Page 52 of Bane of Hate and Silver (Primordial Inheritance #1)

Dead and Buried

L uca could hear Tasha talking to Demetria in the other room. “How would you know that?” Demetria growled.

“Because Ricky told me,” Tasha replied, calmly.

Luca stood just on the other side of the wall, unwilling to leave the human girl completely alone with the grieving werewolf mother. Monica and Hayley were in the kitchen talking in low whispers, while Kyle stood silently nearby, enraptured by the conversation happening in the living room as well.

“He told me Carson was coming for him,” Tasha continued. “He even called Luca for help.”

“How do you know it wasn’t Luca? He consorted with a vampire. He’s a traitor to our pack.” She said the middle part in a very hushed tone like it was almost an unspeakable fact.

“If that makes him a traitor, then so is Ricky,” Tasha said confidently. “He consorted with a vampire too. Jules, the vampire whose house we’re in, our school librarian. He cares about her… for some reason, they’re kinda friends.”

“Ricky wouldn’t,” Demetria stated determinately. “A vampire murdered his father. He wouldn’t.”

“He did.” Tasha’s tone was firm.

Demetria was silent for many moments. “He said…” Demetria’s voice trailed off a few moments more. Her breath hitched like she was having trouble filling her lungs with air. “Carson. He really did this?” Demetria’s voice sounded miles away.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Harrison,” Tasha replied softly.

“Excuse me. I need a moment.” Demetria walked from the living room, collided with Kyle who steadied her, and then ran out the back door without a word.

Luca watched through the open door as she dropped to her knees in the sand and began to scream like her heart was being slowly pulled from her chest. Hayley brushed past him and tentatively approached the sobbing woman.

Luca left Kyle watching them and walked to the living room to check on the young girl.

“Well, at least now she knows.” Tasha wasn’t talking to him, but Ricky. She sat on the floor beside Ricky’s face, holding his limp hand in hers. His breaths were shallow, barely moving his chest.

“Is he going to be okay?” Tasha asked, without looking up at Luca with red rimmed eyes.

Luca walked over and sat on the floor next to her. He could lie and tell the girl he’d be fine. He could send her home and let her find out the truth in a few days, but he didn’t. “No Tasha. He’s not.”

Tasha’s eyes slammed shut for a long moment. As she looked up at Luca, new tears were forming.

“I thought not.”

“The silver has made it into his bloodstream. His body is shutting down now. The harsh reality is that, he won’t wake up again.”

“Is he… in pain?” she asked.

“Not anymore.” Luca reached out and placed one arm around her shoulders.

“I need a minute,” Tasha choked out, dropped Ricky’s hand, stood shakily, and walked from the room.

Luca heard a door slam.

“Tasha,” Monica called after the girl, and the door slammed again. Then the crying started, coming from Jules’s bedroom.

“I’m sorry buddy,” Luca said, placing one hand on the dying boy’s chest. Under that touch he felt two small, shuddering breaths, and then his chest stopped rising entirely. The boy was gone, and in the last moment before death, the wolf appeared. “Damn it,” Luca whispered.

Nick sat, passenger princess, in the car next to his sister.

Night had fallen, and they’d been on the road for at least an hour.

They had been conversing sporadically. Jules sometimes falling into silence.

He could feel the tension and sadness building in her as they got closer to their destination and the altercation to come.

A battle that Jules’s substitute brother would not fight in.

Jules was determined to defend his right to choose.

Nick thought Gabriel was a disloyal prat for turning his back on his coven leader, and friend, when she needed him most.

Nick jumped in his seat, startled when Jules’s car began to ring all around him. The screen on the dashboard flashed the name “Monica.” Jules pushed a button on the steering wheel to answer the phone call.

“Luca?” Jules asked when no one spoke.

A male voice said, “he’s gone, Jules.”

Jules lost control of her emotions and the vehicle all at once. Her hand slipped on the wheel, and the car swerved. “Shit!”

Nick grabbed the wheel. She would have raced into oncoming traffic if he hadn’t been beside her. “Ease your foot off the gas slowly,” Nick instructed as red tears slid down Jules’s face.

“Jules?” the voice on the call questioned.

Nick steered the car to the shoulder and the car rolled to a stop.

“Are you alright?” The disembodied voice asked through the car speakers.

“I’m okay.” Jules’s voice sounded steady, while her expression was one of devastation.

“Who’s in the car with you?” The male, whom Nick assumed was Jules’s werewolf, asked.

“I’ll explain when I see you,” Jules choked out.

“How long?”

“I’m almost home.”

Nick watched Jules clutching the steering wheel, desperately trying to control the pain in her tone.

“I love you,” the man said softly.

“I love you, too,” Jules told him. With that, she ended the call.

Nick put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. When she turned to face him, he blotted her blood-streaked cheeks with his sleeve. “Let me drive,” he suggested.

She nodded.

Jules climbed over to the passenger seat while Nick walked around the car to take her place.

She mumbled directions and looked out the window.

Nick stayed silent as well, letting her process this sad news in peace.

She reached her fingers up to her mouth and started to bite her nails.

Nick smiled silently to himself. “Still haven’t kicked that anxious tick then,” he said as he took her hand in his and squeezed.

“Oh.” She looked at their intertwined fingers. “I didn’t realize.” Her gaze fell back to the passing roadside, but she didn’t let go of his hand.

When they pulled up in front of a small, green house, a tall, bronze man was waiting on the driveway.

“Luca,” Jules whispered under her breath and was out of the car before Nick had put it in park.

The werewolf held his arms open and she ran into them.

He stumbled backward, losing his footing momentarily but remained upright.

He bent, shoulders and back arching, to touch his lips to Jules’s.

Nick watched the werewolf with his sister for a moment more before he climbed out of the car and approached them both.

“Who are you?” Luca asked, noticing him for the first time.

Jules stayed in Luca’s embrace while turning to look at her brother.

“I’m Nicholas Bristow.” Nick stuck out his hand toward Luca.

“Jules’s twin brother. Like from birth,” he added at Luca’s confused expression.

Luca looked at Jules for confirmation. She nodded at him.

“Surprise,” Nick added with a hint of his usual sarcasm.

“Hi.” Luca took Nick’s hand and shook it. “But how…?”

“I’ll explain later,” Jules said, putting a hand on Luca’s chest. One of his hands covered her own.

“What is Tai doing here?” Jules asked as Monica’s ex-boyfriend pulled onto the street in front of Jules’s house in his father’s rusted pick-up truck.

“I’ll explain later,” Luca said, giving her waist a squeeze. “Do you need me to come inside with you?” he asked while waving at Tai, who waved back.

Jules could see that Luca had something to say to his friend. “No.” She would face this on her own. “Talk to Tai,” Jules said. “I’m okay.”

Luca looked down at her for a moment, kissed her on the forehead, and then walked toward the end of the driveway.

Jules turned back to her brother, “Nick?”

“I’ll be out here when you need me.” Nick pointed back to her car. She knew that he was just giving her space to deal with her friends and grieve on her own. She’d always been like that, even when their parents died. He’d needed her with him, and she’d needed to face the pain alone.

She nodded her thanks and then opened her own front door. Monica came rushing toward her, hugging her tightly. Jules hadn’t had a drink in a while but found she didn’t care in this moment. “Tai’s outside?” Jules said, looking at Monica questioningly.

“I know. Luca’s going to tell him everything,” Monica explained. Her eyes were red and puffy despite her somewhat cheery voice. “I should probably go outside with him. You know, in case Tai freaks out. Which he probably will.” She kept her voice low so as not to disturb the others.

Jules smiled at her friend and released her.

“Where…?”

Monica pointed toward the living room. Jules could hear soft crying coming from that direction.

Monica gave her hand a squeeze and then walked around her to go help Luca with Tai.

Jules could see Hayley and Kyle through the back window.

They were sitting on the back porch, facing the ocean, arms wrapped around each other.

She took tentative steps toward the room in which Ricky’s body lay.

Soundlessly, she entered. First, she saw Tasha, the source of the crying.

Her back was pressed against the far wall, her face covered by her shaking hands.

Then she saw the woman beside the sofa, stone-cold and still.

Her features made her identity unmistakable.

Ricky’s mother. Under her knees, blood had soaked into the white carpet.

It trailed up to where the young wolf lay, fur, four paws and all.

Jules knew when a werewolf died the last ounce of magic they possessed returned them to their animal state. The state in which they truly thrived. She’d seen it before, but never a wolf so young.

Ricky was lanky, all legs and large paws. Yesterday she’d seen the same wolf fleeing his new girlfriend’s house. Thinking of their last, lively, encounter Jules felt blood tears again form in her eyes.