Chapter 70 The Guardian Protocol
Julian looked at her blankly for a second but she could see the life in him.
He wasn't just staring at her like he'd done earlier, no. She could see the emotions in his eyes now. He was back to being human again.
Whatever her father had done to mess with him had been broken with that romantic moment.
“It worked," Elena muttered to herself excitedly and stared at him hopefully.
She sat up on the tangled sheets, her silk slip sliding off her shoulder, watching the man she loved tremble at the edge of the bed.
Julian had his back to her, his shoulder blades sharp and tense under his white dress shirt. He looked like he was fighting an invisible war inside his own skull.
"Julian," she whispered, her voice reaching out through the dark. "Don't go back. Don't let the mask slip back on."
Julian let out a choked breath that he'd been holding for a few seconds. He stood up abruptly, his movements jerky and uncoordinated.
He started toward the door, his eyes darting around the room as if he didn't recognize the walls. "I can't... I have to go back to the study. The logs. I have to check the security logs."
"No!" Elena scrambled off the bed. She didn't care that she was barely dressed. She threw herself in front of the door, blocking his path.
When he tried to gently move her aside with a hand that was shaking violently, she didn't fight him with strength. She dropped to her knees right there on the hardwood floor.
"Elena, get up," he groaned, his voice cracking. "Please. I'm losing my mind!"
"Then let me hold sanity for you!" she cried, grabbing his hands and pressing them to her cheeks. She looked up at him, her eyes swimming with tears. "Don't walk away from me, Julian. Don't go back to being that hollow shell my father wants you to be. I won't desert you. I won't abandon you to them. But I have to know the truth. You have to tell me what you remember before you disappear again."
Julian stared down at her, and the cold, robotic distance finally shattered.
His knees gave out, and he collapsed onto the floor in front of her, his forehead resting against hers. He let out a sob, a raw, ugly sound that tore through the silence of the mansion.
"I don't even know who I am sometimes, Elena," he whispered, his voice broken. "I wake up and I see your face, and I know I love you. I know it in my blood. But then the voice in my head starts. The details... they’re lost. It’s like a library where someone burned all the books, and I’m just staring at the ashes."
"Tell me what survived the fire," she pleaded, stroking his hair. "Tell me the names."
Julian took a shuddering breath. "My name... it was Samson Miller. I was a Ranger. I worked in the shadows of the military as a spy for a long time. That’s where I met Marcus."
Elena froze, her hands pausing on his face. "My father? You met him in the military?"
"Yes," Julian said, his eyes unfocused as he reached back into the dark parts of his memory. "He wasn't just a businessman then. He had contracts, lots of government contracts. I was part of a high-level security detail assigned to him during a project in the South. I was his shadow. I protected him through things that never made the news."
"But what happened after that?" she asked. "How did you end up dead in Savannah? How did you end up as... this?"
"I don't know," Julian confessed, his voice rising in frustration. "I remember a crash. I remember pain. And then I remember waking up with these eyes, with this face, and Marcus telling me I had a new mission. He told me I was bound to you. He told me my life ended so yours could continue."
"How did you know me, Julian?" she asked, her heart hammering. "Why did it have to be me?"
"I can't explain it," he said, clutching his head. "That information... it’s locked away. It’s like a door without a key. But I know that I am bound to protect you. I could never stay away from you, Elena. Even when I tried to run, even when I hated what I was, the pull was too strong. I have to be near you."
"Is it like hypnosis?" Elena asked, her voice trembling. "Did he brainwash you?"
Julian looked at her, and for a second, the lethal soldier she had seen in the forest was back in his gaze. "It’s way different than that. It's something you won't be able to understand. It’s pro-level military conditioning, bio-feedback training. They didn't just tell me to protect you; they wired it into my nervous system. I’m like your Guardian Angel now, Elena. But it’s a curse."
"A curse?"
"If anything hurts you," Julian said, his voice dropping to a terrifying whisper, "I feel it. The program triggers a physical response. And if I fail at protecting you, if I let you slip away or if Marcus decides I’m no longer useful... the system self-destructs. I’m stuck here, Elena. I’m stuck in this marriage and this body until the lights go out for good. I'm tied to you forever."
Elena was speechless as she looked at this man who had just revealed he was bound to her forever.
Without another word, she pulled him into a hug, holding him as he shook.
She realized then that the man she loved wasn't just a husband or a hero. He was a prisoner of her father’s ambition, a soul trapped in a biological cage, and she was the only key he had left.
"I know you hate me and you want nothing to do with a freak like me. But I care about you, Elena. Outside all of this, I care about you."
"Shhhh," Elena said softly, "you're not a freak. We will find a way out. I promise."