Page 54 of Dark Obsession

“Yeah. Oh, wow. He told you all of that?”

“He did. And I could tell how much it meant to him that you trusted him so much. I could also see how much you meant to him.”

Her brows knitted, and she wiped more tears from her cheeks. “Thanks for saying that. He meant a lot to me, too.”

“He never tried to turn you?” Cody asked.

“God, no.” She pressed her lips tight as she shook her head. “He hated being one himself, and he definitely didn’t want me to become one.” She was quiet for a moment, then said in a soft voice, “Just because someone comes from a monster, that doesn’t make them one.”

Demmy cleared his throat and asked, “Is there a new Michael in town? Does he own The Rusty Screw or something?”

Zenona sighed. “It’s not really like that.”

“We’re here to listen,” Demmy said.

She nodded and sat back. “It started when I found Michael’s journal. Not long after he, well, died, I went through the drawers of his desk in the morgue. I wanted to clear out anything that might, I don’t know, confuse someone else or damage his reputation. He was a great coroner and doctor. I didn’t want people to think badly about him.”

“Right, of course,” Cody said.

“I found his journal in a drawer. It’s bound in leather and very thick. The first date noted in the beginning was from 1999.”

“Twenty-seven years?” Cody said. “That’s a lot of dear diary entries.”

“He didn’t write every day,” she said. “Just important things.” Her cheeks turned pink and she looked down at her hands in her lap.

“Did he write about you?” Demmy asked gently.

The blush deepened, but she lifted her head. A smile lifted the corners of her mouth, changing her entirely.

“He did,” she said. “I couldn’t help checking for it first.” A tear ran down her cheek and she swiped it away. “I also found a spare key to his house and let myself in. He had so many other journals he’d filled over the years. I’ve read most of the entries.” She smiled sadly. “I hear his voice in my head when I read his words.”

“Girls always go for the guys with the accents,” Cody said, and they all laughed quietly.

“Sounds like he was really lonely after he left Aldrik and Xavier,” Demmy said.

Zenona nodded. “He was. But it was better once he moved here.”

“Better?” Demmy said, a hint of caution in his voice.

“Yeah.” She shifted in the chair and her fingers tightened on the arms. “You know, he could never really get close to any human, and his own kind felt threatened by his insistence to not feed on people. But he met some others who were interested in his ideas.”

“Others?” Cody caught himself clenching his hands and forced his fingers to loosen. “How many others?”

“He never specified a number,” she said. “But when I read the entries from the time before we met, I came across the name of someone he’d met soon after arriving in this area. Another vampire.”

“What was the name?” Cody asked.

Zenona looked him in the eye. “Marlowe.”