Eternal (4 page)

“No. He was in Texas. And unlike you, my astral self goes nowhere. We texted some and talked a couple of times. I dunno, though . . . He was acting kind of weird.”

“That’s because he
is
weird,” Sophie shot back.

Kate waggled her brows. “If by weird you mean totally hot and freaking adorable. I’m telling you, that boy can do things with his tongue that—”

“Ugh, stop!” Sophie held up one hand. “Please. I don’t even want to think about it.”

“Um, Jack?” I reminded them.

Kate nodded. “Right. First things first. Let’s go kick some ass.”

My mouth widened into a smile. “Now, that’s what I’m talking about.

*  *  *

We found him a half hour later inside one of the labs. The moment we stepped through the door, Kate had him in a telekinetic choke hold with the help of his shirt’s collar.

“Why did you do it?” I asked, cutting right to the chase before Kate strangled him.

“Do what?” he managed to choke out.

In response, Kate slammed him back against a black-topped table. He struggled to right himself as test tubes skittered across the table and smashed onto the floor at his feet.

His eyes widened as he tugged at his collar, gasping for air.

“Let him talk,” I said. “I want to hear what he has to say for himself.”

She released him, and he took a big, gasping breath before answering. “I told you, Kate. You were a distraction. I needed to focus on . . . on the team,” he stammered. “You know, football. And on my research. Anyway, what does it matter? I heard you and Tyler Bennett are already hooking—”

“We’re not talking about
that
, you moron.” Kate’s cheeks were flushed a deep scarlet.

I launched myself at him, jabbing a finger at his chest. “He trusted you,” I said, my voice thick with rage. “How could you do this to him? You—you—
destroyed
him.”

“Look, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jack said, trying to back away. His eyes appeared hollow, almost blank. He was lying; I knew he was. “But why don’t you call off your pit bull here”—he tipped his head in Kate’s direction—“and maybe we can talk.”

“Like hell she will.” Kate slammed him back against the table for emphasis. “You’re the one who’s going to talk. And you better start—
now
.”

Kate must have tightened her grip on his collar—his eyes were nearly bulging out of his head, his face turning purple. He made a frantic motion with one hand.

Glaring at him, I folded my arms across my chest. “Let him go, Kate. I think he’s ready now.”

He collapsed to the floor with a gasp. Kate and I stood over him, waiting for him to catch his breath.

He directed his cold, blue gaze at Kate. “I’m turning you in for violating the COPA,” he finally managed to croak. “Crazy-ass bitch.”

“Yeah, you go right ahead and do that, asshole,” Kate shot back. “You make sure and tell Mrs. Girard why I did it, too. Tell her what you did to Aidan.”

He scrambled to his feet, knocking over a chair in the process. “Who the hell do you think made me do it?” he said, his face a mottled red now. “I had no choice. No. Choice. Don’t you get it?”

I shook my head, confused.
What is he saying?
“
Who
made you do it, Jack?”

He glanced around the room, then dropped his voice to a near whisper. “Mrs. Girard. Listen, if there’d been any other way, if I could have just . . .” He trailed off, shaking his head. “She threatened my brother, okay? She’s a vampire, in case you forgot. A fucking vampire, and I thought—I thought—” He leaned back against the table for support, his eyes closed, his face pale and ashen now.

Finally, he opened his eyes. It took a moment for them to focus on me and Kate, standing there gaping at him in shock. “I couldn’t risk it,” he said. “I couldn’t risk
him
. You’ve got to believe
me. I never set out to destroy Aidan. I was just, you know, messing with stuff. I had no idea that my changes to the serum were making him go out and attack people.”

I dropped my head into my hands. “I can’t believe this. I can’t freaking believe it. Why? Why would Mrs. Girard do this?”

“He doesn’t know.”

I glanced over at Kate, who was watching Jack intently, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. “He doesn’t know,” she repeated. “He’s telling the truth. They’re playing us—first Dr. Blackwell and now Mrs. Girard. Pitting us against each other.”

“What are we supposed to do now?” I asked, looking from Kate to Jack and back to Kate again. Oh my God, the way he was looking at her, like his heart was breaking into a million pieces.

“Wait, that’s why you broke up with her, isn’t it?” I asked, realization dawning on me. “Because of this. Because of what you were doing to Aidan.”

A muscle in his jaw flexed. “No shit. I couldn’t face her—
touch
her—after what I’d done.”

“Damn straight,” Kate murmured, but I could see her resolve crumbling.

Jack reached a hand out to her. “I’m sorry, Kate. Really, really sorry.”

“Do you have any idea what you . . . I mean . . . just . . . ugh! I
can’t do this right now.” She turned and fled, pausing at the door. “I’ll see you later, Violet. Come find me when you’re done here, okay?”

“Okay,” I assured her. “Go on. I’ll catch up with you.”

As soon as the door slammed shut, I turned back toward Jack, eyeing him with a mix of pity and disgust. “So, you sabotaged Aidan’s work. You betrayed a friend. You dumped Kate, walked away from
all
of us. What are your big plans now?”

“I don’t know what to say, Violet.” He reached up to rub his temples. “I
am
sorry about Aidan. But this is my little brother we’re talking about. Aidan’s already had his chance—his life. Now my brother will get his.”

I slumped into the nearest chair. “But why?
Why
would she do this?”

He shook his head. “I wish I knew. I did what she asked me to do, and there’s no going back. I don’t expect you to forgive me. I don’t expect any of you to.”

“Yeah, don’t hold your breath,” I muttered, then let out a sigh. “Okay, so Mrs. Girard was blackmailing you into doing something that landed Aidan in trouble with the Tribunal.
Big
trouble. Now he’s gone for good, and she’s disappeared.” I drummed my fingers against the table, racking my brain for answers. “How could it possibly benefit
her
to have him locked away at the Tribunal’s
headquarters or prison, or whatever it is? And why am I asking
you
, the traitor?”

Jack just shrugged, ignoring that jab. “I don’t know. Maybe something big is going down in the vampire world? Maybe she needs his help and he’s not really locked up. Or maybe she just wants to keep him . . . I don’t know, hidden away? Protected somehow?”

I rose on shaky legs, my heart suddenly racing. “Oh my God, Jack. That’s it.” The wheels in my brain were spinning now. That time I breached her mind in her office, she was thinking about a war—some sort of vampire war—and Aidan was somehow connected to that thought. Aidan, and the fact that he’s the biological offspring of King Edward VII.

He can’t know, not till war erupts.

Maybe war
had
erupted. Maybe Mrs. Girard was off fighting it. And maybe, just maybe, Aidan was fighting, too. Not destroyed. Not locked up and being tortured.

An unfamiliar feeling surged through my veins, quickening my pulse—
hope,
I realized. For the first time in weeks, I had hope.

“I’ve got to go,” I said, my heart banging noisily against my ribs. “But hey, maybe you should talk to Kate. Give her a few hours to cool down and then, you know, talk.”

“Talk to Kate about what?”

My head swiveled toward the voice coming from the doorway. There stood Tyler Bennett, leaning against the doorjamb.

Of course.

“Well, hey there, Violet,” he said with his trademark cocky grin. “Miss me?”

S
peak of the devil,” Jack said, glaring at Tyler.

“Y’all were talking about me? Wow. I’m flattered.” Still leaning casually against the doorframe, Tyler didn’t seem to notice the hostility directed his way. In fact, he looked perfectly comfortable in his low-slung jeans and faded flannel shirt.

“Yeah, don’t be,” I launched back. “Trust me. It wasn’t at
all
flattering.”

“Man, that’s harsh.” His eyes danced with their usual mischief. “Anyway, I was looking for Aidan. I think it’s time we have a little chat. You know, get some things straight. Mano a mano, as we say in Texas.”

The now-familiar pain sliced through my heart at the mention of Aidan’s name. I swallowed hard, struggling to rein in my emotions, to compose my features into something that resembled normal. “Yeah, well, you’re too late for that,” I said at last. “Right, Jack?”

Jack ignored that, instead busying himself with sweeping up the broken glass on the floor.

I just glared at him, waiting to see if he was going to own up to what he’d done in front of Tyler. But he didn’t—of course not. He just kept on cleaning up the mess as if we weren’t standing there watching him.

“Okay, what’s going on here?” Tyler asked, breaking the uneasy silence.

As soon as Jack dumped the broken bits of glass in the trash and returned the surviving test tubes to their racks, he grabbed his backpack off the counter and made for the door. “Sorry to break up the party, guys, but I’ve got to go to football practice.”

“Coward,” I said under my breath.

“Let him go.” Tyler reached for my arm. “Seriously, Violet, what’s going on?”

Taking a moment to gather my courage, I dropped my gaze to my scuffed sneakers, noticing a rip in one seam. “Prepare your ‘I told you so’s,” I said, resisting the urge to bend down and pull on the loose threads. “You’re going to love this.”

I looked up to find him studying my face carefully, his mouth drawn into a tight line. “Actually, I don’t think I am,” he said.

Best to just blurt it out, I decided. “You were right. Aidan was the Stalker. Thanks to our good friend Jack, that is, who was tampering with his serum.”

“What the
hell
? You’re saying that Aidan really
was
attacking those women?”

I nodded, chewing on my lower lip.

“When did you find out?”

“The last day of school. That night, in Manhattan,” I clarified.

“And you’re just now telling me because . . . ?”

“Because it was a lot to deal with, that’s why. Besides, what was I supposed to do? Call you in the middle of Christmas dinner with the happy news?”

“Trust me. It’s not like my Christmas could have gotten any worse than it already was,” he said with a shrug. “So what the hell happened? I mean, if he’s the World’s Kindest Vampire like you say he is, why’d he do it?”

“Long story short, he had no idea what he was doing—he’d test the serum on himself and then basically black out while the Stalker took over. Like Jekyll and Hyde or something. As soon as he figured it out, he turned himself in to the Tribunal. That very night.”

“The Tribunal?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s like the vampire high court. The ruling body—something like that. Anyway, they’re in charge of all vampire punishment, and after what he did . . .” I trailed off, unable to finish the thought. “Aidan’s gone, and he’s not coming back.”

He reached for my hand, giving it a squeeze. “God, Violet, I’m so sorry. But Jack”—he shook his head—“I mean, are you sure? How do you know he was involved?”

“Because I
saw
him, that’s how,” I said. “In a vision last fall. Only, I just figured out what it meant. Anyway, he confessed. Kate managed to get it out of him—that’s why he was so pissed off.”

He dropped my hand. In an instant, he was at the door.

“Where are you going?” I hurried to catch up with him, reaching for his sleeve to stop him.

“To find Jack and kick his ass, that’s where.”

I shook my head. “Don’t bother. He had his reasons, okay? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but . . . well, it’s not like he had a choice. Not really.” God, I hated that I was excusing Jack. I wanted to blame him. To hate him. But Mrs. Girard had threatened his little brother. What was he supposed to do? What would any of us have done in his place?

“You’re actually
defending
that asshole?”

“Well, there’s more to it,” I said, wondering just how much I should tell him. “But can we talk about it later? Right now I need to find Kate and make sure she’s okay.”

I could have sworn I saw a flicker of a smile at the corners of his mouth. “Why don’t you let me deal with Kate?”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. I think she’s pretty confused right now.” Yeah, that was putting it mildly. I’d seen the way she was looking at Jack just before she ran out—she was
so
not over him; I was sure of it. And now that she knew why he’d broken up with her, well . . .

“What about you?” he asked, interrupting my train of thought. His brow furrowed as he peered down at me. “Are
you
okay?”

Tears burned behind my eyelids, but I managed to blink them back. I was
not
going to cry. “What do you think, Tyler? No. No, I’m not okay.”

He pulled me into his arms. “No, course you’re not. I really
am
sorry, Violet. Seriously, you just tell me what you need me to do.”

I took a deep, steadying breath. “I just . . . I need you to be my friend, that’s all.”

Cupping my face with his hands, he tipped my head up till our gazes met. He nodded once, then pressed his lips against my forehead. His kiss was quick, entirely chaste.

“You got it,” he said.

And this time, I believed him.

“And really, Tyler—mano a mano?” I was smiling now, hoping to break the heavy tension in the air. “Does anyone actually say that in Texas?”

He laughed, the familiar playful gleam back in his eyes. “Heck if I know. It sounded good, though, right?”

*  *  *

“What’s for lunch?” I asked, tossing my bag to the empty chair beside Sophie.