Escaped the Night (29 page)

He witnessed the argument with my uncle and how I
found out that he
’d
known
all along that
I was an immortal. Then
when I was
crying and running out of the house
,
escaping
from everyone. I let him feel the co
nfusion and betrayal
so he could
understand
how lonesome and alone I
felt
. Then
,
I called
out for Daray.

As he experienced this, hi
s c
alm face changed to a hard line
. I
ignored
him
and kept
on
going
to when
we had flown through the air. Next,
I showed Jayce the horrible run
down house and how unwelcoming my receptio
n
was
once inside
. His
hard
expression
now grew angry
.

I wasn’t about to stop because of
his reaction
. I
let him v
iew the dungeon and revealed
the prisoners.
I showed him how Daray had pulled out my ring and
he watched as
I turned
him
down. He continued
to
view
as
Daray storm
ed
out of the room and how I became nothing more than another prisoner in the h
ouse. I showed him how Layla broke through the window to rescue
me. Lastly, I brought up
all the
thoughts I had about
him
. I needed h
im to know how many times he
crossed my mind while we were apart.

I felt him leave
,
taking a piece of
my heart
with him
.
I looked over
nervously as I anxiously waited
for him to say so
mething, to say anything. I hoped
he understood how much
I really loved him and how hurt I was by
being away from him.

“I’m sorry for adding
to your problems.” He looked
me in the face
now
as
he spoke.

“It’s okay.
You didn’t know. Besides
,
I think I’m the one to blame here.” I
looked down
.

“I had it all wrong, I
’ll
admit it. I should’ve connected
instead of
just
imagini
ng what was going on.
” He lifted my face, “
I’m sorry
I left you alone. I should have supported you
better
while you tried to
get this
figure
d
out.”

He
said
everything I wanted
, e
xcept…
telling me he still loved me and wanted to be with me.

“Now I suppose
you understand what I mean
t
by how much can one person endure.”

From the look o
n his face I felt confident
he got it now.
I didn’t feel
or see any of his emotions or
memories
while
we
were
connected. I was too busy trying to
explain my side of the story.
I
wasn’t
quite
sure how he felt
and it made me feel uneasy
.

Jayce leaned over
c
loser and picked up my hand, gently entwining
his fingers with
mine. A warm tingling sensation took over my body
.
His
penetrating stare
remained focused
as h
e looked deep in my eyes
. He moved in closer until he
was only a few inches away from my face. I
felt
his warmth. Everything
in me began feeling right.
I
t felt the way I di
d before all of th
is happened, but
I
could
n’t let my excitem
ent show. He wasn’t finished
and I didn’t want to be mixing up any signals. I n
eeded him to say the words
.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to keep h
im away from you. I’m sorry
your whole world has changed
again
. One good th
ing did come from all of this, y
ou
now
know who you really are
.” He ran his fingers over my
arm and
slipped them back
into
my hand.

Tingles shocked me everywhere his fingers touched. He made me melt. A
ll the anger and resentment I’
d felt earlier were gone. I felt alive again. I needed
Jayce in my life; he was my cure, m
y light.

He
let go of my han
d,
started
up the car and
began
backing
out.
I
smiled as I
looked over at him
. Without warning he reached over and slammed the car into park. My body jerked from the sudden
halt
. He leaned
in, kissing
me hard on my lips, wrapping his fingers
in my hair
and
pulling me
closer
to him
.

The sweet sting of hi
s kiss took me by surprise. I’
d almost forgotten how it felt. I didn’t ever want him to stop. I wanted him to kiss me forever.
He broke away
when
things
began getting
pretty heated
.
I flushed red; a
t least one of us had the will to do so.

He
wore the biggest smile
and looked
over
at me now.
Oh, how
I
missed
it
. I loved how such a simple thing could brighten
up my life. Who was I kidding? I loved everything about him.
I pulled him back over by the scruff of
his shirt and kissed him again. “I love you
,
Jayce. I a
lways have and always will.”

“I’ll
always love you too
.”
He
squeezed
my hand tightly.
He gave me a wink as
he reached
his left hand
over awkwardly
,
taking
the car out of park. He didn’t
l
et go of my hand for a second.
Even
when
it
took
him
a second to change gears
,
he held
my hand tight.

We made
our way back
to the beach where we found the others
right
where we’d left them.
I felt quite embarrassed for how I’d acted before
.
Garrison
and Kaleb both smiled when they saw
me and
Jayce approaching.
Once we
were
no more than a few feet away from the group Jayce suddenly stopped. I almos
t crashed into his
back
because
I’d pulled myself behind
him
, trying to hide until I could figure
out what to say to everyone
for
my earlier behavior
.
“Jayce?”

He
spun around and grabbed onto me as he pulled me in closer
to
a locked embrace. I smiled
, a
ll my worries disappeared
.
I’d
forgotten about the others standing there when he kissed me again on my lips. As he pulled his lips away from mine
,
he whispered in my ear,
“I love you
,
Shanntal, know that I will for eternity.”

Smiles greeted us
and I couldn’t help
but
smile back. Standing hand in hand with
him
I beamed, h
appiness radiated off
me.
Everyone else
also
appeared to be
in visibly
better moods. Even Aiden
smiled
at
us
.

I looked around our circle
and noticed that
we
had some guests. There were three faces I didn’t recognize. Two fe
males and a massive male had
joined since my departure. Layla introduced
them
.

“Shanntal and Jayce, I would like to introduce you to Allayna, Kynthia and last
,
but obviously not least
,
Kael.”

The newcomers all had similar purple eyes. Allayna
was
the
blonde
. She was
sl
ightly on the chubbier side, not
fat
, just built bigger than most girls. She was quite
pretty, but not
exotic looking
like
Layla
.

Kynthia was the exact opposite of Allayna.
Thin
,
tall, with
jet-black hair
falling
in her face. She
nervously bit her lip
, h
er eyes shifting back and forth as she checked
everyone out.
The poor gi
rl jumped at every little sound and
looked like she
wanted to just shy away and go back into the world where she could walk alone.

Kael,
now he
was
a force to be reckoned with.
Built like a barge, he
was absolutely the largest, most muscular being I’d ever met. Muscles bulged off every inch of his well-developed body. He looked
as if
he
co
uld crush a tree between two
fingers. He
’d be
quite frightening if it wasn’t for his
sandy brown hair and
big
toothy smile.

Thanks to them
arriving
,
we
now had a better chance
. The more
help
we had on our side, the better.
Daray
needed to be stopped and a
s long as he roamed, there was
the
danger of hi
m coming between Jayce and me
.

The day
passed quickly
,
as it
usually did when I was
around Jayce. The sun was beginning to set and Aiden
decided it
would
be best if we retreated back to
the
ir
house for the night. As long as everyone was together, we had a b
etter chance of a peaceful evening
.
Everyone
agreed to
meet back at
the
house.

As we headed towards the car,
I
felt
excited. I’d ne
ver been to where Jayce lived and
wanted to see what it wa
s like. Was it a normal house? Or was
it a run
down shack like
the one
Daray lived in?

Jayce drove and after a while,
we came upon a
long winding driveway located o
n the edge of town. Trees lined the asphalt
,
while flowerpots with bright blossoms were placed sporadically along the winding road. We followed the drive until i
t led us up to a beautiful
home
. The large house had four
white pillar
s, two on either side of the dua
l front doors.