Undeniable (33 page)

“She’s not here, Diana.” Sebastian turned so she could see
Damien. “Look at him. If she were here, dead or alive, he’d already be at her
side.”

“She’d be better off dead,” Damien muttered, his shoulders
hunched in defeat. “This is my fault. Even though I knew from the beginning
that she would never leave her son, I still pursued her. I thought if we
bonded, if she felt the hunger, she’d have no choice. When that failed, I
blocked her out all these years and told myself I did it to keep her safe. But
I was a coward. I was too afraid to see or hear any sign of her pain, to face
what I’d done to her. And now it’s too late.”

Diana knelt beside Damien. “Too late? Damien, where is she?”

The anguish in the eyes that rose to meet hers sent terror
into her heart.

“The Isle of Fentmore,” Damien said, his voice hushed as if
just saying it would propel them to the dreaded place.

“Well, at least she’s well enough to send you her location.”
Sebastian patted Diana’s shoulder. “We’ll just go and get her out of there.”

Damien shook his head. “Not Angelina. Olympia’s sending out
word to all of the elders that she found a Slasher and brought her to
Fentmore.”

Diana glanced over her shoulder at Sebastian. “Olympia?”

He turned his back on her. “My mother.”

“Your mother brought my grandmother to that island? Why?”

Damien’s head shot up. “Tomas?”

“Who’s Tomas,” Diana asked, her stomach suddenly queasy.

Damien looked up at Sebastian, his face stricken. “He’s got
Tomas.”

Staring up at the sky, Sebastian closed his eyes. Blood
dripped from his clenched fists.

“Sebastian?” Diana’s voice quivered. Somehow, she knew
exactly who had this Tomas.

When Sebastian turned to her, his eyes were filled with
rage, his voice menacing. “This is your father’s fault. He stopped Damien and
Angelina’s bonding ritual. He killed my stepbrother. And now he has my cousin.”

Diana backed away. For the first time, she truly feared
Sebastian. Moonlight glinted off fangs, longer than she’d ever seen. “Your
stepbrother…”

The memory of her father standing in the kitchen, ranting
like a madman that he’d finally killed the vampire he’d spent years hunting
collided with the one of Luna sobbing for her murdered father. Diana glanced at
Damien and gasped at his resemblance to Marek. Why hadn’t she noticed it
earlier?

Daring to meet Sebastian’s gaze, she asked, “Marek was your
stepbrother?”

Suddenly she was on her back. Sebastian’s weight crushed her
into the dew covered grass. “You knew,” he asked, his eyes filled with blood.
His nails pierced the tender flesh on her shoulders. “You knew all this time
that your father killed Marek?”

“Sebastian, you’re hurting me,” she cried.

“But I searched your mind. I found nothing!”

“She’s like her grandmother, Sebastian. Her mind is stronger
than most. And just as you hid the thing that shamed you most about Olympia,
she hid what she could not face about her father.” Damien looked up. “Get off
her.”

Diana’s heart shattered when Sebastian continued to pin her
to the ground, his eyes still filled with hatred.

He brought his face close to hers and stared intently into
her eyes. “Marek died screaming in agony. All these years, you knew what your
father did, didn’t you? You knew and did nothing. Now, because of you, he has
my cousin.”

“What could I do, Sebastian? He’s my father,” she sobbed,
the pain of his nails grazing against the bones in her shoulders nothing to
that of her heart breaking. “He’s my father!”

Damien leapt on Sebastian’s back. “It’s not her fault,
Sebastian.”

“If I’d done what I was supposed to, Tomas wouldn’t be in
that pen.” He brought his face down to hers and snarled. “Mother was right all
along about you. You tricked me. This was all part of your father’s plan. You
blinded me, tricked me into believing you were my soul mate so he could take
Tomas.”

“No, Sebastian, you can’t believe that.” His face blurred in
a crimson haze. Blinking away the tears searing her eyes, she lowered her
voice. “I love you, Sebastian. I gave up my humanity for you. We’ve bonded.”

His pupils seemed to dilate when a drop of his blood landed
on her quivering lower lip and her tongue immediately darted out to capture it.

“Not quite, Diana. Not quite.” With a roar, he flung Damien
from his back.

Diana felt his weight lift. Saw nothing but a blur of gray mist
shoot up into the sky. Pushing herself up on her elbows, she searched the yard
for Sebastian. He’d vanished.

Clutching his arm in pain, Damien sat slumped against the
steps of her grandmother’s house. She jumped up and spun around. “Where is he?
Damien, where’s Sebastian?”

“Gone.”

“B-but what about our bonding? If we don’t complete it…” She
ran and knelt before Damien. “Damien, if he doesn’t return, what will become of
me? How will I survive without him?”

“You’ll go mad, my dear.”

Diana turned around to see who had spoken. A petite,
dark-haired beauty stood in the driveway, her eyes twinkling with glee.

Damien sprang to his feet and shoved Diana behind him. “What
have you done with Angelina?”

“Let me see,” Olympia said, glancing up and tapping her
index finger against her fangs. “Angelina? Oh yes. Well, you know she was quite
mad—nearly drained me—so I had no choice but to bring her to Fentmore. Poor
thing. They surrounded her the minute I dropped her into their midst. And now I
have another Slasher to deliver.”

Damien leapt at her, his teeth bared, his fangs dagger
sharp. “I’ll kill you!”

Olympia vanished and reappeared behind Diana. “Ah, ah, ah.”

Feeling the sharp edge of Olympia’s nail prick the skin over
her jugular, Diana held up her palm. “No, Damien.”

He froze. Diana forced herself to smile. “It’s all right,
Damien. Sebastian will find me.”

“Sebastian?” Olympia let out a bark of laughter. “He’s the
one who called me to come and bring you to Fentmore.”

Recalling the look in Sebastian’s eyes before he’d vanished
and his condemning last words, Diana could not find any reason not to believe
Olympia. Her throat closed. A sharp, piercing pain ripped into her heart.

“Now, how should I handle this one, Damien?” Olympia turned
Diana to face her.

No longer afraid, Diana met her gaze. If anything, she
welcomed death either at Olympia’s hands or the Slashers on Fentmore. An
eternity of darkness loomed before her. An eternity without Sebastian.

Olympia tsked. “Oh, dear. It seems my beloved son has
finally obeyed his mother and drove the poor child over the edge.”

“Leave her alone, Olympia. You can’t hurt her any more than
Sebastian has.” Damien shook his head. “You’ll only be giving her what she
wants if you kill her.”

Hooking Diana’s chin with her finger, Olympia snickered.
“My, my, such empty eyes. What, no tears for my son?”

“Olympia, please, leave the girl alone.” Damien inched
closer.

“No, Damien. She’s mine. My reward for all the years I’ve
wasted loving you while you loved that whore. My reward for hearing you call
her name out in your sleep.” She hoisted Diana over her shoulder. “One step and
I kill her right now. One step.”

“Where are you taking her?”

“Can’t you see? She’s mad.”

Diana wished she were mad. Her grandmother gone. Her father
probably dying at the hands of Sebastian or some other vampire. She could have
dealt with anything if Sebastian had stayed by her side. Anything. Closing her
eyes as Olympia took to the sky, Diana hoped the trip to Fentmore would be a
swift one. Hoped the Slashers would end the nightmare that was now her life.

* * * * *

For two hours, Angelina walked amongst the crumbling
two-story buildings lining the streets of the small town. No lights shone from
their broken windows. No lights shone anywhere. But the moon was full and her enhanced
senses revealed the condition of her new home.

The streets were strewn with trash and covered with dried
pools of blood. The smell of decay and urine assaulted her, forcing her to stop
again and again to retch. Every now and then she’d reach a dead end marked by a
towering wall and was blessed with an occasional whiff of fresh air that flowed
over it.

She grew more and more convinced that if she could just find
a way to the other side of that wall, she’d be free.

Every time she’d begin to feel safe, more Slashers would
arrive. Some would pass her, fresh blood dripping down their chins. Others
would pounce on the wafers she’d toss as soon as they bared their teeth. And
some were too busy feeding on each other to pay her much mind.

Her ankle continued to leave a trail of blood in her wake
and surprisingly only a few Slashers stalked her. She hadn’t been with Damien
for forty years and could only conclude that the scent of her blood overpowered
his. Too many grabbed each other in her presence for her to think otherwise.

How the Slashers survived was beyond her. She’d passed a
small group rummaging through a basket of fruit and surmised that for some
reason the vampires fed them regularly. The bodies lying about, their throats
ripped open, revealed that the fruit did not fully appease their craving for
vampire blood. The splintered ends of bones protruding from the gashes
explained why the normal teeth of the Slashers were now jagged and razor sharp.

The opening to another alley caught her eye. She could detect
no motion within it and decided it would be a safe place to bring Diana when
she arrived. The vision she’d had weeks ago of Diana in a helicopter with a
dangerous force no longer baffled her.

When she heard the helicopter return, her heart broke. Diana
would be terrified. She ran through the streets toward the sound. Slashers ran
in front, behind and beside her, led by the scent of the fresh vampire blood
running through Diana’s veins. Angelina’s hands already held the wafers she
planned on using to lure them away before her granddaughter ever touched the
ground. For what seemed like the hundredth time, she called for Damien.

She turned a corner and froze. The crowd below the
helicopter, though still quite small compared to the one that had greeted her,
were attacking each other as they frantically tried to be the first to reach
Diana. Their nostrils flared. Their roars rent the night.

And Diana?

Angelina had expected to hear her screaming in terror, to
see her frantically trying to climb up the rope.

But with nothing more than a tremulous smile, Diana stared
down at the teeth snapping at the air inches from her descending feet.

Chapter Thirteen

Damien took a deep breath and rang the doorbell of the small
Cape Cod. When the door opened, he grabbed hold of Frank Nostrum’s neck and
lifted him until their faces were level. “Don’t move. Don’t talk. Don’t even
breathe. Just listen.”

Frank shook his head in denial. “You’re dead. I watched you
die!”

“Poor Frank, you saw me in Marek, but you failed to see
yourself.” Damien spat into his face.

“Myself? What the hell are you talking about?” Clawing at
Damien’s hands, Frank shook his head. “Oh, God, it wasn’t you. The eyes were
the same, but the mouth… the mouth was not as full.”

“And what about his nose, Frank? Ever seen that crooked
bridge before? In the mirror? On your daughter’s nose? Ever notice how your
ears look too small for your head too, Frank?”

Frank glared back. “What are you saying? That he wasn’t a
vampire? I saw his fangs.”

“Oh he was a vampire, Frank. He was my son.” Damien fought
the urge to snap Frank’s neck, to release the grief and rage choking off his
words. “Mine and your mo—”

“No.” Frank struggled to get free. “You’re crazy.”

“Am I, Frank? Did your brother cry for his mother, Frank?
Your mother?” Damien nearly smiled at the horror filling Frank’s eyes, but his
heart still ached for the child he heard years ago beg his mother not to leave.
The child who’d faced a monster to keep his mother.

“I have no brother! That baby died right after he was born.
I went to his funeral,” Frank cried, his voice sounding like a small child.

Damien probed his mind and felt his anger shift. Frank had
held Marek for what he’d thought was the first and only hour of his life, had
fallen in love with him the instant their eyes met, had cursed God for taking
his brother so swiftly. “He lived, Frank. He was the vampire you mistook for
me.”

“I did not kill my brother. I didn’t.” Frank stared at him
with imploring eyes. “I wouldn’t.”

“We took him after he was born to protect him from monsters
like you.” Damien dropped the sobbing man to the floor.

“My mother would have never given him up. You didn’t see her
when she held him. She would never—” Frank’s head dropped to his chest. “If she
knew he was yours, why would she give him up and not me?”

“She never knew. We have doctors, vampires committed to
protect
life, vampires who inform our orphanages as soon as one of our own is born to
an unbonded human female.”

“No. It can’t be.” Frank stared up at Damien.

“I knew, as soon as I laid eyes on him, that he was my own.
Mine and your mother’s. I took him into my home and prayed you would never lay
eyes on him. How did you find him, Frank? How the hell did you get your hands
on Marek?”

Frank closed his eyes. Tears seeped from beneath his lashes.
“He came to me. He showed up at my door one night and asked if we could talk. I
should have known it wasn’t you. After all these years, to just walk up to my
door? I told him we had to go someplace more private, that I knew a place where
no one would hear us. My God, he walked right into the pen. I should have known
something wasn’t right.”

“He walked into the pen?” Damien rubbed the tension from the
back of his neck and tried to make sense of the scene Frank painted.