“I know this,” she muttered. And then from the murky recesses of her turbulent mind, a name emerged. “Gerald!”
“Gerald, what?” Kyle asked and held up his hands when Julian shot him a look. “Sorry.”
“Do you know his last name?” Julian asked.
“He was at the gallery for Owen’s showing too,” Aida murmured.
Something sick twisted in Julian’s stomach. This vamp was around her a couple of times, maybe more, and he’d never known it. He’d failed to protect her when he promised he would. He would not fail her again.
Aida recalled something else. “He’s the one who sent the vamp in the bar after me!”
Julian’s eyes widened as Cassidy gasped. “What? Why?”
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Aida muttered. “He’s a customer at the gallery. Why would he do that? But…”
Her voice trailed off as flashes of something went off in her mind. She felt like she was standing in a disco and the lights were strobing all around her. She couldn’t move, couldn’t think, and could barely see the figures beyond those bright lights, but they were there. The more she concentrated, the more they came into focus.
“He enjoys toying with those he’s going to kill. And he is going to kill my boyfriend.” She focused on Julian again. “He’s going to kill you. He also said he wasn’t going to tangle with three vampires. He’s been following you for a long time and knew when you were coming to Boston…”
Her voice trailed off as another memory niggled at her mind. “He sent the Savage after you when you first arrived too!”
“Who is this guy?” Kyle asked.
“I have no idea,” Julian said.
“Well, he sure knows who you are, and he has a hard-on for you.”
Julian didn’t understand how someone he’d never met could hate him so much, but this Gerald knew him well enough to realize Aida was his biggest weakness. Going after her was far worse than if he’d come after Julian directly.
Actually, Julian did know him somehow; he just couldn’t remember how.
“Have either of you noticed any vamps lurking around?” he asked.
“I think we would have told you if we spotted a Savage spying on us,” Cassidy said.
“He might not be a Savage; the vamp in the bar wasn’t,” Julian reminded her.
“Maybe not, but I haven’t noticed any other vamps around lately.”
“Neither have I,” Kyle said.
“Do you know his last name?” Julian asked Aida.
“A… Allen… Arr… Arrington,” Aida said. She put her head in her hands and flicked her index finger against her forehead. “Think, think, think.”
But it was difficult to think when flashes kept going off and everything twisted and changed around her. More of the shadows parted, and new memories slipped through. When Julian went to grab her hand, she recoiled.
“Why did you forsake me?” she demanded as her head shot up and her eyes burned into his.
CHAPTER 41
Julian lowered his hand as an overwhelming sense of helplessness crashed through him. It’s not her, he reminded himself. She’s not the one thinking these things. Gerald has twisted her mind into turning against you.
“I’m going to spend an eternity with you,” Julian vowed. “And I will be here for you every day of that eternity.”
Tears spilled from Aida’s eyes, and she hunched over herself as she hugged her belly. “I know you will. I know it, but it’s also confusing. I’m so lost. Will I ever come back?”
“I’m going to make sure of it.”
“Yes, yes, you will.”
“Do you remember his last name?” Julian asked.
He could hack into the gallery’s credit card system and get the info, but it would be faster if Aida could remember. However, he wouldn’t put her through much more of this.
“Allen. No, Alcott. No… No… Arlington,” she muttered. “No, that’s not right either.”
“It’s okay,” he assured her as he rested his hand on her shoulder. “We’ll find him.”
“I will remember. I can do this.”
Aida tapped her forehead again as she tried to get her broken brain to make sense of things.
“I can do this,” she murmured as an image of Gerald emerged from the shadows. “Allington. No!” She shouted as her head snapped up. “Addington! It was Addington!”
“Are you sure?” Julian asked.
Strain still etched her face, but her beautiful smile gave him hope it would all be okay.
“Yes! I’m sure. That’s his name.”
Julian reluctantly released her hand to return to his laptop. He ran a search of the name but didn’t come up with anything. He also came up empty when he ran a search of Gerald’s picture.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“A lot of vampires stay off the grid,” Cassidy said.
“It’s probably not his real name,” Kyle said.
“Then how do we find him?” Julian snarled.
They all stared at each other, but it was Cassidy who replied. “We kill you off.”
“What do you mean?” Kyle asked.
Cassidy waved a hand at Julian’s computer. “Look at how this asshole was with her in the gallery. Do you think he’s finished with her? Because it looks to me like he wants her. He’s willing to risk her dying tonight. He might hope for it as that would mean Julian killed her, and this Gerald seems like a really twisted douchebag, but if she survives, he’ll come back for her.”
“I’m not putting her back in the gallery,” Julian said.
He glanced over at Aida as she hugged herself and started rocking back and forth. “I can’t. I have to. I can’t,” she murmured a few times before he rested his hand on her knee, and she settled beneath his touch.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Cassidy said. “How else are we going to find this guy? We know nothing about him, and he knows so much about us.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t have an answer. If Gerald used a credit card for his purchase, he could trace it, but it probably didn’t lead anywhere. Julian had a couple of credit cards, but none of them went to a real address, and none of them were under his real name. Gerald Addington probably wasn’t this guy’s real name either.
Aida seized his wrist. “He did this to me.”
Her eyes held far more clarity than they had before, and a lot more anger. He rubbed her hand as he sought to comfort her. “Yes.”
“I can do this. I’m going back to the gallery tomorrow. Let him think I succeeded and let him come for me.”
Julian couldn’t stop his fangs from lengthening at the idea of anyone coming for her. “You would have to spend the entire day there, and you would have to act as if it were any other day,” Julian said. “That means, when he walks in the door, you have to act as if nothing unusual happened between the two of you.”
Aida had no idea how she would manage that. Just the idea of seeing Gerald again made her knees knock together, but she would find a way to do this. He had to die, and this might be their only chance to find him.
They had to do something to stop him because the more she remembered, the more this monster scared her. And she was beginning to recall more and more about what transpired in the hall.
“You could take control of her mind and make her forget all of this,” Kyle said and stepped away when Julian spun on him. He threw up his hands as he edged toward the door. “You know you’re thinking about it too! And it’s only a suggestion; you don’t have to do it.”
“I’m not—” Julian started as Aida lunged and grabbed his hands.
“Yes! Do that!” she cried.
Julian glowered at his brother as he debated killing him. Their mom would be really pissed if he did, but it still might be worth it. Cassidy stepped in front of Kyle and smiled. “It’s not a bad idea,” she said.
As much as he wanted to, Julian couldn’t kill them both, but he hoped he never had twins. When he scowled at them,
Kyle poked his head over her shoulder and grinned before giving him the double thumbs-up. No, he couldn’t kill him, but when this was over, he would give him a massive wedgie like he used to when they were kids.
Turning his attention back to Aida, he gulped when he saw the hope in her eyes.
“Make me forget so I can go in there like I don’t have a care in the world,” she said.
Julian clasped the sides of her face. “I don’t want to control your mind again.”
“I don’t think you have a choice. I can hold it together until he comes into the gallery again, but I’m not sure I can keep my fear of him hidden. He’ll know something’s wrong the second he sees me, unless you do something to stop that.”
Everything in Julian rebelled against her words. He’d taken control of her earlier, so she didn’t have a heart attack, but this was something entirely different. He would be taking control of her mind to send her into danger, and everything in him screamed against it.
“We don’t have a choice,” Aida said. “I’d prefer not to have any more vamps messing with my mind, but I can feel what he put in their working against my love for you and it”—she rested her hand over her heart—“hurts. Everything is so confusing and wrong, and I hate it. He has to die, or he isn’t going to stop until you or all of us are dead.”
His mind spun while he tried to figure out some other way to hunt this fucker down. “I’ll go to the gallery and wait for him to show up.”
“If I don’t show up, then he’s going to know something went wrong, and he’ll come at you from a different way. Maybe next time he’ll go after Kyle and Cassidy, but since he can’t take control of their minds, he’ll kill them.”
Kyle snorted and folded his arms over his chest. “Not likely.”
This time it was Aida’s turn to glare at Kyle; he wasn’t helping her by disagreeing with her. “You don’t know what could happen,” she said. “Anything could go wrong, and are you willing to put Cassidy at risk? He’s a coward who uses other vamps to do his dirty work and goes after women instead of facing his victims himself.”
Kyle glanced at Cassidy before replying. “No, I won’t take that chance.”
“It’s now or never,” Aida said as her brain lurched sickeningly again.
She bit her lip as her mind shifted, and she experienced the overwhelming urge to kill him again. Fisting her hands on her thighs, she beat her hands against her legs as she suppressed a whimper.
“Julian,” she breathed. “I don’t want to feel like this anymore. Please, just do it.”
Her misery was like a hammer battering against him, and with every blow, it broke down his walls while also driving nails of rage into his bones. As her hands beat remorselessly against her thighs, he realized he either had to put a new memory into her mind or put her to sleep again.
“It will be okay, Julian. We’re all here to help hunt this monster,” Cassidy said and tentatively rested her hand on his shoulder.
Aida rocked forward as blood from her brutalized lip trickled down her chin. It may be their only option, but he couldn’t discuss doing a mind-meld on her right now. Brushing back a strand of her hair, he peered into her battered face.
“I have to give you some of my blood so you can heal by tomorrow,” he said. “You can’t see him again with these marks all over you; he’ll know something happened if you do. Are you okay with me giving you some of my blood?”
Wasn’t she supposed to be the one drawing blood? Aida wondered as she tried to claw her way up the mountain of sand her mind was turning into again. Yes, she was supposed to draw blood when she killed Julian! That was it!
But that couldn’t be right. She couldn’t kill him; she loved him. She was supposed to return to the gallery. She would see Gerald again and kill him. Or was she supposed to kill Julian?
She wasn’t aware she was speaking her disordered thoughts out loud, but he listened to her confused ramblings with growing unease.
“Aida, can I give you some of my blood?” he asked.
Her eyes shot to him, and she chewed on her torn bottom lip before speaking. “Yes, do it.”
This was not how he expected to share his blood with her for the first time, but it was necessary. “And can I take control of your mind?”
Her eyes were wild as they darted around the room before settling on him again. “Yes,” she whispered.
His shoulders slumped forward, and he rested his forehead against hers before biting into his wrist and offering it to her. She stared at the blood before looking at him again. “It will heal you,” he assured her.
Her hands trembled as she took his wrist and brought it to her mouth. He closed his eyes and ran his hand down her hair as she drank from him. When the bites healed, he drew more blood for her. Her wounds were already healing by the time she finished drinking from him.
“It’s going to be okay,” he assured her as she started her strange mutterings again.
“She gave you permission; you have to take control of her mind if only to get her to calm down again,” Kyle said.
He was right, but self-loathing and a horrible sense of dread made Julian’s skin clammy as he clasped her hands and pinned them against her legs. “Aida, listen to me,” he said in his most soothing tone. “Everything is fine, and you don’t have to hurt anyone ever again.”
Fresh tears raced down her cheeks. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, especially you.”
“I know,” he assured her. “You’re going to get up and go to work tomorrow, and you won’t remember anything about this night other than you slept great.”
He couldn’t put it into her mind that she killed him; she was this unstable because Gerald commanded her to kill him. Her brain was programmed to obey the command, but her heart and soul rebelled against it. The result was destroying her.
Instead, he had to do something to make her forget her torment even if it tore his heart to shreds. Red and black color swirled through his hands and arms as the demon part of him rebelled against what he was doing.
He welcomed the power the flood of color brought as it took a lot for him to rewrite her memories to this extent. If he didn’t get the extra boost of power, he might not accomplish changing two weeks of memories.
Her tears dried while he spoke, and she relaxed as he removed himself from her recent memories. When he finished mind-melding her, Julian wrapped his arms around her and drew her against his chest. His tears fell to land on her bent head while she slept.
CHAPTER 42
Aida toured the gallery with a middle-aged couple looking for a wedding present for their son. She smiled at the couple and answered their questions, but exhaustion adhered to her like a second skin, and she couldn’t figure out why.
She’d slept well last night. Still, she stifled a yawn as the man and woman turned their heads from side to side while inspecting a sculpture. The art piece was supposed to be an abstract, but it looked a lot like a human heart to her.
When the couple gave up on trying to figure out the sculpture, they continued around the gallery until arriving in the main room again. An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of Aida’s stomach when she discovered the night pressing against the plate glass windows.
Shifting uncomfortably, she dropped her hand to the can of pepper spray in her pocket and breathed a little easier. She had no reason to be nervous, but her stomach felt like a fish was flopping around in there, and the can bolstered her confidence.
Glancing around the room, she didn’t see Nicolette, but she was probably with someone else in the gallery. People laughed or talked on their phones as they passed the windows, and nothing looked out of place.
“I think we’re going to take the pretty watercolor of the ocean,” the woman said. “Lewis will like it.”
“It is a beautiful painting,” Aida agreed and gave a smile she didn’t feel.
After finishing the sale, Aida walked with them to the door and stood, rubbing her arms as she gazed at the night. Turning away fr
om the door, she walked over to stand in the middle of the room and inspected the paintings on the wall. Usually, the artwork calmed her, but she couldn’t shake the feeling something wasn’t right. She was about to set off in search of Nicolette when the door opened and a handsome man stepped inside.
Gerald, she recalled. He smiled when he saw her, and she smiled in return. He really was handsome, and it had been months since she had a date. Why had she turned him down before? She could remember him asking her out to dinner, but for the life of her, she had no idea why she’d turned him down.
Probably because he’s a customer, but her sense of unease grew. Shouldn’t she remember that exchange better? Why was there such a gap in her memory?
The more she thought about it, the more her head felt like a tiny dwarf was in there chipping away at it, so she shoved it aside as she glided across the room to him. “Gerald,” she greeted. “Back so soon?”
“How could I possibly stay away? Not only does this place have the best art, but it also has the most beautiful employee.”
Aida grinned as he clasped her hand and lifted it to kiss her knuckles. No, she definitely wouldn’t turn him away again. “You’re too sweet.”
“Far from sweet; I know what I want, and I go after it.”
Usually, she liked a man with self-confidence, and she really liked handsome men, but a school of fish had joined the first one in her belly. It started to get worse the second his lips touched her skin.
This wasn’t right. He shouldn’t be kissing her, but she couldn’t think of any reason why he shouldn’t. She was single, young, and she always enjoyed flirting.
Still, she couldn’t help feeling like she was doing something horrifically wrong. It made absolutely no sense, but she almost snatched her hand from his. However, he was a great customer, and she couldn’t afford to alienate him because she was having some kind of mental breakdown. As soon as this day was over, she was heading home, crawling into bed, and sleeping until she had to be back here again tomorrow.
“Is there something I can help you with today?” she asked.
Forsaken (Vampire Awakenings, Book 10) Page 22