Scorned (28 page)

“I thought you had the gift of foresight,
Centurion.”

Roman shrugged. “You know as well as I do
how weak that gift is. I have stronger, more important abilities
than this foresight you all seem to think I should be better
at.”

“Right,” the vampire said. “So you say. Does
the girl have anything to say in her defense?”

I looked at Roman who nodded. “Well,” I
said, “at the risk of sounding rude, ‘the girl’ has a name. It’s
LeKrista Scott and I would prefer if you used it. After all, I’m
human...too.” I stumbled over that last part as soon as I realized
what I was saying, but Laied smiled like he thought it was
funny.

“Yes. Go on,” he instructed.

I glanced up at Roman once more, who nodded
again, and I continued on in my own “defense.”

“Lucretious was stalking me." I wasn't sure
if that meant anything to him. “It was annoying at best, but then
he started projecting unwanted things into my head. I don’t even
know that he realized he was doing it at first-”

“What kind of things?”

“I don’t think that’s really important. Just
that you know they were things I wasn’t interested in.” When he
nodded and flicked his hand to continue, I did. “He tried to kill
me, unprovoked. He drained the gas in my car one night so I
wouldn’t be able to make it home and tossed my car down an
embankment and into a lake.”

“But you survived.”

I nodded. “Yes, thanks to Roman,
and...thanks to my boyfriend.”

“This boyfriend of yours, he was there?”

I shook my head. “No sir. He was at home. He
saw it happen.”

He frowned. “How is this possible?”

“Lucretious had latched onto my mind earlier
that day, and when I kissed my boyfriend, it connected us somehow.
He saw Lucretious throw me into the lake and called 911.”

“For that alone you would have issued a
death warrant,” Roman spoke up behind me.

“Silence, Centurion,” the vampire said. “The
girl... LeKrista speaks.”

I was very proud that I kept from smiling.
“Roman had a party a few nights later; I guess it was in my
honor...” Laied frowned and leaned over to hear what the vampire on
his right was saying. Roman tensed beside me, and I felt a stab of
fear. “Lucretious crashed the party,” I continued. “He and his
lover Perdita tried to kill me.”

“Tell us how,” the vampire instructed.

“Perdita, she was going...” I looked up at
Roman. He encouraged me to go on. “She was going to eat me, so I
kicked her.”

“You kicked her?” The vampire sounded
dubious.

“Yes. With my stilettos. I staked her with
my stilettos.”

The burst of laughter that came from the
vampires sitting around the great stone table was both unexpected
and startling. Roman put a hand on my shoulder when I jumped.

“
They won’t be laughing when you tell
them what happened to Lucretious so let it ride, my sweet.”

I did. Roman’s reminder of just how heinous
it would be to them to hear how Lucretious actually died sent
another shiver down my spine.

“Tell us the rest,” Laied instructed once
the laughter died down. “Did you think your stilettos would kill
Perdita?”

I shook my head. “No, I just wanted to hurt
her. I wanted her to leave me alone and it was the only thing I had
on me...” I let my voice trail, because that wasn’t quite true. Now
that they sensed my uncertainty, they knew it too. I plowed ahead,
because I didn’t want them to think I was holding anything
back.

“I hooked my cross chain around Lucretious
neck,” I said. I expected a collective gasp from the angry
vampires. Instead, I was met with dead silence. They went still as
the grave, and stared at me unblinking. There was no breath in
their lungs, no blood in their veins. They’d gone cold and dead as
only they could and they watched at me with death in their eyes.
No, with blood in their eyes, because they wanted my blood for what
I had done.

My heart began to pound as I realized the
danger I was in, giving me away. I backed into Roman who gripped my
shoulders so tight it hurt, and I tried to pull away from him, but
couldn’t.

“
Stand still,”
he ordered.
“Stand
your ground and show no fear. I will take care of this.”

Out loud, he said, “I gave LeKrista the
cross when I knew how much danger she was in, and whom she was in
danger from. So, in essence, the cross was meant specifically for
the event in which she used it.”

“Crosses are to be used as a defense only,”
the head vampire said.

“And that is what she used it for. A
defense. LeKrista is under my protection,” he said, and the
vampires finally stirred, albeit angrily. “Lucretious and Perdita
would have defied that authority, though they both answered to me.
I couldn’t have that. Lucretious’ death was necessary, and
Perdita’s will be also. She threatens the life of one who is under
my protection. I cannot allow that to go unpunished.”

“You give this girl your protection?” Laied
asked enraged. He stood, towering over the table. He was very close
to seven feet tall. His chest and shoulders were so broad he
blocked the light of several torches. Even if he was human I
wouldn’t want to make him angry.

“What is she to you?” he stormed at Roman,
who took it all in without a blink. “What is she to us? What can
she give us that we sacrifice our strongest for?”

“She will help us,” Roman said.
“Specifically, she will help me. She has abilities. She will help
in our plan to rule the humans.” And he was completely confident in
that misguided assumption.

I blinked. He truly believed I would help
the vampires rule the humans. The Council was quiet for a long
moment, and Roman seemed to realize he’d messed up because he
added, “Lucretious told her this secret before he died. He didn’t
intend for her to live long enough for it to matter.”

“And you expect us to allow her to live with
this knowledge? No. This secret alone will-”

“What difference does it make?” Roman asked.
“What can she do to stop it? She’s one person. She has no
resources, no friends who can alter the plans we’ve set in motion.
The takeover is too close at hand for anything to stop it now, let
alone one girl.” He spat the word
girl
like it tasted of
dung, but in my mind, he said,
“I think more highly of you than
this.”

I kept quiet and wished I could melt into
the wall with every look the vampires sent my way. I thought about
what Roman had said, and what the man told me in that hazy place
where I'd died not half an hour earlier. The Lady Xiomara had asked
for a gift in return for her help. I have no earthly possessions or
money enough to pay for such a big thing, but I do have Roman. I
have information. If I could swallow my pride and go crawling back
to her and her people, I might get them to help me. If I fed them
information on the vampire’s takeover they would have a reason to
keep me alive. If I could swallow my pride.

Pride goes before destruction...

I knew this was the pride that would get me
killed. I needed protection from Perdita, protection that Roman
couldn’t give me, if I was to survive.

I knew what I had to do, but it didn’t make
the decision any easier. The thought of going back to Lady
Xiomara’s council and begging them to help me after I’d already
told them what horrible people they were made me sick to my
stomach. It made me so angry that I crossed my arms over my chest
and audibly
humphed
before I realized it. The vampires all
turned to give me curious looks.

“What is it that has you in such bad sorts?”
Laied asked, daring with his eyes to interrupt their all important
“end of the world” conversation. I only had a moment to come up
with something that didn’t have to do with vampires, mages, or the
end of the world as we knew it.

“No offense,” I said, “but you’re not
exactly the kind of person I want to take advice from.” That got me
the looks I expected and I fought not to smile.

“Vampires, you mean?” and the question
dripped with malice and hatred.

“No, males. Men. Forgive me, but why would I
want advice from men on a man problem? It just doesn’t make
sense.”

They stared at me stunned, as if they didn’t
quite understand that my mind had been working on a problem so
completely human.

“Perhaps, it is men you need advice from.”
He was so curious! It was cute in a twisted sort of way and I
wondered when was the last time he had to deal with a simple human
matter such as a relationship.

I paused and pretended to think about that.
“Perhaps. But you wouldn’t be interested in helping me...would you?
I mean, you have the end of the world to plan, and everything. I
wouldn’t want to be a bother.” In my head I was quoting
The
Princess Bride
. Again.

I have my country's four hundredth
anniversary to plan, my wife to murder…

Roman found it quite amusing.

“What’s the problem?” he asked, as if he had
all the time in the world, and maybe he did.

I jabbed a thumb in Roman’s direction and
said, “Him. He’s the problem. My boyfriend found out about him and
wouldn’t speak to me for two weeks. Then, he calls me up out of the
blue and wants to go to breakfast, see a movie. He acts like
nothing happened. What am I supposed to do? Just ignore that he
left me? He expects me to be angry, but he acts like he doesn’t
understand why. Did he leave me as payback, or did he really just
need some time to think? And what about me? Am I supposed to take
him back?” I sighed. I’d gotten myself all worked up over it, and I
wasn’t pretending anymore. “Sorry,” I said to their tolerant, yet
astonished faces. “I guess when you’ve been around as long as you
have things like this just seem so inconsequential.” I screwed up
my face and looked at Roman, “I’m thirsty.”

Roman laughed. It wasn’t a humored laugh or
a loud hysterical laugh, it was one of those chuckles that you give
when you don’t quite know what to do. It’s funny, but you’re
confused, so you “heh” and then wonder why you did it.

“I’m just going to sit down over here,” I
said and pointed at the floor against the wall.

The head vampire motioned to someone, and I
noticed that there was a room behind him to the left where several
people were lurking. It was hard to make anything out from where I
was though. A body, naked from the waist up except for a spiked
leather collar, came from the shadows. The man’s hands were clasped
behind his back, his head bowed so that all I could see was the top
of his head, but I thought I should know the top of that head.

“Get our guest a chair and a glass of
water.” The tone in the old vampire’s voice was cold, like he was
telling a dog to fetch his slippers. The head never came up. The
man did as he was told and turned to fetch a chair from the
shadows. He came around the table with it and set it down for me.
He wore pants printed with his favorite jaguar print. His feet were
bare, and I was impressed by the expanse of chest and the rippling
abs. The closer he came, the more I knew him, until I recognized
him completely.

“
No, LeKrista,”
Roman warned.
“Show no recognition. Not here.”

I did as I was told, but I wasn’t happy
about it. I thanked Eddy with a nod and sat. He brought me a glass
of water that I downed almost immediately and went back to his
shadowed corner. Laied stopped him before he got there.

“What do you think of our table displays?”
he asked. “Our resident Jaguar shifter made them for us. You are a
florist, aren’t you?”

I looked up at the brilliant pink displays,
then at Eddy. No one saw him look up and plead with me silently to
answer correctly because they were looking at me, waiting for my
answer. Eddy looked away first and I looked back at the
arrangements, stuck a smile on my face and said, honestly, “They’re
lovely.”

“Give me your honest opinion,” Laied said,
and there was a command in his voice that sent a thickness into my
throat and mouth. He was using his tricks to make me answer
differently, but they wouldn’t work. Maybe he wouldn’t know that
they wouldn’t work.

“They’re beautiful,” I said. “Pink isn’t my
favorite color, in fact I try to stay away from it as much as
possible, but calla lily's are my favorite.” I smiled again,
because I meant it, but that thickness lingered in the back of my
throat and my neck ticked to the side. Roman saw and his eyes
widened just a bit, but he didn’t say anything. I wanted more
water.

“You must not be much of a florist then,”
Laied said, and my smile went from sweet, to tight.

“That’s not the first time I’ve heard
that.”

I caught the movement of Eddy’s head out of
the corner of my eye. There was no reason for him to think I was
talking about anyone but him. I looked up, because he’d looked up
first, and watched as Laied noticed Eddy’s eyes weren’t on the
ground. Laied hissed and did something so fast I couldn’t see it. A
red slash opened across Eddy’s face from ear to chin and blood
poured from it. It wasn’t an exceptionally deep cut, but it wasn’t
a scratch either. I was too new at this blood and guts thing to
know what I was looking at, so I tried not to guess, because I knew
I would be wrong.

“What do you think you are? Human?” Laied
said in a French dialect that my new mental catalogue had to find.
It was very old and unused. “You don’t look at us or our guests!”
He moved vampire-fast again and more blood spurted from a gash
across Eddy’s chest this time. I watched Laied lick at the blood on
his hand and shuddered. It was sickening in a gut-wrenching way to
watch Eddy treated like this, but I had Roman screaming in my head
to behave, don’t say or do anything, keep my hands and thoughts to
myself, and I knew it would be a major faux pas to stop this
horrendous affair. My conscience told me not to listen to him. That
had already ruined my life once. My fear told me to do what he
said.