“Claudia, honey. You can’t blame yourself for an accident.”
“Yeah, but if I hadn’t—”
“Listen. You couldn’t have known any of that would happen. It sounds like you didn’t expect her to take the highway. You couldn’t have known there’d be a drunk driver on it. If anyone should be blamed, it’s the driver of the other car, but regardless…guilt and shame doesn’t help anyone. We live our lives. We make decisions. We make mistakes. It’s part of finding our way through the unknown.”
“My father hated me after that.”
“I’m sure he didn’t. Some men don’t know how to deal with or express strong emotions. They lash out in frustration. Did he ever say it was your fault?”
“Not in so many words.”
“He doesn’t hate you. I saw his concern for you myself.” He took her face in his hands.” I wish I could take away all the pain, but I can’t.” Because apparently my power of mesmerism is on the fritz. “Look, we don’t know why some things happen. They just do. It’s how we handle them that tells us who we really are.”
Claudia clenched her fists. “Then I’m really a horrible person.”
“You are not!” He rose and raked his hand through his hair. “I wish you’d stop beating yourself up. Isn’t there something in the twelve steps about asking people to forgive you for things you’ve done under the influence?”
“Yes. It’s the ninth step. I’m not quite there yet.”
“Well, when you get there, talk to yourself first. You need to forgive yourself. In the meanwhile, know that I forgive you. Maybe that will help.”
She sighed. “I don’t deserve you.”
“You’re right.”
She looked up with questioning eyes.
“You deserve better.”
Anthony wished he could help by sharing some ghastly stories of his own. So she was indirectly responsible for one measly death. He had fed on hundreds of humans, many of whom didn’t survive until he learned how much he could take without killing someone. In a way they’d both had drinking problems.
She’d be appalled. Most humans would, but Claudia with her gentle heart couldn’t handle it. Not now, and maybe not ever. What was I thinking?
A knock at the door disturbed their intimate conversation. When Claudia didn’t answer right away, the pounding increased and a frantic female voice shouted, “Anthony! Are you in there?”
It didn’t sound like Ruxandra.
Anthony rose. “It’s Angie.” He buttoned his suit jacket as Claudia strode to the door.
“Angie, what’s wrong?”
“It’s Tory. Someone Tasered him, hauled him into a white van, and drove off.”
Anthony flew down the stairs faster than he should have, but he needed to catch whoever had done this. The MO seemed to fit the facts Nick and Kurt had shared with him.
Once on the sidewalk, he scanned the area as far as his vampiric night vision could see.
Nothing. Damn it.
He dug his cell phone out of his pocket and called Nick.
“Hey, Anthony. What’s up?”
“Our kidnappers just took Tory.”
“Shit! What happened? Tell me everything.”
“I should put you on the phone with Angie. She witnessed it.” He jogged upstairs, still talking. “By the time I got down to the sidewalk, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”
He knocked and waited for the click that meant Claudia had locked the door. Thank goodness she kept her promise to keep it locked at all times.
As soon as she let him in, he put the phone on speaker and said to Angie. “It’s Nick. Tell him what you saw.”
“Hi, Nick. Tory and I were just standing on the sidewalk outside the tea shop, talking. A white van pulled up next to us, and two guys wearing black ski masks got out. One of them shot him with a Taser. Then they hauled him into the van through the sliding side door and took off. I screamed for help, but no one would get involved.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. Did you get a license number?”
“By the time I got over the shock and remembered to look, I only saw a couple numbers and one letter.”
“Even a partial might help. What were they?”
“13O.”
“Are you sure the O was a letter and not a number? Could it have been one thirty?”
Angie hesitated. “Damn. I’m not sure anymore.” Her voice shook. “I was so scared. I’m still scared…for him.”
Nick’s voice gentled. “Angie, it’ll be okay. You know I’ll do everything I can to help.”
“And so will I,” Anthony said. “I’m a pretty skilled hypnotist. If I hypnotized you, would you see more of the license number?”
“Maybe,” she said softly.
“Nick, can you hold a few minutes while I do that?”
“I’d rather make a couple calls right away and have you get back to me.”
“Of course. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Will do,” Nick said and clicked off.
By that time, Angie was crying. Claudia had an arm around her and guided her to the sofa. Then she said, “I’ll get you some tissues,” and hurried toward her bedroom.
Angie sniffed, wiped at the tears, and looked up at Anthony. “I had just told my family that it was too damn bad if they didn’t like it. I’m going out with him anyway.”
“Are they prejudiced?”
“Yeah, but not because he’s black. They can’t stand the fact that he’s from New York. My father, grandfather, and brother all hate the Yankees and the Giants.”
Anthony rolled his eyes. “I’ve heard of crazy Boston sports fans, but that’s ridiculous.”
Claudia returned with tissues and handed the box to Angie.
“Tell me about it.”
“Do you think you can handle hypnosis right now? Maybe we should wait until you’re feeling a little—”
“No. Do it right now. I want to help Nick find him, and the sooner the better.”
Claudia had gone down to the tea room to make Angie a pot of chamomile tea, per Anthony’s request. He seemed to want to be alone with Angie while he hypnotized her. Claudia wasn’t about to fight with him about it. Maybe he was afraid of hypnotizing her at the same time. Or maybe he thought Angie would relax more if she didn’t have an audience. Yeah, that was probably it.
She made the tea and stepped out onto the sidewalk. As she was locking up again, someone called her name with an incredulous expression in his voice.
“Claudia?”
She glanced over her shoulder and recognized her old boyfriend Maynard. “Hey, Maynard. Nice to see you. How are you doing?”
“I’m great,” he said and puffed up his chest under his brown leather jacket. “I’m working in Cambridge now.”
“Oh? Where in Cambridge? I used to live there.”
“Central Square.”
“Really? That’s where I used to live. It’s funny that I bumped into you over here instead of in Cambridge.”
“Yeah. Well, I was just in the neighborhood. What are you doing here?”
Claudia tipped her head toward the tea shop. “This is where I work. I’m the manager.”
“Just the manager? I thought you’d own your own business by now.”
Claudia didn’t know how to take that. Was it a compliment about her intelligence? Or a slam for her lack of success. “Uh, well, the business is brand new. We’ve only been open a few days. I designed it, hired and trained the staff, created the menu, found suppliers…the whole nine yards. I get to call the shots since the owner is rarely around.” Why am I bragging? Oh, yeah. When I did AA’s fourth step, I discovered one of my worst character defects is pride.
“Cool. Sounds like my kind of boss.”
“Yeah, he’s great. Are you still into science?”
“More than ever. I’m head of a research lab.”