Broken Heart 01 I'm the Vampire, That's Why (37 page)

Body quaking, he dropped the sword. "
Ma chérie
, you are always surprising."

I felt sick. François might deserve the pain he was enduring, but it still made me nauseous to be the one inflicting it. "Why are you trying to kill me?"

His lips curved into a self-deprecating smile. "Ah. Time for the confession of the villain?"

"Something like that."

He shrugged then grimaced. I held my swords at the ready even though he wasn't going to attack me. At
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least, not yet. That
fulaing
move must've really fried him.

"You are Patrick's
sonuachar
. If we kill Ruadan's son, we start a war of the ancients. If we kill Patrick's true love… he walks into the dawn and saves us the trouble. And we frame his brother, eh? Two birds, one stone."

"And you decided to up the ante by killing Emily and Sharon and Marybeth?" Heck, no reason to tell him that Marybeth was one of the newly undead. What if he was somehow transmitting to someone?

"No," said François. "To Ron, the deaths of the humans were merely entertainment. Georgie was his cousin—the one who Turned Ron. The poor soul was going mad from the Taint. So, Ron attempted the same cure that Stan had concocted."

"You told Ron about the transfusion."

"
Oui
.. But he killed a lycan to do it whereas Lor's transplant was given from blood collected by live lycans. You saw the results Ron got."

François looked down at the blood spurting from his wounds. "These cuts will not kill me."

"I know." I lifted the swords and held them up crossed, just the way I'd learned from my "download."

All I had to do was swing down and… God. I stared at François, who looked amazed that I would even consider removing his head. Stabbing a guy was one thing, particularly one who had wanted to stab me back. But
this
…

Was I really going to cut off François' head? I wasn't sure it was the right thing to do. Then again… he didn't have a soul. "
Droch fhola
."

François looked at me, his blue eyes mad, and grinned. Then I knew. "Oh my God. You have the Taint."

"
Oui, chérie
. To die will be a great relief."

"But the cure…"

"Too late for me." The manic look in his eyes blazed as he shook his head and tried to step back from the edge of his own insanity.

"What did you do to Patrick?"

"Ah. He has not been so lucky."

"Where is he? What did you do to him?"

"I'm afraid that I'm through with my little confession." He weaved to his feet, his body trembling, and tried to lunge at me. "Kill me," he taunted, lumbering at me like a drunken fool. "Kill me!"

It was neither fear nor anger that made my decision.

It was pity.

I swung both swords at his neck. They sliced through his skin smoothly, one from the left, the other from
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the right. They met in the middle with a wet metallic snick.

His eyes went wide, then blank.

I watched as the handsome head of François tipped forward and as it fell, both body and head exploded into ash.

As worried as I was about Patrick, he had survived almost four thousand years without my help. If I even allowed myself a second to think about what had just happened, I might lose it. I took a shower to get the blood and ash off my body. Then I dressed in new clothes: jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers. I avoided the gray pile and red splatter as much as was possible. I was starving, but at the same time, my stomach roiled with nausea.

With my swords in hand, I left the house. I wasn't ready for… well, whatever. So, I gravitated to the swing and sat on it, rocking slowly. One thing I knew for sure, I would never step foot in my bedroom again. In fact, we'd have to move to another house. One that didn't have the stench of death or the taint of old lives or the echoes of pain.

I didn't realize I was dry-crying until Lorcan sat next to me and put an arm around my shoulders.

"François was a bad guy. He had the Taint and I… well, I killed him." I showed Lor the swords, clutching the handles and raising them up to glitter in the moonlight. "They're pretty. I wonder how many they've murdered."

"I wonder how many they've saved."

I looked at Lor and offered a tentative smile. "That's a better way to think of it. Thanks."

"I still haven't been able to connect with Patrick," said Lor. "The RVs are still at the contingency location—and everyone there is safe."

"Jessica," said a deep Russian-accented voice. Ivan Taganov climbed onto the porch and stood there, looked at me doubtfully.

"What?" I asked irritably.

Ivan crossed his massive arms and stared down at me. But there was no rancor in his eyes, only confusion. "I go to find my Linda," he said. "She's nursing Stan back to health. I see them together, and I think, 'Ivan, she is not for you.' And so, I call off the binding."

"How did Linda take it?"

He shrugged his massive shoulders. "It does not matter. Right is right. Damian tells me that Patrick is missing."

I nodded. "Did Charlene ever turn up?"

Lor grimaced. "We found her… ashes on Rich's grave."

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Horror scrabbled in my belly. "What?" I swallowed the gorge knotting my throat. "She committed suicide?"

"We think she laid down in front of his tombstone and waited for the dawn."

"Oh Charlene." I closed my eyes, absorbing this news. Despite everything that had gone on between us, I didn't want such a bad end for her.

"It is sad, Jessica. I am sorry," said Ivan. "But it is time to find Patrick."

"Yes," said another male voice, this one tinted with German. I saw Damian lounging against a tree in my front yard. "I see that you don't follow orders."

"What did you expect me to do? Cower in my bedroom and wait for you to rescue Patrick?"

"Yes." He straightened and sauntered toward us. "Patrick would rip my head off my shoulders if anything happened to you."

"Goddamn it. You're my new babysitter?"

He grinned. "If you would bind with the man, he wouldn't have to send people chasing after you all the time. Me? I think you'll be too troublesome a mate."

"Huh. Well, good thing I'm not marrying
you
."

"Indeed."

"
Children
," said Lor drolly. Everyone turned to look at him. "We need to track down Patrick and the Wraiths. It's been sundown for almost an hour. If Patrick still lives… it won't be for much longer."

"How can you say that so calmly?" I asked as panic washed over me. "He's not dead. He's not!" I tried to calm myself. I wouldn't believe that Patrick had been killed. We had unfinished business.

"Our security teams are waiting for me to report," said Damian. "We believe we're dealing with a small contingent of Wraiths, and we're not sure if Ron is among them."

"Georgie is certainly alive," I said, thinking of Marybeth.

"Not anymore," said Damian. "Drake and Darrius took care of him."

I flinched. It wouldn't be too big of a leap to think that a showdown between lycans would be fierce and bloody. I tried to get a grip on my yo-yoing emotions. "Where can they hide? It's freaking Broken Heart.

We're a small town in the middle of nowhere." I stood up and leapt over the railing to the front yard. I started pacing and swinging the swords in the patterns I'd learned. "Where? Where are they?"

The men stayed on the porch. In fact, they crowded into a little circle and conversed in low voices.

Making plans without me. But I didn't care. I wanted to get to Patrick. My heart keened for him.
Patrick,
baby! Tell me where you are
!

You are safe, love?

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Yes! What about you?

I've been better. I just wanted to say… I love you.

Oh no you are not! You arenot
talking to me like it's the last time. Where are you
?

I don't know. I'm facing a wall and I'm… restrained. If I look left, I see crates of 2-liter soda bottles. On my right, there's a stack of empty boxes. And this sounds weird, but I smell nacho cheese.

Nacho cheese? Soda bottles? Empty boxes? Broken Heart had one convenience store/gas station. He was at the Thrifty Sip. In the storage room. Yes! I lifted into the air, swords at my sides, and aimed myself toward the edge of town.

The kids, céadsearc.
I heard them talking about taking the children hostage. You must go to Bryan
and Jenny. Protect them
.

They are protected. They have the guardians and a fleet of men with machine guns.

I'd been periodically poking at their minds. At last check-in, Jenny and Bryan, along with the other kids, had awakened. They were eating cereal and watching cartoons. Whatever the Consortium had done to hide the RVs and protect the location of the kids had worked.

They're safe, Patrick. And they are safe because you made sure they would be. You're a wonderful father.

Jessica… that is the second best thing you've ever said to me.

What's the first?

That you love me.

Silence descended. Thick, heavy, sudden. Either he had blocked me or someone had blocked him.

"Jessica! Where the hell are you going?" I blinked at the voice so near me and turned my head. Lorcan soared next to me and he looked pissed off.

"Sorry," I said. "Patrick's at the Thrifty Sip."

"You go tell the others," he demanded. "And I'll meet you there."

"No."

"Jessica, this isn't a game. Or a television show. Or a romance novel. You could get hurt. And Patrick—"

"May already be hurt. I'm going to him."

To my amazement, Lor pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and punched a number. "Damian? She says Patrick's at the Thrifty Sip. Yeah. Okay."

"You're stubborn," said Lor as he shut the phone and shoved it into his pocket. "And you better hope

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you know what you're doing."

Yeah, I knew what I was doing all right. I was going to save the man I loved. At the Thrifty Sip.

For the second time tonight, I stabbed someone in the gut. Granted, the skinny, foul-breathed fool tried to claw out my eyes, but still, it was icky and nauseating to render him painfully unconscious with the
fulaing
move. Lor didn't need weapons to punch out the other guard.

"They both have the Taint, Jessica," he said, quietly.

I handed him one sword. After we cut off their heads and they blew into dust, we entered the dark and empty Thrifty Sip. Lor returned the sword to me and I held them at the ready.

"Two guards," I said. "That's all they put on this place?"

"Two of their sickest people. Most didn't escape the cave-in. The guardians went to the location and threw flash bombs in every nook and cranny."