Page 49 of Immortal by Morning (Argeneau #37)

Crispin turned to focus his concentration on Diane Elizabeth Foley. Her mind was an open book, easily read. He almost wished

that wasn’t the case as he sorted through her memories. Her being easily read meant she wasn’t insane. She was just a coldhearted

nasty bitch if he were to judge by her memories and feelings. She hadn’t always been. Prior to the tragic accident that had

taken her son’s life and left her body broken, she had been a kind and loving wife and mother. But her losses had twisted

her up inside. Not mentally, but emotionally. She was bitter and angry and had decided the world owed her. To her mind, she

should be able to do whatever the hell she wanted, no matter who it hurt or killed, and didn’t even feel a twinge of conscience

about it. Her son had been taken from her, she had been paralyzed, and then had lost her husband too and she wanted to burn

the world down for it.

Mouth setting, he sorted through the house of horrors that was her memory and began to speak.

“As Lois Jamison said, Diane and her husband were in a car accident. They were hit by a drunk driver. Her husband got away with mere scrapes and bruises, but their five-year-old son died and Diane was paralyzed. She also took a lot of internal damage. Not only could she not walk, but she would never be able to have another child and could not even indulge in sexual activity with her husband. Shortly after the accident, he started going out and having one-night stands to—”

“It wasn’t shortly after!” Diane snapped. “It was a full year later. A year during which I repeatedly begged him to go satisfy

the needs I couldn’t take care of anymore.” Her mouth compressed, but then she added, “John was my husband. I loved him. I

didn’t want him to have to go outside our marriage, but I couldn’t satisfy him that way and I wanted him happy. I was actually

relieved when he finally started going out to bars and picking up women. Relieved!” she insisted furiously after the briefest

pause, and then a short, bitter laugh huffed out of her. “I did it to keep from losing him and lost him anyway.”

She glowered at them all. “My husband loved me and was a good man. A truly good man. That’s why it took so long to convince

him to go out and have flings. Any other man would have jumped at the chance to bang barmaids with his wife’s permission.

But not my John. I even had to blackmail him into it.”

“Blackmail?” Abril echoed with surprise and the other woman nodded.

“I threatened to kill myself so that he would be free to have a true wife if he wouldn’t go out and find women to take care of his needs,” Diane said cooly and at Abril’s shocked expression, her lips twisted slightly. “I would not have done it, but he didn’t know that.”

“But why make him do something he didn’t want to do?” Abril asked, sounding truly mystified.

“Because I am not a fool,” Diane said as if she thought Abril was. “He did love me, but no man can do without sex for long.

And this way I could control it. Had I not convinced him to go out and have one-night stands, he eventually would have ended

up having an affair with someone, someone he might come to love and leave me for. I wasn’t going to lose my husband too. He

was all I had left.”

Scowling, she shrugged her emotions away and continued. “So, he finally agreed to do it. But there were rules we both agreed

on. He was to go out and pick up women from bars on the weekend only. The weeknights were ours. And there was to be no emotional

attachment. He was to sleep only once with any of the women he encountered.”

When she paused again, Crispin explained, “Picking up women at the bars is how John came across the immortal presently buried

in the indoor garden. She frequented the same bar he did. He’d noticed her and found her attractive, but suspected she was

out of his league so had not approached her. One night, though, he was engaging in intimate activity in his car with one of

the string of women that he used for sex and saw her come out—”

“In his car?” Abril interrupted with a grimace. “He could have at least brought her here or taken her to a cheap motel or

something. Sex in cars is uncomfortable and—”

“Of course, in the car,” Diane growled. “John had too much respect for me to bring any of these tramps to our home, and certainly wouldn’t have wasted our money on a motel. He either went to their home, or—if they didn’t live alone—made do with the car in the bar parking lot.”

She glared at Abril for daring to sound critical of her husband for this choice, and then fell silent.

Crispin met Abril’s gaze and went on, “One night he and a woman were engaged in intimate activity in his car in the bar parking

lot when he saw the immortal come out with a man following her. John apparently thought they were together and going to indulge

in the same thing he and his companion were doing. But she was not with the man. He had followed her out with the intent to

attack her. When he did so as she was unlocking her vehicle, she revealed her immortal strength in her effort to defend herself.

She left her attacker unconscious and bleeding on the ground when she drove off, but she had also captured John’s interest.

“After that, he began to watch for her anytime he went to the bars. He noticed that she had a routine. She’d enter, look around,

seem to settle on a man—usually one who was on his own—take his hand and lead him to the washrooms. Curious, John followed

one time. She led the man she’d chosen into the men’s room. They were in one of the stalls by the time he got into the room,

and he watched them through the crack between the stall door and wall. He quickly realized she did not want these men for

sex when he saw her bring out her fangs, bite her ‘date,’ and take in his blood. John slipped away before he was noticed—”

“—Only to rush to the bar,” Diane interrupted defensively.

“He was going to have the bartender call the police or send the bouncers in to save the guy, but then realized he couldn’t start squawking about vampires or they’d just think he was either crazy or drunk.

He was trying to decide what story to use to get help when the couple came back out of the bathroom.

The man seemed perfectly fine. He was even smiling and the woman kissed him, then settled him at the bar where she’d found him and left. ”

“Wait,” Abril said suddenly, her questioning gaze shifting to the men in the room. “That means this immortal was a rogue too?”

“It would seem so,” Lucian said. “She was not killing her ‘dates,’ but should not have been biting them either. Had we discovered

her, she would have been punished.”

“Punished how?” Abril asked, but Lucian ignored her and turned his attention back to Diane.

“Continue,” he ordered.

For a moment, Crispin didn’t think Diane would.

It was obvious from her expression that she resented his bossing her about like that, but then she apparently decided she wanted to tell her story more than she wanted to defy Lucian and said, “John came home that night and told me everything. At first, I had no idea why he was telling me what I thought at the time was a ridiculous story. I didn’t believe him, of course.

I mean... vampires?” Her eyebrows lifted with obvious incredulity.

“I thought he must be drunk and just mistook what he’d seen.

In fact, I was getting pretty annoyed with him and telling him to take himself to bed when he said that perhaps if we got the vampire to turn me into one, I’d be able to walk again.

Maybe everything would be fixed and he could make love to me too instead of having to pick up strange women in bars. ”

She lowered her head briefly and then raised it again, her expression carefully empty. Giving a shrug, she admitted, “That

actually gave me pause. I still didn’t believe he’d seen what he thought he’d seen, but the idea of being able to both walk

and be with my husband again caught my imagination and I began to daydream after that... about being a vampire and whole

again.”

Her mouth thinned. “I remember wishing it was true. I hated being paralyzed. Hated that my husband had to look elsewhere for

sexual pleasure because I could no longer provide it. And I hated that we’d lost our son and I could never provide him with

another. I hated everything, and I didn’t deserve it,” she told them grimly. “I was a good, dutiful daughter, and then I was

a good faithful and caring wife and mother. I always did what was expected of me. Never slutted around, never broke the law,

never even went above the speed limit and what was my reward?” she asked bitterly. “To lose everything because of some drunken

asshole they never even caught so didn’t punish for what he did to me.”

“Never caught?” Abril asked with surprise.

“The driver apparently wasn’t hurt, or at least he was well enough to jump out of the car and leave before the police got

on scene, and then the owner of the vehicle claimed it had been stolen.”

Crispin noted the way Abril frowned at this news so wasn’t surprised when she asked, “Then how did they know the driver was drunk?”

“There were several empty beer cans and one half-full liquor bottle in the car,” Crispin said quietly when Diane just glared

at her for interrupting. When the woman continued to hold the expression without speaking, he added, “John knew Diane didn’t

fully believe his story, but he was determined to find the vampire and somehow bring her back to turn his wife. He tried to

research vampires to find something to help him subdue her and get her back here, but in the end, he went for brute force.

He purchased and wore several necklaces and rings with crosses on them and bought a bat. Then he started frequenting the bar

almost nightly until she returned. He never told Diane what happened, but one night he came home with a beautiful woman unconscious

in his arms and—”