Page 28 of Haunted Heart
THIRTEEN
We getinto the orchard and Jonas shivers, rattling the chain. It tugs in my hand, but he’s not trying to go back.
“I don’t remember this,” he says.
“You would have been in a trance,” Julia says, and Jonas looks even less happy. “Hell had you like a fish on a line, and it was reeling you in.”
“Let’s get you out of here and then you’ll never have to think about it again.”
He grimaces. “I don’t think I’m going to forget it again.”
He will. I’ll take it away from him when we’re back.
The house looms ahead of us, a solid shadow, too dark to be a beacon.
It doesn’t pull at me physically, but I have never wanted to get anywhere quite as much as I want to get back to that house.
The beetles and bees click and buzz around us, and Jonas swats at them to no avail, but I ignore them the way they ignore Julia.
We just have to get back so I can look for Dylan without having to worry about them.
Jonas starts walking faster once he can see the porch, and I don’t blame him. Heshouldwant to leave.
But when I go to follow him, I hear a thudoutsidethe house.
I turn too quickly and nearly fall off the step when I see Dylan disappear around the side of the house.
Dylan!
“Oh thank goodness.” I tug on the chain to get Jonas’s attention. “Dylan’s here, let’s grab him and go home.”
He looks toward the side of the house warily, but he comes with me.
Julia has already floated to where she can see Dylan. She doesn’t look pleased that we’ve found him, but then again, she didn’t like him in the first place.
I hurry over, but Dylan doesn’t notice me when I get close. He doesn’t respond to his name.
He just stares at the cellar door, walking a sloppy figure eight path, like a cat waiting for a mouse to come out of its hiding place.
“Hey,” I say as I reach him, grabbing and shaking his shoulder. “You in there?”
Dylan’s head jerks to the side, his eyes focus on me, and he smiles… “Genevieve?”
He glances from me toward Jonas and then his gaze stops on Julia. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain later.” I won’t. As soon as we get them back to the living world, I will be wiping their memory of this night, completely.
Jonas’s chain still in my grip, I reach for Dylan’s hand. He smiles as soon as I touch him, and then he yanks me forward.
He wraps me in a hug. His lips go to my neck.
“Okay, we’re not doing that.” But when I try to push him away, his hand reaches up, wraps around my throat, and he drags me forward to kiss me.
“Dylan, stop!”
Jonas helps me before Dylan actually manages it, and he stumbles back, shaking his head like one of us just slapped him in the face.
And then his gaze narrows on where Jonas’s hand rests on my arm.
