- FIFTEEN
Jasper
It was a full fucking day before we got to the camps.
First, the stone wasn't meant to keep us near the human realm next to the camp, just any part of it.
So we got turned around three times before we finally got into the right direction.
We'd stopped to rest. Well, Cece rested.
Doyle and Onyx kept watched while I went to barter for whatever the fuck I could find that might help us.
I got a couple weapons, some protection stones, two small vials of poison.
Really, it wasn't anything that could help.
We essentially had one of two choices. We could try to sneak in under the cover of night, go in swift and silent, find Jade, and try to get out before we got caught.
To say that plan was riddled with flaws was putting it lightly.
The second option was to wait for or create a distraction and hope that, amid the chaos, we could sneak in and out. Again, hopefully unseen.
So, yeah, both plans blew. Both pretty much assured we'd have our asses dragged in there as well.
And by some strange twist of fate, the changeling, the girl no one knew about, had the best shot of getting out.
She could throw up that burning shield around herself and Jade and run like hell.
Doyle and I were most at risk. I couldn't stomach the idea of Doyle being dragged back into that life, but I was willing to sacrifice the both of us to get the girls safe.
And, as traumatized as he was over his own childhood in the camps, I knew he would be willing to make that sacrifice as well.
What they would endure would be far worse than what could happen to us.
Doyle and I sat awake, Cece sleeping between us, restless until I reached down and started sifting my hand through her hair.
"What happened here?" he asked, waving a hand at me and Cece.
"Not much," I said honestly. I found myself, as I was trudging through the Dark realm alone, thinking what might have happened if I had visited Jade more, if I hadn't been working so much, if I had met Cece before the shit hit the fan and threw both of our lives into chaos.
Would she have hated me? I had peeked enough to know she was a particularly bitter form of betrayed from an ex, that she was bent on not dating anyone, that she was sick of men.
But had I shown up, not in a shit mood and being a dick because my sister, the only person I truly loved in the world, was missing, would she have felt differently about me.
Would something have happened there? Something a little less wrought with stress and pain and confusion.
Back in the human realm where my powers were stunted, where I would only pick up on some vague waves of emotions, not quite such the invasive way I could look inside her in The Green.
I liked to think things might have happened.
Naturally. Organically. But a larger part of me knew better.
I knew I was always focused on other things, never the type to get serious about relationships.
The only way something would have happened between us would have been if we were forced together by some...
"Oh, Jesus Christ," I groaned, slamming my head against the tree behind me that I had been wishing like fuck I could lean against for some support.
"What?"
"This was a fucking set-up."
"What was a set-up?"
"Think about it for a minute. Cece moves in with Jade.
Jade would have picked up on Cece being more than what she appeared and the jasper as her protection stone thing.
And fucking unakite was all over Cece's bedroom.
Then one day, Jade is gone. She won't answer me.
I start to worry and show up to find her new roommate is there.
Then we are on this mission to find her, forced together day and night... "
Doyle made a sound that was between a laugh and a sigh. "How the hell are we just figuring this out now?"
"We were worried about Jade being missing, sure she was taken..."
"She was taken."
"Yeah, but not originally. Originally she just happened in here to force two people together.
You know her. She gets nutty about setting people she thinks should be together up.
That's what she does. But she was a lot more sheltered than I was as a kid.
She hardly ever left our property unless she was with me.
She knew so little about The Green. She had no idea how at risk she was. "
"Did she succeed at least?"
I looked down at Cece, her dress a mess, her lip still a little split, her cheek still bruised, her ankle wrapped with endless strips of thin fabric, with my dried blood all over her dress, covered in dirt and sweat.
And still, fucking still, she was the most beautiful thing I had seen in a long fucking time.
"Maybe."
"Oh, fuck off with that," Doyle said, exhaling hard.
"I can overlook Jade's hunch. She's been wrong before.
Not often, mind you, but it happens. But that necklace thing with the pixies?
Jasper on that invisible piece of magic?
You want to call that a coincidence, sure.
Let's. But then a gnome pops up out of the ground and digs out a jasper too? Come on."
"So you're saying it's some fate shit? Isn't that a little cheesy for you?"
"I don't know who you think you're talking to here, but I was the guy who bought your sister three-hundred and sixty-five daisies on our one year anniversary. I'm perfectly comfortable with cheesy. And, yes, I do believe some things are fated."
"So we don't have a choice?"
"You have a choice to turn your back on fate, sure.
People and fae do it every damn day. But do you really want to be that guy?
We have been through a lot of shit in the course of a couple days.
We are standing outside a camp we are about to charge into and there is a pretty fair chance at least one of us won't make it out.
You want to tell me that you're willing to fuck up what could be your only chance to give this a shot because you're pissed it wasn't fully your doing? "
"What? A confirmation of life fuck? Come on, who wants that?"
"People who might die want that. You want that.
Wake her up, see if she wants that too," he said, standing, reaching for his backpack.
He opened it and dug around inside. "Me and Onyx will walk ten minutes out and do a border patrol.
We won't see or hear shit and we'll make sure no one else does either.
Here," he said, grabbing a condom and tossing it down on the ground beside me.
"You packed condoms?" I laughed, shaking my head.
"We both knew what would happen when I came in here. At least I prepared for it." He moved to walk away then turned back. "Wake her up, Jasp," he said as if sensing I was still debating whether or not to.
With that and a grumble from Onyx as he followed (I suspected had some sort of dog-crush on Cece) we were alone for the first time in a long time.
I waited the ten minutes, continuing stroking her hair, not fully realizing I was thinking about touching her finally until she started getting restless in her sleep again.
I looked down, surprised, to find her flushed, her breathing a little fast and shallow, her legs pressed together tightly as if...
"Fuck," I said, shaking my head at myself.
As if I was projecting my desire onto her.
I dropped my hand and she settled back down.
"Honey," I said after giving her body a few minutes to readjust, not wanting her to be turned-on because I made her that way without her being a willing participant.
She stirred a little, grumbling, fighting consciousness. But then her mind must have cleared of sleep fully because she shot up, her eyes snapping open. "Is it time?" she asked, looking around a little wildly.
"No. We have a while yet."
"Why aren't you sleeping? Where is Onyx and Doyle? Did something..." she started, pushing fully up, throwing her tangled hair back.
"Everyone is fine. Take a breath," I said, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear.
Her head tilted, watching me. "You're being weird."
"I'm being nice," I countered with a smile.
"Exactly. It's weird," she said, smiling back at me.
"Trying something new," I offered, sitting down in front of her, slipping my legs up under hers, grabbing her hips, and pulling her forward. Her brows drew together and her hand reached up, touching my face, making her brows furrow all the more. "What are you doing?"
"Seeing if you have a fever."
I chuckled, shaking my head at her. "Really helping my confidence here, honey." My hands moved back to her ass, pulling her fully against my lap, making her pussy rub up against my cock.
"Oh," she breathed out.
"Yeah... oh."
--
Cece
Sleep snapped backward, my system flooding with anxiety instantaneously.
It took me an almost embarrassingly long minute to realize that Jasper's voice was doing that soft thing and his touch was gentle and his eyes were heated.
Hell, I didn't notice it all until I felt my heat press up against his cock.
But it all came at me at once then, flooding my system with a need so strong it was verging on painful.
"What?" he asked, watching me as a thought crossed my mind.
Embarrassed, caught, and knowing he wouldn't let me get away with not saying it, I did. "Is sex more... difficult for you since you can feel your partner's desire too?"