by J. C. Diem
“Who am I supposed to be?” he asked as we climbed out.
“Uh, my boyfriend, I guess.” That was one detail I hadn’t worked out.
He sighed, then reached over and took my hand. “The things I have to do for the team,” he muttered.
“I’m sure Jonah will appreciate your sacrifice,” I said gravely. He glowered at me, but I was pretty sure he almost smiled.
I could hear the television going inside the house as we approached it. Nervous flutters hit my stomach and I willed myself to be calm. Raising my hand, I knocked loudly. The TV went silent and footsteps shuffled towards the door. An elderly woman appeared and I recognized her from the photos when she opened the door. Her hair was white now, but her blue eyes were the same. Mary-Sue was barely over five feet tall and had grown a bit stouter over the decades. “Yes?” she said warily without opening the screen door. “Can I help you?”
“Hello, ma’am,” I said politely. “My name is Arienna and this is my boyfriend, Connor.” I felt a small thrill at saying that, knowing I’d probably never get to say it again. Connor smiled and her gaze lingered on his handsome face. Maybe bringing him along might turn out to be an advantage. “Are you Mary-Sue Flannery?”
“I am, dear,” she confirmed, sounding a little less wary now. “Do I know you?”
“No, ma’am. I read about you in the paper while doing some research on an old mansion.” Her gaze sharpened and she knew exactly what I was talking about. “I’m writing a paper for an assignment and came across a story about you and your former fiancé.”
Her eyes went distant and she smiled dreamily. “His name was Percy, but he preferred to be called Jonah,” she said softly, then shook herself. “Come in, dears.” She opened the door and we filed inside. “Would you like tea or coffee?”
“Tea would be lovely, ma’am,” Connor said and shot me a look when I opened my mouth to ask for coffee. Realizing it would be extra work for her, I just smiled and nodded. He’d used a fake American accent that was fairly convincing.
Mary-Sue settled us in a sitting room that was filled with doilies and ceramic figurines of animals before shuffling towards the kitchen. There wasn’t a speck of dust in the place, but I felt like sneezing anyway. Maybe I was allergic to doilies. I’d expected to see cats perched everywhere, but I couldn’t see any at all.
Photos hung on all four walls. They were of Mary-Sue, her late husband and their children and grandchildren. She’d had five children, four girls and one boy. They’d all had a few kids each, so there were a lot of photos for us to look at.
Mary-Sue returned carrying a tray with a pot of tea, cream, sugar and three cups and saucers. Connor popped to his feet and took the tray from her. “Bless you, young man,” she said gratefully and sat in what appeared to be her favorite chair. She poured tea for us all and I spooned two sugars into mine. I added a bit of cream and stirred it. Tea tasted like dirty water to me, but Connor sipped his in appreciation. A plate of cookies also sat on the tray. “I’m sure you kids must be hungry,” our hostess said and motioned at the food. “Eat as many as you like.”
I took a cookie and did my best to eat at a normal pace rather than scoffing it down. Quin would have been proud of my restraint. When I finished it off, I opened the folder and took the notepad and pen out. “The articles I’ve found don’t have much information about what happened the night your fiancé died,” I said as delicately as possible. “I was wondering if you could tell me what happened.”
Her gaze went distant again, but she looked sad this time. “Jonah and I grew up together,” she said. “We lived next door to each other our whole lives. He was two years older than me. My mother told me he used to watch over me like a guardian angel.” Tears of nostalgia gathered in her eyes and she used a handkerchief to wipe them away. “I knew when I was five years old that he would be my husband. He waited until my eighteenth birthday before asking me to marry him. I said yes and he arranged for us to have our engagement party at the grand old mansion.”
She took a sip of tea and I grabbed another cookie as I jotted down notes I had no intention of ever using.
“It was a beautiful old house,” she continued, “but it seemed quite sinister to me. It was almost like there was a dark cloud hovering over it. I had a premonition of danger, but I had no idea what form it would take.” She shivered and clasped her teacup with both hands before resuming her story. “Everyone was enjoying themselves and everything went according to plan at first. We had a wonderful dinner, then danced until nearly midnight. Well, Jonah tried to dance, but he just kind of shuffled his feet, the poor dear.” She smiled faintly in remembrance. “Bill, Jonah’s best friend, suggested we should have the speeches in the foyer where the acoustics were better.”
I stiffened slightly and Connor elbowed me in the side before I could denounce her late husband as being a murderer.
“A horrible feeling of doom came over me,” she continued, “but I just thought I was being silly. Jonah and Bill climbed the stairs to the balcony and Bill made a speech first. He was so happy for us that we’d finally become engaged.” She sighed at the memory of what had been a speech full of lies. “When it was Jonah’s turn, something horrible happened.” Tears filled her eyes again and she clutched her handkerchief. “The grandfather clock in the foyer began to strike midnight just as Jonah started his speech. He leaned against the balcony and I heard an awful crack, then he fell.”
I reached over and offered her my hand. She took it and squeezed it hard. Her bones felt frail and I was careful not to squeeze her back.
“He fell right in front of me and I heard his neck break,” she said, tears trickling down her face. “There was nothing I could do to save him. Bill was just as heartbroken as I was. It took me a long time to get over Jonah’s death, but I knew he wouldn’t have wanted me to mourn forever. I eventually married Bill and we had a good life together.” She sounded wistful when she said that.
“But Jonah was the love of your life,” I said, feeling heartbroken for her for losing the man she’d really loved.
“Bill always knew that Jonah owned my heart,” she said. “I loved my husband, but not in the same way that I’d loved Jonah.” She studied me intently, then patted my hand. “Wait here for a moment, dear. There’s something I want to show you.”
I ate another couple of cookies while she was gone and drank down the horrible tea. Connor ate some cookies as well, probably just to be polite. His gaze roamed around the room, taking in the numerous doilies and figurines. He shuddered slightly, perhaps sharing my abhorrence of the fussy décor.
Mary-Sue was carrying a small black jewelry case when she returned. “Jonah gave me this on my sixteenth birthday,” she said and handed it to me. I opened it to see an ornate gold locket on a delicate gold chain. “Open the locket,” she urged.
Glad it wasn’t made of silver, I obeyed her. I almost gasped when I saw a photo of Jonah grinning up at me. His photo was on the right and Mary-Sue’s was on the left. He would have been eighteen back then. “I didn’t have the heart to wear it after he died,” she said. “It reminded me of the love that I’d lost.”
“I’m so sorry for you both,” I said with heartfelt sympathy. “I’m sure he was a wonderful man.”
“He was,” she agreed. “I never stopped loving him and I know we will be reunited in heaven one day.”
That almost made me burst into tears. She had no idea that her lost love was still in the mansion. Jonah was trapped there, probably because he had unfinished business. I closed the locket and the case and held it out to her. “Thank you for showing me this,” I said, trying hard not to succumb to my tears.
“I want you to have it,” she said. “I think the locket will mean more to you than it ever would to my children or grandchildren.”
I could see her point. They didn’t care about the man who should have been their father and grandfather. Jonah was a stranger to them. My heart ached for the life he’d missed out on. I clutched the case
to my heart, unable to express my feelings.
“Thank you,” Connor said on my behalf. “You don’t know how much that means to Ari.” I nodded and used my sleeve to wipe away my tears.
Mary-Sue reached over and patted me on the arm. “You have a kind soul,” she said. “It’s painful to talk about the past, but I feel as though I’m closer to Jonah now. It was lovely to meet you both, but I’m due to have visitors soon.”
We took her hint and rose, knowing she needed some time alone to grieve. I stuffed the case in my pocket, wondering how I was going to tell Jonah about his history without breaking his heart in the process.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Getting hold of my roiling emotions, I placed the folder, notepad and pen in the glovebox, then slid behind the wheel. Connor was just as subdued as I was as I drove away from the neat little house. “How are you going to break this to Jonah?” he asked.
I shook my head wearily. “I have no idea. He doesn’t remember anything, except his name and Mary-Sue’s face.”
“Are you going to tell him his best friend murdered him?”
It was a good question and it raised a moral dilemma. “I haven’t decided yet. I think I’d want to know if my bestie murdered me.” I drove on automatic pilot, following the instructions from the robotic GPS towards the base of the mountains where our mansion was located. We’d passed over the foothills on our way here and were taking the same route back. “Do you think I should tell him?” I asked, seeking his opinion.
“Aye,” he replied after giving it some thought. “He has a right to know all the facts.”
I was glad he agreed with my gut instinct. If I told Jonah the whole truth, I wouldn’t need to worry about letting anything accidentally slip during our conversations. The poor guy had been unseen and unheard for far too long until I’d joined the team. It sucked that I was going to be the one to tell him the horrible news about what had happened to him.
Musing about how I was going to broach the subject with Jonah, I didn’t realize we were being followed at first. Catching a flicker of movement in the rearview mirror, I glanced up to see a huge black van bearing down on us. We were on a narrow, winding road with a short, steep cliff right next to us. “Uh, oh,” I said. “I think we might be in trouble.”
Connor turned around just as the van accelerated and rammed us from behind. We lurched forward and I almost lost control of the wheel. The van swung around so we were driving side by side. The windows were so heavily tinted that I could only see shadows inside. Before I could slam on the breaks, it hit us hard. Connor grabbed the wheel to steady the car, but we were forced off the road by the far heavier vehicle.
I had enough time to let out a startled shout, then the car began tumbling over and over. We hit a tree on the way down and a branch speared through my window, breaking it and showering me with glass. It impaled me in the side just beneath my armpit and lodged deep inside my chest. The pain was so intense that I couldn’t even scream.
Connor cursed fluently beneath his breath when we finally came to a stop. He kicked the badly cracked windshield aside and climbed out. I was fading in and out of consciousness as he transformed into a panther. Shouts sounded as the men who had rammed us off the road descended the cliff. Someone fired a shot and Connor let out an enraged roar. Turning my head painfully, I saw him bound past my window, then he was lost to my sight. Closing my eyes and willing myself to remain conscious, I heard screams of pain and terror as he tore into the men. On the road high above, the van sped off with a screech of tires, leaving the bodies of the fallen behind.
Barely holding on now, I heard glass crunch beneath approaching feet and tried to reach for my gun. “It’s just me,” Connor said, bending to peer inside. He went pale when he saw the branch sticking out of me. He winced when he came to a realization. “I have to break it off before I can get you out of there.” It was three feet long and he wouldn’t be able to remove me from the car easily while it was still inside me.
Blood trickled from my mouth and breathing was agony. “Do whatever you have to do,” I said hoarsely.
I closed my eyes again so I didn’t have to watch what he was about to do. The branch shifted inside me when he grabbed it and I groaned. He snapped it off and I passed out from the pain. Unfortunately, I wasn’t out for long. I woke a couple of minutes later to feel wind rushing past me. A flashback to being carried by Alakay to what was supposed to have been my death snapped me to full awareness. Realizing it was Connor carrying me, I sagged in relief.
Slowing down, he glanced at me and saw I was awake. “My phone was destroyed in the crash,” he said. “I didn’t want to search your pockets for yours. I thought it would be best to leave the area before more assassins came after us.”
I nodded weakly, hoping he would put me down soon. Every step he took jolted the branch in my chest. It was lodged deep inside my lung, dangerously close to my heart. “Where are we going?” I asked, hating how weak I sounded.
“I saw some houses before we were forced off the road,” he explained. “I’m hoping to find one that’s empty.”
He stepped in a hole and jolted me. The pain made me black out again. When I opened my eyes, he was kicking a door open. Even in my weakened state, I knew the house was empty. The scents of the owners were old and the house was musty from being closed up for several months.
Connor carried me to the master bedroom and placed me on the bed. “You’ve lost a lot of blood,” he said. “A normal vampire would be able to heal a wound this bad, but I’m not sure if you’ll be able to.”
Dizziness swept through me. “Pull it out,” I said, unable to bear the sensation of the branch inside me. “I can’t stand to have it in me any longer.”
He held me down with a hand on my shoulder and grasped the branch. “This is going to hurt,” he warned me, then yanked it out.
I shrieked in agony and bucked so hard that I almost threw him off. He bent over me, watching the hole in my side. The branch had been a couple of inches thick and the wound wasn’t small. Blood pumped from me and his worry increased. “You’re not healing fast enough,” he said in concern.
A cold feeling stole over me and I could feel my soul growing restless. “I’m dying,” I said. My voice sounded like it was coming from far away.
“Like hell you are,” he refuted. “You’re not dying on my watch, lass.” His accent had thickened to pure Scottish in his distress and he rolled his Rs more than usual.
“Tell Jonah the truth about what happened to him,” I said, feeling my strength slipping away. “He deserves to know that Mary-Sue never stopped loving him. Maybe he can move on once he hears that.”
“You can tell him that yourself,” Connor said gruffly, pinning me with his intense pale blue eyes.
“Can’t,” I said, struggling to breathe. “My soul is slipping away.” It was becoming more and more restless, sensing that I was almost out of energy.
Connor raked a hand through his hair, then stripped his shirt off. I drank in his gorgeous body, glad I would have such a beautiful sight to ease me into death. He lay down next to me and gathered me into his arms, turning me so we were chest to chest. “Drink from me,” he said, offering me his neck.
“You said you’d rather die than let a leech like me bite you,” I whispered. I was fluttering on the edge of death now, circling a black hole that would suck me down into nothingness and never let me go. From the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a shadowy form wearing a black cloak and holding a scythe watching us. I blinked and the image faded to nothingness. Either it was my imagination, or a grim reaper was standing by, waiting to ferry my soul to the afterlife.
“I never said I was willing to let you die,” he said. “Now bite me before it’s too late.” He pressed his throat against my mouth and my instincts kicked in. My fangs descended and I weakly bit into his warm skin. Blood pooled in my mouth and it took the last of my energy to swallow it down.
One taste of a vampire’s blood had chan
ged my life forever. I was seized with the sudden certainty that drinking from a shapeshifter was going to alter it even more. But it was too late to stop now and my fate had already been sealed.
Chapter Forty
For a few moments, nothing happened. Then strength flooded into me and I rolled us over so I was on top. I drank deeply and Connor’s hands tangled in my hair. He groaned and I knew it wasn’t because he was in pain. I could feel his arousal and ground my pelvis against his. Vampires sometimes satiated their carnal desires on their victims, but this was the first time I’d ever heard of the victim being turned on as well.
I went to pull away, but Connor held me against him firmly. “Don’t stop,” he said. His voice was so thick with longing and desire that I could barely understand him. He slid his hands down to my hips and pulled me tightly against him.
It was my turn to groan when he moved my hips in small circles, rubbing me against his hardness. “This isn’t normal,” I whispered.
“I don’t care,” he replied and slid a hand down my back to cup my butt. “Drink from me,” he said seductively. “Make yourself strong again.”
It was an invitation that I couldn’t refuse. His blood was divine and it was far stronger than the necromancer’s and whatever Quin normally gave me. Energy coursed through me with each small swallow I took.
Connor tugged at my jacket, pulling it off and discarding it one-handed. He needed both hands to remove my t-shirt. I made a small sound of protest when my teeth left his neck. My wound had healed, but I still hurt deep inside. It would take more blood to heal me completely.
Looking down at the shifter, I saw his pupils had become dilated with desire. His expression was intense and hungry, making me feel powerful and beautiful. His eyes raked over me from my face down to my navel, then back up again, lingering on my breasts. His hands slid up my back and I leaned forward so he could reach the clasp of my bra. Our breath intermingled and I licked his blood away from my lips a moment before he kissed me.