Shifters Rule (Rule Series) (11 page)

The smile left Cowboy’s face as he considered the question.
 
“She does kind of overuse certain parts of the English language.
 
Probably wear a guy down after a while.
 
I’d have to kill her to shut her up, and then your girlfriend would come after me, and it would get messy.”
 
His smile returned, bigger this time.
 
He stuck a hand out.
 
“You got yourself a deal, buddy.
 
I’ll dump her if you agree to work with me one last time.”

Jack reluctantly shook the offered hand.
 
He suspected he’d just made the dumbest deal of his life.
 
Cowboy tipped the popcorn box.
 
Jack reached in, took a handful.
 
Leaning back in the seat, he munched on the white stuff and checked the movie out.
 
Now there was a whole different woman on the screen he didn’t recognize.
 
She raced around her apartment with one shoe on and one in her hand.
 
The audience laughed as she tripped over the ottoman and landed on the sofa.

“What are you going to say to her?” Jack asked.
 
“If you don’t make it good, Trina won’t let you go.
 
She can be… stubborn.”

“You know me, bud.
 
I work best under pressure.
 
I’ll think of something.”

Jack didn’t doubt it.
 
He had his own ideas.
 
Cowboy wouldn’t welcome any of them.
 
They were as different as potato chips and chocolate cake.
 
Cowboy didn’t handle things the way Jack did.
 
While Jack would try to let Trina down easy, Cowboy would more likely cut her off at the knees.
 
He’d make her bleed.
 
Jack didn’t like the idea of Trina getting hurt, but maybe she would have to be hurt in order to allow Cowboy to walk away.

“I should have known.”
 
Trina glared down at him.
 
“Silver just cornered me in the lobby and tried to convince me to stop seeing Derek.
 
I’m going to tell you the same thing I told her.
 
Forget it.
 
Butt out of my life or else.
 
Got it?”

A couple of people hissed at Trina and one of them shouted at her to sit down.
 
She made a rude gesture in the direction of the audience.
 
Her narrowed eyes remained on Jack’s face.

“Derek?”
 
Jack raised an eyebrow at his friend.
 
“Was that your name before you were turned?”

“Who can remember?”
 
Cowboy shrugged.
 
“It might have been.”

Trina shouted, “Get out of my seat!”

“You heard her, buddy.
 
Hit the road.”

Jack stood slowly.
 
His eyes went to Cowboy to give him a silent reminder that they had a deal.
 
Cowboy smiled up at him.
 
Jack opened his mouth to offer a grain of wisdom, but Trina smacked him in the arm.
 
He circled around her, lips firmly closed.
 
There was nothing he could say anyway.
 
Hopefully, Cowboy was going to stick with the plan.

Silver was waiting for him in the lobby.
 
She hurried over to him and asked, “Did you have better luck than I did?”

“Everything’s cool.
 
He’s breaking up with her.”

“Are you sure you can trust him to do it?
 
I thought Trina was going to dump him before, but she lied to us.
 
What makes you think he’s telling the truth?”

“I offered him a trade.”

Silver gaped at him.
 
“Tell me you didn’t.
 
I know he used to be a friend of yours, but things have changed.
 
He’s still a vampire, and you’re a human dating a hunter.”

A dumb question crossed his lips.
 
“Do you want to go back in and watch the rest of the movie?”

She winced.
 
“Not really.
 
I’m too upset to focus.
 
Sorry.
 
Can you just take me home?
 
I really want to check on my mom.”

In silent mutual agreement, they walked to the glass doors.
 
Jack pushed one open for her.
 
He followed her out.
 
The two of them walked down the sidewalk to the parking lot, hand in hand.
 
It didn’t matter to him what they did as long as they did it together.
 
Some people would count their first date as a total failure, but he had a warm feeling in his chest.
 
He smiled and squeezed her hand.

.

*****

.

Jersey
sat behind a desk almost identical to the one he’d left behind in the mansion.
 
In fact, the room resembled his mansion study down to the last detail.
 
Pagan strutted into the room, swinging her hips with slight exaggeration.
 
The tight pink mini stretched with each movement.
 
She perched on the edge of the desk and crossed her long legs at the knees.
 
Jersey
handed her a present wrapped in flowery paper.
 
Her pouting pink lips slowly turned to a smile.

Jack watched from the doorway.
 
After his date with Silver, he went back to his own house because he couldn’t hide out at Silver’s home forever.
 
Being in his own bed again proved oddly uncomfortable.
 
Unable to sleep, he had searched his room until he found something that belonged to
Jersey
.
 
It was a tiny angel wrapped in cloth.
 
He’d taken it home when Vanessa started throwing
Jersey
’s stuff out.
 
No one knew he had it.
 
Back then he’d still thought of
Jersey
as a friend.

Jack was grasping it in his hand now, watching the scene with
Jersey
unfold.

For a moment he was stunned at finding Pagan with
Jersey
.
 
Then he caught sight of glittering green eyes and realized it was Blanca.
 
For some reason she was having trouble holding the form.
 
She was pretending to be Pagan for
Jersey
.
 
No wonder
Jersey
kept his nasty little cat around.
 
Blanca could pretend to be anyone.
 
It was a safe way to play out fantasies.

Jack wondered if
Jersey
sometimes had Blanca pretend to be him so they could discuss literature.
 
It was sort of sick.

“For me?”
 
She squealed, returning to her natural form.
 
Dishwater blond hair bounced on her skinny shoulders as she jumped up and down.

“You deserve it,”
Jersey
said.

She ripped the paper and opened the box.
 
A frown marred her pretty features.
 
She tilted the box in
Jersey
’s direction as if he didn’t know what was inside. Continuing to frown, she asked, “What is it?”

Jersey
took the box from her.
 
His fingers dipped inside, and he pulled the contents out.
 
Placing it in her hand, he said, “It’s for luck.”

“It looks like an old coin.”
 
She sneered at the gift, free hand on her hip.
 
“What am I supposed to do with this?”

Jersey
lifted an eyebrow.
 
“I thought we could drill a hole in it.
 
Then we can attach it to a collar for you.”
 
She hissed at him.
 
Undaunted, he went on with, “If you are unhappy here, feel free to return to your origins.
 
I will buy you the collar as a going away present.”

Blanca’s chest heaved with every distorted breath.
 
She was visibly shaken by the threat.
 
The second she was no longer in his employ she would return to cat form for the rest of her life, and they both knew it.
 
Being around werewolves energized her power and made morphing possible.
 
If Jack was her, he would just find another werewolf to hang with, but
Jersey
had extra power.
 
An ordinary werewolf could help her morph for a moment.
 
Being with
Jersey
gave her the ability to hold the different shapes even when she wasn’t in his presence.
 

Jersey
had her cornered.

Jack almost felt sorry for her.

Almost
.

She faked a smile.
 
“Don’t be silly, darling.
 
I wouldn’t dream of leaving you.”
 
Her fingers closed around the coin.
 
“Thank you for the gift.
 
I’ll treasure it always.”

Jersey
stood.
 
He circled the desk, hands in the pockets of his black trousers.
 
“That coin was in my pocket when my life was changed forever.
 
It was in my pocket the day I killed my best friend.”

“You called it lucky.”

“Oh it is.
 
Very lucky.
 
I could have been killed instead.
 
I took a life instead of losing my own.
 
Lucky indeed.”

Blanca rolled her eyes.
 
“Why give it to me?
 
Jack and his little werewolf hunter are gunning for you.
 
Don’t you need good luck right now?”

Jersey
continued to pace in front of her, barely glancing in her direction.
 
He chuckled.
 
“I do not need a lucky coin to win the war.
 
Jack will fall again, just as he did when he was Tobias and James and Patrick before that.
 
No matter what the name, he’s still the same loser.
 
When this ends, sadly, I will stand over his lifeless body once again.”

The first couple of times Jack visited the past, he had been afraid to move around.
 
Somehow he’d secretly believed he might mess up the natural balance of things, perhaps rip a hole in the universe by not standing perfectly still.
 
Now he moved about freely.
 
He walked around
Jersey
, studying the man’s facial expressions and his body language.

Perhaps he would learn something useful, something that would help him destroy Jersey Clifford.

“What’s our next move?” Blanca asked.
 
Jersey
whispered in her ear, and Jack didn’t hear a thing.
 
Blanca laughed and nodded.
 
“Sounds simply delicious.
 
What exactly do you want me to do?”

Jack inched closer so he would be able to hear this time, but he was yanked from the scene before
Jersey
parted his lips.
 
It was like falling through a tunnel at the speed of light.
 
It was over in seconds.

Jack bolted upright in bed, and his heart tripled in tempo when he realized he wasn’t alone.
 

Billy stood over him, weapon in hand.

Bam
!

.

*****

Chapter Nine:

BLANCA’S SECRET

.

.

He raised an arm to keep the bat from striking him in the head.

It hit his arm instead.

Jack rolled off the mattress in an effort to evade the swinging bat a second time, but it clipped his arm hard an inch above the elbow.
 
Pain radiated from one end of his arm to the other.
 
The bat hit him again before he could even think about moving.
 
Billy seemed faster than usual.
 
Jack was still half-asleep and not thinking clearly.
 
Otherwise, he would have used his vampire-speed to avoid the attack.
 

He hit the floor hard.
 
Another burst of pain shot through his arm.
 
He bit down on his lower lip to keep from crying out.
 
Holding his arm tight to his side, he quickly got to his feet, putting distance between himself and his attacker.
 
The bone was broken in at least two places.
 
He needed time to heal, but first he had to deal with his psychotic brother.

Billy wielded the bat like a sword.
 
Swinging it over his head, he took a few steps in Jack’s direction.
 
“What’s wrong?”

“Not a thing.”
 
Jack struggled to keep his voice calm even though he was shaking.
 
He breathed through his nose, grinding his teeth before adding, “I’m doing great.
 
What about you?”

“I’m fan-
tastic
.”
 
Billy punctuated the statement by smashing the bat against Jack’s desk.
 
The bat splintered but didn’t break.
 
“If I could just get you to hold still for a second, I would be even better.”

“Are you working for
Jersey
now?”

Billy shook his head.
 
“You’re not even close.
 
Guess again. ”

He kept advancing, and Jack retreated until his back hit the closet door.
 
There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
 
The only thing he could think to do was throw Billy off the scent by shocking him with new information.
 
Jack blurted out the first thing to pop into his head.
 
Although he couldn’t yell for Ian to help him because the man would kill his brother, he could throw his name into the mix.

“Ian Carver is our uncle.
 
Dad had a brother and never told us about him.
 
Did you know we had an uncle?
 
Cause it was news to me.”

Billy froze.
 
It was working.
 
A temporary light entered his eyes as he reconnected with his old self.
 
For the moment he was Billy Creed again.
 
His eyes narrowed, and he made a comical face.
 
“That’s… what?
 
Dad had… a brother?
 
Are you sure the old man isn’t yanking your chain?”

“Yes.”
 
Jack eased away from the closet door.
 
He walked slowly, not wanting to startle his brother with sudden movement.
 
He went to the open window.
 
If nothing else, he could jump out and run for his life.
 
“Dad lied to us for years.
 
He didn’t want us to know about Ian.
 
I’m not completely sure why.”

“That… doesn’t make sense.”

“Things rarely do these days.”
 
Jack decided to risk sending Billy over the edge by asking a question.
 
He had to know the truth.
 
“Why are you acting all homicidal?
 
Why are you trying to kill me?
 
I know you’re a werewolf now, but there isn’t even a full moon tonight.”

Billy shook his head.
 
“I’m not sure why I want to kill you when the moon isn’t full.
 
It’s just a bad feeling in my gut.
 
I tried to tell you at your graduation.
 
There’s something about looking at your face that pisses me off.”

Jack leaped out of the way just in time.
 
The bat swung over his head.
 
It created a disturbing breeze that ruffled Jack’s hair.
 
He landed on the floor to the left of the window.
 
Another burst of pain nearly made him cry out.
 
He bit his lower lip to keep the sound inside.
 
A claustrophobic darkness closed in on him, threatening to take him down with it.
 
If he allowed himself to lose consciousness, he’d wake up dead.

Billy rested the bat against his shoulder and laughed.
 
“This is more fun than I ever dreamed.
 
No wonder Jersey Clifford loves to mess with you.
 
You’re like an exceptionally smart mouse.”

“Have you talked to
Jersey
lately?”

“Even if I had, why would I tell you?”

Jack wanted to stand, but he was afraid even the slightest movement on his part would set Billy off again.
 
Maybe he could humor his brother, get him talking about something of interest to him.

Billy took on the familiar batter stance, knees bent, bat ready to swing and nail a homerun.
 
Jack’s uninjured arm automatically went up to ward off the attack.
 
He shouted, “Mary came to the house to see you!”

The loud announcement had the desired effect.
 
Billy lowered the bat.
 
Scowling, he asked, “What did she want?”

“What do you think she wanted?”
 
Jack lowered his arm and leaned back against the wall, desperately needing a moment to rest.
 
“She’s upset and confused and worried.
 
She thinks something horrible has happened to you.
 
And she’s right.
 
Something terrible
has
happened to you.
 
The worst thing imaginable.”

“Really?
 
Worst thing?
 
So says the former vampire.
 
I suppose you wouldn’t have a problem with me turning into a bloodsucker.
 
What is it with your kind?
 
Why do you look down on werewolves when they are so much cooler than vamps?”

That was it!
 
Mystery solved.
 
Jack couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen the truth before.
 
There was a good reason for the way Billy freaked every time they made contact.
 
One of them was a werewolf, and the other had been a vampire until recently.
 
Jack had been told (on more than one occasion) that the stench of vampire still clung to him like a second skin.

What could be done about it?

Jack didn’t get the chance to clue Billy in on why he was adamant about killing his own brother.
 
Ian burst into the room, shotgun in hand.
 
He aimed it at Billy’s chest.
 
His finger pulled the trigger without hesitation.
 
Using vampire-speed, Jack launched himself like a rocket.
 
He flew across the room and knocked the shotgun’s barrel up.
 
Both men lost their balance.
 
Jack landed next to Ian on the floor.

Glass shattered.
 
When Jack looked up, he saw a gaping hole in his bedroom window.
 
Broken for the second time in a month.
 
At least this time Jack hadn’t been the one to fall out of it.

“What the bloody hell is your problem!” Ian shouted.
 
He shoved Jack aside so he could climb to his feet.
 
The shotgun dangled at his side.
 
He went to the window and looked out.
 
“Great.
 
He’s gone.
 
Next time he comes around you had better stay out of the way or I will blow
your
stupid head off instead of his.”

Warning received and processed.
 
Because they were related Jack didn’t want to harm his uncle, but he wasn’t going to stand by and let the bloodthirsty hunter murder his brother.
 
Billy was only a werewolf on a temporary basis.
 
Somehow Jack was going to save his brother.

“How did Billy get inside the house?” Jack asked.
 
“I thought you put a bunch of anti-werewolf spells on the doors and windows.”

Ian stared at him, faint glimmer in his eye, and the truth hit Jack like a speeding semi-truck.
 
The spells weren’t in place anymore.
 
Ian had erased them.
 
He had been hoping Billy would break in so he could kill the unsuspecting werewolf.
 
Fuming in silence, Jack wanted to physically lash out at his uncle.
 
He kept himself in check with a great deal of difficulty.
 
For once he was going to take his father’s advice and not poke the bear.

“I know you think Billy has gone dark side, but this isn’t his fault.
 
He didn’t ask to become a werewolf.
 
Once I kill
Jersey
, Billy will be human again.”

“Everything is bloody simple to you, isn’t it?
 
Life is not a fairy tale, you stupid
git
.
 
I think it’s high time for you to grow up and see the world for what it is.
 
Your brother is too dangerous for us to play games with, and from what I’ve seen you have as much chance of killing Jersey Clifford as I have of winning the Pulitzer.”

“Bite me.”

Ian’s eyebrow rose.
 
“Isn’t that your niche?”

Jack spread his legs, hands on hips.
 
He stared his uncle down.
 
“You will not attempt to kill my brother again.
 
Bottom line?
 
If you do, I will just have to show you how much of a dark soul I still am.”

A slow smile stretched Ian’s mouth and triumph touched his eyes.
 
He’d obviously been waiting a long time for this moment.
 
“Well, well, well.
 
Our little vampire is showing his fangs at last.
 
I knew it was only a matter of time before you dropped the act.
 
Are you done with your threats now, or would you like to add something before I go downstairs?”

“I’m done.”

“Glad to hear it.
 
I have steaks on the grill if you want to join me for dinner.”

Jack blinked a few times, confused.
 
He kept his mouth shut.
 
His uncle passed by and walked out the door without another word.
 
Jack wondered why his uncle was cooking for him again.
 
The man hadn’t had a single thing to say to him, beyond angry warnings for so long he’d lost count of the days.
 
What had changed?

Was he going to poison Jack?

Perhaps Ian was setting a trap.
 
It was possible he wanted Jack to let his guard down.
 
That wasn’t going to happen.
 
Not in a million years.
 
He didn’t trust his uncle any more than he trusted Jersey Clifford.
 
They were both dangerous.

.

*****

.

It didn’t take long for Jack to realize why Ian had invited him to dinner.
 
Vanessa and Silver joined them.
 
The four of them sat around the circular kitchen table.
 
At first the conversation was light.
 
They talked about the humid weather, gossiped about hunters in the area, and discussed other miscellaneous topics.

Knife in one hand and fork in the other, Jack cut off a bite-sized piece of steak.
 
He placed it in his mouth and chewed until his jaw hurt.
 
The meat was a bit tough.
 
It didn’t have any more flavor than sawdust.
 
Good thing Ian was a hunter.
 
He’d never make it as a chef.

Eyes on his plate, Jack focused on the meal.
 
He didn’t want to look across the table at Ian.
 
The tension was a suffocating blanket over his face.
 
He could barely breathe.

Vanessa said, “I haven’t been able to sleep knowing Jersey Clifford found a way around the anti-werewolf spells.
 
We aren’t safe in that house.”

Had Ian erased the spells at Vanessa’s home, too?

“Move in with us,” Ian offered.
 
“I’m sure Jack won’t mind the company.”

Jack raised his eyes and stopped chewing for a second.
 
He nodded at Vanessa to let her know he liked the idea.
 
It would be great to have someone else around to keep Ian from going homicidal on him.
 
Not to mention two people who would be on his side when it came to keeping Billy alive.
 

“We can’t hide out here forever,” Vanessa said.
 
“Besides, this place isn’t Jersey-proof either.”

“Very true.”
 
Ian nodded his dark head as he lifted a glass of white wine to his lips.
 
Before he drank from it, he added, “But there is safety in numbers.
 
Agreed?”

“Sure.
 
If Jersey Clifford shows up again, four would be better than one.
 
Still, I hate to leave my home for any great length of time.
 
Andrew was against running away from our problems.”

“Andrew was an intelligent man.
 
He would want his family to be safe until the problem is taken care of.
 
If you recall, he allowed you to stay here after your house burned to the ground.”