Jagger [English version]

Chapter 7: Reunion and Danger

Jagger was no longer smiling when he walked out the front entrance of the bookstore. He didn't feel anything for the girl; he couldn't even if he wanted to. However, a deep curiosity tormented him. It was something strange and senseless, something incongruous with his nature. Anyway, it was already too late. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't go far after Ruruoni saw him looking at the window of Juliet's house.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and reminded himself that he still had work to do. After all, if it was true that the farcrams were invading Newston, he couldn't sit idly by.

He slipped his hands into both pockets and, in no time at all, he was up on the clock tower looking out over the city.

Cars circulated with their normal constancy, and there were hundreds of people walking the streets or running while talking hurriedly on their cell phones.

Jagger sharpened his senses to look for any kind of trace of the farcrams. If what the Council said was true, then they had most likely been hanging around here last night.

The leader of the group would surely know that Jagger was in the area, so he would first try to send scouts to do the reconnaissance and would have ordered them to be careful not to do anything that would attract attention.

However, it was very likely that some human had had the misfortune of running into one of them and had been eliminated.

He couldn't help but think that Newston was becoming a dangerous city. In less than a week he had had to deal with a possible invasion of farcrams and the gang of eifros that had attacked Juliet.

He couldn't help but see the image of Juliet in his mind. It seemed to him that her attitude was weird. She was an innocent person, with a touch of maturity and lacking in bad intentions. He didn't know why, but something was making it difficult for him to think clearly.

He looked at his hand and made a fist. That voice in his head that always plagued him had grown stronger since he'd met Juliet, and he didn't understand why.

Suddenly, a feminine scream snapped him out of his musing and forced him to move quickly towards the woman. He touched her head and she passed out. Jagger took her in his arms and hid her from prying eyes.

He turned his gaze to the clock tower looming in the distance. Three and a half seconds. Being so deep in thought had slowed his movements, but at least he was fast enough that no one was fazed by the scream. He lifted his head so he could see where he was.

The alley was even more deserted than Mason & Mason's, even though it was close to two in the afternoon. He had moved about half a mile from the clock tower. It wasn't such a long way to go to shut someone up.

Jagger began to survey his surroundings for the cause of the woman's scream. Five feet away was a burned corpse with a terrified expression. It was so charred that Jagger couldn't tell if it was a male or female.

So, the Council wasn't lying after all. The farcrams had indeed come to the city.

Then the sound of footsteps forced him to turn around.

"So those idiots talked to you too, Jagger," a familiar voice told him.

"I guess the Council doesn't want to make any more mistakes with the farcrams."

"I'm surprised to see you here, Garret," Jagger replied. "I thought you were in Scotland."

"And so I was, but shouldn't I say that?" Garret asked sarcastically as he chuckled and moved to Jagger's side. "How long has it been since you were called? Two, three months?"

"Two years," he answered, staring blankly at one of the few humans who knew what Jagger Black was.

Garret was the same size as Jagger and his long black hair showed several days' without being washed and cared for. He seemed much more muscular than Jagger, and his face was affable, and one might even say handsome if you ignored the jagged cross-shaped scar that ran vertically down his cheek and left eye, and horizontally divided both eyes, beginning from the left temple and ending on the right. It had been forty years since Jagger had seen his friend get that scar, when he was barely eight years old. He was now wearing a brown trench coat, heavy hiking boots, a cowboy hat, black jeans, and many necklaces and rings with various strange signs.