"But he got you with child and didn't marry you." Anger, hot and harsh, resonated in Jonathon's question.

The power she held shocked her. At a word from her, would both men hunt down and punish William? But it wasn't what she wanted-she wanted to erase the past. She wanted to make all that had happened vanish, she wanted to make it not so, and that she could not do.

She wanted an ordinary life. And that she could not have either.

She glanced from Jonathon to Drake. Jonathon had been forced to stake his own fiancee. Drake had been born to the terrifying world of the stews. They shared pain between them.

"No. He was...happy when I lost the baby. It was a great relief. I was supposed to be relieved too, but I was heartbroken. I realized then I didn't want to marry William-that I had made a terrible mistake."

"You risked your heart for a man who was not worthy of you." Jonathon bent and kissed her cheek. "You did nothing wrong. The mistake was that blackguard's."

"Indeed."

"But neither of you are to hurt him. Or call him out. Or kill him."

"Oh, but think of how terrified the coward would be when confronted by a big, bad vampire."

Despite the pain she felt at her memories, she had to giggle. "You mustn't."

"If that is your command, I will obey." Drake gave her a rea.s.suring squeeze. "I feel sated and exhausted after our delicious lovemaking, but not more powerful. What about you, my love?"

Trust Drake to move to the topic of s.e.x, to steer away from a painful discussion. Serena shook her head. "But Althea insisted it will give us the power to defeat Lukos."

Would you wish me to help you bathe? Drake asked. Sommersby will prepare for Lukos.

Serena cast a guilty glance toward Jonathon. What exactly was the etiquette of sharing two men? How did they both feel about this? If she made love to one man alone, was it like an infidelity?

"No. I can bathe alone." Suddenly embarra.s.sed, Serena slipped out from under the sheet. She darted into the connected bathing room.

Soothed by the warm water, Serena finished drying herself with the last of the heated, soft towels. A light knock sounded on the door, and it opened.

Drake walked in, fully dressed. He laid her shift and gown over a straight-backed chair. Do you want Jonathon to keep you from becoming vampire?

"I don't know." She spoke aloud as she picked up her shift. When young, all she'd ever wanted to be was a proper, nice young lady and please Mrs. Bridgewater, who had raised her.

She turned her back to Drake, not knowing why she needed to, and slipped her shift over her head. She would never be ordinary. But what did she want to be? Mortal or vampire? The only mortal she could trust, the only mortal she cared about, was Jonathon.

I will help you dress, Drake offered.

A forbidden intimacy or not? Blast, blast, would she hurt Jonathon by accepting? But she couldn't dress herself-bother-so she nodded. She felt strangely relieved to keep her back to Drake as he fastened the gown.

Serena sat down on a velvet-covered chair and pulled on her slippers. "Jonathon won't be able to stop it happening. I know that."

And then you will be vampire, as I am.

He sounded delighted, and she understood. "You and Jonathon are battling over me. You cannot. We are supposed to share a love between three!"

Drake slipped his arms around her waist as she straightened her skirts. He brushed a kiss to the top of her head. "The shared lovemaking was delicious, and I will indulge your desire for it anytime, but I won't share your heart."

"It's our destiny, Drake," she whispered. But how could she convince them- Bang!

Something big and hard had hit the window. Lukos!

Drake grabbed her hand and drew her back into the other room. Jonathon, fully dressed, had laid an a.r.s.enal on their rumpled bed. Stakes. Holy water. Three crossbows- "They've just started to attack," Jonathon shouted as he grabbed up a crossbow. He tossed one to Drake.

The curtains were wide open. It was pitch black, the moonlight gone. A huge black shadow flew at the window-the gla.s.s bowed in the frame. It exploded inward. Instinct sent Serena's hands to her face as fragments of gla.s.s and painted wood rained inside.

Drake grabbed her and pulled her back. She stumbled, but Drake held her as he retreated. Shadows poured inside and instantly transformed.

Jonathon fired, and a bolt streaked toward the seething ma.s.s of blackness coming inside. The bolt shot through them all, slicing through air, and flew out the window. The black shapes began to take form. They were like gargoyles, horribly shaped with hideous faces and long fangs that curved to below their jowls.

Drake moved from her. She saw him raise his palms-a stream of light shot from his hands and burst into the writhing black ma.s.s of demons.

She had no idea he had such power-he was not an ordinary vampire. It was because Lukos had made him-he had taken some of Lukos's power. This must be what Althea had meant.

Unearthly shrieks echoed through her head, and the demons exploded into such foul-smelling dust she almost choked on it. But more oozed in through the window.

Every arrow Jonathon fired pa.s.sed through their black bodies. Drake threw another bolt of white light at them, and once again they vanished into stench and choking soot. But Drake dropped to his knees on the floor. I don't have the strength! he cried in Serena's thoughts.

They hadn't created enough magic!

"Where the h.e.l.l are the hunters from the Society?" Jonathon shouted. He thrust a crossbow at her, and she grabbed it and took immediate aim.

She fired at the head of the nearest demon, and her heart sank as the bolt harmlessly pa.s.sed through once more. Beside her, Jonathon flung the holy water at the beast, the droplets spraying the entire line of horrific demons. They evaporated, but more inky-black shadows ama.s.sed at the window.

"They're endless," Serena breathed. She grabbed the vial that Jonathon handed her and threw the water in an arc, hitting as many as she could.

"We have to run." Jonathon gripped her hand and thrust a crossbow at her. "They'll trap us in here. Swift is too inexperienced-doesn't have the power."

Drake shot a look of raw fury at Jonathon. "True, milord, but you'd be dead now if it weren't for me."

"Blister it, Swift. Get moving."

Lukos wants us to run-he wants to force us out.

Jonathon stopped so suddenly, Serena crashed into him. Turning, Jonathon pointed his weapon at Drake. "How do you know what Lukos wants? He was your maker-are you his servant?"

"h.e.l.l, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d wants to take the woman I love. I want to destroy him as much as you do."

"So what do you propose-that we stay in this room and wait for him?"

Footsteps, fast and heavy, stormed along the hallway outside the locked bedroom door. Serena bit back a cry of fury. Were these vampires? Were they trapped already?

"What the b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l-?" Jonathon spun and leveled his crossbow at the door.

Serena lifted hers to shoulder height, lining the sight with her eye.

G.o.dd.a.m.n! Drake swung back around to the window and sent another bolt of astonishing magic from his hands to drive back the gargoyles. He howled in pain as he did it.

The door bent inward in an impossible arc, then the lock shattered, wood splintered, and it burst open. Serena saw crossbows, pointed at her. Her finger trembled on the trigger. Recognition clicked-the men were vampire hunters. Horror-struck, she recognized them-Mr. Smythe and Mr. Thomas.

"The arrows won't work!" Serena cried, but Smythe fired. It all moved so impossibly slow. She saw the flick of Smythe's finger, the snapping inward of the taut string, the launch of the arrow. Bewildered, she saw it fly at Jonathon. She jumped and slammed into his side. The impact was like hitting a wall, but she sent him staggering. The arrow sliced between them along his shoulder, tearing his coat. She felt the gentle rush of air as it pa.s.sed.

Jonathon yelled in fury, and in that sudden jerk his finger hit the sensitive trigger and his arrow hurtled toward Smythe. The arrowhead found its home in his forehead, dead center between his eyes.

Serena swallowed her scream as the next hunter, Thomas, took aim at Jonathon's heart. The Society wanted to kill them, not save them! Over her. Over her! They wanted her dead. They'd kill Jonathon to do it.

A stream of white light shot from beside her-Drake! The bolt hit Thomas in his chest, and the hunter sailed back at the door. His weapon released, but the arrow flew harmlessly to the ceiling, hit it, and rebounded to the floor. With a dull thud, Thomas's body hit the wall and slid down.

Serena felt Drake's hand close around hers. Jonathon grasped her other hand. She ran to keep up. Drake jumped over Thomas's body without a glance. A man he'd hunted with, but a man who'd betrayed him. She knew she had to be logical and hard-hearted, but she glanced down, needing to look one last time.

Come, Serena, we have to go, Jonathon urged.

Serena couldn't imagine where they could be safe. Where would be a haven from the Society? From vampires? Daylight would protect them from vampires, demons-but that was hours away. And Drake would have to be protected from the light- My world, Drake shouted in her head. We must go to the stews. I know my way around there as no one does. The Society can't follow us there and the vampires will be stopped by the dawn.

The stews. Drake thought of them as his world?

We need your carriage, Sommersby.

Jonathon nodded. "You know the hidden pa.s.sages in this house, don't you? The Society won't know-unless you've told them."

Drake grinned, showing fangs. "h.e.l.l, no."

"Use the tunnel to get out of the house. Get to the stables. I am not leaving my innocent servants here to be slaughtered. But take Serena and get her away from here. I'll follow if I can."

She couldn't leave him alone. "Jonathon-"

Meet us in Covent Garden, Sommersby. I will guide you. Drake grabbed her hand and forced her to run down the hallway.

Chapter Twenty-Two.

Craving Drake hated to bring Serena here-to the filthy, stinking flashhouse that had been the only thing he'd ever called a home. When Jonathon's father had taken him in to apprentice, he'd had a fine bed, but he knew that it wasn't home. He hadn't belonged.

Serena tried to hide the horror in her eyes as she saw the sort of room he'd lived in-tiny and dirty. Brown and yellow stains marked the walls and the corners smelled of p.i.s.s. He'd slept on the floor, with a tattered blanket when he could fight for one.

And some nights, he'd shared the blanket with Mary while his babe grew inside her.

Drake crossed his arms over his bare chest, to hide his shaking. d.a.m.ned solange. He still craved it, but he had none to take. A vial would slake the thirst he had for the stuff, but he didn't have even one d.a.m.ned drop.

"But what are you going to do?" The flicker of one penny-candle reflected off Serena's worried eyes. "Can you find somewhere to sleep in the daylight?"

He gave a rueful grin. There's a cemetery near. I'm sure the occupants of one of the crypts won't object to a visitor.

She shuddered for one instant before she stiffened her spine and gave him her impa.s.sive and prim governess face. h.e.l.l, even as a vampire, he had nothing to offer Serena. Many vampires were centuries old and had used their powers to ama.s.s great wealth. He had nothing to give. Not even a home.

Moans came through the flimsy walls-the moans of girls serving men. The men who'd paid them, those who owned them, or the boys who shared their beds. With a spike of regret, Drake remembered back to a scene from his youth-to lying on the blankets laid on the floor, his arms pillowed behind his head as he grinned in triumph and watched two girls pull off their dirty dresses for him. He'd felt like a king-a knife in the ribs had saved them from their "protector" and he'd claimed them as his.

What had happened to them? Were they still alive or dead?

He had power now, but was it enough power to right those wrongs? To help the d.a.m.ned?

A low rap sounded on the door. Drake moved to it with a vampire's speed and opened it a crack. He knew it was Sommersby-he'd guided his partner here through his thoughts only because he feared putting Serena at risk if he did not.

Drake knew his partner hated him. And he hated sharing Serena.

With a brief nod to him, Sommersby barged in and strode right to Serena. Possessively, Sommersby slipped his arm around her waist, kissed the arch of her neck. "You need to sleep, Serena. We need to find a way to stop Lukos-"

"We know the way," she insisted, stepping out of the earl's embrace. "Shared magic. But it will not work until you gentlemen accept it."

Sommersby shot a disgusted glance at the rough pallet and the two tattered blankets-a luxury in a place like this. In return, Drake snarled as the earl swung off his coat and dropped it on top of the blankets, the way he had done at Mrs. Bellamy's brothel. Did Serena appear any more impressed by Sommersby's chivalry than she had by his own? He couldn't tell.

"But not tonight, my love," Sommersby said. "Not here. You need to sleep."

Endearingly, Serena put her hand to her pretty mouth to stifle a yawn. Drake felt his muscles growing heavy and weak as the need for daysleep stole over him.

d.a.m.nation. Dawn was close-so close. And he had no choice but to leave Serena alone with Sommersby.

"Are you certain you can share?" Serena asked.

Tucking his coat over her, Jonathon paused. His mouth dried at the sight of her lying on the pallet. Her hair fanned out behind her, a shimmering raven-black halo about her breathtaking face. Lithe and sensual, her body relaxed on the meager bed as though she slept on the softest down. Even here, amidst squalor, she was lovely, tempting, irresistible.

"It is not in my nature to share, sweeting." He lay down alongside her and wrapped his arm around her waist. Swift had left to seek refuge from the dawn, and he had her alone.

"I know. You are an earl."

He nodded. "The head of my household. I was raised to lead, to shoulder responsibility, to have my wishes met. I never expected to have to share the woman I adore."

"But Althea says-"

"Lady Brookshire fell in love with two vampires. How can it be the same for us? I am mortal, and so are you."

Frank honesty shone in her eyes. "I'm not mortal. I've realized I have to accept that."

Jonathon couldn't resist brushing a kiss to her temple, and he stroked her hair. "Did you like being shared?"

"Heavens, yes."

Definitely honest. He adored that about her. He understood in that instant how hard it must be for her to keep her secret. To believe her entire life was a lie because she had thought she was a normal girl, when all along she was someone quite different. Someone special. Powerful.

"Did you?" she asked. "You climaxed."

"I've never done anything like that in bed," he admitted. Even after all its exertion, his c.o.c.k was rising again. His heart pounded like a thousand bat wings, and he wanted nothing more than to tumble back onto that rickety cot and have Serena ride him. He wanted to hold her hands, caress her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and watch her lovely silvery eyes as he thrust up into her and she drove down hard on him. But she must be exhausted, and the gentlemanly thing was to let her sleep.