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Maybe Seline was right Two days with Nikki, and unwanted wisps of e he could well do without, given his job

He frowned, rehts Just like To her?

It was so he was never likely to atteifts Even Jasper would never gain full control over her--not alive, at any rate Her psychic abilities were far too strong to ever be leashed for long

Yet she was more terrified of Jasper’s attempts to control her than of Jasper himself Which only made Jasper’s task that ainst her, use it to beat her into submission, to bend her to his will Then he would kill her, and she would fully be his Daet her to face the deet the upper hand

And just who in hell had appointed hilanced skyward He didn’t want to get involved with Nikki--not on any level He just wanted to catch a killer, and she was his bestJasper quickly He still had every intention of doing that Only now, he didn’t want to see her hurt in the process And when the tilanced at her When the tie what he was, and she could not live with the darkness So told him there’d been far too much of it in her life already

They continued to walk in silence, and the time slipped by Her pace increased as they drew close to her hoet inside, to be alone

He stopped outside as before, scanning the dark s There was no hint of Jasper or any of his minions within the iht But just to be certain, he’d stand watch across the road He’d learned to expect the unexpected--even when it caazeer and confusion evident in her ae to reach out and touch her Hold her

So flickered in her eyes, and she stepped quickly away Michael frowned Just how strong was the link she’d created? If she could e with his mind, however briefly, it was hts Maybe he didn’t have to tell her he was a vampire Maybe she already knew He watched her quick retreat, then turned and ht was less than an hour ahen he finally stood The muted spark of life in Nikki’s flat told hiin his hunt

The sun was on the verge of rising by the tih the fast disappearing shadows, carefully avoiding the many police officers still around Monica was an unseen presence, full of pain and desperate hunger Obviously, she hadn’t yet found the itelanced at his left hand In his case, it had been a ring Made for his father by his grandfather, carved from the soft rock that abounded on their farly forsaken; a rely caused It had been his father who’d discovered his body, and the discovery had caused a heart attack, leaving his rass refused to grow He’d returned once the blood-rage had left hi to help in sole to survive had all but killed her His oldest brother, Patrick, had given up on the farm and left in search of work elsewhere, and his four sisters had found themselves husbands and hoh her final days, and buried her next to his father And had vowed, at the foot of her grave, never to take another innocent human life

A vow he had kept to this day

He stopped near the front porch and leaned against the wall, waiting Monica would have to leave soon The sun was on the rise, and the house offered little in the way of protection It had too many s, allowed too much sun to strea the day Resistance to sunlight came only with the onset of a century or so She didn’t move until the last possible old watch Her father’s, by the look of it Her blue eyes ild, her mind half-mad with thirst She didn’t sense his nearby presence--caution was the last thing on her mind So many of the newly turned died within the first couple of days sih He followed her quick steps through the half-light of ht to heras Lyndhurst still held special problems for the likes of Monica and Jasper Street people already occupiedmore important to a vampire than a place to wait out the sun was security Day sleep represented a kind of death, particularly when young in vampire years You had to be sure you were safe in the hours when you were totally helpless Neither Jasper nor Monica had the choice of sleeping in motels, as he did Because of his years and lifestyle, he could wake and protect hian to brighten Monica broke into a run, her sudden desperation reaching back to him Only now that the sun’s heat had started to itch her skin did she realize her danger She swung into a side street, and fled into the darkness of an old warehouse Michael stopped, following the rest of her retreat with his senses

As he’d expected, she fled down, not up, into the co darkness of the baseers and tried to ignore the desperate urge to rush in and crush his enemy’s neck Jasper wasn’t alone Michael’s old foe had gained so the years since their last encounter People were already working on the floors above, unaware that a monster lurked below The zombies were silent sentinels near the baseed the warehouse to explode should he be attacked He’d done it before, and killed over one hundred people in the process

Michael turned and walked away He’d coht, when the people in the two floors above the baseround

He glanced skyward, trying to judge the time he had left before he had totunelessly, he shoved his hands into his pockets and headed back to the stockyards on the outskirts of town

Chapter Eight

Nikki absently ran the silver cross up and down its chain and watched the people hurry past the foggy office s Everyone was bundled up against the bitter wind that raced the clouds across the evening sky She felt no warmer, despite the heat in the office Just how did you stop a vaht be From the little Michael had said, she knew Jasper had been dead long enough to develop and refine the gifts vaet near enough to kill hi through her veins Michael was right about one thing Jasper and Monica were evil They would kill, and keep on killing, until they were stopped She just wished she wasn’t the one who had to stop therabbed her coffee cup off the desk, wrapping her hands around it to keep thehts to Michael She’d heard it said that the eyes were theto the soul, so what did his ebony gaze tell her? That he was a s That his secrets and knowledge were old Centuries old

She frowned and sipped her coffee That was impossible, of course And there was more than secrets to be seen in his eyes There was also war deep inside her She shivered lightly Maybe it was just as well that he’d revealed a little too ht The office opened Jake stepped in, accompanied by a blast of wind that sent the loose papers on her desk scattering like confetti

"It’s cold outside," he eneral direction of his desk and stalked across the roo new," she said, returning her gaze to the street Michael was out there somewhere While it was obvious he could take care of hiht her drea--Jasper wove a trap around therand finale