My untitled Jamien (House of Night) fanfic

This is an in-progress, untitled Damien/Jack fic. Hope ya'll like it so far. It's set during Hunted after Zoey is attacked by the Raven Mocker.


Chapter 1

At the sight of Zoey bleeding her life out, Jack screamed and fainted. Everyone else was busy crowding around Zoey to notice, and I caught him before he could fall and hurt himself. I was somewhat surprised and would’ve laughed if not for the circumstances; I’d never seen another boy faint, gay or straight. I laid him down on Stevie Rae’s bed and sat next to him, trying futilely to get the almost frantic Duchess to calm down.
I grabbed Jack’s hand and squeezed gently, both to help him to wake up and to calm my own worry for Zoey. His pulse was steady and relaxing.
I couldn’t see her through the wall of bodies, but it was clear from the tension that still hung in the air that Zoey hadn’t given any reason for optimism. Darius was hunched over her, with Erik and Heath to his left and right. Aphrodite was trying unsuccessfully to squeeze in between Heath and Darius, and the Twins huddled together next to Erik, tears streaming down both their faces.
I wanted to ask why Kramisha came running from the room right before we entered, but decided it could wait.
My hand jerked suddenly and I almost jumped off the bed.
“Damien?” Jack said, sitting up slowly. He still sounded out of it. He looked up at me with watery eyes. “What happened?”
I pulled him into a sitting position and hugged him to myself. “You fainted, honey,” I said, my voice cracking slightly. It was then that I noticed the tears in my own eyes. I blinked, trying to clear them. “Zoey’s been hurt. It’s pretty bad from what I can tell. Darius is working on her now.”
He blinked several times, comprehension returning to him. “Ohmygod, Zoey!” He clutched my hand. “Damien, is she going to be okay?”
“Shh, she’s going to be fine.” He laid his head on my shoulder and I pulled him closer to me and kissed the top of his head. “Darius will take care of her. He’s trained to handle these kinds of situations.” I tried my best to keep the uncertainty out of my voice.
Erin and Shaunee broke away from the group and sat against the far wall. Through the gap they left I could see Zoey’s shoulder, covered in blood, and I turned us away, trying to keep Jack from seeing. But he was already looking lightheaded again. I looked back to the Twins and waved at them to come over. I noticed they skirted the wall, trying to stay as far as possible from the crowd in the center of the room. I’d never seen them this freaked out before.
They sat on the bed next to me, and I whispered to Shaunee, “I’m going to take Jack back to our room. He’s taking it really bad.” She nodded, not saying anything. Then her and Erin hugged us tight and we walked through the curtain that functioned as Stevie Rae’s door.
I kept my arm around Jack’s middle as we walked down the tunnel. He was leaning against me like he would fall without my support. We haven’t been together long, only a couple months, but I know even Jack doesn’t react like that often. He’d really been shaken by what happened to Zoey, which meant he cared about her a lot. That’s saying something, since he only came to the House of Night a few weeks before we started dating.
I stopped walking and turned him so that we were face to face. He was shorter than me, and when he looked up at me with those bright blue eyes, glazed with unshed tears, I almost started crying on the spot. Before that could happen, I leaned in and pressed my lips to his, wrapping my arms around him and pulling him tight against me. I opened my eyes and saw the tears leaking from his closed eyes, and it only made me kiss him more, to make sure he knew that I would always be here for him, no matter what happened with Zoey or the red fledglings or Kalona. He would be the only one that mattered in the end.
I pulled back to look at him. He was making a cute little pouty face. I grinned, not able to resist it, even with everything that was going on. I cupped his cheek in my hand and wiped the tears from under his eye. He sniffled and made a small smile at me, and I pecked him on the lips one more time.
“You know I love you, Jack.”
“I do. I love you too.” He leaned against me, resting his head against my shoulder, and at that moment nothing else mattered.

Chapter 2

The walk through the tunnels went quickly after that. Both of us were in much better moods; the Twins had come after us and told us that Darius was finished and Zoey was resting now, but that she would be fine. Jack had beamed at the news and I’d laughed for the first time in what felt like days.
I was sitting up on our bed and Jack had his head in my lap. He’d fallen asleep a few minutes ago and I didn’t want to disturb him; he had a rough day. Duchess was sprawled out in front of the bed. She’d followed us from Stevie Rae’s room, but had stayed back, like she’d known we’d wanted some private space. I would’ve given her a treat if I had one.
I looked down at Jack’s sandy blonde head resting in my lap. He was breathing slowly and snoring quietly. I smiled. He’s so adorable. It still surprised me sometimes how well we went together. All of the guys at the House of Night who I might’ve been attracted to at some point turned out to be totally not my type. Not that I really knew what my type was, of course. But I can tell you I’m definitely not into butch guys, so-called “gangstas,” or sex-crazy jerks. Thank the Goddess Jack isn’t any of those things.
Jack is just a cute little guy with a lot of feminine touches. Apparently, I am into that. And with a name like Jack Twist, you don’t even have to know him to know he’s gay, which really tells you how brave he is by not hiding it, especially in the religious conservative Midwest.
He’s adorably soft and sensitive on the surface, but inside he’s tougher than most.
Suddenly Jack twitched several times, startling me, and sat upright next to me. His eyes were wide open and he looked scared.
I put my arm around him. “Something wrong?” I asked.
He just looked at me for a few seconds, then relaxed and sat back against the pillows. “Just a bad dream.” The corner of his lips pulled up. “Nothing to worry about.”
“You sure? I know you had a hard day.”
He snuggled into me, lacing his hand through mine. “I’m okay.” He puffed out his chest, trying to look tough. “I’m not going to let a dream scare me.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “That so doesn’t work for you.” Then I hugged him tight. “Besides, I already know how strong you are without your futile attempts at being manly.”
He smiled at me and laid a hand on my thigh. Now, if it were anyone else I would say the gesture was sexual. Jack, though, has never mentioned sex since we’ve been together. No, this was just his way of letting me know he was mine, and I was his. It’s hard to imagine how much we’ve fallen for each other in such a short time.
I turned his head to look at me and kissed him gently. His lips were amazingly soft. We opened our eyes at the same time and I almost melted. Of course, this happens every time I look into his eyes. The bright cobalt disks always get to me. Yeah, I know, I’m a sucker for pretty eyes.
Jack sighed contentedly and rested against my shoulder again. “I’m so glad we found each other,” he said, then blushed. “Sorry, that sounded so cheesy.”
“Just a little,” I laughed. “But I feel the same way. I’ve never felt this close to someone, not even any of the guys I was with before.”
Jack smiled, but it looked like he was half-forcing it.
“Something wrong? You sure that nightmare isn’t getting to you?”
No, it’s not that.” He hesitated. “I was just thinking about how I don’t want this to turn out like my other relationships have. I mean, I love you, Damien. I’ve only ever loved—or thought I loved—a handful of guys. Then, just when everything seemed like it couldn’t get any better, something or someone would come along and ruin it.” He started to sniffle, and I didn’t have to actually see his eyes to know they were welling up. “It never failed, and I just don’t want it to happen with you, too. There’s something about you that makes me terrified whenever I think about the possibility of losing you.” He pressed himself against me. “You’re the only guy I’ve ever thought I might actually give myself…” He broke off suddenly, turning an even deeper shade of red.
Of course, I knew what he was going to say. He wants to give himself to me. I couldn’t help but grin at him. It was so adorable how he got so flushed when he was embarrassed.
“Honey,” I said, bringing his hand up to my mouth and kissing it softly. “I want that, too. But are you completely sure? I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to, or that you think you have to do for me. I just want you to be happy and I wouldn’t mind waiting at all if you weren’t ready.” I rubbed my thumb along the back of his hand in slow circles. He sighed again; it always relaxed him when I did that.
He looked up at me. “I know it’s a real big step—probably the biggest—but it feels so right when I’m with you. When you have your arms around me…I feel safe. But the thought of it does make me nervous.” He lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “I heard it hurts, a lot.”
I brushed a hand across his cheek. “Well, like I said, we don’t need to worry about it right now. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. And don’t worry, nothing is going to come between us, even with everything that’s going on, I promise.”
He sniffled one more time and nodded.
“Hey, you should try to get some more sleep,” I said. “You look exhausted. And don’t worry, I’ll be right here if you have any nightmares, okay?”
Just when I thought he couldn’t get any cuter, Jack yawned. “I guess you’re right. You won’t go anywhere?”
“Nope.”
“Okay.” He pecked me on the cheek.
“Oh, you’re going to have to give me more than that,” I said, and pulled him into a tight hug, pressing my lips to his and leaning into him gently. He sighed happily and we both smiled into the kiss.
I pulled back, still grinning at him. “Now go to sleep.”
He pecked me on the lips one more time and nuzzled his head against my chest. “I love you, too,” he said around another adorable yawn. It seemed like only seconds before he was fast asleep in my arms.