The Vampire Jerome Page 3

  “Julian.”

  “Yes?”

  “You can stop worrying about Dottie. She’s as safe with me as Simone was with you.”

  “That’s what worries me,” Julian said as he closed the door behind him.

  DOTTIE SLIPPED the nightgown over her head and slid her feet into her leather slippers. It was comforting to have some of her own clothes to wear. After Katrina, when it was safe to move around in New Orleans, Simone had gone to Dottie’s apartment and gathered up as much of her belongings as she could.

  There was no way Simone could have known the vampire Zurik had captured her. That it had been part of his plan to eventually get to Julian through Simone. Her stepsister could have easily given up searching for her, thinking she had been a casualty of Katrina, but she hadn’t. Simone had never stopped believing she was alive.

  She passed her hand down her hips, comforted again by the soft silk of her gown. Tomorrow they were going shopping for more clothes and the other items she needed. And tomorrow, she also had to take care of business.

  Before she left New Orleans to come here to San Francisco, she’d spoken several times with Angela who was still in Mobile. She, Angela and Simone had gone into business together years ago. Angela and Simone practiced law while she operated a private detective agency from the same office.

  Sometime today she needed to call Sammy Lamb, the detective who worked for her, and speak with him directly. Angela had willingly acted on Dottie’s behalf during her captivity and later during her early recovery, but now that she was getting better, albeit slowly, she needed to relieve Angela of some of that responsibility.

  Dottie crawled into the strange bed and pulled the covers up beneath her chin. A couple of times during the meal that evening she had felt as if another attack of the sleeping sickness was coming on, but she’d made it through the evening with nothing more than a dull headache. She hoped tomorrow turned out just as well. At the very least she needed to make it through the morning shopping trip.

  Her eyes drifted shut. Fragments of the day and the people with whom she’d interacted moved across her mind like a slide show in slow motion. Dr. Stephens, Julian, Simone, Ella and her husband, Dennis. And Jerome.

  Jerome.

  What was it about him that both intrigued and frightened her? Was it just his vampire nature? Or something more?

  Exhausted, Dottie fell off to sleep with the questions still unanswered.

  JEROME WAS STILL at his desk when the first rays of daylight crept into the room. Hurriedly, he made his way to the stairs at the rear of the house and took the steps two at a time. He practically fell into the arms of the darkness that closed around him as he entered the steel reinforced chamber where he spent the daylight hours.

  His off-kilter equilibrium was why he’d stayed seated behind the desk for an extra few hours after Julian left. Every time he’d tried to stand the room had spun around him.

  He threw himself face down across the bed and clutched one of the plump, satin-covered pillows in his hands. Damn it all, when was this infernal dizziness going to end?

  He groaned into the pillow. What a fine kettle of fish he’d been handed lately. He had a woman under his roof who not only needed his help, but whose presence caused his already shaky world to tilt even more every time she entered a room. Add that to the shift in the magnetic field which the scientists had determined was affecting his physical space and he was damn near screwed.

  Maybe he should swallow his pride and tell Julian what was happening to him. If Julian couldn’t do anything himself, perhaps he could talk to Michael. With centuries of scientific knowledge maybe Michael could come up with a solution. If he couldn’t find a cure, then maybe he could find a remedy that would allow him to function normally again.

  “Damn you, Julian,” Jerome said aloud. “Damn you for always being the strong one, the noble one, the chosen one into whose hands my fate rests. Damn you for being the first link in the chain that will soon give me back the humanity I would not freely choose. Damn you for finding the woman without whom you could not fulfill The Legacy.”

  A weight like a large boulder pressed against him. He struggled to stay alert, to have more time to think and put together a plan of action. But the death-sleep had already embraced him too firmly for any coherent thought, and he plummeted into the cold darkness like a heavy stone into a deep well.

  With only seconds of consciousness left he cursed Julian again for sending Dottie Crawford into his life at a time when his world was crumbling around him.

  Chapter Three

  TUESDAY AFTERNOON, their shopping finished, Dottie and Simone sat in a trendy restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf. Dottie’s mouth watered as she eyed the wonderful seafood dishes on the menu, but her digestion still wasn’t what it had been before her illness. She settled for soup and vanilla custard.

  The two women ate without speaking for a few minutes. Simone finally broke the silence with the question Dottie somehow knew was coming. “Are you going to be okay here by yourself? Or would you rather I stayed until you’re more comfortable with your new surroundings?”

  She would love to have Simone at her side these next few days, but to even hint at it would be selfish on her part. Both Simone and Julian had given up a lot these past two weeks to take care of her.

  No one knew better than she how much Julian was needed back in New Orleans. Although Zurik, the master vampire who had held her hostage, had been seriously wounded by Julian and had not been seen recently in the New Orleans area, his followers were still very active.

  Julian and his cadre of vampires, the good ones who survived without preying on the populace, had their work cut out for them routing out and destroying the evil vampires that remained.

  Dottie shivered involuntarily at the thought of what she had gone through, and she wanted more than anything else to prevent other women from going through the same experience.

  Simone put her hand on Dottie’s arm. “What’s wrong?”

  Dottie shook her head. “Nothing. Just a reaction to an unpleasant memory. As to your earlier question, while I would love to spend more time with you, I know your place is back in New Orleans with Julian. You’re both needed there.”

  Dottie moved the half-full bowl of soup away from her and reached for the custard. She looked at Simone. “Do you miss your law practice?”

  “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. But I have Julian now, and the important work he has to do more than makes up for my temporary loss. One day, when New Orleans is back on its feet and the vampire threat is over, I’ll practice law again.”

  Dottie moved her spoon around in the custard. “I spoke to Sammy this morning.”

  “Oh?”

  “I gave him the go-ahead to hire another detective. It seems business is doing very well without me.”

  “There’s no need for me to ask whether or not you miss your business. And it goes without saying that your heart must be breaking being away from Casey for so long. And your father, too. Did you speak with either of them this morning?”

  Dottie’s eyes filled with unshed tears. “Daddy was . . . well . . . he was pretty much the same as he’s been the past few years. One minute he seems to understand what you’re saying and a minute later it’s like you never told him anything.” She blinked back a tear before it fell. “Casey was in school. But I told Angela to tell her that I’d call back later this afternoon.” She bit her lip. “I don’t know how much longer I can stay away from her.”

  Simone’s eyes widened. “You’re not contemplating something foolhardy are you? Like sneaking away when Jerome’s back is turned.”

  “No. I’ve never been a sneak, you know that. When I feel it’s time for me to leave, I’ll be up front with him. And with you.”

  Simone’s brows furrowed and she grasped Dottie’s wrist. “Promise
me you won’t even consider going home until you’re completely healed. I know you miss Casey, but surely you know she’s being well cared for.”

  Dottie shrugged off Simone’s hold on her wrist and took one last spoonful of custard before she pushed the bowl aside. “You have my word I won’t slip out in the dead of night, and most certainly not without telling you.”

  “All of a sudden I don’t feel as good about leaving you here as I did ten minutes ago.”

  Dottie took the napkin from her lap and concentrated on folding the fabric until it resembled a linen accordion. Finally, she asked the question that had been in the back of her mind since her rescue in New Orleans. “We haven’t had much time to talk about personal things, with me being out of it so much and you spending most of your time taking care of me, but I’ve been curious about something.” Simone looked up questioningly and Dottie blurted out, “What’s it really like being with a vampire?”

  Surprise registered quickly on Simone’s face. “Julian really isn’t one any more, at least not in the true sense of the word.”

  “But he was when you first met him.”

  “Yes. And I think I told you pretty much everything there is to tell about how that came about.”

  “You two were destined for each other.”

  “Loosely, yes. I was sent, allowed would be a more accurate word, to find my way to Julian. In keeping with the Goddess Lilith’s prophecy, if a woman should fall in love with him and be willing to sacrifice her life for him, he would regain his humanity. But the decision to offer my life for his was left entirely up to me.”

  Dottie reached for her water glass. She couldn’t even begin to comprehend what Simone had done for Julian. The very thought of such an act, regardless of the motive, shook her to her core. She lifted the glass, took a sip and set it down again. “It’s so strange. I was the one who first brought the subject of vampires up to you after hearing so much about them when I first arrived in New Orleans. I did some research and stumbled across some of the mythology about Lilith and the other Goddesses and yet . . .” She closed her eyes for a second then focused on her stepsister again. “It’s still so unbelievable. Even after everything that’s happened to me, after meeting Julian and now Jerome . . .”

  “You’ll get used to it just as I did. Just as others will, when they drop all their reservations and open themselves up to the other realms that have always existed right under their noses. It won’t be easy, but it will happen if you let it.”

  “You said realms. Do you mean there are other supernatural beings that exist here as well as vampires?” She couldn’t stop the chill that snaked up her neck and slithered down her spine.

  Simone nodded, a slight smile on her lips. “According to Julian there are more than we can imagine. As for myself, I can attest to at least the world of the shape shifters, having seen Michael shift practically before my eyes.”

  A couple of weeks ago Dottie would have thought the existence of beings like shape shifters and vampires to be impossible. But a lot had happened since then. Now, she really couldn’t discount anything. She wanted to find out more of what her stepsister had already learned about the supernatural, but it would have to wait. The heavy, drugged feeling was descending faster than usual.

  “Simone?”

  “Yes?”

  “I think we should get ready to leave.”

  They made it to the car Simone had borrowed from Jerome, with Dottie leaning heavily on her arm. The preset route on the navigation system got them home in record time. Still, Simone barely had enough time to get Dottie into the house and in bed before she fell into a deep sleep.

  TUESDAY NIGHT Jerome interrupted his conversation with Julian and addressed Simone when she entered the living room. “How is she?”

  “Still asleep. And from the depth of her breathing, I’m guessing she’s good for the rest of the night.” She glanced at Julian. “Since our plane leaves at six and I’d have to get up in the middle of the night anyway, I’ll just stay up and sit with her.”

  “I could do that,” Jerome said. “You need your rest. And without you, Julian will probably get no sleep either.”

  “True,” Julian agreed, “but if Simone thinks—”

  Jerome looked first at Julian then at Simone as he interrupted with, “It will be up to me to look after her whenever she falls ill at night, so I may as well get used to it now. And don’t forget, I sat with her the night you arrived.”

  Julian voiced another objection. “Maybe I should be the one to do it. Simone could get some sleep and you could tend to whatever business you take care of at night. It’s the least I can do considering all the responsibility will fall on you once we’re gone.”

  Simone took a step toward Julian. “I really think I—”

  Julian put his fingers across her lips. “Shh, my love. Let me do this. Besides, it will give Jerome and me some extra time to discuss anything we might have missed.”

  Jerome held himself in check. He couldn’t think of one thing he and Julian hadn’t finished talking about before Simone entered the room. Julian had given him a complete accounting of what had transpired at the meeting that morning. Anything else that came up could be handled by phone.

  Except the one thing he was certain Julian really wanted to talk with him about. And it had nothing to do with vampire uprisings.

  Simone stifled a yawn with the back of her hand. “Perhaps I will try to get a few hours sleep.”

  Jerome held his tongue until Simone was out of the room. The instant they were alone he planted himself in front of Julian. “Okay, let’s get it out in the open. You really don’t trust me to be alone with her, do you, brother?”

  “Alone with her? Why can’t you say her name?”

  “Very well. With Dottie Crawford. That is her name, isn’t it?” He hated the way he sounded even to his own ears. Strident and sarcastic. Resentful of a woman for whom he felt compassion as well as resentment. The problem was he didn’t want to feel anything for her at all.

  Especially not the confusing emotions he felt when he was near her.

  Julian shook his head. “I don’t understand why you’re acting this way.”

  “Oh, come off it, Julian. You’ve always been more than a little disapproving of me and my lifestyle. Since the incident last night you’re probably regretting the decision to bring her—excuse me, to bring Dottie Crawford—here in the first place.”

  “That’s not true, I have no regrets in that regard. I knew from the first that she’d be alone with you at night. We spoke about that very thing when I asked for your help.”

  Jerome could feel his anger rising. He took a step toward the bar but instead turned back to Julian. “Let me lay it out for you, brother, so you can stop wondering about me and my practices. Yes, I roam at night sometimes when The Need is too strong for my good intentions or Michael’s marvelous synthetic substitute to control. But let me make myself very clear. I only take what is freely offered. I only fuck the women who want to be fucked. And if I hurt them a little, and I emphasize ‘a little,’ it’s because that’s what they want. But I never, and I repeat never, drain them. The little sting in the neck that might bother them in the morning is nothing compared to the love bruises they beg me to give them. And not one of them has ever complained the next time we met.”

  Silence.

  The two brothers stood face-to-face, an undercurrent of tension between them not unlike what they had experienced for most of the years they grew up together.

  As usual, Julian, the more even-tempered of the two, let out a long breath and the droop in his shoulders gave away his willingness to let the matter drop. “Perhaps I will join Simone and let you stand sentinel tonight as you wish.”

  But Jerome wasn’t about to capitulate that easily. “No, brother, I just remembered I do have paperwork that needs
my attention. You take first watch, and if I finish before dawn, I’ll spell you. If not, we’ll talk later this week by telephone after you return home.”

  “One more thing,” Julian said to Jerome’s back as his brother walked away. He waited until Jerome turned back to face him. “About Zurik. We haven’t mentioned anything to Dottie about the likelihood of his finding her here.”

  “So she thinks she’s safe from him now that she’s out of New Orleans?”

  Julian nodded. “We thought it best to wait until she was stronger. We’ll leave it up to you to decide when the time is right.”

  Jerome’s eyes sparked fire. “Well, thanks for nothing, brother.”

  Jerome didn’t wait for a reply, but turned quickly and headed for his office. The room had suddenly begun to tilt. He said good-night over his shoulder.

  His heart was racing and his head was pounding so hard his entire body had tensed like a clenched fist. He closed his office door behind him and locked it, something he rarely did.

  As he fought to regain his balance, a fearsome thought took hold of him. What if the imbalance that was plaguing him was not the only effect the shift in the magnetic field would have on him?”

  The time between last night’s encounter with a woman and the previous one had been scarcely a month. Before that he had been able to withstand The Need for six times as long.

  According to Gene Malbury, noted geologist and one of his Watchers, the shift in the magnetic field had definitely affected the deep-earth vampire’s need for blood. And Gene had very candidly told Jerome that although he had not been born in this area, he had lived here long enough for some change in his physiology to have taken place.

  And if his physiology had changed, just how safe would Dottie Crawford really be with him?

  “ARE YOU ALL right, my dear?”

  Startled, Dottie looked up at the round, kindly face of Ella, Jerome’s housekeeper. The woman sat across from her at the table in the dining alcove. Guiltily, she slid a spoonful of the yogurt she had been twirling with her spoon into her mouth.