Midnight Secrets Read online

  Pressing into the doe’s mind, Simon calmed her enough to approach. He bent his knees, and allowed Madison to slide off his back. “There, about twenty feet in front of us.”

  “It’s a fawn,” Madison breathed, slowly stepping forward.

  Simon willed the mother to remain calm while Madison crept ever closer to the helpless fawn and lowered to her knees. “Hi, little one.”

  She eased her arms around the tiny creature and pulled it gently into her arms. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.”

  Listening to Madison softly croon to the spotted fawn sent Simon’s heart racing. The fiery-haired, sarcastic female had definitely gotten under his skin.

  He moved to kneel next to Madison. “I ran across them earlier this morning.”

  Madison gently stroked the fawn’s back. “You didn’t hurt the mother?”

  “Of course not. I’m a vampire, Madison, not a monster.” It bothered him that Madison thought so little of him.

  She glanced over at him. “That’s a matter of opinion.”

  “Why do you despise me so much?”

  His question obviously surprised her if the look on her face were any indication. “I don’t despise you. I just don’t approve of some of your tactics.”

  Simon supposed he deserved that. “I can’t argue with you there. I’ve done things I’m not proud of; things that I can never undo.” He dropped heavily to his ass and propped his elbows on his bent knees.

  “Then why did you do them?”

  Simon shrugged, unsure of how to respond. He glanced away before meeting her gaze once more. “I’m over two thousand years old, Madison. I wasn’t born this way. I had a family once; a wife and a son.”

  Madison’s eyes grew huge in her face. Her arms fell away from the fawn. She didn’t seem to notice when it trotted off in the direction of its mother. “What happened to them?”

  Releasing his mental hold on the doe, Simon allowed his mind to travel back in time; back to a small village in Rome where he’d spent the first thirty-five years of his life.

  He had been working the fields when he’d sensed an impending storm. The skies had grown dark and the hour late. Still, he’d worked. His family’s survival depended on the crop Simon yielded. If he’d only returned home an hour earlier…

  “Simon?”

  Realizing that Madison expected an answer, Simon cleared his throat and got to his feet. “They were killed.”

  Madison stood as well, reaching for his arm as he moved to turn away. “Simon, I’m sorry.”

  He stared down at the hand resting on his forearm, and then gave Madison his back once more. “We should return.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Madison stepped over the threshold of Roman’s small house in the woods, grateful for the warmth of the coals smoldering in the fireplace. She couldn’t get Simon’s confession out of her head.

  She trailed over to the hearth and added more wood to the dying flames. How had his wife and child died? He’d said they were killed; but how and by whom? Dozens of unanswered questions invaded her mind, swirling through her psyche in a whirlwind of chaos.

  Simon locked the door and strode through the room to disappear down the hall.

  Should she go after him or leave him be? Perhaps he needed time alone after she’d stirred his painful memories to life? Madison decided to follow him. She would simply check on him, and if he desired to be alone, she would give him his space.

  “May I come in?” She’d stopped outside the only closed door in the hallway. “Simon?”

  Silence. She gripped the knob and slowly turned it. “Simon?”

  “I’ll be out in a minute.”

  Madison hesitated. Something in his voice sounded off. She eased the door open and poked her head inside the room.

  Simon stood with his back to her, his hands resting on the wall on either side of the window he stared out.

  He stiffened when she stepped into the room. “That’s far enough.”

  “I’m sorry for what I said. If I had known it would bring up unpleasant memories, I—”

  “Unpleasant?” He turned to face her, laughing without humor. “They died in a way no human being should ever have to endure.”

  Madison swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat, stepping farther into the room. “Tell me what happened to them.”

  Simon stared back at her so long, she was beginning to regret her decision to seek him out. And then he spoke, softly at first, his voice growing in strength. “I haven’t thought about that night in years. I’ve always heard that time heals all wounds, and I suppose it does to a certain degree. But two thousand years later, and I can still see my son’s lifeless eyes staring back at me from his crib.”

  Horrified by what Simon had revealed, Madison took a seat on the side of an old bed that occupied the room and fought back the emotion threatening to choke her.

  Simon ran a hand down his face, lowering his weight next to her on the bed. “It was just after dark when I arrived home from the fields. I knew something was wrong the moment I rounded the stables.”

  Madison listened intently, her mind attempting to visualize the scene Simon laid out before her.

  “I heard a sound coming from the house,” he continued in a wooden voice. “It reminded me of an injured sheep I’d once rescued from a trap. I began to run. The closer I got to the house, the fainter the sound became. I burst through the door to find my wife’s nude body, pinned to the kitchen table by four men. She’d been assaulted, defiled, and stabbed multiple times. Our son lay in his crib, not six feet away, his eyes open and lifeless.”

  A shudder passed through Simon’s tall frame. “I don’t remember much of what happened after that. I awoke a few nights later, lying in a pool of my wife’s blood…and no one to explain to me what I’d become.”

  “What you’d become?”

  He rubbed his palms up and down his cotton covered thighs, continuing his story as if Madison hadn’t spoken. “That’s when I met Svetlana. She appeared shortly after with a gift.”

  “A gift?” Madison quietly interjected.

  Simon didn’t answer right away. “Yeah. Dinner, if you will.”

  “Oh…”

  “I wouldn’t do it. Not right then at any rate. But the longer I resisted, the stronger the thirst grew…until I became powerless to stop it. Once I had a taste of human blood, there was no turning back.”

  Madison studied his profile. “When you say there was no turning back, do you mean you had a choice?”

  Simon nodded. “I could have walked out into the sunlight and ended it all.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “I wasn’t ready to die. At least not until I found the men who had taken my wife and son from me.”

  Madison’s mouth fell open. “But I thought Svetlana was responsible for their deaths.”

  “She was, but I didn’t know that at the time. She confessed one night while she fed from me.”

  Unable to comprehend the horror of Simon’s story, Madison could only watch him in wide-eyed disbelief.

  Simon continued. “Rage, unlike any I’d ever known, came over me. I attacked her, I even injured her, but I couldn’t kill her. She laughed this hideous sound and informed me that one cannot destroy their maker. I still hear that laugh in my dreams.”

  Madison couldn’t prevent herself from touching him if she’d wanted to. She rested her palm over the back of his hand. “Svetlana sent those men to your home.” It wasn’t a question.

  Simon turned his hand over and interlocked their fingers. “She did.”

  “But why? I mean, I know she’s a sadistic bitch, but why go into a home and kill an innocent child?”

  “She wanted me,” Simon simply said.

  Madison stared at Simon’s handsome profile, attempting to understand what the female vampire saw in him that made her crazy.

  He turned to face her just then, and blasted her with those baby blue’s. Yeah, Madison saw it then. Damn me…<
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  Chapter Seventeen

  Simon recognized the pity swimming in Madison’s eyes. But he saw something else in their depths as well. Attraction. Though she would likely deny it.

  He couldn’t believe he’d opened up and revealed his past to her. The death of his wife and child was something he’d never talked about with anyone other than Roman.

  “I get it now,” Madison murmured, interrupting his train of thought.

  “What’s that?”

  She held his gaze. “Why you wanted Lydia so bad.”

  Simon ran his thumb across Madison’s knuckles. “I never wanted Lydia. I needed her blood to defeat Svetlana.”

  “I know that now. And after what I’ve learned over the past hour, I can’t say that I blame you.”

  Simon looked away. “Don’t make me out to be some saint. I’ve done my share of unmentionables. I’m also the cause of Laya’s death.”

  Madison tugged on his hand, forcing him to meet her gaze once more. “I know about Laya. Lydia told me everything. You didn’t change her, Simon. Svetlana did.”

  “Had I not taken her to begin with, she would have never found herself on Svetlana’s radar.”

  “Did you love her?”

  Madison’s question caught him off guard. “Laya?”

  “Yes.”

  Simon shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong, she was certainly beautiful. But I had lost my wife and son. I was…”

  “Grieving,” Madison finished for him.

  Simon stared into Madison’s whiskey-colored eyes. “My wife’s name was Elenore.”

  “And your son?”

  “James.” Simon hadn’t spoken his son’s name in centuries. It felt strange to say it aloud. “I can no longer recall their faces while they lived…only the frozen expressions of their deaths.”

  Madison leaned in closer. “It’s been over two thousand years. That’s a long time. Even for a vampire.”

  Simon’s gaze lowered to her mouth. He watched her speak, mesmerized by her soft, pink lips. “Too long.”

  She slowly inched forward. “If you had it to do all over again, would you have walked out into that sun?”

  Instead of answering, Simon asked a question of his own. “If it happened to you, would you choose death over eternal life?”

  Something flickered in her eyes. “Probably.”

  Simon’s stomach clenched at her words. She had just admitted that she’d rather die than to be like him. Not that he blamed her. If given a choice, he wouldn’t have chosen the Dark Gift either.

  They stared at each other for long moments, moving ever closer on that bed.

  Her breath fanned his face. He could hear her heartrate increase with every inch that brought them closer together.

  “Madison…” His lips brushed across hers, gently at first.

  She sighed against his mouth, melting against him with a hesitant surrender.

  Simon was lost.

  “Well isn’t this precious.”

  Simon jerked back and was on his feet in an instant. He inserted himself between Madison and the owner of that hideous voice. He’d been so caught up in Madison, he hadn’t felt or heard his maker’s presence.

  Svetlana’s eyes glowed red in the darkened room. “You think to shield the redhaired bitch from me?” Three more vampires suddenly appeared behind her.

  Simon’s fangs shot down. “How did you find me?”

  “Did you really think I wouldn’t know about this place? You’re even more naïve than I thought.” She blurred her way deeper into the room, coming to stop directly in front of Simon.

  Thought Simon could feel Madison’s fear, it didn’t stop her from surging to her feet. She attempted to step up next to him, but he blocked her with his larger form.

  “She’s a brave little thing,” Svetlana crooned, the smell of roses wafting from her. “Stupid, but brave nonetheless.”

  Simon faced Svetlana, daring her to touch one hair on Madison’s head. “Leave her be. It’s me that you want.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Svetlana remarked, amusement lining her voice. “I grow rather weary of your games. I bet your little plaything tastes just like a peach. Not that I would know what a peach tastes like, but I’ve often imagined it.”

  A growl vibrated in Simon’s chest. “If you touch her, you will never—”

  Pain, unlike anything he’d felt before, slammed into him. His legs buckled beneath him and he dropped to his knees on the floor. Still, he held Svetlana’s gaze. “I swear to the God who has forsaken me that I will find a way to destroy you if you harm her. Let her go, Svetlana.”

  And then Madison did the unthinkable. She placed her body between Svetlana and Simon and shoved the female vampire back a step. “Leave him alone!”

  “Madison,” Simon ground out, fighting to no avail with everything he had to break Svetlana’s hold on him.

  Madison didn’t look at him, she merely stood there, her feet planted apart, facing off with one of the most powerful vampires in the world. “Screw you, Slutlana.”

  Svetlana’s laughter filled the air, sending nausea rolling through Simon’s gut. She reached out, gripped Madison by the throat and lifted her off the floor. “I could kill you without the slightest effort, you twat. But I won’t. I have something much better in mind for you.”

  Svetlana tossed Madison into the arms of one of the vampires behind her. “Hold her.”

  Simon could only watch helplessly as the vampire manhandled Madison.

  “You will regret this,” Simon sneered, shifting his attention back to Svetlana. “No matter how long it takes, I will send you straight to hell.”

  Svetlana dropped to her haunches before him and leaned in close. “Then I guess I better make the best of what time I have left.” She ran her tongue across his lower lip. “Starting with tonight.”

  She pushed to her feet and turned to face Madison. “But first, I think I’ll sample the goods.”

  Simon fought with everything he had to get up off his knees, but Svetlana’s persuasion was far too strong. She drew back her hand and slapped Madison across the face with enough force to render her unconscious. Her head slumped forward.

  Svetlana had Madison by the hair, her head jerked to the side and her fangs buried in her neck in less than a second.

  Simon roared in denial.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Madison’s eyes fluttered open to a room full of darkness. She tested her legs, feeling around with her hands to gauge her surroundings. She was on a bed of sorts.

  A subtle sound caught her attention, so faint she couldn’t place its origin. She held completely still, closing her eyes to feign sleep.

  The noise came again, followed by the soft glow of a light. “I know you’re awake.”

  Madison opened her eyes and blinked up into the face of a young male vampire. He held a tray of food in his hands. “You are to eat this.”

  He set the tray on a small table near the cot she lay on and disappeared, the clink of a door closing behind him.

  Madison attempted to sit up, but her body felt sluggish and weak. She scanned her surroundings to find she’d been locked in a silver cage.

  Panic threatened, but she held it back. The last thing she needed was to lose control. She had to think.

  An image of Svetlana forcing Simon to the floor skated through her mind. The evil monster had Simon.

  Pushing herself to a sitting position, Madison waited for the nausea to pass and lifted trembling fingers to her neck. She’d been bitten.

  Another door opened across the room and Svetlana’s face appeared in the dim light. “I was told that you were awake.”

  She stepped into the room, a behemoth of a man tight on her heels.

  “You haven’t touched your food.” Svetlana nodded for the giant to unlock Madison’s cage.

  Madison struggled to her feet as soon as her cage door opened. “Where is Simon?”

  “I should think you’d be more concerned with your own fa
te.”

  “Answer me,” Madison bit out.

  A malicious smile split Svetlana’s lips. “He’s chained to my bed where he belongs.”

  Madison’s stomach tightened. “The only one who needs to be on a chain is you.”

  Svetlana was instantly in her face. “You are alive because of me, and if you think to remain that way, I suggest you keep your tongue behind your teeth.”

  “He doesn’t want you,” Madison taunted. “He despises you for what you did. You’ll never win his love after murdering his wife and child. So why don’t you move the hell on?”

  Svetlana moved so fast Madison didn’t have time to react. A scream trapped in her throat with the feel of Svetlana’s fangs penetrating her neck. Madison’s body abruptly went limp, and any fight she had in her left with Svetlana’s mental invasion.

  Madison wasn’t sure how much time had passed when the vampire suddenly released her. Her knees buckled, leaving her no choice but to fall unceremoniously onto the cot.

  “Simply delicious,” Svetlana remarked, lifting a finger to wipe a smear of blood from the corner of her mouth. “It’s easy to see what Simon sees in you. Your blood is like ambrosia.”

  Madison wanted to point out that Simon had never taken her blood, but her lips didn’t seem to work. She lay there, in a haze of disgust, unable to move.

  Svetlana laughed and released her hold on Madison’s mind. “Now, eat. I will be back tomorrow to feed.”

  “Fuck you,” Madison wheezed through clenched teeth.

  Svetlana stepped from the cage and waited for the giant to lock it behind her. “That, my dear, is Simon’s job. One he does well, I might add. I have an hour before the sun rises; an hour of pleasure in Le Blanc’s arms.”

  She blurred her way from the room before Madison could respond.

  A feeling of despair engulfed Madison, bringing with it tears of rage. She’d been mentally raped by the female vampire, forced to endure her touch while she took her life’s blood against her will.

  What were Svetlana’s plans for her? Did she think to slowly drain her and then turn her into one of them? Madison would rather die than be owned by that psychopath.