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She believed he would return for her, because if he did not, it meant - no. No. There was no way he could have been killed. But what if, what if he had been harmed? What if he was somewhere down one of those dark tunnels, the tunnels she had not chosen? what if he was somewhere down there, bleeding and unconscious? What then?
She couldn't even begin to think about what had happened to Oliver. She hoped Jack had been right, that the Silver Bloods had left him alone.... The Croatan weren't interested in humans... were they? How could she have left him? She would never forgive herself for deserting him. And now, Jack too... Jack was gone as well. Was she fated to lose both of them in one night?
She should go. She had waited long enough. Jack needed her. She had to go looking for him; she couldn't just wait around doing nothing. She took the torch off the floor. But just as she stepped toward the first tunnel, she heard a noise from behind her.
Footsteps. She turned around, brandishing the flame.
"Stay back!" she called.
"It's me'don't worry, it's just me." Jack stood in front of her. He looked untouched, unharmed. Not a single hair out of place. No cut on his cheek. His clothes were clean, and looked freshly pressed. He looked perfect, the way he always did, and not as if he had just battled a pack of monstrous Silver Bloods.
She did not put down the flame. Was it Jack? She remembered the baron's crimson eyes. She had not seen the Silver Blood underneath the human disguise at first. Was this Jack Force or was it something else? Another shape-shifting enemy?
"How do I know you're you?" she asked, holding her torch as if it would save her from whatever creature stood before her.
"Schuyler, I've just narrowly escaped with my life. You've got to be joking," Jack said.
"Stay away from me?"
A thought occurred to her: What if this was all part of the Silver Blood scheme? A deadly ploy? A masquerade? What if they had planned for Jack to 'rescue' her so he could gain her trust? A year had gone by, loyalties changed. How did she know he had not been turned? They had been so far away from all the news in the coven, what if... what if...
"Schuyler, I am not a Silver Blood?" Jack looked angry now, and a vein on his forehead was throbbing. His voice was hoarse from shouting. "Stop this. You need to trust me! We don't have much time, my father can only hold them back for so long. We've got to get out of here!"
"Prove it!" she hissed. "Prove you are who you say!"
"We don't have time for this! You really want me to prove who I am?" he asked.
"Yes!" she challenged.
In answer, he took her in his arms, lifting her up and against the wall. He pressed his lips against hers, and with each kiss she could see into his mind, into his soul. She saw a year of hate... saw him alone, alienated, hurt. She had lied to him and had left him. With every kiss he made her see, made her feel... every emotion, every dream he had of her... every ounce of his wanting and his need... and his love... his all-consuming, life-affirming love for her.
In the darkness they found each other again... and she kissed him back, so greedily and hungrily, she never wanted to stop kissing him... to feel his heart against hers, the two of them intertwined together, his hands in her hair, then down the small of her back. She wanted to cry from the overwhelming emotion that engulfed the two of them....
"Now do you believe me?" Jack asked huskily, pulling away for a moment so they could look into each other's eyes.
Schuyler nodded, breathless. Jack. Every fiber of her being tingled with love and desire and remorse and forgiveness. Oh, Jack... the love of her life, her sweet, her soul...
But how?
How could he still feel this way about her? He was already bonded to his vampire twin, wasn't he? Wasn't he? She had seen the invitations. Mimi in her white bonding dress.
"The bonding..." she croaked.
"It never happened. I am not bonded to my twin."
He was still free. He was still himself, still the boy she had fallen so deeply and irrevocably in love with that even a year apart could not quench her love for him. And he loved her still, she knew that now. They looked at each other, suddenly understanding everything between them that had gone unsaid.
Jack let go first. He looked at the rubble with a frown. The Silver Bloods had destroyed the stone steps that led to the exit ten stories up. Schuyler could see a small pinpoint of light from the hole above.
"That's the intersection. If we get past it, they cannot follow. Hold on," he said, unspooling a coil of rope that was attached to his Venator pack. He swung the hook over the edge and took her by the waist. "Don't look down," he said as he zoomed them up through the air like a couple of superheros.
"Wait! Someone's down there! I think, I think it might be your father, Yes! It's Charles! Wait, Jack!"
The rope slipped, caught; there was a struggle as they were suddenly pulled downward again, back down to the depths... and Schuyler could see, far in the distance, Charles Force battling Leviathan himself, the demon taking the form of a basilisk, a dragon, and a chimera, changing shape and taunting its attacker with mirthless glee.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" Charles Force bellowed when he saw them dangling on the wire above him. "SAVE YOURSELVES!" And she felt it, felt his ferocious might push them out of the hole, send them flying through the air and sprawling out onto the sidewalk. They made it to the surface just in time.
Just behind or underneath, she wasn't sure, she felt a huge wave, as if a lightning bolt had just missed her by a centimeter. Then the universe wobbled.
