by Viehl, Lynn
“Oh, I was only trying to be nice.” Sam drew the nine-millimeter from her shoulder holster and pointed it at his face. “This one has copper rounds in the clip, lover. Would you like to find out just how much spine I have now?”
“You’ll suffer for this, you farthing bitch.” He abruptly turned on his heel and walked off.
The three of them stood in shocked silence, broken only by the sound of Lucan starting the Ferrari’s powerful engine before it roared off down the highway.
“Did he just threaten to make me suffer?” Sam’s voice sounded hollow.
“Yeah.” Chris couldn’t believe it, either. “Could he be immune to Alex’s tranquilizer, and we just didn’t know it?”
“That or maybe the cartridges are defective and he didn’t get a full dose.” Sam tucked the nine back inside her jacket. “Chris, until I say otherwise, don’t talk about what happened tonight to Burke or anyone else in the jardin.”
“Should I call Rafael and ask him to fly back tonight?” Chris knew that, as Lucan’s seneschal, Rafael was the only member of the jardin permitted to temporarily take charge if anything happened to the suzerain. Lucan also respected his second more than any other warrior who served him.
“Not yet. First I need to have a serious chat with Alex Keller.” Sam turned to Jamys. “Jamie, under the circumstances I think you’d better head back to North Carolina. Chris, will you give him a ride to the airport?”
“Sure, no problem.” She shared a troubled look with Jamys. “Is there anything else I can do?”
“Yeah.” Sam bent and picked up the dart Lucan had thrown at her and held it up. The streetlights illuminated the glass cartridge, which was cracked and empty. “Pray that Alex has come up with something stronger than this.”
*
The sound of something tapping gently on glass roused Lucan enough to open one eye. He didn’t see Burke, Samantha, or any of his jardin warriors. He saw a patrolman standing next to his Ferrari. The cop had his nightstick in one hand and a citation book in the other.
With no small amount of relief Lucan pressed the button to retract the window. “How may I be of assistance, Officer?”
“Have you been drinking tonight, sir?” the cop asked.
Lucan checked the roof of his mouth with his tongue, where his fangs did not protrude. “Not yet, I should think.”
The patrolman straightened. “Please step out of the vehicle, sir.”
Lucan complied, and discovered his Ferrari sat parked on an empty stretch of sand, in which it had also sunk halfway to its wheel wells. He didn’t recognize his surroundings but, from the size and architectural style of the mansion sprawled to the left, surmised it was a private beach.
Darkness has no need. Lucan didn’t know why that line from Byron’s poem echoed in his mind, only that it made him feel a strange, almost unbearable sense of doom.
“Do you know where you are, sir?” the cop asked.
“A beach in South Florida.” He hoped. He regarded the shorter man, who shuffled back a step. “Do you know where I am?”
“I’ll ask the questions, sir. Would you walk up here, please?” When Lucan had crossed the sand and stepped over the curb, the cop pointed to a faded strip of white painted on the road’s edge. “Stand on the white line with your heels together.”
Lucan frowned. “Why would I do that?” He breathed in the air. From the temperature and smell of it, he was no longer in Fort Lauderdale. “Where the devil am I?”
“Now, there’s no reason to get angry about this, sir.” The cop rested his hand on the holster clipped to his belt. “You’re going to walk this line for me, and then you’re going to blow in a little balloon, and it’ll all be over.” He inhaled, and his expression became uncertain. “If that’s okay with you, sir.”
Lucan moved closer, deliberately shedding more scent until the officer’s pupils dilated, indicating he was experiencing the full effects of l’attrait. “Where am I, and how did you find me?”
“You’re in Palm Beach,” the cop said, and rattled off an address Lucan didn’t recognize. “The owner of the estate called 911 when you drove off the road onto his property. Dispatch sent me to respond. I love that car, man.”
“So do I.” Lucan reached for the patrolman’s arm, and stopped as he saw his hands were bare. “Tell me the time.”
The cop glanced at his watch. “Quarter past midnight.”
Somehow he’d lost five hours. As he reached inside his jacket to check his pockets, Lucan discovered the long tear in his shirt and the tenderness of a newly healed wound beneath it. Someone had slashed his chest, and he had no memory of it. “I need a phone.”
The cop reached into his pocket and produced one. “Please, use mine.”
“Wait here.” Lucan dialed the number to Samantha’s mobile as he walked down to the Ferrari. When she answered, he said, “Sweetheart—”
“Kiss my ass.” She hung up.
“I’d love nothing better.” He stared at the phone for a moment, and redialed. The number went straight to her voice mail.
Lucan searched the interior of the Ferrari, finding only a trace of his own blood on the rim of the steering wheel, and some scattered beach sand on the floor mat. Traces of sand also encrusted the seams and soles of his shoes.
He placed one more call, this time to his tresora, who thankfully did not hang up on him. “Good evening, Herbert.”
“My lord.” Burke sounded relieved. “Where are you?”
“Presently, in Palm Beach.”
“I see.” Burke sounded quite the opposite. “May I ask why?”
“You may not.” Until he learned what had happened to him over the course of the last five hours, Lucan could not rely on anyone, even his most trusted human servant. “The Ferrari has had a slight mishap.” He gave Burke the address. “Call Triple-A, have it towed back to the stronghold, and summon my mechanic.”
“Yes, my lord. Should I send a car for you?”
Lucan glanced at the patrolman still waiting by the curb. “I have already arranged alternate transportation.” He hesitated before he asked, “Is Lady Samantha there?”
“No, my lord. My lady departed shortly after eight and has not returned. She did not mention to anyone her destination.” Burke waited for his response, and then said, “I could call Captain Garcia—”
“That is not necessary. See to the car, Herbert.” Lucan ended the call and walked up to the curb. Along the way he heard again the echo of the poetry fragment inside his head.
Darkness has no need.
What he needed, Lucan decided, was to find Samantha and reassure her, determine what had caused his memory lapse, and then hunt down the bastard responsible and personally thank him.
“Officer,” he said to the patrolman. “You will drive me to Fort Lauderdale.”
“Of course.” The cop opened the passenger door of his squad car for him.
Lucan climbed in on legs that began to shake. “And please, do use your emergency lights.”
Chapter 10
Jamys took the keys to the Mercedes from Chris’s purse as they walked Samantha to her car and watched her drive off. So absorbed by her thoughts was Chris that she didn’t notice he’d put her in the car and was himself driving until he stopped at a red light.
“Hey.” She sat up and stared at him. “I thought you didn’t know how to operate a motor vehicle.”
He shrugged. “When last I came here, I did not.”
“You just forgot to mention that since then you learned.” She looked out through the windshield. “You’re not driving to the airport, either.”
“I am not leaving.”
“Right.” Chris rubbed her eyes. “You did hear my crazy boss when he described the send-you-to-your-Dad-in-a-basket scenario.”
“I can stay without trespassing on Lucan’s territory.” He turned down a side street that led to the Intracoastal, and parked outside one of the many marinas that lined the waterway.
She dropp
ed her hand. “You’re going to steal a boat. This is so much better.”
“Borrow a boat.” He scanned the slips and noted the vessels with lighted cabins before he climbed out of the car.
“I’ll assume you know how to sail,” she said as she followed him down the ramp to the slip dock. “But where are you going to park?”
“In Miami, near the museum.” He stopped by a beautiful wooden-hulled sailboat and nodded at the man sitting in a deck chair and coiling rope. “I will call you soon.”
“Take me with you. You need me,” she insisted as he looked doubtful. “You’ll need a mortal to do stuff during daylight hours, and I promised Lucan I’d look after you. That was before he went psycho, so it still counts.”
He wanted to take her with him. What he feared was that if he did, he would not bring her back.
“Christian.” He touched her cheek. “You are not my tresora.”
Her hand covered his. “I could be.”
Lucan’s sneering threat echoed in his memory: I will deal with you later. While Jamys did not doubt that Samantha would do all that she could to protect Chris and the mortals who served the jardin—she had appeared fully prepared to shoot Lucan with copper tonight—the suzerain had been a master assassin. He had spent centuries developing his skills and cunning, which were now likely as powerful as his ability to kill with a touch. Jamys also felt sure that Samantha’s love for Lucan as well as the bond she shared with him might render her incapable of ending his life. In his current condition, Lucan would not share such compassion.
“I watched my mother go crazy,” Christian said, startling him. “Every day for two years.” Her hand shook as she pressed it against her shirt, where the cross she wore concealed there hung. “I know Lucan and Sam aren’t my parents, and I’m just supposed to be the hired help, but I can’t go through that again.” Her eyes, now shimmering with tears, lifted to his. “Please don’t leave me here.”
Jamys pulled her close, and held her until her trembling quieted. Her scent became sharp with fear but not deception; she was genuinely frightened of what was happening to Lucan. As he rested his cheek against the top of her head, he thought of Angelica, and the madness that had twisted and consumed her. Discovering his mother’s insanity had made him feel the exact same helpless terror. “We must go now. Do you know how to sail?”
The lightning of her smile flashed, dazzling him. “You forget, I grew up on the beach. Not only can I swim, surf, water-ski and sail—with enough time and materials I could probably build you a boat.”
Convincing the sailboat’s owner to lend his vessel to them proved no problem; Jamys accomplished it a moment after greeting the man, when he shook his hand. Before he left, the owner showed them the supplies he had stocked for the extended fishing trip he had planned, as well as how to use his new navigational array.
While Chris went below to investigate the cabin, Jamys escorted the boat’s owner from the dock to his sports car. “You will return home and enjoy the holidays there.”
“Which home?” the man asked.
Jamys’s brows rose. “How many do you have?”
“Three. Boston, Atlanta, and Paradise.”
“You will go to Boston,” Jamys told him, deciding it would be best to keep the man as far away as possible. Out of curiosity, he asked, “Where is this Paradise?”
“It’s the name of an island off the Keys,” the man told him. “I bought it as a tax shelter. I was going to spend Christmas there. It’s a good place to be alone.”
“Where is this island?” Jamys asked.
“Ten miles east of Lower Matecumbe. The coordinates are programmed into the navigational computer. Just enter the word ‘paradise.’” The man drew out his keys and removed two. “You’ll need these to disarm the security system and get into the house.”
Jamys pocketed them and, once the man had driven off, returned to the slip, where he found Chris at the helm using the computer to chart a course.
“Commercial boats and barges use the Intracoastal as a shipping lane, plus it’s usually clogged with joyriding tourists, so we should probably head out to sea.” She pulled up a map and traced an imaginary line from the marina down to Miami. “There’s a place we can dock here that’s about five miles from the museum. Gifford isn’t lecturing there until tomorrow night, so we have plenty of time.” She glanced at him. “After we talk to him you should ask him to show the actual journals, too. He donated them to the museum, and he’s on the board, so he should have access to them.”
He heard the note of anxiety in her voice. “You are worried about Gifford?”
“No, I think you can handle him.” She frowned. “I just don’t know how much useful information we’ll get. I mean, this is the secondhand account of a dying pirate’s confession made back in the seventeenth century. Gifford also could have faked the journals. He wouldn’t be the first guy to manufacture history in order to boost his professional standing and guarantee a spot on the lecture circuit.”
Jamys would have overlooked the change in her scent, but from here they would be entirely dependent on each other. “But that is not what truly concerns you.”
She sat down in the captain’s chair. “I have to tell you something.” When he nodded, she said, “Something that may make you toss me off the boat.”
He took hold of her hand. “Nothing you could say would do that, Christian.”
“Wait until you hear it,” she warned. “The other night I got a call from Italy.”
As Jamys listened, Chris told him about her petition to be recognized as a tresora, and then related the response from Padrone Ramas. That they would assign such an impossible task to a mortal angered him, but he concealed it from her. It was only when she mentioned the council’s determination to prevent Richard Tremayne from acquiring the gems that he understood the source of her anxiety.
“So that’s why I originally offered to help you.” She sounded ashamed now. “I thought maybe I might be able to find the emeralds before you did, or send you in the wrong direction, or something like that. Then I could give the gems to the council, make them happy, get what I wanted, and save the world in the process.”
As clever as Chris was, she likely would have succeeded. “Why are you telling me now?”
“I can’t do it.” She made a helpless gesture. “Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to. I’ve been working my ass off to train and learn protocol and everything else the council requires. Becoming a tresora is all I’ve thought about for the last three years. I might not have the right bloodlines and pedigrees, but the Kyn are my family. I want them to feel the same about me. But if that means I have to step on your hopes and dreams, I have to give it up. I just can’t do that.”
She had spoken from the heart, and Jamys felt his own clench in response. The sound of her voice breaking over the last of her words made it impossible for him not to touch her. He tugged her out of the chair and into his arms. He meant only to comfort her, but she lifted her face as he bent to touch his mouth to her brow, and their lips met.
He thought of orange blossoms and honey as he kissed her, reveling in her sweetness. Surely this was why his father could not keep his hands from Jema, knowing that at any moment he could drink from such a delicious fount. The heat of her body poured over him, even as his scent spilled around them, and she sighed his name, the touch and sound of it sending a shudder through him.
Chris was the one to draw back, her face rosy. “So I take it you’re not going to throw me off the boat.”
“I think not.” No, after her admission and that kiss, he had other plans for her. But he should first determine what her desires were. “What will you do if we find the emeralds?”
“I don’t know.” She gave him an uncertain look. “Type up my résumé. Look into job retraining. Move to Nepal. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I was imagining you in Paradise,” he said honestly.
*
Sam carried her largest empty suitca
se over to the bed, and ignored a knock on the door as she opened it.
“My lady,” Burke called. “May I join you for a moment?”
“Not a good time, Herbert.” Sam strode into the closet where she kept her work clothes, jeans, and T-shirts.
Lucan’s tresora appeared in the doorway. “Forgive me, my lady, but I need some assistance.”
“Don’t we all?” She grabbed as many hangers off her work clothes rack as she could hold and carried them out to the bed. “If Alex Keller calls, give her the number to my mobile.”
Burke came to watch her removing hangers. “I do beg your pardon, my lady, but are you packing to go somewhere?”
“Yes.” She stopped what she was doing. “Away from here. Now. You’ll just have to deal with this on your own.”
Burke began helping her. “You should know that I have sent Triple-A to Palm Beach to tow the master’s Ferrari, and he has arranged his own transportation back to the stronghold.” When she said nothing, Burke sighed. “My lady, I know at times the master can be difficult, but if you would find it in your heart to forgive whatever he has—”
“He banished Jamys, he manhandled Chris, and he tried to kill not one but two mortals.” She eyed him. “Right before he called me a whore. To my face.”
Burke paled. “Was Christian hurt?”
“Not physically. She’s taking Jamie to the airport, and then I imagine she’ll be coming back to pack up her things.” Sam retrieved some toiletries from the bathroom. “I don’t know what brought this on, but it wasn’t the usual song and dance. He crossed some serious lines tonight.”
The tresora grimaced. “Under certain circumstance I know he can be most unkind, but he always regrets it later.”
“It wasn’t just what he said or did. I shot him with two tranq darts, and they didn’t even slow him down.” For a moment Sam wondered if she was doing the right thing by walking away, but then remembered how close she’d come to shooting him in the head. “I’m going to talk to Alex, see if she knows what could have caused this. Until we know, you should send the humans home, and tell the men to stay clear of him.”