Book of Revenge (11 page)

Max nodded. “Well, the gods had a pow-wow and decided to weaken the being by splitting it apart, thus creating twice the number of beings for sacrifice, while also weakening them by half. This is when man and woman were created, but because of the split, they shared one soul. That’s where the term soul-mate comes from. We are destined to roam Earth, searching for our other half in order to feel complete again. Over the centuries, the task has become close to impossible.”

I blushed, thinking of us. “Like a puzzle.”

Max’s eyes skirted away from me and he smirked. “I guess you could say that.”

“So, do you think I’m your other half?” I touched his arm, sensing a sweet tingling in the touch. It was that reaction that told me we were soul-mates, but I wanted to know what he thought.

“I do.” He caught my eye. “Like I said before, there was something about you that first time I saw you in the Truth, something I couldn’t let go of. I knew it before your father ever asked me to save you. I’d known it long before the Truth showed me who you were. In a way, I feel as though deciding to stay behind as an angel was advantageous to my goals of finding you, my soul-mate.”

My heart was pounding now.

“We live many lives, Jane, but very rarely do we find our true soul-mates. They say we continue coming back—reincarnating—in order to find each other. We do not really move on to the Ever After until we reach this goal.”

My words had been stolen from me. I suddenly felt a purpose, an intense connection to Max in a way I hadn’t before. I believed what he said because I felt it. “How do you know we don’t truly move on?” I whispered.

He touched my chin. “Peter told me that story soon after I saw you in the Truth. He had researched the validity of it extensively because he believed this was the case between him and my mother.”

“Do you think he was right?”

Max shrugged. “Sometimes I see people after they pass, in Seoul, just on the other side of the river that splits the In-between, or Seoul, from the Ever After. They’re waiting. Once a soul has met its true mate, it stops reincarnating, and if one life dies, they wait in the first stage of the Ever After until the other can join them. I’ve never seen Patrick there, though, or my mother. I believe they are no longer waiting and have descended deeper into the Ever After to their final place. I only hope it’s because they’re together.”

It was magick, the very essence of what we were.

Emily:

I heard Jake approach from the other room. “Hello, Wes.” He arrived at my side, looking down at Wes as an owl.

Don’t provoke him, Jake,
I whispered in my thoughts, as though Wes could hear, but of course he hadn’t. “Do you have some clothes he can borrow?”

Jake looked at me with an annoyed expression.
No,
he answered, once again secretly.

Come on, Jake. Please?
I begged.

He’s a shifter,
he protested.

I tilted my head.
Just do it.

Jake complied as he turned back into the house. I heard him climb the stairs. I stood alone with Wes, our eyes locked, his mind racing with a million questions.

“No, Wes. I’m not cheating on you. And no, he’s not hitting on me, either.”

Wes looked noticeably fluffed.

“No, Wes! He didn’t even touch me, okay? …
Who
is he?” Wes was flooding my mind with questions. “That’s Jake Santé. Can you believe that?”

Wes tilted his feathered head. His eyes were still the same, the very thing that had given him away.

“I know, right? It is crazy!” Wes shifted his weight “
No,
Wes. I’m positive he didn’t touch me. Besides, I can see you’re with that
owl
we saw on your car. What’s that about?”

Wes’s eyes narrowed, telling me his answer.

I laughed as hard as I could without alerting the whole neighborhood. “She has a crush on you?” I could tell Wes wasn’t too pleased with my mockery. “And you named her?” I tried as hard as I could to stop laughing. “Wes, that’s weird!”

Jake returned with a stack of clothes, looking at the both of us strangely before joining in with my laughter, learning all he needed by searching my mind.

Wes hopped into the house between our legs. Jake motioned him in the direction of the powder room, still chuckling. He placed the stack of clothes on the counter and shut Wes inside.

“Jealous boyfriend you’ve got there.” Jake lifted a brow, his suddenly sharp features accentuated in the dim light of the hall. His eyes glimmered with a veiled light as he walked past me, brushing my shoulder just enough to send a tingle down my spine.

I shook it off and slid up to the bathroom door. “Wes?” I tapped with one finger, figuring that by now Wes would be back in his human form.

I heard rustling—a feathery rustling.

“Wes, what are you doing? Hurry up.” I pushed my hands into my pockets and leaned against the door, waiting.

A few minutes later there was a gasp as though Wes had just surfaced from water. I could hear him moving about inside the bathroom, human again.

“Wes? Are you alright?” I was trying to read his thoughts, but they were knotted.
“Wes?”

“
Er
…
yeah. I’m fine.”

I knew better than to believe him, but I also knew I was on thin ice as it was. Aggravating him at this point was relationship suicide.

Wes:

I was sweating, trying to think of a million things other than what had just happened, hoping that it would confuse Emily and leave her unawares. I looked at myself in the mirror.

“
Get it together, Wes,”
I whispered to myself, keeping my thoughts running in a constant stream of mediocrity so that Emily wouldn’t sense that something was wrong—
baseball, homework, weather.

I heard a murmur from somewhere else in the house, recognizing Jake’s voice.

“Yeah, Jake. Be right there!” Emily yelled, still behind the door.

Baseball, homework, weather…

I turned back to the mirror, leaning my hands on the counter.
Why was it so hard to change?
It was as though a voice was telling me not to. It was begging me like a chant—
Stay. Stay. Stay.

I took a few more deep breaths. Distracting myself, I unfolded the clothes. As I fished my legs into each pant leg, I already knew they were three inches too short—Great, Capri’s. At least the shirt was loose, though clearly not adding to the fact that my ankles were showing like a woman. I grumbled and pulled on the socks, finding one had a hole that was beginning to unravel on the heel.

I began to wonder if Jake had done this on purpose. I bet he’d wanted me to look like an idiot because he was trying to prove a point—he was better for Emily than I was. I was no idiot, though. Now that I knew who the strange looking kid I’d originally seen through the window was, I knew all too well how he gazed upon Emily in Math class. Could I not catch a break? Besides, what was with the makeover? The disguise?

I splashed a little water on my face, trying to make myself look a little less drained. I flicked off the bathroom light and exited into the hall, drawn by the sound of Emily’s voice. She laughed, making my muscles tense with jealousy—now I knew how she felt about Jane.

I rounded the corner, walking into a green room, the couches a deep red in contrast.

“There he is!” Jake stood from the couch opposite Emily—at least he wasn’t sitting beside her. Maybe he knew better, maybe he wanted to save that insult for later. He walked up to me, his hand outstretched.

I shoved my hands in the pocket of my Capri’s, refusing to grant him the courtesy of a hand shake—he’d still stolen my girlfriend.

“Well,” Jake dropped his hand. “Sorry to steal Emily away, Wes.” He said it as though he’d known I’d thought it. “I just wanted her to know that she wasn’t alone. It’s good for our kind to stick together.”

“
Our
kind?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Me, her…you…”

I stopped him. “She’s not alone. And there’s no
you
in this equation. She has me.” I tried to keep the anger in my voice at bay, but I wasn’t succeeding. I didn’t stop observing him, seeing the obvious reflection of his eyes, the unnatural peak of his teeth. “And what are you, exactly?”

Jake stood tall. “A vampire.”

“You’re
joking,”
I was laughing, but the expression on his face suggested that he wasn’t kidding.

“I’m not kidding,” he answered, repeating it verbatim from my thoughts.

My body steeled, stunned by an imaginary bolt of lightning. “What?” I looked at Emily. She was smiling.
Why are you
smiling?

“It’s true, Wes. He’s a vampire.” She shrugged.

Then why are you with him? He’s a vampire!

She just blinked, her smile never fading.

Her naïve sense of trust was obviously skewed after her friendship with Greg. Her being here proved that. How could she think this was okay? I recalled her vampire books, and it all suddenly made sense. Great, more reasons to worry about her.

Emily tilted her head. “Jake’s different than what you think. He’s not dangerous.”

Like that made me feel any better. I glared at him. “So, are you
dead?”
It was the first thing I could think of. My tone was noticeably annoyed and disgusted. I’d dealt with enough dead—or at least dead-
ish
—people lately.

“No,” he answered plainly. “I’m more like you than anything else—just another animal.”

“How are
you
like me?” I eyed him from head to toe, seeing nothing but a yuppie poser in sheep’s clothes.

Jake laughed, leaning against the arm of the couch where Emily sat. “I’m just a hot-blooded carnivore. That’s the real definition of a vampire. I drink blood, yes, but not human blood because it’s gross. And I can read your thoughts, so…” His voice trailed, meaning that to be a warning.

“Another mind-reader?” I couldn’t handle that. For all I knew he was seducing Emily as we spoke, telling her sweet nothings and nasty lies about me.

Jake smiled. “Nothing like that at all. I was showing Emily how to block the thoughts of others, so she doesn’t have to hear every little thing, that’s all. I can teach you a few things, too. If you like?”

I felt my muscles relax, but only slightly. It was the first useful thing to breach his lips since I got here. The mere mention of the chance to block Emily’s spidery intrusions into my mind was reason enough to change my outlook on the situation. I could bear this madness a moment longer.

Jake chuckled, looking over his shoulder at Emily. “Is he always this charming?”

Her lips pressed together and she nodded sarcastically, agreeing with him in a way that looked like they’d suddenly become best buds.

I could feel my fingernails digging into the skin of my palms as my fists tightened. Jake leaned away from the couch, moving to the other where he sat down, knowing his place was not between Emily and me. At least he seemed to respect that to some degree.

Stepping forward, I collapsed onto the couch beside Emily. I felt relieved as she leaned her head against my chest, weaving her hands around my torso. Smugness puffed my ego, and I lifted my chin.

“Alright then, Jake, I’ll buy it. So, start talking.”

He sat back, his arms resting on the crest of the couch. “First of all, I’m not here to steal Emily away, I swear.” He grinned. “I couldn’t if I wanted to. She’s not a vampire.”

I raised my hand, pointer finger extended. “And she’s going to stay that way,” I added.

Jake nodded. “And she will
stay
that way. It would be illegal for me to turn someone into what I am without the permission of our coven leader.”

Jake didn’t indulge my childish remark. “Like I told your girlfriend, my race is very natural, not at all obscene, ghoulish, or horrific as history would imply. I’m simply a creature that likes the blood and meat of a good juicy animal, and humans are anything but good.”

I analyzed the look on his face, seeing true disgust as he said it. “So what’s the draw? Why help us?”

Jake shrugged. “Because you’re classmates, and I’m not ashamed to admit that it’d be nice to have a few more friends at Glenwood High.”

I heard the front door open and close, my ears perking. I kept my gaze on Jake, but I was secretly praying it wasn’t another vampire. Jake smirked at me, and it filled me with anxiety. Footsteps approached, slow, soft, and normal, but still, I couldn’t help but feel on edge. Halting just behind me, the hairs on my neck became erect and tingly.

“Hey, Jake.” The voice snaked over my head, a lot more pleasant than I had expected, and also female. “Oh…” she paused.

I turned, my gaze meeting that of a girl about my age. Her eyes were just as reflective as Jake’s, her cheeks pink and glowing. She looked like the sweetest person you’d ever meet, her hair in a lose ponytail, a red checkered dress conservatively fitting over her body.

“Jake, you have
friends,”
she continued.

I could tell by the way she said it that ‘Jake’ and ‘friends’ didn’t typically go together. She had a plate in her hand, covered by a film of plastic wrap. It was such a natural image to see, but I knew that whatever was on the plate was anything but normal.

She glanced at me, pursing her lips. “If I’d known you had guests, I would have brought something else home from the bakery.” She looked back at Jake.

“Don’t worry about it, Sierra. We’ll be fine.”