Her eyes went flat and she glared at me, matching my tone as she yelled, "Excuse me? Who the hell are you to tell me what I can or can't do?"
The easy answer was that I was no one and that I had no right to her life. But the truth was that Sam was ignorant. With every day that passed, Vlad upped the stakes. If she went out with Gregor, the target on her back would only grow. She would be close to Vlad, closer than I ever wanted her to be. I almost opened my mouth and told her not to be an idiot - that she had to listen to me because it was the only way for her to stay safe, and then I had a startling moment of clarity. If I said something like that, she would only distance herself from me. I had to try and phrase it so that she would fucking listen.
"I'm not telling you that you can't date," I said slowly, even though I felt like the words were going to break me. She should be dating me. "But you can't date Vlad Masters' nephew."
Sam's glare, if it were even possible, intensified at the words. "That name doesn't mean anything to me. I don't care whose nephew he is. I am going on a date and it might turn into two! I might kiss him … I might do more. The point is that I don't care about what you say I should or shouldn't do."
Frustrated, I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes and from reaching out to grab her in an effort to make her understand. "Sam! You don't understand."
Sam's lips went tight, the blood disappearing from them. "I don't care."
It hurt hearing that, because I knew what she was saying. She was saying she didn't fucking care about me. It hurt me, but her lack of caring could lead to something happening to her and I couldn't let that happen.
"I'm just trying to protect you," I pointed out, trying not to sound like I was pleading.
Sam scoffed. "Because that worked out so well the last time you thought you were 'protecting me'. It's not your job to protect me."
Yes, it was.
She continued, "As a matter of fact, you don't even have a role in my life."
"If you continue like this you might not –" I started heatedly, but I had to stop the moment I realized what I was going to fucking say. I was going to say that she might not have a life and for a moment, I could picture her death so vividly, Vlad glaring and triumphant. The image scared the hell out of me and I couldn't let her avoid this conversation just because she didn't want to listen to me. "Sam, please give me a chance to make you understand. I need to talk to you."
"That sounds eerily familiar," Sam said, and she seemed to be withdrawing into herself. There was no flare of anything in her eyes. She just looked closed off. "Either way, it doesn't matter. This conversation is over. Goodbye."
No, I couldn't let her say that. And it wasn't just because it made me ache on the inside to see her walking away. Something bad was happening and while I couldn't tell her the full thing, I had to warn her. I had to make her understand, at the very least, that it was dangerous for her. When she turned away, I reached out to grab her. I coiled my fingers around her upper arm and for a moment, everything felt right in my world. I had barely touched Sam, skin to skin. As Phantom, my fingers were too cold for her to bear casual touches. To have just a moment where I could feel her skin under my palm right now, it was probably what heaven felt like … If I were a mushy sort of fucker. Sam was still for a moment, and I really thought that she was going to turn around and be willing to talk about it.
And then she pulled herself away from me, turned around and slapped me across the face. She said something right afterward, but I couldn't figure out what. My head was ringing with the fact that she slapped me and I couldn't wrap my mind around it. Mechanically, my hand went up to touch my face – the exact spot where she had hit me.
I tried to think of something, anything that I could say to her. She was still standing there – too mad to move I think. I looked at Tucker, hoping that he would say something in my defense. Instead of him speaking, it was my sister.
"What's going on here?" She asked, and it didn't escape my notice that she was standing closer to Sam than she was to me.
"I …" I began, but I didn't know where to go from there. How could I tell Jazz without Sam hearing the wrong things? I looked Jazz, begging her to understand.
Finally, Tucker spoke. "He was, I think, going to mention the thing about the Fruit Loop. But I don't think he did it the right way."
Jazz shook her head at me, which I took offence to. "Danny, let it be."
Did she really just fucking say that? "Let it – Jazz! You know –"
"I know that you're bothering Sam. You need to leave her alone. She's not part of this."
How could she sound so calm when an hour ago she was the most panicked of any of us? "But –"
She interrupted me. "No buts. We can talk about this later but, right now, you're bothering her." She put her arms around Sam. My sister got to hold Sam but it was like I had a fucking restraining order. Jazz looked at me, and I could practically feel the sympathy rolling off her. "I know how you're feeling. You can't hide it from me. I'm not the bad guy here … But it's how you're coming off. So I think you should go with Tucker for a bit while Sam and I have a little chat."
No, that's not how this was going to go down. If Jazz was going to talk to Sam, I should be there. There was no guarantee Jazz was going to be talking about Vlad – in fact, she probably wouldn't – but I wanted to be there. I almost protested, when I felt Tucker's hand on my lower arm, pulling me away from them. I clenched my hands into fists and planted my feet for a moment, and I felt Tucker's hand more insistently. I took one more long look at Sam – vulnerable purple eyes and lips that I would kill to kiss – and then I let him drag me away.
"What the hell was that?" Tucker demanded as he dragged me down the deck steps.
"I don't know what you mean," I retorted, shaking his hand off my arm.
He let go of me quickly. "You know exactly what I mean! Interrogating her, grabbing her? That was over the line."
I stopped at the bottom of the steps, turning to glare at my best friend. "It wasn't an interrogation and you make it sound like I'm some kind of creep."
"You were coming off that way," Tucker argued.
I threw up my hands. What the fuck? Wasn't he supposed to defend me? Why was everyone fucking against me? I stalked away from him.
"Jesus Christ," I heard Tucker curse. "It's like being in a fucking relationship without the sex."
Then he jogged after me. For a moment, I entertained the idea of using my powers to fly away from him, but I decided against it. We both knew that I was an asshole, but I wasn't going to be rude enough to literally disappear on him.
"I know what you're thinking," I said when he was finally walking with me, "But that wasn't a … relationship thing."
"It sure as hell looked personal," Tucker argued. "If you want to keep her safe, then you're going to have to stay away from her."
I ground to a halt, blinking at him. "What?"
"We know Vlad's stalking you."
"Yeah …"
"So he must know that you haven't seen Sam in months."
"Yeah," I agreed.
"So maybe if the two of you stay away from each other, he won't get any ideas," Tucker summed up.
"It's not going to work," I argued immediately, and not just because I didn't want to have a logical reason to stay away from Sam.
"Why not?"
"Vlad knows I haven't talked to Sam in months."
Tucker stared at me blankly. There was a pause and then he said, "Uh, Danny? You're going to have to give me more than that."
"If Vlad knows I haven't talked to Sam in months, why, then, would he hold her over me? Why would he threaten her? If he truly believed that Sam meant nothing to me, even after months of silence, then Vlad wouldn't bother making Gregor go out with her –"
"If that's true -"
"It has to be for my sanity," I insisted. "If Vlad is still involving Sam then he knows that I'm still in love with her. He knows that he can hold her over me and it will be effective. If I leave her alone, if I don't keep an eye on her, then things could just get worse. Gregor could try something."
Tucker was making a face. I knew he was trying to figure out a way to argue against me but he couldn't because I was fucking right.
"You can't interfere with her life," he said finally.
"When the fuck did you turn into Jazz?" I demanded, and his dark cheeks turned even darker. "Sorry, you're not that annoying. But I already have a mother and she acts like a second one. I don't need you to be a third."
"I'm not turning into anyone," Tucker said gruffly. "And the last thing I need is to be your parent. I'd have grey hairs by tomorrow."
"Funny."
"But that doesn't mean that you can tamper around. I know you care about Sam but you left her in a shit place, man. She's my friend and you need to know that I'm not going to stand by and watch you stress her out."
"Assuming she's alive to be stressed out," I snapped. "Whose side are you on?"
"The side that gets everyone out alive," Tucker hissed at me.
"Everyone will get out alive. We'll figure out what Vlad's doing and then we'll take him down."
"Great, I've only heard that how many times this summer?" I glared at Tucker. "Exactly. So, do you have an actual plan on how to accomplish this or not?"
"Um, we're going to have to break into the mansion."
"Wow," Tucker said, nodding sarcastically. "Between Vlad and all of his ghostly henchmen that should be easier than listening to Lancer for two hours straight."
"I don't know. We'll strategize later." I reached up to rub the back of my neck. "I don't know what to do. But, hey, that's why my parents had a girl first. C'mon, let's get back to the party."
I began to shuffle toward the place our friends were probably hanging out, wondering if there was any way that I could run back into Sam, when Tucker stopped me.
"One more thing, Danny."
I turned back toward him. "Yeah?"
Tucker looked awkward, then blurted, "I know it feels like Jazz and I both shit on you sometimes over the whole Sam thing. That whole time period was a big fuck up, for you and me. And I just wanted to say that I'm really glad that we're friends again and that you're being you again, instead of some fake asshole. I missed you."
"I missed you too," I said, knowing exactly what he meant by the words. I reached up, even though I had to stand on my tiptoes to do it, and slapped my arm around his shoulder. "Let's go, buddy, we have a party to attend."
I don't own anything recognizable. Thanks to my betas: Forever Sky.
~TLL~
