Cassandra (Scruples Book 2)

by Ditter Kellen

  He grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the counter beside him and took a healthy swig. “Go look for yourself.” He jerked his chin toward the bedroom that Vivian had occupied for the last fifteen years.

  A wail wrenched from Cassie’s chest as she stumbled forward and ran toward her mother’s bedroom.

  “Noooooo!” Cassie screamed as she rounded the corner and staggered through the doorway. There, on the floor at the foot of the bed was her mother, lying in a pool of her own blood.

  Cassie’s legs gave out, and she dropped to her knees next to Vivian’s still form.

  “Mama?” Cassandra choked out, wrapping her arms around her mother’s shoulders and lifting her upper body against her chest. “Oh God, Mama, no.”

  A continuous trail of tears dripped off Cassie’s chin, splashing onto her mother’s pale white face as she rocked her back and forth in her arms.

  This couldn’t be happening to her, Cassie’s mind assured her. She had to be in the throes of a nightmare and would wake up at any moment late for work.

  “You are going to fix this.” Harvey’s voice penetrated her horror-filled reality.

  She stared down at the blood covering her hands and then lifted her sorrowful gaze to his. “Wh-what?”

  “You are covered in her blood,” he pointed out. “And this shotgun belongs to you.”

  Cassie’s brain rejected his insinuation. She shook her head, her teeth chattering hard enough that she could barely speak. “No one will believe you.”

  “They won’t have to. The evidence speaks for itself.” He pulled the hammer back on the shotgun. “I happened to come home and find you still here. We wrestled for the gun, and it went off, shooting you in the head.”

  There was a blur of motion, and a shot rang out, echoing throughout the room in a deafening explosion that nearly stopped Cassie’s already terrified heart.

  A scream ricocheted inside her skull, and she realized it came from her. She couldn’t seem to stop it. The inhuman sound felt ripped from her chest, paralyzing her in its hold.

  Malik was suddenly there, weaving in and out of her vision. He crouched before her and cupped her face in his warm hands. “Shhhh, baby. Listen to me. It’s going to be okay.”

  But Cassie knew that she would never be okay again. She stared into Malik’s glittering blue eyes as tears continued to drip from her own. “He killed mama.”

  Malik slowly lifted his hand toward Cassandra’s mother.

  “Don’t touch her,” Cassie wailed, lifting her mother higher against her chest. “Nobody touches her. Do you hear me? Nobody but me touches—”

  A whisper-soft moan came from Vivian’s throat, effectively cutting off Cassie’s demand.

  “Mama?” Cassandra lowered her mother’s head to the crook of one arm and brushed her hair back from her face.

  “She’s still alive,” Malik barked to someone in the room. That was the moment Cassie noticed Ben’s presence.

  Malik dropped his hands from her face and took hold of her hands. “Ben, grab me a pillow and a blanket. Cassandra? I need you to lay her down.”

  Cassie wasn’t about to let her mother go. “No. I need to—”

  “Damn it. If I’m to help her, I have to check her wounds. Now, lay her down and move back,” Malik growled, his expression brooking no argument.

  Exhaling a shaky breath, Cassie relinquished her hold, allowing Ben to position Vivian’s head on the pillow.

  Cassie watched in desperation as Malik ripped her mother’s dress open from neck to navel. “Son of a bitch.”

  A gurgling sound rattled in Vivian’s throat, sending Cassie back into full-blown panic mode. “I’m calling 911.”

  She moved to rise, but Malik gripped her hands tighter. “It’s too late for that, Cassie.”

  “Let go of me. She’s still alive, and I need to get her some help.”

  “She won’t last long enough for that, but I can save her.”

  “No,” Ben snarled, locking his fingers onto Malik’s upper arm. “You’re not turning her.”

  “Would you rather she died?” Malik’s fangs elongated, and heat burned behind his eyes. “Because she will surely die waiting on the ambulance.”

  “Do it,” Cassie demanded, drawing everyone’s attention back to her.

  Ben dropped to his haunches next to her. “If he does this, there is no turning back. She will become like him, living in the dark and drinking blood to survive.”

  More tears filled Cassandra’s eyes. “At least she’ll be alive.”

  “But at what cost?” Ben persisted. “What kind of a life would she have?”

  Cassie stared into Ben’s pleading eyes. “Anything is better than the life she’s had for the past twenty-five years.”

  Bringing her gaze back to Malik, Cassie lifted her chin. “Help her.”

  Malik nodded once. “Ben, take Cassandra to Kyle. He should be at the car by now. And then come back here. I’ll need your help with Harvey.”

  Cassandra hadn’t been able to bring herself to look directly at her stepfather’s still form. With her peripheral vision, she could see that his neck was bent at an awkward angle.

  “Are you sure he’s dead?” she asked, holding Malik’s gaze.

  Malik gave a quick nod of affirmation. “I’m positive. Now I need you to go with Ben and tell no one what happened here. Do you understand? Nothing happened here. “I’ll be along shortly.”

  Cassie couldn’t bring herself to leave her mother’s side. “I want to stay. Maybe I can help.”

  “You will only be in the way. I’ll take care of her. I promise,” Malik assured her, brushing his fingertips along her arm. “But I need to hurry, so get out of here before it’s too late.”

  Accepting Ben’s outstretched hand, Cassie allowed him to pull her to a standing position. She glanced down at her mother one last time before following the giant familiar toward the door.

  “Please don’t let her die,” she whispered through her tears, knowing that Malik would hear her.

  “I won’t.”

  Ben held the screen door open for her as she stumbled onto the porch in a daze. Harvey was dead and her mother had been shot and lay at death’s door, soon to die and rise again.

  The ramifications of what had taken place at the Cohen house swirled through Cassie’s mind in dizzying detail.

  She held up her blood-soaked hands, noticing how they shook and swam before her eyes.

  “Ben?” she slurred as her stomach lurched and her legs gave out.

  The porch rising up to meet her was the last thing Cassie saw before her world went black.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Malik stared down at Cassandra’s dying mother, wondering if he was doing the right thing.

  He should allow her to pass on and go to heaven, or wherever humans went after they closed their eyes forever.

  Being reborn into vampirism should never be forced on anyone against their will, and he had no idea what Vivian’s wish would be. But he’d promised Cassie that he wouldn’t let her mother die.

  Gently turning Vivian’s head to the side, Malik found her nearly nonexistent pulse and sank his fangs in before he changed his mind and let her bleed out.

  Her blood barely spilled onto his tongue, telling him that her heart had slowed to the point of no return.

  Malik emptied her of what little life force she had left and sat back on his heels. With a slight hesitation, he bit into the vein of his wrist and laid his bleeding flesh against Vivian’s partially open mouth.

  He began massaging her throat, relieved when the muscles in her neck moved slightly, instinctively swallowing what he offered.

  Satisfied that she’d received enough blood for the change, Malik wrapped her in his arms and stood in one fluid motion.

  He stepped over Harvey’s lifeless body and carried Cassie’s mother toward the screen door.

  Ben looked up from his pacing on the porch as Malik exited the house and stopped in front of him. “Is she dead?”<
br />
  Malik shook his head. “She will be soon, but only briefly. She will sleep for several hours while the healing begins. I’ll need to be there when she awakens.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Take her and Cassie back to Cassandra’s house. No one is to come in until I return.”

  Malik gently placed Vivian into Ben’s waiting arms. “I’ll be along as soon as I clean up any evidence of tonight’s events…and get rid of Harvey.”

  Ben descended the steps, stopping to look back as he reached the bottom. “How are you going to do it?”

  Malik considered his options. “Since his neck is broken, I’m going to put him behind the wheel of his truck and drive it off the nearest bridge.”

  “That’ll be the Bay Bridge in Freeport.” Ben quickly rattled off the directions.

  “I’ll meet you back at Cassandra’s after I take care of this mess.” Malik paused. “How is Cassie holding up?”

  “Not good. Kyle is with her now, reassuring her that everything will be okay.”

  Malik fought against the jealousy that threatened to overtake him. He didn’t have the time to entertain negative thoughts.

  He stood on the porch and watched as Ben spun around and marched down the drive before reentering the house for a little damage control.

  * * * *

  Half an hour later, Malik loaded Harvey’s body into the passenger side of the filthiest truck he’d ever set foot in.

  Beer bottles littered the floor, and half-smoked cigarettes spilled from the overflowing ashtray protruding out of the dash.

  The smell nearly choked him as he slid behind the wheel and turned on the engine.

  With one last look at the old house Cassandra had grown up in, Malik put the truck in gear and sped out of the drive toward the main road.

  All evidence of the shooting had been wiped clean, save for the buckshot lead still embedded in the sheetrock. But there wasn’t much Malik could do about that. Besides, no body, no crime. And Vivian would be as good as new before Harvey was discovered full of alcohol and resting at the bottom of the bay.

  The rest of Malik’s trip was spent reflecting on everything that had happened over the past week. He’d betrayed his uncle by taking his life along with the lives of the two other vampires he’d had with him. And then he’d fallen in love with Cassandra, met a couple of familiars, formed a camaraderie of sorts with Logan, allowed Albert to live, killed Harvey, and gave Cassie’s mother the dark gift. All in less than eight days.

  His mind drifted to the night Cassandra had given herself to him, trusting him not to hurt her. And yet that was exactly what he did. He’d broken her heart by not coming clean with her from the beginning.

  Malik wondered if she would ever be able to forgive him, to trust him again. He sure as hell hoped so because he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it.

  The outline of the bridge could be seen up ahead. Malik had been so lost in thoughts of Cassandra, he’d driven through Freeport without realizing it.

  Thankfully, traffic was almost nonexistent at this time of night.

  Malik crept along, waiting for the oncoming cars to disappear from sight before pressing the gas pedal to the floor. Once the gauge registered sixty-five miles per hour, he jerked the wheel to the right.

  The truck burst through the guardrail and sailed over the side, nose first toward the dark water below.

  With a speed only a vampire could possess, Malik jumped from the open window, diving smoothly into the warm depths of the bay.

  He emerged on shore moments later, stopping to make sure the truck sank out of sight before breaking into a run back toward DeFuniak Springs.

  The chunk of railing missing from the bridge would be noticed soon, but not before Malik was long gone from the scene.

  Cassandra once again occupied his thoughts as he ran. The way her skin felt, her hair smelled…her lips tasted.

  What was it about her that called to him, that tugged at his heart? It was as if he were a puppet and she determined his every movement.

  Even now, with everything that had happened tonight, he wanted nothing more than to wrap her in his arms, bury himself inside her body, and make love to her until she surrendered herself to him, heart and soul.

  And what of her mother? Vivian would need him for a while. She would need guidance and sustenance to survive. He couldn’t leave her without teaching her the basics of living with the dark gift.

  An image of Cassandra wearing a long white dress, her dainty fangs reflecting the moonlight as she licked a drop of blood from her bottom lip, entered Malik’s mind as he ran.

  He shook off his thoughts and fought back the rapidly forming erection that threatened to unman him.

  How in the hell could he possibly become hard at a time like this? he wondered, adjusting himself behind the zipper of his jeans.

  Malik slowed his pace, giving his body time to cool before he ran into Ben or God forbid, Kyle, while sporting a raging erection. He couldn’t imagine how he would explain that away.

  Taking several deep breaths, he switched his thoughts away from Cassandra in hopes of calming his damn libido.

  Perhaps he would take Vivian back to Alaska with him for a time. His own mother, Farah Devain, would enjoy the companionship; not to mention, she’d make a far better teacher than Malik could ever hope to be.

  In theory, the two women were the same age. In reality? Not so much.

  Cassandra’s home came into view a few minutes later. The rental car was parked in the drive, and several lights in the house were on.

  Malik blurred his way to the porch and raised a hand to knock.

  The front door suddenly opened, and Ben appeared with a relieved look on his face. “Thank God you’re here.”

  “What’s wrong?” Malik asked, stepping over the threshold.

  Ben shut the door behind him. “Everything. Cassandra is beside herself with grief over the death of her mother. And Logan called. Apparently the cops were at his place earlier, asking questions about the Shueller fire.”

  “The what fire?”

  “You forget so soon? The house we burned with the vampires inside.”

  Malik shook his head, his gaze scanning the place for signs of Cassandra. “What about it? We left no evidence behind. Where is Cassie?”

  “She’s in the guest room with Vivian,” Ben offered, pointing Malik toward the hall. “The deputies were looking for Cassandra and asking about her whereabouts the night of the fire.”

  That slowed Malik’s steps. “Why would they need to know that?”

  “Apparently they received an anonymous call stating that she was seen leaving the area with a dark-haired man wearing nothing but a pair of shorts.”

  Malik turned to face the familiar. “Who else knew we were there besides the obvious?”

  “No one,” Ben swore, anger flashing in his eyes. “Other than Albert Sanders.”

  “Sanders wouldn’t talk. He would be incriminating himself. Has anyone seen him since that night?”

  Ben shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of.”

  “First things first,” Malik growled. “I need to see to Cassandra and check on Vivian, then we’ll locate Sanders.”

  “I’ll call Logan and get started on that. You go on and be with Cassie.”

  With a brief nod in Ben’s direction, Malik made his way toward the guest room.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Cassie sat in a chair next to the bed her mother lay in, holding her frail hand.

  Vivian hadn’t moved since Ben had placed her in the car and drove them home.

  The big familiar had laid her in the bed, assuring Cassandra that her mother would be all right once the change happened.

  Cassie wanted nothing more than to believe him, but the doubt he’d tried so hard to hide shone from his eyes like a beacon, attesting to his uncertainty.

  She wouldn’t be able to take losing her mother. Not now, and not like this. After surviving yea
rs of abuse at Harvey’s hands, Vivian deserved some peace and happiness.

  “Cassie?” Malik’s voice penetrated the grief-stricken fog she wallowed in.

  Wiping the tears from her eyes with the backs of her hands, she tore her gaze from her mother’s still face and met Malik’s uncertain stare.

  “May I come in?” He stood in the doorway, his brows raised in question.

  Cassandra waved him in and struggled to stand. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”

  “Yes,” Malik whispered, moving to stand next to her. “But my blood now flows through her veins. She will arise with the setting of the sun tomorrow evening.”

  “And you’re sure?” Cassie’s heart fluttered with hope.

  “I’m positive.”

  Stumbling forward, she threw her arms around him and buried her face against his neck. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done had you not been there tonight. He would have killed us both.”

  Malik held her against him in an almost painful embrace. “Please say that you’ll forgive me for not being honest with you. I would give anything to go back and do it all over again.”

  She did forgive him, she realized, clinging tightly to him. She’d forgiven him the moment he’d killed Azrael to protect her.

  Cassie relaxed her hold and tilted her head back far enough to see his handsome face. “There’s nothing to forgive. My life changed the moment you showed up at Scruples and ordered that Bloody Mary. I was lost from that second on.”

  “I love you, Cassandra Blanchard. So much that I ache when I’m not in your presence.”

  A smile touched her lips. “I feel exactly the same. I think I realized it when you admitted to eating sushi to make me happy.”

  “That was a onetime thing,” he teased, bending down to kiss the tip of her nose. “Don’t get used to it.”

  “Hmmm. We’ll see.” She released him and returned to her previous position in the chair. “Will Mom feel different when she wakes up? I mean, will she still have the same feelings as before?”

  “Yes.” He nodded with a quick glance at Vivian. “Only without any previous pain or depression.”