"Stormy!" Max ran to her, gripped her shoulders, and pulled her head away from the creature"s lips.
The vampire stopped kissing her, moving her rather gently off him. He got to his feet, his chest heaving, his eyes gleaming and fixed on Stormy. She sat there on the floor. He looked bemused, puzzled. "Who are you?"
"Prin departare dragostea se uita. How is it you have forgotten me, of all people, my love?"
He narrowed his eyes on her, got to his feet and took a single, bemused step closer.
"Sunt rataat, " she whispered. "I"m so lost. I need you. Am nevoie de ajutorul vostru." She pushed her hand backward through her hair, blinked her eyes clear and frowned in confusion.
"Tell me who you are, " he said. And his voice was hoa.r.s.e, almost choked with what sounded like emotion.
Stormy seemed puzzled as she looked from one of them to the other. When she spoke again, her voice was her own. "My name is Tempest Jones, " she said. "But my friends call me Stormy. Who are you?"
She was back-she was herself again.
And Lou was back, too, and this time, he was holding the cattle prod.
"Back away from her, pal."
The vampire looked at him, his eyes widening. Then he shot an angry look at Stormy. "At least you used a pleasant blade to drive into my back."
"What are you talking about?"
"You kissed me. You"re telling me it wasn"t just a diversionary tactic?" He shook his head. "I"m ashamed I let myself believe, even for a moment-"
"I kissed you?" She shot a look at Max. "I kissed him?" "Yeah, sort of."
Stormy lifted fingers to her lips, and her eyes met his. "I did. I... why did I do that?"
The vamp reached down to help Stormy to her feet, but Lou jabbed him with the prod and sent a jolt through him that dropped him to his knees.
"No, don"t!" Stormy shouted. And to everyone"s surprise she went to him, then seemed to stop herself just short of reaching down to help him and instead stood there, staring in confusion.
The vampire knelt there, palms to the floor, shaking. "Come on, Max. Storm. Let"s get the h.e.l.l out of here." Stormy turned slowly toward Lou.
"No!" The vampire rose to his feet, shaking off the effects of the jolt, and before Lou knew what was happening, he had grabbed Stormy from behind, jerked her to the front of him, her back pressed to his body, his face dangerously near her throat. "You"re not going anywhere."
"Jesus, just tell us what you want!" Max cried. "Don"t hurt her. I swear to you, she wasn"t trying to trick you. She"s been having these episodes for days now. I swear."
"I want Gilgamesh. I want to know how to find him. And then I want to know all there is to know about this...Storm."
"I can"t just tell you how to find a vampire so you can hunt him down to steal his power."
He bent his head then, opened his mouth and closed it over Stormy"s neck. Lou gasped and lunged forward, but the vampire only turned to keep Stormy between them. Stormy let her head fall backward against him, closed her eyes, opened her mouth and gasped as if in pain or pleasure-it was impossible to tell which. She lifted her hands to his head, threaded her fingers into his hair.
The vampire lifted his head. His eyes gleamed with bloodl.u.s.t and pa.s.sion. Two small wounds remained in Stormy"s neck. She opened her eyes, and they were swirling and changing. She cupped the vampire"s head, moving her hand slowly, caressing him. She didn"t try to get free. If anything, she leaned into him even more closely.
He frowned but otherwise ignored her touch. "Shall I drain her, or will you tell me before your friends arrive to destroy what I have worked so hard to build here?"
"It"s your own l.u.s.t for power that destroyed your kingdom, my love, " Stormy whispered. "Just like before."
He scowled at her, pulled her around to face him. "What are you doing?"
She muttered. "Do you not know me? Do you no longer love me?"
"Stop it!" he cried. He flung an arm toward her just as Max dove at her and took the brunt of the invisible force that wafted with that arm. It caught her off guard, and she slammed backward into the wall.
Lou lunged at the b.a.s.t.a.r.d. "You brutal son of a-" And then he was locked in combat with the powerful creature. They spun, fought, and slammed each other bodily into walls and furniture. Lou smashed into the wall, and something heavy fell from a shelf and cracked as it landed atop Max"s head.
The two men froze. The vampire looked stricken and lunged forward, but Lou shoved him aside and went to Max himself.
"Are you truly the heartless b.a.s.t.a.r.d you seem?" Stormy cried.
The prince turned to the woman called Stormy, even as Malone gathered his own woman into his arms.
Blood trickled down her forehead. Jesus, had he killed her?
"Can"t you see it"s over?" Stormy asked him. "The others are drawing near. You"ll soon be dust if you don"t get out of here."
"How do you know they"re near?"
She scowled at him. "Are you so blinded by hate that you can"t sense them? Open your mind! Let these two go. You have no use for them"
"I have plenty of use for them. As hostages." He turned away from her, striding across the room toward Lou, only to be stopped by the small hand on his shoulder.
"I know you, " she whispered. "You"re not this being you pretend to be. You"re a great leader, a prince.
You are Vlad Dracul. Dracula. Prince of my heart."
He stopped there-stopped dead in his tracks. "What did you call me?"
He turned slowly, staring at her eyes with their constantly changing colors. "How can you know to call me that name?"
She pressed her hands to either side of her head, and tears sprang into her eyes. "I don"t know. Jesus, I don"t know. I only know...you. Somehow, I know you. Please, Vlad..."
He moved closer to her, slowly. She didn"t back away. She looked past him once, then said, for his ears alone, "Take me as hostage, if you must have one. Leave them. Let them be."
"Do you know what you"re asking?" He caressed her with his eyes. "I will not let you go until it pleases me to do so. And if I find out you have been attempting to trick me with this-"
"It"s not a trick. Maybe...maybe you"re the only one who can help me to find out what it is."
He held out a hand. She lifted hers, and it trembled, but she placed it into his. And then he whirled her into his arms and carried her out of the castle.
Max lay on the floor with her head pounding like a ba.s.s drum, but she managed to open her eyes. Louwas holding her against his chest, her face buried in his neck, his in her hair. He rocked her gently, and she felt wetness and thought it might be tears. "I"ve been such an idiot, " he whispered. "G.o.d, Max, don"t die on me. Not now. Don"t do it, don"t go. I love you. I"ve loved you the whole G.o.dd.a.m.n time. I was just too stubborn and too d.a.m.n scared to admit it. I was so afraid I"d mess up your life. So afraid I"d end up losing you in the end. The way I lost my wife...and my little boy. Baby, I couldn"t stand it. I couldn"t. I didn"t want to risk that again, but lemme tell you something, Mad Max. You"re worth it. You"re worth any risk. Every risk."
His hand was at her wrist, and she thought he might be feeling for a pulse. There must be one. She was certainly alive, but he wasn"t finding it, and she thought maybe that was a good thing. "I"ll do anything, Jesus, anything. Just don"t take her from me. G.o.d, what was I doing? Thinking I could keep from tying myself to her, when I"ve been tied to her all along in every way that matters? I love her. I"ve always loved her."
h.e.l.l, now she knew she was alive. And if he couldn"t feel her pulse, he must be the one near death, because it was pounding.
"Lou?"
He loosened his arms a little, just enough to let her body relax away from his so he could look at her face. "Max, baby, you"re alive."
"Yeah. So far, yeah. You had some doubt?"
"I couldn"t feel a pulse. Jesus, Max."
"I"m here. I"m fine. I think you panicked."
He shook his head, doubting it. "How long have you been awake?"
"Long enough to-where"s Stormy?"
Lou shot a look across the room. "No, " he whispered. "G.o.ddammit, no!" He got up, helping Max to her feet as he did.
Then there was the sound of doors breaking to smithereens, the whisk of movement.
Morgan and Dante appeared, looking furious and ready for battle. Morgan surged across the room and swept her twin sister into her arms. Dante came forward, clapping Lou on the shoulder.
"You look like h.e.l.l, my friend, " Dante said.
Lou shook his head. "Yeah, well he got his share, too."
"Who? The vampire? Vlad Dracul?"
Lou and Max looked at each other, then at Dante. "What do you mean, Vlad Dracul? He wasn"t..."
"He was, " Morgan said. "It"s all over the preternatural world that he"s been living out here-set himself up like a king and had an entire town under the control of his mind. No one"s had the nerve to bother him-no one saw it as overly urgent to stop him, since he wasn"t killing his victims." "When we got home and Lydia told us you were in Endover, we came immediately. We were nearly here when your friend Jason phoned." Dante looked at Lou in awe. "You held your own against Prince Vlad. The one and only Dracula."
"And I"ll have to again, by the looks of things, " Lou said. "The b.a.s.t.a.r.d kidnapped Stormy."
"We have to go after him!" Max shouted.
"We will. We will." He touched her hair, the wound there. "You need this st.i.tched up."
"Take care of her, " Dante said. "We"ll get on his trail and contact you when he beds down for the day sleep. You can catch up with us then. All right?"
Lou nodded.
Max shook her head. "I can"t just let them go"
"You aren"t, " Morgan said softly. "I swear to you, as your sister, we"ll stay on their trail, Max. I promise." She sighed softly. "I owe her, you know. Storm and I-we have a bond now. I won"t let harm come to her."
Max lowered her eyes. "Okay."
Lou scooped her up in his arms and carried her back down the stairs and out of the mansion. He moved all the way to the beach, finding the boat Stormy and Max had brought out here. Gently, he lowered Max into it and sped as rapidly as he could back to the mainland.
On the sh.o.r.e, he spotted Gary, who helped him pull the boat in and seemed worried when he saw Max.
"h.e.l.l, what happened?"
Garylooked different, Lou noticed. His eyes weren"t as clouded as before. Both his face and his wit seemed sharper.
"She had an accident. Out on the island, " Lou explained.
"The island?" Gary looked past them. "Well, what was she doing out there? No one goes out there.
There"s nothing there but woods and weeds." Then he frowned. "What...what"s burning?"
Maxie lifted her head and stared out toward the island. The flames were rising into the night, licking at the very stars, it seemed. Morgan and Dante had finished the job she had begun. The place would be nothing but smoldering ash by sunrise.
"Where can he be taking her?" she whispered to Lou. "Where could he be going with Stormy?"
"Max, listen to me. You said the language she was speaking...was Romanian."
Max looked into his eyes, silent for a long, searching moment. Then she said, "You don"t think-you don"t think there could be some sort of...connection."
"Did you see the way she was kissing him? And he wasn"t putting those words into her head, Max. Hewas dumbfounded, accusing her of tricks. So if it wasn"t him, what the h.e.l.l was it?"
Max swallowed hard, recalling the theory Martha had suggested. Some kind of past-life explanation for Stormy"s odd behavior and symptoms.
"We"ll find them, " Lou told her. "I promise. I owe you that." He carried her up the hill to the motel, brought her into his room and dropped her onto the bed. He vanished into the bathroom, for a towel, then stepped outside and returned with the towel full of ice from the machine. "Press this to your head."
She lifted it to her head, leaned back on the bed and watched as Lou yanked a duffel out from under his bed and began stuffing everything he"d brought into it. It took him all of five minutes.
"Can you walk?"
She nodded, and he took her hand and tugged her to her feet, leading her out of his room and into hers.
She reached for her suitcase, but he wouldn"t let her. "Just sit and keep that ice on your head. I"ll get it".
She thinned her lips. "I"m not hurt that badly." It was a lie. Her vision kept blurring, and she was dizzy as h.e.l.l. She had a concussion, at the least.
"You are, or else you would be with your sister chasing after Storm, " he said.
d.a.m.n him, he knew her too well.
He paused in stuffing her belongings into her suitcase, looked her in the face. "I thought you were dead, you realize that? I thought it was over out there."
"I"m not dead."
"I know." He stopped packing to lean closer, cupped her face in his hands. "Max, I"m sorry about the way I acted after we-I didn"t mean any of it the way you took it."
"Didn"t you?"