"Where are your buddies, then?"
She looked at Maggie. "Lucien and Jade are somewhere in Africa, in pursuit of a very old demon," she said.
"Lucien," he snapped. "You"re one-time king?"
Jessica held her breath. He knew more than she"d realized, even that Lucien had been hailed as the king of their kind-until he had become a champion for justice, rather than a creature to be dreaded.
"Listen, Professor, I refuse to allow this grilling to go on in my house," Maggie cut in. "If we"re going to answer your questions, you"re going to have to answer a few of ours. We think we know what you are. A warrior. So does that make you an...angel?"
Jessica offered a very unladylike snort. "Angel?"
He cast her a sideways glance. "No. Not an angel. A warrior as you said. I exist to fight the evil in the world." He stared at Jessica.
"I am not evil."
"So how do you survive?" he asked.
"Good Lord, this is the twenty-first century," she informed him. "Haven"t you ever heard of blood banks?"
"And where do you keep this blood?"
"If you"re so brilliant, why didn"t you search my house?"
"I checked the refrigerator," he informed her.
"Apparently you weren"t brilliant enough to find the secret drawer," she said.
"So what now?" he asked softly, pulling a chair and sitting down. Jessica sat across from him, and for a long moment they just stared. "It"s apparent that everyone was conned last night. The party was a setup. The Master never intended to show. I"m a little surprised his plan wasn"t to find Mary and force her into joining him in killing everyone at Montresse House, but he had something even more vile in mind. Not only were those two cops in the wrong place at the wrong time, the way he killed them sent a message as to just how evil he really is."
"You know what happened at the hospital?" Maggie asked.
He nodded gravely, then returned his attention to Jessica. "I think he"s playing with you, showing you what he"s capable of before he comes for you."
"What if he is baiting you?" Jessica suggested. Then she waited, not breathing. If he wasn"t the man she thought, he would deny it with a shrug. But there had been few men the Master had hated more in life than the king"s right hand, the knight named Ioin.
He didn"t deny the possibility. Maggie, typically straightforward, said, "I know exactly who you are."
His gaze riveted to her face and his brow arched. "Do you?"
Maggie nodded. "Ioin, champion of Robert the Bruce, who escaped a sure death at the hands of Edward III only because of your heroics. Robert was devastated by the loss of one of his illegitimate children-" She broke off abruptly and managed not to look at Jessica. "Anyway, you died so he could live. You stood alone against dozens of men while the king made his escape." She inhaled deeply. "Your body was never found, though. And there was a priest who disappeared, too."
Bryan stared back at Maggie, then, to Jessica"s surprise, looked down as if ashamed. "It wasn"t a matter of bravery," he said simply. "I don"t believe I was sane at the time."
"So it"s true?" Maggie whispered.
"You..." Jessica said, trying not to give herself away. "You...you didn"t die? You became...what you are after the battle?"
"Not after the battle," he said, frowning as he studied her. "Not exactly. I didn"t awaken for hundreds of years. And when I awoke, Gregore, the priest, was still with me." He was quiet for a long moment. "He lived long enough for me to learn to make my way in a new world. Long enough for me to understand the evil let loose in the world by a man who had been my most loathsome enemy in life, a man who brutalized women and children not on behalf of king or country but purely from a desire to rape, mutilate and kill. That was why I existed-to find him, however long it might take." He looked at Jessica and added softly, "And to hatchet my way all others of his kind, so he could take no strength from them and evil might be utterly eradicated."
"So you have sought the Master all these years," Maggie murmured.
"I had another goal as well," Bryan murmured, clenching his fingers. "And that was to find and destroy the king"s daughter. I loved her, you see. She had been a warrior herself, because villagers across our country had been victims for years, butchered and destroyed anytime an advancing army crossed their land. She defended the children, the women.... But she had been lost to the Master, tainted by his black cruelty and savagery, compounded by his pact with the Devil, if that was indeed where he gained his power. There is, you see, such a thing as an immortal soul. And I meant to find her and bring peace to what the Master had destroyed." He lifted his hands in a gesture of futility. "I"m almost completely convinced she took on the guise of an English countess who found residence at the French court of Louis XIV. And that others saw to her demise. Still, I have sometimes wondered. There is so much evil in the world, so many places for her to hide if she is still in existence."
He leaned forward. "Now, Miss Jessica Fraser. Your turn."
She blinked. "Well...I was bitten, of course," she said.
"When?"
Should she lie? Or tell the truth? The truth? No, never. Not after what he had just said.
Jessica said, "Dublin, Ireland, the 1700s."
But even as she spoke, Maggie was offering, "Savannah, 1760."
Both women broke off, staring at each other with alarm.
"Oh?" Bryan said with deceptive calm. "The truth would be quite interesting, I"m sure."
But they never got a chance to attempt another lie, or even to offer up the truth.
They all froze as they heard the front door open and close and footsteps head toward the kitchen.
Sean.From the hall, Jessica realized, he could see only herself and Maggie. "There you are! Thank G.o.d. Jessica. I didn"t dare even mention this to Maggie on the phone." He strode over to Jessica, taking her by the shoulders, his back to Bryan, whom he clearly still hadn"t seen. "This is worse than what we feared. Jessica, he knows you"re here. And he knows who you are. He wrote your name in blood."
"Jessica?" Maggie whispered.
"No," Sean replied. "Her true name. In the blood of his victims, he wrote her true name. Igrainia."
16.
B ryan gasped, and Sean spun around, aware for the first time of the other man"s presence.
His jaw dropped. "MacAllistair!"
But Bryan was staring at Jessica. "Igrainia," he breathed.
She leapt to her feet, staring warily back at him. "Don"t you dare judge me. I don"t know what you think you know, but I can guarantee you"re wrong."
"You really are," Maggie murmured.
Sean set a hand on his wife"s shoulder. "Maggie," he cautioned, "they need to solve this themselves."
"Solve it themselves?" Maggie protested. "His solution is to kill her!"
Jessica didn"t think Bryan had heard a word anyone had said since Sean had spoken her true name. He just stared at her. She felt an iciness, a fear she hadn"t known in years. Not a physical fear. Something deeper. An attack against the remnants of her soul.
They all jumped when, from up stairs, they heard a little-girl voice call out, "Mommy?"
Jessica made an instant decision. She turned to Maggie and Sean. "We"ve got to get out of your house and talk this out between one another."
"Jessica, I can"t let you leave here with him," Maggie insisted.
"I"ll be all right," Jessica said firmly.
Maggie started to protest, but her husband cut her off.
"You two do need to work this out. Because we have a deadly situation on our hands. This Master has to be stopped, and both of you need to think about that before anything else. Am I making myself clear?"
Bryan turned to Sean. "You"re right." He looked at Maggie. "Jessica has nothing to fear from me. At the moment."
"At the moment!" Maggie said, ready to do battle.
"It"s all right," Jessica said, walking over to give her friend a hug.
"Mommy!"
Jessica slipped an arm casually through Maggie"s, walking her toward the stairwell. "I swear to you, I"ll be fine."
"You won"t be fine," Maggie whispered back. "You"re in love with him. You were before, you are now. And he"ll lull you and seduce you-and kill you."
"No, Maggie. I"m not that foolish. I"ve survived this long."
"Because he hasn"t known who or where you were."
"Maggie, it works both ways," Jessica reminded her. "I could kill him."
"You could, but you won"t."
"Maggie, go take care of your daughter. I promise you, I"ll be careful."
Maggie started up the stairs just as Sean and Bryan came up behind them. She paused, looking down in anger. "You need to find new accommodations," she told Bryan.
"Maggie," Jessica said, "Forget that for now. We need to focus on stopping the Master."
"Be back here by three this afternoon," Sean said. "I"ll have gathered what and who I can by then. We need a better plan than just waiting to see what he does next. Or," he added softly, "who dies next."
"Right, back by three," Jessica said. She started out the door. Bryan followed her.
"You have your car, I see," he commented, walking around to the pa.s.senger side. "Is it your customary mode of transportation?"
"My customary mode of transportation? Are you asking me if I can turn into mist? If I can shape-shift?"
"I"m a.s.suming you can."
"Can I? Yes. Do I? Not often. Only when necessary. I actually love my car. So get in, and let"s get out of here," she said pleasantly.
"So," she murmured a moment later, glancing casually his way as she pulled out of the driveway, "what about you? Are you some superhero? Can you leap tall buildings in a single bound?"
"Only when necessary," he mocked. He was staring ahead at the road, frowning.
"What?"
"Jessica, someone close to you has to be in on this with the Master. How well do you know Stacey?"
"Don"t you even dare suggest it."
"Why not? She knows you, knows your every move."
Jessica shook her head. "You don"t understand. I met Stacey through my church."
"Your church?" he demanded.
"You really don"t know anything, do you?" she said impatiently.
"Sorry, but I"ve come across very few vampires through the centuries who go to church."
"How many have you asked?" she demanded.
He didn"t reply. "It"s not Stacey," she said heatedly. "Stacey and Gareth have looked out for me for years."
He stared at her, features drawn. "Jessica, don"t be such a fool. Years mean nothing to the Master." He was quiet for a moment.
"Dear G.o.d!" he exploded. "His hatred for me in life was madness. He didn"t just want you dead, he wanted to turn you into pure evil simply because I loved you. Now his hatred for you is more powerful than any hunger. I blame myself for where we are now,"
he added bitterly. "I should have known he was here. I should have watched over Mary myself from the minute she was bitten. I shouldn"t have failed in Transylvania."
She was startled by his pained tone, by the fact he seemed far angrier with himself than with her. He had spoken almost as if they could be allies again, almost as if he believed that there could be those who, though touched by the hand of evil, could still resist it.
"I"m to blame, not you," she said. "Although blaming ourselves right now won"t help anything."
"Right. So...who?"
"Who?"
"Who is close to you and is helping the Master to carry out his plans? Let"s say its not Stacey, nor Gareth, even though they"re closest to you. And human. Just how long have you known them?"
She looked at the road. "Gareth has been with me for a decade. Stacey, several years."
"Bobby Munro," he said suddenly.
"Bobby?"