Bloodline (19 page)

“I'm in a hurry to get my siblings out of that place.”

He looked at me sharply. “You have family there?”

“So do you,” I told him. “We're all family. It's in the blood, and it's a bond every bit as strong as the one you have with your brother, Ethan, whether you like to admit it or not.”

“It's not the same.”

I pressed my lips together and said nothing as he backed the vehicle out of the barn and, once clear, drove over the bumpy ground to the road beyond. I half expected him to turn in the opposite direction from the one I wanted him to take, but he didn't. He continued on the same course we'd chosen the night before.

We drove in silence for quite some time, and then my head rose, my senses perked. “I think—yes, this is familiar. I came this way, I'm sure of it. I cut through
those woods, to stay out of sight, but I followed the road all the same. This very road, Ethan!”

He nodded. “I think we must be close, then,” he said.

“Yes, I think we—” I broke off there and looked at him. He was slowing down. But I'd felt his thoughts as he'd spoken. He didn't
think
we were close. He
knew
it. “How do you know we're close?” I asked him.

He didn't look at me, not even a quick glance, and I could feel the shields going up in his mind, blocking mine from entry. I couldn't read his thoughts, which made me both suspicious and…hurt.

“It's only a guess,” he said.

“No, it's not.”

He looked at me sharply. “I'm just going by how far I estimate you could have traveled in a single night and how far we've already come, and—”

“Then why are you guarding your thoughts from me?”

“I'm not.” And that was so obvious a lie, even a mortal would have detected it.

“You're lying to me, Ethan.” I blinked, stunned at this revelation. “You
know,
don't you? You know where The Farm is. You've known all along!”

“Lilith, I—”

“I
trusted
you,” I whispered. And the pain in my chest was so intense that I almost couldn't bear it. I wondered at the enormity of it but brushed the questions aside as I rushed on. “I've never trusted anyone before. Not ever. But I trusted
you.
”

He pulled the truck onto the shoulder, sending up a cloud of dust, and braked to a stop. Then he closed his eyes briefly. “You can still trust me, Lilith.”

“How?” I asked.

“Look, you're right, okay? I
have
known the location of The Farm this entire time. But I thought if I just had some time with you, I could—”

“Where?” I demanded.

He was silent, so I said it again. “Where is it, Ethan? You said I could trust you, so prove it. Tell me the truth, for once.”

“Ten miles, straight ahead.” The words seemed to be wrenched from his chest, as if he were speaking against his will. “Then there's a dirt track that veers off to the right, twisting into the woods. The compound is just beyond the end of the tree line.”

I nodded just once, then wrenched the door open, got out and began walking.

He caught up to me in seconds. “Lilith, I wasn't trying to deceive you. I just wanted more time to try to change your mind.”

“You lied to me.”

“I want you to stay alive, dammit.”

“By keeping me from doing what I have to do? What I'm willing to die to do?”

“I can't bear to see you die. How can you hate me for that?”

“You left me behind in that place. And all the others, as well. You didn't come back for us. You wrote me off to embrace your own freedom. Where was all this concern for my well-being then?”

“That was before. I was young and naive, and I felt powerless. But I never stopped thinking about you, Lilith. You know that's true. You saw the proof of it in that print I keep hanging above my mantel. I intended to return, to try to free you—you know that, as well. I only wanted to find my brother first, so I could—”

I whirled on him. “Your brother, your brother, your
brother.
I'm so sick of hearing about your damned brother!”

“He can help us, Lilith.” He gripped my shoulders, as if trying to force-feed me the words.

“Go find him, then. Be with him. He's all you've thought about from the beginning. Just go. I'll do this alone.” Pulling free of him, I turned and began walking again.

And that was when I felt the stabbing pain in my shoulder. I flinched, my hand flying to the spot as my eyes searched the night for its source. I felt a dart embedded in my arm and yanked it free, then hurled it away with all my might, even as I whirled and saw people crouching in the brush along the roadside. And then, just as I spotted them, they began to blur before my eyes.

“Lilith!” Ethan ran toward me, but even as I turned to look back at him another dart hit me, squarely in the hip this time. I felt myself weakening, falling.

“Run, Ethan,” I whispered. “Save yourself.”

He came toward me anyway, but I didn't see what happened next. My vision went dark as I hit the pavement.

* * *

Ethan was stunned by the attack. He'd been so focused on Lilith that he'd failed to detect anyone waiting in ambush. Darts flew from the brush along the roadsides, one grazing him even though he ducked.

Then, suddenly, he heard squealing tires, saw bright lights and blinked, confused, as the Bronco sped up beside him.

He fought to keep his footing, his eyes ahead, on
Lilith. But the door opened and someone yanked him into the truck.

“No,” he managed, though his tongue felt thick. “Have to save…Lilith.” He fought to stay conscious, peered through blurry eyes as the Bronco lurched into motion.

Lilith was lying on the pavement ahead, a hooded figure bending over her. He sensed it was female and mortal, but no more. She was blocking. An ordinary mortal, blocking her thoughts from a vampire. It had to be one of the keepers or some other agent of the DPI.

And then the Bronco looped around in a semicircle and began speeding in the opposite direction.

“No!” he shouted, finally turning his attention to the person driving his borrowed vehicle.

James. His brother shifted into a higher gear and stomped on the accelerator.

“James, no! We have to save her!”

As he spoke, he twisted around in his seat, looking back. He saw another vehicle skidding to a halt in the road, and Lilith being lifted and shoved into the backseat. Panicking, he reached for the wheel, tried to pull it from his brother's powerful hands, to turn the truck around himself.

But he was weak, and his brother easily pried his hands off the steering wheel. “We'll get her back. But not here,” James said. “We're outnumbered, out-armed. You try it here, they'll get you, too, little brother. They'll have both of us. And then who'll be left to save your Lilith?”

“But—”

“Ethan, trust me. This is the only way to save her. We get away, we find out where they're taking her and then we attack. They'll never expect it.”

Ethan's stomach lurched as they sped farther away from Lilith. He gagged and lowered his head to the seat. “We know where they're taking her,” he told his brother. “Back to The Farm.”

James patted his shoulder. “I don't know who that was, Ethan, but I don't think they were DPI.”

Ethan's head came up slowly. “What makes you say that?”

“They were women. Every last one of them.”

I
woke in a comfortable bed in a comfortable room that had bars on the windows and door. As I spotted them, I sat up fast, eyes wide, fists clenched, ready for a fight.

Beyond the barred doorway, a woman stood watching me. She was slender, tall like me, with auburn hair that curled wildly to shoulder length and green eyes that glittered as they took me in.

“Hello, Lilith.” Her lips smiled at me, but her eyes were wary and extremely wet. “I've been waiting for a very long time to say that.”

I frowned as I studied her, puzzled, because though I appeared to be her captive, the emanations I felt from her were peaceful, loving and kind. She was clearly on the verge of tears, something that made no sense whatsoever.

I glanced around the room, which didn't resemble any memory I had of The Farm. It was pale green, with dusky pink roses hand painted in the corners. The woodwork was cream colored, and there were lace curtains on the windows. The flowers on the bedspread that covered me matched those on the walls. And the furnishings were delicate and old-looking.

Where was I?

“Lilith,” the woman said softly.

I shot my gaze back to her, all my defenses going up. “Why have you taken me prisoner?” I asked her. “What is this place? What have you done with Ethan?” I frowned at her. “You're not with the DPI, are you? This isn't The Farm.”

“No, we're not the DPI, and this isn't The Farm. I'm sorry we had to act so…violently, Lilith, but you'd have been killed if we hadn't.”

I lifted my brows, recalling the ambush and the fact that there had been many, not one, who had attacked me. “So you and your friends ambushed, drugged and abducted me to save my life?” I asked skeptically. “And these bars? If you're trying to help me, why am I imprisoned?”

“Only to keep you from killing an innocent before you've had a chance to hear that we're on your side. We need to protect you—but also to protect our own.”

“How noble of you.”

She nodded. “Any mother would do the same for her only daughter.”

I was silent. Her words slithered around in my mind like snakes seeking a home. They had to be lies. They
must
be lies. I stared at her as I probed her mind, seeking the lie. But I didn't find one. She was completely open to me, and I felt no hint of deception or malice.

She looked like me, I thought in growing amazement. But no. It couldn't be true.

“I was told my mother died giving birth to me.”

“And I was told my daughter was stillborn, even though I heard you cry. I knew it was a lie. One of my
nurses did, too. She tried to help me and was murdered for her efforts. But it was because of her that I found these women—this order. And because of them that I finally found you.”

I blinked as I stared at her. “This…order…?”

“It hasn't yet been decided how much I'm allowed to tell you about us, Lilith. But they are good women, devoted to a just cause. They would never do harm to one of you.”

“One of me?” I rolled my eyes even as I averted them. “What on earth do you mean by that?”

“You're a vampire. So is your friend Ethan. You were kidnapped at birth because you were one of the Chosen, as so many other children and babies have been, only to be raised in captivity by the DPI and their keepers. We still don't know the entire purpose behind that. We only recently even learned where The Farm is located.”

“How?”

She lowered her head. “I can't tell you that. Not yet. But we do know, from an unquestionable source, that the DPI knew you and Ethan were on your way there, intending to rescue the others. They were waiting for you, Lilith. You'd have been killed before you ever got inside.”

I pushed back the covers, putting my feet on the floor, realizing only now that I had been re-dressed while I slept. I was wearing a long, pretty nightgown of soft white linen. For a moment my hands trailed over the fabric and my heart softened. I found myself wanting to believe this woman. And yet, how could I? I had trusted only once in my life, and Ethan had betrayed that trust by lying to me and—and maybe more.

“How could anyone know what Ethan and I intended to do?”

“I don't know the answer to that,” the woman said softly. “Did you or Ethan tell anyone?”

I knew I had told no one of our plan. And I could think of only one person Ethan might have told, though he'd promised me he wouldn't. And yet he had. He must have. And that made twice that he had broken my trust in him. He must have told his damned brother.

“What happened to Ethan?” I asked, not answering her question, and regretting instantly that the words emerged in a coarse whisper, betraying my emotions.

“He was taken.”

My head swung toward her as my breath caught in my throat. “The DPI?”

“I don't know. It was just one man. He got Ethan into your SUV and then drove away.”

I closed my eyes. If Ethan had told James where we were going, and James had told the DPI, then it was clear James was working for them. And by now they had undoubtedly taken Ethan back to The Farm. God, was he even still alive?

I got to my feet. “I have to find him. I have to get to him before it's too late, if it's not already.” Moving to the barred door, barefoot, I clutched the bars in my hands. “If you are truly my…mother—” I could scarcely say the word “—then you'll let me go to him.”

Her tears spilled over then, rolling slowly down her cheeks, and I found it hard to doubt that she had been telling me the truth. “Lilith, please,” she whispered. “You can't go back to The Farm. They'll kill you.”

“They have Ethan.”

“You can't be sure of that.”

“I'm as sure as I need to be,” I told her. “Please—I have to try.”

“Then let us help you.”

I blinked at her, shocked by the offer. “A handful of mortal women, against the DPI and their army of vampire killers? You wouldn't stand a chance.”

“A better chance than you'll have going alone.” She sighed when I didn't answer, then said, “You've been unconscious for hours, Lilith. It's too near dawn for you to do anything tonight. You might as well rest here today. You'll be safe.”

“It doesn't look as if I have a choice about that,” I said.

She frowned, and then, with a heavy sigh, reached up to what must have been a switch in the hallway. A moment later, the barred door slid into the wall. The bars on the windows rose, as well, disappearing into the wall above them.

“I won't hold you against your will, Lilith. I only wanted to keep you here long enough to tell you who I am and why we acted as we did.”

As she spoke, she stepped inside, hesitating after a few steps, then moving closer, until she stood right before me. With a hand that trembled, she reached up to me, and her fingertips touched my face, then slid back to my hair. Fresh new tears welled in her eyes as I stared into them, and something gripped my heart and squeezed.

“You're so very beautiful,” she whispered. “I knew you would be. I didn't get to see you. To hold you. To be a mother to you. But I knew—”

“We look alike,” I told her softly. “I always wondered if I resembled my parents. But the keepers got angry
when I asked about you, and then they claimed not to know anything anyway.”

“I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. I was young and alone, and I didn't know.”

I nodded. “And my father?”

“I barely knew him,” she told me. “He was a one-night stand, a date that went further than I'd intended. I never even knew his last name.”

“And…what is
your
name?” I asked her.

“Serena,” she told me. “Serena Monroe.” She lifted her chin, swallowed hard. “Lilith, what did they do to you at that place? Were you…were you mistreated?”

I averted my eyes and thought that if she truly were my mother, she was far better off not knowing the worst of it. The punishments, the torture, the drugging and mind-control techniques. “We had classes, lessons. They taught us about the nature of vampires, and about combat. Armed and hand-to-hand. They tried their best to squelch any hint of independence or rebelliousness in us. When we became vampires, they told us, we would work for them, serving our government for the good of all.”

“And do you believe that?”

I met the woman's—my mother's—eyes again. “I never believed it. That's why I had to leave. They couldn't defeat my will, so I knew they were going to have to…to kill me. I was running out of time.”

“I can't possibly imagine what you've been through. All these years…When I think of you as a newborn in their hands, as a little girl—” A sob escaped and seemed to choke her. She pressed a knuckle to her lips, sniffed hard, took a breath. “I'm glad they couldn't break you.”

“So am I.” I moved toward the door, almost experi
mentally, walking at a mortal's pace, and not entirely because I wanted to. I was still weak and shaky from the drug.

Serena stepped aside, and when I looked her way, she lowered her head and blinked away the new tears filling her eyes.

I reached the door, and another woman stepped into my path, blocking it.

“It's all right, Ginger,” Serena said softly. “I've told Lilith who I am and what's awaiting her at The Farm. I've done what I wanted to do. Besides, we don't hold captives here.”

Ginger looked from Serena to me, her eyes wide with what looked like disbelief and hurt—not her own, but hurt on behalf of her friend. Her mind—unblocked, perhaps untrained, or maybe just that honest—spoke volumes. She thought I must have no heart, that I must be the coldest being in the universe, to walk away from the mother who'd devoted her entire life to finding me. The mother whose heart was being broken all over again.

But as I neared the door, Ginger stepped aside, refusing to look at me.

I stopped, licked my lips and turned. “You really are my mother, aren't you?”

Lifting her head, Serena met my eyes, no longer even trying to hold back her tears. She nodded. “I am.”

Swallowing hard, I moved back toward her, an odd tight—and unfamiliar—feeling in my chest. “Perhaps you're right and it
is
too near dawn for me to accomplish anything tonight. And I do still feel weak from that drug, as well.”

“I'm so sorry, Lilith. It was the only way we could
think of to stop you from walking into the DPI's trap,” Serena—my mother—said.

“Yes, I'm beginning to see that.”

My mother pressed a hand to her forehead, moving toward the window. “We had every intention of saving Ethan, as well. That man who intervened—”

“I know you tried.” I walked closer to her, lifted a hand and let it come to rest on her shoulder. “This probably isn't the reunion you've been dreaming of all these years, is it?”

She looked over her shoulder at me, her smile a bit shaky, her eyes filled with more emotion than I'd ever seen before. “But it
is
a reunion. You're alive, and I've finally found you. Nothing else matters.”

I felt something stirring in my belly, but I didn't know what it was. “I don't really know how to…how to be a daughter. How to have a mother. I don't know what it is you want from me, but I sense your disappointment. If you tell me, perhaps—”

A sob escaped her, and then she wrapped her arms around me, held me close to her, and I could feel her body trembling. One of her hands moved in small circles on my back, with the other slipping gently into my hair, pulling my head down on her shoulder.

I was surprised and yet also soothed by the warmth that moved from her body into my naturally cool one. I was touched by the rush of feelings I felt coming from her, for she erected no barriers in her mind. This woman, I realized, loved me.

She
loved
me. She would die for me.

That was real, and it was true, and it was beyond my ability to comprehend. Here was a person I could trust
beyond all others. Beyond anyone. And I didn't even
know
her. But I couldn't deny the purity of her feelings for me. I could feel them. She didn't hide from me the way Ethan did.

I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed gently, letting my head relax more thoroughly on her shoulder. My eyes burned, and my chest still felt tight. It was powerful, this emotion that flowed between us, more powerful than anything I could have imagined. And quite suddenly I didn't want her to let go. The realization came out of the blue, washing over me with a softness and warmth and a feeling of utter relief that left me almost limp in its wake. It was as if I'd been waiting my entire life for this woman's loving embrace.

And I knew in that moment that I would never regret trusting her, that she would never deceive me the way Ethan had. This woman—my
mother,
I thought again—would suffer slow torture and death rather than betray me. She loved me in a way that no other being ever had, ever could or ever would.