Page 38 of Visions in Blood
“I think that came to an end the day you graduated and ran away.”
I snorted.It seemed more conducive for this meeting than falling into a rage-filled tirade about why I had no choice but to leave that day.“Okay.We’ll do this as if I’m not your daughter but the stranger you’ve raised.”I held up my hand when she opened her mouth.“We only have a few minutes, and this isn’t about you.”
She pushed away from the table, crossed her arms in a huff, then checked her perfectly manicured nails.“Go on.”
Now it was my turn to be stymied.I had all my questions prepared, but now that I was here, sitting across from her, none of my practiced speeches came to mind.If I looked past her haughty defensive posture and the coldness in her gaze, I remembered the mother she used to be.The one with the loving gazes, the warm embraces, and soft murmurs of comfort.I shoved it all aside as I straightened and held her glare.
“Is Rasmussen my father?”
I shouldn’t have relished her widening gaze or open-mouthed stare, but the childish part of me jumped enthusiastically.Then I waited as she flapped her red-painted lips while her eyes darted around, most likely trying to come up with some lame response.Maybe she didn’t think she’d ever hear that name again.Any question as to the validity of what Devon and Sergi had dug up vanished.I waited her out.
Once she had a minute to pull herself together, I could tell she was going with a lie.I don’t know when I’d gotten so good at reading people.It might have been my career as a thief, but it probably began years before that when I needed to sense people’s moods before crawling out of a hiding spot.And though it hurt, her lies were the easiest to catch, even though she’d become so practiced with them.
“I would rethink what you’re about to say.It’s obvious you hadn’t expected to hear that name again, especially from me.But you owe it to me to tell me the truth.”
She lifted her chin and gave me her best chilly smile.“Yes, that was your father.”
“Was?Like he might be dead now?”I couldn’t remember the last time my emotions hit such a high before they were crushed.I held my breath, waiting for the news that I’d never have a chance to meet him and caught a glimmer of her old self before she turned her head away.
She stared out a nearby window.“I honestly don’t know.I haven’t seen or heard from him since he left us.”
The clamp around my chest eased a bit.I wanted to know so much more, but our time was short.Maybe there would be another time we could take this stroll down memory lane.“Do you know where he would have gone?Where his family came from?”
“He never mentioned his family.He didn’t like to talk about it.”Her tone had softened.“He never mentioned a town, but he had a quirky Southern accent.He spoke of New Orleans a couple of times, but that might have been just another place he passed through.”Her voice changed, becoming sharper.“He didn’t like to talk about his background, not until you were born.”
When she stopped talking, I wanted to reach out and shake her.No one ended a conversation with a statement like that.I took a chance and asked, “What did he tell you after I was born?”
She bit her lip, which meant she was sorry she’d let that piece slip.I’d learned all of her facial expressions.Most of the time, they mattered more than her words.
“Mother?”
She turned on me so fast, her intensity forced me back against my chair, and I did a quick scan of the place, grateful no one else seemed to notice.
“He made up some sordid tale in a ruse to cover up his medical condition, telling me you’d inherited the same thing.Nothing but mythological crap, but by then, I already knew there was something wrong with him.”She made that circle motion with her finger and pointed to her head—the symbol for a crazy person.
That helped absolutely no one.
While that was my first sarcastic thought, the information was of some benefit.Whatever was happening to me was linked to my father.Maybe I was just a mental case, but Devon didn’t think so.A complete stranger, who’d known me for little more than two weeks, had more faith in me than my own mother.
When I didn’t move on to the next topic, she did me the favor.
“Do you have the necklace Christopher is looking for?”
My look of surprise caught her off guard.And it had nothing to do with her admission that Christopher was searching for it.No.For some reason, I thought maybe she wouldn’t take his side in this.A misguided wish at best.Now the only question was whether she’d told him it belonged to me in the first place or that I’d stole it.The end result was the same, yet that wasn’t the point.
The rage boiled, and it was all I could do to keep it bottled up, though a slice of it slipped out.
“Why would you tell him I had it?”I bit my lip, wanting to say so much more.Instead, I kept the personal hurt tucked away, stuffing it back in its corner and slamming the door.
She leaned into the table, her voice low but fierce.“A very dangerous man is looking for that necklace.It would mean the world to…” She searched my eyes, but it wasn’t with understanding or regret.It was pure calculation.“It’s important to me that we find it.”
She was going to say it was important to Christopher, but she knew how I’d take that.It was what I’d expected all along—she put him before me.And instead of being the mature one of the two of us, I gave her one of my well-known flippant responses.“If I’d known the trinket had any value, I would have sold it by now.”
Her eyes went wide.“So, you know where it is?”
Everyone was so concerned about this necklace.If I attempted some rationality, there were plenty of dangerous men in the city.Case in point were the handful of vamps outside creating chaos for my fifteen minutes with her.But I didn’t need a mind reader to know she was talking about Lorenzo.Or was it a crazy coincidence that Christopher was meeting with another dangerous man?Yet, it had been vamps that were at my old apartment, not Christopher’s bodyguards.Unless he was working with more than one vamp, and if that was the case, the man was all kinds of stupid.
“I don’t know where it is, Mother.”Since Devon now had it, I didn’t have a clue where he’d put it.So not a complete lie.“Christopher’s henchmen have tossed my apartment so many times, maybe he should ask them.”I should have walked away right then.I wouldn’t get anything else from her; we were both too keyed up.
