Zoe’s help. If she feared for her life, she might be more willing to work with him.
Not that she’d been impossible. In fact, she’d been fairly willing to go along with his instructions, or
Not that Damon spent his days running around killing witches, although judging from her expression that was what Zoe was currently thinking.
Strangely enough, he was slightly tempted to reassure her. He didn’t know what that was about. He’d already told her numerous times that he didn’t care about her emotions. Feelings were a waste of time as far as he was concerned, which was why the vampire lifestyle suited him so well.
“You killed a witch in 1866?” Zoe finally said.
He nodded.
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“You asked.”
She nervously fingered the gold chain around her neck. “You’re saying she had a talisman similar to mine?”
“Exactly the same as yours.”
“Why did you kill her?”
“She betrayed me.”
“Was it something to do with the war?” Zoe asked.
“The war of good versus evil, yes.”
“And which side are you on?” she asked.
“I’m on the side that fights and defeats demons.”
“Some people regard vampires as demons.”
“Some people regard witches as demons, too,” he said. “But we both know that’s not true. Some people also think there’s no such thing as global warming but we both know that’s not true, either, right?”
“Right. I mean just look at the temperature today. Records are being broken all over the world. But what does global warming have to do with you killing a witch? You’re not saying she cast a spell to change the climate, are you?” Zoe demanded.
“No. Eve practiced black magic,” he said. “I didn’t know that when I first got involved with her.”
“How did she betray you?”
“She sabotaged my mission by setting up an ambush with a very powerful demon that nearly got me decapitated. So I killed her.” His words were deliberately matter-of-fact although the incident had been anything but.
“What happened to her talisman?” Zoe asked.
“It disappeared.”
Reaching out, he tugged Zoe’s necklace into view and examined it. Which meant he had to stand really close to Zoe. He could smell her spicy citrus scent. He’d noticed it at their first meeting the instant she’d walked into the bar. Vamps had heightened senses.
Even now he could discern the variation in scents floating down from her workroom on the second floor. Cherry blossoms and vanilla. Bitter orange and tart lemon. Intense pineapple and coconut, a combo that used to make him think of sissy drinks with stupid umbrellas—until now. Not that he’d ever had one of those drinks. They weren’t around during his human years. But that combination went right to his head and made him want to pour one of those drinks over Zoe’s body then lick it from every inch of her skin.
Taking a deep breath, Damon tried to focus his concentration back on the necklace. He hadn’t allowed Zoe to distract him when he’d smelled her scintillating scent in the bar when they’d first met, and he wasn’t about to now. He took another breath. Wait, was there an underlying layer of apple in there somewhere with the spice? Was that her version of Eve tempting Adam?
Summoning his willpower, he blocked out all thoughts of Zoe and studied the necklace. “You must have a record of your bloodline.”
Zoe nodded. “It’s in the family Book of Spells.”
“Get it.”
Zoe’s grandmother chose that moment to walk into the room with the book. “I had a feeling you might want to take a look at this for some reason.” She handed it over to Zoe.
“Thanks, Gram.”
“How are you two getting along now?” She eyed Damon’s bare chest but made no direct reference to it. “Better?”
“Just peachy,” Zoe said.
“Speaking of peachy, I had an idea to blend your peach-scented soap with ginger for a little zing.”
Personally, Damon thought Zoe already had plenty of zing, although he wasn’t about to say so.
“We can talk about that later.” Zoe sat on the couch and set the heavy book on her lap. “I’m looking for the section on our bloodline going back through the generations.”
Gram sat beside her and bent over the book.
Damon watched the two of them. His grandmother Sara used to put her hand on his knee the same way that Zoe’s grandmother was doing right now. He fought the memories of his own grandmother beside him on the settee before he’d left for the war. His maternal grandmother was a Virginian and on the side of slavery and the Confederacy, which was why his younger brother joined that side. But his paternal grandmother, Sara, was originally from New England and very much for protecting the Union. The damn war had forever split his family in a way that couldn’t be repaired.
Looking at Zoe’s grandmother, Damon realized she was turning the pages with a wave of her hand. That wasn’t anything his own grandmothers would or could have done.
“Why are you interested in our family tree?” she asked Zoe.
“Have you ever heard the name Eve Delacroix?” Damon asked Zoe’s grandmother.
“I’m not sure,” she replied. “It sort of rings a bell.”
“Damon thinks she had a talisman just like mine,” Zoe said.
“I don’t think it, I know it. I have the proof right here.” He pointed to his bare chest.
“A tattoo?”
“He got it after the Civil War,” Zoe said.
Zoe’s grandmother tugged a pair of magnifying reading glasses out of her pocket and moved in on Damon for a closer look.
“The tattoo is an exact copy of Eve Delacroix’s,” Damon said. “She had to be of your bloodline.”
“That’s possible, but she couldn’t have had an
“Why not?”
“Because Zoe’s is unique to her, based on the blending of her mother’s and father’s lines,” her grandmother explained.
“Maybe Eve came from the same family lines on both sides as well.”
“Or maybe your tattoo isn’t an exact replica of hers. Maybe it was a sign that you would meet Zoe and be linked with her in some way,” her grandmother said.
“No way!” Damon and Zoe said in unison.
“Or maybe it is just extremely similar to Zoe’s but different in some small way,” her grandmother said.
“I like that idea better,” Zoe said before returning her attention to the book on her lap.
“What’s that strange smell?” her grandmother asked.
“Dead demon,” Damon said.
“He killed the cable guy,” Zoe said. “Who was really a demon in disguise.”
“I hate when that happens,” Zoe’s grandmother said.
Zoe blinked. “When did that ever happen before?”
Her grandmother frowned. “I saw it in a dream once. Or maybe it was in a horror movie. I can’t recall exactly now.”
“I thought you had no experience with demons,” Damon said.
“Not reality-based experience. But a witch’s dreams can be powerful things,” her grandmother said.
