by Sable Grey
After he was gone, I met Sebastian’s gaze. “I told you not to come back. Why are you here?”
“How can you ask me that? This is my home. You are my son.” He turned as the detective returned to the room.
“Who are you?” Colville demanded.
“This is…my father, Sebastian Overton.” I pushed the words out. “He’s only just arrived and won’t be staying.”
Sebastian met the detective’s gaze evenly. “You won’t find Marcus Highcrest here.”
Colville glanced between the two of us before looking at me. “There are people leaving the manor.”
“They’ve been instructed to do so. I’ll not have the children exposed to this investigation. My brother will look after his children until this is over,” I explained. “Mrs. Loman is collecting the staff as we speak to inform them of what is going on. While we will cooperate with you and your men, I will not have my household left in the dark about what is taking place in their home.”
“I was wrong.” Sebastian was watching me. “You don’t need me at all.”
“No, Father, we don’t.” I met his gaze evenly.
Yes, you do. Marcus argued silently.
“How well do you know Marcus Highcrest?” Colville addressed Sebastian.
“As well as I know my own blood,” he answered. “You are wasting your time. Marcus isn’t capable of murder.”
“And how can you be certain of that?” The detective demanded.
“Because he’s weak. He always has been. I tried to harden him as a boy, but he wouldn’t be changed.”
Anger bubbled up inside of me and spilled to the surface. “You tried to destroy him. You tried to destroy us all. I believe it’s time now for you to leave. As you said, I don’t need you.”
For the first time in my life, I saw something in his eyes besides power and control. Pain. Raw hurt. He said nothing, merely nodded, and turned to stride from the room. It wasn’t until after I felt him leaving Blakewood that I actually took a deep breath.
Colville and his men combed the place, but found nothing. They departed long after dark, but promised to return and told me to contact them as soon as I heard from Marcus. I watched them leave before returning to the manor.
“He didn’t do it.” Elizabeth stood in the doorway of the library an hour later.
“You are still here? You were to go with Richard and the children.” I stood and walked around the desk. She wore a robe over her gown, and her hair hung down over her shoulders.
“I sent Mildred in my stead.” She moved forward, closing the door behind her. “Marcus is innocent.” I should have known she wouldn’t do as she was instructed. She never did.
“I know he is.”
“You look tired,” she said softly.
I took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “I am. I’ve not fed in two days. I’m worried that this murder is going to affect the books. And…my father was here today. He came to help us, and I sent him away.” I’d been struggling with that guilt since he’d left.
“You don’t speak of him often.”
I looked down at the floor and shook my head. “There’s nothing to speak of. He was cruel to us all, Marcus more than the rest.” I ran a hand over my face, not wanting to talk about him. “It’s been a long day.”
“Yes,” she agreed. When she neared, she reached out and took my hand. I watched her bring it up to her cheek to rub my knuckles against her skin. In that moment, I could picture her with me forever, offering comfort as she took hers from just a touch of our hands. I imagined she and I discussing the business at the end of the day, sharing responsibility of the household, and then retiring to our bed together. She’s what I wanted.
“Everything Beatrice told you about being a vampire’s mate…it was how my father was,” I told her when she turned her face and kissed my hand.
“Tell me about it.”
Pain twisted in my heart and instantly Marcus moved forward. “He doesn’t want to.”
She looked up and released my hand, but didn’t move away. “Then you tell me.”
Marcus waited to see if I would argue and, when I didn’t, he nodded. “Sebastian Overton is not a bad man. He’s a terrible father, though. He’s possessive of those he thinks of as his and resentful of the things he has no control over. When he feels helpless, he lashes out at those nearest him.” Marcus shoved his hands into his pockets. “They don’t understand him. They would rather hate him than to accept that he has weaknesses.”
“He was cruel to you,” she whispered.
“He doesn’t know why I exist. He thinks of me as some kind of shortcoming of his own. I’m his personal nightmare.” Marcus’ words brought an ache to my heart.
“You love him.” As always, she could see into the core of them both.
“He’s the only father I’ve ever known.” Marcus shrugged.
“Enough.” I said, and Marcus slipped back into the shadows. “I can take no more of this today.”
“You should go to Claudia. You can’t do anyone any good if you are ill.” She reached up and touched my cheek. “Blakewood needs you at full strength.”
She was right. I nodded, fighting the urge to kiss her again. It was too easy to lose myself to my hunger when I was with her, and I remembered the horror in her eyes when Beatrice told her about the feeding. I had already decided I would never do that to her. If that meant facing what I was and feeding regularly, so be it.
Chapter Twenty
Something’s wrong.
I looked up from my desk. There was something in the air. Panic and a scent. Something was burning. I stood and walked to the door of the library, looking out. Everything was quiet. And then the silence broke.
Screams.
I leapt toward the stairs just as the women came rushing down. An orange glow illuminated the walls of the floor above them.
Fire.
“Elizabeth!” I bellowed over the screams and pushed through the women racing toward safety. “Beatrice!” Flames swept along the walls, catching a tapestry afire. Boards groaned above and below, giving way to the power of the fire. Smoke filled the corridor so thickly I could barely see two feet in front of me.
Find her. Marcus’ thoughts pushed me forward through the smoke to my bedroom where I’d left Elizabeth. A figure appeared out of the smoke. Sebastian. In his arms, he carried Beatrice, and, behind him, Elizabeth followed. I breathed out.
“This way,” I called, “before the stairs give way!” I led them down to the ground floor and then away from the burning manor. Outside, the staff was a flurry of chaos. Women screamed and ran while the rest remained to try to put out the flames. They were futile attempts. I stared up at the smoke and fire, my heart tightening in my chest with the ache in my heart. Blakewood was burning and would be no more than ashes and rumble by morning.
“Thank God you sent the children away,” Elizabeth said when she stood by my side.
“Does anyone know how the fire started?” I looked at Beatrice when Sebastian set her to the ground.
“The kitchen,” Sebastian said over his shoulder. “It was the driver. I smelled him when he slipped to the house in the dark. I thought he was coming after the governess.” He glanced back with hard eyes. “I suspect he may be the one behind the woman’s death in London. It looks as if he is out to destroy you, son.”
Son. That endearment twisted pain in my chest. I’d fought against any emotions I had for Sebastian since the day he’d struck Richard. I’d challenged him and won, then made him leave Blakewood. But he’d remained. I’d often sensed him at night, lurking just beyond the boundaries. Until that moment, however, I’d not considered he was still truly the master of Blakewood.
Elizabeth lifted a hand to her mouth and then pointed across the grass. I followed her gaze and found George standing in the shadows watching. I could see clearly his frowning disappointment that everyone had escaped. I started for him, and Sebastian matched my pace.
“I warned you to stay a
way from Blakewood,” I shouted.
He stepped from the shadows into the glow of the fire, a pistol in his hand. Time seemed to slow down. The weapon fired. I watched the bullet speed through the night toward me.
The pain of transformation came fast and unexpected. I cried out from the force of it. The darkness pulled me in, but I knew…knew before it was even done that Marcus had transformed. Sebastian stepped in front of us, but Marcus shoved him effortlessly out of the way and took the bullet in his own chest rather than mine. No! I tried to take his place. In the past, I’d always been strong enough to control us. I only needed to summon anger to overpower him. But his love for me was stronger than any emotion I could muster.
I felt his pain as the bullet ripped through him. He shouted as he fell backwards. Screams echoed around him and what had slowed, now sped up in a frenzy of movement around us. Through Marcus’ eyes I watched Sebastian become full vampire and leap through the air with a screech that wasn't human. That sound filled the air and drowned out all other noise. He hit George full on and, like an animal, ripped through his human body as if it were nothing.
“Oh, God, no!” Elizabeth dropped to her knees. “Oh, Marcus, no.” Her trembling hands caressed his face before lowering to his chest where she tried to stop the bleeding
“It’s nothing, love, that a kiss can’t mend.” Marcus coughed the words. I knew better. I could feel his strength waning.
Elizabeth spoke through sobs as she leaned forward. “Even in the face of death, you are a scoundrel.” Her lips brushed his gently.
She turned and then moved away as another scream pierced the night. Beatrice raced the distance and dropped to the ground. She gathered Marcus into her arms. “No! No, no, no!” She wailed as she brought him to her breast. Marcus was fading fast.
Marry her, Ander. Marcus used the last bit of his strength to send his thoughts to me. She loves you. I felt him sinking, forcing me forward as he went. I struggled to hold on to him, but I wasn’t strong enough. Darkness took him from me, and I was left alone, dragging deep breaths into my lungs where, for only a moment, there had been none.
“He’s gone,” I said weakly against Beatrice’s shoulder. I held her as she shrieked with sorrow, her fingers curling into my shirt. I felt her agony with every sob from her lips. I could do nothing to stop neither it nor the grief that filled my own heart at the realization that Marcus was indeed gone. That part of me where he’d always been was now an empty ache.
“Leander, there is blood.” Elizabeth’s voice shook, and I pulled away from Beatrice.
Yes, the transformation had forced my body into healing, but the blood loss had been great. Too great. I was so weak I couldn’t pull myself upright.
“He needs to feed to live.” Sebastian's voice held urgency as he approached, once again in human form. “Marcus took the death, but Leander will need blood if he is to survive.”
Elizabeth looked at Beatrice, but she shook her head. “I can’t. He can’t feed off of his own. Where is Claudia?” She stood and scanned the area. There was too much chaos, and no time. She’d never be able to get Claudia to me before I joined Marcus in death. It was well enough. I didn’t know how to be without Marcus.
“You…you are a vampire?” Elizabeth whispered.
“I’m his mother.” Beatrice looked at Sebastian. “Do something. I can’t lose him, too. I can’t, Bastian.” Her hands shook, and Sebastian stepped forward, drawing her into the strength of his arms.
Dizziness clouded my mind. She was right. I needed to feed. That familiar, consuming hunger knifed through me. My vampire instincts were overpowering my own will.
It was Elizabeth who moved closer to my side. “Here.” She pushed up the sleeve of her gown. “Feed, Leander.”
I tuned my head away and closed my eyes, the scent of the blood in her veins tempting me to take from her what I said I never would and to save myself. “No. Not you. Find…someone else.” I wouldn’t do it. I’d rather die than do that to her.
“Leander, please,” Elizabeth begged, practically sobbing.
“No! I won’t.” I pushed weakly at her in an attempt to get the smell of her away from me.
“For God’s sake, son, feed!” Sebastian’s voice boomed down at me, jarring a bit of strength back into my body. I felt him draw closer. With effort, I opened my eyes, barely able to shake my head as I watched his fingernails sharpen. He grasped the collar of her gown and ripped it. She stared at him, but didn’t try to move away, seeming to know as well as I what he was doing. With one nail, he left a long red cut where her neck and shoulder met. She winced slightly.
“Make him feed,” he said. “Save him.” It wasn’t a question. It was the command in his voice that I’d known as a child when he was strong and in control.
She scooted closer and her scent wafted around me. I closed my eyes again, fighting the hunger that gnawed inside of me as she cradled me in her arms. She leaned closer.
“Please, Leander. Don’t make Marcus’ death be for nothing,” she whispered. “Feed. I’m yours anyway.”
The coppery smell of her blood filled me. The fight to live was too strong. I felt my arms betraying me as I wrapped them around her. My lips met with her soft skin and, when I tasted her blood on my tongue, I had no more strength to resist. I felt her stiffen slightly when I sucked and then heard her gasp when the pull of my lips brought pleasure to her.
I felt it, too. It was what I’d been longing for, what I’d ached for, what had been missing between us. And now she was mine. Mine. Strength returned with each draw of my lips. Mine. She trembled within my embrace, and her fingers pressed as if she were trying to pull me closer. A whimper sounded from her lips. I groaned as I sat up, bringing her with me. Mine.
“Leander.” It was Beatrice, reminding me that it was not just Elizabeth and myself, and that if I didn’t stop, I might drain her completely. I jerked away from Elizabeth as if I’d been slapped. Her eyes shined in the darkness, and she seemed a bit dazed. She tried to pull me back to her, but I removed her arms from around me, realizing my own hands were shaking. As I tried to stand, Sebastian stepped forward and offered assistance. My first urge was to decline, but my legs shook so that I took his arm and forced myself to my feet.
“I knew that boy would die for you someday,” he murmured.
“And you.” I reminded, remembering how Marcus had pushed him aside to safety. “You got to them before I did—got them out of the fire. For that, I am grateful.” I watched him nod, and then I lowered my attention to the blood on his clothes.
“He’s dead?”
“What’s left of him is,” he growled. There wasn’t an ounce of guilt in his voice. For the first time, I realized he’d thought of Marcus as much of his son as he did me. He’d reacted like a father.
“He was never weak.”
He winced at my words.
“I know.” He turned when Beatrice began sobbing again, and brought her into his arms, stroking her back as he murmured words to soothe her mother’s broken heart. It would take more than one slain man to make amends for the pain Sebastian had caused, but I hadn’t the heart to send him away again…not when he’d been there when we’d needed him the most.
I looked at Blakewood. The fire was nearly out, but the once magnificent building was now a blackened ruin. It was too much loss.
“I have never felt so completely alone,” I whispered. Blakewood was gone. Marcus was gone. Tears stung my eyes.
“I’m here, Leander.” Elizabeth stepped to my side, slipping her arm around my waist. “You are not alone. We can rebuild.” I gazed down at her. So easily, she offered acceptance and comfort. She was strong. Perhaps, stronger than me. Just her reassurance forked hope through my sorrow.
Yes, we would rebuild. Blakewood was not dead.
My heart filled with hope. It was a new chapter in my life and in the life of Blakewood. “Marry me.”
She didn’t even blink as she looked up at me. “Forever.”
; The End
This book is a work of fiction. Incidents, names, and characterizations are products of the writer’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
Sable Grey, LLC
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Copyright © 2011 by Sable Grey, LLC
Cover by Sable Grey