Love and Brimstone

Chapter Eleven

Albert poured Taz a glass of water and handed it to Tim, who set it on the table and slid it close to her. She still looked like she could bolt from the chair and run at any moment.

Or faint.

She grasped the glass with trembling hands and took a sip.

When she next spoke, her voice sounded calmer, more like herself, but still unsteady. “What happened? One of you better explain, right now.”

The men deferred to Tim.

“It was a daemon pulverem,” he said, pulling a chair close to her so he could face her in case he had to take her again. “A ‘dust demon.’ Technically not a true demon. It’s more closely related to a goblin, but people erroneously call them demons because of the name. Please listen to me. I know this sounds incredible—”

“So not the word I would have used!”

“—but please hear me out.” He knew there would be interruptions and chose to ignore most of them. He’d never seen her this way, and it worried him. “For whatever reason, that thing came here today to hurt you.”

“I’ve never seen that man before in my life!”

“—and thank God Matthias stopped him.”

“What happened to the guy?”

“He went up in a puff of smoke. It’s what happens to a daemon pulverem when you run it through with that sword. And the next—”

“A demon?”

“—step is we need to find out who sent it here today, and why.”

“How long have you known Matthias and Albert? You’ve known them all along, haven’t you?” It didn’t escape anyone’s notice but hers that she’d used Matthias’ first name.

Finally.

“We’ll get to that in a minute—”

“No, we’ll fucking get to it right now!”

“—because right now, I need to make sure you’re okay. Did he hurt you?”

“Matthias? You came up with him.”

“The daemon. Did it touch you or hurt you? Did you shake hands with it?”

“I thought you said it wasn’t a demon?”

“For the sake of argument, let’s call it that. Did it touch you?”

She shook her head. “What was he doing here?”

“Did it say anything, or—”

“He had the weirdest odor.”

Tim nodded. “I know. It didn’t touch you? You didn’t shake hands with it?”

She shook her head again.

“Are you absolutely sure?”

She nodded.

“Okay, good.” Tim reached out, and she let him take her hands. They felt ice cold. He patted them, squeezed them, tried to warm them. “Did it say anything to you?” Tim tried again, not releasing her hands.

Her tone grew weak as the adrenaline rush faded. He would lose her soon. “No. He said he needed to discuss Beecham Manor, whatever that is. I got my laptop and was looking it up—”

“That’s fine, Taz. That’s good.” She missed the sharp looks the three men exchanged. That was Matthias’ Florida compound. They hadn’t given her that information yet.

So how had the intruder found out that information?

“Do you understand what happened?”

Wide-eyed, she shook her head. He tried again. “For some reason, that creature was sent here to attack you. We don’t know why.”

“But we will.” Matthias growled from the corner where he stood, arms crossed, watching.

“Do you understand?” Tim asked her.

She shook her head. “There’s no such thing as demons. What’s going on? Have I had a nervous breakdown?”

Tim worried. She was definitely growing weaker. He needed to piss her off again, refocus her. “You’re not going crazy, but we have been keeping secrets from you.”

Her eyes narrowed. There she was.

That’s my girl.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“I work for Matthias.”

“I know you do.”

“No. I mean I’ve worked for Matthias for a very long time.”

She started to speak, stopped, and chewed on that information. For the first time, she really looked at Matthias, then back to Tim. “What?”

Tim nodded. “I have worked for Matthias Hawthorne since before you were born.” No need to tell her how long.

Yet.

She still looked back and forth between them. “You worked for him? You’ve always worked for him?”

“My job was to protect you and your parents.” And again, no need to tell her more than that just yet. Little bits. Digestible bites.

“Demon?”

All three men nodded.

Taz looked where Tim still massaged her hands. She jerked them away. “I trusted you!” she hissed. “You’re the only family I’ve got!”

“I have never lied about how much I love you. You are the daughter I never had.”

She looked at Matthias. “And you! You suckered me into this job.”

“I had to keep you safe.”

“Oh, great! I worked for Bob Stanley for ten years and was never attacked by a demon a single time!” She looked at them, trying to make sense of the information. “What is so special about me and my family we’d need your protection?”

Matthias exchanged looks with the other two. He was on his own.

“Because,” Matthias said, “I’m not normal.”

“Tell me something I don’t fucking know, Matthias!” Anger had to be a good sign, right? And she was still calling him by his first name.

Matthias smiled at her.

“I’m a vampire,” he said.

She obviously waited for a punch line that wasn’t coming. “And?” she finally asked.

She looked at the other men. They weren’t laughing.

“You know, this stopped being funny before it ever started,” she said.

“No one’s kidding, Taz,” Tim said. “We all are.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “Vampires.”

He nodded.

She stared at him. “Vampires.”

He nodded again. She looked at Matthias. “Vampire?”

Matthias nodded. She looked at Albert. “Vampire?”

He nodded.

Back to Tim. “Vampire?”

He nodded.

She looked at the table, put her hands on it for balance, and cautiously stood. “Well gentlemen,” she said slowly, eying them. “This has been real, and it’s been fun, but it hasn’t been real fun. If you don’t mind, I’m not sticking around for the second act.”

“Anastazia!” Tim sounded stern, looked her in the eye, and took control of her again.

A moment later she found herself back in the chair, wondering how she got there. Tim knelt in front of her and held her hands again. “Please, listen to me. You must believe us.”

She nodded. “Sure. Okay. Whatever you say.” She ran through the options in her mind. 5150 psychiatric hold? No, that was California. What’d they call it here in Florida? Baker Act, that was it.

She could get them Baker Acted, and that would mean a hold for evaluation. She had Matthias’ power of attorney, and she could do Robertson because he was family. Albert would be a problem—

“Anastazia,” Robertson said, interrupting her thoughts. “We are not crazy, and we do not need to be Baker Acted.”

She’d only thought that. How did he know?

“You can’t be vampires,” she said, lamely, “because I’ve seen you all eat and drink and go outside and drive cars!”

Matthias laughed at that one. “Vampires don’t drive cars?”

“They don’t in the movies. I think.”

He laughed again. Tim sent him a warning look. “The movies are just that, Taz, movies,” Tim explained. “Most of what popular culture knows about vampires is a myth created by Hollywood, not real life.”

“Because vampires are so misunderstood. Yeah, I get that. Just like the Tooth Fairy gets screwed while Santa Claus gets all the glory.”

“Anastazia!”

“That was actually pretty funny,” Matthias said.

Robertson turned on him. “You are not helping, Matthias.”

“I killed the demon. I say that counts as helping.”

Taz laughed despite herself. “I would say that counts. If it really happened.”

Tim threw his hands in the air and motioned for Matthias to take over. “Fine. You try to help her through this. I’ve only known her all her life and you…haven’t.” Telling her now of Matthias’ ten-year crush might not be the wisest choice.

Matthias hesitated, then sat in Tim’s vacated chair.

Then he looked her in the eye and smiled.

Oh, Jesus, that smile! It took her breath away and started a deep, longing ache inside her. No one ever made her feel like that. What were they talking about again?

Matthias waited for her eyes to settle and focus on him, his voice so soft she had to carefully tune her full attention.

“Anastazia,” he whispered. A delicious shiver ran up her spine and spread through her very core. “Are you all right?”

She slowly nodded, unable to pull her gaze from him.

She didn’t want to.

“I know this is difficult to believe. We understand you’re upset. We never wanted you to find out like this. This wasn’t the plan. But I have to protect you.”

“I can protect myself.”

“Of course you can.”

“Don’t patronize me, Matthias.”

He paused. She didn’t miss the satisfied smirk Robertson shot Matthias. “I’m not patronizing you, Anastazia. There is a lot for you to learn. You must get past this initial shock, and then we can get started.”

Taz fought the urge to lean over and kiss him. He wasn’t wearing cologne. He never did, but he smelled like bath soap and laundry detergent, his deodorant, and something else that made her want to reach over and…

She blinked. Holy crap, what is wrong with me? “You can’t convince me you all aren’t seriously whacked.”

Matthias nodded. “I know.”

She looked at them again. “You’re all crazy.”

He shook his head. “We’re not crazy. This situation, yes, is crazy.”

Robertson used a handkerchief to pick up the knife and carefully handed it to Matthias. She noticed they kept the cloth between their flesh and the weapon. Matthias showed it to her, and when she reached out to touch it, he pulled it back. “No. Never touch a demon’s knife with your bare hands.”

She looked. Made of metal, it resembled stainless steel, but darker. Several large, maroon stones were embedded in the rough handle, which was wrapped with a strange leather cord. It radiated a horrible feeling, a sick heat.

She turned away, unable to look at it. “No.”

Albert took it away. Even though he hadn’t actually touched the metal, Matthias wiped his hands on his pants. “There are a lot of things we must teach you. I can’t begin to explain it all.”

“What about his other…stuff?” She motioned to the briefcase and papers on the table.

“I’ll get them,” Robertson said, clearing the table.

“It won’t hurt him to touch that?”

“It’s just their tools,” Matthias explained. “The forged items you cannot ever touch. Or the demon itself, until you’re strong enough to fight.”

She still had trouble processing all of this. But she felt a little calmer.

“Vampire?” she asked him.

He nodded.

“Let me see your teeth.”

He suppressed a laugh and opened his mouth.

“You don’t have fangs.”

“Hollywood myth.”

She looked at Albert and Robertson. “Vampire?”

Matthias nodded.

She fell quiet for a long moment. “I don’t feel so good.”

“That’s understandable,” Matthias said. “This has been quite a shock for you.”

She watched them, and they didn’t interrupt her thoughts. Finally, in a soft voice that didn’t sound like her, she said, “Why are you doing this to me? Why are you putting me through this?”

Matthias wanted to reach out and hold her. He also knew if he did, it would send her running. Just to be this close to her and have the secret out, despite the circumstances, was a relief.

Tim, sensing her mood, stepped forward again. “Taz, we never wanted this to happen,” he said from behind Matthias. “This isn’t how we wanted you to find out. We were going to ease you into it, reveal things slowly, and once we had shown you many things, put a name to it.”

“You go out in the daytime. I spent three fucking days in a car with you,” she said to Matthias.

He nodded. “Hollywood lied. Imagine that.”

He sensed her choke back a reluctant laugh.

He smiled. “Anastazia,” he said, “just let us explain—”

“So, I’m going to be some sort of sick blood feast for you?”

“No!” all three men yelled in unison, making her jump.

“It’s not like that,” Matthias said. “If I called it something else, a shared genetic mutation, would that make it easier to understand?”

“No. And a ‘shared genetic mutation’ doesn’t explain you murdering that guy.” Taz stood, circling the room and avoiding Tim and Albert. Matthias remained seated.

“I didn’t murder him. You saw him. He had a knife. He was attacking you. Thank God—” He stopped before getting into further details about Murry. She had enough on her plate to deal with. The issue of their talking cat could wait. “Thank God we came back when we did. I would never forgive myself if anyone hurt you.”

Taz wanted to go to Matthias, hug him, but she felt too pissed. Why couldn’t he be a sweet, cute guy without the crazy bullshit? “I’m having a hard time understanding this. Am I losing my mind? Am I dreaming? I must be dreaming, right? I’m asleep in my office right now, and I’ve dozed off at my desk…”

All three men shook their heads.

Matthias stood. “Please hear me out. Let me tell you some things, and we can go from there.”