control his demon the first time. He couldn't expect miracles in a mere six months.
He bent and brushed a kiss across Nikki's forehead. Her heartbeat was strong and steady, a siren's song that called to the darkness in him. His canines extended, anxious to taste the sweet offering of life.
Cursing, he swung away and walked quickly from the room.
When he came back an hour later, his thirst finally slaked, Nikki was gone.
And the link was dead.
Chapter Eleven
Nikki jerked awake. For several seconds she lay in the darkness, wondering where in the world she was. The stars had disappeared from overhead, as had the dancing pearls of light. She frowned and glanced around. So had the trees.
She sat upright. Hot lances of fire shot through her skull like some madman with a jackhammer was loose in her head. Her stomach turned, threatening to leap into her throat. She took a deep breath and gently massaged her temples.
Only to discover that hurt almost as much. She touched her left temple gently. Her head had been cut, and her hair was matted with blood. She must have done it when she'd fallen. Warmth began dribbling down her cheek.
The headache eased slightly but not the sick churning in her stomach. What had happened?
The last thing she could remember was something smashing into her head, but she had an odd feeling a fair amount of time had passed. She reached out for Michael, but the link was dead. And she wasn't sure if that deadness was due to the wall he had raised between them since his return, or something else entirely.
She swept a hand cautiously through the darkness. Stone met her touch, not grass. She licked her lips.
She wasn't in the meadow. Someone had moved her.
Light gleamed briefly in the darkness to her left. It reappeared minutes later, closer than before.
Whatever it was, it was moving toward her. She inched away, but her back hit something solid. She swallowed her gasp and carefully felt behind her. It was a wall of some kind. The stone was as smooth as ice, yet felt almost furnace hot. It burned into her back, easing the chill of her fear.
The light grew closer still. Energy crackled across her fingertips, firefly bright in the darkness. She clenched her fist and waited. There was no sound, no whisper of breathing, nothing to indicate that whatever approached was anything remotely human.
More importantly, though, there was no whisper of evil, no taste of death. Whatever that light represented, it wasn't a vampire.
Another light appeared to her right, dancing brightness through the cover of night. This time she recognized it. The lights she'd seen in the meadow. More appeared, until a semicircular ring of warmth surround her.
Through this warmth walked Ginger.
Surprise rippled through Nikki. There was an ethereal glow to the redhead's skin, and a light in her eye that recalled the heat of flames. She looked very much at home with the stale-smelling darkness and the dancing pearls of light.
She stopped several feet away, regarding Nikki steadily, her head tilted slightly to one side. 'You are all right?'
Nikki nodded. There was something not quite right about the way Ginger moved and spoke. In some ways it reminded her of a newborn—or maybe someone just recovering from a major accident who had to learn to control her body all over again. 'Why am I here?'
'You saved our lives.' Ginger waved a hand around the darkness. The lights shivered in response, their brightness muting and casting shadows the color of rich amber through the night. 'We are sorry if we hurt you. We did not mean to.'
Nikki waved the apology away. For now, the wound on her head was the least of her worries. 'How did I save you when I didn't do anything?'
Ginger smiled. 'You felt him coming.'
She must mean the evil Nikki had felt approaching before something smacked into her head and the lights went out. 'Yeah, so?'
'We felt your fear. It warned us. We hid in your unconscious form, and he did not find us.'
Nikki scrubbed a hand across her eyes. This was making less and less sense. 'Ginger, what the hell are you talking about?'
'He binds us,' she continued. 'He captures us, forces us into human form. You must stop him.'
The lights behind her shivered and swayed, as if emphasizing her words . I've stepped into wonderland
, she thought, and felt the lump on the side of her head. Maybe this was all just some weird dream.
Maybe she was still unconscious in the meadow.
'Who binds you?' she asked eventually.
Her question sparked feverish activity in the lights. Rainbows splashed across the darkness, reflecting brightly off the black stone walls that surrounded them.
'He does,' Ginger said.
Nikki snorted softly. 'Yeah, but who is he?'
'He who is accompanied by she.'
This was not making a whole lot of sense. It had to be a dream, surely. 'And she is?'
'She has the darkness in her. Like the man who accompanies you.'
A chill ran through her. She swallowed to ease the sudden dryness in her throat. 'What do you mean?'
'She feeds off life. She walks in darkness and knows no light.'
Vampire, Nikki thought, rubbing her arms. Perhaps the same vampire that had attacked her in the warehouse. 'But what did you mean about Michael?'
Ginger shrugged. It seemed an awkward movement. 'He walks the line between light and dark. He has the taste of the woman on him.'
Her words made no sense. In three hundred years, Michael had only tasted one human—her. Or was that a lie, too? The chill biting through her limbs increased. 'Meaning?'
'We can not trust him. Only you. You must help us.'
'How can I help you when I don't understand what it is you want?'
'You must stop him,' Ginger repeated, as if talking to a child.
Back to square one, Nikki thought wearily. Maybe she should try a different tack. 'What are you, Ginger? What are the lights?'
'We are flame imps. We are of this land.'
As explanations went, it didn't help much. But perhaps Michael would know. 'And you can take human form?' It seemed an obvious question, yet the awkwardness of Ginger's movements suggested she was unfamiliar with this particular body.
'Only when the new cycle begins. He has forced this form upon us.'
Nikki had a feeling that if she asked what 'new cycle' meant, the answer would only leave her more confused. She eyed the lights for a minute. They seemed agitated by Ginger's words. 'And he wants to do the same to your friends?'
Ginger shook her head. 'Only some. Others he uses in his magic. We die.'
The lights muted, becoming gray. Sadness seemed to hang in the air.
'What about Rodeman. Why marry him? What was the purpose behind that?'
'He makes us marry.'
'But why?'
'To bring them here.'
'Do you know why?' She felt like a CD that had become irreparably stuck on one line.
Ginger shook her head. 'We only bring them here.'
'So where is Rodeman now?'
