He braced his hands against her shoulders, sprawled halfway over her. “Jordan, stop it, for the love of God, stop it! You have to listen?”

He broke off so suddenly that she ceased to fight. She stared at him and realized that he was listening to something that she didn’t hear. It had taken his attention from her. If she chose just the right moment ...

But then she heard it, too. Wings ...

Wings in the night.

A whisper, a hiss, a warning . ..

She didn’t need to escape him; he was no longer touching her. As she stared into the darkness, she saw a shadow form just feet away. Ragnor leaped to his feet, turning to face the shadow. The darkness took shape. A man, a man in a large black coat. From beneath it, he drew a long and glistening sword.

Ragnor walked toward the man on the roadway. Jordan lay stunned, watching him. Then, as she saw Ragnor draw some kind of a weapon from his jacket, she got to her feet.

She watched the two men approaching one another. The sword was swung by the stranger, a man with a face she’d never seen before. Ragnor ducked the swing of the blade, and the sword whistled through the night air.

Jordan found the strength to move. Her car was useless. She moved carefully, silently across the road, standing opposite the two men edging back toward the way she had come.

Then she saw Ragnor strike. He had only a long bladed knife, while the other man wielded a sword, but the stranger had lost his balance. Ragnor sprang forward with a sure, true aim, catching the fellow dead center in his throat.

Jordan screamed.

The man dropped his sword, clutching his throat. Blood was spilling from his wound. Ragnor went in mercilessly for the kill.

She screamed again as the man’s head flopped to his side, and still, Ragnor did not cease. He struck out again, and again, until the man’s head fell from his body, and into the foliage. A second later, the body?which had wobbled even after it had lost its head? went crashing into the bushes after it.

She had never felt such pure hysteria. She simply stood, screaming and screaming, and then she saw Ragnor stare at her, and she backed away, and she wanted to run, but she couldn’t, she could only stare at him as if she could preserve her own life by keeping him locked in front of her with her eyes.

“Jordan!”

Once again, she started backing away, shaking her head in disbelief and horror.

“Jordan, he was sent to? kill you. Or stop you, bring you down. I still don’t completely understand?”

“Stop!” she raised a hand before her, still backing away. She hit soft dirt. Her heel sank, and again, she stumbled backward.

A second later, he was towering over her.

“Do it!” she shrieked. “Kill me, cut off my head, do ... do ...” He reached a hand down to her. “Get up, scream again if you need to, and then get logical and listen to me!”

“Logical!” she said, her voice rising again.

He had a grip on her arm; he pulled her to her feet.

The headlights of a car suddenly pinned them both in brilliant light. Jordan looked to the road for help.

Sean Canady was driving the car.

Her heart sank.

“Jordan, let’s go,” Ragnor said curtly.

He drew her to the car. Canady opened the door; Ragnor ushered her in, then took a seat in the back.

The car made a quick U-turn.

“What are you going to do with me?” Jordan asked.

“Give you some clean clothes, by the looks of it,” Canady said lightly. “Then a good stiff drink.” She caught Ragnor’s eyes in the rearview mirror. They were hard blue, cold as ice.

“Imagine being a cop and having to come to grips with all of this,” Canady said lightly.

“A cop?but not a vampire?” Jordan said.

“Yeah. Almost . .. but never really,” Canady explained.

She fell silent, thinking that she must be dreaming, as she had been dreaming on the plane. But she wasn’t dreaming. She could feel a pain pulsing in her ankle and her knee hurt. And her back. And catching sight of herself in a dim reflection on the windshield of the car, she saw that twigs and bracken were in her hair.

The car pulled up to the house. Before she had a chance to move, Ragnor left the rear seat and opened her door. He drew her out, none too gently. “Could we have a discussion now, in the house, please?” She shook off his touch and walked up the front steps. Both the women were waiting for her there.

“Lucian?” Ragnor asked.

“He went looking for you, too,” Jade said. “He was afraid you might have met with trouble.”

“I did.”

“Did you know him?” she asked. He shook his head. “They’ve been creating their own little army.

They’re novices, and can’t fight worth a damn.”

“Come into the office, please!” Maggie said. Evidently, she had gotten her child to bed in the midst of all this.

Without looking back at Ragnor, Jordan took a seat on the edge of the antique sofa that faced the mantel.

There was a fire burning in the hearth. At least that brought a warmth to her that she found she desperately needed.

They flocked around her, Maggie on one side, Jade on the other, Sean in front of the mantel on one side, and Ragnor?who had just sawed off someone’s head on the other side. He was in a leather jacket, breathing easily for a man who had just engaged in such strenuous exercise; his long blond hair somewhat tousled but his clothing still amazingly, in place. She wanted to run to him; she wanted to run away from him.

Now she knew why.

“Jordan, first of all, I swear, none of us means to hurt you in any way,” Sean Canady said.

“We’re trying to protect you,” Maggie explained.

Jordan stared at her. “Are you a vampire?”

“No ... but I was. That’s a very long story, and I’m not exactly sure what forces gave me a cure.”

“I am a vampire,” Jade said softly. “By choice.”

Jordan swung around to stare at her. “As is Lucian,” Jade explained.

“So, you see, we know what we’re talking about,” Sean said.

She just stared at them, all of them, one by one.

Then she looked at Ragnor. “Great. Just great.”

“There are more than you might realize,” Maggie said.

“I think she needs that good stiff drink,” Sean said.

“Perhaps you’d better get it,” Ragnor said. “I’m sure she’ll think I’m trying to poison her.” Sean brought her something in a glass. Her fingers wound around it, shaking so badly that she could hardly hold the glass. She decided to down the drink in a single swallow. How could she make things worse?

“I’ll try to explain things to you in a nutshell,” Sean said. “Vampires do exist. They have for centuries.

They’ve survived, usually, by keeping a low profile.”

“A low profile,” Jordan repeated woodenly, extending the glass. “I think I’ll have another.” Ragnor hunkered down before her. “In ancient times, it was easy. There were wars, feuds, deaths ...

everywhere.”

“And no mass media,” Jade said.

“And no forensic detective work,” Sean continued.

“But there are legends,” Ragnor said. “Some of them true, some of them exaggerated, some entirely made up.”

“I existed for years, never hurting anyone,” Maggie said. “But there is ... an instinct. A hunger. And that hunger creates a disregard for human life.”

“Which has been shared by many ‘normal’ men throughout history. There has always been a despot somewhere, a tyrant, a king, a dictator, willing to dispose of hundreds and thousands of people,” Ragnor continued, his eyes hard on hers. “The Romans conquered and killed throughout Europe and beyond.

The barbarians swept down on Imperial Rome. England sent armies time and time again to Scotland and Ireland; they were at war with France for years. Peter the Great did a lot for Russia, but he was a ruthless ruler. The Europeans came to America and practically wiped out the native populations.

Thousands died in the slave trade. Then we entered into the modern world. Hitler attempted to decimate entire populations. Japan savaged China. There has never been a time when wanton and senseless slaughter hasn’t taken place. There’s always been a way for death to take place without being noticed.”

“And then there have been cases of ‘strange’ murders throughout history,” Jade said. “And of course, some have occurred through the sickness of men.”

“And others through the curse of hunger,” Lucian said.

“But it’s a disease.. .a very strange disease,” Maggie explained quickly. “And everyone who is a vampire isn’t necessarily a ... a killer.”

“But those who are, of course, are exceptionally dangerous and lethal, because of their power,” Jade told her.

“Most of us have done a great deal of which we are not proud,” a voice said from the doorway.

Jordan turned to see that Lucian DeVeau had returned.

“That was the past,” Jade said softly. And she looked at Ragnor with a shrug and an affectionate grin.

“I really need that second drink,” Jordan said.

This time, Maggie jumped to her feet.

“In a nutshell,” Sean continued as his wife went to refill Jordan’s glass. “There was a time when there was just an order?and rules. Lucian rose to a point where he was . . .”

“King,” Maggie supplied.

Jordan was glad of the drink slipped into her hands.

“King of the vampires,” she echoed.

“There was an order,” Lucian explained. “Things that we could do, and things we could not, passed on throughout the ages. I was guided by another, who died. Usually, when someone is turned, there is a certain force that can be felt. From time immemorial, there were laws. For survival. Vampires could not create more than two of their own kind in a century. A form of population control, you might say. We were not to destroy our own kind. We were to dispose of our victims, and not bring attention, and mass destruction, down upon ourselves. Those were the rules, for years and years.”