Darkness Falls

by A C Warneke

  He was by her side in an instant, wrapping his arms around her. “It doesn’t matter because I’m here now. We can be together again.”

  “Jack,” she whispered, searching his face and wishing she knew how to handle a husband who was supposed to be dead. “I’m with Feryn now. He’s my mate.”

  He scowled at her words, “But I’m your husband.”

  “And you died,” she reminded him. “Twice.”

  “None of that matters now.” As he spoke, his eyes dropped to her breasts and she realized how flimsy her robe was. “I refuse to lose you a third time.”

  “You almost killed me, Jack,” she said, tightening the belt of her robe as she managed to stand up and take a few steps away from him. Conscious of his eyes on her, she staggered over to the dresser and pulled out a pair of sweat pants, sliding them up her naked legs. Taking a peek at him from over her shoulder, she saw how intense his expression was as he devoured her with his eyes and she was no longer sure she could trust him. Instead of taking her robe off, she grabbed a sweat shirt and pulled it on over the robe, not caring how ridiculous she looked.

  “It wasn’t me,” he protested, taking a step towards her. When she flinched, he stopped and held out his hands in supplication, “Not really. I lost the part of me that made me human, the part that knew right from wrong. But I never stopped loving you.”

  “I know,” she choked out. “It’s just if I had been anyone else I wouldn’t be here any longer. You took too much blood and I almost died.”

  “Malorie,” he cried out softly, ignoring her reserve and crossing the room. Taking her hands in his, he begged her with a look. “I never wanted to hurt you. At the time I wanted you to become a vampire.”

  She tried to tug her hands away from him but his grip was too strong and she had to remind herself that he was no longer a vampire. Cautiously, she asked, “Is that something you still want?”

  His eyes closed in agony as a shudder wracked his body. “God, no. When I was one it seemed like the most incredible thing in the world but looking back…. God, no. It was awful, Mal, just awful. I did things….”

  His words trailed off as he lost himself in dark memories and Malorie automatically reached out to comfort him, cupping his cheek in her palm. Despite the fact that he had been gone for six years, he had been her first love, her partner, her best friend, her husband. “Don’t think about it right now.”

  He pressed his face further into her hand, his expression morphing to tormented pleasure. Taking a ragged breath, he opened his eyes, “Mal, even when I was a vampire you’re almost all I thought about. You have no idea how happy I am to have you back.”

  “Jesus,” she gasped, pulling away from him and taking a few steps back. “How did you even know where to find me?”

  “The other night I saw you standing in the window looking out over the empty streets,” he told her. A fierce scowl twisted his features as he added, “But you weren’t alone. I waited until I was sure your boyfriend was gone before I snuck in.”

  “He’s more than my boyfriend,” she told him. “He’s my mate.”

  “Malorie,” he implored.

  “I’m not exactly human, Jack,” she blurted, trying to make him understand that they no longer belonged together but her brain was so befuddled with everything she didn’t think she was doing a very good job of it. “And neither is our son.”

  “Toby.” He mouthed the name but no sound came out and an expression of despair darkened his face, as if he was just remembering he had a son. “My God, Toby! I want to see him. Where is he?”

  “Jack,” she pleaded, grabbing his arm as he headed towards her door. Using her body weight to keep him from leaving her bedroom, she hissed, “You can’t, Jack. Not like this. Besides, he’s sleeping and I’m not going to wake him up.”

  “He’s my son,” Jack returned, not fighting her but obviously eager to see the child he never met. “I deserve to be a part of his life.”

  “Jack,” she tried again.

  “Malorie, my sweet,” Jiro interrupted as he stepped from out of the darkness, from out of nowhere. He wore a smile as he leaned against her wall, his arms crossed across his broad chest, but his eyes were hard, observant as he took in the scene before him. “Who is this?”

  His hair was bleached blond once more and the diamonds were back and at that moment, Malorie wasn’t sure whether she was glad to see him or terrified. She should have known Feryn would never let her remain unprotected. “Jiro.”

  “Malorie?” Jiro repeated her name, arching the eyebrow that sported two hoops.

  How was she supposed to answer him? She looked at Jack, who was wearing a mulish expression as he almost dared her to introduce him. Subtly, she shook her head no but he smiled cruelly. Stepping towards Jiro, he held his hand out, “I’m Jack. I’m….”

  “No,” Malorie breathed, reaching for the proffered hand, as if she could stop the wreck from happening. Jack didn’t understand the danger of telling an Aradian he had been cured of his vampirism.

  Jack gave her a perturbed look before turning back to Jiro, “I’m her husband.”

  For what seemed the longest time but was probably only a few seconds, Jiro simply stared at Jack. Finally, he let out an incredulous laugh, wiping imaginary tears from his angry eyes. Swinging an arm around Malorie’s shoulders, he pulled her against his hard body and she knew he wasn’t offering protection. The strength of his hold indicated he thought she was going to run. He was a fool. It’s not like she could escape the time disruption. “That’s funny. I thought I heard you say you were Malorie’s husband.”

  “I am,” Jack ground out, eying Jiro’s hold on her with increasing anger.

  “Her dead, vampire husband,” Jiro bit out, the false humor abruptly gone.

  “I’m no longer dead,” Jack said through clenched teeth. “And I’m no longer a vampire.”

  “Apparently,” Jiro deadpanned. Turning to Malorie, he asked, “How is he not dead?”

  Her jaw dropped as she stared at Jiro as if he had gone mad. When he continued to look at her as if he actually expected her to have the answer, she threw her hands up in the air, which was difficult to do since he was holding her so tightly. With a low growl, she asked, “How the fuck should I know?”

  “I think we should discuss this with Feryn.”

  “I think now would not be the right time to discuss anything with Feryn,” she countered. “Especially the return of my dead husband.”

  “I’m right here,” Jack tried to interject but both Jiro and Malorie were ignoring him.

  Grabbing her shoulders, Jiro turned Malorie until she was facing him, his expression dark. “You’re marriage has ended, Malorie. You’re bound to Feryn.”

  “Jesus, Jiro, do you think I don’t know that?” she asked.

  “She’s my wife,” Jack growled from behind her.

  Looking past her, Jiro smirked, displaying his sharp fangs. “Bondage trumps marriage.”

  “You’re not helping,” Malorie grumbled, glaring at her mate’s brother.

  “Sorry.” He said the word but it was apparent that he wasn’t sorry at all. “What are we going to do about this?”

  Reaching up and pressing her fingers and thumb against her pounding forehead, she shook her head and tried to figure out what to do. “We can take him with us when we go to New York tomorrow. I’ll be able to get him a new identity and some money to start a new life….”

  “I’m not leaving you, Mal,” Jack protested. She felt his fingers at the small of her back, the discreet contact something from their days hunting vampires. What was he planning?

  Spinning, she grabbed Jack’s arm before he did something foolish, which at that point could have been anything. Glaring at the man who had died twice, she shook her head, “Don’t.”

  “He’s a vampire,” Jack hissed.

  “Even after spending all of that time among the vampires, you still have so much to learn,” she told him, keeping her place between the tw
o males. “Jiro is not a vampire, Jack. He’s an Aradian, like Taella only not insane.”

  A tortured moan came from between Jack’s lips at the mention of Taella’s name and she wasn’t sure if it was because he missed her or because he feared her. Leaning against Jiro and borrowing his strength, she took Jack’s hands in her own, “We’ll get you a new identity, Jack. You can go anywhere you want, be anything you want to be. You’ll have a whole new life.”

  “But you and Toby won’t be in it,” he said thickly, swallowing the emotion down. “I’ve lost everything, Mal, you can’t take my son away from me, too.”

  “I didn’t say I would,” she said, even though she wasn’t sure how it would ever work since Toby knew his father had been killed by vampires.

  “Let me see him now,” Jack murmured.

  “It’s too much,” she said. “Maybe in the morning but it’s late and right now I have too much to deal with and I can’t… I just can’t.”

  “Don’t send me away,” he pleaded, squeezing her hands, his brown eyes begging more eloquently than any words. “I’ve been in the darkness for so long let me have this, please.”

  “Jack,” she breathed, torn. She had loved him and had mourned him and she didn’t know what to do. Dealing with Jack so soon after her argument with Feryn was too much and the pressure was giving her a headache. Shaking her head, she looked at him with sad eyes, “Do you have a place to stay?”

  “I’ve been staying in one of the houses,” he said, color burnishing his cheeks as he looked away from her in shame. Straightening his shoulders, he gave her a boyish grin that she had loved when she was a girl. “But I’m running out of food and I am going to go insane if I am left to my own thoughts for company.”

  “God, just find a room and crash here,” she said, ignoring the huff of indignation from Jiro. “Just don’t… just keep your distance from Toby. I’ll have to figure out what would be best for him.”

  “You’re not kicking me out?” he asked, the hopeful expression almost breaking her heart because there would never be anything more than friendship between them ever again.

  “We’ll take you to New York,” she repeated. “We’ll figure it out once we get there.”

  “Malorie,” Jiro murmured in a low voice. “Do you think this is such a good idea?”

  “Not at all but what else am I supposed to do?” she asked, her eyes darting to Jack. He still loved her, she could see it in his eyes that also burned with guilt and remorse and fear.

  “Feryn will be furious.”

  “He’s already furious,” she muttered. “But there’s no reason to tell him anything just yet. I’ll talk to him once I’ve figured a few things out.”

  “Malorie.” Jiro’s tone was low in warning as he placed his broad palm over her stomach.

  Putting her hands over his, she gave him a watery smile, “It’s not like there’s anything he can do, Jiro. He wouldn’t risk losing his child.”

  Jack’s pain filled gasp echoed in the room and when Malorie looked at him he looked like a man who had just seen the end of the world and he was the only one left standing. His eyes dropped to her stomach before he turned around and stalked out of the bedroom, anger and despair chasing after him.

  She looked up and met Jiro’s amused expression, which only made her frown, “I don’t want to hear a word from you.” When he opened his mouth, she slammed a hand over it and shushed him, “Not a word.”

  He shook his head even as his eyes sparkled with dark amusement.

  In the kitchen long before anyone else had gotten out of bed, Malorie screwed up seven batches of pancake batter before she managed to make a dozen nearly edible pancakes. After Jack had stormed out of her room and presumably found a place to sleep, Jiro also vanished back to wherever he came and she was left alone with her thoughts and Feryn’s memories. They were all jumbled up in there and it was strange and wonderful and terrifying.

  Feryn was ancient and he hadn’t always been the man she fell in love with. He had seen things, done things, that she couldn’t even begin to fathom and it made her nervous because he had been with countless women, he had disdained humans, he had created vampires, and his experiences were all up in her head. She was pregnant with his child and she had barely scratched the surface of his life and she was afraid of what else she’d learn.

  “Mommy!” Toby’s sweet little voice called out as she set the last of four plates on the table. She had no idea if either Jiro or Jack was planning on eating with them but she was going to be prepared just in case.

  Kneeling down, she held out her arms and was nearly bowled over as Toby threw himself at her, hugging her with all of his might. “Hey, baby. Did you sleep well last night?”

  “Yes,” he grinned and she had to catch her breath because there was no dark cloud hanging over his head any more. It was as if he was finally being given the chance to be a child and the awareness of how much he had blossomed these past weeks made emotion well up in her chest. She wanted to hold onto him and keep him in this moment so that he never had to know such darkness again. But he was a six-year-old boy and he soon squiggled out of her arms and climbed up onto the chair. “We’re having pancakes for breakfast? Awesome.”

  She chuckled as she put a few onto his plate and let him pour the syrup while she kept an ear open for any sound that might indicate her dead husband or her mate’s brother were about to join them. Sitting down next to Toby, she cleared her throat. “Um, we’re going to be taking a trip with Uncle Jiro.”

  Putting the fork down with the bite of pancake he was about to take, he stilled and looked at her. The lightness that had been there just moments before was already fading as he solemnly asked, “Where are we going?”

  “New York,” she said with forced cheer, hoping her smile didn’t look like a grimace. “I’m hoping to track down your grandpa and that’s his last known location so that’s where we’re going to start.”

  “Okay,” he nodded, picking up his fork and slowly bringing it up to his mouth. As he chewed, his expression was thoughtful as he watched her with those big brown eyes, eyes that were so similar to Jack’s. God, was she doing the right thing in dragging him all over the country? Maybe it would be better if he stayed with Jiro, if Jiro was up to the task of taking care of him for a few days. “When do we leave?”

  “Well, as soon as we finish breakfast,” she said. Chewing on her lower lip, she studied her son, seeing so much of Jack in him, so much of her father. He would go with her without question but was it really fair to uproot his life once again? With everything that had happened, and everything that was going to be happening, was it really necessary to drag him to some dive in New York City in the off chance she might find her father? “But I was thinking you might want to go back to the compound with Jiro and maybe spend a few days fishing.”

  His eyes lit up and he couldn’t prevent the smile that brought out his dimples, “Do you think Uncle Jiro would mind?”

  “Of course not,” she managed to say though she wanted to cry for some inexplicable reason. For six years he had never been very far from her side and it was difficult to remember that he was a growing boy and becoming more and more independent every day. Ruffling his hair, she stood up and walked over to the stove where she was able to compose herself while pretending to flip some pancakes. “As soon as he arrives we’ll let him know we’ve had a minor change of plans. I’m positive he would much rather hang with you at the pond than traipse after me on a wild goose chase.”

  “Who’s going on a wild goose chase?” Jiro asked, sauntering into the kitchen.

  “I am,” she said, wiping the non-existent tears from beneath her eyes before turning around and giving him a smile. Looking as if he had had a really spectacular night after he left her, he gave her a wry smirk. His hair was messy, dark stubble caressed his jaw and his eyes practically glowed with vitality and she wanted to roll her eyes. There ought to be a law that men shouldn’t be allowed to look that sexy so early in the mo
rning. While she felt no sexual attraction to him, she could appreciate his attractiveness. Nodding towards the stack of oddly shaped pancakes, she added, “Eat up. You have a very busy week ahead of you.”

  “Really,” he murmured, arching that one eyebrow as he grabbed half of the pancakes and dumped them onto his plate. Slathering them up with butter and syrup, he added, “And what, pray tell, does my week entail?”

  “Well,” she said with a grin as she crossed the room and wrapped her arms around Toby from behind. Holding Jiro’s eyes, she continued, “After you drop me off, you are going to be taking this little rug rat fishing.”

  “Malorie,” he growled in warning, his silver-green eyes flashing as he glared at her.

  “It’s fine,” she said with a blinding smile. “If anything goes wrong you know Feryn will be by my side in a heartbeat.”

  “And he’ll have my head on a platter,” he grumbled beneath his breath as he started to stuff a forkful of pancakes into his mouth. Pausing, he asked, “Has your guest come down yet?”

  She shook her head no, looking at the doorway as if the mention of Jack would make him appear. When she looked back, Jiro was cramming the whole bite into his mouth. Smiling, she said, “Not yet but it’s still early. Besides, he probably remembers how bad my cooking is and has decided to save himself the bother of pretending its edible.”

  Jiro’s eyes widened as he abruptly stopped chewing, making her laugh. Standing up, she waved towards the stack, “These ones are fine. I threw the bad ones away.”

  He slowly began to chew again, as if he wasn’t quite sure whether or not he could trust his taste buds. When he didn’t say anything, she teased, “If you tell me you’ve had better I’ll stab you with my fork.”

  Swallowing, he grimaced, “They’re awful, Malorie. In fact, I think I should spare your child the horrors of having to eat any more and eat them all myself.”

  “Uncle Jiro!” Toby squealed in laughter as Jiro pretended to grab his plate. “These are mine!”