Chapter 2: Chapter 2
When the smoke cleared, Jesse Madding stood alone.
He dropped to his knees, unmindful of the flames that still burned untended, the ash coating his skin, the hot wood beneath his legs. Soot covered his hands and arms, and probably his face, too. All of the demons were burning, smoldering corpses, reeking of shit and rubbish and smoke. Jesse stared at his hands, knowing without checking that he wouldn’t find a single injury on his body.
For a moment, Jesse wondered if he was a ghost. But he could still hear his heart pounding in his ears. And that pain—that horrible, sharp pain—still pierced him with every breath. The loss of Gideon and Emma was a sword, stabbing him every second, reminding him without fail that he was alone. He had nothing.
Not even the comfort of his own death.
Approaching sirens finally penetrated the fog in his head. In the old days—old days that weren’t that long ago—Jesse would have stayed to speak to the authorities. He’d say whatever he needed to say to keep Gideon out of jail for assault or arson or whatever else, and then he’d go home. Their home. The home he shared with Emma and Gideon. But none of that was true now. If he stayed, there would be too many questions he couldn’t answer. And he wasn’t going to his home. He was going to his father’s home, and Oliver Madding wouldn’t bail him out of jail if he was caught in the right place at the wrong time.
Jesse pushed himself to his feet, marveling as he moved with ease. One step after another. He had never been so stunned by the difficult simplicity of locomotion. He didn’t borrow Oliver’s car, because he hadn’t planned to drive it home. He just walked, putting more and more distance between himself and the site of his supposed death.
Every question narrowed down to only one question.
What did she do to me? What the fuck did she do to me?
Jesse was so absorbed in the question, he didn’t hear the being behind him until it was practically on top of him. It could have been anything—a vampire, a burnt demon, some other monster. He reacted on instinct, his body still focused on survival, even if his heart wasn’t. But the throat he grabbed didn’t belong to a vamp, it belonged to a fifteen-year-old girl. He loosened his grip, but he didn’t release her.
“What are you doing here?”
The wide, chocolate eyes staring up at him were defiant. “You’re the one sneaking out of fucking Fawlty Towers in the middle of the night.” Dominique Chappell didn’t even make five feet, but her tiny, fifteen-year-old body was as steadfast as any opponent he had ever faced. “You tell me.”
“I’m an adult.” Jesse kept his voice even, though his nerves were frayed, and she was the last thing he needed to deal with at that moment. “I don’t sneak out of places. You, on the other hand, have a ten o’clock curfew.”
She cocked a single brow. Michelle had taken the teenager in when her mother—and Michelle’s lover—had been killed. It was frightening how many of her mannerisms Dominique had picked up in just the thirteen months they’d lived together.
“You know Michelle isn’t going to give two shits about me if she finds out you were tripping the light fantastic.” Her gaze swept over his ruined clothes. “Or just tripping, even.”
“No, I’m pretty sure that Michelle is going to be worried about you wandering around in the middle of the night. Do I need to remind you again that I’m an adult?” Jesse sighed, unsure why he was even arguing with her. “Did you follow me?”
“Someone has to look out for your ass.” Dominique shrugged off his hold, her riot of dark curls flipping over her shoulder as she stepped back. It cast her in shadows, her dark skin merging into the surrounding murk. “What do you think you’re doing, anyway?”
“Killing demons. Come on, let’s go home and get something to eat. I’m starving.”
They fell into step next to each other, three of hers to every one of his, but Dominique didn’t say a word as they headed for the bus stop at the end of the deserted street. She looked over the schedule to figure out the best way to get back to the Madding house near Hyde Park, then sat down on the bench to wait for the night bus to arrive.
“We got ten minutes before it’s supposed to get here. You might as well park yourself, because my feet are fucking killing me from following you here.”
Jesse settled beside her, but only because his feet were starting to ache, too. “How many times do I have to tell you not to do that? It’s dangerous, Dominique. What if one of those demons got past me and went right for you? What would you have done?”
Without a word, she bent down and lifted the baggy leg of her jeans. When she straightened, she cradled an ornate dagger from his father’s collection in the palm of her hand.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone