Page 7 of Bane of Hate and Silver (Primordial Inheritance #1)

The Librarian Drinks Blood

J ules’s transformation complete, she moved into the library itself and flipped on the light.

Slowly walking through the stacks of books, straightening as she went.

At the far end was the computer area. One by one she pushed the power button on the machines, each one humming to life in canon.

She’d only had this job this past school year.

Gabriel loved his job as a teacher at this school so much that Jules had decided to try her hand at joining the community as well.

As the students began arriving for the day, voices rose and lockers started to slam out in the hall.

The clock on the wall ticked closer and closer to the first morning bell.

Her Monday morning, student-aid would be arriving any moment.

Just as she moved behind her rounded desk in the middle of the small library, he did so.

“Good morning, Ethan,” she greeted as Monica’s fourteen-year-old brother walked through the door.

He was one of the shorter boys in the freshman class, but Jules figured he’d be tall someday soon.

His whole family was. Ethan’s features were nearly identical to that of his sister, save for the light blue eyes he’d gotten from his father.

“You’re dressed like my mother,” he said in response and tossed his backpack onto her desk. Then he plopped into one of the nearby study chairs, his head dropping onto the round table in front of him.

“Not true,” Jules said. “Your mother dresses way better than I do.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “I got to level twenty-six last night,” he said, yawning.

“You wouldn’t be so sleepy if you didn’t stay up all night with a gaming controller in your hands.” She flicked on her computer screen and started browsing her work emails.

“Hey, sometimes I do sleep… with a gaming controller in my hand.”

She smiled over at the boy who had become like a little brother to her in recent years. She’d spent a fair amount of time with Monica’s family, and had gotten to know them all accordingly.

Ethan yawned again, his blue eyes droopy from lack of sleep.

“You shouldn’t stay up so late.”

“Thanks, mom.”

She chuckled.

“Miss Bristow.”

Jules looked up from her computer to see a young girl standing in front of her.

“Can you help me find…” she looked down at a paper in her hand. “Something on the suffragette movement?”

Jules chuckled at the inaccuracy. “Let me look.” She typed in variations on the desired subject matter to find what books they currently had available.

Satisfied with what was found, she pulled a piece of scrap paper from the pile and jotted down some numbers and titles.

Pausing, she blinked at the paper. The section these books were in, of course , was the one spot in the small library Jules couldn’t get to during a sunny day.

Even looking at it burned her eyes. It gave her a bad headache, if she looked at the rays on the carpet long enough it would blind her.

Jules handed the scrap paper to the student. “Ethan can walk you over.”

“Oh, come on!” Ethan exclaimed.

“You volunteered to work here, didn’t you?” she asked as he reluctantly stood up.

“Yeah, because I thought I wouldn’t have to do anything for the first hour of school.” He took the paper from his classmate and studied the numbers on it.

“You’re not that special.” Jules winked at him, and he scowled.

“You sure you don’t want to just look this up online?” he asked the girl standing in front of him.

“One paper source.” Her tone was as whiny as his had been moments ago.

“You have Mr. Prentiss too, don’t you?”

“Yup.”

Luca had just gotten out of the shower when the banging on his door began. “Carson wants everyone downstairs.”

Luca didn’t respond to the demand. He could guess what this was going to be about.

“There’s coffee in it for you!” yelled Ben.

“Okay!” Luca shouted back through the closed door. Annoyed, he grabbed some clothes off his closet floor and pulled them over his dripping body.

Down stairs he was immediately cornered by Carson. “You knew about Kyle’s betrayal, didn’t you?” Carson’s tone didn’t really have a question in it.

“No,” Luca said flatly and walked past him into the Den’s musty family room. Grateful for his status, it made the lie an easy one. He plopped onto the couch beside Ben, who handed him a steaming cup of coffee.

“Thanks,” he said, taking a long drink of the hot liquid.

“Caffeine makes the world go ‘round,” Ben commented, drinking from his own mug.

Luca nodded.

“Anyone seen Kip this morning?” Carson growled angrily. Kip was the tallest, brawniest wolf that Luca had ever met. He was also notorious for charming women; werewolves and humans alike.

“Kip’s not here,” Max told him as he entered the room. Max was a Den member that looked to be just out of high school but was actually close to forty. “He had a date last night.”

“Typical,” Carson snapped and turned to address the Den members who were present and accounted for.

Jules retreated to her office at her normal break time.

Shutting the door behind her and pulling the blind down over the glass window that looked out into the library.

Reaching into the mug that was repurposed as a pen holder on her desk, her fingers dug around until they gripped the key to the lock fastened over her mini refrigerator door.

When asked about the strange practice she’d told the principle it was due to an unfortunate paranoia concerning the things she ate.

This was just another lie necessary to conceal what she really was.

Checking over her shoulder to ensure the door had been properly locked, she pulled out one of the blood bags, grabbed an opaque tumbler off her desk, and filled it with the red liquid. The sound of footsteps froze her in place.

“It’s me,” Gabriel called from the other side of the door. Jules grabbed a second blood bag and walked over to let Gabriel in. Behind him, several sniggering girls huddled close to her current student-aid.

“I swear they think we’re having an affair,” Gabriel said, chuckling as he shut the door behind him. He pulled out his own travel mug and filled it with the contents of the bag Jules had retrieved for him.

“Teenagers have wild imaginations,” Jules said as she slid back into her desk chair. Gabriel gracefully sat in the chair opposite her.

“And we are lucky they do. Those imaginations tend to create much more interesting explanations for our abnormalities than we could ever concoct ourselves.”

“Yes, like me… in a relationship,” Jules said with a snicker. After her last disaster of a relationship, she’d never opened herself up to another. Three hundred years of romantic avoidance and going strong.

Finally, Jules placed the tumbler straw against her lips and drank, sipping it at first and then taking several long gulps.

Her eyes closed as blood flowed into her very being, awakening her; giving her unnatural strength and unending life.

The blood coursed through her like a drug.

She craved it. Needed it. One more big gulp and a slurp and it was gone.

Dropping her tumbler to her desk Jules looked over at Gabriel, who had continued to sip from his cup slowly, little by little.

His eyes, as red as hers, were still calm and steady as he always was.

During the civil war she’d plucked the new vampire fresh off the battle field and taken him under her wing.

She taught him about what he was and he’d taught her control.

He’d been her tether, her rock ever since.

Gabriel tapped his finger to his mouth, indicating that she had a little something left on her lips.

“Thanks,” Jules said, licking her plump bottom lip. A spark of envy surged through her as he took another small sip. She was never able to master that level of control over her baser need for human blood.

Gabriel philosophized that by denying himself the experience of the kill from the beginning of his vampire life, he was able to maintain complete control. Jules suspected that, like humans, some vampires naturally possessed more control over their addictions than others.

“By the way,” Jules began when she could think of something other than the blood again, “I can’t come with you Saturday night. I told Monica I’d go on a double date. Her and Tai and a friend of his…”

“A human friend? Really Jules?”

“It’s for Monica,” Jules explained.

“But you just said yourself that you don’t do romantic relationships.” Gabriel looked incredulous, if not judgmental.

“It’s not my romantic relationship I’m celebrating, it’s Monica’s. Besides, it’s just one blind date.”

“I don’t know Jules.”

“I am aware that it’s not the best idea. But it’s important to Monica, so I’m going.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Well, I don’t think fighting with a werewolf Alpha in the middle of the town is a good idea, but that didn’t stop you,” she retorted.

He looked sheepish. “Sorry about that.”

Luca arrived at Kyle’s apartment around mid-day. The front door was open and there was shouting coming from inside. They’ve been married, what, a week, he thought to himself. “Knock, knock,” he said aloud.

“Luca. Come in,” Hayley said, spinning toward the door. “Please tell him he’s an idiot.” She turned back to scowl at her new husband.

Luca complied.

“Ha ha ha,” Kyle grumbled, but his mood seemed to be lightening already. He wasn’t one to hold onto an argument. “Preserve tonight?” Kyle asked as Luca sat in an armchair while Hayley plopped onto the couch next to her husband. She took his hand, all remnants of the fight seemingly forgotten.

“I can’t tonight,” Luca said. “I’m working. Keys please.” He held Kyle’s motorcycle keys out toward him.

“On the hook by the door.” Hayley pointed.

Luca stood to retrieve them, hanging Kyle’s keys where his had been.

“Are you at least gonna go running with me tonight?” Kyle asked Hayley, while he played with a strand of her hair.