His Dark Embrace

She cradled her head in her hands. If she didn’t think of something else soon, she was certain to have nightmares tonight.

It took her several minutes to realize someone was ringing the doorbell. Rising, she hurried into the living room. Kaiden had her so upset, she had forgotten all about the pizza she’d ordered earlier.

Calling, “Hold on, I’m coming!” she pulled a twenty from her wallet, opened the door, and felt all the blood drain from her face.

Kaiden stood in the hallway, balancing the pizza and salad boxes in one hand and holding a large Coke in the other.

“What are you doing here?” she exclaimed, hating the tremor in her voice.

“We need to talk.”

“No, we don’t.” She shook her head. “Not now. I’m not ready. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready.”

“Dammit, Skylynn, stop looking at me as if I was the big bad wolf. I’m not going to eat you.”

“But you have, haven’t you? You don’t have to answer. I can see the truth in your eyes.” Eyes that were thankfully a dark brown instead of red and glowing.

“Here.” He thrust the food at her. “Your pizza’s getting cold.”

Muttering “Thank you,” she kicked the door shut with her foot. Feeling light-headed, she carried everything into the kitchen and set it on the counter, then dropped into one of the kitchen chairs, her head spinning. Fat lot of good running away did, she thought bleakly. How had he found her? Foolish question. Where else would she have gone but back to Chicago?

He had taken her blood. According to vampire lore, he would now be able to find her no matter where she went. Did it also give him access to her thoughts? Was that how she had heard his voice in her head?

She propped her elbows on the table, her chin resting on her hands. Like a nightmare that wouldn’t end, it just got worse and worse.

Thorne stared at the closed door for several moments before he turned away. Well, what had he expected? That she would welcome him into her apartment with open arms? Intellectually, he had known that wouldn’t happen, but he had hoped she would at least let him explain. Of course, now that he thought about it, there really wasn’t much to say. He was a vampire and nothing could change that. Even McNamara’s miraculous potion hadn’t been able to accomplish it, though it had come close. So damn close.

Outside, Thorne glanced up and down the street and then, with no destination in mind, he began to walk. There had to be some way to reestablish communication with Skylynn, some way to get her to trust him again. Some way to get her back into his life.

Sky would never have discovered what he was if he could only have persuaded Paddy to give him the formula. If ... if... if.

After a time, he found himself in the business district. Most of the places were closed for the night, but piano music drifted from the open door of a small neighborhood bar. He paused in the doorway a moment and then went inside. Other than the bartender, there were only two people in the place—a gray-haired man sipping a glass of beer and a frowsy, red-headed woman who appeared to be dozing in one of the booths.

Thorne ordered a glass of wine, which he carried to a booth in the rear. He stared at the burgundy, his mind going back in time, back to the night he had saved Paddy McNamara’s life ...

It had been a cold night in January, a year or two after Thorne had returned to Vista Verde. He had been on the hunt when he heard a scuffle behind the old hospital on Mill Creek Road. Curious, he had gone to investigate and found two street toughs going through McNamara’s pockets. Never one to pass up a meal, Thorne had quickly hypnotized the two thugs and drank from both. And then, for a lark, he had ordered them to go to the police station and turn themselves in. Thorne had been about to leave when Paddy muttered a word that glued Thorne’s feet to the spot.

“Vampire.”

Thorne had whirled around, his only thought to wipe the incident from his neighbor’s mind.

Paddy held up one hand. “Before you kill me, Mr. Thorne, I think I can help you.”

“Help me? Help me what?”

“Do you like being a monster?” Paddy asked boldly.

“What do you know about it?”

The old man gained his feet and dusted himself off. He was bleeding from his nose and mouth, one eye was already swollen shut. “I’ve been doing some experimentation with an elixir to prolong life... .”

Thorne snorted. “That’s not something I need.”

Paddy shrugged. “I think, with a few modifications, I can restore your humanity.”

“You can make me human again?”

“Not exactly, but I think my formula might inhibit vampire tendencies. Wouldn’t you like to walk in the sun again? Enjoy a glass of cold beer on a hot day? Eat mortal food?”

Thorne rocked back on his heels, intrigued by the man’s offer. He hadn’t seen the sun or eaten solid food in centuries.

“So, what do you say?” Paddy asked. “Are you game to give it a try?”

Thorne shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He didn’t know what the old man was up to, but being a vampire wasn’t an illness that could be treated. Once a vampire, always a vampire. “You’d better go get those cuts stitched up.”

Paddy shrugged off Thorne’s concern. “I’ll be all right, thanks to you.”

“Suit yourself. If you want to stay healthy, you won’t tell anyone about me.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Thorne. I can keep a secret. If you change your mind, you know where I live.”

Thorne had thought about what McNamara said for several days. In the end, curiosity had sent him across the street and down to Paddy’s lab where he had endured numerous excruciating tests. The worst part had been letting Paddy secure him to a chair with thick silver chains while the old man conducted his experiments.

Thorne rubbed his wrists, remembering how the silver had burned through his clothing to his skin. It had taken years of tests, of trial and error, before Paddy came up with the right formula, but in the end, it had been worth it.

But that was all in the past. His problem now was how to restore Skylynn’s trust in him. And that, he thought, would take an even bigger miracle than the one McNamara’s potion had wrought.

Chapter 15

The last thing Girard Desmarais had seen before the world went black was the first thing he saw when his senses returned the next night—a pair of hell-red eyes.

“Am I dead?” He hadn’t realized he had spoken aloud until she laughed.