Adrian stretched, folding his hands behind his head. He smiled, and she noticed his erection tenting under the blankets. “Come back to bed, D.”
She stared at him. This was the man who represented the most successful part of her past. She had given him years, and he had cheated on her and blown through a hefty portion of her savings with absolutely nothing to show for it.
She actually debated giving in. She was exhausted from husband hunting. She was thirty-three now, and she still wanted children. Her dating life was as exhausting as a constant uphill swim against the tide. She looked down at Adrian.
They would have beautiful babies. He was good-looking, fit. He wasn’t honest, but maybe he had changed. He would marry her if she asked. Her parents would be okay with that, since they never found out about all the ways he had betrayed her. Vito would probably be a little pissed, but he’d get over it.
There were drawbacks, sure. Destiny would probably never have a natural orgasm again, but she had ways to get there without a man. They would have to have separate accounts, and he would need to prove that he was over his cheating ways.
Bottom line, Adrian did love her. She sighed. She wished she could remember last night. Was the sex any good? Did they still have chemistry? He looked up at her invitingly. Sighing, she slowly dropped the sheet.
Adrian grinned, and then a phone rang. “Hold that thought, babe, I gotta get this.” Pissed that he would take a call one second after she got naked, she frowned. He was still as much of a dick as he was before, but Adrian had some good qualities. He was thoughtful at times. He was funny.
Suddenly his conversation broke through her musings, and she turned. Adrian quickly pleaded with the person on the phone. “No, baby, it isn’t like that. We’re just friends. She was with a date. She needed a ride home, and it was late, so I just crashed. You know I love you. Don’t be mad…”
Destiny stood paralyzed, listening to the stream of lies pour out of her ex’s mouth. When he clicked off his phone, he tossed it aside and smirked pointedly at her. As if nothing had interrupted them, he pulled back the sheet over his lap and said, “Come to papa.”
She didn’t think. Her hand just picked up the first thing it landed on which happened to be a five-hundred-page hardback novel. “Get the fuck out of my house!”
Adrian protected his manhood, and the book hit him in the chest. He flinched. “Hey!”
“Get out!” She hurled another hardback at him. He scrambled out of bed and ducked as a paperback whizzed past his ear. She landed a nice shot with a copy of a Western romance just as he started hopping in his pants.
“I’m so sick of your bullshit!” she shouted, lobbing a handful of change from the jar on her dresser. “When are you going to grow up? You’re never going to change! I cannot believe I slept with you!”
He stopped a foot into his shoe and held up a palm in surrender. “D, calm down. We didn’t sleep together.”
She froze. “We didn’t?”
Out of breath, he explained, “No. I picked you up, and you could barely walk. I would have, don’t get me wrong, but you passed out.”
“Are you lying?” Adrian was the biggest bullshit artist she had ever met.
“I swear,” he said, catching his breath. In a much calmer voice, he suggested, “But if you want to I can get undressed real quick and I’m sure we could get a quickie in before I gotta go.” The book that hit him in the nuts dropped him to his knees. He left with a bag of peas from her freezer.
Chapter 30
Dane found himself sitting in a room of the safe house he hadn’t known existed. David, the bishop’s doorman, waited with him. The sound of footsteps coming down the hall had Dane tensing.
In the past two days so much had happened. If this Cerberus guy was in fact his father then that made Dane half-immortal. He thought they were all nuts. If their father was an immortal, then why was Cybil locked in a cell downstairs half out of her mind?
The door opened, and the bishop stepped in with a man in a white lab coat. “Sit,” he commanded, and the man dropped into a chair like a well-trained collie.
“Uh, is he all right?” Dane asked.
“You may go now, David,” the bishop said. When David left, he turned to him. “This is Dr. Hunter. He is fine, just a little disoriented. He is going to help us determine some things today.”
There was a light scratch at the door, and Larissa stepped in. “The room is ready.” She was gone a moment later. She wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“Adriel will be here in a moment,” Eleazar announced. The doctor stared ahead like a zombie.
Dane fidgeted in his chair. When Adriel arrived, she was with a man who appeared in his midtwenties, not that that meant anything around here, and they stood by the door, apparently not intending to take a seat. The man stared at him.
Adriel cleared her throat. “Dane, this is my son, Christian. He is an elder on the council.” He had known Adriel for almost his entire stay at the farm. Never had she looked as unsettled as she had in the past few days since his announcement. Uncharacteristically, she wrung her hands. “Christian, this is Dane Foster, your possible half-brother.”
“How do you do?” The man greeted, but his expression remained unchanged.
The bishop let out an audible breath and stood. “There is no sense in delaying matters. “Dr, Hunter, stand.” The doctor stood. “Follow me.”
They all followed the bishop into another mysterious door down the hall. It was a sort of medical room. Dane frowned. Amish did not typically use hospitals. There was a healer on the farm, but he wasn’t there.
Empty vials sat in a case on the table. There were also two packaged syringes, a long rubber strap, and some tubes. In the corner Dane noticed a microscope and some electrical devices. They were all plugged into a noisy generator. He was a bit scandalized by all the technology the bishop was hiding.
Christian took a seat and rolled up his sleeve. Apparently he had been instructed further than Dane. “Have a seat, Dane,” the bishop said. He sat. “Dr. Hunter, you are to take samples of each man’s blood and test it for genetic links.”
The doctor sat and opened the various items on the table. He moved fast and mechanically, without speaking. He took Christian’s blood first. When he slid the needle into Dane’s vein, he winced. The entire process was over in a matter of minutes. The bishop instructed the doctor to make use of the machines then instructed the rest of them to wait back in the room they had originally occupied.
They waited in uncomfortable silence. He wished Larissa was there. Christian looked unaffected, and Adriel looked anxious. Dane was pretty sure this was all for nothing.
The bishop’s voice carried from the hall as he instructing David to see the doctor downstairs and wait for further instruction. He entered the small room they waited in, and Dane couldn’t make heads or tails of his expression.
“Well?” Dane asked.
“You have our blood.”
Dane had to have misunderstood. “What? How can that be?”
“Your and Christian’s blood share a specific DNA. Cerberus appears to have sired you both.”
This angered him in ways he couldn’t understand. His fist smacked the table and he stood. “Then what the hell is wrong with my sister?”
“You will lower your voice, boy,” the bishop warned. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “We are looking into that. Perhaps she does not share the same father as you. Or perhaps it is true that a mortal who is not transitioned by a mate cannot be changed without paying a price.”
“This is bullshit. I want to see Cybil.”
“We’re going to visit her now. Christian, I do not wish to involve more elders than necessary at this point. Would you mind assisting me with the girl? She is small, but very strong.”
Christian nodded. He appeared completely unaffected by all of this. They moved to the holding area, and Cybil was naked. She had shredded her clothing, which wasn’t an odd occurrence, and was clawing at the
plaster walls. When she noticed them approaching she turned, her posture hunched and her bloodred eyes deranged.
Her hair was a knot of blonde, and her fangs showed like small ivory tusks peeking past her deep pink lips.
The bishop stood at the door with a key, and she growled. “We are coming in, Cybil. You will behave.”
She didn’t agree, but he unlocked the cell door so that he and Christian could step in all the same. A deep, hostile purr came from Cybil. Eleazar reached behind his back and withdrew a syringe. Dane’s heart raced.
They approached her slowly, like one would approach a wild animal. The moment they touched her, she freaked. Sounds of inhuman hissing tore through the air, and the three of them moved so quickly there was nothing but a blur of color. Suddenly everything stilled.
Christian kneeled over Cybil, her arms wrenched behind her back as he pinned her small form to the shredded mattress on the floor. The bishop plucked the needle from where he held it clenched between his sharp teeth and plunged it into her arm. She jerked and panted, her teeth showing and fangs streaked with someone’s blood.
When it was all over, Dane was speechless. This was the only family he had left. A bunch of crazy fucking Amish vampyres.
Chapter 31
After service, it was such a nice afternoon that he followed Anna and Adam out to the field for a picnic. Little Cain toddled across the grass, babbling, terrorizing the cats that came to inspect their food basket, and Annalise laid in the sun rubbing her belly. She had become the picture of motherhood. Adam whittled, and Cain entertained his nephew.
“Where’s Larissa been these past few days?” Anna wondered aloud.
Cain didn’t know what had been keeping his sister occupied. “She’s probably busy wrestling Mariah. That child has quite an evil will.”
“Don’t speak of our niece that way,” Adam reprimanded.
“Why? It’s true,” he argued. “She’s got Eleazar wrapped around her little finger.”
Annalise laughed. “Gracie had Mariah with her at service this morning.”
Cain frowned. It wasn’t like the bishop to miss service. “They weren’t there?”
“No. Neither was Christian Schrock or his mom,” she noted. “I hope everything’s all right.”
“Was Dane there?”
“I didn’t see him,” she said. “Did you, Adam?”
His brother shook his head and untangled a sloppy piece of taffy from little Cain’s hands. “I haven’t seen Dane in a couple of days. I assume he’s been visiting Cybil.”
“I was with Cybil yesterday, and he wasn’t there.” Cain thought for a moment. “Something’s going on.”
“Maybe Larissa’s pregnant again,” Anna guessed and they both glared at her. Larissa had enough on her plate at the moment.
Cain stood. “I’m going to go visit the safe house and make sure everything is all right.”
He kissed his nephew’s head and walked toward his sister’s home. The more he thought about the peculiar absence of his sister, the bishop, the bishop’s friend, Adriel, and her son, and oddly, Dane, the more convinced he became that there was something going on that they were trying to hide. He thought of Cybil, and suddenly he was running.
As he jogged up the safe house steps, David opened the door. “I’m sorry. The bishop and Sister Larissa are not accepting company at present.”
Cain jerked. “Why not?”
“I am not at liberty—”
“Oh, come on, David. What’s going on?”
The doorman shifted nervously and looked away. Cain pushed past him. When he tried to stop him he turned. “Don’t be a fool, David. I’m older than you and stronger. This is my sister’s house, and I’m going to see what’s going on, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” The younger vampyre released his arm.
Cain called for Larissa, but the house was eerily quiet. No one was in the den or the kitchen. He headed toward his brother-in-law’s office, but that was empty, too. He rubbed the back of his neck. Where were they?
A clatter of noise sounded from the holding area where Cybil was. He turned and rushed in that direction. The main door was unlocked, and he heard voices. As he neared the cell area he spotted Dane, Larissa, and Adriel. A ruckus sounded, and he ran.
Dane had not moved or acknowledged him. Larissa appeared worried, and Adriel looked her normal stoic self. When he turned toward Cybil’s cell, he froze. “What the hell are they doing to her?”
Cybil’s eyes were hugely dilated, and she panted. Her clothing was missing, and Christian Schrock was pinning her down as the bishop leaned over her. Dread choked him. No! He jerked at the cell door, but it was locked.
Her bloodred eyes met his gaze and she, for the first time in over a year, made an expression that was somewhat familiar. She looked…tired. Sad. “What the hell are you doing to her? Get off of her!” He turned to Dane whose gaze was fastened to the men holding his sister. “Make them stop. What are they doing?”
He jerked the cell door, and Larissa’s hand gently curled around his wrist. “They aren’t hurting her, Cain. They just need to get a sample of her blood.”
The bishop withdrew his arms from her body, and Cain spotted a small vial in his hand filled with dark liquid. “Go ahead, Christian. I can compel her to stay put while I exit the cell.”
Christian Schrock nodded at the bishop and released his hold on Cybil. She didn’t move as he used a key to let himself out of the cell.
“Be still,” Eleazar commanded and stood. He left the cell and locked the door. Cybil remained on the tattered mattress on the floor. What had become of her?
Eleazar made no acknowledgement of his presence. He simply left the holding area, and the others followed. Larissa hesitated as if she wanted to tell him something, but when her husband called her name from the end of the corridor, she quickly scurried after the group. Something was definitely going on.
He watched Cybil quietly for a few more minutes. She didn’t seem to mind his presence. When she sat up from the mattress, she moved as if she were alone. Her small body was maturing. It wasn’t right for men to see her this way. He removed his shirt and stepped closer to the cell.
“Cybil. Cybil, look at me.”
She turned and gave him a scathing look for disturbing her even though she was doing nothing more than pacing her cell. He draped the shirt over a cross bar and fed it into the cell. Stepping back, he signed as he spoke, “Take it. You need to cover yourself.”
Her bloodred eyes observed him. She took a few staggered, creeping steps toward the shirt and snatched it up. Her fingernails were long and dirty. She drew the black fabric to her face and breathed in his scent, not once taking her eyes off of him.
He frowned as he stared at her. For the briefest moment he actually thought she was going to speak. If he hadn’t known better, he would have tried to coax her to say something. Cain wasn’t sure what she had done to give him this impression, but he definitely caught a change in her demeanor. He wondered if his mind played tricks on him, if he missed sweet little Cybil so much he sometimes hallucinated her old tendencies showing through.
She turned and pulled her arms through the shirt. She didn’t snap the front, but she drew the edges close, covering herself. The fabric swallowed her, coming almost to her knees. Her hair had gotten very long and seemed to double in size from lack of brushing. He looked at her a moment longer, remembering the little girl he had met so long ago up on that hill with her ugly dog and compared her to the young woman he saw now. They were nothing alike, and he hated this animal standing in her place.
Unable to witness anymore, he turned and left. As he neared the end of the corridor, the frantic banging from her cell started again. She was constantly fighting, constantly angry. He shut the door and shut away his sadness at what poor little Cybil had become.
Chapter 32
Dane sat quietly as Larissa carried a tray of corn muffins and a cool glass jar of milk to the table. She seemed to need to mother
him at the moment, and that was just fine with him. He couldn’t quite think, let alone do anything for himself at present. Cybil’s blood had matched his own. So why was she deranged?
“We will need to meet with the council. Someone will have to look into the old records to discover if there have ever been similar cases such as this,” Eleazar said to Christian.
“Might I make a suggestion?” Adriel asked, and the men nodded at her. “Rather than involving the council right away, why not see if you can speak to Vashti and Caleb’s great niece?” When everyone in the kitchen gave her a look of confusion, she huffed. “She is unmated and still living at her parents’ home. Does no one recall what happened to her twenty-some years ago? Magdalene?”
The bishop’s mouth opened, and he nodded in sudden understanding. “Excellent, Adriel. An excellent idea. You recall, Christian, Elizabeth was the female who…when her buggy broke down…” The other man nodded understanding.
“What happened when her buggy broke down?” Dane asked.
“She was raped.” They all turned and saw Cain standing inside the kitchen door. His shirt was gone.
“Where is your clothing?” the bishop asked.
“Cybil needed a shirt.”
He nodded. “Larissa, please go find your brother one of my shirts.”
Dane really needed everyone to stay focused. “Who raped her?”
Cain sat down, and Larissa returned, handing him a shirt. He shrugged it over his shoulders. “No one knows. He was English. The council,” he said derisively, “decided it would be best not to press charges.”
“Amish do not involve themselves in English law,” Christian explained.
“They also don’t do a damn thing when one of their females is brutalized,” Cain snapped. “Elizabeth was my friend. She knew nothing of the evils of the world and someone should have been with her that day.”
“She was the one who left without waiting for a chaperone,” Christian defended. “Besides, you know if we would have involved the English law they would have performed medical experiments and we may have risked exposure. She should have never been out on her own.”
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