Undeniable

by Doreen Orsini

  “Are the torches for me,” Diana asked Colette as she picked up the salad bowl from the picnic table.

  Colette stopped clearing the table and gazed at the torches encircling the yard. Her eyes shone. “I always light them. Marek bought them. He bought the tree lights too.”

  Diana gazed at the multitude of tiny white lights sparkling in the Weeping Cherry trees lining a wide path to the lake. “They’re beautiful. Did Marek have a problem with his night vision?”

  “Night vision?” Colette shot a worried look across the yard at her daughter.

  Luna skimmed her feet along the ground, abruptly halting her swing, and stared intently into her mother’s eyes. After a moment she shook her head. Another moment passed. Luna brought her finger up to her chest and drew an X.

  Watching the scene between mother and child, Diana wondered if they somehow spoke to each other.

  Colette turned her attention back to clearing the table, her brows furrowed, her hands shaking.

  It had taken a month of weekly lessons for Diana to convince Colette that she meant them no harm, that she would never reveal their secret. Each week, Colette had peered into the shadows and gripped the gate surrounding the corral. By the end of the lesson her knuckles would be white and a glistening sheen of sweat coated her skin.

  Last night her fear had escalated when a group of ranch hands suddenly emerged from the saloon and started to run toward the corral, yelling. “We got two live ones!” “Whoa, Diana, don’t let em go before we rope em in!”

  Diana knew exactly what they were talking about, had even begun to laugh, but Colette’s strangled cry cut her laughter short. “It’s all right, Colette, calm down. They’re only talking about tomorrow’s charity fair.” Fangs had slipped out between Colette’s lips. Diana, praying the men were too far to notice, hissed, “Colette, please!”

  She’d passed Luna over the gate to her mother, then spun around and smiled brightly at the approaching men. “Hi, guys.”

  “Don’t you let them go, Di. We gotta get them to buy some of these tickets.” Jacob, the oldest hand on the ranch, waved a book of raffle tickets in the air. “Wouldn’t want the tot to miss all the fun tomorrow.”

  “I already bought some for them.” She glanced over her shoulder. “But I don’t think Luna’s going to be able to make it. I was just ending her lesson early because she feels like she has a fever.”

  Jacob leaned to the side and peered around Diana. “She don’t look sick.”

  Diana cringed. The stench of rotten teeth and stale alcohol sent bile rising up her throat. “I’d step back, Jacob. Luna just said she felt nauseous.”

  Jacob leapt back a step. “Well git her outta here! I don’t want her vomitin all over the place!”

  Luna screamed.

  Diana spun around. Her eyes flew open in shock. A bee had managed to entangle itself in a lock of Luna’s hair. Without a moment’s hesitation, Diana lifted the hair away from Luna’s chest and plucked the bee out.

  Accepting the ensuing invitation hadn’t been easy. She couldn’t bear the thought of missing one moment with Sebastian, much less one night. And just the previous night she’d started an argument, demanding he find some time during the day for her.

  She needed that more than he knew. A few hours during the day. A few hours in the sun.

  Sebastian hadn’t taken the news that she had plans which didn’t include him very well. And when she refused to tell him where she intended to spend their first night apart, he’d stalked off, cutting the night short.

  And now, with one stupid question about Marek’s night vision, she’d blown a perfect night. She followed Colette’s rigid back into the kitchen.

  She put the salad bowl in the sink, aware that Colette stood beside the table, a stack of dirty dishes still in her hands.

  “How do you know about our night vision?”

  “Doesn’t everyone?” Diana pumped dish detergent onto a sponge.

  “No, Diana. Most people don’t know we exist. Most people would never believe in us even if a little girl showed them her fangs. Most people would figure she had fake ones and laugh it off. But you didn’t. You knew they were real. Because you’re not like most people, are you?”

  “You bared your fangs, Colette. Remember?” Diana straightened from the hard edge of anger in Colette’s voice. She couldn’t bring herself to turn around.

  Colette slammed the pile of dishes on the counter. “I’m talking about your father.”

  Diana gripped the edge of the counter. “My father? What do you know about my father?” Her voice cracked.

  Colette leaned over and turned off the water with one fervent twist of the handles. “The question, Diana, is what do you know about your father and his pen? Where is it? Where are my husband’s ashes?”

  Diana slowly turned. She stared at Colette. Even though her tears blurred the woman’s face, she saw the return of the mistrust, the fear. “I…” She blinked, felt her tears spill onto her cheeks, watched Colette’s crimson ones spill onto hers. Diana swallowed the false denial. “I’m so sorry, Colette. I never believed it. How could I? He’s my father!”

  She took a tentative step forward.

  Colette, a feared creature of the night, someone who could probably rip her to shreds without breaking a sweat, scurried back and swung a chair between them.

  “Don’t come any closer!”

  Diana watched her scan the shadows of the room as if she expected someone to suddenly appear. “Oh, God, Colette, you can’t think I’d—”

  The screen door swung open.

  “Wanna see my dolls, Di—”

  “No!” Colette lunged toward Luna, knocking Diana across the room as if she were nothing more than a pesky fly. She grabbed Luna, spun her around and shoved her towards the door. “Run, Luna!”

  Diana slumped against the wall, the pain in the back of her head nothing compared to the knife twisting in her heart. “My mother lied to me. She lied to me, then left me with him.”

  She stared blindly at her lap and let loose the grief she’d contained since she’d first discovered her father’s insane tales were true and her mother’s promises were false. And what of Sebastian? Why would he only see her at night? Was he a vampire? Probably not. Which meant she could never trust him with her knowledge of Colette and Luna. She lifted her eyes.

  Her heart felt like it cracked. Colette cradled Luna against her side, protecting her. As a mother would. As her mother should have.

  “I believed my mother. Even when I was old enough to know that my father was too normal to have delusions. I kept telling myself that my mother would never lie to me. But she did, didn’t she? She even lied when she told me she loved me. My God, she left me, a little girl, with a man who killed vampires. A man who left me alone every night to hunt them!”

  Diana angrily swiped away her tears. “You wouldn’t do that, Colette. You’d protect Luna. You’d worry that the creatures your husband sought might go after your daughter for revenge.”

  When Luna moved to step away from her mother and toward Diana, Colette tightened her hold. “So you had nothing to do with Marek’s death?”

  “Oh, God, no. I liked Marek. He was always so kind. If I had any idea what my father planned, if I believed his tales, I would have done something to stop him. You have to believe me.” She watched Luna clutch the locket she’d given her and recalled what her mother had said when she’d given it to her. She’d told her the locket would keep the monsters away then had added, “Not that you’ll need it. The monsters are more afraid of your father than you could ever be of them. They wouldn’t dare touch Frank Nostrum’s little girl.”

  She had raised fearful eyes to her mother and asked, “So there really are monsters, Mommy?”

  Her mother had leaned over and kissed her. Diana remembered wondering why her mother was crying. “Sometimes people like your father can only see monsters because they can’t get past the legends and the fangs, Diana. Sometimes the monsters are no di
fferent from you or me.”

  “Oh my God, she knew.” Diana shook her head at Colette and Luna. “She wasn’t telling me vampires didn’t exist. She was telling me they weren’t monsters. But I couldn’t believe that. I never wanted to believe it, because if I did, then I had to accept that my father was no better than a murderer. H-he killed s-so many. I heard about every one. Even poor, sweet Marek. I’d just pat him on the back and tell him he was doing a great job. Oh God, it’s all my fault, isn’t it. If I’d done something to stop him, Marek—”

  She clapped her hand over her mouth. Her stifled scream filled the kitchen. When she felt Luna’s tiny hands grasp her cheeks, her scream evolved into a wail she couldn’t seem to control.

  Until the screen door once again flew open and slammed against the wall. Diana drew in a sharp breath.

  Sebastian stood in the doorway, his eyes darting back and forth, his hands clenched around a gun.

  Diana jumped up and, after pushing Luna back into her mother’s arms, stood in front of them. “What are you doing here?” Her voice shook.

  She cared for Sebastian more than any man she’d ever known, felt in her heart that they were soul mates, but couldn’t live with the death of another vampire on her conscience. Colette and Luna, caught up in the escalating emotions of the evening, had twice revealed their fangs. “You can’t just barge into someone’s house swinging a gun around!”

  “What?” Sebastian raked a hand through his hair. “I’m a goddamned Champion! I hear a scream, I barge in. It’s my damn job!”

  The three females flinched when he slammed the door shut, his eyes still scanning the room.

  “A Champion? What the hell is a Champion?” Diana narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “Why are you here?”

  “I just told you, I heard a scream.”

  “No. Why are you even close enough to hear anything that’s going on in this house?” She swiped at a wisp of hair that clung to her wet cheek. “Are you following me?”

  “What?” Sebastian took a step closer.

  Diana puffed out her chest and reached behind her to gather Colette and Luna behind her back. “I told you I had plans tonight.” Her voice shook with anger. “You’re not one of those overbearing jealous nuts who follows his girlfriends around, are you?”

  “Nut? Did you just call me a nut?” He shoved the gun in the back of his jeans.

  Diana crossed her arms over her chest. “If you’re following me, then, yes, I’m calling you a nut!”

  “I am not the one screaming my head off as if someone’s killing me for,” he bellowed, waving his hands around the kitchen, “no apparent reason!”

  “You’re avoiding the question, wise guy. What are you even doing here?”

  “I live nearby. Since I had no plans tonight,” he said, raising one eyebrow, “I figured I’d take a walk along the lake. Now will you please tell me what the hell happened?” Sebastian traced a finger down her wet cheek, then reached over and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “You’ve obviously been crying and that wasn’t some randy raccoon I heard screaming.”

  His voice, filled with concern, and the touch of his fingers gliding down her cheek nearly undid her. Nearly. She longed to throw herself into his arms and pour her heart out, but doubted Sebastian would believe her father hunted vampires. And what if she told him the woman and little girl cowering behind her were real night creatures, that she would do anything to protect them? That she was screaming because her failure to stop her father had led to the death of a vampire she’d considered a gentle giant?

  Oh, yeah. Sebastian would understand. He’d understand as he called the men in white to come and take her away.

  Of course, she had to consider the possibility that he might believe her. Then what? Would he call her father and enlist his aid in capturing Colette and Luna? Knowing the Sebastian she’d grown to care about, she doubted it, but she couldn’t take the chance.

  “Well?” He leaned to the side, then scowled when she shifted to block his view of Colette and Luna.

  “I saw a, um, mouse.”

  Sebastian’s brows drew together. “You saw a mouse? Diana, you work at a ranch. You must see them all the time.”

  She flung her hands behind her back, held one of her fingers out and mumbled. “It bit me.”

  “You screamed like that because a little mouse bit you?”

  “It hurt!”

  “Really? I’d better take a look at it then.” His eyes narrowed.

  She frantically wriggled her index finger, hoping Luna would see it and know what to do. “I’m fine.”

  “Let me see it, Diana. That is, if there is anything to see.” He leaned his hip against the counter and crossed his arms.

  “Are you calling me a liar? I’m telling you a mouse bit my finger.” She felt Luna grasp her finger and gritted her teeth. The pain, though piercing enough to bring tears to her eyes, didn’t last long. She brought her hand out and waved her finger in front of his face. “See?”

  Sebastian’s pupils dilated. “You expect me to believe a mouse did this?”

  Colette stepped out from behind Diana and looked at her finger. “Luna, go to your room!”

  “But, Mommy!”

  “It’s really not that bad.” Diana turned her bloody finger around.

  “Not a word, young lady. To your room, now.”

  The gash across the pad of her finger spewed blood. Luna’s fang had gone completely through, piercing the nail. Diana mutely watched as Sebastian cursed and brought her finger to his mouth. Her stomach flipped as he licked both sides before grabbing a dishtowel draped over a chair and wrapping it around her hand. His tongue darted out and licked her blood from his lips.

  “Lu—” Colette looked at Diana, Sebastian, then back at Diana.

  Then back at Sebastian.

  Just as she had when Luna and her mother had stared into each other’s eyes outside, Diana noted subtle changes in Colette and Sebastian’s expressions. As if they were having a discussion. A private, silent conversation. Her heart sank. Her eyes burned.

  As they continued to ignore her, she searched for some way out, some way to avoid meeting his eyes.

  “Diana, are you all right? You look so pale?” Colette’s soft voice met her ears just as Diana’s vision cleared enough to make out the names scrawled beneath a childish drawing on the refrigerator of two, tall stick figures.

  “Diana?” Sebastian took hold of her hand.

  Tearing her eyes away from the drawing, Diana forced herself to look at the man who filled her every thought, every dream.

  “Must have been a big mouse,” she mumbled, wondering how wise it was to bleed so close to vampires. Her eyes widened when her blood seeped through the towel and started to drip onto the floor. “I don’t feel so good.”

  Scooping Diana up into his arms just as her legs gave out, Sebastian watched her eyes flutter, then close. “Why was she lying to me, Colette?”

  Colette shook her head. “I think she was protecting us.”

  “From who?”

  Colette simply stared at him.

  “Me?” He shifted Diana so that her head rested on his shoulder. The vein in his neck nearly burst free from the skin separating it from her lips. Diana groaned. He carried her into the living room and laid her down on the couch. “That’s ridiculous. Why would she think I’d hurt you or Luna?”

  Colette lowered her eyes. “Because she knows.”

  Ice-cold fingers wrapped around his heart. “So, she was protecting you from me.” Although the idea that Diana thought he would sink his teeth into a helpless woman and child made him sick, he had to admire her bravery. He gazed down. She looked so pale. So frail. “Faints at the sight of blood, yet she stands up to a vampire to protect her friends.”

  Colette began to nod, then jerked her head up. She swatted his slumped shoulders. “You big oaf. As far as Diana was concerned, she was only standing up to a man.”

  “But you just said she knows.”<
br />
  “About me and Luna. Not you.”

  Sebastian felt the fingers around his heart release their grip, slip away. “That’s why she screamed? She realized you were vampires?”

  “No, no. She’s known about us for a while.”

  “Before Marek?” The fingers returned, this time squeezing so hard he thought his heart would stop beating. “Then Olympia was right. She must have led her father to him.”

  “She found out after Marek died. Open your eyes, Sebastian. She made it quite obvious tonight that she would never help her father.”

  He longed to believe that, but the safety of his niece and sister-in-law weighed heavy on his shoulders. “You shouldn’t have invited her here. What if you’re wrong? What if this was all an elaborate act?”

  “We trust her.” Colette brought her chin up. “As a matter of fact, we’re all going into town to watch the fireworks.” She glanced down. “Well, as soon as she comes to.”

  Sebastian examined Diana’s finger. His blood already mingling with hers and his saliva had worked its magic. The gaping wound had already sealed into a mere scratch.

  Over the past three weeks his hunger had gnawed at him, weakening his willpower more each day until he thought he’d go mad. Blood surged through his veins, pooled in his eyes. Seeing Diana through a red haze terrified him. His fangs shot out. His nostrils flared. The smell of her blood permeated the room. He closed his eyes, clenched his fists, flung his head back and roared until his fangs receded with his hunger.

  Drawing in a shaky breath, he glared at Colette’s shocked face. “First we’re going to get this covered and wake Diana. Then I’ll go with you into town, just in case you’re wrong.”

  “You still don’t trust her. What does she have to do?”

  “More than what could have been a very good act.”

  “Men are such fools.” Colette shook her head as she went to get a bandage. When she returned, she handed it to him and rumpled his head. “Well, not Marek. He trusted me the moment we met.”

  “Marek trusted everyone, Colette. That’s the problem.” He wrapped the bandage around Diana’s finger.