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((This is the resolution to the Jessalyn and Mischa story. It happened in late 2007. I'm not sure why she hadn't sent it to the list, but I found it in my mailbox today. Enjoy and if you know where Ivy/Jessalyn got off to, please drop me an email))
Jessalyn took the reins from the groom and swung up into the saddle. No sooner was she settled than the groom stepped back and Thunder Child took off at a full gallop. He stepped back to watch them depart for a long moment before returning to the stables. Something was up. Miss Jess hadn't looked that bedeviled since her parents died, and security had been tightened pretty hard around the estate. He also had noticed that beneath her jacket she was carrying a gun. Why would she want a weapon for just a ride around the estate?
Jess let the horse have his way for a bit, letting him burn off his restlessness until they reached the copse by the river. Then she reined him in, not wanting him to stumble within the shadows. He fought for a moment and then settled, like he always did. She knew him well, she'd raised him from a colt.
She wondered why she always came here when troubled. The night she had been told her parents' plane had gone down, she had spent the night among the trees, just watching the river. Now, she felt as if her own life were over as well. Reluctantly she let her thoughts return to the night Wyatt was tortured. The night she'd betrayed him to Sandra and Dmitri. She supposed she could blame the blood bond for that, but she was strong enough to take the blame for her own actions. She just wasn't sure she could live with it though. Maybe she wasn't as strong as she thought. The two Kindred had treated it like a game, it didn't matter to them that they were inflicting pain on a living person. As Sandra said, it was okay, he was a ghoul...like her.
She tried to figure out what had unsettled her so that night, and she finally realized what it was. When Dmitri had insulted her, Sandra hadn't stood up for her so much as she had tried to placate him. That said a lot...little by little that night, she had gotten the feeling she was a chaperone for the two of them. Now that was a nightmare of a thought. Imagine, being a chaperone for the Marquis de Sade...yeesh! That could curl anyone's toes. Still, she had to face that the person she depended on for protection seemed to be falling under the spell, if you like, of a man who would like to see her dead and based on his actions that night, one who would prolly enjoy torturing her just to find what she knew. And as Sandra had said, "It's all right, he's a ghoul."
Away from there, she could think more clearly, and she had to admit it was a clever strategy. The only way to get to her would be to subvert Sandra..and she couldn't go to Fursa to talk about her fears, the blood bond wouldn't let her do anything that would be against the interests of either regnant. What a mess. She considered simply never returning, but while Sandra might shrug it off, Fursa never would. She wasn't the kind to leave a loose end in anything. So she was well and truly trapped.
Thunder Child skittered sideways suddenly, yanking her thoughts back to the present. A man stepped from the shadows, and within the space of a heartbeat she knew why he was there.
The Police in New Orleans today announced that it was investigating the disappearance of heiress Jessica Lynn Waters as a possible homicide. Blood found on a tree trunk by the river suggests that she was thrown from her horse and knocked unconscious before falling into the water. Dredging though, has failed to turn up a body. Miss Waters had returned home two days before and after meeting with her lawyers, she had changed her will, substituting several charities in place of her former heir. Police are now looking to question the woman, though she lives out of state.
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