Darlings of Darkness: A Vampire Anthology Part 79

"Who?"

"She's a vampire friend of mine, one of the people you saw at the cemetery."

"Which one? The tall girl with the long curls or the one that was my size?"

Jack hesitated in answering. There was something in her tone, something that warned him the question was not as casual as it sounded. Yet the smile remained fixed to her face. It seemed genuine. She was probably making small talk to eat up the time until he was dead. Besides, how could offering her a face to go with a name hurt anyone?

"Summer has short hair," he said. "Lily is the tall girl, and Cowboy is the name of the guy you saw with them."

"I can't believe you laughed at my name when you hang out with people called Cowboy and Summer."

"They're nicknames." On the defensive now, he said, "They call me Jackpot. It was Cowboy's idea to change our names when we were reborn as vampires. He thought it would be easier to release our old selves that way."

Cowboy had also desperately wanted matching tattoos, but when they'd tried they found out vampire skin didn't hold the ink. As soon as they were pierced with the needle their flesh healed, driving the dye out. Cowboy had tried a few more times with the same result. It made him crazy knowing he couldn't have something he wanted.

Silver leaned closer, her eyes wide, and she spoke in a soft whisper. "Did it work? Were you able to forget you were human? Did you become a monster?"

He could smell the blood in her veins. Was she provoking him on purpose, trying to get him to attack her? Did she want him to lose control so she could kill him without remorse? He closed his eyes, silently fighting the beast within. He couldn't allow himself to attack her. She was a hunter, and he was abnormally weak at the moment.

On cue, a surge of dark energy zapped through him and his eyes popped open.

Silver gasped. She leaped up and back at the same time, a look of pure panic on her face. He didn't have to ask what was wrong. His eyes had turned solid black as the vampire inside floated to the surface. Silver moved to the other side of the room, lifted the hem of her trousers, and removed a wooden stake from what appeared to be a home-made leather sheath.

Jack snarled, revealing fangs. The smell of her blood drove him over the edge. He couldn't fight the inevitable, couldn't resist, so he gave into it with an eager sense of antic.i.p.ation. Time to teach her a lesson. Girls shouldn't bring vampires home with them.

In the blink of an eye he was out of bed and across the room, his face an inch from hers. Before she could react, he grabbed her wrist. With a quick twist he removed the stake from her hand. It fell to the floor, useless. Hands on her shoulders, he drove her into the nearest corner. They stumbled into a tall white bookshelf and several items fell off. In all his years as a vampire he hadn't attacked a human, choosing to feed off the willing instead, but he'd never been this injured before. His desperate need for blood overwhelmed his senses. His mind shut down.

"Don't-please," she said. Her voice was barely audible. "You don't want to do this. You don't want to hurt me. Fight it. I believe in you. I know your human half is stronger than the animal."

He bent forward, and his lips parted. The closer he got to her throat the better he felt. If he bit her, drained her, he might live. His survival instinct drowned out compa.s.sion and tenderness. He squeezed his eyes shut so he wouldn't see the look of horror on her face.

Pain ripped through his head.

He fell to his knees. The most intense pain he'd ever experienced sawed into his brain, threatening to split his head in two. He grabbed his head with both hands. This was it. He was going to die. The werewolf had succeeded in killing him. It was going to be a worse death than the first time and there wasn't a thing he could do about it.

"Are you okay?" Silver asked, taking a tentative step towards him.

They both looked to the glowing spot on her blouse. Reaching beneath the material, she pulled the silver dagger necklace out again. The three tiny blue jewels had turned ruby red. Glowing bright, they went from red to black, and the pain in Jack's head intensified a hundred-fold. Forget werewolves, the charm was killing him.

"Wow," Silver said in a breathless voice. "That's never happened before."

The jewels stopped glowing. Jack crawled away, eager to put distance between himself and the inhuman agony the necklace caused. His fingers sank into the soft carpet. He grabbed handfuls of the s.h.a.ggy threads and pulled himself along. It took several painful minutes to reach the other side of the bed. Holding the top of the mattress with both hands, he slowly pulled himself up. His strength vanished.

He collapsed onto the mattress on his back and flung an arm over his eyes, not caring what Silver did next. If she got the stake and drove it into his heart, at least his problems would be over. The mattress sagged beneath her added weight. He prepared himself for death. The last thing he expected to feel was the gentle touch of her hand on his chest.

His heart beat tripled in tempo as a new sensation rippled through his body.

"You are going to survive this, Jack. I can't tell you how I know. You're too out of it to understand. Just trust me. You're going to be fine."

Confidence ruled her voice, and he instantly believed. He wasn't going to die, at least not now. He looked into her eyes. An odd sense of deja vu hit him as if they'd done this a million times before.

"Do I know you?" he asked. While he waited for an answer, his mind went through a long list of pictures from the past. There had been a lot of girls, most of them pa.s.sing through his life quickly because they'd been afraid of Summer. The few who'd thought he might be worth the risk had vanished, probably killed by Summer.

"You know me," Silver said. "And you don't know me. It's complicated."

"Usually is." He closed his eyes again, beyond tired.

She lay next to him. Her leg touched his and her arm b.u.mped into his arm as she squirmed around, trying to get comfortable. He tensed. He couldn't breathe, couldn't swallow. She was too close, and she smelled more incredible than she had at the cemetery. What was she doing to him? Maybe she had power like her ancestor, the faerie.

"Don't even think about trying anything," she said. "You touch me, and I'll rip your soul out through your nostrils."

He turned his head to look at her, startled. Was she serious? He didn't know if it was possible to take his soul out through his nose, but he didn't want to find out. She sounded like she knew what she was talking about. For a pet.i.te girl she was pretty scary.

Despite the vivid images her threat conjured, he began to drift. He tried to fight it, tried to stay awake, but in mere seconds he was in a different world, a world of tall trees and fresh air. Silver was with him. Having her there felt right like it was meant to be, and the forest felt like home.

The next time he opened his eyes, darkness greeted him. Silver had turned off the lamp after he'd fallen asleep. She lay on her side next to him, snoring softly. He came up on one elbow and stared down at her, studying her with superhuman vision. She looked like a pretty doll with her eyes closed. Her features were soft and delicate, and a place deep in his heart began to ache for what he'd missed in life.

He had a peculiar feeling he had been dreaming about her, but he couldn't remember the details. She turned her head, snuggled deeper into the quilt and moaned his name. "Jack."

Was she dreaming about him?

"Where are you?" she asked, talking in her sleep.

"I'm right here," he said, answering automatically.

"Don't go."

"I'm not going anywhere." His gaze drifted to the window. He'd lost track of time, but he knew the sun was getting ready to appear. He could smell it, the burning heat of a new day. Sunlight was even worse for a vampire than werewolf claws. There was no way he was walking out the door until it was dark again.

Silver continued to sleep and he remained frozen in a holding pattern, hovering over her. This was the first time he'd spoken to a sleeping person. It was a bit creepy, but kind of cool. He wondered if she would answer him if he asked her a question.

"Why did you help me tonight?"

"Because you're Jack." A smile touched her lips.

Okay. He tried again. "Where do I know you from? How do you know me?"

"We met in a dream."

A flash of the two of them standing in the middle of a forest haunted the recesses of his mind. As hard as he tried he couldn't grasp it firmly. Every time he got close, it faded like smoke.

Giving up, he collapsed onto the pillow she'd provided and stared at the ceiling. He went over everything that had happened to him in the last few hours. Earlier he had thought he knew everything about the world and about his place in it. Now he wasn't so sure. He hadn't known of Silver's existence. Life was weird sometimes.

"Be careful, Jack." She whispered the words in the dark, startling him. He turned to look at her face and waited to hear more. A few minutes pa.s.sed and he started to think she wasn't going to add anything else. Her lips parted on a sigh. "They're going to kill you. Be careful. I don't want to lose you."

Those words struck a chord deep within him. She liked him. His insides warmed at the thought. If he was smart, he'd start running now. The last thing he needed was a hunter girlfriend. Slowly, the rest of her words replayed in his brain. Someone was going to try to kill him?

He sat up quickly and asked, "Who?"

She didn't respond. Her lips refused to budge. If she woke up, she wasn't going to be happy to see him leaning over her, and he wouldn't get the answer to his question then for sure. Maybe if he rephrased the question, she would be able to answer it.

"Is a hunter after me right now?" 'Besides you,' he almost added.

She frowned in her sleep. "Not yet."

"What about a werewolf? Is there a werewolf tracking me?"

"Not yet."

Irritated, he prepared to raise his voice, not caring if her parents heard and came to investigate. He felt stronger and could probably take out her entire family without breaking a sweat. As quick as he got angry, he let it go. He wouldn't hurt anyone Silver cared about, not after she'd saved his life.

"What is that supposed to mean? Not yet? Who do I need to be careful of? Who is going to try to kill me?"

A single word floated to his ears, chilling him to the bone.

"Everyone."

Chapter Three:.

MORTAL AGAIN.

The next time Jack woke it was morning and his hand felt oddly warm. A nagging voice deep in the recesses of his mind slowly connected the dots. He had experienced this soothing heat before, but it had been so long ago he couldn't pinpoint the source. Whatever it was, it was bad.

Jack cracked his eyes a slit. His hand rested comfortably on the pillow beside his head. Light streamed through the open curtains and rested on his unprotected skin. His eyes widened as the truth dawned on him.

With a yelp he jerked his hand out of the light and dove under the covers. Sunlight and vampires did not mix. Any second now he would burst into flames. Where was he anyway? He searched his recent memories.

An amused voice spoke from the doorway.

"It's okay," Silver said. "You're fine. I opened the curtains this morning, but I watched your skin carefully for any signs of burning. Sunlight can't hurt you anymore."

He struggled to breathe through the suffocating covers and mumbled, "What are you talking about?"

"You're not a vampire."

"What?" Oh yeah, she'd lost her mind. Or maybe this was a trick to get him to commit suicide. She was the enemy after all, albeit a beautiful one.

She yanked the covers off the bed and him with one quick sliding motion like a magician revealing his final trick. Silver was fully dressed, hair combed and eyes sparkling. She flashed him a quick grin. "You don't need to hide from the sun. You are no more a vampire than I am. See?" She motioned to the window. "You aren't catching fire or exploding. Isn't that enough evidence for you?"

He crawled to the edge of the mattress in wonder and stared at the beauty known as dawn. Tears blurred his vision for a moment. Incredible. It had been too long since he'd seen golden sunlight. He'd forgotten how breathtaking a sunrise could be. Logic argued with his physical senses. He pushed his fingers beneath his upper lip, felt the gums. No telltale b.u.mps beneath the skin. He jumped off the bed and grabbed Silver, pressing his face against her throat as he tried to smell her blood. Nothing.

She giggled.

After releasing her, he went to the window. Before he had the chance to change his mind, he thrust the gla.s.s pane up and stuck his hand outside. The most amazing warmth caressed his skin. A cool breeze wafted in, disturbing the hair on his forehead. His eyes closed as he savored the sensation. He ducked his head and leaned out the window. It didn't hurt. It didn't burn.

"I can't believe it." The words floated out with his pent-up breath. "I must be dreaming."

Hard knuckles rapped on the bedroom door. Jack jumped and hit his head on the window sill. Pain shot through his skull. No, this wasn't a dream. Definitely not. His hand went to the back of his head, and he absently checked for blood. Since he wasn't alone, he bit his tongue instead of cursing.

"Silver, are you up yet?" The deep, masculine voice penetrated the closed door.

She turned panicked eyes to Jack and whispered. "It's my dad. He can't find you here. He'll drive a stake through your heart."

"I'm not a vampire anymore. Remember?"

"Trust me, that won't matter. In fact, it might make things worse." She looked at him like he was dumber than dirt. "You're a boy and you're in my bedroom. He's going to kill you."

She had a point. Jack remembered a few confrontations with angry fathers during his last stint as a human teenaged boy. He turned in a tight circle, searched every corner of the room. Where could he hide? Both the closet and under the bed seemed a little too obvious.

Silver hurried to the door and spoke to her dad without opening it. "I'm not dressed. I'll be down in a minute."

She pressed her ear to the door, listening to her father's footsteps travel down the hallway, and she stayed that way until he was gone. Jack could hear the footsteps from where he stood. He wondered if his vampire hearing would stay with him even though he wasn't immortal anymore.

"This isn't possible," he said, speaking more to himself than to her. "n.o.body stops being a vampire. There isn't a cure."

"The werewolf venom saved you."

He practically gagged at the thought. His jaw tightened. There was no way in h.e.l.l that a werewolf had saved him. Something else must have happened. Clearly this girl knew a lot more than she was telling him.

"Wait a second." He shook a finger at her. "You don't seem surprised by my lack of fangs. How could you possibly know that werewolf blood would change me, cure me?"

"You remember the journal I told you about yesterday? The one Lovely wrote?" She waited for him to nod before continuing the explanation. "Well, there's a lot of interesting information in that book including several visions she had about the future, about you. She predicted you and I would meet."

"Where is this book? I want to see it."

"You can't."

"If it's about me, I have the right to read it."

"My father has it hidden somewhere, and there's no way he'll hand it over to a former vampire."

"But if it's about me..." He clenched his hands, wanting to put a fist through the wall to relieve frustration. Yesterday life had been a lot simpler. He might have been a vampire, but at least he'd known what to expect on a day-to-day basis. "Fine. I'll ask your father for it."

"No, you won't." Her eyes narrowed. She snapped her fingers. "New plan. I am going downstairs to distract my parents while you sneak out the back door."

"What if you can't keep their attention?"

"My parents see a five-year-old every time they look at me. They were always over-protective, but they've become a hundred times worse since I turned seventeen. They know their days of telling me what to do are numbered. As soon as I say I have a problem and ask for advice they won't notice if someone drops a bomb on the house. Just count to ten before you leave. Wait for me in the car. I'll give you a ride home."