Page 29 of Love Heals
Chapter Eleven
Ishould have gone for the front door, really, and I couldn't tell you exactly why I didn't, only that it felt like I still had unfinished business here.
And because I knew somebody would be coming after me.
I didn't have to wait long. I’d barely sat on the bed and rested my eyes for a few minutes when I heard steps approaching the room. Jared, it had to be. He opened the door and entered without knocking. “Are you okay?”
I snapped my eyes open at him. “I’m fine.”
Jared approached the bed, but stopped short of sitting on the mattress. "I need you to know that we're not going to let Vlad do anything to you."
"As if you could stop him from doing anything he wants to do." Still, it was nice that he had tried, even if I wasn't quite sure why. Because of that silly promise he'd made me? Was he really wanting to follow through on that? Because of who I used to be? When would he realize that he was trying to protect a person who no longer existed?
When would he realize that I wasn't worthy of anyone's protection?
"I don't know who Vlad is or what he can do," Jared admitted, "but I know that I'm going to do whatever I can to keep you safe."
I huffed. "You don't make any sense. You should be mad that I'm refusing to help you."
"I understand your reasons," Jared said, surprising me. "I wouldn't want to do anything that might hurt my family either."
"My family is hurting yours," I pointed out. "They're hurting each other."
Jared rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner, considering this. "You've always been protective about the people you love. I liked that about you."
"You liked that about Michael," I corrected. "I'm not Michael." The sooner he realized that, the better. I got up from the bed and pulled the curtains from the window. Night had fallen outside. A good time for vampires to roam free. If I were free.
"Why didn't you leave?" Jared asked. "Just now."
Good question. I'd asked myself the same thing. "If I had," I asked, "would you have tried to stop me?"
Jared hesitated. No, he wasn't hesitating. He was choosing his words, the way he always did. "I would have tried," he said, "but not for the reasons you may think."
"You're not afraid I'll go back to my coven and tell them all about you?"
"You promised you wouldn’t do anything to hurt my family.”
I turned to look at Jared again because I was so surprised that he'd actually believed me. How could he trust me like that when he was a mortal and I was a vampire? I knew that attraction made people do stupid things—I'd used that to my advantage more than once—but I didn't think it was that. It was far more likely that Jared acted the way he did because he still saw someone else when he looked at me. The thought made me scowl. Jared thought he knew me, but he didn't.
Hell, I hardly even knew myself these days.
It had been a very long time since I'd had to make any kind of decision for myself.
Maybe that was the real reason I hadn't left when I'd had the chance. Because I didn’t know how to make decisions for myself anymore. All those years I’d spent dreaming about freedom…
Now that it was within reach, I was too afraid to reach out.
