Blood Secrets - By Jeannie Holmes Page 0,84
floor. Stars strobed and burst before his eyes as he tried to focus on the snarling face above him.
One of the paramedics—the one who’d been holding the orange board—knelt beside Kirk and rolled him roughly onto his stomach. The familiar heft and click of handcuffs settled around his wrists. “Get up, turdstain,” he growled with no trace of the heavy drawl he’d possessed earlier. “You’re not so tough when you don’t have a bunch of women to frighten, are you?”
“Fuck you,” Kirk gasped and stumbled over his own feet as he was handed off to one of the other Enforcers now swarming throughout the house.
“What should we do with him, sir?” an Enforcer asked the paramedic.
“He killed a human,” the Enforcer-paramedic said with a shrug. “Automatic death sentence. Take him out back and shoot his ass.”
“No!” Kirk strained to free himself from the Enforcer’s ironlike grip. “You can’t do this! You have no evidence! This is fucking murder!”
“We have witnesses who saw you snap that truck driver’s neck. That’s all the evidence we need.”
“I can give you names! Lots of names!”
The Enforcer dressed as a paramedic shook his head. “Not interested.”
“Mindy Johnson!” Kirk screamed as the Enforcer holding him dragged him into the kitchen. “I can give you the last person to see Mindy Johnson alive!”
The Enforcer-paramedic held up his hand and the one holding Kirk stopped. “Say that again.”
“I can give you the last person who saw Mindy Johnson alive,” he repeated between ragged puffs.
The Enforcer-paramedic smirked. “Congratulations, kid. Now I’m interested.”
* * *
“Princess.”
Her father’s soft voice called to her and Alex recoiled, closing her eyes and covering her ears with her hands. Wasn’t it enough for Peter to dredge up the most painful memories of her and Varik’s past? Was she now doomed to relive her father’s death as well?
“Princess,” he called again, more insistent.
“Go away,” she mumbled. Chains clanked and rattled as she tightened her protective curl.
Gentle but firm hands wrapped around her arms, tugging her upright. She kicked and hurled curses at whoever held her.
“Alexandra!” The hands transitioned to the sides of her head, forcing her to meet a pair of emerald green eyes rimmed in gold. “It’s me!”
Her struggles ceased, replaced with a wash of relief. “Daddy.”
He smiled, showing perfect human teeth, and the corners of his eyes crinkled. The Irish lilt to his voice made his words almost musical. “There’s my girl. I was beginning to worry that I might be too late.”
“Too late?”
“To help you.” He pulled her to her feet. “We have to hurry before he discovers I’m here.”
Alex glanced at the video monitor, now playing a scene from her past in which she and Varik were working security for a high-profile vampire official. They’d been forced to hustle the official out of the building after someone in the crowd had opened fire.
She remembered the night well. It was the first night Varik had acknowledged he had feelings for her beyond teacher and student. Forcing down the rising sense of anguish, she watched as her father attempted to remove her chains. “Why is he doing this, Daddy?”
“Isn’t it obvious, Princess?” He grunted as he tried to pry open the bands covering her wrists. “The Dollmaker has been obsessed with you for years. I think that much should be clear from the number of dolls resembling you that we saw.”
“But why? What did I do to draw his attention?”
“I don’t know, but if I’d known any of this when I was still alive …” He let the thought trail away, shaking his head. He gave her wristbands a final tug and sighed in frustration. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t stop. Please, keep trying.”
“No, I wasn’t apologizing for the chains. I meant I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you, Princess, to watch you grow up.”
“It wasn’t your fault you were murdered.”
“Regardless, I just wanted you to know how proud I am—”
His declaration was cut short as a dark shadow rammed into his midsection, knocking Alex to the floor as it passed.
“Daddy!” She tugged at her chains, helpless as the specter and her father tumbled and struggled to gain the upper hand on the other.
Her father rolled backward, lifting his feet, and tossed the wraith aside but it was up and moving again before her father was able to rise to more than his knees.
“Too slow, old man,” the shadow growled from where it crouched in the corner.
“I may be a little slow but at least I’m not a coward hiding behind smoke and mirrors.” Her father