The Power

by Cynthia Roberts

  She was dressed in the usual black, as if she were attending some local funeral, not walking down the street with an old friend.

  “Then why do you stay?” Gina asked carefully, not understanding. She held Lillian’s gaze for a moment before she spoke again. “For him. You’re protecting him.” she read of Lillian’s mind. She was going to have to get better at keeping her thoughts her own, Lillian realized in displeasure.

  “He doesn’t know what he is dealing with. He is a detective, Gina, assigned to the case. Can you imagine if he actually found this creature?” Lillian cried out worriedly.

  “Lillian, that shouldn’t be your problem. This creature is being careless! He will expose us all!” Gina bit out almost violently.

  “Perhaps, he will leave New York soon?” Lillian could only hope.

  “Perhaps, you should as well? Come away with me, Lillian. We can go to Paris. It’s fabulous this time of the year.” Gina gushed, just as Lillian’s gaze took in the tall, handsome man stepping out of the dark Mustang ahead of them. How had they ended up here, at their coffee shop? She hadn’t been paying attention to where she was going! She wanted to strike herself for her carelessness as she watched Jack stop, and turn to look at her. He held up a large hand in greeting, and Lillian smiled uneasily before mimicking his greeting.

  “So this is Jack?” Gina asked, giving Jack a thorough once over as the three came together.

  “I know you from somewhere.” Jack announced in recognition. His amber gaze swept over Gina’s face.

  “Jack, this is Gina.” Lillian introduced the two.

  “Gina?” he questioned. “The woman from the painting in your house?”

  “The one and the same.” Gina offered Jack her hand. She looked as if her feelings had been injured when Jack merely shook her hand, and turned his gaze back to Lillian, instead of kissing the back of Gina’s knuckles like Gina had become accustomed to from other men.

  “These Americans have no manners. I much prefer the English.” Gina’s injured words found Lillian’s thoughts. Lillian smiled tightly.

  “I don’t know?” Lillian threw her thoughts back to Gina as she met and held Jack’s captivated gaze. “There is something to be said for these Americans, if you ask me.”

  “You only believe so because the love-sick fool only has eyes for you!” Gina accused.

  Lillian grinned. “You’re out late, Jack.” she commented aloud.

  “Wasn’t able to sleep. I’ve been online looking up vampires and creatures of the night.” Jack grinned in return. Beside him, Gina paled if that was possible.

  “Vampires?” Gina echoed, side-glancing Lillian to make sure she had heard Jack right.

  “Haven’t you heard? New York city is riddled with them.” Jack chuckled.

  “Jack is a detective with the NYPD, Gina. He is working the murders that have occurred here recently in the city.” Lillian explained unnecessarily.

  “And what exactly does that have to do with vampires?” Gina quipped.

  “Long story.” Jack smiled. “Which reminds me. You ladies really shouldn’t be out here so late at night with what has been going on lately. It isn’t safe.” he warned. Gina and Lillian looked at each other. “I mean it. Just last week I was investigating the double homicide of two young men. There have been four others, all brutally murdered and most of them were found close to this area.”

  “We’ll be careful, Jack.” Lillian promised, but Jack frowned heavily. She could read of him that he wasn’t pleased with her answer. He wanted her home and safe.

  “You came in from England?” Jack asked of Gina now as he led the women into the coffee shop, and together they took a seat at an empty booth.

  “London.” Gina replied. “How do you know my Lillian?” she asked point blank.

  “You know very well how he knows me!” Lillian sent to her mind in a warning tone. Gina merely smiled.

  “We met here actually.” Jack said, glancing around the coffee shop with its quaint, quiet booths and stained, tile floor. He met Lillian’s gaze. “Not too long ago.’ he smiled. “Forgive me, but the painting in Lilly’s house…well I thought it was an antique? Reginald told me that Lilly had thought of you as a second mother. I guess I assumed, well, that you had passed on.” Jack turned to Gina for answers.

  “I did pass on, Jack. Don’t you know, you are sitting here conversing with a dead woman.” Gina smiled knowingly as Lillian read her thoughts.

  “Stop.” Lillian warned privately, but Gina merely shrugged.

  “I guess I have been like a second mother to Lillian, and no I did not pass on. Lillian loves her antiques though. The frame surrounding the portrait is indeed from more than a hundred years ago. Lillian painted that, you know, Jack?”

  “No. I didn’t know.” Jack’s amber gaze came back to Lillian. He was impressed, and Lillian didn’t know how to take that. She ducked her head.

  “She captured your likeness to perfection.” Jack complimented.

  “Didn’t she?” Gina agreed.

  “How do you two ladies know each other? From London?” Jack turned his gaze back to Gina to ask.

  “Yes, actually. We met when Lillian was very young. Her dear aunt died shortly after, leaving poor Lillian alone in the world. She was but eighteen at the time.” Gina filled in.

  “I’m sorry.” Jack breathed out, and the sympathy that he was feeling for her, made Lillian feel uncomfortable. He took her hands from across the table, and gently began to rub her fingers. “That must have been hard for you?” he inquired in concern.

  “Lillian is stronger than she appears to be, Jack.” Gina smiled knowingly. “Still, I simply could not leave her as things were. I whisked her away, and together we explored the world. Of course, I tried desperately to teach her everything I know along the way, but Lillian is as stubborn as she is sweet, and simply would not conform.”

  “Enough.” Lillian scowled over at her dark mother with a smile to hide her true feelings as she sent the thoughts.

  “But your Jack is curious about you, Lillian. He has feelings for you, you know? Deep feelings. And I do believe you do for him as well.” She replied silently.

  “It isn’t your concern!” Lillian threw back harshly.

  “Wasn’t what happened with Ewan enough pain and misery for you?” Gina countered cruelly. It cut and it cut deep. Lillian stood angrily.

  “We have to go, Jack.” She stated firmly, once again speaking aloud.

  “Did I say something?” Jack stood as well. He didn’t understand what was going on between the two women, but he could sense that something was up.

  “Of course not. Jack, it was a pleasure. You’ll have to come over for dinner before I leave. Is tomorrow night too soon?” Gina invited, and it was all Lillian could do not to strike the interfering vampire!

  “I could probably get away.” Jack took Lillian’s hand in his. “Could I talk to you a minute before you leave?” he asked, and Lillian looked at Gina expectantly.

  “Right.” Gina quipped. “I’ll just wait outside.”

  “If you don’t want me there...” Jack gave Lillian a way out after they had watched Gina step out onto the sidewalk.

  “It’s not you, Jack.” Lillian touched his arm with the tips of her fingers.

  “Don’t start the, ‘It’s not you. It’s me.’, speech. I don’t think my heart can take it.” Jack joked with a smile. Lillian smiled. She leaned gently into him.

  “It’s not me either.” She replied softly, and angled her head toward the window where she hoped Gina was reading their thoughts or hearing everything!

  “Oh.” Jack grinned. “If it’s going to be a problem I can make up some excuse.” he volunteered.

  “No. Come. Just be prepared. Gina can be pushy, and bossy, arrogant, and well, judgmental.” Lillian bit out, and she smiled because she knew that Gina would not be able to resist listening in from outside, and would hear her every word.

  “You’re afraid she won’t like me?” Jack g
uessed.

  “No!” Lillian hated that she had led him astray. The last thing she wanted was to make him not feel good enough. “I meant of me. She tends to think that she knows what is best for me, that I think with my emotions instead of my rational mind.” she said bitterly.

  Jack grinned. “Sounds like a mother to me, though she doesn‘t appear to be that much older than you.” he said, and Lillian frowned. Jack chuckled.

  “I can take it if you can.” he raised a dark brow. Lillian shrugged. “What time should I be there?”

  “Nine?”

  “I’ll be there unless I get pulled away.” Jack pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her slender frame. “It won’t kill you.” he said lowly against her ear, and then he pulled her back, and dipped to kiss her. Lillian didn’t allow the kiss to deepen in fear that Gina was indeed watching and listening. “Let me give you ladies a ride home. I don’t like it, the two of you being out here alone.” Jack offered, and Lillian relented a nod for his sake of mind. He didn’t know that she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, that Gina was as well. Oh, how had they come to this?

  “Jack?” she said his name in near desperation, but then she looked up, and saw Gina standing there outside of the window.

  “What is it?” Jack touched her face with both hands. He stooped down to meet her gaze in concern.

  “Nothing.” Lillian whispered. “We should get home. It’s late.”

  “Lilly.” he began, but she smiled, cutting him off with a quick kiss. “You should get some sleep for a change, Jack. You look tired as hell.” she pulled him along.

  “Thanks for the compliment.” he bit out sarcastically, but he allowed her to pull him toward his car where they all climbed in, and Jack drove them home.

  Chapter twenty-four

  “You want to tell him.” Gina said knowingly as they settled together in the basement. The room was pitch black, no windows or cracks to speak of. The room was completely underground where not a slice of sunlight could slip in. To get to the main floor, one had to climb a thirty foot set of steps to come to an airtight door, again with no windows or cracks. The two women moved around in the dark, seeing everything including the expressions on each other’s faces as clearly as if every light in the room shone down upon them. Lillian had changed for bed, darning a dark, pajama set made of expensive silk, and possessing a designer label. A gift brought only last evening from Gina, coming from a quaint little gift shop in Rome.

  “It is forbidden.” Gina hissed. Lillian frowned.

  “By whom?”

  “You would expose us all.” Gina tore back the dark comforter, and climbed across the bed, settling herself more comfortably. Lillian could feel the forced sleep was coming for her. Her eyelids were beginning to drag. Climbing into the massive bed, she pulled the blankets to her chin, and closed her eyes.

  “I would never expose you.” she swore to her dark mother.

  “No? Just yourself. He is a detective, a clever man. Do you think he would be too stupid to put two and two together, to figure out that you are one of the two that he hunts!” Gina spit out furiously.

  “You don’t know him like I do. He would…” she stopped, not sure she could bear to say the words out loud just yet in fear that they would not be true.

  “What? Understand? Don’t be a fool, Lillian!” Gina snapped, and she too closed her eyes. “He is in love with you, but he believes that you are human, that you are kind and good. He will not understand that you take life only from those who deserve such a fate. He will still think of you as a cold-blooded killer.” Gina warned.

  “Isn’t that what I am?” Lillian asked lowly. Yes, she was a killer. She drank the blood of humans. Jack was human. Her falling in love with him, a mortal, a member of the same group that she dined upon…it would be like a human falling in love with a cow!

  “That was a ridiculous analogy!” Gina argued, but then she laughed. “A cow?”

  “I drink from his kind.” Lillian voiced hopelessly. “You’re right. He wouldn’t understand. I don’t understand myself, and I hate what I know I must do, but I’m not ready to surrender to the alternative.”

  “Nor should you be. You have just as much right to live as they do. Never forget that, Lillian!” Gina swore protectively.

  “But you said so yourself, Gina. We’re not alive at all. Lillian Saint Rose died in 1842. What is left of her is not human, does not have a soul.” Lillian felt when the sleep sank in.

  “How could we move about without a soul? How could we even exist?” Gina argued in a sleepy tone. It was too late for this conversation. It would not be finished this night, Lillian realized as she surrendered to the drug-like sleep that would not allow her to escape.

  The nightmare that visited her oozed in fresh blood. The stench in the air was salty and metallic, and it called to her because the hunger was too great upon her for having been starved too long. The night around her was cold and black. She didn’t know where she was, just that the scent of her prey was near. With glowing, white eyes, Lillian stalked the prey on silent feet. She could hear a strong heartbeat thumping loudly in her ears. He was strong, she thought as she continued her hunt through the blackness. Usually, she could see through the darkness as clear as if it were day, but in her mind’s eye, in the nightmare, she could barely see two feet in front of her face.

  The hunger clawed at her insides, seeming to tear at the inner lining of her stomach and her chest. It wanted loose, the demon within. It wanted its freedom, and the scent of the tempting blood in the air made her unleash the beast. Feeling the change come over her, she surrendered to it, and allowed it to show upon her face.

  Stepping around the corner, the room was suddenly flooded with a light so bright that she had to shield her eyes from it. Then as if suddenly appearing there in the midst of his bedroom, Jack Stone stood. Bloody bite marks riddled his chest, and blood seeped from the wounds causing thick pools of the black, tar-like substance to puddle on the floor. His amber eyes beseeched her as he held up his blood-soaked hands in disbelief. His beautiful eyes grew wide in alarm, and then in pain, emotional pain.

  “Why?” he asked, staring right at her. “Why would you do this to me? I loved you, Lilly. My sweet, Lilly. I loved you!”

  The confusion, the pain that dripped from his mouth caused her to bolt upright in bed so fast that she had nearly come out of it. Panting for a breath that deep inside she knew she did not need, Lillian opened her eyes wide to the pitch black room around her. There beside her, lying like a corpse, dead to the world was her dark mother, Gina. A dream, Lillian told herself. It had just been a dream. She had not killed Jack! She would never even think of doing so! Still panting, she turned to her bedside table where a digital clock read the time. If the clock was right, it was just after eight a.m. Shock registered on her pale face, and settled in her chest. That couldn’t be right! She had never woken during daylight hours before! What was happening to her?

  Again, she turned, staring down at her dark mother. Gina slept, slept without breathing, without moving, without living. The sleep that they slept during the daylight hours was the sleep of the dead, meant to rejuvenate their bodies. It kept them young. It healed their wounds, but never did it release them into the hours that the sun normally occupied. Still shaken, Lillian climbed from the bed. Taking her cell phone from the charger next to the bed, she went into her private bathroom, and quietly dialed Jack’s number. He answered on the fourth ring when she had been about to hang up.

  “Yeah.” he groaned sleepily into the phone, and Lillian released the breath that she had been foolishly holding. “Hello?” Jack called a second later when she gave him no response. “Lilly?” he asked, as if sensing that it was her. Tears slipped from Lillian’s eyes. The dream had felt so real.

  “I…I had a bad dream. I dreamt that…that you died.” She gave over a half truth in a shaky tone. She could hear Jack shuffling around as if sitting up.

  “Honey, it was just a dream.
” he returned gently.

  “I’m sorry I woke you.” Lillian whispered, but she didn’t want to let Jack go, not yet.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Jack offered, and she shook her head no.

  “I’m sorry. I guess I just wanted to hear your voice.”

  “Did it scare you that much?”

  “More than you know.” She whispered eerily.

  “I guess that means you care about me a little bit, then?” she could hear the smile in Jack’s voice; it soothed her fears somewhat. “So, tell me how did I die?” he asked in good humor.

  “A vampire killed you.” Lillian stated immediately.

  “All this talk of vampires is getting to you, Honey.” Jack chuckled softly. “They don’t exist, Darling. I’m sure you already know that.” he spoke in a gentle tone of concern that was underlined with humor. Oh, but we do exist, Jack. You see, I am one of them, and I have existed as an immortal for one hundred and eighty-six years. You didn’t know that I was old, did you? Does that make me a lecher, wanting you the way that I do?

  “Lilly?” Jack called, tearing the tormented thoughts from her brain. She obviously had let the silence go on too long. “Do you want me to come over?” he offered kindly.

  “No.” Lillian shook her head negatively. “Gina is here.” she reminded.

  “Right.” Jack quipped. “Well, tell me what I can do to make you feel better?”

  “I’m fine. Really.” Lillian relented. “It was a stupid dream.” she was feeling like an idiot now, but the dream had been so real.

  “Are you sure?”

  No. I’m afraid, Jack. I’m afraid to go on with you, but I’m even more afraid to let you go. I’m afraid to leave this city because I know that there is another working these nightly streets. I’m afraid with you working the case you may run into this dark creature, and even as strong as you are, you will not be a match for his strength, his power. I long to protect you, to tell you everything, but how can I? I will protect you, Jack, Lillian vowed to herself. I will protect you even if it means sacrificing my own immortality. You will not be alone out there! I won’t allow it!