Cunningham, Pat - Legacy [Sequel to Belonging] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (37 page)

She nodded vaguely without turning around. “What will happen to them?”

“No idea. They might try to go back to Lebec. If we’re lucky, they’ll go to the cops or their families or something. We should try to track them down after we deal with Lebec. I know Gus can help them. He can help you, too. He helped me.” He wrestled with a yawn. “Bedtime for Bonzo. Will you be okay?”

He was watching her closely, alert for any similar yawns or signs of sluggishness, any hint of a vampire’s reaction to sunrise. Colleen monitored her own responses. She felt tired, in spite of her nap. Then again, she’d been up for nearly twenty-four hours and through a physical and emotional wringer for much of them. It didn’t prove anything.

Staring out at the fading dark, she knew what she had to do.

“I think I’ll have breakfast,” she told Wallace. “Then try to get some sleep.”

“Atta girl.”

Colleen kissed him softly. She wriggled out from between them and off the bed, careful not to wake Jeremy. She kissed him on a mouth lax in sleep. Did Wallace sense the finality in it, or in the kiss she had given him?

If he did, he didn’t say anything or try to stop her from leaving the bedroom. Colleen padded silently downstairs.

In the kitchen, she puttered around as if truly interested in fixing a meal. She started brewing a pot of coffee she knew she might not be around to drink. All the while, she listened for any sounds from Wallace, any hint he might suspect what she had in mind.

At last, the sky grew light enough to see the kitchen by. A bird trilled melodious alarm. The bed creaked. She heard no footsteps, only the click as the door to Wallace’s den softly closed.

It was time.

Her steps didn’t falter, and her hands remained steady. She wondered that she didn’t feel more fear. She wondered if she would feel anything, if immolation would be instant, or if she would burn like paper.

Colleen opened the door and walked down to the curb. At the van, she paused then moved out of its shadow and turned her face to the east. Either this would work or it wouldn’t. Either she was still human enough to remain in the world, or—well, if not, in a minute it wouldn’t matter.

Someone shouted inside the house. Wallace. It had to be Wallace. He alone had intimate access to her mind. She whirled toward the house in alarm. He wouldn’t come outside after her, would he? Surely he wasn’t that foolish.

He wasn’t. Jeremy, not Wallace, threw open the door, blinking and clumsy from sleep. He bolted to her side and seized her arms.

“What are you doing? Come back inside.”

“No.” Colleen had been strong before. Now she found his male muscles were nothing compared to her own. She shrugged him off easily. “I have to do this. I have to know.”

“We already know. The others—”

“We don’t know if I’m like the others. I’ve got the psychic thing, and they don’t. I didn’t come under that bitch’s power after she made me drink. It’s too big an if for me to live with.” She rose up on tiptoe to bring herself closer to his face. “Please.”

The storm that raged in his eyes tore at her heart. “All right,” he said, “but I’m staying with you. If you start to smolder I’ll carry you inside.”

“Fair enough.”

Colleen turned toward the rising sun. Strange, or maybe not so strange, that she knew precisely where it would peek out over the tops of the buildings. Jeremy encircled her with his arms in a loose but comforting clasp. She leaned back against him. If she was wrong, if this was her death rising over the row houses, she could think of no better position from which to face it than here.

Wallace, I’m sorry, she sent to the house. This is something I have to do. I have to be sure.

Wallace’s telepathic response was unprintable.

Gray sky gave way to pink. Colleen pressed her eyelids shut.
Feel the burn.
Not funny. Nowhere near.

She waited. And waited. Her skin grew warm. Still she refused to look.

“Colleen,” Jeremy whispered in her ear. His voice trembled. “Open your eyes.”

Colleen obeyed. She shut them again almost immediately against the nearly unbearable brilliance. On her second attempt she was able to keep them open by focusing off to the left. Directly in front of her, the sun hung well above the skyline. Its light washed over her skin and left not so much as a freckle.

Jeremy squeezed her tight. He was laughing. As realization sank in, Colleen joined him. “Nothing like a sunrise, huh?” he said.

“It’s beautiful.” Tears started to her eyes, whether brought on by the light or relief, she didn’t really care. “I’m human.”

“Well, duh. You want to try for a tan, or shall we go back inside?”

“Inside. I always did burn fast.”

Still laughing, Jeremy scooped her up and carried her into the house. Before he could set her down, Wallace rushed up to them and snatched her from Jeremy’s arms.

“What the hell?” he blasted at her. “You trying to kill me or what?”

“I told you I’d be fine.”

“Dumbass stubborn chick. Why do you have to be so much like me?” He went on grumbling and grousing even while he kissed every inch of her face and throat. Colleen finally had to stop him by pressing her fingers to his lips.

“I’m human,” she said. “Mostly. Enough that I can deal. Everything else is minor.” Her lips stopped his snarky rejoinder. “Will you go get some rest now? I promise I won’t do anything dumb.”

“You damn well better not. You.” His glare speared Jeremy. “She doesn’t leave the house, or I’ll have your ass.”

Jeremy saluted. Wallace shot him the finger. “You’re going to kill me,” he snarled at them both before he blurred up the stairs.

“And that’s our drama quotient for the day,” Jeremy announced. “What now?”

Colleen inhaled deeply. Air. Glorious, wonderful, necessary air, filling her nostrils, filling her lungs, speeding blood through her body to a heart that now beat in slo-mo but at least didn’t just sit there. The aroma of the coffee she’d started reached her. If that wasn’t the smell of heaven, it had to be damn close.

“I don’t know about you,” she said, “but I could really go for breakfast.”

* * * *

After breakfast, Jeremy and an invigorated Colleen went over their notes again. They paid particular attention to the list of rental properties purportedly owned by Mosquito Enterprises.

“One of them’s got to be his den,” Jeremy muttered. “Trouble is, which one?”

“Depends on where he wants to be, I guess,” Colleen said. “At the heart of the action, or at a safe distance?”

“So far, he’s kept his distance. A hands-off kind of guy.” She caught the quirk of his mouth even as she caught her own yawn. “Go to bed. Get some sleep. We could be fighting for our lives tonight. It won’t help if you conk out on us.”

Colleen yawned again. Now that she’d survived the sunrise, bed sounded deliciously tempting. “If I’m not up by the time Wallace is, wake me, okay?”

He shook his head, grinning. “No promises.”

Great. The blood diet she’d have to adjust to. Life with two sweet, but presumptuous, overprotective males? Not so easy. Well, if she could successfully shepherd preschoolers, she could train a couple of guys. Yet another yawn stretched her jaw. Starting right after a nap.

It wasn’t until she was in bed and comfy that she gave a thought to the time. A glance at the bedside clock confirmed her suspicions. The display read 11:48 a.m. Close enough to high noon to make a vampire lethargic.

She pursed her lips at the window then defiantly opened the curtains. Sunlight streamed in. Satisfied, Colleen rolled over and fell asleep in seconds.

* * * *

Something scary woke her. She wasn’t sure if it was a sound or a dream or a feeling. Colleen jerked upright and peered around the room. The low slant of light told her day was nearly done. Wisps of dream chased through her mind, more emotion than image. Top of the list was the sensation that some evil thing was on her heels.

A loud thump sounded in the hallway, and she jumped. The thump was followed by a string of curses. Colleen let her breath out. Wallace. She scrambled out of bed and reached the door just as he flung it open. One look at his face said it all.

“Bad dreams?” she asked.

“No dream.” His voice was grim. “We’re being hunted.”

He led the way downstairs. In the kitchen Jeremy paced back and forth like a guard dog on a too-short chain. The beginnings of a soup-and-sandwich dinner sat on the counter, forgotten.

“Good, you’re up,” Jeremy said. “I was just about to get you. My skin’s been crawling since around four. I think this is it.”

“No shit,” Wallace snarled. Colleen and Jeremy automatically moved toward each other. Wallace took over the pacing. “We never should have come back here. They already know where we den. Christ, that’s Vampire 101. Where the hell is my head?”

“On the other hand,” Jeremy said, “we’ve got home court advantage. They can’t come in unless we invite them.”

“A fat lot of good that’ll do us if he’s got an army out there. Well, you roll with the punches and do what you can. Let’s see how many stakes we’ve got on hand.”

A cell phone rang in the living room. Wallace and Jeremy looked at each other. “Yours,” Jeremy said. “Maybe it’s Gus.”

“Thank God,” Wallace snarked. “The cavalry.” He flashed from the kitchen and back with his cell in hand. He put it on speaker. “Yeah?”

“Tin Man,” a slick, faintly-accented voice oozed out of the phone. “You’ve become quite the annoyance. I believe it’s time we met.”

Chapter 20

Colleen’s breath stopped. She knew that voice, remembered it and the silver eyes and frigid touch that went with it. Its cold evil, decades old and carefully cultivated, marked it more strongly than its hints of an ancient French accent. It stuck in her head like an inoperable tumor and tried to spread its tendrils through her thoughts.

No.
She pictured the voice as a bug and her brain as a shoe. Her mind cleared instantly. The voice still frightened her, but it did not control her. Fine and dandy for over the phone. What if she had to face him in person? Colleen pressed closer to Jeremy.

“Let me guess,” Wallace said. “The renowned Mr. Lebec.”

“You’re good, Tin Man. I underestimated your resourcefulness. However, I too have resources. We have your den under surveillance.”

“Yeah? Thanks for the heads-up, Tony. Not that your bat-boys can do anything without an invitation. Unless your hybrid harem—oh, that’s right. They ran out on you.”

A frigid hiss steamed out of the speaker before Lebec regained his self-control. “Perhaps I should elaborate. My information is as thorough as yours. I know who you are, and who you were, and who you used to run with. We also keep watch on your old companions, Dorothy and the Lion, and the little stray they’ve taken in. I’ll need to start anew, with fresh bloodlines, now that you’ve decimated my herd.”

Shayla?
Colleen’s blood ran as cold as any true vampire’s. Wallace’s snarl only scared her all the more. “You’re not taking her, or Colleen, or anyone else. I’ll stake you sideways first.”

“The mares can wait. It’s you who interests me. I have dealt with slayers before and come away unscathed. I’ve killed or outlived all my enemies. You are new, and so little is new to me anymore. More, you are vampire, a fellow king. I am willing to extend you the courtesy of a personal meet. Mano a mano, I believe is the term.”