“It’s not possible,” Silver repeated.
“The diary says the head werewolf can only make wraiths when he infects women.
She should be a wraith then, not a werewolf.”
“Don’t you think I know that?”
Jack finally turned sideways to face Silver.
He rested his arm on the back of her seat and leaned in. “Lovely isn’t right about everything.
Isobel says she’s the exception to the rule, and that part I believe.”
Silver absently fingered her necklace.
A frown marred her delicate features.
When she spoke, she seemed to be talking to herself.
“My necklace never burned around her.”
“It didn’t burn around Jersey or the janitor either.”
Jack took her hands, wanting to capture her undivided attention.
“If she is who she says she is, then it wouldn’t burn around her, would it?
She’s the exception to all the damn rules.”
“That makes sense… I guess.”
Silver stared deep into his eyes.
“Now the question is what do we do about it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Should we warn my mom and dad?”
“I don’t think we should tell anyone yet.”
Her voice took on a desperate edge.
“We have to do something.
If Jersey sent Isobel back to the school, he’s seriously up to something.
I have a bad feeling he sent her for you.”
His heart skipped a beat, worried Silver might suspect what was going on between the werewolf-girl and him.
“What do you mean?”
“Jersey has this weird thing for you.
It’s like he thinks the two of you are connected in some way, like you were brothers in a different life or something.
He doesn’t want to kill you, so we can assume she’s not here to do the job.”
“No doubt.
He’s really into destiny and believes his destiny is to kill me himself.”
“If he sent her, it’s for an entirely different purpose.
But what?
What could he possibly want her to do?”
“Maybe we should ask her.”
Silver nodded, but fear glimmered in her deep blue eyes.
“Do you think she’s still at your house?
We could try to talk to her now.”
Jack almost pulled the key from his pocket to start the car again and take off with her.
His eyes went to Silver’s home, the glowing windows and occasional shadows of the people inside waiting to celebrate with him.
They’d gone to a lot of trouble to put together this birthday party for him.
He couldn’t leave without a good explanation, and he didn’t want to tell anyone about Isobel yet.
“She can wait.
We’ll track her down tomorrow.”
He forced a smile.
“We’d better get back inside before your father comes looking for you.
It’s my birthday.
I’d rather not be shot today.”
Her face brightened.
“That’s right.
I didn’t get a chance to say happy birthday to you yet.”
Silver leaned forward and briefly touched her lips to his.
She breathed, “Happy birthday, Jack,” in an airy voice.
It sent a shiver of excitement through his entire body, making him wish they could be alone.
Then she asked, “Do you know what you’ll wish for?”
******
Ten minutes later Jack blew out the candles amidst a small group of clapping friends.
He hadn’t told Silver what he was going to wish for, telling her instead that he wasn’t sure.
It was a lie.
He wished for a quick end to the werewolf problem.
He wished for a ‘normal’ world to live in.
The most important part of the wish—he wished that he could be with Silver forever.
He lifted his head and smiled at her as the last candle flickered out.
They shared a brief moment before her father’s booming voice reminded them that they weren’t alone.
Andrew raised a glass of punch.
“Here’s to Jack finally reaching eighteen.
May he get
really,
really old and gray like the rest of us.”
His wife playfully jabbed him in the ribs.
“Speak for yourself.”
“I am, honey.”
Andrew laughed, putting an arm around her.
“You don’t look a day over twenty.”
“Right.”
Vanessa’s eyes rolled.
Everyone raised a glass and all eyes went to Jack.
He inwardly squirmed under the scrutiny of family and friends.
It had been a long time since he’d been involved in such a celebration, a long time since anyone had cared enough to celebrate something with him.
“Speech!”
Billy shouted.
“Speech!
Speech!”
Vanessa joined in.
Silver manipulated Jack to the center of the room before abandoning him.
His throat dried up, and his chest tightened as if several invisible steel bands encircled it.
He could hardly breathe.
What was he supposed to say?
“I…uh…”
He cleared his throat.
“I guess I should start by saying thank you.
This was totally unexpected, and I can honestly say I was surprised.”
There were a few chuckles.
Looking at their smiling faces, Jack realized he did have some things to say.
He decided to do what his mom would have told him to do in this situation: speak from the heart.
“I was seventeen for ten years, no hope of becoming a man.
I wish I could make you all understand what it was like, how empty I felt, how time became meaningless.
If you knew what it was like to be a vampire for a decade and suddenly get a chance to have a life again, then you would understand what this means to me.”
A tear slipped down Vanessa’s cheek, but she continued to smile.
He went on.
“I’m not good at making speeches.
In fact this is my first one… and hopefully my last.
I wish I could find the words to describe how I’m feeling right now, how grateful I am to all of you.
“The vampires I hung with didn’t remember their birthdays, so I learned how to let mine pass without notice.
My friends wanted me to forget special days just like they wanted me to forget about my family, forget I was ever human, and for a while I kind of did.
Now I stand before you a changed man.”
He grinned and added, “I’m finally legal.”
Thunderous applause erupted in the small room even though there were only four people clapping.
Vanessa hugged him.
Andrew thumped him on the back the way his father used to do sometimes.
Silver kissed him on the cheek.
A secret smile in her eyes told him she was remembering their earlier kiss.
Him too.
She went to help her mother cut the cake.
“Welcome home, Jack,” Billy said.
Jack nodded.
“Thank you.”
Vanessa handed him a small box.
“I don’t know where this one came from.
It was on the table with the other presents.
There’s no card.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t open that until we check it out,” Andrew said, but it was too late.
Jack had already flipped the lid off.
He gazed into the small box.
A white card rested inside a pile of tissue.
That was it.
He opened the card and read the message.
It was from Jersey.
The words chilled Jack down to the marrow in his bones.
“What is it?” Silver asked.
She took the card from him and read it aloud.
“Happy Birthday, Jack.
I hope you like my little surprise.
Jersey.”
“Surprise?”
Billy scowled.
“What the hell does that mean?”
Andrew said, “He’s up to no good obviously, but what else is new?
You’ll need to be on your guard, Jack.”
Worried, Vanessa stroked Jack’s arm as she suggested, “Maybe you should stay downstairs in the mansion for a while.”
Jack shook his head, pretending he wasn’t concerned.
“Knowing Jersey, he’s sending me a new book.
He just likes to shock people and make them nervous.”
“Maybe.”
Billy rubbed his jaw.
“Maybe not.
It might be a good idea, you staying in the mansion.”
“You should both stay,” Vanessa said.
“If he can’t get to Jack, he could decide his brother is the next best thing.”
Silver stood so close to Jack that he could feel her breath on his cheek.
Her anxious eyes were on his face, urging him to listen to her mother.
She pleaded, “Do it.
Stay in the mansion.”
“Until when?”
Jack threw his hands up in the air.
“Until Jersey’s surprise is revealed?
Or until we catch him and kill him?
No offense, but I don’t want to live in your basement for the next ten years, even if has over thirty bedrooms.
I kind of like looking out windows from time to time.
And anyway, the mansion used to belong to Jersey.
If he really wanted to, he could probably get back inside without being seen.”
Andrew said, “He’s got a point.”
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa put a hand on Jack’s back.
“It’s so dangerous for you out there right now.
I wish there was something we could do to make you safer.”
He smiled at her, and a warm feeling spread over his flesh.
She reminded him so much of his mom.
The way she looked at him made him feel extra vulnerable.
He tried to shake the feeling.
“I’m a big boy.
I can take care of myself.”
Billy looped an arm around his neck.
“Fortunately you don’t have to.
You’ve got me.”
He pushed Billy away, feeling a wave of nausea wash over him.
He raced from the room and straight into the bathroom where he was violently sick.
After he stopped puking he felt a lot better.
He hoped Vanessa wouldn’t try to force a piece of birthday cake down his throat.
The last thing he wanted to do now was eat.
Jack turned the faucet on and splashed his face with cool water again and again.
The water dripped off his hot cheeks.
He swallowed several times while silently demanding his stomach calm down.
Every second he went without vomiting was a small battle won.
While he was hanging over the sink, he replayed Jersey’s words in his head.
Whatever the surprise was, it was going to be bad.
“Are you okay?” Billy asked from the doorway.
“I’m fine.
Give me a sec.”
What a way to end his birthday.
Billy reluctantly walked away.
A flash of his former friend Cowboy showing him a backwards peace sign came to mind.
Cowboy said, “Vampires rule, buddy.”
Jack stared at his pale reflection in the mirror.
He imagined it smiling at him, flashing a backwards peace sign and quoting Cowboy.
“Vampires rule,” the image said.
He shook his head and verbally disagreed.
“No.
Being human, that’s what I want.”
But at the moment he wasn’t real happy to be mortal because he hated throwing up more than anything else in the world.
He waited for his stomach to settle before rejoining the others.
Vanessa had a piece of cake for him.
He couldn’t eat it.
She told him she would wrap it up for him to take home.
Everyone watched him closely after that.
They wanted to know what had made him sick.
He didn’t want to worry anyone, so he didn’t tell them he’d been feeling ill for a long time.
He hadn’t been himself since being stabbed by that werewolf.
A flash of a bloody body beneath Tobias made him cringe.
Another wave of nausea washed over him.
It was the worst thing he could remember seeing.
He couldn’t imagine hurting a person, a human being like that, but he’d done it.
Okay, it had been done in another life.
His name had been Tobias then.
Maybe Tobias Blackstone was more responsible than Jack Creed, but he was still the same person inside, wasn’t he?
He watched
Silver
laughing at something her father had said.
Jack wondered how he was going to tell her about his previous life.