Page 107 of It's You
Julien’s eyes widened to saucers, and he started to speak, but no words came out. He shook his head back and forth, searching Jack’s face.
“That’s impossible,” he finally murmured.
Jack nodded. “Yep.”
Julien turned to his mother and Tombeur. “You knew about this? Youacknowledgedit?”
Tallis’s eyes filled with tears, and she looked down at the table. Tombeur reached over and covered her hand with his.
Jack pulled his eyes away from them and turned to Julien beside him. “It happened the summer we lived in the Southern Bloodlands. In Carlisle. I kissed her the summer before my eighteenth birthday. It bound me to her. It bound her to me. I came home for the acknowledgment and promised to stay away from her for a decade. I worked for the Council Enforcement. I lived here. But I never forgot her. When I was twenty-eight, I left. Tombeur helped me find a job working in private security for the humans. I earned money. I learned how to blend in. I renovated the cabin on the Southern Bloodlands into a lodge so I could live there with her. I had a vault built for me.”
“How do you hunt?”
“I don’t. I lock myself in a room with fresh dead. A deer or moose. Three days later, the door unlocks, and there’s almost nothing left of the carcass.”
“You’re satisfied?”
“Are you asking if I miss the hunt?”
Julien jerked his head up and down once.
Jack did. Sometimes.
“I don’t have a choice. I love her. I’m bound to her. I’m not going to hunt her kind.”
“You feed on animal flesh? Only?” Julien asked this thoughtfully, surprised.
Jack nodded. Julien shuddered, bunching up his face in disgust. Finally, he shrugged before speaking again.
“This is bad, Jacques. You can’t bring her here for the solstice. You can’t. They’d tear her apart. But if you bring anyone else, they’ll know immediately she’s not your mate. We can feel it…when the kiss is true.”
Jack looked at his brother and nodded grimly.
“You’ll have to turn her,” said Julien softly.
“Out of the question,” growled.
“You don’t have another move. She’s human. You’re Roug. You’re bound to each other. You can’t bring someone else for the solstice. Every Roug in the Gathering Hall would know she was an impostor the second you kissed her. You have to bring the human. But she can’t come as a human. There’s no way you’d be able to protect her. If you don’t bring her, they’ll declare you unbound. Or, God forbid, they’ll convene an Inquisition and investigate. You only have one move, Jacques. You have to turn?—”
“Iwon’t?—”
Jack heard a door creak open and stopped short, turning his attention to little Delphine, who appeared at her bedroom door, rubbing her little hands in her eyes. “Where’dTanteLela go?”
Julien got up from the table and walked over to his sleepy daughter, swinging her up on his hip and kissing her dark hair. “She didn’t come back from the Gathering yet, baby.”
“Yeah, she did. She was just here. She was goin’ tell me a story.”
“What are you talking about, baby?”
“I opened my eyes, and she was kneeling by my bed. She had her backpack on, and she said she might not see me for a while, but did I want a story before she left? And I said yeah. And she said, ‘Which one?’ And I said, ‘Tell me the legend of Darcy from Carlisle, whoGrand’mèrehates and Uncle Jacques loves.’”
Jack’s eyes shot open, and he stared in shock at his niece.
His mother gasped, then jumped up from the table, rushing to Julien and Delphine.
“Delphine, this is very, very important. What didTanteLela say after you asked for your story?”
“Bad words.”
