Silver's Bane

Chapter Eight Howling at the Moon-1

Chapter Eight Howling at the MoonBen stopped Luca just as he was approaching the front door of the Den. “Luca, where have you been?” he asked.

“Around. My phone died.” Which was true in a sense. Its battery had died sitting on the seat of his Jeep.

Just then, the screen door opened, nearly hitting Ben in the side of the face. “Be forewarned, Carson’s very unhappy with you,” Kip whispered, poking his head through the open doorway.

“What else is new?” Luca asked, rolling his eyes.

“Luca!” Ben scolded. “It’s that lack of respect that has you on such rocky ground.”

“I think it’s a difference of opinion that has me where I’m at with our Alpha, the attitude is just a byproduct,” Luca half-teased.

Ben looked at him sternly. Apparently, he was in no mood for jokes. He didn’t say anymore.

“You worry too much,” Luca said, clapped Ben on the shoulder and entered the Den.

“Luca.” Carson cornered him the second he walked through the front door. “You are my Beta. Being unable to reach you is unacceptable.”

“Dead phone. No charger.” He held it up as if to prove that it was in fact dead.

Carson stormed toward him, his face inches from Luca’s. “Next time, buy one,” Carson snarled between gritted teeth.

Luca didn’t back down. “What did I miss that was so important?” Luca asked, keeping his voice even, unaffected by Carson’s threat.

Carson stared daggers at him, but still, Luca didn’t submit. This was hard to do, but not impossible like it would have been for any other wolf under Carson’s command.

Carson backed down before it could look like it wasn’t his decision. He squared his shoulders and said, “now that you’re here, maybe we can start the meeting I called for before noon.”

“Five minutes and I’m all yours.”

Carson growled audibly.

“Thanks for the notice,” Luca said and then took the stairs two at a time, laughing to himself as he went.

Luca headed for his bathroom. In six minutes he was showered, dressed, and walking back out of his bedroom door. When he arrived downstairs once again, the pack had congregated in the family room. Carson was pacing menacingly, not unlike most nights. “Well, now that the Beta has finally graced us with his presence, we can start,” Carson snapped as Luca took a seat on the dilapidated couch.

“Who has good news?” He looked momentarily, manically gleeful.

No one spoke.

“Are you telling me that no one has any information on the vampire problem?”

Luca looked away. Luckily, some of the others did too, out of guilt at being unsuccessful no doubt. Luca looked at the floor, hoping that his expressive face wouldn’t give him away.

“No one has found their location?” Carson asked, glowering at the group. “That is unacceptable. This leader of theirs has evaded us once already. That will not happen again.” Carson’s tone confirmed that orders were going to be to kill Jules when they did catch her. Kind, strong, sweet Jules. His Jules. If he could call her that. He nearly smiled but caught himself. Luca’s jaw clenched tightly.

Jed finally spoke up. “I’ve been unsuccessful at finding the coven’s location.”

Luca tried not to sigh due to the relief he felt.

“But I have ascertained that the red-headed female lives somewhere near the coast. Also, I believe she lives separately from the others,” Jed continued, turning Luca’s emotions upside down. They were too close to her.

“But I’ll keep looking.”

“See that you do!” Carson snapped.

Max sniggered.

Luca scowled over at him. There was no need for Carson’s temper to be indulged.

As the lack-of-progress reports continued, Luca had to bite his tongue. He wouldn’t let them harm her. He would do whatever he had too. To keep from giving himself away, however, he planted his feet on the floor and tried to keep the finger tapping to a minimum.

After what felt like hours of discussion, Luca was convinced that, other than Jed’s information, no one had learned anything else he needed to know to keep Jules safe. Carson’s rant, however, was dragging on.

“Now, who’s with me?” Carson shouted.

This got a rise out of everyone except Luca.

“We don’t have enough cause to attack. We have no proof that they kill. We are rushing to uninformed conclusions,” Luca stated evenly.

His point was met with utter silence.

He then abruptly stood and left the room. Reasoning with this Alpha, or his pack, was a waste of time.

Luca strode furiously into the yard heading for his Jeep until he realized that he’d left the Jeep key’s upstairs. So, he paced angerly in the yard instead. He desperately wanted to storm back in and defend her. To tell them all that he knew she didn’t kill humans, didn’t even feed from them. To convince them that they were wrong about her but that desire was utterly illogical. What he was doing with Jules was a betrayal Carson would never forgive. In fact, Luca thought that if Carson knew the extent of his betrayal, he would kill Jules just for spite. But that didn’t really matter, because Luca was pretty sure Carson intended to kill Jules no matter what. It was clear that their relationship had to remain a secret. Revealing his feelings for her to anyone endangered them both.

“Luca. Luca! What was that about?” Ben asked, running up beside him.

Luca ran his tongue over his teeth, deciding how much he could say without throwing Jules, and likely himself, under the bus. “I don’t know.” Luca shrugged. “This vampire. She didn’t attack us. She’s the one who stopped the fight.” He spoke very carefully. “And we don’t have proof that she’s hurt anyone. Why is Carson so intent on killing her?”

“Killing?” Ben raised one eyebrow. “She’s already dead. You understand that, right?”

“You know what I mean.”

“We can’t risk letting those monsters roam around innocent humans,” Ben said.

“What if she doesn’t kill?” Luca asked.

“They all kill,” Ben stated bluntly. “Luca, you’re a young wolf. You haven’t seen the terrors that I have. The tyranny they’ve enforced over our race throughout the years is unacceptable. Every being on earth will be better off with one, or three, less of those things in existence. You get that don’t you?” Ben asked, jabbing Luca in the ribs. He guessed Ben was trying to lighten the mood.

Luca faked a chuckle. “I know, but…”

Ben took him by the shoulder and steered him back toward the Den. “Luca, you’re young. I know you don’t understand fully. Be assured that they are the enemy. And that they are dead, soulless beings. To destroy them would be to put them out of their misery.”

“How?” Luca stopped walking and looked at Ben.

“Only one thing is as deadly to them as silver is to us. The sun,” he stated simply.

Luca offered a fake, lighthearted, eye roll. “I know that. But how else do you destroy them?” He was treading on thin ice, but if there was another way, he needed to know.

“Yes, Luca, everyone knows that sunlight kills vampires. But just as…”

Luca waited patiently. Ben’s explanations sometimes took a while, but his knowledge was vast.

“…silver has to circulate in our bloodstreams to kill us,” Ben continued, “vampires have to be in direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time for the sunlight to be fatal. Vampires are quite strong, so this can be hard to accomplish. Our ancestors devised another why. Years ago, we used to bury them alive. It is likely that many are still buried deep in the ground. Their locations forgotten forever,” Ben’s voice trailed off like he was remembering something.

“We bury them?” That doesn’t sound so bad, Luca thought.

But Ben continued, “not in this age. Today’s technology makes killing them much simpler.”

Luca waited, impatiently now, for his real question to be answered.

“Now, we have UVB lights we can carry to weaken them for the kill. Then, removing their heads works quite nicely.”

Protecting Jules from this fate had just become Luca’s number one priority.

JULIANA

The next thing Jules knew, she was tapping snooze on her alarm. She woke from a dreamy haze with images of Luca and memories of his touch coaxing her gently. As she hit snooze for the third time, she noticed a couple of waiting messages from an unknown number. She read the first one. “Hi, it’s me.” And the second. “I assume you know who me is.” And the last. “They are closing in on you. I know you can take care of yourself, but please, be cautious.” She smiled, saved the number under the contact name L.C., and punched in a quick response.

Jules pulled herself out of bed and dressed for work. She didn’t know if it was wise to stop at the coffee shop. She wasn’t sure that she could keep a secret like this from Monica. After a short amount of contemplation, she decided to stop in anyway.

When she walked through the door, Monica beamed at her. “I know something good,” she teased.

“Don’t tell me.” Jules knew it probably had something to do with Saturday night, and that would send her straight into an immersive Luca Cain spiral.

“Okay. Then, spill. Why didn’t you answer any of my calls yesterday? You did promise me you’d explain everything.” Monica wore a faux scolding expression.

Jules had contemplated how much to say on the drive over. She didn’t like the idea of creating a wedge between herself and the human who knew her best. “I really can’t tell you,” Jules said and smiled sheepishly.

“Jules!” Monica came around the counter, neglecting the customer waiting to order. “What do you mean you can’t tell me?”

Jules pointed toward the waiting woman.

“I’m taking ten,” she shouted to the back. No one responded. Monica rolled her eyes. “Don’t go anywhere.” She pointed an accusatory finger at Jules.

Jules walked a couple paces away and stared aimlessly at the television over her head. “The Fort Miles Phantom has stuck again. A local police officer and two civilians fell victim to this madman in an alley on State Street. The civilians’ identities are being kept confidential until the families can be notified. Officer Micha Harrison’s family was unavailable for comment.”

Jules looked over as the door dinged, announcing the now very angry customer’s departure.

“Come on.” Monica walked passed Jules, motioning for her to follow her outside. Monica rushed over to one of the metal tables set up for customers who preferred the open atmosphere and sat quickly. Jules slid into a chair opposite her. She glanced up, it was going to be a blessedly foggy day.

“Now can you tell me?”

Jules sighed. “It’s not that eventful really. I went for a run Saturday night and didn’t keep track of the time. I spent all of Sunday in a cave on the beach…” Jules hesitated, “by myself.”

“And your phone was?”

“At my house.”

“Jules, I know you. You’re hiding something.”

“Maybe.” Jules’s face scrunched into a supremely guilty expression.

“See, the last time you looked at me like that you were trying to friend-dump me for my own good. Now look at us, we’re better friends than we ever were before I knew your crumby secret.”

Jules sighed.

“What? Is it Luca?”

Monica smiled giddily when Jules failed to respond. “He likes you. I could totally tell that he likes you.” She was seeping excitement.

“Yeah,” Jules said. “I caught that too.” She pressed her lips together, unable to say more.

“So, then what’s the problem? Mrs. Prentiss was human once.”

“She was.” This was irrelevant to Jules and Luca, but she ran with the excuse anyway. “And Gabriel had to turn her into a vampire.”

“And is she unhappy?” Monica asked.

“No,” Jules answered honestly. Jules didn’t like this. She wanted to be honest with Monica. She wanted to tell her everything that had happened since the anniversary double date had come to an end. She desperately wanted to tell her how being with Luca had changed things inside her. How she felt more hopeful and alive. However, the secret had to be kept, for her safety and for Luca’s.

“But you do like him, don’t you?”

“I don’t… not like him.”

“So, what? Because you’re…” Monica didn’t say undead, but Jules knew she was thinking it. “It means you can’t ever find love?”

Jules’s phone beeped. It was a message from Luca. Jules couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re smiling. Who was that?” Monica asked.

“No one. I have to get to work.” Jules stood.

“Jules! There is still something you’re not telling me.”

Jules hesitated and then spoke. “Yes,” Jules admitted, “and I promise to tell you what it is when I can.”

“That is very frustrating.” Monica scowled.

“I know. I’m sorry, please trust me.”

“Fine. But this conversation is not over.” Monica stood, taking a few steps closer to the coffee shop.

“Agreed.” Jules smiled at the annoyed look on Monica’s face. They’d be alright. And as soon as she could, Jules would tell her everything.

GABRIEL

Gabriel left his classroom door open. He was hoping to see Jules pass by on her way to her office. She’d been ignoring his calls and texts since Saturday and he was fed up. Minutes ticked by, students began to arrive, and still, Jules had not passed. He watched the clock and checked his phone for missed messages. Nothing. Jules was careless with the sun, it had to be up by now. He peeked through the blind. Confirming that it was going to be a foggy morning, he twisted each blind open, letting in the dull morning light.