Chapter 25
Chapter twenty-five
It was the first time I’d been in Dottie’s apartment above the bookshop, but it was as cozy and inviting as the shop itself and just as eclectic. I sat at her little round wooden table in the kitchen, gripping a mug of tea she’d prepared, letting it warm my cold fingers.
“Drink your tea, honey,” she urged softly, joining me at the table with a cup of her own and a plate of cookies. “It’ll help you feel so much better. It’s my own special blend of herbal teas. I’ve used it for years to calm my nerves.”
I dutifully took a sip and gave her a shaky smile. “Thank you, Dottie. I’m so sorry to intrude on you like this.”
“Don’t you fret over it,” she assured me, patting my arm. “I’d hoped you would come to me.”
I took another sip of tea. It really was as delicious and soothing as Dottie had promised. “What do you mean?”
I peeked out of the kitchen to the red velvet couch where Henry lay on his stomach, sleeping soundly. My poor baby. He was so emotionally exhausted, he’d fallen fast asleep within minutes of finishing the hot chocolate Dottie had made for him.
“Well,” she said, “you seemed so distraught when you left earlier. I was worried about you, honey.”
I experienced such a powerful surge of gratitude and relief that I nearly allowed my barely restrained tears to start flowing again. “Thank you, Dottie. I didn’t know where else to go.”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened,” she suggested. “That might help.”
I started to tell her she wouldn’t believe me but reminded myself that she’d been the one to show me the photo album, so she’d had to have at least suspected something was going on at Dawes House.
So, I told her everything. From the ghostly intruder at our previous house to the full story of the intruders at Dawes House to the attempted assault on Henry and me by our supposed “family” to my conflicted emotions about Whit’s betrayal and my love for him.
Dottie listened, making no comment, taking it all in stride. When I finished my story and my tea, Dottie took my mug and set it in the sink before returning and taking my hand. “You poor dear,” she said, her voice soft, hypnotic. “Why don’t you come into the living room to get some rest?”
Rest? I wasn’t sure I could ever rest again after what had happened!
And I needed to go back for Whit as I’d promised Henry.
But I didn’t know what to do, who to call.
If I called the police, would they believe me that anything had happened?
They hadn’t seemed too concerned when I’d called about Kitty and look how that had panned out.
Still, I had to do something. “Thanks, Dottie,” I told her. “But I have to go. I can’t leave Whit there. God knows what will happen to him.”
Dottie nodded. “I understand,” she said. “There was a man I loved like that. I still do. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him. Or him for me.”
I gave her a grateful smile for understanding and stood up to tell Henry where I was going, but the room started spinning. I gripped the table to steady myself, grateful Dottie grabbed my arm to keep me from falling.
“What the hell?” I mumbled.
I tried to take a step, but my legs were like lead weights, and I collapsed back into the chair. I blinked several times, trying to clear my blurry vision, keep everything in the room from distorting cartoonishly. It reminded me of when I’d had too much of Junior’s elderberry wine.
I turned my eyes to Dottie, her face swimming before me. “What did you give me?”
I tried again to get up, determined to get the hell out of there, but fell against the table, nearly knocking it over.
“What’s happening to me?” I demanded.
Dottie grinned. “You’re becoming, honey.”
I stared at her, trying to make sense of what she was saying. “Becoming what?”
Dottie put her arm around me and gave me a squeeze. “Everything you were meant to be.”
Fear shot through my veins. I launched myself from the table and took several stumbling steps out of the kitchen toward Henry, groping along the wall, using it for support to stay upright.
“There’s nowhere to go, Zellie, honey,” she called after me. “There’s more to the family than just what lives at Dawes House.”
Running out of wall, I launched myself toward Henry, but tripped over my own feet, my legs suddenly going numb, and landed sprawled out on Dottie’s Persian rug.
I tried to get up, my will to reach my son, to save him from Dottie’s betrayal, giving me enough adrenaline to drag myself forward a few feet before I collapsed again.
I stretched out a hand toward him, willing my arm to work, but it flopped onto the floor, useless. “Henry,” I called, but my voice was faint, hardly a whisper.
Dottie’s face appeared before me. Now on her hands and knees, she bent forward to look into my eyes.
“I knew I could count on Pearlie and June to try to make you one of us when they realized what was happening between you and Whit,” she said, her grin triumphant.
“They’ve always been so dedicated to keeping the line going.
Clearly, they’ve been prepping your system for all these months.
I’m just speeding things along, honey. Don’t fight the transformation when it’s offered, Zellie.
It’ll be better for both you and Henry if you just accept it. They’ll only offer once.”
Transformation? What the fuck?
I wanted to scream at her, demand she tell me what the hell she was talking about, but I could no longer speak.
“I’m sorry, honey,” Dottie said, gently wiping away the single tear that slid along my cheek toward my nose.
“I truly am. But they have to die for what they did to my sister. I allowed myself to become part of the family and so did my lover, just to wait until the perfect moment. You see, if I were to do it, I’d be hated, hunted, and then where would I be?
I’ve tried to get others to avenge Alice’s death for me, but they just didn’t possess the talents you do.
Or the connection to Whit. Who knew that would be the key to their undoing? ”
I narrowed my eyes at her, hoping she could see how furious I was.
She just smiled and patted my cheek. “Yes, that’s it, honey,” she encouraged.
“Use that hatred and rage. You’re going to need it.
You can do this. I have faith in you. Oh, you might not be able to get them all, but any will do.
You’re a good mama, Zellie. I know you’ll do whatever you have to do to protect Henry.
Whit has already removed June for you, so that’s one less to worry about.
Isn’t that nice? Just take out as many of them as you can for me before they kill you. ”
“Dottie, darlin’, we should go.”
That voice. I recognized it.
“We don’t want to be here when they arrive.”
I gasped, suddenly realizing who Dottie’s lover was.
Carter Dean. Dottie had been the woman on his arm in the wedding photo!
“Help me,” I tried to cry out, hoping perhaps Mr. Dean would put an end to this madness and be a voice of reason, assure Dottie that she was only leaving Henry and me to the mercy of the very monsters she despised.
But before I could plead with him to help us, my world went dark.
The voices sounded muffled, far away. But I was still cautious when I opened my eyes just enough to see without alerting anyone that I was awake. I was in a basement. But not at Dawes House.
The carriage house? Some other property entirely?
I moved my eyes ever so slightly, searching for Henry. He lay on a low table or bench that was draped with a black cloth, still asleep from what Dottie had given him or newly dosed with something from our captors.
The room was dim, lit only by flickering candlelight that cast dancing shadows upon elaborate tapestries covering the walls.
And then I saw them. Several people dressed in crimson robes, standing in a circle across from me.
Candelabras like what I’d seen in my dream of Chase and Merilee were arranged around the edges of the room.
Oh, God.
As my brain came back online, my thoughts began to race, searching for a way to grab Henry and escape before they noticed I was awake.
But before I could react, someone grabbed my elbow and dragged me to my feet, clamping my wrists in manacles that hung from a beam. I struggled to get away, pulling against the heavy iron restraints. When that didn’t work, I kicked out at the person who stood before me, nailing him in the crotch.
He cursed and pulled back his hood, his eyes blazing with fury as he took hold of my throat.
Chase.
“Not yet, baby,” Merilee called out, interrupting what most likely would’ve been my crushed windpipe.
He cursed again and shoved me away before stepping aside, revealing Merilee in her crimson robe, sitting on the bench where I’d seen Henry. She now held him on her lap, cradling him against her as she rocked gently.
She grinned at me. “Welcome back, Zellie-girl. We were worried you might miss everything. But don’t worry—you woke up just in time.”
“Please, Merilee,” I pleaded, tears in my voice. “Please just let Henry go. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Chase gripped my face in his punishing grasp, his laughter filling me with terror. “Let him go?” he repeated. “Why, Zellie, he’s one of us. Seems my clever cousin hid him from us all these years.”
“Oh, don’t you worry, Zellie,” Merilee said, her grin widening to reveal her maw of fangs. She kissed Henry on the top of his head, then added, “We’ll take good care of your sweet boy. Raise him right.”
Furious at the thought of these assholes raising my son, warping him into a monster, I renewed my struggle against the manacles, punctuating my struggles with a guttural scream of frustration when they failed to give.
Chase’s cruel laughter crept along my skin, making the hair stand on end.
“That’s enough.”
Pearlie.
Pearlie nodded toward stairs across the room. “Take Henry to Netty, Merilee. We can manage.”
“No!” I screamed, twisting and pulling against my restraints as Merilee climb the steps. “Please! Merilee!”