Undeniable (28 page)

“A cure?”

“Well, not like he claimed. But it does help.” Nana Lina
walked over to the table and lifted another wafer, then popped it into her
mouth. “These help maintain my sanity, satisfy the hunger and control the need
to do something, anything, to get what I’d lost. But they do nothing for my
heart. Sometimes I think that’s what drives us mad, not the bloodlust.”

Diana sat with her grandmother on the couch and leaned her
head on her shoulder. “What became of Damien?”

“I never saw him again. I call to him, but he never
answers.” She sighed. “I think he’s afraid to open his mind to me, afraid he’ll
discover I’m mad and be forced, by law, to bring me to Fentmore.”

“That’s why Dad hates them and hunts them down?” Even
knowing how many he claimed to have destroyed, her heart still broke for the
young boy her father once was. “Because he thought one had almost taken you
from him?”

Drawing in a shaky breath, Nana Lina kissed the top of
Diana’s head. “I feel responsible for everyone he’s killed. But, Diana, he’s
gone over the line this time and I fear you’ll pay for his crimes.”

* * * * *

“He’ll pay for this!” Olympia shrieked, tearing her raven
hair from her head. “Betrayed by my own son!” She flung back her head and let
out a bloodcurdling scream, but it did little to relieve her rage.

Tomas pressed his back against the wall. “Aunt Olympia, wait
until he can explain before you freak out.”

“What could he say? What could he say?” She threw an ancient
bowl at the plasma television on the wall above Tomas.

Before the shattering glass had a chance to land on his
head, the coward sped to the other side of the den.

Olympia flung the couch between them across the room with
one hand. “He’s bonding with her. I can feel it. Will that family ever stop
tormenting me?”

Tomas merely nodded, her spittle dripping down his cheeks.
He let out a ragged breath when she spun around.

She turned her wrath on Damien. Sitting on the only
furniture she hadn’t upturned, he looked just as handsome as the day she’d
first seen him walking beside her father and Dracula. Her heart ached. “And
you. How could you allow him to bond with the daughter of the man responsible
for Marek’s death? You swore he was only trying to find out how her father
overpowered his victims. You swore he didn’t even know she was his soul mate.”

Damien merely shrugged his shoulders. “I lied. You had no
right to plot the demise of your own son’s soul mate. Stop dwelling on Marek
and embrace the son of your loins and his chosen mate.”

She glanced at an overturned end table and sent it hurtling
toward his face.

Damien scowled. The table veered away from him and slammed
into a wall. He was upon her immediately, claws and fangs ready for battle.
Pinning her to the wall, he brought his face close to hers.

She inwardly cursed her body when it reacted the way it
always did in his presence. One look from him, one touch, and she melted. But
he never gave her the look she craved, never touched the way she needed.
“Damien…”

“Do not tempt me, Olympia.” His voice shook. “I could rip
you to shreds and young Tomas here would be my witness that you dared assault
your mate and elder!”

“I could just see you and the elders watching my son and
that spawn of the devil mating.” Glaring at him, she pushed him away. “How
could you stand by and let this happen? Why protect Sebastian? He’s not even
yours,” she hissed.

“As Marek was not yours. You might have convinced everyone
else at that meeting that you mourn for Marek and only want vengeance for his
death, but I know it’s jealousy that drives you. You want to destroy anyone
related to Angelina.”

“You dare say her name in my house?”

“You know as well as I that she’s mad. What more do you hope
to accomplish by going after her granddaughter?”

Olympia knew Angelina had not gone mad. Unlike Damien, she
had wanted to see Angelina writhing in agony and calling out incessantly for
his return. She’d waited a week after their ritual had been brought to a halt.
Nothing could have shocked her more than finding Damien’s human whore
functioning as if she didn’t carry vampire blood in her veins, as if the hunger
wasn’t gnawing at her insides.

Damien had believed her when she had told him that his lover
was already beyond help. And when she vowed to keep Angelina’s madness a secret
for him only if he promised never to seek her out, he’d stayed away from the
whore all these years.

“Sebastian has the right to bond with someone he could love.
Someone who loves him,” Damien said in a weary voice. “At least she will never
spread her legs for every male that reaches maturity.”

“I wouldn’t have had to if you’d satisfied me!” Olympia sank
down to her knees as Damien and Tomas left. She glanced at the portrait of her
son and stepson on the wall over the fireplace.

Marek had been a necessary sacrifice, Sebastian an
unavoidable victim. But she would miss their company. At least with them around,
she had always known someone loved her.

Angelina would pay for saddling her with a mate whose heart
she’d stolen. Somehow she would take Angelina’s granddaughter from her and
leave her with no one but the son who had kept her from bonding with Damien.

Just as she now hated Sebastian for putting an end to her
plans, she felt Angelina must surely hate Frank.

“You’ll pay for this, Sebastian. From this day on, I have no
son.” She hugged her knees to her chest. “And all because of that damn family.
Oh but they will pay. Now they all will pay.”

Sebastian stood in the hallway, listening to his mother
rant. Although Olympia had never been an overtly loving mother, his heart broke
at her words. She’d disowned him. And if that wasn’t enough, he would now have
to spend every waking moment protecting Diana from her.

Leaving the house he’d grown up in, he stared up at the
stars. He’d already wasted too much time. Tonight he and Diana would mate
again. Diana would drain him, bring him right up to death’s door and hopefully
stop before he died. Then he would be so weak, he’d have no choice but to trust
her to protect him from her father through the rest of the night and the next
day.

But who would protect Diana?

As if he’d heard his thought, Damien appeared.

“I’m coming with you tonight. I have a place where you’ll be
safe from Olympia and Frank. They’ll never find you.”

Sebastian felt his fangs stir in anticipation of being with
Diana again. “And if Olympia does? If she finds us while I’m too weak to help
Diana?”

“Then she will have to get past me.” Damien winked. “Now,
let’s go get your chosen one.”

Chapter Eleven

Standing on the secluded beach as instructed in the message
Sebastian had left on her voicemail, Diana glanced at her watch again. So much
had happened in such a short amount of time, but she’d been prepared for this
night by her grandmother. For years.

All the warnings about saving her virginity for her soul
mate. For Sebastian. She felt her ire rise again that he had somehow taken her
virginity as she’d dreamt of him, had even entered her into a bonding ritual
without her consent. Remembering her grandmother’s pleas to trust the reasons
behind his actions, she forced her anger down.

Her grandmother had spent the entire afternoon convincing
her that Sebastian and she were destined to be together. That if they failed to
complete the bonding, all vampires would become as vicious as Slashers. She’d
refused to divulge why, but told Diana that Sebastian had no choice but to
begin the ritual without her knowledge.

Somewhat pacified about being thrust into this ritual
without her approval, Diana vowed that when the time was right Sebastian had
better explain why he felt the need to take her virginity while she slept.

And now, according to her grandmother, Sebastian would give
himself to her. She’d continue the ritual, but when it was time to go before
the elders, she had better feel more than lust for Sebastian, visions or no
visions. She was never going to close her eyes to her own doubts or suspicions
again. Life was too precious to chance making a wrong move.

Two shadows emerged from the woods and she knew immediately
that one was Sebastian. Grabbing the backpack her grandmother had packed and
insisted she take, she stood and tried to appear calm.

Sebastian glanced at the bulging backpack and raised his
brows. “Planning on being gone long?”

She smirked. “Well, if tonight you choose me, I figure I’ll
be gone at least until tomorrow night. There’s no way I’m leaving you alone
after taking that much…” She swallowed, unable to say the word.

“You know about tonight? But how?”

She held out her hand to him. “From what my very wise, very
loving Nana Lina tells me, tonight you place your life in my hands. Tonight, I
rule.”

He swept her into his arms. “So, tonight, I am the slave and
you’re the master?”

Brushing her lips over his, she nodded. “So she says. And
then you have a lot of explaining to do, buster.”

“You can’t be talking about Angelina.”

They both looked at Damien.

A tall, muscular man with long brown hair stood behind
Sebastian. He stared at Diana, his hands clenched at his sides. When Diana
calmly nodded, he adamantly shook his head. “But how could she tell you
anything? She’s not well. She’s…she’s…”

“Fine, last time I saw her, which was less than an hour
ago,” Diana said, moving out of Sebastian’s arms. “You know Nana Lina?”

Sebastian wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her back
against his chest. “Damien, what is all this about? How do you know Diana’s
grandmother?”

“Damien? You’re Nana’s vampire?” Pulling away from
Sebastian’s grasp, she strode up to the trembling vampire. “And just where have
you been hiding all these years? Huh?”

Diana glanced at Damien’s fists quivering at his side.

“She’s really fine?” Damien stepped up to her and gazed into
her eyes. When she nodded, his shoulders sagged. “I didn’t know. I didn’t
know.”

Cupping Diana’s face between his hands, Damien smiled. “You
look so much like my Angel.”

“Can someone fill me in here?” Sebastian demanded.

“Diana’s grandmother is my soul mate, Sebastian. But
sometimes soul mates meet at the wrong time.” He ran the pad of his thumb over
Diana’s cheek. “Angelina was married and had a child she couldn’t leave. When
we failed to go before the elders, they ignored my pleas to allow me to wait
for Angelina’s freedom and chose your mother as my mate.”

Diana turned tear-filled eyes to Sebastian. “She still loves
him.”

Damien’s fangs shot out with a speed that shocked Diana. She
jerked out of his hands and inched closer to Sebastian.

“I was told she went mad. What could I do?”

“Oh I don’t know. Gone to see for yourself?” Diana crossed
her arms under her breasts and, scowling, leaned back against Sebastian’s
chest.

“He didn’t dare, Diana,” Sebastian explained in a hushed
voice. “If a vampire does not complete the bonding ritual with a human, then
sees with his own eyes that the human has gone mad, by law he has to bring the
human to the Isle of Fentmore.”

“I couldn’t do that.” Damien grabbed Diana’s shoulders. “The
Slashers, they’re mad from needing vampire blood…their chosen vampire’s blood.
Because they cannot have it, they drain any vampire they can trap. They even
kill each other simply because they smell the vampire blood they each carry.
Angelina and I went all the way to the last night. Her blood is more vampire than
human. They would have torn her to pieces.”

“But she didn’t go mad.” Diana felt like stamping her foot.
“God, do all men think women can’t handle losing them? Or is it just you
vampires?”

“My God. Olympia has been lying to me all these years.”
Damien raised his eyes to Sebastian. “That’s what was behind her sending you to
Diana’s that night. Not revenge for your stepbrother’s death. She thought
losing Diana would push Angelina over the edge.”

“Damien, enough,” Sebastian yelled.

“Revenge?” The backpack fell from Diana’s hand.

“We have to go. Now.” Sebastian caught the backpack before
it hit the ground.

Diana drew in a deep breath and held it until her lungs
burned as she absorbed what Damien said. Revenge? “Sebastian, we met because
you…” She turned to Sebastian. His eyes darted away. “Sebastian?”

Damien stared intently at Diana. “It doesn’t make sense. Why
wait all these years to get back at Angelina? Unless she’s been trying and…I
have to know what else she’s done.”

Diana felt a bolt of white fire slam into her head. She
stumbled back, grasping her head, then wailed when the heat intensified. Her
childhood flashed before her eyes. Memories she’d long forgotten. Those she
wished she could forget came to life with heartbreaking clarity. Her knees
buckled beneath her.

She relived the stillbirth of her brother, the tragic
accident that took her baby sister from their lives and the fire that took her
grandfather’s life. The morning she awoke to find her mother had vanished
replayed, resurrecting the pain she’d managed to get through then. Pain she
doubted she’d survive again.

And with every painful memory, Diana saw herself and her
grandmother clinging to each other for support.

Unable to take any more, she wrapped her arms around the
back of her head and screamed.

“Enough, Damien,” Sebastian yelled, immediately blocking
Damien from Diana’s mind.

“Don’t you see, Sebastian? Olympia discovered that Diana is
Angelina’s lifeline.”

Sebastian focused intently on Diana as she huddled on the
ground, wiping from her mind what had just occurred, removing the memory of
Damien’s slip. When he finally relaxed, releasing a long, weary breath, he met
Damien’s gaze.
You will never do that again. Do you hear me, Damien? Never
.