Promise Me

by Tara Fox Hall

  He’d gotten the message I’d sent Theo. That was a relief. I handed the phone to Terian and got on other phone in the living room.

  Danial’s voice was cold as a fieldstone in winter. “Talk.”

  “My name is Terian. I’ve got your concubine, Sarelle. I want a meeting alone with you to discuss my brother’s death. I heard from a trusted source that you killed him.”

  “I had nothing to do with your brother’s death,” Danial’s said calmly. “Theo told you all this last night—”

  “How can you be so sure?” Terian said sarcastically. “Check your files; see if he’s listed in the big one labeled Victims.”

  “Theo’s getting the truth from Alexa right now,” His tone lost its edge, becoming comforting. “Sar, this will all be over tonight. You won’t be hurt. No matter what happens, Terian’s agreed to let you go.”

  Terian’s eyes bore into mine. “I have, so long as you get here tonight.”

  “I’ll be there an hour after sundown,” Danial growled and hung up.

  I put down the phone, and so did Terian. He slumped on the couch with an expression akin to having stepped in dog shit.

  I studied him, surprised. “I thought you’d be happy. You got what you wanted. You’ll hear from Danial tonight that he didn’t kill your brother.”

  He flopped back on the couch and put his head in his hands. “I know it’s what I wanted. But I thought a lot last night about what you said over dinner and I think Alexa lied to me. I believe you, that she has something against Danial. She wanted me to take him out.” He paused, then continued haltingly. “And what’s probably worse, she knew who and what Danial is when she sent me after him. She did that to make sure I’d never return.”

  That was pretty awful, considering Alexa was the only family he had left. “Why would she want you dead?”

  “Because Keriam left half his estate to me. He’d always worried about me, what would happen when he wasn’t around. He knew he was getting older and the time wouldn’t be far off. With me dead, she gets it all.”

  If that had been the plan, Alexa was utterly ruthless. Hopefully, Theo was interrogating her with sharp incentive-inducing implements.

  “Wait until you talk to Danial and find out what she was to him. Then you’ll know for sure who—”

  “Don’t act like you’re on my side,” he said bitterly as he got to his feet. “No one but my brother has ever been. I’ll be in the basement. Don’t leave the house.”

  He strode downstairs, slamming the cellar door behind him.

  I tried watching TV and then reading, but I couldn’t concentrate. I slept for a while, the cats on my lap. At noon, I had lunch alone, forcing myself to eat toast because I wasn’t hungry. In the evening, I went to my bedroom and opened the drawer where I’d stashed the gun, trying to decide if I should put it on. A few minutes later, I heard a truck pull into the drive.

  I made a dash for the front door and ran into Terian. He immediately grabbed me by the arm. I tried to jerk free, but his grip was solid, and when he squeezed me, I remembered the wall crumbling and stopped struggling. He banged open the door and strode onto the deck with me in tow. The dogs barked in the house, although I didn’t know if it was because of the truck’s arrival or Terian’s blackness. Danial was already out of his truck. He appeared to be alone. Gravel crunched under his boots as he walked to the front bumper looking thoroughly pissed. Terian’s rage built as that metaphysical blackness oozed out of him. I shivered.

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart, this will be over soon,” Danial called. He addressed Terian next. “Are you going to let her go so we can get to it?”

  “No way,” Terian said icily. “She stays right here. She’s my only insurance that you won’t overwhelm me with brute force.”

  “I won’t need any help to beat you into the ground. Get down here and face me, coward. You wanted me. Here I am.”

  “Aren’t you two going to talk this over?”

  “The time for talk is over,” Danial said coldly. “Stay out of this, Sar.”

  His arrogant stance was as irritating as Terian’s half-cocked scheme for vengeance, and it pissed me off. “Then whatever you’re going to do, do it out in the field. I don’t want the deck wrecked or my home to catch on fire.”

  Danial gave me a surprised look. “I don’t have a problem with that. Do you, Terian?”

  “No.” He strode down the steps, and I stumbled after him, as he half-pulled, half-dragged me to a level spot in the field in front of the barn. He told me to stay back, and I nodded. Terian and Danial faced off and began circling one another.

  I tried again. “Please, don’t fight. This is a misunderstanding—”

  Danial cut me off. “I don’t care. I told him I had nothing to do with his brother’s death and he didn’t believe me.” His tone grew more menacing. “To add to his insult, he dared to take you hostage and threaten you. He knows who I am and he still dared that!”

  “I would never have hurt her,” Terian retorted. “She’s got nothing to do with you and me. She’s just another of your victims! Tell me the truth, you bastard! Did you kill my brother?”

  “I didn’t even know your brother. It’s Alexa who knows me, both as a companion in her youth and more recently as the person who exposed her private sale of company technology to a rival company. I told her employer and she was fired. She used your brother’s heart attack as the catalyst to get payback through you. She’s been sending threatening letters to me for a month—”

  “You’re lying! He was in perfect health!”

  Terian swung at Danial, but he gracefully sidestepped and continued goading. “Maybe Alexa slipped a little poison into his nightcap. Maybe she purchased it from someone like you, or snuck it out of your personal stash? You do have a seedy reputation for alchemy, with those potions you concoct for that Witch’s Brew shop you run online—”

  Terian drew a dagger, snarling. Danial sneered, drawing one from his boot. They circled each other, lunging but not landing any strikes.

  “This knife has the same poison that almost killed you the last time, vampire,” Terian hissed. “Something tells me Sarelle won’t let you drain her blood this time.”

  Danial smiled at him, a fearsome grin baring his fangs. “I want you to know that my knife has been dipped in holy water and blessed by a priest.”

  Uncertainty flashed across Terian’s face. “That won’t hurt me any more than it hurts you.”

  Danial’s knife connected, gashing Terian across the cheekbone. It didn’t look like a deep cut, but it smoked. An acrid sulfur smell filled the air. Terian let out a loud scream and staggered, dropping his knife.

  “You’re a fool, Terian. You think because some old witch tells you that you’re dhamphir that makes it true? Dhamphirs are myth, something out of legends, and you aren’t one. I suspected what you really were when I heard your skin was hot and your eyes were always red, even in daylight. But the knife proves it. You’re half-human all right, but your father was no vampire. He was a demon. And any symbol of faith can hurt a demon.”

  A lot made sudden sense. The red eyes, the burning skin, the evil feeling Terian was able to exude when he wanted to, and his look of pain when I’d prayed.

  Terian held his still smoking face, wobbling as if he’d collapse. Danial walked a little closer; his knife at the ready. He kicked Terian’s poison-coated knife away.

  “I’m glad I got the antidote for this, even though you weren’t able to scratch me this time. Where was I? Ah, yes, it’s a crushing weight isn’t it? Thinking your mother bedded a vampire was bad enough, but you could always tell yourself that he’d raped her. But not now. Now you have to face that she was a willing partner in the tryst. Because a demon could never force a woman to have sex with him. At least not a pure woman—”

  “No!” shouted Terian. “That’s a lie!” The oppressive evil feeling poured out of him stronger than I’d ever felt it. I huddled in the dirt, shaking hard.

  Danial w
as unaffected. He continued in that seductive taunting voice, “A pure woman would be safe. A demon could never touch her. Maybe your mother had a lust for power. Maybe she was a witch who got tired of asking sweetly for favors from the gods and decided it was time to start demanding. Maybe she just wanted to experience a demon in the flesh—”

  Terian looked up, tendrils of smoke still rising from his gashed face. His eyes were glowing red orbs. “You think you’ve cornered the market on truth? You lied to Sarelle. No matter what you say to me, no matter if you kill me, I’ve won. She knows, Danial, she knows all of it! The collar you gave her, that you were feeding off her through that shirt drenched in the potion made from your blood, your true age, all of it.”

  Danial suddenly looked up, his eyes darting to mine. The guilt on his face grew with every word Terian uttered. It had been awful to hear the first time, but it was worse to see his face and know it, know he’d deceived me, that everything Terian had said was true.

  I looked back to see Terian lunge at Danial, a stake in his hands. Danial never saw it coming. The stake plunged into Danial’s chest as he backpedaled. Terian fell on him trying to get it into his heart. I let out a scream and started toward them.

  “Stay back!” Terian shouted, glaring at me with his red eyes. I froze.

  He sat astride Danial, trying to work the stake deeper into his chest. Danial screeched as blood oozed out of his chest to pool beside his body. He fought Terian but he was badly wounded, his strength fading. He’d been so sure Terian would have no will to fight after hearing the truth. He’d forgotten that truth didn’t always make a person powerless when they heard it; it sometimes strengthened their resolve.

  “Stop,” Danial growled. He had a hold of the stake, but it was slick with blood and slipped through his hands inch by inch. “I didn’t kill him. I swear it.”

  “You’ve killed plenty of others,” Terian snarled, leaning with all his weight on the stake. “You’ll kill again if I don’t kill you. You’ll come after me if I don’t do this. I’ll never be safe as long as you’re alive.”

  Both of them had forgotten me. I got to my feet, reached for my back holster, and drew the gun. Sprinting to them, I slipped off the safety and pressed the barrel against the middle of Terian’s back. He froze when he felt the gun. Danial’s eyes looked up in shock.

  “I’ve had enough. Let him go. Now!”

  Terian was incredulous and almost did let him go. Danial was too weak to take the opening before Terian resumed pushing the stake home.

  When Danial cried out again, I pressed the barrel a little deeper into Terian’s back. “You heard me. Stop!”

  “He lied to you. He’s just using you. He would have killed you as soon as you weren’t useful to him anymore.”

  “I don’t believe that. But that’s not your business, it’s his and mine—”

  “How can you do this after everything he’s put you through?”

  “I think I might love him.” God, the worst admission to have let slip. I plowed on. “But even if I don’t, I can’t watch you execute him in cold blood for something he didn’t do. I can’t stand here and not try to stop you.”

  Terian turned to look at me, his face reflecting fury and bitter anger. “You can’t love him. He’s a killer—!”

  “I’m sorry,” I said softly. Then I shot him in the back with Theo’s gun.

  Terian jerked and slumped over Danial, who let out another cry of pain. Acrid smoke wafted up from the hole in Terian’s back, bad enough to make my eyes water. I wiped my eyes and rolled the body off Danial. He was alive, but Terian had pushed the stake in another inch with the weight of his body.

  Trying to ignore all the blood, I straddled Danial and put my hands on the stake. The blood was warm as it smeared my hands.

  “Please, Sar,” Danial panted, “help me pull it out. I haven’t the strength.”

  I looked at him lying there. Bastard. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t push it the rest of the way in.”

  “Because,” he panted, “You could have let him kill me...and saved yourself the trouble.”

  A few weeks ago, he’d told me I didn’t have the strength to put a stake through his heart. He’d been right; I didn’t stand a chance. It had taken all of Terian’s supernatural muscle to do it, something I’d better remember.

  I put down the gun. Tightening my hands on the stake, Danial and I wrenched it out. He screamed worse than when Terian had driven it in. The gaping hole in his chest filled with blood. As I watched, it scabbed over and became muscle, and then unbroken skin. Danial looked as bad as he had when I’d first found him, his skin bone white and just as lusterless. His eyes were dull, his breathing ragged.

  I moved to his side, not sure what to do next. I’d be damned if I was giving him my blood after all his bullshit. “What now?”

  “I’ll be okay,” he said weakly. “It didn’t get deep enough to puncture my heart. But it will take some time for me to regain my strength.

  “Should I stay away from you?” I asked.

  “Help me inside. I won’t hurt you, I promise. It’s rest I need, not blood.”

  I helped him to his feet and then to the house, supporting him. I opened the basement door with the keypad so he wouldn’t have to navigate the stairs. As soon as he got inside, he collapsed on the bed. I moved all his paperwork back to his desk. Helping him out of his shirt, I thought to myself that I was always washing blood out of his clothes. As a bonus tonight, I’d be washing blood out of mine, too. I covered him up, gathered the shirt, and went to leave.

  “Sar, please come back—”

  “No. I’m going to bed. What do you want?”

  “Why did you help me, after what he told you?”

  “I don’t owe you anything after tonight, not even a last word.” I had had enough of him for one night, maybe for the rest of my nights. “It makes me sick I had to shoot someone again. I might have been lonely when I was alone, but at least I had peace and quiet.”

  “Tell me why—”

  “Because aside from all the stuff Terian accused you of, you never hurt me. You could have but you didn’t. You saved me from Max’s men. You came alone tonight to face Terian, when it would have been less risky for you to send in the troops. I know Theo kills for you.” He tried to interrupt, but I talked over him. “You lied to me about your age and the collar and God knows what else.”

  He didn’t say anything, and that admission of guilt was somehow worse than if he’d tried to explain.

  I turned and looked straight at him. “I care for you. I do believe you care for me, just not enough to tell me the truth. That’s why I’m giving you a chance to decide whether to come clean or leave. You aren’t protecting me by keeping me in the dark. If you don’t tell me all of it, everything, we’re through. That means you leave tomorrow night and don’t ever come back. You never see me again. Take tonight and think it over.”

  I got up and walked to the door. I reached for the handle when he said tiredly, “What do you want to know?”

  I looked back at him. “Everything you lied about.”

  “You won’t want to hear some of it,” he said, his eyes not meeting mine.

  “I need to hear all of it. You put a collar on me knowing full well I’d never be able to remove it myself.” The disgust was palpable in my voice and I saw him wince, even as his eyes remained downcast.

  “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. But let me rest tonight.”

  “Do you want me to call Theo? Do you need him to bring you...food?”

  He still didn’t look up. His voice was flat when he answered. “He’s busy dealing with Alexa. She’s not a real threat without Terian, but we can’t have her sniping at our heels either. Theo says she admitted that this was just an attempt to get Terian out of the way, so she could inherit without sharing. It’s not clear that she planned this out very well, but Alexa was always opportunistic. From the coroner’s report, the heart attack looks like it really was na
tural. The sample of blood tested concurs. She may have seen an opportunity and taken it. She’s been pissed at me since she lost her job, so motive’s clear—”

  “I don’t give a shit about Alexa. Do you want me to call Theo or not?”

  “I’ll call him. As I said, I just need rest.”

  “Okay.” I turned to leave again, feeling both relieved for him and irritated that I cared.

  “Thank you,” he said quickly. “What you texted to Theo really helped.” More quietly, he added, “And thank you for saving me...again.”

  I’d fucking saved him twice now yet I still had to push down a thrill hearing that appreciation in his voice. Unbelievable. I gritted my teeth, picked up the clothes, and left.

  My hands were covered with his drying blood, so I washed them off in the kitchen sink. Before I knew it, I felt tears sliding down my face. I let it out for a few minutes and then clamped down on my emotions, drying my hands and face. I had to move and move fast.

  * * * *

  I walked cautiously out to the field, wondering if fox eyes were watching me. Hopefully, they had fled when the fighting had started, as none of them had tried to step in to save their master. I puzzled over that as I approached Terian’s body. Maybe they had orders not to or he’d told them to back off, that this was his fight. I didn’t know. And right now I didn’t care.

  Terian lay on his back where I’d rolled him off Danial. There was no smoke anymore, but the gash on his face was an ugly raised welt. I crouched next to him and shook him. He flopped bonelessly. Shit.

  “Sarelle?” he said weakly, opening his eyes. They still glowed red, but much fainter. “You shot me—”

  I put my finger to his lips and said, “Shh. I aimed to the left of your heart. Danial thinks you’re dead. We need to keep it that way.”

  His eyes widened.

  Hoping I’d judged him correctly—or I was going to be the one lying on the ground shortly—I told him what Danial had said about his brother not being murdered.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. Eat.” I gave him some raw steak. He’d said he could drink blood, so I reasoned that this had to help. There was blood in raw meat.