Chasing Shadows(60)

“Madness, my dear Evangeline, is being jealous of someone because they are loved,” Lochlan said.

This time when she struck him, it was with a back-handed swing that left his nose bleeding. Lochlan looked back at her with narrowed eyes.

“You did all of this—the attack on Mark at the movie theater, the barn, the animals, Juliette being tortured—you did all of that because Lochlan and Father love me?” I asked incredulously. “You’re a f*cking lunatic!”

She ignored me, to my surprise, smiling as she said, “Truthfully, the movie theater incident was all Martin here. He was only supposed to follow you and report back, but I guess he just couldn’t resist trying for a taste of this beautiful man of yours.”

Evangeline sauntered over to Mark and stood close to him, rubbing her body intimately against his as she nuzzled his neck and fondled his crotch. I growled, straining again to break free as I screamed at her.

“Get away from him, you bitch!”

She cast me a sideways glance and smiled wickedly, licking his earlobe before she disengaged herself. “Yes, your Mark does taste very good,” she purred, drawing her finger across the blood under his nose and sticking it in her mouth to suck. “Anyway, Martin here has a bit of a score to settle with Mark and our dear brother, which is the only reason this hunk of man-meat hasn’t been drained dry as of yet. Of course he will be in due time, but not for a while.”

“Where is Juliette?” I demanded, ignoring the spike of fear that shot through me at the thought of Mark being drained of his blood.

“Oh, the bitch?” Vangie said with mock innocence, before she gave me yet another evil smile. “I imagine that Peter is enjoying having his way with her, since he was denied the privilege yesterday.”

Both Lochlan and Mark roared at this news, and Evangeline laughed as she looked at our brother. “Oh, this is marvelous!” she cried, clapping her hands together again. “A vampire in love with a lowly, disgusting, shapeshifting dog woman? Oh, this is too much!”

She threw back her head and laughed heartily, joined by Martin, who sobered long enough to say, “Perhaps I should join him. After all, the dog is rather lovely for a shifter, and I am a man who has always appreciated a fine pair of breasts…”

“Go, my darling,” Evangeline purred. “Have fun.”

Lochlan strained against his chains, lunging after Martin as far as they would allow him to move. “I’ll kill you! I swear to God I will kill you!”

Martin laughed again and headed through a door on the wall to my right, shutting it closed behind him.

Vangie stared after him a moment, her expression amused. “I was a little disappointed when I heard the horses had survived,” she said, her tone indicating she had been only mildly so. “After all, I told him to make sure all those filthy animals burned. But my Martin still recalls his younger sister’s fondness for those ugly beasts, even if the little brat has been dead a hundred years. He released them in her memory before setting that barn of yours on fire. Oh, how I wish I could have been there—I would have enjoyed hearing the screams of panic from those wretched creatures!”

“And Juliette?” Mark spoke up. “Why did you have her kidnapped and tortured, hmm? What purpose did that serve?”

She turned to him. “It’s simple really, my good man: I wanted to rattle your cages a little more. She was a means to an end, and my boys had a great deal of fun with her, trying to teach that dog to obey her masters. I imagine, though, that the lesson plan has changed for today’s session.”

“You really are psychotic,” I said. “A complete and utter lunatic. What makes you think you’re going to get away with any of this?”

“Oh, but don’t you see, dear sister? I already have!” Vangie cried happily. “You all are here, chained in my secret little room in Father’s basement, and you are completely at my mercy—not that you’ll get any, of course.”

“And just what do you propose to do with us, hmm? Starve us to death? You know that won’t work,” I sneered.

“Perhaps not Lochlan or Father—maybe not even you, what with you being part vampire and all. But I can leave you down here indefinitely, wasting away into nothing if I choose.”

My eyes flicked across the room to the man I loved. “And what about Mark? What do you plan to do with him?”

“Yes, what indeed?” she said, tapping her chin with a manicured nail as she turned and looked him over. “I could drain him—his blood is undeniably powerful and alluring. I had the most difficult time not killing him instantly, let alone keeping my boys off of him.

“Oh, but that would be such a waste,” she went on with a sigh. “No, I think what I will do with this delectable man is to keep him here, taking a little bit of his blood every day. It will make me invincible!”

“Still doesn’t explain how you plan to get away with it,” I taunted her. “Father and Lochlan will be missed at work. Mark and Juliette’s parents will miss them. I have friends who will miss me—people will come looking for us, Evangeline. Eventually they will come here. Our trail will lead them straight to us.”

She tapped her chin with her nail again. “May I choke on the next pint of blood I drink for saying this, but you have a point,” Vangie said after a moment. “No doubt some of you will eventually be missed out there in the human world, and people will question your absence. Guess that means I will have to rethink my plan.”

She paced for a minute or two, her eyes roaming over her four captives as she walked back and forth, still tapping her finger against her chin as she appeared to think things over. Meanwhile, I was twisting my hands in their chains, hoping to find some sliver of room to slip them out. Whoever had wrapped the chains around me had done so quite well—they were tight against my wrists, and twisting them against the silver still chafed something awful. It looked like the only way I would have even a remote chance of getting out of them would be dislocating my thumbs.

A small price to pay if it meant freedom.

“I know what I will do!” Evangeline said suddenly, raising her finger in the air as she stopped to look at me.

“Oh, do tell,” I said mockingly. “Enquiring minds are desperate to know your dastardly plan.”

She giggled that irritatingly mad laugh of hers again. “Oh, I just bet you are, my dear sister! Well, since there’s nothing you can really do about it, I shall tell you: I’m going to leave Lochlan and Father down here to rot. I’m going to go upstairs and watch as Peter and Martin rape and beat that mongrel shapeshifter friend of yours over and over again, until such time as they are tired of her and decide to kill her, which I will then gladly help them do.”

Then her smile grew wider, and her expression, though I could not have imagined it possible, grew even more twisted and evil.

“But first, my dear Saphrona, I am going to make you watch as I molest your boyfriend and then kill him, which means that in the end…you will also be dead.”





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Twenty





“After your boy-toy and his mutt sister are dead,” Evangeline went on, “Peter, Martin, and I will load up our cars—by the way, thank you, brother, for yours—with valuables from this house that we can sell, and we will be well on our way before any hope of rescue arrives.”

She stepped away from me to stand in front of Lochlan. “Of course, there really is a small chance that someone will come before too long,” she said somewhat absently as she regarded him. “Lochlan here, and our father, they have at least a small chance. I suppose I owe them that much, given that they did love me, too.”

“We did love you, Vangie. We still do,” Lochlan said. “Why don’t you let us go? End this now, before you do something you’ll regret.”

“Ah-ah, dear brother,” she said, wagging her finger at him. “Your Jedi mind trick won’t work on me. I regret nothing, you see. Sure, you and Father loved me, but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough to overcome the foolishness of loving her! Of loving somebody who didn’t appreciate you or love you for who and what you are instead of what she thought you should be! I loved you unconditionally! I never judged you! But who did you favor? Who did you love no matter how many times she turned her back on you?”

Evangeline cast me a cold, hateful stare, then she suddenly brightened, stepping away from Lochlan to turn and walk across the room again. She stood in front of Mark and looked over her shoulder at me. “Get ready to watch as I have my fun with your beloved, dear sister.”

She turned back to Mark, positioning herself so that I could not see her face, but so that I would see everything she did to him. He stared straight at me, capturing my gaze with his own even as she reached for his pants and began to undo them.