“Yes, but it’s more effective. Oh, and while you stop to analyze they are getting away.” Emerick dropped down off the fire escape he was on and pointed toward the group I’d been busy with.

  I aimed the gun, a 9mm Glock and fired four rounds for the last three remaining vamps. One lost a leg before getting hit in the chest. “Why such a small impact, I wonder? I like big explosions. Get rid of the entire body so I don’t have to hit it with this.” I pulled the small vial from my bra and poured the solution over the last vamp who didn’t dissolve all the way. No evidence could be left behind for humans to find.

  “Probably, so you don’t get blown up in the process,” Torrid offered.

  “Ahh, yeah that would be a problem.” I tucked the gun back where I had it. “Tired of visiting with daddy’s man-servant?”

  “Well, since Clive wants to talk to you, he’d had nothing more to say once I caught up with him. He had to go tell your father you refused to see him.” Then he pointed a finger down the alley. “So, he came here to see you.”

  “Emerick, I’m going to skin you alive,” I said as my father began walking toward me. A flash of him in my bedroom jumped into my memory. “Why didn’t you just talk to me the day you broke into my penthouse?”

  “Would you have spoken to me?”

  “Perhaps, not. How did you get in any way?”

  “I’m pretty good at hacking computers. However, I’m even better at asking your pretty Keeper to open the elevator for me. I do love Persuasion. I’m also surprised you haven’t thought of that.”

  “Well, I know now. What do you want?”

  “I need you to know a few things, and then I’ll leave you alone.”

  “Are you giving Massimo back to me?”

  “Liam? No. He will stay with me.”

  “Then we have nothing to talk about. I’ll let you go back to your cave before I hunt you down and kill you.” I turned my back to him, hearing the swoosh of a blade in the air I lifted mine above my head and stopped his attack. “I guess you’re nothing like us, or you would have made contact.”

  “No, I am. Emerick turned me himself. The dutiful son-in-law.”

  “Oh, haven’t you heard, we got a divorce. It’s called till death do we part. I died, we parted.”

  “I don’t think vampirism counts, darling,” Emerick interjected.

  “I know it counts. I also know I’m going to get Massimo back. So, go hatch another mastermind plan.”

  I couldn’t believe I’d just spoken to my father that way and blurred away from them. I had no intentions of talking to him, but when he came to me, all I could think of doing was running to his arms and hugging him. My father was alive, as alive as I was. He was also right at arm's length, and I ran away. Would he really kill me for being just like he was? He asked for it. That made everything so much different than I first suspected it would be. That he would want me dead for being this monster. I couldn’t even guess what it was he really wanted with Massimo or with me. Although, he did seem to favor Emerick, dutiful son-in-law indeed.

  Chapter Twenty

  Delia

  Help. What kind of help could I get? I was not used to being the second hand of the one in charge. I was used to being in charge of the one who was second hand. That was what I should be doing. Making sure I had everything under control and taken care of for Ravana. Massimo being kidnapped by her father didn’t make things easier on her. Not now. Not when she had to pass sentence against her own friend. A friend who had brought her into the Order herself. Amanda was old. She was ready to go. To be free of all the responsibilities of this life. She just wanted peace.

  She also said she wanted forgiveness. Too bad the person she needed that from was already gone. Justine died too many years ago. I couldn’t even talk about it with Anthony. Not in front of Gianna. Justine was such a large part of his life. I remembered when he dubbed us the apocalypse twins. I’d come to work for Ravana and Justine didn’t want or need the help. Everyone at the Order said Ravana needed it. She had more on her plate than anyone. Essentially, she was the one in charge when the original chairman left. He named her as successor because she was the last surviving contributor. All of his money had been given to his ex-wife during a nasty divorce.

  Too bad for him, Ravana had no intentions of ever being the one in charge. Look at her. She finally was, and all hell was breaking loose. It made me want to pull out my hair. Justine would know what to do in this situation. No, I can’t go there. Not now.

  I stood behind Ravana as she spoke the words to Amanda. She was cleared of all allegations against her. A thorough investigation proved she had no connection to the PCI and they too dismissed the claim. Though for unwillingness to cooperate, the higher-ups were making her give up her title and striping her of her mark. She would no longer be recognized by the Order.

  “I want you to do it, Ravana. Yourself. I don’t want one of them to touch me.”

  “You have my word. We can do it now if you’d like.”

  “Yes. Do it now.”

  We took her to the next floor up, to the lab. Ravana cleared them all out and laid Amanda down on a bed in one of the sick bays. “Lidocaine.”

  I handed her the small clear bottle with the red lettering, lidocaine with 1% epinephrine and a syringe. The syringe was filled with three millimeters of lidocaine and then injected into Amanda’s leg muscle. The tattoo was on the back of her right calf. We could have them placed anywhere we wanted, we just had to get them. To take them off, striping the wearer of their mark, it had to be cut out.

  I placed a number fifteen blade on the surgical tray. After putting gloves on, and then cleaning the area with betadine, Ravana made the first cut.

  “Can you feel anything?”

  “No, go ahead. Get it off.”

  She pulled at the skin with a tweezer and cut just under the layer of skin to the tissue below. Once the inked portion of the surface was removed, it was placed flat in a book. Amanda’s name and date of dissention put next to it. While I did that, Ravana closed the skin with stitches and covered it with steri-strips and a bandage of gauze.

  “Thank you,” Amanda coughed out.

  “Your welcome, my friend. Now, to get you to a room.”

  “No, I don’t want to get you into any trouble with the board.”

  “Those old bats, hell I’ll just go eat them.”

  “Watch how you sling that ‘old’ word out. I’m no spring chicken anymore. Not like the good ol’days. My, did we have fun? You hated every minute of it too.”

  “I can’t walk down memory lane right now. I have shit to do. Delia will get you settled.”

  Ravana moved with grace from the room, she didn’t look back, and she didn’t give me any orders…. again. I couldn’t be her second while not knowing what to do.

  “You're lost, huh?”

  “Yes, very. She’s just going through some stuff.”

  “No, she’s just not herself. Something is wrong, that’s not Ravana.”

  “What are you talking about? She’s always short with people.”

  “Yes, but she’s never nasty about it. You stay in this business as long as I have, and you learn to read people. Especially those you’ve been close to for a long time.”

  I had to give her that. Ravana was sarcastic, stubborn, and sometimes bitchy. Never all three at once and cold to boot. I shook my head and led her the way to the elevator. Putting her in the spare room in my apartment I realized I’d never cleared Kelly’s stuff out of it. Her smell lingered on her clothes still, the door having been closed the entire time she’d been in her cell. The nightgown she slept in every night was draped over the armchair in the corner. Right where I had tossed it the night before I shot her.

  “I’m sorry, I’ll have the maid tidy up for you tomorrow.” I grabbed the clothes and shoved them in the closet. Then grabbed clean sheets from a cupboard and changed the bedding. Once she was tucked in, and comfortable I gave her the remote and promised her dinner would be served to her in bed. She needn’t get up for anything except the bathroom.

  The elevator stopped on the prison floor. I didn’t remember why I hit the button, but I did. She was right, she was still here. Waiting for me to hear her out before going back to the PCI so they could do who knew what to her.

  I didn’t waste time, I hit the com button. “Why? Why were you in that room, looking for the ruby? Why did I have to shoot you? Why did you break me?”

  “Delia?” She scrambled from her bed to the window. She looked thinner. Her hair matted more against her head.

  “Answer my questions.”

  “I was trying to destroy that ruby, I didn’t mean for you to have to shoot me. Believe me, it wasn’t my intention to get shot. I also had no intention of breaking you. Because when you broke, so did I.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what, Delia? You have to be a bit more specific.”

  “Why did you break?”

  “You don’t care about the ruby?”

  “Not particularly. I’m assuming Ravana went over all of that with you. I need to know why it hurt you so much when I shattered.”

  “Because I thought you would have known. I didn’t want to work for the PCI anymore. Not after I met you, not after we grew close. I just wanted to forget I came from there. I knew if I turned my back on them that I’d likely be killed. I probably will the second they have me in custody. I don’t care as long as I get to take the memory of the look on your face when we first kissed. When I held you in my arms, and we danced through the night. When I trailed your neck with kisses after we made love, and I told you I loved you even though I knew you were sleeping because I was too chicken-shit to say it while you were awake.”

  “You what?” I choked on the words, afraid I’d mistaken what she said. “I don’t remember that. I remember the kisses.”

  “Well, I said it. I’ll say again if you want because my life is at its end. I have nothing else to fear.”

  “Say it.” My hands touched the glass where Kelly’s were. I knew she couldn’t see me, but her eyes bore down deep into me anyway.

  “I love you, Delia. I fell in love with your wit and charm, the way you rush your speech when you're excited, or over-caffeinated. The fact that you chew your nails when you think nobody’s watching, and the adorable little face you make when a vampire gets too close to you. I love the way you keep an extra pencil in your purse, even though you stash them around the penthouse. The way you sneak blood into Ravana’s coffee to make sure she gets enough in her system every day, and how you care for those closest to you. You’re an amazing woman, and I am lucky to have been able to spend so much time with you.”

  “I…I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say that you love me, or that you hate me. Don’t say anything. To me, it only matters that I was able to tell you, finally. I tried every time you came to see me, but you kept shutting me down. I knew once you were ready, you’d come back. Now I can leave here and know I’ve said what I had to.”

  “But I do love you. I hurt so much when I thought you betrayed us. I couldn’t figure out why. Then it hit me. It hurt because of how much I’d come to love you.”

  “I swear, I was trying to find it before that snake, … found it. I was going to destroy it so they would never be able to get their hands on it.”

  “Well, they didn’t. Ravana would never let that happen, and now that she has the missing piece locked up, she won’t let anyone near the ruby ever again.”

  “Wait, she has both halves?”

  “Yes, she got it in New Jersey. It’s locked up in the new armory safe. Nobody can get to it.”

  “Good. It should never end up in the wrong hands. That stone is dangerous. Don’t worry. When the PCI comes to take me this afternoon, I will have forgotten all about it.”

  “This afternoon? Why would they come today?”

  “Ravana said she couldn’t wait for you to speak to me. I thought you knew and that’s why you’re here.”

  “No, nobody told me you were leaving this afternoon. Why will you not remember the stone?”

  “I won’t remember anything. I’ve asked Emerick to use persuasion on me. I don’t want to be able to tell them anything during interrogation.”

  “They will interrogate you? Torture, you mean, like they did to Amanda?”

  “Yes, for information. Assess my allegiance and then kill me. I’m of no use to them now.”

  “No. I won’t let them. You’re staying here.” My heart began to race. The beats pounding behind my eyes. I turned to go to the elevator, my heels echoing against the walls.

  “It’s no use. They have already sent word. They’ll be here at noon.”

  My breaths were coming uneasily. I was hyperventilating. Being lightheaded and dizzy would not get me up to the top floor. When I arrived, I saw Ravana and Emerick had returned from wherever they had run off to. Anger laced both their faces and I didn’t care. I kicked my shoes off and flung them at Ravana.

  “Why, the hell did you call the PCI to come get Kelly?”

  “What? Who the hell, do you think you are? You don’t throw shoes at me. Especially, not low-end department store frauds,” she said picking up my tan peep-toed heels and tossing them back at me.

  If she wanted she could have driven them through my skull, so I ought to have been happy she didn’t. However, I was too pissed off to care.

  “Why, Ravana?”

  “Last I checked you didn’t want her here. It was bothering you that she was in this building, so I thought I was doing a nice thing. By getting rid of her.”

  “By killing her.”

  “Yes. You’re probably right. They will torture her and kill her. Do I look like I care?” she turned back to Emerick. “Go get Nunzio and Jefferey back here. I need more numbers.”

  “What is going on?”

  “What is going on? Well, so nice of you to come to work, Delia. My father is the one breeding hounds. But, he’s not after me. He’s after Massimo. And do you know where Massimo is right now?”

  I shook my head slowly to process.

  “He’s with my father. So, you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t care about the prospects of your girlfriend dying when Massimo’s in the hands of a man that wants him dead. You don’t want Kelly dead, fine…call off the switch. Tell them they can’t have her. She was killed during interrogation.”

  “Will they believe it?”

  “Succinylcholine. Use it to make Kelly look dead. It’ll wear off after they leave,” Emerick added on his way to the door.

  “If she dies…”

  “What, Delia? What are you going to do? Do you want me to go change her? I will. I’ll change you both. You can be eternal lovers. Or you can shut the grumbling up and get to work. Your choice.”

  She turned and headed into her bedroom. The door slammed behind her, rattling all the paintings on the walls. I was thrown into overdrive. My shoes left scattered on the floor, I ran to the elevator. Emerick stood to wait for me, his hand holding the door open while he quietly picked what I suspected was nonexistent lint from his shirt.

  “What’s going on with her? I’ve seen her stressed before, but this is beyond stress. She’s almost…”

  “Evil? Yeah, I’m catching on to that too. The problem is, I kinda like it. Except when it keeps her pining for that insufferable cad.”

  “You still not happy she chose him, huh?”

  “It’s no choice. Ravana didn’t have all the facts, and now that she does she should be trying to sort through them, not run off and save Massimo from Daddy’s clutches. She’s my wife, for goodness sake. How can I continue to watch her with him?”

  “Whoa, back up. Wife? How? No, you know what…don’t tell me. Right now, I have to kill my girlfriend. You go get more goons for your wife. Why I have no clue. She has a whole company full of goons.”

  I took off through the lab when the doors opened, leaving Emerick to ponder his issues further in silence. His little bombshell was enough. I had no time to work through the entire thing. Emerick and Ravana married? I wasn’t buying into it just yet, that was for sure. Kelly was my main priority. Why? I had no idea of that yet either.

  I thought of her being tortured. Sure, I didn’t like the idea no matter who it was, but for some reason, the thought of her death was killing me. I shot her. Ignored her for her betrayal, and secretly wanted her dead for what she’d done. I couldn’t believe I was hatching a plan to save her life.

  The lights in her cell were starting to bother me. The fact that they never went off, giving her an unknown amount of time inside. I would change that too. There was no reason she couldn’t go upstairs into a controlled apartment like Torrid. He tried to kill Ravana, and he was being rehabilitated.

  “I have a plan,” I yelled into the com as I pulled the lock on Kelly’s door. She looked frail from the other side, but face to face she looked a hell of a lot worse. Her hair was really matted to her head. Her eyes looked like she’d been beaten already, but I knew better.

  I reached out to touch the bandage at her shoulder. The blood had dried, causing the dressing to stick to her healing wound. “Has nobody cleaned this?”

  “Not since the stitches came out.” She coughed.

  I should have thought to bring water to her, but that didn’t matter now. It was early yet, but we needed to prepare.

  “I need a bag of blood.”

  “You're going to turn me?” A look of hopefulness moved across her face.

  I held her by her shoulders. “Ravana said she would. Both of us. Is that what you want? To be like them forever?”

  “No, but if it means I don’t leave you, I’ll do anything.”

  “How about you hear out my plan first?”

  I moved her hair from her forehead. She smelled like a decaying body should have. She hadn’t been bathed. Just fed to ensure she didn’t die before going back to the PCI. Who was going to kill her anyway.

  Her hands gripped my wrists harder than I thought she would have been capable of. “Delia, I mean it. I’ll do anything to stay here, with you. Even if I’m left in this cell only to hear your voice, and never see your beautiful face. I just want a chance to make this up to you. I should have told you everything as soon as I knew things had changed for me.”

 

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