"Just go away, Raphael, and leave me alone. I've failed you like I've failed everyone else so it's just best that you go on."
"Stop that!" he snapped, his hands on either side of her face. "I'm staying by your side whether or not you like it. Whether you can or can't have children is not an issue with me. Your love is. Don't you understand I’ve been so miserable without you? I've lived for more than two centuries without your love. Do you think it's something I'm going to give up?" He glared at her, daring her to answer. She remained silent. "No, I'm not going to give it up. What I'm going to do is have two of the others sit with you while I run back to your apartment and pack your things. You're moving in with me at the new house."
"No, Raphael, I’m not."
"I'm not taking no for an answer. I can't watch you as closely as I want when you're not with me, so this is the best possible solution."
She was too tired to fight and the drugs were making her sleepy. "All right, Raphael, if you insist. I'm not going to fight you anymore."
He brushed a tender kiss across her forehead. "It's better this way, my love. Trust in my judgment where your safety is concerned." He turned to the doorway. "Drake and Nicholas are going to sit with you while I'm gone. They'll keep everyone away from you."
The brooding Nick and pale Drake entered the room, both dressed like typical yuppies. "Hi again," Drake said softly as he settled himself into a chair. "I was hoping we'd meet again under better circumstances."
"With Zakara about, there's no such thing as better circumstances," Nick piped in as he settled into the other chair, crossing his long legs at the ankles.
"You guys know what to do if Zakara shows up?" Both of them nodded. "Good," Raphael said and looked at her one last time. "I'll be back before you have to go to surgery. When you're done, I'm taking you to our new home."
She blinked hard, love for him welling in her heart. "Do you promise?"
"Cross my heart," he murmured and kissed her one last time.
With a flick of his wrist, he was gone from the room, leaving her with his trusted friends.
"Just sleep, Elizabeth," Drake said softly. "Nothing will hurt you while we're here."
"You can bet on that," Nick chimed in. "Zakara wouldn't dare."
* * * *
Raphael picked up the tin of tea sitting on the counter and looked at the label closely. "Is this what you gave her?" He questioned Gabrielle as they stood in the tiny kitchen.
"Yes," Gabrielle said as she took the tin from his fingers and held it to her nose. "Ugh! This smells like crap."
"Here, let me smell that," he said sourly as he took it back. "I'm British so I should know what real tea smells like." Raphael held it to his nose and sniffed. He took a light puff at first before drawing a deeper one. Out of rage, he threw it across the kitchen with such force that the tin embedded itself in the wall.
"What's the matter?" Alex cried as she entered the room, followed by a concerned Siobhan.
"There's pennyroyal mixed in that fucking tea!" His rage burned brighter than ever before. "Who did it?"
"None of us, Raphael," Siobhan said a touch angrily. "We all made the pact and we're bound to honor it."
Gabrielle placed a warm hand on her shoulder in an effort to calm her friend’s bruised ego. "I think I might know who did it," she offered.
He turned and glared at her. "Who?"
"Zakara probably did it when she destroyed Elizabeth's bathroom. She must have had an inkling of the pregnancy and sought to destroy the baby again. So she must have mixed the pennyroyal with the tea, hoping that Elizabeth would drink it," Gabrielle said slowly, the full realization hitting all of them.
"Oh, no!" Raphael screamed as he bolted for the door. "Get Elizabeth's things and move them to the house. I'll be back with her in a minute!"
He was in the Jag in a flash and fired up the ignition. Zakara had known about the baby and destroyed it just as she had destroyed their unborn child all those hundreds of years ago. She would turn on Elizabeth. No matter what the cost, he had to protect her from Zakara's wrath.
* * * *
"It's time to get her ready for surgery," chirped a pretty young nurse as she entered the room. The starched white uniform clung to her curvaceous body, her cleavage straining the white material. Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a careless fashion. Nick noticed her right away and so did Drake. Damn, she looked like she’d walked straight out of the pages of Playboy.
"Not so fast," Drake said, his gaze sweeping up and down her form. "What's your name?"
"Anything you want it to be," she purred, her long fingers trailing under his chin. This one certainly turned him on, a feeling he hadn't experienced since the death of Melissa.
Nick smirked from his chair. Leave it to Drake to get all hot and horny.
Before he could finish his thoughts, an exotic nurse swept into the room, her ebony hair twisted into a tight braid. Nick could certainly see its glossiness from his seat, his mind wandering as to what those locks would feel like falling through his tented hands.
The new nurse bent down, stroking his chin softly and inflaming his senses, taking them beyond his control. "And who might you be?" Her tone was warm and sexually exciting, making him really hard.
Strangely, only thought in his head was taking this nurse into another room and slamming it to her.
I'm with you, buddy, Drake commiserated telepathically.
Do you think we should? he answered, his gaze completely on the exotically beautiful woman in front of him.
Why not? We'll only be gone for a short bit and Elizabeth should be fine.
He was silent for a moment, trying to clear his head. Wildly the haze surrounding it would not lift. Let's keep an eye on her and make sure nothing happens. Raphael will be furious if we don't.
You got it, Drake agreed as he rose from his chair, assisted by the beautiful blonde nurse.
He followed suit, attended by his exotic date. Drake was right. They'd only be gone for a moment then they'd be back before anyone was the wiser.
* * * *
Night fell around them with the vengeance of a wolf on a meal. Dark clouds rolled in, and lightning flashed through the sky. Blood-scent tinted the night, making him hungry again yet he ignored it. Elizabeth was in danger, despite the fact that Drake and Nick were with her.
Raphael wove the Jaguar through the deserted streets at the speed of light, the wheels barely touching the pavement. With time running out, he'd had to use what power was necessary to get him back to Elizabeth's side. Thankfully, he traveled so fast that cops couldn't see him, much less pull him over.
He slammed the car into a spot at the hospital parking lot and leaped out, moving past everyone at the same speed he drove the car, and no one gave him a second glance. At the door to Elizabeth's room, his blood pooled at his feet.
Her bed was empty.
So were Nick and Drake's chairs.
Where the fuck was everyone?
Raphael stormed out to the front desk, the heat of anger coloring his cheeks. "Where's my fiancée?" he demanded of a gum-chewing nurse at the station who was busy having a useless conversation on the phone.
She put her hand over the receiver. "Just a minute, sir," she whispered and removed her hand. "So what did Bobby say about me after I left the party?"
Furious, he slammed his hand down on the phone, shattering it. "I asked you a question. WHERE IS MY FIANCÉE?" he bellowed.
The nurse, visibly shaken at the sight of the remnants of her precious phone sitting on her desk, said, "Wh—what is her name?"
"Elizabeth Quartermaine."
She punched a few keys into the computer, her fingers shaking. "It looks like she's no longer with us."
"SHE'S DEAD?" he shouted, his hands gripping the edge of the desk so hard that they left marks.
"No, sir, she was checked out of the hospital a short time ago," the nurse answered nervously, her eyes narrowing as she stared at the screen. "It seems she was che
cked out by a Mr. Raphael Chamberlain."
"That's who I am," he snapped. "Who the hell checked her out?"
She picked up Elizabeth's chart and flipped through it. "Here are her release forms," she said softly, her fear growing. "There's your signature, sir." She offered him the chart with the correct form.
He looked at it hard. It almost looked like his handwriting. It wasn't. He formed his R's in a unique way. "Where are the two men who were in her room with her?" he demanded.
"Right here, Raph," said Drake as he pushed through the doors of the emergency room, clutching his head. "I don't know what happened. They must have drugged us or something."
Nick was right behind him, weaving as he walked. "There were two of them and they used the sensuality spell to trick us into following them. Zakara wove it in such a way that we couldn't pick up on it."
"Zakara took her," he growled. "I entrusted the most precious thing I have to you and you let Zakara get her!"
"Calm down, Raphael," Nick said as he sank into a waiting room chair. "Zakara is close, I can feel it."
His anger got the best of him. He ripped Nick out of his seat and slammed him against the glass panel of the waiting room, making it tremble. "You think this is funny? What if Zakara had your precious Tatiana? Would you think it was so hilarious then?" He knew his true form had shown itself yet he had enough sense to keep glamour covering it.
Nick's face changed to that of the vampire as well, his anger rising. "No, I wouldn't! Put me down, because the more time we waste here, the less chance there is that Elizabeth will be alive."
Raphael let Nick slip through his hands to the floor. “You're right," he snapped and stormed out the door. "C'mon, we've got to find Elizabeth before it's too late."
Rain had begun to fall, softly at first before turning into a torrential downpour. Raphael ignored the water sluicing through his hair as he zoomed to his car with the others.
He stopped at the driver's side door, horrified. Someone had completely torn his car apart. Shards of glass littered the ground around the wrecked metal, bits of pale blue paint everywhere.
"Dear God in Heaven, Zakara's been here," Drake said slowly as he walked around the car. "Look what's on the windshield."
Despite his fury, Raphael walked around the front of what was left of his vehicle, his eyes narrowing. The windshield, the only intact thing on the car, bore a strange message to him.
Raphael,
I told you I'd get her and I did. It's up to you to find her. You have exactly forty-eight hours. If you don't find her by then, she'll die. I will give you the first clue.
Z
His fists pounded the hood of the car, fracturing what was left of the metal. "That fucking bitch!" he shouted into the night. "When I'm done with her, she'll wish she’d stayed in Hell where she belongs."
Nick pushed him away from the car. "Allow me." With a snap of his wrist, the car began to repair itself. Metal joined where it should have been, the shards of glass became one again. Within a few moments, the car was completely restored, the haunting message erased from the windshield. "C'mon, let's go! Time's wasting!"
Raphael fished the keys out of his back pocket and jammed them into the lock. All three of them slid into the vehicle. Before Raphael could start the engine, he saw the white sheet of paper taped to the steering wheel, the handwriting completely familiar.
He jerked it away, nearly tearing it in half.
I told you I'd leave you a clue, so here it is. This will be the only one.
Swept by the sea, a serpent is led.
Some say by the blood of man he is fed.
He hunts by night, searching for his food,
An act so evil, nothing is good.
So here is your clue, dear Raphael,
You'll know where to find me, the waters never calm or still.
Your love will leave you, if you choose not to save her.
So there it is, my dear Raphael, the clue that you seek.
You have forty-eight hours to find her. Without her, you are weak. Though your anger blinds your vision, you will return to me, of that I have no doubt.
Z
The letter turned to fire in his hand, the gray ashes falling into his lap. "Damn her back to Hell where she belongs," he growled through clenched teeth, his anger bringing the beast within him to the surface. "Then let's go, bro, because there's not much time left," Nick snapped as he settled into the passenger seat, buckling himself in.
"Do either of you know of the place that she's talking about?" His hands gripped the wheel so hard that the metal started to buckle under his fingers. Where the hell had Zakara taken Elizabeth?
Drake's expression brightened. "There's a place near Carnova Beach that has caves as well as waterfalls. I would bet my life she's hiding there."
Raphael leaned back in his seat, laying his head against the rest. It made sense. She would choose to hide somewhere where it was dank and where she could cavort with her favorite familiars, the bats. There was no doubt she'd brought a few trusted minions with her to do her bidding, leaving the rest of them in her realm in Europe. "Do you know how to get there?"
"This car isn't going to take us there, Raph. You know how we have to get there."
Damn! He hadn't flown in a long time and wasn't sure if he could anymore. "I'll drive to a remote location and we'll go from there."
"Then let's go!" Nick cried.
With those words still hanging in the air, Raphael gunned the engine and tore out of the parking lot and onto the wet streets, headed for someplace quiet and rural. His blood remained cold in his body, turning to ice as his anger stoked even higher. Zakara would know what punishment was when he found her.
* * * *
Liz opened her eyes to darkness, her heart thundering. Where was she? Fear gripped her in its claws, not allowing her to move. Dimly, she could feel fingers and tongues dip into the wetness of her wrists. Had the hospital's electricity gone out? No, it couldn't have. A hospital wouldn't smell like a dark, musty cave.
"I'm glad to see you're awake," purred a slightly familiar female voice.
"Where am I?" she said through dry, cracked lips. She longed for a drink of water yet somehow, she knew she wasn't going to get it in this place.
Golden light flicked for a second and filled the room with dimness. What she saw raised her fear immensely. The moist, ominous chamber was made of black rocks. Terror caused her to try to rise. She couldn't. Her wrists and ankles, splayed out, were tied down.
Jerking her head, she saw that there were vampires on either side of her, licking at her arms. She screamed when she saw all the puncture wounds on her, the blood running down her arms in rivulets. "What are you doing to me?" she shouted, her voice echoing through the room.
Zakara stepped forward. She was exotically beautiful with her dark skin and topaz eyes. Long, jet-colored hair hung down to her waist in abundant curls, topped by a crown of bright silver filled with precious gems. A sheath of silver material skimmed her body, allowing her flesh to show through in strategic places. Evilly, she smiled, her long fangs appearing white and lethal. "By allowing my children to feed on you, I'm keeping you weak, my dear."
"Why did you bring me here?"
Zakara laughed deeply. "To get Raphael here, of course. You're my enticement. Once he gets here, I'm going to kill you again and bring him back into the fold. After all, he does belong to me."
"You can't own people, Zakara. Raphael is his own man."
Zakara's footsteps echoed around her and the long, talon-like fingernails skimmed up her leg. "Everyone I create, I own. Shall I tell you about the time I made Raphael?"
She turned her head away. "I don't want to hear this, Zakara. If you let me go, I'll see to it that Raphael comes back to you," she bargained, hoping Zakara would take the dangled bait.
"Not good enough, Elizabeth. You see, if you were still alive, Raphael would try to escape me again to get back to you. I can't have that. Didn't you know I'm a woman wh
o can't share?"
"Whatever you do to me, don't kill him," she begged, the tears streaming down her eyes.
"I have no intention of killing him," Zakara replied in a deep voice. "I will enjoy him," she laughed. "It's story time." She turned to one of the other vampires, dressed all in black leather, and gestured for something. In a flash, a large chair resembling a throne was brought to the side of the stone slab that Liz lay on. Zakara sank down and crossed her legs demurely. "Hmm, let me see, where to begin. Ah, yes, the first moment I saw him. I guess it was several days before he'd met you. He was riding—" she stopped, her face curling into a snarl. "Oh, this will never do. Here, let me show you what happened." She looked to one of her minions. "Bring me my crystal ball." Faster than the blink of an eye, it was in her hand. "Watch."
The globe was clear for a moment and turned milky, the smoke inside swirling around. The past started to come alive.
Chapter 9
Strangely, her vision was clear, despite the fact that she was nearsighted. It was almost as if she had her glasses on.
Rolling green hills greeted her, followed by vast forests and mountains. She saw Raphael riding his horse over the plush ground. He was gorgeous beyond all words. His dark hair curled over his collar, much longer than it was currently. Custom-made breeches clung to his powerful thighs, disappearing into dark boots. His silk shirt was unbuttoned casually to his waist. He looked like he’d slipped off the cover of a romance novel.
Raphael continued to ride a little farther. Just as he was about to round a bend, he spied a broken-down carriage with a young woman beside it.
"Are you all right?" Raphael asked the young, dark-haired woman.
"My carriage is broken down and night is falling," she replied, rubbing her shoulders. "I'm frightened to be out here after dark."
Raphael's lips spread into a warm and inviting grin. "Where are your driver and footman?"
"I've sent them on ahead to find help. I've got to stay here with the carriage because everything I own is here."
His grin widened, almost as if he was calculating something. "Why don't you come to my home and rest? I'll have some of my men come and gather your things. Then, in the morning, I can see you safely to your destination."
Ranson, Tracy L. - Prince of Night [Bloodborn 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 13