The Waking (The Upturned Hourglass) (31 page)

For the first time, Sam noticed the slender girl hanging on Jack’s arm.  He cocked his head in question.

“And who might you be, little one? Jack’s new honey?” The other Lycans laughed heartily and Valie blushed. “Yes, I suppose so,” Sam continued with a wry smile, without waiting for any further response. But the old werewolf’s ears seemed to prick as he looked at the blushing girl. “You remind me of someone,” he murmured. “Something about you seems familiar…”

Before he could finish Jack cut him off, “What?” pretending to not being able to hear over the din of the ever-growing crowd of Occult. He turned the amber-eyed girl away as quickly as possible and held up a hand.
“Sorry, Sam. I hate to run, but we’ve got an appointment to keep.”

“Alright, but see us before you leave. We have business to discuss,” the jolly-looking wolf called at their backs.

Valie allowed herself to be turned round and gently shoved toward a free space in the bar where Shane and Noah were talking to the bartender. She supposed there were no legal age restrictions for the Occult.

“Who were they?” Valie asked as Jack directed her away from the crowd.

“Part of our pack,” Jack said roughly. “Close friends of Isaac who could easily notice your resemblance to him. They’ve known him a long time.”

“How long?
Other than Sam, they look like they’re only in their thirties.”

“They’ve known him for decades. Sam’s probably known him for almost a century; he’s the oldest of our pack other than Isaac himself.”

Valie’s eyes widened. “Isaac’s over a century old?  How old can Lycanthropes get? How old are
you
guys?”

Jack smiled, but the expression was tight. “I’m twenty-two.  Shane is eighteen. Noah is sixteen. The Fated can live to be hundreds of years old, but, comparatively, we can’t live much longer than a normal human—although, we don’t suffer from the same ailments, either, which increases our lifespan. Only the Fated can transform a human, but they pay a price for it. The more people they change, the shorter their own lives.” 

Valie frowned as she hesitantly slipped onto the barstool between Jack and Noah, who was engaged in a conversation with a heavy-set, muscular young man with a surprisingly young-sounding voice. The two seemed friendly towards one another as if they had known each other prior to meeting at the bar. Valie wondered who the man was, but she shook her head and tried to focus. “Wait. So, if the Fated bite someone, it takes years off of their own life?”

Jack nodded absently, engrossed in studying the occupants of the room.
“Yes. It’s like stealing the sand out of an hourglass to create more hourglasses; eventually you run out of sand.”

Valie followed the boy’s wandering gaze until it rested on a willowy woman entering the bar through a shadow-hidden backdoor. She was accompanied by a lean, long-strided gentleman—and they appeared to be arguing. As the pair walked behind the bar, Valie could hear the young woman groan in exasperation.

“Ash, you’re insane. We’re not putting that—that
monstrosity
in our club!  Not over my dead body.”

“That’s not fair, Max! You’re already dead!” the man complained. He had a European cadence to his voice; Valie guessed he was British.

The copper-haired woman Valie now knew as Max turned and caught sight of Jack and brought the argument to him.

“Jack Haden, you’re a reasonable person. Could you
please
explain to my business partner that we cannot put a vending machine in our club that dispenses only
blood
? It’s insensitive to our other patrons.”

Suddenly, Max’s eyes lit up as they came to rest fully on Valie. Jack placed a reassuring hand on Valie’s shoulder, as she fought the urge to stare with her mouth wide open, afraid that the Vampyre would recognize her horror. 

“Oh!” Max continued, ignoring Valie’s extreme discomfort.  “Sleeping Beauty has awakened.” The woman smiled charmingly, her fangs carefully tucked away. Jack thanked her wordlessly.

“I’m Maxine, but you can call me Max.” She stuck out her hand. With an encouraging squeeze from Jack, Valie took Max’s cold, proffered hand. The skin on her forearm was translucently white—so much so that one could see more than just the shadow of the dark veins beneath.

Valie tried to steady herself. After all, this is what they came for.  “Valie,” she replied firmly. “It’s nice to meet you, Max.” Her voice shook a little, but she couldn’t help that; her surroundings were a bit overwhelming at the moment.

“I’m Ash DeVaine,” the male Vampyre—with equally red eyes and white skin—interjected. “I’m the co-owner of
Heart and Veins
.” Ash turned to Max and continued the previous discussion. “And I should therefore have a
say
in what we do or don’t do in this place.”  There was an element of defeat to the man’s tone, but he was soldiering on despite.

“Not necessarily,” Max said, flatly; but then she laughed. The mystery of Valie
had put her in a precocious mood. “So go right ahead, Ash, and make one. But put it in the loft and keep it out of sight of the reasonably
sane
clientele.”

“Depends on your definition of
reasonably
sane,” Ash said as he dragged himself away. Max ignored him.

“Would you like something to drink, Valie?” she offered.

“Ummm . . . .” Valie was actually thinking about this interesting question. What did the Occult drink? She’d never been to a
human
bar, much less one that belonged to a pair of Vampyres.

Jack didn’t give her a chance to answer. “Sorry, but we don’t have time, Maxine. Can we speak somewhere more private?”

The woman became more wary, her pupils appearing to sharpen. Valie decided that Max was elegant and very beautiful in her own dark way, but intimidating nonetheless. She had that same air of a huntress that Valie had sensed about Eliza. Though Valie had never seen Eliza smile and Maxine’s smiles seemed genuine, if not warm. The irony was not lost on the girl.

“Follow me. We can talk in the office.” Max motioned for the four of them to follow as she walked toward the back door she had entered through earlier. They entered the door, walked down a short hallway, and entered a well-lit, though dusty, office space with a portly, antique desk covered in piles of papers. Three apparently seldom-used filing cabinets stood in the corner with random drawers half-opened.

“Don’t mind the mess. We’re in the process of re-organizing.”

“Yes. And have been for three years,” Shane threw back at her comfortably. Valie jumped when the she-wolf spoke, not having noticed her join them with a girly, pink drink in her hand.

Max laughed. “Yes, well. When you only have ten or twelve hours in a day, you have limited time to get things done.”

Jack gently slid away from Valie with a quick glance, indicating she should stay by the others, although Shane walked over to settle
herself on top of the desk where Max was seated. Valie stood self-consciously apart with the silent Noah hovering behind her shoulder. With a casual saunter, Jack wandered from one corner of the room to the next, eyeing everything in the room. Max watched his progress warily.

“What are you looking for, Jack?” she inquired tensely.

“I’m making sure there’s no way for us to be overheard.”

“There’s not, trust me,” the Vampyre declared. “Now will you please tell me what is going on with you guys? You’re acting ridiculous.”

Jack paused, and Shane frowned back as she sat near her Vampyre friend.

“Jack,” she said in admonishment. “Tell her.”

Pensively, Jack looked at Valie. Valie didn’t know what he expected her to do in this situation, but she decided to take the initiative. After all, it was her story, now.

She spoke up. “They’re protecting me,” Valie affirmed. Max turned her crimson eyes to the speaker, surprised. “They’re protecting me from my father. He wants to kill me. The rest of the . . . er . . . pack is here and we can’t have them know who—or what—I am.
Their leader’s daughter.”

Max sat bolt upright in her chair, her eyes widened. Jack simply stared straight ahead with an incomprehensible expression.

“Isaac Quinn is your father?” Max hissed, making Valie hesitate to answer too quickly. “But what about the Council? Lycan Law?”

Valie gulped. “I am a half-blood. That’s why Isaac wants to kill me, to cover up his . . . crime, or whatever you want to call it. The Council will want us both dead once they find out the
truth.”

Max, with new appreciation for the girl standing awkwardly before her, whirled on Jack as he leaned against one of the file cabinets on the far wall.

“And you bring her
here
?” Max demanded. “What kind of a pea-brained idea was
that
? Even
I
know the Interlunar Council meeting is somewhere in Seattle this new moon. How could you put her in that kind of danger?”

Remaining quite calm, Jack shook his head solemnly. “Isaac won’t go
near
the Council now that he’s lost track of Valie. Once they find out what he did, he’ll be at the top of their hit list.”

Max glared. “No,
she
will be.” She pointed fervently at Valie, who wrapped her arms around herself, making her look even more vulnerable to those around her. “And I suppose you’re going to be the one to tell them? This is not smart, Jack. You’re not thinking straight.”

Jack shook his head, his jaw locked. “No,
you
don’t know what you’re talking about,” he accused. “The Council will not think to look for her here, not until after the Council meeting. I will attend the meeting with the rest of the pack. We will be the ones to officially inform the Council about Valie’s existence. Once we confirm that the Council believes us and is going to act, we’ll split. There’s no danger from Isaac here, so we have the upper hand. We’ll avoid any trouble.”

Max closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. “You have explained to me why
you
are here, but why is
she
?” Max didn’t look at Valie this time.

Jack’s jaw clenched tighter. A foreboding silence filled the room.

The Vampyre was right. Frankly, it hadn’t even occurred to him to separate—to send the others away with Valie—to run, hide, and go underground immediately. By secretly attending the Council meeting, he was endangering himself for sure. But with his pack in the area, they would all be in jeopardy, simply because of their close proximity. What would they do if something
did
go wrong at the Council meeting? And why hadn’t he thought of these things before now?

He looked deeply into Valie’s golden eyes. She stood alone,
apart, watchful and defensive. She gazed into his eyes and looked worried. Valie was a strong human being; yet, she was so helpless and vulnerable in the world of the Occult—in his world.

In his world, she was his to protect.

“Ahem,” Valie coughed uncertainly, determined to gain some control. “Could I get something to drink, now?” She was tired of hearing about her eminent demise. It was becoming an old subject.

Max looked back at her and nodded. “Go ahead, dear.  Though, someone might want to go with her.”

“I’ll . . . ,” Jack began, but Max shot him such a fearsomely imperious glare that he instantly shut his mouth.

“No. You have a bit more explaining to do,” the Vampyre resolutely declared.

Shane laughed at the frustrated expression that was painted on Jack’s face. “You tell him, Max,” she commended as she moved to take a more permanent seat in the chair behind the desk.

“I’ll go,” Noah quickly volunteered before any argument could break out. He opened the door for Valie, ushering her out of the room.

“Wait!” Jack called to the boy who paused with Valie at his side. “Max, do you have a pair of your brown contacts here?”

“Yes,” the Vampyre replied as she rose from her seat and rifled through a nearby drawer. “That’s good thinking. Those amber eyes of hers are a dead give-away to anyone paying attention.”

Maxine handed the one-time-use contacts to the hesitant girl who took them with a polite ‘thank you’ and allowed herself to be led by Noah toward the bathroom across the hall to use the mirror.

Jack glared back at Max as soon as the door closed. “What is your problem, Maxine?”

“You are my problem, wolf-boy. You honestly expect me to just let you guys—my
friends
—run headlong into the frying pan? Either you’re dimmer than I thought, Jack, or you’re avoiding addressing the important questions.”

Jack had been clenching and unclenching his jaw so much
tonight he had a headache. “What do you want from me?” he growled through his teeth.

“Everything
.
I want to know
everything
.”