Crimson Shadows Read online

  "What would you turn the boy into?" Adelaide demanded. "If you smash any softness within him, that means the child will have no love in his heart for anyone—including you. Have you thought on why he'd bother to keep you alive then, if the day comes when Mikal's more powerful than you and he feels nothing for you but resentment? Or do you truly think you're so omniscient no one can destroy you?"

  "Why should Mikal resent me? Because I shelter him until he's old enough to fight for himself? Because I will teach him all I know, make him my apprentice as I've done with no other before him? You talk of the child needing sentiment and petting— open your eyes, Adelaide. The boy spurns any affectionate gesture of yours, does he not?"

  "That is why you must tread a careful line with him," Adelaide replied, undaunted. "Mikal is cold and withdrawn by nature. Love does not come easily to him. Meghann felt the darkness within Mikal before you took him from her ... she writes to me that she fears what it might metamorphose into. Meghann felt all that when the child was an infant; her feelings have grown stronger in the past year. Why are you blinding yourself, Simon? Can you not feel that unfathomable need for destruction and harm inside your son? Instill some kind of affection in that boy or he may well develop into what the mortals term a sociopath."

  Simon laughed heartily and poured himself a fresh shot, shrugging when Adelaide refused a refill. "Now l know you've been corresponding with Meghann— sociopath is a word only my little psychologist would use. Do you know she threw that term in my face to describe me when she tried to leave me? She recanted her views on my behavior, just as she'll get over these baseless fears about Mikal."

  "Meghann left you because you refused to let go of your old-fashioned blather about masters and tried to dominate her," Adelaide said, referring to the forty years when Simon and Meghann were separated and she sought shelter with Simon's deadliest enemy, the vampire priest Alcuin. It wasn't until Simon managed to slay Alcuin two years ago that he was able to reclaim Meghann. "I warned you that no modern girl, especially one as vivacious and spirited as the woman you described to me, would accept being nothing more than your chattel. I was right then and I'm right now when I tell you to honor your vow to Meghann and raise him as she would if she was here."

  "But Meghann is not here," Simon said calmly. "And that foolishness of what she wants for Mikal is the reason why. Meghann has a soft heart—wonderful for the raising of our daughter, but she'd damage our son with those idiotic notions of good and evil she picked up from Alcuin."

  "Meghann is not a soft fool to be dismissed simply because she lacks your ruthlessness!" Adelaide snapped. "She was canny enough to get a stake through your heart and evade you for forty years. You love the girl, I'll grant you that, but you show her no respect and that will lead to the demise of your relationship. Simon, don't you understand Meghann will leave you for good when she learns that you deliberately raised her son in contradiction of all her directives?"

  Adelaide did not even have time to register the white-hot fury in Simon's eyes before he lunged over the table and grabbed her throat, placing a Bowie knife to her heart. Any sudden movement on her part and the knife would impale her.

  "We go back a long way, nurse," Simon said in a low, menacing whisper as his knife tore through her clothes and nipped her skin. "I respect you deeply and I care for you. But I will not hesitate to slay you if you breathe a word of any discontent you feel to Meghann. What "Meghann does not know about Mikal's upbringing cannot harm her. She has Elizabeth to keep her content until we reunite. I don't mind your correspondence with Meghann; continue to write her if that is your desire. But there will be no details in your letters; you tell her Mikal is healthy and safe and that is all you write. I don't want Meghann spending the next eighteen years pining for a child she cannot have ... it might distract her from caring for Elizabeth properly. Is that understood?"

  "Yes," Adelaide said immediately, knowing the only thing that placated Simon in one of his fits was immediate compliance. She wasn't displeased or hurt at Simon's behavior—it would take a great deal more than some little knife and hot words to turn her against him. Adelaide knew Simon Baldevar far better than he knew himself. She'd known him since he was a wee, screaming babe in her arms and then the ambitious young man that made his own fortune before he found immortality. He hadn't done either of those things by allowing anyone to perceive weakness in him. No, Adelaide wasn't hurt but she was disturbed at how thickheaded and stubborn he was being regarding Mikal.

  "Then we shall consider this unpleasantness disposed of for good." After he licked a drop of her blood off the knife, Simon helped Adelaide out of her chair and escorted her to the door. "I must take a

  business trip. After all, I have spent a year in this miserable, cold hovel and neglected my interests. The

  computer has assisted me greatly, but the time has

  come to inspect my holdings personally. Besides, Mikal will need more food soon. Go and pack my bags and inform the pilot I wish him to be at Heathrow tomorrow evening at nine o'clock sharp."

  "How long will you be gone?" Adelaide questioned

  calmly and saw Simon's eyes gleam with respect at her nonchalant attitude. The others he transformed always either knuckled under his harshness or made

  fruitless plans to destroy him for his humiliation of them. They never understood that Simon was a hard but fair master. After a punishment or reprimand, his rage was forgotten and he treated the disciplined person as he had before whatever they'd done to displease him.

  "Several weeks... a month at most. I leave Mikal in your most capable hands," Simon said with a cool grin t hat showed he respected Adelaide enough to believe she would honor her word while he was gone and not take advantage of his absence to contact Meghann.

  "Simon, wait," Adelaide said before he could close the tower door. "I am writing to Meghann this night and I wish to enclose this for Elizabeth. She must know of her father if she is to love you."

  "Adelaide," Simon said softly at the antique miniature painting she pulled out of her pocket. It had been painted in 1590, when Simon was almost thirty years old, three years before he transformed. "Good nurse, I know your intentions toward me and mine are beyond reproach, that any action on your part stems from love. Send the miniature to Meghann that she may show it to Elizabeth."

  Adelaide smiled and left the tower to carry out Simon's bidding, knowing the praise was as close as Simon would come to apologizing for his behavior.

  She also knew Simon had only written to Meghann once since he left her, despite the many letters Meghann sent him concerning their daughter's progress. Some might view Simon's behavior as cold but Adelaide knew he simply couldn't bear a correspondence with Meghann knowing he couldn't see her. A clandestine visit to Meghann and Elizabeth was out of the question—part of Mikal's present security stemmed from the other vampires of the world believing that Elizabeth was Simon and Meghann's only child. The immortals felt nothing but contempt for the mortal baby and left her and Meghann alone, believing Lord Baldevar's seeming abandonment of them showed they were no threat.

  Adelaide sighed; she knew what it had cost Simon to leave Meghann just when he'd finally gotten her to accept him again. She also knew Simon's intentions for Mikal were good, wanting the child to grow tough and capable, but couldn't he see that he was going to turn Mikal into a monster?

  Adelaide was not scared of the death Simon had promised her if she went to Meghann with her fears. She would go ahead and inform Meghann anyway if she thought it would benefit Mikal, but she knew Meghann didn't have the same sway over Simon's mind as she had over his heart. Simon might not listen to her any more than he did to Adelaide.

  Right now, Adelaide could see only one path available to her. Simon had to spend a great deal of time away from this island to protect his wealth and make sure his enemies did not forget his power over them.

  When he was away, Adelaide would attempt to instill in Mikal the love and sensitivity Meghann wished her son to have.
She would also work on easing Simon away from his current position that any softness would spoil the child.

  If that didn't work, then God help them all for Adelaide knew very well who Mikal's first victim would be if she didn't find a way to stem the remorseless evil she sensed in the child—the vampire that made him what he was. And if Mikal was successful in slaughtering his father, then there would be no one in the world to check him or keep him from destroying everything in his path ... no one at all.

  One

  Sixteen years later

  Ellie Winslow slammed the glass door behind her and stalked down the mirrored hallway, muttering to herself in ominous tones while she waited for an elevator. She continued her one-sided conversation when the elevator arrived at her floor then made a swift descent to the lobby. One might expect sidelong looks from the other passengers, but this was New York and if a well-dressed young woman carrying a black leather portfolio wanted to talk to herself, that was her business.

  Ellie had just finished a job interview for a position as an intern-architect with results as disappointing and frustrating as those of the other five interviews she'd had this past week. Each one was an identical, galling experience—the senior architect who deigned to interview her would praise her portfolio, compliment her excellent grades at Cooper Union, smile approvingly at the enthusiastic letters of recommendation she'd received from her summer internship position last year and her thesis advisor, ask a few halfhearted questions about her goals and what she thought she could bring to the firm, then smile and send her on her far from merry way—never to be heard from again.

  Ellie whirled through the revolving doors, thinking whoever designed this copycat chrome monstrosity should be beaten to death with his or her own drawing board. She knew the reason she wasn't getting hired anywhere, though none of the companies had dared say it aloud—they were holding her age against her. No matter how talented she was (and Ellie had no false modesty about her work), how many design competitions she'd won, no one seemed to want to hire a seventeen-year-old... even one who'd been accepted to Cooper Union on a full scholarship as their youngest student

  Was it her fault she'd been born with a 175 IQ? Ellie thought wrathfully, feeling some calm return to her when she breathed in the crisp, cool air more suited to early fall than June. She decided that rather than return home with her tail between her legs and endure yet another chin-up pep talk from Uncle Lee, she'd head over to Central Park for a while.

  Scowling at the horse drawn carriages Ellie felt exploited animals, she headed toward the lake, purchased a nicely salted pretzel from a passing vendor and then slumped on a park bench, disdaining I he grass because it would ruin the cream silk blazer and culottes-style skirt she'd chosen to wear for the interview.

  Ellie chomped on her pretzel furiously, ruminating that this whole miserable job situation was based on nothing more than bad luck—something Ellie hadn't experienced much of in her seventeen years. She'd managed to find a position at a small residential architectural firm back in October, on the strength of her senior design thesis. But then in February, the CEO suffered a fatal heart attack and his widow promptly sold the firm to a large monolith that had no interest in hiring such a young architect

  Ellie's cell phone shrilled in her purse and she briefly considered not picking it up. But there was always the remote chance the caller could be offering her a job so Ellie fished the phone out of her bag. "Hello?"

  "Ellie, this is Professor Barrett. I have wonderful news, my dear. I think I may have found a buyer for your design thesis. So tell all those uninspired fools that refuse to hire you that you've just netted a commission that easily equals the annual salary for an intern-architect."

  "Omigod!" Ellie yelped, a radiant, delighted smile dissolving her sullen expression. "When? How? Who?"

  "I was at a party last night," her thesis advisor explained. "I met a delightful man who told me he wished to build a beach house but he hadn't been able to find an architect who understood what he wanted—something eclectic and dramatic that jumped out at passers-by, something full of imagination and daring. Naturally, I thought of your house immediately and I told him a bit about it and you. I've set up a meeting for eight this evening at the studio. He simply couldn't break any of his business engagements to meet you earlier. I do hope that's all right with you, dear."

  If Ellie had a one hundred five degree fever and two shattered legs, she would have said the night meeting was fine and she'd be sure to make it. "I'll be there. What's this man like? What's his name?"

  "A charming British fellow ... rather odd for one of that race to appreciate organic architecture. By the way, you have my permission to shoot the Earl if he tries to impose Chesterfields and floral chintz on your house. That's right, dear—you might have a genuine aristocrat living in your beach house if he chooses to buy the design. He's an earl. .. Lord Simon Baldevar."

  "Lord Simon Baldevar?" A queer kind of stillness settled over Ellie, followed by a searing rush of feeling tearing into her with the impact of a nuclear explosion. Had her professor really uttered her vampire father's name so casually? No, it was not possible that after seventeen years of unsatisfied curiosity and waiting, Simon Baldevar was simply going to wander into her life as a prospective client. He'd left Ellie and her mother when she was only six weeks old, taking her vampire twin brother with him. Her mother and father had decided to raise their children separately so Ellie, their mortal baby, could have a normal childhood.

  A normal childhood—what kind of starry-eyed optimism made her parents believe she, the child of vampire parents, could have anything resembling a normal childhood? Oh, it had been a happy enough childhood, interesting and diverting, but never normal.

  How can you be normal when you grow up accepting as fact things most people consider mere fantasy? One of Ellie's earliest memories was holding her arms up and crying, "Do your magic, Mommy!" as her mother used telekinesis to lift Ellie up off the ground and spin her round and round their twelve-foot Christmas tree. How could a child be normal when she grew up counting the hours until darkness fell and her mother would rise from her daytime slumber? Worse, Ellie could never even acknowledge her mother to any of her mortal acquaintances and she had to be so cautious as to what she was allowed to discuss that Ellie eventually decided it would be easier not to discuss her home life at all. The one relative Ellie could speak of safely was her homosexual, adoptive father, Lee Winslow.

  Even putting aside her vampire progeny, Ellie herself had never been an average child. She was considered precocious and ahead of the curve even in her exclusive school for gifted children, being placed in the third grade at the age of five and completing high school before she turned twelve. Being so much younger than her classmates assured Ellie's ostracism at school. She was only able to make friends with the rich children that made their summer homes in Southampton, careful to disguise her intelligence as they engaged in noncerebral activities like swimming, sailing, and horseback riding.

  The lack of friends hadn't disturbed Ellie overmuch. She was a solitary person by nature, preferring the company of her sketches and erector sets to other children. Besides, Ellie would always consider her mother her best friend. How could she ever feel lonely when Meghann lavished so much attention on her? Nighttime had always been devoted to her mother and their excursions together.

  Still, Ellie had always thought that the one person who might understand her feelings of exclusion from the mortal world, the world of normalcy and tradition, was Mikal. Only he knew what it was like to be almost a new species, the only living children of vampire parents. Had their parents ever thought she and Mikal might have needed each other and shouldn't have been separated?

  Ellie had confided these thoughts to her mother and Meghann replied that she'd never have allowed Ellie to grow up in the kind of isolation that was necessary for Mikal's safety. It would have been lonely and dull to a degree Ellie couldn't even imagine, Mom told her. There would have been no art c
lasses, no interaction whatsoever with anyone but her parents and her twin. Mom said she'd be damned before her daughter lived the life of a virtual shut-in. Such an existence might be necessary for poor Mikal, disfigured, as he'd been when he was an infant; mortals

  and other vampires alike would try their best to kill him if they found him and Daddy. "Ellie!"

  "I'm sorry, Professor Barrett," Ellie said, her advisor's impatient shout cutting through the chaos in her mind. "What did you say?"

  "No need to apologize; I know you're a bit bemused," the professor said indulgently. "I just asked whether you know Lord Baldevar ... you seemed so surprised when I said his name."

  "No," Ellie said slowly, her hands shaking so badly I nearly dropped the phone. "I don't know him." I only know of him. I know what my mother and Uncle Lee and Uncle Charles tell me about him. What I don't know is how he feels toward me. This absentee father had sent her lavish presents on Christmas and her birthday every year she could remember, and cards arrived on those occasions, too, cards that were informative and indicated some interest in Ellie's activities but nevertheless impersonal—not one of the letters mentioned love. Ellie wanted to believe the gifts demonstrated her father's love for her, but they could just as easily be a desultory gesture of obligation on the part of a creature that had no use for his mortal offspring. That was Ellie's deepest fear, that she'd managed to disappoint Simon Baldevar simply by being born human. Meghann had always done her best to assuage these fears, telling Ellie her father loved her dearly but he wasn't overly demonstrative, the way Mom and Lee and Charles were.

  "Well, you're about to know him very well," Professor Barrett said cheerfully. "See you at eight."