Vampire’s Dilemma. Penny Ash
She’d probably have strong hysterics if she knew what I am.
DeLong looked around with distaste. “Don’t you ever wash this boat, Jefferson? Smells like week old dead fish.”
“Manners, Fido. Lucy, this is James DeLong.” Shel caught Lucy’s hand and tugged her from behind him.
“My apologies.” DeLong nodded to Lucy.
“James is a private investigator, sugar.”
“You said he was a Werewolf.”
“He is. You could say he has a nose for the business.” Shel grinned. He reached over and brushed his fingers over Lucy’s back. Her stomach fluttered and clenched.
“You’re hilarious, leech. Why did you call me out here?”
“I want to know what’s going on. And since you owe me a few favors I thought I’d call one in and let you explain.”
“You need to come in off the water more often.” DeLong scowled at Shel.
“I think I’ll go below and…dust or, um, something,” Lucy said in an over loud voice. Something was odd about their exchange, Lucy could feel it. She didn’t think she wanted to hear anymore. If she listened things might change her beyond what she could bear. Lucy all but ran for the steps leading down into the salon.
Ahead Lucy saw the door to the tiny bathroom and hurried in, locking the door behind her. She looked at herself in the mirror over the sink, at the accusation in her eyes and the tears welled up, spilling down her cheeks. Covering her face with her hands, Lucy sat down on the closed toilet and sobbed. How could she have these feelings for a man she barely knew? It had to be a reaction to everything that’s happening Lucy rationalized. But that didn’t stop the tears.
* * * *
When Lucy disappeared, DeLong shot him a glare. “Real cute outing me like that. She might have believed you.”
“I’m sure she did. She came to me with a story about Werewolves chasing her. Now what the hell is going on?”
DeLong looked embarrassed. “Sergei has managed to find where Zeke hid the Book of Power. You know what would happen if he got the book. Or someone like Madeline got hold of it.” They both shivered.
“But why chase Lucy?”
“We weren’t chasing her.”
“You had her picture.”
“We have a lot of pictures. Some pretty interesting ones of you and the Helsing’s crazy assed wife, too. We’ve been watching his place since we found out he had the key to the book. Or he did until scary Ava sold it at one of her garage sales.”
“If the Pack wasn’t chasing Lucy, then who shot up my place and trashed her hotel room?” It came to Shel even as he asked.
“Madeline,” they both said.
“Wonderful.” Shel rubbed his eyes tiredly. “I don’t suppose you want to tell me where Zeke hid the damn thing?”
“Don’t see that it matters, there aren’t any descendants of Isabel’s still living to actually use the thing. Zeke put it in a locker at the Miami bus station.”
“You’re kidding me. The Miami bus station? That’s crazy.”
“What can I say? Zeke was more than a little senile.”
They spoke for a few more minutes and DeLong left. Shel knew he’d report their conversation to the Pack leaders. He wasn’t worried. They knew he had no love for Madeline and very little use for the current Helsing. As far as they knew, Lucy was just a girl who stopped at a garage sale and had nothing.
Shel stood and stared after DeLong for several seconds, then headed after Lucy. He had meant to tell Lucy she looked pretty in her simple white dress.
She wasn’t in the salon and the cabins were empty. Shel stopped at the door of the head, putting his ear to the door, listening. He could smell her tears. He couldn’t hear anything but that could just mean she cried quiet. “Are we all right in there? Haven’t fallen in or anything have we?” Shel called to her. No answer.
With a sigh, Shel pulled his penknife out of his pocket. He flicked it open. Shel inserted the narrow blade into the lock, giving it a twist. The lock popped open. He closed the knife and slid the door back. When Lucy looked up at him, her eyes were puffy and red.
Shel opened his mouth to try to reassure Lucy but the shine of gold drew his eyes down to her chest. His words died unsaid. Unable to breathe, Shel stared at the gold locket lying against her breasts, nestled at the top of Lucy’s cleavage.
For a long painful moment, he was back where it all began, in Isabel’s dressing room. He fastened the necklace and bent to kiss the nape of Isabel’s neck. He forced the memory back into the darkness of his past. “Where did you get that?”
Lucy looked down and brushed her fingers over the ornate gold locket. “This? It’s been in my family for years. It belonged to my Great-grandmother Isabel. I’m named for her. Isabel is my middle name. Mama gave it to me just before she died when I was seventeen.”
Sheldon squeezed his eyes shut, placing a hand over his mouth. The pain in his heart threatened to overwhelm him. DeLong had been wrong, there was a descendant and he’d bet Lucy would be able to open the book with no trouble at all. Isabel’s laugh came to him as if she stood in the room with them.
“I used to make up stories about the pictures inside when I was a little girl. It has an inscription. I think it’s French. I always meant to have it translated.”
His eyes flew open. He glared at her. Lucy had a soft, sad smile on her face as she lifted the locket.
“Mon amour impérissable. It means my undying love.” Shel looked away from her to stare at himself in the mirror.
“How did you know…?”
“Open it.”
Shel listened to the quiet soft sounds of Lucy taking the locket off. He turned to face her at the small gasp when she opened it. Lucy stared at the miniature portraits. Slowly she raised her eyes to look at him.
“You have her eyes. I had the locket made in the spring of 1733. We were lovers.”
“How…”
“I had the miniature of myself painted on a trip to Paris. I had the locket made in New Orleans to fit the miniature of my lover Isabel Devereaux.” He smiled wryly at the memory. “I gave it to her a few days before everything fell apart.”
Lucy sat down on the bed. Shel hated the stunned look on Lucy’s face, the bright glitter of unshed tears in her eyes. He’d hoped never to have to tell her what he really was. Shel knelt, taking her hands in his. “Lucy…”
“You’re a Vampire. That’s why you believed me about the Werewolves.”
“I…Yes. I was a fool. Isabel had another admirer. When I found out, I thought I’d make her jealous and it worked for a while. She did not like me seeing her rival, Madeline La Rouge. When Isabel came back to me, I broke off with Madeline. Madeline did not take it well. When Madeline made me a Vampire, Isabel eased the curse as best she could. I…left. I never saw her again.”
Lucy was silent. She lowered her gaze. Shel waited while she thought it through. His heart gave a painful squeeze when Lucy pulled her hands away. She looked him in the eye. “Have you bitten me?”
Of all the things Lucy might have said that was the last Shel imagined. “No.”
She nodded and put the locket back on. Shel left the rest of the information about the book and her ancestry for later. Telling Lucy her grandmother had been a Werewolf could wait. It seemed Lucy had enough to deal with at the moment without that.
“Things will get better. I won’t let you get hurt,” Shel said. She can interpret that any way