"Do you think it"s possible to lobotomize a vampire?" Simon queried Gabrielle, who was staring at the vampire on the floor in mute horror, no doubt wondering what Lord Baldevar had in mind for her.
He held her eyes. "Are you loyal to your master?"
She nodded silently.
"Wonderful. But Isaac does not seem to recall the first tenet of transformation.
Won"t you help him remember?"
"Obedience, master." Gabrielle quavered.
"Good girl," he said, giving her an icy smile. "All my children are required to give me unconditional obedience. Perhaps you simply forgot how to obey, Isaac?
You need what mortals now call a refresher course." Simon yanked the gold letter opener from Isaac"s head and plunged it into his stomach, making a neat incision all the way up to his heart.
Gabrielle clamped down on her lips to keep from screaming when Simon pulled Isaac"s entrails from his body, a small wrinkling of his nose at the gore piling at his expensive shoes the only change in his glacial expression.
"Good dog," Simon said, wrapping Isaac"s large intestines around his neck like a leash. "Come on, little doggie, sit up for your master or I"ll make your next few hours a living h.e.l.l you cannot begin to imagine."
The pain was excruciating, but Isaac knew it wouldn"t kill him. He"d continue to live in pain unless Lord Baldevar beheaded him or he managed to escape. Blood poured from his mouth and ears as he slowly, painfully pulled himself into a sitting position.
"Good boy," Simon said, looking down at the destroyed vampire with cold delight. "Now beg."
"Please, master," Isaac managed to croak.
"Let"s see if my dog can walk." Simon yanked on the entrails leash, dragging Isaac out of the room by his own intestines and gesturing for Gabrielle to follow.
Gabrielle followed them to the cellar, and became rigid when they approached an oak door. From the other side, she heard the unmistakable sounds of a vampire (no mortal could produce the horrible keen) screaming.
"Why doesn"t it open the door?" she said faintly.
"It can"t," Simon explained. "Alcuin was ever a thorn in my side but I learned one useful trick from him. You know how the vampire must beg admission to a house in those penny-dreadful books and movies? There actually is an obscure rite that can bar a vampire from entering any premises. Of course, it is not within a mortal"s power to set the spell another vampire must do it. My guest cannot cross the threshold of the room without my permission."
"Mon Dieu, "Gabrielle cried when Simon threw open the door and the filthy, mindless creature came running up to them. She took a step back in fear, but the thing approached the door and then put its hands to its face, whining as though someone had thrown battery acid in its eyes.
"Have you had the pleasure of meeting Jimmy Delacroix before tonight?"
Thunderstruck, Gabrielle stared at the howling, shrieking vampire. Pauvre enfant, she thought, the unfortunate man had not survived transformation. Now he was doomed to spend eternity mad, unable to think or reason or do anything but feed.
"He was Meghann"s mortal lover," Gabrielle whispered.
Simon smiled at his youngest sp.a.w.n; the boy had ventured back to the doorway, howling and frothing at the mouth. He smelled their blood, and wanted it. His rage came from not being able to get at them.
"Hungry?" Simon asked the uncomprehending vampire. The thing merely looked through him and continued to yowl.
"Step back," Simon commanded. It took a few moments but the new vampire finally obeyed his master and slunk into the farthest corner of the room.
Simon flung Isaac into the room. The wounded vampire couldn"t defend himself when Jimmy Delacroix leaped on top of him. In minutes, Isaac was dead.
Frustrated by death, the new vampire whined and tore the corpse apart in an attempt to find more blood. Soon however, the act of feeding forced him into an uneasy sleep.
"Why do you keep him alive, master?" Gabrielle asked. "Did you not say such creatures have no place in this world, that they could bring unwelcome attention from mortals since they do not have the wit to cover their crimes?"
"He will not be in the world long," Simon told her. "I keep him alive because he is a present for Meghann."
Gabrielle pouted at the mention of his consort and undid one hook in the back of her dress, standing before her master naked. "I loved you for hundreds of years before the wench was even born. She scorns you, and conspires with your enemies. Why not take a consort who will give you all you want?"
The kill excited her, Simon thought, observing her hard nipples and heavy breathing. It excited him too so he lifted the girl up and had her against the cement wall of the cellar.
"I am pleased to see Meghann no longer has a hold on your heart," Gabrielle said afterward, smiling.
Simon laughed, and tossed the vampire her dress. "Whether she does or not is no concern of yours." He laughed harder at the tears in Gabrielle"s turquoise eyes.
"You cannot be fool enough to think that quick, mundane coupling meant something?"
"What does Meghann have that I do not?" Gabrielle demanded angrily.
In response, Simon grabbed her long, silver-blond hair and pushed her into Jimmy Delacroix"s prison.
"You do not use such a tone when you address me."
"I"m sorry!" Gabrielle yelled. "Please, master!"
Abruptly, he let her go. "I forgive you it was your jealousy speaking. Have you lost your mind to think I would even contemplate making a baseborn wh.o.r.e my consort? All you offer me is well-used flesh but I can buy that from wh.o.r.es less vicious than you."
Gabrielle pursed her ruby-red lips but did not dare rebuke him. "I beg your pardon, master."
"Pay a forfeit and you shall be pardoned," Simon said and plunged his blood teeth into her neck.
At first, Gabrielle did not protest. But when he drained her to weakness, she tried vainly to push him off. Simon dropped her to the floor, where she glanced up. "Master, please "
He smiled cruelly and kicked the prostrate vampire. "Do you wish to live?"
"Please don"t kill me," she whimpered.
"Get up," Simon commanded, and Gabrielle pulled herself to her feet shakily.
Being bled made her dizzy but she did not dare disobey.
When they were back in the drawing room, Lord Baldevar handed her a thick portfolio bound in black leather. "This lists all my seized holdings and the vampires who have them. Visit every one of them and tell them what you witnessed tonight. Inform your friends that if my wealth is not transferred into the hands of my mortal attorneys within a fortnight, what Isaac suffered shall be mild compared to what I do to them." Simon waved his hand. "Go you are dismissed."
The vampire fled, and Simon went upstairs to pour himself a cognac. While he drank, Simon reflected on Gabrielle"s jealous interrogation what does Meghann have that I do not? A bemusing combination of wide-eyed, exuberant innocence and smoldering sensuality that enthralled him completely was the answer Simon would never give anyone, including the object of his affections. Only an utter fool would make himself vulnerable by telling a woman he desired his heart"s secrets Without warning, Simon was seized by a blinding pain that made him fall to the floor, the cognac snifter shattering as it fell from his hand. He gasped, but forced himself to seize the pain, to immerse himself in it so he could know where it came from.
Meghann ?
For a moment, her face floated before his eyes the green eyes bright with pain and fear, hair soaked in sweat. Don"t let me die!
Her image faded, along with the pain. Simon leaped to his feet, his heart pounding at the thought that Meghann was actually Discipline, he reminded himself sternly. This was no time to celebrate; he must confirm that brief psychic flash with Meghann.
Simon took a deep breath, and prepared himself for a session of astral spying.
In his last communication with Meghann, he"d a.s.sured her that she would not see him unless she wanted to. However, he said nothing about keeping an eye on her from time to time without her knowledge.
He hurried to the study, pleased to note that his human servant had already removed the bodies and tidied up, and withdrew a small stone filter from the wall safe. It contained Meghann"s blood a small bit he"d saved the night she had allowed him to feed from her. He lit a brazier, and threw the blood on the flames.
Simon concentrated his attention on the smoke rising from the brazier. The flames took hold, swirling together into one image a ma.s.s of cherry-red hair. He held on to the image of Meghann, commanding himself to follow her.
Small white room, bright light, antiseptic smell of cleanliness. Not a hospital, but a room a doctor had transformed into a makeshift hospital for his new patient. Easily, Simon picked up on the mortal in the room a middle-aged man with a bandaged nose and black eyes leaning anxiously over a body; he stood up and took a shaky breath No! Simon nearly lost the vision when his heart contracted at the sight of Meghann. His beautiful young girl, transformed by pain into a whimpering, emaciated skeleton, brow creased and eyes blazing from hollow sockets as unbearable agony made her scream.
"Don," the mortal pleaded, putting a hand over her mouth. "Honey, save your strength. Don"t scream like that."
"Ch Chart " she tried to say, and Simon watched Charles Tarleton grab her hands.
"What is it, Meghann?"
"I called him, Charles," she cried. "Simon I saw his face when when I convulsed he knows help me "
"Okay," Charles soothed. "Meghann, it"s all right. Maybe it"s for the best maybe he can help you. "
I"m the only one who can help her, nitwit.
Meghann bolted upright, grabbing Charles with a strength that surprised Simon.
"No," Meghann hissed. "You listen to me don"t let him near me."
"But if he can "
"No!" she yelled and fell against the pillows, the adrenaline abandoning her.
"Promise me he can"t know about the baby if it"s his help or my death, you let me die. Promise." "Meghann, I "
"Promise!" she screamed and her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she started hemorrhaging from her nose.
"Jesus," the mortal murmured after he cauterized her. "How the h.e.l.l is she still alive?"
"It takes a great deal to kill a vampire," Charles said shakily, staring down at his now unconscious friend.
The mortal frowned. "She needs blood."
"Of course she needs blood!" Charles screamed. "But anytime she drinks any, she vomits and now this! Now convulsions, seizures. My G.o.d, how can a vampire live if she can"t drink blood?"
The mortal shrugged helplessly. "I don"t understand I was so sure that if she drank your blood, the enzyme would be back in her system and she"d, recover. Instead "
"Instead, it made her sicker," Charles said tiredly and used a cloth to wipe the blood from Meghann"s upper lip. "Lee, what are we going to do? If only you could abort the fetus "
The mortal pointed to his bandaged nose. "I told you, all I did was put her legs in the stirrups and she woke up. She did this in the two seconds before she realized who I was. Jesus, I could be dead by now! Anyway, we can"t perform an abortion with her in this condition. It will kill her."
"She"s going to die anyway if we don"t figure out what"s making her reject blood. "
Simon felt an iron hand grab him and a cold voice intoned, "Leave my daughter alone, nephew."
He found himself back in the town house; Alcuin had used his spirit to forcibly remove Simon from the astral plane.
G.o.dd.a.m.n that meddling preacher! Even dead, Alcuin was still a problem. He still had enough power to protect his young apprentices, but how long could that last?
Simon smiled grimly; he"d heard enough to find Meghann. But his smile faded when he thought of all he"d witnessed.
Pregnant! He had to find Meghann; she"d die if he didn"t help her. He"d hoped, for her sake, she wouldn"t have to suffer through the sickness. There was no question she was going to grow weaker; Simon doubted Meghann or that young wretch had any idea what was needed to keep a pregnant vampire well. No doubt they"d try medical science and some educated poking through Alcuin"s archives.
For all the good that would do, they might as well use leeches to heal Meghann.
Magic would not be necessary to locate Meghann. Charles Tarleton had called the physician Lee. Lord Baldevar had a complete dossier on Charles Tarleton and remembered the sodomite had carried on an affair with some mortal physician named Lee about ten years ago.
Little one, he thought while turning on his laptop so he could access the files concerning Charles Tarleton, I know I told you that you would not see me again unless you wanted to. But you did just beg me not to let you die, did you not? I say that counts as an invitation. His lips twitched when he thought of how indignant Meghann would be when she found out the only person who could save her now was her master.
CHAPTER THREE
Las Vegas
July 2, 1998
Lee opened sleep-encrusted eyes and glanced at the illuminated clock radio by Meghann"s bedside 2:00 P.M. Unlike Charles, who"d been forced by the sunrise to crawl away from his friend and stretch out on the cot they"d set up by the foot of the bed, Lee had kept vigil until exhaustion finally set in around eight in the morning. Not that he"d been able to do much for his comatose patient besides hold her slack hand in his and pray some magic cure would occur to him.
"You can"t die," Lee said out loud to the still white wraith on the bed, and clumsily wiped at the tears on his cheeks. He couldn"t stand this, being forced to sit here and watch this wonderful woman that"d saved his life slip away from him.
Think, he told himself. You"re a doctor there"s got to be some reason Meghann is rejecting blood.
The shrill buzz at the PATIENTS ONLY door startled him. The night after Charles and Meghann showed up, Lee had canceled all his appointments, having his receptionist tell his patients he was bedridden with the flu.
The buzzer jabbed again, and Lee walked out of the guest room, shutting the door behind him.
"Mrs. Hilliard?" Lee questioned, indifferent to his patient"s dismay at his sleep- rumpled clothing, tousled hair, and bandaged nose.
"Doctor," she said timidly. "It"s the beginning of the month time for my Depo-Provera shot. I have a two-thirty appointment."