Winning Virgin Love Part 22

Chapter 24

"There's something wrong with your father." Marion Spenser stared out over the lawn when her sons joined her.

"Mother, I think you're just worried about him because of what he's been through." Almonzo kissed her on the cheek and joined his brother at the bar.

"You look like h.e.l.l," Orlando noted.

"Better than your sorry a.s.s," Almonzo shot back.

"Boys." Marion turned to face them. "I'm telling you, something is off with your father."

"Mother, did you ever think about how you would feel if you sat for thirty-six hours with a b.u.t.t plug in your a.s.s?"

"Orlando! That's enough." Almonzo shot his brother a glare. "Don't you ever discuss this sort of thing with Mother again."

Marion approached her sons with a stern glare before focusing her anger pointedly on Almonzo. "Don't you dare think you can hold information back from me when it comes to your father." Her hurt-filled eyes scoured over them. "I know what vampires are capable of when they torture their own."

"Forgive me, Mother." Almonzo sipped his drink with a distance about him. Truth be told, he sensed something different about his father too.

Marion nearly mumbled in reply. "You all think with your d.i.c.ks so what else would I think but the very worst?"

Almonzo and Orlando exchanged glances until she left the room and took her h.e.l.l-hot anger with her.

"Don't you have a wife to f.u.c.k or something?" Almonzo shot Orlando a daring glance and a smirk. "I swear she's ready when you are."

Orlando smacked him on the back. "d.a.m.n right. And from the sounds coming from your room last night, you all but killed yours."

"Funny."

"Yes, I thought so. Very funny." Tabitha strolled across the room. "Good morning, Orlando." She kissed Almonzo on the cheek and then turned to face him. "Does my sister know you boys sit around and talk about your s.e.x lives?"

Natasha appeared in the doorway then. "Of course I do. It's all they think about."

Orlando smiled when she entered and he went over to her immediately with solid, welcoming arms ready to embrace her. Tabitha took a seat on the edge of her husband's barstool right between his legs.

The younger generation of Spensers were ready to start their day when they heard an alarm sound off, a very distinct alarm. "Orlando, quick, take the women to your room!" Almonzo broke out in a sprint as he tore through the hallways, headed for Constance's suite.

Constance glared at her father. "You are not my Father."

Almonzo and Marion arrived at the same time. Tate soon followed. All three heard the little vixen pitch the d.a.m.ning words, if not a full-blown accusation.

Constance sat on the floor with her artwork and paints and didn't bother to look up.

"Marion, I'll handle this," the older man told her.

"Father, did you sound the alarm?" Almonzo quickly studied them.

"No, I did. I want him out of my room." Constance still didn't look up. She just kept her little fingers busy with her paints.

Orlando joined them about the time she made the request. He immediately went to his sister and sat beside her. "What are you working on there?" He touched her gently on the shoulders.

"Constance," Marion began but Almonzo interrupted her.

"Young lady, you cannot hit the panic alert b.u.t.ton when you do not have an emergency." His voice shook with anger. "We've discussed this before. You don't cry wolf when you want attention because one day the wolves will come and no one will be here when they do if you have been so busy sending out false alarms."

Constance's black eyes studied them then. She didn't look at her parents but instead took turns staring at her brothers. Finally, she spoke directly to Almonzo. "You don't understand. The wolves are already here in our very den."

"She does anything she can for attention." Samuel Spenser didn't seem at all distressed over the earlier issue with his youngest child. "Surely you both understand how hard it must have been for her. The family planned a wake to celebrate my life for crying out loud."

Almonzo looked at his wife and smiled. "Celebrate? h.e.l.l, no. We were going to send you out in grand style and then blow the trumpets to kick off one h.e.l.l of a party."

Orlando sipped his drink and watched his brother tease their father. Samuel Spenser didn't have much of a light personality but he seemed to enjoy having his entire family together.

"It's a good day to be alive." He held his gla.s.s high and after a few here-heres brought on a toast with a clinking of gla.s.ses.

Samuel glanced at Marion and with a wink looked beyond her at Constance, who sat in the corner by herself. Her eyes were coal black and set straight ahead. He shrugged and then moved about the room, taking in every bit of the study almost as if he wasn't accustomed to seeing it.

Orlando and Almonzo made a simple eye exchange and then Orlando sent Natasha to coax Constance from her intimate s.p.a.ce. Tabitha and Marion discussed nursery plans.

"So you're expecting a child." Samuel turned to Tabitha with the unexpected question.

Tabitha immediately gasped and Almonzo noted it. "Yes. Yes, I am." She looked over at Almonzo with wide eyes.

Almonzo slammed the gla.s.s down on the bar. "You were fairly excited about this baby before you left for Spain."

Samuel took a sip of his drink and released an "ah" of appreciation. "And so I am still." He walked over to his daughter-in-law and patted her stomach. She flinched. "I'm looking forward to holding the little one in my arms."

Almonzo saw her reaction and immediately excused them. "Tabitha, you don't look well. Let's say goodnight, what do you think?"

She quickly nodded and they made a fast exit.

Orlando and Natasha excused themselves as well and five minutes later, the four of them stood in the sitting area of Almonzo's suite.

Tabitha started it. "Almonzo, he's not your father."

"The h.e.l.l he isn't." Orlando looked over at his double.

"She's right," Almonzo said. "Something is off and even Constance knows it."

"Constance is spoiled. We can thank ourselves for her behavior. She's pouting because Father left and, sure, she probably thought she would never see him again."

"d.a.m.n it, Orlando! We relied on you for your ability to note change. Your d.a.m.n nose and gut instinct saved us from surprise intrusions and now it doesn't even exist."

"What do you mean it doesn't exist? I can smell trouble a mile away!"

"Then how come you didn't know I was here?" Constance walked into the room and perched on the bed. "I may be a little girl but you have to listen to me. That man you brought here dressed up like Father is not our father."

"Constance, you should be in bed." Almonzo moved closer to her.

"I'm not going to bed because if I go to bed, he'll come in there and begin singing to me in French."

"French?" Orlando questioned. "Does Father even know French?"

"He speaks many languages. You know d.a.m.n well he must know French." Almonzo turned back to Constance. "But come to think of it, I've never known him to speak it fluently. What does he sing?"

"He sings things my father wouldn't sing to me."

Orlando and Almonzo both leaned closer and spoke in unison. "Like what?"

Constance stretched out her thin legs on the bed and braced herself by putting her arms behind her back. She crossed her ankles and moved them back and forth. "Things." She then brought her lips together in a tight line.

Almonzo studied her. "This is not the time for dramatics, Constance."

"I don't know what some of it means."

"Then tell us what you do know." Orlando sat next to her. All eyes were hers and all ears waited to hear her reply.

"The lyrics are very strange."

Natasha and Tabitha seemed to take the same deep breath and hold it. Tabitha saw the anger washing over her husband.

"Constance, this is very important. What does he say, d.a.m.n it!" As soon as he raised his voice, her eyes watered but not from hurt. h.e.l.l, no. Anger brewed and both of her brothers nearly flinched when they witnessed it. Constance, whatever she knew, seemed to have a new understanding. With it came the coming of age. Her little-girl ways disappeared almost as surely as she spoke.

Her voice dropped an octave and she began to sing. "I'm coming for you, lover. I'm coming for you, my sweet love. No one will see me. No one will hear me. No one will know the day. I'm coming for you, lover. I'm coming for you, my sweet love. No one will see me. No one will hear me. No one will know I'm already living in your veins." Her beautiful little haunting voice hit every note and then she sang it to them in French.

"It's the same chorus over and over and over again. Every night since he came home." Constance studied her brothers. "And do you know what else?"

"What?" Orlando answered because Almonzo's demeanor darkened with his eyes just as soon as he heard the song. He watched and studied Tabitha. When she'd heard the song, she'd sat down with a blank expression on her face.

"He stares at me like he plans to kill me and then mother walks in the room and he immediately looks like the doting father he used to be. That man is not our father."

Tabitha stared up at them. "She's right."

Almonzo set his jaw and watched her unfold the truths he'd already witnessed when he sensed she recognized the melody Constance sang. "You know the song."

"I know the song. It's Darian's favorite."

Chapter 25

Almonzo's fierce temper could kick a.s.s and Orlando wasn't a reasonable man either when it came to protecting his family. The twins talked privately with Tate and he prepared a room in the cellar as the boys went to their parents' chambers. They literally pounced on the man posing as Samuel Spenser and struggled to gain control of him.

"Boys! What on earth are you doing to your father?" Marion Spenser's eyes were wild as Almonzo held Samuel's wrists tight behind his back. His shaded eyes were taut with his fury and Orlando spoke rapidly.

"Mother, this man is not Father. He's here to take Constance and maybe even you. He's an imposter. Constance has known it since his arrival, which is why he's all but stalked her in the middle of daylight."

Orlando sneered and moved closer to the older man. "That's why you were waiting. You expected us when you didn't find her in her room, didn't you?" His teeth glistened in the dim light of the moon and just when the man started to speak, Orlando's teeth dropped and he looked away from his mother.

Almonzo nodded to Orlando. "Let's get him out of here."

Marion continued to protest. "Boys, you are wrong! This is your father. I know. Believe me, I know."

Hearing the hidden implication angered the h.e.l.l out of both men. "Why you son of a b.i.t.c.h." Almonzo gripped his captive's wrists back harder and saw the sudden smirk.

"Samuel Spenser doesn't have anything to covet now." The man's lips formed into an easy smile. "I come into his life and bed his wife, hold his children, read his journals, and live, walked, actually, in the man's very big shoes." His loud chuckles brought a sudden paleness to Marion's face. She quickly pulled a sheet around her scantly clad body as she watched in horror.

"Mother, call the elders. Have them send someone over. We're about to send one of our own straight to f.u.c.king h.e.l.l!"

The dim light in the bas.e.m.e.nt looked like something out of a mob torture chambers from the 1940s. Tate worked diligently to sedate the man but to avoid knocking him out completely they pumped him full of a concoction of drugs.

Almonzo wanted one of the elders to verify who or what had been living with them. Determining the issue to be a matter of family, they were denied a visit from an elder. The translation became clear. They were dealing with Sabbats and right now, Sabbat had the elders in his back pocket.

Almonzo moved closer to the man. "Do you want to live?"

"I am living, just as you live."

Tate shook his head.

Orlando and Almonzo both caught the meaning.

"You want me to think you have an immunity clause?" Almonzo's anger reached another dimension altogether.

"I do have one."

"The h.e.l.l you do. You're one of us, you sick p.r.i.c.k." Almonzo threw a few punches and immediately, unaffected by the blows, the vampire's head came back to take more.

"d.a.m.n it!" He walked over to him again. "I want to know where my father is!"

The imposter sneered. "Dead."