Taste of Grief (Just One Bite #3) (13 page)

Diandra walked into the kitchen, dressed in a tee shirt and
jeans and sneakers so new they practically glowed- not to mention the squeak
they made across the floors as she walked. Her clothes were designer, but it
was a step in the right direction. She'd dressed beautifully when Lizbeth first
met her, but her clothes added years to her age. Although the clothes were high
priced, they made her look younger than her nearly 29 years, and love made her
face glow almost as brightly as her sneakers.

"Hey, baby," Diandra murmured. She took Lizbeth's
coffee mug, sipped from it and grimaced at the taste of sugar and creamer.
Lizbeth laughed as she grabbed an extra mug and poured coffee into it. She knew
Diandra took hers black, so she must have been truly desperate for coffee to
have sipped at Lizzie's sweet and light mix. "Thanks," Diandra said
fervently as she nearly gulped the brew down. It was hot, but something in her
new vampy genes made it possible for her to down her coffee without waiting for
it to cool off first. It was one of the few perks of being a vampire that she
was grateful for.

After polishing off her mug and quickly refilling it,
Diandra turned to Lizbeth with a smile. "So, what's the plan for today?
Are we chasing bad guys, trying to put them away?" She made light of it,
but there was real eagerness in her face that Lizzie had to laugh at.

"Sorry, o Dark Crusader, but not today. Today it's about
taking care of Kicks' paperwork, making sure the whole case is wrapped up tight
for Carson to prosecute." Anger darkened her face like clouds in the midst
of a storm, and Dia lost that eager light.

"What can I do to help?" she asked, wanting to do
whatever she could to keep Lizbeth safe.

Lizbeth merely shook her head. "There's nothing for you
to do today. I'll be in the precinct all day. If you're so determined to be my
protector, you can drive me to work, and I'll call you when I'm ready to be
picked up. Until then, I'll be inside." She smiled a bit at the suspicious
glance Dia shot her. "Look, I'm even taking lunch with me," she said,
holding up the container of leftovers from last night's eggplant parmesan.
"I won't leave the station at all without calling you first, okay? I
promise."

Diandra frowned at her, but nodded silently and headed for
the parlor. She scooped up the keys to her car- the Lexus that had belonged to
Jonah now replaced with an Audi- and grabbed her purse. Lizbeth refilled her
travel mug and switched off the now-empty coffee maker. She shouted to Adrian
that they were leaving but Dia would be back after dropping her off at work. After
his acknowledgment she headed to the car, juggling her briefcase and the
leftover container in one hand while she used the other to open the door. She
climbed into the passenger seat, and buckled her seatbelt, setting her burden
between her feet on the floorboard.

The ride was quiet at first, but it was a weighty silence.
Diandra put up with it as long as she could, then finally burst out with,
"Out with it- what's on your mind?" She knew Lizbeth well enough to
know something was troubling her, and since there were so many possibilities on
what it could be, she had no choice but to pick at the wound until she had a
satisfactory response.

Lizbeth opened her mouth, closed it again, and then finally
spoke. "I want you to turn me."

Diandra nearly crashed the car. Cursing under her breath,
she corrected her course, waved apologetically at the driver who honked at her
and flipped her off, and then settled back in her seat when they were safe
again. "What the Hell, Lizzie- you said you didn't want to be like me.
What made you change your mind?"

"I don't mean now. I just mean, if something happens to
me, and RaeLynn can't save me, I want you to bite me. I don't want to die, and
I want to stay with the both of you. So if something should go wrong, I want
you to change me- I give you permission." She looked out the passenger
door's window as she spoke, but made sure she was clear- without permission Diandra
would be hunted if she gave in to her own desires and turned her.

Diandra didn't reply for a moment, giving her pulse time to
return to its usual barely-there rhythm. "I don't want to turn you,"
she finally replied.

"What?" Lizbeth demanded, finally turning to look
at her lover. She couldn't see Diandra's face clearly- she had those large
sunglasses on again, and she was facing the road, making it difficult to judge
her expression. "You wanted me to be like you- you've said so before.
What's changed?" She gulped audibly before speaking the next in a whisper.
"You don't want me anymore." Her tone was sad but firm.

"It’s not that, Lizzie. You've made it pointedly clear
that you don't want to live a life like mine. It's complicated, and at times
it's exhausting. I don't want to do that to you." Diandra still refused to
look Lizbeth's way.

Lizzie stayed silent until they reached the precinct. When
they pulled up out front Diandra turned off the car and the silence was nearly
overwhelming. Unable to take it anymore, Dia said, "Why do you ask this of
me now? I'm going to keep you safe- this promise isn't necessary."

"I've been dreaming of my death- I don't know if it'll
happen, but I keep seeing it when I close my eyes. I don't want to leave you or
Rae- I need to know that if something happens that RaeLynn can't fix, you'll
take care of me. I need you to promise you'll turn me, so I don't have to leave
you," Lizbeth said as she wiped the tears off of her face with one shaking
hand.

Diandra pulled her as close as she could with the center
console in the way. She stroked her lover's soft chestnut hair and whispered
soothing words, much the way she did when RaeLynn was upset about something.
When Lizbeth had calmed down, Dia removed her sunglasses so that she could make
eye contact. "If you mean it, I'll turn you. If something goes horribly
wrong, if I fuck up and let you come close to true death, I'll turn you so you
don't leave us."

In a child-like tone Lizbeth hardly recognized as her own,
she said, "Do you promise?"

"I promise," Diandra replied grimly. "God
help me, but I promise." Lizbeth went inside and Dia drove home like she
was on auto-pilot. At a loss for what to do, she did the only thing she could
think of. She pulled the cobalt blue car into the nearest parking lot, laid her
head on the steering wheel, and prayed. Tears rained down her face, more of a
deluge than a drizzle, and she prayed to God to help her keep Lizbeth alive,
and if she couldn't do that, to have the courage to change her, and help her
handle her new life.

Finally the floodgates behind her eyes were dry, and she was
calm enough to drive. Diandra pulled back out onto the highway and made her way
home. All she wanted was to snuggle her baby, but until she was able to do so,
she'd continue to pray. She only hoped God was listening.

Lizbeth slumped back in her chair, tired beyond belief. She
glanced at her clock- 7 p.m. She'd been at work for about eleven hours now, she
thought, and every hour felt like two at this point. She couldn't believe how
emotionally draining it had been to sit there and go over Kicks' file with DA
Giles Carson. He wore that knowing smile on his face as he made her lay out the
case for him, enjoying watching the way she shrank into herself with each lie.
She knew she'd done the right thing for the public by getting that sick SOB off
the streets, but that didn't make her feel any better about the lies she told. Her
notes, carefully fabricated but decorated with bits of truth, were in the file-
he didn't need to spend five hours drilling her about the case. He did it
merely to rub in the fact that she had framed someone for the murders he so
callously committed. Peters, her ass-kissing lieutenant, had made sure to let
Carson know she'd be available all day long if he needed her to be. As he
walked away, smiling broadly, she saw him rubbing his nose. She imagined he was
trying to rub all that brown off, but years of sucking up had probably made the
removal damn near impossible. She snickered a bit at the image, but knew it was
only a distraction from the anger she felt at being trapped with someone out
for her blood.

After he finished grilling her, he walked out of the office
without a word spoken. She was glad he hadn't wasted his breath thanking her
for her time and dedication, as he did with most of the other detectives. No,
instead he'd fixed her with a look that was nearly deadly in its intensity,
before turning his back on her and leaving the conference room.

She spent the remainder of the day doing paperwork. She had
tons of forms to fill out and requests for case files from other cops in other
precincts nearby. There was some unusual activity going on in Rehoboth Beach,
and she wanted to clamp down on it as soon as possible. Each murder, or
suspected murder, was closer to her district, and she hoped whatever was going
on was nipped in the bud before it spread her way.

Finally done for the day, she picked up her phone and dialed
Diandra. "Hey, baby," she said when the call went through. "I'm
done if you want to pick me up." She drummed her fingers on the desk,
anxious to put this lousy day behind her.

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes," Diandra said,
and Lizbeth could hear the sound of keys rattling in the background as Dia
gathered what she needed for the short drive.

Lizbeth felt the weight of her day falling away from her
shoulders- Diandra always made everything better. "Okay, honey, I'll see
you soon. Drive safe." A small smile was on her face, knowing soon she'd
be on her way home to her family.

"I will," Dia replied, and Lizbeth heard the smile
in her voice as well. "I love you."

"Love you, too, baby," she said before ending the
call. Gathering her briefcase, she made sure to put all the case files she was
currently going over into it. She checked her desk, nodded in satisfaction when
she realized she had everything, and then shut the briefcase before clicking
the latches into place. A spin of the dials made sure the case was locked.

She thought about waiting inside for Diandra to arrive, and
then shook her head. She'd be here in just a few minutes, and Lizzie wanted
fresh air. She'd been cooped up inside all day long, and she felt nearly claustrophobic
from it. It wasn't quite dark yet- it was getting there, but daylight savings
time was still a few weeks away yet. She sat down on the steps of the precinct,
setting her briefcase between her feet on the sidewalk. Closing her eyes, she
tilted her head back and just soaked in her surroundings. There was a slight
breeze and it brought the smells of early autumn to her. The dying leaves, the
crispness in the air, the scent of fresh blood. Wait, what- fresh blood?

She stood up abruptly as she opened her eyes. Leaving her
briefcase where it was, she drew her gun in one swift motion and circled
towards the back of the station. Cursing the darkness and lack of lighting
around the back, she took slow, careful footsteps to try and avoid rustling the
fallen leaves that decorated the ground already. It was mid-October, and the
trees were halfway to the bare winter look- the branches were skeletal in the
deepening shadows of nightfall.

She stood still for a moment and scented the air. There- the
coppery smell of pennies coated the back of her throat- it seemed to be coming
from behind the clump of trees ten feet further ahead of her. Her heart raced;
her pulse a living thing in her throat. Lizbeth held her gun in a two-handed
grip in front of her as she crept closer to the source of the odor. She stopped
in front of the trees and drew a deep breath, fighting the nausea that the
scent of death often triggered in her. She darted around the tree and stopped,
searching the ground for the body she could smell. There was nothing- no body,
no blood that she could see.

Lizbeth heard laughter behind her. Spinning, she raised the
gun. "Who's here? Show
yourself
," she
commanded, her voice not showing the fear that overwhelmed her. She felt the
air shift behind her and she spun towards it. Something rustled the air over
her head and she knew she was going to be struck by whatever it was. She threw
up a hand, uselessly trying to protect herself. Tensing, she felt the blow
land. Pain exploded behind her eyes and starbursts filled her vision before
everything went black and she knew no more.

Diandra was on her way out the door when Eamon snatched her
up. "There's no time for driving. You must fly to Lizbeth- now," he
demanded as he took her purse and keys from her, throwing them through the
still-open front door to land in a spill of makeup, money, and credit cards on
the foyer floor.

"Why? What's happening?" Diandra blurted, feeling
her steady, near-dead pulse flutter helplessly to the tempo of a running human.
She felt like her heart would explode, and briefly wondered if such a thing
were possible for a vamp, before cruelly pushing the thought from her mind to
focus on the task at hand.

Eamon shook his head pushing her towards the driveway where
she could have plenty of clearance for her flight. "There's no time. I
will guard the human and RaeLynn. You must go to her, and tend to her. When you
can, if you can, bring her to me here," he said, turning his back on her
as he walked into her house and shut the door with a thud.

Terror gripped Diandra as she flew to the precinct. She
started to land out of sight in the parking lot behind a large semi that was
parked there, but something pulled her attention towards the steps. Her landing
was anything but graceful as she headed for the front of the station, intent on
heading to Lizbeth's office and rescuing her from whatever had managed to get
her inside. Lizbeth's briefcase sat in the narrow halo cast by the streetlight
next to the steps, and her heart nearly stopped as she realized what this
meant. Lizbeth had left the near-perfect safety of her office- she could be
anywhere.