Tainted, Book One: Possessed

25. She Likes to Worry About You

Kerry

"No! I can't!" I backed away with my hands up in protest. "It's too little. Too easy to break. I'll hurt it."

I liked Jax's power focus class. It was usually peaceful to pet the animals. Today, we were at the farmyard, and I was good until now. Meeting the cows had been easy; they were big and could take care of themselves. The horses, too. But this stressed me out.

"You'll be fine." Jax grinned. "Hold your hands like mine and be still."

Taking a deep breath, I did as he asked, and he slid the little ball of yellow fuzz into my hands.

The chick peeped, but didn't stir. It seemed to be looking at me, and I stared back. It didn't weigh anything. It didn't have any kind of defense and whatever offense it could mount with its tiny beak and itty-bitty talons wouldn't be much. I could have smashed it to goop between my hands in seconds.

It was completely at my mercy and it just sat there, swaying a bit as its eyelids dropped.

"It's sleeping, Jax. Put it with its mother."

He took the chick and set it back into the straw-filled box with its brothers and sisters as the hen clucked at him.

"We don't usually hatch out this late in the—"

A tornado of feathers flew up between us as two roosters suddenly decided to throw down. Jax went for the larger one and talked to it as it hopped and jumped around. The other, however, turned on me.

The stupid thing dug its talons into my leg as it half-ran, half-flew up my back. I covered my head with my hands, then panicked as my t-shirt rose up to my shoulders and over my head. Blindly, I reached for the bird and finally managed to grab it. I tried not to squeeze it hard as I held it out in front of me, but its wings beat at me and it pecked my hands, so I wasn't sure if I was being as gentle as I was supposed to be.

"Take it, Jax!" I yelled and tried to wiggle my t-shirt back down. It wasn't working too well. "Take it! Take it!"

"Yeah, yeah."

He finally came over and had the rooster tamed in half a second. While he shut it up in a separate pen, I pulled my shirt down.

"Sorry. I have no idea why they were in the same area together."

I couldn't look at him. I fixed my eyes on the little hen who'd gathered her sleepy chicks away from the fighting.

"Calm down, Kerry. Yeah, I saw your back, but only a glimpse. You had an angry rooster attacking you."

"It's okay if you were disgusted." I straightened my shoulders. "I know what it looks like."

"I wasn't disgusted, but there's blood on your shirt. Take it off. The rooster must have spurred you."

"No!" I twisted away when he grabbed the back of my shirt. "Why would you want to look at that? And don't touch me. I warned you about that before."

"I need to know how much damage he did." Instead of letting go, he pulled on my shirt.

"Let me alone!"

I tried to pull away, but the seams of my shirt made popping noises and I stopped. That would be the last thing I needed right now, to rip my freaking shirt.

"Come on. The blood's coming through the fabric. It must be serious."

"No! It's just pain. It doesn't matter."

"Dude, a barn is a dirty place. Who knows what may have been on his spurs and talons? I need to at least clean the cuts, or they'll get infected."

"I said, it doesn't matter!"

"It's just me here." He sounded fed up. "What does it matter if I see your scars? Besides, it's my fault. I feel responsible."

"Stop pushing me! I'll be fine!"

"All right, you're forcing me to do something drastic. I'll call Gemma. She'll ditch class and race down here to heal you. Of course, you know she'll say, 'Let me see it' first."

"You wouldn't!" I froze in horror.

"Yeah, I would." He shrugged. "She'll know anyway if you go to next class bleeding like this."

Frustrated with the whole situation and fizzing with blue sparks, I whipped the back of my shirt up and over my head and kept my face hidden in it.

"Wasn't playing, was he?" he whistled. "Three of these gashes are long and deep. That's where all the blood is coming from. Let's wash them out and put on some bandages."

I didn't reply as I pulled down my shirt and followed him to the small bathroom at the front of the barn.

"I'll need to touch you to clean these," he warned me.

I pulled the power back in as much as I could so it wouldn't zap him, then told him to make it quick.

He flipped my shirt up again and started to wipe away the blood with a warm, wet cloth. My muscles bunched up and I had to grit my teeth so I didn't power up and hurt him.

The stupid rooster scratches weren't the problem. I just really hated for anyone to touch me.

Except Gemma, my brain whispered. She's touched you lots of times ...

He threw the bloody cloth in the trash, then patted my back dry with a paper towel.

"If Gemma sees this, she'll freak," he muttered as he worked.

"That girl is never gonna see it." My throat closed up at the thought.

"I meant these new wounds. She wouldn't be disgusted by the old scars any more than I am."

I still couldn't speak. Something stung as he swabbed my back again.

"Do the scars hurt?"

I shook my head.

"Must have hurt when it happened, though, right?"

I shrugged one shoulder.

"The guy who did it, did you kill him?"

"I was only ten years old at the time, Jax. No, I didn't kill him. But I ran away once I healed up. They caught me later, of course, and I was sent to a different foster home. It was a lot better, though, so it worked out."

"What was the jerk trying to do, beat the demon out of you?"

"Pretty much." I waited until he taped a third piece of gauze in place. "You done?"

"Yeah." He pulled my shirt down. "Kerry?"

"Yeah?" I narrowed my eyes, suspicious. With this guy, you never knew what was gonna come outta his mouth.

"I'm sorry someone did that to you when you were just a child."

I couldn't look at him. It was all I could do to shoulder my way outta the bathroom.

"Knock it off, Jax."

Neither of us said any more about it as he finished showing me around the barn. Toward the end of the hour, I waited outside the tiny bathroom while he cleaned up and changed back into his regular jeans and t-shirt. Then I told him I was heading home. I needed a new shirt.

And I was ready to crash.

You won't tell her, will you?" I scowled. "About the rooster getting me?"

"Nope." He put a little pop at the end of the word. "I'll leave that for you to do."

"Why worry her with things she doesn't need to know about?"

"She likes to worry about you." He wore a giant grin.

"Don't be so stupid!"