Page 22 of Jacob Michaels is Trouble

I was beginning to be afraid of myself.

What the hell can happen to someone who loses themselves so quickly and deeply?

“Robbie?” Oma’s voice was gentle, obviously concerned with my mental removal from the situation. “Ya’ still with us?”

Shaking my head to chase away the ghosts of everything in my head, I turned my full attention back to the two people physically present with me.

“What did he say to you?” I asked Jason since Oma’s question had been made rhetorical by me responding at all. “When he came to you just the once, Jason? What did he want?”

Jason appeared to be going over his options in his head, obviously reluctant to share any information with the two people who had just attacked him with magic as though it were no big deal. Logic won out over attitude and Jason gave a sign, finally indicating that he was going to answer.

“Look,” He stated defensively, “it really was just once. I’m not jerking you around here, okay? He came to me in a dream. Offered me and the pack power if we would help to build him an army. But I refused.”

“An army for what?” I asked.

“You know what for.” Oma snorted.

Jason glanced at Oma quickly before answering. “To help him destroy a couple of witches. I’m now assuming that is you two.”

Oma bowed her head with a grin.

“What’s he got against you two?”

“Long story,” I stated evenly. “Why did you refuse?”

“I’m not crazy, Rob.” Jason spat, though there was no heat to his words. “I know real trouble when I run into it. I knew the guy in the black hood was not someone I wanted to attach myself to. I knew he was trouble just as much as I know you’re trouble.”

“Of a different sort.” I shrugged.

“Trouble is trouble.” Jason shook his head though a small grin reached his lips. “Doesn’t matter how you dug the hole if you end up stuck in it, does it?”

“You and Oma should trade folksy sayings sometime.” I rolled my eyes, but before Jason or Oma could respond, I continued. “So, if you refused him—to create this army of puppies—why are you still taking on members? Why did you go after Lucas so much when we were younger?”

“We’re a pack.” Jason looked at me like I was an idiot. “It’s like a family, we just reproduce differently.”

“Gross,” I responded blandly, to which Oma chuckled. “Why Lucas?”

Jason was chewing at his lip. A tell-tale sign that he either didn’t want to say what he was thinking or he had no idea how to answer the question.

“He was one of us,” Jason responded suddenly. “On the football team. We knew he’d make a good pack member.”

“That’s a lie,” Oma replied.

“No shit, Shirley,” I answered her, though my eyes never left Jason’s.

“I’m not lying.”

“You already know we’re witches, assface,” Oma responded. “Do you think we’re goin’ to buy some cock-and-bull story that you just felt like you had to have Lucas in your pack because he played football with ya’?”

Oma’s statement gave me pause as I sat there, helping her to stare down Jason and intimidate him into talking.

Witches.

She had said I wasn’t a witch before…

“Fucking fuck.” Jason groaned as he reached up to run his fingers through his hair, which he had obviously not bothered to stop by his house to wash after disposing of the two bodies. “Look, Lucas…we were just supposed to make him part of our pack, okay? That’s all.”

Oma looked over at me, a frown adorning her face.