Mercy's Destiny: Montgomery's Vampires Trilogy (Book #3) (Montgomery's Vampires Series) (12 page)

I asked, “So, why didn’t you get rid of the boy?”

Richard sighed. “He assured me that if I hurt him, the fetus inside Francine’s body—and Francine—would suffer. I didn’t care about the mutant fetus—”

“Who was my mother,” I sniped.

“—but I
did
care about Francine. I don’t mean to imply that the boy was saying that he’d hurt Francine to punish me, should harm befall him. Had he threatened me in such a manner, then, yes, I would have put an end to him. What he had meant was that the connection he had with the fetus extended to Francine,” Richard clarified. “He said that any harm to the fetus would also harm Francine, because she and the baby were connected. Of course, it did cross my mind that he was lying—I was almost certain of it—but I couldn’t prove otherwise. But I refused to gamble with Francine’s life based on a hunch.”

“So you sent her away,” I said.

Richard nodded. “But it was only a last resort. Maxine and I tried desperately to convince Francine to go away until the child was born and then return once she’d given it up for adoption. But she wouldn’t hear of it. She was very stubborn.”

That sounded like Grams, all right.

I asked, “Did Grams know what the father was?”

“No, she didn’t,” Richard answered. “Which is why he and I made a deal. We agreed that we would both have to stay away from Francine in order to keep her safe. I vowed that I would not reveal his identity to the club, ever, as long as he stayed away. Though he had unintentionally gotten Francine pregnant, he was no sap. It had occurred to him, undoubtedly, that I could turn him into my associates after the connection he had to Francine’s body was broken—meaning, after the baby was born.”

“But you didn’t?”

“No, I didn’t,” Richard told me. “After the day we met, the boy vanished like a ghost, though I really didn’t try too hard to look for him. Also, I feared that the club might get wise to Francine’s pregnancy with the tainted child, if they were alerted to the boy’s existence. They might then go after her and the child.”

“What was his name? My grandfather?”

“I have no idea,” Richard said.

“We figured it was safer to remain in the dark,” added Maxine.

“Did he love her?” I asked. “The boy?”

Richard shrugged to show me exactly how irrelevant he thought the boy’s love was. “He said he did. And I suppose, yes, he must have, because it seems he really did stay away from Francine. But I blame everything that’s happened on him.”

“You mean Grams getting pregnant?” I asked.

Richard brought his fist down into his palm. “I mean everything, Mercy! Don’t you see how vampires destroy everything? How different do you think things would have been with Francine if vampires hadn’t intruded in our lives?”

“But you said the boy wasn’t a vamp—”

“Psh,” Richard sputtered. “Close enough.”

I tried to bite my tongue, but I loathed Richard so much that I could hardly see straight. And I was tired and moody—I wanted to go home, damn it. “Did it ever occur to you that your daughter wouldn’t have been in danger at all had it not been for
your
association with the vampire hunters?” I’d tried to sound neutral but failed. My words might as well have come out of my mouth with teeth and talons.

“And why had I joined forces with the hunters to begin with, hmm?” Richard snarled. “Because one of their vile kind attacked me on the street. It is
they
who are culpable, Mercy, not I. Oh, the many ways my life has suffered at the hands of vampires!”

You don’t have to shout, you lunatic.

“We kept tabs on Francine,” said Maxine, trying to diffuse the tension in the air. “And your mother. And you. We may have not known where you were and what you were doing all day, every day. But we did know.”

“Why didn’t you make contact?” I asked. “All these years and you never once made contact.” I swept a hand out. “And here you were the whole time, a short drive away from me in Napa.”

“This isn’t our house, dear,” clarified Maxine. “This belongs to a friend of ours.”

“And this is their guest house?” I asked, dubious.

“Something like that,” said Richard.

Right—probably more like their torture chamber for vampire sympathizers.

Maxine said, “But, again, we did not make contact because we were worried about the link you’d have to your grandfather. We did not want to put you in harm’s way.”
That
was rich, coming from my kidnapper.

What I believed to be closer to the truth was that the demented hunting club would have been pissed if they found out that Richard had been deceiving them for years. If they were as cutthroat as Richard was making them out to be, they’d probably kill him for his disloyalty.

“And you have no idea where my grandfather is?” I asked, wondering why
he
hadn’t ever looked me up. I was considering looking for him myself, should these lunatics ever let me go. If my grandfather was an enemy of Maxine and Richard, I thought, he couldn’t be a half bad person . . . or vampire . . . or whatever he was. And, naturally, I was curious about my DNA. If I had some kind of mutation, doctors surely would have detected it during a checkup long ago, right? But they hadn’t.

“No idea,” Maxine confirmed.

I asked, “So then why
did
you suddenly make contact with me, if you were so afraid of putting me in danger? Because you need my blood?”

“Our reunion has not gone as planned,” said Maxine, delivering the understatement of the century. “We were not hoping for it to end like this.”

I snorted, taking in my shed-prison. “Ya think?” And then it occurred to me how much I did not like Maxine’s use of the phrase “end like this.” What did that mean for me, if things were “ending?”

“We have human moles on the inside,” said Richard, ignoring my snide comment. “Most of them work at blood banks, but a few are like you—humans who are simply in the know about vampires. When we discovered that you’d started decoying at Dignitary, we just couldn’t believe it.”

“Then we heard that you’d been involved in the murder of a vampire at Dignitary, so we began to think that you were in support of our cause,” said Maxine.

What, like bigotry through genetics?

“You have to bear in mind, Mercy, that much of the information we received was secondhand—hearsay at best,” said Richard. “Given our opposition to vampires, we’ve had to keep our distance from all things related to them. We weren’t able to hear the full story about your involvement with Dignitary, just bits and pieces. But no matter what we heard, we could never figure out why you were living with a vampire.”

“And then we heard about the serum, which, as you are aware, was delivered to a lot of blood banks,” said Maxine.

“I didn’t know that,” I told them with a shake of the head. “I wasn’t involved in the making of the serum whatsoever. As I already mentioned, I was tricked.”

“Well, we didn’t know that,” said Maxine huffily. “We only knew that you contributed to its making. We assumed that you had gotten involved with Robert because you were acting as a spy, and that you were using him to gather inside information.”

How diabolical did my great-grandparents think I was? “So, if the serum was already being made, which is what you wanted all along, then why did you bother coming to me at all yesterday?” I asked.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? The serum went off the market,” Richard said. “And just when it was finally starting to take off!”

If my great-grandparents thought that I was going to provide information about the discontinuation of the serum—that, for example, its termination was linked to the VGO—then they had another thing coming. I wondered if Richard and Maxine had even
heard
of the VGO. The VGO had most definitely not heard of them, or else they would have been assassinated years ago.

“So . . . ?” I said.

Maxine smiled. “Now we’d like to introduce the serum to vampires on a grander scale.”

“How do you plan on doing that?” I asked. I once again had a very bad feeling.

“You let us worry about the details, dear,” said Maxine.

If anyone should have been worried, it was I. The chance of them letting me walk out of there was looking slimmer and slimmer. Maxine might have warmed to me over time, but Richard was about as cold as they came. It was clear that he
hated
vampires, and it was as equally clear that I didn’t—that if I were to hate anyone, it would actually be
Richard.

I had to get out of prison. I ventured, “You were gracious enough to make a deal with my grandfather, so maybe you might consider making a deal with me now?”

Richard leaned forward. “What kind of deal?”

“If I gave you my blood willingly,” I said, “would you let me go?”

I felt like a huge traitor, offering up my blood like that, but it was evident that they were going to take it from me regardless. At least if they let me go, I’d be able to alert the VGO about what my great-grandparents were up to. As sweetly as possible, I added, “And of course I won’t tell anyone about what happened. I would never turn my family in. I’m sure we’re only having a misunderstanding, right?”

Richard chuckled and slapped his knee. “Goodness, Mercy, I can see our daughter has had quite an influence on you. You’re just as opportunistic as she was. And you also lie as bad as she did. I’m afraid we have no deal.” Richard reached inside his coat pocket and extracted an empty syringe. “Now, be a good girl and give me your arm.”

I recoiled back against the wall, shrieking. I wasn’t so much afraid of them taking my blood. I was afraid of what they were planning on doing with it.

12

I repositioned my arms so that they were behind my back, blocking Richard from having access to them.

Richard sighed, as if I were disappointing him with a bad report card. “Jason, please come,” he called toward the door.

Jason opened the door and came bounding up to the edge of the mattress. “What’s up?”

“That depends on Mercy.” Richard said this to Jason, but he was looking directly at me. “Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, young lady. I’m sure Jason doesn’t want to restrain you any more than you want to be restrained. Am I right?”

I nodded.
Yeah, you’re right, you psycho.

“I must additionally warn you that my hands can get rather shaky when I’m agitated,” Richard threatened. “I’d hate to have the tip of this needle break off under your skin, if you continue to upset me.”

“You don’t have to bully me,” I growled.

I pulled up my sleeve and turned my arm so that the crook of my elbow was exposed to Richard. I purposely chose the opposite arm than the one Joseph had used, in case any signs that I’d had my blood drawn lingered. What would Richard do to me if he found out that I’d been giving my blood to the VGO? I was starting to feel like a human pincushion. I wondered how much blood a person could donate in a given week without drying up like a mummy. At least Richard was only taking a small vial and not a whole bag like Joseph had . . . I hoped.

I was feeling strangely and unexpectedly optimistic as I thought of Joseph, though I had no reason to be given my dire circumstance. But I had to think of
something
positive, or else I would curl up in a ball and die right there. I figured a little delusion wouldn’t hurt if it would keep me going. I wanted to believe that Joseph had located Robert, who was now safely at home and launching a search party to find me. Serena was behind bars, too, and would never again be able to abuse her power to hurt Robert. Jason was on my side, too; he was actually a spy sent by vampires to keep an eye on the insane escapades of Richard and Maxine.

Okay,
maybe
I’d gone too far with my delusion about Jason. The way he was glowering down at me—no way was he on my side. He didn’t seem to be on Richard and Maxine’s side, either. No, Jason’s only allegiance was to money . . . which my maniac family had given him, so he actually
was
kind of on their side.
On their side but not behind their cause
, I reminded myself, just to stay positive.

I wished that I had permitted the VGO to microchip me like a pet. My current location was so absolutely random. Anyone looking for me would never, ever search for me in Napa. Why would they? I had no familial ties or acquaintances in the area, nor did I ever frequent the area to shop or go out to eat. If my great-grandparents would have taken me to, say, my hometown in Pelville, Florida, somebody might then think to look for me there. But being in Napa? Might as well be in Mexico.

I was moved up to the director’s chair and told to sit still. As Maxine got busy trying a tourniquet around my bicep, I asked, “I don’t know how long you plan on keeping me here, but could you please bring me a book or something? I’m going out of my mind with boredom.”

“I brought you some magazines,” said Jason. “I also have breakfast for you. An egg muffin and some o.j.”

“Perfect,” I said, and my stomach growled. The whole constant stress and fear lifestyle was not befitting to me. I was either nauseous and vomiting from nerves or wanting to stuff my face because of mental upset. I would have been a pretty terrible stockbroker. I could just imagine myself at the New York Stock Exchange, vomiting into a wastebasket of tickertape every five minutes.

I scarfed down the breakfast Jason had brought me the instant my three abductors left. They still had given no indication if they were planning on letting me go or if they were going to kill me, and I didn’t press the issue. I was holding on to the gullible hope that they might magically forget any murderous plans they had, if only I didn’t remind them.

I was angry that I’d put myself in a position to be kidnapped. In view of all the evil deeds I’d recently witnessed, you’d think I’d have learned to stop being so trusting. On the other hand, if my existence ever became so bleak that I constantly suspected every single person around me of deceitfulness . . . Well, how awful would that make living? I was sort of thankful, in a way, that I
hadn’t
been so jaded that I’d looked at two seemingly harmless senior citizens and thought, “Careful, they might drug and abduct you.”

After I got bored of the magazines, which I gathered Jason had picked out because they were all on the subject of celebrity gossip (as if that’s all us silly girls read), I tried to take a nap. But I couldn’t fall asleep. All my worries played through my head on constant loop, the most repeated anxiety about Robert. Some part of me still worried that Robert had left with Serena on his own free will. Ridiculous, I realized, with all the proof I’d been provided. But with everything else that had happened, I was reluctant to leave myself vulnerable to bombshells.

Because that’s what you have to worry about most: leaving yourself vulnerable to bombshells. How about the fact that nobody is coming to save you? You’re on your own on this one, sister. Your life may depend on a plan of escape, which it seems you still don’t have.

No matter how many different ways I looked at it, there was no way I could escape. I really had only two options, both equally implausible. The first involved attacking Richard and Maxine,
if
they ever happened to visit me without Jason. I didn’t relish the idea of beating up the elderly, but if it came down to a choice between them—the psychotic hatemongers—or me—their innocent hostage—I was going to look out for myself. But that plan would never come to fruition, because no way in hell would my great-grandparents
ever
come into my cell without their bodyguard. The other option involved befriending Jason and then trying to reason with him. But that wouldn’t work, either, because then I’d have to tell him about the existence of vampires. He would also need to be sympathetic toward my plight, which he evidently wasn’t.

And I was once again back to square one.

With a groan, I threw back the blanket. I was uncomfortable—antsy—and felt just . . . scuzzy. After a moment, I figured out why: I was dirty. I’d been drugged and manhandled, and had rolled around on the floor of a stinky van. As much as I hated the idea of changing in to the clothes my captors had provided me (because to do so implied an acceptance of the situation), I figured I’d feel better if I took a shower.

The water was surprisingly warm—not hot, but warm enough that bathing wasn’t uncomfortable. I didn’t wash my hair—no blow dryer, lest I try to hang myself with the cord or electrocute myself with it—but at least my skin no longer smelled of fast food, van floor, and expelled adrenaline.

I did a few squats, pushups, and crunches, simply because that’s what I’d seen badass women do in movies after they’ve been taken hostage. I was running out of ways to pass the time. It was already nightfall, which I knew because the light under the door had dimmed. There was no clock in the room, of course. Richard and Maxine (and the other psycho the house actually belonged to) probably felt it would be unnecessary to remind prisoners how much time they were passing in captivity.

I was hungry, cranky, and resentful that Jason had given me only a toasted bagel with cream cheese for lunch, served with an order to “drink from the faucet” if I was thirsty. A piddling egg sandwich for breakfast and then a bagel for lunch, after they’d taken my blood—what kind of fucking prison was this? What happened to the tuna foot-long, jumbo soda, and cookies? Maybe substantial meals were reserved for first-day inmates.

Whatever, I thought bitterly. Minding my weight wouldn’t be a half bad idea, anyway, since Richard and Maxine didn’t seem too concerned with providing me yard time. My resentment upped my reps to double-time. Now I was doing a jumping jack between each pushup.
I will beat them—I will beat them—I will beat them
, I repeated after each jump.

I’d halfway convinced myself that I was going to take out Richard, Maxine, and Jason with my bare hands like an enraged commando, when Maxine entered. She was with Jason but not Richard.
Well, there went that idea,
I thought.
There’ll be no kicking ass tonight.
I was very disappointed.

All the fight drained from my heart, I sighed and took a seat on the mattress.

“Did you bring me something to eat?” I growled at Jason. I’d pretty much given up on the idea of us becoming friends. How sad was that, that the only highlight of my day was stuffing my face with food my abductors brought me?

Jason held up the white take-out bag he held in his grasp. “Got it right here. Chinese.”

I reached for the bag. “Well, can I have it?”

“You can have it after we have our talk,” Maxine said primly. She waited while Jason set up the director’s chair so she could sit down.

Jason nodded at Maxine and headed out the door. “I’ll be just outside,” he said more to me than he did Maxine. I rolled my eyes to show him how offended I was that he’d think that I’d ever dream of hurting my dear great-grandmother.

“What would you like to discuss?” I asked once the door was shut.

Maxine laced her bejeweled fingers together and rested them on her lap. “I would like to discuss a very delicate issue.”

“Okay.”

She leaned forward and whispered, “It’s a
female matter
. A very delicate one.”

“Okay . . .”
Ick!
Was she going to ask me if I ever douched, like those women walking on the beach did in old school television ads?

“We’ve sent your blood out for testing,” she said. “We were trying to determine what it is that makes it so unique. We asked our lab technicians to look for mutated cells, disease—that sort of thing.”

It was like conversational déjà vu. I remembered having a very similar discussion with Leopold not too long ago. Now I was worried.

“You said it was a delicate female matter,” I stated. “Surely you didn’t find anything wrong with me. Not like an STD?” I shook my head with conviction. “Because there’s no way that’s the case.”

The only man I’d been with since the cheating Mathew was Robert, who, being vampire, was incapable of infecting me with diseases. And after learning of Mathew’s infidelity, you bet your ass that I’d marched straight down to the women’s health clinic and had myself tested for every sexual disease on the planet. The tests had all come back clean.

Flustered, my great-grandmother said, “Oh lordy, no!” So, it appeared drugging and kidnapping me was okay by Maxine, but her picking out the wrong kind of sweatpants was mortifying, and discussions about STDs were taboo. Such a sensible family I had.

I flopped back on the bed. “Well, that’s good news.” And then something far worse occurred to me. I sat up. “Do I . . . Oh no! Do I have cancer? Breast cancer? Cervical cancer?” Those were the only lady-specific cancers I could think of at that precise moment. 

Maxine shook her head.

What in the hell was it, then?

She took a breath. “You’re pregnant, Mercy.”

I burst out laughing. No way
that
was possible. “Your tests are wrong,” I said with immense relief.

She reached into her jacket pocket and extracted a fax. Underneath my name was a bunch of medical jargon. But there it was, right at the end. PREGNANCY TEST: POSITIVE.

“Are you sure, dear?” Maxine let out an embarrassed exhale. “I’m sure this is uncomfortable for you to discuss, but really take a minute and
have a think about it. When was your last period?”

“My period? It was . . .” When
was
it? I couldn’t remember, but that was normal. Some women liked to keep track of their periods on calendars, but that had never been my style. To me, knowing when my period was coming was akin to watching a storm report. It was going to happen regardless, so what good was stressing about it going to do? It wasn’t like I could board up my vagina for winter.

Now I was wishing that I
had
been keeping track. Typically, though, I got my period every twenty-eight to thirty days. But even if I had been counting the days . . .

It was just preposterous. It was physically impossible for vampires to procreate—

But there was a short time when Robert wasn’t a vampire, wasn’t there?

Still, it would be impossible.

Would it?

Okay, so Robert had been a full-fledged human for a short time, I thought with my hart hammering in my chest. Some of that time was when we were on the run from the VGO. And we’d certainly had sex during that time—
a lot
of sex—and it had never occurred to us to use birth control. It was just that Robert had been a vampire for so long, and we were on the lam, under constant threat of murder . . . And . . . And . . .
Shit!
Why had it never dawned on us to use birth control? We’d thought of everything else—forged passports, aliases, new email addresses—and had even managed to evade being assassinated by the most powerful vampire organization in the world.