. Jack checked her over thoroughly, and though one of the beasts had managed to sink his claws in deep in a few places, none of the cuts looked particularly worrisome.

"The smart thing to do would be to follow him back to wherever the rest are hiding and take them all out." She stared at him challengingly, testing his boundaries.

"No. Not tonight. Besides, I think he's the last one left." Jack wasn't positive how he knew it for sure, he just had a strong feeling.

The girl in front of him laughed like he'd said something hilarious. "You can't possibly know that."

"Trust me. If there are more out there, they're gone now." Jack's response was firm as he knelt beside Lucas and checked to make sure he still had a pulse. He did. "We need to wake him up if we're gonna make it out of this place. We were lost before, and I sure as hell don't know these woods the way I know the ones back home."

Sophia slid the weapon in her hands into the holster on her belt. "I'll wake him up." Before Jack could move, she leaned down and slapped Lucas hard across the face. Honestly, he hadn't thought it would actually work, but Lucas shot up into a sitting position and almost scared the piss out of him. Sophia smirked, while Jack pretended not to notice.

"What the hell...?" Lucas shivered violently, looking wobbly even as he sat.

"One of those things clipped you with its wing and knocked you out cold." Sophia's words were almost as frigid as the wind blowing through their pitiful layers. The chill that ran up and down Jack's spine had nothing to do with the dropping temperature, and everything to do with pissing off the girl of his dreams.

Keala rubbed against his side affectionately while Lucas stumbled to his feet and the four of them began their wandering trip back through the forest. They followed the excited and slightly exhausted mutt pretty much the entire way.