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For an instant, terror filled her It couldn&039;t be

There had been so many years when she had run, when she had spent her days and nights in hiding There had been years when she had thought she had ed a real escape Then she had finally realized that she would never live in peace if she didn&039;t face the truth, and become a hunter And still, no matter what pretense of confidence and assurance she had cultivated, there had still been the awful and absolute fear, the horror

She bolted up to a sitting position, all thoughts of exhaustion gone, ready to defend herself But she wasn&039;t being attacked Not physically, at least

Bryan MacAllistair was seated in the huge wing chair that flanked her bed She had no idea how long he had been there He could have been there when she entered the roolanced around

She hadn&039;t seen hiht for control

Swinging back a lock of hair, she clasped her ar a brow "What the hell are you doing ininto find out who you are," she said flatly

He lifted his hands "My credentials speak for the to differ I&039;m not entirely sure about yours, however"

"My diploine it&039;s completely in order," he said pleasantly, then stood, walked over and sat on the foot of her bed

"What were you doing at the hospital?" he denantly

"So you dressed up like the cleaning wo at the hospital?" she demanded

"I went to kill a va at hi to your own lectures too long, Professor"

"Get off it"

"What?"

"Don&039;t try to turn your psychology on me You knohat&039;s out there"

"I"Who the hell was he?

"You know that&039;s what the girl has become," he said It wasn&039;t a question; it was a statement "You know it, and your buddy the cop knows itHow you knoouldstory, I&039;oing on"

She let her lashes fall Then she sighed "There has been vampire activity in the area before," she told him She felt a chill She forced herself to think, rather than feel "So how doyou know the truth of what&039;s going on? Who the hell are you? Where did you come across a situation like this before?"

"All over the world," he said curtly "We&039;re dealing with the here and now, though, and that&039;s what matters"

"I see Sohave you taken it on yourself to rid the world of vaenuinely curious despite all her suspicions about him

"I don&039;t think any one person can rid the world of vampires Like all other creatures, they have an instinct for survival These days some of them hide as suburban housewives and stockbrokers But I&039;ve been following one in particular"

"Oh?"

"The creature in Transylvania The one who took Mary, and is apparently in New Orleans now The one known as the Master"

"The Master?" He even knew her enemy&039;s name "The Master," she repeated, then could have slapped herself She was starting to sound like a parrot She was unnerved, and she needed to keep it together Repeating his words would get her nowhere

And of course the Master was in New Orleans Had Romania been a tease? Had he known that she would be there? She had felt the evil before she had gone, no matter how hard she had tried to deny it She knew it now Knew it every waking moment Knew it from the color of the sky

There had been times when it had almost been possible to believe it was over, that the Master had been killed, that the darkness ain But he had always been out there And that hy she had to hunt

But there was no way to explain any of that, especially to ato stake Mary!" she said

"You bet She&039;s a creature of the Master&039;s now There&039;s no choice"

She stared at him "I believe, then, that we&039;re on the same side"

"Are we?" he asked "I don&039;t really know you"

"And I don&039;t know you"

"Those kids trusted you," he said quietly "And look what happened to the about that party until I received Jeremy&039;s note," she said, and that, too, was true "What were you doing in the area-without lifting a finger to help?"

He didn&039;t reply but let out a soft groan of exasperation "What matters now is this-you should stay out of it," he told her

"What?" she demanded

"I don&039;t knohatyou know about the Master, but trustyou haven&039;t encountered before"

"Oh?"

"There have been tih the years when vas, tried to kill hihout the centuries that allow him to evade those ould stop him, and he&039;s constantly on the , and she was stunned by the ardor in his voice "I have dedicatedhireater evil that walks the earth" He turned to her "You need to take a step back Youand your friends Whatever strength you think you have, whatever you think you know, you are facing a danger with a greater strength than you can begin to iine"

She frowned, taken aback by his fury

She answered slowly "Trust me, it&039;s not like I want to make contact," she said softly "But I don&039;t really have any choice Because of what happened in Transylvania, I&039;m involved whether I want to be or not"

"You need to step back I can&039;t watch your back and defeat this creature"

"I can watch my own back," she snapped in return "And who do you think you are, anyway? Soreat vampire slayer?"

"No, but as I told you, the Master has been my quest for some time now"

"But you&039;d kill all vahed bitterly "Are you going to suggest that soreater danger than I had begun to iood va to differ I&039;ve heard of so, deep breath Then, rather than argue with her again, he startled her by walking to her side "There&039;s just so about youyou remind me so much of someone I knew once"

The tone of his voice seemed to stir an old emotion, deep in her heart "Maybe," she murmured huskily, "we&039;ve crossed paths before"

He shook his head "No," he said, the pad of his thu her cheek "She wasevil And she is dead Dead and gone And if she were notthen I would have to kill her oes, I have been close, so close that I could sh, and I will prevail But to do so, I have to know you&039;ll be stay out of it, stay safe"

Her heart seemed to take a little leap How could this be?

How could she feel such a shattering depth of passion for a man who had just walked into her life? How could she feel-as insane as it sounded-that she had known hione

"You underestimate me," she told him

He sat beside her "Trust me," he said

"If you&039;ll believe in me," she told him "So what do you know about the Master?"

"I can&039;t tell you how long I&039;ve been tracking hith I know the dominatrix orks with him is rumored to be the newest incarnation of his creature Katherine, a British countess believed destroyed in the reign of Louis XIV She didn&039;t begin her existence in that guise, of course She was an evil created long before It was easy then for such creatures to disappear from one place and reappear elsewhere Some say she moved on to China, to Cairoto countries in turmoil, where murder is not so easily noticed And if so, then she, too, must die before this can be over You siainst with the two of the you, listen toher head "Maybe we&039;re both asking the impossible"

"What is it about you?" he asked very softly "I just can&039;t walk away"

She turned her head lowered, then slowly raised her eyes to his "So what do we do?" she asked

"You could listen to me You see, Ifailed once I let soe, confidence, are part of you, too And the way that I felt then" He took a deep breath "I touch you, and I&039; you as I did her

"Don&039;t be afraid for me Please"

She spoke in a whisper He was so close, and suddenly a yearning filled her that was stronger than any fear for what the future o, there had been hope, no matter how bitter the reality of life And then

But nohen he touched her, hope and belief stirred in her heart again, along with a yearning, poignant, sad and agonizing, yet beautiful, as well Tured around and within her, but it didn&039;t hts rode through his ain He simply kissed her And this time there was no almost-maddened desperation as there had been before This time his lips spoke of whatever was real and fine within the soul and the very heart She kissed hi the answers neither spoke, an end to the war of need raging within her, expressing her own yearning to touch soone, to experience the spiral of erotic fantasy and raw rapture he could create

In seconds, questions were forgotten, ansere no longer needed

Her fingers found wanton pleasure inthe obstruction of clothing, slipping beneath it His flesh heated beneath her touch as her hands softly moved down the line of his back, curved over the tautness of his ainst her own as her lips traced seductive patterns down the length of his throat; she stroked and teased with her tongue, with the sinuous ainst his

She cherished the her, and she lost all thought, all fear, all sense of the future There was only the here and now, nothing ainst the claainst her breasts The liquid tender touch of his tongue, urgently insane Her fingers, stroking against the aroused length of hi new positions in which to touch each other His caress against her inner thighs, the flicker of her tongue upon the hardness of hiain, ain And then, at last, the streak of h her in a shower of relief, and she felt his fierce tremor and release at the saain, savoring the feel of slick flesh against slick flesh and the feeling of succoring arain She felt a sense of aainst the desire to lose herself so co, truth was another And now, more than ever, she needed distance

"Jessica?"

The sound of his voice, rich, husky and deep, seemed to stroke her soul

"I&039;m so tired," she whispered, and that was the truth

With a sigh, he held her She feigned sleep, and in a few ain

She was alone, a different person, in a different place, a different time

Born to war, born in sin, a bastard, she learned to wield a sword, learned to fight

Learned to kill

Learned the hardest lesson of all Courage

Remnants of ht had been just, when lives had been at stake, an entire nation at risk

And then

Death but no peace Waking in an agony far beyond that of death and with a hunger that see to the hter of a hated enemy, who commanded her to serve, mocked her, swore that all she had loved were dead and he had won, so she was now a prize of war

To the victor went the spoils

The Master-for that hat he called hi she defied hier, deterht be damned, she would not allow her will to be twisted The focus of her existence becaed a strange kind of life beyond death

She escaped hihtfully condemned, found it a blessed bounty to be able to release the innocent, but despite her efforts, she becaain

But years had passed; she had gained strength They ht to take her with his will and his bare hands He was not expecting her to be prepared with sharp wooden stakes

But he wasn&039;t killed, only injured, and he retreated

Theyof the Carpathian Mountains, where ancient legend and fear ran deep, where the horrors of life were soreater than the horrors of death

It was there that she slew the thirteen guardsmen stationed outside his castle to destroy her before she could reach hiht hireat table, eagerly reading an ancient text She entered like a soft silverhih, and so the battle was begun He taunted her, reht who had been her love

Perhaps he hadn&039;t realized how much power she could access froht with renewed vigor His head was attached by little e, his liround crypts, and there she lost him Exhausted, still she forced herself to turn the crypt into a prison that would hold forever-silver crossbars everywhere, holy relics-knowing he was there, hidden, unseen As she finished, she knew her nightmare was not over, for she heard his whispered vow He would survive He would find her

She awoke in a cold sweat Da with hi yet being near hihtmares of the past

She was cold, she realized Horribly cold Of course He was gone; she was alone

Glancing outside, she saw that the day aning

She bolted out of bed and sped back into the shower, then dressed with an ever-growing sense of urgency Running downstairs, she nearly ran over Stacey

"Jess-"

"Where&039;s our lodger?"

"Bryan?"

"He&039;s the only one we&039;ve got," she said curtly "Where is he?"

"He&039;s gone And he told me not to let you leave"