Werewolves Rule (The Rule Series) (6 page)

“Then what was it like?”

Was Silver jealous?
 
The thought gave Jack hope for their future.
 
Apparently he’d been off base about her caring more about school than she cared about him.
 
He caught a glimpse of the green-eyed-monster, and he liked it.
 
He wanted her to be jealous as long as it didn’t bite him in the butt later.

Jack sighed and raked a hand through his hair, temporarily moving bangs out of his eyes.
 
Maybe he should have given her the news about not graduating instead.
 
She might have taken it better.
 
He decided to skip the part about being a werewolf.
 
“Uh…she killed me in the dream.”

“Oh.”
 
Silver’s arms dropped to her sides.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
But like I told you before, I have bad dreams too.
 
It’s nothing to get upset over.
 
Why wouldn’t you want to tell me about it?”

Because I loved her.

“Because it’s creepy and weird.
 
I dream she kills me, and then she shows up to save me... and there’s more.”

“Tell me.”

“I saw her again later that night.
 
She was standing outside the house, watching my window.
 
She knows I used to be a vampire, and I think she wants to kill me for real now.”

“I won’t let that happen.”

Silver stepped into his arms, and they held each other for a couple of minutes.
 
It was almost like old times.
 
She was trying to comfort him, but that wasn’t what Jack needed.
 
Her concern heaped burning coals onto his head.
 
He was a liar.
 
He certainly didn’t deserve to have Silver’s trust.
 
Jack kissed the side of her face before releasing her.

The rumbling sound of a car engine signaled a new arrival.
 
“Billy’s home early,” he said.

But it wasn’t Billy.
 
The front door opened, and Silver’s father entered without the benefit of knocking.
 
Andrew Reign scowled at the two of them.
 
Jack stepped sideways, giving Silver some serious elbow room.
 
At least her father didn’t have his shotgun with him.
 

Silver threw her hands up.
 
“I can’t believe you.
 
What, are you following me now?
 
Did you think you would catch me and Jack making out?
 
I’m going to be eighteen soon.
 
You can’t control me forever.”

“First of all, you had better watch your tone with me, young lady.”
 
Andrew wagged a finger at her.
 
“You may be close to eighteen, but you aren’t there yet.
 
Second of all, I didn’t follow you here.
 
I came to speak with Jack about a matter that doesn’t concern you.
 
Maybe you should go home now, and let the two of us talk.
 
You and I will have a conversation about what you were doing here later.”

“But, Dad—.”

“You told your mother you were going to be in your room all night studying.
 
She’s going to be upset if she goes upstairs and finds you gone.”

Silver gave Jack an apologetic look before leaving.
 
Andrew waited for the sound of her car to fade before he turned on Jack.
 
Jabbing the air with his finger, Andrew said, “I am not even going to ask you what you were doing here alone with my daughter.
 
You do anything to hurt her, and I will blast a hole clean through you.”

Jack’s eyes dropped to the item in Andrew’s
other hand.
 
He recognized the worn leather book immediately.
 
It was Lovely’s journal.
 
The faerie who had created the first werewolf had kept a diary with a lot of useful information including several pages of visions she’d had about the future.
 
A few of those visions were about Jack.

Andrew tossed the book to him.

Jack caught it between both hands.
 
His eyes narrowed on Andrew’s face as he wondered why the man was giving him the book after he’d already read it.
 
What was he supposed to do with it?

“There’s another page,” Andrew said.

“Huh?”

“Since you appeared on the scene, the diary has been changing.
 
We didn’t tell you because the new passages didn’t really concern you... until now.”
 
He poked a finger in the book’s direction.
 
“Check the last page.”

Jack flipped it open to the end.
 
There was indeed a brand new page, although it was yellowed like the other pages as if it had always been there.
 
The paragraph was in the
faerie’s
disjointed handwriting.
 
His eyes swept over it, and he read it three times before looking up at Andrew.

“What does it mean?” Jack asked.

“It means you’re going to die soon.”
 
Andrew rubbed the bottom half of his face.
 
“The question is how.
 
Lovely’s vision has you dying at the hands of your ‘werewolf kin.’
 
But that isn’t possible because you aren’t a werewolf.”

Jack swallowed hard.
 
He wasn’t a werewolf anymore, but at one time he had been a werewolf named Tobias.
 
The truth chilled him to the bone as he realized it hadn’t been a simple dream.
 
It had been a warning.
 
He knew that for a fact now, just like he knew he had been a vampire last year.
 

He also knew a brunette hunter named Isobel had killed him.

And she wanted to revisit the past by doing it again.

******

Chapter Four:

ANOTHER HUNTER AT SCHOOL

“I’m not going to graduate if you don’t help me.” Jack said, his tone dripping with quiet desperation.

It was the day after Andrew’s surprise visit, and Jack had returned to school with his priorities in check.
 
Graduate first; stay alive second.
 
His goal to be normal was in jeopardy.
 
With that in mind, he had gone straight to the new English teacher to plead his case.

Ian Carver, planted behind Jersey’s old desk, looked at Jack over the rim of his glasses with visible annoyance.
 
The man had to be at least forty-two with a full head of dark hair and a stubble-covered face.
 
His eyes burned with a special sort of loathing every time they touched upon Jack.

“And what am I supposed to do about this problem of yours?” Carver asked with a slight English accent.
 
“Seems to me the dice have been cast.”

“You could let me into your Advanced Literature class.”

“The school year is nearing an end.”

“I know, but I can catch up on the work.
 
I can write the reports on the books you’ve already gone through.
 
I don’t expect any special treatment—.”

“Good.”
 
Carver grunted.
 
“You won’t be receiving any from me.”

“Megan Welch showed me the list of assigned books for the semester, and I’m familiar with most of them already.
 
I can do the work.
 
Just give me a chance.”

“The students tell me you were close to my predecessor, Jersey Clifford.
 
What sort of a teacher was the man?”

What did that have to do with anything?

Jack shrugged, taken aback by the question.
 
“He seemed to love literature, quoted poetry a lot, and everyone liked him.”

“That’s bloody useless information.”
 
Carver’s probing gaze drilled a hole between Jack’s eyes.
 
“From what I hear, the man lied to keep you out of trouble.”

Someone had opened their big mouth and told the new teacher about his fight with Tucker’s friend John.
 
A few months ago Jack had been unable to control his temper.
 
The werewolf side of him had been fighting to dominate the human side.
 
Being a freak came with its own set of problems.
 
He’d gone from easy-going to having the shortest fuse in history.
 

“I didn’t ask him to lie for me,” Jack mumbled.

“But you didn’t offer to tell the truth either.
 
That shows a disturbing lack of integrity.”

“Are you going to let me take the class or not?”

“Unlike my predecessor, I have a tendency to give students the grade they deserve.”
 
Carver sighed.
 
“Have the first two reports on my desk Monday morning.
 
If they aren’t spot on, you can forget about receiving a passing grade from me.”

Relief flooded Jack’s system.
 
An easy smile came to his lips, but he tried to keep it to a minimum.
 
No point in ruining things now by seeming overly confident.
 
The new teacher didn’t strike Jack as someone who tolerated arrogance of any kind.
 
He thanked Carver before turning for the door.
 
When his hand encompassed the doorknob, Carver smashed his short-lived euphoria to bits.

“Of course you will need a signed letter of consent from the principal.”

That wasn’t going to happen.
 
Jack’s world deflated.
 
Hardwick loved seeing Jack twist in agony over the thought of not graduating on time.
 
The man certainly wasn’t going to do anything to help him.
 
Jack turned and opened his mouth to suggest an alternative.

Carver held a hand up to silence Jack before he had the chance to speak.
 
“I am afraid there is little I can do on this point.
 
Even if I allowed you into my class and gave you a passing grade at the end of the year, the principal would have the right to veto it.
 
It would be so much better to have him on our side from day one.”

Right.
 
Jack would work on getting Hardwick’s approval as soon as he taught Blanca to fly.
 
The door burst open, and students scrambled into the classroom, inadvertently pushing Jack to the side.
 
There was nothing left to be said.
 
Carver turned away from him, effectively dismissing him.
 

Now what was he going to do?
 
Consult Silver?
 
Give in and take a summer school class?
 
Drop out entirely?

He was deep in thought, head down as he walked to his first class, and he wasn’t looking where he was going.
 
A hard body ran smack into him.
 
She hit him like a speeding freight train and knocked him off his feet.
 
He landed on his backside with a hard thump.
 
Air whooshed from his lungs, and his elbow struck the linoleum.
 
Pain radiated up his arm.
 
Books, a collection of his and hers, slid across the floor.
 
Papers flew through the air like over-sized parade confetti.
 
A couple of them floated down to land on Jack’s prone body.
 
He looked up to see the girl of his nightmares standing over him.

Isobel remained steady on her feet, a knowing grin on her face.
 
“Hey there, it’s the vampire who isn’t a vampire.
 
You go to school here?
 
Seriously?
 
You aren’t like an eighty-year-old
perv
, are you?”

Jack’s head swung around to check the hallway for eavesdroppers.
 
Fortunately the closest student was too far away to hear anything.
 
Jack glared at Isobel.
 
He struggled to stand but kept his eyes on her the whole time.
 
He didn’t trust her for a single second.
 
There was something about her, something dangerous.

“I’m a senior,” he said.

“No kidding?
 
I’m
a senior.”
 
Isobel
laughed,
a short burst that sounded totally out of character for her.
 
“I was a senior last year, but I dropped out.”

“Why?”

Rolling her eyes, she explained, “Principal Hardwick was riding my ass every day of every week of every month of every year.
 
I couldn’t sneeze without getting called into the man’s office.
 
It was either leave school or
kill
him, so I quit and moved away.”

“You probably made the right choice.”
 
He wanted to tell her to get lost, but curiosity kept his tongue from forming the words.
 
He didn’t notice the hallway had emptied.
 
“Why come back now?”

“I only lack a few credits, so I made arrangements to finish.
 
Dropping out just isn’t cool, you know.”

She was lying.
 
Her words didn’t mesh with her facial expression which told him she didn’t believe a word she was saying.
 
Jack had a bad feeling about this.
 
Had she returned to school because of him?
 
Was she hunting him, playing cat and mouse with him?
 
What?

The bell rang.
 
Jack looked up at the clock above the lockers and hissed between his teeth.
 
Now he was going to be tardy.
 
“Great.”

“What’s wrong with
you
?”

“I’m late, and now I have to go to the office to get a tardy slip or Beckett won’t let me in the door.”

She snickered.
 
“Does he still lock his students out when they’re late?
 
Something’s wrong with that man, I swear.”
 

Jack picked up his books and headed to the office.
 
Isobel followed.
 
When he asked her what she thought she was doing, she said, “I have History with Beckett too.
 
If you need a tardy slip to get in, so do
I
.”

Why did he have the feeling that Isobel wasn’t taking the class by accident?
 

Because his gut screamed at him, warning him to watch out for her, and his gut was rarely wrong.

He felt her eyes boring into his back the whole way there.
 
Her soft footsteps filled his ears until he couldn’t hear anything else.
 
He wanted to confront her while he had the chance, demand some answers, but he didn’t want to give up any information.
 
He didn’t want her to know about the dream.

When they reached the office, Jack went in first.
 
Pretending Isobel wasn’t behind him, he told the secretary what he needed.
 
He placed his arms on the counter and leaned against it while the woman searched for the tardy slips.
 
Isobel stood at his side, too close for his liking.
 
Her body brushed against him with every movement no matter how slight.
 
Every time she took a breath, he felt it.
 
 

 
When he stepped an inch to the right, she stepped to the right.

By the time he had the tardy slip in his hand, he was irritated beyond belief.
 
He’d had enough of her.
 
She didn’t seem to notice.
 
Although he hurried down the hallway, she managed to catch him.
 
He turned on her halfway to class.
 
“What do you want from me?”

She smiled with a look of pure innocence on her face.
 
“Want from you?”
 
She slipped off her leather jacket.
 
The lacy black top beneath conformed to her curves like a second skin.
 
Once again he got a picture in his mind of Adam and Eve in the garden, being seduced by Satan, only this time the serpent was a girl.
 

Unaware of his thoughts, Isobel said, “I don’t know what you mean.”

She advanced.

He retreated—so fast that he bumped into the lockers behind him.
 
“Stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“Stop playing games with me.
 
Tell me what you want, or get the hell away out of my face.”

With a coy smile, she walked away.
 
She wasn’t going to tell him anything.
 
He had no choice but to follow her to Beckett’s History class.
 
Never before had a girl (hunter) scared him like this.
 
Her mere presence twisted his guts into a thousand knots.
 
A new fear entered his mind.
 
The dark-haired girl didn’t just want to kill him; she wanted to destroy him from the inside-out.

******

His classes slid by at a purely torturous rate.
 
Isobel managed to be in every single one of his classes, and she always found a way to sit next to him even if the desks on both sides of his were already occupied.
 
Every time he glanced her way, her eyes were on him.
 
She leaned over several times, asking to borrow paper, a pencil, anything she could think of.
 
Jack was eager to tell Silver.
 
Hunters had a code they lived by.
 
If Silver told Isobel to back off, she would.

Or maybe she wouldn’t.
 
On second thought, she didn’t seem the type to play by the rules.
 
By the time the lunch bell rang, Jack realized he was in serious trouble.
 
He bolted from his seat, hurried into the hall, and went straight to
Silver’s
locker.
 
Part of him hoped the new girl would follow.
 

She did.

Isobel caught up with him at the locker and asked, “You want to have lunch with me?
 
I can promise you an interesting conversation.
 
At least my half will be interesting.”

Her fingers slid up his arm, and she squeezed hard.

“Excuse me?”
 
Silver stood behind Isobel, arms crossed over her chest.
 
“What do you think you’re doing?”
 

Isobel turned slowly with a strange, knowing smile on her face.

The two girls squealed with delight.
 
They hugged each other while Jack watched, dumbfounded.
 
Silver jumped up and down, more excited than Jack had ever seen her.
 
It was ridiculous.
 
Had she won some sort of secret lottery?

She turned the dazzling smile in Jack’s direction and explained, “This is one of my best friends in the whole world.
 
Can you believe it?
 
She’s back.”
 
Her eyes returned to Isobel.
 
“Wait a second.
 
Why are you back?
 
You told me you were shaking the dust of this school off your feet and wouldn’t return on a dare.”

Jack stood off to the side, and his eyes narrowed on Isobel’s face.
 
Maybe she would give Silver a straight answer.
 
He waited, hoped, and listened.

“I couldn’t find a decent job without that little crap piece of paper they call a diploma.
 
So I figured if I had to go to school anyway, it should be at good old Jefferson Memorial.”