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She jolted into action, hefting the bulky duffel bag over her shoulder and dropping the two flash drives into the front pocket of her jeans. On the way out, she paused to look at Megan's blank face. Her eyes were closed now, as were Ray's. Lucan was murmuring something to them in a voice so low she could hardly hear it.
The tone of his words didn't sound threatening, but oddly soothing, persuasive. Almost lulling.
With one last glance at the bizarre scene taking place in her living room, Gabrielle dashed out the open front door and down onto the street. A sleek sedan waited at the curb, parallel parked in front of Ray's red Mustang. It was an expensive vehicle - incredibly expensive, from the looks of it - and the only other car around.
As she approached, the front passenger door opened as if it had been willed to do so.
Willed by the sheer strength of Lucan's mind, she knew, wondering just how far his preternatural powers might reach.
She slid into the deep leather seat and closed the door. Not two seconds later, Megan and Ray appeared on her front stoop. They calmly walked down the steps and right past her on the sidewalk, eyes straight ahead of them, neither of them saying a word.
Lucan was directly behind them. He closed the apartment door and came around the car where Gabrielle waited. He climbed in, stuck a key in the ignition, and started the Maybach's engine.
"Not a good idea to leave these behind," he said, dropping her purse and camera bag into her lap.
Gabrielle stared at him across the subtly lit cockpit of the vehicle. "You did some kind of mind control on them, like you've tried to do with me before."
"I suggested to your friends that they had never been at your apartment tonight."
"You erased their memory?"
He inclined his head in a vague nod. "They won't recall anything about this evening, or your having been at Megan's apartment last night after the Minion's attack on you. Their minds are no longer burdened with any of it."
"You know, right now, that sounds pretty damn good. So, what do you say, Lucan? Will you do me next? You can start erasing right before I made the terrible decision to go to that nightclub a couple of weeks ago."
He held her gaze, but she didn't feel him so much as trying to get into her head. "You aren't like those two humans, Gabrielle. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't change any of the things that have happened to you. Your mind is stronger than most. In many ways, you are... different from most."
"Gee, I feel so lucky."
"The best place for you now is with us, where the Breed will protect you as one of our own. We have a secured compound in the city. You can stay there to start."
She frowned. "What, you're offering me the vampire equivalent of the Witness Protection Program?"
"It's a bit more than that." He turned his head, looking out through the windshield. "And it is the only way."
Lucan hit the gas and the sleek black car shot up the narrow road with a low, silky growl. Clutching the leather seat on the passenger side, Gabrielle swung her head around to watch as darkness slowly swallowed up her residential block on Willow Street.
As the distance grew wider, she saw the vague silhouettes of Megan and Ray getting into his Mustang to leave her apartment, none the wiser. Gabrielle felt a sudden jolt of panic that made her want to leap out of the car and run back to them, back to her old life.
Too late.
She knew that.
This new reality had her in a tight grasp, and she didn't think there would be any turning back, only a steady march forward. She turned away from the rear window and sank into the seat's butter-soft leather, staring straight ahead as Lucan wheeled sharply around the corner and drove her deep into the night.
Chapter Twenty
She didn't know how long they'd been driving, or even in what direction. They were still in the city, that much she could tell, but the many turns and back alley routes that Lucan took had since become a jumble in Gabrielle's mind. She stared out the dark-tinted window of the sedan, vaguely aware that they were slowing down at last, approaching what appeared to be the expansive grounds of an old estate.
Lucan braked outside a tall, black-iron gate. Twin beams of red light shot down from a pair of small devices perched on both sides of the high-security perimeter fence. Gabrielle blinked away the sudden shot of light that flashed in front of her face, then watched as the heavy gate began to slide open.
"This is yours?" she asked, turning to speak to Lucan for the first time since they'd left her apartment. "I've been here before. I took a photograph of this gate."
They rolled through, then up a long, curving, tree-lined driveway.
"The estate is part of our compound. It belongs to the Breed."
Evidently, being a vampire was quite lucrative. Even in the dark, Gabrielle could see the old-money quality of the well-tended grounds and the ornately carved limestone work on the pale façade of the mansion as they approached. Double rotundas flanked the lacquered black doors and soaring portico of the main entrance, above which rose four elegant stories.
