Bound by Blood (Vampire Romance)

by Tara Manderino

  “I do know it. In this case, I’m counting on it.” Alex gave a shrug and a tight smile. “You play with numbers. I, too, have to do something and this is better than many.”

  Louis nodded in understanding. “There is still that justice streak in you, I see.”

  “’Fraid so.” Alex took another swallow of his drink and put the glass on the table. “Probably more so now than in the past.”

  “What is it about this that bothers you so much? A child harmed is always a waste, but others have disappeared and there has not been this sense of outrage in you before.”

  Alex leaned across the table. “She’s mine.” His tone brooked no argument. “I have followed that lineage, Louis. You know that,” he practically hissed the words.

  “Then go carefully. It could very well be because of you she was taken.”

  Alex’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the other vampire. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Me? Nothing. But be aware no one ever knows everything. I would say let the mortals worry about finding the child -- for the child and the parents’ sake. The child is nothing. For you, I think you need to look at why someone would want to attack you.”

  Alex struggled not to bristle at his friend’s words. “So you do think it’s personal?”

  Louis held up his hands, palm outward. “I have no idea at this point, Alessandro. Know that I am on your side, whatever it seems to be. All I am saying is for you to be careful.”

  Alex nodded in acknowledgement. “So, my first task is to find where Carlos may be hiding.” He twirled the near empty glass between his hands. “You know, Louis, it must be something important, why else would Carlos come by in the middle of the day and make his appearance known, brief though it was.”

  Louis gave him a tight smile. “That does seem to be the question.”

  Pushing away from the table, Alex stood. “I’m on duty soon.”

  Chapter 6

  “Where the hell have you been?” Nick barked at him when he walked into the room. His partner was shrugging into his jacket and in the process of leaving the office. “Hey, slow down. Sorry about that, but I had a lead. Where are you headed?”

  Nick stopped, but didn’t drop the scowl. “What lead? I just got a call from Morgan’s.”

  “I had all calls re-routed to come through my cell phone, I got no call.”

  “Not a call,” Nick said. “This was a personal delivery.”

  If it had been possible, Alex was sure this was the part where he would have felt his blood drain from his body. In all of his years seeking justice, as Louis put it, working for law enforcement as he stated it, there had been many such deliveries. If Sandy had been harmed in any way he would tear Carlos’ throat out. Not that he didn’t intend to do so anyway.

  “Earth to Alex. Are you in or not?” Nick asked when he had Alex’s attention.

  “Oh, I’m definitely in,” he said and followed his partner out the door.

  As they slid into Nick’s car, the detective filled him in. “Someone delivered a note, attached to a very large rock, to the Morgan house.”

  Alex let out a slight sound that could have been anything, but was his relief. A personal message could have been anything from a body part to the body. It had happened before.

  His partner gave him a quick look then focused back on the road. “This case is really getting to you. I have never seen you react to anything like this.”

  “There is something different when very innocent children are involved.”

  “Damn straight there,” Nick agreed. “But all children are innocent. That was a funny way to say it.”

  Alex let the comment slide. Perhaps in his years on the force and as detective, Nick had not seen a truly evil child. Alex knew they existed. They terrified him more than anything on this earth, even more than a rogue vampire, but that was not the case here, he reminded himself.

  Once inside the house, they found Barbara Morgan seated on the sofa, crying softly into a tissue. Alex resisted raising his eyebrows. Mrs. Morgan was not the type to do anything softly if it wasn’t to her benefit. Just then, one of the officers came back into the room and stooped down beside the distraught woman, handing her a glass of water and aspirin.

  Alex scanned the room for Jason Morgan, and found the man standing by a table, studying something lying there. The letter?

  Quickly he made his way to his side. “What does it say?” he asked before leaning in to read the message himself.

  Morgan turned to look at him. It took a moment for his eyes to focus; to come back to the present.

  “It doesn’t make sense. Look,” he pointed to the missive.

  Alex had glanced over the contents. He was right, to the casual observer, it made no sense. To him, it was chilling. Proof, in his opinion, the child was missing because of him. If she had not been of his linage, there would be no reason to abduct her. But to what purpose?

  Roses are red, Violets are blue, I have the child, because of you. The child will complete the circle.

  “What in the hell does that mean? Not exactly a ransom note, is it?”

  “Were the officers able to find any prints? Anything?” He kept his voice even, careful not to betray his suspicion they would find nothing.

  “Not a damn thing. I’m beginning to think my wife is right. It has to be the nanny. She’s not here now, but she could have hidden Sandy away and then come back and delivered this message. She would have known not to use the phone because she was here when the tap was set up.”

  Alex had to admit it sounded plausible, and damming, but he didn’t believe it. “Does your wife have a reason to suspect anything?”

  “Not that I know of,” he admitted, “but she hadn’t been fond of Lisa from the beginning.”

  “Have you looked in her room for anything to support her suspicion? Is everything where it should be?”

  “No, she was here. I had no reason to look no matter what Barbara said. I can show you the room now, if you like.” He started toward the stairs and Alex followed. He turned to see Nick watching him, so beckoned the man over. He certainly didn’t need his help, didn’t want it, but working as a partner it was necessary to share once in awhile. Quickly he brought the other detective up to date as they headed upstairs.

  The room was at the top floor of the house. While the Morgan house was up-to-date, it was one of the older homes in the area and dated to the early 1900s, if not before. The room he led them to would have traditionally been the servants’ quarters, Alex judged. It didn’t sit well with him that Lisa lived here in spite of the fact the room was large, bright and cheery.

  “Your daughter sleeps up here too?” Nick asked.

  It was possible, Alex acknowledged to himself. Nurseries tended to be on the top floor and nannies were with their charges, but this was above the top floor, it was essentially the attic, no matter how nice it appeared. He tamped down his own thoughts, they were decades, centuries, old and he knew it.

  “No, Sandy sleeps downstairs, on the second floor,” Morgan clarified. “We felt it best the nanny have space to herself. Feel free to look around,” he told them. Rather than leaving, he stepped out of the way and leaned against the door frame, watching as they worked.

  As Nick checked the space, Alex contemplated any motives Carlos might have. He stood in the middle of the room taking everything in. Finally, his training, as well as his very nature, demanded he look about. Her scent was everywhere, as it should be. He knew a sense of relief it was hers alone.

  “Anyone else ever come up here?” Nick asked.

  “No. Not that she couldn’t have invited anyone over for a visit, but Lisa kept to herself all the time. She never talked to friends, never went out. She even spent a great deal of her free time with Sandy.”

  Nick shook his head. “Some people have all the luck. I’ve seen when the nannies want to run off as much as possible. They either want more free time, or more money, or more something. Sounds like you had the ideal per
son, Morgan.”

  “She was very good. At least I thought so.” His voice hardened on the last of the sentence. “It could have been an act. You know, once she saw how well off we were, she –“

  “What was her background?” Alex stopped that train of thought from the other man, but was afraid his own questions was more personal interest on his part, even if he did need the information. He felt reassured when he Nick started taking notes.

  Morgan shrugged. “She came highly recommended. Best agency and all that”

  “What about her family,” Nick asked.

  “Can’t say she ever talked much about them. Parents, obviously, somewhere.” He shrugged again. “I really couldn’t say.”

  “She worked for you for what, a year?”

  “Two,” Morgan said.

  “Two years, and you don’t know anything about her?” Nick’s voice was incredulous.

  Alex understood where he was coming from, but the information didn’t surprise him. People who wanted to hide didn’t talk about themselves. Obviously, she wanted to hide. He wanted to know why.

  Still, why hadn’t this family found out anything more about her? What if she needed someone? They would never have known. He had to stop that line of thinking. Had he been any different when he was in Morgan’s position? He would have liked to think he had been, but in reality knew it had not been the case. It didn’t matter his had been a different world. Humane humans existed in all time and places. He was afraid he had missed out on both counts. Yet, he found himself curious about Lisa, and unreasonably angered that his family she worked for and lived with, knew nothing about her.

  He prowled about the room as Nick continued talking and asking questions. He didn’t open any of the drawers, though he longed to do so, to see what she had hidden. If he had been by himself, he knew he would have. Instead, he confined his search to the exposed items; a few knickknacks, a small clay statue.

  When Morgan noticed his gaze straying there, he said, “That was from Sandy. She gave it to Nanny on her birthday.”

  “Which was when?”

  Morgan’s gaze swept back to Nick and he shrugged. “I really don’t know. Some time in the fall. Does it really matter?”

  “No,” Nick assured him, and then continued on.

  Alex spotted a picture frame, the only one in the room that he could see. It was on her dressing table. So she could see it every day, he wondered. Why not on her nightstand where she would see it each night and each morning? In spite of himself, he picked it up to study it. It was a much younger Lisa, with her bright hair reflecting the sun; her smile was just as bright. She was standing close to a youthful man who looked like he spent a lot of time out of doors. They were standing on a boat dock. Abruptly, he replaced the picture and looked around the room again. There really wasn’t anything else to see.

  Nodding that he was finished, Alex waited for Nick to finish his questions, then they headed down the stairs. He wanted to be done here. To go home and see if Lisa was still there. He could hardly say any of it. He didn’t like that Morgan or the police considered her a suspect, but he had no desire to tell them of her whereabouts just yet.

  “Did you find anything to explain why she would do such a thing?” Barbara Morgan greeted them when they entered the room. She stood and walked toward her husband, looking as if she would collapse at any moment. Alex wondered how much of it was authentic.

  “We don’t think she did anything,” Nick told her in a firm voice. “But we thought it was a good opportunity to check.”

  “Of course she did something. She took my Sandy. She had to. Otherwise she would be here, not running away after she posted some note.”

  One of the officers came up to the group as Barbara’s voice grew louder. He looked at her, then over to Nick and Alex. “Did you find anything?” he asked them.

  “There was nothing to find,” Alex told him. “Mrs. Morgan is overwrought, and rightly so. But I don’t think the young lady has anything to do with the abduction.”

  “Perhaps we should bring her in for questioning.”

  Alex drew his lips together. That was the last thing he wanted. What he needed to do was be out there looking for Carlos or why the other vampire would want a child; this child. The message could have been directed to him more than Morgan. Did Carlos know he was already involved? Alex was sure he had been counting on it.

  “When she comes in, have her go down to the station,” Nick told the Morgans before the detectives took their leave. Now all Alex had to do was find a way to ditch his partner.

  When that didn’t look as if it was going to happen any time soon, Alex stopped in the office and caught up on some paperwork.

  “Do you think Morgan was lying?” Nick asked after grabbing a cup of coffee and perching on the end of Alex’s desk.

  Alex leaned back in his chair. “About what? I’m sure that message was real.” Very real.

  “Not the message, although…” Nick cocked his head to one side as if considering the possibility, “although the wife could have planted it.”

  “Or he could have.”

  “Nah! She seems the type. He seems a pretty straight arrow.”

  “Then what could he have lied about?”

  Nick blew across the top of his coffee. “How could anyone live with someone for two years and not know anything about them?”

  Alex held up his fingers as he ticked off points. “First, they weren’t living together, and two, she probably had a lot more to say to Mrs. Morgan than the father.”

  “Still, do you think he was lying?”

  Alex rocked back in his chair, then let it pitch him forward so that he was sitting straight again. “There was nothing to lie about.” Was there?

  “Not sure I believe it, but I’m willing to let it go for now.” He stood, and looked down at Alex, his expression more serious than it had been moments before. “It really bothers me, Alex, that we haven’t found a lead on this kid.” He shook his head. “That doesn’t bode well for the girl. I’ve seen enough of these to know if we don’t get something soon, and find the kid by tomorrow, we may never get her back. At least not the way her parents would want her to be.”

  Alex gave a brief nod of agreement and watched Nick walk to his desk. The man was right, which was why he had spent the last hour or so they had been in the office searching out Carlos on the various databases he could access from here. It was not an easy trail to find. And he knew it could well be cold, but it was a place to start. The contents of the message, meager as it was, gave him plenty to chew over. It could mean different things, depending on who it was really addressed to. He couldn’t dismiss the niggling thought that Carlos knew the child was his.

  Shutting down his computer, he stood and stretched. “Hey, Nick, I’m going to head home for a bit. I should be back in another hour or so. I want to check something out.”

  He addressed Nick, but the other men in the room looked at him with interest.

  “Whatever,” Nick responded, “but I have no idea what you can look at home that you can’t find here.”

  Alex didn’t bother answering him, but suited his action to words. That information was not for sharing. In a very short time, he pulled up to his driveway. The lights of the house were still off save for the one lamp in the great room that he had left on for Lisa. He wondered if she was still there, but was loathe to open the door and actually find out.

  It had been a long night. Once inside, he closed the door softly behind him and made his way to the kitchen. There, he poured himself a glass of nourishment, and drank quickly. He needed to feed, but he surely didn’t want Lisa, or anyone for that matter, to walk up to him while he was in the middle of it. He rinsed his glass, left it in the sink, and then headed to the media area of the room.

  She was sound asleep, curled in on herself. The television was still on, so she must have been watching it. He stood where he was, looking down at her. What was wrong with him? He couldn’t seem to have his fill of
her.

  Not that he had suspected otherwise, but unless she was extremely fast, hyper-fast, then she could not have been at the Morgan’s. But she could have orchestrated it, a niggling voice told him. He banished the thought. He could smell her innocence. Some things you could disguise, some you could not.

  Stepping behind the couch, he rested his hands on the back of it; she didn’t awaken. Her breathing was deep and even. Even in the gentle light he could see the circles of exhaustion under her eyes. Resisting the urge to wake her, he took one of the throws and drew it over her; watching her snuggle into it. Leaving her side, he retrieved his laptop from the computer armoire and made himself comfortable in one of the nearby chairs. Crossing one leg over the other, he opened his computer. He hesitated a moment before turning it on, hoping the sound of the machine booting up wouldn’t startle her. She was in a relaxed sleep now. Her muscles had loosened; her blood flowed even more smoothly. He nearly groaned. Now why did he have to zero in on that? He had just fed. He certainly wasn’t hungry.

  She stirred when the machine powered on, turning her head so that her copper curls fell to one side, exposing her slender neck. He really, really did not need the distraction. He dragged his attention back to the computer. In spite of Nick’s skepticism there really were things he simply could not look for at work -- like exactly where Carlos was hiding. He had some leads that would put him in the proximity of where the vampire might be, if not the exact location of where he called home.

  Another hour of work, and he was satisfied he had all the information he could obtain for now. He shut down the computer, but left it on the table beside his chair, stood and stretched. He would have time for a nap before he started his hunt in earnest. Nick was right about one thing as far as normal kidnappings were concerned: they needed to find the child ASAP. The note, and Carlos’ presence, convinced Alex there was nothing normal about this.

  Chapter 7

  Something woke him from his sleep in his below stairs bedroom a few hours later. It took a moment to regain his thoughts. An intruder was not likely. Then he recalled Lisa above stairs. He had left a note saying he would be in mid-morning and they would get something to eat then.