Energy shot from my body into his for the initial few seconds, leaving me dizzy. Afterward, the energy flow between us tapered off, then stopped altogether—but the kiss didn’t. He was more careful this time, so I wasn’t left weak—at least not from energy loss.
I quit struggling, and we both deepened the kiss. Tiny sparks danced behind my eyelids, and I didn’t know if they were from energy or from my overwhelming attraction to him. At that moment, I wanted to give myself to him completely. I wanted to forget about today, Sarkis, my family, his nature. I wanted him to take me, body and soul.
He ran one of his hands down my back and pulled my lower body into his. Evidence of his arousal pressed into my lower stomach and flashes of his thoughts filled my mind.
In his thoughts, the two of us were nude in our embrace. I saw myself through his eyes and was shocked at how beautiful he saw me. My olive skin glowed at his touch, and when he pulled back to look into my eyes, they flashed green with hidden light. His desire for me grew to an animal lust. In this dream world, I felt his canine teeth lengthen. The sound and smell of blood of the woman I held in my arms filled my senses. My blood hunger drove me. I bent my head, nuzzled her neck, opened my mouth . . .
I ripped myself out of his thoughts.
My eyes flew open, and I pulled a few inches away from him. In reality, he hadn’t bent to bite me, but his pupils were dilated into cold onyx orbs, and his canine teeth stretched long and sharp.
I started to pull away again, but he held me fast.
“No, stay here,” he said. “You are safe here.”
This was not the same man I’d been speaking with a few moments before. That man was still there—I felt him just beneath the surface—but a predatory veil had fallen over him. This man was dangerous. This man wasn’t entirely human.
I tried again to put a little more space between us, but he pulled me closer.
“No, Marlena, it would be a mistake to flee. My nature has risen, and it would see you as prey.”
He leaned forward and placed his forehead on mine.
“I apologize,” he said. “I have not felt such intense need for someone in a very long time. You must wait for me to calm, or I will take you. Your blood sings to me.”
My body froze, even my breathing slowed. I now knew what deer in headlights felt right before impact. Seconds ticked by. I realized that not only did he not emit energy, he lacked a heartbeat. He didn’t breathe.
“I can breathe,” he said, “but I must make myself do so.”
He raised his head, took a deep breath, and blew it out slowly. His arms fell away from me, but I stood rooted to the floor.
Rings of glowing blue now rimmed the blackness of his eyes, and a tentative smile quirked his lips. “Walk slowly to the couch and sit down.”
With shaking legs, I backed to the couch and sat. He sat in the chair and ran his hands through his hair.
I needed to get out of there. For the first time, it sunk in that beneath his civilized veneer, Rune was truly a vampire. What had been abstract before, was now reality.
Melancholy sat awkwardly on his chiseled features.
“You are an unrealized poet, Marlena. ‘Civilized veneer’—I like that.”
He leaned back into the chair, tilted his head back, and closed his eyes.
“I have frightened you, and that was not my intention.”
He laughed, low and hollow. “I am intoxicated for the first time since my turning. Your power is so concentrated and pure, it is like a drug to me.”
“My mother . . .”
“Is safe. Griss will only extract Tibby’s phone number and address from her, nothing more.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Griss will not cross me on this. He may be wilder than I, but I hold more power.”
He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling.
“And I am his sire,” he said.
“Sire or not, you sent a vampire to visit my mother!”
He lifted his head and scanned the room. “Marlena, please calm down. I do not trust myself to touch you again so soon, but I prefer not to lose anymore twenty-five-year-old scotch.”
His gaze returned to me and caressed my skin like a physical touch. “Your mother is safe. You have my word.”
“Right,” I huffed. Come to think of it, Mom was probably safer with Griss the vampire than with my father. If it wasn’t for my grandmother leaving me her house, I’d still be trapped there. When I’d asked my mother to come with me and she’d refused, I realized she would have to make the decision to free herself of my father’s abuse on her own. I couldn’t do it for her, but I could do it for me. For now, BooBoo Kitty and I lived in safety—well at least until yesterday.
“Oh,” I sat up and looked around. “Where’s my backpack. I need my cell phone. I have to call my neighbor and my boss.”
“Your bag is on the table by the bed as well as your books. It’s rather late for phone calls.”
I stood and walked to the bed. “Mrs. Norris would want me to call. She’s probably been worried sick. She has BooBoo Kitty.” I grabbed the phone out of my backpack. “I’ll just leave a message for Carl, my boss, at work.”
He was near me in an instant with his phone in his outstretched palm.
“Use this phone. Not yours. This one is untraceable.”
I took the phone from his hand. A chime sounded from somewhere near the stereo, and a computer-twanged female voice announced, “Incoming intercom call. Would you like to accept?”
“Yes,” Rune answered toward the stereo speakers in the entertainment center.
“Boss, it’s Tony. You’re needed up top.”
“I’ll be right there.” He nodded to me. “If you’ll excuse me.”
He took the stairs two at a time with the grace of a panther.
I called Mrs. Norris first, and even though it was after ten, she answered.
“Mrs. Norris, it’s Marlee.”
“Oh thank goodness! BooBoo and I were worried, dear.”
“I’m so sorry. I fell ill last night in class and went home with a friend.”
“That’s perfectly all right. Mr. Boots and BooBoo Kitty are getting along wonderfully. They’re curled up on the couch together as we speak. They played with Mr. Boots’s cat toys all day, and the poor babies are exhausted. You’re not with Mr. Smith are you?”
My stomach plummeted. “No, why would you ask that?”
“Oh, nothing. There’s just a van like his parked down the block. Gladys down the way called me about it earlier. She’s one of the neighborhood watch captains, you know, but I think she’s going to get voted out next year. She’s just too bossy, you know the kind. Anyway, I told her I thought it was Mr. Smith’s van. It looks like the same one he drove up in the other day when he returned your cat. If you say it’s not his and it’s still here tomorrow, we’ll have to investigate.”
Panic dried all the moisture from my mouth and throat.
“No, no, Mrs. Norris. You stay away from that van. Call the police if it’s there tomorrow. Promise me. Promise you’ll stay away.”
“Well okay, Marlee. Are you in any trouble? Is there anything I can do?”
“No, I’m fine. I just had a really bad feeling about Mr. Smith yesterday.” I especially had a bad feeling about him when he grabbed me in the parking lot, but I didn’t want to scare her to death.
“Okay, dear. You know, I think you should stay over here with Burt and I a few nights since you’re worried and not feeling well. Your grandmother was my best friend, and we take care of our own, you know.”
“That’s so nice of you, but I don’t think that’s necessary. It would really help if you could keep BooBoo for a few days for me, though. I’d like to stay with my friend for a few days until I kick this flu bug I’ve got.”
“Well okay, dear. Whatever you think is best. Oh. Is this a man friend?”
“No. Afraid not.” I shook my head and smiled until I realized that I was telling the truth. Rune really wasn’t a man. He was a vampire. “Thanks again, Mrs. Norris. I’ll reimburse you for any food or supplies when I get back in a few days.”
She yawned. “Okay, Sweetie. I’ll keep her safe and sound. We’ll see you later.”
We said our goodbyes, and I dialed Carl’s number at work. His recording played.
“You’ve reached Carl Ruskin of University Assets and Archives. Due to an environmental issue, our office will be closed for a minimum of one week. Please leave a message, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. Oh, uh, if this is Marlee, check your voicemail for instructions on where to report on Monday.”
I hung up without leaving a message and called my voicemail. I forwarded three archive issues to Carl’s number. The fourth message was Carl’s worried voice.
“Hey, Marlee, where the hell are you? I’m real sorry about being such an ass the last few days, but I’ve been feeling a little off. The university cops were here today with Environmental Health and Industrial Safety. They want to talk to you about that professor that got shocked in here a while back. What the hell really happened in here that day? That guy almost died. EHIS is closing the whole place off. They say something’s wrong with the electrical or something. Shoot, I’m running out of message time. I won’t be home this weekend. Call my voicemail and tell me where you are and what’s up and—”
The message beeped and ended. There were seven more messages, one from Officer Jacobs of campus police asking me to call him, but no more messages from Carl.
I hung up, and dropped my head to stare at my lap and think. That professor had been in my office yelling at me about records that were offsite, because he couldn’t get them right away. My monitor had shorted out, and he had a heart attack right in front of my desk. The emergency responders blamed the professor’s attack on the monitor shocking him, but I was pretty sure I had something to do with it. My out of control abilities were becoming more and more dangerous. I was getting hazardous to be around. Yesterday, that pencil could have gone right through Carl’s head instead of the storage box. Now poor Carl was stuck with all those investigations and questions.
I called Carl’s voicemail again, but I ended the call before his greeting finished. What should I tell him? How much should I tell him? He’d acted extra peculiar yesterday. Was that just a coincidence, or was it connected somehow to me? Could Carl be working with Mr. Smith?
No. I’d known Carl for four years. He got grouchy and threw energy at least once a month, but he wasn’t out to get me.
Still, anyone could be blackmailed. What if they’d kidnapped his wife, Nancy?
I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to think straight.
“No,” I said aloud to myself, “I can’t tell Carl where I am, who I’m with, or why I’m gone. I also can’t go back home. I also can’t stay here with Fang-boy no matter how gorgeous he is—or how good a kisser. Also, I’m turning into a hussy.” I let go of my nose. “I’m also giving myself a heck of a headache with all these also’s.”
I called Carl’s number again.
“Hi Carl, it’s Marlee. I’m okay. I’m just having a personal family thing right now, and I’d like to take the next week off while the office is closed. I hope that’s okay. I’ll need to communicate by voicemail for a while. Please leave me a message. Oh, and tell the University Police I’ll get back to them.”
I hung up, then called my parents’ house, but no one answered.
“Okay,” I said, “if no one is home, that’s a good thing because Griss won’t be able to get to Mom. On the other hand, if he’s there right now with Mom, he might be keeping her from answering the phone.”
I tossed the phone back onto the bed. I was making myself crazy. No, strike that, this whole situation was making me crazy.
I walked back to the couch and flopped onto it. I leaned my head onto the cushion. I needed to go over everything one more time, but I was just too overwhelmed to do it. My eyes drifted closed. The soft murmur of the aquarium motor and tinkling bubbles washed over me. I cleared my mind and hoped that some epiphany would strike and all my problems would be solved, or that I’d connect with some higher universal consciousness who would give me the answer I needed. Instead of divine intervention or miraculous enlightenment, I did what I’d done as a child when I’d had a bad energy day. I fell asleep.
I jumped as I awoke. When my eyes opened, I was looking at the hairiest blond man I’d ever seen. Dressed in a black leather vest, jeans, and black biker boots, the first word that popped into my mind was barbaric.
He smiled through his bushy reddish beard, flashing large, white teeth—two of which were lethal-looking fangs. My heart slammed in my chest, and my body erupted into tingling energy. Pillows all around me on the couch shot up and hovered in the air.
Wide-eyed, the man felt the air around me with his hands.
“Hot damn,” he said and slapped his leg.
CHAPTER FIVE
D
ECISIONS
D
ECISIONS
I scrambled crablike over the back of the couch and backed against the breakfast bar. The pillows dropped. He reached out his arms straight out on either side of his body, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath like he was soaking up sunshine.
“Your mother has no idea what you can do. You’re like a little star throwing out energy everywhere.”
His eyes narrowed and a grin lifted his bushy beard. “And you’re beautiful to boot. No wonder Rune wouldn’t discuss you.”
A blur of color streaked across the room, and he appeared in front of me. His hands were on the breakfast bar on either side of me, trapping me between him and the counter. I leaned back against the counter and felt my energy level spike, but instead of shooting energy around the room, the vampire pulled it all into himself as it left me.
“You don’t need a gentleman vampire like Rune. You need a real vampire who’ll show you the wild side of life. With your energy and my powers, we could rock this town.”
He pulled his head back a few inches to look me over.
“So, what are you anyway?”
My “superior intellect” took over.
“A Protestant,” I said.
He threw back his head and laughed. When he looked down at me again, he had tears in his eyes.
“I like you, little Protestant. You have spunk. But really, what are you?”
He pressed his face toward mine again and smelled me.
“She’s human,” Rune said from the foot of the stairs, “and she’s my human, Griss. Stand down.”
Griss stayed where he was. He lowered his head and sighed.
“Party’s over, little one, big brother’s here.”
A thrumming power filled the room, making the hairs on the nape of my neck stand on edge. The thrum originated first from Rune, then from Griss. When Rune increased his power, Griss matched it. This continued for a few moments until my ears popped from the physic pressure in the room. Just when I thought my eardrums would implode, Griss pushed away from me and stalked to the kitchen, and the power dissipated.
“All right, all right,” Griss said. “I was just playing with her.”
The pillows on the couch levitated again, and another bottle flew from the wet bar and exploded on the ceiling. Griss crouched and cursed. Rune cursed also, but appeared at my side and grabbed my hand. My energy instantly leveled off. The pillows dropped. Rune grimaced as he scanned in the kitchen, full of glass and alcohol from the two bottles I’d demolished.
He inhaled and put his lips near my ear. “You seem to have a penchant for my scotch.”
“I didn’t think vampires could drink,” I said, too annoyed to be cautious anymore.
“I can link minds with someone who’s drinking it. It’s the only way I have left to enjoy food and drink.”
“Yeah.” Griss stood and brushed glass shards out of his hair. “We vampires are food voyeurs, so to speak.”
Rune kept hold of my hand and turned to Griss.
“Did you get the information?”
“Yes,” Griss took a piece of paper out of his pants pocket and threw it on the counter. “No phone number, just directions. Aunt Tibby doesn’t have a phone. She lives so far out in the sticks of Montana, she doesn’t even have an address. Eunice thinks her daughter is just like her aunt. She’s all screwed up about it.”
Rune’s expression darkened. “It sounds like you obtained more information than you were sent for.”
Griss shrugged and walked to the living area. He flopped onto the chair with his legs over one of its arms.
“I got flashes from Eunice about her ‘abnormal’ daughter, and I couldn’t resist.”
“If you hurt my mother, I’ll . . .”
Griss held his hand up. “I didn’t touch her. I can’t say as much about that drunk of a husband of hers that showed up as I was leaving.”
My blood ran cold with the mention of my father. I blocked the anger and pain I felt toward him as I’d been doing for years.
The room stilled, and Rune and Griss looked at me with surprised expressions.
“What?” I asked.
“Your energy dissipation,” he said.
“What about it?”
“It stopped.”
I blinked a few times and rubbed my arm with my free hand. He was right. There was no tingle. I ran my hand over my hair. It was lying flat and not floating with static.
My energy was still too high, but it was all contained within my body. It vibrated within me like I’d just guzzled two pots of coffee.
“Wow,” I said.
“So, you did not intend to stop?” Rune asked.
I laughed. “No, it’s like everything else in my life. I have no control over it.”
“You feel like one of us now,” Griss said.
“What do you mean?”
Rune felt the air around me. I was beginning to hate how they did that. I felt like a defective crystal ball.
“You are emitting no energy.”
“So, like you said, I stopped shooting energy all over the place.”
“No,” Rune said. “You have no signal at all.”
“Oh.” That didn’t sound good. My stomach lurched. Why didn’t I have a signal? I really didn’t want to feel like a vampire in any way, shape, or fashion. What I wanted was to be just plain human.
“There it is again,” Griss said.
“What?” I asked.
Rune kept feeling the air around me. “The energy dissipation is back.”
“So? What?” I said. “Am I shorting out or something?”
I pulled my hand out of Rune’s.
“Do you think you did it with the hand holding thing?”
“I don’t know,” Rune said. “It could just be a talent you don’t know you have. Can you remember how you did it?”
“No.”
“What were you feeling or thinking about?”
“Well, let’s see,” I said. I heard the sarcasm in my voice, but I was too annoyed to hide it. “Your friend over there had just scared me witless, then I was worried about what he did to my mom. Then you two played vampire power wrestling, and, oh yeah, then I demolished your apartment—some more.”
Rune studied me, then his eyes brightened.
“Then,” he said, “Griss mentioned your father.”
“Yeah.”
“There it went again.” Griss yelled. “She cut out for a second.”
“I did?”
“Marlena,” Rune said looking into my eyes. “Think about your father.”
“Okay.” I pictured my father. He was six foot three, dark hair, dark eyes, and olive skin from his Yaqui Indian heritage.
“Nothing’s happening,” Griss said.
“Marlena,” Rune said, “really think about your father. What is he like?”
“He’s a drunk,” I said. Actually, he was a mean, nasty drunk, who hated me, my powers, and everything I was.
“There, she cut out again,” Griss said. He sat up in the chair. “I’ve never seen a human do that so completely, have you?”
Rune crossed his arms over his chest. “No, I have not.”
“Okay, guys.” I walked around the breakfast bar into the kitchen, careful to avoid slipping in the broken glass. It made me feel safer with a large slab of granite between me and them. “I’m feeling a little like a lab rat here.”
“Marlena,” Rune said, “don’t you see? You’ve made your first strides in controlling your power.”
“First strides?” Griss said. “You mean she has all that raw power and can’t control it?”
Rune nodded, and Griss looked at me like a starving man eyeing a steak.
“I like it,” he said. “You’re untamed and dangerous like me. You sure you don’t want to walk on the wild side with a real vampire?”
Power thrummed from Rune. Griss just laughed and twisted sideways on the chair again, resting his legs over the chair arms.
I picked up the piece of paper with my aunt Tibby’s address on it. My next step was clear. Not only did I need to ask her about Dr. Sarkis, but if I truly had the potential to control this pseudo-gift of mine, she might be able to help.
“Am I free to leave?” I asked.
“Of course you are,” Rune answered, “but I do not advise it.”
He glanced at the paper in my hand.
“Take Griss with you.”
“No,” I said.
“Ah, come on, babe,” Griss said. “We’ll ride the Harley at night and hole up in a dark hotel room during the day.”
I’d never spent time with a man in a hotel room, and Griss the vampire wasn’t going to be my first.
“No,” I said. “I’m not taking him.”
“Okay, take Tony,” Rune said.
“Who’s Tony?”
“Tony’s his human servant,” Griss said.
“Servant?” I propped my fists on my hips and glared at Rune.
Shooting a quick but lethal look at Griss, he took a few steps toward me.
“That is not as it sounds,” he said.
It sounded like human servant meant Tony was his human and his servant. If he thought he was going to make me a human servant, he had a whole other vampire thought coming.
“I would never think of you as my human servant or expect you to become one,” Rune said in a calming voice.
“But you did tell Griss I am ‘your human.’ And stay out of my head thank you very much.”
Rune ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “I can move a few things around on my schedule, get coverage for the club, and make arrangements for a night flight and a rented panel van at destination. It’ll take a day or two but—”
“No,” I said. “I’m going alone.” I had enough problems in my life right now without dragging a vampire with me to Montana.
Rune deepened his gaze and looked directly into my eyes, but I was ready for him. I let my worry and anger wash over me, and tingling energy crackled the air around me. When it built to a frantic enough level, I pulled my gaze from him. I walked to the bed and grabbed my wallet and cell phone out of my backpack.
“I hate making plane reservations over the phone, do you have a computer I can use?”
“Not a good idea,” Rune said. “We do not know what kind of connections this Dr. Sarkis has. He may be monitoring your credit cards and your phone. Come upstairs to my office. I will make the reservations for you with my credit card. We’ll make the reservations under an alias, and I’ll procure false ID for you. We’ll also need to get you some clothes and essentials and pack a small bag for you.”
“You can do all that tonight?” I asked.
Griss jumped up from the chair in one fluid movement.
“You don’t live over two thousand years without making some connections, darlin’.”
Two thousand years. I tried to imagine living that long. If I had to live a day like this more than a few times, I’d be a raving lunatic. Of course, it was possible that just today would do the trick.
We walked up the stairs, Rune in the lead, me in the middle, and Griss in the back. I felt Griss’s eyes and thoughts on me.
“Griss,” I said. “If you can read my thoughts, why aren’t you giving up and backing off?”
“I can’t read your thoughts.”
“Why not? I thought that’s what you guys do.”
“I don’t have enough of your energy in me to home in on you. And you throw a lot of static. You’re hard to lock in on.”
“So if you absorbed enough of my energy, you could read me from then on?”
“Nope. Just until I’d used up the energy I’d absorbed from you, then I’d need more. Didn’t Rune explain any of this?”
“Shut up, Griss,” Rune said.
Rune entered a code in the alarm panel at the top of the stairs, and the door opened. We walked out near the end of a narrow service corridor with a closed door directly across from where we’d just exited and another to our left marked “Exit.” Long strips of black fabric blocked the opening at the end of the corridor creating a soft door. Keypads flanked the sides of the door we just came out of and the door across from us.
Booming music and a myriad of voices pushed their way through the opening at the far end of the hall. Raw-edged energy flowed through the opening in giant shock waves, pounding my chest. My head rattled, and I gritted my teeth to stop them from chattering. It felt as though thousands of invisible embers bombarded my skin. It was like being sprayed with hot oil.
Griss peeked around at my face. It was the first time I’d seen his expression completely serious.
“Rune,” he said, “we need to get her out of this hall. That stupid fabric door doesn’t block the energy from the club at all.”
Rune put his arm around me and moved us toward the door across the hall. The embers still stung my skin, but the excess buildup of power flowed through my contact with him. He entered a code on the panel next to the door. The door clicked open, and he ushered me inside. Once Griss closed the heavy metal door, the embers stopped. Hands on knees, I gasped and tried to calm the residual buzzing in my head.
“What the heck was that?” I said between coughs and wheezes. “I felt like I was being cooked alive.”
“That,” Griss said, “was the life force of hundreds of partying humans in all their drunk and horny glory.”
“No,” I said. “I went to a club a few years ago, and it was nothing like that.”
“It is possible that as your ability becomes more uncontrolled, you are becoming more sensitive,” Rune said almost as if to himself.
I straightened and took a deep breath.
“Well, all I can say is I now have a deep empathy for lobsters, and I’ll never eat one again.”
Griss laughed and patted my back, leaving his hand on me a little longer with each pat. Rune shot a look at him, and he dropped his hand, a naughty-child grin on his face.
Rune guided me to the stairs, which were the only thing in the tiny area we were in. At the landing on top was a steel door with no handle and no keypad. Rune held his hand to the door and closed his eyes. A scraping sound and a metallic clank echoed through the small space, and the door slid open. Once inside, Griss shut the huge, two-inch thick panel of steel, which served as a door, and slid home a steel bolt that spanned the length of the twelve-foot door.
I stopped and ran my hand over the cold metal.
“Who opened this?” I said.
“Rune,” Griss said. “Vampire security system.”
Rune again guided me in front of him, separating me from Griss. We walked down a long hall toward two opposing doors at the end.
“No one else has a reason to be here,” Rune said. “I opened the door with abilities much like your own. No one else but a vampire and perhaps now you can open the door.”