Zero Read online

  Zero

  R. E. Carr

  © 2018 R. E. Carr

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 198356883X

  ISBN 13: 9781983568831

  Even when I thought I had nothing left, he still found me. This is dedicated to the one who never had the good sense to run away . . .

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Epilogue: Meanwhile in Detroit . . .

  Acknowledgements

  1

  “You know, if you’re already drowning, you might as well try to touch the bottom, A rún,” Paige heard, as she sank further from the light. Her toes tangled briefly with a mix of seaweed and sand before she pushed herself up, her lungs burning.

  She clawed her way to the surface and gasped, breathing in the mix of sea air and rotten fish. A smile curled her lips, as she tasted the salt and listened to the clang and putter of nearby boats. Cranky seabirds squawked and splashed around her. She flipped her heavy curls defiantly then began treading water. Gulping in another lungful of air, she sank under the waves.

  “You can’t save me,” echoed in her ears, as she once more dove for the seabed. “Save . . . yourself.”

  “How did we end up here?” Paige whispered, opening her eyes. A now-familiar face with emerald eyes and dark, wavy hair greeted her in bed. She brushed a loose lock off his forehead. He smiled, just showing off the points of his fangs. In the dim light, he could almost pass for human.

  “How did we end up right here - bleeding on the floor of my castle? How did we end up wed, or how did we end up together in the first place, A rún? There are so many questions, and so few good answers,” Lorcan replied. Dark veins spread across his face, as Paige saw blood flow across the floor. She choked - hot, sticky spittle burst from her lips.

  “All I wanted to do was meet an old friend at a party,” Paige said, with a sad little chuckle. “And I ended up talking to a vampire.”

  Lorcan mixed his own laughter with sickly coughing. “Says the werewolf,” he choked out. “Keep fighting, Paige. Stop trying to save me, and save yourself.”

  Paige gasped and clawed at the carpet. Her black talons tore the backing and left scrapes in the stone beneath. She gulped for air.

  “No,” she whimpered as she dragged her legs behind her. She grabbed Lorcan by the collar and tried to pull him to the door, but the harder she pulled, the more her weak legs slipped on the rug. Finally, she yanked Lorcan’s entire arm out of its socket. She screamed.

  “I told you to save yourself,” Paige heard softly. Her eyelids fluttered open, but she immediately had to squint against the light. A sea breeze poured through the windows, fluttering curtains and making patterns on the walls. She rolled her toes in the sheets and felt cotton on her legs. She finally reached over and felt nothing more than a wayward pillow lying next to her.

  “Morning, Sweetie,” a gentle, familiar voice said. The aroma of coffee and pastries wafted over the scent of the sea.

  “Mom,” Paige said, tears welling, as she fully awakened. “Mom, did we really make it?”

  Maria DeMarco responded by tackling her little girl in an enormous hug. She buried her face in her daughter’s tangle of curls, and squeezed Paige to within an inch of her life. Maria finally pulled away to wipe a tear of her own.

  Paige blinked a few times and took in the stucco, the flowers, and all the natural light. Her gaze drifted over to a tray overflowing with a magnificent breakfast. Maria pointed to a little yellow teapot. “Herbal tea, I remembered,” she said, keeping her gaze locked on her daughter.

  “Oh, Mom,” Paige whimpered, before hugging her again. “This is going to be a long story.”

  “I’ve heard bits and pieces, but I didn’t . . . I didn’t believe,” Maria said softly. “Why would you risk coming here?”

  Paige looked up. “Why would I come here? Mom, I couldn’t just—”

  Paige’s stomach growled. Maria pulled over the tray with breakfast and let her daughter shovel a pair of croissants in her mouth before daring to speak.

  “Klaus has already offered all of you hospitality, the same hospitality I have here. Paige, sweetie, I am so happy to see you, but you shouldn’t have risked coming for me.”

  “Mom!”

  “Yes, I am your mother. You may be a werewolf, but it’s still my job to protect you, not the other way around,” she chided. “Don’t you give me that look, Paige Presley DeMarco, you know I’m right.”

  Paige lowered her gaze. Her mom brushed a few crumbs off the comforter, before tilting up her daughter’s chin. “You’re not just here because of your poor old mom, are you?”

  “It’s . . . um, complicated,” Paige muttered.

  “Does it have anything to do with the much, much . . . much older man that is apparently now my son-in-law?”

  “So . . . you heard?” Paige blushed a little and looked away.

  “I haven’t heard it from you, sweetie.”

  Paige picked at a bit of pilling on her duvet. She studied the feathery cracks in the walls and the bouquet of lavender on the rustic dresser. Paige even had time to notice a clean set of clothes on the chair before she finally dared to face the sun-kissed, dreadfully concerned face of her own mother.

  “I don’t really know what to say,” Paige whispered. “You must be terribly disappointed in me . . .”

  “Disappointed?” Maria gasped. “Sweetie, I know that you did whatever you could to save your friends and yourself. If you think for a moment that I somehow think less of you for being forced into some ritual just to indulge that filthy, scheming, Pendragon bastard . . .”

  “Which one?” Paige said, choking out a little laugh. Maria hugged her daughter again. Paige continued as she buried her face in her mother’s shoulder, “I couldn’t let them kill us. I knew it was a trap, but I couldn’t figure a better way out of it.”

  She sniffled and drew back in horror as she saw tears and snot on her mother’s blouse. Maria merely grabbed a napkin and dabbed it away. She then brushed the tears off Paige’s cheeks.

  “You don’t have to apologize,” Maria said softly. “Just tell me, do you want Klaus and the others here to try and save Lorcan, or would it be best if he—”

  “Of course, I want them to save him!” Paige blurted out. “I know you’re going to think this is crazy, but I . . . love him. I don’t know if it’s because he’s been swimming around in my head, or it’s all the insanity they’ve put us through and I’ve gone Stockholm, or what, but—”

  “You’re in love with a vampire. It’s OK, I married a conspiracy theorist,” Maria said with a sad smile. “I have a feeling your husband is a slightly better catch.”

  “And he’s dead,” Paige said before they both devolved into giggles again. The younger DeMarco finally flopped into her pillows and let out a long, low, moan. “Well, mostly dead. This was our l
ast hope, that maybe we could get a vampire physician who might be sympathetic, and . . . and I dunno. Your Grandpa Steve thought that maybe Klaus would . . .”

  “Klaus is a good man,” Maria said, before daring to sneak in a slurp of her coffee. “And I must say, living here has certainly been an eye-opening experience. You’re in a safe place, baby. He’s already got a team of specialists looking at Lorcan, and your poor ginger friend hasn’t slept yet. I get the feeling that everything that can be done, is being done. Now, why don’t you get showered and dressed, and I’ll meet you downstairs. We’ve been cooking all night to make something special.”

  Paige eyed the already impressive spread by her bed. She sniffed the air and her face lit up as she picked up a mix of pork and rosemary. “Is that . . .?” she asked.

  Maria smiled. “I’m not sure of the exact etiquette for hosting a pack of werewolves, but I’m fairly certain that you can’t go wrong roasting a whole pig for brunch.”

  “Mom, I’ve missed you,” Paige said, reaching for the clothes. “Just give me a few to get freshened-up.”

  Paige waited for Maria to slip out of the door before she dared totter onto her shaky legs. Paige limped slowly to the bathroom, rubbing the stubborn wound on her spine while her tail drooped between her legs. As she got to the toilet, the world began to spin. She could see a faint reflection of green eyes in the mirror.

  “Tell them,” Phantom Lorcan mouthed to the pale, sunken-eyed reflection of Paige. She snarled. Instead, she focused on delightful water pressure and soap that didn’t offend her sensitive nose. She smiled at the luxury fur shampoo thoughtfully left in the stall, so that she could scrub a week’s worth of travel grime out of her scalp and tail. Half a bottle of conditioner and a few razors later, and this werewolf was ready to face humanity. She smiled again at the choice of a wraparound skirt that could go either over or under her extra appendage. In an act of defiance, she let it flop limply over the waistband. Much to her delight, the tip finally twitched.

  “Baby steps,” she muttered as she limped across the room. “Baby steps.”

  She wolfed down another pastry before sliding on sandals and making her way for the door. She found her mom outside, sitting on a bench, and blissfully sipping coffee. Paige cocked her head to peer at the lovely renaissance painting in the hall.

  “Yes, it’s by Da Vinci,” Maria said, pointing to the portrait of an Amazonian woman with a blonde braid and war paint across her eyes. “It’s called Asrun of the Lake, and it was one of his earlier lost pieces. Klaus had it commissioned for his friend and mentor’s wife, but she didn’t like it. Apparently, this Asrun wanted a portrait of her drinking from the skulls of her enemies, and Leo took too much artistic license.”

  Paige stared intently at the quality of the brushwork and the muted palette. She raised a brow at her mom. “You’re not kidding, are you?”

  “Wait ‘til you see Klaus’s underground gallery, sweetie. There is a series of tapestries that take my breath away.” Maria raised a brow as she saw Paige’s tail out in the open. “I’m still getting used to that. Woof,” Maria confessed.

  Paige blushed. “I can—”

  “No!” Maria exclaimed. “If there is one good lesson your father taught me, it’s that just because something is weird, doesn’t mean it’s bad. I’ve always wanted to know though, does it hurt to sit on?”

  “It can go to sleep, yeah,” Paige said as they slowly made their way to the kitchen. “Especially if it’s been bound all day. One morning I slept on it wrong, and yeah, pins and needles like you wouldn’t believe. Mom—”

  Maria mussed up her daughter’s hair. “Brunch, tea, and a little bit of normalcy, OK, sweetie? We’ve got the rest of the night to deal with all the crazy shit,” she sighed. “The docs are all in there. If there is news, we’ll be right where we need to be.”

  “Paige!” she heard before the DeMarco women even made it into the kitchen. “You have got to see this.”

  Paige stepped through an archway and her jaw dropped as she saw a crew hauling a whole pig on a stretcher. Behind them, a small army of servants spread bowls of pasta, cheese, bread, and fruit over the seemingly-endless marble counter. Stools had been arranged around the spread, and Paige could see two women with wet hair staring, slack-jawed, at the hospitality.

  “Why did we spend all that time on that damn boat?” Kayleigh O’Hara asked as she snatched a roll. “We should have given up a week ago.”

  Nadia Volkov cracked her neck and lounged in her chair. She sized up Paige and gave a little nod. “You took your time,” she said, in her usual brusque Russian tone. She, turned to Maria, smiled, and extended her hand. “I am grateful to see you again, Ms. DeMarco. If for no other reason than to see Paige smiling again.”

  Maria shook the purple-haired woman’s hand. She then wrapped her other arm around Nadia and surprised her with a hug. “Thank you for looking after my baby,” Maria murmured in her ear.

  Nadia’s normally cool face softened and she squeezed Maria back. “I did the best I could.”

  “Can we hold off on the Hallmark moments until after we’ve eaten?” Kayleigh sighed. She had a laptop and two smartphones spread around her plate – one hand flying over keys while the other kept snatching snacks. “Some of us have been working all morning.”

  Paige gnawed on her lips. “Should we wait for the others?”

  “Morgan took the little sis into town for supplies, Bro is working on Grandpa, and your great-grandpa is hiding in the vault ‘cause there isn’t a cloud in the sky,” Kayleigh explained, not looking up.

  “Yes, yes, please go ahead and eat!” a new voice exclaimed in a thick Italian accent. “I will see that food is taken down to the good doctor, and we can always make more. What is ours is yours.”

  “Paige, meet Pablo, one of the heads of the house,” Maria said, pointing to a tall, dark, and handsome man dressed all in black.

  “Pablo, the pool boy?” Paige blurted out.

  “Oh, yes,” Pablo exclaimed. “I care for the pool, the gardens, all the upstairs! You must be the bella signorina, Paige. You have your mother’s eyes.”

  Pablo darted around the counter, snatched up Paige’s hand, and kissed it. His eyes lit up as he saw her tail. “Mamma mia, I thought that Maria was joking,” he exclaimed. “So happy to be wrong! Please, tell me, was your room to your liking?”

  “Yeah, everything was great,” Paige said. She watched closely as Pablo moved right next to her mother. She could smell traces of marinara sauce and her mother’s hand cream on the strange man. She took a step back and motioned to the pig. “And that looks fabulous.”

  “Well, your mother has been a gift,” Pablo said sweetly. He kissed Maria on the cheek. “She stayed up most of the evening cooking when she knew you were here. I made her finally get some sleep so she could see you in the morning, but she is ever so stubborn.”

  “Yeah, that’s my mom,” Paige said. Her eyes widened, as she noticed the stranger now wrapping his arm around her mother’s waist. “Should we start?”

  “Please, please!” Pablo said. “Mangiare!”

  The three women tore into the pig with ferocious glee. Both Kayleigh and Paige stared in surprise as Nadia went straight for the head and ripped the pig’s skull from its spine with a single flick of the wrist.

  “I wanted the jowls,” she snarled. “I’ve had nothing but convenience store sandwiches and olives for two days.”

  Kayleigh closed her laptop to gnaw on ribs. “You also went stereotypical on us and drank the vodka,” she countered.

  “And you drank everything else, Irish,” Nadia barked.

  Paige snarled and both girls went silent. She gave an apologetic smile to their hosts. “We’ve been on a very small boat with very little food for way too long,” she explained, pulling off a leg and setting it on her plate. “Sorry.”

  “It’s nothing. It’s nothing at all. I serve vampires - rude and cranky are what we expect,” Pablo said with a grin. “Speaking of wh
ich, my master wishes to show you around the estate once the sun goes down. He was hoping to have a little alone time with the young master before welcoming you all properly. In the meantime, please know that you enjoy the hospitality of both my master and our visiting lord.”

  Paige dropped the pork before she could even take a bite. Her stomach turned. Maria looked confused, as Paige turned slightly green. “Excuse me,” Paige said as she quickly looked for the nearest bathroom. She followed the distinctive mix of bleach, air fresher, and sewage smells to make it to a powder room, just in time to puke her guts out. She splashed her face with water a few times, but couldn’t fool the watchful eyes of Maria who was already hovering by the door with a towel.

  “Too many days on a boat eating crap,” she said quickly. “And I can smell—”

  “The prey smells the hunter. Intressant,” a new voice said softly. Paige whirled around to see a tall, pale man with his salt and pepper hair slicked back from his gaunt face. His unnaturally light eyes bored into Paige.

  Maria stood up straighter and nudged in front of her daughter. The vampire snorted appreciatively. “You’re awake in the day,” Maria gasped.

  The vampire took a step forward, purposefully stepping into a sunbeam. The light made his pallor even more ghoulish. There was no sizzle. He didn’t even flinch.

  “I wanted to see our esteemed guests.”

  “What are you doing here?” Paige asked. She reversed the positioning and shouldered in front of her mother.

  “Paige,” Maria hissed. “This is—”

  “Lord Jaeger,” Paige growled. “What are you doing here?”

  “This is part of my domain. I can visit whenever I chose,” the Jaeger said calmly. “I was bored so I decided to declare Tuscany a sanctuary for the week. I wanted a quiet visit with old friends.”

  “You—”

  “Arce Monstrorum is place of learning and of peace, little wolf. I have no intention of changing that,” the Jaeger sighed. “Unless you give me reason to.”

  “Arce Mon—?” Paige started.

  “You are in the Castle of Monsters, where you belong, Little Wolf,” the Jaeger said with a smile. He gazed at both DeMarco women. “It is always amusing to see generation after generation of those families that delight us. Now - as you were.”