by Lauren Dane
Rhett stumbled back. “Now, Nate. She’s almost gone.” His voice was anguished and Nate took his place, feeding at her wrist instead of her neck.
“It’ll happen soon.” Aidan told Rhett. “Hold on.”
Holly had to die first, give up her human body as the virus took over and transformed her system. Nate and then Rhett would begin to feed her just as death approached and then they’d all have to ride out the transformation.
A small sigh escaped Holly’s lips and Nate sat back, flushed with the huge amount of very powerful blood he’d taken, and he tore his wrist open and put it over her mouth. At first she did nothing but shortly, she grabbed him and drank. Rhett joined him, opening his own wrist, and took over as Aidan fed Nate. Several minutes later they pulled Rhett back and Lee fed him while they all watched over Holly.
A commotion sounded as Simon, Penn, Eli and Josh arrived and raced into the room.
Alex held them back and explained the situation. Holly shook and sobbed as her body violently fought the change. It felt like a thousand knives were slicing through her veins. Her gut was on fire and she cramped and sweated and heaved. She wanted to die it hurt so badly. Wanted to let go and leave the pain behind and she might have if Rhett and Nate hadn’t been there at her side, urging her to live.
Finally, after two hours of the terrible pain and illness, she fell back to the mattress and sighed.
“It’s done. Thank god,” Rhett said, remembering his own transformation. He’d forgotten about how painful it was and he ached that they’d had to put her through it.
Nate took her pulse. “She’ll be okay now. Let’s finish cleaning her up. Con, can you shimmer us home? Her first day she should be with us in a vampire-safe space.”
“Of course. Is there anything else we can do?” Con asked, his hand on Nate’s shoulder.
“No. We just need to find this bastard and remove the threat.”
“We’re staying at your place. Don’t argue, the four of us are very strong and together we’re even stronger. We can protect you if he comes for you at your house. We’ll drive over now and meet you there. Since it’s dawn I’m imagining that you need to rest.” Simon’s face was set.
Nate waved a hand at him. The adrenaline was going to crash and they’d both need to sleep as Holly already was. Isolde and Simone had cleaned her up and Con and Em took Holly and Nate first, straight to their bedroom, and then came back for Rhett, who had enough state of mind to be sure and arrange with Aidan to get extra donors for Holly.
* * * * *
The three of them lay sleeping deeply while Simon and his sons took up positions in the house and drank coffee and worked out strategy with Alex and a whole host of other Charvezes.
“We have no leads on Daniel Pilotte at all. It’s as if he fell off the face of the Earth. I know my father is involved but I don’t know how or why and he certainly won’t tell me. We need to track him down to get to the bottom of this whole thing,” Simon said.
“She needs to scry. It’s the only way,” Alex said and Josh agreed. “She’s got a biological connection with him and since she has wizard magic, she can scry. In fact, I think she’ll be very powerful with it because it’ll connect with her gift as a seer.”
“It’s dangerous! I should do it, or one of the boys. She hasn’t been trained!”
“Simon, she’s incredibly powerful and gifted. Show her how to do it and she will. She has much holding her to this plane, the risks are low. Much lower than her being attacked again, and you know she will.”
They slept in shifts and when sunset approached Rhett awoke first and fed, followed by Nate. They took Holly’s donor up to the bedroom and had him sit on the bed.
Holly’s eyes fluttered and she sat bolt upright on a gasp, clutching at her chest.
Nate knelt in front of her and grabbed her shoulders. “Sweetness? It’s okay. You’re okay.”
“What happened?” She kept feeling the place on her chest where she’d been hit. “I…I was burned, I thought I died! Oh my goodness!”
“You were attacked, honey. And, well, you did die.” Rhett added quickly, “But we brought you over. I’m sorry, I know you wanted to wait and do it slowly but it was the only way to save your life.”
She looked from one man to the other in confusion. “Are you saying I’m a vampire?”
Nate chuckled despite himself. “Yes, sweetness. The memories of the change will come back slowly. Be glad you can’t remember them just yet. But we’ll explain it all later, for now you need to feed.” He held a hand out to the man at the foot of the bed.
“What? You want me to…” A terrible hunger clutched at her, nearly doubling her over in pain.
“It’s the hunger. You need to feed. I’m really sorry we couldn’t prepare you for this but it has to be done.” Rhett motioned for the man to approach. “This is Alphonse.”
She backed up against the headboard, clutching the blankets to her body. She began to tremble and shiver from the cold. “Dude, I am so not sucking his blood! And turn on the heat in here!”
Nate narrowed his eyes at her. “Sweetness, you will take his blood and do it right now! You’re cold because you haven’t fed. You need the blood.” He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “Can’t you smell it? Dark and rich and delicious? You need it, you want it and he’s offering it freely.”
She wanted to deny it but she was starving and she could smell him. Her incisors lengthened and Alphonse leaned in and pulled his shirt off.
“Just inhale him and your body will know what to do,” Rhett said softly.
Tears of frustration in her eyes, she skeptically leaned in and took a deep breath, pulling his scent into her body. Her eyes went half lidded and instinct took over. Alphonse gave a cry of pleasure when her teeth slid over his flesh and the vein opened.
It was as if every cell in her body had been starved and dry and the blood filled her up, hydrated her. The terrible pain in her muscles began to recede and her cramps subsided.
Nate and Rhett watched to be sure she didn’t take too much but each felt guilty that it had to be so shocking the first time she fed. They’d wanted her to change slowly over time instead of having to give up daylight without even getting the chance to enjoy one last sunrise.
She broke off and laved the wound closed, she’d seen them do it enough, and they thanked a shaky-kneed Alphonse and he left the room.
Rhett turned to her and his heart broke to see the tear tracks on her face. “I am so sorry.”
“For what?” she asked with a sniffle.
“Last night. Damn it. I knew we shouldn’t have left the house and we did anyway and we couldn’t protect you and you must hate us for forcing the change on you…”
She put a finger over his lips to quiet him. “What? Are you saying you helped that wizard find me?”
“No! How could you think that?” he asked, shocked.
She rolled her eyes inwardly. “And you?” She turned to Nate. “You really wanted to let me die, didn’t you?”
“Of course not! I love you, I want to be with you forever. Seeing you so close to death last night I thought I’d die myself.”
“Then shut up, both of you. For heaven’s sake! You had nothing to do with my attack and you saved my life because there was no other choice. If I’d had my druthers I would have chosen the long, slow change route, but that’s not what the situation was fated to be. All in all, I’m quite happy to be alive. I’d rather be a vampire than dead thank you very much.”
“You’re crying!” Rhett accused. “How can you say you aren’t upset when you’re crying?”
“Of course I’m upset! I just had to drink blood! This after having a milkshake and french fries at two in the morning! I’m upset because I had no choice but that’s not your fault and it’s nothing that can be changed either.”
“Women!” Rhett groused.
“I need a shower. I’m freezing and I feel ooky.” She got up and walked into the bathroom without looking back
and Nate started laughing and followed her, Rhett at his heels.
* * * * *
“You really should have told me we had a house full of people,” Holly hissed as they started downstairs an hour later.
“Why? Then you’d have wanted to hurry through the sex or worse, have made us wait,” Nate murmured back.
“The whole house probably heard me,” Holly said with a blush and both men looked at her, aroused at the scent of her blood rushing to her face.
Nate just gave one of those dark chuckles of his and kissed her hand as he led her down the grand staircase, Rhett at her other side.
“Holly! Darling, how are you?” Simon rushed over and pulled her into a hug and then held her at arms length and looked her over carefully.
“I’m fine. Really. Please tell me you didn’t all stay here today? All of you without sleep?”
A husky brunette stepped forward and Holly saw her father stamped on his face. “You’re Eli.”
He pulled her into a hug and her other brothers followed suit. After they’d calmed down a bit they all let her go but stayed close.
“You think we’d leave you after what happened last night? I know that you grew up without a whole lot of family but we don’t walk away!” Lee scolded and pulled Holly into a hug.
“Well, let me at least make everyone a good meal while we talk about what we’re going to do to find my grandfather,” she said and breezed past everyone into the kitchen.
She began to pull food out of the fridge and the pantry and then she began to assemble pots, skillets and utensils.
“What?” she asked when she looked up to see everyone staring at her.
“You seem really well adjusted for a woman who was murdered and transformed into a vampire,” Simone said dryly. “I mean, it’s real, I can feel that. I’m just wondering how you can be so calm right now.”
Holly pulled out a container of chicken she’d had marinating and put it on the indoor grill and washed her hands. “Well,” she began as she tossed the cleaned asparagus into salted water to steam, “what else can I be? I mean now he’s in a corner and it’s him or me and it’s gonna be him because I have everything I’ve ever dreamed of my whole life—with the exception of my mother—and I’m not giving it up now.”
She turned the chicken and put the garlic bread under the broiler and turned to make a quick salad.
“So, tell me what the plan is. I’m assuming you’ve been strategizing?” she asked her father.
Everyone ate but Holly had no appetite for the food. It smelled pleasant enough and she enjoyed making it but she didn’t feel hungry for it. She also noticed that she could hear really well, even Jax talking to his people outside.
“Someone should take some food out to Jax and his men,” she murmured to Nate and he nodded and she got up and made a platter of thick sandwiches, cut some cheese and apples and poured coffee into a Thermos.
“I’ll take it. Wait ‘til I get back before you start talking about the plan.” Nate quickly took the food to an appreciative group and came back inside.
“Okay, let’s hear it,” Holly said as Rhett and Nate each took one of her hands.
“We need to find Daniel Pilotte. He’s the key here. I spoke with my father, your grandfather, yesterday and he wasn’t giving anything up. I know he’s hiding something but I have no way of forcing his hand because he’s stronger than I am and I have no way of knowing just what it is he’s hiding.
“I am absolutely convinced though that it’s him who is behind these attacks. We have to find out what really happened twenty-five years ago when Elena left New Orleans pregnant and alone. That’s our leverage because there’s something there that kept your mother running scared for twenty-four years and staying out of contact with a family she loved.”
“Okay, I’m with you so far. But the investigators haven’t found anything.” Nate sat nearby and Holly could feel him and Rhett more acutely now, more intensely, as their blood coursed through her veins. It was slightly disorienting.
“True and that’s why we think desperate times call for desperate measures. Holly, do you know what scrying is?”
“Um, if I’m remembering right it’s when a mirror or a bowl of water is used and spelled so that something can be searched for and seen. But I also remember something about the spell thinning the barriers between planes of existence and some practitioners getting pulled into the darkness.”
“Yes, it can happen. It’s risky. But I think that you’re strong enough to handle it and that unlike those who’ve been pulled into the darkness, you have much to hold you here to his plane.”
Nate banged a fist on the table. “No way! She died last night, Simon! She’s only been doing this magic stuff for less than two months. You will not risk her fucking soul!”
“Her blood ties her to you and Rhett. Her heart, her soul, is linked to you two—two very powerful vampires who hold her here. If the darkness wanted her, it would have to take you two as well, being that you’re the ones who turned her. She is also tied by her biology to some of the strongest inherent witches and wizards on earth. The risk is very low, Nate. Much much lower than the certainty that the attacks will continue until she dies for good.”
“Are you okay with this, Nate? Rhett?” Holly asked him and he nodded.
“I don’t like it, damn it! I nearly lost you last night, I don’t want you to do this.” Nate began to pace and Holly ached at the pain on his face.
Rhett put his head in his hands. “Nate, we have to do something. We can’t protect her this way.”
“You’re a Charvez and a Decatur. And that combination is going to protect you. Once we find your grandfather we can stop this,” Simon said. “Nate, Rhett, I know you are worried but I love her too. She’s my daughter and I didn’t just find her to lose her again. I swear to you.”
Holly sighed. She stood up and went into the hallway, pulled a mirror that had belonged to her grandmother off the wall and brought it into the dining room and laid it on the table.
“I’ll need some candles. Lee, they’re on the mantle, can you bring them?”
Lee nodded and went to get them.
Alex sat down at the table on one side of her and Simon on the other. Eli, Josh and Penn were across from her.
“We need a circle,” Holly said and Penn nodded and grabbed the container of salted and spelled sand.
“Lee, get everyone else in a circle and don’t let anyone out until I say so. I mean it,” Holly said.
“You’re not doing this,” Nate said, touching her arm, unease written into his normally beautiful features.
She smiled up at him, tracing the line of his cheek with her fingertips. “Nate, I am and you know why. I have to do this. We don’t have the luxury of choices right now. I have a lot of strength with me in that circle, I will be fine. Accidents are rare. Wizards scry all the time.”
“Dark wizards scry!”
“Okay, yes, that’s true. But not all who do are dark and it’s going to be fine. I did not foresee anything about this. I did foresee last night’s attack.” She kissed his lips and then Rhett’s. “I love you and everything will be fine. Stay in the circle or you risk everyone when you leave it,” she urged them both and stepped back and felt their circle seal with the last of Lee’s spell.
“Okay, let’s rock,” she said to the wizards, who then closed their circle.
“I’m going to give you the spell, repeat it as you spill your blood on the surface of the mirror, mixing it with the ritual oil,” Simon said and she nodded. He spoke the words to her and they lodged in her head like they’d always lived there.
Taking up the cutting blade, she began the spell as she sliced into her palm. She had to do it a few times because her body kept healing so fast. Drops of crimson fell into the oil that pooled on the surface of the mirror and the liquid rippled and suddenly looked miles deep and then glassy clear again as the spell ended and she touched the bell with the athame held in the hand she hadn’t cut.
Concentrating, she felt the way begin to open. She felt the dark things press up against the thin membrane between worlds but ignored them and felt the strength of her father, brothers and Alex instead.
There he was! She saw Daniel Pilotte and he was in Las Vegas. He had a gambling problem and he knew he should leave town as he’d been instructed but he had to go to the blackjack tables just once more to try to win back what he’d lost.
She simply knew where he lived and what casinos he played in and she stored that information and began to pull back, ignoring the mental brush of things best not thought of until she was back at the table in her house in New Orleans. She said the words that broke the spell and rang the bell again.
She stood up and closed her eyes, holding hands with the others, and once they ascertained that nothing had come back with her she turned to Lee and broke their circle and Lee did the same with a nod.
The magic rushed out into the room like a warm tide and everyone soaked it up for a few moments until they all went into the living room to talk about what Holly had seen.
She told them where he was and Con immediately shimmered to get him and bring him back. They crafted a containment circle that would exclude a Faerie and waited. It was mere moments until a weary and frightened Daniel Pilotte was standing there, held captive by his own granddaughter’s magic.
“Em, can you sense any magic on him? Trap spells or a geas?” Holly asked.
Em looked and shook her head. “No. He’s scared but there’s actually a small bit of empathy deep inside him. I daresay even a bit of love and regret.”
“I can’t feel anything either and I know the feel of my father’s magic,” Simon said.
Holly turned to Rhett and kissed his lips softly, “Honey, find what we need to know.”
He touched her hair, this woman who was his everything, and turned back to Daniel. He didn’t bother with any preliminaries and pushed the power of his voice as high as it would go. “Tell me what really happened nearly twenty-five years ago when Elena Charvez left New Orleans.”
Daniel sat cross-legged on the floor with a sigh. “Elena had turned fifteen that summer and got secretive. Her mother told me that it wasn’t a problem, that our Ellie was a smart girl with a good head on her shoulders.” He paused to snort in derision.