Lucas (Immortal Blood) (10 page)

She glanced at me and shook her head. I touched her hair and guided her head until it was resting on my shoulder. She didn’t reject me and I put my arm around her. She inhaled deeply and started to sob.

“Shh.” I kissed her hair. “It’s okay.”

She buried her head in my chest and wrapped her fingers in my shirt. I cuddled her in my arms. I knew we were making a scene but no one dared interrupt us. Not until Kate walked in.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she spat and jerked Sam away from me.

“Ease up,” I said, turning to take my drink.

She shoved the glass from my hand.

“Hey!” I yelled, scowling.

“Don’t you hey me.” She poked me in the chest. “I told you to stay away from her!”

“And?” My anger started to rise.

“And you obviously didn’t listen.” She turned to Sam and touched her wet cheek. “Poor you.”

Sam sniffed and reached for my hand. Kate slapped it away. “Don’t touch him. He’s a scumbag.”

“No, he’s not.”

I couldn’t help but smile at Sam standing up for me.

“Yes, Sam. Yes, he is,” Kate said slowly. “He didn’t happen to mention his little revenge trip, did he?”

Sam glanced at me, clueless, and shook her head.

“I thought not.” Kate puckered her lips and sighed. “Here’s the thing. That little douche wants into your pants only ’cause―”

Okay, that was enough. She had crossed the line and I’d had enough. I grabbed her arm and started to drag her outside. Sam eyed us suspiciously but I didn’t give Kate a chance to stop. She tried to struggle free and managed to hit me quite hard, but my grip didn’t slip. Finally, I got to the door and pushed it open. The bouncer glanced at us but didn’t interfere. Obviously, he didn’t have a soft spot for Kate.

“Let … me … go,” she hissed, and I covered her mouth with my free hand. She bit me and I dug my nails into her skin. A muffled scream escaped from her and she held still. I knew I couldn’t drag her to my hotel, and staying there wasn’t an option, so the best I could think of was to knock her unconscious and stuff her in my trunk. After that everything was a piece of cake.

I drove to the hotel and carried her to my room. No one asked a thing when we passed through the lobby. I dropped her into an armchair and sat on my bed to wait for her to wake up. I didn’t have to wait long.

She opened her eyes slowly, but once she realized what had happened she was on her feet in a beat. I pushed her back into the chair. She grabbed the armrests angrily but stayed put, glaring me.

“I don’t have to hurt you, but I will if I have to,” I said calmly.

Her eyes drilled holes into me. “What do you want?”

“I want this over and done with.”

She didn’t reply but I could see she knew perfectly well what I meant.

I sat on the arm of her chair, pushing her hand away. “Look, all I want is a name. Can you give me that?”

“And why would I give you anything?” she huffed.

I shrugged. “Maybe because you don’t want me to kill Sam.”

She paled noticeably and turned her ice-cold eyes on me. “You wouldn’t.”

I arched an eyebrow.

She shook her head slowly. “No. I don’t believe you. You wouldn’t hurt her.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded but I saw doubt in her eyes.

I grabbed her chin and brought my face close to hers. “Have you talked with your friend Alex lately?”

She looked confused.

“No? Hmm. Maybe you should have. Let me tell you a story.” I got up and walked behind her chair. She froze. I put my fingers on her neck. “A couple of days ago I asked Alex who killed my brother and he gave me the wrong answer.”

She shivered as I let my fingers slide over her collarbone.

“Guess what I did then?” I whispered softly in her ear.

She swallowed hard.

“Nothing.” I gripped her harder. “Because I didn’t have to. His idiot brother showed up and all I had to do was show how easily he would burn into ashes if Alex didn’t start talking.”

She inhaled sharply and I couldn’t resist leaning closer and whispering. “Of course, I also had to break his kneecap.”

Kate shook her head. “No. No, no, no. I don’t believe you. If you had done such horrible things I’m sure they would’ve told someone. So you can stuff your lies.”

“I thought you wouldn’t believe me.” I dug out my cell and dialed a number. “Alex?”

“What do you want?” he answered angrily.

“
Tsk, tsk, tsk. Is that a way to greet a friend?”

He swallowed and I switched the call to speakerphone. “I have a friend here who has a hard time believing what I did to you. Care to confirm my story?”

He didn’t answer and I put my finger on my lips. Kate blinked and a few tears rolled down her cheek.

“Alex, time is ticking.”

He sighed and related our little meeting quite colorfully.

I thanked him politely and closed my cell. “Still doubting?”

Kate shook her head fiercely. I went to the minibar and took a beer. I hated it, but somehow it seemed appropriate as I sat on my bed again and waited for her to spit everything out.

Kate started to cry. I ignored her and waited for her to tire herself out. She glanced at me every now and again with a silent plea in her eyes, but obviously she had learned something about me in the few days we had known each other, as she refused to beg for mercy. The sun was up, so I walked to the window and closed the curtains. The second I was behind Kate she jumped up and rushed to the door. I was there in a flash. Her eyes looked scared and she swallowed as I made her step away and go back to the chair. She slumped down and started sobbing again. She looked beaten and I knew it was only matter of time before she would break down.

I knelt next to her and lifted her chin. Her eyes met mine.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened, love?”

She shook her head and wailed, “I can’t.”

“Of course you can. Look, I’m a reasonable man and I only want justice for my brother, who, by the way, was your father, if you don’t happen to remember that.”

“I remember all right.” She flinched and slowly moved my fingers from her skin. “But you seem to think it was cold-blooded murder and it wasn’t.”

“I don’t know what to think.” I sighed and got up, rubbing my face in frustration, and sat in a chair opposite her so she had no choice but to face me. “Kate, I’m on your side.”

The look on her face told me she didn’t believe a word I was saying, but something told me that violence was not the answer now. I just needed to be patient and show her some tenderness. I touched her hand gently. “Look, he was my brother and I think I deserve to know the truth.”

She frowned and I forced myself to smile.

She didn’t smile back. “You threatened to kill Sam,” she said quietly.

“That I did,” I said seriously, “but we can negotiate. What if you could tell me everything and no one has to get killed?”

“But―”

“Shh.” I put my finger on her lips. “What if?”

“Then I would tell you everything.” She nodded as if to convince herself that she would actually spill everything if only I promised not to hurt her friends.

“Consider it done then.” I gave her a big, warm smile. “I promise to leave all your friends alone if you just tell me exactly what happened that night.”

“But what about your revenge?”

“I think I can live without it. After all, he was your father, and if you can forgive, why couldn’t I?”

There was still a hint of doubt in her eyes and I gave her credit for that. I knew that she wanted to believe me. Heck, I needed her to believe me. And yet I had no intention of keeping my promise. I would get my revenge and to hell with the others.

She hesitated for a brief moment and then nodded. “Okay. But you have to swear you won’t hurt them.”

“I give you my word.”

Kate leaned back and closed her eyes. “You have to know that it was entirely my fault and my fault only.”

“We can debate that later, love. There’s no need for you to blame yourself,” I said softly.

She opened her eyes, which were full of pain, and I urged her to go on with a slight nod. Her eyes, huge as plates, looked at me, begging me to drop the subject.

I forced some warmth into my gaze. “It’s okay, really. Please, go on.”

She nodded. “Sam made me promise to leave my family alone, so I wrote a letter to them. She said she would take it, but I was stubborn; I wanted to take it myself, so I sneaked out and went to my house. No one was home, which was a relief, so I left the letter there and was just heading out when Sam showed up. She was worried and made me leave quickly.” She swallowed and wiped a tear from her cheek.

“I don’t get it,” I said, confused. “If no one was home, then what has you being there got to do with my brother getting killed?”

“Well, it does.” She straightened her back and continued. “Sam noticed something weird. Someone had turned the lights off in the garden, and before we could get out, my dad appeared at the kitchen door with a gun pointed at us.”

“But a gun can’t kill you. You should’ve known that.”

“I’m not stupid. Of course I knew that. Except it wasn’t a normal gun. It was spiced up with a flamethrower and I knew exactly what kind of danger we were in. So I tried to persuade him to let us go.”

“But he couldn’t could he?” My eyes were burning and I forced myself to stay cold and not cry. “He was a vampire hunter and there were two vampires right in front of his nose.”

“Yes. But I thought he might still see me as his daughter. I was wrong.” Kate’s shoulders slumped and she let the tears come. “He would’ve shot me if Sam hadn’t pushed me away.” She bit her lower lip and glanced at me. “He did shoot me, but he missed because of Sam. You see, she moved so fast my dad didn’t have a chance, and when I was out of the way there was a clear shot to take him down, and that’s what happened.”

I was confused. I still didn’t get it. If Sam and Kate were the only ones there, my brother should still be alive. And no way was I buying that after missing his target he would’ve just stayed still. As a hunter he would’ve acted and tried to shoot again
. So if what Kate was saying were true, either Sam or she should’ve died that night. And I sure had enough proof that they were both still very much alive. No. There was more to the story and I wanted to hear it all.

Kate looked at me and I think she read the questions on my face, as she took a deep breath and sighed. “Dane and Jonathan had followed Sam and when they arrived everything was a mess. They saw us standing there and my dad pointing the gun at us, so when they had the chance they took him down. Well, Dane took him down. He hit the gun from his hands and broke his neck. Then he fired a few times and made it look like he had shot himself.”

“With a flamethrower?” I looked skeptical.

She nodded.

I narrowed my eyes. How stupid did she think I was? No one would believe that he killed himself with a flamethrower. Seriously. And better yet, why hadn’t the other hunters avenged his death? But the more I stared at Kate’s sincere face the more stupefied I felt myself. There was no reason for her to lie anymore. Not when she knew what I would do to Sam and her other friends. So maybe it was true and maybe it had gone exactly the way she said, and maybe there was even a suicide note somewhere. A note that Sam, with her quick thinking, had most likely created out of nowhere.

I was stunned. The reasonable side of me said it had been an accident and we may never know what my brother would’ve done if Dane hadn’t killed him. He might have killed the girls or he might have let them go. But the unreasonable side of me only heard the words ‘Dane killed him’. And, unfortunately for him, I ignored my reasonable side.

“Lucas?” Kate put her hand on mine. “I’m so sorry.”

I shook her hand away and got up. I raked my hair and paced around like a caged animal. When I was done pacing I hit the wall so hard I left a hole in it. I turned to Kate fiercely and grabbed her by the shoulders. “You stupid little cow!”

“Lucas!” she cried and tried to shake herself free.

My grip was like iron and I shook her a bit more. “How hard was it to listen to your best friend? Ha? Were you so stubborn that you were willing to risk all your loved ones over one stupid letter? You were a newborn vampire! You could’ve ripped your family’s throats open in a blink!”

“It wasn’t like that,” she sobbed. “I was in control.”

“Oh, really? And look how that ended.”

“No.” She smacked my arms weakly. “I had been there before and I would never ever hurt them.”

“But he didn’t know that did he?”

She shook her head and I let her go. “Sam should’ve chained you to the wall,” I muttered and hit the wall again. “Well, now that I know, the rest is easy.”

“What do you mean easy?” Kate was suspicious. “You promised not to hurt them.”

“I did, didn’t I?” I smiled cruelly. “Well, guess what? I lied.”