Bitten By Regret (Just One Bite #2) (4 page)

"Eamon, we'll discuss all this later if that's all
right with you. For now we have a problem, and I hope you can help us."
Diandra pulled back to study Eamon thoroughly. He looked like a man who was
struggling through issues of his own. She only hoped he was willing to take the
time to help them. If not- well, she'd promised Jonah nothing except that she
would try. She was trying, but if Eamon said no, there was nothing more she
could do for him.

Eamon ran a weary hand through his hair, and then he fixed a
weighty stare on Jonah. "I'm assuming by what I'm reading that he's the
problem you need help with?" Jonah bristled under the insult but stayed
carefully quiet. As much as it pissed him off, he couldn't afford to alienate
this bastard.

Diandra sighed heavily. "Yeah, he's the problem. Meet
my former husband, Jonah." Eamon stuck out a hand for Jonah to shake and
gave a friendly grin. Then he crushed Jonah's hand in a mighty grip, his smile
containing a bit more teeth to it. Diandra growled a little and then got
between the two men. She put a hand on each of their chests and shoved with all
her might. Oops, probably shouldn’t have done that, she thought as Jonah hit
his head against a nearby picnic bench and Eamon crashed into a tree some ten
feet away. She winced at the impact and her jaw dropped in surprise as the tree
made a cracking sound and tumbled over, roots exposed to the moist night air.

Eamon groaned as he got to his feet once more. "Damn, I
really need to remember not to piss you off. It's been awhile- I kind of forgot
how strong you've become." He gave her a big grin and then clapped her on
the back hard enough to make her stumble.
"Proud of you,
kid!"
A laugh bubbled up out of Lizbeth, surprised by his reaction.

He walked over to Lizbeth, dipped her low and kissed her
cheek.
"Missed ya, bright eyes!"
Lizbeth
rolled her eyes and made a big show out of wiping his kiss away much to Eamon's
delight.

Jonah stood up, angrily wiping at dew and dirt yet again.
Twice in one night that bitch managed to take him down, he thought to himself.
That bitch is stronger than you and I put
together, buddy, so I'd remember that the next time you pull any macho jealous
bullshit over a greeting between friends
, a sarcastic male voice spoke in
his head. He looked up at Eamon who gave him a little wink of acknowledgment.
Great, he was the only vamp here without the power to read minds. This whole
immortal thing was really starting to suck for him.

"Can we cut this shit out and get down to business
now?" Lizbeth sneered, disgusted with the juvenile display in front of
her. "Something's after Jonah and we don't know what the Hell it could be.
We hoped you might know more since you've got more time on your side of the
vamp line these two do."

Eamon looked up at her, all teasing gone. "Tell me
what's going on, and I'll tell you if it's anything I recognize."

In typical cop fashion Lizbeth laid it all out succinctly
for him- everything Jonah had told them. When she finished Eamon held up his
hand to signal that he needed to process the information. He wandered away to
sit on the recently uprooted tree, picking up a branch and drawing random
patterns in the dirt as he mulled over everything he had been told.

Diandra used the time he spent thinking to study him. Eamon
looked fantastic- fit and healthy with the same deep copper coloring she
remembered from last month. It made her curious. She knew he was Irish but you'd
never be able to guess by his coloring. He wore a rust-colored button down
short sleeved shirt tucked into a pair of relaxed fit jeans. They must have
been a recent purchase to replace the torn leg look that he had sported
previously. Her sensitive nose twitched a little as she scented the air. As the
smell of fresh cotton and indigo dye reached her nose she smiled a little in
satisfaction. Yeah, they were definitely new jeans. She had to wonder what the
special occasion was. She shrugged it off- they had more important things to
deal with tonight.

Eamon finally spoke, his head in his hands as he sat on the
felled tree.
"The Council."
He looked up at
them now. "The Council says they considered my comments but they won't
hold off. They say he broke the rules, and now he must pay the consequences of
his actions."

Jonah cut in. "What rules? What consequences? I don't
understand. What's this council thing you're talking about?" The panic was
deeply embedded in his questions, coloring each word with shades of hysteria.

"The Council rules us all. They don't interfere with
us, or any choices we make, but they will punish us if we break the rules.
Sadly, you broke the most important rule of all- never turn someone against
their will. It's an automatic death sentence, no excuses." Eamon looked up
at Diandra bleakly. "I did all I could, kid. I gave my opinions, asked
them to change their minds, but they won't listen to me. I'm sorry, Dia."
Eamon looked down once more, running his fingers through his ivory hair.

"Wait, so you mean that because I snapped like that and
turned Diandra this council wants me dead? I have to deal with that on top of
the mist?" Jonah's voice rose once more.

Eamon shot him an ugly look before bowing his head once
more. "You fucking idiot, the mist
is
the Council. That's the Council Elder in his shapeshifted form. He becomes
black mist to suffocate his target. Afterwards the mist goes back to wherever
they keep their lair and they aren't heard from again until someone breaks the
rules."

"But I didn't know! No one ever told me any rules. I
had no mentor or whatever you are to Diandra. How was I supposed to know the
rules? It isn't fair that I'm going to be killed for breaking a rule I never
knew existed." Jonah was irate now, furious that some omniscient council
could decide he had to be killed when no one told him there were rules to this
life.

Eamon stood up and planted his hiking boots firmly.
"Look, don't you think I told the council that? It's not my fault that
they didn't listen. As far as they're concerned, whether you were aware of it
or not you broke a rule and it can't go unpunished. It's not my fault, and
frankly it's not my problem. I tried to save your miserable existence for
Diandra and RaeLynn. End of story."

"Wait," Diandra cut in. "Maybe I can do
something. How do I call this Council? Perhaps if I talk to them they will
change their minds." She tried not to get her hopes up but realized she
liked the idea of being the knight on the white horse who rode in and saved the
day. At Eamon's choked laughter she realized he'd been in her mind again and
had caught that image. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she gave him a
mental "slap" like she'd done last month when she caught him poking
around. He winced and she grinned with satisfaction. One of these days he'd
learn not to poke around uninvited.

Eamon frowned at her but the look quickly changed to one of
consideration. "It's not a bad idea, and you obviously have the mental
strength to do it. Maybe hearing from you will make them change their minds.
One warning-
do
not even dare lie to them. They will
be able to tell it's a lie because they have to link to your mind first before
you can converse with them and the lie will be in the forefront of your brain
during the contact. You must tell them the entire truth or they may hunt you as
well."

Diandra paled a little but nodded. "I understand. I
won't lie. I just want them to hear me out. Maybe once they understand the
reasoning and that he didn't know the rules they may change their minds. I can
try at the very least."

"All right.
Then have a seat
and link up to me. I can 'take' you to them but from there it's up to you to
convince them to call off the hunt." Eamon and Diandra perched on the
fallen tree and closed their eyes. She felt a mental tug and turned her
thoughts to follow his.

Chapter
Seven

Diandra found herself disoriented from the tugging at her
psyche. She found herself in a consciousness she didn't recognize and instantly
disliked this… creature. It felt slimy, black, dark… a hundred other nasty
words tumbled through her mind and she attempted to shield her thoughts. Too
late, she realized as she heard a mental laugh echo through her inner ear. The
laugh was deep and dark, bringing to mind the thought of primordial creatures
sliding through the ooze that existed before the dawn of time.

To what do I owe the
pleasure of this intrusion
?
the
mental voice
queried. Diandra took in a deep breath before replying with a grudging
deference.

I am Diandra Malone,
the recently turned. You hunt my former spouse, Jonah Malone. I wish to talk to
you about calling off your mist
. Diandra cringed as she felt the mental
"hands" searching through her brain for the story. She relived each
moment of her life from the moment she answered the knock at the door that
heralded her new life. Opportunity knocks, she thought sarcastically.

She saw herself as Jonah threw her around her home, she felt
his fist in her hair again as he dragged her into the same parlor where they
sat so cordially at the start of this night. She felt the low thrum of terror
as he tore at her throat like a crazed animal. She watched dispassionately as
her heart quit beating and Lizbeth sobbed over her broken body, and with a bit
more interest as she watched her wounds heal like someone had hit the fast
forward button on the movie of her life. Interesting how quickly we can heal,
she thought to herself as she worried her bottom lip with the tip of one fang.

Her lips curled up in a smile as she watched every scene of
their life since RaeLynn entered it, and she took a deep breath as they seemed
to pause and make mental notes on her baby's development. She wished she could
have kept that out of it but knew it was relevant to their current situation.
The hands sped up again, quickly bringing themselves up to speed on the present
day. She waited impatiently for some sort of decision to be made.

Well
, the voice
hissed with slow consideration
, this
certainly gives us a new perspective on things, doesn't it? I suppose we could
change things up just a tiny bit here. I will have to discuss this with my
brethren but I see no reason to continue hunting him. Instead, perhaps we can
put our efforts into the one who changed him, leaving him alone and unknowing.
He should have had a trainer. We will get back to you, and in the meantime the
mist will dissipate. That is all.

Diandra slumped to the ground as she was roughly pushed out
of the strange creature's mind. She shuddered and wished for home and her
jungle-like bathroom. She'd slit her wrists for a bleach bath.

"Well!" Jonah shrieked with impatience. "What
did they say? Are they going to let me live?" He danced from foot to foot
in anticipation of her response and a second shudder ran over her from head to
toe as she was forcefully reminded of the cops that came to break the news. The
older of them had danced like he had to pee, she remembered.

Glaring at Jonah she finally responded. "The Council is
considering it and will get back to us after they've discussed it. In the
meantime you need not fear the mist- it's gone, at least until they make a
decision." She climbed slowly to her feet with the aid of Lizbeth's hand
and looked down at her dewy legs with a moue of distaste. There went this
outfit.

"That's fantastic, Dia!" Jonah scooped her up,
spun her round in his arms and planted a smacking kiss on her blood red lips,
pulling back with his smile stained in her lipstick. "Let's go home, baby,
and wait for their response." He set her down and started towards the car
then stopped when he realized she wasn't following him. "What?"

Diandra drew herself up to her full height, planted herself
firmly on the dirt and forced herself into his mind. Then she threw all her
memories as him- the files from the filing cabinet that detailed his dirty
work, the cops at her door and how they treated her as they related her death,
and most of all the way the scene had played out when he changed her into a
vampire. For good measure before she broke the connection she threw a memory of
her and Lizbeth's first time making love into his head. She watched in
satisfaction as he paled, flushed and then paled again before looking at her
with cold eyes. "You lost the right to me a long time ago you selfish son
of a bitch. Don't touch me, don't fucking kiss me, and never call me 'Dia'
again. That name is for friends and you are most definitely not my friend.
Lizbeth and I will be heading home. You can go fuck yourself for all I care. It
is our home now and no longer yours." She grabbed Lizbeth's hand and
headed for the car, striding past Jonah as he stared at her in slack-jawed
surprise. She grinned to herself then turned to Eamon. "Are you coming?"

Eamon laughed aloud. "Hell yeah, I'd love to! Got any
tuna fish?" he asked as he linked arms with Diandra and the three of them
headed for the Nissan. Jonah stood there and watched them go with a mix of
regret and rage. As the engine noise faded into the distance he threw his head
back and howled his frustration at the moon.

Chapter
Eight

A few hours later Diandra, Lizbeth and Eamon were settled
into the parlor with RaeLynn sleeping in her playpen. The adults laughed
quietly as they relaxed for a change watching a campy 80's vampire movie.
Lizbeth and Diandra were curled up together on the loveseat while Eamon had
kicked his boots off and propped his feet on the coffee table. He and Diandra
were nursing spiked glasses of blood while Lizbeth had a glass of white wine
sitting on the end table at her side. The noise kicked up a level as Eamon and
Diandra hooted at the unrealistic ending to the movie and Lizbeth pegged them
with popcorn with unerring accuracy.