"I will defend their lives with my own," Jack vowed.
"I believe you."
"What will we do when they begin to question why I'm not aging?"
David clasped hold of his shoulder. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Jack nodded in agreement. "Why did you follow me here today?"
David broke into a big grin. "I've had my suspicions about you since the day you saved my life. Today was the first time I decided to see where those suspicions would lead by following you. I didn't know what I would find but I knew that something about you was not quite right. You were so fast, so strong." David shrugged as Jack continued to gawk at him, he was completely unable to process this man beside him. "But I thought I'd give you the rope to hang yourself with."
David's hand tightened reassuringly on his shoulder as he led him back through the forest. "I'm glad you've found your home here," he said after awhile.
"So am I," Jack admitted. "So am I."
CHAPTER 12
"Your home," Hannah murmured, pulling him from his memories and back to the beautiful woman lying before him.
"I considered it such," he told her.
"He was like a father to you."
Jack released a small huff. "He was almost nine hundred years younger than me."
"Still, he meant a lot to you and was better to you than your own father."
"He was," Jack agreed. "But more than that he was my friend, the first real friend I'd ever had."
Melancholy crept over her features as she nodded. "Friends are always a wonderful thing to have. It sounds like it was a lovely place to live, when they weren't hiding from your father's men or fighting for their lives."
"It was," he agreed. "Some of the time it was the most peaceful place in the world. Maybe I'll take you there one day."
Her smile was wistful as she shook her head and waved at the towels. "As you can imagine, I'm not much of a traveler, at least not during the day."
Sadness filtered through him, he felt he should comfort her somehow but she hadn't said it in a self-pitying way. He pulled the towel away from her back. The blisters had nearly vanished and her skin was pinker in hue than the mottled shade of red it had been. He had to fight the temptation to lean forward and press a kiss against the enticing hollow of the back of her neck but that wasn't what she needed right now.
"It's looking a lot better," he told her.
"It feels better."
"Good. Now Hannah, tell me about Calvin."
Her recoil was minute and instinctive, but he still saw it before she was able to cover it up. "There's not much to tell," she mumbled.
"It seems like there's plenty to tell. He's clearly interested in you."
He had to stop his hands from clenching into fists at the thought of someone else wanting her. The idea of anyone looking at her in such a way made his fangs extend. His almost total loss of restraint unnerved him as he forced himself to control his frustration. This kind of unreasonable anger was a first for him.
"He's been showing an interest in me since I reached maturity last year," she murmured.
Her words made him focus on something other than the urge to destroy something. He was glad she didn't deny it, but even still it wasn't something that he liked to hear. "I see," he grated through his clenched teeth. "And how do you feel about him?"
Delicate lines marred her brow as her eyes searched his. "Calvin runs this town, he makes the rules, and if I'm going to keep my family and friends safe then I have to play along and be nice."
"I think he wants a lot more from you than you just playing nice."
"I know what he wants from me, Jack," her voice was tinged with annoyance as her eyes held his.
She wasn't the only one feeling irritated though. He rose from the chair and paced over to the door as he ran a hand through his hair. "And you accept this?" he demanded.
"What choice do I have? I can't leave here and even if I could, Uncle Abe can't. Our home is here, our friends are here, this tavern is our livelihood; it's all we've ever known."
"He'll only hurt you." Her eyes darted away but not before he saw a flash of red in them that stopped him midstride. The fact that she wouldn't hold his gaze made a warning bell sound in his head. "Has he hurt you already?"
Jack strode over to her side but her eyes were focused on the wall. "Hannah..."
"Things are different here," was all that she would say.
He remained unmoving at her side as he battled between shaking some sense into her and ripping this room apart with his bare hands. No, he felt like ripping Calvin apart with his bare hands. His gaze ran over her as he searched for any other injury beside the burns on her back. On the back of her hand he thought he saw a faint purplish hue against her alabaster skin but he couldn't be certain.
"What has he done to you?"
"Things are different here," she murmured again.
His patience snapped like a line pulled taut. Grabbing hold of the chair, he jerked it out of the way with enough force that he nearly smashed it into the wall. Her head finally turned toward him. If it hadn't been for the flash of fear he saw in her gaze he may have smashed the chair to pieces in an attempt to ease some of his frustration with the infuriating woman lying on the bed before him.
It took all he had to draw his temper in again. "I'm not going to hurt you," he told her.
Defiance radiated from her as her jaw clenched and her jade green eyes sparkled. "I'm not afraid of you," she retorted.