Part 40 (1/2)

But after the first few hours into the flight, she knew that she would be missed at the hotel. Manetti would have gotten hold of Jared and Cindy by now; they'd realize that she wasn't going to show up at dinner.

If Manetti had really traced Tiff Henley's departure from Venice, he could do the same with hers. She was going to visit a man she didn't know, who could be an insane and corrupt human being, and it was beginning to seem possible that she was losing her mind.

Or else she wasn't. She found herself looking around the plane. Again, she had the uneasy feeling she had experienced in her room.

Someone was there.

Of course someone was there. It was a full plane.

People were settling in, reading, playing with the controls at their seats. No one was watching her.

But she couldn't help it. She experienced the sense of being ...

Followed?

The flight attendants looked suspicious, as if they were watching her. She could swear that the pinched-looking woman in the seat across the aisle was watching as well. She was skeletal looking. Jordan could swear she could see the outline of her teeth beneath her thin skin.

That is crazy! she told herself.

She forced herself to close her eyes, to try to sleep. The champagne, wine, and long hours she had been keeping all seemed to kick in. She slept There was a noise. A terrible hissing sound. Whispers ...

The flutter of wings.

She opened her eyes. The flight attendants had gathered to stare at her. The skinny woman was between them. They all stared, and smiled, then opened their mouths.

They had far more than teeth . . . they had fangs, canine fangs, huge, glistening, white, seeming to drip a slimy green liquid. No, no, not dog fangs, snake fangs, long, sharp, glistening, and they were laughing because she was here, on the plane, cornered, and there were monsters in the world.

She turned, trying to back away into the next seat. She was wearing a cross; she carried holy water. . .

But she couldn't reach her purse. She couldn't crawl into the next seat because someone was there. Ragnor. And he was laughing, and the plane was alive with flying creatures-bats. Their wings fluttered everywhere. And she whispered to Ragnor, ”Help me, please, help me!” But, of course, he would not, because he had taken her for a fool, and his mouth was opening then, and he had the longest fangs of all, dripping, sparkling, like razors caught in the light, but it was midnight, deep midnight, and she could almost feel the pain of his touch . . .

”Miss Riley!”

She awoke with a start.

A young Frenchwoman, a flight attendant who spoke English perfectly, was standing over her. She had been gently touching her shoulder.

She had no fangs.

No bats flew about the plane.

”I'm afraid you were dreaming-a nightmare,” the woman told her gently, and with an awkward smile. ”You screamed,” she added, indicating an irate man standing in back of her.

”It's really ... well, we really try not to allow our pa.s.sengers to scream on overseas flights.

Other pa.s.sengers think that something is wrong. Really wrong.”

”Oh, I am so sorry!” Jordan said.

The woman gave her a smile. ”It's all right. None of us can help our nightmares, I guess.

If you could just try to stay awake ...”

”Yes, of course,” Jordan said apologetically.

”Um ... I mean, please, really, I know it might be hard, but you really might want to stay awake.”

”Yes, of course, again, I am so sorry!” Jordan said.

”I'm sorry, too, but-it was a loud scream. They heard you in the back row.”

”I'll stay awake.”

She felt her cheeks reddening. She tried to apologize to the man behind her. He wasn't mollified.

Stay awake ...

She was losing her mind.

Making everyone around her a monster.

No ...

She wasn't losing her mind. She'd had a nightmare; she knew she'd had a nightmare.

But what had happened at the church had been real.

She glanced at her watch.

And prayed for the time to pa.s.s quickly as the plane continued over the Atlantic.

She had been dreaming. . .

And still, she had the bone-deep feeling that something wasn't right. That she was being stalked by forces unseen.

Hunted.

CHAPTER 17.

Ragnor faced his brother, his own flesh and blood, and so, it seemed, a horde of demons.

And it was Nari who had led him to this point. Nari, who through his efforts to save her, had brought about the deaths of so many men. Nari, who had shared his new savage pa.s.sions and hungers, and the hope that he had found a way to exist.

She didn't intend to take part in the carnage; not willing to risk injury to herself, she stood back, keeping her distance.