Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series)

by L. C. DeCarlo

  “Ahh, Jules what are you up to?” he said running his hand roughly through his hair.

  “Uh? Is that a yes, you want to know or just a rhetorical question?” I asked him biting my lip looking at him eagerly.

  “It can cause that much trouble?”

  I just nodded.

  “Yet, you’re doing it anyway?”

  More nodding.

  “Does Ana know about this?”

  I stopped nodding. I gave him my best blank face even if I couldn’t compare to how well he and Ana could pull it off.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Alright, let me have it. What monsters are we slaying this time?”

  “Swear to me that you can keep this to yourself, job or not.”

  “You’re really going to ask me that after everything we’ve been through.”

  “Just swear it William.”

  “Fine, I swear to keep it a secret. What are they doing in this age, swapping blood, spit or do I have to give you my first born if I lie?”

  “Oh knock it off,” I told him playfully as I went to my closet and pulled out the boxes Ana and I had gotten earlier.

  “We, I mean, I got this earlier while you three were training.”

  I pulled out a few of the slides and syringes, blood tubes, but saved the microscope for last.

  “What kind of experiment on you going to be working on Jules?”

  “I’m going to figure out how to get high concentrations of silver into Christian’s blood and how to keep it there before it metabolizes out of his system.”

  William froze while looking at me. It didn’t take long for him to recover however.

  “You do realize that will—”

  “Kill any vampire that consumes his blood, yes, that is sort of the point.”

  “Is this about Victoria?”

  “No, she didn’t play into this at all; it has to do with me taking him into a house full of blood-crazy vampires. If he can’t defend himself, if we can’t protect him, and his blood is spilled at least he’ll be left with a fighting chance.”

  “This takes him from being a Guardian--a defender-- to a vampire hunter. You do realize that? This makes him a threat to every vampire near him all he has to do is spill his own blood. There is no way Sebastian will allow this.”

  “You gave me your word.”

  “And I plan to keep it, but this is a very dangerous game. If they find out, they’ll know he isn’t our feeder and everyone’s cover is blown. You are gambling with everyone’s lives thinking you can pull this off. If he so much as gets a paper cut it can all be blown.”

  He didn’t back down from making me fully aware of the consequences that my actions could have. He wasn’t going to turn me in either.

  “I know.”

  He turned to head toward the bed and pulled his shirt over his head. His muscles rippled all the way up his back.

  “Hey, Will?”

  He turned to face me and I couldn’t help but take in the powerful display of his chest and abs. He was absolutely breathtaking in his masculine beauty the way he could control me, but never hurt me. I was still looking him over seeing exactly where those perfectly formed abs trailed under the waist of his jeans.

  “Jules?”

  “Oh, right.”

  I think he realized just then what I had been thinking about because his eyes widened and began turning from their deep brown into black without warning.

  It has been a while hasn’t it?

  “I was just going to say that I think you should stay in your room—just while Christian is here,” I quickly added on.

  “He knows his dad is moving on, he should know the same about you too.”

  “I don’t think he’s ready.”

  “You don’t think he’s ready or you aren’t?” William said grabbing his shirt and leaving.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The five of us didn’t spend much time together over the next few days; it was all work and no play. William and Christian spent every moonlit hour together, they were inseparable. If they weren’t in the training room sparring, they were out running; if they weren’t running, they were sparring. I saw Christian long enough to get a sweaty kiss on the cheek before he passed out or on the rare occasion I was able to bring him a meal. I didn’t spend any time alone with William, which I believe was purposeful on his part. Was he trying to make a point or was he really unable to tear himself away from training for just a few minutes?

  Ana and Victoria seemed to be running their own sort of mission as well. They were constantly getting calls then running out of the house. I overheard Ana say she was talking to Martin, apparently the attacks from the Coven were becoming a nightly occurrence and he wanted them to run interference. Ana was currently arguing with Martin about why she compelled a police officer into forgetting what he had witnessed instead of killing him per the new protocol. Apparently she had listened to what I said the other night after all.

  I spent all of my time locked away in my room, in my bathroom actually. It was the only place in the house big enough that I could set up all of my equipment and still manage to keep it hidden. Ana and William knew what I was doing, but Victoria was giving me suspicious looks and eyeing my room whenever I would walk out. The only time I stopped my research was to make Christian something to eat and I locked the door behind me. I still had to wait until Ana and Victoria left the house to draw Christian’s blood. I didn’t want Victoria to smell it and come barging in demanding to know what was going on. I took several vials of blood from him so I would have plenty to work with. After pulling on a pair of leather gloves I grabbed a handful of silver bullet casings from the weapons stock and locked myself away again.

  The problem I had was trying to figure out how to get the silver into his system, when it would become unsafe, and how much silver would need to be present in his blood to effectively harm or kill a vampire. I was just praying that it took much less to harm a vampire than would be unsafe for him. The final problem I had to answer, and one of the most important, was how quickly the silver would metabolize out of his system. If it was gone in an hour this entire thing would be pointless, but if it got us through an entire night with the Coven—or longer—that would be worth it. So, while everyone else in the house ran, fought, and fended off the coming attacks of the Coven, I sat locked away in my bathroom melting down silver.

  I separated his large vials of blood into lots of micro sized blood tubes, which gave me many more chances to experiment. I started by determining the highest quantity of silver his blood cells could handle without being overtaken by it. Countless slides under the microscope and many more calculations later I was ultimately able to determine the correct ratio for his entire system, while keeping it at safe levels for him. Now just how to get it into his system? I was becoming tired and realized I had spent the entire night working on this; the sun must be getting ready to rise. I bagged up all the used slides and syringes. I wiped everything down with bleach not wanting to leave a trace of blood or the scent behind. I turned off the heat that was keeping the silver warm—we didn’t need another fire—and set out to find Christian. I had two large vials of his blood left that were still sealed up and I left them sitting next to the microscope.

  I went downstairs to find everyone sitting in the kitchen, Ana and William had a mug of coffee in front of them. Victoria was sitting in the corner and Christian was eating a huge plate of eggs, bacon, toast, fruit, and hash browns. I felt hurt that they didn’t tell me they were down here, but I suppose I wouldn’t have come anyway.

  “Wow, that looks great.”

  “It is and I am so hungry, Victoria made it for me.”

  I looked at her sitting in the corner avoiding eye contact with me.

  “That was nice of her,” I said putting on a fake smile.

  I saw her nostrils flare just a little then she turned her head slowly to look at me.

  “Why do you smell like bleach? What ha
ve you been doing all night?”

  “Cleaning. Christian I need to talk to you alone for a minute.”

  “Can I finish eating?”

  “I’m sorry, but no, the sun is going to rise any minute now and I’ll be out.”

  I hated admitting this to him, but it was urgent that I speak to him. He glanced up at me and I think he saw my tension for the first time. Victoria taking all this in began to scrutinize me even more.

  “Okay, sure, Mom let’s go.”

  I thought about taking him outside so I could be sure to speak without being overheard, but I didn’t want to get caught outside so close to dawn.

  “See you all tomorrow,” I said as I turned and ran back up to my room.

  Christian was right on my heals and the second he closed the door I shut it firmly behind him, putting my fingers to my lips telling him to be quite. I grabbed the notepad I had been making calculations on and as quickly as I could, which made my hand look like a blur to him I wrote ‘Burn it’, and then pointed to the bag of bloody slides and syringes.

  I then wrote ‘leave nothing but ash’. He nodded that he would, but his eyes told me he was confused. The secrecy wasn’t because of Ana and William it was because of Victoria, I didn’t trust her. I flipped the page, writing some more then turned it to him ‘you must do this AFTER everyone goes out for the day. They CANNOT know about this. Do not let anyone in my room, as my Guardian’. He read it over twice, I could tell by tracking his eyes.

  “Christian, I’m going to pass out,” the room was becoming hazy as it was. I could hear the whirring of the shades starting to close.

  “Okay, you can trust me, Mom.” He looked scared as he said it, but I was hoping that was because he had never seen me pass out before.

  I tore off the sheets of paper I had written to him on and put them in his hand, “These too. Now get out, I don’t want you to see me like this.”

  “Mom . . .” he came forward like he wanted to help me.

  “Out!” I yelled pointing to the door. As soon as it shut I fell back on the bed passing out, thinking to myself I hoped he was right. I hoped I could trust that he would be able to keep one curious vampire out of my room; one that could destroy everything.

  I woke to the same thought. Did he do it? Did he keep her out? Did he destroy everything without Victoria knowing? I slowly crawled out of bed. I was still dressed in the same clothes from last night, but my shoes were off and I had a blanket over me. Christian must have done that when he came in for the bag. That was incredibly dangerous. I had no idea what I might do while out of it and being disturbed I could attack him for all I knew.

  I crept to the bedroom door and stuck my head out, “Christian!”

  Victoria was suddenly before me, “he’s busy can I help you with something?”

  Before I could answer Christian was pushing her out of the way. “No, I’m not. I just ran to the bathroom for two seconds. Victoria we’ll see you downstairs.” He had put himself between my door and Victoria blocking her entry. The hardness in the look and stance he had taken showed he was serious about keeping her out.

  “He hasn’t left that spot since you called him to your room last night. What are you hiding in there?”

  I looked down and saw a blanket, pillow and alarm clock sitting in the hallway by my door.

  “That’s because he was acting as my Guardian. He was doing his job. I suggest you let him continue doing it and move on.”

  “I will figure out what you’re up to.”

  “See you later, Victoria.”

  I pulled Christian into my room and waited before saying anything. I listened as her footsteps descended the entire length of the stairs and heard the front door slam loudly before turning to Christian.

  “You didn’t have to sleep on the floor. I didn’t mean for you to have to sleep out there all day.”

  “Look, what you said was not to let anyone in. You ordered it actually and it was the only way I could be sure no one came in. I had no idea why just that you were pretty adamant about it. I didn’t have to stay there all day anyway. I was only there until everyone else went to their rooms and a little while after just in case. I set the alarm so I would be up before sunset and could be here before everyone rose. It’s not a big deal, it’s my job remember,” he ended with a sly smile.

  “Hey, you know how long they can stay up after me? And how much earlier they rise than me?” Finally my chance to find out!

  “What, you don’t know?”

  “No! They won’t tell me,” I said throwing my arms up in frustration.

  This got a big smile out of him and he chuckled a little, “It’s not a big deal they rise about—”

  “Hey, Jules, you in there?”

  Am I in here? Like he couldn’t hear us from across the house!

  I went to the door pulling it open to see William standing there looking almost timid as he stood back a little from the door, hands in the pockets of his jeans. His hair was a mess, messier than normal and he looked, well, sad.

  “Are you okay, what’s the matter?”

  “I came to ask you that same question. Who is Christian guarding you from? Are you really that upset with me for walking out?” I was momentarily confused about what he was talking about until I remembered him storming out of my room.

  “No, Will, he isn’t here because of that. Is anyone else home?”

  “Ana and Victoria just left. What’s going on?”

  I pulled him into my room.

  “This is about the experiment I’m working on. I needed Christian to get rid of some things for me and I wanted him keeping Victoria out.”

  “So, this doesn’t have to do with . . .”

  “No.” I told him then turned to Christian, “Did you burn everything?”

  “Yeah, I made sure there was nothing left. Are you going to tell me what this is about?”

  “I will, but I just need one more night and I think I’ll have it. Can you two help keep Victoria out of here tonight?”

  “Yeah, we’ll have her work with us,” William said immediately willing to help. “Between the calls Martin and Sebastian keep sending her on, and working with us, there is no way she’ll have time to sneak up here.”

  “Thank you. What’s going on that they keep calling them?”

  “More of the same thing. Michael and his crew keep feeding in public and demolishing property. They are sending Ana and Victoria out to check for witnesses and to clean it up. It’s getting harder for them to go unnoticed, so more and more humans have been slipping through the cracks. Sebastian wants us out there with Michael now. I convinced him to give us until at least tomorrow.”

  “Okay, I can do this. I can finish it tonight, just keep her away.”

  Christian gave me a speculative look. He wanted to know what was up, but knew better than to ask.

  “I’ll see you two later.” Not so subtly asking them to leave so I could get started.

  I was going to need all the time I could get. William hung back a little as Christian left the room waiting until we heard his soft footsteps hit the bottom of the stairs. I wasn’t sure if he was about to start up another argument or not, so I held back and waited to see what he wanted from me. He looked around the room eyeing the bed, the bathroom; everywhere except at me.

  “How’s it really going? Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure,” I told him suddenly on the defensive. “If you only stayed back to try to talk me out of this again you are wasting your time.”

  “Trust me, I know there’s no talking you out of anything,” he murmured softly more to himself than anything.

  I stayed where I was arms crossed over my chest, still feeling defensive. He finally turned to look at me, a longing in his eyes as they traveled up and down my body.

  “When’s the last time you fed? We were interrupted the last time we went out together. Have you gone out since then?” The longing in his eyes had started to turn to conc
ern as he slowly began to walk toward me, moving with that ever confident masculine grace. I hated that he would see me as being weak, I turned away from him so he wouldn’t see the truth of it in my eyes.

  “I’m fine, William. I really do need to get back to work though. I’m really close to finishing and I only have tonight to finish it.” Just as I started to head for the bathroom William captured my wrist in his hand, holding me gently, yet firmly in place. I kept my back to him not wanting him to see how much I really wanted to go to him. I didn’t want to be the one always running after him.

  “You need to feed first, Jules. I can see it in the paleness of your skin, I can feel your hunger radiating out from you. Why haven’t you fed? You know you must--”

  “I can’t feed without you alright,” I snapped at him a little harsher than I had intended, but I was mad that he was making me say it out loud. “Or at least I don’t want to.” I started again more softly this time. “I’m afraid to feed without you there, Will. I need you, something in you calms me--keeps me grounded. The only thing that stopped me from killing a man when I fled was my thoughts of you. I . . . I just need you, okay.”

  I turned my head slightly to try to gauge his response to my confession, but as always he had his clamped down poker face on. He wasn’t revealing anything. He wasn’t letting go of me either.

  “So, let’s go out now. We can feed quickly and be back in no time at all.”

  “Forget it, Will, I’m fine,” I pulled my arm loose from his grasp and turned back to the bathroom again. Trying to cover up how his emotionless demeanor was affecting me. He had been distant for days and it was exhausting me. The exhaustion could also be from the lack of blood, but I was sure it was mostly due to the roller coaster of emotions William put me through.

  He turned from me and started for the door, not saying a word. No goodbye, see you later, nothing. I just stopped and closed my eyes tilting my head back and trying to stop the onslaught of tears I felt brimming right below the surface. The unmistakable click of the lock being turned brought my attention quickly back to the door. I was shocked to find William standing there staring at me, his walls were down now, made evident by the pain showing through his eyes and the tension in his brows.