Page 115 of Inception

“Less than a day for me. Three months for Tessa.”

I went on to tell him about Engel and his men; about how Tessa’s been on the run from them for the last few months and wanted out of whatever mess she was in. He listened intently as I relayed what little information I had and filled him in on Tessa and Gabriel’s plan.

“And what about you?” he asked casually. “Where are you going to be when this ambush goes down?”

“As far away as possible,” I said, finishing up the last stitch.

“Good,” he answered absentmindedly.

“Good?”

“You have no business being there. You’re not even almost ready for that.”

“How would you know?” I fired back. He was right, but that was beside the point. “When was the last time you saw me train? That’s right,never. And wasn’t I holding my own today? Didn’t I knock out Blondie all by myself?”

“Yeah you did.” He smirked as though he were enjoying the memory. “But they were Runners, Jemma. There’s a difference.”

“Whatever. Fine.” I couldn’t argue the point. “It’s not like I want to run off and battle a bunch of vampires anyway. Home is exactly where I want to be when all of this goes down.” I only wished Tessa and Gabriel could be there, too. That we all could be safe from the darkness that haunted us like a plague.

“No desire to battle vampires?” His tone was marred in disbelief. “That’s a joke, right? Because you won’t have much of a choice once they break the spell.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not the only one that can’t sense them. They can’t sense you either. It’s a two way street. Once you remove the Cloak, they’ll be drawn to you again. You’ll be fighting them whether you want to or not.” He stared at me intensely before his expression softened with what looked like pity. “They didn’t tell you that part, did they?”

There was that feeling of dread again. “No, they didn’t.” I definitely would have remembered hearing something like that.

“Why am I not surprised,” muttered Trace.

I couldn’t help but wonder what this all meant for me. Would they be able to sense me the same way I was going to sense them? And what did he mean when he said they’d be drawn to me? Would there be a pull? A connection? Would they seek me out in a crowd of people?

“It’s not too late you know.”

“To do what?” I asked rhetorically. “Keep the only defense I have against them suppressed? I’m not even sure that’s a possibility anymore,” I sighed, frustrated by my lack of information and control over the situation. “And besides, where would that leave me? If I break the spell, at least I’ll see them coming, right? I’ll have a fighting chance.”

And more importantly, I’ll know who to stay away from and which direction to run. It was the lesser of two evils and we both knew it, but then why was he looking at me that way? Like it mattered to him. LikeImattered to him.

“What’s it to you anyway?” I challenged. “If I didn’t know any better, I might actually think you cared about me.” It was only when I said the words aloud that I realized I wanted them to be true. I wanted him to care about methatway.

The muscles in his jaw started working again. “It’s a good thing you know better then,” he said without meeting my eyes.

Yeah, good thing, I sighed. At least he stopped acting like I was the Black Plague. It was a step in the right direction.

I opened the first aid kit and pulled out some antibiotic ointment and non-stick bandages to dress the stitches with. “So? How do they look?”

He tilted his head to the side and examined my work. “Not bad actually,” he remarked, genuine surprise in his tone. “Looks like the scar won’t be that bad either.”

“It’s kind of cool if you think about it.”

“What is?”

“You know, that you’ll always have something to remember me by every time you look down at it.”

Something in his expression changed—darkened.

“You know, in case you forget me when I’m gone,” I added, kicking the joke like a dead horse.

“I wouldn’t forget you,” he said under his breath.

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