Love Me Forever. Rosemary Laurey

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СКАЧАТЬ for him to come in.”

      “Christopher!” Now she had a hard time staying patient.

      “Tell him you’re here.”

      He shook his head. “I’m not disturbing him at prayer.”

      Dixie knew better than to be surprised. Praying to the moon? Why not? Artemis, Diana, or some Druid deity? “He might be out there all night.” She needed to rest and wasn’t sure she could wait another whole day before knowing what transpired between Justin and his old enemy. Especially if, as he and Christopher both intimated, the outcome directly affected their life here in Ohio.

      “He won’t. He knows I’m home.” An insecure woman would be disturbed by the strong bond between these two men and Tom, the third of the group. Dixie found it irked her. She was part of the blood bond, but not as enmeshed as the three men and unsure she ever wanted to be. “Stella came by the shop this evening,” Christopher added.

      “Everything okay?”

      He nodded. “Yes. She bought the story about an unclaimed order and the flaw in the cloth. Clever idea, that.”

      “Good. I’d like to see Sam in it. First time I’ve made a kid’s costume.”

      “She promised to bring him round the shop on Halloween. It really is a big deal here, isn’t it?”

      “Yes.” She still couldn’t get used to the idea of British children not having exactly the same as she’d grown up with.

      “You need to get Justin to talk about Samhain.”

      “I need to get Justin to talk about what went on between him and Dracula!”

      “I said I would, Dixie, when Kit got back.”

      They both turned. Justin Corvus, one-time regimental surgeon to the Ninth Legion Hispañia, filled the doorway, his face drawn and his skin gray. Did he need to feed? He’d looked worn coming off the plane. Now he was haggard. But he had just returned from negotiating with the vampire who’d stolen his soul mate, and come back, it seemed, with less than good news.

      “Want to feed first?” Christopher asked. She hadn’t been wrong.

      Justin shook his head. “Soon. I need to. I refused our Central European acquaintance’s offer of hospitality.” He sounded as disgusted as she had in her mortal vegetarian days, when she’d once been offered grilled kidneys for breakfast. He did manage a semi-smile. “There’s something you need to know.”

      Of course, neither he nor Christopher could talk standing in the kitchen like any normal friends sharing life-altering news. No, they settled in the living room—Christopher in his usual wing chair and Justin in the recliner, which he pointedly didn’t recline. Since they wanted to get comfortable before possibly disrupting her life, Dixie took a little longer and turned on the gas fireplace. She hadn’t yet acquired the others’ skittishness towards fire. She still saw a fire as comforting, welcoming, and relaxing. But she hadn’t survived the great fire of London; both Christopher and Justin had.

      “Shoot,” Christopher invited, when they all finally got settled.

      “Want the good news first, or the bad?”

      “Good news always comes first,” Dixie said. Christopher didn’t argue.

      “Territory is not a problem.” Justin explained the division of lands.

      “Just like that?” Dixie asked. “We get use of six states. Don’t the inhabitants and the U.S. government have something to say about it?”

      “The government and the inhabitants don’t believe we exist, Dixie,” Julian said quietly. “Agreements among immortals don’t involve them.” He had a point, but the thought of a Transylvanian warlord and a Roman surgeon divvying up her country rather teed her off.

      “We’ll need space to roam, Dixie. We can’t stay here more than ten, fifteen years—twenty tops,” Christopher said.

      That she wouldn’t argue. Christopher had been doing this for four centuries, Justin much longer. “So that’s the good news.” Essentially it was. “What’s the bad news?”

      Justin paused. If he’d been mortal it would have been for a slow, deep breath. “Vlad Tepes is making ghouls.”

      Between Justin’s tone and Christopher’s shocked expression, she gathered this was horrific, not merely bad.

      “By Abel!” Christopher said at last. “Are you sure?”

      “I saw two.”

      Dixie resisted asking where the difficulty lay. It wasn’t easy.

      “Think Gwyltha knows about this?” Christopher asked.

      Justin stared at him as if processing the question. “I doubt he’d tell her. She has rather strong feelings on the subject.” He shrugged. “But if Vlad supports it…Hell, if I know.”

      “She wouldn’t countenance the making of ghouls.” Christopher spoke with certainty.

      It was time to ask for explanations. “What’s the taboo about ghouls?” Their existence she didn’t question. Vampires and witches she’d learned about the hard way, ghouls she’d take on faith.

      “Ghouls are mindless tools,” Christopher said, “created by some vampires to use as menials, servants. It’s abuse.”

      “Okay, help me out here.” She paused as she thought a moment. “Ghouls are living dead…right?” Both men nodded. “We’re dead…or would be if we weren’t vampire…What’s the big difference?”

      Christopher looked less shocked the time she’d asked if she couldn’t just feed from him. One look at Justin suggested vampires sometimes needed CPR. “Dixie,” Justin managed at last, “it’s the difference between life and death!”

      “I’m not sure I see it.” She turned to Christopher. He’d always been willing to explain.

      He didn’t let her down this time. “You’re right that we’re both resurrected, so to speak, and yes, both vampires and ghouls are created by vampires. The differences are immense. We have reason, mental strength, physical power and endurance. When we’re strong enough and old enough, we can transmogrify. We heal from hurt rapidly. Ghouls possess none of this. When they’re made, or rather raised, those powers are withheld.” He paused. “As Justin said, it makes for mindless, immortal creatures who can be used.”

      “They’re chattel,” Justin went on, “passed from one controller to another and used for whatever purpose the current owner chooses.”

      “Like slaves?” Dixie asked.

      Justin shook his head. “Worse. Slaves, at least in my time, had rights and laws to protect them. Ghouls have nothing.”

      “Slaves didn’t have much protection here,” Dixie added, remembering back to South Carolina history in eighth grade.

      “But slavery was abolished a while back.” Okay a century, and so a mere eye blink in time to СКАЧАТЬ