"There is no real dominatrix," she replied.
He reached under his coat. Reaching, she was certain, for one of his deadly arrows.
"Listen to me," she pleaded. "The dominatrix is all an act. I created her with rumor. I had to find a way to get into the Master"s parties without appearing to be suspicious. I swear to you, the dominatrix never appeared in the flesh until Transylvania."
He sat back, his weight on his haunches, but his thighs like iron. "So you were at the debacle in Transylvania. Feasting?"
"No, you idiot. How could you have missed what happened here tonight? I killed more of those evil creatures than you did," she told him.
He hiked a brow. "I hardly think so. And what does it matter? Vampires have a habit of turning on one another when the need arises. And you are a vampire."
She stared at him, then swallowed hard. Her voice, when she spoke, was barely a whisper. "There are good vampires."
She watched the agony streak across his rugged features. "There is no such thing as a good vampire."
"But there is," she whispered. "There is. I swear it." Her mind raced. He knew she was a vampire. Was that all he knew? "How do you think all those people escaped while you were battling the Master in Transylvania? How do you think so many survived?" "You?"
She met his eyes defiantly, as if daring him to doubt her.
"So where is the Master?" he demanded harshly.
"Oh, G.o.d," she whispered.
"You have no right to say that name."
"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You know nothing," she charged. "And while we"re here fighting each other...it was a setup," she said. "He"s out there somewhere, killing, and we"re here. He probably intended for us to kill each other. d.a.m.n you, I came here to kill him."
Perhaps that convinced him at last; she would never know. They were both distracted by a bloodcurdling scream from the yard just outside the house.
He was up in a moment, and she leapt to her feet a split second later. They both tore for the door, but he was ahead of her, racing into the red darkness. She saw him, moving as if he flew. Then she heard a hollow cry and a roar of anger, saw a figure go flying....
An arrow stuck the figure, and it burst into dust in mid-air.
There were sobs, and then the harsh demand, "Were you bitten?"
"No, no...I don"t think so," a feminine voice said pathetically.
Whatever else went on there that night, Jessica decided, Bryan could handle it. It was time for her to make an exit-as speedily as possible.
He was, after all, a warrior.
And the Master was out there...somewhere.
The young girl, wearing too much makeup and a too-short skirt, stared at Bryan blankly. She was ashen and shaking, and looked as if she had gone entirely stupid, as if her mind had burned within her skull. She"d been drinking, maybe taking drugs. Would she even remember this?
"Come over here," he commanded impatiently.
"Are you...one of them?" she stuttered in fear. Mascara streaked her cheeks.
"Come here. For the love of G.o.d, I"m out of time. I"ve got to get you out of here, but I have to be certain-"
"I swear I wasn"t bitten. Don"t stake me."
He sighed, gripped her arm and pulled her close. She didn"t struggle. He saw a bruise on her neck; it was amazing she had managed to scream when she had been so nearly strangled by the vampire"s grip.
He searched her arms, any bared flesh. She just stood there, shaking.
He could find no marks."You look clean. If you"re lying to me..."
He held her for a minute, praying that instinct would kick in. He could usually trust his instinct.
Usually.
He had failed with Jessica. He had heard a heartbeat when he held her. She had been as warm as fire. He had, in fact, never felt such a fire.
He swore suddenly. "Where are your friends? Who did you come here with?"
"I...I...Cindy and Jean. They"re gone. They ran...faster. My shoe caught in a tree root. I..."
She trailed off, staring at him. Then she burst into tears, threw herself against him and pa.s.sed out.
"s.h.i.t," he swore.
He had to get her back to people and light and safety.
There were no cop cars coming tonight. Tonight had all been a sham. The Master was somewhere else. They had all been conned.
He sighed deeply. He couldn"t leave her.
And whatever the Master had been planning, Bryan was certain, had already been accomplished.
He lifted the girl into his arms and turned back toward the house. He didn"t even bother calling Jessica"s name. He knew she was already gone.
15.
J essica burst into Montresse House, terrified that everything had gone wrong, that the Master had come and called out to Mary, who was still under his thrall, and had been unable to fight back, even with Gareth"s help. Jeremy and Nancy would have been useless, and against the Master, what hope could Stacey and Gareth have had?
Gareth was at the front door. He stared at her with concern, then slowly arched a brow. She knew why. She never returned to her own house in leather, lace and latex. Tonight, however, she had been in far too great a hurry to worry about a costume change.
"The others...they"re all right?" she demanded.
He nodded, looking perplexed. "Of course. You were the one at the party. The Master-"
"The Master didn"t show," she said briefly. With disbelief, she added, "He didn"t come here?"
"Everything"s fine," he a.s.sured her. "I was down here most of the night, but I just checked upstairs. Stacey and Jeremy are awake-and Mary, of course. Nancy is sleeping like a babe in arms."
Frowning, Jessica started up the stairs. She heard Gareth setting the locks again in her wake.
As she had ordered, Mary was confined to one small area, encircled by bowls of holy water, strings of garlic and crosses. She was apparently comfortable enough; they"d provided her with a pillow and blanket, and plenty of O-positive.
Stacey and Jeremy were seated across the room from her, wide awake. As soon as he saw her, Jeremy leapt to his feet."Jessica!" he cried with relief.
Stacey, too, jumped up. "Jessica...thank G.o.d you"re here. But you look like h.e.l.l. What happened? Is he...?"
Jessica shook her head. "Tonight was a setup," she said flatly. She walked in, then sank down on the bed.
Jeremy was still, staring at her. "My G.o.d," he breathed.
She had forgotten that Jeremy hadn"t known that she was the dominatrix.
"You never saw the Master?" Stacey said.
"No. He never showed."
"But you"re...pretty beat-up," Stacey said.
"Yes."
"All right." Stacey quickly became her efficient self. "A shower is in order. I"ll tell Gareth to make you something to eat. It"s nearly dawn. Nothing else is going to happen tonight-I hope. And you have to get some rest. And soon..." Her eyes moved to Mary, looking angelic inside her strange prison. "Soon Mary will sleep. Then we"ll have to-" She broke off with a startled scream. The bedside phone had started to ring. "I routed all calls in here," she explained. "But who the h.e.l.l would be calling now?"
"I"ve got it," Jessica a.s.sured her. She rolled over and picked up. "h.e.l.lo?"
"Jessica? Thank G.o.d."
It was Maggie.
"Yes?"
"As soon as the sun rises, get over here."
"Maggie, what"s happened?" Her heart sank. "It"s the Master, isn"t it? What did he do?"
"I"ll tell you about it as soon as you come over."
"I"m on my way."
"No! Wait till it"s light. He"s still out there."
Jessica winced, tightening her fingers around the phone. "How many?"
"Two," Maggie said softly. "They were found with their throats slit."
"Where?"
Maggie hesitated, took a deep breath, then said, "The hospital. They were cops. Jessica, stay there till sunrise, do you hear me? I swear, I won"t tell you anything if you don"t listen to me."
"I"ll see you soon, Maggie." She hung up. Stacey was staring at her. "Well, I know where he was tonight," she said softly.
"Where?"
"The hospital. He killed two cops. That"s all I know so far. I"ve got to go." "You have to change before you go out again," Stacey told her. "Get in the shower-quickly. It"s nearly dawn."
"All right." She started toward the bathroom, then froze. She should go now. Bryan MacAllistair was out there somewhere, as well. Would he come here? Would he believe her if she told him what was going on? Worse than that...could he possibly be...?
No.
But if he was, did he know that she...?
No.
Because he would have killed her already if he knew.
But how long would it take him to figure it out?
As Bryan brought the girl to the hospital, he saw the police cars and commotion going on. There were already news crews prowling the perimeter. And despite the fact it wasn"t quite daylight, people were beginning to appear on the street, anxious to know what had happened. With that much of a crowd, there were rumors in abundance.
He had shed the old coat that held his weapons, then hung around after he set the unconscious girl down in the emergency room to make sure an orderly found her quickly and called for a doctor.
"Drug overdose," he heard someone say wearily.
The girl was going to be all right. He could go outside and grill the lookie-loos.
"What"s going on?" he asked the people around him.
"No one really knows yet," an anxious matron told him. "Someone said a couple of cops were viciously killed. Someone else said they got in a fight and killed each other."
Behind him, a girl, hugging her arms around her chest, offered, "They say they were nearly decapitated."
Bryan had a feeling there was only one way to get close to the scene. He walked around the growing crowd and found a place where a group of uniformed cops were hovering, waiting for orders.
"The whole thing is creepy. First there was that corpse that disappeared," one officer grumbled.
"Screw the corpse," another cop said bitterly. "Two of our own are dead."
There was silence for a minute.
The first cop said, "Do you believe what they"re saying? That they killed each other? Santini couldn"t ever stand to hurt a perp when he cuffed him. How the h.e.l.l could he have gone after Clark?"