Crimson Shadows Read online

  “So he cult leader must charm his devotees by exploiting their weaknesses and becoming sort of a father figure?”

  “Something like that,” Meghann said, and then the conversation shifted, focusing on Mickey’s early graduation from Oxford.

  “What are your plans now that you’ve finished school?” Lee asked and Meghann gave Charles an impish look, both of them smothering a laugh at how adult and staid Lee sounded when he grilled their daughter’s boyfriend.

  Mickey grinned sheepishly and shrugged “At the moment, I’m weighing my options, which is a tactful way of saying I don’t have the foggiest notion of what to do with myself. I’ve thought of pursuing law, starting my own business…everything and nothing. Me and my Oxford degree will probably wind up inquiring earnestly whether the customers would like fries with their order.”

  Everyone laughed and Meghann saw what had charmed Ellie, Mickey’s deprecating sense of humor. Meghann had to admit she liked the boy herself. He wasn’t what she’d look for in a man and she thought it unlikely he and Ellie would remain involved long, given how young they were, but he was a fine choice for her first boyfriend. Meghann grinned at Elle and Ellie smiled back, basking in her mother’s silent approval.

  “Would you like to stay for dinner?” Charles asked the young couple. “We’re making your favorite, Ellie: fettuccine Alfredo.”

  Ellie shook her head and explained, “We’re going to the movies…the show starts in about twenty minutes. Then we’re meeting some friends after.”

  “No time for old folks,” Charles whispered sotto voce o Meghann, who punched him playfully in the arm.

  The three of them walked Ellie and Mickey to the front door where Mickey grasped Meghann’s hand, all his twinkling humor gone, replaced by grave earnestness.

  “You have a good house,” he said, meeting Meghann’s eyes squarely. “Full of love and happiness. My own parents…well, they’ve been on the outs for years and I never felt such warmth and love…no matter if you are somewhat unconventional.” Mickey was referring to the careful lie the Lee had adopted Ellie and her ‘sister’ from a biological mother that died years before and raised them with his lover. “I hope you’ll welcome me back, Maggie. I like it here.”

  “Of course, Mickey,” Meghann said warmly, liking this earnest boy more and more. “You’ll always be welcome here.”

  “Maggie!”

  Meghann’s eyes fluttered open and she stared up at Jimmy, pulling her into a sitting position and holding a glass to her lips.

  “Thank God,” Jimmy muttered as she became more alert. “I thought I’d lost you…you were out cold.”

  “He tricked me,” Meghann said, sipping the absinthe to put some warmth in her ice-cold body. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it…”

  “See what? Who Mikal was?”

  “More than that,” Meghann said, though she was appalled that in that entire meeting neither she nor Charles had any idea they were conversing with another vampire. Mikal was so young…what would he be capable of as he matured? “I made Simon’s spell worthless…Mikal was able to get in here today and abduct Ellie.”

  “What are you talkingabout?” Jimmy said and helped her over to an overstuffed easy chair. “I thought the house was barred to all vampires…”

  “…that weren’t invited,” Meghann finished. “He made it all seem so innocuous, standing on the threshold to the house and grasping my hand while he asked me to make him welcome. Perfect location, perfect timing to repel any later spell. Mikal could come in here today because I, the mistress of the house, held his hand and told him he was always welcome in my home. Fuck!” Meghann screamed in frustrated self-reproach. “How could I not have the slightest idea what Mikal was? How he was manipulating me?”

  “It’s done,” Jimmy said, unable to offer any kind of comfort. “What we have to concentrate on now is getting Ellie back from him, before he kills her.”

  “He’s not going to kill her.” Meghann said. “Mikal is keeping her alive as bait…he wants me and Simon, all of us, to come charging after her. Then, if he succeeds in destroying us, no one stands in his way.”

  Turning away from Jimmy, Meghann glanced at the blank computer screen. “Jimmy, turn the computer back on. Much as I hate it, I have to see if there’s any clue as to where Mikal is keeping Ellie. And Simon…where’s Simon? We have to start planning...”

  “He’s gone…took Lee with him and vanished.”

  “Gone?” Meghann asked incredulously. “What do you mean, gone? How could he leave and why would he take Lee?”

  “Gone,” Jimmy snapped and Meghann saw his anger was directed at Simon, not her. “And don’t ask me where he went because I don’t have the slightest fucking idea. All I know is you started to scream and passed out and then he…I went over to you, to try and revive you, and when I looked up, he and Lee were gone.”

  “How long ago did he disappear?” Meghann demanded, suddenly knowing exactly what had happened. Her brief unconscious spell hadn’t been a result of overworked nerves—Simon had reached into her mind and forced her to sleep while he went to deal with Mikal on his own.

  “Three hours ago,” Jimmy said, confirming Meghann’s suspicions.

  “We have to hurry,” Meghann said and rushed over to the computer, cursing when she saw the mangled hard drive, a hopeless tangle of wires and metal.

  “Damn it!” She banged her hand down on the leather-paneled desk. “There was a clue in that E-mail…Simon knows where Mikal and Ellie are. He’s gone to battle Mikal but he wants me out…damn him! I won’t sit here and pace helplessly while my husband and daughter are in danger. And Lee! Why did Simon take Lee with him? He’s so sick, not even transformed…how can Lee help him against Mikal?”

  Jimmy shrugged and said, “Is there some other way you can find Ellie? I mean, you’re her mother…I know there’s a link between the two of you.”

  “Yes,” Meghann said, her mind buzzing furiously. “Come on.”

  “Where?” Jimmy asked, sounding strangely apprehensive to Meghann.

  “Ellie’s bedroom,” Meghann said, taking the oak stairs three at a time. “It has the most recent psychic impression…that’s where I’ll connect to her. Just pray we’re not too late. Simon has a three-hour head start on us. We need to hurry, Jimmy.”

  Meghann paused at the door to Ellie’s room and gave Jimmy a rushed list of commands. “I need every weapon we have…the magnum and the .44, at least two bowie knives for each of us, and two axes. You get everything together so we’re ready to leave as soon as I find out where Ellie is. Go on, hurry!”

  Meghann watched Jimmy’s retreating back for a moment, wondering why he suddenly looked so uncertain, and then shrugged the thoughts away as unimportant. What she needed to concentrate on was finding Ellie.

  Meghann entered her daughter’s room, took in its musty odor, unmade sheets, and for one horrible moment thought Mikal had raped Ellie before he abducted her. But as Meghann concentrated on the room and its psychic residue, she discovered to her appalled, outraged dismay that Mikal wasn’t Ellie’s only lover.

  Jimmy skulked around the house uneasily, gathering the weapons Maggie requested into an all-purpose black canvas duffle bag. He kept waiting for some kind of shriek when Maggie’s senses informed her of what had happened in Ellie’s room last night. It was too much to hope that Maggie, in her grief and worry, might not discover he and Ellie were lovers.

  But minutes crept by with excruciating slowness and there was no furious scream, just an ominous silence. Finally Jimmy had everything they needed and no reason except cowardice to avoid going back up to Ellie’s room and confronting Maggie.

  It wasn’t that he was ashamed of what he’d done, though he knew he should be. Jimmy loved Ellie, and fully intended to marry her. But he didn’t want to face Maggie now, with Ellie missing.

  Ellie should be here…only she could convince Maggie that Jimmy had not taken advantage of her, like that bastard Mikal had. Jimmy felt no dis
gust at discovering Ellie’s first lover was her twin brother. No, that was wrong. Jimmy felt marrow deep, instinctual horror, but it was all directed at Mikal: Ellie was just his helpless victim. Jimmy wouldn’t turn Ellie away, he just wanted to find her and hold her, tell her they’d get over what her brother had done to her together.

  Quit stalling, Jimmy told himself and headed for the stairs. What kind of Knight in Shining Armor was he going to be for Ellie if he couldn’t even face her mother and make her accept that he and Ellie were in love, wanted to get married?

  At the base of the stairs, his eyes firmly cast on the floor; Jimmy noticed a small slip of paper lying by the front door, right underneath the mail slot. There was always a chance he was wrong but Jimmy would swear that red square with Gothic black lettering hadn’t been there when Maggie and Lee came home.

  Jimmy snatched the heavy paper up and opened the front door, screaming, “Why didn’t you put it in my hand, you chickenshit motherfucker? Even your old man doesn’t sneak around like this! And Ellie told me you’re a lousy fucking lay, too!”

  Jimmy’s challenge went unheeded, no psychotic young vampire popped out of the dunes to attack him. Then Jimmy glanced at the flyer in his hands and wondered if he were mistaken, if some hapless mortal solicitor that would think a crazy man lived in this house had just left this.

  He’d show Maggie, Jimmy decided, get her take on it.

  “Maggie,” Jimmy called as he poked his head around the half-open door leading to Ellie’s room, forgetting his apprehension in his eagerness to show her his discovery. “You’ve got to…”

  That was all Jimmy got out before a hand yanked his hair and used it to fling him halfway across the room.

  “What the…” Jimmy stammered before a foot connected solidly with his ribs, breaking at least two of them.

  Jimmy grunted, having no time to absorb that irritating blow before a flat palm smashed into his nose, pulverizing it.

  Jimmy made an effort to get up and Maggie sent him back down by kicking him in the neck, all the while screaming some inarticulate diatribe of rage. Jimmy caught only a few phases—“perverted piece of shit” and “child-chasing asshole” among them.

  Shit, Maggie knew what had happened and her reaction was exactly what Jimmy had predicted to Ellie, right down focusing the brunt of her assault on his testicles.

  “Listen to me,” Jimmy grunted, making a grab for her hair to pull Maggie off him.

  “Listen to you?” she spat and he felt real fear at the white-hot fury blazing in her eyes, turning them to green glass. “Listen to some…some sneaky, sleazy, lowlife that hits on an innocent child? I’ll kill you, you sonofabitch, I’ll kill you!

  “No,” she suddenly contradicted herself and hopped off him, though not before giving him two stinging slaps, back and front handed, across the face.

  “I won’t kill you at all,” she said in a nasty purr that chilled Jimmy. “I’ll tell Simon what you’ve done and let him decide the best way to destroy you.”

  Now Jimmy knew how betrayed and angry Maggie was…if she’d willingly hand him over to Lord Baldevar.

  “You don’t understand,” Jimmy said, knowing he was pleading for his life.

  “You’re right,” Maggie snapped, looking at him like he was a loathsome crust she’d found on the heel of her shoe. “I don’t understand and I don’t want to understand. I never want to understand the workings of your sick, twisted mind—you’re as bad as Mikal. Worse, because I trusted you…I thought you were my friend, an Ellie’s as well. I never thought you’d…you’d use my child, an innocent girl that’s loved you all her life, to settle whatever score you think you’ve got with me and Simon.”

  “I didn’t use her!” Jimmy screamed, insulted and hurting more from Maggie’s dismissal of him than any of her physical blows. “I love Ellie. I love her and we’re going to be married.”

  If he thought that statement would win him any points, that hope was brutally dashed when Maggie burst into cutting, sardonic laughter that made her sound exactly like her Simon Baldevar.

  “You think I’d let Ellie marry you?” Maggie asked, sounding like she’d bless the union of Ellie and an open sewer before she gave her daughter to Jimmy. “I will find her. Jimmy, and save her and when I do, believe me she’s going to do better than you. I won’t let Ellie ruin her life and devote herself to some pathetic, emotional cripple. What is it, Jimmy? Instead of me, now you want Ellie to hold your hand through eternity because you’re too weak to make it on your own? Booze or a girl…Jimmy always needs some crutch to get him through the night.”

  “You fucking poisonous bitch,” Jimmy said, past shame and well into fury that matched that of the woman glaring down at him.

  With that comment, Maggie lunged at him but this time Jimmy threw her off and then held out the bowie knife he had at the small of his back before she could attack him again. “You’re going to listen to me, Maggie.”

  “Or what?” she laughed humorlessly. “Think you’ll win Ellie over by killing her mother?”

  “I don’t want to kill you, Maggie,” Jimmy said, not entirely truthfully. “I just want you to listen to me and I’m holding this knife out to keep you off me while I speak my piece.”

  “I have no interest in anything you have to say.” Purposefully, Maggie turned her back on him. “You’re dead to me, Jimmy Delacroix. Now get the hell out of my house and don’t ever come back.”

  Jimmy didn’t move one step toward the door. “What the hell would you know about love? How dare you condemn me and Ellie after hooking up with Simon Beldevar?”

  “There is no you and Ellie, you fucking child-molesting creep,” Maggie snarled, whirling around. “I don’t want my daughter having anything to do with you.”

  “Well, she wants to have something to do with me just like I want her,” Jimmy said and brandished his knife again when Maggie’s hands curled into claws.

  “We love each other…in a good, positive way. Not that you’d understand anything like…I don’t have to drink her blood to get it up.”

  “Get it up?” Maggie retorted, now looking sickened, as well as outraged. “You think I want to hear about you getting your dick hard for Ellie? You sick, twisted fuck…when she was a baby, you wanted to be her daddy and now you want to be her…Jesus, I don’t know what!”

  “Her husband,” Jimmy said firmly, trying to meet Maggie’s eyes but she wouldn’t even look at him. “And not because I need someone to hold my hand…what a cheap shot that was. Like you don’t need Simon Baldevar to chase after you when you lose your mind and take off without a thought for anyone but yourself. If you’d stayed put last night, Ellie might be here now!”

  Maggie’s face crumpled and Jimmy saw all the fight go out of her. She slumped against the picture window and when Jimmy saw her mouth and eyes fractionally scrunching up and down, he knew she was trying not to cry.

  “Jesus, Maggie,” Jimmy said and tossed his knife to the floor. He didn’t go over to her, not because he feared more fighting but because he thought he wasn’t worthy to comfort her. Talk about cheap shots…how could he say something so vile to Maggie when she was so worried about Ellie? “I’m sorry. I never should have said that. You’re a vampire, too. None of us could have done anything to protect Ellie during the day…it doesn’t matter where you were.”

  Maggie said nothing and Jimmy plowed on, determined to make her understand what happened. “It’s not what you think, Maggie. Ellie…I never would have touched her if I didn’t love her, if I didn’t think we could have a relationship.”

  “She’s so young,” Maggie said but her words lacked the heat of a few minutes ago.

  “Aren’t you three hundred years younger than Baldevar?”

  Maggie shrugged. “More or less. But Simon wasn’t around when I was growing up. My mother didn’t count him as an honorary father.”

  “Lee is Ellie’s father,” Jimmy said, discounting Lord Baldevar completely. “You know that. After I knew it was
over between us, I didn’t spend that much time here. Certainly not enough to be a father.”

  “But how can you see Ellie that way?” Maggie asked, looking genuinely perplexed.

  “I don’t know,” Jimmy shrugged. “I have no answer except that it started last night…when I came back. Ellie was an adult, no longer your baby. What can I say, Maggie? She’s everything I want…smart and tough and talented…like you.

  “Not that I want her to replace you,” Jimmy said quickly. “Sure, Elli’s a little like you..you’re her mother. But she’s different..we’re different. I always depended on you, Maggie. But with Ellie…it’s like we depend on each other. We complement each other. I can see us together years from now, helping and supporting each other. I don’t need her to hold my hand, Maggie. I want to hold hers, I want to find her and comfort her and help her get over Mikal. She and I…we have something between us, something magical I can’t explain.”

  Maggie looked up at that, seeming surprised and no longer angry. She gave Jimmy a sad smile. “That’s what love is, Jimmy. A special bond only the two of you understand, something that can’t be presented to or analyzed by anyone else. Maybe now you’ll understand my feelings toward Simon a little better.”

  Jimmy would always think Maggie was selling herself short as far as Baldevar was concerned, but she was right, he did understand. He understood what it was to care about someone so much you’d defy every convention, kick over every obstacle just to be with them.

  “So it’s okay? Jimmy asked.

  Maggie gave him a wary glance and shook her head. “I don’t know, Jimmy. I need time to think about this and I certainly need to talk to Ellie. I want to hear from her that she feels the same way, that she’s ready for the kind of commitment you want. But I…I don’t think you’re using her or that this is something cheap and tawdry. Just give me time, Jimmy.”

  Jimmy nodded. “Will you let me help you find her?”

  Maggie laughed bitterly and gestured to the empty room. “I don’t exactly have an army at my side. I need all the help I can get.”