Tainted, Book One: Possessed

34. Nothing Human About a Harpy

Kerry

At first, I balked at going to the pumpkin contest on Tuesday night because I wasn't sure what to expect or how to behave, but Gemma pleaded and begged and promised she wouldn't leave my side. Then she looked up at me with those big, green eyes and said, "Please?"

And that was that.

The pumpkins were everything from stupid to gory, but the big blue winner's ribbon laid next to Gigi's portrait. Gemma grabbed my hand and congratulated me. Threading my fingers through hers, I told her she deserved most of the credit because it was her idea, but she only laughed and shook her head.

Deciding now was time to show her, I raised our joined hands and pointed to an entry at the end of the long table.

"Hey, look at that one."

I led her over to a pumpkin that had a little fairy sitting on a mushroom and waving her wand to create a swirl of perfect stars.

And they were perfect. I'd nearly cut one of my fingers off getting those suckers right.

"That's—" Gemma's voice wobbled and her grip on my hand tightened. "Kerry, did you— You— Kerry!"

Her face hit my chest, and I smiled as I cupped the back of her head in my free hand. Resting my cheek on the top of her hair, I let her slime up my shirt. I knew I deserved it, but I was gonna have to buy a freaking tissue company or something.

"No, Jax!" Gigi screeched from somewhere behind us. "Don't!"

I didn't know what he'd done to upset his lady, but I was too busy with my own to care.

"Was that Gigi?" Gemma stepped back and let my hand go so she could wipe her eyes with her fingers. "Was she yelling?"

"Yeah. Jax pissed her off, I guess."

I dug around in my pocket for a hanky. As I handed it to her, her eyes focused on something behind me and her face twisted up in horror. The sound of running feet grew closer and I instinctively filled my hands with blue fire. Before I could turn around, though, an almighty collision took place a coupla feet from my back.

Spinning around, I saw it was just John and Jax horsing around. I let the fire go out and felt dumb for expecting an attack, but the look on Gemma's face hadn't been fake or a joke. Glancing at her out of the corner of my eye, I saw she had my hanky pressed over her nose and mouth and her eyes were huge.

Confused now, I turned back to my boys to see John had grabbed Jax's head and was squeezing it between his hands.

"Use this," he growled.

"You could have just teleported me," Jax moaned.

"You deserved it."

Are they fighting?

John radiated anger, which I'd never seen from him before, and it wasn't until Tara came over and coaxed him that he got up.

Jax stayed on the grass that they'd churned up, curled on his side, and groaned.

"What are you two doing?" I asked.

"Jax was going to tackle you." Chessie appeared at my elbow. "The rest of us were coming over to join you and saw him running at you. John decided to make an interception on the play."

"Idiot," John rumbled and kicked Jax's boot with his own.

"I'm dying," he gasped, "and you don't even care."

"Tackle me?" I looked back at Chessie.

"You know, like slam into you from behind."

She kept talking, but everything faded.