"Oh, great," I mumbled under my breath and my gaze dropped to my feet.

"I'll sort it out," Tyler said as he watched Jared's approach. I felt hopeful that once these two boys managed to talk out their issue, this whole thing would be resolved.

"I'm sorry," Tyler whispered under his breath and then I felt his lips crush against mine as his arms wrapped around my waist.

It was unexpected and it took my brain a couple of seconds to figure out what he was doing before I tried to pull away. He held me so tight I couldn't move and I felt his lips move against me. What the hell was he doing?

He was wrenched away from me and it took a couple of blinks for me to realize what was happening in front of me.

Jared had pulled Tyler away from me and shoved him to the one side. I saw Jared's fist connect with Tyler's jaw and he stumbled backward. I'd never in all the time I'd known Jared seen him so angry. It looked like he was ready to pull Tyler apart, limb by limb.

I had to stop him. I wasn't going to watch them beat the crap out of each other. Jared's fist connected once more before I managed to jump between the two of them and put my hands out to keep them apart. I was small compared to these two facing off and they could easily hurt me, but I was determined.

"Stop it!" I yelled at Jared. He was furious and he looked past me to Tyler. I followed his gaze to see Tyler rubbing his jaw, which was already turning red, and there was a cut above his eye that was bleeding.

"Get out of the way," Jared shouted at me with such venom I flinched. He was scary when he wanted to be but there was no way I was going to let him hurt Tyler any more than he already had.

"No," I yelled back and I stubbornly planted myself firmly between the two of them. Just behind Jared I could see Danny running toward the fight. I just needed to hold Jared off until he got here.

I turned to Jared and put both my hands on his chest to keep him away from Tyler.

"Stop it," I hissed at him. He looked down at me. His eyes darkened with disgust as he shrugged my hands off his chest. Then he looked at Tyler and gave him a deadly look, then turned and stalked off. I turned to face Tyler, who wiped the blood from his eye.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I examined the cut above his eye. The cut wasn't a deep one so it would heal quickly. In a couple of hours there wouldn't be a mark.

"Yeah, I'll be okay," he reassured me as Danny appeared next to him.

"What the hell happened?" Danny asked, looking shocked as he watched Jared's retreating figure.

I wanted to know the answer to that same question. What had happened? Why had Tyler kissed me? I was pretty sure he didn't have any romantic feelings for me so why would he do something like that?

"You'll see," Tyler said cryptically. Jared got into his Jeep and screeched out of the parking lot.

"I would offer to take you home," Tyler said, still rubbing his sore jaw, "but I don't think that would be the best idea. Would you take her home?" He directed the question at Danny.

"Sure," Danny replied reluctantly. I could see Danny didn't want to go anywhere; he probably wanted to stay to find out more information from Tyler about what had happened.

"Trust me, it'll all work out," Tyler assured me and he gave me a weak smile.

I trusted Tyler with my life, so could I trust him to sort this out with Jared? Although I still had no idea why kissing me had been a part of it.

"Thanks," I said as I followed Danny to his car. He opened the passenger door for me and I got in.

Through the entire journey home not a word was said as I tried to figure out why Tyler had tried to kiss me. I was pretty sure that he didn't have any feelings for me although sometimes I wasn't the most observant person. Had I missed the signs?

Danny seemed to be busy with his thoughts as well. I think he was just as surprised by what happened as I was. The ring from his phone pulled us both away from our thoughts.

"Hey," he answered his phone.

"Yeah, I got her," he said as he glanced my way, then focused back on the road.

"No problem," he replied and then he ended the call.

I wondered who that had been. It was probably Jared. Irrespective of what had happened and how angry he was with me, it didn't deter from the fact that he felt responsible for keeping me safe.

Danny glanced at me and saw my questioning look.

"It was Jared, he wants me to watch you for the afternoon," he informed me.

I couldn't say I was surprised, after the way he'd looked at me after Tyler had kissed me, I doubted he ever wanted to see me again. Maybe he would give me what I wanted now. He could assign other Archaics to protect me. So if I'd possibly gotten what I wanted, why did I feel so shitty?

I glanced at Jared's house when Danny pulled up in front of mine. I wondered if Emma was awake yet. I wasn't surprised when I noticed Jared's Jeep wasn't in his driveway and I couldn't help but wonder where he was.

Danny followed me into my house. I offered him something to drink in the kitchen.

"Don't worry too much, Ava, they'll sort it out," he assured me as he sat down at the kitchen table. I really hoped he was right.

"Have they fought like this before?" I asked as I poured some orange juice in a glass for him.

"They have had heated arguments before but they've never traded fists before," he admitted as he took the glass of orange juice I handed to him.

"Then how do you know they'll sort it out?" I questioned.

"Because they have to," he answered honestly. "Jared is our leader and Tyler is the second in charge. They will need to sort it out and put whatever is bugging them behind them. Our lives are full of danger so we can't afford for our attention to be on trivial things even if they were important enough to start a fight between them. For our own survival we need to work as a team."

Sometimes it was easy to forget that their lives were filled with danger and it was a constant battle for survival against the Hue. Since I was one of them, my life would change. Like Danny said, we needed to work like a team to survive and that meant putting aside my heartbreak and finding a way to be around Jared and not be affected by him. It wouldn't be easy but I had to find a way.

"Has Stacy spoken to you about me?" His question caught me off guard.

"A little," I admitted. He looked so nervous.

"I really like her," he admitted shyly as he took a sip of the orange juice.

"I know," I replied. I didn't want to betray Stacy and tell him why she was pulling away from him.

"I don't want to know what she's said about me but if you could put a good word in for me I'd appreciate it," he said nervously.

"Of course I will. You're a good guy, Danny, you just need to give Stacy a little bit of time." I was trying to help him without betraying Stacy's trust.

"Thank you."

"Are you hungry?" I asked, changing the subject.

"I'm always hungry," he replied. I laughed as I started to make him something to eat.

***********

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