Scarlet Revenge

by Sheri Lewis Wohl

  Her road to acceptance turned rocky early on. This place, this church was the lifeline that ultimately saved her. Her crisis came on a dark, moonless night. Desperate and lost, she’d stumbled through those massive front doors. She’d thought it was the end and it turned out to be just the beginning. Everything changed.

  Like now.

  What was it about this place? Things happened to her when she walked into the cathedral. Good things.

  Like Tory, in her arms.

  *

  Colin left the women at the house. Daylight was less than an hour away and Ivy would need to rest. They all would, including him. Still, he couldn’t ignore what was building inside and had been since they landed here. Time to buck up and face his past.

  His new life was great in so many ways. Some things didn’t change, like the fact that he was still hunting evil. But now he fought against dark forces with the one he loved at his side. That she was the very thing he’d dedicated his life to wiping out was an irony not lost on him—he just didn’t care. All that mattered was that Ivy was with him each day and each night.

  What he was going to do now had to be done alone, even as close as he was to Ivy. She’d argue and want to go with him, which was part of the reason he was going during the day when she was at rest. Less explaining to do.

  A great many years had passed him by and yet he’d never gone. Now it was more than just wanting to make the walk; he needed to cross the acres of grass and confront what had changed everything. Being back here where it all started brought up emotions he’d thought long resolved or, if not resolved, at least permanently put to rest. Funny how often he was wrong these days about lots of things.

  Bright sunlight washed over Rock Creek Cemetery when he stepped out of his car. A light breeze whispered through the trees, and the smell of freshly mowed grass gave a feeling of life to this place of death.

  The headstones he sought were on the other side of the cemetery. He could have driven much closer. Instead, he made a conscious choice to park as far away as possible and still be on the cemetery grounds. He needed the time it took to cross the cemetery to gather his strength. Or maybe it was courage he needed to marshal.

  The closer he came to the headstones, the slower his steps became. Nothing intentional about it, more a byproduct of having put this off for too long. Really, it shouldn’t be a big deal, yet the nearer he came, the more he hesitated. It was as if a weight pressed down on his chest making it hard to breathe, hard to think straight. He’d had a long time to reconcile with this and would like to believe by now this would be easy.

  He was a seasoned vampire hunter who traveled all over the world putting down every manner of evil. He’d seen the worst there was to see and faced it all with courage. Three headstones surrounded by lush green grass, towering trees, and flowering bushes shouldn’t make his hands shake and his stomach roll.

  A good five feet away from the trio of gray stones, he stopped, shoved his hands into his pockets, and closed his eyes. Tears pricked at his eyelids and it took quite a few deep breaths to back them away. Confident that his emotions were in check again, slowly he opened his eyes and looked at first one, then the second, and finally the third. His father. His mother. His sister.

  Tears once more stung his eyes. So much for being in control. At least he had on sunglasses and was grateful for the dark lenses he could hide behind. His trembling hands were stuffed into jeans pockets so that he looked like a man simply visiting the graves, not a son and brother a mere heartbeat away from a breakdown. For a full five minutes he stood and focused on taking slow even breaths. In and out. In and out. Finally, his heartbeat ebbed and his trembling hands quieted.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so terribly sorry.”

  Memories of that long-ago tragedy rushed into his mind as if he were standing on his street again, young and frightened. Terror flooded through him and he began to tremble once more, even as he told himself it was all right. He was transformed into that same kid confronted by an unimaginable horror.

  Rationally he understood that he couldn’t have changed a thing. He’d been a child and powerless against the evil that destroyed his family. But rationality didn’t change how he felt. His heart ached at the memory of that day—how he’d stood helpless in the street watching as his family was brought out of the house, one by one, each in an ominous black body bag. Years of maturity and knowledge couldn’t erase the sight and feel of that day.

  He walked to the center stone and pressed his palm against the cool marble. He had loved his family, still loved his family. His father, tall and dark, with just a hint of humor in his eyes. His sister, a promising runner whose laugh could be heard all over the house. His mother, a ball of fire who kept all of them on their toes and whose hearty laughter never failed to warm him. God, how he missed them.

  Even now he couldn’t understand why the vampire had attacked his family. What set their modest home in Georgetown apart from any other? No one else was harmed, no other attacks occurred within miles. Yet he came home to a bloodbath, his whole world destroyed in the blink of an eye. An apparent random attack had left him an orphan. If not for Monsignor, he’d have been lost. Monsignor gave him a home, an education, and, most important, a purpose. He was there for Colin, just like family. Just like a father.

  For years he’d been taking his revenge on any vampire that dared to cross his path. He’d hunted them down, nearly wiped them from the face of the earth. With every vampire he turned to dust, he waited for the feeling of satisfaction, the conviction that the murder of his family was being avenged. No matter how many times he swung his sword, that feeling never came. While he’d known his work saved untold numbers of innocent lives, not once did he feel like any of it brought him closure.

  Sometimes, the disappointment became almost too heavy to bear. At other times he’d wanted to join those he destroyed but always lacked the courage to take his own life. Perhaps that’s why he was so fearless when it came to the hunt. Every time he went into battle he knew he’d win either way it turned out. Vampires would be destroyed or he’d at last join his family.

  Then he met Ivy. Just the thought of her brought lightness to his heart and made him believe that perhaps God had a plan for him after all. That perhaps in the dark abyss that was his life, a purpose was hidden. With Ivy at his side, he would find it. Funny how love changed the game.

  Smiling now, he sank to the grass. His legs crossed, his arms on his knees, he began to speak quietly, telling his family about his life since that terrible night and about the woman—the vampire—who’d changed it all.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “So, do you want to tell me what it is?”

  Tory looked up to see Naomi standing in the doorway, one shoulder against the frame, both hands stuck in the pockets of her jeans. Her hair hung loose around her shoulders, and her eyes were intense as they studied her from across the room.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Well, not exactly anyway.

  Unaffected, Naomi said calmly, “The big, bad secret that you believe makes you the reason people are dying in my city.”

  The secret? Like there was only one. She didn’t know where to start and wasn’t sure she even wanted to. Still, as she gazed into Naomi’s eyes, she had the strangest urge to bare her soul…black as it was. What could she lose besides everything?

  “You sure you want to hear this?”

  “You’ve got to trust me sometime.”

  Naomi had a point. Spending centuries trusting no one made her weary, besides making her a coward. Nobody needed to tell her that isolation really was a coward’s game. She knew, she just opted not to. Maybe it was time to stop being so afraid.

  “It started long before I was turned. Oh, hell, it started before my birth in the Tower of London on February 11, 1554…”

  How long could the agony continue? It seemed to Jane it had been going on for days. Strong as she was, her spirit was beginning to wane. Sweat pou
red from her body, and her thoughts, usually sharp and intelligent, were becoming dull and difficult. She didn’t remember what day it was or how long she’d been here. Her sisters at her side, she, Lady Jane Grey, deposed Queen of England, tried to get comfortable and failed.

  Lady Catherine took a cool cloth and laid it against Jane’s brow. It cooled her feverish skin and, for just a moment, relief trickled through her battered body. The sensation was wondrous and she prayed it would go on and on. The relief didn’t last nearly long enough. In less than a minute, another spasm roared through her and Jane cried out.

  Lady Mary laid her lips to Jane’s ear. “Hush now, sister, it won’t be much longer. Hush or the guards will come.”

  Jane held Mary’s hand so hard she was certain her sister’s fingers would be crushed. She didn’t loosen her grip. It seemed as though the contact with her sister was the only thing keeping her alive. She had to survive, had to be strong.

  “It must end.” Jane panted. “It must.” She wasn’t speaking of simply the pain that had her in its vise-like grip.

  Even through the haze of discomfort, Jane felt Mary’s tears fall on her exposed flesh and heard Catherine’s quiet sobs. She didn’t want to leave them or this world. It wasn’t the crown she desired—no, she longed for nothing more than a simple life. She’d taken the crown because Henry had decreed it. She’d been groomed to always do the right thing and she rose to the occasion. As Henry wished, she’d been crowned on that lovely Monday in July. What a glorious day it had been too. To be queen was an honor that she did not take lightly.

  Nine days later, she lost the crown and had been here ever since. One moment she was a queen and the next a prisoner. Such was her fate. Now her time was growing short. Despite Queen Mary’s earlier clemency, the tides had changed once again, and her death warrant was signed. Her life now came down to a matter of hours, perhaps even minutes.

  Despite trying to remain calm, Jane cried out as a terrible pain ripped through her yet again. She now held on to both of her sisters. “When will it stop?” Tears rained down her cheeks.

  With her free hand, Catherine blotted Jane’s damp forehead, wiped away the tears. “Very soon,” she cooed.

  Suddenly, a pain more intense than any that had come before ripped through her and Jane wondered if her body had just been torn apart.

  “Now, Jane,” Mary told her firmly. “Push now!”

  Jane’s scream echoed off the stone walls. At the same time, she pushed and pushed, hoping that finally the pain would stop. It did and, for a moment, silence fell over the locked room. Then a sound began, tiny at first, before building into the full-throated, healthy cry of a newborn infant.

  “Your mother really was Lady Jane Grey?”

  Tory nodded, not surprised by the obvious disbelief in Naomi’s voice. “One and the same. No one besides her close family ever knew of my existence.”

  “But how? Why? I’ve never read a thing in any history book about Lady Jane Grey having a child. Did I miss it?”

  “No. To my knowledge nothing is written anywhere about me. My existence was a huge secret right up there with the location of the Holy Grail. The family was worried they’d kill my mother even sooner if they knew about the child. Rightly so, I believe. It was a very dangerous time.”

  “How did they keep you a secret? I mean, they had to notice your mother was pregnant.”

  “It wasn’t that difficult to hide. She was pregnant when they threw her into the Tower of London and, given the styles of the day and the fact she never got very big, no one noticed. After my birth, my aunt, Mary, bless her heart, raised me for the first five years of my life. After that, I was moved from family to family every few years, just to be safe. I was protected but invisible. I was one of the great royal secrets, and that secret saved my life. Well, at least until that bastard Pierre took it away from me and left me with this.” She waved her hand in the air.

  “Wow, I’m really sorry. I can’t even imagine what that was like for you as a little girl.”

  Disbelief had shifted to a sincerity that touched her in a way nothing had for a long time.

  “I didn’t know any different and so it was simply my life. Some could say it’s a royal curse that I inherited. First Riah, formerly known as Catherine Tudor, youngest daughter of King Henry VII, and then, of course, me, daughter of a queen best known because her reign was a mere nine days. We were forgotten royalty and then we became vampires. Our family was, as they say these days, fucked up.”

  *

  Last night had been a bust. Now it was time to take it up a notch or twelve—find a way to draw her out, destroy her world as she’d destroyed his. The old lady didn’t do it, not like he’d hoped anyway. His other gifts were ignored. Even the lynched werewolf failed to draw her out.

  Then again, as he thought about it, last night wasn’t a total loss after all. The scene at the cathedral actually held a lot of potential. It might have been defused, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t still be used to stir things up. The humans were starting to turn against those like him, and that’s exactly what he was going for. Of course they weren’t going to harm him, no one could. He was just that good. If they killed a few or all of the others, well, their tough luck. Few, if any, came even close to his incredible skills.

  The one thing he had to keep a careful eye on was her safety. He didn’t want to let her get into a situation where someone could take her. She belonged to him, and only he would dispatch her to hell, where she was definitely headed. He loved her, that hadn’t changed despite what she’d done. It also didn’t mean she could or would be saved. The way he saw it, he had little choice but to exercise tough love. She had taken it upon herself to act as judge, jury, and jailer in his case. He intended to return the favor but there’d be no jail in her future. No, he would be judge, jury, and executioner.

  He smiled and ran his tongue over his lower lip. The waiting was such sweet misery. It wouldn’t be long now and they’d be face-to-face at last. He could end it all now, except where would the fun be in that? His glorious chess game was progressing so well that checkmate was just in sight. Soon everyone was sure to turn against each other and blood would run in the streets. Stupid humans, they didn’t even know when they were being played. The preternaturals weren’t much better. A bit disappointing, as he expected more from the superior beings like himself. Of course, he was one of a kind, so expecting others to be on the same playing field was foolish.

  When he was first turned, he’d been furious. It had seemed so wrong and against everything he’d believed in. After a little time, he’d reconciled with his fate. No, it was more than that. He hadn’t just reconciled to the darkness. He’d embraced it and found a new universe opened up to him. Why he’d never seen the potential before, he couldn’t imagine. He was just glad he’d had a chance to live this new life even if she’d stolen years away from him.

  Standing in the large picture window of the elegant room, he gazed out over the city lights. Not far away from the hotel, the Washington Monument rose tall and glorious, a beam of bright light in the darkness. Tourists walked, talked, and laughed, unaware of the danger he posed to them. The city pulsed with life no matter what time of day or night. He liked that about the place, made hunting easier. Even with the current mood of danger and discontent, the city vibrated with energy. The perfect urban jungle ripe for a skilled predator…and one brand new to the game.

  He took his jacket from where he’d tossed it across the back of a chair. Slipping it on, he smoothed back his thick hair and smiled. He looked good, he felt good. Time to stir it up, enjoy a bit of excitement, and have fun while he was teaching his newest student the ropes.

  Meagan lounged in a chair, one leg slung over the arm. She had the feral, hungry look of the newly turned. She was still cute, only now with a dangerous edge. It appealed to him, at least for a while. Young vampires with their zeal for blood were energizing. He came close and held out his hand. She took it and let him pull her to h
er feet. He didn’t let go, instead pulled her close before kissing her deeply and rubbing his stiffening cock against her center.

  She grinned up at him, her eyes sparkling. “Wanna fuck?”

  He kissed her quickly and stepped away. A tempting offer but he had a better idea. “A little later. Let’s have fun first.”

  She clapped her hands. “Yay. What do you have in mind?”

  “I think a party is in order.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Naomi was frankly a bit stunned by what Tory had told her. The daughter of Lady Jane Grey? It boggled the mind, literally. She’d been around enough of the immortals that she shouldn’t be surprised, but she was. She’d never expected to come face-to-face with royalty.

  It also explained a lot. When she’d first encountered Tory at the cathedral, she found her incredibly attractive and equally off-putting, if not downright arrogant. She’d spent enough time with folks who were way too impressed with themselves, so she sure didn’t have to do it by choice. When she got to know her, Tory wasn’t any of those things, even with her impressive pedigree.

  The attraction she’d initially felt surged back tenfold. Tory’s dark hair hung in a silky cascade down her back, and the top she wore clung to her curves. Tight jeans accentuated her slim hips. She was beautiful and sexy and exactly what Naomi didn’t need. Standing in front of a window staring out at the darkness, Tory was as still as death and, for a moment, it frightened Naomi. So much so that she put a hand on Tory’s back just to make sure she was real.