"Better?" he asked at length, his voice a little coa.r.s.e but in control. "I'm not feeling the pain like I was before."

"Yes. Much better." She lifted her head. "And you? Did I take too much?"

"h.e.l.l, no. Only next time, I think it might be a good idea to stop the car first."

She'd been relaxing against him, almost snuggling.

As if they were a couple in love. But she stiffened, sitting up slowly, smoothing her hair, and putting cold, empty s.p.a.ce in between them.

"There...won't be a next time."

"The h.e.l.l there won't"

She shot him a look. He averted his eyes. "Okay, look," he said, "you had a good point back there- about there being more important things to worry about right now. But when this is over-"

She pressed a finger to his lips. "Don't"

He kissed the finger, nodded. "Okay. I won't. Yet."

She closed her eyes and leaned back against her headrest. Perhaps her relief had been misplaced. Perhaps her efforts to makes him hers to command had worked after all. She hated the idea. But why else would he be acting the way he was?

20.

Angelica sat on the floor of the cell, awake, but weak. Stiles had been sure to keep them weak. They had been given sustenance, but knowing it to be drugged, they hadn't imbibed.

Roland had poured it out onto the floor in case their hunger became strong enough to overwhelm their common sense.

"This used to be part of Eric's safe haven," Roland said softly. He was sitting on the far side of the sublevel room. "It was nicer then. Furniture, lamps. Even music."

Angelica looked around the room, remembering what it had been like before. Sections had been walled off, including the one that led to the secret underground exit. It was nothing but a concrete square now. The only way in or out was a barred doorway that had once consisted of a false wine rack. And none of them were strong enough to break through the barrier. They'd been shot by bullets dipped in a powerful tranquilizer invented decades ago by the DPI. While the day- sleep healed their wounds, only blood would restore their strength. And there was none to be had.

And her daughter, her precious Amber Lily, was in this house. Angelica could feel her. She was frightened and alone, though they hadn't subjected her to torture-not yet, at least. She didn't think Amber had mastered the ability to shield her thoughts to the extent that she could hide intense pain from her own mother. Amber had whispered to her, again and again, that she was all right. That she hadn't been harmed. And Angelica had sent the same rea.s.surances about her own condition back to her daughter, through her mind.

But now she kept her thoughts carefully concealed from her daughter.

Jameson, she whispered with her mind. There is a way.

He was pacing the cell, agitated beyond endurance at being trapped, unable to rescue his child. Blaming himself for having let her go on this trip in the first place. He stopped at the bars, his hands curled around them, and he said simply, "No."

It has to be you. I'm not strong enough, even at full power, to take on all of them. But if you drink from me, it will make you strong again. Strong enough to break through the bars. Strong enough to save Amber Lily.

"Don't be ridiculous, Angelica!" Roland said, getting to his feet. "You're far too weak. It would kill you."

She met Roland's eyes. "I'm her mother. If that's what it takes to save her, then that's what it takes. There's no question."

"I won't do it." Then Jameson shot a killing look at Roland. "Don't even suggest it, because I won't do it to you, either."

Roland frowned in thought. Jameson, if it would save her from them- "I know my daughter," he snapped. Then he caught hold of his temper and spoke silently.

She could never live with knowing that either of you had to die in order to let her go on. She couldn't. I wouldn't ask her to. "We have to do something," Angelica whispered. "We can't simply stay here like this, waiting for them to decide our fate-and hers."

"Wait!" Roland stood very still, one hand up. "Listen."

They all went silent, opening their minds.

I'm here. Outside, Rhiannon's mind whispered, and they all heard her clearly. I've got the vampiress, Sarafina, and the mortal, Willem Stone, with me. Where are you?

In Eric's old quarters in the bas.e.m.e.nt, Roland replied.

The tunnel... ?

Sealed off. Amber Lily is somewhere in the house.

Yes, we know. We think she's on the second floor, in one of the rear-facing bedrooms.

Roland didn't ask how she knew that. He didn't need to know how. And time was short.

Dawn was, even now, approaching. Get her first. Get her to safety and come back for us.

The moment she's gone, they'll have no further reason to keep you alive. You know that.

Her life is more important, my love. And you know that.

Angelica put a hand on Roland's sleeve. Rhiannon, the guards are sent out onto the grounds just before dusk. They know we can only attack by night, so by day they're lax.

Good. There was a pause. The sun is coming up over the horizon. Angelica, before you sleep, tell your daughter to let us know which room she's in-a signal in the window. Perhaps this mortal bodyguard can be of some use to us after all.

I will.

Roland spoke again. Find shelter. Be sure you're safe until sunset.

I love you, Roland. Stay alive or there will be h.e.l.l to pay.

Roland smiled and told her he loved her, too. Angelica slid into Jameson's arms and let him hold her. "I hope this man is as good as you think he is," she whispered.

"He is. I know he is." He closed his eyes. "G.o.d, I hope he is."

They'd cased the place, carefully and quietly, but it had been heavily guarded. By the time Rhiannon had finished her "conversation" with her loved ones, the sky was beginning to pale.

"This way," she said, marching off into the woods across the street from the house, her cat at her side. "There's a shack. I believe it was once used for boiling the sap of maple trees into syrup."

"And the name of the shack is the sugar shack," Willem said. Both women simply looked at him as if he'd started speaking in tongues. "Before your time?"

"More likely after," Sarafina said. They followed Rhiannon and Pandora along the path into the woods. Rhiannon spoke softly as she walked. "They have Roland, Jameson and Angelica in a hidden room in the bas.e.m.e.nt. It's to the right, at the foot of the stairs. There used to be a large wine rack there that was really hiding the entrance. Now the entrance is barred. There's a tunnel that leads out, underground, but Roland says it's been sealed, possibly at both ends."

"Maybe we should check it out, see just how well sealed it is."

Rhiannon nodded. "You'll have plenty of time to do so while we rest."

He glanced at Sarafina, swallowed hard. "I don't know how comfortable I am with the notion of leaving you two alone, while you're out cold and defenseless."

Rhiannon glanced over her shoulder. "You don't have a choice. Roland says the security is lax by day. They don't expect an attack from a day-walker like you. If there's a way to get into that house and get Amber Lily out by day, do it."

Sarafina shook her head. "But won't they kill the others the moment they find her gone?"

"Probably. Which is why it would be better to wait until an hour before sundown to take her.

Any later, though, and the guards will be in position."

Will didn't like that plan.

"She will put something in the window to let you know which room she's in," Rhiannon went on. "There's the building."

They climbed the last hill to a ramshackle shed. Will examined it and shook his head. "The sun will get in through all the cracks."

"There's a crawl s.p.a.ce underneath," Sarafina said, examining the shed's construction as she walked around it. "Here, here's a way in." She pulled at a loose board and peered through to the s.p.a.ce between the dank, damp earth and the building's floor. It was no more than two feet high, and G.o.d only knew what sorts of creatures had made a home of it.

Sarafina straightened. Rhiannon dropped to her knees, then flattened her belly to the ground and slithered inside. Her cat crawled in after her.

"Fina..." Will began.

She met his eyes. "Don't die while I rest." Then she lowered her gaze. "A stupid thing to say.

Telling you not to die. It's your inevitable end. You're mortal."

"And you're not." He thought maybe he was finally starting to see himself through her eyes.

"I'm not gonna die, Sarafina. Not today. Not for a long time."

"As if it's in your power to promise something like that."

He licked his lips. "You're right. I can't promise you that. All the more reason to live every single moment in exactly the way I want to live it." He slid his arms around her waist, pulled her body hard against his and kissed her. Her lips trembled, but then they parted, and her hands curled into his hair and she kissed him back, pa.s.sionately and hungrily.

Will felt the sun on his skin, so he broke the kiss and moved to put her in the shade of his body. When she looked up at him, her cheeks were damp with tears.

"If I die today," he told her, "I'll have no regrets."

"Oh, but I will," she whispered. Then she turned away and crawled underneath the building.

Will stood there for a moment. Now he knew he understood. She had loved, and she had lost. Over and over again. If she let herself be with him-care about him at all-she was guaranteeing herself a repeat of that pain. Because he would leave her in the end. He would grow old and feeble, and then he would die.

He bent and replaced the board, blocking out the sunlight. Then he stood there for several minutes, wondering how he would feel if he were the one sure to be left alone.

Something cracked the underbrush, startling him so much that he spun around and pulled his gun before he saw the flash of white tail that told him it was only a deer. Still, it was a wake-up call. He couldn't stand here in the open, because if he were seen by the bad guys, they would know right where to begin searching for the women.

Besides, the queenlike Rhiannon had given him his marching orders, laying them out with more authority than most military commanders under whom he'd served.

He checked the ground, carefully rearranging brush and twigs to erase any sign of human- or vampiric- presence near the shack. Then he made his way back through the woods until he could see the narrow, barely paved road and the ma.s.sive house beyond it.

The front lawn was littered with trees and scrub brush. He crouched low as the sun rose higher and watched as that brush came alive with movement. Men, garbed in camo and armed with rifles that looked like AKs-military issue-emerged from the bushes and weeds. He counted twenty and kept mental note of the way they were stationed at intervals of six or seven yards. He could see those in the front and around the sides of the house, and wished to Christ he could see if there were any in the back.

Rhiannon's information had been dead-on. They weren't too worried about an attack by day.

Even as he watched, they gathered in the driveway, near the front gate. And then he spotted four more, coming from the rear of the house to the front to join their comrades there.

A truck rumbled along the road, stopping at the front gate, and the men, looking tired, climbed into the canvas-enclosed back. A handful of fresh troops got out of the truck and took up positions, two in the front of the house and two others in the rear. Then the truck began maneuvering its oversize bulk in the narrow road, to turn around and return the way it had come.

Glancing back toward where he'd left the women, Will made a snap decision he hoped he wouldn't regret. Then he started toward where they had left the vehicles. His bad leg kept him from moving as fast as he would have liked. By the time he reached the cars, it was throbbing, and the truck had already gone by. But it moved slowly. He could catch it.

He dove into his car, fished for the keys and drove. He didn't have to keep the truck in sight.

It was raising enough of a dust cloud so that he managed to follow that instead.

But only until it hit the highway ten miles later.

Once it did, he had no idea how far it would travel, and he didn't want to risk leaving the women that long. But he had another thought. He followed the highway to the nearest town, found a hardware store. He bought a chainsaw, and gas and oil for it Then he returned and reconcealed the car far enough away that the noise he was about to make wouldn't reach the soldiers posted outside the house.

"Now we're playing my game," he said softly, as he got out of the hidden car and set to work. "And dead or undead, n.o.body beats me at my game."

When he finished, he opened the trunk of his car to stow the saw-and he remembered the bag he'd stashed there. The stuff good ol' Mike had sold him. Perfect.

He retrieved the package and, with the help of a st.u.r.dy limb, limped the two miles back to what he was beginning to consider his base of operations, then made his way toward that tunnel Rhiannon had mentioned.

Sarafina woke and lay still in the tiny, damp crawl s.p.a.ce, listening, feeling the vibrations around her, waiting until she was certain no one was about before she even dared to move.

"Are you awake?" Rhiannon whispered.

"Yes. I mink it's safe to go out." She belly-crawled to the loose board, but the moment she began to wriggle it free, it moved away on its own.

She nearly sighed in relief that Willem had survived the day. But she didn't feel any other presence with him as she made her way out from under the shack and let him help her to her feet.

She stood up and looked around. Then she spotted two men, unconscious and bound, lying on the ground. One was in military garb, one in his underclothes. Willem was wearing the man's camouflage clothing, carrying his rifle.

"What's this?" she asked, startled. "Willem, what have you done? Where is Amber Lily?"

Rhiannon came out next, brushing impatiently at the dirt on the borrowed dress. Her cat followed her. She glanced at the men. "Don't you get it, Sarafina? Your man has provided us with breakfast." Brushing off her hands, she walked over to where the two men lay, gripped one of them by the front of his shirt and lifted him easily, using only one arm. She drew him close, and sank her teeth into his neck, drinking deeply before dropping him again.

"Eat," she told Sarafina. "We need you at full power."

Will was staring at the man she'd dropped to the ground and looking a little bit shocked. "Is he...?"