A Bite to Remember

by Lynsay Sands

  “It was a lot of effort to get us off the track; removing the list from every office and then attacking Stephano.”

  “Yes, but it was worth it,” Lily assured her, then added, “though I never meant to kill Stephano. Up until then it was all terribly easy. I simply went into work early, while all the mortals were still on shift, and had them erase the computer files while I pulled the hard copies.”

  “Accounting was the last office,” Lily said and pursed her lips. “I’d done all the others. The human day secretary was still there when I arrived, but it was getting late. Meredith, the night girl would be there soon.

  “As I’d done with the other offices, I had the day girl erase the computer files, but then I sent her on her way and went into the filing room to retrieve the hard copies myself. I was coming out of the filing room with the files when Stephano Notte walked in.”

  “And you killed him,” Jackie said when she stopped and grimaced at the memory.

  “Not right away,” Lily countered. “He was in a rush. Apparently, he had some hot date that night, but needed some information from Phillip’s files before he went. He asked what I was doing there, of course and I said I’d needed a file for Vincent, but that Meredith had been leaving the office as I arrived and said to feel free to grab it myself. Was there something I could do for him?”

  She frowned. “I knew I’d probably have to kill him, but I could hardly do it there in the outer office where anyone passing by might see.”

  “So you lured him into the inner office,” Jackie said.

  Lily’s mouth tightened with annoyance. “Don’t rush me. I’m telling this.”

  Jackie bit her lip and waited for her to continue.

  Annoyed, Lily took her time about it, her eyes drifting to look out the window as she made her wait. Jackie took that opportunity to peer around the front seat of the car herself. She needed a weapon, something to defend herself with when they got to wherever they were going. She had no doubt that Lily intended to finish what she’d started the other night, and while she’d be harder to kill now, she could die. Immortal was really a misnomer, she thought as Lily finally continued.

  “Anyway, I asked if there was something I could help him with…or did he want to wait for the night secretary?” Lily made a face. “He hesitated, but his impatience won out. Men are always impatient, no matter if they are human or immortal,” she added in a lecturing tone. “So I sat at the secretary’s desk and pretended to look for the file he wanted printed up, but I was really making sure the file I’d asked the day girl to remove had been erased. It had. So then I put one foot against the extension under the desk and used the other to pull the power plug.

  “Stephano saw the computer blink off and asked what had happened and I frowned with confusion then said, ‘Oh yes, that’s why Meredith had stepped out. She’d gone to see Sharon, she mentioned she was having computer problems and wanted to find out who she should call in to deal with it.’ I frowned prettily, then brightened and said, ‘Phillip’s computer should work though. Do you want me to try that, or would you rather wait for Meredith?’

  “Once again, his impatience sealed his fate. Stephano turned and led the way into Phillip’s office. He walked to the desk, then paused and turned back to gesture me toward the chair to do the grunt work for him.”

  Lily sneered. “Lord knows the big vice president wouldn’t lower himself to doing the grunt work of a secretarial-type job. So, he politely paused and turned back to gesture me forward, only I’d grabbed the letter opener off Meredith’s desk in the outer office when he turned to lead the way into the inner office, and the moment he turned back to face me in Phillip’s office, I plunged the letter opener into his heart.” She smiled. “Lights out.”

  “I did try to slip in and wipe his memory beforehand,” Lily suddenly announced, as if that would make a difference. “As we were walking into the office, I slipped into his thoughts and tried to wipe them, but as I say, he had some ability at blocking us and I wasn’t sure it had taken. I couldn’t take the chance that it hadn’t and he’d recall my being there. You might have put two and two together.” She shrugged. “So he had to die.”

  Jackie managed to keep from showing any emotion at the blasé way the woman said it, as if she were announcing that a fake nail had broken so she’d taken it off. However, it was difficult. In her mind’s eye, she was seeing Stephano Notte lying pale and seemingly dead on the floor of the office, and Neil’s upset at his brother’s state, as well as Elaine’s tear-glazed eyes as she thanked Vincent for saving her son.

  Controlling her expression did little good, however, since Lily was inside her head and could read her thoughts. Her face suddenly clouded over with anger. “He’s alive!”

  Jackie winced as the blonde spat the words. All their efforts to keep Stephano safe had just been thrown out the window.

  “I should have cut off his head,” she snapped. “If he’d been an immortal I would have, but he was mortal, I thought…” She paused suddenly and frowned. “If he’s alive, why didn’t you come after me the minute he told you who had stabbed him?”

  Jackie tried not to think anything at all, but knew she’d failed when Lily suddenly burst out laughing.

  “Oh, that’s precious,” she crowed. “He couldn’t remember. The wiping took after all.” She laughed softly, then said, “Hmm…Maybe I’ll let him live then, after all.”

  Jackie felt her mouth tighten. She glared at the woman who spoke so carelessly about taking the life of a good man, a brother and son, as if it meant nothing. And she supposed it did mean nothing to Lily. None of them meant anything to her; except a means to upset Vincent, but for what? Before she could ask that question, the car began to slow and she glanced around sharply to see where they were.

  They were no longer on the highway. Apparently, they’d left it while she’d been distracted listening to Lily. It looked to her as if they’d left the city altogether. Now they were on a road that appeared rarely traveled. There was an occasional house, but mostly there were trees and the occasional glimpse of ocean seen through bald patches in the woods along one side. It was a coastal road, she realized with confusion, and wondered what they were doing there.

  Jackie somehow doubted it made any difference that they weren’t in the hills. While Lily had killed the woman Vincent had fed on and left her body in the hills, she didn’t think for a minute that because they were at the beach rather than the hills, the production assistant had different plans for her. It appeared Lily had decided to change her pattern and kill Jackie on the beach.

  Suitable, she supposed, since the first attack had taken place on the beach as well.

  Lily had gone quiet. Jackie glanced at her to see that she was concentrating on the side of the road, appearing to look for something. When the woman stiffened and her eyes shot to the back of the driver’s head, Jackie turned to peer at the side of the road, her heart sinking when she saw the dirt road they were approaching. Her gaze slid back to the driver now that she could actually look at him, and Jackie peered at his blank face. He was young, perhaps eighteen, with short brown hair and a long face.

  “Does he drive you to all your murder scenes?” The dry question had slipped from Jackie’s mouth before she realized she was going to ask it.

  Lily turned hard eyes her way, then slowly smiled. “No. For the other one I took control of a taxi driver. I’d never seen this young man before tonight when he pulled up to the gate to buzz. I slid into the car while he was waiting for the gate to open.”

  “How did you know I’d open the door and it wouldn’t be Marguerite or Vincent?”

  “Because it was your voice that answered over the intercom when he buzzed. Besides, I knew it would be either you or Tiny to open the door. Neither Marguerite nor Vincent would have ordered the pizza.”

  Jackie supposed that meant Lily hadn’t figured out they’d been having Vincent feed off delivery people in an effort to keep from marking anyone else for death. At leas
t, she’d done something right, Jackie thought grimly, then realized she shouldn’t be thinking such things. Lily might read them and then go after the delivery people. Fortunately, she seemed to be distracted controlling the driver.

  To get these thoughts out of her head, Jackie asked, “And what if Tiny had answered the door?”

  “Then it would be him sitting here tonight and I’d have saved you for another time,” Lily said easily.

  Jackie felt her stomach roll over at this news. Tiny was a target too and if Lily succeeded at killing her tonight, Tiny’s days were numbered. If that were the case, there was little hope for him, especially since Lily wasn’t on the list of people on the New York play, and they’d been concentrating their efforts that way.

  Unless Tiny had seen her getting into the car with Lily, Jackie reminded herself. If he’d seen her…She frowned to herself with worry. It was possible he hadn’t.

  “What were you doing in the house the night I caught you in the office?” she asked suddenly.

  Lily glanced at her with amusement. “You didn’t catch me in the office. You followed me out of it and fell on me coming over the fence.”

  Jackie managed not to wince at the description. It made her sound completely incompetent. When she showed no reaction to her words, Lily shrugged and said, “I’d followed you that night, but lost you after your little rendezvous in the storage room with Vincent.” She tilted her head and asked, “Is he a good lover? I presume the two of you snuck in there for hanky panky?”

  Jackie started to recite “Itsy Bitsy Spider” in her head. She so wasn’t revealing anything that personal…or endangering anyone else.

  Lily’s mouth compressed with displeasure as Jackie apparently managed to block her out, then said, “After I lost you, I went back to the house to wait for you to return. When you pulled in, I tried to follow on foot. I’d snuck Sharon’s remote out of her purse that evening and planned to just open the gate and walk up, but the remote didn’t work.”

  “We changed the sensor and code,” Jackie said with satisfaction. She added, “But why did you break the panel? It didn’t get you in.”

  “I was annoyed,” Lily said with irritation. She frowned and said, “If you hadn’t followed me, I never would have attacked you that night. I was just going to slip in and leave a message so that Vincent would know he wasn’t as safe as he thought he was. But you came into the office before I could do anything. I tried to get out when I heard you coming, but you were barefoot; by the time I heard you I couldn’t get out quick enough.”

  Jackie suspected she was telling the truth. There was really no reason for Lily to lie at this stage in the game.

  Her thoughts scattered as the driver turned down the road Jackie had noted just a moment ago. The car rattled and bumped over the hard-packed dirt, moving along a path between the trees and Jackie felt her heart sink. It looked like they’d arrived.

  Nineteen

  “You may as well stop pretending. I know you can see where you’re going,” Lily said as Jackie stumbled and fell to her knees for the second time on the uneven path.

  Jackie ground her teeth together and pushed herself back to her feet. She’d been feigning night blindness since they’d left the car in an effort to slow down their progress and give her a chance to come up with an idea for escape. Unfortunately, Lily was inside her head and knew exactly what she was doing. It was incredibly frustrating. Even if she did come up with an idea, Lily would know it the moment she thought it.

  Jackie glanced back in the direction they’d come as she started forward again. They’d left the delivery car and driver at the edge of the woods, just out of sight of the road. Lily had done something to make the young man pass out, and he’d been slumped in his seat when they got out. Jackie had no doubt Lily would undo whatever it was she’d done when she returned to the car. She only hoped she’d let him go after finishing with him. He was just a kid, too young to die.

  “It’s not much farther now,” Lily announced and Jackie became aware of the sound of the ocean. It grew louder with each step they took. It all reminded her of the night she’d turned and was giving her a definite aversion to the beach.

  “Why the beach?” Jackie asked to distract herself from what was coming.

  “Your death here will be symbolic,” Lily announced.

  “Symbolic how? Why are you even doing all this? What did Vincent ever do to you?” Jackie asked with frustration.

  “Nothing.”

  The answer made Jackie pause and turn to face the woman. “What?”

  Lily laughed at her expression. “Turn and walk under your own power, or I will take full control again.”

  Jackie hesitated, then turned abruptly and kept walking. It hadn’t occurred to her that Lily must have let up on some of her control for her to have been able to stumble and fall a time or two. But then, her thoughts had been a bit distracted, she supposed. The fact that she apparently had control of her body again, made her wonder what Lily would do if she suddenly lunged for the woods.

  “I’d take full control of you and that would be the end of your questions,” Lily answered as if she’d asked the question aloud, reminding her that she was in her thoughts. “I’m sure you’d like to know why this is happening, wouldn’t you? You do want to know why you’re going to die?”

  “Yes,” Jackie muttered with disgust.

  The ground underneath their feet began to shift with each step, telling her they’d reached sand. They should be out of the trees soon. Not eager to think about what would happen then, she prompted Lily, “So, what are you going to do to me and why?”

  “I’m going to stake you out in the sand and leave you there through the day,” Lily announced. “Then I’ll come back and behead you at sunset.”

  Jackie glanced skyward at this announcement. The trees had thinned out the closer they got to the beach and she could now see the sky through the branches. It was no longer full dark, daylight wasn’t far away. She’d place the time at somewhere between four and five in the morning. Sunlight would be creeping up the sky in less than an hour or so.

  Staked out in the sand for the day, then beheaded, Jackie thought unhappily. It was how the council punished immortals who broke one of their serious laws. From what she’d heard it was a most unpleasant way to go. Her body would dehydrate, the nanos would begin to eat her organs in their desperation for blood…she’d suffer horribly before the sun set.

  “Why?” she asked, pausing abruptly as they suddenly reached the end of the trees and the beach spread out before them.

  “For my William.” Lily didn’t bother to tell her to move, she simply took back control of her. Jackie found herself moving a good ten feet out of the trees before her body stopped and turned to face Lily.

  “William?” Jackie asked, still retaining her ability to speak.

  Lily turned her gaze to the ocean, her voice sounding far away as she said, “They killed him, you know. They staked him out in the sun and then beheaded him at sundown.”

  “Who did?” Jackie asked with a frown.

  “Lucian Argeneau, Michael Moreau, and Vincent’s father, Victor.”

  “Okay,” Jackie said slowly. “So, Vincent’s father and two other men killed your William. Why are you going after Vincent for it? He had nothing to do with it.”

  “I know.” Lily sighed unhappily. “When I decided to seek revenge for William, I went after Michael Moreau first. I stalked him, caught him, then staked him out in the sun and left him there all day long, enjoying his screams from a nice little cave nearby. Then I beheaded him at sunset.”

  Lily frowned. “I didn’t feel any satisfaction at all. I expected to gain some peace from it, but I didn’t. Then I realized that he hadn’t really suffered as I have. Sure, he went through the same pain as my William, but it was only a day’s agony. I’ve suffered for a hundred years over what happened. I realized then, that to gain true satisfaction, I have to make them suffer as I have. I can’t just kill them, I h
ave to torment them by torturing and killing someone they love.”

  “So, Vincent is to suffer and eventually die so that his father, Victor, suffers for what he did to your William,” Jackie said slowly, trying to follow her reasoning. Then she shook her head. “If it’s Victor you’re trying to make suffer, why are you tormenting Vincent? Why didn’t you just stake Vincent out in the sun and behead him?”

  “Because his father isn’t here,” Lily said with irritation. “I thought if I began to sabotage Vincent’s work and so on, he’d call Victor in. He’s on the council and should have been called in to take care of things, especially when I began to harm humans. Instead, the idiot called you in to handle it. The fool has ruined everything.”

  Jackie raised her eyebrows at her frustration, then said quietly, “From what I understand, Victor has been withdrawn and reclusive since his life mate was burnt at the stake in England. Vincent rarely sees him. I don’t think he’ll ever call him about this if that’s what you’re hoping.”

  Lily’s mouth was a firm line of fury as she said, “I’d come to that conclusion myself. So, instead of dying, he’ll just have to suffer the loss I did in his father’s place. You will die like William did, and he will agonize over it for centuries.”

  Jackie considered that and wondered if it meant she’d leave Vincent alone and move on after this? Would he and Tiny be safe once she was dead?

  “Tiny is a mortal, no more than a friend to Vincent. I won’t trouble myself to bother with him,” Lily said, obviously reading her thoughts. “But I’ve been thinking I will try Marguerite next. Lucian Argeneau is said to be very fond of his sister-in-law. Her death this way should be upsetting to him and Vincent both. Of course, I’d prefer a life mate or child in Lucian’s case, as well, but he has neither. I will have to settle for Marguerite now and a life mate or child later, if he ever has either. In the meantime, I have you.”