Page 22 of Bane of Hate and Silver (Primordial Inheritance #1)

Empathetically, Jules wanted to comfort the boy. And yet, if his story was true, he was probably feeling very scared, insecure, and sad right now. “You have nothing to fear from me.”

“Awesome,” he said sarcastically.

She searched for something else to say and then remembered that she was playing the part of a school librarian. “How about you help me out. Can you shelve some books for me?”

Ricky yawned involuntarily, pulled his phone out of his bag, put his earbuds in his ears, and music started to blare.

“Or we can do that later,” Jules said to no one, since Ricky was obviously no longer listening.

Just then, Jules’s in-house messenger dinged from her computer.

She took the excuse to leave the boy alone and walked back to her desk to pull up her staff messenger.

She had a message from Belinda waiting for her.

So, this kid’s transcripts just came in from his last school.

He was at the top of his class. Go figure.

I’ve attached his class schedule and book list. He can start tomorrow. Hope you’re doing okay with him.

Jules looked over at Ricky, who was typing out a message of his own. This was going to be a long day.

Luca was sleeping late due to the previous night’s celebration.

If dreams were a choice, he would have chosen to dream of Jules.

Instead, his subconscious haunted him with his greatest shame.

Forcing him to relive his greatest pain, over and over again.

Luca dreamt of a picturesque little cabin, secluded from prying eyes.

It lay in the Canadian forest of Ontario.

A loving family lived there; it was his family, this had been his home.

A woman stood in the cabin doorway waving at him.

Jenna Cain, Luca’s mother, looked as radiant as she had on that day.

His father, Bill, a strong and wise leader, clapped him on the shoulder.

In the dream, Luca jumped at the unexpected contact.

He looked over and saw blood pooling on his father’s forehead.

Bill seemed unconcerned. Luca looked again, the blood was gone.

The dream shifted, and Luca saw a face, one he’d never been able to forget.

The face of the human girl Luca had fallen in love with.

Luca and Rosemary fell in love young, and they loved each other recklessly.

He lived for the look she got in her eyes when they were together.

That look he saw now in his sleep. For the briefest of moments her face became another’s, her hair wasn’t blonde but red, her eyes lightened, her features softened. Jules.

“Rosemary, I have to tell you something,” the teenage version of him said. The face turned back into the tall blonde. He didn’t want to have secrets from Rosemary, not even this one. “There is something about me you don’t know.”

“Really?” she asked coyly.

In his dream, adult Luca was screaming at his younger self to stay quiet. The course of events that followed this act of trust would destroy everything Luca loved.

“You’re a liar, Luca Cain,” Rosemary screamed. “Never speak to me again!”

“Wait, Rosie, I can prove it to you!” he called after her.

“How?”

Then he did the one thing he’d promised his father he never would. He showed Rosemary the truth. He turned into a wolf before her eyes.

Rosemary screamed and fell into hysterics. “You’re a monster! I’ll destroy you if you ever come near me again!” And then she ran.

Luca had ignored her threats but had tried to keep his distance. He had wanted to believe that once the shock wore off, she would come around.

He had been very wrong.

Rosemary had told her father Luca’s secret. He, in turn, had rallied the townsmen to hunt the wolves down. In a bold attempt to destroy what they didn’t understand; the unruly mob had armed themselves and had stormed Luca’s family’s home.

Luca and his father had been out in the forest. “It’ll be your responsibility someday,” Bill had said.

The angry mob had broken into Luca’s home that night. They’d murdered everyone he loved. Not only did they shoot his mother, ten-year-old brother, older sister and her husband, but they also murdered Luca’s two young nieces.

Luca and his father had rushed toward the house, but Bill never made it inside. An athlete Luca went to school with had shot Bill between the eyes before he could save his dying family.

Luca woke when the gunshots rang in his mind. He was drenched in sweat, tangled in his sheets, and trembling from the dream. Shaking himself from the nightmare, he tried not to relive what had happened next.

Enraged, Luca had lunged at his father’s killer. In one swift movement, he killed the boy. His first murder .

As Luca had run into the cottage, he’d heard terrified screams coming from his nieces’ room.

He’d made it just in time to see five-year-old Elena transform into a wolf for the first time.

Rosemary’s older brother had shot little Elena out of mid- air.

She’d died instantly, her sister already gone.

Luca’s rage had consumed him. He’d torn the boy apart. His last murder.

When the mob found the dead boy outside, they’d taken the body and fled. In a daze, he’d tried to wake his sister and then his mother, but nothing could be done. His entire family was gone in those few terrible moments.

Luca had dragged his father’s body inside the house to lay with the rest of his family.

With a mighty howl, he’d lit his family home on fire.

Guilt-ridden, heartbroken, and afraid he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from exacting his revenge on all the humans involved, including Rosemary, he’d fled Canada immediately following the start of the blaze.

He lived inside the wolf for many months following these horrific events.

Luca shook the memories from his mind. He didn’t know why this dream had chosen to haunt him once again. He suspected it had something to do with telling Ricky that he understood his pain.

Luca stretched noisily and dropped one hand over the side of the bed.

He shifted things around the floor until he found his phone lying under the shirt he’d worn the day before.

The screen blinked to life. He’d missed one message from his Juliet.

Hope I don’t wake you, but I have a very angry werewolf boy here today.

Any ideas on convincing him not to out me?

The message was only a few minutes old. Luca held his phone above him as he typed. Is his name Ricky Harrison? He dropped the phone on his bed and started detangling himself from his sheets.

Jules’s response came back almost immediately. That’s the one.

Jules had told him that she worked at the local high school.

He thought it odd that Carson seemed not to know this.

Especially since werewolf kids did regularly attend Aboit High.

But they were also kept out of most pack drama.

The majority of them probably didn’t even realize that their school librarian was a four-hundred-year-old vampire.

I’m on my way , he sent back and then got up to shower and dress.