Sleeping With the Entity (23 page)

“A lot of weird stuff has been happening lately,” she muttered.

“Like what?”

Daniella shook her head. “I can’t talk about it.”

“Sure you can. I’m your father. You can tell me anything.”

Trust your gut
. She heard Nick’s words in her head.

The ironic thing was that she’d always had a feeling that she didn’t quite belong. That she was different. She used to confess as much to her mom, who had always reassured her while telling her that she was special.

Daniella had chalked up her feelings to the fact that she was adopted, but now she wasn’t sure if that was truly the reason. She’d also chalked up the fact that she had occasional premonitions of the future to ordinary visualization techniques. She saw her cupcake shop as a success in her mind’s eye. Plenty of business owners had the same experience. Perhaps not as many actually saw their logo down to the smallest detail. The challenge had been making reality match her vision.

She always considered herself to be more of a planner than a free spirit. Yes, but was the druid stuff true? That’s what Daniella wanted to know. What kind of blood did she have?

Sure, she knew that medically she was type O, the most common type of blood. But what about this other stuff? The druid stuff? Not to mention that bit of vampire mixed in. Did that mean that at some point she was going to start craving blood? And if she did, would it be type O blood?

Overwhelmed by it all, she latched onto something else. “Did you know what was in the letter?”

“No, I never opened it.”

“Why give it to me today?”

“Your mother said it had to be today, Halloween the year you were twenty-nine.”

“Did she say why?”

“No. I assumed she explained why in the letter.”

Because Morgana told her not to let Daniella know until today or there would be “dangerous consequences.”

“I’m sorry if the letter upset you,” her dad was saying. “I had no idea your mother was repeating the make-believe woo-woo stories that her cousin told her. That really isn’t like your mom. She was a very practical woman.”

“You always told me mom was your soul mate,” Daniella said quietly.

“She was.”

“Yet you come home from a cruise, hand me a letter saying I’m a druid, and then tell me you’re engaged. You’ve only known this woman a few months.”

“I knew as soon as I saw her again. It was magical.”

Daniella didn’t want to hear about magical. She was sick of magical. Give her a recipe anytime with specific measurements, ingredients, and baking temperatures. Sure, you could tweak those things a little. But then you made a new recipe. It wasn’t all spooky strange hocus-pocus stuff.

She was still finding it difficult to cope with the fact that she lusted after a vampire who was her bodyguard. People who posted “It’s complicated” under relationships on their Facebook page had nothing on her situation.

And then there were the Gold Coast vamps after her. And the fact that the funeral home was some kind of fast-food outlet for the neighborhood vamps. It was all too out there for her.

She didn’t want to be special. She wanted her old life back. The life she had before all this chaos. The life where “Normal” was her default setting.

“When you meet Franny, you’ll see what I mean,” her father was saying.

She wanted her father to be happy, she really did. But this was all too much. Seeing her mother’s handwriting brought back so many memories.

“I can’t deal with this right now,” Daniella muttered, jumping up from the chair and hurrying out of the room.

Nick was waiting for her outside.

“You probably had a live feed onto your smartphone from your spy cameras,” she said.

He made no comment.

“So you already know that I told him that my mother thought I was part druid. He said it wasn’t true. That my birth mother was into that kind of thing but it wasn’t real. So forget about pursuing this paranormal stuff about my birth mother.”

“I can’t do that.”

“My father said it isn’t true. Are you calling him a liar?”

Nick just shrugged.

That did it. “We need to talk,” she growled. “Upstairs. Right now.”

Nick appeared amused by her angry order, but he didn’t protest. Given the fact that he was rarely far from her side, she supposed it figured that he wasn’t going to walk away. But it gave her a momentary feeling of control over the wild situation that was rapidly swirling into
The Twilight Zone.

As soon as they were in her apartment, she got right to the point. “I do not appreciate you eavesdropping on my private conversation with my father. That was extremely private.”

“You know how important this all is. We need to figure this riddle out ASAP. And that letter of yours adds a critical part. While you were talking to your father, I had your birth mother’s ancestry checked out.”

“After I told you not to. And do not shrug,” she warned him, grabbing her silver tea strainer out of the kitchen drawer and waving it threateningly at him.

“That isn’t pure silver,” Nick said. “It’s silver-plated.”

“No, it’s not.” She turned it over. “It’s got the nine-two-five stamp on it.”

“Which wasn’t used until 1906.”

“Damn. The antiques dealer in London told me it dated back to the Regency period.” She tossed it onto the kitchen counter. “That just goes to prove that you can’t trust anybody.”

“Now that you know about your tea strainer, don’t you want to know what we found out about you?”

“Not really.”

He lifted a dark eyebrow.

“Okay, fine tell me,” she said.

“It’s all true.”

“Says the vampire.”

“Says the vampire with the plastic fish on the wall of his bar,” he noted drily.

The fact that Nick had just teased her brought tears to her eyes. “You’re trying to make me feel better, aren’t you?”

He nodded solemnly. “Apparently I’m not doing a very good job of it.”

“I appreciate the effort.”

“Do you?”

She nodded. “But I can’t believe anything you’re telling me right now.”

“Because I’m a vampire?”

“Because it’s too weird. Look, I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that I live in a coven of vampires.”

“Covens are for witches.”

“Witches like me.”

“Actually you have druid blood, which is different.”

She waved her hands. “Witch, druid, what does it matter? It’s all crazy.”

“Not really. It makes sense.”

“To you maybe. Not to me.”

“Morgana’s story checks out.”

“How do you know that? Is there some kind of druid registry or something?”

“Not that I know of,” he said.

“Then how do you know it isn’t all just a wild story?”

“What does your gut tell you?” Nick asked.

She clutched her stomach. “It tells me that I am under too much stress.”

“You’ve hinted that you felt different growing up.”

“Because I was adopted. Not because I was some sort of weird thing.”

“You aren’t weird. You’re a hybrid.”

“Which is fine if you’re a car,” she retorted. “Not if you’re a person. Oh wait, I’m not a person after all. I’m a druid hybrid.”

“And damn proud of it, too, right?”

She glared at him. “Not funny.”

“Come on.” He nudged her lightly. “It’s a little bit funny.”

“If you have a warped vampire sense of humor maybe.”

“Wait, does that mean you think I’m warped or my humor is?”

“I’m glad you’re finding this all amusing.”

“You’re not going to cry, are you?” He eyed her in alarm.

“I might. So just deal with it. Unless you tough vampires can’t deal with a druid’s tears?”

“I can’t deal with
your
tears,” he growled. “I can deal with the fact that you’re cheerful and chatty but not with you crying.”

“What’s wrong with being cheerful and chatty?” she demanded, offended by his words for some reason. Maybe because he didn’t make those two traits sound like a compliment but rather a flaw.

Instead of answering, he said, “You never wondered about your birth mother?”

“I didn’t want to know.”

“Why not?”

“My mom said my birth mother died when I was born. She cried when she told me that. My mom didn’t cry. Ever. When I saw how distraught she got, I didn’t ask about it again.”

“What about after she died?”

“My dad was so torn up by her death that I didn’t have the heart to upset him further. And then I went away to college and trained in New York City. I was too busy living my life to look back. My parents were my parents as far as I was concerned.”

“And your birth father?”

“I was going to look into that someday. When I had time. There was no urgency. I had other things on my mind. The fact that I was adopted didn’t seem that relevant. I’d known it for a long time. Even if they hadn’t told me, I always sensed that I didn’t quite fit in. Not that I wasn’t loved a lot, because I was. And not that I was treated any differently, because I wasn’t.”

“But you had an ability that no one else had.”

“It wasn’t an ability I wanted. I didn’t want to see a vision of my mom dying before it happened. I didn’t want to believe it was true.” She slapped her hand over her mouth. She’d never confessed that to anyone. Visualizing her company logo was one thing. Seeing the future was another, especially when it involved her mother’s death. She’d convinced herself that she’d merely had a dream or something. That image of the car crash had been horrendous.

She should have said something to her mom. Warned her. And the fact that she hadn’t filled her with a guilt that had taken her years to recover from. She’d had to shove it so deep inside of her that it couldn’t be retrieved. Until today.

She couldn’t open that Pandora’s box of emotions so intense she was afraid it would destroy her. So she focused on her anger and once again shoved the guilt back into the depths of her mental vault.

“You didn’t want to believe you had a special talent just like you don’t want to believe what’s in that letter now,” he said “Why is it hard for you to accept?”

“Aw gee, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that we’re talking about druids here.”

“You already know vampires exist. Why not druids?”

“How many druids do you know?”

He shrugged. “It’s unlikely they’re going to tell me what they are.”

She reached for her iPad.

“What are you doing?” he said.

“Checking out what you said about nine-two-five and the silver mark.”

“I lied about that. Your tea strainer is really silver. Not enough silver to bother me, but not a fake.”

“What else have you lied about? Never mind. I downloaded
Vampires for Dummies
and I’m checking the index to see if druids and vampires have a history.”

“You’re not going to find that kind of information there.”

“You’re right. I should Google it.”

“No, don’t do that.”

But it was too late. She’d already clicked on a link. “Listen to this.” She read aloud, “‘Legend has it that Irish druids kept vampires locked in the hollows of ancient oak trees. Twice a year, during their druid celebrations, they’d feed unlucky people to these starving vampires. This practice was featured in Anne Rice’s
Vampire Chronicles
.’”

“I never read her books,” Nick said.

“Me neither because they are too damn scary. And now we find out that druids and vampires are not BFFs. More like mortal enemies.”

“That’s a little strong.”

“Really? You don’t think that locking vampires up and torturing them was twisted? Not to mention feeding people to them twice a year.” She shuddered.

“What are you doing now?”

“Checking the definition of
druid.
It says a druid is a priest, magician, or soothsayer in the ancient Celtic religion or a member of a present-day group claiming to represent or be derived from that religion. And under
soothsayer,
it says a person able to foresee the future.” She looked up from her iPad. “Great. That’s just great. I always wanted to be a soothsayer when I grew up,” she said sarcastically.

“So what does your soothsayer self say about your future?”

“That I’m about to freak out.” What if her mother believed that Daniella was able to see into the future? If Daniella had told her she’d had a dream about her mother dying in a car accident, maybe she would have stayed home that day and would still be alive today.

“Do not freak out,” Nick said. “There’s more to your story.”

“I don’t want to hear it.” She slapped her hands over her ears.

He gently lowered them “You have to hear it.”

“Does it involve oak trees or feeding tortured vampires?”

He paused.

“I knew it.” She shook her head vehemently. “I don’t want to know.”

“There’s no violence involved. Legend has it that if a vampire mates with a druid hybrid like you, their powers will increase.”

“So they can eat more people?”

Before Nick could say a word in response, the afternoon was shattered by the blast of a huge explosion.

Chapter Eighteen

Nick instantly had Daniella in his arms. She could feel the tension in his body as he assessed the situation. There were no flames in her apartment. The explosion had occurred elsewhere, but nearby.

“What … what was that?” Her voice was unsteady. The sound of car alarms going off filled the night air. “The funeral home? My dad and brother? My shop?” She frantically tried to get free.

He released her and glanced out the front window. “That was my car.”

“Who would blow up your car?”

“Someone who doesn’t like black Jaguars.”

“You drive a Jaguar?”

“I used to drive a Jaguar,” he said.

“But fire is deadly to vampires.”

“Which is why it’s a good thing I wasn’t driving it,” Nick noted drily. “It was meant to send a message.”

“What kind of a message?”

“That the war has progressed to the next level.” His voice was grim.

“So I guess this means the truce talks between your factions didn’t work out?”

“I’d concur with that assessment, yes.”