Page 20 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

Jaxon finally released me, and I choked in air. I was stunned for three beats before the oxygen rushed back to my brain, and I was scrambling. I leaped to my feet and hurdled past the empty porch and through the front door left ajar. I scanned each room in search of Isabella: the kitchen and the dining table where we ate in tense silence; the quaint living room where the fire warmed us on cool winter nights; the bedroom where our mother had died, and our father had decayed.

I stopped, staring at the spray of crimson on the frilly white sheets, knowing that it should’ve been my blood they tore from my flesh.

It should’ve been me.

10

SCARLETT

Past

The first time a man made me go to that empty place in the stars, I didn’t come back to my body for three days.

When I finally returned, all I wanted was my mom—to curl up in her arms, her voice in my ear, consoling me and promising me that it was all going to be okay. She’d rarely done that before, but maybe she would’ve now, if I’d told her what had happened to me.

Isabella looked like Mom, in her features, though she had Dad’s blond hair. She stood over me, screaming.

“Get up!” she yelled.

I sat up, leaning back against the headboard and pulling the rose-colored comforter around me. The gray sludge of my dissociative state melted away, replaced by a cracking, breaking sensation inside my ribs.

I could smell myself, and my stomach was loud and violent with hunger pangs. All bodily sensations returned, one by one, like my bladder that was far too full and my dry, cracked mouth.

Maybe if I told Isabella what had happened to me, she’d stop yelling. I knew she wouldn’t hold me or touch me. That wasn’t something we did. But maybe she’d give me those soft, gentle words she once had, when Dad’s death was still fresh.

I told her what happened, in an act of desperation, each word scratching up my throat as they left my lips.

She contorted her sharp features, her mouth forming a thin line. She stayed like that for a few moments after I’d dragged the truth into the light.

“Scarlett, I’ve seen you flirt with Trevin at least a dozen times,” she said slowly, her brows rising as her voice burned with frustration. “And now you’re trying to tell me that the reason you refuse to contribute to household chores or go to work—to keep a roof over our heads—is because he finally gave in to your shameless, vile seduction attempts?”

I reared back as if she’d struck me.

“He’s been giving us free baked goods since Dad died. I’m frankly surprised you hadn’t fucked him before now. No wonder he was rough—you’d been teasing the poor man for your own gain, and worse, for sport—for years,” she spat. “The hell did you expect when you act and dress the way you do? Did you think everyone bends to your whim out of the goodness of their hearts? Because you’re just so fucking charming, witty, and pleasant to talk to? You’re a manipulator, and sooner or later the allure will wear off and they’ll come to collect what you’ve so freely offered.”

A lump grew in my throat, and I shut down. Visions of my mother holding me disappeared, and my hope that Isabella would soothe me left along with them. No one was coming to save me.

This lesson burned as it consumed me like a second skin—the harsh truth that I was alone, and if I didn’t want to drown, I’d have to save myself.

“You’re a parasite, Scarlett. Mom and Dad knew it, and now I do too.”

11

SCARLETT

There was nothing to be done. That was what the hunters said to me when they finally arrived, ten minutes too late, following the vampires’ scent.

When they’d left, after clumsy condolences and harsh warnings that it was futile to go after my kidnapped sister, only Jaxon, Phillip, and I remained in the cottage.

Jaxon kept throwing pointed looks at Phillip, trying to convey that he was no longer needed and that he should leave us alone. But Phillip remained in the kitchen, drinking a glass of water and shifting from shocked disbelief to vengeful anger at the drop of a dime. He kept trying to hug me, to tell me that he’d be there for me and keep me safe. I recoiled from his touch.

“You heard them, Scar. They’re coming back for you. We need to leave tomorrow morning, now more than ever. Or I guess it already is tomorrow.” Jaxon shook his head and dragged a hand over his mouth. “The merchant couple has firebirds. We’d land on the coast in two days or sooner, depending on when we need to break and for how long.”

“Leave?” Phillip asked, breaking out of his latest stunned stupor. “You’re leaving?”

“She has to,” Jaxon snapped. “Are you dense? You think that the vampires came for that vile shrew? No. They wanted Scarlett.”

I took a step back. “Jaxon,” I breathed, pain squeezing my heart as I stared at him in hurt.

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