Kindred by Adrianne Lemke Page B

happened,” Alice said, turning her attention from the boys to me.
    Like he wasn’t entitled to being upset after what Kindred had done, and was continuing to do. That wasn’t enough? I shot a look of disbelief at her, my eyebrow raised questioningly.
    She frowned. “You know what I mean. He’s more distant, and even Sam’s excitement isn’t helping him feel better.”
    I shrugged, letting her off the hook. “He had a nightmare while he was napping. Didn’t want to talk about it afterwards. It’s not really surprising, I suppose. He’s used to dealing with things on his own. It will take some time for him to accept that we’re here to help him through things.”
    “Little sis, you may have to accept that he might never want to share certain things,” Alice said gravely. “He has some things in his past that are not pertinent to how you feel about him, so don’t push too hard, okay?”
    Jason came out of Sam’s room before I could respond, and he looked even more tired than he had before. “Jas…”
    “I’m going to bed. I’ll see you guys soon, okay?” he interjected, going to the stairs before we could respond.
    “Goodnight. We’ll see you in the morning,” Alice called as he descended the stairs. He paused for a moment, but continued without responding. “Man, today really took a lot out of him. He seems so tired.”
    “Are you any closer to finding and stopping Kindred? Anything to get him to stop hassling Jason?”
    Alice sighed, she was also worn out from what was going on, but not to the extent Jason was. “No. No closer. Kindred doesn’t even know what he’s doing to Jason. He seemed surprised by the idea that Jason wouldn’t appreciate what he was doing. But he seems to think that Jason has a good chance of stopping him.”
    “Really? How?”
    She shrugged. “Not sure. I’m just assuming based on the fact that he keeps warning Jason to stop helping us, but he has no fear of the police. Something about Jason seems to worry him. To me, that is worth having Jason help us. On the other hand, it’s not worth Jason’s life to stop this guy.”
    I frowned thoughtfully. “You know, I’m not sure he’d agree with you on that one.”

NINETEEN
    Jason
     
    Enough is enough. What had happened with Mason was bad, but what Kindred was doing…that was worse. Mason had wanted another Kindred, someone he could use and control. Kindred seemed simply to enjoy killing. And he was enjoying taking over my mind whenever he wanted for his own amusement. Mason’s assassin had more than repaid his supposed debt to me when he killed my father, the one person who scared me more than Mason. To keep killing…most of the men he killed had deserved prison; they hadn’t deserved to be brutally murdered. Most of them. My father…he deserved exactly what he got.
    It wasn’t my fault. That’s what everyone wanted me to believe, but when I killed Mason, Kindred was set free. It was my fault he was out killing people. Besides, with all the awful things that had happened to me in my life, I must have done something to make so many people want to use and hurt me. There was also the fact that I wasn’t so sure that Kindred had the completely wrong idea. The world would be a better place without the criminals he was killing. It saved the courts the time of dealing with trials for all the men he’d gotten rid of, and he saved me the trouble of having to look over my shoulder for my father’s return.
    I stared up at the ceiling of my bedroom, alone in the dark with brooding thoughts that Hannah would slap me for having. She’d helped chase away the nightmare, at least for a few minutes, but this nightmare was my reality. I couldn’t escape it even long enough to enjoy Sam’s excitement about going back to school.
    This wasn’t fair to her, or to Sam and Alice. Something needed to change, and I was starting to think it would be best for everyone if I did as Dan suggested: leave town.
    I needed to go into the