Jack Templar and the Lord of the Werewolves (Book #4 of the Templar Chronicles) (12 page)

“I guess the fact that I’m still here isn’t good news then,” Eva appeared by my side so silently that I jerked out of my chair. “That and the fact I got nothing the entire day.”

“Maybe Kaeden rules with an iron fist, and people are just scared to say anything,” T-Rex offered.

“I don’t know, T, you could be right, “ I said. “But my gut tells me we would have found something today, no matter how small, if it were here to be found.”

“Agreed,” Daniel said.

The others nodded wearily.

“Tell me there’s a plan B,” Eva said.

I’d been trying to come up with a plan B all day, and I still didn’t have one. “I’ve got nothing,” I admitted. “I’m open to ideas,” I said. “I’m willing to try anything that might get us to Kaeden.”

Minutes passed, and we all picked at our food, no one offering a suggestion. Finally, it was too much to bear. “Come on, I don’t think any of us can even think straight right now. Let’s get a good night’s sleep at a hotel with real mattresses and clean sheets and come up with a strategy in the morning.”

Everyone mumbled in agreement. We paid the bill and headed across the square to a hotel. Eva fell in line next to me.

“I know you’re tired, but can you take a walk with me?” she asked.

My heart pounded in my chest. The way she’d said the words came the closest I’d seen yet to the old Eva, the one I’d gotten to know when she let the walls around her come down. Vulnerable and real. It was a quick glimpse of her completely back to being herself.

“Yeah… of course,” I stumbled.

“Good,” she said with a smile. “I don’t really sleep anymore, and I feel like we should… you know… talk.”

I called up to the others. “Guys, we’re going to take a lap and check out a few more places. We’ll meet you at the hotel.”

Will and Daniel looked at us oddly, one from concern and the other with a measure of jealousy.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Will offered.

I shook my head. “No, we’ll be fine.”

Daniel looked back and forth between Eva and me, then turned and trudged up the street toward the hotel without looking back.

Eva reversed course and headed in the direction we’d just come, creating immediate distance between the others and us. I had to jog to catch up to her.

“Hey, who are we racing?” I asked.

She smiled, but it was thin and looked fake. This was the first time we’d been alone together since her dramatic return to our little group. I cleared my throat and was about to speak when she held up her hand to cut me off.

“The first time we met I made you a deal. Five questions and then we were done. Remember that?”

“Kinda hard to forget,” I said, trying to get a read on her. The glimpse of the real Eva was long gone. The vampire I walked next to now seemed cold and calculating. “It was the moment my entire world turned upside down.”

“Okay, we’re going to do that again to clear the air without going on and on about things. Five questions and then no more, all right?”

“That’s generous of you,” I said, not meaning it.

“If I thought I could get away with no questions I would, but I know you too well. I think this is a better way. Do you agree to the terms?”

“Okay, let’s do it,” I said.

“Ask away,” she said.

“And you’ll truthfully answer anything I ask?”

Eva grinned, “Yes, and that’s your first question. You really haven’t learned anything, have you?”

“Wait, we’re not really counting that, right?” I cringed as I said the words.

“Yeah, we are. And that was question number two. If you’re really the last hope for the survival of the civilized world against the coming Creach war, the civilized world can officially consider itself in serious trouble.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled. “Okay, how does it feel, you know, to be a vampire?”

Eva took a deep breath. I could tell this was the kind of question she didn’t really want to answer. But this was her game, so she had to play.

“It feels like power coiled inside every muscle, and it takes total concentration to keep it in control. But keeping it in control makes me feel… how to describe it… like I’m tied up with every limb and muscle screaming at me to flex and stretch out.”

She paused, and I knew she was hoping I’d burn another question with a follow-up. When I didn’t, she gave me a little more.

“My hand growing back was unexpected,” she said, flexing the fingers on her left hand. “I’d been without it for so long that it took a while to get used to it.” She looked off into the distance. “My eyesight is so clear, it’s like having binoculars attached to my head. I can hear things I shouldn’t be able to.” She nodded to a couple walking on the other side of the square. “If I focus, I can hear them from here just like I was standing next to them. I hear the butterfly flying over by that fountain. I can hear every drop of water like an explosion if I let it.”

“What did Aquinas do to you?” I asked, knowing this was dangerous territory but also knowing the most dangerous question of them all lay ahead of me.

“At first, I couldn’t control much of this. All my senses were bombarded the second I opened myself up to the world. It was like trying to take a drink of water from a giant fire hose. So I had to close down just to survive it. Aquinas taught me how to do that. Mind tricks, control exercises, meditation. It worked well enough for me to overhear that Xavier was going to meet you guys and to realize I needed to escape and rejoin the fight.”

We’d walked through the square by this time and down one of the main cobblestoned streets. Old storefronts lined each side. I stopped and waited until she turned to look at me.

“Last question,” I said. “Can you forgive me?”

There it was, the question I both didn’t want to ask and absolutely had to ask. She didn’t shy away from it but looked me right in the eye.

“I hated you for what you allowed Shakra to do to me. No, what you asked her to do to me. You turned me into the thing I’d spent my entire life trying to destroy. You put Ren Lucre’s blood into mine.”

“But you were –“

“Let me finish,” she said. “And then we won’t talk about this again.” She drew in a deep breath. “I drifted into a dark place. So dark that I didn’t think I wanted to go on. But Aquinas brought me back. She helped me understand why you did it.”

“Do you forgive me?”

“No,” she stated plainly. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to that. But I don’t hate you for it either. And that’s going to have to be enough for now.”

I nodded. Not exactly the words you want to hear from the girl of your dreams, but it would have to do.

“Those are your five questions,” she said. “Happy now?”

“Not really,” I said.

“Good,” she said. “That makes two of us. But maybe now we can do our jobs a little better. We have a world to save.” She pointed to a tavern in front of us, a dingy place with bad lighting and tilted walls. It looked like the place could collapse at any minute. A sign with a wolf walking upright as a man hung over the door, with the words
Heulender Wolf
beneath it. .

“That’s German for the Howling Wolf,” Eva said. “And this is our best and only chance to find Kaeden, so don’t mess it up.”

She strode toward the tavern without me. As I watched her go, I wondered why I liked her so much. I ran to catch up, curious about what I might find inside, completely unprepared for what would happen to me.

Chapter 17

Based on the way the outside of the tavern seemed to be falling apart, I assumed the inside would be a mess. And I was right. Bare, dirty light bulbs hung from the ceiling in odd intervals, swinging slightly as the building moved with each step a patron took. A smoky fire burned in the hearth in the corner, casting weird shadows through the room. The plastered ceiling was low enough in places to touch with an outstretched hand. I noticed stains there, and at first, I thought it was from roof leaks above. On a closer look, the splatter marks were clearly from drinks thrown into the air. It wasn’t hard to imagine a rowdy group of German fieldworkers getting carried away, clinking steins together as they sang the old songs.

A man stood behind an enormous dark wood bar, doing what barkeeps around the world do in their down time, rubbing spots off a glass with a dishtowel. He was thick-chested and bald, the top of his head as shiny as the polished wood of his bar. His eyes seemed too small for his face, an impression added to because he squinted like someone who’d lost his glasses. He wore pants and a long sleeve shirt mostly covered by a black leather apron like one an ironsmith would use. Although he avoided eye contact, he cast furtive glances at us from the first second we walked into the door until we reached the edge of his bar.

“We’re closed,” he said in a heavy German accent.

I looked around at the handful of other people in the place. Only five or six of them, but they were hunched over drinks, some eating plates of food. A waitress with dark red hair and fair skin came through the swinging doors from the kitchen, carrying platters of sausages and roasted vegetables. My mouth watered from the smell, and my stomach tightened to remind me I’d been neglecting it. The waitress, who I have to admit was very attractive, walked right past us and gave me a wink. I felt my face turn hot from embarrassment.

“You don’t look closed,” I managed.

“Really?” the man said, looking around. “You know what, you’re right. Is this better?”

Just then, the waitress slammed the front door shut and lowered an iron bar across it. The other patrons jumped to their feet, knocking back chairs and tipping tables in their rush. Weapons didn’t even need to be pulled, they’d been hidden under the tables.

In only seconds, a circle of swords pointed at us.

Even so, I pulled my sword and stood in front of Eva. I searched their faces and couldn’t spot any signs of Creach among them. As far as I could tell, they were men.

Monster hunters.

They must have realized Eva was a vampire. They were doing what any good band of hunters would do – attack the Creach that had wandered into their lair.

“Put down your weapons,” I yelled. “We’re members of the Black Guard.”

The waitress with the red hair stepped toward us. The circle of men parted for her to pass and then closed back behind her. I didn’t know how I could have missed it before, but an air of command surrounded her. It was clear without a single word uttered or command given who was in charge here.

“I am Skyal,” the woman said. “And how can a vampire-wretch like this be of the Guard?”

“She is,” I said. “She’s one of us. I swear it.”

The men around us laughed. Even Skyal broke a quick smile, but it disappeared quickly. She was all business.

“Can you prove it?” Skyal said.

“The truthsayer, Jack,” Eva whispered.

I nodded. “There’s a truthsayer in my front coat pocket. You can use it.”

Skyal glanced at Eva, then back at me. “All right, throw it to me.”

I did as she asked, moving carefully in case any of them used my change in position as an invitation to attack. After taking out the metal cylinder, I tossed it to Skyal.

She caught it easily and rolled it over in her hands. “I’ve always wanted to see one of these.”

“So you know how it works,” I said. “You have to be careful to ask the right question.”

“I know that,” she snapped. “Do you take me for a fool?”

“No, of course not,” I said, nervous that she suddenly seemed a little unsteady. “Just trying to be helpful.”

“You can be helpful by answering this; are you a member of the Black Guard?”

“Yes,” I said. Eva remained silent, glowering at the woman.

Skyal looked at the truthsayer, and I knew the tiny lines would be moving into the shape
FACTUM
, the Latin word for true.

“Good,” she said, looking up from the cylinder. “Did you and the vampire here come to us with a secret plan to destroy us?”

“No, of course not,” I said. “I didn’t even know you were in here.”

Skyal watched the answer form in the truthsayer and looked mildly surprised. “All right, last question. It’s an important one. What’s your name, boy?”

I hesitated, realizing that the woman didn’t seem to care about Eva at all.

“I said, what’s your name?” the woman hissed.

“Jack,” I replied.

“Last name?”

“Templar,” I said. “My name is Jack Templar.”

The woman looked down at the cylinder and then smiled triumphantly. “Very good,” she said, pocketing the truthsayer. “Thank you.”

Even with Skyal’s acknowledgement that I was telling the truth, none of the armed men surrounding us moved from their fighting stances.

“You have to believe me about my friend,” I said to the group gathered around us. “She’s one of us.”

Skyal laughed, and the men around her followed suit. But it was an ugly sound full of hate and mockery.

“Poor fool,” Skyal said. “You really have no idea, do you? I don’t think I even needed the truthsayer to know that.”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

“You’re only half-right. Your vampire friend here is one of us.” Skyal’s eyes glowed red, and sharp horns grew from her temples, pushing through her red hair. “Only we’re not one of you.”

As my mind worked through the implications, I felt a bolt of pain on the wrist holding my sword. I dropped it, and it fell to the floor where one of the men picked it up.

On reflex, my other hand reached for the dagger on my side, only there was a hand on my wrist before I reached it. The grip was strong, holding me like solid rock.

I looked up slowly, already knowing what I’d see but not wanting to believe it.

Eva.

She had me by the wrist.

She was one of them.

“I’m sorry, Jack,” she whispered. “But I told you I didn’t forgive you.”

I saw a flash of movement as her other hand smashed into the side of my head. And everything went black.

Chapter 18

I didn’t dream the first time. At least I don’t remember dreaming at all. But I did wake up with a jerk, my heart pounding and adrenaline pumping through me. I thought I was coming out of a terrible nightmare. Turned out, I was waking up into one.