Love Your Entity (25 page)

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t know the answer.”

“It’s a matter of free will, right?” Daniella said. When Sierra nodded, she continued, “I can understand that part. The vampires in our lives find it very aggravating that they can’t compel us to obey them.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Zoe said.

“What about your mind?” Sierra asked.

“As in, are we out of our minds?” Daniella said.

“No, as in, can your vampires read your mind?” Sierra said.

“Sometimes it seems like Nick can,” Daniella said with a secret smile.

“Ronan really can read my mind,” Sierra said. “That’s a side effect of the vampire bond thing. I asked him to swear on something he holds dear that he’d stop doing it unless I give him permission but he refused. I am able to block him sometimes if I really focus on doing that. And I have to be fairly close for him to read it. He said he couldn’t read my mind out here and I believe him. Besides, I can tell if he lies. Another effect of the bond thing.”

“I bet they wouldn’t like it if we could read their minds,” Zoe said. “Wait, sometimes I can read Damon’s mind.”

“Because you’re a witch?” Sierra said.

“No, because he wants me to know what he’s thinking. It’s written all over his face,” Zoe said with a grin.

“I have a hard time reading Ronan,” Sierra admitted.

“So the only reason you want to have sex with Ronan is to break the vampire bond?” Zoe asked bluntly.

Sierra squirmed in her seat. The chairs looked a lot comfier online than they were in reality. Perhaps that was because Zoe’s question made her uncomfortable. “Maybe not the only reason but the main reason.”

“Were you attracted to him before you knew he was a vampire?” Zoe said.

“He was nude when I first met him, remember?” Sierra said.

“And that attracted you to him?” Zoe said.

“You make it sound like I’m attracted to any guy I see naked, which is certainly not the case,” Sierra said.

“Are you having any premonitions about them having sex?” Zoe turned to ask Daniella.

“Not yet. I’ll let you know if that changes. But just because I don’t have a premonition, that doesn’t mean that there might not be danger ahead,” Daniella said. “Remember, I did have a premonition yesterday about danger and death.”

Sierra was pretty sure there was plenty of danger ahead. She just needed to do everything she could to make sure that one of those dangers wasn’t her being turned into a vampire against her will. Oh yeah, and that the death wasn’t hers. There was that too. No big deal.

*   *   *

Ronan was in the basement, studying the map on the passageway wall and trying to calibrate it with something in the house. So far no luck. There were no recognizable sites on the map.

Maybe that information was on the missing segment. He’d used his smartphone to take a photo of the passageway wall and put it together with the piece from Hal’s empty casket. He’d even taken the casket portion of the map to the passageway to see if putting the two together that way made a difference. It didn’t.

Ronan rubbed his hand over his face. He was trying to concentrate here but the memory of Sierra being yanked off her bed stayed with him. The force that had tried to take her was incredibly powerful. It had taken all his strength to hang on to her.

He could hear Sierra’s voice outside. He could hear all the women outside. She’d asked if he would be able to read her mind if she was outside and he’d said no. She hadn’t asked if he’d be able to hear her with his vamp-heightened senses. Sierra was talking about breaking the vampire bond and having sex with him tonight.

He immediately got hard at the thought. It wasn’t just a thought on her part. Sierra had said the words out loud.

Had he met her without all this shit hanging over his head, he’d have conquered her immediately that very first night. Not against her will, but with her blessing. Yeah, he was that good. Vamp senses were heightened in all things, including sex.

But now things were complicated. However, the bottom line was that he couldn’t risk failing in his mission to find the freaking key for Voz and thereby putting Sierra at risk. He had to protect her. That need had grown within him as intensely as his desire for her.

Sierra had only seen a brief flash of him going full vamp. She hadn’t seen the entire transformation. Not that he planned on doing that in front of her. But none of this was going as he’d planned.

His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Pat through the Vamptown tunnels.

“Damon gave me an update on the occurrence last night,” Pat said. “I also got a message from Bruce that Sierra wanted to talk to me.”

“She’s outside right now.”

“I saw. Far be it from me to interrupt their girl talk.”

It occurred to Ronan that if he could hear Sierra’s conversation, then so could Pat. “I’ll have her come down.”

“You’re a braver vampire than I,” Pat said with old-world syntax. “How are you adapting to the sunlight? No side effects?”

“None. Were you expecting some?”

“I’ve never used our tat ink on an indentured vampire before.”

“Formerly indentured,” Ronan corrected him.

“Right. So you’re transitioning to functioning in the daylight just fine?”

Ronan was getting suspicious. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“That unknown attacker last night may have been a mutant vampire hybrid.”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Bruce said Sierra was asking about a previous owner of the house. Gregori Dimitrov owned this house for four years. He sold it to Hal in 1923.”

“Were you here then?”

Pat nodded. “I’ve been in this area since Abe Lincoln’s time.”

“You were a vampire when my family lived here?”

“I had nothing to do with the deaths in your family,” Pat said curtly.

The possibility hadn’t occurred to Ronan until that moment. He hadn’t discovered that the area was known as Vamptown until his return several days ago. Since then he’d been consumed with the search for Voz’s key and his growing attraction to Sierra.

Voz had held back Adele’s soul from moving on. Had he lied? He’d sworn on his family’s coat of arms but did that make it real or true?

“What is the connection between vampires and spirits or ghosts?” Ronan demanded.

“Normally there is none,” Pat said. “But Master Vampires are different. You know that already.”

Ronan nodded.

“They are more powerful than other vampires and have more abilities.”

“Is this mutant vampire hybrid a Master Vampire?” Ronan asked.

“No. I think it could be Gregori. I ran my suspicions by Simon, Damon’s sire and a longtime Demon Hunter. He agrees with my analysis. Rumor had it that Gregori wasn’t turned properly. When his vampire brother Ivan refused to turn him, Gregori may have ended up with a defective transition.”

“Damon thought it could be a demon plasma consumption attempt last night. He didn’t say anything about mutant vamps.”

“He didn’t know. We only heard back from Simon a short time ago.”

“Was Gregori a vamp when he bought this house?”

“Not when he bought it, no. But by the time he sold it, we knew something was off but didn’t know what. He was never included in our clan the way you were.”

“What happened to him?”

“I’ve been trying to track him down. He was in the South around New Orleans for some time. Then he disappeared. He could be continuing to deteriorate.”

“So he’s what … part vampire, part demon?”

“That’s a simplified way of putting it.”

“How can he be annihilated?”

“Beheading. I fear his demon portion makes fire useless in destroying him.”

“Zoe did a protection spell for Sierra last night. Will it work against him?”

“We don’t know for sure,” Pat said. “One would hope so.”

“I don’t deal in hope,” Ronan said flatly.

*   *   *

“I heard that Hal’s casket was empty,” Zoe said. “Do you think that’s why he’s haunting this house?”

“You dug up a casket?” Daniella’s voice reflected her surprise.

Sierra shook her head. “Not personally, no. I didn’t do that.”

“My family owns the local funeral home. We tend to frown on digging up graves without proper legal authorization,” Daniella said.

“We’re dealing with a dangerous poltergeist ghost here,” Sierra said. “That calls for unusual measures.” Then Daniella’s words sank in further. “How long has your family owned the business?”

“Several generations.”

“So it’s possible that they may have handled Hal’s funeral arrangements?” Sierra asked.

“Probably. We keep the records going way back.”

“Can you get me in to see them?” Sierra asked. “Maybe if I can locate Hal’s final resting place, it will help solve the problem.”

“What problem?” Ronan said as he joined them.

Sierra, Daniella, and Zoe were all wearing winter coats but Ronan was just wearing his customary black sweater and black pants. The weather didn’t seem to affect him the way it did others. So camping in the backyard shouldn’t have been a problem for him when Sierra had suggested it at their first meeting. But of course his ability to manage that would have raised the red flag that Ronan wasn’t just another guy.

“Did you know that Daniella’s family owns the local funeral home?” Sierra said. “They may have records about the real location of Hal’s body.”

“I did hear something about her connection but it didn’t occur to me before,” Ronan said.

“Because we had no reason to think that Hal wasn’t where he was supposed to be—in his coffin at his grave site.” Turning back to Daniella, Sierra said, “Do you have time now to take me over there—”

“Take
us
over there,” Ronan interrupted her.

Pat joined them. Ronan asked him, “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Not as long as you limit your investigation to Hal’s remains,” Pat said.

Sierra immediately suspected something was going on between the vampire community and the funeral home. She just as quickly decided she really didn’t want to know any details about that subject at the moment.

“We can walk there. It’s only a couple of blocks,” Daniella said.

Ronan took hold of Sierra’s hand during the walk, as if hanging on to her protected her from being taken. At least that’s how it felt to her. There was little conversation during the short trip.

Once inside the Evergreen Funeral Home, Daniella paused to gently rearrange the flower arrangement on the marble table in the front foyer. Looking around, Sierra noted the muted wallpaper and dark wood that combined to create a feeling of class and comfort.

“I have to introduce you to my dad and brother,” Daniella said. “They run the place. If I don’t say something, they’ll get suspicious. My brother is here now.” She knocked on the funeral director’s door and led them inside. “Hey, Gordon, I’d like you to meet some friends of mine.”

As the introductions were made, Sierra was aware that Daniella’s brother was flirting with her. She could also tell that Ronan was aware of that fact and not happy about it. Ronan tugged her closer and put his arm around her shoulder, no doubt declaring her his property.

“And this is my dad and his wife, Franny,” Daniella added as the newcomers joined them.

Sierra could definitely see the family resemblance between the two men, who shared the same lanky build, dark hair, and blue eyes.

“This is Sierra Brennan. She’s an author,” Daniella was saying. “She writes as S. J. Brennan and she’s doing some research for her new book so I said I’d give her a tour.”

“I should be the one to give her the tour,” Gordon immediately said. “You don’t really know much about the business.”

“I’m most interested in the history of the place,” Sierra said. “You may have heard the story that my house was once owned by Hal Bergerstock, a member of Al Capone’s gang.”

Gordon nodded. “I have heard that, yes.”

“It’s true. I was wondering if you handled the details when he died? The funeral, burial, that sort of thing.”

“When was this?”

“Back in 1929.”

“Hold on,” Daniella’s dad said. “My grandfather told me about this case. The wife decided at the last minute to have the body cremated and bury the empty coffin.”

“Why?” Sierra asked.

“She wanted him to burn because he had a mistress who came to his funeral service and made a scene.”

“What would have happened to any personal belongings like a wedding ring?” Sierra asked.

“In most cases, jewelry is removed and kept by the family. Otherwise it’s kept with the body and burned.”

“That’s very helpful information. Thanks.” She and Ronan made a hasty exit. As Sierra and Ronan walked back to the house, she said, “At least we now know what happened to Hal’s body.”

“Maybe that’s what pissed him off,” Ronan said. “Being cremated instead of buried.”

“I don’t think so. He referred to his treasure.”

“He’s dead. Whatever this damn treasure is, he can’t do anything with it.”

“He doesn’t want anyone else having it,” she said.

“If that key was burned to a crisp with him, then we are in deep shit.” Ronan’s voice was grim.

A package from Amazon stood on the front porch. She’d ordered a new nightgown the day before and clicked on overnight shipping. That was all before she’d almost been yanked into hell or wherever.

“Why was Pat here?” she asked.

Ronan filled her in. Mutant vampire-demon hybrids? It was getting to be all too much for her to decipher. Maybe she’d be able to think more clearly once she had sex with Ronan.

Taking the Amazon package, she headed for the tiny basement bathroom, washed up, and changed into the nightgown. It was pure silk and felt like a dream against her bare skin.

The bias cut reminded her of the gowns from the twenties while the apricot color reminded her of the Fortuny dress that Ruby had talked about. Staring at herself in the mirror, she said, “You can do this.”

Ronan was waiting for her. “I realize a visit to a funeral home isn’t exactly a normal version of a romantic afternoon out,” he said.

“Hardly.”

“But we both know what’s going on here.” At her confused look, he said, “Sex.”