by Lynsay Sands
Noting that it was close to noon—something that had shocked Allie, who hadn’t realized how late it had gotten—Sam had suggested bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches for lunch. When everyone, even Lucian, had reacted positively to the suggestion, she’d immediately moved to start making coffee while giving each of the rest of them tasks. Mortimer had cooked the bacon, Tybo made toast, Katricia had cleaned the lettuce, and Allie had sat at the island at Magnus’s insistence and sliced the tomatoes. Meanwhile Magnus and Lucian had set the table.
The first two sandwiches had gone to Teddy and Liam, who had been pulled away from their cartoons to eat at the table. By the time the boys had finished and run back to the television, the coffees were poured, three large stacks of sandwiches were ready, and everybody was drooling in anticipation. There had been a stampede to the table and silence had reigned as they ate. Now that silence was over, Allie thought as Tybo answered Sam’s question.
“The rogues we saved Allie and Liam from,” he told her, and gave her a brief rundown of what Allie had already told them as they all stood to carry their dishes to the sink for a quick rinse before setting them in the dishwasher. By the time the dishwasher was loaded and turned on and the group returned to the table, Mortimer’s wife was caught up enough to ask, “I am guessing Liam is the reason Stella left her sire and the others?”
“Yes,” Allie said solemnly. “To her, his existence seemed a miracle from God.”
“All babies are a miracle from God,” Tricia said softly, her gaze sliding to the door and the sounds coming from the television in the room across the hall.
Allie supposed that was true. Every baby seemed a miracle to those around them, but that wasn’t what she was talking about, so explained, “Yes, but it was different for Stella. You have to understand she thought she was dead. That she had died in that room and risen a vampire. By that reasoning, she couldn’t have become pregnant after the turn, but must have been pregnant when she was killed and turned. Yet her baby still lived and grew inside her dead body.”
“A baby would not have survived inside the mother during a turn,” Lucian said into the brief silence that followed.
“No, it would not have,” Magnus agreed. “Stella probably got pregnant in the first days or weeks after the worst of the turn finished.” Glancing to Allie, he explained, “Immortal females need to take in a lot of blood to prevent losing a pregnancy, and new turns need a lot of blood for the first while after they are turned. From what you said, it sounds as if Stella’s sire was ensuring she and her husband had a lot of blood after the turn. That would have allowed a fetus to grow without the nanos attacking it.”
Nanos again, Allie thought, but didn’t ask what those were. Lucian would just grump that she could ask her questions later.
“But Stella would have had to continue to consume copious amounts of blood throughout the pregnancy to ensure she kept the baby and carried it to term,” Sam pointed out now.
“Her sire told her that when he told her she was pregnant,” Allie said. “He apparently was the one who realized it first and revealed to Stella that she was with child. She had no idea until then. In fact, she didn’t really believe him when he first said it.”
“I am guessing he wanted to terminate the pregnancy and that is why she fled?” Magnus suggested.
“No. He was delighted and hoping for a boy he could mentor,” Allie said grimly, as horrified at the thought as Stella had been. Mouth tightening, she added, “Apparently, a girl baby would have been undesirable and, according to him, ‘best torn apart by the group before it could take more than a breath.’ I gather he considered females quite useless. Stella said there were very few women among the group. A handful, all members of couples that were taken. Never women who were found on their own. They were used to feed the group and never turned.”
“So, she was afraid he would kill the baby if it was a girl,” Magnus said, looking angry at the thought.
“Yes. But she was also terrified of his mentoring the baby if it was a boy. That he’d turn it into a monster like he was. She didn’t want that.”
“That would have scared me silly too,” Tricia admitted.
Allie nodded. “I think it did more than that, though. I think finding out she was carrying a child saved Stella. It brought her out of whatever madness had beset her when she was attacked and turned. Stella says until then she was wandering around in a kind of fog, doing whatever she was told without conscience, feeding on the people she was given, and even luring men to the others when ordered to. But learning she was with child snapped her out of that. She was ashamed of what she’d let herself be cowed into doing, and wanted to be better for her son or daughter. To do that, and to keep her baby safe, she had to leave.”
“I can see that,” Magnus said now. “But if her sire had them all convinced that they could not be away from their room between sunrise and sunset and survive, how did Stella get away and move into the town house across from yours? Calgary, Alberta, is a long way from Vancouver, British Columbia, and she could not take the room with her.”
“Actually, she kind of did,” Allie said, unsurprised by the confusion that caused.
“How?” Tybo demanded.
“She watched the same movies you did,” Allie said with a small smile. “Stella remembered that in the movies, taking dirt from their grave allowed vampires to travel. Since the room they’d been given was both where they died and the closest thing to a grave they had, she gambled on the possibility that taking a bit of the concrete floor would allow her to move around at night and stay somewhere else in daylight without weakening or perishing.”
“Ah,” Tricia said with a grin, and then assured her, “It wasn’t true. She could have left at any time without the concrete, but it was clever of her to think of that anyway.”
“She was clever,” Allie assured her, and then admitted, “Stella said she wasn’t sure it would work, but if it didn’t and she and the baby died, then she felt it was a better ending than they would have suffered with the group.”
“So she took a block of concrete with her?” Tybo asked with disbelief. “How the hell did she break it up?”
“Not a block, just a bit of concrete powder she managed to scratch out of the floor,” Allie explained. “No more than a couple of spoons’ worth that she kept in a baggie. Stella showed it to me once. She kept it in her pocket at all times.”
“What happened to her husband?” Magnus asked. “You do not mention him being in Calgary.”
“No.” Allie frowned at the thought of Stella’s husband and then sighed and told them, “Stephen decided to go with her when they started planning, but the night they were to leave he said it wouldn’t work if they both went. He said he’d stay behind to delay anyone realizing she was gone and give her a better chance. He wanted her to get as far away as possible before they realized anything was up and pursued her. He also said that by remaining behind and pretending to be loyal, he might be able to throw them off her scent if they were getting too close to her. He said this was the best way he could think of to protect her and the baby. But later, after the baby was born, he’d find and join her. In the meantime they should both think of a way to make it appear as if the three of them had died.”
She let that sink in, and then said, “And then he gave her this.”
Allie reached for the chain that held the locket Stella had given her that last night, and that she always wore around her neck so that she wouldn’t lose it before Liam was old enough to have it. She tugged it out from under her blouse where the long chain allowed it to rest by her heart, and then lifted it off over her head and stretched her arm out so that it dangled above the center of the table for all of them to see. She thought it was beautiful. The locket was a heart with the front made up of detailed wings. She let them look for a moment, and then pulled her arm back and opened the wings covering the front of the locket. They were tiny doors that, when opened, revealed a picture inside.
Allie st
ared briefly at the happy young couple in the tiny picture. It was a wedding photo of a dark-haired man with a wide grin, and his arm around a petite brunette who was beaming at the camera. They looked incredibly happy. It was hard to look at when you knew the horrors that had awaited them, she thought, and then sighed and held it out again so that the others could see the photo too.
“Stephen gave this to Stella on their first anniversary, but it was taken away along with all the other jewelry when they finished turning,” Allie said quietly. “Stephen said he found it while searching around for things they should take with them while everyone was distracted with some of their victims one day. He’d hoped then to give it to her on their escape, but he now hoped it would reassure her of his love until they could be together again.”
Allie pulled the necklace back, closed the wings over the picture, and then slipped it back over her neck as she said, “Stella argued with him, begging him to leave with her, but he was determined to stay behind, he said to protect her as best he could. In the end, she had to go without him.”
She tucked the necklace back under her blouse. “They had gathered a little money over the few weeks before the escape, keeping some of the cash from their victims when they could. Stella used it to buy a bus ticket to Kelowna, hoping it was far enough away and big enough to hide in.”
“How far is Kelowna from Vancouver?” Tybo asked with a frown.
“About four and a half hours,” Lucian answered, which was probably good because Allie had no idea herself.
“But it is not very big,” Mortimer said quietly.
“It has over a hundred thousand people,” Tricia pointed out. “Not exactly a small town.”
“Calgary has over a million and would only have been another six hours on the bus,” Lucian responded. “She would have done better to go there right away.”
“Yes, she should have,” Allie agreed. “Stella wasn’t in Kelowna more than a couple days before she spotted one of the rogues from Vancouver.”
“Oh, no,” Sam said unhappily. “Did they catch her?”
Allie smiled slightly at the woman, appreciating her concern for her friend. “No. Fortunately, Stella spotted them in the market before they spotted her. She managed to slip away unseen. But it scared her. They’d tracked her from Vancouver somehow, and the only way she could think they’d managed that was because she took the bus. Stella had used cash for her ticket, and suspected that they’d questioned the people at the ticket counter, and the ticket seller had remembered her and told them her destination.”
“That is more than possible,” Magnus murmured when she paused. “Stella was a pretty woman.”
Much to her surprise, Allie felt a jolt of jealousy slide through her at his words. Which was ridiculous. She hardly knew the man. And Stella was dead, for heaven’s sake. Pushing away emotions she didn’t understand, Allie continued. “Stella had started to make a home for herself and the baby there in Kelowna, but after the scare in the market, she was afraid to return to it. So, she left everything behind and hitchhiked to Calgary.”
“And moved in across the street from you,” Magnus said thoughtfully. “How did she end up there?”
Allie hesitated, struggling with what to tell them. But finally she simply told them what she’d been told. “Stella said the last driver she hitched a ride with was the owner of the town house. She said he was a sweet grandfatherly type and they talked a lot during the hours she rode with him, and then as they neared Calgary he started asking where he should drop her off and she admitted she didn’t have anywhere to stay yet. Since it was late at night, he kindly offered to let her use his spare bedroom for the night and promised to help her find more permanent lodgings the next day. Stella accepted the offer and was extremely grateful right up until they got to the house and he turned, as she put it, into a dirty old bastard who expected her to blow him for the use of the bed.”
“Man,” Tybo groaned. “She couldn’t catch a break, could she?”
“It would seem not,” Tricia said sadly.
Allie didn’t comment on that. “Stella said once she set him straight, he changed his tune. She said she thought he even felt guilty for his behavior because he admitted that he actually lived in a house across the city and the town house was a rental property that was presently without tenants. He offered it to her as a temporary solution until she could find a job and apartment of her own.”
“Well, that was lucky,” Tricia said, brightening.
“Yes. Lucky . . . and a total lie,” Allie said grimly, and then allowed, “Well, probably not a total lie. I suspect the dirty old bastard part was true. Stella’s voice was pretty bitter when she said it. But I’m thinking he didn’t suddenly turn over a new leaf and become the kindly old benefactor offering her a home like she said.”
“What makes you think that?” Magnus asked, and she was surprised by how gentle his voice was. It made her suspect some of her own confused emotions were showing.
Sighing, she admitted, “Because after the town house burned down, the owner’s body was found in a freezer in the basement.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if he attacked her and Stella killed him in self-defense, or what. I hope that’s what happened. But whatever the case, he ended up dead in the freezer and she just moved in and lived there with his corpse.”
Realizing how strident she had sounded there at the end, Allie forced herself to take several deep breaths to calm herself.
There was silence for a moment, and then Magnus asked, “How did the fire start?”
“Hang on,” Sam protested. “We’ve skipped a bunch here. We know Stella ran from the rogues to Kelowna, then had to flee there for Calgary where you two became friends. But what happened when she told you all this stuff? I mean, did you believe her?”
Allie snorted at the question. “I thought she was crackers . . . until she showed me her fangs.” She grimaced at the memory. “That was a shocker. And terrifying. Being forced to acknowledge that vampires existed was bad enough, but learning that my best friend was one?” She shook her head. “It rocked my world, and this time I was the one who rushed off. Stella begged me to stay, but I said I needed to think and fled like the hounds of hell were on my heels. I mean, she was a vampire, for heaven’s sake.”
Considering she was sitting at a table with a bunch of vampires, Allie wasn’t surprised when they all glanced at each other rather than her. Sighing, she paused and sipped at the remains of her cold coffee to wet her mouth, before continuing. “Stella gave me the exact same amount of time to myself that I’d given her. She showed up at about four in the morning on the third night. Suspecting I wouldn’t open the door, she used my key as I had done at her place. I had given her one when she gave me hers,” she explained, and then shrugged. “It seemed the thing to do. Besides, I didn’t have close family or anyone to worry about me. It was reassuring to know someone could get in if I suddenly collapsed or something.”
The women nodded. The men peered back at her solemnly, so Allie continued. “She was upset. Somehow instead of it being about my distress at what I’d learned, this talk became about her horror and shame. She said I was the best friend she’d ever had. That she loved me like a sister, and that I was the only one she trusted or believed might give a shit about her and her baby.”
“What about Stephen?” Sam asked with a frown.
“Stella didn’t trust him. She said their sire had seemed to have some strange hold over Stephen. That they’d spent a lot of time together. Not at first. At first Stephen had avoided him like the plague, and when he was forced to be in his presence, he always came back acting strangely manic and stressed. She said he’d usually pace and fret and then make love to her, but it was different than it used to be, almost desperate. But then one night one of the men came to fetch him. Their sire wanted to see him. She said he was gone all night, not even returning at dawn. It was the next evening before she saw him again and he wouldn’t talk about what had happened.
“Stella said Stephen was distracted after that, and cold. She said he started going out on raiding parties with the other men, and staying away from her. He even started tormenting their victims like the others. They’d both been a little crazy after the turn, but learning she was pregnant had seemed to snap them both out of it, at least briefly, but he was changing, becoming as cruel and heartless as the others, and it scared her. It made her glad they were leaving. She felt sure he’d be all right again once they were away from the others. Only he didn’t leave with her, and she didn’t really believe the excuses he gave for why. She said he was no longer the man he’d been before he died and became a vampire. Stella didn’t trust him anymore.”
There was silence for a minute, and then Tybo suggested, “Their sire could have read their minds, realized they were planning an escape, and decided he liked the idea of Stella gone. You did say he didn’t like women much. Maybe he told Stephen he’d let Stella go if he remained.”
“Wait. What? Read their minds?” Allie asked with disbelief.
“Reading the minds of mortals is one of the abilities immortals have,” Magnus said almost apologetically. “An older immortal can also read a younger one as a rule.”
Allie sagged back in her seat with disbelief and gaped at the six people around the table. Then she snapped her mouth shut and asked sharply, “Then why the hell did I have to relive all of this for you? You could have just read my mind.”
“Magnus cannot read you at all, and the rest of us can only read your surface memories,” Lucian said mildly, and then for clarification, added, “Things you are thinking about.”
Allie stared at him briefly and then glanced to Magnus and back. “Why can’t Magnus read me? Is he not a full vampire or something?”
“Immortal,” Lucian corrected her tightly. “And yes, of course he is a full immortal, but as your—”
“Explanations later, you said,” Magnus interrupted sharply, looking stressed, and Allie presumed that whatever the reason that he couldn’t read her it must be embarrassing.