She rubbed her wrist.
“I won’t let you kill him this time.”
“I told you, I have no intention of killing Jack unless I absolutely have to.
In fact I like Jack more than I liked Tobias.
He is the brother I never had.
Turn his affections and loyalty back to me, and I will reward you beyond measure.”
******
“Isobel took my necklace.”
Silver released his hand and jumped off the bed, back in the present.
“I knew it!
She’s been working for Jersey this whole time, trying to get you to fall for her.”
Jack sat up slowly.
“But it didn’t work.
I love you.”
His whispered confession did nothing to appease her anger.
She paced between the door and window.
Her brows drew together in puzzlement.
She stopped abruptly.
“Wait a minute.
What were they talking about?
Who is Tobias?”
He had known this moment would come, had feared it.
Taking a deep breath, he launched into a long explanation.
He told her about the flashbacks, ending with, “Jersey threw me off a building.
Then he must have cut my head off to make sure I wouldn’t heal.”
Silver stared at him, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
“You were there too,” he said.
“Only your name was Katie.
Your parents didn’t bother to train you, so Jersey killed you before he killed me.”
Silver put a blind hand out and searched for a place to sit.
Her fingers landed on the chair that went with the desk.
She sat down without looking at it.
Her butt nearly missed the seat.
Her face was white as cotton.
“I don’t believe in reincarnation.”
“Neither did
I
.”
“How long have you known?”
He shrugged.
“A while now.”
“And you didn’t tell me?
What is it with you?
You say you love me and trust me, but every time I turn around I find out you’ve kept another huge secret from me.”
He made a face at her.
“Are you kidding?
You kept the fact I have an uncle from me.
I’m not the only one who keeps secrets around here.”
Heavy sigh.
“Okay.
Fine.
Let’s make a pact right now.
I know we’ve promised to be honest before, but this time we have to mean it.
No more secrets.
No more lies.
Break it again, and we’re through.”
“Ditto.”
They shook on it.
“Now what?” she asked.
“Should I go home and tell my parents about Jersey killing us in the past?”
An idea came to Jack, and a slow smile lifted the ends of his mouth.
“It’s not midnight yet.
Let’s make a quick trip to the werewolf house.
I want to go to bed tonight knowing there’s at least one less werewolf in the world.”
“You just want to suck out a soul.”
“I need all the practice I can get before I take Jersey on.”
“Before we take Jersey on.”
He slipped an arm around her waist, and they left the house together.
They took his car and didn’t talk much on the way there.
As he parked the car a block from the werewolf house, he remembered Billy was staking it out.
Billy wasn’t going to appreciate them showing up, but his brother was just going to have to get over himself.
Jack and Silver got out of the car, careful not to make any noise.
He took her hand.
They went through a stranger’s backyard.
The werewolf house was quiet, but there were several lights on just like last time.
Jack didn’t want to get too close.
He didn’t want one of them to smell him this time.
“What’s the plan?” Silver asked.
“I don’t know.”
He hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“Maybe we can draw one out into the open without alerting the others.”
“How?”
Jack’s eyes roamed the area.
He didn’t see Billy anywhere.
Maybe his brother had gone to see his girlfriend instead.
Jack was turning back to Silver when something odd caught his attention.
There was a car near the shed that hadn’t been there before.
It was covered with a dark green tarp.
“Wait here,” Jack said.
He hurried across the yard, bending at the waist as he ran.
Stopping at the rear of the car, he lifted the tarp and looked at the license plate.
The familiar letters and numbers hit him like a punch in the gut.
He couldn’t breathe.
It was his brother’s car.
They had caught Billy.
It was his worst
nightmare come
true.
Why hadn’t Billy listened to him and taken back-up with him?
Now his brother was probably dead.
******
Chapter Twenty-Two:
GRIEF
Frantic whispers floated around him, but he didn’t try to catch the words.
His mind kept returning to the same thought: Billy was gone.
The werewolves had killed him.
Horrible visions refused to be dismissed.
Pictures of Billy being ripped to pieces taunted him, and guilt ate at him. He should have been there, should have saved his brother.
Jack sat on the sofa in the Reign’s motel room.
On the exterior he appeared calm, but on the inside he was screaming like a man being tortured.
Nasty visions of his parents being slaughtered also swam to the surface.
He saw them die again and again before visions of Billy’s death returned to the forefront of his mind.
Vanessa joined him on the sofa.
She leaned close, placed a hand on top of his, and asked, “Can I get you anything?
Do you want to talk?
Are you hungry?”
The thought of food almost made him gag.
He slowly shook his head without meeting her worried gaze.
The violent pictures of how Billy probably died continued to circulate through his head.
He couldn’t stop them.
His baby brother had needed him.
When it came down to it, Jack had failed Billy.
He should be the one dead now.
Not Billy.
Silver sat on the arm of the sofa and stroked his back while looking at her father.
“Isn’t there anything we can do?”
“Honey, werewolves don’t keep hostages,” Andrew said.
“It’s too late for us to do anything.”
Wrong!
Jack could do something.
He could go back to that house and wipe out every single werewolf there.
He wanted to rip them apart in the most vicious way possible.
By the time he finished with them, they’d be begging to die.
From the other side of the room, Ian spoke.
“Jack will need a new place to stay.”
“No!”
Jack jumped to his feet.
“I am not leaving my home.”
“You can’t stay there by yourself,” Vanessa said.
“I mean, you are legally old enough to be alone, but it’s too dangerous for you out there.
You need someone to watch your back.”
Silver’s face brightened as an idea came to her.
“We can move back to Jack’s house for a while.”
Andrew grumbled.
“Sounds like a fine idea to me,” Vanessa said.
“We can’t go home until we can werewolf proof the house and the mansion anyway.
That will take some doing.
I don’t know about any of you, but I’m sick of staying in this motel.”
Andrew nodded.
“Can we stay with you?” Vanessa asked Jack.
“You’d be doing us a huge favor.”
“Whatever.”
He sank back down on the sofa, returning to the awful pictures in his head.
They fueled his burning anger.
The family packed their belongings while Jack stewed in silence.
It could have taken minutes or hours for them to get ready.
He lost track of time.
Didn’t matter.
He was somewhere in the future, killing the werewolves responsible for Billy’s death.
******
When they got home, Jack went straight to bed.
He lay down on top of the comforter and closed his eyes.
Below him the Reign family settled in.
They were talking about Billy again.
He pulled a pillow over his face and cried silent tears.
Jack wished he’d never returned home to Bliss.
If he hadn’t insisted on visiting his childhood every year, he’d still be a vampire.
Billy would probably be alive.
Lily would definitely be alive.
And Summer.
He’d forgotten about her, about her mysterious resurrection.
He had wanted to go back to the old Miller place by himself and search for his former girlfriend.
But now, after Billy’s death at the hands of werewolves, he couldn’t care less about
Summer
.
Let her do whatever she wanted to do.
The edge of the mattress sank under added weight, startling him.
He hadn’t heard the door open or close.
A soft hand glided down his arm.
A vision of
Summer
sneaking into his room to bite him sprang to mind.
He threw the pillow, and his eyes snapped open.
Silver smiled down at him, but it was tinged with sadness.
Her eyes glistened like jewels.
Her lower lip quivered.
She said, “I am so sorry about Billy.
This is
all my
fault.
I should have gone back to that house with my parents and killed all those werewolves as soon as we found out about them.”
“Billy didn’t want us to do that.
It was his find.
He was in charge of it.”
“You still feel guilty though, don’t you?”
Of course he did.
“Billy was my brother.
I should have insisted on helping him deal with the werewolves.”
“He didn’t want you to.”
“I don’t care.
I’m the older brother, and I should have insisted on helping him.”
His eyes drifted closed again.
“My mind was on other things.
I was so twisted up in my own stuff, I barely noticed Billy anymore.
It isn’t your fault he’s gone.
It’s mine.”
Silver lay down next to him and placed an arm over him.
She snuggled close.
“Don’t blame yourself.
The werewolves are responsible, and Jersey Clifford is responsible.
Not you.”
Jack didn’t argue with her, but he couldn’t pin this on Jersey unless Jersey ordered it to be done.
Doubtful.
Everything Jersey did was to get Jack on his side.
Killing his brother wouldn’t exactly fill that requirement.
Before long he was drifting on a lazy cloud.
Not even the thought of losing Billy could pull him back to reality.
He went to sleep with Silver in his arms and found a moment of peace.
Too bad it didn’t last for long.
******
Jack walked through a familiar clump of trees.
Bright rays of sunlight warmed his skin.
He looked for Silver, but he couldn’t find her.
Enjoying the silence, he stopped walking and closed his eyes.
“Looking for me?”
A voice asked from over his shoulder.
Jack turned slowly to find Isobel smiling at him.
“No I wasn’t, but you’ll do.
There are a few things I want to talk to you about.”
She stopped smiling.
“Awesome.
Here we go.
The Great Inquisition part two.”
Jack wasn’t in the mood for her special brand of sarcasm.
He grabbed her arm above the elbow in a fierce grip.
“Don’t mess with me right now.
My brother was killed tonight.
If you don’t want to join him, you’d better start giving me the information that I want.”
“Fine.
What is it that you want to know?”
“Who is Jersey’s right-hand man?
Or woman?
If it’s not you, who is it?”
“So you don’t think it’s me anymore?”
“No.”
“I swear I didn’t take Silver’s necklace or your rock, but I can tell you who did.
I saw her with Jersey once.
She’s a tiny thing, blond and pretty.
He called her
Summer
if that helps you.”
It did indeed.
Isobel added, “I can find the rock if you want.
Maybe I can even return it to you, and I’ll search for the necklace too while I’m at it.”
Jack’s heart lifted.
He couldn’t believe his ears.
He looked Isobel straight in the eye and asked, “Would you really do that for me?
Would you take the risk?”
“I would do anything for you.”
She closed the distance between them.
Licking her lips, she leaned in until her mouth was a mere inch from his.
“I love you.
I loved you when your name was Tobias, and I love you now.”
He considered pretending he loved her back.
She might not help him if he rejected her, but Jack couldn’t bring himself to use her that way.
At one time he had had feelings for her.
In another life he had loved her.
He’s loved her until he met Katie anyway.
For old time’s sake he was going to be totally honest with her.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Shifting nervously from foot to foot, he told her, “Maybe Tobias loved you, and maybe he didn’t, but I love Silver.
That isn’t going to change.”
Her expression fell.
“Oh… I know.
I wasn’t expecting anything.
I just wanted you to know how I feel.
I would do anything for you.
Truly, Tobias… Jack, sorry.
I would die for you.”
“Then die,” Jersey said from the other side of Jack.
Jack whirled around in time to see Jersey lock eyes with Isobel.
It took half a second for Isobel to crumple.
There wasn’t time for Jack to figure out what Jersey was doing or how to react to it.
Jersey had sucked Isobel’s soul out.
Her lifeless body hit the ground.
Her eyes stared up at the sky, blank.
“You killed her.”
Jack trembled with rage.
“What is the matter with you?
Silver was right.
You are a monster.”
“Monster?”
Jersey’s lips twisted.
“I think not.
Isobel was the only evil creature here.
You have no idea how many innocent men and women she’s killed over the years.
Are you a hypocrite, Jack?
On one hand you slaughter werewolves, assigning yourself as judge and jury over them.
But on the other hand, you make friends with one of the worst of our kind, and you get angry when she’s put to death.”
Jersey’s eyes narrowed as he
added,
“Make up your mind, Jack.
Are you a hero or a villain?”
Good question.
Jersey lifted his chin high, an amused smile on his smug face.
“Do you honestly think you can destroy me?”
“I’m willing to give it a try.”
“You are a fool.”
The two of them circled each other, both looking for the opportunity to strike.
Jack pushed his anger to the side.
If he was going to have a chance of winning, he had to be smart about it.
He couldn’t allow anger to cloud his judgment.
Jersey made the first move.
Like a pro basketball player, he feinted to the left.
Jack jumped in the other direction and turned right into Jersey’s fist.
It hammered him in the face, three quick blows.
Before he could recover, Jersey went down on one hand and swung his legs in a graceful half-circle.
They knocked Jack’s feet out from under him.
Jack hit the ground.
Robbed of breath, his lungs cried out for air.
Pain radiated from his middle to the outer edges of his body.
“I must confess to being disappointed,” Jersey said.
“I expected you to at least put up a glimmer of a challenge.
Come on.
Get up.”
Jersey bent over Jack’s prone body and offered a hand.
It was the moment Jack had been waiting for.
He wasn’t as hurt as he’d pretended to be.
The pain was reasonable, and he’d been able to breathe for several seconds.
He grabbed Jersey by the front of his black shirt.
Surprise registered on the werewolf’s face as Jack rolled with him, throwing Jersey to the ground.
Jack straddled Jersey and hit him with both fists again and again.
Blood spurted from Jersey’s nose.
His cracked lip began to swell.
Jack shouted, “Who’s a disappointment now?”
A thick piece of wood appeared in Jersey’s hand.
He used it to shield his face.
Jack, unable to stop in mid-hit, slammed his fist against the board.
Howling in pain, he rolled off Jersey, got to his feet and staggered away, cursing a blue streak.