Jack Kursed (24 page)

"Hey," she said tenderly.
"Are you okay?"

No, he wasn’t. He wanted
to retreat to a corner and fall apart. Cry, rage, hit the walls,
curse the witch Angela and her demented sense of forever
love.

"Maybe we’ll talk
later."

Erica offered a smile and
nodded, and didn’t push. She gave his shoulder one final squeeze
before sitting down.

Ten minutes later Jack was
calm. Tiffany and Erica were doing much better with her schoolwork.
They laughed and talked as Tiffany seemed much more relaxed. He
caught Erica’s eye a few times, and she gave him a warm smile. She
sat on Tiffany’s left, so only her profile showed. She was always
conscious of her scar. Jack had no doubt she didn’t believe him
when he told her it was sexy.

He shifted his attention
to Tiffany’s pack, fishing out her camera and iPhone. He noticed
her photo-album tucked in between a few books, and glanced through
at the photos she’d taken. The girl was easily amused. There were
pictures of random people walking down the street, cars driving by,
a dog urinating on a fire hydrant.

He slowed his browsing
when he turned the page and saw a woman that looked just like
Tiffany holding a baby in her arms. A man stood behind her, his arm
wrapped around her shoulders. Obviously Tiffany’s parents in
happier times. There were pictures of another old couple, possibly
grandparents.

His mouth fell open when
he turned one more page, and his eyes settled on a black and white
photo. At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him,
something that never happened before. But the photo was
real.

He looked at Charles and
Helen, two of the people he saved at Monterrey, South Carolina,
nearly one hundred years ago. His mind still had trouble believing
it was them. He even recognized Charles’ house. Jack passed it many
times on trips to visit Victoria. They stood side by side and hand
in hand, smiling at each other.

Tiffany had Helen’s
eyes.

"Tiffany," he said, interrupting their
lesson. "Come here a sec."

She quickly trotted to his side.
"Yeah?"

"Who are these people?"

"That’s my-" She looked up
to count. "Great grandparents. I never met them."

"Really? You don’t
say."

"No. This was my mom’s
photo book. I’ve been adding pictures. That’s my mom and dad there,
and-"

Jack tuned out as she
introduced him to her family. A strange humbleness settled over
him. He had saved two lives, and that act turned into the
eight-year-old girl next to him, a girl he was growing fond
of.

"There’s more room in
here," Tiffany went on. "Since you’re my foster-dad now, I want to
take pictures of you and put them in here."

"Are you alright?" Erica
asked. "You look like you’ve seen a ghost."

"Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry for
breaking in. Go ahead with your amazing teaching."

He watched Tiffany for a
few more minutes. She was finally getting the basics of
multiplication. He made the decision then and there that after she
was adopted by a normal family he would always watch over her. She
would never go hungry, always have a roof over her head, never be
without resources.

The girl was changing him.

He grabbed her camera with
the intention of copying everything to a larger memory card.
Scrolling through her more current pictures brought a smile to his
face. There were pictures of her new room, Jack’s vegetable garden,
a breakfast he cooked for her, Erica bending over a laptop in the
front of her class. He made a mental note to copy that picture for
himself.

There was the washed out,
blurry photo of Tiffany’s monster.

Jack nearly kept scrolling, but
stopped.

Something about the photo caught his
attention. Tiffany was obviously moving when she took the photo,
but there was a mass of blue near the right edge that could have
been the shape of a person.

A police officer in
uniform.

The center of the photo
had another blur, this one whiter, and more spacious than the blue
blob.

He reached for his phone. It took her
five rings to answer, and her voice was very quiet.

"Hello?"

"Victoria? Why the
whispering? You hiding out in the boys’ locker room?"

"I'm watching a
grown man watch porno. He’s not jerking off to it, he’s actually
watching it, like it’s
Gone With the
Wind
. He’s got a bucket of popcorn and a
soda. It might be the weirdest thing I’ve seen in my life, and I'm
four hundred damn years old."

"Is this your case? I
thought you had a license plate to track? Why are you still playing
Peeping Tom?"

"The plate wasn’t
registered anywhere. This case was supposed to be so important I
skipped out on a friend’s dress fitting. Now...hold on, he heard
me."

There was a brief pause
followed by a thump.

"I just jumped off his
balcony," she said. "What’s going on?"

"Could you swing by the library? I
could use another set of eyes."

"The library? Jack, what on earth are
you doing at a library?"

"Would you just get your
bloody little fangs here?"

"Let me get a tail on my
porn buddy, and I’ll be over."

Victoria arrived twenty minutes later.
Erica was talking to Tiffany and stopped mid-sentence when the
attractive vampire crossed the library and smiled at Jack. Tiffany
saw her and jumped out of her chair.

"Victoria!" she shouted,
racing to give the vampire a hug.

"Hey there, girl," Victoria said,
picking Tiffany up in her arms. She gave Erica a glance, and smiled
at Jack. "I guess that answers my question."

"What question?" Erica
asked.

"Erica," Jack interrupted.
"This is my sister, Victoria. Victoria, this is Erica, Tiffany’s
teacher and tutor. She’s also the woman I’m always trying to get to
show me her legs."

"Jack," Erica said,
blushing.

"Sorry. You two keep doing your thing.
Victoria, can I talk to you alone for a second?"

He grabbed the camera and
led her across the library. Making sure no one else was around, he
showed her Tiffany’s photo.

"What do you make of this?" he
asked.

She took the camera and studied
it.

"You want me to move it to the iPad?"
he asked. "Make it larger?"

"No, I think-" She paused,
looked at Jack, and then turned to stare at Tiffany and Erica.
"You’ve gotta be kidding me. What is this, high school?"

"What?"

"Erica just asked Tiffany if you have
a girlfriend."

He laughed. "I don’t think
she’s very good at the social game. That scar she’s got makes her
think she’s hideous."

Victoria’s eyes widened,
and she almost doubled over with laughter.

"She just asked Tiffany for fashion
advice."

"Okay, this is all hilarious, but the
picture?"

"Sorry. This blue thing is
a person."

"A cop?"

"Hmm. Good guess. Definitely a blue
uniform of some kind."

"And the blur in the
middle?"

She sighed. "This would be a vampire
in motion."

"What?"

"Yes," she said. "A
vampire moving at high speed. There were shots of me on the net
moving like this all over Camden Yards before they were taken
down."

"Is this the case you’re
working on? A vampire running around Parkville?"

She shook her head. "No, at least not
as far as I know."

"Tiffany told me she saw a monster
that first night we met."

"Well, we’ve been called
worse," she said with a laugh. "But she was right."

He looked over her shoulder at Erica
and Tiffany, who seemed to be finishing up tutoring. Victoria
noticed the small smile on his face as he watched them laugh and
talk.

"And this here," she said,
pointing at the camera. "Looks like it could be someone falling to
the ground."

Jack studied the camera with her.
"Tiffany witnessed a murder."

"Yeah. We’ve got a man in
blue on his feet, a victim on the ground, and a vampire trying not
to be seen."

"Thanks. Oh, hey, one more thing. What
else are they saying over there?"

The vampire said nothing, only
offering a smile. They moved back to Erica and Tiffany, who were
packing up their books and notes.

"So, dinner?" he said,
pointing at Tiffany. "That diner we went to last week?"

"Yes!"

"Victoria, join us," he
commanded.

"Well, since you ask so nicely,
sure."

"Erica? There’s this diner
about five minutes from here. My treat, since you’re guiding
Tiffany into the light."

Jack only asked to be
polite, and automatically assumed he knew her answer. She was
attracted to him, that much was certain from her body language. But
all the flirting had been one-sided. She’d made it clear there was
a line with parents on one side and teachers on the other. He was
surprised when she faked hesitation, and knew what her answer would
be.

"That sounds fine.
I
am
hungry."

"Beautiful. Follow us
over."

They all went to their
cars. Jack waved to Victoria as she sped away first in her Porsche.
He opened the door for Tiffany, and laughed when he saw Erica
climbing into a beat-up Jeep Wrangler. It was a hard-top, and one
of the side and rear windows were covered with plastic.

"What in name of all that is holy are
you driving?"

"Hey, don’t make fun of my
Jeep. I’ve had this since college."

"When did you graduate? During the
Korean War?"

"Ha ha. You’re a
comedian."

Victoria already had a
booth picked out for them when they arrived. He slid in first,
followed by Tiffany, letting the two women sit next to each other.
He was quite aware of the unfamiliarity of the scene. A mere month
ago he would have been in the diner all alone. Now he was
accompanied by a child, a beautiful teacher, and a woman he
considered family.

They talked and laughed
for a few minutes until their food arrived. Victoria, of course,
had used the excuse that she’d eaten earlier. She slowly nursed a
glass of water, expertly acting like a mortal
thirty-year-old.

They were nearly done
their meal when Tiffany spotted an old arcade machine near the back
of the diner.

"Can I play?"

"I’ve got some change,"
Victoria said. "Let’s go have some fun."

She took Tiffany by the hand and led
her away, giving Jack a wink. He took a drink of soda as he watched
Erica nervously look around.

"Afraid someone will see
you?" he said. "I’ll hold in the flirty lines I’ve been working
on."

She laughed and brushed hair away from
her eyes. "No, just...a little self-conscious is all."

"Why?"

"Did you see the look the waitress
gave me?"

He did. The woman stared
at Erica’s scar. Jack almost had to raise his voice to get her
attention.

"I don’t go out much," she
said, hiding her scar from Jack. "But sometimes I actually forget I
have this. Then I see someone staring at me, and it all comes
back."

"Well, like I said, I
think it makes you hotter."

She lowered her eyes.
"Jack-"

"I’m just being honest.
I'm not trying to hit on you. I’m not making any moves, and I’m not
trying to boost your ego. I’m just saying, you’re
gorgeous."

She managed a smile as she
looked up at him. "In the interest of simply being honest, you’re
rather easy on the eyes yourself."

"I'm not sure how you want
to do this, but I haven't seen the rest of your legs yet," he said.
Victoria turned from the arcade machine and flashed Jack a look,
obviously listening to their conversation. "I live right by the
beach, so maybe you can just jog by one Saturday morning or
something."

Erica laughed. "So you're
saying guys treat me like kryptonite not because of my scar, but
maybe because of my legs?"

"Guys don't flock to you? Well, when
you run by in shorts, I'll let you know."

"I don't exactly put myself out there.
I've never been one for clubs, as you can imagine. I'm single and
happy."

Jack could tell she was being honest,
and he liked that. Erica didn't need a man to make her happy. He
rested his head on his hand and said something he'd never said
before.

"Tell me more about
yourself."

Erica smiled and obliged.
She told Jack about her family and growing up in San Diego. She
moved to the east coast after her bar incident left her scarred, to
get a fresh start. It wasn't long after settling in Parkville she
found out she could never have children. She went through a spell
of depression when she first began teaching, but worked through it
on her own and became the joyful person she was now.