Vampires Rule (12 page)

The door opened and he held his breath,
waiting for a petite girl with silky hair and sparkling eyes to
appear.

Vanessa Reign stepped out instead. She slid
her arms into the sleeves of a dark blue sweater and pulled it
tight around her willowy frame. The belt hung loose, untied. She
set her jaw, trying to still her chattering teeth. The woman didn’t
appear surprised to see him, almost as if she’d been expecting
him.

“May I join you?” She sat next to him without
waiting for an invitation. Her eyes went to the star-filled sky.
“Beautiful night. Peaceful. I’d like to keep it that way.” Her gaze
drifted to him. “You’re lucky my husband had to go out.”

Luck had nothing to do with it. Jack had
waited in his brother’s car across the street until he saw Andrew
leave. The last thing he wanted to do tonight was tangle with
Silver’s father.

“What brings you here?” she asked. “I hope
you won’t get in the habit of dropping by unannounced. It’s late,
and Silver is asleep.”

Was she? Her mom didn’t know about Silver’s
habit of sneaking out to hunt on her own. He considered telling
her. That would really piss Silver off. He wouldn’t have to make a
decision about her then. She’d do it for him.

“My old vampire clan returned tonight,” he
said. Vanessa stiffened beside him, and he added, “They’re
threatening my brother. If they find out about Silver, they’ll want
to use her to hurt me. I wanted to give you a heads-up.”

“Thank you.” Her eyes narrowed on him.
“You’re debating on whether you should continue to spend time with
her? My husband would say you need to hit the floor running.”

“What do you say?”

“It isn’t my call. If you’re the one we’ve
been waiting for, you don’t have a choice. You and Silver will be
linked together like it or not.”

“I could warn her about the danger, tell her
she needs to avoid me for her own good.”

“Those are fighting words to my daughter.
She’s stubborn like her daddy. If you tell her you’re breaking up
with her for her own good, she’ll stick to you like glue. She won’t
let you walk unless you hurt her.”

He’d rather die than hurt her.

Vanessa insisted. “If you mean it, if you
truly want to put distance between the two of you, then be cruel.
You’ll have to say some pretty nasty things to dissuade her to
forget about your budding relationship. I don’t want to see my
daughter hurt, but I don’t want to see her dead either. The choice
is yours. To be honest with you, I’ve never seen her like this
before. She’s head over heels in love with you.”

He tried to swallow and failed.

Seeing the expression on his face, Vanessa
said, “Oh, she may not realize she loves you. Maybe it isn’t even
you she loves, but the idea of you. Silver knew you were coming for
years. She read about you in the diary, don’t forget. It’s possible
she fell in love with Lovely’s romantic description of you.”

“Is there something more in the diary about
me? Something else I don’t know?” He wished she would let him read
it, but he knew better than to ask. She wouldn’t go against her
husband.

“There’s more.”

“How much more?”

“Lovely expressed the feeling the two of you,
you and Silver, were destined to be together. She made it out to be
a modern-day fairy tale. Problem is we both know there’s no such
thing as happily ever after, especially not with werewolves and
vampires running around.

“Most likely you’ll be killed before the war
begins. You have no idea how many vamps and werewolves want
Lovely’s legendary hero to die.” She eyed him suspiciously for a
moment. “Have you experienced any returning powers yet? Can you
move fast? Have you noticed your superhuman strength
returning?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

Which wasn’t exactly true, but he didn’t
think she would be impressed that he could growl. Of course she
might be interested in his ability to see inside Silver’s head. He
sure wasn’t going to tell her about that. She might not like the
fact he could see someone’s memories. Plus, she would tell Silver,
and he knew Silver wouldn’t like it. It was a huge invasion of
privacy.

He wondered if it would work on someone other
than Silver.

Jack considered touching Vanessa to try it
out. It was tempting. He decided not to risk it. She was a seasoned
hunter. By the time he returned to reality, he would probably find
he didn’t have any fingers left. She might even take the whole
arm.

Silver stepped outside in the cutest pink
pajamas. She almost looked like a little girl waiting to be tucked
in, sweet and innocent. Her eyes were wide, confused. “What are you
doing here? Why are you two talking? You can’t stand each
other.”

Vanessa gave him a poignant look to remind
him that he had to be cruel and break Silver’s heart in order to
save her life. She stifled a yawn. “Mmm. Sorry. I’m beat. I’ll
leave you alone to talk, but don’t stay out here for too long. It’s
late. Besides your father will be coming home soon. You don’t want
him to catch Jack here.”

With that grim announcement floating in the
air, she went inside and closed the door. Once her mother was gone,
Silver grew a huge smile. She sat next to him on the porch swing,
gave him a hug.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, head
resting on his chest. “It’s good to see you and my mom talking. I
told you they would warm up to you eventually. Sooo…” She sat up
and her eyes went to the door. “…what did my mom say to you?”

Vanessa’s words replayed in his head. He
needed to say nasty things to Silver, hurt her. Fortunately, he’d
come prepared. Just in case he decided to break up with her, he’d
written a note. Even before Vanessa’s advice on being cruel, he’d
done it. Maybe it was true what they said: Great minds think
alike.

“I can’t get over how cute you look in those
pajamas,” he said.

She blushed. “Thanks. They’re new.”

“Even though I’d lost a lot of blood that
first night, I was right about you. You are beautiful.” He caressed
the apple of her cheek. He leaned closer, and his voice lowered.
“You smell good too.”

Her gaze dropped to his mouth.

He pulled her closer.

She tilted her head and awkwardly bumped
noses with him. A short-lived giggle burst through her parted lips.
He cupped her face between his hands to keep her still. His eyes
closed. Their mouths briefly touched.

They both moved at once, mouths meeting in
tempting exploration. His fingers dove into her hair. Her hands
grabbed at his shoulders, pulling at him. They kissed like two
lovers reunited after years of forced separation. Because he had
more experience than her, he let her control the situation. Attuned
to the smallest of sounds coming from her and the feel of her
hands, he waited for her to decide when it had gone far enough.

Silver didn’t know it was a good-bye
kiss.

He had made his decision to keep her safe at
the expense of his own heart. He distracted her with a
melt-you-on-the-spot kiss while removing the letter from his back
pocket. Carefully, he slipped it into her robe’s side pocket. She
didn’t put a stop to their make-out session, so he did.

Jack tore his mouth from hers and put as much
distance between them as he could without leaving the zip code. He
stood on the other side of the porch while she straightened her
pajama top. One of the buttons had slid free. Jack tried hard not
to look. He couldn’t afford to lose the tenuous grip he had on his
self-control.

A picture of Andrew returning to find Jack
groping his daughter gave Jack the strength he needed to fixate on
the porch railing. Andrew would have his shotgun in his hands
before Jack could take a single step. Maybe Andrew even had a gun
in his truck.

“You’d better get inside before your mom
comes out to see what’s taking so long.”

“Well, you’d better go before my father comes
home. He may have respected your parents, but he has five loaded
guns in the house.”

Jack smiled despite himself. Silver seemed to
be able to read his mind with ease. He was going to miss her almost
as much as he missed his mom. “Goodnight then.”

On reluctant feet, she went to the door and
opened it. She touched him with a lingering glance. Her expression
turned hopeful. “You want a ride to school tomorrow?”

He was dying to say yes. “No. Billy’s letting
me use his car.”

“Oh.” Her eyes lost some of their sparkle.
“I’ll see you at school then.”

As soon as the door shut behind her, Jack ran
around the side of the house and climbed the huge tree outside her
bedroom window. He waited in a tangle of branches for her to find
the note. He purposely sat in the darkest part of the tree. Without
vampire vision she wouldn’t be able to see him. She entered the
room with a huge smile on her face. He hadn’t seen this particular
smile before. The secret smile of someone who’d glimpsed heaven. It
ripped a hole in his gut.

Her hands went into the pockets of her robe,
and her expression changed. She withdrew the note. Her smile grew.
She carefully unfolded the piece of paper. Her smile withered and
died as she read his carefully planned words.

I really like you, but more than anything
else in the world I want to be normal. I can’t be normal if I’m
hanging out with ‘the’ werewolf hunter. I don’t want anything
to
do with your so-called destiny. I need to hang out with
normal kids and live my life without interference. Please don’t
talk to me at school. Don’t make this harder than it already
is.

Jack

She couldn’t have looked more stunned if he’d
punched her in the face after kissing her. She crumbled the piece
of paper in one hand and threw it across the room before dropping
on the bed and burying her face in the pillow. Her shoulders shook
as she cried.

Without thinking about it, Jack stepped off
the branch. He fell to the ground, landing gracefully on both feet.
Stunned, Jack realized some of his powers had returned after all.
His gaze went to Starr’s window. He hated seeing her sad. He’d like
to comfort her, but he was the cause of her pain. Hopefully she
would find someone else to take care of her.

Imagining her in another guy’s arms nearly
killed him. He reminded himself she would be better off, but
knowing that didn’t help ease his pain or hers.

She deserved someone who could do more than
pretend to be normal.

****

He dreamed about her that night.

They met in the forest, thick with lush
foliage and high trees. The tops of the trees bowed together,
touching to form a great canopy that blocked direct sunlight. The
place seemed familiar to him. Silver waited for him in the middle
of a clearing. He could feel her grief. It pulled him like a
magnet.

Jack weaved through a clump of trees, his
eyes focused on her the whole time. He placed a hand on a tree
trunk and felt the rough bark beneath his palm. The air exploded
with sound. About fifty birds abandoned the trees around him,
disturbed by something he hadn’t noticed. Something had scared
them. Their wings beat against the wind. They temporarily captured
his attention.

The dream seemed more real than any waking
moment he’d experienced in his entire life. By the time he looked
for Silver again, she was standing in front of him, still dressed
in pink pajamas.

“Why did you do it?” she asked. “Why did you
write those means things?”

“I had to.”

“Why?”

He couldn’t look at her anymore. The power of
those beautiful blue eyes was too hard to resist. It would be safer
to gaze at his shoes, but she wouldn’t let him. She placed a hand
beneath his chin and lifted it. Their eyes met.

“You hurt me,” she said.

“I didn’t mean to.”

“What did you mean to do then?”

He sighed. “It’s better if I don’t tell
you.”

“Better for me or better for you?”

A strange new feeling entered him, a burning
sensation in his veins. It grew stronger with each passing second
until he didn’t think his body could contain it. If he didn’t know
better, he would think sunlight had entered him and was killing him
from the inside out.

With a loud cry, he fell to his knees.

“Jack!” Silver joined him on the ground.
“What is it?”

He shook his head. A million invisible bells
rang in his ears. Silver placed a hand on his forehead. “You’re
burning up!”

Another jolt of pain hit him hard.

No. Pain wasn’t the right word for it. It was
pure agony, like a hundred knives cutting into him from every
direction. He fell on his back and writhed on the ground, shaking
and twisting in the dirt like someone exposed to a large amount of
electricity. His eyes went to her pajama top. He looked for the
glow of the silver dagger beneath the material, but he didn’t see a
sign of it.

She wasn’t the one hurting him this time.

More pain radiated through his body. He
gritted his teeth to keep from crying out again. A burst of steam
blinded him for a moment. Silver gasped. She immediately put
distance between them. She was afraid of him. He wanted to reassure
her that he wouldn’t hurt her, but he’d been robbed of speech.

The pain subsided. He climbed to his feet and
held a hand out. Silver shook her head, taking another step away
from him. Why was she moving further away? Why didn’t she trust
him?

Uncontrollable anger surged to the
surface.

She screamed.

He lunged, swiping at her with invisible
metallic claws. They cut through her arm. Blood seeped through the
pink material. She tried to get away, but he chased her. She
circled a tree; he was faster. He caught her and a vicious growl
erupted from his throat. He wanted to kill her.

Silver locked eyes with him. A weird
sensation gripped him hard. It was an uncomfortable feeling, not
exactly painful but bad. He wanted to finish her off, but he
couldn’t move. Every muscle in his body froze. He couldn’t even
move his lips to ask her what was happening, not that he needed to.
A horrible revelation sparked to life in the back of his mind. He
knew exactly what was happening to him.