by K. C. Blake
Honestly? Jack had suspected Ian Carver. The man had stepped into the principal’s shoes with ease. He’d gained the most from Hardwick’s death. Next on the list though was Isobel. He hated to think of her doing something like that, and he wasn’t going to point a hunter in Isobel’s direction without proof, but she seemed a likely candidate.
He shook his head. “No clue.”
“Well, let me know if that changes.”
“Sure.” His thoughts turned to Billy. He had to tell his brother about their brand new uncle. Billy was going to freak. Jack stood, scraping the wooden legs of the chair against the hardwood floor. “I have to go.”
Ian stood too and shook Jack’s hand. “You and I will get together soon. We can talk about your father some more. I am quite certain you must have a slew of questions.”
Jack agreed. He said goodbye to Silver’s parents and walked out. Silver followed him to the front porch, like he instinctively knew she would. He had a few things still to clear up with her. There were so many things to say.
She went first. “I’m sorry I kept the truth about your uncle from you. Mom and dad convinced me it was better to keep my mouth shut, but I should have known better. I should have told you. We promised not to keep any more secrets.”
“It’s okay.” Forgiveness came easy for him because he had a huge list of secrets that he didn’t want her to know about.
“No, it isn’t. I pushed you away because being around you got too hard. I couldn’t keep up with the lie. Every time I looked at you, I wanted to tell you. Every time you talked about missing Jersey, how he reminds you of your father, I wanted to start yelling that you have an uncle. I should have. I should have told you a long time ago.”
Silver stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. For a moment he just stood there with his arms at his sides. He forgot to breathe. It didn’t seem real. Slowly he raised his arms and embraced her warm body. It felt like heaven when the side of her face rested against his chest. They held each other for a long time.
Now it was his turn to clear the air.
“I don’t like Isobel, not like you think I do. I’ve been using her to learn to suck souls. Also, I’ve been hanging out with her to make you jealous.”
Silver stepped back. “Well it worked.”
“I thought you’d betrayed me.”
Beware of Silver.
Her eyes dropped. “Well I did, didn’t I? I let my parents talk me into lying to you after we promised to be straight with each other.”
“We can’t blame your parents for what’s been going on with us. Not totally anyway. You told Trina you’re feelings had changed and that you were confused. Do you know how you feel about me now? Honestly, do you love me or are we just friends?”
He could take it no matter how much it hurt.
Silver opened her mouth to answer.
Jack caught sight of the werewolf from earlier. It was watching them from behind the thick trunk of a tree. Jack bent forward slightly and whispered in her ear. He told her about the werewolf and advised her not to make any sudden movements. She froze like a statue.
Using vampire-speed, Jack raced over to the werewolf. He caught it by surprise and knocked it to the ground. It was fast too. It jumped up, back on its feet in a matter of seconds. The werewolf had a knife in its hand, and Jack connected the dots. He recognized the werewolf.
This was the same werewolf, the same knife as before. This was the werewolf that had stabbed him. It laughed, deep and throaty, and confirmed his beliefs. “How did you like my blade? It’s made from silver, you know. Hurt, didn’t it?”
A silver knife? No wonder he hadn’t been able to heal instantly. Beware of silver. An epiphany hit Jack hard. The diary hadn’t been warning him about Silver, the girl. It had been warning him to watch out for the metal. Apparently the metal could severely hurt him, maybe even kill him. It was toxic to his blood.
His eyes went to the girl waiting on the porch. He wanted to tell her everything, apologize for not trusting her but there wasn’t time. First he had to survive another fight with the crazy werewolf.
The werewolf lunged at him, trying to stab him for a second time.
******
Chapter Seventeen:
MIDNIGHT WALK
“Look out!” Silver shouted.
The werewolf spun around, swinging the blade so it would cut Jack from one side of his chest to the other. Moving quickly, Jack bent backwards at the waist and touched a hand to the ground before pushing himself up again. The knife sliced the air instead of him. He looked around, stunned. The werewolf was running towards the Reign’s property line. It was going to get away.
Jack started after it.
Silver grabbed his wrist and jerked on him. “No way. You are not going after that thing. Let’s get my parents.”
“It will be long gone by then. I have to stop it.”
“Then I’m going with you.”
“I can travel faster alone.”
Hands on hips, she shook her head. “He hasn’t morphed. You don’t need to use your speed. We can follow him at a discreet distance and see where he goes. Then we’ll tell my parents.”
She had a good point. It was possible the werewolf had been sent by somebody else, ordered to kill him. If that was the case, they needed to find out who was behind the order. Jack had a long list of enemies, including Jersey, but his money was on Blaine.
They started walking. It felt good to have Silver next to him. He stole a sideways glance at her and smiled. A slight breeze blew her honey-blond hair away from her face. It was hard not to reach out and touch her.
She looked up and caught him staring. “What?”
“Nothing. I’m just glad to be hanging out with you again.”
Silver blushed. She gave him a playful shove before they turned their combined focus on the werewolf up ahead. They could barely see him now. He was moving faster but didn’t seem to notice that he was being followed. Once he made it to the main road, he stuck to it. Every time he looked over his shoulder, they ducked behind a bush or a tree.
They walked for what seemed like miles, cutting across acres of farmland until their feet ached.
The sun disappeared, and the moon took its place. Completely dark now, it was hard for Silver to see. She stumbled a few times, but Jack kept her from falling. He still had night vision. He kept a hand on Silver’s arm and an eye on the werewolf. His fingers burned where he touched her soft skin, but he was trying hard not to think about it. This was not the time for a meaningful talk about their relationship.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” he said. “We can turn back if you want.”
“We’ve come this far. Let’s keep going.”
Silver pushed his hand off her arm and grabbed for his hand instead. She laced her fingers between his. They walked hand in hand for a while. It was quiet, peaceful. If it wasn’t for the werewolf up ahead, Jack could pretend they were on a romantic stroll. He wanted to lay down in the grass with her, look at the stars, talk and laugh the way they used to.
They reached a residential area, and Jack got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Do you have your cell phone on you?” she asked.
He did. “You want to call your parents?”
“I think we should. We might be in over our heads here. This could be a trap. I mean, why else would a werewolf come to a hunter’s house?”
“He was probably there to kill somebody.”
“Or to lead someone away so he could kill them.”
She was right again. Jack reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled his cell out. He went to give it to her but stopped short when he saw the werewolf cut through someone’s backyard. They dashed around the house closest to them. The werewolf used the back door to enter a home five down from the one they were currently standing behind.
A light burned in practically every window of the house the werewolf had walked into. People moved back and fort
h in front of the windows. There had to be at least six people in the house besides the werewolf. Jack returned the phone to his pocket, relieved not to hear screams. It was obvious to him that the other occupants in the house were also werewolves.
“It doesn’t look like a trap to me,” Jack said. “I doubt the werewolf knows we followed it.”
“Are you sure it can’t smell us?”
“We’re downwind from it.”
They knelt behind a large, empty dog house. Silver peeked over the dog’s roof and asked, “What should we do now?”
“Get a closer look.”
“Are you crazy?” She shook her head. “Werewolves have a great sense of smell, you know. One of them will pick up our scent, and there are too many of them for us to fight alone.”
“You’re a hunter, and I’m part werewolf. We can take care of ourselves.”
“I still think it’s a mistake.”
He smiled at her. “Okay. You might be right. Stay here while I take a look. If anything happens, call your parents.”
Jack gave her his cell phone, and she clutched it like a lifeline. “Be careful. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Don’t worry.” He kissed her, a quick one on the mouth. “For luck.”
She smiled.
Jack kept his head down when he ran across two backyards to get to the house the werewolf had gone into. There were three windows in the rear. Standing on the tips of his toes, he peeked inside one of them. There were a couple of werewolves in the kitchen cooking dinner. A steady stream of them came and went at various intervals. Other than the one werewolf, Jack didn’t recognize anyone. He strained to hear what they were saying.
“… saw him again,” the werewolf with the knife said. “We really need to get rid of him. He’s going to destroy us all.”
Another said, “Won’t happen. Jersey has a plan.”
Jersey?
“Plan? What plan? And where is the great Jersey these days?”
One of the other werewolves lifted his head and cocked it to the side. “We have a visitor outside.”
All eyes snapped up. They turned in unison to look at the window. The werewolf with the knife sniffed the air and growled in satisfaction. “It’s him. Let’s get rid of him now.”
Jack slowly backed away from the building.
A couple of the werewolves howled so loud the windows rattled.
Jack ran. He didn’t use his vampire-speed because he had to take Silver with him. She was on her feet, no longer trying to hide. Eyes wide, she watched him running towards her. She stuck her hand out. He grabbed it. Together they raced for the open road.
There were too many werewolves for them to fight. If they didn’t come up with a great plan, they would be dead before morning. Jack realized he should have listened to Silver and told her parents about the werewolf instead of going after it. Sometimes he was too reckless. If the werewolves caught them, no one would know they were even missing until it was too late for them to do anything about it.
Jack and Silver hit the road and kept going. They ran down the center line. Jack repeatedly looked over his shoulder, checking to see if anyone was gaining on them. The werewolves growled somewhere behind him, getting louder by the second. He heard them but couldn’t see them. His hand tightened on hers. Somehow he was going to keep her alive.
A familiar black car came out of nowhere. It whipped around them, and the tires squealed. The smell of burning rubber invaded the air. Jack recognized the car, and relief flooded his system. He’d never been so glad to see his brother in his entire life.
Billy reached across the front seat and pushed the door open. “Get in!” he shouted.
Silver jumped into the back while Jack climbed into the front seat. Billy immediately hit the gas pedal. They were off like a well-aimed shot out of a powerful rifle. Jack grabbed for the seatbelt. After clicking it in place, he turned to look out the rear window. There wasn’t a werewolf in sight.
Silver said, “We’re lucky you were out here.”
“Luck didn’t have anything to do with it,” Billy said. “This is the house I’ve been staking out, watching the werewolves come and go all week. I’ve been trying to count them and figure out what they’re up to. So far I got nothing.”
Jack went over the last week in his head, remembering every time Billy had gone hunting without him. Now he knew why. Billy had been after the werewolf with the knife, the one who’d stabbed Jack. His brother was out for revenge—again. It had to stop. He didn’t want his brother to get killed, especially not over him.
******
They made it home without incident. Once there, Billy sat in front of the television, watching a ballgame. He had a sandwich in one hand and a beer in the other. The familiar picture he made comforted Jack. He decided to leave his brother alone for a while, let him watch the game in peace.
Jack and Silver went upstairs to his bedroom. They stretched out next to each other, just like the old days, and talked for a long time. Silver even laced her fingers between his. Nothing had changed. They were a perfect fit. Jack wanted to ask what it meant. Did she love him? Was she still confused? But he kept those questions to himself because they were getting along so well now, and he didn’t want to start another fight.
“Are you going to tell Billy about Ian?” she asked.
He wanted to, but there was something holding him back, some little nagging voice deep in the recesses of his mind. The voice warned him not to say a word. An invisible axe was hovering above their heads. Any second it would drop. Then what? Their brand new uncle was hiding something. Jack sensed another secret. Until it was revealed, he wasn’t telling Billy anything.
Instead of explaining his way of thinking to Silver, he changed the subject.
“I won’t practice my power with Isobel anymore, but I still think I should work on it. We need it now more than ever.”
“What do you mean?”
Jack took a deep breath and unloaded his cosmic blunder. “I let Isobel hang out here one day, and I wasn’t watching her. After she left I realized the rock was missing.”
Silver jerked her hand out of his and sat straight up on the bed. “The rock? You mean the magic rock?”
“What other rock could I possibly be talking about?”
“She took the rock, and you’re just now telling me about it? How could you let that happen? How could you trust her enough to let her run around your house? You were the one who didn’t trust her in the first place. You told me she was one of Jersey’s werewolves. What the hell were you thinking?”
There wasn’t anything Jack could say in his own defense, so he kept his mouth shut.
Silver jumped up. She started pacing the room while mumbling to herself. She wasn’t even talking to him anymore. “I have to tell mom and dad. They are going to freak. And I’m going to have to hear how they warned me something like this would happen. I shouldn’t have taken the rock from them. I shouldn’t have given it to someone else. Blah, blah, blah.
“No. I am not telling them anything. We’ll fix this. We’ll get the rock back.” She turned to Jack as if remembering he was in the room. “We have to set the werewolf trap like we talked about before. It will need to be strong. Then we’ll get Isobel to come to my house, and we’ll make her tell us where the rock is now. Okay?”
She was breathing hard. Her chest heaved. Her wide eyes, overflowing with worry, pinned him to the spot. “Well?” She approached the foot of the bed. “Are you in or are you out?”
She was testing him. It was in her eyes. She wanted to get the rock back, but she also wanted to know if he had feelings for Isobel. Did he?
He took a moment to examine where his emotions were at when it came to their mysterious werewolf. He didn’t trust her. That was definite. Part of him felt sorry for her. It wasn’t her fault Jersey had changed her. On the other hand, she had let Jersey kill him in a past life. It was possible she was even working for Jersey now, setting him up to die again, and she’
d stolen the rock. Enough said.
“I don’t think she’ll come to your house,” he said.
“She will if you invite her.”
“Me?” Jack’s eyes narrowed. “How am I supposed to invite her to your house?”
“You’ll think of something.”
And that was it. Silver headed for the door. Her expression was a bit more relaxed now. She even managed a half-smile. “Let me know when you set it up.”
He got up and followed her downstairs. When they got close to the front door, he leaned around her and opened it for her. Silver stepped out into the dark night. She turned around on the porch and said with a laugh, “I forgot. I don’t have my car here.”
Lucky him. “I’ll drive you home.”
He purposely took his time finding the car keys. Several things weighed heavily on his mind including their relationship. He wanted to talk about it, but didn’t want to make things worse. Not when Silver seemed to be finally coming around. They got in the car, and he drove her home at snail speed. She didn’t question his unusually slow driving.
Maybe she had things on her mind too.
He didn’t find the courage to speak until they parked in front of her house. She didn’t try to get out of the car. Instead she lingered, looking at everything but him. If there had been something to clean or straighten, she would have been all over it.
“I don’t want to be friends anymore,” he said.
“You don’t?” She looked at him, concern in her eyes. “Why not?”
“I can’t be your friend. I love you too much. It’s killing me to be around you but not be with you.” It felt incredible to get those words out in the open. Even if she slapped him with cold rejection, he wouldn’t regret the burst of honesty. “I have never stopped loving you.”
“I never stopped either.”
He shook his head. “But you told Trina you didn’t…”
“No.” She interrupted him. “Stop bringing that up. I was upset that night because I got another no from another college, and I was mad at everybody. I blamed you for not supporting me enough. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I talked to mom about it. I’m going to spend a year at a not-so-great college, then reapply to my top schools after I prove myself.”
