Scent of a White Rose (18 page)

"Good morning, Mr. Reynolds." She was dressed in
her usual sporty attire and seemed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I
had expected to see Rose following closely behind, but instead
Jillian shut the door and started towards her car.

"Morning, Jillian. Where's Rose?" So much for my
stress levels staying in check.

"She actually took the bus to school this
morning. She said to let you know that she's not quite ready to
talk and that car shopping will have to wait. She said that she'll
see you at home tonight though." Her words hit me hard.

I guess I should have expected it, but the news
of her heading to school to avoid me really hurt. I had been
looking forward to telling her how sorry I was, and that I had
called it off with Meredith, but obviously that would have to wait
until tonight. "Well, thank you for the message Jillian I won't
keep you."

I headed back to my car, wondering just what I
should do to fill my day. I rarely took days off from work. I was
never sick, and since Loraine died, unless Rose was home, I didn't
really enjoy being in the house alone. So with the entire day to
myself, I decided to head to the gym to clear my head. After
pumping some iron I should be a little less stressed and then maybe
I would go looking for Rose's new car anyway. Anything to pass the
time.

* * * * *

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Deal with the Bad Stuff

(Rose)

Christian, Evangeline, and I were still sitting
in the private room of The Rising Pit when Dax entered the room.
"What's happened?"

Evie smiled at her consort and began to explain.
"When Christian and Rose went to question Terrance, he didn't deny
that he recognized her. He was also able to focus on Rose's mother
and he admitted that he had in fact fed from her." Dax sank into
the chaise opposite Christian as Evie continued. "Terrance told
them that Rose's mom wasn't the demon."

"Do you believe him?" Dax asked.

"Thanks to Christian's new developing ability,
yes, I do."

I hadn't had the chance to ask Christian what
they were talking about yet. It sounded like a good thing and
something that Evie was coming to rely on, so I decided to let it
go. We definitely needed to deal with the bad stuff before we could
get to the good.

"So if Rose's mother wasn't the demon, then who
was? And why were they having Terrance manipulate and lie to Rose?"
Dax asked.

"I'm not sure. It could be that the two things
aren't even related. Terrance could have fed from this demon, and
then once he started to permanently drift, the lying and
manipulation just came as a natural part of him going dark." Evie
stood and made her way to take a seat at the end of Dax's chaise.
"This could actually be good news for everyone. Not only is Rose's
mother not the demon, but now we have a chance of finding this
woman alive. And, maybe that means we can still find a way to save
him." She leaned down and kissed Dax's cheek.

We sat there in silence for a few moments, which
allowed me to try to put all the pieces together in my head.
Finally, I came to the one question that I just hadn't figured out.
"I know you said that you thought my mom was the demon because of
the timing of everything: Terrance's feeding from her, her death,
and his drifting. But if you've seen this woman in his thoughts,
then shouldn't you have known that it wasn't my mom from the
beginning?"

"Well no, Rose. Actually it was quite the
opposite. When you were explaining everything that had happened and
when you described your mother's appearance, it made perfect sense.
The woman I saw in Terrance's thoughts were just as you described:
tall, thin, and with long, blonde hair."

It took me a moment to process what Evie had
said. Tall, thin, and with long, blonde hair.
Holy shit!
"I
can't believe this. I know who the demon is!" I jumped up and
reached for my cell phone. I had to call my dad and warn him that
the bitch he was seeing was actually a demon. "I just met my dad's
new girlfriend, and you wouldn't believe how much she looks just
like my mom." I was going to nail that bitch to the wall.

"Rose, come here." Christian grabbed my hand and
guided me back down on the couch next to him. "Think about this for
a minute. The only reason that we thought it was your mother was
because of all the other coincidences. This woman you are referring
to could just be another person with blonde hair. It's most likely
that she has nothing to do with it."

I knew that he was making sense. I mean, it
wasn't like my mom and Meredith were the only two women in the
world with long blonde hair and tall thin bodies. But for some
reason I really thought I was on to something. "I don't know
Christian. It just seems too much of a coincidence that she came
into my dad's life right after my mom was killed and all this was
happening around the same time as when Terrance drifted dark. I
really do think there's a connection."

"We can't afford not to check it out," Evie
said. "Rose, it's almost sunrise, so why don't you borrow
Christian's car and head to school? See if you can use the library
at the college to dig up anything on this Meredith woman. I had
Justin take Jillian home and use his sedative to convince her and
her parents to give your dad a cover story. And if I were you, I
would probably avoid seeing your dad until we get this figured out.
I'll leave a key to the club for you with Dominique. Pick it up on
your way out. That way you can come straight back here
afterwards."

Evie stood and walked towards me. "I can't tell
you how happy I am that you and Christian finally have things out
in the open. Normally, he would have been required to keep our
secret from you until the new Sire is chosen, but since you came to
us, there are no rules that have been broken. I'm very happy for
the two of you." She kissed my cheek and then headed for the door
with Dax following closely behind.

I never expected for Evie to be so gracious in
welcoming me. As a matter of fact, I had thought she was going to
rip my head off the second she heard I knew vampires existed. I sat
back down next to Christian on the couch.

Christian's hair and eyes started to drift as
soon as I sat down. I wasn't one hundred percent sure how this
drifting thing worked yet, so I wasn't sure if this was a good sign
or a bad one. "What is it?"

"It just makes me so angry that all of
Terrance's lies have left you with such a violent and completely
distorted vision of us." He ran his hand down the side of my
arm.

"I know it will take some time for me to sort
through all the lies, but I'm really glad that I finally told you
the truth, but this also means that I won't be surprising you by
becoming a vampire any time soon." I reached up and touched his
cheek. I couldn't wait to start my forever life with him and it
almost brought me to tears to think that there was no way to make
that happen sooner.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Christian's
response had me confused but filled with hope at the same time.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you remember when Evie and I were talking
about my 'new developing ability'? Well, Evie thinks I'm showing
signs of being triggered. Which if it's true, means that I'm in
line to become the next Sire."

I about fell off the couch at Christian's
revelation. Holy shit. My boyfriend was going to be the next Sire,
and that meant...he could be the one to change me. The coming
morning had just started to look a whole lot brighter.

* * * * *

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Digging for Dirt

(Rose)

I was so tired after being up for twenty-four
hours, but there was no way that I could sleep with the idea that
my dad's new girlfriend was the demon that had infected Terrance.
So, instead of heading home to catch a few hours of sleep, I headed
straight for school like Evie had suggested.

Once I'd gotten there, I was happy to see that
Mr. Thompson had assigned open study time for his class today. He
was notorious for doing that when it was so close to graduation in
order to give any of the slackers time to ask questions and really
buckle down on their papers. Luckily I was not one of the slackers
and was way ahead of the game when it came to my thesis, but Mr.
Thompson didn't need to know that.

"Mr. Thompson, may I have a pass to the library
for the rest of the day? I've really fallen behind and there are
quite a few points that I need to double check." Thank goodness the
only problem I had ever caused in his class was one that I had
recently created myself.

"Of course. I wouldn't want one of my best
students to not have her thesis completed on time." Mr. Thompson
wrote me the pass, so I was set to hang in the library for the rest
of the day. Now I just hoped that it wasn't going to be a huge
waste of time. I really did think that Meredith was the one we were
looking for and if I had to spend an entire day digging for dirt on
her, then that's exactly what I would do.

* * * * *

(Meredith)

The moment I crossed the bridge back into Masen,
I headed straight for my apartment. I couldn't believe that Jeremy
had kicked me out and called things off between us.

There was no way that I was letting that
half-breed daughter of his ruin everything that I had gone through
to get to him.

I remembered the day that Jeremy Reynolds had
walked into my office over a year ago. Tall, confident, and
gorgeous as hell. I had sensed right off that he was a demon, but
after spending a few hours in his presence, it was clear that he
had no idea.

I knew there were other demon bloodlines out
there besides my family, but Jeremy was the first one that I had
ever run across, which had meant that I'd have a shot at continuing
a pure demon bloodline. The only thing I needed to do was get Mr.
Reynolds into my bed.

After a few business meetings that I had
manipulated, Jeremy became the head of all of our marketing
campaigns. That meant that he would be spending a lot of time here
in Masen and a lot more time with me. And time was exactly what I
needed if I was going to figure out a plan to get him to cheat on
his wife.

Everything had been going great during our
business meetings. I had gotten to know him over long phone calls,
video conference calls, and of course the monthly, overnight
meetings here in Masen. But the one thing that I had learned from
all this time spent together was that he loved his wife with all
his heart. She was a swim instructor and they enjoyed a simple
life, raising their daughter in their family home. How picture
perfect. Too bad none of them knew the truth about themselves or
the world around them.

It hadn't taken me long to find a vampire clan
close to Jeremy's home. So once I had visited The Rising Pit and
chose the vampire that I wanted to do my dirty work, I offered
myself to be his visitor for the night. Terrance had been more than
willing to escort me to one of the private rooms.

Once he had set his fangs in my neck and began
taking long draws of my blood, I could sense right when my demon
blood had started to infect him. I had gone back a few times after
that, knowing that my blood would have caused his memories of me to
be hazy. So we repeated the processes again and again, making sure
that he was well on his way to drifting dark.

I had learned of the old stories and demon
histories from my mother, as she had learned them from her mother,
who had learned them from her mother. But I wasn't completely sure
this would work since there hadn't been a record of it in over
100,000 years. It was actually pretty rare that there was anyone
left who truly knew that the demon/human bloodline even
existed.

There were cases every now and again in the
bigger clans where a vampire had accidentally bitten a demon while
feeding and had drifted dark, but the cases were few and far
between and the vampires had no idea what had caused the odd
events. And since they could never figure out why it happened,
their "rule" was to deliver the true death to any vampires that had
drifted permanently dark. It was so convenient. By killing their
infected vampires, the clans were helping to keep our race hidden
from the world without even knowing it.

I had thought that I would be able to control
Terrance since he'd been infected with my blood. All I would've had
to do was give him suggestions through the mind bond we shared and
he would do anything I asked. The poison would then conveniently
wipe it from his memory.

I had never imagined that Terrance would have
fallen in love with Loraine. I guess I should have known something
was off when he first reported that her blood tasted different to
him. He'd been more than willing to continue to feed from her and
keep her occupied while I'd arranged late night meetings with
Jeremy. When Rose discovered him, the easiest thing to do was to
have him continue to keep both of them occupied by lying and
feeding her fantasies of becoming a vampire. It had given me plenty
of time to continue to lure Jeremy into my bed.

At first, I really didn't have any desire to
actually kill Loraine, but once I noticed that Terrance was close
to completely drifting dark, I knew it was only a matter of time
before his Sire delivered the true death. So, unless I got Jeremy
to sleep with me before that happened, I was going to be forced to
find another vampire to continue this charade. And now that Rose
had gotten involved, I knew it would be easier to just get rid of
Loraine altogether. Besides, I had really grown fond of Jeremy and
could see myself building a life with him instead of just a one
night stand. Plus, I wasn't even sure that I would get pregnant
during our first encounter, and who knew if I'd ever convince him
to sleep with me again. No, getting rid of Loraine was the only
thing that I could do.