heal, if he’s wounded. But he has to have a place large enough for his followers, togo.” He turned and looked at her, suddenly almost angry. “Where the hell did you go last night? Why did you leave the hospital? You know it’s not safe for you to be out alone.”
She was startled by the question. And though she didn’t know why, she didn’t want to tell him the whole truth.
“I…I thought it might be important to find the fortune-teller.”
He frowned. “The woman in your sketch?”
She nodded.
“Did you find her?”
“No.” Why had she lied? She wasn’t sure. Then she knew. Susan had given her that paper, the copy of whatever she had found at the library, and Lauren realized that she wanted to read it herself. To see if it was something that made some kind of sense. Her meeting with the woman had been unnerving.
She felt very guilty about the lie, however, so, without prompting, she began to explain. “I don’t think I ever told you. I…I saw Stephan in her crystal ball. The night we arrived, Heidi and Deanna wanted to have our fortunes told. Susan had a little tent and a crystal ball. And when I looked into it, Stephan appeared.”
His expression grave, he asked, “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” He was still angry, she realized, but trying to keep his temper leashed.
“I’m sorry—but you didn’t exactly seem sane at first.”
“But since then…” He closed his eyes, shook his head. She could almost hear the grating of his teeth.
He sat up, then rose, reaching for his pants. “So that’s when and how he found you,” he said quietly. “I’ll see if I can find the woman. See what else she may be able to tell us. And
She nodded, watching him. “He’s killed again, you know. They found a third body in the river.”
He swore, pulling up his jeans. “He has to be found. And stopped,” he said grimly.
“What do I do…what
“Stacey will know how to manage Heidi. I imagine she’s already acting a great deal more like herself already.”
“So being seduced, bitten…doesn’t automatically make you become…a vampire?” she asked.
He shook his head. “You become a vampire when the kill is complete,” he said. “Unless you’re staked. Or beheaded.”
“How can there be so many vampires and only three murders? I mean…don’t they need to feed?”
He slipped into his shirt. “They can feed on many things. Rats, small animals…and a good glut can last a very long time. I’m sure, if we checked the surrounding area, we’d find that a few blood banks had been ransacked.” He hesitated. “Stephan is a monster. Cruel, power-hungry, and he thrives on the pain and torment he causes others. But in the end…he wants to live. He wants me to die, because I’m an enemy who has been on his trail for a long, long time. But he wants you first—and he wants me alive to see it. Maybe he believes he can seduce you, that you’ll live a long and happy—and bloodthirsty—unlife together. Maybe he only wants you because he knows he can cut me to the quick again. Maybe it’s both. I can tell you this, though. He’s using Deanna and Heidi to torment you, to get to you. And I have to stop him.”
He went still when he finished speaking.
She frowned. “What is it?”
He groaned. Suddenly, instead of buttoning his shirt he was pulling it off again. The jeans fell to the floor.
And then he was back beside her, eyes meeting hers, fingers caressing her hair.
“I need to go,” he murmured.
She nodded.
“But not yet. Not just yet.”
Nor could she let him go. They were both fevered, hasty, making love with a fierce and desperate passion.
She was falling in love, she thought. With his face.
With his hands.
His touch.
His kiss.
Not just in love with being in love, with making love. No, with a man.
She barely knew him.
She had to believe that she knew enough.
She ceased to think. She soared; she reveled in sensation. Together, they were cataclysmic, explosive. She could not get close enough to him.
Her heart pounded; her breathing rasped; her flesh was slick and wet; and the moment of culmination was shattering and sweet.
In the end, he held her close for a moment and sighed deeply. Then he was up and gone.
And she was left alone with her thoughts, to if what she felt could be real or was only a dream.
