67

That renders me mute and I gulp down any kind of reaction. The memory of so long ago, Sierra telling me a story of a half breed child who died at the hands of the wolves... she was the child of the vampire king and her blood was spilled by the Lychans. If she was Draculesti and I am too... the fates really are trying to redress the balance and put things back to rights. It's all slotting into place and if this wasn't about me, I would be fascinated and excited at the piecing of the puzzle, but instead I can't breathe and I have to force my face back between my legs to catch it before I suffocate to death

"If this is all true, then you can end it... all you have to do is tell him?" Meadow's voice startles me out of my stupor and snap my chin back up to see them moving closer to me. Her and Carmen have been let out now it's obvious we are not in danger here and Leyanne trusts they will behave. Meadow comes to me in a flash to catch my hand and hold it tight. Giving me her strength, her support when she knows I'm struggling, and surrounds me with that sense of safe I need right now. "The fog.... if the vampires give up, the spell is taken back?" She nods towards Leyanne for confirmation of a possible solution to our own problem and I turn in expectation, seeing that she might be right.

"It's not the simple. Lord Varro has been out there for a decade, no one knows where he is currently. And if we need to go to the high lord, we need proof of you .... That means my going back and letting the mind link show today's events. That I saw you, that I know it's you. If he's to recall the vampires, it's not a case of commanding a halt. His son leads the halflings, they won't just come to heel without his say so. So, after carrying a message from his father, we then need to show Varro you lived as he's cut off any psychic linking from anyone who would stand in his way." Jasper sits down beside me, answering for the witch, all eyes on me and slides his arm around me, getting a wary look from Meadow. The mistrust evident that a male is touching her Alpha's woman. She stares at him for a long moment and then sighs, seemingly relenting that as my brother, he has a right to touch me without suspicion.

"I remember you... Jasper. Nice to see you alive, compadre." Meadow reaches out and gives him an awkward handshake and he throws her a half smile and shrug back at her. It's weird given the circumstances but it's also sweetly heartwarming. My brother who's not really my brother, and my sister who's not my sister, meeting properly for the first time ever. I doubt they knew each other back when we were younger as Santos and Whytes didn't really interact.

"Meadow... and that's Carmen." She nods behind her at the hovering figure who edges closer with apprehension, and Jasper glances up, laying eyes on the new figure for the first time too. It's an instinctual almost polite response to greet someone he's being introduced to. Nothing in it other than reaction because he was raised with manners, but the next second sends everything into chaos. His whole body slams to an unnatural halt that sends a shiver through me as he's touching my body with his and I feel it firsthand.

One moment, one look is all it takes.

The spark, the clap of tension, the forced eye lock as both of them open wide in shock, bodies riveted to weird stiffness like an electric voltage has been administered. The hold of breath, the panicked gasp, and the sudden look of realization on both of their faces, seconds before both fall backwards in dramatic release and crumble to the ground panting. Like tumbling matchstick towers, both end up on the ground, shell-shocked and crumpled, blinking at one another as though only each could hold the answer to what just went down. It's a moment, felt by all around. The heavy atmosphere zinging with emotional fall out that something major has just happened between them.

Seeing it from this side is way less dramatic than being the one going through it, and it stirs up so many sudden emotions as I click on what this is. Colton shooting through my mind's eye but also a low little inkling of warmth and joy. It doesn't alter the shock factor none the less. Jasper just imprinted on Carmen and things just got a whole lot weirder and complex.