Forgotten (26 page)

Jace placed his hand over mine when it
was my turn to see his lips. His hand burned in mine as I traced
his mouth. He slowed my hand down, prolonging it. My breathing
became irregular. Keeping my hand on his lush, bottom lip, he
spoke. “Have a better picture of what I look like now?”

I focused on standing. The way his
deep voice sounded, made my entire body shiver. I didn’t answer
him. I didn’t trust my hands to stop with simply seeing his face.
Instead I asked Elsie if I could see her. She changed spots with
Jace. He didn’t bother letting go of my hand until I positioned my
hands on Elsie’s face. He backed off, but I could feel him right
behind me, watching my movements.

I was able to get a pretty descent
picture of Elsie in a short amount of time. Letting my fingers run
the motions quickly, I knew she had full cheeks – even after losing
her baby fat, would most likely have a round face. Her eyebrows
were beginning to fill in, and she had a slight crook on the tip of
her nose. It wasn’t broken, but rather the cartilage formed
slightly to the left. The space between her eyes was slight, so I
figured she had some kind of Asian descent.

“
So, I assume you have
beautiful black hair?” I said, running my hands down her shoulder
length hair.

“
It’s like you have
superpowers!” Elsie said.

I chuckled, “No powers, Elsie, just
lots of experience using my hands to see.”

Jace blew out a hot breath of air,
which trickled down my neck. My throat tightened. A moan grew in
Jace’s chest as I slowly took a deep breath in, testing how my
desirability affected him. It was impossible, to feel another’s
attraction, but just as absurd as it was, I still couldn’t get over
the warmth Jace brought me whenever he was nearby. My knees
weakened when he stepped close behind me. He gripped the chair’s
back, steadying himself.

“
Well, whatever you call
it, you’re amazing,” Elsie said, breaking up the intensity in the
room.

“
She really is, isn’t she?”
Jace said, pushing away, but not before tucking my hair behind my
ear. In the quietest voice he spoke, “There is so much about our
world you have yet to uncover, dearest. So much to feel and
experience, I promise, this is only the beginning.”

Supper lasted entirely too long. Jace
sat next to me and never once let go of my hand. I couldn’t even
recall taking a bite of supper. The only thing I could focus on was
him. After excusing ourselves, I escorted him to the door, so we
could get a cup of coffee and discuss my family’s untimely death.
He surprised me, by helping me with my coat. He opened the door for
me. And as soon as we walked outside, the cold breeze hit my
face.

The image of a man’s full,
perfect lips bombarded my mind again. I craved him, addicted to his
touch. Everywhere his hand caressed me, my body ignited in a fiery
passion I didn’t want escape. I leaned into him, begging for a kiss
that would never come.

The vision quickly slipped away when
Jace spoke my name. He grabbed my arm to keep me from losing my
balance. “What just happened, Gwyneth?”

Instead of answering, I pushed him up
against the side of the house next to the door. He moaned in
exhilaration when I reached up for his face. His body warmed me
even though the wind insisted on cooling me. I ran my fingers
through his hair while he gripped my waist. He pulled me close,
encouraging me to do whatever I intended. I never felt someone’s
hair as soft as his. It was longer than I suspected, three or four
inches, but it was styled. Tracing my steps backwards, I followed
along his jaw line, up to his lips. His skin was rough from his
facial hair but perfectly smooth otherwise. I couldn’t find a
single flaw. The tips of my fingers tingled as I focused on getting
an accurate picture of him. His dimples hid from me, but after
relocating the one on his left, I found it on the right. Placing my
palm over his eyes, I felt his eye lashes flutter again my skin.
With the distance between my hand and his face, I knew his lashes
were long and curled.

Pressing myself against him, so he
didn’t try moving away, I let my hands fall from his face and onto
his throat and shoulders. I attempted to quickly get a descent
picture of his muscular development, but each bulge in his arm kept
slowing me down. He wasn’t huge but clocked quite a few hours in
the gym. He was exactly how I imagined him to be.

I skimmed his arms, until his hands
found mine. His pulse jumped with mine, as our fingers slid around
each other. He leaned into me while pulling me closer. I kept my
head down even though I wanted to feel his lips on mine. So badly,
I wanted to feel the hot air come from his lungs, and breathe life
into my body. I bit my lip.

He released one of my hands and tilted
my jaw up towards him. He leaned into me. I parted my lips. His
body was shaking against mine, barely containing his anticipation.
My skin tingled and burned as he started to lose control. He spun
me around faster than humanly possible so my back was against the
house. He pressed himself against me, holding me exactly how he
wanted me. He leaned forward again, but it wasn’t to kiss me. He
trailed his nose along my forehead and pulled me in closer with the
arm he had wrapped around my waist.

He whispered in my ear. “I want
you.”

He leaned back, like he was memorizing
exactly how I looked. With the hand that was on my jaw, he rubbed
his thumb over my lips. They burned with desire, as his thumb
trailed over them. His skin was as hot as I felt. My body tingled
and tightened. He leaned in closer and dropped his hand, enough
that he didn’t block his way to my lips. I gasped, taking in the
hot air he breathed. I wanted him, needed him. As I stepped on my
tip toes to close the gap, he backed away, just enough to not give
me what I craved...

Instead, he lifted my hand and placed
the longest, sweetest kiss on my hand, before releasing me. He
walked down the steps, to his car. My skin drained of heat the
further he went. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to get my
bearings, in order to make it to the car. Jace rested his arms
against the top of the car door, watching me carefully walk down
the steps to the driveway.

Neither of us spoke a word as I
climbed into his car. He opened his door, slid into the driver’s
seat, backed out of the driveway, and drove to JJ’s, without any
directions from me. The purr of the engine didn’t compare to what
Jace had just done to me. Once there, he opened my car door and
offered me his hand for assistance. I couldn’t take it fast enough.
Still not having spoken a word yet, I let him maneuver us into the
coffee shop. Bells chimed upon our entrance, and the rich brew
filled the air. He led me to a booth in the back and left to order.
It took a few minutes, before the coffee was ready. Apparently, the
new staff was having a difficult time figuring out how to make two
black coffees. By the time Jace returned, I’d come to the
conclusion I was being a mute moron. Passive aggressive wasn’t
usually my style.

“
I want –”

“
Me,” Jace interrupted.
“I’m acutely aware.”

“
Answers,” I insisted,
ignoring his comment.

“
I can’t tell you what I
am,” he said, and sipped his coffee. “If I speak it, the horde will
come for me.”

“
Which sister of mine
punched you in the face?” I asked, playing his game. Lily, in my
mind was still my only sister, but I needed his help, so throwing
him a bone sounded like a good idea.

“
She switches names like
it’s a game,” he answered. “Most of us prefer to address each other
by our duties anyway.”

“
Which is?”

“
The Cutter,” he said
blandly.

“
Where does she
live?”

“
Location
unknown.”

“
And my other
sister?”

“
The Prophet,” Jace said,
leaning in closer to me. “Her whereabouts are just as mysterious.
You three have been hiding for quite some time and have gotten to
be perpetually good escape artists. Every time we think we are
getting close to one of you three, you leave town. Finding an
orphan with a paper trail shouldn’t have been so difficult, but yet
you hid for years.”

“
What did you do to
instigate the broken nose?” I said, focusing on what I could
understand.

“
I told her you were the
pretty one,” Jace chuckled. “But the Cutter was maturing into a
complete psychopath at the time, so I wouldn’t put much weight in
her actions.”

Okay, he insisted on me having two
other sisters; I insisted on only having one. Right now the number
didn’t matter. I needed answers on why Lily and my parents were
taken from me – that’s the sister that I cared about. I hesitated
to ask my next question. I didn’t know if I could handle the
answer, but I knew I’d regret never asking it. “My family – that
night they were killed. Why was I spared when they were killed, and
mutilated?”

“
Most likely your parents
posed a threat,” Jace said. “You didn’t appear to be a risk, a
liability, or a target since you were so young. What troubles me,
is how a Hunter could make the mistake between killing a human and
only to spare you. Do you remember anything from that
day?”

I hesitated. I definitely hesitated
too long because Jace was sitting next to me a half a second later.
He put his arm behind me, resting along the back of the booth. It
felt like he was protecting me from the rest of the world while I
spoke my confession.

“
Not enough.” I thought
through every detail of my vision. “I can’t even remember seeing
more than one person.”

Jace sat in silence, weighing my
words. His knee swayed under the table. He never brushed my leg. If
I didn’t know better, he was playing with the warmth he/we/I
created between us. “You act like this memory recently
developed.”

“
I’ve been suffering the
aftermath that man instigated my whole life, but I’m recalling more
every day,” I said, thinking of the vision of how he bent over Lily
with the knife in hand. My eyes began to water, as -
I pictured the knife, shining in the light. It
was a surreal view from my vision. For the briefest moment, I
thought it was my eyes that were being threatened with the knife,
not my sister’s. It was like we suddenly traded places – or he
decided to hurt my sister instead of me. It didn’t really matter -
it felt like I was living my sister’s last second of her life, but
then watching her die from another person’s viewpoint.
“Take me to the house.”

“
A
man
did this to your family?” Jace
questioned. “You’re sure it wasn’t a woman?”

“
Take me there,” I said,
coming out of my trance. I opened my eyes and noticed my hands
trembling, on the table. I immediately rested them on my lap. Jace
did exactly what I hoped he wouldn’t. He reached for mine,
comforting me. Tears threatened to break through my eyes. “I need
to see it again.”

Jace vigilantly stroked my hair. A
heat wave, trickled from his fingers onto my head and down my body,
warming me from the inside out. “Kiss me, and I’ll take
you.”

“
Kiss me, and I’ll take a
page from my sister’s book and re-break your nose.”

He busted out laughing. My ears went
soft; it was like I was given a drug every time he
laughed.

“
I’ll take you to the house
after you meet the others, I promise,” he said seriously after I
squealed in a way I’d rather not admit to doing. Tickling my ear
with his finger, he traced designs on my skin. “But kiss me
anyway.”

He tilted my chin up. His breathing
deepened, and mine soon matched. He took my hand and brought it up
to his chest. His heart pounded against his chest. Mine matched his
pace. His hand trembled against mine as I lowered my hand, feeling
just how chiseled his chest actually was. Releasing my chin, he
traced his fingertips over my eyelids. They burned like fire, but I
didn’t care. He whispered that there was nothing more he’d rather
give me, than my sight…I just had to give him permission. Moving
his hand carefully behind my head, he leaned in, so his lips were
inches from mine.

Instead of closing the gap, he began
to moan words I had no understanding of, but they sounded like
every promise I needed to hear. I could feel the deep vibrations
trickle from his throat, flowing into my throat. Squirming while
listening to the melody I didn’t understand, I couldn’t take it
anymore. I had to know, I needed to know what his lips felt
like.

I leaned close and then was slammed
with a wave of nausea. My eyes burned like they were being doused
with poison. I pulled away and pressed my hands over my face. My
body shook. Jace yelled in the language I didn’t understand. His
anger trickled over my skin, and ignited my body with his
resentment.

“
Mute yourself, Analee!”
Jace demanded, pushing himself as far away from me as possible.
“You’re as likely to kill her as to make her an Addict, especially
with so many of us around!”

“
Addicts are fun.” Zalen’s
voice rippled through my ears like a sound wave.

“
Thought you were positive
she’s the Chronicler,” Analee said, crossing her arms.