AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"And you're sicker than I'd originally thought.” Nikki stopped near the front of the image again. “And I have no intention of going anywhere until I stop you."
No reply came. The image hung in the room, waiting for its master to give it life once more. It might not be wise to antagonize him, Michael advised. We're working with a sick mind, and it's doubtful his reactions will be predictable.
Antagonizing him might be our only way of stopping him. At least if he's coming after me, he's not kidnapping other women.
I wouldn't be too sure of that. This plan, whatever it was, smelled of precision. Their killer might be mad, but madness certainly hadn't incapacitated his brainpower. He's here for a reason. He's not here just to deliver a warning.
An image can't harm me.
It can if it's meant as nothing more than a distraction. He glanced over his shoulder. While he could hear no sound or movement, the awareness of ... something ... surged across his senses. She glanced at him, eyebrows raised. You think he plans another attack?
Yes.
But it's daylight, so his vamps can't move around. And the cops have the hotel monitored. Fledglings could take them easily enough. Yet it wasn't fledglings he could sense. It was something else, something undefinable.
Something that felt vaguely human, though he could neither smell blood nor hear a heartbeat. Zombie?
Remember what they smell like.
She shuddered. No disguising that .
No. He pushed away from the bedroom door frame and moved to the center of the main room, trying to get some sort of directional feel for whatever it was he sensed.
"Are you sure you just won't give up this madness and go?” the voice said. She glanced at Michael. He moved back until he was near the suite door, then nodded.
"Oh, I'm sure."
"Then I apologize, but you really leave me no choice." The image disappeared. For several seconds, neither Michael nor Nikki moved. Barely even breathed. The happy tune of a cable car bell mingled with the rumble of traffic rising up from the street below. On the floor immediately underneath them, people moved, talked or made love, the pulse of their hearts a distant but flavorsome beat.hrugged. “We're not sure. Probably."
Jake glanced at Michael, his expression hard. “He's a dead man?"
"If I can discover for a certainty he's behind the killings, yes."
"Good.” Jake's gaze returned to her. “Are you up to helping Jeff Harris?"
"I have very little choice, really. You've arranged a meeting?" He nodded. “Much to the annoyance of the police and Feds, I think.” He glanced at his watch. “Mary wants us to have breakfast together, then we'll head on over. I said we'd be there by nine-thirty."
"That's not leaving much time for breakfast. Mary won't be amused."
"She never is.” He pushed up from the sofa. “I'll see you in the dining room in ten minutes." He strode from the room and slammed the door closed. “A marriage in trouble,” Michael said softly.
"Yeah, and you'd better take note, buddy boy, because that's us a few years down the road if you don't start listening to me."
His dark gaze met hers, as unreadable as ever. “You and I are far different."
"Bull. Mary's taking no more notice of Jake's desires than you are of mine." He raised an eyebrow. “And is Jake taking any notice of Mary's desires?"
"He's here, isn't he?"
"Only to recover. You and I know he has no intention of taking the security position permanently." She crossed her arms and all but glared at him. “Mary knew what Jake did for a living when she married him. She has no right trying to change him this late in the game."
"Yet you have the right to try to change me?” A slight smile touched his lips. “I have never made any secret of my opposition to you joining me in my work."
"I'm not asking you to stop like Mary's asking Jake. All I'm asking is to be included in that section of your life."
"And in the meantime, deliberately ignoring every opposing argument I give. A marriage works two ways, Nikki. It's give and take."
She raised an eyebrow. “We're not married."
