chapter 21
Instead of heading home, Samson drove to Thomas’s house. Eddie opened the door instantly, inviting him into the spacious living room where Thomas sat in a corner, which had been fitted out as an office.
Eddie shut the door behind him. “Hey, what’s up?”
“We have a situation. I have a job for the two of you.”
Eddie’s boyish face lit up. “Cool. What do you need?”
Thomas rose from his chair and joined them. “Short party, huh?”
“I doubt Haven minded that we all had to leave early. I’m sure he’s got better things to do than entertaining the likes of us.”
Samson grinned. He had better things to do too. Delilah was waiting for him at home. Isabelle was finally asleep, and he hoped would remain that way for a few hours to give him and Delilah some time alone together.
He caught a flash of sadness in Thomas’s eyes before he hid it again, reminding him that his friend hadn’t had a steady partner in a long time. For a moment he wondered whether it was all that good for Thomas to have the object of his affections living with him, yet unattainable. Maybe it would be better for Eddie to move out. But Samson would be the last man to suggest such a thing. If the two of them liked this arrangement, it wasn’t for him to question it.
“Well, anyway,” he started, and filled them in about the happenings at the B&B. When he finished, he laid out what he needed the two to do for him.
“Is there a way of sweeping an area for this flash drive?”
Thomas raised an eyebrow. “I’m assuming you don’t want anybody to know you’re looking for it?”
“You could say that.”
“And when we’ve found it, what then?” There was something akin to suspicion in his tone now.
Samson shook his head and chuckled to himself. “Thomas, how long have we known each other?”
“Do you ever truly know anybody, even after a hundred years?” Thomas replied with another question.
“Sometimes it’s a matter of trust, don’t you think?” Then he looked at Eddie. “Has Thomas ever told you how we met?”
Eddie looked at him with keen interest in his eyes. “Thomas doesn’t like to talk about his past.”
“Well, I’m not one to spill the beans. Maybe one day you can coax it out of him.” Then he trained his look back on Thomas who’d been quiet the entire time. “So what do you say, considering our history, do you trust me to do the right thing?”
Their gazes locked.
“There’s a device I tinkered with. Considering that a flash drive has no power of its own, none of the conventional bug sweepers would work. But I’ve been working on a programmable device that allows me to search for any combination of metals. So if I enter the components in some of the most common flash drives into it, theoretically, it should be able to search for it. But it’s only a prototype.”
Samson smiled. “Then let’s put it to the test. Start at the B&B. And if it’s not there, you and Eddie will go and visit all of Rose’s brothels from here to Chicago and find that damn flash drive.”
“Brothels?” Thomas repeated. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Quinn’s wife is a Madame? I’m sure there’s a story there.”
***
London 1814
Rose knew she had to get away. Sooner or later, Quinn would return and do unspeakable things to her. She was certain of that. Because he wasn’t her sweet Quinn anymore, he was a monster now, a vampire! A bloodthirsty animal. The red glare in his eyes had chilled her to the bone, but when she’d seen his fangs, the weapons with which he could kill her in an instant, her heart had stopped only to restart moments later at triple the pace.
She’d never felt so frightened in her entire life. And not just for herself. If he ever found out about his daughter, he would take her too. His possessive words before he’d left her chamber still echoed in her ears.
You’re mine, Rose.
A cold shiver ran down her spine. No, she didn’t belong to a monster, and neither did her daughter. She would go to the country, and later, when she’d calmed down, she would plead with her father to let her stay at the estate closest to where he’d placed her child. She knew now, since a marriage with Quinn was impossible, that she had no chance of ever getting her daughter back.
A sob tore from her chest at the terrible thought. She could never be her child’s mother now. But maybe, if she begged her father long enough, he would relent and let her stay close to Charlotte so she could at least watch how her daughter grew up to be a young woman. She would never have the kind of privileged upbringing that Rose had enjoyed, but at least she could make sure that the girl lacked nothing.
With her parents having just left for a soiree, Rose summoned her maid and ordered her to alert the coachman to ready the carriage. She would be hours away before her parents even knew she was gone. She would deal with their wrath later. Leaving London during the height of the season was an affront they would not take lightly. It mattered not. If they knew what she was running from, they would understand, but she couldn’t tell them. They would never believe her.
But she’d seen what she’d seen: Quinn was a vampire.
Within an hour she was on her way. But she didn’t even reach the outskirts of London before her travels were interrupted. The horses let out frightened whinnies and reared up. Her driver stopped the carriage instantly, pulling back the horses and trying to calm them, but they were scared out of their wits.
Rose poked her head out of the carriage. “What seems to be the problem, William?”
Instead of an answer, her driver suddenly screamed. The carriage rattled as if somebody had jumped onto it. A struggle ensued. But within seconds it was over. Quiet spread through the night again.
“William?” Panic coursed through her veins, where her blood had turned to ice.
Her trusted servant didn’t respond. Oh God, no! She craned her neck trying to see what had happened.
“Now that we’re alone, let’s talk.”
The stranger’s voice came from behind her. She whirled around, but he’d already opened the carriage door and squeezed inside. His clothes were simple, but his face was all she could look at. His eyes glared red the way she’d seen Quinn’s eyes glare, and pointy fangs protruded from his mouth. Blood trickled from them.
She screamed.
All it earned her was his mocking laughter.
“Nobody will hear you. Your driver is dead. Damn tasty too. Who would have thought an old man like him has such sweet blood? But then, you can never tell what’s inside until you open a present, can you?”
Shrinking back from him, her hand reached for the door on the other side, but the vampire’s hand clamped around her wrist like a vice in a motion too fast for her eyes to follow.
“Let me go!”
His eyes bored into her. “I can’t do that.”
“Who are you? What do you want? Money?”
“Apologies, my lady. I neglected to introduced myself. I am Wallace.”
Wallace? Where had she heard that name before?
“I’m Quinn’s maker. His sire, the vampire who made him what he is today. I saved his life on the battlefield.”
Rose gasped. “Oh God, no!” Quinn had sent him after her to hurt her.
“I saved his life on the battlefield so he could come back to you.” Suddenly his voice turned to ice. “And what do you do? You reject his love. You toss him out on the street. You think you’re better than him?”
Wallace lashed an angry glare at her.
“You’re not any better than Quinn, not once I’m done with you.”
Her breath caught in her throat.
“Yes, you know what’s coming, don’t you? I’ll make you in his image.”
“No,” she whispered, her voice deserting her.
“You’ll be like him. You’ll be equals then. There will be no more reason to reject him. He will finally get what he wants.”
A terrible thought spread in her heart. “Did he ask you to do that?”
“Quinn? He’s too distraught to think. You brought this on yourself! It’s my gift to him.”
Why his words gave her momentary relief, she didn’t have time to contemplate, because Wallace grabbed her and pulled her closer. Despite her struggles, she couldn’t get away from him. Kicking and screaming did nothing to dissuade him from his mission.
His head came closer, ever closer to her throat until his lips connected with the skin on her neck. A moment later she felt his fangs. Then a violent pain. She fought against him, the pain in her neck intensifying, spreading over her entire body as his fangs dug deeper.
When darkness encroached she fought against that too, but her struggle was useless, her body too weak to hold off the inevitable. He was turning her into a monster, and she had no way of stopping him.
Darkness came and went. The pain anchored in her heart, spreading like black mold. It engulfed her entire being, overtook her senses so all she could think of was the throbbing hurt of a life lost. She would never be the same again.
Even as she was reborn that same night, the pain never vanished.
When Rose took her first breath as a vampire and opened her eyes to a new world, she found herself in a shabby room. From the noise she heard coming from downstairs, she knew she was in some tavern.
Everything seemed sharper, her vision, her hearing, her sense of smell. Particularly the last. But all she could think of as she reared up from her position on the hard bed was the thirst that controlled her like the strings of a marionette. She needed to drink, to still the thirst that drove her wild.
“Finally awake.”
Wallace’s voice was the last thing in the world she wanted to hear. But he was here, sitting in front of the fireplace. At his feet, she noticed a bundle. Her eyes honed in on it, as did her nose. It smelled delicious.
Without thinking, she rose in one fluid motion and charged toward it.
“Thought you’d be hungry.” The rickety chair he sat on creaked as he bent down.
She was faster and reached for the bundle. The girl was maybe sixteen and judging by her clothing she was most likely a scullery maid.
“She’s tasty. I had a sip before.” Wallace gave her a suggestive look. “Have at it. I know you’re thirsty. I can see it in your eyes.”
Rose recoiled from him and the human who was now stirring. Her jaw suddenly ached. Her hand came up to touch her mouth, and she felt sharp teeth peaking past her lips. Fangs! She had fangs! The finality of this fact hit her. There was no denying it. She was a monster now, one that killed to survive.
“No!” she screamed.
The girl on the floor reared her head, her frightened eyes staring up at her. Rose tried to pull back, but the human’s blood smelled enticing, better than anything she’d ever smelled. Though she was filled with disgust at herself, her body didn’t obey her mind. As if pulled by invisible ropes, Rose felt herself pulled toward the girl. Closer and closer.
She fought to resist. But her body’s needs were stronger.
As she sank down and pulled the struggling girl toward her, hunger overcame her. It drove her, controlled her. Only when her fangs sank in the human’s neck and drew the precious liquid from her, did her need ebb, making way for repulsion and loathing.
Rose withdrew from the girl as soon as she had the strength to command her body again, but it was too late. She’d drained her. As tears filled her eyes, fury surged through her. Without thinking, she charged at Wallace. The chair crashed beneath him as they both landed on the floor, fighting.
She was aware of her sudden strength, the immense power that ran through her veins. Her hatred for Wallace and what he’d done to her only fueled this power, pumped it up, stoked the fire in her belly higher.
“I hate you!” she yelled.
He tried to subdue her, grabbing her arms, but she twisted from his grip, her hands searching for any weapon she could find. When her fingers encountered the texture of wood, she wrapped her palm around it. Without looking she knew what it was: one of the broken legs of the chair.
With more force than she thought her body could muster, she plunged the makeshift stake into his chest.
A sound at the door coincided with her driving the stake through Wallace’s heart. As he disintegrated into dust, the door shut, making her snap her head toward it, ready to dispatch whoever else was threatening her.
A man leaned casually against the door. She didn’t know why, but instinctively she recognized him as a vampire.
“Saved me from having to kill him. Had a bill to settle with him,” he drawled.
Still gripping her stake tightly, she jumped up.
“Who are you?”
One side of his mouth lifted. “Let’s just say, we have the same enemies.”
Rose glanced at the floor where the dust settled. In front of the fireplace, the dead girl lay like a ragdoll. Nausea suddenly overcame her, but except for dry heaving, she produced nothing.
“Ah, your first kill,” the stranger commented. “It’ll get easier.”
She shook her head. Never. She never wanted to kill again. What she needed now was someone to hold her.
“Quinn, oh God, Quinn,” she murmured. She had to find him. He would help her.
“You know his prodigy?”
Rose raised her head, looking back at the vampire without really seeing him. “I need him now.” Lifting her eyes, she begged, “Help me, Quinn, please help me.”
A moment later, strong arms prevented her from falling. They shook her back to consciousness. “You can’t go to his prodigy.”
“No, I need Quinn. I need him now.”
“You don’t understand!” The vampire’s voice became more insistent. “If he finds out you killed his sire, he will kill you.”
“No! Quinn loves me!” He had professed so only a short time ago.
“He has no choice. It’s the duty of a prodigy to kill his sire’s killer, no matter who this person is. It’s an instinct, as ingrained as the lust for blood. Once he knows what you did, he won’t be able to resist the urge. The pull will be too strong. It’s a duty bred into us.”
“But he loves me . . .” she whispered.
“It won’t matter. If you stay here and let him find you, you’re as good as dead.”
Her heart clenched. Had she been on her own, she would have let it happen, let Quinn find and kill her. But there was Charlotte. She still had to protect Charlotte.
“Help me,” she begged the stranger.
Rose blinked the tears away. She stood outside of Quinn’s bedroom door on the second floor of the B&B, battling with herself. He deserved to know why she hadn’t come to him all these years and why she had faked her own death. It had been the only way to make sure he wouldn’t look for her.
She was done lying to him, hiding from him. And now that Quinn knew what was at stake if Keegan got his hands on the flash drive, she was certain he would continue protecting Blake even if he had to take his revenge on her for killing Wallace. Blake wouldn’t need her anymore. He would be taken care of.
Her heart beat into her throat, which was dry as sandpaper. Her pulse raced uncontrollably, and her palms were damp. A pearl of sweet made its way down her neck and into her cleavage.
Rose tried to raise her hand to knock at his door, but her body didn’t obey her mind. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t move. She stood there like a frozen statue, her feet rooted to the floor, her body stiff with fear.
Yet, strangely enough, the sensation that filled her wasn’t fear of losing her life if she told him the truth about what she’d done, but of losing his love. It overrode everything else. The thought that wherever she was going, be it heaven or hell or any place in between, she would be going there without his love, was unbearable.
She was a coward and a wimp—simply not strong enough to do this—even less now than right after Wallace’s death. Because even after two hundred years, she loved Quinn with the same intensity as the night she’d given him her virginity. If anything, the years apart had cemented that love.
Disappointed in herself, she turned on her heels, and her heart stopped.
Only a few feet from her, Quinn stood watching her. Now he advanced on her, putting himself within arm’s length.
His hazel eyes shimmered golden as he ran them over her in slow motion. Then he locked eyes with her.
“I missed you, my love,” he murmured
No, if she told him the truth now, she would never see that look of love in his eyes again.