Vampires Rule (25 page)

“I am the first, but I am not a simple
werewolf. I am something beyond your comprehension, something
beyond your simple understanding.”

Jack’s eyes drifted to the closet inside the
living room. He wondered if Silver could hear them. Did she know
she was right? Was she doing a victory dance in the closet?

“I take it you know about Lovely.” Jersey
said. “Have the Reigns told you about the diary yet?”

Jack nodded, but he held back the fact that
he had the diary and was currently reading it.

Jersey said, “She had a vision about me
growing an army and taking over the world. It terrified her, but
she stayed with me. The girl thought she could change me from what
I am to what she wanted me to be. Imagine that.”

“You don’t have to do it. Her visions aren’t
always true. Sometimes she had more than one on the same subject.
She had visions about me too, but we don’t have to follow her
blueprint of the future. I believe we make our own destiny.”

“As I said before, you are extremely young,
Jack. Destiny is solid. It will happen the way it is meant to
happen. If you try to change destiny, you will only cause it to
take place. There is no escape for either of us.”

“I don’t believe that.”

Jersey put a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “I know
about your destiny too. Someday we will meet on the battlefield. I
want you to know I will not take any pleasure from killing you, but
kill you I will.”

“Comforting. Thank you.” Jack wondered if
werewolves understood sarcasm. “You’re already building an army,
aren’t you?”

Jersey didn’t answer. He dropped his hand and
stepped back, giving Jack breathing room. “I think you should go
now. Oh, and don’t forget to release your girlfriend from the
closet. I imagine she’s probably tired of being in there.” At
Jack’s surprised look, Jersey tapped the side of his nose. “I have
powerful abilities. Don’t underestimate me again or it might kill
you.”

Jack left the kitchen, went into the living
room and opened the closet door. He could tell by Silver’s worried
expression she had heard every single word. When she opened her
mouth to speak, he shook his head hard. Better to wait until they
were alone.

Jersey followed them to the front door,
opening it for them like a good host. “Thank you for visiting my
modest dwelling. Feel free to return whenever you want. Consider my
home to be your home.”

Silver turned on the porch and spoke to
Jersey before Jack could stop her. Her tone was crisp. She bit off
each word. “Forget the army, and forget destiny. You have one shot
to live here. If you know what our destiny is, then you know it’s
true. If I don’t kill you, Jack will.”

Jersey disagreed. “I suppose it depends on
how you read between the lines. I believe that part of the future
was unclear to Lovely. She wanted you to destroy me, but Jack’s
existence proves she had no idea what would happen. She gave him to
you as a back up plan in case you die trying, which you will.”

Before Silver could say anything else, Jack
pushed her toward the car. He hung back for a second to try one
more time to reason with a man he thought of as a friend. “Please
don’t do this. Don’t force us to take you out.”

“That’s what I like to hear, Jack.” Jersey
smiled. “Confidence. Even if it is unfounded.”

Jack finished reading the diary in six
days.

He stretched out on the sofa, a throw pillow
beneath his head, feet resting on the opposite arm. The diary’s
secrets whipped around his head. He’d hoped to find some useful
information on Jersey, but there hadn’t been any. On the other
hand, he’d enjoyed reading about Silver and how the two of them
were meant for each other.

He closed his eyes on a breathy sigh, feeling
kind of lonely. Silver and her parents were hunting on the other
side of the county, and Billy was patrolling their land in case his
vampire friends returned. No sooner had the thought of loneliness
entered his head than the front door opened.

Billy tossed his coat onto the arm of the
sofa before sinking into the chair near Jack’s head. “Man, I’m
exhausted. Sometimes I forget how much land we own.”

Jack smiled at the word ‘we.’ His brother
hadn’t used it before. He’d seen Jack as an outsider, an unwelcome
intruder. Perhaps there was hope for them yet. They were headed in
the right direction at least.

“I didn’t catch wind of anything out there,”
Billy said. “I think we’re safe for tonight.”

Jack sat up and faced his brother. He looked
at Billy, unable to help remembering the kid who had followed him
everywhere. It was sad how much had changed in his absence. They’d
been close back then. Now they had an ocean of resentment between
them, and Jack had no idea what to do to make things better.

Billy kicked his shoes off. He crossed his
ankles and wiggled his toes in the dark socks. For a moment he
actually twiddled his thumbs. One thing hadn’t changed; Billy still
had a low threshold when it came to boredom.

The dark circles beneath his eyes and lines
around his mouth attested to the hard times Billy had endured. He
rarely smiled. Billy picked the television guide off the coffee
table and began to leaf through it. He settled back in his chair,
looking tired but comfortable.

“We should talk,” Jack said.

Billy’s eyes snapped up, and surprise
registered in them. “What? Why?”

“I’d like us to be brothers again.”

“What are we if we aren’t brothers?”

“We’re strangers who share a house.” Jack
reached over and yanked the guide from Billy’s hand. He tossed it
back to the table. “Seriously, we need to talk before we cross some
line that we can’t get back over.”

Billy had heard enough. With a sigh, he stood
and walked out of the room. He went into the kitchen to prepare a
snack. Jack followed, but Billy pretended not to notice as he
opened the stocked refrigerator and practically climbed inside. In
seconds he came out with an armful of food.

“It was nice of Vanessa to go shopping for
us,” Jack said.

“Yeah.” Billy dropped a hunk of cheese,
bottle of mayo, and some leftover bacon onto the breakfast bar. He
slapped some of each between two slices of wheat bread. “I wonder
if she got chips.”

Jack placed his palms against the bar and
leaned over it. “The first day I showed up, you were happy to see
me. Remember that? Of course you thought I was still a vampire then
and tried to kill me five seconds later, but when you found out I
wasn’t a vampire, you hugged me.”

“Is there a reason we’re strolling down
memory lane right now?”

“You are happy I’m home, aren’t you?”

Billy rolled his eyes. He took his sandwich
back to the living room and plunked down on the sofa this time
before grabbing the remote. A couple presses of his thumb and they
were watching golf.

Jack stormed over to the television and
manually flipped it off. Before Billy could complain, Jack turned
on him. Using a loud voice to try to get through to his brother,
Jack asked, “What happened? How did you go from thrilled to see me
to can’t stand to be in the same room with me?”

“What do you expect?” Billy tossed his
half-eaten sandwich to the coffee table. “In one night I lost my
mom, my dad, and the brother I worshipped. While you were all being
torn to bits, I was hiding in the closet like a coward.”

Taken aback by the furious burst of emotion,
Jack’s voice dropped a few decibels. “I told you to stay
there.”

“Mom told you to stay hidden too, but you ran
out to help them.”

“And look how that turned out. You were the
smart one.”

Billy jumped to his feet and began to pace
the length of the room in front of the sofa. “I sat alone in the
closet, slowly losing my mind as I waited for one of you to return.
I didn’t come out until the sheriff showed. After that, my life
pretty much became what it is now. I hunted. I slept. I ate. Then I
hunted some more. My life was bleak, and it was going to be that
way forever as far as I could tell.

“The day I opened your coffin and found it
empty, I cried like a baby. I kept imagining all these horrible
things happening to you. Maybe I was wrong, but I saw you as a
monster. In my mind, someday I was going to have to kill you.”
Billy threw his hands up. “Then ‘someday’ arrived out of the blue.
I was going to put you out of your misery even if it killed me to
do it. But
ta-da
you aren’t a vampire anymore. Seems like a
good thing on the surface, doesn’t it?

“The brother I’d lost, returns. You look
exactly the same as the day you died, but you’re different inside.
You don’t talk or act like the brother I knew. Suddenly I find
myself living under the same roof with a stranger, a stranger with
my brother’s face, and on top of that, I find out my brother is
going to have powers and is destined to either kill the top
werewolf, and save the world or die trying. You try coping with
that. Why should I get close to you again when you’re just going to
die on me?”

Billy dropped back to the sofa and grabbed
his sandwich. He tore a huge chunk off the end. He picked up the
remote again, prepared to turn the television on, but Jack took it
from his greasy fingers.

“It’s been hard for me too,” Jack said. “You
may not want to hear this, but living with you hasn’t exactly been
a picnic. You don’t look anything like my brother. You certainly
don’t act like him. Somehow you went from thinking I was the best
thing in the world to hating my guts.”

“I don’t hate you,” Billy mumbled.

“You could have fooled me. Half the time
you’re bossing me around, and the other half you’re planning how
you’re going to kill me.”

Billy stopped chewing long enough to look
sheepish. “I wouldn’t kill you unless I knew for sure you’d
reverted to a vampire... and maybe not even then. I mean, you told
me it wasn’t so bad being a vampire. I think I’d take your word for
it as long as you didn’t kill anyone in front of me.”

Sounded like progress to Jack.

“I’m sorry for bossing you around,” Billy
added. “I kind of feel like I’ve become an instant father
here.”

“But you aren’t my father. You’re my baby
brother. Try to remember that, and we’ll get along just fine.”

“I’ll try.” Billy finished his meal. He
sucked his fingers and made annoying smacking sounds. “Do you think
you could manage to show some respect for the man I’ve become? I’m
not the ‘baby’ brother anymore. I wish you’d stop calling me
that.”

Jack nodded. “Sounds fair.”

Billy reached a hand out, and Jack shook
it.

“We’re okay now?” Jack asked.

“Depends.” Billy smirked at him. “You want to
get me a beer while you’re up?”

****

A few hours later, Jack headed to bed. He
left the bathroom while rubbing his tired eyes. He hadn’t removed
the thick cream-colored sweatshirt or jeans because the heater
wasn’t working properly. He planned on sleeping in his clothes. It
was too bad Billy wasn’t as skilled with a wrench as he was with a
rifle. Since their dad died, he’d let the place fall apart. Billy
definitely was not a handy man to have around the house.

Jack went into his room and stopped just
inside the doorway. There was something large, round, and black on
his pillow. For a second he thought it might be a strange bug of
some kind. He removed a shoe and approached with caution, but it
was too shiny to be a bug. Frowning, he dropped the shoe and picked
the object up. It was a rock, but it didn’t look like any rock he’d
ever seen. Too smooth. Now who had put a rock on his pillow?

In answer to his silent question, Silver
said, “Magic stone.” She stood in the doorway, a can of purple soda
in her hand. Once Jack glanced her way, she entered and closed the
door. “I told my mom who the lead werewolf is and asked her to give
me the stone so you can use it to destroy him.”

“She gave it to you?” Jack couldn’t keep the
surprise from his voice. He’d thought the rock was a last resort,
only to be used if Silver got herself killed.

“Actually, she turned me down flat. I took it
from her room. She keeps it in her sock drawer. Remember?”

“We can’t go behind your parent’s backs and
use it when they obviously don’t want us to.”

Silver glared at him. “I want to have a
normal life. I thought you’d understand that more than anyone.”

“I do.”

“Then help me. Once you kill Jersey, all
other werewolves will return to normal. The world will be free of
them, and I can go to college like a normal person. I can become a
lawyer and save people from a different angle.”

Jack went down on the bed and studied the
rock from every direction. “It doesn’t look like a magic rock to
me.”

“What does a magic rock look like?” Silver
laughed before lying next to him. “Have you ever seen one before?
Of course not. Because there’s only one and that’s it.”

The light remained on as they stared at the
ceiling, side by side. Jack hated it that every conversation they
had seemed to revolve around vampires or werewolves. He wanted to
talk about the other aspects of life. He wanted to talk about a
future with her.

Something was bothering him. “If you go off
to college next year, what am I supposed to do?”

“You could come with me.”

He chuckled at the idea. “I can’t picture
myself in college. I’m barely keeping my head above water in high
school.”

“I’ll tutor you.”

He turned to look at her and asked, “What if
I don’t want to go with you? What if I want to stay here with my
brother and hunt vampires or ghosts? Then what?”

“I don’t know.” Her lower lip trembled. “I
guess I could visit you when I come to see my parents. I’m not
going to give up my dreams, and I hope you aren’t the kind of guy
who would ask me to.”