Immortal Souls (The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos)

Chapter 13

Sam walked through the library doors just as the clock struck six. Michelle was sitting at the desk, her head buried in a magazine. Once again the library was vacant of visitors, as it usually was after five during the summer.

"Hey Sam," Michelle said as Sam approached the desk. She spent a moment looking in Jack's direction, seeming slightly uncomfortable in his presence. After a moment she smiled at him. "Jack," she said with a nod.

Jack returned her smile, but didn't speak to her. He didn't really talk much to other people, which Sam didn't understand because he never stopped talking when it was just the two of them. Jack walked away from the desk and over to the bookshelves, still in his corporeal form.

"Hi," Sam replied and smiled. Today she was in a mood that made smiling feel easy, it was strange because of how long it had been since she'd felt that way, but she was exuding happy gestures as if it was something she did regularly and not something she usually had to force. "I can see it's very busy today."

Michelle smiled and looked around. "I know," she said with the same sarcastic tone Sam had used. "We'll have no books left for tomorrow." Sam laughed a little. Michelle closed her magazine. "People hardly ever come here this late during the summer. Did anyone come here yesterday?" she asked.

Sam gave her a small smile, "Yeah, you know Elle came in because you told her I was here."

Michelle just gazed at Sam for a moment, dumbfounded. "I didn't-"

"Well then you told Hayley and Hayley sent her to check up on me." She held up a hand to keep Michelle from interrupting. "I know you did, because she came in specifically to see me the moment I started, and made up some bullshit excuse about having to do a history report."

"How do you know she doesn't really have a history report?" Michelle asked defensively.

Sam smiled to herself. Elle had left the library yesterday believing she was an amazing liar and deserved an unrealistic amount of awards for her 'acting' skills. But she wasn't very bright when it came to making a plan. "We're in the same history class."

Michelle laughed a little bitterly and shook her head. "I didn't send anyone to check up on you, but I did let Hayley know you working here. She is your legal guardian after all." Sam wanted to say something snide in response to that statement, but before she had a chance to, Michelle asked, "Anyone else?"

"Yeah." Sam thought about Jamie for a moment. Vampires were the type of creatures that liked to keep their existence known only to other non-humans.

Michelle was technically a human.

Though she was a member of the town's coven, she wasn't a born Witch, she was just a practicing one. Sam debated whether or not it would be okay to reveal his existence. She sighed, deciding there was no point in not telling her since she probably already knew he was here. "Did you know there's a Vampire living in town?" she asked.

Michelle's eyes widened. "He was here?" She sounded panicked. Making Sam think that Michelle had obviously never come into contact with an actual Vampire before.

"So you did know."

Michelle looked around the library as if she expected Jamie to be hiding behind one of the bookshelves, waiting to jump out and drain her. "He didn't try to hurt you, did he?" Michelle placed her hands on Sam's shoulders, frantically pulling at the collar of her t-shirt and flicking her hair away from her shoulder. "You're okay?"

Sam didn't back away while Michelle inspected her for bite marks, instead she just rolled her eyes, her lips quirked in an amused smile. "Please, he's harmless."

"Vampires can make themselves appear harmless when really-"

"Calm down," Sam said, placing a hand on Michelle's shoulder. "I've met lots of Vampires. I know how to tell the harmless ones from the dangerous ones. The one that was here was harmless."

Michelle let a breath and shook her head. "That's not what Hayley said."

Again with Hayley . . . the constant repetition of her name made Sam's blood boil and her hands clench into fists.

"Well she's wrong," Sam said through gritted teeth. "Hayley has never met a Vampire before in her life. She wouldn't know one if he or she were standing right in front of her with its damn fangs on display."

"Bu-"

"Michelle," Sam interrupted, putting her hand up to stop her from speaking. "I was raised by Vampires, I think I'd know better than Hayley on this, okay?"

Michelle turned her head to the side slightly, a gesture that made her appear slightly younger than she actually was. "The Jacobs' weren't Vampires."

Sam rolled her eyes. "I lived with Vampires for the first few years of my life," she clarified. "I know Vampires, most of them are harmless, well . . . to me." Sam smiled and added, "They only eat humans."

Michelle gave Sam an unimpressed look as she grabbed her jacket off the back of the chair and put it on. "Speaking of Hayley, are you coming to the coven meeting tonight? We could close the library now, I don't think anyone would mind."

Sam gave Michelle a sideways glance. "When have I ever gone to a coven meeting?" she asked rhetorically.

The answer was never.

"You should," Michelle stated. "Hayley knows a lot about Magic and the supernatural. Maybe you could learn something from her."

"Please," Sam scoffed. "I have more knowledge of Magic in the fingernail on my baby finger than Hayley has in her entire brain."

"Why do you hate her so much?" Michelle asked. "After everything she's done for you Sam, you should be grateful. Without Hayley you'd be in a foster home on the other side of the country."

Sam sighed.

Technically Michelle did have a point. When her grandfather had died a year ago and the social worker had come to take Sam away, Hayley offered to be Sam's foster mother. And she was grateful for that, but she also knew that Hayley's main reason for agreeing to be Sam's legal guardian was to have some kind of claim on Sam and her Power.

"I don't hate her," she explained. "I just . . . I don't trust her."

Michelle sighed. "I wish you would. She's not so bad once you get to know her." She walked away. "See you tomorrow," she called over her shoulder.

"Bye," Sam mumbled.