2 Vampires, Warlocks, And Exes (13 page)

I grabbed the hand he was offering and stepped into the room. As I lowered the hatch I replied, “No, I’m not sure. But I have to get this over with.”

He bent over to replace the rug and pulled out a chair for me. “Do you want me to stay?”

I shook my head. “No, Leo
. I need to do this on my own.”

He cupped my face with his hands and kissed my forehead. “I’ll be close by if you need me.”

“Thanks, Leo.”

Leo opened the door leading to the hallway right as Vance was approaching. He glared at Leo while saying, “Would you mind giving us some privacy?”

Leo returned the frosty expression. “I will leave, but only because Karli has requested it.” He gave me a sad smile. “Just call me if you need me, my love.”

I gulped. “I will.”

Vance closed the door and looked towards the security monitors. “Why did you want to meet here? Can’t we go somewhere a little less distracting?”

I grabbed the remote from
Leo’s desk and turned the monitors off. “We can talk here or we don’t talk at all.”

Why did you ask Leo to take you to his place after we found
you? Why can’t you look me in the eye?

Why do you think?
I countered, annoyed at the intimacy of speaking telepathically. I put the wall back up.

He start
ed pacing and raked his hands through his hair. “Look, Karli. Something happened the night I found you. Something really bad happened. But I need you to hear me out before you say anything. I can explain everything but you need to give me that chance.”

I held up my
hand. “Don’t, Vance. You don’t need to explain anything.” My damn eyes filled with tears again as I thought about it but I refused to let them fall.

He stepped forward and tried grabbing my hand but I backed
away from him. “Karli, yes, I do need to explain this. I need to tell you what happened. I can’t keep this from you in good conscience.”

I
moved behind Leo’s desk, because I couldn’t stand being so close to him. ‘In good conscience’ my ass. His conscience didn’t seem to bother him while he had his dick inside that bitch. “No, Vance, you don’t.” My tears started to fall despite my best efforts to contain them. “You don’t have to explain because
I saw everything
.”

His body tensed
. “What do you mean you
saw
everything?”

I felt the blood rush to my face as I seethed in anger. I pushed Leo’s desk chair away from me and shouted
, “I mean, that Maria thought it would be fun to videotape your sexcapades and then make me watch the
whole thing
afterwards!! Let me tell ya, Vance, it was a real eye opener. Not only did I get to enjoy hearing you tell her how much you loved her over and over again, but I got to SEE how much you loved her over and over again!!”

He paled
. “Karli, you don’t understand. I don’t know how she did it, but it was as if it was the day she left me. You don’t know how many times I had dreamed of her coming back to me over the years saying those exact things. She made me feel as if no time had passed. It was before you were even born! It was like I had never even met you! I wasn’t in my right mind!”

I held my breath while trying to formulate my words. In barely more than a whisper I said, “That’s just it
, Vance. You were able to forget
I even existed
. The more I think about it, the more I realize that she was right. You never stopped loving her. You’re never going to have room in your heart for anyone but her and it’s not fair to keep dragging me along for the ride.”

“What?” He started moving towards me but I held my hand up in warning
, prompting him to stop. “Karli, no, that’s not true. I don’t love her! I love you! My God, didn’t this week mean anything to you? How can you not know that we were meant to be together after everything you learned about your parents? About your destiny? Didn’t it teach you anything?”

I stopped crying, refusing to let him see me crack anymore. “Yes
, Vance. It did teach me something. It taught me that fate, or destiny, or whatever bullshit name you want to call it doesn’t exist! If it had, this whole situation with Maria would have never fucking happened!”

“
Karli, baby, don’t---”

“Don’t you dare fucking use a name for me that you used on her!” I moved from behind the desk and started shoving him towards the door. “You know what? Don’t fucking even think about using
any
name on me! You don’t have the right to even think about me! I don’t exist to you, remember?”

“No, that’s not
true!” he shouted. “Karli, just listen---”

“Leo, get in here now!” I screamed, knowing his vampire ears could hear me from wherever he was in the building.

Within seconds the door burst open. He rushed into the room and asked, “Are you okay? What’s going on?”

“Leo, ju
st stay out of this,” Vance barked. “This is between me and her. Just leave us alone to work this out.”

“Is that what you want?” Leo asked me.

“No. I want him to leave. I want him to leave now.”

Vance came up to us and tried shoving Leo out of the way. “Leo, I said to fucking stay out of this.”

Leo whirled around and in a blur, had Vance pinned against the wall by his neck. Vance’s face reddened as his air supply diminished.

“No
, Leo!” I screamed. “Don’t hurt him! I just want him to leave!”

Leo removed his hand from his neck and said, “You heard the lady. She wants you to leave.”

“Make me.” Vance said something in Latin which threw Leo onto his desk, scattering all of the contents onto the floor. Leo got up with his fangs fully extended and launched himself onto Vance.

“
Omigod! Stop it, you two!” I tried breaking them up but they were going so fast I could barely figure out who each one was. Finally, I wedged myself in between them just as I was being blinded by a flash of light. I felt something hard smack into my chest right before I was thrown into the air back into the security monitors. I slid down the wall as pieces of plasma screen rained down on my head. “Uh, what the hell was that?” I moaned, trying to shake off the dizziness and the ringing in my ears. They both ran up to me with panic in their eyes.

“Oh God,
Karli,” Vance said. “I’m so sorry. That was meant for Leo. Oh baby, please tell me you’re okay.”

I don’t know how I managed it with all the fuzz in my head, but I somehow summoned the strength to glare at him for calling me baby again. I looked and Leo and whimpered. “Please
, Leo, I just want to lie down. Please just take me back to bed so I can lie down.”

“Are you sure, my love?” h
e asked. “Are you sure you don’t need a hospital?” He started picking pieces of the monitors out of my hair.

I conjured some dust in my hand and sprinkled it over my head. Closing my eyes, I searched my body and found a mild concussion and focused on removing it. I felt warmth in the back of my head similar to a blow dryer before the fogginess went away. I opened my eyes feeling no physical pain any longer. “Yep, I’m fine now. Just please, take me home with you.”

Leo helped me stand and Vance had enough common sense to back away from us. Leo hesitated and I could tell that he didn’t want to reveal the hidden door to his home. I looked up at Vance and said, “Vance, I think you’ve done enough damage to me for one evening, don’t you?” He winced but I could hardly give a fuck at the moment. “Please, just turn around and walk out that door. If you ever had any feelings for me, it’s the least you could do.”

“
Karli, I---”

“Don’t fight me on this
, Vance. Please. I’m done fighting. Just go.” I tucked my face into Leo’s chest so I didn’t have to look at him anymore. After a few seconds I heard him open the door.

With a growl Leo said, “I’ll
send you a bill for the damage, Detective.” The door closed.

I looked up at Leo and said, “You ready to head downstairs?”

“Of course, my love.” He opened the panel gesturing towards the stairwell. “After you, beautiful.”

Eighteen

The drive to San Francisco took me about seven hours, giving me plenty of time to think. It should have taken me longer, but I couldn’t resist testing the limits of Leo’s Porche 911. Plus, the closer I got, the more anxious I was to see Irina. She’d moved back here to be with her coven while I’d been in college.  I pulled up to her 1900’s Victorian style home and took a deep breath. Her coven had lived here since the manor was first built. It’d been beautifully restored over the years. A fresh coat of golden brown paint covered the wooden siding and the brick red door matched the trim. I climbed the long flight of stairs and rang the bell. When Irina answered, I just collapsed into her arms.

“Oh
,
draga
, whatever has you so upset?” she said with her thick, Romanian accent. “Come in, my child.” She ushered me into the front room and sat me down on the couch. “Tell me what is wrong.”

I spent the next two hours telling her
everything
about my life with Vance and Leo
right up until I’d left town earlier that day. I’d always been close to Irina and felt no need to keep any secrets from her, no matter how intimate.

“Irina, I don’t even recognize my life anymore
,” I cried. “How did everything become so messed up? I thought I finally had it figured out, and the next minute I’m more confused than ever!”

“Perhaps it is not as ‘messed up’ as you say.” She paused. “I always suspected it was Vance when they followed him to the desert, but I had no idea there would be another possibility. Especially not a vampire.”

“What are you saying? Are you agreeing with Vance that we were meant to be together?” I asked.

“I’m not saying I agree,” s
he replied. “Only that maybe this is exactly where you’re supposed to be, my child.”

“Wait a minute…
back up. Did you just say they
followed him
to Vegas?”

“
Da,
I did. They communicated with him often while they lived here. They would occasionally go there to visit, or he would come here. Your mother insisted on moving there when she found out she was pregnant. She said that he needed them.”

“Did you ever meet him?”

“
Da,
” she replied. “He brought his new bride on a few occasions. Apparently the little human was fascinated with the supernatural. He would do anything to please her, exposing her to as much of our world as possible, including my coven. I only obliged your parents because he was so important to them.” She took my hands into her own. “My dear, there’s something you should know.”

“What?” I asked.

“It wasn’t a coincidence that I moved out to Las Vegas only weeks before your parents passed.”

“What are you trying to tell me?”

“Would you like some tea?” she offered.

“Irina, quit stalling. What are you saying?”

“
Copil
, I haven’t been very truthful with you about certain matters,” she admitted. I gave her a look that pleaded for her to continue. “When your parents died, I didn’t
exactly
look for your grandmother as I had told you.”

“What?!?!?
” I shouted.

She sighed heavily. “I’ve been wondering when this day would come. Please, calm yourself. Give me a chance to explain.”

I took a deep breath. “Go on,” I said through my teeth.

“You mustn’t be upset with me. I was onl
y doing what was asked of me,” she insisted.

“And that would be?” I asked.

“Do you remember the first time we met?”

“Yes
,” I answered impatiently. My parents and I had flown out to visit with her for a weekend a few months before they died. One of the earliest memories I had was riding the street car with them and walking along the pier while sitting on my father’s shoulders.

“Your mother came here to tell me
about a premonition she had,” she explained. “She wanted to make sure you would be taken care of.”

“Are you telling me that Vance was right? That they knew they were going to die?”

“Yes. They knew before you were even born.”

I hung my head between my knees to battle the sudden bout of nausea I was experiencing. “I can’t believe this is happening! How could they have just left me like that?”

“My dear, they knew they could not prevent it,” she assured me. “They wanted to take measures to ensure your destiny would come true despite their absence.”

“And how would they do that?” I asked.

“Well, for one, your grandmother never knew about you. If she had, she would have done everything in her power to interfere and bring you back to Faerie.”

“What do you mean she never knew about me? Wasn’t she clairvoyant?”