Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (18 page)

Breakfast consisted of more
cuppa
,
and
a few croissants
and cheese Danishes
.
Jay Dee didn’t want to stay in the area, too many eyes she said, so we
took
the
ferry to Lummi Island—it was an agreeable suggestion; I wasn’t about to share her. Standing on the bow of the ferry next to her, watching
the
whales
jump and surface in the distance,
the
eagles soaring overhead,
and
the
way the
fog hung midway up the tree line, creating a mysterious ambiance to the morning, was the pi
cturesque way to spend the day.

Once docked, we
explored the secluded coves
. Occasionally she’d break the silence by mentioning a point of interest we were passing, the local wildlife
that
crossed
our path
, or a t
ale of the
people
she called hers
.

“The Coyote liked to take out his eyeballs and juggle them to impress the girls,”
Jay Dee absently said as she
skipped a rock across the rolling tide. “One day
when
he was juggling them
,
he
threw one so high
that it
stuck in the sky
and is now known as Arcturus. It’s the brightest star of Constellation Boötes,
forming the left foot of
the Great Bear of the northern hemisphere known as
the c
onstellation Ursa Major.
..I did a science project on it in fifth grade
,”
she said with a shrug.

Absently I nodded; there was
something almost spiritual about watching her, listening to her, just being in her presence.
I liked it much more than was appropriate.

I was gobsmacked by how
undeterred Jay Dee was about me being a vampire. Most people, hell, anyone other than her, would have been worried about being alone with a vampire, or would
have worn
a neckbrace as a reminder
not to bite. But n
o, not Jay Dee. Without qu
estion, or concern for her well
-
being, she
chose to hang around with me, alone, in the middle of nowhere where no one could hear her scream
.

Last night, after Steffen left to tell Romeo the bad news, and Mum popped her head in to check on me, and willing the numbers on the clock failed, I fell asleep and
dreamt of
Jay Dee
.
It wasn’t a p
erverse dream, but I did get
a snog goodnight
.
I woke much earlier than needed, anxious to see the
young woman who
was
quickly consuming me.
But
like
a coward, I sat in front of her house for an hour waiting for her to exit
, struggling to ignore the Res Whore comments her infantile brother was making about her
from inside—I had to turn the stereo on in order to drown him out otherwise I would have address
ed
it with him personally
.
I should have knocked on the door, it would have been the human thi
ng to do, but I was nervous to see her again,
not to mention,
was extremely
narked
at her brother
for disrespecting his beautiful sister like that
.

However, all the questions I was prepared to
throw at
Jay Dee
during our short morning drive,
one which I had mapped out with help from the GPS
in order to
take
the
long
est route
possible so
not to
miss a moment with her,
were quickly forgotten when she looked at me with pained eyes.

Was
it possible for a
narked
vampire’s heart to break?

I didn’t think so, but hearing her words, feelings, and the pain
and guilt
s
he was consumed with, which
had been
plaguing
her for years, in her hour of ranting, it killed me inside.
Each tear that rolled from her beautiful eyes drove me mad with anger.
I wanted to kill every person in t
hat
bloody
tribe, every person who had
treated her badly, made a rude comment, fantasized about her,
even
breathed on her.
If she wasn’t so
gutted
, so in need of a friend and a shoulder to cry on, I would have done it
and not thought twice about it.

“The Raven,” Jay Dee said, her attention on
the
large, black bird sitting on a fallen log, seemingly watching her, “is a hero of the Saanich and other Northwest coastal tribes. He is a benevolent figure who helped the people, but at the same time, he wa
s also a trickster spirit. M
any Saanich stories about Raven have to do with his frivolous or poorly thought out behavior that seemingly always got him into trouble.
”

I nodded and the bird took flight.

“I’m sorry for going all chick-flick on you,”
she whispered
, plopping down on the
rocky beach and continued to skip
rock
s
across the rolling
tide
.
“Usually I just keep everything inside and smile pretty and wave like
a good little pageant princess.” S
he pushed her chest out and started doing that ridiculous robotic wave that Miss America always
did
.

I chuckled and sat next to her.
“
Miss Jay Dee, please do not fret or concern yourself with it
.
I used to keep eve
rything inside, until I met you
,
and
now
I cannot keep anything in me head.”

She
nodded.
“I should apologize for that but I won’t, I rather enjoy it.”

“
You would,” I
scoffed
and she smiled as she softly knocked into
me.

“Tell me something, Nosferatu,”
Jay Dee
said with a mischievous smirk
, “I thought vampires were hindered by sunlight.
And correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that bright ball of burning gas in the sky called the sun?”

“Ha ha, funny bird.”

“It’s a gift, being this damn funny and this good lookin’!” she teased.

I was thankful that she was seemingly
in a better mood
so it made me want to humor her.

“That is a complicated answer,” I admitted. “
The sun does not play well with vampires, so that is true.
However, there are ancient totems that are very rare, and very powerful,
which
allow us to play in the sun without turning into insta-ash
...as
Romeo
calls it
.”
I fished
my
necklace from under my shirt, and showed it to her.

Jay Dee’s
nimble fingers
caresse
d
the delicate iridium and rhodium ring,
her eyes fixed on
the large red diamond in the center.

“It is a
little gaudy to wear as a ring,” I said with a shrug; that was one of many reasons.

Her large
,
black eyes scanned over the piece of jewelry many times, committing the crest
s
and delicate pattern
s carved into the metals
to memory.
“What is it?
I mean the metals.
I’ve never felt anything like
them
before but I have, if that makes sense.
It’s warm...
really warm
,” she whispered the latter.

Strange. Usually humans
do not
notice the energy and warmth emanating from enchanted totems.

“
T
he ring and necklace are made from a comb
ination of iridium and rhodium,” I explained, “which
are very rare metals.
Vampires have harbored what precious bits of iridium there
are
in order to make these totems.
However, a disgruntled lover of an immortal took the finding
s
of the precious metal public in the early nineteenth century, and
vampire
have
struggled to acquire the metal
since
.
”

Jay Dee nodded her understanding, her finger caressing over the family crest.

“That
side is m
e
family’s c
rest and on the other is me
coven’s crest—the family crest is purely out of respect for me biological parents, however, the coven crest shows that I am tied to a coven of reputation and demanded respect…Toran was, as Steffen and Abby say, kind of a big deal, at one point in time.
The stone is an extremely rare red diamo
nd in a rectangular emerald cut from the Russian crown jewels
; me mum picked it out from her collection
. I
t
is five carats
; one carat for each century she waited for me...I am mum’s favorite
.”

“But of course,” Jay Dee dryly agreed and I smiled.
“So if you take this off in the sun you die?” she whispered.

My smile fell; that was a mood killer and a half.

“Yes,
almost
instantaneously,” I said. “
The chain acts as an extension
of me
body, so as long as it is around me neck with
the
ring
it is, essentially,
the same as wearing the ring on me finger.”

Jay Dee
licked her lips, biting
her
bottom lip in the process.
She carefully
tucked
the ring and chain back under my shirt and patted the center of my chest with her long
,
slender hand.
“Then we better keep it safe,” she said softly.
“You trust me, don’t you?”

“Unequivocally,” I told her honestly.

Where in bloody hell did that come from?

“Your secret is safe with me,” she assured me, turning her attention back to the
Pacific
.

Bloody hell!
That was a big secret of our society, one that not many vampires even know about and I just told it to some human
!
I
a
m going to be in one
major
barney if someone finds out.
Buggers
.
This bird is seriously kicking
me
arse and she
does not
even know it!

“Thanks,” I
mumbled
.

“Can you fly?” Jay Dee asked, after what seemed like an hour of silence.

Interesting turn the conversation has taken.

“Can you?” I countered.

Softly she sighed, the look of disappointment washing across her face.
“No, but I wish I could.
Seeing things at ground level bore me.
I would rather play in the stars,” she
said and
looked up at the sky longingly.
“Can you change into a bat or a wolf or anything like that?”

“Is the Q and A portion back?” I
groaned; I rather talk about her, not me
.

“Trying to distract myself,” she admitted.

Oh, she must be trying to put up on a happy façade.
Obviously she is still
gutted
about the treatment she receives back
on the Reservation
.

“Not a bat or a wolf
. If you must know,
I am far too big to turn into a bat and much too
smooth
to be a wolf,” I
smugly
informed her and she snorted, shaking her head in amused aspiration—I could tell. “
However,
I can run and jump pretty well, and it gives me a soaring sensation
if the
longing tickled m
e
fancy, thus I suppose it could count
as
short distance
flying,” I
said with a shrug
.
“Then again, you can get the same sensation jumping from the back of a moving truck.”