Throwing back the covers, she staggered down the hall. A glance into the guestroom show the bed was empty. At the front door, she looked through the peephole. “Carl!” she exclaimed. “What are doing here? Do you know what time it is?”
“Yeah.” He sounded as groggy as she felt. “Travis called and told me to haul my lazy butt over here ASAP.”
Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she unlocked the door. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” He lumbered inside, still in his pajamas.
Sara closed and locked the door behind him. Scuffing into the living room, she paused when she noticed the sofa was empty. Hadn’t Travis said he was spending the night? He wasn’t in the guestroom. He wasn’t in the living room. Where was he?
“I’m going back to bed,” she murmured. “The couch is yours if you want it.”
Sara tossed and turned for an hour before she gave it up for a lost cause. Pulling on her robe and slippers, she padded into the kitchen, put on a pot of coffee, then sat at the table, her chin resting on her steepled fingers. Moving here had seemed like such a good idea. Now it seemed like a nightmare.
She looked up as Overstreet shuffled into the kitchen and dropped onto the chair across from hers.
“I should have stayed in New Jersey,” he mumbled crossly.
Sara nodded sympathetically. “Coffee?” she asked, rising.
“Sugar, no cream. Thanks.”
She filled two cups, added sugar to both, milk to hers, and returned to the table. “Have you noticed things seem to be going from bad to worse?”
“Oh, yeah. I guess you know that Travis asked me to spend the day with you. And to remind you that you’re not supposed to go to work.”
“We talked about it last night. Maybe you should start spending the night here so we can both sleep later in the morning.”
“We’ll see.” Lifting his cup, he drained it in three long swallows. Pushing away from the table, he refilled his cup.
“Do you have any idea what Ronan and Travis are planning to do?”
“Not a clue. I’m guessing we’ll discuss it tonight. Although I don’t know why they want me there. I’m no vampire hunter.”
“Have you ever thought how ironic it is that Travis was once a hunter and now he’s what he hunted? It would make a great novel.”
“And I’m going to write it. As soon as I get out of this town.”
“Seriously?”
He nodded. “I’ve got the outline in my head.”
“Promise you’ll send me a copy when it’s published.”
“You know I will,” he said with a wink. “Maybe I’ll dedicate it to you.”
“That would be awesome. Just think, I’ve met two famous authors without even trying.”
Sara and Overstreet passed the day watching old movies, napping, and playing endless hands of Gin Rummy.
As the sun went down, Sara found herself glancing at her watch time and again. Travis was usually here by now, so, where was he?
Travis met Ronan at the hospital as soon as the sun went down.
“I thought I told you to bring Overstreet,” Ronan said.
“I wanted to see you alone first. I want you to teach me how to dissolve into mist and think myself wherever I want to go. And anything else a good master teaches his fledgling.”
Irritated and amused, Ronan lifted one brow. “Do you now?”
“I deserve it.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because you turned me, dammit.”
“It was your decision.”
“The lesser of two evils,” Travis retorted.
“I admire your grit,” Ronan said. “But the truth is, there’s nothing to dissolving into mist, or transporting yourself from one place to the other. The power is in you. You just have to believe you can do it, whether it’s crawling up the side of a building like a spider or shape-shifting.”
“Shape-shifting?”
“I prefer wolves.” The words were still in the air when the vampire disappeared, and a large black wolf stood in his place.
Travis stared at the beast. And then he grinned. How awesome was that?
Ronan shifted back to his own form. “Impressed?”
“Where do your clothes go?”
“That,” Ronan said with the first real smile Travis had ever seen, “is a mystery no one can answer.”
“So, if I want to dissolve into mist, I just have to believe I can do it and it happens?”
“Mind over matter, that’s all it is,” Ronan said, remembering that he’d said the same words to Shannah not long ago. “You think it, believe it, do it.” He chuckled softly.
“It can be a little scary the first time.”
Travis grunted, unable to believe his sire had ever been afraid of anything. Putting everything else out of his mind, he pictured himself as a thick gray mist floating in the air … and it happened. And it was scary as hell, just as Ronan had said. He saw the world through a hazy cloud. Sound was muted. He had no sense of touch or smell.
And then he felt himself drifting aimlessly.
Fear shot through him as he floated out the open window. Below him, the hospital grew smaller and smaller. Shit! What was he supposed to do now? He tried to concentrate but his mind was frozen with fear as he imagined himself drifting ever upward toward the stars. Disintegrating into nothing.
Concentrate! He imagined himself gradually drifting toward the earth, knew a sense of relief when thought turned to action. He pictured himself back in the hospital and a moment later, he was there. I want to be me again!
He blew out a shaky breath when he realized he had form and substance. “Damn! I’m not sure I ever want to try that again.”
“But you will. And because you were turned by a master vampire, your powers are stronger than most.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
Ronan glared at him. “You will not call me that.”
Travis nodded as the vampire’s preternatural strength rolled over him. It was
