Page 35 of Bane of Hate and Silver (Primordial Inheritance #1)

“Yup. When I said I know everything, I meant everything, everything. Except...” Monica clapped her hands together and turned to face Jules and Luca. “It’s about time you two told me about this whole forbidden romance situation.”

Ricky had been skateboarding around the seaside town all morning.

School was canceled so, the streets were teaming with kids from Aboit High.

If this crap place could ever be described as ‘teaming’.

He saw Amy and Landon Reynolds at the mall with very few stores in it.

He dodged them. He was in no mood to talk to any pack members.

He saw an early movie and then grabbed lunch at some small soda shop on the coast. The whole town was quaint which, to Ricky, meant boring.

He missed the city, the overcrowding, the bustle, making people split on the sidewalk as he zoomed by them on his board. He was just about to surrender to his boredom and go back to the Den when Tasha finally answered his text.

He made it to the picturesque little coastal subdivision and stopped in front of a one-story, brick house on the land side of the road.

It was completely dwarfed by the white monstrosity across the street.

He checked his text messages again to make sure he’d arrived at the address Tasha had given him.

Confirmed to be correct, he picked up his board and trotted up to the front door.

Before he could knock, however, Tasha had it open and was smiling at him.

“Hey!” she said happily. She looked virtually the same as she had at the carnival, cute, quirky, and with more than a little sass, her colored hair high on her head in some sort of messy bun.

“Hi,” he said back.

“Mom! I’m going out for a bit!” Tasha yelled back into the house but didn’t offer to let Ricky come inside. She shut the door behind her.

“So, what are we up to today?” she asked him.

He had no clue. She said come over, so he had.

In all honesty, he would have done nearly anything to stay out of the Den today.

Not only was Carson determined to be a slime-ball, but Ricky was still worried about what the pack had done to Jules and wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t let something slip out if he went back.

“Actually,” Ricky said, making a choice, “do you by chance know where the school librarian lives?”

“Why?” Tasha asked, eyebrows rising. “You want to egg her house or something?”

“No.” Ricky smiled. This, of course, was an idea he would have loved to act on concerning a few of his old teachers, but not this one. “I heard she was in the fire last night. Kinda wanted to check on her. She seems nice.” He tried to make this sound as nonchalant as he could.

“Wow! Really?” Tasha’s eyes widened as they continued to stand on her driveway. Ricky couldn’t tell if she was referring to Jules being caught in the fire or his obvious concern for a teacher. But he chose not to comment on it.

Ricky nodded.

“Well…” Tasha put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot. She seemed to be thinking. “I don’t know where she lives, but if you really want to be a creeper and check on your new favorite teacher, we both know someone who does.”

“Who?” Ricky forgot to defend his lack of creeper status at the thought of seeing if Jules had survived the attack.

“Ethan,” Tasha said, pointing to the large, white house next door.

“Ethan lives there?” Ricky asked, pointing at the same house.

“Some people are born rich,” Tasha said. “Come on.”

Ricky followed two steps behind Tasha as she walked through the perfectly mowed lawn of Ethan’s home and up the half-circle driveway.

Together they ascended the four steps and walked through the round, white porch pillars.

Tasha walked up to the door, with large windows on either side and rang the bell.

“Oh, get up here.” Tasha yanked on Ricky’s sleeve, pulling him up beside her to wait.

No sound came from inside.

“Maybe they’re not home,” Ricky suggested.

Ricky was irrationally uncomfortable, standing there waiting.

The house shouldn’t have been that intimidating.

Many of his friends in Fort Miles lived in gated communities just outside the city.

Ricky’s fall on misfortune had made him think a lot less of the life he lived now.

Tasha rang the bell again.

Ricky took a step back and looked up. A light flicked on. “Someone is in there,” he told Tasha.

“Hey!” Tasha shouted. “Ethan open up!” she shouted again and began punching the doorbell again and again.

“Hold on!” came an exasperated shout from the other side. Finally, the door swung open. “What?” Ethan stood in front of them with wet hair and wearing nothing but a towel around his hips. Tasha stopped and looked him over for a second too long.

Ricky elbowed her.

“Ouch,” she said, rubbing her arm.

“Do you know where Jules lives?” Ricky asked.

“Miss Bristow,” Tasha mumbled.

“Yes,” Ethan said, taking his attention off Tasha and focusing on Ricky instead.

“Well, where?” Ricky asked, standing up a little straighter to make himself taller than the half-naked, rich boy.

“Why should I tell you?” Ethan asked, doing the same, defending his own alpha-male status.

Ricky rolled his eyes, who cares who was the best male at the moment. “Because she was in the fire last night and I wanted to check on her,” Ricky said honestly.

“What are you talking about?” Ethan dropped his bolstering stance as well.

“The library went up in flames last night. Didn’t you even kind of wonder why school was canceled today?

” Tasha said, speaking for the first time.

Tasha did not give him a chance to reply.

“Ricky here says that your sister’s best friend might have been there when it happened.

We’ve decided to check on her. What part of this is confusing? ”

Ethan looked at Tasha like she was speaking Greek. “The part where someone that I care about could be hurt and my sister didn’t tell me,” Ethan said defensively.

“Oh,” Tasha said, blushing. “Do you want to come with us then?”

Ethan looked at the both of them for a moment. “Yeah,” he finally said. “Come in.” He stepped aside, allowing them to enter his home. “Give me a minute to get dressed.” With this, Ethan turned and ran up the staircase.

“I’ll get us an Uber!” Tasha shouted after him.

“Don’t bother!” Ethan called back.

“You know you can’t legally drive yet!” She shouted after him.

A couple awkward moments later Ethan came bounding back down the stairs. “We’ll take the boat.” Ethan turned to walk through the massive house, motioning for them to follow him. “She lives like twenty minutes up the coastline.”

Tasha yanked on Ricky’s arm when he’d stopped, distracted by the grandeur of the house around him. “This was your idea. I’m not getting on his boat without you.”

Ricky nodded and followed them both out the far side of the house toward the ocean and a boat dock with two vastly different sized boats docked there.

Nick walked up to Chad’s apartment after receiving an SOS text, asking him to come home.

Playing house and the dutiful boyfriend was already getting tedious.

However, he still hadn’t gotten the information he needed so he would play along as long as it took.

He opened the door, stepping wide to miss the bag that wasn’t sitting there for once.

“Chad?” He called. Something felt off. The apartment was too quiet.

“You’re the Fort Miles Phantom,” Chad said quietly. Nick heard the quiet click of a gun’s safety being turned off. He smirked before turning back towards the door where Chad stood. “Don’t move.” Chad was an idiot. Bullets wouldn’t kill him.

“Guilty.” Nick said, raising his hands. “How’d you find out?”

“You got sloppy. Now, tell me where the Primordial is or I shoot!” Chad’s arms were shaking from adrenaline or fear, or both.

“Not that sloppy,” Nick grimaced.

“Where is the Primordial!”

“That’s not going to work on me.” Nick pointed toward the gun with one finger.

“Where is the Primordial!” Chad shouted again, looking completely unhinged.

“The what?” Nick asked. He knew what. He knew who. He didn’t know where. But he’d die before he admitted any of that.

“I won’t let them pull me off the case. Tell me!” Chad shouted, losing all sense from what Nick could see.

“Nothing to tell.” Nick moved as Chad pulled the trigger. Nick was fast, but not fast enough. The bullet went straight through his side.

“That stings.” Nick’s fangs became lethal weapons of venom as he made to lunge at the man he had clearly underestimated.

Chad pulled the trigger again. Once, twice, three times.

Nick felt rips in his abdomen, right lung, and left leg.

“Nice shots.” He said before he dropped to the floor of the apartment.

Face up, blood pooling beneath him. Nick felt the fight leave him.

His consciousness dripping away with the blood of the last humans he’d killed.

“She will end you all,” Chad said, hovering over Nick’s face. “Sorry to say you won’t live to see her get revenge on your true lover.”

The breath of a name and glimpse of a face floated through Nick’s mind as his consciousness waned.