by K. C. Blake
“You think I’ve been happy?” She shook her head slowly. “If I’m glowing when I see you it’s because you’re standing in front of me. When you aren’t around, I’m a mess.”
“Really?”
She nodded. Then her eyes narrowed on him. “Did something happen today?”
He shook his head in denial, all the while picturing Isobel. “Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me. I can always tell when you’re holding back.”
In truth he’d been holding back a secret for months. After Jersey’s abrupt departure, Jack had found a brand new diary page. It had called him by name and had warned him of impending danger. He hadn’t told anyone about it, but it was irrevocably imprinted on his brain.
Beware of Silver, Jack. Betrayal will lead to your death.
The scribbled note had been unsettling to say the least. He had ripped the page out the following day, destroying it in the fireplace. No reason for Silver or her parents to know about it. It’s not like he believed it. Silver would die before she ever betrayed him.
Still—the written words wouldn’t leave him alone. They festered in his soul, making him question her every movement and every syllable that came out of her mouth. Although he hated himself for doubting her, he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
Knowing Silver, she wasn’t going to let her question go unanswered, so he opened his treasure chest of secrets and handed her one free of charge.
“I was stabbed by a werewolf a few hours ago.” Silver started to interrupt him, but he rushed on. “I had some trouble healing. It got kind of hairy for a few minutes, but it worked out eventually.”
“You’re okay now though, right?”
“I’m good,” he said. “I just wish I knew what the problem was with my healing powers. What if it happens again? Next time I might not be so lucky.”
“I’ll ask mom and dad about it. Maybe they know something.”
“You want to finish our dance?”
She returned to his arms, and they continued their dance in silence. Jack rested his chin on the top of her head and breathed in deep. The scent of her hair teased his nostrils. It reminded him of the night they’d first met. He had smelled her before he’d seen her. Funny, her scent had been the first thing he’d fallen in love with, fruit and wildflowers.
After a few minutes she said, “I wish we could stay like this forever.”
Before he could respond to her whispered words, she disappeared. Her body turned to vapor. He stopped dancing, arms empty. His fingers tingled, missing her already. There wasn’t anything to worry about. Silver was awake now. When she left their dreams, she did it abruptly, no goodbyes, no promises to meet up later. Unfortunately there was no way to know when they were about to wake up. Sometimes he left her, but most of the time it was the other way around. Apparently she was a light sleeper.
Since Jack remained in the dream alone, he decided to see what else he could do. The first thing that popped into his head was the question of bringing someone else into the dream. Was it possible? And if so, would they be in the dream like Silver or a figment of his imagination like the roses? Before he had time to consider the consequences, his mind conjured the person he most wanted to talk to at the moment.
A twig cracked under a heavy foot behind him.
Feeling scared and excited at the same time, he slowly revolved to see the person he’d sucked into his dream. He knew it was wrong to care about Jersey Clifford. Jersey was the head werewolf, a certifiably crazy individual who’d kept wraiths in his basement and had promised to kill Jack on more than one occasion, but there was something about the man. Jack couldn’t turn his back on him even though he knew Jersey believed they were destined to try to kill each other.
Okay, so Jersey wasn’t the only one who could benefit from seeing a psychiatrist.
Jersey approached with an amused glint in his pale blue eyes. Dressed in black as usual, Jersey had his red sneakers on—and he had a black rose in his hand. It was the one color Jack had forgotten to create.
“You summoned me?” Jersey took a second to smell the rose before crushing it in one hand. He let the petals drop from his loose fingers. “I have to admit I’m impressed. Even if I’d for one moment thought you capable of this kind of power, I wouldn’t have suspected you’d have the nerve to use it.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You have no idea what you’ve done.” Jersey shook his head in wonder. “Now that you have invited me into your dreams, I can reappear anytime I want. Did you think you would have the upper-hand in a dream world, Jack? I brought my power with me.”
An invisible hand grabbed Jack by the throat, cutting off his oxygen. It squeezed hard until he couldn’t breathe. He dropped to his knees, and his eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his head. Panic had him clawing at his throat. There was nothing for him to grab onto, no way for him to stop it. It was going to be a slow and painful death.
Jersey towered over him. “You’re okay. Get up.”
As quickly as the manacle around his throat appeared, it was gone. He drew in a deep breath and coughed. After he could breathe again, Jack struggled to his feet. He glared at his former teacher, no longer happy to see him. The idea of killing Jersey was becoming more appealing by the second.
“I apologize,” Jersey said without a trace of sincerity. “I don’t want to waste time fighting with you, but I had to make certain you understood the consequences of your actions. You should be more careful in the future. As long as I’m here, let’s talk. Did you get the book I mailed to you last month? Did you read it?”
“I read it.”
“Your thoughts? I’m curious to hear them.”
Jack pushed the disturbing anger down as he tried to return to the good old days when he and Jersey discussed literature on a regular basis. It was damn near impossible. The man had almost strangled him to death. His mind was cluttered with warring voices, and he was having trouble thinking clearly. “Umm…it was interesting.”
Jersey rolled his eyes and snorted. “Interesting? I could get that kind of response from half the student body at Jefferson Memorial. You can do better than that. Tell me what you thought about the running theme of reincarnation.”
“Honestly I don’t buy it. We live once and die. End of story.”
“Go on.”
Jack quickly leafed through the book in his mind, summoning every major plot point he could remember. It was hard to think with Jersey scowling at him. Even the title slipped his mind. It was something like The Majabarata…Mahabarata…whatever. The book followed five brothers on a quest. At least one of them, the main character, had lived before.
“There was this one scene where the main character was walking on the beach and talking to a god he had known in various lifetimes. They had been best friends, but the memories were lost to him.”
Jersey’s eyes danced with excitement. “Yes! When you were reading it, did you notice anything familiar about these two men? Did they remind you of anyone?”
They hadn’t.
“Is that why you wanted me to read it? Are you trying to say you believe we knew each other in another lifetime?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Jersey dismissed the idea with a flick of his hand. “Back to the book. What did you think about the major part destiny played in the story?”
Jack worked hard not to roll his eyes. “You know I don’t believe in that garb… stuff.”
“Stubborn. You are the most stubborn human I have ever met.” Jersey was worked up now. His voice raised a few decibels, and he gestured wildly with his hands as he spoke. “Destiny is a real thing. It locks us in chains, but it can be fooled on occasion. We can fool it now if you would simply learn to cooperate with me. Open your mind to the possibility of us working together.”
“What are you suggesting?” Jack folded arms over his chest, not liking the detour the conversation had taken.
“Join me.” Jersey’s voice lowered, becoming sedu
ctive in nature. His smile was crooked, lazy now, but Jack wasn’t fooled.
The story of Adam and Eve sprang to mind. He could picture Jersey dressed like a beautiful snake in the garden, tempting Eve to take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Jersey had told Jack that he thought he was an angel. Of course it wasn’t true. Jersey had lost his mind after killing his wife. But if it had been true, Jersey would have been a fallen angel, maybe even the devil himself.
“Join me or die.” Jersey added a quote from Shelley. “With plough and spade, and hoe and loom, trace your grave, and build your tomb.”
“There’s a third option,” Jack said. “Our side could win, and you could die.”
Jersey held a hand out. “Don’t be a fool, Jack. Join me. Now.”
******
Jack’s eyes snapped open. He was safe, back in the living room and on the sofa. It took him a few minutes to lose the disoriented feeling that came with visiting the dream world. An obnoxious rock song echoed in his ears. It was his cell phone. He jumped up, following the music to its origin. The Caller ID told him Silver was on the other end.
He smiled as he pushed the green button. “Thanks for waking me. You have no idea how great your timing is.”
“What happened after I left?”
He hesitated. The truth was on the tip of his tongue. If he told her about Jersey, about his threats, she might be afraid to join him in his dreams. Jersey had warned him that he could visit them any time he wanted. Silver wouldn’t like that. A little voice screamed at him to tell her anyway. By hiding it, he was putting them both at risk, making them vulnerable.
First he sighed.
Then he confessed.
“I sort of… brought Jersey into my dream.”
“You did WHAT?”
“I know. I know. It was stupid.”
“Why would you do something like that? Do you have a death wish?”
“No.” He sat on the arm of the sofa, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. Silver would never understand how he felt, but he had to try to explain. “I kind of miss the guy.”
Dead silence.
“Are you there?” he asked.
“Uh…yeah. I just don’t know what to say.”
Jack sighed before trying again. “Jersey reminds me of my father. I told you that. I can’t have my father back because he’s dead, but I thought I could still have Jersey for a while, at least to talk to.”
“No way. You can’t possibly miss that lunatic. He had wraiths in his home, imprisoned in their own bodies. How can you miss someone who would do that to another person?”
He groaned and rubbed his aching head with his free hand. “I don’t know.”
Jack thought about his mom, wondering what she would say about his dependence on a werewolf. Truth was he was so damn lonely he could barely think straight. Lily and Summer were dead, Cowboy had left town, and Billy was spending more and more time with his new girlfriend. Then there was Silver. She was too busy trying to get into a good school to bother with him anymore. They were drifting further apart by multiplying inches every day.
Hot emotion clogged his throat. “I have to go.”
Silver’s voice sounded far away, both physically and mentally distant from him. “Okay. I’ll see you at school, I guess.”
He didn’t disconnect the call. As much as he wanted to hang up, he couldn’t end their conversation this way. If he didn’t say something to reassure her, he could inadvertently build a chasm between them that couldn’t be crossed. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’ll meet you at your locker.”
“My locker? Okay. Sounds good.”
He got off the phone and went to his bedroom even though he didn’t think he’d be able to sleep. The disturbing dreams he’d suffered through had his mind whirling in violent circles. Blanca growled deep in her throat. Her glittering green eyes fixed on the window.
“What is it, baby?” he asked.
Jack went to the window, but he didn’t see anything. Blanca hissed behind him, insisting there was something bad out there. He pushed the window open and leaned out. Still nothing. He started to pull back inside when something caught his attention, a slight movement to the left.
A dark shape leisurely walked into the open where the porch light could reach her. It was the girl from his dream; it was Isobel. She had her thumbs in the belt loops of her jeans. Jutting her left hip out, she watched him watching her, a beguiling look on her face.
What did she want from him?
“Go away,” he said in a harsh whisper. Somehow he knew she would hear him. Before she could respond, he shut the window and locked it.
She was a hunter.
He used to be a vampire.
It was a bad combination.
******
Chapter Three:
REALITY
The next day, late in the afternoon, Jack stood over his snoring brother and considered his options for waking the kid. Billy, looking way too comfortable, was hopelessly tangled in the sheet. He had worn a gray sleeveless T-shirt and boxers to bed. At least he wasn’t naked. That could have added another ounce of awkwardness to their already strained relationship. It was bad enough that Jack had to wake him to ask for advice without being traumatized for life by seeing him in the nude.
Tired and frustrated, Jack cleared his throat.
One of Billy’s eyes popped open. When he saw Jack hovering over him, he shot out of bed and fell to his knees on the floor. Fighting against the sheet to free himself in a comical wrestling match, Billy yelled as he jumped to his feet. “What the hell…” Billy glared at Jack from the other side of the mattress.
Jack could read his brother’s mind. No doubt Billy had been having nightmares about opening his eyes to find Jack standing over him. He was probably expecting Jack to sprout fangs and kill him. Jack sighed in frustration. He was not in the mood for Billy’s paranoid crap.
“I need your help,” Jack said as he sat on the edge of the mattress. “Silver is busy, but even if she wasn’t, I don’t want her to know about this. You’re the only one I can turn to right now. Do you think for five minutes you can forget I was a vampire and just be my brother? Do you think you can manage that?”
Billy blinked. “Uh... sure. What do you need?”
“Principal Hardwick called me to his office after school today.”
“What did you do this time?”
“I didn’t do anything. This is your fault, not mine. The idiot you hired to make my fake transcripts screwed them up. He miscounted credits. I don’t have enough to graduate.”
“Oh man, I’m sorry.”
“The one thing I wished for as a vampire over and over was to graduate from high school. Now it’s not going to happen.”
Billy grabbed a pair of discarded jeans and struggled into them. Then he found a fresh T-shirt in the dresser. He started talking again while pulling it over his head. “Isn’t there anything you can do? You still have a couple of months before the big day.”
“Hardwick says no. He told me I can take a class during the summer if I want, but he won’t let me graduate with everyone else. I want to graduate with Silver, and you know she’s a big nut when it comes to education. I can’t see her sticking by an idiot who can’t even finish high school on time.”
Jack couldn’t sit still anymore. He wanted to kick something, but he restrained himself because he was in Billy’s bedroom. After pacing the length of the room several times, he fell back against the door with his fists clenched.
Billy said, “I don’t think Silver is going to dump you over this, man. For some reason she’s crazy about you.”
“I told you we aren’t dating right now.” Jack shrugged. “But I’m hoping to rectify the situation soon. What can I do about graduating? Can your guy fix this, fix the transcripts so they say my last school made a mistake?”
Billy shook his head. “Too late for that. If we try to fix it now, Hardwick will personally contact the old school. Then they�
��ll tell him they’ve never heard of you. Better to graduate in a few months than not at all.”
Jack squeezed his eyes shut and banged the back of his head softly against the door. “I can’t believe this is happening. My life was supposed to get easier when I lost the fangs.”
Billy chuckled. “Welcome to reality, bro. Maybe you should just be honest with Silver. She’s pretty good at talking Hardwick into things, and she knows all about a student’s rights. She might be able to help you out.”
Jack had already considered telling her the truth and dismissed the idea. He didn’t want to look like a loser. He and Silver were already having problems. She had little time for him these days, and he hadn’t been supportive or understanding of her choices. She always seemed to have her nose in a book. The only thing she ever wanted to talk about was college. It seemed to be all she ever thought about.
And all he thought about was Silver.
“There has to be another way,” Jack mumbled.
“Extra credit? Ask if there’s a class you can do some fancy footwork in. You can pass with a ‘D’ I think.”
A flicker of relief brought a smile to Jack’s face. Extra credit was a good idea. Why hadn’t he thought of it? There had to be a teacher somewhere in that school who would take pity on him. He was willing to work hard.
Now that he had a plan, the tension eased in his body. He approached Billy with a teasing smile. “So what did you think I was doing in your bedroom when you woke up? Did you think I was going to bite you?”
“Shut up.”
“You did.” Jack took a playful jab at Billy’s gut. “Admit it. You thought I wanted to drink your blood.”
