Chapter 14
~ Dakota ~
Sitting alone at a table in the dining room, Alek and Dakota shunned food in favor of the weak tea vampires were so obsessed with these days.
When Alek brought his cup to his mouth, Dakota noticed his missing nails. Dredging up her courage, she stated flatly. “They will grow back, and you will not freak out about it.”
Alek lowered his cup slowly to the table. “I worried that might be the case. Now that I have my head screwed on, do you have any bright ideas for solving that problem?”
“What makes you think I can’t call the blood rage?”
A slow smile crept onto his face. “I think you would be sexy as hell in the heat of rage, but even then, you’re delicate.”
“Perhaps manacles we could attach manacles to either side of the bed? You could still have your sexy way with me but not in danger of using the claws?”
Alek immediately brought his hand down under the table to readjust his junk. Grinning, Dakota thought he must have liked that idea.
“We’ll think on that for a while. I’m sure we can come up with something suitably safe if we really apply ourselves.”
“Whatever you say, handsome.”
Jared stumbled into the dining area. He grabbed a sparkling water and dropped down into the seat next to them. “I’m ready to talk.”
Pulling her attention from Alek, she turned to her son. “I’m glad you decided to talk to me. Is it okay if Alek stays?”
“Since I’m seriously going to rip his face off if he bullies Selene that way again, I think it would be best if he stayed.”
“I wasn’t trying to bully her that morning at our house. I was trying to keep her safe.”
Sighing, Jared replied coldly. “That’s the primary reason you still have a face.”
Alek smiled at her son’s blatant protective nature when it came to Selene.
“From as far back as I can remember one man called himself my father. He had a lot of kids and was none too nice to any of us.”
“That man was not your father.”
“Maybe, but he was human and made he believe that I was his son. He liked me because I was so much smarter than the other kids. Things that came hard for them were easy for me to learn. He valued me differently, so I was kept clean.”
“Kept clean?”
“I don’t want to talk about that.”
Dakota stilled in her seat. He must be talking about hygiene or sexual abuse, depending on whether he was speaking literally or figuratively. Either way, it made her blood boil to think her son had been exposed to such things. “Tell me what you want me to know.”
“I helped him professionally, in ways the others couldn’t or wouldn’t. I didn’t know how wrong it was. Once I was old enough to understand, I refused.” Glancing away, his voice changed. “That’s when the beatings started. When that didn’t work, he tried to starve me into compliance.” Swallowing thickly, he continued. “I was ten times more stubborn than him. I knew that if I did what he asked, the others would suffer. I refused until I was a sick bag of bones that could no longer get out of bed. That’s when he dropped me off at an orphanage. I was probably about ten at the time.”
“I found you when you were fifteen.”
Nodding, Jared’s eyes found Alek’s. “I didn’t know anything about the blood bond the first time Selene, and I shared blood. If I’d known, I never would have shared with her. God knows, she’s too young and innocent for that kind of stuff to be floating around in her head.”
“Don’t apologize for what you are. Maybe she’ll learn a lot about the kinds of people not to trust by seeing your experiences. It’s preferable to her having to learn the hard way, right?”
Nodding, Jared folded his arms over his stomach. “I’ve seen my father and my old handler…”
“Your old handler?”
“The man tasked with ensuring that we did as we were told. God, I was so screwed up as a child that I honestly thought every family had a handler. Anyways I saw them once when I was leaving work at the precinct and another time at the children’s home. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to leave there.”
“You feel like you have to stay close to protect the other kids?”
Nodding, Jared’s voice dropped. “I think he’s looking for more kids. I see in my mind’s eye that the others escaped over the last few years.”
“You see in your mind’s eye?”
“My father was an inventor of sorts. One of the things he invented linked me to my brother.” Holding up a hand before Dakota could speak, he explained. “I know he’s not my real brother, but he’s a vampire, like me. We swore our loyalty to each other.”
Dakota wiped the expression of disbelief from her face before it fully formed, intent on being supportive no matter how strange his story got.”
Jared’s shoulders slumped. “This is one reason I didn’t want to tell you. I can’t tell one part about that experience without telling it all and the more I talk, the stranger and more unbelievable the story gets. By the time I’m finished talking, you’re going to sign me up for a mental health stay.”
“It’s just hard to believe there’s a device that links minds.”
“Alek risked his life to take out a device that folds space-time, and here you are with all kinds of doubt my experience. That’s really rich. Look, I’m going to go. I never should have gotten started with this conversation.”
Dakota’s hand came out around his arm. “Please don’t go. Stay and finish the story. I love you, and I need to know what happened to you all those years ago.”
Dropping back down into the chair, he mumbles. Senol says I should start with my father’s name and occupation. He thinks that might help you understand.”
Dakota slid her hand from his arm. “Senol is your vampire brother? He speaks to you even now?”
“He whispers, always hearing more than he says.”
Alek’s curious voice sounded off. “Tell us.”
“Stephen Abrams is my father’s name. He calls himself a pharmaceutical engineer, but he is by all rights producer of designer drugs.”
Dakota hissed, “Abrams. I should have known something was up with that creepy old man. The way he stared at us…”
“You met my father?” The shock on Jared’s face was hard to bear.
“We’ve seen him several times. What do you think he wants?”
Alek interjected, “Who the hell cares. If he’s a threat, we’ll just…”
“Senol says no, we may not make him disappear him. Others are at risk.”
“What can we do?”
“I do not know. Senol believes there is only a thirty-two percent chance he is here for me. I believe Father is intent on trying once again to bend me to his will.”
“I’m not looking forward to seeing what’s next in his bag of tricks to force your compliance.”
“Then you believe my words to be true?”
Dakota nodded. “I believe you are a smart person. You believe what you are saying, and that is good enough for me. I need to ask you something important.”
“Go ahead, mother.”
“What did you mean when you said he kept you clean?”
“I’m ashamed to say that when I was young, he taught me chemistry and math. The one thing I excelled at was creating synthetic molecules that would attach the appropriate receptors in the human body.”
“You worked in a lab, as a small child?”
Shaking his head, Jared explained. “No. His science team used a computer modeling program. To my child’s mind, it was like playing a video game. I enjoyed it immensely. Only when I was older did I discover that the synthetic drugs and enzymes I was designing were being tested on some of the other kids. Sometimes it made them happy, and other times it made them cry. For a little while, I was under the impression that we were curing sick people. On the day I discovered we were creating new and more powerful designer drugs, nothing could compel me to continue.”
“Gods of chaos, what a horrible man.”
“The problem for father was, by that time his team had exhausted their own abilities to create. They were relying on the simulations I modeled for them to create new products. Once I refused to participate, his entire business stagnated. He needs my unique abilities or another like me to get back into production.”
“He was probably making millions off your simulations.”
“I have no doubt that was true.”
Alek frowned. “Somehow sitting around, waiting for the old geezer to make a move seems like the wrong move.”
“I say we begin gathering intel on the bastard. Get out ahead of the problem and plan some strategy for dealing with him.”
“Research and plan all you wish. There is nothing about father that I don’t know and I am no longer the frightened little child he dumped at the children’s home. When he comes for me this time, I will meet him on an equal footing as a grown man.”
“I’m not taking any chances with you.”
“Nor am I, mother. I have much to protect and the will and determination to find a way.”
“You were planning to do this alone, weren’t you son?”
“The thought had entered my mind, but now I see the wisdom of having you, Alek and Senol at my side.”