From Fear to Eternity: An Immortality Bites Mystery (22 page)

“They really can’t. But that makes it so much easier to manipulate them.” She tapped the chest with the tip of the stake and stared down at Atticus through the small openings in the lid. “You’re wrong about one thing, Atticus. I’m not ready to take over—not yet. I have someone else perfect in mind to temporarily head the council. Someone I can control. Someone who will take orders without giving me any problems. But first I need to get rid of you.”

She glanced over toward the shelf where she’d left the key. “Where is it?”

I carefully kept my face blank. “What?”

“The key.”

“It was over there. Why? Is it gone?”

Tasha gave me a smile that didn’t reach her cold eyes. “I thought we might be friends, you and I.”

“Tasha, that would have been really amazing. I wasn’t lying when I said I thought you were a fantastic actress. Fantastic, yes. But Oscar-winning?” I gave her a mock grimace. “Debatable.”

Her smile soured at the edges. “Where’s the key, Sarah?”

“I can’t let you stake Atticus.”

“The world would be a better place without him in it. Don’t you understand that?”

“Let me think about that.” I paused. “No, I don’t understand. But I do understand that you think you have the right to decide who gets to live or die, based on your own agenda. And I wholeheartedly disagree.”

Her lips were now a thin line. “That’s too bad.”

“Did you kill Jacob?” I already knew she did, but I wanted confirmation. “Your shade of lip gloss was on his throat. And I know your fangs were fully filed down earlier this evening but now they’re back.”

A vampire could file her fangs down all she wanted, but as soon as she gave in to the need to bite someone, to drink blood from the original source, they immediately re-formed in all their pointy glory.

Those fangs were proof that she’d fed tonight.

She slid her tongue over the tips of her small but sharp fangs. “I thought if Jacob was willing to publish a piece of trash like Veronique’s memoir, he’d be willing to publish something well written.
My
memoir. But he refused. That made me very angry.”

My brows went up. “Where do you find the time, Tasha? An actress, a murderer, an aspiring council leader . . . and a writer, too.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I can do it all.”

“You’re a famous actress—why wouldn’t other publishers be scrambling to sign you on?”

“They’re not willing to pay me nearly as much as I deserve for it. I asked Jacob to consider it, since I know he has the money. But he refused because it would compete with Veronique’s book.”

“So you killed him.”

She shrugged her bare shoulder adorned with the black rose tattoo. “I was going to just have a quick sip, but then he made me mad. Humans. More trouble than they’re worth.”

My stomach churned. I noticed how silent Atticus had gone, but I knew he was listening very carefully to this increasingly disturbing conversation. “What
about Frederic? Anna didn’t kill him, did she? It was you.”

Her smile returned, more amused this time. “You found him, did you? All tucked away in a little piece of contained magic. I’m almost sorry to spoil your naive, starry-eyed view of me. You must think I’m horrible.”

Yes, I’d say I was officially off the Tasha Evans fangirl list. “Not sure that’s the word I’d pick. But the thesaurus is another must-read bestseller, isn’t it?”

“One day you’ll understand, little fledgling. We’re immortal. We don’t have to treat this world as humans do with their you-only-live-once attitudes. We can have many lives, many loves, many adventures. And we make our own rules. You said you wanted to be an actress. Well, guess what? You can be. You can be anything if you’re willing to do what it takes to achieve it. And if others get in our way, may the strong survive. And I’m very strong.”

“So that’s a yes to Frederic?”

She shrugged. “Old lover. He annoyed me tonight, that’s all.”

That was way too simple an explanation. I didn’t buy it. “That’s it? He annoyed you and you killed him?”

“His wife wasn’t too happy about it. She tracked me down, confronted me, wanted me to pay. But she was also a fledgling, sired only twenty years ago. No chance against someone like me.”

“Consider me warned.”

She stepped closer to me and I fought to stand my ground. “Now you’re going to give me the key and help me get rid of Atticus.”

After all this, she actually thought I might help her? “Sorry, can’t do that. Who’s the naive one now?”

Without waiting another moment, I turned and bolted from the room so I could regroup elsewhere and figure out how to deal with this actress from Hell.

I slammed face-first into Thierry’s chest.

I looked up at him with deep relief. “Thank God you’re here. It’s Tasha—she’s the murderer. Atticus is locked in the prison, but he’s innocent. She’s responsible for killing the council elders. And I’m sure she’s also the one who cut off the djinn’s head trying to steal his magic. You can help me stop her!”

I sent a wary glance over my shoulder at Tasha, who now leaned against Atticus’s chest without a flicker of worry in her eyes.

“That might be a problem,” Thierry said.

I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Why is that a problem?”

“The blood spell from earlier.”

“What about it?”

“Tasha cast it herself.”

“Wait. What?” I stared at him with confusion. “But she’s a vampire. Vampires can’t do magic, can they?”

“I’m special,” Tasha said proudly. “And you don’t want to know what I’ve had to do to get that way. Bad things, Sarah. Very bad things.”

“Thierry”—I stared up at his face—“you broke that spell earlier. You have control over your thirst.”

His face was tense and he wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Oh, little fledgling.” Tasha strolled closer to us, her hair a shiny red curtain over her shoulder. “Did you really think it was that easy? The insatiable thirst was only a small part of the spell I cast on that blood.
It was a test to prove it had properly taken hold of him. The rest was a spell of obedience. Thierry’s mine now. He’ll do whatever I tell him to.” The smile on her face stretched from ear to ear. “Grab her, Thierry.”

Heart racing, I tried to slip past him, but he got hold of me and hoisted me over his shoulder.

We’d been so cocky to believe it had been that easy to break the spell.

Nothing important was
ever
that
easy.

I
felt the tingle of the amulet’s magic in my pocket as Thierry began moving down the hall. Did he feel it, too? And if he did, would he say something to Tasha?

I held my breath as I waited for him to speak, but he stayed silent. Maybe under this spell he couldn’t sense its magic.

“Damn it, Thierry! You have to fight this.”

He squeezed me tighter against his shoulder. “I would advise you to be quiet now. You don’t want this to get any worse.”

“Worse than this?”

“Things can always be worse.”

Something horrible occurred to me. “What did she make you do to Veronique and Marcellus?”

“They won’t be a problem.”

Tasha trailed after us and I lifted my head enough to glare at her.

“Sorry, Sarah.” There was already smug victory in her eyes, contradicting the apology. “I was willing to cut you a little slack since you’re a fan, but you’re a do-gooder with a bleeding heart. Atticus doesn’t deserve your mercy. I’ll get to him later when this is over. There can’t be any loose ends after tonight.”

“At dawn, if we don’t find that amulet and return
the djinn to it . . .” I hesitated, expecting Thierry to say something about the amulet currently pressed against his chest. “This mansion is going to be destroyed and we’re all going to die. Remember?”

Her self-satisfied smile held. “I don’t think so, little fledgling. I have other plans when dawn breaks. Big ones.”

After Thierry descended the stairs and entered the parlor, he threw me unceremoniously down on the sofa—luckily the one opposite the one with the remains of Thomas on it. I sprang to my feet immediately.

“You would be wise to stay down,” Thierry growled.

His expression was unreadable, impassive, but his eyes were very serious. He didn’t want me to argue with him.

But that had never stopped me before.

“Just that easy, huh?” I tried in vain to come up with a fantastic plan to solve this mounting problem, but any such plans were currently hiding from me. “Vampire-witch here whispers a few magic words over a shot glass of blood and, boom, you’re suddenly her loyal minion?”

“Seems that way.”

“That’s pretty pathetic.”

“Your opinion is duly noted.”

I scanned the room and spotted a few familiar faces. Veronique, Marcellus, and Melanie were all in here. Conscious, but bound and gagged.

And, thankfully, not dead.

“You did this to them,” I said to Thierry with accusation.

He glanced with disinterest at the three of them. “It’s what Tasha wanted.”

I took a very small measure of optimism from the fact he hadn’t whipped out the silver-infused ropes and handkerchief to do the same to me yet. “What about Marcellus and your theory about him?”

Thierry stood coolly before me, his arms at his sides. He didn’t bother to meet my eyes as he answered. “My theory was incorrect. Tasha told me what really happened to the djinn.”

Tasha adjusted Veronique’s gag so it fit more snugly over her mouth. She seemed to be taking great pleasure in this as she patted Veronique’s head. “Don’t you have anything to say, Veronique? That’s a first.”

If looks could kill, Veronique would already have the actress six feet under.

“What did you do to the djinn?” I asked Tasha.

She gave me an amused glance. “Why would I tell you?”

“Because I think you want to. Did you trap him somewhere?”

Of course I already knew what she’d done and that Jack wasn’t trapped, but I wanted her to tell me. I wanted her to keep talking because I was very afraid of what would happen after she stopped wanting to explain her master plan.

And what would happen at dawn.

So very close now.

Wherever Jack was now hiding, I sincerely hoped he’d stay there.

“The djinn is gone.” Tasha traced the tip of her wooden stake over Veronique’s bare arm. “That’s all you need to know about that.”

“The amulet’s gone, too.”

“The amulet is far less important than you think it is. Frankly, I don’t care if it’s ever found.”

Again, I waited for Thierry to reveal what was safely nestled in my pocket. But he remained silent, standing between me and Tasha, his arms now crossed over his chest, looking like an obedient soldier in an expensive black suit.

He’d fought the thirst. Could he fight this obedience spell as well, or was that too much to hope for?

Tasha needed help. She couldn’t do any of this on her own. And I didn’t think Thierry was her first minion.

“Thomas was the one helping you before, wasn’t he?” I asked.

She sighed. “He was very helpful . . . at least, until the end when I know he tried to tell you something. The spell holding him was wearing off. It was my mistake for not renewing it earlier this evening. Live and learn.”

Of course. No wonder Thomas had tried to reveal to me—albeit cryptically—where he’d hidden the amulet. He was following Tasha’s orders under duress. “The blood spell, the same one you put on Thierry . . . that’s what made Thomas your willing servant.”

She pulled her stake away from Veronique and rose to her feet. “I prefer the term ‘slave boy,’ but all right. ‘Servant’ is good, too.”

The realization that someone I’d looked up to and admired since I was a kid could be so horribly evil and self-serving made me sick with disappointment. I’d tried to come up with so many excuses all evening as to why she couldn’t be the one responsible for any
of the crimes. Turned out she was responsible for
all
of them.

“I don’t understand why you’re doing any of this.” I shook my head. “You have the perfect life. You have the perfect career. You have everything anyone could ever wish for.”

A sneer curled her upper lip in a very unattractive manner. “Perfect life, perfect career. This can be such an illusion to someone not living that life, working that career. I achieved all I could as an actress. I crave more, but it will have to be out of the public eye for a while. God forbid that humans find out our little secret—the world might end. Or would it? Maybe it’s time for us to let them know vampires really exist. Maybe that’s exactly what I’ll do when I become the head elder of the Ring.”

That vampires would go public with our existence was the worst idea I’d ever heard. “It would be chaos.”

“Or maybe not. Maybe they’d bow to us—that is, if they knew what was good for them. Maybe we need to accept that humans are a plentiful food source for vampires, but not anyone who has power over us.”

Was she crazy or just completely delusional? “You definitely have big plans.”

“The biggest. But first I want to finish a couple more movies. I’m not quite ready to leave the limelight.” She put a hand on Thierry’s arm. “That’s why Thierry will take Atticus’s seat on the council and keep it warm for me. Yes, I think your husband will be a great help to me in the years to come, in so, so many ways.”

Something very dark and unpleasant bubbled in my chest at the greedy way she was eyeing Thierry. I wanted to scratch those eyeballs out. “Is this how you
get your boyfriends, Tasha? You have to put a spell on them so they can’t say no? Kind of pathetic if you ask me.”

She didn’t flinch. “I guess it’s a good thing nobody asked you.”

“I think Sebastien might have a little trouble with your plan to use Thierry as your walking, talking slave boy. He’s in love with you.”

Tasha scanned me from head to toe as if assessing the competition and finding it unworthy. “He’s been very helpful to me.”

“If that’s so, why did you forget about him for three hundred years after you trapped him in that tomb?”

Her brows went up. “You think I did that?”

“I think I need an itemized list to keep up with everything you’re responsible for, Tasha. I’m actually impressed by your thoroughness. When you do something, you do it right.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You killed Jacob since he wouldn’t give you big bucks for your book. You killed Anna and Frederic because they were in your way. Thomas . . . I still don’t understand how he died.”

“A side effect of that spell, I’m afraid. He’d been under it for so long he went into harsh detox in minutes.”

Panic clutched my heart to learn that the same spell Thierry was under had a deadly side effect.

I shot him a look. “How do you feel?”

A frown creased his brow. “I feel fine.”

“What about your thirst?”

“Currently muted.”

I wanted him to snap out of this, to take control of
the situation so everything would turn out all right, but he wasn’t making any sudden moves. “I guess there are worse fates than being the minion to a gorgeous actress. And, hey, looks like you’re going to get a promotion at work. Congrats.”

“I have to respect your ability to make light of even the darkest situation. You’re not going to beg me to try to fight against this spell, as you did earlier?”

“I’m hoping it’s implied. I’d hate to sound like a broken record.”

His jaw tightened. “It won’t make a difference, anyway. Besides, you never believed in my ability to resist my thirst. You always thought the worst of me.”

The accusation was delivered in a monotone, but it managed to ignite my anger like nothing else had this evening. I wanted to yell at him, to remind him that I was the one who’d believed in him when he didn’t believe in himself.

But the words froze on my tongue before any escaped.

And I just stared at him.

“How sad.” Tasha shook her head as she walked in a slow circle around the two of us. “Married only a short time, but already that marriage has reached its end. It’s impossible for a fledgling to understand the needs of a master vampire, one with so much history, so much baggage. Believe me, Thierry, you’ll be much better off with me.”

Over all the months we’d known each other, I’d never lost my faith in him. Moments of doubt, sure. Moments of fear, okay. But overall? I knew he was a good man who didn’t want to give in to his darkness.
And I knew in my heart that he would never hurt me on purpose.

I’m not sure I could have made my faith in him any clearer in the time we’d shared.

Thierry’s expression didn’t change. His gaze remained cold and stoic.

But he’d just lied right in front of Tasha.

He
knew
I believed in him.

Maybe it was possible to teach an old vampire new tricks after all.

I cleared my throat and tried to compose myself. “You’re right. I didn’t believe in you, Thierry. Maybe I should have, but what was I supposed to think? Your thirst always gets the better of you and tonight’s no exception. My neck feels like you used it as a chew toy earlier. And one pathetic little spell can make you snap to attention like a tin soldier. I almost feel sorry for you.”

His shoulders stiffened, but he still wouldn’t meet my gaze directly. “Your opinion is always appreciated, Sarah.”

I turned back to Tasha. “So what exactly are you waiting for?”

She raised an eyebrow. “You think I’m waiting for something?”

“Actually, yes. You killed half the people who were stuck here tonight. You tied up three others. You’ve got Thierry at your beck and call.” I exchanged a glance with Veronique, who looked very worried. For someone who was rarely concerned about anything, that wasn’t a good sign. Marcellus just stared at Tasha with silent fury. “What about Sebastien? Is he still around or did you get rid of him, too?”

Tasha shook her head. “I didn’t kill Sebastien. In fact, I have him to thank for all of this.”

My stomach lurched to think I’d been duped by someone I very nearly trusted. “He’s been in on this with you from the very beginning, hasn’t he?”

She laughed. “Hardly. With all the time he was unconscious in his little tomb, Sebastien is barely more than a fledgling himself, ignorant to the ways of the real world. We were the same age in the beginning, supporting each other, helping each other. But then he misbehaved and had to be punished. All these years later, he’s still that little fledgling who needed punishment, and I’m a master vampire who knows what to do and how to get what she wants.”

I was trying very hard to understand their relationship. Sebastien loved her, but it didn’t seem as if that love was returned. “What do you mean, he misbehaved?”

Tasha’s hand went to her long hair as she absently smoothed it down over her shoulder. “I wasn’t exactly the most beautiful girl in my village, but Sebastien and I connected. At the time, I thought he was my soul mate.” Her eyes narrowed. “Then
she
came along.”

“She?”

Tasha marched over to Veronique and roughly pulled her gag loose. “This woman seduced him.”

“You,” Veronique snarled, and I’d never heard her sound more dangerous. Those had to be silver-infused ropes or she would have broken free long before now. “I
knew
you looked familiar, but I hadn’t thought of that mousy little creature in hundreds of years.
Bettina
.”

Tasha flinched at the name. “That was my name once, but I’ve upgraded. However, my hate for you, Veronique, has never faded. You ruined my life.”

“I ruined your life?” Despite her bound state, Veronique managed to look down her nose at Tasha. “You barely registered for me. I couldn’t have cared less about you if I tried.”

A muscle in Tasha’s cheek twitched. “You seduced Sebastien knowing it would ruin his love for me. I couldn’t compete with your beauty. Not then, anyway.”

Veronique looked disgusted at the accusation. “Are you mad? Sebastien was like a son to me. I didn’t seduce him.”

“You’re a liar. You’ve always been a liar, but I know the truth.” Tasha shoved the gag back into Veronique’s mouth to stop her from saying anything else.

I think I was starting to understand what had happened back then—fueled by love and jealousy, two very explosive elements. “You hated Veronique, but you had no chance against her as a fledgling. So instead you punished Sebastien by trapping him in the tomb and leaving him there to rot.”

She gave me a withering glare. “I couldn’t bear to look at him, knowing that he’d betrayed me.”

“Why blame it on Thierry?” I asked, sickened by the thought of doing this to anyone.