Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1) (29 page)

The old man never took his eyes off the road, but his head dipped just a tiny bit.
“All right. Since someone’s after you an’ all. But then right to the hospital afterw’rd.” He nodded firmly, emphasizing his point. With that settled, she relaxed against the seat and felt everything just give out. Her eyes fluttered closed and the comforting vibration of the truck cruising down the gravel country roads pulled her under. The rest was just darkness.

Chapter 14

A
cacophony of muted voices and phones ringing echoed in her aching head. As she started to wake up, her entire body flared to life in blinding, mind-numbing pain. Her head throbbed mercilessly and her face felt cold. It was ten times worse than waking up in Duncan’s basement. A groan escaped her lips as her eyes tried to flutter open. The lids felt impossibly heavy and the bright florescent light blinded her. She heard motion somewhere to her right. The sound sent her heart racing. Her eyes flew open and she tried to move away from it, her body screaming in protest.

“
It’s okay, Lilith. You’re safe.” The voice was soft as silk, soothing, but it wasn’t Chance. Finally her eyes focused for an instant on Detective Cohen’s almost handsome face as it loomed in front of hers and then everything went blurry again. “You shouldn’t move. You’re pretty banged up.” His steady hands reached out, repositioning an ice pack on her face as she begrudgingly started to relax into the soft leather of a sofa. There was a look in his eyes, something dark and haunted that made her think that ‘banged up’ was the politically correct version of the truth.

“Where am I?” Her voice sounded r
ough and husky, her throat burning from the bile. Still, it was nothing compared to the intense pain throbbing in her head. She fought down wave after wave of nausea and struggled to stay conscious.

“You’re at the police station. I was flying down country roads, following the GPS signal on your phone, when a red pickup truck waved me over.” She glanced up at his soft brown eyes and saw genuine
worry and concern in them. It actually kind of surprised her. Between their odd conversation and Coffee’s comments, she didn’t exactly expect compassion from him. “I think you frightened that old man half to death.” His smile was so warm that it almost made her forget his abnormally small chin.

“I guess he wasn’t expecting a half dead woman to come stumbling out of his barn.” She tried to smile but it ended in a wince of pain. The stiff muscles of her face throbbed painfully and she remembered all the abuse it’d taken. First hitting the steering wheel, then Spencer’s teeth shattering punch, a slap so hard it’d probably left a massive bruise, not to mention the vicious head butt to Spencer’s nose.

Her tentative fingers moved along her cheeks, feeling the swollen, tender flesh. She groaned and let her shaky hand fall back to the couch. “Great.” She mumbled, mostly to herself. “Now I really look like a domestic abuse victim.”

Cohen bit off a snort of laughter and handed her another icepack for her face. “How’s your head?”

“It feels like I went fifty rounds with Mike Tyson.” The cold ice pack felt like heaven on her burning skin.

She heard him shift next to her, probably sitting on the ground next to the couch. When she opened her eyes again, his face hovered near hers, not enough to invade her space, but definitely close enough so he couldn’t be ignored. His mouth was drawn in serious lines, jaw clenched tight, definitely angry.

“What happened? I got a call about a security truck crashed in a ditch. That yours?”

She nodded her head, which was a huge mistake. Pain flared through her so sharp that her vision swirled and she had to struggle to stay conscious.
She fought the sudden urge to throw up and leaned back. “Uh, yeah. I borrowed it.” After a deep breath, which burnt like fire thanks to the most likely broken ribs, she opened her eyes again. “Chance has the keys to the rental car.”

“You didn’t just run off the road. So what happened?” His eyes were all business and fire. No way was he going to let this go. He knew at least something about the family. Richard seemed to think he knew about their race. There was no certain way to tell if he was an enemy or an ally, but right now she needed help. She had no choice.

“It was… Spencer, Duncan’s son.” Something passed over his face, but she couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. “If you want the whole story, you have to tell me who you are. I know you aren’t just some human detective. I know you’ve been investigating Duncan. Tell me why, because right now I need an ally and I’m guessing that you need information that doesn’t apply to your…police business.”

The Detective sat back on his heels, a smile playing across his thin lips.
Somehow it completely transformed him. It was an expression that belonged to that odd gracefulness of his more than the sweet, good little detective. “You’ve been doing your homework.” The heavy southern accent was gone, leaving the twinge of something vaguely European.

There was a long pause as he considered her carefully. She was starting to think he wasn’t going to say anything at all when he finally continued.
“My family sent me up here a few months ago. They’ve been searching for a key to some old book for centuries. Apparently it contains a little too much information about my family for their comfort. So they’ve been tracking down the author and anything they can find on it. They narrowed it down to Duncan. That’s why I’m here. I was planning on approaching him, civilly, to discuss the matter once I was certain he was the one I was looking for. Now he’s gone missing.”

Lilith studied his face carefully as he talked. There were flashes of mild resentment
, maybe for being sent on this mission, even an air of rebellion. Somehow she didn’t think he felt this book was as important as his family did. Still, everything he said seemed true by his facial expressions. Of course, she apparently wasn’t as good at reading people’s faces as she thought these days. Spencer sure had her fooled.

“I’m not here to hurt you or your family, Lilith. I can be your ally. It’s important
for me to find Duncan alive.”

“So you are a vampire then?” The smile that crossed his face when she asked her question sent chills down her spine.
She knew the answer before he even opened his mouth.

“No. I’m not a vampire and I’m not human. There are more things out there than you realize, Lilith. What I am is not important. I can help you and your family
, and in return, you can help me find what I’m looking for.”

She didn’t have any choice. It may come back to bite her in the ass, assuming she had an ass to bite after all this, but she was out of options.
Painfully, she pushed up on the couch just enough to not be flat on her back. Even that small movement was more painful than chewing on a mouthful of glass. “Then get Chance out of holding, bring him here and I’ll tell you what I know.” She pressed the ice pack against the opposite side of her face, hissing a breath as it touched the bruised skin.

Without any hesitation, Cohen pulled himself up and stalked purposefully through the door. She noticed the odd kind of grace to his walk but couldn’t quite figure out what it reminded her of.

Lilith glanced down at her clothes and groaned. Her dark green button up shirt was torn, frayed, not to mention completely caked with mud and blood. Her jeans hadn’t faired any better, neither had her feet for that matter. The tops were caked with dirt and splotches of blood. They ached and burned. She was pretty damn sure she didn’t want to see what the bottoms looked like. When her fingers tried to dig through her auburn curls, they were instantly tangled in a bloody, frizzy, snarling mess. She dug a hair band out of her pocket, wincing the entire time, and just threw it into a hasty bun. Then she pushed the ice pack back against her face with a sigh. This was definitely not her best day ever.

The noise and intense throbbing in her head was growing louder and more painful with every second.
Something was wrong. Very wrong. She closed her eyes, leaning into the ice packs, taking shallow breaths and trying desperately to make it all stop.

A few minutes later the door swung open. Lilith tried to turn but her muscles screeched and she just held the icepack to the worst of the pain. Chance loomed into view and the look on his face said it all. He was white as a sheet, tears stinging his eyes red, and his jaw clenched painfully tight.

“You look great too.” She croaked and moved the ice pack to the left side of her face so she could see him better.

Chance sank to the floor next to her in a boneless heap.
“Oh God, Lily.” The pained tone in his voice made her want to cry. His hand caressed over hers, just about the only part of her body that wasn’t in immense pain. “I should have been there.”

“Why? So you could
almost get killed too? It’s not your fault, Chance.” Her voice wavered as the tears she’d been fighting welled in her eyes and tightened her already sore throat.

His eyes hardened as the door closed. With his jaw clenched and tension pulling his body tight he looked up at whoever was at the door. She assumed it was Cohen. “
. You’re right.” Chance’s voice sounded hollow and wooden. It made alarm bells ring in her ears. Of course that could have just been the severe concussion. “It’s his fault.” Chance surged to his feet, his hands balling into fists at his sides.

Cohen moved right past him with
out a care in the world and pulled two cheap office chairs over to the couch she was stretched out on. He completely ignored Chance and sat down, keeping his eyes on her. “Your fiancée is here. Can we move on to what’s going on now?”

She saw the tension in Chance’s shoulders, saw the tiny movement and knew he was about to
crack the Detective in the jaw. It was the worst thing he could possibly do. “Chance. Don’t.”

He snapped his head toward her, his chest rising and falling a little too quickly.
“Why? It’s this assholes fault that I was in lockup while someone was trying like hell to kill you. Why are we even wasting our breath right now? He obviously doesn’t give a shit about what’s going on!”

“
Just don’t. We need his help and the last thing you need to do is punch a cop in a police station. Take a seat, please.” Chance just stood there trying to burn a hole in Cohen’s face with his intense glaring powers. A fresh wave of pain sent Lilith reeling and she let out a horrible moan that caught Chance’s attention. When he really looked at her lying there in so much pain, all the fight drained out of him.

He glanced back at the chair next to Cohen
then back at her. Reluctantly, he and sank down on the floor next to Lilith, opting for the maximum amount of distance from Cohen.  He focused completely on her and the struggle to do something, anything, was plain on his face. “This isn’t all from a car crash is it?” Apparently, Cohen mentioned at least that to him on the way in here.

“
No, it’s not. Spencer is working with our nameless enemy.” Chance’s eyes went wide. She continued before he could say anything. “He called me while I was at the lab. I told him I’d found some kind of ticket…” She stopped herself and glanced at Detective Cohen. Just how much was she going to tell him? For now, simple was best. “I told him the police were probably looking to get a statement from him. He said he’d head over here right away and then we hung up. That ticket I found was a plane ticket, Miriah’s, for a flight from Knoxville to New York City on Monday night.”

When Chance just stared at her blankly she explained. “She left with
Malachi. Duncan must have sent them both to New York. Spencer had to have followed them up there. They managed to get that letter to me, but they never made it to Gregor, which I assume was their real goal. Spencer killed Malachi, beat Miriah’s face in and dragged her back here. He didn’t kill her though, that would be our nameless villain, the one that attacked me at Duncan’s. It fits all the facts. He didn’t tell Miriah to pick us up. By that time he was on his way back to Tennessee with her as a prisoner. There’s no way he’d be able to get her on a plane. He had to drive, which would explain why it took him so long to meet us at Duncan’s in Madisonville.”

“His own family?”
Chance looked completely disgusted. “How could he do that? And you?” His throat tightened and choked off his words. He closed his eyes and leaned forward, composing himself as his fingers twined through hers. The warmth of his fingers gave her something to concentrate on besides her battered body. “What did he do to you?”

Lilith adjusted the ice pack again, moving it to another part of her face.
The noise in her head was definitely getting louder. So loud she could barely hear Chance‘s voice. Her stomach churned angrily as her vision swam. “He has a lifetime of resentment. He’s like one of those rebellious teenagers that shoots up a school because he felt his sister got more attention.”

She couldn’t keep the disgust out of her voice. “This old enemy of Gregor’s must have seen his dependent nature and cultivated it. It’s something that’s developed over years. The way Spencer talked about him… he’s like a father figure to him. It’s a million times worse than him just working for the guy. He’s commit
ted to the cause, heart and soul. He’s seeking the approval and validation that he never got from Duncan. He won’t stop until he’s dead. Even worse, Spencer knows everything about us and Gregor. He also knows that I was at the lab, testing the blood sample.”

That sense of doom settled over her shoulders again, making her aching body shiver.
She wanted to curl up in a ball, wrapped up in Chance’s arms and let the world disappear for a while. She wanted to sleep more than anything. The aching in her head was getting worse and somewhere distantly she knew it wasn’t all the concussion. She’d lost a lot of blood.

Chance’s fingers squeezed against hers and he finally opened his eyes, staring right into hers. “What did he do to you, Lily?” She knew answering that would only send him flying into a rage, which is why she ignored the question the first time. The firm line of his jaw clearly stated that he wasn’t going to let it go.