“You are covered in her blood,” he pointed out. “And this shotgun belongs to you.”
Tori’s brain rejected his insinuation. She shook her head, her teeth chattering hard enough that she could barely speak. “No one will believe you.”
“They won’t have to. The evidence speaks for itself.” He pulled the hammer back on the shotgun. “I happened to come home and find you still here. We wrestled for the gun, and it went off, shooting you in the head.”
There was a blur of motion, and a shot rang out, echoing throughout the room in a deafening explosion that nearly stopped Tori’s already terrified heart.
A scream ricocheted inside her skull, and she realized it came from her. She couldn’t seem to stop it. The inhuman sound felt ripped from her chest, paralyzing her in its hold.
Damien was suddenly there, weaving in and out of her vision. He crouched before her and cupped her face in his warm hands. “Shhhh, baby. Listen to me. It’s going to be okay.”
But Tori knew that she would never be okay again. She stared into Damien’s glittering blue eyes as tears continued to drip from her own. “He killed mama.”
Damien slowly lifted his hand toward Victoria’s mother.
“Don’t touch her,” Tori wailed, lifting her mother higher against her chest. “Nobody touches her. Do you hear me? Nobody but me touches—”
A whisper-soft moan came from Vivian’s throat, effectively cutting off Tori’s demand.
“Mama?” Victoria lowered her mother’s head to the crook of one arm and brushed her hair back from her face.
“She’s still alive,” Damien barked to someone in the room. That was the moment Tori noticed Ben’s presence.
Damien dropped his hands from her face and took hold of her hands. “Ben, grab me a pillow and a blanket. Victoria? I need you to lay her down.”
Tori wasn’t about to let her mother go. “No. I need to—”
“Damn it. If I’m to help her, I have to check her wounds. Now, lay her down and move back,” Damien growled, his expression brooking no argument.
Exhaling a shaky breath, Tori relinquished her hold, allowing Ben to position Vivian’s head on the pillow.
Tori watched in desperation as Damien ripped her mother’s dress open from neck to navel. “Son of a bitch.”
A gurgling sound rattled in Vivian’s throat, sending Tori back into full-blown panic mode. “I’m calling 911.”
She moved to rise, but Damien gripped her hands tighter. “It’s too late for that, Tori.”
“Let go of me. She’s still alive, and I need to get her some help.”
“She won’t last long enough for that, but I can save her.”
“No,” Ben snarled, locking his fingers onto Damien’s upper arm. “You’re not turning her.”
“Would you rather she died?” Damien’s fangs elongated, and heat burned behind his eyes. “Because she will surely die waiting on the ambulance.”
“Do it,” Tori demanded, drawing everyone’s attention back to her.
Ben dropped to his haunches next to her. “If he does this, there is no turning back. She will become like him, living in the dark and drinking blood to survive.”
More tears filled Victoria’s eyes. “At least she’ll be alive.”
“But at what cost?” Ben persisted. “What kind of a life would she have?”
Tori stared into Ben’s pleading eyes. “Anything is better than the life she’s had for the past twenty-five years.”
Bringing her gaze back to Damien, Tori lifted her chin. “Help her.”
Damien nodded once. “Ben, take Victoria to Kyle. He should be at the car by now. And then come back here. I’ll need your help with Harvey.”
Victoria hadn’t been able to bring herself to look directly at her stepfather’s still form. With her peripheral vision, she could see that his neck was bent at an awkward angle.
“Are you sure he’s dead?” she asked, holding Damien’s gaze.
Damien gave a quick nod of affirmation. “I’m positive. Now I need you to go with Ben and tell no one what happened here. Do you understand? Nothing happened here. “I’ll be along shortly.”
Tori couldn’t bring herself to leave her mother’s side. “I want to stay. Maybe I can help.”
“You will only be in the way. I’ll take care of her. I promise,” Damien assured her, brushing his fingertips along her arm. “But I need to hurry, so get out of here before it’s too late.”
Accepting Ben’s outstretched hand, Tori allowed him to pull her to a standing position. She glanced down at her mother one last time before following the giant familiar toward the door.
“Please don’t let her die,” she whispered through her tears, knowing that Damien would hear her.
“I won’t.”
Ben held the screen door open for her as she stumbled onto the porch in a daze. Harvey was dead and her mother had been shot and lay at death’s door, soon to die and rise again.
The ramifications of what had taken place at the Cohen house swirled through Tori’s mind in dizzying detail.
She held up her blood-soaked hands, noticing how they shook and swam before her eyes.
“Ben?” she slurred as her stomach lurched and her legs gave out.
The porch rising up to meet her was the last thing Tori saw before her world went black.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Damien stared down at Victoria’s dying mother, wondering if he was doing the right thing.
He should allow her to pass on and go to heaven, or wherever humans went after they closed their eyes forever.
Being reborn into vampirism should never be forced on anyone against their will, and he had no idea what Vivian’s wish would be. But he’d promised Tori that he wouldn’t let her mother die.
Gently turning Vivian’s head to the side, Damien found her nearly nonexistent pulse and sank his fangs in before he changed his mind and let her bleed out.
Her blood barely spilled onto his tongue, telling him that her heart had slowed to the point of no return.
Damien emptied her of what little life force she had left and sat back on his heels. With a slight hesitation, he bit into the vein of his wrist and laid his bleeding flesh against Vivian’s partially open mouth.
He began massaging her throat, relieved when the muscles in her neck moved slightly, instinctively swallowing what he offered.
Satisfied that she’d received enough blood for the change, Damien wrapped her in his arms and stood in one fluid motion.
He stepped over Harvey’s lifeless body and carried Tori’s mother toward the screen door.
Ben looked up from his pacing on the porch as Damien exited the house and stopped in front of him. “Is she dead?”
Damien shook his head. “She will be soon, but only briefly. She will sleep for several hours while the healing begins. I’ll need to be there when she awakens.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Take her and Tori back to Victoria’s house. No one is to come in until I return.”
Damien gently placed Vivian into Ben’s waiting arms. “I’ll be along as soon as I clean up any evidence of tonight’s events…and get rid of Harvey.”
Ben descended the steps, stopping to look back as he reached the bottom. “How are you going to do it?”
Damien considered his options. “Since his neck is broken, I’m going to put him behind the wheel of his truck and drive it off the nearest bridge.”
“That’ll be the Bay Bridge in Freeport.” Ben quickly rattled off the directions.
“I’ll meet you back at Victoria’s after I take care of this mess.” Damien paused. “How is Tori holding up?”
“Not good. Kyle is with her now, reassuring her that everything will be okay.”
Damien fought against the jealousy that threatened to overtake him. He didn’t have the time to entertain negative thoughts.
He stood on the porch and watched as Ben spun around and marched down the drive before reente
ring the house for a little damage control.
* * * *
Half an hour later, Damien loaded Harvey’s body into the passenger side of the filthiest truck he’d ever set foot in.
Beer bottles littered the floor, and half-smoked cigarettes spilled from the overflowing ashtray protruding out of the dash.
The smell nearly choked him as he slid behind the wheel and turned on the engine.
With one last look at the old house Victoria had grown up in, Damien put the truck in gear and sped out of the drive toward the main road.
All evidence of the shooting had been wiped clean, save for the buckshot lead still embedded in the sheetrock. But there wasn’t much Damien could do about that. Besides, no body, no crime. And Vivian would be as good as new before Harvey was discovered full of alcohol and resting at the bottom of the bay.
The rest of Damien’s trip was spent reflecting on everything that had happened over the past week. He’d betrayed his uncle by taking his life along with the lives of the two other vampires he’d had with him. And then he’d fallen in love with Victoria, met a couple of familiars, formed a camaraderie of sorts with Jaxon, allowed Alfred to live, killed Harvey, and gave Tori’s mother the dark gift. All in less than eight days.
His mind drifted to the night Victoria had given herself to him, trusting him not to hurt her. And yet that was exactly what he did. He’d broken her heart by not coming clean with her from the beginning.
Damien wondered if she would ever be able to forgive him, to trust him again. He sure as hell hoped so because he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it.
The outline of the bridge could be seen up ahead. Damien had been so lost in thoughts of Victoria, he’d driven through Freeport without realizing it.
Thankfully, traffic was almost nonexistent at this time of night.
Damien crept along, waiting for the oncoming cars to disappear from sight before pressing the gas pedal to the floor. Once the gauge registered sixty-five miles per hour, he jerked the wheel to the right.
The truck burst through the guardrail and sailed over the side, nose first toward the dark water below.
With a speed only a vampire could possess, Damien jumped from the open window, diving smoothly into the warm depths of the bay.
He emerged on shore moments later, stopping to make sure the truck sank out of sight before breaking into a run back toward DeFuniak Springs.
The chunk of railing missing from the bridge would be noticed soon, but not before Damien was long gone from the scene.
Victoria once again occupied his thoughts as he ran. The way her skin felt, her hair smelled…her lips tasted.
What was it about her that called to him, that tugged at his heart? It was as if he were a puppet and she determined his every movement.
Even now, with everything that had happened tonight, he wanted nothing more than to wrap her in his arms, bury himself inside her body, and make love to her until she surrendered herself to him, heart and soul.
And what of her mother? Vivian would need him for a while. She would need guidance and sustenance to survive. He couldn’t leave her without teaching her the basics of living with the dark gift.
An image of Victoria wearing a long white dress, her dainty fangs reflecting the moonlight as she licked a drop of blood from her bottom lip, entered Damien’s mind as he ran.
He shook off his thoughts and fought back the rapidly forming erection that threatened to unman him.
How in the hell could he possibly become hard at a time like this? he wondered, adjusting himself behind the zipper of his jeans.
Damien slowed his pace, giving his body time to cool before he ran into Ben or God forbid, Kyle, while sporting a raging erection. He couldn’t imagine how he would explain that away.
Taking several deep breaths, he switched his thoughts away from Victoria in hopes of calming his damn libido.
Perhaps he would take Vivian back to Alaska with him for a time. His own mother, Farah Devain, would enjoy the companionship; not to mention, she’d make a far better teacher than Damien could ever hope to be.
In theory, the two women were the same age. In reality? Not so much.
Victoria’s home came into view a few minutes later. The rental car was parked in the drive, and several lights in the house were on.
Damien blurred his way to the porch and raised a hand to knock.
The front door suddenly opened, and Ben appeared with a relieved look on his face. “Thank God you’re here.”
“What’s wrong?” Damien asked, stepping over the threshold.
Ben shut the door behind him. “Everything. Victoria is beside herself with grief over the death of her mother. And Jaxon called. Apparently the cops were at his place earlier, asking questions about the Shueller fire.”
“The what fire?”
“You forget so soon? The house we burned with the vampires inside.”
Damien shook his head, his gaze scanning the place for signs of Victoria. “What about it? We left no evidence behind. Where is Tori?”
“She’s in the guest room with Vivian,” Ben offered, pointing Damien toward the hall. “The deputies were looking for Victoria and asking about her whereabouts the night of the fire.”
That slowed Damien’s steps. “Why would they need to know that?”
“Apparently they received an anonymous call stating that she was seen leaving the area with a dark-haired man wearing nothing but a pair of shorts.”
Damien turned to face the familiar. “Who else knew we were there besides the obvious?”
“No one,” Ben swore, anger flashing in his eyes. “Other than Alfred Sanders.”
“Sanders wouldn’t talk. He would be incriminating himself. Has anyone seen him since that night?”
Ben shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of.”
“First things first,” Damien growled. “I need to see to Victoria and check on Vivian, then we’ll locate Sanders.”
“I’ll call Jaxon and get started on that. You go on and be with Tori.”
With a brief nod in Ben’s direction, Damien made his way toward the guest room.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Tori sat in a chair next to the bed her mother lay in, holding her frail hand.
Vivian hadn’t moved since Ben had placed her in the car and drove them home.
The big familiar had laid her in the bed, assuring Victoria that her mother would be all right once the change happened.
Tori wanted nothing more than to believe him, but the doubt he’d tried so hard to hide shone from his eyes like a beacon, attesting to his uncertainty.
She wouldn’t be able to take losing her mother. Not now, and not like this. After surviving years of abuse at Harvey’s hands, Vivian deserved some peace and happiness.
“Tori?” Damien’s voice penetrated the grief-stricken fog she wallowed in.
Wiping the tears from her eyes with the backs of her hands, she tore her gaze from her mother’s still face and met Damien’s uncertain stare.
“May I come in?” He stood in the doorway, his brows raised in question.
Victoria waved him in and struggled to stand. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” Damien whispered, moving to stand next to her. “But my blood now flows through her veins. She will arise with the setting of the sun tomorrow evening.”
“And you’re sure?” Tori’s heart fluttered with hope.
“I’m positive.”
Stumbling forward, she threw her arms around him and buried her face against his neck. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done had you not been there tonight. He would have killed us both.”
Damien held her against him in an almost painful embrace. “Please say that you’ll forgive me for not being honest with you. I would give anything to go back and do it all over again.”
She did forgive him, she realized, clinging tightly to him. She’d forgiven him the moment he’d killed Azrael to protect her.
Tori relaxed her hold and tilted her head back far enough to see his handsome face. “There’s nothing to forgive. My life changed the moment you showed up at Scruples and ordered that Bloody Mary. I was lost from that second on.”
“I love you, Victoria Blanchard. So much that I ache when I’m not in your presence.”
A smile touched her lips. “I feel exactly the same. I think I realized it when you admitted to eating sushi to make me happy.”
“That was a onetime thing,” he teased, bending down to kiss the tip of her nose. “Don’t get used to it.”
“Hmmm. We’ll see.” She released him and returned to her previous position in the chair. “Will Mom feel different when she wakes up? I mean, will she still have the same feelings as before?”
“Yes.” He nodded with a quick glance at Vivian. “Only without any previous pain or depression.”
That surprised Tori. “How did you know she was depressed?”
“I saw a picture of her in your kitchen the night I visited your home while you were gone.”
A thought struck her. “You were in my bedroom. I noticed a picture missing of Jaxon and me at the park.”
Jealousy flashed in Damien’s eyes. “The way you were smiling, I assumed…”
Tori fought a laugh. “That we were lovers?”
“Yes,” he ground out through clenched teeth. “Needless to say, I didn’t like it.”
“Jaxon and I are friends, Damien. We’ve been friends since kindergarten. Nothing more.”
“I know that now.”
A wave of dizziness suddenly passed through her, leaving her weak with nausea. She rubbed at her temples, fighting the urge to be sick. “I don’t feel so good.”
Damien was instantly there, lifting her into his arms. “When was the last time you ate?”
She couldn’t remember. “I don’t know.”
He carried her into the bathroom and turned on the shower before setting her on her feet. “I’m going to send someone after food. What would you like?”
“Anything,” Tori mumbled, staring at Damien’s sensual mouth. “But it’s going to be hard to find a store open at this hour. They roll up the sidewalks at nine o’clock in DeFuniak.”
Consuming Damien (The Possessed Series Book 2) Page 14
