Darlings of Darkness: A Vampire Anthology Part 90

Not ever. Jack planned to remain loyal to them, especially his former friends. Barring, of course, they didn't do something stupid like attack his brother. Then all bets were off.

"Remember that time you bagged a deer?" Billy asked.

Jack nodded. It was one of the few times his father had looked at him with pride in his eyes. He'd put his arm around Jack's shoulders, dangerously close to a hug, and said, "Way to go, son. Someday you'll be a great hunter."

Jack shook the memory loose and said, "Well, let's go."

"Hold on. There are some things I need to tell you first. You may have been a vampire, but you don't know werewolves like I do. I've been hunting them for nearly a decade, so pay attention to what I tell you. Learn from my mistakes."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I bet you dreamed about this moment. When we were kids and I was constantly telling you what you should and should not do, you were fantasizing about being the big brother. Now here you are. I'm seventeen and you're the adult."

"Don't be stupid, Jack."

"It's a fact." He leaned the shotgun against the wall so he wouldn't be tempted to use it. "Admit it. There's a little kid inside of you right now jumping up and down for joy. You get to live the dream of every younger sibling. You get to take control and boss me around, and there isn't anything I can do about it because legally you are older. In the eyes of the law you are in control here."

Billy stared at him, lips compressed.

Jack waited.

An exaggerated smile formed on Billy's face, and he nodded like a madman. "Yeah, that's right. I'm thrilled to have a brother who was a vampire up until five minutes ago." He dropped the phony smile and the sarcasm. "You think this is easy for me? I looked up to you. I thought you were the best brother ever."

Jack remembered complaining about Billy to his mother. She would smile and tell him it was his job to take care of his baby brother, to show him the ropes and be a good role model.

Billy continued his rant. "And I loved you. Then one night my whole world was ripped away from me. My mom, my dad, and my brother are murdered practically in front of my eyes. I heard the screams. You have no idea how long I hid in the bas.e.m.e.nt, waiting for you to return or for the bad guy to find me too.

"An hour, maybe more, sitting in the dark alone. Then I heard the sheriff arrive, and I ran outside. He tried to stop me, tried to keep me from seeing the three of you lying on the ground, covered in blood, ripped to shreds, but I pushed my way around him. I can't wipe that image out of my mind no matter how hard I try. I drank too much, and I slaughtered as many werewolves as I could. Nothing helped.

"Then one night I come across a werewolf with information to share. I attacked him and before he dies he tells me how you're one of them. He tells me my brother isn't in the cemetery anymore, because he's a monster." Billy laughed without humor. "You have no idea how it felt to unbury your coffin only to find it empty. It killed me to know you were a vampire. I had nightmares about it. I slept with a stake under my mattress in case you returned for me. I lived with the knowledge that someday I would probably have to put you down."

Billy looked away and took deep breaths, trying hard to get control of his emotions.

Jack s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably from one foot to the other and furiously blinked his eyes to keep tears from forming. He'd had no idea how bad things had gotten for his kid brother. He certainly hadn't made them any easier by giving him a hard time over every little thing.

"I'm sorry," Jack said, hoping it was enough.

Billy shrugged.

Jack tried to lighten the mood. "Okay, great and mighty hunter. Share your wisdom with me. How do I take a werewolf out and live to talk about it?"

A reluctant grin stretched Billy's mouth. They walked into the living room as he told Jack everything he ever wanted to know about the hairy beasts and then some. The tension between them slowly dissolved.

"Werewolves are total idiots," Billy said. "Sometimes we follow their tracks, but mostly we set traps and let them come to us. They like to attack people who seem vulnerable and weak."

Jack had a flashback of Silver in the cemetery, playing the part of a defenseless girl.

Billy added, "It's good to work in pairs. One person is the bait, and the other is the hunter."

Jack didn't have to ask which one he was going to be. As if reading his mind, Billy nodded. "They want you. You probably smell like a vampire to them. When one of them comes at you, I'll shoot it. Then you can finish it off if you want. After you get your feet wet, I'll trade places with you. How does that sound?"

Dangerous. Jack asked, "How have you done this for so long without getting infected?"

A single scratch would do it.

Billy replied, "I have a secret stash of Silver's blood."

"What?"

"When her parents trained me, they let me in on their secret. Silver can be killed by a werewolf, but she can't be infected. Something about her blood makes her resistant. So she gets some drawn out once in a while, and they store it in a cooler. Whenever a hunter in the nearby area gets infected, they put a couple drops of blood into the wound. It has to be done almost immediately though or it won't work."

Creepy. Jack didn't like the idea of Silver sharing her blood with others. As a former vampire, he believed blood was sacred. He pushed the thought of Silver out of his head. They weren't friends anymore, so he needed to stop obsessing over the girl. She could share her blood with the whole world if she felt like it. None of his business.

"What's wrong?" Billy asked. "You look a little green."

"It's nothing. Finish telling me about the werewolves so we can go bag some."

Anger aroused, he couldn't wait to get started.

Hours later Jack was on the verge of losing his mind. It was below freezing outside, and he'd been walking back and forth in a field on the edge of town for what seemed like forever. On top of that, he was bored out of his skull. He didn't even have his brother to talk to because Billy was sitting in his car with a shotgun on his lap. His brother was watching him through binoculars, waiting for a werewolf to attack.

Jack couldn't believe Billy did this for a living. It was worse than fis.h.i.+ng. If a werewolf didn't attack him soon, Jack was going to fall asleep standing up. He cupped his hands around his mouth and blew hot air into them. His fingers had gone numb several minutes ago.

His mind drifted to Silver. He wished she was here backing him up instead of his brother. They would make a great team. For a moment he allowed his mind to wander, and he pictured Silver working with him to dispatch werewolves.

The crack of a shotgun startled him out of his daydream. The bullet whizzed by his face, barely missing him. He started to yell at Billy. Then he noticed Billy running at him, screaming at the top of his lungs for Jack to watch out.

Jack spun around to see a werewolf coming at him. It was the kid from school. Since he was a new werewolf, he couldn't transform into an animal yet, but his eyes glowed in the moonlight. Billy fired again, and this bullet struck the kid in the chest. He stumbled backwards, a hand over the gunshot wound.

Billy yelled, "Get out of the way!"

Jack stood his ground. The kid didn't deserve to die. It wasn't his fault he had been infected by a werewolf. On the other hand, they couldn't just let him go. If he hadn't already killed someone, he would. It was only a matter of time.

The werewolf kid recovered quickly. He charged again, swung wide with his invisible claws, almost clipping Jack on the shoulder. Jack weaved to the left. The new werewolf swung his arm backwards. It struck Jack and knocked him down.

Billy entered the fight.

The werewolf kid turned, grabbed the rifle, and tossed it to the ground before Billy could pull the trigger again. The kid lunged at Billy, but Jack was faster than him. Jack reached out and latched onto the werewolf's feet. He managed to trip the kid.

The werewolf kid went down hard, and Jack climbed up his body, holding him to the ground. The kid was stronger than he looked. Jack could barely keep a grip on him as the werewolf twisted, pulled, and kicked like a rabid animal.

"Get off him," Billy said. "I need to finish him."

"No." He wasn't going to let Billy kill a kid. There had to be another way. Perhaps they could lock the young werewolf up somewhere until they could find and kill the leader. The kid would be free then, human like Jack. He deserved a second chance too.

"Are you crazy?" Billy had the sword ready. "Get off him so I can take care of business."

Jack opened his mouth to tell his brother to forget about it, but the words didn't make it to his lips. The werewolf kid got a surge of energy. He knocked Jack to the side and was off the ground before either hunter had time to react. Billy was the target. The werewolf kid attacked him, and the sword fell to the ground, useless. The werewolf kid prepared to strike Billy with his claws.

Jack reacted on instinct. He swiped at the boy. It was automatic. Metallic claws caught the moonlight and s.h.i.+mmered for a moment before slicing into the werewolf's arm.

The werewolf kid's body began to quake with terrible ferocity. He fell down and had a seizure while Jack stood by, unable to do anything. As abruptly as it started, the shaking stopped. The kid went limp. His eyes stared up at the night sky, unseeing. They glazed over with a milky white substance.

Billy bent over and pressed a couple of fingers against the kid's throat. "He's dead. How did you do that?"

"I don't know," Jack lied.

He stood over the boy's body and stared at him. No longer aware of the frigid air, all he could think about was how he'd taken the kid's life. A decade spent as a vampire, and he hadn't killed a single person. Now he was human for less than a month and he'd killed a young boy.

Jack didn't know how he'd live with that on his conscience.

Chapter Twelve:.

NEW MONSTERS CHECK IN.

It was Friday night, and it looked like the whole school had shown up for the party that Meghan had told him about. One notable person was missing: Silver. There was a mountain of burning wood in the center of the field, a bonfire on the verge of being out of control. Some of the kids had parked their cars in a wide circle, spread out and facing the bonfire. Several radios were tuned to the same station. Music blared from all directions, and a few of the morons had left their headlights on.

Jack picked his way through the crowd, searching for a familiar face. He couldn't stop thinking about the werewolf boy he'd killed last night. This party was supposed to 'take his mind off' the tragic event. He hadn't meant to do it, but his intentions didn't matter now. The boy was dead. That kid wouldn't be getting a second chance, not like Jack.

Tucker Binn ran around the bonfire in a circle, swinging his sweats.h.i.+rt over his head. He tossed it into the fire. His friends laughed and cheered him on. His happy, drunken gaze fell on Jack, and his smile died a quick death. Tucker tried to put on a brave face as he scurried away.

Jack looked down, checked his own shoes out. He desperately wanted to leave. He didn't belong in the company of normal people. If he spent too much time around them, he was afraid they would figure it out, his secret.

Jack glanced up and saw an old friend.

Summer strolled towards him, hands in pockets and an easy smile on her lips. The fire made her hair s.h.i.+mmer like spun gold. When she reached him, she placed a palm on his chest. Summer liked to touch people as she spoke with them. It didn't mean anything-usually.

Jack knew he should walk the other way, but the comfortable feeling her presence brought was impossible to ignore. All week long he had been drowning in the unfamiliar. It was nice to relax, if even for a moment.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I can still smell you a mile away." Summer leaned in, closed her eyes, and breathed deep. She exaggerated a sigh. "Miss me?"

"Sometimes."

"There's a simple cure for that. Come home with me."

He shook his head. "I can't. I'm not like you anymore. I've changed."

"I have the remedy for that." She playfully bit the air; then she performed a throaty laugh. "You and I were meant for each other. We'll die in each other's arms. Promise."

"I thought the whole point of being a vampire was not dying."

A few people danced into them, b.u.mping Summer so hard that she fell against Jack. His hands automatically caught her and memories spilled forth, memories of how good it had been between them. She smiled up at him, triumph in her eyes. The manipulative girl knew she was on the verge of winning him over.

"Sorry," one of the guys muttered as he stumbled away, obviously drunk. A fourth person handed Jack a drink before giving one to Summer as well. Jack grabbed the paper cup with both hands, using it as an excuse to let go of Summer.

She sniffed the drink after the guy walked away. "Hmm. There's alcohol in this punch. Probably vodka."

"Block me so I don't have to be obvious about it."

Summer turned her back, s.h.i.+elding him while he dumped the contents of his cup and hers onto the ground. Vampires couldn't drink alcohol. Booze made them deathly ill. Although he was human for the moment, Jack wasn't prepared to take the risk. According to the Reign family, he was going to regain vampire powers. Perhaps he would also have some of the curses that went with it.

"It's too crowded here," Summer said. She spun back around and pressed her body against his. "We can go to your house. Or you can come home with me. Either way. I'm easy."

It was tempting; being human was harder than he remembered. Maybe he would be better off as a vampire. It wasn't the ideal situation, but he had friends at least. If he went with her, he wouldn't have to worry about returning to school on Monday morning. The Silver situation would be instantly resolved. His destiny would be of his own choosing again.

He sighed. "I can't."

"Why not? Are you seeing someone else?"

Summer inhaled, deeper this time.

Jack stiffened, waiting for the verdict.

"You are," she said. "Why didn't I notice it before? It's a very light scent...faded. You haven't been with her in a couple days, but there is another girl. Who is she?"

There was no use denying it. Summer had the scent and could track Silver if she wanted to, satisfy her curiosity and perhaps even hurt Silver. Better to admit it and try to reason with his former girlfriend. There was nothing worse than an ex with superpowers and a grudge.

"There was a girl, but that's over." He steeled himself to lie. Summer could be fooled by wide eyes and an innocent smile. He knew how to play her. "She was a little n.o.body, just someone to pa.s.s the time with."

Summer smiled, satisfied. "I'm glad you realize there's no one for you but me. Now you need to make up your mind to return to the fold. We love you, and we want you back. Nothing in the mortal world can compare with what we have to offer you."

She held her hand out, and he stared down at it. A desperate part of him wanted to grab onto it and run across the field with her. They could disappear into the night. His brother would get over it, and Silver would be better off without him.

Jack's hand rose of its own volition. He slid his fingers across hers, silky to the touch. A sizzle of electricity pa.s.sed through him. This time it wasn't there to signify a coming flash of memory. It was pure physical attraction. He was going to do it, toss caution aside and run wild just like the good old days.

"Introduce me to your little friend." Jersey's abrupt voice cut through the intimate moment.

Jack jumped and s.n.a.t.c.hed his hand away from the vampire girl, flushed with guilt for considering a return to his b.l.o.o.d.y roots. It especially bothered him that Jersey had been the one to catch him. For some reason the thought of Jersey seeing him in a weak moment crushed his spirit.

Maybe it was because Jersey reminded him of his father.

Summer snarled, flas.h.i.+ng her sharp fangs in a brief lapse of judgment.

"Don't make a scene," Jack hissed into her ear. He looked around just to be sure no one had heard her. The kids continued to laugh, dance, and make general fools of themselves. The noise pollution they were causing drowned the subtle sounds out.

"Do you know what he is?" Summer asked.

Jack nodded, but he didn't elaborate on when or how he'd found out. Details didn't matter to Summer. She was already prepared to hit the proverbial roof over it.