Page 55 of Bane of Hate and Silver (Primordial Inheritance #1)

“Sh-she… is with th-them... sir,” Jed stuttered.

Jed’s words were drowned out by Carson’s roar of fury. “This changes nothing.” He released Jed’s shirt. “Summon the pack,” he commanded before walking into the Den, screen door slamming behind him.

With his jaw clenched, he tried to restrain his anger over what he had to accept. Luca was alive.

Carson could hear Jed calling each hand-picked member of the pack in turn, bringing them to their Alpha’s aid. They would all be by his side soon enough.

Jules let Eileen hover close to her side as she and the werewolves discussed next steps.

“I think we should let it sit for just a little while,” Jules stated.

She put a restraining hand on Luca’s arm.

It seemed he was going to violently disagree.

“Not let it go, Luca. Just let it sit. Give everyone a little time.’’

“Let it sit?” Kyle said. “He killed a kid! He tried to kill Luca! He has to go down for this!”

“Although I’m ready to follow Jules, my coven leader and friend, to the end.

I think that everyone who loved this boy should try to accept that vengeance isn’t going to bring him back.

Our main concern now is to stop anyone else from being unjustly slaughtered.

So, we need to think before we act,” Eileen said boldly.

Some faces looked at her with shock, some with pride but all seemed to know that Eileen spoke the truth.

“So, how long are you proposing we wait? Not that I’m in a rush or anything, but Carson will find us. If he hasn’t already,” Hayley said.

“Then we wait as long as we can,” Luca answered sternly.

Kyle nodded begrudgingly, but seemed to relax a little after he’d done so.

“Can we slip away for a moment?” Luca whispered in Jules’s ear.

Jules looked skeptically toward Eileen who had just entered into a conversation with Monica and Hayley.

“Yes,” Jules said as soon as she was satisfied that Eileen was going to be fine on her own.

Hand-in-hand, Luca and Jules walked out to the beach behind her house. He brought their intertwined hands to his lips and kissed her’s.

“Hi,” she said, stopping to stand in front of him and looking up, searching his face.

“Hi.” His smile was small but breathtakingly beautiful.

“So…” She put her free hand on his abdomen. “Was there something specific you wanted to talk to me about?”

He let out a long sigh and his hands came to rest on the sides of her neck. “Kyle is right,” he said looking over her head instead of at her. “Carson can’t live through this, Jules. Not after what he’s done.”

“I agree. That said, please don’t go rushing in.” She took a fistful of his shirt in her hand, pulling his attention down. “I won’t lose you.” The statement was painfully true. “I love you.” Her eyes pleaded with him to be careful and think.

He nodded silently. “I love you, too.” Leaning down, he lifted her by the hips.

Instinctively her legs wrapped around his torso.

One arm slipped under her ass while the other pulled her as close as possible.

His lips met hers as her hands ran through his hair.

After a minute that could have been a moment or an hour, Luca pulled back.

Resting his forehead on hers he said, “we will be smart about this. I promise.”

“Okay.” She raised up in his hold enough to kiss him on the forehead. His head fell onto her soft breasts. He kissed her there but then grumbled. She ruffled his hair playfully.

“But I should probably find Kyle.” He set her on her feet gently. “He can sometimes be a hothead, and I don’t want him to do something stupid.”

Jules wasn’t ready to let go of this moment, but she’d left Eileen alone long enough.

Hand-in-hand, they walked back to the house. Kyle and Hayley were outside on the back porch, seemingly arguing. Or, at least having a heated discussion. Luca released Jules’s hand and walked over to them. Jules passed them all and walked back into the house to check on Eileen and her human friends.

Luca walked right into the middle of a lovers’ quarrel. He was still listening for the root of their issue, though he figured he could probably guess.

“Jules is right,” Hayley shouted. “We have to think this through. I won’t have you and Luca getting yourselves killed. What am I supposed to do if you die? Huh?”

“Oh, I don’t know, live on,” Kyle snapped.

“As Carson’s whore…” Hayley crossed her arms angrily.

“Over my dead body!”

“That’s the point!”

“Guys…” Luca began but Hayley put a hand out to respectfully halt Luca’s interruption. “I won’t raise this child on my own.”

Both men stopped short and stared. Luca immediately felt as if he was inappropriately interrupting something, but it was too late to leave now.

“What?” Kyle asked. His eyes were wide and confused.

“I found out this morning.” Hayley rested her hand on her stomach. “I wanted to tell you but there wasn’t a right time.” She started to laugh and cry at the same time. “We’re pregnant, Kyle.”

“Really!” Kyle exclaimed excitedly.

She nodded through happy tears.

Kyle scooped her up in his arms and spun them both. He kissed her, and she giggled. Luca was still frozen, watching the scene. How can so much good be happening along with so much bad? Despite all the pain, all the hate he was currently harboring, Luca started to laugh as well.

“I’m going to be a father.” Kyle chuckled, glowing at Hayley. “I’m going to be a father,” he said again looking over at Luca. He released Hayley and Luca hugged her.

“Do you really want to let some poor kid have this as a dad?” Luca joked at Kyle’s expense while hugging him as well.

“I’ve been wondering about that,” Hayley said, tapping her chin.

“Ha Ha. Sure, you have,” Kyle said sarcastically and then kissed her on the hair.

“This kid will have one hell of a god-father though,” she said, her gaze soft, and looking at Luca.

“What?” Luca looked from one of them to the other.

“Damn straight he will!” Kyle pulled Luca into a hug.

“Or she,” Hayley said and smacked her husband.

“Or she,” Kyle agreed, turning back to focus solely on the glowing Hayley.

Luca bowed out gracefully, to let them have the rest of this precious moment alone.

Jules walked out the front door with Eileen and looked toward Gabriel’s car.

Eileen said he was there, but the car windows were tinted so darkly that she couldn’t see anyone inside.

She watched as Eileen walked around the vehicle, opened the driver door, and joined him there.

Jules did not follow. Instead, she stopped when she saw her brother laying across the front of her car with his hands under his head. She tapped his knee, and he sat up.

“Hey, it’s me in girl form.”

“Only in looks.”

“True. I’ve always been the fun one,” he joked and slid off the car.

She rolled her eyes but stared at his smiling face.

She couldn’t get enough of his familiar features, all of which had been fading for centuries, even though she’d fought with everything she had to remember every detail.

Now that he was standing in front of her, though, she had noticed that he looked a little different than she remembered, but she was sure she did as well.

Death will do that to you, she imagined him joking. She chuckled at herself.

“What?” he asked, watching her with the same intense gaze.

“Nothing.” She smiled. “Just you.”

“I know, I’m still amazing, but which of my wonderful traits has you smiling?” he asked.

Jules ignored Nick’s call for compliments and answered honestly. “Actually, I was scrutinizing the changes I see in you.”

“And what did you find?” he asked, crossing his arms.

Jules leaned against the car next to him. “I don’t remember you being this tall,” she said, noting that he towered over her.

“To you, little one, everyone is tall.” He reached over and measured the height difference between them.

She elbowed him.

“Still height sensitive. Got it.” Nick said. “So… to blatantly change the subject, how did you meet Luca exactly? More specifically, how did you get tangled up in a werewolf war and then fall in love with one? Or was it the other way around?” Nick said.

“It was option B,” Jules replied. “Luca and I met on a blind date actually. After that, we were just kind of drawn together. It happened so fast, but seems like it has always been this way. Loving each other just came naturally. He’s the first person I’ve loved since…

” but her voice trailed off. Hector was the last thing she wanted to be thinking about right now.

An astonished look appeared on Nick’s face.

“What?” she asked.

“Since when? You were human? Are you implying that you haven’t been in love in over four hundred years? That’s so sad. I love falling in love!”

“No, that’s not the since I was referencing.” Jules laughed out loud. “But, do you remember your friend Laurence, he was my betrothed after you disappeared.”

Nick laughed out loud. “Boring old Laurence…” Jules felt there was something Nick wasn’t saying, but she didn’t push.

“I turned into a vampire and he joined the priesthood.” Jules said. “He didn’t take it in stride, that’s for sure.”

“I’m sure he got what was coming to him,” Nick said vaguely. “Albeit a couple decades late.”

“Maybe,” Jules said with a sigh.

“But that’s just the prologue,” Nick stated. “There has to be more epic love to tell me about.”

There was another, but Jules wouldn’t speak on her next and last romantic relationship, before Luca “What about you? Mister ‘I love to fall in love’. Has there been anyone significant in your existence?”

“No…” Nick said too quickly. “I mean…no. We’ll go with no.”

Jules looked at him like she very much doubted the authenticity of this answer. “Liar.”

“Undoubtedly.” The twins laughed lightly. Each determined to keep their secrets.

Nick’s return had made Jules feel lighter than she had in centuries, despite all of the bad happening around her. And yet, this being, her brother, was still a killer. How could someone who felt things so deeply, because Nick did, even if he didn’t admit it, be the Fort Miles Phantom?

“What has your face all squished like that? What do you want to know?” Nick asked.

Jules chewed on her lip nervously. She didn’t want to spoil the moment. “Why do you still kill like you do? Human life deserves to be protected, no matter the personal cost.”

“Not you too!” He rolled his eyes, let go of her shoulder, and slumped back onto her car.

“Me and who, exactly?” she asked leaning over him.

He sighed. “Never mind. It’s just an old fight I seem to have every fifty or so years.”

“Nicholas. What are you…”

He cut her off. “It doesn’t matter right now.

I’ve already agreed to battle my nature and lay off the killing to stay with you.

Can’t that be enough for now? Will I slip up?

Probably. But I feel like I have part of myself back…

with you here. I felt it from the first moment I saw you. I don’t want to lose you over this.”

He seemed to be having a conversation with himself that she wasn’t privy too. “Nick, I just found you. I’m not going anywhere. But you have to understand, I don’t live like that. I can’t.”

He raised his eyebrows at her.

“I mean, I literally can’t,” she said exasperatedly.

“You’re an addict too!” He smiled.

“A recovering one,” she admitted. “And I won’t go back, do you hear me? I love you Nicholas, but I won’t be that again.”

Nick placed his hand over her mouth, silencing her. “Okay. I hear you.” He looked her straight in the eyes. “I’ll work on it. Okay?”

She nodded.

He moved his fingers just as the front door opened and Luca walked outside.

“Hayley has something she wants to tell you,” he said as he walked over to them and wrapped Jules in his arms. He placed a kiss on her forehead. Jules was surprised to see him looking rather happy.

“Okay, let’s go.” Jules laughed lightly, as she and Luca began to walk toward the house. But then she stopped, walked out of Luca’s embrace, and grabbed Nick by the hand, pulling him with her.

Luca led the way through the house and out the back door where the rest of the group was chattering excitedly.

Eileen must have managed to convince Gabriel to join the rest of them because the two of them approached the commotion seconds later. Gabriel looked awkward and nervous, but his presence was a step in the right direction.

“Hello Mr. Prentiss,” Hayley greeted.

Gabriel’s eyes widened.

“Hayley Reynolds,” he said stiffly, “you are part of this?”

She nodded. “Wait,” Eileen said. “You took my husband’s English class, didn’t you?” Eileen asked with a smile.

“We all did,” Tai interjected.

“Duh, he is the best teacher at Aboit High,” Monica said with a smile.

Jules walked over to Gabriel, while Eileen chatted easily with Monica and Hayley. She crooked her arms around his and whispered in his ear, “I’m really glad you’re here.”

Gabriel shrugged, and half smiled. “I’m here for you.”

“I know.”

“Okay, okay, everyone listen up!” Kyle waved his hands and the chatter faded, leaving silence in its wake.

He seems happy. Jules wondered what could have possibly happened to make Kyle forget how angry he was at Carson.

“My wife has an announcement.” Kyle motioned to Hayley.

Jules’s confusion grew. Kyle was glowing and fidgeting with excitement.

“Hayley and I have a surprise,” he said while bouncing on his heels. “Honey, you should tell them.”

Hayley rolled her eyes but smiled and joined him, taking his hand in her own. “I didn’t want to say anything now, but…” She paused, and Kyle squeezed her fingers. “We’re going to have a baby!”

Monica squealed, Luca gave Kyle a high-five, and Jules ran to give Hayley a hug. “Congratulations.”

Gabriel did not join in but stayed rooted in his spot.

At first, Nick hung back as well, as if he wasn’t sure if he should be involved or not, but he was soon drawn into the quiet revelry.

“I don’t know you but congrats,” Nick said, shaking Kyle’s hand.

Laughing, Luca reached out to him and clapped him on the back. Gabriel even cracked a smile.

“There’s more,” Hayley said, her arms still wrapped around Jules. She looked over at Kyle, who nodded. “Kyle and I talked about it and Jules, would you be our baby’s godmother?”

“Me?” she asked, stunned.

“Luca is the god-pops. So yeah, you,” Kyle said, resting his elbow on Jules’s shoulder.

“Yes, you.” Hayley took Jules’s hands in her own. “I’ve never met a stronger woman. And I trust that should you agree, our child will never be unprotected or unloved.”

Jules was on the verge of tears, again.

“Jules?” Kyle asked.

“Of course I will,” she said, hugging Hayley again. For a brief moment the companions had a reason to feel true joy, even if it was fleeting.