Immortal Revenge (21 page)

“Were you able to talk about Joe’s situation?”

Katie continued chewing while staring into Jules’s hopeful eyes. How many more times would she have to repeat Joe was dead? It was difficult the first time. Before they’d left the hotel, Jules checked her phone and found no messages. Brandon, Kyle’s assassin, had kidnapped Joe and as Riker had mentioned, Brandon would not take pity on Joe once he learned about his girlfriend’s disappearance. Familiar with the grieving process, Katie wondered if Jules was in denial.

“I don’t think–”

“I can’t eat anymore,” Jules said, then wiped her fingers on the napkin.

Her friend’s downcast gaze and pouty lips revealed she held her feelings in check, but barely. It seemed Jules understood Joe wasn’t coming home.

Katie reached across the table and covered Jules’s hand with her own. “My heart is with yours, Jules. I wish I could take the ache away.”

Her lip quivered. “I know. I know.” She lifted her eyelids and revealed her teary eyes. “Just get the fucker for me. Make him pay.”

Katie offered a comforting smile. She would honor her friend’s request gladly.

“We should stop by your place and see if my weapons are still secured. If we have to meet Brandon tonight, I want to know if he’s fully armed and dangerous, or just dangerous.”

“That’s fine.” Jules agreed, nodding. “I’d like to take a shower, if you don’t mind waiting on me. I couldn’t take one at the hotel with your friend lounging in the next bathroom. It felt creepy.”

“Sure.”

Katie lounged in the seat while Jules sipped on her cola. She returned to her dreamy gaze out the window and watched the cars pass by. For a brief moment, they simply sat in silence.

“Can I get you anything else?” the waitress asked, standing at the end of the table.

“We’re fine,” Jules answered. “Just the check.”

“I’ll get it ready for you.” The waitress left, stopping two tables down and repeating her question.

“So…” Jules straightened and leaned her arms on the table. “Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind or continue to daydream all day?”

“What?”

“You’ve been quieter then normal and you successfully avoided my question about what you learned from Riker.”

Lips pressed together, Katie determined she hadn’t been successful enough in evading Jules’s question. The detective once again brought the issue to the surface.

“He shared something with me that has me thinking, but it’s nothing really.”

“So tell me about it. I need something to distract me from thinking about Joe in a coffin.”

Katie couldn’t avoid the issue any longer, especially when Jules needed something else to occupy her thoughts.

“Riker said Hector was a philosopher.”

“You mentioned that.”

“Right. He made predictions and they came true.”

“Really? What kind?” Jules asked excitedly.

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. He just told me about this one that installed fear among vampires.”

“Oh? What is it?”

“He said a war would come one day and a human would lead it. Many would die, including vampires.”

“Is it a war against vampires?”

“Yes, it starts that way, then vampires get together with humans and fight other vampires.”

“It sounds exhausting.”

“Obviously it never happened.”

Jules gave a shrug. “Okay, so some guy made a bad prediction. It happens. What else?”

“Hector eventually left the Order, but members never forgot about his prophecy. They put him at the top of the list to get rid of.”

“Damn, that sucks.”

“No one knows what happened to him, but Riker said he is walking around somewhere. He kept in touch with Kyle.”

“Did Kyle ever mention–?”

Katie shook her head, revealing her answer. “Never.”

Jules leaned sideways with her elbow on the table and her head resting against her hand. “Do you find it strange Kyle hid this from you?”

“Very. I’d like to know why he did, but he’s not here to answer.”

The waitress walked by and slid the receipt on the table. “Pay at the front when you’re ready.” She smiled before she moved on.

“How does Riker know Hector kept in touch with Kyle?”

The detective’s mind had returned.

“Kyle told Riker he had received messages and packages from Hector over the years. The last note he got was over seven years ago. He sent the communication to Riker. Riker confirmed the writing belonged to Hector.”

Jules straightened and her eyes gleamed of curiosity. “What did the note say?”

Katie inhaled as she prepared to repeat what Riker had shared. They were just words, ones she didn’t believe were meant for her, but they still gave her a chill.

“What did it say?”

“Protect her. Teach her. She’s the one.”

Jules jerked back in the booth with a gasp. She covered her hands over her mouth, trying to hide her squeal.

Katie grabbed the check. “Maybe we better go.”

She scooted out of the booth, dragging her purse behind her. Knowing Jules, she’d have more questions and sitting in Denny’s with a lunch crowd growing was not the place to exchange secretive information.

Katie paid the cashier, then they left in Katie’s Camaro. Jules fidgeted in her seat as if something played on her mind. Katie kept track of the time to see how long the detective could hold out before probing for more details.

“You met Kyle, what…nine years ago?”

Katie looked at the clock and estimated Jules had waited three minutes. She chuckled inwardly. “Yes.”

“Moved in with him after a year?”

“Close enough.”

“You trained with him after he told you what he was.”

“That’s right.”

“How can you think Hector’s message was not about you?”

“Because I’m not Rambo.” She braked hard at a light and Jules braced her hand to the dashboard. “Okay, maybe I am a version of Rambo, but I’m not someone who could lead a war. Maybe Kyle thought I could and prepared me for it, but…”

“It’s exactly what he did.”

Katie didn’t want to believe, found it too difficult to accept, she could be the one Hector prophesized about.

“It has to be a set up. There’s no way little ol’ me could pull off leading a war. No fucking way.”

“But what if?”

Katie glared at Jules. “Don’t go there.”

“I’m just saying–”

“Don’t.”

The light turned green and Katie zoomed through traffic. She whizzed around cars with ease and confidence. When vehicles in front of her refused to move out of her way, she flashed her lights at them. The minute they slid into the next lane, she accelerated past them.

“Katie, pull into the gas station at the corner.”

“Why?”

“I need cigarettes.”

She glanced at Jules. “You quit smoking years ago.”

“I need a one. Pull over.”

Katie checked the mirror, braked for the passing car, then swerved into the next lane. She turned into the lot of the gas station and took the empty spot at the end of the building.

“I’ll go in with you,” she said as Jules pushed her door open.

Keys and purse in hand, Katie stepped out of the car. She walked to the sidewalk where Jules stood, but her friend blocked her from going any further.

“Can I see your keys?” Jules held her hand in front of her.

“Why?”

Jules snatched them from her hand, then stepped around her. “I’m driving.”

Shocked by her friend, Katie spun and stared at her. What happen to her craving for cigarettes?

Jules opened the door. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Katie watched in a frozen state as her friend claimed the driver’s seat and shut the door. When the engine roared, she decided she’d better hurry and find out what the hell Jules was doing.

She flopped into the passenger seat and stared at Jules.

“You were driving like a maniac and I was about to lose my lunch.” Jules backed out of the parking spot and briefly met Katie’s gaze.

“I was not.” Katie half-laughed, half-argued.

“You were doing 55 in a 35 and dodging cars like you were Frogger.”

“I always speed.”

“Speeding is one thing. Swerving between cars at a high speed is another. It’s dangerous.”

Katie’s temper rose and she flushed. It was her car and if she wanted to speed, by golly she would.

“You’re in denial, Katie.”

“What?”

“You’re in denial.”

Her face tightened as she stared at Jules. “What do you mean?”

“You’re destined for greatness and you refuse to admit it.”

Katie laughed. “You believe it?” She suspected Jules would, but had hoped her friend would see the false prophecy from Katie’s point of view.

Jules slowed the vehicle as the turned down a less traveled street. She glanced at Katie. “I do.” The words sounded eerily like her acceptance to a wedding proposal.

“Well I don’t.”

“Why?”

“For one thing, my ancestry doesn’t consist of war leaders, heroes, or…” She paused, searching for more words.

“Your grandfather claimed–”

“There was no proof he was the legitimate child of John Dillinger, so that doesn’t count. As for another thing, Hector gave false prophecies. I don’t know when he gave the one about a human leading a war, but from what Riker told me, many years have passed and nothing has ever happened.”

“It could.”

“Maybe, but
I’m
not the human leader.”

Jules slowed the vehicle, then spun the wheel to turn down another side street. “I remember what you told me after Kyle informed you he was a vampire. You said it took you a while to acknowledge the truth because Kyle loved and treated you as if he were an ordinary human. You said he wasn’t any different from an honest man with firm morals who put in ten hours at work and then came home to his wife. Do you remember?” She glanced at Katie.

“I remember,” she said softly.

The conversation between them took place when Jules demanded answers about the weapons and blood she’d found in the barn. To keep Jules from going to the police, Katie confessed the truth about vampires. Jules refused to believe her. Katie emphasized how human Kyle was and shared how she too had denied believing vampires existed. Her point was to ease Jules’s worries and steer her to believe not all of them were as bad as fiction portrayed them. Although the current situation with Katie denying her war leader status was a bit different, Katie understood where Jules was heading.

“One day you’re a college graduate, in love with Mr. Right and looking for a job. The next day, your Rambo.”

“Your timeline is off. And can we lose the Rambo part?”

Jules turned onto the street leading to her house. “I’m saying you have the ability and you certainly have the skills to fight vampires. We always say
everything happens for a reason
. Maybe you were destined to meet Kyle so he could train you to be this leader.”

“And I’m saying Hector gave bad predictions. Kyle was misled.” And she’d find a way to prove it so everyone would leave her in peace.

Jules leaned forward and gripped the wheel. “No fucking way!”

Katie shifted her attention to the front window. The neighborhood appeared normal and undisturbed. Down the street, an elderly man walked with his dog on a leash. Jules brought the car closer to her driveway where her Honda sat with two flat tires. Apparently, the condition of her car had changed since their last visit.

“I am so pissed!” Jules parked next to her car.