Deadly Liaisons (22 page)

“We’d always had a loving family’s support up until then. But when our uncle’s castle was besieged without him to lead his men, the castle final y fel and the Turks took Atreides and me prisoner along with a score of other men, including Maison and Voltan.

We were confined in separate cel s in a dungeon below a fortress. Imagine being immersed in the dark for days on end with the only sounds the squealing of rats scurrying across the cel floor and the groaning of fel ow prisoners dying slow and hideous deaths.

“The rats carried the plague that changed us, you know. For a long time, I had no idea why I could hear the prison guards speaking on the other side of an iron door, or why I could suddenly see in the windowless cel below ground.”

He paused. Tezra seemed to be immersed in his story.

“I grew weaker from the wormy gruel they fed us, but one day in desperation, I caught and kil ed a rat. After that, I asked Atreides—in my mind—if he was al right.
‘I can’t make it much longer,’
he relayed to me. He sounded on the verge of death and something inside me snapped. I had to do anything I could to save him, to save myself. Somehow, I managed to coax the guard who brought the next meal into the cel . I felt no remorse. In an instant, he was dead. I didn’t even remember how he died, but just that he was standing one minute, the next he was lying lifeless on the floor.

“With the keys to the cel s, I freed my brother, Voltan and Maison. Before long, we had freed al our men. We didn’t leave any of our captors alive. I knew either they died, or we did. The choice was as simple as that.”

“They…they couldn’t stop me either,” Tezra said, her voice whisper-soft, her head settling back on his chest.

Her touch was making him hot, but he squelched the rising lust for her and encouraged her to tel him what he wanted most to know—how intimate had Krustalus been with her? Was she his lover?

When she didn’t say anything further, Daemon prompted, “They?”

“The…SCU home where I lived. I…I had to see my sister. But—but they said I…upset her. And they—they locked me in a padded room without windows down beneath the home. I could smel the damp earth around me, but I could hear nothing but my own screaming, demanding to be let out of the tomb.”

She grew quiet, and he was about to ask her if she’d tried to run away when she said, “One of the caretakers invited him in.”

“Krustalus?
Hell
.”

“I didn’t know that was his name. I couldn’t see him for the dark. He tried to control me, to control my mind.” She looked up at Daemon. “Like you did. But he couldn’t either. Whereas you were frustrated, my fighting him and succeeding amused him.”

“He bit you while you were confined in the home’s basement?”

“I don’t remember.” When he didn’t conceal his disbelief, she scowled at him. “I don’t…remember. I would have, wouldn’t I?”

Daemon considered the situation for a moment, then said, “Normal y if he didn’t want you to recal , he could wipe your mind of the incident. But since you can fight mind control, no. But what if the SCU staff drugged you? You might not have been able to keep your shield up. Or what about when you slept?”

She stared at him. “Did you get past my barriers when I was sleeping?”

He remained silent.

“What did you find out about me?”

“You were having a nightmare—a recol ection of Krustalus’s threatening you and your response to him.”

“I don’t remember.”

Daemon nodded. “Which is why I think he bit you while you were sleeping or drugged, and you only vaguely recal the experience. Or maybe you’re repressing the memory. Did he only come to you the one time?”

“Several.”

Daemon swore under his breath. “Then in his mind, he has claimed you. And he real y won’t like it that I took you under my protection.”

“Too bad.” She snuggled closer and wrapped her arm around Daemon’s chest. “Too
damned
bad.”

Daemon knew then he had to destroy the vampire at al costs before he had another taste of the huntress. Krustalus had claimed Tezra from the beginning, and he’d never give up wanting her.

***

Early the next morning, Daemon mysteriously slipped out of Patrico’s beach home without a word before Tezra woke, and no one would say where he’d gone. She couldn’t help thinking he was trying to solve the crimes without her, as weak as she’d been when he’d tried to transport her his way. Instead of being a help, she was nothing more than a hindrance, which curdled her blood. She fingered a cup of coffee while she sat at the glass-covered dining table and studied Katie seated across from her. Patrico made omelets while Atreides served up toast. She choked down another mouthful of coffee.

Voltan was nowhere in sight either, and she assumed he was serving as Daemon’s bodyguard, which didn’t help to al eviate her concerns.

The storm had abated but the steady ocean breeze blew against the house and lowered the temperature. Before she could ask Patrico where the thermostat was so she could turn on the heater, it flipped on.

She considered Cynthia Stevens’s words concerning her husband’s death—
he’ll kill them all.
Wanting to know if Cynthia knew anything more, Tezra left the table and lifted a handset from its stand. First, she cal ed Mandy for Cynthia’s number since she didn’t have it on her, and then she cal ed Cynthia.

“Hel o, Cynthia? This is Tezra Campbel investigating—”

“Yes, yes, go ahead.”

Tezra glanced at Katie who stared at her blue and white striped placemat, sipping her coffee. Atreides was watching Tezra, and even Patrico glanced in her direction.

“You said he’d kil them al . Could you elaborate?” Tezra assumed they knew now it was Mustaphus who had kil ed the men for revenge because the police had murdered Daemon’s uncle. But she wanted final confirmation in any event.

“My—my husband was just doing what the chief told him to do. I warned him that he shouldn’t have gone. That the police department should have turned the job over to the SCU—let them handle a rogue vampire. Let them make the mistake and kil the wrong vampire. But nooo, he had to go along with what the rest of them were ordered to do. The chief wasn’t there. He didn’t have to pay the consequences for his actions.”

“Why didn’t the chief turn it over to the SCU?”

“The chief wanted to make a name for himself with the department. He wanted to prove that they could do more than just regular policing. He was sick and tired of the SCU acting as though they were superior—that only they had the ability to deal with a vampire threat. The chief’s feelings were infectious. Every man on the force felt the same way. But I think it went deeper with the chief, and my husband knew something about it. He would never say though when I’d question him about it. It was almost like the chief had a personal vendetta against this Mustaphus and didn’t want to give up the kil to the SCU.”

“Because he had kil ed his police officers?”

“Something that affected him years before this.”

“But you don’t know what?”

“No, I’m sorry, Tezra. I wish I could be more help, but watch out where the chief is concerned. I don’t believe he’s to be trusted.

And it’s more than just that he got my husband kil ed.”

“Al right. Thanks so much for your help. I’l cal you later.”

She hung up the phone and said out loud, though not to anyone in particular, “I need to talk to Chief O’Mal ey.”

Atreides peered out the kitchen window. “You can ask Daemon when he returns.”

She didn’t need Daemon’s permission, dammit!

Unable to decide what to do about Katie either, Tezra felt at a loss. Shouldn’t Katie be in the hospital? Tezra couldn’t watch her twenty-four, seven like the staff there could. And if Daemon wasn’t going to turn her so she could help Katie, then she needed to return her to the facility. Yet she wavered about that too. Usual y, she knew just what she wanted to do. See Katie, help Katie, find and prove a vampire was a rogue, notify the SCU that he or she needed to be terminated, locate and kil Krustalus.

Making love with a vampire—twice—was not part of her ordered way of life, and she stil felt guilty for al owing herself any pleasure while Katie… She shook her head. She hated how indecisive she was concerning her sister.

She tapped her fingers on the table. “Do you have a car, Patrico?”

Atreides and Patrico looked at her, their expressions surprised.

“I…I should return Katie to Redding.” The lump in her throat grew. She didn’t want to return her to the hospital. Just having breakfast with her sister had brought a little sunshine into her life on the typical gray autumn day. But the SCU wanted to arrest Tezra, Krustalus taunted her at the most inopportune times, and wel , there was no way she could physical y care for Katie as much as she wanted to. She couldn’t take her on investigations, and she wouldn’t be safe home alone.

Patrico didn’t say anything and flipped the omelets frying in a pan.

Atreides sat at the table and plucked a couple of pieces of toast from the platter, but Tezra walked into the living room, intending to locate Patrico’s garage. Katie’s disposition wasn’t anyone’s cal but Tezra’s, and she had every intention of using Patrico’s car to take Katie back to the hospital. Then she’d go to the police station where she could question the chief with the new information she had.

When she reached the front door and grabbed the brass knob, Atreides’s hand encircled her wrist, effectively stopping her.

“Daemon wants you to stay here while he’s gone.”

Daemon didn’t have any right tel ing her what to do. “I’m taking Katie back to the hospital. She’l be safer there than with me.”

Without a word, Atreides escorted Tezra back into the dining room.

“Let me keep her here,” Patrico offered, serving up the omelets.

She jerked her wrist free from Atreides, and he gave her a superior smile. “No, Patrico,” Tezra said. “You work like I do. She shouldn’t be alone.”

“What if Krustalus comes for her?” Patrico asked. “Look how easy it was for me to take her from the hospital.”

“The hospital staff won’t be so remiss the next time,” Tezra growled, but she had to admit Patrico was right.

“No? Al Krustalus would have to do is wil someone to invite him in. He’s grown more aggressive, don’t you agree? To get to you he might take Katie hostage.”

Tezra slumped in her chair. The bastard haunted her sleep whenever she let down her barrier. He’d visited her on numerous occasions in the form of mist on gray days much more often than before.

“Yes,” she reluctantly admitted.

“I worry now that Krustalus has told the chief to tel you his name, he intends to tie up al the loose ends.” Dripping honey over his plate, Patrico waved a butter knife. “Mark my words.”

Her expression blank, Katie looked at her plate and forked her cheesy omelets.

“Tezra, it’s me, Bernard. Can you hear me?”
Bernard telepathical y communicated.

She glanced at Patrico, but he was busy eating. Atreides watched her though, suspicion written al over his face.

“Are you channeling directly to me?”
She buttered her toast, pretending to concentrate on her breakfast.

“To the best of my ability. I’m only a quarter vampire.”

“What have you learned?”

“Patrico’s dead.”

She stifled a dark laugh.
“Right, and his spirit is sitting across from me, eating breakfast. So what else is new?”

“Hunters are still looking for you and your vampire accomplice. They now say you were in league with him from the
beginning and stole Katie from the hospital but tried to make it look like you had no knowledge of it.”

Great.
“We found Patrico, and Katie is here safe and sound.”
But now Tezra knew she couldn’t return Katie to the hospital.

“Great news about Katie!”
Bernard paused and she sensed the tension in his thoughts, then he final y said,
“A vampire
telepathically contacted me—said he was a friend of yours and wanted to meet with you to tell you his side of the story.”

Her heart hitched.
“Krustalus?”

“He didn’t give a name. Just said he wants to meet with you.”

Just like Patrico said, he was tying up loose ends?
“Where?”

“He’d tell you privately. He wanted you to come alone. But you can’t, Tezra. It’s a setup.”

“I’m the bait, remember?”

“Dammit, you can’t do it, Tezra.”

Patrico pushed his plate aside. “I real y think Katie should stay here. Atreides said your place was broken into and everything is a shambles. You and Katie can stay with me.”

“Got to go, Bernard. Keep safe and stay in touch.”
Tezra turned to Patrico. “I agree Katie should remain here.”

Patrico’s mouth dropped open. Atreides’s brows rose. Katie sipped some more of her coffee and gazed at the remaining toast stacked on a platter.

“What?” Tezra said, her ire stoked. “When you’re right, you’re right. Krustalus could get to her. He’s tying up loose ends like you said. She’s safe as long as she has you and strong vampires like Atreides to watch over her.”

“And you.” Patrico looked like he didn’t believe her sudden change in attitude any more than Atreides did.

She lifted her plate off the table, but Daemon suddenly appeared next to her and took the plate from her before she dropped it.

After setting it on the table, he moved her into the living room. “You’re like a drug I can’t get enough of, you know.”

Ditto, she wanted to tel him, a dangerous, uncontrol able, life-altering drug, but she didn’t want it to go to his already big head.

“Where the hel were you?”

His lips curved slightly. “No, hi, honey, how was your morning?”

She crossed her arms. “You’re not my honey, and why the hel didn’t you tel me where you were—”

He cradled her face in his hands, then silenced her objection with a sizzling kiss.

Closing her eyes, she leaned into the kiss, but then remembered Katie. Opening her eyes, she saw Katie watching, her mouth gaping wide. Atreides was watching them too, but she couldn’t tel from his control ed expression what he was thinking. Patrico shook his head and returned to the kitchen, probably figuring she was a lost cause.