The Wicked: A Love Story

When Lewis answered the door he seemed completely unfazed by the appearance of Lawrence Malone, Kruinh and Myron Keller.

“Loreal is down the hall in her own room,” Lewis told Laurie as he opened the door to let them in.

“Kruinh I now know. You, I don’t.”

“I’m Myron Keller.”

“Oh,” Lewis said in an amused voice as he gestured for them to sit and went into the kitchenette of the suite to bring out drinks.

“Another Keller. Things are getting deeper and deeper.”

This afternoon, Seth had returned with Jim Strauss, and the whole time Lewis socialized with the golden haired man he thought, Does he know that Seth has been sleeping with us? What in the world is Seth planning? But since he’d turned forty, Lewis realized that his problems were few, and Seth’s problems were not his, and this was something for his cousin to figure out, so he said to these new visitors, as he had said to Jim Strauss:

“Thirsty?”

He looked to Kruinh.

“No, friend Lewis.”

“Laurie, Bourbon? Bourbon. You Myron? The same?”

“You’ve changed, Lawrence,” Lewis said. “I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something lighter about you.”

Lewis was arriving with drinks when Chris came out of the bathroom, and he actually was surprised. He cocked his head, looking at Laurie so sharply that the other vampire went red.

“What?”

Chris shook his finger at Laurie, grinning, and said, “You and me will talk.”

“But first,” Lewis said, his arms out, “it seems like we all need to talk.”

“We were attacked by a rival vampire clan,” Kruinh said simply.

“The clan that Evangeline is a part of,” Chris guessed.

“Evangeline is no more,” Kruinh said, simply, and Chris nodded.

“We can,” Kruinh’s eyes were lowered for once, “talk about this privately, if you wish.”

“I don’t want to talk about it at all,” Chris said, his eyes wide open and somber.

“I have no doubt that I would have been next on her list after you,” Chris said. “It’s taken me a long time to realize that she was my enemy… That…”

Now Chris did looked briefly pained, and Lewis wanted to touch him, but stopped himself

“Nevermind,” Chris said, regaining himself. “Please go on.”

“Evangeline was not only part of the clan. She founded it. She had separated from Rosamunde. Laurie’s baby and Lynn were her undoing. She knew we were bringing a mortal with us and assumed it was Lynn, and so she attacked us. Our destruction was a bonus. Eve Moreland was tied to this,” Kruinh said to Lewis. “But I doubt Augustus knew anything.”

“So do I,” Lewis said. “His bloodlusts were always in different directions.”

“What about Lynn?” Chris said.

They were silent and it was Laurie who said, “She is dead. Evangeline or one of her crew killed her in Chicago.”

Lewis sucked in his breath and covered his mouth.

“There is more to it than that,” Laurie said. “But for now let that be enough.”

Chris and Lewis nodded somberly, and though Kruinh looked somber as well, he spoke.

“There was one other thing,” Kruinh said, “and it was this: Evangeline mentioned, quite casually, that she killed the Strausses. The original ones. Doubtless, you will know more about that. She said her clan was once allied to the old werewolf clan, but things fell amiss, and so the vampires destroyed nearly all of them, but Friederich Strauss. We found out that there was another one, a ghostly man, a man who was not a ghost, but not living like the others, who was also a werewolf, and that he had taken Friederich away and protected him.”

“Marabeth would probably like to know about this,” Lewis said.

“Marabeth?” Myron said.

“Yes, she inherited your Aunt Pamela’s journals. She’s learning all about this now.”

“So Marabeth knows,” Myron clapped his hands to his knees, his mouth a little open, his eyes slits as he looked about the room.

“Not always. It is new to her.”

“Then none of us has known.”

“I doubt that,” Lewis said. “More likely, some of you have known. I know your cousin Peter has always known.”

“Peter.” Myron’s voice changed.

“Oh, yes,” Lewis said. “Peter has kept close records of your entire family history.”

Myron’s eyes grew large and he looked to the carpet before speaking.

“Well, fuck him.”

“You and Dan?” Chris said, when the two of them were alone.

“What?” Laurie said.

“You shared with him. You’re sharing with him.”

“In the fight he almost died,” Laurie said, “It made us closer.”

“No, it didn’t. You were always close. Don’t you think everyone knows the hold Dan has on you? You’re like some schoolboy throwing rocks at a girl you have a crush on. Since the day you guys saw each other he couldn’t stop winding you up, and you couldn’t stop letting him.”

“He does bug me.”

Then Laurie shrugged. “Sometimes. But, God, the other night… I got so scared. Kruinh saved him. If Dan hadn’t drank half of Kruinh’s blood he’d be dead, and then…”

Chris touched his cheek, “It’s sweet, Laurie, It’s about time you all stopped pretending to squall all the time. It was meant to be. We can all see it. You’re bonded to him the way you’re bonded to me. I can almost see him standing right next to you.

“But what of Lynn? How are you?”

“Lynn left me,” Laurie said. “I mean, it seemed probable that she would. We were all but over when she knew the truth, which makes sense.”

“But the baby.”

“She had an abortion. I think—we all think that’s why Evangeline killed her instead of taking her hostage or something. Without the baby, Lynn was just another mortal, and one who had gotten rid of a baby Evangeline wanted to see born.”

“But you wanted to see him born too.”

Laurie looked away from Chris.

“When she told me,” he said, “I tried to be that modern understanding guy. I tried to be the man I want to be and not some medieval monster. But I am a monster. Evangeline saved me from doing something I might have done myself in the end.

“I try to rise above myself, above being a monster, try to find my humanity. But the last time I was a human, it was in the eighteen hundreds, and men beat their wives and even killed them and folks said, well you know, she had it coming. So it’s hard to not be angry. The moment she came to me and told me she had done it, and had not told me because I would have tried to stop her, I knew I could never see her again.”

Chris Ashby said nothing. In three hundred years he had only been with one woman, and it was in Yorkshire as a boy doing what all boys did. Someone having his baby had never been a possibility, and yet, he could not imagine that the Lawrence Malone he knew could have let Lynn Draper go unpunished. Looking back on their lives, which had occurred before the modern world, where their strength and power exempted them from human law, it would have only been a matter of time before Laurie’s grief had grown lethal and yet, Chris realized, now it could remain grief. The sweet thing Laurie always was, but always risked leaving behind, he could now remain.

“I don’t know how I feel,” Laurie whispered into his cupped hands.

You’re grateful. Grateful my sister removed the temptation of Lynn away from you forever, so now you can mourn like a normal man.

“Perhaps I am,” Laurie said tiredly, and Chris blinked. He had forgotten that he could never really hide his thoughts from his former love.

“Me and Dan,” Laurie said, almost to change the subject, “do you think Loreal will understand?”

Chris shrugged, and touched Laurie on the cheek.

“There’s really only one way to find out.”

Loreal shrieked whenshe opened the door and gathered Laurie to her.

“You must think I’m the biggest idiot because it’s only been a few days, but I’m so glad to see you.”

She closed the door behind him and said, “You have to understand. I’m so glad to see you.”

She stopped, looking at him sideways, and Laurie said, “What?”

“Lawrence Malone, you’re… Something’s happened to you. You look different. Younger. But sadder too. You look… like a little boy. Something’s happened to you.”

“I was almost killed by a gang of vampires,” Laurie said. “But yes, something has happened to me.”

Loreal blinked and shook her head, then said, “Are you going to tell me?”

She gestured for Laurie to sit on the bed, and then he said, “Firstly, you need to hear something. You need to hear that I love you. I know that’s what it is. Not lust or not just lust, not just a fascination. A love. I am close to you. I dream of you. I know I belong with you. Let’s stay the night together. I don’t mean sex. I don’t even mean that. I mean, I want to lie beside you and talk with you all night. I want us to be together all night.”

He was so earnest, earnest in the way that boys were before they got dull and afraid and became men, earnest and happy and something had happened. He was in love with her, but there was a love in him that had little to do with her. She sensed this and she said, “Laurie, you have something else to tell me.”

“I do,” Laurie said, “and I have to tell it to you gently, and slowly, and explain it, and when I’ve told you, you may not want me for your man, but I still hope you will.”

Loreal looked into Laurie’s face which was the face of a killer, to be sure, and of a man with great complications, but which was shining with love for her, and she said, “I do want you to be mine. I don’t think anything’s easy with you. I don’t guess. We can talk about it all tonight, if you wish.”

Laurie nodded seriously and took her hand.

“Lynn is dead.”

“I’m sorry,” Loreal said. She was sorry. She had wanted him to stop dating her. She had not wanted the woman dead.

“Was it natural?”

She had to ask.

“Evangeline,” Laurie said. “Or one of her people.”

“Oh… No. But, they wanted her. They wanted the baby.”

“She chose not to have the baby,” Laurie said. “Once she did that….she was no good to Evangeline.”

Chose not to have the baby…

“Did you know?” Loreal asked. “Did she tell you?”

“She told me after it had been done,” Laurie said simply.

“Oh,” was all Loreal said.

Laurie said, “It is done now. “There is no need to speak of it anymore.”

Loreal was not about to.

“The others are going to see the Stausses. I’m staying behind. I feel like I could be a bit much for them.”

“Too much?” Loreal said as she sat on the bed, her legs folded under her.

“It’s enough they have one vampire,” Laurie said, as he sat beside Loreal, folding his trousered legs under him as she had done.

“I don’t think Chris said he was a vampire, and I don’t think I’m going with them to see Grandpa, or at least not for long.”

“What’s that?” Laurie raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that the whole reason you came?”

“The reason we came was to find truth,” Loreal said. “It was the truth about this family, the Strausses, but what if there is a truth to be found about my own family? I’d rather not think about it now.”

“Leave it for tomorrow,” Laurie suggested.

“I will,” Loreal said. “But as sad as what happened to Lynn is, that wasn’t what you came to tell me. Now it’s time for your business. That’s going to be what we talk about tonight.”