she spat, her eyes glowing red from the fire and her entire body vibrating with evil. Power rolled off of her in waves, every word slapping at me like some mystical hand. "What makes you think you can possibly stand against me, little girl?"

Nothing. Dear G.o.ddess, she was right. There was no way to stop her. She was powerful and so very old. I could feel the weight of centuries pressing against me like warm bodies. I couldn't stand against her and live, no one could. She moved toward me and everything in my entire being screamed for me to run, to do anything I had to do to keep her from touching me. It was futile though.

Between her and Sebastian and the walking dead I wouldn't get ten feet. She grabbed my shoulders gently and turned me to face the open doorway.

Leaning down she whispered in my ear, "Tell me what you see out there, what you feel."

"I can't see anything but shadow and torchlight," I said, not bothering to add that I couldn't hear anything either over the pounding of my own heart.

She chuckled against the side of my neck. "I have always wondered how you humans survived as a species. Your senses are almost nonexistent."

"Dumb luck?" I said in a small, choked voice.

"Undoubtedly. Let me tell you what I feel," she said, her hand grazing over my hip, up and down, up and down. "Your friends are close. They are quiet. They think to rescue you. Isn't that just... adorable?"

I could see Sebastian from the corner of my eye. His head snapped up and his nostrils flared, one hand moving to rest on the gun tucked in his waistband. So much for us stupid humans; her vampire protege hadn't heard them either.

"Why don't we give them a little show?" she purred, her lips trailing over the spot where my blood pounded so close to the surface.

I panicked. I tore free of her and ran. She grabbed the back of my dress and I pitched forward, barely bringing my hands up in time to break my fall. Before I could even catch my breath I was on my back, Kali lying fully against me, pinning me to the ground.

With a loud ripping of cloth she tore the bodice of my gown down the middle. I beat and clawed at her but her fingers deftly grabbed my wrists, shackling them like steel manacles.

"Oh I will enjoy tasting you," she said as she ran her tongue slowly across the top of my breast, her body pressing intimately into mine. She rolled her eyes up and looked at me as her canines lengthened. Sharp teeth pierced my breast, drawing blood from the shadowy blue veins. I screamed and cried, unable to move, her hips grinding into mine as she moaned with pleasure.

A hoa.r.s.e, masculine shout of denial sounded from somewhere behind me. I craned my neck and turned my head to see that Devlin, Justine and Michael had entered the ruins. The pain on Michael's face tore through me. His sword was drawn and only Devlin's restraining hand on him kept him from rushing forward to his death.

Kali sat back on her heels. She put her hands to her head, eyes closed, and moaned softly. Her face was a mask of erotic pleasure. "Oh witch," she breathed as if the word were a lover's endearment, "the power of your blood makes everything shimmer and sparkle."

"Get off of me, b.i.t.c.h," I growled. Pulling my feet out from under her I kicked with all my might, hitting her square in the sternum.

I took her by surprise and she fell back in the gra.s.s. Scrambling to my feet, I ran for Michael but before I could reach him an icy wind blew out of nowhere, pushing me back. Michael tried to reach me but a jagged bolt of lightening hit the ground at his feet and ran across the gra.s.s, seeming to chase him backward. I turned slowly.

Kali was sitting cross-legged in the gra.s.s, her palms resting on her bare knees, a smile that could only be called sweet on her full lips.

She can call the elements, I thought.

"Yes," she said, her smile widening, "I can."

I froze. I think my heart even skipped a beat. Oh no. d.a.m.n her, no. Did taking my blood mean that she could now get inside my head, read my thoughts? Was she really that powerful?

She clapped her hands. "Very good. We usually have to go through the tiring ordeal of denial. How very considerate of you to skip that part."

Baobh, I thought in Gaelic. b.i.t.c.h.

She c.o.c.ked her head to one side. "Interesting. I don't know the language, what is it?" she asked, her tone light and interested, as if we were sitting down to tea together and discussing the latest style in bonnets.

"It's Gaelic," I replied, "the language of my mother's people."

She stood in one graceful movement as if pulled up by hidden strings.

"You will have to teach it to me later. Now, the night wanes and there is much to be done," she snapped her fingers and the dark, silent sentinels stirred to life. The ten or so dead men had been so still and unmoving I'd forgotten they were there. "Kill them all except for the red-haired witch. She is mine."

The dead moved toward Michael, Devlin and Justine. Their faces were blank; they had no thoughts, no motivation, but to fulfill their mistress's command. Still, they were nothing more than walking corpses. I wondered if Kali really thought they would succeed against The Righteous.

"It matters little to me," she said, easily reading me. "They are an expendable distraction and I have no wish to fight tonight." She looked me up and down in a way that made my skin crawl. "There are so many more pleasurable things to pursue."

Whether or not the dead men would give them a good fight was a moot point. They took my rescuers' attention from the Destroyer, the three of them standing back to back, swords drawn as the enemy moved in. I turned back to Kali, keeping all my thoughts in Gaelic.

"You don't really think I'm going to let you take me out of this place, do you?" I asked.

"You don't really think you have a choice, do you?" she mocked me.

"Lady, I've had just about all of you I can take for one night. You're not the only one who can call the elements. And you don't have your talisman." Her hand fluttered to her throat and there was a moment of uneasiness in her eyes. She pushed it down, her face becoming a mask of complete serenity. She raised her arms away from her sides, palms up.

"Do your worst," she said.

I purposely thought about lightening in English and the instant her eyes turned heavenward to face the challenge I gathered my power and forced it out into the night.

"Teine!" Fire, I called out in Gaelic. "Come to me!"

I don't know what she saw or heard in my mind but she turned her head at the last second as the blazing hearth fire exploded outward like the fiery breath of some angry dragon. It caught the hem of her skirt, sending the silk up in flames and catching her long hair on fire in the process. She shrieked and Sebastian ran to her, throwing her to the ground and trying to beat the fire out.

The minute he came in contact with her the flames leapt to him as well. They were both writhing on the ground, screaming, burning.

I darted forward, grabbed the chain around Sebastian's neck and jerked the talisman free with an audible snap. It was a stupid chance to take but somehow I felt that it was important.

I turned to run to Michael and recoiled in horror. Body parts littered the ground, body parts that were still writhing and moving. A decapitated corpse got up and started for Michael, its arms outstretched.

"These things don't die, Devlin!" Michael shouted as two of the dead men charged him at once. Devlin and Justine were overwhelmed by five others.

I pulled one of the torches up out the ground and ran forward. I touched the fire to the back of one's shirt and the thing started to burn. And it still didn't stop.

"Michael, what do I do?" I shouted.

"Run!" he said. "Get back to the house where you're safe."

"I won't leave you."

"Woman, do as you're told!" he snapped, his sword severing an arm.

I lit the rest of the body on fire.

"Don't you take that tone with me," I snapped back. "I'm trying to help."

The first body was consumed in flames. It faltered, then fell to its knees. I watched in horror and fascination as it fell forward and lay there smoldering and, most importantly, not moving. As quickly as I could I lit the others. Their orders were to kill the vampires, not one of them ever even turned to look at me. When they were all still and silent and in charred pieces on the ground the four of us stood and stared at each other, the smell of burnt flesh strong in our nostrils. Michael was the first to recover.

"We must take their heads," he said, nodding to the dark pile where Kali and Sebastian lay unmoving.

They were no longer burning. I didn't know if that was a good sign or a bad one. Michael started forward, his sword clamped tightly in his hand. I look at the bodies. One of Kali's outstretched hands twitched and a tremor ran through the earth. Michael paused and looked back at me. My eyes widened in fear.

"Run," I whispered.

He clenched his jaw, a muscle ticking in his cheek. His knuckles were white where they gripped his sword.

"You'll never get close enough," I yelled. "Run!" The wind picked up, howling through the clearing like a legion of angry demons. It chased us all the way to the tree line before it caught us, branches flying, leaves blowing up in our faces. The rain started next, pelting us like thousands of tiny razors as we raced through the forest. A branch as thick as my wrist hit Devlin in the temple. He stumbled and we ran on. It was as if the forest was throwing everything it had in our faces: acorns, dirt, leaves, bark, branches. Lightening split a tree in front of us, showering us with sparks and debris and the earth shook with thunder. I stopped and fell to my knees.

"Enough!" I yelled, my lungs burning. I was shaking with exhaustion and fear. Blood was running down my chest. Again. I'd had enough.

"Dulcie, come on!" Michael yelled and bent down as if to pick me up. I put up a hand and stopped him, shaking my head. The three of them stood staring down at me as if my mind had finally snapped and they didn't know whether to humor me or fight me.

I gathered my power around me like a shield, what little of it I could still feel as exhausted as I was, focused and yelled out into the fury, "Hearken well, ye elements, unto me! Earth and wind, fire and sea! Calm be the night, finished be the fight! By my words and by my will, go in peace, the night be still!"

Everything stopped in an instant. Branches fell from midair as if dropped by invisible hands, leaves floated back to earth, acorns. .h.i.t the ground with a scattering of soft plops. The forest was deathly, unnaturally still.

I breathed a sigh of profound relief and fell face first into the leaves.

Chapter Twenty-One

I became aware of two things at once. One, that I was laying on some soft surface, covered with a blanket and two, that someone near me was in pain. I kept my eyes closed, thinking that if we'd been captured then it might be best if they didn't know that I was awake yet. I could hear a low humming noise and intermittent masculine grunts of pain. It then occurred to me that if Kali had taken us she could hear my thoughts anyway and would know by now that I was awake. I cracked one eye open.

That was my ceiling! I turned my head to see Michael lying next to me on top of the covers, arms folded behind his head and the small white and gray kitten sitting on his chest, kneading him furiously with her big, hairy paws. I giggled and rolled onto my side, watching them. She had a very loud purr for such a little kitty.

"Your wee cat has no sense," he said. "I think G.o.d asked her if she'd like to be smart or beautiful and she chose beautiful."

I laughed. "Why do you say that? It seems to me that you're the one with no sense, allowing her to torture you like that."

He laughed. "No, I mean that animals sense vampires and they don't like to be around us. They sense that something is wrong about us. Your kitten here doesn't seem to have enough brains to know when she's facing something dangerous."

"Well, maybe so. I guess she's a housecat now. She doesn't seem to be fit for the stables and it certainly appears that she's made herself quite at home here."

"What's her name?"

"Priscilla K. p.u.s.s.ycat."

"Awfully big name for such a wee little thing."

I shrugged. "She can be Prissy for short."

"Prissy," he said softly and stroked her fur. There was a look of contentment on his face, as if this was something he enjoyed and hadn't been able to do in a very long time.

"I think that maybe she's not so dumb," I said. "Maybe she knows you for what you are and likes you anyway. I do," I added softly.

I looked up at him and there was so much sadness in his eyes, sadness and something else.

"Why do you look at me with distrust?" I asked.

He sighed. "I don't mean to, la.s.s. I promise. It's just..."

I was quiet while he gathered his thoughts.

"After Devlin turned me I stayed with him and Justine for a few months. I learned to deal with what I'd become. Then came Culloden. Bonnie Prince Charlie's army fell and the redcoats swarmed over the country, using any excuse they could find to slaughter the innocent and the not-so-innocent. I worried for my family and so I went home to protect them. Devlin told me not to, he warned me but I wouldn't listen.

"Oh they were glad to see me at first. My mum cried. My sisters had grown into bonny la.s.sies since I'd seen them last. My wee brother had just had his tenth birthday. We stayed up all night talking about what would happen now that the war was lost. There was talk of going to America but they were so poor they would have had to indenture themselves for pa.s.sage. I wouldn't allow them to sell themselves into bondage. I told them I'd find another way. Just before dawn my mum gave me her room so that I could sleep after my long journey. I pulled the curtains closed tightly and slept. She came in to wake me near sunset, clattering on about how I'd slept the day away as she pulled the curtains open."

"And she figured it out, what had happened to you, what you were?"

He took a deep breath. "Yes," he said softly. "My own mother cursed me for a devil and drove me from my home."

"Oh Michael, how could she?" I couldn't imagine my own mother ever doing that to me. Then again, I'm sure Michael hadn't imagined it either.

He shrugged. "Her son was dead. She thought I was a demon. Devlin found me and I had to listen to his I-told-you-so speech about a dozen times. I was eaten up with grief and anger. I felt betrayed by them on some level but I still wouldn't leave them there all alone, unprotected."

"What did you do?"

"Devlin wanted to leave, Justine was tired of war and Scotland in general, but I wouldn't go. It didn't matter that they'd turned their backs on me; they were my family. So Devlin marched down to the croft one night doing his best impression of a fourteenth century lord and gave my mum enough money for her and the children to go to America, buy a fancy house and live like aristocrats for the rest of their lives. My mother was a stubborn woman and she told him that it was blood money and she'd not be taking it."

"She refused?"

He nodded. "I don't know what Devlin said to her to change her mind but I'm sure it's probably something I'd have to punch him in the jaw for. Two weeks later I stood in the shadows of a dockside inn and watched them board a pa.s.senger ship out of Inverness bound for North Carolina. They looked well."

"And you went away with Devlin and Justine?"

"Yes."

We were silent for several minutes, each of us thinking our own thoughts. No wonder he didn't trust lightly if his own mother had turned her back on him. I could work with this, though, now that I knew. I just needed some time. I decided to turn the conversation elsewhere for the moment."When Devlin was human, who was he? What was his t.i.tle?" I asked. It was something I'd been wondering since I'd seen the falcon crest on his carriage.

"No one knows. I wonder sometimes if he even remembers his own name."

"His own name?"

"Devlin is the name he took when he became a vampire. It's commonly done among our kind. You'll never get back the life you once had, the person you once were, so you start over fresh with a new existence and a new name. Justine did the same. I don't know her true name either."

"And what was yours?"

"Michael," he said with a sheepish grin. "Devlin took a fancy to it, said I fought like the Archangel Michael."

"And your surname?"

"Macqueen."