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Yet she felt slightly detached from the recollection and her voice sounded far off as she said, “My father shoved my mother behind him as the shifters moved toward them. He reached for his sword. She had one too. Mine. But I think she was too scared to pull it from its casing.”
Sheena asked in a soft tone, “What did the shifters want with your family?”
“My father was the leader of the village,” Jade told her. She had no concrete answers but surmised, “I suppose they wanted to start at the top and work their way down. If they eliminated him and the slayers, the people within the borders would be easy to kill and they could take control of the village. Set up camp at the base of the castle as they awaited their army to arrive and take on the king’s men. At least, that’s what the slayers suspected, and I’ve always subscribed to that theory.” Further consideration made her add, “This is probably the reason I was so adamant about following Tanner when the fire wraith’s army arrived before Darien’s.”
Jade crossed to the patch of trees she’d gestured to. She reached out a hand and her fingers grazed the bark of a wide trunk. A chill ran down her spine.
She said, “I remember thinking I should run away. Find a slayer. But I couldn’t move. I was literally paralyzed with fear. I wanted to scream.” The burn in her throat now was as strong as it had been fifteen years ago. “I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. And I know why.”
Sheena didn’t speak.
“I knew there was nothing I could do,” Jade continued. “If I did cry out, the shifters would come after me too. If I ran, they’d follow me and kill me. Yet in my mind, I was yelling at myself to do both of those things to distract the shifters’ attention from my parents. I wanted to get the wolves to chase me, but I was completely immobilized. Something I’ve never forgiven myself for.”
The vampire’s hand rested gently on her shoulder. “You simply can’t accept you’re not always the target.”
Jade’s eyes flashed to Sheena’s concerned face. “I never thought of it that way.”
“Why must you always first think that you should be the savior?”
Their gazes locked. Jade’s heart beat a bit faster. She had no answer for her friend’s question, other than to say, “I have abilities others don’t. Doesn’t that mean I should try to save those weaker than me?”
Sheena looked stricken. “You’re not invincible, Jade. You’re human and mortal. So even if you had distracted the shifters, you wouldn’t have gotten away from them or survived their swift attack. They would have circled back for your parents. Then, Jade, all three of you would be dead.”
Tears crested her eyes. “I know this, Sheena. But it doesn’t comfort me. Can you understand that? I cowered here, and while my mind raced with all the things I should do—all the things I wanted to do—I couldn’t physically move, other than to turn my back and cover my ears and close my eyes when my mother started screaming.”
Her body jerked at the memory and her tears came faster.
“Eventually,” she managed to say, “the ground vibrated and I peeked again, seeing a rider descending upon the shifters with fury. They’d already…dismembered…my parents.” She swallowed down the bile that rose in her throat. “They took off and the rider followed. I only recently learned who he was—Morgan. He killed the shifters.”
“And then came back for you?” her friend asked, her voice suddenly soft and soothing.
“No,” Jade said. “Walker found me. He took me back to Michael’s parents’ house and I had a horrific couple of weeks there, with nightmares and sobfests.” She shook her head. “Nothing and no one could console me. I wanted to be alone. I hated how everyone kept trying to calm me. I didn’t want to be calm. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t do that with all the people around me. So I decided to go to the cottage.”
“And they just let you?”
“I left when they were at the town hall on a Sunday. Michael’s father came to the cottage and tried to persuade me to return with him, but I refused. I think he had it in his mind to forcefully remove me, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. He let me stay.”
“How awful.”
Jade considered the first few years and had to agree. “It inevitably got better. The solitude was somehow helpful. And the fact I felt a connection with my parents when I was at the cottage—that got me through some very tough times. That connection has never gone away.”
“I’m sure your neighbors checked on you regularly.”
“They did. Everyone found some way to assist me, though I’ve always had an independent nature, so I didn’t have trouble fending for myself.”
Sheena considered this then admitted, “I suppose that’s a good thing. Here we’ve been criticizing you for being so autonomous, yet it’s a characteristic that has obviously seen you through difficult situations.”
Jade thought of how she’d recently opened up to her human friends, and how she’d mindlessly brought Sheena to this sacred spot she’d never come to on her own—nor had she ever shared this much detail of the worst day of her life with anyone else.
Brushing away her tears, she asked, “Do most vampires prefer being in groups?”
“Yes. That’s likely why there are a number of them who live within the castle. The shifters prefer the woods, of course. The other demons don’t seem to have a specific inclination, though most of them live outside the castle walls.”
Sheena was quiet a moment then said, “I won’t lie and say all demons want harmony with humans. We still have the desire to be the dominant species. And we want the freedom to not live in fear of slayings.”
“Humans want that for themselves as well.”
“I understand.” The vampire smiled. “I believe that’s why we’re all able to inhabit this world at the same time, with the exception of the offshoots, of course. They do set back our progress when they rise up. But for the most part, the demons in Darien’s alliance are tired of fighting and want to enjoy the fresh air and the green land and the untainted waters.”
