Chapter Fifteen
Beta’s Betrayal
J
ules and Luca were asked a lot of questions and gave a lot of answers. Now that the cat was out of the bag, they had no reason to keep any of it from the people they trusted. Kyle and Luca gave their accounts of the attack on Jules to Monica and Hayley, allowing Jules to remain silent. Monica filled in here, or there, on their first date, and everything else was up to them. Once they all felt sufficiently ‘in the loop’ they moved on to other things. When Jules suggested that they used her fire pit to cook their dinner they were all in.
“Seth is headed over,” Monica announced.
“No, he doesn’t know what either of us are and I’d like to keep it that way,” Luca said before Kyle could ask.
“I wish you wouldn’t keep it from him,” Monica said.
Jules squeezed Monica’s shoulder but didn’t speak.
“What? Seth knows I’m lying to him about something. He even asked me if I was cheating on him last week,” Monica said with a little whine.
“I’m sorry about that Monica,” Luca said. “I just can’t tell him. I don’t think he’d take it well.”
“You’re probably right,” Monica admitted. “He’s too logical. Sometimes I don’t think he has the imagination of a bowl of mashed potatoes.”
Moments later, Seth let himself in through the front door. “Dude,” Seth began, zeroing in a Luca. “Wanting to hang out with your new girlfriend is not an adequate reason to call in sick.”
“I um…” Luca didn’t know what to say. He had done that. Of course, it was before he’d found out if Jules was alright and he was sick with worry.
“It’s fine,” Seth continued. “I covered for you. This time,” he added, just before he pecked Monica on the lips and handed her a bag full of leftovers from the restaurant.
“You’re the best,” she giggled.
“This I am aware of,” he replied.
“Can we eat?” Kyle asked. “I’m starving.”
Minutes later, smoke rose from the fire pit in the sand behind Jules’s house. Jules spread out some blankets while the rest of them gathered around to roast part of their meals over the fire. In the end, their dinner was a hodgepodge of left-overs from Panda Plate, hotdogs, and marshmallows.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” Seth, who had been sitting near Monica but not beside her, said. He then stood and walked into the house. Monica watched him almost sadly.
Jules shifted out of the cradle of Luca’s arms and walked over, putting an arm around her friend. Luca watched as Hayley got up from her seat beside Kyle and walked over, plopping down on Monica’s other side. He was amazed by Monica; this human was knowingly and comfortably sitting between two immortal predators like she was in no danger at all.
“So,” Kyle began, taking advantage of Seth’s momentary absence.
“So, what?” Luca asked when he didn’t continue.
“I kinda like her,” Kyle said as he dropped a carryout box into the fire. It curled in on itself as it blackened.
“Jules?” Luca saw Jules through the flames. She was laughing at something, her smile wide and intoxicating.
“She’s pretty cool, for a vampire. I can see why you’re smitten.” Kyle dropped another wrapper into the fire.
“Smitten?”
“Oh, you are so far gone,” Kyle said. “I barely recognize you anymore.” Kyle’s words had merit. Luca wasn’t the same man he’d been before she had walked into his life. He had something to lose again. Which, of course, made him worry more. But he was also happier than he’d been in a very long time. In a matter of days, Jules had changed everything; his future, all that he was and would become. This love was new, yes, but it was a life-altering kind of love. The kind that even immortals dreamed about.
“Ouch!” Kyle swore as a bit of packaging floated out of the fire and landed on his arm.
Hayley rolled her eyes. “Well, that’s what happens when you behave like a moron.”
“I heard that!” Kyle shouted from his side of the fire pit.
A playful growl escaped Hayley’s lips.
“That too!” he shouted again.
Hayley stood, walked over to him, and dropped to her knees on the sand in front of her husband. Luca watched them. Their love changed their lives. In fact, Kyle could have died for it. Love has always made people do things they normally wouldn’t. Kyle pulled Hayley toward him and began kissing her.
Luca stood and walked over to sit next to Jules. “Hey stranger,” he said, smiling.
“Hi,” she said. She snuggled under his arm and leaned in against his side.
“Apparently you’ve received an all clear according to the Kyle test,” he told her.
“Did I?” she asked.
“Yup, totally,” Kyle called from between kisses.
Hayley smacked him while Jules, Luca, and Monica chuckled.
Luca stilled at the distinct sounds of a car pulling into Jules’s driveway. If it was Eileen and her husband, there was no telling how violent this encounter could get. His body tensed. “What is it?” Jules asked.
“Are you expecting anyone else?” he whispered in her ear.
“Not that I know of,” she turned around to face him.
Luca listened carefully. One car door slammed and the another.
RICKY
Getting to Jules’s house required a completely awkward Uber ride with the three of them crammed in the backseat of a beat up car, Tasha smashed between Ethan and himself. Once they arrived, Ethan paid the driver while Ricky and Tasha sild out of one side of the car. Ricky looked up at the small green beach cottage. All looked quiet from the front of the house, but Ricky heard voices coming from the far side.
“Thanks,” Ethan waved to the almost middle-aged man who smelled like Cheetos and basement mold.
Ricky didn’t wait, he started around the house with Tasha on his heels. “We could have rung the doorbell,” Ethan informed them as he caught up with the other two.
Ricky shrugged.
Someone laughed loudly and Ethan took off running toward the back of the house. “Ethan,” Ricky heard two girls say at the same time.
“What are you doing here?” His sister asked as Ricky and Tasha caught up to him. Ricky searched the group, looking for Jules. He found her sitting in Luca’s arms. He breathed a sigh of relief. The pack hadn’t killed her. She was okay.
“Ricky?” Luca said questioningly.
“Who the blazes are you?” Ethan asked, looking at Luca, whose arms were still wrapped around Jules. Ethan was making a face that Ricky was interpreting as jealousy. So Ethan had a crush on his sister’s best friend? Ricky found this to be boringly typical. The rich playboy wants the one girl he can’t have. Pathetic!
“This is Luca, Jules’s boyfriend,” Ethan’s sister said. “I repeat. What are you doing here?”
Ethan turned on his sister. “Were you ever going to tell me Jules was in that fire at the school?” he asked accusatorily.
“No,” she replied bluntly.
“But Ricky said…” What Ethan was yelling at his sister faded to the back of Ricky’s consciousness.
“Carson,” Ricky said, looking only at Luca, trying to convey the need to speak to his Beta.
Luca exchanged a look with Kyle and then stood, offering a hand to Jules, who took it.
“Ethan stop yelling at your sister, I’m fine,” Jules said, walking up to Ethan, who threw his arms around the vampire, hugging her. “Too tight,” Jules said, sounding squeezed.
“Sorry,” Ethan said, letting go of her immediately and patting her on the arm instead.
Kyle stood and joined Luca in approaching Ricky. “Tasha right?” Kyle’s wife asked the forgotten teenage girl.
“Last year’s cheer captain knows my name?” Tasha said, but it sounded like a joke.
“I’m actually very nice,” she said, motioning for Tasha to walk over and join her in the sand. She did so.
“Let’s take a walk,” Luca said, motioning for Ricky and Kyle to follow him down to the beach.
“Ricky?” Tasha asked, skeptically.
“It’s cool Tash,” he said over his shoulder. “I know them.”
When he met her eyes and nodded she relaxed and turned back to her conversation with Hayley.
Ricky heard the sliding door open. “Whoa, what’s going on here?” Senior, Seth Yang asked.
The voices near the fire began to fade as Ricky walked away with the pack’s Beta.
“What about Carson?” Luca asked when they were out of human earshot.
“He’s pissed that she got away, that’s what,” Ricky told them. “He’s not too pleased with you either,” he said, pointing at Luca.
Juliana
Jules was assuring Ethan that she wasn’t hurt yet again as she watched, Luca, Kyle, and Ricky walking down by the water. What did Ricky know?
“I should get headed home,” Seth told his girlfriend, looking down at her but not sitting.
“You don’t have school tomorrow,” Monica pointed out. “On account of the building getting broken into and the library being burnt to the ground.” Monica glared in the direction of the water, and werewolves, but it was subtle, most would have missed it.
“I know.” Seth sighed and rolled his eyes. “Which means I am going to be very busy. My mother text earlier and informed me that there were many projects at home that needed doing.”
“Fun,” Ethan said, dropping onto the sand between Monica and Jules.
“Since when do you have a boyfriend by the way?” Ethan asked Jules.
“It’s new,” she admitted.
“I don’t like it,” Ethan said, teasing.
“You don’t have too,” Monica replied for Jules. “I’ll come over and help,” Monica told Seth.
“You would not be a help. You are way too many kinds of distractions,” Seth said. “But my mother does love you. She might go easier on me if you’re there.”
“That’s settled then,” Monica said.
Seth smiled, but Jules wondered if some of the light had gone out of his eyes. He did look more subdued than normal.
“Will you take Ethan and Tasha home?” Monica asked as Seth turned to go back through the house. “Tasha lives next door,” she explained when Seth glanced skeptically toward the younger girl.
“Can’t you do it later?” Ethan whined, annoyed. “I just got here.”
“No, I cannot,” Monica said with her nose in the air. “Seth?” Monica said, her whine sounding a little like her brother’s. They were so, obviously, siblings.
“Well come on then.” Seth sounded almost as annoyed at his girlfriend as Ethan had been at his sister.
“Whatever,” Ethan snapped. “Come on Tasha, let’s go,” he called as he stood.
“What?” Tasha asked, evidently not catching the previous conversation.
“Seth is taking you guys home,” Monica explained.
“What about Ricky?” Tasha asked, brushing sand off her backside as she stood.
“We’ll make sure he gets home,” Hayley assured.
“It’s now or not,” Seth said, jingling his keys as if to make a point.
Jules stood as Ethan did and gave him another hug. “Thank you for checking on me.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, beaming.
“And Tasha,” Jules said to the approaching girl, “thanks for befriending Ricky.” Jules smiled. She knew Ricky hadn’t had it easy the last little while. One friend was bound to help, if even just a little bit.
“No problem,” Tasha said. “He’s cool.”
“That he is,” Jules said. “I’ll let him know you went home.”
“I already texted him,” Tasha said, holding up her phone.
“Oh.” Everything happened so fast in this modern age.
“Coming?” Ethan, who had entered the house behind Seth called to Tasha. She followed him after one last wave.
“I’m going to go see what is going on with them,” Hayley said, pointing out toward the water.
Jules nodded and sat back down next to Monica.
“Toad’s nursing quite a crush,” Monica commented.
“On Tasha?” Jules asked.
“On you dummy,” Monica replied. “You are so blind!”
“He does not have a crush on me,” Jules said.
“Yes he does,” Ricky commented as the werewolves rejoined them. Jules thought about that for a second. She always felt so comfortable, sisterly, around Ethan. She’d known him since he was a kid, but maybe he wasn’t just that anymore. She’d have to watch their interactions a bit more closely from now on.
“So, what’s up with Carson?” Jules asked as Luca resumed his spot on the sand behind Jules.
“Who?” Monica asked.
“Our Alpha,” Kyle explained.
“Oh.” Monica nodded her understanding.
“Basically, he’s a little more than bummed that he didn’t kill you,” Kyle told her.
Hayley glared at her husband.
“Can you lay low for a while?” Luca asked. “And don’t go near the school.”
“Actually, I should see Gabriel tomorrow. I have to clear the air with him soon. I can lay low there.”
“I’ll take the day to deal with Carson then,” Luca said.
“Good luck with that,” Ricky said sarcastically.
“Apparently, Carson thinks I’m recovering from some injuries on Kyle and Hayley’s couch,” Luca said.
“It was the best lie I could think of at the time,” Kyle defended.
“You did great honey,” Hayley congratulated in a mommy-ish tone of voice and rubbed Kyle behind the ear playfully.
The evening ended soon after that, once Hayley had started to fall asleep in Kyle’s arms. Monica said her goodbyes and then excused herself to Jules’s room. Jules kissed Luca goodbye as he prepared to leave. “Call me if you need anything,” Luca said, allowing her hand to slip through his fingers as he did so.
“I won’t,” she replied.
“Call?”
“Need anything.” She smiled at him as he moved through the front door backwards, seeming reluctant to leave her. But then he sighed, turned, and left the house.
Out on her driveway now, he glanced over his shoulder at her once more. She waved at him, Hayley, Kyle, and Ricky. It felt nice to have befriended werewolves again; it felt familiar, safe.
Then she closed the door and turned back to her, once again, quiet house. She walked over to the kitchen counter and picked up her discarded phone. She had eight missed calls, all from Gabriel, received hours ago. Avoiding him was not fair to the man who had been her friend and companion for more than a century. She took long, steadying breath in and hit call. While it rang, she let the air back out of her lungs.
“You’re alive then,” the somber voice said as a greeting.
“Of course I am. I’m fine Gabriel.” She tried to assure him.
“Really,” he snapped quietly. Jules suspected that Eileen was asleep beside him. “So you weren’t attacked last night then?”
The anger in his voice tore her up inside. He didn’t deserve to be lied to just because she was afraid to tell him the truth. She had to make this right. No greater wedge had ever been placed between them.
Luca was not going away, this much was clear now. She wanted to believe that she’d been protecting Gabriel by keeping the truth from him, but she knew that she was only protecting herself. There was a very real chance that Gabriel would feel so betrayed that she would lose him. Even still, he deserved to know the truth. However, when Jules opened her mouth to tell him, “can I come over tomorrow?” came out instead.
“I don’t know, can you?” he asked sarcastically.
His reaction stung her. He was so hurt already, Jules couldn’t even imagine how he would feel once she finally told him the truth? “Please, Gabriel.”
“You don’t need an invitation. You never have,” he said and then ended the call abruptly.
GABRIEL
Gabriel slammed his phone down on the bedside table a little too hard.
“What’s wrong?” Eileen spun toward him, looking up from where she lay next to him. “What is it?”
“Nothing apparently. I guess Jules is coming over tomorrow, or so she says tonight,” Gabriel said, crossing his arms. The back of his head hit the headboard. He flinched.
“Good,” Eileen said sleepily. “Maybe she’ll tell you that thing she hasn’t told you. So, I don’t have to feel bad about keeping it from you,” she mumbled while nuzzling up next to him and dropping an arm over his waist.
Before long, Eileen was asleep again and Gabriel was left alone with his contemplations. What could it be? Why had Jules shut him out? He knew her. He knew that she was normally too flippant with her life, be the danger sunlight or werewolves, but this was different. There had to more to this than a lack of dedication to self-preservation.
JULIANA
Quietly, Jules cracked her bedroom door open. Monica lay on the bed still fully clothed, jacket and all. Jules crept into the room, intending to get a pillow from her side of the bed and blanket from her comfy chair when she heard a small sniffle. “Monica?” Jules asked. She touched her friends arm softly.
Monica turned over and there were tear tracks on her face.
“What happened? What’s wrong?” Jules lay down on the bed next to her.
“I think Seth is going to break up with me,” Monica said through sniffles. “I just know he is.”
“What makes you think that?” Jules said, getting out ahead of Monica’s tendency to panic.
“Didn’t you see the cold shoulder he was giving me tonight?” Monica asked, sounding annoyed. She threw her arms down on the bed and sat up on her elbows.
“I didn’t,” Jules told her. However, she knew she hadn’t been looking very closely. She’d been too enveloped in Luca and the commotion Ethan and Ricky caused to notice much else.
“Of course, you didn’t. You’re in the honeymoon phase. You probably didn’t see past Luca’s nose.”
Jules raised her eyebrows but didn’t comment.
“He knows I’m lying to him,” Monica said. “He knows something is up. He’s been accusing me of keeping things from him for weeks now.”
Jules opened her mouth to speak but Monica continued before she could, “I know you’ve had reservations about me telling him, and I don’t even know if he’d believe me, but Jules, I…” Monica’s voice trailed off as she fell into silence.
Jules didn’t know what to say. This world she lived in, that she belonged to, was not something humans should be a part of. In all rights, Monica shouldn’t know about any of it, let alone someone like Seth. Monica was a fantasy addict, but Seth? He was all numbers, science, and logic. This reality could cause some real damage to the essence of everything he knew. But as Monica stared over at her with pain in her eyes, Jules felt herself beginning to falter.
“Let me think about it. Maybe you should just tell him, I don’t know. It’s just, bringing someone into this world is a big deal. And it’s not just me. Telling him about me could lead to him learning about Luca. And I know he doesn’t want that.”
“I know that. It’s Luca’s secret too. And I respect that. I just know Seth too, and I’m going to lose him.”
“Monica…”
“Jules please, will you at least talk to Luca? I really don’t want to lose my boyfriend over this stupid secret.” The look on Monica’s face was clearly one of begging. She sincerely believed that Seth was going to end their relationship if something didn’t change.
“Let me think about it. And yes, I’ll talk to Luca. If he agrees and you still want to...” Jules hesitated for just a second but then continued, “if it is causing this type of problem then, I guess, I think you should,” Jules said with a sigh.
“You are the best dead person I know,” Monica said, a smile on her face now.
Jules dropped her face to her pillow while she sarcastically chuckled. “I’m the only dead person you know.”
“That’s not true. I know Mr. Prentiss.”
It was Jules’s turn to be silent. Telling Gabriel her secret may not save her from that break-up. In fact, the truth may cause it. Still, Jules’s couldn’t keep lying to him. She knew it was time. And, if this is how she felt about lying to Gabriel, she didn’t think it was right to ask Monica to keep lying to Seth for her sake.
Within minutes, Monica was asleep. The sound of her breaths were deepening by the second. Jules, on the other hand, lay awake, staring up at the ceiling. After several long moments, she stood and walked out of her bedroom, heading for the kitchen, then she saw him. A lone silver wolf was walking across the sand on the beach outside her door. She watched silently as he lifted his nose toward the moon and howled. As she listened, his human face flashed through her mind. He veered up the path to her house. She slid the back door open and stepped outside. “What are you doing here Luca?” she asked the four-legged animal.
He let out a soft bark as if coaxing her out onto the beach with him. He turned but looked back over his shoulder to see if she’d followed. She had.
The pair raced toward the water, a barefoot vampire with flaming auburn hair pacing a handsome silver wolf. In wolf form, Luca had little trouble keeping up with her. Jules felt the sand give way under her tread as she ran, felt the cold water splashing over her feet and up her legs, felt the wolf beside her losing himself in the adrenaline of the run.
They ran at full speed until she noticed his energy starting to wane. She saw that they were near the cove and came to a stop once they reached the top of the rocks and caves. Jules sat down on the top rock where they’d shared their first kiss and the wolf joined her there. Luca lay his nose on her legs and looked up at the moon. She stroked his ears and stared up at the peaceful stars as well. They were two creatures bound to the night. Two beings, whose existence was hidden from the world. Two beings with one heartbeat.
CARSON
Carson jerked. Something had woken him. A sound. He didn’t register what the sound was and rolled over, throwing an arm over Demetria’s back and sliding up next to her. She grumbled but did not wake. The soft tapping sound came again, and this time Carson knew someone was knocking tentatively on his bedroom door. He ignored it until the sound came once more. “Someone better be dead,” Carson said aloud as he threw the blankets off himself and Demetria to stand and answer the knock. “What?” he nearly shouted as he pulled the door open. Jed, stuttering and trembling, stood before him.
“Alpha I… I’m… sorry… to,” he began.
Carson raised his eyebrows to insinuate that the man had better pull it together and say what he had to say.
“It’s the Beta,” Jed finally said.
“Luca?” Carson asked, intrigued enough to step from his bedroom and into the hall.
“You ordered me to…. to keep t-tabs on him.”
Carson didn’t validate this entirely unnecessary statement with a response but impatiently waited for the man to come to his point.
“He’s betrayed you my Alpha. He’s a traitor and I have proof.” Jed held his phone toward Carson with a shaking hand. Carson snatched it away from the man so he could see what the tracker was here to show him. What he saw on the little screen shocked and angered him. The proof, captured on the phone screen, was irrefutable. There he was, his Beta, sitting on the top of a rock cliff in wolf form, muzzle laying on the legs of one very alive and, likely back to full strength, vampire.