Chasing Shadows(53)

I stood and paced away from the table. “Lochlan, I… I can’t,” I said, turning to face the two men. “I can’t tell you.”

“Saphrona, you just told me you don’t know who’s behind this—now do you or don’t you?”

My eyes flickered toward Mark. He looked at me steadily, and in his eyes I saw that he was ready to stand with me should I decide to come clean. With everything that had happened—the barn, Juliette, my father, even me biting him—the fact that he was here supporting me made me feel a lot stronger that I had ever felt when I was alone.

Besides, Lochlan was my brother. Surely if he knew he would help me get out from under the mess I had created for myself.

And so, taking a deep breath, I said, “Lochlan, what I do know is that Vivian Drake isn’t behind this.”

“Oh really?” he scoffed. “And just how the bloody hell do you know that?”

I eyed him squarely. “Because I am Vivian Drake.”

Lochlan stared. He blinked once, twice, then shook his head and stared a little more. “You’re mad. You’ve gone completely, undeniably, irrevocably around the sodding bend.”

He stood then, and Mark followed suit, standing beside me but slightly in front. “Oh, a nice display of bravado, my friend, but I daresay that my sister is more a threat to me than you are,” he said snarkily.

“That would be true, Lochlan, if I didn’t know how to kill you,” Mark replied.

Lochlan harrumphed then smiled slightly, his sudden ire already deflated. “I’d welcome you to try, but I don’t want my sister to kill me before I’ve had a taste of my own pair-bond, thank you very much.” He then dropped back into the chair he had just vacated, rubbing his hands over his weary face as he looked back up at us. “Saphrona, what the devil were you thinking? I could see all that blather that the dragon lady said about why the books were written being true if you had written them when you first left, but you didn’t write them for more than a century and a half!”

Mark sat again and I shrugged as I returned to my own chair. “I don’t know, Loch. To be honest, the first book started out as more of a diary. I had just gotten another lavish gift from Diarmid, and I remember wondering when he was going to get it through his thick head that he couldn’t simply buy my affection. I was frustrated with the fact that even after all this time, he keeps trying. That he can’t seem to understand that what he did to my mother is unforgivable.”

I sighed and began spinning the glass in my hands slowly as I stared down at it. “I just remember one day sitting down at the computer and just…writing. I put down everything I had learned, everything I had felt, my frustrations and angers and fears and hopes …everything. I read over it the next day and I remember thinking, ‘Now here’s some vampire lore that could make someone a hell of a lot of money.’ And I’ve always thought of being a writer, so I carefully crafted the Vivian Drake identity, then restructured the material I’d written and made a book out of it. Sent it off to a publisher thinking there was no way it would ever actually get published, and then it did and everything just exploded from there.”

“You know…given what I know about publishing, it’s no small wonder that no one’s ever seen Vivian’s face,” Lochlan said. “How on Earth did you get out of doing a press tour—book signings and all that?”

I had to smile. “Easy: I made Vivian agoraphobic. In my communications to my agent and publishers, I explained that the condition made me unable to leave my house, and the books were my way of reaching out, of being part of the world I inexplicably feared.”

He nodded. “As damn good a cover as any, I suppose. But if you’re Vivian, then either your secret’s been compromised or we’re completely back to square one as to who the hell is behind all this.”

“I don’t see how my security’s been compromised,” I said. “All the people that know I’m Vivian are in this house right now.”

“That you know of,” Loch pointed out. “Is it possible that your publisher or your agent have been approached? Would one of them have given your information out?”

I shook my head. “They can’t give out information they don’t have—not even they know where Vivian is from. All my books have been sent in by e-mail because of Vivian’s agoraphobia, so we’ve never met face-to-face. All they have is a social security number and a bank account to wire my royalty payments to.”

“My, my… Aren’t you a clever girl?” my brother said.

“Believe me, Loch, I made sure all my bases were loaded before I went through with this,” I told him. “So I just don’t see the barn fire or the attack on Juliette having anything to do with Vivian Drake.”

“I’ve been thinking,” Mark spoke up then. “Loch, vampires are supposed to have a super sense of smell. I remember how you and Evangeline reacted to me. Anyway, if that’s true, I’m wondering if you picked up anything when you first found Juliette?”

Lochlan shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid not. I was too distracted by the smell of her blood, and distraught by the condition in which I found her. I could think of nothing at that moment except getting her inside so that I could tend to her.”

“And she’s been bathed, so the scent will have been washed away,” I added.

Mark looked between us. “But what about outside? Wouldn’t there be what you guys call a scent trail?”

“Possibly. But there’s no way to tell precisely when she was left there, and there have been petrol vapor trails run across the spot that would obscure it in any case. We must also consider that they simply threw her out of whatever vehicle they brought her back in.”

“Actually,” I began, “We couldn’t have been gone from the house more than half an hour when you called me. Mark’s parents were obviously already back in town when I called them with the news, seeing as they got here before we did.”

My brother’s face fell for a moment. “And I must thank God that they didn’t arrive while I was having to re-break and set her broken bones,” he said. “She screamed horribly, poor child, but did not wake even then. Whatever that drug is they used on her, it was strong to keep her asleep through that pain.”

“She didn’t wake once?” Mark asked.

Lochlan shook his head, then looked at him squarely, saying, “I know that I have no right to ask, but I would like to have a part in finding whoever did this. I want to help you make that bastard pay.”

Mark returned his steady gaze. “You care about my sister, don’t you?”

Lochlan nodded. “Aye. More than I’ve any right to, given we’re both rather looking forward to being bonded. But I’ve always been fond of a woman with spirit, and she has it in spades. Juliette is a marvelous verbal sparring partner, and I would very much like to one day call her my friend.”

“She might not admit it anytime soon, but I think I know her well enough to know she feels the same,” Mark replied.

My brother nodded again, then sighed. “So, kids, how the bloody hell do we go about finding this git?”

“Your truck,” I said to Mark. “Call the police and report it stolen—surely wherever they find it will give us a lead.”

“True,” Mark said. “But we don’t know if Juliette actually made it anywhere or if they ambushed her on the side of the road somewhere. It would help if she was awake to tell us that much.”

Lochlan cocked his head to the side as if thinking of something, then looked at us and said, “Well given the steady rhythm of her heartbeat and her breathing, she’ll be asleep a while yet. But that’s a good thing in that it will help her recover faster. Now, you could certainly call the police now and report the truck stolen, and just get Juliette to support whatever story you tell.”

I shook my head. “No. Mark’s right. I think we should wait for Juliette to wake up and tell us what happened to her. I mean, what if we report it stolen from the driveway, but they find it in some mall parking lot, and the security cameras show Juliette getting out of it?”

Lochlan growled. “Damn, I hate it when you are right, sister.”

I grinned tiredly. “I know you do.”

I noticed then that Mark was trying vainly to stifle a yawn. I put my hand on his shoulder and rubbed it comfortingly, saying, “I think it’s time I get Mark here into bed.”

“No need to be subtle, my dear sister,” Loch said with a wide grin. “You want to go and have your way with him—I understand that. But if you wouldn’t mind, keep the noise down to a minimum. I’d very much appreciate you not disturbing me or my patient.”

I rolled my eyes as Mark chuckled. “We’ll be going to bed to go to sleep, nothing more—not that it’s any of your business, nosy. And I had a feeling you’d want to stay and keep an eye on Juliette, but do me a favor and behave yourself.”