I guarantee,” the actor added, “that a drink will make you feel better.”
Weightless, stretched from all sides, Dawn didn’t answer. She only had enough energy to push away—
Stay out. Don’t come in….
Her strength ebbed, and she plunged back into his sway.
“I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.” As his eyes glimmered like a hypnotic object waving back and forth, Paul Aspen flashed that eternally boyish smile. Persuasive, trustworthy. “I only want to taste you. You’re notorious in the Underground and, as you might know, I’ve got a yen for breaking in new girls. You’ll never remember a thing afterward. No pain, just peace.”
Somewhere, the phrase “mind wipe” bobbed by like an irrelevant cartoon object in a fragmented river. But she was too enthralled by what he had said to pay attention.
No pain, just peace. What she would give for some of that….
Right now, as he stared into her, warming her like a fire in the cold, she believed he could give it.
But…Old habits…
She tightened her mind block, straining at him….
Then lost it again.
Paul Aspen, waving up and down in his own dreamboat, sighed, slid his arms under Dawn, and lifted her. The world slanted while he carried her off, through the swollen foliage to a clearing under the same stars that had been keeping her company only minutes ago.
But, this time, those stars bent and twisted, then released, softening into reflections of Paul’s swirled eyes.
“When you walked into my place tonight,” he said, “it was the first time I’d seen you face-to-face. The human who brought down Robby Pennybaker, who was not only the subject of your missing persons case, but my blood brother. Your power turns me on. You’re a walking goddess, Dawn, and by becoming a part of me, you can be a part of everything beautiful.”
She had heard men whisper seduction to her before, then take it back as quickly as a mind wipe when they were done. Back in that other world, pretty words inevitably included Dawn’s relation to Eva, the sex idol.
Yet, in this pool of emptiness, Paul Aspen had not mentioned anything about her mother.
He stroked her cheek, smiling down at her like a rogue angel, and by just looking into his eyes, Dawn somehow knew he wasn’t thinking about Eva at all.
The realization made her blood float with ecstasy. No pain, just peace…and beauty. She was his universe, the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen, just like with…Jonah. Yeah, with Jonah…
“Good.” His fingers traveled from her face to her neck, where he paused at the crucifix, then laughed, using a nearby stick to flick that and Breisi’s sharp silver pendant aside. Languidly, he continued stroking. “Beautiful, so beautiful. May I…?”
Her mind block slipped, but her deepest layer, her fear—
Fought
Against
It—
But at his words, she slipped again.
“I knew you wouldn’t be easy,” he said, smiling. “Nothing worthwhile ever is. You need to be eased into peace, I suppose, and that’s okay, because I want a little of you so badly I’ll wait. You won’t use any of this against me anyway. You won’t be able to.”
Mind wipe…
She groaned, still fighting somewhere in the far reaches of sanity, but his gaze was too much, too compelling.
Paul ran his fingertips over the center of her throat and, with only a look, she knew everything about him: how he’d been an errand boy on a studio lot, fetching water for the likes of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. But then a producer’s wife had discovered him, at first making him an extra in her husband’s movies, then giving him a supporting role that turned into so much more.
He’d been a star, seeking a place in the stratosphere with names like Rock Hudson and Frank Sinatra.
But one day the offers stopped coming, even though he still had his looks. He was too much trouble, they said. And that was when Paul met him, at the beginning of his freefall. The Doctor. He had saved this star, resurrected him, given him new life that he would be able to reinvent for generations to come.
He’d stayed Underground longer than most as the Doctor had perfected his technique in creating his first vampires. And he had been able to stay Above as “Paul Aspen” longer than any of the others, thanks to the use of makeup that allowed him to “grow older” bit by bit. Now, on his last legs in this incarnation, he was anticipating the need to go Underground again soon…very soon….
In this silent sharing, the vampire leaned closer, smelling of something Dawn could not name, like an exotic scent that led her into a sublime sleep.
“I’m the closest you’ll get to immortal. To come into me with your blood should be an honor, Dawn. I want to be the first to have you, because even though you won’t remember this moment, you’re going to eventually know the Underground. You’ll find paradise there, too, and beauty. Always beauty. You’ll never have to worry about any of your earthbound problems again.”