Chasing Shadows (A Shadow Chronicles Novel) (41 page)

He sighed. “I promise you, my daughter, I do not know what has become of your beloved. Although I can understand why you would suspect me, I do not know why you would think he is here.”

I stared for a long moment,
then
warily I relaxed my grip on his neck and lowered my hand. Diarmid raised one of his own to rub his throat, which was no doubt very sore.

“I followed him here,” I said. “Even were it not for the blood bond I created by drinking from him, I’ve no doubt our pair-bond would have led me to him. He is here, I can feel him here.”

Diarmid’s eyes flickered when I mentioned having tasted Mark’s blood, but he didn’t remark on it. “I did not bring him here, nor do I know who could have. Certainly no one on my staff would have done this, and the only other person who lives here is Evangeline.”

I froze, feeling my blood run cold as the horrible truth suddenly dawned on me, and I recalled the words I had spoken to Lt. Parks hardly twenty-four hours ago:

“
Evangeline can be a bitch, but she’s a cunning bitch. If she were going to try and get back at me for something, she’d be a lot more subtle than setting my barn on fire. Trust me, Lieutenant, you’re barking up the wrong tree on that one
.”

A cunning bitch indeed, I thought with increased dread, for her to have orchestrated a scheme like this. Subtle hardly described it—not one of us had suspected her in the least, and yet suddenly I knew in my gut she was the one behind it all.

“Where is her room?” I called over my shoulder, already running up the stairs.

“Third floor,” my father called, dashing up the stairs behind me.

“Saphrona, Father—wait!” Lochlan called out.

By that time I was already on the second floor landing, though I did spare a moment to look back at him. “Lochlan, I have to go!”

He started up the steps, Juliette at his side. “Stop and think for a moment, sister. If Evangeline is truly behind all this, she’s not going to hide Mark in her room—I daresay she wouldn’t even bring him in the house, or Father and his staff would have smelled him by now.”

Diarmid looked at me. “I’m afraid he has a point, daughter,” he said slowly. “I have not enjoyed his scent since last evening when your sister and I visited you at your home.”

“Damn it!” I shouted, swinging at the vase full of flowers that sat on the decorative table on the landing. I briefly thought of the fact that it had probably been a very expensive vase, but I didn’t care, and Diarmid, for his part, didn’t even bat an eyelash. “I
know
he is here, I can feel him!”

“Does this castle have a basement?” Juliette wondered.

Diarmid nodded and began to descend the stairs again. “There is, and it does have an outside entrance,” he said, swinging past her and through the doorway into the formal dining room.

I was only a second behind him, but it was long enough that I was surprised when the unmistakable sound of a gunshot rang out and he fell backward into me. His full weight slammed into my chest and knocked me backward into Lochlan. My brother and Juliette both shouted in alarm as we all fell, and I was pushing Diarmid’s still form off of me when a male vampire—the guy from the theater again—appeared in the doorway, the gun in his hand pointed squarely at my chest.

His sneer was the last thing I saw before he pulled the trigger, and I had just enough time to curse the sudden failure of my supe-sense before I blacked out.

*****

I awoke to the feeling of a booted foot kicking me in the stomach. I coughed and blinked, and tried to breathe past the pain in my shoulder—which was far worse than the pain in my stomach. My right shoulder and side felt as if they were on fire, or at least like I had swallowed something hot without allowing it time to cool a little.

“So, Saphrona, you’re awake,”
came
my sister’s voice. “So glad you could join us.”

I looked up as one of her goons, whom my mind dubbed Movie Theater Vampire (as it was that jerk who had been kicking me) backed away with a snide smile. I noticed that I was restrained to the wall with one-inch thick silver chains, as were Lochlan and Diarmid—this must be the place they had brought Juliette to torture her. The silver wasn’t burning me as it was them due to my dual heritage, but it did chafe and it did bleed strength from me as it did any other vampire, making it near-impossible for me to break free—my brother and father had to be in agony right now.

I didn’t see Juliette anywhere, but across the room from me was Mark, who was chained to the wall as I was. His shirt had been removed and he’d clearly suffered a beating, but his healing factor seemed to be doing its job. When he smiled weakly at me, my heart swelled.

I was just happy to see that he was alive.

“I’m sorry, Saphrona,” he said.

“Oh, lover boy speaks!” Evangeline said, clapping her hands and giggling like a little girl. “First words he’s said since he got here—how very rude to not even greet your hostess. Martin, do please remind him of his manners.”

Movie Theater Vampire was apparently named Martin, and after offering me another sneering smile, he walked across the room and swung his fist into Mark’s stomach.

“Stop it!” I screamed. “Leave him alone!”

Vangie walked over to me and slapped me hard. Her smile was toothy, her fangs extended, the look in her eyes wild as I turned my head to face her again. “Martin obeys only me,
sister
,” she said, spitting the last word in my face as if it tasted bitter. “Hit him again.”

She stood watching me as Martin punched Mark twice more. I strained against the chains binding my arms over my head, all pain forgotten as I watched Mark suffering.

“Evangeline, stop it. Stop this insanity,” I said.

She giggled madly again. “My dear sister, you think this is insanity? You think what I’ve done is madness?” she queried rhetorically, stepping back from me and gesturing around her. “No, no this is not madness. What is madness is someone who defies her creator, who spurns the love of her father even when he offers her the simplest of gifts. You were a fool to turn away from this life, Saphrona, for it could have made you richer than your wildest dreams—all you had to do was accept what you are and embrace it!”

“I think I’ve done quite well enough on my own, thank you very much,” I spat harshly, my own fangs dropping as my anger increased.

She laughed. “What, you mean your silly little farm? Breeding livestock? Selling the sperm of your stallion and your bull? Selling pigs?” Vangie wrinkled her nose in disgust. “That is no life for a vampire, a goddess among men. For the life of me I cannot fathom how you could live the same lifestyle as your food.”

“Funny, I don’t recall living in the barn and shitting where I sleep.”

She came over and slapped me again.
“Humans, you idiot!
Humans are your natural food source!” For good measure, or just because she could, she slapped me a third time.

Then she turned her attention to Lochlan and our father, who were chained to the wall beside me. “Now, while it was foolishness for you to debase yourself to living like humans, my sister, true insanity lies with these two.”

“Lochlan and Father?
How are they crazy?” I asked.

Evangeline grabbed a handful of Lochlan’s hair and jerked his head back, slapping him twice—I noticed then that he had also been shot, but like me his wound was not mortal. He was wide awake and staring at our nutjob of a sister with a hateful look in his eyes. Diarmid, I saw now, had been shot in the heart, and was hanging limply from his chains. I found that I was deeply concerned for him, even though I knew he was not truly dead. He would recover in three days’ time.

That is, if we made it out of this dungeon of Evangeline’s alive.

“How are they crazy, Vangie?” I asked again.

She spun to face me. “Because they loved you!” she screamed. “You looked down your nose at them, like you were so much greater than they were for your ability to give up human blood. You rejected our father, refused to see him or speak to him—you told him you
hated
him over and over again—and
still
he loved you! That is not sanity, it is madness!”

“Madness, my dear Evangeline, is being jealous of someone because they are loved,” Lochlan said.

This time when she struck him, it was with a back-handed swing that left his nose bleeding. Lochlan looked back at her with narrowed eyes.

“You did all of this—the attack on Mark at the movie theater, the barn, the animals, Juliette being tortured—you did all of that because Lochlan and Father love me?” I asked incredulously. “You’re a fucking lunatic!”

She ignored me, to my surprise, smiling as she said, “Truthfully, the movie theater incident was all Martin here. He was only supposed to follow you and report back, but I guess he just couldn’t resist trying for a taste of this beautiful man of yours.”

Evangeline sauntered over to Mark and stood close to him, rubbing her body intimately against his as she nuzzled his neck and fondled his crotch. I growled, straining again to break free as I screamed at her.

“Get away from him, you bitch!”

She cast me a sideways glance and smiled wickedly, licking his earlobe before she disengaged herself. “Yes, your Mark does taste very good,” she purred, drawing her finger across the blood under his nose and sticking it in her mouth to suck. “Anyway, Martin here has a bit of a score to settle with Mark and our dear brother, which is the only reason this hunk of man-meat hasn’t been drained dry as of yet. Of course he will be in due time, but not for a while.”

“Where is Juliette?” I demanded, ignoring the spike of fear that shot through me at the thought of Mark being drained of his blood.

“Oh, the bitch?”
Vangie said with mock innocence, before she gave me yet another evil smile. “I imagine that Peter is enjoying having his way with her, since he was denied the privilege yesterday.”

Both Lochlan and Mark roared at this news, and Evangeline laughed as she looked at our brother. “Oh, this is marvelous!” she cried, clapping her hands together again.
“A
vampire in love with a lowly, disgusting, shapeshifting dog woman?
Oh, this is too much!”

She threw back her head and laughed heartily, joined by Martin, who sobered long enough to say, “Perhaps I should join him. After all, the dog is rather lovely for a shifter, and I
am
a man who has always appreciated a fine pair of breasts…”

“Go, my darling,” Evangeline purred. “Have fun.”

Lochlan strained against his chains, lunging after Martin as far as they would allow him to move. “I’ll kill you! I swear to God I will
kill
you!”

Martin laughed again and headed through a door on the wall to my right, shutting it closed behind him.

Vangie stared after him a moment, her expression amused. “I was a little disappointed when I heard the horses had survived,” she said, her tone indicating she had been only mildly so. “After all, I told him to make sure
all
those filthy animals burned. But my Martin still recalls his younger sister’s fondness for those ugly beasts, even if the little brat has been dead a hundred years. He released them in her memory before setting that barn of yours on fire. Oh, how I wish I could have been there—I would have enjoyed hearing the screams of panic from those wretched creatures!”

“And Juliette?”
Mark spoke up. “Why did you have her kidnapped and tortured, hmm? What purpose did that serve?”

She turned to him. “It’s simple really, my good man: I wanted to rattle your cages a little more. She was a means to an end, and my boys had a great deal of fun with her, trying to teach that dog to obey her masters. I imagine, though, that the lesson plan has changed for today’s session.”

“You really are psychotic,” I said.
“A complete and utter lunatic.
What makes you think you’re going to get away with any of this?”

“Oh, but don’t you see, dear sister? I already have!” Vangie cried happily. “You all are here, chained in my secret little room in Father’s basement, and you are completely at my mercy—not that you’ll get any, of course.”

“And just what do you propose to do with us, hmm? Starve us to death? You know that won’t work,” I sneered.

“Perhaps not Lochlan or Father—maybe not
even
you, what with you being part vampire and all. But I can leave you down here indefinitely, wasting away into nothing if I choose.”

My eyes flicked across the room to the man I loved.
“And what about Mark?
What do you plan to do with him?”

“Yes, what indeed?” she said, tapping her chin with a manicured nail as she turned and looked him over. “I could drain him—his blood is undeniably powerful and alluring. I had the most difficult time not killing him instantly, let alone keeping my boys off of him.

“Oh, but that would be such a waste,” she went on with a sigh. “No, I think what I will do with this delectable man is to keep him here, taking a little bit of his blood every day. It will make me invincible!”