Prove To Be

11

"Looks like I'm not a dead man after all." Kieran's smirk was devilish. He wiped the blood from his mouth as he stood from the couch. Colour began to appear back in his skin, and a liveliness that he lacked was resurfacing. He looked healthy and back to normal.

Jay felt her worry slipping away as she studied him. He was going to be okay. In some miraculous way, Kieran was no longer lying on his deathbed.

Brennan's face, however, was turning dark. Jay looked at him with a confused expression, but he only shook his head. "This means that we have even more reason to hide you away from the world." Jay wanted to slap him for voicing out his concerns.

Kieran turned to him with a knowing look in his eyes. "For once, we agree on something."

Jay felt enraged as the two brothers decided her life for her. "You know," She spoke with a heated breath. "If I didn't know any better, you two are keeping me all to yourselves. You're beginning to look a lot like the people you say you want to protect me from." Anger coating her tongue, she backed away toward the door slowly.

Kieran was in front of her in a blink of an eye. It didn't scare her or shock her anymore. She had grown accustomed to his antics. "Maybe we are the bad guys," He said as his eyes glowered over hers. She strained her neck to look up and meet his eyes with a determined glare. She would not fall as a coward and succumb to his smouldering eyes.

"Then maybe," She spoke boldly. "I should take a piece of flesh from both of you and let you wither and die without my help." She bared her teeth, but her threat seemed to be amusing to Kieran.

"I don't think you have it in you, sweetheart." His voice was sickly sweet, taunting her emotions.

"Try me," She spat. Her voice was full of the harshness of her impending anger that Kieran had caused her to feel. He knew he could get under her skin, and she hated him for it. Her skin felt hot, and her emotions were flipping around driving Jay crazy. The recent blood sharing had stirred something within her, and now that anger was added into the mix, she felt like he had no control over her own body. Like she was Kieran's puppet, bending her emotions to his will. Like she was acting the exact way he intended her to.

Brennan shoved Kieran back while glaring at him. He turned to Jay with a calmer expression. "If you were with the wrong people, you would know." He stood between Kieran and her. She was slightly thankful she wasn't looking at Kieran right now. She wanted to rip his head off. Or his clothes. Nope, I don't think so. She nearly shuddered at her thoughts. "All we're doing is trying to help you. After that, if you wish, you can return to your life."

She perked up. This was the first time Brennan had said this to her. She could return home; to her family and friends. Jay could have a life again. A sickening thought entered her mind. Would they want me? She pushed that feeling down immediately. She didn't want to think of her family rejecting her. That would be her breaking point.

They waited until dark to leave the hunter's cabin. The brothers shared the same idea of killing him, but Jay couldn't bear the thought of knowing they had killed him. The trio had stood bickering for almost an hour of the hunter's fate. Jay knew she was losing the argument, but she had to try anyway. For the sake of another life, she had to try to convince these boys that killing was not an option.

"He's a hunter Jay," Kieran's eyes narrowed at the hunter that was awake. He was sitting in the chair, glaring at the three of them.

"He's still a person," Jay countered back. "He's someone's son, and maybe a father!" Jay's heart clenched at the thought of ripping someone from their family. "Someone's friend." Jay's voice was quiet towards the end, but she knew the brothers heard her.