He didn't have an answer for that question. In fact, he couldn't find any words at all.
"You could have gone back three years ago and told them who I was and where we were."
"I'm sure I haven't learned everything about the rebel cause yet."
"We all must have our secrets," David replied with a smile. "But you and I both know that you learned enough years ago to go back to your father and to decimate us. So I will ask you again, why are you still here?"
Jack didn't have an answer for him; all of the things that he knew were expected of him faded into the background as he focused upon the one man that had ever given him a chance to explain himself, and who was still willing to listen to him in the face of Jack's betrayal.
"I don't know," he admitted as he rose to his feet and held his hands out before him. "When I first arrived here I had no plans to stay. I was going to return almost immediately to my father and reveal all that I had learned, but then..."
"Then?" David prompted when words seemed to fail him.
Then what? He pondered. What had happened? What had made everything different? And then he realized that the man standing across from him was what had happened. He'd watched this man with his children, had seen him with his people, and he'd found himself impressed by him. This was what a leader was supposed to be, strong, decisive, remorseless when he had to be, and yet he listened to his people and showed them compassion. And he was standing across from him asking him questions instead of trying to kill him as Jack had thought he would if he ever discovered the truth.
He'd known that it was inevitable that he would have to leave, he could only hide the non-aging aspect of his life for so long, but he'd hoped to just slip off into the woods on his own one day, and not to have the man he'd come to see as a mentor learn that he was a traitor. He didn't know what he'd do when he slipped away into the woods, but he did know that he wouldn't be returning to the palace, and he wouldn't have turned against this person. He didn't like to think about the fact that his time here would come to an end, but he now realized that he'd stopped having any intentions of returning to his home and family months ago.
"You," Jack said flatly. David didn't show any flicker of surprise at this statement as his eyes continued to relentlessly burrow into him. "Your family, the people here, the cause you are fighting for, and what has already been accomplished by the rebels."
"You're old enough to remember what it was like before the war."
"I'm old enough to remember what it was like before a hundred wars," he responded. "But the war that my father waged was an atrocity on humans and vampires alike."
"You didn't approve?"
"There is little my father has done that I approve of, but he can say the same of me."
"I see." David slid the bow onto his back. He folded his arms over his chest and leaned against a tree. Jack didn't know what to make of the gesture. "So what are we to do?"
Jack glanced at the woods behind David but he sensed no one else amongst the trees and the only scent that filled the air was David's aroma of pine and dirt. Even with no help around him, the man's heart continued a steady beat in his chest. "You're not going to try and kill me?"
"I consider vampires that persecute and abuse us to be our enemy. You have done neither of those things. In fact, you have had every opportunity to kill me, to kill my children, to decimate our supplies and essentially destroy this rebellion. Instead you have saved my life; you've protected my children and made friends with the people here. If you were my enemy we would not be having this conversation." Jack's mouth opened but no words came out, he closed it again. "Your father would kill you if he knew that you already had this info and haven't returned to him."
"He would," Jack confirmed but again David had not been asking a question.
"So Jack, I'm going to ask you once more, what are we to do? What is it that you want?"
No one had ever asked him that in his life. No one had ever given him the opportunity to even consider the notion before. "I would like to stay; I would like to help you."
"You would continue to stay with us and fight against your own family?"
The only people he could even remotely stand in his family were Braith and Melinda. Melinda harbored her own hatred toward their father and Braith had also never been given a choice in his life. If his father ever died Braith would assume the throne, he would do more good with it than his father had, but Jack doubted their father would ever die. No, the only way to even make an attempt to dethrone his father was here, in these woods, amongst these people.
Being part of the rebellion was also the only way that he wouldn't fade away and turn into something he despised. Without some sense of purpose he feared he might eventually become as evil as his father or worse yet, his brother Caleb.
"Yes," he answered.
David pondered this for a few minutes before stepping away from the tree. "You've been through hell haven't you son?"
Son, no one had ever called him that before. "Haven't we all?"
"Perhaps, but even most of us here still have someone to love them or at the very least a purpose to drive them."
"I've found a purpose here," he said.
"You've also found people that care for you. You are Aria and William's new favorite person to annoy, a fact that Daniel thanks you for, a lot. You've proven yourself here time and again but if you attempt to injure my children, or any of the rebels, I will kill you. I don't care how powerful you are, I will find a way to destroy you."