Melissa de la Cruz - Blue Bloods 3 - Xtra Jacks Story.pdf - BOOKS - SiriusBlack4

**SPOILER ALERT! The following is the story of Schuyler and Jack’s ﬁnal encounter, from Jack’s

perspective. Schuyler has come back from Rio and has agreed to meet Jack at the Perry Street

apartment. The Committee is in disarray. Lawrence and many of the top-ranking members of the Coven

have been murdered. (This event happened before the Epilogue, in which Jack and Mimi reunite.)

The Lie that Concealed the Truth: Jack’s Story

It is my turn to wait. Funny that in all these months that we have been meeting, it was

always she who had waited for me. It was never my intention to make her wait, but my

path to this place has been the more complicated one.

I ﬂip through the pages of Anna Karenina . The book I had slipped under the door before

she left. The book that I found in my locker this morning, returned to me. The light is

good here-I can see all of downtown from the windows. The city is quiet and still

outside. There are no cabs honking, no dogs barking, no ambulances wailing. Instead

all is silenced. An eerie calm.

The door opens slowly. The moment I see her face, I know something is wrong. I

expected it, and yet I am still wounded by it. She does not run into my arms as before,

and her eyes are clouded and gray. She displays none of that happiness to see me that

I took so much delight in for so long. Only a grim acceptance.

“I am sorry about your grandfather,” I say. “Your loss is shared by all.” When the news

came --- that the Corcovado had broken, that Leviathan walks the earth once again --- I

did not react as many of us did, with shock and fear Instead I felt the blood in these

veins stir with vengeance. We will avenge each of our lost brothers and sisters. World-

Breaker is waiting. We will not despair or retreat. We will ﬁght. And we will win. War has

come to us once again, and this time we will vanquish our foes for eternity. I am almost

looking forward to it.

At the mention of Lawrence, her eyes become bight. She nods curtly. “He died because

of me.”

“He died to protect you. It was his duty.”

She stands so still at the doorway, as if she doesn’t know what to do or what to say. And

yet I already know. She will tell me that we must stop meeting because the coven will

need me now, and that she will be saving me by taking herself away... But she could

never be more wrong. Everything in my life depends on her being a part of it.

When we ﬁrst met, I was struck by her resemblance to her mother. But the contrary to

what many thought about my relationship with Gabrielle, we had a deep and

affectionate friendship, nothing more. I loved her as an ally, and because she was our

queen. I love her daughter in a different way. I love her because she has become

something more. She has become my life.

“Come here,” I say gently. “Sit down.”

She shakes her head. “No. I... I can’t stay.”

“You want us to stop meeting.” I have to say it because she will not.

“Yes.”

“Because you think it is dangerous for me. Someone has told you something --- my

sister, perhaps.” I cannot say Mimi’s name in her presence, and vice versa. I cannot

think of Mimi without thinking of the pain I am bringing her, and therefore choose the

easier path: not to think of her at all. I am a coward.

“No.”

“No?”

She walks over, close to the ﬁre, and addresses her words to the ﬂames. “I can’t meet

you anymore, Jack, because I would be lying to myself for the reason that I am here.”

“And what is that reason?”

“That I love you.”

“And that reason no longer exists, is that it?” My voice is light, playful. She is not a

natural ﬂirt; she is so serious always, my love. It amuses me a little. Of course she loves

me. She is doing this precisely because she loves me.

“Yes.”

“Another of my sister’s ideas, isn’t this? ‘Tell Jack you no longer love him. It is the only

way to set him free.’ As if I were a cage bird or a pet lion.” I smile. She is so brave and

full of courage, my darling. She will lose me to save me. She is already made that

sacriﬁce, but I want to let her no it is not necessary. I can ﬁght for both of us, and I will.

“No.” She looks at me, but her face is full of anguish “No, that’s not it.”

It has been centuries since I have felt fear. I do not know fear. I do not have this

weakness, and yet, there is something in her face, in her voice --- frightens me. This is

no girlish deception, no half-hearted attempt. I marvel at my fear, at the novelty of it. It is

like ice in my throat. It is lodged there; I cannot breathe. I cannot swallow.

Before I can say anything, she speaks, and the bluntness of her words strike me as

nothing has struck me before.

“I don’t love you anymore because I haven’t been honest with myself. And I haven’t

been honest with you. I love someone else. I always have.”

A cruel joke. I want to laugh but I don’t. I want to crumple to the ground, but my pride will

not let me. I have never heard these words before. I do not understand them. Someone

else? There is someone else? This is a trick. Another deception. Another excuse my

sister has planted... surely she cannot be... she is lying...

She is telling the truth.

Of all the vampires in the wold, I should know. I do not need the blood trial to ﬁnd out. I

can sense it-the truth is written all over her face. Her sadness. She is sad for me. She

feels sorry --- for me! I ﬁnd her pity more disturbing than her words. It is ghastly and

unimaginable.

How did she have time for someone else? I know are meetings were too few and far

apart. But it was necessary to keep her safe. If I had a choice, but it did not --- we would

have been together always. I lived for those moments we were together, hose few times

in my life that I actually felt alive. Centuries I have slumbered until we met. And I had a

plan for us. I had a future in mind. I wanted to share it with her and was waiting for the

right moment. But the best-laid plans of mice and men...

I am not too proud to ask. “Who?”

“Oliver.”

Her familiar. I want to leave the room immediately so I can seek and destroy the mortal.

He has no chance. She can see it.

“Please don’t --- don’t harm him. I love him. I always have. I just didn’t want to admit it.”

For the ﬁrst time this evening she reaches over and touches me. She puts her small

hand-so tiny, really --- on top of mine. I ﬂinch, as if her ﬁngers were engulfed in ﬂames.

So this is pain. So this is wretchedness. So this is misery. I never knew.

I have nothing to say. I can feel it: the truth. The truth of her love for him, shines all over

her face, and I can sense his presence on her very skin. Such is the way with the

familiars --- their blood brings us to life --- but they are not meant for us in this manner. It

is... repulsive.

“Leave me.” I am ashamed of the strangled cry that ﬂies before I can control myself.

“Jack... I...” She is standing by the doorway. I have hunted down the Croatan, I have

endured the tortures of Hell, and yet I cannot ﬁnd the strength to meet her eyes. I have

to force myself to do so.

Her hand is on the door handle. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I lied to you all this time,” she

whispers.

“GO!” I roar from my throat. I cannot contain myself. I am transformed. I am Abbadon.

Transformed into the demon I am.

I see the fright in her eyes, taste her fear, revel in it, and with brutal effort I catch myself

before I get carried away. I am dangerous and ﬂailing. It is I who needs to leave. I am

gone before she can close the door.

From the street, I watch as she leaves the building. I need to go back. I want to destroy

that place. I want to destroy every memory it brings. I want it obliterated from the

landscape.

But when I return to the apartment I am not alone.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When Schuyler left the building that evening, she thought she would feel at peace.

Instead she felt more conﬂicted than before. The lie she has just told Jack had worked

because she had wrapped it around the truth of her love for Oliver. Because it was her

lie. She still loved Jack. She loved him so much that seeing him sitting there alone, in

the dark, waiting patiently for her, made her love him even more.

She almost hadn’t gone through with it. She hadn’t known what he would say, or if she

would be strong enough to see it through. It hurt her so much, seeing him look at her

that way. She had never seen him so lost or confused.

I take it back! She’d wanted so much to say. I take everything back. I love you. Let’s go

away. Just the two of us, together.

But she had to do it. She had to let him go. Or give him a reason to let her go. It as the

best choice for the two of them.

And it had worked.

She would feel relief --- maybe even victorious.

So why did she feel so dead inside?

As if she had killed the best part of herself.

She had walked slowly up to the avenue to catch the cab. She was moving back to

Riverside Drive. She would not return to that townhouse on Fifth Avenue ever again.

Melissa de la Cruz - Blue Bloods 3 - Xtra Jacks Story.pdf

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