Undeniable (19 page)

“What he is.”

“What are you saying, Nana?” A shudder tripped down Diana’s
spine. Part of her wanted to scream at Nana Lina and stop her from saying the
words she’d said so many times before. Another part needed to hear it, needed
to hear that soft voice remind her that love mattered more than anything else.

“Get in the damn car, Diana!”

Diana flung herself into the driver’s seat, slammed the
door, pressed the lock button and stared wide-eyed at the sand hitting her
windshield. “You’re scaring me, Nana.”

“Just remember this, Diana. When soul mates reunite, their
bodies recognize each other immediately and long to become one. But sex isn’t
all that matters. Only if they stay together—accepting and trusting each
other—can soul mates’ hearts become one. Diana, if you open your heart and soul
to him and accept him and the life he leads, you could experience a love most
people only dream about.”

A gust of wind rocked the car. “I gotta go.” Not waiting for
a reply, she flung her cell phone onto the passenger seat and, expecting to see
a fang-toothed maniac, peeked into the rearview mirror.

Olympia stepped out from behind a tree and watched Diana’s
car speed out of the parking lot. Swatting away the dirt the tires had kicked
up, she snarled, “Diego!”

Diego poked his head up from the bush he’d been hiding
behind. “Is she gone?”

“Of course she’s gone, you fool. Do you think I’d be
standing here if she wasn’t?”

Standing in the moonlight, her sleek black hair draped
around her shoulders like a cape, her low-cut shirt revealing the edges of her
areolas and her fangs dripping with blood from the rabbit that had dared to
cross her path, Olympia knew she could not look more enticing or terrifying.
She watched Diego draw in a fortifying breath before he stepped into the
parking lot.

“Tell me, Diego, do you think it’s healthy to lie to me?”

“Lie?” His eyes darted from the quivering rabbit lying on
the ground to Olympia’s fangs. Glancing over his shoulder, he took a step back.

“You said he did it. You swore!” She crossed her arms under
her breasts and watched the sweat bead on his forehead.

“He did!” Diego stared at the receding brake lights of
Diana’s car and raked his hands through his hair. “I swear he did.”

“You saw him do it?”

“Well not exactly.” He took another step back. “But I know
he did. She started moaning and whimpering. I couldn’t even get into her mind.
The pain was so overwhelming it blocked out everything else.”

Olympia grabbed Diego’s face in both hands and bestowed a
kiss she ended with a vicious bite. Blood filled her mouth when her fangs
sliced through the tender flesh. Glaring down at him as he clutched his torn
lip and dropped to his knees, she pointed down the road and asked, “Did that
look like a woman in pain? Did she look like she was dying of hunger? Like she
was
insane
?”

Diego licked his tattered lip. “God, Olympia. I’m telling
the truth. She was hurting so much it made me sick.”

“Sick? Over a human?” Olympia wondered if she’d misjudged
Diego. He had been doing special favors for her ever since he’d entered puberty
and she’d introduced him to pleasures only a female vamp with centuries of
experience could provide. He’d become so addicted to her body and blood, so easy
to manipulate with promises of more, that she’d even been able to convince him
to try to bond with his high school sweetheart. Convincing him the next day
that little, innocent Maria had cheated on him had been easy.

Diego had grown to trust Olympia. He’d immediately brought
the bonding to a halt, then abandoned poor Maria, mad from her uncompleted
transformation, on Fentmore Island. “Maybe Diana’s transformation brought up
the memory of Maria. Maybe that made you too sick to notice Sebastian failed!”

“Maria didn’t react to my blood ‘til the next day. And even
then, she wasn’t in pain.”

Olympia glared at him. “What about Sebastian? Did you read
him?”

“It was even worse for him. I got hit with a wave of pain
so, so—” His eyes flew open. “One drop. Oh no, you didn’t.”

Realizing her error, Olympia tried to change the subject.
She ran her hands over her breasts and licked her lips. “Come here, Diego, and
give me what I want.”

Shaking his head, Diego backed away. “You told him he was to
give no more than a drop of his blood. You insisted I stop him if he tried to
give her more. I wondered about that.”

“Now, Diego, you’re letting your imagination run away with
you.”

“It doesn’t matter how much blood a vampire passes to a
human that first time. How much shouldn’t have mattered to turn Diana into a
Slasher. What matters is that he not return, that he never feed her growing
hunger for his blood. That’s how they grow mad. Waiting and waiting to feed
that hunger. That’s how they turn into Slashers. Not right away and not from
the pain!”

“Listen to you!” Olympia laughed, stalking him as he backed
into a tree. “I’ve watched scores of humans turn into Slashers. They—”

“I know more than you ever will how our blood poisons
humans. After I brought Maria to Fentmore, I found out everything I could about
our blood so I would
never
create another Slasher. It doesn’t hurt like
that.” Crimson tears filled his eyes. “Except if the human is a soul mate.
That’s why we have to be especially careful with them. If too little blood is
offered to a human soul mate the first time, the pain is unbearable. That’s why
Maria didn’t feel as much pain as Diana. She wasn’t my soul mate. She only
turned into one of those monsters because you made me stop feeding her.”

Olympia’s lip curled up, revealing one, long fang. “I
never—”

Diego shook his head and bared his fangs, then cut her off
with a deafening roar. “What have you done? Is Sebastian just another pawn in
one of your sick games?”

“No.” Olympia turned her back on Diego and stared down the
road. How she wished she could just break the necks of Diana and her
grandmother. But she’d never win back Damien if he knew she had a hand in their
deaths. “So they’re soul mates. A minor glitch.”

“Minor glitch? Minor glitch? It’s a minor glitch that your
son suffered even more than she did? That her pain became his, only worse. If
he finds out—oh god—if he finds out he harmed his soul mate, that he turned his
soul mate into a Slasher, he’ll go over the edge, Olympia. I know he will.
He’ll face the dawn.”

“He’ll survive. Which is more than I can say for that
she-devil.” Her nostrils flared. She drew in a deep breath. Diana’s scent still
lingered in the air. It didn’t make sense. She could smell Sebastian’s blood
mingled with Diana’s. “The fool must have given her too much.”

“How could you do this to your own son?” Diego stared at
her, his eyes filled with condemnation.

“I did this for Mina’s Cove.”

Diego continued to stare at her in the way that too many of
her kind did whenever they questioned her love for her son.

She loved Sebastian. Why does everyone always doubt that?
Everyone, even her own father always brings up some minor mistake she made
raising him or her lack of affection towards him during his boring existence.
Does a mother have to kiss her child every year just to prove she loves him?

So what if she left him to fend for himself when he was
scarcely old enough to walk. She’d locked the door, didn’t she? And so what if
Dracula and his perfect mate had to feed Sebastian when he was a baby. She had
a right to go out and feed. And why, why does everyone have to dwell on the
scars he carries from the one morning she didn’t have time to grab him when
she’d sought shelter from the dawn. Tobias heard his screams, didn’t he? He got
him inside on time.

Dammit, she loved her son. “Anyway, Sebastian will never
find out that Diana is his soul mate.”

“If he doesn’t continue to feed her and complete the
bonding, he’ll realize it when she goes mad. He’ll feel her torment.
He’ll
go mad!” Diego closed his eyes and drew in a ragged breath. “He has to go to
her and give her more of his blood. He has to bond with her. Yes, yes, and if
they mate it will soothe her. He has to bond with her.”

Mist swirled around Diego’s feet as he ran with
preternatural speed.

Realizing he’d dematerialize unless she broke his
concentration, Olympia hurled a mental shriek that would slice through his
mind. When he stumbled, she let out a relieved sigh. “Get back here, Diego.”

Furious that he continued to transform, enraged that he
dared ignore her, she pooled her anger into a massive ball and hurled it
directly at his legs.

The sound of bones cracking soothed her anger. Somewhat.

She’d managed to convince the elders that Diana’s descent
into hell was Frank Nostrum’s punishment, but Frank had little to do with her
reason for picking Diana. Someone else loved Diana even more than her father.
Someone else considered her the only bright spot in her otherwise dark
existence. Diego would not interfere with Lina Nostrum’s punishment for
stealing Damien’s heart.

She strode over to Diego’s writhing body. “Listen, you
worthless piece of shit. When this is all over, Sebastian will be fine.”
Squatting down, she kissed his furrowed brow and, releasing a breast from her
shirt, slid her nipple over his lips. “I know you want Diana. I saw how hard
your cock got when you told me how she looked in bed. Before I take her to
Fentmore, I’ll let you play with her. Okay, baby? I’ll let you suck her little
tits. I’ll even let you rut between her legs like the animal I know you are.”

While he suckled, she scraped her nail up the zipper on his
jeans. He stared up at her with those doe-colored eyes the young female vamps
found so appealing and silently begged for her blood. She smoothed back his
dark-brown hair from his brow and rubbed her knuckles over his square jaw.

This young vamp others considered so handsome was not her
type at all except in one very important way. He allowed his dick to rule his
head, something she’d discovered years ago, something she used to her advantage
again and again. Piercing the skin of her breast with her nail, she watched his
pupils dilate as he watched a drop of blood emerge.

“But Sebastian,” he murmured, running his tongue up the side
of her breast and capturing the drop. He moaned as the blood she’d addicted him
to stirred a hunger she knew he couldn’t refuse.

“I was given free rein by Tobias in carrying out Nostrum’s
punishment.”

She pushed his head away from her chest. Shoving her breast
back into her shirt, she grabbed Diego under his arms and, ignoring his screams
of pain, flung him over her shoulder. “Let’s go. When we get home, you can show
me all the wicked things you’re going to do to little Miss Diana.”

“What about Sebastian, Olympia?”

“Don’t worry about Sebastian. I’ll take care of everything.
If he’s not strong enough to carry out a simple sentence for the sake of our
kind without going over the edge, it’s certainly not my fault.”

“He won’t stay away from her when he finds out.” Diego cried
out when she dug her nails into his thighs. When he continued, his voice
trembled. “His guilt will get the best of him if he’s experiencing her pain and
hunger. Knowing him, I bet he gave in and fed her that night.”

“You are so ignorant, Diego. Why do you think their being
soul mates was so perfect? I know my son. He would have given in to his guilt
with her first whimper even if they weren’t soul mates. This way he was too
busy dealing with his own pain to worry about hers.” She frowned, then shook
her head. “No, he would never have been able to give her more once the pain hit
him. Pain has a way of sapping one’s power, doesn’t it?”

She took to the sky. Diego needed a lesson. One he’d never
forget. As she neared the northern inlets of the lake and Mina’s Cove, she
noticed a rocky slope leading down to the shore. Diego’s thoughts of finding a
way to tell Sebastian filled her head.

Each time she’d shove more of Diego’s body over her
shoulder, his fear of tumbling to the ground and down that slope entered her
mind. Each time he tried and failed to gather enough power to ensure his
survival if she happened to drop him, her fangs throbbed and her thoughts grew
more sinister. His nails pierced the soft flesh of her thighs as he struggled
to hold on.

And still, the fool’s thoughts centered on warning Sebastian.

“You really should work on shielding your mind, Diego. I
know you’re planning on telling Sebastian that I knew Diana was his soul mate.”

“No, no I wouldn’t. I swear, I—”

Tired of hearing his whining voice, she paralyzed his
larynx, then opened her hands. Diego’s knees slammed into her chest as he
struggled to remain on her shoulder. Olympia slid her fingers around his ankles
and flung his legs over.

She hovered beneath a cloud and took in the show. Not
looking to kill the young vamp, she aimed his flailing body towards a tree,
then grinned when it broke his fall. Still, his descent down the slope was a
sight to behold. Watching, she winced when his face bounced off the trunk of a
lofty pine, bit her lip when his already battered legs slammed into another. The
force of the impact sent him spinning through the air.

She frowned. His body picked up an amazing amount of
momentum when it again hit the ground. As he tumbled another ten feet towards
the lake, she swept down from the sky and caught his ankle in both hands a
moment before his head would have hit a huge boulder protruding from the
ground. Digging in her heels, she brought his body to a sudden halt.

She flipped over his limp body and drew in a sharp breath.
Diego’s cheekbones were either shattered or hiding beneath the raw,
blood-soaked flesh swelling before her eyes. One glance at his legs confirmed
her little trick had accomplished much more than she’d intended. His left one,
bent at an impossible angle, bled profusely from a gaping hole beneath his knee
where the ragged end of a bone jutted out.