Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1) (15 page)

The bright light flashed over Lilith again and she blinked at the painful light. “
Don’t your woman speak?” There was a ton of contempt in that little sentence that made her skin crawl. “You have a license on you, Miss?”

Lilith dug into her aluminum kit and pulled out her trifold. It held her driver’s license along with her city forensics office badge and ID. She reached over Chance and handed it to the cop. “Here you go, Officer.” She smiled sweetly and the muscles under Humphrey’s eyes tightened. Finally he grabbed the wallet and flipped it open.

His expression changed instantly, contempt slowly replaced by something a tiny bit friendlier. “New York City Forensics team, eh?” He carefully looked over her license and badge in silence for a few minutes that seemed to stretch on forever.

Finally he shined the light back on her and directed his calculated look at her.
“I reckon you’re smart enough to know when someone’s no good.” The sentence took her totally by surprise. Her mouth dropped open as she fought for something, anything to say.

Before she could, the cop handed the
wallet to Chance and Humphrey fixed him with a hostile glare. He leaned into the window and pointed a finger right in his face. “You better wizen up, boy. If I had any right to bring you in, I would. You might think that kind of thing is all right, down here in the south, but I take it very seriously. Watch your step, boy, and get this young woman home…safe.” The officer stormed away from the car and back to his cruiser.

Lilith s
ank back against the seat with her heart racing. “What the hell was that?”

Chance turned to her with a brilliant smile and started laughing when the cop car peeled off the side of the road with a roar of power.
He tossed her trifold wallet into her lap and leaned against the steering wheel, trying to breathe through the laughter.

Lilith stared at him open mouth
ed. “What the hell is so damn funny?”

Chance just tapped the right side of his head and kept laughing.

Her eyes went wide and she yanked down the mirror above the sun visor. The pale light from the cosmetic mirror light up the myriad of colors along the right side of her face. The foundation she’d used to cover it up was all gone and the sickly yellows and faint purples along her temple definitely didn’t look like a fashion statement. “Shit.” She hissed and twisted over her seat, reaching for the front pocket of her bag.

She flopped back down in the seat and started smoothing the concealer over it again
while Chance just continued to laugh. “Oh come on,
cher
. That was funny as hell. Between my knuckles and your bruises…”

She paused to glare at him and went back to smoothing out the makeup. “You wouldn’t be laughing if he decided to haul you in to jail, or worse.”

That stopped the laughter and Chance blinked with a sobering look. “True.” His face cracked into a crooked grin. “You should be smart enough to know when someone’s no good.” His impression of Humphrey’s thick southern accent was pretty spot on and it pulled a smile out of her. She looked over at him and shook her head, laughing softly.

“Well at least he got one thing right.” She tucked the bottle into her jeans pocket and snapped her seat belt back into place. “Let’s get to Miriah’s office, before another cop comes by and accuses you of being a w
oman beater.”

The drive was pretty quiet, but not awkwardly so. It was a comfortable silence that felt familiar and warm.
Lilith stared out the window, watching the lights pass by as she thought about that kiss. She didn’t want to talk to him about it yet. What Chance told her, about her father, settled like an uneasy weight on her heart. She never thought he would be so controlling, but then, when she really, truly thought about it, it made sense.

Duncan’s notes held hints about Gregor’s past, some horrible tragedy. That alone would be enough to make Gregor fiercely protective. If she really looked like his daughter, Mary, who
was the victim of some unnamed crime, then it stood to reason that his protective urge would be on hyper drive.

However, the fact that she was a pureblood being a factor in Gregor’s thinking, that shocked her more than anything. Her father had never lectured her on the purity of the blood line. There was no vampire soapbox that he rallied around. She could barely think of more than a handful of times that he’d even really talked about what they were, as a species. Why would it suddenly be so important to him that he’d threaten Chance’s life? Did he suddenly have an attack of vampire planned parenting?

Lilith only knew who her father was to her, and for her entire life, she thought that was all that mattered. She never questioned his past or his motives, she simply accepted him.
That’s what kids do. They blindly love their parents, or was it just her? How can you really accept someone you don’t truly know? The very thought that her father might have this whole other side made her stomach churn. She needed to look through that tin. Duncan said the answers were in there, but somehow she knew there would be less answers and more questions.

She thought about Spencer and wondered. Was it better to really know your father and resent him? Or was it better to be blissfully happy because of your ignorance about who he is? When her phone rang, it startled her out of her thoughts. She jumped in her seat and dug into her pockets. Chance glanced quickly at her before returning his attention to the
SUV in front of them.

She stared down at the caller ID for a moment and had an unreasonable thought that Gregor could read her mind or something. She clicked the answer button hesitantly.
“Dad?”

“Lily, Alvarez came to see me.”

Malachi’s smiling face from all the photos littering the apartment flashed across her mind and she sighed softly. “I’m glad he was able to tell you in person.”

“Arrangements have been made and
Malachi will be taken care of. The…coincidence is unmistakable. Did Miriah know he was here in New York City?”

Lilith cursed under her breath. She should have called Gregor and updated him after they heard from Spencer
, but she’d been distracted. “Miriah… is missing as well. A lot has happened and I’m following every lead I can.”

There was silence on the line and Lilith winced. “Are you okay, Lilith?” Gregor’s voice was firm and commanding even without using her full first name, which he rarely did.

She hesitated and that was enough. She knew that if she said she was fine now he wouldn’t believe her. Best to bite the bullet now. “There was an attack last night when we were investigating the Madisonville house. Chance saved my life.” The smile in her voice couldn’t be missed. “I’m feeling much better now. There’s no need to worry.”

They pulled up to another red light and Chance looked over at her with a faint trace of panic in his face. “I’m glad I sent him with you, then. As for worrying, my nephew’s body is lying on a slab, so I think we are well beyond worrying.
What leads do you have?” This was the straightforward business voice that Lilith rarely experienced, and it rubbed her the wrong way.

“Duncan had a lot of notes, I’m still going through them, but I found a few encrypted notes that mentioned someone named Mary. He sounded desperate and hopeless in his notes. He mentioned something about the past coming back for the two of you. Apparently Miriah was helping Duncan with his research
recently. I didn’t find anything at her apartment so I’m heading to her office with Chance while Spencer searches Malachi’s real estate office.”

Another long silence stretched across the phone line. She thought the call dropped and was about to check the phone when Gregor finally spoke up. “What did it say about Mary?” His voice was quiet and small.

“Just that she was your daughter and that something really horrible happened to her. There weren’t any specifics. Is there something I should know?”

“
Nothing specific. At least not anything that could possibly affect your investigation. I do think you two should come home right now.” His voice sounded casual but there was an undercurrent that was adamant.

“I can’
t do that, Dad.” Her jaw set into a firm line and her whole body stiffened in the seat. There was no way she could leave with Duncan and Miriah possibly alive out there somewhere. She couldn’t leave Spencer to unravel and fall into madness trying to find them. Gregor sent her here with a job to do and she was going to do. “I know you are feeling protective because Malachi is dead, but that’s all the more reason for me to keep digging. Miriah and Duncan are in danger.”

His voice was like a smoldering iron, burning hot but calm. “Lilith Marie Adams
, you and Chance get on the next plane out of Knoxville right now or I will send someone to get you. This is not a negotiation. It is a direct order.”

Maybe it was all the things about Gregor being revealed everywhere she went. Maybe it was the illicit kiss that she would never take back.  Maybe it was all the perfectly good reasons why she had to stay and finish this. Whatever the reason, rebellion
roared through her. “No.” Surprisingly her voice didn’t shake once, even though her entire body trembled. She never talked back to her Dad. They’d always been close, or so she thought. “I’m not going anywhere. I am not leaving Tennessee when Miriah and Duncan are out there, possibly alive. I have a job to do here. Send someone if you want but I’m not leaving. Now tell me what this has to do with Mary?”

There wasn’t a single pause in her father’s voice, but the anger was definitely something new. “This has nothing to do with Mary. Duncan has been losing his mind, Lilith. Malachi is dead. I want you here. I can’t protect you from whatever is going on from here.” There was a pleading that edged into his voice. Her father, her perfect father was scared.
That alone made her hesitate.

“No. I’m finishing what I came here to
do.” She hung up the phone before her nerve gave out. Chance was staring at her like he’d never seen her before. Her phone rang and she turned it off. The car behind them honked and Chance snapped forward moving through the intersection.

“I can’t believe I just did that.” She wasn’t really talking to Chance, her hands were shaking and
she flexed them, willing them to stop. She took in a steadying breath and her confidence returned, along with the anger. “I’m right and he is wrong this time. The over protectiveness has to stop. He sent me here to do a job and I’m doing it.” She looked over at Chance who was silently staring forward. “He isn’t always right, Chance, and he was wrong to threaten you.” She let out an aggravated growl and slumped back in her seat.

Chance pulled the car into a parking space in front of a small little unit in a nice strip mall. He sat very still in his seat, obviously torn between saying something and saying absolutely nothing. “Don’t pick a fight with Gregor because of me. At the end of the day
he is still my boss and more than that. If it wasn’t for him I’d probably be dead right now. If he managed to cut me off from any assistance it’d be very hard for me to survive.” His soft brown eyes, with their green flecks, turned to her and there was sadness in them. “I carry a torch for you, Lily, and I probably always will. That kiss…”His voice trailed off as the corners of his mouth lifted into a grin. “It was amazing, life-alteringly amazing, but Gregor is pretty serious.”

Lilith frowned at him and grabbed the door handle. His hand on hers stopped her and she turned back to face him. “No. I am not 16 years old. I’m not going to be ordered around like some mindless debutant by you or Gregor. It is not about you, Chance. He’s dead wrong to order me to leave when his own brother and niece are still out there.
He’s acting out of fear and so are you.”

She wrenched her hand away from him and his face looked wounded, which only made her angrier. “If you want to hide behind Gregor’s threats
because it’s safer, then fine. Don’t go lecturing me about my life choices when you hide in isolation and let your boss determine every aspect of your life and then call it noble. Call a spade a spade. You can keep your damn torch.” She swung the car door open before Chance could respond and slammed it on the sound of his voice.

She closed her eyes and took a steadying breath, willing the trembles and anger to stop. She needed to think clearly and nothing was helping. Chance finally dragged himself out of the tiny car and Lilith turned away to stare across the parking lot. She didn’t want to see the pain or the anger in his face right now. She just couldn’t deal with it. She felt his eyes on her back though. She felt bad for snapping at him like that, but nothing she said was a lie. It was all truth.
Brutal truth maybe, but truth nonetheless.

Anger still burned through her veins, anger and hurt. He opened this flood gate because he couldn’t hold it all in, but he didn’t want to actually do anything about it. How was she supposed to just walk calmly away knowing what she did now? How could he just resign to some fate determined by someone else? Oh, she was worth pinning over but not worth fighting for?

It was selfish. He couldn’t hold things in so he had to unload on her, tell her everything. She was sure he felt a hell of a lot better, but now she had to deal with his baggage. Dammit. She needed to focus on the case, not all this emotional drama. Gregor should have sent Timothy or Gary, anyone less distracting. This was precisely why she didn’t seriously date anyone. It was all just fickle emotions that peter out into ashes leaving her to clean up the mess. Men like to complain that women are nothing but drama, but truth be told, men were the complicated emotional wrecks more often than not.