She rolled off the bed quickly. "No. If we get under a shower head, naked, we won't be clean, if you know what I mean."

Ahmose grinned and looked down at his c.o.c.k, once again ready for action.

"That thing is...wow."

Mal turned away and slammed the bathroom door before she took him up on his offer.

Luka had finished packing all of his and Mal's things and had her SUV ready to go. But he just stood and looked at the sea pounding the sh.o.r.e tonight. The surf was up, along with the winds. A storm might be coming in, but he didn't know. It was time to head back to L.A. As hard as he tried to get behind the wheel and get on the highway, he couldn't.

Instead, Luka hopped on his bike and headed back to the beach where he'd found the thing abandoned last night with no trace of his partner.

One last look around, one last check. Maybe someone had seen something. Maybe they'd missed something.

Maybe. It was all he had to go on, and he'd take any chance that he might find her, safe and well, if he went back.

The bike came to a smooth stop in front of the high-dollar piece of beach that, for now, had no home.

Cheeto had the weapons, including the cursed ax, ready to go again.

"No phones. No anything that makes noise or distracts you." He told his partner-in-crime. "This time, we go into the house and repeat the attack on the beach the other night. Only this time, no witnesses, and no interruptions. We take his head."

"Ooh, s.h.i.t! You take it, I already told you. That is serious s.h.i.t beyond my job description!" Moonpie's face was twisted in an expression so nasty, Cheeto nodded.

"Sure, just, don't do that with your face again. You remind me of my 98-year old grandmother when she's been drinking her homemade moonshine for three days."

Moonpie's eyes went big. "What the f.u.c.k? You have a grandma nearly a hundred years old who makes moonshine?"

"Yeah. I'm from Hazard, Kentucky. You can't kill those old broads, and you can't take their whisky away. My great grandmother lived to a hundred and five and drank a big gla.s.s each day until her final day."

"f.u.c.k, yeah."

"Well, if I want to make it anywhere near the family record, I need to kill this man. Tonight."

"We'll get him. Let's pony up."

"I want to park three houses down and walk up. We gotta surprise him and this has gotta be fast and mean."

"You're the boss."

Cheeto liked the sound of that. Yeah, Claude had hired him for several small jobs lately, and all were very well paid, and he thought maybe it might lead to something bigger. Claude was a big d.i.c.k, but that didn't matter, he'd always worked for p.r.i.c.ks. But this one had big money written all over it. Cheeto was ready to move up.

Jinx rolled his eyes. He had just been ready to s.n.a.t.c.h the cop inside of the fancy beach house, when Luka took off on the motorcycle.

"f.u.c.k me," he said softly as he maintained his distance and followed him. Only minutes later, the bike pulled off the road, and the cop left it to wander down towards the beach. A partially-full moon reflecting off puffy white clouds and the pale sand made it easy to spot the dark figure.

Grabbing his automatic rifle, Jinx slid out of his car carefully and slowly followed on foot. He couldn't mess this up. Even if he had to take the shot without questioning him, the cop couldn't get away. The orders were to kill him to send the girl a message. Why the f.u.c.k Canzone had a thing for her, he didn't know. But Canzone wasn't somebody you questioned.

Clean, back in her own clothes, Mal joined Ahmose in the living room, where he sat wearing only loose fitting gray sweatpants. He even made those look good, as they rode low on his hips and highlighted the contours of his tight belly and abs. He was polishing off the bag of barbecue potato chips.

"Those will make you fat," she said, entering the room quickly, scanning for her shoes.

He lowered his head and looked up at her to make a point. "Vampire, remember? We need to eat thousands of calories a day just to maintain our body weight."

"Oh, right. Carry on. I think there was a can of lard in the cupboard."

"Splendid." Ahmose stood and walked towards her.

"Stop that," Mal said.

Still several feet away from her, he hesitated. "What?"

"Looking so s.e.xy. I have to leave and I don't want to. You've set me up with an impossible choice."

Ahmose reached for her and pulled her against him.

"I already miss this. And your sharp tongue. I am master in my village, so no one dare speak to me as you do." Grabbing a handful of her hair, he used it to pull her head back to kiss her deeply. He sighed when he released her mouth, but he held on to her head. "I find I like it. From you, anyway."

"That's...maybe, I don't know, but maybe the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," Mal laughed. She pulled his chin down to look into his eyes.

"Come back with me. To the city. Look, I rescued you, so I'm kind of responsible for you."

Before she even knew it, he'd swept her off her feet and carried her to the door that led to the balcony off the back of the house. The sliding gla.s.s door was open to let fresh ocean air into the house.

"I wish I could. But I must go home now. Our vampire community has a great enemy and they have found me, so I must return to gather forces to stop this threat." He paused. "And there are other responsibilities I must attend. I won't forget you."

Lifting a hand, he closed his eyes and chanted something brief that she could not understand. "The house is unspelled. You may go now, little detective. Do me a favor and have a glorious life."

An unexpected and overwhelming sadness pervaded Mal, almost unbearable. For a stranger?

"It's been weird. And incredible. I hope the same for you. You know, that your life will be happy. I know you weren't, I could feel it when we were together."

"I was. I am. It's just that something is missing and I've been feeling sorry for myself. It is unacceptable for a man with my blessings to be ungrateful. d.a.m.n, I wish you were vampire."

"I should go." Mal felt moisture behind her eyes and had no idea why she was feeling so emotional. "If you ever need me, you know where to find me."

Luka had just left his bike up near the road when the weirdest thing that had ever happened in his life made him stagger backwards. He'd glanced towards the ocean when, with no warning, a house appeared in his line of sight. It had not been there and suddenly it was!

He closed his eyes, shook his head, and opened them again. The house was still there, even though it couldn't be. When he heard voices, he started towards the back, and when he recognized one of the voices as Mal's, he broke into a run.

Coming around the side to a wide deck on the back of the house, he almost stumbled when he saw her silhouetted in the doorway that led onto the deck built off of the house that shouldn't be there.

"Mal!" he yelled, because he could never have stopped himself. He saw her look up. She waved and called out.

"Luka! I'm here!"

He saw a big man standing beside her, one of his hands placed on her arm.

Pulling his handgun out of his holster, he advanced slowly up the stairs, the gun pointed at the a.s.sailant holding his partner.

Mal suddenly called out. "Luka, no! He's a friendly."

After hesitating just a moment, he lowered his gun, but caution made him keep it in his hand, ready in case something wasn't right here. He didn't know how it could be. He'd cleared the steps and was within a few more of reaching Mal inside the doorway when something struck him in the back, once, twice, three times. There wasn't time to think about what was happening. All Luka knew was that he couldn't draw a breath and he was falling. He wanted to put his hands out to break his fall, but he couldn't. He felt the impact of the hard wood of the deck on his cheek and his vision blurred.

Then, only sounds...a sharp cry in the distance, footsteps, yelling, and then silence. Luka had lost consciousness. His last thought before he did, was that he was shot and wouldn't be waking again.

Mal heard the reports split seconds before she saw Luka fall forward, almost in slow motion, and crash to the deck just fifteen feet from her. She screamed his name as she began to run to him, but she didn't move forward, and looked behind her to see Ahmose holding her arm.

"No, don't! Someone is still firing."

He was right. And not only that, there were shots coming from both sides of the deck.

"I don't care!" she yelled.

"Stay here," Ahmose said, and raced out of the house so quickly she barely saw him move. After he left, the gunfire stopped abruptly and she decided that her own safety was worth nothing if she let Luka lie there without help, so she ran out as quickly as she could to check on him.

"Luka, Luka," she said, as she gently rolled him over. The perfectly s.p.a.ced deck boards, stained caramel by the house's owners, were now stained red with Luka's blood.

"Oh, Luka," Mal whispered, as she held his head in her hands. She knew gunshot wounds and his were probably fatal. She could see four entry wounds, two in the chest and two in the belly.

Ahmose was back now and leaning over him. "I'm sorry, Mal. This is your partner?"

Mal looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "Luka. Yes. Will you call 911? I doubt they'll make it, but maybe..." Her voice broke. "Maybe they can help him."

"No. He's fatally wounded. I can feel his lifeforce leaving him. It's too late for human medicine. Mal, let me have him."

She shook her head. "No. You can't move him until the paramedics arrive!" Standing, Mal started towards the house and yelled back at Ahmose. "Don't touch him!"

Frantically, she looked around for her cell phone and finally found it lying near the sofa. She grabbed it and dialed the trio of emergency numbers.

"Officer down. I need an ambulance immediately. Four gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen."

Tears were interfering now with her vision, but she looked up to see Ahmose carrying Luka into the house. Throwing her cell phone down, she raced towards him.

"I told you not to move him!"

"He wouldn't make it. I think it's too late, but I'm going to try to help him."

Mal began to yell at Ahmose when she watched him use his own teeth to tear open his wrist and he placed it over Luka's mouth.

"What are you doing?" she yelled, as she dropped onto her knees beside the two men.

"I am attempting to use my blood to heal him. It can heal a human very quickly. But he's pretty damaged, Mal, so it may not work."

She looked at Luka's white face, then up at Ahmose. All this was so horrible, she didn't know what to say.

"What? Ahmose, stop. If he's dying, then there's nothing we can do. Ahmose, please, wait for the paramedics."

"I may be able to give him a chance."

"The ambulance will be here in a moment."

"No, they won't. I spelled the house again, so they won't find it."

"Why would you do that?"

Seeing Luka seemed to have cleared Mal's head of some of the lunacy that struck her while she was trapped here.

"I'm sorry. They'll find us."

Luka gagged suddenly, drawing both Ahmose and Mal's attention. His eyelids fluttered. Mal touched his forehead. "Luka, you hear me? Luka?"

Her eyes shot to Ahmose. "He's going to make it!"

Ahmose could see the desperate need to believe that her partner would survive this attack. But he was too damaged for even vampire blood to heal. By the time the life-giving fluid would have a chance to repair the injuries, he would pa.s.s. False hope was never good.

Lifting Mal from the floor by her upper arms, he made her look at him. "Mal, listen to me. He's dying. I can't repair his body quickly enough. I'm sorry."

Mal started to shake, her eyes bouncing around the room, searching for a way to fix this. Luka could not die! She refused to live in a world that didn't include this man she loved like a brother.

Her gaze shot back to Ahmose. She would clutch at anything, any possibility.

"Convert him."

That she had asked that of him when he knew she didn't really believe him surprised Ahmose.

"Mal..."

"Convert him. You said your blood can make anyone a vampire. If you did that, would it save his life?"

Slowly, Ahmose nodded. "But he would have to give up everything he knows. A human, once converted, cannot live with humans anymore. He can't be a police officer. You could never see him again."

"As long as he's alive, I can handle that. Please, Ahmose. If any part of what you've told me is true, if there's a chance of saving Luka, I beg you, you have to."

"It's not that simple. People die, Mal, and we all know we can't save everyone. Luka was shot to death, that's just his fate. Besides, we are honor bound to make certain that becoming vampire is something the person really wants. I cannot ask him to obtain his agreement."

Mal drew a deep breath. "I know this man better than anyone on earth. When I tell you that he would choose this, to be alive, regardless of the consequences, as long as no one else has to suffer, he would choose to have you make him into a vampire."

Her plea was soul-deep. Ahmose could see in her eyes the level of love she had for this man. For a fraction of a moment, he felt jealous that this man was so deeply loved by this woman. What would it be like to have her love him so much?

Was he considering it? He shouldn't. It wasn't his place to decide who lived and died. Yes, it was possible to convert this man and save him. That didn't make it the right thing to do.

Mal slipped her hand up Ahmose's arms and curled her fingers around his biceps. She had watched him struggle with her plea for several minutes.

"Ahmose, you said that people were converted to vampire for love. I promise you, this would be an act of pure love. This man is such a good man, the world would be lesser without him. You would take him to your Africa. I would miss him every second that my heart beats, but I would know that he was well. Please." Tears were flowing freely down her cheeks now. "Please."

Ahmose lifted his own hands to her face, his thumbs under her eyes, capturing her tears. "You make a case that the moon is in your pocket, and I would believe it. I cannot tell you no. I do this for you, not for him."

Shaking her head, Mal almost collapsed. Now that he had agreed, she wondered what had made her ask something so unbelievable of him. Desperation. Yes, but somehow, she found it inside of her to accept the possibility of the impossible.