Chapter 14.

14.

Thunder flashed above the three of them. Zeus making a grandiose appearance. Floating above them he deigned to bestow his gaze upon them.

“Uh uh,” He motioned no with his finger, “Another technical foul, girly girls. You must harvest the field without damaging the goods, we don’t want the poor farmer that owns this land to not get his money now do we?”

“So we’re not stealing the corn?” Suri murmured.

“No little witch, the list said harvest, not steal,” He displayed the trampled corn husks under Jime and Jack’s feet, “And now we have this… what to do, what to do,” He touched his forehead mimicking thinking, “Oh! I know! For each corn damaged you will have to work another field. There. Problem solved. So, how many fields does that make?” He counted gleefully, “I believe it is 36 fields! Good luck my little puppets! I’ll be watching! Continue putting such a good show!”

With that he left, zooming upwards to disappear between the clouds.

That bitch Demeter, who was the actual owner of all corn fields in Iowa, was gonna be sorry for having the gall to beat him at Guitar Hero. Her entire crop was being harvested before time. That will show her! Plus he also needed some corn for the Potion.

Jack was looking where Zeus had disappeared, “What was that about?” he asked Jime.

Jime turned to him, fury in her eyes, “None of your goddammed business!”

Once again their powers circling each other, picking up wind. When frost started to appear above them Suri interrupted.

“Hold on! Hold on! People! Don’t damaged the corn! What the hell, I don’t wanna be stuck all night farming… God! It took us an hour to get this one almost done, and now we have to do 36 more?” She inhaled, “It’s going to take all night as it is!”

Jime squinted her eyes and decided to flash to a near-by road. Jack and Suri followed.

The road was illuminated by a single lamp that looked like it was about to die any second now, but the light was enough; Jime and Suri stood together facing Jack, who was standing at a comfortable distance, trying to cool off the storm inside.

The tension was still palpable even though no one was talking, so Suri decided to jump right in. “What are you doing here?” She sneered at Jack.

“This does not concern you.” He sneered right back.

“Don’t use that tone with her, you bastard! Who the hell do you think you are?” Jime yelled.

“You tell me what’s got you following Zeus’ orders, then!” He yelled at her.

“What the fuck? DON’T YELL AT ME! I gather you know damn well what’s got me following orders! You have been messing into my business again, I know you have!”

“I was told you’re after a greek potion and I thought it would be good of me to make way for you, I helped you, you owe me now.”

“In what twisted reality do you live in? Wait, what am I asking, you live in the special I’m-the-top-of-everything-and-everyone-should-worship-me world of Jack Jammer extraordinaire.” Jime eye-rolled with derision.

Jack got furiously red but managed to control himself, “You owe me, and now you have to tell me something I need to know.”

“I don’t have to tell you jack-shit!”

He looked at Suri, “This is a private matter and as such-” He started to collect his power to form a bubble between he and Jime, leaving Suri out.

She would not stand for it, this situation was too juicy to miss, “Oh no, you don’t!” Suri mumbled an incantation under her breath and figuratively speaking burst that bubble.

“Step off your high horse, you bastard. She knows everything.” Jime cast a side glance at Suri with her follow my lead look, at which Suri answered with her you got it look.

“She knows?” Jack paled with embarrassment, casting his eyes on the floor.

“Yes, I don’t keep secrets with my family. I do not practice deceit.”

Suri raised her eyebrows at that, a half smile on her face, but Jack didn’t see her because he was looking pretty troubled with himself. Seeming to come to a conclusion, he looked up once again, addressing them.

“Very well, if my honor is to be thus tarnished so be it.”

“Honor? Ha!” Jime laughed and looked at Suri, “That’s like saying Zeus is a gentleman.”

Small thunderbolt energy cracked behind the women, hitting Jime’s butt. “Ow!” She covered her tush with her hands.

Suri snickered while Jack’s attention was drawn to Jime’s body, clad in a sexy flower print bikini. His eyes wandered over her lower half, taking in her shapely legs, to go up slowly over her stomach, her curves (she had always been a curvy woman, no skin and bones, just how he liked his woma-women! Women in general!) to her breast, his heated gaze resting there, remembering his neverending plans for those puppies. He smiled to himself, a snap of Jime’s fingers breaking his reverie.

“As I was saying, I don’t have to tell you anything.” She was blushing.

“All I need to know is why you said no to my proposal, so that I can move on.”

He donned an air of victimization that pissed Jime off once more. She must remember her vow to never let her guard down again when it came to Jack. The Bastard. Always so self-centered, so smug, the levels his delusion could reach always astounded her. He still thought he was God’s gift to womankind apparently. The asshat had insulted her in every possible way, betrayed her in the worst of ways, and then he proposed to her? Thinking it would solve all her insignificant little woman troubles, that he had contributed to, and that would make it all ok? Fuck him!.  

Suri was riveted watching the two of them. They had had a nasty fight the last time they chanced each other at Jack’s club, then he had left the premises in a huff. Later on Suri and Jime had left too (taking jack the car with them), with Toren not far behind, as it turned out. A proposal! So, Jime and Jack had a thing going on between them at one time? Figures.

While Jime was remembering, she also remembered her plan to get Jack’s help for Operation Hairball… it was painful for her to swallow her old hatred of Jack, but she must, for the sake of the Potion. She mulled over how to go about manipulating him, “Why I said no…” She stalled for time, “It’s simple really, I was not in love with you. I said so at the time… pretty clearly if I recall correctly.”

“And I know that was not true, it couldn’t be.”

“It couldn’t be…” Jime repeated managing to not make her eyes roll again, “Well, the past is past. Things change and what-not…” She made sexy eyes at him.

Jack was stunned. Could it be? Dare he think..? His heart was beating so hard and fast he almost feared it could be heard by her. He will have to tread lightly. This was too important to screw up. He would change the subject, for now, so he could get to the bottom of this when they were alone. He asked out loud, “Zeus! Can they have outside help in whatever it is they are doing?”

A thundering voice responded, “SURE, WHY NOT, THEY ARE FEMALES AFTER ALL, I’LL ALLOW IT.”

Suri and Jime both breathed in, with hands in tight fists of rage at the condescension.

“I will help you.” Jack’s smug smile coming back to its natural habitat on his irritatingly good looking blondie face.

“All right! The more the better.” Suri rubbed her hands together, ready to be done with this bullshit task. “Say… how did you know where to find us?” She asked Jack.

He didn’t look at Suri while he answered “A little gecko told me.” He was staring at Jime, never taking his eyes off her every move, which in turn made Jime shift in discomfort, making certain feelings come to the surface she did not want to feel again.

Suri thought about what Jack said, suspecting that weird feeling she felt, that the locket Toren had given her turned hot for a few seconds, when they started plucking the corn husks, had not been her imagination after all. Interesting.

***********

Toren was writhing, green sweat staining his brand new egyptian cotton sheets. Bloody hell. But that’s what you got when Jime-vamp got her claws into you, poison that got you killed, slowly and painfully. As a Dragon, Toren could make his own body reach high levels of temperature, and his body healed faster; that way he could sweat the poison out of his system. Jime knew that. But it would cost him time and energy, also, there was no medicine for the pain. So he took it. He opened his eyes briefly and saw River had sat on a chair next to his bed. He was making River worry too much.

“I see you’re finally awake. Here you are, out of commission, yet again. See a pattern here?” River spoke with his almost-boring voice, this was not good.

“How did you find me?” Toren whispered.

“I followed your sorry ass through the Underworld and you didn’t even notice. Damn, you have it bad.”

So, River had probably witnessed his encounter with Jime-vamp and picked him up after she left and he lost consciousness. “I told you I would handle the leech alone.”

“You were looking to get a glimpse of Suri, is what you wanted. You and I know you wouldn’t have been able to handle the vampire if she had really wanted to kill you.”

Toren sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, guessing his second in command would have a lot of questions to ask, while River fumed quietly.

“So what? You have a death wish now? Aren’t you forgetting something important here? You have responsibilities! The survival of our Clan depends on you!”

“I never forget that, River.” Toren spoke through his teeth with pain lacing his words. Physical pain and emotional pain. River sure could cut deep with his words when he wanted to.

After some minutes of silence River spoke again, “I invoked the locket, got their location, and called Jack Jammer.”

“You what?!” Toren sat up with difficulty.

“You heard.”

“Dammit, River-” A tremor so bad went through Toren’s body his teeth rattled, shutting him up.

“I made him swear his loyalty and aid to the Dragon Clan, in writing. I’m not an idiot. He was eager to do it anyway.” He waved Toren’s concerns away with his hand. “So we have him on our side now.”

“I need to go to Suri. I can’t have her out to kill me.” Toren started to get up from bed, but was shoved right back by River.

“You really need me to tell you this? You have to let the poison out and rest, get your energy back, that’s going to take about 5 hours.”

Toren conceded defeat, he really needed to be in top shape to fix this situation. “But we have to go as soon as possible. Where are they now?”

“On some field in Iowa.”

“Random.”

“Do I look like I care?”

**********

4:47 A.M. in the morning found Jime, Suri and Jack done with the 36 fields. It had turned out to be hard work, they were sweaty and tired. They had reunited at the first field when they finished to find the corn that had gotten damaged to be missing.

“I guess Zeus took it. Fine, if anyone gets in trouble, it can be him.” Suri shrugged.

Jime sighed, “I don’t care, I just want to take a shower and get inside jack’s trunk.” She cringed, realizing what that had sounded like.

“WHAT?” Jack’s hand almost made it to his chest, almost.

“She meant the car…” Suri said while straightening her overalls and putting them on.

Jack’s sudden arousal fizzled down at the mention of his car. How could he have forgotten? “You will give me back my honey-boo, or else I will not continue to help you two.” He threatened.

“Honey-boo?” Suri huffed, amused, “Now I’m torn, should we continue calling it jack, tia?” She joked.

Jime had turned her back on them to dress as well, not wanting to look at Jack’s currently naked torso, all hard muscles gleaming with sweat under the moonlight. She didn’t respond.

“Wait, you named my honey-boo jack? Jack chuckled.

Jime turned around, raising her arms in the air, “I hereby re-name it honey-poo.”

“Brilliant!” Suri clasped.

“I object!” Jack put on his shirt, making quick work of the buttons.

“Whatever, it’s going to be dawn soon, so I’m off, see you tomorrow.” Jime waved and teleported.

“Wait for me, jeez.” Suri followed her.

“Damn it!” Said jack, it would take him an hour to follow the energy trail they had left, but he could find them. He teleported after them.

At that same moment Toren and River showed up at the field, saw Jack disappear, and followed his trail.