Vampires Rule (5 page)

She didn’t give him a chance to argue. The
stubborn girl opened the door and looked both ways before leaving.
Part of Jack wanted to purposely ignore her instructions. The rebel
in him wanted to casually stroll into the family kitchen and
introduce himself to her parents. Let her father get the shotgun.
Jack wasn’t afraid of him. He wasn’t afraid of anybody.

****

Silver drove him home in silence.

Jack barely noticed. He stared out the window
at the passing scenery, captivated at the sight of normal life. It
had been years since he’d roamed free during the day. He took in
every single sight and sound, devouring it with eager abandon. They
drove through town, passed several stores before they reached an
endless string of farms. Waves of golden grain seemed to glisten,
bending to the will of a gentle breeze. A dog raced across the
street. Children played in yards. Men mowed lawns and worked on
their cars.

It brought a painful lump to his throat. He
turned away from Silver, swiped at his damp eyes and prayed she
wouldn’t notice that he was acting like a baby. Taking a deep
breath, he forced his mind to focus on mundane stuff. First he went
through the alphabet backwards. Then he started counting every book
he’d ever read.

By the time they stopped in front of his
brother’s house he had his emotions in check again. Silver switched
the car’s engine off, but she didn’t get out. Her gaze rested on
him as she waited for him to make a decision. Was he going to face
his brother or run away?

How could he possibly explain his
reappearance to Billy after so many years? And what about his face?
It hadn’t changed since the day of his death. He hadn’t gotten
older, hadn’t visibly changed. Billy was not going to understand
any of this. Jack was going to have to tell his brother their
parents had been wrong; monsters did exist, and he’d been one until
last night.

“I can take you somewhere else if you want,”
Silver said, breaking the silence.

He had nowhere else to go. He couldn’t return
to his vampire friends unless he wanted to become one of them
again; which he didn’t. Summer wouldn’t mind biting him again, but
this was his second chance to live a normal life. He couldn’t let
it slip through his fingers. He couldn’t waste it.

Jack held his breath and exited the car. He
leaned against the vehicle for a while to give Silver a chance to
join him. For a moment he considered letting her leave, but he
didn’t think he could face Billy alone. His brother would have a
million questions. Maybe Silver could answer a few or at least
distract Billy from time to time while Jack tried to figure out
what to say next.

Before Silver reached him, the front door
opened and Billy stepped out. Billy’s face went through a myriad of
emotions: stunned disbelief…confusion…something else that Jack
couldn’t quite figure out. Billy stumbled across the porch, eyes
glistening with unshed tears and features twisted in some sort of
silent agony.

Jack stood straight and prepared himself for
what was likely to be a mushy reunion. He was happy to see Billy,
of course. One hug wouldn’t hurt. He took a step forward. His
brother’s feet hurried to meet him, and Jack held his breath.

Billy reached behind his back, removed
something from the waistband of his jeans. He lifted it high and
moved faster, almost running now. It took Jack a moment to realize
his brother was holding a wooden stake. Billy lunged at him,
prepared to do serious damage.

Jack grabbed Billy’s wrist. They struggled.
His brother was stronger than he looked, and Jack had lost his
advantage along with his immortality. He went down hard with Billy
on top of him. They rolled across the dirt. Billy straddled Jack’s
waist. He held the stake above Jack’s chest, ready to plunge it
into his heart.

Silver grabbed Billy’s arm, jerked on it.

“Stop!” she screamed. “Don’t hurt him.”

“Back off!” Billy shouted.

She yanked harder on Billy’s arm.

“He isn’t a vampire anymore, idiot. Look! Do
you see that big, yellow thing up in the sky? That’s called the
sun. It’s shining down on him, and he isn’t exploding. His fangs
are gone. He’s as human as we are. Case closed.”

Billy stared up at the sky, his jaw slack.
“Not possible.”

Jack mumbled, “They don’t call me Jackpot for
nothing.”

“What?” Billy blinked at him.

“Private joke.”

Billy stared at Jack as if he’d started
speaking Chinese. Slowly, Billy climbed off him. He dropped the
stake on the ground and backed away. Jack followed suit. The two of
them stared at each other for countless minutes. Maybe it was only
seconds, but to Jack it seemed like an eternity. Thanks to his
brother’s homicidal tendencies, their reunion was more than
awkward.

Jack made a show of brushing the dirt off his
jeans. He avoided Billy’s eyes for as long as possible. He didn’t
know what to say. He waited for the questions to start, waited for
Billy to shoot them out like poison-dipped arrows, but Billy’s lips
remained compressed in a solid line.

“You’re taller than me,” Jack complained,
trying to lighten the mood.

It worked.

Billy chuckled and the cord of tension broke.
“I guess you inherited mom’s lack of height.”

“At least I got her good looks.”

Billy grabbed handfuls of the blood-stained
blue-plaid material covering Jack’s upper torso and yanked him
close for a big hug. With Billy’s arms wrapped around him tighter
than an anaconda, Jack found it difficult to breathe. Billy
squeezed so hard Jack thought his eyes might pop out, but it was
nice to know Billy was happy to have him home. Jack reluctantly
lifted his hands and placed them on Billy’s back, trying hard to
return the hug without being too awkward about it.

Billy took a step away from him. His fingers
remained tangled in the material of Jack’s shirt as if he was
afraid to let go. Eyes damp, Billy asked, “Why didn’t you talk to
me yesterday? You were in the house when I came home, weren’t you?
Why did you run away?”

“I didn’t know what to say.”

“You could have started with a simple
hello.”

Billy invited them both into the house, but
Silver said she needed to go home. She told them she didn’t want
her parents to get wise to the situation yet. She wasn’t ready to
introduce them to Jack. With mixed emotions, he watched her get
into her car. Part of him wanted to demand to know when he’d see
her again.

The words stuck in his throat. He stood in
the dirt driveway and watched her leave until the car disappeared
in a cloud of dust. Billy slapped him on the back. The hand slid up
to Jack’s neck, and Billy gave him a quick, friendly squeeze.

“Let’s get inside,” Billy said. “We’ve got
some catching up to do, bro.”

Jack nodded. He turned, reluctantly following
his brother. They passed through the foyer, stepped into the living
room. Jack had finally made it home. No more hiding in the coat
closet. It was difficult to comprehend how much had changed
overnight. Yesterday he was breaking into this house, and now he
could come and go as he pleased.

His eyes narrowed on baby brother. “Wait a
second. You came at me with a stake.”

Billy’s gaze dropped to the floor.

Jack asked, “How long have you known I was a
vampire?”

“After you died, Silver’s parents approached
me. They told me mom and dad were hunters. I tore the house apart
looking for evidence to either support or deny their claim.”

“Mom and dad were not hunters. That’s
stupid.”

“Think so?” Billy crooked a finger, signaling
for Jack to join him. They walked through the living room. Billy
went to the wall where their dad kept his gun case. He slid an arm
behind it, clicked a lever. The case swung out along with part of
the wall, revealing a secret room that was filled to overflowing
with weapons and ammunition. Billy added, “It took me three months
to find it. Dad hid it well.”

Jack couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Are you a hunter now too?” he asked.

Billy shrugged. “Call me crazy, but after
burying my entire family I wasn’t in a good place. Since I didn’t
have any other relatives, I moved in with Silver’s family until I
was old enough to take care of myself. Silver’s parents offered to
teach me the trade.”

“What is it with those people?” Apparently
they went around recruiting kids for the world of hunting.”

“It wasn’t their fault,” Billy said. “I was
determined to hunt the thing that killed you. They taught me how to
stay alive while doing it.”

Jack’s blood turned to ice. He had purposely
pushed that night out of his mind. With the exception of relentless
nightmares he hadn’t given it a thought in years. Now he was
confronted with the past. He couldn’t hide from it anymore. The
memories returned with the subtlety of a nuclear explosion.”

He could almost smell the blood—and the
stench of werewolf, a mixture of sweaty fur and stale breath.

It had happened on an ordinary night, a
school night. He’d finished his homework early for a change. He and
Billy were watching television when the howling started. They
didn’t even notice it until their dad raced outside with a
multitude of weapons. Jack hadn’t known about werewolves at the
time, hadn’t known what was needed to take them out. Their mom
hustled them into the basement, told them to stay there until she
returned., but Jack didn’t listen. He told Billy to call the
sheriff while he went outside. He took a shotgun and a pocketful of
ammunition.

It was already too late. His father had been
torn to shreds, and his mom was on the ground beneath the wolf.
Jack started shooting without hesitation. He hit it twice before it
pounced on him.

He still remembered the way those sharp teeth
felt as they sliced through his flesh. It had been over in a flash.
He hadn’t stood a chance.

The wolf changed back to human form, and Jack
saw its face.

The werewolf could have ripped him into so
many pieces no one could have saved him, but the thing’s head had
jerked up abruptly. Later, Jack would discover it had smelled
vampires coming. There had been five of them at the time. The
werewolf hadn’t wanted to take that many on. One by one they had
appeared over Jack’s bleeding body and looked down at him with
peculiar interest.

It was then Summer had bitten him... saved
him.

****

Starving.

Jack sat at the breakfast bar, an array of
food spread out before him like an all-night buffet. He stuffed
half a muffin into his mouth and chewed fast and furious. The moist
bread didn’t want to go down on its own. He grabbed the milk and
emptied it, drinking straight from the jug. A white stream slipped
down his chin. He wiped it away with the back of his other
hand.

He was so hungry it was like he’d never be
filled again. Being human wasn’t as comfortable as he remembered.
Maybe all those years going without real food were catching up with
him. Too bad he couldn’t ask anyone if he’d survive it. He was the
only vampire to turn human. There wasn’t an instruction booklet he
could consult.

Billy walked in and stopped halfway to the
refrigerator, giving Jack a funny look. “Is there something I
should know? Are you eating for two?”

Jack glared at him as he shoved a bunch of
grapes into his mouth. He tried to talk around them. “Been long
time since I ate real food. Okay?”

“Don’t go overboard. You’ll make yourself
sick.” But Billy was the one with the green tint. He watched Jack
take a big bite of an apple, stuff a handful of peanuts in his
mouth, and then chew off a bite of pepperoni from a slab of meat.
Billy asked, “Uh…have you given any thought to what you’re going to
do now that you’re human again…besides eat me out of house and home
of course?”

Jack put down the hunk of cheese he’d been
ready to devour and shrugged. “I suppose I’ll take up where I left
off.”

“Where is that exactly?”

“I want to go to school like a normal
seventeen-year-old.”

“Problem is you aren’t seventeen. Technically
anyway. You won’t have anything in common with those kids.” Jack’s
hopes for a normal life plummeted. Billy stopped talking. With a
shrug, he amended, “If you really want to go to school, you should
go. I’ll help you. I have a friend who specializes in false
documents. You need to pick a new name.”

“Why?”

“You can still use your first name, but we’ll
have to find you another last name. People in town still remember
the Creed massacre. Maybe we can use your middle name. You ought to
be able to remember that at least.”

He tried it out. “Jack Reece.” It sounded
okay to him. “What if someone recognizes me?”

“We’ll say you’re our cousin from Boston, and
there’s a strong family resemblance. If someone says something
about Jack Creed, tell them you never met the kid. It’s not like
they’re actually going to think it’s you... unless they know about
vampires.”

Jack thought about Silver and wondered if she
went to public school. He allowed his mind to drift for a moment,
fantasizing about carrying her books to class, holding her hand in
the hallway. Maybe they could even attend a school dance
someday.

That would be normal.

“What do you think of Silver?” he asked his
brother.

“She’s cute. But I don’t think it matters
what I think. What do you think about her? She likes you, you
know?”

Jack choked on chocolate cake. He grabbed the
milk again, finished it off, and wiped his mouth with the back of
his hand. “What makes you think that?”

Billy rolled his eyes. “She’s a hunter, Jack,
and you were a vampire until last night. Instead of staking you,
she saved your life. You do the math.”

Jack tried to keep the pleased smile from his
face. He didn’t have much luck, but Billy’s next question did the
job for him.