“I understand I’m coming with you,” Jacob persisted.
“Didn’t you just hear me about Elise? You can’t…”
“What about Elise?” The vampiress opened the door, still nude, like there had been any question of what she’d been doing while feeding. Her face held smugness as if Sydney would be jealous. What did she have to be jealous of? All she felt with regards to Jacob was guilt that she was using him to scratch the itches there was no one else around to scratch and feeding off him like he was some blood slave.
Faster than any human should be able to move, Jacob bent, removed a wooden stake from his boot, and plunged it into Elise’s heart. His hand moved swiftly to his mate’s mouth to cover the sound of her scream, and then she began to melt away.
Sydney’s shock was quickly followed by a dark satisfaction that the bitch was gone, followed by a pang of guilt at the previous unsolicited feeling.
Jacob collapsed with the melting vampire, and for a moment, Sydney thought that the link between them, rather than freeing him and making him mortal again, had killed him as well. But he wasn’t dead. Instead, he sobbed, clutching at the quickly decomposing vampire.
“Jacob, be quiet! They’re going to hear and come down here!” While the walls were reinforced steel and the rooms and hallway were said to be soundproof, Jacob was having a fit over Elise, and vampire hearing was impressively good. Soundproof by human standards might not be exactly the same as soundproof by vampire standards.
He got himself together, and then Elise was nothing but bone and ash. Sydney ran down the hall to a supply closet and returned with a broom. But Jacob was too much of an emotional wreck to do anything, so Sydney swept Elise’s remains under the bed. It wouldn’t be long until someone needed her for something or discovered her missing.
“I thought you didn’t love her?” Sydney said.
There was hope in his eyes as if her question had been fueled by jealousy instead of mere curiosity.
“I don’t. But that link… it does something to you. I don’t think these are my real feelings. They aren’t very deep. They just scratch the surface.”
If this display was just scratching the surface of Jacob’s feelings, there might be issues there. Because it seemed pretty intense and epic to Sydney.
Jacob wiped his face with the back of his sleeve. “I’m fine now. There’s nothing anymore. It was just the claim breaking.”
She was skeptical, but his face seemed to have cleared of the mild hypnotism. Suddenly an awful thought occurred to her. “Oh God, do you think my mom doesn’t love my dad? That it’s just the claim?”
Jacob touched her arm. “No, Syd. It’s not like that, I promise. I never wanted to be around Elise when she was alive. I didn’t even like her. It was just the effect of the bond breaking. Your parents aren’t like that. Charlee loves him. The claim can’t create those feelings she has all the time, all it can do is create that brief surge of loss when the claim breaks. It’s not even grief. Grief is deeper. It was just this brief panic and… I don’t know… loss for the sake of loss. But I’m fine now. If it was your mom, trust me, she would not be fine in five minutes.”
Sydney wasn’t sure if Jacob just said it to make her feel better about what could be her mother’s unremitting Stockholm syndrome. But it was true that Jacob hadn’t ever followed Elise around like a lost puppy. He avoided her whenever he could, preferring to spend his time with Sydney, unlike her parents who were nearly inseparable. And just a bit icky with their public affection.
“Let’s go,” Jacob said, having turned an emotional one-eighty in the course of a few minutes.
“You aren’t coming with me. You’re too vulnerable now.”
“You need someone to watch out for you and feed you.”
Sydney shook her head and retreated several steps. “No. I might kill you. I don’t have the greatest track record with that. Now that Elise is gone, you can die. I can’t… I can’t.”
“You won’t kill me, Syd. I have faith in you. It’ll be fine.”
But Sydney knew it wouldn’t be fine. She might be able to control herself, but even so, she couldn’t feed from him every day without him growing weak and sick. And there might not be enough out there for him to eat to help him stay strong.
“I’m eating wildlife.” She pushed past him.
“I’m still coming with you,” he said. “I’m dead anyway if I stay. You know the king will get into my mind. He’ll kill me for letting you go.”
Jacob could easily stop her. He might be only human, but he was strong for a human, and Sydney was… well Sydney. Thankfully Jacob’s loyalty was with her, not her dad. Even so, she knew she had no choice but to bring him. No matter how loyal he was to her, Anthony would get inside his mind the moment they realized she was gone.
She sighed. “Fine.”
He grinned. “Awesome. Let me just pack a bag real quick.”
Sydney waited in the hall while Jacob packed. She didn’t want to stand in Elise’s room thinking about how he’d just killed a vampire without hesitation. Sure, they both had hated the bitch, but Sydney had never been faced before with the obvious moral gray Jacob had developed in all his time with vampires. Surely he must harbor some disturbing impulse toward revenge for being stolen from his family. And here he was, running off into the wilderness with the king’s daughter.
Could she trust him? Maybe she should drain him the first chance she got, for her own safety.
A few minutes later he joined her, an excited, happy look on his face like they were going on a fun road trip instead of running into God only knew what was out there. “Ready?” he said.
“Yeah. No, wait.” She went back to her room and took a sheet of paper and pen from her desk. She stood there, trying to come up with something that didn’t sound stupid. This would kill her parents, but she was a fucking adult! Wasn’t it normal for adults to move away from their parents and start their own lives?
If the old movies she’d had to sit through repeatedly were any indication, it was normal.
After a few more minutes thought she scrawled what could possibly be the lamest running away letter ever penned:
Dear Mom and Dad,
I’m sorry I left. I know you’ll try to come after me. Don’t. Please just let me go. I can’t be a locked-up princess anymore. What kind of life is that for me? I don’t know how you guys stand it, but some day you’ll want to be free, too. And in some small way, now you are.
Love, Syd
Sydney felt the glow come to her eyes and her fangs pop out as she growled staring at the letter. She sounded like she was fifteen. She had to get out of here before she regressed back to toddler. She folded the paper and left it on the desk and followed Jacob down the hall. The blue LED lights clicked on as they approached and clicked off as they receded.
They climbed the steep stairs and went down a couple of other hallways. She heard her mother laughing at something stupid her father said and almost lost her nerve. But her life might be measured in centuries, and eternity here wasn’t an option.
“Syd, you okay?” Jacob whispered.