Jaxx's Point Of View

She was gone.

The door clicked shut behind her with a soft, almost mocking finality, and still, I didn’t move. My eyes stayed glued to that spot. That one damn spot where she’d just been standing. Like if I stared hard enough, she might reappear, maybe say something else that would cut me, tease me, tempt me, destroy me.

Elena.

Her name rolled through my mind like a thunderclap, sharp and heavy, shaking loose everything I thought I’d buried. Everything ...