“Of course he wouldn’t know that!” Frank raged in indignation. “He only acknowledged my presence when he needed something from me. He was so wrapped up in his life that he never noticed…”

“Never noticed what?” Tobias bellowed.

Frank’s face contorted with disdain. He paced himself as he slowly turned to his nemesis. “I wanted your pain to match what I felt whenever I thought of Nicolette in your arms. You’re a monster. You never knew how I really felt about Nicki.”

Tobias laughed at the crazed man. “And that was-what? You loved her? Everyone loved her. You were like a brother to her, nothing more.”

“Laroque was more, though, wasn’t he?”

Jade’s tone was softer as she spoke. “Tobias, it went deeper than that. Frank was obsessed with her. And part of that obsession involved pitting you against Philippe. My father is a powerful bokur, but his magick couldn’t make my mother love him. Frank appeared with a spell from a novice fae and some powder. According to Charlene, my father preformed the incantation. Only you never told him it wasn’t permanent, did you, Frank? The spell magnified my mother’s feelings toward my father. It took the smallest bit of attraction she had for my father and amplified it. At Mardi Gras they conceived me.Frank convinced Maman to tell you she was raped because he hated you both-my father and you-the only two men my mother ever gave herself to freely, more or less. Isn’t that correct?”

Frank’s face turned pale. “Yes,” he spat.

“Frank would report to my father how happy she was and that she had told you, Tobias, it was your baby she was carrying. But you knew the truth. Frank needed for you to know the truth so that your hatred would grow, and it did. As my mother’s belly grew with me inside, your hatred took over. That is, until her love for you assuaged the hurt. You two were expecting another child soon after I was born. She wanted to have many children with you, Tobias. She promised to bear you many offspring. She wanted a part of you always inside of her. Her love for you was immeasurable.”

“Unfortunately, people break their promises all the time,” Tobias muttered.

“She didn’t break her promise. She was pregnant with your baby when she was killed.”

Tobias’s world was rocked, and the mighty vampire was brought to his knees. He steadied himself against the armchair next to where Jade sat. She took her leather bag and pulled out a document, handing it to Tobias while eyeing Frank with a malevolent stare.

Tobias noticed a change in her. However, he could not fully focus as he read the autopsy report over and over. Decedent approximately six weeks pregnant. Tobias went limp as he fought back the tears that threatened to overtake him.

Jade went on. Her voice cut through the air like a machete. “There was a conspiracy between Frank and the M.E. in New Orleans to keep that and other information secret. Who was that M.E., Frank?”

Frank remained quiet.

“You forgot your own brother, Darryl?” Her voice echoed malignantly throughout the room. “Different last names-different fathers, same mother? I hate to be the one to tell you, Tobias, but your ‘friend’ here-the man who helped raise me and Raven-killed our mother! But not before he raped her. And that time, she really was abused.”

Time seemed to stand still. What happened next slowly drew Tobias’s attention. Jade moved with such speed no one had time to react until it was too late. Still, he remained in his seat, weak, as if someone had drained him of all his blood. Tobias gradually focused on what was materializing on the other side of the maple desk in Frank’s office.

Tobias thought he was seeing things.

“Nicolette…” he whispered.

Jade’s eyes grew paler until they were the color of her precious namesake, and her mouth bore fangs. “You’re going to wish Tobias had killed you,” she muttered as she sank her teeth into Frank’s flesh. She grabbed a handful of cottony hair and wrenched his head back.

As she drank, she saw it all.

Her mother was so happy, bouncing Jade on her lap as Raven played in the backyard, when she noticed Frank walking through the gate.

Tobias had just purchased their new house, which rested on a cliff and was recently fenced in for the children’s safety. The yard was their sanctuary.

“Come on inside, Frank,” Nicolette said, taking her daughters in for their naps. She returned from the girls’ bedrooms, a smile on her face.

And Jade took in more blood.

Frank and Nicolette sat at the kitchen table. Nicolette poured some iced tea into two glasses.

“You’re glowing,” Frank said. “Is it because you’re happy to see me?”

“I’m always happy to see you, but no…I’m pregnant.” Jade’s mother was absolutely radiant.

“Whose baby?” Frank coldly asked.

Jade experienced her mother’s hurt feelings as she dug her teeth further into his neck. He tried to grab onto her, but she was too angry, too powerful. She worked hard at portraying the weak little bastard child. In the past, she could not afford for anyone to know the extent of her strength.

“Tobias’s baby, you idiot,” Nicolette said.

“I’m sorry. That was mean.”

Frank got up from the kitchen table. He embraced Nicolette. He held her so close, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Did you tell him?”

“You’re the first to know.”

Frank held her. He kissed her cheek. “That’s great news. Congratulations!”

“Thank you, Frank.”

He held her still.

He kissed her neck and slid his hands down to her perfectly rounded butt. He squeezed, and then slipped his hands between her legs. Those long legs.

He was hard, and she felt it.

“Frank! Stop!” She tried to pull away.

Jade sucked harder.

Frank dragged Nicolette to the sofa in the next room. She kicked at his shins, squirming unsuccessfully while he kissed her neck. Ripping her blouse open, he saw she wasn’t wearing a bra. A deep moan escaped him as his eyes drank in her beauty. Nicolette slapped him hard across his cheek. He grabbed her wrist and held it forcefully.

“You always look so sexy when you’re pregnant,” he whispered.

He suckled each breast as she pounded her fist against the side of his head. Frank grasped both hands.

“What are you doing? You’re hurting me!” she cried.

“Sshh, you don’t want to wake up those precious little babies. They’d be traumatized for life seeing their momma…in this position,” he taunted.

She lunged forward attempting to knock her forehead against his nose, but he quickly dodged her.

“Come on, Nicki, you know what I’m doing. You’ve fucked a few men in your day. Why not me? You’ve always denied me.”

He lifted her skirt, tore her panties off and rubbed himself against her, moaning with pleasure. He was finally going to have her, and nothing was going to stop him. She scratched at his face as he pulled down his trousers.

“Don’t make me hit you,” he warned, his voice abruptly turning frosty.

She tried to knee him in the groin, but he had her pinned down. She was tall and slender, but no match for Frank’s big, muscular and determined body.

She didn’t have a chance.

“I have loved you for so long, chéri. Now, it’s my turn to have you.”

“Frank, please, no!” she begged, but that only fueled his passion. She squirmed beneath him, trying to break free. Her gaze swept across the room as she looked around for anything she could get her hands on to knock him out.

All Jade heard now was her mother’s sobs. All she felt was agony. She didn’t need to see her raped.