“Carson’s in the hospital. He’s had a heart attack. You’d better come now.”
“Oh my God! What happened?”
“Never mind that now. We’ll tell you when you get here.”
She gripped the phone, white knuckled. “Where’s Jenny?”
“She’s here with us. She’s fine.”
Daisy exhaled. “I’m on my way.”
She hung up the phone. Jeb Cochran was never one to mince words. Something bad happened and her stomach flip-flopped at the thought it might be Violet.
She drove like a bat out of hell and screeched into the visitor’s parking lot. If Carson died before Jace had a chance to reconcile with his parents, he’d spend the rest of his existence soaked in regret.
Daisy parked the car and didn’t bother with the elevator. She took the stairs to the cardiac care wing and blew past the nurse’s station, only hesitating at the door to Carson’s room.
Sucking in a steadying breath, she turned the knob. Elinor was at Carson’s side along with Sam Fisher, a Matthews pack elder and Carson’s best friend.
Carson had an oxygen plug in his nose and was hooked up to a portable ECG monitor and IV drip. Elinor was in a chair beside the bed, holding his hand.
He nodded and tried to speak, but Elinor shushed him. “No exertion. Doctor’s orders.”
“Over here, Daisy,” her father whispered from the couch where Jenny slept with her head on his lap.
She went to them, leaning over to smooth Jenny’s hair from her forehead. “Why is she asleep? It’s only four in the afternoon?”
Jeb raked a hand through his hair. “She’s sedated.”
“What? Why?” She looked from her dad to Elinor and Carson and back again. “Somebody better tell me what happened.”
Carson waved his hand to get her attention, hushing his wife in the process.
“Stop fussing, Ellie. I had a minor infarction. Doc said I’ll be fine.” He spared a smile for his wife and then called Daisy over.
“I went to pick up Jenny as planned, but when I got there, she wasn’t in her classroom. Those idiot teachers at the school let Seth take her out of the parent pickup line.”
“Oh my God.” Daisy sank onto the end of Carson’s bed, knees weak.
“I flew around to the parking lot to catch him before he left with her.” Carson gestured toward Jeb on the couch. “Your dad told me what happened with him. My guess is he was trying to use Jenny to get to you. But I stopped him. He put up quite a fight, but I chased him.”
He coughed out a wheezy chuckle. “Took a nice chunk out of his leg, too.” He pointed his thumb inward at his chest. “Not bad for an old wolf, even if I say so myself.”
“Wait, are you telling me you phased on the fly in broad daylight?” she asked incredulous.
He nodded, sucking in a breath. “He got away, but I doubt he’ll show his face again anytime soon. Of course, I had to improvise for clothes once I got back to Jenny.
“One of the other moms kept her while I went after that deadbeat. It was only afterward that I felt the pain in my arm and chest. The school called an ambulance and Ellie met me here with Sam. Your dad picked up Jenny.”
Elinor turned her tearstained face to Daisy. “Jenny was hysterical. She was terrified. She saw her grandfather collapse. She kept going on and on about a man in her room with no scent.”
Carson looked from his wife to Jeb and back. “The bastard Seth had no scent. What the hell is going on we don’t know about?”
Daisy blinked. “Why do you say he had no scent? He’s been around us plenty and he smells like any other human.”
Carson shook his head. “Darlin’, I had the man’s leg in my jaws. He had no scent and his blood was strange. I can’t put my finger on it.”
She exhaled, patting Carson’s leg. “I wouldn’t stress over Seth. Jenny woke up afraid the other night claiming there was a man in her room.
“She told me you’ve been teaching her to see with her nose, and it’s what she tried to do that night, only the person in her room had no scent. I thought it was just a bad dream. Now I know it was Seth. Goddamned creep.”
“Doesn’t matter now. Seth Cochran isn’t going to get very far. Not with his calf muscle torn out. He’s not Were, so he can’t phase and heal. I got the sheriff to put out an all-points bulletin on him for attempted kidnapping.”
“Who is this man?” Sam questioned.
Daisy looked at the elder and his puckered frown. “Seth is a friend. Was a friend. He’s some kind of long lost cousin who showed up a year ago or so. He wanted more than friendship, but I didn’t.”
Sam frowned. “You mean he and your father wanted more than friendship for you.”
“You watch your mouth, Fisher! What I do with my pack is none of your concern,” Jeb Cochran huffed.
“It becomes my concern when your harebrained schemes to keep your land affect Matthews blood,” Sam shot back.
“Enough! Everyone, please. We’ve got bigger problems than Seth Cochran,” Daisy blasted.
All eyes turned, waiting. “What do you mean bigger problems?” her father asked.
She looked at the four sets of questioning eyes and finally blurted the words she’d been holding. “I saw Jace.”
Elinor’s eyes went wide. “When? Where? Where’s he been for the last five years?”
Daisy shook her head. “It’s a long story.”
She told them everything and watched her father and Sam shut down, jaws clenched. Elinor dissolved into sobs and Carson was speechless, his eyes closed in pain.
“He’s here now. At the ranch.”
“What!” Her father stood, letting Jenny’s head loll on the faded hospital couch cushions. “You let a bloodsucker on our land? Daisy, how could you?”
“It’s Jace.” She shrugged, but didn’t back down or offer excuses.
“I don’t care what he was to you, Daisy, he’s not welcome. Not now, not ever,” Sam interjected. “And now you tell us he’s brought a rogue vampire into our midst? Don’t you care at all for your daughter? Because if you don’t, the Matthews pack certainly will!”
Jeb stalked forward, grabbing Sam by the collar. “You can say what you want about that bloodsucker, but my daughter is a good mother and no one is taking Jenny.”
Sam shoved Jeb from him. “She’s such a good mother that she’d consider being a blood whore?”
Jeb swung cracking Sam in the face drawing blood. “Say another word, motherfucker, and they’ll be tossing lilies over your dead body.”
“Stop it!” Elinor yelled.
Sam pulled a wad of paper towels from the bathroom dispenser and held them to his nose. “Jace brought this to our doorstep, Ellie. He has to go.”
Carson opened his eyes. “Jace didn’t bring this to our doorstep, Sam. It’s been with us for generations. I’ve known it, and if you’re honest, you’d realize every other elder knows it, too. There’s no curse. It’s this Violet.”
“Maybe Jace can get rid of her. If he does, it will be a service to his pack and worth a note or two in his favor, right?” Elinor’s eyes pleaded.
“He’s a vampire, Ellie! Nothing is going to change that,” Sam shot back.
“Actually, Aimee has someone who can help, but we need pack records from the Matthews archive to prove what Violet has been doing all these years. I should warn you, the help I mentioned is the vampire adjudicator general.”
Sam balked. “No. I refuse to let a bloodsucker anywhere near our records.” He tossed the bloody paper towels into the trash and wiped the end of his nose on his sleeve.
“What the hell is an adjudicator general, anyway?” he asked. “Fucking vamps and their protocols. A silver stake and a good old fashioned bonfire to burn the pieces once we behead the sucker is what this calls for. Not a damn judiciary.”
“Why?” Elinor stood, her eyes flashing. “We have a council of elders who debate the laws of our pack. What’s the difference? Or have you appointed yourself judge and ju
ry, Sam?”
“Frontier law, that’s the difference, Ellie. At the end of a loaded shotgun, if need be. You can’t be expected to be rational about this. Jace was your son.”
She lifted her chin. “Jace is still my son.”
“Stop it, everyone. We can deal with all that later. Right now we need to think about Jenny and how to keep her safe. We need to get her away from here and I think you’re the one to take her, Dad,” Daisy said.
“Me?” Jeb reiterated.
She nodded. “Until Carson is better, Elinor needs to be here with him, so you’re the next best thing.”
“What about my boy?” Elinor interjected.
Jeb turned his eyes to her, his gaze hard. “He’s not your boy anymore, Ellie. Difficult as that is to accept, it’s true.”
Sam nodded. “Jeb’s right.”
Daisy shook her head. “You’re both wrong. Jace is exactly the same as he was.”
“Except for the undead part,” Sam interrupted.
“You people need to get past what happened a century ago. You fight about bloodlines and the division of property and fuel a century long feud that started when one weak man fell prey to a vampire.
“It took Jace coming back into my life for me to realize everything our families have been fighting over is bullshit when the ones you love are sacrificed in the process.
“Matthews. Cochrans. We all come from the same two people. Eva and Noah. It’s the same bloodline, and for the first time in however many generations, the proof of that is sleeping on the couch over there.”
Daisy continued, shaking her head at the lot of them. “Jace is still Elinor and Carson’s son. He’s Jenny’s father and the man I love, regardless what happened to transform him. If you can’t accept that, then you’re the ones who lose.”
She gave Elinor a hug and then turned to scoop Jenny into her arms.
“Where are you going? You’ve been threatened too, Daisy. We need to hide both of you,” her father questioned.
Daisy shook her head. “I thought that was best, but with your frame of mind regarding Jace, maybe it’s better I handle things my way. I’m taking my daughter home, and then I’m taking her to meet her father.”
Carson struggled to sit up, his eyes pained and sad. “No. Let your father keep her. He can take her to our beach house in Galveston. Jace doesn’t know about it, so this Violet won’t know either. I’ll be discharged tomorrow and Ellie and I will join him while you, Jace, and Aimee figure this out.”
He shot Sam a hard look. “If after all this is over, you still refuse to acknowledge my son, we’re through, Sam. I mean it. You’re my oldest friend, but you’ve never had kids of your own, so you have no idea what it’s like to have them good as dead and then returned to you, even if they have changed.”
“I’ll tell Jace what you said, but I don’t know what he’ll choose,” Daisy replied. “If he doesn’t stay, this isn’t over. We’ll deal with Violet alone. But if he does decides to stay—”
Elinor put her hand on Daisy’s cheek. “Don’t give him a choice, sweetheart. Bring our boy home.”
10
The sun couldn’t set fast enough as Daisy drove to the riders’ cabin. The last rays sunk below the horizon when she rounded the long dirt road from the main cut through.
Parking out back, she turned off the ignition and rushed for the screen door, but stopped with her hand on the knob.
The inside door was ajar.
Jace would never leave himself vulnerable during his death sleep hours.
Daisy looked back at the car, hesitating. Her purse and cellphone were on the front seat, but her UV flashlight was in her back pocket. Reaching around, she palmed the corrugated shaft just in case.
“Jace? You up?” Keeping her voice even, she pushed the door the rest of the way open.
The cabin was in shambles. Pieces of broken furniture and shattered glass scattered the wood floor from kitchen to living room, and a bloody swath dragged a path to the doorway.
“Jace?” she called again, but her plea was greeted by more silence and her heart sank.
Stomach clenched, she clicked the flashlight lifting the concentrated beam to the blood on the floor. The dark smear blackened and hissed the moment the UV waves touched the clotted mess, the air stinking the longer it held.
Tears flooded Daisy’s eyes blurring her vision. She sank to the floor and buried her face in her hands.
“I hate to trespass on this touching melodrama, but I’m going to anyway since you trespassed on mine.”
Daisy’s head jerked up and she blinked. A petite, redheaded woman with a short bob stared down at her. She was doll-like except for the blood smears on her clothing, making her resemble a deranged sprite.
Violet.
Pock marks scarred the hollows of both cheeks giving her white skin and underlying veins a silvery translucence in the dim light.
Daisy jerked the flashlight up aiming for the vampire’s face, but the woman kicked it from her hand.
“You’ll have to be faster than that, love. Inexperienced youngbloods fall for such tricks, but I haven’t been a fledgling in almost a century and a half.”
Daisy twisted to get to her feet but Violet pushed her down. “You don’t hear too well, do you, lovey?”
The vampire paused, straightening to listen to some unheard noise, and Daisy used the distraction to get to her feet.
The vampire was insane. Unstable, mean, irrational, so there was no reasoning with her. Talking was another thing. Aimee said most sociopaths have huge egos, so if Daisy got the woman talking, maybe she could buy some time.
She quickly scanned her options. Violet would rip her skin from her back if she tried to run. She needed a hook, something to get her to relax.
At least everyone knew she planned to meet Jace. If she wasn’t in contact by morning, they’d come looking for her. That’s if she lasted that long.
“Where is Jace?”
Violet turned her large amber eyes to her, tilting her head. “Wouldn’t you like to know,” she replied with a laugh. The tinkle was wrong, like off-key wind chimes.
Daisy watched the vampire pick at broken pieces of her hair. “Did you kill him?”
“Why do you care? Jace is mine to do with as I please.” She sniffed, giving Daisy the one over. “If you think your prior claim gives you an edge, you’re even more stupid than you look. I own him.”
She danced backwards, running her hand along the broken spine of the couch. “What Jace and I have is magic, while the only thing you can offer is the eventuality of his changing your adult diapers.”
Adult diapers? The dig was almost comical coming from psychotic corpse.
Daisy bit her tongue and looked away. It didn’t pay to argue.
“I’m talking to you, bitch!” Violet’s lips peeled back in a snarl and she backhanded Daisy into the wall.
The air left her lungs in a bitter rush and prickles of angry pain radiated across her ribs and spine. Her eyesight blurred and something warm and sticky trickled from the back of her head. Daisy slumped to her side and vomited.
Violet’s eyes dilated and she dropped into a crouch. “Your blood is polluted with his! I smell him all over you.”
She tore chunks of brittle hair from her scalp, whipping her head back and forth.
“I see his mark on your throat! On your back, and if I stripped you bare, I know I’d find it between your legs!” She screamed clawing at her scalp.
This was it. If she didn’t redirect this amount of crazy, Violet would kill her.
“Jace was in pain and needed to feed. He was starved.”
She stopped her frenetic shaking and jerked her head around. The odd angle and her glazed eyes making her look like a broken marionette. “Starved?”
Daisy nodded.
“So you just let him feed from you?”
The woman’s tone had gone from anger and accusing to childlike and singsong, and it terrified her.
Violet’s
head tilted toward the opposite direction as though considering other voices.
“Jace and I were school friends. No more.”
“Were?”
Daisy’s pain ebbed enough for her to slide her legs in, hoping to get to her knees. She bit back her nausea and tried to focus enough to crawl to all fours so she could shift. It was her only chance.
The screen door opened and closed. “I got the leather cuffs like you said—”
Disbelief clutched at her throat. “Seth?”
He dropped the black plastic bag in his hand to the table. “Surprised?”
His lip curled and he reached into the plastic sack and dragged out a set of leather BDSM wrist and ankle cuffs. He dangled them from two fists. “Fun, huh? I can’t wait to watch.”
“Why would you do this?”
“How else do you think Violet could take her final revenge on Micah’s brats?”
“Micah? I’m not from Micah’s line. You know that. Neither are you,” she replied.
“You still believe that bullshit story I fed your dim father? His head is so far up his ass when it comes to your precious bloodline, he would have gotten down on his knees and sucked my cock to get me to marry you.”
Violet snorted and Seth’s grin widened. “Getting in good with him was easy. It was you who turned out to be the nut-buster, but Violet is going to let me bust my nut in your ass before she drains you dry. It’s part of our deal.”
Seth dropped the cuffs on the table and walked to where Daisy fell. His gate had a distinct limp from where Carson bit him.
He yanked her chin up, forcing her to look at him. “If you hadn’t been such a cock-tease, I might have cut you some slack. I wasted a year chasing your ass, but now I get to watch as Violet cuts your wrists and ankles and lets you bleed out.
“Sloppy seconds aren’t usually our style, but we’ll make an exception this time. She’s going to feed from your veins as I fuck your cunt dry.”
Daisy puckered her cheeks and spit in his face. “You don’t have the nuts to bust anything in anyone, you lying sack of shit!”
“Bitch!”
Seth backhanded her across the cheek and stars fluttered behind her eyes. Blood gushed from her nose and the wound at the back of her head.
The Red Veil Diaries (Volumes 1-4) Page 33
