Unforeseen: The Vampire Awakenings, Book 9

by Davies, Brenda K.

  Uncertain of what it was, she instinctively recoiled before recognizing it as a hand. Was she hallucinating again?

  The hand clasped the collar of her shirt and yanked her forward. Charlie’s fingers encircled the wrist; it was solid beneath her palm, but she couldn’t bring herself to believe it was real as water rushed past her and she was hauled toward the surface.

  Chilly air slapped her in the face. She convulsed as she tried to draw oxygen into her lungs, but the water already filling them was acting like a cork that blocked anything from entering. Her fingers clawed at her chest as it constricted so tightly it felt like a giant was squeezing her ribs together.

  Then the cork popped as her lungs came back to life, and she retched out water so forcefully it felt like her stomach was going to come up with it.

  More water slapped her in the face; she choked and gagged as it surged up her nose.

  “Charlie!” Jack shouted as he pulled her close with one hand while clinging to Dylan with the other. Ignoring the burn in his legs, he drew on the strength Charlie’s blood gave him as he propelled them away from the cliffs. “Charlie!”

  She couldn’t stop the spasm of coughs choking her, so she could respond. Between the water splashing her face and her coughing, she couldn’t open her eyes to look at Jack.

  “Dylan?” she croaked, but she wasn’t sure the word made it passed her lips, never mind it being loud enough to carry over the crashing waves.

  The hand holding her shirt let go, and Jack snaked his arm around her waist to drag her against his hip. Charlie tried to grasp him, but her numb fingers flopped uselessly around.

  “Mom?”

  Dylan’s whisper caused her eyes to fly open, and she blinked against the wave that slapped her in the face. No, she inwardly moaned when her vision cleared enough for her to see Dylan on the other side of Jack.

  “Get him out of here!”

  She’d yet to use the telepathic bond between mates Jack told her about, but she felt the thought blast out of her mind and enter his.

  “I’m getting you both out of here,” Jack replied as he kicked against the waves. “You’re my family.”

  Charlie’s heart broke as she gazed at Dylan’s blue lips, pale face, and sunken eyes. He looked half frozen even with the burns marring his cheeks and nose. Jack had to get Dylan out of this water soon!

  She tried again to get her fingers to work, but they didn’t twitch as she gazed at them. Charlie kicked her feet, or she hoped she did; she had to believe she was helping Jack in some way. She couldn’t see the shore as the tumultuous sea surrounded them.

  A wave broke, and Charlie spotted Mike as he swam up beside her. “I’ll take one of them!” Mike shouted.

  Mike treaded water as he reached for her. Through their bond, Charlie felt Jack’s jealousy over the idea of letting her go. A blast of possessiveness hit her as Jack’s fingers dug into her flesh, his eyes reddened, and he bared his fangs at Mike.

  Mike lowered his hands and floated a little bit away from them. Charlie held her breath as she waited to see what Jack would do. He could get them both to shore if he were determined to do it, but it would be a lot faster if he handed one of them over, and she didn’t want it to be Dylan.

  She understood Jack’s need to keep her with him, but she had to know he would protect her son.

  Then his grip on her eased, and though his eyes remained a fiery red when they met hers, he nodded to Mike who swam closer once again. Jack’s fingers uncurled from her waist as he released her.

  She felt the pang it caused Jack when Mike took her, but Charlie knew Jack was honoring his promise to keep Dylan safe over her. She hadn’t believed it was possible, but she fell more in love with him.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Staggering onto the beach, Jack fell to his knees and carefully lowered Dylan onto the sand. It had taken them probably about ten minutes to find this stretch of beach, and then they had to make sure there were no Savages nearby before coming ashore. Jack kept Dylan talking to him throughout most of it, but he stopped speaking a minute or two ago.

  “Dylan,” Jack said as he gave him a small shake, but there was no response.

  Dylan’s chest rose and fell, but his skin felt like ice beneath Jack’s fingers, and his pulse was slow and erratic. Burns marred his pale skin, and he looked much smaller. The cold water had leeched the life from him.

  “Dylan!” Charlie croaked as she dropped to her knees beside Jack and grasped her son’s shoulder. “Oh, please be okay! Please be okay,” she pleaded as she ran her hands over him to put some warmth back in his frigid body.

  The anguish in Charlie’s voice was a knife to Jack’s heart. He had to do something; he couldn’t lose them so recently after finding them. Resting his hand on Dylan’s forehead, love swelled in his chest as he brushed back Dylan’s drenched hair. He would not lose his family.

  Jack glanced up at Mike who stared at Dylan with frightened eyes, but Jack knew what he had to do. Lifting his wrist to his mouth, Jack bit into it.

  “What are you doing?” Charlie cried when Jack placed his wrist to Dylan’s mouth, giving him his blood. “NO!”

  Her fingers were still frozen, but she could move them enough to tear at Jack’s wrist. Mike grasped her shoulders and pulled her back. She kicked and twisted as she fought against his hold like a cat fighting a bath.

  “No! You can’t turn him! He’ll be a child forever!” Charlie cried, her throat raw from the smoke and the water she’d inhaled.

  The idea of losing her son shredded her heart in her chest. The best part of her would die with him, but she would not sentence him to an eternity trapped in the body of a child. Tears spilled from her eyes as she threw herself forward to get away from Mike, but he didn’t release her.

  “It’s okay,” Jack assured her as he clasped her hand. Her eyes were those of a ferocious animal when they met his, and she bared her fangs. “Charlie, listen to me. He hasn’t lost any blood, and my blood will stop him from dying by heating him and giving him strength. I will not turn him.”

  Charlie glanced between her son and Jack before going limp in Mike’s hold. Mike eased his grip on her but didn’t let go until she jerked her arms away. Ignoring the blisters cracking and splitting across her flesh, Charlie leaned forward to rest her hand on Dylan’s cheek. He was still cold, but warmer. Color crept back into his skin, and his lips were more of a pale blue than a deeper shade.

  Tears streamed down her face as she met Jack’s gaze. “Will he be okay?”

  He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles. “Yes.”

  Jack released her hand to drape his arm around her shoulders when she began to sob. “Shh, Charlie. Don’t cry,” he soothed as his blood continued flowing into Dylan. “He’s going to be fine.”

  Charlie wiped the tears from her eyes as she stifled her sobs and leaned against Jack’s chest. She needed to get her shit together, but she felt like an emotional disaster right now. They still weren’t off the island, but after nearly being blown up, barbecued, drowned, and her son almost dying, she was starting to unravel.

  Unfortunately, she didn’t have the time to fall apart.

  Stifling her next sob, Charlie hugged Jack before pulling away to survey the beach. She was almost afraid to reach for her knives, in case they were gone, but her hands fell on their handles. She’d lost her shoulder bag to the fire or the sea, but at least she still had her knives.

  “Thank you for getting me to shore,” she said to Mike before turning to Jack and resting her hand on his cheek, she leaned forward to kiss him. “Thank you for protecting Dylan.”

  “I promised you I would, and he’s my family too.”

  Charlie forced herself not to cry again as she kissed him before returning her attention to the beach. It remained empty, but that could change at any second. She lifted one of Dylan’s hands and held it between hers as she studied the steady rise and fall of his chest and listened to the reassuring thump of his heart.

  �
�It’s good to see you,” Jack said to Mike.

  Mike smiled at him. “You too. I was worried we wouldn’t make it back in time to save you.” Mike shifted uncomfortably. “Doug—”

  “I know he’s gone,” Jack said, looking to spare Mike having to tell him.

  “How?” Mike asked, and then his gaze darted to Charlie. “Never mind.”

  “Liam and the others found me too.” Then Jack frowned at him and Charlie. What had Mike meant by that look and the never mind? Did he know about Charlie’s ability? “Did I miss something between you two?”

  Charlie waved her hand absently in the air, but she didn’t tear her attention away from Dylan. “I had a vision that kept Mike from walking into a trap and becoming a dartboard for stakes.”

  “That’s good,” Jack said. “No one wants to be a dartboard.”

  “Very true,” Mike agreed.

  “So, he knows you’re different,” Jack said to Charlie.

  She lifted her head and blinked at him. “Well… obviously.”

  Mike released a bark of laughter, and Jack scowled at him.

  “What’s so funny?” Jack demanded.

  Mike smiled innocently at him. “I’m so happy to see you getting everything you deserve.”

  Jack gave him the finger before turning his attention to Charlie and Dylan.

  “Hopefully every one of the bastards on this island roasts in this fire,” Charlie muttered as she surveyed the cliffs.

  “I killed their best hunter,” Mike said. “Beat him to death.”

  “Good,” Jack said. “Was he the one who killed Doug?”

  Jack swallowed the lump in his throat after he asked this question. He knew Doug was dead, but he didn’t know the details, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know how one of his best friends died.

  “No,” Mike said. “I don’t know who shot him.”

  The color drained from Jack’s face as he recalled firing down on the Savages attacking Mike and the others. He’d been careful to keep his gun aimed away from them, but what if something had gone wrong?

  “It wasn’t… could it have been… me?” he made himself ask. He didn’t want to know the answer, but he had to hear it.

  “No,” Mike said. “It happened after the two of you left.”

  When Jack closed his eyes and inhaled a shuddery breath, Charlie rested a hand on his shoulder and kissed his cheek. Dylan stirred, and Jack pulled his wrist away. Charlie clasped her son’s cheeks and turned his face to her. She rested her forehead against his as she listened to his rhythmic breathing before turning and flinging her arms around Jack.

  “Shh,” he said as he ran his hand down what remained of her hair. “He’s going to be fine, and we’re getting off this island.”

  Charlie pulled away from him and turned back to her son. Dylan’s eyes were open as he watched the two of them.

  “Mates,” Dylan said and smiled.

  * * *

  Jack carried Dylan on his back as they walked along the beach. No burn marks marred Dylan’s face and body anymore. Not only had Jack’s blood warmed him, but it also healed him. Charlie couldn’t stop herself from touching them as they walked; she had to keep reassuring herself they were there. The hallucinations she experienced while drowning had left her questioning reality.

  Was she really here? Were they here? Or was this some trick her mind was playing on her. They were solid beneath her palms and warm against her freezing skin.

  Dylan rested his hand over hers and smiled at her. “We’re real, Mom.”

  “I know,” she muttered and looked to Jack who clasped her hand and squeezed it.

  Above them, the raging inferno lit the night while the smoke from it obscured the stars. The flames cast dancing, ominous shadows across the sand. Occasionally, fiery pieces of debris would shoot up and fall to the sand before flaming out on the beach. Charlie kept a wary eye on the cliffs and any possible tunnels that could shelter Savages as they searched for Mike’s boats.

  Having gotten turned around in the fire, and with all landmarks eradicated by the flames, Mike had no idea where those boats were anymore. As they walked, Mike filled them in on everything that happened to him while he was on the island and since he left.

  Charlie assessed the damage done to her by the fire while she listened to Mike. Only pink patches marred her skin where blisters had formed before. The last five inches of her hair was gone, and the ends of it were charred. The fire had burnt away the bottom of her boots and socks so that grains of sand slipped between her toes. Holes marred her clothes, but they remained mostly intact.

  “Mollie stayed in the hotel with her sister, Willow, and Julian while we returned here,” Mike finished.

  “So, this unfortunate Mollie is your mate?” Jack inquired.

  Mike gave him a lopsided grin. “I was thinking the same thing about poor Charlie here. My condolences,” he said to her.

  “It could have been worse,” she replied.

  “Not by much,” Mike said.

  “True.” Charlie playfully bumped Jack’s hip to temper her statement while Mike laughed.

  “Nice,” Jack muttered.

  Charlie leaned against his side as she chuckled. They may not be off this island yet but escaping the fire had given her a sense of lightheartedness she hadn’t felt in years. Charlie was wrong to think it, that she may be tempting fate by thinking it, but she believed they’d faced the worst.

  Dylan tapped Jack on the shoulder. “I can walk.”

  Charlie started to tell him no; he was better off resting and regaining his strength, but he would see her concern as treating him like a baby in front of Mike and Jack, and she couldn’t do that to him. Dylan was relatively easygoing, but with the set of his shoulders and jaw, she could tell he was trying to act older in the hopes of impressing them.

  Jack stopped walking and set him down. Dylan smiled at him as he stepped back and straightened what remained of his tattered and charred shirt. It took everything she had not to crush him against her and never let him go, but she couldn’t embarrass him. She clasped Jack’s hand and squeezed it as Dylan fell into step beside Mike.

  Jack ran his fingers over her cheek before bending to kiss her. When he pulled away, she smiled at him. They would get off this island.

  “How many of the Savages do you think survived?” she asked.

  “There’s a good chance the fire got most of them,” Mike said.

  “And with all the vegetation gone, if they don’t find a hiding place by daybreak, the sun will get more of them,” Jack said.

  “But some will find hiding places,” Dylan said.

  Charlie’s hand fell to the handle of one of her knives as she considered the possibility of running into a Savage desperate for shelter. She’d slice them apart.

  The distant hum of a boat motor drew her attention away from the cliffs. Excitement flared through her when she spotted a boat skimming across the ocean toward them. Then that excitement vanished as the fear it might be Savages took over. Hitting a wave, the boat soared through the air before crashing back to the sea.

  “It’s David and Mia,” Mike announced.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Charlie let out a cry of joy before she started jumping up and down while waving at the boat. Dylan jumped up and down beside her as he swung his arms in the air and grinned at Charlie. The joy on his face made Charlie’s heart swell. It had been years since his eyes sparkled like that.

  Mia grabbed David’s arm and pointed at them. David waved at them before turning the boat and speeding toward them. When he was a couple of hundred feet from shore, David decelerated and coasted closer until the boat bobbed on the waves about fifty feet away. Charlie’s heart hammered with excitement as she stared at the beacon of hope so close to them.

  “Can you swim out?” David shouted.

  And then her stomach plummeted into her toes. She did not want to dip one toe into the ocean ever again, but she would do whatever it took to get Dylan away from this p
lace.

  She rested her hand on Dylan’s shoulder. “Do you feel strong enough to swim out there?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’ll be fine, Mom. The boat isn’t far away, and the tide isn’t as strong now that we’re away from the cliffs.”

  “But the water is still cold,” she reminded him and tried not to recall the blue of his lips and the stillness of his body.

  “We won’t be in it long, and I’m ready to be off this island.”

  “So am I,” she murmured, and he did look far better than he had earlier. He looked better than he had in the caves with that shine in his eyes and the rosy glow in his cheeks. Plus, he was a better swimmer than her.

  “I’ll stay beside both of you,” Jack assured her.

  “So will I,” Mike said.

  “Thank you,” Charlie murmured.

  Jack cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted back to David, “We’ll swim!”

  “I’m going to see if I can get a little closer!” David yelled back. He lifted the boat radio and spoke into it before replacing it and steering the boat toward shore.

  “Make sure you stay by Jack and Mike,” she said to Dylan.

  “I’m a good swimmer,” he said.

  “I know, but I need to know you’ll be safe.”

  He slid his hand into hers and squeezed it. “I will. You stay safe too.”

  She hated that he worried about her so much. Even before they came to the island, the idea of something happening to her terrified him. When he was five, he went through a stage where he would climb out of bed and sneak into her room. She would sometimes wake to find his tiny hands running over her face while he reassured himself she was alive.

  Trying not to cry, she would drag him into bed to sleep with her and reassure him that he wouldn’t lose her. Eventually, he outgrew his need to make sure she was alive, but he never completely rid himself of the fear she would die; her becoming an immortal hadn’t changed that for him.