Born in Twilight (16 page)

Rhiannon scowled at Tamara, but it was a playful scowl. “Just making sure she has the facts,” she said, then turned to me once more. “Secondly, who are you to say who is damned? Do you pretend to know the mind of the Almighty? How do you know it wasn't He who created us? Would a loving God damn one simply for being different?”

I blinked in shock. But Tamara picked up the conversation from there, and I ended up staring at her. “You're so sure we're evil, Angelica. But how do you know? Because that's the way horror films have painted us? Surely that isn't enough to go by.” She took my hand. “There are good and bad among us, just as there are among any race of people. So look at us, Angelica. Look at who we are. What is it about us that would make us evil? We don't hurt anyone. We don't kill—”

“Well, not unless someone really asks for it,” Rhiannon said. Then she offered me a wink.

“Why should we be damned just because we drink blood, and exist by night? Mortals eat meat, don't they?”

I tilted my head and studied them. Two, kind, beautiful women. Vampires. Telling me that they were not servants of Satan. But just people. Just people, like anyone else.

“I don't know what to say.” I shook my head slowly as I tried to look at them that way. As just people. “I hadn't thought of it this way. All I've thought of since the night I was changed, was finding a way to go back to what I was before.”

“You still are what you were before,” Rhiannon said. “Only better.”

“Angelica,” Tamara said, “we came here to help you get your baby back. But…but I'd like to do more than that. I'd like to be your friend…if you'll let me.”

I saw nothing but sincerity in Tamara's eyes. And then I glanced toward Rhiannon, to see if she felt the same.

Rhiannon shook her head. “This is beginning to resemble a scene from
Steel Magnolias,
” she said in a sarcastic tone. “Accept our offer of friendship, Angelica, before she starts weeping.”

But beyond the flippant words, I could see that she, too, wished to help me. Why, I did not know. I had done nothing but judge and condemn them both. Truly they were showing more godlike qualities than I had.

“I accept,” I said. “And I'm sorry for what I said before. That you were damned. You're right, I'm not God. It's wrong of me to sit in judgment.”

Tamara smiled and started forward, opening her arms to Rhiannon and to me.

Rhiannon held up a hand. “I do not do group hugs,” she said softly. “And I believe we've wasted enough time. There is a child out there in need of our help. And if any of those bastards has done a thing to harm her, then I doubt even God Himself can protect him from Jameson's wrath.” She lowered her head. “And if He does, He should probably worry about mine, next.”

“I think Amber Lily is safe…for now, at least.”

Both women turned to me, brows lifting in question.

“Your friend,” I said to Tamara. “The woman, Hilary Garner. We think she's taken the baby and gone into hiding, somewhere.”

Tamara sighed hard. “If she has, then you're right. The child couldn't be safer. Hilary is a good person.” Rhiannon narrowed her eyes. “She
is,
” Tamara insisted.

“We'll get her back, fledgling. Make no mistake about that,” Rhiannon said. “Now perhaps you ought to put on some shoes.” This with a sheepish glance at my bare feet.

It was Tamara who dived into the closet and emerged with a pair of dainty black flats. “These will look great with that dress.” She handed them to me. “And the dress is fabulous on you. Jamey's eyes will pop out.”

“Jamey,” I whispered, half-smiling at the cute nickname his friends had given him. How he must hate it. “He could not possibly care less what I look like.”

“You're mistaken about that, young one,” Rhiannon told me. But of course, she was wrong.

There was a tap on the door, and then it opened. Jameson stood there, and when his gaze met mine I sensed something that could almost have been concern in his eyes.

“Is everything all right in here?” he asked, pulling his gaze from mine and looking from Tamara to Rhiannon.

“Being born in this century, Jameson,” Rhiannon said, walking past him and pausing at his side, “you obviously know very little about honor and chivalry. I'd strongly suggest you learn it.” She stared hard into his eyes. “Soon.”

“And I'd strongly suggest, Rhiannon, goddess among women, that you learn a little something about minding your own business.”

She lifted a hand, and I held my breath, half-expecting her to strike him. Instead, she gently patted his cheek. “You're lucky I adore you,” she told him.

“Enough wasting time,” the cloaked man said, coming forward to slip a possessive arm around Rhiannon. When he did, she rubbed herself against his side almost like a cat. “Jameson has reason to believe Hilary Garner has run off somewhere with the child. We have to track her down immediately. She won't be able to hide from DPI for very long.”

“Yes, Angelica told us.” Tamara paced into the other room. “Hilary had relatives up north. She used to talk about visiting there. Some cabin in the mountains.”

“That's too vague,” I said. “How will we find it? And even if we do, what if that isn't where she's gone?”

“If you know about this cabin, Tamara,” the other man, Eric, said, “then chances are, DPI knows as well.”

“If they do, it will be in Hilary's file. Eric, if we could get to a computer…”

“We could tap into the DPI information banks, get everything they have on Hilary and go from there,” Eric said, nodding hard.

As they discussed their plan, speaking rapidly, I felt my heart sinking in my chest, so rapidly that it left me dizzy. Pressing my palm to my breast I sank against the wall, all my breath rushing out of my lungs.

“What is it, Angel?” Jameson—the only one of them who seemed to detest me—stood close to my side. “What is it?” he demanded, searching my face.

“I don't know. I just feel…we have to go to her. Now. We can't wait.”

He stared hard into my eyes. Not looking away, he said, “She feels…there's a connection to the baby. She senses things. We should start north, right now.” Finally, he broke eye contact, turning to Tamara. “Can you give me anything else to go on, anything at all?”

Closing her eyes, Tamara seemed to search her memory. “Hilary used to take the train north to someplace called Petersville. I think she'd rent a car and drive from there.”

“Then that's where we'll go,” Jameson said. He took my arm and pulled me upright again, none too gently.

“Perhaps Tamara and I should start north with Angelica,” Rhiannon said, and to my surprise, I detected a note of concern for me in her voice. “You men can work on getting more information and then join us there.”

“Not on your life,” Jameson snapped.

Tamara and Rhiannon exchanged amused glances.

“Forget what you're thinking. I don't suppose my dark angel told you her plans, did she?” He scowled at me. “No, I didn't think so. She wants to run from me, monster that I am, at the first opportunity. Use this psychic link to find Amber Lily and then take her away where I'll never have the chance to put my godforsaken, cursed hands on her. Isn't that right, Angelica?”

“If you still believe that, then you truly are a monster,” I whispered at the hate I saw in his eyes. “I'm only just now beginning to realize that it has nothing to do with the fact that you're a vampire. You must have been just as monstrous as a mortal man.” I tugged my arm free of his hateful grip and stalked back into the bedroom for the shoes I'd left lying on the bed.

“She doesn't set foot out of my sight,” I heard him saying, his tone commanding and harsh. “Not for a minute. I don't trust her as far as I can throw her.”

“Jameson, for heaven's sakes,” Roland said.

“Lad, you have a great deal to learn,” Eric put in with a sigh. “I thought we'd taught you better. Will you listen to yourself?”

“Oh, let him be,” Rhiannon interrupted him. “Can't you see, Eric, darling? He thinks he's fooling someone—besides himself, I mean.”

“Damn it, Rhiannon—”

“Oh, do shut up,” Rhiannon replied. “Take your fledgling and go north, Jameson. We'll find out what we can here, and then we'll join you.” And then she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. Why she bothered, I did not know. She must have known I could still hear her very clearly. Perhaps it was only for effect. “And take good care of her, Jameson. Take very good care of her. If harm comes to her, you'll have to answer to me for it.”

“What's this?” he said, astonished. “You her best friend all of a sudden?”

“I…like her,” Rhiannon replied. And she said nothing more. I heard her soft steps coming closer. She came into the bedroom, where I was sitting on the bed's edge contemplating the pretty shoes Tamara had found in the closet. “Don't take any nonsense from him, Angelica. Never forget, you're of the superior gender.”

“It's difficult to feel superior, when I've somehow become his prisoner.” I knew Jameson could hear me if he cared to listen. But I didn't care.

“Prisoner, posh!” Rhiannon said. “Have you tried to escape him yet?”

I shook my head. “No, of course not.”

“I doubt he could keep you here against your will, Angelica. In our kind strength comes largely with age. And he's no older than you. Younger, in fact, if only by a few days.”

I tilted my head, my eyes widening in wonder. “You mean…I'm as strong as he is?”

“Quite possibly so, darling. Keep that in mind when he gets bossy. And remember, if you're not trying to escape, you're here of your own free will. No matter what he tells you.”

My chin rose a bit. “Thank you, Rhiannon.”

She smiled slightly, then turned and strode from the room. As she passed Jameson, she whispered, “Prisoner, indeed. Did we teach you nothing at all?” But she never slowed her pace. She marched right out the door, and the other three followed seconds later, leaving me alone, once again, with the man I wished I could detest.

He stared at me for a long moment, in silence.

“They…are not at all what I expected,” I said, unsure what it was he was waiting for.

“No,” he said. “Because you were expecting a band of monsters like something out of an old horror film.”

I shook my head. “Maybe. I'm not really sure what I was expecting.”

He nodded. “They are the finest beings I've ever known, human or otherwise,” he said, turning to stare at the door they'd just exited. “They've saved my life more than once, risked their own safety for me often, been like family to me.”

“And made you one of them when I had left you for dead,” I whispered.

“Yes.”

“And yet they don't hate me for that.”

He shrugged, and reached out as if to take my arm. But still stinging from his earlier biting remarks, I shrugged away from his touch.

“I forgot,” he said, his eyes boring holes into mine. “My touch repulses you…even when you're the one to ask for it. I'll try to remember that from now on, Angelica.”

“That isn't fair,” I said. “You don't understand—”

“I understand, my dear, that I won't sample your charms again even if you beg me to. Or…should I say, when you beg?”

“I would never—”

“Save it,” he said. “Only time will tell, Angel. I'm just letting you know in advance that I won't stain your snow-white flesh by putting my cursed hands on you again. So don't hold your breath waiting.”

My anger flared as it seldom had before. I hadn't been repulsed by him, as he seemed to think. But I was now. “Has it even occurred to you, Vampire, that I saved your worthless life by doing what I did?”

“And you have my undying gratitude,” he said, his eyes flashing with sarcasm. “Next time I find you dying for lack of blood, honey, I'll return the favor. Give you a little of mine and screw you senseless while I'm at it. You'd like that, wouldn't you?”

I lashed out with my hand, hitting him hard across the face. So hard his head snapped around sideways, and an angry red welt appeared on his cheek.

He snagged my hand in a cruel grip, and pulled me tight to his body. His hard chest pressed to my breasts, and his warm, angry breaths fanned my face as his eyes blazed down at me. And though I hated him at that moment with everything in me, I wanted him, too. And he knew it. Damn him to hell, he knew it.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “You'd like that.” And then he released me abruptly, turned away and left me there alone. He headed out through the exit that led to the car in its hiding place of brush and briars. And I watched his powerful strides, his magnificent grace, his tightly leashed control.

The bastard knew it, he knew that I wanted him. And I would have been humiliated by his obvious knowledge of my wanton desire for him.