The Bride Wore Red, Chapter 5
Title: The Bride Wore Red
Fandom : Moonlight
Characters : Mick, Josef, Beth, Simone
Rating : R, for some sexual content and strong language.
Summary: 14th in my post-"Sonata" series. Josef and Simone plan their wedding, but danger lurks in snowy Lake Tahoe. Can Mick and Beth help the ceremony go off without a hitch? Alternating pov's. Romance, humor, suspense.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters; no copyright infringement intended.
A/N: Sorry again to those who dislike cliffies. I admit it is a blatant plot device, designed to get you to keep reading, and keep guessing, and maybe compel you to review. Thanks for hanging from that cliff for me J. So now, we come to the angsty part of the story. I hate putting my beloved characters through this, but hey, not everything is rainbows and unicorns, right?
Chapter 5
MICK
Josef and I had had a grand time, doing jumps and slides on the snowmobiles he’d bought us. It was pitch dark, except for the light snow that had started falling, and we drove up and down the mountain, putting our vamp senses through a real workout, avoiding trees in the darkness, seeing how hard we could push the powerful machines we rode.
I was quite a ways ahead of Josef when I realized he wasn’t behind me. I slowed down and listened, but couldn’t hear his snowmobile. In the distance, I heard him talking, his tone urgent and clipped, but the loudness of my engine drowned out the exact nature of his words.
I made a u-turn in the powdery snow, revving my engine and going back up the hill toward the lights of his vehicle. I pulled up beside him just as he was putting his cell phone back in his pocket. I could tell in an instant he was tense and ready to explode, but his face belied that feeling. He put on his usual grin.
“What’s up?” I asked cautiously.
“That was Simone. The girls changed their minds and want us to come back.”
“Now? You’re shittin’ me.”
“Well, you know women. I figured we’d better get back there before they change their minds.”
“Come on! I was just starting to have fun-“
“Well, I’m anxious to get back. You know me, whipped like a masochist at a dominatrix party.”
A wave of suspicion overcame me, and I instantly knew he was lying to me.
“What the fuck is going on, Josef?” I growled.
He stalled by restarting his snowmobile. “It’s bad, Mick. We need to get out of here now. I swear, I’ll tell you in the car.” Without another word, he gunned the engine and sped off past me. I had no choice but to follow, my gut clenching in dread because I knew he was trying to protect me. Oh my God. Something’s happened to Beth. That’s the only thing it could be that he wouldn’t tell me straight up.
It took about ten minutes, even at top speed, to make it back down the mountain to the road where the Hummer was parked. The snow suddenly stopped, and the light of a full moon shone eerily on the snow. We hopped off the vehicles, Josef not even caring that we were just leaving behind two very expensive machines. He was already in the SUV, and didn’t even wait for me to shut the door before he floored it, mindless of the ice and snow-packed roads. The chains on the tires clacked loudly at the unsafe speed, and we headed, not back toward his house, but toward the village of South Lake Tahoe.
“You’d better start talking,” I said dangerously, my imagination already painting a plethora of horrible pictures in my head. Josef didn’t look away from the road.
“I don’t know all the details, but two men attacked the girls. Beth was hurt, and Simone is heading to the hospital with her.”
I felt my dead heart drop to my stomach like a stone. I swallowed hard, trying to form the words. “How bad?” I whispered, shock setting in.
“Bad, Mick, I could tell by Simone’s voice. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you until we got to the hospital.” He risked taking his eyes off the road to glance at me, and the terror must have been written clearly on my face. “Don’t freak out on me, man. We don’t know anything yet.”
Something filtered back into my frozen brain, and I belatedly asked: “Attacked? By who?”
“I don’t know. Simone was too worked up to say. She was really in a hurry to get to the hospital though.”
We sat in strained silence, and I had the insane desire to jump out of the Hummer and run the five miles into town myself. Not Beth. Not my Beth. Those words repeated over and over in my mind, like the banging of a drum, like the heart that no longer beat in my chest. Beth. Beth. Beth. Her name was my heart now, pounding through me like it was about ready to burst.
“Jesus,” I muttered, both a prayer and a curse, my hand clutching at my chest as if there were still something inside to grab hold of.
Thankfully, the lights of the city greeted us as we topped a rise, and Josef drove unerringly to the small hospital, apparently very familiar with the area. I jumped out of the Hummer before it fully stopped in front of the Emergency Room doors, sliding into the reception counter with a bang. I sniffed the air, and didn’t even need to talk to the surprised nurse as I headed to a curtained cubicle, her harried call of “Sir!” going unheeded.
Beth’s blood was as familiar to me as my own, and when I pulled back the curtain, I was inundated with the overpowering sensation that I was drowning in it. It was everywhere. A white towel and beige blanket lay discarded on a table, having soaked up the scarlet liquid like a sponge. It coated the white table upon which she lay, face down, while an intern sewed up a cut three inches long beneath her hair at the base of her scalp. I knew from experience that head wounds bled the most, and the carnage that greeted me certainly proved it. Her golden hair had been pulled up into a high ponytail, and the young resident had only had to shave along the hairline. But her beautiful hair was matted with her blood, and her heartbeat was weak from blood loss. Tubes were connected to her arms, feeding her blood and other liquids. Machines monitored her vital signs, and I noted that everything seemed below normal.
The resident looked up at me. “Sir, you’ll have to wait outside…”
There’s no fuckin’ way.
“Mick,” said Simone, suddenly right behind me, holding me back. I marveled distantly at her new-found strength. “Come on. Let him do his job.”
I stepped back and she pulled the curtain again. I felt like it was Beth’s shroud.
“Is she going to be alright?” I asked her, my voice trembling, my eyes trying to bore holes into the fabric.
“They managed to stop the bleeding, and they’re giving her some blood. She hasn’t woken up though. Mick…I’m so sorry…” I fleetingly caught her eye, but the blood on her white t-shirt drew my attention, and I looked hastily away. I felt sick.
Josef arrived then, and Simone let me go to move into her fiancé’s arms. “I couldn’t find a fuckin’ parking space. I think they’re having a Christmas party. Damn humans. I wonder if they’ll overlook a Hummer in a handicapped space…”
I knew his meaningless chatter was designed to distract me, to calm me, but all I wanted to do was roar in pain and frustration.
“What the hell happened?” Josef was asking. Simone looked meaningfully at the curtain, indicating the human ears that could be listening. She answered at vampire level.
“Two men, dressed in white ski clothes, grabbed Beth and I outside the house on the deck.”
“What were you doing outside the house?” Josef interrupted angrily.
She gave him a level look. “Beth wanted to use the spa. I was enjoying the cold. We’re grown women, Josef. I killed both of them, but Beth slipped on the deck and-“ her eyes landed on mine, as if preparing me for the worst-“and she fell down the stairs, head first.” I cringed and shut my eyes against her sympathetic gaze.
“How did you get to the hospital?” I asked numbly.
“I ran.”
My eyes flew to hers. “That was about eight miles.”
“Yes. I knew I could be faster than any vehicle in this weather, on those roads. I ran through the woods mostly, following the road into town.” Her hand was suddenly on my arm again, her eyes watery and pleading for forgiveness. “I didn’t know what else to do, Mick.”
I looked back at the curtain, trying to make sense of everything. “Thank you. I would have done the same.”
Josef pulled her back into his embrace, kissing her hair. “You did good, baby. Now, did you recognize the men who attacked you?”
“No. But they were humans, Josef. And they only wanted me. Beth was just in the way. I asked if this had anything to do with you. I didn’t get an answer. ”
“Humans?” I said in disbelief. “What humans?”
“I’ve made a lot of enemies,” Josef said solemnly. “I just can’t think who recently. And certainly no one in Tahoe. Someone followed us here.”
As we chewed on that thought, the ER doctor came by, nodding at us and pulling open the curtain.
I peeked in and saw that the intern was applying a bandage to Beth’s head, then the two of them gently turned her over onto her back, stabilizing her neck with a foam brace.
“Is there something wrong with her neck?” I asked them, feeling close to panic.
“We don’t know yet; it’s just a precaution. We’ll take her up to run some tests after she’s stabilized.” The doctor seemed calm and confident, his heartbeat steady. I guess I didn’t have any choice but to trust him.
“Can I sit with her?” My hand darted out to touch her, and I could feel how unnaturally cold she was, even through the hospital blankets. God, I missed her warmth. Her face was pale as death, and a big bruise was already discoloring her cheek.
“Are you the next of kin?”
“Yes,” I said immediately. “She’s my wife.”
Josef and Simone showed no surprised reaction to my claim, a testament to their own quick thinking.
I pulled up the only chair and sat next to the woman I already thought of as my wife, taking her limp hand in mine.
“Mick, we’re going back to the house to check things out,” Josef said softly. “Call if there’s any change. You okay here alone?”
I nodded absently, knowing I should be chomping at the bit myself to track down who’d done this thing, but my overriding concern was for Beth, and I found myself physically incapable of leaving her.
“Or, I could stay with her,” Simone offered, “if you want to go with Josef. You have more experience tracking than me…”
“No. You go. I want to be here when she wakes up.”
Simone and Josef exchanged a worried glance, but seemed to understand my desires. She walked over and kissed my cheek, then leaned over and tenderly brushed Beth’s hair from her forehead.
“I’ll get them, Beth. I swear to God I’ll make whoever hired those animals pay with their blood.” Simone’s cheeks were wet with her tears, and I knew she had it in her to do exactly what she promised.
Josef tentatively touched Beth’s other hand, a tenderness I’d rarely seen filling his eyes. “Wake up, Blondie. We need that special Buzzwire instinct of yours to catch these guys.” My eyes shot to her face, as if his encouraging words would get through to her, and I’d suddenly see her sparkling blue eyes looking back at me. I was disheartened to see my friend’s sad expression, which he quickly covered up with a self-deprecating grin. He put a comforting hand on my shoulder.
“She never likes to take orders, least of all from me. We’ll be in touch, buddy. Hang in there.”
Then they were gone, and Beth and I were alone. I brought her hand up to my lips, like I’d done on countless occasions, but not feeling her answering, reassuring squeeze finally had me at my emotional limit. I felt the tears forming in my eyes as I stared at her motionless form, so small and pale against the hospital white sheets. Unbidden, a vision of Sarah Whitley came to my mind, Josef’s beautiful lover who had languished in a coma for more than fifty years, before he’d let her go just a few months ago.
“Don’t do this to me, sweetheart,” I whispered, holding her small hand like a lifeline, watching the soft rise and fall of her chest. “Don’t leave me.” I reached out and traced her sweet lips with my fingers, willing them to speak, to tell me to snap the hell out of it because I was teetering on the edge here.
“You asked me once why I didn’t just end it all, why I held on when I hated what I was. It’s because of you, Beth. From the moment I saved you as a little girl, you became my reason for living. And if you leave me now, like this…oh God…”A sob tore through me, and a pain like I’d never known slammed into me like a truck. I laid my head on her chest, her heartbeat filling my ears, knowing that its light but steady pounding was what was keeping us both alive.
“Mr. Turner?” I looked up at the doctor as he stood in the cubicle, clipboard in hand. I self-consciously wiped my eyes with the backs of my hands, sitting up from my pitiful position.
“It’s St. John, actually. She uh, kept her maiden name.”
He raised an eyebrow skeptically, but didn’t question my words. “We’ll be taking her up in a minute for an MRI. We need to see why she isn’t coming to. She obviously hit hard, several times in the same place as she fell down the stairs. The blood loss definitely didn’t help matters. We’ll get her to a private room afterwards, try to make her as comfortable as we can.”
I nodded, afraid to ask the questions I wanted to. Is she going to wake up? And what will I do if she doesn’t?
JOSEF
The bodies of the two men lay right where Simone had killed them. I swelled up with pride at my bride’s efficiency-both dead, with little blood loss. The light snow that had fallen right before and since the attack had partially covered both their footprints and their scents, but we managed to track them through the woods, the moonlight helping us even though we could see well had it been pitch dark.
We didn’t have to track them far. Their trail led through the trees behind the house, then about half a mile down the road to a white SUV parked in the driveway of a boarded up summer house.
“They obviously didn’t know you were a vampire,” I said to Simone as we tried the vehicle’s doors, only to find them locked. I fished out the keys I’d taken off one of the bodies. “They would have known you can’t sneak up on a vampire.”
“No, I sensed them before they got to the house. Except for their white clothing, they didn’t try anything out of the ordinary to hide from me.”
“And it’s funny they had no weapons,” I mused. “No stakes. No silver. No machetes. Not even a gun. They obviously thought they’d have no trouble with you.” I couldn’t help grinning at her proudly.
Inside the SUV we found a formal picture of Simone in business attire, likely taken from her old law firm’s website. A digital camera held pictures from yesterday, of us boarding my private jet in LA, as well as pictures of the cabin, taken as they drove by. The Hummer had been parked in the driveway.
“I was right. They followed us from LA.”
In two duffel bags, we found their wallets and return plane tickets, along with enough personal items for an overnight stay. Neither of us recognized the names on the ID’s. In the backseat was a roll of duct tape, a kidnapper’s best friend for restraining their victim. The glove compartment yielded car rental receipts and real paydirt-a cell phone. I redialed the last number received.
A familiar, feminine voice answered curtly: “Did you get her?”
I looked over at Simone, her eyes wide with shocked recognition. I tried to make my voice sound neutral, unrecognizable. “Yeah. Now what?”
“Take her to the safe house, and I’ll be there as soon as I can,” the woman replied, talking to me as if I were an idiot.
Ahh…so that was the plan. Abduct Simone and keep her safe. I needed to find out exactly where.
“Uh…I’ve lost the address. What was it again?”
“Three-fifty-two North Pine, you moron! Now get your asses over there with her right now. And if you harm a hair on her head you’ll get nothing, you hear me?”
She hung up, and I slowly lowered the phone, shaking with rage, hovering on the verge of completely vamping out.
“That bitch,” I growled. “She’s a dead woman.”
I recovered my wits enough to look at Simone, trembling with a different emotion, her hands covering her face in despair.
“Oh, God, Mother,” she wailed. “Why?”
It was in that moment I realized, as I gathered her into my arms, that I was to blame for this-the attack, Beth’s fall-everything. I had threatened Simone’s mother, and in a fit of righteous anger, I’d flashed my fangs at her, even had gone so far as to taste her blood-all without Simone’s knowledge. Elise Walker was just trying to save her daughter from marrying a monster. Little did she know her daughter had become a monster herself. Had I been in her shoes, I would have done the same thing, only worse.
“I’m sorry,” said Simone into my chest, “I can’t believe she went this far, that’s she disapproves of you this much. How am I going to make this up to Mick, if Beth…if Beth…”
She couldn’t finish the horrible thought that was front and center in both our minds. I just stood there, holding her, unable to find the words to speak. If Beth died, it would be all on me, because I’d broken the cardinal rule of the vampire community. I’d given myself away, on purpose, without consideration of the consequences. Well, the consequences had followed us to Lake Tahoe.
The dragon lady’s controlling, mental manipulation of Simone was no excuse for what I’d done, but goddammit, she’d had it coming! Okay, I’d gone about it a little heavy-handedly, but I’d always had great luck with intimidation and threats before. I’d forgotten for a minute who I’d been dealing with. I guess the only thing I could do now was try to fix this. And pray to God, for the first time in centuries, that Beth would be okay.
A/N: Hope this answers some questions but still leaves you with enough to keep reading. Good job to those who predicted Elise was behind the attack. That lady just won’t go away! More soon. Please let me know how I’m doing ;).