Anything For Rachel

Chapter Thirty Four.

Calvin stretched his arm out in front of me protectively and glared at Lexton.

"What are you doing here?" He snapped. "How did you escape?"

Lexton stayed about a yard away from us, her hands down at her sides and she kept her expression even. "The same way you all did." She said simply. "I've been to the garden plenty of times, and with everything the way it was, I didn't want to risk staying there anymore." She took a tentative step forward, but I pushed out from behind Calvin and stood in front of him.

"How do we know you aren't infected, Lexton?" I demanded. "You need to stay back."

She stepped back and held up her hands. "I'm not." She assured me, but I still didn't want her anywhere near Calvin. "I came after you because I needed to tell you both something." She said softly, then looked around. "But can we do it somewhere a little less private? The sun is about to rise too." She said nervously looking up at the dark grey sky, the light snow slowly turning into an icy drizzle.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Why less private?" I asked her.

"Because I'm afraid he'll kill me." She whispered, looking at Calvin. "I want to be in front of other people...humans, before I tell you."

A new chill covered my skin that had nothing to do with the coldness. I glanced at Calvin and he nodded to me as we turned to walk inside the hotel lobby. "This is as public as it is going to get." Calvin said harshly as he pointed over to the little older man standing behind the check-in desk trying to keep his heavily wrinkled eyes open. "Now tell me."

"I think I know one of the men against you." She said softly, pulling her slightly damp hair to one side and keeping her eyes cast down. "About a year ago, there was a man...His name was Demetri, and he was visiting Castrum de Petra for a month or so." She whispered. "In his time, we became...intimate."

"He was a vampire?" I asked and she nodded. "Why do you think he's one of the rebels?"

Lexton shook her head at herself. "He was...not a nice man." She chose her words carefully. "He was kind to me, but in hindsight it was probably just to see what I might have known about you." She told Calvin. "He hated you."

"Calvin?" I asked her. "Why would anyone hate Calvin?"

"I don't know." She answered, looking up at Calvin. "But he was never quiet about his distaste for you." She shrugged. "He said you'd wronged him and he wanted you to pay."

"Wronged him how?" Calvin asked, putting his hand to his chin.

"He never said, but you have to understand, at the time, I was very angry with you. Hated you even. I was also forthcoming of my feelings towards you, and he'd ask me questions about you. It always seemed innocent, just little things here and there, but...one night, we were in bed and we had been drinking and he asked me about the night that Rachel had supposedly died."

Calvin started shaking his head. "Lexton, tell me you didn't."

Her face crumpled and she sat down in the little chair behind her. "I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking, and I thought I could trust him...I know I was wrong, but in the moment, when he asked, I told him my doubts." She admitted. "I told him about how you saved me and then went to rescue Rachel. I told him that I never believed that you'd been killed."

"Dammit, Lexton." He snapped angrily, and then lowered his voice when the little hotel clerk looked up and over towards us. "I can't believe you did this."

She looked ashamed, and her eyes filled with tears as she looked up. "There's more."

My heart began to pound, and I had to cover my mouth with my hand.