Hearts in Darkness (Nikki & Michael 2)

"So why are you here?” She regarded him over the top of her wineglass, her heated gaze touched by wariness.

He shrugged. “Work."

She raised an eyebrow. Wine glistened on her lips and looked like blood. His hunger stirred, as it always did when he was in her company. Her lust for blood, like her lust for life itself, was strong and always overran those not powerful enough to stand against it. As it had overrun him for more years than he cared to remember.

"The word is that you're working for some charitable organization now—that true?" He nodded and wondered if she'd been checking up on him. Though surely Seline or the Circle itself would have warned him had there been any computer searches. “Yes. I hunt down missing people, stuff like that.">He began moving up the path. She scooted after him, but found it difficult to keep up.

"You seem in an awful hurry to get somewhere,” she muttered between gasps for air. “Care to tell me what's going on?"

"We should not be seen on this trail, just in case someone does come looking for the fledglings." A perfectly good answer, but not the real reason behind his haste. Besides, he hadn't even looked at her. His gaze was focused on the hotel, now visible above them. As if he was looking for someone.

"We going to eat when we get back?” she asked. “Maybe make out? Do the wild thing in the pool in front of all the other guests?"

"You should eat."

She snorted softly. Yeah, he was really paying attention to what she was saying. They reached the plateau, but still he didn't slow. She paused, hands on her knees, and took several deep breaths. Her heart was a freight train racing in her chest, and sweat trickled down her face. Michael kept walking. Either he hadn't noticed she'd stopped, or he didn't care. She swallowed to ease the sudden dryness in her throat—a dryness that had nothing to do with her exertion and everything to do with fear. Once her breathing had eased a little, she ran after him again. She had no intention of missing whatever it was that had caught his attention so completely.

Meadow grass and wildflowers gave way to the hotel's manicured lawn. He made his way through the gardens and around to the back of the hotel. In the shadows of a large pine he stopped and studied the pool area below them.

There were several people lounging in chairs near the water, and two children splashed in the spa. But it was the woman in the pool, the woman in an itsy-bitsy red bathing suit that he stared at. Fear stepped fully into Nikki's heart, squeezing it tight. Whoever this woman was, she represented danger—and in more ways than one. That was obvious from Michael's haste to get here.

"Who is she?” she said, her voice little more than a strangled whisper.

"That,” he said softly. “Is the woman I gave up life for."

Chapter Thirteen

Nikki stared at him. The tone of his voice told her how much he'd once cared for the woman below. How much he still cared. Which didn't make sense if this woman was responsible for turning him.

"I loved her, Nikki. I willingly crossed the line."

Oh God. Just the sort of competition she needed right now, when everything was still so uncertain between them. But at least she finally understood the look on his face, the disappointment in his thoughts, when she'd asked all those months ago why on Earth anyone in their right mind would want to become a vampire. He'd made the choice, just like Monica. They'd both given up life to be with someone they loved.

She stared at the woman below. How in the hell could she fight someone with that sort of hold on him?

“What are you going to do?"

"Talk to her.” His voice was still absent, but there was a smile in his eyes, as if he were reliving old times. Nikki clenched her fists against a rush of anger. Railing against fate wasn't going to get her anywhere.

“Then?"

He shrugged. “What happens then depends very much on her answers."

"The vampires in the tunnel,” she said in sudden understanding. “They were hers?" He nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me? You brought me here to help you, Michael. But, damn it, how can I do that if you won't tell me anything?"

He finally looked at her, but his eyes were as distant as his thoughts. He was still lost in past memories.

“I had to be sure before I said anything. It's been a long time since we've seen each other, and I might have mistaken her scent."

"But if she's responsible for the vamps in the tunnel, then she might be involved with the kidnappings."

"Elizabeth likes young men, and she likes her harems, but she's not evil." She clenched her fists again and barely resisted the impulse to hit him. “How can you know something like that? How long has it been since you've seen her?"

His gaze drifted back to the woman in the pool. “Two hundred years." Two hundred years, and still he carried a torch for her. Nikki's throat felt so dry it ached. “Two hundred years is a long time, Michael. Anything could have happened in that time."

"She's close to eight hundred years old. If she was going to change, she would have done so long before I met her."