Blood Lust (11 page)

A few glasses of wine and Dominic was feeling his recent lack of sleep from staying with Darby at the hospital. “Well, I think I will bid you a good night.” He walked over to Darby, holding his hand out to take hers. “Darby?” She happily obliged him and he kissed it as she rose from her seat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box. “I’ve been meaning to give this to you since you got home from the hospital.”

Darby opened the box to find a round silver charm, no bigger than a large pearl. It had intricate designs around its edges and looked like it might open.

“I’m sure you will find me superstitious, but I’d like you to wear it. I think it will protect you from being injured again. My grandmother was a bit of a herbologist and she dabbled in this and that. Back then of course, they would have called her a witch, but little did they know she was a vampire.”

“It’s beautiful, Dominic. I love it. Thank you. Will you help me put it on?” She turned, holding the necklace above her head and he opened the clasp and closed it around her neck. She turned back, holding the pretty charm on her chest.

“It suits you,” Dominic said. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. He smiled and started towards the door.

“Devon? Have a pleasant evening.” He nodded and retreated out the room and up the stairs. Bernard came to clear dishes away and Darby thanked him for a lovely meal, apologizing for keeping it so late.

“Think nothing of it, Miss. It’s a joy to have you back.”

“Thank you, Bernard,” she said.

Chapter 8

They headed for the foyer. Devon grabbed his overcoat and wrapped it around Darby’s shoulders. “Thank you,” she said.

He swiftly lifted her, cradling her in his arms as he walked down to the already lit cottage. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Well, you were just discharged from the hospital, so I’m carrying you,” he answered.

“You can put me down, I’m perfectly capable of walking,” she said.

“Okay, so I’m sucking up a bit. It’s not like carrying you down to the cottage is going to get me out of the doghouse, but it’s a start.”

“Since you put it that way, let the ‘sucking up’ begin,” she said as she clung to him.

Devon set her down on the porch and opened the door. A fire roared in the fireplace and it was nice and warm inside. A bottle of champagne waited for them on the coffee table in front of the fireplace.

“Would you like some?”

“Sure, a little bit.” He poured them each a glass and offered one to her. “Thanks. So out with it. You’ve got some explaining to do.”

“You’re not going to let me off the hook easily, are you?”

“Not on your life.” He slipped off her shoes and put a blanket across her. “So…you’re already stalling. Is it so hard for you to talk to me, Devon? We’ve been through so much, just talk to me.”

“I’m sorry, Darby, it’s just not my forte. I want to talk to you, but a voice inside always talks me out of it.”

“Why? What does the voice say? You can trust me with your life, with your brother’s life, but you can’t tell me a secret? Do you think I’ll laugh? Do you think I’m untrustworthy?”

“No, none of those things. The best way to describe it, that you might understand, is how sometimes you don’t always let on all your concerns or fears to Rowan. Why do you do that?”

“Because I’m protecting her, or maybe I don’t want to worry her.”

“Exactly, it’s like that. I don’t want to worry you, or cause you anguish.”

“So you totally shut me out? That’s anguish, Devon, way more anguish than telling me something that may or may not hurt or worry me.”

“I guess you have a point there. All right, very well. A very long time ago, I met and fell in love with an art student named Libby Walsh. We had dated for a short while when I decided I wanted to introduce her to my family.”

“You were going to ask her to marry you, weren’t you?”

“Yes, I was going to ask her to marry me. Not that night, but soon. My parents were already gone at that time and my only family was Blake, Anton, and Dominic. I brought her to dinner one night and well…”

“Anton hit on her?”

“Not exactly, but there was definitely some flirting going on between the two.”

“You’re kidding! She was flirting with your cousin in front of you?”

“It seemed so, yes. A few weeks went by and I had finally gotten up enough courage to ask her to marry me. That evening I planned to surprise her at her house for a short moonlit walk, but when I got there Anton was there with her. I was angry. Very angry. A few days later they eloped.”

“What? He married her right out from under you? That’s horrible! It’s one thing to have a friend steal a loved one, but a family member, that’s cruel! How close were you and Anton before this?”

“Close, like brothers, at least I thought we were. I mean, all three of us grew up together, but as we got older it was more and more strained. Anton can be very competitive and I guess maybe he felt he had to compete for Dominic’s attention. I’m not really sure.”

“So you and Anton have never talked about what happened with Libby?”

“Oh, God, no. After I found out about the elopement I almost killed him. Do you remember a while back when we were dealing with Sally and Rachel and we got on the subject about killing out of anger? We were talking about how Blake acted when he killed Terrence Paine and then turned his focus on you for a moment. We talked about killing in anger and I pulled away from you and didn’t want to talk about something that had happened to me. This is the incident I was referring to when we talked that night. I wanted to kill him. I’d never been so angry in all my life.”

“Ah, yes, I remember. When you turned cold as ice and went to stare out the window in the front room.”

“Yeah, then,” he smiled, embarrassed.

“So don’t you think you should hear his side of the story? Maybe Libby had something to do with this and the blame may not all lie with Anton. Believe me; I’ve met some women that would do just about anything to get the man they want.”

“No, Libby wasn’t like that.”

“But, Devon, you said she flirted with him in front of you.”

“No. Libby would never do anything like that.”

“Fine, fine, Libby’s an angel, sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to be so defensive.”

She took a sip of champagne, not really believing him. “Hmmm. So are they still married?”

“I believe so; Dominic would never allow a divorce in the family.”

“Why, is he Catholic?” She thought that was funny,
a Catholic vampire. Isn’t that an oxymoron?

“He is, in fact. We all are.”

She started to laugh, but when she saw he wasn’t, she stopped and said, “Oh, come on. You don’t see the humor in that? I mean, what kind of Hail Mary’s do you have to say, to be forgiven for biting people?”

“That’s not funny.”

“Okay, fine, it’s not funny. Anyway. So angel Libby is still around somewhere then?”

“Yes.”

“Well, maybe she would be a good place to start. She knows Anton better than anyone, including his father. Maybe we should talk to her when she comes and see if she knows why Anton is deteriorating.”

“No, I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“I just can’t.”

“Are you still in love with her, Devon?”

“Don’t be absurd. That was forty years ago.”

“I’m not being absurd. Forty years or not, you still have feelings for this woman. Maybe not love, but definitely something.”

“How can you say that?”

“How can you not see it? She can still do no wrong in your eyes, and you’re defensive if I say anything against her. It’s been forty years and you still won’t talk to your cousin. Yeah, I’d say you were carrying a pretty big torch for her. So tell me, if she were divorced and had no ties to Anton and she came to you begging you to forgive her, of course, not that she did anything wrong, and take her back, would you? Would you consider it?”

“I would…no, I’d, well…”

“Enough said. You were right, Devon. We have no future, at least not until you take care of your past.”

She stood up and grabbed Devon’s overcoat and her shoes. She leaned over and kissed him, tenderly stroking his beautiful face. “I love you so much my heart aches every second I’m away from you, Devon, but I won’t be a shield for you to keep your distance from Libby. That’s the real reason you agreed to bring me. I see that now. I’m booked on a 10:20 flight tomorrow, Devon. I’m going home. Can you make arrangements for someone to take me in the morning?”

“I will, but I don’t understand. If you love me so much, why are you leaving?”

“Because I love you so much. Don’t you see? I can’t be here to watch you wrestle with your feelings for her. It would destroy me; it’s been destroying me, Devon, like it destroyed you when she ran off with Anton.”

“Please don’t leave, Darby, I need you here.”

“Why?”

“I need you to help me through this.”

“And if you decide you’re still in love with her? Then what?”

“I won’t. I’m not.”

“You can’t say that with any certainty. Until you lay eyes on her again and speak to her, you won’t know. Trust me, I know.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’ve been through this before. You’re not the only one who has ever been dumped, Devon. I dated someone for two years, thought I was going to marry the guy, until he left one night and went back to his ex-girlfriend and got married the next month. They now have four kids. I’ve seen the draw of a man’s first love. I already know what it feels like to lose that battle. Losing it with you would end me.”

“It’s not the same, Darby.”

“Devon, do you realize that you haven’t once told me you loved me since this started? You haven’t kissed me, not since you laid eyes on your uncle at Thanksgiving. You really want me here to sit back and watch my entire world fall apart before my eyes?”

“It’s not like that! I swear.”

“Fine, Devon. Prove me wrong and I will be forever happy.”

“Then you’ll stay?”

“For now.” She opened the door and started out the door.

“But you don’t have any shoes on.”

“It doesn’t matter. I can’t feel anything right now anyway; maybe the cold will keep back the next wave of tears.” With that she shut the door and walked gingerly up to the house. The ice didn’t keep the tears at bay, but the fresh, frigid air on her face kept them to a minimum.

He didn’t come after her and she didn’t look back. He had a lot to think about, she supposed, as did she. At least the cat was out of the bag, finally. She found herself in the library again, in front of the fire, sitting on the ottoman of the chair in which she had fallen asleep before. She pulled the pins from her hair and let it all fall down her back. She took both hands and raked them through her hair like a comb. She put the pins in the pocket of Devon’s coat that she realized she still had on. She stood up when she realized this and took it off. She neatly laid it over the back of the chair, stroking it as if Devon might still be in it, and pulled a couple of her long blonde hairs from it.

How could she ever survive watching Devon teeter on the cusp, not knowing which side he would land? Hers or Libby’s? She sat back down in front of the fire and wrapped the blanket around herself. She laid her head on Devon’s coat; his scent on it made her feel even sadder.

She woke in the middle of the night. The house was silent as she went up the stairs. As she tiptoed down the hallway, she thought she heard a woman’s voice. She stood there for a minute listening, but heard nothing more and continued on to her room.

As she got into bed, she thought how she hated to sleep alone. How funny that seemed now. For so long she had slept by herself until Devon came along. How easily she had melted back into not wanting to be alone. It seemed like forever since he had slept with her or even held her. Would he ever again? She wasn’t sure anymore of anything. She lay in bed but didn’t really sleep and thought of all the things that he had said. How sad he’d looked when telling his story of his love being taken from him by his evil cousin. Somehow though, she was pretty sure it wasn’t Anton who was evil. Something told her that Libby was the culprit.