Chapter Twenty-One
Silver’s Bane
T
he sun had risen high and bright over Fort Miles. Gabriel, Eileen, Jules, and the Phantom were all safely tucked away in Gabriel and Eileen’s hotel suite. Eileen was sleeping next to Gabriel in the bedroom, the heavy drapes pulled over the window.
Eileen had assured him that she understood why he had made the decision to keep her in the dark about the ways of the vampire world. However, she wasn’t any longer. Somehow, he’d have to deal with the consequences of that. He knew Jules wasn’t going to be much help either. She could never control herself when fresh, human blood was in the mix. He was starting to think it was a family trait.
“Gabriel, get some sleep.” Eileen’s breathy instruction came without her turning to look at him. It was clear that she didn’t want to talk any more.
“Am I losing her Eileen?” But he knew that he was. First to the werewolf and now to her long-lost twin brother. She wouldn’t even entertain his suggestion that Nicholas find somewhere else to spend the day. Gabriel didn’t trust him. He was a murderer.
At this, Eileen turned to look at him over her shoulder. “Maybe it’s time,” Eileen suggested.
He glared at her in response.
“Not to turn your back on her Gabriel, but to let her go. People come in and out of our lives. Some stay forever, some for a while, and some for just one day. Each one is important. Each one impacts the lives we lead.” She took his hand in her own. “Going your separate ways doesn’t mean either of you did anything wrong, it simply means that it’s time. That you are both beginning a new chapter in the lives we lead.”
Eileen was right. Of course, she often was. Gabriel had no other choice but to let Jules live how she felt was right for her. The path she was obviously choosing, he could not walk with her. He would not. A single tear slipped from his eye and down his cheek. Eileen moved from her spot on the bed and straddled his legs with her own. She put her hands in his hair and bent forward, kissing away the blood. “I am not going anywhere,” Eileen told him. “Ever.”
This he knew. For the entirety of his immortal existence, she would be beside him. Maybe it was his turn to let her lead the way.
LUCA
Luca and Kyle dumped Hayley’s car about a mile from Tasha’s house and continued into the woods on swift paws. Luca led the way, following his sense of direction and his nose through the trees. He stopped to sniff at the same moment that someone cried out, Ricky! Luca bolted, running as fast as he could in the direction it had come from. He started to smell blood. Werewolf blood. He could only hope that he wasn’t too late.
He and Kyle broke into a small outcropping. There, Luca saw what he was dreading. Lying on a mess of blood-soaked leaves and grass was Ricky, bleeding from the abdomen and clutching the hand of his human girlfriend. Tasha was bending low over him, begging him to hold on while Monica stood a few steps back clutching her side. Monica looked startled to see the wolves approaching them, while Tasha barely looked away from Ricky’s face.
“Who are you?” Monica demanded, picking up a stick and holding it out in front of them. “You better be werewolves because if you’re not I feel really stupid right now!” she shouted.
Luca nodded at Kyle and in simulations flashes of light, they returned to their human forms.
“I told you to stay inside,” Luca snapped at the human girls as he walked up and knelt beside Ricky.
“Oh, I’m so glad it’s you,” Monica said, taking a deep breath. Kyle walked over and took the stick from Monica’s shaking hand.
“Let me see,” Luca instructed Tasha, who was putting pressure on his wound with a jacket. Tasha lifted away the makeshift bandage, revealing the bleeding and blistering cut. Luca gently touched the edges of the wound with his finger and brought the substance to his nose. The foaming blood smelled of silver. The one thing that was as deadly to werewolves as the sun was to vampires.
Tasha cried out when Ricky started to cough and dig his fingers into her arm. Blood smeared his lips.
“We have to get him out of these woods,” Kyle said, looking down on the scene. “Monica, can you get a car?”
Monica nodded and then took off running in the direction of her house.
“Where are you taking him?” Tasha asked.
“Jules’s house. It’s the only place the pack still doesn’t know about,” Luca replied.
Luca lifted Ricky off the ground. Tasha protested as Ricky shrieked in agony. “He needs a hospital,” Tasha yelled.
“A hospital can’t help him now.” Kyle placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder.
Luca could feel Ricky’s blood dripping down his torso as he ran. Kyle was keeping pace with Tasha, unwilling to leave her out in these woods on her own. By the time they reached the edge of the woods, Monica had her car parked and the back and passenger doors open, waiting for them. Kyle and Luca placed Ricky down on the backseat as carefully they could. It wasn’t carefully enough because he screamed out in pain. Luca started to crawl into the back seat with him as Monica climbed into the driver’s seat but Ricky’s girlfriend grabbed his arm.
“Please, let me stay with him,” she said softly, with a surprising amount of steadiness.
He said nothing but nodded and moved away so she could hold the dying boy. She crawled in and placed Ricky’s head in her lap. He groaned in pain but grabbed her arm and held on tightly. Then she placed her jacket back onto the cut and pressed down, trying to slow the bleeding.
Luca’s heart twisted in pain. He knew that the bleeding would not be stopped. Luca shut the door behind them and then turned to Kyle. “Go back to the car. Call Hayley. Tell her to go and get Ricky’s mother and meet us at Jules’s house,” Luca instructed in whispering tones.
“Telling her where we are going is a risk,” Kyle said.
“I know,” Luca said, looking over his shoulder at the back seat. Ricky was writhing in pain while Tasha clung to him, soothing him gently. “But that cut was made with a silver blade,” he continued, turning back to Kyle.
Kyle’s eyes widened for a moment and then he nodded, stepping away from the passenger door so Luca could take that seat. They all knew Carson was an animal, but what he had just done was truly abhorrent. This Alpha had just crossed a line that couldn’t be un-crossed. Carson must be stopped, no matter the consequences.
“To Jules’s house,” Luca instructed.
Monica pulled away as soon as the last door was closed.
“What am I missing, Luca?” Monica asked. “Don’t werewolves have super-fast healing or something?”
“We do,” Luca replied in a low voice, trying not to be overheard. “There is only one thing that we can’t heal from.”
“Silver bullets,” Monica supplied.
“Silver of any kind. That cut will kill him.” The gravity of the situation fell over the occupants in the front seat of the car. Death was coming for this teenage boy and Luca was powerless to stop it. Nothing could stop silver’s bane.
RICKY
Ricky cried out in pain as Luca pulled him from the back seat of Monica’s car. He felt like he was being eaten from inside his abdomen. He found himself wishing they had let him die in the woods. All this moving and jostling was making things feel even worse. “Hang on Ricky,” Luca pleaded.
Ricky was carried into Jules’s house and set on the soft sofa as carefully as possible.
He looked passed Luca and searched for her. Tasha ran into the room after them, clutching the jacket drenched in his blood. Her hands were stained, her clothes and face splattered, and yet, she never looked more beautiful.
Moments later, Tasha was again by his side. He never appreciated her more than he did right now. She was so strong and so calm considering the trauma he was putting her through. He totally would have told her he loved her if he didn’t need something else in this moment. More than anything, right now, he needed his mom.
As if on cue, he heard shouting from the other room. His mother cursed Luca when she saw him. “Mom,” he called softly. Demetria rushed to his side, pushing Tasha away as she dropped to the floor.
“It’s going to be okay, honey.” She stroked his hair. “I’m here.”
For a moment he felt safe, like a child again. He was happy that his mother was beside him.
“I’m very sorry Mrs. Harrison,” Luca said, walking up beside her.
“You beast!” Demetria exclaimed. Standing, she slapped the Beta across the cheek.
Tasha shrieked.
“You did this!” Ricky’s mom shouted again, shoving Luca, who made no move against her. Instead, he let her beat him in the chest and shoulders without flinching or moving away from her. Ricky heard the malice and desperation in his mother’s voice. Tasha dropped back to her knees by Ricky’s head.
“Leave…him…alone,” Ricky managed to choke out, drawing his mother’s attention back to himself.
“He didn’t do this,” Tasha added and once again gripped Ricky’s shaking fingers. Demetria stopped and looked down at the teenagers, their clasped hands, Tasha’s disheveled appearance.
“It’s okay baby,” Demetria whispered, leaving her attack on Luca and returning to her son’s side. This time, she moved in beside Tasha, not in place of her.
“I’m right here. You’re going to be okay.”
Ricky nodded and took her hand. His mom had such a capacity to not see the reality of a situation. But he knew what was happening to him and he knew without a doubt who had sentenced him to this torturously, painful end.
LUCA
Luca watched dazedly as Tasha and Demetria comforted Ricky. The teenage, human girl was also showing an extraordinary amount of strength for one so young. She was crying quietly now as she sat with him. He had her hand in his and had not yet let go, but Luca could tell he was weakening. His eyes were opening less, and the groans of pain had stopped altogether. There was nothing to be done. It was almost over now. Hayley, Kyle, and Monica were all sitting and standing around the kitchen counter in silence.
Luca stood at the door of the living room watching as Tasha took her fingers and brushed some hair off Ricky’s sweat-slick forehead. Maybe as a reaction, his eyes opened once more. He held her gaze for a few seconds. But then, Luca watched in horror as his eyes closed, his grip on Tasha’s hand slackened, and he slipped into unconsciousness.
“Ricky?” Tasha asked, but received no response.
Torturous screams escaped from Demetria’s throat as she shook her son’s shoulders, gripping him tightly.
“What can we do,” Monica asked quietly as she came up beside Luca.
“Nothing,” Luca replied. “There is nothing we can do.”
Monica placed a comforting hand on his arm. He looked down at the touch and noticed he was covered in the boy’s blood. His hands, arms, shirt, and much of his jeans were soaked with the leaking life force.
Tasha began to cry and scream hysterically. Monica gave Luca’s arm one more squeeze and ran over, wrapping the teenager in her arms.
After another moment, and a glance back at the scene, he walked from the room and into Jules’s bathroom. He peeled off his shirt and started to wash the blood from his body. He watched numbly as it dissolved in the stream of water and disappeared down the drain. He wiped his hands on a dark-colored towel and, in a surge of anger, ripped it and the towel holder off the wall.
The desire to kill Carson surged through him. Trying to execute him was one thing but to brutally murder Ricky? “He’s just kid!” Luca shouted at no one. He threw a punch at the wall, smashing a fist-sized hole in it. Then he just stood there for several long moments, breathing heavily.
Luca was startled when there was a hesitant knock at the door and Hayley opened it slowly. He just stared at her. He didn’t know what to say. There was nothing to say. She must have felt the same because she walked over and wrapped him in a hug. He dropped his head onto her shoulder and hugged her tightly, finally letting out all the pain he was feeling.
CARSON
“Demetria!” Carson shouted as he entered the Den. He couldn’t fathom where she would have gone. “She’s probably out looking for the boy,” he said, more to himself than to the comrades who had followed him into the empty house.
None but Jed and Max would even look him in the eye since Carson had decided to exact the punishment he felt fit the boy’s crime.
The boy had told his human girlfriend what they were. This was a traitorous offense, even without his alliance with the vampire and traitorous Beta. Because of this boy’s carelessness, humans could be coming for his pack, even now. Death was the only worthy punishment of so many significant misdeeds.
“This is madness. Punishment without a pack vote is not our way,” Carson heard Kip whisper to Ben, who shushed him. Carson felt his temperature rise and the veins in his neck pulse.
He could feel himself losing control of his pack. He inserted the absolute authority that being Alpha granted him and shouted, “you will all hold your tongues!” More than one of them flinched and shrunk away from him as he continued. “I am the leader of this pack. It was within my rights to decide his fate.” He was still shouting. “You will all stand behind me in this.” Carson felt a pang of emotion he didn’t normally comprehend. Regret maybe? Regardless, he plunged on. “I will not hear any more about this! Is that understood?”
There were several meek murmurs of submission before Carson turned on his heels and left the room. He tromped up the Den’s creaky stairs to his bedroom.
“Demetria?” he called, pushing the door open.
She wasn’t there. He rummaged through some of their things. It was all still here, his and hers. So, she had not left him; she was simply not home. He left his room and walked into Luca’s where the kid had slept. Carson still couldn’t understand why Ricky thought he had the right to occupy one of the bedrooms without his permission. He started to sift through the things in the room. He didn’t know what he was looking for.
Rummaging through a desk drawer, he found some old photographs of Luca and his family. In one he held two little girls. His nieces, Carson supposed. Another was of him and a female that looked just like him. His sister, no doubt. The last appeared to be the whole family standing in front of a small mountain cottage.
Carson told himself he was just trying to get to know his enemy. Remembering that Luca’s family had been killed might have provoked compassion, but Carson stifled the twinge of forgiving emotion he was feeling. He threw the pictures back into the drawer and slammed it shut. He’d done this for the greater good of the pack and it was almost at an end.
KYLE
Kyle watched in shock while Tasha clutched Ricky’s limp hand in her own. Monica was holding her as she cried. His mother held him tightly in her arms, but she had stopped rocking back and forth. Now she just held him, silent, staring straight forward. Tasha looked up as Kyle walked into the room and leaned over the back of the couch. He placed his fingers on the boy’s neck, checking for a pulse. He was alive, but barely.
A few seconds later, Hayley appeared in the doorway; Luca at her side. His eyes were red and puffy, and his arm had some fresh cuts, but they were already healing.
“How do you know my son?” Demetria asked flatly. Her voice betraying no emotion at all.
“I’m his girlfriend,” Tasha said after a few more moments.
“You’re his first love.” Ricky’s mother smiled sadly.
“And he’s mine,” Tasha said softly.
Demetria nodded but said nothing more.
Kyle walked over to Hayley and pulled her close. Her puffy eyes also betrayed tears. She was the sweetest, strongest soul he had ever met, and he loved her. Kyle also reached over and squeezed Luca’s shoulder.
LUCA
Luca, Hayley, and Kyle stood in the kitchen. No one spoke for a long while. Luca tried to relax his body by leaning against the kitchen counter. Kyle had wrapped his arms around Hayley again, who had buried her face in his chest.
“We should kill the bastard,” Kyle said quietly.
Luca had been thinking this also, he just hadn’t voiced it yet. “We can’t just barge into the Den and kill him, Kyle,” Hayley said, looking into Kyle’s eyes. “It would be suicide.”
“Hayley’s right. We have to be smart about this,” Luca said.
Kyle absentmindedly stroked her hair.
Luca thought of Jules. He wanted her there with him. He wanted to be able to hold her. He needed her.
“If we attack Carson, we will all die too,” Hayley said.
“We need more support,” Luca added. “We need allies, or this fight will be over before it even begins.”
“What about Demetria?” Kyle asked.
“What about her?” Hayley replied.
“Did you tell her this was Carson?”
“Not yet.”
“Don’t you think if she knew, she’d be on our side,” Kyle asked.
“Maybe,” Luca said.
“But will she believe it?” Hayley asked.
Luca didn’t look up as he spoke, “she won’t if she hears it from me.”
“I’ll tell her.”
Luca’s head shot up. Tasha and Monica had just entered the kitchen. Monica’s arm was still around the younger girl.
“What?” Luca asked, stunned.
“I’ll tell her it was Carson.” Tasha fidgeted. “Ricky told me all about… everything. Who he is, who you are, who you’re dating.” She pointed at Luca. “And who was going to come after him if someone did.”
All the wolves in the room were now looking at Tasha, astonished. “You’re extremely brave to be standing here with all of us,” Kyle said.
She chuckled softly. “Ricky thought so too. I think it’s cool.” She gave them a half-smile. “So, I’ll tell her. I think she’ll believe me. I don’t know any of you. I only know what Ricky told me.”
“If you’re willing to try to convince her…” Hayley said.
“I’ll do it.” She paused a moment. “For Ricky, I’ll do it.”
JULIANA
Jules and Nick had settled onto the hard sofa in the common area of Gabriel and Eileen’s hotel suite to wait the sunny day away. They looked like complimenting bookends, each facing the other.
Jules blinked, trying to keep her eyes open. Sleep was calling her, and yet, she was refusing to give into it. Wanting instead, to continue getting to know her twin once more.
Nick yawned through his last comment. Jules found that her ability to understand the babble meant that their twin connection was still strong.
“Well, I never gave up on you.” She glared at him playfully and used her bent leg to kick him lightly above the knee.
“I only disappeared, didn’t I? You weren’t told without a doubt that I was dead.” Nick paused. “They found two sets of remains Jules.”
Jules raised her eyebrows at this. She’d never gone back to their sleepy hometown, once Hector had gotten his clutches into her. Someone must have planted a second body.
As they had talked Jules had chosen to skip over the first hundred years she’d spent as a vampire. She was determined to leave that part of her past in the past for good.
Nick yawned again, obviously fighting the same call to rest that she was.
She shifted higher on the arm of the sofa, looking past her knees toward Nick. He was lounging across from her, hands behind his head holding it upright and legs stretched out, taking up most of the space on the couch.
“Any epic romances worth mentioning?” Jules asked him, wondering if her brother was still the same indecisive, fluid, flirt he’d been in his human life. “Girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses?”
“Me a spouse? As if I could love with that kind of commitment.” Nick laughed loudly. “You, same question.”
“I just started something new actually,” Jules admitted. She knew that she would have been blushing if a vampire could.
“Someone special?” Nick prodded.
“He could be,” Jules replied, thinking momentarily of Luca and Aboit and the fact that all she wanted to do now was go back to him.
“Tell me more,” Nick instructed, smiling mischievously at her.
“His name is Luca Cain and he’s a werewolf,” Jules said, feeling a little defensive.
Nick sat up higher. “No way! My little sister is dating a dog.” He laughed loudly.
“By fifteen minutes! And Don’t call him that!” Her arms crossed in annoyance.
Nick looked stunned. “I only meant that it’s not what I expected. You know, werewolves can be dangerous.”
“Not you too.” Jules rolled her eyes.
“Me and who now?”
Jules nodded her head toward the closed bedroom door.
Nick made a sound that conveyed both mild dislike and annoyance. At least to Jules it did. “Who cares what Golden boy thinks?” Nick said after just a few moments.
“I do Nicholas. Before a couple hours ago he was the only brother I had.”
“Yeah, well we need to talk about your so-called brother replacement…” Nick began.
Jules could tell that he felt slightly betrayed by the whole Gabriel thing. She was just about to remind him that over a century had gone by before she’d even met Gabriel when her phone began to ring from where she’d left it on the small dining room table.
In a fraction of a ring, she was standing, had checked who was calling, and answered Monica’s call.
“Hi Monica,” she greeted.
“It’s me Jules.”
The way Luca sounded, something was very wrong. Why was he with Monica? And why wasn’t he calling from his own phone?
“Are you alright?” she asked when he continued to breathe into the phone but not speak. Jules noticed from the corner of her eye that Nick had stood also. Walking to the heavy curtains, he peeled one away tentatively but dropped in back in place as soon as the bright sunlight stung his face and hand.
“I’m okay,” Luca finally said. “For now.”
“What do you mean for now? Luca, what’s going on?”
“He knows about us Jules. Carson knows.”
Jules waited for him to continue.
“He tried to have me killed.”
“What?” Jules almost shouted. “Is everyone alright? Are you?” Jules heard Nick come up beside her. He hovered nearby, obviously sensing some distress.
“I’ve healed.”
Jules sighed in relief but something in Luca’s tone told her there was still something he had to say.
“Luca, what is it? Tell me,” she encouraged softly when he hesitated to continue.
“It’s Ricky,” Luca said finally.
“What about Ricky?” she asked very tentatively but wasn’t sure she wanted to know anymore.
“Carson attacked him. He’s been cut by a silver blade. Jules… I,” but the sound of his voice died out.
She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t think. Cut by a silver blade. Silver was fatal to werewolves once it had entered the bloodstream. Ricky was not going to make it. She tried to wrap her brain around that reality.
Jules vaguely felt herself drop to one of the hardback chairs, her elbows resting on the table. “Is he…?” she couldn’t finish her question.
“Not yet. But I don’t think he has much time,” Luca said, sounding a little steadier. “Listen, Jules. Carson is coming for us, all of us. Hayley will likely be spared but he probably has an execution order out on Kyle by now too. I want you to stay where you are. This fight is going to get bloody and I don’t want you to get caught in the crossfire…”
“That’s ridiculous Luca,” Jules said. “This is my fight too. I am not going to hide in the shadows while people I love are dying. You are going to need me in this fight.” Her voice was as final as her decision. This was not a discussion. She was a centuries-old vampire and she knew how to fight an enemy that was out for blood. “I’ll leave at nightfall. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Luca said and then they both ended the call.
“So, who are we fighting?” Nick asked. Gabriel may not, but Jules knew that Nick would stand by her side.