Page 1 of Forsaken
PROLOGUE
Julian stepped into the doorway of Aida’s room asshe lifted a sweater. Tilting her head, she examined it beforefolding it and placing it in her suitcase. With her back to him,she didn’t realize he was there, so he took the time to appreciatethe slender curve of her back and the black hair falling to herwaist in curls.
The sunlight streaming through the windowsemphasized her ivory skin and curvaceous figure. With herheart-shaped face, she was a striking mix of beauty and innocence.Her fine-boned, delicate hands lifted a pair of jeans from thestack on the twin-sized bed and set them neatly in thesuitcase.
She was beautiful, and she was his, she justdidn’t know it, and he didn’t know how to tell her. As he watchedher pack, he didn’t know if he could ever tell her.
She was leaving this world of vampires she’dbeen brutally tossed into and going back to her human world. Forthe past week, she’d talked endlessly about what college would belike, what she planned to do, and how she couldn’t wait to returnto normal.
He loved seeing her so happy when she’d hadsuch little happiness since her kidnapping and captivity on theisland, but he didn’t know how to let her go. He’d just found her.They’d only had a couple of months together, and he craved aneternity with her.
He couldn’t ask that of her, not when shestill bore the scars of what those bastards on the island did toher and not when her nightmares propelled her from bed almost everynight. The idea of losing her made him want to tear everyone andeverything in his path apart, but the idea of making her unhappystopped all his destructive impulses.
She was his, and that meant he would doeverything in his power to ensure her happiness, even if itdestroyed him.
Unable to look at her anymore, he stared atthe bare walls. There was something so un-teenager about the barrenwalls, and it had been like this before she started packing. Theonly personal thing she had in the room was a framed photo of her,Mollie, and their mom standing on a beach. Aida looked aboutfourteen or fifteen in the picture, Mollie was maybe twenty, andtheir mother wore a bandanna around her head.
Their mother died of breast cancer when shewas sixteen, and this was their last family photo together. Aidatold him it was from the week they took their mom to Cape Cod towalk the beaches, explore the shops, and stuff themselves onseafood. It was the last summer their mother saw.
When Aida told him this story, she had tearsin her eyes as she gazed at the picture, but love made her faceglow. He’d draped his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned intohim in the way she often did.
He was aware she saw him as more of a friendor brother-like companion. He was happy to be what she neededbecause, after the island, she needed someone to lean on, and hewould be there for her.
Aida didn’t turn to look at Julian, but sheknew he was behind her. She hadn’t heard him approach, but thesubtle smell of allspice gave him away. Smiling, she folded anothersweater and placed it in the suitcase before glancing over hershoulder.
Tall and gangly, he leaned against the dooras he watched her pack her suitcase for the thousandth time. Forthe past week, she’d packed and unpacked as she examined herselection of clothes and accessories over and over again.
She was an East Coast girl; outside of moviesand Google, she had no idea what living in Arizona would entail,but she couldn’t wait to find out. When Mollie caught her goingthrough her things for the five hundredth time, she reminded herthat she could always buy things later, but Aida couldn’t stopherself from going over the contents multiple times a day.
It was anxiety more than anything. Before theisland, she never dealt with anxiety, but it was a constantcompanion now. She was going back into a world that hadn’t treatedher so kindly. Her chances of being kidnapped and hunted for sportby vamps again were pretty slim, but she was returning to themortal world armed with the knowledge of the immortal one.
Things would never be the same for her again.She loved the Byrnes and that Mollie and Mike were so happy and inlove with each other, but she was scared to resume life in a worldwhere vampires existed, and she couldn’t tell if someone was one ornot.
If one came after her again, they’d have arude awakening, as she’d spent a fair amount of her summer learningself-defense from Julian. She’d also packed some pepper spray andknew how to use a weapon against a vamp. She wouldnotgodown without a fight.
When Julian shifted and rested his handagainst the frame, her eyes were drawn to the muscles in hisbiceps. Younger than most of his brothers, he wasn’t as thicklymuscled as them, but she suspected that would change in a fewyears.
She wasn’t sure if he was still growing ornot; if he was, he would stop soon, and the rest of his body wouldcatch up to his large hands and too big feet. His thin frame wouldfill out more, and he would start to look more like a man than aboy. Already, the scruff shadowing his jaw was getting thicker.
From their time spent walking the woods,fishing, swimming, and drifting on rafts, the sun had bronzed hisskin. Mike said Julian used to spend most of his time with hiscomputers, and he still did spend some time with them, but he alsoenjoyed being outside with her.
And she needed to be outside. After hercaptivity, it was difficult to be indoors for long periods. Shedidn’t know how she would deal with that and her nightmares inArizona—more things to heap onto her growing anxiety—but she wouldfigure it out because shehadto go, even if it meantleaving everyone she cared about behind, including Julian.
She tried not to think about it; otherwise,she might stay. So she focused on the way the sunlight brought outthe lapis blue color of his eyes and the coal blackness of hishair. Boyish in so many ways, sometimes it was easy to forget hewas technically a man, but he was eighteen like her.
However, whereas she was leaving for collegein the morning, he would remain with his family, and she was goingto miss him so much. They’d spent a lot of time together since herrescue from the island, and he’d become her best friend, which wassomething she never had before. She didn’t count Mollie; her sisterwas family, and they would do anything for each other, but she’dnever had close friends outside of her family, until Julian.
She always had plenty of friends, but theywere all in the same social circles, the popular girls. Some ofthem were great people, but some of the others were like sharkssearching for the first sign of weakness. And when they saw thefirst drop of blood, they attacked.
They pretended to like her, but behind herback, they gossiped about her. She knew that, because whenever oneof the other girls in their group turned their back, they talkedabout her too.
She wished she could say she wasn’t one ofthem, but that was a lie. She’d been as eager to hear about thelatest downfall, who was doing who, and cheating on who, andfighting with who.
She’d oohed and ahhed and giggled behind herhand, all while thinking, please don’t let me be next. But she wasno longer that silly, stupid teenager who watched her mom die,never really known her father, and had no idea what she was doingwith her life.
Her time being held captive on an island andfed on by vampires changed her. She was never purposely cruel, butshe’d been selfish. She could chalk it up to the fact most teenswere selfish, but she knew the truth. She’d been afraid to goagainst the others, to stand out, to be different, because theywould turn against her.
While there were times she missed highschool, she didn’t miss the minefield of high school politics orany of the girls she once considered her friends. She hadn’treached out to any of them since coming to live with the Byrnes.And she wasn’t going to contact them when she left here either.
