Shadow Bite || WATTYS 2017

Chapter Thirty-Six

My mind is buzzing with thoughts when I step out of the lovers' bedroom, Emma's ghost-like figure lying on the bed replaying before my eyes. The doctor doesn't even know what it is she's got, but it's obvious that it's more than just the flue now. She's getting worse everyday. These events took my mind off Asher going on a manhunt, but now I might have to deal with another unconscious body. I feel another pang in my heart at the thought of my best friend, so lively and happy to begin with, now lying in her own helpless world. She's so empty now, I can barely even recognise her. Jack even threw in a joke when she'd woken up, which had earned him a snarl from Zander and an apologetic smile from Emma. 

Yup, if you can't laugh at Jack's jokes, then there's something seriously wrong with you. 

And that's what hurts the most - tenfold for Zander. The notion of not knowing, and of not being able to help the person you love because of the simple barrier of ignorance. 

"So how are you feeling?" Jack gently closes the door behind him, and just before it falls into place completely, I catch a glimpse of an exhausted Zander snoring heavily and slumped against the side of the bed where his soulmate lays. If not for the serious situation, I would have found the whole thing funny. 

-I'm fine I guess. 

-You sure don't look like it." He makes a once-over of my disheveled and dirty work-out gear, and sighs in disappointment. "I raised you better than that booboo." I shoot him a glare and trudge down the stairs, where lunch has been laid out on the smooth island counters. 

-I'm so not in the mood. 

-Don't be hangry, it's not attractive." He comments, throwing a crisp in his mouth as I pop myself up on a bar stool and munch loudly on a bread stick. 

"Does it look like I care?" I raise an eyebrow and he makes gagging noises. 

"You'll definitely never change." 

-I'll take that as a compliment. 

-Yeah, no. It wasn't." He retorts, still shaking his head at me as the door flies open. Asher marches in, clothes ripped and claws still extended. His expression looks lethal and ready to kill. 

"You'll find your brother somewhere out there." He growls, and without any other words he just brushes past me and disappears up the stairs and down the hall. I sigh and hold my face in my hands, while Jack just whistles in wonder. 

"What the hell did Jasper do now?" He thinks out loud, and I raise my head to look at him. 

-He tried to kiss me." Jack just stares at me for a few seconds, blank-faced, and before I can say anything else he bursts out laughing. 

He just laughs.

While his twin brother is probably lying half-dead somewhere in the forest.

"I don't get your logic." I mutter, pushing the food-filled plate away from me as my appetite disappears in a second. 

"You can't be serious!" He half-wheezes, half-coughs, thumping his chest dramatically with his fist to regain his breath. "That's why he looked all cave-man at you? In the I'm-pissed-and-I'm-gonna-kill-you-because-you-looked-at-my-lady way?" He shakes his head and laughs again. "Oh my god." 

Realisation suddenly dawns on him and he casts me a suggestive glance, wiggling his eyebrows. "So... you're official then?" 

I shrug and play with a strand of my hair absent-mindedly. "I guess so." 

-You GUESS SO? YOU FUCKING GUESS SO? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" He exclaims, excitement evident in his voice.

-Gosh Jack, calm down.