“Lorey… I…” he lowers his head, looking to his feet and even his voice destroys what’s left of my soul. His voice, only mature, huskier, and yet, it’s still him. That voice would hush me to sleep with bedtime stories every single night.
The tears break harder, and I claw at my chest to counteract the crashing burning pain inside of me at the realization he’s really here. After ten years of thinking him dead, yet he’s alive, and with vampires as though I never mattered at all.
“Jasper…. why?” I wail at him, betrayal wracking my body painfully and hurting me on a much deeper level than physical wounds could. “Why didn’t you come for me? When mom and dad died, why did you leave me? You let me believe I was alone, all this time. Do you know how I survived, how I lived? How alone I was? WHY??” I sob, accusing him, hurling my words like weapons, amid the gulping cries of a distraught child.
My brother shifts uneasily on his feet and draws back his hood to finally expose the face I have been longing to see for half my life. Same soft, short, brown hair that flops over his forehead on one side and softer blue eyes under straight brown brows. In an aged face but the features I loved so well, still remain. Handsome flawlessness, much like our father. His eyes damp with unshed tears and he can’t look me in mine as his own shame courses through and shows on the face that always found it hard not to reveal his every emotional thought.
“You were dead… that’s what ….. I thought…. You were dead. The Santo’s they wiped out the clan, they left no one else alive… The farm, the village. It was all destroyed when I came back to find you.” He crumbles, his shoulders sagging as his body slumps in an excruciating way, and he steps towards me. Reaching out a hand and then withdrawing as though he’s afraid of my rejection, of my anger. Or maybe afraid much like I am that one touch will awaken us from this dream, and neither will be standing here at all.
Jasper
I don’t know how to react, what to think or feel. I stare at him, gawping. Somehow rooted to my spot, anger consuming me, mixed emotions swirling around me like a dense fog. Pain, then relief, some inkling of joy and hope, but it all swirls back around to agonizing shards of biting fear as I try and absorb that this is real.
I open my mouth to speak again, but only noise comes out. A whimper of desperate sobbing that breaks me down and in a second, I’m crushed against a strong warm chest, surrounded by arms that used to be as familiar as my own skin. I’m hugged tightly by the one person who used to make my day brighter, before Colton did. Before our world fell apart. I can only slump into him, so caught in memories and how this feels so familiar, so necessary and yet I cannot stop crying against his soft clothes like a wounded child.
“If I had known…. I would have found a way to take you. I would never have left you or abandoned you. I truly, truly believed I was too late. I swear, Lorey.” He mumbles into my hair, his breath warming my scalp and sending shivers across my whole body as I collapse against him. Savoring the feel of him, breaking to pieces, and trembling at his touch. Crying over a million days of haunting pain where I mourned his loss along with my parents.? My brain is so fuddled, confused, and I try to pull fragments of possibility together, so not sure that this isn’t a dream. Gasping to curb my emotional breakdown and sniffing back to some level of sanity.
“But how…” the words push out with a weak tone from the chaos of my foggy head, and I know I need answers more than hugs right now. They all died. Juan made sure of it, so where was he, how did he survive? Why is he with vampires?
He exhales heavily and rubs his hand over the back of my hair, stroking me in such a familiar way that it pains me and cuts to the core like a knife. Squeezing me tight as though his words are going to wound me. My instincts immediately perking up and the red alert flag of instinct moves up my spine in a cold shiver.
“There’s so much you don’t know. There’s so much to tell you. I…… Lorey, the vampires are who saved me. There’s something important… They gave me a home because….” He hesitates, pausing between broken sentences. His voice trails off and his tone fades like a whisper as though he hasn’t the will. I pull back in suspicion, blinking away my tears to focus on his face and the joy and pain at being able to look at him again almost ends me for a second time. I impulsively reach up and touch his cheek, grazing his warm skin. Checking he’s real and bury my face against him again just to be sure.
My brother’s really alive, and here, holding me, telling me that I have someone left of my blood that still loves me. I wasn’t truly alone all these years and had he known, he would never have left me in the home at all, but then …. I wouldn’t have bonded to Colton. I push it aside, knowing now that despite what I endured, I would never give up my mate or how I came to be his. Even if I lost ten years at my brother’s side. I have him now, the fates brought him back to me and all I need is truth.
“Because?” I push where he left off, and then pull away again to gaze at his handsome face and absorb every detail and line that I’ve missed beyond belief. When I realize no answers come, I raise my brow and nudge his abdomen lightly with my palm. He’s staring at the top of my head, avoiding my focus. A look of anguish as though he’s torn about what to say, and even after all these years, I can still read his facial gestures as if we haven’t been apart for half my life.
“Tell me.” I shove my palm into his chest like I did as a kid when he would tease me and hold out on something I wanted to know. His pained half smile at my reaction tells me he remembers me doing this to him so many times as a ten-year-old pup. The happiness of the familiar behavior. His whole body softens but then he lets out a sigh while his brows furrow gloomily and he reaches out to stroke my hair once more.
“No matter what…. you’re my sister. You always were and always will be. I never stopped loving you. You have to know that, before…… just tell me you hear me, okay?” His words tremble, his voice low and almost pleading with me to agree to his terms. Dread rises in my stomach, and I pull at his sleeve nervously, yanking his hand back to my head almost childishly for reassurance. Confused and reverting to habits of old and it only seems to wound him more so. My youthful behaviors so effortlessly returning when my brother is holding me tight. He was always my guardian, my best friend, and my mentor. The protector who was always ready to kiss my boo boo’s and carry me home.
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