Chapter 24
Tracy shook her head. “No, it can’t be.” Yet even as she denied it, she knew in her heart that it was true. It explained why she had always felt so protective of Bryan, why she felt so at ease with him. Why she worried about him so.
Scrambling to her feet, she ran a hand through her hair. “Listen, I’ve got to go.”
“Tracy, wait.” Rising, he grabbed her arm. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“Upset? Why should I be upset?” She laughed. “I’m living some kind of nightmare.”
“Welcome to the club.”
“I’m sorry, Bryan, but I’ve really got to go. I need time to think.” She gestured at the people splashing in the water. “And you’re supposed to be working.” She forced a smile. “Call me later, okay?”
“Sure. Here, don’t forget this.” He dropped the stake into the sack and tossed it to her.
She caught it one-handed. “Thanks. And don’t worry, everything will be all right.”
At home, she took the stake out of the sack and hefted it in her hand, trying to imagine what it would be like to use it. With a shudder, she dropped it on her dresser. There was no way she would ever be able to use such a thing, but it made her feel better somehow, just having it there.
Going into the bathroom, she took a quick shower, pulled on a pair of sweats and a tank top, then went downstairs and fixed herself an avocado, Swiss cheese, and tomato sandwich, and then, not wanting to think about Dominic or Bryan or vampires, she turned on the TV and lost herself in an old Robert Mitchum movie.
Two hours later, she put a load of clothes in the washer, then went upstairs to paint, determined that, for the rest of the day, she would pretend that there was nothing unusual about her life. There was no vampire sleeping in the house below. There was nothing wrong with Bryan. There were no vampires in Sea Cliff Village.
Shutting everything else from her mind, she focused on the work at hand and when she called it a day several hours later, she knew Mr. Petersen would be pleased. It was far and away the best seascape she had ever done.
She glanced out the window, felt a flutter in her stomach when she saw the sun was going down.
Dominic would be rising soon, and bringing reality with him.
Keeping her mind blank, she cleaned her brushes, wiped her hands, took off her smock and hung it up.
Night was coming and the vampires of Sea Cliff would be stirring.
She was fixing dinner when the phone rang. She caught it on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Tracy? It’s Bry. Can I come over?”
She started to say sure, then hesitated. Dominic would be there soon.
“Tracy? I don’t want to be alone.”
“Sure, Bryan. Hurry.”
“Thanks, Trace,” he said, and hung up.
Replacing the receiver, she went back into the kitchen, only then wondering if Bryan had had dinner. Assuming he hadn’t, she put another couple of pork chops in the pan.
He was at her front door before the chops had finished cooking.
“That was quick,” she said, closing the door behind him.
“Yeah.” He followed her into the kitchen. “I feel like such a coward, afraid to be home alone after dark.”
“Well, you’ve got good reason to be afraid. Have you had dinner?”
He shook his head. “Food’s the last thing on my mind.”
“Doesn’t matter, you’ve got to eat. Sit down—it’s almost ready.”
Bryan dropped into a chair and stared at his hands. “She’s coming for me.”
Tracy glanced at him over her shoulder. “How do you know?”
“She told me so.”
With hands that trembled, Tracy filled a plate for Bryan and set it on the table. “What do you want to drink?”
He looked up at her, his eyes haunted. “You don’t want to know.”
“Bryan, you’re scaring me.”
“How do you think
I
feel?” He looked at her throat, then jerked his gaze away.
After filling her own plate, Tracy sat down at the table across from Bryan. “You’ve got to get hold of yourself. You’ve got to fight her. Block her from your mind. You can do it if you try.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t think about it now.” She gestured at his plate with her fork. “Eat. I’m a good cook.”
Forcing a smile, he began to cut one of the chops.
“So, is she as good a cook as she claims?”
Bryan’s face paled as Dominic appeared in the kitchen doorway.
“You should know,” Tracy said. “You ate some of it once.”
Dominic grunted. He remembered that night, and its consequences, all too well. Without waiting to be asked, he sat down at the table.
If possible, Bryan’s complexion paled even more.
Dominic regarded him coolly. “You should eat something.”
Tracy could see Bryan gathering his courage in the way he sat up straighter and squared his shoulders.
“I suppose you’ve already eaten,” Bryan remarked.
A faint smile twitched the corners of Dominic’s lips. “Indeed.”
“Stop it, both of you,” Tracy said. “Bryan, eat your dinner. Dominic, leave him alone.”
Bryan looked sheepish; Dominic lifted one brow.
“Dominic, he needs help. He . . . he’s . . .”
“What she’s trying to say is that I’ve been craving blood,” Bryan said curtly.
“What else?”
“I can hear her thoughts. She’s coming for me. Soon. And she gave me a message for you just before I got here.”
Dominic leaned forward. “Tell me.”
Bryan glanced at Tracy and quickly looked away. “She said if you destroy Petrina, she will destroy whoever is closest to you.”
“I guess that means me,” Tracy said, her voice little more than a squeak.
Dominic nodded, his attention still focused on Bryan. “Did she say anything else?”
“Only that she will see you at The Catacombs tonight, if you are not afraid to meet her.”
Tracy pushed her plate away, her appetite gone. “You’re not going?”
“I must.”
“Why?”
“This is my territory.”
“So?”
“It is mine because I am powerful enough to keep it. Those who have challenged me in the past have been defeated. If I want to keep the respect of the vampires among us, I cannot show weakness now.”
Bryan pushed his own plate away. “That makes sense.” Slamming his fist down on the table, he stood and began to pace the floor. “Dammit, I can’t live like this!”
Rising to his feet in a single lithe movement, Dominic laid his hand on Bryan’s shoulder. “Look at me.”
Bryan stared into Dominic’s eyes, whatever objections he’d been about to voice dying on his lips.
“You will go into the living room and lie down on the sofa,” Dominic said, his voice low and hypnotic. “You will close your eyes and go to sleep, and you will not awake until tomorrow morning. Your mind will be calm and you will dream about walls. High walls that will allow nothing inside.”
“Sleep,” Bryan repeated.
“Yes. Go now.”
Yawning, Bryan walked into the living room.
Tracy stared at Dominic. “You’re just full of tricks, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “He needs the rest.” Moving up beside her, Dominic lifted her to her feet. “And I wanted to be alone with you for a little while.”
All thought of Bryan fled her mind when she saw the look smoldering in Dominic’s eyes.
Slowly, so there could be no mistaking his intent, he lowered his head and claimed her lips with his. She leaned into him, her eyelids fluttering down as his mouth covered hers. His tongue teased her lips. His hands skimmed over her back, cupped her buttocks to draw her body closer to his until they stood heat to heat, mouths and bodies fused together.
Somehow, they were in her room, stretched out on the bed. She was melting, her body aching with need, yearning for something only he could give her.
“Dominic . . .” She moaned his name.
Groaning softly, he drew away from her and sat up.
She put her hand on his arm. “What’s wrong?”
He shook his head, but did not look at her.
“Dominic?”
He stood, his back to her. “I need to go.”
“Go?” She sat up. “Where? Why?”
“You are far too tempting in far too many ways.”
“And that’s bad?”
His hands clenched at his sides. “Right now, yes. It is difficult to separate my desire from my need. I do not trust myself to satisfy one without the other.”
“But . . .”
“And I must feed.”
Before she could say anything else, he was gone. “Dominic! Dominic, wait!”
But she was talking to the air.
Pounding her fist against the pillow, she rose and went downstairs. Stalking into the kitchen, she opened the fridge and poured herself a glass of ice water, but it didn’t help. She doubted if even standing under a shower of ice water would cool her off now. Her whole body burned for his touch. How could he leave her like that?
Putting the glass in the sink, she cleared away the meal no one had eaten, put the dishes in the dishwasher, washed the pans, then went into the living room. Bryan was asleep on the sofa. Sitting in one of the chairs, she studied him while he slept. Once he had been her son.
“Mama, look at me!”
How often had Jacob called to her, wanting her to watch him? He was her only child and she loved him beyond words. He was a clever boy, always eager to learn, anxious for her approval. She had watched him grow from boyhood to manhood, proud of his accomplishments. In spite of his own grief when his father died, Jacob had tried to comfort her, though it had been Dominic in whose arms she had poured out her grief. And when the South went to war, Jacob had been eager to go, eager to fight the Yankees. She had begged him to stay home, pleading that she needed him, that she could not run the farm without his help, but he would not be deterred....
And now he was in her life again, this time as a friend. And she felt responsible for him again. And, once again, his life was in danger. And, this time, perhaps his soul.
Going to the window, she drew back the curtains and stared out into the night. A full yellow moon shone down on the ocean, painting the tips of the waves with gold and casting long, golden shadows on the face of the water.
Standing there, she felt a sudden uneasiness. Dropping the curtains back into place, she went through the house, making sure all the doors and windows were closed and locked even though Dominic had told her vampires could not enter a dwelling uninvited.
Going upstairs, she slipped into her smock, put a new canvas on one of the easels, mixed her colors, and began to paint.
Slowly, the image on the canvas took form. It was a young man with dark blond hair and brown eyes. A man wearing the proud gray uniform of a Confederate soldier. A house with four white columns rose to his left. Fields planted in cotton could be seen stretching away on his right. There was a woman in the painting, too. She stood on the porch, one hand pressed to her heart, a bittersweet smile on her lips. A tear glistened in her eye.
Taking a step back, Tracy stared at the painting of Jacob and Libby and felt again her anguish as she bid her son farewell for the last time.
“It is a powerful piece.”
Warmth flooded her being at the sound of his voice. Contentment washed through her as he came up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist.
She leaned against him, reveling in his strength. “I’m glad you came back.”
“I cannot stay.” He kissed her cheek. “I must go to meet Kitana.”
“Don’t go, please. I’m afraid.”
“You and Bryan will be safe here.”
“I’m not afraid for us.” She turned in his arms so she could see his face. “Please don’t go.”
“I cannot be less than I am. If I do not meet with Kitana, the others will see it as weakness on my part. I cannot afford to be weak, not even for you.” He kissed her again. “Promise me you will not leave the house until the sun is up.”
“I promise. Promise you’ll come back to me as soon as you can.”
“I promise.”
She stared up at him, wishing she had the words to make him stay.
“Do not be afraid, my best beloved one.”
Nodding, she blinked back the tears stinging her eyes. “Kiss me.”
His arms tightened around her, drawing her body close to his as his mouth covered hers.
For that moment, she forgot everything else except how much she had grown to love him.
She felt bereft when he drew away. “Be careful.”
His gaze moved over her, warming her, and then he was gone.
Judging by the crowd inside The Catacombs when he arrived, Dominic figured that word of his meeting with Kitana must have spread like wildfire through the community of vampires. There was an air of tension in the room when he stepped inside as all eyes swung in his direction. He nodded to those gathered in the room as he made his way toward the bar.
He had dressed with care for this meeting. He wore a blindingly white shirt, black trousers and boots, and, for effect, a long black cloak.
The crowd parted for him as though he were Moses crossing the Red Sea.
At the bar, he asked for a glass of wine, fully aware of the conversations going on around him as the vampires speculated on the outcome of the meeting between Dominic and the oldest of their kind.
He knew the moment Kitana entered the room. A rush of preternatural power moved over him, tickling the hair on his arms, raising the hair at his nape.
Slowly, he put his glass down on the bar.
Slowly, he turned to face her.
She was as beautiful as he remembered. Slight in build, no more than five feet tall, she was nevertheless a commanding presence. She wore a long white gown and a cloak of midnight blue velvet lined in blood-red silk. Her hair fell over her shoulders in a fall of bright auburn that shimmered in the candlelight.