"Surely, I can." He laughed at her again. "But when it is so easily accessible.

"You're insane. How many others have there been?"

"You mean before I came here? No, Jill Anderson was my first."

Deep in thought, he looked away, into the rat-infested warehouse he called home. He lived no better than a homeless man did. Laurie wondered what thou ghts ran through his mind then his gaze returned to hers. Even in the darkn ess, she caught a glimpse of the anger within their depths. His grip tighte ned on her shoulders. "But you...you shall be my last," his tone calm but l echerous. "And we shall meet Satan together."

Fear unfurled within her, tinting the black room with a haze of red. "What d id you do before them?" she tried desperately to keep him talking. "Surely y ou didn't just become affected by this...this craving."

"Always. Birds, dogs, cats-they fed me for awhile. Stopped the cravings. Th en I realized, my dear angel, that death comes to all. And I met Jill, who sold her body for money...the blood of the s.l.u.t tasted sweet, more satisfying than anything I'd ever put into my mouth."

His hand left her shoulder and brushed across the hard bulge in his black je ans as though he wished to relive each fantasy at this very moment. His brea thing became shallow, his eyes rolled into his head.

Laurie knew her only chance to escape rested on his continued distraction. Sh e swallowed the bile rising in her throat; now was not the time to wretch. Wi thout another thought, for fear of losing her will, she rolled from beneath h im, shot to her feet, and headed for the elevator.

She had her hand on the gate before Sandy had time to catch her. An inhuman- like growl escaped his throat as he grasped her hair tightly within his fist and yanked. Her head jerked from the force as her scalp singed with pain. L aurie screamed, her hands going to the back of her head. Red flashes of hot, searing agony played before her like the fourth of July. She had been right ; she was in h.e.l.l.

He turned her around as if she were a rag doll and pinned her to the elevator gate. He pressed his arousal against her, causing her to whimper as she real ized his exact intention.

With her, he would not simply kill her.

Tears flowed freely down her cheeks as his hand twisted in the silk of her b louse, then ripped the fabric away from her.

A sob escaped her throat.

She was going to die.

The radioblared senseless noise. He turned the k.n.o.b until it clicked off. N ow, the only sound in the cab, besides the endless disquiet of the engine, was the police radio as it squawked every now and then, grating on his nerv es. Cole would have turned that off too, but feared missing news about Sand y Brown's whereabouts.

Cole's thoughts drifted back to the night he had gotten the call from a fell ow police officer that something had happened to Jeanne. His hands swollen f rom an asinine bar fight, one eye blackened, he raced his truck through the streets of Cleveland to reach his wife. He had been too late, though. Jeanne had pa.s.sed away before he had gotten home. For the first time in his life, Cole had been taken by tears. In the end, the police officer at the scene ha d to drag him away from his dead wife before Cole destroyed any more evidenc e the killer might have left.

After the press had had their day with Cole, Robert Freeman had been easy t o catch, bragging to one too many how he had beat to death Cole's wife with his bare fists. Comparing the DNA of the blood from bleeding knuckles left at the scene, to that of Robert Freeman, had come back a perfect match, th us sealing the case and putting Freeman back behind bars for life. Little comfort that it gave Cole.

Much like the night of his wife's death, Cole now felt helpless. The clock w as ticking. If he arrived a minute too late, it could mean the end of Laurie 's life. Cole could not hold himself responsible for yet another senseless d eath and not meet the same end as Cindy VanWarren.

It would certainly not be the first time he had entertained thoughts of suici de-he had just been too much of a coward to carry it through.

His cellular phone rang, breaking into his musings, causing him to jump. Co le pulled the slim phone from his coat pocket, flipped back the cover, punc hed the red SEND, and spoke into the receiver.

"What do you have?" Cole asked hastily. His palms were damp with sweat.

Jack Douglas said, "We just finished speaking with another member of Dra gonslayer . Seems the drummer had been with Sandy one time at his wareho use."

Cole's heart thudded; his adrenaline flowed. "Where?"

"He says he didn't go in with Sandy, just sat in his black sedan outside. Bui ck he thinks, maybe an eighty."

Cole reached for his flashing light beneath his seat and placed it on the da sh of his Ranger. "Where?" he barked again into the phone.

"West Sixth Street."

"I'm on my way." Cole pushed the accelerator all the way to the floor.

"Wait for backup, Cole." He heard the concern in Jack's voice and knew he a cted out of concern as well as duty, but there was no way in h.e.l.l Cole woul d wait for backup from one of Cleveland's precincts. "I've already radioed them for help."

"I'm ten minutes away," Cole said as he slapped the flap shut on his cellular . "But I'll be d.a.m.ned if I'll wait a moment longer if backup is not already t here," he grumbled as he shut off the police radio.

His pulse pounded in his ears. If there were ever a G.o.d, Cole thought, the n He would surely allow him to arrive before Sandy could hurt the woman Co le loved.

Chapter 31.

The tires of Cole's Ranger screeched to a halt on the dry pavement of Wes t Sixth Street. Backup was nowhere to be seen, but he wasn't going to wai t. He had no idea where to begin looking when he noticed an opened door large enough to drive a car through. The windows were broken and by the ap pearance of the hinges, Cole doubted the door would have closed anyway.

He peered into the darkened warehouse where he spotted a black sedan, a Bui ck that looked to be in need of a good paint job. And Cole would bet this c ar was an '80 or '81 model.

His heart skipped a beat; adrenaline rushed through his body. There certainl y must be a G.o.d, Cole thought, to have him find the right warehouse on his f irst try.

Standing stationary, Cole cursed the pulse pounding in his ears. He needed hi s hearing to be keen, though at the moment, he heard nothing but the soft scu rrying of a critter scampering across the dirty floor.

He stepped into the warehouse, over broken gla.s.s and debris on the floor. H e tread carefully knowing that even the meager sound of crunching gla.s.s ben eath his soles would echo loudly throughout the building. If Sandy Brown wa s in residence, the slightest noise could prove fatal for Laurie if her lif e had not already been taken. The thought of Laurie's possible death sent b ile churning in his stomach. Cole prayed to the heavens that he would find her in time.

An empty elevator shaft sat near the back corner in the shadows, the car to i t obviously on the second story. Cole needed to find another route to the ups tairs. Using the elevator was out of the question. Going back outside, he hur ried around the building to an alley situated beside the warehouse. A fire es cape, to his luck, had been stuck in the down position.

Thankful for the soft soles of his boots, he started his ascent. The black ened, cracked windows and the dark of the night would help shadow him from discovery. He couldn't lose Laurie, not when she had managed to thaw his heart, something he thought to be permanently frozen.

A scream broke the quiet dawn. Laurie . Thank G.o.d, she was still alive. Wit h renewed hope, Cole took the stairs two at a time as the approaching sound s of sirens echoed in the distance.

Reaching the landing near a broken pane of gla.s.s, Cole kept his momentum, even when he thrust his whole body through the window, sending shards skit tering across the cold floor, then tucked and rolled on the cement. He jum ped to his feet, gun drawn as Sandy turned from the elevator shaft where h e had Laurie pinned.

Her blouse lay in tatters as her fingers clumsily held the shreds together. S he slid down the grate and crouched at the opening by Sandy's feet, her eyes wide in the dimly lit room, tears glistening in them.

Cole's ire overflowed as his gaze narrowed and his jaw clenched in near rage .

Sandy advanced on Cole; Laurie forgotten. His eyes brimmed with hatred. H e chuckled menacingly. "What? The good detective can't take me on without the benefit of a gun?" He paused, his smile turning to more of a sneer.

Cole stared into the eyes of Satan himself. Sirens continued to wail in the background as several cop cars raced closer. Only a few brief minutes befo re backup arrived. He could easily put a bullet through Sandy's black heart well before then and no one would question his judgment.

"Don't you know that mere bullets cannot stop a vampire, Detective?"

Laurie whimpered in the background, drawing his gaze for the briefest of se conds, but it was all Sandy needed for him to let out an animal-like growl and leap at Cole, sending him to the hard cement. His nine-millimeter skidd ed across the pavement, stopping some twenty feet away.

Cole wrestled beneath the strong man; Sandy possessing more power than his thin, wiry body seemed to be capable of. Cole snapped his leg upward, con necting with Sandy's groin and sent the man rolling.

Just as quickly, Cole jumped on top of Sandy, his fingers deftly wrapping the slender cords of his throat. Sandy grasped his wrists; his feet flailed as h e tried to loosen the lieutenant's grip. Nothing would stop Cole from killing this man.

Flashes of Robert Freeman washed through Cole's mind as his wife's battere d face came back to him. Never again would he allow someone to take anythi ng so precious from him. He tightened his grip. Sandy let out a strangled gasp.

The engine to the elevator car cracked and sputtered to life as three arm ed cops stepped through the broken window. Laurie screamed from somewhere behind and the next thing Cole knew several police officers surrounded h im with their weapons drawn and pointed at him.

Laurie, having left her spot by the elevator, pulled and clawed at his arms, trying to save Sandy Brown's life. The son of a b.i.t.c.h deserved death and no thing more.

"Lieutenant Kincaid?" The nearest cop to him asked, obviously unsure at th is point which man to apprehend.

Cole growled in response as Laurie pleaded for him to loosen his grip. A re d haze distorted his vision as everyone's words seemed m.u.f.fled in his brain . The roaring of his blood drowned out their pleas and shouts. He wanted no thing more than to take this man's life. His grip tightened.

"Lieutenant, let go of this man's neck. If you don't, I'm going to have to sho ot you."

Laurie yelled again then leapt on his back as though to protect his body wit h her own from a bullet piercing him.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," he muttered, loosing his grip. But nothing could have stopped him from throwing the punch that splattered Sandy Brown's nos e. The sickening sound of shattering bones echoed about the building. He le apt to his feet and he grasped Laurie by the shoulders, pushing her against the wall.

"What in G.o.d's name do you think you were doing? You could have been shot ," Cole's tone rose to near hysterics.

Behind them, Sandy still gasped for air as the officers from the other precin ct rolled him to his stomach and slapped on the cuffs with a clack.

Laurie's body shook with tears and delirium as all fight left her body and sh e sagged against the wall, Cole's hands the only thing supporting her.

"An ambulance is on its way, sir...uh, for the lady, that is," an approachi ng officer from behind told him. "We'll see Brown downtown and put him in l ock-up until you're ready for him."

Cole gave the shorter man his attention for the briefest of seconds. "You can accidentally shoot him for all I care."

Then ignoring the chaos behind him, Cole returned to Laurie. Tears marred he r lovely face; her eyes filled with the horrors she had seen. In the end, Co le had not protected her from the poison of the world. Her innocence was for ever lost.

He smoothed her bangs from her forehead, searching her face for marks left behind of her ordeal. "Did he hurt you, sweetheart? I'll kill him if he eve n so much as touched you."

Her lower lip puckered and trembled as she shook her head, then collapsed in to his arms and sobbed. Time, after all, had not run out.

Red lights flashed in the waning darkness as the sun bathed the horizon in orange. The sound of the siren sent cars to the side of the road as the amb ulance sped through downtown Cleveland. It had taken every word of compa.s.si on he had left in him to coax Laurie inside the EMS when it had arrived sho rtly after the capture of Sandy Brown. The city of Fairview Park would once again be a safe place for its citizens.

Cole left the crime scene clean up to the officers left at the scene and Jim Mathers, who had promptly arrived after hearing about the capture. Though t he case belonged to Cole, he was more than willing to relinquish his control to the FBI agent.

At this moment, he would not have traded places with anyone as he sat besid e Laurie, who lay on a white sheet-covered stretcher, holding her hand.

He ran a palm across the top of her head, smoothing her hair. "You're going to be all right, you know."

Her smile was small, but there nonetheless. "I know," she said, giving his hand a rea.s.suring squeeze. "With you at my side, how could I not be?"

Cole leaned down and gave her forehead a tender kiss. "I'll never leave you if that's what you want."

Laurie's smile widened in a dream-filled state, the medicine the EMTs gave her taking effect. "You told me that once before. When you crawled into bed with me the night you told me Cindy took her life."

"So I did."

"Just so you know, Lieutenant, I take your vow very seriously, because I do n't ever want you to leave me again."

She yawned into the back of her free hand, her hold slackening on the other, then promptly fell asleep.

"Just so you know, lady, I take my vows seriously, too. And when you wake up ...the first thing I want is for you-"

"To be your wife," she mumbled, speaking his exact thoughts. She peeked at him through her lowered lashes. "And if that's a proposal, Lieutenant, the answer is yes."

Then Cole smiled for the first time since Laurie's disappearance. Maybe, just maybe, life at the top of the hill wouldn't be so bad.

Epilogue.

Cole walked up the brick steps leading to the front of the house, inserted h is key, then held open the door. Today his life had changed forever. One yea r ago to the day, he had carried Laurie Kincaid over these same steps and ha d made her his wife for eternity.

Today, Laurie carried his daughter, Gabrielle Elizabeth Kincaid.

At first when Laurie had announced her pregnancy at the office, Cole had hy perventilated, sat in a chair with his head between his knees, feeling his world careen around him. At any moment, he thought for sure he would embarr a.s.s himself by pa.s.sing out in front of his fellow officers. Strong Lieutena nt Cole Kincaid brought to his knees by a fetus no bigger than his thumbnai l. How in the world would he ever make a good father? He had lain awake man y a night there after in fear of what his life might become.

Today, he knew it to be a beginning.

Gabrielle was an extension of the love Laurie and he shared and as he look ed down on her when Laurie pa.s.sed through the doorway to their home, his h eart swelled. There had been, after all, room for one more.

Laurie sat the car carrier in the crook of the sectional sofa where she pulle d back the baby's blanket to reveal Gabrielle's small round sleeping face. Sh e ran her finger down the soft cheek.

"She's perfect." Laurie smiled, then glanced up at Cole who peered at the t iny baby from over her shoulder. "But then I knew she would be." Zeke jumped and yipped at the small carrier,trying to get a peek at the new a ddition to their family. Cole laughed, patting the dog's tiny head and scratc hing his ears.

"I don't think so, Zeke," Cole said. "You'll get enough of Gabrielle when sh e can chase you and pull your stubby tail."

Laurie and Cole's wounds had long since healed and they rarely talked abo ut the past. Time had soothed them both and with little Gabrielle, Sandy Brown would be no more than a fleeting memory.

Over the past year, Fairview Park's worst crime had been a bank robbery and the culprit had been easily caught, his image being captured on film. Cole could not have been more pleased to settle back into an uneventful life.

Laurie had gone to work for the Plain Dealer shortly after her exclusive on the "Vampire of Fairview" hit the newsstands, from which she had taken a l eave of maternity.