by Mairsile
“Lucy, how you tease,” Vince quipped, edging his hip on the corner of her desk.
Lucy pointed at her boss’s door and waved her hand to shoo him away.
Nikki and Vince opened the door and walked up to their sire’s massive desk and stood at attention.
“Did I summon you?” Ludovico asked gruffly without raising his head from the report he was reading.
“No, Father,” Vince answered.
Nikki looked at him placidly. “Papá, we mean no disrespect, but—”
Ludovico held up his hand, leaned back in his Captain’s Tub Chair, and tossed his pencil on the desk. “Stupido, y’all know that’s a contradiction in terms. When a person says no disrespect, they are actually about to be irrispettoso.”
The siblings nodded, but said nothing.
“I take it you found the rogue immortals I sent you down there for? How did it go?”
“Yes, Papá, we found them,” Nikki answered. “But they implied that you had sent them after us.”
“Now why in the hell would I do that?” Ludovico barked.
Nikki looked at Vince, who only shrugged. Nikki could not hear her father’s thoughts by virtue of being sired by him, but she could hear her brother’s. “He’s lying, Nikki.”
“Papá,” Nikki said, drawing her sire’s attention. “The one we questioned, who had just killed a young woman, said that you were his sire and you sent them to distract us.”
His father scoffed. “What did their minds tell you?”
Nikki looked down at her black ankle boots. “I couldn’t read their thoughts, Papá. I… uh, don’t know why.” Why couldn’t I?
Ludovico’s smile confused Nikki even more, but she shrugged it off when her sire stood up and walked around the desk. He stood in front of Nikki and placed his hands on her shoulders. Nikki and Vince weren’t always his favorites, but after Nikki revived Beulah, he saw her in a completely different way, even if he was displeased that she was a girl. Ludovico would do anything for Nikki, though he would never admit that to her.
“Dominique Delgadillo, you are unique, with abilities that have served me well over the years. Why do you doubt me now?”
“I would never doubt you, Papá. I am only reporting what we learned from the man. It is up you to do with it what you will.”
“Oh, very smooth,” Vince thought, knowing Nikki could hear him, and he was forever grateful that Ludovico was an Air element and could not.
Ludovico looked at her intently for a moment, then slapped her on the shoulder before resting a hip on the corner of his desk. “Now, what of the girl they killed?”
“She was a student at Texas A&M, but we found her in South Padre Island.”
“Her name?” Ludovico huffed. “What is her name, her lineage?”
“Rebecca Lilymont,” Nikki replied. Why does that name sound so familiar to me?
Ludovico jumped up again, rushed to the door and swung it open. “Lucy, honey, find out what you can about Rebecca Lilymont and get Leonard Dupree on the phone, adesso!”
“Dupree? Isn’t that your girlfriend’s last name?” Vince asked his sister without saying a word.
Nikki looked at him, her face draining of what little color she had and gave a single nod. She remembered Rebecca now, though she had only met the girl once. She was her beloved’s best friend.
“What is it, sire? What’s going on?” Vince asked, when Ludovico walked back to his desk.
Lucy poked her head in. “I have Mr. Dupree on the line, Governor.” Lucy had been with Ludovico since before the Civil War when he ruled all of the South. He fancied himself the governor, though it was never an official title and he was never elected to office. She’s the only one who still calls him that.
Ludovico picked up a pencil and punched the speaker button. For all the state of the art technology the world enjoyed, immortals must endure rudimental means of communicating because of the elemental currents their bodies produced. It had taken Vince years before he stopped shorting out the television set and learned to use a pencil.
“Leonard, I apologize for the early morning call.”
“No problem, Mr. da Polenta. A rancher always rises with the cows, not with the sunrise.”
Smiling, Ludovico asked, “How y’all doing down there in Texas?”
The da Polenta Ranch, twenty miles west of Seven Sisters, Texas, was sprawled out across 100,560 acres of mostly flat land. Run by Leonard Dupree and his daughter, Delilah Rose Dupree, who was in her seventh year of Veterinary Medicine, the ranch was home to 25,000 cattle and 152 quarter horses, and employed forty-eight cowhands and three Mexican-American families who farmed the hay for the winter feed.
“Not so good, sir. We just heard that Delilah’s best friend, Rebecca, was raped and killed last night.”
“Shit,” Nikki grunted, her fangs sliding down. “She should be here by now. You don’t think anything happened to her, do you?” She realized that Lilah was the one who said that last night at the bar. Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Is your daughter all right?” Ludovico asked.
“She was pretty upset. The doctor gave her a mild sedative; she’s sleeping now. Luckily, she had come home last night before we found out.” Leonard was one of many human employees Ludovico employed, and one of the few who knew of Ludovico’s world. Growing up around vampires, Leonard fell in love with a woman who was as open minded about them as he was. Once she got over the initial shock, of course. But when their daughter, Delilah, nicknamed Lilah, was born, his wife, Emily, begged him not to tell her. She was afraid of the repercussions it might cause for Lilah in grade school.
Ludovico liked the man because he embodied the cowboy spirit of the Old West. Leonard lived the cowboy code.
Looking over at Nikki and Vince, Ludovico said, “I’m sending two of my best people down there to protect her.”
The siblings looked at each other, and Vince thought, “Oh, shit.”
“Protect her? It was a random killing, Mr. da Polenta. The girl probably strayed away from the club and someone kidnapped her and killed her. Why would you think Lilah needs protecting? Unless… they weren’t human?”
“That’s what I was calling you about. I just received reports this morning, and apparently, this has happened before. Your neighbors to the west of you, in Pecos County, lost their daughter when she was kidnapped and used as leverage for a takeover. They didn’t ask for ransom; they asked for the ranch and as soon as they got it, they killed the whole family.”
“I remember hearing about that on the news,” Leonard said, his voice quaking.
“There’s a new cartel out of Russia trying to move into your area.” Ludovico added and picked up the report he had been reading. He handed it to Nikki. “They may be responsible for the girl’s death. They could have been trying to get information from her about your family and my ranch.”
Nikki tilted her head at the same time that Vince thought, “What the hell?”
“Well, if you think it’s necessary, Mr. da Polenta. I’d be grateful. She’s my only daughter,” Leonard acknowledged.
“I have four adopted daughters of my own. Daughters are very precious and must be protected,” Ludovico said, gazing at Nikki. He had sired many more than four daughters over the years, but his wife, Beulah, who agreed to be turned after she was brought back from the dead, adopted four baby girls as her own. One by one, as they became adults who could make their own decisions, they asked to be turned. Ludovico drained them and Beulah infused them with her blood. As time went by, the girls married and had families of their own and all of them lived in Ludovico’s mansions across the South. Although Nikki was also considered his daughter, it was more of a working relationship that they shared.
Retracting her fangs, Nikki let her mind drift, thinking about Lilah and the last time she saw her. She’d be twenty-five now. Had it only been three years since she’d erased her memory of her? Seemed like an eternity. She had watched her for a couple of weeks, more for the ache in h
er heart than to assure that she had forgotten her. But she had forgotten her, completely, and she had no choice but to release her from her mind, although Nikki’s heart could not let her go.
If it was true, and she really did need protecting, Nikki would move heaven and earth to keep her safe. But would she have the strength to pretend that there was nothing between them? There was no other choice. She would just have to. She needed to steel herself against her own emotions.
“They will be there by this evening and stay in my private suite,” Ludovico stated. “Rest easy, my friend. I will get to the bottom of this, I promise you. We’ll speak again later in the week.”
“Thank you, Mr. da Polenta,” Leonard said, and hung up.
“Papá, Vince can handle the girl’s protection,” Nikki said as soon as Ludovico punched the speaker phone off.
“Yes, I’m sure he can. But as I said, you have unique abilities that will be needed down there.” Ludovico called Lucy’s name, and she immediately appeared at his side. “Get Buck Thompson on the phone for me and then send my private jet for him. He lives in Jackson, and it should only take him about four hours to fly down there.”
“The plane is in for repairs. It will be tomorrow before it can pick him up,” she replied. “It can fly him to Laredo, Texas, where he’ll need to rent a car. It will take an hour to drive to the ranch.”
“Fine. Tell him to rent whatever he needs and send you the bills.”
Lucy nodded and left the room.
“I thought Vince and I were going?” Nikki asked.
“You are, but I need a human to watch the girl during the day. And Vince,” Ludovico looked at him, “you are the wild card. No one needs to know you are connected to Nikki or me. I reckon cowboys would be more inclined to talk in front of another cowhand, so play the part.”
Vince smiled, relieved to have something fun to do. “You got it, partner,” he said, trying to emulate John Wayne. “I’ll just mosey on down there and wrangle me a—”
“Yes, yes, very funny,” Ludovico waved him off. He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a key. “Here, this will get you into my specially built wing at the ranch.” He handed the key to Nikki. “No humans are allowed in there, understood?” He turned his head and looked at Vince.
“Yes, Father,” Vince replied. “Damn it, there goes my fun.”
Nikki steeled her face so as not to tip off her sire, but inside she was laughing at Vince’s truthful assertion. She cleared her throat before saying, “Papá, the immortals who attacked the girl weren’t Russian or smart enough to be working for a cartel.”
“So you say, but one of them knew enough to have you doubting me, didn’t he? I trust y’all won’t be so easily played the next time.”
If they could have blushed, both sibling’s cheeks would be a bright red.
“No, Papá,” Nikki assured him as she tucked the key in her pocket. “We will not be played again.”
“Non dovrei pensare. I should think not,” Ludovico said in Italian and then English. “If the head of the cartel is who I think she is, it could mean war.”
“Who do you think she is, Papá?” Nikki questioned.
“Irinushka Elizaveta Yuliana. She killed her husband a few centuries ago and took over the syndicate in Chechnya, Russia. I met her once at a fundraiser I hosted for the Confederate cause, but she was calling herself Jivika Gadhavi then, and she had a Hindu accent. She looked like she had been turned at a very young age, maybe nineteen or twenty. She had jet black hair, with a pixie face and a small frame, but she presented herself like royalty. She was born during the King Tut era, and there’s even a rumor that she slept with the child king once. She is a very mutable immortal. She was in America to see how she could profit from the war and sent me an official greeting. I sent her an invitation to the cotillion. She gave me a generous donation before she left, and protocol dictates that I am beholden to her. I reckon she knows exactly who owns that ranch, and she is sending me a message that it’s time to pay up. I believe that the girl they killed was a courtesy call, letting me know that Irinushka wants my ranch.”
“But you sent us after those immortals. You knew about them already,” Nikki asserted.
“I knew they were killing unnecessarily in my territory. I didn’t know they were connected with Irinushka until that report came through. Those men were her soldiers and she deliberately sent them on a suicide mission, one that I have no doubt they volunteered for.”
“She is that powerful?” Vince asked.
“I reckon she is. The loyalty of her progenies is second to none.”
“You have the same loyalty, Father,” Vince said with sincerity.
Ludovico looked at him pridefully. “Thank you, my boy. But I don’t coerce your loyalty as she does with her children.”
“How does she coerce them?” Nikki questioned.
“I’ll tell you some day. Right now, the sun is almost up. Get some sleep, and y’all report in tonight after you get settled at the ranch.”
***
“Lovely, Lilah. Why do you cry?”
“My heart is broken, Nikki. My best friend is gone, and I am so lonely for her.”
“I’m so sorry, Lilah Rose. What can I do to ease your pain?”
“Hold me. Just hold me, Nikki.”
“Always and forever.”
Lilah rolled over and murmured her name in her sleep.
Nikki woke up 558 miles away with a tear in her eye. She knew she wouldn’t be able to hold her, to touch her in her waking hours, but when she slept, she was hers. She hoped she could lessen her pain, even if she would only remember it as a fading dream. “Hold on, Lilah. Please hold on. I’ll be there in a few hours.”
Chapter Three
Sitting in a chair in her sire’s guestroom, Nikki was pulling on her black ankle boots when Vince flung the door open and stepped in. Nikki did a double-take and laughed. “You look ridiculous.”
Vince stood with his hands on his hips, wearing a plaid shirt, blue jeans with chaps over them, an incredibly large belt buckle that covered most of his midsection, a red checkered bandana, and a ten-gallon hat that fell down over his eyes.
“Damn. Is it April Fool’s day or something?” Nikki looked down at the belt buckle and snorted. “Overcompensate much? You know that’s just a myth, right?”
The knowledge that she would soon be in the same room with Lilah lightened Nikki’s mood considerably. Plus, sharing a dream with her again gave her the strength she needed to stay focused. When she had first erased her memories, she would dream-walk with Lilah to ease her pain. But eventually, it caused even more pain for her, so she had to stop, until just recently.
“Well, we’re supposedly a myth, too. So what’s your point?” Vince asked, poking his thumbs into his belt cowboy style.
“My point is that the size of a man’s belt buckle does not equal the size of his penis. And if you want to be taken seriously on the ranch, you won’t dress like a bisoño, a greenhorn.”
“Look at you, already speaking the lingo. Do you really think it’s too much?”
“Yes, I do,” Nikki chuckled. “But what concerns me is that you even had to ask. Take off the buckle and the hat, and you’ll fit right in.”
Vince glared at her, and then removed his hat and unbuckled his belt to remove his buckle. His jeans and chaps fell to the floor. He wasn’t wearing underwear.
Nikki saw more than she cared to. Embarrassed, she said, “Yeah, on second thought, you’d better leave the buckle on.” Nikki laughed so hard she fell off the chair.
***
“Yes, I’m ready for this,” Nikki said, spitting out the bug that got caught in her teeth.
“Hey, get out of my head, damn it,” Vince barked. “I’ll drop you on your ass and let you walk to Texas if you don’t.”
Flying on the wind at almost jet speed, the two vampires were on their way to the ranch near Seven Sisters, Texas, as soon as the sun had set. Vince was excited; Nikki was unsettled.<
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“Sorry, occupational hazard, Vince,” Nikki confessed. Not that she needed to. It was a centuries-old argument between the two that would never be solved.
“I don’t have to be a mind reader to know that you’re worried.”
“Yeah, I’m worried,” Nikki agreed. “Now, more than ever, it’s obvious that wiping her memory was the right thing to do… but…”
“But what?”
“But nothing.”
“You’re hoping she falls in love with you all over again, aren’t you?” Vince asked sharply. He could feel his sister tense and knew the answer was yes. “Speaking as someone who had to physically drag your depressed ass out of Texas and then having to put up with your grouchy attitude ever since, I hope she does. It could happen, you know.”
“No, it can’t. I won’t allow it. I would just have to erase the memories of me again. It’s the only way to keep her safe, especially now with this new threat.”
Vince shook his head. “How many times can you do that to the girl before they lock her up in the loony bin?”
He was right. Taking away specific memories, especially emotional ones, always left a void in the mind of the subject that family and friends tried to fill. Usually the victim was perceived as having some malady or having gone crazy.
“I was very discreet when I was with Lilah. No one knew we were dating, I saw to that.”
“You mean you influenced her mind so that she wouldn’t tell anyone.”
In the three years since Nikki broke it off with Lilah, Vince was never able to get her to talk about it. Now, with Nikki worried about seeing the girl again, she needed to talk.
Nikki sighed. “Yes, that’s what I mean. It was the only way I could see her away from her friends.”
“How could you not know that she was the daughter of our sire’s human employee?”
“Did you know?” Nikki asked.
“No, but then I wasn’t dating her either.”
“You remember when we were in College Station, Texas hunting an immortal? Well, I met her at the college there, and we were never properly introduced. We just used our first names and the rest never came up,” Nikki tried to explain, realizing how lame that sounded. “And after I broke it off, you and I were sent to Florida to hunt down the two idiot immortals who stole from Ludovico’s muscadine vineyard.”