Then she ran another gaze over Darlene, realizing what was happening.
The Bite, she thought, knowing what it’d done to her a year ago and seeing it being played out again in her friend.
Had it been the same for the other draining victims, too?
Darlene spotted Kim, and everyone turned to see her still standing in the doorway like yesterday’s news.
“Well, come on in, Kimmy,” Darlene said, kicking one heel up and over her knee as she leaned back on the mattress. “I don’t bite.”
Troy and Jeremy cracked up, and Kim shot them a harsh glance.
Then they shut their traps.
Kim hesitated, not liking how she was reacting. Shouldn’t she be ecstatic to see her friend up and about? So why was there a persistent unease holding her back from joining the good times?
“How’re you feeling?” she asked Darlene instead.
Her friend pulled an isn’t-it-obvious face. “Lots better. A whole lot.”
At the same time, Troy and Jeremy both said, “Better, yup, better.” Behind Kim, Powder made a hmmph sound.
“Say, you two.” Kim nodded to the woody twins. “Can I talk with my friend for a sec?”
“Well…” Jeremy said.
Troy looked at Kim, really looked, then seemed to come to a semblance of the sense he used to have. “Right.” He shook his head slightly and stood. “Kim hasn’t caught up with Darlene yet, and we’ve got work, anyway, Jer.”
He actually seemed embarrassed.
As he passed Kim, she pursed her lips. It wasn’t that she was jealous of his attentions toward the newly sexed-up Darlene…
Okay. It kind of was, but only because her idiot ego had so recently been tweaked by Stephen.
She thought of the vampire waiting outside, and a blast of wet heat filled her.
Damn libido. Didn’t it know when to stop?
The boys cleared the room, and Kim shut the door behind them, but not before issuing a warning that she’d kick their cabooses if anyone eavesdropped.
Then, after the closed door put an exclamation point on her comment, she smiled at Darlene and approached. “You don’t know how glad I am to see you. Your mom said you didn’t want visitors—”
“You can’t stand it, can you?”
Kim halted, doing a double take. “What?”
Darlene rose from the bed and went to the computer, giving Kim what amounted to a cold shoulder. “You hate that you’re not the queen of them anymore.”
Kim couldn’t believe this—mainly because Darlene was right. She’d thrived on what The Bite had done to her, but now, after these last couple of nights with Stephen, the novelty had worn off and become a baffling reality.
“Dar—”
“You hate that you’re not the only special vamp girl now.”
There was nothing she could say to make her friend think any differently, not at this point. Kim remembered being bowled over by her new confidence, too, and nothing would’ve gotten through to her in those first few weeks. Or maybe ever.
Nothing except meeting her vampire again.
The click of Darlene’s fingers on the keyboard was like tiny bops to Kim’s head.
“The guys tell me you haven’t been around much lately,” Darlene said, still facing the computer. She was checking e-mail. “So I took the liberty of writing a column to replace yours tonight. It’s about my encounter this time.”
“Your…” Kim just about chomped on her tongue. Jealous. She wasn’t going to be that way because she had something much better than a bite itself waiting outside.
Then again, maybe she didn’t have Stephen at all.
Darlene’s fingers had gone still. “Whoa.”
“Whoa, what?”
“Whoa, I…Read this e-mail.”
Kim scanned it, then blinked and read it again.
Your blood-draining vampire hangs around the abandoned E-Z-Duz-It gas station near Sloan, NV. Check that castoff semitrailer at the back of the main building.
“Whoa,” Kim repeated, already halfway to the door. “Dar, do me a favor? Explain this to the boys?”
“Where’re you—Wait for me outside, okay? Let me go to the…bathroom, and I’ll be right there. Just wait outside.”
Kim barely registered Darlene’s request as she stumbled out of the room and into the hall. Everyone around the area knew where the old EZ was—just off the 15 on the way to the state line.
Wait until she told Stephen. Maybe the rogue wouldn’t be at the station right now, but, with Stephen’s powers, they might be able to get a fix on the baddie’s identity from clues.
She jammed through the front door, Darlene still yelling at her to wait outside and she’d be right there, too. The boys, who were waiting in the family room, didn’t even have time to interfere with Kim’s frantic dash.
“Stephen?” she called, running down the entry walk to her car, then opening her door with the intention of grabbing her fight bag. “I’ve got something! Stephen!”
With a whoosh of air, he was there, standing before her.
For a drawn-out moment, she saw it in his eyes—he’d been thinking about what had happened back at her apartment. But urgency forced her to put that aside.
For now.
She told him what the message said. “So let’s go. You can fly us there—”
He was shaking his head.
“But—”
“Promise me that you’ll stay inside this house,” he said, his voice so even that it made her want to scream. “The crucifixes make it safe, and I’ll contact you when it’s over.”
She’d seen too much, learned too much, to believe vampire hunting was anything less than serious. Common sense told her that his request to stay was logical, and that she should swallow her pride and just do it.
She tried to maintain her dignity even while a lump lodged in her throat. “You don’t want me around to thwart another chance at capturing the rogue, huh?”
The moonlight revealed his bittersweet expression. “I respect you, Kimberly. Your passion and courage. And if I thought it would not be my downfall, I would have you by my side.”
Why did it sound as if he wasn’t just talking about the rogue chase?
With something like regret, he reached out to cup her jaw, running a thumb over her cheek until she almost fused against him. Dizzy, so dizzy when he touched her.
“I’m coming back,” he said raggedly. “Believe that.”
Then, as quickly as he’d appeared in her life, he took off out of it, leaving nothing but an almost imperceptible quiver of air in his wake.
But she didn’t have time to feel anything at his departure because Darlene came tearing out of the house, followed by the League members. Troy was stuffing an assortment of vampire weapons—holy water, ear plugs for any attempted hypnosis, a crucifix—into his jeans pockets.
At Kim’s curious glance, he raised his eyebrows, then shot a loaded look to the sky where Stephen had already disappeared.
In that moment, Kim realized that Troy knew more about Stephen than he’d said out loud.
“Shut up already,” Darlene was yelling over her shoulder as she hustled to Kim’s car.
Powder was on her tail. “I’d just like to know who you could be on the phone with, telling them that Kim’s outside.”
Oh, God.
Just as Kim got the first twitch of something being very, very wrong, a force like a two-by-four slammed into her, dragging her through the air and into the open desert at the back of Troy’s house.
The next thing she knew, she was skidding on the sand, the ground abrading one arm as a bunch of scrub loomed in the moonlight. An old rickety shack, tarps flapping at its sides, leaned on the horizon. It was surreal in her scrambled vision.
She coughed, getting to her hands and knees, reaching for her weapons bag.
And finding that it wasn’t with her.
In the background, she heard the League screaming and running toward her, and she opened her
mouth to tell them to get inside the house.
But a shadow covered the moon, cramming her words right back into her throat.
The shape’s coat flapped in the wind and, for a second, Kim thought it might be Stephen.
It wasn’t.
And when Darlene ran laughing and panting into the shape’s arms, Kim realized that her friend belonged to this vampire just as surely as she, herself, belonged to her own.
13
AS DARLENE FLUNG herself into the rogue vampire’s arms, the League members slid to their own graveled halts.
All except Troy, who managed to skid right next to Kim on the ground. Then he dug into one of his pockets and lifted something to his ears, but she was too preoccupied to think any more of it.
“Did I do it right?” Darlene was asking her vampire. “I got Kim outside, and Stephen took off for the EZ, just like you wanted.”
The rogue’s voice was deep and smooth, touched by a British accent like Stephen’s. “Your friend will provide wonderful leverage, dear, and Stephen is certainly going to be listening to what I have to say at this meeting, now that I’ll have better control of the situation. Thank you for your help.”
Hazily, Darlene hugged her vampire while sparing a sorry glance to Kim. “He said Stephen would come back for you, that he’ll do anything for you, and that’s why you’re here, Kim. I had to do it for him. I wanted to. You understand, don’t you?”
Understand being whipped by a vampire and finding yourself doing things you normally wouldn’t for another bite? Um…yeah. Kim understood completely, but she still couldn’t believe Darlene had betrayed her.
The rogue gently guided his love slave behind him while stepping forward, taking off his sunglasses and pulling back the hood from his jacket, which he was wearing under his coat. Moonlight revealed longish brown hair that waved near high cheekbones, full lips and wide, almond-shaped eyes that glowed a burning amber.
Behind Kim, Powder and Jeremy sucked in a breath, maybe because the rogue looked like Johnny Depp. Or maybe he was just that vampire-gorgeous.
Adrenaline skewed her perception. One arm felt pulped from scraping the ground, but she really didn’t care.
The vampire casually pointed to all of them in turn. “Don’t move—and stay silent.”
She didn’t know how his voice affected the others, but she found she couldn’t budge, even though her brain was screaming for her to start, dammit, start.
Mind control? How was it that Stephen couldn’t hold her in sway while this vamp had no problem?
Troy, who was so close that his arm brushed hers—ouch—eased back an inch. He was capable of moving.
The rogue continued coming forward, halting about ten feet away from them. Even though Kim couldn’t command her body, her veins began to tremble. Time seemed to press in on itself, flipping inside out.
Stephen. How could she warn him like this?
“I’m afraid Darlene was not supposed to bring her League anywhere near this…gathering,” the rogue said. “Most of you aren’t a part of what is between me and the other vampires. Except for you,” he said to Kim. “You’re quite valuable to my cause. Stephen will listen this time, now that I know how to persuade him.”
Kim got a bad feeling about this. In fact, she suspected she might find herself the rogue’s hostage once again.
Behind the vampire, Darlene called out, “I’m sorry. They ran out behind me, Edward—”
Edward.
“—and after I pulled up that e-mail, all I wanted to do was see you again. I didn’t have time to tell them why they needed to stay inside. It’s been too long since…”
“Since last night, when you were bitten. Yes, Darlene, I know, dear.”
His voice was like clotted cream dripping down Kim’s skin. It should’ve sent her into convulsions of lust, this warm bath of sensation, but she stayed cold. Even the shakes consuming her had been jarred by fear instead of desire.
Stephen—what did this rogue have planned for Stephen?
She had to stop this creature.
The slightest movement at the edge of her vision made Kim pause. While Darlene was holding the vampire’s attention, Troy had subtly reached into a pocket again. Meanwhile, the League’s traitor sounded hopeless in the background.
“I did everything you wanted me to without ever asking why.”
“As I’d hoped you would,” Edward said, still watching Kim, glowing eyes narrowing in the near dark. He ignored Darlene and talked to his new prey, instead. “So now I have time to appreciate the details of you. Stephen’s mortal woman. I never thought I’d see the day again. Not after Cassandra.”
At the sound of Stephen’s name, Kim’s skin flared in awareness. Regrets were permeating her now that she might not have a chance to say anything ever again. She wanted to tell him that he was more than just a bite, so much more.
But where was he?
Above her, Edward sighed, clasping his hands behind his back. He had a noble bearing, probably a remnant of his extensive past. She wondered how he knew Stephen, but she couldn’t find the energy to break this hold and talk.
Next to her, she sensed more movement. Troy. Was he using her arm as a shield while he kept inching toward a weapon in his pocket?
Why the hell could he do that when she…
The earplugs, she thought. He’d used his earplugs against the vampire’s voice commands.
Edward lifted his face to the night, as if searching. Then, finding nothing but the moon and stars, he frowned. In the meantime, Darlene had approached again, sliding a hand up his arm as she fixed a worshipful look on him.
“Maybe,” she said, “while we’re waiting, you could…you know.”
“No, not now.” Edward smiled at her. “I’ll reward you with another bite later, just before I…” He smile grew as he cut himself off. “Just be patient, all right, muffin?”
He sounded as if he were getting sick of the high-maintenance groupie thing.
As Kim watched her friend—her changed, bite-starved friend—back off Edward the vampire, shame invaded her. Darlene had obviously become a Renfield, a servant who’d do anything to please the master. If Kim had to guess, she would say that, unlike the other draining victims, Darlene was under deep hypnosis and had been ever since her bite.
Kim’s lungs seemed to go shallow without much air to expand them. Had she been Stephen’s servant for the last year?
No, even Stephen had said that she had power over him.
She wasn’t like Darlene. She knew it. Yet Edward obviously hadn’t drained Kim’s friend as he had the others; he’d taken her mind more than her blood, and Kim knew without being told that he’d only done it because Darlene was useful. He’d gone the back route into cornering them all.
While Darlene slunk off to sit near a small hill, her gaze on Edward all the while, the vampire himself grew restless.
“We shan’t have long to wait,” he said to Kim. “Stephen will be here because you are. Yet it seems to me that having fewer of you uninvited lot around would be all the better. So…”
Keeping one hand behind his back, he flicked the other wrist, motioning and saying, “Sleep.” A heavy thud told Kim that Jeremy had gone down like a sack of garlic. The rogue aimed again, producing a lighter crash that no doubt came from Powder.
Kim braced herself for her turn…
But that was when Troy went for it, standing and raising his hand in what felt like slow motion while the vampire moved in real time.
Just as Powder hit the ground, Edward gracefully turned to Troy.
“Sleep,” he said.
Troy didn’t go down.
Edward darted forward while Troy continued lifting a gleam of silver flashing under the moonlight. A crucifix.
Unfortunately, Edward was faster than Troy.
Time throttled back to its regular pace and, before Kim knew it, her coworker was slumped on the ground and Edward was holding up two earplugs like trophies.
“Ha
ts off to this,” the rogue said.
He opened his mouth to say something else, but instead, cocked his head, as if hearing something.
Stephen?
Oh, God, she sensed him. Somewhere, he was somewhere near.
Before she could get too giddy, Edward motioned toward her.
“Sleep.”
The world closed into pinpoints, disappearing on the gasp of her heart as she thought Stephen for the last time.
Her body waved while ecstasy took her under into the thick, fluid blackness of limbo.
PRIDE, Stephen had thought over and over again as he used his senses to search for the old gas station and the rogue. I have too much pride. I should have unburdened myself before leaving her. Better yet, I should have…
Done what? Allowed Kimberly to come along?
Inconceivable. So why did he regret not doing it?
When he arrived at the station, then found it empty, he cursed himself, knowing only then exactly what was happening.
He had been duped.
In a panic, he zipped back to League headquarters, hoping his suspicions were wrong.
But then he caught her scent in the desert behind the house, just as if she were a part of him, and his gut fisted. He sighted a man’s form standing near a cluster of prone humans.
Yet Kimberly’s body was all that registered in Stephen’s mind before it went red and garbled.
Without another thought, he tensed, shooting toward the scene, never heeding what might happen to himself.
Even as he zoomed downward, his heightened vision fixed on the rogue as the other vampire kneeled over Kimberly and poised his hand over her chest.
Bloody…This rogue wasn’t intending to bite her this time. He was going to tear her heart out.
Stephen wouldn’t be able to heal that sort of damage.
Burning to a halt in midair, Stephen hovered, attempting to keep himself together, though he was on the cusp of imploding. “Stand away from her.”
His voice came out as a dangerous growl.
The rogue raised his head, revealing his face.
Stephen jerked, as if gutted. Such a familiar face, such a dear missed brother.
The Ultimate Bite Page 17
