Immortal Sins

Ana Luisa dropped her fork on her plate and looked at Kari. "I wish I knew where to find him," she said plaintively.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't help you there." Kari carried her dishes to the sink, rinsed them and put them in the dishwasher, then poured herself another cup of coffee before sitting down again. "Maybe Rourke could help you?"

Ana Luisa shook her head. "They do not like each other."

"That doesn't mean Rourke won't help you," Kari said. "After all, he cares about you and wants you to be happy."

"No. He wants to send me away."

"But only because he's worried about you," Kari insisted. "I can't stay here and look after you during the day, and neither can he. You need someone to help you find your way around, someone who...well, someone who's a witch, you know?" Kari shook her head in exasperation. "I'm not saying this very well. And you won't have to stay with them if you don't like it there. There's a lot to learn about life here, you know. Like how to drive a car, and how and where to shop for things you need, and how to use our currency.... It just seemed like it would be easier if you stayed with someone who can help you find your way around. Do you know what I mean?"

"Yes," Ana said in a small, faraway voice. "Perhaps you are right."

After breakfast, the girl carried her coffee cup into the living room to watch TV. While she cleared away Ana's dishes, it occurred to Kari that she should probably teach the girl the rudiments of twenty-first-century housekeeping, at least the simple things, like loading the dishwasher. Of course, if things went as planned, Ana wouldn't be here much longer and someone else could teach her how to do her laundry and run a vacuum and use a phone. And probably how to read and write, as well.

After wiping off the counter and the table and running the garbage disposal, Kari went upstairs to change the sheets on her bed. If she didn't hear from the coven, she was going to have to go to work on Monday and leave Ana Luisa home alone. Of course, the girl seemed to have become a couch potato overnight, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Ana Luisa probably wouldn't even notice that she was home alone. Still, Kari didn't like the idea of leaving the wizard's daughter alone in the house. She had visions of the girl trying to cook something on the stove and burning the house down, or forgetting to turn off the water in the tub and flooding the house, or going outside and getting lost. Who knew what havoc a frightened young witch might inflict on the city.

Maybe she was just overreacting. Then again, it was always better to err on the side of caution.

After putting clean sheets on her bed, Kari changed into a pair of jeans and a comfy old sweater. She gathered up her dirty sheets, carried them downstairs and dumped them into the washer, then went into her office. Sitting at her computer, she pulled up the file she had been working on before leaving for Romania. So much had happened since then, it seemed as if months had passed.

As always, when her creative juices were flowing, the hours flew by like minutes. It wasn't until her stomach growled that Kari glanced at the clock, surprised to see that it was after three. After saving her work, she went into the kitchen, wondering if Ana Luisa was as hungry as she was.

Kari made tuna sandwiches for lunch. She added some potato chips to the plates, along with a slice of cantaloupe. When everything was ready, she carried the plates into the living room.

"I hope you're hungry," Kari said as she entered the room, then came to an abrupt halt when she realized the TV was still on, but the room was empty. "Ana?"

Frowning, Kari put the plates on the coffee table, then went from room to room, but there was no sign of the girl. She went upstairs, thinking Ana might have gone up to take a nap. The nightgown Ana had been wearing was on the bed but there was no sign of the wizard's daughter.

"That's just great," Kari muttered.

She hurried downstairs and went outside, but the girl wasn't in the front yard or out in the back. Kari paused by the shed, wondering if Rourke would hear her if she knocked on the door, but what was the point? Even if he heard her, he couldn't leave the shed until the sun went down. What would he say, what would he think, if Ana was still missing when he woke?

Blowing out a sigh of exasperation, Kari walked around the block, pausing to ask anyone she met if they had seen anyone answering Ana's description. No one had seen the girl. It seemed she had just disappeared into thin air.

Kari grunted softly. Maybe, like Samantha on Bewitched, the wizard's daughter had simply twitched her nose and taken flight.

After returning to the house, Kari stared at the phone. Was it too soon to call the police? Even though that seemed like the wisest thing to do, she dismissed the idea, afraid that trying to make a missing persons report on a three hundred-year-old witch who didn't have any identification would only cause more problems.

There was nothing to do but wait, she decided. Either Ana would return or she wouldn't.

The wizard's daughter was still missing when Rourke appeared on Karinna's doorstep that evening.

"I don't know where she went," Kari said. "One minute she was watching TV and the next she was gone."

"It is not your fault."

"Then why do I feel so guilty? I should have made her feel more welcome. I should have..."

"Shh." He drew her into his arms. "Do not worry. I will find her."

"If anything happened to her..."

Closing his eyes, Rourke rested his forehead against Kari's for a moment, then muttered an oath. "She is with him."

"Him?"

"Vega."

"Ramon Vega? The vampire? How on earth did she find him?"

"I am thinking he probably found her."

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, Kari thought. "Are you going after her?"

"Yes, in a moment." Rourke's gaze held hers. "But not yet." He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her, tenderly at first and then with deepening intensity.

As always, his kiss drove everything else from Kari's mind. She leaned into him, wanting to be closer. Her pulse raced, then slowed as her heart beat in time with his. Her tongue dueled with his, then carefully explored his fangs, wondering how they could appear and disappear so quickly, wondering if it caused him pain when they popped out. She wondered about so many things....

She moaned a soft protest when he drew away.

"I will not be gone long," he promised. One more kiss, and then he was gone.

Not in a puff of smoke, exactly, but one minute he was holding her and the next he was nowhere to be seen. She wondered how he did that, too.