Blood Red

don’t understand. The house was completely protected. There was no way he could have forced his way in.”

“But Heidi is gone? Mark asked.

“Yes,” Susan told him miserably.

His heart thundered. “Lauren?”

“She should be back any minute,” Stacey told him.

“Back? From where?” he demanded.

“She went to the library with Maggie, but they’re on their way back here.”

“We’re on our way, too,” he told Stacey.

“Wait!” Jonas cried. “Deanna?”

“Deanna?” Mark said into the cell.

“She’s fine.”

He nodded to Jonas, who was actually shaking. And, still, Mark couldn’t help but wonder whether this supposedly good vampire was for real. After all, he was the one who had spotted the house where the creatures were resting. A house that had been a decoy.

He hung up. “Let’s go,” he told Jonas and sprinted for the car.

Lauren found a taxi that took her down to the Square.

It was still light, but twilight was coming soon. It had been a beautiful, brilliant, sunny day, but now glorious streaks of pink and crimson were making their way in waves across a sky still lit by the glittering orb of the sinking sun.

But what did daylight matter in the end? Stephan could move freely by day when he chose. Darkness simply gave him even greater power.

There were people everywhere and no shadows yet, but even so, Lauren felt a rising sense of fear as she looked around the Square, then headed to the spot where she had first met Susan.

Where she had first seen Stephan in the crystal ball.

She stood in the square, facing the Cathedral, and felt a breeze that blew across her skin like a chilling caress.

She turned and looked around—and wondered how she had missed it.

A small tent had been pitched near what she thought of as Susan’s spot.

The same tent she had entered that first night, which now seemed ridiculously long ago.

A lifetime ago.

Her hand shaking, she drew back the flap.

And found Susan.

Deanna didn’t know what was wrong with her. She certainly didn’t feel sick. She did feel…vindicated. She also felt as if she were truly falling in love for the first time.

With Jonas…

Talk about a mixed marriage.

Even so, as she stood in the living room of Montresse House, knowing Jonas was on his way, she felt compelled to leave. Something was telling her that she had to get out. And that she couldn’; t tell anyone where she was going.

She heard Bobby and Big Jim talking on the other side of the room. “Maybe we shouldn’t have trusted that bastard Jonas,” Bobby said. “Maybe Mark would have been back by now if it weren’t for him.”

“I’ll kill him,” Big Jim said angrily.

Get out, get out now, a voice in Deanna’s head commanded. Get out. Come to me.

She could see him in her mind’s eye, a tall dark man, and he was beckoning to her.

“Looks like we’d better get ready for a major fight,” Bobby said. “I’ll call Sean. It looks like this is going to be the showdown.”

Bit Jim asked, “How do you know?”

“I don’t know,” Bobby admitted. “I just feel it, I guess. I’ve learned to go on intuition sometimes.”

Big Jim stared at him, then nodded knowingly. “Yeah,” he said simply, then headed for the back of the house, followed by Bobby.

Deanna looked toward the front door.

Come to me. Help me. I need your help. Please…

She glanced around quickly. No one in sight.

She opened the door and walked out.

Susan was lying on the floor, bleeding from a gash on her head….