Freeze (The Jewel Project #4)

18.2|| Right in front of you

Jessie's eyes fluttered open and it took her a second to register where the orange light was coming from. A lone candle stood on the small table by her bed. Her mind still groggy with sleep, she frowned in confusion. She could vividly remember putting it out when she finally succumbed to sleep. She'd been afraid the canopy of the bed or a tapestry or anything else ancient in that room might catch fire.

Yet, there it was, the flame flickering merrily in the complete darkness as she looked at it from the bed.

She yelped and jumped into a sitting position. This was something else she could remember properly: she had fallen asleep on her chair, with her upper body on the bed, holding jimmy's hand. Yet here she was, properly tucked in.

"Hey, relax."

She whipped around. Jimmy gazed at her, his head a little titled, his back propped up against the headboard. Another candle burned on the other side of the bed and he held a frail looking booklet in his hands.

"You're up," she said, her voice croaky and slightly slurred.

"Obviously," he answered with a smile. "I was catching up on some light reading." He nodded towards the booklet and only then did Jessie compute that it was the very same Jerry had found in Blois. "She doesn't half-bitch about everything, really."

"Interesting read?" Jessie stretched, trying to get the wariness out of her bones.

"Pretty much. Not saying it's easy to decipher. I need better light."

"I can't believe you're up." He'd been knocked out for hours.

"I'm feeling much better, too."

She still scooted over and put her hand on his forehead. He was still hot, but not necessarily in a feverish way; more like he'd just come out of the sun. "Your voice is still raspy."

"Yes, but my throat doesn't feel raw anymore so that's a great improvement." He hesitated a moment, biting his lower lip.

Jessie sighed in relief, finally able to relax a little. "I was so scared after what happened. All that blood you lost and the fever..."

"Yeah, about that..." He rolled up the sleeves of his hoodie and showed her his wrists. He'd taken his bandages off.

She took his hands and stared, feeling the need to rub the rest of the sleep out of her eyes. There was nothing there except for two very thin white scars. "You healed."

"Yeah. I have vague memories of what happened after my adrenaline rush faded, but I do remember there was a lot of blood involved."

Yes, there was. And the fact that he wasn't happy about the extra fast healing speed said a lot, spoke of her greatest fear.

She took in a deep breath. "This doesn't have to be a bad thing. So the serum made you heal fast. We should be thankful for it."

"That's not what freaks me out," he mumbled, pulling his sleeves back down.

"Then what?"

He nibbled on his lower lip some more before turning to her. "Are you sure you want to know? Because once I tell you... We can't go back."

A cold shiver ran down her spine at his words and she hugged the cover tighter around herself. He was wrong. There was no choice. Because they were in this together, whatever this turned out to be. So she put on her brave face and nodded.

"I killed four people today, Jessie."

The news wasn't a surprise, but the matter-of-fact way in which he said it sort of gave her the chills.