natural heat of a fledgling for his master. This time, it held no true passion.
Because of Nikki, he realized suddenly. Because of what she meant to him. Because he'd found with her what he'd been unable to find with Elizabeth.
'I go back there every year. You've never visited, Michael.'
He smiled. 'Life keeps me busy.' Truth was, he'd never dared, even if in times of utter loneliness he had sometimes dreamt of doing so. Not for the sex, which he could get anywhere, but for the warmth and the laughter and the close companionship only a true lover could provide.
Longings that had disappeared since he'd met Nikki.
'So why are you here?' She regarded him over the top of her wineglass, her heated gaze touched by wariness.
He shrugged. 'Work.'
She raised an eyebrow. Wine glistened on her lips and looked like blood. His hunger stirred, as it always did when he was in her company. Her lust for blood, like her lust for life itself, was strong and always overran those not powerful enough to stand against it. As it had overrun him for more years than he cared to remember.
'The word is that you're working for some charitable organization now—that true?'
He nodded and wondered if she'd been checking up on him. Though surely Seline or the Circle itself would have warned him had there been any computer searches. 'Yes. I hunt down missing people, stuff like that.'
'And that's why you're here?'
'Partially.' It was no good lying to her—she would sense it the minute he tried. And if she was involved in the disappearances, it would only make matters worse.
'And you're not here alone.'
It was a statement rather than a question, and unease slithered through his gut. Elizabeth knew about
Nikki. How? Had she checked the hotel register when she'd felt his presence this afternoon, or had she known all along that Nikki was here with him?
Their chance meeting might not owe so much to chance as to planning. 'She's not a companion. She's a thrall.'
It might have been dangerous telling Elizabeth that, but it was just as dangerous not telling her. Even if she wasn't involved in whatever was happening here at the resort, he wouldn't put it past her to seek
Nikki out and play a few games with her. He'd seen her do it to lovers of her other fledglings too often in the past. And Elizabeth's games always ended with bloodshed. But if she thought Nikki no more than a thrall, a servant to his wishes and desires, she might leave her alone.
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow again. 'I remember telling you about thralls. You swore at the time you could never do it to another.'
'I've sworn a lot of things over the years.' He shrugged again. 'But I found I just needed the company.'
'You always did. It was one of your failings as a vampire. You'd rather talk to your prey than eat them.'
He smiled slightly. 'Still do.'
She sighed softly. 'Where did I go wrong?'
'You didn't.'
He touched her hand, briefly wrapping his fingers around hers. Her palm was heavily blistered, which could have only happened if she'd grabbed something silver. Perhaps a silver knife—just like the one that had stabbed Jake.
Her pulse was slow but steady. She wasn't worried by his appearance here. Maybe she thought he presented no real threat. 'So tell me,' he asked after a moment. 'Why are you here?'
'Why am I anywhere?' Her gaze met his, challenging him. Ask what you came here to ask , it said.
He let go of her hand and picked up his wine, taking a drink. 'Are you here to hunt?'
'I hunt every day, Michael, no matter where I am.'
True. But it wasn't so much the sweet strength of human blood she was addicted to, but the rush of her victim's fear and loathing, the sense of power and utter domination such a killing gave her. And while there had been a spate of disappearances from the hotel, all but three of those had returned. If Elizabeth was hunting, she wasn't doing it here or in nearby Jackson Hole.
'What happened to Vance Hutton?'
A slow smile spread across her face. 'What do you think happened to him?'
He studied her for a moment. Hutton was dead, consumed by Elizabeth—that much was obvious from the amused light in her eyes. He would have been too tasty a morsel for her to resist. Michael wondered where she'd dumped the body. 'Are you involved in the disappearances?'
Excitement began to overtake the amusement in her eyes. She'd always liked a challenge. 'Maybe.' She paused. 'Are you here to stop me?'
He met her gaze steadily. 'Maybe.'
'Interesting. What if I say I am not in this alone?'
'Then I would ask who else is.'
'And if I said that it was a person more powerful than you and me put together? That if you valued your life you would leave the hotel and not come back?'
It wasn't a warning, and it wasn't threat. It was merely a statement of fact. Yet fear echoed in the recesses of her eyes. Whoever this man was, she hated him, even if she worked with him. 'Then I would ask why do you not take your own advice.'
She touched his knee, the warmth of her fingers pressing heat clear through to his bones. He frowned slightly. Nikki's touch had contained the same sort of fire when the flame imps had taken possession of her. 'I have never run from anything in my life, Michael, but you have. I think you should continue to do so.'
Her words reminded him of Nikki. She, too, refused to run in the face of most dangers. In some ways, she and Elizabeth had the same sort of strength, the same sort of courage. 'I have work to do here, Elizabeth. I'm not leaving.'
She took her hand away and sighed. 'Then I may be forced to stop you.'
'You can try.'
She met his gaze. After several seconds, she nodded. The lines had been drawn. If he stepped over her mark, she would kill him. Or try to.
She smiled slightly and motioned to the dance floor behind them. 'One more waltz, for old times sake?'
It was her way of saying good-bye, of closing the door on everything they had once shared. Her way of saying the next time they met, there would be no history between them, only the present.
He held out his hand. 'In memory of the laughter and the good times we once shared,' he said and led her to the dance floor.
Chapter Fourteen
Nikki leaned against the patio railing and stared moodily at the distant mountains. Half an hour had passed since she'd left Michael, half an hour that had stretched like eternity. She so desperately wanted to go down there, to meet the woman he'd loved enough to give up life for. Yet she couldn't. If she was to have any hope of holding his affections, holding him, she had to trust him. Even if it meant she risked losing him.
He loved her . He might not want her in his life, but he loved her. Of that much she was certain. And she was certain, too, that under normal circumstances, he was not the type of man who gave his heart then roamed once he had.
But did normal rules apply when the woman in question was the vampire who had turned him? How much of a hold did this Elizabeth still have on his mind, his affections?
She bit her lip, then pushed away from the railing and went back inside the room. She couldn't stay here any longer. The same questions had been going around and around in her brain and were driving her crazy. She needed to do something, anything, to get her mind off what might be happening in the bar below.
