Chapter 30
This is Gossip Quest TV News Magazine, bringing you the latest update on the surprise event of the season. Kidnapping! Stolen diamonds! Who knew that a wedding could be the scene of so much derring-do? A week has passed, and we still have so few facts. Will we ever find out what was really behind the supersecret showdown in the basement of Oakwood Manor? Every branch of law enforcement this news reporter contacted refused comment.
What we do know is that this event has made the front page of bridal magazines everywhere. As drama unfolded below ground, an utterly fabulous event was happening in Oakwood’s gardens. News cameras could not help capturing the decorations, the food and that fabulous cake! According to those in the know, society weddings haven’t seen such fresh and natural elegance in decades. You can bet that Chloe’s Occasions, the wedding design firm responsible for the spectacular nuptial event, is now on every bride-to-be’s speed dial....
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Chloe clicked off the TV, silencing the hyperventilating news anchor. A brief, rueful chuckle escaped her. Ironically, after planning the so-called event of the season, she had missed most of the actual wedding.
After a stay in the hospital—the injuries to her neck and throat had given the doctors pause—she was finally setting her old bedroom to rights, removing the last traces of the night she was attacked. The housekeeper had replaced the mattress and bed linens, and sunlight poured through the curtains, turning everything bright and cheerful. It looked as though nothing had happened.
Except that it had, and things kept happening. This afternoon, she had received a request from Mark Winspear to meet her in Jack’s study.
Is this the moment when Mark erases everything about the Company and its personnel from my mind? Or just parts of it? Who decides what I get to keep?
Her stomach clenched with anger. It was unfair. For a moment she envied Lexie, but there was no way she could point to her friend as an example of a human woman who could keep a secret. That would get Lexie and Faran in trouble, too.
Nevertheless, she would somehow prevail. If she’d found a compromise between Iris and Elaine, she could negotiate a compromise with the Company. They owed her that much after their director had kidnapped and nearly strangled her.
Slowly, painfully, Chloe pulled on a light linen jacket that hid the multicolored bruises on her arms. Some of her fingers were taped, the joints sprained and a few small bones fractured when she’d fallen on her bound hands. Her neck was badly bruised, too, but a soft scarf hid the worst. She had no intention of looking like a victim.
Just before she left her bedroom, she slid a small digital recorder into the pocket of her jacket. If Mark Winspear did tamper with her memory, she meant to have some clue to follow so that she could reconstruct these past few weeks.
She walked into Jack’s study as firmly as her aching body would allow. A glance around told her that Mark was alone, sitting at the desk with his dark head bent over a sheaf of papers. He rose when she entered the room. To her surprise, she saw the wedding dress draped over one of the overstuffed chairs, diamonds shimmering in the dim light.
“What are you doing with that?” she asked tightly. “Why isn’t it in the safe?”
“I thought you might want to say farewell,” Mark replied. “Half a dozen of the most trusted palace guards will be here tonight. With your permission, Faran and I will return with them as escorts for the dress.”
“Not Sam?”
Mark was silent. She crossed the room to where the dress lay, touching the soft layers of silk and lace. It was good to think she’d fulfilled her uncle’s request to see the gown returned to the princess, but watching it go would be like saying goodbye to Jack all over again.
“I thought we should talk,” he added. “I’m leaving tonight, and there are things you and I have to settle.”
He walked around the desk to face her. She reached into her pocket and switched on the recorder.
“It seems strange talking to you,” she said quietly. “I thought you were the evil genius behind everything.”
He gave a bark of laughter, turning his face away to hide who knew what emotion. He wasn’t an easy man to read, but the moment gave Chloe a chance to study his body language. He was more slightly built than Sam, but no less deadly. A rapier instead of a broadsword. And every line in his body said he was more than a little uncomfortable.
Finally, he shrugged. “I don’t blame you for being suspicious.”
He reached over, plucked the recorder out of her pocket and switched it off.
“I was working both sides of the game,” he said. “And by the way, Vampires can hear these things working. I wouldn’t try that again if I were you.”
Chloe colored and took the recorder as he handed it back to her. “You were a double agent?”
“More or less. Your uncle and I knew something was wrong. I was the logical choice to go undercover.”
In the past few days, Sam had told her about Jack’s role with the Horsemen. It had made her proud and sad. She wished she could talk to her uncle about what he’d done and seen. “Not Sam?”
“No one would believe Sam as a turncoat.”
Which implied they would believe it of Mark. She couldn’t quite tell what he thought about that.
She waited a beat, wanting to get on to the subjects that interested her most, like whether he was going to scrub her brain. He didn’t say anything but seemed to be waiting for her to speak.
Finally, she asked a question just to break the silence. “Did you know it was Carter from the start?”
“Not at first. We knew there was a leak at Company headquarters. We began to suspect half the scandals around the prince’s love affairs were untrue, created to damage his reputation and his relationship with Princess Amelie. Then there was an attempt on the princess right after the wedding was called off. It served its purpose to finish destabilizing the truce between Marcari and Vidon.”
Despite herself, despite the reason she was there, that piqued her curiosity. “When Lady Beatrice was shot?”
Mark gave her an appraising look. “Yes.”
“I read about it.” She shifted painfully from one foot to the other. She was still in too much discomfort to stand for long.
He caught the gesture and motioned to the couch. “Please, sit. I am forgetting all my courtesy.”
They both sat, each in one corner, with a neutral distance between them. Mark still looked uneasy but carried on with his story. “The shooter was mesmerized by a powerful mind. There aren’t many of us who can do such a seamless job. That’s when I began to wonder about Carter. The fact that the shooter got by Sam’s security net was suspicious in itself. He doesn’t make that kind of mistake.”
“Why didn’t you warn Sam?”
“Warn him of what? I had no proof. Carter was our superior. I don’t accuse anyone of treason without solid evidence. Accuracy is serious when the wrong word could cost a life. So I did what I could. I went to find answers.”
Chloe heard the edge of steel in his words. “I see.”
“Perhaps.” He didn’t sound convinced. “Perhaps your adventure in the cellars gives you a glimpse of what kind of danger we deal with.”
“I don’t kid myself that it was more than a glimpse.”
“Good. If you’d answered any other way, I would have thought you a fool.” He gave her a long, narrow look.
She didn’t know Mark Winspear, but something told her he would be a bad enemy to have.
“Will putting an end to this affair help smooth things over between Marcari and Vidon?” she asked.
“The Knights will not tolerate a truce with Marcari, regardless of what treaties are signed. The King of Vidon plans to break publicly with the Knights once a purge of the palace guard is complete. I’m sure the treachery w
ill be harder to stamp out for good, but at least it will not continue under the palace roof.”
“Is there any chance the royal wedding might go ahead?”
Mark’s dark face was thoughtful. “I don’t know.”
She nodded, looking down at her bandaged hands. “It would be a shame for that dress to go to waste. A lot of people put themselves on the line to get it back to the princess. Who will take Carter’s place?”
“I don’t know,” Mark replied. “There will be an inquest, but no one blames Sam for what he did. Once that is over, the King of Marcari will appoint someone new.”
A silence fell between them.
“I want you to know something,” Mark said quietly. “Vampires are not human. We do everything more intensely. When we make war, entire cities die. When we love, it’s forever and with every cell of our beings.”
The intensity of his words rattled her. “You sound like you know what you’re talking about.”
He pressed his lips together, giving a slow nod. “I see what’s going on between you and Sam. I’ve lost one good friend this month, and I don’t have many left.”
Apprehension quivered in Chloe’s chest. “I don’t understand.”
“You know it is my job to erase your memories of the Horsemen.”
The words fell like a hammer blow, and she felt her insides coil tight. She should have listened to Lexie. She should have run before the wedding. She could have run after, but she had foolishly believed shedding her own blood to protect the dress would make the vampires spare her.
Chloe nodded, unable to speak. If she did, her pride would fail her. She would grovel.
“Carter made those rules.” Mark said the name as if it tasted foul. “He believed vampires were intrinsically evil. Much of that fear came from his own early experience. He had been turned and abandoned by his maker. There was no one to help him make the transition, things went horribly wrong and that trauma festered over time. Yet there was a certain truth to his beliefs.”
“How so?”
“A vampire in love is more than a little crazy. He will find it hard to put anything before his beloved. In effect, he would give up everything for her sake.”
Chloe finally found her voice. “Humans aren’t that different.”
Mark raised an eyebrow. “Would you leave everything for a man you love?”
“Is that a trick question?”
“No tricks. I’m just curious.”
“I believe in love that strong.”
Something in his face grew harder. “Would you leave everything for Sam? If we asked, would you give up everything to be with him?”
The odd tone of his voice made her turn around, her injured neck protesting at the movement. Sam was standing in the doorway, his face carefully schooled, not a shred of emotion showing.
Anger sliced through her. “What does it matter what I am willing to give up if you’re going to steal my memories?”
“It’s the only thing that matters,” Sam said, his rough voice giving away the pain his face was hiding.
Chloe weighed what she was going to say next. She was here to have her memory wiped. Until that was off the table, nothing else made sense. “I don’t want to say goodbye to you, or Mark, or Faran. It’s like an entire world has opened to me. I’m living and walking and talking with miracles.”
“I’ve not been called that before.” Sam gave a wry smile.
“You are miraculous. You’ve saved my life time and again. You kept Elaine’s wedding from falling to pieces. You defend the people you love and protect things you care about. That’s more than wonderful all on its own. So you’re a creature of legend. That’s gravy.”
“I bet you’ve not been called ‘gravy’ before, either,” Mark said dryly.
“I’m not going to talk about sacrifice.” Chloe rose, circling the room to face both men. The movement put her next to the dress. She reached out and stroked the frothy skirt. “I know my job. I know what makes couples work. Every relationship is a compromise, but love doesn’t count costs. If you feel that bad about what you’re giving up, you’d better take a step back and ask yourself if you’re really in love after all.”
She turned to Sam and touched his face with her bruised, bandaged fingers. Everything she felt, every pain, every joy throbbed in her voice. “I don’t think the real question is what I give up, but what I bring. What you bring. We’re infinitely richer by being in love. We don’t lose by being together.”
Sam caught her hand so gently that she barely felt the pressure of his touch. And then he kissed it, pressing his lips to her damaged fingers with infinite care. “But you might lose. Carter was only one person. There is an entire army of Knights.”
“I know,” she replied softly. “But I will manage as long as you don’t keep secrets from me. Don’t shut me out.”
Sam blinked. “I promise not to do that.”
“Then believe in the joy we’ll have, and we’ll take the rest as it comes.”
Sam’s gray gaze caressed her. “Nine hells, I love you, Chloe Anderson.”
Chloe turned to Mark. “Does this mean you’re not messing with my head? I mean—”
The doctor held up a hand to stop her words. He looked as if he wished he could vanish under the couch. “Those were Carter’s rules. I don’t feel obligated to rescue Sam from your depraved clutches.”
Chloe released the breath she’d been holding. With a low chuckle, Sam pulled her to the safe space within the circle of his arms.
Mark shook his head. “I think he likes those clutches just the way they are.”
Chapter 31
Later, Chloe and Sam went for a walk in the moonlit garden.
She was as irritated as a woman madly in love could get. “Mark had no intention of wiping my memories. Why on earth didn’t you just say so?”
Sam was quiet for a moment. “Lexie left Kenyon. It was entirely possible you’d want to back out of any association with the Company. There would have been more to consider then.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” She was suddenly sorry for Lexie. What had gone on that the two of them couldn’t work it out?
“I’m glad you didn’t walk away.”
“Just glad?”
He turned to look down at her. “Ecstatic.”
“Well, you said you’d find a way for us to be together. You did it. You solved the case, and more.”
Nothing more needed to be said. They walked a little farther, moving slowly to compensate for Chloe’s bruises. The night was silent but for their footsteps on the gravel path, the odd sound of something small rustling through the grass. She had a thick shawl pulled over her shoulders. Even though it was summer, this close to the ocean the night breeze was cool. Above, the sky was strewn with stars, a half moon pinned in the velvet dark.
“I’m going to be sorry to leave this place,” she murmured. “Uncle Jack loved this garden.”
“He did.” Sam was silent for a few steps. “He was a good friend.”
“How long did you know him?”
“Since the Great War.”
She tried to imagine Sam and Jack, flying biplanes or airships or strolling beneath the crystal chandeliers of the great luxury steamers like the Titanic. “You shared a lot of history.”
“Yes.”
“And with Carter, too.”
“Yes.”
The set of his mouth told her there was loss and pain he didn’t want to talk about. It wasn’t that he was keeping secrets; part of him was still Ralston Samuel Hill, born in a time when men didn’t share their feelings the same way they did now. She’d work on that, right along with training him to give answers of more than one word.
“Chloe,” Sam said. “About your parents. I asked some questions. Did
you know what they were working on when they died?”
“All I know was that they were biochemists with a drug company. They died in a home invasion.”
“But you’ve always believed they were killed because of their work.”
“Yes. The house was torn to pieces, but as far as I could tell, nothing was taken. Mom’s jewelry was still there. No one had touched Dad’s wallet. Most of the damage was in the home office. The killers were looking for something, and judging from the mess they didn’t find it. I have no idea what they wanted. My parents never discussed their work with me.”
“They couldn’t. They were protecting you. They worked for the Company.”
She stopped. “What?”
Sam put an arm around her shoulders. Someday, he vowed, he would find out who took Chloe’s family from her. He would see justice done. “Jack knew how talented they were. He convinced our research and development department to take them on, even though they were human.”
“What were they working on? What was so important that they were killed for it?” Chloe suddenly realized that Sam probably couldn’t tell her, either. “Generally speaking, of course.”
He gave her a wry smile. They started to walk again, drawing near the gazebo. “Mark could give you a more informed answer. I’m not the science guy. As I understand it, they were trying to figure out, biologically, what makes a vampire a vampire.”
“Dreamy eyes and a rockin’ cape?”
Sam winced. “They were separating myth from fact. We’re fast healing, not technically dead even though we are often at death’s door when we’re turned. Although it’s rare, vampires can produce children.”
Chloe’s step hitched, realizing that they’d used a condom only the first time they’d been together. After that, she’d assumed it wasn’t an issue. Sam’s babies? Her whole body flushed with the idea.
“Your parents believed we’re actually a separate species, genetically altered through union with a symbiotic microorganism.”
Chloe caught her breath, fascinated. “Were they right?”
Possessed by a Warrior Page 25
