Anna Strong - Retribution Part 23

"Let's start at the beginning. Who are you?"

Sophie squares herself in the seat. Resolute blue eyes look into mine. "My name was Sophie Burke. Belinda is my sister."

"You call yourself Sophie Deveraux. Jonathan Deveraux was vampire. You a.s.sumed a new ident.i.ty, set yourself up as heir to his estate.

Why?"

If she really is the b.i.t.c.h Burke's sister, I expect her answer will have to do with distancing herself from the black-magic witch.

Instead, Sophie smiles. "Black-magic witch. She is that, yes. But that's not the reason I became Sophie Deveraux."

I jerk upright in the seat. There's no mistaking it this time. She does hear voices. She heard mine.

What are you?

What do you think I am?

The voice is masculine, touched with a hint of an accent, like Turnbull 's, faintly southern. It's coming from inside Sophie but it's not Sophie speaking. Gooseflesh raises icy b.u.mps on my arms.

The memory of another male voice addressing me from a female form plunges me into a nightmare.

Avery. That time it was Avery and the female was Sandra.

Dread roots me to the spot. I'm trapped at twenty thousand feet with something I can't identify and rising panic. Has Avery done it again? Did he manage to escape from Sandra? Is he here on his own plane to exact revenge?

Who's Avery? I thought you were the Big Bad.

The voice this time is diffused with curiosity and a hint of humor.

It's laughing at me.

Not a good idea. Anger replaces panic, cracking the sh.e.l.l of fear paralyzing me and allowing the vampire to break free. The growl and hiss erupt from the dark place determined to protect itself.

I'll ask you one more time. What are you?

It's Sophie who answers after a moment's hesitation. "Sorry, Ms. Strong," she says with quiet resignation. "I should have told you." She makes a sweeping gesture with her hand, down the length of her body. "I'm not exactly alone in here. You've been talking with my alter ego, Jonathan Deveraux."

CHAPTER 43.

A VISCERAL RUSH OF ALARM SWALLOWS THE ANGER. A hundred questions pop into my head. The most important, because of Sandra and Avery, raises the hair on the back of my neck. "Did he take you by force? Is he holding you against your will?"

A sad, slow smile touches her lips. "I wish I could answer yes." She sighs. "But I can't. I did this to myself.

"How?"

"Curiosity and vanity. A dangerous combination."

I don't understand. Is she lying to protect herself? Can this Jonathan Deveraux hurt her the way Avery did Sandra?

Only if I want to hurt myself, too.

I've experienced a lot of strange things since becoming vampire. Watching this young girl speak with two distinct voices ranks among the creepiest. She's not so young, Deveraux says with a chuckle. Go ahead, Sophie, tell Anna the story.

Sophie stands, begins to pace, stops, turns back to me. "It started as an experiment," she says. "I'm a witch. To support myself I am-I was-a caterer. I worked the supernatural community. It was a good life. I should have been satisfied."

She comes back and sinks into her seat. "A few months ago, at a birthday party, at Jonathan's birthday party, there was an accident."

Not an accident, Deveraux interjects with a snarl.

Sophie nods. "He's right. It turned out not to be an accident. His wife killed him-set him on fire with his birthday cake. When I was called in to clean up the-what was left-I got the idea. I've always dabbled in cosmetics. Made my own, in fact. It was a dream to start my own business. Thinking about what happened to Jonathan, touching the ash, gave me an idea. Maybe if I used some of his ash, mixed it in a face cream, it might be the breakthrough I was looking for to start a new line."

"Did you know the ash had any power?"

"No. It was desperation. I was tired of my life. I wanted to be young. Beautiful. I wanted adventure, romance. Things I never had."

"So how old are you, really?"

She looks away. "Eighty," she says softly. "Not so old for a witch, but definitely past the midpoint of life."

"Eighty?" I flash on Burke. "What about your sister then? How old is she?"

"Belinda is ten years older. She's ninety."

I shake my head. "No way. You said this happened a few months ago. I saw Burke before that. She looked thirty. How is she doing it?"

Sophie shrugs. "Magic," she says. "You saw how she worked the glamour that transformed her into Simone Tremaine. She can be any age or look like anyone she wants to. She's very powerful."

"So why didn't you do the same thing?"

"It takes continuous and exhausting effort to maintain a change in physical appearance. I wish to direct my effort to more positive things."

She catches herself. "Or at least I used to direct my efforts to positive things."

"Christ. So you came up with another idea. All this because you couldn't be content to age gracefully like the rest of the human race."

A snicker. This from a vampire who will never age.

I wasn't speaking to you.

Tough.

I brace for a smart-a.s.s rejoinder. When none comes, I focus again on the girl. "Sophie, so what happened when you mixed the ash in your cream?"

"This." She glances down. "I awoke one morning to find I'd achieved my dream. A perfect, beautiful twenty-year-old face and body."

And I found myself trapped in a nightmare-the body of an eighty-year-old virgin living in a hovel who cooked for a living. A teetotaling vegetarian. Could it get any worse?

I can scarcely contain my rage. "But how is this possible? Is it permanent? Does Belinda know what you did?" I jerk around to face Sophie. "No. She can't. Otherwise, she'd have been setting vampires on fire instead of bleeding them, right?"

Sophie nods, but it's Deveraux who answers. We thought it best to keep what happened to Sophie and me quiet. Sophie knew her sister had a dark side.

"A dark side? Is that what you call turning and torturing young girls for their blood? Whose idea was that?"

"It was Jonathan's idea," Sophie says. Then she adds quickly, "Not the torturing part. Jonathan realized using ash resulted in absorbing the entire essence of a vampire. He thought if we used just the blood, we might be able to achieve only physical results. It 's blood that makes a vampire immortal, that stops the aging process and achieves physical perfection."

And it worked.

At that, I do slam my fist against the back of Sophie 's seat. Shut the f.u.c.k up. As a result of it "working" Belinda set up a slaughterhouse.

That was never meant to happen, Deveraux whines. Our idea was a blood bank, where vampires would be paid for donations.

The problem arose because the effects weren't permanent and the side effects- I know all about the side effects. We have three dead women in San Diego because of side effects. I think Belinda is killing off her test subjects to cover her tracks.

I stop, swallow back the anger. "Let's go back-why did you take the name Deveraux? How did you explain that to Belinda if she didn't know you were"-I search for the right word-"harboring this thing inside you? "

Thing? Deveraux's outrage squeals through.

Shut up. Let Sophie talk.

Sophie doesn't seem privy to all my conversations with Deveraux. My guess is that she and he communicate, but since she doesn't have a vampire's ability to communicate psychically, Deveraux can block what pa.s.ses between him and me. A mute b.u.t.ton he can push when he wants to. Just as well. I can tell Deveraux what an a.s.shole I think he is without fear of offending her.

Deveraux snorts but urges Sophie to answer.

"Deveraux's wife was gone."

"Gone?"

Sophie's eyes slide away. Deveraux doesn't comment. I imagine "gone" doesn't mean she ran away or got a divorce. I shake my head and wave a hand at her to get on with the story.

"There was no other heir to his fortune. With the help of a vampire lawyer he'd had on retainer for a hundred years, a name change was arranged and I was presented as Jonathan's niece, the last of the family line. That way Jonathan could continue to live in the manner to which he was accustomed."

The last is said with a hint of sarcasm. It makes me smile and Deveraux grunt.

"Belinda didn't wonder about your newfound wealth?"

"Belinda didn't care. She was busy trying to figure out how she could get a piece of it."

"Is that how she got involved in the cream thing?"

When Sophie looks at me, her eyes reflect sadness and regret. "Jonathan and I came up with the idea for the cream. I shared the idea with Belinda. I thought it was something we could do together. She was excited, of course. Especially seeing how it had 'worked' on me.

She was eager to pursue it. We tested it here in Denver. Just a bit of vampire blood produced remarkable results. The test subjects wanted more. Belinda increased the potency and the results were even more astounding."

"And tell me again, how did you obtain the blood?"

"Donors," she says. "We paid vampires to use their blood. We set up a blood bank. And it was working. The cream turned middle- aged women young again. We never intended to hurt anyone. Two weeks after the tests started, some of the women began to exhibit side effects. A craving for blood. It only occurred in the ones who got the stronger formula. I cut off their supply, replaced it with a placebo. The women lost the craving. Unfortunately, the physical effects reverted, too. That 's when I realized that long term, the cream would never work."

She warned Belinda, Deveraux says. How could she know what her sister was planning when she left Denver?

Sophie continues, "I thought once she saw what happened here, she'd let it go. But she didn't. She stole the formula. Maybe she thought she could find a way to ameliorate the side effects. After all, I wasn 't suffering any side effects. I tried to tell her it was because of the witchcraft, but she wouldn't let it go. I wasn't aware of how far she'd gone until I saw an article in a magazine about Simone Tremaine and her amazing new antiaging cream. I recognized Belinda through the glamour. She wouldn't return my calls or emails. Yesterday, I decided to go to San Diego. Then I saw it on the news. Her factory burned. The cream destroyed. I thought it was finally over."

Over? Images flash in my head. Culebra and Frey. Ortiz and the young vampires hanging in that bas.e.m.e.nt. Three mortal women dead.

I don't know how to begin to respond without unleas.h.i.+ng the beast. It 's here, close to the surface. I pause until I get myself under control. Even then, I can't keep my voice from shaking. "Over? Burke is killing a friend of mine. She has him under a spell. You are going to help me find her. Or you will die, too."

Wait a minute, Deveraux counters with an angry hiss. Sophie can't be held responsible for what her sister does.

Maybe I'm not holding Sophie responsible. Maybe I'm holding you responsible. Wasn't it your idea to use vampire blood in the cream? How irresponsible can you be? Didn't you think about the consequences of exposing innocent people to vampire blood?

What consequences? It's never been done before. And it wasn't as if they would be drinking it-they would be applying it. Topically. Who could have predicted there would be a problem?

I feel his anger escalating. It's apparent in his arrogance that before he and Sophie were merged, he was a powerful vampire. Now?

Sophie sits quietly during the exchange. Once again, she projects an air of resignation. Perhaps she 's prepared to accept whatever happens because she's grown tired of this dual existence. It must be draining to have a war waging constantly inside. And I sense there is conflict waging. Jonathan's old-soul vampire egotism against what I suspect is a well-meaning, sweet-tempered witch.

It doesn't change the situation. Nor does it soften my resolve.

"What has my sister done to your friend? " Sophie asks when Deveraux's voice has grown silent.

I tell her about Culebra. And our history with Burke. I don't leave anything out. I start with the first time I saw her at Beso de la Muerte, how she shot Frey when we stopped her demon raising, how she sold me out to a renegade FBI agent who had kidnapped my lover. I told her about the innocent she killed and Culebra's vow to avenge the girl's death. How he tracked her down three days ago and returned home near death. How I discovered her new ident.i.ty as Simone Tremaine and found the slaughterhouse she set up to harvest vampire blood. How I lost a friend in the fire she set to cover her tracks when she realized she couldn't make the cream work. How Culebra and Frey are now both battling her spell to stay alive.

How we have only a few hours left to save them.

How if we fail, if my friends die, I will hold both her and her sister responsible. Sophie is the only leverage I have to force Burke's hand.

Reasonable or not, I'll use it.

I have to. I don't have that many friends left.

CHAPTER 44.

SOPHIE IS QUIET FOR A LONG MOMENT WHEN I finish. If she's shocked that I am holding her as responsible as her sister, she's not showing it. Rather, there is understanding and sympathy in her expression. And a tacit agreement to help. Deveraux is quiet, too. I 'm glad. I'm not sure how I would have reacted if he'd thrown out another smart-a.s.s comment.

The intercom buzzes and Tom's voice comes on. "We're beginning our descent into San Diego. Please make sure your seat belts are fastened. Ms. Strong, Mr. Williams radioed to say that he'll meet your party in the terminal."

My eyes seek Sophie's. "I hope the connection between you and your sister is powerful."