Blood of a Red Rose (4 page)

CHAPTER
SIX

Recruit
ing

(
Meredith
)

It didn't take me long to reach
Damien
's
house. He only lived about ten miles away.
He
was t
he first demon
I
ran
across after starting
my search. He and his family had
lived in the ar
ea for seventy-five years
, and he told me
I
was
the first demon outside their immediate fa
mily they'd ever
met
. We beca
me fast friends. He was
single and
about the same age as Jeremy and
I. He spent a
lot of time with his cousin
s
and
s
tarted b
ring
ing
them to our meetings. At th
is
point
,
we had about twenty demons
who
showed up to our meetings on a regular basis. I wa
s hoping that number would continue to grow.

As we made our way to the living room
,
he asked,
"Hey, so what did you need to talk to me about that couldn't wait until
t
his week's
meeting?"

"I wanted to
see
how
familiar you are with some of
the anci
ent ways
. I have something
I want to share with the group, but wanted to run it by you first."
I sat on the thread bare couch
and
waited for his response.

I could tell by the
way he
puff
ed up h
is chest he felt privileged that I'd chosen to share this information with him before anyone else. I didn't care how he felt as long as he was will
ing to
do what I wanted.
It wasn't because I
met him first
that I chose to
share this information with him
, but instead
because
after a little background check,
he was
n't
exactly
the
upstanding citizen he led everyone to believe. I was
pretty sure he would be a power hungry
demon
who'd
revel in increasing his powers.
Time to test my theory.

"Well, my a
buela
use to tell me some pretty freaky stories.
Why? What exactly did you want to know?"

"Well, did you know that our demon ancestors actually drank human blood?"

"Ye
ah
. She told me that and how they thought it would extend their life because they wer
e ingesting another
person's
essence or some crazy shit like that."

Time to drop the bombshell.
"It's not crazy shit. It
works
. I
t
's
happened to me."

His eyes nearly popped out of his head but at least he did
n't run off screaming.

"I was injured recently
,
and because I chose to drink human blood to test the theory of our ancestor
s
, I healed almost instantly." I waited to gauge his response before continuing. He was still staring at m
e but the glint in his eye was
enough
t
o
tell me
that he was extremely interested in what I had to say. "
I also
found that by drinking human blood, I
gained inhuman amounts of
strength
."

Suddenly serious
,
he stood. "Show me."

I
stood up from the couch and
then
picked
it up.
..w
ith one hand.

"Believe me?"

The evil grin that spread across
Damien
's
face was the last piece of confirmation I needed to know I'd chosen the right guy. "Yes. Now who do we
have to
kill
to get some fresh human
blood?"

"That's
exactly
the question I hoped you'd ask."

We spent
the next two hours going over everything I'd learned from my experience with the vampires and from killing Loraine. We talked about who else he thought would be willing to join us in enhancing our demon powers and our new quest for immortal life. He didn't have a clue about the vampires, but was now excited to start drinking human blood so
he w
ould be ready to take them on.

This
was going perfectly. M
y recruiting had officially begu
n.

* * * * *

(Jeremy)

The afternoon spent in my meeting flew by
. I
t was now dusk and I was headed to The Rising Pit. I still had
a
feeling that I would catch a lucky break tonight
. I really hoped I was right
;
it
had been too long since I'd seen my daughter.
When
the accident
happened
everything had been so chaot
ic
.
I hadn't been in my right mind
and
I
just sat there watching as she
r
an out of my life. But now that Meredith had recovered and we'd become settled in our new life together, it was time I found out exactly why Rose had attac
k
ed
her
in the first place.

Whenever I asked Meredith to give me details about that night, she
would only say that her memories were too
foggy
and
that
she just couldn't remember. All she recalled was that she'd
come over late to talk to
me and had apparently startled Rose and Christian who
had
seemed to be fight
ing. W
hen she tried to step in
,
Rose went bal
listic, yelling things about Meredith killi
ng her mom and other ridiculous
stuff.

That didn't sound like my Rose, but I saw her attack Meredith with my own eyes and watched as she fled with her boyfriend. At this point, I wasn't really sure I knew anything about my daughter anymore.

I eased my Lexus into the very farthest parking spot I could find. It was in the very back corner
of the club's lot
and didn't have any lights surround
ing it.
So far I was
pretty
pleased with my sleuthing skills.

I sat there for about twenty minutes before the club's front door opened and out walked Evangeline
with a few
members of her staff, but
unfortunately,
neither Rose
or Christian
were amongst them
. I blew out the breath I was holding only to have all
of
them snap their heads in my direction.
I
knew they couldn't see me
way
back here
but
I unconsciously slouched down in my seat because it felt
as if
they were looking right at me. It was odd.
I watched as Evangeline
whispered something into one of the guy
'
s ears and then he
walked
back into the club as the rest of them
headed
off in a
different
direction.

I checked my watch and realized I would only have another
thirty minutes
to spy before I needed to hit the road
in order to make it home
in time
for dinner
.
It l
ooked like my lucky break wasn't going to happen after all.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Alive

(
Rose
)

The moment I entered the hallway I heard voices in the direction of
Terrance
's cell. I picked up my pace
, anxious to see what the commotion was about, but especially because I was desperate to
reach Christian and tell him that Meredith was still alive
.

"Are you sure he's remembering her and not just going off the things he's heard us saying about her?" I heard Evie ask.

"No, he seems to be remembering specific things about her. I've been able to pick up on certain
thoughts and they really are
about
Meredith
,
" Christian
said
.

As I grabbed Christian
'
s arm and spun him towards me
,
the worried look on his face was enough to
stop me from
blurt
ing out what I'd
originally
co
me to say. "What's going on? Why are you talking about Meredith?"

"
Terrance
has started to remember things about Meredith. Somehow the thoughts are breaking through and he's really pissed about how she manipulated him." Christian eased his arm around me as he continued. "I heard some of his internal thoughts when I was walking by
earlier, and
it appears
h
e's start
ing
to drift back. We'
re just trying to figure out how
any of this is eve
n possible.
"

"Well, I know one person we could talk to
to f
ind out." Everyone looked at me as if I'd sprouted another head. "Meredith. I just found out she's still alive."

Christian's mouth dropped open and Evie stumbled back a step, while
Terrance
just
let out a roar that
sent goose
bumps racing up
my arms. They were right...he did s
ound pissed.

"I'll kill that bitch for what she did to me. She caused me to lose the one
and only thing I've
cared ab
out in over three-hundred years!
" His chains rattled as he strained against them.

"How do you
know
this?" Evie asked.

I took a shaky breath then answered
.
"I called Jillian. She told me my dad
sold our house and moved to Masen to live with Meredith. Apparently
,
being a demon has some perks."

"I can't believe this. If she's still out there
,
then
what's going to stop her from coming after Rose, or from infecting another vampire in the area to do her dirty work
?
W
e have to find her and kill her!
"
Christian was drifting so fast
that it was making me dizzy. Everyo
ne else's emotions were
starting to show
as well. Seeing Evie with dark hair and an angry look on her face
had me making a mental note to never piss her off.

"How are we going to kill her if she has super-healing abilities and lord knows what else
?
We know nothing about the
demons
except
that they're really strong and fast
, a
nd
we can't bite them
because we'll become
infected.
We're flying blind here." Bobby, for once, was the voice of reason.

Evie's hair and eyes evened out as she stepped into the center of our little crowd.
"Alright. Everyone just sit tight. Terrance
,
I'm sorry,
but
even though you're showing signs of breaking through whatever hold Meredith had on you, we just don't know enough to let you out yet. Christian, you and Rose stay here. I won't
chance you running into M
eredi
th until we come up with a plan.
The rest of us need to go out and feed, but once the club's open tonight, I'm going to call Balam again to see if
he
can provide us with some more information."

Terrance
slid down the wall
and sat
on the floor as the rest of the clan headed for the stairs.

"Do you want to
go
up and order some food?" Christian asked.

"Sure."
I reached for his hand but immediately regretted it when a s
mile spread across his face
.
I couldn't let him think we were
mak
ing up. Even with this
new
development, things hadn't changed for me.
I was going to have to stick to my guns.

I p
ull
ed
my hand out of his
and
started up the stairs
,
trying to think o
f a way to handle all of this
. C
urrently...
I was coming up blank.

Sound
ing
defeated
,
Christian asked,
"What would you like for dinner, Rose?"

"Chinese sounds
fine
."

After emerging from below the
s
tage, I sat down at one of the tables a
s
Evie, Dax, Bobby,
Tori,
and Dom le
ft
the club
to go feed
, while
Renard and Loni
both took seats at the
bar.
Christian had just pulled out his cell to place our order when Bobby suddenly walked
back
through the door
. Using his vampire speed, he
was at
Renard and Loni
's side in a split second.

"Excuse me a second, I need to see what's going on."
I watched Christian mak
e his way over to them
. I
strain
ed
my ears, trying to hear what was happening.
I wondered what drama was unfolding now.

I hadn't really gotten to know much about the couple yet, except that Renard was originally from England and that's whe
re they'd taken their honeymoon so he could show his cute
American wife all the p
laces he frequented as a human.

They both had
a
punk
-
rocker look about them. Renard's hair was a dirty blonde, smooth yet spiky at the same time.
Loni
had a short,
edgy cut of blonde hair that was tipped in black. No one was sure why her hair had drifted like that
when she was turned
, but
Evie
assumed it
was
because
she witnessed her sister being killed when she was a little gi
rl. By the time she
was
turned
,
it was a distant memory, but Evie thought
it
was possible the memory still remained
buried deep within her psyche
. All I knew was
that she was reall
y
sweet
and
pretty badass
.
She was the only fem
ale security guard on the staff
. N
ow with Meredith
being back in the picture, I was really glad the
y
were both here and had Christian's back.

* * * * *

(Christian)

"What's going on?" Christian asked.

"We just caught Rose's dad staked out in his car at the back of the parking lot. Evie wants Renard and Loni to follow him back to Masen so we can find out where Meredith is. It's a pretty lucky break
. W
hat are the odds he'
d
show up tonight after all this time?"

"Yeah, a lucky break."
I knew I'd started drifting again as I walked back to Rose. How was I going to tell her that her dad was just outside and expect her not
to
go to him?

"So
,
wha
t
's
up? What was that all about?"
she
asked.

"Let me order you some dinner first, and then we can talk about
everything
." I needed to allow as much time to pass as possible so hopefully her father would be long gone by the time I broke the news.

She crossed her arms and sat back in
her
chair.
"Alright. But I'm not sure how much there is to talk about. It
's
obvious now why no one ever came after me for killing Meredith...because I did
n't
kill her
. And as far as my dad
is concerned
, he made his choice
to leave behind all memories of me and my mother to
go
be with her, so
I don't see that there's really anything t
o
talk about
at all
." The tears shi
ning in her eyes broke my heart, and my will.

"
I think there's a lot
we need to talk about. Like how M
eredith could somehow be controlling him like she was
controlling
Terrance. She could have forced him to sell the house and move to Masen with her
;
we really don't know. Until Evie gets some more information from Balam
,
I think we should just stay out of si
ght
and off her radar, and unfortunately that means no more phone calls.
But Rose, you should know, your dad still loves you and hasn't stopped looking for you. He hasn't left you behind. As a matter of fact, he was just sitting outside in his car probably hoping to catch a glimpse of you.
"

I knew I'd said the wrong thing when she stood up so fast
that her chair slammed
to the floor.
"
Christian! My dad was ju
st here and you didn't tell me?"

"Rose, please. I literally
just
found out."

It was clear she was too mad to hear anything
else
I had to say because she continued her rant without skipping a beat.
"
And how dare you
try to tell me who I can or can't call
?
It's a damn good thing I did call Jillian,
otherwise
we wouldn't
even
know about Meredith!
" She stomped towards the stairs
but stopped before heading down
. "Your whole clan is the same
way
. You
think
you all
have the best
ideas about
what to do, but really...you guys don't have a clue about what's happening around here
or how to handle
any of
it!
"

I
slammed my fist into the table,
shredding it to splinters.
Bobby, Renard, and Loni's head
s
were
swiveling
between me and a retreating Rose.
So much for keeping our fight under wraps. This whole situation was out of control and as much as I wanted to race after Rose and try to smooth things over, I couldn't...because she was right. We didn't have a clue as to what to do next. So until Evie had some more information and told us what the plan was, I was just going to have to let Rose cool off alone. I was tired of disappointing her.