Ruined (The Eternal Balance #1)(22)

But as hard as I kicked and as much as I flailed, my head couldn’t find the surface. The burning in my chest became too much, and instinctually, I opened her mouth to suck in a lungful of air. Of course, I got water instead.

Everything grew dark. I was vaguely aware that I’d stopped kicking. My brain raged at my body as the pounding of my heart throbbed in every limb, and echoed in my ears. Fight!

It was too late. The darkness closed around me.

I was dead.

Taking a deep breath, I cringed. Okay, not dead. Death wasn’t supposed to be painful. Or cold. Struggling onto my knees, I braced both hands against the dew-wet grass as a series of body-racking coughs tore from my throat. I was sore and soaked and freezing—but I was alive…despite someone’s increasingly enthusiastic efforts to change that.

As reality crept back, I found myself getting number. I went over the cliff just as Jax—

Jax.

It wasn’t my imagination. He’d jumped, too. Wrapped himself around me, making sure he hit the water first. Frantic, I whirled around and scanned the area, sure I’d find him floating facedown in the water. But other than an occasional ripple from the increasing breeze, the surface of the water was still—and empty.

A knot formed in my chest as I squinted against the darkness, trying to see across to the other bank. He must have pulled himself from the water farther down. There was no need to panic just because I didn’t see him. That didn’t mean… A shiver ran through me. Something rustled and I jumped, whirling around fast enough to make myself dizzy.

Jax. He was crouched against a nearby tree.

I stumbled to my feet, almost toppling over as the heels of my boots sank into the soft earth. My legs felt rubbery, and the jolt of adrenaline that had kicked in during the fall still lingered, making every movement feel twitchy and sharp. “Jax, how—”

That was as far as I got. A low rumble filled the air and he drew himself up. Dark hair fell across his forehead, the strands dripping.

Jax let out a roar that was nothing short of animal. I jumped at the sound, about to take a step away, and noticed a dark smear across the side of his face. Blood. I reached out, but he flinched and the hair in his face fluttered back.

Time stopped. Something hazy nipped at my subconscious, drawing attention to his eyes. As the moon peeked out from behind the clouds, I got a good look at his face and gasped. His eyes, no longer the comforting gray I loved, were black. Solid black. No. It just looked that way. A trick played in the absence of light. “Jax?” I tried again.

He stepped away from the tree, head tilting to the left. Then, the right. No answer.

“Please,” I begged. “Are you all right?”

Nothing. The silence was driving me crazy, and as he started toward me, I had to force myself to stand still. This was Jax, but for some reason, a little voice inside my head was telling me to run.

He stopped in front of me, so close, and in a deeper than normal voice, said, “Samantha Merrick.”

My full name. “Jax, you’re scaring me.” I pointed at the rocks. “What just happened—we—”

“You are a strange creature.” He ran a finger across my cheek, letting it linger at the corner of my mouth. “Your place in his life confounds me.”

Creature? “My place in whose life?” I backed away a step, half expecting him to follow. He didn’t. “What are you talking about?”

No answer.

That was my breaking point. He’d obviously gone into some kind of shock. I tried to grab his hand, but he jerked away. “NO!” A harsh, angry sound filled the air, and he jumped forward, knocking me hard to the ground. When I turned back, he was gone.

I started walking. The wind kicked up and the breeze against my still-damp skin made me shiver. I was numb and in need of hot coffee and a place to curl up and pretend this past month had never happened. Was one of the men who pushed me from the cliff tonight the same one who attacked me on campus? I was lucky Jax had been there…

He’d saved my life again. This time by jumping from the cliff and somehow shielding me from the fall. He must have dragged my sorry, waterlogged ass from the river as well. Then he snarled and ran away.

Snarled? Really?

Jax could explain away the car with fact. I’d done some research. Once the car filled with water, it would have been easier to get out

But the fall? How had he done it? There was no way to brush it aside. He’d taken the brunt of what’d been, essentially, a thirty-foot nosedive, and walked away?

Run away, actually.

That was impossible. He should be dead. We both should. And then there was the way he acted after I woke up. The animal-like growl. The odd words. The way he’d pushed me to the ground hard enough to knock a tooth loose?

He’d already admitted that there was something he couldn’t—wouldn’t—tell me. I had a feeling it had to do with why he’d left home, as well as how he was able to save me twice from situations no one should have survived. He was hiding something, and I intended to find out what it was.

After trekking through the woods, soaking wet and freezing, I finally managed to make it back to town. My keys were gone. I’d been clutching them when the men grabbed me on the way to the car, and must have dropped them somewhere along the way. I tried retracing my steps, but gave up. There was no way in hell I was trekking back to that cliff, and the chances of seeing anything in the dark, even with a full moon, were slim. I might have been able to use my cell as a flashlight, but that was gone, too. Probably at the bottom of the river with the fish. It made calling for a ride impossible. That left no other choice but to walk. Through the woods. At night. After being pushed from a cliff to my death.