Chapter 2 #2
“Please,” she begged him, tears making their way over her lashes and down her cheeks when she opened her eyes.
He glanced over to see her tongue dart out to lick a tear away from her lips, and she heard him groan lightly and lean away from her.
“Please let me go, Jack. I don’t know how else to say this.
I don’t want you. I don’t want you in my life. ”
That’s a lie, her heart bellowed, warring with her mind, but her mind didn’t retract it.
He winced, and it made her heart clench with the pain she was causing him. If it was anything like the pain she was causing herself, it was bad.
“I don’t care. You need to come stay with me,” he said again, his voice soft but hard at the same time. “You’re not safe.”
“Not safe?” She snorted. “I think I’m a hell of a lot safer here than in a remote house in the middle of the woods with you and your bro—”
“You’re not. You’re in danger.”
“D-danger?”
“Yes.”
He answered softly, and she knew he was trying not to frighten her, but it only served to increase her panic.
“What do you mean?”
“My sister. I think she’s…” He shook his head, working his jaw as he stared at his lap. “I think she’s coming for you.”
Jack swallowed and started telling Darcy about Lela.
He told her about his father’s mistress, Lynette, and her accidental death, falling into a sharp knife during a heated argument.
He said that she left behind a child, Lela, who had been raised by his parents.
He shared that his father had recently passed away, and Lela was hurting and angry.
She was looking for a surrogate father figure and resented that her brother was bound to a human.
Jack said he wasn’t positive, but he thought there was a good chance that Lela was coming to take out some of her sadness and anger on Darcy.
“Tell her she doesn’t need to come here. Just go home. Go be a father to your little sister.”
He looked up at Darcy, and she saw regret brimming in the beautiful dark eyes that she wished she didn’t love.
“It’s not that simple.”
“Sure, it is. Go back home. If she comes here, I’ll tell her you’re gone.”
“No, she won’t give up that easily. She wants me to herself.”
Darcy shrugged, frustrated, wondering if she was getting the whole story because the song he was singing didn’t make any sense to her.
“She’s grieving. She might do something crazy.” His face flushed, and she knew he was withholding something, but she didn’t know what, and he didn’t want to tell her. “I’m afraid she’ll track you down. I’m afraid she’ll try…”
“She’ll try to what, Jack?”
“To break the binding.” He sighed.
“That’s not possible. You’ve said it a million times. I belong to you, and you belong to me. It can’t be broken. You said we’re bound until death.”
Jack nodded, staring at her. Although she hadn’t meant the words to sound tender or as any assurance of her feelings for him—he had rattled them off so matter-of-factly—she could see the momentary glimmer of hope in his eyes as he looked at her.
But the voice she heard in her head wasn’t soft or tender. It was hard and blunt.
That’s right, Darcy. Until death.
It took a second for Darcy’s brain to follow his meaning.
“Oh my god! She wants to kill me? You think she’s coming here to kill me? Just because you’re bound to me?” No wonder he was trying to hide the truth.
In her mind, you’re in the way, so yes, she might try to hurt you. And you’re not a Roug. You can’t defend yourself from her. Julien and I are here to protect you.
Darcy covered her face with her hands. His abrupt return suddenly made sense to her.
He wasn’t here because he loved her and wanted to convince her to be with him.
He wasn’t here with flowery words of love or cajoling promises to get back into her good graces.
He was only here, out of duty, to protect Darcy from his sister.
She wished this realization didn’t hurt.
It should have somehow soothed her. After all, she didn’t want him either.
But it didn’t. It ached that he wasn’t back because he wanted her or missed her.
He was only back out of obligation, out of a sense of duty or responsibility for her safety. And it bothered her. A lot.
Not to mention, some crazy half sister of Jack’s who wanted her dead was actually coming to Carlisle to hurt her or kill her and God only knows what else to get her way.
If Darcy stayed in her house, she was not only a sitting duck.
She was a threat to the safety of the people she loved, like Willow and her brother.
She had to go with Jack to lead this Lela away from her loved ones.
She had no other choice. She was trapped.
And just like that, her feelings of hurt and longing departed swiftly, replaced by anger, anger such that she’d never felt before.
Cold, hard anger that blighted out her other thoughts.
It was as though her life wasn’t her own anymore, and the fury inside of her rushed forth like a tidal wave of bitterness.
She lowered her hands.
“You’ve destroyed my life,” she said softly, feeling her eyes narrow as she stared at the black hair of his bowed head. “I will never forgive you for this.”
“Well, I guess I’ll have to live with that,” he answered acidly, failing at trying to sound casual. His voice was laced with an anger as compelling as her own.
She wanted more of a reaction from him. She wanted him to own her anger and frustration, and the words poured out of her mouth without thinking.
“Let’s be clear about one thing, Jack. Don’t think I’m going to suddenly just jump back in your bed.”
When Jack looked up at her, his eyes were burning. Gold, churning, seething, undulating lava.
“Fine.” He gritted out through clenched teeth.
“I mean it.” She sneered, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at him. “Don’t touch me.”
His nostrils flared with hurt as he stared at her with yellow, narrowed eyes. She heard his voice in her head, a low, furious, dangerous growl.
You’d have to beg me first.
Her chest heaved from the impact of his words, and she looked away from him. He stood up and made his way to the front door without looking at her again.
“Pack a bag.” He threw over his shoulder, his speaking voice strained and low. “I’ll wait for you outside.”
He opened the front door and stepped outside, taking a deep breath of the cold night air.
It felt like a balm on his hot, angry skin.
He clenched his fists together, wishing he had something to hit, or better, wishing he could shift and hunt.
He couldn’t remember feeling so frustrated and angry at once. Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Fuuuuuck!
While Jack hadn’t expected her to jump up and down for joy at the expectation of his protection, he still hadn’t quite anticipated the quiet fury of her words.
I’ll never forgive you for this. He cringed, his breath shuddering as he exhaled through clenched teeth.
It was clear how utterly repulsed she was by him, and he wasn’t just angry and frustrated. He was hurt. A lot.
Whatever hopes he’d had when she opened the door were dashed by the fury in her eyes and the coldness of her voice.
Her voice that he loved so well. His heart had just about beat out of his chest when she’d opened the door with Willow.
He’d felt the binding more solidly in that moment than he had since he’d kissed her so many years ago.
It was like a tangible, touchable thing between them, this life force of energy that bound them to one another.
He saw her eyes roll back in her head a moment before she fainted, and in one quick lurch forward, he had her in his arms once again, exactly where he wanted her when he’d left Portes de l’Enfer hours earlier.
He’d felt a surge of tenderness holding her limp body in his arms as he had the night he almost killed Phillip Proctor.
As he walked to the window seat, he thought about holding on to her, being the first face she saw as she woke up, touching his lips gently to hers, and telling her that he loved her above all living beings on the face of the earth.
But the memory of her little rowboat cutting through the freezing water had stopped him.
He settled her on the window seat, backed away, and waited for Willow to rouse her.
He ran his hands through his hair, leaning against her front door.
Damn it, he was sorry that he had ever kissed her.
He was sorry that he’d ruined her life. He was sorry that she had to come and stay with him against her will.
But he had never intended to hurt her, and if she didn’t want him anymore, fine.
She could have it her way. As long as she was safe, he’d steer clear of her over the next few days.
He certainly wasn’t going to beg her to love him when she so clearly didn’t.
He took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, gradually aware that Willow and Julien were staring at him from the swing at the end of the porch.
“Are you okay?” asked Willow, eyeing Jack suspiciously. “That was a marathon.”
“Was it?” Jack asked.
Willow glanced at her watch. “Almost an hour.”
“You get your questions answered?” he asked her.
Willow glanced at Julien, giving him a brief, pained look before turning back to Jack, her wide, dark eyes searching his face with worry.
She didn’t answer him.
“How’s my friend?” she asked instead.
“She’s coming to stay with me for a while.” Jack massaged his jaw with his thumb and forefinger, bracing himself for another attack from another angry female.
“Is that right?” She gave him a wary look, then stood up gracefully and folded the blanket that had been draped across her lap as she sat next to Julien. She turned to Jack’s brother, offering a weak smile. “Thanks for telling me so much.”
Julien winked at her. “You sure?”