Realm Walker (9 page)

Chapter Nine

They arrived at Sara’s house and Juliana climbed out before Thomas had a chance to go around and open her door. He bit back a curse and reminded himself she was capable of opening her own damn door. Even though she shouldn’t have to. He put his keys in his pocket and started up the front walk.

“This way.” She gestured with her hand for him to follow and went around the side of the house. After a glance at the front door, he followed. She tapped lightly on a door and opened it. He was right behind her, but hesitated before crossing the threshold. It had been years since he’d been in his sister’s home. It was possible the wards would no longer accept him. There was only one way to find out. He took a deep breath and stepped into the house. Once he was sure he’d set nothing off, he exhaled in a quiet sigh.

Sara sat at the table, a coffee mug wrapped in her hands, her dark hair piled on top of her head. Her eyes widened at seeing Thomas and Juliana together.

“She’s in her room,” Sara said to Juliana. “She might have given up, but I doubt it. She’s persistent when it comes to you.” She shifted her gaze to him. “Can’t imagine where she gets that from.”

That was his sister, ever so helpful. He watched Juliana leave the room and waited until he heard her steps in the hall above before speaking. “I’d say we’re overdue for a long conversation, you and I.”

She nodded once and stood. “Let’s go to the living room. We might as well be comfortable while we yell at each other.”

Thomas smiled at that. He had no intention of shouting at his sister. She may be several hundred years younger than him, but she should know him well enough to know that he rarely lost his temper enough to yell. And when he did, it was normally at Juliana.

“Sit.” He gestured to the sofa and went to stand by the window.

He turned to face his sister. “Before we discuss anything else, you should know that Juliana and I are United.”

Her spine straightened and she twisted her hands in her lap. “When did this happen?”

“The night before I left.”

In the silence that followed his revelation, Thomas listened for sounds from above. Juliana was still in his niece’s room.

“I can’t believe neither of you told me, especially her,” she said, accusation in her voice, though he didn’t miss the hurt that colored her words as well. “Why doesn’t everyone know about this? It’s not like you to not publicly stake your claim.”

“The next morning she asked for time. I gave it to her.”

She snorted a laugh. “That’s why you left? You’re an idiot.”

He shook his head. “You know me better than that.”

“Then why did you leave? When I think about what she went through...”

He moved to sit beside her on the couch. “Tell me. You’re both keeping secrets. I need to know.”

Sara locked eyes with his. “Not until you tell me the real reason you left.”

He raked his hands through his hair. What to tell her? She wouldn’t believe any lie he came up with. Perhaps it was time to admit the truth. Sara wouldn’t see his actions as a weakness, and if she did, so be it. She wasn’t likely to use it against him.

“I did it for her,” he said, dropping his head into his hands. “She was so scared. Terrified. I could taste it in the air. Feel it through our connection. I didn’t know what to do. Then she asked for time and I realized that I’d had mine. Centuries of it, in fact. She was barely twenty and I’d tied her to me for an eternity. I was so incredibly selfish.”

He sighed and leaned against the back of the couch. “I knew I couldn’t give her permission to experience life without me. And I couldn’t stay here and watch her do it. The only way she was going to get that opportunity was for me to leave.”

His hands fisted where they rested on the cushions beside him. “And then I return and she wants nothing to do with me.”

“You’re here aren’t you?”

“I didn’t really give her a choice.”

Sara snorted a laugh. “Trust me. If she didn’t want to come with you, she wouldn’t have. Even you can’t make her do something she doesn’t want to.”

“Are you so sure about that?”

“Yes,” Sara said simply without further explanation.

Things
had
changed while he’d been gone if his sister truly thought his bride was a match for him. “I’ve come back for her. I’m tired of waiting to claim what’s mine.” He sounded like an overbearing asshole, but he couldn’t make himself care.

He was tired of playing, pretending he was okay with whatever Juliana wanted. And it was time she found that out for herself. As she no doubt was since she was listening from the stairwell. Did she really think a vampire as old as he wouldn’t know precisely where she was in the house at all times? Hopefully she would stay hidden until he got some information out of his sister.

Sara didn’t say anything for a long moment. She closed her eyes and shook her head before focusing on a picture of Rachel and Juliana that sat on the other side of the room. “She sat in your room for two days waiting for you to come back, call, anything. When you didn’t, she came here. I was at work. James was the one who let her in. She was like a zombie. He told me later it was one of the scariest things he’d ever seen, that blank look on her face. Like there wasn’t anything of Juliana left in her.”

Thomas frowned as his sister got up and began to pace. She stopped after a moment and looked out the window. Her voice softened. “She lay on that couch for a week. She didn’t move, didn’t sleep, didn’t eat. She didn’t do anything but leak red tears from her eyes. Finally, at the end of the week she broke down into these heart-wrenching sobs. I thought she was dying from grief, but it seemed to be the catalyst that brought her back.”

He knew she’d be hurt, confused even. Never did he imagine his departure would affect her so deeply. Then he realized what his sister had just told him. “Red tears? The dark fae cry red tears when—”

“Their hearts are broken,” she finished and turned to look at him. “That’s what you did to her when you left, Thomas. You didn’t give her a chance to live her life without you, you
forced
her to live it without you and I think she’s hated every second of it.”

“There’s something else. Something you aren’t telling me. Either of you.” His voice was quiet as he leaned forward on the couch to study his sister.

“There’s a lot I’m not telling you. If I’d known you were United, I might have, but I can’t now. You’re back. She’ll have to tell you herself when she’s ready.”

Damn it. They were running out of time. He wasn’t sure how far Juliana would let this go and the moment his sister realized they had an eavesdropper the conversation would be over. “I need to know, Sara. If she won’t tell me, you have to. What am I missing?”

“I swore I wouldn’t tell you. I was so angry with you for so long, it was an easy promise to keep. I blamed you for most of it, thought about telling you just to hurt you the way she’d been hurt. Lately though...” She turned back to the window.

“For what it’s worth, I came back.”

“And how’s that working out for you?” she asked with a smile.

He grunted. No doubt she already knew the answer to that question, but he answered anyway. “Not well. She is not the Juliana I left behind. She’s changed.”

“Dying will do that to a person.”

Thomas’s heart literally stopped in his chest. “Dying?” His voice cracked.

“Yeah. Twice that I know of, but she keeps things from me so I won’t worry.” She said it so nonchalantly, as if it wasn’t really that important at all.

Juliana stepped from the shadows at the bottom of the stairs. “Three times actually,” she said with the shrug of one shoulder.

A strangled noise came from the back of his throat. Again with the acting like it was no big deal. What was wrong with the women in his life? “Three times?” He looked at the fresh scars on her arm. “Don’t you think you should be in a hospital somewhere? Or at least in bed?”

She frowned. “I didn’t die yesterday. Just almost.”

Almost. Yes, that was so much better. She just
almost
died. He laughed, realizing he sounded half-crazed but unable to help himself.

Juliana shook her head then turned to his sister. “No worries. Rachel was asleep. I heard everything. I would have stopped you if I didn’t want him to know. He’s got to earn the rest though.”

Relief smoothed the lines around Sara’s eyes and she nodded. Getting caught spilling secrets had spooked her. Thomas wouldn’t get anything else out of her.

“It’s time for me to go home,” Juliana said and opened the front door.

“Wait,” he and his sister said almost in unison. Juliana ignored them and stepped outside, shutting the door behind her.

“I need to go after her,” Thomas said. “Thank you for telling me what you did. It’s more than I knew.”

“You knew she was there, didn’t you?” his sister asked.

“I knew, but I needed to hear it and so did she. Neither of us are very good at talking to each other.”

Sara studied him for a moment. “At least you know it, I guess. Go after her.”

He opened the door.

“Thomas,” she said stopping him.

He looked over his shoulder.

“Take care of her this time.”

* * *

Perhaps it was stupid of her to wander out into the dark by herself considering everything that was going on, but she didn’t care. She would rather face both demons by herself again than spend one more moment in that house. She had to get away. She couldn’t face the questions Thomas would have. Not right then.

If he was sincere with his sister about the reason he left, she had some thinking to do. Not that it excused him leaving without explaining, or asking her what she wanted.

Part of her regretted letting Sara tell Thomas how much she grieved when he left. She’d hoped he would realize she never intended for him to leave completely. She never wanted that, but his temper and ego got the best of him. Or so she’d thought. His words were playing on an endless loop in her head. Had he really left to give her freedom? She’d never known Thomas to do anything that didn’t benefit him in the end. She couldn’t see how this did.

The night wind wrapped around her as she walked toward home. Goosebumps rose on her arms, reminding her that she didn’t have a jacket, or even sleeves for that matter. She rubbed her arms roughly with her hands in an attempt to warm herself. After a few moments she gave up, letting the cold sink into her skin and numb her.

A car approached and she willed herself to blend in with the shadows. To not be seen. It had never worked in any of her twenty-seven years, but there was a first time for everything.

The car slid to a smooth stop a short distance in front of her and the passenger door opened. She arched a brow thinking of how many bad horror movies she’d seen that started just like this—the kind vampire pulling over to pick up the lonely hitchhiker. It always ended badly for one party or the other. She considered ignoring the car and walking past, despite the welcoming warmth that seeped from its interior.

“Please.” Thomas’s voice was low, with no demand in it. Just a plea. She couldn’t deny him. She slid into the car and shut the door. “Thank you,” he said but didn’t look at her as he pulled away from the curb.

She kept her eyes locked on the scenery passing her window and let herself stay lost in her thoughts. A dull ache formed in her chest and she rubbed it with her hand as she wondered for a moment if she was going to cry. Then she realized the feeling wasn’t hers. She glanced at Thomas. His eyes stayed locked on the road in front of them, his knuckles white where he gripped the wheel. Every muscle in his body was tight. She could almost hear his teeth creak as he gnashed them together.

Picking up each other’s emotions was just one of the many joys of being United. Her shields were iron tight, and usually so were his. Evidently he’d let them slip. “Thomas.” That was all she said. Just his name.

The car jerked to a stop. Slowly, by degrees, the depression faded.

His hands still gripped the wheel and he looked straight ahead. “I’m sorry,” he said.

She let the silence stretch, uncertain if he was talking about the sorrow he’d transmitted or something else.

“I shouldn’t have come back. Not without talking to you first.”

“That might have proven difficult, as I would have just hung up on you.”

He ignored her attempt to lighten the mood and started driving again. When he stopped in front of her house, she didn’t move. After a while he said, “I never dreamed my leaving would bring you such pain. I knew you’d be upset, but not heartbroken. I hoped only that you would realize that you desired me, wanted me as much as I did you. That we were meant to be together. It never occurred to me that you could already be in love with me.”

“Did you really think I agreed to be tied to you for the rest of my life because I wanted to get laid?” She tried but couldn’t keep the bitterness from her voice.

He reached out his hand but pulled back before he touched her. “I reacted without thinking. I did what I thought was best for the both of us. I thought if I left you’d experience life and come around to the idea of us faster. But I never heard from you. I finally resolved to swallow my pride and come back whether you wanted me or not.”

She stared at him, her jaw slack with disbelief. “Thomas, I called you. Over and over again, I called.”

He went utterly still.

“Every day,” she said, not believing he didn’t know. He had to know. “I called all day, every day for a week. Someone else always answered. The last day I was informed in no uncertain terms that regardless of what I fancied myself to be to you, you did not wish to speak to me and it would be better for everyone involved if I just gave up.” She left out a few of the other things the female stated, mostly because she had no desire to know if they were true. “That was when I broke down on Sara’s couch and vowed never to call you again. No matter how much I might want to. I figured you’d call me if they were wrong. You never did.”

He turned to her, eyes pure black with rage. “Who was it that told you this?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Some girl. Does it matter?”