Werewolves Rule (The Rule Series) (2 page)

Billy shrugged.
 
“I’ll call Mary and cancel.
 
She’ll understand.”

“No, she won’t.”
 
Jack couldn’t believe Billy was going to blow off the only girl he’d liked in three years just to stay home and watch him heal.
 
“Not unless you’re going to explain the whole werewolf thing to her.”

Billy glared at him.
 
“You know I’m not going to tell her that.
 
She’d flip out.
 
She’s normal, not like us.
 
I need to keep her in the dark, at least for now.”

Jack silently agreed.
 
The regular folks living in Bliss, Nebraska did not need to know about the werewolf problem.
 
They lived in blissful ignorance—hence the name.
 
Jack opened the car door and slowly climbed out.
 
His hand held tight to the wound, making sure his guts didn’t spill all over the ground.
 
He leaned back in through the open window for a second and said, “Go on your date.
 
I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“I can call you if I need anything.
 
Just go.”

Billy nodded.
 
He couldn’t contain the smile threatening to overtake his face.
 
A familiar light danced in his eyes, and Jack knew his brother was thinking about his girlfriend.
 
What a goofy smile.
 
Idiot
.

Jack hoped he didn’t get that expression on his face when he thought about Silver.
 
He took a few steps back and watched Billy drive down the long dirt road leading away from their farmhouse.
 
The tires kicked up a wall of dust.
 
Jack lifted a hand and waved.
 
It took a lot of effort.
 
His abdomen burned like crazy.
 
Once again he wondered why he wasn’t healing faster.
 

A new scent caught his attention; there were vampires nearby.
 
His hand froze in mid-wave, and a chill shot through him.
 
Jack watched Billy's taillights fade into the distance, his only hope for survival—gone.
 
He considered chasing his brother down the road, yelling for help, but that would just put Billy at risk too.
 
There were weapons in the trunk and in the house, but Jack didn’t have anything on him.
 
His wound continued to bleed, and he was physically exhausted from the earlier battle.
 
He couldn't handle a violent confrontation with vampires.
 
Not yet.

A flash of panic clogged his throat.
 

For four months now, ever since his magical transformation from vampire to human, he’d had a target on his back.
 
It seemed like every werewolf and vampire within a thousand mile radius wanted to kill him.
 
Silver and her mom had warned him this would happen, but he hadn’t truly believed it.
 
Because he was destined to kill the head werewolf and stop the oncoming war between the two species, every creature of the night wanted to be the one to bag him.

Maybe he had time to get out his cell and call Silver’s parents.
 
They were professional hunters, and they didn’t live that far from his house.
 
He might be able to keep the vampires busy until help arrived.
 
 

A new hope infiltrated his brain.
 
It was possible that he smelled a friendly vampire.
 
It could even be an old friend from his past.
 
Cowboy might have returned to make amends.
 
That would be a nice, unexpected surprise.

He glanced up at the house and found a familiar vampire standing on the front porch.
 
Every hope he had of surviving the night went up in invisible flames.
 
It was the last vampire he wanted to see: Blaine.
 
If he was Superman, Blaine was
Lex
Luthor
.
 
For the second time in his seventeen years, he was going to die, and this death would be worse than the first because vampires were notoriously imaginative.
 
A werewolf would rip you apart, but a vampire could do so much worse.

Blaine stepped forward until he stood directly under the porch light.
 
It gave him the spotlight he continuously craved.
 
With white hair halfway down his back, ridiculously fair skin even for a vampire, and blue eyes so transparent the color was almost nonexistent, Blaine was known as the Albino Vampire.
 

“Is it true?” Blaine asked, although he apparently already knew the answer.
 
His voice had an annoying sing-song quality to it that Jack was certain had to be as fake as his bleached hair.
 
Blaine’s raucous laughter filled the air.
 
“It is.
 
You’re human now.
 
Look, friends, look at our former rival, look what he’s become.
 
What a special moment for us all.”

Jack turned to see who Blaine was speaking to, and his heart nearly stopped beating.
 
Several vampires lined up in front of the pasture fence.
 
Jack recognized every last one of them, and a new fear crawled across his skin.
 
They were going to torture him before they killed him.
 

Blaine continued to talk, loving the sound of his own voice.
 
“I heard the rumors, of course, we all did, but who could believe such a story?
 
A vampire turning mortal?
 
What a scandal.
 
Friends, did you know Jackpot was abandoned by Cowboy?
 
The rest of his group died sadly.
 
It’s true.
 
We have no fear of retaliation for killing him.
 
No one will avenge him.”

A few of the vampires snickered.

Jack swallowed the growing lump in his throat.
 
It was possible he could stall long enough to heal, or perhaps Blaine would talk until the sun came up.
 
Jack forced a smile and gave his plan a try because it was the only one he had.
 
“It’s been a long time, Blaine?
 
How have things been going for you?”

“Dandy.
 
My life is one perfect moment after another.
 
I’m golden.”

“Good.
 
I’d heard you were killed by a werewolf a couple of years ago, but here you are.
 
You can’t really trust rumors I guess.
 
Most of them aren’t worth the breath it takes to repeat them.”

Blaine made a clicking sound with his tongue.
 
“Not nice to try to fool an old friend.
 
It isn’t going to work.
 
Not with me.
 
I’ve been looking forward to this for so long, I just can’t tell you how much.
 
We’ve been waiting here for hours, anxious to see you.
 
Some of my friends thought you weren’t coming home, but I am so glad they were wrong.
 
And look at you.

“You haven’t changed a bit.”
 
Blaine put his hands together four times in a slow, soft clap.
 
“Good for you.
 
I would hate to see those beautiful eyes get wrinkles under them.
 
But never fear.
 
Blaine is going to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.
 
You should thank me for saving you from old age.
 
I’ve seen what it does to people.
 
Frankly, I’d rather be dead.
 
Wouldn’t you?”

Blaine advanced, and Jack held his ground even though he wanted to run as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
 
He was trapped in a sea of vampires, too many to count.
 
Blaine continued walking until he was only a few inches from Jack’s face.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for so long,” Blaine repeated.
 
“I am going to kill you, Jackpot, but don’t you worry.
 
I’ll make it as slow and as painful as possible.”

“Don’t you mean quick and painless?”

Blaine looked up at the sky for a moment while he chuckled to himself.
 
His eyes returned to Jack, and he shook his head.
 
“No.
 
I want it to be painful... and the more you
fight,
the longer and more painful your death will be.”

Jack lifted his fists to defend himself.
 
The movement caused pain to rip through his abdomen.
 
Water filled his eyes, and his vision blurred, but he stood his ground.
 
It was going to be a slaughter.
 
How could he fight when he couldn’t see or move?

Before the Albino Vampire could attack, something strange happened.
 
He got an odd look on his face.
 
His eyes widened in surprise, and his mouth formed a silent ‘O’ when he looked down at his chest.
 
Jack’s gaze followed.
 
There was a small wooden point sticking out through a tear in his emerald green shirt.
 
The tip was covered in blood.
 
Blaine frowned at Jack and tried to speak, but nothing came out.
 

The Albino Vampire collapsed.

There was a girl standing there.
 
Silver?
 
Somehow she’d known he needed her.
 
It was that telepathy thing again.
 
Their connection grew stronger every day.
 
He rapidly blinked his eyes to clear his vision.
 
Slowly the girl’s features started to make sense to him.
 
Dark hair appeared instead of blonde.
 
Another chill rocked Jack to the core of his being.
 
Her face was familiar, but it wasn’t Silver.
 
It was the girl who had killed him in his dream.

Jack gasped, more afraid of her than of Blaine.
 
“Who are you?
 
What do you want?”

“Move!”

Grabbing Jack by the front of his shirt, she jerked him forward and down at the same time.
 
He fell onto the hard ground, landing beside Blaine.
 
He rolled quickly onto his stomach.
 
Loud, vicious sounds erupted in the air around him, and he realized she was fighting the group of vampires first.
 
Then she would come back for him.

He didn’t know who to root for in this situation.

Blaine reached behind with one hand and grabbed the stake that protruded from his back.
 
Sweat dripped down his pale face.
 
Grunting, he pulled the stake out with a hard jerk.
 
Unfortunately the dark-haired girl had missed the Albino’s heart.
 
Alive and grimacing, Blaine sneered in Jack’s direction before using vampire-speed to put distance between them.
 
In a flash, Blaine was gone.
 

Jack gritted his teeth as he struggled to his knees.
 
It was going to take a while for him to get up.
 
In all his years on earth, both as a mortal and as a vampire, he couldn’t remember feeling this weak or this helpless.
 
Holding his breath, he struggled to his feet.
 
What he saw when he turned around almost brought him to his knees again.

The girl stood alone in the center of a bloody massacre.
 
Vampires simultaneously exploded like the finale at a Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular.
 
It took a few minutes for the dust to completely settle.
 
The girl waited patiently, a smug smile on her face.
 
Incredible.
 
She had killed a gang of vampires in the time it took for him to stand.

He shook his head in awe.
 
“How did you—?”

“How isn’t important.”

“But…" He puffed his chest out. "I could have handled them.”

“Right.
 
You’re a tough guy.”

“I am.”
 
She had no idea.
 
Five months ago she would have been staking him too.
 
Now she was saving him.
 
But why?

He didn’t trust her.
 
She might have helped him out this time, but she had killed him earlier.
 
Okay, it had been a dream, and Silver would tell him he couldn’t convict her for that, but there was something off about this girl.
 
There was also something way too familiar about her.
 
He asked, “Do I know you from somewhere?”

“That’s an old pick-up line.
 
If you’re going to flirt with me, at least be original.”

He sputtered, “I... I wasn’t
flir
—.”

She cut his words off with a flick of her hand.
 
“Whatever.”

Her eyes traveled the length of his body, and her cold expression told him she found him lacking in every possible way.
 
For some reason her response annoyed him.
 
Her gaze returned to the bloody part of his shirt.

“You’re bleeding.”
 
She spoke in a monotone without emotion.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you.
 
I could have easily taken the vampires out on my own, but I was in a fight with a rabid werewolf, and he stabbed me.”