Chapter 17
Serafina stood by the table in Anthony’s lab. She felt like shouting and wished Anton was there to share in her victory.
Bringing the dead back to life had sounded easy when she read the incantation in the book, but she had expected the actual execution of the spell to be far more complicated than it appeared on paper. With that in mind, she had found a spell for bringing animals back to life. She had practiced on a cat, a dog, a monkey, a sheep, a goat, and, lastly, a small ape she had stolen from a kid’s petting zoo.
Restoring life to the dead had given her the most amazing sense of omnipotence, and reaffirmed her own powers, as well.
She could do this. She could bring her beloved back to life.
Anton walked through the house, wondering where his mother had gone. She had been away from home and the bookstore more and more of late. When he asked where she was spending her time, she just smiled and said she would tell him when the time was right. He wondered if she was having an affair. He wondered what she would say when he told her that he’d struck out with Cara. Not that he cared. True, her rejection had stung his pride, but that was all. He’d never wanted to date her in the first place. She was too blond and far too innocent for his taste. He preferred women with dark hair and dusky skin, women who knew the score and were willing to play the game according to his rules. As for his mother’s plans for revenge, well, he’d worry about that when the time came.
After grabbing a beer from the fridge, he went down to the basement. Lately, he had become more and more fascinated with his father’s journals and diaries. His father had made a note of the date he had met Brenna Flanagan, and of the subsequent times he had met her either at Myra’s bookshop or at The Nocturne. The name Roshan DeLongpre was also mentioned, as was a young vampire named Jimmy Dugan. His father had used Dugan’s blood in some of his experiments. All experiments with Dugan’s blood had failed.
His father had taken copious notes on his research. He had listed the people he had tested, among them a young man named Roger West. Anton studied the various compounds and ingredients his father had used, and the reaction of each subject to each new injection. His father had noted that Roger West had rejected the vampire’s blood and that he had died a violent death, his body slowly shriveling up until, at the end, he had looked like a human dried apple.
Anton read the entries with cool detachment. His father’s anger and frustration as each new attempt failed came through loud and clear. Anton didn’t make any judgments about whether what his father had been doing was right or wrong; instead, he studied his father’s notes and tried to figure out where his father’s formula had gone wrong.
An elixir with the power to grant eternal life. Anton smiled, thinking of the possibilities, the fame and fortune that would come to a man who could provide mankind with such a wondrous gift.
Chapter 18
The vampire stood on the sidewalk in front of the house with the white picket fence. She didn’t have to be inside to know what was happening. Her preternatural senses were so keen, she could almost picture the couple inside. The woman was mortal, young, and in love. The man was the vampire’s own fledgling. She had brought him across exactly a year ago. In all her long existence, she had only bestowed the Dark Gift on five other men. She had made them, used them, and forgotten them.
But this last one, Vince, there was something about him, something that kept him alive in her memory, and so she had decided to come and see how he was getting along in his new life.
Her mind connected with his. Come to me. It was not a request, but a command, one he could not ignore.
Smiling, she faded into the shadows and waited.
Come to me.
Vince frowned as a familiar voice whispered through the corridors of his mind. It was a voice he would never forget, one he was compelled to obey.
Cara frowned when he eased out of her embrace and rose from the sofa. “Where are you going?”
“I’ve got to go.”
“Why? It’s early.”
“It’s after midnight.” He tried to fight the compulsion to leave, but it was useless. Leaning down, he kissed her. “I’ve got a customer bringing a car in early in the morning. I’ll see you tomorrow night, okay?”
She looked up at him, her expression worried. “Is something wrong?”
“No, darlin’.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.” He kissed her again. “Good night.”
It was all he could do to keep from running out of the house toward the vampire who waited for him—the vampire who had changed his life forever.
Once outside, he stood on the sidewalk and then, as if guided by an invisible hand, he walked down the street until he came to a small park.
The vampire was waiting for him on a park bench. She smiled as he approached.
“Vincent. How well you look.”
“What do you want?” She was even more beautiful than he remembered. Her skin was like smooth porcelain; her hair was thick and black and fell to her hips in rippling waves. Her eyes were an amazing shade of green. Clad in a pair of skin-tight black pants and a wine-red sweater that outlined every curve, she looked sexy as hell.
“Is that any way to speak to me?” She spoke like a queen questioning a commoner and as she did so, he felt her power roll over him, sizzling through his veins like an electric shock. The hair prickled along his arms.
“I’m sorry.” His tone was curt.
“Come, sit beside me.”
He hesitated only a moment, certain that any refusal would only cause him more pain.
“So tell me,” she said, “how are you getting on?”
“What do you care? You made me and dumped me.”
“Mind your tongue!”
He bit back the sharp retort that rose in his mind.
She dragged her fingernails down his arm, leaving tiny furrows of blood behind. Her touch made him shiver. “I’ve thought of you often this past year.”
“I’ve thought of you, too,” he muttered darkly.
“I’m sure you have.”
Her gaze bored into him. He had the distinct impression that she could see into his very soul, that she knew everything he had said and done in the past year, every thought that had crossed his mind, then and now.
Her fingers kneaded his biceps. “Is there anything you would like to ask me?”
“Your name, for a start.”
She laughed softly. “You may call me Mara.”
“I thought vampires had to sleep during the day. Why doesn’t the sun render me powerless?”