To Love and Serve (9 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Diana had never been able to tell any of her human friends the whole truth about the night of the botched raid that nearly killed her and had resulted in her being contaminated with Ryder’s blood. She suspected her former partner, David Harris, also held back on what little he remembered. If either of them had revealed all the facts, the Office of Professional Responsibility would have thought they were both raving lunatics.

As it was, the OPR review committee had noticed Diana’s reticence during her testimony. They’d likely read her caution as an admission that she’d done something wrong that night.

In truth, whether or not she’d made any mistakes, she still bore responsibility for what had happened that night because she’d been the Special Agent in Charge. So when Jesus told her David had broken up with his long-time girlfriend, Maggie, who was her best friend, Diana knew she had to do everything possible to get them back together. She needed to help Maggie understand. She’d invited her friend over for dinner, hoping to find the courage to tell her everything.

Everything
. But she knew Maggie would be disbelieving of what Diana would tell her. As a forensic specialist with the FBI, Maggie relied on facts and evidence in her life.

Maggie placed her fork on her empty plate after they’d eaten. “I just don’t get what’s up with David. He’s been so different since the raid, but he won’t talk about it.”

“It was a crazy night, Mags. From the moment I led the team toward the apartment where that terrorist bomb was supposed to be, everything went wrong.” So wrong, Diana thought, recalling her fear as she realized she’d been shot and that her team was being decimated by the terrorist group’s gunfire and the explosives they had set.

Maggie grasped her hand. “I can’t imagine what it was like.”

“It’s hard to imagine and even harder to remember. I was so scared for my team. For David, when I realized a bomb had gone off where he was stationed. It’s been hard to think about everything, much less talk about it.”

“I’m glad you’re talking about it now with me. Call me stupid, but I keep praying one day David will also open up and stop running away from me. Or should I say rolling away.” She mimicked David pushing the wheels on his chair.

Diana grabbed the bottle of wine and topped off their glasses. “Drink up. You’re going to need it for what I’m going to tell you next. I know I do.”

Maggie used two unsteady hands to pick up her glass, gulp down a mouthful, then set it aside.

“Everything happened so suddenly the night of the raid,” she began. “So much was happening so quickly, it was impossible to think. After it was over, I asked myself if I should’ve known the CIA bastard on my team was a traitor. If I should’ve asked for his personnel file sooner. But I never suspected, although I pegged him for a misogynist. I guess that’s why he attacked me first.”

“What do you mean, he attacked you first?”

Diana met her friend’s puzzled gaze. “I was commanding the lead group that was supposed to secure the room where our man was undercover and waiting for the delivery of the bomb they were going to use. As I got to the door, something hit me from behind. I didn’t know what it was at first, only that my body got rubbery. And then there was a second blow, and pain. So much pain.”

“You were shot? But when you came to see David in the hospital, you were fine.”

“I wasn’t fine when the assault started. I was dying, Maggie. The bastard had taken me out and then instructed his people to attack the rest of the agents on the team. They blew up the command post David was manning.”

Maggie frowned. “But David and another agent survived. They said it was a miracle they were able to get out of the room, considering how much damage there was.”

Diana grabbed her glass of wine and took a small sip, then held the glass in her hands to keep them steady. “What David won’t tell you is that someone pulled them from the room. He saw them, and asked me to explain when I went to the hospital to see him…but I couldn’t.”

She hadn’t been able to tell David, her partner and then best friend, that two vampires had saved his life. She also hadn’t been able to tell her other best friend Maggie in all that time.

“But you will tell me tonight, right?”

Diana hesitated, then nodded. “The two men were Ryder’s friends. He’d asked them to help David while Ryder helped me.”

Maggie shook her head, totally confused. “What were Ryder and his friends doing at an FBI raid?”

“He wanted to protect me.” She leaned forward, placed the glass on the table, and met Maggie’s gaze head on. “Ryder and his friends aren’t like you and me. They’re…vampires.”

Maggie jerked back, disbelief in every line of her body. “You’re kidding, right?”

Diana shook her head. “No. I’m deadly serious.” She winced inwardly at the word choice, then breathed out. “I know it’s kind of…”

“Insane?” Maggie supplied incredulously. But then something settled into her features. She shifted closer again. “You really believe this, I can see it in your eyes. I can help you through this…whatever it is, Di.”

Diana knew that her friend, scientist that she was, needed more evidence. She went to the fridge and took out the small package sitting on the bottom shelf. It was filled with several vials of her blood she’d had Melissa draw. She had contemplated whether or not to share it with Maggie, but she no longer had any hesitation about what she had to do.

She handed the package to her friend and said, “Why don’t you take these blood samples to your lab and analyze them? Then come back tomorrow so we can talk some more.”

Maggie peered at the package as if Diana was handing her a bomb. Maybe she was. Once Maggie had a look at her blood, she would have lots of questions, but few doubts about the secret with which Diana had entrusted her. Science didn’t lie.

“Is this about what happened to you? Why you can’t move forward and get on with your life?”

Diana had never thought about the moving forward part of it, but now she realized how true that was. Since the night she’d been contaminated she’d been stuck in limbo, unable to be who she was and yet not really sure of who she’d become, or was becoming. As she’d said to Ryder, now was the time for her to become a new self, someone strong enough to face the shadows inside her.

Strong enough to master them, so she could move on with her life.

Chapter Sixteen

The Slayer had held off on following the married vampires he’d scoped out at the Blood Bank. Although they were youngish in years and therefore weaker in power, it would be hard to fight two at once. Still, every time he saw the Barbie wife, he got a hard-on. The thought of taking her with her hubby watching only made it more tempting to try for a double kill.

Maybe later. For the moment, he was observing the vampire called Ryder, who was sitting alone on a park bench. He’d hoped that Ryder and his friend, Diego, would split up, giving him a chance for another quick kill, but they’d hung together after leaving the Blood Bank earlier. Their destination, however, had provided him with another possible hunting ground—the Artemis Shelter. He’d sensed vampire power there. He’d definitely have to return at another time to check it out.

But first he had to notch up another vampire kill and whip the undead into a frenzy of fear. Who better to vanquish than one of their elders, or Ryder, who seemed to have connections everywhere in both the human and vampire worlds.

He was about to move in when Ryder rose from the shadows and walked out into the bright glow of the streetlights along the sidewalk. Despite the late hour, there were still a few pedestrians around, and enough street traffic that attempting a kill in so visible a place would be stupid. So he kept to his camouflaged position deep in the underbrush.

This group of wanna-be-human vamps made it simpler for him. They had homes and routines that were easy to find, unlike many of the other vampires, who kept their lairs well hidden and away from prying human eyes.

He appreciated the treasure trove of possible hits Manhattan presented to him. He’d been hesitant about coming here when his brother announced their move so many years ago, but now he was excited by the possibilities.

With a quick look around to make sure no one could see him, he stepped from the underbrush smiling broadly. A lightness in his step turned almost into a skip as he rushed through the park toward home. No, not home, he thought, losing some of his joy. It was only a temporary location. Almost a prison, since he was an outcast amongst others like him. Condemned to live apart so as to not risk death at the hands of those who should have protected him.

They would pay for that injustice. For rejecting him. He could have been a certified slayer if not for their failure to recognize the strength of his power. Even his own brother, whom he loved more deeply than anyone else, had not understood and supported him.

In time, his brother and the others would see their mistake and embrace him for the man he was. As a true slayer who deserved his spot on the front lines of their epic battle.

…

Diana awoke when she heard Ryder come home. She was in the bedroom, tucked beneath the covers, dozing and listening with one ear for his return.

The stairs creaked as he mounted the stairs and undressed quietly, then eased beneath the sheets.

She offered up a drowsy smile and half-opened her eyes. “Sorry, I was tired.”

She’d done a lot of running around today, and as he encircled her waist with his arm and drew her near, he must have felt the chill in her body. He released a bit of his vampire and brought forth the demon’s heat to warm her.

“
Mmm
. That feels good,” she murmured sleepily and burrowed close, twining her legs with his and nuzzling his chest with her face.

She felt the tentative rise of his passion, but he didn’t move to make love. Things were still fragile between them and he’d promised not to push her.

“How’d it go with Maggie?” he asked.

“I told her about you and your friends. About me. I guess she took it better than I should have expected.”

“It’s important to you that she believes you.”

She nodded. “Maybe knowing the truth can help her get back with David. I’m starting to realize how important relationships are, and that we need to understand and work at them.” She looked up at him and asked, “What was your mom like?”

He was clearly taken aback by the question, but then a small smile slipped across his lips. “A lot like you, darlin’. Petite, but with a backbone of steel. My father might have thought he was running the plantation, but we all knew better. She had a firm but fair hand, and all of our workers knew they could come to her for help.”

“Workers? You didn’t have slaves?”

“My pa didn’t cotton to slavery. No pun intended. He freed our people as soon as his daddy passed.” The Louisiana drawl was strong in his voice, stirring her.

“But you decided to become a doctor?”

“We were a large rice plantation next to several other sizable plantations. It made getting medical assistance difficult, so I decided it would help if I could doctor the folks in the area.”

She was about to ask another question when he slipped his index finger over her lips. “Why do you want to know all this?”

The answer was simple. “Because we never had time to talk about it before.”

“But we have time now, darlin’. So ask away,” he said, and she did, listening to his stories of life on the plantation and after, the violence and hardship of war. A war during which he’d been turned and become immortal.

“I don’t know how you handled it. All those centuries of…loneliness,” she admitted sympathetically.

“I don’t, either, really. All I know is that I had to have faith that this life was meant to be. That there was a reason I was turned. And when you came into my life, I had my reason.”

“I wish I could be so sure about why this is happening to me. To us,” she said, feeling a wash of anger over the choices she was being forced to make.

Ryder’s gaze skipped across her face. “I know you’re not sure about what to do, but ask yourself this. Who will stand for all the victims when you’re gone? Who will provide them justice?”

“You forget. I’ve already failed that mission.”

“Bullshit, darlin’. We both know how many lives you’ve saved in both our worlds.”

“
Our
worlds?” she shot back, her pain bleeding through the question. “I’m not even sure which world I belong to any more. I’m not human, but I’m not vamp, either, am I?”

He squeezed her hand. “You were born to serve, Diana. Doesn’t matter whether it’s the vamp world or the human one, you’re my warrior.”

How could he have such faith in her? She sniffed, feeling the sting of tears, and a heartbeat later she buried her head in the crook of his shoulder. Hiding the tears she hated to shed in front of him. Even with all they’d shared, there were still parts she closed off to him. Still afraid to let herself be so vulnerable. Maybe someday…

Holding her tight, he soothed her with a gentle stroke of his hands along her back until she’d cried herself out. Pulling away, she swiped at the remnants of the tears and gave him a salty kiss. For a moment she let herself feel the intense pleasure of kissing him, then abruptly leaned back, remembering what had happened last time. Guilt buffeted her immediately.

He gave her an understanding smile. “It’s okay. I’m a patient man. I can wait until you come to grips with everything.”

Which made her feel even more guilty. But she was still too freaked out to risk making love again so soon.

He nestled closer, but not in a sexual way. “How about some dancing tomorrow after you’re done with Maggie?”

Her heart quickened at his invitation.

“I’d like that. Should I meet you at The Lair?”

“My momma would whoop me if she thought I wasn’t being a proper gentleman. I’ll pick you up here at nine,” he said, his drawl thickening as he raised her hand and pressed a kiss along her knuckles.

“You’re so not playing fair.”

“All’s fair in love and war, darlin’,” he replied with a sexy grin.

She searched his features and asked, “So which is it? Love or war?”

His boyish grin and the determination in his tone provided his answer. “I’ll never stop fighting to keep you with me. If that’s war, I’m in it to my last breath.”