by Trisha Baker
"But you're not alone now," Meghann whispered, kissing him before she grabbed his legs, prepared to drag him out of the room. She'd have to call out to Jimmy now so he could watch her back while she got Simon out of the house. "I'll help you, I'll get you out of here."
Meghann never knew what made her drop Simon and catapult over his inert form, spinning around in time to see Mikal lunge at her with a broadsword drenched in blood.
Meghann glared at her naginata and it flew into her hand at the same moment Mikal tried to knock it away. Meghann delivered a savage kick to his wrist and he leaped back in surprise, though he recovered quickly and began to advance on his small mother.
Mikal parried a thrust at Meghann's heart and she deflected it though she felt the impact of Mikal's sword clashing against hers all the way from her wrist to the ball of her shoulder. Her entire arm tingled unpleasandy and Meghann knew she was no match for her son's extraordinary physical strength. Her only hope lay in dodging his blows, dancing around him until he finally grew lax and she got a chance to attack.
"No!" This time Mikal went for her head and Meghann did a back flip, landing on top of the bar. Her new position at least gave her the advantage of being at eye level with him.
Mikal made a tentative swipe at her and Meghann answered by flipping a dagger she'd hidden in the small of her back at his heart. Mikal sidestepped the weapon and glanced speculatively at the stone floor beneath Meghann's feet. It began to tremble and Meghann knew Mikal meant to break the bar in half so she'd fall and lose her vantage point. Rather than deflect the attack, Meghann turned her attention to the liquor supply behind her and watched Mikal fall to his knees, squealing like a scalded cat when the bottles began hurtling themselves at him like missiles.
Despite the myriad cuts on her son's exposed skin, Meghann doubted the assault caused him much pain ... it had simply been enough of a deterrent to make him think twice before he launched another j telekinetic attack against his mother.
When the last bottle shattered against his skull, Mikal stood up, looking like a sulky teenager as he glared at Meghann. She stared back, impatient to end this battle so she could save Simon, but at the same time almost mesmerized by this child of hers she'd never had a chance to know and now had no desire to know.
No wonder he was able to fool Charles and me, Meghann thought as she inspected her son—he doesn't look like Simon or me at all. The jet black hair hadn't come from either of his light-haired parents and those nickel-plated eyes with their elongated pupils knew nothing of Meghann's green hue or Simon's amber color.
Try though she might, Meghann could find no piece of herself or Simon in this awkward-looking young man with his gaunt frame and beaky features that she couldn't recall in any member of her mortal family. The only area where Meghann saw a shadow of resemblance was in the great height Mikal had inherited from Simon and a certain wideness through his shoulders.
The longer Meghann stared, the harder it was to believe the stranger glowering at her was her own child. Meghann didn't have to worry about her feelings getting in the way during this confrontation ... the silver eyes filled with a venomous mixture of seething, inexplicable fury, cold contempt and a nasty insolence killed any maternal feelings she might have had for Mikal.
Meghann forced herself not to look over his head and check on Simon. Mikal already knew how much his father meant to her; she was not going to give him a further edge by showing how afraid she was, how she knew that each passing minute brought Simon closer to death. But she had to destroy Mikal quickly ... sunrise was only an hour and a half away.
Mikal frowned and cocked his head, standing well out of striking range, moving closer to Simon than Meghann would have liked. "How did you anticipate my moves?"
"You can't hide your thoughts from me . . . I'm your mother," Meghann said, hoping her sarcasm hid the alacrity she felt at discovering a chink in Mikal's armor. Like Ellie, Mikal wasn't used to anyone being able to read his thoughts. He'd never fought an opponent who could see into him; Meghann's psychic ability put her son at a definite disadvantage. "Mothers always know what their children are thinking."
"Do they indeed?" Mikal said with Simon's thin, mocking smirk. "Then look into my mind and tell me what you need to do to get your daughter out of here."
"Don't you mean what you force me to do?" Meghann countered. "You pose a great threat to your father and sister, as well as to me. Your need to destroy us all means I must kill you to guarantee our safety."
"Maggie," Mikal laughed with Simon's sardonic merriness. "Don't you look cute, trying so hard to be tough? You can't kill me anymore than you could kill him." Mikal used his sword to point at his unconscious father, careful to not take his eyes off Meghann. "I know all about your little spat now, how you almost destroyed him. But I am a far better marksman than you. Very sloppy aim, you missed his heart by several inches. You did have time to note my sword found the center of his heart?"
Meghann went rigid, blinking rapidly to keep the brutal shock of Mikal's words off her face. She hadn't been able to inspect Simon's wound but if Mikal were telling the truth, even fresh mortal blood wouldn't be enough to save Simon. A blow to the center of a vampire's heart was fatal, no amount of blood would heal the gaping wound. Ironically, the only thing keeping Simon alive was the sword in his chest. .. he'd die when it was removed.
"So you've lost your lover," Mikal taunted and
Meghann thought he sounded more like a petulant grade-school bully than the mastermind that caused all this destruction. "What are you willing to do to save your daughter?"
Meghann ignored the question; she wasn't going to start a dialogue that gave Mikal any modicum of control over the situation. How could she kill him and get Ellie, as well as Simon, to safety? Meghann decided she'd take Simon out of here with the weapon lodged in his chest and keep him alive on blood transfusions until she could think of a way to heal him. If only Alcuin were here ...
That was it! Alcuin! Meghann remembered her priestly mentor appearing to her after his death but before Meghann and Simon reconciled. He'd told Meghann she could kill Simon by invoking him, allowing his soul to possess her and infuse her body with his great strength so he could kill Lord Baldevar. Surely if Meghann called Alcuin now, he could destroy Mikal.
"No, no, Maggie," Mikal sighed in mock dismay. "Father already tried that. . . what do you think he was doing with the good doctor?"
"Alcuin inhabited Lee's body?" It wasn't really a question for Meghann realized immediately the perfect sense of Mikal's words. She felt a surge of admiration for Simon, calling forth his old enemy to use the body of a newly transformed vampire. And Lee ... Meghann's throat closed with tears when she thought of that brave, final sacrifice Lee made for Ellie. Then her eyes clouded over with puzzlement. If Simon had invaded Mikal's stronghold with Alcuin at his side, what had gone wrong? Why was Lee dead and Simon grievously hurt while this monster boy was alive and unharmed? Why didn't she feel Alcuin's spirit nearby?
"Steel," Mikal said in response to the confusion on Meghann's face. "My lovely house is reinforced with steel beams ... no spirits, be they angel or daemon, can enter my home."
"How is this your home?" Meghann demanded harshly and saw Mikal's inhuman eyes contract cautiously ... plainly he hadn't expected her to take the offensive. "Simon paid for it and Ellie designed it. You contributed nothing.
"Isn't that what all this is about?" Meghann questioned ruthlessly, knowing she was on the right track when she saw Mikal's colorless lips tighten. "You know you aren't a match for your father in brains or looks. You're jealous of him, just like you're jealous of your own sister for being pretty, for being smart, for not having to terrorize people to get attention. You know you're nothing, that no one would ever notice you unless you hurt them. You can't build a fortune the way Simon did so you have to steal his money, and you haven't your sister's talent or imagination so this nightclub wouldn't exist if it wasn't for her. You don't hate your father, Mikal, you hate you
rself. You hate yourself for the ugliness you see in the mirror and the emptiness you can't escape in your soul."
With a low, feral snarl, Mikal hurled himself at her and Meghann easily sidestepped him. He fell behind the bar and she leapt on top of him, sitting on his chest while she aimed the curved edge of the naginata at his vulnerable neck.
Mikal got his knees up and hurled Meghann off him before she could decapitate him. The force behind his blow was so strong Meghann crashed through the stone bar headfirst.
For a moment, her vision blurred and her head throbbed with the vicious pain of a concussion. Before Meghann could regain her equilibrium, Mikal fell on her, attaching his blood teeth to his mother's neck.
"I never got to breast feed," he snarled when Meghann lay weak and drained beneath him. Feebly, she tried to get her hand up and he broke it before tearing off her shirt and attacking a vein in her breast while his hands caressed the full globes of her breasts with obscene intimacy.
"Stop it!" she screamed, finding new energy to fight when she felt her son grow hard as he pressed himself against her. Meghann yanked on his hair with her good hand, the broken one wouldn't heal until she fed.
Mikal laughed at her attempts to defend herself and dragged her over to his semiconscious father, kicking him to make him more alert. "You cannot miss this, dear Father. I want you to hear her cry out, you must watch me take her ... ow!"
Meghann managed to sit up and saw a thin line of scratches mar Mikal's face while Simon's skin turned an even more alarming shade of blue as his body began to convulse.
"Simon," she whispered and dragged herself closer to him. There was blood in her backpack; she had to get it in him before this new effort to save her cost him his life.
Mikal kicked her in the throat, catching the bloody puncture wounds, and Meghann fell back, blinking back tears from the pain while her son started tearing her clothes off, frenzied with the need to rape his mother while his father watched helplessly.
A deafening explosion rang in Meghann's ears and she felt something whiz by. Mikal, nearly inside her but not yet able to accomplish his vile intent, growled and swung her around so her body protected him from the gun Jimmy Delacroix had just fired.
"Drop her," Jimmy ordered at the same moment Ellie screeched, "Don't you hurt my mom!"
Ellie would have charged forward with her wooden stake, but Jimmy grabbed her hand—Not yet, Ellie. As long as Mikal had Maggie hostage with a sword at her throat, Jimmy wasn't going to make any sudden moves. The minute he or Ellie attacked, Mikal was going to kill Maggie.
He's just a kid was Jimmy's first thought as he glared at the weird, wild eyes and scrawny bare chest of Mikal. With all he'd done, it was easy to forget Mikal was Ellie's twin, the same age she was. But now, with his lank black hair dripping sweat and calculating but confused expression, Jimmy thought the monster that caused all this trouble looked like any rebellious teenager—albeit one with inhuman pupils and eyes the color of lead bullets.
'Jimmy," Maggie cried, squirming furiously to get away from her son. "Don't worry about me! Just take Ellie and get out of here!"
"No!" Ellie screamed before he could say anything. "I won't let him hurt you or Daddy!"
"This is Jimmy?" Mikal questioned and Jimmy thought the kid sounded just like his father—full of that same cold-blooded viciousness and mocking arrogance. "What a pleasure to make your acquaintance ... you and I have a great deal in common. We're the only men in the world who've bedded Ellie and Maggie. But I think you're being selfish, Jimmy Delacroix. Why don't you take the one you've transformed and leave this one to me?"
Jimmy shuddered at the casual, lighthearted way Mikal acknowledged his incest. If only Maggie could get away from him, Jimmy would have a clear shot at his head. The Magnum would disable him long enough for Maggie to grab that sword by her side and take the kid's head off.
Daddy, Ellie whimpered and Jimmy was surprised when he didn't feel any happiness to see Simon Baldevar sprawled on the floor with a sword through his heart. If the kid could take Lord Baldevar out, how was Jimmy supposed to kill him?
First, we concentrate on getting Maggie away from him, Jimmy thought and Ellie nodded by his side, green eyes wide and full of terror as she stared at her struggling mother.
But, Jimmy, if I went over to Daddy and pulled the sword out. . .
No! That directive came from Maggie, still struggling wildly but focusing her gaze on Ellie. You 'll kill him if you take the stake out. . . don't touch him! Ellie, please get out of here!
"I won't leave you!" Ellie screamed, her voice cracking with fear before she glared at Mikal. "Why are you doing this? Can't you leave us alone? Haven't you done enough?"
"I have not even started, dear Sister." Mikal tried for his father's sardonic edge and failed miserably. There was something too forced in his smile as he glared at Ellie, seeming to take her transformed condition as a personal affront.
"Look at her," Jimmy said coldly, thinking he'd found a way to put the sonofabitch off balance. "You failed, kid. Ellie's alive and well. . . there isn't one fucking mark left of what you did to her and what's more, she doesn't even remember what you did today."
Mikal's eyes bulged and knotted red and blue veins popped through his white face, turning it into a grotesque mask of thwarted spite and malice. If Jimmy had been Catholic, he would have crossed himself at the insane fury shining in Mikal's eyes as he glared at Lord Baldevar.
Goddamn you, Father!
Jimmy had no idea why Mikal focused his anger on Simon when he'd been the one to transform Ellie but Maggie had already told him the kid was out of his mind. Now Jimmy had to keep working on Mikal, get him so riled up he wouldn't fight with a clear head when Jimmy attacked him to get Maggie out of his grip.
'You're finished," Jimmy growled, seeing Maggie nod imperceptibly, approving of his strategy. "Maybe you can kill Maggie, but you can't deal with Ellie and me at the same time . . . one of us will get you. Why don't you release your mother and let us walk out of here? We won't hunt you down. You leave us alone, we leave you alone. What do you say?"
"I say there's fifty-seven minutes to sunrise, Jimmy Delacroix. You and my sister are going to have to hide from the sun. So you made a vampire out of her . . . too bad you two aren't going to have any anniversaries to celebrate. I'll find your resting- place and dispose of you today. If you want, though, I'll handicap you to make the game more interesting. Take a running start. Flee my home now and let's see how far I have to hunt you down through the world before I slaughter you and my dear sister."
Jimmy didn't bother replying; he decided to take his chances and aim the Magnum at Mikal's head. Quick as a cat, Mikal lifted Maggie up so she covered him and the bullet wound up shattering her shoulder.
Maggie screamed in agony and Ellie hurled herself at Mikal before Jimmy could stop her. She ran forward and attempted to ram the stake through his unprotected crotch but Mikal tossed Maggie to the side and grabbed Ellie's stake, using it to propel her across the room.
Ellie hadn't even landed in a heap by the smoked French doors before Mikal gathered Maggie up again, using her as a shield while he advanced on Jimmy with a sword in his free hand.
Jimmy was about to fire again when he heard a queer popping sound, the only noise in the still room. Mikal heard it, too, and whirled around in time to face his father, wobbling on his feet but advancing on his son with the sword he'd just forced out of his own chest.
Jimmy could see enough of Mikal's profile to identify the complete shock on his features, the wide open, startled silver eyes and gaping mouth that croaked out, "Father..."
That was all he said before Simon raised the sword in a clumsy but deadly arc, bringing it halfway through Mikal's neck before he fell to the floor; heavy, black blood poured out of his mouth while his body shuddered so violently he was almost lifted off the floor.
"No!" Maggie screamed and raced over to Simon. "No, no!"
"Maggie," Jimmy said gently while Ellie sobb
ed miserably at his side. "It's over."
"No!" Maggie yelled, glaring up at him and Jimmy didn't see anything resembling sanity in the metallic green eyes locked on his.
"I can save him," she said, her hectic gaze jumping from Simon to Mikal. Since Lord Baldevar hadn't fully decapitated him, the boy was still alive but barely. Jimmy hunched next to his body and saw the sword had severed his spinal cord; Mikal was paralyzed from the neck down. His eyes met Jimmy's and there didn't seem to be any pain or even fear in his expression, just deep surprise ... as if his own mortality had just occurred to him.
"Bastard," Maggie hissed at her son and flipped him onto his back, her eyes cold and calculating when she handled the dying boy.
"Listen to me, Jimmy," she said urgently and Jimmy thought Simon Baldevar's impending death was pushing her into the breakdown that had started last night when she learned of Charles's murder. She grasped Jimmy's hands with a grip like two anvils and her voice, normally so light and sweet, ripped through him like a razor.
"I can save him, I can," she babbled and glanced at Simon, still now with approaching death while blood continued to pump out of his chest in heavy spurts. "I know what to do now. One way, there's one thing that might work. But I need your help; I can't do it without you. Please, Jimmy. You have to help me!"
"Of course, Maggie," he said gently, willing to do anything to keep her from completely toppling over the edge. Let Maggie do whatever she wanted to try and save Simon Baldevar. Sunrise would arrive soon and she'd be forced to sleep. Tomorrow night would be time enough for him and Ellie to help Maggie start coping with Lord Baldevar's death. "Tell me what to do."