"You still have not told me what you were doing," she reminded her companion softly.
Levet paused, his expression troubled. "I am not certain that your captor would wish me to share what I have discovered."
"And?"
There was another pause before the gargoyle gave a sudden smile. "And so of course I will happily share whatever you wish to know."
Darcy returned the smile. She had known from the beginning she was going to like this tiny demon.
"Tell me where you've been," she demanded.
A hint of smugness touched Levet's smile. "While your so brave champion was still recovering from his near fatal wound, I managed to slip into the werewolf lair."
Aha, she knew it.
She managed to look suitably impressed. "How very clever, not to mention brave, of you."
Levet gave a flap of his wings. "Ah well. I have something of a reputation for being astonishingly courageous when the situation demands it."
"I can understand why." Darcy's gaze shifted to the envelope in his hand. "Did you discover anything of value?"
"It is certainly intriguing."
"May I see?" She held out her hand, her brows lifting as he hesitated. "Levet?"
He grimaced as he heaved a rumbling sigh. "I suppose you must see them at some point, although I'll no doubt find my manly parts chiseled off when I awaken."
The chill traveled to the pit of her stomach. She couldn't imagine what the Weres might possess that would concern her. And she had to admit that there was a small part of her that felt a measure of unease.
Secrets were dangerous beasts.
They could reach out and bite a person when least expected.
Still, she had to know. She simply had to.
"What is it?" she rasped.
With an awkward motion the gargoyle shoved the envelope into her hand. "Here."
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she settled in one of the wooden chairs that were set around the table. It seemed a wise precaution, since her knees already felt weak.
After opening the envelope, she pulled out a stack of photos and spread them on the table.
"Gripes," she breathed, her gaze narrowing as she regarded the numerous pictures. They were all of her, and all taken over the past two weeks. Her in the grocery store. Her in the park. Her in her small apartment (thank God in the kitchen, not the bathroom). A wave of nausea rolled through her stomach. "They have been spying on me. That's just. . . creepy."
"There is more," Levet said softy.
Darcy glanced up in surprise as Levet handed her another photo that he had kept hidden.
Taking the picture, Darcy felt her heart give a violent leap as she studied the woman with long, pale blond hair and green eyes.
If she hadn't been obviously older with longer hair, she might have passed as Darcy's identical twin.
"My God. She looks like me," she breathed.
"Yes."
"She has to be a relative." Darcy licked her suddenly dry lips as she glanced up to meet Levet's guarded gaze. "Perhaps even ... my mother."
Feeling as if her entire world had tilted to a strange angle, Darcy didn't even notice the tall, silent form who entered the room and regarded her with a searching gaze.
Not until a cool hand touched her shoulder. "Darcy, what is it?"
With a tiny jump she tilted her head back to discover that Styx was standing directly behind her chair.
Her hand trembled as she held out the shocking photo. "Look."
Unexpectedly, his lean features hardened with a dangerous anger. "Where did this come from?"
Levet stepped forward, his expression stubborn. "Salvatore's lair. You did tell me to search it."
The vampire gave a soft hiss of annoyance. "And to bring whatever you discovered to me, not Darcy. What the hell were you thinking?"
Darcy blinked in bewilderment even as the gargoyle gave a nervous flutter of his wings.
"Why should she not see? The pictures do, after all, concern her."
"Of course they concern me," she said, rising to her feet. She didn't understand Styx's odd reaction, and at the moment she was too overwhelmed to give it much thought. Nothing mattered but the picture. "This is ... I don't know. I must speak with Salvatore."
"Out of the question."
Darcy stiffened as she glared at the vampire looming over her. For the first time she noticed the elegant robe that was draped over his shoulders. No doubt a symbol of his authority.
A symbol that had obviously gone to his head if he thought he could order her around as if she were one of his vampire flunkies.
"It most certainly is not out of the question." She waved the picture beneath his arrogant nose. "Do you understand what this means? I have ... family. And the werewolf knows who and where she is."
With a blur of motion he had snatched the picture from her fingers and was glaring at her with smoldering black eyes.
"And what if it is nothing more than a trick?"
She took an instinctive step back from the prickling power that shimmered in the air around him.
"What do you mean?"
"Salvatore is desperate to get his hands on you. Do you think he wouldn't stoop to any means to lure you into his clutches?"
Something very close to disappointment clenched her heart. Perhaps it was understandable that Styx would treat anything that had been in the hands of the Weres with suspicion, but he could at least try to understand her excitement.
For goodness sake, she had waited for this moment for thirty years.
"That is no trick." She pointed at the picture in his hand. "Whoever that woman is she looks like me. Enough like me to be my mother."
"Darcy..."
He reached out as if he would stroke her cheek, but Darcy quickly darted away. She wouldn't be distracted by his tender caress.
This was too important.
"No. I have to know."
Impatience rippled over his beautiful features before he managed to regain that cool control that was so much a part of him.
"Then we will discover the truth," he said with dark authority.
"How?"
He gave a lift of his shoulder. "I will approach Salvatore myself."
Darcy rolled her eyes. "Right, because it worked out so well for you last time."
A hint of fang flashed at her deliberate jab. He didn't like to be reminded that Salvatore had ever gotten the best of him.
"I was caught off guard. I assure you, that will not happen again."
Darcy believed him. He would kill the pureblood before he would allow himself to be humiliated again.