Chasing Shadows(54)

Loch pretended to be shocked. “I am insulted by that insinuation, Saphrona! I am a doctor and a gentleman, thank you very much.”

“Better be a gentleman,” Mark muttered as he stood.

I grinned at Lochlan as I pushed Mark toward the living room. I followed at first then suddenly stopped, a hand flying to my mouth as I gasped. “Moe and Cissy! Where are the dogs? I can’t believe I forgot about them!”

“They’re in the basement,” Lochlan said rising and walking over to the basement door to open it. The two Chihuahuas came tearing up the stairs and through the door, barking loudly and nipping at Lochlan’s ankles. I could tell they were not happy about having been locked in the basement, which was something I never did with them.

“Looks like Moe and Cissy are mad at you, Loch,” I said with amusement as he shut the door behind them.

He snickered and squatted down to pet the dogs. “Nah,” he said mildly. “Moe and Cissy love me.”

Moe proved just how much by latching onto his hand in that tender space between his thumb and forefinger, growling as menacingly as a three-pound dog could growl. I had to force myself to hold in a laugh as I scolded the dog and commanded him to let go.

“Yeah, they really love you,” I said to my brother as Moe released his hand, barked loudly one more time, and then promptly turned and led Cissy away into the living room. Mark shook his head as the two marched by him and headed up the stairs.

Lochlan inspected his hand. Moe had bitten down just hard enough to leave a mark, one that was already fading to nothing—he hadn’t even broken the skin. “See?” he said, holding it up. “He loves me. If he didn’t, he’d have been more forceful and actually tried to do some damage. That was just a ‘Don’t ever put me in the basement again’ bite.”

I did laugh this time, and after bidding my brother goodnight, led Mark up the stairs. We quickly peeked in on Juliette, who seemed to be resting comfortably, and then headed to our room, where we undressed and climbed into the bed in our birthday suits. I turned so that my back was to Mark’s chest and he wrapped his arms around me, kissing me on the top of my head. I sighed contentedly, said a quick and silent prayer that Juliette was going to be alright, and then fell softly into sleep.



*****



The next morning when I woke, I found Mark’s side of the bed empty and cold. A little disappointed that he wasn’t there to kiss me when I woke, I rose and dressed quickly, crossing the hall to rinse my mouth and use the facilities before going in to check on Juliette. I found Lochlan in her room sitting in one of the chairs. His chin was resting on his chest and he was snoring lightly, her hand with the I.V. clasped lightly in his.

I turned to leave but stopped when I heard Juliette speak lightly. “Don’t go.”

I turned back and smiled at her as I crossed the room. She had dark circles around her eyes, but they were otherwise bright and clear as she looked up at me.

“Hey there,” I whispered softly. “I’m so glad to see that you’re awake.”

She glanced over at the hand that Lochlan held. “I woke to find him like this. I’m kinda afraid to take my hand back because I don’t want to wake him,” she said. “I assume he’s been here all night?”

I studied my brother’s face for a moment and then nodded. “He’s been here all night, yeah, but I don’t think he’s been asleep long. It’s still pretty early, judging by the amount of light outside.”

Juliette turned her head to look out the window for a moment, then looked back at me. “How’s Mark taking this? Has…has he said anything to my mother?”

I took a deep breath and told her what I had seen the night before. She was shocked and somewhat dismayed by her father’s reaction, but agreed that beguiling him so that he would forget was for the best. “I’m glad he won’t remember seeing me like that. It couldn’t have been easy for any of you.”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t. I won’t lie, Juliette: you looked like hell. If you weren’t a shapeshifter, you might have been dead or comatose. They really did a number on you.”

She shuddered mildly. “No kidding,” she muttered.

I tilted my head to the side. “What happened to you? Do you remember anything?”

She nodded, and I noticed her eyes tearing up. Juliette drew a breath in slowly to calm herself, then told me how she had just gotten out of the truck at Easton when she’d smelled the scent of vampire nearby.

“More than one, in fact,” she said. “I started looking around, trying to find them, and then I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I had just enough time to recognize the smell of the guy from the movie theater as I turned around and got decked. He hit me hard enough to knock me out, ‘cause the next thing I remember is waking up in what I assume is a basement.”

Juliette continued her tale, her tone growing more animated and angry as she recalled waking up naked and chained to a wall, her arms over her head. She wasn’t alone in the room—the vampire from the movie theater was there, as was another male vampire, the second man from the parking garage at the mall. They both leered at her in the dim light of the single bulb she could see, smiling lasciviously and flickering their tongues at her. She’d growled and demanded to know who the hell they were, why she was there, and what they planned to do to her. She tried breaking the chains holding her arms up but they were too thick even for her extra strength. She tried to change her form, and when she couldn’t she realized that they’d given her some kind of drug that inhibited her ability to transform. It was then that she knew she was in real trouble.

Then in a flash, the vampires came at her. They took turns alternately feeling her up and hitting her, ignoring her howls of protest and laughing at her attempts to fight back. The vamp from the theater had a cigar in his mouth, and decided that it would be fun to put it to her skin. Every time he ground the lit end into her skin he would snuff the fire, and so he would relight it and do it all over again. When the cigar was gone, he took the lighter itself to her skin. I was glad then that Lochlan was asleep so he didn’t have to hear the sordid details, as I had no doubt he’d shatter the windows yelling with rage.

A thought occurred to me then, and I gasped in horror. “Juliette, please don’t tell me…don’t tell me they raped you?”

Tears she’d until now held in check spilled from the corners of her eyes. “The second guy, the one whose scent I didn’t recognize, he wanted to,” she said softly. “Make a crack about wondering what shapeshifter * would feel like on his cock, and would it taste as sweet as the virgins he preferred to f*ck. Movie theater guy wouldn’t let him, said they were under orders just to give me a good beating. Didn’t stop the bastard from shoving his fingers inside me more than once.”

“Then he as much as raped you, that son of a bitch,” I whispered. I was crying by the time she finished telling me all she had endured. I wanted so much to take her into my arms then, to hold her and comfort her. And I wanted to break the necks of those two men with my bare hands for hurting her. I didn’t give a damn if that made me a monster—because in my mind they deserved to die.





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Eighteen





“Where’s Mark?” Juliette asked, wiping at the tears on her face.

I wiped my own tears away. “I don’t know. He wasn’t in bed when I woke up,” I replied. “I’ll go see if he’s downstairs.”

She nodded and I rose. Peeking in my room, I noticed Moe and Cissy were gone, and so I figured he was outside with them. Downstairs I saw in the kitchen that Mark had indeed fed them, and a glance out the back window showed me that they were in their kennel. A glance out the side window, however, showed me that my truck was gone, which meant Mark wasn’t even on the premises.

This didn’t concern me right away. Although I had already come to expect him to let me know his comings and goings, he was obviously not required to. Perhaps he had gone to check on his parents, or even the horses and Angus, and he just hadn’t wanted to wake me. I went for the phone and picked it up off the base, dialing Harry’s number.

He answered on the third ring. “Morning, Saphrona. You coming to see your animals today?”

Well, that answered my question. Still, I asked him, “So Mark hasn’t been by there today?”

“Not that I’ve seen,” Harry replied. “I just came in from feeding all the animals, including yours. No sign of him. Why, is something wrong?”

“No, nothing wrong. Just that my truck is gone. His was stolen yesterday from the mall that his sister drove it to.”

“Well there ya go. He probably just went to talk to the police again.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s it. He probably just didn’t want to wake me unnecessarily. Thanks, Harry. I’ll come by later today to see to my animals, and change that dressing on Angus,” I said.