Twilight Vendetta

by Maggie Shayne

  His eyes were so sad that it broke her heart, and he ran his fingertips over the woman’s face. “It can’t be, but it is. Trust me, honey. I couldn’t mistake anyone else for my Diana.”

  Emma forced herself to look at the emaciated figure, but for the life of her, she couldn’t see anything of her mother in that sunken face. She was so messed up, so damaged. And then something occurred to her. “The boy. The little boy, Gareth. Maybe he can help her.”

  From behind her in the doorway, Devlin said, “They’ve gone, Emma.”

  “Gone?” She turned, her eyes horror stricken. “No. No, they can’t be. Get them back, Dev!”

  “A BD named Lucas and two other mortals they called friends, just came for them with a borrowed van. They have a small plane waiting, had to hurry to beat the sunrise back to their place in Maine. I’m sorry.”

  “But...but....” She lowered her head, her eyes falling closed. “She’s my mother, Devlin.” She rose and went to him, pressed herself to him, needing his arms around her, needing his strength, his reassurance. “I can’t have found her again after all this, only to lose her now.”

  He closed his arms around her as she had hoped he would, held her, rocked her. “If she can be saved, we’ll save her. I promise you.”

  Behind him, Sheena said, “Gareth couldn’t have helped her anyway. Our...powers...don’t work on vampires.”

  Ironic, Emma thought, since they’d been created to be vampire killers.

  She pulled herself, reluctantly, from Devlin’s arms and returned to her spot on the floor beside her dad. This creature, this rack of abused bones with a broken mind, was her mother. Her mother.

  Images of her mom putting dinner on the table, tucking her into bed, reading her stories, played through her mind. She’d been beautiful. All copper red ringlets and sapphire eyes and ivory skin.

  This...this couldn’t be her. Maybe her father was delusional. Maybe he wanted it so much that he was seeing only what he wanted to see.

  As if hearing her thoughts, her dad turned to face her, embracing her fully at last. “My girl. Oh, my Emma, everything that happened, my arrest and detainment, your transformation, it all led to this. Do you see how it all fits together? Do you see how this was all for a reason? To reunite us? It can’t fail. It won’t. She’s going to live.”

  “Of course she is, Dad,” Emma said softly. But in her heart, she felt uncertain this near-dead vampiress would live, and as she remembered the clawing, snarling, writhing creature Devlin had carried out of The Sentinel, Emma was even less certain that she should.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Emma’s pain, confusion and fear swirled around inside her like a cyclone, and she knew her emotions showed in her eyes when she came out of the little room some time later. She’d wanted to stay with her father, but he wouldn’t leave the woman’s side.

  Somehow she still couldn’t think of that creature as her mother. Not the happy blue-eyed redhead who used to sing old pop songs while folding laundry. Not her. And yet she’d stayed by her side long after Devlin had left, to give her time to reunite with her family, he said.

  Hours later, as dawn called her toward slumber, she emerged into the larger part of the barn. There was no one out there except Devlin, and he answered her questions before she asked them. “Sheena and Wolf went to find food. I told them to bring some back for your father.”

  “If they even come back,” Emma said. “Those two are unpredictable.”

  “That, they are. But they said they’d be back.”

  “They kept their promise to find my father and get him here. Maybe they’re realizing we’re the only friends they’ve got.”

  “Maybe so.”

  “What about the shifters?” she asked. “Tara and Tomas?”

  “Left without a word. Well, barely a word. The girl looked fine, though. Fully recovered.” He moved closer to her, studying her face. “How about you? Are you all right?”

  She nodded but she didn’t mean it. “Honestly, I don’t know. Dad says that woman is my mother.”

  He pushed her hair behind one ear. “What do you think?”

  “I don’t know what to think. Dad said they tried to give her blood before we arrived. I tried too, even got some into her, I think. But I didn’t see any change.”

  “Maybe it’s too soon. Vampires rejuvenate during the day sleep. Maybe the blood’s healing power will take hold while she rests.”

  “Maybe.” She was silent for a moment, sinking onto a hay bale as if exhausted, still unused to the physical toll of emotional turmoil on the preternatural anatomy. “That was something, wasn’t it? Little Gareth, having the power to heal Tara?”

  “It was. Amazing. Each of the Offspring seems to have a different ability.”

  She nodded. “And now we know what some of them are. Gareth can heal. Sheena has some kind of telekinetic power. And I’m pretty sure Wolf can make the ground shake. Or maybe he can make anything shake.”

  “Right,” he said. “And Sheena can mimic voices perfectly. And apparently, Nikki can recreate magical spells if she witnesses them. Rhiannon said the child had seen her cast what she calls The Glamourie just once. And then could do it herself.”

  “That’s incredible.”

  He nodded his agreement. “Apparently the kids stowed away in the small plane when Rhiannon and the others came here to try to rescue Roland. They were sure they could help.”

  “They were right,” Emma said. “I wonder what Ramses can do?”

  “No idea,” Devlin said. “I asked the same thing, but so far, no one seems to know. Or else they’re not saying.”

  She nodded, mulling it over in her mind. “So much has happened. So many shocks. Little children who can turn invisible and heal fatal wounds. Teenagers with telekinesis and the power to make things rattle and roll. Werewolves, for God’s sake. If I were human, I’d never sleep.”

  “Insomnia,” he said, “is one problem vampires don’t have. Dawn is coming. I already feel it pulling at me.”

  “I do too. And I hate it. I’m afraid to leave my father alone with...with her.”

  “Why, Emma? She’s a vampire. She’ll sleep too.”

  “But when she wakes, even if she’s better, she will still be a half-starved, and possibly insane vampiress. If her strength has returned, she might devour the first human she sees.”

  “You’re right. Your father should rest out here with us. We can rig a way to lock the door. She still hasn’t fed. She probably won’t have the strength to break through it.”

  “I already suggested something like that to Dad, but he wasn’t hearing any of it.”

  “Let me try,” he suggested.

  She nodded and watched as Devlin headed to the small room. Sleep was like weights attached to her eyelids. They kept drooping then popping open again. Devlin re-emerged and brought her father with him. She didn’t know how he’d done it, but she felt reassured. Her dad came to her, hugged her shoulders and pulled her up onto her feet.

  “Come on, Emma-girl. Let’s find you a nice sheltered spot to rest.”

  She leaned on him as he led her into a fort made of stacked hay bales the children had made. “This will do. Devlin will be in as soon as he gets the door secured. And I’m going to watch over you until you wake again. You don’t have to worry.”

  She nodded. “Mom...might be dangerous when she first wakes up. Hungry, desperately hungry.”

  “I know. I’ll be careful, I promise.”

  “I can’t lose you again, Dad.”

  He stroked her hair, looking lovingly into her eyes. “But you will. Someday you will. You know that, Emma. You’re immortal now. So is your mother. But I’m just an ordinary human.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to think about that.”

  He smiled and said, “I’m being morbid. I’m sorry. No doubt in my mind I’ve got a good twenty years left. Maybe even thirty, huh?”

  She let her body sink into the hay, gave up resisting the force o
f sunrise on her eyes. “I missed you so much. Don’t leave me again.”

  “I’ll be right by your side when you wake. I promise.”

  The promise warmed her through and through. “I love you, Dad,” she whispered.

  “I love you too, Emma,” her father replied.

  And somewhere, she could’ve sworn she heard Devlin’s voice, whispering inside her mind, So do I. God help me, so do I.

  Devlin wasn’t feeling as cheerful as he’d expected to when they debarked the small charter plane whose pilot had been under his thrall for the entire trip. He was almost home. Almost back to Regina Island. He’d contacted Tavia and she’d agreed to meet them at a small airstrip along the California-Oregon border. She’d hugged him warmly when he’d stepped off the plane and he had felt genuinely glad to see her. But her eyes were cold when they met Emma’s and she made no comment, asked no questions. Not even about the mortal man carrying the still unconscious vampiress in his arms off the plane and into the SUV she had brought to meet them. Emma’s Jeep was in a long term parking garage, and her mother’s Corvette was still in New York, but they’d made arrangements to have it shipped here soon. Devlin had no idea where Tavia had come by the oversized SUV, but he was glad it was there. He needed to talk to her, he knew that. He needed to explain about Emma’s secrets. Why she’d kept them, and how it no longer mattered, because she’d be leaving them soon.

  And that eventuality, as necessary as he knew it was, was the reason for his morose mood. Emma had to leave. She wasn’t a warrior. She was a peacemaker. She had her family back. It looked like her mother was going to live. Her sanity might still be in question, but he could see the love between the three of them. It was powerful, bigger and deeper than any relationship he’d ever been witness to. They would take care of each other, no matter what.

  Devlin and Emma had both fed Emma’s mother from their own veins, and this time, she had latched on and suckled them. They’d had to pull themselves free or she’d have drained them dry. And there had been visible results. Her skin was no longer like leather. It had plumped, and gone from blue-gray to alabaster. She had yet to open her eyes. She needed more blood, and plenty of it, but neither of them could spare any more.

  Tavia drove them to a small pier and Devlin was surprised, but she reassured him. “We have a few slips here, under false names. We can leave de boats when we run errands on de mainland. And no one knows de difference.”

  “When I left we didn’t even have boats,” he said.

  Tavia smiled, but it was tight with tension. “Dere are many more surprises in store, Devlin.”

  Her gaze shifted a little, met Emma’s, and then her smile died instantly. He didn’t miss the defiant look in Emma’s eyes at the chill in Tavia’s.

  From the SUV they piled onto a small boat. Tavia piloted it like a pro, and he decided to let her. She took a roundabout route, heading first north, getting out of sight from shore before turning toward the island.

  He sat in the stern beside Emma. Her father was on the floor, cradling Emma’s mother across his lap. Sheena and Wolf were right in the front, leaning into the wind and waves, their hair blowing behind them. They’d taken to combing it every day and night, so it no longer looked like they were walking around with rodents’ nests on their heads.

  Despite Emma’s misgivings, the teens had returned to the barn, and they’d even brought food for her father. Apparently the three of them had talked throughout the day, and Oliver was captivated and engrossed in learning about their genesis and their powers.

  Regina Island was transformed. Devlin could barely believe it when they finally set foot back on the ground he considered his own. The lighthouse remained, just as before, decrepit looking and out of order. At least on the outside. And the forested parts of the island still concealed the mansion that rested within. But the place had undergone a complete transformation. The building itself was restored, broken stones and rotted boards had been replaced, and the entire mansion stained in browns and grays that matched the tree trunks and rocks surroundeding it. Its shutters and curtains were green, and plants surrounded its base in freshly turned soil. And yet the house was more hidden than ever, with camouflage netting stretched over its roof, between the canopy of lush tree limbs, to conceal it from any aircraft passing above.

  Vampires came and went everywhere he looked, all of them busy and intent on their tasks. They carried tools and lumber, pushed wheel barrows and carts. Bellamy rushed out of the house, his eyes joyful when they fell on Devlin and Emma, then worried when he spotted Emma’s father, and the ailing vampiress he carried. “I was beginning to wonder if you were ever coming back!” he said, and he came and hugged them both, unabashedly.

  Emma smiled and hugged him back. “You make me feel so welcome, Bell. I missed you more than I even realized.”

  A little pang of guilt jabbed Devlin, but he put it aside as Bellamy went to Emma’s father. “You must be Oliver,” he said. “Devlin told us all you’ve been through on the phone. And this is Diana?”

  “Yes. She’s not doing well, I’m afraid,” Oliver said.

  “Come on, let’s get her inside. I have a room all ready for her. Sustenance, too. Everyone on the island contributed.” He clapped Oliver’s shoulder, and led him away, sending a smile back at Emma. I’ll take good care of them. Don’t worry.

  “Thank you, Bell, She called after him.

  He nodded. “I’ve got plenty of food for you, too, sir,” he told Oliver as they walked away. “We’ve been keeping stocked up, in case the twins ever came back.” Then he looked over his shoulder again. “Welcome back, twins.”

  “We planted vines,” Tavia said proudly.

  “Grapes, you mean?” Devlin asked.

  “Ivy.” She pointed at the plants that bordered the base of the house.

  “It’s brilliant.” Emma said softly. “It’ll be almost invisible.”

  Tavia shot her a look that was almost hateful. Dev didn’t miss it.

  Emma didn’t miss it, either, and she frowned, clearly troubled. He imagined she was eager to talk to Tavia alone. But this wasn’t the time. He was about to say so, when Tavia did it for him.

  “Why don’t you go inside wid your family, Emma, while I fill Devlin in on all dat has happened while he’s been away.”

  Emma looked at Devlin as if to get his opinion on that, but he nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll find you soon.”

  “Okay.”

  As soon as she was inside, he turned to Tavia.

  She blinked, pursed her lips, and said, “Let me tell you de good news first, mm?” Then she pointed. “We have Internet access dat is completely untraceable tanks to Taryn, a vampire communications genius. Dere are silent alarms and emergency escape routes all over de place. Dat’s de work of Lionel, who was a security expert in his mortal lifetime. De house is inside, like castle, tanks to Billy Boy, a vampire who was once a builder.

  “A lot of new faces.”

  “We did much recruiting.”

  “But some old faces missing.”

  “Only one. Andrew is gone, and good riddance.”

  He frowned. “What happened between him and Bellamy...?”

  “He was never good enough for our Bell. He was mean. It was time. You said yourself, you didn’t trust him.”

  “I’d trust him more if he was here where we could keep an eye on him.” Andrew knew the location of their island. If he’d left angry.... Hell, Emma would say he was borrowing trouble, wouldn’t she? Which brought him back to the topic at hand.

  “You’re still angry with Emma. It’s obvious.”

  She lifted her chin. “You mean to say you are not? I showed you de blog. But you haven’t seen de notes on her Tablet–names, dates, places. Tings dat could get us killed.”

  “She’s one of us now, Tavia.”

  “She wasn’t den. But she was a writer. She was penning a book about us. Not just us, but every vampire she could find. Dat computer is like a, what you call it, a who’s who of
our kind. I tink she planned to expose our secrets to the human world.”

  “She was. But not the way you’re thinking. She was trying to help.”

  “You should make her take her human fader and her half-dead moder and go away from here, Devlin. She doesn’t belong wid us.”

  Devlin agreed completely.

  Bell had got her parents settled into a room by the time Emma rejoined them. A vampire she didn’t know had set up an IV pole and started transfusing blood into her mother’s veins. And there was no longer any doubt in Emma’s mind that this was, indeed, her mother. Diana Benatar. Her skin was plumping more, right before Emma’s eyes, even starting to pinken a bit. Her hair was coming back to life too, the shock white starting to darken here and there. Not to red, more of a gray with hints of faded blond, and some of the locks were starting to curl.

  Emma could see her mother in that face, and she couldn’t wait to tell Devlin. Almost giddy with her mother’s progress, she hugged her father, then ran to find Devlin and tell him the news. She had nearly reached the front of the house when she heard Tavia’s words very clearly.

  “Make her take her human fader and her half-dead moder and go away from here, Devlin. She does not belong wid us.”

  And then she heard Devlin’s reply. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, Tavia. I’ve already decided to send them away just as soon as Diana is strong enough to travel.”

  “Emma knows dis?” Tavia asked.

  “Not yet,” he said. “I’ll tell her soon.”

  Emma staggered backward, Devlin’s words hitting her like a blow to the solar plexus. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How could he be planning to send her away? He’d said he understood her motives for the bblog and the book.

  She didn’t know what to do, where to go, and when she turned to bolt back up the stairs, she ran smack into Bellamy, just coming down, a smile beaming from his angelic face. He caught her shoulders, then frowned, searching her eyes. “What’s wrong, Emma? Hey, everything’s okay. You’re home now.”

  “Am I?”

  “Um, yes. Hello, look around.”