She edged nearer, careful to shield herself from view. The collection of great power that emerged from the boats—Deschanels, Sullivans, a whole cavalry of witches—was enough to want to send her scattering, but she needed to see him leave, in safety.
She needed to see him.
Kieran and his brother embraced. She knew it was his brother because she could hardly tell them apart. There was a third, too, Kieran said. He was a triplet. He’d told her this amidst his ramblings designed to provoke her to see him as something real, to spare him.
Had she ever intended to kill him?
She asked herself this a lot. As she drove him away from New Orleans. On the boat ride to the cabin where her grandfather had taken her. As she sat astride him, pushing away the reality that would make their connection nonsensical. Wrong.
It was wrong. And undoubtedly, she would pay for it. So would he, if she didn’t get to Victor first and explain to him why this man was untouchable. Not only because he had Deschanel blood running through his veins, but because he had saved her life.
There was no rule for this among the de Blancheforts, but that was because it had never happened. Now that it had, she would be sure this was precedent. Despite her training, despite her confidence, she was no match for the Rougarou. Kieran’s intervention had saved them both.
Now, she was saving him. In doing so, she hoped she might connect again with the humanity she’d laid aside when she accepted a gift she’d never wanted.
When she’d taken lives that were not hers to take. Even Victor’s food chain argument had never eased her of that guilt.
But when Kieran had looked into her eyes last night, he’d seen something other than a killer. He’d seen through that, to the heart of it. To her.
Elisabeth slipped away from the family reunion, unsure what to make of the strange ache in her chest.
She didn’t allow herself a final glimpse.
As Kieran stepped into the boat, a strong sensation gripped him.
“You all right?” Tristan Sullivan, a cousin, asked as he eased him in. Behind him, Colleen Deschanel nodded his way, smiling. She’d been behind this, he was certain, as she was behind all important happenings in the family.
“Yeah. Fine. Sorry.”
Kelley placed a hand on his back, saying nothing. Maybe he understood.
The rip of the motor restarting drowned out all other sounds, but the sensation stayed with him.
Elisabeth. She’d returned. Or maybe she’d never left.
He regretted not telling her that he’d lied about being able to sense her.
But it was what he sensed now that left him unmoored. It wasn’t the tangle of fear and frustration from when she’d kidnapped him and taken him to this strange place, as she battled herself on whether to kill him. It was a sensation that matched the hurt in his chest, where his heart was now on an irregular beat.
Elisabeth. He whispered this without speaking, for himself only.
“The police will want to speak to you when we return to town,” Colleen said from beside him. “About the young woman. Darcy.”
“Oh my God,” Kieran said, as blood rushed to his head. “They think I killed her, don’t they?” Of course they did. He was her date. He’d “fled” the scene. All the evidence would point directly his way.
“We’ve taken care of that. But they’ll want a statement. We should discuss this before you go in, as it will serve no one to tell the truth. Not you, and certainly not poor Darcy or her family.”
No, he didn’t suppose telling the police that a vampire killed her would do much of anything except get him committed. It would do nothing for Darcy.
“There will be no justice for Darcy,” Colleen said, as if reading his mind. She probably was. He was too numb to care. “We don’t live in a world ready to accept the things we know and understand to be more than figments of myth. But I will ensure her family is taken care of, just the same. We will do what is in our power. That I assure you, Kieran.”
“Thank you, Colleen.” He didn’t say the rest of what was on his mind. That though Darcy deserved justice, Elisabeth would punish herself for what she did, in her careless hunger, for the rest of what remained of her immortal life. Her agony at taking Darcy’s life might be what spared the lives of others.
He’d sought a life in law because of his need for precision and clarity, but the last twelve hours had shown him that life was not so black and white. That his ideas of good and bad were not so neatly drawn, with boundaries easy to detect. It had thrown into question everything he believed, and he wouldn’t know the full impact of this for years to come.
Kelley asked him something, but his words were drowned out by the roar of the outboard motor.
“What was that?”
“Will you go after her?” Kelley yelled. “Try to find her?”
Kieran looked out into the swamp, searching for any physical signs of what he felt. She was out there. But she didn’t want to be found.
“Some things are better left alone,” Kieran said, knowing the one who would need the most convincing of this was himself.
Afterword
Thank you for reading Bayou’s Edge. I hope you enjoyed this tale of Kieran Landry surviving his first vampire encounter, though I think we can agree he is not the same man he was when the story began.
The characters in this story are part of the Saga of Crimson & Clover universe, consisting of multiple series spanning many years and time periods. Bayou’s Edge, in particular, is a Crimson & Clover Lagniappe. The word lagniappe is used among the Louisiana French and means, summarized, a little something extra. All twelve of the Crimson & Clover Lagniappes are standalone stories, meant to
