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He stared at her, hungering for her like a starving man deprived of food. He could smell the enticing scent of her hair and skin, hear the siren call of her heartbeat. He felt her lingering horror at discovering what he was, her feelings of confusion and betrayal. He had known she would never be able to accept the truth, yet the knowledge aroused his anger. Damn her! It wasn’t his fault he had been turned into a monster. He understood her feelings, knew she had every right to be afraid of him, to be repulsed by what he was, but it did nothing to ease his anger. He could have drained her dry, turned her, killed her, but all he had done was love her. And he had thought she loved him.
She loved the man, taunted a little voice in the back of his mind. No woman could love the monster.
Hadn’t he learned that lesson centuries ago from Josette? He would be wise to remember it in the future.
For the first time in his long existence, he hated what he was. Monster. There was no escaping it, no point in trying to be anything else.
“Vampire!” The word hissed between his teeth as he spun away from the window. Driven by a rage that would not be contained, a hunger that would not be denied, he fled into the darkness.
Chapter 22
Tomás Villagrande strolled down Hollywood Boulevard, bemused by the steady stream of humanity that hurried by, never knowing there was a killer in their midst. The scent of their blood was intoxicating. For a moment, he was tempted to throw off the thin veneer of humanity he wore and let them see him for what he was. He could terrorize the puny mortals around him like a wolf raiding a flock of sheep. He could make a game of it, see how many he could drain in, say, ten minutes.
Somewhat reluctantly, he shook the thought away. Perhaps another night. For now, he wanted to explore the city. Costain resided here. According to vampire etiquette, Tomás knew he should make his presence known to the Master of the West Coast Vampires, and perhaps he would, at some later date. But for now, he kept his presence cloaked, and he would continue to do so until he knew the lay of the land.
And so he continued to stroll along the sidewalk. How times had changed, he thought. In his day, decent women had dressed demurely and never ventured outside without a chaperone. True, women had bared a great deal of cle**age, but little more. Only the lightskirts had flashed so much skin, behaved so brazenly. A gaggle of teenage girls went by, cell phones pressed to their ears, their rounded arms and flat bellies bared to his gaze, their shorts barely covering their nicely curved bottoms. It made his mouth water just to look at them.
A couple of teenage boys cruised the boulevard in a silver convertible with the top down, music blaring from the car’s speakers.
Across the street, a man dressed as a woman waited for the light to change. Farther down the street, Tomás saw a woman dressed as a man. Insanity, he thought. What was the world coming to?
With a rueful shake of his head, he continued to stroll along the city streets, enjoying the cool kiss of the night air, the faint scent of the sea carried to him by an errant breeze.
And then, as he approached a tall, glass-fronted building, he caught the distinct scent of vampire.
Chapter 23
Megan yawned behind her hand as she laid out a new shipment of Armani dress shirts. She had been miserable the last few days, and it was all because of Rhys. Even when she managed to keep him out of her head during the day, he haunted her dreams at night.
She had just finished ringing up a sale for one of her clients when Mr. Parker came out of his office, his expression grim.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Some man named Greg is on the phone for you.”
“Greg?” Why on earth would he be calling her at work? “Did he say what he wanted?”
“I think you’d better talk to him.”
A sudden coldness gripped Megan as she hurried into the office and picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“Megan, it’s Greg. I’m at Mercy Arms Hospital with Shirl.”
“The hospital! Good Lord, is she…?”
“She’s unconscious.”
“What happened? Were you in an accident?”
“No, we went out dancing after dinner. She said she wasn’t feeling well, and we decided to come home early. I’d just turned off the freeway when she collapsed.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
Mr. Parker appeared in the doorway when she got off the phone. “Bad news?”
“My roommate, she’s in the hospital,” Megan said, grabbing her coat and her handbag. “I’ve got to go.”
He nodded. “I hope she’ll be okay.”
“She will be,” Megan said. She refused to think otherwise.
She made it to the hospital in record time.
Shirl was in a private room on the third floor. Greg looked up when Megan entered the room. It was easy to see from the look on his face that their relationship was a lot more serious than Shirl had let on.
“How is she?” Megan asked, hurrying to Shirl’s bedside.
“About the same.”
“What does the doctor say?”
“Not much at the moment. We’re waiting for the results of some tests.”
Megan took Shirl’s hand in hers. Even unconscious, her face almost as pale as the pillowcase, Shirl looked beautiful. “She’s always been so healthy.” Megan looked across the bed at Greg. “Except for her headaches…” Her breath caught in her throat. “You don’t think…” Megan couldn’t finish the sentence.
Feeling suddenly weak, she dropped into the chair beside the bed. All those headaches…In the movies, it always meant something awful, like cancer or a brain tumor. Fear congealed in the pit of her stomach.
She looked at Greg, seeking hope, but judging from the bleak expression on his face, he was entertaining some pretty morbid thoughts of his own.
She was surprised that no one told them to leave. Nurses came and went all through the night, their rubber-soled shoes making little or no sound as they took Shirl’s vitals, her blood, changed the IV.
It was near four A.M. when Megan came awake with a start. For a moment, she forgot where she was, but only a moment. The distinct smell of disinfectant reminded her that she was in the hospital. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she glanced around the room. Greg slept in the other chair, snoring softly.
Ignoring the ache in her back and shoulders caused by sleeping in a hard plastic chair, Megan rose. She smiled when she saw that Shirl was awake. “Hey, girl, how do you feel? Can I get you anything?”
