problems at the moment than who's the toughest vampire in the room." She whispered
the last as she laid her hand gently over her husband's massive biceps. Zane hadn't
realized that she hadn't joined the other women on the sofa. All his focus had been on
getting to Sophia.
He bowed his head slightly to her. "My apologies."
His words were drowned out by a gasp. "What are you people?" The blonde
woman had moved when no one had been watching her. She was just beyond them,
swaying where she stood, her eyes wide, her face alarmingly pale as she stared at all of
them.
"Blythe." Sam Cassidy started toward her, but she jerked back and hit the wall. Her
arms were extended straight out as if she could ward them off somehow.
"Just let me go. You know everything that I know."
Zane's tension ratcheted up a notch. Had they kidnapped this woman?
"You know I can't just let you go, Blythe. Adrian Prince will just send more men to
find you. He knows that you know something, maybe even that you were the one to
warn the Dalakis family. He won't stop until he gets you." Cassidy inched closer to
Blythe.
Zane relaxed slightly. Okay, so they were protecting the woman. But now they had
another problem. Obviously, she wasn't aware of what they were. Or at least she hadn't
been until they'd all flashed their fangs.
"Why don't you just erase her memories?" Zane couldn't see why they didn't just
do what needed to be done. Ms. Nixon would be none the wiser and their secret would
still be safe.
"No." Cassidy glared at him. "No one is going to do anything to Blythe." He shot a
look at Lucian and Stefan, who both nodded, and then he turned his attention back to
the trembling woman. "Come on, Blythe. You're tired, honey. You just need some rest."
She shook her head, her mouth quivering. "I know what I saw."
Cassidy shifted closer, holding his hand out to her. "Doesn't matter what you saw
or didn't see." He stood near enough to touch her now, but he didn't. "I won't let
anyone or anything hurt you." His fingers grazed her cheek.
Blythe shook her head and stared at him beseechingly. There was so much pain on
her face that Zane felt sorrow for her. Whatever she'd been through tonight, it had been
traumatic.
"I promise," Cassidy whispered. Blythe nodded and Zane could see the fatigue in
her face. She sighed and closed her eyes. Cassidy wasted no time in scooping her up
into his arms and carrying her toward the door. "I'll be back just before dawn," the
other man tossed over his shoulder before he disappeared down the hallway, carrying
the exhausted woman in his arms.
Sophia cleared her throat. "I'm not sure what's going on with that poor woman, but
we do have an immediate problem. A woman is going to be murdered tonight and the
murderer is going to try to implicate one or all of you."
It was time to get back on track. "She's right." Zane strode forward. This time the
men let him pass. He could feel their tension. It matched his own, but he'd come here to
do a job and he'd damn well do it. Then he'd take Sophia home and take her to bed.
"Why would someone do such a thing and try to implicate you?"
"I don't know." Lucian dragged his fingers through his hair, his agitation plain.
"What's the deal with Adrian Prince? Does it have anything to do with his brother's
death?" Zane didn't let on how much he knew about the situation, but waited to see
how much Lucian would tell him.
Lucian hesitated briefly and then told them both in succinct terms everything that
had happened between Jethro Prince and the Dalakis family. "But I can't see Adrian
Prince as the man behind that murder. He's a murderer for sure, but he'd be much more
direct. He's already sent men to try to kill us--why try to implicate us in a murder?"
Zane could see Lucian's point. "It must be some other person. How many enemies
do you have?"
"Obviously, one we know nothing about." Stefan cocked his head to one side,
watching them all as he thought.
"There's one thing I don't understand." It was Lucian who spoke as he sat on the
arm of the sofa next to his wife.
"What's that?" Zane positioned himself at the other end of the sofa near Sophia, but
he didn't sit.
"Why are you involved in all this? What's your connection? For that matter, why
have you been asking questions about this family?"
Zane shrugged. "Something drew me to the cemetery." Rather, someone. He knew
now that Sophia was the reason he'd instinctually been led there that night, but he
wasn't about to tell them that.
Lucian stared hard, not satisfied with Zane's answer. "You're obviously fully aware
of what we are, being a vampire yourself. Who are you and where do you come from?"
Zane glanced down at Sophia. Even she didn't know the full truth of it. No one did.
For over one hundred and eighty-five years, he had been the only one who knew the
truth of his family, of his heritage. She smiled softly, encouragingly. He wanted to
scoop her into his arms and run. He envied Sam Cassidy at the moment. At least he was
alone with his woman, and there was no doubt in Zane's mind that she belonged to
Cassidy. He'd been too protective for it to be otherwise.
The Dalakis family was all waiting. The women were relaxed, but the men were still
on edge. They didn't quite trust him and he didn't blame them for that.
"It's a long story," he began.
"We've got time," Stefan drawled. He was leaning against the wooden mantle, but
Zane knew that his relaxed pose was just that--a pose. The man was ready to attack
without warning, if he deemed it necessary.
"My parents came to America in the year eighteen hundred and six. I was about six
and I remember when we landed in New York." They'd come across on a passenger
liner, keeping to their rooms all day long and only venturing out at night. His father
had used his mother's illness as an excuse when anyone had inquired. Zane had rather
enjoyed the journey across the sea. He'd been so young and it had all been one grand
adventure. The night that the harbor of New York had come into view was one he
would always remember. All the people, the different languages being spoken on the
docks, the smells, the sights, all of it had enthralled him.
"My father told me then that we were taking our last name from our new city. Thus
my name became Zane York." He shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to relive the
painful memories of the past but knowing he really had no choice. Not anymore.
"I don't remember much about my life before then. We were always moving."
Running was more like it, but he'd never known what, or who, his parents were
running from. "My mother," he paused, searching for the right words. "My mother was
not well."
Fingers, soft yet strong, curled around his. He glanced down at where Sophia's
hand was wound around his. That one simple touch gave him the strength to continue.
He wanted so badly just to take her away from here and sink his cock into her soft
body, losing himself in her heat and her goodness.
"My father said it would be better here." Zane shook his head. "He was wrong.
Deluding himself. If anything, my mother got worse."
&
nbsp; "I'm sorry." The unexpected sympathy from Stefan moved Zane. He could feel the
other man's genuine empathy.
Zane nodded, swallowing back the emotion that threatened to overwhelm him.
"She had to be kept locked up for her own safety." He removed his hand from Sophia's
and steeled himself for what he had to say next. The story wasn't pretty to begin with
and only got worse.
"By the time I was eighteen, I realized that my father had also lost his grip on
reality. He'd tried to save my mother from madness, but instead descended into it with
her." This had been the darkest hour of his life. He'd been so young, so alone.
He felt raw, exposing his weaknesses to everyone. But they were all waiting and the
rest of the tale had to be told. "I followed my father and watched him. At first I couldn't
believe my eyes. My father, who'd always been so kind and so good, was..." Zane
broke off as tears pricked his eyes. He sucked in a deep breath, ignoring Sophia's
attempts to touch him, purposely stepping away from her. He ignored the blast of hurt
that he felt from her. He didn't want to hurt her. It just seemed as if the men in his
family were destined to hurt the people they loved.
"He was killing people."
"Oh no."
He ignored Sophia's whispered words, ignored the gasps of horror from the other
women and continued. He had to get this done.
"Not just once. I discovered that he'd been doing it for months. Months!" His
remembered shame washed over him and his stomach churned, burning with the
memories. Dozens, maybe hundreds of people had died because he'd been unaware of
what was happening with his father. "I'd been so wrapped up in my own life, the
changes that occur when we reach manhood, that I'd missed the signs."
"It's not your fault." Lucian spoke calmly and firmly. "He was your father. He
should have been taking care of you. You would not have suspected him of such
horrors."
Zane would not relinquish his part in this tragedy. "I should have seen it sooner."
He began to pace the room, needing to do something to keep the worst of the memories
from consuming him. "I did what I had to do." His actions had haunted him for almost
two hundred years. He turned to face the rest of them squarely. "I did what I had to
do," he repeated.
"What did you do?" Sophia's face was pale as snow, her few freckles even more
prominent against the white of her skin. The thought that he might never touch her soft
flesh again, never feel her beneath his hands and his mouth almost brought him to his
knees. She was already a part of him and he needed her more than he needed his next
breath.
"I followed him one night and before he could drain his victim of blood, I..." Zane
swallowed hard and blinked away the salty tears stinging his eyes. The dark, garbage-
filled alleyway was as vivid in his memory as it was that night. The night air had been
cool and his boots had made no sound as he'd stepped over the refuse. The stench had
filled his nostrils, permeating his flesh. Even after all these years, some nights he swore
he could still smell the odor on his skin.
"I drove a stake through his heart. He didn't die. Not right away." Blood had
spurted everywhere, covering his father's chest, covering Zane's hands. "He turned and
faced me, staggering toward me. For a minute, he seemed like his old self and he smiled
at me, told me he was proud of me and then told me to finish the job."
He ignored Sophia's stifled sobs, rushing to finish the story. "As I drew the ancient
sword that I'd brought with me, he told me to find the rest of my family. Told me to
read his journal. Then I killed him."
Those four simple words said so much, yet so little. He'd been forced to slay his
own father, and in doing so, he'd sentenced his own mother to death. Zane could still
feel the whoosh of the blade as it split the night air, the feel of flesh and bone being
severed like a hot knife though butter. His father's body had hovered in the air before
simply crumpling. The head had rolled to Zane's feet, the sightless eyes staring up at
him.
"I burned the body and then returned to our home."
"Your mother was dead as well." The sympathy in Laurel Rose's voice almost
shattered his tenuous composure.
He sucked in a painful breath. "As you know, your life is connected to that of your
spouse. When one dies, so does the other."
"Oh my God," Sophia whispered under her breath, but Zane could hear it as if
she'd yelled it. Surely she'd scorn him now. A man--no, a creature--who'd killed his
own father and mother.
"I gathered my belongings and burned our house to the ground." The flames had
shot up into the sky, lighting it for miles around. He didn't tell them that he'd trashed
the place first, destroying the crystal chandeliers, the fancy dishes and silk dresses his
father had bought to try to make Zane's mother smile. He'd taken the ancient, jewel-
encrusted family sword, the one he'd used to kill his sire, and slashed the furniture and
the drapes, trying to dispel the fury that had filled him. He hadn't even been sure he
was going to burn the house itself until he'd knocked over a candlestick and it had set
his own bed ablaze. It had seemed fitting somehow to let it all burn.
Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.
"Did you ever find your family?" Delight was curled up close to her husband, his
arm tight around her.
"Yes." He'd known who his family was for years. "It was all there in my father's
"Who are they?" Stefan was staring hard at him now.
The resemblance was there, but one important piece of the puzzle was missing.
Zane reached up and plucked the color contact lenses out. The hard emerald-green eyes
that stared back at him from both men were very familiar. They'd been his father's eyes.
And they were the same eyes that stared back at him from the mirror every morning of
his entire life.
"I was born Zane Dalakis. My father and your father were brothers. I am your
cousin."
Chapter Fourteen
Sophia tried to concentrate on finishing another article, but it was almost
impossible. The words blurred in front of her eyes and her focus was shot. She pushed
away from her computer and leaned back in her chair. She was so tired, but she knew
she wouldn't sleep. Heaven only knows she'd already tried. But all she'd done was toss
and turn in her bed while her mind tried to make some sense out of everything that had
happened.
After dropping his bombshell, Zane had barely given the Dalakis family time to
acknowledge him before he was insisting that the men needed to go out into the city
and try to stop another murder from taking place. He'd ignored her attempts to try to
talk to him alone and she'd finally given up, knowing that their need to stop the crazed
murderer who was running around was more important then her personal life.
In the end, Zane and Stefan had gone out to scour the city, especially the cemeteries.
Lucian had remained at home to protect the women. Just before dawn, Stefan had
returned. Alone. Sophia had tried to hide the pain that Zane's rejection had caused, but
she knew from the sympa
thetic glances the others had given her that she hadn't been
successful.
They'd found another body sometime around four in the morning. Just like Janice
Barton, this woman had both wrists slit and her neck cut. All her blood had been
drained from her body. Once again, a piece of paper had been place by the victim with
the Dalakis name on it. Stefan had confiscated it and placed an anonymous call to the
police. Then both men had hidden in the shadows, watching and listening until they'd
had to leave with the coming of the dawn.
Cassidy had shown up just as the Dalakis family was retiring for the day. He'd
informed them that Blythe was still asleep in his apartment. Once he'd been brought up
to speed on the situation, she'd decided to leave even though Cassidy had tried to talk
her out of it.
Sophia had felt very alone as the former cop had spirited her out a back gate and
taken her several streets over where he'd put her in a cab to send her home. She had the
cell phone numbers of the Dalakis family and Cassidy, but she still had no idea how to
reach Zane.
Sophia pushed out of her chair and wandered over to her bulletin board, her gaze
locked on the information and pictures she'd placed there. Her heart ached for the latest
victim and her family. They were innocent pawns in a battle they knew nothing about.
Sophia didn't know the woman's name yet, but she'd spent part of her day at the police
station getting the facts and writing more articles. She wanted to do her part and had
encouraged the public to come forward if anyone had seen anything. It was a long shot,
but it was something.
She cursed as she whirled away from the board. She'd kept busy all day, trying not
to think about Zane and if she'd ever see him again. After last night, she couldn't be
sure. She'd thought they'd shared something special, but then again, her track record
with men was abysmal. Maybe all his talk about them having a connection was just
that--talk.
She rubbed her breastbone, trying to ignore the ache in her heart. Every word he'd
spoken last night was burned into her memory. His pain had cut through her even as
his increasing distance had added to it.
The sun had gone done over two hours ago and she still hadn't heard anything
from Zane. Not that she expected to.