Undeniable (11 page)

Sleep, goddess.

Heat engulfed Sebastian’s back. It was far too late to
return home, far too late to even attempt leaving Diana’s house. He rose, stood
beside the bed and stared down at Diana’s blood between her splayed legs. The
vein on his neck twitched in rhythm with the one pulsing on hers.

Tenderly drawing the sheet over her body, he bent to rub his
knuckles over the pulsating vein.
Remember my touch, Diana. When you feel it
again, trust that I will never hurt you.
His knuckles glided over the
slight swell of her breast, thumped one by one over her erect nipple.
And
when I touch you again, do not deny me. You are mine, now, Diana. As I am
yours. Mine.

Sunlight streamed through the window. The skin on the back
of his legs sizzled. After yanking on his pants, he grabbed his shoes and sped
to the door. Striding soundlessly through the house, he found the entrance to
her attic just as he heard the garage door rise.

Transforming into mist, he flowed through the crack between
the attic door and the ceiling. Webs clung to his face as he materialized. He
moved toward the boxes that bore the thickest layer of dust and searched the
darkest part of the massive attic behind them until he found a corner he
thought would be safe. As if he could be safe in the house of the most feared
vampire hunter since Van Helsing.

* * * * *

Diana pushed her sunglasses higher up on the bridge of her
nose and lowered her visor against the sunlight streaming through her
windshield. Her eyes burned from straining to see through the glare. Although
she knew she should be concentrating on driving, her thoughts kept returning to
the smear of blood she’d discovered on her sheets this morning. A small voice,
sounding too much like Dr. Ruth, kept insisting only one thing would leave such
a mark exactly where…

Of course, she could have scratched herself. She shifted in
her seat. There was definitely a little tenderness, but no pinching. Scratches
pinched, didn’t they? Her heart hiccupped when she recalled how heated her
dreams had been. A tear slid down her cheek. What had she done? Masturbated and
broken her hymen during an erotic dream?

She gripped the steering wheel and told herself to think of
something else, something that would not send her to work with red, swollen
eyes. Tuning the radio until she heard Gwen Stefani singing about being a rich
girl, she forced herself to sing along and tap her nails on the steering wheel.

As usual, traffic crawled through Lake George Village as
people haphazardly crossed between the cars. Summer brought a flock of tourists
to Lake George. Diana could never understand why the locals complained about
the tourists invading their close-knit community or why they counted the days
until the tranquility of winter returned.

While she enjoyed horseback riding along snow-covered
mountain trails and past iced-over ponds, she welcomed the energy that surged
into the village with the first line of cars streaming off the interstate in
June.

During summer the sidewalks teemed with activity and the air
filled with the scents of suntan lotion, caramel corn and meat roasting over
charcoal grills. Best of all, the tourists knew nothing about her mother’s
desertion or her father’s obsession with vampires. They never pitied her or
watched her for signs that would prove she’d inherited her parents’
instability.

Continuing up Route 9, Diana leaned over and tilted the
passenger air conditioner vents in her direction. Glancing down at the pink
skin on her thighs, she frowned.

She never burned. Well not this far into July. By the time
she pulled into the parking lot of the Hop-a-long Ranch, her hands, arms and
thighs felt and looked as if she’d spent a full day on a Florida beach. Without
sunblock.

“Howdy, Miss Diana.” Stanley Kowalski, known as Old Jake
during working hours, lifted his Stetson, swept a long lock of gray hair over
his bald spot and whistled as she stepped out of the car. “Now, what’d you go
and do, little lady? Fall asleep in one of them tanning beds?”

“Cut the cowboy act, Stan,” Diana said and pressed her
finger down on her rosy thigh. “I don’t get it. This is just from driving here.”

“Maybe you’re coming down with something. Man, that’s
burnt.” He ran his calloused hand down her thigh.

Diana jerked away. “Geez, Stan. Your hand feels like
sandpaper.” Following him into the main office, she eyed the brown paper bag on
his desk and rubbed her stomach. “Maybe I am getting sick. I’m starving.”

Stan sat behind his desk and unwrapped a buttered sesame
bagel. Handing her half, he smirked. “You’ve eaten half my bagel every morning
since the day I hired you.”

“That’s because I never eat breakfast at home. But this
morning I raided the fridge and ate enough to last through lunch.” Taking a
bite, she sat on the edge of the desk and peered at the schedule board on the
wall. After she swallowed, she asked in what she hoped was a nonchalant voice, “Any
word from Colette Solange?”

“Not yet. If you’re planning on running this place when I
retire, you’re going to need thicker skin.” He pointed at the schedule with his
bagel. “That child only missed one lesson. Some regulars just up and disappear,
Diana. They find a better, closer or cheaper ranch and are too embarrassed to
show their faces here or call to let us know.”

“Not them, Stan. Something’s wrong. I just know it.” She
stood up and walked over to the schedule. After staring at it a few minutes,
she heard Stan chuckle and turned to find him literally wiping a smile from his
face. “Come on, Stan. You know I’m not a nervous Nelly.”

Working at the ranch since she graduated from college, she
had lost her share of students over the years. At first, she’d assumed she had
failed in some way, but Stan had quickly set her straight. She had learned to
care about her students while keeping them distant enough to easily bid them
farewell when they stopped coming.

When he’d approached her about taking over the ranch, she
had regretfully dropped all of her students except Colette’s daughter, Luna.
For the past two years, the little girl had worked her way into Diana’s heart.
Like Stan, when Diana measured time in reference to students, she counted
lessons and not days. But in Luna’s case, Diana felt her absence the entire
week. Seven long days.

Every Tuesday, Luna and Colette arrived with their gray
Shetland pony shortly after dusk. And every week, Luna, now six, ran with her
sleek black hair streaming behind her right into Diana’s arms and rattled off
every little thing that had happened since they’d last seen each other.

Every week, without fail.

Except last week.

Stan opened the top drawer on his desk and rummaged through
it as he spoke. “They’ll show tonight and you’ll find out it was nothing more
than a stomach bug or kiddy party that kept them away. Now stop your fretting.
You’ll wrinkle that pretty face and then what will I have to brighten my days?
Here,” he said, holding out a bottle of aloe lotion. “Rub some of this on.
You’re making me hot just looking at you.”

Although her sunburn had oddly paled by the time they’d
finished eating, Stan insisted she spend the day in the office. Still concerned
about the blood she’d discovered on her bed that morning and Luna’s absence,
she agreed. By lunchtime, she had to admit that she’d done something during the
night to pop her own cherry.

When an unquenchable thirst joined the insatiable hunger
that two hamburgers and a large order of fries hadn’t eased, she wondered if they
and the blood were somehow related. But a search of the internet for some
disease with all three came up empty. As if worrying about her popped cherry
and Luna’s absence weren’t enough, she’d awoken with a twitch on the side of
her neck. By the end of the day, the constant thumping had grown unbearable.

Dusk finally draped its gray cloak over the surrounding
mountains. Diana left the cool office she’d virtually hid from the sun in all
day and leaned against the post of the covered porch. As the minutes ticked by,
she picked at the skin peeling off her leg. She definitely caught something.
Sunburn didn’t heal or peel this quickly. Still hungry, but feeling more
energetic than she had all day, she wondered if she’d caught a twenty-four hour
bug while she was out with Terry last night.

She let out a relieved breath when the familiar sound of
Colette’s approaching trailer finally shattered the silence. As soon as the
trailer stopped, Luna leapt out and ran into Diana’s open arms, then wrapped
her arms tightly around Diana’s waist. Diana glanced at Colette, hoping to
catch her eye, but Luna’s mother quickly looked down and walked to the back of
the trailer.

When she returned with Luna’s pony, Diana opened her mouth
to ask what had kept them away last week, but red-rimmed eyes met hers. The
words died in her throat.

Her heart sank at the realization that she’d been right and
something tragic had caused them to miss last week’s lesson. She lifted Luna
onto her pony and softly asked, “Ready?”

Luna shrugged.

Diana wrapped her arm around Luna’s tiny waist as they
entered the corral and sighed. “I missed you all week, Luna sweets.” She waited
until they were alone in the corral then asked, “Where’ve you been?”

A tear rolled down Luna’s flushed cheek. “I…I couldn’t come,”
she whispered, her eyes darting to where her mother sat in the waiting area
outside the corral.

When Diana lifted Luna from the pony, Colette rushed to the
gate. The woman stumbled when the night lights came on with a dull thud. “It’s
all right, Colette. We’re just going to talk first.” She cradled Luna in her
arms. “Aw, sweets, what’s the matter?”

“Ma…ma…my Daddy died.” Luna’s chin quivered. She pressed her
face into the crook of Diana’s neck.

Luna’s sobs tore into Diana’s heart and sent tears streaming
down her own cheeks. Marek dead? She had met him only a few times and had
immediately liked the gentle giant, had been touched by the way he and Colette
doted over Luna.

Memories of her own grief when her mother had vanished from
her young life, memories she’d refused to visit all these years, resurfaced.
She remembered feeling as if someone had ripped her heart to shreds and
couldn’t bear that Luna had to deal with such agonizing pain.

She sat on the ground and rocked the girl in her arms for
the remaining half hour of her lesson, crying with Luna, for Luna and, hearing
the soft sobs coming from the waiting area, for Luna’s mother, Colette.

Just before their lesson ended, Luna finally calmed down and
began to tell Diana everything else that had happened during the past two
weeks, ending with the proud announcement that she’d lost one of her front
teeth. “See?”

Luna opened her mouth wide and pointed to the gap.

“Luna, no!” Colette cried out, appearing at Diana’s side,
although only a second ago she’d been at least fifteen feet away.

Diana’s world shifted.

The precarious line she’d drawn years ago between her
reality and her father’s vanished, obliterated by a mother’s instinct to
protect her child. Had Colette remained calm, Diana doubted she would have
taken much notice of Luna’s incisors. Though a little longer and sharper than
most, they were still baby teeth, still small enough to pass as normal.

But Colette’s were massive and growing. Diana’s lungs burned
from the air she’d sucked in and couldn’t manage to release.

For years her father had battered her with horrifying tales
of vampires and had given her “lessons” on how to get away if ever she should
find herself in the company of one. Those lessons had obviously become
ingrained in her mind, because she found herself immediately searching for a
sharp piece of wood. Of course, she’d have to find some way to break free of
the paralyzing fear gripping her body.

“Diana, put Luna down this instant. I don’t want to hurt
you.” Colette’s malevolent voice and blood-red eyes were not nearly as
horrifying to Diana as her belief that Diana would in some way harm Luna.

“Oh, God, Colette. I…” Diana swallowed. Colette, beautiful,
serene Colette stood before her with fangs and nails that could easily rip a
human to pieces. “You can’t possibly think I’d hurt Luna.”

Colette held out her hand. “Diana knows we’re vampires,
honey. Let go and run to Mommy.”

Vampires.

If the child and mother were vampires, then the father,
Marek, must have been one. Diana shuddered. Dear God, she’d shown him and Luna
around the stables one night after everyone had left. Luna’s father had been a
tall, muscular man—no, not a man—a vampire.

She wouldn’t have stood a chance if he’d attacked her. A
vampire as strong, bloodthirsty and indestructible as her father had said they
were could have killed her in an instant. Indestructible? Marek died. Luna and
Colette were definitely not acting as if they were indestructible.

Her gaze darted around the deserted ranch. Were more
vampires lurking in the corners the moonlight failed to illuminate? Dark
shadows she’d seen every night now appeared ominous. Shapes she’d never
considered out of the ordinary now seemed to have arms and legs. Like her
phantom lover. Her heart pounded. No. He couldn’t be a vampire. He didn’t even
exist outside her dreams.

She flinched when she felt Luna’s face burrow into the crook
of her neck. A small hand touched her face. She bit her lower lip.

Luna’s hand trembled, yet remained, cupping Diana’s cheek.
“You wouldn’t hurt me, would you, Diana?” With her face still pressed into
Diana’s neck, Luna’s voice was muffled, but her question tore through Diana
with as much force as a knife cutting into her heart.

Hurt her? The menacing expression on Colette’s face failed
to hide the terror in her eyes. Diana doubted she could stop Colette from
snatching Luna out of her arms, yet the vampire hovered beside them as if she
feared getting too close. Luna and Colette acted as if Diana was the monster.