Anna Strong - Legacy Part 12

I reply: FRIEND OF GLORIA.

Jason's answer comes scrolling back: WOT FRND?

My fingers tap out: SOME1 TRYING 2 HLP HER.

Jason: PRUV IT.

Me: GLORIA HIRED ME.

Jason: 2 DO?

Me: FIND OUT WHO REALLY KILLED YOUR DAD.There is a pause here, so long I break it by typing: JASON, R U STILL THERE?

Finally, I get a response: CAN WE MEET?

Me: THE SOONER THE BETTER.

Jason: NOT 2DAY. 2MORO MORN?

Me: WHR & WEN?

Jason: 9 A.M. LESTAT'S? KNO IT?

The character name I know, any Anne Rice fan would. A place with that name? I type: NO.

Jason replies: COFFEE SHOP. ADAM'S AVE.

A coffee shop named Lestat's? And I'm being invited there? Oh, the irony. I type back: C U @ 9.

I'm ready to log off when one more message comes back: DON'T TELL ANY1.

I have to smile at Jason's dramatic parting shot. I suppose he doesn't want his stepmother to know he's consorting with the enemy.

Which begs the question: why is he?

I'll get the answer tomorrow morning.

My thoughts s.h.i.+ft back suddenly to Sandra. Now that I understand she's the source of this-whatever it is-I have to know how she's doing it. If it's not a spell, what? Power of suggestion? Can she tap into my s.e.xual psyche and feel the hunger? At this moment, the image of her in my head is powerful enough to make me tremble. Is there a way to block those message receptors?

Words from the book spring unbidden: How best to protect yourself from werewolves? Stay away from them.

The office phone rings and I glance at the caller ID. Then at my watch. Yikes. I s.n.a.t.c.h up the receiver, "Sorry, Mom. Time got away from me. I'm on my way."

She laughs. "Good. We're giddy with excitement over here. Our lives are about to change. Your life is about to change. Hurry, Anna. We're waiting for you."

Giddy with excitement? Change my life? My mother is not one for hyperbole but here she is, sounding for all the world like a spokesperson for Publishers Clearing House. Is there a goofy-looking guy with bad hair and a toothy grin holding balloons and a big cardboard check lurking on our front porch?

"You didn't enter a sweepstakes, did you?"

Again, the silver lilt of her laughter. "Better. I'm not going to tell you anything else. You need to come home. Now."

"Okay. On my-"

But she's already rung off.

Weird. Very weird.

CHAPTER 23.

MOM, DAD AND TRISH RUSH OUT OF THE FRONT door and spill down the porch steps like lemmings over a cliff. I've barely gotten out of the car before I'm surrounded. They crackle with excitement. I feel it on my skin. Little electric shocks like static from a light switch.

"Whoa." I hold up both hands. "What's going on?"

Mom recovers first. She puts an arm around Trish's shoulders. "Anna, you won't believe what happened today."

"A lawyer came," Trish interjects, hopping around like an eager puppy.

"With news," my dad adds.

"From France," Mom says.

"We're going to live there," Trish says. "All of us."

"In a chateau," Dad says.

"Oh, Anna," my mom gushes. "It's so wonderful. We've inherited a winery."

A winery?

It takes some doing, but I finally get my family corralled and back up the porch steps and into the house. They never stop babbling.

All three. All at once. I've never seen my parents so animated. Trish? She's jumping up and down.

I scoot them over to the couch and hold up a hand. "Sit."

They do, still chattering like agitated squirrels.

"Quiet."

The prattle dies away, leaving me staring at three glowing faces, bright with expectation and antic.i.p.ation. They're waiting for me to ask questions. I hardly know where to begin.

"You said a lawyer came here? Today?"

They look at each other, and then Dad and Trish both look to Mom, making her the official spokesperson. She takes a deep breath and plunges in.

"Yes. He came to see me first yesterday at school. Asked me some questions. Mostly about my grandmother and her side of the family. I told him she died when I was young and my memories are vague. I gave him her maiden name and her place of birth. He wondered about my mother. I told him she died many years ago and as far as I know, we have no relatives left on that side of the family except us. He asked to make an appointment with your father and me this morning. Said he had some details to check, but he was fairly certain he'd have some good news for us when he saw us again."

She can sit still no longer. She jumps up and starts pacing. "Well, he showed up this morning and presented us with a thick portfolio of doc.u.ments. He went through the papers one by one. There were birth records and death certificates. A family tree. Photos of my grandmother and her mother taken almost a century ago. In France. There's a will. The will of a great uncle I didn't know existed. An uncle who owned a great deal of property in France, including a working winery. An uncle who evidently has no living relatives left to inherit his estate."

She stops pacing, turns to face me, and her face is once again wreathed in as joyful a smile as I've ever seen. "Wait until you see the pictures. It's unbelievably beautiful. There's a chateau on the property and a staff that's worked for the family for decades.

They're waiting to meet us. We can go anytime. It's ours, Anna. All of it."

I was born a cynic, and becoming a vampire didn't temper my natural inclination to distrust anything that looks too good to be true.

If anything, it's worse. So it's hard not to say, "Are you all crazy? People don't inherit property in France out of the blue. It's got to be some kind of scam."

But I can't say it out loud. I don't want to be the one responsible for eradicating the pure joy I see on the faces of the people I love most. It would be like stomping on a kitten.

My dad, who knows me too well, stands up and puts an arm around my shoulders.

"I know what you're thinking," he says. "It's too good to be true. I did my homework. I have business contacts in France, you know. I had them check out the lawyer. He's legitimate. Got a prospectus for the winery. It's well-known. Exports product to the United States. The chateau has been renovated and well maintained. It's fully furnished and staffed. I'm telling you, Anna, there's nothing bogus about this. Sometimes people really do get lucky."

He opens his other arm to Trish and Mom. They join us in a kind of awkward group hug. "I think this calls for a celebration," he says. "Let's get dressed up and go to Mister A's. Champagne on me." He plants a kiss on Trish's forehead. "Ginger ale for you, ma pet.i.te chere."

That does it. Now my father is speaking French? I'm sick. With shock. With apprehension. My father may be right. This might be legitimate. I sincerely hope it is. The realist in me screams there's a better chance it's not.

CHAPTER 24.

I LEAVE MY FAMILY, PROMISING TO JOIN THEM downtown in an hour. I know as I speak the words that I'll not be staying for the celebratory dinner. Once again, too many ways to give away the fact that I'm no longer human. I can fake it when I eat with them at home by taking small helpings and spreading the food around my plate. I've been known to sneak into the kitchen and dump a napkin full down the garbage disposal.

Can't do that in a restaurant. Especially one famous for large quant.i.ties of food, to say nothing of platter-size steaks. It'll be impossible to pretend. I've used the late lunch excuse too many times already to have it sound credible, especially since my mother specifically asked me for dinner tonight. No, better to come up with another reason for leaving before dinner.

d.a.m.n it, David. If you were home the way you should be, I could ask you to call me and say there's a fugitive who needs apprehending. Give me an excuse.

Makes me realize how completely I've cut myself off from the few friends I had before the change. I can think of no one else to call and ask the favor. No one to rescue me.

s.h.i.+t.

When I get back to the cottage, I shower and fluff dry my hair, then stand naked in front of my closet to decide what to wear. My wardrobe is limited. Jeans. Black, navy, tan. A few pairs of linen slacks with matching blazers (court attire). A few skirts, a.s.sorted blouses. One simple silk sheath, black, V-neck, narrow waist accented by a wide belt.

I choose the dress and slip it over my head. It's body hugging and soft against my skin. I have no way of knowing how I look in the dress, I bought it after becoming, but I know how it makes me feel. Slinky. s.e.xy. The skirt is midthigh length. I pair it with a pair of three-inch strappy Jimmy Choos. I bought them because the lady at the shoe store said I had pretty feet and trim ankles and they show them off. The skirt is short and the heels high.

All this for an evening with my folks?

Of course not.

I can't fool myself any more than I can change what I'm feeling. My blood is on fire. This prolonged antic.i.p.ation is almost unbearable. The incongruity of what I'm thinking does nothing to mollify the mounting pa.s.sion.

I make no attempt to understand or explain it. In fact, I can let myself enjoy it. It's been a long time since I've felt this kind of antic.i.p.ation.

My hands skim the contours of my body, the silk cool and liquid and sensuous beneath my fingers.

This dress is for what happens after the evening with my folks.This is for my evening with Sandra.

And since after tonight it will be over, why not enjoy it?

CHAPTER 25.

MISTER A'S OCCUPIES THE TOP FLOOR OF A building on Fifth Avenue. From Thanksgiving to New Year's, the entire building is decorated from top to bottom with Christmas lights. It's a gaudy over-the-top holiday display that's become a San Diego tradition. For the first time in years, it makes me smile. When my brother and I were growing up, we had a family tradition of our own: drive through Balboa Park to see Santa and his reindeer, then come to dinner here to see the lights.

I haven't had dinner at Mister A's in years. As far as I know, neither have my parents. That Dad should choose this restaurant to celebrate shows what Trish's existence has given back to the family.

There are three businessmen waiting with me for the elevator to the restaurant. If I wondered how I looked in the dress, any doubts are dispelled by the lingering, hungry looks I get from them. They'd like to see me on the menu, I think, served on a bed of-it wouldn't matter as long as it was a bed.

My father does a comic double take when I walk in. He stands when I approach the table and holds out a chair. "I almost didn't recognize you," he says.

"I've never seen you in a dress, Aunt Anna," Trish says. "I didn't know you owned one. Especially one like-"

"Okay," I hold up a hand. "Enough. So you don't often see me in a dress. Isn't this supposed to be a special night?"

"Anna is right," Mom says. "And I, for one, think you look beautiful. You should dress up more often. When we get to France, we'll go on a shopping spree. For you and for Trish."

"I'd love a dress like that," Trish says eagerly, eyeing my cleavage.

"Oh, no," Mom says, laughing. "You're much too young. I'm sure Anna and I can find something more appropriate for a teenager.

Imagine, Anna, what shopping in Paris will be like."

It hits me then that they expect me to go to France with them. I stare at my mother. Maybe I'm misinterpreting her intention.

No.

It was in her voice, and it's right there in the way she's looking at me-with an expression that says no one in her right mind would pa.s.s up an opportunity to live in a chateau in France. I can't believe I didn't see this coming.

Worse, my dad and Trish are both looking at me the same way.

My shoulders tense.

I can't let them think for one moment that my going with them to France is a possibility. And yet- Do I want to fight this fight tonight?