Vampires Rule (18 page)

Maybe it was because Jersey reminded him of
his father.

Summer snarled, flashing her sharp fangs in a
brief lapse of judgment.

“Don’t make a scene,” Jack hissed into her
ear. He looked around to make sure no one had heard her. The kids
continued to laugh, dance, and make general fools of themselves.
The noise pollution they were causing drowned the subtle sounds
out.

“Do you know what he is?” Summer asked.

Jack nodded, but he didn’t elaborate on when
or how he’d found out. Details didn’t matter to Summer. She was
already prepared to hit the proverbial roof over it.

Jersey asked, “Isn’t this one of your little
vampire friends?”

She gasped. “I can’t believe Cowboy was right
about you. You have truly lost your mind. Wait till I tell him
you’re hanging with werewolves now. He’s going to freak out.”

Before Jack could say he’d rather she didn’t
tell anyone, especially not Cowboy, she was gone. The students felt
the wind but didn’t see anything as she cut through the crowd at
the speed of light. Even if one of them noticed something odd, they
would blame the booze.

Jersey wore a smug smile along with an
expensive black suit, tailored to fit, and a deep blue linen square
tucked into the breast pocket. The man looked more out of place
than Jack felt.

“You’re a bit overdressed.” Jack said. “Are
you following me?”

“I am keeping an eye on you.”

“Why?”

Jersey shrugged. “For some reason you bring
out my protective instincts. The feeling we are somehow connected
won’t dissipate. Maybe I am drawn to you because you somehow remind
me of Kenneth, and I lost him. He was like a son to me. Now I have
an empty void where he should be.” Jersey allowed his gaze to drift
over the party. “Are you enjoying your first venture into the
Jefferson Memorial social pool?”

“What’s not to like? I’m surrounded by people
I have nothing in common with. There’s booze I can’t drink, loud
music so I can’t think, and you ran off the one person who
understands where I’m coming from.”

“My apologies.” Jersey’s eyes skimmed over
the drunk and disorderly teenagers for a second time. “They seem to
be having fun. If you don’t want to stand out, perhaps you should
attempt to act as if you are also having fun.”

“Now you sound like my brother. Too bad I’m
not that good of an actor.”

“Then maybe you should leave before you give
yourself away.”

Best idea he’d heard all night. Without
another word, he walked away from Jersey and headed for his
brother’s car. He wondered if any of the idiots with their
headlights on understood the concept of dead batteries. Warning
them would be a dumb idea. They were too drunk to drive anyway.

He turned his head, looked back at Jersey as
he kept walking. The teacher was staring at him, another odd
expression on his face. Jack made a mental note to ask him about it
later. No doubt there would be an opportunity. Jersey sought him
out more often than his brother did.

Jack bumped into someone. “Sorry,” he said
before he saw who it was.

Trina glared at him. “Well, if it isn’t the
jerk who dumped my best friend. What is your problem? How could you
rip out Silver’s heart like that?”

Words froze in his throat. He wasn’t sure
whether to tell Trina that Silver was in danger with him around or
ask her to mind her own business. His hand accidentally brushed
hers. A small electric shot warned him a vision was barreling down
the tracks at him, three hundred miles an hour.

****

Trina crossed the school parking lot but
stopped when she caught sight of Silver sitting in her car. Trina
jogged over and hopped into the passenger seat. She wasn’t
expecting to see red and swollen eyes or tears running down
Silver’s face. For a second Trina thought something horrible must
have happened to Silver’s parents.

“He dumped me,” Silver said in a shaky
voice.

The news was beyond intense.

No need to ask who ‘he’ was. Jack Creed was
all Silver ever talked about. Even before meeting him, she’d been
dreaming about him. He was her secret knight in shining armor. Some
knight. The jerk had turned out to be a frog dressed like a
prince.

Trina said, “You don’t need him if he’s going
to treat you like dirt.”

“But I don’t know what I did wrong.” She
sobbed and her shoulders shook convulsively. “I thought everything
was going g-good. He k-kissed me.” Her voice rose as she repeated,
“He kissed me! I thought he was falling for me. Then I went
upstairs and found the note in my pocket. Can you believe it? He
must have stuck the note in my pocket while kissing me.”

“What did the note say?”

Silver repeated it word for word. The she
asked, “Why would he do that to me? I thought we were going to be
together forever. I thought Lovely was right about him, right about
us being meant for each other. Why would he dump me without talking
to me first?”

Trina didn’t know what to say. She stroked
her friend’s back and kept her mouth shut. Silver didn’t need to
hear words of wisdom. Trina wanted to tell her best friend to get
even with him, hurt him the way he’d hurt her. It’s what Trina
would do. Make him cry.

Silver said, “He talked to my mother. Can you
believe that? She told me he’s confused right now, and I shouldn’t
push him.”

“Confused about what?”

“I don’t know.”

Trina dug around in her purse until she found
a small package of tissues. Always be prepared, that was her motto,
her and the boy scouts. People made fun of her for carrying such a
huge purse, but she was rarely without items she needed. “Here you
go.” She pushed the tissues at Silver. “Wipe off your face. You
can’t let the jerk see you like this. Best way to play it is super
cool. If you see him, act like you don’t.”

“I’m not sure I can do that. I want to know
why he did this to me.”

“Believe it or not, I think your mom’s right
about not pushing him. Seriously. He expects you to jump on him the
second you see him. He’s probably got a phony baloney story ready
for you too. Drive him crazy, and don’t do what he’s expecting.
Walk right by him, head held high.”

Silver finished cleaning her face off. She
reapplied her make up, covered every trace of tears. Taking a deep
breath, she said, “I guess I’m ready.”

“Remember, don’t even look in his direction.
Okay? And if you see a boy you can use to make him crazy with
jealousy, do it.”

Silver shook her head. “I can’t. I’m not like
you. I’ll screw it up.”

“No, you won’t. Use your anger to keep you
strong. That’s what I do. You’ll have him eating his heart out by
lunchtime.”

“I’ll try.”

****

“What is your problem, idiot?” Trina yelled
at him, snapping him out of the trance. “What, are you high? Silver
is so lucky to be rid of you.”

Trina stormed off with her friends in tow,
and Jack stared after them. He wondered what Silver was doing at
the moment. She’d been heartbroken after reading his note. It made
him feel even worse seeing her crying like she’d lost everything.
She’d put on a brave face for the world, but she’d been torn apart
inside.

He wanted to race straight to her home and
beg her to forgive him. He wanted to tell her everything she’d
missed. He wanted to kiss her breathless.

Jack dug the keys out of his pocket and
headed for the car, not sure yet what he was going to do. He would
either wind up at home or at Silver’s house. If he went to the
latter, he would have to decide then if he was going to talk to her
or not. Feeling impulsive, he wasn’t even going to rehearse what he
might say to her.

The words would come as soon as they were
alone.

An inhuman shriek emanated from somewhere
above his head, louder than the music throbbing around him. It
sounded like a mixture of a woman’s high-pitched scream, a monkey’s
terrified screech, and fingernails on a chalkboard. Jack
automatically ducked. He squatted and covered his head before
looking up.

The visual was worse than the audio.

There were things flying in the air, three at
first count. He was most concerned with the one closest to him, so
he kept his eyes on it. In the shape of a woman, it seemed to be
made out of blue smoke that pulsated with a purple current. The
smoke formed an outline of a gown that covered legs and feet, if
the thing had any. It had long hair, black pits where eyes should
be, and sharp teeth.

A couple of the kids finally noticed the
things. They screamed and pointed up, alerting everyone else. Chaos
ensued. The kids scurried in every possible direction like
cockroaches when the kitchen light is turned on in the middle of
night. They totally panicked.

Some of the kids made it to their cars. They
locked themselves inside, screaming as the things dived down at
them. A few honked their horns. Maybe they were hoping the noise
would scare the things away. It didn’t.

Jersey appeared at Jack’s side. “We have to
get out of here!”

“What are they?”

“Wraiths! They’re as deadly as they are
hideous. Let’s go while we still can.”

“What about them?” Jack gestured to the
running, screaming kids. One of them fell and a wraith snatched him
into the air. “We have to do something! We have to save them.”

Jersey shook his head. “What can you do
without supernatural powers or even a man-made weapon?”

Jack had no idea, but he knew he had to try.
He couldn’t walk away unscathed as his fellow classmates were
picked off one by one. “What’s their weakness? What can you tell me
about them? What can hurt them?”

“Nothing. They don’t have any weaknesses.
Once they get whatever it is they’ve come for, they’ll leave, but
not until then.”

Trina ran towards Jack, screaming her head
off. She tripped over something and went down hard. Her fingers
clawed at the grass-covered ground as she tried to keep moving. A
wraith dived at her, determined to take her away. She was Silver’s
best friend. Even though Jack didn’t like her, he had to save her
for Silver’s sake.

He jerked his arm out of Jersey’s tight grip
and ran. It was a race between him and the wraith to see which
would get to the screaming girl first. A burst of vampire speed
energized his run. He zipped over to her.

The wraith reached for Trina. Jack leaped
into the air. He landed on the girl, covering her body with his
own. He felt the claws snatch at the back of his shirt. The wraith
lifted him a few feet. The material ripped. He fell.

Jack was careful not to land on Trina a
second time. He used his hands to stop himself from crushing her.
His fingers hit the cold grass. A shockwave quivered through his
entire body, bringing a burst of pain with it.

Trina yelled, “Help me!”

Jack struggled to stand. He grabbed Trina by
the arm and pulled her quickly to her feet. Together, they ran
across the field to his car. Instead of helping them, Jersey had
left.

They made it to the car. His cold, numb
fingers pulled on the door handle, slipped at first, but then
managed to grasp the cool metal. Trina looked over his shoulder
while he pulled on the door. She screamed. He glanced back, saw two
of the winged creatures coming straight at them. He shoved Trina
inside the car and jumped in after her.

A wraith’s ghostly face appeared immediately
at the closed window. Jack worried because it seemed to be made out
of smoke. Could it move through solid objects?

Trina screamed again. Her knees were tucked
under her chin. She covered her face with both hands.

Jack stared at the wraith, waiting for it to
do something. It showed its teeth, gnashing them at him. The second
wraith was on the other side of the car. The two of them looked at
each other through the windows. Were they communicating
telepathically?

As if in silent agreement, they flew straight
up.

“It’s okay,” Jack said. “I think we’re safe.
They’re gone.”

Trina peeked between her fingers. “That was
mega-intense.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Thank you for saving me,” she said with a
bit of grudging respect. “Considering you aren’t a vampire anymore,
that was extremely brave. I wonder what happened to the ones they
took.”

“I don’t think we want to know.”

“Can you give me a ride home?”

He sighed. “First I have to find my keys. I
dropped them on the ground when those things attacked.”

Jack went for the door handle, but Trina
stopped him. She latched onto him like a baby octopus. “You can’t
go out there! They could be waiting where we can’t see them.”

There wasn’t anything he could do about it if
they were. He had to get the keys. He and Trina certainly couldn’t
walk, and he wasn’t going to sit in the car all night. “Don’t
worry. I may not have all my powers, but I’ve got a few surprises
for anything that attacks me.”

She released him, and he climbed out of the
car. Fortunately he knew exactly where he’d dropped the keys. He
kept his eyes on the night sky, wide and unblinking as he felt
around the ground for his keys like a blind man. Some of the kids
were crying while their friends tried to comfort them. He didn’t
dare look at them. Jack’s fingers touched his brother’s smooth key
ring.

To everyone out there, in a loud voice he
said, “Get to your cars and go home while you still can!”

A few of them immediately went to their cars
while others remained frozen. By the time Jack got behind the
steering wheel of his brother’s car, the field was nearly empty. He
inserted the key and started the engine. “Next time someone around
here throws a party, let’s stay home.”

Trina buckled her seatbelt. He started
backing the car up. His eyes caught movement on the other side of
the bonfire. Jersey Clifford stood in the flaming light, watching
Jack drive away with the girl he’d saved. For some reason the
teacher didn’t appear pleased.