The thought of it made her feel sick. “So as long as you avoid the sun and other bright lights …”
“The illness won’t kill me.”
Good.
“Does it cause blindness?”
“No, my eyes are a bit sensitive to bright light but, other than that, function normally if you can overlook the occasional luminescence.”
Reaching out, she rested a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. And I’m sorry I fell asleep on you, too.”
“Don’t worry about the former. It is perfectly understandable. And as for the latter …” He leaned toward her and proffered a wicked grin. “The latter was my pleasure.”
Sarah laughed. “I wouldn’t have thought someone with injuries as severe as yours would be capable of
reacting
to that pleasure.”
He grimaced. “I wouldn’t have thought it possible either, but there you have it.”
It was the closest he had come to a verbal admission of the agony he must be suffering.
His strength was simply extraordinary. If she were in his position, she would be bawling her eyes out and begging for painkillers. As would most people, male or female.
The crunch of gravel outside heralded the arrival of a vehicle as it pulled into her driveway. The engine fell silent.
Rising, Roland wrapped the sheet around his waist and crossed to one of the two windows that looked out onto the front yard.
Sarah grabbed the remote and shut off the television. She heard a car door open and close as Roland brushed the curtains aside and peered through the blinds.
“It’s Marcus.”
She stood, wondering if she should go to the door or wait for Roland to give the okay.
The tension that had stiffened his spine at the sound of the car did not lessen as he continued to stare through the window.
Did he worry that his friend may have been followed?
Boots made hollow thumps on the wooden porch. A knock sounded.
Roland left the window and went to the front door.
Sarah followed and stood a couple of steps behind him as he unlocked and swung it open.
Night had fallen. The moon was almost new. In the country, that meant it was pitch black outside, the darkness broken only by the tiny sporadic flashes of fireflies.
Though the porch light was off, enough light spilled forth from the house to illuminate their visitor.
He was tall, perhaps an inch shorter than Roland, so that would put him at about six foot one. His hair was dark as midnight and fell halfway down his back. Clad in black jeans, a black T-shirt, a black leather jacket, and biker boots, his body was slender but ripped. His jaw was shadowed by several days’ growth of beard and his eyes …
Though he looked to be about the same age as she was—thirty—his brown eyes seemed much older.
“Marcus.” Roland held out a bandaged hand.
Marcus entered and set down the duffle bag and briefcase he carried. “Roland.” Bypassing the hand, he clasped
Roland’s forearm and pulled him into a hug. “It’s good to see you.”
Roland winced and gingerly clapped him on the back, then retreated.
Marcus met Sarah’s curious gaze and raised his eyebrows.
Moving to stand beside Roland, she held out a hand. “Sarah Bingham.”
His large, callused fingers clasped hers. “Marcus Grayden. A pleasure to meet you.” His words were endowed with the same British accent that flavored Roland’s.
“Nice to meet you, too.”
Stepping back, he propped his hands on his hips and looked Roland up and down. “I have to admit … if you didn’t look like hell, I’d be laughing. What happened to your clothes?”
Grunting, Roland urged Marcus back toward the door. “I’ll fill you in in a minute. First I need you to have a look outside. Around the house and in the meadow behind it.”
“All right.” Walking out onto the porch, he paused and tilted his head as though listening for something. Then he seemed to sniff the air, almost like a lion seeking the scent of prey. “Do I know what I’m looking for?”
“Yes, more than one.”
His face brightened. “More than one?”
“And possibly a couple of wannabes.”
“Interesting.” Descending the steps, he vanished into the darkness.
Roland closed the door.
“Don’t you think he would have better luck if he used a flashlight?” Sarah asked, puzzled. There were no streetlights or any other form of ambient light, so the man may as well have been walking around blindfolded.
“He’ll ask if he needs one.”
If he
needs
one? How could he not?
“Is Marcus your brother?”
“No, why do you ask?”
She shrugged. “You both share the same hair and eye coloring. You’re almost the same height. You’re both handsome, have the same build—”
“You think he’s handsome?” he interrupted.
“Sure. Not as handsome as you are. I mean, even covered with blood and truly scary wounds, you—” She broke off. What was she doing?
Clearing her throat, she mumbled, “I just thought you might be related.”
Boots again sounded on the porch.
Marcus must have conceded defeat and decided he needed a flashlight.
“It’s Marcus,” she heard him call.
Roland opened the door. “Anything?”
“All clear,” Marcus responded as he strode inside.
At first, Sarah thought he was joking. There was no way he could have checked her backyard and the meadow beyond already. Even with good lighting and running at top speed he would have only had time to reach the site of her future veggie garden.
His next words, however, belied that and stunned her speechless.
Scowling at Roland, he asked, “Is all the blood on the ground near that spike yours?”
“Yes,” was Roland’s clipped response.
Swearing, Marcus bent and grabbed the handles of his duffle bag, his eyes snagging Sarah’s. “Where’s your bathroom?”
She pointed to it. “You saw the meadow where they staked him to the ground?”
“They staked you to the ground?” he roared, turning on Roland.
“Yes. I don’t suppose you found a couple of corpses lying about, did you?”
“No.”
Sarah looked at Roland. “So the guys I hit with the shovel didn’t die?”
“Apparently not.” He didn’t seem pleased.
She swallowed. “You think they’re going to come back.”
He nodded. “And since you’re the only person nearby, they’ll draw the obvious conclusion that you were the one who helped me.”
That’s what she had feared. “What should I do?”
He hesitated, as though waging some internal debate. “Pack a bag. You can stay with me until this is all sorted out.”
Marcus’s mouth fell open. “
What?
”
Roland frowned belligerently. “She’ll be safe with me.”
“You
never
let anyone stay with you.
I
don’t stay with you. I don’t even know where you live and I’ve known you freakin’ forever!”
“Well, I’m sure as hell not going to let her stay with you. You’re dangerous to be around.”
“According to whom?”
“Seth.”
“Well, Seth doesn’t know everything.”
Roland raised one eyebrow.
“All right. All right. Sometimes Seth does seem to know everything. It’s incredibly annoying. But I would never purposefully endanger an innocent.”
“The key word being ‘purposefully.’”
Sarah raised a hand. “Is anyone here interested in where
I
might wish to stay?”
Both men turned to her with guilty expressions.
“I’m sorry, Sarah,” Roland said wearily. “I didn’t mean to make you feel you have no say in the matter. I’m only concerned with your safety.”
“I appreciate that.”
Marcus stared at Roland as if his friend had just sprouted a pair of horns. “You’re
apologizing?
Seriously, what happened to you? Have you been taken over by a pod person?”
Roland’s face darkened with promised retribution.
Sarah touched his arm to calm him and glared at Marcus. “Marcus, don’t poke the bear. In case you haven’t noticed, Roland is in a lot of pain and doesn’t need the added aggravation of you taunting him. Are you here to help him or what?”
Remorse rippled across his features. “I’m sorry. Hurry up and decide this so I can patch him up.”
Roland’s hand brushed the small of her back. “Would you rather stay with family until—”
“No,” she answered immediately, unable to repress a shudder. As far as she was concerned, she had no family. “No, I want to stay with you.”
He nodded. “Pack whatever you’ll need for the next few days. Hopefully, we’ll be able to resolve this swiftly.”
Roland watched Sarah until she entered the bedroom and left their sight, then allowed his shoulders to slump and some of the pain he was feeling to show in his face.
Marcus’s lighthearted facade evaporated. “Hope I didn’t irritate you too much. I was trying to keep her attention focused on me so she wouldn’t notice your eyes.” Slipping an arm around Roland, he practically carried him to the bathroom.
Roland sat on the side of the bathtub as Marcus closed the door. “Are they glowing again?”
“Yes.”
“She’s already seen them. Please tell me you brought sustenance.”
Marcus unzipped the duffle bag and withdrew a small cooler. Inside were half a dozen bags of much-needed blood.
With great relief, Roland allowed his fangs to descend and plunged them into the first bag, draining it swiftly. His body was so depleted it took a second, then a third before his wounds began to heal. His hunger ebbed, as did some of the pain.
Marcus waited patiently, exchanging each empty bag for
a full one until Roland was glutted. Putting the cooler away, he handed Roland the clothes he had brought. “Now tell me what happened.”
Roland did so in tones too low for Sarah to overhear, pulling on a pair of black cargo pants and a long-sleeved black T-shirt that would hide the fact that some of the cuts Sarah had tended would soon be gone.
“I’ve never heard of such a large group hunting together,” Marcus commented as Roland sat on the tub again to pull on socks and boots.
“Nor have I and I was definitely their prey. This was no random incident.”
“Why would they take your blood?”
“I don’t know. There have been vamps over the centuries who thought they could avoid the madness that afflicts their brethren by subsisting entirely on the blood of one of us.”
“But if that had been their goal, they would have taken
you,
not a sample.”
Roland shook his head. “I don’t know their goal. I just know Sarah saved my life and is now caught in the middle, so we need to dispatch these assholes as quickly as possible.”
“She thinks your eyes and photosensitivity are the result of porphyria?”
“Yes.”
The wood floor outside the bathroom door creaked. “It’s awfully quiet in there,” Sarah called worriedly. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” Marcus replied loudly.
“Roland?”
He smiled. “I’m all right, Sarah. We’ll be out in a minute. Marcus is just giving me a few stitches.”
“Okay. Feel free to yell if it hurts too much.”
“Marcus would mock me if I did.”
“Not if I hit him with my trusty shovel.”
Both men laughed.
“Beautiful, brave, and possessed of violent tendencies. I like her,” Marcus declared.
Beyond the door, Sarah laughed.
“Speaking of beautiful, brave, and violent women,” Roland broached hesitantly, “I was surprised to learn you were in North Carolina. I didn’t think anything could drag you away from Texas.”
All levity fled as Marcus’s face turned to stone. “There’s nothing there for me now.”
“What happened?” Roland asked, fearing he knew the answer.
Marcus’s dark eyes filled with grief. “It’s over. Bethany is gone.”
A deep sorrow invaded Roland. He had only met Bethany Bennett once, curious to see the woman who had held Marcus’s heart for eight hundred years.
She had been all that his friend had described. Small. Smart. Strong, both physically and emotionally. Brave. Beautiful. Possessed of a great wit and a tendency to tease. (All words and phrases he might use to describe Sarah, now that he thought of it.) Roland had liked her. And didn’t know what Marcus was going to do now that she was gone.
“When?” he asked softly.
Marcus’s throat worked. “Seven years ago.”
Roland closed his eyes. “I’m such a bastard. I didn’t know.” And he should have. Marcus had told him the year he would have to say goodbye to her, but the time had slipped past unnoticed.
“I knew all along how it would end. How it
had
to end. There was nothing you could have done.”
“I could have been there for you.” The way Marcus had been there for him when Mary had betrayed him.
Marcus snorted. “And done what? Watched me fall apart?”
Roland studied him closely. “
Did
you fall apart?”
Avoiding his gaze, Marcus closed the cooler and returned it to the duffle bag.
“Marcus?”
“What?” he snapped, jerking the zipper shut. “Do you want me to admit I took it badly? Fine. I took it badly. So badly that Seth now thinks I’m fucking suicidal.”
Alarms sounded. “Are you?”
“No, Roland. I’m just …” Sighing, Marcus raked a hand through his hair. “Tired. And numb. You of all people know how wearying this existence can be when there’s nothing to look forward to and no one to share it with.”
“I do.” And he had hoped Marcus, a hundred years younger and the first immortal he had personally trained, would never come to experience such weariness himself.
Roland was out of his element here. For the second time today, he found himself faced with someone who needed comfort and he was still uncertain how to render it. “You don’t want a hug, do you?” he asked uneasily.
Marcus’s look seemed to question his sanity. “Hell, no.”
Roland nearly wilted with relief. “Good.”
Shaking his head, Marcus produced a half smile. “I should have said yes and dredged up a few tears just to watch you squirm.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t,” Roland returned sardonically.
Upon leaving the bathroom, they found Sarah back in the den, setting a large tote bag down on the futon.