Night's Touch (Children of The Night 2)

“You needed blood,” Brenna said, squeezing his hand.

“You should have asked Di Giorgio.”

“I wanted to,” Brenna said, “but Cara insisted.”

Roshan looked at his daughter. He could feel her blood flowing through his veins; he had but to wish it to read her thoughts. “I never wanted you to see, to know…”

“It’s all right,” Cara said, forcing a smile.

“No.” He closed his eyes, as if he could shut it from his mind. “No, it’s not.”

Still holding Roshan’s hand, Brenna looked at her daughter. “What happened back there?”

“Anton’s mother used our blood to raise a man from the dead,” Cara said. She folded her arms across her chest, as if she had a sudden chill. “Only something went wrong.” She shivered, remembering the crazed look in the witch’s eyes. “Anton ran out of the lab and the thing went after him.” She shivered again. “I thought it was coming after me.”

“What of the witch?” Roshan asked.

“Serafina’s dead,” Brenna said without regret.

“If her incantation didn’t raise Anton’s father, what did it raise?” Cara asked.

“A zombie, I would imagine,” Brenna replied. “If it finds Anton…”

The unfinished sentence hung in the air. There was no telling what would happen to Anton if the creature Serafina had raised found him, Cara thought. The creature hadn’t seemed to believe Serafina’s claim that Anton was his son, or had that enraged “No!” been a horrified response to finding himself resurrected in such a ghastly form? Did he even know who he was, or was he simply a shell of a man without a mind, without a soul?

Cara couldn’t help feeling a twinge of guilt. If she had been a virgin, would Anthony Loken have risen whole and healthy from the grave?

“Let’s go downstairs,” Brenna said. “Roshan needs to rest.”

“And I need to take the baby to the police,” Cara said, lifting the infant into her arms.

“Speaking of the police,” Vince said, “shouldn’t we be reporting the fact that Anton kidnapped Cara?”

“No,” Roshan said, his voice gruff but firm. “No police.”

“Why the hell not?” Vince asked, but even as he spoke the words, he knew the answer. The last thing DeLongpre wanted was a bunch of cops coming around asking questions.

“We’ll take care of this ourselves,” Roshan said.

“What about the baby?” Cara asked. She stroked the infant’s downy cheek with her finger. “Poor little thing. We’ve got to get him back to his parents as soon as we can.”

Roshan was silent a moment, then sighed heavily. “You’re right. Go.”

“I’ll go with her,” Vince said.

“Take Frank, too,” Brenna said, following the two of them down the stairs.

“Maybe he should stay here, with you,” Cara suggested.

Brenna shook her head. “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of things here. Frank…”

She frowned. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know,” Cara said, cuddling the baby. “Maybe he went to his place.”

“It’s not like him to just take off without telling anyone,” Brenna said, frowning.

“We’ll go by his house,” Cara said. “Be sure to lock the door behind us.”

Brenna looked at her daughter and smiled. “Anyone who comes here tonight will get more trouble than he’s looking for.”

Chapter 33

When he reached home, Anton drove into the garage and hit the control to close the garage door. Breathing heavily, he sat there for several minutes, his forehead resting on the steering wheel while he relived the horror of the last half hour. For a moment, he had been certain his mother’s incantation had worked. She had actually raised his father’s body from the crypt, only the creature that had risen from the coffin wasn’t his father at all, but some mindless zombie.

Anton had bolted out of the laboratory with the creature right on his heels. Who’d have thought that something so decayed could move so fast? If his car door had been locked, he would have been a goner. As it was, he had managed to get behind the wheel and lock the door scant moments ahead of the creature. He had started the car and taken off in a cloud of dust and gravel. Just thinking about it was enough to give him the shakes.

He cursed viciously, damning Cara DeLongpre and her whole wretched family. It was all the girl’s fault. She was supposed to be a maiden. How could they have made such a mistake? Anton would have bet his last dollar that she had never been with a man, but if that was true, his father would be here now and his mother would still be alive.

Getting out of the car, he went into the house through the door that connected the garage to the kitchen; then, his mind in turmoil, he moved from room to room, making sure that all the doors and windows were closed and locked.

What would he do if DeLongpre went to the police and reported that he had kidnapped Cara? He told himself there was nothing to worry about, that the vampire wouldn’t want to get the police involved, but what if he was wrong? Cara had nothing to fear from the police. And what about the baby? They couldn’t arrest him for taking the kid, although he thought they might be able to hold him as an accessory. Perhaps he could somehow cast all the blame on his mother…But it wasn’t the police or what they could do to him that worried him. It was the vampire, DeLongpre.

Damn! Maybe he should just pack up and leave town tonight! Tempting as the thought was, he knew he couldn’t go off and leave his mother’s body lying in the basement of the lab like so much refuse, and yet he recoiled from the thought of going back.

Guilt roared through him as he recalled the cowardly way he had bolted out of the building, leaving his mother behind. What if she wasn’t dead after all? He salved his conscience by telling himself it was the only option he’d had. After all, what else could he have done? Staying would have been akin to committing suicide. This whole catastrophe was Cara’s fault. If she had been pure, the incantation would have worked and his father would be here now. Instead, his mother was dead and there was a zombie running loose in the city.

Going into the kitchen, Anton took a bottle of Irish whiskey from the cupboard and poured himself a stiff drink. Like it or not, he had to go back and get his mother’s body. He owed her that much, though he had no idea how he would explain her death.