She looked up at Talan, ready to apologize for her emotional outburst, and was shocked to see his own cheeks were wet. Unbelievably moved, she reached up and wiped them. “Don’t cry for me. I’ll be be okay,” she reassured him. “I always am.”
“I hate feeling so helpless,” he admitted. “I can throw money at most things and fix them. This isn’t one of them. I don’t know what recourse we have. You were right, we have very little evidence to stand on. It hurts me deeply to know that what little comfort you had was gone.”
She wiped as another tear rolled down his cheek. Her brave warrior was crying for her. It left her speechless.
He wiped at his cheek and cleared his throat. “Stefano is an attorney. I’d like to, if I could, share your story with him. He can tell me what recourse we have. Also, on a personal note, he should probably know the woman he’s sleeping with.”
She nodded. “Please,” she begged. “Don’t broadcast it to the world. I don’t want the looks of pity. I’ll just feel sorry for myself.”
“I would never broadcast it. I would only speak with Stefano. Lachlan, if you’d permit it. He’s a corporate attorney but he may have some ideas, too.”
Her head pounding, she nodded and asked him, “Can I stay here? My head is pounding and I don’t feel like being alone.”
“Stay,” he said, stroking his thumb over her cheekbone. “Let me take care of you tonight. I think you could use it.”
She nodded, absolutely wrung out. “Okay.”
Talan scooped her off the couch and carried her into the bedroom. She vaguely thought of protesting, but in the end, she just went with it. She was too exhausted to argue.
When he set her on the side of the bed and then began undressing her, however, she stiffened.
“Were you going to sleep in your work clothes, love?” he patiently asked.
“I suppose not,” she conceded while she stripped off her work shirt.
By the time she was undressed, he had stripped down to his boxers. Together, they climbed into bed and he pulled her into his arms. She honestly tried to relax.
That laugh kept rolling through her mind. The knowledge that Colette had likely killed a part of her family left her feeling physically ill. The fact that she would likely get no justice left her feeling broken.
Talan said, “This isn’t going to work, love. Flip over on your stomach.”
“Huh?”
In that overly patient “let me say it slowly in case you weren’t listening” tone, he commanded, “Flip over and lay on your stomach.“
Her face scrunched in annoyance, she rolled over and asked, “Better?”
“Not quite yet, smart-ass,” he retorted, sitting up.
Lilly opened her mouth to respond but could only groan when his thumbs began to work at the knots in her shoulders. “You don’t have to do that,” she eventually managed to mumble.
“Let me take care of you,” he repeated.
“Mmkay,” she agreed, her tension slowly melting.
She hadn’t had anyone try to take care of her in a long time—not since her mother. She let out a shuddering sigh as the tears came once again. Silently, as he continued to rub, she cried. Eventually he must have realized, because he gathered her back into his arms. He stroked a hand through her curls and crooned softly to her. For some reason, his tenderness only made it worse.
With a start, she realized that perhaps she wasn’t done grieving after all. That was a hell of a thing to realize ten years after the fact, wasn’t it? That Talan was the first person to truly let her grieve the loss of her parents.
Aunt Magda was of the “suck it up” school of comfort. Marissa had ended up crying harder than Lilly when she’d finally worked up the courage to tell her. There hadn’t been anyone else, really. Perhaps, she realized, the books hadn’t been enough.
Chapter Sixteen
Talan groaned when the alarm clock went off. It felt like he had just gone to sleep only moments ago. He sat up, looked around for a moment, slightly disoriented, and then he remembered. A heaviness settled in his chest. Today was going to be incredibly unpleasant.
He grabbed his phone and quickly texted Lilly. “How are you holding up?”
He continued to lie in bed until finally he was forced out of it by his scheduled room service delivery. He drew in a sip of blood as he settled on the couch and considered adding a kitchen to his suite. He’d specifically vetoed the idea as a waste of space back when he’d remodeled.
It would be nice to have food and drink readily available for Lilly when she was there. He sighed. His poor Lilly. Last night had been hard. He was a person who fixed things. There wasn’t an easy fix for this problem though.
Both times, when she had cried in his arms, it had torn him to shreds. The first time, he hadn’t even realized he was crying himself until she wiped his face. It was such an alien sensation to him. If he wasn’t mistaken, the last time he had cried was when his father had slaughtered his pet pig. Reasonably, he now knew that the pig was never intended to be a pet, but he was only four at the time. It had been a crushing blow to a young boy.
Last night, when she wept, he’d felt absolutely powerless. He didn’t enjoy that. He would exhaust his resources making sure that Colette Moreau paid for her crimes. He wasn’t lying when he told Lilly that he protected what was his.
By mid-afternoon, Talan felt less rundown. He’d had an extra pint of blood, which certainly helped. He’d put in a call to Lachlan and Stefano, but had yet to hear back from either of them. Between the address records and the fact that Colette had admitted to being in Kansas at some point, he considered that conclusive proof. He worried that perhaps Lachlan or Stefano might blow him off.
He picked up his cell phone for the tenth time, concerned because Lilly hadn’t texted him yet. His chest ached, thinking of her in pain. He sat the phone down and tried to concentrate on work. When he couldn’t maintain focus, he gave up. Instead, he paced in his office until his phone rang. Striding toward the desk, he saw that it was Lachlan—finally. Christ.
Twenty minutes later, he set the phone back down on the desk. Lachlan hadn’t been much help, unfortunately. He’d been plenty angry on Lilly’s behalf and hadn’t for a moment doubted that Colette was capable of such a thing. That’s as far as it had gone though. As a corporate attorney, he’d had no recourse to start asking questions about a case that had already been solved in another country. Nor did he think that voice recognition alone would be enough to justify reopening a solved case.
Frustrated, he wiped a hand across his face and cursed. If he had to hire a lawyer in the US to look into the matter, he would. First, he would wait for Stefano to call him back though. Perhaps he would have better news. Perhaps not.
A few minutes later, his phone buzzed. He picked it up and read Lilly’s text. “I’m exhausted and I want to go home, but otherwise I’m okay.”
Frowning, he typed, “Take the night off. Sleep. Here or at home. It doesn’t matter, though I admit I have a preference.”
He could picture her reading and then giving him that same wan little smile she had mustered for him this morning. He hoped to God that he was able to help her find some sort of peace. He couldn’t bear to see her so broken. His beautiful, brave girl had fallen to pieces, and that destroyed him.
“I’m coming to work tonight. I’ll pack a bag and stay over if that’s okay. I’ve gotten kind of used to your terrible snoring.”
He felt the first genuine smile of the day dawn across his face as he responded, “I don’t snore. You, however...”
Seconds later he laughed when she asked, “OMG DO I REALLY?”
“No. I lied,” he typed back, laughing.
“Jerk.”
Still smirking he answered, “May I remind you that you actually started this? :)”
“So I did. And now I’ve gotta go shower before I come to work. See you soon.”
He felt like he was on much more solid ground as he typed, “Love you. See you l
ater.”
Well, she seemed in better spirits. He wondered, though, if he did actually snore…
***
Around ten in the evening, he was getting ready to leave the office when Gillian buzzed him and said, “I’ve got a Stefano Marchese to see you. He didn’t have an appointment, but he said it was urgent.”
Talan frowned at the intercom, then pressed the button and said, “Send him back. Thank you.”
Stefano ran in some of the same circles he did, but he wouldn’t really consider him a close friend. He was rather confused as to why he’d be paying him a personal visit. He waited for the knock on his office door.
“Come in,” Talan called, standing to greet him.
A contrite look on his face, Stefano said, “I got your message, and I was in the area anyway. I wanted to talk to you about the other night. I’m incredibly sorry about Colette.”
He waved a hand at the apology and said, “That’s not your fault. Have a seat. Did you want a drink or...”
“No, no,” Stefano said. “I’m fine. You sounded a little upset when you called. Is everything okay?”
He took a deep breath and admitted, “No. Not in the least. I have a story I’d like to run by you if I could.”
With as little emotion as he could manage, he relayed the details of Lilly’s family being murdered, the subsequent dreams, the laugh, the research, and everything that had taken place. Then he waited.
Stefano sat there, taking it all in for a few moments before he finally spoke. “Are you quite certain that it’s her?” he asked, his face filled with equal parts fear and disgust.
Talan shrugged and said, “I couldn’t tell you for certain. I’d have to have her social security number. If she were a resident alien it would be even harder to track. Her name is rather distinct. She basically called Lilly my ‘nighttime snack’ and then proceeded to be incredibly rude to her simply for being human. Would you really put that behavior past her?”
“To be fair, my friend, dating humans isn’t exactly mainstream for us. I will admit it caught me by surprise, too.”
Conceding the point, Talan agreed, “It’s not one of my more well thought-out plans, but love rarely is, I’m told. Are you disgusted by the fact that I’m dating a human?”
“No, no, nothing like that. There’s just a whole pack of problems that come along with that. It’s not necessarily something I’d sign on for. To each his own, though.”
“Well,” he said, trying to bring the conversation back around to the original point.
Colette seemed not only shocked but disgusted by the idea. Based on what you know of her, do you really feel this is something so unbelievable?”
Talan watched as a range of emotions played over Stefano’s face. Disbelief, anger, realization, shock, disgust. It was plain as day. In that moment, he genuinely felt for the man.
“It adds up,” Stefano admitted. “When we were in the car, Lilly talked about being from Kansas. Colette said something nasty about it. I hadn’t even realized she’d spent time in the States. We had talked about the places we’d gone. You know, pillow talk. I asked her about it that night and she dodged my question. Of all of the women in Toronto, invariably I end up with the crazy bitch who slaughters people for fun.”
“I’m more sorry than I can say that I had to deliver the news. When Lilly told me, I offered to look into it. I thought I’d be able to say that she was mistaken. What are the odds?”
He looked a little ill when he softly said, “Apparently better than either of us thought. I’m so sorry. I would never—”
“Not your fault,” Talan repeated.
Stefano kept talking as if Talan hadn’t spoken. “I called her out on her nasty behavior, and she basically turned it around to say that Lilly had been baiting her.”
Before Talan could jump in and comment, Stefano added, “I was there. I saw what happened. She continually attacked Lilly. It was entirely unprovoked. Lilly is a sweet girl, by the way. She seems good for you.”
“She is,” Talan agreed, smiling. “I need to ask you something on a professional level. Do you think we have any recourse to have the investigation into her family’s murders reopened? Voice identification can be a long shot, right?”
Sighing, Stefano said, “That’s when it’s on tape. So, with this alone, there would be no recourse. It would depend on the physical evidence at the scene. If they have any real trace evidence, then it may be worth a shot. I can make some inquiries tomorrow if you’d like. I don’t know how forthcoming they’d be to a Canadian attorney, but it’s the least I can do. I was beginning to realize that she was a little mercenary, but that she could do that...”
“It’s too much of a coincidence to believe otherwise.”
“I know,” Stefano said as he stood up. Gesturing effusively with his hands he said, “It’s that kind of behavior that sets us back by decades, Talan. That’s why the barriers between the Transfigured and humans still exist. You know that I’m a huge champion of keeping a fair and equal balance, right?”
Unable to argue with any of that, Talan just nodded. “I know you are. You demonstrate it through your actions on a regular basis. You’re not to blame here. You didn’t do this. She did.”
“She killed for sport. I was fucking a murderer,” he spat, disgusted.
Pity written all over his face, Talan said, “It’s not your fault. They’re her crimes. Realistically, should we really have to ask the average person we date if they’re into sport killing? Don’t beat yourself up about it.”
“I knew there was something wrong with her. She was very cold.”
“She wasn’t friendly,” Talan agreed.
Stefano frowned and added, “I enjoyed not being alone. Perhaps I should choose my companions with more care going forward.”
“I’m sorry,” Talan said, feeling genuinely regretful. “It’s not the type of news I enjoy delivering.”
“She took off in a fit the other night. If she comes back around I’m clearly going to break it off. It was bad when she was unpleasant, but this literally makes me ill.”
“I trust that you’ll keep this part of it to yourself. I don’t want to spook her into leaving before we figure out what we can do.”
“Of course. I’ll do anything I can to help.”
Talan wrote down names, dates, and the specific location of the murders. He’d managed to dig that up himself through old records. He hadn’t wanted to drag the information from Lilly. She’d been shattered enough last night.
After Stefano took his leave, Talan sat down at his desk again. That had gone better than he’d expected. He couldn’t help but feel for the man, though. He’d been horrified. Hard to blame him, either. He hadn’t really dated in a long time, but he’d never thought to ask his dates their stance on sport killing. Both relieved and exhausted, he shut down his computer for the evening.
He knew Lilly was waiting to hear back from him about his talks with Lachlan and Stefano. He was disappointed that he didn’t have much in the way of good news to deliver. He wondered, for her sake, if there would ever be any resolution.
Chapter Seventeen
In the four nights since she’d discovered that one of the monsters that killed her family was still alive, Lilly had ended up staying with Talan. There was something about him that made her feel safe. Even his friends had rallied around her.
Lachlan had been incredibly angry on her behalf, which was really sweet of him. Other than her brief association with Talan, he had no reason to care about her past but he’d been very kind. So kind, in fact, that she almost regretted making him drink the Clan MacGregor. Almost.
Stefano had been another story altogether, though. He’d been so contrite and sincere in his apology that it had brought her to tears. For a man who had no idea, he had taken a lot of blame onto himself. He’d been concerned that she would let Colette color her perception of the Transfigured as a whole.
She had admitted that it was a consideration. She though
t differently about her safety now, having put a face to the laugh that had haunted her for so long. However, she didn’t look at all of the Transfigured and see them as the enemy. Just like all humans weren’t killers or rapists, only a small subset were. The only real difference between those outliers, both human and Transfigured, were physical.
She had read between the lines pretty quickly. It wasn’t really the entire group, it was Talan that Stefano was concerned about. She could tell from the way he phrased the apology that he was worried he might have inadvertently ruined something for his friend. He needn’t have been though.
Talan had been her rock. Her North Star. He’d held her and comforted her without any hesitation. Hell, he’d cried alongside her. The fact that he empathized with her pain so completely still left her in awe.
She was even more eager than usual to see Talan tonight because according to his text earlier, Stefano had a call set for earlier this evening with the Doniphan County District Attorney. When she’d gone on her break, Talan had been embroiled in some dispute on the casino floor. He had caught her eye and given her that “I’m stuck” look, so she hadn’t been able to get any details yet.
Instead, she talked with Daniel while she waited. Rob had just left. Since the evening with the palm reading, they had gotten into the habit of coming in near the same time. It was nice to see them becoming friends. She had always picked up a lonely vibe from Daniel. And God knew, from what she’d heard about Roger’s life, he could certainly use a friend.
A couple of nights ago, Daniel had point blank asked her what was wrong. It had to have been written all over her face. It was no surprise to her that he’d picked up on it. She had given him some vague detail—just that her family had been slaughtered and that she’d recently come into contact with one of the killers.
He’d been shocked and sympathetic. He hadn’t given her that sad, pitying look though. She was thankful for that. He’d simply listened to her, been appropriately disgusted, and then hopeful that she’d find peace.
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