"By the time I got there, things had started to wind down and the interlopers were gone. From what I could gather, there are vampires who are challenging Devereux's rule of the coven. Bryce, the one we talked about before, is deter-mined to take Devereux down. It seems very personal to him. The two of them definitely have unfinished business. He and his followers threatened the club manager, knowing it would piss Devereux off, and the fun began. The room was one unholy mess after the combat ended."

I grimaced."Yeah. I saw some of the body fluids oozing out from the doorway."

He nodded. "Vampire bodies heal very quickly, so even the worst injuries repaired themselves within minutes. If it hadn't been for the blood everywhere, you wouldn't have known a vampire war was being waged."

"What did you do? Just run in and start swinging? Do you have a death wish?"

He laughed. "No. I'm adventurous. I'm courageous. I'm relentless. But I'm not stupid. Plus, I'd found out from my vampire source Ian-Deep Fang-you know, like the Water-gate informer, that when a vamp loses blood, the first thing he does is seek a donor. I didn't want to be anyone's dinner, so I kept my distance until Devereux was alone in the room."

A little energy rush charged through my body. "You talked to Devereux?"

As Alan started to answer, the doorbell rang. I went over and peered through the peephole to make sure the visitor was welcome company. It was more than welcome. It was food.Police-escorted food. I cracked the door, handed out enough money to cover the bill plus a generous tip, reached out to grab the bag, offered my thanks, and closed and relocked the door. I carried the large sack of Chinese food to the kitchen table."Do you want to wait on the rest of the story until you've eaten, or can you continue?" Alan asked.

The smell of the food was driving me mad, and I moved around the kitchen in a blur, gathering plates, cups, and utensils. "I can eat and talk at the same time. Wow. You ordered lots."

"Oh, did you want something, too?" He laughed.

"Very funny."

I opened a new bottle of wine and poured some into each of our glasses.

We sat at the table and dived into the feast. Neither of us gained any points for table manners during the meal. The food was glorious and we ate with silent enthusiasm for a few minutes. There's nothing like stress and hunger to bring us back to our primitive roots.

For some reason I suddenly thought about the fact that vampires don't eat food. I wouldn't ever be sitting at the table sharing a meal with Devereux. At least not any meal I could force myself to contemplate. Unless, of course, we've all gone mad or there are hallucinogens in the water supply, and none of this really happened.

I paused in the food shovelling process and drank several sips of wine. "You spoke to Devereux? What did you talk about?"

Alan had already cleaned up his first helping and reached for reinforcements.

"It was strange, actually. He was in the middle of tell-ing me about his long-standing rivalry with Bryce and all of a sudden he stopped talking and closed his eyes. Then he said, 'She is gone; he has taken her.'

I started to ask who was gone, and who is 'he,' but before I could get the words out, Devereux vanished."I claimed seconds on the egg rolls. "You mean he left the room: "No. He literally vanished. Vampires don't acknowledge the same limitations about time and space that we humans do. They can move through both with just a thought."

"I don't understand what you mean. Physical matter does have certain limitations. Flesh and blood bodies can't just disappear from one place and rearrange their molecules in another. We haven't caught up with Star Trek yet."

Alan polished off his second helping and went for the champi-onship round, adding an impressive third layer to the sustenance already on its way down to his deceptively flat stomach.

"Devereux would say there are limitations if you believe there are. But, I've seen him vanish and reappear many times so I don't have any problem accepting that vampires can travel by thought, not only in this dimension but in all the others."

I pushed my plate away, finally satiated.

"Other dimensions?You know, every time we talk,yourstories get weirder and weirder. Are you going to tell me next that the vampires are really aliens, preparing to take over the earth? Or maybe they're controlling us with their minds, and we'll be herded into holding pens-walking blood recep-tacles-waiting for an impendingundead feeding frenzy?'"

He chuckled. "No. I'm not going to tell you any of that, but you have to admit they'd be interesting hypotheses to pursue. I'll make a note of them. Shall I continue telling you about Devereux, or would you rather make fun of my proclivities?"

"Oh, by all means, please continue."

"Anyway, after he vanished I went back upstairs, and then outside, looking for you. Of course, you weren't there, but I found Devereux leaning against the building about a half block down from theentrance to the club. He was just stand-ing there, with his eyes closed, and when I approached he said, 'The one who has her is not only evil, but he is also insane. His mind is splintered and he is more animal than vampire'."

Alan had altered his voice, imitating Devereux's accent and unique speech patterns.

"At that point I still didn't even know who he was talking about. He said, 'I am linked with her mind so I should be able to sense her, but he has done something to mask her en-ergy signature. He has overwhelmed her mind with his and is keeping us from communicating with each other. I have met few others who were powerful enough to do that. She is in great danger. She must be found'."

I smiled at his clever Devereux impersonation and shook my head. "You actually remember what he said, word for word?That's quite the memory you have there, Special Agent Stevens."

"Yes, it does come in handy. I have the auditory equiva-lent of a photographic memory. Remember that in case you tell me something and then say you didn't."

I reached out and patted his arm. "Okay, I'll remember that. Then what happened?"

We headed back into the living room and re-established ourselves on the couch.

He cleared his throat and shrugged."A whole lot of nothing. Devereux vanished again and I went back into the club to search for you. I was still thinking that you were in there somewhere. And, just so you know, I kept an eye out for Tom, too, but I never saw him. I ran into Devereux's person-al assistant, a snarly vamp named Luna, and I asked if she'd seen you. She said she couldn't believe so many people were interested in one, ordinary human and Devereux was beside himself that you had been taken. That was the first time I realized it was you."

He reached over and stroked my leg. "I didn't want to believe you were missing-I'm stubborn that way-so I kept looking in the club and giving people your description and asking if they'd seen you.

Finally, I went back to the cop shop to see if there'd been any reports. I knew they wouldn't put out a missing person report that soon, but I was rattling cages as much as I could. Turns out I didn't need to. A couple of hours later the chief showed up in person and ordered that you become top priority. All available units went out on the street, searching for you. And they alerted the media.IVenever seen anything like it before. I still don't know what happened to get the chief riled up.""I was told Devereux called the chief."

"Devereux? What would Devereux have to do with the po-licechief. . .?Of course. I should've remembered.So much for my famous tape-recorder memory, eh? During one of our discussions Devereux told me he'd used his ability to control minds to create relationships with several powerful people in town.People who could smooth away any difficulties.

"It makes perfect sense now. He simply called the chief, suggested he rally the troops, and that's all it took. No one would question it. And the Chief would always think it was his own idea.Ingenious, really."

"Do you mean Devereux used mind control on the police chief?"

Yep. The chief and a fewother highly placed cops." 'Doesn't it bother you that Devereux manipulated the police? What if he uses mind control on you?"

He grinned. "I have a healthy respect for his abilities. He's the most powerful vampire I've ever run across. It might be worth it to let him take over my mind for a littlewhile, just to see how that feels. And you have to admit, it got the job done. The cops found you."

"Actually, I found the cops. But I'll have to thank Devereux the next time I see him."

And why does thinking about seeing him feel good and bad and the same time?

"Okay, stop stalling. Tell me what happened last night."

I rearranged myself on the cushions. "I'm not stall-ing. There really isn't much to tell. I went outside to wait for Tom-or you-and I walked down the block and rested against the building. I suddenly had an overwhelming bad feeling-instant terror-and heard a grotesque voice calling me. I couldn't tell if the voice was coming from outside of me or inside my mind. It was like fingernails on the blackboard from hell times a thousand. The voice kept telling me to come to it. I remember thinking I just needed to stay where I was and everything would be fine.That I could just ignore it. That's the last thing I recall until I woke up this morning in the cemetery."

I told him everything about the mausoleum, the coffin I'd awakened in, the dead bodies and my encounter with the police. He sat silently while I spoke, shaking his head.

"I've had some horrible experiences since I joined the FBI, but none of them come close to being worse than what you just told me. Now I'm really sorry I was such an asshole when you came home."

"Apology accepted. We were all stressed out. I'm glad it's over. Well, except for the media fallout. I guess I can't avoid it any longer. Go ahead and tell me. How bad is it? What did they say about me on TV?".

"Pretty much what you'd expect.They played up all the occult aspects and continually referred to you as the Vampire Psychologist, with accompanying snickers. I think you're going to have to make a statement when you feel up to it. I don't think they're going to go away until you talk to them. I imagine this isn't the direction you envisioned your career moving?'"

Suddenly there was a popping sound, a slight breeze and Devereux materialized in the middle of my living room.

"Kismet?"What the hell? How'd he get here? And holy shit.Wouldja look at him?

Instead of his usual tight leather, Devereux was decked out in a luscious charcoal gray suit and a magnificent tur-quoise silk shirt. Thecolor of the silk made his eyes appear even more spectacularly kaleidoscopic than usual. His hair shone like liquid moonlight. He could've stepped right out of the pages of a European high fashion men's magazine.

Since I had no idea what he actually did with his time, I couldn't even imagine where he'd been, spiffed up like that. I felt a brief twinge of jealousy at the thought of him dress-ing up for a woman. Maybe his assistant, Luna, or one of the other perfect female specimens he had working for him at The Crypt.

But then, who was I to be jealous when I'd spent part of the afternoon taking a shower and playing "show me yours and I'll show you mine" with a fixated, well-endowed FBI agent?

Devereux glided over to me, swung me up off the ground with his arms around my waist, and thoroughly kissed me.And then kissed me again.

I was stunned, but apparently willing, because I'd thrown my arms around his neck at some point and kissed him back. Interesting to discover this entire new set of instinctualbe-haviors I seemed to have acquired regarding Devereux.

Pulling back slightly, he slid his lips close to my ear and whispered, "I have never feltso helpless as when I could not find you. There would have been no end to my vengeance had you been harmed."

My own, personal avenging angel He looks like a god but talks like a character from a historical romance novel I can sure pick 'em.

"Are you well? Did the dark one harm you?"

"Uh . . ."There it is again.That brain-melt thing that happens to me when-ever I'm within ten feet of Devereux.

But, talk about bad timing Alan leaped up from the couch, his face a mixture of con-fusion and outrage. "Hey! Devereux! What's going on here? What are you doing?"

Despite that fact that it was difficult to appear threat-ening while wearing short, pink sweatpants and a decidedly feminist T-shirt, Alan managed to gather up sufficient testos-terone to get his point across.

But Devereux wasn't interested in butting heads with anyone. He lifted me up into his arms, glanced over at Alan and whispered gently in that amazing voice, "You are tired, my friend. Lie down on the couch and sleep now."

Damned if Alan didn't do just that.

He arranged himself into afetal position, made a few soft, snorting sounds and drifted off, smiling.

Wow. That's impressive.And disturbing. Shouldn't I be putting up some kind of fuss? And should I worry about getting used to being carried around like this?

Devereux turned his attention back to me. "You must come with me now."

There wasa swoosh of air, a sound reminiscent of the crackle of electricity, and we were suddenly standing in the middle of Devereux's private room, underneath The Crypt.

He released me and I stood, head spinning, stomach churning, trying to make sense of something that was impos-sible to make sense of. Whatever had just happened definitely messed with my equilibrium. I wasn't sure if my legs were up to their usual task of keeping me upright.

"Please. Come and sit. You do not look well." Devereux fetched a small chair, pushed it gently against the back of my knees, and I sat. I scanned the room, recognizing all the paintings on the walls, the art supplies and the strange stash of bottles on the table.

As I perched there, trying to reclaim my balance, I got more and more annoyed. The journey through Devereux's invisibletransporter -or whatever it was he'd used to get me from where I had been to where I was-had definitely rained on the good feelings that kissing him had inspired in me, and I was royallytorqued . Not to mention extremely tired of findingmyself in locations chosen for me by some male or an-other without my consent. Something in my brain snapped.

No. That's it! No more manipulating me and jerking me around.

I vaulted up from the chair-the fury of a woman pissed-shaking with rage, and got right in Devereux's face. All the anger that had been stuffed during the previous hours burst out like a five-alarm fire as I yelled at him.

"I don't want to sit. I don't want to be here. You had no right to bring me here. I didn't tell you to bring me here. I'm tired. I want to be in my own house, in my own bed, away from all your bullshit!" I punched his stomach with my fist, and then, outrageously shocked at myself,retreated a couple of steps.Definitely a case of temporary insanity.

He gasped and bent forward slightly. I'd finally done something to surprise him. He stared at me, his mouth hang-ing open, his eyes wide, eyebrows creeping up toward his hairline. Then he barked out a laugh, and slapped his thigh.

He straightened and grinned."'Well. I wondered when you would let your feelings out. I am glad you have chosen to share them with me."

I gave him a hard frown. I didn't appreciate that he seemed to be enjoying my outburst. In fact, he was acting downright superior about my outburst. As if he'd arranged it.

With that, the last remaining fragment of the dam burst. "Share them with you?" I screamed. "I'll show you how I'll share them with you.You pompous bastard!"I had no idea how, but I managed to fling myself on him- flying through the air, as itwere- my hands out in front of me, grasping toward his neck. It didn't occur to me that if he really was a vampire, attacking him might have larger rami-fications than I'd anticipated. There was still some part of me that refused to accept Devereux could be something as horrible as a blood drinker. But I had to admit he did seem to have an extraordinary amount of physical strength. Not to mention thattraveling -through-thought thing.

In an effortless movement, he caught my wrists in one of his hands, curled his arm around my waist and wrestled me down to the floor, laughing.

Of course, listening to him laugh only made me angrier, and being restrained pretty much undid any remnants of con-trol I still pretended to have. I struggled to get away from him and screamed at his apparent amusement. He hadn't even worked up a sweat keeping me his prisoner on the floor.

"Are you laughing at me, you Fabio-wannabe?"

He laughed harder, and then stuck out his lower lip in a pout.

"Fabio?Is he still around?My dear Kismet. You know very well that the two of us do not resemble each other. My hair is much lighter, my eyes more soulful. I have been told I am much more handsome and desirable than that particular gentleman."

Okay. It was a cheap shot Devereux is more beautiful than most men, Fabio included. But what arrogance!

I vainly struggled to get loose. "Well. You're not conceited. Tell me more about how handsome and desirable you are."

He shifted so he straddled me, still holding my wrists down against the floor. The bright turquoise of his eyes was noticeably heightened by thecolor of his shirt. In fact, they radiated a surreal shine, as if his irises were gemstones come alive. Long, pale hair fell across my face and he threw it back with a toss of his head. His signature fragrance wafted through the air and into my nostrils, caressing the pleasurecenters of my brain.It appeared that no matter what else was happening,my attraction to Devereux remained parked at the curb, motor running.

He gave me serious eye contact. "Shall I tell you how beautiful and desirable you are?"

That seemed to squeeze some of the juice out of my anger and I forced in a couple of deep breaths to keep my chin from quivering.

Well I'm just pitifulOne compliment and I regress back to being a needy five-year-old. I must be exhausted.

Embarrassed by both my erraticbehavior and my sloppy wardrobe, I stared down at my crumpled sweatsuit . "Oh, yeah, tell me how beautiful I look and how arousing this out-fit is, Mr. Fashion Model."

He scrunched his eyebrows together and studied me for a moment.

"You are indeed beautiful, and if you wish to dress ac-cordingly, I can accommodate you." He chuckled.

"Is it safe to let you up now?"

I snorted and tried to shake him off of me, which made him start laughing again.

How annoying that he has such a great laugh.

"I will take that as a yes." With another burst of his un-explainable speed, he suddenly loomed over me, reaching down to take my hands to pull me up.

The temper tantrum had exhausted most of my remain-ing energy, and I frowned, giving him my hands.

"What do you mean, you can accommodate me?"After he assured himself I was up and steady on my feet, he glided over to the bed I'd seen during my first visit to this secret room. Spread out there, were several beautiful eve-ning gowns in variouscolors and fabrics.

He pointed to the dresses. "I bought you a few gifts. I hope you enjoy them. I would be pleased if you would wear one tonight."

I scraped the bottom of the energy barrel and revved my anger back up again. "Oh, I see. You have another plan for me to follow? Something else you'll manipulate me into doing, whether I want to or not?"