Guardian's Joy #3 (15 page)

They watched until she pushed through the
door and then Col snickered. “Looks like old Nardo screwed the
pooch on that mission.”

Dov’s face broke into a grin. “Yeah, and it
looks like that pooch is all he’s gonna be screwing for some time
to come.”

“Shouldn’t we tell her we brought back her
car?”

“Nah.” Dov hefted the large cardboard box he
carried in his hands. “If we tell her about the car, we’ll have to
drag all this shit back out again.”

Chapter 15

JJ snapped the cell phone shut and pounded
her fist on the counter. What was she thinking? Call a cab? It was
the middle of the night and twenty degrees outside. She had no
coat, no shoes and no money. She couldn’t even give the dispatcher
a friggin’ address. She had no idea where she was.

Where were the women who claimed to be her
friends? She was trapped here, trapped with that lunatic and those
twins who dragged her here in the first place. Hadn’t they brought
Grace and Hope here, too? Was that their job? To find witchy
victims to fill the role of Vampire Bride?

Of course not. It was ridiculous. Those women
weren’t prisoners. Didn’t they talk about going shopping on Black
Friday? Didn’t Grace drive to the grocery and Hope to business
meetings? Didn’t they tease Manon about Otto insisting she use a
car service? But maybe they were already brainwashed to return.

JJ pulled out a stool at the huge granite
island and sat with her head in her hands. She should go back out
there and demand to be taken home. They must have known she
couldn’t call a cab. That’s why no one followed her. It would be
humiliating to admit her stupidity, but it would be worth it. She
wanted to go home, away from here where people made her feel… where
he made her feel… what? Whatever it was, she didn’t like it. She
wanted to go home.

“Please don’t cry. Whatever it is, I’m sure
we can help.”

JJ whirled in her seat, jumped up, slipped
and almost landed on her ass. Otto’s large hands saved her.

“I didn’t mean to startle you.” He let her go
and backed up a step, raising his hands in a gesture of peace. “The
women are across the alley at Hope’s house. Grace sent me to check
on you, to see if there was anything you needed. She thought you’d
still be upstairs. I’m Otto, but by your reaction, I guess you know
that.”

The old man took the kettle from the stove
and began to fill it at the sink. “Can I make you a cup of tea? It
always seems to help Grace when she cries. Manon prefers wine.”

“I’m not crying,” JJ sniffed and then felt
like a fool because of course, she was. “I don’t want tea. I want
to go home.”

Otto set the kettle back on the stove and
turned on the burner. “Okay. I can probably arrange that. May I ask
why? Has someone said something or done something to upset you? The
twins, maybe? Because you need to know, they aggravate everyone.
They don’t mean it. They just do it. They really have good hearts.”
He brought out a teapot and a can of loose tea.

“No. It wasn’t them. They haven’t done
anything.”

JJ wiped her eyes with her too long sleeves.
Crap. She was still crying. More proof that she didn’t belong here.
She never cried. Well, not since she figured out tears were a
waste. They didn’t change anything.

Otto held his hand in front of him and
counted off where everyone was on his fingers. “Nardo? Nardo made
you cry?” He pulled a paper towel from the roll and passed it to
her. “Blow your nose,” he said.

“The bastard,” she muttered into the towel
before she blew.

“What did he do? Tell me.”

Otto sounded angry on her behalf. He didn’t
even know her. He was a vampire for Pete’s sake. Why was everyone
being so nice to her?

“Tell me what he did,” the old man
demanded.

JJ didn’t mean to say it. She didn’t want to
say it. It slipped out all by itself. “He kissed me,” she sniffed
and damned if her eyes didn’t fill up again, “And I kissed him back
and then he said I was his like he owned me or something.”

“Ah, I see. And this is a problem because…?”
And when JJ glared at him, he took a step back. “Let me go get
Manon.”

The kettle started to boil and still
sniveling into her paper towel, JJ poured hot water into the pot to
warm it before making the tea. At the commune, teas and infusions
were brewed for every occasion and illness. She hated tea. While
the pot warmed, she made coffee.

It was already dripping into the pot when it
hit her.
At the commune, teas and infusions were brewed for
every occasion and illness.
She’d lived in a commune. She
remembered choking on the word the day before.

Shakily, she poured herself a mug of
coffee.

Grace, entering with the other two paint
spattered women, tried to take it away. “Oh sweetie, you’re upset.
You can’t drink that. It’s too strong.”

JJ held the mug out of reach. “I’m a cop, uh,
was a cop. If it smells vaguely like coffee, it’s drinkable.” She
took a sip of the nasty brew. “Sorry to interrupt your painting.
I’m fine. Otto took off before I could stop him.”

“He said you were crying,” Hope said
sympathetically. She brought out cups and saucers while Grace
loaded a plate with cookies.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” There was no use
denying it. Her eyes and nose were red and swollen. Her face was
blotchy. She’d checked it out in the glass door of the microwave.
“I don’t know what’s the matter with me. I haven’t cried since I
was fifteen.” The first and only time she’d been in love. And there
it was again, a memory.
She’d been in love at fifteen and it had
made her cry.

“It’s the House,” Grace said, “I never cried
before I came here either.”

“Me too,” Hope agreed.

They looked at Manon who closed her eyes and
raised her hand. “I did my crying when this place was still a
wilderness.”

“Oh come on,” JJ said, shaking her head not
only in denial of Manon’s outrageous claim, but to keep from
grasping at a straw of memory that was no longer there. “It may not
be Paris, but this place hasn’t been a wilderness for three hundred
years.”

“Exactement,” Manon said seriously. She
scratched a speck of paint from her nose, using the glass fronted
cabinet as a mirror.

JJ looked from Grace to Hope. “She’s kidding,
right?”

“Nope. Serious as a heart attack. She’s not
sure of the exact date. Church records got burned.” Grace turned
back to Manon. “You were saying?”

JJ made a ‘T’ with her hands. “Time out! Back
up! You’re telling me you’re three hundred plus? Gimme a
break.”

Manon did that Gallic shrug. “It is true.
Believe it or not as you wish.”

She wasn’t lying. “How?” JJ asked. She ran
her hands up and down to indicate the Frenchwoman’s near perfect
body and unlined face.

“We Daughters are long lived to begin with
and the mating with a Paenitentia extends our lives to… who knows?
I know of no other bonding between Daughter and Paenitentia except
what you see here, but I pray that when my Otto passes from this
life, I will pass with him. We have already spent too many years
apart.”

“It is not this House that makes you cry,”
Manon continued after another sip of tea, “It is the men who live
in it. They open us up. They set us free.”

JJ wasn’t buying it. “Blubbering like a baby
doesn’t make you free. It just makes you a baby. It’s a
weakness.”

“For some, perhaps. For those who use their
tears to manipulate their men. But for a strong woman like
yourself, tears are an expression of strong emotion. They are the
release of what you keep hidden inside.” And this child had much
she kept hidden inside.

Surely the old witch woman couldn’t know.
“That’s not what happened.” Those memories were hidden from her,
not by her. “I’m just overtired, still weak.” She waved her hands,
back and forth, in front of her as if to erase what the others
might be thinking. “It was a moment of weakness that’s all. It was
no big deal and won’t happen again.”

“So what did happen?” Grace braced her elbows
on the table and her chin in her hands. “I mean, since it was no
big deal.” Her smile came very close to a smirk.

“Nardo kissed me. I kissed him back. He said
I was his, as in ownership. He said I was weak. He said he wouldn’t
allow me.”

“To do what?” Hope sat next to Grace with her
hands folded in front of her like a good student or maybe a
prosecutor.

“I didn’t let him finish. He was going to say
he wouldn’t allow me to fight demons or vampires or whatever this
killer is.” She’d almost let herself fall for that kiss, almost
fell under his thrall, almost sold herself into slavery.

Grace and Hope exchanged glances and a silent
agreement. Grace spoke. “So, let’s recap. Item number one: Nardo
kissed you and you liked it. Really liked it or you wouldn’t be so
ticked off. He said you were his and I’ll bet he used the word
‘mine’ in a very deep and growly voice.”

“How did you know that?”

Grace winked at Hope in a shared secret.
“Because they’re Neanderthals. It may not be very romantic, but for
them it’s a declaration of love.”

“The man barely knows me,” JJ protested.

“So? Canaan fell in love with me the first
time he saw me wiggle my butt to the music on my radio.” Grace
pointed her thumb at Hope. “Nico fell in love with her when she was
drunk and disorderly in some lowlife bar.”

Hope smacked Grace’s shoulder. “That’s not
true!”

“Close enough. Item number two: He said you
were weak. Did he lie? You said the same thing not two minutes ago.
Item number three: The ‘I won’t allow you’ business. You didn’t
give him a chance to finish.” She raised her hands to forestall
another protest. “Okay, okay, I’ll give you that one, but you have
to understand that these guys are used to being all big, bad and
bossy. Intimidation is their middle name. I usually pat the big guy
on the head and tell him he’s such a cutie when he goes all alpha
like that.”

“When Nico says he doesn’t want me going out
to business meetings alone, I say ‘Yes, sir’ and then tell him what
time I’ll be home.”

JJ had to laugh at that. Hope came across as
meek and mild. Apparently that was only window dressing for her
iron backbone.

“The point is, just because they say it,
doesn’t mean you have to obey.” Grace gathered up the dishes and
started loading the dishwasher.

“What you need to remember is that they love
you and worry about you and they have a need to protect you from
harm,” Manon added.

Grace looked up and smiled. “Speaking of the
adorable pussycats, here comes the big boy now.”

Canaan moved around the granite island as
Grace moved to meet him. They shared an affectionate squeeze and a
friendly kiss.

There wasn’t anything overtly sexual about
it, but Grace’s welcoming smile and Canaan’s returning wink were
like a shared secret between them. For a moment, JJ’s heart winced
with a pinch of jealousy, something she’d never felt with any of
the cop couples she knew. Just for that moment, she wondered what
it would be like to share a secret connection with someone who
loved her.

Canaan looked around the table at each of the
women. “Looks like a serious pow-wow.” He gave JJ a nod and turned
back to Grace. “You want me to call for take-out?”

“No.” Grace tried to pout, but the corners of
her mouth twitched. “I want you to go kick the shit out of Nardo
for being a chauvinist ass.”

Canaan’s scowl made JJ think he might just do
it.

“No! Wait a minute!” She was on her feet,
hands in the air as if she could hold this Goliath back. “I can
handle this myself. He didn’t do anything wrong. It was my fault as
much as his.”

“Glad to hear it, because I’m not getting in
the middle of it unless…” He shook a stern finger at JJ. “…it
interferes with business.”

Grace punched his arm and he suddenly grinned
like a schoolboy. JJ was stunned at how quickly his face changed
from scary to handsome. Canaan was a giant of a man. Wide
shouldered and broad chested, he towered over Grace. His body
screamed strength and power, two attributes JJ normally found
attractive, yet she felt nothing but curiosity for the man who was
Liege Lord of this House.

“This is Canaan, by the way.” Grace squeezed
the arm she’d punched with about the same effect. “He’s mine,” she
said emphasizing the word, “Aren’t you, Big Boy.”

“I thought you weren’t going to call me that
in front of guests.” He frowned and his eyes flicked to JJ.

JJ didn’t hear the reply or their laughter.
There was that word again. Mine. Did it really mean love? She gave
herself a mental shake. So what? She’d heard similar words before
and they didn’t mean a thing.

Every one of the men her mother brought home
said it too. Love you, honey, sweetheart, darling, sugar. It was
always followed by those affectionate little nicknames lovers used.
Her mother and her lovers used the words the same way they said
hello or good-bye. They were just words and words meant nothing.
Words left her cold.

John never used those words with her nor she
with him. It wasn’t that kind of relationship, but it was one that
suited them both. John cared for her as a good friend and a partner
and she appreciated that he didn’t pretend otherwise. She would
have known.

Her thoughts stopped short at that. Did Nardo
lie? She should have known, but she didn’t. She’d assumed so. Now
she wasn’t sure. Lies sent a slimy feeling down her spine. Small
lies, white lies, were easy to ignore. More serious lies increased
the feeling according to their significance and, yes, according to
her need to find the truth. Maybe…

JJ blinked back to attention with Hope’s soft
whisper in her ear. “Nico’s coming,” she said and tapped her temple
with her finger. “He always says hello when he’s in range.”