by Mina Carter
"What's wrong?" she asked.
He realized his emotion must have been showing in his expression. "I just can't believe I have you back."
She wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. "Believe it," she whispered.
* * *
During the drive home, Jane stared down at the diamond ring on her finger glistening in the sunlight that cascaded through the windshield. It still felt like a dream to her --- a dream she never wanted to wake from.
Sebastian reached over and intertwined his fingers with hers. He brought her hand up and kissed it gently. "What do you think Ashley is going to do when you tell her that you're engaged?"
Jane smiled. "Probably freak out."
Sebastian chuckled. "Yeah. I could see her doing that."
Jane closed her eyes and rested her head back in the seat. Her head was pounding, and she knew it was probably from her lack of sleep over the weekend.
"Are you okay?" Sebastian asked.
She sighed. "I have a terrible headache."
"We're almost home," he said. "We'll get you something then."
As they drove into the little town of Bedford Valley, Jane felt mixed emotions. Even though she dreaded to return home, she was anxious to get back and get everything situated with the store. Besides, Sebastian had already promised another trip back to the beach in a couple of weeks, so she had that to look forward to. She made a mental note to call Susie, as she would be needing more help at the store on the weekends.
Sebastian parked the car in front of Jane's house. They climbed out of the car and Sebastian carried her weekender bag inside. "Try to find something for your headache," he said as he carried her bag to the dining room.
Jane rooted through the cupboards in the kitchen. Nothing was going to be suitable for the migraine she had. "I'll have to walk into town and get something," she said.
"Just stay here and relax. I'll drive into town. I'll be back in five minutes." He gave her a quick kiss before disappearing out the door.
* * *
Sebastian drove into town and parked his car on the street in front of the pharmacy directly across from Jane's Bookstore. As he stepped out of the vehicle, a man called his name. He turned to see the deputy sheriff standing a few feet away with a gun trained on his chest. Sebastian instinctively put his hands up.
"Turn around and step back to my voice," the deputy ordered.
Sebastian did what he was told. When he backed up to the deputy, he asked, "What is this about?"
"You're under arrest."
"Under arrest," Sebastian said incredulously. "Arrest for what?" He reared around and stared into the man's eyes. "Put the gun away," he commanded.
The deputy quickly put his gun back into its holster.
"Who told you to arrest me?" Sebastian asked.
"Officer Matt Walker."
"On what charge?"
"Breaking and entering in a string of burglaries. Walker said he has evidence."
I bet he does, Sebastian thought. Matt was trying to set him up. That fact was clear. Sebastian's eyes narrowed. "I want you to forget you even saw me here. Get in your car and leave."
The deputy nodded and walked away.
"Sebastian!" a voice called.
He looked across the street at the bookstore to see Ashley frantically motioning for him from the sidewalk. As he walked to the store, Ashley opened the door and pulled him inside, locking the door behind them. Sebastian stared at her. There were dark circles under her eyes, and she looked like she hadn't slept in days. "What was going on with the deputy?" she asked.
"Misunderstanding," he said simply. He watched Ashley chew on her fingernails, which were already wore down to the nubs. Her thoughts were a chaotic mess. "What are you doing here on a Sunday? Is something wrong with the store?" he asked, concerned.
She shook her head. "Where's Jane?"
"She's at home." He cocked a brow. "Are you all right, Ashley?"
She shook her head once more. "It's Matt," she whispered. "He came in the store yesterday looking for Jane. He was saying that she wasn't home, and he couldn't find her. When I told her she was away for the weekend, he demanded to know where she went and who she was with." She hesitated. "With the way he was acting, I didn't want to tell him anything, so I told him I didn't know." Tears welled up in her eyes. "He threw a pair of handcuffs on me and took me down to the station. He stuck me in a small room and interrogated me until three o'clock this morning. I finally had to tell him that she was with you for the weekend. But I wasn't sure of the address or anything. He just kept asking me over and over and over." She let out a trembling breath. "I thought he was going to hurt me." She put her hands over her face and started to sob. " I came here after he let me go. I was afraid to go home."
Sebastian listened to her carefully. And then something clicked in his mind. He had left Jane alone at her house, and Matt was obviously on a mission for revenge. He quickly reached behind the counter and dialed Jane's phone number. After several rings, the answering machine picked up. Sebastian slammed the phone down. A sick feeling crept over him, and his eyes widened. His intuition was never wrong. Something was happening to Jane, and he wasn't there to protect her. "Ashley, call 911. Tell them something is wrong at Jane's house, and we need police there right away."
* * *
Jane opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. As she was lifting it to her mouth to take a drink, she glanced at the answering machine. The red light was blinking, and the number said forty new messages. Alarmed and afraid something had happened with the store or with Ashley, Jane pressed the play button. Matt's voice came over the speaker. Jane, this is Matt. I'm just calling to see what you're doing tonight. Give me a call when you get this.
The machine skipped to the next message. Jane, it's me again. You didn't call me, and I just wanted to make sure everything was all right. Call me.
Jane put down the water and skipped to the twentieth message, and Matt's voice had drastically changed from his normal tone to almost sinister. Jane. I talked to Ashley. I know you're with him.
His voice made her skin crawl. She hit the stop button and refused to listen to any more of the messages. In the sudden silence, the floor boards behind her creaked.
Jane turned to see Matt standing in her kitchen. She jumped and screamed. "Jesus, Matt!" she cried. "You scared me!"
She stared at him and noticed his clothes were in disarray. He looked like he had not shaved in days, and his bloodshot eyes were glaring at her. "Matt, did something happen?" she asked.
A smile slowly tugged at the corner of his lips. "Did something happen?" he asked, mocking her. "Yes, something happened!" he yelled. "The love of my life went for a romantic getaway with her new boyfriend." He stared down at the floor. "You were supposed to be mine. You were going to be mine," he muttered.
"Matt," she said, reaching for him. His eyes widened as he caught sight of her engagement ring. He roughly grabbed her hand and closely studied the ring. "What…is…this?" he asked, angrily.
Jane quickly pulled her hand away from him and slowly stepped back to put some space between them. "Matt, I never meant to lead you along."
"Lead me along?" A guttural laugh escaped his lips. "You played me like a puppet, Jane, and I fell right into your trap. I should have seen right through you." He ran both of his hands through his hair, firmly pulling at the ends. "I have tried so hard to replace him, but you just have to be so damn stubborn." His hands released his hair. "I didn't want it to come to this, but it has to." He glared at Jane. "If I can't have you, no one will."
His words sent a chill through her very core. "M-Matt, you look tired," she faltered. "I think you need some rest."
He shook his head. "You know, Jane, I wanted you from the first moment that you kissed me in the kitchen that day. And I knew I couldn't have you if he was in the way."
Jane's world came to a crashing halt. "You had something to do with Jack's murder, didn't you?" she aske
d, the words coming out of her mouth in a hushed whisper. She didn't want to believe it.
Matt threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. "Yes!" he confessed. "And then I sent the same man to rough you up a bit, so that I could come and be your hero." He let out a slow sigh. "But Sebastian got in the way. He was there first. He ruined everything."
She wrapped her arms around her stomach as her entire body trembled. Matt wasn't the kind and gentle man she had believed him to be. She had been searching for Jack's killer when he was right under her nose the entire time. She looked up at him. He was no longer the person she had once known. He was a monster. "How could you do that to your own brother?" she asked, astonished.
"I had to do it. You would have never loved me if he was still in the picture." He paced the floor. "Jack was always better at everything. He went to med school. I flunked out of med school. He became a surgeon just like our father. I didn't. Our mother went on and on about him to her friends. Jack was always smarter than me, better than me, and he knew it. He gloated about it."
"Jack loved you."
"But he also loved you, and that wasn't something I was willing to accept. I thought with him out of the way, you would easily be mine. I mean, I look just like him for fuck's sake!" he yelled. "But no. You needed time. I gave you time. And in that time, you fell in love with your neighbor, the man with no past." He stopped and turned to her. "No past," he huffed. "Perhaps you two are perfect for each other."
The phone rang, and Jane's eyes darted to it. She wondered if Sebastian was on the other end.
"Don’t even think about it!" he snapped. "I can't believe after everything I've done for you that you couldn't love me. But you spend two months with a complete stranger, and you're engaged to him." He paused, and a smile slowly swept across his face. "But he's being taken care of as we speak."
Her breathing quickened. "What did you do?"
"It doesn't matter now," he said solemnly. "You're never going to see him again." Matt grabbed a knife out of the butcher block. It was long and wide, a knife that Jane had used in the kitchen many times before. She stared at the blade and then to Matt. His eyes looked wild as he stared back at her. "You and Jack were destined to have the same fate I'm afraid."
"No, Matt!" she screamed, as he thrust the knife into her side. She cried out in pain and collapsed against him. He held her tightly, not letting her go. "It's okay," he whispered in her hair. "I'm going to stay with you while you die. I won't leave you alone."
Her sobs filled the quiet kitchen. "Please don't do this!" she pleaded. Jane tried to fight her way out of his grasp, but she was growing weaker by the second as the blood poured from her wound.
He slowly pulled the knife out of her. She gasped from the excruciating pain. "Matt, no," she sobbed.
"I'm sorry. There's no other way." He jammed the knife into her thigh.
Jane barely felt the blade. Her clothes were soaked in blood, and the pain was slowly becoming less painful. Her vision darkened as she slipped in and out of consciousness. She could feel her heart growing weaker as the blood poured out of her body. She was going to die, and Jack and Sebastian wouldn't be there to save her this time.
* * *
Sebastian climbed out of the car in front of Jane's house and stood stock-still, listening intently. He could hear two heartbeats. One heart was beating strong and fast with adrenaline, and the other was beating a horrible rhythm. "Jane," he whispered. She was dying.
In a split second, he was throwing open the front door. His eyes widened at the sight before him. Jane's blood covered the kitchen floor. She was limp in Matt's arms as he held her, watching her die. A long butcher knife was thrust into her stomach.
Matt looked up at Sebastian. "You're too late," he said.
"You son-of-a-bitch!" Sebastian grabbed Matt by the neck and hoisted him in the air. "I should have killed you a long time ago."
He threw Matt across the room. His body sailed in the air before crashing into the far dining room wall. The drywall disintegrated under his weight, and Matt fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. He was knocked out cold.
As much as Sebastian wanted to kill him, he turned his attention back to Jane. The puddle of blood on the floor pooled around her lifeless body. "Jane," he whispered, hovering over her. She looked as helpless as she did when he first saw her in the hospital.
He sat on the floor and pulled her into his lap. He could hear the police sirens in the distance. He didn't have much time.
He quickly bit into his wrist and held the wound over her mouth. His blood dropped steadily onto her tongue. "Drink!" he commanded. "Drink!" He held her close to him. "You are not allowed to die, Jane. Do you hear me?" he yelled. "Stay with me!"
He knew if she couldn't heal on her own, the only other option would be to turn her. But with the amount of blood she had lost, he didn't know if he could change her in time. The only thing he knew was that he couldn't live without her. "Come back to me, Jane!" he choked.
He carefully lifted up the hem of her shirt and watched as the superficial scratches began to heal on their own. His blood was healing her, but it was a slow process because of the extent of her injuries, and he didn't have much more time.
He could hear the brakes screeching on the police cars. They were coming.
"Drink," he whispered. "Drink, Jane." Tears cascaded down his face as he stared down at her. "I love you. You can't leave me again. I can't bear to lose you."
He could hear the cops running up the sidewalk and then stepping onto the porch. Reluctantly, Sebastian pulled his wrist away from her mouth to allow it to heal. He held her tightly in his arms.
The police stormed the house with their weapons drawn. "Where is Walker?" one demanded.
Sebastian pointed behind him, but when he looked, Matt was gone. Matt had escaped.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
SEBASTIAN PACED THE hallway. He was sure that he would soon leave a permanent path in the tile floor. Jane had been in surgery for hours, and every second that ticked past seemed like eternity to him. He would intervene if need be, but he tried to keep his cool and let the surgeons do their work.
"Sebastian Alexander?" a voice called.
His head snapped up, and he stopped pacing. A doctor came around the corner and approached him. "We just finished with Jane's surgery," he said.
"Is she --- will she --- is she alive?" he asked, stumbling over his words.
"She's stable, Mr. Alexander. The surgery went well. She was lucky that some of the knife wounds were only superficial."
Sebastian knew that his blood had played a big role in healing some of her injuries. "Can I see her?" he asked.
"I'm afraid not yet. She's in recovery, and you won't be able to see her for a couple more hours," he said.
Sebastian stared into his eyes. "You will take me to her. Now," he demanded.
"Yes. Follow me," the doctor said. He led the way through the ICU. An armed guard was stationed outside of Jane’s room. The doctor said, “It’s okay, Officer,” as they walked past him.
Sebastian stared at Jane in the bed. She looked so fragile. The heart monitor beeped a steady rhythm, and he found the sound to be soothing. She was alive. That was all that mattered at that moment.
He stayed with her, not wanting to leave her side. Minutes turned into hours and hours turned into days. Jane had taken so much of his blood, he was sure that her brain would be mending itself. It was very possible that her memories could come back, and he wanted to be there when they did.
* * *
Jane slowly opened her eyes. The bright florescent light made her squint as she looked around the room. She had a moment of déjà vu. She was in a hospital room. For a moment, she thought that she was waking up from the coma all over again. What if everything had been a dream? A whimper that escaped her lips filled the room.
Suddenly, she felt a hand cover hers. She looked up to see Sebastian standing over her. "I'm here," he said.
"Sebastian." She looked up
at him. Slowly, she raised her hand and touched his face. "You're here." He was real. She wasn't dreaming.
"I'm here, and you're going to be okay," he whispered, his voice chock full of emotion.
A nurse entered the room. "Hello," she said, obviously surprised that Jane was awake. "My name is Betty." She stood over Jane. "I was a friend of your late husband's."
Jane smiled. She remembered Jack speaking of Betty quite often. "Jack had nothing but nice things to say about you."
Betty smiled. "Do you know why you're here, Jane? Can you remember what happened?"
Jane nodded. She closed her eyes as she recalled the horrible events. "Yes, I remember what happened, but ---," she said, her voice trailing off.
"But?" Betty coaxed.
"My name is Laurel Parker," she said. Her eyes darted to Sebastian. "I remember."
* * *
Matt sat outside of the hospital on a bench. His baseball cap was pulled down low on his face, and he clutched a newspaper in front of him, shielding his face from any passersby. He had specifically picked the bench near the outside dining area, because that is where the nurses congregated on their breaks. He knew eventually someone would talk about Jane.
Two nurses in particular had caught his attention. They were discussing their grueling day, and then one began to talk about Jane. Matt inclined his head and eavesdropped on their conversation.
"I heard that all the police officers and extra security is because of that woman that almost got killed by that cop last week."
"Yeah. She's on my floor." The nurse kept her voice low. "She's awake. The doctors say she's going to be okay."
A frown crept over Matt's face. Jane was going to live. He stood and casually strolled away from the hospital, keeping his head down as he walked. His intentions at that moment were to lay low and get out of the area. He would come for Jane eventually, but first he had to find out everything he could about Sebastian Alexander. Sebastian had made Jane drink his blood, and Matt had seen with his own eyes the healing power of his blood. Sebastian wasn't human, and Matt had to find out what he was and then the best way to kill him.