It doesn’t matter. Just go with it. Improvise. We’re running out of time.
Dash sucked in a deep breath.
Abigail! I’ve been searching for you all over. Near the fort, in the woods—
He looked at Lily, lifting his hands at the futile attempt.
—by the homesteads, but you were gone. I…I’m so ashamed.
Lily nodded, waving him on, and a hiccup sounded not far from where he stood in the mist and he turned.
See—it’s working. Keep going.
I can hear you, Abigail, but I can’t find you. Please. I need you. I’m so sorry. I’m so filled with shame at what I said and how I hurt you. I can’t sleep. Forgive me, please. Abigail—
Abigail walked toward him, blood tears mixing with the dirt on her cheeks. Her head was tilted at an odd angle, almost as though listening with a broken neck.
Nathan?
Dash nodded.
She blinked, studying him.
How can I trust your words after all you said, all your hate? You hurt me.
Because I was a fool.
And now?
Now I know my own heart and I’m no longer afraid. No longer bound by the chains of suspicion and prejudice that infect both our worlds. I love you, Abigail. I’ll fight for you and walk by your side as long as fate allows.
Lily cried out, and both Dash and Abigail jerked toward the sound.
Dash’s body went rigid and then he stumbled back. Abigail reached for him, but something drew him, pulling through the mist, his image waning as he faded from her.
“NO!” Abigail lunged from the bed, pinning Lily to the ground, her teeth sunk deep in Lily’s wrist.
She snarled, gulping down blood, tearing at Lily’s arm.
“Rémy!” Lily screamed.
He and Sean scrambled, pulling Abigail’s flailing body from Lily. Sean held her, pushing her face down into the bloody sheets while “Rémy healed Lily’s wounds.
“She’s too far gone, Abigail will have to be destroyed,” Rémy shouted over his shoulder as he lifted Lily from the floor.
“No! Give it a little time. Lily’s blood has got to work. Please!” Dash stood at the side of the bed, anger and worry clashing in his chest.
Sean looked at his hunter’s harried face. “If she doesn’t show improvement within the next couple of hours, then I’m Rémy is right. I’m sorry, Dash. There’s not anything else we can do. In the meantime, we have to restrain her.”
Dash looked at Lily’s weak body resting in the chair where Rémy placed her, away from Abigail’s reach.
“Lily isn’t a full Were…uhm…I mean not by birth,” he quickly added avoiding Sean’s warning glare. “What if we combine my blood with hers? Maybe that’s the key.”
Sean shook his head. “I won’t risk you to this infection. Lily has antibodies enough to weather this, plus the doctors gave her a booster before we left Maine. You have neither, and in this case, love is not enough.”
Dash rolled up his sleeve, his eyes still on the Alpha of the Brethren. “With all due respect, I don’t agree.” Before Sean or Remy could stop him, Dash shoved his wrist into Abigail’s waiting mouth.
With two hands she clutched his wrist, pulling long, deep draughts from his veins. Dash’s eyes glazed over as her bite sent his body into pleasure spasms. Visions of Abigail’s body, her mouth, her wet pussy and the taste of her coating his tongue danced through his mind.
His lids closed and behind them images of her smiling, laughing, even her eyes flashing in anger played for him, and he sent every ounce of feeling he had for her coursing through his body.
Abigail froze and pulled her fangs from his wrist. She blinked, and her eyes cleared.
“Oh. My. God.” She looked at the bed and the sheets covered in blood. She glanced down at the state she was in and at Dash, her fingers shredding his skin and arms.
Without another breath, she licked his wounds, sealing them completely and let go of his arm as though it burned to the touch.
She backed away from the wolves, her eyes unsure, but completely lucid. Her gaze swept the rest of the room and the havoc, until she settled on Rémy.
“What happened? What have I done? Where is Sébastien?”
“Sébastien? After all this, after everything he’s done. Leaving you to die not once, but twice, you still want to crawl back to your master?” The look on Dash’s face was incredulous and hurt.
Dash scrambled from the bed, rolling his bloodstained sleeve over his wounded arm and wrist.
“I should have known better.” He exhaled, angry. They warned me. All of them said the same thing, including your own kind. Tap her undead ass if you want, but don’t get involved.”
He stalked around the bed to Lily’s chair. He stood beside Sean, his hands on his hips and his eyes narrowed at Abigail. “You’re healed enough now with the correct HepZ antibodies for this new strain to be the font of all health for the vampires of the world. I guess that makes it a win-win for you and your master. As soon as Lily is strong enough to move, we’re outta here.”
Dash turned to move toward the door.
“Wait! Dash! Please! That’s not what I meant—” Abigail struggled to sit up.
Ignoring her plea, he stormed out, growling deep and loud at the vampires gathered outside the room.
Sean watched him go and then turned away from the open door. He gently picked Lily up in his arms and looked at Rémy.
“Come see us when you have everything sorted here.” He glanced to the door. “A male Were that angry should never be left to his own devices. Whatever else, my duty is to my wife, my hunters and to my pack. I gotta go.”
Rémy nodded. “Of course, but please, stay in the city tonight. I have a feeling my brother will want you to join him as he eats crow for the first time in centuries.”
He looked from Sean to Abigail’s stricken face and back again. “And if we’re lucky we just might mend more than just a single broken body.”
12
“She was disoriented, Dash. Like when you wake from heavy anesthesia. Your brain is in a freefall, almost on autopilot. Abigail’s mind went where it was most familiar, and like it or not, that means Sébastien. He’s her past and her present. You may be her future, but right now you’re too new,” Sean stated, his eyes watching the brooding hunter.
“Sean’s right, Dash.” Lily added. “You overreacted, and understandably so. The stress of the situation and being linked with her mind while she took a vacation from reality would be a lot for anyone to process. Unfortunately, your kneejerk reaction might be something we can’t fix.”
The living room of their rented apartment was cozy, but tonight the atmosphere was almost claustrophobic.
Lily lay on the couch, recuperating. Even with her quick-healing Were abilities, she needed an old fashioned kick-start. A half empty glass of orange juice sat on the coffee table beside a bottle of vitamin B complex.
“I agree with Lily.” Gehrig nodded. “After what everyone said, it doesn’t seem as though Abigail slighted you on purpose.”
Dash looked at his brother. “What do you know? You just got here.”
“Yeah, and I’m glad I wasn’t around for a stroll down Abigail’s psychotic memory lane. Then again, I was busy with my own trip back in time.”
Dash perked up. “You found the connection?”
Gehrig nodded. “I think so. The information is incomplete, but it fits the timeline and the geography you said to check.”
Sean looked from one hunter to the other. “What are you two babbling about?”
“After Sébastien threw us out, Dash couldn’t let go of what happened. Especially the things Abigail said when she lost it on him. He obsessed about it.”
“I did not,” Dash grumbled.
Sean chuckled. “Which time? From what I heard, she spent the entire weekend losing it on him, in more ways than one.”
Gehrig laughed at his brother. “Dude, you were almost Rain Man
about it.”
Lily snorted, nearly choking on the last of her orange juice. “Rain Man? Seriously?”
“You have no idea. He drove me crazy for a week, so I shut him up by doing a little sleuthing into our family’s history.”
“And?” Dash asked.
“Impatient fucker, ain’t he? From what you all said happened during Lily’s Amazing Kreskin moment in Abby’s mind, this shit with her fucked up past has been brewing for a long time.”
“Gehrig!”
He laughed again. “Okay…jeez.” Gehrig reached for his backpack and pulled out a folder. He drew out a large folded piece of paper.
“This is a photocopy of a map and notes I found in the great room archive at the Compound. Most of it is bullshit. Surveys and land allotments, but there was a whole section of notes on legal jurisdiction and civil and criminal complaints.”
Gehrig unfolded the map, and on top he placed a photocopy of a piece of parchment with looping script. He tapped the top sheet. “This is the smoking gun. It’s cited April 1767.”
Dash took the copy, his eyes scanning the document while his lips sounded out the strange old English cursive. Finally, he looked up.
“Well?” Sean asked.
“It’s hard to read and even harder to understand, but the gist of the complaint is that a juvenile by the name of Nathan Aloysius Fawkes broke the church imposed curfew to engage in ‘wicked and impure’ relations. They use the terms ‘conjuration’ and ‘consorting’ with evil.”
He paused scanning more. “It goes on how he was shunned and made to help church elders track down what they called ‘devil’s spawn’.”
Sean nodded. “Considering Fawkes is your ancestors’ name, this raises an eyebrow. Pack records show they migrated north to Maine after the Revolutionary War.” He grinned. “Wicked and impure relations. I guess you two come from a long line of horny hound dogs.”
Lily waved Sean off. “Could the Nathan in Abigail’s mind be one and the same? Maybe Abigail’s subconscious was triggered because she recognized you as the same lineage.”
Gehrig shrugged looking to Dash. “Possibly, but who the hell knows?”
Dash stood and walked around, pacing. “This conversation is completely academic. Besides, it really doesn’t matter, anyway. It’s over.”
“Oh, I would be too hasty, mon ami.”
All eyes turned as three vampires stood inside the open doorway.
“I thought you couldn’t enter without permission,” Sean joked, getting up to greet Rémy. He gripped the vampire’s forearm brotherhood style. “Thank you for coming.”
Rémy smirked. “Thank you for leaving the door unlocked.”
Jenya moved to Lily’s side and before she could object, the vampire bit down her own wrist. “You cannot refuse. Your mate needs you at full strength, so drink.”
Sean nodded. “Do it, babe. I hate seeing you look like the walking dead.”
“Gee, thanks.” Lily looked at the blood pooling on the vampire’s wrist and shook her head. “In the glass, if you don’t mind.”
Jenya raised an eyebrow, but did as asked, and no sooner did Lily drain the cup than her coloring improved almost immediately.
“I’m sorry, Lily.” Abigail moved ahead of Rémy, a small bouquet of flowers in her hand. She laid the flowers on the coffee table. “For what it’s worth, thank you.”
Dash stood, his eyes riveted to the once again elegant vampire. She was still somewhat gaunt, but at least her face and eyes were no longer sunken and her hair had regained its sheen.
“Abigail—”
He took a step toward her, but stopped when she raised one hand. “Before you do or say anything, let me say what I came here to say.”
She waited for him to say something, but when he didn’t reply, she looked to the others. “Perhaps it’s best if we speak in private.”
Dash’s eyes never left her face, but he motioned toward the narrow hall.
Abigail nodded and turned to follow him. She looked at Gehrig as she passed. “Bette is at the club. She said to text her if you want to meet up later.”
Gehrig grinned, but his face sobered at the dual warning glares from both Sean and Rémy.
“What? It’s okay for Dash to have a private chat with his vampire—” he crooked his fingers into bunny ears. “but I can’t meet mine for a drink, later?”
Lily sat up, holding onto Jenya’s arm. “It’s who’ll be drinking from whom that worries us. So the answer is no. Not until we figure out how to keep you from selling your soul to the devil for your next fix.”
Gehrig’s mouth dropped and he stood, eyeing Rémy. “And you have no problem with this stereotyping?”
The vampire fixed the young hunter with an ice cold stare, and Gehrig immediately sat his butt back in the chair.
“My little witch isn’t wrong. I’ve seen addiction up close. It is not something to be trifled with. I understand your feelings for Bette. She is most alluring.” He winked at Jenya. “Nevertheless, there is much to be said for caution. If your alpha and his mate want you to abstain, then I suggest you do until further notice. Bette has nothing but time to kill. If it is meant to be, she will wait.”
Dash crossed his arms and sat on the edge of the mattress in the small bedroom. “So, you wanted private. You got private. Say what you feel you need to say. I’m all ears.”
Abigail clasped her hands and rubbed them together, almost as though she had a chill. Ridiculous, really. Vampires were already cold.
“I don’t know why I feel so vulnerable,” she began. “Maybe it’s the residual effects from being so close to truly dying.”
“You don’t have to feel vulnerable around me. I’m not going to judge you, Abigail, and I’m sorry I lost my cool when you were still so sick. I understand now.”
She angled her head. “What do you understand?”
“That Sébastien is your world. That he’s all you really know.” He shrugged. “I could call it Stockholm syndrome, but I’m guessing it’s more a vampire thing. Progeny and sire and all that vamp jazz.”
“I suppose that’s true, or at least it was. I’m still a vampire, and like it or not, Sébastien is my maker and my master.”
“I don’t have to like anything, Abby. It’s not my business what you do. But I do understand. More than you think.”
“How so?” she asked.
“Gehrig found the connection between us. It took two weeks of digging, but he found the answer why my scent and my presence have been the trigger for all your flashbacks and anger.”
“You make it sound like I have PTSD.”
He shrugged. “In a way, you do, but we can get into that another time. As long as you realize it wasn’t me, regardless of the past. Maybe in some small way, Lily and I helped put all that to rest.”
“I think so. Something else happened tonight. Something unheard of in my world,” she said.
“What?”
“Sébastien set me free.”
“Free?”
She nodded.
“I don’t understand. Weren’t you free before? You seemed to run the show regardless of council approval.” He couldn’t help it, he smirked.
“Sébastien’s word was law in most things, but he overstepped his bounds. Tonight the council was called. Sébastien is gone from us.”
Dash’s lips parted, stunned. “Gone? How?”
She spread her hands, almost at a loss. “One of the worst crimes a vampire can commit is final death. Killing another vampire without sanction. Sébastien broke that rule in spades when he slaughtered the entire shadow house on Jane Street.”
“But he made it sounds as if he had the right to act.”
She nodded. “Yes, but he acted on his own instead of calling for the other adjudicators. He might have been the master vampire, but there are some laws that even a master can’t disregard. They would never have gone against him. As you said, there was cause, but he didn’t follow the rules. He wen
t rogue, plus he broke a truce that was hard won and long in the making with the Weres.”
Dash blinked, trying to process everything. “So Sébastien is dead?”
Abigail shook her head. “No, not dead. Just gone. He’s been forced to take a sabbatical. He left for Rome. Perhaps time in the Eternal City will give him a new perspective. He’s been ordered to stay with Dominic De’Lessep, one of the oldest known vampires in Europe. Dominic knows how to deal with a vampire with too much ego.”
“But that doesn’t answer my question. How does that free you?”
She sat beside him on the edge of the bed, her skirt hiking up her thighs. “Before Sébastien left, he released me from my blood bond. I’m no longer tied to him.”
“And this is a good thing, why?” Dash’s eyes skimmed her legs before moving to her face.
She slipped her hand in his. “I still have to obey the laws of my kind, just like you have to obey the laws governing the Weres, but I no longer have to follow what Sébastien says or risk physical pain.”
Dash angled his head. “So if he goes to backhand you again?”
“I can smack him right back. Not that I would.” She chuckled. “He’s still got centuries on me.”
“I had no idea that disobeying your master meant physical pain for you. Is it like that for all vampire progeny?”
She nodded. “Sometimes it sucks to be a vampire.”
He cracked a wry smile at her pun. “So again, what does all this mean, exactly?”
“It means if I want to spend every minute of every day in bed with you, I can. It means if I want to explore every inch of your amazing body, taste every part of you, learn all there is to know about you inside and out, I can—” Abigail paused, almost as though weighing her next words. “And if I want to take these vulnerable new feelings I have for you and see where they lead, I can do that too.”
She slipped her hand from his and reached to unbutton his pants, but he caught her wrist.
“And I don’t have any say in this?” He raised an eyebrow.
She froze before lifting her eyes to his. “Of course, you do.
“Tell me, then. What new feelings are you talking about?”
The Red Veil Diaries (Volumes 1-4) Page 15