Force of Knight Magic (10 page)

“You called her
Theresa
,
but she signed her name ‘Tes
.
’
Why is that?
Tes isn’t short for
Theresa
is it?”

“I don’t know,” he answered with a frown.
“Maybe she couldn’t spell her name and that was the best she could do.”

“No, that’s not right. Every child can spell
his or her
name. It’s one of the first things our mom taught us.”
She kept looking at it even as Phil unloaded the car and took their things into his house.
It never occurred to her to protest
. T
hey were mates and this
wa
s where she belonged.

“Maybe it’s not her name at all. Maybe it’s her initials.
See?
It says ‘TES
,
’ not Tess with two
Ss
.”
He took the paper from her and handed it back without saying anything. She wasn’t hurt, she knew he was thinking.
She went to the refrigerator and starting taking out the stuff to make dinner.
There were two thick steaks on a platter with plastic over it.
She held them out to him with a cocked brow.

“I had the cook put them out.
I wasn’t sure you’d be hungry
,
but I wanted to have something that you could…I wanted you to be able to…”

“Replenish my blood?
Good thinking.”
She turned away before he could see her smile.
“I don’t want to get sick before I have to move all my things back to my apartment in a few hours.”

His low growl was all the warning she had before he had her sitting on the counter and him between her legs.
She smiled at him as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“You’re not a very nice person.
I should spank you for teasing me.”
She licked his nose at his threat.
“Yes, that’s very nice
,
but I have something else you can lick.
I’m pretty sure the steaks will wait for a—
”

His cell phone ringing stopped him.
She grinned when he said
,
“H
ello
,
M
om
”
and walked away from her. She hopped down off the counter and started to put together potatoes for baking and a nice salad.
She had the spuds in the oven and the salad nearly made when he closed his phone.
He didn’t look all that happy.

“My parents are coming to visit.
They want to get to know you a lot better. I tried to tell them to wait
,
but they insisted they could help us.”
He sat down and put his forehead on the table.
“I so don’t need this right now.”

She was still laughing when
,
an hour later
,
two very beautiful people were standing in the kitchen with them.
The man looked like Phil
,
or she supposed Phil looked like him
,
and the woman was simply beautiful.
She took the salad bowl from her as she started to clear the table and handed it to Phil.

“Welcome to the family
,
dear. Now
,
tell us what is going on that Phillip doesn’t want his parents hanging around for?”

Yep, Holly liked his mom just that quick.

Theresa walked
through
the bar
,
ignoring the police tape. She sniffed the air every few minutes
,
hoping for the other scent again.
She’d found the older vamp and where he was staying
,
but she’d never been able to figure out the other scent.
It was female
,
of course
,
but what kind she couldn’t seem to get.
She sat in the seat where the other woman had sat.

She could smell the other vampire on the seat too, like he’d been there as well or had touched the other female.
Theresa didn’t know why that bothered her
,
but it did.
Pissed her off
,
if she was truthful with herself.

She looked around the room from here.
She could see the bar and the chair where the other man had sat. She’d wanted to kill him, the other one listening in
,
but had her men already counted for.
She could also see where the vamp had sat and thought maybe they’d known each other.
Getting up
,
she went to the hotel front desk.

She had no computer skills
,
but she did have the ability to make the clerk standing there do almost everything she needed. She still had trouble making anyone
d
o exactly what she needed and it usually ended up entirely wrong. But this time
,
she was able to get the girl to see who had stayed in the room she’d followed the vamp up to.
Phil Campbell, attorney at law
,
and it said he lived in Ohio.

Theresa was still looking over his information when the clerk, Debi
,
said something that had Theresa looking up more information.

“Oh, the pretty couple,” she had told the man standing next to her as she pointed to the screen.
“Do you think Miss Force and Mr. Campbell got married like he said they were?”

She walked away from the counter twenty-five frustrating minutes later a very happy person.
She not only had Phil’s name
,
but that of the other woman.
Holly P. Force, buyer.
She glanced back at the mess she’d left there.
Too bad she’d had to kill them both.
Laughing
,
she shook her head.
No
,
it wasn’t
.
S
he’d enjoyed every second of their dying.

She’d had to steal three wallets and two purses before she’d found enough cash to buy a plane ticket.
She hated flying and had hid in the bathroom all the way from New York to Ohio.
She snarled at a couple of people when they’d tried to open the door with a key and had giggled a little when they’d complained that someone was going to be in big trouble for bringing their mean dog on board.
She rushed out of the tiny room and was out of the plane before they had the chance to put out a means for everyone to get off.

She didn’t care.
To her way of thinking
,
flying should be left for the birds and if it hadn’t been for the fact that she wanted to get to the man and woman before her next killing quota
,
she would have taken a car.
She really did love to drive.
Pulling out a phone book, one smaller than she’d thought it should be for a city as big as Columbus
,
she looked up her attorney’s name.
He wasn’t listed.

Pissed, hungry
,
and the sun nearly coming up, Theresa took her dinner to a cave with her.
The woman hadn’t fought her much and when Theresa sank her fang
s
into her neck
,
she realized why.
Drugs.
And lots of them.
Not only that, but the woman had a disease.
Something that Theresa didn’t know
,
but whatever it was made her blood bitter. She drank only what she needed and left the whore to die.
She was nearly there anyway; Theresa just helped her along a little bit.

She was settling down in the deepest part of the cave when she thought about her becoming a vampire.
Theresa had only been sixteen when she’d met her true love.
He’d been so nice to her at the church picnic one Sunday that she’d allowed him to kiss her on the cheek before she’d gone home with her daddy.

Her momma had died when she’d been born
. H
er father had always told her it wasn’t her fault that her momma had died birthing her
,
but she’d never been able to shake the feeling that he did sort of blame her.
She’d see the way he’d look at her sometimes
,
as if he wanted her dead too.

Then the next afternoon the boy, Ernie Richardson
,
had come calling.
She’d blushed horribly at that. Her daddy hadn’t been all that happy about it
,
but he’d allowed them to sit on the porch together for a spell.
Her gr
eat-
aunt Sadie had put up a fuss
,
but her daddy had let her sit with Mr. Richardson for a whole hour before he’d made him leave.

“I’d like to come tomorrow too if you’ll allow it, sir.
I really like your daughter and want to get to know her better
,
if you don’t mind.”
Mr. Richardson had stood there
,
all tall and beautiful
,
and
when her daddy had looked over at her
,
she’d nodded.

“You can come
,
but you should know that she ain’t very smart.
Couldn’t get her to go and finish up her schooling.
Got to the third grade and all
,
but nothing would make her go anymore.”

Theresa stared at her daddy for saying such a thing.
It was true
,
but he shouldn’t have said it to her new b
eau
.

Mr. Richardson nodded.
“Yes
,
sir.
I don’t mind that she’s dumb.
I’ll be needing to take me a wife soon and she is about the prettiest thing in this here county.
Miss Theresa will suit me
,
I think.”

Long after Mr. Richardson left she still sat on the porch and wondered if he’d insulted her or not.
She’d been called stupid before and not just by her daddy
,
but this time it hurt her in her heart.
But he had said she was the prettiest girl in the whole of the county and that sort of made up for it.
She went into the house just as the sun was going down.

The next afternoon she’d waited for Mr. Richardson for nearly three hours before she’d had to go out and feed the chickens.
By the time evening had come around and supper was being put on the table she’d figured out he wasn’t coming for her. Her daddy hadn’t said anything to her about him
,
but he did look at her sort of sadlike several times while they ate.
The next morning she knew why.

It was all over the town that he’d been killed.
His horse had thrown him and he’d broken his neck.
Another farmer had found him lying in a ditch not a mile from her house.
That was the cause of all the rumors starting.

She’d killed first her momma
,
they’d said
,
and now a man who’d bragged he was going to marry her.
She’d taken to her room for a week.
Not sad that he’d been killed
,
but happy because he’d told people he’d been going to marry her.
Her gr
eat-
aunt told her it wasn’t fitting for her to be so happy about the one thing the stupid boy would have regretted his entire life.

Two weeks had gone by and she’d finally left her house.
She’d wanted to wear black
,
but again her gr
eat-
aunt had put her foot down. Her daddy had said nothing
,
but had gone on to work in the mines.
She’d been around the store three times
,
she’d remembered.
No one would talk to her and she finally had to get back home.
It was coming on dusk and she knew she’d be in big trouble if she didn’t make it there before her daddy did.

She’d seen the woman coming toward her for a few minutes before she’d seen that she was a stranger.
The closer she got
,
the more Theresa hurried along.
It wasn’t as if the woman was big or anything
,
just that Theresa didn’t like the way she kept looking at her.
But she was able to pass her without any words being spoken between them and Theresa let go of the breath she’d been holding.
She never heard the woman move until she was right behind her.