Guardian Angel

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

"Oh fuck yeah, called it."

Niko's declaration had everyone in the room turning to look at him, including River, who reached up to cover his face with a hand. You'd think he'd be used to Niko's outbursts by now.

"How could you call it if you hadn't met Hades when you met Jasper?" I asked dryly, folding my arms over my chest. Niko looked at me pointedly, mimicking my posture and even popping his hip out to the side for added effect.

"Dude," he gestured to Hades, who glared at him as Niko made a show of gesturing his arms up and down, then he did the same to Rowan, who just frowned deeply, "I've met Jasper. You've met Jasper. Setting aside the fact that he looks like a carbon copy of you freaky glowy eyed motherfuckers, he's got all the genetic traits; poor communication, hide your sad feelings, get attached easily, and everything that comes out of your collective mouths is preprogrammed to start fucking nuclear wars." Hades opened his mouth like he was going to argue, until he reconsidered that last comment and just frowned at the floor thoughtfully. Rowan grimaced, then looked at Niko, who just shrugged.

"You know you aren't exempt from those traits," he said. Niko looked at him.

"Nah, I don't look like Hades."

"You look like Hades if he had blonde hair," River offered with a shrug. Niko looked at him.

"Whose fucking side are you even on?" He asked, putting his hands on his hips. River held his hands up in surrender.

"Anyway," Hades said dryly, "Point is, we have another player in the game that's about to complicate shit. What should we know about this Jasper guy? Sounds like he gave you a run for your money." He looked at Rowan now, who averted his eyes for a moment.

"When we fought, he fought well. He knew exactly what type of magic I specialized in, and it was almost like he copied me, attack for attack. I'd accuse him of being a mimic, but if he has our genetics, that's impossible. Mimicry is very rare," he muttered thoughtfully. It was indeed a rare trait, and as far as I knew, not a trait in our family. It was the ability to copy someone else's magic, no matter how powerful, and it was why it was so rare. Mimicry easily led to depleted magic. Just because you could copy someone doesn't mean you had the same power.

It was a pain in the ass, and because it was so rare, there wasn't much research on it.

"Did he seem weakened by the end?" I asked Rowan, who frowned.

"Yes, but not magically," he said, making us look at him curiously, "He seemed... distracted, almost. It was very odd, considering how gungho they were to get their hands on Ryk. In fact, Jasper seemed desperate to get away from me, more than he was interested in Ryk."

"So he's got a different mission," Hades said.

"Of course he does," Niko said flatly, making us look at him, "Are we gonna ignore the fact that I know this fucker and have since I was like six?"

"You knew him well?" River asked. Niko shrugged.

"As well as anyone could in that place. Jasper always has been and always will be Mother's favorite. She's been trying to recreate his sequence ever since, but hasn't been successful. It's why she started getting pissier and pissier as time dragged on," he explained, then looked at me and Hades, "I'll be honest, I don't exactly know much about his fighting style because I've never had the chance, but I'll tell you one thing. If you think I'm mentally unstable, Jasper's a whole other ballgame."

"How so?" I asked. Niko looked at me with a grimace.

"So, Jasper was part of the program since the beginning," he replied, making us look at him, "Like, very beginning. Mother already picked out his handler and everything."