Dark Matter - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 2

Chapter Twenty - Just So We're Clear

            

Leah was in the gym when Marco told her Jared had woken up. For a second, her mind was slow, uncomprehending, the words drifting into focus like polaroid film. But then the clarity came, the disbelief morphing into an understanding that made her brain jump into overdrive.

She'd spent the last week with dry, scratchy eyes, watching Jared's bruises dissolve into healthy skin, his wounds scab and close over. But she never let herself hope, never let herself believe he'd recover completely. Not when she knew what it'd do to her if she allowed herself to and then he didn't.

But now he was back, she couldn't deny the painful relief that rushed through her.

Suddenly, she was sprinting to the hospital, her whole being screaming with unbearable hope. She flung the door open and met Jared's gaze instantly. His eyes were bright and rimmed by dark shadows of exhaustion, his body free of the alertness she was so used to seeing there. But she couldn't deny that he still looked beautiful. Painfully, breathtakingly beautiful, in a way that made the nervous twitch of Riley's fingers against her gun and the sudden curiosity on Andrew's face fade into the background.  

"Leah," he croaked, his voice raspy.

She went to move forward, but ended up hovering uncertainly. Her mind felt murky, almost distant from this situation, as if an unconscious force was trying to protect her from it. 

"You're alive," she said. 

His mouth turned up slightly with that familiar confident irreverence, as if he'd known he'd be fine all along, as if he wouldn't have cared much either way.

"Apparently."

For a moment she just stared, the whirlwind of her relief and disbelief disorienting her. But then, with a speed that left no room for rationality, all that confusion condensed into a sudden, inexplicable fury; fury that he'd suddenly chose to help the S.I.S the moment she'd given up on him, for nearly getting himself killed in the process.

It completely stole her sense, and before she knew what she was doing, she spun around, grabbed a discarded book and hurled it at his head. 

Jared jerked in surprise and ducked out of the way. His arm twisted at an odd angle against the handcuffs, but the flash of pain that crossed his face did nothing to calm her. 

"Leah!" Riley exclaimed. "What are you –"

"I thought you were dead!" Leah yelled at Jared. "You let me think you were dead!"

Andrew's mouth dropped open at her vehemence, but Jared just watched her with a weary resignation, his eyes fixated on her face in a way that only made her angrier.  

"I thought I was too," he said.

"Bullshit!" Leah screamed. "Do you expect me to believe you didn't know that whatever weird powers you have included immortality?"

Jared's jaw clenched, some of his characteristic defiance leaking into his eyes.

"Leah, I swear –"

Just the way he said her name unravelled her, loosening something tight and knotted underneath her ribcage, and she found herself charging at him.

"Do you have any idea –" she began, but she came to a stop when Andrew stood up.

He was regarding her and Jared with interest and she felt suddenly, horrifically, exposed.

Andrew had spent the last week questioning her about Jared. She knew it was her fault, that her grief had been too strong when she thought he'd died for anyone to continue believing he meant nothing to her. But she'd been so careful since; treading on eggshells whenever they talked about him, making sure she didn't visit him too often. She could see in Andrew's expression that her sudden anger had undone all that progress though.