Dark Solace (30 page)

“Maybe two or three?” I offered. “I’m not
sure. We want him to be old enough that he isn’t so helpless like
Theoron was when he was a baby.”

“You should bring him with you sometimes.
Venus is his twin. They have to be missing each other. They’ve been
separated since birth.”

She was right; Venus should see Devon. The
question was how to arrange to bring the twins together when their
two fathers hated one another. And that wasn’t the only obstacle.
“Has Venus stopped biting you yet?”

Serena shook her head. “Every single time,
like clockwork. I think sometimes she does it just because she
likes my blood, and other times just so she can hear me yelp a
little—”

That was disturbing. “Take me to her,” I said
resolutely. “It’s time I held her.”

“Sar, I don’t think—”

“Serena, she’s going to bite me the first
time anyway,” I replied, getting to my feet. “You’re strong enough;
you can pull her off me if you have to. Besides, Theoron stopped
biting me once he had a taste of my blood. Maybe that’s all she
needs, too.”

Serena shrugged, but she got up and put her
coffee cup in the sink.

When we arrived at the door to the nursery,
Devlin was waiting inside, Venus in his arms. They both looked at
me with their matching golden eyes, though Dev’s held fear. “Are
you sure, Love?” he said hesitantly. “You don’t have to do this. I
don’t want you to be hurt.”

My eyes narrowed. I’d known he was up here
listening to us. “Might as well try,” I said, putting a brave smile
on my face. “Give her to me.”

Devlin very carefully handed our daughter to
me.

“Hello, V,” I said softly.

She looked up at me, then bared her fangs in
a hiss. Careful not to touch her with my bare skin, I sat down in
the rocking chair and held her loosely. Venus calmed down at once,
her liquid gold eyes large and curious in her small exquisite
face.

She was enthrallingly perfect with her red
lips, ivory skin, and her beautiful, beautiful eyes. “You don’t
know me well, but I’m your mom,” I said in admiration. “I hope you
don’t bite me, my little goddess.”

Serena and Devlin were hushed beside me, all
of us waiting for something to happen. But Venus just lay there,
looking up at me, not making a sound.

“She’s as quiet as Theoron was,” I whispered
finally.

“Perhaps all dhamphirs are,” Devlin said,
laying his hand tenderly on my shoulder.

“Say cheese!” Serena squeaked happily.

I looked up in shock. Serene had Dev’s
digital camera/phone in her hands, and she snapped a few pictures
before I could say anything.

“Serena, stop taking pictures!” I said
grumpily as she snapped away. “I’m in my robe, and my hair’s a
mess—Youch!”

In my desire to get Serena to stop, I’d
forgotten caution and curled a hand over the edge of the blanket.
Venus had struck immediately.

Devlin grabbed hold of her, and began to pry
her off me.

“Wait!” I gasped, pain radiating down my arm.
“Let me see if she stops on her own.”

Devlin paused for a minute, watching our
daughter feed from my wrist. Venus was swallowing me down as if
there were no tomorrow, almost gulping, the same happy noises that
Devlin and Danial always made when feeding on me filling the air.
Yet while I felt it was right to feed my daughter from my body, I
also felt that it was wrong for her to be making those same noises,
sounds I’d always associated with sex. The longer it went on the
more uncomfortable I was, hearing them coming out of my baby
daughter’s mouth.

“She’s not going to stop, Sar.” Devlin
sighed. “Serena, come and help me.”

Devlin worked his finger into the side of
Venus’s mouth, and pried her tiny upper fangs out of my flesh, and
then the lower ones as well. Then he and Serena lifted her out of
my arms.

Venus fought them, snarling, and bit both of
them in the process; though she let them go as soon as she tasted
that they weren’t human. Finally, Serena took her downstairs to get
a bottle ready for her, as it was apparent she wanted human blood
and was not going to be happy until she had more of it.

I trudged back into Devlin’s bedroom, Devlin
in tow. After washing the tiny holes in my hand, I put a bandage on
them. Devlin didn’t offer to heal them, as they were so small that
my own accelerated healing abilities should take care of it in a
short time.

“I’m sorry that didn’t go better, Love,” Dev
said, hugging me.

“I waited longer with Theoron,” I replied
tersely. “It wasn’t until he was almost five months old that I held
him, that I even tried to. I should’ve waited.”

“It might be the fresh blood I’m giving her,
too,” Devlin said musingly. “Theoron went a little wild the first
time he got fresh blood from a human’s vein, that night at the
Gathering.” He paused. “Nothing tastes as good as blood right from
a vein. You are her first non-were, non-vampire, Love. While her
palate isn’t refined enough to savor the special flavor of yours,
it likely tastes close to human, even with the vampire taint.”

“Maybe.”

“Will you sleep with me today?” Devlin
pressed. “I would like us to spend some time cuddling before you
leave tomorrow.”

“Sure,” I said, snuggling close to him. “But
sooner or later, I do have to start work again downstairs. I still
have all those files to do—”

“And you still need to pick out furnishings
for the guest rooms,” Devlin added quickly. “I’d like you to set up
one as your own room, Sar.”

I gave Devlin a look of shock, trying for
words.

He roared with laughter. “Not for sleeping
in,” he chuckled, hugging me tightly. “I want you here beside me.
This room I’m talking of would be for sewing, reading, or for just
spending time by yourself.”

Why was he offering this? There was some
angle here. “That would be wonderful,” I said curiously. “Serena
does want me to teach her how to sew on a machine. I haven’t done
it in a long time, and my supplies have been packed away in one of
my closets at home for the better part of a year.” I smiled. “I’d
like to start some new projects—”

“Good. I would like you to make me
something.”

“What?” I asked, intrigued.

“You made a quilt once for your mother. It
was out of velvet pieces. Danial told me about it, about how
beautiful it was. I want you to make one for me, for our bed.”

“I’d love to. I’ll just need to buy some more
velvet—”

“I have some older clothes you can use. You
can buy some if you need to, but I’d like you to use that to start
with.”

This was weirder yet. Why did Dev the
clotheshorse suddenly want to let me cut up his clothes? Time to be
me and ask bluntly. “Dev, I’ll need to buy some anyway, as your bed
is a king size. The back and the edging all should be one color,
which will require some serious yardage. Even a cape wouldn’t cut
it for the back—”

“I have several capes you can use.”

“Then I’ll be happy to use your older clothes
for the patchwork front, but are you sure you want me to cut them
up? I’ll need to cut up a lot of them, depending on the size and
style—”

“I’m sure. I have trunks of clothes
downstairs, Sar. One year last century, I remember I wore velvet
almost every day, thinking it made me look more regal. Some of it
may be too old, though. If the fabric tears too easily, just toss
it out—”

He said last century like I said last year.
“Are you cleaning house?” I asked, comprehension dawning. “You are,
aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Devlin confirmed. “Danial might had
had the right idea, only saving a few things that meant something
to him. I always saved most everything, because I couldn’t be
bothered to go through it. But I want to now, because as much as I
loved Anna, she is part of my past. You and Venus are here, and now
that I’ve wrapped up Ebediah’s business, I don’t have to go out on
business every week anymore—”

“Dev, do you still kill people?” I blurted,
then flushed.

Devlin tilted my chin up to look at him. “You
know I do, Sar. You know I killed the prisoners Lash and Titus took
when I healed myself.”

“I mean for money. Those jobs I always sent
you, the ones that Danial used to do, the ones where people were
asking for vengeance, for righting wrongs that the law couldn’t
give them justice for.” I swallowed hard. “And the jobs for
organized crime that Danial used to do. He said you and he used to
share them. For the last few years, you have been doing them
all.”

Devlin looked nonplussed. “Sar, you know the
answer,” he said calmly. “Are you asking me because you think I
will lie about it, or because—?”

“Because I need to hear it straight from you.
That week I spent with you last spring; all those nights you went
out, I knew it wasn’t just for Ebediah’s business. I didn’t say
anything, but I wondered if you were killing people.”

“The answer is yes, but I think you are going
to draw a distinction,” Devlin answered. “I don’t go out on jobs
myself as Danial sometimes did before he met you. Even he only did
it rarely, mostly sending Theo to do it. I subcontract out to about
ten different hitmen who do what needs doing. Most are decent
enough, and they only kill...I guess what you might call ‘bad
people.’ But there are two others who will kill anyone who needs
killing, any age, so long as the price is right. They are the ones
who usually do the ‘mob jobs’, as you might call them. I don’t pull
the trigger, Sar. But I arrange it, so I consider the deaths on my
head. I don’t draw a distinction that I’m not the one there doing
the actual killing.”

I was silent, digesting all this.

“I met with some of those men that week.
There were arrangements that needed to be made,” Devlin said,
stroking my hair. “It’s a business, and it works out well for
everybody. I only take a small cut, for being the go between, so
the actual men doing the jobs can remain anonymous, as they
prefer.”

I found that chilling, but reminded myself
that I had seen some of those cases firsthand. If my son had been
the one robbed and beaten within an inch of his life by a gang, or
my mother had been killed for her social security check by two drug
addicts on a binge, I might have hired an assassin, too. I
purposely didn’t think about the jobs that the mob asked him to do.
But of course, the harder I tried not to think about it, the more I
thought about it.

“What do you get out of this? You must get
something substantial, or you wouldn’t bother to do it.”

“Besides the small cut, there is no other
money: it’s an exchange of services. In return for the jobs I
arrange for them a few times a year, the mob keeps an eye on most
of my blood donors for me, to make sure they are taken care of, and
that new ones are found when women no longer want to give me blood.
And they do routine blood testing of the women, to make sure they
are healthy enough to give me the amount of blood I require without
dying.”

“Like Angelica?”

Devlin nodded. “Danial used to pay the
Italians in hits he did himself, or had Theo do. That’s less
expensive. Now he just gives them cash. They make a nice profit on
us, running humans for vampires. But it’s much easier to pay their
fee than having to go out and seduce or hunt for blood ourselves
every other night. That’s fun sometimes, sure, but it can be very
time consuming, and there’s no point in living forever if one has
to be constantly going to bars, and chatting up women for blood, or
waiting in back alleys for unlucky young virgins looking for a
shortcut—”

Maybe Danial did need the extra money from
his business. The mob couldn’t be cheap. “Do you prefer virgins?
That comes as a surprise.”

He ignored my taunt. “Do you feel differently
for me, knowing this?” Devlin finished as he continued to stroke my
hair. “That I choose to do this, instead of just pay them off? That
it’s so much less noble than Danial’s fight against the evil
corporate hackers, the savvy and slick suits with no
conscience?”

His tone was calm, but underneath the
calmness was a dangerous note. I disregarded it. It wasn’t an issue
this time.

“No,” I answered. “I guessed that that was
how it worked. You have enough money that you wouldn’t care about
the payout enough to do it yourself, or have the taste for it.”

“That’s a little too charitable for you,”
Devlin said, chuckling. “You know me too well to think that I don’t
have a taste for killing—”

“I’m only saying you don’t care about killing
with guns,” I corrected. “Now ripping out someone’s throat with
your fangs, that I could see.”

Devlin again roared with mirth. “You are so
endearing, Sweet Sar,” he crooned. “I never get tired of your
humor.”

I hadn’t meant to be humorous, I was being
sarcastic. “Are you trying to make me cringe?”

“Aren’t you going to ask me about Lash?”
Devlin purred. “That may make you cringe.”

I didn’t reply.

“Don’t you want to know who he kills?” Devlin
purred, his tone deeply malicious. “Aren’t you curious to know if
he likes it—?”

“No,” I said flatly. “Because you’re going to
tell me the worst thing you can, because you want me to hate him.
And it doesn’t matter anyway—”

“Why doesn’t it matter, Sar?” Devlin sneered,
venom in his words. “It matters to you if I kill—”

“Because I’m not Lash’s bedmate,” I retorted
icily. “Venus isn’t his daughter, she’s yours. Who you kill matters
in terms of who might be after you because of it, and who might
come after her and me, to get to you. If someone else is going to
come looking for revenge, I want a heads-up right now.”

Devlin blinked, clearly taken aback. “I’ll
protect you and her. You’ll both be safe, Love. Please don’t
worry.”

Devlin hugged me tightly, but didn’t say
anything further. Uneasy in his arms, I didn’t either.