Isobel hadn’t told him to use a gentle touch.
Silver added, “You can practice on me.”
“No way.”
He folded his arms in defiance.
“I am not going to try to steal your soul.
I might go too far and accidentally hurt you.”
“I wasn’t asking you to take my soul.”
She closed the distance between them.
“The first step is to get used to touching someone’s soul.
Look into my eyes.
Focus.
Reach out to me with your soul.
You don’t need to use negative emotion for this part, not with me.
Just reach out and touch me.”
Her voice had dropped to a seductive level.
Jack stared into her beautiful blue eyes.
He concentrated on getting closer to her.
Within a brief amount of time he felt himself sinking, but it wasn’t an unpleasant sensation this time.
Drawn to her, his soul moved faster and faster.
This was different than his mock battles with Isobel.
Instead of finding himself in a Hell-like location, he was standing in a field of clouds.
There had been an abyss between him and Isobel, but Silver stood a few feet from him.
Her skin glowed, and her eyes shimmered.
Were they in Heaven?
She spoke, and her voice had a melodic quality.
“Can you feel my soul, Jack?”
He nodded.
She asked him, “What does it feel like?”
Jack considered the question carefully.
Even though he had been inside of her mind before, hearing her thoughts as if they were his own, this was far more intimate.
Their souls melded together.
Everything about her became a part of him.
Euphoria had him practically floating.
It was like her soul came in layers.
At first he sensed her general personality: sweetness, tenderness, and a fierce independence.
The second layer enveloped him.
It housed her obsession with becoming a lawyer.
He experienced her deep need to achieve this dream, and he finally understood her motives.
Her dream wasn’t taking her away from him.
She actually wanted to share it with him.
Another layer gone.
Next, the love she had for the people in her life surrounded him.
It was a tangible thing.
There was the strong affection she had for her father.
Although she argued with him constantly and didn’t show proper respect at times, she looked up to him.
Then there was the way she felt about her mother.
They were at odds a lot because Silver was fighting to be her own person.
This emotion confused her at times.
She felt simultaneously drawn to get closer to her mother but also a strong urge to put distance between them.
Trina, her best friend, had a small place in her heart too.
Like a footnote at the end of a precious piece of writing, he found a surprise.
He smiled in awe.
“You love me.”
“I tried to tell you.
My feelings for you were never in question.
When you jumped into my head, I was having a bad night.
I was angry and confused and didn’t know what to think.
If I jumped into your head at the wrong moment, I’d probably think you didn’t love me either.”
“I understand how you feel about being a lawyer now.”
Her eyes widened.
“You do?”
“Yes.
And I want you to be happy.
I want you to do whatever it is you need to do to have the life you want.”
“I hope you really mean that… because I got an acceptance yesterday.
It’s number four on the list of my top schools.”
His heart missed a beat.
“That’s awesome.
I knew you could do it.
Good for you.”
He was proud of her but sad for him at the same time.
“You aren’t worried about me leaving anymore?” she asked.
“You’ll come back to me.”
The certainty in his tone surprised them both.
He was even more stunned to realize he actually meant it.
No matter how far she went, no matter how long she was gone, they would be together in the end.
It was destiny.
“What was it like when you touched Isobel’s soul?” she asked.
“It was dark and twisted, and we battled in a Hell-like place.”
Silver nodded.
“I guess I never warned you about that.
The place you battle depends on the werewolf’s personality.
The strongest and most powerful werewolves fight you in a place of fire.
Weaker ones sometimes will battle you in more familiar surroundings.
One time I actually had to take on a werewolf in a shopping mall type location.”
“Shopping mall?”
Jack laughed.
“What were you fighting?
A Paris Hilton werewolf?”
Silver glared at him.
“Not funny.
It might sound stupid, but that werewolf was extremely hard to kill.
And speaking of hard to kill werewolves, what are you going to do about Isobel if she comes back?”
“You don’t have to worry about her.
She has the rock now, so I doubt she’ll return.
If she does, I’ll tear her head off.”
Silver stared at him for a long moment before asking, “What about the werewolf trap?
Aren’t we going to try to get information out of her?
We still don’t know if she’s working for Jersey.
We could use the trap to find out about the rock.”
Placing a werewolf like Isobel in a trap was too dangerous.
He’d harbored doubts all along on whether they could build one strong enough to hold a werewolf that old.
She would probably find a way out, and then she’d turn the tables on them.
Perhaps kill them.
It wasn’t worth the risk.
“I know she’s working for Jersey,” he said.
“I know she is.
We don’t need to ask her.
She would just lie anyway.”
He wondered if he should tell Silver about their past lives.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked.
“Your face just got all serious.”
He looked around at the beautiful clouds resting against pale blue sky.
It was absolutely perfect.
A smile raised the corners of his mouth.
“I was just thinking this place is better than the woods we dream about.
I wonder if we could make this our meeting place from now on.”
“I don’t think it works like that.”
“Too bad.”
He lifted his hand, moved a few stray strands of blond hair out of her eyes.
“So do you want to go back now or just hang around here for a while?”
“I think you get the point.
Once you’ve touched the soul of a werewolf you need to grab on tight.
Block out everything else.
Don’t worry about your surroundings.
No matter how bad it is you have to focus on the fight.”
“Let’s practice it on a real werewolf, see if I can do it.”
Silver looked doubtful.
“Why do I get the feeling you already have a werewolf in mind?”
“Because I do.”
Jack’s mouth tightened.
“I want to go after the one who stabbed me, the one with the silver knife.”
A sad smile lingered on Silver’s lips, but she nodded in agreement.
She didn’t have to say the words.
He knew.
She was afraid he was going to die taking on a werewolf too strong for him, but it was a risk he was willing to take.
He needed to kill that werewolf before Billy tried or his brother wasn’t going to get himself killed.
******
Chapter Nineteen:
SPY
The school finally reopened.
Even the students who worked hard not to learn anything seemed to be glad.
Bliss was a small, boring town, or so most of them thought.
Jack was anxious to get back to his normal routine.
Since he’d spent the night at Silver’s home, they took her car into town.
She let him drive, a small display of trust.
Maybe things were going to work out between them after all.
They were learning to trust and to share with each other.
Jack placed his hand on the door to the school’s office.
He hesitated.
In his other hand were the three reports he’d written for Ian Carver—his uncle.
The news of his father having a brother still rocked his senses.
He tried to remember a time when his father had made a mistake, let something slip about having family outside of them, but he couldn’t.
His father had been flawless at keeping secrets.
His mother too.
It was a trait Jack had unfortunately inherited.
Part of him wanted to get to know his uncle.
Another part of him felt disloyal for even thinking about it.
If his father had wanted Ian to be in their lives, he would have introduced them to the man.
There wasn’t even a mention of the missing uncle in their father’s Will.
If there had been, Billy would have mentioned it.
Silver stood by his side.
Reading his expression, she said, “You don’t have to talk to Ian if you don’t want to.
I mean, he’s a cool guy, but that doesn’t mean you have to get all buddy-buddy with him.”
“I have to give him my homework.”
“Yeah, that’s another thing.
You don’t have him as a teacher, so are you doing homework for him?”
Jack confessed.
“Hardwick told me I don’t have enough credits to graduate.
But now that he’s gone, my brand new uncle is giving me a chance to make up the work.
I have a ton of book reports to do for him before the semester ends.”
Silver gaped at him.
“You aren’t graduating, and you didn’t tell me?”
“I’m graduating now.
Weren’t you listening?”
“If Hardwick didn’t die, you wouldn’t have graduated though.
Right?
And you weren’t going to tell me either.
Were you?”
He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.
“I was going to tell you... eventually.”
She spun on one foot and stormed off.
He would have yelled after her or raced to catch up with her, but there were other students in the hallway, and he didn’t want to draw unwanted attention to himself.
Most of the students thought he’d killed Hardwick.
Better not to make a scene.
Before he had the chance to change his mind, Jack shoved the office door open.
He went inside, asked the secretary if he could have a minute with the acting-principal.
She stared at him, mouth open.
He could practically see the mini-movie playing in her head.
She was reliving the last time he’d gone in to see the principal, the day Hardwick had died.
Ian saved her the trouble of announcing Jack’s arrival over the intercom.
He opened his door as if he knew he’d find Jack standing there and motioned for him to step inside.
Jack took a last look at the secretary.
He forced a smile.
In the past he had been able to charm the woman, but things had changed.
She watched him with paranoid suspicion.
It bothered him.
He’d expected the kids to look at him differently—not the adults.
He wished the police would find Hardwick’s killer.
Jack went into Ian’s new office.
Hardwick’s belongings had been removed.
The desk appeared less cluttered.
Ian took a seat behind the desk.
“And what can I do for you on this lovely Monday morning?”
“I have those reports you wanted.”
Jack handed them to Ian and waited for his reaction.
Ian flipped through them.
“They appear to be in a semblance of order.
You still have ten more to do.
I suggest you don’t procrastinate.”
Jack sat in the chair across from the desk and remembered the last time he’d planted his butt in that particular seat.
Hardwick had been shouting at him for skipping a class.
Now the man was dead, and his uncle was in charge.
Sometimes it was funny how things worked out.
“Do you like being the new principal?”
Ian stared at him without saying a word for several seconds.
Then he shrugged his shoulders beneath the dark sports jacket.
“It’s only a temporary position, so it doesn’t matter if I like it or not.”
The bell rang, signaling the start of classes.
Ian glanced at the door before saying, “You haven’t told Billy about me.”
“How do you know?”
“I haven’t heard from him.”
Ian leaned back in the leather office chair.
“Quite frankly, I was expecting him to call or stop by with a long list of questions.
Obviously you haven’t enlightened him.”
“I’m going to do it,” Jack insisted.
“Last night just wasn’t the right time.
Billy had a lot going on.
I’ll probably tell him later today.”
Ian nodded.
His eyes went to the door again as if he was expecting somebody.
“It must have been difficult for you hearing that you have a… an uncle you didn’t know about.
How are you handling it?”
That was an excellent question.
Jack hadn’t had time to deal with it yet.
Five minutes after being told about Ian, he had been chasing a werewolf.
Now that he had a moment to breathe, he took inventory of his feelings.
He didn’t trust Ian Carver.
That hadn’t changed.
His gut rallied against the man, warning Jack to carefully consider Ian’s every word, weighing each for a grain of truth.
On the other hand, Vanessa Reign obviously trusted him.
Maybe that should be enough for Jack.
The woman was generally a good judge of character.
She had given him a chance, after all, while her husband had wanted to dismember him.
“I’m willing to give the family thing a shot,” he said.
“Good.
We can take it slow and get to know each other.”
Vanessa had warned Jack that Ian loved to travel.
He was on the move constantly, roaming from town to town and taking care of the monsters in residence.
He never stayed in one place for long.
She wasn’t sure how long he would hang around.
It was possible that Jack wouldn’t have enough time to get to know Ian.
Jack stood.
“I should get to class.”
Ian glanced up at the huge clock.
“It appears that you are tardy.
Allow me to write you a note.”
He scribbled a brief message on a pastel green square piece of paper.
“There.
That should suffice.”
Jack took the note.
He shook Ian’s hand before walking out of the office.
When he’d first met Ian he had thought the man was a bit of a wimp, but now he could see an aura of danger around him.
There was something hidden in those dark eyes, something scary.
Hopefully Ian Carver was exactly what he portrayed himself to be: an uncle wanting to get to know his family.
The secretary did her best to look busy, too busy to look up at Jack.
She bent over her desk and thumbed through several school forms.
He wondered if his teachers would also treat him differently, thinking him guilty of killing the principal.
Stepping into the hallway, he saw he wasn’t the only one late for class.
There was another person in the brightly lit corridor.
Isobel stood next to her open locker.
It was the first time he’d seen her since she’d stolen the magic rock.
She removed a book from the metal cabinet, taking her sweet time.
When she saw Jack, she waved him over.
He didn’t mind.
In fact, he had wanted to talk to Isobel.
Alone.
“You didn’t meet me for our lesson,” she said.
“I’m not practicing with you anymore.”
“Why not?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice it was gone?
You didn’t even put my mattress back.
How stupid do you think I am?”
“I don’t know.
How stupid are you?”
She slowly shook her head.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I didn’t touch your stupid mattress.”
“Right.
And you didn’t take the magic rock either.”
“I didn’t.”
Her dark eyes widened a fraction, and her tone took on an indignant ripple.
“I didn’t take anything from you.
I’m not a thief.”
Right, and she wasn’t working with Jersey either.
Problem was he didn’t believe a word that came out of her lying mouth anymore.
If she claimed the sky was blue, he would go outside to check.
Like all other werewolves, she couldn’t be trusted.
Jack leaned forward, his lips a mere inch from her ear.
He pronounced each word slowly, dragging it out so she would know he was serious.
“I want that rock back.
If you don’t return it today, I’m coming after it, and I’m coming after you.
Tell your boss that.”
Without giving her a chance to lie again, he swung around and headed for class.
The urge to turn and look at her hit him.
It was almost too strong for him to refuse.
He set his jaw against it and continued on.
******
But Jack didn’t go to class.
Before he reached the door, an idea surfaced.
Since Isobel wouldn’t tell him the truth, he would have to use his power.
First he would need a quiet
place,
somewhere no one would interrupt him.
The janitor’s closet caught his eye.
The school hadn’t replaced the werewolf-janitor yet.
They had a professional cleaning crew come in once a week.
Teachers and students had been assigned specific chores to keep the school looking nice in-between serious cleanings.
So no one was using the janitor’s closet—except for the occasional couple who would pop in for a quick kiss or two.
Jack glanced up and down the hallway, making sure there were no witnesses before he stepped inside.
He closed the door firmly behind him.
It was a small room.
Cleaning equipment and supplies took up most of the space.
He barely had room to stand.
Jack braced himself, setting one hand on each shelf.
It smelled like a mixture of bleach and mold.
His nose wrinkled.
How was he supposed to concentrate with that obnoxious odor in his nose?
He closed his eyes.
Instead of focusing on Isobel, he chose to work on Jersey.
The head werewolf obviously knew who was working for him.
Besides that, Jack had visited Jersey’s memory before.
He thought that might give him an advantage.
It worked.
A sizzling current shot through Jack’s body, and he was sucked into Jersey’s past.
******
Jack found himself in Jersey’s study again.
He wished he could control his power, pick where he wanted to go, and how far back he wanted to travel.
Apparently he’d gone more than four months into the past.
Jersey was sitting behind his old desk.
He had the telephone to his ear, and he was grinning like a demented man.
“On the contrary,” Jersey said.
“You’ve stepped into Pagan’s shoes quite nicely.”
Jack tried to fix the timeline in his head.
Apparently he had traveled back to a scene after Pagan’s death but before Jersey left town.
That left a very small window.
He walked closer, feeling safe because Jersey couldn’t see him.
As real as it seemed, this was just a memory.
Jersey quoted Edgar Allan Poe for the caller.
“From childhood’s hour I have not been as others were, I have not seen as other saw.”
The person on the other end responded to the poem, and he chuckled.
“You enjoyed that, did you?
Perhaps some night you will allow me to regale you with some of my favorite poetry.”