In the Witching Hour Read online

“Adrian!” The anguish in her voice brought him back. Beyond her left shoulder he could see the dull glow of a boat on fire. Damp clothes clung to her body and lake water slicked her hair to her head. “Hopefully Frazier heard my call for back-up and help is on the way.”

  “No!” he managed to croak out.

  “You need help. You need to go to a hospital.”

  “The hospital can’t help me.” Every moment was a painful exercise in endurance. He just wanted to fade into the seductive blankness that beckoned. With any luck there wouldn’t be anything else waiting for him on the other side.

  “But you’re injured,” she insisted.

  “I’m dying. And no amount of medical science can save me.” He met her anguished gaze. “I’m far beyond the realm of science of any kind.”

  Something stirred in her eyes. A faint hope. “I know.”

  She said the words calmly. Most people would have run screaming, but not his dark-haired detective. Even faced with the unbelievable, she was willing to meet it head on.

  “I know what can save you,” she said softly. With one hand she pulled the collar of her wet t-shirt down, exposing her neck.

  “Don’t!” He turned his head away. In his weakened condition the promise of her blood was unbearable. He wouldn’t be able to control himself. He couldn’t count on stopping before he’d drunk every drop in her body. Not to mention that once his saliva had contaminated her bloodstream, he’d have to turn her, or she’d die. “It doesn’t work that way,” he managed to choke out. “It would kill you.”

  “But—,” she started to say.

  “Don’t grieve for me, Kiana. I’m more than deserving of my fate. Trust me, you don’t want to be like me.”

  She hadn’t so much as mentioned the word vampire, he realized. Perhaps she was having a harder time handling it than he suspected.

  “There must be someone who can help you.”

  Her words seemed to come from far away. He sank further into the cottony darkness. Just as he was about to surrender completely, the image of a female vampire with dark hair and sapphire eyes drifted through his mind. “Melinda…,” he whispered.

  “Who is Melinda?” Kiana’s nails dug into his arms. “Can she help you?”

  “She might,” he breathed. “Or not.”

  “She will,” Kiana insisted. “Or I’ll put her in jail.”

  The thought of Melinda in jail made him laugh weakly.

  “Tell me where to find her.”

  Darkness washed over in him a inky wave. He thought he told her, but he couldn’t be sure.

  He surfaced what felt like a long time later. Voices seemed to come from far away. Familiar voices. Arguing.

  He was lying on something soft. Someone had covered him with a thick blanket. Wan daylight shone in a bright circle around the heavy drapery that covered the window.

  Not a hospital, he thought with relief. He concentrated on the angry conversation taking place just outside the door.

  “I advise you not to do this, Melinda.” A male voice. One he knew very well. Valdemar. Val royally pissed off was not a good thing. If Valdemar had his way, he’d already be dead. “The last thing we need is to be involved in more of Adrian’s sordid affairs.”

  A deep female sigh, then, “We’re already involved, Val. He brought a police officer here.”

  “A human detective,” Val said.

  “Not the kind of person he usually hangs out with.” Melinda sounded worried.

  Adrian smiled slightly, despite the pain in his battered body. Valdemar was going to lose this argument. He just didn’t know it yet.

  “If I had to guess, I’d say there’s more between them than she’s letting on.”

  A long silence. Then Valdemar said, “Even if I was to agree to this mad plan, Adrian needs more blood than either you or I can spare.”

  “Cornelius might help,” Melinda offered.

  “I have no idea if Neil’s in town.”

  The door creaked open slightly. He caught a glimpse of her ocean-blue eyes as she peered inside. “Call him, Val. I’ll see what I can do.”

  “I can’t talk you out of it?”

  She shook her head.

  “I guess I can always kill him later,” Valdemar muttered, and walked off down the hall. From further away he heard him murmur something to Kiana. Then their voices faded into silence.

  The door opened more fully.

  “C’mon, Adrian, I know you’re awake.” Despite what she’d said to Valdemar, Melinda looked extremely displeased to see him. The bed gave as she sat down beside him. He looked at her mournfully.

  “Okay, out with it. And I want the truth. What is your relationship with that cute little detective in the living room?”

  “I love her,” he rasped. His voice, like the rest of him was one breath away from sliding into oblivion forever.

  “Your girlfriend is a police officer?” Melinda said incredulously. “Why does that have bad idea written all over it?”

  “Don’t look at me that way,” he objected feebly. “I sure didn’t plan it this way. It just happened.”

  “And Moira was a pirate?” Melinda shook her head. Obviously, Valdemar had filled her in on a few of the more salacious details of his history. “Why am I not surprised?”

  He opened his mouth for a pithy reply, but something warm covered his lips. He protested weakly, but something hot and salty filled his mouth. He swallowed, tasting her blood. It flowed into his body, repairing damaged cells as it went, giving him back the life Gaston had stolen from him.

  Adrian reached up to cradle her wrist gently against his mouth. A sigh involuntarily escaped her lips. He tried to take her life essence tenderly, not to demand too much, but his need overrode his best intentions and as he regained his strength he began to suck more powerfully.

  Abruptly, he was yanked away from the source of that heavenly essence. He tried to hang on, but strong arms held him down. He bared his teeth and snarled at the gift being withheld from him.

  “Now you see him how he truly is,” Valdemar remarked.

  He didn’t remember the other vampire arriving. He didn’t remember anything after Melinda had offered him her blood. His teeth snapped empty air as Valdemar held him away from her by the scruff of his neck. “Easy Adrian,” Valdemar growled. “Do that again and you’ll be meeting your maker regardless of what Melinda wants.” He shot his lover a warning look.

  “Val—,” Melinda protested weakly.

  “That’s enough, Melinda. As soon as it is dark, you must hunt.”

  Behind them the door opened. Cornelius stepped into the room. It had been years since Adrian had seen his former friend. Like the rest of them, Cornelius hadn’t changed very much. He still wore like long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. But his hazel eyes were wary. His gaze snapped from Melinda to Valdemar, then focused for a long moment on him, sizing up the situation.

  “Has anyone noticed that there’s a police officer in the living room?” he asked.

  “Yes,” said Melinda and Valdemar in unison.

  “A detective who probably shouldn’t be left alone too long in a vampire’s home,” Valdemar said pointedly. “I’ll go see to her.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Melinda offered.

  “You should lie down,” Valdemar told her. “You need to rest until sundown.”

  The female vampire looked unusually pale, even for one of her kind, Adrian thought. Had he truly taken that much?

  Instantly, he knew the answer. Her blood thrummed through his veins, repairing the damage that Gaston had done—but he needed more. Drained nearly to the point of death, he needed a massive infusion of blood.

  Still eyeing him warily, Cornelius sat down on the bed beside him. “Well,” he remarked finally. “You look like hell, but then I suppose you have looked worse.”

  “Neil—,” he started to say, but the vampire held up a hand to silence him. “Don’t. The less I know the better.”

  Adrian nodded soberly
.

  “I assume you’re going to square things up with the lady police officer?”

  “I’ll vouch for her,” he said. “She’s made of sterner stuff than she looks.”

  Cornelius raised his arm and bit into the tender flesh on the inside of his wrist. Bending over, he offered the crimson drops of blood to Adrian. “I hope you appreciate this because you’re really not my type….”

  Adrian laughed once. Then he was lost in the vampire’s healing blood.

  Kiana leapt to her feet as the dark haired vampire and his petite girlfriend entered the room. Valdemar and Melinda, Adrian had called them. She didn’t care what their names were. When she’d arrived, they’d whisked Adrian away into some dark corner of the rambling modern castle they lived in. She hadn’t seen him since. Phones rang. People moved around in the corridors above, but no one had told her a thing.

  “Where have you taken Adrian?”

  “Adrian’s going to be fine,” the woman said. “Try not to worry. We’ll take care of him.”

  “I want to see him.”

  “In a little while,” Valdemar said. She found it hard to look away from his dark eyes. He had an intensity that grabbed her attention and held it. She refused to be swayed.

  “I want to see him, now!” She put every ounce of authority she possessed into the command, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on either of the vampires. That’s what they were. She forced herself to believe the impossible. That’s what Adrian was. She didn’t know what to think about that. She’d wait until she was certain Adrian wasn’t going to die to even consider the possibility.

  “Adrian’s … recovering,” Melinda said kindly.

  Kiana focused on the petite vampire. She seemed unusually pale and tired, but she radiated power from every pore. Long dark hair flowed over her shoulders. Blue eyes practically glowed in that pallid face. But in spite of the awkwardness of the situation, she seemed almost … nice.

  In contrast, her lover Valdemar had dark curly hair and brown eyes that bordered on black. He loomed over Melinda, glowering. It was plain that if it had been up to him, he would have left Adrian to perish—and that made her nervous.

  “Yo, Val,” someone called from the floor above. “Your turn.”

  A wordless glance passed between Melinda and Valdemar. He nodded almost imperceptibly to the female vampire, and then disappeared down one of the innumerable corridors.

  “Sit down.” Melinda indicated the leather couch that stood before a heavily-curtained window. She perched on the edge of it. Melinda sat down beside her. “You have to understand that Adrian is not really a friend of ours.”

  That didn’t sound so good. Kiana started to stand up to go in search of Adrian herself. Melinda put a calming hand on her arm. “We will help him,” the vampire continued, “but this help comes with a price.”

  “What kind of price?” Kiana asked, her mouth suddenly dry.

  Crystal blue eyes locked with hers. “Your silence.”

  Duty warred with love. She did love Adrian, far more than she’d ever thought it possible to care for another person, but she was a police officer. She’d promised to serve and protect the citizens of the city. Now she’d learned that there were vampires and who knew what else prowling the streets at night. She had a duty, but exercising that duty might mean hurting the man she loved. “I don’t know if I can do that….”

  The intensity in those eyes increased. “You must.”

  Her words hung in the silence between them.

  Suddenly it all made sense. Frazier had already made the same choice. He’d tried to keep her away from Adrian because he knew the truth about his nature. For reasons unknown to her, he had agreed to keep Adrian’s secret.

  “Think of it this way, detective….” Melinda’s voice broke into her thoughts. She couldn’t miss the emphasis on her rank. “Adrian helped you stop a criminal who would have almost certainly taken more lives in this city—and he did so without thought for his own safety or his own life.”

  “That’s true,” Kiana admitted. “He’s been helping my partner catch criminals for years.”

  “As far as I’m aware, there is no law against being a vampire.”

  The way the young woman said it, it seemed so reasonable. “He saved my life,” she mused. “I would have been killed.”

  And Frazier trusted him. Frazier! She’d been so worried about Adrian, she hadn’t even thought about getting in touch with her partner. Somehow she had to notify him that they were okay. But not until she knew Adrian would be all right.

  The vampire was still staring at her waiting for her agreement.

  “Okay,” she said finally. “I don’t know how I’m going to make all of this work, but your secret is safe with me.”

  Melinda smiled, showing tiny fangs, and making Kiana wonder what she’d just agreed to.

  Upstairs a door opened and then closed. Footsteps echoed along the hallway.

  “Come,” Melinda said. “I’ll take you to see Adrian.”

  The ostentatious castle had myriad rooms, Kiana thought as Melinda led her to a door that looked just like every other door on an endless corridor. She had to admit it appealed to her sense of humor that two vampires lived in a modern house done up to look like a medieval castle. Aside from their choice of living quarters, they seemed somehow … well, normal.

  “I’ll leave you two alone,” Melinda said, reaching forward to turn the door handle. “Just yell if you need anything.” She smiled reassuringly. “We have very good hearing. We’ll hear you.”

  With that she strode off down the hallway, leaving Kiana alone.

  She pushed the door open and looked inside. Adrian sat up in bed, leaning weakly against the headboard. Mud from the lake still caked his blond hair, but he’d lost the deathly pallor his skin had had before.

  His emerald green eyes locked with hers as she crossed the room and sat down beside him.

  “So,” he said. “Now you know.”

  She nodded.

  “I’m sorry Kiana, I should have told you. Especially, before we….” He let the sentence trail off. “I never meant for that to happen.”

  So he felt it too. “Neither did I,” she admitted.

  He looked relieved to hear that.

  “Are you going to be okay?” she asked him.

  He smiled and in spite of the shock he’d given her, she had to admit, it was a very appealing smile. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” His smiled faded. “What about you? Are you going to be okay with all of this?”

  She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  “So, what now?” Adrian asked. He looked uncharacteristically nervous.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What about us?”

  The question hung in the air. Kiana spread her hands. “I don’t know. Can a vampire and a—”

  “Human?” he supplied.

  “Could they have a relationship together?”

  “I don’t know,” Adrian admitted. “I guess that part is up to us.”

  It sounded so simple the way he said it. And maybe it was, she realized suddenly.

  Outside the sun was setting. She could tell by the red glow around the velvet drapery. She glanced back at Adrian’s hopeful expression. Vampire or no, she wanted him. In her heart she’d never been so sure of anything else.

  She rested her head on his shoulder. He leaned his head against hers. For several minutes neither said anything. The only sound came from the distant rush of traffic on the nearby highway.

  Adrian stirred. His silken hair brushed her cheek. Then she felt the velvet touch of his lips. “The others will be going out,” he murmured against her mouth. “They’ve donated a great deal of blood to me, and they’ll need to…” He let the sentence trail off.

  “Feed?” she supplied.

  He nodded gravely. He stroked the side of her cheek. “Don’t worry, Kiana. It’s not as gruesome as you’re thinking.”

  “But won’t they have to
take human blood? To kill?”

  Adrian shook his head. “Animal blood will suffice in a pinch. And bagged donated blood can also substitute.”

  Kiana didn’t even want to contemplate how they came by that.

  “These days no one wants to risk being discovered,” Adrian was saying. “That’s what made Gaston so unusual.”

  Kiana barely heard him. She was thinking back to the previous winter when a junkie had frozen to death sleeping on the sidewalk. At the time the unseasonably cold night mixed with a massive dose of heroin seemed like a plausible cause of death. But now she couldn’t help wondering about the numerous puncture wounds on the underside of his arms, behind his knees and on his ankles…anywhere there were veins to drink from. She opened her mouth to ask him about that, but Adrian traced the line of her jaw with a finger.

  “You don’t need to worry about my friends.”

  He leaned in for another very thorough kiss that made her concerns seem far away. But there was still one nagging worry in the back of her mind.

  “What about me?” She struggled for the words. “Don’t you want my blood? I could have sworn that when we were … you know … that you.…”

  “I can’t drink your blood,” he said softly. “It doesn’t work the way it does in the movies. You don’t just indiscriminately bite someone and make them a vampire. I’d have to take your blood several times to initiate the change. And then you’d have to drink mine to complete the transformation.”

  “And if you only bit me once?”

  “My saliva would contaminate your bloodstream and eventually kill you.” He was watching her very carefully, staring at her with an open, hopeful expression.

  There was one thing she needed to know. “But wouldn’t you want to? Drink my blood, I mean.”

  He stroked her back in lazy circles. “It isn’t necessary for me to drink your blood to enjoy lovemaking.”

  “But you’d want to, wouldn’t you?”

  “It’s easier for me to resist if I’m well fed.”

  He gave her a moment to digest all he’d told her. Then he said, “I love you, Kiana. I would never do anything to hurt you.”

  She gazed into his emerald eyes recognizing the truth she saw in them. “This is going to be a complicated relationship, isn’t it?”