Page 51 of Immortal by Morning (Argeneau #37)

Meeting Abril’s gaze he said, “She had no desire to dig up rotting bodies. Just taking control of Mr. Branson and ensuring

he did not have the garden dug up for any reason seemed the best bet, but she was not sure how long her control would last.

She felt her only option was to move close by and keep tabs on the Bransons.

“Diane checked out houses in the area. She decided the house around the corner was good. It had lots of property—forty acres,” he told her, and then added, “Most of those acres were woods too, where she felt she could bury any future bodies in peace.

She visited and controlled the couple who owned that property so that they would give her a tour of the inside, and found the house itself was large and lovely with a basement.

It was perfect. But it was not for sale.

.. until she controlled the minds of the couple so that they would sell her the house quickly and for much less than it was worth.

She then moved herself and her victims in there.

“Things went along fine for quite a while. Eventually, she learned she could wipe the memories of her victims, but by then

she enjoyed their tears and terror when she chained them to the walls of her basement, so she continued to keep what she considered

her cattle.”

“They were my cattle,” Diane growled with irritation. “And it wasn’t that I enjoyed their tears and terror, but their blood tasted better

after a scare than it did if I just took control of them and snacked without upsetting them.” Glowering at Abril’s horrified

expression, she snapped, “Are you going to try to tell me you don’t prefer tasty meals to bland ones?”

“My meals aren’t people,” Abril snapped back and then turned to Crispin and said, “I’m guessing everything was fine until

Gina started to dig up the garden? How did she even know about that? Surely, she wasn’t still watching the house all these

years later?”

“She was,” Crispin responded. “But as the years continued to pass without issue, she began to check on them less and less

often until it was only about once a year. Every spring,” he said meaningfully.

“Ah,” Abril breathed with understanding.

“Yes,” Crispin said, nodding. “She was doing her yearly drive-by check a few weeks ago, and saw the construction company trucks in the driveway. She was concerned, but did not know the Bransons had moved, and the men were all obviously working inside not outside. She was debating going in to find out what was happening, when a delivery truck pulled up. She read the driver’s mind to see that he was delivering kitchen appliances.

She thought the Bransons must be doing a kitchen renovation.

That was not a problem, so she left but decided she would keep a closer eye and come around weekly for a while.

The next time she came around, they had started the excavation for the foundation of the addition. ”

“I was already past the driveway when I spotted the excavator. I pulled into a driveway, intending just to use it to turn

around and come back here, but Kim came out of the house before I could back out. I read her mind, found out that the Bransons

had sold the house, and then learned what she knew about the renovations taking place. Then I took her over to control the

workmen to stop the digging for the day.” She shifted in her seat, her expression irritated. “I thought I’d just get them

to pack up for the day and then come for the bodies both inside and outside that night and everything would be fine. I wouldn’t

even have to keep an eye on the house anymore.”

“But Lilith put paid to your plan,” Abril murmured, echoing Lucian’s words from earlier. She then said, “I’m surprised you

didn’t just come over as soon as the men left and set to work digging out the bodies. You could have taken control of me,

and if you’d stayed low no one would have seen you in the hole.”

“I had things to do,” Diane said with irritation.

“I thought it was all sorted. I’d stopped the digging before they’d uncovered the bodies and could come back once night fell to take care of the rest. So, I wiped Kim’s memory and went to the grocery store as I planned.

By the time I came back that afternoon to check on things, the place was crawling with police and I realized the bodies outside had been found.

At that point, all I could do was remove my husband and the immortal from inside. ”

“Okay,” Abril said. “So why didn’t you just come over and control us after forensics and Officer Peters left? You could have

even made us dig up the bodies for you. Instead, you tried to sneak in and then attacked me when I woke up and caught you

coming in through my bedroom window.”

“I already knew I couldn’t control them and wasn’t sure about you,” Diane snarled unhappily.

“How—?” Abril began but Diane interrupted her impatiently.

“Because I was at Kim’s when they were doing their door-to-door interviews. I controlled Kim so she wouldn’t answer the door

when they knocked, but it was like they knew someone was there. They just kept knocking. It was fucking irritating. So, I

tried to take control of them and send them away, but I couldn’t. I tried reading him”—she gestured toward Roberts—“and couldn’t.

I was going to try this one”—she nodded to Crispin now—“but they gave up and left before I could. It bothered me that I couldn’t

read or control them. Besides, I was getting a weird buzz off of them. I decided to follow and try to work out what was up.”

“And she witnessed Crispin and Roberts drinking bagged blood,” Lucian said with obvious displeasure.

“We were parked on the side of the road at the end of the crescent where the woods are,” Crispin said quickly. “There was

no one around to see.”

“Except for her,” Lucian snapped.

“How could we know she would run through the woods following us and then lurk in the trees and watch us feed?” Crispin said impatiently, and pointed out, “A mortal would not have been able to keep up with us on foot, and we had no idea this was immortal related at that point.”

“Why didn’t you just take off when you realized immortals were investigating? They’d already discovered the bodies outside,

what were two more?” Abril asked Diane.

Crispin suspected she was trying to break the tension in the room as he and Lucian glared at each other. When Diane didn’t

deign to respond to her question, he reluctantly broke the glaring contest with his uncle and said what the woman wouldn’t.

“That was the last thing she wanted to do once she realized that we were what she thought were vampires. The realization made

her more determined to get the bodies out of the indoor garden. Not just her husband any longer, who she wanted to give a

proper burial to, but now she wanted—needed—to remove the body of the immortal as well. She wasn’t afraid of the police catching

up to her, but she was terrified that if we discovered the decapitated body of one of our own, we would hunt and punish their

killer mercilessly. That scared the hell out of her.”

“Why?” Abril asked at once, her gaze sliding to Diane and back. “It’s not like you guys are bloodhounds or something. You

wouldn’t have been able to sniff her out. Would you?” she added with uncertainty.

“No,” he assured her and then pointed out, “But she did not know that. She had no guidebook for the skills of vampires except for fictional novels and such and some of those claimed that older vampires had all sorts of weird abilities. She feared one of us might be able to find her somehow using...” He hesitated as he tried to understand the thoughts in her head. “Paranormal woo-woo?”

he said uncertainly, and then gave his head a shake when Abril grinned and nodded. Apparently woo-woo was a word now, he thought, and continued, “Diane was sure she would be found, and then killed for the immortal’s murder.”

“But her husband killed the vampire—er... immortal,” Abril pointed out.

“Yes, but she had been an accessory after the fact, and she had willingly consumed her blood.”

Abril nodded in understanding, and thought being an accessory to a crime was punishable in human law too.

“Mortal law,” Lucian growled irritably. “We are human too. And while immortals have our own set of laws, and you mortals have

yours, still, we are all human.”

“Okay, mortal laws,” she said with exasperation, and then pointed out, “You know, if you didn’t go around reading people’s

minds, you’d be less likely to hear things that piss you off.”

When Lucian glowered at her, Crispin spoke up distracting him.

“Anyway, worried about retribution if the ‘vampire’ was found, she broke in to try to get the bones out and injured you when

you woke up and started to scream.”

“Hey!” Abril turned on Diane. “You didn’t have to hurt me. Why the hell didn’t you just take control of me?”

“She did not know she could,” Crispin said when Diane just sneered at her. “She assumed you were one of us too.”

Abril nodded in understanding and then said, “I’m guessing when that first attempt didn’t work out for her, she tried again when she saw you guys out digging up the bones in the tent and that’s why my memory is all buggered up during the time you guys were outside and why Lilith is—” Pausing, she turned accusingly on the woman. “What did you do to Lilith?”

“I sprinkled some animal tranquilizer on raw meat and gave it to her when she heard me and came to investigate,” Diane said

abruptly, and assured her, “I would never hurt a dog. I’m not a monster.”

Abril looked briefly relieved and then eyed the woman with a sort of bewildered and horrified expression. Crispin supposed

she was wondering over the fact that the woman thought that killing and torturing humans but not dogs meant she wasn’t a monster.

He himself had seen too much in his three thousand years to be surprised by anything people, mortal or immortal, said or did.