Justine Ch. 14

He had been brutally honest with her even when she was human explaining to her that he could never love her as he was supposed to love his mate but she hadn't cared and offered to help him in his side business. Not one to turn away free help and a willing bed partner, he turned her and instantly regretted it.

They had been together for almost a century before Olivia finally understood that Jeremiah was incapable of loving anyone, even his mate but by then, she was in too deep with his operations. It was a fact that he reminded her of on a daily basis.

"You are as guilty as I am." he told her, "You entered into this business with your eyes open and stayed even after I gave you the chance to leave."

Jeremiah continued watching her; she was beautiful with her dark brown eyes and dimples when she smiled. For just a moment, he felt regret that he didn't love her then and that he didn't love her now and if it would have shortened his sentence, he would thrown her under the bus and not looked back.

Olivia looked back at him with eyes filled with love, hatred and anger. The one thing that she didn't feel was pity. He was getting everything that he deserved for what he did to all of those women and for not accepting her. She was more than willing to take her punishment, it was as the queen said, she had betrayed her sisters and for what? A vampire who cared nothing for her. She couldn't place the entire blame on him, he did warn her and he did offer her a way out that she had foolishly turned down. Now she was facing an eternity in prison, it was what she deserved and she wouldn't fight it. She saw Jeremiah watching her with a look on his face that she knew well; he wanted something from her.

He wanted her to lie.

Any hope that Olivia would lie for him was dashed when he saw Mikhail appear in front of her cell. And really, what lie could she tell? That Josephine was dead? It wouldn't matter; they wouldn't believe her. The consensus was that Josephine was alive and even if she did lie for him, they wouldn't believe her. He turned away, went to his cot and sat down to wait for Mikhail to finish with Olivia who would spend eternity in prison. Of all of the women, she had been the one that Justine had been the hardest on because she had been the one to find the other women who helped them and she had willingly volunteered her services. To Justine that made her an equal partner and the only reason that Olivia wasn't sharing his fate was because she was a woman. Her life in prison would be far from easy but she wouldn't be physically punished.

He envied her.

*****************************

Mikhail had the other women moved to another cell. He wanted to talk to Olivia alone and didn't want her to have any support from the other women. Olivia remained standing after the other women were gone and wondered what was going to happen to her.

"Please sit." Mikhail said politely but left no question as to whether it was an order or not.

Olivia sat on the cot, put her hands in her lap and began to wring them.

"I am Mikhail."

Olivia paled; she knew about Mikhail and had heard the stories about him and wasn't sure if she believed them. Now that he was sitting in front of her, she wasn't so sure that the stories weren't true. The fact that he had never hurt a woman with the exception of one didn't ease her mind, there was always a first time.

Mikhail watched Olivia struggle with her fear and felt no sympathy for her. He could have assured her that he wasn't going to hurt her but as far as he was concerned, she didn't deserve it. He let her squirm for a few more minutes before he spoke to her.

"Were you in the house the night that Josephine Graves was there?"

"No." she replied.

Mikhail leaned forward, smiled at her and then sat back.

"You're lying and I don't like being lied to, I will only ask you this once more, were you in the house that night?"

Olivia swallowed. There was no point in lying, "yes I was there."

"That's better," Mikhail said. "Tell me what you saw and heard."

Olivia's story was the same as Jeremiah's but with one difference, she followed Malcolm and knew exactly where he left the body.

"Did you see what happened to the body after Malcolm left?"

"If I tell you what I know, will you go to the queen on my behalf?" Olivia asked in spite of her belief that she deserved her prison sentence.

"No because you will tell me what I want to know anyway." Mikhail replied. "Tell me what you saw."

Olivia tried to resist but within five minutes, Mikhail knew everything that she did.

He now had confirmation that Josephine Graves was alive. Now he had to find her.

*******************************

Josephine

Josephine sipped at the cup of bagged blood and openly watched her captors. They were nervous but not afraid... yet. Whatever David said to Freddie, it had him on high alert. She watched as he talked to Eppi and felt Eppi's sense of alarm grow.

David was coming.

She closed her eyes and tried to reach out to him but felt nothing. She tried to vanish but couldn't. Instead of becoming frustrated, she leaned back against the wall and waited. She took the time to think about everything that David told her. She could accept that he was trying to protect her but not to tell her about her child was unconscionable and wrong no matter the reason. It meant that he didn't trust her and that hurt.

"What have you done with your life?" Josephine murmured as she thought about the last time....she sat up straighter. She remembered the last time she saw Justine! Justine was three at the time and was crying for her not to go work. She almost changed her mind but went anyway. And that's where the memory stopped. She frantically tried to recall more and became frustrated when she couldn't.

When she opened her eyes both Freddie and Eppi were staring at her with shocked expressions on their faces.

"What?" she asked.

"What are you?" Eppi asked.

"What do you mean what am I?" Josephine snapped. "I'm your captive! Remember?"

"No... I mean yeah but your eyes, what's wrong with them?" Eppi asked in a hushed voice.

"Nothing! What are you talking about?" Josephine asked.

"They're not the same color... they're different." Freddie replied as he went to get a mirror.

When he found one, he handed it to Josephine who warily looked into it. Her eyes widened as she looked at her reflection. They were right; her eyes had changed. Instead of being their normal brown, they were black but that wasn't the alarming thing. It was the deep purple flames that danced around them that startled her. She blinked rapidly in an attempt to get her eyes to go back to their normal color.

"Who are you?" Freddie asked as the sweet smell of his fear wafted toward her. Although he had seen her eyes before, he was still startled. The colors hadn't been so intense.

"I.... I don't know." Josephine whispered too in shock to notice the scent of fear coming from the men.

"Maybe we should let her go." Eppi said as he backed away.

Josephine's head snapped toward him, the smell of his fear was much greater than Freddie's and drew her like a magnet.

Freddie saw what was happening and backed away while talking to Josephine.

"Easy lady, you don't want to hurt anyone." he said in a low calm voice.

Josephine turned to look at him, her eyes burning brightly.

"Don't I?" she asked. "You brought me here against my will, you lied to me and you killed an innocent but even so, I gave you opportunity to let me go to my mate."

"I know." Freddie said, 'but you don't seem the type to hurt someone. How about we let Eppi go get some air and I'll stay here."

"How about you call my mate and tell him where to find me and I may just let you live." Josephine countered.

She listened to herself talk and hardly recognized herself. In her past life, she would never have threatened someone but here she was doing just that. In her past life she cared for people and didn't hurt them even the ones that had tried to hurt her. She looked over at Eppi who had backed himself all the way to the other side of the room but she could still smell him.

"Lady...."

"Shut up!" Josephine snapped as she fought for control. "Get him out of here!"

Eppi didn't need to be told twice. He vanished from where he stood to the outside where he saw several vampires walking around the buildings. Without a word to Freddie, he vanished to one of their emergency hiding spots.

Freddie was on his own to face Josephine.

******************************

David continued his patrol of the area frequently checking in with the others but not really expecting them to have anything to report. The phone call from Delgado hadn't come yet and he was becoming impatient. The urge to call to check on progress nagged at him but he resisted. Delgado would call when he knew something.

He had just circled a building for what seemed to be the hundredth time when he felt a disturbance. He turned around just in time to see someone, a male vampire vanish. It could have been someone walking in the area and became nervous when they saw all of his men but he didn't think so. He would have wagered his considerable fortune that the vanishing vampire was one of the ones that had Josephine.

"At least we're in the right spot." he murmured as he called to one of the vampires.

"Walk with me." he said.

He and the vampire walked to the spot where Eppi had disappeared. Davis and the vampire sniffed the air trying to pick up Freddie's scent.

"Do you smell him?" David asked his fangs descended.

"I smell him and he is afraid." the vampire replied.

"Find him and bring him here... and Bruno? I need him alive." David said.

"I understand." Bruno replied and vanished.

After Bruno was gone, David continued his walk calling out to Josephine every few minutes willing her to answer him. He took comfort in knowing that she was close and that she was alive but she might as well have been on another planet.

******************************

Eppi went to the closest of their hideaways and began to pack up the cash that they had there. From there he would go to the next place, take the money and then repeat the process until he had taken the money from each place. By the time he was finished, he would have almost a million in cash. As he packed, he gave no thought to his cousin Freddie even though he was alive because of him.

He had actually made it to the third hiding place when he felt someone in the room with him.

*****************************

Justine and Violet were talking about the past and what mistakes had been made.

"You are the only person that I will tell this to." Violet said. "I never wanted to be queen. All I ever wanted was to have a normal life with Edward but as you know, I had no real choice. There were and are many things that I didn't address because I simply didn't care."

"Why didn't you resign earlier than you did?" Justine asked.

"For one, you weren't born yet and two, there was some vanity involved. I didn't want to be the queen with the shortest reign. But as soon as I knew of your birth, I resigned although I had to wait for you to grow up and to come to us."

"You knew when I was born?"

"Yes, just as the queen before me knew when I was born. Like me, she didn't want to be queen and like me, she had no choice in the matter. As soon as she knew of my birth, she began to prepare for her retirement. She handed me a list much like the one I gave you and was gone before I could ask any questions. I'm sorry to say that I did very little with it but added to it. When Edward almost died, I lost what little interest I had. I prayed for your safety every night and began to prepare for your arrival and when you were turned, it was all that I could do not to grab you myself."

"You hated it that much?" Justine asked.

"Hate is too strong of a word but I was very unhappy. The only thing that made it bearable was Edward. Justine, I am so happy that you're here but sorry for the mess that we left you."

Justine smiled at her, "don't worry, as I said I like a challenge. But I have a question for you."

"Of course." Violet replied.

"What rights do women have in the vampire world? Are they and children protected?"

Violet looked away and then back at Justine.

"They're not? No wonder bastards like Jeremiah Mathers got away with murder!" Justine exclaimed. "If anything needed to be addressed, it's the safety of women and children human or not. As a woman I'm surprised that you or none of the queens before you addressed this issue. However, I want to take it a step further, I want everyone who feels that they are at risk included and I don't care if they are male, female, wolf... it doesn't matter. This is what I want you to do; I want you to write down ideas on what we need to do to change this. Tell Zoe and Pam to do the same thing. In fact, ask all of the women to do it and any of the men. Me, you, Pam and Zoe will meet in a week to talk about it and then you can tell me how to make the announcement so that it reaches everyone.

"Yes my queen." Violet said softly.

"What? Oh geez Violet will you knock it off? I'm not angry with you but you have to admit that this should have been a priority no matter how much you disliked your position."

"You're right." Violet conceded.

"Let's just get it done alright?" Justine asked.

*********

A few minutes later, Justine was meeting with Mikhail.

"Wait for a few minutes, Quinn is on his way." she said when he came in.

While they waited, Mikhail brought up his idea about hunting for her and Quinn.

"I have contacts and I am sure that there are those that you want to find in order to bring them to justice."

"You miss it don't you?" Justine asked. "You love Zoe and I know that if I said no that you would accept it but you would be unhappy."

"What you say is true." Mikhail replied.

"How many vampires would you want on your team?" she asked.

"I would like two teams each with alternates in case of injury, death or emergency."

"Mated or unmated?"

"Both. There are those who have mates who understand and are supportive and the teams are a male/female pairing."

"How many on each team and how many alternates?"

"Eight to a team with two alternates pairs for each team." Mikhail replied liking the way that Justine fired questions at him.

"Women?"

Mikhail hesitated; he had known that the subject would come up. He and Zoe had discussed it at great length.

"Yes."

"In addition to the men?"

"Each team would consist of four pairs. The alternates would also be a male/female pairing. Several of the team members that I would use are mated couples." Mikhail replied.

"What would your role be?" Justine asked, "Zoe isn't a hunter."

They had talked about that too.

"We have discussed it." Mikhail replied. "My partner will also be female but she will lead the other team."

Justine tapped the arms of her chair for several seconds.

"I like it." she said, "we'll run it by Quinn when he gets here but I don't see him having a problem with it."

Quinn appeared a few minutes later. He had been working on the indoor garden and taking pictures. He wasn't too surprised to discover that he missed working with his hands and taking his pictures.

"What'd I miss?" he asked as he kissed Justine and nodded at Mikhail.

"Hunting teams... I like it." he said after Mikhail explained what he wanted to do. "But I have a couple of stipulations, I want us to meet each and every member of your teams and that includes the alternates and I want frequent updates."

"Agreed." Mikhail said and launched into the next topic of business. "I talked to one of the women downstairs, Olivia Lipton. She was at the house the night that Jeremiah had Malcolm take your mother away. She followed Malcolm to where he took the body of your mother and left it."

"Was she aware that she was still alive?" Justine asked.

"Yes."

"Did she do anything to help her?"

"No." Mikhail replied. "She said that she thought about it but had no place to take her."

"So she just left her there." Quinn murmured.

"What else?" Justine asked.

"I had people go to the house and go an hour away in each direction. There were only two directions in which your mother could have been taken. The one direction was ruled out because the only place that she could have been taken led to a hotel for humans and I believe that it was another vampire who found her. But the second direction was near a hotel that was and is owned by vampires. There was a conference that week and I think that someone from that conference found your mother and took her with him. I am in the process of getting the guest list for that week and also the names of everyone who was working that week."

"Who do you have doing this?" Quinn asked.

"Pending your approval, members of my team." Mikhail replied.

"I want them here as soon as possible." Justine said, "And they don't have to come together."

"Will tomorrow evening be soon enough?" Mikhail asked.

"Perfect." Justine said.

"There's one more thing that you need to know." Mikhail said, "Olivia Lipton is Jeremiah's mate. I only know this because she told me."

"Why didn't I know this?" Justine asked.

"Because they weren't really bonded." Mikhail explained. "Jeremiah claimed her physically but that was as far as it went. They never lived together as a bonded couple and rarely had relations."

"Oh shit!" Justine exclaimed.

"She knew what he was doing." Mikhail continued, "She volunteered to help him."

"Let me guess." Justine said, "She wanted him to love her so she helped him even though she knew it was wrong."

"Yes and here's the surprising thing, he offered her a way out even after he turned her."

"And she refused?" Quinn asked.

"She still loves him as much as she hates and detests him." Mikhail said shrugging his shoulders. "She also accepts her sentence although she did ask me to speak to you on her behalf."

"Is that what you're doing?" Justine asked.

"Not at all, I'm just relaying the conversation that I had with her." Mikhail replied. "If you ask me, she's getting what she deserves. She was the one who got Zoe and Pam hired in at the firm. They only took you because Pam told them that it was a package deal and you intrigued Jeremiah. She did say that Malcolm tried to warn his uncle against hiring you and she agreed but only because she saw you as competition."

"Alright, her sentence stands." Justine said, "What's your next step?" she asked Mikhail.

As soon as we have the guest list for that week, we'll start contacting the guests. We're already interviewing the hotel staff that worked that night in the hopes that one of them will remember something."

"What are you thinking?" Quinn asked as he took Justine's hand in his.

"This is purely speculation but I don't believe that she's in the country." he replied.

"Because?" Justine asked.

"If I had found her, I wouldn't have stayed. I would have taken her back to Russia. Why? Because I wouldn't have known who left her for dead or if they were still looking for her."

"But what about her child?" Quinn asked.

"If she was unconscious or if she had lost her memory for some reason I wouldn't have thought about a child. My concern would have been for her safety." Mikhail replied.

"Jussie?" Quinn asked when he realized that she wasn't saying anything.

"What.... What if someone like the vampire that found Natalia has her? Or someone like Napoleon?" she asked her eyes brimming with tears that steamed as they ran down her cheeks.

"Justine," Mikhail called softly, "we will find her I promise you."

"Mikhail, could you give us a few minutes?" Quinn asked.

"Of course." Mikhail replied, "I have a few follow up phone calls to make."