Werewolves Rule (The Rule Series) Page 4

  “Knock it off, jerk.” Billy gave him a gentle push.

  Their good-natured fight escalated.

  Jack grabbed Billy around the neck, putting him in a wrestling hold Tucker Binn had shown him. Although he’d had a fight with Tucker on his first day of school, the two of them had become friends. Tucker was a good guy, obsessed with wrestling. Jack had Billy’s head locked under one arm. Billy struggled to get free. It took him a few seconds. Then he spun around and knocked Jack on the bed. They wrestled on the mattress until Jack’s foot kicked wildly and knocked the lamp off the bedside table.

  The loud crash made them leap apart.

  Their gazes traveled to the shattered lamp. Then they looked at each other. Billy’s expression mirrored Jack’s as they remembered the same event, the time they’d broken their mom’s favorite vase while wrestling downstairs. Spontaneous laughter erupted in the small room. Jack laughed until his stomach hurt and tears flooded his eyes. He rolled around on the bed, holding his stomach, unable to stop the laughter. Billy couldn’t seem to stop either.

  For the first time in years it felt like he had a real brother.

  ******

  A few hours later Jack found himself alone with nothing interesting to do. He was bored out of his mind. Billy had gone into town to see his girlfriend and wouldn’t be home until morning. After walking aimlessly through the house several times, Jack picked up a worn copy of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

  Lying on the couch, feet elevated on the back and a throw pillow beneath his head, Jack slid another page over. He lost himself among the hobbits and his problems melted away, small in comparison to Frodo’s. Time passed quickly. He barely noticed when the sun stopped peeking through the parted curtains. Instinct on automatic, he reached up and turned on the lamp so he could continue to read.

  A car’s engine rumbled closer and closer. It stopped a few yards from the living room window. Jack wondered if Billy had returned early for some reason. He kept reading with the hope that Billy wouldn’t want to watch television. Jack didn’t feel like taking the book to his bedroom, but he wouldn’t be able to read with loud noise in the background.

  The front door opened. He didn’t bother to look up from the engrossing story until a hand grabbed his sock-covered foot and gently pinched his toes. Silver smiled down at him. He immediately tossed the book to the coffee table and jumped off the couch, happy to see her. He rounded the brown suede sofa to give Silver a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.

  Blanca, who’d been sitting in Billy’s favorite chair, jumped down with a hiss.

  “I don’t think your cat likes me,” Silver said.

  “Don’t worry about it. She gets jealous sometimes. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming over? I thought you were studying tonight.”

  She shrugged. “I had to see you.”

  He liked the sound of that. “You want a drink or something?”

  “No thanks.”

  Silver seemed agitated. Jack sat back down on the sofa, but Silver walked around the room, twisting her fingers. Her eyes rarely touched upon him. In seconds she was dusting off a table and rearranging the stuff on it. Her actions didn’t surprise him. Silver cleaned when she got nervous.

  “What’s wrong?” he finally asked.

  “There’s a rumor floating around school that you had a huge fight with Hardwick today. Please tell me it wasn’t true.”

  Jack smiled, relieved. “It was nothing.”

  “That’s not what I heard. They say you threatened to tear his head off.”

  Actually he had threatened to rip Hardwick’s face off, but that didn’t mater. He smiled and shook his head. “Totally untrue.”

  “Hardwick didn’t kick you out of school then?”

  “Of course not.” Principal Hardwick was enjoying watching Jack suffer too much to suspend him. “If he had, I would have called you. You are my attorney, you know.”

  A smile brightened Silver’s face. She finally crossed the room to sit next to him. Her arms slid around his waist, and she hugged him tight. The side of her face pressed against his chest. “I am so glad to hear that. I’d be crushed if we couldn’t graduate together. Please don’t do anything to screw that up. Okay? Promise?”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be good.”

  He hugged her back. Her words reinforced his belief that he should keep her in the dark about his serious lack of credits. Somehow, he vowed, he would find a way to graduate with her. He was not going to let her down, not when she was getting so close to leaving him for college.

  She pulled away and asked, “Are you keeping something from me?”

  “Why do you keep asking me that?”

  “Because I can tell when you’re holding secrets back.” She stood, putting distance between them. “You get a funny, far away look on your face. I thought we agreed not to lie to each other anymore.”

  It was time for a fake-out. He could throw her off the trail of one secret by exposing another. It was an old trick he’d used with his parents, old but effective. He took a deep breath, hoping he wasn’t making a horrible mistake. “You remember me being stabbed by the werewolf and not healing as fast as I usually do?”

  She nodded, her expression growing more concerned by the second.

  Quickly he added, “There was a crew of vampires waiting here for me after the fight. I was tired and in pain, and I didn’t think there was any way I could handle them by myself.”

  “But you did.”

  “Not exactly.” He stood slowly. “A hunter saved me.”

  Silver frowned. “A hunter? Who?”

  “Her name isn’t important. The thing is, I dreamed about her before I saw her.”

  “Really?” Silver crossed her arms over her chest, and her facial muscles tightened. “Is she pretty? What kind of a dream was it? It wasn’t like our shared dreams, was it? She wasn’t really there with you, right?”

  He shook his head furiously and held his hands up. “No no no no no. It was nothing like that.”

  “Then what was it like?”

  Was Silver jealous? The thought gave Jack hope for their future. Apparently he’d been off base about her caring more about school than she cared about him. He caught a glimpse of the green-eyed-monster, and he liked it. He wanted her to be jealous as long as it didn’t bite him in the butt later.

  Jack sighed and raked a hand through his hair, temporarily moving bangs out of his eyes. Maybe he should have given her the news about not graduating instead. She might have taken it better. He decided to skip the part about being a werewolf. “Uh…she killed me in the dream.”

  “Oh.” Silver’s arms dropped to her sides. “I’m sorry. But like I told you before, I have bad dreams too. It’s nothing to get upset over. Why wouldn’t you want to tell me about it?”

  Because I loved her.

  “Because it’s creepy and weird. I dream she kills me, and then she shows up to save me... and there’s more.”

  “Tell me.”

  “I saw her again later that night. She was standing outside the house, watching my window. She knows I used to be a vampire, and I think she wants to kill me for real now.”

  “I won’t let that happen.”

  Silver stepped into his arms, and they held each other for a couple of minutes. It was almost like old times. She was trying to comfort him, but that wasn’t what Jack needed. Her concern heaped burning coals onto his head. He was a liar. He certainly didn’t deserve to have Silver’s trust. Jack kissed the side of her face before releasing her.

  The rumbling sound of a car engine signaled a new arrival. “Billy’s home early,” he said.

  But it wasn’t Billy. The front door opened, and Silver’s father entered without the benefit of knocking. Andrew Reign scowled at the two of them. Jack stepped sideways, giving Silver some serious elbow room. At least her father didn’t have his shotgun with him.

  Silver threw her hands up. “I can’t believe you. What, are you following me now? Did you think you woul
d catch me and Jack making out? I’m going to be eighteen soon. You can’t control me forever.”

  “First of all, you had better watch your tone with me, young lady.” Andrew wagged a finger at her. “You may be close to eighteen, but you aren’t there yet. Second of all, I didn’t follow you here. I came to speak with Jack about a matter that doesn’t concern you. Maybe you should go home now, and let the two of us talk. You and I will have a conversation about what you were doing here later.”

  “But, Dad—.”

  “You told your mother you were going to be in your room all night studying. She’s going to be upset if she goes upstairs and finds you gone.”

  Silver gave Jack an apologetic look before leaving. Andrew waited for the sound of her car to fade before he turned on Jack. Jabbing the air with his finger, Andrew said, “I am not even going to ask you what you were doing here alone with my daughter. You do anything to hurt her, and I will blast a hole clean through you.”

  Jack’s eyes dropped to the item in Andrew’s other hand. He recognized the worn leather book immediately. It was Lovely’s journal. The faerie who had created the first werewolf had kept a diary with a lot of useful information including several pages of visions she’d had about the future. A few of those visions were about Jack.

  Andrew tossed the book to him.

  Jack caught it between both hands. His eyes narrowed on Andrew’s face as he wondered why the man was giving him the book after he’d already read it. What was he supposed to do with it?

  “There’s another page,” Andrew said.

  “Huh?”

  “Since you appeared on the scene, the diary has been changing. We didn’t tell you because the new passages didn’t really concern you... until now.” He poked a finger in the book’s direction. “Check the last page.”

  Jack flipped it open to the end. There was indeed a brand new page, although it was yellowed like the other pages as if it had always been there. The paragraph was in the faerie’s disjointed handwriting. His eyes swept over it, and he read it three times before looking up at Andrew.

  “What does it mean?” Jack asked.

  “It means you’re going to die soon.” Andrew rubbed the bottom half of his face. “The question is how. Lovely’s vision has you dying at the hands of your ‘werewolf kin.’ But that isn’t possible because you aren’t a werewolf.”

  Jack swallowed hard. He wasn’t a werewolf anymore, but at one time he had been a werewolf named Tobias. The truth chilled him to the bone as he realized it hadn’t been a simple dream. It had been a warning. He knew that for a fact now, just like he knew he had been a vampire last year.

  He also knew a brunette hunter named Isobel had killed him.

  And she wanted to revisit the past by doing it again.

  ******

  Chapter Four:

  ANOTHER HUNTER AT SCHOOL

  “I’m not going to graduate if you don’t help me.” Jack said, his tone dripping with quiet desperation.

  It was the day after Andrew’s surprise visit, and Jack had returned to school with his priorities in check. Graduate first; stay alive second. His goal to be normal was in jeopardy. With that in mind, he had gone straight to the new English teacher to plead his case.

  Ian Carver, planted behind Jersey’s old desk, looked at Jack over the rim of his glasses with visible annoyance. The man had to be at least forty-two with a full head of dark hair and a stubble-covered face. His eyes burned with a special sort of loathing every time they touched upon Jack.

  “And what am I supposed to do about this problem of yours?” Carver asked with a slight English accent. “Seems to me the dice have been cast.”

  “You could let me into your Advanced Literature class.”

  “The school year is nearing an end.”

  “I know, but I can catch up on the work. I can write the reports on the books you’ve already gone through. I don’t expect any special treatment—.”

  “Good.” Carver grunted. “You won’t be receiving any from me.”

  “Megan Welch showed me the list of assigned books for the semester, and I’m familiar with most of them already. I can do the work. Just give me a chance.”

  “The students tell me you were close to my predecessor, Jersey Clifford. What sort of a teacher was the man?”

  What did that have to do with anything?

  Jack shrugged, taken aback by the question. “He seemed to love literature, quoted poetry a lot, and everyone liked him.”

  “That’s bloody useless information.” Carver’s probing gaze drilled a hole between Jack’s eyes. “From what I hear, the man lied to keep you out of trouble.”

  Someone had opened their big mouth and told the new teacher about his fight with Tucker’s friend John. A few months ago Jack had been unable to control his temper. The werewolf side of him had been fighting to dominate the human side. Being a freak came with its own set of problems. He’d gone from easy-going to having the shortest fuse in history.

  “I didn’t ask him to lie for me,” Jack mumbled.

  “But you didn’t offer to tell the truth either. That shows a disturbing lack of integrity.”

  “Are you going to let me take the class or not?”

  “Unlike my predecessor, I have a tendency to give students the grade they deserve.” Carver sighed. “Have the first two reports on my desk Monday morning. If they aren’t spot on, you can forget about receiving a passing grade from me.”

  Relief flooded Jack’s system. An easy smile came to his lips, but he tried to keep it to a minimum. No point in ruining things now by seeming overly confident. The new teacher didn’t strike Jack as someone who tolerated arrogance of any kind. He thanked Carver before turning for the door. When his hand encompassed the doorknob, Carver smashed his short-lived euphoria to bits.

  “Of course you will need a signed letter of consent from the principal.”

  That wasn’t going to happen. Jack’s world deflated. Hardwick loved seeing Jack twist in agony over the thought of not graduating on time. The man certainly wasn’t going to do anything to help him. Jack turned and opened his mouth to suggest an alternative.

  Carver held a hand up to silence Jack before he had the chance to speak. “I am afraid there is little I can do on this point. Even if I allowed you into my class and gave you a passing grade at the end of the year, the principal would have the right to veto it. It would be so much better to have him on our side from day one.”

  Right. Jack would work on getting Hardwick’s approval as soon as he taught Blanca to fly. The door burst open, and students scrambled into the classroom, inadvertently pushing Jack to the side. There was nothing left to be said. Carver turned away from him, effectively dismissing him.

  Now what was he going to do? Consult Silver? Give in and take a summer school class? Drop out entirely?

  He was deep in thought, head down as he walked to his first class, and he wasn’t looking where he was going. A hard body ran smack into him. She hit him like a speeding freight train and knocked him off his feet. He landed on his backside with a hard thump. Air whooshed from his lungs, and his elbow struck the linoleum. Pain radiated up his arm. Books, a collection of his and hers, slid across the floor. Papers flew through the air like over-sized parade confetti. A couple of them floated down to land on Jack’s prone body. He looked up to see the girl of his nightmares standing over him.

  Isobel remained steady on her feet, a knowing grin on her face. “Hey there, it’s the vampire who isn’t a vampire. You go to school here? Seriously? You aren’t like an eighty-year-old perv, are you?”

  Jack’s head swung around to check the hallway for eavesdroppers. Fortunately the closest student was too far away to hear anything. Jack glared at Isobel. He struggled to stand but kept his eyes on her the whole time. He didn’t trust her for a single second. There was something about her, something dangerous.

  “I’m a senior,” he said.

  “No kidding? I’m a senior.” Isobel laughed, a sho
rt burst that sounded totally out of character for her. “I was a senior last year, but I dropped out.”

  “Why?”

  Rolling her eyes, she explained, “Principal Hardwick was riding my ass every day of every week of every month of every year. I couldn’t sneeze without getting called into the man’s office. It was either leave school or kill him, so I quit and moved away.”

  “You probably made the right choice.” He wanted to tell her to get lost, but curiosity kept his tongue from forming the words. He didn’t notice the hallway had emptied. “Why come back now?”

  “I only lack a few credits, so I made arrangements to finish. Dropping out just isn’t cool, you know.”

  She was lying. Her words didn’t mesh with her facial expression which told him she didn’t believe a word she was saying. Jack had a bad feeling about this. Had she returned to school because of him? Was she hunting him, playing cat and mouse with him? What?

  The bell rang. Jack looked up at the clock above the lockers and hissed between his teeth. Now he was going to be tardy. “Great.”

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  “I’m late, and now I have to go to the office to get a tardy slip or Beckett won’t let me in the door.”

  She snickered. “Does he still lock his students out when they’re late? Something’s wrong with that man, I swear.”

  Jack picked up his books and headed to the office. Isobel followed. When he asked her what she thought she was doing, she said, “I have History with Beckett too. If you need a tardy slip to get in, so do I.”

  Why did he have the feeling that Isobel wasn’t taking the class by accident?

  Because his gut screamed at him, warning him to watch out for her, and his gut was rarely wrong.

  He felt her eyes boring into his back the whole way there. Her soft footsteps filled his ears until he couldn’t hear anything else. He wanted to confront her while he had the chance, demand some answers, but he didn’t want to give up any information. He didn’t want her to know about the dream.

  When they reached the office, Jack went in first. Pretending Isobel wasn’t behind him, he told the secretary what he needed. He placed his arms on the counter and leaned against it while the woman searched for the tardy slips. Isobel stood at his side, too close for his liking. Her body brushed against him with every movement no matter how slight. Every time she took a breath, he felt it.