Finally, he could delay no longer. Time to face those doubts and questions in Megan’s mind. He wanted to blame Joss for all of this, and she’d certainly played a part. So had Rafferty. But Seamus thought he’d come to terms with their betrayal of his sister, as well as the poor decisions she’d made herself.
Megan looked up when he walked in and sat down. Although he didn’t exactly cuddle up close, he refused to put the length of the couch between them. If she didn’t like it, she could be the one to move. When she didn’t immediately object, some of his tension drained away.
“Okay, I’m going to start at the beginning and tell you how and why I ended up here on Rafferty’s estate. When I’m done talking, you can ask me any questions you might have or you can talk to Rafferty and Joss if you’d rather. But hear me out before you interrupt.”
“I’m listening.”
So he stared down at the floor, as if all the answers he needed were there. Starting at the beginning, he explained that Rafferty’s humiliation of Seamus’s half sister had resulted in Petra’s attempt to destroy Rafferty by setting the vampire up to be convicted of murder. Only Joss’s intervention and finding out the truth had prevented him from being executed.
When he drifted to a halt, Megan reached over to entwine her fingers with his, telling him with her touch that she was still there for him. He took a shuddering breath and started talking again, almost choking over the words.
“Petra was tried, convicted and executed. When her assets were confiscated, I lost my only source of income and the medical school canceled my scholarship. Fairness doesn’t mean much in vampire politics.”
And then he told her the hardest part of all. “I meant what I said earlier. I came here planning on doing a lot more than confronting Rafferty and Joss. I wasn’t going to be satisfied with anything less than their total destruction. I was so angry, I wanted them both bleeding and everything they cared about destroyed.”
“So what changed?”
He clung to the note of conviction in her voice that made it clear that she knew his intentions toward her cousin and her husband were no longer violent in nature. Slowly, he turned to face her.
“You, mostly. When I came here, I thought I’d lost all chance of ever practicing medicine again. Fighting to save you from the poison reminded me of how it felt to be a doctor, to hold someone’s life in my hands. I realized that even as a medic, I could make a real difference.
“And as much as I hated to admit it, I saw that Rafferty was already making changes that are long overdue in our world. It’s criminal that anyone would expect you to give up Phoebe just because she’s purebred vampire and you’re not. No matter how mad I was over what happened to Petra, I’d be a pretty selfish bastard to destroy the one place where you and your daughter could be safe.”
Megan immediately let go of his hand and shifted to straddle his lap. She framed his face with her palms. “Now that we’ve settled that, it seems to me you made a promise to finish our earlier conversation.”
“I’m up for it if you are.” He flexed his hips to demonstrate that he meant that literally.
Her warm breath tickled his ear. “Want to start out here and end up in your bed?”
“Either is fine with me.” He punctuated each word with a kiss. “As long as we get started right now.”
What the hell was that noise? Seamus blinked sleepily at the clock as he waited to see if he heard it again. There. Someone was knocking on the clinic door. More than three hours had passed since he’d locked up for the night, meaning it was another emergency.
He eased away from Megan, seeing no reason for her to lose sleep, too. His clothes were scattered on the floor out in the living room. So were hers, for that matter, he thought with a pleased smile. They’d finished up their conversation on the couch and then started a whole new one in his bed. The evening had definitely ended on a high note.
But back to the matter at hand. He was still buttoning his shirt when he turned on the outside light and opened the door. A vampire he didn’t recognize was waiting for him. The man was breathing hard, as if he’d run a long distance. He was also dripping wet from the rain that had started sometime during the night.
“Can I help you?”
“Are you the medic?” the vampire wheezed.
“I’m Dr. Fitzhugh, yes. Is there an emergency?” He looked past the vampire to see if he was alone.
“You’ll need to come with me. I was working out near the fence when I found an injured female. I was afraid to move her by myself, so I ran all the way here to fetch you. Between the two of us, we can get her back here easily enough.”
So why hadn’t he called ahead? It didn’t make sense, but then not everyone reacted logically when confronted with injuries. Maybe he’d better offer some first-aid classes when he had time to prevent this type of thing from happening.
“I’ll get my bag. Once you show me where she is, we’ll call for help if she’s too badly injured to carry.”
The two of them ran at full speed for what had to be at least three miles before the electric fence came into sight. The vampire at his side slowed to a stop.
“If you keep going straight to the fence and turn right, you’ll find her. She’s under a pair of trees. I’ll go back for help.”
Then he took off, leaving Seamus staring as he disappeared into the darkness back the way they’d come. Something wasn’t right. He’d said the two of them could get the woman back to the clinic. If that was the case, then why was he leaving?
With a growing sense of foreboding, Seamus continued on toward the fence before turning right. Spotting the trees a short distance ahead did little to ease the knot of tension in his chest. Thoughts of the murdered human female filled his mind. Was he walking into a trap? His instincts were screaming that he was, but he had no choice but to continue on.
A few minutes later, he found her—a human female. The rain did little to hide the scent of fresh blood, triggering his fangs to drop down. He slowed his approach, his night vision still able to pick out all too many details from a short distance away. Death was close if not already stealing the last beat of her heart, the last breath from her lungs.
But he had to try to save her. He knelt in the wet grass, ignoring whether it was blood or rain that was soaking through to his skin. He began cataloging her injuries at the same time he opened his medical bag. When he tried to put pressure on her neck, blood sprayed right in his face. When her eyes fluttered open and saw him hovering over her, fangs out, she panicked and tried to move away, her efforts weak and unfocused.
“I’m Dr. Fitzhugh. I need to treat your injuries.”
That only made her more frantic. If she weren’t already so weak, perhaps he could have sedated her. However, in her condition, it might only hasten her death. Damn it, why hadn’t he called for help before leaving the clinic? Maybe they could have gotten her evacuated to the trauma hospital in time.
But judging by the rattling deep in her throat, that was wishful thinking. One breath, another, and then a quiet exhale that ended her life for good. He rocked back on his heels and cursed. If he couldn’t save her, at least he could do as much as he could to bring her killer to justice.
Thanks to the rain, he couldn’t readily identify the vampire either by scent or sight. The male had been wearing a heavy sweatshirt with the hood cinched down close to his face. Seamus had assumed he’d worn it that way because of the weather, but now he knew it was to prevent him from being able to describe him.
One didn’t make it through medical school without developing some immunity to the sight of horrific injuries. But the degree to which this poor woman had suffered at the hands of her attacker made him sick. Shallow cuts meant to inflict pain, but not death, were scattered over her torso as well as her legs and upper arms. There was no mistaking the similarities between this victim and the one that Conlan had brought to the clinic.
It was definitely time to call for help. But before he could dial the phone
, he was hit with a blaze of light that blinded him for several seconds. He’d been concentrating so hard on the woman that he’d missed hearing the approach of a pair of transports. He shaded his eyes against the glare, trying to make out the shadowy forms who were now walking toward him.
Was that a gun?
Rather than wait around to ask, he jumped to his feet and prepared to run like hell. Vampires could survive almost anything other than a head shot, but he wasn’t going to wait around to test that theory. He’d head straight for Rafferty’s house.
He’d gone no more than a handful of steps when he was tackled from behind. The ground rushed up to meet him, knocking the air out of his lungs. Survival instincts kicked in as he fought to break free. He succeeded in throwing the guy off once, but before he could make it back to his feet a second man joined the party. Together they quickly overpowered him.
His arms were yanked behind him and handcuffs were snapped around his wrists with little care other than to make sure they were painfully tight. So far, his attackers hadn’t muttered a single word. The brief scuffle had them all breathing hard.
Seamus muscled his face up out of the mud long enough to identify himself. “Let go of me. I’m Dr. Fitzhugh!”
His captor rolled him over. To his shock it was Rafferty. The older vampire got right down in his face. “I know who you are and what you are, you murdering bastard. When I get done with you, you’ll be nothing but dead.”
“Are you crazy? I was called out here to treat an injured woman. I didn’t kill her.”
“She’s dead, isn’t she? And that’s her blood your face is covered with.” Rafferty lifted him up to his feet with one hand. Under other circumstances, Seamus might have been impressed.
“Yes, but she wasn’t when I got here.” Realizing how that sounded, he tried to explain. “I found her lying where you found her. She died right after I got here.”
“Sounds like a confession to me. Don’t you agree, Conlan?”
“Yeah, boss, it does.”
“And you two are idiots if you think I could do something like that.”
Rafferty’s smile was a horror to behold. “Idiots, are we? You know, I don’t much like being insulted.”
Then his fist connected with the side of Seamus’s head, and the lights went out.
Chapter 15
Consciousness returned slowly, with a jackhammer headache pounding in back of his eyes. Seamus moaned and tried to roll over. Even that much movement made him queasy, confirming Rafferty had most likely given him a concussion when he punched him.
That explained the pain, answering only one of the questions flashing through his head. Where was he? What was going on? He briefly considered those two and came up with nothing other than he was obviously on a bed in a room that was absolutely dark. Even with his superior night vision, he needed at least some ambient light to see. All of which left him in the dark—literally.
He pondered one last question, the only one that really mattered to him: would Rafferty let him live long enough to see if Megan would believe in his innocence? If he was going to die, he didn’t want the woman he loved thinking the worst of him.
A wave of bitterness washed over him, knowing that he’d never said the actual words to her. After the night they’d shared, he’d planned on telling her how he felt over breakfast. He wanted her to know that he meant it even in the cold light of day, not just after a bout of hot sex. Depending on her response, he might have even asked if she’d consider moving in with him. The apartment was pretty small for three people, but until Rafferty hired another person to help cover emergencies, Seamus couldn’t move.
What a fool for thinking that for once his plans would play out the way he wanted them to! He flexed his fingers, wishing he could have five minutes alone with that rat bastard vampire for playing him like a fool. He’d choke the truth out of him, and then drain him dry, leaving him alive long enough to stand trial for what he’d done to those two poor women.
It was time to do more than lie in the darkness and brood. He reached out with both hands, feeling for the edge of the bed. His right hand hit a wall, but his left found nothing but air beyond the mattress. Okay, now to see if he could sit up without getting sick. The last thing he wanted to do was to throw up in the darkness.
He made it to semivertical, sitting on the side of the bed as he waited for the pain to ebb to a manageable level again. Before he could stand up, though, he heard someone approaching. Cocking his head to the side, he focused all of his attention into listening.
Sure enough, the muffled sound of footsteps slowed to a halt a few feet away on the other side of the wall. He stayed where he was, waiting to see what happened next. A rattle of keys and a quiet click preceded a door opening directly across from him. He blinked against the light pouring in from the hallway.
“Conlan.”
“Right on the first guess. I’m going to turn on the lights, so you might want to shade your eyes.”
Even with the warning, the sudden onslaught of high-voltage light sent fresh shards of pain ripping through Seamus’s head. He closed his eyes and held his head in his hands while he waited for the moment to pass.
Conlan made a disgusted grunt. “Damn it, I told Rafferty he hit you too hard. When you’re able to eat, here’s a trio of blood packs and a tray that Megan insisted on bringing by for you.”
At the mention of her name, Seamus forced himself to look up at Conlan. “How is she?”
Before answering, Conlan put the tray down on the seat of a straight-backed chair and then dragged it across the room to where Seamus sat. “She’s shaken up. It’s not every day a woman realizes she’s been sleeping with a murderer.”
There was nothing Seamus could say to that, at least until he consumed enough blood to kick-start the healing process. Maybe once his head cleared, he could find a way out of this mess. He quickly knocked off the first two packs and then started on the food Megan had prepared for him.
For the first time since Rafferty’s fist had connected to his head, things were looking up. If Megan was worried about what he ate, maybe all wasn’t lost. Once he’d finished eating, he reached for the last of the blood.
“Thanks.”
Conlan stood across the room, leaning against the wall, his eyes on the frigid side of cold. Seamus wasn’t fooled by the chancellor’s calm demeanor. It wouldn’t take much more than Seamus breathing wrong to release Conlan’s pent-up rage.
He popped the top of his blood pack. “For the record, I didn’t kill either of those women.”
“Save the ‘I’m innocent’ crap for someone who’s more gullible than I am, Seamus.” Conlan pushed himself off the wall and glared across at him.
“You had opportunity and motive. I may not be part of the Coalition’s justice system any longer, but I’d bet those two things are still enough to get you convicted and maybe even executed. That is, if Rafferty had any plans to turn you over to the Coalition in the first place.”
Seamus shrugged and consumed the blood. Already his head was feeling better, his thinking clearer. “Did you find any sign of the other vampire? The one who suckered me into taking the fall for this?”
Conlan sneered, his fangs on full display. “There is no other vampire. And before you ask, we checked on all the other resident vampires on the estate. They were all accounted for, including witnesses. The only one out wandering around by himself was you.”
Conlan picked up a notebook off a table near the door that he’d obviously left there earlier. “I promised Rafferty I’d take your statement. Personally, I think it’s a waste of my time.”
It was obvious that both Conlan and Rafferty already had him tried and convicted, but Seamus had to try to make them listen.
“I’m reasonably intelligent, Conlan. Why would I kill two innocent women and set it up so that the most likely suspect is me?” He fought for control. “I was with Megan right up until a vampire I didn’t recognize came banging on the clinic door. He told
me he’d been working out near the fence and spotted an injured woman. He was afraid of moving her by himself, so he came and got me. We were going to either bring her in together or call for help if I thought she was too badly injured to be carried.”
Conlan looked up from his notes. “And where did this mystical vampire disappear to? When we arrived at the site, you were the only one there.”
“He turned back to get more help before we actually reached the woman. At the time I thought it was odd that he changed the plans with no warning, but I had no choice but to go on. I was going to call Rafferty as soon as I determined the nature of the victim’s injuries.”
Seamus frowned. “But how did you know to come at all? To get there as fast as you did, you had to have been on your way before I even found the victim.”
“I was meeting with Rafferty when he got a call from someone saying they heard screams out near the fence.”
“Did he say who called?”
“No, whoever it was hung up before he got a name.” Conlan looked up from his notes. “Rafferty is trying to trace back to find out, but the number wasn’t local. That doesn’t mean much, because we don’t keep track of cell phones and the like.”
Maybe the call was a dead end, but at least Rafferty was looking into it. “The woman was still alive when I found her. When I tried to apply pressure to her neck wound, she roused long enough to try to fight me off, which is how I got coated with her blood. Before I could calm her down, she died.”
He couldn’t sit still any longer, not with that poor woman’s eyes, terror-filled and dead, clogging up his thoughts. Conlan must be confident in his ability to stop Seamus from escaping since he made no effort to block the doorway.
“Go on with your story.”
“I was just going to call for you and Rafferty when I saw the lights from your transports. I was prepared to run if it turned out to be the killers coming back.”
“Killers? Why plural? You only mentioned seeing one vampire.”
Vampire Vendetta Page 20