Top Secret Vampire (Monsters, PI #4)

24. Wolfram

Chapter 24

Wolfram

I ’d told her she was my true mate, but I could not hold this information back. It would be wrong to keep sliding into her bed and claiming her body without her being fully aware of what else I might one day ask of her.

“What does that mean?” she asked, her expression guarded. “This is . . . a lot.” She snuggled closer, which somewhat reassured me. I wouldn’t be the first vampire to lose his true mate when they couldn’t deal with everything involved with being a born vampire and chose instead to walk away.

Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I kissed the top of her head. “When a vampire meets their true mate, their heart starts beating.”

“Beating?” She crawled into my lap, facing me, a gesture that sent such a profound feeling of relief through me that my hands shook. She looked up at me, her face open, though with a hint of reserve in her eyes. Leaning her ear against my chest, she listened. “It’s steady and loud ,” she finally said, looking up at me again. “You’re telling me it wasn’t beating until you met me?”

“It was not.”

Her smile bloomed. “Was that why you dropped to your knees?”

I nodded gravely.

“I know you’re not making this up to get into my pants, because you’ve already been there.” She shook her head. “This is stunning. Are true mates something like soul mates?”

“Yes.”

“And it can happen when a vampire meets a human, not just another vampire?”

I dipped my head forward in agreement. “True mates are rare. Born vampires can marry and have children. They don’t need a true mate bond for that. But for a human to be part of a vampire child’s creation, they must be a vampire’s true mate.” I took her hand and pressed her palm against my chest. “That’s you for me, Reese. Only you.”

“We met such a short time ago.”

I understood why she could have reservations. This was a lot to deal with all at once. “How long does it take for someone to know that another is their perfect match?”

“Not long for some but look at our divorce rate.”

“True mates never part. They don’t want to. They live for each other.”

“It sounds amazing.” Looking up at me, she nibbled on her lower lip. “I’ll think long and hard about this before deciding what I want to do.”

“Take the time you need to decide. A week from now. Ten years from now. On your deathbed, if you choose. I’m here for you for as long as you want me in your life.”

“Forever, Wolf. I’m beginning to think I want forever.”

I placed my fingertip on her lips, sealing them closed. “No rush.”

She nodded and snuggled closer. “We need to find out who’s stalking me and end it so you and I can get to know each other better.”

I wrapped my arms tighter around her. “Soon, mate. Soon.”

Later, we sat together in the living room, her with her laptop open on her thighs, studying her social media pages, me scrolling through the web to see if I could discover something that might lead me to her stalker. I wasn’t having any luck, and frustration snarled through me.

“My readers seem to believe me when I told them I was hacked.” Reese frowned at her computer screen. “As I said, some authors will behave in a horrible way and ruin their career, only to say they were hacked and someone else did it. My readers have been incredibly supportive. This is the side benefit of regular interaction with them on social media. It can be a time-suck, but it’s incredibly rewarding. I love my readers. They’re the best.” With a sunny smile, she closed her laptop and set it on the coffee table, tugging the historical society book out from beneath it. “I wonder what I can discover about Jolene.”

I entered yet another forum, this one started by a group of hunters living in the area. I didn’t expect to find anything here other than a bit of random gossip. Solving a mystery like this one took patience and a knack for finding the equivalent of one puzzle piece after another and slowly putting them into place until I’d completed the full image.

“This is . . .” Reese looked up at me. “I can’t believe Margeret didn’t tell me what the book was. I thought maybe it contained information about the community back when Jolene was alive, but it’s . . .” She gusted out a breath. “This is her diary.”

“What?” That caught my attention. Tired of reading about the number of turkeys one of the hunters recommended to last a family through a winter, plus another’s comment about how many points the buck he’d shot had, I closed my phone and set it on the table by her laptop. “She said she hadn’t looked through the books that came from her adopted mother’s estate.”

“She may have only glanced at it long enough to see it belonged to Jolene. Her eyesight isn’t good. It must take forever to go through donated books.” She flipped quickly through the small book. “It doesn’t look like Jolene kept it for long, however. About a year or so, I’d say.”

“Perhaps because she died. What does it say?” I asked.

Rising, Reese turned on another light and sunk down beside me again. “The writing is tiny and in cursive, and it looks like the book got wet at one time, because some of the ink is smeared and unreadable. But I’ll see what I can make out.” She started reading. “I love him, but no one must ever know.” Reese lifted her head. “A husband?”

“She wasn’t married, was she?”

“Not from what I heard. Thain said the doll belonged to her daughter. A woman doesn’t need to be married to have a child, however.” She returned to the book, squinting as she read, slowly gliding her fingertip down the page. “We meet each night and walk along the beach. Oh, how I wish we could be together.” Reese’s grumbling huff rang out. “I can’t make out this part.” She turned the page. Another. “He says if I’m patient, we will finally be together. My love. What joy he brings me. If only . . . But no. I must not give up hope. His treasured promises and sweet kisses keep me going.”

I shifted on the sofa to watch her face as she read.

“Aw,” Reese said. “She was in love. I hope he was a good guy like you.”

My smile curled up on one side. “Many would not agree with you on that.”

“Because they don’t know the real you like I do.” She rose up onto her knees and held my shoulder with one hand, the book with the other, and gave me a quick kiss on the nose before retaking her seat. “His mother has forbidden him from seeing me. We don’t know how she found out. Did she have him followed? She says, I’m sad. My love. The only one I’ll ever adore. What will I do now that I can no longer see him? My heart is breaking.”

“Families could be strict back then. But she owned this home. The doll was expensive. She must’ve had some means. Unless there was a scandal, most mothers would’ve seen her as a fine catch for her son.”

“You’re right. I wonder if it was something like that.” With a sigh, she studied the book again. “It looks like months have passed.” Her voice echoed in the quiet room. “I encountered his mother this morning while at the general store, and she slighted me. I’m not surprised, though I’ll admit I was hurt. In this country, we are all equal, or so my mother told me on many occasions. But my poor, sweet, departed mother’s past is a subject of gossip, and his mother is quite strict about propriety.” She looked up. “There it is. Her mother made Jolene a pariah in the community for some reason.” She returned to the diary. “His mother had the nerve to tell me to behave and know my place. I know my place and it’s with him!”

Reese flipped through page after page that she couldn’t make out, finally arriving at a date months after the last entry. “He still comes to my house to see me. We sit on the back porch overlooking the sea. We hide , and oh, the shame of it. We deserve much more, but it seems there’s no way through this for us, and that breaks my heart. He tells me it doesn’t matter, that he’ll love me forever, and I believe him. No one is as devoted as him.”

“I hope he didn’t hurt her,” I said.

“Yeah.” She squinted in the light, sharing more. “Now that my father has departed to a better place, and I’ve inherited the house, I have some standing in this community. He tells me to remain patient, that we’ll soon be together forever, but I worry all the time. What if she finds a way to keep us apart? And now the situation has changed, and we must act soon, or everyone will know.” Reese looked up at me. “I think she’s . . .” Leaning forward, she studied the swirling letters on the page. “We’ll have to decide if we’re going to run away soon, or it will come out. My poor child will be born and me an unwed woman. I’ll never live down the scandal.”

“She’s pregnant,” I said.

“Well, he kept visiting her, and they loved each other very much. There wasn’t much protection back then.” She skimmed some more. “She’s putting up food, canning and buying dried meat and grains. Beans. Preparing to hide inside her house for many months to keep anyone from finding out, all because she doesn’t want to bring shame to him or his family. Those who shun her! I feel bad for Jolene. It’s funny how, even now, the woman is shamed for having sex but it’s okay for the man.” A few moments later, her breath caught. “Listen to this.” Her voice lightened. “He came to me last night, and we traveled three towns away and secretly married. Let his mother stew on that! Aw, this is good news.” Reese’s frown bloomed. “Oh, maybe not good news, because she died on the property, and no one seems to know she was married, let alone that they had a daughter.”

“What else does her diary say?”

“That he went to his mother and told her they’d married. That his mother was angry. She made threats to both him and Jolene. Such a nasty creature. They decided to run away, to leave town and disappear forever, to seek a place where no one would ever find them. Once they had a safe place to live, she’d have a solicitor sell this house and send her the money. Then she could be with her love, and they’d share a new life together.”

“That didn’t happen.”

“Sadly, no. Oh, here it says that she packed everything she could inside her Ford, including the china doll she bought for a possible daughter. She saw it in the general store and couldn’t resist, though her husband enjoyed teasing her that they would have a son. After that, she would have her daughter as well.” Reese looked up again. “He seems sweet. I’m glad he wasn’t taking advantage of her.”

“Me too.” All too common during any era. “If she owned a vehicle, she had wealth. I wonder what happened with her mother to bring shame to their family and keep her and her love apart?”

“We may never know, though we could ask Margaret.” Reese read some more. “Oh, no.” She lowered the diary onto her lap and looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “He died. He was on his way to her the night they planned to leave, but it was stormy, and he slipped, falling off the cliff. When he didn’t arrive, she went looking for him and found him dead at the base, his neck broken.”

Poor Jolene. I peered around the room, but didn’t find her ghost nearby, listening. Are you here, my friend? I sent the words out with my mind, but I received no reply. We want to help you. Tell us what you need us to do.

“Jolene brought everything they’d packed back inside her house and decided to remain there until their child was born. After that, she’d sell her home and move, telling those in her new community that she was a widow. She didn’t trust his mother not to do something bad, though she wasn’t worried his mother would physically harm her. She thought of going to his mother, of telling her that they’d married and had a child on the way, but she worried his mother would try to take the baby away, that no judge would give her custody of her own child due to her mother’s scandal.”

“This was common back then. Women were supposed to go from one man’s protection to the next. She was fortunate that she didn’t have any relatives eager to take her inheritance from her, because no court would’ve awarded her the house and any money if it was challenged.”

“At least that’s changed for women. It took forty years or so after Jolene died to bring it about, but women have rights now.” She flipped through the pages some more, but it wasn’t until nearly the end of the book that she could make anything out. “She hints here that her mother needed money to survive, that she slept with men to get by. That her father didn’t care because he loved her.”

“Sad that this is shamed, as if women do this themselves without anyone else’s involvement.”

“Jolene gave birth alone, here inside the house, to a daughter.” Reese’s gaze met mine. “A child no one knew about. I wonder what happened after that? There are no more entries in her diary.”

“I believe Jolene and her child need peace, and we are going to help them find it.”