Wicked Love

by Michelle Dare

  Not Victor. Victor had known she was lying, just as he’d known all those years before that she needed special convincing that none of the others did.

  Perhaps we should once again hunt the Rougarou, mon cher. Return to our most favorite place.

  He isn’t real, Papa.

  Is that what you took from our years in the swamp? That he is not real? Even when you’ve seen him with your own eyes?

  You only took me to speak about the gift, and my reticence.

  You have misunderstood me all along, Elisabeth. I took you because there is a lesson in hunting this foul beast. For in slaying him, we protect ourselves, and even the humans you feel such empathy for. We do a service to all. In showing you this, it was my hope you would begin to understand that as dhampir, we do not take life in malice, or in evil, but in necessity. Just as men slay deer to survive upon the meat and fur, so must we slay man for our own survival. The Rougarou is the only beast higher than us on the chain of life, and I had hoped we would finally encounter him so you could face the possibility of your own death, and mine, and understand, finally, utterly, why we must do what we do.

  Elisabeth pressed another handful of berries into her bag when she heard the first roar.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Elisabeth shoved the purse to his lap and went to the kitchen, pacing.

  “You know I can’t eat these with my hands tied, right?”

  “Then don’t eat.”

  “Elisabeth, what happened out there?”

  “Stop talking.”

  “Are you hurt?”

  Elisabeth spun around. “You know why I brought you here, Kieran? Because if my family discovers that I allowed a witness to live, they would not only kill you, but would dispose of you in a way that your family would never have closure. I don’t think you fully appreciate that you should be dead right now.”

  Kieran’s face darkened. “You’re wrong about that. It’s all I can think about. That, and why you haven’t just done it already. What you’re waiting for.”

  “I was hoping...” Elisabeth buried her face in her hands. Her memory was again drawn to the sound. It couldn’t be. There were so many creatures that called the Louisiana bayou home. It could’ve been anything. “It may not matter now.”

  “Look, I know I’m just prey to you, but maybe that will make it easier for you to just talk to me. I’ll be gone soon, anyway, so anything you say will die with me. I’m free therapy.”

  His words made Elisabeth abruptly and unexpectedly sad. She didn’t catch the emotion quick enough to hide it from her face. He probably saw it. “You said you don’t believe in the Rougarou.”

  “I didn’t think anyone seriously did. It was something our parents told us to keep us in line.”

  “I do,” Elisabeth said. “My grandfather does. I assure you, those whose final seconds of life were staring into its orange eyes do.”

  “Did,” Kieran corrected, and Elisabeth was so taken aback by his strange attempt at humor that she breathed out a clipped laugh. “Why bring it up?”

  “I heard something. Never mind.” She looked at the bag of smushed berries in his lap.

  “I know you don’t wanna feed me yourself. Untie me. I’m not going anywhere. Between you and a swamp I don’t recognize, I’ve got nowhere to run.”

  She didn’t think he could escape, but untying him meant he would be moving around the cabin, and it would give her one more thing to have to keep an eye on. But he was right. She didn’t want to feed him. Didn’t want to look into his eyes as she gave him sustenance, knowing she still might very well take his life.

  You have to take his life. You don’t have a choice. They’ll know. Victor will know, and to punish you for breaking the one sacred rule, he will make this one suffer. To remind you.

  “All right,” she said. “But don’t give me a reason to kill you.”

  “You mean another reason?”

  She almost smiled.

  When he was free, he rifled through the bag, trying his best to hide his amusement at her haphazard collection of blackberry mush. He looked up, forcing a smile, shoving a handful of the purple ooze into his mouth.

  “You don’t have to eat that,” she said, but her attention was again drawn to the world outside. Was that another howl? The last of the day’s light had disappeared. If she had to go searching in the darkness...

  “Something is bothering you. Other than not killing me.”

  “It must be my imagination,” she muttered.

  “Do vampires have imaginations?”

  Elisabeth shot him a look. “Of course we do. We have all the things we used to have, and more.”

  “Did you lose anything, when you took the gift?”

  My humanity. “I lost nothing.”

  “I didn’t see teeth when you drank my date like she was a bucket of cheap well drinks at the bar.”

  “I told you, we’re nothing like your books, or movies. We don’t have fangs.”

  “What other myths aren’t true?”

  “None of them are true.”

  Kieran kept on pushing. “Tell me.”

  Elisabeth sighed, one eye on the window. “Garlic. We’re not allergic to it.”

  “Do you still eat food?”

  “We can. We don’t have to.” There it was again. That howl.

  “Crosses?”

  “My family is Catholic,” she said with growing impatience. Not impatience. Fear.

  “Could you come into my house?”

  “Why are you asking me all these things? Does it really matter? You don’t have garlic, or a cross, and we’re not at your house.” Pressing her lips tight, she added, “No. I don’t need an invite. I go where I please.”

  “There was still some daylight when you killed Darcy.”

  “And?”

  “I guess it doesn’t incinerate your flesh.”

  “Of course it doesn’t. But I prefer the darkness anyway.”

  “Why?”

  It may be my imagination running wild again, but I feel like others can see through me, to what I am. To the place where my soul once was. “My reasons are my own.”

  “You haven’t turned into a bat, or disappeared into a cloud of smoke.”

  “Not yet anyway.”

  Kieran smiled. “But you are immortal, aren’t you?”

  Elisabeth nodded.

  “So sunlight can’t kill you. You’re strong, though, so that myth is true... I saw how you took down Darcy with no effort, and you had no problem subduing me. I’d reckon you could take down a much bigger man and not break a sweat. Garlic and crosses are out. Useless. What if I pushed a sword through your heart?”

  “Have you a sword, Kieran Landry?”

  “I wish.”

  “I would heal, though if you didn’t pull the sword out, my flesh would re-form around it and that would not be very fun,” Elisabeth said. Sweat beaded her brow. Could he see it? She wondered what he would think. She still produced sweat. Still slept, even if her need of it had waned considerably. She still enjoyed a glass of port, especially after the tradition the de Blancheforts never gave up, Sunday supper as a family. Though food didn’t sustain them, it bonded them. Like the gift, but somehow more tangible.

  “Can anything kill you?” he asked. “Not that I’ll be getting any ideas over here, or anything.”

  Elisabeth looked outside again. Nothing but darkness. And whatever lay waiting.

  Kieran set her bag aside. He leaned forward, but didn’t stand. “The Rougarou is outside. Isn’t he?”

  11

  Kieran

  The howl didn’t sound like any animal he’d ever known. He’d spent his entire life in Louisiana. His family owned property all over. He knew these swamps, the visceral and unforgiving outdoors.

  It sounded like the wail of a man who had long ago been turned away from his humanity.

  “Stay here,” Elisabeth said, but there was no way that was happening.

  Kieran was ri
ght behind her as she slipped onto the porch. Tiny winking lights dotted the otherwise dark bayou. Elisabeth held one arm out, as if that was enough to hold him back.

  A new roar pierced the night.

  “Jesus,” Kieran whispered.

  “If you believe in him, Kieran, now is the time to pray to him.”

  “Are you sure it’s a Rougarou?”

  “The Rougarou. There is only one.”

  “Because it’s a curse that’s transferred when he bites someone,” he said, remembering the old local legend tales that he’d all but forgotten when he grew up. “Can he transfer what he is to you?”

  “No. But he can kill me.”

  “If it is him, anyway.”

  Elisabeth half-turned. “You can sense things. What do you sense?”

  He had sensed it. A raw, roiling anger burning to the surface. A desperation to be rid of... something.

  A giant, hulking figure swayed out from behind a tangle of brush. His legs were long, muscular, and slightly bowed, like a misshapen man. He rolled back and his broad chest, covered in tufts of hair, were illuminated by a swash of moonlight. His face they could not see.

  “Mon dieu,” Elisabeth whispered. “Go. Go inside. My grandfather showed me how to stop him.”

  “No way. He’s bigger than both of us put together. We don’t have a gun, or—”

  Elisabeth spun around and met his eyes. “Kieran. He’s not here for me. He’s here for you. Because, in you, he sees a reprieve from his terrible curse. One bite and you become him.”

  With those words, Kieran was really, finally terrified. He realized now that there had always been a reticence about Elisabeth that he could work with; that left the window open for a future where he walked away from this, unlikely as it might be. But this beast plagued with a terrible curse could not be reasoned with. It would kill until it was satiated. Until it found a new host.

  The beast dropped to a crouch. Elisabeth tensed, her own body falling into a fighting stance. It was happening, and he should do as she said, go inside, hide, protect himself, but he was rooted in place. The sinewy muscles of the Rougarou rippled against the moon’s gaze, and then he was launched forward into the air, directly at Elisabeth.

  Kieran leaped in front of her without thinking. He lifted both hands above his face, shielding it from the assault, just as he heard her gasp ripple through the night.

  Stop! Stop! Stop! He cried out in his mind, as the last moments of life as he knew it ticked into oblivion.

  The Rougarou stopped. He landed on both feet with a soft thud, panting, watching.

  What did you say to me?

  Kieran looked up. Where had that voice come from?

  But he knew.

  Low, gravelly. Beastly.

  You heard me speak to you? Kieran asked, feeling foolish, feeling relieved. Behind him, Elisabeth had stopped breathing.

  Yesss. I heard you. I heard your words. I recognized them, from a time before. But I have not heard them in a great many years.

  Since you became a Rougarou.

  Is that what they call me?

  It’s the only word we know. What would you like us to call you?

  “Kieran? What’s happening? Why does he stand there like that?” Elisabeth asked, not because, he thought, she sensed what was transpiring between beast and man.

  David. That was my name.

  David. How long have you been like this?

  It seemed a great long while before David answered. My wife carries our child.

  What year?

  Nineteen fifty-two, of course. What year do you think it is?

  Over half a century. David’s child would have grandchildren of their own by now. But to him, no time had passed at all.

  I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve what happened to you.

  Neither do you, but here we are, the two of us. My wife and unborn child are waiting. I can see them again, thanks to you.

  “Kieran,” Elisabeth hissed. Kieran pressed a hand to her arm, hoping it was enough. If he said a word aloud, the spell would be broken.

  You have served your time, Kieran returned. But I am not your replacement. It isn’t nineteen fifty-two anymore and hasn’t been for a long time. Almost sixty years have passed since you were afflicted, David. Your wife will be very old. Your child will have children of their own. I can find them for you. But there isn’t a place for you with them. Not anymore.

  David’s rage trembled across the murky surface of the water. He threw his head back, sounding out a new howl. Grief tore through the center of it. It nearly knocked Kieran off his feet.

  I’m so sorry. I could find them for you.

  David showed his long teeth. I could find them myself.

  You wouldn’t get far. This woman behind me? She’s a vampire. She’s trained to kill you and has been waiting over a century to do it.

  David snarled. She seems more afraid of me than I am of her.

  Tonight I watched her kill a woman without breaking a sweat. She had me in her trunk without a fight. Don’t underestimate her.

  David regarded them. Elisabeth took a step, but Kieran held her back.

  You could pass this curse, David, or you could end it. Your family has moved on. Mine still waits for me.

  There is no ending this curse.

  Tell me your last name.

  Why would I do that?

  Please.

  Long pause. Aucoin.

  David Aucoin. And your wife? Her first name?

  Lucy. But she was a Landry, before me.

  You know what? I’m a Landry.

  You lie.

  Through my father, Mason. His father was...

  Kieran stopped. He’d never known his grandfather, just as Mason had never known his father. Grandma Lucy had always said Grandpa had run off with some young hussy and left her to raise the twins, Mason and Mary. She’d given them both the Landry name, so they wouldn’t be tainted by the curse of their father.

  No, David said. I would know my own blood. I would know.

  Maybe it’s why you hesitate. Why I can speak to you.

  David sniffed the air. You can speak to me because you have magic. I know the scent. Who are you really?

  I am the son of Mason Landry and Chelsea Sullivan. And I think... I think I’m your grandson.

  The Rougarou took a step back. Then another.

  “He’s retreating,” Elisabeth said. “I don’t understand. What aren’t you saying? What’s happening between you two?”

  Grandma Lucy is still alive. I’ll go to her. I’ll tell her what happened. I’ll tell her you didn’t leave her—

  No! I would rather she believe I ran off than know this was my fate. She will be old now. She deserves peace. David further retreated.

  But you didn’t leave them! It’s not your fault!

  I said no, Kieran. Leave it. And I will leave you. A funny thing, becoming what I am. All the things you believed were from the darkness of fairy tales are real. She isn’t the first vampire I’ve seen. Or even the twentieth. I could kill her. Free you of the bondage she’s placed you in.

  Kieran would regret this later. Undoubtedly, he would remember this moment, as his own life came to a close, as him throwing away his final chance to escape this.

  But he found he couldn’t hurt Elisabeth. He couldn’t just order her death, no matter what she’d done.

  No. I can handle this. I’ll be fine.

  David didn’t respond. He slipped back into the shadows.

  He was gone.

  Kieran stumbled backward into Elisabeth’s arms and passed out.

  12

  Kelley

  “Kelley. Here’s what I need you to understand. I can call upon every Deschanel between here and Baton Rouge, and they’ll come at my command. They’ll come without hesitation. But this does us no good if we cannot locate where Kieran has been taken.”

  Sweat poured from Kelley’s brow as he watched Colleen Deschanel with a mix of respect and fear. She’d said t
hat Kieran’s life hung upon his ability to draw deep into a skill he’d only just discovered and never been trained to use. But all she’d done was tell him to dig deeper. She’d never said how.

  “There’s not one way to do it,” Colleen replied, evidently reading his mind. Had she been doing it all along? “All seers have their own techniques. Their own methods. You must find yours.”

  “But how?”

  “It may help to think of what you were doing when your visions came to you. We can return to those moments and see where they lead us,” Colleen said.

  He wished he’d taken her up on a drink after all. His mouth was a bed of cotton as he swallowed, waffling between her request and wondering if Kieran was already dead. If he was too late.

  “Can’t we call in other seers? Ask them if they’ve seen him?”

  “The seers in this family know to contact me if they had any visions at all about one of us. If anyone else had seen Kieran, I would’ve known before you showed up on my doorstep.”

  “We can’t ask them to try and see if they can see what I saw?”

  “Visions don’t work that way. Seers have no command over what they’re shown. They cannot summon a vision. But a trained seer can learn to harness the details. Now, go back to where you were when this vision came to you.”

  “I was just driving.”

  “Where? What time of day?”

  “To school. No, I was going home from school. Afternoon.”

  “And when you saw Dillon? And your mother?”

  Kelley tapped his frustration out through his toes, eager to get on with it. To get to Kieran before the vampire ate him. “I don’t know!”

  “Of course you know,” Colleen said, calm as a still lake. “These were big moments for you, Kelley. You’ll never forget where you were when you had your first visions.”

  “Driving, I guess, too. We’re wasting time!”

  “And where were you driving when you saw Dillon?”

  “She’s going to kill him!”

  “Certainly, so focus. Where were you going?”

  “Home!”

  “Very good. And when you saw your mother being robbed?”