Broken Glass: An Alicia Jacobs Novel (The Alicia Jacobs Chronicle Book 1) Read online

  My parent’s death was one of the most devastating things I had gone through to date. After their death I bounced from relative to relative for a while until I was sixteen. None of them seemed to be able to handle me. Only one of my aunts had really tried, Aunt Marcy, a kind woman who put up with me the longest, despite being a “troubled child.”

  My other relatives had coined that phrase for me, they could not understand my violent outbreaks, screaming, and in general the anger I felt. At sixteen I had enough of the bouncing and became an emancipated adult with the financial support split between all of my relatives. My aunt Marcy had continued to keep in touch with me through letters, emails and phone calls. She was the only of my relatives that had. She was the one who had given me the job lead from her hair dresser. While we were not the best of family, she was my family none the less.

  My other relatives were fine that I had decided to be on my own, Aunt Marcy had expressed concern but in the end went along with everyone else. I was too difficult for any of them to handle for an extended period of time. I was angry at the world and I took it out on everyone around me. Living on my own I developed the skills I needed to survive. I took cooking classes, I watched TV shows and read articles on both cooking and home organization. I was a regular Susy homemaker.

  The Internet had also become a great source of information, not only could I research things for school, but I was also able to find recipes, tips and handy “do it yourself” articles. Don't forget the funny cat pictures and memes that were great for days when you were just fed up and wanted to blow something up. There was also this forum board that had some interesting pictures, some of them were straight porn, others were just gross. I loved Saturday though, every Saturday on the forum board, it was called B I think, they would put up a bunch of awesome cat pictures. It was always good for a laugh.

  I had grown up fast and at times I was loathe to be considered of the same generation as the selfie snappers and duck facers. It was what it was though and it had given me time to get through my anger. I had learned people skills because I had to have them. It made me a better lawyer, and a better person. I had a lot to be thankful for.

  A wave of nausea brought me to consciousness and I rolled throwing up the contents of my stomach onto the floor. A large soft hand ran over the top of my head making soothing noises as my hair was pulled back from my face. Another lurch of my stomach had me shuddering sweat dripping down my face. I could vaguely hear people talking above me. What was going on? It’s not like I had been hit by anything, I hadn't been touched. There was no reason for how I was feeling.

  I was lifted back into the bed; my body was soaked with sweat. I could feel a cool washcloth washing the sweat off of me. I tried to say thank you but the words would not come. A cool hand patted my arm in reassurance. I struggled to open my eyes to at least acknowledge the person, but my eyelids were so heavy, they would not come up no matter what I did.

  I could feel unconsciousness pulling me back down again darkness swelling up to swallow me back into an oblivion of memories, or was it dreams. I couldn’t tell anymore.

  Bertha looked down at Alicia, she was sweat drenched and her face was flushed. Her temperature was through the roof and there was no real reason for it. As far as Bertha and Jared had ascertained, they opened the door before the Wight got in and had a chance to do anything.

  So why was Alicia sick? According to Sheriff Spencer she had been perfectly fine yesterday when she had gone to visit Jen. Jen herself had said that Alicia had seemed healthy and normal when she called and prior to Jen's arrest there had been nothing notably wrong.

  This whole situation was odd, something was wrong with Alicia and there was no way that she could do what needed to be done if she was unconscious.

  Bertha and Jared stepped from the room to talk, both of them were concerned about Alicia. Jared wanted to take her to the hospital and see if they could figure out what was going on with her. Bertha thought that by doing so it would be too much of a risk for Alicia's safety. So they turned to Kali for the answer. Jared pulled out his cell phone and punched in Kali's number, it rang a couple of times before Kali picked up.

  She sounded groggy as if she had been sleeping. “Hello?”

  Jared was matter of fact and quick about explaining what was going on, there was no time to play around. “There is something wrong with Alicia. She’s sick and we have no idea why. When we got here, she had locked herself in the bathroom, the Wight was dispensed of by Bertha. She came out of the bathroom and passed out- she has a high fever, she's throwing up and sweating. There are no marks on her so it’s not like the Wight touched her.”

  Kali listened without comment until Jared finished speaking. “The hospital would probably be a bad idea, as it is unsafe. Bring her here to my place and we will get Joseph to come and look at her. He has medical degrees in human medicine and supernatural medicine.”

  Jared and Bertha went back into the room, Bertha busied herself getting Alicia dressed in some loose clothing. Jared packed up the few things from the room and then made his way back to room 202 where the rest of Alicia's belongings were. He packed them up neatly making sure that everything was there. Her computer, thankfully was undamaged- when she woke she would be pleased to find out.

  He brought everything to Bertha's car and loaded it in the trunk before returning to the room. He made himself scarce as Bertha finished dressing Alicia. Dressing an unconscious human being was probably no easy feat, but Bertha didn’t do a bad job of it though, but she was quite strong.

  Once Bertha had finished, Jared walked over bent and picked her up.

  “She's so light,” he commented as he strode to the door in a princess style carry.

  “I think she may have lost weight these past two days” Bertha replied.

  “She has been fading in and out of consciousness for two days, and now this... I really don’t understand it. It's almost like she's going through the onset of the change sickness- don't you remember your change when you hit puberty?”

  Jared nodded and looked at Bertha as they walked down the walkway towards her car. “True, but when Alicia and Jen hooked up the council investigated her and her bloodlines like they do with all relationships. No non-humans were found as far as the council was aware?”

  Bertha nodded in agreement, “No, none. But as we all know not everyone is comfortable with just laying down to the laws. Nor did they always exist, and DNA testing was only so reliable for supernaturals.”

  Jared shrugged and waited by Bertha's car for her to unlock it and open the door for him to put Alicia in the back seat.

  “Well, hopefully Kali will have a better idea- or Joseph. I’m sure we’ll figure this out. For now, we just need to ensure that Alicia gets to Kali's house safely.” Bertha opened the door and Jared leaned into the car carefully laying Alicia down in the back seat.

  Using one of the seat belt across her chest and one across her legs to keep her secured so that she would not roll and fall during any turns. Jared looked at Bertha.

  “Do you want me to follow you on my bike or ride in the car with you?” Bertha shrugged.

  “You’re welcome to leave your bike here, but if any of the terrorist group comes to find out what happened to the Wight, they might destroy it.”

  They had disposed of the Wight during the night so that should any

  wandering human drive by there would be no suspicions. Bertha had taken the body deep into the woods behind the motel, cut it into many small pieces and burned it. While a Wight could be rendered unconscious it would not actually die until its corpse was separated and burned. Even then, no one really knew if they were dead, so they took precautions.

  The wights ashes had then been dumped in a few places, as a further precaution, part of the ashes went into a running stream of water. Jared had taken another portion of the ashes down to a different river that ended in large body of water. The last part had been flushed down the toilet. Jared had driven about an hour ou
t of town with the ashes and gone to a convenience store. He had gone into the bathroom and dumped the remainder of the ashes from a plastic baggie into the toilet and flushed.

  Even if someone tried to bring the Wight back, it would be near impossible. Neither one of them thought that the group who had sent the Wight would go through all that effort. It was not like they had sent the Wight to get information.

  Jared decided that it would be best for his bike and his own sanity, knowing Bertha's driving habits and choice of music, to follow behind her. He had learned this during the various trips to dispose of the ashes. She was a country music fan to say the least. Jared got on his bike and turned the key. It roared to life before settling down to the loud purring of a Harley Davidson engine. He loved this goddamn bike and it had cost him a fortune, but it was not irreplaceable. However, the insurance costs, and the cost to replace the bike would be overwhelming. It was better just to ride along behind Bertha.

  Bertha pulled out and they started the thirty-minute drive to Kali's house. Kali chose to live just outside of the community far in the woods as it was better for her. To be an earth spirit and be stuck in highly populated areas with more metal than wood was detrimental to her health. So she lived in the boonies by herself in a small log cabin. The road was rough dirt and Jared usually stopped at the bottom of the road to leave his bike in the shed at the bottom of the road for just such occasions.

  The drive was peaceful enough, the town was quiet in the early morning. Jared's motorcycle was the only real noise as they passed through. A few stragglers getting ready to head to work, or just getting off work passed them by. The diner was getting ready to open and employees were beginning to cycle in.

  The diner was small and family friendly, with the best lemon pie in the tri-county area. They had actually won awards for it. While they tried not to draw attention to the community, it would seem strange if they had no tourism at all. So the town committee of supernaturals got together and picked out events that they were willing to participate in. A pie contest had been one and they had done well. God, could Jared go for a cup of Elaine's coffee right now.

  They roared by the diner, the motorcycle echoing in the early morning silence. Jared did not notice the car that had pulled out behind him and was following keeping a discreet distance. Even if he had noticed it, there was no way for him to notify Bertha, she would not be able to hear him over the roar of his bike.

  They continued along the drive, the roads thinning as they left the town itself and moved deeper into the country. As they drove down the winding road, Jared zoned out. The best times he had were on this bike, just riding, by himself, nothing but the trees and the rumbling of the engine. Jared had turned on the music station that sent music from the blue tooth in his bike to his helmets receiver. Bertha was keeping a steady speed of about 40 mph and it was a leisurely drive. They had discussed speed before they had left and both felt it would be best if they drove normal speeds so as not to attract attention.

  Little did they know, they had already gotten someone's attention. The car behind Jared moved closer and closer until it was right behind him. He had not noticed as he had been paying attention to the music and the road in front of him.

  It was difficult not to notice, however, when the car's bumper pushed the back of his motorcycle. He swerved but quickly regained control of his bike, this time looking both in the mirrors and behind him. He could not see the face of the person driving the car and at first thought that the bump was an accident. Until the car accelerated and bumped into him again, this time briefly lifting the rear wheel of his bike from the ground.

  He leaned to the left and looked down the line of the road making sure no one was coming it before punching it. He pulled up next to Bertha and gestured behind them and she looked in her rearview to see the other car speeding up. She stepped on the gas of her car and the engine gave a squeal of protest- goddamn timing belt. She really needed to get that fixed soon.

  The car behind them accelerated again and this time bumped into the back of Bertha's car. The old beast of a car lurched forward but Bertha was easily able to maintain control. She had been driving this car since 1980. Bertha's Buick Grand National revved, the engine giving another squeal before roaring forward. The powerful 6-cylinder engine was no match for the younger Nissan Altima behind her.

  They quickly caught up and gave her bumper another push. This time however Bertha slammed on the breaks as they got close. The Nissan's bumper crumpled as the much heavier Buick fell back into it. The smell of burning rubber and brake fluid surrounding the two cars in a thick, gray cloud. As quick as she had slammed on the brakes, Bertha floored it. The Buick lurched forward, swerving before quickly straightening out and racing down the road.

  At first they thought that their pursuers had been left behind, Jared kept checking behind him. There was no sight of the other car for about five minutes. Jared checked back again and sure enough, there was the Nissan. They were driving much faster this time and did not look like they had any intent to stop. If Jared had thought it was some punk kid playing games, he sure didn’t feel that way anymore.

  He reached into the bag attached to his bike and pulled out a small handgun. It was something he kept there to protect himself while he was driving. It was rather difficult to drive if you were a werewolf, so he had obtained it as a secondary measure of protection. It was a Beretta M9 semi-automatic, and while it was an easy shot it did pack a bit of recoil. He pulled up next to Bertha and moved close to the Buick, so that he would have bounce control if the recoil was too much.

  He had never actually fired it while driving before, so he had no idea how this was going to go. He took as much of an aim as possible, twisting on the bike and firing two shots at the tires of the Nissan. Thankfully the Nissan was fairly close, speeding toward the Buick.

  The first of his shots missed his target, leaving a hole in the front of the Nissan. The second shot did indeed hit one of the front tires and it began losing air rapidly. Not popping, just leaking air quickly. Jared could see in the mirrors that the tire was deflating faster and faster. With the sick sound of metal grinding on pavement the Nissan swerved, but still kept pressing forward, sparks flying under the car.

  They kept driving, trying to keep pace with Bertha and Jared, it got increasingly difficult as the rim of the car dragged over the pavement, each turn deforming it further. Unable to keep up with the Buick, they pulled over and got out of the car watching as Jared and Bertha hastened down the road. They were almost at Kali's and they definitely needed to let her know what was going on and that even her house was not safe.

  Instead of putting Jared's bike in the shed, they decided to brave the drive up the dirt road. They didn’t want to take any chances that their pursuers would come back and find them on the side of the road loading up the bike. While it was difficult to navigate the road with the bike, Jared managed and they pulled into Kali's driveway following it as far as it went. Kali's driveway ended behind her house in front of a small garage.

  There was no way that anyone would be able to see the Buick or the bike unless they drove right up to Kali's house. If they did that, they would be spotted quickly and easily on the pockmarked dirt trail. Jared parked his bike next to Bertha's car and turned it off, taking off his helmet off, his face flushed and covered in sweat.

  He stood and opened the driver's side door and pulled Bertha out to hug her tightly.

  “I am glad you’re alright! How is Alicia?” Bertha's face was just as red, but it was not from the exciting drive to Kali's house.

  “She’s fine,” Bertha managed before stepping out of the hug, her ears red with embarrassment.

  Jared looked at Bertha, confused, but chocked it up to the thrill of the drive. He opened the door to the back seat and leaned in. Alicia was also very flushed, breathing fast, very nearly panting. Sweat soaked her clothes and face, vomit was clinging to the side of her face.

  He unbuckled the seatbelt holding her in pl
ace and gently lifted her from the car. Kali opened the back door to her house as Bertha was explaining the dangerous drive and what had happened with the other car.

  Kali waved her hand, unperturbed. “Even the terrorists won't mess with me. To anger a Wampus is to ask for your own death.”

  She then laughed for a second, but sobered quickly as her eyes fell on Jared carrying Alicia up the stairs.

  Kali put her hand to Alicia's forehead and shook her head, making a tsk-tsk noise. “Joseph will be here in a few minutes, he called right before you arrived. I think he passed your... friends... back there on the road and offered to lend them a hand, not knowing who they were.”