Sunrise in a Garden of Love & Evil (26 page)

"Time to fess up," Zelda said a couple of minutes later, after Joanna had arranged most of the earrings in pairs. "Who took the dirty pics?"

"I'm not telling you," Joanna said. She pushed aside a pile of unmatched earrings. "I'll wait for Ophelia. She won't laugh at me."

"Why would I laugh?" Zelda said. "There's nothing funny about some disgusting dude taking pictures of you." She cocked her head to one side. "Was it some
cute
guy? You'd better be careful, girl, or you'll end up pregnant. Is that who was trying to get you to have sex?"

"Nobody's trying to get me to have sex." Joanna set aside a pile of displaced backings.

"Don't be naive. If he took dirty pictures of you, the next thing he'll want is sex." Zelda scooped the mismatches to her side of the table. "Was it Gabe Tate? You've got the hots for him, along with every other idiot at school."

Joanna flushed, her eyes wide and shocked. "No! I wouldn't!"

"Good. He's scum. He got kicked out of the Chamber for bringing in underage girls." Zelda fingered an earring with a red glass flower, wondering where its mate and the necklace that matched them had gone. "Was it some dork? Is that why you think I'll laugh?" She put the earring on. The only other red earring was a dangly one with a garnet. She set it aside in favor of blue ceramic beads.

"Your earrings don't match," Joanna said. She cringed at Zelda's blighting look.

Another pang of compunction assailed Zelda. "Don't be a slave to convention," she said almost kindly. "Who took the pictures?"

"I can't tell you," Joanna said. "I really can't."

"Chicken," Zelda said, and Psyche hissed. "See? Even the cat thinks you should tell me. I know! Was it a girl?"

"No! I'm not a dyke! Stop asking me!"

Zelda huffed. She pressed her hands to her jaw and said through her teeth, "Listen. You don't need to be scared anymore. You have
me
on your side. I'll go with you to confront whoever took the pics. I'll go with you to confess to your mother. I'll say hi to you in the hall at school. Whatever it takes."

"You'll say hi to me in the hall?"

Zelda's head began to hammer. "Grow up, Joanna. I'm not the queen or anything. Sure I'll say hi, but what does it matter?"

"Do you swear not to tell anyone else? Except Ophelia, because I'm going to tell her anyway."

With difficulty Zelda refrained from rolling her eyes. "I swear."

"And you won't laugh?"

"I don't know whether I'll laugh! What does that matter, either? Have some self-respect!" She clutched at her throbbing jaw. "Just tell me who took the pictures."

Psyche hissed again.

"All right," Joanna said. She squeezed her eyes tight shut. "I did."

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-THREE

Gideon woke shortly before dawn. He yawned and reluctantly withdrew his arm from Ophelia's warm curves. If she was always such a tumultuous sleeper, he foresaw a sleep-deprived future. He yawned again, showered, and headed downstairs to start the coffee.

Two minutes later he heard Gretchen first, a low, uneasy whimper from the upstairs hall, followed by that long, eerie keening that had freaked both man and dog in the car only a few days earlier. Gideon tore up the stairs three at a time, losing the towel around his waist, shoving the whining Gretchen to the side as he leaped through the bedroom door.

"Oh God, no, I didn't, no please, no please!" Fangs flashing, claws flailing, Ophelia flung herself back and forth across the sheets.

Gideon launched himself at the bed and wrapped an arm hard around her from behind. "Ophelia, sweetheart, I'm here. Ophelia, it's me. It's okay."

"I didn't mean to, you bastard!" she wailed. Desperation shattered into sobs as her eyes sprang open. "Oh. It's you. Damn." She slumped against him, drawing in harsh, shuddering breaths. "Damn," she moaned softly.

" 'Damn, it's you?' That's all the thanks I get for rescuing you from your bad dream?" He laid his cheek on her hair. She smelled of sweat and sex, of grief and anger and fear.

Ophelia struggled to sit up. "It's a night terror, not a dream, and you didn't rescue me, you idiot, you just endangered yourself. That was why--or one reason, anyway--why I...Oh, Gideon, how can I marry you?" Her voice shook. "If I hadn't woken up, I could have killed you!"

"Wait a minute. You were afraid you would attack me in your sleep?"

"I
told
you I wasn't safe." She pushed away from him and stood up. "I have to get away from here. I have to go home."

"Have you attacked anyone else when you were coming out of that lousy dream?"

Ophelia scowled. "Night terror. And no, I haven't, because I haven't slept with anybody since...since forever."

"You wouldn't have killed me." Gideon stood as well. "Thanks to me, you slept through most of the night."

"Your ridiculous fusion theory doesn't deserve
that
much credit." Ophelia went into the bathroom and slammed the door.

Gideon opened it again. "It's not a theory anymore, but a proven method. It's foreplay to earth-shattering sex, as we demonstrated last night."

Ophelia turned on the water and stepped under it without waiting for it to warm up.

"So mind-blowing you need a cold shower just thinking about it. Maybe I should get in there with you." He did. "Whoops, it's already warming up. Whatever shall we do?"

"I'll work it off." Ophelia said, sounding a little less unfriendly. "Maybe you should do the same."

"Ah, so you admit the sex was earth-shattering?" He searched her face for the hint of a response. "Mind-blowing, at the very least?" When the corner of her mouth twitched, he leaned in to kiss it. "A hell of a lot of fun?"

"It was phenomenal," Ophelia said. "Once I got my fangs into you." Her fangs slid down and she pushed them promptly back into place. "But then," she added with studied obnoxiousness, "it's always great once I bite."

"Oh, but this was better." Gideon slid his arms around her from behind and nipped at her neck. "You bit
me
."

She leaned back into him and closed her eyes. For a brief, blissful moment he savored the response of her breasts under his hands. He ran his lips up the line of her jaw to her ear. Then she peeled him away. "It doesn't mean I can marry you." She took the washcloth and wrung it out.

"Yes, it does." He handed her the soap. "Apart from the fact that you accepted my proposal last night--"

"I wasn't thinking straight," Ophelia said. "I must have been insane."

"Apart from that," Gideon went on, "the sex, earth-shattering though it was, only put you under for the first hour or so. I'm what kept you asleep the rest of the night."

Ophelia lathered up the washcloth, wariness crawling across her features. "What are you talking about?"

Gideon leaned against the tiles. "You were on the verge of that bad dream all night. Every time you started tossing and moaning, I pulled you close and told you everything was all right, and you calmed down again. The dream didn't get hold of you until I left the bed."

"Night terror," Ophelia said, a hint of desperation in the way she scrubbed herself.

"Night
mare
," Gideon insisted. "You know it and I know it. If you don't want to tell me about it, fine, but don't lie to me."

Ophelia clamped her mouth shut, shackles of tension surrounding her, keeping him at bay.

Gideon strove for tenderness. "You may not trust me awake, but asleep you do. You feel safe with me when you're asleep. Doesn't that say something?"

Two tears rolled down Ophelia's cheeks. "Give me some space, damn you," she whispered. "This is my problem, not yours."

Gideon's heart twisted. He folded his arms, because it was all he could do to not grab her and envelop her and keep her safe. "Anything that affects you, affects me, too."

"If you don't share a bed with me, this one won't affect you." She raised her face to the shower and washed away the tears. Wearily, she said, "I know you mean well, but this time
you
need to trust
me
. This is something I have to deal with myself." She stepped out of the shower.

"Okay," he said heroically. "Your call."
At least until Donnie Donaldson is behind bars.
"Your shorts and underwear from yesterday are hanging in the laundry room. You want to borrow another shirt?"

"
You
took the pictures?"

"Yes." Joanna's voice was stony. Her eyelashes flickered, but she didn't open her eyes. "Laugh already. Get it over with."

"That's actually quite cool. Crazy, but cool all the same. What, you set up a camera on a tripod? Timer and all?"

Joanna opened her eyes a crack. "Yes."

"You have a lot more guts than I gave you credit for," Zelda said. "Were you going to put them on the Internet?"

Joanna's eyes popped open wide.

"Just kidding," Zelda said.

Joanna shuddered. "If anybody sees those pictures, I will seriously die. It's so unfair! All I wanted was to develop them and look at them. See whether I look sexy or just stupid. They weren't supposed to go to the photo shop! They were black and white, and my dad used to do photography, so he has a darkroom and chemicals. I had it all planned."

"How'd they turn out?"

"I don't know," Joanna groaned. "My dad wouldn't let me see them."

"Your
father
saw the pics? Death by embarrassment, with no mitigating factor. Are you going to try it again?" She chuckled. "Lighten up, will you? Just kidding."

Psyche backed away from her food bowl, hissing, her fur standing on end.

"What's wrong with her?" Joanna said.

Zelda raised a hand. "Shh." She listened hard. Muffled sounds came from under the house. "There's a man out there."

"I don't hear anything." Joanna eased off her chair to look out the small kitchen window. "I don't see anybody. How do you know it's a man?"

Duh. "Look at Psyche."

"Maybe it's a male
dog
," Joanna said.

"He's not breathing like a dog," Zelda said. Whoa. Vampire hearing was definitely cool.

"You can't hear somebody breathing outside," Joanna scowled. "Stop messing with me."

"Hush!" Zelda listened to soft kissy noises, awkward footsteps, and a grunt. Definitely male. "Stay here."

Joanna whined, and Zelda flapped her hand irritably. More footsteps and a scraping noise came from under the floor at the far end of the trailer. Zelda sneaked down the narrow hallway.

Bang!
As she reached the bedroom, a blow shook the floor. She stifled a curse, but Joanna, the fool, shrieked as another bang sounded directly below Zelda. Shit. She listened hard. The breathing under the trailer had quickened with alarm.

After a few seconds Donnie Donaldson's voice came clearly. "Here, kitty, kitty. Come on, Psyche girl. Got some food for you." Zelda heard him stagger out from under the trailer. He stomped up the steps to the front door and knocked. "Ophelia, you home?"

Zelda returned to the kitchen as Joanna let Donnie in. "She's not here," Joanna said. Psyche skittered across the floor toward Zelda.

"That's what I thought," Donnie said. "She didn't come back last night, no truck in the drive this morning, so I figured I'd feed the kitty. But I see you already took care of that." He put a bowl of bacon scraps on the floor and wiped his gloved hands on his overalls. "She'll eat this sooner or later. What are you two doing here?"

Zelda reached for the cat, but Psyche scurried past her down the hall. "Waiting for Ophelia. What were you doing under the house?"

"Trying to feed Psyche, like I said. She holes up under there."

"Then what was the banging noise?" Joanna asked. "It sounded like a gun!"

"Hammer." Donnie indicated his tool belt. "Nail sticking out of one of the supports for the back deck, so I knocked it back in."

"It didn't sound like it was under the back deck," Zelda said. "It sounded like it was under the other end of the house."

Donnie gave her a patronizing look. "Hearing's not that accurate, Zelda girl."

Mine is.
A spasm of pain slashed through Zelda's jaw. "God, this hurts. Toothache," she explained for Donnie's benefit. "Maybe Ophelia has something that'll help."

"I have painkillers," Donnie said. "How about you two ladies come to my place and give me some advice."

"About what?" Joanna asked. Zelda hurried down the hall, clutching her jaw.

"A little present I'm making for Violet. She went out with me last night, you know," Donnie added complacently. "Well, of course Zelda knows. She saw us leave for the club."

I also heard her at two a.m. with Reuben.
"What are you making?" Zelda called from the bathroom. She opened the cupboard, found nothing, and tried the bedroom.

"You'll see," Donnie said playfully. What a dork.

Zelda opened the dresser drawers and saw stuff she wasn't supposed to see--not that Ophelia would really care--but no meds except ones she'd already tried.

"Does your mom know you're here?" Donnie said softly to Joanna, but of course Zelda could hear it just fine. "I didn't think so," he said. "I bet she doesn't approve of Zelda either. Well, if you two come on over to my place real quick, before your mom wakes up and notices you're gone, we'll make it our little secret. Unless you want me to..." His voice drifted to a silent question mark, and Joanna whimpered. "That's a good girl," Donnie said. He raised his voice. "Come on now, Zelda. I got some real good painkillers from the dentist."

Secrets,
thought Zelda.
That sounds icky.
And Donnie sounded more than icky, he sounded almost dangerous. And then she remembered something. She kicked the area rug aside, and there was the secret compartment Ophelia had shown her ages ago.

"Just a minute, I found some Midol!" she called. She got down on her knees and pulled the compartment open. Inside lay a pile of photographs held together by a rubber band. No time to look at them, but the top one said it all: naked, silly Joanna, one arm over her breasts and the other spread across her pubic hair, a nervous grin on her face. She shut the compartment and pulled back the rug back to cover the little door.

Horrifying conjecture spun through her head as she popped the Midol bottle open and spilled out a couple of pills. What if Joanna had lied to her? What if Donnie had taken those pics? That would be one hell of a secret. Ick.
Ick!
Why were the pictures in Ophelia's secret compartment? She tried to think, while Psyche stared reproachfully from under the bed.

Donnie's footsteps came down the hall. Zelda grabbed a purple vibrator from the top drawer and set it on the area rug, shut the dresser drawer, and hurried into the hall. "I need some water to swallow these," she said, pushing past Donnie, who promptly turned and followed her way too closely.

Joanna looked imploringly at her as she came into the kitchen. What the hell was going on? Zelda took a glass from the cupboard, filled it with water, and swallowed one of the pills. She left the pill bottle on the table beside the glass and grinned brightly at Donnie. "Are you going to give us breakfast?"

He blinked and did the tiniest double take. "Sure."

Oh, crap,
thought Zelda.
Now, that's even ickier.
But it distracted him enough that when he went to open the door, she was able to scoop the little pile of mismatched earrings off the table and into her pocket.