Undeniable (22 page)

It had taken a month of weekly lessons for Diana to convince
Colette that she meant them no harm, that she would never reveal their secret.
Each week, Colette had peered into the shadows and gripped the gate surrounding
the corral. By the end of the lesson her knuckles would be white and a
glistening sheen of sweat coated her skin.

Last night her fear had escalated when a group of ranch
hands suddenly emerged from the saloon and started to run toward the corral,
yelling. “We got two live ones!” “Whoa, Diana, don’t let em go before we rope
em in!”

Diana knew exactly what they were talking about, had even
begun to laugh, but Colette’s strangled cry cut her laughter short. “It’s all
right, Colette, calm down. They’re only talking about tomorrow’s charity fair.”
Fangs had slipped out between Colette’s lips. Diana, praying the men were too
far to notice, hissed, “Colette, please!”

She’d passed Luna over the gate to her mother, then spun
around and smiled brightly at the approaching men. “Hi, guys.”

“Don’t you let them go, Di. We gotta get them to buy some of
these tickets.” Jacob, the oldest hand on the ranch, waved a book of raffle
tickets in the air. “Wouldn’t want the tot to miss all the fun tomorrow.”

“I already bought some for them.” She glanced over her
shoulder. “But I don’t think Luna’s going to be able to make it. I was just
ending her lesson early because she feels like she has a fever.”

Jacob leaned to the side and peered around Diana. “She don’t
look sick.”

Diana cringed. The stench of rotten teeth and stale alcohol
sent bile rising up her throat. “I’d step back, Jacob. Luna just said she felt
nauseous.”

Jacob leapt back a step. “Well git her outta here! I don’t
want her vomitin all over the place!”

Luna screamed.

Diana spun around. Her eyes flew open in shock. A bee had
managed to entangle itself in a lock of Luna’s hair. Without a moment’s
hesitation, Diana lifted the hair away from Luna’s chest and plucked the bee
out.

Accepting the ensuing invitation hadn’t been easy. She
couldn’t bear the thought of missing one moment with Sebastian, much less one
night. And just the previous night she’d started an argument, demanding he find
some time during the day for her.

She needed that more than he knew. A few hours during the
day. A few hours in the sun.

Sebastian hadn’t taken the news that she had plans which
didn’t include him very well. And when she refused to tell him where she
intended to spend their first night apart, he’d stalked off, cutting the night
short.

And now, with one stupid question about Marek’s night
vision, she’d blown a perfect night. She followed Colette’s rigid back into the
kitchen.

She put the salad bowl in the sink, aware that Colette stood
beside the table, a stack of dirty dishes still in her hands.

“How do you know about our night vision?”

“Doesn’t everyone?” Diana pumped dish detergent onto a
sponge.

“No, Diana. Most people don’t know we exist. Most people
would never believe in us even if a little girl showed them her fangs. Most
people would figure she had fake ones and laugh it off. But you didn’t. You
knew they were real. Because you’re not like most people, are you?”

“You bared your fangs, Colette. Remember?” Diana
straightened from the hard edge of anger in Colette’s voice. She couldn’t bring
herself to turn around.

Colette slammed the pile of dishes on the counter. “I’m
talking about your father.”

Diana gripped the edge of the counter. “My father? What do
you know about my father?” Her voice cracked.

Colette leaned over and turned off the water with one
fervent twist of the handles. “The question, Diana, is what do you know about
your father and his pen? Where is it? Where are my husband’s ashes?”

Diana slowly turned. She stared at Colette. Even though her
tears blurred the woman’s face, she saw the return of the mistrust, the fear.
“I…” She blinked, felt her tears spill onto her cheeks, watched Colette’s
crimson ones spill onto hers. Diana swallowed the false denial. “I’m so sorry,
Colette. I never believed it. How could I? He’s my father!”

She took a tentative step forward.

Colette, a feared creature of the night, someone who could
probably rip her to shreds without breaking a sweat, scurried back and swung a
chair between them.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Diana watched her scan the shadows of the room as if she
expected someone to suddenly appear. “Oh, God, Colette, you can’t think I’d—”

The screen door swung open.

“Wanna see my dolls, Di—”

“No!” Colette lunged toward Luna, knocking Diana across the
room as if she were nothing more than a pesky fly. She grabbed Luna, spun her
around and shoved her towards the door. “Run, Luna!”

Diana slumped against the wall, the pain in the back of her
head nothing compared to the knife twisting in her heart. “My mother lied to
me. She lied to me, then left me with him.”

She stared blindly at her lap and let loose the grief she’d
contained since she’d first discovered her father’s insane tales were true and
her mother’s promises were false. And what of Sebastian? Why would he only see
her at night? Was he a vampire? Probably not. Which meant she could never trust
him with her knowledge of Colette and Luna. She lifted her eyes.

Her heart felt like it cracked. Colette cradled Luna against
her side, protecting her. As a mother would. As her mother should have.

“I believed my mother. Even when I was old enough to know
that my father was too normal to have delusions. I kept telling myself that my
mother would never lie to me. But she did, didn’t she? She even lied when she
told me she loved me. My God, she left me, a little girl, with a man who killed
vampires. A man who left me alone every night to hunt them!”

Diana angrily swiped away her tears. “You wouldn’t do that,
Colette. You’d protect Luna. You’d worry that the creatures your husband sought
might go after your daughter for revenge.”

When Luna moved to step away from her mother and toward
Diana, Colette tightened her hold. “So you had nothing to do with Marek’s
death?”

“Oh, God, no. I liked Marek. He was always so kind. If I had
any idea what my father planned, if I believed his tales, I would have done
something to stop him. You have to believe me.” She watched Luna clutch the
locket she’d given her and recalled what her mother had said when she’d given
it to her. She’d told her the locket would keep the monsters away then had
added, “Not that you’ll need it. The monsters are more afraid of your father
than you could ever be of them. They wouldn’t dare touch Frank Nostrum’s little
girl.”

She had raised fearful eyes to her mother and asked, “So
there really are monsters, Mommy?”

Her mother had leaned over and kissed her. Diana remembered
wondering why her mother was crying. “Sometimes people like your father can
only see monsters because they can’t get past the legends and the fangs, Diana.
Sometimes the monsters are no different from you or me.”

“Oh my God, she knew.” Diana shook her head at Colette and
Luna. “She wasn’t telling me vampires didn’t exist. She was telling me they
weren’t monsters. But I couldn’t believe that. I never wanted to believe it,
because if I did, then I had to accept that my father was no better than a
murderer. H-he killed s-so many. I heard about every one. Even poor, sweet
Marek. I’d just pat him on the back and tell him he was doing a great job. Oh
God, it’s all my fault, isn’t it. If I’d done something to stop him, Marek—”

She clapped her hand over her mouth. Her stifled scream
filled the kitchen. When she felt Luna’s tiny hands grasp her cheeks, her
scream evolved into a wail she couldn’t seem to control.

Until the screen door once again flew open and slammed
against the wall. Diana drew in a sharp breath.

Sebastian stood in the doorway, his eyes darting back and
forth, his hands clenched around a gun.

Diana jumped up and, after pushing Luna back into her
mother’s arms, stood in front of them. “What are you doing here?” Her voice
shook.

She cared for Sebastian more than any man she’d ever known,
felt in her heart that they were soul mates, but couldn’t live with the death
of another vampire on her conscience. Colette and Luna, caught up in the
escalating emotions of the evening, had twice revealed their fangs. “You can’t
just barge into someone’s house swinging a gun around!”

“What?” Sebastian raked a hand through his hair. “I’m a
goddamned Champion! I hear a scream, I barge in. It’s my damn job!”

The three females flinched when he slammed the door shut,
his eyes still scanning the room.

“A Champion? What the hell is a Champion?” Diana narrowed
her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “Why are you here?”

“I just told you, I heard a scream.”

“No. Why are you even close enough to hear anything that’s
going on in this house?” She swiped at a wisp of hair that clung to her wet
cheek. “Are you following me?”

“What?” Sebastian took a step closer.

Diana puffed out her chest and reached behind her to gather
Colette and Luna behind her back. “I told you I had plans tonight.” Her voice
shook with anger. “You’re not one of those overbearing jealous nuts who follows
his girlfriends around, are you?”

“Nut? Did you just call me a nut?” He shoved the gun in the
back of his jeans.

Diana crossed her arms over her chest. “If you’re following
me, then, yes, I’m calling you a nut!”

“I am not the one screaming my head off as if someone’s
killing me for,” he bellowed, waving his hands around the kitchen, “no apparent
reason!”

“You’re avoiding the question, wise guy. What are you even
doing here?”

“I live nearby. Since I had no plans tonight,” he said,
raising one eyebrow, “I figured I’d take a walk along the lake. Now will you
please tell me what the hell happened?” Sebastian traced a finger down her wet
cheek, then reached over and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “You’ve
obviously been crying and that wasn’t some randy raccoon I heard screaming.”

His voice, filled with concern, and the touch of his fingers
gliding down her cheek nearly undid her. Nearly. She longed to throw herself
into his arms and pour her heart out, but doubted Sebastian would believe her
father hunted vampires. And what if she told him the woman and little girl
cowering behind her were real night creatures, that she would do anything to
protect them? That she was screaming because her failure to stop her father had
led to the death of a vampire she’d considered a gentle giant?

Oh, yeah. Sebastian would understand. He’d understand as he
called the men in white to come and take her away.

Of course, she had to consider the possibility that he might
believe her. Then what? Would he call her father and enlist his aid in
capturing Colette and Luna? Knowing the Sebastian she’d grown to care about,
she doubted it, but she couldn’t take the chance.

“Well?” He leaned to the side, then scowled when she shifted
to block his view of Colette and Luna.

“I saw a, um, mouse.”

Sebastian’s brows drew together. “You saw a mouse? Diana,
you work at a ranch. You must see them all the time.”

She flung her hands behind her back, held one of her fingers
out and mumbled. “It bit me.”

“You screamed like that because a little mouse bit you?”

“It hurt!”

“Really? I’d better take a look at it then.” His eyes
narrowed.

She frantically wriggled her index finger, hoping Luna would
see it and know what to do. “I’m fine.”

“Let me see it, Diana. That is, if there is anything to
see.” He leaned his hip against the counter and crossed his arms.

“Are you calling me a liar? I’m telling you a mouse
bit
my finger.” She felt Luna grasp her finger and gritted her teeth. The pain,
though piercing enough to bring tears to her eyes, didn’t last long. She
brought her hand out and waved her finger in front of his face. “See?”

Sebastian’s pupils dilated. “You expect me to believe a
mouse did this?”

Colette stepped out from behind Diana and looked at her
finger. “Luna, go to your room!”

“But, Mommy!”

“It’s really not that bad.” Diana turned her bloody finger
around.

“Not a word, young lady. To your room, now.”

The gash across the pad of her finger spewed blood. Luna’s
fang had gone completely through, piercing the nail. Diana mutely watched as
Sebastian cursed and brought her finger to his mouth. Her stomach flipped as he
licked both sides before grabbing a dishtowel draped over a chair and wrapping
it around her hand. His tongue darted out and licked her blood from his lips.

“Lu—” Colette looked at Diana, Sebastian, then back at
Diana.

Then back at Sebastian.

Just as she had when Luna and her mother had stared into
each other’s eyes outside, Diana noted subtle changes in Colette and
Sebastian’s expressions. As if they were having a discussion. A private, silent
conversation. Her heart sank. Her eyes burned.

As they continued to ignore her, she searched for some way
out, some way to avoid meeting his eyes.

“Diana, are you all right? You look so pale?” Colette’s soft
voice met her ears just as Diana’s vision cleared enough to make out the names
scrawled beneath a childish drawing on the refrigerator of two, tall stick
figures.

“Diana?” Sebastian took hold of her hand.

Tearing her eyes away from the drawing, Diana forced herself
to look at the man who filled her every thought, every dream.

“Must have been a big mouse,” she mumbled, wondering how
wise it was to bleed so close to vampires. Her eyes widened when her blood
seeped through the towel and started to drip onto the floor. “I don’t feel so
good.”

Scooping Diana up into his arms just as her legs gave out,
Sebastian watched her eyes flutter, then close. “Why was she lying to me,
Colette?”