SpellBound UNFINISHED AND ONHOLD

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

*Timothy Blackburn*

We stood at the double doors as I carried Stephanie in my arms and Jessica slammed to orchid-carved iron knocker against the doors for the millionth time. We’ve been here for ten minutes at the least and no one has come to the door. No lights were lit from the inside and from where I stood this situation was hopeless.

"No one is home." Mellissa whined from behind us. I could tell that most of us wanted to slap her or maybe bang her head on the concrete, but we have enough unconscious bodies to deal with as it.is.

"Come on, Anne. Open the door." Jason muttered under his breath beside me and I gave him a curious look, but that was as far as I got because the door swung wide open to reveal Anne's mom in the doorway. She was dressed differently than the last time we had met her. She was clad in professional wear. A business woman’s suit. She had a tired and exasperated look on her face.

A gasp escaped her as she looked down at her daughter and the others in our arms. Her eyes changed from shocked to menacing in an instance as she turned to Jace. "What did you do?" She snarled.

I was expecting a snarky comment. A witty comeback to her accusations, but Jason only hung his head. His shoulders slipped slightly as he endured the 100 pounds that made up Anne and something is definitely on his mind as the girl in his arms is very light and tiny to say the least.

"Nothing. I did absolutely nothing and that's the problem." Jace answered with guilt. His eyes sweeping over Anne's body, unresponsive in his arms, before looking over at Stephanie who was still bleeding, but less and less.

The look in his eyes was one I've never seen before and I've known Jace for almost my entire life. Love and guilt, mixed with so much sadness that it seemed unbearable. He was a long way away from the Jace who downed 5 shots of Vodka and flirted nonstop at the party. This one knew responsibility and fault.

"Come in." Selene said shortly. "Take them up to the rooms."

Jason nodded and side-stepped into to house, careful with Anne, but just as he was leading the way, Selene grabbed his arm. "Once you've laid them down, everyone else is to meet me at the library. Do you understand?" Anne's mother said strictly, her eyes boring down on Jason before she turned her glare on us.

"Yes ma'am." Jason said curtly and went on his way, leading us down the hallway and up the stairs and into another long dark hallway. He was too quiet, too unlike himself and I knew that he was beating himself up over this and it wasn’t even his fault.

"Just pick a room and tuck them in." He said before disappearing into a room with Anne.

I walked into the room next door and gently placed Stephanie on the bed. Her straight hair was tousled and the front of her shirt was damp with blood. Screw Jason, forget Jessica. I can't get this girl out of my head. I placed my hand on her cheek, careful not to wake her.

She was beautiful. She always had been. I can’t remember when exactly I fell in love with her, but I knew as soon as I realized that I couldn’t. I’ve spent forever trying not to love her, but damn that was just impossible. But hell, I think half of the things that had happened tonight were damn near impossible and every one of us still managed to see it happen.

'She'll never know. She's asleep just kiss her.' My head reasoned, but I couldn't. When I do kiss her again, she will be conscious and she'll kiss me back.
So I begrudgingly walked through the door again only to choose with Jason in the hallway.

"Hey, aren't we supposed to meet Selene in the library?" I asked, fully knowing the answer.

He looked tired. He had a slouch to his normally straight posture and his hair was tousled, not in the way that he usually has it. It looked as if he ran his hands through his hair one too many times. Last night had been sleepless for Jason, I knew that much. He spent all of it worrying about her. Now he’ll spend another night worrying about the rest of us as well. For the first time since I've known him, that playful life in him was gone. He seemed like he could fall asleep any second now.