He should have waited. Waiting, after all, was something he'd been doing for centuries. He ought to be good at it by now.
But he wasn't. And so he found himself at the small motel, moving slowly through the darkness, from one door to the next. At each one, he laid his palm flat against the door, closed his eyes, opened his mind and searched for her-the one he'd been feeling ever since she had arrived here. The one whose photograph had so startled him. Who was she? Why did her presence distract him to the point of madness?
"Excuse me-is there something I can do for you?"
He went stiff at the sound of the voice behind him, wondering how he could be so focused on the woman that he had allowed a mortal to walk up on him so easily. He quickly scanned the man who stood behind him. Young, gullible... Gary, the motel's manager. One of his own, a mindless drone, compelled to do his bidding, to protect his secrets, even while remaining blissfully unaware he was doing so. Gary was so loyal he had knocked one of these women unconscious when he caught her snooping. When he had come at the boy's summons, he had thought it was the blond one lying there on the ground. He'd been determined to take her back with him to his island, furious at the whelp for his overreaction. If he had harmed her...
But the blow had been minor, and the victim had been the wrong woman.
Slowly he turned and met Gary's eyes. "You're dreaming, Gary . That's all this is, just a dream. Go back to your bed now, and forget you ever saw me. Forget."
Garydidn't blink. His eyes were fixed and wide. "A dream, " he muttered.
"That's it. Just a dream. Forget, Gary . Go to your bed and forget." He moved his hand in front of the young man's eyes.
Garyturned and shuffled his feet as he moved slowly back toward the motel office, where he entered through a back door, going directly to his rooms. To his bed.
Nodding his satisfaction, the vampire returned his attention to the door, resting his hand against it, feeling for her presence.
There. She was there, on the other side. Asleep, sound asleep in her bed. No sound no dreams wove their spells through her mind.
He moved his hand over the doorknob, felt the locks give way. Then he opened it and stepped slowly inside. It wasn't the first time he'd seen the strange woman they called Storm. Her hair was soft and pale, cut short, all the better to complement her exquisite face. Her eyes were wide-set and almond-shaped, and her cheekbones sculpted as if by the hand of a loving creator. The name suited her, he thought. He sensed the storm raging inside her, even now. And she had created a maelstrom in him, as well. Closing his eyes, he moved to the bed, stood beside it, willed her to continue to sleep, while he probed and explored the deepest recesses of her mind.
But what he found there startled him so much that he withdrew with a soft gasp. The woman was not one-she was two. Another lived within her even now. Lurking in the hidden depths of her psyche, sleeping, as she was. But strong, and growing stronger.
She stirred. In the room beside this one, someone was awake and moving about. But he could not resist touching her. Just once. He lowered his hand to her hair, closed his eyes as its softness brushed his palm. And then he ran his fingers over her cheek, willing her not to wake.
Her lips parted, and she whispered in her sleep. Words, in his own native tongue, that startled him to his core. "Lubirea ca moartea e de tare."
"Love is stronger than death, " he whispered. His eyes on her face, he muttered, "Who are you?"
All he saw in her mind, as he probed it ever more deeply, was her intent to come to his island in the morning-bringing her friends along with her.
He couldn't have that. Not by day, and not with Malone. The man was too worthy an adversary to have snooping around his abode.
Fortunately, he had ways of preventing them from visiting in daylight. He would see to it.
He needed to know more about this woman, this Storm. But to do so, he needed to take her away from the others, her protectors. He needed her alone, far from anyone else.
The movements in the next room grew more lively, and he knew he would be discovered soon if he did not leave. He was not ready for that. Not yet. He hadn't accumulated nearly enough information about these women-about what it was they did. He'd learned only enough to know they were dangerous to him. That all of this-right down to Storm's appearance-could be part of some plot to destroy him. They knew far more about the undead than any mortal should ever know. He had to learn more about them before he made any move.
Beyond that, he didn't want to have to take her by force, harming her friends in the process. To do so would be to incur her hatred, something he wished to avoid. So he must go. But he would solve the mystery of this woman-of her pull on him, and of the sense he couldn't ignore that her soul was being torn slowly apart.
When Max woke in the morning, it was to the sight and sound of a raging storm. High winds, flashes of lightning, cracks of thunder so loud she barely heard the pounding on her door.
She flew out of bed and opened it. Lou, Stormy and Jason surged inside, all of them wet and dripping.
"God, when did this blow up?" Max asked, closing the door against the storm.
" Sunrise, " Lou said. He took off his coat and shook it. "It's going to be hell getting out to that island in this."
"Much less finding a boat to get there, " Stormy said.
Max hurried into her bathroom, grabbed an armful of towels and brought them back out. She handed one to each of them.
Jason shook his head as he rubbed the rainwater from his face and hair. "We can't. We can't even try it in this storm"
"But, Jay, we have to, " Max said. "The girls have been at this maniac's mercy too long already."
He lifted his gaze to hers. "We could end up drowning in the effort, Max. Who's going to get them out of there then?"
Lou lowered his head. "Maybe it'll pass. Maybe if we wait till this afternoon-"
"I don't want to wait on this, Lou."
He met her eyes, and she knew just by looking into his that he didn't want to wait, either. "It's not safe, Max."
"Not safe for who?" He looked away. "That's what I thought. If it were just you, or you and Jay going out there, you'd do it despite the storm. You know you would." She sighed and put a hand on his arm. "It's sweet that you want to protect us, Lou, but Storm and I are not fragile females in need of a strong man to look out for us. We can do this."
"We don't even have a boat."
"Then we'll go back to that rental place, and this time we won't take no for an answer."
"No" It was Jason who spoke. He faced Max squarely. "Look, Max, I hired you, right? That means you're working for me. It's my sister who's missing, my money paying for all this. It's my call, Max."
She stared at him, blinking. "I can't believe this. You should be pushing harder than any of us to get out there as soon as possible."
He lowered his eyes. "I want the girls back more than you know, Max. But we can't go out there this morning. Not in this. Let's wait it out, see if the storm passes. You've got those visits to make. Call the women, see if you can bump your appointments up a little earlier. Lou and I will split up and go with the two of you, since there's nothing for us to do here. Maybe by the time we get back this will have cleared up."
Max closed her eyes and bit her lip to keep from swearing. Why the hell was Jason so determined? God, could Lou be right about him? Was he keeping something from her?
"He's a vampire, Max, " Lou said. "He can't hurt the girls during the day. They'll be safe until we can get out there."
God, it killed Max to have to put off exploring the island until later-to leave those poor girls out there one minute longer than necessary. And her gut instinct told her to find a way to get out there, despite the storm.
Still, she supposed Jason and Lou were right. Waiting for the storm to pass was better than drowning in the effort. And the vampire could do the girls no harm by day. It was a small reassurance but the best she could come up with.
They ate takeout for breakfast, while she phoned the women to change their meeting times. She also phoned Lydia, who told her she'd ordered a replacement pane for the mansion's front door, and that it would likely be installed before Max returned.
The storm kept raging, never relaxing its intensity, right up until she and Lou were in the car, on the road and headed out of town for the first of their scheduled meetings with the survivors of the vampire. The wipers heat frantically against the deluge.
And then they left Endover, and the dark clouds seemed to thin, then vanished entirely. The roads beyond the strange, haunted town were dry, the skies clear and bright.
"Jesus, " Lou muttered.
Max just shook her head and tried her damnedest to put a positive spin on the enforced delay. "It'll do Stormy a world of good to get out of that town for the day, " she said as she drove her Bug along Route 101 toward Manchester .
"It won't do us any harm, either. Though I'm still not sure I like that she's got only Jason for backup."
Max shrugged. "I didn't like it much, either, but she insisted. I think she would have preferred to go alone. But she figured that would make Jason feel excluded and a little crazy, waiting at the motel alone, doing nothing." She swallowed. "Now I'm wondering if she would have been safer on her own. Jason's...I'm beginning to think you might be right. He's got more going on than he's saying."
Lou reached across the space between them to pat her hand where it rested on the seat. "That might be so, but he adores Storm. If she were alone and had one of those episodes, passed out the way she has before-then what? It's better Jay's with her. He knows what's been going on and can get help if he has to. Besides, we all have our phones with us"
"Yeah. And they all miraculously work as soon as we get away from Endover. That storm was centered over the town, too. How freaking powerful must this guy be to be able to control the weather?"
"You don't know that was him, Max"
"Maybe you don't. I think he's done something to that town. I think that's why the phones don't work there"
`Bad airwaves as well as bad air, you think?"
She made a face. "Bad jokes must be one of the side effects."
Lou rolled down his window. "I feel better already. I'll bet Stormy does, too, don't you?"
"I hope so. I'm so afraid for her, Lou."
"Me too, hon." He closed his hand around hers, and she was glad he was at her side. "Did you hear from the linguist?"
She nodded. "I e-mailed him again last night, told him it was urgent. His reply came through within the hour, but I didn't get it until this morning. I sneaked in after breakfast, checked the mail while Storm was in the shower."
"And?"
"He said he couldn't be sure, given that what I sent him was spelled phonetically, but he thought it was likely Slavic, possibly Romanian."
"You're shitting me."
She lifted her brows. "You look surprised."
"I honestly expected it to turn out to be gibberish. I don't suppose this guy offered any sort of translation?"
"If it was Romanian, he said it was something like, "`Who lives by the sword, by the sword shall he perish.'
"That's what she said-when I was getting ready to shoot the wolf?"
"Mmm-hmm."
"And the other? The stuff she whispered when she stroked the critter's neck?"
"`He is not so black as he is painted ' Max couldn't suppress a shiver as she repeated the translation. "What the hell could this mean, Lou?"
"I don't know. I do not for the life of me know." He sent her a sideways look. "Did you tell Storm about this?"
"Not yet. I'm afraid it's just going to upset her more. But I have to tell her, I guess."
"Yeah, " Lou agreed. "You really do."
He kept holding her hand. She let his strength comfort her and wished, as she always did, for more.
Mary Ann Prusinski was a tall woman of perhaps thirty. She arrived at the prearranged meeting spot, a cafe in Boston , twenty minutes late, and by the time she got there, Stormy was ready to give up and move on. But then she came in, her black hair caught up in a bun behind her head. She wore a suit of muted gray that was so nondescript that Storm guessed she wanted to blend into the woodwork. Nothing about her was noticeable. She could have been a beauty with her huge dark eyes and aristocratic nose. But she wasn't-she was exceedingly, deliberately plain.
"Mary Ann?" Stormy asked, rising as the woman came toward the table where she and Jason sat. "Yes. You're Ms. Jones?"
"Call me Stormy, everyone does."
The woman didn't acknowledge the invitation but instead glanced nervously at Jason. "Who are you?"
"This is my friend Jason Beck, " Stormy said quickly. "His sister is one of the girls who's missing."
"I see."
Jason got to his feet and extended a hand. The woman just shook her head, pulled out the empty chair and sat down. "I'm sorry about your sister, " she said. "But I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help. As I told you on the phone, I don't remember anything that happened during the time I was...missing."
"I know, " Stormy said. "No one else does, either."
That got the woman's attention. She looked at Stormy sharply. "No one else...there are others?"
"Almost a dozen."
"Not counting my sister and her friend, " Jason added.
A waitress came, placing glasses of ice water in front of each of them and handing out menus. She began reciting specials, and Stormy held up a hand. "Give us a minute?"
The waitress nodded and hurried away.
Mary Ann blinked as if in shock. "I... don't understand."
"Neither do we, " Stormy said. "All we know is that a lot of women vanished from the face of the earth when they were passing through or near Endover. And all of them showed up again, a few days to a week later, with no memory of where they had been or what had happened to them."
"My God."
"I was hoping you might be able to tell me something that will help us understand what's been going on."
Mary Ann shook her head slowly. "But I don't remember-"
"I know. I know you don't. But there are other things, besides memory, that might give us some clue." "What kinds of things?"
"Well, I don't know. Was there any physical harm done to you while you were...missing?"
"No. I was in perfect health."
"And what about mentally?"
The woman shot her a look. "I'm not insane, Ms. Jones."
"I know that. I just meant-was there anything different about you, emotionally, mentally? Any habits you developed that you hadn't had before? Fears, phobias, depression?"
The woman blinked...and lowered her head, telling Stormy more surely than words could that she'd hit on something.
"What, Mary Ann? Whatever it is, please...?"
She held up a hand, nodded. "I'm afraid of the dark now. I never was before." She lifted her head. "And there are...dreams."
"Nightmares?" Stormy asked, sliding to the edge of her chair, leaning forward. Around them waitresses carried trays, people sipped coffee and chatted, ice clinked against glassware. Everything was so perfectly normal.
"Not...exactly." The woman shot a look at Jason.
Jason took the hint. "I'm gonna go find the men's room. I'll be back, " he said, and he got up from the table and left them alone.
When he was gone, Mary Ann leaned closer. "In the dreams I'm paralyzed. I can't move. And there's a man. And he...does something to me"
Stormy frowned. "Were you sexually assaulted, Mary Ann?"
"No. The doctors found no sign of it, at least. And he doesn't touch me...that way...in the dreams. Not... with his hands, anyway. It's like...he does it with his mind. And he...he bites me."
Stormy had been leaning forward. But the words made her sit up straight. "He drinks from you, " she whispered.
Mary Ann nodded hard. "My therapist says that my mind has filled in the missing time with fantasies, stuff I picked up from horror novels or films or pop culture."
"But what do you think?"
"I don't know what to think."
Stormy covered the other woman's hand with one of her own. "I'm so sorry, Mary Ann. It must be terrifying for you."
Mary Ann shook her head slowly, lifting her eyes to Stormy's. "No. It's almost...erotic" Her eyes slammed closed quickly, and she jerked her hand away. "God, I'm ashamed to admit that."
"Don't be. It's not your fault."
Mary Ann kept her eyes shut for a moment, and Stormy thought she was battling tears. "Do you think you could draw him? A likeness of him, I mean? Have you ever tried?"
The woman's eyes opened quickly. "How could you know that?"
"You have drawn him, then?"
The woman bent to the large handbag that rested on the floor beside her chair. She drew a folder from it and passed it to Stormy with hands that shook almost uncontrollably.
Stormy took the folder and opened it.
The man himself stared at her from the page inside. The pencil drawing seemed to stare at her with an intensity that tied her stomach in knots. Longish, narrow face, full lips, a cleft in his chin, long dark hair. And those deep-set, piercing eyes.
"You don't think he's real?" Mary Ann whispered.
"I don't know." But she did know. He was real. She'd seen him before-in her mind. Her head began to swim. She was dizzy and flooded in white noise.
"Ms. Jones?"
Stormy pinched the bridge of her nose, fought the incoming tide. "Can I keep these?" she managed to ask.
"Yes. Yes of course." The woman looked around the cafe. "God, I feel as if he's here somewhere. Watching."
"It's daylight, Mary Ann. You're safe. But...you should go."
"I should-"
"Go. Now." Stormy leaned back in her chair, pressed both her palms to the sides of her head and closed her eyes tight. Moments later, Jason was there, his hands on her shoulders, tight and hard.
"Hold on, Stormy. Hold on, don't let go" He was pulling her to her feet.
"Is she gone? Mary Ann? Where is...?" Stormy asked.
"She's gone. It's fine"
"Get the drawings, " she whispered.
He snatched up the folder, her purse. She thought he threw some bills from his pocket onto the table-a tip for the waitress, since they had never gotten around to ordering anything-and then he was leading her from the cafe, putting her into his Jeep, buckling her seat belt around her.
"Here, " he said as he climbed into the driver's side and reached toward her, holding a cloth-wrapped bundle.
A napkin, she realized, one of the white cloth ones from the cafe. "Lean forward, bend your head down."
She did. He pressed the bundle to the back of her neck. Cold. It was full of ice. He must have scooped it out of her water glass. She sighed, the breath rushing out of her as the cold hit her nerve endings.
"Any better?"
"I'll let you know."
"Do you want to go back to the motel?"
She reached behind her to hold the bundle, so he could use his hands again. "No, " she said. "Let's head to the other meeting."
"But-"
She drew a deep breath. "It's passing. It's passing, it's okay" She met his eyes. "Look. My eyes are still the right color, aren't they?"
"They're the perfect color."
She forced a smile. "And I'm still speaking English. I think the ice worked."
"More likely you're stronger the farther we get away from that place."
"Maybe." She nodded at the keys he held in his hand. "Let's get going. Time's burning, and we need to stop in Salem on the way back."
" Salem? Why?"
"I did some research on the Net yesterday and found a few books that might help me figure out what's going on with me. There's a rare bookstore in Salem , and according to their Web site, they have a couple of them in stock."
He nodded. "All right. But if it happens again..." "If it happens again, Jay, restrain me if you have to. But don't let me hurt you. Promise me that?"
He nodded, though she wasn't sure he meant it. Then he put the keys into the ignition and started the engine.
They were driving back toward Endover late in the afternoon. Max was already thinking about dinner, her stomach growling, and not for pizza or burgers. "I wonder if it's still storming there, " she muttered, voicing her thoughts aloud. "Probably not. It's nearly dark. This trip took a lot longer than I expected. And he doesn't need to keep us off the island after dark."
"Even a natural storm wouldn't be likely to last all day, " Lou said.
"Ever the skeptic, " she said. "What do you say we eat in a real restaurant tonight?"
"Fine by me. Stormy and Jason will be expecting us back at the motel, though."
"Slow down, I'll call them before we enter the dead zone."
He gave a shiver and told her with his eyes that her new pet name for the town wasn't even a little bit funny to him, but she only shrugged and took out her phone.
Stormy picked up. Her voice was tired, worn.
"Hey, Storm, it's me. You find out anything?"
"Nothing good. What about you?"
"Freakin' creepy stuff. I'll tell you when I see you. Where are you?"
"We'll be back in Endover in another twenty minutes. Why?"
"Why don't we meet at that restaurant on the shore? We passed a billboard for it on the way to the boat rental place the other day, remember? I'm hungry for some real food and in the mood to be waited on. It'll be dark by the time we get there, and we need, to decide what to do next."
"Okay. Sure, what the hell. I remember that billboard. The restaurant's outside the Endover town limits, so how bad can it be?"
"You sure you're up for it? You sound a little tired."
"I'm fine. See you in a half hour or less."
Stormy hung up. Max put her phone down and frowned. "She sounds off."
"You think she's losing it again?"
"I don't know. Hell, maybe the restaurant is a bad idea."
"It's a good idea. You need a break, and so does she. Jason and I can handle it if anything happens."
Max told herself it was unreasonable to believe everything would be fine, as long as Lou was with her. Unreasonable and unrealistic. But she felt it anyway, and mostly believed it was true. Even if it was illogical.
She and Lou were closer, so they arrived at the restaurant first. There was no sign of the storm, no rain, no clouds, not even in the distance toward Endover. Then again, it was already dusk.
The restaurant was a large white building, its entire hack side mostly made up of glass panes, so that nearly every table in the place looked out over the ocean. There were spotlights set up along the shore that came on once darkness fell, to keep the view alive. It was beautiful.
Lou asked for a table for four, and a hostess in black pants and a crisp white blouse with a black ribbon around its collar led them to a gorgeous table right up against the windows. It relieved Max to no end when she looked the woman in the eyes and saw a real person looking back at her, rather than a tranced-out zombie. She ordered wine, deciding to relax a little. Lou settled for coffee and a large glass of ice water, probably because he wanted to stay sharp. Especially now.
The waitress brought their drinks, left their menus and hurried away.
"This is nice, " Max said. "Someday we ought to come back here, just the two of us."
"I don't know if I'm gonna make Endover a regular place on my list of favorite vacation spots, Max."
She shrugged. "No matter. There are lots of nice places overlooking the ocean back in Easton ." He nodded.
"Have you thought any more about that, Lou?" "About what?"
He looked across the table at her. She sighed. "About coming to work with Stormy and me in Easton . Moving up there for good."
He drew a deep breath. "I can't lie to you, kid. The thought has crossed my mind. I'm just not sure it's the best idea, is all."
"Why not?"
"Honey, we've been over all this."
"No we haven't. You've given me countless reasons-none of them worth a damn, by the way-why we can't be together as a couple. But you've never given me any reasons why we can't work together."
"That's because they're the same reasons."
"Oh" She took a sip of her wine as she thought about it. "So you don't think we could be together that way without...taking our relationship further."
"I didn't say that"
She frowned at him.
He reached for her wineglass and took a big drink. W hen he set it down again, he nodded. "Okay, I give. You're right, I think if we were together all the time, yeah-something would be bound to happen."
She smiled. "I'm irresistible to you."
"Damn near." He looked away as soon as he said it, and she knew he was wishing he could pull the words back.
"It wouldn't ruin things, Lou. It would only make things better."
"It would ruin you, kid. And I'm not gonna do that."
"Lou, sweetie, don't you get it yet? You can't turn off your heart. You think you have, but you haven't. Denying it doesn't make it go away. And pretending you don't care doesn't make it true."
He looked past her, toward the entrance, but she knew he heard her, saw it in his eyes. Could he actually be listening for a change? Was she finally getting through to him? God, she was almost afraid to think it was even possible.
"There are Stormy and Jason, " he said, and standing up, he waved a hand at them.
Max sighed in disappointment. She would have liked more time to pursue the discussion. For the first time, she felt as if she was making progress.
The place had been steadily filling up, but there were still plenty of empty tables around. Stormy spotted them and waved back, but Max thought her smile was forced and her gait heavy. Not her usual bouncing, vibrant steps.
"She's had a hard day, " Max muttered, but she got up, anyway, and gave Stormy a welcoming hug. "Hey, honey. You look wiped out."
"It was a long and interesting day, " she said.
Jason pulled out a chair for her, overdoing the chivalrous bit, Max thought, and she sat down. Max returned to her own seat, and Lou waved at the waitress as Jason took his own chair.
The waitress hurried to take Stormy and Jay's drink orders, then went off to fill them.
"So?" Lou asked. "What did you guys find out?"
Stormy drew a deep breath. "The two women had pretty similar things to say. Both have developed a fear of the dark. Both have...disturbing dreams"
"About a man who... drinks from them?" Max asked, lowering her voice to a whisper on the last three words. Stormy met her eyes, nodded. "Yours, too?"
"Mmm-hmm. One had painted him."
"One of mine sketched him in pencil, " Stormy said.
They both reached for their bags at the same time. Max produced a tiny, oval-framed miniature-a portrait of a man with powerful black eyes and long dark hair. She slid it across the table to Stormy, and took the folder in return. Then she opened it and caught her breath.
"Identical, " she said.
Stormy nodded, showing the oval miniature to Jason without more than glancing at it herself. Max wondered why. Jay thinned his lips and nodded. Max flipped through the drawings, and Lou leaned over the table to look at them as she did.
"It's uncanny, " Stormy said.
"Not so uncanny if he's real, " Lou said. "And I think we're well beyond doubting that he is, especially after I got to see him face-to-face." He thumped his forefinger on one of the drawings. "This is the same guy who tried to grab you the other night, Max. This is our vamp."
Max closed her eyes. "Jesus, here we go again."
"Max, maybe it's time we called in some reinforcements, " Lou said. "Your sister, Dante, some of their friends..."
She shook her head firmly. "Not until I know for sure what we're dealing with here. Hell, Lou, he came after me. There's every chance he wants to draw them into this-maybe it's some kind of trap for them. Maybe he has some sort of vendetta or something."
"But how the hell would he know you were connected to others of his kind?" Lou asked. Then he lowered his head and answered his own question. "The break-in. Hell, it happened the first night you were out of the house."
"And the computer was the only thing taken, " Max said, nodding. "That seals it. We're not dragging any other vamps into this. He might be a rogue. A killer of his own kind. It wouldn't be the first time a vampire turned on his own."
Jason was sitting there looking from one of them to the other, his eyes grim.
Stormy put a hand on his arm. "That doesn't mean he's done anything to harm Delia. Hell, he let the other women go. He didn't hurt them. There's no reason to believe he would change tactics now."
Max closed the folder and returned it to Stormy, who slid it into the bag at her side. Then Max looked at the bag itself, black with twine handles and a logo on the front. "What's that?" she asked. "You found time to go shopping during all this?"
Stormy nodded. "Just some research materials."
Max reached for the bag, pulled it into her lap and looked inside. Two fat books, hardcover, musty-smelling, with yellowed, rough-edged pages, sat inside. She glanced at the titles. Case Histories of Demonic Possession and Rites of Exorcism: A Guide for the Clergy. A business card fell out of one, and Max picked it up and read it. It was for a hypnotist in Salem .
Licking her lips, she tucked the card back into the book, looked up from the bag and saw Stormy's troubled eyes. "Good choices, " she said. "We'll read them together."
"Okay."
"But first, let's eat, huh? I'm starved."
Stormy brightened slightly. "Me too." She opened her menu, but Max got the feeling she wasn't really reading it.
