BloodGifted (38 page)

‘That’s how he’s done it. He’s even kept it oiled!’
Alec tucked me into his side. ‘Feeling better?’

‘Yeah.’
I shuddered as I ran my tongue over Philippe’s cruel bite on the inside of my mouth and looked at the reddish marks ringing my wrists.
As soon as I lose one set of bruises I gain another
. I sighed.

Alec noticed. He
gently cupped my face and his thumb stroked my cheek. ‘If he ever comes near you again, I promise, I won’t just knock him unconscious!’ There was dark certainty in his voice.

‘Can I ask you something?’

He looked at me in surprise. ‘You know you can ask me anything.’

‘
Why didn’t my blood didn’t kill him?’

Alec didn’t answer for a while. His brows were drawn and there was an expression on his face I didn’t understand.

‘What is it?’

‘I’m not sure I fully understand myself.’

‘He said he had every right to claim me.’ I grimaced. ‘What did he mean by that?’

Alec licked his lips and looked thoughtfully at me. It was obvious he didn’t want to answer the question. He knew something and didn’t want to tell me.

‘Alec?’

‘Honey, it’s yo
ur father who needs to tell you, not me.’

The last time Alec called me “honey” I was
in hospital and he was worried. An evil blonde vampire who fancied him had nearly sucked the life out of me. This time the roles were reversed and I was the one being pursued by another blonde vampire. But unlike Maris, my blood seemed to agree with Jean-Philippe. As far as my knowledge of the curse went, only someone descended from the Pictish witch would be unaffected—someone like Alec. Could that possibly mean…? My mouth went dry at the implication and suddenly Jean-Philippe’s words made sense. He’d shown no hesitation in biting me; confident he wouldn’t suffer the same fate as the other two.

‘
Jean-Philippe has the witch’s blood, doesn’t he?’

‘Possibly
.’

‘How long have you known?’

‘Since the hospital… I didn’t like the way he touched you… how he looked at you.’ He paused and a small smile lit his face. ‘I was already in love with you then, just didn’t know it.’

‘I tried so hard not to fall for
you.’

‘Glad you f
ailed, otherwise I’d be forced to dispatch any male who’d dare come near you!’ Then he sobered. ‘I spoke to Luc. Asked him what he knew and it appears Jean-Philippe’s father was the Duke of Atholl, a noble of Pictish blood. But whether he’s descended from the witch… I don’t know.’

‘That’s why he came onto me in Sorrento. It was only because he wanted to be Princeps!’

Anger surged through me and my hands balled into fists. I wanted to hit something—preferably Jean-Philippe—and not just for payback. It was the thought of him romancing me all those years ago so he could be top dog in the vampire world. It was simply my wounded pride, I had to admit, but knowing now he never loved me and that it was just his way of achieving his own ends, was an affront to my dignity.

Alec placed his hands on my shoulders. ‘Laura, I be
lieve he genuinely fell for you. How could he not, darling?’ He added when I glared at him. ‘I’m not defending him, especially after what he did to you, but I don’t think he even thought about it. You became his obsession.’

‘The night of my birthday,
why did Luc send you to meet me instead of Jean-Philippe?’

Alec’s
eyes roamed my face. ‘Right,’ he said resolutely, took me by the hand and we started down the staircase.

‘Where are we going?’

‘You want answers, Laura, and your father’s the only one who can provide them.’

As we headed for Luc’s study, I glanced down at
my blood stained dress. Jean-Philippe would be in the room. Would he go for me again? My hands began to shake.

‘I
can’t insist you go in there—not after what just happened. We can talk to Luc on the mobile. It’s up to you, darling.’

We stopped
on the landing outside his study. I really didn’t want to see Jean-Philippe again, but there was no avoiding it. There were questions that needed answering and clearly Alec didn’t want to be the one supplying them. I could ask Luc to come out to us, but then why should I? I did nothing wrong. Let Jean-Philippe see what he did to me and let him suffer a guilty conscience—if he had one. I certainly wasn’t going to hide.

Alec waited patiently while I went through an inner debate. ‘I’m not going to let him make me afraid.’

He nodded. ‘The moment you feel uncomfortable, we’re out of there.’

‘All right.’

Alec squeezed my hand and knocked.

‘Come in,’ Luc called out.

Chapter 45

No More Secrets

LAURA

The last time I was
in this room I learnt Luc and Judith were my true parents. Framed pictures of me—at various stages of life—lined the walls and cluttered Luc’s desk. I glimpsed Philippe—Jean-Philippe, now that I knew his full name—seated on the Chesterfield. He was conscious and his head shot up the instant we walked in. I couldn’t bear to look at him and deliberately kept my head averted, but I could feel the heat of his eyes on me.

Luc rose from his desk
, came over to us, glanced at Alec and with an indication of his head and said, ‘fax.’

Alec released my hand and strode
over to the desk.

‘How are you,
ma petite
?’ Luc asked as his eyes alighted on my swollen lower lip.

‘Okay, I suppose,’ I answered
and tried smiling back, only it hurt my lip to do so and I winced.

‘I’m so sorry, my Laura. It’s my fault. If I had only acted sooner.’

There were footsteps behind me and I heard Judy’s voice. ‘Luc?’ She walked in. ‘Seems everyone’s here…’ She stopped as she took in my face and blood stained top. ‘Laura dear, what happened?’

From th
e corner of my eye I caught movement as Jean-Philippe bowed his head down over his knees, hands clasped in front of him. He didn’t make a sound—no groans, no pleas, no apology… nothing.

I hope he feels rotte
n,
I thought and experienced a tinge of satisfaction when I glimpsed a trickle of blood from his mouth to his chin. Luc must have hit him, for that broken lip hadn’t come from Alec. If that wasn’t humiliation enough, I was sure there was more to come—some form of harsh punishment for what he did. If Luc and Alec hadn’t found the entrance into that ballroom… I shuddered. How far would he have gone?

‘Um…’
I remembered Judy’s question when Alec returned to my side. He held a white sheet of paper in his hand and he gave Luc a nod.

Luc
briefly raised his eyes to the heavens as he turned to Judy. ‘I need a private word,
ma cherie
.’ He ushered her to a corner.

I turned to Alec. ‘What is it?’

‘Luc’s telling her now.’ He placed his hand on the small of my back and pulled me close against his bare chest. ‘Darling, this is going to be hard on you and no matter how much I would want this to be otherwise—’ he indicated the paper in his hand ‘—you need to know the truth.’

‘About what?’

Alec hesitated. ‘Jean’s father.’

Now I was really confused. I glanced over to where my parents stood. Whatever Luc was telling her caused her eyes
to widen at one point and she placed her hand on his cheek. He turned his head, placed his own hand over hers and kissed her palm.

As he con
tinued speaking, I watched, fascinated, as her expression darkened. She left his side, marched over to Jean-Philippe and struck him hard across the face, the crack reverberating through the room.

Jean-
Philippe looked up at her—stunned for a moment—then rose to his full height and his eyes changed.

‘Jean!’ Luc cried out in
warning and he flew to Judy’s side.

Alec swept me behind him
and as one hand held me in place, I felt his entire body tense. I peeked out from behind his arm.

Judy
glared at Jean-Philippe, fists clenched by her side. She was in a fury. ‘You bastard! How could you do such a thing? Only a beast treats a woman like that! She’s so much smaller and weaker than you! Bastard! I want to see you punished for this!’

Luc managed to drag her away, but she shook off his hands and came over to me; her face
, white with fury, softened on seeing me. I probably wore a stunned expression of my own. She tucked my hair behind my ears and closely examined my mouth, then hugged me to her. Alec dropped his arm but not his guard. His face was fixed on Jean-Philippe and a low, deep growl escaped his lips.

No one
else said a word, until Jean-Philippe spoke. ‘Bear witness Lord Lucien Lebrettan. As an Elder of our kind, I challenge Alexander Munro for the right to claim
Ingenii
Laura.’

Judy
and I turned our heads at the same time, and looked at him open mouthed. ‘No! No way! You will not be Princeps over me. I refuse!’

Alec stood in front of us, arms folded over his chest. ‘You had your chance at
the Ritual.’ He and Jean-Philippe glared at one another. Any moment and the fangs would appear.

‘It’
s against our law for a man to claim his half-sister as Guardian,’ Luc stated.

He’s my half-brother
?

He moved toward Jean-Philippe till they stood only a step apart. ‘You are my son, Jean,’ he said. ‘I would have told you sooner, but I wasn’t sure. Forgive me.’

The shock on Jean-Philippe’s face was as great as my own must have been, and he shook his head in disbelief. ‘Father?
You’re
my father? No, no… that’s not possible! My mother… on her deathbed… she said… my father was the Duke of Atholl.’

I had the same trouble
believing it, but I knew Luc wasn’t lying. There was no disguising the anguish on his face. My stomach clenched as images of Jean-Philippe, both past and present—touching, holding, and kissing me—raced unbidden through my mind. I felt like retching.

Jean-Philippe’s face changed from shock to anger. ‘How long have you known?’ he snarled.

‘The last few minutes.’ Luc pointed to the paper in Alec’s hand. ‘DNA result. Just faxed through. I took a lock of your hair and sent it to Alec, together with a cheek swab from me. The test came back positive. There’s no doubt, Jean—I’m your father.’

Jean-Philippe
gazed at Luc, for what seemed like an age, while I stared at him. He was my brother, yet there was no physical resemblance between us. I was the image of my father, so he must take after his mother—whoever she was.

Without warning, he doubled-over as
if in pain and an anguished cry rent the air. It was the sound of a soul in torment. Strangely, I had to resist the urge to go to him; offer comfort as one being to another, so agonising was the deep sob torn from him.

Luc looked
on helplessly as the rest of us stood there in stunned silence.

Jean-Philippe raised his head and his blood-rimmed gaze swept the room. A deep hatred burned in the pale lavender depths of his eyes.
‘Then why did she tell me it was the Scotsman, the Duke of Atholl, instead of you? Why?’

‘Sit down
, Jean,’ Luc said. The tone of his voice brooked no argument.

Jean-Philippe complied, his an
gry gaze fixed on Luc’s face.

Luc strode over and poured out five glasses of the brandy from the bottle that sat on his desk. He gulped one him
self before he poured another and handed a full glass to each of us. ‘Drink it,’ he commanded Jean-Philippe.

Judy and I downed ours as well. Alec held his and watched his former friend.

‘To answer your question, your mother wasn’t sure herself.’ Luc paused. ‘She was a lovely, but sad and lonely woman. Her husband treated her with contempt, womanising and gambling away his fortune. I was visiting with her father, the Duke d’Orleans. He knew what I was—as did she. We liked each other. I needed to feed and she needed… comfort. It was a mutual agreement. I left the next day when the Duke of Atholl’s carriage arrived. Several of the French nobility were with him, seeking refuge from the Revolution at her father’s estate.’

‘It seems my mother had a lot of comforting that week,’ Jean-Philippe said, his voice acid.

Luc ignored the disparaging remark, poured himself another shot of brandy and continued. ‘We didn’t see each other again after that night. Later I learned she had a child—exactly nine months after we were together. I knew the Scottish duke had also become her lover during that time. Whether she was with anyone else I couldn’t say. I didn’t get close enough to catch a scent. So you see, I was never sure you were mine.’

‘W
hy didn’t you check? You could have come back to see her to make sure!’

‘I did, Jean.
I did! Risked my life to slip into your room when you were a child, even though I was being hunted—as our kind were during that time. I had to keep my distance to protect you and Adelaide.’

‘Is that why she told me the Duke was my father?’

‘Try to understand your mother’s position. She was separated from her husband, took a lover—or two—and had an illegitimate child. As if that wasn’t bad enough for her reputation, do you think she would reveal that one of those lovers was a vampire, a creature of the night, a blood-sucking fiend the local villagers would have come after with pitchforks and wooden stakes?’

He had a point. Jean-Philippe bowed his head and twirled the empty brandy glass in his hands.

‘In spite of that,’ Luc continued, ‘I came back when you were fourteen to see whether you’d change at puberty, as I had. I watched and waited for many years, but you didn’t change, Jean! YOU. DIDN’T. CHANGE!’

I felt like an intruder in a private conversation, yet fascinated al
l the same. Judy, Alec and I may as well have been invisible.

‘Next time I sa
w you…’ Luc shrugged helplessly. ‘You’d become one of us.’

‘Lucinda changed me. Found me wounde
d and dying on the battlefield.’ His words tumbled out in a hoarse whisper.

Luc’s eyes closed and he gave a barely detectable nod. ‘I know her.’

‘My mother lied to me,’ he murmured.

‘To protect you!’

Jean-Philippe’s head snapped up, he glared at Luc and then slowly turned his head in my direction. ‘My half-sister! And I wanted to…’

So
he
was
going to do it. He’d been desperate enough to try to take me by force and there was no way I could have stopped him. The thought sickened me. If Alec and Luc hadn’t arrived when they did… I gasped and buried my head in my hands.

Judy hugged me close and said, ‘It didn’t happen dear. It didn’t happen.’

‘It nearly did! I’ll never get it out of my head,’ I said.

‘Judy’
s right, darling. Remember, we came on time and it didn’t happen. Keep telling yourself that.’

Judy
let go as I twisted out of her embrace and into Alec’s.

Jean-
Philippe hadn’t moved and I was aware of his gaze. Was he trying to see me with new eyes—as his sister? Could we put this horrible incident behind us?

I dared to glance at him and what I saw frightened me. There was no hint of remorse in his eyes. Instead, they narrowed into pale, lavender slits on
seeing me in Alec’s arms. I realised then he would never regard me as his sister. Alec was right. What Jean-Philippe felt for me was not love, but obsession—an unnatural and frightening desire to possess something forbidden.

He turned to Luc
and snarled. ‘This is your fault! If you had only warned me… told me sooner!’

‘I can only ask for your forgiveness.’

The room was deathly quiet as Jean-Philippe shook his head. ‘Whatever friendship I felt for you is over. Fini! A partir d'aujourd'hui, nous sommes adversaires, mon pere!’

I sucked in a shocked breath. Even with my limited high-schoo
l French I knew what that meant—he and my father were now enemies.

Jean-Philippe’s head swivelled to
ward Alec and myself again. ‘I withdraw my challenge, but my dear
half-sister,’
he sneered, ‘this isn’t over between us!’

Dreadful certainty filled his voice and I felt the blood drain from my cheeks as an icy coldness settled in the pit of my stomach. I turned my face into the sheltering warmth of Alec’s chest. As his arms t
ightened protectively around me, I heard the sound of glass shattering in the fireplace, receding footsteps, then the opening and slamming of a door. After that there was silence, except for my rapid breathing.

Alec
handed the paper he’d been holding back to Luc as he walked me over to the settee. Luc placed another glass of brandy in my hand. ‘Drink,
ma petite
. All of it.’

It was Luc
’s cure all. He looked stricken, as if he blamed himself for everything. Alec sat next to me and kept his arm around my shoulders. Judy sat on my other side and took one of my hands in both of hers.

‘He won’
t be allowed back in this house,’ she said.

‘What’s going to happen to him?’ My initial anger and shock had begun to pass with the understanding
Jean-Philippe would have to live with the knowledge of what he did to me. Could he endure knowing his desire would not, and could never, be satisfied? Those long held, cherished memories of my youth and the young man who had once been part of it, were now destroyed. What pity I may have felt for him, had been dashed by his brutal treatment of me. I could only think of him with loathing.