Fury Calls (12 page)

Diana was the first to arrive. Even in jeans instead of her requisite suit, she was all business. She stepped into the apartment and scoped out the room, clearly expecting to encounter the vampire elder.

“She's not here yet.”

Diana chuckled. “She has to make her appearance.”

Holding out her hand, Meghan invited Diana into the living room, where she had laid out some wine and glasses. She hoped to keep things friendly, and Diana must have picked up on that, since she said, “Worried that Stacia and I won't play nice?”

“Actually, I'm not sure how I'll handle being with her.”

Diana chuckled once again and shook her head. “So the rumor about Stacia and Blake is true?”

She shrugged. “Heard you and Stacia have some history as well.”

“Much the same history that you have with her. I don't like anyone messing with my man.” Anger finally colored the other woman's words as she took a spot on the sofa.

Meghan understood. “Blake and I…I'm not quite certain he's…That we're…” She tossed her hands up, fumbling for the words.

“Being in love with a vampire…” Diana shrugged, apparently also at a loss. “It's confusing, and Stacia's involvement with the men—all of them, it seems—just complicates things. Let's hope she'll be able to provide some information tonight to make up for it.”

A harsh laugh escaped Meghan. “Maybe the supernatural slut will have something worthwhile to spill.”

A knock came, but not at the door.

Meghan rose and approached the window where another impatient rap sounded sharply against the glass.

Perched on the ledge, Stacia was a dark silhouette against the night sky.

Meghan opened the window and Stacia seemed to float into the apartment. A sheer black wrap, which covered a wealth of black leather, billowed behind her with an unseen wind. As she drifted by, Stacia patted her cheek the way a maiden aunt might a child's and smiled indulgently.

“So nice to see you again, little one.”

Hostility rose up in her at Stacia's dismissal and the vampire elder must have sensed it since she shot Meghan a vexed look.

“Getting bold, are we?” Stacia asked, her gaze darkening, but then Diana rose from the sofa. Stacia's features filled with yearning, and inside of Meghan came the pull of need that Stacia's elder power was casting off.

Meghan shook off the sensation and walked to where
Stacia and Diana stood, staring at each other across the coffee table. Diana stood with her arms crossed, legs braced about a foot apart, as if she might need to spring into action at any second. A harsh glare had settled onto her features, leaving no doubt about her feelings toward the vampire elder.

Stacia seemed to have copied Diana's pose, but a bemused smile tempered the earlier ferocity of her look, masking her yearning as well. As Meghan approached them, Stacia addressed Diana.

“
Mia amica
. It's been too long since we've been together.”

Been together?
Meghan wondered at the odd choice of words.

“In your dreams, Stacia,” Diana rejoined.

Stacia laughed huskily and, as she gracefully settled herself in a nearby chair, she said, “And in yours, Diana. Do you not realize it is only a matter of time before you come to me?”

Meghan had obviously stepped into something that went well beyond Stacia's dalliances with most of the male vampires in Manhattan. At the thought of Stacia and Blake together, confusion and outrage reemerged. As she neared to pour them some wine, her feelings drew Stacia's attention once more.

“Jealous, little one? Do you want a taste of my passion for yourself?”

She almost purred as she stroked Meghan's cheek.

“Get over yourself. I've no interest in sloppy seconds.” Meghan needed to deny her interest in Blake as a matter of self-preservation against the vampire
elder. She knew Stacia would gladly jump on any sign of weakness.

“Nor am I,” Diana said. To Meghan's relief, Stacia seemed amused by their comments. She merely shook her head with mirth while Diana resumed her seat on the opposite side of the coffee table.

Meghan poured the wine and offered each of the women a glass. She filled her own to the brim, suspecting she would need the additional fortification before the night was out.

When they were seated, Diana skipped the preliminaries and went straight to the core of their problem. “Heard tell that you know about this drug that seems to be responsible for what's been going on at Otro Mundo.”

Stacia shrugged and shifted in her chair, eased one leg over the arm. The pose was both casual and sensual, making Meghan think of her lying on a settee while she waited to be served. “A thousand years ago, sanguinarium became all the rage in more ways than one.”

“The drug makes a vampire's bloodlust uncontrollable?” Diana asked.

With a husky laugh, Stacia said, “It was never about the bloodlust,
mia amica.
That was just a nasty side effect.”

Diana leaned forward, her elbows braced on her knees as she loosely held the glass of wine in her hands. “So what was it about the drug that made it so popular?”

“The desire,” Stacia immediately answered. “Think of it as Viagra for vamps. Just a few drops and a vampire's body would be sexually supercharged. Filled with immense need.”

“And intense satisfaction,” Diana said.

Stacia slowly slung her leg over the edge of the chair and rose. The air in the room seemed to grow thick, and within her, Meghan suddenly felt a deep throb that grew in intensity in achingly slow moments. She sucked in a breath, battling the urge and heard Diana's sharp gasp.

“Imagine this,
cara
,” Stacia said, clearly in control of both her and Diana. “Imagine this feeling for hours on end. Imagine that every touch, every caress, brings infinite satisfaction. Release beyond anything you can imagine.”

With those words and a careless flick of her hand, the vampire elder released them from her control.

Diana immediately shot up from her seat, her body shaking with anger. “Don't ever use your vamp energy on me again, Stacia.”

“Or what,
cara?
You'll cuff me? That might be fun,” Stacia said with a wicked laugh as she curled back into her seat like a pleased cat.

Diana hesitated, clearly battling with herself before she finally said, “Pray that you never push me that far.”

Stacia waved her hand dismissively and took a sip of her wine. “Do you need to know anything else?”

Diana handled Stacia blowing her off more gracefully than Meghan had expected. Maybe it was because the agent was used to uncooperative suspects. With a bracing breath, Diana continued her questioning. “So if none of the men knew about the drug—”

“All of the men are too young. Sanguinarium was outlawed hundreds of years before they were turned,” Stacia said.

“So only the elders would know about it. But where would someone get their hands on it?” Meghan asked, needing to do more than just sit there.

Stacia quirked a brow at her. “When the drug was outlawed, any stashes of it were destroyed. Anyone caught selling or using the drug was put to death.”

“Death seems like a pretty extreme punishment.”

“You've seen what it can do, little one. The bloodlust that comes with the passion is nearly impossible to control, and if the lust isn't sated, the vamp may expire from the want. Dead vampires and humans started turning up everywhere, their bodies ravaged as the sanguinarium user tried to satisfy their hunger.”

“And too many bodies around is never good, is it,
amiga?
” Diana offered as explanation.

Stacia's mood sombered. She turned in her seat and, with her eyes downcast, said, “Vampires used to live peacefully in Rome, and then the troubles started. We were rounded up. Destroyed by the hundreds. To survive, we had to go underground.”

She raised her face then and no doubt remained about her anguish. “We managed to stay peacefully in our own underworld until the bodies began to show up again. People started hunting down all of our kind once more, threatening our existence.”

Diana nodded. “I understand.”

“There's not an elder I know that would risk another slaughter like the many we've managed to survive,” Stacia said, slowly rising from her chair.

Diana did the same, only this time there was something different in her stance, Meghan realized. Unex
pectedly, Diana rounded the coffee table, walked up to Stacia and wrapped her arms around the vampire elder.

Stacia was stiff in her arms for a moment before she freed her emotions and embraced the other woman.

They were so alike, physically and spiritually, that it was almost like seeing double, Meghan realized, until the two women pulled apart and the moment of connection between them snapped.

“If you hear anything about this—”

“I'll be sure to call,” Stacia said. With the same kind of theatrics she used to make her entrance, she made her exit, her sheer, black chiffon wrap trailing behind her, seemingly waving them goodbye as she leapt out the window.

“That is one piece of work,” Meghan said.

“One of a kind,” Diana agreed, shaking her head. She walked back to the sofa, picked up her glass and took a bracing sip of wine.

Meghan fiddled with her glass, considering Stacia's words. “So if none of the elders she knows would do this, who is it?”

“It may be someone new in town. Anyone you can think of?”

One person came to mind immediately. “That new vampire at the Blood Bank—Sun Tze Lee—the Kiang-shi. He's nasty.”

“Have you and Blake been able to get any more info on him?”

She shook her head. “Not really. All I can tell you is that he creeps me out.”

Diana chuckled. “It's always good to go with your gut, Meghan. It never fails you.”

“Unlike your heart,” Meghan surprised herself by saying.

A melancholy cast slipped over Diana's features. “Your heart can sometimes lead you places that can only bring you a world of hurt.”

She met the other woman's gaze. Sorrow had taken hold there, darkening the brown of her eyes until they were almost black. “You regret what you have with Ryder?”

A flicker of pain passed across Diana's features. “I regret how little time I'll have with him.”

As Meghan considered her, she realized that Diana possibly wasn't referring to the whole “I'll grow old and die and you won't” part of loving a vampire. Before she could say anything, Diana asked, “What's up with you and Blake?”

Meghan wished she could say what was up, but her feelings were too uncertain. “We've hooked up, only…it's hard to forget the past. How he stole my life.”

“Your mortal life. But now you've got another life—an eternal one that he's already saved,” Diana said, reminding her of how Blake had helped her years earlier when she had been kidnapped.

“Do you think that's a fair trade? Losing my fairly happy humanity for an eternally lonely existence?”

The FBI agent smiled, but the smile didn't reach those now nearly fathomless eyes. Eyes that clearly had seen more than their share of anguish in the course of Diana's relatively young life.

“The rest of your undead life doesn't have to be lonely. Look at Ryder and me,” she said, only Meghan
recognized the lie in her words. Diana didn't believe in happily-ever-after, and neither could she.

With the kind of world both of them had been thrust into, nothing could ever end happily, she thought, which made her reconsider what she was doing with Blake.

Whether she was only opening herself up to a whole new world of loss.

Better she guard her heart once again because an eternal life of loneliness beat one filled with endless heartache.

T
wo days later, time seemed to pass slowly in the Otro Mundo kitchen as Meghan worked. Anticipating the upcoming meeting with Ryder, Diana and Diego made every action seem long and drawn out. She hoped they'd been able to learn more than she had about the killings. And adding to her edginess was her reticence about Blake, which made every interaction with him awkward.

When the last of the workers had been fed and the kitchen was spotless, it was nearly midnight. Blake and she reunited at the door to the alley.

“Is everything all right, love? You seemed distant tonight,” he said, laying a hand on her shoulder.

She shrugged off his touch and stepped away from him, earning Blake's perplexed look. “Meghan?”

“I'm just worried, that's all. Stacia—”

“Don't let her get to you,” he urged, and reached for her again.

“Like she got to you?” she challenged, but then shook her head. “Sorry. I know why you did it.”

“And it won't happen again, love. I promise,” he said. At her nod, they walked together to the meeting in the office where Diego, Ryder and Diana were already seated.

The three were having some brandy and, when they entered, offered them a drink. Blake quickly accepted, but she demurred. She had never been much of a drinker, and she blamed Mr. Cuervo in part for her decision to go to the back rooms with Blake that long ago night.

The civility of the drinks and the genteel sipping that ensued seemed at odds with the reason for their gathering. Since she was eager for news, she pressed forward after she and Blake sat down on the sofa.

“Have you found out anything, Diana?”

Diana was sitting at Diego's desk in one of the chairs that had been turned to face the sofa. Diego and Ryder stood on either side of her, looking like the muscle in a movie star's entourage. Diana took a sip of her brandy and nodded before beginning. “In studying vampire blood, Melissa discovered that in addition to the typical human blood cells, there are two vampire cell strains.”

“Why was she playing with vampire blood?” Blake asked, earning a glare from Ryder and a sharp command for silence from Diego.

“Sorry. Forgot that I'm just the hired help here,” he said, as he leaned back and took a sip from his snifter.

“The second of the vampire cell strains,” Diana continued, “is rather fragile and survives just a short time after the blood is drawn from the vampire.”

It was apparently Diego's turn to be impatient. “What does this have to do with the outlawed sanguinarium drug?”

“Melissa confirmed that the dead vamp's blood contained similar trace elements to those left in the vial, so the vamp had clearly used the drug. She also found that there was an abnormally large amount of the one strain and the total absence of the more fragile cells in the dead vamp's blood.”

Meghan spoke up. “So this vampire crack causes one kind of cell to go crazy and destroys the second?”

Diana nodded. “Apparently it's the fragile strain that keeps control. Without them the bigger cells, which seem to deal with healing and vamp power, go wild and create—”

“Horny, demented, throat-slashing bloodsuckers,” Blake chimed in. “So how do we stop a vamp who's stoned on this stuff?”

Ryder shrugged and crossed his arms. “Melissa is still working on an antidote. What have you been able to find out?”

Blake squirmed in his chair and uneasily glanced at Meghan from the corner of his eye. “I talked to Foley at the Blood Bank. Seems he's not the owner of the club.”

“Really? That's news. So who is?” Diego asked, clearly surprised by Blake's revelation.

Meghan replied at once. “The kiang-shi. Lee has been behind the scenes from the very beginning.”

This earned a questioning look from Blake. “Found that out while you were having your little tête-à-tête with the Chinaman, did you?” A hint of jealousy filled his voice.

“I did. So what else did you learn during your little
mano a mano
with Foley?”

Blake shifted to avoid the glances of the others and slugged down a healthy gulp of the brandy. “Nothing that's pertinent to this discussion.”

“And you've made that determination because you're suddenly an expert on criminal investigations?” Diana asked, arching one brow in challenge.

“What Foley and I discussed is private and personal. Nothing else to say about it.” He fidgeted in his seat once more and Diana must have decided that there was no sense pressing him. Looking up at Diego, she said, “So what happened with Maximillian and Hadrian?”

Diego leaned back against the edge of the desk and looked downward, his discomfort clear. “Hadrian has too much to lose right now to be involved in this.”

“Too much to lose? Like what?” Ryder pressed.

From across the room Meghan sensed Diego's reticence to answer. Whatever he had to tell them was going to be a bombshell, she suspected, but she wasn't prepared for what Diego said next.

“His new wife is pregnant.”

A stunned stillness settled over the room. Involuntarily Meghan's hand fluttered upward to rest over her abdomen. “Pregnant? And she's a—”

“Vampire. He sired her after she'd been mortally wounded during a robbery. That siring produced—”

“A baby,” Diana said with such a heartfelt sigh that
Meghan felt her own heart clutch with pain. Diana's head jerked to Ryder and then to Diego.

“How is that possible?” she asked in whispered disbelief.

“It's rare, but…” Diego laid a hand on Diana's shoulder. “If a woman is fertile at the time of siring and mating occurs, there's a very small chance that a child can be conceived.”

Meghan rubbed her hand over her barren belly. It hadn't struck her until that moment that there might have been one glimmer of humanity still possible in her undead life. Clearly Diana felt the same way, judging from the wistful look that came to her face, only…

Diana was still mortal, she thought. Making a baby with Ryder was therefore a possibility. It was a possibility Meghan had been robbed of thanks to…

Blake.

Thanks to him, there was nothing left of a normal life anymore. No husband. No kids.

No happily-ever-after.

Pain filled her at that thought and must have communicated itself to Blake from the special connection they shared.

He reached out and laid a hand over hers, stilled the nervous motion of it against her empty womb.

“I'm sorry, Meghan. Truly I am.”

His words could never make up for not only her barren womb, but for the stark eternal life she had envisioned one time too many.

Emotion swelled over her, so overwhelming that she ran from the room and back to the pantry. She laid her
arms against the wall and buried her head against them, fought a losing battle with the tears and sobs that rattled the bones of her body.

A second later she felt his touch on her arm, but she didn't turn, didn't release herself to the comfort he offered.

Instead, Blake wrapped his arms around her waist. Leaning his head close to her ear, he said, “I wish I could take it all back, but I can't.”

No, he couldn't, she thought. But the bigger question left to be answered was whether he could be the one to change her future. To possibly give her the hope that life eternal could hold some joy and not just loneliness.

He held her for long moments, gentling her with his presence, as if trying to convince her that her current undead state didn't need to amount to endless solitude. Look at Diego and Ramona, she told herself. And Hadrian and his pregnant wife.

She drove away the thoughts of all she had lost, sucked in a long, settling breath and gathered herself. Turning, she said, “We need to go back in so we can find out what they want us to do next.”

“If that's what you want to do.” He cupped her cheeks and wiped away the trails of tears with his thumbs.

“It's what we need to do,” she said and moved away from him, but he was quick to act.

“Don't run away from me, Meghan. I know all of this is unexpected—”

“That's an understatement,” she confessed.

He leaned his forehead against hers and dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “Trust in this, love. Give it the time it needs to develop.”

“I guess time is one thing we have plenty of, isn't it?”

He recognized the bitterness of her words and backed away. “I'll take you home after this, if you'd rather.”

Meghan thought of the large, empty apartment awaiting her if she took him up on his offer. She had been rattling around the rooms for months, almost lost. As luxurious as it was, it didn't feel like home.

She had to admit to herself that the apartment didn't provide her the kind of comfort she had experienced since setting foot in Blake's unusual apartment.

With a quick hitch of her shoulders, she said, “Your place is…cozier.”

Blake chuckled, clearly trying to keep the tone of their talk light. “
Cozy
being a right proper euphemism for
small.
”

She smiled reluctantly. “Nope.
Cozy
being another word for
homey.
Comfortable,” she added at the last minute, surprising even herself with the confession.

Blake made her feel comfortable. She had never expected to feel that way about the man who had irrevocably changed the course of her life, but she did. As baffled as she was by all that she was feeling, she had taken the time to consider Diana's words of the other day and her fears about future heartache. She had realized that in the years since he turned her, Blake had been there to protect her time and time again. That he had made himself a part of her circle of friends, always there to lend a hand. Always there without being asked or even appreciated.

He had been proving himself for years, only she had
never been willing to accept it or him. Even now, she feared to believe as he asked, but maybe if she did…

Maybe some things were possible.

He slipped his hand into hers without saying anything as if he knew that by speaking he would splinter the fragile trust she had bestowed with her earlier words.

She accepted that silence and followed him back to the office. All eyes were on them as they reentered and took their places again. As they sat, she slowly pulled her hand from his, wanting to guard what was happening between them for the moment. It was still too new, too fragile and too uncertain for her to shout out about it with any public displays of affection.

“What do we do next?” she asked, wanting to return to the reason for the meeting.

Ryder spoke first. “Melissa is going to try and isolate the active ingredient in the drug that causes the imbalance between the two cell strains. If she can do that, she may be able to create an antidote that will neutralize the drug's effects and end the bloodlust.”

Diana immediately jumped in and added, “You two should head to the Blood Bank again. See if there's anything that appears like drug dealing going on with the vampires. Find out more about this kiang-shi. See if he's old enough to know about the drug.”

“And boss man here?” Blake questioned, motioning to Diego.

“I'm going to keep an eye out around here. Talk to Stacia and see if there's some way she can help us find out where the drug is coming from,” Diego replied.

“Sounds like a plan,” Blake said, and rose from the couch. “We've got to go. Late night. Need to rest up for work tomorrow,” he said, and faked a yawn.

“This isn't a joking matter,” Ryder said.

In a fatherly tone, Diego added, “You two need to take this seriously.”

Meghan met Blake's gaze and it was intense. His bright-blue eyes were alive with life and humor. With a crooked grin, he said, “Oh, I believe we are quite serious this time. Right, Meghan?”

Once again it was difficult for her to deal publicly with whatever was happening between them, but she couldn't hurt him and so she tried to make her response as neutral as she could.

“We are serious, Diego. We understand the consequences of what may happen.” As she said the words, however, she realized they were about much more than the investigation, as did Blake.

His smile wavered for a moment, but then he added, “Totally understood. Some things are too important to risk.”

When he slipped his hand into hers this time, she couldn't deny him, sensing she would jeopardize whatever was happening between them. Sensing that whatever was happening could make a huge difference for the future.

Maybe a future filled with something other than heartache and desolation.

 

Lee had selected the three women not just for their beauty but, more important, for their decided sus
ceptibility to suggestion. A thought implanted here and there, coupled with the pull of his undead power, was enough to guarantee him both bedmates and a meal.