There was another short pause.
Jack wished he could hear the other half of the conversation.
“You did better than I ever dreamed.”
Jersey held the telephone receiver in one hand.
His other hand opened to reveal the magic rock.
“Now they have nothing that can destroy me.
I am invincible.”
Without thinking, Jack made a grab for the rock.
His fingers passed through it.
He growled in frustration.
Well maybe he could stick around long enough to hear where Jersey was hiding it.
Then he could retrieve it himself.
Jersey said, “Don’t worry your pretty little head over it.
I have plans for them all.
I’ll contact you later with a new assignment.”
Was he talking to Isobel?
Once he had disconnected the call, Jersey got up and walked over to the fireplace.
Jack didn’t move out of the way fast enough.
Jersey passed through him.
Since he wasn’t really there, Jack couldn’t feel it, but it was still freaky.
It happened too quickly for Jack to avoid.
For some reason it caused a rush of vertigo.
Nausea welled up inside of him.
He bit his lower lip and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.
When he opened them again, his breath caught in his throat.
Jersey had a photograph of Silver in his hand.
He was smiling down at it, a malicious glint in his eyes.
Jack recognized the photograph.
Stunned, Jack took a good look around the room.
Why hadn’t he noticed it before?
This wasn’t the study from Jersey’s time.
This memory was after the Reigns moved into the house, after the rock had gone missing.
Jersey had broken into the house.
He was right under their noses.
He hadn’t left town after all.
There were probably secret rooms in the mansion that no one knew about.
Why hadn’t they considered this possibility?
Jersey could attack any second now without warning.
******
The bell rang, signaling a change in classes.
Jack swallowed several times as he came back to the present.
Bile rose in his throat.
He didn’t want to puke again.
What was wrong with him?
Why did he keep getting sick?
The silver knife he’d been stabbed with must have done more damage than he’d originally thought.
He opened the door an inch, made sure no one was looking directly at him.
He abandoned the janitor’s closet and lost himself in a crowd of students.
Carefully he picked his way to his locker.
A few lockers down, Silver removed a book from hers.
She clanged the door shut and turned, locking eyes with him.
A hesitant smile hovered on her lips.
Apparently she’d forgiven him for not telling her about his lack of credits.
He had to warn her about Jersey.
Vanessa was probably at home right now, baking something, unaware of the danger hiding somewhere beneath her house.
Jersey could be walking up the stairs right now.
She wouldn’t be prepared.
No one suspected he was that close.
He had to warn her.
Jack turned and sprinted down the hallway.
He couldn’t use his vampire-speed in front of witnesses.
Before he made it to the glass doors, Ian stepped out of the office and grabbed him by the arm.
Ian pointed in the other direction.
“I believe your next class is that way.”
“You don’t understand!”
Several students looked at them.
Jack lowered his voice, moving closer to his uncle.
“I just had a vision of Jersey.
He’s in their house, Silver’s house.
He’s hiding out in the mansion.
I have to warn them before he attacks.
He could kill Silver’s parents, and they won’t even see it coming.”
Ian’s expression turned grim.
“I’ll take care of it.
You get to class.”
“But—.”
“Don’t argue with me.
I will make sure nothing bad happens to
Silver’s
family.
You can trust me.
We’ll sweep the mansion, search thoroughly for Jersey Clifford, and if he’s there, we will kill him.”
Jack laughed without humor.
“Are you out of your mind?
Silver is the only one who can kill
him,
and she’s not ready yet.
If you find him, you’ll die.
I need to be there.
I need to confront him.”
“And how are you going to do that?
Didn’t somebody steal your little magic rock?”
“Yeah, but… wait a second.
How do you know about the rock disappearing?”
Ian shrugged.
“Silver must have told me.
Or perhaps I heard it from her parents.”
No way.
Silver wouldn’t have told anyone about him losing the rock.
If she had, her father would have ripped into Jack like a dog tearing into a juicy steak.
He also didn’t believe she would tell Ian, even if she trusted him totally and completely.
No. Something was wrong with this picture.
“Get to class,” Ian repeated.
The acting-principal walked away with a purpose.
He went through those double glass doors, his back and shoulders stiff.
Jack stood there in the hallway, staring after his uncle.
His stomach twisted in knots.
He heard his father’s voice in his head.
Don’t trust him.
I didn’t.
“What’s going on?” Silver asked as she came to stand next to him.
“Where did Ian go?”
Jack explained everything to her.
Keeping it short, he finished in three quick sentences, ending with, “I think we should go to the house too.”
Her head bobbed up and down.
Her round eyes glistened.
“If Jersey Clifford tries to hurt my mom or dad, I’m going to do worse than rip his soul out.”
“I’m driving.
Let’s go.”
The hallway emptied as students went to class.
Jack envied them.
He would love to be able to sit in class, even a boring one, and be oblivious to the fact that monsters were all around them.
Jack and Silver raced out the doors and ran to her car.
They jumped inside.
In seconds he had the engine started, and they were on their way to her house.
His foot pressed harder and harder on the accelerator.
Silver buckled herself in and said, “Tell me again what you saw and what you heard.”
“Jersey was in the study.
It took me a while to figure out I wasn’t seeing too far into the past.
He picked up the picture of you that your dad put on the fireplace, the one when you were twelve.”
“And he was talking to Isobel before that?
Are you sure?”
He shrugged, not sure of anything.
“He was talking to someone, someone who’s working for him against us.
He told them that they did a great job taking the rock.
He was holding it in his hand.”
Silver nodded.
“This could actually be a good thing.”
Jack took his eyes off the road for a second to look at her.
She had to be kidding.
“Have you lost it?
The fact he’s hiding under your house is a terrible thing.
Especially if we can’t find him.
He might be using the tunnels to get in and out.”
Jack’s stomach plummeted.
“What if he has more wraiths?
They could be in the mansion too.
We need to check every single room in that dump.”
“We will.”
“So why do you think this is a good thing?” he asked again.
“We can find the stone and kill him.”
Jack wished he was as certain of their finale as she seemed to be.
He had big doubts.
There were too many obstacles in their way.
By the time they were through, Jack figured he’d be in his grave for real.
It was possible Silver would be buried next to him.
If they died, maybe they’d be reincarnated again.
Should he tell her about their past lives?
Silver asked, “Did you send Ian to help my mom and dad?”
“Not exactly.
He sort of took charge.”
“He does that a lot.”
A horrible thought occurred to Jack.
“What if he was the one talking to Jersey in the memory?
What if he’s the one helping Jersey?”
He glanced at Silver to see a look of horror on her face.
Her terrified expression didn’t make him feel any better.
“How well do you know Ian Carver?”
“I don’t.”
Jack frowned.
“But you all looked like you were so close that night in your kitchen.
What about your parents?
How well do they know him?”
She swallowed.
“They haven’t seen him in years, but mom keeps in touch with him through the phone and the email.
He used to visit when I was a baby.
Mom says he changed a couple of my diapers and that I would stop crying when he rocked me, but I don’t remember him.”
She blinked her eyes several times as if trying to fight fresh tears.
“You’re right.
How well could they possibly know him?
He could be the one working with Jersey.
It makes sense.
He didn’t want anything to do with you all these years.
Now all of a sudden he comes here and he involves himself in your personal life.
He’s been staying at the house with us.
He’s had opportunity.”
“He’s staying with you?” Jack groaned.
“Why didn’t you tell me that?
He could let Jersey inside whenever he feels like it.”
“Hurry!
We need to get there.”
“I’m driving as fast as I can.”
Another epiphany hit him between the eyes.
“Well now we know why the werewolf was hanging around outside your house.
It was either there to see Jersey or Ian.
Either way, it’s bad news for us.”
******
Chapter Twenty:
BAIT AND SWITCH
When they arrived at Silver’s house everything was quiet, too quiet.
Hesitating in the car, hands on the door handles, Jack and Silver exchanged wary glances.
In silent mutual agreement they got out and headed for the house.
Silver opened the front door because she lived there, but Jack insisted on leading the way.
They stepped into the entry with her behind him, hands pressed against his back.
She opened her mouth to yell for her parents, but Jack covered her mouth with his hand.
He shook his head and whispered, “We can’t let them know we’re here until we’re sure everything is okay.”
They performed a quick search of the house, moving from room to room as fast as possible.
No one seemed to be around.
The good news?
There was no sign of a struggle.
Not a trace of blood or an overturned piece of furniture anywhere.
Silver said, “If they’re downstairs in the mansion, they could be screaming and we wouldn’t hear them.
What do we do?”
“I’ll go.”
She started to argue with him, but he said, “I can use my vampire-speed.
If Jersey’s down there, he won’t even see me.
I’ll run like the wind and be back before you can blink an eye.
Then I can tell you what we’re up against.”
She nodded.
Before he could tap his foot on the bottom step, open the trapdoor, she grabbed his face with both hands and planted a hard kiss on his mouth.
She released him almost immediately and blushed.
“For luck.”
There were so many things he wanted to say to her, but it wasn’t the right time.
It never seemed to be the right time.
Between hunting werewolves, dealing with family issues, and their numerous arguments, he was afraid there would never be a good time to talk.
It worried him, dying with so many things left unsaid.
Problem was he didn’t know what to do about it.
He had no idea how to rectify the situation.
Silver opened the trapdoor for him.
He flew through the mansion at the speed of light.
There wasn’t a room he didn’t at least stick his head into to check.
It was insane.
Not only was Jersey missing.
He couldn’t find a sign of Vanessa, Andrew, or Ian anywhere.
Nobody seemed to be home.
He returned to Silver.
“The basement is empty,” he said, pulling himself up out of the hole that led into the mansion.
Once he was standing next to Silver, he added, “Where could they be?”
She twisted her hands.
“You don’t think he did something to my parents, do you?”
“No.
I’m sure they’re fine.
They must have gone out.”
“Where?
And why isn’t Ian here?”
“I am here.”
The booming voice startled them.
They jumped apart as if they’d been caught by Silver’s father in a romantic tangle of arms and legs.
Ian Carver descended the staircase from the second floor.
A muscle throbbed near his jaw, signaling the anger deep beneath the surface.
“What are you two doing here?
Skipping classes?
You realize I could have you both suspended, don’t you?
Neither of you would be graduating then.”
Silver glared at the new principal.
“Where are my parents?”
As Ian neared the bottom step, she lunged at him, prepared to do some serious damage.
Jack grabbed her around the waist, holding her back.
She yelled, “What did you do to them?
Answer me!”
Ian stared at her as if he was having trouble hearing.
His eyes flicked to Jack.
Misunderstanding the drama, he asked, “Didn’t you tell her you sent me to warn her parents about Jersey?”
Jack looked away, embarrassed and worried that they might be wrong about the man.
“Well, when I had that vision about Jersey, he was talking to someone about the great job they did for him.”
“And you thought it was me he was talking to?”
Ian threw back his head, laughed until his eyes began to water.
He dabbed at the corners with his fingers. “Oh you two are priceless.
If you do not figure out how to read a person and very soon, neither of you will survive long enough to be able to vote.”
Silver stopped trying to attack Ian, but her eyes narrowed.
“It could be you.
You have access to the mansion.
You could be helping him.”
“But I’m not.”
“Prove it,” she said, crossing her arms and spreading her legs in a defiant stance.
“We aren’t stupid, and we’re not simply going to take your word for it.”
“Of course not.”
Another question floated to the front of Jack’s mind.
“Where were you?
We looked upstairs as soon as we got here.”
Before Ian could answer, the front door opened.
Vanessa entered, juggling two bags of groceries.
She nearly dropped them at the sight of the three people in her house.
A startled cry burst from her lips before she realized she knew them.
“What in the world are you doing here?
Shouldn’t you be at school?”
She looked pointedly at Ian.
“All of you?”
Jack took the bags from her and carried them into the kitchen.
By the time he returned, Ian was explaining about Jack’s vision.
He left out the part about them accusing him of assisting the head werewolf.
With a conspiratorial wink in their direction, he kept that part to himself.
Vanessa held a hand to her mouth for a second.
“He’s been here the whole time?”
“Appears that way,” Ian said.
“He could have hurt somebody, killed somebody.”
Vanessa put an arm around her daughter.
“Until he’s found we need to go somewhere else.
We need to go somewhere safe.
I know your father will agree with me.”
Jack offered, “You can move back into the house with Billy and me.
I know he wouldn’t mind.”
Silver smiled.
“Good idea.”
“No,” Vanessa shook her head.
“I’m sorry, but I think we’d be better off staying in a motel this time.”
“Why?”
Silver pouted.
“We’d be safe at the Creed house.”
“We’ll wait and see what your father says.”
There was no way that Andrew Reign would choose to stay in Jack’s house over a motel.
He didn’t trust Jack around his daughter.
To be fair, Silver’s father had loosened up a little bit on the matter.
At least he seemed to accept that they wanted to be together.
He wasn’t constantly trying to break them up, and he hadn’t threatened to shoot Jack in at least a few weeks.
Ian rubbed Vanessa’s upper arm.
“You will need to pack a suitcase.
Pack one for Andrew as well.
We need to vacate the premises as soon as possible in case Jersey figures out we know he’s nearby.
Nothing worse than a cornered werewolf.”
Vanessa shivered.
“Oh dear.
I can’t believe this is happening.”
She took Silver by the hand.
“Come upstairs with me.
I want you to throw some stuff in a bag as fast as you can.”
The two women hurried up the staircase.
Ian looked at Jack as if he expected Jack to follow them to keep an eye on them.
First, there was something he wanted to say.
“I still don’t trust you, you know.
I’d be a fool to believe a total stranger, even if he is my uncle.”
“Your father would be proud of you.”
The statement caught Jack off guard—briefly.
He wasn’t sure if it was meant to be a compliment or an insult.
It was possible Ian Carver was trying to wiggle his way into Jack’s good graces using his connection to Jack’s father.
It wasn’t going to work.
******
Jack and Silver returned to school after both adults insisted.
The rest of the day was long and dull.
Jack hardly heard anything the teachers said.
He tried to focus on the lessons, but his mind was cluttered with doubts, worry, and insecurities.
He wished he had a power that would tell him what Jersey was going to do next.
The last bell rang, and Jack went in search of Silver.
He waited at her locker for about fifteen minutes, but she didn’t show.
Disturbing images flitted through his mind.
The last time she had gone missing at school, the werewolf janitor had been trying to kill her.
Jack had the same bad feeling now.
The drama club let out.
He hurried through the crowd and grabbed Trina just above the wrist.
Jerking her around to face him, he asked, “Do you know where Silver is at?”
“Hello to you too.”
“I’m serious.”
His hands moved to her shoulders, but he stopped short of shaking her.
“I have to find Silver now.”
“Okay.
Settle down.”
Trina brushed his hands off her.
“I have two friends waiting for me, so I have to go and don’t have time to ask you a lot of questions.”
“Just answer mine then.”
She started walking backwards in the direction of the two girls hanging out at the doors.
“Silver told me she got a note from someone saying they wanted to meet her after school.”
“Where?”
“The old Miller place.”
Trina turned with a giggle for her friends, and they all ran out the door, leaving Jack to stare after them in stunned silence.
Her last four words took a return trip through his brain.
Someone wanted to meet Silver at the Miller place, the abandoned house his vampire friends and he used to use when in town.
Why would anyone want to meet her there?
And why would she go without talking to him about it first?
It smelled like a trap.
Jack ran to his car and drove it to the edge of town.
It made him crazy to be locked in the metal box because he knew he could run faster than the speed limit.
As soon as traffic thinned to a car every five to ten minutes, he pulled over.
Using vampire-speed, Jack raced through several fields.
The old Miller place hadn’t changed in the last few months.
Peeling paint, cracked porch steps, hanging screen door, it was a mess.
Silver’s car was parked out front.
The driver side door was wide open.
No sign of her.
He didn’t like the way it looked, like she’d been ambushed or was in too big of a hurry to close the car door because something bad was on the horizon.
He cupped his hands around his mouth and called her name.
She screamed in answer.
Jack sprinted in the direction of the scream.
It came from the barn, not the house.
He yanked one of the red doors open.
Silver stood in the midst of eight or nine werewolves.
They were in human form, but their eyes glowed molten gold.
Six of them attacked her at the same time.
She spun around, took out two werewolves with a single kick.
Her fist punched another in the face.
With a fierce growl, Jack joined the fight.
His invisible metallic claws sliced through the air.
He ripped a werewolf’s neck open.
It staggered backwards and fell to its knees.
They didn’t have to worry about that one anymore.
In seconds it would be dead.
Silver ducked, just missed being cut by some claws.
She jumped in the air, did the splits.
Each foot hit a werewolf hard.
Two of them charged Jack.
Worried about Silver, he tried to keep an eye on her, but it was nearly impossible.
He had to focus on what he was doing.
He had to kill them fast and save her.
The fight continued for several minutes, exhausting him.
A fist smashed into the side of his face.
A couple of werewolves grabbed him from behind while he was trying to kill a third.
They held him between them.
The other werewolf came at him, ready to strike with its claws.
If he got slashed, he’d die this time for sure.