Blue Twilight

by Maggie Shayne

Chapter 21

 

  Lou heard Maxie's challenge, and saw the bastard's face change from malicious and amused to afraid. Goddamn, that woman was something.

  His woman. That was what the vamp had called her. And he'd liked the sound of it. God, he'd been an idiot.

  The vampire set the cattle prod down on the table with his other "tools" and, turning, sniffed the air. "She dares. . . "

  "She dares anything, " Lou said. "And if you hurt her, I'll make you suffer like you've never suffered in your life?'

  The vampire slanted a look at Lou. "If you had any inkling of how I have suffered, you might realize how difficult that will be" Then he was gone.

  Lou tugged at the chains that held his arms to the wall in a rough approximation of a crucifixion. But it was no use. The bastard had jolted him with enough electricity to reduce his muscles to jelly. He was still shaking with it, feeling the ghostly aftershocks zapping his nerve endings. And even at full strength, he couldn't have hoped to snap chains like these.

  In a moment, the vampire was back, and he was dragging Max with one hand and Stormy with the other. He held each by one arm, and when he let them go, they stumbled to the floor.

  "You're both fortunate I managed to douse those flames. If you'd burned my home, I'd have seen to it you burned with it. And your friend here, as well. "

  Max lifted her head, spotted him and then shot to her feet. "Lou!" She ran to him, her arms snapping around his neck, her mouth pressing to his face, his neck, her hands threading in his hair. .

  Damn his body for reacting to her touch, even in this sorry state, Lou thought. Who the hell had he ever thought he was kidding, anyway?

  Eventually she backed off a little, and her beautiful green eyes slid over his face and then down his body. His ragged, torn shirt hung in tatters, hiding very little from her probing eyes. And then those green eyes narrowed, turned deadly dangerous as she spun to face the vampire.

  "You hurt him. You low-life scum. You dare to hurt him? Do you even know who I am?"

  "I fully expected to be asking you that question by now. Do you know who I am?" He shrugged. "It is of little consequence. I did your friend no permanent damage, Miss Stuart. And finding out who you are-and more precisely, what you know and how you know it-is only a small part of the reason I brought you here. " As he said that, his gaze slid toward Stormy. But he dragged it back to Max again. "You are some sort of a. . . detective. An expert on my kind. How is that?"

  "Why do you want to know?"

  He smiled slowly, walked to his table and picked up the long metal rod. Turning slowly with it, he took a step toward Lou, and Lou felt himself tense up in expectation.

  Max stepped bodily in front of him. "I get the message. I'm here to answer questions, and if I don't do so fast enough to suit you, Lou gets hurt. You're smart, I'll give you that. "

  He nodded, seeming surprised when Stormy walked right up to him and gently took the prod from his hand. She put it on the table. He spoke to Max, but his eyes were on Stormy. "I pride myself on finding others' weaknesses. Scanning your mind was not easy. "

  "I've been taught how to guard my thoughts from the Undead. "

  He nodded, impressed. "And what about you, little one? Do you guard your thoughts, as well?"

  Stormy met his eyes. Hers were smoky and distant, as if she were walking in some kind of a daze. "I wouldn't know which thoughts to guard these days. Some of them are mine. Others are. . . someone else's. " She couldn't seem to break the grip of the vampire's eyes on hers. Max wondered if she even wanted to.

  He frowned at her, searching her face intently. Then Max went to Stormy, took her arm and led her to a chair in the corner, easing her into it. "Just rest here, babe. Okay?"

  Stormy nodded. "Something's off, Maxie. Something's. . . " She closed her eyes, pressed her hands to her head.

  "It's okay. Just take it easy. Get a handle on it. I've got this. "

  Max returned her attention to the vampire, but Lou noticed the way his gaze kept shifting to Stormy. He also noticed the way she sat there, almost in a stupor. He wondered if the vamp had done something to her before bringing her in here. Drugged her or something. Or if this was another of her spells. He worried about her.

  "What did you find when you scanned my thoughts, vampire?" Max asked.

  The vampire jerked his attention back to her. "I found that this man is the most important person in your life. That you would die for him without a second thought. You love him?"

  "Madly," she admitted. "So much so that I'll tell you whatever you want to know-but I'll ask for one concession first. " The vampire lifted a brow. She went on. "Take him down from there. "

  The vampire glanced Lou's way. "He's too resourceful, and far too fearless. "

  "He's right, Max. He cuts me loose, I'm going to find a way to hurt his ass. You ought to take Stormy and get the hell out of here. Leave me to it. "

  She closed her eyes slowly. "I couldn't leave you behind, Lou. "

  "Storm's on the edge and she's teetering, Max. "

  Max looked at Stormy. Stormy lowered her hands, opened her eyes, and met Max's, then Lou's. "We aren't leaving you, Lou. I'll be all right. "

  Max nodded. "Then I guess I'll make this fast. " She looked at the vamp again. "My twin sister is a vampire. Her name is Morgan de Silva. She's married now, to the vampire Dante. Do any of those names mean anything to you?"

  He shook his head slowly.

  "Dante was sired by his great-aunt, a very old Gypsy vampiress named Sarafina. "

  "Aah. This name I know. Sarafina has a. . . reputation. "

  "Lou and I saved Dante's life last year. Sarafina would tear anyone to ribbons who threatened to hurt either one of us. " Lou knew that was a lie. Sarafina didn't even like them. But it was a good bluff. "And she'd have plenty of help, " Max went on. "Trust me"

  The vampire smiled slowly. "You are not going to intimidate me with threats, Maxine. Don't waste your time" He shrugged. "Besides, I can see you're lying. In fact, Sarafina doesn't even like you all that much. "

  "Wouldn't matter. She owes me. "

  He still didn't seem impressed. "So being related to one of us is why you know so much about us. "

  "No, " she said. "Not entirely. Are you familiar with the DPI?"

  He frowned, looked over at Stormy again, as if checking on her before returning his gaze to Max's. "I've heard of them. The government agency devoted to the research and elimination of the Undead. They're defunct now, yes?"

  "A gang of vampires burned their headquarters to the ground and killed most of the agents a little more than five years ago. I was a curious teenager and lived near the site. After the fire I wandered onto the grounds and found a CD full of information-files on vampires they had studied, tests they had done and so on. It read like a horror novel. But it was real. " She shrugged. "I've been studying the subject ever since. "

  The vampire lifted his brows. "If any of them survived and know about the files-"

  "Several of them survived. Frank W. Stiles being the most dangerous of the bunch. And he does know. He's targeted me, my sister, and her friends. " She lifted her chin and stepped closer to him. "He shot my friend Stormy in the head and tried to frame Lou for the crime. She spent a week in a coma, and we didn't know if she would live or die. We, all three of us, have risked our lives to protect our vampiric loved ones from the likes of Frank Stiles and the vampire hunters. The last thing we ever expected was to be repaid like this. With torture and trickery. But then again, I guess there are bad apples in every group, aren't there, Mr. . . " There she paused. "What's your name, anyway?"

  He smiled slowly. "So you can send your army of preternatural protectors after me?"

  "Oh, they're already on the way. Those children you abducted made their way back to shore. " She looked at her watch. "It's been more than an hour now. I sent them out of town with instructions to call my sister, and I'm sure they made th
at call long before now. Your time is extremely limited, my friend. So if there is anything more you need to know from me, you'd better ask fast. "

  His face went utterly blank.

  "I'm not bluffing. So get to the point. What is it you want to know?"

  "I want to know about Gilgamesh. "

  "The first vampire. Why?"

  He reached for the cattle prod.

  "Nu! Stai!" Stormy cried. She surged to her feet. Her face was fierce, and her eyes had changed color. They were gleaming onyx jewels now.

  Though she didn't want to, Max gripped the vampire's arm. "Don't hurt her. She's got no idea what she's doing. Look at her eyes. "

  He did, and then he couldn't seem to take his eyes from hers. "What's wrong with her?" he asked, his voice a whisper now.

  "We don't know. It's some sort of possession. That's not Stormy right now, it's. . . it's someone else. When she comes back to herself, she might not even remember what she did or said in this other state. She gets violent when she's like this. If she attacks you, please, don't hurt her. It's not her fault. "

  He glanced at Max as if she were insane. Then at Stormy again. Her eyes were fixated on his and filling with tears.

  He lifted a hand. "Relax, little one. "

  "Let them go, " she whispered. "Va rog. "

  He glanced toward Max, then Lou. "Tell me what you know of Gilgamesh. "

  "I ask you again, why?"

  "Because he was the first. Because he sought power over life and death. Power he gained. Power I need. "

  "So you intend to kill him?"

  "Don't judge me. You'd do the same to bring this one back, " he said with a nod toward Lou, "if you were in my position. "

  She frowned. "You want to bring someone. . . back? From where? From the dead?"

  "Dead is dead, " Stormy muttered. Then she screamed it. "Dead is dead! Dead is dead! Dead is dead!" She kept shrieking the words over and over as she launched herself at the vampire, her fists pounding him, hands clenching into claw shapes and scratching at him.

  He went down onto his back under the force of her assault, and a set of keys flew from his pocket. To his credit, he was trying not to hurt her but simply to fend off her assault without causing her any injury. To that end, he gripped her wrists and held them in his hands.

  Lou didn't have any clue what to expect next, but suddenly Stormy wasn't fighting the vampire anymore. She was kissing him. Lying atop his prone body, legs straddling him, body pressing close. She murmured things against his mouth. "Unde-i dragoste e si cearta. This love is sweet torment, print meu. My prince. "

  Max scrambled after the keys and quickly went over to Lou, while the vamp was so distracted he couldn't possibly pay attention to her. She didn't know what the hell was going on with Stormy, why she-or maybe the being possessing her-was making out with the vamp, but he was clearly swept up in it.

  Dammit, he'd better not try to bite her!

  She quickly unsnapped the manacles at Lou's wrists, at just about the same time the vampire groaned deep in his throat, closed his arms around Stormy, and began returning her kisses with a fervor that bordered on desperation.

  "Stormy!" Max ran to her, gripped her shoulders, and pulled her head away from the creature's lips.

  The vampire stopped kissing her, moving her rather gently off him. He got to his feet, his chest heaving, his eyes gleaming and fixed on Stormy. She sat there on the floor. He looked bemused, puzzled. "Who are you?"

  "Prin departare dragostea se uita. How is it you have forgotten me, of all people, my love?"

  He narrowed his eyes on her, got to his feet and took a single, bemused step closer.

  "Sunt rataat, " she whispered. "I'm so lost. I need you. Am nevoie de ajutorul vostru. " She pushed her hand backward through her hair, blinked her eyes clear and frowned in confusion.

  "Tell me who you are, " he said. And his voice was hoarse, almost choked with what sounded like emotion.

  Stormy seemed puzzled as she looked from one of them to the other. When she spoke again, her voice was her own. "My name is Tempest Jones, " she said. "But my friends call me Stormy. Who are you?"

  She was back-she was herself again.

  And Lou was back, too, and this time, he was holding the cattle prod.

  "Back away from her, pal. "

  The vampire looked at him, his eyes widening. Then he shot an angry look at Stormy. "At least you used a pleasant blade to drive into my back. "

  "What are you talking about?"

  "You kissed me. You're telling me it wasn't just a diversionary tactic?" He shook his head. "I'm ashamed I let myself believe, even for a moment-"

  "I kissed you?" She shot a look at Max. "I kissed him?"

  "Yeah, sort of. "

  Stormy lifted fingers to her lips, and her eyes met his. "I did. I. . . why did I do that?"

  The vamp reached down to help Stormy to her feet, but Lou jabbed him with the prod and sent a jolt through him that dropped him to his knees.

  "No, don't!" Stormy shouted. And to everyone's surprise she went to him, then seemed to stop herself just short of reaching down to help him and instead stood there, staring in confusion.

  The vampire knelt there, palms to the floor, shaking. "Come on, Max. Storm. Let's get the hell out of here. " Stormy turned slowly toward Lou.

  "No!" The vampire rose to his feet, shaking off the effects of the jolt, and before Lou knew what was happening, he had grabbed Stormy from behind, jerked her to the front of him, her back pressed to his body, his face dangerously near her throat. "You're not going anywhere. "

  "Jesus, just tell us what you want!" Max cried. "Don't hurt her. I swear to you, she wasn't trying to trick you. She's been having these episodes for days now. I swear. "

  "I want Gilgamesh. I want to know how to find him. And then I want to know all there is to know about this. . . Storm. "

  "I can't just tell you how to find a vampire so you can hunt him down to steal his power. "

  He bent his head then, opened his mouth and closed it over Stormy's neck. Lou gasped and lunged forward, but the vampire only turned to keep Stormy between them. Stormy let her head fall backward against him, closed her eyes, opened her mouth and gasped as if in pain or pleasure-it was impossible to tell which. She lifted her hands to his head, threaded her fingers into his hair.

  The vampire lifted his head. His eyes gleamed with bloodlust and passion. Two small wounds remained in Stormy's neck. She opened her eyes, and they were swirling and changing. She cupped the vampire's head, moving her hand slowly, caressing him. She didn't try to get free. If anything, she leaned into him even more closely.

  He frowned but otherwise ignored her touch. "Shall I drain her, or will you tell me before your friends arrive to destroy what I have worked so hard to build here?"

  "It's your own lust for power that destroyed your kingdom, my love, " Stormy whispered. "Just like before. "

  He scowled at her, pulled her around to face him. "What are you doing?"

  She muttered. "Do you not know me? Do you no longer love me?"

  "Stop it!" he cried. He flung an arm toward her just as Max dove at her and took the brunt of the invisible force that wafted with that arm. It caught her off guard, and she slammed backward into the wall.

  Lou lunged at the bastard. "You brutal son of a-"

  And then he was locked in combat with the powerful creature. They spun, fought, and slammed each other bodily into walls and furniture. Lou smashed into the wall, and something heavy fell from a shelf and cracked as it landed atop Max's head.

  The two men froze. The vampire looked stricken and lunged forward, but Lou shoved him aside and went to Max himself.

  "Are you truly the heartless bastard you seem?" Stormy cried.

  The prince turned to the woman called Stormy, even as Malone gathered his own woman into his arms. Blood trickled down her forehead. Jesus, had he killed her?

&nb
sp; "Can't you see it's over?" Stormy asked him. "The others are drawing near. You'll soon be dust if you don't get out of here. "

  "How do you know they're near?"

  She scowled at him. "Are you so blinded by hate that you can't sense them? Open your mind! Let these two go. You have no use for them"

  "I have plenty of use for them. As hostages. " He turned away from her, striding across the room toward Lou, only to be stopped by the small hand on his shoulder.

  "I know you, " she whispered. "You're not this being you pretend to be. You're a great leader, a prince. You are Vlad Dracul. Dracula. Prince of my heart. "

  He stopped there-stopped dead in his tracks. "What did you call me?"

  He turned slowly, staring at her eyes with their constantly changing colors. "How can you know to call me that name?"

  She pressed her hands to either side of her head, and tears sprang into her eyes. "I don't know. Jesus, I don't know. I only know. . . you. Somehow, I know you. Please, Vlad. . . "

  He moved closer to her, slowly. She didn't back away. She looked past him once, then said, for his ears alone, "Take me as hostage, if you must have one. Leave them. Let them be. "

  "Do you know what you're asking?" He caressed her with his eyes. "I will not let you go until it pleases me to do so. And if I find out you have been attempting to trick me with this-"

  "It's not a trick. Maybe. . . maybe you're the only one who can help me to find out what it is. "

  He held out a hand. She lifted hers, and it trembled, but she placed it into his. And then he whirled her into his arms and carried her out of the castle.

  Max lay on the floor with her head pounding like a bass drum, but she managed to open her eyes. Lou was holding her against his chest, her face buried in his neck, his in her hair. He rocked her gently, and she felt wetness and thought it might be tears. "I've been such an idiot, " he whispered. "God, Max, don't die on me. Not now. Don't do it, don't go. I love you. I've loved you the whole goddamn time. I was just too stubborn and too damn scared to admit it. I was so afraid I'd mess up your life. So afraid I'd end up losing you in the end. The way I lost my wife. . . and my little boy. Baby, I couldn't stand it. I couldn't. I didn't want to risk that again, but lemme tell you something, Mad Max. You're worth it. You're worth any risk. Every risk. "

  His hand was at her wrist, and she thought he might be feeling for a pulse. There must be one. She was certainly alive, but he wasn't finding it, and she thought maybe that was a good thing. "I'll do anything, Jesus, anything. Just don't take her from me. God, what was I doing? Thinking I could keep from tying myself to her, when I've been tied to her all along in every way that matters? I love her. I've always loved her. "

  Hell, now she knew she was alive. And if he couldn't feel her pulse, he must be the one near death, because it was pounding.

  "Lou?"

  He loosened his arms a little, just enough to let her body relax away from his so he could look at her face. "Max, baby, you're alive. "

  "Yeah. So far, yeah. You had some doubt?"

  "I couldn't feel a pulse. Jesus, Max. "

  "I'm here. I'm fine. I think you panicked. "

  He shook his head, doubting it. "How long have you been awake?"

  "Long enough to-where's Stormy?"

  Lou shot a look across the room. "No, " he whispered. "Goddammit, no!" He got up, helping Max to her feet as he did.

  Then there was the sound of doors breaking to smithereens, the whisk of movement.

  Morgan and Dante appeared, looking furious and ready for battle. Morgan surged across the room and swept her twin sister into her arms. Dante came forward, clapping Lou on the shoulder.

  "You look like hell, my friend, " Dante said.

  Lou shook his head. "Yeah, well he got his share, too. "

  "Who? The vampire? Vlad Dracul?"

  Lou and Max looked at each other, then at Dante. "What do you mean, Vlad Dracul? He wasn't. . . "

  "He was, " Morgan said. "It's all over the preternatural world that he's been living out here-set himself up like a king and had an entire town under the control of his mind. No one's had the nerve to bother him-no one saw it as overly urgent to stop him, since he wasn't killing his victims. "

  "When we got home and Lydia told us you were in Endover, we came immediately. We were nearly here when your friend Jason phoned. " Dante looked at Lou in awe. "You held your own against Prince Vlad. The one and only Dracula. "

  "And I'll have to again, by the looks of things, " Lou said. "The bastard kidnapped Stormy. "

  "We have to go after him!" Max shouted.

  "We will. We will. " He touched her hair, the wound there. "You need this stitched up. "

  "Take care of her, " Dante said. "We'll get on his trail and contact you when he beds down for the day sleep. You can catch up with us then. All right?"

  Lou nodded.

  Max shook her head. "I can't just let them go"

  "You aren't, " Morgan said softly. "I swear to you, as your sister, we'll stay on their trail, Max. I promise. " She sighed softly. "I owe her, you know. Storm and I-we have a bond now. I won't let harm come to her. "

  Max lowered her eyes. "Okay. "

  Lou scooped her up in his arms and carried her back down the stairs and out of the mansion. He moved all the way to the beach, finding the boat Stormy and Max had brought out here. Gently, he lowered Max into it and sped as rapidly as he could back to the mainland.

  On the shore, he spotted Gary, who helped him pull the boat in and seemed worried when he saw Max. "Hell, what happened?"

  Garylooked different, Lou noticed. His eyes weren't as clouded as before. Both his face and his wit seemed sharper.

  "She had an accident. Out on the island, " Lou explained.

  "The island?" Gary looked past them. "Well, what was she doing out there? No one goes out there. There's nothing there but woods and weeds. " Then he frowned. "What. . . what's burning?"

  Maxie lifted her head and stared out toward the island. The flames were rising into the night, licking at the very stars, it seemed. Morgan and Dante had finished the job she had begun. The place would be nothing but smoldering ash by sunrise.

  "Where can he be taking her?" she whispered to Lou. "Where could he be going with Stormy?"

  "Max, listen to me. You said the language she was speaking. . . was Romanian. "

  Max looked into his eyes, silent for a long, searching moment. Then she said, "You don't think-you don't think there could be some sort of. . . connection. "

  "Did you see the way she was kissing him? And he wasn't putting those words into her head, Max. He was dumbfounded, accusing her of tricks. So if it wasn't him, what the hell was it?"

  Max swallowed hard, recalling the theory Martha had suggested. Some kind of past-life explanation for Stormy's odd behavior and symptoms.

  "We'll find them, " Lou told her. "I promise. I owe you that. " He carried her up the hill to the motel, brought her into his room and dropped her onto the bed. He vanished into the bathroom, for a towel, then stepped outside and returned with the towel full of ice from the machine. "Press this to your head. "

  She lifted it to her head, leaned back on the bed and watched as Lou yanked a duffel out from under his bed and began stuffing everything he'd brought into it. It took him all of five minutes.

  "Can you walk?"

  She nodded, and he took her hand and tugged her to her feet, leading her out of his room and into hers. She reached for her suitcase, but he wouldn't let her. "Just sit and keep that ice on your head. I'll get it".

  She thinned her lips. "I'm not hurt that badly. " It was a lie. Her vision kept blurring, and she was dizzy as hell. She had a concussion, at the least.

  "You are, or else you would be with your sister chasing after Storm, " he said.

  Damn him, he knew her too well.

  He paused in stuffing her belongings into her suitcase, looked her in the face. "I
thought you were dead, you realize that? I thought it was over out there. "

  "I'm not dead. "

  "I know. " He stopped packing to lean closer, cupped her face in his hands. "Max, I'm sorry about the way I acted after we-I didn't mean any of it the way you took it. "

  "Didn't you?"

  He stared into her eyes. "This isn't easy for me, you know. "

  "I know. "

  Nodding, he stuffed the rest of her things into her bag, closed it and took her hand, drawing her to her feet again. He led her out to Stormy's room and told her to wait there, by the door. Then he ran across the parking lot to her car, flung the bags into the trunk and drove the Bug over to park it in front of where Max stood waiting. He opened the door to Stormy's room and led her inside, again insisting she sit and hold the ice to her head while he gathered up Stormy's things, shoving them into her overnight bag. He spoke as he packed.

  "I want to tell you something, and I don't want you to respond right away. All right?"

  She nodded.

  "When we made love-and that's what it was, Maxie. Don't even think it was anything less. When we made love, and I was lying there, holding you and thinking about what had to happen next, I wasn't feeling defeated or conquered or painted into a corner. I was feeling. . . mostly. . . relieved"

  "You were?"

  He nodded, and paused with Stormy's hairbrush in his hand, staring down for a moment at the yellow hairs, reflecting the light he'd flicked on when he'd entered the room. "I don't think Storm is in any danger from that vampire, " he said.

  Max blinked at the total change of subject. "What makes you think that?"

  "Because when he looks at her. . . there's something in his eyes. "

  "He doesn't even know her. "

  "Even so, that look-it reminds me of the way I feel when I look at you. "

  She lifted her gaze to his. But he just gripped her hand and tugged her to her feet again, leading her out of the room. He tossed the bag into the car on the way, then took her into Jason's room. She knew the drill by now and sat down in the chair. Lou looked in the closet, yanked out Jay's coat, and then skimmed the room for the handful of things Jason had acquired while in this town.

  "My ice is melting. "

  "Hold on a little longer. I got off the subject. Where was I?"

  "You were relieved after we made love"

  "Yeah. I was relieved. Mostly because I was so tired of resisting you. Tired of saying no, tired of trying to keep my feelings under control so you wouldn't see them. "

  She frowned. He wasn't looking at her. He finished checking dresser drawers and moved into the bathroom, returning with a handful of items he dropped onto the coat.

  "Why didn't you want me to know?"

  He rolled the coat up, toiletries and all.

  She got to her feet before he could pick it up. "Lou, could you stop bustling for a minute and look at me?"

  He did. He looked at her, and he looked tormented. "I'm so fucking scared I'll screw this up. I tried to make marriage work once, Maxie. I tried, and I failed, and I ended up bleeding, and so did she. I lost her. I tried to be a father to my kid, and I lost him, too. If I hurt you that way, I don't think I could live with myself. "

  "I'm not gonna let you hurt me, Lou. And you're sure as hell not gonna lose me. "

  He ran his hands through her hair. Nodded once, and seemed to square his shoulders. "Okay, then. Here it is, straight up. I love you. I am goddamn head over heels for you, Max. I think I have been for just about always. "

  "You have?"

  "Hell, yes. How could I not be?" He took the melting-ice-filled towel and moved it away, so he could look at the cut on her head. "I was relieved after we made love, because I figured I could stop fighting it. Just for some reason I was still denying how I felt. Force of habit. Fear of failure. I don't know. So I told you we might as well get married and made it sound like I was taking a plea-bargain deal from a D. A. who was about to fry my ass. That wasn't what I was doing, though. "

  "No?"

  "Max, it took scaring me half to death to prove it to me out there. But it finally came clear. You and me, we're already partners. We work together. We play together. When the shit hits the fan in my life, the only thing I want to do is call 'you, or come over and tell you about it. Ditto when something good happens. And I think it's the same for you. "

  She nodded. "It's always been. "

  "You're my best friend, " he told her. "But it goes way deeper. 'Cause the thought of you with another man makes me want to do murder, kid. When we first hooked up with Jason, I was. . . I thought he. . . Jesus, Max, I wanted to beat him senseless. You're mine. "

  "I've always been yours. Just waiting for you to decide you wanted me to be. "

  "I've always wanted you to be. I just didn't realize what was right under my nose. I want to be your partner in the business, Maxie. I want to move up there to Maine and buy a fishing boat and take you out on the ocean for weekends and holidays. I want to have the right to be jealous and possessive and overprotective of you-and I want the whole world to know I have that right. Because I love you like nobody ever loved anybody. Ever. And that's why I want you to marry me, Max. "

  She slid her arms around his neck, stood on tiptoe and kissed his mouth slowly. "You know how long I've waited for you to wake up and smell the doughnuts, Malone?"

  "Too long. I'm sorry, babe. I'm not gonna make you wait for anything ever again. Promise. I'll marry you right now-as soon we can drive to a justice of the peace, if you want. "

  She shook her head sadly. "I can't get married without my best friend standing beside me, Lou. "

  "Then we'd better get busy tracking her down. Because, frankly, I don't think I want to wait much longer. " He slid an arm around her, picked up the bundle from the bed and led her out to the car. Then he opened the passenger door, and when she got in, he leaned over, buckled her seat belt around her and lingered just long enough to press his mouth to hers.

  It was going to take some getting used to, having him be the one seducing her for a change. She thought she liked it.

  Lou straightened away, his eyes dancing over her face as if he were looking at heaven; then he closed her door, flung Jason's rolled-up coat into the back seat and went around the car to get behind the wheel. He started the engine and drove onto the road, away from the town of Endover . As they passed through town, the sun was rising. People were stepping out of their houses, looking around, blinking in the light like moles too long underground. Their eyes were clear and sharp, if still a bit squinty.

  "God, I'm glad to leave that place behind, " Max said as they drove on. "But I think the thrall that held it is already fading. "

  "I think so, too. It felt different when we came back from the island. Lighter. And Gary seemed more normal, too. "

  "We faced down Dracula, " Max said, looking sideways at Lou. "I can't believe this was the very first official case of our new agency. Dracula. The biggest, baddest of all the big bads. "

  "And we lived to tell the tale, " he said. "Doesn't bode well for a quiet, peaceful future, does it?"

  She sent him an alarmed look.

  He smiled. "Honey, don't worry. It's you I want. Not peace and quiet. But lively, lovely Mad Max Stuart. " He smiled slowly then. "Mad Max Malone. Hell, that's got a sweet ring to it. "

  "I've always thought so, " she said, and she leaned across the car to kiss his neck, then rested her head, hair still damp from the towel, on his shoulder. "I adore you, Lou. "

  "It's mutual, kid. "

  "Where are we going?"

  "We're going to find a doc to stitch up your head. And then we're going to find Stormy. After that, it doesn't matter. Because wherever we go, we'll be going together. For as long as I live, Max. That's a promise. "

  "I'm going to hold you to it, " she told him.

  "I'm counting on it?'