Witchblood (26 page)

         ‘Did you think I didn’t know it was you, Jess?’ He spat the words out and I gaped in surprise as a tear slipped out of the corner of his eye.

         ‘I failed you. I was supposed to protect you from evil, and instead I delivered you right into their hands. I made a mistake, a huge one, and I’m paying for it every day I allow you to live.’ His eyes left mine for a moment to flick up to Daniel, still holding me tight.

         ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. ‘You were away in Dublin.’

         ‘No, I was on other business. I didn’t get to you in time. None of us realised your fate lay in
their
hands.’ His eyes once again flicked up to Daniel in a scornful stare. ‘We thought we had to protect you from yourself Jess, and as your inherited abilities were still dormant, I thought you were safe.’

         ‘I, I don’t understand. Protect me from myself?’ I asked as Daniel’s arms dropped to their sides. I swiftly turned my head wondering why Daniel had released me so quickly. I certainly didn’t feel like I was in control.

         ‘You can’t hurt him,’ Daniel said with a shrug.

         ‘What?’ This was getting too weird.

         ‘He’s not human, Jess.’

         My head felt as if it was going to explode, or implode, or maybe just shatter.

         ‘We have to go. Leave him,’ he added.

         ‘No! We can’t go. Don’t be stupid.’ I paused then turned back to Luke. ‘Luke, what’s going on? Please? Tell me?’

         Luke stood and watched me for a moment, emotion flickering behind his eyes. He stood so still I wondered why I hadn’t noticed it before. His face softened for a moment before closing up again as he gently shook his head.

         ‘You’re destiny was to be a powerful witch Jess. My job was to guide you to the white side, opposed to the black,’ another shrug. ‘It doesn’t matter now. You’re powers hadn’t awakened, and now they won’t get a chance. You’re not
my
Jessie any longer. You’re his.’ He turned his back on me and walked away without a backward glance, leaving me reeling.

         ‘Luke, No. Don’t do this. If you’re not human I can’t hurt you. We can be together. Luke, Luke?’ I called, unable to give up.

         He paused and after a cursory last glance delivered his judgment.

         ‘You are a
vampire
Jess. You harm the very humans I strive to protect. Vampires are vermin. You are nothing to me now.’

         I felt Daniel stiffen behind me and a second later he’d jumped over my shoulders and landed gracefully in front of me, in a perfect duelling stance, but Luke was gone. I blinked and looked at the spot he’d been standing in, but there was no sign of him. A sudden rush of hot tears escaped and coursed down my cheeks and a low moan rose from my lips. I fell back onto the bench behind me and tucking my legs up in front I curled as tight as I could, closing my eyes and wondering what I’d done to deserve his wrath, when he was the one who’d left me dying in the alleyway. I’d thought I was hallucinating, but I’d seen him. He had left me for Daniel and Eva. A path he now said was a ‘mistake, a huge one,’ but why?

As the shivers of emotion calmed I glanced up warily at Daniel who was standing over me and wondered if I’d lost them both. Would Daniel ever forgive me?

Chapter Thirteen

         ‘What were you thinking Jess?’ Daniel said when we were back at the house. ‘You promised me. You promised me you wouldn’t look for him.’

         ‘Everything would have been fine if he hadn’t turned up. I mean I hardly left a trail of death and destruction, did I? I was even fine on the bus….what?’

‘You went on a bus?’

‘Yes and everyone survived, all I wanted was to say goodbye. He wasn’t supposed to be there. I didn’t go looking for him, but don’t you think there are more important questions we should ask? Like what on earth is he, if he’s not human? How did you know he wasn’t human? Did you know he wasn’t human when we saw him at the funeral? Why didn’t you tell me?’

         ‘OK, one at a time Jess, and you would have known he wasn’t human if you’d stopped for a minute.’

         ‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

         ‘His scent, they don’t smell the same. Please don’t tell me you didn’t notice?’

         ‘Of course I noticed. He smelt of my Issey Miyake perfume..’

         ‘You’re what?’

         ‘Flowers. He smelt of flowers, but you said to expect him to smell different because I loved him. You said he’d smell irresistible.’ I said shrugging.

         ‘Yes, but I didn’t mean
completely
different, Jess.’

         ‘Look, I’m sorry, but I’ve known him for four years and I always thought he was human. He sure looks human. So what is he? You still haven’t told me.’

         ‘He’s an angel,’ Daniel said quietly.

         He looked so sincere and genuine that the laughter threatening to explode from me suddenly evaporated.

         ‘An angel? Are you sure?’

         ‘Yes. We cross paths occasionally..’

         ‘What? You’ve crossed paths with Luke?’ I interrupted.

         ‘No, not Luke. Although Eva and I knew an angel had been with you the night you died. We could smell him, but he’d gone by the time we got to you. We didn’t understand why,’ he said with a shrug.

         ‘So he
was
with me? I thought so…’

         ‘It seems likely. He could have helped you Jess.’

         ‘What? He could have saved me and he didn’t? Why wouldn’t he? You probably chased him off,’ I said looking up at him accusingly.

         ‘We didn’t even see him. He left you. We don’t know why. I’m sorry Jessie. I’m sorry you have to hear this, but he was right. He failed you. You belong with me now.’

         ‘But he said he was with me because of my witch blood. To guide me, and now I’m a witch,’ I said, confused.

         ‘He obviously thinks your potential power died with your human body. He thinks you’re one of us. You
are
one of us, but it was your human death that triggered the onset of your witch powers.’

         It was too much. All I wanted was some normality.

         ‘Can we go home? I can’t cope with this now,’ I said. ‘I feel sick.’

         ‘You feel sick?’ he asked, his eyebrows shooting so high on his head they disappeared into his hair.

         ‘Yes Daniel. I. FEEL. SICK. OK? It’s perfectly clear I’m not normal, so just accept it already!’

         He merely nodded in reply and quietly led the way to the car where we sat in silence until we neared the house.

         ‘I’m going to have to tell Sebastian and Eva,’ Daniel said once we were back.

         ‘Daniel, please. They don’t need to know. No harm done.’

         ‘I should have seen it coming - Eva did. She warned me. I was so impressed at your restraint when you saw Luke at the funeral. I thought it meant you’d chosen me,’ he said, with a heart-breaking half-smile.

         ‘Daniel, I can’t
choose
you. I don’t have a choice, do I? Eva has told me how the blood bond means I’m automatically drawn to you. I should be following your orders and be completely besotted by you, shouldn’t I? That’s how it works. That’s why you slept with Eva, that’s why she slept with Sebastian.’

         ‘Yes, but you don’t do as I wish Jessie do you? You are free, and you were drawn to me in the club that very first night. I felt your gaze.’

         ‘I do like you, really like you; I just don’t want to feel like I’m giving in to something. I want to
choose
you. And I am sorry I didn’t tell you about today’s plans.’

         ‘You can tell me anything, Jessie. I mean that. You don’t ever have to be scared of me, of what I will say. I’ll always be on your side..’

         ‘I ..’

         ‘No, let me finish. You should have told me that you wanted to go to the cemetery on your own, and to visit the cricket club.’

         ‘You would never have let me.’

         ‘You’re right. I wouldn’t have let you go alone, but I would have driven you there, and let you go in on your own, once I’d checked it was empty. I could have stayed on the roadside and you would have had your privacy. I would have checked the cricket club and found Luke there. This needn’t have happened,’ he said, taking my hand in his. ‘I want you to be happy Jessie, and I know this is harder for you than any other vampire.’

         I looked up into his angelic face and realised he looked paler than normal.

         ‘Daniel, you’re nearly as pale as I was last week.’

         ‘It’s fine, don’t worry. I’ll feed as soon as Eva gets back. You’re more important.’

         He was so unlike anything I expected, knowing he was a vampire, and so unlike any human boy I’d ever known. He was totally confident in himself; there were no walls, he played no games. He was gentle and tender, yet sexy and masculine at the same time. He looked no more than twenty-two but had the experience of a century or more, glistening like dark pools in his eyes. He was totally and unequivocally alluring and when my barriers were down I had to admit to myself I was falling for him fast.

         ‘Daniel, there was one more thing I wanted to do - part of my plan,’ I said, realising that I had to trust him; and I wanted to trust him.

         ‘Go on,’ he said, smiling and raising an eyebrow.

         ‘You’re not going to like it.’

         ‘I guess not, but I did say you could trust me, didn’t I? I meant it. Tell me, what’s next on your plan?’

         ‘I want, no, I
need
revenge. Those girls, they shouldn’t get away with what they did, what they keep on doing. They should be stopped.’

         ‘So you think that you’re the person for the job? You want to stop them? Avenge your murder?’ he said, sceptically.

         ‘Yes and no. I mean, I want you to help me. I don’t necessarily want to kill them. Well actually, I would. I’d like to hurt them, a lot. But, I don’t think I could actually do it and live with myself.’

         He nodded, and gestured for me to continue. He was listening.

         ‘I thought maybe we could just scare them. I mean we
are
vampires. We could give them a taste of their own medicine. Nobody would ever believe them, even if they told anyone.’

         ‘And you think this would stop them hurting others?’

         ‘Well, I thought we could maybe threaten them a bit,’ I admitted, smiling.

         ‘You know, if you sort this gang out another will take its place. You can’t go around ridding the country of all its girl gangs.’

         ‘I don’t see why not. It could be my new job,’ I said grinning.

         ‘Hmm, I think Sebastian has other ideas for you. I don’t think he’d want to waste you on the mayhem that girl gangs are currently causing. They aren’t worth the time or the effort.’

         ‘Fine, but I need to do something about this one. I want you to help me. That way you can check I don’t go too far and kill them - or whatever.’

         Daniel sighed, looking serious as he searched for the right answer.

         ‘Sebastian won’t be pleased. He doesn’t like us using our strength on humans, even bad ones. He won’t like you scaring them. We’d be in trouble,’ he finished, but I could tell he was thinking about it. He hadn’t quite decided.