Erin leaned on the kitchen counter. "Do you think she's trying to get a story out of us?

Maybe she's a reporter in disguise."

Ronan prowled back to the other side of the room, his impatience grinding inside him.

"No."

"Have some of this." Erin took a mug of coffee to Ronan.

Ronan took a sip of the brew, then put it down on the kitchen counter. "Clarissa asked me to give you her number so you can call. But I could bring her here."

Erin smiled. "Now wait a minute. Do you think a woman who doesn't know you would go with you? Especially with everything happening lately?"

Damned if he hadn't thought of that. "Of course not."

Lachlan rubbed his chin. "Ronan, why don't you feel out this woman's intentions?"

Ronan felt a rare laugh emerge from him. "Feel her out, eh? That shouldn't be much of a hardship. Although I'll have some work to do to get her to trust me. Besides, that, I may have competition. She talked with a pansy-assed mortal from out of town while she was still at the community center," Ronan said with distaste.

"Sounds like a lick of jealousy to me," Sorley said matter-of-factly.

Ronan admitted in his heart itfelt like jealousy, but he refused to allow the sensation to build. He prowled the room like a restless animal. "I listened in on their conversation.

The man she was talking to is a paranormal investigator from a university in Denver.

Apparently the blighter was her boyfriend in high school. I get feelings about people.

He's dangerous, perhaps to Clarissa." His gut burned at the thought of her being hurt. An odd, almost forgotten ability to feel tenderness made him pause. A strange yearning entered his undead heart. "I don't want her near him."

"You want to protect her?" Erin asked, a smile teasing the corners of her mouth.

Ronan slipped into his cloak again, tossing the hood over his head so that his hair and a good portion of his face stayed covered. "I must. That is, if she doesn't try to stake me first."

Erin's eyes widened. "You think she'd do that? But-"

"No." Ronan waved a hand in dismissal. "She doesn't know about vampires. But she's stubborn and will get into serious trouble at this rate."

Erin tilted one eyebrow. "Ronan, you were nice to her, weren't you?"

Nice. Feckin' yes. And it had felt damned good."Very nice. But it frightens her. I frighten her."

Lachlan appeared grim. "Itfrightens her?"

"When I touched her I felt her emotions. She loved and hated the heat moving between us." His groin stirred at the thought of what she'd felt like in his arms. "She felt out of control."

Sorley's face screwed up. "Ewww. I don't know about the rest of you, but this is too much like listenin' to your parents havin' sex. Please don't share."

Lachlan and Erin smirked at Sorley, but Ronan ignored the pesky immortal. "Clarissa is very, very strong. Whether she understood she was doing it or not, she resisted my powers of persuasion. It takes a very strong woman to hold off a vampire in any way."

Lachlan's expression lightened. "And you didn't like that, did you?"

"Hell, no. Being with her was challenging. She's stubborn and tough."

Erin crossed her arms. "Sounds like someone I'd like to meet."

Sorley's irreverent expression said what he thought about the statement. "Pfft. You can convince any woman to spread her legs and-"

"Shut up," Lachlan said.

Not appearing the least chastised, Sorley snatched a piece of bread as it popped from the toaster.

"What time do you want me to bring her by?" Ronan asked.

"I've got to go into work today," Erin said. "What about inviting her to dinner?"

Ronan's bowed slightly at the waist. "It shall be done."

Without so much as a pause, Ronan snapped into invisibility. He heard and saw the last of the kitchen conversation.

"He's feckin' leavin' me behind again," Sorley said around a bite of toast.

Lachlan sighed. "Of course he is. You don't think he wants your hairy hide around if he's romancing a woman, do you?"

Erin threw Lachlan an appreciative grin as he slipped an arm around her waist and tugged her against his body.

"I know I wouldn't want Sorley around anywhere if you were romancing me," she said.

Ronan heard the small vampire ask, "Is that all anyone thinks about lately? Love and hearts and sticky things?"

Lachlan's mouth hovered over Erin's parted lips. "Go away, Sorley."

Still grumbling, the wiry vampire disappeared with an audible snapping noise. His disembodied voice echoed around them. "Bloody hell."

Ronan laughed and heard his mirth ringing in the air before he, too, disappeared into the ether.

Clarissa wandered down a murky tunnel, the night enshrouding her with pinpricks of fixed dread. She smelled damp earth, felt soil moving beneath her booted feet. Her breath came quickly, her heart pounding a frantic beat. She wouldn't escape now that she'd entered.

Something would come for her soon.

She couldn't breathe and her hand went to her throat.

She jolted awake with a semi-shriek. As her eyes popped open she saw sunlight streaming under the curtains. She'd fallen asleep on the bed last night fully clothed. She remembered stumbling into her room after talking with the police, then feeling so exhausted she decided to lie down one minute. Obviously she's slept more than a minute.

A knock on her hotel room door startled her. She took a deep breath to regulate her heart, then went to the door. As she ran her fingers through her tangled hair, she figured she probably looked like something the cat had dragged in for a meal. She checked the peephole and opened the door to Jim Leggett.

"This is a surprise." She smiled, trying not to feel angry with him and failing. "I thought we were meeting at the cemetery at St. Bartholomew's last night?"

Jim smiled ruefully. "I'm sorry. I got a call from Denver and by the time I got off the phone and headed toward the cemetery I realized you'd probably already left."

"How did you find me this morning?"

"I saw Chessie and she told me where you were staying." He took a big breath and let it out slowly. "I had to see if you were all right."

Frowning, she backed away from the door and gestured for him to enter. "Worried?

Why?"