Blood Pool

Chapter Twenty

The rain had stopped long before the sun rose. Bo woke Jade up to coffee and blood, the breakfast of champions.

“The bridges are open. Let’s go,” he ordered.

She wiped the remnants of sleep from her eyes. “Did you eat anything?” she muttered.

Bo stood tall, hands on hips. “Yeah, I chewed on my fingernails half the night and then I had a burger from the joint on the corner while you slept.”

Jade looked quite proud of herself. “You needed to eat. Raven will be very upset with me if you aren’t one-hundred percent when we find her.”

“If we find her, you mean.” He felt engulfed in feelings of loss and hopelessness.

“Hey-what d’ya mean if? We’re going to find her! Let’s get in the car and get going.”

“Jade, you’re acting too perky. I can’t deal with perky.”

Bo was withdrawn and tired. His usual optimism was gone. Without their connection, it seemed impossible to find Raven. All he had to work with were his tracking skills and a newbie Lamai who was just getting her feet wet with all her recently acquired powers.

And then there was her incessant talking. How could a woman find so many things to babble about? Many times he wanted to scream at her to shut up.

“How come I can be outside in the daylight safely? I never could understand that myth,” Jade asked as they headed toward the car.

“Like you said, it’s a myth. Although I hear there is a sect of vampires that can’t tolerate much sunlight, and their young ones can’t handle any,” Bo said. He started the engine, hoping she wouldn’t keep talking.

“So what makes the Lamai so different?”

Damn. No such luck. He sighed deeply. “Time. They’ve been around the longest. Queen Rhia has been walking the earth since-it seems since the beginning of time itself.”

“And Tobias?”

“Not quite as long, but long enough. I’ve heard over three hundred years.”

Which brought a thought to Bo’s mind. Where is Tobias?

Tobias had to leave, but his woman was not making it easy. “I’ll be back. Don’t worry, Em.”

Tears rolled down Emmie’s face as she grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. Most fae women did not handle pregnancy well. Emerald loved the fact that she was finally with child-with Tobias’s child-but the emotional rollercoaster ride was horrid.

“I-I don’t want you to go…” she sobbed.

He tried to be patient. “Em, I have to find Raven.”

She pouted. “You’re always leaving me. Now that we’re going to be married and start a family, you still want to go?”

He hugged her reassuringly. “I don’t want to go, I have to go.”

Another onslaught of tears barraged him. How could he tell her he was having second thoughts about marriage? He couldn’t.

“You don’t have to go! Bo is looking for her. He’ll find her. Come on, can’t you stay at least another day? You’re gone for weeks, months at a time, and I don’t say a word to you. Now that things have changed, I need you here.”

Fae women also apparently got very frisky when pregnant.

Emerald took his hand and placed it on her belly.

“Our child is growing within me. Please don’t go,” she pleaded as she kissed him. “Not tonight…”

In spite of his anxiety, Tobias found his body responding to Emerald’s brazen touch and fiery kisses.

After making love to his soon-to-be wife for half the night, Tobias became one with the mist and followed the trail that would hopefully lead him to his daughter.

“You’ve become quiet. Deep in thought?” Laroque asked.

“I suppose, and wondering about the future-my future,” Raven said as she stared out the car window. “And the past.”

“Really? I thought your main focus would be to escape from me and return to Mirabelle Cove and your life with Bo.” Laroque reached in his jacket pocket and took a handful of pills.

That statement cut like a knife. “Things change. You know that.”

She had piqued his curiosity once more. “You’re not planning on going back to Mirabelle? That is, once you escape from me.” He took a water bottle from the console and swallowed the pills.

“Actually, I’m thinking of relocating. Once I escape from you, that is,” she said stoically. “What are you taking?”

Laroque laughed. “Oh, Raven, you really had me going there for a moment. And those, my dear, are vitamins.”

Her expression didn’t change. “I’m serious. I can get work at just about any hospital. Maybe I will get involved with research. Who knows?” She shifted in the seat uncomfortably, wanting desperately to be anywhere but in this car with this man.

“Yes, you definitely could land work anywhere you want in a New York minute. I said it before-research would benefit from your expertise in the field. You’re a caring person and a genius.”

“Other than the genius part, I would agree with you. Besides, Bo is safe and his life is secured. I, on the other hand, well…I have an expiration date.” She sulked.

He stared at her hard and long before he spoke. “Clever girl, do you think I would consider letting you go simply because you’re mortal now?”

Raven didn’t bother to hide the tears that escaped her eyes. After all, he was the reason her life had taken such a drastic turn. Her emotions bubbled over.

She jerked her head around and caught his glare with one of her own. “I have no life in Mirabelle. I’ve changed, and there’s nothing there for me now. Bo is better off without me.” She wiped away the tears. “I don’t really care if you believe me or not, Laroque-or if you even let me live. My life as I knew it is over. Nothing matters anymore.”

This woman is serious, Laroque thought. He probed with his psychic senses and all signs pointed to her telling the truth. She intended to leave Mirabelle Cove.

He shrugged, dismissing her show of emotions, somehow disappointed by them. Laroque had to remind himself that she was human: utterly, completely, shamefully human.

He absently picked lint from his black slacks. “Do you expect me to talk you out of your plan? To go on about how I didn’t have the opportunity to be with the one I love? You don’t need me to tell you all that. You know it already. If you want to throw everything away, then maybe you deserve to die after all.”

Her sarcasm returned. “How touching, really. I’m moved beyond belief. Your capacity for understanding the human condition is astounding. Did you have to work at being an asshole, or is it just one of your countless natural talents?”

Laroque crossed his arms and tapped his cheek with his index finger. He decided to ignore her little outburst. “What about Bo? What if he doesn’t let you go?”

She choked back tears. “He has no choice. If this is what I want, he’ll let me go. He owes me and he knows it.”

“True, he does owe you his life. That was very brave of you, giving up being Lamai to save him. I don’t think I’d give up immortality.”

“Nothing else matters,” Raven whispered, her gaze returning to the landscape outside the car.

A tinge of excitement colored Laroque’s voice as he said, “What if you stayed with me? We could work together.”

Raven smiled slyly. “And do what-create killer viruses?”

“We could do amazing work. Look at what we did to Ebola! We could work with any virus-HIV, hepatitis…”

She scoffed at his proposal. “And do what with them? Besides, there are a few strains of Ebola. Luckily, you got your hands on the least dangerous one.”

“My point is we could do just about anything. Cure cancer, maybe?”

Laroque put his hand on hers. She seemed to have a hard time believing his altruistic attitude. There had to be another motive.

She laughed. “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…”

“Shame on me-I understand. But honestly, we could do research for the greater good. And yes, I do have my motives, but I’m not willing to confess them to you, at least, not at this point in time.”

The next sound in the Mercedes was of the engine shifting.

Laroque had thought about taking Tobias’s daughter from him and having her become his protégé and he her mentor. That would be a bonus, to let Tobias live with the knowledge that Laroque had more in common with Raven than with her own father-that would be sweet revenge.

“I know you love your father, but I also know you’re a realist. And the fact is that you and Tobias never did have a close relationship. Oh, Tobias loves you, in his way. Yet his love must have left you feeling empty, a side effect of his constant travels, perhaps?” Laroque knew this because it had been one of Nicolette’s constant complaints.

“Your mother would confide in me how she feared Tobias’s absences had affected you. Nicolette confessed to me how it culminated one night. I think she said you were three when you realized that he would return during the night to be with your mother. Only to be gone by morning.” His voice was full of compassion and understanding. “This had to contribute to your feelings of abandonment.” Feelings that Laroque wanted to exploit.

“I don’t need a psych evaluation from you and I’m not looking to punish my father. I’m simply searching for a way to leave my past behind me and move into the future-a future that won’t include Bo or the island of Mirabelle Cove.”

“There is that nasty rumor that Jade is no longer human. We could work to find something that can undo the Lamai changes.”

Raven turned her body and looked directly at Laroque. He was toying with her, manipulating her emotionally, and he was very good at it. He only hoped she didn’t see through him.

“If that rumor proves to be true, why not just go to Hekate and have her change Jade back?”

“Don’t play me for a fool. Hekate doesn’t do favors for anyone without a steep price tag, and I’m the last person she would help.” Anger welled within him. “Maybe I’ll just kill you and put us both out of your misery.”

The car came to a screeching halt.

“Go ahead-see if I care!” she yelled as Laroque exited the vehicle.

Tobias materialized next to the rental car. Bo thrummed his fingers on the steering wheel, and Jade dozed off in the backseat. Due to the combination of the weather and the closed bridges, there was an overabundance of traffic on the mainland.

The door opened, and Tobias got into the front passenger seat.

“How did your meeting go with Rhia?” Bo asked as casually as if Tobias had been sitting there all morning.

“As expected, she doesn’t know anything. Big secret-everything is a big secret. What about you?”

“The rain put a damper on Raven’s scent, but I think I’m headed in the right direction.”

Tobias rolled up the sleeves of his black silk shirt. “Damn vehicles. We could travel so much faster in the mists.”

“You want to take Jade? Feel free,” Bo offered with a sigh.

Adjusting his designer sunglasses, he asked, “She having a tough time with the transition?”

“No, none that I can see. She just likes to talk and talk, and she goes on about Raven and…I-I can’t take it. I miss her something fierce, and if anything has happened to her, I’ll die.”

“Don’t think like that. Raven’s a survivor. Besides, Jade can’t travel in the mists yet. She’s still got a lot to learn.”

Finally, the traffic began moving, and in thirty minutes they were standing in front of Laroque’s home in Key West.

“Most of the windows are still boarded. We must have just missed them,” Bo said as he walked the perimeter of the house. “She was here. I sense her.”

“I feel her, too,” Jade said.

Jade began to walk up to the front door, but abruptly about-faced and headed for the driveway. It appeared as if an invisible string pulled her along. She stood there and slowly turned, eyes closed and hands held out, palms open. Bo joined her. He began shaking his head.

“Yes, she was here. I can smell her scent. She’s not afraid, but she seems… hopeless,” Bo said.

“There’s also someone else-still here. In the shadows,” Jade said softly.

Bo whispered, “You’re right. You’re getting good at this.”

“In the foliage that surrounds the back of the house, another of my father’s employees is hiding. He sees us. He wants to be certain, though. He doesn’t expect to share the same fate as another of Laroque’s men.”

“How do you know all that?” Bo asked.

“I-I’m not sure. I just do.”

“Are you sure…”

“It’s not Raven, yeah, I’m sure. There’s another.” Jade headed to where she sensed the other Lamai hovering half in the ethers. Her eyes became the bright color of shallow tropical waters, her fangs extended.

With a hiss she lurched forward, trying to snatch onto the dissolving Lamai. She grabbed at air.

“Damn!” she cursed aloud.

Bo was right behind her. “What was it?”

“Lamai, but he disappeared as soon as I reached for him.”

Tobias finally spoke. “You can be sure he’s going to report we’re here. I’m worried about Raven. She’s distraught, depressed, feeling lost and…abandoned. I know her emotions as if they were my own.

“For the first time since Raven had been abducted, I feel her signature essence. I’m afraid I’m responsible for much of the way she was feeling. I’m frightened for her. She doesn’t care about what might happen to her. Her aura is full of resignation it’s heavy in the air. You two sense the same thing. I know it.”