“They” again.
The defensive part of Dawn emerged to take over, sheltering her just as it had when she’d told herself over and over that vampires couldn’t possibly be real. “So when Breisi walked in, you had this…Allure?…under control.” Cope, cope with this.…
Eva had brightened, clearly thankful that Dawn was actually engaging in a discussion instead of flying off the handle.
So civil, this conversation. So smack in the ether of a nightmare.
Mommy, you’re home…!
Dawn shut the little girl down.
“You’re right,” Eva said, “Breisi was never able to see my undiluted Allure.”
“And what’s ‘Allure’?”
Her smile dimmed. “I was hoping we could talk technicalities later—”
Dawn burst out of her chair, but when a wave of imbalance swooped over her, she fell back down. Still, she didn’t let that water down her temper. “You of all people owe me the truth!”
“I…I would do anything to make you see that all I did was make our lives better. You’ll realize that soon. I had to go to extremes, but you’re going to see how wonderful things can really be. I’ll show you.”
“Because the second time counts more than the first?”
“I tried to show you how much I care,” Eva said, “even in little ways, just to gently bring you around. Remember on the TV news, how Darrin Ryder got attacked the same night Tamsin Greene committed suicide?”
Darrin Ryder, the actor who’d sexually harassed Dawn. “What’re you talking about?”
“I heard that he’d been giving you trouble, and I…taught him a lesson after I was released. Just a good, fast mugging. He never even saw me.” Eva tilted her head.
Something about her reminded Dawn of Robby Pennybaker, but she couldn’t…
“I had to protect my baby girl,” the actress added.
Dawn’s anger resurfaced at the daughter reminder. “Wow, that clearly makes you mom of the century. You mugged an asshole in my name, kind of like buying me a bracelet with ‘Dawnie’ etched into it for my sweet sixteen, or being there for the prom that wasn’t. That definitely makes up for leaving us.”
“Let me—”
“Explain? You found the fountain of youth, but it’s filled with blood. Is that what you want to ‘explain’?”
Eva played with a seam on her dress, tears streaking down her cheeks. “I thought I had this worked out….”
Dawn’s rigidity brought on all the questions the team had pondered. Concentrate on them, she thought.
And when the little girl knocked at Dawn’s breastbone to let her run to Eva, Dawn was more determined than ever to keep her shut in.
Question. Find a question. Okay. Think about, early on, when Jacqueline Ashley had started her campaign to win Dawn over. Because that’s what it all was, right? A scheme, a step-by-step plan to worm into her daughter’s heart by pretending to be a good-natured pal.
Dawn folded her arms over her chest, gelled fingers just now starting to throb from the pain of scraping the roof. Or maybe she was just tuning in to what pain really was.
“There was a time,” she said, “in that Internet café…Kiko shook your hand. He should’ve been able to read you.”
Eva seemed eager to provide this simple answer. “Controlling the Allure. Years and years, I’ve trained to master it. Even though Kiko couldn’t come into me, I could draw him in enough to win him over. I charmed him. I charm everyone into believing that I have what Eva had.”
“You are Eva, so of course you have what she did.” Now her vision was beginning to seep red, the color filming down like a livid, sheer curtain. “But you still haven’t told me why you did it. Why you gave up your own family to be a vampire.”
She noticed Eva was trembling. She looked strung out.
Mommy, what’s wrong? How can I help you…?
Again, Dawn resisted her own neediness, instead focusing on how Eva got up, paced to a window, and pushed her fingers through her blond hair. A wink of something silver, something tucked in a corner, snagged Dawn’s attention.
Was that her whip chain…her weapons? Why had they all just been thrown aside? Were Julia and Eva so arrogant that they thought Dawn couldn’t do any damage?
Careless, she thought, steadily averting her gaze from the pile while still keeping an eye on it.
“I’ve had enough of never being answered—” Dawn grated.
Eva spun around, her eyes swirling, but Dawn threw out a mind block before the other woman could get to her. She’d been expecting this, and God knows, she wasn’t open to her mother anymore. Eva sure as hell wasn’t getting in this time.
Immediately, the vamp covered her face with her hands. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I just wanted to stop all this.”