“And what about you, Charlie? What’s your sign?”
“I’m Charlie Perry. Teacher, mother, ex-ballerina, and vampire or not, if I make it out of here, I’m sinking my teeth into a slice of pizza and drinking some coffee. My birthday is August seventh, which makes me a Leo. I became a vampire at twenty-three; I’m twenty-six now.”
“A ballerina,” Jack murmured. “That makes sense.”
“And why is that?”
Jack realized he’d inadvertently struck a nerve when all the amusement vanished from her face. “There are few vampires I’ve seen who move as gracefully as you do, including purebred ones.”
“Oh,” Charlie murmured. “Do you know many purebreds?”
“I do,” Jack said and briefly told her about his friends and Liam’s and Sera’s children. “They’re my family.”
“Family,” Charlie murmured.
She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have so many friends and family caring about her. If they made it off this island, she had no idea what she and Dylan would do or where they would go. They couldn’t go live with Miss Dodd as she would eventually realize Charlie wasn’t aging.
She imagined her job and apartment were gone, and her new status as forever twenty-three, didn’t exactly bode well for putting down roots somewhere. She’d worked tirelessly to get through school and achieve what she had in life. It had all been for nothing, and she couldn’t help feeling a little bitter about it. She’d had dreams of getting her master’s degree; now, she only dreamed of getting her son free of this place.
“It’s rarely boring,” Jack said. “How old were you when Dylan was born?”
“Seventeen. He’s nine, and he’s been trapped here, missing out on his life, since he was six.”
The sad look that came over her face tugged at Jack’s heart in a way nothing ever had before. He rested his hand on her shoulder, intending to draw her closer, but she turned away.
“We’re at the end,” she said.
He’d been so focused on her that he hadn’t noticed the briny scent of the ocean or the gentle flow of the waves against the shore. Charlie rested her hands against a rock covering two-thirds of the tunnel and pushed it aside to reveal a cave. Jack searched the cave for any sign of the enemy as Charlie stepped forward.
When he grasped her arm to keep her from going any further, she shot him an irritated look and tugged on her arm. Jack released her, but he stepped into the cave ahead of her. He didn’t smell or see anyone else in the cave, but he wasn’t taking any chances with her.
As they walked through the cave, he studied the thick rock walls before stopping at the end. He’d expected to emerge into daylight; instead, he found himself staring at the stars. Ten feet away, waves rolled onto the beach. They left a trail of white foam on the smooth sand when they slid out again.
He started to step out of the cave, but Charlie grasped his arm to halt him. “What are you doing?” she hissed.
“Taking a look around.”
“This is prime hunting time; someone could see you.”
“I’ll be quick, but we came here so I could learn more before going to see the boats.”
Charlie bit her lip before releasing his arm and stepping back. After three years on this island, every instinct she had screamed against taking the risk of exposure, but if they didn’t start trying to do something different, she’d spend the next thirty years here too.
She dug her fingernails into her palms to keep from trying to stop him when he stepped forward again. Her heart hammered as he stepped onto the beach. He’d be exposed to anyone on the sand, and if he went a few more feet forward, anyone on top of the cliffs would be able to see him.
Jack took in the rocky face of the cliff stretching nearly a hundred feet over his head. Someone could climb up or down those rocks, but he doubted many would try. On either side of him, the beach stretched out thirty feet before large, rock jetties blocked his view of what lay beyond.
“We should go,” Charlie murmured.
She was impatient to get away from here as her stomach churned with unease. She had no idea what could happen here; this section of beach was about as secluded as it got on this island, but over the years, she’d learned to trust her instincts.
In her desperation to be loved, she ignored her original misgivings about Chad and paid for it with his cruelty. That was something she could never regret as it gave her Dylan, but she’d vowed never to doubt her instincts again afterward.
She realized Jack hadn’t set off any alarm bells in her, but something else was right now.
“We have to go,” she said brusquely.
Jack frowned at the alarm in her eyes, but he didn’t argue when she led the way into the tunnel at a much brisker pace.
