And strode right into Jade Laroque.
The temptation to grab the young girl was unbearable, and for a moment, he gave in. He took her by the arm, wanting nothing more than to sink his teeth into her tender flesh, but he couldn’t. She looked too much like his Nicolette.
“I want to help. I heard what my father has done, and this has to stop,” she whispered, trembling. She seemed to be summoning all her strength to stand up to the infamous Tobias Strigoi. Squaring her shoulders, she said, “My mother would have wanted us to get along.”
The anger seeped out of his body at the sound of her words. “Thank the gods you do have your mother’s genes.”
Frank was obviously shocked when Tobias returned so quickly to his office. He looked even more stunned to see who accompanied him. Seeing Jade standing in his office caught him off guard. His face flushed, and perspiration seeped onto his skin.
For a moment, it was as if Nicolette were standing there.
He reached out to her then pulled his hand back. “It can’t be… What’s going on? Jade… Is that you?”
She expressed no emotion whatsoever. “Yes, it’s me,” she answered, a chill emanating from her.
The mayor’s mouth became dry as the desert. His lips stuck together as if he’d eaten a peanut butter sandwich. “Is this some sort of joke? Did your father send you? Tobias, what’s going on?”
Tobias turned toward Jade. “She claims she wants to help.”
Frank looked from Tobias to Jade and back again. “H-how? I don’t understand. Why did you return? Why didn’t you come to see me sooner?”
She splayed her arms. “I’m here now, Frank. You seem very nervous. Does my being here upset you?” Jade even sounded like Nicolette.
A slow smile dragged across his face. “No! Of course not, I’m thrilled to see you.” He stepped forward to embrace the young woman, but she moved away.
Tobias spoke sternly. “Frank, there will be time enough for questions later. We have to find Raven before Laroque kills her.”
“Tobias,” Jade interrupted, “I think it’s important we take the time to get reacquainted. Don’t you, Frank?”
Visibly shaken, Frank turned to get a drink from his liquor cabinet. “I think Tobias is right.”
“Yes, I thought you would.” Jade moved over to sit in one of the chairs opposite Frank. “You may want to sit for this, Tobias.” She patted the arm of a chair next to hers. He declined the offer.
“I-I don’t understand,” Frank stuttered, pouring a glass of bourbon. He clearly struggled to regain his composure.
Jade was livid, could feel rage’s heat and see angry red spots flaring throughout her aura. Her porcelain expression was hard, as if just baked. “Yes, you do, Frank. You see, Tobias, Frank here has been working with my father all along.”
Instantly, Tobias had his hand around Frank’s throat. “Don’t listen to her. She is Laroque’s daughter. She’ll say anything to save him.” He was straining to get the words out. Tobias’s fingers pressed firmly on his windpipe.
Jade rose and stood before the shaking man as he dropped his glass. She placed a hand tenderly on Tobias’s shoulder. “Then how did my father know when and where he could stage the attack on Bo? Do you think I’m that stupid? I was supposed to meet you in the park. That’s why I was there. I heard my father on the phone with you. You were to call the Lamai—Mick—when Bo arrived here at Town Hall. Mick was coming toward me, and while Bo thought he was coming to my rescue, my father stuck him with the virus.”
Frank struggled to get free of Tobias’s grip, but could not budge an inch. “No, that wasn’t me!”
“Well, then I must look up the other ‘Dubois’ who works at Town Hall.” She paused for a moment. “Actually, I have a better idea, Frank. Why don’t you tell Tobias what really happened all those years ago? I’m sure he’d be very curious to hear the story.”
Silence filled the room like a dense fog. Frank was having trouble breathing, even though Tobias had loosened his stranglehold.
She waited a moment. “Okay, I’ll tell him. You must realize by now that Frank has been in love with my mother—your wife—since…well, since forever. Did you ever notice how over time Deidre has come to look amazingly like Nicolette? That’s no accident of nature—it was on purpose.”
“No. It can’t be true. You said Nicki was like a sister to you!” He paused. “I denied the truth, not wanting to believe I could still be betrayed. I was wrong.”
“All the years of your odd behavior suddenly makes perfect sense.” Tobias let out a pained sigh. “Even though I’ve become hardened over the years, it still cuts deeply when a supposed friend betrays me. In my hundreds of years as a Lamai, it never ceases to devastate me when I realize I’ve been duped.”
Jade snapped, her emotions boiling. “Yes. He lied. Just like he lied when he told you my father raped my mother. Right, Frank? I was not conceived that way. My mother gave herself to my father, to Philippe. Frank couldn’t stand the fact that she would be with another man and not with him. Tell him, Frank—be a man! Go ahead and tell Tobias the truth for once in your miserable life!”
Frank tried to turn away, but he could not—not with Jade in the room. “You’re insane—like your father.”
Jade’s eyes narrowed as she glared at the mayor. “And my mother, right? That’s what you’d like everyone to believe, anyway, that she was mad with guilt over what she did to Tobias. And from what the powerful sorceress in the French Quarter told me, she was guilt-ridden over her betrayal of Tobias. But her love for her family was stronger—her love for Tobias—and his love for her kept her sane.” Jade sat again across from Frank, staring him down, wanting to melt his very soul with her blazing gaze.
Tobias tossed Frank into his desk chair as if discarding rotting garbage. “What are you saying, Jade? And why should I believe you? How can I be certain you’re not lying, too?”
Frank coughed. “That’s right, Tobias. Don’t believe her.”
Jade shifted in her seat, getting more comfortable and settling back. No one knew that she had become a force to be reckoned with. Her father had taught her well. She removed a velvet bag from her jacket pocket.
“I could take this concoction and administer it to you, Frank, and you would be compelled to tell the truth. Shall I?” She addressed her question to Tobias.
Turning toward Frank she continued. “It’s very similar to the powder that accompanied the spell. You remember the spell. The one you bought from the innocent fae. The spell that would make my mother fall in love with him?”
“Go on,” Tobias instructed.
“I finally put the pieces together when I was recently brought back home. I visited Charlene Sabin. You remember her, Frank. She was my mother’s best friend and High Priestess, knowledgeable in Vodou, Santaria and other occult arts. She’s also a natural bruja. Frank has powerful magick of his own, Tobias. Were you aware of that?”
“Of course he wouldn’t know that!” Frank raged in indignation. “He only acknowledged my presence when he needed something from me. He was so wrapped up in his life that he never noticed…”
“Never noticed what?” Tobias bellowed.
Frank’s face contorted with disdain. He paced himself as he slowly turned to his nemesis. “I wanted your pain to match what I felt whenever I thought of Nicolette in your arms. You’re a monster. You never knew how I really felt about Nicki.”
Tobias laughed at the crazed man. “And that was—what? You loved her? Everyone loved her. You were like a brother to her, nothing more.”
“Laroque was more, though, wasn’t he?”
Jade’s tone was softer as she spoke. “Tobias, it went deeper than that. Frank was obsessed with her. And part of that obsession involved pitting you against Philippe. My father is a powerful bokur, but his magick couldn’t make my mother love him. Frank appeared with a spell from a novice fae and some powder. According to Charlene, my father preformed the incantation. Only you never told him it was
n’t permanent, did you, Frank? The spell magnified my mother’s feelings toward my father. It took the smallest bit of attraction she had for my father and amplified it. At Mardi Gras they conceived me. Frank convinced Maman to tell you she was raped because he hated you both—my father and you—the only two men my mother ever gave herself to freely, more or less. Isn’t that correct?”
Frank’s face turned pale. “Yes,” he spat.
“Frank would report to my father how happy she was and that she had told you, Tobias, it was your baby she was carrying. But you knew the truth. Frank needed for you to know the truth so that your hatred would grow, and it did. As my mother’s belly grew with me inside, your hatred took over. That is, until her love for you assuaged the hurt. You two were expecting another child soon after I was born. She wanted to have many children with you, Tobias. She promised to bear you many offspring. She wanted a part of you always inside of her. Her love for you was immeasurable.”
“Unfortunately, people break their promises all the time,” Tobias muttered.
“She didn’t break her promise. She was pregnant with your baby when she was killed.”
Tobias’s world was rocked, and the mighty vampire was brought to his knees. He steadied himself against the armchair next to where Jade sat. She took her leather bag and pulled out a document, handing it to Tobias while eyeing Frank with a malevolent stare.
Tobias noticed a change in her. However, he could not fully focus as he read the autopsy report over and over. Decedent approximately six weeks pregnant. Tobias went limp as he fought back the tears that threatened to overtake him.
Jade went on. Her voice cut through the air like a machete. “There was a conspiracy between Frank and the M.E. in New Orleans to keep that and other information secret. Who was that M.E., Frank?”
Frank remained quiet.
“You forgot your own brother, Darryl?” Her voice echoed malignantly throughout the room. “Different last names—different fathers, same mother? I hate to be the one to tell you, Tobias, but your ‘friend’ here—the man who helped raise me and Raven—killed our mother! But not before he raped her. And that time, she really was abused.”
Time seemed to stand still. What happened next slowly drew Tobias’s attention. Jade moved with such speed no one had time to react until it was too late. Still, he remained in his seat, weak, as if someone had drained him of all his blood. Tobias gradually focused on what was materializing on the other side of the maple desk in Frank’s office.
Tobias thought he was seeing things.
“Nicolette…” he whispered.
Jade’s eyes grew paler until they were the color of her precious namesake, and her mouth bore fangs. “You’re going to wish Tobias had killed you,” she muttered as she sank her teeth into Frank’s flesh. She grabbed a handful of cottony hair and wrenched his head back.
As she drank, she saw it all.
Chapter Fourteen
Her mother was so happy, bouncing Jade on her lap as Raven played in the backyard, when she noticed Frank walking through the gate.
Tobias had just purchased their new house, which rested on a cliff and was recently fenced in for the children’s safety. The yard was their sanctuary.
“Come on inside, Frank,” Nicolette said, taking her daughters in for their naps. She returned from the girls’ bedrooms, a smile on her face.
And Jade took in more blood.
Frank and Nicolette sat at the kitchen table. Nicolette poured some iced tea into two glasses.
“You’re glowing,” Frank said. “Is it because you’re happy to see me?”
“I’m always happy to see you, but no…I’m pregnant.” Jade’s mother was absolutely radiant.
“Whose baby?” Frank coldly asked.
Jade experienced her mother’s hurt feelings as she dug her teeth further into his neck. He tried to grab onto her, but she was too angry, too powerful. She worked hard at portraying the weak little bastard child. In the past, she could not afford for anyone to know the extent of her strength.
“Tobias’s baby, you idiot,” Nicolette said.
“I’m sorry. That was mean.”
Frank got up from the kitchen table. He embraced Nicolette. He held her so close, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Did you tell him?”
“You’re the first to know.”
Frank held her. He kissed her cheek. “That’s great news. Congratulations!”
“Thank you, Frank.”
He held her still.
He kissed her neck and slid his hands down to her perfectly rounded butt. He squeezed, and then slipped his hands between her legs. Those long legs.
He was hard, and she felt it.
“Frank! Stop!” She tried to pull away.
Jade sucked harder.
Frank dragged Nicolette to the sofa in the next room. She kicked at his shins, squirming unsuccessfully while he kissed her neck. Ripping her blouse open, he saw she wasn’t wearing a bra. A deep moan escaped him as his eyes drank in her beauty. Nicolette slapped him hard across his cheek. He grabbed her wrist and held it forcefully.
“You always look so sexy when you’re pregnant,” he whispered.
He suckled each breast as she pounded her fist against the side of his head. Frank grasped both hands.
“What are you doing? You’re hurting me!” she cried.
“Sshh, you don’t want to wake up those precious little babies. They’d be traumatized for life seeing their momma…in this position,” he taunted.
She lunged forward attempting to knock her forehead against his nose, but he quickly dodged her.
“Come on, Nicki, you know what I’m doing. You’ve fucked a few men in your day. Why not me? You’ve always denied me.”
He lifted her skirt, tore her panties off and rubbed himself against her, moaning with pleasure. He was finally going to have her, and nothing was going to stop him. She scratched at his face as he pulled down his trousers.
“Don’t make me hit you,” he warned, his voice abruptly turning frosty.
She tried to knee him in the groin, but he had her pinned down. She was tall and slender, but no match for Frank’s big, muscular and determined body.
She didn’t have a chance.
“I have loved you for so long, chéri. Now, it’s my turn to have you.”
“Frank, please, no!” she begged, but that only fueled his passion. She squirmed beneath him, trying to break free. Her gaze swept across the room as she looked around for anything she could get her hands on to knock him out.
All Jade heard now was her mother’s sobs. All she felt was agony. She didn’t need to see her raped.
“Why can’t you love me?” Frank moaned, secretly hoping to wipe out Tobias’s offspring and impregnate Nicolette with his own seed.
“Get off me!” she cried.
“I’ve waited too long for this, Nicki. I know Tobias won’t be back for another two weeks at least. Remember? I’m to look after you. To make sure all your needs are met. That’s what I intend to do, my sweet.” He didn’t move, except to begin rocking back and forth once more.
Jade pulled away, removing her teeth from his flesh. Nauseated by what she saw, she spewed Frank’s blood all over his floor.
Frank was still alive.
Barely.
“You’re the fucking monster!” Jade cried out. She felt Tobias standing next to her. He was speechless.
“She felt so good,” Frank whispered. His voice was raspy from the gouges in his neck.
Tobias gently pulled Jade away from Frank.
Jade was grateful Frank was dying. She prayed he was suffering, like her mother had. No. Worse.
“She was worth it. So sweet, so—so sweet.”
She could see his body was giving out. Next to the set of Jade’s puncture marks, Tobias dug his fangs deep into Frank’s neck.
“No, Tobias! You don’t want to see…” Jade’s voice faded away as Tobias witnessed his wife’s last moments.
She lay o
n the floor, weeping uncontrollably. Frank stood over her, wiping the sweat from his brow.
“Leave! Now!” she demanded, curling up and pulling herself over to a kitchen chair. Her legs were wobbly, but she managed to stand. She walked over to the kitchen sink and ran some cool water on a dishtowel.
Frank watched her every movement. She took the cool rag and spread her legs, gently placing the soothing cloth on her raw skin.
She looked over at him, ready to scream for him to leave again. Her gaze rooted onto his growing erection. He took a step forward.
“Mm, mm, but you look so hot standing there with your hair all tussled and those gorgeous legs spread open wide. Want some more? Third time’s the charm.”
Nicolette dropped the cloth and grabbed a filet knife from the sink. “Get away from me. I will kill you.” Her voice was oddly calm and icy cold.
“No, you won’t.”
He strode across the room and walked right into her as she fought to slash at his throat. He grabbed her wrist and clasped his fingers around the handle of the knife.
She missed.
He slammed her hand into the kitchen cabinet and the knife fell. He worked his hands up her skirt, aroused by the energy in the room, the game of cat and mouse. He lifted her onto the counter and slammed inside her again. She felt along the granite counter for something to use as a weapon while he grunted, trying to fill his near life-long desire for this woman.
She grabbed for the can of apple juice she’d left out, and with one swift blow, she connected with Frank’s chin. She drew her legs up and used them to push him away. He landed with a thud on the kitchen floor. His head hit the ceramic tile, hard.
Nicolette ran to the phone. She got as far as grasping at the dial. He grabbed her from behind, wielding the tip of the filet knife at her throat. “I can’t let you have another one of that demon’s children. I can’t. And as much as it pains me, there is only one solution. Unless, of course, you have an abortion and marry me.”
“I’d rather die,” she spat.
He turned her around and slapped her hard across the face then grabbed her by the nape, yanking her toward him. Knife in hand, he moved over to the wall and pushed her back up against it. He jammed himself into her, knocking her against the wall, pounding her with anger, frustration and vengeance.
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