Hunting My Vampire (Immortal Vampire #3)

Chapter 20

Jack

Chelsey Manor was the estate of the Fitzgeralds; the family that the Beauforts had been feuding with for centuries. The peace agreement came after numerous battles between us, which had ended with my father killing one of the family heirs. This had followed their sinking some of our ships, at the time causing irreparable damage to the family fortune. My father negotiated with their family matriarch, Beatrix Fitzgerald, fondly called Bee by those who knew her. I remembered her as a soft-spoken lady, with eyes of cold steel.

But I hadn’t been to the estate in sixty years and I was shocked to see how much it had changed since then. The gates needed paint and were rusted. Weeds grew all over the grounds and the lawns were not recently mowed. The house, once the family’s pride and joy, had windows that were boarded over with broken window panes.

I drove up to the front of the house, having been let through at the gate.

This meant Bee knew I was coming. A bit of a gamble, but this was the game I was playing now.

A servant led me into the house and to the back patio, where Bee was seated at her rose garden.

“Jack, my goodness, it’s been a while,” she said, with a polite smile.

“You’ll forgive me not getting up.”

“Of course,” I said, not believing for a minute that she was frail or elderly.I told her she was looking well and she acknowledged the compliment with a gracious nod of her head.

“Shall I order us a snack?” she asked, calling a maid over.

I couldn’t help noticing the disrepair on the patio as well. Broken cobblestones and cracked fountains from which water once gurgled delightfully.

“I must say, I’ve been expecting you,” she said, giving me a shrewd look. “But you took your time.”

“Have I?”

She nodded. “I thought perhaps you thought the time for talking was over?”

She left the question hanging in the air.

“What do you mean?”

She pointed at a newspaper lying in front of her. There was a report of a hit-and-run accident. A young woman, gruesomely decapitated. I recognized the name, it was her granddaughter, Ellen Fitzgerald.

“My condolences,” I said.

She narrowed her eyes; the accusation was obvious.

“That was not me,” I said.

“No?”

“I swear it,” I said.

“I thought… perhaps you thought we were to blame for the gas explosion at that restaurant?”

Again, the shrewd look.

“You were not?”

She gave a cough. “Indeed, no. We were not.”

“But you see how I might have thought you were.”

“My dear boy, if relations between our families have deteriorated, the fault is entirely on your side.” Her voice was cold as ice.

“What do you mean? I have kept your end of the bargain now for decades.”

She pursed her lips. “But your brother has not.”

“Simon?”

She looked sharply at me. “He has opened ten clubs in the past three years, most recently a casino complex.”

“But that is outside state lines,” I said.

She shook her head. “No, indeed, it is the other way around. It falls neatly in on the other side, quite within the city boundary.”

I pondered this information, which was new to me.

“How did he get the license?” I asked.

“It appears he has friends in high places,” she said with pursed lips. “Very high places, indeed.”

“You could have come to me,” I said.

“Oh, we tried! Bernard has contacted you several times, only to hear how busy you are,” she said, contemptuously. Bernard was her son and the face of the family, even though she was in charge. I couldn’t pretend I hadn’t received the messages from Bernard; however, I had not returned them as I didn’t think them important enough.

“As you see, our fortune has waned in this new era and the political will has not been on our side,” she said, waving over the grounds.

“You should’ve called me,” I said. If I knew Bee was trying to get hold of me, I would have made the time to talk to her. It was in my interest to keep the peace with the Fitzgeralds, I didn’t want to go back to a time of backstabbing and dirty dealings in the dark.

“Oh, it wouldn’t have made a speck of difference, dear boy,” she said, getting up slowly from her chair. I saw that she moved with difficulty and wondered if something was ailing her after all. She was older than my father, must have been almost four hundred years old.

“What do you mean?”

“There are new forces at play in the world today. We are the least of your worries. My family is on the way out and I have accepted the ruin of my house. You may want to do the same.”

She hobbled to the edge of the garden and stared out at where the river used to be. Now the trees and shrubs had overgrown the hedges, blocking the view.

“Your brother is mixing with some dangerous folk.”

“Speak plainly, madam, I beg you.” I found it easy to slip into the courteous manners of the past, which I knew Bee appreciated. She came from another time and sometimes, I knew, the elegance and courtesy of those times were missed dearly.

She turned to face me and made sure she had my attention.

“Governor Leo de Salle,” she said. “He has become the most powerful man in the country. Wealthier and more powerful than the president even. They say, he controls the White House now. I don’t doubt it.”

“De Salle?”

I didn’t know much about him but I had heard of his growing power. I had wondered if he was one of the Hidden Ones. The vampires who pretended to be human in order to win people’s trust. They would never elect a vampire to office. We were still not trusted. But the Hidden Ones were dangerous, because they drank human blood to become stronger. They could be out in daylight. They even used products to darken their skin, to make it look more human. Even more frightening, their agenda was secret. They saw vampires as superior to human beings and believed they were a master race, who had a duty to manage others and be in control. They sought to bring back power to vampires and to subject human beings, either into slavery and captivity, as in the old days, or into poverty and a miserable existence, as in recent times.

I thought of the homelessness and criminality I’d heard of in the city, the streets lined with tents of people unable to get jobs. People eager to donate at the many blood banks that offered them a pittance.

“Do you think he…”

“Is Hidden?” she guessed my thoughts.

She nodded. “I do.”

She told me how Bernard had a meeting with the governor and was kept waiting for hours while Da Salle was supposedly held up on a call to a Senate Committee. Then later, he found out Da Salle was out playing golf. He had called Da Salle to complain and was told to stay in his lane. He had been outraged. The following day, all of their building permits were rescinded. Then they started having trouble with utilities at the factories and strikes at their plants. It was the beginning of their businesses failing.

“You think it’s Da Salle?”

She nodded. “He wants us out of the way.”

She looked at me shrewdly, “You too probably.”

I thought about it. A partnership with Simon would help Da Salle to worm his way into my company and push the Fitzgeralds out of the game. Perhaps Simon had made a deal with him to replace me.

“I have noticed that family of his all over town,” Bee said. “Ute? Is it?”

“Ulrika,” I corrected her.

Pieces were falling into place.

I saw wild geese flying past, fairly low in the sky. Only a few years ago, the landowners would’ve shot them for sport. Now such actions were frowned upon. Times had changed and were changing again.

“You don’t want to take Da Salle on?” I asked Bee.

For the first time, I saw the fatigue in her face.

“I’m tired, my boy. I’ve been around too long. I’ve seen husbands die; children die, now grandchildren. What am I doing any of this for? Bernard?” her voice was contemptuous. He was known as a weakling. Her eyes fell on the newspaper clipping.

“You should have seen her, my Ellen,” her voice softened. “She was so beautiful, so pure.”

I wanted to ask what happened, but I could guess.

Anyone wanting to get to Bee, would do it by targeting those she loved. That was her weakness.

Just like Kaya was mine. I couldn’t bear the thought that anyone was targeting her. I was grateful that I’d put guards in place to watch over her.

I didn’t think our relationship was over. Not for one minute. I let her think that, because she needed space and I was willing to give her that. But in time, I would win her back again. Time was the one thing I had and I was patient. Had I not waited years for her to appear in my life, to become the partner I wanted?

I wasn’t going to give in now and let her go.

I would fight for Kaya with all the strength I had, every ounce of it. Nothing mattered to me like she did, not the family business or all of the wealth my family had amassed.

The only thing that mattered, was her.

Kaya.