The Caretaker of Showman's Hill (Vampire Romance) (17 page)

She sniffled and pulled a tissue from her pants pocket. After blowing her nose, she crammed it back in her pocket and looked at him.

"What else could there possibly be?" she asked.

"Let me show you."

He made his way through the cemetery, stopping at each grave almost like a tour. He showed her the double grave that made up the spot where the fat man rested. Then came the graves of the tumblers, the clowns and even the graves of the children of the circus performers. It was all so overwhelmingly sad. Last, he pointed out the graves of the circus animals that’d never had a chance, locked away in their cages the night the circus train crashed and burned.

Stone carvings of large elephants, dancing bears, and trick horses, reared up around her so real that she almost swore she was standing in the midst of the circus itself.

"Basil, I'm really sorry about all this, really I am. But I'm not in the mood for a tour of the cemetery right now."

He looked at her with his stone face and red eyes and slightly shook his head. "And they say vampires are the insensitive ones."

"I'm sorry, Basil. That's not what I meant.” Her apology was sincere and she hoped he believed it. “So where do you fit in?” she asked. “What was your job in the circus?”

“I was the lion tamer, Cassie. My two lions are buried at the foot of my mausoleum. The sphinxes are the only memory I have left of them now.”

“I knew there was something special about those sphinxes,” she remarked. “I can also see you as the lion tamer. I’m sure you were good at it too.” She remembered hearing the roar of the lions, and somehow felt magic was still involved here.

He didn’t answer, just pointed to another grave and this time she could have sworn she saw a tear in his eye. She looked down at the stone and realized it was probably the only grave in the cemetery that had flowers blooming around it. It looked newer than the rest. Almost like Didi's grave. The ground wasn't as soft as her sister's though, and she was sure this gravesite had been there longer.

She walked up slowly and read the inscription. Carine, was all it said. No dates, nothing else.

"Carine?" asked Cassie. "Who was she? Your wife?”

"No.” He shook his head with a frown. “My wife was a trapeze artist. She died in England at one of our performances from a fall. That was a very long time ago. We'd only been married a month. Carine wasn't married to me, though she was my lover nineteen years ago."

"Oh." Cassie couldn't understand why he was telling her this. Did he really think she wanted to know all about his promiscuous affairs? Still, she felt curious. "Was she a vampire, too?"

"No. She was human."

"So you did make love to a human before? So it is possible."

Basil let out a breath and grabbed her by her shoulders. "You don't understand, Cassie. I killed her."

"What? Basil, what are you saying?"

"I took a sip from the bottle of potion my mother gave me before she died, and it gave me a craving for virgin blood."

"What bottle?"

"The bottle with the blue cork back in the mausoleum. Before my mother died she gave me that bottle. She said it had the power to cure one person of their vampirism. But they'd have to drink the contents and then drink all the blood of a virgin in order to be set free."

"Good god, Basil." Cassie pushed away from him. "Don't tell me you drank all the woman's blood?"

"No.” He shook his head furiously. “I didn't drink any of her blood but I did make love to her. She was sickly since that day, but I thought she'd survive. She did survive for nine whole months. I thought she was going to live, but then something happened that killed her."

Cassie actually saw sadness in Basil’s eyes. It was so unlike his usual cold demeanor. Her heart went out to him. She walked up to Basil and put her hand on his. "I'm sorry. Can I ask what it was that killed her?"

He hesitated for a moment and she could tell how hard it was for him to continue. Finally, he did. "She was pregnant with my child. She gave her life birthing our baby."

"You have a child?" Very surprised, Cassie didn’t know what to say. How could he have forgotten to tell her this tidbit of information?

"I do," he answered, and it suddenly hit her. She knew what he was going to say before he told her. Still, she wanted to hear it from him, so let him continue.

"The baby was a girl. You see, La Roux is my daughter."

Chapter 21

"Your daughter," repeated Cassie. "No wonder you've been so protective of her. So are you telling me that La Roux is a vampire like the rest of you or not?"

"I don't know," answered Basil. "Since her mother was a human, La Roux could be half and half. I’ve never noticed any vampire traits about her, but that doesn’t mean anything. I never wanted to take the chance of losing her, so I treated her like the rest of us."

"That’s why you kept her out of the sun," added Cassie. "No thanks to me."

"Actually, I do have you to thank,” he admitted. “If it wasn’t for you, I'd never have known La Roux could stand the sun. She would have lived her life in darkness. Now, thanks to you, I’m pretty confident she must be human."

“I get the feeling family is important to you,” she said, finally starting to understand him.

“It is, Cassie. Just as yours is important to you.”

“We’ve both lost our families, haven’t we?” she asked softly.

“Cassie, I feel we barely know each other, and I would like to get to know more about your family and your past.”

“There isn’t much to tell,” she told him with a sigh. “Didi and I were adopted.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Even though we knew nothing about our real parents, we felt like our adoptive mother was the best mother anyone could ever have.”

“What about your father, Cassie? You never mention him.”

“I never knew my adoptive father. He died when we were just babies.”

Basil carefully put his arm around her shoulder, and she didn’t stop him from doing it. They did have a common bound in the similarities of both of them losing just about everyone they’d ever loved. She understood him better now. Maybe being a vampire made him cold and cruel over the last centuries, but she could see beyond that hard exterior. Tonight she’d glimpsed a sensitive side of Basil that she really liked.

Just then, Basil doubled over and held his stomach. He groaned and rocked back and forth. She could see he was in severe pain. She watched on helplessly, not sure how to help him.

"Basil, what is it? What's the matter? Is it the olives? My god, what did I do by giving them to you?"

Basil tried to speak but his words came out in gasps. "It's not the olives,” he reassured her. “You have nothing to do with my pain. It's the convulsions I get when . . . when . . . can you help me back to the mausoleum? I think I just need to lay down for a while and I'll be fine."

Cassie helped Basil back to the mausoleum and laid him into his vaulted bed. He was now shaking uncontrollably, and she didn’t like it. She wasn't sure what was the matter, and Basil was reluctant to speak about it.

"Can I get you anything?" she asked, looking around the small room frantically for anything that might help his condition.

"Get me the bottle."

Cassie rushed over to the liquor vault and sprang it open. She had no idea which bottle he referred to and was about to ask when she spied the one with the blue cork. The potion. The potion that could set him free. She grabbed the bottle and handed it to him.

Basil took the bottle from Cassie and almost took a swig before he realized which one she had given him. He stared at it for a moment, knowing this is exactly what he needed. Or wanted anyway. All he had to do was drink the contents and then the blood of a virgin. Both ingredients were in his hands. It would be so easy. Then he could live the life with his daughter that he always wanted. He looked into Cassie's innocent eyes and took a deep breath. He squeezed his eyes closed and pushed the bottle back into her hands.

"Not this bottle," he mumbled. "The bottle with La Roux's blood in it."

He watched Cassie replace the potion, all the while his own body was shaking with convulsions. He'd been careless, he knew it. He was supposed to have a swig of virgins blood every day or this would happen.

Cassie handed him the only jar that didn’t look like it had contained alcohol.  "This is all I could find, but it's empty."

"Damn!" The jar shattered and Cassie dropped it, jumping away from the broken shards. "I need virgin's blood every day or I have to go through this."

"When's the last time you had it?"

"I don't know. What does it matter? I can't ask La Roux for any more. She's already sick and it's all my fault. If I weren't draining her of her blood, she'd be healthy."

"I'll tell La Roux."

"No. This'll pass in a few hours."

"A few hours?" Cassie seemed horrified. "You can't last a few hours with these convulsions."

Basil's jaw chattered and he could barely speak. His body felt so weak he thought he'd pass out, even though it was something he'd never done in all his hundreds of years.

"I need to sleep." If only he could put himself in a trance for awhile, he knew he'd overcome this."

Cassie lay down on the bed next to him and put her arms around him. "It’ll be all right, Basil. If you need virgin's blood, then take mine."

Basil managed to force a smile. "I remember you telling me distinctly that you weren't a virgin."

"I just didn't want it to get around. You knew better."

"I don't want your blood, Cassie. I don't want you to get involved."

Cassie ran her hands through his hair, and Basil melted under her touch.

"I'm already involved," she answered. "More than you'll ever know."

Basil tried to put himself into a sleep trance. He was succeeding, but had a horrible thought. He couldn't make sure Cassie didn't escape when he was in this condition. He couldn't do a damned thing about it.

"Cassie, do something for me."

"Anything. Just name it."

"Stay with me until I awake. Don't leave me, honey. Don't go running off."

"I will," was the last thing he heard before he fell into a restless slumber.

Cassie watched as Basil fell asleep, knowing this was her big chance to escape. Luck was on her side. All she had to do now was report all this to the magazine. Gregg would pay her well for a knockout story like this. She felt a sourness in her stomach at what she was about to do. She didn’t need to get the story anymore, she told herself. Didi was dead. Her reason for working for the magazine no longer existed.

Or did it? Basil said a vampire had killed her sister, and Cassie couldn’t let this heinous act go unpunished. Didi was dead, and someone was going to pay.

She quietly got up from the bed and headed for the door. This night had really taken a turn. Thoughts crammed her brain of all the information Basil had given her.  It all made sense now why he was so protective of La Roux, his daughter. Just another reason to keep the bats in the attic alive. He needed to take care of her. Vampires supposedly didn’t care about others, but still, she saw how much he cared for La Roux. Basil wasn’t your normal vampire at all, or so she thought.

She pulled open the door and looked back at Basil once more. He looked so innocent and harmless lying there with his eyes closed. She really hoped he would be all right. She couldn’t help thinking about the pain she saw in his eyes when he’d told her he’d killed Carine by having a weak moment and sleeping with her.  Cassie didn’t know if it was true or not, but she did know Basil was sincere when he said he never wanted to hurt the girl.

How could someone like this be a murderer? Cassie’s doubts filled her head. He’d said he wasn’t the one to kill Didi, yet she hadn’t believed him. Still, if he hadn’t done it, then who had? She felt things for Basil that she’d never felt for anyone before. Maybe her own thoughts were clouding her judgment. After all, her sister was dead, and Basil was hiding the facts by keeping it a secret and erasing anyone’s memory of ever knowing her.

An emptiness filled her heart and a knot twisted in her stomach. Part of her wanted to stay, but she knew what she had to do.  She’d do it for Didi, she told herself. Even if she never found out who truly murdered her sister, her sister’s death deserved some kind of acknowledgement or closure.

She left the mausoleum, quietly closing the door behind her. She ran a hand over the stone sphinxes on her way down the stairs, but everything seemed different now.  A sadness engulfed her, but she tried to push her feelings away. Be strong, she told herself. Be emotionless, just like a vampire.

She took off at a run, hoping to get to her car before anyone spotted her. She felt very, very confused.

* * *

Basil didn't awake until the next evening. He'd slept wonderfully thanks to having Cassie at his side. Her scent clung to him and her essence seemed to help in spending the hours until the convulsions had ceased. He rolled onto his side, realizing there was more room in his bed than he thought.

He reached for Cassie, but came up with only a pillow. He opened his eyes and searched the dark room. Nothing. No Cassie to be found. Why the hell did he think she'd stick around? He sat up and rubbed his face, then finger-combed the tangles in his long hair. He couldn't remember the last time he'd brushed it. Not like him. He was usually so finicky about his appearance.

Cassie had influenced all this. He couldn't think straight since the day she showed up on his doorstep. He almost missed the way she used to aggravate him. He thought of the way she'd removed all the boards from the windows, and even made those silly curtains with the little daisies. Or were they sunflowers? He wouldn't know the difference. Flowers that worshipped the sun and a vampire who worshipped the dark had nothing in common.

How he longed to see a flower in full sunlight. It was something he'd always taken for granted when he had the ability to do it. He placed his feet on the floor and held his throbbing head. He needed nourishment and damn well knew it. He needed that swig of virgin's blood and nothing else would cure him, or satisfy his yearning desire.

He heard footsteps coming up the stairs and tried to sniff the air. Weak, but he knew it was female. Then he tried to look through the door and found he couldn't. Either the convulsions had affected his strong senses or those damned olives had done a number on him. He figured it was La Roux. It was about the right time for her to show up with his feeding. He got to his feet and was about to call out to her when the door opened and to his surprise, Cassie entered.

"Rise and shine." She walked into the dark room with a flashlight in one hand and a jar of blood in the other.

"Cassie! I thought you'd - "

"Run off? Escaped? I thought about it. I even intended to go to the office and give Gregg the whole vampire story, just to make you all pay for Didi’s death."

“Then why didn’t you? You have every right to make someone pay for what happened to your sister.”

“I know,” she said softly, looking at the jar in her hand. “Someone deserves to pay for her death,” she explained, “but after yesterday, I know in my heart it wasn’t you.”

“Cassie, I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t need to say anything, Basil. Let’s just get you well, and then we’ll get to the bottom of Didi’s death together.”

“All right,” he said, feeling now more than ever that he wanted to find Didi’s murderer. “I promise you, Cassie, as soon as I’m better I’ll find Didi’s murderer if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

Cassie handed him the jar and smiled. "La Roux asked me to give this to you." She quickly walked across the room and busied herself rearranging the bottles on his bar.

"So, La Roux is feeling better?"

"Much better. I think those iron tablets she’s taking are really helping."

"So soon?"

"You've been asleep for twenty four hours."

Basil scratched the stubble on his chin and realized what she said was true. He already had a pretty good beard coming in. He'd have to get to the Bat House for a shave and shower. He was sure he was smelling pretty ripe to Cassie about now.

"So, how are things going at the Bat House?" He unscrewed the lid as he spoke.

"Business as usual. I checked on the bats in the attic yesterday. I just couldn't bring myself to feed them, so La Roux helped me. I would have done it again tonight, but La Roux was busy so I thought I’d wait and ask her to help me later."

He knew that bats, not to mention blood, frightened Cassie. She must really be changing. Or could it be that he meant something to her and she did it for him? He could only dream that someone like her could care enough for a person like him to overcome her own fears to help him.

"Drink up." She flashed him a quick smile and then went over to fluff the pillows on the bed.

Basil sensed that something was not right and tried to pick her mind. He couldn't. Either she was getting good at blocking him or his powers were fading.

"So why didn't La Roux bring my feeding herself if she's feeling better?"

"Oh, well . . . she was busy and all. You know. With the sheriff."

"The sheriff? What about her and the sheriff?"

Cassie plopped down on the bed and kicked off her shoes. Nothing like making herself at home. She acted like she belonged there, and damn if he didn't like it.