should have felt rage at the theft of her prey by another, but all she felt was grateful. She'd stood on the edge of a precipice and had just barely escaped plunging over. Her fingers curled into fists to stop their sudden trembling.
"Is he dead?"
"Yes."
Celluci looked from Henry to Vicki and realized he'd received exactly what he'd asked for. Vicki had not done it, Henry had. But he'd seen Henry kill be?fore in a barn outside London, Ontario. He'd known for a long time what Henry was. Vampire. Nightwalker. Immortal death. Henry. Not Vicki. He closed his eyes. The lids had barely fallen when a familiar arm went around his shoulders and a familiar voice brushed warm breath against his ear.
"Are you all right?"
He shrugged, as well as he was able all things con?sidered. "I've been better."
"Do you need a doctor?"
From somewhere, he found half a smile. "No."
"Then let's get you out of here. Henry's car is at the front of the house." She hesitated, ready to slide the other arm beneath his legs. "May I?"
"Just don't make a habit of it." Her lips pressed briefly against his face, then she carefully lifted him into her arms. He kept his eyes closed. Sometimes, love needed a little help being blind.
Swanson sighed as he turned onto Nisga's Drive, thankful to be almost home. The black-tie fund-raiser for the Transplant Society had been a depressing af?fair, most conversations either beginning or ending with the recent death of Lisa Evans and how much both she and her open checkbook would be missed.
He almost failed to note the one significant detail of the car pulling out onto the road, realizing only at the last moment that it pulled out of his driveway. There seemed to be three people in it although he only got a good look at the driver as it sped past. ?'Dangerous," he told himself, although he didn't know why, and he wondered if perhaps his house had been robbed while he was away. Shaking his head as he turned in between the cypress, he told himself not to be ridiculous. Thieves seldom drove BMWs.
Still, in a neighborhood where Bentlys were the car of choice, it wasn't that farfetched a theory.
The house seemed undisturbed. He parked outside the garage and sat studying it in the brilliant quartz halogen glare of the security lights. He didn't want any surprises. He didn't like surprises. After a careful inspection, he left the car where it was and walked over to the front door.
The security system hadn't been tampered with, but that meant only that they might have used another entrance. There were four-No, five, he amended re?membering the trench doors Rebecca had insisted on having in the dining room. He hadn't used them since she'd died.
Lights switched off and on automatically as he in?spected the first floor. The lights had been Rebecca's idea as well and only her memory kept him from dis?mantling them. They always made him feel as though he were being followed around by ghosts.
Upstairs, Rebecca's jewel case lay where she'd left it on that last day. Swanson knew the order of the contents the way he knew the order of his desk, and they hadn't been touched.
Not thieves, then.
Who?
He turned to face the window that looked out over the lawns, the gardens, and, ultimately, the two guest cottages tucked a discreet distance down the wooded slope. Although their locations had been chosen so that they were as private as possible, there seemed to be rather a lot of illumination filtering up through the trees surrounding the farther building.
Dr. Mui had a donor in one of the cottages.
Perhaps the three in the car were colleagues of hers.
His fingers closed around the curtain edge, crushing the fabric. He hadn't wanted the donor here. Dr. Mui had no business turning Rebecca's home into an ex?tension of the clinic; she'd had enough of hospitals and clinics during that last horrible year before she died. Whether it had been a good business decision or not, he should never have agreed to the use of the cottage. It was one thing to allow the buyer to conva?lesce in peace and quiet for a few days and quite another thing to open his home to the sort of people who provided the merchandise.
"I'm going down there to find out exactly what is going on. If the doctor thinks it a good idea I maintain my distance from the donors, then she shouldn't have left one on my