“As I recall telling you once before, sweet Lillian.” Ewan’s sick voice penetrated the air, and Lillian shuddered inwardly. For so long, she had been free of him. For so long, she had escaped his madness, but the misery, the pain of what he had done to her, to Jax, that great lo
ss, it had never left her. “You. Are. Mine.” He said each word separately, possessively, and then without warning, his large hand reared back, and delivered a stinging slap across her face.
“Take her home.” Ewan ordered, and he stood giving her his back.
“No!” Lillian screamed out in denial as the two vampires lifted her aching, throbbing, broken body upward in a heave that was obviously meant to cause her more pain. “No!” she screamed because it was all that she could do. She was in no condition to fight them now. They had seen to that by bringing her low before she had even known they were there. Jack, she thought. Jack! Not again! How can I save him if they lock me away? How can I save him?
“Please. Ewan, please!” she cried out in desperation, but the vampire was not going to listen to her. With a nod of his head, a hard fist slammed into her gut and doubled her over. It was followed by a resounding hit to the right temple, and her head lowered of its own accord, and then she could no longer scream, beg, or plead. All that she could do was allow the heated, tormented tears to slide down her cheeks in defeat. Oh Jack, I’ve failed you again, she thought as they dragged her away. It was her last coherent thought.
Rushing from the elevator, Jack ran to his apartment door in hopes of finding a note pinned to the door, or perhaps slipped under it, but there was nothing on the door, and when he opened it, and turned on the light by the switch, there was nothing on the dark carpeting either.
“
Damn it!” he growled out loud, shifting a nervous hand through his thick hair. Where could she have gone? Damn it, Lilly! Why did you go out again? Kicking the back of his sofa, he cursed long and profusely when suddenly, a chill swept up his spine, and he knew that he wasn’t alone in the room. His heart beating swift in his chest, his amber gaze lifted upward to find a man standing there near the opposite end of Jack’s sofa. He was of average height, dressed in dark jeans and a dark, button down shirt. He was in good shape with pale, flawless skin, and bright blue eyes, with a shock of collar length, white hair falling straight on his head. He was young, young and too perfect to be human, Jack realized, and his heart took off in realization of what was standing before him. God, earlier tonight he had sworn that Dr. Harold was nuts, that there was no such damn things as vampires, but later, he had seen a vampire with his own eyes. He had witnessed things not humanly possible!
“That was quite an impressive jump earlier, Jackson.” The man’s deep, cheerful voice filled the dead air in the room. Jack had trouble finding his voice. Was this shit really happening? It was like he was suddenly a character in s
ome horror movie he had seen or the star of his own nightmare.
“Jump?” he asked, hearing the catch in his voice, and hating it. Carefully, his hand began to lift toward the gun just beneath his jacket in a shoulder holste
r. If he could just get to it…
“I wouldn’t do that,
Jackson. It would just piss me off.” The vampire warned with an amused grin, and a twinkle in his eye. Jack’s hand stilled.
“My name isn’t Jackson.” he corrected, as his fear-heightened gaze glanced around him for some sort of a weapon that he could get to faster than he could his gun if it came down to it.
“Oh? I beg to differ.” the vampire chuckled in amusement. Jackson, Jack wondered at the name for a moment, when suddenly Lilly’s story of her great, great, great grandmother came back to his mind. Jax, he thought in dawning, and the vampire before him grinned.
“Is it starting to come together for you now, Jax?” the vampire cocked his white-framed head to a side, and then his white hands were scooping up a baseball Jack had had sitting beside his sofa, and began to toss it from one hand to the other.
“What do you want?” Jack snapped, starting to get pissed off himself.
“What don’t I want?” Whitey
, as Jack was coming to think of this creature, tilted his head to a side in curious wonder. The ball paused in his right hand. “As I recall, the last I saw of you you’re feet were kicking in the air, dangling in thin air just before Ewan dropped your ass into the ocean.” Whitey laughed out. “We took bets on how many hours you would last out there, ya know? Would you drown from exhaustion? Would the sharks make a meal of you?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I think you’ve got me confused with someone else.” Jack tried backing to the door, but the vampire or whatever the hell this thing was standing before him, shook a long, white finger at him as if to say,
“No. No.”
“No. I never forget a face, and I’ve seen yours before, my friend.” he laughed out. “You really pissed Ewan off tonight, you know, seeing you with his Lillian again, after all of these years.”
“Lilly? What have you done with her?” Jack jumped forward at her name. He didn’t know what the hell was going on, but it was connected. Somehow, it was all connected.
“Quite simple really, we beat the living shit out of her! You should have been there to see the look on her face when the two by four caught her in the chest. You see, she was so distracted, too distracted by worries f
or you I presume, that she didn’t sense us there, didn‘t suspect a thing until WHAM!” he laughed out in delight as he made a batting motion with his arms.
Jack leapt at the man, going for his white throat, but the man was quick, quicker than anything Jack had ever seen before in his life! A hand shot out, catching Jack around the throat instead, and sending him slamming back into the wall. The man leaned into Jack then, his face pressed toward Jack so that Jack could make out the tiny blue veins beneath the near-translucent skin.
“What did you do with her? If you’ve hurt her-” Jack warned.
“You’ll what? Kick your mortal legs about some more!” The slight English accent echoed in the man’s taunting words. Mortal? He had said mortal, hadn’t he, Jack swallowed uncomfortably? “Don’t worry so, Jackson. You’ll find that sweet Lillian is a very quick healer. She should be right as rain when night falls again.” he laughed at his own words, but Jack didn’t see what was so funny. The man was insane! He dropped Jack back to the floor and backed away.
“Look at you.” Those blue eyes lit on Jack in disgust, and Jack could only stare back as the eyes so bright a blue suddenly faded, and began to lose color until all Jack could see was glowing white. Sucking in his breath, Jack made a b-line for the door, but the creature came at him again, hitting him hard in the chest, and sending him flying backward. Jack reached for his gun, but it was gone. Looking up sharply, he saw the Nine in the creature’s pale hand.
“Looking for this?” It asked with a grin. “You puny, insignificant, human!” It raged now. “You’re always in the way, always taking what does not belong to you! She is his now! She always was!”
“The hell she is!” Jack growled defiantly, and he climbed unsteadily back to his feet. The creature stared at him in pure hatred with those white, glowing eyes, and it was all Jack could do to stand there and face it. Never in his life had he ever thought that something like this could possibly exist. Vampires weren’t supposed to be real! They were stories told at Halloween parties. They were fiction made up for books, movies, and television! They weren’t supposed to be standing in the middle of his goddamn living room! They had Lilly, and Jack would be damned if he allowed them to keep her! What did they want with her anyway? Suddenly, he was remembering the scene from earlier that morning, the decapitated, severed bodies, the buckets of blood. His eyes shot upward in fear like he had never known. “Where is she?” he demanded loudly, and the creature promptly threw his head back, and let out a loud, cruel laugh.
“Poor
Jackson. She didn’t tell you the truth this time around, now did she?” He reached behind him, and Jack worried that he was about to be shot, but what the creature brought forth in his pale as death hand was an old, weathered, brown, leather-bound book.
“What is that?” Jack stepped forward, ready to do anything that he possibly could even if it meant dying to save her.
“Just read, Jackson. Read your darling Lilly’s words. She really did love you, you know? I imagine she still does. We solved that problem once before. We’ll do so again.” The creature stepped forward, holding out what Jack now knew to be a journal. Lilly’s journal? “I’d like to kill you now. I can taste it. I want it so bad, Jackson, so very bad.” The creature suddenly was right on him, his mouth skimming Jack’s sensitive neck. Jack tried to lean back away from it, but a hand shot out grabbing him by the back of his head. Pulling Jack forward with unnatural strength, Jack felt the wet tongue of the creature slip up his neck. Infuriated, Jack grabbed the creature by the front of his shirt, and shoved it backward. The creature laughed in amusement. “Don’t worry though. You may live.” It said, and bowed regally before him. “For now.” it added threateningly, and then it backed toward the front door. Jack watched as the creature bent low, laying both the journal and Jack’s gun on the carpet by the front door. “He wants you to read the truth about her before you die. When you’re finished, if you still find that you can‘t live without her,” It paused there to insert an amused laugh. “Tomorrow night, meet us at 116 W. March street. It’s a…”
“Warehouse.” Jack supplied.
“Clever boy.” The creature grinned. “Come alone, and tell no one, Jack. We will know if you do not. Come alone or sweet Lilly perishes once and for all.” That said, the creature turned, and left Jack standing there in shell-shock. What the hell had just happened? Jack exhaled his pent up breath. He leaned forward, hands on his knees and breathed in deep as his mind tumbled in so many jumbled thoughts and worries, thoughts of worry and fear for Lilly, thoughts of impossible things that he knew shouldn’t exist, but somehow still did, thoughts of Dr. Harold, a mad woman who had turned out not to be so mad after all, and thoughts of earlier that night when the other creature, the female, had saved his life. Why had she done that? He didn’t understand! His amber gaze dropped to the brown, leather-bound journal on the floor, and he swallowed the lump that had lodged in his throat. The creature, the man, had suggested that the journal belonged to Lilly, that the other, this Ewan, Jack presumed, wanted Jack to know the truth at last. Jack stared long and hard at the journal. He had wanted to know everything about Lilly Saint Rose, had been hurt that she had not trusted him enough to just spit it out, whatever it was, long ago, but now, staring at the journal, he wasn’t so sure that he wanted to hear or rather read anything anymore.
Chapter thirty-three
As soon as the creature, the one that wasn’t supposed to exist, had exited through the
front door, Jack closed and locked it and all the windows, but he still did not feel secure.
Now, sitting in a corner of his be
droom, he had taken the journal and let his back slide down along the wall until he was seated in the floor. Staring down at the leather-bound book as if it held the secrets to his demise, Jack hesitated. Inside, he knew lay the truth concerning Lilly Saint Rose. At last everything she had tried so hard to keep apart from him was his to be known, but he could not help but to feel as if he were about to invade her most private thoughts. His heart slammed hard against his ribs in indecision. They had her! The creature had told Jack that they had Lilly, and that they had, quote, “Beaten the shit out of her.”
She was somewhere out there, hurt, alone, and afraid, and all that he could do was sit there with a journal that he should not possess in his grasp and wait. They had told him to tell no one, to bring no one. He would have to go in there alone, and he would have to wait until tomorrow night to do so! Rushing a large hand through the top of his thick hair, Jack groaned out loud in deep frustration and fear. Lilly, he thought in agony. Lilly, I’ll come for you, he promised! I’ll get you out of there! I don’t know how I’ll ac
complish it, but I promise you I will!
His knuckles were turning white around the journal. They had left it there for him to read. This Ewan Derringer wanted Jack to read
it; he had said that it was so Jack would learn the truth about Lilly once and for all. The truth? The truth was waiting like a man with an ax ready to cut and slice what Jack and Lilly shared to shreds. Jack could feel that like doom lingering just over his shoulder. His breathing hitched. God, he loved her! He loved her still! Even now, even knowing that she was somehow connected with all of this. There was no other way, Jack decided. Slowly, he peeled back the cover of the journal, and his searching amber gaze rested on the top, yellowed page of the ancient journal.