Page 91 of Dark Reign of Forever

As Dominique stepped into the suite, Francesca reached for his face, her eyes searching his. He caught her hands in his own. “Maman. Are you well?”

“What…what happened to you?”

For a long, long moment, Dominique didn’t know how to answer that question. Then he reeled from the shock that he considered answering it at all.

Cassidy gave him a mental nudge.Do something. Just a small compulsion. Set her mind at ease and tell her you know where Geneviève is. Then let her get some rest.

He didn’t.

He couldn’t.

He couldn’t utter one more lie or spin one more deception. Not to her. Not to himself. “Je suis mort,”he whispered. “The son you knew is dead.”

Cassidy inhaled sharply. Garrett crossed his arms and looked at the floor while Jackson shook his head in mute disapproval.

Francesca’s blue eyes, always so strong and confident, slowly narrowed with doubt and the shadow of something Dominique had never seen there before—fear. “What are you talking about?”

Dominique brought her hands to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. She grasped his fingers as though reaching for a lifeline, unaware that this lifeline was about to pull her to the bottom of an ocean she never knew existed.

“Don’t do this,” Garrett said under his breath. “She’s suffered enough.”

“Oui.She has,” Dominique agreed. He guided her to the sofa and sat, pulling her down beside him. “She has suffered lies and questions without answers, and she will suffer them no more.”

Dominique laid out his story before her. It was the tale of how he, her beloved son, aspiring chef and celebrated playboy living a carefree life, drew the attention of the ancient Kambyses. He told her how he was transformed, his human life stolen. He told her of the subsequent torture he endured and his eventual escape. He told her of the solace he found with Cassidy. He even told her of how he came to take Kambyses’s place in the world of night. And he told her about Adilla and Esteban and how they challenged him and had almost killed him. The only thing he did not tell her was his part in the deaths of his father and younger sister, which, together with his disappearance, had destroyed her world.

Then he told her about Geneviève. “She is safe for a little while longer, but she has become a bargaining chip in a power struggle that I will not lose, no matter the price. Shewillsurvive. As a mortal. That I swear to you.”

Francesca had listened to every word with a face that had gone blank of all expression. No shock. No surprise. No reaction beyond the occasional glance at the others in the room. Now that he was done, she dragged her hands from his grasp, brushed a knuckle over her lips, and cleared her throat. Her face might be carefully schooled, but her heartbeat was not. Dominique heard it racing out of control. When she finally collected herself, she looked up at him. “Why would you tell me such things, Dominique?”

His eyes stung. “Because you deserve to know the truth. And because…I am so very tired.”

“So you believe this, then? You truly believe you are a…vampire?”

“I truly wish I were not.”

“I see.” She glanced around. “And you, Cassidy? Garrett? You believe this as well?” They let their silence speak for them. She didn’t listen. “Why would you encourage him like this? He is obviously unwell. You are taking advantage of a damaged mind.”

“Maman,” Dominique tried, reaching for her hand.

She grabbed his wrist hard before he could say anything more, her fierce tone dropping low. “Listen to me,mon fils. I don’t know how I missed this until now, but you are not well. Maybe it is drugs, or maybe a virus really did get to you and made you think such things, but you need help, and I will help you. Do you understand? You are safe now.”

Dominique’s mouth pulled into a bitter smile. There she was, his mother. Never one to suffer defeat, always charging into the situation, taking control. “You cannot fix this,Maman.”

“Don’t be absurd. You are delusional, and these people are letting you believe it because they want to get their hands on your money.” She leaned forward, voice going soft, earnest. “You are not a vampire,mon chéri. There is no such thing. You are just ill, and you can be helped.” She grasped his hand harder. “Youcanbe helped.”

Please compel her to forget this conversation and let her go, Cassidy begged.

Instead, Dominique slowly let the vampire rise, darkening his eyes until the whites disappeared. The sharp points of his canines emerged. His mother blinked, then straightened.

“There is no help for me,” he said, his voice inhumanly resonant. “My only salvation lies in acceptance of this truth. By me and by those I love.”

“You selfish bastard,” Garrett grumbled.

Dominique looked at the man who had begged him to turn him because he didn’t want to die. “You would know, of course.”

Color suffused Garrett’s wan face. Even with the blood, he was not holding up well. His disease would get the better of him before much longer.

He held out his hand to Garrett in silent invitation to begin the process that would, eventually, transform him. The old hunter’s mouth flattened. He stared at Dominique, stared at what he would become, and walked forward. Sitting on the coffee table in front of Dominique, he pushed up the sleeve of his jacket and placed his bare wrist into the waiting hand.

---