Passion And Fire (Passion #4) (43 page)

Fabian’s expression darkened. “How do you know Flame? It would seem that you have her at a disadvantage. While you may know her, it’s quite clear that she doesn’t know you.”

“Oh that’s easy. Flame’s my half-sister.” She said, dropping a bomb that had everyone’s eyes swinging from her to Flame. No wonder she looked slightly familiar. Now as Damien studied her more closely he could see that there were some similarities in the shapes of their faces, noses and although the eye colours were a little different; the shape of them too were alike. The question of course was where the hell had she come from, and why show up now? Flame seemed quite shell shocked so she obviously knew nothing of her.

“How…how can you be my sis...sister?” Flame asked. “I...I  don’t remember ever being told I had a sister and there’s no way you can only be ten or eleven years old, which is how long it’s been since I saw my parents.”

“Oh we don’t have the same mothers. Our father had an affair while he was still married to your mother. He wouldn’t acknowledge me though. He wanted nothing to do with me. My mother died years ago and he refused to take me in so I was passed around foster homes until I was old enough to get out on my own.” She shrugged as if she was telling them something that was no more interesting than what she intended buying at the supermarket.

“How did you find me and why are you here?” Flame asked, still staring at her half-sister in bewilderment. Damien hated to see her looking the way she did. Why did all this shit have to happen now? She was happy, they were happy, she was working again; she’d learned to control her natural urges and then it was the crap from her parents and now some surprise half-sister.  

“Oh, your mother and our father tracked me down out of the blue about a year or so ago. Seems he’s been in trouble with the law and was after money. I don’t have any, well not the kind of money he’s after. He’s not a very nice man but you know that. I wanted nothing to do with him, but he wouldn’t leave me alone. Then he found out what I was.” She gave a fleeting smile at them all.

This was getting more and more bizarre by the minute as far as Damien was concerned. Fabian was glued to the woman though, never taking his eyes off her. “So what are you? What you mean he found out what you are?”

“Oh I’m a visionary.” She shot them that fleeting smile again.

“Which means what exactly?” Fabian prompted.

“I can see things, visions. I can see things that are coming; I can see the future I guess you could say. It can come to me suddenly or often it happens in dreams. I saw all of you and I know who you are, what you are and what you have done.” She said, casually and quietly dropping that bomb on them all.

Fabian’s expression gave nothing away. “Perhaps you could explain that to all of us.” He said.

“Well obviously Flame is my half-sister. It was our father who found me and then he insisted I help him find you.” She grimaced as if biting into something unpleasant and Damien suspected she wasn’t too fond of her father. “He can be very insistent too.”

“Your father has some ability like you, does he? Can he see the future too?” Fabian asked.

“Oh no, he’s not a visionary; he’s nothing really. He’s the same as Flame actually just not very good at it. He’s stubborn and has fought his ability all his life I suspect. It’s like the saying goes, Use it or lose it.”

Flame leapt up at that. “Are you fucking kidding me? That bast…our father is a telekinetic like me?” She began to pace before stopping again. “You still haven’t told us who you are. We know what you are and that we’re half-sisters but what’s your name?”

“Faith, my name is Faith, Faith Baxter. Nothing fancy unfortunately.” She gave that fleeting smile of hers again. “I always wanted a pretty name, something exotic. You at least have a name that fits your appearance. Flame suits you with that red hair.”

“So Faith, please tell us what you are doing here. What do you know about us.” Fabian’s voice was quiet and when Damien looked over at him, he was watching Flame’s younger sister with an expression that was almost tender. He snorted to himself because he got it too. There was something so sweet and innocent about Faith, it brought out that desire to protect.

“Father wanted me to find you Flame which I did and that’s why they were at the club in the car park that night. They saw you.” She grinned at Damien. “You were having sex in public. Not a wise thing to do, given what you all are.”

“What are we?” He asked.

She giggled a soft musical sound. “You’re all vampires of course. I know that you are Fabian.” She turned to his sire. “You are with Sirene.” She smiled at her. “You are Damien.” She pointed to him. “You’re with my sister but you haven’t been together long and she hasn’t been vampire long.”

“So you helped your father track down Flame but why? Did you owe him in some way?”

“I had to help him. I wanted to meet my sister. I didn’t even know I had one. They never spoke of you.”  She met Flame’s eyes, hers filled with compassion.

“If you’re a visionary, why couldn’t you find your sister on your own?” Fabian questioned.

“I can’t see everything. I need contact with people sometimes. I need to be in their lives or hold things of theirs, something like that. When our father came to me, he opened a flood gate of emotions, memories and visions for me.” Her expression suddenly darkened. “He never wanted me. He was married so when he got my mother pregnant he ordered her to abort but she wouldn’t. He told her he wanted nothing to do with her or me and if she came after him, he would make her pay. She never did, she raised me alone.”

“So he wanted Flame to give him money?” Fabian asked and Faith nodded.

“He saw you were vampires that night and he was so excited because he knew it would give him the leverage he needed to demand money. He called me to tell me he and Flame’s mother were going with you all to negotiate and I was to call the authorities if they didn’t come back in twenty four hours. Well of course they didn’t but I knew they wouldn’t.”

“How could you be so sure?” Damien’s curiosity was roused. “Did you go to the authorities?”

“No silly.” She shot that sweet smile of hers at them again. “I tried to tell father not to do this to you, that it wasn’t fair to use blackmail, but he only got really angry over the phone with me.”

Suddenly they all realised that was why Jackson seemed so pissed on the phone. He was arguing with Faith.

“So why didn’t you go to the authorities and why are you here little one?” Fabian’s tone was gentle and Damien had to struggle not to gape at him. He was being uncharacteristically nice to the girl, and it was strange to see it.

Faith’s eyes moved around the room. “You don’t understand why I’m here do you? I know you’re holding them prisoner here. I can see them in my mind. They’re locked in a cell under this house, in a hidden part of a dungeon; very creepy.” She flashed that smile again. “I’m here because I wanted to meet my sister, I wanted to see what real vampires are like but the main reason I’m here.” Her expression turned to ice, as did the expression in her bright blue eyes. The sweet innocent girl was gone. “I want that self-centred, arrogant bastard down there to die. I want to be here to see it and I want to watch him suffer and have the satisfaction of watching the life drain out of him. He used my mother all those years ago. He nearly broke her. He ruined her. So often I would see great sorrow on her face and then she got sick, really sick and then she was gone.” Tears filled Faith’s eyes.

They all sat in silence, shocked by Faith’s revelation but then Flame suddenly stood and walked to her sister. Without saying a word, she pulled her into her arms and hugged her.

Flame

As I held my sister, inhaling her floral type scent, my mind was reeling from all she’d told us. Everyone seemed shocked. Fabian’s reaction to her had been so guarded at first and Damien had been suspicious but now both men were being so sweet to her. I might have felt threatened by that but I knew Damien loved me. When I lifted my head to look over at him, I could see the love in his beautiful green eyes as he watched me with my sister. Fuck, I had a sister. Ok a half-sister, but still family that I’d had no idea about and she too had been rejected by our father, until he’d needed something from both of us of course.  

“So what do you want Faith?” I asked her and she pulled back to raise her tear stained face to mine.

“I’m here to help you all. I don’t care what you are; I would never reveal to anyone what you are. Father thought I would help him, but when I found out I had an older sister I just did what I had to do to get the opportunity to come and meet you. I want to help you kill him, well, kill them. Your mother has suffered for the years she’s been married to our father but she still wanted nothing to do with me, even after my mother died and even worse she abandoned you, she went along with our father and didn’t fight for her own child. She’s no better than him as far as I’m concerned.” Faith’s expression grew serious. “The thing is, father is a telekinetic, ok, not a good one because he’s suppressed it all his life, but I think when confronted and it’s his life, he will fight back.”

“Why didn’t he fight his prison sentence several years ago?” Damien asked.

“What would have been the point? He can do like Flame, if he puts his mind to it.” She grinned suddenly. “Excuse the pun, but it’s not something that would have helped him avoid capture. To fight, physically yes, throwing things, but it’s not enough to elude capture. He’s a mean, cruel, manipulative man but not a fool. He served very little time between a good lawyer and behaving himself in prison.”

I released Faith and began to pace around the room my head spinning. So much was happening lately and I’d freaked out about turning vampire? That was a walk in the park compared to all the dramas since.

“So where are the rest of you?” Faith asked. “I know there’s another female vampire, Fran, Francesca you call her? She seems scary. Any visions I have where she’s in them, she’s scary.” She shuddered and I struggled to contain my smile. She’d pretty well nailed it on the head with Francesca. She could be scary but I knew under that sarcastic exterior was a woman who had a heart. Something had to have made her the way she was and I wondered if I’d ever find out what.

“There are more of you though, but they don’t live here do they?” Faith continued. “Although, you and you.” She pointed to Fabian and Sirene. “You have a son. I can’t quite see what happened to make that possible but he’s a child in a man’s body. That much I can see. Oh, I don’t mean he thinks like a child but he’s not very old, or he shouldn’t be. Something happened and now he’s a man and vampire plus he has powers, I can see that.” She suddenly giggled. “He has secrets too, he is not what he seems. Adrian is definitely not what he seems. Oh.” She suddenly gasped. “I can see him in my head. Oh he’s so beautiful and he’s…he’s…” She stopped abruptly.

“What, what do you see?” Fabian cut in.

Faith’s eyes shifted to him and she gave a tiny hint of a smile. “Oh, it’s not bad but it’s not for me to tell you. He must be the one to confess what he does, where he goes. I can’t do that, not when he is my…” She broke off again, a serene smile on her face.

I could see the frustration building on Fabian and Sirene’s faces. “What, he’s your what?” This time it was Sirene asking.

“Oh, I can’t say that now. I need to see him, but he’s not here and I don’t think he will be back for many hours. He doesn’t always come home. He has another place he often stays at.”

The tension in the room was suddenly nearly claustrophobic. I could almost hear the cogs turning in Fabian’s head and Sirene appeared deep in thought. Even Damien was looking at Faith like she’d grown an extra head or something. Ok, so I was suddenly curious about Adrian too. The man did have that air of mystery, he was always coming and going at odd hours and he dressed like a man who was used to being in control. He’d been very dominant with me on those occasions in the dungeon and my eyes shot open wide as realisation hit.

“Oh my god, I think he’s a Dom or something. He’s very, controlling, confident, he’s fucking very dominant.” I squeaked.

Damien burst out laughing at my words and I shot him a look of annoyance. When his eyes met mine, he abruptly stopped and struggled to wipe the grin from his face.

“Oh laugh at me smart ass but I was with him downstairs, remember and he was very…commanding.” I said, trying to find the right word to describe him.

Damien’s face darkened and something flashed in his eyes. “Of course I remember. I’m not likely to forget that in a hurry.” I could hear the pain in his voice and I felt my stomach tighten.

I walked over to him and cupped his cheek looking up into his turbulent green eyes. “I’m sorry my love. Will you ever be able to forgive me? I love you, only you, always and forever.” I whispered before touching my lips to his.

When he pulled me into his arms and his tongue pushed into my mouth, for those moments he kissed me, everything happening and everyone in the room were forgotten.

Chapter Twenty Six

Damien

As Damien kissed Flame, the longer his lips touched hers, the more his tongue stroked over hers, the quicker the flash of pain he’d felt over Adrian began to fade. He could feel himself hardening and dragged her closer, suddenly wanting her. Before he could potentially say fuck it all to what was happening with the arrival of Faith, he heard the distinct, loud clearing of a throat. Groaning he reluctantly pulled his lips from Flame’s.