Chapter Twenty-Three
Blood-Addicts Anonymous
C
arson sat on the couch. His hand was hovering over his phone every few moments, willing it to notify him that the traitors had been found, or Demetria for that matter. No one had seen her since that afternoon. He was still trying to decide what to tell her about her son. He was undoubtedly dead by now. Any human who stumbled across him would simply think that he was some poor, dead animal. And the rest of the pack involved had been gagged by their Alpha’s command. So, Demetria need never known how the boy had met his fate.
As he was about to slide his finger across the screen once again, he heard the front door open. Shoving his phone in his side pocket, he walked out to see who had returned. To his surprise, it was Demetria. Tear tracks stained her face, not that that was an uncommon sight since she’d returned to him. The grief of her husband’s death had not yet released her.
“There you are, my dear.” Approaching her, he wrapped her in his arms. She stiffened. “It’s late,” he said quietly in her ear. “Shall we go up to bed?”
“Not tonight Carson.” She looked up at him, her eyes red and swollen. “I’m tired. I just want to sleep.”
He was stung by her rejection but decided to let it go for now. “I’ll walk you up and tuck you in.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze and ushered her toward the stairs. She let herself be led to his room where he stopped at the doorway. His fingers slid down her arm to her hand, which he did not release, but pulled her back into him. With one hand on the back of her neck, his lips came down to hers. She moved her face to one side.
“Not tonight Carson,” she repeated flatly.
His annoyance peaked but he stayed in his spot by the door frame. He released her, and she entered the bedroom alone.
He watched, arms crossed, as she walked over and placed her phone down on his dresser. She picked up the silver knife that he’d cleaned and replaced in its designated location after he’d carried out his judgment. “Don’t worry my love,” he began as he watched her, “we’re closing in on them all. We’ll be safe soon.”
Demetria paused her examination of his weapon for the briefest of moments and then set it back down without a word. She walked to her open bags in the corner and pulled out a change of clothes. It was then, that he noticed that she had dark stains on her clothing. Blood.
She picked up her phone once again. “I’m going to take a shower,” she said as she made to move past him. He clutched her upper arm, stopping her.
She reached up and planted a kiss on one of his cheeks, so soft he almost didn’t feel it. “Good night Carson.”
Satisfied, he released her. “Good night,” he said as she walked around him, shutting the bathroom door behind her.
He contemplated joining her until he heard the lock click, decidedly uninviting that idea.
His phone sounded in his pocket. It was Jed, he had news.
NICHOLAS
Jules and her strange assortment of friends had been gone for nearly a half an hour before Nick decided to walk into Jules’s house alone. It felt like her. The colors she chose, the simple, chic style it was decorated in, and the books. So many books. The one thing out of place was the putrid smell of werewolf blood.
He found the source easily once he breached a room to his right. The dried blood stung his nose and eyes but didn’t send him into a need-to-drink frenzy as human blood did.
“Well, somebody has to do it,” he said aloud to no one and then he set to work purging the boy’s blood from his sister’s home. He pulled the covers off the sofa cushions and threw them in the washer. On his hands and knees, he scrubbed at Jules’s carpeting. There was no getting the smell out completely, but the death of a friend was hard enough without having clean up after it.
Under the sofa, his hand hit something smooth and hard. It’s was a phone, covered in blood. He flicked the side button and it powered to life. There was no code or lock on the device. And although he knew it was none of his business, he was a natural born snoop, so he flipped through its contents.
He pulled up the pictures. Obviously, the phone belonged to the teenage girl that was here earlier, but that wasn’t what caught his eye. In the first photo, sitting next to the young girl, was a face that had recently burned itself into Nick’s subconscious. The teenage boy who’d died here, Jules’s friend, was the boy that had run away as Nick had ripped the heart from his cop of a father’s chest.
The phone dropped to his side in a limp hand. Jules would never forgive him for this. After a few moments, Nick came to his senses. The only witness was now gone. So, the only one who knew this fact was him, and Nick wasn’t going to tell her. Nick sighed a sigh of relief. But as he looked down at the young couple staring up at him from the phone screen, he felt something. Was it remorse? Nick shook his head, attempting to shake the thought from his mind. Of course, it wasn’t. It couldn’t be. Nick was who he was, and he had never questioned it. However, this feeling continued to nag at the back of his mind as he wiped the phone off with a clean corner of a towel, set it on the coffee table, and resumed his attempted to clean up.
He was just throwing the last of the towels in the washer when the front door opened and Jules and the werewolves returned. “You’re back,” Nick commented as he walked toward them all.
“Kyle, Hayley, this is my brother Nick,” Jules introduced flatly. Nick noted the sadness that had dripped down his twin’s face. His heart ached with her pain.
“Where are the humans?” Nick asked, noting their absence.
“Monica and Seth took Tasha home,” Jules replied.
He nodded like that meant something to him. He was honestly relieved that they had not returned. He wasn’t feeling the most in control at the moment.
Jules looked toward the living room. “I should…” Jules began.
“It’s already done,” Nick said, placing a hand on his sister’s arm.
“Thank you,” she replied.
The grief was palpable. Nick could feel it wafting off of the people who had just entered. Without a word, the werewolf couple, apparently named Kyle and Hayley, walk through the living room and out the back, sliding door. Nick assumed they might be going for a midnight stroll.
“So, Luca, tell me about yourself. Hobbies, interests, bad habits. If you’re as great as my sister seems to think, I simply must know why.” Nick said this with a smile on his face. If he was good for anything, it was to lighten a dark mood.
“Luca don’t answer any of that.” Jules elbowed Nick in the stomach as he wrapped her in a hug. “Let nosey here suffer a little longer.”
“Well that’s just rude,” Nick said in mock horror.
Luca smiled, grabbed Jules by the hand, and pulled her away from Nick and into his own arms.
“Oh, so that’s how this is gonna be?” Nick joked. But before anyone could respond, the front door opened again. Nick’s attention shot toward it. The humans were back and looking as sad as the others had before. Nick leaned close to his sister and whispered in her ear, excusing himself from the gathering of grieving friends. He shut the front door behind him just as the human girl began to cry, falling into Jules’s arms.
Too many displays of turbulent emotion, mixed with the fresh, luscious smell of human blood was overwhelming him. So, he settled into the straight-backed, wicker chair on the front porch to wait out the grieving. He was about to contemplate going for a walk down Jules’s darkened street when another vehicle pulled up in front of her house.
The people inside this one he recognized. It was Eileen and her snob of a husband. He waved to them as Eileen opened the passenger door. He stood and met them halfway up the crushed-shell driveway.
“Jules inside?” Gabriel asked.
“Her, two humans, and three werewolves last time I checked,” Nick replied. “Which was like five minutes ago.” He added as an afterthought.
Eileen shrugged and took a few steps toward the house. Gabriel grabbed her wrist.
“Gabriel, I’m going in to give my condolences to our friend,” she said, looking over her shoulder at him.
“There’s three of them,” Gabriel hissed.
“And if they were going to hurt vampires, Nick wouldn’t be sitting outside avoiding the emotionally awkward situation. He’d be inside protecting Jules from them. Isn’t that right?” Eileen turned on him, looking for confirmation.
“Right. It’s pretty doom and gloom,” Nick said. “But I don’t think there is any danger in there. More like, out there somewhere probably coming for us all.” He waved his hand in some general direction away from the house.
“If you want to face the werewolves then fine, but I will not accompany you. If you decide to put yourself in that kind of danger you do so alone.” The tone of Gabriel’s voice implied that he thought his wife would cave to his wishes. Nick didn’t think it was very likely.
A few awkward moments later, Nick’s assumption was met. Eileen pulled her arm away, raised her eyebrows at him, and stood her ground.
“Fine,” Gabriel said, turned, and walked back to their car. He climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the door.
Eileen watched him go but did not join him.
“Come inside with me?” Eileen asked, obviously a little more unsure than she was letting on when she’d stubbornly refused to change her mind via ultimatum.
“But, I’m uncomfortable in awkward situations with new people,” Nick said, looking at her with mock seriousness.
“Yeah, right,” she said with a laugh as they entered the house together.
JULIANA
Jules was surprised to see Eileen accompanying her brother back inside. She walked over to meet them.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Eileen whispered in Jules’s ear.
Jules hugged her for a long moment. “Thank you so much for coming,” Jules said. “Where is Gabriel?”
“In the car, pouting.” Eileen scowled.
Jules let out an exasperated sigh and took a step toward the door. Eileen caught her by the arm. So, she turned to look at her friend.
“Just give him some time,” Eileen suggested. “He won’t leave me and I’m not leaving you. So, I think he will come around.”
Nick looked past them both toward the rest of them. “I’m gonna go outside and pretend I care,” Nick said, playfully excusing himself and walking back out the front door.
Jules rolled her eyes but made no comment. She found herself studying him as he disappeared from view. She felt like there was more that he wasn’t saying. Jules let that thought leave her mind and said, “come meet everyone.” She smiled and motioned for Eileen to follow her.
“Everyone, this is Eileen.” Jules introduced Eileen to each person in turn.
CARSON
Carson’s fury exploded from him. “Where is that insolent fool!” he yelled as he paced up and down the street in front of the Den. He’d received Jed’s text over an hour ago and was impatiently awaiting his return.
The thought of the mutiny this traitorous Beta had caused made his blood boil. He had been so naive to trust the wolf on legacy alone. Never again would he make that mistake. The thought of the vampire coven that Luca had decided to align himself with made every nerve in Carson’s body and mind unravel. This danger, this anarchy had lasted long enough.
Carson punched the Den’s mailbox in a desperate attempt to relieve some of his frustration. Leaving it bent in and unusable, he began his pacing once again just as Jed’s beater car came rattling up the road.
“So?” Carson said once the shaky, gangly wolf had parked his car in front of the Den.
“I-I found th-them,” Jed said, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “A-all of them.”
“Great.” Carson’s hatred spiked. It was almost over.
“There are… c-complications,” Jed stuttered.
“What?” Carson questioned impatiently, wishing the fool could just spit out what he had to say.
“There are hu-humans with them s-sir. Two.”
Humans were indeed a complication, he didn’t want to kill any, but he would do what he must. “Anything else?” Carson crossed his arms impatiently, letting Jed know he should continue.
“Lu-Luca C-Cain.”
“He’s dead,” Carson said. Kip had assured him of this.
“No… no, sir.” Jed shrunk away as he spoke. “He is the-there. W-with Kyle Cooper.”
Luca Cain cannot be alive! This treachery had to be extinguished. “What about the Reynolds girl?” Carson asked referencing the women he intended to pardon and marry.
“Sh-she… is with th-them... sir,” Jed stuttered.
Jed’s words were drowned out by Carson’s roar of fury. How could she do this to him? How could she align herself with murderers when he had given her a way out? “None of this changes anything,” he said, grabbing the front of Jed’s shirt angrily. “Summon the pack,” he commanded before releasing him and walking into the Den, slamming the door behind him.
With his jaw clenched, he tried to restrain his anger over what he had to accept. Luca was alive and the woman he was going to take as his queen was now irrefutably his enemy.
Carson could hear Jed calling each hand-picked member of the pack in turn, bringing them to their Alpha’s aid. They would all be by his side soon enough.
JULIANA
Once Eileen had been officially introduced, Kyle asked, “so how do we deal with Carson?”
Both Monica and Seth, the only humans present, shuddered.
“I think we should let it sit for just a little while,” Jules stated. She put a restraining hand on Luca’s arm. It seemed he was going to violently disagree. “Not let it go, Luca. Just let it sit. Give everyone a little time.’’
“Let it sit?” Kyle said. “He killed a kid! He has to go down for this!”
“Although I’m ready to follow Jules, my coven leader and friend, to the end. I think that everyone who loved this boy should try to accept that vengeance isn’t going to bring him back. Our main concern now is to stop anyone else from being unjustly slaughtered. So, we all need to think before we act,” Eileen said boldly.
Some faces looked at her with shock, some with pride but all seemed to know that Eileen was right.
“So, how long are you proposing we wait? Not that I’m in a rush or anything, but Carson will find us. If he hasn’t already,” Hayley said.
“Then we wait as long as we can,” Luca answered sternly.
Kyle nodded begrudgingly. But seemed to relax a little after he’d done so.
“Can we slip away a moment?” Luca whispered in Jules’s ear.
Jules looked skeptically toward Eileen who had just entered into a conversation with Monica and Hayley.
“Yes,” Jules said as soon as she was satisfied that Eileen was going to be fine on her own.
Hand-in-hand, Luca and Jules walked out to the beach behind her house. He brought their intertwined hands to his lips and kissed her’s.
“Hi,” she said, stopping to stand in front of him and looking up, searching his face.
“Hi.” His smile was small but breathtakingly beautiful.
“So…” She put her free hand on his abdomen. “Was there something specific you wanted to talk to me about?”
He let out a long sigh and his hands came to rest on her shoulders. “Kyle is right,” he said looking over her head instead of at her. “Carson can’t live through this, Jules. Not after what he’s done.”
“I agree. That said, please don’t go rushing in.” She took a fistful of his shirt in her hand, pulling his attention down. “I can’t lose you.” The statement was painfully true. “I love you.” Her eyes pleaded with him to be careful and think.
He nodded silently. “I love you, too.” Leaning down, he lifted her onto her toes to kiss her cold lips.
He put his hands in her hair and she wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him even closer. He pulled back and rested his forehead against hers.
“We will be smart about this,” he assured her. “I promise.”
“Okay.”
“I should probably find Kyle,” he said as he rubbed her arms gently. “He can sometimes be a hothead, and I don’t want him to do something stupid.”
It was her turn to nod. She wasn’t ready to let go of this moment, but she’d left Eileen alone long enough.
Silently, they walked back to the house. Kyle and Hayley were outside on the back porch, seemingly arguing. Or, at least having a heated discussion. Luca released Jules’s hand and walked over to them. Jules passed them all and walked back into the house to check on Eileen and Monica.
LUCA
Luca walked right into the middle of a lovers’ quarrel. He was still listening for the root of their issue, though he figured he could probably guess.
“Jules is right,” Hayley shouted. “We have to think this through. I won’t have you and Luca getting yourselves killed. What am I supposed to do if you die? Huh?”
“Oh, I don’t know, live on,” Kyle snapped angerly.
“Guys…” Luca began but Hayley responded over his comment.
“No!” she shouted at Kyle. “I won’t raise this child on my own!”
Both men stopped short and stared. Luca immediately felt as if he was inappropriately interrupting something, but it was too late to leave now.
“What?” Kyle asked. His eyes were wide and confused.
“I found out this morning.” Hayley rested her hand on her stomach. “I wanted to tell you but there wasn’t a right time.” She started to laugh and cry at the same time. “I’m pregnant, Kyle.”
“What? Really!”
She nodded through happy tears.
Kyle scooped her up in his arms and spun them both. He kissed her, and she giggled. Luca was still frozen, watching the scene. How can so much good be happening along with so much bad? Despite all the pain, all the hate he was currently harboring, Luca started to laugh as well.
“I’m going to be a father.” Kyle chuckled, glowing at Hayley. “I’m going to be a father,” he said again looking over at Luca. He released Hayley and Luca hugged her.
“Do you really want to let some poor kid have this as a dad?” Luca joked at Kyle’s expense while hugging him as well.
“I’ve been wondering about that,” Hayley said, tapping her chin.
“Ha Ha. Sure, you have,” Kyle said sarcastically and then kissed her on the hair.
“You bet I have,” she joked back.
Luca said his congratulations a second time and bowed out gracefully, to let them have the rest of this precious moment alone.
JULIANA
Jules walked out the front door with Eileen and looked toward Gabriel’s car. Eileen said he was there, but the car windows were tinted so darkly that she couldn’t see anyone inside. She watched as Eileen walked around the vehicle, opened the driver door, and joined him there. Jules did not follow. Instead, she stopped when she saw her brother laying across the front of her car with his hands under his head. She tapped his knee and he sat up.
“Hey, it’s me in girl form.”
“Only in looks.”
“True. I’ve always been the fun one,” he joked and slid off the car.
She rolled her eyes but stared at his smiling face. She couldn’t get enough of his familiar features, all of which had been fading for centuries, even though she’d fought it with everything she had to remember every detail. Now that he was standing in front of her, though, she had noticed that he looked a little different than she remembered, but she was sure she did as well. Death will do that to you, she imagined him joking. She chuckled at herself.
“What?” he asked, watching her with the same intense gaze.
“Nothing.” She smiled. “Just you.”
“I know, I’m still amazing, but which of my wonderful traits has you smiling?” he asked.
Jules ignored Nick’s call for compliments and answered honestly. “Actually, I was scrutinizing the changes I see in you.”
“And what did you find?” he asked, crossing his arms.
Jules leaned against the car next to him. “I don’t remember you being this tall,” she said, noting that he towered over her.
“To you little one, everyone is tall.” He reached over and measured the height difference between them.
She elbowed him.
“Still height sensitive. Got it.” Nick said. “So… to blatantly change the subject, how did you meet Luca exactly? More specifically, how did you get tangled up in a werewolf war and then fall in love with one? Or was it the other way around?” Nick said.
“It was option B,” Jules replied.
“Luca and I met on a blind date actually. After that, we were just kind of drawn together. It happened so naturally, it seems like it has always been this way. Like loving each other comes naturally. He’s the first person I’ve loved since…” but her voice trailed off. Hector was the last thing she wanted to be thinking about right now.
An astonished look appeared on Nick’s face.
“What?” she asked.
“Since when? You were human? Are you implying that you haven’t been in love in over four hundred years? That’s so sad. I love falling in love!”
“No, that’s not the since I was referencing.” Jules laughed out loud. “But, do you remember your friend Laurence, he was my betrothed after you disappeared.”
Nick laughed out loud. “Boring old Laurence! I bet that didn’t end well.”
“I turned into a vampire,” Jules said. “He didn’t take it in stride, that’s for sure.”
“That bloody bastard! Couldn’t handle having a vampire as a fiancé, eh?”
“That is a very kind way to put it,” Jules said with a sigh. But she didn’t want to talk about her past romantic relationships anymore. This one would undoubtedly lead to the next and she was determined to avoid that. “What about you? Mister ‘I love to fall in love’. Has there been anyone significant in your existence?”
“No…” Nick said too quickly. “I mean…no. We’ll go with no.”
Jules looked at him like she very much doubted the authenticity of this answer. Which she did. Nick’s return had made her feel lighter than she had in centuries, despite all of the bad happening around her. And yet, this being, her brother, was still a killer. How could someone who felt things so deeply, because Nick did, even if he didn’t admit it, be the Fort Miles Phantom?
“What has your face all squished like that? What do you want to know?” Nick asked.
Jules chewed on her lip nervously. She didn’t want to spoil the moment. “Why do you still kill like you do? Human life deserves to be protected, no matter the personal cost.”
“Not you too!” He rolled his eyes, let go of her shoulder and slumped back onto her car.
“Me and who exactly?” she asked leaning over him.
He sighed. “Never mind. It’s just an old fight I seem to have every fifty or so year.”
“Nicholas. What are you…”
But he cut her off. “It doesn’t matter right now. I’ve already agreed to battle my nature and lay off the killing to stay with you. Can’t that be enough for now? Will I slip up? Probably. But I feel like I have part of myself back… with you here. I felt it from the first moment I saw you. I don’t want to lose you over this.”
He seemed to be having a conversation with himself that she wasn’t privy too. “Nick, I just found you. I’m not going anywhere. But you have to understand, I don’t live like that. I can’t.”
He raised his eyebrows at her.
“I mean, I literally can’t,” she said exasperatedly.
“You’re an addict too!” He smiled.
“A recovering one,” she admitted. “And I won’t go back, do you hear me? I love you Nicholas, but I won’t be that again.”
Nick placed his hand over her mouth, silencing her. “Okay. I hear you.” He looked her straight in the eyes. “I’ll work on it. Okay?”
She nodded.
He moved his fingers just as the front door opened and Luca walked outside.
“Hayley has something she wants to tell you,” he said as he walked over to them and wrapped Jules in his arms. He placed a kiss on her forehead. Jules was surprised to see him looking rather happy.
“Okay, let’s go.” Jules laughed lightly, as she and Luca began to walk toward the house. But then she stopped, walked out of Luca’s embrace, and grabbed Nick by the hand, pulling him with her.