What had she expected, for him to thank her with a bundle of roses over her dead body? Flowers would've been rather wasted at that point.
Bloody Hell, he wanted to scream! He couldn't take much more of her mixed-up emotions. How could someone live with such turmoil boiling around inside them?
He never dreamed bonding with another person would affect him to such an extent. He tried focusing on the cave, watching where he was going, but his thoughts kept spiraling away from him.
Stuck in a cave while his mate's grief drowned him was not how he planned to spend the summer. No, he had planned to keep Katie happy – no questions asked – for the duration of camp, treating her like a queen. Camp would provide a few idealistic months with no pressure attached. Because he knew when fall came, everything between them would change.
He was bonded to a halfling. Change was an inevitable fact of life.
He would be forced to either hurt his family or her. The decision required no thought. It was easy enough to make, but he knew Katie would feel hurt. She would argue, loud and long. No, she wouldn’t simply argue with him, she'd pitch a screaming fit and fight him tooth and nail.
He knew underneath her calm exterior was a volcano of emotions. He didn't relish the upcoming confrontation and knowing there would be a humongous fight – a monster of a screaming match – had kept him mentally shut off from her.
Remembering how hurt she'd been when he refused to link their minds deeply together, he grimaced. Simply put, he couldn't risk her guessing his ultimate plan, not before the right time. He sighed and realized things would be a lot easier if he could get her pregnant. He would have a greater chance of convincing her to leave her family and willingly move into McClint House, which was located on the mundane world far away from other full bloods.
The idea of getting her pregnant actually had merit. The act went against his honor but at this point, if he thought it would work, he was willing to try just about anything.
Unfortunately, bringing a baby into the picture was not a good idea, which left very few options. He silently snorted to himself; he really didn't think any of his ideas would work.
Frustrated, he snapped his teeth together.
He supposed he could use silver against her. It would be a preemptive strike, but it would work. He hated the idea of putting silver cuffs around her wrists before they left Dragon Valley, but as a last resort, he'd do it.
Actually, silver wasn't a bad idea. With silver restricting her Sídhí abilities, she couldn't port away the minute she saw the institutional-like structure of McClint House. He hated the monstrous mansion with its sterile white-washed walls and restrictive security, but there was no choice.
Fact of life: Katie was half elf. McClint House was the only possible option.
_____________
Katie looked up at Jared, hoping she might see some glimmer of anything except anger in his eyes. Some memory of what they had shared.
When he noticed her watchful gaze, he frowned and sharply nodded once then turned his eyes from hers. He scanned the tunnel in front of them with renewed force, treating her like she was responsible for his inattention to the dangerous surroundings.
Soft blue light began blooming along the cave walls in small patches. After twenty feet or so, the patches of glow moss grew thicker, forming a splotchy carpet along the walls and ceiling, creating a bright blue glow sufficient for even a mundane to see by.
She stared unseeing down the tunnel. Her heart crunched-up a little tighter each time she looked at him. He might have apologized for scaring her, but nothing had changed.
Katie turned her face downward, away from him as she felt her tears trying to make an escape attempt. She shivered again, ripples of chill bumps popped up on top of what she already had. She clenched her teeth together to keep from crying. Tears never helped, but she couldn’t seem to stop them from rolling down her face.
What an awful day it turned out to be, a horrid black moment in time that grew worse with each passing minute.
Suddenly a sharp pain thrust through her stomach and spread toward the tips of her toes, shoving her link with Mitch to the front of her brain. She had created the odd link before she entered the cave hoping the connection would help her find him faster. Also, she didn't want to leave her brother alone, but the deeper into the caves she walked the stronger his pain became.
As twins, they had an invisible connection that had always been there. Everyone agreed Sídhí twin bonds were weird. Weird didn't cover the pain she felt coming from him. Feeling a physical sensation through a link wasn't normal. Thank goodness.
No, she didn't normally feel his pain – or other inconvenient sensations.
She wondered if his shields had collapsed. Maybe the mite’s toxin cracked his mental shields, allowing his pain to echo through her. That might be the answer. Even asleep, Sídhí kept their mental shields in place.
She didn’t know if the shadow pain she felt was the toxin at work or not, but her theory made an odd sort of sense, because there was no way she could have intentionally formed a link to his physical responses.
The echoing pain made her hurt. Sharp little pains hit her knees and lower back. They pulsed repeatedly then finally dropped into steady ache, burning the occasional streak of pain down her leg and into her heel.
Distantly she noticed her pace slowed. She blinked, trying to focus on anything except the burning pain. Her attempt to ignore the pain didn't help. She couldn't maintain her pace and her link with Mitch. She sighed with regret knowing one had to go.
Her heart ached as she pulled her contact away from her brother, leaving only the faintest of mental strands touching him.
Sweet relief filled her. Only a mild headache remained, making her nearly pain free.
Blocking Mitch from her mind was the only possible solution. She didn't dare slow their pace down. She was terrified they wouldn't reach him in time. The cave mites were really fast, especially when compared to her and her companions. She knew she couldn't run head-long down the tunnel, but their pace felt like a mule slopping through foot-deep mud, pulling a cart filled with melons.
She sighed, thinking over her day. It went from mind-blowing joy to monsters to losing her lifeMate. The emotional rollercoaster was way too much for one day. She sniffled. Not two hours earlier, the cool, damp air of the cave would've been a blessing.
She hated caves. The worst moments of her life always took place in a dank cave. If she didn't know better, she'd think a fairy had placed a curse on her.
Jared's sting of remorse grew stronger.
His emotions didn't matter. She had learned her lesson the hard way. She wouldn't let him change her mind, not this time. She couldn't destroy the bond between them. No one could destroy a lifeBond between mates, not after the bond had been created, but she could refuse to... to what? She sighed with mounting disgust. That was the ultimate question. What was she willing to do?
She swallowed hard. There were so many horrible thoughts running through her head, she didn't want to think about them.
“Katie?” Jared said softly. His anger grew dimmer. In its place grew frustration.
She looked up, but not at him. She kept her head tilted down, not wanting him to see her tears. Rather vain of her, but she hated turning into Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer every time she cried.
Ahead of them, the single tunnel split, going in three different directions. She didn't want to talk to him, so she didn't bother asking what he wanted. Anyway, his question was simple enough to figure out. He wanted to know which way to go.
Great. She finally got a little relief from Mitch's pain and her 'beloved' lifeMate dropped her back into the torture bucket. Frustrated, she rubbed her head trying to forget tall, dark, and handsome standing next to her. It didn't work. She could never ignore him, not from the first moment she had met him.
Katie shoved her worries away and focused on Mitch, recklessly linking her mind with his in a wide-open thrust.
Instantly, she knew she had made a big mistake.
Mitch's pain burst through her brain. Phantom acid shot through her nerve endings, burning her from the inside-out. Her skin crawled as invisible needles jabbed into her, piercing every inch of her body. She whimpered and wrapped her arms around her body, doubling over as a sharp shooting pain ripped through her gut.
Katie dropped like a fly hit with bug spray.
“Katie!” Jared growled, lurching forward, he grabbed her before she hit the cold floor. He pulled her close, holding her against his chest like he honestly cared for her. His fake actions hurt more than the phantom pain she received from Mitch.
She panted, grimly maintaining her connection with Mitch, while trying to figure out where her twin was located at. She knew she didn't have long before she would be forced to block him. It was either block her brother’s pain or roll into a ball and give up what little food she had in her stomach.
“What's wrong?” Even through her pain, she heard the panic in Jared's voice. His fear thrummed through her body, but it seemed unreal to her. Maybe he had learned how to send false emotions through the lifeBond. Was something like that possible?
No, she immediately answered her own question. From outward appearance, he could trick other people, but not her. Internal emotions simply could not be faked.
She sagged against him, shuddering in uncontrollable waves. She felt his horror and desperation and – now that she wasn't too angry to recognize it – love. His love wrapped tightly around her, love that had never lessened since the first moment they bonded. Even when his anger pounded at her in unending waves so had the overwhelming love he felt for her.
Katie grudgingly accepted the fact he didn't want to lose her. He might have been angry, but the steady pulse of his love poured into her.
He wanted her as a lifeMate, but only on certain terms. His terms. Terms that included being hidden from his friends and family, stuck in an institution. He wanted to love her when it was convenient, nothing more.
“Left, we need to take the left tunnel,” Katie whispered through the pain. “We need to hurry.”
“I don’t care which tunnel it is. What’s wrong?” Jared demanded.
She felt him pull her out of the backpack, gently holding her in his arms.
“You asked me which tunnel to take so I linked with Mitch,” she said, gasping between waves of pain that tried to overwhelm her. Her body convulsed and she lost her hearing then her eyesight.
She woke-up nearly warm. The side of her face was against Jared’s bare shoulder.
He held her cradled in his arms. The heat of his body curled around her.
The walls of the cave moved up and down as he jogged through the strange blue light.
Feeling disorientated, the soft glow comforted her. The scrubby little growth threw off enough light she could count every crack along the rocky wall.
Her mind tumbled, trying to settle into wakefulness. Slowly, small sounds started making sense. She heard Brianna and Beth's soft tread immediately behind them.
Jared's fear beat at her from every side, stifling her. She shifted in discomfort, trying to escape the unwanted emotion.
“Katie? Mia Cara, are you awake?” Jared’s voice shook.
_____________
Jared felt Katie's small movements as she woke. Giving a heart-felt sigh of relief he tenderly pulled her closer, trying to share as much of his body heat as possible. He was still shaking from the sheer panic he felt when she collapsed in his arms.
“Mia Cara?” Jared questioned her, kissing her bent head.
“Don't call me that, not ever again,” Katie said, trying to pull away from his kiss. Her mental voice was flat, angry.
He jerked as if she slapped him, nearly stopping in the middle of the tunnel before remembering they weren't alone. He belatedly tasted her emotions. Her feeling of betrayal curled like a pit of venomous snakes deep in his chest.
His teeth snapped together in anger. “I know how angry and how bad you're hurting over loosing Mitch, but you have no right to feel betrayed. I'm the one who nearly lost his lifeMate. You are mine!” He gently shook her, trying to emphasize his point. “Do you honestly think I would've let you distract those mites while I ran to safety? Katie, you are my life. I thought you realized exactly how much I cherish you, but for you to throw your life away and then get mad at me! You simply don't understand how much I love you.”
Katie twisted in his arms, looking him in the face, her eyes flashed in anger. Her tear streaked face ripped a hole in his gut. The expanded pupils of an emotional elf nearly filled the large green area of her eyes. “Love? You're the one who doesn't understand what love is! I was willing to die for you, but you, you say you love me?” Tears flooded her pale green eyes, trickling down her cheeks, cutting him deeper than any knife ever could. “But you plan on dumping me in one of those secure houses set-up in the mundane world. Don't you?”
He blinked, softly hissing at how her mind worked.
“I'll take that as a yes. God! I should've known when you refused to fully link your mind with mine.” She turned her face away from him, struggling to get down. “Let me down."
“Katie, I would never do anything to hurt you,” he said, feeling desperate to make her understand his side of the story. “McClint House is not that bad.”
They emerged from the tunnel into a vaulted room. He scanned the area for movement, but the cave was quiet as a tomb with a small pool of water to his left and several tunnels branching off in different directions.
Beth and Brianna pitched pebbles at the far walls and ceiling. Blue light bloomed around stalagmites and stalactites as the tiny filaments, which made up the glow moss, vibrated to life. The bottom half of the far wall radiated a pink glow, turning the pool and surrounding rock formations violet as the glow of two different varieties of glow mosses merged.
“Right, sure it isn’t bad,” she hissed at him. “That's why I feel your disgust at just saying the name of your wretched institution. You'd NEVER do anything to hurt me, yet you're still willing to chain me inside a silver encased room for a few thousand years.”
“What?” Jared demanded.
“Did you think I wouldn't feel the disgust and hatred you've been aiming at me? Every single moment since the attack, I've been choking on it! If you hated halflings that much why didn’t you just reject me and refuse to bond with me?” Katie plowed on, refusing to let him speak. “Oh, I forgot, you would never hurt me though, would you?”
“No, dammit I wouldn't,” he said, fury coloring his every word. “Katie...”
“Stop!” Katie hissed quietly, throwing her hand out in front of his face.
He jerked to a stop, his eyes glued to her face. “Katie, if you'll just listen to me.”
“Hush! And put me down,” Katie said, struggling against his hold. “Don't you hear the clicking?”
_____________
Katie felt Jared’s chest vibrate as he growled, his eyes glancing into hers before returning his searching gaze to far end of the cavern where the walls curved into the darkness. He tightened his hold on her.
She could hear the worry and sincerity in his voice as he said, “Katie, I'm sorry. I swear I thought you were hurting over loosing Mitch. Not for one minute did I think I had hurt you.”
She glanced up at him and swiped a random tear off her face. “How couldn't you know? I felt your furious-hatred and that nasty emotion was aimed at me. I can't live that way, I won't. Look, we don't have time to talk about this. I can hear the mites getting closer. You’ve got to put me down. We can’t fight this way.”
For a moment, she thought he would refuse. Then he slowly dropped her feet to the ground, keeping his arms fixed around her in gentle cage.
“Stay by my side. I know you're angry, but promise me,” Jared demanded, gravely staring into her upturned face.
“Okay, fine, just let me go,” Katie said, shoving against his chest. She was half-afraid that if she didn’t ag
ree to his demand, he would throw her over his shoulder and run in the opposite direction.
He sounded – and felt – so sincere that it hurt to look at him. His grief and regret spread through her, but she didn't know if it was regret over hurting her or regret over her finding out his plans.
“Heads up!” Beth cried. Shoving past Jared, she thrust Katie's mint wrapped stick at her.
The far end of the cave bloomed in bright blue blaze of light.
They backed-up against the wall beside a mega-sized stalactite growing from the ceiling running down the wall meeting a massive stalagmite growing from the floor. The white giant shielded their left flank.
The teenagers dumped the remaining mint on the cave floor in a semi-circle surrounding them. Bundles of green lay wilted on the floor. She didn't think the sad looking barrier would be very effective. They quickly finished spreading the plants and not a minute too soon.
The first cave mite rounded the corner, followed by a dozen more of the fast moving creatures. They stopped and clicked their teeth together, obviously excited over their discovery. The sound echoed around the rock strewn room.
Katie calmly watched as the group of mites milled around in a circle. She was a bit apprehensive, but not afraid. That is until she took a closer look at the dark animals knotted together at the other end of the cave.
“They're different,” Katie said, nudging Jared with her elbow when he tried putting his body in front of hers. “Stop that. Look at them, the bodies are more oval and they're furry. Are those eyeballs on the tips of their antennae?” She asked, waving at the two antennae sticking-up a foot in the air.
“Crap, you're right,” Beth said disgustedly, pointing to the group. “Watchers are normally above ground. I thought we'd been awfully lucky not seeing any. Watchers have multi-faceted eyes like a fly, but the eyes aren't on the tip of the antennae. Hundreds of tiny eyes wrap around the upper third of the stalk, nothing can sneak past a watcher's outpost.”
“Then why are they just standing there?” Katie asked, puzzled by the odd behavior.
Vampire's Forbidden Territory (Sídhí Summer Camp Series #2) Page 7