Always the Vampire

I considered then rejected discussing Maybelle’s revelations with Saber. What could he say to reassure me? Nada. When the time came, I’d do my damnedest to protect everyone I loved.

Meantime, I detoured to Barnes and Noble en route home. The Kathys, Beth, and Brad were off for the night, but Jane helped me find an astrology-for-morons book, and I joked with Kristina as she checked me out.

I pulled onto the parking pad Maggie had included in the renovation plans. It wasn’t precisely a period-correct restoration touch, but Maggie’s property spanned two lots. She’d given up some side yard square footage to build a two-car garage and the additional parking space for me, melding the architecture so the small addition looked as if it had always been there.

As I trotted across the front yard toward the side gate, my vampire hearing picked up voices. Not Maggie and Neil, or even the neighbors. No, it wasn’t yet ten o’clock, but most of the neighborhood already slept in the steamy, starry night.

What I heard were the voices of Grant and Jason of Ghost Hunter fame, coming from my cottage. Saber and I loved the show, but he had the volume awfully high, vampire hearing notwithstanding.

The lights were off in the front of the house, too. Only that weird television light flickered in the window. The side window toward the back of the house was softly lit, as if by a bedside lamp. Maybe Saber had something planned for me. Like sharing my made-for-two jetted bathtub. Surrounded by candlelight. Yep, that sounded like heaven.

With anticipation singing and parts of me zinging, I hurried to the door and turned the knob.

Only to have the door jerk open under my hand.

I half stumbled, half flew across the threshold, right into a forearm that clamped around my throat.





SIX




Shock and fear paralyzed me for a split second before self-preservation surged. The defense training Saber had drilled into me kicked in, and I went for a countermove that should have thrown a normal attacker through the wall.

Instead, the thing ramped up the crushing force at my neck and wrapped an iron band around my rib cage.

The television blared on as my attacker squeezed my body like a blacksmith’s bellows. Fear bled into panic. I gripped and pulled on the arm crushing my larynx. Squirmed and kicked backward, hoping to hit a tender body part, but connected with a coquinalike wall of mass.

Had this thing killed Saber? Was it Starrack? The Void in a new form? If I were to have a prayer of saving Saber or anyone else, I had to save myself.

Then I remembered my secret weapon. Pulling auras.

Fighting to stay conscious, I narrowed my focus to sucking energy. Not taking delicate sips to sustain my life force as when I was buried in the coffin. I imaged thrusting my hand into the mass imprisoning me and pulling its life force inside out.

My attacker didn’t drop like a stone, but the pressure at my neck slackened. When it did, I shouted a raw and raspy karate kiai and sank my teeth into the meaty arm. My attacker only grunted, but the wavering image of Saber and another figure appeared, backlit in the bedroom doorway.

“Por los dioses, Tower. Stop. Let her go.”

Ray’s voice, I realized as more oxygen flowed to my brain, and he advanced close enough for me to dimly see him. Saber reached for the small of his back where he kept his .40-caliber Glock in his waistband. The safety clicked off.

“Stop, Tower,” Ray repeated. “It is the Princess. Francesca.”

Tower, the pro-basketball-tall vampire from the former Daytona Beach nest, relaxed his grip another fraction but didn’t let go.

“Princess Vampire?” Tower’s voice rumbled in my ear, and his rancid breath turned my stomach.

“It’s me,” I croaked. “Let go. Please.”

“No,” he growled. “You won’t trick me.”

“It is no trick,” Ray said, stepping closer. “The Princess and Saber will kill the thing that is making us sick, but you must release her.”

“Tower,” Saber said as he moved to the right and raised his weapon. “Let her go, or I will put a silver bullet in the center of your forehead.”

The clock in my head ticked tense seconds. Tower still held me, but I felt his indecision. It helped that I continued to siphon his energy and that his hold had relaxed a little more. I took the chance of revealing my dark vampire secret.

“Saber, don’t shoot Tower,” I rasped. “You know the smell of blood makes me sick, and I don’t want two messes to clean up.”

The shock value worked.

Tower’s arm fell away from my neck, and Ray jerked me out of reach. Saber caught me, his weapon still trained.

The huge vampire tilted his head at me. “You don’t savor the aroma of rich, fresh blood, Princess?”

I straightened, stepped from Saber’s loose embrace. “I don’t, Tower. The stench of blood makes me gag.”

“Truly?”

“Sorry to blow my image, but ’fraid so.”

Tower looked over my head toward the bedroom door, contemplating the weirdness of my weak stomach—or the weekend’s Florida Gators game, for all I knew or cared.