She understood Jack’s need to keep her with him, but she had to know he would protect her son.
Then his grip on her eased, and though his eyes remained a fiery red when they met hers, he nodded to Mike who swam closer once again. Jack’s fingers uncurled from her waist as he released her.
She felt the pang it caused Jack when Mike took her, but Charlie knew Jack was honoring his promise to keep Dylan safe over her. She hadn’t believed it was possible, but she fell more in love with him.
Chapter Forty-Four
Staggering onto the beach,Jack fell to his knees and carefully lowered Dylan onto the sand. It had taken them probably about ten minutes to find this stretch of beach, and then they had to make sure there were no Savages nearby before coming ashore. Jack kept Dylan talking to him throughout most of it, but he stopped speaking a minute or two ago.
“Dylan,” Jack said as he gave him a small shake, but there was no response.
Dylan’s chest rose and fell, but his skin felt like ice beneath Jack’s fingers, and his pulse was slow and erratic. Burns marred his pale skin, and he looked much smaller. The cold water had leeched the life from him.
“Dylan!” Charlie croaked as she dropped to her knees beside Jack and grasped her son’s shoulder. “Oh, please be okay! Please be okay,” she pleaded as she ran her hands over him to put some warmth back in his frigid body.
The anguish in Charlie’s voice was a knife to Jack’s heart. He had to do something; he couldn’t lose them so recently after finding them. Resting his hand on Dylan’s forehead, love swelled in his chest as he brushed back Dylan’s drenched hair. He would not lose his family.
Jack glanced up at Mike who stared at Dylan with frightened eyes, but Jack knew what he had to do. Lifting his wrist to his mouth, Jack bit into it.
“What are you doing?” Charlie cried when Jack placed his wrist to Dylan’s mouth, giving him his blood.“NO!”
Her fingers were still frozen, but she could move them enough to tear at Jack’s wrist. Mike grasped her shoulders and pulled her back. She kicked and twisted as she fought against his hold like a cat fighting a bath.
“No! You can’t turn him! He’ll be a child forever!” Charlie cried, her throat raw from the smoke and the water she’d inhaled.
The idea of losing her son shredded her heart in her chest. The best part of her would die with him, but she wouldnotsentence him to an eternity trapped in the body of a child. Tears spilled from her eyes as she threw herself forward to get away from Mike, but he didn’t release her.
“It’s okay,” Jack assured her as he clasped her hand. Her eyes were those of a ferocious animal when they met his, and she bared her fangs. “Charlie, listen to me. He hasn’t lost any blood, and my blood will stop him from dying by heating him and giving him strength. Iwillnotturn him.”
Charlie glanced between her son and Jack before going limp in Mike’s hold. Mike eased his grip on her but didn’t let go until she jerked her arms away. Ignoring the blisters cracking and splitting across her flesh, Charlie leaned forward to rest her hand on Dylan’s cheek. He was still cold, but warmer. Color crept back into his skin, and his lips were more of a pale blue than a deeper shade.
Tears streamed down her face as she met Jack’s gaze. “Will he be okay?”
He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles. “Yes.”
Jack released her hand to drape his arm around her shoulders when she began to sob. “Shh, Charlie. Don’t cry,” he soothed as his blood continued flowing into Dylan. “He’s going to be fine.”
Charlie wiped the tears from her eyes as she stifled her sobs and leaned against Jack’s chest. She needed to get her shit together, but she felt like an emotional disaster right now. They still weren’t off the island, but after nearly being blown up, barbecued, drowned, and her son almost dying, she was starting to unravel.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have the time to fall apart.
Stifling her next sob, Charlie hugged Jack before pulling away to survey the beach. She was almost afraid to reach for her knives, in case they were gone, but her hands fell on their handles. She’d lost her shoulder bag to the fire or the sea, but at least she still had her knives.
“Thank you for getting me to shore,” she said to Mike before turning to Jack and resting her hand on his cheek, she leaned forward to kiss him. “Thank you for protecting Dylan.”
“I promised you I would, and he’s my family too.”
Charlie forced herself not to cry again as she kissed him before returning her attention to the beach. It remained empty, but that could change at any second. She lifted one of Dylan’s hands and held it between hers as she studied the steady rise and fall of his chest and listened to the reassuring thump of his heart.
“It’s good to see you,” Jack said to Mike.
Mike smiled at him. “You too. I was worried we wouldn’t make it back in time to save you.” Mike shifted uncomfortably. “Doug—”
“I know he’s gone,” Jack said, looking to spare Mike having to tell him.
“How?” Mike asked, and then his gaze darted to Charlie. “Never mind.”
“Liam and the others found me too.” Then Jack frowned at him and Charlie. What had Mike meant by that look and the never mind? Did he know about Charlie’s ability? “Did I miss something between you two?”
