that we suspected William shared with you during the day, then four smaller coffins, each holding two or three bodies apiece. All told, there were ten beheaded young girls between the ages of ten and twelve judging by the size of them. If your grandmother had not told on him, you would have been the eleventh body there once he'd tired of you."
"Liar!" Lily yelled.
"Instead, he killed your family and fled to America with you," Christian took up the explanation again. "That was out of our area. We didn't follow, but we did send word to America via another ship, warning the council here of what he'd done and they began to hunt him."
"Hunting him down and killing him probably saved your life," Dante suddenly spoke, making his presence known.
"Lies, all lies!" Lily cried, turning again to include him in her view.
"The tale of what William did is well known in Europe."
Jackie wasn't the least bit surprised when Tommaso spoke up. She'd never seen one twin anywhere without the other. They were now forming almost a complete circle around them. It was impossible for Lily to watch them all at once.
"The two of you were able to hide out here for almost a year before they tracked you down. Isn't that true?" Tommaso asked.
Lily didn't speak, either to deny it, or affirm it. Jackie took that as a yes.
"And yet in that year he never bothered to teach you to feed yourself," Tommaso pointed out. "He kept you dependent on him, fed you himself, kept you away from food when eating it would have allowed you to mature normally, and didn't teach you any of the skills you needed to know to survive."
"He loved me! He took care of me!" Lily protested.
"He kept you completely dependent on him, Lily," Vincent said quietly behind them and Lily turned sharply, dragging Jackie with her. He met Jackie's gaze briefly, sending her a message of reassurance, then returned his gaze to Lily and said, "And he made sure you stayed that way. Look at you. Have you seen another like yourself in the hundred years since you were turned?"
"Shut up," Lily snapped. "You don't know anything about me."
"I do," Vincent countered. "I've known who you were from the day I hired you. I just figured you didn't want to talk about it and it was your business."
When Jackie's gaze turned sharply to him, asking why he hadn't mentioned this bit of history to her when she'd asked who might have something against him, he added, "I never imagined you were walking around hating me and anyone else related to the men who saved you from him."
"Saved me!" Lily snarled with fury. "They killed my sire and left me to fend for myself."
"I was told you fled," Vincent said quietly and Lily snorted.
"Of course I fled," she snarled. "They'd just brutally killed my lover. I had no idea what they would do to me."
"They would have taught you how to fend for yourself," Marguerite said softly, and Jackie glanced over to see that she'd moved closer.
"Sure they would have," Lily said bitterly. "Right after they staked me out in the sun for a day and let me bake too. William told me they would."
Vincent took a step forward and this time Lily seemed to notice. She suddenly whipped a half-sword out from under the back of the thick sweater she wore and held it to Jackie's throat.
Everyone went absolutely still.
"Let her go," Vincent said quietly. "Jackie has done nothing to you."
"No," Lily agreed. "But you love her and it would hurt you if I kill her."
"Kill me instead," Vincent suggested and Jackie scowled at him for the suggestion.
"I don't want to kill you," Lily said. "I want you to suffer like I have, for centuries, your true life mate gone and you left alone to carry on the best you can."
Jackie rolled her eyes at the repeated refrain and snapped, "You're getting boring."
Lily jerked a little with apparent shock, the blade cutting a thin line along Jackie's throat.
"What?" she asked with disbelief.
"You heard me. You're boring," Jackie repeated, uncaring at that point that she had a half-sword to her throat. "All this nonsense over nothing."
"Nothing?" Lily echoed. "They killed my William! I had no one! No one to feed me, no one to?
"Lily, a hundred years ago they didn't have blood banks. No one fed anyone," Jackie said dryly. "They all had to hunt."
"William used to feed me. He brought men to me and