“Sam . . . you’re dying.” Jamie said the words, feeling like he would cry. “What happened? What can I do to help? I won’t let you die.”
Sam pulled back again. This time Jamie let her go. “I don’t want any help!” she yelled. “It’s better this way. It needs to happen. So you just leave me alone!” Sam pointed to her house. “And move your fucking car away from my house! I’m sick of it being there all the time!”
Jamie looked towards the large black car that was parked across the road from her house in confusion. “What?”
Sam scoffed. “I know that’s your car,” she said. “It’s been there forever . . . do you just sit around my house and stalk me twenty-four seven?”
“Sam . . . ” Jamie put his hand on her arm and pulled her back. “I don’t have a car.”
She stared at him, her expression filled with confusion. “But the day we met, at the library, you pointed to that car and asked me if I wanted a ride home.”
Jamie glanced towards the vehicle, now recognising it from that day. That night he had been so relieved she had declined his offer, that he hadn’t stopped to wonder why there was a car in an otherwise empty car park, outside a completely empty building . . . and he also hadn’t thought to check if there was anyone already in the car.
“I don’t even know how to drive.”
“But, you said—”
“Okay, listen. I will explain that to you later. Right now, let’s focus on the fact that that is not my car. And it’s been parking there for how long?”
Sam looked at Jamie, then back at the car, her eyes widening with fear. “A few months . . . I never see anyone get in or out, and you said it was yours so I never really thought about it.”
He felt himself begin to worry, as it was the first time he had seen her wear such an expression.
Slowly she took a step forward.
Then another.
Jamie walked beside her, preparing himself for the possibility that he would have to kill anyone who stepped out of the car since Sam no longer had the strength to protect herself.
CHAPTER 56
Sam glared at the car as she approached it.
I can’t believe I was stupid enough to think that Jamie was following me everywhere in a car. Vampires don’t even need cars.
As she walked towards it she wondered how long it had really been following her. She only started to notice it after she told Jamie to leave her alone, but pretty much the only reason she noticed it at all was because she thought Jamie was driving it. It could have been following her all year and she wouldn’t have realised.
“What are we going to do?” Jamie asked.
“I don’t know,” Sam replied.
She had been racking her brain for a useful suggestion for the past minute. But since her body had started deteriorating her mind hadn’t been able to think as fast as it used to. “Um . . . I suppose we could knock on the window and find out who’s there. I’ve got my dagger and a little Magic I can use and you’ve got your Vampireness. We can take them if we need to.”
“Let me knock,” Jamie said, “and stay behind me.”
He moved himself in front of Sam, keeping his arm out to shield her. Sam let him as he was now physically stronger than her there was no point in arguing with the logic behind him going near the strange car first.
As they came close enough he reached out and knocked on the window, which was tinted so dark she couldn’t even make out a silhouette behind it.
Sam jumped when she heard the door click on the other side of the car. “Someone’s coming,” she whispered to Jamie. He nodded and took three steps back, keeping her behind him the whole time.
Sam saw the top of someone’s head over the other side of the vehicle. The hair was cut short, which made Sam immediately think that it was a man. She wrapped her hand around the hilt of her blade and squeezed it tightly, getting ready to use it if she had to.
The door in front of them swung open. Sam looked from behind Jamie at the man who was stepping out. He was youngish, with light mousy brown hair that was cut tight. He was dressed in a military uniform. He smiled at Sam as if she should recognise him . . . she didn’t, but played along, forcing herself to smile back.
She looked at his eyes and immediately knew that something wasn’t right.
The man who had gotten out of the car on the other side came around to where she and Jamie were standing. He was older than the other guy, but he was also wearing a uniform. Only his looked more official. As he stared at her, Sam noticed that he was carrying a large wooden chest in his hands.
Both of the men were looking at Sam strangely.
Almost as if they knew her and as if she was supposed to know them.
Jamie stepped in front of Sam, completely blocking her from their line of sight. “Who are you, and what do you want?” he asked the men, though it sounded more like a demand than a question.
The older one stepped forward. “I am General Pike, this is Officer Smith. We are looking for a Miss Samantha Jacobs.”
“What for?” Jamie asked.
“It’s about your brother, Daniel,” the younger one said directly to Sam.
Jamie looked to her for some clue as to what he should do or say next. “What about him?” she asked. Even though she was pretty sure what they were going to say to her.
“He’s been killed,” Officer Smith said, choking on his words as he spoke them, his eyes welling up as though he were about to cry.
Not a bad actor, Sam thought.
“Oh my God.” Jamie looked at Sam with sympathy. “Sam, are you okay?”
Sam nodded. “He was my friend, you know,” said the younger one.
“I know,” she said as she looked him up and down. “I recognise your face.” She lied to him because she knew from his expression that she was expected to recognise his face. That was the point of the whole show after all.
He smiled. Sam laughed internally. He thinks I’m fooled.
General Pike cleared his throat to get her attention. She looked at him. “We were asked to return his belongings to you.”
Sam looked at the chest, wondering what tricks were inside it. She knew for a fact that it was nothing that belonged to Danny.
First off, why would he own a wooden chest and bring it with him on deployment?
Secondly, why would these two bring it to her in person?
Thirdly, Danny didn’t have anything of importance with him. All of his crap was in his room exactly where he left it when he ran away.
And finally, if all they had tracked her down for was to return ‘Danny’s’ chest to her, why had they been stalking her for months?
Sam just nodded, trying her best to pull off a convincing look of grief—which was difficult because she knew they were lying and also because she was still angry at Danny and so couldn’t even imagine being sad about his fake death. After a moment of Sam looking at the chest and not taking it, Jamie reached out and took it from the ‘General’.
“Do you need help getting it inside?” Officer Smith asked, stepping forward.
“No,” Sam replied quickly. I am not gonna invite you in my home. “That’s okay.”
“Alright then.” He shrugged. “We’ll leave you now.”
General Pike walked back around to the other side of the car whilst Officer Smith climbed inside.
“When did it happen?” Sam asked Officer Smith just before he closed the car door.
“About a week ago,” he replied, taking a moment before he clarified. “Last Thursday.”
Sam nodded her head.
She walked towards the front door, with Jamie following close behind her. As she reached the porch she turned and watched the car drive away. Not taking her eyes off it until it was completely out of sight.
“Sam—”
<
br /> “Calm down . . . he’s not dead.”
Jamie looked at her sympathetically, as if he thought she was in denial or something. Sam sighed irritably and rolled her eyes. She was so tired right now. She felt completely drained of everything, strength, energy, Magic.
Sam walked to the table in the hallway and opened the drawer where there were about a thousand unopened letters from Danny, each one sent to her weekly, on a Friday.
She picked up the envelope from last Friday, the day after he had supposedly died, and showed it to Jamie.
“This was sent to me last Friday . . . from Danny,” she said as she opened the envelope and unfolded the letter inside to show Jamie the date on it.
He studied the letter, clearly confused. “But they said he died on Thursday.”
Sam shook her head. “If Danny had died, I’d have been told about it straight away, by phone call or official letter or something, not a week later in person. The military has better shit to do than to send ranking officials door to door to do death notifications. And besides, he’s fighting with humans in a human war. He’s a lot stronger than a human, ‘cause he’s not one of them. He wouldn’t die.”
Jamie looked at the drawer as Sam put the letter and the envelope back inside with all of the others. “Sam, why are none of them opened? Haven’t you read them?”
Sam closed the drawer and turned to look at Jamie. “That’s personal,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “And I don’t want to talk about it.”
Jamie looked at her for a moment, then sighed. He peered down at the chest he was holding and changed the subject. “Okay, well if he’s not dead . . . then what’s this?”
“Exactly what I was wondering when they gave it to me.” Sam walked through the hallway, with Jamie following her. She led the way to the kitchen and opened the back door. “Put it over there.” She pointed down to the ground outside the door.
“What do you think it is?” Jamie asked as he placed the chest on the ground.
“I’m not sure. And I’m not gonna open it and find out.”
Sam walked across the lawn to the tool shed by the back fence. “What are you doing?” he asked from the doorway.
“Digging a hole to put the chest in,” she answered as she opened the door and took out a shovel. “I can’t risk leaving it lying around in case someone tries to open it. I don’t know what kind of evil is in there.”
Jamie sighed. “Sam you can’t dig. You’re too weak for manual labour.”
She ignored him, carrying the shovel to the back of the garden, where there were some flowerbeds that would be easy to dig up. She could always just put the flowers back when she was done and no one would ever know there was something there.
Jamie placed his hand on the shovel to keep Sam from digging.
“Let me do that,” he said. “You go get some food or rest or something.”
Sam hesitated for a moment, but decided to let Jamie do it. It is past dinner time and I haven’t had food yet. “I’ll be inside,” she mumbled as she turned. She didn’t want to talk to him anymore so she wasn’t going to stand there and argue.
Even in her weakened state she could sense him watching her as she walked away.
The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos – Book 2
GUARDIAN VAMPIRE
Things are not right . . .
Something evil is happening, with Sam in a seemingly perpetual state of unconsciousness and Jack nowhere to be found, finding a solution rests on Jamie’s shoulders.
But after drawing the attention of Vampire Hunters, how can he hope to survive and save the one person he cares about?
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