Immortal Souls (The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos)

Book 2 - Chapter 18

Jamie descended the staircase slowly, following the voices to the kitchen, where Jade and Danny were sitting at the table with Jack standing next to it holding three pizza boxes in his hands.

They all looked up as he entered the room. "Where's Sam?" Jack asked.

"He probably murdered her again," Danny mumbled.

Both Jade and Jack glared at him, though he didn't seem to care.

"Sam said she felt disgusting so she was going to have a shower, and to tell everyone that if anyone looks at her food the wrong way she'll eat them for dinner," Jamie informed them, relaying what Sam had told him.

Jack watched him assessingly for a moment, "No, that wasn't a convincing Sam at all."

Jamie shrugged. "I paraphrased slightly to remove a lot of the profanities and inappropriate sentences."

"Ooh, whole sentences of profanities? That sounds more like it," Jade said with a laugh.

Jack set the boxes down on the table. "Well I'm glad she's decided to shower before the food. I didn't want to say anything in case it upset her, but she looked like a train wreck, that had been bombed, then acid rained on, then—"

"We get it Jack," Jade said, cutting him off before he could go on much longer.

"Anyway," Jack said, dropping a bag that Jamie hadn't noticed before. "While she's in there we need to have a talk."

"About what?" Jamie asked, as he pulled the wooden chair beside Jade out from the table and sat down.

"Sam," Jack said, handing the bag to Jamie. Jamie looked at him curiously for a moment, before he hesitantly took the bag from Jack. He opened it and looked inside, relieved to find two flasks from his storage back home.

"You and Sam are way too comfortable breaking into my house," he said, taking out one of the flasks.

"You're welcome," Jack replied.

Jade eyed him curiously. "What—"

"Don't ask," Danny cut her off, shaking his head as he looked at her. "It's better if you just pretend it's coffee or something."

"Ah." Jade nodded her understanding.

"Anyway," Jack said. "Sam . . . There's something close to home that's trying to kill her, so I don't want her left alone, ever. So, Jade, you're on friend duty, permanent sleepover 'til I say so."

Jade shrugged. "My house sucks anyway."

"That's the attitude I was looking for," Jack said with a smile. "Danny, you're on research with me. Also, go around the town, reintegrate and keep your eyes and ears open for anything weird."

"I don't see wh—"

"Wrong attitude Danny, I can use guns, remember?"

Danny sighed and nodded his head. "Fine."

"What do you need me to do?" Jamie asked.

Jack smiled. "Glad you asked. You're Sam's daytime chaperone."

"Okay, so I walk her to school, hang around, then walk her home?"

Jack shook his head. "No, you'll walk her to school, walk her to class, stay with her in class, and walk her home when school is over."

Jamie stared at him for a moment, unable to tell if he was being serious or if he was joking. "You want me to go to school?"

Jack nodded. "Yes. Me and Danny are too old to fit in, Jade graduated last year, so that leaves you. No one knows you—"

"I've had conversations with people there!" Jamie interrupted.

"Then we'll erase their memories of you," Jack said sternly.

"You'll be the foreign exchange student," Jade said. "I thought Vampires loved to do that stuff."

"You watch too much TV," Jack said.

Jamie stared at her in confusion. "Why would I want to go to school? I already went almost two centuries ago. I'm not sure there's anything new to learn."

"You went to school?" Jade asked incredulously. "I thought people back in your day didn't go to school."

"A lot didn't," he told her, taking a few sips from his flask. "I did."

"You posh bastard," Jack said, giving Jamie a half smile.

Jamie laughed a little.

"I don't get it," Jade said.

"Only the well-off went to school in his day," Jack explained. "I bet you went to university too." He shook his head. "Posh bastard."

"Actually I never got to go to university. I was Turned just before, I did get accepted though."

"Wait," Jade said, turning her gaze towards Jamie. "So, if you're rich, then do you wanna buy me a Porsche? Black, convertible, preferably diamond encrusted."

"I'd love to," he said. "But my house was kind of burned down in eighteen-twenty, and all of my belongings were inside at the time."

"If you have no money, then how do you live? How do you buy clothes? How do you pay rent?"

"I never said I didn't have money. I just don't have enough to warrant buying you an expensive car."

She shook her head. "And I thought we were friends."

Jamie laughed. "If that's what friends do then why haven't you bought me a diamond encrusted car?"

She smiled. "Touché."

"Okay," Jack said with a smile. "So . . . school, go learn something useful."

Jamie sighed. "Fine . . . but I'm not happy about it."

Jack shrugged. "You don't have to be happy about it, you just have to do it."

Jamie jumped, looking over his shoulder towards the living room when he heard the sound of a door closing upstairs. Jack turned his head to look in the same direction. "We never had this conversation," he muttered hastily when Sam's bedroom door opened.

"What do you mean—"

Jamie's question was cut off by the sound of Jack shushing him. Jamie gazed at him curiously. He mouthed the words, 'Never happened.'

"You know how I know you were talking about me?" Sam said as she stepped into the kitchen, dressed in a pair of light blue shorts and a grey t-shirt. "It's the sudden silence . . . but what really gives it away is when Jack shushes people as loud as he possibly can because for some reason he thinks I'm deaf.

"So," Sam walked over to the table, pulled out the chair next to Jamie's and sat down, "what are we talking about?"

"It's a secret," Danny said. "And Jack says it never happened."

"I will shoot you again!" Jack yelled at Danny.

Sam looked at Danny curiously. "Jack shot you?"

Danny nodded his head. "That Ghost of yours is a real bastard."

Sam opened the pizza box and took out a slice. "Did it hurt?" she asked nonchalantly as she bit into it.

Danny laughed humourlessly. "Like hell."

"Good."

Jamie gaped at Sam, unsure as to how she could say something like that to her own brother.

He turned towards Danny who was leaning back in his chair, his arms behind his head. He smiled slowly as he watched Sam. "Wow, Sam . . . It's nice to see you too."

Sam didn't respond. She just sat in silence and continued to eat her pizza. Jamie opened his mouth to ask what exactly it was that happened between Sam and Danny to cause so much animosity. Though he stopped himself, when he caught sight of Jack in his peripheral vision.

Jamieturned to face him, and Jack shook his head. A silent indicator that whateverit was that had happened, it was something that they didn't speak about.