Mercy's Destiny: Montgomery's Vampires Trilogy (Book #3) (Montgomery's Vampires Series) (17 page)

“It was a foreign cellphone, but Serena wasn’t using it in the country where she’d purchased it. You’re never going to believe where she was holding me,” Robert said, like he could hardly believe it himself.

“Where? Antarctica? Iceland? Madagascar?” I said.

It was Joseph who answered. “Arizona.”

I frowned. “Arizona-Arizona? Like, in Phoenix?”

“Why don’t you take over from here?” Robert said to Joseph. They were all smiles now, like they were old friends. It was shocking, because Robert feared and loathed the VGO. At least he had the last time we’d spoken about them. A vampire was entitled to change his mind, though.

“Sure thing,” Joseph said. “After you told me about what had happened, Mercy, I went home to Scotland to share the information with the rest of the VGO. As I mentioned on the night of Jerry’s wedding, we’d been planning on removing Serena from her position of power, for various reasons.”

“Because she’s a psycho bitch?” I spat.

Joseph didn’t mind. “Something like that,” he smirked. “My associates and I had already suspected Serena of wrongdoing, due to her disappearance. And then when you told me about what had happened with Robert, I was sure. But we were at an absolute loss about where to look. We knew Serena kept a home in France, but she was far too cunning to hide out in a place she knew we’d look.”

“Why did you look in Arizona? It’s so random,” I remarked.

“Well . . . There’s more to it.” Joseph paused. “Okay. What I am going to tell you is strictly confidential. The VGO seldom divulge such information, but for the sake of full disclosure . . .” Liz, Sebastian, and Jerry, who hadn’t said a peep once since we’d sat down, all leaned forward. “This is never to be repeated, understand?”

We all nodded.

“When most vampires think of the VGO, they usually think of those who, like myself, represent the organization at high table during ceremonies and trials. But when combining those affiliated with the VGO the world over, there are hundreds of us,” Joseph explained. “There are a few of our factions that operate underground, as many of their projects are . . .”

“Illegal,” I said, because nobody else would.

“I suppose that’s one way to state it, yes,” Joseph said. “In modern times, the VGO’s most vital divisions are ones that focus on information technology. As you are aware, anonymity is what vampires value most; the VGO work very hard to ensure that the vampire secret
remains
a secret. The way we do this is by monitoring what happens online—emails and websites mainly. We look for the repeated use of key words that pertain to vampirism, like
blood
,
immortals
, and
VGO.
”

“That’s crazy,” I commented.

“Some of the things we unearth are crazy,” Joseph said. “For the most part, the majority of those who reference vampirism online are usually discussing films or books. Then there are those who are trying to capitalize on the recent trendiness of vampirism by selling vampire-themed trinkets and jewelry. The last group is the most problematic: the crackpots. These are conspiracy theorists that believe vampires are out to get them and individuals—humans—who fancy themselves vampires. They have blogs about things like drinking animal blood to survive, celebrities who are actually vampires, or how they, personally, escaped a vampire attack. We see an influx in this group whenever a new vampire movie comes out, and typically in the United States, where society is most susceptible to Hollywood fads.” He rolled his eyes. “Americans can be so capricious.”

“I can’t believe there are people out there who are that out of touch with reality,” Liz commented.

“Here’s the thing, Elizabeth,” Joseph said. His hand lingered slightly longer than what was necessary when he touched her arm.

I’d known Elizabeth long enough to know when she liked something, and she certainly liked Joseph touching her. “What’s the thing, Joseph?” she purred, her eyes twinkling.

“I’ll tell you,” Joseph said, his full lips stretching into a playful grin. Robert, Jerry, and I exchanged a quick look—
very interesting
. “The humans we uncover online aren’t all crazy, and they can be dangerous. Now, I’m not referring to those who enjoy vampire cinema or glue ceramic fangs in their mouths because they wish to be immortal. I quite like these humans. It is their overzealousness that makes vampirism seem like such a preposterous construct.”

Liz chuckled and flipped her ridiculously shiny, bouncy hair off her shoulder.

Eyes on Liz, Joseph said, “It is very easy for humans in power to dismiss vampirism when purple-haired teenaged girls are wearing t-shirts with vampire movie heartthrobs printed on them. But the day the president starts sporting prosthetic fangs to meetings at the UN, vampires will know they’ve got a problem.”

“Don’t poke fun,” Liz pouted. “
I
used to wear vampire t-shirts.”

“I’m sure they looked very exquisite on you, Elizabeth,” Joseph pouted right back.

“I’ll have to show you them sometime,” Liz flirted.

Joseph raised an eyebrow and winked. “I shall look forward to it.”

Oh brother.

Joseph, now remembering that the rest of us were still in the room, continued. “A crackpot human will occasionally post information on their blog that contains a modicum of validity. We especially monitor posts from humans who maintain that they have been attacked by vampires. If there is a hint of legitimacy to their claim, we will send an investigator to that human’s territory to see if there are any vampires misbehaving.”

“You guys really do have eyes everywhere,” I said. No wonder it didn’t take the VGO long to find Robert and me when we were in hiding.

“You have no idea, Mercy.” Joseph was bursting with pride, like I’d given him a compliment. I hadn’t. “A blog written by a man residing on the California-Arizona border was discovered by my IT team here in the U.S. This man, Martin, claimed that an exquisitely ethereal French vampire—his words, not mine— had attacked him down in a cave. He described her as tall, blond, and bloodthirsty.”

“Sounds about right, Serena being bloodthirsty,” I said. The exquisitely ethereal part was right, too, not that I was going to admit it. Bitch Face. “But a cave? What kind of cave?”

“A mineral cave. Martin’s area is known for quartz,” Joseph said. “As the team learned from the blog, Martin would frequently mine gems underground. He gave cave tours to tourists as well. He’d been alone on the day he claimed he’d been attacked, or else we would have had a real problem to deal with.”

“You didn’t, uh, take care of the problem, did you?” I made a swiping motion across my throat. If they had, poor Martin, whoever he was.

Joseph shook his head. “We didn’t need to. Martin was no problem at all, because he seemed so utterly insane. He lives in a trailer off the highway, which he’d posted photos of on his blog. In the photos, Martin shows his followers how to government-proof their homes by taping tinfoil over the windows. The tinfoil blocks out the radio waves, you see.”

“Jesus,” Liz said.

Joseph smiled, “That’s not all. There’s a section of Martin’s blog dedicated to the health benefits of drinking one’s own urine. And there’s also a video where he discusses how he cured his prostate cancer by drinking apple cider vinegar.”

I giggled. “Wow.”

“Yes, wow. It’s still up on his blog, should you ever want to see it,” Joseph joked.

“I think I’ll pass, thanks,” I said.

“Even if Martin had posted concrete proof of Serena’s attack, nobody would have believed him,” Joseph said.

I asked, “So, it was actually Serena who attacked Martin?”

Joseph nodded. “The IT team would have dismissed Martin completely, had I not told them to look for keywords that pertained to both Serena and Robert.”

“Serena kidnapped Robert and then held him captive in a cave?” I deduced.

“Serena has never been good at planning or fully weighing her ideas before acting upon them. She’s impulsive, which is part of the reason why the VGO wanted to be rid of her,” Joseph said. “However, it appeared that she wanted to be rid of us, too. From what we uncovered in the cave, and based on what Robert has confirmed, Serena has been plotting against us for quite some time.”

“Which is why she kidnapped me,” Robert said. “She was planning to ambush the VGO headquarters, and she was going to use me to do it by controlling me with my fangs. She knew I’d fight to the death, if that’s what she commanded me to do, because I couldn’t rebel against her influence.”

“Crazy bitch,” I muttered.

Robert continued, “All her flirting with me when we were at VGO headquarters, as well as the call she made me make to you, was only for show. She was going to use me to murder the most influential VGO members. And then she was going to explain away the massacre by telling everyone that I, her scorned lover, had gone mad after she ended things with me.”

“Serena had much of the attack outlined in the cave,” Joseph added. “She had blueprints of our headquarters that she was making Robert memorize. She also had photos of the VGO members she wanted assassinated: members who were her biggest opponents—those who’d campaigned most for her dismissal from the VGO. I was on the wall, of course, along with seven others.”

“How did she expect Robert to take out so many members? One against eight seems ambitious.” I kissed Robert on the cheek. “Though Robert is a big, strong vampire.”

“Thanks, honey,” Robert smiled. Liz, Jerry, and Sebastian rolled their eyes at us.

“This is where Serena’s horrible preparation skills come into play,” Joseph said. “It appeared that her initial plan was to take out two members. But then once she started plotting, she decided to throw in a few more for good measure.”

“How was she going to remedy being outnumbered?” I asked.

“She was going to build an army,” Robert said. “I was her first soldier, so to speak. She was going to turn humans in Arizona into vampires and then yank out their fangs immediately after the changeover, when they were at their weakest. And then once she amassed a large enough army, she was going to order us to execute the ambush. With the new army, Serena not only wanted to slay the seven on the wall, but every single member of the VGO at the Scotland headquarters.”

“She may have even succeeded, had you not told me about Robert’s suspicious disappearance,” Joseph said to me. “So, for that, the VGO are in your debt. To repay this debt, we are releasing you from your blood obligation to us.”

“You mean I don’t have to give you my blood anymore?” I was so happy I nearly jumped up and did a cartwheel.

“No more needles for you, Ms. Montgomery,” Joseph smiled. “It’s the least we could do.”

After a moment of silence, I asked, “How did Crackpot Martin come into play in all this?”

“Martin was to be Serena’s first human-turned-vampire soldier. He was down in the cave, searching for his rocks or whatever, when Serena attacked him,” Robert said. “She would have managed to turn him, too, had he not been carrying a quartz point in his pocket. That, Serena had not expected.”

“Serena frequently underestimated humans,” Joseph said. “It was one of her major faults. She was too arrogant to ever recognize the threat humans posed when they had the right tools or information to wield against vampires. She was often careless.”

“She was undeniably careless with Martin,” Robert said. “After she bit into his neck, he jabbed her in the chest with the quartz. She let go of him and he ran screaming out of the cave. This happened during the day, so she couldn’t chase after him.”

“I’m surprised she didn’t find him once the sun went down,” I commented.

“Serena was far too injured. She had to go out and feed,” Robert said,  “or else she would have died.”

“Serena was gone when we found Robert in the cave,” Joseph added.

“And she hasn’t been captured?” I asked. Great, now we had Richard, Maxine, and Bitch Face Serena to contend with.

Joseph shook his head.

Robert reached into his pocket and pulled out something small. “Hold out your hand.”

I did. “I can’t believe it,” I gasped. “Your fangs.”

“Serena left them behind when she went rushing out for blood,” Robert said. “So if we never find her, it doesn’t matter. Her reign of terror over our life is over.”

17

“Are you sure? You’re sure, right?”

I’d lost count, but I was pretty certain it was the hundredth time Robert was questioning me. Thankfully, everyone had gone home, so nobody was around to hear our dizzying conversation.

“Yes, Robert, I am absolutely positive.”

Robert sat back in the sofa, stunned. “How? When?”

“It happened when you were human . . . I’m guessing while we were in Bali.”

He rubbed at his chin, a faraway flicker in his eyes. Whether it was a look of
I’m so happy
or
I’m so screwed
, I couldn’t tell. This was an expression I hadn’t seen Robert wear before.

Finally, he said, “I’m going to be a father?”

“Yes, if that’s what you want?” I said, and Robert shot me a look—confusion, maybe, or hurt. “It’s just . . .” I didn’t know how to finish the sentence. I was terrible at this sort of thing—having “a talk.” I considered myself more of a do-er than a say-er.

“Just . . . ?”

I ventured on. “I just don’t want you to feel pressured. Or trapped. I know that we haven’t been together for years and years, and obviously neither one of us could have imagined something like this happening. I have money from my great-grandparents now, as I told you earlier. So . . . Where are you going?”

“I’ll be right back,” Robert called over his shoulder as he headed into his office.

“Uh, okay.” Great, the father of my baby was literally running away from a conversation about parenthood. This could not be a good omen.

When Robert came back, he pulled me to my feet.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

And then he got down on one knee.

“Oh my God,” I whispered. Maybe I’d only thought it.

“Mercy Delilah Montgomery, the love of my life, the mother of my child . . .” Robert extracted a ring box from his pocket and opened it. I gasped. “I knew on the first night we met that I wanted to spend eternity with you. And after all that we’ve been through, all the trials and tribulations we’ve endured, I know that, together, we are unstoppable. And everything else—when or how or if you become vampire—is a minor obstacle.” Robert had to choke out his final declarations, as he was starting to tear up. He wasn’t the only one. “I love you with all my heart and soul, and I will love our child even more. Will you bestow me you heart, Mercy? Will you marry me?”

I sniffed. “Yes . . .” Suddenly, my cheeks were wet with tears. “Yes! A million times over, yes!”

We were both weeping as Robert slipped the ring on my finger. He took me by surprise by sweeping me up in his arms. I knew what
that
look meant, so he didn’t need to tell me where we were going.

After we’d finished making love, I sat up in bed, Robert’s arm curled around my midriff. I examined the ring, more beautiful than I could have ever dreamed: canary yellow diamond, a sparkly
pavé
setting, not too big and not too small.

“It reminded me of the sun,” Robert said, observing me. “Which is why I chose it. The jeweler said it’s a radiant cut. I went out on a limb—do you like it?”

I held my fingers under the light and fluttered them. “It’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s exactly what I’d pick out for myself.” I curled my hand around the back of my vampire fiancé’s head and gently pulled him in close for a kiss. (
My fiancé!
How much I was going to love saying that!) “But I’d marry you even if you’d given me a piece of twine tied into a bow.”

“Oh?” Robert said, raising his eyebrows. “So, you want me to return the ring, then? We might have some twine out in the garage.” He gave my ring a tug to show that he was teasing.

I pulled my hand away. “Well . . . you already
got
the ring, so I
guess
I’ll just have to keep it.”

“Come here, you,” Robert said, and then he pulled me on his lap.

“How long have you had this? The ring?”

“I got it right after we got back from Bali, though I’ve wanted to marry you since our night at Whistle Stop.”

I smiled up at him. “Our first date?”

“Yes, my love.” Robert kissed the top of my head. 

“When do you want to do it?” I asked. “The ceremony?”

“When would you like?”

“Okay, I know this is old-fashioned . . .”

Robert sat up. “You, old-fashioned? This is new. Usually you’re the one accusing me of being antiquated.”

“Perhaps you’re starting to rub off on me, you old fuddy-duddy,” I teased.

“Perish the thought,” he said melodramatically.

“Anyway,” I continued, “I know it’s old-fashioned, but right after I found out that I was pregnant, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about how the last two generations of women in my family got pregnant out of wedlock. I’m not looking down on what my Grams and my mother did—not at all—but it would be nice if maybe I could try something different.”

“You’d like to be married by the time the baby comes?”

“Yes,” I said. “But do you think it’s . . . I don’t know, shotgun? Ostentatious?”

“Absolutely not. Remember, Mercy, I had the ring before I even knew that you were pregnant.”

“Oh right. But . . . Nobody else knows that, do they?”

Sternly, Robert remarked, “Since when do you care about what other people think of you? You don’t have to justify yourself to anyone. It’s
your
life and you’re free to live it as you see fit.”

I loved it when Robert got defensive on my behalf, like he was arguing against an invisible opponent in the room. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Damn right, I’m right,” he declared. “And your friends—your
true
friends—will not care when you got pregnant. Besides, it’s none of their concern.”

Nestling against Robert’s chest, I said, “You really are the best. Okay, so when should we do it? The ceremony.”

“That depends on
how
you want to do it. I imagine you’ll want to go all out?”

I mulled this over. “You know what? In the past, whenever I thought of my wedding, that’s just what I envisioned: tons of people—which is weird because I don’t even
know
tons of people—a huge cake, a fancy dress, flowers everywhere . . . The whole nine.” I sat up against the headboard and tucked a pillow under my back. “But when it comes down to it, none of that really matters as long as I have what’s most important.”

“What’s that?”

“You, Robert. As long as I have you.”

Two months later, Robert and I stood in front of a whopping crowd of six—Liz, Sebastian, Jerry, Tim, Joseph, and Marlena—and promised to love each other, until death do us part. Nature surrounded us; we said our vows in the epicenter of a sprawling Japanese orchid garden, right in the heart of the city. Tim, Jerry’s husband, who was a judge by profession, married us. My dress was simple but elegant. Most importantly, it looked beautiful over my growing baby bump.

There was no press coverage of the event and not a single member of the paparazzi present. We served cupcakes, champagne, and, of course, blood.

It was low-key and intimate.

It was perfect.

And life seemed perfect—or at least as close to perfect as life could get. The baby growing inside me was healthy (and all human, so no fangs sucking on my uterus). I had a loving husband that I adored. And, for once, nobody was out to kill me. For the fist time in a very long time, I faced the future with optimism instead of grim uncertainty.

Robert and I decided that, if we ever did find a way for me to become vampire, we’d do it when our child was ten. We chose age ten because we wanted him or her (we were going to wait until the baby was born to find out its sex) to have the most normal childhood possible. It was going to be tricky enough, with one parent being vampire. But we weren’t worried. We’d have love on our side. Robert and I would have liked to wait longer to turn me, but we had my relentless aging to contend with. I’d be thirty-five at the age of the changeover compared to Robert’s changeover age of thirty-one—not that being four years older than my husband put me in cougar territory. If Sebastian’s theory about my delayed aging was right, my older age wouldn’t matter too much, anyhow.

Of course, all of this was based on the flimsy hope that we
would
eventually uncover a way for me to become vampire. It was a long shot, though I supposed anything was possible. Leopold had found a way to make vampires permanently human, so maybe he could create a serum that had the opposite effect. After what had happened with the VGO, Leopold was no longer in the business of pharmaceuticals. But, since he’d nearly gotten both Robert and me murdered with his carelessness, I felt he owed us one. Even if he didn’t want to do it, I had ten years to talk him into it.

However, in true form of life being full of surprises—well, the life of Mercy Montgomery, anyway—those ten years of waiting were shortened to just a couple months.

In a strange twist of circumstances, the VGO were compelled (
forced because they had no other choice
would be more precise) to contact Leopold in order to get his lab rebuilt. This must have galled Leopold to no end, as the VGO were the ones who’d destroyed his lab to begin with, by burning it to the ground. The VGO had constructed a lab of their own prior to annihilating Leopold’s—the VGO liked to cover all bases before committing to any permanent arrangements—though they hadn’t made nearly as much progress as Leopold had. Basically, the VGO now needed Leopold’s expertise and Leopold needed the VGO not to murder him. Vampire tit for tat.

The biggest obstacle Leopold and the VGO had to hurdle was finding scientists who were capable of solving the colossal problem they had on their plate. Hiring qualified experts wouldn’t have been such an issue, had the VGO not killed off some of the finest scientists in the world when they torched Leopold’s lab. Once again this proved how far the VGO would go to cover all their bases, even if it required overkill. I would have said that having to eat crow served the VGO right, because of all the evil deeds they’d committed so cavalierly, had the backlash not affected so many innocent bystanders. As it stood, the world was in quite a pickle.

And just what was the problem?

Where did the sudden need for a lab and a crew of brilliant scientists come from?

To answer these questions would first require some clarification, because what the VGO—all vampires in general, actually—faced was more of an
epidemic
than a problem . . . A horrifyingly unmanageable epidemic that had been spawned by none other than my lovely great-grandparents.

It was Jason who was captured first. The higher-ups at VGO had made it crystal clear to their minions that Jason and the Nolans
had better
be found, if they knew what was good for them. Joseph’s clandestine group of IT specialists had come through yet again, flagging the Hawaii-bound flight Jason had tried to board at LAX.

Jason, amateurish criminal that he was, had foolishly believed that he’d be able to fly under the radar (no pun intended) if he hopped a flight leaving from Los Angeles instead of San Francisco. Jason had no idea who he was dealing with. If he had, he would have saved himself the trouble. The VGO could find anyone, anywhere, at any time. This, I knew from experience.

Jason was apprehended at the airport by Joseph’s “collection engineers” (that’s VGO speak for abductors), and was subsequently held in a location that was never disclosed to me. I didn’t want to know specifics about what went on once a person was “collected” by the VGO, so Joseph did me a solid by keeping me in the dark about Jason’s presumed torture. The worst I could imagine was still probably better than what my aspiring poisoner had actually endured. I wasn’t gullible enough to believe that Joseph wouldn’t hurt Jason if I asked him not to, so I saved myself the breath. Fortune cookie-dropping aside, as far as the VGO were concerned, Jason was a coconspirator of the Nolans. End of story.

Joseph’s methods of gathering information (full body shudder) must have been pretty persuasive. After his capture, it didn’t take Jason much time at all to roll on his employers. Perhaps Jason’s disloyalty also stemmed from his apathy. He wasn’t a ruthless fanatic like Richard and Maxine, seeking to be martyred for his cause. Jason had no cause. Joseph later confirmed that Jason had told him the same thing he’d told me: He had only helped the Nolans because they’d paid him a lot of money to do their bidding. He cared absolutely nothing about seeking vengeance on vampires. In fact, Joseph wasn’t entirely convinced that Jason even knew that vampires existed in the real world.

Jason must have figured out mighty fast that the VGO weren’t going to let him live—now he knew how
I
had felt when he’d locked
me
inside the shed—because he didn’t make an effort to beg for his life. Prior to his death, however, Jason did make a bargain with Joseph. He would give up the Nolans whereabouts if, in return, the VGO promised to pay his wife and child the money the Nolans owed him for his services. Jason really didn’t have a choice in the matter—the VGO would have made him talk regardless—but a deal was struck nonetheless. Joseph assured me that he’d made good on his word.