Into the Darkness (Darkness #1)(40)

I nodded sadly. “He’s here to protect us.”

Jared shook his head sadly. “I can’t handle any more of this, Sasha. I wake up forgetting, then I end up in horrible situations where everything comes tumbling back. Then I forget again. I can’t do it anymore.”

“I know, baby. It’s my fault. All of this. It’s all my fault.”

“I always thought you were eccentric, with your imaginary men in the shadows. I thought you lived in a secret romance novel or something. But this…I just…I can’t keep up, you know? We aren’t the same people anymore. At least…well…I am, I think, but…”

He let the words trail into the air, hanging, sprinkling guilt down onto me like the first rain drops before a storm.

I hung my head.

“I’ve been offered a great opportunity in Florida,” he went on, “and I think I’m going to take it.”

My head snapped up. “A job?”

“Yes, a job. I think I should take it.”

“But…how? When?”

Jared reached forward to pat my arm, but stopped halfway and lowered his hand into his lap. “It’s for the best. I hold you back…maybe. I think. Just…this is for the best.”

I stared at him in something close to disbelief. A heavy weight filled my chest. We’d been together for years. He’d been my first. I’d learned to partially trust with him. I learned what love was supposed to be. Sadly, I also learned that love was beyond my ability to grasp.

He was right. He needed a stable woman with no demons. With no weird past and strange magical abilities. Even if I hadn’t stumbled into this world where I now found myself, we wouldn’t have worked out. We were different in our very foundations, in different worlds.

This really sucked.

As a tear leaked down my face, I said, “I didn’t know about any of this, Jared, if that’s what you think.”

“I think I know that, Sasha. I just… You’re too…sparkly. You just…we don’t fit anymore. You grew into your body, and I…well, I’m still just the same ol’ me.”

I wanted to argue with this absurdity. With this nonsense. But I also knew that my future would only drag him down; drag him into danger. It was time for us to part ways. I needed to let him go, and it would be easiest on him if he had no resistance. If I didn’t cause him to doubt. I knew this, but…

But God it hurt.

I sucked in a big, sob ridden breath. “I don’t know what to say.”

He smiled, his eyes glassy. “How about goodbye?”

The second tear fell, followed by many others. I bowed my head, moving to him painfully. My arms wrapped around his neck, our cheeks touching. After a minute, he disentangled me, and I moved away, my eyes overflowing.

Jared got up slowly, painfully. With a final smile—the smile I had grown to depend on these last few years—he walked out of the room. The heavy door closed with a faint click.

I bowed my head into my hands, letting go. He’d been my everything. I had lain in his bed, looking out the window, talking about my dreams, and then listening to his. I had learned to trust, to depend on someone. He had been a huge chunk of my life.

I heard movement before two strong arms came around me. Charles held me tight, patting my back awkwardly like the young guy he was. I sobbed into his chest, my heart aching as part of myself walked away forever.

*****

Stefan’s eyes snapped open as dusk fell. He had a ton to do tonight. His enemy continued to roam his territory and prey on his people without his people sensing the territory breach. He needed to stop that; give his clan back their reassurance.

He also needed to figure out the new situation with the human.

What the hell had he done?

Snapping straight, sheets falling away, he thought back to the night before. He’d pushed himself on a weak, half dead, vulnerable woman. She hadn’t been awake, she hadn’t given her permission—with any real clarity—and she probably had no idea she’d lain with him.

He had acted like a drunk teenager rather than the leader of this territory!

And he’d marked her.

Stefan groaned. What had he been thinking?

But that was just it—with her, he found thinking difficult. But marking just wasn’t done anymore. Their clan—their race, actually--was sexually liberated. Multiple partners at any given time, his clan held nothing back, experimenting and engaging as often, with however many, as possible. A long time ago, when the humans ravaged their numbers in crusades and witch burnings, their current sexual outlook had saved their race from extinction; sex as often as possible, without pregnancy-hindering protection, meant his race started to bounce back.

Now it was a thing. It felt good, it helped identify possible breeders, and it was to everybody’s gain.

He’d nearly ended that for Sasha. Granted, she wasn’t of his race, but she exhibited traits his clan could understand and appreciate. Even though she didn’t understand her sexual side, like her fearlessness, it lurked. It popped its head up and played peek-a-boo every time sex tumbled into the room.

Or even just when Stefan hesitantly wandered close to her.

Damn it! Just thinking of her gave him wood.

Her only saving grace: she’d been near death so he didn’t take her blood. He didn’t complete the marking. Not yet. At this half-done job, his clan would sense his presence around her, like a ghost sitting on her shoulder, but it wouldn’t be an open challenge if they touched her.