She escaped him at last, dined upon the rightfully condemned, found it a blessed bounty to be able to release the innocent, but despite her efforts, she became known as a creature of evil.
Then the Master found her again.
But years had pa.s.sed; she had gained strength. They met upon a tor in the Highlands. He thought to take her with his will and his bare hands. He was not expecting her to be prepared with sharp wooden stakes.
But he wasn"t killed, only injured, and he retreated.
They met next in the dark fog of the Carpathian Mountains, where ancient legend and fear ran deep, where the horrors of life were sometimes far greater than the horrors of death.
It was there that she slew the thirteen guardsmen stationed outside his castle to destroy her before she could reach him. Could she have bested him if she had not caught him unaware? She didn"t know. He had been at his great table, eagerly reading an ancient text. She entered like a soft silver mist, seducing first, and then when he was unaware, staking him....
But the stake was not enough, and so the battle was begun. He taunted her, reminding her that he had destroyed Ioin, the mighty knight who had been her love.
Perhaps he hadn"t realized how much power she could access from her pain, because he underestimated her strength. She fought with renewed vigor. His head was attached by little more than bone and a few shreds of cartilage, his limbs and torso gashed. She chased him through deep underground crypts, and there she lost him. Exhausted, still she forced herself to turn the crypt into a prison that would hold forever-silver crossbars everywhere, holy relics-knowing he was there, hidden, unseen. As she finished, she knew her nightmare was not over, for she heard his whispered vow. He would survive. He would find her.
She awoke in a cold sweat. d.a.m.n Bryan MacAllistair. Being with him was a sweet ecstasy she had never dared dream of knowing yet being near him also evoked nightmares of the past.
She was cold, she realized. Horribly cold. Of course. He was gone; she was alone.
Glancing outside, she saw that the day was waning.
She bolted out of bed and sped back into the shower, then dressed with an ever-growing sense of urgency. Running downstairs, she nearly ran over Stacey.
"Jess-"
"Where"s our lodger?"
"Bryan?"
"He"s the only one we"ve got," she said curtly. "Where is he?"
"He"s gone. And he told me not to let you leave."
"What?"
"He said I needed to keep you here. That it was crucial you stay home tonight."
"My G.o.d! He knows something. Something is happening tonight."
"Jessica, honest to G.o.d, he scared me. I think you really should stay home tonight." "I can"t. You know that."
"Yes, you can. You can let someone else-"
"Stacey, he could get himself killed. I"ve got to go. You stay here. You know the drill. Call Jeremy, make sure he and Nancy either come here-which might be the best idea-or go to my office. Before dark. No, don"t call him, find them both-even if you and Gareth have to comb the streets-and bring them back here. I"ve got to go."
"Jessica, wait. At least-"
"I have to go."
She ran out of the house and was in the driver"s seat of her car before Stacey even made it out the door. A growing sense of urgency filled her, and though Stacey"s intentions were good, talking to her was costing too much time, and none of her words could change anything. Jessica waved, taking advantage of an immediate chance to slide out of the driveway.
At Maggie"s house, she banged on the door impatiently. Maggie let her in, finger to her lips. "Kids napping," she whispered.
Jessica nodded, taking a deep gulp of air. "I think I"m in severe trouble."
"That poor girl...dead. And the corpse disappearing. The mayor"s office is screaming, and Sean is...in a vise," Maggie responded.
"Maggie, he"s after the vampire."
"Of course he is. It"s his job," Maggie said, frowning.
"Not Sean. Bryan MacAllistair. I can"t figure it out. Who the h.e.l.l is he? What is he? How does he know...what he knows?"
"Let"s go in the kitchen," Maggie suggested. "I don"t want to wake the children."
Jessica followed her to the other room, where Maggie, ever practical, poured coffee for them.
Maggie sat down at the breakfast table. The daily paper was open on the table, as if she"d been reading it when Jessica arrived.
Jessica paced in agitation. "Maggie, he was there, in the morgue, ready to stake Mary. Except she came back so fast, it was amazing. She should have needed hours of darkness."
"It was still light?" Maggie asked.
"Barely dusk."
Maggie drummed her fingers on the table. "It has to be the Master at work. We should have known it. You never should have gone to Transylvania."
"Oh, come on, Maggie. I can"t spend my life hiding."
"We should have known," Maggie repeated softly. "I haven"t seen anything like this sky in years. I think you were being conned, lured."
"To Transylvania?"
"Yes."
"How could the Master have been luring me? He doesn"t-didn"t-even know I"m here, living in New Orleans." "Maybe he did know."
Jessica shook her head. "No, to him, I"m dead."
"Think about it. I could be right. I wish the others were here. You should have waited. We should have had help. There"s no way you should have gone alone. I think you walked into a trap."
"We"re getting off track. Bryan MacAllistair...I can"t figure him out."
"He"s definitely not a vampire?" Maggie asked, then answered her own question. "No, I would have known."
"But what is he, then? He knows there are vampires out there. I"m sure he"s killed them before. But he"s obsessed with the Master."
"Well, if he is a vampire hunter, that"s not a surprise, considering the Master is pretty much evil incarnate," Maggie said.
"He scares me," Jessica murmured.
"Bryan MacAllistair?" Maggie arched a brow, delicately sipping her coffee. "I thought he affected you in quite a different way."
Jessica flushed. "That too," she whispered. "And that"s what"s wrong! I haven"t felt like this...haven"t wanted..."
"Haven"t given in?" Maggie suggested.
Jessica shook her head. "It"s as if I"ve known him forever. As if we somehow belong together."
"But?"
"Maggie, what if he were to discover just who I am? No, that"s impossible," she said, trying to a.s.sure herself as much as her friend.
She waited for a reply, but Maggie was silent for a long time. Finally she said, "I think it would be a good idea to find out as much as we can about him." She tapped the paper meaningfully.
"What is it?"
"His lecture series is listed here. The next one is on villains in history and legend."
"And?"
"He"ll be speaking about Katherine, Countess Valor."
"Katherine Valor..." Jessica shook her head. "She died. Thousands of witnesses said so. It"s in all the history books."
"Maybe your vampire hunter doesn"t think so," Maggie offered.
Jessica shook her head again, as if dismissing the possibility. Then she whispered, "How can he be so familiar to me?"
"Maybe you did know him before," Maggie suggested.
"Impossible. He reminds me...but I saw him die, Maggie. I saw him die."
"Forget that for now. You have to get out there and find Mary. That"s a priority. Sean has a really good man watching over the morgue attendant who was bitten. So you shouldn"t bother with the hospital at all. Focus on the big stuff. The Master will know you, now he"s here. And Mary"s friends will be vulnerable. You need to protect them. As to the professor, we can do some research," Maggie said. "In fact, I can start on that right now."
"Maggie, you can"t go running around out there. You have a family to take care of."
"I"m not running around anywhere," Maggie told her. "I"m heading straight to the Internet."
Bryan hadn"t slept. He hadn"t dared let himself relax.
Lying beside Jessica, he"d felt a rush of emotion that had been all but paralyzing.
The need to fight, to protect this woman.
And sheer dread. A pounding in his mind, as if something dark, heavy and oppressive had settled over him. A feeling like the one he had experienced in Transylvania.
There had been long moments when he had stayed at her side and held her, savoring the sensation of warmth in his soul, of completeness. He couldn"t remember ever feeling such a sense of being where he should be as he"d felt then, his arms around her, her body so intimate and trusting against his own.
He yearned to remain.
And because of that, he was at last spurred to action.
He left the house after delivering something that was both a plea and a threat, hoping Stacey would have some influence with Jessica. But whether she did or did not, he knew he had to move.
When he arrived at Jessica"s office, receiving no answer to his persistent knocking, he simply picked the lock. No sign of Jeremy and Nancy.
He had to admit, the place was impressively protected. Still, it wasn"t Mary"s ability to get in that worried him-it was the fact that Jeremy might be all too willing and eager to welcome her.
As he stood there, there was a tentative knock at the door.
He opened it.
An attractive but worn-looking woman in her thirties was standing there, along with a sullen boy of perhaps seventeen. The kid was all in black. Bryan was certain he had been dragged here.
"h.e.l.lo. Can I help you?" he asked.
"We were looking for Miss Fraser," the woman said.
"I"m afraid she"s not in today."
"Oh." The woman looked distressed.
"Is there anything that I can do?" he asked.
To his surprise, the sullen teenager suddenly spoke up. "Hey, you"re him!"
Bryan arched a brow."You"re that professor." He turned to his mother, a look of enthusiasm on his face. "He was in the newspaper. He talks about vampires."
The mother appeared to be horrified, ready to back away and run.
"I really am a professor," Bryan explained. a.s.sessing the situation, he added quickly, "I warn people about cults, along with talking about legends and beliefs."
For a moment she just stared at him. Then she flushed. "Maybe you can convince my son to stay out of the cemetery."
Bryan looked politely at the boy, hiding the fact that he had felt his pulse quicken. "Oh?"
The kid shrugged, looking unhappy. "Hey, it"s New Orleans, you know?"
"As if we haven"t been through enough," his mother muttered.
"Do you meet friends in the cemetery?" Bryan asked. "The thing is, dark, isolated places create an atmosphere where criminals...
evil...are present."