Chapter Two
Dead Girl in a Coffee Shop
T
he roar of the wind was all around Kyle as he flew through town toward her home. He came to a speedy stop in front of the old apartment building, just in time to see the love of his life walk from her family’s apartment. She was being followed closely by her older brother, Adam.
“Dad doesn’t always know what’s best Adam!” she shouted when he grabbed her arm, spinning her around.
“Neither do you!” he shouted back.
Kyle turned off the ignition and dismounted but kept his distance. He relaxed against the motorcycle, waiting for the fight to fizzle out.
“Why is he here?” Adam questioned, catching sight of Kyle.
“Kyle’s a part of my life, Adam. Deal with it.” Hayley pulled her arm free and turned away from her brother.
“You barely know him!” Adam shouted after her, shoving his hands into his pockets and storming back inside the apartment.
Hayley ignored him as she reached the motorcycle.
“Do you two ever get along?” Kyle asked, wrapping her in his arms and pulling her against him.
“We have our moments.” She smiled at Kyle in a way that suggested she was no longer thinking about the quarrel she and her brother were just having.
“Hello, wife.” He smiled down and ran one hand through her long, highlighted, hair.
“Hi, husband.”
He bent down and met her in a kiss. A few weeks back, Kyle had done something that, when discovered, would not be easily forgiven. Kyle had whisked Hayley Reynolds, now Hayley Reynolds-Cooper, off to Las Vegas and married her. The marriage was legal by the United States standards, of course. However, pack laws were quite different. When the Alpha of your pack had his eye on a mate, marrying her was severally looked down upon. A little over a month ago, Carson had demanded that Hayley’s father grant him his daughter’s hand in marriage. Mr. Reynolds had not immediately complied, but Kyle would not take the risk that he would relent; damn the consequences.
“Get a room,” another one of Hayley’s brothers, younger and still attending Aboit High, commented as he walked passed them.
“Good to see you too Landon!” Kyle called after him.
He waved once but didn’t turn around.
“Let’s go somewhere we can be alone,” Hayley whispered.
“I had an idea about that,” he whispered back, rubbing his nose softly against hers.
JULIANA
On a long, quiet street directly across from the sea, sat Jules’s little green house. She walked passed the car she’d neglected to drive to the art gallery and through the freshly painted front door. It was peaceful and charming and full of character, but mainly, it was all hers. Jules was four hundred years old. Her first hundred years as a vampire had been a life of extravagance and indulgence. She’d lived on an English estate, in a grand manor, which housed one of the oldest covens in existence. After her time there had come to an abrupt end, she’d spent many years drowning in loneliness. Until Gabriel. With him, and then Eileen, came an existence of family and hope. Even so, the last few years had caused her to thoroughly enjoy the solitude of living alone.
Jules walked through the darkened house, stripped off her sweatshirt and jeans, pushed back her covers, and dropped gracefully onto her mattress. She still had a few hours before she had to resume her current life as a modern-day American. She pulled her soft, feather blanket up around her shoulders and instantly drifted to sleep.
Jules tossed. She hadn’t been prepared for her past to haunt her dreams this night and yet…
There she was, standing at the entrance to an opulent ballroom. She walked inside, her long dress swaying with her stride. Music set the mood as couples moved across the dance floor. She could see her friends happily waltzing in wide circles. Gwendolyn, a primordial vampire, one of the first of their kind, and Stephen, her werewolf husband.
Jules could smell the blood that was served in large goblets. She could almost taste it. Jules licked her lips in her sleep.
“Dance with me Juliana,” a familiar voice said. The atmosphere changed, darkened, as he slipped an arm over her stomach possessively.
Jules thrashed in her sleep.
She turned and stared into the face that she dreaded most. An accustomed, cold smile shown on his primordial lips. Hector. “You’re mine, Julie.”
The dream shifted as she cowered under Hector’s glare, his hand connected with her face yet again. Another image, the bloodied and lifeless body of her friend laying on the riverbank. “Juliana, help me,” called the distorted and rotting corpse of Stephen Cain.
Startled awake, Jules sat up in bed. She pushed her matted hair from her face and took a few deep breaths. It was a human reaction to steady the nerves, but still relatively effective. Jules swallowed, her throat was dry. She was parched.
Jules pushed back the covers and walked to her sparsely stocked kitchen. Her cupboards had some plates and things for if she had company, but in this area of the home, her own need was extremely specific. She reached up and pulled one of her glasses from the cupboard. She squinted as she opened the refrigerator to retrieve a bag of blood with the hospital’s tag still on it. She had several stored up from her last raid on the local blood bank. She ripped the bag open with her teeth and poured its contents into the glass. Throwing the empty bag in the sink, she walked to her tiny living room and flipped on the television. Some news program played as she sipped from her glass.
For a moment, Jules thought of nothing but the liquid seeping into her tissues as she drank. Everything inside her was consumed by the quenching of her thirst. She drained the rest of the blood in the glass. The ecstasy and rejuvenation that blood brought to her erased the pain of her nightmare. Her, now crimson-colored, eyes blinked as she regained her composure. Jules then set the empty, blood-stained glass down on her wooden coffee table and sunk back into her plush, velvet couch.
Her thoughts drifted to her life before the English coven had taken her in. It was a time when humans greatly feared but believed in such superstitions as vampires. They were considered demons on earth and she had just become one of them.
Once the physical pain of her death had receded, her heart stopped beating and the change was complete. She was strong but disoriented. Her senses were amplified. She could hear and see things from great distances.
She’d run faster than she’d ever thought possible to her fiancé, Laurence; ever her rock and protection. After being invited into his home, she’d told him what had happened. She had hoped he would try to see passed her demon face and into her heart. He did not. All he could see was evil standing in the place of the one he was to marry.
She’d run from Laurence’s cottage straight into the arms of Hector. He had taken her to his home, to his coven at Pelmoore Manor. There Jules met his sister, Gwendolyn, who was as sweet as she was mad. They had become instant friends.
Jules had watched as Gwendolyn fell in love with a young werewolf from the village. Stephen was strong and gentle. After they were married, life at the Manor couldn’t have been more peaceful and jovial. Over time, the packs elected Stephen Alpha over much of England. Together, Gwen and Stephen ruled both species as one; equally.
However, when Stephen had stepped in to help Gwendolyn rule, their combined influence usurped Hector’s authority. His early attempts to reconstitute his power over the vampires were futile. In hopes of disintegrating the alliance between werewolves and vampires, Hector had told Gwendolyn and Stephen that their people were beginning to fight amongst themselves. This was true, but only because of Hector’s coaxing lies. The couple had decided to remain steadfast. They believed that the hate would pass in time. But they were wrong; it did not pass. And Hector’s greed grew. Hector was a vampire of nightmares, even Juliana’s.
Jules could feel the bitterness overtaking her. That night still haunted her, the one down by the river. The night of Stephen’s death. If only he hadn’t been walking alone. Hector had ended Stephen’s life that night, but he hadn’t stopped there. He tore him apart bit by bit and sent the pieces to the neighboring werewolf packs. Instead of disheartening the werewolves as Hector had intended, this whipped the packs into a frenzy. They retaliated. Both sides lost many lives. Hector wanted war, and he got one.
Vampires began disappearing in droves. Jules found out later that the packs were burying their enemies in coffins, far underground. How humans had gotten and twisted that information, Jules didn’t know. The races fought until the casualties were too great for both werewolves and vampires. Jules didn’t know what had caused the cease-fire because, by then, she was far from England. After Stephen was killed, Gwendolyn’s heart had grown cold and she had banished Jules.
Jules was pulled from the memory when she felt a single, thick blood-tear escape her right eye and slide down her cheek. She shook herself free of her thoughts yet again. When she wiped under her eye, the back of her hand came away smeared with blood.
The Manor and all those within were no longer a part of her existence. They hadn’t been for centuries. Jules tried to focus on what the late-night newscaster was ranting about; some murder somewhere not far from Aboit.
LUCA
Luca woke abruptly as a door slammed and someone yelled, “get the hell out of this house!” It was Carson roaring in anger about something or another. Being a normal occurrence, Luca rolled over and closed his eyes again.
“She was never yours, you bigoted brute,” Kyle shouted back, apparently finding a shred of defiance deep inside himself and acting on it.
There was a sound that meant one of them had gotten punched. Luca assumed that the soon to be bruised one was Kyle.
Luca sat up in bed, trying to shake himself awake. He wobbled a little as he stood and untangled himself from his sheets. He moved to the door, pulled it open, and walked down the hall toward Kyle’s bedroom. They met on the stairs. Kyle’s lip was bleeding.
“Did you know about this?” Carson shouted, upon seeing Luca at the top of the stairs.
“Nope,” Luca lied and followed Kyle to his room.
Kyle started haphazardly shoving his belongings in one of three large duffle bags he pulled from his closet. Luca stopped at the door and watched.
“Hayley’s brother told him,” Kyle explained, without turning around.
“Which one?” Luca asked referencing Hayley’s many brothers.
“How should I know?” Kyle snapped as he continued.
“Probably Adam,” Luca said.
“Probably.”
“Where will you go?” Luca asked, leaning against the doorframe.
“I’ve got a place,” Kyle said, then smiled mischievously. “You didn’t think I was gonna stay in this frat house forever, did you? I’m a married man.”
Luca shrugged. He’d moved into the Den around ten years ago, Kyle had been here before that. Kyle leaving after he and Hayley had tied the knot hadn’t really occurred to Luca.
“Come by the apartment later,” Kyle said, picking up bag after bag and slinging each one over his shoulders. He looked like an overstuffed pack-mule as he walked toward Luca. “It’s on the floor above Hayley’s parents.”
“I bet they’ll love that,” Luca joked.
“We’re married now,” Kyle said. “They’ll get over it.”
“You’re sure?” Luca asked, rubbing his eyes, still feeling a bit groggy.
“Ehhh,” Kyle waved his hand in a swiveling motion to indicate that the real answer was maybe. “Can I borrow the Jeep?” Kyle asked, looking down at his belongings.
Luca imagined Kyle trying to get himself and three large bags balanced on a motorcycle and chuckled.
Kyle shifted until he could dig the keys to his motorcycle out of his pocket.
“I’ll bring it by Hayley’s later,” Luca said, catching the keys when they came flying toward him.
“It’s my place too,” Kyle chided.
Luca made a face.
“You’re right, it’s Hayley’s.” Kyle conceded. Despite being thrown out of the house he’d lived in for over a decade, Kyle was in good spirits. Of course, he was generally in good spirits. It was just in his nature. “Throw down the Jeep keys,” Kyle said as he thudded down the stairs.
Luca walked back to his room. His bedroom was the largest room in the house, the master suite. Kyle said it was a fair bribe for someone with Luca’s lineage to become Carson’s Beta, instead of putting forth the challenge for Alpha. At first, Luca had laughed it off, but now he was thankful for the space to escape.
Luca shut his door behind him again and searched through old clothes and clutter until he found where he had dropped his car keys the night before. Housekeeping wasn’t Luca’s strong suit. Luca walked to the window, opened it, and tossed the keys into Kyle’s outstretched hand.
“Be careful with my Jeep.”
“Don’t crash my baby,” Kyle called back, looking forlornly toward the driveway and his motorcycle.
Luca laughed and pulled his window back down, turning to prepare for the day.
JULIANA
Unable to resume sleeping after the night’s dreams, Jules had dressed for work early and decided to take a stroll down her street. She’d chosen this street for its ambiance. The small cottages that lined the rocky coast were full of charm, and she could see the waves crashing on the rocks from her back porch. Jules had rarely felt more at peace.
She loved to watch the morning routine of her quiet neighborhood. The woman next door rushing off to work and the family three houses down, herding their young children into a car, headed for school. It all reminded Jules why she had chosen to cherish human life.
As the time for her to leave for work approached, Jules walked back to her own house and started her car. It was still dark out, so she drove the few minutes to the coffee shop she frequented. Not because she drank coffee. She was dead, what good would caffeine do her? But because her best, human friend worked the early shift most days.
Per-usual, the coffee house was relatively empty inside while the drive-through was a mass of honking cars and impatient drivers. Jules saw Monica handing the same old man his coffee order. “Is there anything else I can get you, Mr. Boyer?”
“What do you think?” he snapped grumpily.
Monica smiled regardless and wished him a good day. Jules approached the counter as Mr. Boyer made his way back to his usual little table.
“Does he ever go home?" Jules whispered to Monica once she was close enough to keep from being overheard.
“Yes, between ten and noon,” Monica said and they both giggled.
Monica was several inches taller than Jules, with caramel skin and brown hair that she wore soft and wild past her shoulders. Monica had graduated last year and was in the middle of a gap year, which she’d promised her parents she was using to think about her future. Jules suspected it had more to do with the fact that her boyfriend, Seth, was a year younger and still trapped at Aboit High. Jules knew that Monica planned on going to college but wanted to wait for Seth, so they could take on that adventure together. Monica had her whole life planned out, down to the year and moment she wanted Seth to propose. Jules knew that life rarely worked out how one planned, but she hoped in Monica’s case it would.
Monica picked up the water bottle she always carried and walked out from behind the counter. “I’m taking ten,” she called to her co-worker, who was in the back.
“Okay!” they shouted in return.
“Are you still coming over tonight?” Monica asked.
Jules nodded as they sat down at their usual table.
“Good. How was your night? Mine was fine. Seth and I just hung out with my family. I got into a fight with Ethan because he didn’t knock first, and Seth and I were making out. Thank God that’s all he saw. So, what about you? Anything eventful happen last night?”
Jules smiled. The number of words Monica could get out in one breath was almost inhuman. “Actually, yes.” Jules lowered her voice. “Gabriel, Eileen, and I had a run-in with a pack of wolves.”
“Did anything dramatic happen? I mean, to be honest, we both knew that was going to happen eventually. But what do you mean ‘a run in’? How many were there?” Monica said.
Jules just smiled and waited for Monica to take a breath. Monica had a familiar comfort about her. They possessed the ease of interaction that naturally developed out of a deep friendship. Jules had had a few human friends over the years, but Monica Martin was different. She knew what Jules and her coven were. To Jules’s surprise, she’d guessed about a year after they’d become friends. Jules couldn’t understand Monica’s acceptance of vampirism and everything that came with it. She was relieved that she showed no signs of wanting to be turned into one. Monica’s life plan required that she keep her heart beating.
“How’d Mr. Prentiss take it?”
Jules simply made a face at her.
“That bad, huh?” Monica asked. Gabriel had been Monica’s English teacher sophomore year. She knew him personally now, through Jules, but couldn’t seem to stop calling him ‘Mr. Prentiss’. Even after she’d graduated high school.
“He, umm, got into a fistfight with the Alpha,” Jules said.
Monica looked at Jules, shock on her face.
Before Monica could ask, Jules said, “don’t worry. I took care of it.”
“Wow. I mean, I’m glad it wasn’t worse, I guess,” Monica replied. “With what happened to Eileen, I’d have guessed he would’ve bitten one of them, then and there.”
Just then, Monica’s phone beeped and she pulled it from her pocket to check the text. She smiled as she returned it. Jules thought it was likely from Seth, due to Monica’s facial expression. “Oh, I have to get back,” Monica said standing.
“See you after work,” Jules said, standing too.
“Jules, I almost forgot,” Monica stopped and spun toward Jules again. “You know how Saturday is Seth and my two-year anniversary, right?”
Monica had mentioned it on more than a few occasions, so yes, Jules knew. She nodded.
“Well, Seth kind of forgot. He made plans with a friend.”
“Anyone I know?” Jules asked.
“Probably not. Anyway, Seth was wondering what you were doing on Saturday night.”
“Monica. No,” Jules said, taken aback. She knew what Monica was asking. She also knew that it was a very bad idea. “Can’t Seth just change his plans to another night?” Jules didn’t like the idea of any form of romantic connection with a human. Not even a blind date. Not even once.
“I asked that, and he suggested that you should come with us instead. I guess his friend is like twenty-three or something.
“Monica, you know I don’t get involved with humans.” Jules looked at her friend seriously.
“Of course I do, but Seth doesn’t. I couldn’t exactly say, ‘yeah, she can’t. She might eat him’ could I?”
Jules chose not to respond to that one.
“Come on, Jules. You’re my best friend. Please don’t make me lie to Seth any more than I already am,” Monica begged, sticking out her lower lip.
Jules contemplated this. She would only have Monica for as long as one lifetime allowed. So, she offered up a long, aggravated sigh and relented. She could handle one night of small talk with a human boy.
“Thanks. You’re the best!” Monica grinned widely. “It’ll be fun.”
“It had better not be,” Jules retorted as she left the small coffee shop.
KYLE
Kyle parked the Jeep in front of the two-story apartment building, grabbed two of his three bags, and headed toward the shabby structure. Some of Hayley’s younger siblings were out front. They were all piling into the family vehicle, heading across town for school.
“Hayley inside?” he asked Landon, who was climbing into the driver’s seat.
“Not that I know of,” he replied, without making eye contact with Kyle.
Kyle shrugged and hauled both his bags inside the building.
“Seriously dude.” Adam stopped Kyle just outside his parents’ doorway.
Kyle couldn’t resist. He dropped both bags with a loud thud and punched Adam square on the jaw.
“What the hell was that for!” Adam shouted.
Kyle ignored him, picked up his bags again, and walked up the stairs toward his new home. The apartment’s door was standing open.
“Honey, I’m home,” Kyle called as he walked into the new living room. It was furnished with hand-me-downs and thrift shop finds. He’d spent the last week acquiring the furnishings, as a surprise for Hayley. It was already feeling more like home than the Den ever had.
“Yes, you are,” Hayley said, walking from the bedroom. Kyle dropped both bags on the floor and opened his arms for her. She ran at him. He lifted her off her feet, kissing her. She was average height, shapely, strong, opinionated, and adventurous. Everything he’d ever wanted in a spouse. Yes, she was young, but being raised with so many siblings had caused her to mature quickly.
“Just adorable.”
Still holding Hayley off the ground, Kyle turned toward the person who’d commented on their couple-cuteness.
Hayley’s little sister, Amy, continued, “I’m done organizing the bathroom.”
A horn honked outside.
“I think your ride is leaving,” Kyle told her.
Amy swore and ran out the door and down the stairs.
“Alone at last,” Kyle commented, looking down at Hayley and kissing her lips. “Are you ready to start our life Mrs. Reynolds-Cooper?”
“Yes,” she said as he put her back on her feet. “As soon as you put all that crap where it belongs. As in, not on the living room floor.” She pointed at the bags he’d dropped.
Kyle rolled his eyes.
“Is there more?” she asked, tapping him on the chest.
“Yeah, downstairs in Luca’s Jeep.”
“I’ll get it. You unpack.” Smiling, Hayley pulled the keys from his back pocket, smacked his backside, and walked from the room to bring up his last bag. Kyle watched her go. He was finally home.
JULIANA
Jules then got back in her car and drove in the direction of her job. She remembered meeting Monica like it was yesterday. Four years ago, the pair had stumbled across one another at the overstocked, resale bookstore in town. She’d reached for a book on the shelf, at the same moment that a young girl in braces and cornrows had snagged it from under her nose.
At that time, Jules was new to Aboit. She’d told Monica she was eighteen, no longer in school, and wasn’t looking for any new friends. Monica, however, wouldn’t take Jules’s ‘why don’t you go make friend’s your own age’ seriously and kept bugging her until she’d agreed to hang out. They’d hit it off pretty much instantly.
Jules reached Aboit High and pulled in to a parking spot marked for staff. The sun had risen fully during the short drive. Jules knew Gabriel would have played it safe with the sunny forecast. Thus, he would already be inside his classroom with the blinds drawn. Jules put on her dark sunglasses and grabbed her large black umbrella from under the passenger seat of her car. She cracked her door open and stuck it out of the top, like someone desperately trying not to get rained on. Quickly, she jogged toward the building, trying to slip inside without being spotted. Once through the glass double doors, she stowed both in her handbag. The guards against the sun did their job well. Between the umbrella, sunglasses, long jacket, and tall boots, she had barely begun to sizzle. Her knees were a little worse for wear, but her quick healing had her back in perfect shape in just a few seconds.
Jules walked down the darkened hall, greeting her co-workers as she went. When she reached Gabriel’s classroom, she pushed the door open without knocking.
He looked up from where he sat hunched over his desk, at the far side of the room.
“Lunch today, my office?” she asked.
“If I get these papers graded, sure,” he replied, sifting through the tall stack in front of him.
“Do you want me to grade some for you?”
“No!”
“Just thought I’d check,” she teased, letting the door close behind her and heading to her own work area.
She reached the far side of the quiet building and walked through the darkened library to her small office in the back corner. She pulled her hair back in a tight bun, placed the pins carefully, and reached into her bag for her prescription-less glasses. This, along with a cardigan, pleated skirt, and a change into kitten heels, was all part of the act. Like Clark Kent, she was a master at hiding what she truly was. Although, instead of concealing superpowers from another planet, she was pretending that she hadn’t died at seventeen, and didn’t have the natural desire to drink the student’s blood.