20

                                    

                                          
The Confrontation
Evaine wondered just how aware Jesse was of the fact that she was freaking out inside. Alec, her Alec, not only was involved with the hunters but had at some point been an important figure among them. Whatever it was that had set him on a new path must have been a pretty big deal, judging from the way Jesse was talking about it. It didn't seem like simply wanting a career change was a good enough reason to warrant the label "deserter."
What had happened to Alec that would cause him to be driven away from his own family? What made him choose Jericho as his hiding spot? If he was as good of a hunter as Jesse implied, was he aware that there was something different about Evaine? Jensen Calloway had been sure enough to try to kill her after only a few seconds; who was to say that Alec hadn't figured it out as well? And if that was the case, did that have anything to do with him wanting to be her friend?
It would make sense, Evaine thought in a brief, albeit dark, moment. Of course my only friend would have an ulterior motive.
She took a long, deep breath, shaking her head to quell the rush of paranoid thoughts that threatened to overwhelm her. There was too much that she didn't know to be changing her opinion of someone she respected as much as Alec. After all their years of knowing each other, she figured he deserved the benefit of the doubt, and a chance to explain why he had been lying to her all this time.
Jesse suddenly turned his attention away from her, head tilted like he was listening for something beyond her hearing, brow furrowed.
"What is it?" Evaine asked, instinctively following his lead by tensing up. She couldn't tell what had changed, but if it made a creature like Jesse look nervous, then she knew she should be very afraid.
"Gasoline," was his only reply, and then he stood up with enough force to knock the chair out from beneath him. 
Evaine stood up as well, following when he hurried out of the kitchen and ran toward the front door. She suspected that he was slowing up for her sake, even as he moved so fast through the halls of the darkened house that her eyes could barely keep up with him.
He reached the front door first and yanked it open. The makeshift attachments gave way and the giant plank of plywood was torn clean off, but he tossed it aside without a care. Evaine skittered to a stop a few feet back, wanting to give him a wide berth. She didn't think he would accidentally hurt her, but the amount of splinters that sprayed from the broken door frame was enough cause for concern.
She warily followed him up to the open doorway, and that was when she smelled it. Sharp and pungent and everywhere. She could see where it had been splashed across the porch, covering the entire structure as far as she could see. It had soaked into the gravel of the driveway, covering a wide pathway which narrowed into a thinner stream, finally coming to an end at the open gate on the other side of the property. 
There, beside a giant red gas canister, stood Alec himself. His blue flannel shirt was tied around his waist, leaving him with only a plain white tee shirt covered in fresh stains on his torso, though Evaine couldn't tell if they were from the gasoline or from sweat. In one hand was a mostly emptied glass bottle of liquor. In the other was a lit cigarette which he slowly raised to his lips upon spotting Jesse.
Jesse motioned with one hand for Evaine to stay back. As long as she was in the darkness of the house, she hadn't yet been seen.
"Don't hurt him," Evaine reminded him in a whisper. Jesse turned back only enough to let her know that he'd heard her, and that he now understood who he was dealing with.
"Alec Jameson, I presume?" Jesse called out so that he could be heard from across the yard.
That caught Alec by surprise, and he paused with his cigarette on his lips. The smoke that finally blew out of him was as gray as his stubbly beard, and glinted just as brightly in the moonlight.
"I know why you're here," Jesse continued in lieu of a response. "You think you know everything that's happened and who is to blame, but you're wrong, Alec. I did not kill Maggie."
"Don't," Alec growled, a sound ragged and tortured like Evaine had never heard from him before. "You don't get to say her name. You are a liar and a murderer, and today you're gonna get what you deserve."
Alec held his cigarette out away from his body and tapped it so that it released a flurry of tiny embers which floated dangerously close to the line of gasoline before harmlessly burning out. Evaine could tell from the back that Jesse was poised to jump at any moment, coiled as tight as a bowstring, ready to let fly. She didn't know how fast he could run, but she highly doubted he would be fast enough to stop that cigarette from hitting the ground if Alec dropped it. 
"Alec, he's telling the truth!" Evaine shouted, stepping out of the house and into the light of an almost full moon. 
Alec took a startled step back when he recognized her, his eyes widening with horror and disbelief. The look of betrayal on his face, the same face she had looked to for comfort and guidance nearly all her life, shot a painful stab of guilt to Evaine's heart, and it was only the knowledge that he had lied first that kept her from running to him.
"E? What in the hell do you think you're doing up in that house?" he hollered back at her, his shock quickly dissolving into a fear-fuelled rage. 
"I could ask you the same thing," she answered him with just as much of a bite to her tone. "What were you going to do? Just kill the new neighbor? Not even going to ask him what happened? Is this what you call justice?"
"You get your ass down on the other side of this gate or so help me—"
"Put out the cigarette and maybe I will!" she retorted, returning his attitude twofold.
"Evaine, he's drunk," Jesse warned her, the tension in his voice showing how close he was to making a move. "I doubt he's in the mood to be reasonable."
"I said get down here!" Alec stumbled a little, throwing down the almost empty bottle of liquor so that it shattered on the driveway.
"Oh, come on!" Jesse groaned, his jaw clenching with the effort of holding himself back. "Can we please be done making a mess of my property?"
"Why?" Evaine continued to Alec, completely ignoring Jesse as her anger took on a life of its own. "So you can just set fire to the place the second I'm clear? I don't think so; you're going to put it out before I move an inch."
"This is not a debate, missy," Alec said, pointing authoritatively at her with his empty hand. Despite the sheen of drunken sweat, he looked for all the world like the man who used to scold her for her childish tantrums, who used to set her right after a fight with her mom. "You can walk down here or I can drag you over. You have until three!"
"Not goddamn likely," Jesse growled lowly, moving to step in front of Evaine to shield her.
"ONE."
"He won't," Evaine said to Jesse, sidestepping him so that it was she who acted the shield instead. To Alec, she yelled, "I'm not moving until you put it out!"
"TWO."
"Evaine, he isn't thinking straight, he's going to light it on accident," Jesse stressed, placing one hand on her arm with the intention to get her to move. "You need to run, now."
Evaine didn't even notice when he started pulling on her arm; she held her ground with her eyes trained on the glowing red end of that cigarette. It was too close to the gasoline, and she could picture all too clearly how quickly the flames would spread once the fire was lit. The fear pulsed through her veins, knowing that if Alec made a single wrong move, the fire would be coming for her.
Alec took a stumbling step forward, scattering embers and ashes. "THREE."
"PUT IT OUT."