“That was Dr. Harold.” Jack stated in a somber tone as he turned back to face Lilly. She laid there, the sheet pulled to just above her breasts. She had come there tonight just when he had felt his mind could take no more. Four mangled, bloodied bodies had been discovered just that morning, and Jack had had the day from hell. He had needed her, he thought as he met and held her beautiful gaze. He had needed her, and she had come to him.
“Something’s wrong?” she guessed intuitively. She seemed to be able to do that well, read him, know exactly what he needed from her when he needed it. God, how lucky could one man be? Leaning over, he t
reated her to a lingering kiss that she more than responded to.
“She needs to speak with me. I’m sorry I have to go out for a li
ttle while. You could stay here and sleep. I’ll be back.” He promised, and he turned, reaching for his jeans on the floor. He had just pulled the coarse material up over his hips and sat back down on the bed when Lilly crept up behind him, letting one slender, shapely leg fall to each side of him as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his neck.
“But I’m not sleepy, Jack.” she said seductively against his ear. She pressed her lips to his shoulder, and he closed his eyes. He was tempted, damned tempted to turn around and forget all about Dr. Harold so that he could jump back into bed with the woman that he loved.
“I shouldn’t be long.” he said, and Lilly groaned softly, and moved back away from him. “Don’t be like that.” Jack smiled as he stood, pulling on his shirt. Her eyes were on his stomach as he pulled his t-shirt down into place, but they lifted to his when the skin disappeared beneath his shirt.
“Like what?” she asked. Rising, perfectly comfortable in the nude, she gathered her clothes, and began to pull them into place. Then again, why would a woman as stunning as Lilly be uncomfortable with her body, Jack thought lustfully, and she turned offering him a smile as if she had heard the compliment he had not spoken.
“You’re leaving?” he asked knowingly, and she moved into him, her hand splaying across his chest as her lips hovered teasingly over his mouth.
“If it will only take you a few minutes, as you say, then you won’t mind if I come along for the ride? I’ll wait in the car.” she promised, sounding like the bad girl, promising to be good. Jack grinned. He took the kiss that she offered, his hands tangling in her hair as he tilted her head back, and kissed her more fully.
“You won’t get bored?”
She shook her head negatively. “You can drop me at home afterward.” she suggested.
“I think I’d rather have you here waiting in my bed.” Jack groaned out. Lilly kissed him for his statement, but she moved away, and continued to dress after.
“You never stay.” Jack accused in complaint. “Why?”
“That,” she said, turning to face him. “Is one of the things we need to talk about.”
“What is it? Are you married?” Jack teased, and Lilly shook her head. “What then?”
“It’s a long conversation. One that you don’t have time for tonight, Jack.” She said, as she retrieved her boots and pulled them into place. Standing, she was ready to go, but Jack still had to find his shoes. Frowning, he bent to find his missing left shoe beneath the foot of the bed. He was still frowning when he sat down to pull the shoes on.
“You came here tonight to finally talk to me, didn’t you?” he asked knowingly, and she tipped her beautiful head to a side, staring at him intently, but not answering. “I can call Dr. Harold back.” he was saying when she cut him off.
“It could be about your case, Jack. What I have to say can wait.” Lilly insisted, and she walked from his bedroom into the dark living room. Jack stubbed his toe on the coffee table when he entered his own damned living room, but he could see Lilly’s shadow already by the front door. How did she do that? She must have some incredible eyesight, he thought as he rubbed the soreness from his foot, and followed her to the door.
“Tomorrow night, Lilly, just me and you and no interruptions.” he grabbed her by the hand, and made her turn to look at him. It was a condition, one that he knew she could hear in his voice.
“Yes, Jack. Tomorrow night.” she promised, and satisfied, he led her out into the hall and locked up.
Dr. Harold appeared frantic and uncomfortable when Jack arrived at the coffee house. Lilly was waiting for him out in the car. He had made her lock the doors up tight, but he still didn’t feel safe, not after what he had seen this morning. No way! Turning from Dr. Harold’s tall, pacing form, he peered out the large, bay window to see his dark Mustang. He could clearly make out Lilly’s blonde head in the passenger’s side. Heaving a sigh, he turned and walked to meet Dr. Harold who had just noticed that he was there. She turned to face him. Her blue eyes were as wide as saucers as she stood there as if shell-shocked. She didn’t speak. She waited for him to speak first.
“Al
right. You got my attention, Nicole. Tell me what you know?” He slid into a booth by the window so he could keep an eye on his car and Lilly. Fifteen minutes ago, Dr. Harold had phoned him with some startling words that he could still not get out of his head.
“I know who it is, Jack. I know who is doing the killings.” She had announced in a
n alarmingly, high-pitched voice. He had heard the fear in her tone. He had even imagined that he could hear the beats of her frantic heart. She didn’t look much better than she had sounded, Jack thought as he stared up at her, still standing there, still watching him. Jack motioned to the other side of the table, and she moved suddenly.
“Right.” she shook herself mentally, and she slid clumsily into the seat across from him. Jack watched as her trembling hands came together on the table. She was clutching a small stack of white papers.
“What’s this?” Jack asked curiously, and he reached for the papers. She surrendered the papers from her clinging grasp, and Jack frowned over at the woman. She wasn’t acting like her ballsy self at all, he thought. No, Dr. Harold looked as if someone had walked over her grave, had stomped on it repeatedly. Jack’s amber gaze fell to the slips of paper now in his hands. It was an old newspaper clipping he realized. Very old. “1863?” he read the date questionably.
“Read the article, Jack.” Dr. Harold encouraged in a shaky tone. Jack frowned. He didn’t have time for this crap, he thought testily, but his gaze fell back to the paper all the same. Where had she found a paper from 1863 anyway, he wondered, but then he saw the internet address printed at the top of the page. Exhaling in frustration, he stared down at the black and white photograph of a young, dark haired man dressed in a dark gray suit. The eyes were bright. He could tell that, even though the photograph was old, distorted and in black and white. “Lord Ewan Derringer died today at the age of fifty-two.” The caption read. “Fifty-two?” Jack scoffed. “It must be an earlier picture then, because in this one, the guy can’t be more than Twenty-four.” he muttered out loud.
“He looks young, doesn’t he, Jack?” Dr. Harold replied in an eerie tone. Jack glanced up, and met her gaze. The woman was losing it, he thought. She was trembling from head to toe, and looking all around the room, watching the window, watching the door as if she thought someone or something was going to come barreling through it at any given moment.
“Why am I reading about some man who died in 1863?” Jack tossed the useless paper back down on the table top. Nicole tapped the photograph with her index finger.
“I know this man, Jack.” she said quietly.
“How can you possibly know-”
“I had a date with him last night.” her blue eyes lifted, meeting, and holding Jack’s confused gaze.
“Are you all right, Dr. Harold?” he asked carefully, and her blue gaze narrowed on him.
“I’m not crazy!” she hissed. “I know it sounds insane, but I know this man.” she tapped the photograph once more with more vigor.
“You mean you know someone who resembles him?”
“No! I kno
w him! Ewan Derringer!” she all but shouted at him. Jack held up his hands in surrender, and leaned back away from the deranged woman.
“Calm down.” he spoke in a soothing tone, one he hoped she would respond to.
“Calm down?” She repeated, and she laughed a hysterical laugh that Jack blanched at. The woman was truly on the verge of losing it. Poor thing, Jack thought sympathetically. He had always thought she was a little off though. She seemed to really believe her whole vampire theory. She had even gone as far as to try and prove it, but this, this was something new. Jack didn’t like it one bit. It was one thing to believe a person was nuts. It was quite another to witness that person’s mental meltdown.
“Jack,
this man, this Ewan Derringer…I know him. He…He seduced me. He used his power against me.” she was rambling now, and Jack worried that he was going to have to call someone here to help her, someone to mentally check the poor woman out. Her hand suddenly slammed down on the table. “Please, Jack. Please. I know you think I’m insane, but I can explain everything if you will just listen to me.” she begged, and Jack leaned forward. His heart jumped curiously. He glanced out the window to see that Lilly was still safe and sound, and then he turned back to Dr. Harold and nodded his head for her to go on.
“When I was a
little girl, seven,” she began as her blue gaze swept in paranoia to the coffee shop door. “My parents were killed in an alley. My mother…I don’t know how she knew to hide me, but somehow, she did. I…I sat behind a dumpster in a black alley while my parents screamed in agony, Jack.” her blue gaze came back to him, and Jack could read the pain, the misery within them. He hadn’t known, would have never guessed. How awful!
“I’m sorry.” he could only to think to say, but even he knew it sounded lame. “Did they ever catch the men who did it?”
“Men?” she laughed sarcastically. “They weren’t men, Jack. They weren’t human.” she said, meeting his gaze head on. So this was where it all stemmed from? All the talk of creatures of the night, of vampires, it came from the delusional memories of a child who had witnessed the murders of her parents! It was starting to make some sense to him now.
“You don’t believe me?” she bit out, and she tossed her strawberry-blonde curls back over her shoulder when she looked back to the door.
“You were just a kid.”
“I saw their eyes, Jack. They were white, evil! Don’t you see? My parents were the first victims. Twenty-two years ago!”
“You can’t know that.” Ja
ck protested in a soothing tone that she shook her head at.
“I do know that! I know that now.” she nodded vigorously. “You see, that
night after they had killed my parents, they came for me, but he wouldn’t let them kill me too.”
“He?” Jack interrupted to ask. Damn. This night wasn’t going to end well. He just knew it! He was going to have to send this poor, pathetic woman to the state hospital
. She had so much going for her: looks, brains, wit, and more! It wasn’t fair. She didn’t deserve this, he thought glumly.
“Ewan Derringer. I figured it out, Jack. Ewan was the one there that night. He kept the others from killing me, like they had killed my parents. He told me that he would be back for me, when I grew up. He t
old me that he would protect me forever.” she said as if remembering that long ago night in her mind’s eye.
“Dr. Harold, this man, Ewan Derringer, he died in 1863.” he tapped t
he paper to get her attention.
“No. He was already dead then too.” she breathed out. “She spoke of him in her journal, of the evil he was capable of.” she was deep in thought now, and Jack wasn’t sure if he should disturb her or not. Her mind was close to snapping, he realized.
“Who spoke of him?” he asked in a quiet, gentle tone.
“Lillian.” she whispered, and her frigh
tened eyes lifted to meet his.
“Lillian?” Jack echoed in surprise at the name, and thinking of Lilly, he turned to look out the window for her. She was still there. She turned, seeing him looking at her, and she held up a hand to wave. Jack waved back, and Dr. Harold’s gaze followed his.
“You brought someone with you?” she asked, leaning in for a closer look.
“My girlfriend.” Jack relented. Girlfriend? Lilly was much more than that, he thought, but still the word sounded nice. It was quiet a moment, and Jack worried that Dr. Harold had had enough, that she wasn’t stable.
“I didn’t recognize him before, Jack.” Dr. Harold whispered suddenly. She was staring down at her printed papers once more as if deep in memory. “I didn’t get a good look at him when I was a kid.”
“Then how can you be sure that it is him?” Jack reasoned,
and he waved the teenager away who had been coming to their table to take their order.
“The manager told me to tell you folks that you have to buy something if you want to stay inside.” The kid announced, looking embarrassed that he had been forced to deliver such news. Jack scowled over at the portly, balding man behind the counter who was glaring them down. Taking his badge from his jacket pocket he held it out for the obnoxious man to view before re
placing it back in his pocket.
“He looks exactly the same. His name is the same.” Dr. Harold said softly. She was still staring at the photograph as if she thought it might come to life and grab her.