Part 45 (1/2)

Matt was flus.h.i.+ng. ”Look, I'm, uh, really sorry, Jade. Renate insisted that we come.”

”I wouldn't have come if it hadn't been for the picture in the book,”

Danny said.

”We're going to help you kill him,” Renate said.

”You're going to have to be a h.e.l.l of a lot more prepared than that if you're going to kill a vampire.”

Jade gasped. Lucian had returned. Up, showered, dressed, his dark hair smoothed back, his tailored s.h.i.+rt impeccable, he leaned against the door frame, his arms crossed over his chest, his ebony eyes filled with amus.e.m.e.nt.

Renate jumped to her feet, the stake raised high.

Lucian hardly seemed to move. But he was in front of Renate; then he'd seized the stake and broken it over a knee.

Matt and Danny instantly dropped their stakes, backing away.

”Never hesitate with a vampire,” Lucian told Renate.

Renate stared at him. A small gasp escaped her. Her eyes fluttered.

Then she fell into a pool at his feet. ”She's pa.s.sed out!” Matt cried. He started for Renate. Lucian lifted a hand. ”Allow me,” he said quietly, and he lifted Renate, and set her in a stuffed wing-backed chair by the balcony window.

”There's ammonia under the sink,” Matt said quickly.

”She's all right, isn't she?” Jade murmured.

”She'll be fine,” Danny said. ”I recognize a dead body when I see one.” He caught Lucian's eye. ”Uh, usually,” he said awkwardly. ”I mean, sorry, I-”

Matt was back, waving ammonia beneath Renate's nose.

She came to, looked at Lucian standing over her, and slumped right back into the chair.

”Excuse me, guys,” Jade said with a sigh. ”You all deal with Renate. I'm going to hop into the shower very quickly-and get some clothing on, if you don't mind!”

Danny and Matt both looked flushed-and scared.

She'd almost reached the bathroom, encompa.s.sed in her sheets.

”Jade!” Matt said.

She stopped, looking back. ”You are seeing a vampire.”

”I know! But it's all right. He won't hurt you,” she a.s.sured him, and hurried on into the shower.

When she emerged, they were all sitting around the kitchen table.

Someone had brewed coffee.

”There has to be a way to find out just who exactly she is,” Renate was saying. She seemed much better-totally in charge of herself, and the situation.

Jade poured herself coffee. Lucian was sitting in one of her large, stuffed chairs. She perched on the edge of it. He absently set his hand on her back. It was an intimate and domestic gesture, and she felt incredibly fulfilled by that simple touch. As if she belonged.

”I know exactly what she is,” Lucian told Renate. ”Evil.”

”Lucian has been filling us in,” Matt explained, shaking his head admiringly. ”Who would have imagined ... ?”

”Not you,” Renate reminded him. ”He didn't want to believe me when I had facts to set right beneath his nose!” she said.

Lucian looked at Jade. ”I've been trying to explain to your friends that they need to stay out of this. It is never so simple as finding a powerful vampire sleeping by light, and quickly driving a stake through its heart.”

”But vampires can be killed,” she said softly.

He nodded.

”Bram Stoker!” Matt said suddenly. ”Everyone watches movies these days; they so seldom just read! Dracula is not killed with a stake at the end. They cut into his heart, and cut off his head.” He looked at Lucian. ”That's why the kid's head was nearly off in that accident.

Except-well, this Sophia of yours must have been the one to suck him dry. So why did she take his head off?”

”Because he meant nothing to her. Nothing more than vengeance, and a meal.”

”But she had killed him. And she is a vampire. So why destroy him in such a horrible manner?” Danny asked.

”Think about it. There are laws, unwritten laws; the natural world is governed by certain laws,” Lucian said. ”We're not to create more than two of our own kind in a century. If there were no such laws, imagine.

There would be more and more vampires-”

”And eventually no people left-”

”And then no mammals, nothing,” Lucian said.

The room was silent. Lucian lifted his hands. ”You shouldn't be involved. It was wonderful that you tried to protect Jade from me. But you mustn't be involved. It will only make you susceptible.”

”But we know what to watch out for now,” Danny said.

Lucian smiled. ”No, you don't. You can't begin to imagine what you're up against.”

”Lucian, honestly, we can help.”

”Look, I appreciate your efforts. I appreciate the fact that you no longer want to stake, decapitate, and burn me to cinders. But you're not cops or soldiers, you're . . . writers!” he finished a little lamely.

”Excuse me, haven't you heard? The pen is mightier than the sword,” Matt said.

Lucian grimaced. ”I'm afraid that I've seen at times that that isn't necessarily so.”

”We read, Lucian,” Renate insisted.