Part 16 (1/2)
I still can't believe that fetid excuse for a vampire made it back here, but Rafe has to be right. It had to be a tribunal ruling.
”And I'm the fool who trusted them,” I say.
Rafe fixes his eyes on mine, pulling me out of the horrible images plaguing my mind.
”Now I know why Drew's wife looked so familiar when you shared his memory with me. That dead woman is the key to this whole mess. I know it.”
Chapter Seventeen.
I knew the woman looked familiar when I saw her in Drew's mind, but I couldn't quite place her face. The first time I saw her she was in sad shape. I blocked the whole experience out because I couldn't stand the images in my mind anymore. It's a difficult, and some may say a slightly unhealthy, way to liveabut hey, it's served me well over the years.
The woman, Angie, was the mate of a s.a.d.i.s.tic vampire. He'd kept her mind and will completely locked away deep inside her head, and did whatever he wanted with her. When I first greeted them more than eight years ago in the lobby, I had no idea what was going on. At the time, she pulled away from my handshake and I didn't push trying to read her. I figured I would greet her later and see more then.
On their first night at The V V Inn, her then-husband, Ivan, a vampire about a hundred years old, requested a donor to be sent to their suite. Debi, the employee who went up, was the first ever to use the panic-b.u.t.ton bracelets. Ivan attempted to force Debi into a mind-controlling stare. Debi had the wherewithal to trust her instincts and hit the b.u.t.ton right when he locked gazes with her. When I answered the alarm, he had her stripping down.
That in itself wouldn't have been a reason to worry, but the blank stare combined with the call for help prompted reaching out and touching her to see if anything was wrong. Once I uncovered what Ivan was doing, I pinned him in place with my will. In turn, my next touch of Angie revealed she was locked far deep inside her own mind. Ivan raped and tortured her for a full year with no one in their seethe the wiser. His control over her was so complete he spoke through her and guided her actions in all matters.
But she was aware. And he knew it. He fed off her fear, disgust and shame. Over the course of the year, he escalated what he made her do.
Their mate bond ensured that she could never leave him. What was meant to be a gift of trust, he had warped beyond any semblance of normalcy. Their minds were so interwoven through the mate bond ritual, that only a vampire would come out fine were the bond to be broken. When Ivan finally tired of her, he could find another victim to torment for years but ultimately Angie would perish.
So appalled by what I saw that I did what I often do-I acted on instinct and d.a.m.n the consequences.
I severed their mate bond, like a surgeon wielding a scalpel. A cut performed with precision and minimal effort. Something that, according to our ancients, cannot be done.
The ensuing mess and involvement of the tribunal was horrendous. I altered Ivan's mind and made him think Angie had died during my rescue of Debi. It was touch and go there for a while on what his punishment from the ancients would be. I was a.s.sured that the verdict for this abuse would be death. That will teach me to trust a bunch of old, pompous, undead a.s.sholes again.
I spent the next few days erasing Angie's mind. Blocking out the hardest time I'd had trying to save a mind in more than a hundred years helped to stave off my own nightmares of Ivan's acts. When Angie eventually left us, she was a new woman. I alone remembered her previous pain. It turned out exactly as I'd hoped.
”What are the chances this is not Ivan?” Rafe asks.
”I was wondering the same thing myself,” I answer slowly. ”I erased the location of the inn from his mind. Remember?”
”It was the smart thing to do. The only thing to do,” Rafe answers. ”It was a precaution in case they didn't kill him.” He pauses and considers a moment. ”Could you have been discovered in his mind-you know, tampering with his thoughts?”
”No, absolutely not,” I say with utter conviction.
”Hmm...”
Rafe apparently has his doubts, but that's okay. I know the extent of my skill, and I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince him right now. Jacka.s.s.
”I did not erase all his memories from that night, only the location of the inn. It was the easiest way to go unnoticed in my tampering.”
”Okay, then. Where does that leave us?” He ticks off on his fingers. ”The tribunal didn't kill him,” one finger goes up. ”He has somehow made it here,” second one follows. ”And his former wife's second husband is a guest with us.” The last annoying finger goes up, and I have to hold back the urge to want to reach out and break it off.
I hate it when the obvious is pointed out to me in a neat, little numbered format. I really don't see how it helps me solve the problem.
”Earth to Dria, are you thinking what I'm thinking?”
d.a.m.n him. Of course, with my snide rambling thoughts I'm not thinking, period.
Rafe rushes forward before I can think of a witty reply. ”I bet Ivan tracked Angie down after he served the sentence the tribunal gave him, or he escaped, and then went for Drew after he killed Angie.”
”Yes, yes, logically that makes sense. But you're forgetting an important step. How did he know where to find Angie?” I raise my eyebrow in a challenge. I know what he's thinking and I'm going to force him to say it, the rat b.a.s.t.a.r.d. ”He had to know about Angie and then track her to him.”
Rafe adds a little warily, seeing the heat in my gaze and the anger below the surface, ”Which only would have worked if he got through your mind wipe of the events...”
”No! That. Did. Not. Happen.”
I'm emphatic on this point, and I won't budge. I know it didn't go down that way, but he's going to think I'm paranoid when I tell him what I truly think. My heated voice causes the sleeping Sheba to stir, so we rise and move into the kitchen to give her some peace.
Once there, Rafe takes a seat at the table. ”What other alternative is there?” he asks, in a calm, reasonable tone one might use to address a maniac in a hostage situation.
p.r.i.c.k. I'll prove myself right, in time, if not right now. But this is one time I wish I were wrong.
”I think someone on the tribunal set me up.”
His look turns pensive, like he's debating the thought in his brain. He shakes his head and meets my angry stare.
”No, Dria, I just don't see it happening that way.” He sounds certain and his voice comes out low and calm. ”There are so many variables in that scenario. You make a huge a.s.sumption to think the ancients could be that corrupt.”
”Some of them have been in the past,” I say.
That gets Rafe's attention. I don't talk much about my twenty years as an enforcer for the tribunal. ”How long ago did you serve them?”
I cross my arms over my chest and look out the window into the snowy darkness. ”Serve is not the right word, really. But I did take direction from them to hunt down particularly bad cases.” The sparkle from the rope lights dances in the windowpane, and a sigh escapes me at the simple beauty. ”It was about four-hundred and fifty years ago, and my full powers had manifested about sixty years prior to that.”
”How many of them had you killed by the time you left?” My head whips back to face him. I've never discussed this before, and his question has caught me by surprise.
”How did you know?”
”You always get sad and distant when you talk of your past. I knew you must have left bodies behind.”
My eyes fill with moisture, but not a tear trickles down. ”I killed two of the worst ancients. After I drained them, I made them crawl into the full sun when their guards weren't around. Both looked like suicides, and I s.p.a.ced them about a decade apart.”
”You're very lucky.” He comes over, placing his arms around me in a hug. ”They never connected it to the 'Red Death' rumor from the devastation in your first seethe?”
”No, I made sure my first name, Ceara, died with them and made myself over in the fifty years after. We've gone over this before, Rafe. Why bring it all up again?” I pull away from his warmth and lean back against the counter.
”You've never talked much about your time as an enforcer and I think it has colored your opinion of the Tribunal of Ancients.”
I snort through my nose at that one. ”The tribunal is necessary, I get that. But they are not all suns.h.i.+ne and daisies. Believe me.”
”I do, but in a thousand years, they have done a lot of good too. Kept the worse b.a.s.t.a.r.ds from continuing on and have worked to hide your kind from detection.”
Glancing up at the clock on the wall, I realize I'm about to be saved from discussing any more of this unpleasant topic. I push away from my position next to the sink, grabbing the phone as I go. Punching in Jonathan's number, I wait for him to pick up while responding to Rafe. ”Yeah, well, looks like they didn't do too well with this b.a.s.t.a.r.d. They let him go.”