I covered my mouth. “Oh, my God.”
“I told you that Ethan wasn’t who you thought he was,” said Caleb. “Now you know the truth.”
“I guess, I do,” I replied, still unable to believe that Ethan was such a monster.
“Maximus had to go,” said Victor. “He was a thorn in my side and I couldn’t trust him.”
“You killed his father,” said Duncan. “I wonder why?”
“His father turned against me,” said Victor. He looked at Caleb. “That’s what happens when someone disobeys my orders, and goes behind my back. I’m not even sure why you’re still alive.”
“Fuck you,” said Caleb. “You never deserved Anne. She was just a cover-up for you all of these years, and you treated her like shit.”
He smirked. “She’s lucky I put a roof over her head and took care of Nikki and Nathan.”
“You couldn’t afford to get rid of them. It had nothing to do with your being a swell guy,” said Caleb. He turned to me. “The feds were watching him very closely for a number of years. He needed your mom and the normality of a suburban household.”
Victor rolled his eyes. “You’re really starting to annoy me, Caleb. You don’t exactly have a squeaky clean record yourself.”
Caleb glared at him. “Maybe, but I’m not half the monster you are. The things you’ve done are inexcusable.”
“You know, you’ve overstayed your welcome here in Vegas, Caleb,” replied Victor. He waved his hand. “Maverick?”
Before anyone could react, one of the Lycans pointed his gun towards Caleb’s head and pulled the trigger.
“Oh, my God!” I screamed, watching in horror as his head exploded, blood spraying everywhere.
Just like Jordan.
I looked at Victor, and in his eyes I saw amusement and madness. Complete madness.
Horrified, Nathan turned his head and threw up on the carpeting.
“Really, Nathan?” said Victor, shaking his head. “That’s disgusting.”
“Please,” I begged, more terrified for my mother’s life than ever. “Let us go. We don’t want anything from you. Just our mother.”
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a cigar and a cutter. “Have you forgotten our conversation already? You know what I need from you.”
“What’s he talking about?” asked Duncan.
I sighed. “Fine. If you let everyone go, I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Wait a second,” said Duncan, moving towards me. “What exactly does he want from you?”
“Ten months is what I want,” said Victor, lighting the end of his cigar.
“What in the hell does that mean?” asked Nathan, still looking slightly green.
“I want her to produce a child. If she does what I ask, I’ll let her go once she hands it over.”
Nathan stared at him in horror. “What are you, some kind of Rumpelstiltskin?”
Victor blew out a cloud of smoke. “Funny,” he said, dryly.
“Victor wants to create a child that has both vampire and Lycan D.N.A.”
“Why?” asked Duncan.
“To create a new breed of immortals,” said Victor. “A powerful race of Lycan that will answer only to me.”
“A race that will serve you,” said Duncan. “Isn’t that what you’re really after?”
Victor smiled darkly. “Of course.”
“That would take a long time,” said Nathan. “Why bother?”
Victor raised his index finger. “Well, not as long as you may think. I happen to know a scientist who has already begun experimenting with D.N.A. cloning of wolves. Not only has he had promising test results, but has found a way to speed up their rate of growth. In a matter of days, one of his test subjects grew to the size of an adult. In just days!” His eyes glowed brightly. “Can you imagine the possibilities?”
“Even so, we’re talking animals, not people, and certainly not immortals, right?” replied Nathan. “That’s got to be an entirely different ballgame.”
He smirked “Actually, not as different as you may think. Dr. Shepard has secretly begun testing his theories on humans, without the knowledge of his staff, obviously. In fact, I, along with some others, have built him a lab and have provided everything he needs for cloning.”
I stared at him in shock. Obviously this guy had hidden so much from us throughout the years.
“Here we go,” mumbled Nathan. “Mad scientist.”
“Mad? He’s a genius! Shepard believes that within the next year, if I can find him a suitable child, he’ll be able to use its D.N.A. produce an army for me.”
“And you really believe that?” asked Duncan. “It sounds like science fiction to me. I hope you’re not spending your life savings on that quack?”
“It does sound pretty crazy,” I said. Although so do vampires, Lycans, and Shape-shifters.
“Not too long ago, computers sounded crazy, too. Nothing is impossible.”
“So, you plan on producing this army and then what?” I asked. “Kill everyone that is against you and take over the world?”
Victor blew out another cloud of smoke. He smiled. “Something like that.”
I bit the side of my lip. Obviously, standing around arguing about all of this wasn’t doing much to get mom away from this psycho. “Okay, fine, but if I agree to this, you have to let everyone go,” I said, deciding to promise him whatever he wanted and worry about escaping when the others were safe.
Duncan shook his head. “No. Nikki, we are not leaving you with him.”
I grabbed his hand. “Duncan, I’ll be fine, okay? Victor has never hurt me in the past and won’t now. Isn’t that right?”
“She’s right,” said Victor. “Nikki has always been like a daughter to me. The fact that she is willing to help my cause actually makes my heart swell. I’d never harm her.”
Nathan rolled his eyes.
Duncan ignored Victor. “He’s talking about making you his bitch, quite literally. You can’t possibly agree to this.”
“Everything will be done in a lab,” explained Victor. “I would never allow anyone to hurt Nikki, nor would I touch her in that way.”
“You expect us to trust you after what you did to that guy earlier today? Your own nephew?” said Nathan.
“That was totally different. He was out of control,” said Victor. “Volatile. I couldn’t take any more chances with Jordan.”
“Like I said, I’ll do this as long as you let everyone go. That’s my condition,” I said, turning back to Victor.
He sighed. “Your friends can go, but not your mother, I’m afraid.”
“I’m sorry but it’s not going to work, then,” I said. “The only way I’ll agree is for you to let her go.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t really think you’re in a position to be bargaining. You’re lucky I don’t just kill everyone and take what I need from you anyway. It would be easy.”
“Let her go,” I pleaded. “She’s sick and needs medical help. Haven’t you noticed how pale and gaunt she is?”
Victor snorted. “Yes, and I also noticed the bites on her neck. Caleb had obviously been trying make her a vampire.”
I put my hands on my hips. “That’s because she has cancer and he wanted to keep her alive as long as possible.”
“It doesn’t matter –” Victor paused and then turned towards the bedroom door.
“She needs medical help,” I repeated.
A loud crash from the bedroom startled everyone.
Victor rushed towards the door and threw it open. “Dammit!”
I raced to the bedroom, followed by Duncan and Nathan.
“No!” I screamed in horror at the scene inside.
Celeste was bent over mom, who now stared up at the ceiling with lifeless eyes. Seeing us, she shoved her away and stood up. “Oh, you’re too late,” she giggled, wiping her mouth. “The poor thing had no fight left in her either. She could have used your help.”
“You bitch!” I scr
eamed, rushing to my mother’s still form. I got down on my knees and raised her head in my lap. “Mom,” I sobbed, pushing her hair away from her face.
Nathan rushed over and kneeled next to us. “Oh, God,” he cried. “She did it. She actually killed her.” He stood up and pointed at Celeste. “You fucking bitch!” he hollered, “I hope you burn in hell!”
“Oh quit being so dramatic,” she said, waving her hand. “I probably did her a favor. She wasn’t going to let dad change her into a vampire anyway. She would have spent her last few months in pain.”
I gently laid mom’s head down on the carpeting and stood up. “I should kill you right now,” I growled, taking a step towards her. “If anyone deserves to die today, it’s you.”
“Going after me would be suicide,” she said with a smirk. “As you can see, even Victor couldn’t kill me.”
“Ethan!” snarled Victor. “Why in the world did you even allow this to happen?”
“I think you know why, Victor,” said Ethan.
He scowled. “No I don’t. Care to enlighten me?”
“Because I told him that you were holding his beloved Miranda hostage,” said Celeste, a smug smile on her lips. “And that I’d help him find her.”
“You idiot!” yelled Victor. “She’s lying to you!”
“I considered that but then decided to give her the benefit of the doubt,” said Ethan, folding his arms across his chest. “If I killed her, I’d never know the truth.”
Victor rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I’m surrounded by fools.”
“You’re the fool,” replied Celeste. “And the world has too many of them. I think it’s time to do something about that. Ethan?”
Duncan pulled me back and whispered in my ear. “Get ready to leave through the balcony. I’ll grab Nathan.”
“What was that?” asked Ethan, staring at us.
“He just reminded me why I was better off without you,” I said, glaring at Ethan.
“Right,” smirked Ethan. “Without me you’d have died.”
“The same goes for you,” I said. “Or have you forgotten already?”
His smile fell. “No, I haven’t.”
“Oh, please,” sighed Celeste. “Enough talk.”
“Celeste,” I said turning to her. “You might want to check the other room. There’s something you need to see.”
“What?”
“Go look,” I said, noticing Victor’s slow smile. He obviously wanted to see her pain as much as I did at that minute. She’d taken great pleasure in hurting me, and part of me wanted to show her how it felt.
Ignoring Victor’s armed gunmen, she shoved past them and stepped into the other room. Within seconds she began to scream.
I looked at Victor, who had a triumphant look on his face.
She flew back into the room. “Who did this?! Victor?”
“Boys,” said Victor, stepping backwards towards the bathroom.
The two Lycans raised their guns and started firing at Celeste.
“Ethan!” she screamed, falling to the ground. “Help!”
He threw himself at the gunmen bringing them both to the ground at once. The sounds of his growls and their shrieks were even too morbid for me.
Duncan elbowed me and then grabbed Nathan’s arm. “We’re leaving.”
We ran past the flurry of Ethan’s vicious attacks on the Lycans, while Victor roared his protest, aware of our intent.
I followed Duncan to the balcony and we launched into the sky without looking back.
Chapter Twenty-Five
One month later
I woke to the sounds of the waves splashing against the yacht. It was obvious that we were moving quickly and I hoped Nathan was steering us towards Key West. My stomach was growling and I needed to feed.
“You awake?” asked Duncan, sticking his head inside of my cabin. I wasn’t sure how he did it, but he seemed to know when I was up, even though his cabin was on the other side of the boat.
I stretched my arms. “Yeah. Who could sleep with the way Nathan drives this thing? You’d think he was on a constant race for nowhere.”
“No doubt. Thank goodness we don’t have to worry about suffering from sea-sickness. I’d never make it with that speed-demon.”
“I know what you mean. What time is it?”
He looked at his watch. “It’s ten. Nathan wants to dock in Key West. There’s some beach party that Taylor invited all of us to. You want to go?”
Taylor was a girl Nathan had met last week. They’d been hanging out together in the evenings, since he spent most of the day keeping an eye on the yacht while we slept.
“Sure. I’d like to feed first.”
Fortunately, we’d found a way to get our blood from a plasma donation clinic in Key West. All we had to do was charm a couple of the attendants, take the bags back to the boat, and store the blood in the refrigerator.
“No problem, I’ll get you a glass while you’re in the shower. Better get ready now, we’ll be docking in forty minutes.”
“Okay.”
He left and I grabbed a red sundress, underwear, and a towel. As I stood in the shower, I closed my eyes and thought about the last few weeks. After our harrowing escape, we’d flown back to Shore Lake, where Duncan had emptied out Sonny’s bank account by charming the tellers. Fortunately, he’d had over fifty grand in savings as well as some money stashed in his sock drawer. Unfortunately, we hadn’t been able to go back to our cabin. It was just too dangerous. Because of this, I had nothing of my mother’s, not even a single picture.
After I got out of the shower, I applied a self-tanner and let it dry before I put my clothing on. The self-tanner had been Nathan’s idea, so we’d fit in better.
As it dried, I went into my cabin and polished off the glass of blood Duncan had placed in my room. Although it was still really just blood, drinking from a glass made dinner a lot less gruesome, even for me.
When I was finished, I went back into the bathroom, brushed my teeth, put my hair up in a ponytail, and applied a light coating of lip gloss.
“Looking incredibly normal,” said Nathan, as I passed him on his way down to change clothes.
“Thanks, I guess.”
“We’re docked. I’m going to shower and meet you guys on the deck.”
“Where is Duncan?”
“He’s tying down the boat with the marina attendants.”
I walked upstairs to the deck and watched as he finished locking down the yacht. He was dressed in a light blue shirt and white cargo shorts, sporting a fake tan like mine.
“Almost done?” I called.
He turned around and smiled, his white teeth sparkling in the moonlight. “Yes. You look gorgeous, by the way.”
“Thanks,” I said. “You look pretty handsome yourself.”
His dark hair was trimmed and short on the sides, the top slightly messy in a very flattering way. With his hands in his pockets, he walked over to me. “We make a nice looking couple.”
Just until recently, I’d been arguing that there was no way that we could be more than just friends, especially since I’d made so many poor choices. I thought Duncan deserved much better than someone like me, still ashamed at how horrible I’d treated him. But over the last week, my own feelings for him had started blossoming again. It was as if we’d started over, and the terrible things that had happened to us had actually brought us closer.
He took his right hand out of his pocket and slipped his fingers between mine. “You look happy.”
I raised my chin and smiled. “I am pretty happy, actually.”
He stared down at me, his silvery eyes glimmering. “Have the nightmares stopped?”
“Pretty much.”
I’d been having nightmare about Victor, my mother, and Celeste and what had happened back in Vegas. But the dreams had started becoming less frequent as the weeks went by.
“Good.”
“Thank you, by the way.”
“For what?”
/>
“For everything,” I said. “For being here for me, for taking care of us. I know you were a victim, too. You know, you should get a break once in a while.”
He pulled me into his arms and looked down into my eyes, making me feel suddenly giddy. “I will never take a break from watching over you, Nikki. As far as I’m concerned, you and Nathan are all I have left. Especially now that I can’t see my mom.”
He’d sent her a letter, informing her that he was safe and in South America on a mission trip for several months. Fortunately, nobody had found Sonny’s body, as we’d buried him in the woods. As far as the townspeople knew, Sonny and Duncan had disappeared mysteriously, without any logical reasons.
“Well, we both feel the same way about you. You’re part of our family.”
“Actually,” he said, staring at my lips. “I was hoping that you felt a little stronger than that, considering I’m in love with you.”
His words now, unlike ever before, actually made my heart soar, bringing me goose bumps. “I love you, too,” I whispered, knowing it was true. I’d loved him as a friend, and over the last few weeks, it had grown beyond that.
He lowered his lips to mine and kissed me.
I closed my eyes and melted into his arms, enjoying the warmth of his tongue as it moved into my mouth. I slid my arms up to his neck and held on, not wanting to let go.
“Nikki,” he whispered against my mouth. I could actually hear his heart pounding frantically in his chest as he held me in his arms so tightly, I could barely breathe.
“I love you, Duncan,” I repeated, feeling my eyes fill with tears. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. Not only did I have Duncan, but he’d risked everything to save my life and loved me unconditionally. He’d never left my side, even when I’d been with Ethan, always waiting patiently for me to decide what I really wanted.
“You horny kids coming or what?” chuckled Nathan.
Duncan and I stepped away from each other, both grinning like idiots.
“I thought I’d have to spray you two down there for a second,” Nathan went on, buttoning his Tony Bahama shirt. “But I didn’t want to wash off any of that fake tan stuff you two are wearing.”
Vengeance (Night Roamers) Book Three Page 16
