Silver's Bane

Chapter Twelve Burnt Pages-1

Chapter Twelve Burnt PagesWhen Jules arrived home late that night, Monica was already there waiting on her. “I know, I’m sorry. Work ran late,” Jules said as she entered the lighted house.

“It’s fine.” Monica was stretched out across the couch, an empty pizza box, dirty napkins, and two glasses littered the coffee table. “Seth just left. So, it’s seriously fine.” Monica winked.

Jules made an exasperated-sounding sigh as she passed through the living room on her way to her bedroom. She wanted to change out of her work clothes. Monica bounced off the couch and followed her. Jules slipped off the slacks and cardigan and into a pair of shorts and a tank top as Monica plopped down on her bed. “So, spill,” Monica demanded.

“Spill what?” Jules asked, feigning innocence. Secretly, Jules had been hoping that Monica would forget about the odd moment earlier concerning Luca.

“Don’t play dumb. It won’t work.”

“Monica,” Jules began.

“Don’t Monica me!” she nearly shouted as she sat up into a cross-legged position. “Why won’t you just tell me what you’re hiding?”

“It’s not my secret to tell,” Jules told her. “Not all of it anyway,” she added, sprawling across her bed beside Monica.

“Then tell me the part that is yours.”

Jules threw her hands over her face and groaned. She could do it. She knew that she could trust Monica; there was no doubt about that. Still, she hesitated because telling Monica meant that it was no longer just a secret she and Luca alone shared.

“Juliana Bristow,” Monica said sternly, “am I your best friend or not?”

“Fine.” Jules dropped her hands back onto the bed and rolled over on her elbow, facing Monica. “I’ve been seeing Luca.”

Monica shrieked. “I knew it. You had so much chemistry that night. I can’t wait to tell Seth.”

“No.” Jules sat up, a little startled. “Monica, you can’t tell anyone. Not your parents, not Seth… especially not Seth. It has to be our secret.”

“But why?” Monica almost whined. “It’s just Seth.”

Jules slid into a sitting position. “That’s the part that I can’t tell you,” Jules admitted. “I’m sorry Monica. But please, no one can know.”

Monica pressed her lips together, considering for a moment. “Alright,” she said finally. “The best friend over boyfriend code will be honored,” Monica said with a teasing tone. “But you have to at least tell me one thing.” The look on Monica’s face was mischievous at first but then turned genuine. “Are you happy?”

Jules sighed, but then a ridiculously wide smile spread across her face. “So very happy,” Jules almost gushed. “I told him I loved him. I can’t believe I said that. That’s the first time I’ve said it romantically in…”

“About three-hundred years.” Monica finished her statement for her. “You do know that you’ve known him for less than a week?”

“That’s crazy right?” Jules asked. “I think I’m going completely insane.”

“You could do with a little crazy now and then.”

Jules covered her face again. She knew she must sound like a love-sick fool, but she didn’t care. Loving Luca was worth it.

Monica laughed and crawled closer. She put her arms around Jules in a hug. Jules accepted for a moment until her mouth got too close to Monica’s neck. She could see the vein pulse under the skin. Warm, flowing… Jules wrenched herself free of Monica and was on the far side of the room in an instant. She pressed her palms against the wall to keep her there and then slid down it. “I’m so sorry.” She whimpered.

“How long has it been?” Monica asked, sounding a little shaken, but not nearly as shaken as she should.

“Too long.” Jules’s head dropped between her knees. She held the breaths that she didn’t really need anyway. “Gabriel and I worked on carnival prep through lunch.”

“Hang on,” Monica got off the bed and left the room. Jules knew where she was going. She hated that Monica knew what to do in these situations, but she was grateful for it.

Jules’s head shot up when Monica reappeared.

“You’re out of blood.” Monica stopped in the doorway.

Jules stared, wide-eyed at Monica. And then she remembered it was true. She’d drank her entire home supply after her unplanned beach day with Luca. The blood she’d consumed that night should have lasted her another three weeks.

She knew that Gabriel had some at home and she still had some at the school, but why hadn’t she brought some home with her?

She couldn’t wait until morning, and she couldn’t stay here. If she stayed, Monica could end up dead. Even if she would drink from Monica, which she would not, she didn’t trust herself to stop feeding once she started. She didn’t explain or even speak before she bolting passed Monica and out her front door. She left her car in the driveway and ran.

LUCA

Luca woke abruptly to the sounds of shouts and slamming doors. I need a new place to live, he thought to himself. He then pulled himself into a sitting position and shook his head just as his bedroom door burst opened, slamming against the wall behind it.

“Luca, let’s go!” Ben instructed from the doorway. “Now!” he added when Luca didn’t immediately hop out of bed.

“Okay,” Luca griped but began to do as instructed. “Couldn’t whatever this is have waited until morning?” Luca muttered to himself grumpily as he stood. He stretched noisily and headed toward the commotion.

“What’s all this about?” he asked Kip, whom he met at the top of the stairway.

“Something big, I gather,” he said, springing down the stairs ahead of Luca.

Luca yawned, following at his own drowsy pace.

The pack had gathered on the back porch. This was unusual, but Luca figured it was due to the houseguests, now unavoidably awake in the living room.

Swinging the screen door open, he joined the others. To his surprise, Kyle was among them. “What are you doing here?” he whispered to his friend.

“I was once again summoned, so here I am?” Kyle said quietly, but with a subtle amount of annoyance in his voice.

Luca yawned.

Neither of them were concentrating on Carson’s intense, hushed tones until Luca heard something that yanked his focus to his Alpha’s overly excited speech.

“What did he just say?” Luca asked Kyle, who shrugged.

“This means that thanks to Jed’s stake-out, we know where the vampire is at this exact moment. So now, the time has come,” Carson said, balling his hands into fists. “Tonight, we end the demon for good!”

JULIANA

Jules hadn’t slowed her pace until she’d gotten far enough away from Monica, and all other human life, to be safe. When she’d walked across the school’s parking lot, she had noted a few abandoned cars but had given them little attention. She assumed tired or drunk students would retrieve them in the morning. She didn’t have her keys, in fact, she’d left everything at home. She knew she should change her mind and go to Gabriel’s to get some blood, but she didn’t want to have to explain to him why she’d run out in the first place.

She decided that she was too close to the stock she kept at work to go back. If she changed course now, she’d have to go back through town. It’s was too much of a risk. Breaking and entering was the lesser evil than accidentally murdering a townsperson. So, Jules ran at full speed toward her place of work. She jumped up the side of the building, grabbed onto the ledge, and pulled herself over.

The roof was littered with years of old beer bottles and half-smoked cigarettes. She walked to the small skylight over the cafeteria and loosened its bolts. “Ouch,” she cried aloud when she cut her finger on the last bolt. She sucked on the cut momentarily and then lifted the window off. Slowly, she lowered herself over the edge feet first and dropped soundlessly onto one of the long tables below.

She knew which passages she could use and still avoid the security cameras and she did so with as much haste as she could without being recorded. After a few long minutes, she’d reached the far side of the school, and the library. Once inside, she rushed through the stacks to her office. Her hand went to her neck to retrieve the key to her refrigerator. “Seriously.” It wasn’t there. In desperation, Jules yanked the padlock off the small, white door and opened it. She bypassed the glass and ripped the bag open with her teeth. With every gulp, she felt her desire to kill her best human friend dissipate. She had control again. Only after she’d drank the entire bag did she realize that she was being watched.

A pair of dark eyes stared at her through the outside window, and he was snarling. Jules recognized the Alpha of Luca’s pack instantly. Unsure of what his next move would be, she waited.

He raised his face to the sky and let out a long, deafening howl. She recognized this call, it was a call to battle.

Jules spun, preparing to run, but found the door to her office blocked by two other members of Luca’s pack. They stood panting and snarling at her. “Your time is over, Demon,” the shorter of the two said. He twitched, betraying his nerves.

A threatening hiss pulsed through her throat and the twitching wolf ran at her, bouncing wildly as he did so. Jules evaded his attack easily. She spun, grabbed him, and threw him as hard as she could. With a loud crash, her desk broke under his weight. He lay, unmoving, on the office floor. She turned on the taller wolf, who had been lounging against the doorframe looking more at ease than his companion. He was the largest wolf she’d ever seen. Near Luca’s height, but much bulkier.

Jules’s confidence waned, defeating him would not be as easy. She went for a round kick, but he was surprisingly fast and even stronger then Jules had anticipated. He took her kick square in the stomach, grabbed hold of her foot, and swung her hard against the wall. It cracked under her impact. She dropped to the ground but rolled to standing, barely feeling the impact’s effects.

Just as she got to her feet, however, he came at her again. This time, she was able to bolt a few feet out of his path. She was hoping that his speed would cause him to hit the wall hard, but for a man of his size, he was quite graceful in his movements. Not lumbering as Jules had expected. Which is unfortunate, she thought to herself. He navigated a turn easily and they were now facing off once again.

Just then, a groan sounded from the wolf still on the floor. Instinctively, Jules glanced sideways at him but only for a fraction of a second. It was long enough. She was convinced that the wolf was still satisfactorily incapacitated.

“Sorry about your friend,” Jules commented, trying to buy herself time to come up with a plan.

“Not really a friend,” the big wolf said with a shrug.

Jules took the moment his response time allowed and picked up one of her file cabinets. Launching it across the office, she hit the wolf in the face, knocking him backward. Both the cabinet and the wolf landed hard against the wall and she bolted toward the office door. But the wolf recovered too quickly. He stood and caught her arm as she passed him. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second. His eyes began to glow wolf yellow and his huge hand clamped down hard on her neck. He sneered at her and lifted her off her feet by the throat. After a few long seconds, her body went flying backward.

Jules felt this impact. The glass of her large internal office window shattered as she flew through it and hit the bookshelf just outside the office hard. She landed on the floor with a thud, glass shards digging into her back and books raining down on her head.

She laid there, stunned, for a fraction of a second. She knew she had to get moving or she might end up dead. She tried to stand but cried out when the glass embedded itself deeper into her back as she shifted. Involuntarily, she dropped back to her knees.

Just then, Jules smelled gasoline. The friend that Luca had been with at the carnival was dumping it around the perimeter of the room and on all of the books. Why didn’t Luca warn me? She knew this was a completely irrational time to be thinking about him, but still, the question grabbed hold of her mind as she again tried to stand. She failed, collapsing to the glass ridden floor again.