Page 65 of A Bond Beyond Blood
A lifetime with Jackie...
Mental photographs of our childhood, the years I spent chasing her around the playground to the times I began to chase her for a smile, a laugh...a stolen kiss.
Emotional memories of the way my feelings for her changed over the years from friendship...to love...to something even deeper that I didn’t have words for.
The first time we kissed, on a dare, at just eight years old.
The way she held my hand in a vise grip during my father’s funeral and wake, fierce and determined to remain by my side even at just ten years old.
The next time she allowed me to kiss her, years later, when the press of her lips stole my breath and I knew my life would never be the same.
Junior prom, when I finally asked her to officially be mine even though she’d been mine since we were kids—
Then later that night, when she becameminein every way humanly possible.
But eventually the slideshow of memories slowed, dulled, then died altogether, and, I believe, so did I in that moment.When I awoke much, much later, too weak to move and starving with a hunger more intense than anything I’d ever felt before, one memory stood out among the blurry snapshots of that night, stark and stunningly clear in contrast to the rest of the night:
The way he hummed contentedly as he bled me dry.
I’ll never forget that sound.
The shocking blare of a car horn snapped me out of my reverie and back into the present, where I stood on the fourth-floor rooftop of an abandoned warehouse on Christmas Day, as snow fell in gentle flurries around me for the first time in six years.
Right.Time to test this shit out.
I’d either find freedom or die—again—trying.I couldn’t find it in myself to care either way.
I strode to the edge of the building, braced my hands on the short wall, and breathed deeply, steeling myself for what I had to do next.
But I was just as frozen as each flake of snow falling around me.
“Goddammit, Hayes, justlook!”I growled, then forced myself to peer over the edge.
My stomach swooped and my breath caught.I pushed off the wall and hurried backwards, nearly falling on my ass in my haste.Four stories.Fuck.What was I thinking coming up here?
Fisting my hands into my hair, I spun in a slow circle.
Fuck it.I’d either land on my feet or...I wouldn’t.And, really, what did I have to lose?Dad was long gone, Mom was afraid of me, and Jackie...Well, Jackie had moved on, hadn’t she?
No one would miss me if this didn’t end well.
With that pleasant thought, I ran toward the edge and propelled myself over it, realizing a split second before impact that I’d overshot the mark.Rotating my body, I turned just in time to avoid slamming against the brick wall of the neighboring warehouse.
Then, just as shocking as the first time it happened back at Jackie’s place, I landed on my feet in the alley below.
I waited a few beats, then pumped my fist into the air and crowed loudly, the sound echoing against the brick walls of the alleyway.“Fuck yeah!”
I’d landed on my feet.No fucking way.
And I hadn’t even puked up my dinner.
Looking up, I took in the looming building, then surged forward when a rush of adrenaline coursed through me.One more time, I hauled myself inside the building through the busted window and made my way up the stairs to the roof, this time without hesitation.
The best way to get over fear was to go through it, right?
Well, I was about to tear through my fear of heights like the freaking Kool-Aid man.
Flying through the air and surviving the fall was freeing in a way I hadn’t expected.
