“Goodnight, Ewan.” Nicole lifted a hand in a still wave, and Ewan turned and walked toward the elevator. She watched him until the silver doors had closed, shutting him from her view, and then she smiled and spun around and around right there in the hall. Things like this just did not happen to girls like her! Excitement threatened to bubble over, and cause her to make a scene there in the damned hallway of her apartment building, but she could care less! This was it! Ewan was he one, she told her brain what her pounding heart seemed to already know. Ewan was the one. He just had to be! Didn’t he?
As she entered her apartment, her blue gaze lit upon the journal on her coffee-table, and for the first time in her life she considered keeping a journal of her own, one that didn’t contain theories on vampires and creatures of the night. She smiled at the thought.
“It’s a good thing my Ewan is nothing like yours, Lillian.” She voiced to the closed journal as Mr. Freckles came mewing for his supper. Humming happily, Nicole fed the hungry cat, changed into a long t-shirt to get ready for bed, and then plopped down on her sofa. She had two options, she decided, since she wasn’t the least bit tired. She could watch late night talk shows? Blah. Or she could read from the journal? She was surprised to realize that she wasn’t as thrilled about that idea either. She practically knew every word of the journal by heart, but she still loved to read from it. It was a great story, delivered in captivating, beautiful words. Lillian Saint Rose was an excellent story-teller, Nicole had to admit. Scooping up the journal, she thumbed through it, finding her page. “Let’s see, the last I read of you Lillian you had just met Sloan Jackson.” she reminded herself. Finding her spot, she began to read where she had left off.
“When I awoke the next evening, it was to a note that had been slipped under my door while Gina and I had slept. I was not sore or aching from the events of the evening before. I was not covered in bruises from where Ewan had assaulted me. As an immortal, we used our daytime hours to sleep liken unto the dead, and as we sleep our bodies rejuvenate, recuperate from injuries dealt to us in our nightly affairs. As far as I understood from what Gina had divulged to me, a vampire could come back from just about anything besides the old stake in the heart, followed by decapitation. I didn’t like to think along those lines. It was a gruesome way to die, and as far as I knew it did not happen often, as the mortals, except for a precious few, had no clue to our existence. I was reading the note that had been left under our door when Gina entered the room behind me.
““What is it?” she asked.
““A note.” I whispered, turning to face her. “It’s from the man from last night, the kind gentleman who brought me back here.” I explained, and Gina came forward, peering over my shoulder to read along with me.
““I must apologize. I don’t even know your name, but I felt compelled to write this short note to you all the same. I have not been able to stop thinking of you and your plight. I would very much like to be of assistance to you. I realize that you do not wish to have your reputation soured over last night’s events, but can you truly allow such a man to go unpunished? Rest assured, I will not reveal your secret. You may trust me in this, but I must implore you to consider turning this monster over to the authorities. I tried knocking on your door this morning, but received no reply. Please, I would like to discuss this matter with you further, with both of you young ladies. Please allow me to help you. I feel the need to do all that I can to assist you. I would not be a gentleman if I did not. Again my name is Sloan Jackson.” He left his room number at the bottom of the page. Gina frowned at the letter.
““He is a good man, as mortals go.” she voiced thoughtfully.
““Do you think he will go to the magistrate?” I worried.
““I pray not! This ship would become a slaughter house if he did!” Gina voiced strongly. “You must go to this man.” she decided.
:“What?” I stumbled badly. “I cannot. Ewan would-”
““I will keep Ewan busy. I will go to him this evening as I had planned to do so anyway.” Gina told me, and I lowered my head in shame, but then I thought of Gina, my dark mother alone with that monster, and I grabbed her arm in a pleading manner.
““You cannot! He will hurt you!” I screeched in alarm, but Gina smiled knowingly.
““Have a little faith in your dark mother, dear one.” She touched my cheek with the coolness of her hand. “I know exactly what I am doing.” she promised.
“We did not speak of what had happened to me the night before. I do not know why. Gina did not ask, and I did not tell. She had taken me inside, and gently, carefully, placed me in my coffin, instructing me to sleep. Her caring hand had scraped my cheek as she had closed the coffin lid over me. Sleep had taken some time in coming, and I had become lost in the horrors of what had happened to me. I could still feel his awful hands all over my body, his fangs sinking into my fleshy bottom lip. I ached everywhere at once, but especially inside where the emotional pain had laid claim. Gina had not spoken a word to me of comfort or otherwise. Perhaps, she could read it of me, the horrific events, the awful details of what Ewan had done to me. Perhaps, she didn’t want to know? Perhaps, just perhaps, she felt I had deserved such a fate, since I had not heeded her warning where Ewan was concerned.
“Frightened and feeling utterly alone, I walked to the third deck where I found myself staring at Sloan Jackson’s door in dreaded anticipation. Was he inside? Or had he perhaps gone on to dinner? I stood there hoping for the last, and praying softly that Gina would be all right when the door to Sloan Jackson’s room opened inward. Amber eyes found and held mine in deep concern and sympathy. He looked at my face as if searching for some hint of the bruises, I was sure, the ones I had possessed only the night before.
““Please.” I begged. “Please, don’t go to the magistrate. I thank you for your concern, and for your help as well, but please, please do not tell a soul!”
“My desperate plea must have worked, because the tall man nodded his dark blonde head in agreement. He was young, I noticed, not much older than I. He had offered to help me last night, and he had. He was a good man. Or was I as wrong about this man as I had been concerning the last?
““Thank you.” I whispered brokenly, catching a whimper from escaping by drawing on my bottom lip. Sloan Jackson moved forward then, and carefully his hands captured mine in a loose, easy to escape hold. I felt the warmth of his fingers, gently, lovingly tracing over my knuckles.
““What will you do now?” he asked, and I shook my head, not knowing. “This man, the one who hurt you, he won’t leave you alone, will he?” he asked carefully, and I shrugged my shoulders. My watery eyes came up, and I found myself staring into a pair of eyes the color of warm whiskey. “Do you want to come inside a moment?” he asked, and I thought of Gina. Was she still with Ewan? Was she all right? I shook my head negatively. “Of course, you don’t! How stupid of me. I apologize.” he said lowly. “Will you at least tell me your name?” he asked next, and I had to think. Was it safe to use my real name? Had news of the murder I had committed back in England reached the seas even?
““Lilly.” I whispered, smiling through my emotional torment. “My name is Lilly.”
““Lilly.” Sloan Jackson repeated in an endearing tone. “Lilly, what a lovely name.” he exclaimed gently. “You may call me Jax if you like. All of my friends do so.” he explained. Did he think of me as a friend, I wondered? He barely knew me! Still, I felt comforted and once again, safe within his presence.
““Jax.” I repeated, and I looked down at my hands, realizing that they were still incased within his strong, golden ones. “I would be honored to call you a friend.”
““And I, you, sweet Lilly.” he smiled, a handsome smile that would have taken my breath away if I had had but a breath to take. It caught me unaware, this sudden knowledge that Sloan Jackson, that Jax, was not only my savior from the night before, he was also now my friend. I thanked him once more, and then I turned and walked
back to my cabin where I found Gina waiting. She was in a rage, and upset as she paced the small cabin like a caged tiger.
““He will not give you up! He apologized for the things he did to you last night, said he lost his head and begged for my forgiveness.” Gina snorted. “But I could read of him the truth, yes, he does feel bad for the way he treated you. He has much regret, but he also feels as if you belong to him. He plans to take you with him when we disembark rather you wish to go with him or not!” Gina related, and a primal scream lodged in my throat. I had no physical evidence that Ewan had hurt me, had raped me. I did not feel the physical pain any longer, but inside I felt like screaming over and over again. Ewan had been my first everything, but I had not wanted to give him anything! He had taken what he had wanted, brutally, to punish me because I knew the truth about him now! I knew that he was a monster! A child killer!
““No!” I cried out in rage and alarm. “I will not go.” I insisted firmly, and Gina turned, taking me by the shoulders.
““We must come up with a plan, Lillian. They do not possess the same power as we do. They can not read our minds. It will be difficult, but you must play his game, make him believe that you were hurt, yes, but that perhaps, you can forgive him.” Gina said, deep in contemplation.
““I will never forgive him!” I spit out, and Gina shook me hard.
““I would never ask you to do so, but if we are to make it out of this, to escape them, then Ewan must believe that you are considering going with him willingly.”
““And what of Jax?”
““Jax?”
““The man from last night. He wants to be my friend.” I said, thinking of Jackson’s face and those amber eyes when he looked upon me with sympathy and concern.
““Ewan would not like that.” Gina warned, and I shook my head.
““I don’t care what that bastard likes or does not like!” I hissed fitfully.
““But do you care for this Jax’s safety? If you do, even in the slightest, you must set him free now. If Ewan finds the two of you together, even in innocent conversation, he will kill him!” Gina let me know, and I knew that she was right. The knowledge shook me to my very core. Ewan would never know anything because I never planned to see the sadist son of a bitch again!”
Nicole had to shake herself. Reading the journal now, with Ewan’s name in it, made her think of her own Ewan and how different the two men were. Of course they were different, Nicole thought, a small smile touching her face at the thought. Lillian’s Ewan had been a cold-blooded, heartless vampire, and Nicole’s Ewan was a kind, romantic, sexy as hell English man who just so happened to think that Nicole was sexy and beautiful too! Things were looking up, Nicole thought as she set Lillian’s journal aside.
Tomorrow, she had another date with the man of her dreams. Yawning, she decided to get to bed where she could dream about the possibilities. Her smile widening on her pretty face, she stretched her arms over her head, yawned again, and headed toward dreamland.
Chapter twenty-eight
Jack couldn’t concentrate the next day at work. He sat at his desk, the same old files in his hands going through them piece by damned piece. The files had passed from hand to hand, from the first response officers, to the crime lab, to the Sergeant in charge, and back to Jack again. Everyone had had a look, and everyone, absolutely everyone was coming up empty handed and shaking their heads, dumbfounded. How could someone be this good? How could someone know absolutely every possible way to avoid leaving even a hint of evidence? This guy was intelligent, smart as hell, and as deranged as a psychopath! If he had to think on this a moment longer, he was going to go insane himself, Jack warned his frazzled brain, but then new thoughts entered his mind, and he sucked in his breath. He closed his eyes, and he could see her, her glorious hair spilled all around her against the crisp white of his bed sheets. Her eyes open halfway as she stared up at him, those damned long lashes fluttering against the whiteness of her alabaster skin. So beautiful and she had wanted him. For some reason that only God himself could fully understand, Lilly wanted him!
“If you don’t stop smiling I’m going to have to shoot you.” Bordello warned irritably, breaking Jack’s concentration. Jack grinned, and ducked his head. He shrugged.
“I can’t help it.” he confessed.
“Something happened with your girl?” Bordello guessed.
“You could say that.” Jack nodded, still grinning.
“Yeah, well keep it in your pants, Stone. She isn’t here now.” Bordello joked, and Jack chuckled low in his throat. “You talked to Agent Darcy yesterday?” Bordello turned suddenly serious.
“Yep. He gave me a profile on both of the killers: one a man, one a woman.” Jack nodded his head, coming back to reality for the time being. “I typed up the info, thought it might help us out.” Jack searched out the papers on his desk, and handed Bordello a copy. He watched as the man looked the two sheets over.
“Then they aren’t connected?”
“Agent Darcy doesn’t believe so.”
“Damn.” Bordello shook his dark head. “He didn’t give us any ideas on how to catch this son of a bitch, did he?”
“Which of the sons of bitches?” Jack countered, raising a dark brow curiously.
“Right.” Bordello nodded solemnly. “But one doesn’t seem that bad, does she? I mean she murders people all right, but come on, even you have to agree that maybe, just maybe she is doing this city a favor.”
“Murder as a favor?” Jack retorted, thinking it over. Bordello shrugged. He lifted his stale coffee to his lips, and made a disgusted face as he swallowed a goodly portion. Jack frowned. “I’ll admit this woman is the lesser of two evils, but taking the law into her own hands…” Jack was the one to shake his head now. “And how does she do it? How does a woman kill a man as big as Arthur Miller, not to mention the two at once the other night?”
“Maybe she has some help?” Bordello suggested.
They were going over the same old shit. Nothing was going to get solved here today, Jack groaned. Where was Lilly? He had called her earlier, and Reginald had told him that Lilly was out. She didn’t carry a cell on her, so Jack couldn’t get a hold of her through that route. Was she avoiding him? Did she regret making love with him? They needed to talk about last night. They needed to also talk about what had happened to her in her past. His head was reeling. She had told him that she couldn’t have children. It was a problem, yes, but not something he would willingly give her up for! Hell no! He doubted there was anything Lilly Saint Rose could do or say that would make him walk away from her. He was in it for the long run. He only prayed that Lilly was as well.
Lillian awoke with a tightness in her gut that was stretching, growing with each night that passed and she did not feed. It had been over a week since Boston, she realized. She needed to hunt. She needed to feed, but she did not want to leave Jack unprotected. Dressed in black from head to toe, she stepped to the front porch of her home, hearing when Troy followed her out. “Where are you going, Lillian?” Troy asked, thinking that he already knew the answer.
“To find the other.” Lillian voiced honestly, and Troy gasped.
“You can’t be serious!” he protested, coming into the dark of the yard with her. Lillian straightened her shoulders. Yes, she was quite serious! This other, he or she, could be dangerous, but he or she was also making it impossible for Lilly to leave Jack. She would never forgive herself if she went away and something happened to Jack because she had not been there, had not warned him of the other. From what she had heard of the way this other vampire had handled its kills she knew that the vampire had more than likely turned completely cold. Vampires were not wasteful like that! Were they? There was no need for so much bloodshed! No, the one she was looking for had to be of the evil variety, but perhaps, she could talk to him or her, convince him or her to leave the city, to leave so that Jack would be safe once again.
“He is a threat. These are my grounds.
He invades, and he knows he invades.” she stated flatly.
“This isn’t about invasion of territory, and you know it. It’s about Detective Stone!” Troy accused, and Lillian turned to face the handsome man who was like family to her.
“What if it is?” she tilted her head slightly. Troy frowned heavily.
“You’ve never taken on one of your own before. It could be more dangerous than you imagine. If Gina knew she would…” Troy began his heated lecture, but Lillian quickly cut him off.
“Gina is gone. It is just me now, left to sort out this mess alone. I will not sit idly by while this creature of destruction plagues our city!” she vowed.
“I’ll come with you.” Troy decided suddenly. Lillian smiled knowingly.
“And what help will you be to me? Without you I will move faster.” she pointed out. “Stay. Protect the house.”
“The house? What is there to protect here? I’ll grow fat if you don’t put me to good use soon, Lillian.” Troy grinned, and Lillian shook her head. “What do you plan to do with him when you find him?” Troy worried. Lillian had already thought about how the whole scene would play out.
“Ask him to leave.” she said, and she turned to leave. She ignored Troy when he called out her name, and she began to run so fast that she knew he could not possibly keep up. With expert skill, she grabbed a hold of the stone fence, and leapt over, landing in a crouch in the street on the other side.
Locating the other was proving to be more difficult than Lillian had first anticipated. She had never gone on a vampire hunt before. What did one look for, she wondered as she crouched on the ledge of a three story building above a bakery that had closed at five p.m.? The street below was dark, empty. The noise that drifted up to her was minimal, and consisted mainly of traffic coming from the streets beyond. She had called Jack earlier, and had gotten his voicemail. Leaving a message, she told him that she had some things to do tonight, and would get with him the next night. She missed him already. How was that possible? She had lived for over a hundred years in solitude, had needed no one, had wanted no one.
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