Authors: Heather Graham
“Oh, God,” Jonas moaned again. “This is just gross.”
Mark stepped back, playing his light around the room. They had taken care of every coffin in the place and destroyed at least forty of the deadly creatures, but something was still wrong.
“I don't know how he does it,” he said.
“What?” Jonas asked absently, working on the last corpse, “a juicy one,” as he called the younger vampires.
“This placeâ¦it's a decoy,” Mark said. “These were Stephan's sacrifices.” He stared at Jonas. “He wanted us to find this placeâwanted
me
to find it.”
“Why?” Jonas asked.
Innocently?
Mark wondered.
“So he could be busy elsewhere,” Mark said angrily, and turned toward the stairs. He had to get back to Montresse House as quickly as possible.
No sooner had Maggie hung up than Lauren's cell. She didn't recognize the voice at first.
“Don't speak to anyone. I don't know where you are or who you âre with, but you have to come to me now. Do you understand?”
It was Susan, the fortune-teller, she realized
“No,” she said harshly.
She could hear a note of misery in the woman's voice. Like a sob. But was it real?
“I'm the messenger, just the messenger,” the woman said. “He has Heidi. And he says he'll kill her, and that her death will be on your head.”
Maggie was staring at her questioningly.
“It's nothing,” Lauren lied.
“Come to the Square,” Susan said, then made a strange sound. A sound of pain, Lauren thought.
Don't do anything stupid, don't act insanely, she warned herself.
It was as if Stephan knew what she was thinking and was using Susan to make sure she knew it. “You can get help, maybe even eventually bring him down. But Stephan wants to know if that will really matter, because, if you don't come now, Heidi will definitely be dead.”
How the hell had he gotten to Heidi?
She remembered her own dream. He had that power. He could enter the mind.
“What is it?” Maggie persisted.
“Nothing, just a call from back home,” Lauren lied.
She heard Susan's voice again, a whisper this time. “Don't come. He wants you, but you can't give him what he wants. Youâ”
Susan's voice suddenly broke off in a chilling, gasping sound. Lauren realized that Maggie was still staring at her and knew she couldn't let her face betray her fear.
“You sure nothing's wrong?” Maggie asked.
Lauren covered the phone. “A client's are not happy with a project, that's all,” she said, then returned her attention to the call.
But the phone had gone dead.
They were nearing Maggie's Volvo, and Lauren realized she had to act fast, so she said, “Damn. I can't find my wallet. It must have fallen out of my bag. I'll be right back.”
She turned and raced back into the library.
Then out the back door.
The call came the minute they stepped out onto the broken-down porch. It was Stacey, and she was frantic. “I don't understand. The house was completely protected. There was no way he could have forced his way in.”
“But Heidi is gone? Mark asked.
“Yes,” Susan told him miserably.
His heart thundered. “Lauren?”
“She should be back any minute,” Stacey told him.
“Back? From where?” he demanded.
“She went to the library with Maggie, but they're on their way back here.”
“We're on our way, too,” he told Stacey.
“Wait!” Jonas cried. “Deanna?”
“Deanna?” Mark said into the cell.
“She's fine.”
He nodded to Jonas, who was actually shaking. And, still, Mark couldn't help but wonder whether this supposedly good vampire was for real. After all, he was the one who had spotted the house where the creatures were resting. A house that had been a decoy.
He hung up. “Let's go,” he told Jonas and sprinted for the car.
Lauren found a taxi that took her down to the Square.
It was still light, but twilight was coming soon. It had been a beautiful, brilliant, sunny day, but now glorious streaks of pink and crimson were making their way in waves across a sky still lit by the glittering orb of the sinking sun.
But what did daylight matter in the end? Stephan could move freely by day when he chose. Darkness simply gave him even greater power.
There were people everywhere and no shadows yet, but even so, Lauren felt a rising sense of fear as she looked around the Square, then headed to the spot where she had first met Susan.
Where she had first seen Stephan in the crystal ball.
She stood in the square, facing the Cathedral, and felt a breeze that blew across her skin like a chilling caress.
She turned and looked aroundâand wondered how she had missed it.
A small tent had been pitched near what she thought of as Susan's spot.
The same tent she had entered that first night, which now seemed ridiculously long ago.
A lifetime ago.
Her hand shaking, she drew back the flap.
And found Susan.
Deanna didn't know what was wrong with her. She certainly didn't feel sick. She did feelâ¦vindicated. She also felt as if she were truly falling in love for the first time.
With Jonasâ¦
Talk about a mixed marriage.
Even so, as she stood in the living room of Montresse House, knowing Jonas was on his way, she felt compelled to leave. Something was telling her that she had to get out. And that she couldn'; t tell anyone where she was going.
She heard Bobby and Big Jim talking on the other side of the room. “Maybe we shouldn't have trusted that bastard Jonas,” Bobby said. “Maybe Mark would have been back by now if it weren't for him.”
“I'll kill him,” Big Jim said angrily.
Get out, get out now, a voice in Deanna's head commanded. Get out. Come to me.
She could see him in her mind's eye, a tall dark man, and he was beckoning to her.
“Looks like we'd better get ready for a major fight,” Bobby said. “I'll call Sean. It looks like this is going to be the showdown.”
Bit Jim asked, “How do you know?”
“I don't
know
,” Bobby admitted. “I just feel it, I guess. I've learned to go on intuition sometimes.”
Big Jim stared at him, then nodded knowingly. “Yeah,” he said simply, then headed for the back of the house, followed by Bobby.
Deanna looked toward the front door.
Come to me. Help me. I need your help. Pleaseâ¦
She glanced around quickly. No one in sight.
She opened the door and walked out.
Susan was lying on the floor, bleeding from a gash on her headâ¦.
Bleeding profusely from her throat.
Lauren let out a soft cry and knelt down beside her, desperate to find a pulse. She fumbled with her phone while she sought the woman's wrist and hit 911 instinctively. “Susan, oh, Susanâ¦I'm so sorry,” she murmured. An operator came on, and Lauren quickly gave her location. There had to be officers on the street. There had to be help nearby.
“Oh, Susan⦔ she said miserably.
The woman's lips moved.
Lauren bent close to her, her heart in her throat. She was torn. The woman was badly hurt, maybe even near death. But she had to try to get her to speak. Had to find Stephan and save Heidi.
“He was here, wasn't he? Stephan was here. He hurt you. And now I have to find him. I have to help Heidi. Susan, where is she? Please, you have to help me.”
She could hear a siren. Thank God. Help was coming.
“Please, Susan!”
Again the woman's lips moved.
Lauren bent lower and finally realized what Susan was saying, the words she was repeating over and over again.
An address.
Judy Lockwood, aware that idle hands and idle minds were never good, kept up with her knitting, hour after hour. But as she looked down at her stitches, she suddenly had an uncanny feeling and looked up.
Leticia was awake.
She wasn't just awake. She was straining against her restraints and staring at Judy. “The hour has come.”
Judy frowned, then hurried to her niece's side. “Leticia, thank the Lord, you're awake.”
Leticia didn't seem to see her, though. She only repeated, “The hour has come.”
“What hour, Leticia? What hour?” Judy asked, frowning.
Leticia stared straight at her then, as if noticing her for the first time. “I saw him. He was killing a woman in the Square.”
Judy thought that maybe she should call for a doctor.
But she didn't.
She made a different call, instead.
Mark practically flew into the house. Jonas was right behind him.
“Where's Lauren?” Mark demanded of Maggie, who only stared at him, stricken. The others were there, as well, Big Jim, Bobby and Stacey. But there was no sign of Lauren, or of Heidi and Deanna.
“She got away from me at the library,” Maggie said.
“Deanna?” Jonas cried.
No one moved. They only looked guiltily away. He finally paid attention to his surroundings and realized that the grand entry hall of the mansion looked like a strange arsenal, with all kinds of bizarre weapons arranged in rows. There were a slew of water pistols. Bows and arrows. Stakes and hammers. Everyone was wearing a large cross. They were prepared.
But they were alone.
He turned, ready to accuse Jonas, but the man looked so stricken that Mark could only conclude that he really was good, or else he was such an accomplished actor that he should have been a stand-in for Benedict Arnold.
“Exactly what happened?” Mark demanded, looking from face to face.
“Heidi was sleeping. I checked on her every few minutes,” Stacey said.
“Deanna was downstairs with us,” Bobby said.
Heidi and Deanna had walked out on their own, Mark knew. Stephan hadn't gotten inâexcept into their minds.
He swung around to stare accusingly at Maggie.
Where had Lauren gone when she left the library? The nightmare that had plagued him forever was alive and vivid in his mind's eye.
A bride in white, walking down the aisle, her eyes aglow with love.
And then the blood, the rivers of bloodâ¦
“Has anyone gotten hold of Sean?” he asked.
“Yes,” Maggie said.
Just then Mark's phone rang. He answered and heard Sean Canady's voice. “The Square,” he said simply. “A fortune-teller was attacked in her tent.”
Mark turned around, heading for the door. “The Square!” he shouted.
“Wait!” Bobby yelled.
But Mark wasn't waiting.
“Catch up with me!” he commanded.
Lauren was torn. The ambulance would be there any second. She couldn't leave Susan.
But she had to leave Susan. Because she had to save Heidi.
What if Susan diedâas she probably wouldâbecause she had tried to warn her away when Stephan had been with her?
Stephan was a vicious bastard. He killed for his own pleasure and amusement. He only let his victims “live” sometimes so he could enjoy their even greater torment.
Or to create his army.
And Heidi would never have been one of Stephan's victims if not for her.
There was no help for it. She had to find her friend.
As she left through the back flap, she heard the paramedics approaching the tent and prayed they weren't too late.
Mark reached the Square to find a scene of utter chaos. An ambulance and two police cars were parked in the middle of the pedestrian area. Artists, singers, musicians and tourists were standing around in awkward groups, some being questioned by the police, others just curious to see what all the fuss was about.
Mark forced his way through the crowd to where an officer was holding everyone back and fielding questions.
“She was attacked,” one bystander said. “I saw them bring her out. She was covered in blood.”
“Was it him? Was it the man who threw those women into the river?” someone else asked.
He had to get into the ambulance, Mark decided. And it didn't matter how.
Just then Sean Canady pulled up in his car. He saw Mark and beckoned him over.
“I have to speak to Susan,” Mark said.