Mercy's Destiny: Montgomery's Vampires Trilogy (Book #3) (Montgomery's Vampires Series)

by Sloan Archer

“I’m sure they looked very exquisite on you, Elizabeth,” Joseph pouted right back.

  “I’ll have to show you them sometime,” Liz flirted.

  Joseph raised an eyebrow and winked. “I shall look forward to it.”

  Oh brother.

  Joseph, now remembering that the rest of us were still in the room, continued. “A crackpot human will occasionally post information on their blog that contains a modicum of validity. We especially monitor posts from humans who maintain that they have been attacked by vampires. If there is a hint of legitimacy to their claim, we will send an investigator to that human’s territory to see if there are any vampires misbehaving.”

  “You guys really do have eyes everywhere,” I said. No wonder it didn’t take the VGO long to find Robert and me when we were in hiding.

  “You have no idea, Mercy.” Joseph was bursting with pride, like I’d given him a compliment. I hadn’t. “A blog written by a man residing on the California-Arizona border was discovered by my IT team here in the U.S. This man, Martin, claimed that an exquisitely ethereal French vampire—his words, not mine— had attacked him down in a cave. He described her as tall, blond, and bloodthirsty.”

  “Sounds about right, Serena being bloodthirsty,” I said. The exquisitely ethereal part was right, too, not that I was going to admit it. Bitch Face. “But a cave? What kind of cave?”

  “A mineral cave. Martin’s area is known for quartz,” Joseph said. “As the team learned from the blog, Martin would frequently mine gems underground. He gave cave tours to tourists as well. He’d been alone on the day he claimed he’d been attacked, or else we would have had a real problem to deal with.”

  “You didn’t, uh, take care of the problem, did you?” I made a swiping motion across my throat. If they had, poor Martin, whoever he was.

  Joseph shook his head. “We didn’t need to. Martin was no problem at all, because he seemed so utterly insane. He lives in a trailer off the highway, which he’d posted photos of on his blog. In the photos, Martin shows his followers how to government-proof their homes by taping tinfoil over the windows. The tinfoil blocks out the radio waves, you see.”

  “Jesus,” Liz said.

  Joseph smiled, “That’s not all. There’s a section of Martin’s blog dedicated to the health benefits of drinking one’s own urine. And there’s also a video where he discusses how he cured his prostate cancer by drinking apple cider vinegar.”

  I giggled. “Wow.”

  “Yes, wow. It’s still up on his blog, should you ever want to see it,” Joseph joked.

  “I think I’ll pass, thanks,” I said.

  “Even if Martin had posted concrete proof of Serena’s attack, nobody would have believed him,” Joseph said.

  I asked, “So, it was actually Serena who attacked Martin?”

  Joseph nodded. “The IT team would have dismissed Martin completely, had I not told them to look for keywords that pertained to both Serena and Robert.”

  “Serena kidnapped Robert and then held him captive in a cave?” I deduced.

  “Serena has never been good at planning or fully weighing her ideas before acting upon them. She’s impulsive, which is part of the reason why the VGO wanted to be rid of her,” Joseph said. “However, it appeared that she wanted to be rid of us, too. From what we uncovered in the cave, and based on what Robert has confirmed, Serena has been plotting against us for quite some time.”

  “Which is why she kidnapped me,” Robert said. “She was planning to ambush the VGO headquarters, and she was going to use me to do it by controlling me with my fangs. She knew I’d fight to the death, if that’s what she commanded me to do, because I couldn’t rebel against her influence.”

  “Crazy bitch,” I muttered.

  Robert continued, “All her flirting with me when we were at VGO headquarters, as well as the call she made me make to you, was only for show. She was going to use me to murder the most influential VGO members. And then she was going to explain away the massacre by telling everyone that I, her scorned lover, had gone mad after she ended things with me.”

  “Serena had much of the attack outlined in the cave,” Joseph added. “She had blueprints of our headquarters that she was making Robert memorize. She also had photos of the VGO members she wanted assassinated: members who were her biggest opponents—those who’d campaigned most for her dismissal from the VGO. I was on the wall, of course, along with seven others.”

  “How did she expect Robert to take out so many members? One against eight seems ambitious.” I kissed Robert on the cheek. “Though Robert is a big, strong vampire.”

  “Thanks, honey,” Robert smiled. Liz, Jerry, and Sebastian rolled their eyes at us.

  “This is where Serena’s horrible preparation skills come into play,” Joseph said. “It appeared that her initial plan was to take out two members. But then once she started plotting, she decided to throw in a few more for good measure.”

  “How was she going to remedy being outnumbered?” I asked.

  “She was going to build an army,” Robert said. “I was her first soldier, so to speak. She was going to turn humans in Arizona into vampires and then yank out their fangs immediately after the changeover, when they were at their weakest. And then once she amassed a large enough army, she was going to order us to execute the ambush. With the new army, Serena not only wanted to slay the seven on the wall, but every single member of the VGO at the Scotland headquarters.”

  “She may have even succeeded, had you not told me about Robert’s suspicious disappearance,” Joseph said to me. “So, for that, the VGO are in your debt. To repay this debt, we are releasing you from your blood obligation to us.”

  “You mean I don’t have to give you my blood anymore?” I was so happy I nearly jumped up and did a cartwheel.

  “No more needles for you, Ms. Montgomery,” Joseph smiled. “It’s the least we could do.”

  After a moment of silence, I asked, “How did Crackpot Martin come into play in all this?”

  “Martin was to be Serena’s first human-turned-vampire soldier. He was down in the cave, searching for his rocks or whatever, when Serena attacked him,” Robert said. “She would have managed to turn him, too, had he not been carrying a quartz point in his pocket. That, Serena had not expected.”

  “Serena frequently underestimated humans,” Joseph said. “It was one of her major faults. She was too arrogant to ever recognize the threat humans posed when they had the right tools or information to wield against vampires. She was often careless.”

  “She was undeniably careless with Martin,” Robert said. “After she bit into his neck, he jabbed her in the chest with the quartz. She let go of him and he ran screaming out of the cave. This happened during the day, so she couldn’t chase after him.”

  “I’m surprised she didn’t find him once the sun went down,” I commented.

  “Serena was far too injured. She had to go out and feed,” Robert said, “or else she would have died.”

  “Serena was gone when we found Robert in the cave,” Joseph added.

  “And she hasn’t been captured?” I asked. Great, now we had Richard, Maxine, and Bitch Face Serena to contend with.

  Joseph shook his head.

  Robert reached into his pocket and pulled out something small. “Hold out your hand.”

  I did. “I can’t believe it,” I gasped. “Your fangs.”

  “Serena left them behind when she went rushing out for blood,” Robert said. “So if we never find her, it doesn’t matter. Her reign of terror over our life is over.”

  17

  “Are you sure? You’re sure, right?”

  I’d lost count, but I was pretty certain it was the hundredth time Robert was questioning me. Thankfully, everyone had gone home, so nobody was around to hear our dizzying conversation.

  “Yes, Robert, I am absolutely positive.”

  Robert sat back in the sofa, stunned. “How? When?”

  “It happened when you were human . . . I�
��m guessing while we were in Bali.”

  He rubbed at his chin, a faraway flicker in his eyes. Whether it was a look of I’m so happy or I’m so screwed, I couldn’t tell. This was an expression I hadn’t seen Robert wear before.

  Finally, he said, “I’m going to be a father?”

  “Yes, if that’s what you want?” I said, and Robert shot me a look—confusion, maybe, or hurt. “It’s just . . .” I didn’t know how to finish the sentence. I was terrible at this sort of thing—having “a talk.” I considered myself more of a do-er than a say-er.

  “Just . . . ?”

  I ventured on. “I just don’t want you to feel pressured. Or trapped. I know that we haven’t been together for years and years, and obviously neither one of us could have imagined something like this happening. I have money from my great-grandparents now, as I told you earlier. So . . . Where are you going?”

  “I’ll be right back,” Robert called over his shoulder as he headed into his office.

  “Uh, okay.” Great, the father of my baby was literally running away from a conversation about parenthood. This could not be a good omen.

  When Robert came back, he pulled me to my feet.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  And then he got down on one knee.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered. Maybe I’d only thought it.

  “Mercy Delilah Montgomery, the love of my life, the mother of my child . . .” Robert extracted a ring box from his pocket and opened it. I gasped. “I knew on the first night we met that I wanted to spend eternity with you. And after all that we’ve been through, all the trials and tribulations we’ve endured, I know that, together, we are unstoppable. And everything else—when or how or if you become vampire—is a minor obstacle.” Robert had to choke out his final declarations, as he was starting to tear up. He wasn’t the only one. “I love you with all my heart and soul, and I will love our child even more. Will you bestow me you heart, Mercy? Will you marry me?”

  I sniffed. “Yes . . .” Suddenly, my cheeks were wet with tears. “Yes! A million times over, yes!”

  We were both weeping as Robert slipped the ring on my finger. He took me by surprise by sweeping me up in his arms. I knew what that look meant, so he didn’t need to tell me where we were going.

  After we’d finished making love, I sat up in bed, Robert’s arm curled around my midriff. I examined the ring, more beautiful than I could have ever dreamed: canary yellow diamond, a sparkly pavé setting, not too big and not too small.

  “It reminded me of the sun,” Robert said, observing me. “Which is why I chose it. The jeweler said it’s a radiant cut. I went out on a limb—do you like it?”

  I held my fingers under the light and fluttered them. “It’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s exactly what I’d pick out for myself.” I curled my hand around the back of my vampire fiancé’s head and gently pulled him in close for a kiss. (My fiancé! How much I was going to love saying that!) “But I’d marry you even if you’d given me a piece of twine tied into a bow.”

  “Oh?” Robert said, raising his eyebrows. “So, you want me to return the ring, then? We might have some twine out in the garage.” He gave my ring a tug to show that he was teasing.

  I pulled my hand away. “Well . . . you already got the ring, so I guess I’ll just have to keep it.”

  “Come here, you,” Robert said, and then he pulled me on his lap.

  “How long have you had this? The ring?”

  “I got it right after we got back from Bali, though I’ve wanted to marry you since our night at Whistle Stop.”

  I smiled up at him. “Our first date?”

  “Yes, my love.” Robert kissed the top of my head.

  “When do you want to do it?” I asked. “The ceremony?”

  “When would you like?”

  “Okay, I know this is old-fashioned . . .”

  Robert sat up. “You, old-fashioned? This is new. Usually you’re the one accusing me of being antiquated.”

  “Perhaps you’re starting to rub off on me, you old fuddy-duddy,” I teased.

  “Perish the thought,” he said melodramatically.

  “Anyway,” I continued, “I know it’s old-fashioned, but right after I found out that I was pregnant, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about how the last two generations of women in my family got pregnant out of wedlock. I’m not looking down on what my Grams and my mother did—not at all—but it would be nice if maybe I could try something different.”

  “You’d like to be married by the time the baby comes?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But do you think it’s . . . I don’t know, shotgun? Ostentatious?”

  “Absolutely not. Remember, Mercy, I had the ring before I even knew that you were pregnant.”

  “Oh right. But . . . Nobody else knows that, do they?”

  Sternly, Robert remarked, “Since when do you care about what other people think of you? You don’t have to justify yourself to anyone. It’s your life and you’re free to live it as you see fit.”

  I loved it when Robert got defensive on my behalf, like he was arguing against an invisible opponent in the room. “I suppose you’re right.”

  “Damn right, I’m right,” he declared. “And your friends—your true friends—will not care when you got pregnant. Besides, it’s none of their concern.”

  Nestling against Robert’s chest, I said, “You really are the best. Okay, so when should we do it? The ceremony.”

  “That depends on how you want to do it. I imagine you’ll want to go all out?”

  I mulled this over. “You know what? In the past, whenever I thought of my wedding, that’s just what I envisioned: tons of people—which is weird because I don’t even know tons of people—a huge cake, a fancy dress, flowers everywhere . . . The whole nine.” I sat up against the headboard and tucked a pillow under my back. “But when it comes down to it, none of that really matters as long as I have what’s most important.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You, Robert. As long as I have you.”

  Two months later, Robert and I stood in front of a whopping crowd of six—Liz, Sebastian, Jerry, Tim, Joseph, and Marlena—and promised to love each other, until death do us part. Nature surrounded us; we said our vows in the epicenter of a sprawling Japanese orchid garden, right in the heart of the city. Tim, Jerry’s husband, who was a judge by profession, married us. My dress was simple but elegant. Most importantly, it looked beautiful over my growing baby bump.

  There was no press coverage of the event and not a single member of the paparazzi present. We served cupcakes, champagne, and, of course, blood.

  It was low-key and intimate.

  It was perfect.

  And life seemed perfect—or at least as close to perfect as life could get. The baby growing inside me was healthy (and all human, so no fangs sucking on my uterus). I had a loving husband that I adored. And, for once, nobody was out to kill me. For the fist time in a very long time, I faced the future with optimism instead of grim uncertainty.

  Robert and I decided that, if we ever did find a way for me to become vampire, we’d do it when our child was ten. We chose age ten because we wanted him or her (we were going to wait until the baby was born to find out its sex) to have the most normal childhood possible. It was going to be tricky enough, with one parent being vampire. But we weren’t worried. We’d have love on our side. Robert and I would have liked to wait longer to turn me, but we had my relentless aging to contend with. I’d be thirty-five at the age of the changeover compared to Robert’s changeover age of thirty-one—not that being four years older than my husband put me in cougar territory. If Sebastian’s theory about my delayed aging was right, my older age wouldn’t matter too much, anyhow.

  Of course, all of this was based on the flimsy hope that we would eventually uncover a way for me to become vampire. It was a long shot, though I supposed anything was possible. Leopold had found a way to make vampires permanently human, so maybe he could
create a serum that had the opposite effect. After what had happened with the VGO, Leopold was no longer in the business of pharmaceuticals. But, since he’d nearly gotten both Robert and me murdered with his carelessness, I felt he owed us one. Even if he didn’t want to do it, I had ten years to talk him into it.

  However, in true form of life being full of surprises—well, the life of Mercy Montgomery, anyway—those ten years of waiting were shortened to just a couple months.

  In a strange twist of circumstances, the VGO were compelled (forced because they had no other choice would be more precise) to contact Leopold in order to get his lab rebuilt. This must have galled Leopold to no end, as the VGO were the ones who’d destroyed his lab to begin with, by burning it to the ground. The VGO had constructed a lab of their own prior to annihilating Leopold’s—the VGO liked to cover all bases before committing to any permanent arrangements—though they hadn’t made nearly as much progress as Leopold had. Basically, the VGO now needed Leopold’s expertise and Leopold needed the VGO not to murder him. Vampire tit for tat.

  The biggest obstacle Leopold and the VGO had to hurdle was finding scientists who were capable of solving the colossal problem they had on their plate. Hiring qualified experts wouldn’t have been such an issue, had the VGO not killed off some of the finest scientists in the world when they torched Leopold’s lab. Once again this proved how far the VGO would go to cover all their bases, even if it required overkill. I would have said that having to eat crow served the VGO right, because of all the evil deeds they’d committed so cavalierly, had the backlash not affected so many innocent bystanders. As it stood, the world was in quite a pickle.

  And just what was the problem?

  Where did the sudden need for a lab and a crew of brilliant scientists come from?

  To answer these questions would first require some clarification, because what the VGO—all vampires in general, actually—faced was more of an epidemic than a problem . . . A horrifyingly unmanageable epidemic that had been spawned by none other than my lovely great-grandparents.

  It was Jason who was captured first. The higher-ups at VGO had made it crystal clear to their minions that Jason and the Nolans had better be found, if they knew what was good for them. Joseph’s clandestine group of IT specialists had come through yet again, flagging the Hawaii-bound flight Jason had tried to board at LAX.