A sigh escaped him, and he leaned against the wall with his head back and his eyes closed. His voice resonated through the room as though it came from somewhere else. “That’s better. Much better.”
Suddenly he slammed Burke against the wall and pressed his hands on either side of the man’s head. In the red glare that shone from Meical, Caroline watched Burke’s eyes become glassy and his mouth hang slack.
“Are you listening?” Meical whispered to him.
Burke nodded, zombie-like.
“I have a new assignment for you.”
“Anything.”
Meical leaned close to Burke’s ear and murmured words Caroline couldn’t hear. Burke nodded, and when Meical released him, he limped out of the attic.
“What are you doing?” Caroline demanded.
“Making sure you never hear from Rivera again.”
“But Rivera’s men are holding my dad. If anything happens to Rivera, I’ll never see him alive again.”
“Neshi is on his way to rescue your father.”
But of course there was no way Neshi could know what was happening to her father. He certainly couldn’t rescue him.
“Yes, he can,” Meical murmured. Evidently his condition had done nothing to dampen his ability to read her mind. “That maggot Burke was most obliging. He told me where your father is, and I told Neshi. Neshi is on his way there now, and there are others coming to help you. They’ll be here in a moment and…then I’ll go.”
Go? Where? To get the police? Oh, no. “Meical, listen. No police. Burke will have my dad killed if you do that. No one can go to the police. I have to handle this myself, understand?”
“Neshi won’t need the police.”
She had to reach him somehow. “Come here and let me hold you. Please.”
She held her hands out to him. A moment passed, while the darkness careened around her.
Meical’s words were almost too soft to hear. “I can’t.”
“Just let me help you.”
“I’m beyond your help. What I need now is…”
“Anything you need from me. Just ask. Anything.”
He sounded more coherent now, as though he’d taken a drug that had restored his sanity. “I need you to forgive me. And I need you to let me go.”
When his words penetrated the fog of exhaustion and dread in Caroline’s mind, adrenaline poured into her bloodstream, waking her completely. He’d made a decision. He’d committed himself to an action. He was saying goodbye. That could only mean one thing. His anger had turned inward.
Her heart thudded hard and she shook her head. She needed to get herself under control, so she could deal with this. She needed to. But this was Meical. She couldn’t compartmentalize him. She loved him.
She tried to clear her throat to get the wobble out of her voice, but she couldn’t. “No, Meical, don’t. Please.”
“Caroline,” he sighed, “look at me.”
He pushed himself away from the wall and stood over her. A red light rose from him, enveloped him, shone from him like a murderous aura. It radiated from his eyes, from his very soul. He was violence. He was death. He was power.
And she’d seen him like this before. She’d seen him in the basement when she’d lain there on the floor, nearly unconscious, sure she was about to die. The red light had flashed before her eyes, and her attackers had vanished as if by magic. And just as it hadn’t mattered to her then to know how he’d done it, it didn’t matter now. All that mattered was making him see that he had saved her.
“It was you,” she whispered. “You were there, the night of my attack. You were the one who kept them from killing me.”
“I couldn’t have been. I…” He fell silent. The reddish glow around him mellowed to orange. “Wait…”
“Take your time. What do you remember?”
“That must be it. That must be why. The night you found me, after I revived, I took the liberty of going through your memory of the attack. I wanted to understand you.”
Caroline fought to hold on to her control, but the tears came anyway. She brushed them away with the back of her hand.
“I saw it all,” Meical went on. “I saw what they did to you. I thought I was seeing it through your memory. But then you blacked out, and from that moment I should not have been able to see anything more. But I did. I saw everything that happened after you lost consciousness. Now I know why.” The red-orange haze around him turned to succulent purple. “It was my own memory I was reliving. I was there. But…how?”
Caroline pushed her bangs out of her eyes. “Think, Meical. You can remember. Just think.”
He shook his head. The purple haze around him began to turn blue. “That’s what she meant. She said I…I saved you once already…”
“Who said that?”
“Someone wise and powerful. She said…” The blue light around him turned hot white, and the red haze enveloped him again. His voice deepened and hardened. “She said a lot of things. None of it matters. Except she’s right about one thing. I’m not fit for you now.”
He took another step closer, and the room blazed brighter, as hot as a furnace. Caroline gasped at the heat.
She sensed pain surfacing in the pool of his rage. It was gone in the blink of an eye.
“If you doubt your own eyes,” he murmured, “you have only to think of what you witnessed a moment ago what I’ve done, what I'm capable of.” He pointed to the gunman on the floor. “That, Caroline, is what I am. I’ll spend my final seconds of life craving every drop of blood in your body. Give me half a chance, and even now, I’ll take precisely that from you.”
She shook her head and held her hands out to him again, pleading. “Delusions like this are common for someone who’s—”
“For pity’s sake,” he snapped. “Wake up and realize what I’ve done to you. You were right when you said I used you.”
“But I found a lost piece of myself in the dreams with you, Meical. And I found you. The real you.”
He pounded his chest with a fist. “This is the real me. Compared to what I could do to you at the moment, you would think those dreams of ours were nothing. Don’t you understand? It’s not just your blood I need. It’s your passion, your essence, your soul, your very life. And I have Neshi—may he rot in hell—to thank for that. He thought he could make us harmless, give us back the sun, but all he’s done is create a more insidious way for us to kill humans.”
He was out of control, beyond reality. He needed her to be calm and strong and professional. Caroline tried to rein in her denial and disbelief. “Let me help you calm down, and then we’ll talk this through.”
“Caroline, I’m dying.”
The words sliced through her mind and heart. She shook her head. He couldn’t be. He looked so powerful and alive. She’d thought he meant to take his own life, but…what if…
He added hoarsely, “If I stay much longer, I won’t go. I will spend my last moments on this earth making you wish you’d never known me. There won’t be enough left of you for Dr. Calvin to save by the time I’m finished and death finally catches up with me. So don’t…please…don’t ask me to stay.”
“But I love you.”
In the red-and-black darkness, she saw him bow his head. She thought he whispered to her tenderly, sweetly, but when he looked up again, his expression was as unmoved as ever. “Perhaps I should just give you a taste of what will happen if I stay.”
He scooped her up in his arms and shot straight up from the floor. Caroline’s breath left her. Pure emotion, raw and devouring, swallowed her. She felt the wall at her back, and Meical’s face close to hers.
In the glow of his own glaring ethereal light, she saw his gleaming canines. “Meical, stop. Stop.”
He ran the tip of his tongue over one fang, and his eyes glinted as he let his gaze travel down the length of her and up again. “I’ll wager you’ll think I’m outstaying my welcome inside of two minutes.”
He bent his head and nuzzled
her neck, giving her little nips that made her breath catch in her throat. When he caught her close and shoved them away from the wall, Caroline braced herself for a fall, only to find them floating above the floor.
The weightlessness worked like a drug on the last of her strength. She mouthed his name, but couldn’t speak it. She had lost him.
Meical kissed her as gently as if they were in one of her dreams again. In the next instant, he sank his fangs into her throat and drank.
Euphoria spread through Caroline’s mind and body. No fear. Only pleasure, deep and dark and ancient, all that waited for her at the heart of him. His red-hot anger remained on the periphery of her world, doused like a fire by the cooling deluge of their love. As fast as her life essence bled out of her, Meical swallowed it down, along with her hunger.
Something made him lift his head. He grew still, as though listening. “Here comes the cavalry, baby, just in time to prevent me from pushing my point.”
Caroline filled her lungs with air and pressed the word past her throbbing throat. “Coward.”
His gaze riveted to hers, and his mouth parted.
“You heard me right.”
She made a weak attempt to slap him. He caught her hand and ran his tongue over her palm.
“Don’t you get it?” she moaned. “You’ve done what I thought no one could ever do. I love you. Whatever you call yourself, whatever’s happening to you, I still love you. And no matter where you go, I’ll find you.”
He held her close while she cried. “Then I’ll have to make sure you can’t, won’t I?”
“There’s nowhere you can go that I can’t find you.”
“Yes. There is.” He eased her onto the floor, even while she clung to him. “I love you, Caroline. Goodbye.”
The instant she slipped out of his arms, the room became dark again, except for the moonlight. Silence settled in every corner. Empty darkness. He was gone.
Caroline clasped both hands over her mouth as her grief unwound inside her. She tried once to call him back to her, using every ounce of her empathic abilities, but there was a solid door between them, as indomitable as eternity itself.
Chapter 15
Caroline? Help is on the way. Just hang on.
She looked around her in the pitch-black attic, shaking all over, unable to contain her sorrow. “Neshi? Is that you?”
Yes. Your father will be safe in no time. I want you to concentrate on Meical. You’re the only one who can save him.
He was talking to her inside her mind just the way Meical had. His voice reverberated through her, making her dizzy.
Caroline clasped her hands to her head and doubled over. “This can’t be real…”
The bark of Neshi’s voice arrested her panic. I suggest you put logic aside. Now. You need to believe what’s happening. Believe and accept it. Believe what Meical is and what he’s capable of, or neither of you will survive the night.
She’d seen enough tonight to believe almost anything. It wasn’t faith she lacked; it was reassurance. “How can you save my dad? You don’t even know where he is!”
I’m looking at him. She caught the sound of his laughter, as though he were in the room with her, but his laughter was strained with pain. Although he’s not sure how he managed to kill most of his captors and get away, he’s headed for the nearest town. He left only two survivors, and they think he’s a one-man army, so they’re not chasing him.
She held her breath. Could Neshi be that powerful? He could, if he was like Meical. “Are you okay?”
Let’s concentrate on Meical. You don’t have a lot of time. You must get to him before sundown, and Caroline…it’s going to take all the courage you have.
His voice was strained, as though he were fighting for his life, but the conviction in his words resounded in her soul.
I flatter myself to think I chose you for him. In truth, you’ve always been his, just as he’s always been yours. That’s why you’re the only one who can save him. That’s why he was the only one who could save you.
Suddenly the dark surrounded her with a memory laden with the greasy smell of blood and the sound of her own sobs. The abandoned house. The basement. The last place on earth she wanted to be. “I know where he is.”
He’s gone there to die.
She nodded, barely breathing. “That’s what he meant when he said he was going to a place I couldn’t go. He thinks I’m too frightened to follow him…to go back there…”
Is he right, Caroline?
She swallowed hard. Her stump throbbed at the thought of it. “It’s miles away. I’ll never get there in time.”
Leave that to Ellory and Talisen.
“Okay. So when I get there, how do I save Meical?”
His voice gentled. I think you know that, too, Caroline.
She rubbed the throbbing bite Meical had left on her throat, trying not to panic as Meical’s words filled her mind. It’s not just your blood I need. It’s your passion… “Yeah.”
Any questions?
“Yes. Where do you fit in? Are you a—”
Vampire, yes.
She exhaled slowly, while her heart raced and her head kept spinning. “The night John and I found Meical, you were there. I felt you. You thumped my shield like it was made of paper and made sure I took Meical home with me. That was you, wasn’t it?”
Yes. I couldn’t take a chance on his not being able to get to you during his first few hours. He needs you now just as much as he did then.
I need him, too.
Yes. In fact…you’re going to need him more than he has ever been needed before…nine months from now.
Nine months? “W-what are saying?”
Perhaps I shouldn’t try to speculate on the gestation period. I really have no way of knowing. This has never happened before. It wasn’t supposed to ever happen.
The night caught up with Caroline, and her stomach pitched and rose. A baby. She was going to have a baby. With Meical.
Not without him.
Her scattered thoughts congealed into one. She flattened her palm on her abdomen and reached inward with all her empathic might. A pinpoint of life stirred in response, deep within her.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Okay. I can do this.”
Ellory and Talisen should arrive any second. Just rest.
“Thank you, Neshi.”
No, Caroline. Thank you.
“Hey…are you okay?”
He didn’t answer.
He had done the right thing to tell her.
Doubling over, Neshi leaned against the wall and eyed the crimson splotch he was contributing to the yellow carpet of the room Olek had been imprisoned in. The bullets had struck his spleen…perhaps also his liver…or a lung… Not that he needed them anymore, but the blood…
The sound of combat boots could be heard on the stairs beyond the room and in the hallway. Neshi gathered his waning strength and dematerialized, just as the rest of Burke’s men filled the room.
They saw the empty chair where Olek had been bound and gagged a moment ago and flocked to the open window, stepping over their dead comrades. One of them shrieked orders into a two-way radio to the men who patrolled the grounds. When there was no answer, he led all but one of his followers out of the room.
Clinging to the ceiling, Neshi tried to remain invisible. When he couldn’t manage it, he settled for remaining silent. He needed blood, and he needed it fast. He eyed the guard below him with torturous hunger. It wouldn’t be a clean kill, but he couldn’t afford to be graceful at the moment.
The thug stationed himself at the window with his back to the room. Neshi hovered closer, until he was directly over him. Gunfire sounded in the distance. Was Olek safe? He took his focus off his own dilemma long enough to see that the old man had made it safely to the highway.
“What the…?”
Neshi looked down at the human below him who was now gaping at him, wiping drops of Neshi’s blood off his forehead.
Neshi ba
red his fangs and let the red haze of his hunger swallow him. No mercy. Feed. The human screamed, dodged and stumbled backward over a bullet-riddled chair. It broke beneath his weight, spinning him around so that he landed on his stomach.
Neshi sprang. The man rolled over, brandishing something in both hands. Neshi saw it a second before he felt the bite of the wooden chair leg pierce his chest. Just like a wooden stake.
A whoosh of sound filled his ears, like the wind in the rushes on the banks of the Nile. He saw the human’s mouth move, inches from his face, but didn’t hear the words. Pain eclipsed everything.
The room tumbled around him, and then he lay on his back, with the chair leg pointing upward to an afterlife that was surely beyond his reach. The man filled Neshi’s vision, staring at him while he spoke into his two-way radio. Neshi was vaguely aware of the human nudging him with the toe of his boot, as one would nudge a fallen enemy to see if he was dead yet.
Colors grew brighter, then faded to black, and the darkness brought merciful numbness. Dawn would bring the pain again, but only for a moment, while his body burned.
To rise no more.
When the humans had departed in search of their escapee, Bast materialized in the room wherein her favorite priest lay. Benemerut’s ka yet remained, tethered to his corpse by his stubborn will, floating in a void, unknowing and unseeing.
She stood over his lifeless form, held out one hand and whispered. The wooden chair leg rose slowly from the vampire’s chest and clattered to the floor. Blood bubbled from the wound. She murmured a prayer. The wound healed, and energy flowed through muscle and bone again.
Kneeling beside him, she studied his beautiful face for a moment, then closed her eyes and pressed her hand to his bloody chest. Benemerut Neshi, you are not yet dismissed from this life.
The air around Caroline snapped with electricity, raising the hair on her scalp. Her muscles tensed as she waited, looking around her.
Meical had called them “the cavalry,” but most people she would look to for help didn’t arrive by way of a shower of gold sparks. The sparks died and left them all in the dark.
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