Vampires and Vixens (Psy-Vamp) (21 page)

Nathaniel turned to speak to Hannah, but
she was gone. “Hannah!” he shouted, and then listened until he heard her feet
pounding against the brush. He ran in the direction of her footsteps.

Noah ran after him.

They finally caught up with her by the
edge of the ridge overlooking the lake. She climbed out as far onto the rocky
edge as she could, and looked down at the water below. Panic seized her. “Go
away, Nathaniel! I would rather die than be with you!”

“Hannah, be careful! Don’t go any closer
to the edge,” Noah called out as he took a step toward her.

“I'm not going back with him, Noah.” She
trembled. “I don’t want to live like that.”

Nathaniel eased forward cautiously, the
way that he would approach a skittish horse. “We can work this out. I know that
you’re confused, but I can forgive you for leaving me. Just come away from the
edge.”

She shook her head wildly. “No!”
Suddenly, she lost her footing, and screamed as she fell into the lake below.

Noah shouted, “She can't swim!”

Both men ran to the edge, and dove into
the water.

Hannah struggled to keep her head above
water. Her arms flailed violently, but she felt herself going under. Suddenly a
strong arm snaked around her, and pulled her to the shallow water. When she
tried to stand her legs wouldn’t hold her. Nathaniel scooped her up in his
arms, and carried her to the shore. He laid her on the grass, and knelt beside
her. Noah knelt on her other side.

“Hannah!” Lenore shouted, as she ran to
them. “Are you okay?” Her voice trailed off as she stared into the eyes of the
son she had not seen in more than a century.

Nathaniel stared open-mouthed at
his mother. Her hand reached out slowly to touch his cheek, but he jerked away.
Hannah actually felt bad for him in that moment.

“Nathaniel?” Noah said his name quietly to
draw his attention.

Nathaniel’s voice was suddenly raspy,
and a little weak. “All of these years I thought she was dead. How long have
you known?”

Noah looked directly into his eyes. “I’m
sorry that I kept this from you, but you would have told Roman that she was
alive. You know that he would have hunted her down like an animal. Then he
would have stuck her in a cage, and called it a palace. If that had happened
she would have died. Nathaniel, you can’t tell him where she is.”

Nathaniel shook his head, and refused to
look at any of them. “My father loves her, and would never hurt her. They could
be happy together.”

“No, Nathaniel, I could never be happy
with your father.” Lenore grabbed his arm to get him to face her. When he
refused to make eye contact she put a hand on either cheek, and forced his gaze
toward hers. “Do you know what he used to do if I disobeyed him?”

Nathaniel nodded, his shoulders slumped
in defeat. “I remember.” He shut his eyes tightly to block out the image. “He
was just afraid you would leave him. You could be happy if you just give him a
chance.”

“I would rather die than spend a single
day with him, or allow him to put his hands on me.” She shuddered at the
thought.

Nathaniel stepped back. “He loved you,”
he insisted, but there was no longer conviction in his words.

Lenore released him, her body trembled.
“If you tell your father where I am, I will end my life. That's the reason Noah
kept this secret. Don’t blame him for this. He hated lying to you.” She closed
her eyes and sighed. “I love you, but you frighten me.” Her voice was quiet but
powerful.

Nathaniel stared at her, eyes wide,
mouth agape. She was just as beautiful as he remembered. He reached out his
hand to touch her, but then he let it drop to his side. Memories flooded him.
Memories of her crying after his father had said something cruel. Memories of
her holding him close. Memories of her begging his father not to lock her up.
Memories of her laughter and confidence during the time they were with Noah’s
father. He looked at Hannah, as a more recent memory assaulted him. He
remembered Hannah begging him not to lock her up. Without another word,
Nathaniel turned, and walked away.

Noah ran after him. “Nathaniel, wait!
C'mon, let's talk about this.” Noah caught him by the arm, but Nathaniel jerked
away violently.

“Why? Do you want to tell me what an
asshole I am a few more times today? You don't need to waste your breath,
because I think between you, our mother, and Hannah, I have had enough honesty
for one day. I finally get the picture.” He continued to walk away quickly then
stopped. “Oh my God, I can’t believe our mother is alive.”

Noah didn’t know what to say, so he said
the only thing he knew was true. “I’m sorry that you were hurt by all of this.”

Nathaniel was lost in his own thoughts.
“I am just like my father, a man who terrorized our mother, and I helped him
hurt her. She pretended to be dead to avoid me.” Finally, he looked Noah in the
eye. “She's terrified of me, Noah. She's not afraid of you, just me. I remember
what he did to her, and I let it happen.”

His fist slammed into a nearby tree. He
opened and closed his hand, staring at his bloodied knuckles. Nathaniel
swallowed, and continued. “Then there's Hannah who hates me for the same
reasons that our mother hates my father. My son will probably be better off
without me.” He sat on the ground, and stared at his hands.

“Stop feeling sorry for yourself,” Noah
said bluntly. “Yeah, you fucked up big time but get over it.”

A humorless laugh came from Nathaniel. “Was
that your big comforting speech?”

Noah sat down beside him. “You don’t
need a big comforting speech. What you did to Hannah was really awful. You lied
to her, manipulated her, locked her up, and I’m pretty sure you got her
pregnant on purpose.”

Nathaniel’s guilty expression was answer
enough.

“We really are going to talk about that
later,” Noah scolded. “You also jumped in to save Hannah without a second
thought.”

Nathaniel took a deep breath, and then
let it out slowly. “I didn't tell anyone where I was going. Of course, the
idiots at the house know I went after Hannah but they don’t know exact details.
I won't tell anyone that you helped Hannah.” There was a long silence as he
stared at the ring on his finger. “I won’t tell anyone about our mother.”

“You aren’t like your father. As for
Hannah, you don’t love her. You were ready to settle down, and she could give
you a child. That’s not a good reason to marry someone.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “I really do
care about her.”

“I know, but that doesn't mean that you
love her.”

Nathaniel stared up into the trees that
shaded them. “All I could think about when she fell was how I couldn't live
with myself if anything happened to my son, or his mother. I may not be in love
with her, but I do care.”

“I should warn you that Hannah’s sure
she’s having a girl.” He watched Nathaniel’s expression.

Nathaniel’s gaze met Noah’s and after a
long silence, he smiled wistfully. “A little girl would be even better. I think
I would have really liked having a daughter.” It surprised Noah that he hadn’t
dismissed the idea.

His smile quickly faded. “The last thing
I want is for my child to be warped by my father's influence.” His eyes filled
with self-loathing.

“Then don't let that happen.” The words
sounded so simple coming from Noah's lips.

As he rose to his feet, Nathaniel tried
to pull the twigs off of his wet pants but finally gave up and looked into
Noah’s eyes. “Will you take care of them for me? Make sure my child is happy
and well cared for?”

After a long moment, Noah surprised him
by shaking his head. “We are not adding absentee father to your list of sins.”

“Noah,” Nathaniel said in a tired voice,
“I’ll make sure that they have enough money, but I can’t be part of their
lives. My father will ruin everything for you, Hannah, and my child. You know
that.”

Noah’s lips curled up into a devious
grin. “If I knew a way to work this out, would you walk away from your old
life? Think about what I’m saying before you answer, because I mean give up the
name, the power, and the money.”

“If you had asked me that yesterday I
would have laughed at you. Those were the most important things in my world.
Now? They all seem so trivial.”

“Where's your phone?” Noah asked
quickly, his eyes alight with excitement.

“In my car,” He pointed toward where his
car was parked. “It’s about half a mile away. Why?”

“I’ve got a plan, and mine was in my
pocket when I jumped in the water.” Noah took off in the direction of the car
with Nathaniel by his side. “By the way, the plan has one aspect that you won’t
like very much.”

Nathaniel froze. “What is that?”

Noah stopped for a moment, and then he
cleared his throat. “We’re gonna have to sacrifice your car.”

“Which car?” Nathaniel asked hesitantly.

“The Cobra,” Noah responded, and started
walking again.

Nathaniel stood frozen. “I love that
car, Noah. Think of another plan!” When Noah didn't respond he raced after him.
“I'm not kidding, Noah!”

Clad in a short black dress, Trish
knocked on the door marked,
Morgue
. The only employee at this hour was a
twenty-two-year-old man who worked on cars in his spare time.
According to his Match.com account, he had a thing for curvy brunettes. It was
amazing how easy it had been for Isaiah to obtain that information.

“Can I help you, Miss?” He wasn’t very
tall, probably only five feet eight inches, with brown eyes, curly black hair,
and tanned skin.

“I'm having some car trouble.” She
smiled innocently at him. “Do you know anything about cars?”

He hesitated. “I'm the only one here
tonight. Don’t you have a towing service, like AAA?”

His eyes had not left hers since he’d
opened the door, not once had he gawked at her breasts, which were barely
covered. Trish began to worry that she wouldn't be enough to convince him to
leave with her.

She shook her head. “I don’t have a
towing service. I tried calling my friends, but no one would answer their
phone. I can’t really afford to pay for a tow. I guess it’s silly, but I was
just hoping it might be something easy.”

He thought for a moment, and finally
nodded. “I know a little about cars. Let me lock up, and I'll see if there’s
anything I can do.” He moved across the room to the table, and closed the
Anatomy textbook.

“I really appreciate this.” Trish gave
him her best smile.

He handed her his jacket. “It's not safe
for a woman to walk around dressed like that.”

Trish thanked him quietly as he walked
her out.

Lurking in the shadows, Justin watched
cautiously until he was certain that they weren’t coming back.

“Let's go.” He motioned Caitlin and
Isaiah toward the door.

Isaiah picked the lock in less than a
minute.

“My brother, the cat burglar,” Justin
grumbled to himself, and then motioned Caitlin in.

“Why couldn’t you just do your vampire
mojo thing to get him to let you in?” Caitlin asked.

“You know that doesn’t always work,”
Justin explained, sounding more than a little irritated. Then he smiled, and
admitted, “Mostly, I was really bored and this sounded like fun.”

Caitlin headed into the room where the
bodies were stored, and started going through the drawers.

Justin had trouble containing his
delight as she nonchalantly examined corpses. He put Isaiah in front of the
computer so that he could familiarize himself with their system, and then went
in to look for suitable bodies with Caitlin.

He was lucky with the first drawer. “Female
in drawer seventeen, Isaiah!” Justin called out.

Isaiah's fingers moved quickly across
the keyboard as
Jane Doe's
records changed from
unclaimed
to
cremated
.

“How's it going, Katie?” Justin asked.

She turned to scowl at him. “If you call
me Katie again the male body we use will be yours.”

Her threat made him laugh.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something
since the great vampire reveal.”

Justin looked annoyed. “What great
vampire reveal? I told you what we are, and you had me use a compulsion to make
Trish cluck like a chicken to prove it. There was nothing great about that. I
would also like to remind you that I don’t like the term vampire.”

“Whatever.” She waved a dismissive hand.
“Why don’t you just have Isaiah hack into the computers and falsify records
instead of going to medical school all over again? At the very least you could
skip the undergrad stuff. You really seem to hate it.”

“That was what I planned to do. I went
down to the college three years ago to plant some memories of me in the minds
of some professors, and ran into the most irritating woman I’d ever met. She
was buying the last Cherry Coke, and I really wanted it. I put a suggestion in
her head that she wanted to let me have it since I was so sexy. Then the
annoying woman called me a prick, and drank it right in front of me. I had just
heard her mention that she was going to be a doctor, so I registered for
classes and I’ve had Isaiah hack into the school’s computers to make sure we
had the same classes each semester.”

She groaned. “Here I thought I just had
the worst luck in the world. Instead, I have a vampire stalker.”

“Consider it a courtship.”

That caused her to snort. “You’re a
prick.”

“And you’re a bitch,” he said with a
delighted smile.

She snorted again. “You may as well find
someone else to stalk, because I’m not interested.” Then her face lit up. “Bingo!
I've got our boy.” She spoke directly to the corpse. “Didn't you always hope
that a woman would want you for your body?”

“Sixty-four!” Justin called out to
Isaiah who quickly finished his work, and turned off the computer.

Justin guided Isaiah into the next room,
hoping that he wouldn’t have another episode and get them caught. They lifted
Jane Doe, soon to be known as Hannah Montgomery from the drawer.

Beads of perspiration formed on Isaiah's
face.

“Stay calm, Isaiah,” Justin soothed him
gently. “You want to help Hannah and Noah, right?”

As Justin’s words registered, Isaiah
nodded. “I want to help them. I think I can do this.”

“He’s just like the little vampire that
could,” Caitlin said softly.

That earned her a scowl from Justin.

They shoved the bodies into the back of
the Range Rover.

Isaiah’s mind was slipping, but at least
he was reminiscing and not screaming. “Noah used to bring me food. Hannah hit
Drew when he was mean to me.”

It was another six hours before they
reached the spot where Nathaniel’s Shelby Cobra was waiting. The scene had
already been rigged so it would look like the car had hit a patch of black ice,
and skidded off of the cliff.

Justin’s eyelids were heavy as he leaned
against the back of the car, causing it to roll forward. When it hit the
bottom, he was relieved that it went up in flames, because he was too tired to
go down there and torch it. He knew from research that cars rarely caught fire
after an accident so they had tampered with it some. Still, he had feared it
wouldn’t work.

Isaiah still had a little hacking to do,
but the hard part was done. From that moment on, Nathaniel Draksel, and Hannah
Montgomery were dead.