I was happy of course, to finally have that one piece from the puzzle of my life that had eluded me, but at the same time I was so angry. I was angry with my mother for trying to shelter me and dying before our family had a chance to become whole. I was angry with Isaac for letting her go and for remaining in the shadows, never coming forward to claim me as his daughter. But most of all, I was angry with myself for having the nerve to blame either of them when it was my existence that led to the tragedy of their respective lives in the first place.
I felt Andre’s hand on my shoulder and looked up to see that his eyes were red rimmed and watery, which brought about a fresh round of tears. I realized that in my own selfish meltdown, I hadn’t considered Andre, Ida, or the countless others back at headquarters whose emotional stake in Isaac’s situation was just as valid as my own.
“We’ll get him out of there, I promise.” Andre’s voice was thick with emotion. He pulled me into a tight embrace and I felt his body shudder with silent sobs as he tried to comfort me.
“I know,” I whispered shakily against the growing wet stain my tears were leaving on his shirt.
We drove back to New Orleans in relative silence, which gave me plenty of time to sift through the overload of thoughts and emotions. Unfortunately, this left me with a lot of questions that would have to remain unanswered, but there was one at least that I could get answered immediately.
“Hey Andre?” My voice was raspy and hoarse from crying.
“Hm?”
“What was with that weird question you asked Isaac?”
He smiled and made a noise halfway between a laugh and a snort. “Isaac had a habit of changing his appearance when he was off duty in order to keep the force from knowing what he was doing with the outreach. Evan and the rest of the hunters each had a security question they would ask if they weren’t sure it was him.”
That was reasonable. “Were they all as weird as the one you asked?”
“Evan’s is amusing but no, most are personal things that no one but Isaac would know. I was eleven at the time, I wanted my own secret question, and that’s what I came up with. I tried to change it later on, but Isaac refused on grounds that it amused him too much.”
“It is pretty funny,” I said with a weak laugh, even though it was a little painful to hear Andre talk about his childhood with the man who should have been there for mine. This was entirely unfair though and I knew it. Andre’s own parents were killed when he was just nine and I already knew that next to Evan, Isaac had been an influential figure in his young life.
We had arrived back at headquarters late in the evening, just in time for the team of hunters to start making their way to Evan’s office for their nightly meeting. The information I had just received was far too personal to announce in front of an audience.
“Hey um, is it okay if…” I trailed off with a sigh. Going out to the farm had been my idea and I felt awful about putting the responsibility of reporting on Andre. “Never mind.”
“I absolutely understand if you don’t want to do this right now,” Andre reassured me. “I think Evan will understand. Do you…” he paused and gave me an odd, anguished look.
“I want to talk to Ida.”
“That’s probably the best idea,” he said with a warm smile, but there was something he was holding back. “I’m going straight to my office after I talk to Evan. I’ll let you know the moment I’ve made any progress. I promise.”
I found Ida up on the roof, in a garden alcove that was a favorite of hers and mine. The smile that she greeted me with faded when she saw my expression.
“Lucy honey, what’s wrong?”
“I… I’ve got some pretty big news,” I started. “Good news, but also bad.”
Ida put down the book she was reading and motioned for me to sit down. I took a deep breath and thought carefully about what I was going to say. Sure, Isaac was alive and she had a right to know, but how he was living wasn’t exactly comforting news.
“You were right; Bluebeard is the same man that Isaac knew as Father. Ida…” I began to tear up and choked. “Ida, he’s alive. Isaac’s alive, but Bluebeard’s keeping him prisoner at the farm.”
“Are you sure?” To her credit, Ida took the news calmly. There was only the slightest hint of worry and a touch of hopefulness in her voice. “Did you see him?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “I saw a strange signature on the hemograph and we went to check it out. Andre realized what it meant. He’s giving the report to Evan now. But Ida, Isaac’s not chipped like Cynda was. He’s got…” I couldn’t tell her what Isaac told me. “…heavier security measures. Andre thinks he can break the code in the barrier surrounding the farm but…” I shuddered.
Ida closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “There’s always been a part of me that couldn’t accept the theory that Isaac died in the storm,” she said quietly. “It didn’t fit with his character. I did often wonder if his disappearances had anything to do with his former life.”
“They did,” I said cautiously, “but not in the way you might be thinking. He was trying to protect someone.”
“Protect who?” Ida’s confused expression was understandable. I wasn’t making myself very clear, but telling Ida that I was the reason her son’s life was in peril was more difficult than I had imagined.
“Me,” I blurted out before choking up again. “He’s my father, Ida. You were right about that too.”
For a brief moment, her eyes flashed with surprise and then narrowed to regard me as if she was seeing me for the first time. “Oh my heavens, Lucy, don’t ever get old. If my mind was half as sharp as it used to be…” she trailed off and shook her head. “I should have realized it when we were talking yesterday. Your mother’s name was Julia, wasn’t it?”
I gasped. “You knew her too?”
“No, I’m afraid I never met her personally, but I remember her. Saw her every day for nearly two weeks down at Gilly’s.”
“Isaac said he met her there.”
“Mm hm. And one day I seen them leave together, but then I never saw her again. I figured Isaac ran the poor girl off, but come to think about it, I didn’t see Isaac again for a month after and he was awfully down when he started coming back around.”
“He sent her home,” I said sadly. “My mom had run away and when my grandmother filed a missing-person on her, Isaac convinced her to go home and promised to follow.” Ida listened quietly while I relayed everything Isaac had told me. When I got to the night my mother died, I started tearing up and couldn’t continue.
“Oh honey, if I had any idea.” Ida wiped a tear from her eye and squeezed my hand. “Isaac was always a private person and I respected that. I figured that if he wanted me to know where he was going when he left town, he’d tell me. But I did see a change in him, Lucy, right about the time your mother passed. Like there was a sadness just below the surface that he never could shake. That’s when his little trips out of town started becoming more frequent.”
“I know,” I said quietly. “I’m still pretty confused about that part. He told me that Bluebeard had found out about me, but why didn’t he just tell me who he was?” The last part came out whiny and I cringed. “I mean, okay, maybe not right after my mom died, but when I was a little older.”
“I’m sure he had his reasons. You’re forgetting that your grandmother was a pretty powerful woman. Who’s to say you weren’t safer with her? You did have body guards.”
“Well, yeah,” I shrugged, “but they were trained to make sure I wasn’t kidnapped for ransom or something. I don’t think they would have been very effective against vampires.”
Ida snorted. “They must have done okay because you’re here now, aren’t you?”
“True.” She did have a point, but rather than make me feel better, it made me feel worse. “But Isaac isn’t and that’s my fault.”
“Now stop that,” Ida said with a scowl. “You know as well as I do that isn’t true. Blaming yourself for somethin
g you didn’t know anything about is just silly and unproductive.”
Again, she was right. “You know, you’re taking this a lot better than I did.”
“My boy is alive,” she said with a smile. “I know right now it still seems bad, but I have to have faith. And besides, you took the brunt of the shock, Lucy. Finding your father out of the millions of people on this earth, well, that’s a lot for anyone, let alone someone with your circumstances.”
“True. I still can’t believe that.”
“That he’s your father?”
“That I have a father,” I said with a sigh. “I’m not supposed to even exist because vampire and hunter DNA don’t mix. That’s the other thing, when we first saw him on the hemograph, Isaac appeared as a human, then a mod. I know you said he can change his appearance, but how does someone change their whole genetic makeup? If he’s some sort of anomaly then he should have shown up like me.”
“You’ll have to ask the experts for those answers, Lucy. As far as I’ve always been concerned, Isaac is my child, a man, not a sequence of genetic mumbo jumbo. Same can be said for you. Telling you that you shouldn’t exist. Shoot,” she huffed and pulled a comical face, “Abe may be the brightest geneticist around, but he should work on his manners.”
I laughed at that. I often felt the same, but only Ida would have the nerve to tell Abe that etiquette trumps science. “I guess it’s just that the shock is wearing off and the reality is setting in.”
“Like I said, I can’t believe I didn’t put two and two together years ago. You favor your mother, for sure, but I wasn’t making a casual observation earlier. You’re tall like he is, you have the same eyes, same set about your mouth. But you know; it’s more than that. In many ways, you always reminded me of him. He too was recruited for a while to hunt, and for a while, he did. But like you, he couldn’t do it. He always felt that there was humanity in everyone, even those who were never given a chance to discover it.”
“Really?” I was surprised, but more than a little pleased to learn that.
“That is the god’s honest truth. Like you, Isaac didn’t have an off switch on his empathy.”
“Yeah well, some people don’t seem to understand that,” I remarked sarcastically.
“Ah, that’s the other thing you seemed to have inherited from your father,” she said with a sly smirk.
“What’s that?”
“You also got the same hard head.”
“From what my grandmother told me about my mother, I guess I got that from both sides,” I replied with a laugh. “Hey wait a minute.” I gave Ida a mischievous look that she returned with a mock glare.
“Lucy don’t you dare,” she chastised lightly. “I may be ninety-two, but you start calling me grandma then I’m gonna feel old!”
“By all means,” I affected a comically serious tone. “And I certainly won’t remind you that your oldest great grandchild is nearly ten years older than me.”
“Did you really just get sassy with the woman who has the power to switch you to decaf without you knowing?”
“You wouldn’t!” I laughed and felt lighter than I had all day. One of the many things I loved about Ida was that no matter what was bothering me, she had a way of restoring balance to my perspective.
“Well then,” Ida patted me on the shoulder and stood, “this old granny’s got to get some shut eye before the troops start shuffling in.” She gave me a serious look before leaning in to give me a hug. “I never gave up hope, Lucy. Thank you for finding my boy.”
“We’ll get him home, Ida, I promise.”
Chapter 10
I stayed in the alcove for a while after Ida left, partly because I still wasn’t up to facing anyone and partly because I knew that if I got up, I would somehow find myself standing outside of Andre’s office, agonizing about whether or not to go in. The last thing he needed was me standing over his shoulder, asking if he had figured out the code every two minutes. It was too late to check on Cynda and I knew it was Miles’ night off, which meant visiting Lona was out of the question, so I went back to my apartment. Besides, I was emotionally exhausted and I missed my own bed.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one because when I got to my room, I found Gumbo curled up on a nest of blankets right in the middle of the bed. Technically, Gumbo was my cat, but when I opened the safe house, she became something of a therapy animal and rarely stayed with me much anymore. Not that I could blame her. There was a whole house full of women who were more than happy to lavish her with attention. And quite honestly, I think she became scared of me after the first couple of nightmares. To show my gratitude, I let her keep the blanket nest and curled up on an unoccupied sliver of bed, praying for a peaceful night.
It wasn’t nightmares, but an insistent knocking that jarred me awake after just a few precious hours of sleep. I glanced at the clock and tucked my head under the pillow, but after ten minutes, it was obvious that whoever was out there was not going to get the hint and go away. I stumbled to the door and was not at all surprised when three impossibly beautiful and irrationally chipper women tumbled into the room, talking over each other.
“What took you so long? I was about to call for medical assistance!”
“Rumor has it you showed up at headquarters with Andre last night! I thought that might be why you weren’t answering.”
“Whatever, Lucy’s totally over that grumpy jerk, right? Guess what? We brought you coffee!”
I closed my eyes and counted to ten before I shut the door, which gave Gumbo plenty of time to run for cover. With a deep breath, I turned to face the women, who were lounging about my living room. At least they were smart enough to bring coffee.
“I was sleeping, alone thank you very much. In case you hadn’t realized, it’s barely six in the morning, and I hope, for your sakes, you have a better reason for waking me up than to confirm rumors.” I wasn’t the nicest person when I first woke up on the best of days and this certainly was not the best of days. Not that it mattered; if they noticed my annoyance, they ignored it.
Of all my vampires in the outreach, Kaylee, Layla, and Ingrid were the most enthusiastic about their new life. Unfortunately, it was the kind of accident-prone enthusiasm that left a path of destruction in its wake. Don’t get me wrong, they genuinely wanted to be useful and I loved them for it. Genetically modified vampires are bred for specific roles and these three were no exception. None of them had any experience with even the simplest of domestic activities, but they tried nonetheless. This usually meant that they had a bad habit of diving into projects without fully grasping the concept of what they were supposed to be doing. Case in point, the pinkish orange monstrosity I was wearing had once been one of my favorite red shirts, until they attempted to surprise me by doing laundry.
“So what are you doing here?” I asked in the nicest tone I could muster.
“We want to throw a baby shower!” Kaylee shouted, practically bouncing up and down.
“A baby shower?”
All three women nodded vigorously.
“At six in the morning?”
That was the other thing. Whether it was due to Lona’s pregnancy, their own infertility, or the fact that they were what the vampire community considered ‘defective’, these three were obsessed with pregnancy and childrearing, which only served as a reminder of my own squeamishness toward the subject. When they weren’t mangling my wardrobe or burning dinner, they were doting on Lona and asking questions about the baby, or pestering Abe to reverse their sterility.
“Well, we thought you could help,” Layla informed me. “Because you know, we’ve never thrown a baby shower before. Why is it called a shower? Lona told me there’s no water involved.”
“No,” Kaylee corrected her, “there’s water because Lona’s water has to break before she can have the baby remember? Abe told us that.”
“Right.” I put up my hand to stop the conversation from spiraling farther into insanity. “I’m not discussing this or a
nything until I’ve had my quota of coffee.”
Dutifully, Ingrid poured and passed me a full mug. “Ignore them, Lucy. I already researched how to plan a shower online and I brought some ideas.” She pulled a notebook out of her handbag and began thumbing through it.
“Mm hm,” I grunted while taking a long sip of what felt like a mouthful of sand. “What the hell?” I spit a mouthful of coffee grounds back into the mug. “Kaylee, I thought you were banned from the kitchen?” With good reason, I might add. After the last three times Kaylee attempted breakfast, I was on a first name basis with most of the fire department.
“Um, I made the coffee,” admitted Layla. “Is it not good?”
The hopeful look on Layla’s face was almost enough to make me feel bad, but coffee was something sacred. Besides, they woke me up.
“I’d stay out of Ida’s way for a while,” I advised, moving into the kitchen to brew a fresh pot.
“Oh!” Layla slapped her forehead and pointed at the filter that I was putting into the machine. “I forgot that paper thingy!”
I set the coffee to brew and glanced back at the three women, who had somehow managed to cover my coffee table with what looked like half the rainforest’s worth of printouts from the internet.
“Look, I think what you want to do is wonderful and I know Lona will appreciate it, but honestly, I’ve never even been to a baby shower.”
“No way!” Ingrid gasped. “Isn’t that what women do? I know if my plumbing worked I would just stay home and make babies all day!”
I seriously wondered if I wasn’t still asleep and having the weirdest dream yet. “Uh, you probably don’t want to go around announcing that, Ingrid. Women haven’t spent the last one hundred years fighting for equal rights to sit home and have babies. Anyway, I’m not a baby shower expert, Besides, I’m not sure how much free time I’m going to have.”
All three women suddenly became very subdued and glanced uncomfortably at one another. I wondered if I had offended them with my lack of enthusiasm over the shower plans. “I mean, I’ll try to attend, of course,” I reassured.
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 40