Chasing Shadows(35)

She smiled as she returned to her place next to me. “It is natural, for those of his kind that escape being fed upon,” she said, ignoring the not-too-subtle “Hmph” from my father. “The glowing of the Eye, which you saw a moment ago, was me tapping into my magic. I looked back into the history of the world to be sure that what we both felt from him was real.”

“So you have a supe-sense too?”

Alana laughed. “I suppose that is one way of looking at it,” she replied. “The myths which have thus far painted dragons as magical beasts are not entirely made up, you see. In every piece of fiction there is an element of truth.”

“Speaking of that,” Diarmid said, sitting forward, “we would like to request your assistance, Ms. O’Mara.”

She looked at him. “I know why else you are here, Mr. Mackenna,” she said. “I can only tell you that those you seek are one in the same.”

His eyes widened. “Are you saying that Vivian Drake is a vampire?”

“She is. But it is pointless to pursue her. What’s done is done.”

“No,” he declared, standing abruptly. “I have to find her. Where is she?”

Alana shook her head. “I cannot tell you that.”

“Can’t or won’t?” my father asked snidely.

“Can’t. Even my gifts are limited,” she said. “But if you will leave me your contact information, I will be sure to call should anything else come to me.”

Hoping to stay the swell of anger I could see building in Diarmid’s eyes, I turned to Alana. “You say Vivian and her source are the same person. Can you at least tell us, if you know, why she wrote these books? Surely she knew she was putting her life at risk.”

Our hostess looked at me with a tiny smile and a sparkle in her eye that confirmed what I had already suspected to be true—she knew that I was Vivian Drake. Yet she was keeping my secret for me, protecting me. I wished I could have asked her why.

“She wrote the first from a place of hurt,” she said. “Anger and frustration at her lot in life, as well as resentment, despair, depression… She had no idea the book would be as successful as it was, or that her publisher would be so eager for more.”

Diarmid scoffed. “You know all that, but you can’t tell us where she is?”

Alana looked up. “A prophetess such as I can see only what the gift chooses to reveal. It may be fate’s way of telling you to let it go, or that you must find her yourself.”

“Or that you’re protecting her,” he returned, stepping closer.

Out of nowhere the butler appeared between them. “I believe you have overstayed your welcome, sir,” he said in a voice that was not to be argued with.

Diarmid stared at him, but the old man (or was he also a Drake?) didn’t back down. With a frustrated snarl, my father turned and stormed out of the house.

As soon as the front door had slammed shut, Alana grabbed my hand fiercely. “Tread with caution, child. I fear that your newfound happiness will come to an end should the truth be discovered.”

She must have known also that both Mark and Juliette knew the truth, for something told me she would not have spoken otherwise. “I know,” I told her. “But even if I don’t finish the fourth, even if nary another word is written, he or someone else could still find out. I don’t know what to do.”

“I know it will pain you to think of it,” she said, cupping my face gently. “But you may have to lay the blame at the feet of another.”

“You mean set someone else up as Vivian? I can’t do that!”

“I feel it may be your only recourse,” Alana replied. “You cannot not see it now, but the means to your salvation will yet come to you.”

I could not help but have my doubts, but I stood and thanked her anyway. After all, she had assured me that Mark was indeed an immortal, and she had protected my secret from my father. I turned back to her as the butler was leading us out of the room, needing to satisfy my curiosity. “Why didn’t you just tell him it was me? Why protect me when lying to him may well bring retribution to your door?”

Alana laughed, and again I likened it to the sound of bells. “Because punishment is the lot of the wicked, and that you are not. Also, he can do no harm to me that I will not see coming. I have nothing to fear from him and his ilk.”

“The Drake must be powerful indeed,” I mused.

“Stronger than any vampire, I assure you,” she said. “With all due respect to the majestic lion, it is the dragon who is the king of beasts.”

“If that’s true, then why hide?” Juliette asked.

Alana gave her a knowing look. “Even the king has enemies, child.”

“Good point,” Juliette conceded. “I don’t suppose you can or will tell me when I’m gonna meet my guy? You know, so I got something to look forward to, since I don’t even have dreams to go to sleep to at night?”

The wyvern walked across the room and took Juliette’s hand. After a few moments of holding it with her eyes closed, she looked at Juliette and said, “He will come to you when your need for him is greatest.”

The three of us burst out laughing, Mark and I exchanging a glance. “Why does that not surprise me?” Juliette murmured with humor in her tone.

“Is that not the way it always happens?” Alana countered. “When most we need the strength of another, they are suddenly there to hold us up. Take heart, though, young shifter, for I see that you will not have to wait nearly so long as our friend Saphrona.”

“Really?” Juliette asked brightly, a smile on her face.

Alana nodded. “Aye. You will have the good fortune of meeting him in less than a year’s time. He is…” Her eyes took on a faraway look for a moment, and then she blinked and shook her head.

“He is what?” Mark’s sister prompted.

The psychic smiled. “Someone from your past—a person with many talents whom you once called friend.”

With that hopeful bit of news imparted, we took our leave of the seer, and as the door closed at our backs I said, “Gee, I wish she could have given me a timetable.”

“No offense Saphrona, but thank goodness I don’t have to wait a few hundred years,” Juliette quipped.

“A few hundred years?” Mark queried as we exited the house. “Don’t tell me that shapeshifters are immortal?”

“Dude, you just met a dragon shapeshifter who claimed to be thousands of years old,” she said as we descended the steps. “Now whether that’s species specific or because she hasn’t met her own bondmate, I dunno. But with other shifters, once we reach physical maturity we stop aging. When a shifter meets their imprint, then he usually stops phasing regularly, and thus aging begins again.”

My attention shifted from the brother and sister on either side of me to the man pacing back and forth next to the rented limousine. I could tell that Diarmid was furious, and I feared that Gail or one of the pilots, or some other unsuspecting human, would pay the price for it. Silently I resigned myself to the very real possibility that someone was going to die tonight, because taking a life might be the only way assuage his fury…

…I just hoped it was only one life.

“Did you get anything else out of her?” he thundered as we approached.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but no. I tried to, but she swore there was nothing else she could tell me.”

It was a lie, of course. But I was well-trained in the art of the poker face, and I imagined that as a soldier and a shapeshifter, so were Mark and Juliette. I did not believe either of them would give us all away.

“She’s lying,” Diarmid went on, all but throwing himself into the limo when the driver came over to open it for us.

Lochlan climbed in behind him and then I did, followed by Mark, Juliette, and Jake. “She’s lying,” he said again we were all in and the driver closed the door. “That’s the vibe I got from her. She knows who it is and she’s protecting her.”

“Diarmid, you don’t know that,” I said. “A psychic’s powers are unpredictable, and cannot always be expected to work the way we want them to.”

“Are you saying she’s not lying? That you believe her? Mida, I thought you were smarter than that.”

I felt my spine stiffen. Should have known the peace wouldn’t last long, I thought sourly. “Thank you for that resounding vote of confidence, Diarmid. Just so you know, though, I didn’t get the same feeling as you did. I thought she was being honest with us, and you should consider that your ‘vibe’ is the result of the fact that she couldn’t tell you exactly what you wanted to hear.”

His expression darkened and I prepared myself for the inevitable explosion, but then Lochlan stepped in, saying, “At least we know that Vivian Drake isn’t just getting her information from a vampire, but that she is one. We know her mindset, so we should start searching for vampires that are disenchanted with their lives.”