Part 44 (2/2)
A second later, he was towering over her.
”Do it!” she shrieked. ”Kill me, cut off my head, do ... do ...”
He reached a hand down to her. ”Get up, scream again if you need to, and then get logical and listen to me!”
”Logical!” she said, her voice rising again.
He had a grip on her arm; he pulled her to her feet.
The headlights of a car suddenly pinned them both in brilliant light. Jordan looked to the road for help. Sean Canady was driving the car.
Her heart sank.
”Jordan, let's go,” Ragnor said curtly.
He drew her to the car. Canady opened the door; Ragnor ushered her in, then took a seat in the back.
The car made a quick U-turn.
”What are you going to do with me?” Jordan asked.
”Give you some clean clothes, by the looks of it,” Canady said lightly. ”Then a good stiff drink.”
She caught Ragnor's eyes in the rearview mirror. They were hard blue, cold as ice.
”Imagine being a cop and having to come to grips with all of this,” Canady said lightly.
”A cop-but not a vampire?” Jordan said.
”Yeah. Almost . .. but never really,” Canady explained.
She fell silent, thinking that she must be dreaming, as she had been dreaming on the plane. But she wasn't dreaming. She could feel a pain pulsing in her ankle and her knee hurt. And her back. And catching sight of herself in a dim reflection on the winds.h.i.+eld of the car, she saw that twigs and bracken were in her hair.
The car pulled up to the house. Before she had a chance to move, Ragnor left the rear seat and opened her door. He drew her out, none too gently. ”Could we have a discussion now, in the house, please?”
She shook off his touch and walked up the front steps. Both the women were waiting for her there.
”Lucian?” Ragnor asked.
”He went looking for you, too,” Jade said. ”He was afraid you might have met with trouble.”
”I did.”
”Did you know him?” she asked. He shook his head. ”They've been creating their own little army. They're novices, and can't fight worth a d.a.m.n.”
”Come into the office, please!” Maggie said. Evidently, she had gotten her child to bed in the midst of all this.
Without looking back at Ragnor, Jordan took a seat on the edge of the antique sofa that faced the mantel.
There was a fire burning in the hearth. At least that brought a warmth to her that she found she desperately needed.
They flocked around her, Maggie on one side, Jade on the other, Sean in front of the mantel on one side, and Ragnor-who had just sawed off someone's head on the other side. He was in a leather jacket, breathing easily for a man who had just engaged in such strenuous exercise; his long blond hair somewhat tousled but his clothing still amazingly, in place. She wanted to run to him; she wanted to run away from him.
Now she knew why.
”Jordan, first of all, I swear, none of us means to hurt you in any way,” Sean Canady said.
”We're trying to protect you,” Maggie explained. Jordan stared at her. ”Are you a vampire?”
”No ... but I was. That's a very long story, and I'm not exactly sure what forces gave me a cure.”
”I am a vampire,” Jade said softly. ”By choice.”
Jordan swung around to stare at her. ”As is Lucian,” Jade explained.
”So, you see, we know what we're talking about,” Sean said.
She just stared at them, all of them, one by one.
Then she looked at Ragnor. ”Great. Just great.”
”There are more than you might realize,” Maggie said.
”I think she needs that good stiff drink,” Sean said.
”Perhaps you'd better get it,” Ragnor said. ”I'm sure she'll think I'm trying to poison her.”
Sean brought her something in a gla.s.s. Her fingers wound around it, shaking so badly that she could hardly hold the gla.s.s. She decided to down the drink in a single swallow.
How could she make things worse?
”I'll try to explain things to you in a nutsh.e.l.l,” Sean said. ”Vampires do exist. They have for centuries. They've survived, usually, by keeping a low profile.”
”A low profile,” Jordan repeated woodenly, extending the gla.s.s. ”I think I'll have another.”
Ragnor hunkered down before her. ”In ancient times, it was easy. There were wars, feuds, deaths ... everywhere.”
”And no ma.s.s media,” Jade said.
”And no forensic detective work,” Sean continued.
”But there are legends,” Ragnor said. ”Some of them true, some of them exaggerated, some entirely made up.”
”I existed for years, never hurting anyone,” Maggie said. ”But there is ... an instinct. A hunger. And that hunger creates a disregard for human life.”
”Which has been shared by many 'normal' men throughout history. There has always been a despot somewhere, a tyrant, a king, a dictator, willing to dispose of hundreds and thousands of people,” Ragnor continued, his eyes hard on hers. ”The Romans conquered and killed throughout Europe and beyond. The barbarians swept down on Imperial Rome.
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