Tempest of Vengeance (9 page)

In the following weeks, I did finally notice
a few positive changes.

Elle once again took my phone calls. She’d
written me two letters every week, but it was good to hear her
voice again, even if I still couldn’t see her.

I was losing weight. I could fit into my
tight jeans again. Just barely, it was true, but still, I hadn’t
been able to do that for almost a year. And my jeans that were
supposed to be loose were loose. I was very pleased, and kept
exercising. But I had a little chocolate here and there, too.
Devlin saw to that, with his Godiva gift baskets, and the
occasional chocolate body paint.

I was spending more time with Venus, and
things with Dev were still going well, too. We hadn’t fought since
the night of Diana’s deflowering, which was probably some kind of
record for us. With work on both of our parts, his stamina was
still increasing, just as his sensitivity was decreasing. I was
pleased, but hoped it would take a while to return, though I didn’t
tell him that. I was afraid with his prowess returning, some of his
rampant desire would also emerge again. And I was happier with him
being only “a few times a week” sort of man now.

I had long ago caught up on the email-work,
and was also taking care of some of the return calling for the
voicemail system. True to T’s word, the caseload had decreased a
bit, though not by much. But I could keep up with this level of
business, if I worked most weekday mornings. I liked getting a
paycheck, even if I went nowhere to spend it, and Devlin insisted
on paying for everything I ordered online, like food, pet
medications, clothes for Venus, and yes, even the new Vampire
Hunter D book that had come out in late November. Some of the
steady business of Solutions, Inc. was Theoron being a lot like his
father, being unable to pass up interesting work, or work that was
lucrative, as most jobs that came in usually were. But most was
because Terian wanted his own share of the business now.

T had mentioned on one of his visits that
Theo, he, and Tears had discussed making him a partner too, though
Theoron said he wanted to wait a few more months to make sure that
Terian still wanted the same thing after Sundown had her baby. “But
I think he’s going to,” T finished, a pleased note in his voice.
“And I’m happy to have him on board. He’s helped so much this fall.
We wouldn’t have made it, without him.”

I was happy for Terian too, but happier still
for T. He seemed okay now, like his old self, despite being thrust
into his father’s role at such an early age. He was an adult now,
and looked so like Danial I found it hard to look at him sometimes.
He still visited with his father once a week, but he wasn’t
mourning anymore, and Serena seemed to be happy with his
attentions. I didn’t know what to feel about that, but decided
since they were both happy, it wasn’t my business.

Best of all, Titus teleported my parents to
Hayden in secret finally to see Venus on December first. My parents
didn’t believe at first she was my daughter, but my mom was
overjoyed to have another granddaughter to spoil. Venus was her
normally perfectly charming self. Devlin, too, was on his best
behavior, though my mother refused to talk to him, or look at him.
But I’d told him to expect that, and he bore it in silence, if with
his jaw clenched, and his eyes tinted red.

My mother and I had a side chat about Theo,
when I showed her where the ladies room was. And it was there, in
my sewing room, she told me that Theo had been by with Elle and
Jenny, and that she had seen at once that they had something going
on.

“I’m sorry,” my mother said, hugging me. “I
didn’t want to tell you in a letter—”

Anger at Theo flared briefly, then I let it
go. “When was this?”

“Three days after the funeral,” she said
quietly. “They have come every week ever since then with Elle, and
sometimes Theoron—”

“You must be the only one besides me who
still calls him that.”

“That’s his name, and I refuse to call him T.
Theoron is a beautiful name, a fine name—”

I stifled a laugh.
Like mother like
daughter.

“—
anyway, they came to our house for
Thanksgiving, too. I haven’t said all the things I wanted to say to
either of them, because I wanted to see Elle, and you wrote about
how you weren’t seeing her—”

“Is she all right? How does she look?”

“Sad, a little withdrawn, and a little too
old for a teenager,” my mom said with authority. “But some of that
was the way she was dressed. You know what these young girls wear
nowadays, almost nothing. I could see her bra straps.”

I nodded, trying to hide my smile.

“But she was in good spirits, despite
everything,” my mother said, oblivious. “Though she doesn’t seem to
like Jenny at all.”

That made me feel better, and then bad,
because I didn’t want Elle to be unhappy. Then I realized my mother
was saying it in part to make me feel better, and most likely it
wasn’t as bad as all that. “It’s okay, if she likes her,” I said,
wiping away a tear. “She’s cougar, like Elle. And it will be good
for her to talk to another female, especially as she’ll be going
off to find a mate in a few years.”

My mother nodded, but she said nothing, her
eyes worried as she hugged me.

* * * *

Finally, on the week before Lash was set to
be released, things seem to take a turn for the worse again.

Sundown was attacked in broad daylight, and
it was only Terian teleporting her to safety that saved her from
being taken. It was obvious she’d been mistaken for me, and that it
was Ulysses. It hadn’t helped that a pair of werebears had tried
for her, and that Terian had said they weren’t real bears, but
“amateur sorcerers of low standing, and little knowledge,” who were
wearing the skins they had taken from Devlin’s men. With his magic,
he had killed them both, and taken the skins, returning them to
Titus. I’d wondered if one had been Nick’s, but wasn’t sure, and
didn’t know how to ask without seeming insensitive. But one I
discovered later was Klara’s, the werebear Nick had been seeing on
the side. And the inevitable thing happened.

Titus let slip somehow in front of Serena, or
within her hearing about Klara, and that she had been the reason
Nick had gone to town that day. I could hear her screaming at him
in her room later that night, and when he emerged, he slammed out
of Hayden in a rage.

I heard her quietly crying in her room, but I
didn’t go to her. I’d felt guilty all along for saying nothing, but
I couldn’t bring myself to tell her, especially as it seemed in
those past weeks that she was over Nick, and maybe falling for T,
though I knew she still saw Nick and the other bears as she had all
along. Instead, I finished off the rest of the Godiva basket Devlin
had sent me in guilt-induced binge. It wasn’t a lot of calories, as
I’d let Venus eat a lot of it too, but it was a lot for me to eat
after dieting for so long, and it made me a little sick. The
chocolate tasted like ashes, not good as it should’ve, because I
felt so bad about not telling her about Nick and Klara, no matter
what Dev and my reasoning had told me to do.

I continued target practicing every other
day, and made it a habit to practice with not only my .38, but my
new explosive bullets gun as well. I hated to waste the time, but I
also didn’t want to be a bad shot if Ulysses somehow found a way to
get to me. And no matter what, I was getting to the point where I
needed to get outside for a while. I’d been under house arrest for
almost a month now, and even long walks outside with the dogs
couldn’t cut it. Darkness was also lame again one morning after a
long walk, and though I worried about her, it cleared up as before
in a few days, and I put it off as a strained muscle.

There was still no change with Danial. I
visited him every day for a while, but the stillness of him
unnerved me, and I took to reading my book when I sat with him for
an hour or so every other day. I tried to talk to him too, but
didn’t know what to say. And he never responded, or moved. There
was only his shallow breathing to show he was alive, and a very,
very slow heartbeat.

But perhaps the worst thing was finding out
that Ulysses had not sold Danial’s blood, as we had suspected.
Devlin came home on Wednesday night pale as snow, his eyes
traumatized. I hugged him, and asked him what was the matter. He
said Ulysses had finally played his hand. He’d showed up at one of
Devlin’s meetings, but he hadn’t been the Ulysses Devlin had
previously known. He’d drunk Danial’s blood, and was now a vampire
himself, and not a young weak vampire, but young powerful
vampire.

“This changes things,” Devlin said quietly.
“While he is not a Ruler, he isn’t persona non gratis anymore
either. If he gives a pledge to one of the other Rulers, he’ll be
accepted as a vampire living in their territory. And I won’t be
able to touch him, at least above the law.”

“But won’t they want revenge for Danial?”

“They’ll get his pledge, wait till he relaxes
in a few years, and then drain him dry,” Devlin said resolutely.
“For the most part, I don’t allow any vampire over a few hundred
years to live in my territories, Sar. This country is young, so
it’s not a problem. There are many older Vampires in the Far East,
in South America, and in Europe. But Samuel and Perseus are both
older than I, almost eight hundred, I think. Michael, he’s younger
than I am, and I don’t know what he does to keep control from
slipping out of his hands. But you need to have at least a century
on the most powerful you are Ruling, or you lose your edge on them.
And then you get dethroned, which usually means you die.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Wait until he challenges me,” Devlin said
easily. “That is all
I
can do anyway, according to vampire
law. And it must be that is what he’s after. If he beats me, the
others would have to accept him as Ruler. And by vampire law,
everything I have would be his to dispense with. My wealth, my
blood, my life.”

“That’s the angle,” I whispered.

He nodded, hugging me. “Don’t worry,” he said
in a consoling voice, a devious look in his shining eyes. “I intend
to crush the son of a bitch before he learns to run on his new
supernatural feet. Lash is going to be out in a few days, and his
first order of business will be dealing with Ulysses. He is now
subject to the same weaknesses I am: he can no longer move about in
the day and he’ll need blood and shelter from the sun. We have the
two skins back, so that’s less resources he has to work with. And
he has lost men. He’ll also need to rest up for a week at least, if
not two to get control of his altered body. So we have a little
while to plan.”

I was not prepared for what he said next.

“I want you to pick Lash up at the prison,
Sar. Teleport close to there. He’ll be waiting for you outside,
near the doors. After he gets in the car, drive to a park, and give
him his weapons. Bring him back here by teleportation after, and
say nothing to him.”

I looked at him. “Why me?”

“He’ll be calmed by you, because you’re
female,” Devlin said quietly. “He might fight one of the men, or
Titus, even T. And I can’t go in the day, but there is no way I’m
leaving him there one more minute than he has to be there. Call if
there are any problems, and don’t stop anywhere, to or from.” He
hugged me close. “But remember, I don’t want you to be with him. I
doubt he will make any moves on you when you first see him, but I
wanted to say it now. Remember, he is with Gina. And you are only
to be with me while you are living here under my roof, unless you
Oath to me.”

“Okay, Dev.” What else could I say? I’d
counted the days until Lash would be back, but the truth was he’d
moved on, after I’d rejected him. And I’d wanted Lash to be with
Gina, to have someone of his own. He seemed to be happy with her. I
couldn’t say I was free now, and why didn’t he dump her. That
wasn’t fair to him or her, much as I might want that. And it was
probably what was best for him, not to be involved with me
again.

* * * *

I was hesitant as I drove into the parking
lot of the police station. But this is where Devlin had said Lash
would be waiting for me to pick him up. I was also nervous. It had
been almost six weeks since I’d seen Lash, since I’d heard his
voice.

What will he say to me? What will I say to
him?

I looked at the entrance, saw him there,
waiting beside the doors, and did a double take to see him smoking
a cigarette.

Lash had never smoked to my knowledge. He’d
never smelled of cigarette smoke, either.

I watched him, feeling disgruntled. I’d hoped
for some kind of big reunion scene, even after Devlin’s speech
asking me not to touch Lash. How old was I, thinking this was a
movie?
Should I call him Trystan, or Lash? And why am I so
fucking nervous?

I pulled up near him, causing Lash to raise
his head. He put out his cigarette in the sand receptacle, then
tossed the rest of it in the garbage. Then he was sliding into the
car beside me, but he didn’t look at me. I didn’t speak,
remembering Dev’s instructions. I took him to a local park that was
a few streets over, and parked, though I didn’t shut off the truck.
I handed him his weapons: the whip, then the knife, then the gun.
Lash put them on one by one, and then seemed to relax a touch.
“Please, drive me home, Sar,” he said softly, looking out the
window.

I nodded, and drove him back to Hayden. Lash
went immediately up to his room, and stayed there for the next
hour. Per Devlin’s instructions, I’d purchased ten small fish from
a supply store earlier that week, and put them live in a large tank
of water on the floor of Lash’s room. I apologized to them for what
was surely going to happen to them, but I told them it would be
fast, and there were worse deaths. It wasn’t really reassuring to
me, but at least Devlin hadn’t asked for rabbits, or mice.