Page 25 of Bane of Hate and Silver (Primordial Inheritance #1)

Hall of Mirrors

J ules went straight to the local fairgrounds after work.

She’d volunteered to help set up for Aboit High’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

That was, however, before the tension within her coven had crept in.

Tonight, she would be overseeing the carnival games with Gabriel which, for the moment, required stretching up on her toes and holding the end of the banner off the ground as he stood on a tall ladder, tacking it high above their heads.

“Give me a little more slack,” Gabriel said, tugging on his end.

Jules let a few more inches of banner slip through her fingers.

“Where has your mind wandered off to this time?” Gabriel teased as he tugged on the banner again and smiled down at her.

“It’s gone on vacation. Someplace nice though. Maybe Tahiti,” Jules replied with a wide smile of her own.

It was nice to feel less tension between them.

They’d talked things through a bit during their lunch break.

Since then, he seemed to be much more relaxed.

Apparently, Ricky’s lie had done the trick.

He’d told her that he wasn’t comfortable with Ricky knowing what he and Jules were, but since there hadn’t been any more altercations with the Alpha, he would try to put the whole werewolf thing to rest. Jules appreciated the effort this must have taken on his part.

Gabriel had just reason to lack trust in werewolves.

Eileen’s scared face was reason enough not to trust them.

Jules simply couldn’t judge the whole species for an act that only a few had committed.

Once, a few decades ago, she’d said this to Gabriel.

However, he was convinced that it was werewolves’ very nature that made them dangerous.

Jules had tried to argue that all vampires must then be judged by their species’ nature, and Gabriel hadn’t spoken to her for a week.

He was wrong on this, and she believed they both knew it.

But Eileen had lost her human life because of a werewolf attack and Gabriel simply hadn’t been able to find forgiveness inside himself yet.

He did say this afternoon that he would try to let it go.

This gave Jules hope that Gabriel would, one day, find peace.

Just then, Gabriel finished his side of the banner, jumped down, and moved the ladder to the other end. Jules regained her focus and followed suit, keeping the banner out of the dirt below.

The pre-carnival atmosphere made Jules’s senses throb.

The music had begun to emanate from the rides on the midway, which were set up starting one street over.

The rising smells of the food vendors were wafting from near the entrance to the grounds.

Excited teenagers were chattering and horsing around while they waited for their families and townspeople to arrive.

All these things reminded Jules of a day long gone, when she and Gabriel had visited the first circus together.

“Alright, gather around,” Gabriel shouted as he jumped off the ladder again. Jules watched as several girls swooned. Slowly, all the students assigned to the carnival games meandered over.

Jules picked a clipboard up off the nearest table and handed it to Gabriel. Gabriel began taking a shrewd form of attendance and giving each student their individual assignment.

“Missy Thomas, Asher Danforth, Terry Pope, with me at the ring toss.” Several students’ faces dropped at not being able to work with their favorite teacher.

“Tasha Anderson and Ethan Martin with Ms. Bristow at the balloon pop.” Both students nodded.

Ethan and Tasha glanced a little awkwardly at one another.

Their families lived next to each other, but they didn’t have much in common.

Normally, Ethan would have made some crack about not working at all, but Gabriel moved quickly down the list.

“Kara Willis and Amy Reynolds with Landon Reynolds and Mason Smith at the water shooter.”

“All of you freshmen and sophomores will listen to your upperclassman. Seniors, any questions see Ms. Bristow or myself.”

Amy scowled, possibly at having to work under her older brother. Mason and Landon high-fived, enjoying being in charge for once. Amy smiled at the girl, one year younger than herself. Landon winked at Kara, who giggled.

Nodding and muttering erupted all around, some students happy with their assigned group and some disappointed.

“I don’t have an assignment?” Ricky said quietly. He was standing a few feet behind Jules. Apparently, he was more comfortable with a vampire he barely knew than a whole bunch of peers he didn’t know at all.

“That’s okay. You can work with me.” She smiled softly at him.

He looked grateful at not being left out completely, not that he was the type to admit such things.

“Alright gang, the carnival opens in twenty minutes. Go prepare your booths.” With this, the groupings went their separate ways. Jules and her unlikely trio took up position between Gabriel’s booth and the one being run by Mason and Landon.

When Jules entered her booth, Tasha was sitting on the front table and swinging her legs while Ethan lounged against a stack of heavy crates.

“Okay,” Jules began. But she changed directions when she saw that Ricky continued to stand awkwardly at her side. First things first. “Have either of you met Ricky?” Jules asked them.

“Nope,” Ethan said, “other than the fact that he gave me an extra hour to hide under the bleachers and make out with Kara Willis this morning, that is.”

“Ethan!” Jules said, aghast. “I told you to go to study hall.”

“Yeah. I didn’t do that.”

Ricky raised his eyebrows while watching the exchange between Ethan and Jules.

“Thanks, dude.” Ethan gave Ricky a wide smile.

Jules made an exasperated, older sister sound.

“I thought we respected teachers in this school?” Ricky commented to Jules, doing a nasally impression of Belinda.

Jules was about to respond when Ethan spoke again. “For the most part I do, but you see, Jules practically lives at my house.”

This time Tasha joined Ricky in the eyebrow raise.

“She’s my sister’s best friend. So basically, she’s like another bossy big sister I don’t have to listen to,” he clarified.

“Oh,” Tasha added as she and Ricky nodded.

“Does he…?” Ricky began to ask.

“No, he doesn’t.” Jules cut him off before he could say anything that Ethan didn’t need to know. “Tasha, have you…” Jules began.

“What don’t I?” Ethan asked at the same moment Tasha responded to Jules’s first question.

“Ricky and I met this morning,” she said, looking over at Jules and then turned, smiling at Ricky.

“Good,” Jules said, ignoring Ethan completely. “Ricky and Tasha, why don’t you two work with the darts and re-tacking balloons, and Ethan you can fill more balloons.”

“Why do I get the sucky job?” Ethan asked.

“Trust me, you don’t,” Ricky said.

“What will you be doing then?” Ethan asked.

“Helping.” Jules crossed her arms and looked down at Ethan, who had dropped onto the dirt and gathered up the air hose to start filling more balloons. The first balloon Ethan filled, burst with a bang.

Ricky was regretting his choice to work the carnival once the gate was opened and people began to fill in. But he’d wanted to go back to the dilapidated dump and watch the Alpha grope his mother even less.

Many people went straight to the food or the midway, others meander toward the games.

“You don’t strike me as a particularly social person,” Tasha said observantly.

In fact, Ricky hated massive amounts of social interaction.

When there were too many people around, he generally started to feel overwhelmed.

“So why don’t I take the front office?” She motioned toward the front of the booth.

Ricky shrugged. But, in reality, he was relieved by the thought of not having to converse with hundreds of strangers throughout the evening.

In the first couple of minutes, Ricky could see why Tasha had offered to be the one who talked to the carnival goers.

She thrived amidst the chaos. Talking to anyone and everyone seemed like a completely natural occurrence.

Ricky was genuinely surprised that her personality was as openly vibrant as her hair colors.

At first sight, he’d thought she was introverted like him, but now he could see that they were actually opposites. This intrigued him all the more.

He pulled the darts that had just been thrown from the board and handed them back to Tasha. “Better luck next time Mike,” Tasha said, waving off the customer who failed to hit his mark.

“Ethan behave,” Ricky heard Jules say.

Ricky rolled his eyes, he had tuned out Ethan Martin’s banter with the vampire long ago. He was amazed that the teenager seemed so comfortable around Jules. Still, he didn’t think Ethan knew what she was. So, he didn’t know that he should fear her.

The next person missed the board completely and Ricky picked the darts up off the ground, brushed them off on his shirt, and handed them back to Tasha for the next person to use. “Cheer up, Ricky Harrison,” Tasha said, taking the darts from him. “It’s for charity.”

“Charity?” Ricky repeated skeptically.

“Well not technically, it’s for the school. But it feels like charity on my part,” Tasha joked. It feels like slow, arduous torture to me, Ricky thought but didn’t say aloud. This was going to be a long night.

A little under an hour after the gates opened, a pair of bi-racial couples arrived at their booth. One set, obviously the parents of the stunning caramel skinned young woman walking hand in hand with a man just a little taller than her. “Monica, Tai.” Jules waved the couples over.

“Hey bud,” the man from the older of the two couples addressed Ethan, who was sitting on the ground filling balloon after balloon.

Ethan didn’t respond.

Jules tapped his leg with the toe of her shoe.

“Huh!” Ethan shouted, looking over at Jules, who pointed. “Oh, hi dad.” Ethan turned off the air compressor.