Bloodfire: Other Realm, Frost Family Series Book 2

Burn 16

Jack was still trying to come down from the mind-consuming panic he had experienced upon discovering that Sera was missing. It had been forty-five minutes...nearly a hour of so much stress that he was certain he was already sporting a head of grey hairs. He had never been so terrified before in his life. He had left Aiden to watch Felix, letting his oldest know that if need be he was to sit on the toddler. While Aiden was in charge of the youngest, Jack went out to sea and tried to search the water. When that quickly proved pointless, he began running along the beach, seeing if perhaps Sera had washed up on shore. The few other people he saw he questioned at length and harshly, his temper making his manners dissipate in the face of the truth.

He had fucked up, in a way that he'd never forget. He hadn't stopped to think...Sera seemed so mature, so responsible...Jack found it much too easy to view her as thirteen, not seven. And this time, such a mistake had cost him dearly. But when he finally spotted two figures walking side-by-side along the beach, he rushed over. Even from a hundred feet away, he was able to make out Sera's bright swimsuit.

He had expected some adult man or woman, some creature of the water ready to drag his baby girl off into the waves and eat her. There were more than a fair share of carnivorous sea-based Others that could and would do it too. But instead he had come across a relaxed-looking Sera and a-

"Dad, you found Sera!" Aiden's relieved voice broke through his memories.

Jack nodded wearily. "Yes..."

Felix pushed out of Aiden's arms, rushing to Sera, wrapping her in a hard hug. "Sissy!" he cried, inconsolable. The toddler had been just as panicked and scared as Jack had been, though the child had let his emotions show much more than the man had. "Sissy, Sissy, Sissy!" the boy cried over and over.

Sera kissed the top of the boy's dark head. "Hey...Hey, Felix. It's okay. I'm perfectly fine. I got caught by a wave and pulled really far out. But someone rescued me. I was gone so long because we had to walk back."

"That reminds me," Jack grumbled, keeping a tight hold onto Sera's hand. He was still terrified she'd disappear on him again, in the blink of an eye. "I didn't get your savior's name. What was it?"

Turning a faint shade of pink, Sera ducked her head. "He didn't tell me. He just said to call him 'D'."

Jack blinked, before his eyes narrowed. "Hmm, did he now?" he questioned. That's very interesting...very interesting indeed...He thought, intrigued. Just what was this 'D'-

"I think we should head back," Aiden interrupted Jack's inner musings once more.

Sighing, Jack decided to push aside the intriguing thoughts for a later date. "Yes, you're right. Come on, let's get changed." Please, in the name of all the gods, don't let this make Nisha leave...I've barely begun to try to show her how much I want to change, how much I want this whole relationship, this family, to work. He felt pain lash through his chest and steeled his face to not let it show in his expression. I promised, he reminded himself heavily. If Nisha chose to leave...I promised I wouldn't push for any more again. This is my only chance and I've screwed it up!

I fuck up everything, always, he reminded himself bitterly. What made me ever think this would be any different?

With a breaking heart, he dried off and changed into his casual clothes at the changing station. He refused to let the kids out of his sight and made them walk by his side, all of them holding hands. By the time they reentered the hotel lobby, the large clock face above the receptionist desk read that it was 4:30 p.m. He stopped off at a McDonald's that was inside the hotel. The human restaurant was considered 'rich-people food', since there were very few of the stores of the world-famous food chain opened in the Other Realm. As such, McDonald's in the Other Realm tended to be anywhere from seven to ten times more expensive than a Human World McDonald's.