Vampire - When Darkness Falls Part 30

And he gave her the momentum to run. Through the cold. For it was cold. Icy, icy, cold. She ran past the newcomer. Saw his eyes again. Saw the amus.e.m.e.nt in them.

If he wanted to, he could stop her. He could just will it, and he would stop her!

Yet something in his expression changed slightly as he watched her.

The amus.e.m.e.nt was still there, but there was something like a shrug as well.

He was letting her go.

Yes, he had chosen to let her go!

Her lips were bone dry; her lungs were heaving. She ran in pure, blind panic. She saw an emergency exit ahead. She plowed toward it.

She heard Tony scream.

And she burst into the night, screaming hysterically herself.

Chapter Ten.

Jade rose late on Sat.u.r.day, waking with a start. He had been there; she had found him. He had been with her, in flesh and blood.

But when she turned to him, he was gone.

"Why was I expecting that?" she muttered aloud to herself.

She rose and showered and debated the possibility that she had imagined it all again. That she was losing her mind.

Whether she had imagined her erotic evening again, or whether it had been real, she was crazy either way. If it was real, she had spent the night with a virtual stranger, betraying one of the really fine and decent men in the world.

After she had showered, she dressed, made coffee, and looked at her answering machine. No messages. Lucian hadn't called.

Neither had Rick.

When Rick called, what was she going to say? She bit into her lower lip, drummed the table with her fingernails, and then sipped her coffee.

She had to tell him. He was too fine a person for her not to be totally honest. She was going to sound like the worst human being in the world, but that didn't matter. Hurting him as little as possible did.

But what if Lucian DeVeau really had no interest in her?

He did. Somehow she knew it.

As the clock crept past one in the afternoon, she picked up the phone and dialed Rick's house. His machine picked up. She left him a message, saying that she hoped he was feeling better.

She had barely hung up when the phone rang. When she picked it up, she heard a woman's voice. She tensed, thinking that it might be the same woman who phoned and then hung up on her yesterday.

But the accent was different.

And this woman didn't hang up.

She asked for Lucian DeVeau.

Jade wound the phone wire around her fingers. "I'm sorry, he's not here."

"He's left?"

She stared at the phone, wondering how on earth anyone could have known that he'd been there, and then wondering why the woman sounded so distraught.

"He's not here," she repeated carefully.

"Look, I'm sorry to disturb you, but it's important that I reach him.

Please, if you see him, have him get hold of Maggie. As soon as possible."

"If I should see him, I'll certainly give him your message."

She set the receiver down, perplexed. The phone call meant at least one thing, she told herself: Lucian was real.

She tried Rick's number again. Once more she got his answering machine. When the beep sounded, she left her message.

"Rick, it's Jade again. I won't call anymore, but if you're still sick, you need to get to a doctor. Call me when you can; let me know you're okay."

She tried the station, asked for Rick, and wound up patched through to Gavin. "He didn't come in, Jade. Apparently he's really sick. He's at home."

"I just called his house and got the machine."

"I think he's sleeping. He told me he just can't shake this bug he's got, and he's going to try to sleep it off today. He threw up all over the morgue last night." "He needs to see a doctor."

"Yeah, we told him so."

"Well, thanks."

Gavin didn't seem ready to hang up. "Jade," he murmured hesitantly, "have you seen any news today?"

Someone was pounding on her door. "Can you wait a minute, Gavin? Just a second."

She set the receiver on the table before he could answer. It was Shanna at her door, a newspaper folded beneath her arm.

"Did you see?"

"See what? I haven't even looked at the paper yet. Give me a moment-I've got Gavin on the phone."

She picked up the receiver. "Gavin?"

"Yeah, I'm here. Jade-"

"Shanna just came in with the newspaper."

"Read it."

"What's up?"

"The cult members have struck again. There were more murders last night."

"Last night?" Her heart quickened. "Where?"

"Don't worry-not here. Still far, far away. Farther than New York."

"But where?"

"In Ma.s.sachusetts."

"In a cemetery?"

"No. In a theme park. A haunted house kind of a place. It's front- page news all over the country. Take a look. Give me a call back."

He hung up. Jade looked up. Shanna was pouring herself coffee. The newspaper was on the counter. Jade seized it quickly, and began reading the article.

"Oh, G.o.d," she said softly.

"What?" Shanna demanded.

"Tony!" she whispered. "Tony Alexander was on the tour in Scotland."

"Whoa!" Shanna took her coffee and slipped into a chair at the dining room table, not even pretending that the news wasn't disturbing. Jade started reading the article again.

"Why in the h.e.l.l would he work in such a place-after what happened?" Shanna queried.

"His uncle owned it, according to this article," Jade murmured, scanning the words over and over again.

'Jade, maybe you do need a pit bull."

Distracted, Jade shook her head.

"Shanna, they were found ... all over the place. Some of the people who had gone through thought that the body pieces were special effects!"

The phone rang again. The shrill sound made Jade jump.

"I'll get it," Shanna told her.

"h.e.l.lo?" she queried. Jade saw her sister frown. "Lucian? Lucian DeVeau? I don't know any Lucian DeVeau- "

Jade grabbed the phone from her hands. "Who is this, and what do you want?"

"I'm sorry to bother you again," the voice on the phone said. "But it's really incredibly important that I reach Lucian. I thought he might have come back."

"No, he's not here. I'm sorry. And I have no idea when he'll be back."

"Please, if you see him, tell him he must get hold of Maggie right away. It's urgent."

"If I see him," she murmured.

"Thank you."

"Wait!" she said, aware the woman was hanging up. "Wait, you didn't give me a number."

"He knows where to find me."

The line went dead.

Shanna was staring at her. "Who is Lucian DeVeau? If you're so familiar with him, why don't I even know the name?"

Jade sat down. She took a deep breath. "Shanna, remember me telling you about the man in Edinburgh? The one on the trip? The one- ".

"The one who rescued you from the tomb? And then disappeared?"

"Yes. Well, he's here and his name is Lucian DeVeau." Shanna leaned forward. "He's here . . . where, here?" she asked suspiciously.

"In New Orleans, not right here, not this minute."

"So why is this woman calling here looking for him?"

"I don't know."

"Was he here?"

Jade hesitated. "Yes."

Shanna was silent a long moment. "Just how 'here' was he?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"You know what I mean by that."

Shanna was too close to her, too ready to read between the lines of what she was willing to say and what she wasn't.

"I ran into him and we had a drink at Drake's. Derrick was bartending. And Danny came along, drunk as a skunk. We got him home together. I couldn't have managed it without Lucian's help."

"And then he came here." Jade hesitated again. "Yes."

Shanna shook her head in disgust. "And you had Rick, one of the greatest guys in the whole world."