“I agree,” Ursula said, “but short of torture, I’m not sure how to get her to admit it. We could try that approach, but I’m not convinced it will do us any good.”
“Torture?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “While I’m not averse to the idea, I’m surprised by that suggestion from you.”
Ursula shrugged. “You know better than most that I’m not squeamish.”
“True,” he said as he studied Ursula. “You are much stronger than most give you credit for. If you weren’t, you never would have survived my father.”
“Are you angry?” In her eyes there was a vulnerability that surprised Roman. Ursula was always the strong one.
He shook his head. “No, but that may be because it’s not exactly a surprise. You do realize that I know just about every secret the members of this family try to keep from me.”
“There are more than a few so I seriously doubt you know most of them,” she said with a humorless laugh.
“Nathaniel and Hannah are alive.”
The satisfied smile only lasted a moment before Ursula waved off his confession like it was nothing. “Of course, you know. Why do you think I left so many obvious clues? Did you think I would let you believe your only son was dead? Honestly, I didn’t see that happening.”
“Neither of us saw that coming,” he admitted. “I also know Lenore is still alive. Isaiah and Drew buried a body on Nathaniel’s property last autumn.”
“The body is a surprise to me,” Ursula said. “I always suspected you knew about Lenore.”
“Yet, you never said anything,” he couldn’t keep the accusation from his voice. “So many lies.”
Ursula sighed. “Well, you haven’t exactly been approachable and I haven’t known what to expect from you since long before Nathaniel’s birth. After what happened with Lenore, is my lack of faith in you really a surprise?”
“No, I can’t blame you. There’s no excuse for the way I acted. For centuries, I’ve been trying to close myself off from everyone and everything. People were lucky when I avoided them because when I was around I was a complete bastard.”
“Not anymore?” Ursula asked.
Roman shook his head. “Things have definitely changed.”
“I’m sure your granddaughters have something to do with those changes,” she said.
“Yes, they refuse to leave me alone, but I don’t really mind. Not that they would care if I did mind. They are truly amazing and I love having them in my life. Although being around them does make me regret the time I missed with Nathaniel.”
Ursula had moved to the far end of the room and was staring at his reflection in the mirror above the fireplace. It looked like she was going to turn and walk toward him, but she stopped herself and continued to meet his gaze in the reflection. “You can’t change that now,” Ursula said. “Maybe you should consider bringing Nathaniel back here before Hannah has her baby. The baby should be here soon. Actually, I’ll need to leave soon so I’m close by when Hannah’s time comes.”
“Let’s deal with all of the other problems first. Lydia needs my full attention now.”
Ursula gave him a knowing smile. “Lydia means a great deal to you, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, the only other woman I felt this way about was Claudia and I was obsessed from the moment I laid eyes on her.” Roman let out a frustrated breath and massaged his temple. “How am I any better than Dominic?”
“Roman, you would have done anything for Claudia. Yes, it started out as an obsession of sorts but you wouldn’t have hurt her.”
“The same can’t be said of Lenore. My time with her proves I’m capable of horrible things. I keep saying I’m going to let Lydia go when this is all over, but that’s a lie. The very first time I donated energy for Lydia’s healing, I knew she was something special. I could sense her energy flowing around mine. No matter how weak that energy was, it still soothed and beguiled me. Suddenly, I found myself at the hospital every day, refusing to let anyone else give her energy. You should have seen her the day Dominic tried to kidnap her from the hospital. The woman had just come out of a coma and she fought with everything she had. She was more alive than I’d been in years.”
“You’ve always been most attracted to strong women.”
“It was nothing quite that sane. Even before that, I stopped allowing others to give Lydia energy. I wanted my energy to be the only one mingling with hers. When her mother mentioned having her transferred to another facility, I brought her back here to care for. I spent hours in her room. What I did is far from normal.”
“Normal by whose standards?” Ursula asked with a shrug. “Your strength is in sensing and manipulating the energy of others. You were first drawn to Claudia because of her energy, right?”
He nodded.
“Then I’m guessing Lydia’s energy has the same pull for you. Lydia is just meant to be with you.” Ursula’s explanation made it sound so simple, almost innocent.
Roman smiled. “You’ve been reading the same romance books Lydia does.”
Ursula laughed. “Hardly. I’m not the sort to get caught up in romance. Leave that to Sofia. What I’m talking about isn’t romance, it’s simply a good match in your energy. I imagine it was the same with Aiden when he met Tempest. Things progressed very quickly between them because he recognized her as his mate right away.”
Roman chuckled. “Okay, I take back the part about you getting this from romance novels. There is nothing romantic about what you said.” Roman reached out and pulled her into a hug. “I worry about you being alone.”
She pulled away and shook her head. “I’m alone much less than you are. I spend most of my days going from one member of this family to another. My days are full and I have plenty of people to keep me company.”
“You keep busy doing things that are my responsibility.”
She shrugged. “Someone has to do them, and I don’t mind.”
“Are you doing it because you don’t think I will? Or are you doing it to avoid dealing with your own life?”
Ursula looked angry. That wasn’t an expression he was used to seeing on her face, and it confirmed that he’d hit the nail on the head. “I’m content with my life.”
“Content isn’t happy,” he said thoughtfully. “Until recently, I thought it was, but I was wrong.”
“Seeing you like this, has brought me closer to true happiness than I thought possible. I’ve been worried about you for so long,” she said in a tired voice.
“I’ve been selfish.” He’d never considered how his actions affected the rest of his family. Never once had he considered how much time Ursula spent cleaning up messes that he should have handled.
Ursula should be angry with him. Instead, she smiled and said, “Yes, you have been selfish, but all of that is changing.”
She was right. For the first time in four centuries, Roman Draksel felt alive.
Chapter Eighteen
Lydia found it impossible to follow all of Sofia’s endless chatter. The woman was a hoot! Nice person? Nope, Sofia was a royal bitch. Still, Lydia liked her. On their walk Lydia noticed that the rose bushes needed some attention. Sofia didn’t seem surprised at all when Lydia set down her basket of gardening tools and started trimming and cooing at one of the rose bushes. Well, the fact that they’d brought a basket of gardening tools was probably a warning of what was coming.
“Most of the mothers were real bitches,” Sofia continued her rant. “Stupid girls thought they were going to gain some position in the house because they were able to give my husband a child. How could they not realize that the baby would be passed off as mine? Every time one of them got far enough along to show, we were both sent out of the area. There were some advantages for me. Ursula cared for the babies with a wet nurse after the birth and I was free for at least a year. Well, mostly free. My husband visited me. Who knows if he did it because it was the thing to do or if he just enjoyed taunting me? Likely it was the latter.”
“Were any
of them your children?” Lydia looked up at Sofia when she asked the question.
Sofia shook her head. “The first baby is the one I carried the longest. I’m pretty sure I was close to full‑term when I had him. He never took a breath.” She let out a sad sigh but seemed to quickly recover from that moment of sadness. “I was eleven for that first pregnancy.”
“That man should be stabbed in the balls,” Lydia muttered.
“Roman killed him,” Sofia said, and Lydia heard the smile in the other woman’s voice. “Put a knife in his throat.”
“Balls would have been better,” Lydia said.
“I agree. Actually, I wish I’d been the one to kill my husband. The first pregnancy was when my hair grew this long. There are many days when I’m a little jealous of women with short hair.”
Lydia nodded, knowing an attempt to change the subject. “I cut it short right before I shower. Roman keeps warning me that I’ll end up needing more energy if I keep doing it. So far, I’m just eating more food.”
“I’d never thought about cutting it before showers,” Sofia said. “It feels like it takes hours to get it clean and dried.” A somber expression came onto Sofia’s lovely face. “Ursula got pregnant shortly after my baby died. My emotions were torn between jealousy and hope that my husband would replace me. Instead of replacing me, my husband expected me to be a mother to Ursula’s son. I hated Roman at first. Actually, I hated him for many years. None of it was his fault, but he was a reminder of the child I had lost. He was a reminder of the child I mourned alone.”
“Don’t stress. Most people would struggle with that situation. I’m not even sure you hated him so much. Sounds more like you had a lot of things to hate and you just needed one thing to focus on.”
Sofia sighed again. “That’s true. I was also young and immature. Anyway, after the stillborn baby, I had twenty‑seven miscarriages before my body just stopped making babies. It was a relief to be done with it. To be perfectly honest, I don’t care for children all that much.”
Lydia laughed. “Neither do I. Knowing that I can’t have children still feels weird, but a big part of me is relieved.”
“How does Roman feel about that?” Sofia asked.
“He seems fine with it.” Lydia hesitated. “Can I tell you something?”
Sofia shrugged. “Yes, but I can’t promise not to hold it against you at some later date.”
Lydia hesitated. Sofia made Caitlin look sweet. Still, she figured Sofia might be the only person who really understood what she was feeling. “What I said about not wanting kids is true. Now, I don’t have to worry about birth control which has been great.”
“But you hate the fact that the choice was taken away from you,” Sofia said with a sad smile.
Lydia nodded. “The choice should have been mine, and I’m kind of pissed off that it was taken away from me. It feels like just one more reason to want Dominic dead. I don’t even believe in the death penalty, but Dominic’s death seems like the only solution. What does it say about me that I feel this way?”
“Your feelings are perfectly normal.” Those words might sound more comforting from someone who was a little less ruthless. “I don’t know why Dominic hurt you, but I do know that his gene pool is more like a cesspool.”
Lydia laughed. “I take it you don’t like his parents?”
“Dominic’s father, Mikhail, was never quite right. Mikhail’s mother was crazed after his birth and ended up killing herself. Well, it may have been an accident. Who knows? Mikhail ended up marrying a crazy woman so Dominic never had a chance. Dominic has probably been up to a lot more than anyone suspects. Most of his life, he’s been quiet and polite. As a result, people weren’t really paying attention to what he was doing. If Nathaniel hadn’t taken up with your cousin, you would have died without anyone noticing the connection.”
“It’s always the quiet ones,” Lydia muttered as she carefully trimmed around a thorny section of the rose bush. “What happened to Dominic’s father?”
“That boy was never careful about hiding his true nature. One night, he went out to a pub in London and kidnapped a girl. As it turned out, that girl was the daughter of a hunter.”
“What’s a hunter?” Lydia asked.
“Quite simply, they hunt our kind,” she explained. “Not all of them are born hunters. Some of their family members are human. Actually, the hunting isn’t done much now. In general, there’s an unspoken truce. We don’t go around killing people, and they don’t track us down. Dominic should have been killed when Roman realized how dangerous he was.”
Now, this was interesting. Why hadn’t anyone mentioned hunters before? “How would the hunters even track you down? It seems like it’s pretty hard to recognize most of you.”
“They can sense the differences in our energy,” Sofia explained. “They need to be close enough to do it, but they can track us in large groups. Don’t worry,” she said as she patted Lydia’s shoulder. “It’s nothing like it used to be. They’re just trying to live their own lives at this point. Unless you go on a killing spree, you should be safe.”
“No killing sprees for me.” Lydia flashed a smile. “That would totally ruin my manicure. Have you ever met one?” Years of reading had obviously desensitized her some because meeting a hunter sounded more exciting than scary.
“A few,” she said. “Many of their women are in positions of power. I like that.”
“So hunters are smarter,” Lydia said with a grin.
Sofia laughed. “The women in this family have a lot more power than the men want to admit.”
Lydia tried to stand and realized that her hair was caught in the rosebush again. She practically growled in frustration. “This hair is a major pain in the ass. I was never one of the little girls who wanted to be Rapunzel.”
Sofia giggled.
“What’s so funny?” Lydia grumbled as she carefully pulled her hair from the rosebush.
“Have you seen the painting of Roman’s first wife, Claudia?”
“No, I didn’t even know there was a painting of her. Why do you ask?”
“Roman’s first two wives looked like Snow White,” Sofia explained around her laughter. “Roman has a thing for Disney princesses.”
Tangled hair forgotten, Lydia laughed so hard that she started to snort. “Please don’t tell Roman I know about this. I have a great idea.”
“My lips are sealed,” Sofia assured her.
“Damn I wish there was a way to run to the store without Roman. I need to pick something up.”
“I can go for you,” Sofia offered.
“You’re offering to run errands for me?” Lydia was skeptical. “We may not know each other well, but that seems out of character.”
Sofia flashed a wicked smile. “Such a smart girl. Let me rephrase my offer. I’ll do it as long as you promise to tell me what you have planned.”
Lydia thought for a moment and nodded.
Chapter Nineteen
Lydia was relieved to be away from the maternal figures in Roman’s life. She was also glad to get out for the day. They’d just ordered lunch.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Sofia’s confession must come as quite a shock.”
Roman didn’t answer right away. “I keep expecting to feel something profound, but it wasn’t much of a shock. Ursula raised me, and I’ve always considered her my mother. To be honest, I always knew there was a possibility that she was my mother. Maybe that’s why it’s not affecting me much.”
“That could be it,” Lydia said thoughtfully. “I kind of wish I’d hear that my mom isn’t really my mother. The woman is awful.” After a long sigh Lydia looked down at the salad fork she was twirling to avoid twirling hair. “Actually, that’s not fair. My mom’s not a bad person, she’s just in her own world and I’ve never fit into it. Honestly, I’ve gone out of my way to be a pain in the ass. We’ve never understood each other.”
“Your mother is nothing like you.” Roman said as he confiscate
d her salad fork and took her hand in his. “Not only her appearance, she also lacks your spirit.”
“Yeah, I must be some kind of throwback because I don’t look anything like either of my parents. How did two people with brown hair and brown eyes end up with a blonde haired, blue eyed daughter?”
“I would ask if you were adopted, but you and Hannah must be related based on the strong psychic abilities.”
“Fine, kill my adoption fantasy. Actually, I adored my dad and I still miss him. Okay, I even love my mom. At least, I didn’t grow up with Hannah’s parents. Those people made my mom seem like mother of the year.” Lydia took a moment to scan the crowded restaurant and froze with her mouth open. Surely she was seeing things. Blinking her eyes didn’t work.
“What’s wrong?” Roman asked.
“Hannah’s father is here,” she said feeling somewhat numb.
Roman looked over his shoulder and cursed under his breath. Obviously, he wasn’t happy about Hannah’s father being there either. “Perhaps, he won’t notice us.”
“No such luck, he’s heading our way. What’s your relationship with Nathaniel? Once he hears your name, he’s going to ask.”
“Brother,” Roman replied. “I’m two years older than Nathaniel.”
Wow! Roman really knew how to make up a cover story on the spot.
“Lydia, is that you?” called out her uncle as he approached the table.
Lydia stood to offer an awkward hug. Warren Montgomery was her father’s brother, but she’d never been close to him. Her uncle was a man more concerned with moving ahead in the business world than spending time with family.
It was just past noon, but she could already smell the alcohol on her uncle’s breath. “I’ve been worried.” Her uncle’s voice was choked with emotion.
Lydia wasn’t sure what to say. “I’m fine now. How are you?”
Vampires Prefer Blondes (Psy-Vamp Book 3) Page 11
