I Was His Substitute, Until I Disappeared With His Child のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 11 - チャプター 16

Elena's POVIt wasn't until the dark had fully settled in that I actually set foot back in that world.The familiar feel of the place hit me all at once — cold, stifling, with a faint trace of blood underneath everything. I pulled the brim of my hat lower without thinking, hiding my face in the shadow, and tugged my scarf up so only my eyes were showing.Jacob shifted in my arms. He let out a soft, uneven breath.I looked down at him. His face had already gone a little pale, with a thin sheen of sweat at his hairline. I knew it was hard on him. A hybrid child senses scents and surroundings far more keenly than an ordinary person, and this place was too much for him.I took a small bottle of perfume out of my bag and gave him a light spray, then a touch on myself.I had prepared it specifically. To cover our scent.The smell was heavy.Jacob frowned. His small hand fisted into my coat, but he didn't say anything."Just a little longer. Okay?" I whispered to him.He nodded. His voice was

Elena's POVOver the next several days, James changed.Not in any dramatic way. Just in the careful way every small thing was suddenly being handled. He stopped giving orders the way he used to, like it was his right. He stopped speaking to me with that cold, distant tone.He started asking me things.Slowly. Carefully."What do you… eat these days?""Are you still drinking coffee, or do you want something else?""Is the temperature in the room all right?"In the past, I had been the one keeping track of his habits, his preferences, his schedule. Now he was trying to make up for something, piece by piece, and terrified of getting it wrong.I didn't refuse him, but I didn't give him much either. I knew he was waiting for me to soften. I just acted the way he used to — looking past it all.I went on living the way I would anywhere else. Like a stranger passing through.Jacob recovered faster than I had expected. After the doctor adjusted his environment and medication, his condition slow

Elena's POVThe fire took everything.His skin was burning. His breathing had gone ragged, broken with sounds of pain he couldn't quite hold back. He didn't let go.Not until the last of his strength was gone.A long time passed before there was sound from outside again. A group of vampires came in fast through the fire.The man at the head of them carried a sharp, cold air around him.It was his older brother. Joey.He stood at the doorway, looking off to the other side, where Vicky was being held down. Her face had gone ashen. Her struggling did nothing."Take her away."His voice was so cold there wasn't a degree of feeling in it. He shook his head and let out a quiet sigh, almost as if to himself."I told her, more than once, not to let jealousy run her like that."We were pulled out of the wreckage.The instant they pulled me away, what was holding James up gave out. He went down hard.His body was charred almost black. His breathing was shallow. He was alive.I sat up sharply. My