Chasing Shadows

chapter Twenty

“After your boy-toy and his mutt sister are dead,” Evangeline went on, “Peter, Martin, and I will load up our cars—by the way, thank you, brother, for yours—with valuables from this house that we can sell, and we will be well on our way before any hope of rescue arrives.”

She stepped away from me to stand in front of Lochlan. “Of course, there really is a small chance that someone will come before too long,” she said somewhat absently as she regarded him. “Lochlan here, and our father, they have at least a small chance. I suppose I owe them that much, given that they did love me, too.”

“We did love you, Vangie. We still do,” Lochlan said. “Why don’t you let us go? End this now, before you do something you’ll regret.”

“Ah-ah, dear brother,” she said, wagging her finger at him. “Your Jedi mind trick won’t work on me. I regret nothing, you see. Sure, you and Father loved me, but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough to overcome the foolishness of loving her! Of loving somebody who didn’t appreciate you or love you for who and what you are instead of what she thought you should be! I loved you unconditionally! I never judged you! But who did you favor? Who did you love no matter how many times she turned her back on you?”

Evangeline cast me a cold, hateful stare, then she suddenly brightened, stepping away from Lochlan to turn and walk across the room again. She stood in front of Mark and looked over her shoulder at me. “Get ready to watch as I have my fun with your beloved, dear sister.”

She turned back to Mark, positioning herself so that I could not see her face, but so that I would see everything she did to him. He stared straight at me, capturing my gaze with his own even as she reached for his pants and began to undo them.

Vangie noticed he wasn’t looking at her, and she slapped him. “Look at me! She doesn’t own you anymore, I do!”

At last Mark looked down at her, his expression disinterested as he said, “Nobody owns me, vampire, except for me.”

“Then if Saphrona doesn’t own you, she won’t mind sharing,” she returned, emphasizing her words with a caress of his manhood through his white cotton briefs.

“I thought you didn’t like sloppy seconds? I can assure you, she’s had every part of me—there’s nothing Saphrona hasn’t touched or tasted,” Mark said, taunting her.

“True, I don’t usually. But you are a prime specimen of manliness, and I simply must have a taste of all you have to offer.”

With that she grabbed hold of the waistband of his jeans and underwear and yanked them down, exposing his lower half.

“Evangeline, stop this!” Lochlan shouted.

“Since when aren’t you a voyeur, dear brother?” she said over her shoulder, her hand wrapping around Mark’s scrotum and massaging his testicles. He clenched his jaw together and kept his gaze on me.

“Take your hands off of him, Evangeline,” I growled. “Can’t you see? He doesn’t want you. He’ll never want you. No other woman can make him hot like I can.”

She wrapped her other hand around his penis, turning her head to look at me as she stroked him with both hands. “Are you so certain about that? Or are you jealous that another woman is touching what once was yours? I bet you I can make him hard, sister. I bet you I can make him so hard he’ll be begging me to suck him or f*ck him just so he can get off.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you Mark?” she said as she turned to face him again. “You want to get hard, I know you do. You want to see how jealous Saphrona gets watching another woman make you come, don’t you?”

Mark lowered his head toward hers, and I saw from her profile that Evangeline was smiling, thinking she’d won a victory over him. Over me.

“The next time I get hard—the next time I come—it will be while I’m making love to your sister,” he said when his lips were but an inch above hers.

Angered, Evangeline squeezed his private parts. Mark’s jaw clenched, but he made no noise of protest. When she took notice that she still wasn’t getting what she wanted out of him, she screamed and began slapping him.

Mark still didn’t make one sound.

Evangeline growled and reached down to pull from her boot a knife that I hadn’t even noticed was sheathed there.

“Evangeline, no!” I said. “Don’t do it. Don’t hurt him.”

She turned to me. “Or what?” she said with a sneer. “What are you going to do if I hurt him?”

She emphasized her words by jabbing the end of the knife into his leg. Blood welled and ran down it in a bright crimson line, and all three vampires—myself included—who were conscious inhaled deeply at the scent of his blood.

“Are you going to curse?” She jabbed the other leg. “Scream at me?” She jabbed his stomach. “Swear vengeance? Tell me I’ll never get away with it?”

With each sentence she jabbed the knife into him at a different place, deep enough that blood began to fall but not deep enough to do real harm. Mark now had five tiny fountains of blood pouring down his skin. Evangeline stuck out her tongue and wiped first one side, then the other, of the blade of her knife on it, then curled her tongue inside to swallow the blood. She shivered as if she’d just gotten a narcotic hit (not an erroneous analogy, given what dhunphyr blood did to a vampire), then she leaned into Mark and licked up the trail that led to just over his right nipple.

“He tastes so good,” she purred, then licked up the other four trails as the wounds closed.

I hissed loudly, once again straining against my bonds, desperate to be free of them.

As she stood from cleaning his legs she rubbed his crotch again. “Of course, those wounds are already healed, and now there is no more unless I cut you again,” she said. Then she looked over at me. “Do you think the stories are true, Saphrona? The ones that say dhunphyr are like vampires in that they can regenerate from mortal wounds?”

A knot of dread formed in my stomach.

“Vangie, don’t,” I pleaded. “Don’t do what you’re thinking of doing…please.”

“Please?” she said with a harsh laugh. “Now you ask a favor of me? Well, I’m so very sorry to disappoint you, Saphrona, but I don’t do favors for traitorous bitches like you.”

Vangie looked at Lochlan. “What about you, dear brother? You’ve been rather quiet these last few minutes. Are you also going to ask a favor of me? Are you also going to beg for his life and the life of our sister? Because certainly even you know that if I kill one of them, the other is going to die as well. Or are the stories true? Will he reanimate in three days like Father will?”

Lochlan looked sideways at me for a moment before answering. “I don’t know if he will,” he said slowly. “There is still so much we don’t know about immortal humans. But no, I would rather not find out at the expense of his life or Saphrona’s. Please don’t do it, Evangeline.”

“How very…diplomatically spoken,” she said after a moment. “But not good enough.”

I watched with horror as she raised the knife and plunged it into Mark’s heart.



*****



A scream the likes of which I had never heard before erupted from me as the knife pierced his skin. Mark’s breath caught in his throat, and I watched helplessly as the light of life faded from his eyes. His head fell forward and his whole body sagged as he hung in the chains limply.

“You’re dead!” I screamed hoarsely. “I swear by all that is holy, I am going to kill you!”

Evangeline laughed. “I seriously doubt that, sister. Have a nice life—what’s left of it.”

Leaving the knife lodged in Mark’s ribcage, she began to sashay her way across the room. As she reached for the knob on the door Martin had passed through not half an hour before, I was finally able to pop my thumbs out of place, and I jerked my hands free of the chains that had trapped them. Ignoring the pain or the fact that my thumbs were all but useless being out of joint, I launched myself across the five or so feet that separated me from my sister.

Evangeline was startled, but only for a moment. As I slammed into her and we fell to the floor, she locked her hands around my throat and squeezed.

“I don’t know how you got free from those silver chains, but it won’t do you any good!” she hissed, rolling us so that she sat astride me.

As I was gasping for air, I took the opportunity to slam my hands into the concrete floor, painfully forcing my thumbs back into joint. I then reached up and tried to force her hands apart.

“I’ve had his blood more recently than you have, Saphrona,” Evangeline hissed in my face. “I’m stronger than you are now.”

“Maybe…you have,” I gasped, “but not nearly…as much as me!”

I lifted my leg and kneed her as hard as I could in the back. She ignored me and held on, but after I repeated the move several more times, she growled fiercely. Removing one of her hands from my throat she began punching me in the face, but it was enough to relieve some of the pressure on my windpipe and I sucked in a lungful of air. I kept up with the knee kicks to her back and kept one hand clamped on the wrist of the hand that still held my throat, while I jammed the heel of my other into her elbow with all the force I could muster.

Evangeline screamed as her elbow shattered. She held the injured arm close and lifted the other to punch me again, but because she was no longer holding my upper half down I was able to throw her off of me. I rolled away from her, rubbing my sore throat for just a moment as I breathed more freely, then I launched myself at her again. Vangie evaded my advance, swinging her good arm at my back as I breezed by. The blow caught me off guard and I went sprawling.

She used the seconds it took me to get up to straighten her broken arm, but she did not have time to see if she could use it, as I was rushing at her again. She gave her mad laugh then, which irritated the hell out of me, and even though she slipped away from my arms, she did not escape the kick I threw out as I spun back to face her. My foot caught her in the side right above her kidney and she howled in pain, her knees beginning to buckle. I clapped my hands together and brought them down on her back, the blow pushing her flat to the floor.

“Get her, Saph!” Lochlan crowed, cheering me on. “Show the bitch who’s a better vampire!”

Evangeline rolled over and kicked up with her right leg. The blow glanced my hip but wasn’t hard enough to knock me off balance; I lifted my foot and stomped on her stomach. My opponent grunted, expelling her breath in a whoosh; as I brought my foot down a second time she grabbed it and yanked hard, and I fell again. I tried pulling my foot away, but even one-handed her grip was strong. I knew she was trying to break my ankle as I had her still-useless elbow, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. I rolled onto my left side since that was the foot she held, and I brought my right foot down on her forearm again and again until she let me go, rolling away from her to get back on my feet again.

Vangie had rolled back to her feet as well; she bent over into a crouch and ran at me, aiming for my midsection. Sidestepping to avoid being head-butted in the stomach, I seized her by the neck as she started past me, pulling her up straighter and swinging myself around so that her head was hanging backward over my shoulder.

“No, sister! Don’t!” she gasped.

“You showed no mercy, so you shall receive none,” I replied coldly. “From this day forward, I have no sister.”

With those harsh words spoken, I jerked down with both hands, snapping Evangeline’s neck in two. Her body went limp immediately and I threw it on the floor like so much garbage. I stared down at her, my heart frozen, my chest heaving, and then as the rage returned to me I kicked her forcefully. Then I kicked her again, and again, and again, kicking until I was spent.

Tears spilled from my eyes freely as I turned and looked over at Mark’s still form. I walked over to him, feeling numb, and lifted his head so that I could see his face. His eyes had fallen closed and his lips were already turning pale as the blood drained away from his head. I leaned forward and softly pressed my lips to his, squeezing my eyes shut as I pulled the knife free. I choked on a sob as I turned away from him again and walked back over to where Evangeline lay. I knelt down, thrusting the knife into her throat and feeling no remorse whatsoever as I proceeded with the bloody task of cutting her head off. I certainly had the strength to remove it with my bare hands, but I thought using her own knife, the knife she had killed my love with, a bit of poetic justice.

“Saphrona,” Lochlan said when my task was done, “come let me free. We have to help Juliette.”

After I had kicked Evangeline’s head across the room, I walked over on auto pilot and helped Lochlan free himself from his chains. When that was done, I turned and started back over to Mark, but he took my arm to stop me. “Saph, you can’t help him now,” he said quietly. “But Juliette may still be alive, and she needs us. We’ll make quicker work of those bastards if you go with me, you know that.”

He was right—Peter and Martin still needed to be dealt with, if Juliette were to be saved. I nodded stiffly and followed him out of the room.



*****



When we had exited the basement, Lochlan and I immediately heard the sound of Juliette screaming from somewhere above us—the second floor, I thought. Part of me was glad that she hadn’t given up, that she was still fighting.

My brother and I raced toward the source of the screams, flying up the stairs almost as if they didn’t exist. We found the two men and Juliette in the third room on the right-hand side. Juliette was tied to the bed and Martin was atop her, while Peter stood next to them watching and laughing.

His laughter, of course, abruptly ceased when Lochlan and I burst into the room. My brother launched himself at the vampire who was currently forcing himself on Juliette, rolling him off the bed with his arms locked around his ribs. I took the other one. Peter wasn’t much of an opponent. I exchanged a few blows with him but he was no match for me, not in the state of mind I was in. I had his arms torn off in seconds, followed in short succession by his neck being broken.

I turned at a loud noise. Lochlan had done me one better—he had actually ripped Martin’s head off, and he roared in triumph as he threw it across the room. Seeing Peter’s head was still attached, he moved over to him and gave him the same treatment.

I moved to the bed to free Juliette from her bonds. I looked her over quickly as I pulled the blanket up and wrapped her in it; thankfully, they had not re-broken her arm or broken anything else. She was, however, bruised up and in pain, and I knew that the psychological ramifications of what had been done to her were scars that would take much longer to heal.

She trembled as I pulled the blanket together over her naked form, sobbing as I placed an arm around her shoulders and drew her to me. Lochlan wisely stayed across the room, but he watched us, a look of pain on his face.

Juliette quieted after a moment, and looking up at me she said, “Where’s my brother?”

A sob caught in my throat and tears welled in my eyes as I recalled that gut-wrenching moment when Evangeline had thrust that knife into Mark’s heart.

“Saphrona, where is he?” she asked again. “Where’s Mark?”

“He…” I closed my eyes, but that didn’t work. I just saw that horrific moment again. “He’s… he’s d—”

I dropped my face into my hands, sobbing. I couldn’t say it—couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that the most amazing thing in the world that had happened to me had been taken away in a split second.

“Mark is dead,” Lochlan said quietly. “Evangeline stabbed him in the heart.”

Juliette shook her head. “No. No, he can’t be! He’s—he’s an immortal human! The dragon lady said so! He’s supposed to be immortal!”

I sniffled loudly, wiping at my eyes roughly as I said, “He may still be. There’s a chance he’ll come back like the stories say.”

She looked at me. “Then there’s a chance! If the part about dhunphyr living forever was true, surely that must be true, too, right?”

“Unfortunately we can’t be sure of that,” Lochlan said. “But I promise you we will do everything we can for him—because by God, I don’t want to be having to attend two funerals, let alone one.”



*****



Lochlan and I carried the bodies of Diarmid and Mark up from the basement and laid each one in a large, comfortable bed, our father in his own room and Mark down the hall. Juliette placed a call to her mother and asked her to come over to help tend Mark, and Lochlan told us he would go to the blood bank. He planned to get enough blood for both men, because Mark would possibly need the transfusion if he did indeed wake up. Loch also said that having human blood ready for when Diarmid woke would be better than having a ravenous vampire on the loose. The bodyguard Lochlan had staked with a pen had also been moved to a room to recover, and of course some of the blood would be for him, too.

As for the bodies of the four dead vampires, we took them out to the large fire pit that had been built in a corner of the back yard, piled them all up, and allowed Juliette to throw the match. The fire they made blazed tall and bright, and no doubt Diarmid’s neighbors would have questions about what we were burning back there.

After Lochlan had left to go to the blood bank, Juliette and I were alone in my father’s house. Because she still needed something to wear, I took her up to Evangeline’s room, and told her to take whatever she wanted. About the only good thing to come out of that horrible morning so far was the discovery that she and Evangeline were exactly the same size—so at least she didn’t have to spend the day wandering around wrapped in a blanket.

I left Juliette to her fishing from Evangeline’s closet and went down into the room where Mark had been placed. He was clean of the blood that had been spilled and his dignity had been restored by having his clothes put back in place (except for his shirt, which we never did locate). I lifted the edge of the blanket I had covered him with and crawled in beside him, laying my head on his shoulder and my arm across his cooling chest.

“Don’t leave me,” I whispered as I began to cry again. “You probably can’t hear me from wherever you are, but I’m talking to you anyway, and I’m begging you—don’t leave me, Mark. I love you and I need you. If you’re gone for good then you’ve taken a huge part of me with you, and I may as well die too, like the stories say. I can’t live in this world without you.

“Come back to me. Please come back to me.”



*****



For three days I laid by his side, day and night. I neither slept nor ate, no matter how many times Lochlan, Juliette, or Monica encouraged me to do so. I only took one transfusion of blood through an I.V., because I’d been shot, and I never got up except to use the bathroom. Then I was right back in the bed beside Mark.

At some point on the second day, Lochlan or Juliette had gone to my house and retrieved Moe and Cissy. I thought it was part of their attempts to lure me out of the bed, but it didn’t work. In fact, the Chihuahuas were content to lay in the bed beside me or down by my feet, wishing only to be near me. I found only small comfort in their presence, but I was still glad to have them close by.

I couldn’t bring myself to do anything other than lay there beside Mark’s still form, holding him and talking to him like I was trying to urge him out of a coma. I was grieving and desperate, and I didn’t want to let him go. His love had been a beacon in the night for me, and had shined all too briefly. He had not even been a part of my life for a week and already I had lost him. It wasn’t fair.

What had I done to deserve this? I wondered. Was it really so wrong of me to have wanted as normal a life as possible? Was it wrong for me to turn my back on my father for abandoning my mother when she had needed him the most? Could I have been more welcoming and caring toward Evangeline—had I done so, would she then have become so full of hate that she had concocted a plan meant to ruin me? What could I have said or done differently to prevent all of this? Could I have prevented any of it, or had it always been meant to happen this way?

Well, if it had, then it sucked, royally. Again I thought of the unfairness of it all, wondered at the injustice of introducing such love and happiness into my life, giving me a future with someone, something I could look forward to, only to rip it violently away just days later, right when I had begun to grow accustomed to his presence. I saw then how even the most devout person could question their faith in a God that would allow such devastation to occur. I did not want that, did not want what was left of my soul to be tarnished by anger.

But then what was the point? Why did it matter if I was angry? Perhaps God had rejected me because I was part vampire—maybe we were soulless beasts after all. Maybe my torment was my Hell, and I was damned to live this way for the rest of my life. It would be so much easier if I could just get it over with, if I could just die, right here next to the man I had loved with every fiber of my being in only a few short days. If I was dead, then I wouldn’t wonder, I wouldn’t be angry, I wouldn’t be afraid, I wouldn’t be in this horrible, body-numbing pain, with only my grief and six pounds of canine to comfort me.

If I died, I knew my animals would be taken care of. I wasn’t worried about them at all. I could only think of how much pain I was in without Mark, and how much worse it would be if regeneration proved to be one of the stories that weren’t true. My grief was eating me up inside, and however much I wanted it to end, it seemed that I would not get my wish…that it would just go on and on, forever.



*****



I was startled awake by the sound of barking. Not even aware of having fallen asleep, I sat up and rubbed my eyes. It was dark in the room, either late at night or early in the morning. Moe and Cissy were on the bed with me, standing on Mark’s legs and barking at him.

It was then that I realized that I was feeling something different from him. Instead of the hollow emptiness I’d been feeling since the moment he had been stabbed, I now could feel a slight…well, buzzing is the only way I could think of to describe it. As I turned sharply to look down at Mark, I thought of a light bulb with its filament sparking, trying to come to life so that it could bring light to a room. Though I tried to quell it for fear of being disappointed, I felt hope ignite within me as I tentatively laid my hand on his chest, over the scar that now marred its perfect lines.

And then suddenly he took a loud, gasping breath.

“Mark!” I shouted, turning now so that I was kneeling beside him on the bed. I picked his hand up with my free one and held it over my heart, keeping the other over his as his heart began to beat, slowly at first and then steadily gaining rhythm. His breathing was shaky, but he was breathing, and feeling the movement of air through his lungs brought tears of joy to my eyes.

“Come on baby, open your eyes,” I encouraged him softly. “Look at me, Mark. It’s Saphrona, honey, I’m right here. I’ve been with you this whole time. Open your eyes and look at me, please!”

Slowly, painstakingly, his eyes opened, and he looked up at me with the faintest of smiles.

“Hey,” he said, his voice hoarse and weak. “I know you.”

“I know you, too,” I said with a laugh, then bent over to press my lips lightly to his.

“I had…the worst dream. At least…I think it was a dream,” Mark said. “I died, and you were begging me…to come back to you. And I was trying…but every time I got close…I would see this hand …coming at me with a knife in it.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” I said. “I’m afraid it wasn’t entirely a dream. Evangeline stabbed you in the heart, and you died. I couldn’t feel your life force anymore.”

“What?”

I blinked, wiping away the tears that had fallen. “I don’t know how to describe it. I didn’t even know it until it was gone, that I could feel your life force through the bond. When you…when you died, I felt so empty, so alone. All I could think about was that if you didn’t come back to me, I was going to have to die too, so that I could be with you again. I thought God was punishing me for being part vampire—I thought so many crazy things. And then, just now, I felt you coming back to life. I don’t know how, but I felt it. And now you’re here with me again, and oh, God, I love you!”

I laid myself across his chest, just holding him, reveling in the steady rise and fall of his diaphragm. Though he was no doubt very weak, Mark nonetheless raised his arms and brought them around me. “I’m sure God loves you, too, but what about me?” he joked lightly.

I sat up, giving him the lightest of swats on the arm. “You know darn well who I was talking to, mister. If you hadn’t just come back, I’d be only too happy to show you how much I love you. And I do thank God that you’re back, that we’re together again. Oh, just wait until I tell Juliette and Monica and Lochlan!”

“Speaking of, what did happen, Saphrona? Tell me everything.”

I opened my mouth to tell him the horrific tale, but before I could speak, the door opened and Lochlan appeared. A smile immediately formed on his lips as he took in the scene before him.

“Bless the Almighty!” he said warmly, walking across the carpet to stand at the side of the bed. “Thank goodness the reanimation story was also true, brother, and that you’ve come back to us. I daresay if you had not, our Saphrona would have followed you before long.”

Mark’s eyes showed his alarm as he heard this. “Saphrona, no!”

I looked down with a sad smile. “Sweetheart, we told you that could happen. That it probably would. Our histories tell us that once a vampire has bonded to someone, they find living without that person utterly unbearable. And it was unbearable, Mark—I couldn’t think about anything but you and how much it hurt to be without you. I couldn’t eat. I could barely sleep because I was afraid I would miss you waking up. In fact, I almost did miss it—it was Moe and Cissy here who alerted me to the change. Somehow they knew it before you’d even breathed.”

He took my hand and brought it to his lips, kissing the palm as he looked up at me. “I am sorry to have put you through that,” he said.

“Not your fault, brother,” Lochlan said bitterly. “Evangeline is the one to blame. She nearly did us all in.”

“That reminds me,” Mark said. “How’s my sister? Where’s Juliette? What happened?”

Lochlan and I exchanged a glance, and after Loch told him that Juliette was sound asleep in a room down the hall, I began to tell him everything that had occurred as I knew it. I tried leaving my emotions out of it, because I didn’t want to think anymore about what Evangeline had done. Where my voice trailed off and I faltered, Lochlan would fill in. Mark’s expression shifted several times, showing concern, outrage, and horror. When we got to the part in the story about witnessing Juliette’s rape, he said he almost wished we had left one of them alive, just so he could kill him and exact some vengeance on his sister’s behalf.

“Don’t worry about that, Mark,” Lochlan said, a ghost of a smile returning. “She got the last laugh in the end—she’s the one who threw the match that sent those bastards to Hell.”

As if just remembering why he had come, Lochlan then told me that Diarmid had woken just about half an hour before Mark. “I’ve been keeping him supplied with blood, or I’d have come when I first heard you shout,” he said. “For that matter, I’m surprised Juliette didn’t hear you.”

“What about Monica?” I asked.

Mark blinked. “My mother was here?”

I nodded. “She wanted to have a look at Juliette, of course, even though your sister called her to help with you—not that there was much could be done.”

“Monica went home last night. Charming woman, your stepmother,” Lochlan said, looking at Mark. “She still doesn’t quite trust me due to the whole natural enemies bit, but we have a truce.”

He put a hand on my shoulder. “Speaking of parents, Saphrona, our father would like to have a word with you. And now that your man is with us once again, surely you can spare a few minutes of your time.”

“Will it be safe for her?” Mark asked. “Didn’t you guys say a vampire is at his most dangerous when he’s waking from regeneration?”

Lochlan nodded. “Aye. He may be a bit restless from being dead for three days, but he’s had a few pints of O-neg and A-pos, and he has more blood on hand so he’s rather set for a while. No need to worry brother, Saphrona will be fine.”

I hesitated. Yes, Mark was awake, but I’d already missed three days with him—I didn’t want to miss another minute. At the same time, Diarmid had tried to help me, even if his efforts had amounted to very little. I supposed I owed it to him to hear him out. Reluctantly I nodded, and then I leaned down and gave Mark another kiss.

As I was easing myself off the bed, Lochlan turned to me, saying, “I’m going to check his vitals so I can give you an estimate on when he’ll be healthy enough for sexual activity—I know you can’t wait to start going at it again like rabbits.”

I smothered a laugh as I punched him in the arm and walked out, padding down three doors to my father’s room. I knocked softly, pushing the door open when he bid me entrance.

“Mida, darling, do come in,” Diarmid said from his place in the middle of his massive, king-sized bed. I noticed he had an I.V. in one arm and a second bag of blood in his hand, which he sipped from as if it were a pouch of Capri Sun.

“How are you?” I asked in an effort to be polite

He smiled. “Better than I was,” he told me. “That damn bullet left a scar. How is Mark, darling? How are you?”

The corner of my mouth quirked up. “That damn knife left a scar on Mark, and I’m doing a hell of a lot better now that he’s come back.”

“I thought I heard you shout. He is well then?”

I nodded. “The dogs actually woke me up. They knew something was happening before I did.”

“Animals have always been very sensitive to the supernatural,” Diarmid mused. “And though I know your heart is healing with Mark’s return from the dead, I hope you will forgive me for saying that you look rather tired.”

“I haven’t slept much these last few days because I didn’t want to miss it if Mark woke up. I haven’t eaten anything, either.”

He glanced at the blood in his hand. “I would offer you some, darling, but I know you’ve given up human blood. Still, I don’t like to see you looking so unwell, so please do eat something soon.”

Oddly, I found myself feeling touched at his concern and I tried vainly to shake that feeling off. To regain control of the conversation I cleared my throat and said, “I take it Lochlan told you what happened?”

Diarmid’s expression fell and he nodded. “He did. I am very sorry about Evangeline. I had no idea she was so disturbed. If only I could have seen it sooner, or perhaps shown her my love more often, I might have prevented all of this.”

“I don’t think loving her more would have made her hate me less,” I said. “I don’t think it would have mattered how much you loved her if you still loved me.”

He sighed. “I suppose you are right. Yet I cannot help feeling that I am to blame. You could have lost your bondmate, and had you I would have lost two daughters instead of one. I am thankful that Mark has regenerated, for I did wonder if that part of the legend was true also.”

I chanced a smile. “I’m thankful too. For Mark…and for you.”

When he looked up with surprise, I said, “You said you wouldn’t turn me in for being Vivian Drake, you were going with me when I realized that Evangeline was behind the attacks, and you were going to lead us to the basement to confront her. Had Martin not shot you when he did, I have no doubt you would have helped us deal with her and her puppets.”

Diarmid nodded. “I would have. From what Lochlan has told me, she really was quite mad. Again, I am sorry for the suffering she caused you. All of it.”

He looked down once more at the blood in his hands and, heaving another sigh, he said, “You do not believe me, Mida, but I am also sorry for the suffering I have caused you. I have been sorry for a very long time. I have tried to explain it to you many times before, but you would not let me.”

“I really don’t want to get into this again,” I said. “I don’t want to argue with you. Not today.

My father looked up at me. “Then hear me out, please. If only once more.”

I sighed myself then, and steeled myself for yet another of the explanations that I had always felt were worthless. “Fine. Go ahead.”

He nodded, and said, “It is true that I once did not care about your mother as I should have. It is true that I should have saved her, and I did not. I regret that I was so callous and cruel to have denied you the mother you deserved.”

“Why do you regret it though? Is it because you damn well should, or because learning of it drove your favorite child away from you?” I asked harshly.

“Both,” he replied. “Losing your love and respect have served to show me how foolish I was. As you know, I have tried ever since to make amends.”

“You tried in all the wrong ways. Lavish gifts and constant badgering are hardly conducive to forgiveness.”

Diarmid smiled ruefully. “I know that now, and I suppose I ought apologize for those actions as well. Mida, I know I can never truly make amends for not saving your mother, and I know that you have not needed a father for a very long time, but I am hoping that one day your heart will soften enough toward me that we can be friends. You are my only daughter now, and I do not wish to lose you any more than I already have.”

I thought about that for a long moment, then nodded slowly before turning to the door and preparing to leave. Looking back at him over my shoulder I said, “I cannot make you any promises about forgiveness. It takes time, and I have hated you for many years.”

His expression became crestfallen, but he nodded. “I understand.”

“You should know this, Father, and remember it well: Even if I do forgive you, I’m never going to forget.”



*****



Back in Mark’s room, I found him alone, sitting up in bed. Neither Lochlan nor my dogs were anywhere in sight.

“Where are Moe and Cissy?” I asked as I shut the door behind. “Where’s Loch?”

“He took the dogs outside,” Mark said, smiling as he patted the spot next to him on the bed. “Come on over here and join me.”

I grinned as I lifted the bedcovers and climbed underneath. “You’re looking awfully chipper,” I said. “Did you eat already? What did Lochlan give you, steak?”

“No, I haven’t eaten anything, though steak does sound awesome. I want it with a fully loaded baked potato and an ice cold two-liter of Mt. Dew. Please,” he added, leaning over for a kiss.

I giggled and met him halfway. Mark’s hand came to hold my head at the nape, and as his tongue probed my mouth, a smoldering fire began to burn in my veins.

Pushing him back, I said, “Mark, we can’t. It’s too soon—you just woke up for goodness’ sake.”

He grinned and took my hand, drawing it under the blanket to his lap, which I discovered was covered only by the blanket. “Lochlan said I’m pretty damn healthy for a man who was dead for three days. He recommends food, liquids, exercise and bed rest, not necessarily in that order.”

“Mark, I love you, and believe me, I want to,” I said slowly. “But I don’t want to hurt you when I just got you back.”

“Baby, I love you, too. But I already feel like I’ve missed too much, that I’ve got a lot of lost time to make up for. And Loch did say exercise—if you can do slow and easy then so can I,” he replied.

I jumped out of the bed long enough to send my clothes flying, then climbed back into it and snuggled next to him.

“Okay. Slow and easy it is.”