“Okay, enlighten me. What is it that I am not seeing?” Andre asked with an even tone.
“You disappoint me, hunter,” she said, cocking her head to the side and adding a ‘tsk’ noise. “Who has always been at the heart of the plans for world domination? Who among vampire-kind has hungered for power and immortality since the dawn of their existence? And who, I ask you, has been the singular enemy that your own organization has dedicated nearly all of their time, money, and resources into destroying once and for all?”
“You’re alluding to the idea that The Eyes of The Sun are behind these attacks?” Andre seemed to consider this for a moment. “What proof do you have?”
“So he is more than just a pretty face,” the vampire taunted, making me hate her more. “Yes, hunter, The Eyes of The Sun, whom your organization is so quick to dismiss as powerless, is more power hungry than they have been in several lifetimes. Do you honestly believe that by destroying the Elders, you have gained an advantage?
“Without the Elders, The ES is fractured,” Andre countered, but even from where I was hiding, I could hear the doubt in his voice.
“On the contrary, the Elders of Paris were the only ones keeping the nobility at bay. You only cut one head off the Hydra. There are many waiting to rise up and take its place.”
She raised an interesting theory, but damn if she didn’t speak like a first year lit major, which was grating on my nerves almost as much as her obvious sexual overtures toward my fiancé.
“That raises some questions,” Andre said thoughtfully. “It seems to me that if the ES is truly looking to rebuild their numbers, killing off potential allies and increasing public awareness to their existence would be the wrong way to go about it.”
“And here I was beginning to think that you might be one of the smart ones,” she taunted. “The nobility does not see the local defects as equals. The threats have done exactly what they intended, which was to send the lowborn scum running to the biggest and baddest wolf pack for protection. Conveniently, The Eyes of The Sun has had an increased interest in New Orleans. Or haven’t you noticed?”
That actually made sense. The ES had always held the belief that the vampires in New Orleans were tainted and thus not their equals.
“I haven’t,” Andre replied. “Unless you count the rumors that the lone surviving Elder is here in New Orleans. Coincidentally, she too seems to be targeting the leaders of local clans.”
“I’ve heard no such rumor,” she said dismissively, but I caught a spark of interest in her eye at that.
“They may be false,” Andre replied with a casual shrug. “But someone is gathering quite a bit of support in Paris by claiming to be Delphine LaLaurie.”
“Impossible,” she said with a disdainful sniff, but her expression of interest twisted into one of contempt and raw fear, which I found interesting.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because my mother is dead,” she spat. “I saw to that at the first opportunity.”
“Your mother?”
“I’m sorry. Did I not introduce myself?” she said in a mocking tone. “My name is Alex. Alex LaLaurie, the one and only, true Daughter of Darkness.”
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t quite believe you,” Andre stated flatly.
“Believe what you want, hunter,” she said, raising the cowl of her suit over her face again. “I’ve wasted enough precious darkness on your questions.” In the blink of an eye, she was suddenly right in front of Andre and put her hand a little too intimately on the side of his face. “We’ll meet again, of that you can be sure.”
I withdrew a CPA and stepped out of the shadows.
“And when exactly will that…” he started to ask, but before he could finish, she literally disappeared.
“Well, that’s not the least bit suspicious,” I said, sheathing the CPA I had drawn.
“Indeed,” he replied, but with an air of distraction, eyeballing a fire escape ladder on the side of the building. “Give me a second.”
“What? You’re not seriously…” He leapt onto the ladder and climbed over the side of the roof before I could finish my objection. “…going after her.” With a sigh, I got out the hemograph so that I could catch up with him if necessary.
“Leaving so soon?” A figure materialized from out of the shadows, uncomfortably close to where I had been hiding.
“Apparently not,” I sighed in frustration. “To what do I owe the pleasure, Damien?”
Chapter 17
“There’s something different about you,” Damien said with mocking amusement as his eyes roamed a little too freely over my body. Not that my black pants and utility vest combination was provocative in any way, certainly not as much as a skin tight leather cat suit, but his gaze made me uncomfortable nonetheless.
“Save your jokes,” I said with irritation, crossing my arms in front of myself in a defensive posture. “I assume you overheard the same conversation that I did. I’m curious as to what you thought of her claims, considering they appear to negate yours.”
“Oh, she’s curious indeed,” Damien replied. “But quite easy to see through. The Daughters have always stretched the definition of truth in order to claim relation to the powerful women of our history, but I’ve never heard any claims that were quite as outlandish as that.”
“I don’t see how Alex claiming to be the daughter of Delphine LaLaurie is any more outlandish than the idea that you and Oscar have a biological family bond.”
“Don’t you? After I provided you with material proof?” he asked, raising his eyebrows in disbelief.
“I’m reserving judgment on your proof,” I said. “Just as I’ll reserve judgment on whether or not Alex is lying.”
I still wasn’t sure what I believed in regards to the diary. A digital copy had been made and distributed to only a select few members of the team due to the graphic descriptions of what Oscar wanted to do to me. As much as it disturbed me, I ended up reading the entire book in one sitting. The whole thing, from his reaction upon discovering the letter up through the violent fantasies about my death, read like a poorly written horror erotica fantasy. Despite the fact that laboratory tests proved the book to be quite old, I still had a hard time accepting it as real. The Oscar from the diary would have tortured, raped, and killed me without the pretense of newfound emotion, and he certainly wouldn’t have sacrificed himself to destroy the lab.
“As someone who has spent more than a century in the service of Madam LaLaurie, I can assure you, she has no daughter.”
“Um, this is New Orleans,” I said sarcastically. “We kind of have access to her history here. She had two daughters.”
“She certainly had two young women who posed as her daughters when she arrived in the late eighteenth century,” Damien countered. “But I can assure you that they were of questionable blood relation. Even more questionable was their status as women. Oscar may have left those details out of his memoir, but as our father’s letter mentions, LaLaurie stole us away when she left Paris. She needed a way to hide our true identity from those of our kind who had already settled in the new world. Trust me, if Delphine LaLaurie had a daughter, she would have looked more like you than that nymph.”
“What do you mean, like me?” I bristled, focusing on what sounded like a thinly veiled insult rather than the revelation that he and Oscar had posed as young girls. While that sounded preposterous, it wasn’t entirely out of the realm of reality. Young children were often dressed fairly androgynously back in those days.
“I meant nothing negative,” he explained. “As you’ve pointed out, this is New Orleans and you have quite a trove of information on your city’s beloved ghost. Surely, you’ve seen pictures. LaLaurie was a pale woman with dark hair, much like you. But in transformation, well, you probably don’t want to hear this, but you look as much like her as I do my brother. Enough that I would be interested in examining your ancestry.”
“Thanks for the compliment,” I said wryly.
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“It was more of one than you realize,” he responded smoothly. “In those days, one did not attain a powerful position in society by being homely, especially not in Paris. Don’t compare yourself to a mass produced toy like Alex, Lucy. My brother’s affections may have been misguided and confused, but I must admit, he had an eye for beauty.”
A cold shiver of revulsion raced up my spine. Whether it was the comparison to LaLaurie, the reminder of Oscar’s unwanted affection, or his own creepy comments, Damien made me uncomfortable. Just because Andre ran off to chase down a woman who had clearly been throwing herself at him didn’t mean I was desperate for an ego boost. Especially not an ego boost from someone who clearly wanted something from me.
“You said you would be in touch and here you are,” I said with a sigh. “Did you come all the way to New Orleans to decimate my self-esteem or did you have something more substantial to discuss?”
“Perhaps now isn’t a good time,” he said almost apologetically. “I would like to take you to dinner. We should discuss the terms of a mutually beneficial arrangement like civilized people, instead of like animals in a filthy alley.”
“I’m afraid she’s not available,” Andre said as he stepped around the corner. While he didn’t have his gun pointed at Damien, he still had it in his hand.
“Forgive me, I wasn’t trying to imply that I had any designs on your intended,” Damien said with a cold smile. “I was merely keeping her company while you went chasing after the blonde doll. Not that I’m judging you. After all, they are manufactured to elicit strong desires from weak men.”
“You would know about manipulation, wouldn’t you, Damien?” Andre said, taking a threatening step closer. “Is Lucy supposed to feel sorry for the misunderstood monster? Because that wasn’t even an original ploy when your brother tried it either.”
“Okay, you know what? I don’t have time for this,” I all but shouted before Andre and Damien could take their pissing contest any further. “When the two of you are done comparing the size of your dicks, perhaps you can hammer out the details of your mutually beneficial arrangement. I’m not interested.” I stormed off to the van. A few minutes later, Andre slipped silently into the driver’s seat and drove us back to headquarters.
“For the record, I am more than capable of declining dinner invitations on my own,” I said as we pulled into the parking garage.
“I know, I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “There’s just something about that guy that rubs me the wrong way.”
“Yeah, well I…” I stopped myself. There were plenty of things on the tip of my tongue, none of which were particularly nice. It was obvious why Damien bothered Andre so much, but I didn’t want to have yet another argument about my nonexistent feelings for a dead guy. Especially not when I was still more than a little angry about the fact that he didn’t exactly give Alex the impression he wasn’t interested when he took off after her. “You and me both,” I muttered and left it at that.
We both went immediately up to Evan’s office to get an update on the situation with Dr. Hayward. According to Evan, Hugh and my father were successful in that they were able to get to her without drawing any unwanted attention. They were all currently aboard a commercial flight out of DFW airport that was scheduled to land soon. Unfortunately, that was the only good news.
“According to Kurtz, two of the three agents were found dead in their hotel rooms,” Evan informed us. “Coincidentally, Agent Carr, the one who is missing, is also the one who supposedly attacked the doctor.”
“How exactly did that happen?” Andre asked.
“Apparently Carr was escorting Dr. Hayward from the museum to her car when he grabbed her and tried to force her into his own vehicle. She managed to escape by getting him in the eyes with her keys before getting in her car and driving away. Kurtz says the whole incident was recorded by security cameras in the parking garage. He says that Carr recovered, got into his vehicle, and appears to have followed her out.”
“What? How do we know he didn’t get on the flight with them?” I asked.
“Your father sent a message right before takeoff saying that he didn’t see anyone suspicious. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t disguised, but I’m not terribly worried considering Hugh is with them,” Evan replied. “I’ll let you know as soon as they land.”
“Thanks,” I said and checked the time. It was later than I thought, but not quite ‘morning’ yet. “I don’t suppose Abe is up yet.”
“He is,” Evan said. “He wanted to be on hand in the event that anyone needed him when they got back. Is everything all right?”
“Yeah, it’s probably nothing,” I said with a smile. Considering everything that had happened, I didn’t want to needlessly worry Evan, or worse, do anything to make him pull me off the streets. “I kinda want to talk to Abe before he gets busy,” I told Andre. “Do you mind updating Evan on our evening’s adventures?”
“Adventures?” Evan asked.
“We found Damien, as well as a woman who is claiming to be the daughter of Delphine LaLaurie,” Andre explained.
I slipped out the door before I had to listen to Andre recount our evening. While we may have gotten some of our biggest leads yet, I couldn’t exactly call the night a success. When I got to his office, I found Abe slumped over his computer with a cup of coffee in hand.
“Got a minute?”
“Of course,” he replied, stifling a yawn. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m not sure,” I said hesitantly. Doctor-patient confidentiality only went so far in our organization. I really didn’t want to be pulled off the streets, but on the other hand, I was stuck with the appearance of a monster. “I can’t transform at all anymore,” I said at last.
“That’s odd,” Abe said, checking his computer. “If there was any change in your condition, the monitor should have alerted me.” He typed a few notes and frowned. “Or not. God dammit.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, panicking slightly because Abe wasn’t the type to curse. At least not in front of patients.
“I set the parameters to log your enzyme levels, but the threshold was set for a normal count, not yours. According to the log, you held steady at just below 770, your normal range is 780 to 800, but you began dropping within four hours. Your enzyme count is currently at 180, which is still about twice that of the hunters, but if this continues to drop, you’ll be back below their levels by the end of the day.”
That was the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear. Without the enzyme, I was vulnerable to attacks and unable to quickly heal from injuries, which meant Evan was definitely going to take me off duty.
“Hang on,” I said. “There’s something that doesn’t make sense to me. Normal hunters don’t get any kind of healing abilities from having the enzyme. Why is this affecting my immune system? I thought my healing ability came from my vampire DNA?”
“It does, but in your case, the enzyme has formed a bond with the set of lipids that allow for enhanced healing,” he explained. “This is why the enzyme doesn’t attack your white blood cells. It is also why you were able to pass your healing abilities to Andre in the first place.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t think to question that sooner,” I said. “But when I passed my abilities to Andre, they didn’t wear off. Why is this happening to me?”
“I wish I had a definitive answer,” Abe said apologetically. “That was what we had expected to happen when we gave Andre the transfusion last year. All I had hoped for was enough of a boost to his immune system to rapidly heal the worst of his injuries. But as soon as your blood met his, your enzymes, along with the lipids, began reproducing and changing the makeup of his own enzyme. At first, I was worried because it didn’t look like it was going to stop. His count got up over one thousand while on the operating table. But once he was stabilized, it dropped down to around 750 and has held steady. When we gave you the transfusion, the same thing happened. While you were healing, the count went way up, but
then it leveled off.”
“But then it dropped again,” I said with a frustrated sigh. “Why?”
“I think in Andre’s case it was because your DNA was genetically modified. It became the dominant trait and overrode his sequence. In effect, he was given the modification, similar to how the vampires give themselves treatments meant to manipulate their own DNA sequence. As to why it didn’t work in reverse, well, I have two theories. The first one is that your DNA is still dominant and therefore introducing a weaker strain of the same modification wouldn’t have the same power to override it. The second theory is that there’s a good chance whatever it is that caused your levels to drop in the first place is still in your system.”
“But you can’t find anything?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“I’m sorry, Lucy. I’ve run every possible diagnostic and other than your suppressed enzyme level, there is nothing wrong with you. I haven’t stopped looking,” he added hastily. “But you have to understand that this isn’t something I can simply put out to the medical community at large and compare notes on. Hell, I can’t even reach out to the researchers in Paris because we put so many restrictions on your file that none of them have ever seen a situation anything like yours before.”
“I know,” I said with a weak smile. “And I appreciate everything you’ve done more than I can ever say. It’s just so…”
“Scary?” Abe supplied with a sad smile. “I know, Lucy. For all that I’ve seen in the last twenty plus years, I can’t begin to comprehend how you, Evan, Lona, any of the team really, cope with what you’ve been put through. The fact that Dara and I don’t have an entire ward full of drug addicts and alcoholics is a true testament to your strength. I know it seems hopeless now, but I’m not giving up. We will figure this out. We just have to be creative.”
I was taken aback slightly. Abe wasn’t the type to get emotional or personal. I wasn’t kidding about his complete lack of empathy when delivering bad news. That he acknowledged just how bad of a situation I was in was both sweet and terrifying.
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 79