The golden eyes flashed with something that might have been regret. "This is not how I wished to tell you the truth, cara. You are making this more difficult than it must be."
Oh no, no, no.
That chill returned to Darcy's heart, and without thought she was suddenly slipping away from the car to put some much needed distance between her and the hovering werewolf.
She didn't know what he was going to say, but she suspected that she didn't want to hear it.
"Then maybe we should change the conversation," she said in a sharp tone. "Tell me about the picture. Who is that woman?"
Salvatore was wise enough not to pursue her. Instead, he leaned elegantly against the sports car.
"Someone who very much wishes to meet you."
"Then why isn't she with you?"
"She should arrive in Chicago by tomorrow, or the next day at the latest."
Darcy blinked in surprise. She wasn't in Chicago?
She wasn't locked in some dungeon, perhaps even now being tortured?
"She isn't... staying with you?"
"Not at the moment." Salvatore gave a lift of his shoulder. "She has been occupied with her own responsibilities over the past few weeks, but the moment I called and told her that you had contacted me, she dropped everything to rush and be at your side."
Darcy struggled to rearrange her thoughts. An astonishingly difficult task.
"So she isn't in any sort of danger?"
"Of course not." His eyes narrowed at her confused expression. "Is something the matter?"
Well, nothing more than the fact that she had utterly panicked at the thought that she might have discovered her mother and was in danger of losing her. And that her panic had led her (in a rather roundabout way) to flee Styx, expose herself to a jealous werewolf intent on killing her, commit grand-theft auto, and now stand in a freezing park while her stomach growled with hunger.
What the hell could be the matter?
She cleared her throat. "How do you know her?"
"We have been close for more years than you can possibly imagine."
"Oh . . ." She pondered his words until she realized what he must mean. Gripes. That was something that had never occurred to her. "Oh."
His lips curled into a sensual smile. "From that delightful blush I can only presume that you've leaped to the conclusion that we're lovers."
"Are you?" she bluntly demanded.
"No." He lightly stroked his pale blue tie. "Sophia is certainly beautiful and exciting enough to tempt any man, but she already possesses several lovers. I prefer to be something more than one of the pack."
Lovers? As in plural? As in an entire harem?
Jeez. This just kept getting stranger and stranger.
Which was saying something.
Darcy pressed her fingers to her throbbing temples. She needed more than six hours of sleep in a cramped car to deal with all of this.
"Cripes, this is giving me a headache." She glared toward Salvatore, deciding she had had enough of the veiled implications and subtle hints. Time to take the bull by the horns. Or the wolf by his teeth. Whatever. She sucked in a deep breath. "Who is that woman?"
"I think it would be obvious."
"Humor me."
There was a tense pause before he pushed from the car to stand directly before her.
"The woman is your mother, Darcy," he said.
Even expecting his words, she felt her knees go weak and her heart lodge in her throat.
"You're certain?" she whispered.
He reached out to lightly touch her pale cheek. "Considering that I was there when you were born, I am very certain." His finger smoothed over her cheek to the corner of her lips. "You were an astonishingly beautiful baby, as were your sisters."
"Sisters?" She abruptly grasped his wrists in a fierce grip. It was that or tumbling to her knees. "I have sisters?"
"Your mother gave birth to quadruplets," he said smoothly. "Not an unusual event for a pureblood."
With a cry Dairy began to step away, her hands held up in a pleading motion.
"Wait. Just. . . wait."
He blinked at her fierce reaction, as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb of nuclear proportions on her.
"What is it, Darcy? Are you unwell?"
She wrapped her arms around her waist as she continued to back away. "I'm overwhelmed. I need a minute."
His lips thinned as he easily sensed her barely contained panic.
"I did warn you this was not the setting for this conversation."
"I assure you that the setting has nothing to do with my reaction." She gave a short, near hysterical laugh. "For God's sake, I've been utterly alone for thirty years and now suddenly I discover I not only have a mother, but three sisters as well." She swallowed the strange lump in her throat. "And on top of that, you have more than implied that my mother is a werewolf. Which would mean ..."
"That you are a werewolf," he completed softly. "Si."
"No," she instinctively denied. Styx had claimed that Salvatore was attempting to trick and deceive her. The ancient vampire was obviously right. That was easier to believe than the thought that Salvatore was telling the truth. "It's not possible."
The air prickled as Salvatore struggled to maintain his patience. Darcy sensed it was not a task he performed often. Or well.
"What must I do to prove my words?" he demanded.
"Nothing." Her tone was sharp. Not surprising. She was struggling with her own tangled emotions. "I think I would know if I turned into an animal once a month. That's not really something a girl can ignore."
"There is a reason you do not shift."
"And that would be?"
His lips thinned with impatience. "It is not something I will discuss until we can be assured of our privacy."
"You can discuss me being a werewolf here, but not why I don't have any symptoms of being a werewolf?" she demanded in disbelief.
"I had no desire to discuss anything here."
She glared into his handsome face. "These secrets are beginning to wear on my nerves."
He paused a long moment, no doubt reminding himself that he had gone to too much trouble to throttle her now.
"I thought you would be pleased to discover you have a family."
She gave a restless shrug. "I am, of course."
"But?" he probed.
But, indeed.
She didn't even know where to begin.
"Where have they been?" she at last demanded. "Why was I abandoned when I was just a baby?"
"Darcy, you were never abandoned." The golden eyes suddenly glowed with a dangerous light. "You and your sisters are incredibly vital to our people. There is not one of us who would not die to keep you safe."
"Are you kidding me?" she demanded in disbelief. "I was left to rot in foster home after foster home until I finally ran away and lived on the streets. Not to mention the fact that one of your werewolves seemed to have missed the memo about just how vital I am, since she tried to kill me only a few hours ago."
Salvatore frowned. "Jade is a mere cur and not in a position to know our secrets. She sensed you meant a great deal to me, but she didn't understand just how important."
Great. Because he was too damn arrogant to explain himself to curs, she had nearly been killed.
"And the reason I was abandoned?"
"As I said, you were never abandoned, Darcy." His hands clenched at his sides. "You and your sisters were lost to us."
"Lost to you? You make is sound as if we were spare change you happened to drop in the gutter."
That unnerving prickling swept over her skin.
"Then let me be more precise. You were stolen from us."
It took a moment for his words to sink in. "Stolen?"
"Healthy young babies are always desired, Darcy," he pointed out. "There are humans who would pay any price for a child, and of course, those humans and even demons who are willing to provide those babies by stealing them."
Well
, that was something that she hadn't expected.
Then again, learning something she hadn't expected seemed to be a theme in her life lately.
"We were taken and sold on the black market?"
"Si. By the time we managed to track down the thieves, you four had already been shipped from Italy to America." There was an edge of fury in his voice that she suspected was years in the making. "It is impossible to track a scent over an ocean, even for purebloods. It has taken years to piece together what happened to you and your sisters."
"So you haven't found them yet?"
"We have managed to track two of your sisters, although we have not yet approached them." A wry smile touched his lips. "As you have demonstrated, it is not always an easy task to prove that we intend no harm."
"You can hardly blame me. I—"
Her words came to an abrupt halt as Salvatore moved swiftly toward her, his hand raised in warning.
"Hess is returning," he said in a tone so low that she could barely catch his words. "You must come with me. I promise 1 will answer all your questions."
Darcy took a deliberate step backward. "I don't think so."
His brows snapped together. "Darcy, I am the only one who knows the truth."
"Perhaps, but right now I think I've heard enough truth," she confessed. "In fact, I'm beginning to believe that ignorance really might be bliss."
"You can't run from this. You most certainly can't run from me." There was no missing the warning in his voice. "You are too important."
She tilted her chin at his unmistakable command. She was not about to be intimidated or bullied. Not when she desperately needed to consider all that she had learned so far.
"I've already figured out there's nowhere I can run," she retorted. "At least not anywhere that some demon or other won't track me down, but for right now I just want some time to think."
With unsteady steps she walked toward the car she had stolen, half expecting Salvatore to reach out and halt her as she passed his slender body.
Thankfully his ability to sense her every mood halted any arrogant attempt to threaten or bully her.
Smart wolf.
She was on edge enough that she might very well bolt as far and as fast as she could go if he so much as looked at her wrong.
After slipping into the car, she started the engine and prepared to drive away.
Without warning, her door was opened and Salvatore tossed a large bag into her lap.
"Don't forget your lunch," he said before she could protest. "And realize, cara, that while I am willing to be patient for now, there will come a time when you must fulfill your destiny."
"And you must remember, Salvatore, that my destiny is precisely that. Mine. And it will be fulfilled how I decide to fulfill it."
Her salvo delivered, she snapped the door shut and backed out of the park with a squeal of her tires.
Well, actually they weren't her tires, she acknowledged with a short, hysterical laugh.
She did, after all, steal the car.
She could only hope the cops weren't on her trail.
Her trail was quite filled enough, thank you.
Chapter Fifteen
It was nothing short of a sin to claim the crumbling pile of bricks and sagging roof was a rooming house. Although there had been a few pathetic attempts to slap paint on the walls and cover the threadbare carpets with throw rugs, the only thing that could improve the place was a bulldozer.
But, despite the fact that the squalid room could boast nothing more than a narrow bed and a broken TV, it was marginally warmer than sleeping on the street, and for the moment, it was demon free.
Huddled next to the radiator, which spit out a grudging warmth, Darcy nibbled on the salad she had discovered in the bag that Salvatore had tossed into her lap and attempted to put her scattered thoughts in order.
Yeah right. How did you straighten out thoughts that were a muddy, tumbled, confused mess?
All she had wanted was to discover the truth of her past.
Simple and straightforward.
Ha.
If Salvatore was to be trusted, which was a stretch she wasn't yet willing to take, then the truth of her past was that her mother was a werewolf with a number of lovers, and she had given birth to a litter of four babies. Babies who had promptly been stolen and sold on the black market.
It was a plot that only Hollywood could inspire.
Jeez. After the past few hours, she was terrified to even consider the thought of who (or what) her father might be.
Or, how she had been supposedly sold on the black market only to end up in an endless series of foster homes.
It was enough to make any poor woman's head ache.
And throb.
And .. . buzz?
Darcy dropped her salad, then pressed her hands to her forehead, battling the sudden sense that a black hole was forming in the middle of her brain.
"Darcy." Darcy gave a small shriek as the insistent voice echoed through her head. "Sacre bleu, I know you can hear me," the voice growled.
"Levet?" she breathed.
'Out.'
"Cripes, I'm losing my mind," she said, her voice unnaturally loud in the empty room.
'Won, your mind is not lost," the gargoyle assured her. "I am speaking to you with a portal."
Ridiculous, of course. She gave a shake of her head. The tiny demon wasn't actually inside her skull.
Or at least she hoped not.
At this point she was willing to believe anything.
"A what?"
"A portal," he said, a hint of impatience in his voice. "And while my magic is quite formidable, and the fear of demons far and wide, there have been a tiny few occasions when it hasn't gone exactly as planned, most notably when I opened a portal and managed to release the most annoying sprite. Of course, she was beautiful, and attired in the most revealing... never mind. My point is that we need to do this quickly."
"So this is ..." She struggled to think what this actually was. "Magic?"
"Of course." There was a brief pause. "Where are you, ma cherie? "
Despite the shock of having a real (at least she hoped it was real) voice speaking in her head, Darcy wasn't feeling particularly stupid.
"Oh no. I don't want Styx tracking me down," she said. "Not yet."
"Styx is still safely tucked in his coffin. It is Shay who asked me to contact you."
His words caught her off guard. "Why?"
"She is concerned."
"She is also the mate of Viper," Darcy pointed out dryly.
"Mate, oui, but she possesses a mind of her own and she is very worried about you."
Darcy felt her heart warm. She wasn't used to having anyone worry over her.
Still, she would never want to cause a rift between Shay and her mate.
"Tell her thanks, but there is no need. I've been taking care of myself for a long time."
"Bah. You haven't been up against a pack of werewolves and determined vampires. You need somewhere safe to stay." There was a short pause. "And Shay wishes to remind you that nothing would please her more than annoying the oh-so-arrogant Styx."
Darcy couldn't help but laugh. She didn't doubt for a moment that Shay enjoyed taking occasional jabs at the master vampire.
And in truth, it might help to talk with someone else.
At the moment she wasn't certain she would ever be able to sort through her tangled thoughts on her own.
She needed a friend. A heater that actually worked. And a large dose of chocolate.
In that order.
"Okay. Tell me where to meet you."
Styx was pacing the floor well before sunset and on the hunt for Darcy before it was barely dark enough to travel in safety. He might even have gone sooner if Viper hadn't remained at the estate to rest during the day and threatened to have him shackled to the wall if he tried anything stupid.
The silver-haired vampire had proven to be a valuable friend over the past few days, but t
here were times when his determination to be logical was wearing on Styx's nerves.
After commanding his Ravens to remain at the estate in case Darcy returned, Styx and Viper returned to the warehouse and followed the faint trail through Chicago to a small, secluded park, where they halted to inspect the trampled snow.
"She was here," Viper announced the obvious. "And not alone."
"No." Styx clenched his hands as the sweet scent of Darcy wrapped about him. It might have been hours since she had stood in the park, but the very essence of her remained. Along with a far less delightful odor. "Salvatore and a damn cur were here as well."
There doesn't seem to be any sign of a struggle and no scent of blood," Viper soothed. The encounter was obviously peaceful, and just as obviously they left in separate directions."
"That doesn't mean they aren't together now," Styx growled, pacing over the snow as he studied the tracks. Salvatore had stood close to Darcy. Close enough to touch her. Damn the dog. "What the hell does he want with her?"
"A good question." Viper moved to his side. "Unfortunately, for the first time in centuries, I'm at a loss for an answer. Amazing, is it not?"
"Amazing," Styx agreed dryly.
"For now, I think we should concentrate on tracking down Darcy."
Viper was right, dammit all.
Just as he had been right about Darcy's reaction to his attempt to alter her memories.
His arrogance had led directly to this current disaster.
"By the gods, this is my fault. If I hadn't..." Styx shook his head in self-disgust. "I have driven her out here. Now she is alone and at the mercy of Salvatore and his Weres."
Viper clapped him on the shoulder. "I doubt she is completely helpless, old companion. You said yourself that you suspected she was more than human, and she did manage to kick at least one werewolf's furry ass."
"The Were was a mere cur and barely old enough to be let off the leash." His gaze shifted to the darkness that cloaked about them. He could feel the pulse and energy1 of the night swirl around him. It was a power, and a danger, that Darcy had yet to comprehend. "Darcy would be no match for a pureblood."
"Take it easy, Styx." The hand on Styx's shoulder became more a vise than a source of comfort, as if Viper sensed Styx's barely restrained need to rush into the night and tear the city apart in his search for his angel. "So far it seems that Salvatore has no intention of harming the young woman. In fact, I would say that he is as anxious to protect her as you are yourself."
Guardians of Eternity 03 - Darkness Everlasting Page 18