Vampire - When Darkness Falls Part 31

Jade exhaled impatiently. "Shanna, you said it yourself-it wasn't right. If it had been right. . . Rick would have stayed with me. Maybe. I think. I don't know anymore."

Shanna's sudden sound of shock alerted Jade to the fact that her sister hadn't realized just how far things had gone with Lucian. "Jade!

You didn't."

"Shanna-"

"A total stranger."

"He's not exactly a stranger. He saved my life in Scotland."

"Did he?" Shanna queried sharply, her aqua eyes sharply narrowed on Jade. "Or was he part of it? Don't you find it amazing, the way that he disappeared after it all? And now people are being horribly murdered in the States-and here he is again!"

Jade pushed the paper toward her. "He's in New Orleans. People were murdered in Ma.s.sachusetts!"

Shanna fell silent. "What's his explanation?"

"He . . ."

Shanna threw up her arms. "Great. He doesn't have an explanation. So you invited him right over and into bed."

"At least I'd met him. What about you?"

''I went to the movies. And Dave didn't show up anyway," Shanna murmured. She stared at her sister. "He's sick, too. Like Rick. Rick Beaudreaux. Remember? That really great cop you've been dating."

"I'm going to break it off, Shanna, as soon as I can."

"Great. He's at death's door, and you're going to break his heart"

"He isn't at death's door-he's just really, really sick."

Frustrated, Shanna just stared at her. "Where is this Lucian now?"

"I don't know."

"Oh, great. He just up and disappeared again."

"No, he was here a long time."

Shanna made a snorting sound. "Good to hear that he isn't just wham, bam, thank you, ma'am."

"Shanna, stop it. We had a drink, we took Danny home, he stayed."

"And then?"

"All right-and then he disappeared."

"Jade, Jade, Jade!" Shanna murmured.

They both jumped when the phone started to ring.

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

"No, I'll get it." Jade nearly had to s.n.a.t.c.h the receiver from her sister's hand. "h.e.l.lo?"

"Miss MacGregor?"

"Yes?"

"This is Sean Canady. Detective Sean Canady."

"Oh, yes. How are you?"

"Worried at the moment."

"Really?" She sank back into her chair.

"Who is it?" Shanna whispered.

Jade covered the mouthpiece. "Sean Canady."

"The cop?" Shanna demanded, frowning.

"Miss MacGregor, are you alone?"

She hesitated. "My sister is with me."

He was quiet for a minute. "Lucian is not there?"

Her heart quickened and then seemed to miss a beat. "How do you know about him?"

"Is he there?"

"Do you know a Maggie?" she cross-queried.

"Yes. My wife."

"Well, your wife is trying to find him, too."

"Yes, yes, I know that."

"What the h.e.l.l is going on?" Shanna demanded in a whisper.

Jade shook her head, shushing her sister.

"I'm here with my sister. I don't understand why you're calling.''

"I don't mean to alarm you terribly, but I thought you should know that you were acquainted with the young man from the automobile crash the other day."

"I was?"

More ice seemed to settle around her.

"You also need to be aware that it wasn't an accident. It was murder."

"I'm sorry; I'm very confused."

"You've seen today's paper?"

"Yes, just now."

"So you know that Tony Alexander was killed at his uncle's theme park last night."

"Yes... I, uh ... saw it" Her ringers curled more tightly around the phone cord. Shanna's eyes were wide and on hers.

"Detective Canady, I'm not sure what that has to do with the young man killed here."

"It was Tom Marlow. You knew him in Scotland."

Tom Marlow. Another face and name rushed back to her. She saw him at the start of the tour, teasing Sam Spinder, Marianne. ...

She moistened her lips, fighting a wave of panic.

"But I saw the newspapers here when the accident occurred. His name was down as Tad Madsen."

"Tad was a nickname. I believe he was using Madsen on purpose, as if he were afraid that someone might be looking for him. He had just transferred down here to LSU from a college in the north. Maybe he was trying to hide."

Jade slid back into a seat at the table. "Look, I'm sorry to give you this kind of news, but I want you to be careful. Most important, watch out for strangers. Be careful when you go out. In fact, you really shouldn't go out at all. And don't invite anyone in, do you understand? It's really important that you don't invite anyone in."

Shanna had edged very close to her. Now she whispered, "I heard that! I heard what he just told you. Maybe you'd better tell him that you trashed his friend to go to bed with a total stranger last night."

"Shush!" Jade told her sister, covering the mouthpiece once again.

"Look," she told Canady, "I believe I must be in serious danger, since it appears these people have come to the States and are hunting down the survivors from last October," Jade said. "I can call a locksmith right away-"

"Yes, you can. But don't."

"But-"

"I'll explain when I see you. May I come over now?"

"Yes, I guess."

"No, no-wait. Meet me downstairs, at the French restaurant next door."

"Now?"

"I'm not at the station; I'm home. It will take me a bit to drive in.

Meet me in, say, thirty minutes."

"All right."

She hung up.

"What?" Shanna shrieked.

"I'm going to meet him at the restaurant."

"The cop?" Shanna said.

"Yes, the cop, who else? Shanna, the auto accident the other day ...

It wasn't an accident. It was a murder."

"But his car went through a tree," Shanna reminded her.

"I don't know exactly what happened. I don't know how or why, but Shanna, it was another one of the kids from Scotland."

The sisters stared at one another.

"So," Shanna said after a minute. "You're going to meet with this cop next door at a restaurant-why not at the station?"

"I don't know." The phone started to ring again. This time neither one of them wanted to answer it.

The machine picked up. "Jade, it's Gavin. Please give me a call as soon as possible. I-"

She swept up the receiver quickly. "Gavin?"

"Hey, kid. I'm sorry, I've got some really bad news for you."

"About the kid in the car accident. I know who he was, Gavin. I just heard. Why didn't you tell me about him this morning, too?"

"That's not why I called, Jade. Rick has been taken to the hospital.

He's bad. Really, really bad. I thought that you'd want to know, that ...

that you might want to be with him."

She frowned. "Gavin, is it that serious?"

"Jade ... they're pumping blood into him hard and fast. They had him packed in ice... and now they've called a priest. He's Roman Catholic, you know."

"Last rites?" she said softly.

"I'm so sorry, Jade."

She dropped the phone. She even forgot her sister as she s.n.a.t.c.hed up her handbag and started out the door.