21 Shades of Night, page 248
“Sutherland would not want to turn on his own kind unless he thought he had a fighting chance and a good enough cause. He doesn’t have a good cause like I do.” Ephraim reached over, lifted her hand to his mouth, and kissed her.
Alena shook her head.
“Well, don’t you agree?”
“Ah, but you have two wenches at your beck and call—Mona and me.”
Glad Alena seemed to be teasing to break up the tension the situation had created, Ephraim took a deep breath. “Aye, and to think I have to keep them both satisfied.”
Alena hmpfed in a lighthearted way and punched in David’s number, hoping beyond hope she could get hold of him now. Her blood still pulsed too rapidly from having been in the vampires’ lair. But no one seemed to have seen her nervousness, thank God.
“Hello?” Alena said into the phone when there was no response, and yet the line was open. Dread filled every pore.
“Hello?” a voice finally responded. Kisaro’s voice. Her heart fluttered, nearly stopping.
“Where’s David, Kisaro?” Alena asked, venom lacing her words.
Ephraim pulled the car off the road and stopped.
“Safe for the moment. David hasn’t been terminated because the Brotherhood hasn’t agreed to killing all hunters and huntresses... yet.”
She tightened her grip on the phone. “Then you’re in agreement that all of my kind need to die.”
“I want Ephraim’s secret project,” Kisaro said, ignoring her remark.
Her mouth gaped. “Ohmigod.” She turned to Ephraim. “Kisaro wants your secret project. He’s got David.”
Lousy damn bargain. Ephraim wouldn’t want David released when her cousin was interested in marrying her. Wouldn’t Ephraim prefer that Kisaro eliminate the risk to her safety instead?
“Elizabeth?” Kisaro asked when she didn’t respond.
Ephraim held out his hand for the phone. “Let me speak with him.”
She handed the phone to Ephraim, figuring a vampire to vampire talk might have better results. But right now she wished she was speaking face to face with Kisaro so she could see his facial expression, his body stance, read him better.
“What is it that you want, Kisaro?” Ephraim asked, as Alena listened to the conversation with her enhanced hearing.
“I want what you have that will enable you to return to the past.”
Kisaro knew about the formula? Hell, did everyone but her?
“For what purpose?” Ephraim asked, watching Alena. She was sure her face was red as angry as she was that Kisaro had taken her cousin hostage.
“That’s my business.”
“It’s unstable and may not work, Kisaro.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“In exchange for?”
“For your love of Elizabeth. I’ll return her cousin to you.”
Ephraim ground his teeth. Alena reached over and squeezed his hand, wanting him to do the right thing, wanting him to know she stood behind him.
He clasped his free hand over the mouthpiece. “No telling what he wants to change in the past.”
“Is there a way we can find out where David is without giving up your secret project?”
“I’m not sure.” He spoke into the phone, “Meet me at my place in an hour with David.”
“No. You could give me any kind of elixir. If it doesn’t work, David dies.”
She knew Kisaro would have no regrets either.
“And if it does work? What happens then?”
“Like I said, that’s my business.”
“Meet me in an hour.” Ephraim clicked the phone off and returned the car to the road.
“There can’t be any kind of a drug that can send you back in time, Ephraim,” Alena said, not believing there truly could be. Yet if such a thing could be possible, did it mean Ephraim truly planned to kill all of her clan during Elizabeth’s time?
Ephraim’s jaw remained set, his eyes narrowed while he stared out the windshield.
“Ephraim?”
“Isobel was a self-professed witch, my Campbell aunt, affected by the plague like me. She was a healer amongst our clan. But I...” Ephraim ground his teeth and furrowed his brows.
“Ephraim?” Alena ran her hand over his taut neck muscles.
“I wanted you back no matter what.”
Her stomach muscles tightened. “You didn’t promise your soul or anything, did you?”
“Nay, lass. I wanted only to make the world a better place with you at my side. I was her favorite nephew. She couldn’t stand to see my heart torn over my lost love.”
“But you said it can be unstable. Does it truly work?”
“Aye.” His lips remained a thin, angry line.
He’d used it? Why the hell hadn’t he told her? “What happened?”
“I didn’t go back early enough. It was Elizabeth, but not her... a later version, like you, lass. I was only there long enough to feast my eyes on you, then lose you again.”
Her eyes wide, she asked, “When did you lose me before?”
Chapter 22
DRIVING TO MOLLY’S place, Ephraim tightened his grip on the steering wheel. Alena figured he was debating how to tell her the news as to when he remembered her before and it wasn’t an entirely happy memory. She almost wanted to spare him, but she wondered if she’d recall the time also if he could refresh her memory.
“Do you remember a time when you wore a flapper-era dress? A time when you visited a speakeasy?” he finally asked.
She stared at him, but she didn’t see Ephraim while she tried to dig up some distant memory. “I don’t remember.”
“Think, Alena. You wore a silky emerald dress and a long string of pearls. Fringe dangled down your shapely legs. It was the first time I’d seen so much of them in public.” He frowned. “I didn’t like the way men ogled you.” He took a deep, consoling breath. “And you wore some kind of a gold lace hat—”
“A cloche hat, lined with ecru silk and... and there was a band of ribbed metallic gold fabric that matched the lace. I hated those hats. They made nearly everyone look like a pin head.”
“But you didn’t cut off your hair like a lot of the women did.”
“I don’t remember. It was... it was a dream, Ephraim. I never cut my hair short. I imagined that’s why I dreamt it wasn’t shortened.”
“Nay, you didn’t dream it. You were there. It’s a memory, lass.”
She ran her hand over her lap. “The dress had knotted silk fringe on the skirt and dipped lower in the back. It bumped my legs when I danced.” She stared out the windshield. “The room was filled with jazz music, smoke, and conversation. We drank cocktails in teacups in case the cops raided the place.”
“Aye, and you danced the Charleston and the Tango... showing off all of that creamy skin of yours. You can’t know how that affected me. I’d never seen you in public so naked. Your arms and legs were bare while you danced with a man dressed in a knee-length raccoon coat. Set my blood afire.”
She smiled at the memory of the tall, gaunt man who towered over her and looked ridiculous in the coat, then frowned. “But I don’t remember seeing you.”
“The place was crowded. It took me forever to find you. Then all I could do was stare. You were beautiful and not yet mine. You wouldn’t have remembered me, and my heart sank with the notion. I didn’t know how much time I had to get to know you before the events occurred that would take you away from me again. All I knew was I needed to speak to you first and try to jog your memories as quickly as I could. Then the cops poured into the building.”
Alena remembered more of the details as if she lived them all over again, her skin prickling with the memory. “Women screamed and men shouted. Everyone stampeded for the exits. No one wanted to be carried off in paddy wagons and sent to jail. But earlier that day, I’d terminated a mob boss, a ruthless vampire. I remember because it was a day of celebration, and I wanted to do something exciting and new.”
“You hadn’t been to a speakeasy before?”
“I had, but never before to this one. As I recall, I’d had a fight with my uncle sometime earlier that night. I’d been living with him because my parents had been killed in a car accident when I was little. My uncle and I had fought...” She paused to attempt to recollect. “He... wanted me to marry someone who was bringing liquor down from Canada because... my uncle owned a speakeasy, too. I didn’t like the man he wanted me to marry, but he was Scottish and a good friend of my uncle’s. But way too old for me. So out of rebellion, I went to the other speakeasy.”
“Aye. I couldn’t fathom why you’d gone there. I found out later, the owner competed with your family’s business.”
Her skin chilled with the return of the partial memories. “What happened when the police arrived? I barely remember—”
“When everyone attempted to flee, you were knocked down in the ensuing scramble. By the time I reached you, you had multiple fractures. I wanted to take you somewhere safe and make you mine all over again.”
“I remember feeling crushed and in terrible pain.” She stared at Ephraim’s eyes. “A doctor visited me in a hospital room.”
“Aye.” He grinned and wiggled his brows.
“He had a Scottish accent.”
“No telling why they’d give medical licenses out to any old bloke on the street.”
“You weren’t a doctor.”
“Nay, lass. I wasn’t family either, but I had to see you.”
“But I didn’t die.”
“You couldn’t from broken bones. You would have healed if...”
“My family hadn’t killed me again?”
He took a deep breath and stared out the windshield as the car ate up the pavement on the way to Molly’s home. “Not that night. When your uncle found out you’d been injured in the raid on the competitor’s club, he returned you home two days later and locked you up. The other club owner hired thugs to kill everyone in your uncle’s home that night, once he discovered your uncle was muscling in on his territory by informing the cops of his illegal liquor sales.
“Locked in your room, you couldn’t escape when the house burned to the ground. Without invitation, I couldn’t get into your house. I tried everything, informed the fire department, called the police—the windows were all barred because of the location of the house. Your uncle kept you locked in an inside room, no windows, no chance of escape. Gas fueled the flames that ate away at the hundred-year-old house. No one made it out alive.”
“You couldn’t save me,” Alena said under her breath, realizing no matter how much Ephraim loved her, even he couldn’t change the outcome for her.
“I found I couldn’t save you no matter how much I tried. I could only glimpse what I desired more than life itself. I wanted to take you away. Keep you safe, love you like I’d loved you before. But it was not to be. I had no urge to kill or fight, just to love you as I have always done,” he said, his darkened expression filled with regret.
“You couldn’t kill my family then,” she responded, more to herself than to him.
Part of her still worried he’d intended to kill them because it was the only way he could keep her for his own. The League’s condemnation of Ephraim, he’s a rogue vampire and must be eliminated after you locate his secret project, still troubled her.
“Nay, lass. I wouldn’t kill your family. I desired so to return to you when I’d known you first. To a time when you remembered me. To blood bond and break the cycle. But the potion wouldn’t cooperate. I thought if I drank more of it this time, I would go back to the right moment. But my aunt warned me it would take me to you, to see you again, but I wouldn’t have control over it. It must be that I can only return to a place and time that you occupy, but there are no guarantees I can save you.”
“My family didn’t kill me though during the Prohibition.” She hoped Ephraim was wrong about the curse.
“Aye, they did. If your uncle hadn’t informed on the other club, encouraging or maybe even bribing the cops to raid it, if he hadn’t returned you home and locked you in your room, you would have lived.”
She swallowed hard, still not quite believing that Ephraim could have traveled back in time, nor that her own family would kill her in a cycle that was destined to repeat itself for all eternity. “But if Kisaro uses this potion, what will he do?”
“No telling, lass. He has always been a troublemaker.”
“Would it take him to me in the past, as it did to you?”
“I wouldn’t think so, though it would concern me if it did. My aunt died last year, so I can’t ask her what would happen. I haven’t any idea what it would do to someone else. It might take him back to a time where he desired something badly. Or maybe not. My aunt was always very mystical about her powers and potions. She was like the sphinx, full of riddles, but with no answers for the one who wanted the answers. It was up to the individual to discover the truth of what could be.”
“Power is what Kisaro would want, don’t you imagine? We can’t give him the potion. And yet...” She poked a curl behind her ear. “What if anyone who used it could only return to the past, but not alter it in any way? What if you could only see me as Elizabeth, but couldn’t have me, or kill my family, or make any changes that might alter the future?”
Ephraim studied her for a moment, his dark eyes intense. “Aye, you may be right, lass. Perhaps that’s what my aunt tried to impress upon me, but I couldn’t see it for wanting you so badly. Still... what of David? Kisaro won’t be against killing him, despite his saying the Brotherhood hasn’t sanctified it. Make no mistake. He wants that potion and even if he can’t change anything by going back he won’t believe me—”
“If we don’t give it to him, he’ll keep David alive for the time being. Don’t you agree?” She had to be certain because if Kisaro forced their hands, she would do just about anything to secure her cousin’s life.
“Aye.”
She tapped her cell phone. “Does Sutherland know about the potion?”
“Nay, I wouldn’t think so.”
“How does Kisaro know?”
“I told Cybil and she must have told him.”
“Oh?” Instantly, Alena’s blood heated with jealousy. She hadn’t meant for her voice to elevate so though. Hell, the vampiress was no longer a threat to her, but the fact remained he had told her about the potion when he hadn’t let Alena in on the secret—why?
A hint of a dark smile curved Ephraim’s lips. “I told her how much I wanted you back. I don’t think she ever forgave me for mentioning it.”
No wonder the vamp had had it in for Alena. “I would think not, if you gave her the impression you were interested in her.” Which couldn’t help but irk her.
“Aye.” Ephraim reached out and touched her cheek with tenderness. “It was the reason she wouldn’t have anything more to do with me.”
“Good.” Served him right for making love to the woman when he was supposed to be in love with Elizabeth, and only Elizabeth, all these centuries.
“I take it you still want to go to Molly’s house and convince her to rally the members to permit us an equal voice on the League, Alena?”
“Drive south of the city, Lafoy Manor, 321 Lakeview Drive.”
He pushed the button on his cell phone, then handed it to Alena. “Good luck with Sutherland.”
She was certain she’d need more than luck, but she couldn’t think of any other option. She figured Sutherland was high up in the Brotherhood hierarchy as disgruntled as he was with the League’s rules, and with the number of vampires who seemed to be at his beck and call. If she could convince him to go along with Ephraim and her plan, she was certain Sutherland could influence a good number of the rogues who were targeting the Hunter League’s firstborn to stand down.
When he answered the phone, Sutherland’s voice was light and unconcerned, laughter and talking at the party still evident in the background. “Elizabeth? Calling so soon? Is Ephraim around?”
“Right here beside me.” She patted his leg as if Sutherland could see.
“Ah, then we’d better keep this strictly business. What is it you wish of me?”
“Kisaro is holding my cousin, David, prisoner. Can you get his release?”
A brief pause ensued. She suspected now that Sutherland had had no knowledge of Kisaro’s actions.
“The hunter David MacLeod? He’s on a vendetta to kill all members of the Brotherhood. If Kisaro has eliminated the hunter’s ability to harm us, I applaud him. You must understand my feelings in this matter.”
Suspecting he’d feel that way even if Sutherland hadn’t ordered Kisaro to take her cousin hostage, Alena chewed on her bottom lip, trying to come up with a winning argument to convince Sutherland it was in his best interest to help them. Would he want Kisaro in charge of the Brotherhood, if that was Kisaro’s intention? She doubted Sutherland or the others of their brethren would want to bow to Kisaro’s wishes. After all, if they already hailed him as their leader, he wouldn’t need to return to the past, would he?
She gave it her best bluff and hoped like hell he’d fall for it. “Who’s the leader of the Brotherhood, Sutherland? Are you ready for a revolution within your own ranks?”
Chapter 23
AT HIS MANSION in Baltimore, Sutherland laughed heartily over the phone, the noise at his vampire bash suddenly quieting in the background while Ephraim sped down the road toward Molly’s house, intent on getting the Hunter League to back their plan of equal representation amongst the hunters and vampires. Of any of the senior members of the League, the retired huntress would be the most agreeable with change.
Alena ground her teeth in frustration. She had to make Sutherland listen or none of this would work.
“Wouldn’t the League like to know who the leader of the Brotherhood is, dear Elizabeth?” Sutherland asked, his tone silky soft, with a hint of darkness.
She cut through the bull at once. “What if Kisaro can change things so he’s the leader? How would that affect your plans, Sutherland? Would you and the others want to follow his leadership?”
