by Kasi Blake
Good questions. He tried to come up with good answers. He wasn’t sure there was a particular moment that caused him to fall for her. “I think it happened a little at a time. Part of me fell for you when you killed the werewolf in the cemetery. Another part loved you when you threatened to suck my soul out that first night. I love the way you go all shy on me sometimes and when you stand up for what you believe, even when it’s me you’re fighting against. There are a lot of things I love about you.”
She seemed satisfied. Her smile widened, and she moved closer until there was only a breath of air between their bodies. She looked at his mouth. “Maybe you should kiss me now to kind of seal the deal.”
She didn’t need to ask twice. He leaned forward, touched his lips to hers. It was still new, still thrilling. Her arms wound tightly around his neck, pulling him closer. His hands settled on her hips. Her lips blossomed beneath his, and she invited his tongue inside the warm recesses of her mouth.
Now this was definitely new.
His knees went weak as the kiss deepened.
Whether by accident or design, they stumbled in the direction of the bed until they bumped into it. They went down, side by side, still touching and kissing. Her hands molded the muscles in his arms while his fingers dove into her hair. Things were getting out of control fast.
Jack stopped kissing her and gently pushed her away. At the hurt look on her face, he said, “Your dad would kill me for sure if he walked in and found us rolling around on the bed together. Besides, we haven’t known each other for that long. I care about you too much to take advantage of you.”
“I feel like I’ve known you forever.”
“I feel the same way. Still, we need to take it slow. Most of our relationship has been about hunting monsters. We’ve hardly had time to have a normal conversation. After I kill Jersey, we can go on a date like a real couple.”
She smiled and nodded. “Sounds great. What are we going to do on our date?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t given it much thought.”
Liar. He had planned every second down to the last detail. As soon as he got his hands on some money, he was going to take her out for an expensive meal. They would go to a movie, something sweet and romantic to set the tone for the rest of the evening. Then he was going to walk her out to the middle of the field, spread a blanket, and count the stars as they talked about their hopes and dreams for the future.
“We can decide later,” she said. The hopeful smile disappeared, and a frown marred her beautiful features. “Don’t let him hurt you. I don’t want you to die trying to give me my freedom.”
He waved a hand, dismissing the idea. “Don’t worry. I think I can handle touching a man with a rock.”
“Don’t underestimate him. He’s going to be wary of you after seeing what we did to the wraiths. He may not let you get close to him again.” She shivered. Her arms went around her own body, and she began to shake her head vehemently. “No, never mind. I don’t want you to do it. We’ll think of another way to stop him.”
“There isn’t another way.”
“I’ll train harder so I can suck his soul out. Until then we can live and let live.”
He knew it was her fear talking, fear for him. She didn’t want to lose him, and he didn’t blame her. After seeing her almost die, he knew he wouldn’t be able to go on without her. As sappy as it sounded, if anything happened to her, he would die.
Jack stroked her cheek. “Relax. I won’t take any stupid chances. If I don’t get the perfect opportunity, I won’t do it. Okay?”
“Okay.” She hugged him again. Her head fit just below his chin. “Tomorrow, take the stone to school with you. When you’re in his class, look for a way to touch him without him seeing it. If you can’t, then forget it. Deal?”
“Sounds like a plan.” He turned and pushed her toward the door. “I need some sleep. Tomorrow could prove to be a long day.”
Silver smiled as she left his bedroom.
Jack went to bed. This time he turned the light off and pulled the sweatshirt over his head before tossing it to the floor. He rested on top of the covers instead of climbing under them. The chilled air felt good against his too-hot skin. He blamed Silver for his rise in temperature.
A smile raised his lips. Silver loved him. The knowledge made him want to scale the highest building in the nearest city and shout the words for all to hear. He was the luckiest guy in the world. Funny, a short time ago he wouldn’t have thought so, but that had been before he’d met the tiny werewolf killer.
Hard to believe a pint-sized girl with huge blue eyes could make his life worth living again.
The door opened and light hit the bed. It closed before he could see her sneak back inside. The girl just couldn’t seem to stay away from him. Neither of them said a word as she settled beside him on the bed. He decided to let her stay for a few minutes. Then he’d throw her out before her father caught them.
He closed his eyes, smiled, and waited for her to speak.
She turned to him and placed a hand on his bare chest. His heart quickened. She leaned against him. Her mouth touched the side of his throat, sending a shiver through him. His breath caught in his throat. He needed to get her to leave before he lost control. He didn’t want to do anything that might hurt her.
She opened her mouth on his skin.
He frowned. A wet kiss didn’t seem like the Silver he knew. She might have pressed herself against him earlier, but it had been done in innocent abandon.
He sniffed the air. The scent was all wrong. Silver wasn’t in bed with him; it was Summer.
Teeth pierced his skin without warning. Summer bit him, infecting him for the second time, and it was too late to stop her. He was going to be a vampire again by morning. Nothing he could do about it.
He felt the blood slowly drain from his body, leaving him with a dizzy, euphoric sensation. He closed his eyes, floating on a familiar high. His thoughts turned to Silver. He would have to leave the house tonight and never see her again. He couldn’t risk hurting her.
Summer’s body jerked. She cried out and fell backwards off the bed. Jack lifted on his elbows in time to see Summer explode into ashes. Silver stood beside the bed, a stake in her hand. She had killed the girl too late, and she knew it. She turned on the lamp and stared at the bloody bite mark on his neck.
“What do I do?” she asked, panicking. Her gaze flew around the room. She grabbed his shirt off the floor, wadded it up, and held it against his throat. She repeated, “What do I do?”
“It’s over,” he said, feeling hopeless. “You can’t do anything.”
“No! I am not going to lose you now.”
He placed a hand on top of hers. “I’m sorry. I thought she was you when she first came in.”
“Stop talking like you’re going to die. You aren’t. I won’t let you.”
Silver raced from the room. She returned in mere seconds with a knife. Before he could demand to know what she was going to do with it, she sliced her thumb and held it over his wound, dripping blood into the open cuts.
“It works for werewolf bites,” she said. “Maybe it kills vampire venom.”
Jack’s mind began to drift away from her. He could barely hear her anymore. Regardless of her strong will, his body was dying. Soon he would be a vampire. This time it would be permanent.
A question gnawed at the back of his mind.
Vampires couldn’t enter a home without being invited, so how had Summer gotten inside?
Chapter Twenty-One:
SUICIDE BY SUNLIGHT
It was a long night.
Silver stayed with him, soothing him with a wet cloth when the cramps hit. Sometime in the middle of the night she got up and closed the curtains to block the sun’s rays. He watched with a heavy heart as she performed the task. Blinking his eyes against the tears th
at threatened to spill down his cheeks, he purposely turned his head. The saddest part wasn’t that he wouldn’t see another sunrise; it was the loss of Silver and Billy, his family. He couldn’t possibly stay with them now.
He held onto Silver all night long. Neither of them slept. They didn't talk either. As if by an unspoken mutual agreement, they kept their dark thoughts to themselves.
When morning finally came, he asked, “Is Billy waiting outside with a stake in hand?”
“I haven’t told him about Summer yet.”
“You didn’t tell anyone?”
“Only my mother, in case I need help.”
The good news: he wasn’t in pain anymore. He felt great in fact, better than he had in weeks. The bad news: life as he knew it was over. He thought about returning to Cowboy, the only surviving member of his group, but he couldn’t even fathom living as a vampire again, not after this wonderful second chance at life.
He made up his mind what to do about it. Summer had taken the choice from him, forced him to become a vampire again, but no one could make him live as one. He touched his throat as if it hurt and used a raw voice to make a request, “Could you get me some water, please?”
For some reason Silver seemed reluctant. She got up, walked to the door and opened it, but she hesitated in the doorway. She suspected he was up to something. If he wasn’t quick about it, she’d call for reinforcements. They might pile on top of him, hold him down or tie him to the bed so he couldn’t find peace.
Jack threw off the covers and raced to the window. Before Silver could stop him, he yanked the curtains open wide, closed his eyes tight, and mentally prepared himself to burst into flames. It might hurt for a few seconds. At least it would be over fast.
Nothing happened.
Jack opened one eye a slit. He saw the sun and felt its warmth on the bare skin of his chest. He placed a hand on his stomach, testing the theory. Giant butterflies fluttered their huge wings as his stomach growled, hungry for food and not for blood.
“You aren’t a vampire.” Silver's voice mirrored his shock. She repeated the phrase with a huge smile on her face. “You aren’t a vampire!”
“They don’t call me Jackpot for nothing,” he joked.
They met in the center of the room. He picked her off her feet, twirled her around, and laughed with her. Her blood must have kept him from turning back into a vampire. She'd saved his life. What would he do without her?
He set her down and smoothed the hair back from her face. “You know what this means, don’t you?”
Her eyes narrowed for a moment, unsure.
“It means we can be together forever,” he said. “It means we’ve shared blood, the most intimate of things, and now we're linked together for an eternity. It means I can kill Jersey before he starts a war. It means you can have your life and live it the way you want.”
“Remember your promise about Jersey. If you can’t do it without risk, I don’t want you to do it at all. I can survive as a hunter, but I can’t live without you.”
If anyone else had said those words to him, he would have cringed or laughed at how corny they were. Coming from Silver’s mouth they sounded like the most beautiful words in the world. And he totally agreed with her.
“I remember,” he said.
“I’ve been thinking about college.” She twisted her fingers. “I don’t need to go. I don’t have to be a lawyer. It was just a silly dream.”
“It’s not silly, and I want you to have your dream.”
“People can’t always have everything they want.”
“You can,” he insisted. “Don’t turn your back on your dreams because of me. I didn’t mean what I said before. I’ll go with you, wherever you go. I can find a job and get a place off campus to live.”
Her eyes lit up at the thought. “Yeah. We can get a cute little place, and I’ll cook for you when you get home at night.”
“You don’t have to do that either.”
“I want to do it.”
She stepped into his arms and hugged him.
There was a knock on the door. Her mother stuck her head in and asked if they were okay. Silver quickly explained everything that had happened since Summer bit him. After she was finished, Vanessa said, “You both need to get ready for school or you’re going to be late.”
They looked at each other, both thinking about Jersey.
“You don’t have to do it,” Silver said. “Not today. We can wait.”
“Better if I do it now. Get it over with.”
“Okay. I’ll meet you downstairs for breakfast.”
Jack waited until she was gone. He picked the rock up where it had fallen on the floor and rotated it in his palm. There was no way he was going to let Silver down. Even if he got himself killed, he was going to finish Jersey today.
Chapter Twenty-Two:
BETRAYAL…DECEIT…MURDER
Three days passed and Jersey didn’t show his face at school. Odd, but the total silence on Jersey’s end worried Jack more than a full-on frontal attack. The principal was irate because Jersey hadn’t called to give an explanation. Hardwick had called the police, told them it wasn’t like Jersey Clifford to be absent, so they went looking for him. It didn't take long for them to report back that Jersey must have picked up and left town. This theory was based on the appearance of his empty house. Of course they hadn’t checked his underground mansion.
It was Friday. Jack and Silver couldn’t bear the thought of heading into the weekend without knowing what Jersey was up to. They met in his empty classroom at lunchtime. They would use their shared power to get answers.
Jack opened the drawer of Jersey’s desk, looking for a personal item while Silver stood guard at the door. Smiling, he lifted a comb up for her to see. “I think this will do the trick.”
Silver rushed over to him and put her hand on the comb, her pinky finger touching his. The familiar current of electricity sizzled through Jack’s body. The two of them were instantly transported through time and space. Dizzy, he closed his eyes for a moment.
This time they weren’t in Jersey’s study; they were in a wide hallway, a few feet from Pagan’s dangling body. Silver swallowed hard. Jack squeezed her hand. He gestured to the stairs, wanting to draw her attention to Jersey as he descended. The teacher had an open book in his hand. He read it aloud to himself. His voice echoed throughout the maze of connected, dimly lit corridors.
He stopped at the foot of the stairs, and his eyes immediately went to Pagan’s dead body. The book fell from his fingers. “No.” He ran to her, fell on his knees in front of her, arms thrown up and spread wide. “No! No! No!”
This time he changed into a half-man, half-wolf creation. Black fur stood on end. His face totally transformed into something the most creative and expensive horror movie had failed to conjure, a true monster. He looked like an evil species of hedgehog with glowing red eyes. He howled loudly, creating his own private earthquake. The entire underground structure shook with terrible force. Dust fell from the ceiling. Crystals on the many chandeliers clinked together with eerie harmony.
Jersey buried his face in his hands and returned to human form. His shoulders shook as he sobbed. He had genuinely cared about the woman. Jack almost felt sorry for him.
After a few minutes the man pulled himself together. He stood and grabbed the hilt of the sword. With a vicious yank he pulled it from her body. Pagan fell to the floor while Jersey stared down at the bloodstained blade. “I will avenge you! Whoever did this will pay. First I will torture them until they beg for death. Then I will kill them as slowly as possible.”
Jersey went to the center of the hallway and screamed, “Attack! Arise, my beauties, and attack!”
“What is he doing?” Silver asked.
“He’s summoning the wraiths.”
Of course the wraiths didn’t respond. Jersey blinked his ey
es a few times, listening for the shrieks, but the halls remained quiet as a tomb. He dropped the sword and raced downstairs. Jack and Silver followed, wanting to keep him in their sight just in case he started to plan his revenge out loud. Hand in hand, they jogged after him.
He ran in one bedroom after another. Jack and Silver stayed in the hallway, already knowing what he would see upon each visit. Once he exited the final bedroom he screamed in fury. His hands closed into fists.
His rage brought out the beast within again. He turned into a solid black werewolf. This time he began to rip at the walls, tearing huge holes in the plaster. Next, he went upstairs to his study and trashed the place.
Jersey ripped up papers on the desk. He threw the chair across the room, tossed the massive desk on its side, and punched a hole in the stone fireplace. Each act of destruction seemed to fuel his fury. He grabbed his prized possessions, first edition books of classic stories and pulled pages out by hairy fistfuls. He tossed the pages into the lit fireplace, burning them.
Finally he knocked an angel statue over, and it shattered into a million pieces.
This time it took more than fifteen minutes for him to calm himself. When he reverted to human form, he sank down in the pile of debris and cried. Now Jack felt truly sorry for the man. He couldn’t help it. Jersey hadn’t asked to be made into a werewolf. Jack wished he could speak to Jersey now, but he reminded himself it was only a memory. Communication was impossible.
Jersey returned to the hallway and sat next to Pagan’s body. He didn’t touch her. Instead, he quoted poetry. “When we two parted in silence and tears, half broken hearted to sever for years, pale grew thy cheek and cold, colder thy kiss. Truly that hour foretold sorrow to this.”
He smiled down at her. “That was Lord Byron. Of course if you were able to speak, you would nag at me to talk like a regular human being. You never understood I am not even close to being human. Once upon a time I called heaven my home. I was an angel.”
“Is he using angel as symbolic?” Silver blinked. “Or does he actually believe he’s an angel with the wings and halo and the whole ten yards?”
Jack grimaced. “He says he lost his wings when he came to Earth.”
