After what seemed forever, the door creaked slowly open. No light came from inside. No one stood in the opening. If anything, the blackness seemed deeper, more silent than the night. Ethan felt Cassie cringe away from the open door.
“You’re safe.” Maybe.
He pulled her inside. The door closed behind them.
“Come.” The voice was a deep rumble. Disembodied. Terrifying.
Even knowing who spoke, Ethan couldn’t control an instinctive shudder. He led Cassie further into the darkness.
Suddenly, a candle flickered on, quickly followed by more and more until the room was ablaze with their glimmering lights. With a quiet whoosh, flames leaped in the fireplace.
A figure glided from the shadows. Tall and muscular, he moved with that strange flowing motion only very old vampires achieved, those who no longer remembered they’d once been human.
Ethan knew by Cassie’s frightened gasp when she finally got a good look at their host. And if Ethan hadn’t been determined not to make an ass of himself, he would’ve gasped too.
“Hello, Ethan.” The vampire shifted his gaze to Cassie. “You come bearing gifts. A beautiful woman and . . .”
Screeching and hissing, the cat leaped from Cassie’s arms.
“A bad-tempered cat.” He smiled. “We’ll dine well tonight.”
Ethan grabbed her hand before she could make a dash back to the door.
“Cassie, meet Zareb.” He took a deep breath he no longer needed. “My maker.”
Chapter Four
Cassie didn’t think there was room inside her for more fear. She was wrong. Zareb had an overwhelming presence. His movements were too fast, too smooth, too predatory. He’d pulled his long black hair back and fastened it with a leather thong that had a silver medallion on it. His sharp cheekbones and exotic darkness drew attention to his eyes. He had terrifying eyes. They were slightly tilted and glowed yellow. Glowed. Yellow. No white showed, and he had vertical slits for pupils. Cat eyes.
The yellow glow should have been the scariest part of him. It wasn’t. There was something else. . . .
He captured her with his eerie stare, and suddenly she couldn’t understand why she had ever thought his eyes were strange. His gaze drew her, filled her with a yearning that was almost pain. It reached down, down to a place never touched before.
She couldn’t blink, couldn’t look away, couldn’t control the erratic beating of her heart, and couldn’t seem to breathe. Cassie gasped for air even as she sank into the alien beauty of those eyes. And if her heartbeat felt as though it was stalling, threatening to stop altogether, she couldn’t muster the energy to worry about it while the yearning grew and grew.
Cassie jerked as Ethan commanded, “Stop it.” She didn’t think he was talking to her.
Startled, she closed her eyes. She concentrated on breathing and felt her heartbeat kick back into a normal rhythm. What had just happened? You couldn’t breathe, your heart was stopping. She’d almost died.
When she opened her eyes, Zareb had turned his attention to Ethan.
“And here I thought you’d brought her as a gift to atone for abandoning your loving father.”
Ethan simply stared at him from the shadows.
Zareb smiled. “I suppose the loving father reference was a bit overdone. But you do owe me some recompense for my anger, and yes, there were a few moments—very few, I’ll admit—of heartfelt sorrow.”
Ethan made a dismissive sound. “I brought you a pet that will suit your ‘loving’ personality.”
The cat poked her head from beneath the couch and hissed her general discontent with everyone in the room.
Zareb’s smile widened. “So you have.”
Cassie’s whole body thrummed with her need to run to the door, rip it open, and race screaming into the night. Her instinct had it right, but her mind insisted she listen to reason.
Even if she could escape, even if she could go home, even if she could be safe there . . . Okay, so none of those “even ifs” were viable options. And it wasn’t just about her anymore. If she tried to run to family, to friends, she’d put them in danger too. The police? They’d question her and then release her. Back to square one.
Besides, wherever she went, her nightmares would follow. She still saw Felicity’s body and those other people when she closed her eyes. If Cassie didn’t do something to help stop the ones who had murdered her friend, she might never sleep again.
At this moment, Ethan offered her a lifeline, even if it was frayed and liable to dump her into the deep without warning.
She blinked hard. No tears. Not yet. She would do the sobbing and wailing thing in private, if they ever allowed her to be alone again. If she lived long enough. Until then, Cassie would stuff the huge empty place inside her with answers to her questions. She took a deep breath and met Zareb’s gaze. “What did you just do to me?”
“Women.” Zareb’s sigh was filled with drama and sly amusement. “They can never just accept things. They always want explanations.”
Thank heaven he didn’t try to meet her gaze.
“I was merely playing. I rarely allow myself recreation time. You wouldn’t have died.” He cast a quick glance her way. “I’m very careful not to kill unless it’s unavoidable. I’ve killed often over the centuries, and the Second One is too close, too powerful now.”
What did that even mean? Since he didn’t offer to explain, she launched another question. “Did you make Ethan vampire because he was dying and that was the only way you could save him?”
He looked surprised in the same way he would if the cat had spoken to him. “No. I was bored that night, and I hadn’t made any children in a long time.” He shrugged powerful shoulders. “It was simply a need to procreate. So I made Ethan vampire.” His full lips twitched in the tiniest of smiles. “He was angry with me for a very long time. In fact, this is the first time he’s visited me of his own free will. I’m ecstatic.”
Well, Cassie could get rid of any heart-of-gold hopes she had regarding him.
Zareb looked at Ethan. “I assume there’s some pressing reason for your presence here.”
“We have a situation.”
Ethan still stood in the shadows. Cassie frowned. She couldn’t see his features clearly, but she would swear there was something different about him, something changing. She pushed the thought away. Too much had happened today, and her mind was probably a little unreliable right now.
Zareb glanced at the cat hiding under his couch and at Cassie. “Yes, we do.” He motioned toward the couch. “Since you’ve already interrupted my busy night, you may as well sit down.”
Cassie walked to the couch and sat on the edge. The cat seemed to think that underneath it was a better place to be. The cat was probably right. Ethan didn’t leave the shadows.
Zareb stood beside the couch staring at Ethan. “You killed tonight.”
“How did you know?” The question just popped out of Cassie. And when Zareb turned his yellow gaze on her, she felt her courage shrivel and crawl down her throat. He was just that scary.
“The Second One is rising.”
Zareb evidently thought his explanation was sufficient because he turned back to Ethan. “You have about two hours. The woman must eat and you must feed. I was about to make a dinner run when you arrived, and since the woman doesn’t seem to be on the menu, I’ll pick up something for you on the way back.” His eyes narrowed, yellow cat eyes filled with darkness. “Do I need to bring the others with me?”
“Yes.”
Cassie’s heartbeat picked up its pace. Ethan’s voice . . . It was different—deeper, smoother, more threatening. And for one mad moment she wanted to ask Zareb to take her with him. Then she thought about his eyes. Maybe not. He moved toward the door.
“Wait.” Cassie couldn’t do much for the dead, but this one thing she could do. “The police. They need to know about the dead people in those houses.” She didn’t know why that was so important to her. The dead sure didn’t care. But she cared.
Zareb raised one brow. “Dead people?” He looked at Ethan.
“The dead are in the houses next to mine. I didn’t kill them. Explanations when you come back.”
Zareb nodded. “I’ll make an anonymous call.”
“You know where I live?” Ethan sounded surprised, and not too happy.
“Of course.” Zareb sounded amused. “I made you. You can never hide from me.” And then he was gone.
Silence settled over the room, the shadows seemed to thicken, and Cassie’s fear expanded exponentially. She took a deep breath. “You may as well come out where I can see you. Not knowing what’s going on is scaring me more than if you’ve morphed into something gross.”
Ethan’s cold laughter scraped along her nerves, frightening enough for her to rethink her come-out-of-the-shadows request. Some things were better not seen.
Too late. He moved so quickly that she didn’t even have time to gasp, to run into the bathroom and hope the door had a lock. He was simply there beside her on the couch.