Free Undeniable by Doreen Orsini Page A

Dracula’s
heart captive. Mina, sweet Mina had made it possible for them all to live in
peace with humans that fateful night long ago.
    Transformed by Dracula only months before Damien, Tobias
outranked him as the second eldest of their kind, the eldest in Mina’s Cove
during Dracula’s absence. Most cowered if Tobias showed the slightest
disapproval.
    Damien ignored him, glanced at the clock once again and
cursed. All night he had awaited some sign that Sebastian had returned. His
head throbbed from scanning his stepson’s home for his presence.
    “Why don’t you just go there and wait for him?” Tobias
asked.
    Damien spun around. “And what? Congratulate him for
destroying the life of an innocent woman?”
    “Now, Damien, have some faith in Sebastian. If Diana is
innocent, he’ll know and leave her untouched.” Tobias rose and, patting
Damien’s shoulder as he passed, strode to the sideboard.
    “I know. I know,” Damien muttered.
    “And if she’s not, he’ll do what needs to be done,” Tobias
added, holding up a decanter of brandy. “Taste this. It’s exquisite.”
    Damien shook his head. “How can you even wonder if she has
anything to do with her father’s crimes? My God, Tobias, she’s Angelina’s
granddaughter.”
    “And Frank is your precious Angelina’s son. We all know her
blood did not stop him from coming after us.”
    “That’s different and you know it.”
    Tobias poured some brandy into two snifters and held one out
to Damien. “Drink this and relax. You’re accomplishing nothing with your
infernal pacing except maybe wearing a hole in my carpet.”
    Damien took the snifter and emptied it in one gulp. He sank
down onto the brown leather couch and hung his head.
    “Listen, Damien. I know you believe Diana is nothing like
her father, but think, for a moment. How do we know what that man said to her
as she grew up? He’s had twenty-five years to mold her into a hunter.”
    “This is my fault. All of it. I should be the one punished.
I broke our most sacred law by bonding with the mother of a human child and
using my powers to alleviate her concerns about leaving him.”
    “You broke two laws, Damien. We do not take someone else’s
spouse. She had a husband, one she had been quite content with until you
entered her life. And the fact that her son has been exacting vengeance upon us
all since that day is no one’s fault but his.” Tobias threw his glass into the
fireplace. “We have to find that weapon.”
    “Why haven’t we been able to find it or the pen?” Damien
placed his glass on the low mahogany table and raked his hands through his
hair. “It doesn’t make sense. We can read minds, even those a mile away, but we
have yet to breach his or his daughter’s enough to uncover how he manages to
capture our vamps.”
    Tobias’ lips thinned. “That, my dear son-in-law, is why I
fear Diana might have a hand in our losses.”
    Damien’s head jerked up. His body tensed.
    Tobias added, “Both Frank and Diana are quite adept at
blocking their thoughts, building impenetrable walls around feelings and
knowledge they deem private. How? Why? We are the only ones capable of truly
hearing someone’s thoughts and uncovering their memories. So what led them to
perfect blocking us?”
    Damien opened his mouth to reply, to once again find a way
to convince Tobias that Diana was innocent, but closed it when Sebastian’s
voice entered his mind.
    “No!” From across the room, Tobias swept his arm out.
Although his fist never came close to touching Damien, his head flung back as
if Tobias had struck him squarely on the jaw. “Do not answer him, Damien.”
    “You heard him. How can I ignore him when he’s begging for
guidance?”
    “He must do this on his own. Trust me.”
    Damien couldn’t believe his ears. “Why? He’s your grandson,
for Christ’s sake. Why would you turn your…you know how this night will turn
out, don’t you? You’ve had one of your dreams.”
    “Damien,