The Host (The Host #1)(58)

“Calm down, Jared,” Jeb said in a tired voice. He took the gun in one hand. “She wouldn’t touch this thing if I left it down here alone with her all night. Can’t you see that?” He stabbed the barrel of the gun toward me, and I cringed away. “She’s no Seeker, this one.”

“Shut up, Jeb, just shut up!”

“Leave him alone,” Jamie shouted. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You!” Jared shouted back, turning on the slim, angry figure. “You get out of here now, or so help me!”

Jamie balled his fists and stood his ground.

Jared’s fists came up, too.

I was rooted in place with shock. How could they scream at each other this way? They were family, the bonds between them stronger than any blood tie. Jared wouldn’t hit Jamie—he couldn’t! I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what to do. Anything that brought me to their attention would only make them angrier.

For once, Melanie was calmer than I was. He can’t hurt Jamie, she thought confidently. It’s not possible.

I looked at them, facing off like enemies, and panicked.

We should never have come here. See how unhappy we’ve made them, I moaned.

“You shouldn’t have tried to keep this a secret from me,” Jamie said between his teeth. “And you shouldn’t have hurt her.” One of his hands unclenched and flew out to point at my face.

Jared spit on the floor. “That’s not Melanie. She’s never coming back, Jamie.”

“That’s her face,” Jamie insisted. “And her neck. Don’t the bruises there bother you?”

Jared dropped his hands. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “You will either leave right now, Jamie, and give me some space, or I will make you leave. I am not bluffing. I can’t deal with any more right now, okay? I’m at my limit. So can we please have this conversation later?” He opened his eyes again; they were full of pain.

Jamie looked at him, and the anger drained slowly from his face. “Sorry,” he muttered after a moment. “I’ll go… but I’m not promising that I won’t come back.”

“I can’t think about that now. Go. Please.”

Jamie shrugged. He threw one more searching look at me, and then he left, his quick, long stride making me ache again for the time I’d missed.

Jared looked at Jeb. “You, too,” he said in a flat voice.

Jeb rolled his eyes. “I don’t think you’ve had a long enough break, to be honest. I’ll keep an eye on —”

“Go.”

Jeb frowned thoughtfully. “Okay. Sure.” He started down the hall.

“Jeb?” Jared called after him.

“Yeah?”

“If I asked you to shoot it right now, would you do it?”

Jeb kept walking slowly, not looking at us, but his words were clear. “I’d have to. I follow my own rules. So don’t ask me unless you really mean it.”

He disappeared into the dark.

Jared watched him go. Before he could turn his glower on me, I ducked into my uncomfortable sanctuary and curled up in the back corner.

CHAPTER 18

Bored

I spent the rest of the day, with one brief exception, in total silence.

That exception occurred when Jeb brought food for both Jared and me several hours later. As he set the tray inside the entrance to my tiny cave, he smiled at me apologetically.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“You’re welcome,” he told me.

I heard Jared grunt, irritated by our small exchange.

That was the only sound Jared made all day. I was sure he was out there, but there was never so much as an audible breath to confirm that conviction.

It was a very long day—very cramped and very dull. I tried every position I could imagine, but I could never quite manage to get all of me stretched out comfortably at once. The small of my back began a steady throbbing.

Melanie and I thought a lot about Jamie. Mostly we worried that we had damaged him by coming here, that we were injuring him now. What was a kept promise in comparison with that?

Time lost meaning. It could have been sunset, it could have been dawn—I had no references here, buried in the earth. Melanie and I ran out of topics for discussion. We flipped through our joint memories apathetically, like switching TV channels without stopping to watch anything in particular. I napped once but could not fall soundly asleep because I was so uncomfortable.

When Jeb finally came back, I could have kissed his leathery face. He leaned into my cell with a grin stretching his cheeks.

“’Bout time for another walk?” he asked me.

I nodded eagerly.

“I’ll do it,” Jared growled. “Give me the gun.”

I hesitated, crouched awkwardly in the mouth of my cave, until Jeb nodded at me.

“Go ahead,” he told me.

I climbed out, stiff and unsteady, and took Jeb’s offered hand to balance myself. Jared made a sound of revulsion and turned his face away. He was holding the gun tightly, his knuckles white over the barrel. I didn’t like to see it in his hands. It bothered me more than it did with Jeb.

Jared didn’t make allowances for me the way Jeb had. He stalked off into the black tunnel without pausing for me to catch up.