Silver's Bane

Chapter Five Date with the Enemy-2

Monica and Seth walked a few steps ahead of them to the vehicle. Luca waited while Jules locked the door. He watched as the porcelain figure reluctantly stepped around him. Luca sped forward and opened the back door of Seth’s mother’s car for her, holding out his hand. Without meeting his eyes, or accepting the offered hand, she gracefully climbed in.

They rode in silence, but Luca continued to steal glances at the icy figure sitting as far from him as she could.

“Dang it,” Seth said from the front seat. This pulled Luca’s attention away from his date. “Sorry, everyone. We need to make a pitstop.”

As Seth got out to fill the car with gas, Monica rambled. “It’s so great of you guys to do this for us. Luca, do you know where we’re going?” But before Luca could tell her that he wasn’t telling, she moved on. “See Jules, I told you that it wouldn’t be so bad…”

Just then, Seth stuck his head back inside the car. “Stupid thing is telling me I have to see the cashier. I’ll be right back,” he said and then unexpectedly leaned across the car and kissed Monica on the lips.

Monica kissed him back, giggling and blushing simultaneously.

Luca thought he saw a smile flash across the vampire’s face, but he couldn’t be sure. It happened too fast.

Monica looked down and gasped, “oh! Seth may need his wallet.” She grabbed it off the seat. “I’ll be right back.”

“Monica, no…” Jules started to say, but Seth’s girlfriend was already gone.

“I’m only here for my friend,” Jules snapped quietly. “So, don’t…” Her voice was cool and threatening.

“We’re in the same situation, remember,” he said, stopping her.

“Are we?” She looked over at him accusatorily. He instantly hoped to never be on that side of her glare again.

“Look, before they come back, I need to say something,” Luca said. He watched as Seth shifted from one foot to the other while standing in line and Monica clung to his arm happily. “I don’t know about your friend, but Seth doesn’t know about me. I would really like to keep it that way.”

“Monica knows about me,” Jules said coolly.

“Really?” Luca asked, stunned. Monica couldn’t really understand how dangerous Jules was and still be comfortable around her, could she?

Jules nodded.

“Wow,” Luca said. If Jules was a cold-blooded killer surely she wouldn’t tell a helpless human her secret and let them go on living.

With that, they fell into an awkward silence and Luca’s thoughts wandered. He wasn’t sure what had inspired this coldness toward him. It disappointed him really. From what the vampire had said that night, the first time he’d laid eyes on her, he figured she didn’t judge werewolves the same way many of her undead counterparts did. It seemed now, that that sense of ease and acceptance was just a very well-played act.

Jules spoke after a few more moments of silence. “If you don’t try to kill me tonight, I won’t tell them about you.”

“That’s an easy deal to make,” he said, relief filling his expression. He stretched out his hand, to seal the bargain. She just stared at it. “Oh, come on, at least act like we’re both human here,” he coaxed.

“But we’re not,” she protested. Her seriousness juxtaposed oddly with the smirk on her face.

“They don’t know that.” He smiled, his hand still extended.

She sighed and took his hand but pulled back almost immediately.

It is true, vampire skin is cool to the touch. It was probably not enough for a human to notice but werewolves ran on the high side of the temperature scale.

JULIANA

Luca’s hand was warm in hers. She had forgotten the soft-fire feeling that occurred when the two species touched. Jules rubbed her fingers together. Werewolves... Jules’s thought was cut short and her head jolted up when the front car doors opened; Monica and Seth reappearing

“At least you two are becoming friends,” Monica said.

Friends? Since when did you become unobservant? Jules was slightly shocked that Monica hadn’t noticed the awkward atmosphere in the backseat. However, there was a reason Monica was so preoccupied tonight, she was in love. I can do this for her. It’s one date. All she had to do was survive the night, just one evening. After that, she’d go to Gabriel and together they’d decide what needed to be done.

As the car’s engine sputtered to life, Jules looked over at the werewolf Beta. He seemed to have completely relaxed now. He was smiling, leaning toward the front seat, and looking enthralled by the current conversation. Seth was regaling Monica with a story of an adventure he and Luca had had while backpacking the previous summer.

Jules tried to listen as her mind raced, filled with anxious thoughts. That feeling… desire. She hadn’t felt true desire, outside the desire for blood, in centuries. This was not that, but strangely, felt similar. Jules kept watching him. Why is he so at ease? He is so beautiful. Jules shook that thought from her head and let her mind wander to safer territories. Judging from the game of cat and mouse she had played with his packmates earlier in the week, she assumed he had orders from his Alpha. She had thought he would have reported her home’s position by now. But he hadn’t made any moves to pick up his phone since he and Seth had arrived. As the ride stretched on, it began to look like he wasn’t going to. At least not immediately. Jules remained stiff and silent as her mind raced.

They had left Aboit and were heading for Fort Miles, the nearest large city. Jules looked over at the werewolf again. His dark eyes were alight with laughter. His dark hair hung in loose waves around his face. His build was strong; I can see his biceps pressing against the confines of his jacket… Jules froze. What am I doing? She turned away quickly, but not quickly enough. He had caught her studying him. Jules looked down and pressed her lips together. When she glanced up again, he was still watching her. His black eyes were soft and inquisitive, not vindictive nor murderous like she might have expected.

By the time the van pulled up in front of the fancy Italian restaurant, Jules had finally stopped fighting with herself. It was a losing battle. She was attracted to the werewolf… to say the least. Both men stepped out of the car, walked around either side and opened the doors for their dates. Jules refused to look at Luca.

“It’s okay,” he whispered under his breath, holding out his hand. For some inexplicable reason, she believed him. Jules took the hand he offered. The heat from his skin warmed her own.

“Cain, four,” Luca said to the hostess, upon entering the extravagant lobby.

Jules suppressed her surprise. Is he a descendant of Stephen’s family line?

The hostess showed the two couples to a table on the balcony overlooking the dance floor and almost immediately a waitress came to take their orders.

“Um… I’m not feeling well,” Jules said. “I’ll just have some water.” She had been so busy fighting off baffling thoughts about Luca that she had neglected to think up a reasonable excuse for not eating.

“Oh, come on. I’m buying.” Luca smirked at her, a glint of a smile on his lips.

She would wager that he knew full well she didn’t eat human food. “No,” she whispered harshly.

“Well, then…” Luca studied the menu for a few seconds. “She’ll have the shrimp. You like shrimp, right honey?” He nudged his menu at Jules, playfully mocking her.

She glowered at him and Luca smiled, then he looked back toward the waitress.

“I’ll have the steak and tell the Chef that Luca said he wants his steak the way we like it.” He winked at the waitress. “He’ll know what I mean,” he assured her. “Thank you.”

The waitress looked skeptical but smiled at him.

“How do you both like it?” Monica asked Luca.

“Just rare,” he replied, shrugging.

“Reminiscent of a fresh kill that way?” Jules said, her voice inaudible to even the closest humans.

Luca’s eyes widened. He glanced nervously at Seth, then back again.

“Sorry,” Jules said quietly, lacking ant real remorse.

When their meal finally arrived, Jules stared at her plate. What was she going to do with such a massive amount of smelly little sea creatures? She glared at Luca, wanting to extend her fangs and hiss at him, but she resisted.

Throughout the course of the meal, some of the shrimp disappeared as she dropped them one by one into the napkin on her lap. Luckily, Monica, who was sitting beside her, was all too used to the little ways in which Jules disposed of human food. Eating the food in front of her was not an option. She’d tried once long ago and spent the night with her head hung over the chamber pot.

Jules glanced up and saw that Luca seemed to be studying her carefully from across the table while keeping a steady stream of conversation going with Monica and Seth.

“Are you alright, Jules?” Monica asked, leaning over to speak in Jules’s ear.

“I’m fine,” Jules said, trying to smile reassuringly. “I just need to powder my nose.”

Monica made a face, reminding her that it was an outdated term.

Jules shrugged. Luca’s presence had thrown her completely off her game. Not only was she extremely attracted to him, but she also believed his pack was hunting her, and he seemed to be unaffected by this. This whole situation was very unsettling. As she stood, Jules slid her napkin in front of her and turned to leave the table. She heard Luca chuckle lightly and scowled.

Jules strode into a stall in the bathroom, dumped the little creatures into the toilet, and flushed them away. Checking that the restroom was still empty, Jules paused in front of the mirror and leaned on the sink. She didn’t bother looking up at her reflection-less form.

Jules took some deep breaths as she formulated her thoughts. She still hadn’t seen Luca reach for his phone. He probably would now that she had walked away but that couldn’t be helped. If the rest of the pack did come to his aid, she would have to run. She didn’t like the idea of abandoning Monica and Seth, but Jules believed that Luca wouldn’t let either of them get caught in the crossfire. Of that much, she was sure. He seemed to be a good friend to her human companions.

Jules heard the bathroom door creak open and rushed away from the mirror toward the exit. She left the bathroom, lost in thought. She was so distracted that she ran face-first into Luca, her nose connecting with his muscled chest.