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"Beth"

"Yes?" she said, whipping around

"Thank you"

She smiled "Don’t thank me That was so fun I think I went a little overboard"

She waved, and then rushed back the way she ca a thousand miles per hour I shut the closet door behind er When I walked out into the bedroom, I froze in my tracks

Jared stood in the center of my room, covered in dirt, blood, and his was face scraped and blotchy

"Ohover to him "What happened?"

Kio without me, but he’s faster than I am"

I touched Jared’s face "What did you do?"

He grimaced "The book was in my hand I had it"

"Where were you?" I said, helping hied with pain

Kim’s usual y stoic expression twisted as she watched me pul his t-shirt up and over his head "Warwick," she said "We got the book, but Donovan was there"

Six raw, bloody and swol en bul et holes dotted different areas of Jared’s torso, acco his shoulder blade

"Jared!" I screamed

Bex left without a word

"Where are you going?" I call ed after himents out"

I helped him to the bed, and then took a deep breath It didn’t help Tears wel ed up in ht?"

Jared ood as new this time tomorrow"

Bex returned with a towel ful of different items "Isaac too much for you, huh?"

"Isaac" Jared scoffed, rol ing his eyes Donovan and his Glock And I plowed through approxiot to them"

"If you would have waited for me to catch up with you, you wouldn’t have had to waste your time with them," Kim snapped She looked to me, "The second he learned the location of the book, he took off I enty lared at Jared "That’s not like you to be so i?"

Jared sighed "That I wanted this to end"

Jared cringed, and then I heard a plink from behind him as Bex dropped bul et remnants into a bowl

"I can’t watch," I said, covering o anywhere until we’re finished here Then I’ll take you to work," Bex said, pul ing out another bul et

"Watch the blood Don’t get any on her sheets," Jared said, cringing again

"I’ll get new sheets," I moaned I took Jared’s hand in both of ain"

"And hopeful y not be so stupid about it this time," Kim said from the door way

"Do you think I care about that? I don’t want you near that book ever again!" I said, her with each word

"Okay…okay," Jared said "Don’t get upset"

"Why would I be upset? My boyfriend co like he just escaped froht upstairs and used it to wipe a deep cut above his eye "Tel "

"The details aren’t important," Kim said

"The bottom line is, I failed," Jared said, his teeth clinched

Ki it, what they’re capable of, and every angle of their defense, Jared I wouldn’t call that failure"

"So what’s Isaac like?" Bex said, dropping hly trained," Jared answered

"And psychotic," Kim said "You should have seen them It was like a scene from Rambo Neither of them would quit, and they’re both Hybrids, so it was like a never-ending fight scene One punch here, knife wound there, elbow, face punch, and then one of the across the room

Lather Rinse Repeat"

"That’s enough," Jared said

My stoo back Not until Bex or Claire can go with you"

Jared looked away "It’s not that I couldn’t handle it on my own, Nina"

"That’s not what I y in his eyes "I know I’ht We did learn a lot last night The problem is, Claire’s not here, and Bex has to stay with you"

"What about sohed once "If it cooing to help us down another Hybrid without good reason"

I looked down at Jared’s bloodied hands, and then back to his storh for them"

Jared nodded "We have to persuade the, and to do that we need the book"

Kih I’ll take you to work"

"Is that okay?" I asked Jared

"I’d rather you wait," he said

"Don’t be ridiculous," Kiun stuffed half-way into her jeans "I’, and as Donovan learned last night…lance Jared and I traded turned into involuntary sht behind you," Jared said

I kissed his cheek "Maybe I should stay ho You should see the other guys," Jared said with a wink "Go on"

Kim lifted my briefcase off the floor, and held it out I rushed to the bathroom, washed the blood from my hands, and then fol owed her down the stairs

"Let’s take ed "Whatever"

As promised, the ride to as safe and uneventful, and Bex pul ed into the parking lot on his new, barely-street legal Ducati Streetfighter just as I stepped out of the car Ki the CEO sort-of-in-training granted me a spot on the elevator