Page 91 of It's You
Jack nodded, sitting on the edge of his father’s rocking chair across from his mother, then looked down at his hands.
“And?”
“Didn’t go well,Maman. She caught me shifting.”
“That wasn’t the plan.”
Jack rubbed his eyes with his hand. “I’ll go back after the Gathering. I just want to give her some time.”
“Are you still bound to her? Did you?—”
“Yeah, we are,” he said quietly. “And yeah, we did.”
His mother gave him a sad, gentle smile. “I could see it on your face.”
“I have to get her back.”
“We’ll see.” She tilted her head. “And the rest?”
“It worked. The vault. The fresh dead. It all worked. If she hadn’t seen me…”
Jack rubbed his jaw, frustration and hunger causing the bile from his stomach to spew into his mouth. He swallowed it back with a grimace.
“How Ihatezis Darcy from Carlisle,” his mother declared in heavily accented English in a low growl.
“Well, that’s too bad, because I love her.”
“Who is Darcy from Carlisle?” asked a sleepy Delphine, stretching her arms from the comfortable cocoon of her grandmother’s lap and yawning.
Jack’s eyes flew open and met his mother’s in a panic. Aside from Tombeur, no one knew Darcy’s name or location. Although a few had asked about Jack’s binding over the years, both Tallis and Tombeur had protected the identity of Jack’s mate.
“Who is she,Grand’mère? And why do you hate her?”
Tallis took a deep breath and gave Delphine a cheerful smile, answering her in French. “A legend,louveteau. Just a silly old legend.”
Jack shook his head in anger, holding his mother’s eyes. It had been careless of her to say Darcy’s name out loud, and although the child seemed pacified with the simple explanation, and too sleepy to actually absorb the information, it made Jack realize how much danger he put Darcy in every time he came home.
Lela came out of her bedroom, running her fingers through her long, black, wet hair. She was dressed in jeans, a T-shirt that hugged her breasts, and bare feet. He tried to see her through Julien’s eyes, and her appeal wasn’t lost on Jack. She was trim and attractive, with a feisty spirit, and Delphine’s face brightened the moment her aunt entered the room.
Lela approached Tallis and reached her arms out for her niece. “Come on, Delphy.TanteLela will put you to bed.”
Jack watched as the sleepy little girl was transferred lovingly from Tallis’s lap to Lela’s arms. Whatever bad blood ran between the two women, it was good to see them keep it under control in front of Delphine.
“Night-night,Grand’mère,” the little one called, resting her sleepy head on her aunt’s shoulder.
“Bonne nuit, ma chérie,” her grandmother replied.
“What about Dad?” Jack asked as Lela shut the bedroom door with a quiet latching sound.
He watched in horror as his mother’s steely eyes filled with tears. “Barely a thread now. Not even. I can’t find him inside, and my heart feels him slipping away.”
Jack took a deep breath and reached out his hand to hold hers. “We’ll look again tomorrow. Maybe he’s just injured. Coming in and out of consciousness.”
“Non, mon fils.” His mother turned back to the fire, tears streaming down her face and rocking softly. “Tu ne le trouveras pas. Il est perdu pour moi.”
No, my son. You won’t find him. He is lost to me.
Jack wantedto talk to Tombeur, but he also needed to talk to Willow. After dinner with his mother, Julien, and Lela, he said he wanted to take a drive over to Tombeur’s place and wouldn’t be back until later. Although Tombeur sat on the Northern Bloodlands council, he wasn’t part of the Portes de l’Enfer pack. His cabin was a hard drive northeast, a little under an hour away on the eastern end of adjoining packlands. Tombeur was the leader, or alpha, of the Lac Noir pack.
