Note: Please see Prologue for warning, copyright and disclaimer information.

Revelations

We checked into the hotel without a problem and were led up to our suite by a bellhop. Jax's room was right across the hall, which made him just far enough away for Cormac and I to have privacy. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing, but that's how it was.

As we walked into our suite, Cormac's cell phone rang. He put his sword down on the desk and answered it. "Hello?"

I could hear a female voice on the other end, but when I heard him say the name Christina, I knew it had nothing to do with me and chose not to try and listen.

For some reason, I felt very comfortable in the suite, even though I'd obviously never been in it before. The first thing I really noticed was a large crystal vase on a low table near the middle of the room, filled to overflowing with daisies. I walked silently over to it, remembering the mountain meadow where Cormac and I had first made love. Tears pricked my eyes as I ran my fingertips lightly across the petals.

I'll make sure you always have daisies to remember this day by, he'd told me that morning so long ago. I wondered if he'd arranged for them to be in the room, or if he even remembered that day in the mountains. Carefully I tucked the daisy he'd given me at the carnival into the vase with the others.

I spotted doors to a balcony and headed for them, needing to be away from both Mac and the flowers. The view was spectacular, almost breathtaking. Although it was after midnight, the city was still in full swing. It was hard to believe there were monsters out there in the darkness waiting to prey on the unwary.

I heard a low noise behind me and turned to see that Cormac was staring at me, through me really, growling low in his throat. His face was like stone.

"Several things," he told the caller in a hard voice. "You're detaining him until we return?"

For a moment I wondered if I should have tried to listen to the conversation, but his next question convinced me that I should start now. "What all is Prudence being watched for?"

"You know," the woman replied, "I'm not really sure."

"What's going on?" I demanded.

He raised one finger in my direction, expecting me to wait until he was done. I continued listening, knowing I'd probably learn more that way then from whatever he chose to tell me later.

"I'm not really sure why she's under surveillance," Christina told him, "but they are going some kind of investigation into her background, or so Brenda tells me."

"Oh, goody," Mac murmured.

Personally I could think of a few more choice words to use.

"Is this a good thing?"

"Mmm, yes and no," he replied.

"Something I should know about?"

"I'm sure it will all come out in time," he told her. I hoped he was wrong.

"This involves Eliza in some way?" she asked.

"Yes."

Who the hell was this vamp and how much exactly did she know about me?

"Really," she murmured. "Anything I need to know about or keep an eye out for?"

"Other than the obvious fact that Prudence is a bitch," he drawled, "no."

"Well, I really haven't had any interaction with her."

"You're lucky," he said in a hard voice.

She paused for a moment, then said, "I take it I should not trust this Tremere."

"No."

"Okay. Is there anything you'd like me to do while you're gone," she asked, "other than help Brenda keep an eye on the girl?"

"Well, if Prudence is already being watched, then no," he replied before changing the subject.

While the girl went on about her brother and wedding plans, something in the suite seemed to catch Cormac's eye. He looked around for a moment as I waited impatiently. He got off the phone rather quickly after that, and stood looking at the room.

"What's going on, Mac?" I demanded. "What's up with Kate?"

He didn't answer, just stood staring down at the vase of daisies.

"Mac?" I walked over to him but he didn't seem to hear me. He was staring down at the daisies as if caught in a trance of some sort. I snapped my fingers in front of his eyes. "Mac, anybody home?"

He blinked and looked at me. "I believe someone is home," he said slowly. "Look around, Eliza."

I did as he instructed and realized exactly why I had felt so comfortable when I'd first walked into the room. The layout of the furniture was nearly identical to that of our apartment in Baltimore, even to the large fireplace on one wall. When Mac pointed out the indentations in the carpeting showing that the furniture had been recently moved, I got scared. Then I got mad.

"What is going on here?" I demanded in a low voice.

"I plan to find out," he told me. He turned toward the door and we went without speaking down to the lobby.

"Can I help you?" the desk clerk asked when we approached. "Is something wrong in your suite?"

"Ah, how recently was my room cleaned?" Cormac asked politely. I was surprised by how good of a hold he was keeping on his temper.

"This morning sir," the clerk replied. "When the last client checked out."

"Could you tell me who the last client was?"

"Well, no," he said hesitantly. "I'm afraid I cannot, that is privileged information"

"Please?"

The clerk looked at him for a moment then turned to a computer terminal. "I can look and see what information I can give you."

I looked around the lobby and spotted one of the females that had been close to the vamp that had been watching me at the carnival. I didn't really pay attention to what the clerk had to say until I heard the tone of Cormac's reply.

"It is very important that I find out this person's name," he said meaningfully. "Please, tell me." I knew he was using mind tricks on the guy when the clerk immediately provided the man's full name and phone number.

"Cormac," I said softly as he pulled out his cell phone, "remember that girl from the Carnival?"

His head spun to look in the direction I'd indicated and I rolled my eyes. "Mac, you're being wicked conspicuous," I told him.

"That's because I'm wicked pissed off," he replied coldly, staring at the woman and her companion.

It was too much of a coincidence that she would be at our hotel. "We could go stake her," I suggested in a low voice. "I have one." As if I'd ever be without at least one.

"So do I."

I glanced up at his face, but I couldn't read his expression. "Is that a yes?"

"Not yet," he told me. He dialed a number on his phone and I listened with half an ear as he questioned our suite's previous occupant. Apparently the furniture had been moved some time after the man had checked out that morning.

I watched the Kindred and her companion, searching their auras for some clue as to their intentions. The woman was looking at the human lustfully, but he seemed to be daydreaming. No big help there. I couldn't see any other vamps or shapeshifters in the lobby.

When Mac hung up his phone, he asked the desk clerk for the name of the person who had cleaned our room. When the man went into an office to check, I looked up at my companion.

"Why would someone move the room around like that?" I asked in a low voice.

"I intend to find out," he promised.

"How would someone know?" It just didn't make sense to me.

"Well, there are still people alive, or undead," he corrected himself, "that were there that night, at least two by my reckoning."

I frowned and forced myself to think back to that horrible night. "Dougal's dead," I said, counting off the vamps that had attacked on my fingers. "The bitch that bit me is dead, and the really ugly one is dead. I only remember one other one."

"The one that I staked, yes," Mac murmured.

I looked up at him suspiciously. "You're remembering quite a bit for having amnesia, aren't you?"

"As I said," he replied, returning my look evenly, "my memory is coming back."

"So who else was there?"

"Your mother."

At the word, my hand moved toward one of the stakes at my back, then what he'd said actually sunk in. Why would he think Kate had been at our apartment that night? She hadn't told me she was there, but then again, if she had been, why would she tell me? "What are you talking about?" I demanded.

"Kate was there," he repeated.

I shook my head. "I didn't see her."

"Of course not," he told me. "You were dead on the floor."

"You're saying you saw here there?" I didn't like this one bit, but why would he lie about it?

"Yes," he confirmed. "As a matter of fact, Kate is the last thing I saw."

I nodded to myself, knowing that Mac had just signed Kate's death warrant. Then I remembered that he'd been talking about her earlier. "So, who were you talking on the phone to upstairs?"

"That was Christina." Dougal's other childe and Mac's Kindred sister.

"And what does she know about Kate?"

"She knows nothing of Kate," he said. "However she does know something of Prudence. Brenda's ghoul has a sister that lives in Salem."

"Samantha," I replied. "She works with Corrine." She was a friend of daughter and I've always made a point to know my daughter's friends.

He nodded. "Samantha has an ex-boyfriend."

When he hesitated, I supplied the name. "Simon."

"I do not know his name," he told me. "Apparently he attacked Samantha a few nights ago and injured her, so Brenda is very steamed about that. Last night while Brenda was driving by Corrine's as I asked her to, she witnessed Simon coming out of Corrine's apartment building and proceed to get directly into Prudence's car. With Prudence." He looked down at me as if waiting for my reaction. "An aura perception showed that he has been ghouled."

"Really." Kate must be getting desperate to have come so close to breaking the contract she herself had witnessed.

"Really," he said. "Brenda has Simon in custody at the moment."

"And Kate?"

"They are observing Kate at the moment," he told me, "both for that and I believe there are some other things they are, ah, suspicious about concerning her."

I looked out over the lobby, thinking about what he'd said. I didn't like knowing that he'd been right about Kate, but it didn't change the fact that she had to die. For a heartbeat I wished again for the strength to kill him, to release the Mac I loved from the eternity of darkness he now found himself in.

You don't want to kill him, I heard a male voice say in my mind. It was the same one I'd heard at the carnival. I did this for you, for the both of you. You belong together.

I shivered and looked around anxiously, but the dark haired man from the carnival was nowhere to be seen. "You know, things are getting really creepy," I whispered urgently. "Can we go back up to the room? Now?"

Cormac was stopped from answering by the desk clerk returning. He said that the girl who had cleaned the suite would be in early the next morning. Or this morning, it was now well after midnight.

"Could you call up to the suite when she comes in?" Cormac asked politely.

The clerk seemed surprised. "Will you still be up at that hour?"

"I will wake," he assured him.

"I'll let her know if you wish," the clerk replied.

"Thank you." Without waiting for a reply, he put his arm loosely around my waist and led me toward the elevator.

I realized that the Kindred I'd seen earlier was gone, and shook my head. "Can I just state for the record that I don't like Paris?"

"You can."

"There was something about that girl that was here," I insisted, "and I'm still hearing voices."

He glanced down at me. "What did you hear this time?"

I shrugged, not really wanting to tell him but knowing I had to. "Just a little advice about not killing you. And how he was doing this for us."

Mac stopped abruptly and looked down at me for a moment. He turned away and sat down in a nearby chair, immediately falling into his standard meditative state. I shook my head in frustration, knowing that he was out of it for the duration of whatever ritual he was performing. I just hoped he wouldn't take too long.

I paced the lobby around his seat, returning the questioning glances I received with cold looks that turned the curious away. I watched the clock above the desk and told myself that I should just leave him there alone, but then I remembered that he had the only key to our room.

Thirty minutes later, he finally stood up and looked around the lobby. I stalked over to stand in front of him. "Are you going to tell me what's going on yet?" I demanded.

He barely glanced at me. "In the room."

I shook my head and walked quickly to the elevators, not waiting to see if he was following. We stepped into the elevator together and the doors closed silently, leaving us alone.

"I need to know exactly what the voices have said," he told me.

I didn't want to tell him exactly, I didn't want to give him the satisfaction that there was someone else out there who thought the two of us should be together. "Well," I said slowly, "when we were at the carnival and I mentioned Wolfgang, a male voice said, 'I am nothing like Wolfgang.' And in the lobby, the same voice said, 'You don't want to kill him, I did this for you, for both of you.'"

He shot me an irritated look. "And the rest of what it has said?"

I should have remembered that he'd always been able to tell when I left things out. "Look, I've gotten one person in my head, I don't need two."

"I'm not trying to get in your head, Eliza," he said impatiently. "I'm trying to figure out who this is."

"There was nothing said that would identify this person—"

"Please."

"God!" I exclaimed in frustration and looked away. I knew I had to tell him. This was a vamp thing as far as I could tell, and I'd promised to let him take care of Kindred stuff. "At the carnival it said, 'I am nothing like Wolfgang. You belong with the boy, not me,'" I said in a rush. "In the lobby, it said, 'You don't want to kill him. I did this for you, for the both of you. You belong together.'" The elevator came to a stop just as I finished.

Cormac closed his eyes as the doors slid open, and I almost didn't hear his low whisper. "Dougal."

I stepped quickly out of the elevator angry that he would think his sire was behind all of this. Dougal was the last person I wanted in my head. Any mention of the fiend still grated on my nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard. I was halfway to our suite when I realized that Cormac hadn't followed me.

Sighing deeply, I turned to see that he was still standing just outside of the elevator. He was staring off into space, and looked like he would be for some time. I crossed my arms and leaned a shoulder against the wall, crossing one foot over the other to wait. Mac had the only key to our suite in his pocket and I wasn't about to go and take it from him.

"About fucking time," I muttered a few minutes later when he finally looked around for me.

At first I wasn't concerned when he stared at me intently then started walking toward me. When saw the look in his eye and realized that he didn't intend to walk past me, my eyes widened almost painfully. He reached out with his left hand and cupped the right side of my neck, then bent to press a soft kiss on my lips. He continued on without breaking stride, leaving me too stunned to react. He moved past me toward our room and I followed him, dazed.

He opened the door and paused, waiting for me to catch up. I tried to get him to go in first so I wouldn't have to pass that close to him, but he insisted. I couldn't stop the instinctive movement of my hand toward the stake, and of course he saw it.

"There's no need for your stakes, luv," he told me in a soft voice.

My face froze, but I didn't reply even though the endearment cut me to the bone. Then I saw the layout of the room once more and the daisies on the table and knew I couldn't stay in that room with him. I quickly crossed to the balcony where I leaned my forearms on the rail and looked out at the lights of Paris.

I heard Mac come up behind me. "Would you like to go for a walk?" he asked softly.

"Why?" I demanded without turning around. "So we can get fucked with some more?"

"The voices in your head are a friendly entity," he told me.

"I don't appreciate voices in my head," I replied coldly, "and I don't think that's very friendly."

"You can talk with him," he suggested.

"That's okay," I said wryly. "I'd just as soon he stay the fuck out of my mind."

"He's only trying to help us."

I spun around to see that he was very close to me, too close for comfort. In surprise I took a half step to my left, trying to get away from both him and the things he made me feel, things I hadn't felt since he died nineteen years ago. He was watching me intently, looking down at me almost tenderly. The blank hard stare I'd begun to associate with him was gone.

"What?" I whispered after several minutes of his warm gaze.

"Gustav is only trying to help us be together again, Eliza," he told me softly.

I turned and looked back out over the city. How the fuck could some… thing we'd never met know what was best for us? Know what was in our hearts? Or my heart, anyway. I had no idea what was in Cormac's heart.

Behind me he started to say something, then abruptly stopped and turned back toward the suite. When I heard him walking away, I turned to watch him. He'd only gotten a few steps into the room when he looked back over his shoulder at me. He still had that same tender look on his face, and I wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Who the hell is Gustav?" I demanded.

"The voice in your head."

"Did you actually have a discussion with this Gustav?" I found it much easier to be aggressive about the mind reader than to wonder about Mac's new attitude.

"As a matter of fact," he replied, "I did."

"Did you tell him to stay the fuck out of business that's not his?"

"No, I did not," he said softly. "He has helped me quite a bit."

"Oh, well lets just go see a shrink, shall we?" I bit out sarcastically.

He shook his head slightly. "I don't understand where this anger is coming from, Eliza."

"I'm not angry," I retorted harshly. Fine, so I was angry. "Okay, my mind gets invaded and you don't understand why I'm pissed?"

"He's trying to help us."

Ri-ight. It had been my experience that no one ever 'helped' anyone else without an ulterior motive. "Did we ask for his help?"

"Do you have something against us getting back together?"

He looked so tender, so caring, that I couldn't take it any longer. Before I could even think about it, a stake was flying toward him. It whipped past his head, but he didn't so much as blink. I don't think he understood that I could just have easily pierced his heart with it.

"How dare you?" I shouted at him. "You're a fucking vampire, don't you get it? You can walk the walk, and talk the talk, but you'll never be Mac Brennan again! It doesn't matter if you do remember our past, we'll never get back the life Dougal stole from us."

I could feel tears falling down my face, but I couldn't fight them. I lowered my voice and added, "You're a goddamned leech, and I'm not the same woman you're trying to remember." I spun away, unable to look at him any longer and see the tender expression on his face. I would have walked away, as far as I could have on the balcony anyway, but his voice stopped me.

"But I love you."

His words hit me like a fist to the stomach. I felt all the strength go out of my legs and would have fallen but he was there to catch me before I hit the ground. He turned me around and cradled me against his chest, one arm supporting me and the other smoothing my hair. He held me tenderly, even lovingly as I fought to control my tears.

"I never stopped loving you," he whispered gently. "I only forgot what love was for a time."

I couldn't answer just then. I gulped air into my lungs, trying frantically to stop the sobs that overwhelmed me. Mac picked me up in his arms and carried me into the suite where he sat me down gently on one of the couches.

He crouched at my feet with both of his hands on my legs just below my knees. I bit my lip and studied his face, searching for some sign of the love I remembered from our past. Through my tears I could see it shining on his face when he gave me a small smile.

"I never forgot," I whispered fiercely.

He moved to sit on the couch, turning with a leg tucked under him so that his body faced me. He put his right hand on my leg just above the knee and rested the left behind me on the couch.

I sat looking at his hand, not knowing what to say. I could feel his gaze on my face, but I couldn't bring myself to look at him because I was afraid of what I would say. More than anything I wished for a stake in my hands just so that they had something to do.

Without a word he reached behind my back with his left hand and brought out the other stake I kept in the small of my back. He handed it to me and I took it with a chuckle. He knew me too well, even with only some of his memories returned to him.

I glanced at him, knowing that I'd never stopped loving him. I'd never forgotten what it had been like to lay in his arms, to feel his love all the way to my soul. I knew that there would be no better time to admit that I still loved him, that I did want us to be together again, no matter how much our lives had changed.

I took a breath to tell him all of this, but the sound of his cell phone ringing cut through the room like a knife.

He pulled the phone out a little awkwardly with his left hand, leaving his right on my leg. "Hello?"

I could hear the man on the other end without even trying. "Yeah, I'm trying to reach E—" The voice stopped abruptly, but I'd already recognized it. Why the hell was Glenn calling? "Mac?"

"Yes?" Cormac replied after a brief hesitation.

"Cormac Brennan," Glenn drawled. "I can honestly say that I never thought I'd hear your voice again. Eliza tells me you've changed since the last time I saw you."

"Yes," he said wryly. Somehow I think he actually knew who he was talking to.

"Well, she's in a position to know."

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

Mac leaned forward and looked into my tearstained face. "Yes."

"She's having some difficulty sticking to the agreement, hmm?" Glenn asked. Trust him to cut to the painful truth.

"The agreement?"

"You know," he said patiently. "The whole 'if we're embraced we take care of the problem'?"

"It appears so, yes." Cormac's voice was cooling quickly, and I closed my eyes trying to block out their conversation. It didn't work.

"It's standard in war, Mac," Glenn told him. "Anyone who goes over to the other side is killed as a rule. Cuts down on betrayals that way."

"I have betrayed no one," he replied in a hard voice.

"From what I hear on the street, Eliza's changed as well," Glenn continued. "She won't say what happened, Mac. What do you know about it?"

"To what are you asking, Glenn?" he asked carefully.

"What do you know about her activities the last oh, ten years or so?"

I closed my eyes and hoped that Cormac wouldn't get me killed.

"She's joined the Society," he said after a moment.

"And the reason for that would be?"

I held my breath and bit my lip anxiously waiting Mac's reply.

"Her reasons are her own." His voice had a tone of finality to it, and I think Glenn remembered him enough to know that.

"Is she there?"

"Just a moment," he took his hand from my knee long enough to cover the receiver. "Glenn would like to speak to you," he told me.

I looked up, trying to pretend surprise. "Glenn?" I tossed the stake onto the table and wiped the tears from my face before I took the phone. "Glenn," I said in greeting as the man beside me returned his hand to my knee.

"Hey," Glenn said softly. "Bobby wanted me to let you know that if you think it should be done, he thinks he should do it."

My heart clenched at the thought of my lover dead, really dead this time. I should have known that Bobbie would feel that way when he learned of Mac's embrace. "I understand."

"Do you think that will be necessary, Eliza?" Glenn asked. "How is he?"

"Not so much different," I told him slowly, avoiding answering him. "Hell, haven't we've all changed in the last twenty years?"

"So I'm hearing on the street, Eliza," he murmured dangerously. "And I don't like what I'm hearing."

This was exactly the last thing I needed. If Glenn thought I was working for the Kindred he'd see me dead just as easily as it was going to be for me to kill Kate. "You never paid much attention to rumor before, what's making you start now?"

He paused for a moment, then said, "You still want to know if Kate had anything to do with the raids?"

"You know I do," I replied without hesitation, although I wasn't sure it was even relevant anymore. She had to die, and I would see to it the first chance I got. Her ghoul coming out of Corrine's apartment building was too much of a coincidence to be trusted. I was still having trouble believing she'd been at the apartment the night of the raid, but the Mac I'd once known would never have lied to me.

"I've still got contacts in Baltimore that I'm waiting to hear back on. I may know something concrete in a few days," Glenn said, interrupting my thoughts.

I stood up, remembering abruptly that if I had heard Glenn while Cormac had been on the phone, he was probably hearing Glenn too. "Thanks, Glenn. I owe you one," I said softly as I walked away from the couch.

"I have contacts in Salem, too, Eliza," he said warningly.

I took a slow deep breath and wondered exactly what he meant by that. "Yeah?"

"I keep hearing Kate's name brought up with yours," he told me. "Talk has it that she's your master."

"Yeah, right," I said dryly. "That's no more true now that it was in Baltimore, Glenn, believe me."

"Why does it sound like you're not telling me everything?"

Damn, was everyone reading my mind tonight? I told him the only thing I could. "I've got someone I'm protecting."

"Cormac?" he asked in disbelief.

"No," I said firmly. "No, someone who means a lot more than that. Someone I'd kill over, Glenn, even him if it came down to it." And I would. I'd do anything to protect our daughter, even that.

Glen gave a low whistle. "You find yourself a new boyfriend without giving me one last chance?"

I laughed wryly at that. We had dated once, not long before Mac had showed up in Baltimore. "Yeah, right," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm, then added softly. "Not exactly."

"New girlfriend?"

That was it, I didn't want to deal with Glenn anymore. What I wanted was to have Mac hold me in his arms, erase the last twenty years with a kiss and tell me everything would work out in the end. Somehow I didn't think that was going to happen tonight, not after this call.

"What was it you needed, Glenn?" I demanded softly. "What did you call for? For that matter, how the hell did you get my number? I assume you got Cormac's number from my answering machine."

"So its still Cormac, is it?" he murmured. "I thought by now you'd be calling him Mac again."

I closed my eyes, admitting to myself that I had been calling him Mac. Glenn had no idea what I was going through, so I forgave the insult in his voice. "Give it up," I said, suddenly very tired. I ran a hand across my eyes. "What do you need?"

"I was just checking in to see how you were doing," he replied smoothly. "I haven't heard from you in a while, and I've been worried."

"You didn't hear from me in nineteen years," I reminded him coldly. "You heard from me two days ago, and now you're suddenly worried?"

"What can I say?" he asked. "You bring out the protectiveness in me."

"Yeah," I replied sarcastically, not believing it for one second. "Well, I'm busy, so unless you need something specific…?"

"Not really," he said. "Just checking in, seeing if you want me to send Bobby up there to Salem."

"There's nothing in Salem for him to do," I told him honestly. Even if I would let Bobby anywhere near Mac, we weren't in Salem.

"All right," he murmured. "You know how to reach me. If you get yourself into trouble, don't hesitate to call."

"If you hear anything more about Kate," I began softly.

"You'll be the first to know," he assured me.

I breathed a silent sigh of relief that he was still willing to help me even though I'd been less than cooperative with him. "Thanks."

"Bye."

I hung up the phone and looked over at Cormac, not really surprised to see that he had the cold expression I was now used to seeing on his face was back. I walked back to hand him his phone, then continued on to stand by the fireplace.

I stared down into the hearth that looked as cold and as empty as I felt. I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed my warm, caring Mac until I'd had him again for those few minutes. I bit the inside of my lip until it bled to stop the tears from starting once again. Whatever chance that Gustav had given us was passed and its loss brought back all of the grief and pain I'd felt when Mac had died nineteen years ago.