Werewolves Rule (The Rule Series) (18 page)

“I hear you.
 
Now hear me.
 
I will kill the head werewolf as soon as I possibly can.
 
Nothing you or your idiot friends can do about it.
 
It’s a done deal.
 
He’s good as gone.”

The leader glanced around at the other three again.
 
But when he spoke, he spoke to Jack.
 
“You really think you can take on Jersey Clifford and win?
 
Smarter and stronger men than you have tried.
 
Hell, dozens of hunters and vampires have tried to take him down.
 
Even other werewolves have attacked him, and he always walks away with barely a scratch.
 
Anyway, you don’t look like much.”

“Try me.”

The leader spoke to his friends this time.
 
“I guess the stories about him are like those old fish stories my grandpa used to tell me.”
 
The other four boys chuckled as if it had been rehearsed.
 
The leader asked Jack, “Do you have any powers?”

Jack repeated, “Try me.
 
Find out for yourself.”

“You barely look old enough to shave, buddy.”
 
The other werewolves seemed to agree with their boss.
 
They nodded and grunted their approval when the leader suggested they forget about Jack because he obviously wasn’t worth the trouble.
 
“No way can this guy take Clifford on and survive.
 
I’d hate to get my clothes dirty for nothing.”

They turned to go.

“I guess you don’t value your lives very much,” Jack said in a loud voice to be sure they heard him.
 
“The stories are all true.
 
I’m going to kill the head werewolf.
 
Then little werewolves like you will revert back to their human selves.”

The leader sneered.
 
“I’d rather die than become a miserable human boy again.”

“Guess you’d better kill me then.”

Jack went into his fighting stance.
 
He curled his hands into fists and spread his legs wide.
 
He was ready to destroy every single werewolf who dared trespass on his father’s property.
 
In his dark mood he didn’t care if these were nice werewolves or not.
 
Feeling bloodthirsty, he just wanted to rip something apart.

The werewolves were happy to accommodate him.

“Remember you asked for this,” the leader said.
 
“It’s you and me then, buddy.
 
If you win, my friends will leave you alone, but if I win, we’re going to ransack your house and take whatever we want.”

Jack got the feeling the guy wasn’t talking about inanimate objects.
 
Perhaps goading the creature into a fight hadn’t been such a good idea.
 
If Jack lost, they might attack Billy.
 
Billy was asleep at the moment, defenseless.
 
Jack’s jaw tightened.
 
He nodded once, accepting the terms.
 
What else could he do?

Jack prepared himself for the attack.
 
The leader would either lunge or swipe at him with metallic claws.
 
It’s what they all did.
 
Jack had fought a few werewolves over the years.
 
As a general rule they were dumber than kitty litter.
 
Hopefully these boys had only been werewolves for a short time.
 
The older they
got,
the better at fighting they became.
 
He wanted a nice, young, useless werewolf to fight.

Instead of lunging directly at him or using his claws, the leader dropped to his knees.
 
Before Jack could gauge his intention, the guy grabbed him by the ankles and jerked hard, pulling Jack’s legs out from under him.
 

Jack fell like a domino.
 
His breath got knocked from his lungs by the hard ground.
 
Pain traveled the length of his body.
 
The hit jarred every bone he had.
 
If he was going to beat this guy in a fair fight, he was going to have to use his brain.
 
Or he needed to fight dirty.
 
Whatever
worked.

Jack rolled halfway back, almost doing a backwards summersault.
 
His legs went high into the air.
 
He kicked as hard as he could.
 
His feet made contact with the werewolf’s chest and sent the leader flying.
 
Before his opponent had time to recover, Jack was on his feet.
 
He resumed his original stance.

The other four boys helped their leader up, each one giving him verbal encouragement to tear Jack apart.

“Tricky, tricky,” the leader said.
 
“You got some skills, buddy.
 
Maybe you aren’t as helpless as you look.”

“Too bad it’s too late for you to figure that out.”

 
The leader chuckled.
 
“You got lucky once.
 
That’s all.”

This time the leader jumped high into the air, a perfect spin.
 
Both his feet, right first, then left, hit Jack in the face.
 
The leader landed upright.
 
Jack staggered back but didn’t fall.
 
He teetered for a moment, arms out to help regain his balance.
 
It was too bad that he didn’t have a cheering section to help steady him.

“Your turn,” the leader said.
 
“Let’s see what else you got.”

Had he picked a fight he couldn’t win?
 
Maybe he should have listened to his own advice.
 
It might be too late for him.
 
But there was no turning back now.
 
He quickly went through a list of maneuvers he could try on the werewolf.
 
Everything Billy had taught him about fighting the hairy beasts came to mind.
 
None of it seemed doable in this situation.
 
Next, he went over everything he’d learned from Cowboy.
 

Cowboy was a master of dirty tricks.
 
He had a long list he liked to use when losing a fight.
 
They usually worked.
 
Jack hoped this was one of those times.
 
He picked one of Cowboy’s favorites.
 
Cowboy had called it the Junk Plan.
 

Jack reached into one of his front pockets.
 
He pulled his hand out, cupped it as if he was holding an array of small items.
 
With the fingers of his other hand, he carefully picked through them.
 
After a few seconds he heard footsteps draw closer.
 
It was working.

“What have you got there?” the leader asked.
 
“Some magical talisman?”

“Just this.”
 
Jack made a fist and punched the leader right in the nose.
 

The leader howled in pain.
 
A trickle of blood made a red line from his left nostril to his chin.
 
“You dirty, cheating, rotten piece of scum!”

Jack jumped up and kicked the werewolf in the face.
 

The leader fell back.
 
He would have hit the ground if his friends hadn’t been there to catch him.
 
They propped him up until he was ready to return to the fight.
 
They cheered him on, making Jack wish he had someone in his corner.

“You are going to pay for that, cheater,” the leader said with the hint of a growl.

Jack didn’t doubt the werewolf’s words.
 
His anger was fading fast, taking his one advantage with it.
 
When the werewolves had offered to go because they didn’t think he was worth the effort, he should have let them.

The leader asked, “You got any more tricks up your sleeve?”

Too many to count.
 
The problem was he wanted to fight, not play games.
 
He wanted to kill the leader so the rest of them wouldn’t go after his brother.
 
There was one thing that could do it—if he could manage it.
 
He hoped the leader wasn’t a strong werewolf with power like Jersey’s.

Jack faced the werewolf head-on.
 
He looked straight into its eyes and reached for its soul.
 
Before the leader knew what he was doing, Jack grabbed onto the slippery thing with mental fingers.
 
He grasped it firmly and pulled.

The field around them vanished, replaced by familiar flames.
 
The werewolf confronted him over the same chasm Isobel had introduced him to.
 
Brief surprise registered on the leader’s face, but he got over it quick enough.
 
With a rueful smile, he went for Jack’s soul.
 
They struggled in a silent battle.
 
In the distance Jack could hear the leader’s friends shouting.

The werewolf was stronger than he appeared.
 

Smoke began to choke Jack.
 
He lost his grip on the werewolf’s dirty soul.
 
The leader’s feeling of triumph was a tangible thing, both surrounding Jack and inside of him simultaneously.
 
It reached deeper.
 
Nothing Isobel had done while teaching him compared to this horrible violation.
 
The thing’s evil spirit became a part of him.
 
He couldn’t fight it.
 

He fell to his knees on the grass.

The werewolves cheered.

His soul was being dragged out of him by slow, inevitable inches.
 
It left an empty and useless void.
 
In a millisecond that void was filled with pure evil.
 
He was a puppet, a suit the monster could put on at will.
 

Jack floated above his own body.
 
He watched himself fall face-first into the grass, eyes open... dead.
 
The werewolves crowded around him.
 
They fought over who would get to rip him to pieces.
 
They were going to rip him into shreds, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

The funny thing was he didn’t care anymore.

He was free, finally free... and there in a place called death he found peace.

******

Chapter Fourteen:

NO PEACE FOR THE WICKED

Silver!

She came out of nowhere, a blonde streak of lightning with a flying kick that landed in the leader’s smug face.
 
Billy followed, swinging his sword with a wild eagerness that bordered on psychotic.
 
The leader’s friends joined the fight.
 
Billy’s sword took one of their heads off.
 
It rolled across the pasture, unnoticed by the others.
 
Fists
zoomed
this way and that.
 
There were so many fists and feet flying through the air that Jack couldn’t tell who was winning.

He floated higher, losing all sensation.
 
The chaos below got smaller until he couldn’t make out who was who anymore.
 
He didn’t want to leave Silver or Billy behind.
 
They were going to need him.
 
Using every ounce of strength he possessed, he clawed his way back to his body.
 
It felt like swimming against a strong current.
 
He was exhausted, but it was working.
 
Just a little farther.

“Jack?”
 
Silver shouted his name.

His brother repeated the call while shaking Jack violently.

Pain!
 
It hurt more than he’d ever thought possible.
 
He opened his eyes a slit, testing them against the bright sunlight.
 
Unable to bear the agony, he closed them again.
 
Someone was groaning.
 
The sound grew louder and louder until Jack realized he was the one making it.
 

“Are you okay?” Silver asked.

 
Was he?
 
He took a mental inventory of his body.
 
Everything seemed to be in working order.
 
The concern on Silver’s face pushed him over the edge.
 
Anger burned a hole in his gut.
 
She had no right to act concerned about him after lying to his face.
 
Plus there was a huge secret she was keeping from him according to what she’d said when he was spying on her memories.
 
But that didn’t bother him as much as knowing she didn’t love him.
 
He struggled to his feet.
 

“I’m great,” he said sarcastically.
 
“How are you?”

“What’s wrong with you?
 
Didn’t I tell you that sucking out souls could be dangerous?”

“I can handle it.”

She shouted, “You almost died!”

Billy decided to step in with his own point of view.
 
His eyes swung between Jack and Silver as he said, “I told you not to do it too.
 
When are you going to start listening to us?
 
We might know a few things about werewolf fighting.”

Jack glared at his brother before walking away from them both.
 
They could fight it out between themselves.
 
He was going back in the house.
 
But Silver wasn’t through with him yet.
 
She chased after him, blocking the path he was taking.
 
The flat of her hand hit his chest to make him stop.
 

“What do you want?” he asked in a biting tone.

“I want you to promise me that you aren’t going to try this again.”

His lips formed a flat line.
 
He folded his arms over his chest, silently replaying what she’d said to Trina at the slumber party.
 
“Why do you care what I do?”

“I care… because I love you.”

Liar!
 
Jack stepped around her.
 
He walked with a purpose now, moving fast, eager to get away from her.
 
She’d probably been lying to him the whole time.
 
His inner voice screamed
.
 
That’s it
!
 
She needed him to kill Jersey.
 
This whole thing had been a set up from the beginning.
 
She didn’t love him, never had.
 
She was using him, pure and simple.

Well it ended now.
 
He wasn’t going to play her little game anymore.
 
His anger hit a full boil.
 
If he never saw her lying face again, it would be far too soon.

“What is wrong with you?” she yelled at his back.

He didn’t stop moving until he was in his bedroom.
 
He slammed the door shut, scaring Blanca right off her perch on the window sill.
 
The cat meowed in a plaintive tone when she hit the floor.
 
He moved a chair in front of the door to dissuade visitors.
 
There wasn’t anyone he wanted to talk to and nothing left to say.
 

Jack stood in front of the window and watched Silver with his brother.
 
The two of them stood close, talking.
 
They seemed to have a lot to say to each other.
 
Curious, Jack opened the window a couple of inches and strained his ears to hear.
 
Blanca hissed in complaint, and he waved her away.

Billy was saying, “…don’t know why.
 
He’s been under a lot of pressure lately.”

“You mean how every time he turns around something is trying to kill him?”

“Exactly.
 
After a while it has got to wear on the nerves.”

Silver wasn’t buying it.
 
Jack could tell by the way she straightened her back and squared her shoulders.
 
She said, “Okay.
 
I get that.
 
But why is he taking it out on me?
 
Yesterday everything was fine between us.
 
He was supposed to come to the house and help me out with something.
 
He didn’t show, but we talked on the phone after midnight.
 
Everything was fine.
 
Now he’s acting like he can’t stand the sight of me.
 
I don’t get it.”

“I gave up trying to figure out my brother a long time ago.”
 
Billy’s eyes went to Jack’s window as if he knew he’d find him watching.
 
Jack ducked, hitting the floor with his knees.
 
Billy added, “I think you should give him some space.
 
Go home.
 
You can try to talk to him again tomorrow.”

“I don’t want to go home,” Silver said in a plaintive voice.

Jack lifted his head and peeked through the window just in time to see Billy put his hands on Silver’s shoulders.
 
The gesture added fuel to the fire of Jack’s burning anger.
 
Jealousy battled with indifference.
 
Why should he care if Billy touched Silver?
 
She wasn’t his girl anymore.

Billy said, “I know what its like to try to talk to Jack when he’s being unreasonable.
 
Wait till tomorrow.
 
Maybe he’ll be in a better mood by then.”

Silver took a few steps before returning to Billy’s side.
 
“Has he mentioned Isobel to you?”

“The werewolf girl?”
 
Billy shrugged.
 
“Yeah.”

“I think she’s trying to seduce him.
 
I think she’s working with Jersey, but Jack won’t listen to me.
 
One minute he’s out for her blood, and the next he’s hanging out with her.
 
She taught him to suck souls out.
 
It’s dangerous.
 
Why won’t he listen to me?
 
Why is he putting more faith in her than in me?”

Billy didn’t answer.
 

Silver walked away, shoulders slumped.
 
She went to her car, climbed inside and drove off without once looking up at Jack’s window.
 
He kind of wished she had.
 
It would have shown some caring on her part.
 
He couldn’t believe a word that came out of her mouth.
 
Maybe it was true what they said about actions speaking louder.

Her actions didn’t exactly scream undying love.
 

******

That night Jack reluctantly visited the woods in his dreams.
 

Soft sunlight filtered through low hanging branches.
 
An occasional breeze cooled the warm air.
 
Jack picked his way down the familiar trail, walking between the trees as he searched for Silver.
 
She was somewhere close.
 
He could feel her gentle spirit.
 
Dry leaves crackled behind him, signaling someone had stepped on them.

He phrased his first question carefully.
 
Somehow he would know if she was lying.
 
All he wanted was the truth, even if it hurt.

“How do you feel about me?”

“What?”

He slowly revolved.
 
Face to face with Silver, his eyes locked with hers in a silent battle for the truth.
 
“I want to know how you really feel about me.
 
The truth.
 
Were you ever honest with me?”

She stared at him, eyes wide.
 

“Were you lying to me the night you told me you loved me?” he asked.
 
“You acted like it just slipped out, but now I’m wondering if it was all part of the game.”

She raised her voice. “What game?
 
What are you talking about?”

It was time to tell her everything.
 
If he was going to get an honest answer out of her, he was going to have to admit to eavesdropping.
 
“I used my power yesterday and I saw you with Trina in your bedroom.
 
I not only heard what you said to her, I heard what you were thinking.”

The color abandoned her cheeks.
 
For several seconds she stood statue still.
 
He could practically see the mental wheels turning.
 
She was trying to remember everything she’d said and thought about that night.
 
After swallowing a couple of times, she shook her head.
 
Her mouth opened and closed.
 
Finally she spoke.
 
“I’m sorry.”

The bottom dropped out of his world—again.
 

Jack sat down in front of a nearby tree.
 
He drew in the dirt with his finger, unable to look at Silver.
 
For the first time in a long time his mind turned to his old girlfriend,
Summer
.
 
He hadn’t been in love with her, but they’d had a lot of fun.
 
It hadn’t been enough for him.
 
If he’d had any idea how much love could hurt, he would have settled for what he’d had with the vampire girl.

“I’m confused right now,” Silver said.
 
“So much has happened, and we’re both changing.
 
My emotions have been all over the place.”
 
She stood by his feet.
 
“My parents are convinced that I only think I love you.
 
Wouldn’t it be better if I figured that out before we grow any closer?”

He frowned up at her.
 
“That’s the difference between us.
 
I don’t need time to figure out how I feel about you.
 
I love you, and I know it’s real.
 
I’m sorry that you can’t say the same.”

“I’m trying to be honest with you, okay?”
 
Her voice cracked with raw emotion.
 
“It isn’t fair that we have to fight stupid werewolves.
 
Lovely wrote that stupid diary and she told us we had to be together, but you don’t believe in destiny.
 
You’ve been against everything I’ve been living for from the second we met.
 

“Do you have any idea how it feels to love someone who doesn’t get you?
 
Instead of being supportive of me trying to get into a good college and becoming a lawyer, you get mad when I bring it up.
 
Am I supposed to drop everything I’ve ever wanted just to be with you?
 
Is that what you want?”

A spark of hope entered Jack’s heart.
 
Regardless of what she’d been thinking about yesterday while he was eavesdropping on her, she had to have feelings for him.
 
Why else would she be getting this upset?
 
She cared about him, at least a little.
 
It wasn’t too late.
 
He hadn’t totally lost her.

Jack got to his feet, prepared to work things out with her, but he didn’t get the chance.

Footsteps alerted them to an intruder.
 
They came together side by side and waited.
 
Jack expected to see Jersey step out, but it wasn’t the former teacher.
 
Isobel walked towards them with a smug grin on her face.
 
Her hips swung in an exaggerated rhythm.

Silver turned accusing eyes on Jack.
 
“You brought her into our dreams?
 
How could you?”
 
He shook his head, tried to deny the charges, but Silver didn’t notice.
 
She yelled at him.
 
“I know we aren’t dating right now… but this is still a major betrayal.
 
Don’t talk to me anymore.
 
I don’t ever want to see you again.
 
We’re done.”

Jack reached out a hand, but she was gone.
 
She was somewhere out there in reality, awake.
 
He glared at Isobel.
 
“How did you get into our dream?
 
I didn’t invite you, so how did you do it?”