Watching what Jessie was certain was best described as the undoing of two very dangerous vampires, she realized she very much liked these women and wanted sincerely to have them as friends. Though, it seemed that was to be an unlikely outcome.
“Let us come to one accord for this conversation. No matter the details of the conversation, everyone’s mates remain safe,” Serge said, and if Jessie hadn’t looked when she did, she’d have missed the way he bit his cheek as a smile nearly cracked his lips.
“Agreed,” both Maddie and Aurelia said and instantly stopped fighting Gabe, who nearly dropped them both.
“I know what you’re thinking.” Gabe released Maddie when Rafe turned toward them. “You’re thinking it works both ways, but that was meant for the women. To assure all the men that the women would be safe. Not the other way.”
“Right. For the women.” Aurelia kissed Gabe’s cheek, grabbed Maddie’s hand and strode toward the table where both women parked themselves in the two middle chairs facing Jessie and Ricard. “For all the women.”
They smiled at Jessie, and she wanted to smile back, but she felt Ricard’s anxiety ratchet up a notch, which made it impossible for her to feel happy, though she did feel hopeful.
Simultaneously the brothers grabbed the remaining open chairs beside their mates, spun them around, and sat, leaning into the backs of the chairs. Both inched his chair closer to his mate until their legs touched.
The women glanced to the sides, sly smiles on their faces.
If these women could handle their mates in this way, the men could not possibly be as terrible as Ricard believed. Could they? If they were really devil’s spawn, would they allow these women to have so much control? Would they love these women the way it appeared they did?
“Join us, Ricard,” Serge said.
He hesitated. Jessie felt him reel against himself as though he’d split into three different beings. There was a part of him that wanted this confrontation. That part was eager for the blows to begin. Another piece did not want to relive any of it. He wanted to forget the entire matter. The third portion wanted to move forward, to forgive, to love Jessie and not look back.
Turning to her mate, she nodded. “We will not be able to live our lives devoted to each other without getting this out of the way.”
Although he looked down at her, his attention was split between those waiting at the table and her. “You do not understand, and I do not wish for you to ever know the pain.”
“I know what I heard about your first love. I know what I feel for you. There is no moving forward unless we deal with this. It’s killing you, and I can’t have that.” She placed her hand on his chest and felt the beating of his heart. Strong, angry beats, not the same as she felt before, when they had been fueled by the love they felt for one another. “I cannot lose you to the past or to vengeance. Remember, we cannot live with a hateful heart.”
Pent up rage bubbled beneath the surface, howling for release.
“Please, Ricard.” With her hand at his neck, she turned his attention toward her. “If you love me, you’ll do this.”
“You ask too much of me.”
“I ask only that we do this together.” She did not release him until he gave his word, and when he finally agreed, she moved with him to the table, staying by his side, but leading him to a conversation she knew he feared.
Seated at the table was a far less comfortable experience. The angst of three powerful vampires was palpable. Jessie looked to Serge to begin the conversation. They needed to move this along before the seven of them combusted from tension.
“Ladies, I doubt any of you know the full story of Raffaele Barone,” Serge said.
“No. They don’t. Why in the name of sanity would we share anything about that bastard?” Gabe asked.
“I know a little,” Maddie said, peering up at Rafe, who nodded.
“She knows of how our father turned me and attacked my mother.” He exhaled. “And she knows of how I killed my fiancée.” The words fell flat, and that horrible fear Jessie felt the moment Joshua lunged for her returned.
Ricard sneered at Rafe, though draped his arm around Jessie, pulling her closer.
“It was bloodlust. He had just awakened as a vampire and couldn’t control himself.” Maddie frowned and leaned into Rafe. “Though, I must say he was very controlled, when you think of it. He didn’t kill Gabe or try to turn him.”
“He couldn’t have turned me. He didn’t know how,” Gabe said.
“I’m certainly glad he waited until you were an adult. What would I have done with a little boy? I’d have been out of luck on that one and probably dead to boot,” Aurelia said.
Gabe stretched his neck, rolling it around on his shoulders. When he finished, he sat with a forced blank look as his mate, and Maddie went on to tell what she thought may have happened.
“I don’t know, maybe he’d be a lot less annoying. You know that thing he does with the cars in the parking garage,” Maddie said.
“Yes, that’s true. He wouldn’t be able to reach the pedals, so no driving,” Aurelia said.
“Enough.” Ricard slammed his hand on the table. “It is all fun and games when you have not experienced such a loss as to have their father rip your heart from your chest and devour it before your eyes.”
Jessie jumped.
“He was a savage,” Rafe said.
“You believe that is a gene not passed from a father to his son?” Ricard asked. “I am not so sure that all Barones are not savages.”
Maddie’s breath caught.
Jessie squeezed Ricard’s hand. “Please, don’t say things you can’t take back.”
“I’ll never want to take that back.”
“What happened to her?” Jessie asked.
“My mate was human as most are. I left her to hunt, and their father found her, took her from me.” Ricard’s face was hollow, beneath his eyes circles darkened to black. It was as though he was morphing into a crazed animal as they spoke.
“Why did you not feed from your mate? I never understood that,” Serge said.
Ricard glared at Serge. “My mate was carrying my child.”
The words fell in the room like priceless crystal crashing to the floor.
Chapter Twenty-One
“We could have a baby?” Jessica asked.
“Baby?” Maddie repeated.
Aurelia’s eyes filled with tears.
“Good God!” Serge stood from his chair. “In nearly four hundred years you’ve never mentioned this detail.”
“Don’t get your hopes up, love. It’s very rare. So rare, I’ve never heard of it until now.” Rafe rubbed Maddie’s back as Gabe did the same to Aurelia, all the while whispering words of consolation to his mate.
For as rare as it was for a vampire to father a child, it was almost as rare for a female vampire to exist, never mind bear a child.
“It is unlikely we would have a child,” Ricard said, turning to Jessica. The look of hopefulness on her face only served to make him hate himself.
“Why? It’s happened before. Why wouldn’t it happen again?” Tears now filled her eyes. “We could have a family.”
“You could hold the answer to so many questions.” Serge walked to the white board, grabbed a marker and circled several calculations. “This. This. This and this. Did you not think you should share? Why would you keep such a vital secret?”
“Why would I share it? My mate was dead.” Ricard rose, knocking his chair backward. “Dead at the hand of their father.”
“He ruined all our lives. Don’t you think we’ve suffered, too? He massacred our family, made us vampires,” Gabe shouted.
“You have not suffered as I have suffered. Yes, you lost your mother and your fiancée, but she was not your mate.” Ricard stomped to the white board and wrote out the calculation as he’d memorized it years ago for what he thought would lead to the actual insemination by a vampire of a human egg.
“You do not suffer. No
w that you have mates, now you can understand the full power of the bond and loss,” Ricard said.
“How can you hold them responsible for their father’s behavior?” Maddie asked through sniffles.
“How can we risk that they are not cut from the same vile genes as the father?” Ricard continued writing, Serge hot on his back reading each portion of the equation with fervent excitement.
Jessica’s mumbled voice caught Ricard by surprise. He glanced over his shoulder to see her rocking and whispering to herself.
“The key, I believe, lies in this gene being slightly mutated.” He made a circle. “The female must be stronger than most in order to sustain the pregnancy.” He replaced the marker and turned toward Jessica. She sat transfixed, staring at the equation on the board as if seeing it would open the door to the possibility she could bear his child. “I would never put you in this situation. It’s far too dangerous.” He knelt before her.
Several seconds passed before she ripped her attention from the calculation. “You can’t decide for me. We are mates. Equals. I have a say in this.”
“I cannot lose another mate. You ask too much of me.” Ricard suddenly felt the weight of the situation.
In two night’s time he’d gone from a widowed vampire to a mated scientist to the one vampire who held the biological key to Raymond Tyrone’s sick experiments. He wanted nothing more than to vanish with his mate to an isolated island far away from Central City.
“You do not ask enough of me,” she said and looked back at the board as though she was memorizing the calculation. Her lips moved, but no words were spoken.
“Ricard, this could potentially present the cure to our condition,” Serge said.
“Again, I remind you, I will not experiment on humans, least of all my mate.” His vision shifted, taking on more of a reddish hue, and he suspected he had taken on the appearance of a possessed being. This phenomenon had happened one other time, the night of Genevieve’s death.
“What is going on with everyone’s eyes?” Maddie asked. “First you have the giant dilated pupils and now his eyes are literally red.” She shook her head. “I am completely confused.”
“Ricard, what is it you want from us?” Gabe hugged Aurelia to him. “I will not worry that you’re going to take revenge against my father by hurting our mates. I don’t care if you hold the key that keeps the universe alive. I will kill you first.”
Jessica turned toward Gabe. Ricard felt the silent scream escape her lips. She looked like she might vomit, as if her head was filled with too much junk to take even another thought.
“He will not hurt your mates,” she said, looking from Gabe to Ricard as though she shouldered the weight of the world. “I will not allow it.”
Ricard couldn’t understand what was happening. She turned his world upside down. She was his mate. She should understand his drive.
“You wanted vengeance when Joshua died,” he said, reminding her of the anger she felt. “You cannot begin to fathom what I’ve felt. A piece of my soul died the night my mate was killed.”
Her warm hands came to his face, and she pulled him toward her, leaning forward until she rested her head against his forehead. “I know that if anything happened to you, I would not survive. I also know if you want vengeance you need to let Rafe question me.” She pulled back and looked at Ricard. “That was our original plan when we came from your office—to let Rafe question me. We both want to avenge the ones we’ve lost. To do that we must strike Panthera. Stopping their father’s bloodline from poisoning others is your only viable revenge. I won’t allow you to kill either brother or their mates.”
Ricard could not stop his jaw from clenching. The very thought of a Barone touching her mind incensed him. The fact she announced her decision to stop his plans for vengeance was paralyzing. He stared blankly at her.
“As angry as that makes you, it is still the only way to retrieve the information I hold, and my love, I now realize I know something far more terrifying than you can imagine.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hours later they’d come to a tenuous treaty, involving concessions on everyone’s part, including Serge.
Jessie sat before Rafe, prepared and unafraid of having him question her.
Maddie, who had willingly agreed, much to Rafe’s visible upset, sat before Serge, who was required to question her openly about anything Ricard deemed appropriate should Rafe’s questioning go awry.
Aurelia, was seated beside Ricard. She had without prompting offered herself to Ricard for experimentation should Rafe’s questioning of Jessie become a problem.
Gabe was forced to stand at the opposite end of the room in a circle and was warned that if he left the circle, Aurelia would be used in some sort of experiment.
Jessie gazed at both women and tried not to laugh. She knew without one iota of worry that Rafe would not take advantage of her. There was not a bit of concern in her. Something about the way he’d so gingerly talked to her the last time made it perfectly clear he had no intention or desire to hurt her.
And, now that everyone’s mate was tied up in a kamikaze domino torture plan Jessie felt absolutely certain nothing bad would happen in this room.
She sighed.
“If you’re nervous, you don’t need to do this,” Ricard said.
“He’s right. We can stop now.” Rafe looked green.
“I’m all for stopping,” Gabe called from across the room where he paced the outer limits of the circle.
Serge sat with his arms folded over his chest.
“I’ve never seen a vampire look like he was going to throw up,” Aurelia said.
“Green is not his color,” Maddie said.
“I’m ready.” Jessie squared her shoulders and nodded.
“She’s ready. Are we going to wait all night to get this show on the road?” Aurelia asked.
One would think no one wanted the secret information she had. It was, at best, peculiar the way these men were behaving.
“Jessica.” The sound of Rafe’s voice caught Jessie off guard. His rich tone blanketed her like luxurious velvet and in an instant she felt the warm sleepiness like she’d felt the night before.
Her head tilted back, eyes closed.
“Jessica, open your eyes and sit up.”
When she did as he suggested, all she saw was Rafe. His wide body, tattooed neck, dark beard beneath dark, smoldering eyes.
“Good. Now do you remember the night we met?”
“Yes, at my apartment. It was the night Joshie died.” Her mind reverted back to that night, planting her firmly in the kitchen, holding him as he begged her to help him.
His vacant eyes sat in a gaunt face, black circles surrounding his eyes dipped below his cheekbones, cheeks sunken inward.
The pain of that night tore at her and a sob shook her.
“Jessica, I’m right here with you. Do you understand that you are not alone?” Rafe asked.
She nodded.
“Good. Step back from the moment. Do not fall into the memory. I want you to only see it, but not relive it. Can you do that? Can you distance yourself?” Rafe’s voice coached her back to a spectator’s seat. “You are no longer in the situation. It is past. Now, you are seeing something that no longer affects you.
“Take me through the apartment. Where are your father’s notes?”
Jessie shook her head. “Not there. I never kept anything important in the apartment. He told us to keep the valuables hidden.”
“Who?”
“Dad.” She smiled. “He believed Panthera watched us.”
“Where are the notes?”
“I hid them at Panthera. They’d never find them in their own lab.”
Something prickled Jessie’s skin and she pulled away. As quick as it happened the sensation ended. Jessie relaxed into the seat.
“Where in Panthera?”
“The patients’ wing where they treated Joshua. There’s a loose brick behind the headboard. No one wo
uld notice.”
A long pause occurred. During that time Jessie felt Ricard’s presence, felt his warmth hovering near the edges of her mind.
“What do you recall of the visits to Panthera?”
“Not a lot. I was not allowed beyond the staging area where the patients were prepared for treatment.”
Just as she answered the question the memory of the room appeared. A large white room with not a single picture on the white walls and no windows where sixteen beds lined the walls in rows of eight.
“Bed twelve. That’s where Joshua always stayed. Bed twelve was his.”
“Did they ever treat him right in bed twelve?”
“No. They took him beyond the doors.” Jessie’s heart ached to know she had allowed them to take him back there and do who-knew-what with him.
“Did they ever treat you at Panthera?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“What did your father—”
“Not at Panthera. Mr. Rollins helped me at the clinic in town.”
Jessie breathed in the scent of bleach. Everything at the clinic was bleached so much so she had ruined a couple pieces of clothing on two different occasions. She coughed, trying to clear her lungs.
“I saw him six times and he thought I’d be fine after the first one, but then I was not, I guess.”
“What did he treat you for?”
“The first time was hallucinations brought on by stress. Joshie was so sick. We were constantly in need of something. Every week we had a visit of some sort at a Panthera treatment center and every week we found out we’d need something else. It was costing us more than we could afford, and I was worried and losing sleep and then the hallucinations started.”
“What did you think you saw?”
“Men in our apartment at night. Men who…I don’t know what they did, but they spent time with Josh. They talked and brought him drinks and promised to take care of him.”
“What did they do to treat your hallucinations?”
“Some sort of therapy, though not as intense as shock treatments, but along those lines. Mr. Rollins called it memory strengthening. It was supposed to stop the hallucinations. It didn’t work right away. In fact I saw more men in my apartment, and I thought they were taking blood from both of us.”
A Vampire's Purgatory (Romance In Central City Book 8) Page 12
