Bitten By Regret (Just One Bite #2) (5 page)

"Oh, come on!" Diandra gasped, wiping tears of
laughter from the corners of her eyes. "Did you see that shit? Did you see
the vampire shrieking in agony as he disintegrated into a pile of steaming ash?
What kind of garbage is that?" She started laughing all over again as Eamon
got caught up in the moment and reenacted some of the cheesier scenes in the
movie, clawing dramatically at his body as he crumpled to the floor. His
shrieking was broken up with laughter as he couldn't manage to keep a straight
face.

Lizbeth stood and stretched, shaking her head in amusement
as she noticed that all the commotion hadn't disturbed RaeLynn at all.
"All right, the pair of you- time to settle a bit." She bit her lip
to keep from grinning as the two of them groaned in mock disappointment at her
scolding. The doorbell rang and all the hilarity drained from the moment. She
strode to the door drawing her clutch piece from her ankle holster in one
smooth movement before looking out the newly installed peephole Muttering to
herself she jerked open the door and leaned against its frame. "What do
you want now?"

Jonah brushed past her.
"To see
Diandra."
He strode towards the parlor but stopped short at the
scene in front of him- wine glasses on the table, popcorn scattered across the
furniture and floor, and RaeLynn sleeping soundly through the whole thing.

Diandra climbed to her feet from under the coffee table
where she was picking up some of the mess. "What do you want, Jonah?"

"I wanted to talk to you,
that's
all. You need to know what happened to me, and I need you to know." Jonah
ran his hands through his brown hair in a gesture that tugged at Diandra's
heart. Shoving the long-forgotten feeling to the back of her mind for further
examination later she strode past him to the trash can.

"I know all I need to know about you, Jonah. You're a
liar, a cheat, a betrayer. I'm well-rid of you, actually. Now go the Hell back
to wherever you have been living all these months." Her back to Jonah, she
didn't notice the look of anger he gave her.

"I went to the store that day to buy your favorite ice
cream." At his quiet words Diandra turned to face him. "I may have
been a real bastard but I still loved you. That wasn't something I faked, that
was how I really felt." He stopped talking and stared at Diandra, making
sure she was listening. A tear glistened in the corner of her eye and she
hastily wiped it away.

"I saw this guy on the corner of the alley but I didn't
think anything of it. I didn't pay attention at first until I heard him call
out to me. It was that bastard assistant district attorney, Giles Carson,"
Jonah stated, watching as the women exchanged a quick look. "What?"

"Um, Carson is now the district attorney, not the ADA.
His predecessor was conveniently killed at the warehouse where I was held
captive," Lizbeth stated quietly.

Jonah's face reddened with rage.
"Murderous
bastard.
He's the one who turned me. He meant to kill me, and somehow I
survived. I don't know how long I had been 'dead' before I was actually turned,
but I managed to pull through it." He ran a hand through his hair once
more. "I was a wreck. I knew I had died, and I couldn't believe I came
back. I did a lot of things I'm not proud of now, and I wish I could take them
back. The thirst was overwhelming…" He trailed off, the horror in his
brown eyes making them appear almost black.

Eamon cut into the conversation. "That's one of the odd
things about the change from vamp to human. The more damage done to the body at
the time of death, the longer it takes before the heart beats and the lungs
draw oxygen again. Also, those are the vamps most likely to kill," he
stated matter-of-factly. The women appeared horrified as they looked between
Eamon and Jonah. "We think the murders have something to do with the fact
that they were turned by accident and not design- there is
no
mentor to deliver blood to them so they instantly crave it."

"I didn't crave it until the blood bags were on the
doorstep," Diandra said softly. This whole conversation disturbed her- her
hands kept moving constantly as though searching for an anchor to reality and
her voice grew quieter with each sentence she spoke.

Eamon nodded at her. "That's because you had a mentor,
and there was almost no damage done besides the two puncture marks in your neck
when you died. That meant that only enough venom to change was in your system.
If you hadn't drunk one of the baggies when they were delivered it wouldn't
have been too much longer before you gave in and searched out a blood source of
your own." His eyes flicked to Lizbeth and away very quickly but everyone
noticed. Lizbeth looked pale and a little sick as she remembered how Jonah's
body had looked when she stumbled across him.

Jonah cleared his throat. "In any case, I just thought
you needed to know how things stood. I told you I'd tell you. I saw Carson, I
ducked into the alley with him for privacy like a moron, and he ripped my
throat out with his fangs. End of story." He shrugged to show he had no
more to say but Lizbeth knew that wasn't the way the story ended at all. There
was a lot he was still keeping hidden and she was determined to make him admit
to it all.
 

"Why did he do it, Jonah?" At his look of surprise
Lizbeth asked him again. "Why would your supposed friend want to murder
you?" He glared at her but refused to speak. "Did you steal from
these people?
Drugs?
Guns?
Money?
Ah, you stole money from them so you had to
die," Lizbeth stated with disgust as his eyes flickered when she mentioned
the money.

"You stole money from drug smugglers and gun runners?
Are you fucking insane?" Diandra screeched, the palm of her hand striking
his cheek. As everyone watched her in amazement she burst into tears. "We
had more than enough money! How could you do it? Get out of my house. Get out, get
the fuck out!" She shouted the last in his face as she shoved him brutally
into the wall. A crack ran up and down the wall from the spot where his body
hit. He glared at her, brushed himself off and then left. As Lizbeth stood
there trying to find something soothing to say Diandra dropped to the floor,
covered her face with her hands and sobbed as though her heart was breaking all
over again.

Chapter
Nine

The next morning Diandra came downstairs still in her robe
and her eyes were slightly puffy. From experience Lizbeth knew Diandra didn't
like to discuss things after she cried. Instead, Lizzie silently poured her a
cup of coffee, fixed it up the way she usually drank it and put a bagel in to
toast. Dia took the offered cup with a quiet "thank you" and spread a
light coat of margarine on her bagel. The two women ate quietly together but
Diandra could feel Lizbeth's speculative glances and the bagel sat in her
stomach like a lump of lead.

"What is it, Lizzie?" Diandra asked her tiredly.

"I know you may not want to talk right now but I think
we need to. I want to know, no, I need to know what you plan on doing about
Jonah." Lizbeth looked at her defiantly, daring her to dodge the question.

Dia got up to take their plates to the sink. She thought to
herself that she'd miss Margaret while she was on vacation- she was off to
visit her daughter in Georgia and would be gone for about a month.
"There's nothing to say on the subject. I don't plan on doing anything
about him. He can visit with RaeLynn a couple times a week when Margaret has
gone home in the evenings and no one will see him coming and going. End of
story." She picked up Lizbeth's plate and was startled when the slender
woman grabbed her arm to hold her in place. "What?"

"That's not good enough, sweetie. You have to have a
plan set and lay it all out to him. He's acting like it's a matter of time
before you pick up where you left off." At that, Lizbeth withdrew her hand
and looked down at her empty placemat.

Diandra set the plates down and crouched down beside the
chair. "Honey, he can want whatever he wants- it's not going to happen. I
intend to make that clear to him and if he doesn't like it he will have to deal
or not see Rae. It's that simple."

"It's not that simple. He's not going to give up that
easily. He hates me."

"And I love you. That should be all that matters."

"I love you, too, but that doesn't matter to him. He
needs to be told plainly how things stand." Lizbeth found herself getting
more frustrated the longer the conversation went on. She didn't know how to
make her feelings understood. Hell, at this point even she didn't understand
everything she wanted to say.

Diandra clasped hands with Lizbeth and leaned in. The kiss
she gave her was soft and gentle at first and then deepened into something
more. When Diandra finally drew away she could hear Lizbeth's accelerated
heartbeat and ragged breathing. With a smile of satisfaction she whispered
against Lizzie's lips, "You are my one, my only love. He can want whatever
he wants but all that will bring him is disappointment. I love you."

Lizbeth breathed a sigh of relief before adding, "I
love you, too, Dia."

*****

Lizbeth drove off to work, still troubled even after their
talk. She knew Diandra loved her but what did that matter if she still loved
Jonah too? Diandra hadn't said how she felt and that made Lizbeth very nervous.
If she loved Lizbeth but still loved Jonah as well than maybe she should leave.
The thought made her stomach roll and she hastily set down her travel mug of
coffee. She knew it was the right thing to do if this was how things turned
out. After all, Jonah didn't leave Diandra willingly and Rae was his daughter,
not hers. She loved RaeLynn with all her heart and soul but there was no room
for both her and Jonah in their lives.

Lizzie sighed and pushed her foot just a little harder onto
the accelerator. A cop sitting in the parking lot of the local doughnut shop
turned his lights on and pulled out onto the road. Well that figures, she
thought caustically. I'm about to get stopped on my way to work by the
stereotypical doughnut cop. She sighed heavily and pulled over at his signal as
she reached casually into her purse for her license.

Her day, which was already looking grim, plummeted sharply
into the proverbial garbage can. The cop who approached her vehicle was from
her old division and they had never gotten along. He had hit on her during her
first week out of training and took it very personally when she turned him
down. It only got worse when one of her previous girlfriends dropped by to see
her during her shift and he watched them together. Not long after that she'd
found flat tires on her personal vehicle and hate notes in her locker.
Obviously she could never prove the harassment came from him but she knew deep
in her soul that it did.

Lizbeth rolled down her window.
"Hey,
Robbins.
How's it going?"

"License and registration."
His face was hard and blank, his typical cop stare. Oh, this was not going to
be good. She knew he recognized her but was trying to pretend he didn't.

"Sorry, Robbins, I was on my way to my precinct and
didn't realize how fast I was going." Lizbeth casually handed him her
badge along with the requested license and registration. He looked down at the
badge and sneered.

"This
ain't
no
good and we both know it. I thought the captain made you
turn this hunk of tin in before he booted you off the force." He spit a
grotesque wad of chewing tobacco onto the shoulder, making sure some of the
juice got onto her car. Her stomach lurched once more but she fought down the
nausea.

"Actually it is a valid badge- I was reinstated."
Lizbeth enjoyed the look of shock on his face before the blank stare was back.

"Bullshit," Sergeant Robbins said as he grabbed
for the radio on the shoulder of his patrol uniform. "I was going to
ticket you for the speeding but now I think I should run you in for
impersonating a police officer."

"Look, Robbins, I never ran you in for being an
asshole, so why are you gonna be such a dick about this?" Lizbeth was
furious as she reached for her cell phone in the center console. "I'll
contact Alexar to meet me downtown then if you're going to push the
issue."

Robbins reached through her open window and grabbed her
wrist.
"Alexar?
The
chief?"

"Yeah, that would be my direct supervisor. I'm sure
he'd be very interested to know why I was late today." She fixed him with
a steely glare, the one she normally reserved for uncooperative witnesses and
the
perps
she broke in interview.

"Forget it. I'll let you off with a warning but make
sure you fix your taillight before I run into you again," he said as he
released her wrist and backed up.

"What are you talking about?" Lizbeth demanded as
he tossed the ticket onto her dashboard. "My taillights are just
fine."

He just smirked as he backed up and kicked her car. She
cursed under her breath at the sound of shattered plastic hitting the road. He
climbed back into his squad car and did a U-turn, heading back to the doughnut
shop.

"Yeah, have a great day, too, you fucking dick,"
Lizbeth muttered as she peeled out and headed for work.

*****

The rest of Lizbeth's day went no better. She hated heroin
cases, but this one was different. Someone apparently had an issue with heroin
users and decided to rid the world- or at least Delaware- of the problem by
cutting the heroin with large doses of arsenic. The perp she was after was
still unidentified and she was losing hope of finding him. She'd been chasing
this bastard for nearly a month now: another shipment of tainted heroin was on
the streets, three bodies were in the morgue and she still had no leads on who
was distributing this shit. The only plus she had was the three dealers in
lockup after being caught selling the tainted product. Sadly none of these
morons knew who the top guy was. After the hours she'd put into interview she
knew they would have broken if they knew.