A Bite to Remember (36 page)

Jackie supposed that meant Lily hadn’t figured out they’d been having Vincent feed off delivery people in an effort to keep from marking anyone else for death. At least, she’d done something right, Jackie thought grimly, then realized she shouldn’t be thinking such things. Lily might read them and then go after the delivery people. Fortunately, she seemed to be distracted controlling the driver.

To get these thoughts out of her head, Jackie asked, “And what if Tiny had answered the door?”

“Then it would be him sitting here tonight and I’d have saved you for another time,” Lily said easily.

Jackie felt her stomach roll over at this news. Tiny was a target too and if Lily succeeded at killing her tonight, Tiny’s days were numbered. If that were the case, there was little hope for him, especially since Lily wasn’t on the list of people on the New York play, and they’d been concentrating their efforts that way.

Unless Tiny had seen her getting into the car with Lily, Jackie reminded herself.
If
he’d seen her…She frowned to herself with worry. It was possible he hadn’t.

“What were you doing in the house the night I caught you in the office?” she asked suddenly.

Lily glanced at her with amusement. “You didn’t
catch
me in the office. You followed me out of it and
fell
on me coming over the fence.”

Jackie managed not to wince at the description. It made her sound completely incompetent. When she showed no reaction to her words, Lily shrugged and said, “I’d followed you that night, but lost you after your little rendezvous in the storage room with Vincent.” She tilted her head and asked, “Is he a good lover? I presume the two of you snuck in there for hanky panky?”

Jackie started to recite “Itsy Bitsy Spider” in her head. She so wasn’t revealing anything that personal…or endangering anyone else.

Lily’s mouth compressed with displeasure as Jackie apparently managed to block her out, then said, “After I lost you, I went back to the house to wait for you to return. When you pulled in, I tried to follow on foot. I’d snuck Sharon’s remote out of her purse that evening and planned to just open the gate and walk up, but the remote didn’t work.”

“We changed the sensor and code,” Jackie said with satisfaction. She added, “But why did you break the panel? It didn’t get you in.”

“I was annoyed,” Lily said with irritation. She frowned and said, “If you hadn’t followed me, I never would have attacked you that night. I was just going to slip in and leave a message so that Vincent would know he wasn’t as safe as he thought he was. But you came into the office before I could do anything. I tried to get out when I heard you coming, but you were barefoot; by the time I heard you I couldn’t get out quick enough.”

Jackie suspected she was telling the truth. There was
really no reason for Lily to lie at this stage in the game.

Her thoughts scattered as the driver turned down the road Jackie had noted just a moment ago. The car rattled and bumped over the hard-packed dirt, moving along a path between the trees and Jackie felt her heart sink. It looked like they’d arrived.

Nineteen

“You may as well stop pretending. I know you can see where you’re going,” Lily said as Jackie stumbled and fell to her knees for the second time on the uneven path.

Jackie ground her teeth together and pushed herself back to her feet. She’d been feigning night blindness since they’d left the car in an effort to slow down their progress and give her a chance to come up with an idea for escape. Unfortunately, Lily was inside her head and knew exactly what she was doing. It was incredibly frustrating. Even if she did come up with an idea, Lily would know it the moment she thought it.

Jackie glanced back in the direction they’d come as she started forward again. They’d left the delivery car and driver at the edge of the woods, just out of sight of the road. Lily had done something to make the young man pass out, and he’d been slumped in his seat when they got out. Jackie had
no doubt Lily would undo whatever it was she’d done when she returned to the car. She only hoped she’d let him go after finishing with him. He was just a kid, too young to die.

“It’s not much farther now,” Lily announced and Jackie became aware of the sound of the ocean. It grew louder with each step they took. It all reminded her of the night she’d turned and was giving her a definite aversion to the beach.

“Why the beach?” Jackie asked to distract herself from what was coming.

“Your death here will be symbolic,” Lily announced.

“Symbolic how? Why are you even doing all this? What did Vincent ever do to you?” Jackie asked with frustration.

“Nothing.”

The answer made Jackie pause and turn to face the woman. “What?”

Lily laughed at her expression. “Turn and walk under your own power, or I will take full control again.”

Jackie hesitated, then turned abruptly and kept walking. It hadn’t occurred to her that Lily must have let up on some of her control for her to have been able to stumble and fall a time or two. But then, her thoughts had been a bit distracted, she supposed. The fact that she apparently had control of her body again, made her wonder what Lily would do if she suddenly lunged for the woods.

“I’d take full control of you and that would be the end of your questions,” Lily answered as if she’d asked the question aloud, reminding her that she was in her thoughts. “I’m sure you’d like to know why this is happening, wouldn’t you? You do want to know why you’re going to die?”

“Yes,” Jackie muttered with disgust.

The ground underneath their feet began to shift with each step, telling her they’d reached sand. They should be out of the trees soon. Not eager to think about what would happen then, she prompted Lily, “So, what are you going to do to me and why?”

“I’m going to stake you out in the sand and leave you there through the day,” Lily announced. “Then I’ll come back and behead you at sunset.”

Jackie glanced skyward at this announcement. The trees had thinned out the closer they got to the beach and she could now see the sky through the branches. It was no longer full dark, daylight wasn’t far away. She’d place the time at somewhere between four and five in the morning. Sunlight would be creeping up the sky in less than an hour or so.

Staked out in the sand for the day, then beheaded, Jackie thought unhappily. It was how the council punished immortals who broke one of their serious laws. From what she’d heard it was a most unpleasant way to go. Her body would dehydrate, the nanos would begin to eat her organs in their desperation for blood…she’d suffer horribly before the sun set.

“Why?” she asked, pausing abruptly as they suddenly reached the end of the trees and the beach spread out before them.

“For my William.” Lily didn’t bother to tell her to move, she simply took back control of her. Jackie found herself moving a good ten feet out of the trees before her body stopped and turned to face Lily.

“William?” Jackie asked, still retaining her ability to speak.

Lily turned her gaze to the ocean, her voice sounding far away as she said, “They killed him, you know. They staked him out in the sun and then beheaded him at sundown.”

“Who did?” Jackie asked with a frown.

“Lucian Argeneau, Michael Moreau, and Vincent’s father, Victor.”

“Okay,” Jackie said slowly. “So, Vincent’s father and two other men killed your William. Why are you going after Vincent for it? He had nothing to do with it.”

“I know.” Lily sighed unhappily. “When I decided to seek revenge for William, I went after Michael Moreau first. I stalked him, caught him, then staked him out in the sun and left him there all day long, enjoying his screams from a nice little cave nearby. Then I beheaded him at sunset.”

Lily frowned. “I didn’t feel any satisfaction at all. I expected to gain some peace from it, but I didn’t. Then I realized that he hadn’t really suffered as I have. Sure, he went through the same pain as my William, but it was only a day’s agony. I’ve suffered for a hundred years over what happened. I realized then, that to gain true satisfaction, I have to make them suffer as I have. I can’t just kill them, I have to torment them by torturing and killing someone they love.”

“So, Vincent is to suffer and eventually die so that his father, Victor, suffers for what he did to your William,” Jackie said slowly, trying to follow her reasoning. Then she shook her head. “If it’s Victor you’re trying to make suffer, why are you tormenting Vincent? Why didn’t you just stake Vincent out in the sun and behead him?”

“Because his father isn’t here,” Lily said with irritation. “I thought if I began to sabotage Vincent’s work and so on,
he’d call Victor in.
He’s
on the council and should have been called in to take care of things, especially when I began to harm humans. Instead, the idiot called you in to handle it. The fool has ruined everything.”

Jackie raised her eyebrows at her frustration, then said quietly, “From what I understand, Victor has been withdrawn and reclusive since his life mate was burnt at the stake in England. Vincent rarely sees him. I don’t think he’ll ever call him about this if that’s what you’re hoping.”

Lily’s mouth was a firm line of fury as she said, “I’d come to that conclusion myself. So, instead of dying, he’ll just have to suffer the loss I did in his father’s place. You will die like William did, and he will agonize over it for centuries.”

Jackie considered that and wondered if it meant she’d leave Vincent alone and move on after this? Would he and Tiny be safe once she was dead?

“Tiny is a mortal, no more than a friend to Vincent. I won’t trouble myself to bother with him,” Lily said, obviously reading her thoughts. “But I’ve been thinking I will try Marguerite next. Lucian Argeneau is said to be very fond of his sister-in-law. Her death this way should be upsetting to him and Vincent both. Of course, I’d prefer a life mate or child in Lucian’s case, as well, but he has neither. I will have to settle for Marguerite now and a life mate or child later, if he ever has either. In the meantime, I have you.”

“Right,” Jackie sighed.

“Obviously, if you were mortal, staking you out would be a waste of time, but it’s perfect now that Vincent has turned you.”

“He didn’t,” Jackie said.

“He didn’t what?” Lily asked with amusement. “Are you going to try to convince me you aren’t immortal now? I have seen your eyes and unlike me, you don’t wear contacts. Besides, I can read your mind, Jackie. You
are
an immortal.”

“I
am
immortal, but Vincent didn’t turn me. You did,” Jackie said solemnly.

“You can’t think I would believe that nonsense?” Lily asked, but there was uncertainty on her face as she concentrated on Jackie. Apparently disturbed by something she was reading there, she muttered, “I would know if I’d turned you.”

“Yes, well, perhaps I should say I turned myself then,” Jackie said quietly. “When I bit you, I swallowed a couple of mouthfuls of your blood, enough to start the turn. It’s why I didn’t bleed out and die before they got me back to the house.”

Lily peered down at her own wrist and Jackie saw that it was perfect now. There wasn’t a mark on it from the other night, it had completely healed.

“It hurt like the devil at the time,” Lily muttered, then laughed. “This is perfect. You turned yourself. I’ll have to watch that in the future.” She shook her head, then said, “It doesn’t matter who turned you. He claimed you as his true life mate.”

“Only to piss off Cassius,” Jackie assured her. “Cassius and I have a history. Vincent, and the others, knew about it. It’s why they were all so cold to him when he came up to us at the service tonight. It’s also why Vincent claimed me as life mate. He wanted to put a scare into Cassius.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed and Jackie let her feelings for Vincent show, along with her fears that he didn’t really think of her as a life mate. It was the best she could do with Lily able to read her thoughts, but the woman shook her head. “Nice try, but I have seen him with you. He’s been eating since you arrived. He’s smiling all the time, laughing—”

“According to the agency files, Vincent is happy-go-lucky and always smiling,” Jackie interrupted with surprise. “That’s hardly proof of his thinking I’m his true life mate.”

Lily snorted. “Only around his family. Around them, he’s Mr. Smiley, but the rest of the time…” She shrugged. “I don’t think he’s a very happy vampire. In fact, before you came along, I thought he might be heading toward that terrible self-destructive state that some vampires go through. But then you arrived and he started smiling and laughing. It was like he’d found a new lease on life.

“In fact, I should really thank you. Before you, attacking his business, then the people around him upset him, but not as much as I wanted it to. Then you came and reawakened him and now everything matters to him, but especially you.”

Jackie stayed silent, but hoped what Lily said was true. She hoped she’d made Vincent happy, and made him smile and find his pleasure in life again. He’d certainly shown her how to enjoy life, something she seemed to have lost at nineteen. The years since then had seemed somewhat colorless until coming to California and meeting Vincent. But there was still so much she wanted to do with him. Jackie wished she’d told him she loved him last night while she’d had the chance. She wished she could make love to him one more
time, that she could take a night swim with him, laugh, cuddle, and kiss him.

Jackie supposed she should be grateful she’d had a chance to know him at all and taste the happiness she could have had with him. But it wasn’t enough, she wanted more, and this woman who looked like a child planned to make sure that didn’t happen.

Jackie frowned. “Why do you look so young?”

“What?” Lily seemed startled by the question.

“Nanos make you your peak health, strength, speed, etc,” she pointed out. “Yet you look like a child, and you’re incredibly thin. Being that thin can’t be your peak health.”

A sudden rage covered Lily’s face as she said, “I had no one to look after me once they’d killed my William. No one to teach me. I didn’t know what I could and couldn’t do. I thought being a vampire meant I couldn’t eat anymore, so I stopped eating food. But, with no one to bring me donors to feed from, I nearly starved to death.