Chasing Shadows(48)

After Diarmid had walked out the door and I heard the limo I was sure he’d arrived in start up and begin backing down the driveway, I turned to Mark and heaved a sigh of relief. “Well, that went…well.”

“Indeed,” Mark said. “So that was Evangeline.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that was her.”

“Though I’m certainly glad you avoided getting injured, I almost wish you and your sister had gotten into a fight. I bet it would have been fun to watch.”

I turned around and slapped at his chest playfully. “You’re such a guy—you only wanted to see a cat fight.”

He grinned. “What can I say, two hot women tearing each other’s clothes off over me? Turn-on of a lifetime.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And I bet you would have loved to claim the right of sleeping with the victor, hmm?”

“Hey,” he said, holding his hands up in mock innocence. “I have no doubt you would have won that fight, so why not?”

“Damn right I would have.”

He reached for me then and drew me closer, the look in his eyes changing from one of humor to one of desire. “Why don’t we pretend you did fight so I can give you your reward?”

I laughed. “Like I would need to get into a fight with my sister to get that particular reward from you,” I said, leaning forward to kiss him.

He kissed me back eagerly as once again our hands roamed over each other. Even through his t-shirt I could feel how well-toned and muscled Mark was, and I enjoyed the feel of him. Although he wasn’t a vampire, I still felt safe with him. I knew that given the opportunity he would fight to defend me, even if it meant he would die in the attempt. My heart swelled with emotion at the thought and I kissed him more passionately.

We were yanking each other’s shirts out of waistbands when the house phone began to ring. I was tempted to ignore it, very tempted, but after the third ring I reluctantly pulled away from Mark and went to the cordless phone on the wall next to the refrigerator. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and the phone had just started its fourth ring when I picked it up, my voice only slightly breathy when I spoke.

“Hello?’

“Is this Saphrona?” said a woman whose voice I had never heard before.

My brows furrowed. “May I ask who’s calling?” I countered, not ready to confirm my own identity until I knew who I was speaking to.

“Oh, forgive me, I’m afraid I’ve forgotten my manners—which you will understand when I tell you why I’ve called,” the woman said. “My name is Monica Singleton. I’m Mark and Juliette’s mother—is my son around?”

Though she was obviously trying to put on that she was fine, that nothing was wrong, I noted an edge of worry to her voice. I grew concerned. “Mark is right here, Mrs. Singleton,” I said, and the moment I said his name he came to stand next to me. “What’s happened? Are you alright?”

“I can’t seem to locate Juliette,” Mrs. Singleton said. “Have you any idea where she is? I have been trying her cell phone since early this afternoon. I wanted to talk to her about the situation with you and Mark—well, I suppose I should talk with the both of you as well, of course—but she hasn’t answered any of my calls or texts.”

My heart jumped as I looked over at Mark, realizing as she spoke that neither of us had heard from Juliette since she’d left this morning. “Juliette left in Mark’s truck early this morning, around ten or ten-thirty. She was going shopping for clothes because she’d lost a lot of things in the barn fire.”

“And you haven’t heard from her since then?” Monica Singleton’s voice was going from worry to panic, and I guessed that it wasn’t like Juliette not to return a message.

“No, ma’am, I’m afraid not. But don’t worry, Mark and I will go out looking for her right away,” I told her.

“Dan and I have been trying to locate her for the last two hours, but now that we know what she was doing today, it gives us a better idea of where to look. Shopping malls are your best bet, my dear,” Mark’s mother said. “Please call me if you hear from her or find her.”

I tried to put a lightness in my voice that I didn’t really feel. “And if she’s been bitten by the shopping bug and has spent all day in some sale, I’ll make sure we give her a stern talking to.”

“You and me both, Saphrona. Thank you for your help.”

“Think nothing of it, Mrs. Singleton. I’m already quite fond of Juliette. I’m sure she’s alright.”

After saying goodbye and hanging up, I turned to Mark and explained to him what his mother had said. In minutes we had brought Moe and Cissy in from their kennel and were in my truck backing down the driveway.

“This ain’t like her,” Mark muttered absently, confirming my earlier suspicion. “Juliette always answers within an hour, max. Depends on what she’s been doing. Well, at least until a year ago, about the time she started playing Angel. Took her longer, I guess, because she had to get away from me and find a private place she could call from. But still, it’s not like her to not return a phone call.”

I put my hand on his arm to comfort him. “Mark, I know this is going to sound stupid, but please try to remain calm. You need a clear head to think with if we’re going to find her.”

He took a deep, shaky breath, but finally relaxed his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. “Mom was right,” he said after a moment. “Malls are the best place to start looking, because she’d want nice stuff, but she wouldn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for it.”

I nodded. “Westland is closest,” I said. “But then your mom said she and your dad had already been out looking for her, so they may have covered that one already. We could go into Columbus—there are a couple dozen malls there.”

Mark nodded and headed toward the freeway. Although it tried his patience, I had to remind him to stop for gas before we got on the on-ramp, because the truck was down under half a tank. We were back on the road in under fifteen minutes.

As we drove, Mark suggested calling the police, and I was forced to remind him that because she was an adult Juliette could not be reported missing for at least another day. “I hate that damn rule,” he muttered darkly. “Some people who go missing are dead within the first hour, but oh, you can’t report them missing for forty-eight.”

“I know, sweetheart,” I said, laying my hand on his arm again. Then an idea hit me. “What about reporting your truck stolen? It would suck to do that to Juliette, but if it helps us locate her any faster—”

I was interrupted by the ringing of my cell phone, and I saw that my brother was calling me when I checked the I.D. screen. Flipping it open I said, “Loch, now’s not a very good time, I’m afraid.”

“I know that,” he said immediately, and the tone of his voice had my stomach plummeting. Surely he meant was referring to last night’s fire. Wasn’t he?

I took a breath. “This has nothing to do with the fire, though. Juliette is missing. No one’s heard from her since she left my place this morning around ten or—”

“No she’s not,” Lochlan said, interrupting me again. “Wherever you and your man are, I suggest you come home right now.”





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Sixteen





“Lochlan, what’s happened?” I demanded.

“I’d rather not get into it over the phone,” my brother replied grimly. “Just tell Mark to turn around.”

“Damn it, Loch Ness, don’t toy with me—just spit it out!” I growled.

He harrumphed on the other end of the line, then said, “Very well. Recalling how I very nearly reacted to the scent of your most delectable lover, when I heard that Father had brought Evangeline with him on his visit this evening, I decided to stop by and see how much damage had been done—not that I don’t think you could have taken her, especially given that you have Mark’s blood in your system. When I arrived, there was something lying across the driveway. It was Juliette, and she’s not in good shape.”

I gasped in shock, my fear quickly turning to anger. “Give me a second,” I said into the phone, then looked at Mark. “Turn around. Cross the median if you have to.”

Mark cast me a sidelong glance. “What’s going on?” he asked, signaling his intention to cross lanes and then turning sharply to bounce across the grassy strip separating the east- and westbound lanes of I-70.

Several horns honked in protest as we cut into the westbound traffic. “Something’s happened to Juliette,” I said. “Lochlan just said he found her in a heap at the end of our driveway.”

Mark roared in anger, and had I not reached over and grabbed his arm to stop him, I had no doubt he would have put his fist through the window. Hitting the speaker button on my phone, I asked Lochlan to tell us again what he had seen. He said that when he went to turn into my driveway, he had seen a nude body lying across it, and by the color of the hair he knew it was Juliette. She was covered in blood, he said, and so he immediately picked her up and carried her up to the house. He laid her on the porch just long enough to run back for his car to pull it up the drive, so that he could retrieve his keys and be able to open the door (I’d given him and Harry a copy of my house key). I appreciated the thought, I said, but I would not have minded had he felt it necessary to kick the door down.