by Tina Donahue
Within seconds, the Apple icon appeared on the screen. Remembering to pull in air, Regina grasped Nikoli’s wrist so he couldn’t leave her side. “Don’t go,” she begged.
“Regina.”
“Please.” With the password prompt, she tried the first set of figures on the Post-it note. They worked. Bouncing in place, she tapped in Carly’s number. The call connected. Regina sucked her bottom lip through the first and subsequent rings. “Come on,” she muttered during the fifth, “answer.”
After the ninth ring, the jangle cut off, replaced by silence.
Regina prayed an answering machine wasn’t about to come on. If Carly had ignored the rings because she didn’t recognize the number on her caller ID or if she didn’t listen to the message, she’d eventually head to the office.
“Carly?” Regina blurted at the lengthening quiet.
A sleepy voice answered. “Who is this?”
“It’s me—Regina. Is that you, Carly?”
“Uh…yeah.” She sounded confused. The noise of her sloppy yawn came over the phone line, followed by her sharp intake of air. “Oh my God, did I oversleep again?”
“No. It’s not even seven.” Regina continued quickly, “I’m sorry for waking you, but I’m not coming into the office today. I have a terrible migraine.”
“Oh. Okay.” Carly cleared her throat, then spoke through her next yawn. “As soon as I get there, I’ll call your patients and tell them—”
“No. Do it from your house.”
She fell back to silence.
“Carly?”
“You want me to call them from here?” she asked, her confusion returning. “Their numbers are in my computer at the office.”
The back of Regina’s neck prickled with sweat. “I have them in my email account, along with the schedule of appointments. I’ll give you the login information. Do you have a pen and paper nearby?”
“Ah, I guess. Let me turn on the light.” Carly grunted. Something crashed to the floor. “Shit,” she growled.
“Hey,” a male voice complained, the volume muted by his distance from the phone. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing. Go back to sleep.” After what sounded like a drawer shutting and a rustling noise, Carly said, “Okay, shoot.”
Regina gave her the email account, username and password, then added, “Call tomorrow’s patients too.”
“You’re serious?”
“I really don’t feel well.” In the background, Regina heard Emma’s piercing cries, the baby no doubt awakened by the noise of whatever had crashed to the floor. “Spend the next two days with your daughter.”
“Wait a sec,” Carly said, sounding concerned. She spoke softly, as though she didn’t want her husband to hear. “As much as I’d like to stay at home, I have work to catch up on. Regina, are you pissed at me because I left a little early last night? Are you firing me?”
“What? No. Not at all.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. Absolutely. You have my word.”
Carly blew out a sigh. “Okay. Thanks. I was a little worried.” After another deep breath, she said, “Since there won’t be any patients there for the next two days, I’ll just bring Emma with me to the office and—”
“No. Don’t go in. I want you to stay home. You’ll still be paid.” Expecting another argument, she lied. “While we’re gone, I’m going to have building maintenance check on that heating problem. You don’t want to expose Emma to all the noise the workers will make and the possibility of toxic materials, do you?”
“No, of course not.” Carly sounded torn between renewed bewilderment and relief. “Thanks for paying me for the two days. Hank and I could really use the dough.”
“Enjoy the time off with your baby and husband, but please make certain to call the patients.”
“At nine, I’m on it. Before you hang up,” she added quickly, “do you want me to reschedule them for later in the week?”
Afraid to look that far into the future, Regina said, “Just tell them their appointments are cancelled for this week.”
“You got it.”
Turning off the phone, Regina faced Nikoli. Determination hardened his jaw line. Sazaar’s scratches seemed all too prominent on his throat and cheeks.
“It’s dawn,” he said.
Above them, ashy beams pierced the thinning clouds to pour through the skylights, stealing the kitchen’s cozy warmth.
Fighting a shiver, Regina argued, “You’re not leaving without me, Nikoli.”
His brows drew together. “Regina, we don’t have time to debate this.”
“I’m not.” She spoke far more calmly than he did. “I’m using reason, the same as you do in your dimension.”
He stepped back.
She followed. “Trying to destroy Andris and the others at their lair is too great a risk. There’s a better way to defeat them.”
Nikoli continued to retreat. “There is no other way.”
“What about the void between the dimensions?” Regina advanced, reducing the space separating them. “Using it to our advantage?”
He backed into the counter. Looking at it, he asked, “The void? What are you talking about?”
“What I was going to tell you before I saw the newscast. When we were in my office, you used your device to open a portal. What if we do the same thing tonight, only this time at my house and lure them into it?”
“No.” He went around the counter, his frown deepening as she followed. “Only a few would be reckless enough to enter. Once they burned, the others would stop.”
“Not if we invite them inside.” Before he could dispute what she’d said, Regina continued, “We can make them believe we’re willing to do anything to ensure our survival, even going as far as opening a portal into E2. But we won’t. We’ll wait until they’re all in the void, and then we’ll slip out of it and close the gateway to this dimension. They’d be trapped between the two realms, Nikoli, unable to enter your side because of the toxic atmosphere. Unable to return to this side because we’d closed it off to them. They’d never again be a risk to your world or mine.”
Even as Nikoli considered Regina’s plan—brilliant by the standards of his own plane—he kept shaking his head, not wanting to put her at risk, needing to handle the vampires on his own.
“What if you fail?” she’d asked, her earlier words returning to torment him. “What happens if their protectors kill you first and you leave me here alone to face what the night will surely bring?”
Nikoli’s stomach twisted.
As though she saw that pain on his face, Regina went to him, resting her fingertips on his chest, speaking quietly. “It will work.”
He couldn’t bring himself to comment. It didn’t matter. Conviction burned in her, along with her concern for him and her guilt.
“Are you worried about Sazaar altering the atmosphere on your side?” she asked. “That she’ll try to force or tempt us to open a portal into E2?”
“It wouldn’t matter if she did.”
Surprise crossed Regina’s features. “But before you said—”
“I know. However, E2 will be on full alert by this evening. No one will be able to open a portal.”
“Why? Because of that man you called Thomo?”
“No.”
“Then how could you know that?”
Because he was a traitor. Shamed, he told her the truth. “I left my father a message about crossing over to this dimension and my plans to destroy the vampires. I timed it so that he wouldn’t know what I’d done until you were safe, should you need to open a portal. This evening, he will have read my communication and taken action.”
Regina lowered her hand, the color draining from her face. “Will he alert the people in your realm? Will they come over here looking for you?”
“Their only concern will be to protect E2. They’ll make certain no one will be able to enter.”
Her expression grew pensive at what he’d said. �
�If they see what we’ve done, they’ll ensure that Andris and the others remain trapped?”
He nodded, then spoke before she could. “I can do this alone, Regina. I must. There’s no reason for you to be involved. The vampires need me to cross over.”
“I need you to be safe,” she said.
“There’s no reason for you to worry about me or feel guilty about what’s happened. None of this is your—”
“Guilty?” she interrupted, then frowned. “Guilt has nothing to do with it. I need you in my life.”
He stared, not certain what she was saying, lacking the courage to ask.
Clearing her throat, she continued, “I’m doing this with you, Nikoli. If you leave, I’ll follow. I’ll look for you on this side or yours. I won’t stop until I’ve found you or those things have found me.”
She was back to that? He spoke through his teeth. “Don’t say that. I won’t allow them to harm you.”
“Nor will I allow them to do anything to you. We’ll protect each other.” Not giving him a chance to comment, she took his hand and headed for the table. Nikoli held back. Regina looked over, her expression pleading.
Nikoli’s reason warred with his emotions, with neither of them winning. If he left to safeguard her, as he should, she’d foolishly put herself at risk to find and save him, driven by whatever was going through her mind. Without his protection, she had an even lesser chance of survival.
Defeated for the moment, he followed her, noticing a black garment draped over the top of one of the chairs.
Regina offered the item to him. “Put the robe on. It’ll keep you warm while I finish making breakfast.”
He didn’t take it.
Not letting that stop her, she shook out the robe and eased it up his arms, then pushed to her toes, touching her lips to his ear. “We can talk while we eat. Please. If you care for me, Nikoli, don’t deny me this.”
He forced down a swallow. “Is there nothing I can say that will change your mind?”
“No.” She smoothed the robe over his shoulders and pulled the edges of it across his chest. Chewing her lower lip, she regarded him.
“What?” he asked.
“Do you care for me?”
He grabbed her arms, pulling her close. “You know I do and more. So much more.”
Her smile was quick. “I feel the same about you.”
Nikoli stared at her, unable to comprehend that she would truly want him given what had happened, what he and Sazaar had brought into her life. He tried to reason. “What you feel is guilt, Regina. Perhaps gratitude. Maybe—”
She interrupted. “For a smart guy, you don’t know anything.”
He frowned. “I know I should be doing this alone.”
“No, and that’s final.”
Nikoli wanted to scream at her for fighting him on this. Instead, he pulled her into his arms, desperate to touch her as much as he could.
Regina sagged against him, denying nothing. He tightened his hold, eased it, then crushed her to him again, unable to make up his mind.
Through it all, she sighed contentedly, then lifted her hand, stroking his bristly jaw and throat. “You never have to be alone again, Nikoli. I’ll be there for you.”
That’s what worried him—her refusal to let him get on with the business of destruction and dying. On a frustrated sigh, he released her.
She didn’t seem happy, but she wasn’t defeated either. Waiting until he sat, she backed away toward the oven. Short of reaching it, she glanced over at the skillet, then returned her attention to him. “I’m making bacon, eggs and cinnamon rolls. Do you know what that is?”
“Food?”
She laughed. “Yeah. What I meant is, do you have anything like this on your side? Is this what you eat?” She frowned. “What do you eat?”
He toyed with the thought of telling her they dined on rocks and dirt. Knowing Regina, she’d start preparing it. Maybe she did really care for him. Thinking about that, knowing she shouldn’t, he said, “What you do on this side, only we refer to it by different names.”
Nodding, she turned the oven back on and set the burner to a low flame beneath the skillet. “Then you don’t have any food allergies, something that would make you ill if you ate it over here?”
“Our food hasn’t caused illness in centuries. We have no disease.”
Regina’s hand stalled near the skillet’s handle. She stared at him.
In spite of his best intentions, the picture she created sent Nikoli’s pulse racing. Her fiery hair slid over her shoulders, with several strands snagging on the soft fabric of his sweater. Her erect nipples pressed against it. He regarded her naked thighs and calves. The sight of her bare flesh banished reason, encouraging emotion, cherishing the few hours they had left before dark and the coming battle.
“You have no disease at all?” she asked.
“What? No.” He cleared his throat and continued. “Long ago, our scientists sterilized the air, eliminating what you refer to as viruses and harmful bacteria. Most on my plane live well past a hundred years, with some having to wait until their sixties or seventies before they’re allowed to breed.”
Her brows inched up.
He answered what he sensed she wouldn’t ask. “My father was one of them. He’s already reached his hundredth year having sired me when he was in his mid-sixties. He had hoped that I wouldn’t have to wait as long, that Sazaar and I would…” Nikoli stopped, unwilling to finish.
Worry crossed Regina’s face.
Again, he assured her, “Those on E2 won’t be looking for me.”
“I know.” She frowned slightly. “You said the air on your side is free of all harmful organisms?”
He nodded.
“It isn’t here.” She took several steps toward him and stopped. “Will our germs harm you?”
“No.”
Regina’s expression remained unconvinced. “Why not?”
He wanted to lie. He sensed she’d know if he had. “Sazaar’s bite, the poison within her, gave me immunity.”
She glanced at his wrist, the puncture marks hidden by the robe.
Nikoli pushed to his feet, sending the chair scooting backward, its legs scraping the floor. “Regina, I’ve already told you, I won’t become what they are. Nor is your air toxic to me.”
She pressed her hand to her throat.
“Why won’t you believe me?” he asked.
“I do. It’s just that I don’t want anything happening to you. I couldn’t go through losing someone again. My mother…” Stopping, she shook her head.
Nikoli padded across the room to her. “What happened?”
Regina spoke on a pained sigh. “She had breast cancer. I got her the best doctors and treatment. No matter what they did, no matter how much I paid them, they couldn’t save her. She suffered so much. It was so fucking unfair. She’d always had such a lousy life. First, my father abandoned her. She had to work constantly, but we were always so poor. By the time I was able to get us a nice house and she could relax, she got too sick to enjoy it.”
Wrapping his arm around her narrow shoulders, Nikoli pulled her close. Without hesitation, she released her weight into him.
“I’m so sorry,” he murmured, recalling when he’d lost his mother. How hopeless the world had seemed. How large and frightening. “If I had known about you then, if I could have helped, I would have.”
She fisted her hand in his robe.
Leading Regina to his chair, he eased her into it, then hunkered down at her side. With his fingers beneath her chin, he rested his thumb on her plush bottom lip. “I’ll finish making breakfast.”
The corners of her mouth ticked up slightly, the beginning of a smile. “You know how?”
He confessed, “I watched you do it many times during the past weeks.”
Color flushed Regina’s throat and face at the reminder of him having observed her during the most mundane and personal endeavors. He feared it embarrassed her until she ran her hand do
wn the edge of his robe, her fingertips touching his chest.
His pecs and belly quivered at the small intimacy. His cock thickened.
She murmured, “You watched because you were worried about Sazaar coming to my place and you wanted to protect me from her?”
“I watched because I wanted to look at you.”
Chapter Eleven
His guileless answer touched Regina’s soul.
He was a man who’d been indoctrinated from birth to reason, never to feel, to always put duty above the most basic needs of his heart. What many men on her side had endured from the demands of their various cultures, though for Nikoli it was to a far greater and more tragic degree.
He seemed so young suddenly, not a quantum physicist with an intolerable burden to carry, but a boy who’d simply wanted to be cherished.
Cupping his face in her hands, she drew her thumbs over his stubbled cheeks, ever mindful of the wounds from Sazaar. “So many times I sensed your presence.”
Nikoli searched her face, his expression uncertain. “Did I frighten you?”
“Oh no.” She spoke in a whisper, running her thumb over his chin. “You provided comfort and peace, Nikoli, along with a thrill I’d rarely known.”
His eyes closed in what appeared to be relief.
Eager to reassure him further, Regina leaned toward him, kissing his lashes. His breath spilled out on a sigh. She murmured, “On some level, I recognized you when you came into the coffee shop. You saw it on my face, didn’t you?”
He cleared his throat. “I wanted to. I wasn’t certain if I had only imagined it.”
“You didn’t.” She eased back. “We’ve been looking for each other for a long time. And now, we’re together.”
He seemed ready to comment, perhaps to refute her statement, reminding her of what awaited them tonight.
“We are,” she insisted.
Easing her hands from his face, turning them over, he kissed both palms.
Regina’s fingers curled, touching his cheeks.
Nikoli allowed it for only a second, and then he pushed to his feet and backed away. “I’ll finish making breakfast.”
