Mark frowned. She was being demanding and rude, once again totally unlike the woman he had met earlier
He ordered a hamburger for himself, also rare, and politely thanked their waitress after she took his order. Then he leaned back in his chair, staring at Heidi.
“Quit looking at me,” she said irritably.
“He got to you, didn’t he?” Mark inquired in a low tone.
She flushed, shaking her head. She seemed confused. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He leaned toward her. “Yes, you do. Think about it. Think hard. Somehow, he got in. Was it Stephan himself, or someone else?”
Color suffused her cheeks. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Was he tall and dark—darker than me? And did he just appear to you? Did you leave the hospital? Or do those windows open? Did you invite him into the hospital room?”
“No!” Heidi protested, and shook her head, but tears were glistening in her eyes. “There was no one there. You’re crazy.”
He reached across the table, moving like lightning, cradling her head with his hand and twisting her chin up so he could get a look at her neck before she could stop him.
It was just as he had feared.
The puncture marks were there. Tiny, almost indiscernible. She hadn’t been drained; she had merely been tainted.
It was a tease. A taunt. Stephan was sending a message loud and clear to tell Mark that he could get to anyone he wanted to.
And that, in the end, he would have Lauren.
Heidi jerked away from him. “Don’t you touch me,” she whispered to him. “Don’t…” She stared at him, then bit her lip.
“It’s not your fault,” he said softly. “Give me your cell phone.”
“It was just a dream!” she told him.
“No, it was real. Give me your cell phone, I have to call Lauren, and I don’t have her cell number.”
Heidi’s eyes seemed to be glued to his. She fumbled in her purse for her phone, never looking away from him.
The waitress came with their hamburgers just as he found Lauren’s number on Heidi’s phone and called.
“That’s not really rare enough,” Heidi said, her attention finally drawn from him.
“They’re just fine,” Mark said firmly. “We’ll take the check, too, please.”
Lauren’s phone rang and rang until her voicemail came on. She must have turned off her phone in the hospital, he thought.
“Forget dinner. We have to go,” Mark said curtly.
“But—”
“Now!”
It was gone. The entire vision was gone in a split second, as if it had never been.
Lauren blinked, staring at the window. There was nothing there. Nothing at all.
Why the hell hadn’t she thought to draw the drapes the moment she had come in? Shadows could play tricks. She must have seen lights coming from somewhere, the shadow of a cloud across the moon. It could have been anything.
“Deanna,” she said, looking back to her friend.
Deanna’s eyes were closed. She was sleeping as if she had never awakened.
“Deanna?” Lauren repeated.
She even shook her friend gently. But Deanna’s eyes didn’t open again.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
Lauren swung around. Stacey Lacroix and Bobby Munro were there. Bobby was out of uniform, and Stacey was carrying a vase of flowers. She frowned as she stared at Lauren.
Lauren rose. “She was awake for a minute. She spoke.”
They both stared at her, their eyes betraying the fact that they believed she had only thought Deanna had opened her eyes because she so badly wanted it to happen.
“Well, good, maybe that means she’ll wake up again soon,” Bobby said with forced cheer.
Stacey gave him a quick glance, then smiled at Lauren, too. Even standing still, she seemed like a whirlwind of energy and competence. “Where’s Mark?” she asked.
“He took Heidi out for some dinner.”
“Well, then, it’s good that we stopped by,” Bobby said.
