Love is Darkness (A Valerie Dearborn Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page B

on burning flesh. He screamed.
     
     
                “Jack! Jack! Wake up.”
     
     
                Both hands were on him now, the sheets her accomplices, as they tried to pull him back under. A gasp exploded from his chest.
     
     
    It had been a dream. Marion wasn’t here. Jack wasn’t a boy anymore, but nineteen and strong. Italy was gone, he was in America now living with the people who had saved him.  
     
     
    I’m alright.  
     
                His hands covered his eyes and he heard Valerie’s voice speaking to him softly. But it held a tremor of sadness and fear, so he tried to get himself together.
     
     
                “I’m fine,” he said huskily.
     
     
                “You called her name,” Valerie said quietly.
     
     
                God, he hoped she meant his mother. His breath stopped in his lungs, like a dam had been built before he could exhale. “I was dreaming of my parents.”       
     
     
    “No. You said Marion’s name.”
     
     
                The breath oozed out of him.
     
     
                “It’s been almost two months since you last woke me up in the middle of the night. I guess I won’t charge you for this one.” A pause “That’s good, right?”
     
     
    What was good about it? His parents were still dead, he was still living a nightmare, so what if he hadn’t woken up screaming for a month or two? So fucking what?
     
     
                But he smiled at her anyway, at her overly bright smile and the false innocence she tried to project. Because she did know that things were not alright. Valerie’s own mother had been murdered by vampires and it gave them a bond made of and deeper than blood.
     
     
    “When was the last time you dreamed about your mother?” He sounded normal.
     
     
                Her gaze shifted away. “I don’t remember my dreams anymore.” It was like she was confessing a dirty secret. And maybe it was, because even though he hated the dreams, each time he had them, he was   with his parents again. Hearing their laughter. Watching them live. But when he woke up they were really gone.
     
     
                “Do you want to remember?” he asked, holding her hand in his, as though the dark was slightly farther away if they were together.
     
     
                “No. And you shouldn’t either. You need to block it out. Do what you can to pretend it didn’t happen.”
     
     
                Jack leaned over, turning on the bedside lamp to see her face. “You can’t pretend our lives are…fine.”
     
     
                Her look was intense, like she was at the starting line of a 100 meter dash, “I used to see it every day, and now I don’t. Sometimes, I’m not even sure I was there. And that’s — ”
     
     
                “Sad,” he said, cutting into her words.
     
     
    “No,” she said in a way that made him blink and try to pay attention, “Not remembering her death is a miracle.”
     
     
    Then she stood, shaking her head slightly, so that her long, dark hair curtained her face, and walked out the door. “Get some sleep, Jack. Another big day tomorrow.” She sounded miserable.
     
     

Chapter 3
     
    San Loaran , California
     
    5 years ago
     
     
     
    She could see Jack through the window. She turned the car off and waited for his martial arts class to end. The class broke up and he came out the door towards the car.
     
    “Hey kid, how ya doin today?” He sounded happy. Relaxed. Must have been a good class since Jack was usually wound so tight.
     
    “I swear to God, I will eviscerate you if you don't start calling me by my name.” Her voice was a growl.
     
    “Your perky welcome makes me think you didn't talk Nate out of his little plan for you.”
     
    “No.” It was sullen.
     
    “You know, he only wants what's best for you.”
     
    Really? He wanted