The Vampire Hunter (5 page)

“No!” Jennifer echoed Liam's shout as Roger headed toward the bedroom. She flew at his back, pounding on him. Roger had to be weak yet from the stake, but he shrugged her off as if she were inconsequential.

As if she were powerless—and she had been powerless for too much of her life. She launched herself at him, pulling at his hair and kicking and biting at his shoulders.

“Damn it!” he shouted. “I don't want to hurt you.”

“You hurt me when you killed my friend,” she said. “And you're going to hurt me again if you do any harm to Liam. Let him go. Just leave!”

“Don't you get it?” he asked, whirling on her, his soulless, black eyes full of a scary intensity. “I can't ever leave you. I can't ever let you go. You
belong
to me.”

She shook her head. “I'm not a possession. You don't own me.”

“I'm the reason you're alive,” he reminded her. “I risked my own life when I told you about the society. And how do you thank me? You go to the professor. You could have got me killed.”

“I didn't know,” she said, defending her action. And she hadn't known then that if a vampire revealed the secret, he forfeited his immortality. She hadn't entirely believed that Roger had told the truth about being a vampire.

“You owe me your life! I'm going to take it, but first I'm going to take his.” He turned back to the bedroom.

Liam stood in the doorway, weakly propped against the jamb.

She gasped in fear because he stood no chance against the obsessed vampire. She'd tried to save him by turning him, but she'd only made him more vulnerable.

“No!” she screamed again as she rushed at Roger. She caught him around the waist and dragged him away from the bedroom, back across the living room. He pulled at her arms, trying to free himself from her grasp. But she was strong. She wasn't powerless anymore.

Cursing her, he swung his elbow into her side.

Her breath rushed out in a gasp of pain, but she didn't let go. As they struggled, they fell into her paintings. Wood splintered as the frames around the canvases cracked beneath their weight.

“Get out!” Liam shouted, drawing their attention back to him. But he wasn't looking at the intruder; he was staring at her. “Get out!”

She shook her head. “No…” Had he overheard the lies she'd told in order to protect him? And, worse yet, had he believed them?

Roger laughed at her confusion and took advantage of her distraction to pull free of her grasp. “He doesn't want you around, Jennifer. He doesn't realize yet that he's the one who needs to go. But he will.” He surged to his feet then into the air, flying at Liam full force.

Her heart beating with fear and dread and the love she'd only just realized for Liam, she screamed in horror as the two men connected. Liam, in his weakened state, was no match for the vampire's strength. The two bodies fell to the floor, Roger lying atop him. But neither moved.

Rage, even fiercer than the rage she'd felt when she'd come upon Liam threatening her sister in the alley, overwhelmed her. Maybe she'd somehow instinctively known that Eve hadn't been in any real danger. But now…

Red heat blurring her vision, she vaulted to her feet and flew across the length of her living room. She clawed at Roger's back, dragging him to his feet. She whirled him toward her, ready to pummel him, but his body was limp. Blood gushed from around the stake impaled in his heart.

Eternity had ended for Roger Milliken; he was dead.

“Liam!” She dropped the vampire and turned back to her lover. He lay yet on the floor, that strange gun clutched in his hands. He might not have been strong enough yet to fight Roger, but he'd been strong enough to pull the trigger. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”

He shook his head. “No. Is he…?”

She nodded. “Yes. I'll call the doctor.”

“To resurrect him?” he asked, his light blue eyes widening with horror.

“I don't think even Dr. Davison could save him, and when he learns what Roger did, he wouldn't want to. I'm going to call him to check you out,” she said, as yet again tears of relief and apprehension stung her eyes. Roger hadn't harmed him, but she was afraid that she had. “You're not well. I didn't do it right.”

“I'm getting stronger,” he said. And as if to prove the point, he stood up. But he staggered and leaned against the doorjamb again.

“You're not well,” she repeated. “You need to see the doctor.” Her hand shaking, she reached for the phone. “He'll take care of you…and Roger's body. He'll dispose of it.” She shuddered at the thought, at the incinerator that disposed of vampire remains so that the society's secret was protected. She quickly placed the call, summoning the surgeon to her apartment. “He's on the way.”

“You need to leave,” Liam said, as he had earlier, with the same amount of coldness and resolution.

And she had the answer to the question she'd asked herself earlier. He had believed the lies she'd told Roger. Liam didn't trust that she hadn't tried to kill him. “I need to stay and explain what happened to Dr. Davison,” she said.

“You need to go see your sister and the professor. I'm sure they're worried about you.”

She followed his gaze to where he stared behind herat the broken portraits. The picture of Eve, lying in the hospital bed, was now ripped from corner to corner. The picture of young Liam in the tree had also been ripped, and the frame was broken. Only the solo one of Bryan remained untouched, his face grinning down at them from above the fireplace mantel.

Guilt that she could see her sister, but that he could only see Bryan like this, plagued her. “I'm sorry that you can't be with Bryan again.” Now that he'd been turned, he'd never be able to see his brother again, not even in the afterlife.

“It's still hurts that he's gone,” he admitted. “But it's better since
he's
gone, too.” He glanced down at the dead vampire. “I did what I promised Bryan I would do. I brought his killer to justice.” Now he had no reason to stay with her.

Since she had no doubt he could explain the circumstances to Dr. Davison, she also had no reason to stay. Liam would never trust her. And if he couldn't trust her, he would never be able to love her.

His eyes icy again, he repeated, “You need to go.”

 

Liam needed to go. The doctor had taken the bloodied body of the dead vampire away with him. But before he had, he'd checked out Liam and had given him a clean bill of health. Hell, his life expectancy, since Roger was dead, was now forever. As long as he abided by his list of new rules. No sunlight. Sleep during the day to recharge. Be careful of his strength, which was so much greater than human. And always guard the secret of the society.

What about his heart? He should have guarded that, but Jennifer Williams had snuck inside it. He stared up at his brother's portrait.

“I'm sorry,” he said to Bryan's picture. “I had no right to her. No right to take what should have been yours.”

Bryan just kept smiling at him, as if he were happy for him. And knowing Bryan, he probably would have been. He'd been like that: generous, loving and forgiving. Liam wasn't like that, though. He'd lived too long with hate in his heart. He didn't know if he could love Jennifer like Bryan had loved her. And she deserved that. She'd been willing to give her life for his, even after the horrible way he'd treated her and her sister. Like Bryan, she was generous and loving and forgiving.

She deserved so much more than him—and his bitterness and cynicism and anger. He needed to go.

 

“We'll be together forever now,” Eve said, hugging Jennifer tightly as the two of them stood in the living room of the professor's underground apartment. With its venetian plaster, archways and chandeliers, it was far more elegant than Jennifer's place. “We will always be a part of each other's lives”

“This is what you want?” Jennifer asked her younger sister, pulling back from their embrace to study Eve's face. Her hair was a deeper gold than Jennifer's, her eyes a richer green. She was so beautiful, so vibrant. “To be one of the society? Are you sure?”

It was too late for second thoughts, though. The professor had already turned Eve into one of them. But Jennifer needed to be certain that her sister had made her decision for the right reasons.

“I didn't do this for you,” Eve assured her, as if reading her mind. Or her face. “Not like you turned for me.”

“I did it for me, too,” Jennifer assured her. “I didn't want to die.”

A smile of pure happiness brightened Eve's already beautiful face. “And now neither of us will.”

Jennifer wasn't sure about that anymore. Could a vampire die from a
broken
heart? “If you didn't change for me, why did you change?”

Eve glanced through the arched doorway leading off of the living room to the professor's den. He sat with his feet propped up on his desk, as he leaned back in his chair, his hands crossed behind his head, his fingers tangled in his long, black hair.

“For him?” Jennifer asked.

“For love.”

If only Liam had had her turn him for the same reason.

“The professor's a wonderful man,” Jennifer said, giving her blessing. “You'll be happy together.”

“Will you?” Eve asked, picking up on her moods as she always had even when they were kids.

“I don't know,” Jennifer answered honestly. “I think he's going to be gone when I get back.” She'd told Eve and Professor Vossimer everything that had happened since the alley, leaving out only a few intimate details. But she suspected they were aware of what she'd left out of her story, that they'd read it on her flushed face.

“He could have killed Roger with the gun even if he was human,” Eve said. “He didn't need to turn into a vampire for his protection—not with the gun he'd made. I think he turned for you.”

If only she could believe her sister, but she knew the real reason he'd become a vampire. And it had had nothing to do with Jennifer. She didn't argue with her sister, though; she just hugged her close again and then left her alone with her lover.

After flying the short distance home, she turned the key in the locked door of her apartment. Dread filled her stomach over what she would find. The body was gone; she was certain of that. But she was just as certain that Liam would be as well. Drawing in a breath, she pushed open the door and stepped into the dark foyer. Faint light glowed in the living room. Someone had lit a fire, and flames crackled in the hearth.

Chilled to the bone, she was drawn to the warmth and didn't realize she wasn't alone until strong hands closed over her shoulders. She swallowed a gasp of fear. It couldn't be Roger; he was dead. “You're still here?”

“Yes. I told you I was fine—that you could leave.”

“No, I didn't think you were going to die.” Or she never would have left him alone.

“I'm never going to die now, thanks to you. You turned me successfully. According to the doc, you did a great job,” he assured her, squeezing her shoulders in his big hands.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

“How'd it go with your sister?” he asked. “Is she okay?”

“She's one of the society now.”

“The professor turned her.”

“Only because she asked,” Jennifer said, defending him. “And she asked because she loved him and wanted to be with him forever.” Was it possible? Could Liam love her, too? Dare she hope that was why he'd stayed?

“I'm happy for them,” he said, with sincerity. “And sorry for everything I did to them.”

“Without you, they would never have found each other,” she said. “Without you, she never would have found me. I owe you.”

He expelled that little, bitter chuckle again. “You're too forgiving.”

And he wasn't. “I was lying to Roger—in case you heard what I told him….” She had to explain, even if he wouldn't accept the truth.

“I know.”

She turned toward him and stared up into his handsome face. The color had returned to his complexion, making his pale eyes sparkle even brighter. Or could it be emotion that caused that glitter? “You knew I was lying?”

“You wouldn't have tried to kill me,” he said with conviction. “You love me.”

“What?”

“I see it in your face,” he said, as he cupped her cheek in his palm. “And in this painting you started.”

He'd taken the canvas from the easel she'd been working at when Roger had broken into her apartment again. The easel had survived their struggle. In his portrait, Liam slept, and his skin was burnished with light and warmth: each brush stroke as intimate as she had touched him when they'd made love.

“It's not done yet.” She hadn't had time to define his features; they were in soft focus—the whole picture was a little blurred. “I need to do more work.”

“You have time,” he assured her. “I'm not going anywhere.”

“You're not?” she asked, surprise and relief filling her. “Why not?”

“Because I love you. I didn't want to. I thought I was betraying my brother, but then I realized that instead of making Bryan jealous or angry, that our being together—that our being happy—would make him happy.”

“Is that the only reason you're saying this?” She had to know. “Because of Bryan?”

“It's not because of Bryan. It's despite him. He's the reason I thought I could never be with you. But he's gone. I have finally accepted that. I'm finally ready to move on, but I can't do that—I don't want to do that—without you, Jennifer. I love you.”

The doubts and fears left, leaving only love in her heart as she accepted his word. “You love me….”

“It's okay if you don't believe me yet because I have eternity to prove to you how much I love you.” He swung her up in his arms and headed toward the bedroom. “Starting right now…”