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Chapter or Story
So this idea's been nagging at me. I choose to believe it is why I can't focus on "Matter of Blood," so I figured I needed to purge it once and for all, lol. Hopefully I can knock it out in about three parts. So here is part one. And thanks to imagine for keeping me TP inspired!
Oh, and I still don't own them... sadly.
Vendetta, Part 1 by NR Levy
She woke with a start, her eyes blinking against the bright light coming in through the window. Looking down, she discovered she was naked, her body wrapped in soft cotton sheets on a large, comfortable bed.
Her first thought was where the hell am I?
Her second was that she was going to be sick.
Rising, she bolted from bed and searched for the bathroom. She found it just before her stomach rebelled against her completely, leaving her weak and shaking on the tile floor.
[i]"Stay calm. You're safe.[/i]
She shook her head. The words had come from inside of her mind, but they weren't her thoughts.
[i]"Stay calm."[/i]
But she wasn't calm. She was scared and confused and she felt like hell.
Rising on unsteady legs, she made her way to the sink and ran the tap, using the cool water to rinse out her mouth. Then she looked in the mirror and saw the stark blue eyes and dark hair in her reflection staring back.
The realization that she did not know the name of the face staring back at her left her trembling as she slid back to the floor.
*****
Jarod rushed down the street, the supplies he'd needed jammed into two shopping bags. When his cell phone rang, he shifted his purchases into one hand and grabbed the ringing device with his now free right hand.
"Hello."
"She's panicking," Ethan said. His voice was strained and halting--a definite indication that not only was he correctly assessing his sister's emotional state but that, as usual, her upset was paining him physically.
"I'm almost back at the apartment," Jarod reported as he picked up his pace.
"They're trying to help her relax, but she's terrified. I'll... I'll get there as soon as I can."
"We'll be waiting for you."
The call ended, and Jarod shoved the phone back in his pocket, moving even more quickly. When the brownstone came into sight, he broke into a full run, taking the steps two at a time as he made his way up to the entrance to his unit.
"Parker."
He called out to her, the door closing loudly behind him. When he was met with only silence, Jarod dropped the bags on the couch and headed into the bedroom. When he saw the bed was empty, Ethan's words played back in his head.
"Parker, it's Jarod. Where are you?"
A soft whimper reached him from the bathroom, and Jarod moved toward it. He tried to muffle the sound as he gasped at seeing her sitting on the floor, her knees drawn to her chest, her body draped in one of his black t-shirts. She was shaking, tear stains on her cheeks, and Jarod was certain that even in their most intimate of moments, he had never seen her less Miss Parker-like than she was now.
"I'm sorry I had to leave you." Jarod spoke as he moved still closer to her. When she drew back from him, he stopped cold. Something was wrong.
"Parker?"
"Is that my name?"
She sounded devastated and weak and hearing it nearly killed him.
"Yes," he replied, making his voice as gentle as he could. "And my name is Jarod."
His stomach tightened as he eased down to the floor so that he could look at her eye-level, hoping it would make his presence less intimidating to her. She glanced toward him, then lowered her eyes back to the floor.
"What happened to me?"
Jarod drew in a long breath as he fought to keep his own fear in check. Parker had lost her memory. More than likely, that was just temporary, but right now, he had to find a way to help her deal with the panic Ethan had sensed.
"I'm not sure," he finally answered. "You called me and asked me to meet you here. We, uh, meet here sometimes."
She looked at him doubtfully, but then he saw her right hand rise up and rub at her temple, her eyes closing reflexively a moment. Finally, she looked back to him.
"Why did I come here?"
He shook his head. "You wanted to wait until we were together to talk. I got here first, and then you were late. You're never late. I got worried, and I went out to look for you. Then early this morning, I heard a knock. When I opened the door, you just collapsed in my arms."
The weight of her eyes on him compelled Jarod to try and find more information to give her, though he knew there were certain facts he would continue to withhold. Parker was already overwhelmed.
"You have a concussion. A pretty bad one, considering your memory loss," he explained. "You also have some scrapes and bruises. That's why I went out. I needed some supplies to take care of you."
Jarod waited for some acknowledgement that Parker had heard him, but then she clutched at her head and groaned.
"I can't... it won't stop."
"What won't stop, babe?"
The endearment slipped from his lips and though he was terrified of making her more fearful, Jarod eased closer to her.
"What is that... thing... in my head?"
"It sounds like talking, only you can't pick out any of the words?"
Parker nodded and raised her eyes to his.
"It's... that's not something that's easy to explain." Jarod paused, truly stymied. How could he possibly explain her inner sense to her when he could barely fathom the odd gift she and their brother shared? But he had to try. "I guess it's like... something inside of you that tries to help you know what path to take, what to do. You've gotten pretty good at reading it, but you're hurt, and right now, I think the voices are just trying to help you feel better."
She nodded slightly and closed her eyes before her head leaned back against the wall. Jarod watched and noticed her drawing in deep, slow breaths. He stayed still, unsure if she was in pain or trying to think through what he'd told her. Then her blue eyes shot open.
"What's my brother's name?"
Jarod smiled. "Ethan. He's on his way here to help me take care of you."
"That's... that's what they said."
Hope sparked at the realization that even in her current state, Parker's instincts were working. She wanted proof that she could trust him, and confirming the nearly indistinct whispers in her head had given her evidence she could process in spite of her absent memories.
"Jarod... I don't... I don't feel good."
Moving slowly, Jarod inched closer to her and he carefully lifted his hand up, moving to brush the hair out of her face.
"I know," he replied. "You need to rest, and you're dehydrated, so I need to get you hooked up to an I.V. Parker... I promise you, you're safe here. I won't let anyone hurt you. I won't hurt you."
He had hoped she'd take his hand, at least let him help her up and back to bed. When Parker instead leaned into him, her head coming to rest on his shoulder, he nearly cried with relief at having her safely tucked against his body, and his arms instantly wrapped around her.
"I believe you," she whispered.
Though he could have held her indefinitely, Jarod had been very serious about her need to get back into bed so he could give her the medical care she needed. He slipped his right arm under her knees and lifted her up, cradling her against his chest. Then silently, he carried her back to the bed and laid her down in the center of it.
By the time he pulled back to tell her he was going grab the bags of medical supplies, Parker was sound asleep.
Taking his time, he repeated the careful examination he had done earlier, fearful now that he might have missed an injury that was contributing to her amnesia. But he found nothing. Parker had been hit in the back of the head and hit hard, and she had fought like hell with someone in order to acquire all the small wounds on her body. He cleaned the cut on her head and probed gently to be sure the swelling hadn't worsened. Then with great care, he tended to each nick and bruise on her skin. Finally, he set up the I.V. and began the important process of re-hydrating her.
And then Jarod leaned down and laid his cheek against Parker's stomach so that his eyes
were staring up at her sleeping face. The blood test he had snuck into County Hospital to run had not only told him what her body needed, but had also confirmed what he'd discovered during his earlier examination. He knew it was why she had wanted to see him, and he could only pray now that what had befallen Parker had nothing to do with the secret she had so wanted to share with him.
"We'll figure this out," he whispered, making the promise to himself, to her and to the life they had made together. "We'll be okay."
*****
Lyle stood at the gravesite and stared at the small marker she had left behind. Almost no one else would have understood its significance, but he knew... and he could imagine the care his sister had taken in choosing just the right rocks to make the small pile of smooth stones that were so oddly out of place here in the middle of the woods.
Leaning down, Lyle picked up one of the small objects and held it in his hands.
"She loved you so much," he whispered as he looked not down at the ground but up into the sky, some part of him hoping that all the stories he'd heard growing up about heaven were true... even if it also meant that hell was real and it was where he'd be spending all of eternity.
"I hope you know that, wherever you are. I hope you know how much you meant to her. Maybe in that place, you even get to know what you meant to me."
The chirping of his Blackberry shattered the quiet of the sacred space, and Lyle returned the stone to the exact location he had taken it from, then walked back to his car before looking down at the message he'd received.
"I missed this time. But next time..."
Lyle fought the urge to smash the device as fury raged through him.
There would be no next time... Lyle would see to that. No one was going to make him break his promise.
*****
Jarod eyed the clock and then let his gaze drift back to Parker. She was still asleep, and he hoped that she was getting some real rest and that it would help her begin to recover her memory.
Though it had terrified him to see her so vulnerable, so confused and uncertain, he was not wholly surprised that, given a traumatic incident, Parker's mind had acted to protect itself and provide a layer of insulation against more pain, more darkness. After a lifetime of accumulated hurts, Jarod knew that this past year had left fresh wounds that had barely begun to heal before another one was torn open.
He remembered always thinking nothing could do as much damage to her soul as the murder of her mother. The effect of that particular Raines' brutality was evident in almost every aspect of Parker's life--her fear of love, her distrust of happiness, her instinct to strike first and ask questions later. But never had the pain of Catherine's murder been able to fully undo all the good that the mother had crafted inside her daughter before being torn away. At the center of her being, Miss Parker was every bit Catherine Parker's daughter. It was that fundamental truth that had allowed her to retain her humanity despite the Centre. That Parker was the one Jarod had never been able to leave behind.
Restless, he stood and stepped a bit further away from the bed so that his movement wouldn't wake her. Sometimes, back before that odd and fateful week had changed everything, Jarod had wished so much that he could somehow break the connection that kept him bound to Parker. It would've made it all so much easier, allowing him to focus on finding his family without the distraction of "is she all right, does she need me?" running through his head all day and all night. But he'd never given voice to the wish, and now Jarod wondered if he'd simply been afraid it would be the one prayer God would've grant him.
[i]"She needs you, Jarod. You have to find her."[/i]
It was the sadness in Sydney's voice more than anything that had made it clear something was desperately wrong.
[i]"It's Johnny. He... he died."[/i]
Jarod closed his eyes at the memory of Sydney's words. Johnny... John... the child that had gone from being Parker's half-brother to a tragic Centre ward with the revelation that Mr. Parker could not father children. But to her, it had never mattered. John needed a family, and she had become it. She ignored Raines' warnings of punishment if she interfered in the boy's training and glared at the gossips who spoke in hushed tones about who the boy's real father must be. It was she who had decided Baby Boy Parker needed a name, and she'd simply tagged him with John and dared anyone to say otherwise.
Parker had brought John into the world. She would not abandon him while she remained in it. It had never occurred to anyone that he would be the one to leave her first.
When he had found her at Sydney's lakeside cabin, Jarod's heart had nearly stopped. She was broken... finally, completely broken. And then the powerful muscle in his chest had literally skipped a beat when he'd realized that the gun in her hands was pointed not at him, but at herself.
[i]"Parker."
"I can't... I... I keep trying to pull the trigger, and I can't."
He moved to her instantly, kneeling in front of the couch, his hands carefully wrapping over hers so that she could not move the gun.
"No," he said, "you can't, because this isn't you, Parker. It's your grief, and I understand, but you can't do this."
"I promised him." Her voice broke as tears flowed over her cheeks, her eyes unblinking as she stared through him. "I promised Johnny I would protect him. But I couldn't save him. I couldn't save him."
She let him pull the gun away, and Jarod threw it across the room out of her reach. It was only when he tried to wrap his arms around her that she fought him, her formerly limp body suddenly powerful as she beat at him with her fists. But Jarod fought back, accepting the blows against his arms, shoulders and chest so that he could finally gain position on her and drag her against him, her arms pinned at her sides.
"Let him go, Parker. You have to let him go. Let him go."[/i]
He had whispered the words against her hair over and over, softly, calmly, until finally the fight had gone out of her and instead grief poured freely from Parker's body. It purged itself in the wetness of her tears and the sound of her screams and while it raged, Jarod held fast.
For long hours that night, the pretender had faced his worst fear--not Parker's death, but her destruction. And when she had finally drifted off to sleep in his arms, he had been genuinely afraid of who he would see in her eyes when she finally awoke.
That he felt a similar fear today only set Jarod's nerves more on edge. Surface-level, his worries were about their physical survival. Someone had attacked her, and he still had no idea if it was random or if someone had targeted Parker for reasons still to be uncovered. And personally, he wondered at his own ability to stay rational if months of his life... of his life with her... were now gone from her memory never to return.
The soft beeping of the security system panel told Jarod someone had accessed the building. He moved to the monitor and saw Ethan preparing to put his key in the lock of the front door. A moment later, the brothers greeted one another at the entry.
"How is she?" Ethan asked as he pulled back from their embrace.
"She's lost her memory. Physically, other than that, she'll be fine."
Ethan nodded. "Did the voices frighten her?"
"A little at first," Jarod replied, "but she trusted them instinctively. They told her she was safe with me, and she believed them."
"That's good," his brother said. "Her amnesia can't be that deep if she's clear that her inner sense is protecting her. We just have to help her fight her way past whatever's blocking her. And then I need to go to Blue Cove."
"Blue Cove? Why?"
Jarod stared at the young man before him and waited as Ethan turned and fixed his eyes on Parker's still sleeping in the other room. The tension in his shoulders and the slight grimace on his face told Jarod his brother was still feeling a fair amount of discomfort from his deep psychological connection to the sister he had come to adore.
"He knows something... something about what happened."
"Who knows, Ethan?"
"My brother. My other brother."
Anger surged through Jarod as he realized who Ethan meant. "Lyle?"
His half-sibling's dark eyes sought Jarod's out. "He didn't hurt her. But he knows something... and I think I can get him to tell me."
"What in the world makes you think Lyle would do anything to help you or Parker?" Jarod asked angrily. "He's tried to kill her himself a half dozen times at least."
"He could be playing a game," Ethan answered, "but I doubt he could control it well enough. This feels real to me."
"What does?"
Ethan sighed and leaned against the doorjamb. "It's hard to explain exactly. But... he's reaching out... he's trying to find me. And I need to find out why."
TBC :)
Oh, and I still don't own them... sadly.
Vendetta, Part 1 by NR Levy
She woke with a start, her eyes blinking against the bright light coming in through the window. Looking down, she discovered she was naked, her body wrapped in soft cotton sheets on a large, comfortable bed.
Her first thought was where the hell am I?
Her second was that she was going to be sick.
Rising, she bolted from bed and searched for the bathroom. She found it just before her stomach rebelled against her completely, leaving her weak and shaking on the tile floor.
[i]"Stay calm. You're safe.[/i]
She shook her head. The words had come from inside of her mind, but they weren't her thoughts.
[i]"Stay calm."[/i]
But she wasn't calm. She was scared and confused and she felt like hell.
Rising on unsteady legs, she made her way to the sink and ran the tap, using the cool water to rinse out her mouth. Then she looked in the mirror and saw the stark blue eyes and dark hair in her reflection staring back.
The realization that she did not know the name of the face staring back at her left her trembling as she slid back to the floor.
*****
Jarod rushed down the street, the supplies he'd needed jammed into two shopping bags. When his cell phone rang, he shifted his purchases into one hand and grabbed the ringing device with his now free right hand.
"Hello."
"She's panicking," Ethan said. His voice was strained and halting--a definite indication that not only was he correctly assessing his sister's emotional state but that, as usual, her upset was paining him physically.
"I'm almost back at the apartment," Jarod reported as he picked up his pace.
"They're trying to help her relax, but she's terrified. I'll... I'll get there as soon as I can."
"We'll be waiting for you."
The call ended, and Jarod shoved the phone back in his pocket, moving even more quickly. When the brownstone came into sight, he broke into a full run, taking the steps two at a time as he made his way up to the entrance to his unit.
"Parker."
He called out to her, the door closing loudly behind him. When he was met with only silence, Jarod dropped the bags on the couch and headed into the bedroom. When he saw the bed was empty, Ethan's words played back in his head.
"Parker, it's Jarod. Where are you?"
A soft whimper reached him from the bathroom, and Jarod moved toward it. He tried to muffle the sound as he gasped at seeing her sitting on the floor, her knees drawn to her chest, her body draped in one of his black t-shirts. She was shaking, tear stains on her cheeks, and Jarod was certain that even in their most intimate of moments, he had never seen her less Miss Parker-like than she was now.
"I'm sorry I had to leave you." Jarod spoke as he moved still closer to her. When she drew back from him, he stopped cold. Something was wrong.
"Parker?"
"Is that my name?"
She sounded devastated and weak and hearing it nearly killed him.
"Yes," he replied, making his voice as gentle as he could. "And my name is Jarod."
His stomach tightened as he eased down to the floor so that he could look at her eye-level, hoping it would make his presence less intimidating to her. She glanced toward him, then lowered her eyes back to the floor.
"What happened to me?"
Jarod drew in a long breath as he fought to keep his own fear in check. Parker had lost her memory. More than likely, that was just temporary, but right now, he had to find a way to help her deal with the panic Ethan had sensed.
"I'm not sure," he finally answered. "You called me and asked me to meet you here. We, uh, meet here sometimes."
She looked at him doubtfully, but then he saw her right hand rise up and rub at her temple, her eyes closing reflexively a moment. Finally, she looked back to him.
"Why did I come here?"
He shook his head. "You wanted to wait until we were together to talk. I got here first, and then you were late. You're never late. I got worried, and I went out to look for you. Then early this morning, I heard a knock. When I opened the door, you just collapsed in my arms."
The weight of her eyes on him compelled Jarod to try and find more information to give her, though he knew there were certain facts he would continue to withhold. Parker was already overwhelmed.
"You have a concussion. A pretty bad one, considering your memory loss," he explained. "You also have some scrapes and bruises. That's why I went out. I needed some supplies to take care of you."
Jarod waited for some acknowledgement that Parker had heard him, but then she clutched at her head and groaned.
"I can't... it won't stop."
"What won't stop, babe?"
The endearment slipped from his lips and though he was terrified of making her more fearful, Jarod eased closer to her.
"What is that... thing... in my head?"
"It sounds like talking, only you can't pick out any of the words?"
Parker nodded and raised her eyes to his.
"It's... that's not something that's easy to explain." Jarod paused, truly stymied. How could he possibly explain her inner sense to her when he could barely fathom the odd gift she and their brother shared? But he had to try. "I guess it's like... something inside of you that tries to help you know what path to take, what to do. You've gotten pretty good at reading it, but you're hurt, and right now, I think the voices are just trying to help you feel better."
She nodded slightly and closed her eyes before her head leaned back against the wall. Jarod watched and noticed her drawing in deep, slow breaths. He stayed still, unsure if she was in pain or trying to think through what he'd told her. Then her blue eyes shot open.
"What's my brother's name?"
Jarod smiled. "Ethan. He's on his way here to help me take care of you."
"That's... that's what they said."
Hope sparked at the realization that even in her current state, Parker's instincts were working. She wanted proof that she could trust him, and confirming the nearly indistinct whispers in her head had given her evidence she could process in spite of her absent memories.
"Jarod... I don't... I don't feel good."
Moving slowly, Jarod inched closer to her and he carefully lifted his hand up, moving to brush the hair out of her face.
"I know," he replied. "You need to rest, and you're dehydrated, so I need to get you hooked up to an I.V. Parker... I promise you, you're safe here. I won't let anyone hurt you. I won't hurt you."
He had hoped she'd take his hand, at least let him help her up and back to bed. When Parker instead leaned into him, her head coming to rest on his shoulder, he nearly cried with relief at having her safely tucked against his body, and his arms instantly wrapped around her.
"I believe you," she whispered.
Though he could have held her indefinitely, Jarod had been very serious about her need to get back into bed so he could give her the medical care she needed. He slipped his right arm under her knees and lifted her up, cradling her against his chest. Then silently, he carried her back to the bed and laid her down in the center of it.
By the time he pulled back to tell her he was going grab the bags of medical supplies, Parker was sound asleep.
Taking his time, he repeated the careful examination he had done earlier, fearful now that he might have missed an injury that was contributing to her amnesia. But he found nothing. Parker had been hit in the back of the head and hit hard, and she had fought like hell with someone in order to acquire all the small wounds on her body. He cleaned the cut on her head and probed gently to be sure the swelling hadn't worsened. Then with great care, he tended to each nick and bruise on her skin. Finally, he set up the I.V. and began the important process of re-hydrating her.
And then Jarod leaned down and laid his cheek against Parker's stomach so that his eyes
were staring up at her sleeping face. The blood test he had snuck into County Hospital to run had not only told him what her body needed, but had also confirmed what he'd discovered during his earlier examination. He knew it was why she had wanted to see him, and he could only pray now that what had befallen Parker had nothing to do with the secret she had so wanted to share with him.
"We'll figure this out," he whispered, making the promise to himself, to her and to the life they had made together. "We'll be okay."
*****
Lyle stood at the gravesite and stared at the small marker she had left behind. Almost no one else would have understood its significance, but he knew... and he could imagine the care his sister had taken in choosing just the right rocks to make the small pile of smooth stones that were so oddly out of place here in the middle of the woods.
Leaning down, Lyle picked up one of the small objects and held it in his hands.
"She loved you so much," he whispered as he looked not down at the ground but up into the sky, some part of him hoping that all the stories he'd heard growing up about heaven were true... even if it also meant that hell was real and it was where he'd be spending all of eternity.
"I hope you know that, wherever you are. I hope you know how much you meant to her. Maybe in that place, you even get to know what you meant to me."
The chirping of his Blackberry shattered the quiet of the sacred space, and Lyle returned the stone to the exact location he had taken it from, then walked back to his car before looking down at the message he'd received.
"I missed this time. But next time..."
Lyle fought the urge to smash the device as fury raged through him.
There would be no next time... Lyle would see to that. No one was going to make him break his promise.
*****
Jarod eyed the clock and then let his gaze drift back to Parker. She was still asleep, and he hoped that she was getting some real rest and that it would help her begin to recover her memory.
Though it had terrified him to see her so vulnerable, so confused and uncertain, he was not wholly surprised that, given a traumatic incident, Parker's mind had acted to protect itself and provide a layer of insulation against more pain, more darkness. After a lifetime of accumulated hurts, Jarod knew that this past year had left fresh wounds that had barely begun to heal before another one was torn open.
He remembered always thinking nothing could do as much damage to her soul as the murder of her mother. The effect of that particular Raines' brutality was evident in almost every aspect of Parker's life--her fear of love, her distrust of happiness, her instinct to strike first and ask questions later. But never had the pain of Catherine's murder been able to fully undo all the good that the mother had crafted inside her daughter before being torn away. At the center of her being, Miss Parker was every bit Catherine Parker's daughter. It was that fundamental truth that had allowed her to retain her humanity despite the Centre. That Parker was the one Jarod had never been able to leave behind.
Restless, he stood and stepped a bit further away from the bed so that his movement wouldn't wake her. Sometimes, back before that odd and fateful week had changed everything, Jarod had wished so much that he could somehow break the connection that kept him bound to Parker. It would've made it all so much easier, allowing him to focus on finding his family without the distraction of "is she all right, does she need me?" running through his head all day and all night. But he'd never given voice to the wish, and now Jarod wondered if he'd simply been afraid it would be the one prayer God would've grant him.
[i]"She needs you, Jarod. You have to find her."[/i]
It was the sadness in Sydney's voice more than anything that had made it clear something was desperately wrong.
[i]"It's Johnny. He... he died."[/i]
Jarod closed his eyes at the memory of Sydney's words. Johnny... John... the child that had gone from being Parker's half-brother to a tragic Centre ward with the revelation that Mr. Parker could not father children. But to her, it had never mattered. John needed a family, and she had become it. She ignored Raines' warnings of punishment if she interfered in the boy's training and glared at the gossips who spoke in hushed tones about who the boy's real father must be. It was she who had decided Baby Boy Parker needed a name, and she'd simply tagged him with John and dared anyone to say otherwise.
Parker had brought John into the world. She would not abandon him while she remained in it. It had never occurred to anyone that he would be the one to leave her first.
When he had found her at Sydney's lakeside cabin, Jarod's heart had nearly stopped. She was broken... finally, completely broken. And then the powerful muscle in his chest had literally skipped a beat when he'd realized that the gun in her hands was pointed not at him, but at herself.
[i]"Parker."
"I can't... I... I keep trying to pull the trigger, and I can't."
He moved to her instantly, kneeling in front of the couch, his hands carefully wrapping over hers so that she could not move the gun.
"No," he said, "you can't, because this isn't you, Parker. It's your grief, and I understand, but you can't do this."
"I promised him." Her voice broke as tears flowed over her cheeks, her eyes unblinking as she stared through him. "I promised Johnny I would protect him. But I couldn't save him. I couldn't save him."
She let him pull the gun away, and Jarod threw it across the room out of her reach. It was only when he tried to wrap his arms around her that she fought him, her formerly limp body suddenly powerful as she beat at him with her fists. But Jarod fought back, accepting the blows against his arms, shoulders and chest so that he could finally gain position on her and drag her against him, her arms pinned at her sides.
"Let him go, Parker. You have to let him go. Let him go."[/i]
He had whispered the words against her hair over and over, softly, calmly, until finally the fight had gone out of her and instead grief poured freely from Parker's body. It purged itself in the wetness of her tears and the sound of her screams and while it raged, Jarod held fast.
For long hours that night, the pretender had faced his worst fear--not Parker's death, but her destruction. And when she had finally drifted off to sleep in his arms, he had been genuinely afraid of who he would see in her eyes when she finally awoke.
That he felt a similar fear today only set Jarod's nerves more on edge. Surface-level, his worries were about their physical survival. Someone had attacked her, and he still had no idea if it was random or if someone had targeted Parker for reasons still to be uncovered. And personally, he wondered at his own ability to stay rational if months of his life... of his life with her... were now gone from her memory never to return.
The soft beeping of the security system panel told Jarod someone had accessed the building. He moved to the monitor and saw Ethan preparing to put his key in the lock of the front door. A moment later, the brothers greeted one another at the entry.
"How is she?" Ethan asked as he pulled back from their embrace.
"She's lost her memory. Physically, other than that, she'll be fine."
Ethan nodded. "Did the voices frighten her?"
"A little at first," Jarod replied, "but she trusted them instinctively. They told her she was safe with me, and she believed them."
"That's good," his brother said. "Her amnesia can't be that deep if she's clear that her inner sense is protecting her. We just have to help her fight her way past whatever's blocking her. And then I need to go to Blue Cove."
"Blue Cove? Why?"
Jarod stared at the young man before him and waited as Ethan turned and fixed his eyes on Parker's still sleeping in the other room. The tension in his shoulders and the slight grimace on his face told Jarod his brother was still feeling a fair amount of discomfort from his deep psychological connection to the sister he had come to adore.
"He knows something... something about what happened."
"Who knows, Ethan?"
"My brother. My other brother."
Anger surged through Jarod as he realized who Ethan meant. "Lyle?"
His half-sibling's dark eyes sought Jarod's out. "He didn't hurt her. But he knows something... and I think I can get him to tell me."
"What in the world makes you think Lyle would do anything to help you or Parker?" Jarod asked angrily. "He's tried to kill her himself a half dozen times at least."
"He could be playing a game," Ethan answered, "but I doubt he could control it well enough. This feels real to me."
"What does?"
Ethan sighed and leaned against the doorjamb. "It's hard to explain exactly. But... he's reaching out... he's trying to find me. And I need to find out why."
TBC :)
