She drew a deep breath, though she rarely needed one. “When the time comes, Arthur, I want my ashes scattered on the western side of mountain range. I’ve missed the sun on my face. I’ll get it there.”
“That isn’t going to happen for a thousand years or more, my dear.”
“Then you should have plenty of time to plan a very elaborate send-off for me. Like one of those New Orleans funerals with the jazz band and a parade. Or maybe everyone could celebrate Cinco De Mayo and paint their faces and hands like skeletons. That would be rather appropriate, don’t you think?”
“May fifth has come and gone. You’ll have to wait a thousand years, plus some months.”
“I’m sure my ancestors won’t mind if we fudge a month or two.” She looked up at him. “You weren’t disappointed in me for putting on such a spectacle at the wedding?”
“Never. You are my daughter, Phoebe. I am always proud of you.”
Then why did you give me away so easily?
“You looked magnificent in leather with your riding crop. Your promise to spank the groom thrilled quite a few of males in the audience.”
“I should have hit Trevor harder.”
He chuckled. “We’re going to find him, and exact revenge…after we get the poison and the antidote.”
“What if he won’t give up the formula, Arthur?”
“I will compel him. He is not strong enough to refuse either of us.”
She nodded, not because she believed Arthur would succeed, but because she couldn’t bear to be negative in the face of his optimism.
Sick of her pity party, she turned aside to brush the pinkish tears off her lashes. “Luke is waiting for me. I told him we’d go for a run together.”
A flash of concern darted across his eyes. “I would prefer you stayed closer to the house, Phoebe. Perhaps a swim instead.”
Her hand went to her throat. Would the chlorine in the water burn more than the injury itself?
“Okay. We can enjoy a swim and a movie. Though a movie isn’t the same without hot, buttered popcorn,” she complained.
“It’s been almost sixty years since you’ve had that particular treat. How can you remember what it was like?”
“Any time you walk past a movie theater and smell it, it brings back the memory of how it tastes.”
Arthur’s features softened, and he brushed a kiss across her forehead. “Since I was born three hundred years before corn of any kind was imported to Britain, I have no memory of it.”
“I’m sorry, Arthur.” There were so many things he hadn’t experienced before being reborn as a vampire.
“You can’t miss something you never had, Phoebe.”
She nodded. It still hurt her. But not as much as his betrayal.
“Go have your swim and watch your movie. I have some work that must be done, and I’ll make the call to this Hunter Knox.”
CHAPTER 5
THE FRAGRANCE OF peonies blooming against the side of the house hung sweet in the moist air.
Luke stood up when she joined him on the concrete steps, bowing his back, his body stretching, long and slim, but muscular—unsurprising, since he’d been a dockworker before becoming a vampire. His life had been hard, his upbringing rough, but no one would believe it now. Dressed for their run in shorts, a tank top, and running shoes, he seemed more a member of the country club crowd than the hard-nosed, hardworking crew he’d been a part of before his transition. It was easy for her to picture him on the golf course, hitting balls and zipping around in a golf cart. They did have glow-in-the-dark balls for such an occasion.
He was attractive enough in looks, but the chemistry between them had always been more friends than lovers.
She felt easier blaming their change of plans on Arthur than on her lack of strength. “Arthur has asked me to stay close to home. How about a video instead of a run? And we can take a swim later.”
Luke shrugged. “Sure. Sounds like a wise move.” He scanned the nearby woods and mountainsides. “They may still be out there waiting for an opportunity. And I can’t really imagine the Hamilton boys running with us.”
Phoebe laughed at the image that popped into her head of the leather coiffed bikers running after them in their boots.
Purplish-gray clouds crept across the night sky and picked up the glow of the quarter moon curved above them. She itched to get her camera and try different ways of capturing the subtle light and colorful clouds. Maybe some other time.
She turned to find Luke studying her. Instead of the heavy something she expected, he said, “Okay. Rock-paper-scissors on the video.”
She laughed. For some reason the idea of a vampire doing rock, paper, scissors seemed hilarious. “You’ll have to teach me. I’ve never done rock-paper-scissors.”
His eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”
She shook her head.
“You have been so sheltered,” he complained.
That triggered her laughter again. She knew how to fight hand-to-hand, but had no idea how to do rock-paper-scissors.
Luke grinned and proceeded to describe what each hand position meant, and which topped the other. It took several tries before she won.
“Beginner’s luck,” he complained. “Unless you were reading my mind.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not one of my talents.”
“What’s it going to be?” he asked as they wandered into what they called the game room. The extra-large screen television, Blu-ray player, gaming system, and pool table took up just a small area of the room. Two long couches and two lounges were arranged in front of the television, and a bar where they could help themselves to refrigerated blood took up the other end.
“I could make you sit through a chick flick, but I know you hate them. So, since you let me win, I’m going to be kind.”
He narrowed his green eyes. “What’s it going to be?”
“Terminator III.”
“Yes!” Luke punctuated his shout with a fist pump.
“Good. You can deal with setting up the movie while I fix a drink. Do you want anything?”
“No. I’m good.”
Though she had a cup of blood earlier, she selected a packet with her name on it from the refrigerator and fixed another. She’d need the added strength for the swim, as well as keeping up with things tomorrow. She stretched out on one of the two lounges.
Luke sat close by on the leather couch, kicked off his shoes, stretched his legs out, and propped his feet on the coffee table.
Phoebe did her best to pay attention to the movie, but her meeting with Hunter Knox kept playing through her mind. How would he track Trevor? What steps would he take that she hadn’t?
She had put out feelers to several clans across the state. So far no one had seen Trevor. He had to be laying low. But he still had to spend money to find a place to stay. The problem with most vampires was they paid for everything in cash.
It was hard to get a line of credit if you were dead.
And how did she go about annulling the marriage, since it had never been consummated, and her groom had freaking tried to kill her?
Surely attempted murder was grounds for annulment. She’d have to meet with Councilman Adcock to discuss it. The old crow. She wouldn’t be above blackmailing him, if that was what it took to sever the connection to her husband.
The thought of Trevor possibly benefitting from her death threatened to blow the top of her head off.
But annulment of the contract might prove extremely complicated, since its purpose had been to bind their clans together in a sort of consortium. She needed to talk to Arthur about it and see what their options might be.
Luke interrupted her reverie. “Why did you choose to watch a video if you’re going to stew all the way through it?”
“I’m not stewing, I’m thinking things through.”
His light brown eyebrows shot up. “Care to share?”
“Not until I’m sure of the actions I want to take.”
He
reached for the remote and paused the movie. “It might help to talk it out.”
She shook her head.
“You’re going to be fine, Phoebe.”
She wasn’t going to give voice to the negative. “I’ll fight until I can’t. I don’t know any other way.”
His features went still, which he only did when he was deeply affected.
“We’re going to figure this thing out. I promise you.” He looked up at her, his expression regretful. “I wish I’d been here for the wedding. I might have been able to do something.”
“Not unless you knew ahead of time that Trevor planned to murder me. I know Arthur needed you to go put out some fires with the outlying clans because of the contract.”
“While you were facing off against Trevor, I was holding Malcolm Chester’s hand, and reassuring him that the lines dividing the clans were not going to change, and that Ricci’s clan wasn’t going to take over. The comparison doesn’t quite seem equal. If I’d have gotten even a whiff of trouble in the works, I wouldn’t have gone.”
She reached out to give his hand a squeeze. “It would have probably happened just the way it did even if you’d been here. And like you said, I’m going to get past this and get on with my life.”
His fingers tightened over hers for a moment.
She turned her attention back to the big screen television. “Turn the movie back on.”
“I’d rather go for that swim you mentioned. I need to blow off some steam.”
“Okay. I’ll go change.”
Once she stood in her room, partially naked, and studied the large, dark area that wouldn’t heal, fear stole the strength from her legs, and she slumped down on the end of the bed.
Being so close to death brought the memory of her original death boiling to the forefront, no matter how much she wished it had been erased from her memory during the process.
Her death would be forever this time.
She again forced her thoughts away from the negative, and went into the closet to get a scarf to cover her injury. If she could cover it so no one, including herself, could see it, maybe she could forget about it for a while.
She changed into the modest black one-piece she normally wore and grabbed a towel. Before she reached the door to the hall, her stomach roiled with nausea, and she rushed to the bathroom. The bright red blood tasted like death coming back up. Her stomach empty, she pressed a cool, damp cloth to the back of her neck because it was the human thing to do and she couldn’t think of anything else to relieve the miserable aftermath of vomiting.
It did seem to help, and once the sickness passed, she brushed her teeth and tongue to remove the rancid taste in her mouth.
If one of the servants saw any evidence of her sickness, they would notify Arthur, so she gave the bathroom a quick cleaning. Then finally picked up her towel and headed back downstairs.
She heard Luke on the phone in the game room as she came down the stairs.
“No, she’s about the same.”
He was obviously talking about her.
“No. I don’t want that at all. We’ll talk about what needs to be done later.”
Her curiosity was piqued, but she didn’t want to tell him she’d been rude enough to listen to his private conversation.
“No, I’m trying to keep her mind off the problem right now. Trust me, you don’t want her on your ass.”
Who was he talking to?
“I don’t need that kind of distraction.” He paused to listen. “There’s too much at stake, and we need to maintain focus on what’s important.”
What was he talking about? Since she’d been ill, Arthur had been cutting back on the things he asked her to do. It would be normal for him to ask Luke instead.
“If that was what you wanted, you should have waited. It’s too late to regret it now.”
She came to a standstill just outside the door. Uneasiness crept up the back of her neck. Her normally slow-beating heart began to race.
He hung up the phone. She waited for a minute before walking into the room.
“Ready?” Luke asked, grabbing a towel off the back of the couch.
“Yes.” The urge to ask straight out who he’d been talking to pushed against her teeth, but she bit it back. It had to be about a business deal. He wouldn’t welcome her butting in.
The enclosed pool was bathed in steam, though neither of them had a body temperature to maintain. But the warmth did seem to do something for her skin. Maybe it would do something for her neck as well.
Luke’s long body sliced the surface of the water like a knife. Phoebe chose to slide gently into the water from the steps at the shallow end. She slipped beneath the water, and was glad to find the chlorine seemed to have no adverse effect on her injury. In fact, the water seemed to sooth it a bit. Since she didn’t need to breathe, she dropped down to the bottom of the pool and lay on her back to watch him swim up and down.
They had known each other so long, had both been adopted by Arthur as his children, and had worked with each other since the beginning. For all intents and purposes, Luke was her brother in every way. The idea that he would do anything to harm her or Arthur was unthinkable.
But right now she didn’t know who she could trust, who might have been involved in the plot to take Arthur down. But it was feasible to think someone who knew them, who knew the house, could have helped Ricci.
They could have planted someone long before any of this went down. It didn’t have to be someone who was involved in the infrastructure of the clan.
Arthur might still be in danger. Should something happen to him and wipe out those few at the top who held the clan together, chaos would reign. She was one of those at the top. Luke was one as well. Whoever it was, they had to have been promised something big. Power, money, a clan of his/her own.
The Stewart clan was more than just the vampires Arthur had created. It included homeless vampires who had settled here because he promised them protection and guidance.
She wanted to live, but there were others who would be affected by this situation. She’d never handled anything with the breadth and scope of what this poison could mean. She couldn’t deal with it on her own.
Could Hunter Knox really help? Could he call upon more resources than she?
A figure appeared at the edge of the pool. Sophia, one of the young vampires in training, stood watching Luke while he did his laps, taking occasional sips from a glass. Phoebe had noticed her hanging about whenever she had a spare moment.
Luke swam to the side of the pool and rested his arms on the edge while they spoke. He accepted her glass, drank some, and returned it to her.
Luke was handsome, had a good sense of humor, and was very popular with the security trainees. He and Phoebe rarely talked about their romantic involvements, and if he was dating the young female, he’d never say anyway. But the two made a good pair.
Phoebe’s thoughts returned to Hunter Knox. When he rested his hand against the small of her back, her legs had gone weaker than they already were. And there was that air of danger that set off all her sensual bells and whistles. Because danger was sexy.
She pressed her legs tightly together against the feeling of unrelieved need. It had been a long time since she’d been with a male.
But she mustn’t get involved with Hunter. He was more than a private investigator. He was too polished, too focused. And then there was the Vampire Council poking into the fire at the wedding. If he were somehow a plant to dig into what had happened, she could be in some deep water. Deeper than she was already.
She had to stay strong until they found Trevor, and discovered who had betrayed them. It would be her swan song for the Stewart clan.
Then she could move on with her life as she had planned.
She pushed off the bottom of the pool, and, reaching the surface, started her laps. As she swam, she blocked out Luke and Sophia’s conversation, reluctant to intrude, though she caught the woman’s strident tone when she said,
“Why is she always with you?”
She finished her twentieth lap before Luke fell in beside her and matched his strokes with hers.
CHAPTER 6
ARTHUR STEWART GESTURED toward one of the leather couches in his study. “Please, have a seat, Agent Knox.”
Hunter raised a brow at the address. Not detective but agent. Someone had talked out of turn. He sat down and waited while Arthur went to his desk to retrieve something. Stewart looked about Hunter’s own human age, but was much older in vampire years. For all his grace and mild-mannered aplomb, there was an aura of power that resonated around him. You didn’t screw with an eight-hundred-year-old vampire and get away with it. And someone had done just that.
When Stewart returned to sit down, he handed Hunter a folder.
“That is the guest list for the wedding. I’ve circled those who were burned in the fire. I’ve also included a copy of the contract Ricci and I signed before the wedding. Because of his betrayal, it will be voided during a National Council meeting next month, if the local Council can’t do it.
Undoubtedly it would. Attempted murder of a master vampire and his clan was definitely grounds for breach of contract and some legal proceedings. But should Phoebe die before then…
“As for the marriage, it is Phoebe’s desire to have it annulled as soon as possible. In order to do that, she must go before the local Council, Adcock in particular. I will accompany her to the meeting and make certain she does nothing impulsive, because this will be the first time they meet since the wedding.”
Hunter would love to be a bat on the wall for that meeting. “I agree it might be wise, sir.”
Arthur nodded solemnly, but a small smile flashed across his face. “Phoebe will be down in a moment. The physician you sent, Dr. Graves, arrived half an hour ago to examine her.”
“Despite his unfortunate name, Brady is one of the best human physicians I know. Since vampires are who we are, and most are arrogant enough to believe we are both indestructible and immortal, he specializes in anomalies within our species. There may be something he can do.”
“I understand. We, too, have a human physician who sees to our needs on occasion.”
Magic and Mayhem: Once Bitten, Twice Shy (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Have Wand, Will Travel Book 2) Page 4
