Dark Ones - Last Of The Red-Hot Vampires Part 4

"I forgive you!" I bellowed back at him, praying he would go away and be deranged with someone else.

He really was an incredibly handsome man...I firmly squelched that line of thought. Physical attractiveness had nothing to do with anything.

The man sighed, releasing me as he stepped back. I hadn't been aware that he had lifted me off the floor, but I slid down a few inches until my feet touched the floor, and kept on going when my legs gave out on me. I slumped against the wall, divided between the desire to cry and the urge to whack the man across the kneecaps with a blunt instrument.

"At last," he said, opening his arms. He stood that way for a moment, as if he was waiting for something, his ebony eyebrows pulling together as he looked down at himself. "It didn't work."

"What didn't work?" Sarah asked, watching him closely. I shot an unhappy glance at her as I got to my knees, hauling myself up onto the edge of the bed, where I clutched both the book and the lamp.

He looked at me, his eyes narrowing slightly. "When did you say you received the Gift?"

"What gift? No one has given me a gift."

"How long have you known her?" he asked Sarah. She plopped down onto the bed next to me. I was delighted to see that the smitten look was gone from her face, although her calm acceptance of the kidnapper was at odds with her very vocal threats to the local police about the actions her husband would take if the man was not caught promptly.

"Since seventh grade," she answered.

"Has she always been like this?"

"Obstinate, you mean?" Sarah smiled. "Stubborn? Unyielding?"

"Hey!" I objected, poking her in the hip with the book.

"Rigid and unimaginative and one-track-minded? Oh yes, she's always been that way." The kidnapper looked at me, his lips pursing slightly. "Pity."

"I object to being talked about as if I'm not sitting right here!"

Sarah patted my hand. "She's also smart, very curious, has a soft spot for underdogs, and is unswervingly loyal to anyone she calls friend."

"I may have one less before the day is out," I grumbled, mollified by her praise.

"I see," the man said, frowning down at me. My fingers tightened around the base of the lamp.

Sarah laughed and put her arm around me. "She's also my best friend, and someone I trust with my life. If you need her help with something, she'll do everything she can to make it happen."

"Will you stop putting words in my mouth! I do not countenance criminals!"

"I am not a criminal," the man said with a thoughtful look at us both. He snagged the chair from the end of the bed and set it before the door, sitting on it with a belligerent look at me.

"I could scream for help, you know," I told him.

"No one would hear you over the noise," he answered. "I'm going to get at the truth if it takes me all night. When did you last see Hope?"

"Oh! The faery?" Sarah asked, clasping her hands together. "I can't believe I forgot about her! Portia said she saw her while I had run to town to get my camera. That would be about two-"

"Sarah." I c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at her.

"I was just trying to be helpful."

I ignored that and leveled a long, hard look at the man sitting across from us. My first impressions of strength had not diminished at all by exposure to him. His face was all hard angles, high cheekbones and a blunt, square jaw doing as much as his obsidian eyes in imparting a sense of ruthless purpose. His skin was darker than that of an Anglo-Saxon, a warm, rich color that hinted at an exotic heritage. Gleaming black hair swept back from a widow's peak that no doubt had women swooning to run their fingers through the silky black curls. For a moment my fingers itched to do just that, but the thought died just as quickly as it had been born.

"If I answer your questions, will you leave?" I asked with a resigned sigh.

"Portia! You don't have to be rude!"

I gave her a look that should have made it clear what I thought of such a ridiculous statement, but years of close acquaintance have made Sarah immune to such things.

"I begin to think that there might be more here than I antic.i.p.ated," the man answered. "But I will swear to you that I mean you no harm."

I hesitated a moment, weighing my options. It was true that the noise from the busy pub below would drown out any screams for help that we might make, but we weren't completely helpless. There was the fact that we were two against his one. If push came to shove, I could fling myself at the man while Sarah made her escape to bring help...except I wasn't so sure that in her present hypnotized state of mind she would run for help.

Clearly, the solution lay in a peaceful resolution of the situation. After we got the man out of my room, I'd call the police and they could deal with him. I'd give him a few minutes of twenty questions to lull him into a sense of control, then persuade him to exit the room."All right, I'll answer your questions...er...what is your name?"

"Theo North. When did you last see Hope?" he repeated.

"What a nice name," Sarah said with perky cheerfulness. "Theo. Warm and friendly. Short. A little different. I like it."

I did too, as a matter of fact, but I wasn't going to let him know that. "I saw Hope for the first and only time about two this afternoon, for approximately five minutes. At the time, I was under the impression-yet to be disproved to my satisfaction, given that lab tests can be mixed up, altered, or deliberately changed-that Hope was part of my hallucinations."

"Hallucinations?" He subjected me to a searching look. "Are you p.r.o.ne to them?"

"She thought the magic at the faery ring was due to mushrooms," Sarah said quickly. "She is an unbeliever, you see. You believe in the power behind faery rings, don't you?"

"Of course," he answered, making me want to scream.

The look of triumph on Sarah's face was directed solely at me. "There, you see? Even Theo believes in faery ring magic! And he's a...a...er..." She looked back at him. "What exactly do you do, if you don't mind me asking?"

He cast her a quick glance, but for the most part kept his attention on me. "I'm a nephilim. What did you do at the ring to summon Hope?"

This was torture, sheer and utter torture, so I figured I'd get it over with as quickly as possible. Although Sarah had heard most of it, I described how I had sat in the faery ring and muttered aloud some of the spells on her photocopy.

"Hmm," Theo said when I was done. He stroked his chin, a perfectly normal gesture, but one which held some bizarre fascination for me. It drew my attention to the lines of his jaw, and the sweet curve of his lower lip...good gravy, what was I thinking? Just because he was a handsome devil didn't mean I had to think about his lips and his jaw and that hint of manly stubble that seemed to hold an unholy fascination for me.

I realized that both of them were looking expectantly at me.

"Sorry, I was thinking about...er...did you ask something?"

"I asked you why Hope said she responded when you summoned her."

"I didn't summon her." I frowned for a moment, remembering something the hallucination woman-not a hallucination if the man in front of me was to be believed-said when she popped through those funny lights in the air. The lights themselves gave me no trouble: they were clearly pollen in the air, which I in my half-sun-blinded state interpreted as sparkling. Hope was a bit less easily explained, but no doubt she had been hiding behind a tree, and took advantage of an inattentive moment to make her appearance.

"She said something about being glad I summoned her when I did, and that she was in danger and couldn't stay or she'd be killed."

"She is a virtue," Theo said as he rubbed his chin. The sweep of his thumb across his square chin distracted me for a moment, but I was firm with myself and looked at the grain of the wood in the door behind him, instead. "She cannot die unless she is removed from the Court. If she was in danger from someone, that would explain why I had such a difficult time tracking her down...Very well, continue. Who did she say she was in danger from?"

"From whom," Sarah corrected with a smile. Theo looked at her. "Sorry. I'm a writer. It's second nature."

"She didn't say. She just told me she was in danger, and that if she stayed, all would be destroyed. She was very drama queen about the whole thing, frankly, which is why I had no trouble believing she wasn't real. What exactly is a virtue, other than the normal definition of the word?" Theo's black-eyed gaze swept over me. I wouldn't be a woman if I didn't notice that it lingered for a shade too long on my b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"You really don't know, do you?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't ask. How can someone not be killed just because they're a member of a court?"

He got out of the chair and paced to the end of the room, turning to face us. "This complicates the situation greatly. If you unintentionally summoned Hope, and she was desperate enough to use the escape you offered...but I'm getting ahead of myself. A virtue, my dear mortal, is a member of the Court of Divine Blood."

I sighed and leaned back on the headboard, adjusting a pillow so it supported my aching shoulder. "You're going to say things I don't want to hear, aren't you? You're going to spout all sorts of make-believe stuff in such a way that Sarah will buy it hook, line, and sinker, and I'll spend the entire rest of the trip trying to explain to her why immortal people don't suddenly pop into faery rings."

"I've heard of the Court of Divine Blood," Sarah said slowly, her eyes scrunched up as she hunted through her memory. "It's another name for heaven, isn't it?"

"No," Theo said, much to my relief. Religion was a bit of a touchy subject with me, one I certainly had no intention of discussing with a strange man who quite possibly had mental issues. "The concept of heaven is loosely based on the Court, but the Court of Divine Blood is not dogma for any specific religion. It just is."

"Good gravy, you're not going to tell me that the woman who snuck up behind me and popped out when I wasn't looking is an angel!" I sent Theo a look of utter disbelief.

He looked annoyed in return. "I just told you that the Court is not heaven. There are similarities, but that is all. The members of the Court are not angels, although their jobs are cla.s.sified in a hierarchy that Christians took for their own. A virtue is a member of the second household, and controls weather."

"The cloud!" Sarah said triumphantly. "I knew it! Proof! Oh my G.o.d, that means you..." Her mouth hung open for a second as she looked at me with huge eyes. "...you spoke to an angel! She gave you her job! Good heavens!My best friend is an angel! "

I rolled my eyes. "Theo just said that there are no such things as angels. Use your common sense, Sarah. Some woman pops out of the woods at me, and you're convinced that everything Theo says is gospel...no pun intended. Who's to say the two of them aren't working together? He kidnapped us, after all. This is no doubt some elaborate scheme to get money from us." I thinned my lips at Theo. "And it's not going to work. Get out."

"Portia!"

"Pardon?" Theo asked, frowning.

I stood up slowly, holding my lamp. "I said your little scheme isn't going to work, and I want you out of here. Right now. I've listened to this c.r.a.p long enough."

"Portia!" Sarah gasped again, looking appalled at my bad manners.

I didn't care. I was sore, tired, and sick of being made a fool. I wasn't going to stand for any more bull from this man and his accomplice.

Theo straightened up and looked as intimidating as he could, but I'd had enough. I didn't care what he did, so long as he did it away from me. I stomped over to the door, and jerked it open. "Leave.Now! "

"And just how do you expect to bend me to your will? Scream? I told you, no one below would hear you over the music."

Anger, frustration, and the suspicion that I had been made to look a fool grew within me, until I thought I would explode with it. I sucked in a deep breath, prepared to rip him up one side and down the other, but before I could, a storm broke directly overhead.

Brilliant blue light exploded around the pub, followed immediately by thunder so loud it shook not only the gla.s.s in the windows, but could be felt in the walls and floor of the pub. Before the rumble of thunder disappeared, the lights went out, the music of the pub suddenly silenced. The silence was almost smothering in its thickness.

I tipped my head back and screamed for all I was worth. Sarah threw herself sideways and covered her ears as I released every bit of pent-up emotion. It was a scream the likes of which I'd never made before, and one I doubted I'd be able to duplicate.

Sudden voices from below indicated they had heard me.

Theo snarled something in the darkness. I stumbled to the bed, finding and clutching Sarah as she made odd little squeaking noises.

Lights flashed in the hallway outside my room, visible through the open door. A shadow a hair darker than the surrounding blackness paused in the doorway for a moment.

"You foolish woman," the Theo-shaped shadow said. "Do you not realize you will need a champion for the trials? To try it alone is folly. You will end up destroying yourself...and me as well."

The pub owner called up the stairs to ask if we were all right, the light from his flashlight flickering and dancing in an erratic pattern on the wall opposite us. I slumped against Sarah, relieved when Theo's shadow merged into that of the hallway, his last words echoing in my mind.

"I will not let you escape me as Hope did."

Chapter 5.

"Could you have possibly been any ruder to poor Theo?"

"Shhh. Madame What's-her-face is gesturing for you. No doubt she wants to anoint you or something."

"It's Mystic, not Madame. Mystic Bettina, as you know well. Oooh! She must have picked me to be one of her a.s.sistants!

Fabulous! I'll be in a perfect position for unbiased observation." Sarah jumped out of her seat and hurried over to where the local medium was standing with two women.

"Very unbiased," I said to myself, then smiled rea.s.suringly at the man on my left as he glanced at me.

He leaned over and whispered, "Is this your first seance?"

I nodded.

"Mine too," he said in a confiding tone, and hazarded a shy smile. "My wife-that's her there with the others-is a member of the local ghost hunter's group, so she's been wanting to come to a seance for a long time. I'm not sure I believe in all this." He chuckled a little, watching me carefully to see if I was going to mock him for his skepticism.

"I'm a scientist by trade, and a natural-born skeptic," I a.s.sured him. I dropped my voice a little so the other four people in the room couldn't overhear us. "To be honest, I'm just here to explain to my friend how all the tricks are done. She's one of those people who is ready to give anyone the benefit of the doubt, no matter how unlikely the situation."

"Ah, a true believer," my new friend said, nodding. "There are a lot of those in the ghost hunter's group. I'm Milo, by the way."

"Portia," I said, shaking his hand. "Shall we join forces to bring reason to our loved ones?"

He glanced nervously at his wife, who was approaching the table with the small woman who claimed she was a "world-renowned medium." "Indeed we could, although I hesitate to disappoint my wife. She wants so much to contact her father, you see. He pa.s.sed on when she was quite young. Still, I've told her that to have so much faith in such things is sheer folly."

"I've found that faith is vastly overrated," I said softly, then turned to Sarah as she slid into the seat next to me. "So are you to hold the ghostly tambourine, or rap on the table at the appropriate time?" She whapped me on the arm and whispered at me to behave myself.

"Considering all that we've been through today, I think I'm behaving with complete circ.u.mspection," I said just as quietly, gingerly moving my shoulder. The muscles, which had been strained but not torn, protested the movement.

Sarah noticed my grimace of pain, and leaned even closer. "Are you sure you're all right? Maybe I shouldn't have brought you tonight. What with the virtue and Theo and that horrible storm you conjured up-"

"Will you stop? I didn't conjure up anything. The pub owner himself said it was perfectly normal for storms to whip up like that."

"Yes, but he couldn't explain the way it completely disappeared a minute later. Nor why just the lights at the pub went out, and none of the other buildings nearby."

"The fuses were blown, nothing more. It's quite common in buildings close to a ground lightning strike."

"Hrmph."

Mystic Bettina (the name had me snickering softly to myself when we were introduced) returned to the round gla.s.s table with the others. Milo, Sarah, and I were already seated; Mystic Bettina took an elaborately carved chair I mentally dubbed "the throne,"