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Davette wore a khaki blouse and a khaki skirt and a light blue scarf Annabelle had found for her soolden skin Felix was, quite siht say to her

He was afraid of what he h, and it didn’t matter if she had just lately come on board and it didn’ta story - all that had long been forgotten She was part of Team Cro, sure-as hell Teaht do for her

So now, nine hours into a most un-Team-like victory party, he sat in the lone chair in the far corner of what passed for a suite in the cheapand chain-s

This deal would not play anymore Not like this

Not with me

Fuck ’em

Everyone noticed, of course They could hardly help it

When their gunman was planted so hard in that one chair When he smoked so incessantly, drank so ferociously When he would brood so hard he seemed to strobe

Sometimes it seemed that chair of his, that whole corner of the room, really, seemed to corridor away into the distance

Sooner or later, it was going to get ugly It had been heading for it since the last pile of ashes

Felix rode with Cat in the motorhome on the way to the rendezvous with the wo what little Cat had to say, until Cat finally turned in the driver’s seat and looked at him

Is he relieved? Cat wondered Stunned? Maybe he’s in shock or

No! he realized suddenly That’s anger! He’s furious

And just then Felix had turned and looked at him and those dead eyes had bored deeply for just a unman climbed out of his seat and disappeared into the back until they reached the motel

Even for Annabelle, as used to the endless waiting, this had been a tough one Her tears of joy were a little brighter this tihter, her voice a little more strident Davette, on the other hand, seelow of happiness at their survival She took turns with Annabelle hugging everyone and blushing furiously when Cat, with a wicked grin, hauled off and gave her a long, wet, sloppy one

All save Felix He stood at the edge of it all, nodding curtly to the wo about wanting to take a shower right away

He got his key and a tense moment before Father Adam announced that he wanted to have special services ih to pray, ha ha

And Felix took part in this but the way he knelt and rocked and prayed, so fiercely radiating anger and fear By the time the priest could quickly break it up they all felt sprayed

Then there was a knock on the door and Sheriff Hattoy and Kirk and a few other deputies appeared for a little celebrating and Jack brought out glasses and their special schnapps and instructed the newcoan Jack

"There’s damn few of us left!" finished the others and they all downed the schnapps and all, but Felix, laughed and asked fora bottle of his scotch with him

They partied without hih food fast enough to absorb just enough of the alcohol topossible later on It was going to be close Even for Tea was heavy The sheriff excused hiood reason why he had been late to their troubles, and that reason still existed He had ed a quick private s his best deputy behind, as everyone had knoould happen

They partied ga about Felix not being there And when the food was ready and he called frory, no one said anything about that, either

But everyone noticed Everyone, that is, except Jack Crow Jack refused to notice, thought Cat Or h on Felix to care Jack perched on the edge of the sink while they ate and, master storyteller that he was, relayed every detail of thethe fighting and the women hadn’t been there at all and the three of them listened raptly to every word

About the wo about in the darkness with Felix’s split-second marksmanship on her all the way

About him, the way he seemed to levitate out of the elevator and stroll so casually toward the the fired crossbow bolt, about his looking right at Felix and warning hiun

"And Felix shot him anyway?" Carl asked

Jack sipped from his wine and nodded "Three shots Hit ’irabbed the gun"

"And crushed it?" Annabelle wanted to know "Really?"

Jack nodded again "With one hand That’s when Carl here opened the door and it turned toward the light for a second By the time he had turned back around Felix had drawn his other autoh the center of his goddaarette "I think he would have killed at least a couple of us if it weren’t for that Hell, he could do that on his way past us out of the light But not after that shot

"Carl, our shooter is everything we could ever have wanted"

And everything Davette had wanted him to be She sat there, in the silence that folloith her eyes welling happy, happy tears She could not explain her joy, her sense of hope, any more than she could explain, or even fathom, this viselike hold he had on her

But somehow, because he was so so wonderful at this, it ed vibrations of his presence

"Yep," said Jack Crow, staring deep into his wineglass, "everything we could ever have wanted"

Then he looked at the srinned

"Then how come," popped Cat from amidst the others’ concerned looks, "we’re not all happy?"

Jack shook his head "Aw, Cherry, give it a rest Felix is just"

"Where is he, Jack?" demanded Annabelle "Why is he in his room? Even when he’s here, he just He looked atHe’s there in his roo alone He"

"Relax, woman!" Jack snapped He stood up and towered over the or two Felix is"

Then the door caarette in the corner of his mouth, scotch bottle in hand He stepped inside and stopped and looked at them, all of them, for a heavy silent moment, then turned curtly away toward the chair in the corner of the suite and planted himself there and drank some more

Under Jack’s silent directions, they tried to party anyway Jack whispered to Annabelle to drop the debriefing for tonight, concentrate on the celebration and the booze

"Party, babe! You know!" he ave it a try, starting with the hn, Roy Orbison, everyone in their tape library It helped They danced and laughed and giggled and drank too much and it went on for hours and hours and early on somebody in the next room complained, a trucker type in a bad sleepy h the doorway and drink a little drinkie and "Don’t worry about being dressed, stranger," he insisted, looking down at his bare chest and feet "We’ll find you a shirt and all the rest of us will take our shoes off! Race!"

And they all laughed and fell to the floor and Annabelle was the first to get her shoes off - in like one half a second And Cat was the last - it took hiave up and put his drink down and tried with both hands

Then it only took him another minute and a half

The trucker loved it and wanted to know if he could call his buddies ere just down the hail and Jack said, "Hell, yes! Let’s go git ’eit" ’em, all five of them Plus Doris, the blond at the front desk, and her boyfriend Eddy Duane who, Cat felt sure, should have by God learned to play the guitar backward by now They also gathered in a couple named Henderson, who had come into town for a funeral earlier in the day and said they could use a wake About an hour later a skinny bald man in his seventies, as easily six-foot-six, knocked on the door and asked to join the party

He produced a business card: "Mr Kite, Layman Activist, The Church of the Sub-Genius"

"It’s the world’s first industrial Church," he explained to Father Adaht We pay taxes and everything," replied Mr Kite

"I’m not sure I understand What is it you believe in?"

"Everything," said Mr Kite with a smile "But mostly the free-market economy"

So they all had another drink on that, for the benefit of Mr Kite

Felix sat stone still and staring throughout He didn’t speak, didn’t get up, didn’t acknowledge anyone There was so about his soers even tried to approach him And inquires were put off by Teaot close enough to hioing to speak to him a few times, almost on impulse But she didn’t and neither did anyone else

But Jack seemed happy about it all Weirdly content in fact Occasionally the Tea his party breath and grinning at Felix’s back

Does he know so we don’t knoondered Cat Or is he just blind?

By three thirty the party was running out of stea to celebrate The Hendersons, who had been trying to teach two of the truckers to dance and sing, had finally given up Their only decent pupil had been a barrel-chested old man with "Pop" on his uniform who had actually learned a few steps of soft shoe in his heavy boots before collapsing from alcohol and years Once that last person was off his feet, the sleepies began to creep in on all non-Teaorated for more fun - Team Crow had its ways But no one wanted therily, forcefully, furiously but in total silence His lipsbitterly out, but not one sound caave Annabelle a look She used her deft touch and less than five minutes later the revelers had been poured out and the door locked behind them Then they stood, Cat and Carl, Annabelle and Davette, Adam and Kirk, and Jack Crow, and watched It was eerie The hts of the motel room reached Felix’s corner only in shadows that played oddly on his working silent face

Annabelle stood next to Jack She sounded htened "Oh, Jack! How much has he had to drink?"

Jack smiled softly down at her "He’s not drunk"

"Not drunk? I find that hard to believe"

Jack shrugged "Oh, he is drunk But not drunk drunk This isn’t booze"

"What is it?"

Jack paused a ht, looking up at him

"What is it?" she repeated

"Claustrophobia"

"What?" Cat whispered suspiciously

Jack laughed quietly, looked at them all "C’mon, people Let’s all have a seat"

And except for Davette, they did She stayed fussing idly in the kitchen while the rest of them found a seat on the floor or sprawled on the couches Jack took the only other easy chair and drew it up to face Felix’s, about six feet directly in front of him

Felix saw him, kneas there His lips went still But he didn’t look directly at him or anyone else

"Davette," Jack called out softly, "turn that off"

She eyed him nervously, then smiled and stepped over and turned off the music Very quiet, all of a sudden

Then Jack leaned forward in his chair, propping his elbows on his knees and s pleasantly into his drink

"Okay" he said

It took a couple of beats Then the gun, Felix took a sip froarette, leaned back in his chair, and spoke Drunk as he was, his words were clear Very cold, like very sharp ice

But clear

"You’re out of this, Crow It’s blown They knoho you are They knohat you do They know your nae what you do Quit Or every job from noill be another trap"

"What about the Teaain Not the hunted"

Jack grinned and leaned back in his chair "You think I can do that now?"

Felix’s smile was scary "One of us can Now"

"So that’s it One of us"

"That’s it"

Jack glanced at the others "If they don’t follow you Form your own Teaht about that"

Jack’s voice was hard "I didn’t think you had"

"What the hell is" began Carl angrily

"Quiet!" snapped Croithout looking at him Then he relaxed, eyed Felix for a ot them on the run?"

Felix sneered "Ever occur to you that you’re not cutting it anymore?"

Jack held up a hand before any of the others could protest He lit a cigarette, leaned forward in his chair once more

"Yes," he said si out on the job you were born to do?"

"I’ out on"

"Like hell you aren’t!" snapped Jack He stood up angrily, began to pace back and forth in front of Felix’s chair

"This is the game, Felix This is it I can’t quit because I’m the symbol They know my name You can’t because you’re the best there is and that’s the part you don’t like!"

"Bullshit, Crow!"

"Is it? Is it? Hadn’t thought about your own teaht, which you by God didn’t want to do, you’d have realized they wouldn’t leave me and you would have to do it on your own But you don’t want to do that You don’t want to do it at all!"

Felix was out of his chair in a flash

"You calling me a coward?"

And Davette couldn’t take it any chests, her voice that of a small child, a small doll

"Don’t" she whispered, the tears already starting to pour, " don’t please, don’t"

"I don’t knohat I’ you, Felix!" yelled Crow "Because I don’t knohat the fuck you are!"

Felix’s voice was stone "Then try soht would start then and it should have, really But a piece of Jack was also shouting at hioddammit!

And so he took a breath and backed off a bit and tried again

"Felix, I can’t quit just because they know onna do the same? That’s all it takes They know if they can find out e are they can run us off? We can’t We’re it This is the game!

"Look I’m sorry if this comes at a bad time in your life, Felix But it always does, daer spurt out and he lost it again

"You’re just gonna have to see if you’re h to face it!"

And Felix barked, "Fuck off!" He turned to the others "Fuck you all"

And Davette’s baby voice sighed, "No no no

And for a second they stopped and looked at her But then Felix shook it off He reached down and picked up his cigarettes and stuffed them in his pocket and stalked toward the door

"Die, then!" he shouted at the rooo or senility or whatever"

Davette was chasing hiet it!" he storet it!"

"You can’t" she pleaded and the sobs shook her tiny form

But he could He could do what everyone had known for hours he was going to do

"I quit," said Felix

And Davette’s voice ca and full and she cried out, "You can’t! You don’t knohat they can do to people! You don’t knohat it’s like You"

And Felix and Jack Crow looked at her together and together they said: "Whaat"

Davette looked at the two of the her head Then she reached down to the hem of her khaki skirt and took it in her fist and raised it up, exposing the perfect silken lines of her golden legs and the sharp heartache contrast of yellow panties and there, there high on her left inner thigh Like the bite of a monstrous spider

It could be no other kind of wound

"Help me," she whispered

"Help me"

Fourth Interlude: The Victi at her and she tried to get it all out at once, all of it that she had wanted to tell the, about what had happened to her and how she had really come to see the tears

It was Felix, of all people, who rescued her, taking her gently in his ars He led her to his chair and sat her carefully down and dragged up a chair for hily to her

The others unfroze at last, Annabelle hip enough to fetch Kleenex and a glass of water, theslowly, still more or less in shock, into seats of their own to listen And it was kind of like the Inquisition, with the but she didn’t mind She deserved this She deserved it for what she had done to them - or almost had done to them

Because she hadn’t co their killer

She had left hi

He was the fiend they had just slain, the one with the headband

The little god

His name was Ross Stewart and she had known him for ten years, since she was eleven and had taken Miss Findley’s Dance Class for Young Ladies and Gentleentleain Felix leaned forward and took her hands in his and told her to relax, to relax and take deep breaths and start froht, knew heinto his eyes, closer to him than she’d ever been, she wanted to skip all that and

And get right to the ht to the shame

She felt compelled - obsessed, really - as she had from the very first time she had seen him, to tell him this To have him know all about what she had done and what she had beenEvery nasty detail But she did what he said She tried again fro, but fro Easter vacation Religious holiday

Her Aunt Victoria had planned a wonderful party for her

Aunt Vicky’s house was the best-kept secret in north Dallas, a tiny, nondescript entrance on Inwood Road exploded, once inside the driveway, into a raystone hout the sculptured gardens and running brooks and towering trees that had tiny colored lights way up high in them, where the stars were The party had spilled out over all the terraces and there was a band playing and people dancing and everyone was there, si and beautiful, the Sons and daughters of wealth and private schools, and you just knew by looking at them that it wasn’t just the fortunes of the past represented here but the fortunes of the future certain to be made

And Davette was the princess

Because she really was beautiful, she knew that, and tall and blond and shed and talked and gloried in the attention, ith friends when she wanted and unapproachable whenever she felt like it because Aunt Vicky had taught her that You didn’t really have to have that same conversation with every ed her Her best friend, Kitty, had yet to show up And Aunt Vicky was still abed

Anyone else would still be "in" bed But not Aunt Victoria, not in that huge three-hundred-year-old canopied bed in that immense bedroom full of all those beautiful chairs and settees and intricate knickknacks her brother, Uncle Harley, had brought home from around the world The whole house was a treasure, but it was always this room, Davette had realized, that lory, which to Davette had always been one and the sa dead now, but with Aunt Vicky and her brother, Uncle Harley, her rearing had been just as war - and a lot more fun Uncle Harley, decorator to royalty, had shown her the world And Aunt Victoria had shown her the ways of the lady Ways that e soft and clean when she entered the roohty, exactly, but definitely, inevitably, superior Reluctantly superior, as Aunt Victoria once confided to her

Aunt Victoria had that look about her that ons to slay for her Just for want of that twinkling smile

But now she was ill and those beautiful lace bedclothes onlyShe had received a few people, close friends ished to look in on her, but she wouldn’t leave her bed, wouldn’t come to the party

"Don’t worry, dear," she had cooed to her niece "Have a good time, be a lady," Then there was that twinkle "Then cohed and kissed and Davette had gone back to her roo naked on the side of her bathtub and crying

Over Ross Stewart

Davette couldn’t believe it Ross Stewart? No-Class Ross, as she and Kitty had dubbed hih school graduation because it fit! It really fit!

"I can’t believe it!" she blurted, shaking her head before catching herself and realizing how she"I can’t either!" she knew they had a problee of the tub and put her arm around her best friend in the world and tried to to what, to console her? Because Davette didn’t really understand how this was even possible and all she could get out of Kitty was, yes, she was asha with Ross Stewart, but, no, she had no intention of leaving hi Davette straight in the eye

And Davette had felt a cold, dark chill

Noas after ten PM and the party was in full swing and she still hadn’t heard froht, Ross has changed Maybe he really wasn’t as bad as she had reh her ht, in a, really, in a kind of decadent way He had long black curly hair and he was tall and well built, she rerades and St Mark’s Prep, the brother school to her own Hockaday, was a very de the way he was, foul-mouthed and dirty-minded and totally without class All the boys talked about sex all the tiers and that was practically their job But Ross always talked about it a little too long, his jokes always a little

And the money, of course Ross’s family didn’t have any, at least not the way most of the private school parents did But that was no excuse, either There were several students worse off than Ross and they were okay At least they didn’t go around so greedy all the ti the richest, irls who had never before had such attention

God, she reirls’ cars on dates! And once he even - "There you are, baby!" sounded a fa around She really wasn’t up to this But she was trapped She turned around and sh school boyfriend, football captain, senior class president, Taker of Her Virginity, Dale Boijock

And also thealive

"How are you, Dale?" she said without enthusiaslad you could come"

Dale stepped forward and flashed his perfect s, "I wouldn’t havefro s toward the bar for so into other people and not be left alone to talk to Dale one-on-one

Dale fought it, trying to get her off to one side to talk all alone But he was getting quite a bit of attention, too, and enjoying it Tall blond, beautiful blue eyes, a natural leader, a wonderful athlete - a Polish-Aod was Dale Boijock He had been the Catch of All Catches in high school but he was so boring and how could she ever have slept with him?

Curiosity, of course She did not live in Aunt Vicky’s era and almost all of her friends had "done it," ible boyfriend around and she was just dying to know and it had been her suggestion

He had been shocked But he had come around

At theher like a porcelain doll, and she had to face it, so

But soed to make even those dull And she knew, as he drove home, that she siain but she couldn’t think of a graceful way to

And then she had turned in the car seat and told hihed at that at first, of course Then he had looked at her and saw she was serious and that tanned blond face had frowned and he had pulled the car over and the questioning had begun

Looking back, she decided she had handled it just about perfectly

Did he know hiuy

Well, she knew Dale knew some of them

Some of them? There was more than one?

Well, yes

Who?

Dale, I don’t really think I could - How many, then?

How many? What difference could that possibly - She had taken a positively wicked joy in bashing his pride After she had strung it out a good half hour, she allowed him to force her to tell him the "truth," that there had been somewhere between fifteen and an even dozen She couldn’t remember exactly

Then he had leaned across her and opened the passenger door and ordered her to get out

Trying desperately to keep a straight face, she had climbed meekly out of his car, closed the door behind her, and stood there, head down, her hands together in front of her, until the car screeched off

On the way back holed quite a lot

It really was a perfect solution His pride wouldn’t let him tell others about her and even if he did no one would believe it of Princess Davette anyway And best of all, she would never be bothered by Dale Boijock again And she hadn’t been, for four long-years

Until tonight And this was looking griue’s worldly ways, she knew his attitudes had changed She could tell by that look on his face It could onlyher alone to talk: He was going to, God help hiive her

And she really didn’t think she could handle that with a straight face

She just had to get away beforehand

"Dale? Would you excuse me just a minute?" she asked sweetly, then fled

That’s how she ended up hiding out on the terrace, in a metal chair behind an enormous plant

And that’s where she hen she heard the Voice

It wasn’t a deep voice It wasn’t rich and melodious In fact, it was rather dry and thin But it was so sh the other voices with it

She had been aware, in the few minutes she’d spent in her little hideout - on the lookout for Dale - of a conversation going on on the terrace a few feet away But she hadn’t really been paying attention Noith that voice, she began to

Sex They were talking about sex About the difference between men and women About what each needed What women needed What women craved What they had to have Release Abandon Wantonness Penetration

Looking around at the faces in theat Felix’s face now so close to her, his eyes gentle but so acute

She just didn’t know

Should she tell them? Should she tell them all - tell Felix - what exactly had been said? What words? What sweet, forbidden, pornographic

She didn’t know

She didn’t know if she could describe what it had been like, sitting there on the terrace and bearing those awful dirty words cutting through the night toward her Surrounding her Caressing her Prodding her The words he used were so filthy and his descriptions so graphic No one else was talking but him, now, the entire terrace alive with electricity because it was arousing She couldn’t believe it Never in her life had anyone spoken such things in her presence Oh, she knew the words She knehat they irl knew the words But to hear the in her direction

And to have them so erotic To see what he described so clearly To understand it so well

Ladies and whores, he talked about About the difference About the need for ladies to be both About what the right man knew to do with his lady behind the bedroom door, free her from her ladyship, frorovel and glow

She could not understand how such talk could affect her so But it had It had She had sat there - perched there, really - on the edge of her little chair, panting, chest heaving Because she seemed to understand it She seemed to understand just what release, just what euphoric abandon hehis pictures and i, her own thighs wide and receptive and -

God help ?

She didn’t tell the details to the Tealazed over it and hurried past it and she knew she wasn’ttheir eyes - his eyes - so she forced herself to look up and his gaze was steady and she believed he knew she had left so out

And she believed he knehat it was

It hen she decided she could sis began to whizz and spiral about her, that her life began to ricochet

That her soul began its twist in the vise

The Voice had stopped for the ti and she had risen, spontaneously, from her chair, jerked herself up and forward and away from this madness and the heavy air left by the silence and taken a step around the plant toward the sliding glass door to the library - she could do this! Just step around and through and no one would see her or even know she had been there

And the other voice suddenly perked up and it was a voice she knew, kneell - had always known - and she couldn’t help herself She turned as she stepped and leaned wrong and her heel caught and she just careened into that awful plant, banging the branches with her shoulder and leaves went everywhere and by the tiained her balance - barely, with ankles out and knees together and wineglass spilling - she was a the surprised looks in her direction and she heard that voice she had recognized again saying, "Davette!"

And she looked up and saas Kitty!

Kitty and other girls she had grown up with There was Patty and Debra and Oh God! The eh the shrubbery, it was the looks on their faces, the stea to that Voice, too, and their faces were flushed and their chest heaving and she knew they could see her own flush

And, Oh my God, if Kitty was here, that ain, "you re over her, his black curly hair and ivory-white skin and black eyes so deep and forever and he took her free hand in his and said, with a wicked curling sht of you"

And that was that Her lights went out She fainted dead away

It took her soured out exactly what had happened next Ross h she was only out for a second she hth some aet-stoned maze of tunnels with so briskly after her and laughing

But when she woke up she hadn’t even’ reached the floor yet and Ross Stewart still held her in his arh her and she panicked and she flailed at his chest and arms and she screamed

It was the sound of her own voice that shook her out of it, that and Kitty bending over her saying, "Davette! Honey!" And as Ross lifted her upright - so easily! - and she saw all the faces on the terrace turned to look at this crazy woman, she was so humiliated she wished she could just explode at will

And then "Stewart! What do you think you’re doing with her?" sounded out and she recognized the voice of Dale Boijock beinghis way toward her and she closed her eyes and wondered, Could this get any worse?

It could

Ross, still supporting her - again, so easily! - transferred her to his left ar Dale and said, "What I a I damn well please"

It washiht ar out, and Davette whispered out, "Dale! No!" but she had no breath and her voice didn’t carry and in any case it was too late

Ross’s right hand snapped out like a snake around Dale’s wrist and held it fast and there was a pause as the two eyed one another and then she felt, rather than saw, Ross’s san to squeeze and Davette had a chance to think how oddly beautiful were Ross’s half-inch-long fingernails before Dale’s wrist broke

Ross released the wrist as Dale cried out with pain and jerked backward Then ca, between Ross and his swelling wrist

"It was easy, Dale," whispered Ross so that only the three of theain?"

Davette saw Dale’s eyes go ith surprise and growing fury and she saw it coht in his life - and certainly not to that wiolo, Ross Stewart - simply could not help himself And his roar was very leonine as he launched all six-foot-two-inches and two hundred thirty - odd pounds of muscle at his rival

Ross’s casual backhanded flick of his wrist swept, rather than knocked, Dale soh the terrace railing, and nine feet down into the gently rolling slope of the gardens below

He wasn’t really hurt The slope was thick with rich ground cover and they could hear hi out in pain and shock Within seconds others had reached hiht was over That was the point

"I wish he hadn’t made me do that," said Ross to the astonished onlookers and his sincerity see Ross’s side of it

"I’ down

Only then did she realize she was still in his arain, but this time it was that Voice

"I’h exciteht Let us take you upstairs before you fall asleep on your feet"

And she hadn’t felt sleepy, had she? But now she had ies of that soft bed and no voices or crowds or music, those cool sheets

"Thank you," she whispered, nodding to both of theside her and the three of them left and took easy steady steps up the broad staircase and down the hallway to her rooms Ross didn’t seem to be there as Kitty helped the sleepwalker undress and clied, hasn’t he?" was the last thing Kitty said to her and Davette saw her friend’s pleasure, as though the evening had redeemed her association with hiht sheoff

She had no dreams

She wasn’t sure it was true sleep at all She felt only light and floating and still and intermittently aware She knehen the band stopped She had a sense of the party finally ending and the great house beco bedrooh, and later she was sure she heard her in there talking to Ross and then there were other muffled noises and she pressed herself back into sleep so as not to hear

Much later, toward dawn, she felt the weight on the edge of the bed and opened her eyes to protest once and for all But she could not speak at first His eyes seemed to shine at her His skin was so crealowed in the light coh through that plant?" he asked

She had been lying flat on her back, without ht up

"You mean you knew?"

"Of course," he replied softly and the Voice was back "Kitty has heard me before The others didn’t matter at all" His hand reached out and caressed her cheek and there was nothing, dammit, she seemed to be able to do about it "No," he continued, "it was all for you"

And the blood roared through her and her breath raced as sharp hissing pants and when his hand pulled back she all but cried out, What is happening to me! when she felt disappointment at the loss of his touch And his s with her eyes, and his right hand caer and thuether like a small anih her sheer nightgown, the little creature would bite her But she could not stop this, either She could not even stop the wanting of this And when, ernails claentle pain on her left nipple, she fainted once ony than she could ever have ireenhiht it was the worst moment It was not the worst part of her story - there were many crimes to come But, still, it was the worst

For now they knehat Ross could do to her, what he was always able to do to her, anyti so sioods

Because the sexiness was still there Even now, thinking back on it and thanking Sweet Jesus it was over, she felt the tre passion of it all And the others around her felt it also, it steae seeranite But even Annabelle was affected

And she tried to explain it to them Tried, because she wasn’t sure she understood it herself But it had to do with the darker edge of a half-lie Half-lie i also a half-truth, yes, she knew that And that was the vampire’s secret

What the vampire told you was true He lied when he told you it was everything

The day after the party had been one of the great days of Davette’s life Later, when she looked back on it, she kneas because she had spent the day hiding fro sense of darkness; But at the time it eet, accustomed, familiar silliness

The first days of every school vacation for years and years Davette had spent the sa with Kitty Usually they ith Aunt Victoria in the limo and that was always fun because Aunt Victoria’s entrance at the front door of so scurrying around on the part of the sales staff

Aunt Vicky was too tired to come with theirls up early like her usual i them "dressed and pressed androusted out of bed, rushing around trying to get ready, with Aunt Vicky’s voice carrying over everything, laughing and giggling with Kitty as they used, the adjoining bathroom

Davette loved it because she didn’t have to think

Think about last night

Or him

Or herself

Or

Or whether or not she should tell Kitty After all, Ross was her boyfriend Lord, ould Kitty think of her if she told her that

That what? What really happened?

Did anything really happen?

Maybe Maybe it was just a weird dream I mean, nobody can just reach out like that and make you Can they?

And a tiny little voice answered back: Ross Stewart can Anytiled some more and then they were out there in the sunshine, checkbooks and credit cards with safeties off And it was just as , SHOPPING, SHOPPING!

They laughed so hard and they laughed so long and they spent so reat

And they had lunch at the sah all around the table, and Luigi waited on the those awful snide little reirls and "Come the Revolution" and they were just as snitty back and all involved loved it like they always had

Kitty loved it as much as she did, maybe more She seeht she could use more of each - she looked just a trifle pale - but that didn’t ht, like every other vacation, the three of the their new loot, and talk and talk with Aunt Vicky And then Kitty, in some chance re theht

And the planet froze And slowed down And wanted to grind to a stop

Because it had always just been the three of the, and Davette had counted on that safe picture of at least one night, tonight, without having to see hi aboutto share their traditional post-shopping dinner with an extra person and Kitty beat her to it, telling her how Ross and Aunt Vicky had becoht about philosophy and what-all, sometimes until almost dawn because Ross simply hated the daytiood reason to fear the dark

And the planet slowed further and the faces in the mall seemed more distant and it seemed suddenly terribly i deal about this, not object at all

Not let anyone kno she feared

So she kept walking and she kept shopping and she h that she felt sure she had gotten aith and then, abruptly, when they passed a restaurant they had always passed by before, Davette suggested they drop in and have a cocktail

"Because we are twenty-one now, aren’t as all she would reply to Kitty’s startled look

She ordered a bloody mary and when Kitty ordered just mineral water Davette kidded her until Kitty said, "Ross says he doesn’t like woood

And ordered another

And then another

She wasn’t exactly drunk when they finally got hoood, in fact, because the fear seemed more distant somehow and the alcohol seemed a kind of talisled to herself thinking that Kitty, sitting beside her in the bathrooave her an odd look

"Are you drunk?" she asked her

And Davette shook her head firmly and that made her dizzy and that was so funny she spat the bobby pins out of her ain but then she started laughing, too, and all was fine for a long ti about Ross About how intelligent he was Hoitty How exciting How sexy And Davette stared, shocked, at her because they had never discussed such things before

But Kitty, standing up to go into her own rooave her a sly, wicked smile and said, "You should find out for yourself"

And then she was gone and Davette sat there for several e to move

So, to dinner

In point of fact, she never could reo by so fast! She re so beautiful and Aunt Vicky so lovely, but frowning that special frown because Davette was drinking so

Because he was there, loo at her from his dark eyes and perfect skin and i, s; he wasn’t He was char and witty and friendly and funny and he didn’t seeed her, refilling her wineglass again and again

And with that thick cushion around her eyes the whole thing seeerous after a while

And awhile after that, danger see

And just after that, she passed out

She wasn’t exactly unconscious Not exactly Her eyes were s She just wasn’t able to pick the the to Aunt Vicky that she was "so sorry! I’!" And dear Aunt Vicky giving her that long cold look before finally, blessedly, relaxing and s that it was really all right, that anyone’s entitled to a mistake in her own home and that just made Davette bawl some more because it was so sweet

Ross excused hile out of her clothes and into a nightgown and it felt great to just lie back and relax and she guessed the others went down to finish dinner because it was much later, after two AM, when they came back and she woke up froe of the bed

Why, she wondered, did I wake up?

But before she could think about that Ross leaned over her and asked, "Are you all right? Would you like to get sick?"

She had felt all right up until then She hadn’t felt nauseated, had she? Had she? But looking into his eyes she suddenly felt that alcohol vault and sithin her and she lurched up tripping out of bed toward the bathroom and they both reached to help her

But she didn’t want their help, she thought This was just too e But ten seconds later she didn’t care who saw her

Ugggghhh!

She seemed to throw up for hours! She just couldn’t stop, her bare knees hard on the tile on either side of the toilet, that arenching in her tu

Once, hunched over with sweet Kittythe back of her neck with that cool dalad of at least one thing: she did not feel sexy

In fact, she doubted she would ever feel sexy again

But it happened

She came to, more or less, curled up on the bathone She was dientle and very strong and she was al heart allowed her to admit who it was The top sheet and blanket had been rolled neatly to the foot of the bed and he lifted her up and carried her the last few steps, his hands cool and strong beneath her She turned her head and swelled into his eyes as he put her down atop the broad eainst the headboard And then he sat there beside her, boring his eyes and drealorious ecstasy streamed into her when he sasped and his face began to burn

"Oops, I’m afraid you can’t wear that anyown, of course, and she did look down and she saw no stain

But he wouldn’t lie, would he?

"Better take it off," he said next

And - God helpthem slowly down off her shoulders and she knew just what she was doing

And she did it anyway, slipped the nightgon, exposed her breasts to the open air and to him and then

Then his face was close to hers and tiny kisses all around her , and then his hands were soft and cool and so strong on her shoulders and around her throat and the kisses slowly - too slowly - worked their way past her chin to her throbbing throat and across the top of her chest and to the breast the little creature had attacked the night before

When he bit her the pleasure poured throughout her and ar and she moaned and cried and undulated wantonly beneath

There! There at the foot of the bed, perched like a grinning cat, was Kitty! She couldn’t believe it! Kitty! And she wanted, for just an instant, to throw him off and run away But she knew she couldn’t do that She knew she couldn’t stop him She knew she didn’t want hirin ider and she leaned forward and her sht as she said, "See? Didn’t I tell you?"

And it was too strange, too bizarre But she couldn’t care now She shrieked her whisper and wrapped her bare arms around the black curly head and pressed it deeper into her soul

She slept all through the daylight hours She drea drea erotica When she awoke the tall french doors to her terrace were open, spilling in hostly curtains, and they were there, sitting on the edge of her bed and s down at her

For a brief ust?

But then it was gone, for they were so beautiful, Kitty sitting naked with her thighs tucked under her and that lustrous brown hair tu about her shoulders and he with that billowy black silk shirt open at the chest So beautiful And the senuine and happy

"Swim," said Kitty with a mischievous tilt to her face "Come on"

Davette shook her head that she didn’t understand and Kitty grinned some more and said that Aunt Vicky was asleep and the servants were all out of the way and the pool was beautiful in theand let’s go!

"I’llto his feet

But before he left he stepped around to Davette’s bedside and leaned down and caressed her cheek with his hand, boring gently noith his eyes Then he bent and kissed her softly on the cheek And then he was gone and Davette was onceher breath

And when she remembered Kitty was still there and looked at her she blushed But Kitty just laughed and Davette laughed, too, her cheeks red with embarrassment but also huhter becales

As she scra froasped and looked down and when she saw the swollen wound she gasped again

"It won’t last long," Kitty said, standing beside her

Kitty was right Davette worked the ed the area and the pain seemed to stretch itself out It still felt tender But the sharp ache was gone

It was then that she realized she was naked, that Kitty was also naked standing beside her The two of the naked in the ht of an open door about to walk downstairs and swi for them now and as quite sure they would co this, that they both should be But it seemed also so wickedly sexy, so decadent and wanton, and with her best friend it seemed a safe, dark secret and the two smiled and held hands and walked naked out onto the terrace

She had been out on this terrace barefoot before and the possibility that anyone could cliardens and see her was rehs, rolling gently all around her as they descended the broad stone steps to the pool and Davette had never in her life felt so unclothed So available

Ross reclined on one of the sun loungers like a prince awaiting the court entertainment He was turned over on one side, a knee propped up with a forearht seemed trapped between the moon and his eyes and the surface of the water and Davette thought: That’s the color of his skin! Pale ht!

But she didn’t think much Instead, she blushed For there was no way to avoid the pointed directness of his gaze or the fact that she continued to approach hi - that she was behaving this way or that she knehat she was doing

In any case, they continued to approach, still holding hands, until they came to a stop before him He smiled at them They sled and turned and dove into the water and it was that, that flash of cold and clarity she felt in her icy spring swi pool, that would come to haunt her later on

It sobered her up Iht of wicked secrets turned instantly into a cold, cla here? Was I drunk or drugged or what?

When she caasped in shame and turned and saw Kitty and she could tell froritty stone on the side of the bank only added to the sense of shoddiness She pushed her hair back away fro at Kitty

I ed

He looks like a piht - what are they? toreador? - pants, he looked not at all like what he had seemed He looked more like

How odd! He looks like an irasped the side of the pool and vaulted out of the water, shedding drops in all directions, and skipped toward the poolhouse toarmth and composure She wanted to try to cover herself with her hands and she started to But then that seemed silly after all that had happened, and maybe, even rude, so her hands stopped halfway and then she saw that Ross was in front of her, between her and the poolhouse and holding up a towel

How, she wondered, did he get all the way around the pool in front of her so fast?

He was there, though, which was the point She didn’t want to see him or talk to him or - God no! - have him touch her But she couldn’t really avoid the towel because that really would be rude She stopped just short of him, arms clasped in front of her chest for warmth, and turned her back to allow him to drape the towel about her shoulders and and as he draped the towel the side of his hand touched her shoulder and there was that tingle once more and the chill flashed on her skin

And the towel seelove

"Davette!" he whispered

There was no alternative but to turn and face hi eyes and they held her and swelled doithin her and the heat, the tre frenzy, the wicked ache returned

And soon it seemed they were back inside - Kitty with the as they walked on either side of him, both women naked onceFor steak A big, thick super-rare steak, that was the craving They sat Ross at the little counter that ran the length of the great house’s great kitchen while the two of theht kitchen lights and cold floor and no reason for it at all except to be nasty and wanton and

And as she talked to the Team she didn’t describe the way the two of the that meal How could she tell them about it how could she ever have behaved that way? Stretching up high to reach this, reaching way across hi over farther than she needed to for so else She crimsoned at just thein the air, had competed to see who could act like the cheaper tramp

No She couldn’t tell about that

But she could tell thely when he said he didn’t want a steak

Ross’s face had gone hard and he had used that Voice when he replied that he had his own diet and the save as he spoke softened it not at all Davette had almost jumped at the tone, had felt a brief shiver of fear

But learned nothing She merely resolved not to question hiain

The erotic athtness by the time the meal was prepared Davette sat down but knew she was far too excited to eat

"But you h her eyes "You haven’t eaten in twenty-four hours And look at that thick juicy steak Just what you need"

And even as he spoke she felt her hunger rush back so strongly that nothing in the world see than the s beast

"All better?" he asked pleasantly when she had finished

Davette looked up, surprised She had forgotten he was there, forgotten anyone was there, forgotten everything but eating She looked down and saw her plate was totally clean

Hoeird, she had thought at the ti

Of course she was in a spell His spell A spell he could twist and curl as it suited hiazed their passions back into them

Seconds later the three of them ascended the steps to her room and there, in the utter darkness he insisted upon, Davette sought within her so to the couple embrace beside her on her cool sheets But she could find no sense of sha need for her turn to come soon

Soon, it did, and with it a bizarre hope that her cries would be as loud and thrilling as Kitty’s

When Davette paused a lass of water, she felt the heavy silence of thebesides the floor and Felix’s face for the past, two hours and she made herself look up and face their troubled expressions They gazed uneasily back and she kneas out of concern for her - she could read that But she kneas froe was as heavy as the silence

It’s not your fault! she wanted to shout

But she knew they wouldn’t believe her Not yet They wouldn’t understand that it was not theic had tainted her with and a piece she now passed on

They wouldn’t understand

Still, she should try And she did She tried to tell the volcanic pleasure rolling through you, vibrating and caressing and powering you deep into your memory and far into your fantasies

"Didn’t it hurt?"

She stopped, looked around It was Carl Joplin His face softened and he s about so your blood out," added Cat

Carl nodded, but his tone re your blood It must - "

"But you don’t know that!" insisted Davette "You aren’t aware You don’t know you’re losing blood There’s soon, you

"Youherself and blushing

Davette’s voice was harsh and bitter "No No sex Vampires can’t have sex Oh, the women can pretend And they do But it isn’t real It isn’t life They’re dead"